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☆ Penguin Random House and Florida parents sue school district over book bans
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-17 | by ( Jo Yurcaba | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

A selection of books including "The Bluest Eye," by Toni Morrison, that have been the subject of complaints from parentsPenguin Random House, authors, parents and an advocacy group filed a lawsuit Wednesday against a Florida school district for removing 10 books related to race and the LGBTQ community after a high school teacher complained. In addition to the publishing house, PEN America, a nonprofit group that advocates for free expression in literature, five authors whose books have been removed from the district, and two parents whose children go to school in the district filed the suit against the Escambia County School District and the Escambia County School Board in Pensacola, Florida. "The clear agenda behind the campaign to remove the books is to categorically remove all discussion of racial discrimination or LGBTQ issues from public school libraries. Neither the district nor the school board immediately returned requests for comment. More than 100 other titles are restricted and require parental approval for access.

☆ Taco Bell is fighting to cancel the ‘Taco Tuesday’ trademark
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-16 | by ( Jordan Valinsky | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

New York CNN —Taco Bell wants to liberate the “Taco Tuesday” trademark from a smaller, rival chain. The taco chain filed a petition Tuesday (naturally) with the US Patent and Trademark office to cancel the trademark, owned by rival Taco John’s for 34 years, because Taco Bell claims the commonly used phrase “should be freely available to all who make, sell, eat and celebrate tacos.”Since Taco John’s owns the trademark, other restaurants and companies must seek permission to use “Taco Tuesday” in branding and advertising. Taco Bell added that “nobody should have exclusive rights in a common phrase.”Maggie Mettler, director of legal for Taco Bell’s parent company, Yum! And it may have a strong case, because “Taco Tuesday” has become a commonly used phrase, according to trademark attorney Josh Gerben. “Taco John’s would like to thank our worthy competitors at Taco Bell for reminding everyone that ‘Taco Tuesday’ is best celebrated at Taco John’s – the trademark owner of Taco Tuesday.”In response, Taco John’s is selling a “Taco Tuesday” deal of 2 tacos for $2 everyday until May 31.

Kevin Lambert grew up in North Carolina in the 1980s, and first visited his mother's native South Korea in 2000. Courtesy Kevin LambertIt might seem an odd desire given many have never set foot in South Korea. But life in South Korea brings its own challenges – and many eventually return to the US. For Kim, it’s a relief to be back in South Korea, where the safety is “100% better.”“I plan to live (in South Korea) until I die,” he said. “If South Korea today was as impoverished as it was when I left, why would I return?” he said.

Some Chinatown residents benefited from the development boom, selling properties to developers or drawing more customers from increased foot traffic. Some residents have shown tentative support for the luxury buildings, saying they might make the neighborhood safer or bring in wealthier Asian residents who could boost Chinatown's economy. Manhattan Chinatown's housing stock is "really aged," which has led to costly fires, according to Thomas Yu, executive director of Asian Americans for Equality. Chinatowns and the pandemicMany debates surrounding luxury development and affordable housing were accelerated by the pandemic, which shuttered hundreds of businesses across Chinatowns. However, business owners who spoke with CNBC said Chinatown's businesses, though still recovering, are keeping the city's culture alive.

☆ Opinion | Dooce and Other ‘Mommy Blogs’ Deserve Credit for Shaping the Internet
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-13 | by ( Jessica Grose | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

In the past few months, several internet giants have fallen. BuzzFeed News folded. Vice is headed for bankruptcy. And with the recent publication of Ben Smith’s “Traffic: Genius, Rivalry, and Delusion in the Billion-Dollar Race to Go Viral,” there’s been a resurgence of chatter about Gawker Media, which went kaput in 2016. (I worked at Jezebel, which was under the Gawker Media umbrella, from 2007 to 2008.)

"Our commitment to Juventus is unchanged and no meetings have taken place," a spokesperson for Exor said when asked to comment by Reuters on Friday. Juventus also faces potential new penalties, including further points deductions, in a separate case over alleged irregularities in payments to players. The Agnelli family has owned the club, which it listed in 2001, almost uninterrupted since 1923. New potential co-investors could include Middle Eastern or Asian sovereign wealth funds, or U.S. funds or family offices, two sources said. Juventus ranked 11th in Deloitte's European Money League published in January, based on its annual revenue of 400 million euros in 2021/22.

☆ Fact Check-Underwater photograph of plane shows a diving site, not MH370 wreckage
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-08 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

A photograph of an aircraft sunk in the Red Sea, off the coast of Jordan, to create an artificial diving site has been mislabeled by users as showing the submerged remains of Malaysian Airlines flight MH370, which mysteriously disappeared in 2014. However, the photo is a screenshot from a video posted by scuba diving company Deep Blue Dive Center in Aqaba, Jordan (here) showing a Lockheed L-1011 TriStar aircraft with the caption: "Tristar Airplane Wreck Red Sea, Aqaba JO”. The Aqaba Special Economic Zone Authority (ASEZA), which owns the aircraft, did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. The Malaysian Airlines flight en route to Beijing went missing over the Indian Ocean after taking off from Kuala Lumpur on March 8, 2014. The photograph shows an airplane hull in the Red Sea used as a diving spot, not the wreckage of the lost flight MH370 aircraft.

☆ Jo Muse, Advertising ‘Provocateur’ and Pioneer, Dies at 72
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-07 | by ( James R. Hagerty | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Jo Muse co-founded a multicultural ad agency that served clients including Honda and Nike. Photo: Muse FamilyAs an advertising major at Michigan State University, Jo Muse was assigned to create an ad for a fictitious water-purification firm. Mr. Muse’s ad showed him urinating into a lake. Though the professor was unimpressed, classmates cheered. “It was clear to me then that being provocative sells,” Mr. Muse wrote in an unfinished memoir.

LONDON, May 4 (Reuters) - Blackstone (BX.N) is weighing options for Spanish gambling company Cirsa, including an initial public offering (IPO), people familiar with the matter told Reuters. The U.S. buyout group recently invited proposals from investment banks to manage a possible share sale and refinancing of Cirsa's debt, said the people, speaking on condition of anonymity. An IPO would follow a public share sale by Italian peer Lottomatica (LTMC.MI), backed by Apollo Global Management (APO.N), whose shares began trading in Milan on Wednesday. Cirsa, a casino operator, posted 552.5 million euros ($609.24 million) in earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) for 2022. Based on Lottomatica's valuation, Cirsa could be worth several billions of euros, including debt.

LONDON, May 4 (Reuters) - U.S. buyout house Blackstone (BX.N) is weighing options for Dutch merchant bank NIBC, including a possible sale, people familiar with the matter told Reuters. Blackstone has also been considering potential acquisitions in the absence of a sale, one person added. The Hague-based NIBC offers financing for industries such as automotive, commercial real estate, infrastructure and shipping, as well as retail mortgages. It has been exiting non-core businesses, including deal advisory and leveraged finance, in a bid to streamline its operations. The group had 22.8 billion euros of assets on its balance sheet at the end of last year and an equity value of around 2 billion euros ($2.21 billion), according to its 2022 annual accounts, which showed a profit of 179 million euros excluding non-recurring expenses.

☆ Woman arrested after reportedly throwing drink at Matt Gaetz, with the Florida congressman insisting on pressing charges
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-03 | by ( Joshua Zitser | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

A woman intentionally threw a drink at Rep. Matt Gaetz during an event on Saturday, police said. Gaetz decided to press ahead with criminal charges against the woman. A previous case of a drink being thrown at Gaetz resulted in a woman serving 15 days in prison. A woman with Chambers told police that she was actually the one who cursed at Gaetz as they walked past, according to the Pensacola News Journal. This is the second time Gaetz has had a drink thrown at him resulting in criminal charges, with the first incident leading to a prison sentence.

☆ How Scalia Law School Became a Key Friend of the Court
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-30 | by ( Steve Eder | Jo Becker | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

In the fall of 2017, an administrator at George Mason University’s law school circulated a confidential memo about a prospective hire. Just months earlier, Neil M. Gorsuch, a federal appeals court judge from Colorado, had won confirmation to the Supreme Court seat left vacant by the death of Antonin Scalia, the conservative icon for whom the school was named. For President Donald J. Trump, bringing Judge Gorsuch to Washington was the first step toward fulfilling a campaign promise to cement the high court unassailably on the right. For the leaders of the law school, bringing the new justice to teach at Scalia Law was a way to advance their own parallel ambition. By the winter of 2019, the law school faculty would include not just Justice Gorsuch but also two other members of the court, Justices Clarence Thomas and Brett M. Kavanaugh — all deployed as strategic assets in a campaign to make Scalia Law, a public school in the Virginia suburbs of Washington, a Yale or Harvard of conservative legal scholarship and influence.

☆ How to raise kids to have a ‘secure’ attachment style: 'It's not about being a perfect parent,' says BetterHelp therapist
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-29 | by ( Aditi Shrikant | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

It's rare to have a conversation about dating lately without someone mentioning attachment theory. Attachment theory defines four different attachment styles which offer insight into how and why we form bonds. And while no attachment style is better than another — "I don't think people with an insecure attachment style should get a bad rep," Amir Levine, the co-author of "Attached" told CNBC Make It last year — it would be reasonable to want your children to lean toward a secure attachment style. "Adults who have secure attachment styles generally can depend on their parents," Jo says. Here's how to raise a child with a secure attachment style.

MILAN, April 26 (Reuters) - Italian unlisted cooperative banking group ICCREA is awaiting by the end of May offers for its insurance business which it values at up to 950 million euros ($1.05 billion) in total, sources with knowledge of the matter said on Wednesday. ICCREA bought out its partner Cattolica, an Italian insurer now owned by bigger peer Generali (GASI.MI), after their accord expired at the end of last year and was not renewed, the three sources said. Cattolica and ICCREA had agreed in 2019 to extend until the end of 2022 their partnership under a deal that saw Cattolica raise to 70% its ownership of their insurance joint-ventures BCC Vita and BCC Assicurazioni. Now in possession of 100% of its insurance business, ICCREA is working with adviser KPMG to select new partners for both its life- and non-life divisions, the sources said. ICCREA Director General Mauro Pastore said in February the bank expected to select one or more partners for its insurance business by the end of the year.

☆ The Janes 1960s underground abortion network
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-23 | by ( Sandee Lamotte | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +28 min

The group was officially created in 1969 as the “Abortion Counseling Service of Women’s Liberation.”But after running ads in an underground newspaper: “Pregnant? “It wasn’t just abortion,” Barron explained. “Vacuum aspiration was much easier to do, and I think it’s less difficult for the woman,” Scott said. We had to keep the service running.”Laura Kaplan volunteered for the Janes, later immortalizing the group in her book, "The Story of Jane: The Legendary Underground Feminist Abortion Service." Each Jane was charged with 11 counts of abortion and conspiracy to commit abortion, with a possible sentence of up to 110 years in prison.

☆ First metro train travels under Sydney Harbour
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-21 | by ( Tamara Hardingham-Gill | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

CNN —A metro train has traveled under Sydney Harbour for the first time ever in what’s being described as “a historic first step” for the Australian city. It came over 91 years after the first steam train crossed over the Sydney Harbour Bridge back in January 1932. Courtesy NSW GovernmentThe $20.5 billion AUD (around $13.7 billion) Metro City and Southwest Line, an extension of Sydney’s Metro Northwest line, will eventually extend all the way to the suburb of Sydenham in the inner west of the city. Meanwhile, plans are also in place for a $27 billion AUD (around $18 billion) Metro West line underneath Hunter Street in the Sydney central business district. The city will have a network of four lines, 46 stations and 113 kilometers of new metro rail by 2030.

LONDON, April 20 (Reuters) - British transport company FirstGroup (FGP.L) and infrastructure fund I Squared are weighing competing bids for parts of Deutsche Bahn's international transport business Arriva, according to a number of people familiar with the matter. The British transport company may also consider partnering with another bidder for the UK operations, the two added. Arriva, Deutsche Bahn, FirstGroup and I Squared declined to comment. A Bloomberg report in January suggested Arriva may now fetch as much as 2 billion euros. Binding offers for Arriva are expected in the next couple of months, two of the sources said.

[1/2] A view shows the logo of Credit Suisse on a building near the Hallenstadion where Credit Suisse Annual General Meeting took place, two weeks after being bought by rival UBS in a government-brokered rescue, in Zurich, Switzerland, April 4, 2023. UBS and Credit Suisse declined to comment. What's more, UBS doesn't tend to lend to potential clients as Credit Suisse has often done, a move that can persuade some customers. "There are clearly parts of Credit Suisse that have had a bad culture," UBS Chairman Colm Kelleher told reporters on March 29. UBS ranked 14th advising on mergers globally last year, behind 11th placed Credit Suisse, according to data compiled by Dealogic.

☆ Beyond Kyoto: Japan recommends 11 lesser-known spots to visit
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-19 | by ( Rob Goss | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +8 min

Japan wants travelers to go beyond the country's iconic tourist sites — and consider spending their yen in lesser-known locations. CNBC Travel takes a look at what each of the 11 spots has to offer travelers — whether or not they're wealthy. Koichi Kamoshida | Getty Images News | Getty ImagesIse-shima is arguably the "model destination" most ready to welcome the JTA's wealthy targets. Kagoshima, Aso and UnzenThe island of Kyushu in western Japan feature everything from active volcanoes to glimpses of samurai culture. Okinawa and AmamiIn 2021, Amami-Oshima Island, Tokunoshima Island, the northern part of Okinawa's main island, and Iriomote Island were given joint UNESCO Natural World Heritage status for their biodiversity and endemic wildlife.

☆ Why MLM Sales 'Huns' Get so Much Hate on Reddit, TikTok
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-18 | by ( Aimee Pearcy | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +15 min

Over the past few years, MLM companies have been under increased scrutiny. MLM companies largely appeal to those who are disconnected and looking for a way to get on solid financial footingAt first, Stimson felt optimistic. And a 2018 AARP survey found that just 25% of MLM participants made a profit. US direct-sales companies, which include MLM companies, earned $42.7 billion in retail sales in 2021, according to the Direct Selling Association — a 21% increase from 2019. And two-thirds of MLM participants said that "knowing what they know now, they would not join the same MLM company again."

☆ 'Cash stuffing' is set to earn this 31-year-old TikToker $1 million this year — how it can help you get out of debt
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-16 | by ( Ryan Ermey | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

If you've heard of "cash stuffing," there's a good chance it's because of Jasmine Taylor. In the first year of cash stuffing, she paid down $23,000 in student loans and wiped out $9,000 worth of medical and credit card debt. How cash stuffing can change your mindset around moneyThe cash stuffing method isn't new. When she and her husband tried cash budgeting for a year, "we couldn't believe how much we did not spend. How to budget with cash stuffing

In addition to mergers and acquisitions, the options include a sale of the bank and an initial public offering (IPO), the people said. Officials for Co-op Bank, Aldermore, OneSavings Bank, Paragon and Shawbrook declined to comment. Co-op Bank had an equity value of close to 1.3 billion pounds ($1.61 billion) as of the end of December, based on its latest annual accounts. It had more than 28 billion pounds of assets on its balance sheet and reported a profit before tax of 132.6 million pounds for 2022. Later that year, Co-op Bank made an offer for domestic rival TSB Group, which was rejected by Spanish parent Banco Sabadell (SABE.MC).

Media coverage of BDO's warning on March 1 prompted immediate questions from financial regulators, a March 6 letter to Reuters from Revolut shows. The letter did not address the banking licence application nor its status. "I would be astonished if the regulators go ahead with the banking licence," he added. Revolut applied for a banking licence about two years ago. With a banking licence, Revolut would become a more established player in the U.K. banking market and be able to draw more customers.

☆ Ascential's consumer data unit draws interest from Apax, BC Partners - sources
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-05 | by ( Amy-Jo Crowley | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Private equity firms including Providence Equity and Carlyle are also evaluating an offer for WGSN, two of the people said. Apax, Ascential, BC Partners, Carlyle, JPMorgan and Providence declined to comment. BC Partners has experience in owning information assets including the financial media and data firm Acuris, which it sold to Irish software firm ION Investment Group in 2019. Ascential generated 121.1 million pounds in adjusted EBITDA last year, up 36% from a year earlier. Revenue rose to 524.4 million pounds from 349.3 million pounds.

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