Rolling Stone reported that the global concert business lost $9.7 billion in ticket sales, with another $30 billion lost in sponsorships, concessions, merchandise, and other ancillary operations. People have been craving a return to live music, and Northlands in Swanzey is delivering, announcing a sold-out concert today featuring Twiddle, and one on Saturday featuring Smith & Myers, an acoustic side project from the multi-platinum rock band Shinedown’s frontman, Brent Smith, and guitarist Zach Myers. The duo released Smith & Myers Volume 1 and Volume 2 in 2020, with ten originals and ten covers of Neil Young, Post Malone, INXS, Mark Ronson, and Amy Winehouse, among others.
At other venues, Judy Collins is at the Flying Monkey in Plymouth tonight; Consider the Source will play at the Stone Church in Newmarket on Saturday; and Ripe will be at Bernie’s Beach Bar in Hampton on Saturday.
Meanwhile, the Three Rivers City is poised to offer the northeast’s first whitewater park when Mill City Park at Franklin Falls begins offering activities this summer.
International Crimes In Small Communities
Meredith attorney Robert E. McDaniel, a member of the International Criminal Law and Justice Program faculty at the University of New Hampshire’s Franklin Pierce School of Law, will give a presentation on identifying and investigating international crimes in small towns and cities at the Inn at Mill Falls on Tuesday, June 29, at 3 p.m. The presentation will take place during the annual conference of the New England chapter of the FBI National Academy Associates.
McDaniel will discuss what to look for, the telltale signs of organized criminal activity, and how small police departments can tackle threats to their communities. A complimentary webinar on June 16 at 2 p.m. will offer an abbreviated version of the presentation. Registration for both the conference and webinar are required. To attend the webinar, register here.
The recipient of two Special Achievement Awards from the U.S. Attorney General, McDaniel served in the United States Attorney’s Office in Washington, D.C., and as a member of the Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement Task Force in New Hampshire, where he coordinated complex international investigations involving federal, state, and small-town law enforcement. As a faculty member at Franklin Pierce School of Law, he teaches courses in Drug and Weapons Trafficking and White-Collar Crime.
Colonial Pipeline Begins To Return To Normal
We reported Monday that the hack of the computers at the Colonial Pipeline appeared to be “only” ransomware, meaning that the attack did not appear to reach the operational equipment, which would have been devastating to the entire operation, potentially leading to leaks or explosions. To be safe, Colonial shut down the whole system while it dealt with the cyber breach. Experts said that, although the pipeline serves the entire East Coast, there was enough gasoline on reserve to last a few days without causing any inconvenience.
Media reports about the shutdown led to panic among consumers that caused a rush on gas stations, similar to the toilet paper panic last year, and, as a result, those reserves did run out just a couple days into the shutdown, leaving many gas stations without any fuel to sell. Hardest hit were the southern states along the pipeline where fuel companies purchase directly from Colonial.
By Wednesday, the company began to resume pipeline operations, announcing that it still would take several days “for the product delivery supply chain to return to normal. Some markets served by Colonial Pipeline may experience, or continue to experience, intermittent service interruptions during the start-up period.”
While cybersecurity experts warn that companies should not pay ransomware, as it encourages further hacking attempts, word came on Thursday that Colonial did pay nearly $5 million to the Eastern European hackers through untraceable cryptocurrency within hours of the attack. The FBI has identified DarkSide as the group responsible for the ransomware attack.
Substack Glitch
There was some kind of glitch with Thursday’s News Café, with Substack failing to send out the email notifications. While Substack has a good FAC section for writers, there is no easy way to report a problem, and we were unable to get the problem fixed by the end of the day. By clicking the link above, subscribers should still be able to access the post.
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