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BUSINESS
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Sunday, November 4, 2018
Photos by SHELLY YANG I Tribune News Service
Shannon Dowell, a third-generation farmer from Marshall, Mo., said he had confidence in and patience for President Donald
Trump’s tariff policy, but that wouldn’t affect his midterm election choices.
Trump’s tariff policies
hit family farmers hard
Kile and Sandi Guthrey, of Marshall, Mo., said the area used to be very Democratic,
but now has shifted to Republican. Talking about President Trump, Kile said, “I don’t
like his tone ... It’s not presidential.”
But some aren’t
ditching president
as profits drop
BY FRANCO ORDONEZ
McClatchy Washington Bureau
She’s a Democrat who hates Presi
dent Donald Trump’s tariffs. He’s a
Republican who hates the tariffs, too,
but believes Trump needs more time in
office.
Pat Peterson and Shannon Dowell are
tied together by the 550 acres of the land
they farm together in Central Missouri
and their financial co-dependency on
Trump’s ability to win an ugly trade war
with China.
Many of those feeling the greatest pain
from tariffs the United States and China
have put on $50 billion worth of goods are
rural Trump voters who helped him win
Missouri by nearly 20 points in 2016.
Family farmers have lost billions of
dollars in profits as a whole. They hate
the tariffs, but supporters like Dowell
don’t appear to be jumping ship. At least
not yet.
“We are literally surrounded by
Republican farmers and we just shake
our heads trying to under
stand why they’re still sup
porting this,” Peterson said.
“Why are they not saying this
is wrong? Why are they’re
still supporting Trump? And
they do.”
In farm and factory states
such as Missouri, where the
fog of soybean dust fills the
air as harvest season kicks
into high gear, tariffs are
the issue that has tested the
patience of rural Americans as uncer
tainty rages about future earnings before
the midterm elections.
Dowell said Trump deserves a chance
to address a problem that everyone
knows exists.
The third-generation farmer who lives
on the farm his grandfather purchased in
the 1960s doesn’t like having less money,
but said he sees the long game. It’s time
someone stood up to China after years of
espionage and price fixing, he said.
“No change ever happens without a
little hurt,” Dowell said.
But Peterson, who lives with her hus
band Charles on their farm, rolls her
eyes when she hears her Republican
friends talk about the need to be patient.
She’s tired of wondering if
crop prices will return to
where they were before the
trade war.
“We’re talking thousands
of dollars because of the tar
iffs,” Peterson said. “And
that’s not even thinking about
buying new equipment. You
just don’t know what to do. It’s
very stressful.”
Last year, the United States
exported about $20 billion
worth of agricultural products to China
of which soybeans accounted for more
than half that amount.
Trump’s 25 percent tariffs are mainly
aimed at curbing imports from China,
but Beijing retaliated with levies on an
equal amount of U.S. products, including
soybeans and pork.
Soybean prices fell by about 20 per
cent after the tariffs were enacted, and
have dropped from a high of $10 a bushel
to about $8.50 today.
Trump says he can save American jobs
and factories by reworking trade deals.
He’s making that case directly to sensi
tive farmers caught in the crossfire with
Beijing during the final campaign stretch
largely through corn and soybean coun
try, including two stops in Missouri.
“Don’t forget, we’re the piggybank that
everybody wants to steal from,” Trump
said at the Future Farmers of America’s
annual convention in Indianapolis Satur
day. “Everybody. We have all the cards,
but nobody has ever chosen to use those
cards. Honestly, nobody has ever known
that we had the cards. They never got it.
But we get it now.”
To ease the effects of the tariffs — and
keep the rural vote — Trump announced
a $12 billion bailout for farmers this
year. Trump will visit Columbia, Mo.,
Thursday and Cape Girardeau next week
where he’ll campaign for Missouri Attor
ney General Josh Hawley in one of the
most hotly contested U.S. Senate races.
Trump sees the chance to defeat Demo
cratic Sen. Claire McCaskill as one of the
best opportunities to pick up a key Demo
cratic seat.
■ Please see FARMER, 4D
‘No change
ever happens
without a
little hurt.’
Shannon Dowell
Farmer
Starbucks brings back Christmas cups
Starbucks released their annual holiday cups this week, featuring
four different designs.
BY scon BERS0N
Columbus Ledger-Enquirer
It’s after Halloween, which
means it’s time for Starbucks
to release its yearly holiday
cup designs.
Starbucks dropped the
designs online this week,
announcing four colorful cups.
The cups are a shift for Star-
bucks, which has faced contro
versy based on its cup choices.
The chain removed traditional
winter and Christmas symbols
from its cups in 2015, when it
began using a plain red back
ground. The move sparked
outrage and threats of a boy
cott from those who saw the
shift as part of an effort to
whittle away at Christmas,
CNN reported.
“In the past, we have told
stories with our holiday cups
designs,” Jeffrey Fields of
Starbucks said at the time.
“This year we wanted to usher
in the holidays with a purity of
design that welcomes all of our
stories.”
But that wasn’t the end of it.
GENE J. PUSKAR I Associated Press
The chain largely avoided
controversy in 2016 by featur
ing designs submitted by its
customers, which included
winter and Christmas designs.
But in 2017, one of its cups
showed two people holding
hands. Buzzfeed and others
suggested that the ambiguous
hands belonged to a lesbian
couple, prompting more con
troversy and claims that Star-
bucks was promoting a “gay
agenda. ” Starbucks declined to
clarify whether the hands did
belong to a lesbian couple, The
New York Times reported.
This year, Starbucks
appears to be playing it safe.
These cups lean into Christ
mas again through color and
design. Red, white and green
are front and center, with holi
day ribbon, stars and (coffee)
berries displayed on the sides.
“We started (this season)
by looking to the past,” Kristy
Cameron of Starbucks said in
a news release. The company
wrote that designers “nipped
pieces from Starbucks holi
days past.”
NEWSMAKERS
Burrell named one of Atlanta
Business Chronicle’s 2018
Women Who Mean Business
Carol Burrell, president and CEO of Northeast
Georgia Health System, recently was recognized
as one of Atlanta Business
Chronicle’s 2018 Women Who
Mean Business.
The 20 total honorees were
chosen from more than 350
nominations for making sig
nificant strides in their careers,
having an impact on their com
munities and paving the way
for future generations.
“Carol is the perfect example
of someone who has made a tremendous impact
on NGHS, as well as our local and regional
community,” said RK Whitehead, chairman of
NGHS’ Board of Trustees. “She truly has our mis
sion of ‘improving the health of the community
in all we do’ at heart and has led our organization
through a variety of transformations that will
continue to improve care in Northeast Georgia
for years to come. ”
Under Burrell’s leadership, the health system
has received dozens of top national and state rat
ings for quality clinical care from several inde
pendent sources; expanded from a one-hospital
health system to a three-hospital health system;
was named one of Metro Atlanta’s Top Work
places for seven consecutive years by the Atlanta
Journal-Constitution; and was recognized as one
of Atlanta’s Top 25 Employers by the Atlanta
Business Chronicle. A study released this year
by the Georgia Hospital Association estimates
NGHS’ economic impact on the state and local
economy at more than $1.75 billion.
Burrell
DREAMSTIME I Associated Press
Gift cards are almost as good as cash for
scammers. Anyone who demands payment by
gift card is always a scammer, according to the
FTC.
Lottery jackpot,
sweepstakes buzz
brings out scams
BY SUSAN T0MP0R
Detroit Free Press
Just when you think the red flags relating to a
scam should be pretty clear, you hear more trou
bling reports when it comes to sweepstakes and
gift cards.
All the buzz about the Mega Millions jackpot —
and the one winning ticket sold in South Carolina
that captured a prize worth nearly $1.6 billion —
could trigger even more related scams, like one
that hit one woman in Troy, Mich.
A letter arrived in the mail this year stating
that she had won $750,000 in what was called
“The Cash is King Super Sweepstakes Drawing.”
The wording was odd. But the prize was so
amazing.
After receiving the letter, she began receiv
ing phone calls, demanding that she send money
orders as “collateral,” according to police. Sup
posedly, the “Award Notification Commission”
was unable to contact her and now the matter
was turned over to the U.S. Customs and Border
Protection.
She got pressured into sending seven money
orders totaling $6,750 to an address in Miami.
And the calls continued, including phone calls
from someone who claimed to be a “Tim Per
kins” who was trying to extort even more money
from her.
The scamming stopped when the victim talked
with her daughter, who realized that her mother
was being ripped off.
What’s a big sign of a sweepstakes scam?
The catch: You must send money for taxes—
or buy some products — before receiving that
incredible sweepstakes or lottery prize.
The result: You only lose money, you don’t win
anything.
Nearly half a million people reported some
sort of lottery or sweepstakes-related fraud to
enforcement agencies in the United States and
Canada in the past three years. Reported losses
totaled $117 million in 2017, according to a Better
Business Bureau report.
The actual number of victims and losses is
probably much larger because many victims are
too embarrassed to report a scam, according to
experts.
Schemes vary. Scammers can reach out by
direct mail, social media, phone calls, text mes
sages and smartphone pop-ups.
Many times, the victims are seniors who
may have lost a loved one, just gone through a
divorce, lost a job or experienced some other
hardship. They’re hoping that somehow their
luck has changed.
Some con artists even claim to be connected
with the established Publishers Clearing House
Sweepstakes.
Other victims may be told that they must pay
transfer fees to get their winnings sent to the
United States from Jamaica.
In many cases, callers may say you have to
go out and buy gift cards to pay for fees or other
charges if you want to collect a prize.
