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Combined Authority aims to tackle shortages of lab space and Grade A offices

Liverpool City Region Combined Authority has announced new funding for property developments to help meet demand for lab space and to tackle the shortage in Grade A office supply. Authority bosses say the funding is designed to “help address key market failures” analysed in the city region’s growth plan for 2025-2035.

Studies show the city region has a “significant demand” for laboratory space, a shortage of Grade A office supply, and a need for more “high-quality industrial accommodation”. The funding launched today has been designed to unlock inward investment and to encourage developers to provide that space.

This round will focus on backing “capital land and property projects that support sector-led clusters”, and on backing schemes where there are “demonstrative viability gaps”. The authority plans to launch more such funding calls in the months and years ahead.

The funding call runs from today until midday on April 1 and focuses on three priority areas.

Grade A Office Space: The CA is “seeking to invest in projects which deliver a minimum 60,000 sq. ft of new or refurbished commercial floorspace which can meet the needs of existing occupiers and support business growth in the Central Business District”.

Specialist Laboratory Space: The authority is looking to invest in schemes “which deliver new or refurbished Category 1 or 2 laboratory space, clean room space and ‘write up’ facilities which can support the growth of high potential start-ups in the Liverpool City Region. This will require delivery of at least 40% of overall floor space for laboratory or clean room uses, which contributes to the Health & Life Sciences sector”.

Premium Industrial Units: The CA is looking to invest in new or refurbished units “to support the growth of the region’s advanced manufacturing sector”.

Cllr Mike Wharton, Liverpool City Region’s cabinet member for business, investment and trade, said: “Unlocking high quality land and property is fundamental to the future of the Liverpool City Region. These new funding calls will accelerate the development of the modern offices, laboratories and industrial space our growing sectors need.

“This is about creating the right conditions for businesses to innovate, invest and expand, so that our communities continue to benefit from more jobs, more opportunities and a stronger, more resilient economy.”

To find all the planning applications, traffic diversions, road layout changes, alcohol licence applications and more in your community, visit the Public Notices Portal.

Chevron is sounding a dire alarm, warning California Gov. Gavin Newsom and state regulators that newly proposed “cap-and-invest” amendments are a death knell for California’s remaining refineries.

The energy giant warns the move will kill more than half a million jobs, threaten national security and spike gas prices by more than a dollar per gallon — all to fuel a state-run “shakedown” of the energy sector — in a letter addressed to Newsom and obtained by The California Globe.

“The proposed regulation will cripple the survivability of the state’s remaining refineries, which will result in California losing the entire industry to this misguided program,” Chevron President Andy Walz wrote.

“This regulation will increase transportation and aviation fuel prices for consumers. It will risk significant job losses, including many high-paying union jobs, while reducing funding for essential public services,” he continued. “It will upend California’s fuels market and threaten critical energy and national security assets.”

U.S. ‘SITTING ON SIGNIFICANT PROVEN RESERVES’: ANALYST SAYS AMERICA CAN WITHSTAND IRAN ENERGY SHOCK

The California Air Resources Board (CARB) is aiming to make companies cleaner by aggressively lowering the cap on how much total pollution is allowed in the state. Specifically, the board is proposing to pull 118.3 million allowances out of the state’s market between 2027 and 2030 and has more recently increased its carbon reduction target to 90% by 2045.

Chevron’s president wrote a strongly worded letter addressed to California Gov. Gavin Newsom over proposed energy regulations. (Getty Images)

Walz warns that the green energy agenda comes with a price tag for working families, writing that Chevron projections show a $1 increase per gallon of gas by 2030 and an estimated 536,770 industry jobs at risk.

California already has the highest gas prices in the nation, with the current state average listed at $4.81 per gallon, according to AAA. The national average, by comparison, is $3.25 as of March 4.

In some California counties, gas costs as much as $5.74 per gallon.

“These impacts will fall most heavily on lower-income households that spend a disproportionate share of income on transportation fuels, increasing costs without addressing the underlying driver of California’s gasoline prices,” Walz said. “Affordability is a top concern for California’s residents and Chevron, and these proposed amendments would only exacerbate the high cost of living in the state.”

Walz frames this not only as a local issue but as a threat to the energy stability of the entire United States.

“Refinery closures in California reduce fuel supply resilience on the West Coast, increasing risks to military readiness and national security,” Walz cautioned. “Maintaining a stable policy framework that supports continued operation of California refineries is therefore not only an economic and consumer affordability issue, but also a matter of broader energy security and national defense.”

CARB is also reportedly exempt from standard open-meeting rules, allowing it to manage billions of dollars in carbon auctions behind closed doors.

“The California energy industry’s economic, industrial, environmental and national security benefits have been the foundation of a healthy, prosperous state and nation. Adversarial policies at local, regional and state levels have eroded that foundation,” Walz said.

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“These proposed regulatory changes threaten to destroy it. Chevron urges policymakers and regulators to reconsider and revise the proposed regulation before it causes lasting and irreversible harm to California’s economy and energy security and broader vital American interests,” he concluded.

Newsom’s office did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

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Operator

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Ferrellgas Partners, L.P. Q2 2026 Earnings Conference Call.

[Operator Instructions]

I would now like to turn the call over to Michelle Maggi, Vice President, Corporate Affairs. Please go ahead, Michelle.

Michelle Maggi
Vice President of Corporate Affairs

Thank you, Jonathan. Good day, everyone. Thank you for joining us today for our second quarter 2026 earnings conference call. We released this morning pre-market our earnings. If you haven’t seen it yet, you can find it on our website under the Investor Relations tab at ferrellgas.com.

With me today is Tamria Zertuche, our President and Chief Executive Officer, and Nick Heimer, Ferrellgas’ Vice President and Corporate Controller. Today’s call includes prepared remarks where Tamria and Nick will go over our second quarter results for fiscal 2026, concluding with responses to previously submitted questions.

Please note that this call may contain forward-looking statements as determined by federal securities laws. For this purpose, any statements made during this call that are not statements of historical facts may be deemed forward-looking statements. These statements may be affected by important factors set forth in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission and in our latest earnings release. As a result, actual operations or results may differ materially from the results discussed in any forward-looking statements. We undertake no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statements except to the extent required by law.

In addition, please refer to the Form 8-K earnings release to find disclosures and reconciliations of non-GAAP financial measures that may be referenced

President Donald Trump and the Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE) efforts to reduce the federal government’s workforce were seemingly reflected in recently released data from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM).

The OPM’s data shows that the government’s civilian workforce shrank by 12% between September 2024 and January 2026, going from a headcount of 2,313,216 to 2,035,344.

Separate data, also released by the OPM, shows that the majority of employees who left during that time did so voluntarily rather than being forced out, Reuters reported. The outlet also noted that administrative staff, customer service representatives and IT managers were at the top of the list of positions that left once Trump returned to office.

DOGE DEVELOPS INNOVATIVE AI TOOL TO ELIMINATE UNNECESSARY FEDERAL REGULATIONS

President Donald Trump smiles during a roundtable on the Ratepayer Protection Pledge in the Indian Treaty Room at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House campus on March 4, 2026. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images)

“Reshaping the federal workforce is essential to building a government that works for the American people, not the bureaucracy. By realigning roles, streamlining operations, and modernizing how agencies manage talent, we are strengthening performance and accountability across government. This effort ensures taxpayer dollars support a workforce that delivers efficient, responsive, and high-quality services,” OPM Director Scott Kupor told Fox Business.

During his 2024 campaign, Trump spoke about his desire to slash the government workforce through the creation of a new department, which would later be known as DOGE. The main backer of the idea, and the person who led the team until leaving the administration in May 2025, was billionaire Tesla CEO Elon Musk.

Elon Musk during a news conference with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House on May 30, 2025. (Francis Chung/Politico/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

TREASURY AND GSA LAUNCH SAVE PROGRAM TO REWARD EMPLOYEES UP TO $10K FOR SAVING TAXPAYER DOLLARS

Musk championed the idea during his appearance at a Trump rally in Madison Square Garden in late October, just days before the 2024 election.

“Your money is being wasted, and the Department of Government Efficiency is going to fix that. We’re going to get the government off your back and out of your pocketbook,” he told the crowd.

On his first day in office, Trump signed an executive order establishing DOGE as a temporary organization, giving it an expiration date of July 4, 2026. The order kicked off a temporary hiring freeze and the implementation of a hiring plan that restricted agencies to hiring one new employee for every four that departed.

An aerial view of the U.S. Capitol on Oct. 26, 2025, in Washington, D.C. (Al Drago/Getty Images)

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Fox News Digital reached out to OPM and the White House for comment.

Gordon Chang urged the United States to treat China as an “enemy combatant” Thursday, warning that Chinese submarines are operating “very close” to the U.S. homeland as Beijing reportedly expands its undersea footprint.

“Obviously, they do want subs to be able to get closer to the U.S.,” the Gatestone Institute senior fellow told “Mornings with Maria.”

“And, by the way, we have Chinese submarines in the Arctic, which would be very, very close to Alaska and the homeland, so this is really an important development, and we have got to make sure that we have the attack subs that can take out those ballistic missile submarines of the Chinese.”

IRAN STRIKES COULD SIGNAL LIMITS OF BEIJING, MOSCOW’S POWER AS US FLEXES STRENGTH

A man looks at a submarine during a media tour by the PLA Naval Museum in Qingdao, in eastern China’s Shandong province, on June 25, 2025. (Pedro Pardo/AFP via Getty Images / Getty Images)

Chang’s warning comes after a Wall Street Journal report that the U.S. adversary is “developing new submarine technology and a bigger, better fleet that is gaining on the United States and its allies.”

His warning also comes as China plans to send a special envoy to the Middle East for what Beijing describes as mediation efforts, as joint U.S.-Israeli strikes continue targeting Iranian regime sites.

FBI RAISES COUNTERTERROR TEAMS TO HIGH ALERT AMID IRAN TENSIONS

Smoke rises over Tehran after the Israeli army launches a second wave of airstrikes on Iran on Feb. 28, 2026. (Fatemeh Bahrami/Anadolu via Getty Images / Getty Images)

“That envoy is going to try to stop the United States from attacking Iran,” Chang warned.

“Clearly, what we should be doing is ignoring this guy. The Chinese are an enemy combatant. That’s the way we should treat them.”

Chang argued that Beijing is not acting as a neutral broker, but as a key backer of Tehran, allegedly supplying weapon components while increasing commodity purchases and offering diplomatic and propaganda support.

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“Last year, 87.2% of Iran’s exports accrued went to China. It’s across-the-board support,” he said.

“So the United States just needs to say, ‘Look, we want to stop this.’ We have to also impose costs on China.”