Weekend Digest: The Mountain Dew TV network, hyperloop, and magic bureaucrat edition

TV PREVIEW
On this week’s TV edition of Talk Business & Politics, which airs Sundays at 9:30 a.m. on KATV Channel 7 in Central Arkansas and now in Northeast Arkansas on KAIT-NBC, Sundays at 10 a.m.:

Road Trip
Highways are coming in next week’s special session. Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department Director Scott Bennett joins us for a conversation.

Talk Politics
In our Talk Politics roundtable, Steve Brawner and Janelle Lilley discuss the session plus other hot topics of the day.

Tourism Growth
On the business front, tourism is booming but there’s more on the way. We’ll look at what’s happening in the capital city with Gretchen Hall from the Little Rock Convention and Visitors Bureau.

We’re pre-empted in Northeast Arkansas this weekend due to network programming, so tune in to Talk Business & Politics in Central Arkansas on KATV Channel 7 this Sunday at 9:30 a.m.

KILLING BUGS AND MAKING MONEY
Forbes posts that is the “saga of David Royce.” Who is David Royce?

In 2004 Brigham Young University student David Royce was working his third summer as a salesman and recruiter for Moxie, a Texas pest-control company. Royce had learned the art of persuading strangers as a Mormon missionary going door-to-door in Panama, and he was good at it. So good that, while still in college, he’d written Moxie’s sales training manual and been named a vice president of the company. So good that owner Jason Walton urged him to drop his plans to go to business school. “Don’t go pulling 80-and 100-hour weeks in investment banking,” Royce remembers Walton saying. “You should start your own company.”

And so he did.

“The first was in 2008, when he sold his Moxie branches, which were generating $10 million a year in revenue and employed 100 workers, to Terminix for an estimated $13 million.”

How many companies has he founded since and what does he call his “golden goose”? Go to this link to learn more about this entrepreneur’s bug killing empire.

HOW AN ECOSYSTEM MINDSET CAN HELP PEOPLE AND ORGANIZATIONS
Harvard Business Review says, “Greg Gopman has had an interesting two and a half years. In December 2013 he was an up-and-coming young San Francisco entrepreneur and CEO of an incubator, when he posted an offhand comment on Facebook about homelessness in his city. In part, he wrote:

In other cosmopolitan cities, the lower part of society keep to themselves. They sell small trinkets, beg coyly, stay quiet, and generally stay out of your way. They realize it’s a privilege to be in the civilized part of town and view themselves as guests. And that’s okay.”

Gopman’s post quickly went viral, was blogged about endlessly at media sites such as Gawker’s now-defunct Valleywag, and he became a poster child for everything wrong with the tech industry in the Bay Area. Overnight, his career came to a complete standstill.

But what Gopman did next was the interesting part: he threw himself at the task of actually trying to fix the homeless problem in San Francisco with the typical zeal of a startup entrepreneur.

“Gopman’s journey is a great illustration of how to adopt what I call an ecosystem mindset: an understanding that the keys to new value and growth likely do not reside within one’s current boundaries but beyond them, and that success involves forging new connections to solve problems and create new value as a team. It’s a mindset that very few big companies and individuals have, but need.”

Is this what you or your company needs? Click here for the complete post.

THE MOUNTAIN DEW NETWORK
Say that again? Yes, says Fast Company.

“The rise of multichannel networks (MCN) such as Maker, AwesomenessTV, Machinima, and more – consolidating thousands of YouTube channels and creators under one roof to maximize ad revenue – over the past few years has been well documented. They became a one-stop shop for brands to reach the growing legion of digital entertainment stars, and the millions of young consumer eyeballs watching their every video.

But now Mountain Dew has decided to take a chance, cut out the content middleman, and deal directly with YouTube content creators by setting up its very own brand MCN.”

The company claims it’s the first-ever brand-owned MCN, and the goal is to partner exclusively with culturally relevant influencers to create YouTube content across key verticals important to Mountain Dew, including action sports, basketball, art, music, gaming, and racing. Already active in beta over the past few months, Dew’s Green Label MCN has signed on hip-hop dancer D-trix, basketball influencer the Professor, and skateboarders Josh Katz and Nigel Alexander.

Go to this link for complete details on this “ambitious project” from the Dew.

HILLARY OVER THE DONALD
“The numbers favor Hillary Clinton over Trump,” posts The Cook Political Report.

“Now that the presidential nominations are set for each side, pollsters are busy surveying states and, with their strategists, poring over the data, trying to ascertain the contours of the fall election. From one election to the next, some small changes have to be worked into their calculus. Both parties have a core of states that are certain to go their way; they consider other states highly likely but not certain; still other states lean to one party or the other but are still in play; and finally some states are toss-ups. Needless to say, the toss-ups will attract the bulk of campaign spending.”

Based on past election results as well as many conversations with pollsters in both parties with access to far more data than is publicly available, Hillary Clinton, the presumptive Democratic nominee, starts off with a strong lead in 18 states plus the District of Columbia with a total of 217 electoral college votes, which represent 80 percent of the 270 needed to win. The Cook Political Report rates these states as either “Solid” or “Likely” Democratic. The presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump begins with strong leads in 21 states with a total of 190 electoral votes, 70 percent of the 270 mark. We rate these states as Solid or Likely Republican. Up for grabs are a dozen states with a total of 157 electoral votes. We put these states in the “competitive” columns of “Lean Democratic,” “Toss-Up,” or “Lean Republican.”

“This is where it gets complicated for Trump:” How so? Follow this link to find out.

HILLARY’S GLARING WEAKNESS
U.S. News and World Report says, “This week revealed that, despite countless flaws, Donald Trump does have a chance at the presidency after all.”

Donald Trump has gone through one of the rockiest initial spans of any presumptive Republican presidential nominee in memory.

And yet Hillary Clinton still lost the week.

“It’s an odd paradox that helps explain a 2016 campaign in which both parties are saddled with inherently flawed candidates who appear completely capable of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.”

What happened and how can Trump somehow succeed? Find out here.

CONSERVATIVES DRAW BATTLE PLANS FOR CONVENTION FIGHT
POLITICO posts, “Facing efforts to soften the party’s stance on same-sex marriage and policy uncertainty from Donald Trump, one group sees a path to preserving policy orthodoxy.”

“Conservatives, increasingly distressed that their agenda is in peril, are preparing an aggressive push at the party convention to preserve their control over the GOP’s official platform.”

With some of the GOP’s biggest donors financing a multimillion-dollar campaign to soften the party’s stringent posture on social issues, and with Donald Trump deviating from conservative orthodoxy on a range of policy areas, a group of Republican operatives and officials on Wednesday will announce a project devoted to safeguarding the platform.

Click on this link for more on who is spearheading this group.

BRAZIL’S PRESIDENT SUSPENDED
BBC News reports, “Dilma Rousseff has been suspended from Brazil’s presidency and will face an impeachment trial over accusations that she illegally manipulated government accounts.”

“She denies the allegations, saying they are common practice in Brazil, and has accused her opponents of mounting a coup.”

Ms Rousseff will remain suspended for 180 days, while the trial lasts. Vice President Michel Temer will serve as interim president.

“Here we take a closer look at the problems in Brazil and what has gone wrong since Ms Rousseff was elected for a second term in October 2014.”

THE AGE OF THE HYPERLOOP?
Has it arrived? “Well, for the most part,” posts Wired.

“With a deep hum, linear induction motors spun up a powerful magnetic field along 200 feet of track in the Nevada desert. A shiny sled whizzed forward in a blur. Fifteen hundred pounds of aluminum reached 120 mph in just 1.5 seconds, accelerating to 300 mph before plowing into a sand berm.”

Hyperloop works, you guys. Mostly. Kinda.

“The transportation of tomorrow that billionaire rocketeer-automaker Elon Musk dreamed up in 2012 passed its first test Wednesday. Yes, this version would still turn any human passengers into meat jelly. But at least it flies.”

“Fly” to this link for the scoop on the hyperloop.

SOS-1: THE MAGIC BUREAUCRAT
Marketplace posts, “In the summer of 1996, on the lawn of the White House Rose Garden, President Clinton signed a bill that would dramatically transform the country’s welfare system.”

“Twenty years later, what the heck is welfare anyway? And we should make it clear — we’re talking about cash assistance to poor families, not food stamps or medicaid.”

Welcome to “The Uncertain Hour,” the Wealth & Poverty desk’s new podcast hosted by Senior Correspondent Krissy Clark. In the first episode, we’ll introduce you to the “Magic Bureaucrat” – the former director of a suburban county welfare office. You’ll hear about his foray into synthpop music production and how he launched the welfare reform movement.

“Because the things we argue most about are often the things we know the least about.”

Go here for more on this piece of magic.

A BRIEF VISUAL HISTORY OF EATING ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL
Ever feel sorry for the candidates along the campaign trail and what foods they imbibe for votes?

Raccoon comes to mind in Arkansas.

Anyway, “To celebrate that rite, here’s a look back at some of the campaign chow that has graced the plates of America’s most famous politicians,” from Time at this link.