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pennies

US Treasury Makes Final Order To Kill Production Of The Penny 

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The Trump Administration and US Mint has officially made its final order of penny blanks as a part of their plan to stop producing the coin once those run out, according to a Treasury Department official. 

The Treasury noted that the biggest reason behind this is due to the increased cost it takes to produce new pennies. In fact, in 2024 the cost of penny production increased nearly 20%. The Treasury is expecting to save about $56 million annually in reduced material costs, Associated Press reports.

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The penny was one of the first coins made by the US Mint after they were established in 1792. 

On his Truth Social site, Trump wrote: “For far too long the United States has minted pennies which literally cost us more than 2 cents. This is so wasteful!”

“I have instructed my Secretary of the US Treasury to stop producing new pennies.”

The Treasury reports that there are around 114 billion pennies currently in circulation in the US, which equates to $1.4 billion, however, pennies themselves aren’t utilized.

The US treasury Secretary has the power to mint and issue coins “in amounts the secretary decides are necessary to meet the needs of the United States,” AP reported.

According to the US Mint, it costs about 4 cents to make one penny, and the fact that it’s highly underused among Americans is a main driving factor for ceasing production of all future pennies. 

Although advocates for stopping production of the penny have stated its an underused piece of currency in the US, advocates state that the penny is useful for charity drives and compared to other coins in the nation, it’s actually cheaper to produce. 

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For example, it costs about 14 cents to mint a US nickel. Pennies are also referred to as one of the most popular coins made by the US Mint. They produced 3.2 billion pennies alone last year, which is more than half of all the new coins made within the last year. 

Trump’s order is now heading to Congress to decide if it should be made permanent or not. However, there have been multiple congressional efforts made in the past to stop producing pennies and all have failed. 

Jay Zagorsky, a professor of markets, public policy, and law at Boston University, told AP that Congress needs to use specific language in any proposed legislation to end penny production that makes it clear why there’s a need to eliminate pennies. 

“If we suddenly have to produce a lot of nickels — and we lose more money on producing every nickel — eliminating the penny doesn’t make any sense,” Zagorsky said. 

Mark Weller is the executive director of the Americans for Common Cents group. The group conducts and provides research to Congress and the Executive Branch on the value of the penny. Weller told AP: “There has been an evolution over the past six months that inevitably the production of the penny will be halted.”

Weller explained that if Congress truly wants to get rid of the penny, they need to understand how much of a demand for nickels will arise. 

“It’s incumbent on the Treasury to come up with a cheaper way to make the nickel. Let’s make sure we’re making our coins as least expensively as possible and maintaining the option to use cash in transactions.”

frog

How David Attenborough’s Camera Crew Capture’s Wildlife

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David Attenborogh’s nature documentaries are some of the most creative and engaging programs that educate the masses about climate change, our natural world, and the beautiful species that occupy it. In a new documentary called West Isles, camera crew members spent three years at home filming domestic life, and now, they’ve revealed the amazing ways in which they’re able to take some of their detailed shots.

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Music Festival

Dance Music Producer Kelli Hand, K-Hand, Dies At 56

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DJ and music producer Kelli Hand, more commonly known as K-Hand, has died at the age of 56 this week. Her death was confirmed by close friends on social media. 

Hand was known for delivering prolific, versatile, and admirable music that worked as an inspiration for many underrepresented voices in the dance music industry. 

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Hand was named “the first lady of Detroit” back in 2017 by the City’s Council, praising her for her extreme success in a field where Black women were extremely underrepresented and unacknowledged. 

Hand was born and raised in Detroit. She began taking weekend trips to New York City as a young woman in the 1980’s. She often frequented Paradise Garage, one of the most famous NYC locations for birthing the house and techno scene in America. 

While she worked during the day on a fraud team for a phone company, she also began DJing in the late 80’s at local residences. Eventually she began producing her own music and starting her own label; UK House Records, later renamed Acacia Records. It was at this point that she released her debut EP, Think About It, in 1990.

Jeff Mills, Robert Hood, Mike Banks, and Mike Clarke. who were all famous in the techno world in the 80s/90s, helped record the album.

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Her work began spreading throughout Europe, where she began touring in the mid-90s. The released the first of her seven studio albums in 1995, and continuously would release music until 2020. 

“If it’s not on vinyl, it’s not final, that’s the bottom line. Because you need that warm sound, that analogue sound – not the robotic mouse clicking sound. From 2000 it’s all been Einstein, twinky-twinky electronic computer-mouse-clicking music,” Hand explained in a 2016 interview. 

“A lot of people produce by putting things in blocks on a screen. Some people make good music doing that, but for me that’s not producing – you’re playing a computer game.”

Mike Servito, a dance music community leader, was among many who paid tribute to K-Hand this week online: 

“She was truly pioneering! You leave us with an inspirational Detroit music legacy. Our Detroit sister will truly be missed.”

Vaccine Covid

Europe Calling On Surrounding Countries To Help Combat Delays In Vaccine Rollout

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The European Union’s 27-member-state vaccine strategy is rolling out the Covid-19 vaccines at a much slower rate than initially anticipated.

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‘The Batman’ Pauses Production After Robert Pattinson Tests Positive For Covid-19

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Robert Pattinson tested positive for Covid-19 this week, forcing production of ‘The Batman’ to temporarily shut down as the cast and crew all quarantine themselves. According to insider sources, at first production on the film continued without Pattinson but then shortly after shut down for safety reasons. 

Crew members working at Warner Brothers Studios in Leavesden, UK, are continuing to work on construction for sets and props, but every individual who was working in close contact with Pattinson have since isolated themselves. Healthcare professionals are currently working on contact tracing the virus on the set to ensure that everyone who should be home, is doing so. 

Production is expected to resume after the two-week quarantine period ends and Pattinson recovers. Luckily they don’t need him for every single scene, so the focus will shift to work on shooting every other scene until he can return to set. Warner Bros. did not confirm or deny that Pattinson had tested positive, however, media speculation based on initial press releases make it seem pretty clear that it was him. It’s currently unclear how severe the virus is impacting Pattinson or if he’s been asymptomatic. 

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The UK film industry is confident in their ability to maintain proper health and safety procedures for everyone working on set. Adrian Wooton, the chief executive of the British Film Commission and Film London, recently spoke with the media about their overall protocols, and claimed that they were implementing a multitude of measures, “including stringent testing regimes, which is why any case of coronavirus can be rapidly identified and appropriate self-isolating procedures implemented.”

“We’re confident that with all measures in place, any production will resume filming as soon as it’s safe to do so. We also believe this will not impact production overall continuing in U.K., precisely because we have such robust health and safety measures operating.”

UK crew members have access to free training services that give proper advice on staying safe and following all procedures put into place on set. 20,000 individuals have already used these services and it’s greatly helped aid the prevention of Covid-19 cases spreading. The services were provided by ScreenSkills, a media company, and their CEO, Seetha Kumar, recently spoke with the British media about the success they’ve seen so far. 

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“We collaborated with industry and health and safety experts to develop free online coronavirus basic awareness on production training to support the available guidance.”

Even more procedures are going to be implemented in the coming weeks as more members return to work after self-quarantining. ScreenSkills is running “safe return to set seminars” that will call upon individuals who have already had to quarantine and return to work to give advice on the best ways to protect yourself and others around you from potential infection. 

The UK government also set up a $647 million film and TV insurance fund for all productions where at least 50% of the budget is spent in the UK. However, ‘The Batman’ does not fall into that category. Eligible productions are granted compensation for costs brought on due to coronavirus delays.

Netflix

How Netflix Influenced Georgia And Hollywood To Stand Up For Women’s Rights

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Georgia has become known as a second Hollywood throughout the past few years. With its vast and diverse landscapes, the state can be transformed into practically any setting, and with the tax credits, more and more production teams are choosing Georgia over standard Hollywood sets. Tyler Perry just opened a record breaking film and production space that takes up 330 acres of the famous state. Additionally major TV Shows and movie productions such as “The Walking Dead,” “Atlanta,” “Stranger Things,” “Black Panther,” “Avengers: Infinity War” and “The Hunger Games” were all filmed there, according to CNN. 

Georgia also made headlines this past year for announcing the passing of their restrictive abortion law stating that an abortion cannot be performed anytime after 6 weeks of pregnancy, or when the fetal heartbeat can be detected. Georgia received a lot of backlash for this law, mainly for the fact that most women don’t even know they’re pregnant at 6 weeks, giving them little to no chance of even thinking about what decision they would want to make. 

When Georgia made this announcement earlier in the year, Netflix decided to also make an announcement, and let the world know that they would be “rethinking” any of their current or future investments in Georgia if the law actually did go into effect in 2020. Netflix was the first major corporation to speak up against the Georgia legislation, and it posed a major risk for them. Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos is the one who made the official statement back in May, and by doing so Sarandos was also making a much larger general statement to everyone that does or may work with Netflix; the company will always choose its core personal values over anything. 

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Ted Sarandos (Right)

“We have many women working on productions in Georgia, whose rights, along with millions of others, will be severely restricted by this law. Given the legislation has not yet been implemented, we’ll continue to film there, while also supporting partners and artists who choose not to. Should it ever come into effect, we’d rethink our entire investment in Georgia.” Sarandos said in a statement back in May to Variety Magazine.

The following two days after Sarandos issued that statement, Disney, AMC, Sony, CBS, and WarnerMedia (which also owns HBO, TNT, and TBS) all issued similar statements threatening to withdraw future investments if Georgia keeps the heartbeat law. With all these major production companies threatening to withdraw their billions from the state, it seems as though Georgia had no choice. Two weeks ago a federal Georgia judge blocked the heartbeat law from going into effect this upcoming January. For now, this means that there’s no chance that the law will be enforced once 2020 hits, however, many experts are predicting the state will appeal the blacking and the case will end up in front of the Supreme Court, according to CNN. 

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Young women protest against abortion ban bills at the Georgia State Capitol building

However, this was a hopeful blocking, as the federal court has made it abundantly clear many times that the states do not have the right to ban abortion, and the 6 week rule will most likely see its end. In the time being, Netflix and companies alike will be waiting and seeing. While it’s hard to say how much of the blocked law decision was made from the Netflix, Disney, Warner, etc. statements we definitely can conclude it had a major impact. Georgia’s economy would see a serious decline if all those production teams actually did go through with their threats. In 2019, over 455 television and movie productions were shot in Georgia, bringing in over $9.5 billion in indirect spending, according to CNN. That type of financial loss could be detrimental; so for now production corporations and viewers will have to wait to see what the future holds for Georgia and its restrictive laws. However, regardless of what happens, seeing such a large amount of corporations being so outspoken about their own personal values is truly a milestone for this country. 

“It is essential that Netflix treat creatives with respect, and many of them have trouble with abortion restrictions and any laws that impact women’s rights. They totally could have remained silent, and they didn’t. They’re aware that corporations speaking out are an important part of the big-picture strategy to keep abortion safe and legal. They know that they play a role in that and have power in that situation,” said Kirsten Schaffer, executive director of Women in Film, Los Angeles, to CNN.