🛞A Hummer of a price! Fort Worth is Just Right; Farmers thinks so, too

Scheduling note: 817 Biz will be off this Friday (Good Friday).🐰🐰🐰

The nine-year felony case against Attorney General Ken Paxton is over. Securities fraud charges will be dropped if he performs 100 hours of community service and fulfills other conditions of a pretrial agreement, including taking 15 hours of legal ethics courses and paying restitution ($271,000) to investors he is accused of defrauding in a McKinney technology company without disclosing that it was paying him to promote its stock.

Haltom City-based Just Right Products, a promotional products distributor, has received final building permits to construct a facility up to 80,000 square feet on a 17.5-acre site in Fort Worth, just five miles away from its current digs. Just Right said it expects to expand production capacity by up to five times.

Farmer Brothers, a roaster, wholesaler, and distributor of coffee, tea and allied products, has entered into a 54-month lease agreement on new headquarters at 14501 N. Freeway in Fort Worth. The approximately 25,000-square-foot space will house the company’s executive team and approximately 125-150 members of its support staff.

Fort Worth resident John Clay Wolfe, president/founder of Give Me The Vin, and Richard Rawlings, owner/founder of Gas Monkey Garage, recently sold a Hellcat customized Humvee at a Barrett-Jackson auction for $825,000, breaking the sales record for any full-size SUV category.

Shares of video game and electronics retailer GameStop dropped quickly in after-hours trading Tuesday after the company reported earnings for its 2023 fourth quarter. Earnings per share came in at $0.22, which missed consensus estimates of 29-30 cents per share. 

Age discrimination is top of mind among the old and young workforces. The American Staffing Association says about 68% of baby boomers believe their age would count against them when looking for a new job, and 53% said they felt their age limited their career opportunities. Ladders found in its workplace study of high-paying jobs that about 35% of workers said they have been treated unfairly or discriminated against. It was highest among workers ages 18 to 34, with 44% saying they were treated unfairly because of their age. 28% of workers older than 55 said the same thing.

The Texas Alliance Soccer Club has become part of the Fort Worth Vaqueros Youth Soccer Club. The Vaqueros' youth academy, established in 2018 as a non-profit, serves as a high-performance boys' program that provides high-quality coaching, an encouraging team environment and opportunities to train and compete at a high level. Texas Alliance Soccer Club was focused on the Alliance, north Fort Worth, and Keller areas.

The IRS says approximately 940,000 people in the U.S. have until May 17 to submit tax returns for unclaimed refunds for tax year 2020, which total more than $1 billion. The average median refund is $932 for 2020. Texas has the most residents – 93,400 – potentially eligible for these refunds, followed by California (88,200), Florida (53,200), and New York (51,400).

Is Texas next? Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill prohibiting children younger than 14 from joining social media in the state. Those who are 14 or 15 will need a parent’s consent before they join a platform. The bill directs social media companies to delete the existing accounts of those under 14. Companies that fail to do so could be sued on behalf of the child for up to $10,000 in damages. Companies found to be in violation would also be liable for up to $50,000 per violation.

Federal housing officials have accused the Grapevine Housing Authority and two top officials of violating fair housing law by discriminating against a tenant for issues stemming from his diabetes.

The Texas Women’s Open, a golf tournament organized by the Northern Texas Section of the Professional Golfers Association of America, has a new name this year after a multi-year title sponsor deal was announced with the Grapevine Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Below is a sampling of topics from this week’s Motley Fool feature that appears today because there will not be a newsletter Friday (Good Friday). To read Fool, click here.

• Different assets get different tax treatments in various accounts, so be mindful of what you park where.

• The Fool answers a reader’s question about “current” and “quick" ratios and what they may tell you about a company.

• This week’s stock pick is Starbucks, the largest coffee chain in the world. The Fool explains why profits are brewing.

Snippets:

• An emergency hearing to stop lower penalties for credit card late fees is being held in a Fort Worth courtroom. 

• Two airlines still fumble when handling your baggage, although most of the industry is improving. American Airlines has ranked last every year this decade but improved in 2023. (WSJ gift article)

• Massive investments haven’t paid off for American carmakers, who are losing $6,000 on every $50,000 EV they sell in the U.S., according to a new report.

Announcements:

• Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth: Announces retirement of Director Marla Price, who has been with the museum for more than 30 years.

• Texas & Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association: Elects Carl Ray Polk Jr. President.

• The Beck Group: Adds John Beck as Director of Business Strategy.

• American Advertising Federation: Presents Silver Medal Award to Ken Schaefer, owner and president of Schaefer Advertising Co.

• Francis Colonial Mortgage: Adds Etienne Hamilton as loan originator.

• Excel 1031 Exchange: Adds attorney Greg Lehrmann.

Last poll results: In your opinion, federal income tax rates for individuals for 2023 are: About right (22%), Too high (44%), Too low (11%), It depends (22%).

🧺🧺🧺Reminder: 817 Biz will be off this Friday (Good Friday).