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Mintz Group is struggling to secure the release of five local employees detained in China, said people familiar with the matter, eight months after a raid on the US due diligence firm’s Beijing office alarmed foreign investors in the country.

In the first confirmation of the Mintz employees’ plight since their disappearance during the March raid, people familiar with the matter said they were being held by the Beijing public security bureau, which was investigating them for potential criminal wrongdoing related to their work.

One person close to the company said Mintz was increasing contacts with Chinese and US officials, hoping a recent thaw in diplomatic relations might also help its cause.

The raid on Mintz was the highest profile of moves by Chinese authorities this year on consultancies that also included US group Bain and expert network CapVision and which were carried out at a time when Beijing’s ties with Washington were plumbing decade lows.

Last week, China’s President Xi Jinping met his US counterpart Joe Biden in San Francisco in an attempt to reset bilateral relations, after which China’s leader received a standing ovation at a dinner with US chief executives.

While Xi said at the San Francisco dinner that he might send some pandas back to the US after recalling most of them following the tensions between the two countries, he offered few concrete measures for foreign businesses operating in the country.

Mintz has yet to pay a fine of about $1.5mn levied separately by the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Statistics in July, the people said, indicating that the group’s case remains stuck in a legal limbo despite the improvement in US-China ties.

The people familiar with the matter were unable to say why Mintz had not paid the fine, which the bureau’s website said could be paid with cash into its bank account.

The person close to Mintz said it understood the fine and the detentions were separate matters, but it was seeking to resolve both at the same time and would welcome a dialogue with the authorities.

The statistics bureau said in its decision that between March 2019 and July 2022, Mintz had conducted 37 investigations involving “foreign-related statistics inquiries” without obtaining legally required approval. It did not give further details.

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Lawyers for Mintz have been able to visit the company’s five Chinese employees, who are being held at a location near Beijing by the public security bureau, a branch of the government responsible for policing. It was not clear in what kind of facility they were being held.

The doors of the company’s office in central Beijing were locked with a chain after the raid in March and have since been plastered with landlord notices demanding payment of overdue rent and threatening eviction.

Suggesting no one has been to the office, a building management notice posted during the summer asks tenants to close windows because of seasonal high winds.

Asked about Mintz’s office, a representative of the landlord said the property was the subject of some “trouble”, and could not be let.

China’s foreign ministry referred the FT to the “relevant authority for comment”. The Beijing public security bureau did not accept a request for comment. The Beijing Municipal Bureau of Statistics did not respond to a request for comment.

Mintz declined to comment.

The post Mintz employees caught in China detention regardless of warming ties with US appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

Good morning. It’s Monday, Oct. 2. Here’s what you need to know to start your day.

• Palm trees don’t work in a warming world
• Newsom tapped Laphonza Butler for Feinstein’s Senate seat
• U2 met its match at the Las Vegas Sphere
• And here’s today’s e-newspaper

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Never send a palm to do a tree’s job

They’re an iconic part of life in Southern California, lining local streets, swaying high in the sky. But our beloved palms are all style, no substance.

In a hotter, wetter, more extreme world, here’s what you want from your urban forest, according to experts: a diverse mix of native trees that provide ample shade, pull carbon from the air, manage storm- or groundwater, and provide other natural benefits to boost street-level climate resiliency. Palms don’t check those boxes.

The towering plants are nearly all transplants, imported to the region in the 1800s and 1900s as living street decor. Most of the palms we pass by today don’t produce fruit. They also aren’t great at pulling carbon from the air. And they can be death traps for tree trimmers.

I’ll throw a bit more shade at palms — something they barely do. They are a bit like taking a chimney sweep for your sunny beach day instead of an umbrella.

Also, they’re not even trees! (Palms are genetically closer to grass.)

Yes, SoCal’s plethora of palms is a cultural fixture, with cameos in TV and films, on In-N-Out cups and on people’s skin. But the non-native non-trees could see their high profiles fade as cities reevaluate how best to improve shade canopies and mitigate the effects of climate change, Times reporter Dorany Pineda found.

Heat kills more people in the U.S. each year than flooding, hurricanes and tornadoes combined. And residents in lower-income, non-white communities disproportionately bear the brunt of extreme heat, due in part to a lack of tree shade in those neighborhoods.

Through that lens, palms are making less and less sense to plant or maintain. Some cities, including Beverly Hills and Long Beach, are contemplating pulling back on palms and removing those that don’t have historic or economic value.

“There are far, far too many palms,” arborist and Long Beach resident Ben Fisher told Dorany.

The most common palm dotting SoCal sidewalks is the Mexican fan palm, which can grow up to 100 feet tall. That’s one factor in their dominance: they grow tall but not wide, so they’re easy to plant close together and no other trees can get between them and the sun.

But palms could see their high profiles fade over time as California cities reevaluate how best to improve shade canopies and boost street-level climate resiliency.

“Experts said that adapting to climate change will require cities to preserve trees when possible, plant a diversity of trees and opt for large ones when it’s appropriate, and rethink how they fit into urban plans,” Dorany wrote.

You can read her full reporting on rethinking palms here.

Today’s top stories

(Susan Walsh / Associated Press)

Newsom tapped Laphonza Butler for Feinstein’s Senate seat

Congress avoided a shutdown. What comes next?

Remembrances for Dianne Feinstein continue to pour in

Immigration

• Razor wire and soldiers fail to deter migrants: Some 93,000 migrants traveling in families were taken into custody in August — the most ever recorded in a month.
• L.A. received its 20th bus of migrants courtesy of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott. This one carried 16 children among its passengers.

It’s time for October baseball

More big stories

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Today’s great reads

(Jim Cooke / Los Angeles Times; photos via Getty Images)

They trusted the Beverly Hills watch dealer. Then their luxury timepieces vanished. The collapse of the Timepiece Gentleman is a cautionary tale full of contradictions. A gaudy lifestyle that belied growing money problems. A fall that unfolded in front of millions but received little media attention. An alleged culprit who bounces between apologies and denials.

Other great reads

How can we make this newsletter more useful? Send comments to essentialcalifornia@latimes.com.

For your downtime

(Kevin Mazur / Getty Images for Live Nation)

Going out

Staying in

And finally … a great photo

Show us your favorite place in California! Send us photos you have taken of spots in California that are special — natural or human-made — and tell us why they’re important to you.

(Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)

Today’s great photo is from L.A. Times photographer Allen J. Schaben. A mule deer grazes on a hill overlooking Avalon Harbor in August 2020. Officials have proposed a bold idea: Hunt the invasive deer via helicopter.

Have a great day, from the Essential California team

Ryan Fonseca, reporter
Karim Doumar, head of newsletters

Check our top stories, topics and the latest articles on latimes.com.

The post Why palm timber make much less sense in a warming world appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

This is an archived article and the information in the article may be out of date. Please look at the timestamp on the history to see when it was last updated.

OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) – If you struggle with no electricity, city guides say you have one more day to drive to a thermal center.

Oklahoma City and the American Red Cross of Central and Southwest Oklahoma are opening a warmth center for those in need at the Cox Convention Center.

The center is open until 6 p.m. on Friday, October 30th.

Officials emphasize that this is not an overnight option and will close after Friday evening.

In addition to warmth, the warmth center offers snacks, water, and electrical outlets.

EMBARK offers a free bus and tram service to and from the heating station.

Free parking spaces are available in the parking garage of the Cox Center directly below the Cox Convention Center.

Visitors must wear face covering when they come to the warming station and keep a distance of at least two meters between you and anyone outside your household.

Be sure to use alternative heating sources

Home fires are common in winter because dangerous heating sources are not used properly. Here are some tips from the fire brigade:

• Make sure that working smoke and carbon monoxide alarms are properly installed in your home. Alarms should be installed in each sleeping area, outside of each separate sleeping area, and on every level of the house. Test your smoke alarms monthly and put in new batteries twice a year when the time changes.
• Space heaters need space. Keep space heaters at least three feet away from flammable objects (furniture, bedding, curtains, etc.). Turn off space heaters when you leave the room or go to bed.
• Keep all combustible materials away from floor stoves.
• Remove all combustibles from the central heating cabinets.
• Use a metal grille to hold logs in fireplaces. Use an approved metal or glass screen in front of fireplaces to prevent embers from flying into the house from the fire box.
• Make sure the fire in the fireplace is completely extinguished before you go to bed.
• Have chimneys checked and / or cleaned annually by a qualified chimney sweep specialist.
• Do not put hot fireplace ash in dumpsters. Place the ashes in a sealed metal container and store them outside the home for a few days before disposing of them for good.
• Remember to open the hatch before lighting the fireplace.
• Never use your stove to heat your home.
• Use portable generators outside and far from home. Position the device so that fumes and deadly carbon monoxide cannot enter the house through doors, windows, or air vents.

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The post Warming middle to shut after Friday night appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

This is an archived article and the information in the article may be out of date. Please look at the timestamp on the history to see when it was last updated.

OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) – If you have trouble staying warm these days, city guides want you to know you can go somewhere.

Oklahoma City and the American Red Cross of Central and Southwest Oklahoma are opening a warmth center for those in need at the Cox Convention Center.

The center is open until 6 p.m. on Thursday, October 29th.

Officials emphasize that this is not an overnight option and they will continue to consider the need for a warming center after Thursday if necessary.

In addition to warmth, the warmth center offers snacks, water, and electrical outlets.

EMBARK offers a free bus and tram service to and from the heating station.

Free parking spaces are available in the parking garage of the Cox Center directly below the Cox Convention Center.

Visitors must wear face covering when they come to the warming station and keep a distance of at least two meters between you and anyone outside your home.

Be sure to use alternative heating sources