Media and Marketing

Insider Louisville names new managing editor: former New York Times-er Meece

Mickey Meece‘s appointment is effective Aug. 15, the online news site launched in 2010 said this afternoon. A Louisville native, Meece worked at the Times for 13 years on the business and features desks, including assistant to the editor, small business editor, weekend editor and staff editor.

Mickey Meece
Meece

Insider didn’t say whether Meece’s position is new, or whether she’s replacing someone.

The site’s executive editor and vice president of content, Sarah Kelley said: “Mickey brings with her a wealth of journalism experience, and she will be an asset to IL as our news operation continues to gain momentum.”

As to her specific responsibilities, IL says only that Meece “hopes to start a lot of conversations with Louisville residents to find out what they want to see covered on a daily basis.”

Jobs

CEO Niccol: ‘I think it’s the responsibility of companies like Taco Bell to step in and help these young people get their first job’

That’s Taco Bell CEO Brian Niccol speaking to NPR’s Marketplace; listen to the just-broadcast interview. The Yum fast-Mexican division is among employers holding job fairs around the nation with the goal of getting 100,000 more young people on the payroll by the year after next. Taco Bell accounts for 6,500 of Yum’s 43,000 restaurants worldwide with a combined 505,000 employees.

Taco Bell logoNiccol, 42, has been CEO since January 2015. He learned some of his earliest lessons as a teenager running a lawn-mowing service with friends, according to the Los Angeles Times. Pricing varied by location, and to get a contract, marketing was a must — an idea he took to future jobs. “At the time you do it, you don’t realize how it’s influencing you going forward,” he said. “I think it carries on with you in the subconscious.”

Cops and Courts

Man tries to smuggle pet turtle disguised as a KFC sandwich through a Chinese airport (seriously)

The latest crime news across the world of 48,000 restaurants*.

Crime scene tapeA former employee has been arrested for robbing a Des Moines KFC assistant manager preparing a bank deposit Saturday morning. Shaun Michael Haltiner, 22, of Des Moines was booked into the Polk County Jail about 2 p.m. on a first-degree robbery charge, according to the Des Moines Register.

The unidentified manager was sitting in his car outside the KFC at about 10:45 a.m., organizing a $900 cash bank deposit, he told police. A masked man, later identified as Haltiner, opened his car door and put a black handgun in his face, according to a police report cited by the newspaper.

Haltiner mug shot
Haltiner
The manager handed over the cash, and the robber fled, only to be arrested later that day by police.

In South China, meanwhile, a man has been caught trying to smuggle his pet turtle through security at Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport by disguising it as a KFC burger.

The man, identified only by his Li surname, was headed for a China Southern Airlines flight to Beijing when X-ray scanner staff spotted “odd protrusions” from a fast food wrapper, according to a Guangzhou Daily newspaper report cited by the Telegraph.

“There’s no turtle in there, just a hamburger,” Li reportedly told security staff after initially refusing a bag search. “There’s nothing special to see inside.”

Li eventually admitted he didn’t want to be separated from his pet, so he hid the turtle in a sesame seed bun and packaged it in KFC paper. The turtle was eventually freed and Li was told it wasn’t allowed on the plane.

(Note: the photo illustration above is neither the fake sandwich nor the real turtle.)

* Yum has 43,000 KFCs, Pizza Huts and Taco Bells in nearly 140 countries; Papa John’s has 4,900 outlets in 37 countries, and Texas Roadhouse has 485 restaurants across the U.S. and in five other nations. With that many locations, crimes inevitably occur — with potentially serious legal consequences for the companies.

Latest Headlines

Walmart’s $3B Jet buy hurting Amazon? (Wall Street says nope); a Humana DOJ loss could be Louisville’s gain; and Baxter Avenue Theatres plans big upgrades

A news summary focused on 10 big employers; updated 4:28 p.m.

Amazon vs. Walmart
Amazon’s stock (blue) rose and Walmart’s stock (red) fell today on the Jet deal.

AMAZON: Walmart’s $3 billion bet on discounter Jet may reinvigorate growth in its online shopping business, which has slowed in recent quarters even as Amazon’s overall sales have rocketed above $100 billion annually (CNN). Wall Street’s not holding its breath; Amazon’s stock rose a smidge and Walmart’s fell a bit by the time trading closed at 4 p.m. ET (Google Finance).

Jet logoEarlier today, news emerged that Amazon’s office has been searched by Japan’s Fair Trade Commission over its dealings with merchants who sell goods through the retailer, a person with knowledge of the matter told Bloomberg. The antitrust agency is looking into whether Amazon sought deals with sellers that gave it more favorable conditions over other e-commerce companies in one of its biggest foreign markets. It wasn’t immediately clear when the JFTC inquiry took place (Bloomberg).

The retailer’s shipping costs are skyrocketing, underscoring why it just unveiled its first branded Prime Air cargo plane. Amazon’s shipping expenses soared 43% vs. a year ago during the first half of the year. In 2013-2015, those costs were rising 29% to 32% annually. This year, it’s already on track to spend nearly $6 billion on shipping.

Amazon logo“Bottom line,” says ZD Net, “Amazon has no choice but to become more efficient than UPS and FedEx. If Amazon can use its own air fleet to even come close to its shipping vendors, it’ll potentially save billions of dollars simply by cutting out the middleman.”

Here’s a time-lapse video showing the new Prime Air Boeing 767 being readied for its debut this weekend at the annual Seafair air show in its corporate hometown of Seattle; more news coverage about Prime Air.

Amazon and UPS are both big employers in the Louisville area; UPS has 22,000 workers at its Louisville International Airport hub, and Amazon employs 6,000 at distribution centers in Jeffersonville and Shephardsville.

KINDRED has just filed its detailed quarterly 10-Q report with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The hospital and nursing giant reported strong earnings on Thursday (SEC document).

HUMANA could lose its Justice Department battle to win approval for the insurer’s proposed $37 billion merger with Aetna, but Louisville’s economy could wind up a winner — if the history of GE Appliances’ auction is a guide (WDRB).

In other news, the Baxter Avenue Theatres is adding powered reclining chairs and a full bar to the seven-screen Highlands complex at Mid-City Mall, an approximately $500,000 upgrade that will start in October (Insider Louisville).

The Jennifer Lawrence Diary™

Kitchen confidential: Louisville’s favorite daughter says goodbye to her first, pre super-stardom California home

Jennifer LawrenceBoulevard reviews the latest media coverage of the Oscar-winning Louisville native in our exclusive Jennifer Lawrence Diary™. Today’s news, rated on a scale of 1-5 stars:

Three starsJennifer Lawrence has just sold her Los Angeles starter home for $1.2 million, 33% more than what she paid for it back in 2006, when her career was just starting to take off. The 1,413-square-feet Santa Monica townhouse has two bedrooms and three bathrooms, hardwood floors, and a fireplace.

Lawrence, 25, hasn’t lived there since 2014, when she bought a Beverly Hills mansion for $8.2 million from comedian Ellen DeGeneres. By then, she’d scored three big hits: “X-Men: First Class” in 2011; “The Hunger Games” in 2012, the first in that ultra-successful franchise, and “Silver Linings Playbook,” also in 2012, for which she won her best-actress Oscar.

Lawrence hasn’t settled down yet. In May, she was spotted kicking the tires on a paparazzi-proof $14.4 million condo in New York’s Tribeca neighborhood, where neighbors have included mega Grammy-winner Beyoncé, Coldplay’s Chris Martin, and his ex-wife, Gwyneth Paltrow.

Photo, top: That’s the kitchen in Lawrence’s just-sold home.