Tough, world-traveling Miami woman’s murder devastated family, friends

Travel

Janet Acosta had a peaceful ritual during lunch breaks from her job at the Miami Herald. She’d drive to a quiet park next to the Japanese Rock Gardens, where she would sit her van under a shade tree while eating, napping and recharging.Michael Tanzi shattered that peace on April 25, 2000, when he attacked the 49-year-old Acosta, repeatedly punching her, tying her up and taking her on a nightmare four-hour odyssey that included her rape and eventual murder.When Acosta didn’t return to her job on the production staff at the Herald, her co-workers were concerned and a search was launched. Ultimately it was Tanzi who would lead police to where he buried her body over 100 miles away.Acosta was a world traveler who loved hiking and the outdoors, was so tough she once ran a marathon with a kidney infection and had a dog named Murphy Brown, her family said in court records obtained by USA TODAY.”Besides being my sister, she was my best friend,” her younger sister, Julie Andrew, testified. “We were very close.”Now, 25 years after Acosta’s murder, Florida is set to execute Tanzi by lethal injection on Tuesday.As his execution approaches, USA TODAY is looking back at who Acosta was and what made her special.Who was Janet Acosta?Acosta was the middle of three sisters: Joanie, Janet and Julie. Because their parents were alcoholics, Acosta all but raised her younger sister, Julie Andrew, according to Andrew’s testimony during Tanzi’s trial.“When we were children, we used to be awakened at night because my parents would be arguing and fighting,” she said. “Janet would hug me and we would hold on to each other until either we fell asleep or they quit arguing.”As adults, the three sisters remained close.”We used to e-mail every day and call. We’d call each other on the weekends and talk a couple hours,” Andrew said. “For some reason, we just never ran out of things to talk about.”Andrew described Acosta as a gentle soul, typically giving her dog Murphy Brown half her lunch and volunteering for Habitat for Humanity, which allowed her to meet former President Jimmy Carter.Andrew said that Acosta had a special bond with Andrew’s daughter, Jennifer.”She taught her how to fish. She encouraged her interest in art,” Andrew said. “She told Jennifer it was OK to be a tomboy and to be whoever you wanted to be.”Andrew recalled when the sisters needed to sell their childhood home. Andrew started crying as she looked at the house, and Acosta was there for her as always.”She walked over to me, she goes, What is this? And I said, ‘This has been home for over 40 years, and my mom’s now gone and we’re putting the house up for sale, and I feel like I’ve lost my home,” Andrew recalled. “And she just kind of looked at me and she put her arm around me and she said, ‘As long as you have family, you have a home.'”What happened to Janet Acosta?On April 25, 2000, Tanzi attacked Acosta while she was sitting in her car eating lunch, according to court records.He raped her 30 miles south of Miami in Florida City before continuing to drive south, forcing her to help him withdraw money using her ATM card. When they reached Cudjoe Key, about 20 miles shy of Key West, he strangled Acosta and buried her in a secluded place.Tanzi spent the next two days shopping, buying a new wardrobe, marijuana and food. Police officers arrested Tanzi after seeing him get into Acosta’s van in downtown Key West.Police recovered Acosta’s body after Tanzi confessed to the murder and showed them where he buried Acosta.Co-workers recall murder: ‘Something had happened to Janet’Robin Reiter-Faragalli worked at the Miami Herald as the vice president of human resources on the day that Acosta was murdered. In an interview with USA TODAY, she recalled how everyone knew something bad had happened when Acosta didn’t come back to work.“The mood at the Miami Herald from the get-go was very somber and dispirited,” Reiter-Faragalli told USA TODAY. “It was so out of character. Everybody had an intuitive, or innate sense, that something had happened to Janet.”In the days after the murder, Acosta’s coworkers described her as a friendly, creative person who would be dearly missed.Longtime co-worker Helen Lennon told the Miami Herald that Acosta had a big impact on her.“I have a bunch of teapots she made for me at home,” Lennon told the Herald at the time. “She was so friendly, creative. She has a great sense of humor.”Another co-worker, Carolyn Green, told the Herald that Acosta had given her the “gift of reading.”“She knew I didn’t like to read. So she’d tell me about a book until I got interested,” Green said. “I just can’t believe she’s gone.”Path to execution a ‘roller coaster ride’ for familyIn the years following Tanzi’s 2003 conviction, the Acosta family was left deeply scarred. Andrew told the Boston Herald in 2007 that the long process leading up to Tanzi’s eventual execution was a tough constant reminder of the murder.”Your life kind of goes on and you put it in the back of your mind, but then you get the call from the State Attorney’s Office, and it’s like a sledgehammer hits your chest,” Andrew said.In 2003, just after Tanzi was sentenced to death for Acosta’s murder, Andrew told the Herald why it was important for them to be at the trial and testify about Acosta.“Our whole reason for being here wasn’t for revenge,” she said. “We wanted to see justice done for my sister. And we wanted to make sure no one else had to go through what we went through.”Contributing: Amanda Lee Myers, Nick Penzenstadler, USA TODAYFernando Cervantes Jr. is a trending news reporter for USA TODAY. Reach him at fernando.cervantes@gannett.com and follow him on X @fern_cerv_.

Tough, world-traveling Miami woman’s murder devastated family, friends

Travel

Janet Acosta had a peaceful ritual during lunch breaks from her job at the Miami Herald. She’d drive to a quiet park next to the Japanese Rock Gardens, where she would sit her van under a shade tree while eating, napping and recharging.Michael Tanzi shattered that peace on April 25, 2000, when he attacked the 49-year-old Acosta, repeatedly punching her, tying her up and taking her on a nightmare four-hour odyssey that included her rape and eventual murder.When Acosta didn’t return to her job on the production staff at the Herald, her co-workers were concerned and a search was launched. Ultimately it was Tanzi who would lead police to where he buried her body over 100 miles away.Acosta was a world traveler who loved hiking and the outdoors, was so tough she once ran a marathon with a kidney infection and had a dog named Murphy Brown, her family said in court records obtained by USA TODAY.”Besides being my sister, she was my best friend,” her younger sister, Julie Andrew, testified. “We were very close.”Now, 25 years after Acosta’s murder, Florida is set to execute Tanzi by lethal injection on Tuesday.As his execution approaches, USA TODAY is looking back at who Acosta was and what made her special.Who was Janet Acosta?Acosta was the middle of three sisters: Joanie, Janet and Julie. Because their parents were alcoholics, Acosta all but raised her younger sister, Julie Andrew, according to Andrew’s testimony during Tanzi’s trial.“When we were children, we used to be awakened at night because my parents would be arguing and fighting,” she said. “Janet would hug me and we would hold on to each other until either we fell asleep or they quit arguing.”As adults, the three sisters remained close.”We used to e-mail every day and call. We’d call each other on the weekends and talk a couple hours,” Andrew said. “For some reason, we just never ran out of things to talk about.”Andrew described Acosta as a gentle soul, typically giving her dog Murphy Brown half her lunch and volunteering for Habitat for Humanity, which allowed her to meet former President Jimmy Carter.Andrew said that Acosta had a special bond with Andrew’s daughter, Jennifer.”She taught her how to fish. She encouraged her interest in art,” Andrew said. “She told Jennifer it was OK to be a tomboy and to be whoever you wanted to be.”Andrew recalled when the sisters needed to sell their childhood home. Andrew started crying as she looked at the house, and Acosta was there for her as always.”She walked over to me, she goes, What is this? And I said, ‘This has been home for over 40 years, and my mom’s now gone and we’re putting the house up for sale, and I feel like I’ve lost my home,” Andrew recalled. “And she just kind of looked at me and she put her arm around me and she said, ‘As long as you have family, you have a home.'”What happened to Janet Acosta?On April 25, 2000, Tanzi attacked Acosta while she was sitting in her car eating lunch, according to court records.He raped her 30 miles south of Miami in Florida City before continuing to drive south, forcing her to help him withdraw money using her ATM card. When they reached Cudjoe Key, about 20 miles shy of Key West, he strangled Acosta and buried her in a secluded place.Tanzi spent the next two days shopping, buying a new wardrobe, marijuana and food. Police officers arrested Tanzi after seeing him get into Acosta’s van in downtown Key West.Police recovered Acosta’s body after Tanzi confessed to the murder and showed them where he buried Acosta.Co-workers recall murder: ‘Something had happened to Janet’Robin Reiter-Faragalli worked at the Miami Herald as the vice president of human resources on the day that Acosta was murdered. In an interview with USA TODAY, she recalled how everyone knew something bad had happened when Acosta didn’t come back to work.“The mood at the Miami Herald from the get-go was very somber and dispirited,” Reiter-Faragalli told USA TODAY. “It was so out of character. Everybody had an intuitive, or innate sense, that something had happened to Janet.”In the days after the murder, Acosta’s coworkers described her as a friendly, creative person who would be dearly missed.Longtime co-worker Helen Lennon told the Miami Herald that Acosta had a big impact on her.“I have a bunch of teapots she made for me at home,” Lennon told the Herald at the time. “She was so friendly, creative. She has a great sense of humor.”Another co-worker, Carolyn Green, told the Herald that Acosta had given her the “gift of reading.”“She knew I didn’t like to read. So she’d tell me about a book until I got interested,” Green said. “I just can’t believe she’s gone.”Path to execution a ‘roller coaster ride’ for familyIn the years following Tanzi’s 2003 conviction, the Acosta family was left deeply scarred. Andrew told the Boston Herald in 2007 that the long process leading up to Tanzi’s eventual execution was a tough constant reminder of the murder.”Your life kind of goes on and you put it in the back of your mind, but then you get the call from the State Attorney’s Office, and it’s like a sledgehammer hits your chest,” Andrew said.In 2003, just after Tanzi was sentenced to death for Acosta’s murder, Andrew told the Herald why it was important for them to be at the trial and testify about Acosta.“Our whole reason for being here wasn’t for revenge,” she said. “We wanted to see justice done for my sister. And we wanted to make sure no one else had to go through what we went through.”Contributing: Amanda Lee Myers, Nick Penzenstadler, USA TODAYFernando Cervantes Jr. is a trending news reporter for USA TODAY. Reach him at fernando.cervantes@gannett.com and follow him on X @fern_cerv_.

How Trump Tariffs Might Impact UK Business

Business News

You’re probably sick to the back teeth of hearing about Trump Tariffs given the amount of attention the press are giving to the US president’s latest bout of tariff imposing. But it’s important as a UK business owner to consider how the tariffs could impact your business. For some, Trump’s tariffs are creating an unstable work environment, and for others, opportunities for improved growth are available. We’ll explore the effects of the latest tariffs on UK businesses below, so you can consider how they might effect yours.  UK Exports To The USBefore Donald Trump announced 10% tariffs on most UK products being exported to the US on Wednesday 2nd April 2025, the UK exported nearly £60bn worth of products in 2024. That means the US market is a key player for millions of UK business owners. With tariffs imposed (and a defiant Trump insisting that they’ll stay, at least for now), UK businesses are considering whether there’s a market in the US for their products at all.Increased costs to consumers could mean there’s less appetite in the US market when it comes to purchasing UK products. If that’s the case, UK businesses that rely on the US market as a key player in their sales strategy could be seriously impacted.Of course, it’s all speculation for now until the impacts can be truly measured in the future. As a business owner, you should be thinking ahead to prepare for the potential impacts these tariffs could bring.Potential Negative ImpactsFor some, there could be a very real impact on their business, presenting itself as less orders from the US. Depending on how important the US market is to their business, this could be a huge problem.For others, it’s the uncertainty surrounding the tariffs that’s the biggest issue. Some business owners will find themselves scaling back on any growth plans they might have put in place at the end of the last financial year ahead of the 2025/26 tax year. If expansion included the US market, then they might find themselves pausing those plans until the tariff issue is resolved, or at least much clearer.Another potential issue is the need to raise prices for the consumer in order to cover the cost of these tariffs. Those price rises would likely need to be applied across the board, for all customers, and that could also mean a loss of business in other areas besides the US too.Potential Positive ImpactsAs odd as it might seem for those businesses being negatively impacted, there are some opportunities for some businesses and industries as the tariffs come into force.Whilst no UK business welcomes tariffs, it is true that the tariffs imposed on the UK by President Trump isn’t as bad as it could have been. Our 10% tariffs dwarf in comparison to the 20% tariffs he’s applied to most European countries. This could leave some UK businesses in a prime position to increase their product sales in the US.It’s industry specific, but for some in the manufacturing world, for example, sales in the US could be set to increase as US customers move away from the higher tariffs of European and Asian countries and look instead to the UK to supply some of their products.What Does It Mean For Your Business?As always as a business owner, the onus is on you to respond to changing conditions and make the most of them. Perhaps the US tariffs do have a real negative impact on sales for your business. But this could also be an opportunity for you to expand into a different market. You could look at starting up a presence in untapped markets like Asia or the Middle East, or perhaps look at increasing your sales in markets where you already have a presence like the UK and Europe.If Trump Tariffs are really here to stay, then responding to them proactively is the best thing you can do to get ahead of the impacts and make the most of the situation. It’s tough, but when is being a business owner ever easy…For the latest business news subscribe to our free newsletter today.

Newcastle named in top 10 best cities in England to start a small business, stud…

Business News

Watch more of our videos on ShotsTV.com and on Freeview 262 or Freely 565Visit Shots! nowStarting a business is a major step, and its success can often hinge on having the right conditions in place. While every venture faces its fair share of challenges, some cities offer more favourable opportunities for small businesses to grow and thrive. So, which cities in England are best placed to support new business owners on their journey?To answer that, researchers at Brandgility carried out a comprehensive study, ranking the best cities in England for small businesses. They evaluated 15 key factors grouped into four main categories: business activity, wellbeing, infrastructure, and talent. These included metrics such as business birth and survival rates, office rent, broadband speed, and access to skilled workers. Each factor was weighted based on its impact on business success, then scored out of 100, with higher scores reflecting better conditions. The data was sourced from trusted organisations including the Office for National Statistics, Numbeo, Coworker, Broadband Genie, National Grid, and the Higher Education Statistics Agency.Newcastle upon Tyne lands in sixth place in the rankings, offering a solid environment for small businesses that prioritise affordability and access to a young, educated workforce. While it’s not one of the most active startup hubs in terms of volume, with 1,180 business births per year, just outside the top 20, and 1,120 business deaths placing it 24th overall, the city makes up for it with a 90% survival rate, giving business owners a reassuring sense of staying power.Newcastle named in top 10 best cities in England to start a small businessNewcastle shines particularly bright when it comes to talent. With 3,111 students per 10,000 residents, it has the second-highest student population in the study, making it ideal for businesses looking to tap into graduate talent or hire young, adaptable staff. The city’s employer births (1,090) rank 19th, showing moderate but stable business activity.From a cost perspective, Newcastle is highly attractive. Monthly rent averages £1,414.29, which is relatively low among top-ranked cities, and utility bills sit at £206, placing it among the cheapest in the study. There are just nine coworking spaces, a middle-of-the-pack offering, but sufficient for many smaller teams or solo founders. That said, internet speed is a weak point, with Newcastle posting the fourth slowest average at 45 Mbps, which may be a limitation for digital-heavy ventures.The city’s unemployment rate of 5.3% is in the top ten highest, which could indicate a competitive job market or underutilised workforce, depending on your perspective.Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham, Lincoln, and York make up the top five cities for small businesses in England, each excelling in different areas. Manchester leads the pack with a strong startup culture, the highest number of coworking spaces (118), and a healthy 92% business survival rate, although it comes with relatively high costs. Leeds follows closely with the second-highest number of business births (3,805) and solid affordability across rent, utilities, and infrastructure, though it lags in internet speed. Birmingham, ranking third, sees the most business activity overall, but also experiences the highest closure rate, making it a city of big risks and big rewards. Meanwhile, Lincoln and York stand out for their exceptional business stability – both boasting survival rates above 93% – with Lincoln offering low closure rates and York benefiting from the lowest utility costs (£149.89) and lowest unemployment rate (2.5%).Further down the rankings, Middlesbrough (7th) is the most affordable city in terms of office rent (£750) and also maintains an impressive 93.8% survival rate, though it suffers from limited infrastructure and slow internet. Salford (8th) stands out for its top-ranking survival rate of 94%, despite higher utility costs and only 11 coworking locations. Coventry (9th) is a well-rounded option, with low utility bills, decent infrastructure, and internet speeds, making it attractive for cost-conscious entrepreneurs. Leicester, in 10th place, offers the lowest office rent (£1,266.67) in the top ten and a 91% survival rate, but faces challenges when it comes to access to talent, with the fewest nearby universities per capita. These cities collectively reflect the diversity of England’s business landscape – from high-growth powerhouses to quietly resilient towns – showing that success can look very different depending on what a small business needs most.On the other hand, Nuneaton and Bedworth, Hartlepool, Stockton-on-Tees, Bedford, and Kingston upon Hull ranked in the bottom five.Continue Reading

‘Unfailing ability to cheer me up’: why The Rebel is my feelgood movie

Arts & Culture, Film & TV

For me, memorable and/or uplifting film experiences tend to be around individual moments – the resurrection scene in The Matrix for example, or Dizzy’s “I got to have you” in Starship Troopers. (Do either really hold a candle to Mel Brooks’s A Little Piece of Poland number in the To Be Or Not to Be remake? The jury is still out.) But without wanting to sound like either a retro bore or a they-don’t-make-’em-like-they-used-to fuddy-duddy, I turn to Tony Hancock’s yuk-heavy feature vehicle from 1961 for its unfailing ability to cheer me up.I think I must have first watched it in the 1980s on TV, after my dad solemnly recited one of the film’s great moments, when Hancock offers a hunk of cheese to a blue-lipsticked beatnik Nanette Newman and says, with a sort of slack-jawed terror: “You do eat food?” Newman, as it happens, is perhaps The Rebel’s most amazing sight: otherwise known as the apparently-prim English star of the first Stepford Wives movie, a middlebrow popular-culture staple in the UK for her washing-up liquid TV commercials, she is tricked out here in a fantastic exi get-up – dead-white face paint, Nefertiti eyeliner, lank copper-coloured hairdo – at almost the exact same moment in time that the Beatles were being talked into ditching their teddy boy quiff.The Rebel in fact is stuffed with great moments: Hancock’s opposite-platform ruse to get a seat on a packed commuter train (no longer even theoretically possible, sadly); Hancock appalling waitress Liz Fraser by refusing “frothy” coffee; Oliver Reed glowering in a Parisian cafe as he argues about art, of all things; and Hancock’s epic action-painting sequence complete with bicycle and cow. And of course, the chef’s kiss: the exquisite moment when connoisseur critic George Sanders chortles dismissively about Hancock’s “infantile school” picture of a foot (“Who painted that – the cow?”)US readers might know the film as Call Me Genius, as that reportedly was the title it was released under there, but quite possibly they won’t know it at all; Hancock, acclaimed in Britain, never made headway in Hollywood or on US TV. But the alternative title is actually as accurate a summary of the film as the original one; although the script (by Hancock confreres Galton and Simpson) appears to mock the pretensions of the art world, its target is really the delusional nature of Hancock’s Walter Mitty-ish office drone, who ends up back in his suburban bedsit after a meteoric rise and fall in Paris’s avant-garde circles.It’s a character that draws fully on the persona that Hancock had made his own over the preceding decade: the intellectually ambitious but unfailingly thwarted nobody, hanging on like grim death for better times around the corner but fatalistically resigned to submergence in a tidal wave of mediocrity. I can’t think of any equivalent in the US; Hancock is, I sense, far too defeated and self-pitying a figure ever to command a giant audience. George Costanza is probably the closest, but Hancock has little of Costanza’s frenzied self-hate.Well, there is something rather wonderful about seeing Anthony Aloysius St John Hancock in full and living colour, operating at the height of his powers, the man who his writers described as “the best comic actor in the business”. And of course the film is a wonderful portal to a vanished world, a net-curtained Britain just on the cusp of its transformation by 60s pop culture. Lucian Freud called The Rebel the best film ever made about modern art; well, he should know, but for me it’s more than that – there’s an extra joy in remembering the hours I spent tittering at it with Dad as we lolled on the three-piece suite back in my gormless teenage years. If anything makes me feel good, it’s that.

Harvard Business Review book dives into strategic genius of Taylor Swift

Arts & Culture, Books

The Harvard Business Review is publishing an in-depth, all encompassing book on Taylor Swift’s business acumen perusing her power moves as a fearless leader since she was 13 years old.Author Kevin Evers came up with the idea in early 2022 and finished two years later.”The more I researched her, the more impressed I became,” he says over Zoom from his New York home.Evers writes in his book, “There’s Nothing Like This,” her success didn’t happen overnight — or by happenstance. A determined, pavement-pounding 13-year-old used her charm, sass, confidence and innate talents to set the foundation of a long-standing career. He notes she once told a veteran songwriter, “I’m not sure my demographic would say something like that.” She told her record label she would stay hours after meet-and-greets and shake hands with 100,000 fans. She used Myspace and vlogging to her advantage.”It was not a shoo-in for her to be successful,” Evers says. “If anything, it’s actually unbelievable that she found success in country music at the time.”Era-by-era, Evers takes readers through the time period of each album, cataloging the challenges Swift faced and putting her work into context. Take her debut album.Long live the Eras Tour with our enchanting bookHe writes country music “became dominated by male artists in Stetson hats and trucker caps, making it particularly challenging for female singers like Swift to break through.”Swift met Scott Borchetta, a Universal Music executive planning to leave and start his own label Big Machine. Borchetta promised her a record deal but asked her to wait a year. She agreed, and the two grew each other’s brands for six eras. Then in 2017, Swift wanted control of her masters and Borchetta wanted to keep the market value of his business owed in part to her discography.”Giving up Swift’s masters meant giving up the thing that made Big Machine most valuable,” Evers writes, “like putting land up for sale but telling buyers they can’t have the mansion on it.”No one had ever rerecorded all of their masters. Swift took the risk, and her decision paid dividends. Although Evers likens Swift’s success to Beatlemania, Evers would argue the pop star has had a steeper hill to climb.”There’s a lot of parallels between what the Beatles did, but I will say you can’t necessarily compare the two,” he explains. “The Beatles were operating in a monoculture, and the industry that Swift has been operating in has gone through radical disruptions and changes.”Those disruptions include navigating digital and streaming, and jumping genres while staying true to herself.”I would put her at the top of the music pantheon because of that,” Evers says. “It’s almost like comparing quarterbacks from different eras.”The senior editor at Harvard Business Review pored over legal documents, articles and books to compile research. The millennial dad wrote alongside Swift’s record-shattering Eras Tour, attending two of the shows with his daughter Maisie.”I could see my daughter’s fandom grow and her love of Taylor Swift grow, and I understood how [Swift] engages with fans,” he says. “I understand how she forges personal relationships, seeing it in my daughter’s eyes.”When asked to sum up Swift’s career in one word, Evers says “antifragility.””Resilience is a great word,” he says. “When I think of resiliency, I think of something that can withstand pressure. Antifragility is almost a step above. Not only can I withstand that stuff, but I can actually grow stronger from those things.”

Oak Ridge made me a scientist; now federal cuts threaten my career

Science and Health

Sarah Catherine Nelson
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Protesters against planned National Institutes of Health funding cutsThe Trump administration’s push to slash funding at the National Institutes of Health has been temporarily blocked by a federal judge.My mother has been cleaning out the attic in their Oak Ridge house and very reasonably decided that my sisters and I should become the stewards of the memorabilia from our childhoods and early adulthoods. The box she recently mailed me included my first scientific publication, from my undergraduate summer internship at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory Mammalian Genetics Section (the “Mouse House”) in 2002.Over 20 years later, I am a senior research scientist and author on 60+ scientific publications mostly related to understanding how genetic variation contributes to different human diseases.Even before I received that box in the mail, I had been reflecting on why I chose a career in scientific research – mainly because, since January, I am no longer sure if and how I will be able to continue pursuing it. Federally funded scientific research is being attacked and dismantled by the administration of President Donald Trump, threatening the entire scientific enterprise. The situation is dire, and I urge you to join me in staying informed and speaking out against these existential threats to science.A quick recap: The National Institutes of Health (NIH), the biggest funder of biomedical research in the country, has stopped or significantly slowed reviewing grants (mine included) and posting new funding opportunities. Many already awarded grants are being terminated. Websites with critical public health data have been deleted. The administration has announced a plan to reduce the percentage of grant funds that can go to essential functions like maintaining facilities and hiring critical support staff (also called “indirect costs”). Initial layoffs across science, health, and environmental agencies have been followed by even more drastic purges, leading to loss of critical functions and expertise. While some of these actions are being fought in court, they are already having chilling and devastating effects on higher education and scientific research, with several universities announcing hiring freezes and some pausing or reversing graduate student admissions.Similar dynamics are also at play with the National Science Foundation (NSF), another key federal funder of scientific research.In 2024, Tennessee received $819 million in NIH awards supporting almost 10,000 jobs and $2.2 billion in total economic activity, with the University of Tennessee system and Oak Ridge Associated Universities among the top NIH-funded institutions in the state.Federal research funding at universities across the state and nation creates the training opportunities for the scientists and clinicians who ultimately come back to communities to work in research, health care, and industry.Scientific research leads to better prevention and therapies for the diseases with the top mortality rates in the state, including cancer, heart disease, and stroke. Drug companies rely on the basic science research conducted at universities and other research institutions, driven by federal funding.All this is at risk of collapsing if we stay on the trajectory the current administration has set.So, what can we do? First, we should share with our communities why science matters – for everyone.Second, we should call our elected representatives to voice our concerns and ensure they are voting and advocating on our behalf. The 5calls website or app makes this relatively easy.Third, if you are able and willing, find ways to bring our voices together into collective action. I helped organize a local Stand Up for Science rally on March 7, part of a nationwide series of events to raise awareness of these threats to science, as “science is for everyone.” More than 250 people gathered in Nashville as part of the Tennessee event.East Tennessee has a rich history of scientific and technical innovation, including at the heart of Oak Ridge. I feel fortunate to have grown up in Oak Ridge with strong teachers and mentors who helped shape my path to a career in genetic research. I implore you to help ensure that path – and the scientific careers it leads to – remains open for generations to come.Sarah Nelson, MPH, PhD, is a senior research scientist at the University of Washington studying the genetic causes of complex health conditions. 

Avoiding The Trap Of ‘Hope Marketing’ And Cracking The Code To Business Growth

Business News

Today, the whole process of selling online can feel extremely challenging. Everything is happening at incredible speed and the digital space is full of conflicting advice of varying quality.
For the average business owner, online advertising can feel as imprecise as throwing mud at the wall and seeing what sticks. It is like flying blind, having no idea where you’re heading until you get there; like playing darts blindfolded, hoping you’ll hit the bullseye.
I also see many businesses ‘dabbling’ in marketing and advertising – a bit here, a bit there. Or worse, they partake in reactive marketing, where they see their sales pipeline go dry, so they panic.
I call this ‘hope marketing’, and in reality, it is this mostly unconscious marketing strategy that so many small businesses typically employ. If you’re a business owner, it is easy to just ‘wing it’ in marketing, without a plan.
You’re not measuring anything and you’re basically just throwing money at Facebook, Google, and any other channel that catches your eye, hoping that something, anything, will work. Sound familiar? If so, you might be guilty of a bit of hope marketing.
The problem with this kind of marketing is that it’s a total waste of time and money. If you’re not planning your marketing efforts, you’re not learning anything from your mistakes. If you want to get real results, you need to ditch the hope, inconsistency, and reactivity, and get strategic.
This means taking the time to understand your target market, crafting messages that speak directly to their needs and desires, and mapping out clear, measurable steps for your customer journey.
Once you’ve created a strategy, we can look at your system. Does it effectively capture leads, cultivate them, and convert them into sales? With a proven strategy operating through a successful system, you can scale your business by reaching new audiences, retaining customers to resell to them, and continually refining your approach.
If you, like so many others, are guilty of hope marketing, don’t worry – the good news is that there is very little randomness to digital marketing. Professionals create and stick to a plan. There is always a method to the madness, and here I share my tips on how to cut through the noise and grow your business.
Everyone’s always chasing the next shiny new object, distracted by advertising and social media content making big promises and missing what really matters. But the reality is, there are only four ways to boost your revenue.
When I started out, I was bombarded with advice from all sides. It was overwhelming. But over time, I figured out it all boils down to this:

Leads
Conversion rate
Average sale value
Purchase frequency

To have the right mindset, you need to be focused on the right things. These are the four ‘dials’ of your revenue growth and if you crank up any of these, you’ll generate more revenue. Crank them all up and you’ll crack the code to serious growth.
It’s a straightforward game plan to take your business to the next level. Let’s break it down:
Increase leads: More leads mean more potential customers. Simple as that. Everything is downstream from leads. You have to focus on traffic. It’s all about putting your business in front of more people, via both paid and organic methods. Paid traffic is like hitting the gas – quick results, but at a cost. Think Google or Facebook Ads. Organic traffic is more like planting seeds – it takes time (which is also a cost), but it pays off long term. Invest in SEO, content, and social media; mix it up to keep your pipeline full.
Increase conversion rate: Leads are great, but worthless if they don’t buy. Your conversion rate is the percentage that do. Make it incredibly easy for people to buy from you. Streamline your website, train your team, follow up fast. Use a good CRM to stay on top of things. The smoother the process, the more sales you’ll close.
Increase average sale value: This is the average amount each customer spends per purchase. Make each sale count. You’ve done the hard work in getting them – now maximise it. Upsell and cross-sell – you don’t have to be pushy, but if you don’t make offers, no one can buy from you. Offer premium versions or complementary add-ons. Show them the value in upgrading or adding on. It’s about educating, not hard selling.
Increase purchase frequency: This is how often your customers return. You want to keep them coming back because loyal customers are gold – they spend more over time and bring in new business. Focus on reselling, reactivating dormant customers, and getting referrals. Set up a loyalty programme, stay in touch through email and social media, and give incentives for referrals. Happy customers are your best marketing.
It’s simple, but powerful. If you’re aiming to become a market leader, you will have to change, adapt, and innovate the way you think about marketing. This has always been true, but today, change needs to happen more quickly and be more radical than ever.
Francis Rodino is an award-winning expert in sales automation and digital marketing, focused on helping SMEs thrive in the AI-powered era.
With over 20 years of experience at the intersection of technology and marketing, Francis has led digital campaigns for global brands like PlayStation, Disney, and the Olympics, and helped Top Gear reach its first 10 million followers on Facebook.
Now, as an international speaker and founder of Lead Hero AI, Francis helps SMEs leverage AI tools, marketing automation, and scalable strategies to generate leads, boost profits, and secure lasting success in today’s competitive digital landscape. He is also the author of Leads Machine.