Fahroni // Shutterstock

As Deloitte states in its report Boosting Industrial Manufacturing Capacity for the Energy Transition, the manufacturing sector has a pressing need to reduce its reliance on fossil fuels, both as a means of minimizing operational costs and shrinking its carbon footprint. The capabilities of renewable energy sources continue to evolve, and upfront installation costs are consistently declining.

For heavy manufacturing facilities managing multi-megawatt energy profiles, the decision to install on-site generation has historically been hindered by high capital expenditure (CapEx) and long return-on-investment (ROI) horizons.

However, the convergence of plummeting photovoltaic (PV) hardware costs and federal incentives has fundamentally altered this calculus. According to the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), the cost to install solar has dropped by more than 40% over the last decade. For industrial facilities with available roof space exceeding 50,000 square feet, this price compression creates a specific economic tipping point where self-generation moves from a sustainability initiative to a core operational expense (OpEx) reduction strategy.

The Rise of Rooftop Solar in Heavy Manufacturing

While residential solar demand has fluctuated — McKinsey & Company notes a flattening in domestic installations in 2024 after a prior surge — the industrial sector is decoupling from this trend.

Projections from Grand View Research in their Rooftop Solar PV Market Summary indicate the industrial segment will account for 40.1% of revenue growth through 2025. This divergence is driven by two key financial levers: energy independence and tax equity.

• Grid insulation: Heavy manufacturing operations rely on consistent uptime. On-site arrays reduce exposure to grid volatility and peak-demand pricing.
• Tax incentives: The Investment Tax Credit (ITC) and Production Tax Credit (PTC) remain primary drivers. The Congressional Budget Office, in its Business Tax Credits for Wind and Solar Power Report, estimates that without these subsidies, renewable energy spending would be roughly 33% lower. These mechanisms allow facilities to offset significant portions of the initial CapEx, accelerating the break-even timeline.

Solar panel costs have also dropped by 99% in the past 50 years. The long-term operational value of rooftop solar now outweighs the initial installation burden.

More rooftop solar projects are underway in heavy manufacturing at the moment, with many recently completed. Read more

Summit Art Creations // Shutterstock

Shipping and mailing are two of those “invisible” cost centers in many businesses—you pay for postage, labels, carriers, packaging, and handling but may not have full visibility into how much you’re spending, where the inefficiencies lie, or whether your service levels justify the cost.

Without that view, it’s nearly impossible to control costs, take advantage of savings opportunities, or make data-driven decisions to improve your business.

Stamps.com explores how businesses and professional services organizations using data analysis in logistics and predictive analytics to gain shipping and mailing insights can uncover patterns they’d otherwise miss.

By using shipping and mailing data and analytics, you can:

• See where your money goes: What are you spending per carrier, service level, destination, or package type?
• Spot inefficiencies: Are you using an expensive expedited service when a cheaper ground option would suffice or shipping small parcels with a large-parcel service?
• Compare carriers and services: Which carrier is the most cost-effective or ships the fastest?
• Forecast and optimize: Are you allocating funds effectively or choosing the best fulfillment locations?

How to use reporting tools and shipping data analytics to save money

Having the tools is one thing; using them effectively is another. Here are the top ways to leverage reports to reduce spending.

Establish a baseline of your spend and performance

Pull your current shipping and mailing data for the last two years via your shipping platform and review the spend. Look at the total spend and breakdown (by carrier, service level, and destination zones) and the total number of shipments and shipments by service level and package size/weight.

Segment and analyze by dimension

Use filters to break up the data by carrier, service type, and cost codes, which let you track expenses and bill postage spend back to specific clients, projects, or departments.

Look for patterns in the data, such as services where the cost is disproportionately high relative to volume or weight, package sizes where you might be overpaying, and carriers with below-average transit performance.

Identify data-driven opportunities to optimize

Based on your analysis, formulate cost-saving opportunities such as service-level right-sizing. If many items are shipped via expedited service but the delivery time doesn’t require it, consider a slower but less expensive service. You can also consider shifting carriers or transferring more volume to a more affordable provider if one offers a lower rate for a specific zone or weight.

Monitor the impact of your changes and optimize continuously

With reporting in place that helps you make sense of your metrics, keep a close eye on how your actions are impacting spend and performance. Create recurring reports for a conv

Alisha Jucevic for CalMatters

Dancers say their craft can’t be duplicated by AI. Our tests show they’re right — for now.

Bird singing and dancing, as practiced by the Cahuilla Band of Indians, tell a story about the creation of the world, and how the Cahuilla migrated to their current home in Southern California. Moving the same way your ancestors did, perhaps on the exact same land, makes you feel part of the past, present, and future all at once, said tribal member Emily Clarke. She’s done bird dance with her loved ones since she was 7 years old—an act, she said, not only of spirituality but also of perseverance, since bird dance is among the acts of Native American culture nearly eradicated by colonization and U.S. government policy.

So when Clarke heard that some generative artificial intelligence models, like Google’s Veo 3 and OpenAI’s Sora 2, can mimic the dance, her first thought was that it was wrong, distasteful and disrespectful. Then she wondered briefly if automated forms of bird dance could help preserve her culture—before deciding they can’t, since they will never replicate the conversations and community bonds that have helped give Cahuilla bird dance its distinct style and impassioned practitioners.

“It would miss the cultural and social importance, and without that, it’s not bird dancing,” she said.

Developers of AI systems are working continuously to do an increasingly better job of replicating complex human movement, including dance. Doing so has become a sort of holy grail in the field of generative AI due to the many technical challenges involved, but it remains an open question among dancers like Clarke of how much the technology will disrupt the world of dance as it progresses.

Clarke’s conflicting and uncertain thoughts about AI mirror those of other dancers across California interviewed by CalMatters, who were, depending on the specific question or moment in time, optimistic, skeptical and concerned about AI’s incursion into their art form. Most settled into the view that AI is incapable of capturing the uniquely human aspects of dancing, including the cultures surrounding it, the pride and passion of dancers, the energy imparted by audiences, or the form’s essential element of improvisation.

Photo courtesy of Emily Clarke

CalMatters and The Markup tested four commercially-available AI video-generation models — OpenAI’s Sora

Gouin // Shutterstock

Each year, millions of taxpayers elect to extend the filing of their tax return. But what does that mean? Range explains what IRS tax extensions are and how to request one.

IRS Tax Extensions, Explained

A tax extension allows you to take up to an additional six months to file your tax return, extending your deadline to Oct. 15 (or the next business day if the 15th falls on a weekend or holiday). The IRS does not require a reason to extend a return, and any taxpayer can do so. However, it’s important to understand the difference between filing and paying your taxes—these can have different deadlines.

You Must Still Pay Your Taxes by the April Deadline

When it comes to timing your taxes, payment matters more than filing. There is little a taxpayer can do to defer payment for the previous year after April 15 (or the following business day if the 15th falls on a holiday or weekend). The good news: You don’t have to know your exact tax liability on April 15. As long as you can calculate (or have a professional help calculate) at least how much tax is owed, you can cover the entire bill on time and avoid underpayment penalties.

Does Filing an Extension Incur Penalties?

No. As long as the extension is filed and accepted by the original due date in April, there are no penalties. Once a request to extend is filed on time, taxpayers have until Oct. 15 to submit their final return before the IRS charges any failure-to-file penalties.

How Do I File an Extension?

The IRS offers several methods for filing an extension:

1. Pay online and elect extension treatment: Pay your estimated tax balance through the IRS Direct Pay portal and select the option to treat it as an extension.
2. Use IRS Free File: Electronically request an extension using the IRS Free File tool.
3. Work with a tax professional: Have your CPA or tax preparer file an extension on your behalf and advise on payment.
4. Request by mail: File Form 4868 by mail. You can pay electronically or include payment as directed in the form instructions.

Step-by-step guides to filing your 2026 tax extension are available online.

How Much Do I Need to Pay in April After Extending?

Since calculating the exact amount due by April isn’t always practical, many extension payments are rounded to estimated figures. A tax professional can help you determine your tax balance. For taxpayers who make quarterly estimated payments, some professionals calculate an additional sum to include in the extension payment to cover the Q1 tax liability (which is also due on April 15) in addition to the previous year’s balance.

Do I Need to Make Estimated Tax Payments?

Quarterly tax payments don’t apply to all taxpayers. They&#

Por Elizabeth Wolfe y Lauren Mascarenhas, CNN

Mientras las tensiones alcanzaban su punto máximo en Minnesota esta semana, el Gobierno de Trump envió al zar de la frontera de la Casa Blanca, Tom Homan, quien dijo que está listo para calmar los ánimos, aliviar las frustraciones y reducir el número de agentes federales en la ciudad, todo mientras mantiene el enfoque en los objetivos de deportación sin precedentes del presidente.

Homan anunció el jueves que está trabajando en un plan para reducir eventualmente el número de agentes federales en el estado. Pero dijo que el movimiento dependerá de si las autoridades locales permiten que el Servicio de Inmigración y Control de Aduanas (ICE, por sus siglos en inglés) tome custodia de inmigrantes en prisiones y cárceles.

“Más agentes en la cárcel significa menos agentes en la calle”, dijo Homan.

A las pocas horas, el presidente Donald Trump pareció contradecirlo.

Al preguntarle si retiraría agentes de inmigración, Trump dijo: “Haremos todo lo que podamos para mantener nuestro país seguro”. Al insistirle si no los retiraría, Trump dijo: “No, no. En absoluto.”

En una ciudad donde las detenciones se han producido principalmente en las calles, los comentarios de Homan han resaltado una batalla que se ha estado desarrollando en segundo plano. Durante semanas, funcionarios federales y estatales han estado intercambiando críticas sobre el tema de las órdenes de detención de ICE —que permiten a ICE tomar custodia de inmigrantes encarcelados— ya que ninguna de las partes se pone de acuerdo sobre cuántas de estas personas existen en el sistema, según informó CNN.

Funcionarios de correccionales estatales acusaron al Departamento de Seguridad Nacional (DHS, por sus siglas en inglés) de presentar “información errónea” sobre cuántas órdenes de detención de ICE hay en el estado.

Incluso cuando Homan adopta un tono más conciliador en nombre del Gobierno de Trump, aún está por verse si los funcionarios están listos para llegar a un acuerdo o cuánto tiempo tomará la reducción de agentes.

Esto es lo que necesitas saber.

Si ICE considera que existe causa probable para detener a un migrante que está en prisión o cárcel, puede enviar una solicitud formal —conocida como orden de detención de ICE— a las fuerzas del orden pidiendo que notifiquen a ICE antes de que la persona sea liberada. También puede pedir que el detenido sea retenido hasta 48 horas después de su fecha de liberación programada, para poder entregarlo a la custodia federal.

Según la ley de Minnesota, las oficinas del sheriff deben notificar a ICE si una persona que va a ser liberada ha sido condenada por un delito grave y esa persona no es ciudadana, según la oficina del fiscal general de Minnesota, Keith Ellison. En todos los demás casos, como delitos menores, “depende de cada condado decidir”, dijo un portavoz.

El Departamento de Correccionales de Minnesota ha cumplido con las órdenes de detención de ICE y cooperado con las autoridades federales, dijo Homan el jueves. Ahora el Gobierno busca cooperación de las cárceles locales.

Cuando la Operación Metro Surge entró en pleno apogeo a principios de este mes, más de 3.000 agentes federales de inmigración llegaron a Minnesota, llevando a cabo detenciones masivas y enfrentándose a manifestantes en confrontaciones tensas.

El gobernador de Minnesota, Tim Walz, hizo un “llamado directo” a Trump en una publicación del 15 de enero en X, diciendo: “Bajemos la temperatura”.

ICE respondió con su propia publicación: “La responsabilidad es tuya, gobernador.