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☆ Gavin Newsom says he's taking a road trip through red states to fight the policies and 'anger machine' of DeSantis and other GOP governors
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-04 | by ( Kimberly Leonard | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

California Gov. Gavin Newsom is traveling to red states to tout the progressive agenda. Gavin Newsom of California already had a plan in the works to go on offense against Republican governors. California Gov. California Gov.

☆ Jury orders Tesla to pay more than $3 million to Black ex-worker who endured racist abuse
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-03 | by ( Lora Kolodny | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Diaz, a Black man, was hired as a contract worker at Tesla in 2015 through a staffing agency. Diaz and Tesla sought a retrial to decide damages after Judge William H. Orrick reduced the amount to $15 million. "No Black man in 2015 should ever be subjected," Alexander said, "to this plantation mentality workplace." The plaintiffs asked the jury to consider punitive damages around $150 million for Tesla, and to award Diaz $6.3 million in past non-economic damages, and $2 million in future non-economic damages. As CNBC has previously reported, where it is legal to do so, Tesla has compelled employees to agree to mandatory arbitration.

☆ These are the 10 top cities Americans are looking to move to, according to a report — and of them 5 are in Florida
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-30 | by ( Grace Dean | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Florida dominates the list of US cities that Americans want to relocate to, according to Redfin. Four other Florida cities, including Tampa and Orlando, made the top ten. Miami was the most popular destination for Americans looking at property listings in a different metro area to where they currently lived, the report said. Four other Florida cities – Tampa, Orlando, Cape Coral, and North Port-Sarasota – also made it to the top ten. The top ten destinations for Americans looking to relocate outside their metro area, according to Redfin, are:Miami, Florida Phoenix, Arizona Las Vegas, Nevada Sacramento, California Tampa, Florida Orlando, Florida Cape Coral, Florida, Dallas, Texas North Port-Sarasota, Florida Houston, TexasSome people, however, are bucking the trend by moving out of the Sunshine State.

☆ Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus Supplier Paid California Workers $1.58
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-23 | by ( Charles R. Davis | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

The Department of Labor randomly investigated 50 clothing companies in Southern California. It found that more than 80% were breaking one or more provisions of federal labor law. One garment maker was paying workers just $1.58 an hour. In what the department described as a "particularly egregious case," one garment manufacturer — making clothes for brands including Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus, Stitch Fix, and Von Maur, per investigators — was found to be paying some workers an hourly rate of just $1.58. It shows, she argued, "that strong federal action is needed to change the abusive pay rates in the American garment manufacturing industry."

Companies Qualcomm Inc FollowMarch 21 (Reuters) - A federal judge has ruled that shareholders suing chip maker Qualcomm Inc (QCOM.O) for allegedly hiding anticompetitive sales and licensing practices may bring their claims as a class action. U.S. District Judge Jinsook Ohta on Monday rejected Qualcomm's argument that the sales practices were already publicly known. The class covers investors who bought Qualcomm common stock between Feb. 1, 2012 and Jan. 20, 2017 and incurred losses. Qualcomm paid the Korea Fair Trade Commission 1.03 trillion won ($912.34 million) in 2017 for what the regulator called unfair business practices in licensing and chip sales. The case is Shah v. Qualcomm Incorporated et al., U.S. District Court, Southern District of California, No.

☆ California, Northeast menaced by late-season winter storms
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-13 | by ( Brendan O'Brien | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/2] A general view shows flooded streets in Pajaro, California, U.S., March 12, 2023, in this screengrab obtained from a social media video. On the West Coast, the storm targeted areas of northern and Central California already saturated from the unusual bout of bad weather. It promised to dump as much as seven inches (18 cm) of rain in higher elevations and up to three inches elsewhere, the National Weather Service said in its forecast. The growing frequency and intensity of such storms amid bouts of prolonged drought are symptomatic of human-caused climate change, experts say. The storm in the Northeast threatened to produce wet snow that could topple power lines and trees, causing power outages.

☆ Over 16 million taxpayers from states like California should hold off on filing their taxes because of extra stimulus checks, the IRS says
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-08 | by ( Juliana Kaplan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

In 2022, some states opted to give residents checks or tax rebates to offset the cost of inflation. Now, the IRS is looking into those payments and their taxability, and advising taxpayers who received them to wait on filing their federal returns. Now, it's unclear whether those checks might lead to a surprise tax burden, and even the IRS isn't sure. The IRS said that, for filers who aren't sure whether their state payments will be taxed, they recommend waiting until there's more guidance. By the state's accounting, its Middle Class Tax Refund — which ranged from $350 to $1,050 — reached over 31 million taxpayers and dependents.

☆ Cruz Foam makes styrofoam alternative from shrimp shells and food waste
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-08 | by ( Lora Kolodny | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Meanwhile, companies that ship or sell fragile goods, food or medical supplies that need to stay cold during shipping still need materials with the lightweight, insulating qualities and manufacturability of styrofoam. That's where startup Cruz Foam comes in. Cruz Foam is made from naturally occurring materials including chitin (pronounced like "kite-in") along with starches and fibers diverted from agricultural waste streams. Chitin is a polymer contained in the shells of shrimp and other crustaceans, as well as insect exoskeletons. Besides that, styrofoam products are usually treated with flame retardants and can absorb other pollutants from water around them, increasing the threat to any wildlife that eats or lives amid the discarded styrofoam.

☆ Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan martial ruler in 9/11 wars, dies
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-05 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +12 min

Pakistan's former military ruler Pervez Musharraf has died in Dubai aged 79 after a long illness, the army said on February 5, 2023. By Sept. 12, then-U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell told Musharraf that Pakistan would either be "with us or against us." They regrouped and the offshoot Pakistani Taliban emerged, beginning a yearslong insurgency in the mountainous border region between Afghanistan and Pakistan. Though Pakistan under Musharraf launched these operations, the militants still thrived as billions of American dollars flowed into the nation. Born Aug. 11, 1943, in New Delhi, India, Musharraf was the middle son of a diplomat.

☆ Explainer: What guns were used to attack a Lunar New Year party in California?
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-24 | by ( Jonathan Allen | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Here is what is known so far about the weapons involved and the regulations that govern them:WHAT GUNS WERE USED? He did not disclose the capacity of the magazine attached, although under California law a "large-capacity magazine" is defined as one that holds more than 10 rounds. The state bans many kinds of guns that are legal in other states, and obtaining a required California gun license is relatively difficult. Semi-automatic pistols are the most widely carried guns in the country, and some kinds are legal in California. But the state bans what it defines as "assault weapons," which is determined by the gun's features and includes semiautomatic MAC-10 guns.

☆ California Has a Gas-Price Mystery: Too High, but Why?
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-22 | by ( Jinjoo Lee | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

A Shell gas station in South San Francisco, Calif. was selling gas for $7.59 a gallon in October. The statewide average had fallen to $4.32 a gallon by December—still more than a dollar above the national average. Higher state gas taxes are one reason. These include a cap-and-trade program for greenhouse-gas emissions, a low-carbon fuel standard and a fee for the abatement of leaking underground storage. California also mandates a cleaner-burning gasoline, which adds around 10 cents a gallon.

☆ California Has a Gas-Price Mystery: Too High, But Why?
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-20 | by ( Jinjoo Lee | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

☆ Monarch butterflies made a historic rebound this year, but my photos from 'Butterfly Town, USA' are disappointing and sad
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-24 | by ( Morgan Mcfall-Johnsen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +11 min

California's monarch butterflies made a miraculous rebound from nearly disappearing in 2020. I visited Pacific Grove, AKA "Butterfly Town, USA," to see the monarch migration for the first time. Monarch butterflies fly at the Sierra Chincua butterfly sanctuary in Angangeo, Michoacan state, Mexico. Monarch butterflies fly at the Sierra Chincua butterfly sanctuary in Angangeo, Michoacan state, Mexico. When I was a child, I didn't see monarch butterflies, but they were already in decline.

☆ Premarket stocks: Japan just delivered a lump of coal to investors across the globe
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-21 | by ( Nicole Goodkind | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

A surprise announcement from the Bank of Japan sent investors spinning and global markets reeling on Tuesday. The country’s central bank signaled that it would reverse two decades of policy precedent and begin to move away from loose monetary policy intended to keep wages and prices high. The Japanese Central Bank loosened the yield on its 10-year government bonds from 0.25% to 0.5%. The central bank said that inflation expectations have risen. Japan’s is the last major central bank to keep rates negative and this signals that it could be shifting its stance.

☆ 3M will stop making hazardous ‘forever chemicals’ starting in 2025
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-20 | by ( Jordan Valinsky | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

New York CNN —3M, the conglomerate behind Post-It notes and Scotch tape, will stop making controversial per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) by the end of 2025. The chemicals, commonly known as “forever chemicals,” are found in hundreds of household items and used to make coatings and products that can repel water, grease, heat and oil. Over the past decade, chemical manufacturers have voluntarily stopped producing two of the most commonly used forever chemicals, including PFOS and PFOA. At the federal level, the US Food and Drug Administration phased out the use of certain PFAS chemicals in 2016. The FDA and manufacturers agreed in 2020 to phase out some PFAS chemicals from food packaging and other items that came into contact with food.

☆ House Democrats reject a rules change that could've empowered junior members amid concerns about aging leadership
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-13 | by ( Bryan Metzger | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

"Six years is a pretty long time," Democratic Rep. Abigail Spanberger of Virginia told Insider at the Capitol earlier this month. "I'm not for term limits," House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer told Insider during a briefing with reporters at the end of November. "I'm not taking a position on any single rules proposal that is before the House Democratic Caucus," he said. Another prominent young lawmaker — 33-year-old Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York — has also been vocal in her criticism of the system. "Whatever the mechanism is, we need to have more opportunities for people to bring their leadership to bear in different places," she told Insider.

☆ California invested an enormous amount of money into getting EVs on the road, but practically nothing when it comes to dealing with the waste: 'It's totally like the Wild West.'
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-11 | by ( Hanna Kang | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +13 min

"It's totally like the Wild West," said Zora Chung, co-founder of ReJoule, Inc., a startup project based in Signal Hill that is exploring repurposing used batteries from EVs. However, there are no EV battery recycling plants that exist in California, nor tried-and-true recycling programs in place to deal with the fallout. Currently, the company has used batteries deployed at the American Museum of Ceramic Art in Pomona, where solar panels feed electricity into the used battery storage units. Charging station for electric and hybrid cars using solar panels to generate electricity to charge car batteries. "Imagine if it just took you one full work week to qualify one used battery," Chung said.

☆ Uber Eats to pay millions to Chicago restaurants for following a controversial growth playbook perfected by DoorDash
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-05 | by ( Nancy Luna | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Chicago investigated whether Uber Eats violated those caps and listed restaurants without consent. To keep up, rivals Uber Eats and Grubhub began adding restaurants without their consent. The settlement stems from a probe Chicago said it launched against Uber Eats two years ago. The Uber Eats investigation followed allegations that the app was listing restaurants without their consent and charging marketplace fees beyond the city's 15% cap. Some of those funds were already paid by Uber Eats last year, including $3.3 million in refunded marketplace fees.

☆ American Airlines is closing its San Francisco crew base and asking 400 flight attendants to leave California or leave the airline
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-03 | by ( Hannah Towey | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

American Airlines is closing its San Francisco base, potentially displacing 400 flight attendants. The base is home to some of the carrier's most senior flight attendants, two-thirds of whom have been at the airline for 13 years or more, according to the union representing American Airlines flight attendants. In interviews, 10 SFO-based flight attendants told Insider that a myriad of factors make it difficult to leave the Bay Area. The decades of experience with the goal of achieving that lifestyle are now effectively lost, one flight attendant told Insider. Some employees expressed confusion on why they need to leave San Francisco if the carrier will still need to staff SFO flights.

☆ Eisai, Biogen Alzheimer's drug slows cognitive decline, safety for some becomes focus
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-30 | by ( Deena Beasley | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

The drug, lecanemab, was associated with a type of brain swelling in 12.6% of trial patients, a side effect previously seen with similar drugs. He suggested that could be because homozygous study patients who were given a placebo fared better than expected. Overall, lecanemab patients benefited by 23% to 26% compared with a placebo on these secondary trial goals. Detailed data from the study were presented at the Clinical Trials on Alzheimer's Disease meeting in San Francisco and published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Dr. Howard Fillit, chief science officer at the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation, said doctors always balance the benefits and risks of therapies.

Nov 14 (Reuters) - Epic Games on Monday will try to overturn portions of a court ruling in an antitrust trial last year that largely favored Apple Inc (AAPL.O). The "Fortnite" creator sued Apple in 2020 alleging that the iPhone maker's App Store rules, under which software developers must pay commissions of up to 30% on in-app purchases, violated U.S. antitrust law. Apple appealed the order, and Epic appealed the finding that Apple did not violate antitrust laws. According to its court filings, Epic plans to argue that the trial judge did not properly interpret U.S. antitrust laws. Epic argues that such standard agreements are still subject to antitrust laws.

☆ 'Millionaire tax' plans are on the ballot in California and Massachusetts. Here's what that means for taxpayers
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-29 | by ( Kate Dore | Cfp | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Whether voters support higher income taxes or not, revenue plans often affect the results on Election Day, experts say. "And we've seen them embrace income tax changes that would affect many." "Massachusetts has been talking about creating a progressive tax rate for a long time," said Richard Auxier, senior policy associate at the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, noting the current flat income tax is 5% regardless of income. "Part of this is they want that ability to shift some of the overall state's tax burden up the ladder," he said. By contrast, California has a graduated state income tax system, with a top rate of 13.3% for individuals making over $1 million per year.

☆ The ‘Cost’ of Voting in America: A Look at Where It’s Easiest and Hardest
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-20 | by ( Nick Corasaniti | Allison Mccann | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +13 min

Researchers focused on 10 categories related to voting, including registration, inconvenience, early voting, polling hours and absentee voting. The state also stopped using special voting deputies, officials whose tasks had sometimes included conducting voter registration drives, according to the study. To assess the voting laws passed after the 2020 election, this year’s Cost of Voting Index study added new categories and scoring. While the political debate surrounding new election laws has centered on ballots and the voting process, the Cost of Voting Index also gives heavy weight to the ease of voter registration. States rank higher in the index if they allow voter registration drives, provide automatic voter registration, offer same-day registration and maintain longer periods in which to register.

☆ Why California can just decide what cars people buy
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-06 | by ( Peter Valdes-Dapena | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

A core part of federal emissions regulations since the early 1970s has been the so-called California Waiver. Nik Wheeler/Corbis/Getty ImagesBut, in 1967, it was Reagan, then the governor of California, who signed off on the creation of the California Air Resources Board. By this time, the groundwork had already been laid for California to set its own rules and that continued with the “California waiver,” a part of federal regulations that made this special exception for California. During his tenure, President Donald Trump asked the courts to do away with the California waiver. President Joseph Biden’s administration dropped that effort and, in March 2022, the California waiver was renewed once more.

☆ Visa's PAC gave politicians $139,000 in March after vowing to pause contributions because of the Capitol insurrection
▼ + stars: | 2021-04-07 | by ( Kayla Epstein | Dave Levinthal | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Visa's PAC has resumed political donations after announcing a pause following the January 6 Capitol attack. On March 24, Visa gave a total of $139,000 to candidate and political committees on both sides of the aisle. None of the lawmakers voted to object to the certification of the 2020 election results. Visa also filled coffers of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, giving each one $15,000. On January 12, less than a week after the attack, Visa's PAC "temporarily suspended all political donations as we review our candidate contribution guidelines," the company told the Washington Post.

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