Freight trains may soon travel more easily between Canada, the US, and Mexico after Canadian Pacific Railway finalized a deal to buy Kansas City Southern, positioning itself to become the first rail network connecting the three countries. (Quartz)

There’s no doubt that the tumultuous events of the past 18 months led to the massive disruption of many key supply chains. Although industries experienced supply chain fragility before the Covid-19 pandemic, the current scale and diversity of impact are unprecedented, with shortages in critical medical equipment, consumer electronics, cars and even lumber. (Forbes)

Successful efforts to rein in Big Tech could boost efforts around the country to develop local tech clusters. That’s because the concentration of the largest technology companies in a small number of regions — especially Silicon Valley — has created an economic vortex that tech startups from other regions are often pulled into. (WRAL TechWire)

At BFI4 outside Seattle, the retailer uses algorithms and robots to ship more than a million packages a day—vastly changing the jobs of humans in the process. (Bloomberg)

Counties range in size from thousands of residents to millions, with varied levels of responsibility and efficiency. Some advocate shrinking the number of them, but that raises questions both practical and sentimental. (Governing)

During the Covid-19 pandemic, concrete fell victim to the same phenomena impacting other essential materials and goods: snarled supply chains and labor shortages. (CNBC)

Industry leaders cite data-sharing, smart technology investments, and industrywide ecosystems as keys to smart manufacturing. (Deloitte Insights)

Corporate capital expenditure will jump globally by 13% this year, according to S&P Global Ratings, with growth in all regions and broad sectors. (Business Standard News)

Successful efforts to rein in Big Tech could boost efforts around the country to develop local tech clusters. That’s because the concentration of the largest technology companies in a small number of regions — especially Silicon Valley — has created an economic vortex that tech startups from other regions are often pulled into. (WRAL TechWire)

Redwood Materials, led by J.B. Straubel, is planning a massive new factory to move $25 billion of the battery supply chain from Asia to the U.S. (Bloomberg)

It once symbolized an urban way of working, and the city’s resilience. In the pandemic’s second year, the future of the world’s most famous skyscraper is in doubt. (The New York Times)

Manhattan deal is priciest sale of a U.S. office building since pandemic began. (WSJ)

The current hyper-active industrial marketplace has had a profound impact on timelines associated with the site selection process. Either a company has a speed-to-market concern, i.e., it needs to add capacity now. Or, it is being forced to move quickly to box out the competition, i.e., the best community and site options are getting spoken for. (Site Selection Group)

growing presence in the U.S. thanks to tax reform. The company’s success has been made possible in part by tax reform’s lower corporate tax rate and a foreign-derived intangible income (FDII) deduction, which encourages companies to develop and keep intellectual property in the U.S. by providing a lower tax rate for foreign sales based on U.S. IP. (NAM)