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☆ FTX Seeks to Recoup Sam Bankman-Fried’s Charitable Donations
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-07 | by ( Eric Wallerstein | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Sam Bankman-Fried and FTX doled out millions in charitable donations. Now, new management is asking for it back. Some of the money, however, has already been spent, and the gifts flowed through myriad sources and agreements that are proving difficult to tally.

☆ Marijuana might hurt Elon Musk's productivity, but legalization has helped US workers find jobs and earn higher wages, a study finds
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-06 | by ( Jacob Zinkula | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

But a new study found legalization has had a positive impact on Americans' employment and wages. While 68% of the public supports legalization, the authors noted that there is disagreement about the impact it could have on workers' productivity and well being. Elon Musk in 2018: "I'm not a regular smoker of weed...I don't find that it is very good for productivity." The authors speculated the boost in the agriculture sector is tied to the introduction of the cannabis industry. Given marijuana legalization is a relatively new development, the authors said it will take time to decipher any long-run impacts on labor market performance, despite the positive early indicators from their research.

☆ U.S. Embassy in Cuba reopening visa and consular services
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-04 | by ( Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +4 min

HAVANA — The United States Embassy in Cuba is reopening visa and consular services Wednesday, the first time it has done so since a spate of unexplained health incidents among diplomatic staff in 2017 slashed the American presence in Havana. Cubans are now the second-largest nationality after Mexicans appearing on the border, U.S. Customs and Border Protection data shows. Visa and consular services were closed on the island in 2017 after embassy staff were affflicted in a series of health incidents, alleged sonic attacks that remain largely unexplained. While relations have always been tense between Cuba and the U.S., they were heightened following the embassy closure and the Trump administration’s tightening of sanctions on Cuba. Cuban officials have repeatedly expressed optimism about talks with the U.S. and steps to reopen visa services.

☆ Nonprofit financed by billionaire George Soros quietly donated $140 million to political causes in 2021
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-04 | by ( Brian Schwartz | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +9 min

Fabrice Coffrini | AFP | Getty ImagesA nonprofit financed by billionaire George Soros quietly donated $140 million to advocacy organizations and ballot initiatives in 2021, plus another $60 million to likeminded charities. The Open Society Policy Center also doled out $138 million to advocacy groups and causes in 2020. All of the nonprofits fall under Soros' Open Society Foundations network, which spans the globe. Both of those groups are run by the billionaire's son Alexander Soros, who also sits on the boards of the Open Society Institute and Open Society Policy Center. Emerson Morrow, a spokesman for America Votes told CNBC that funding from the Open Society Policy Center "has provided critical support for America Votes' mission."

☆ A 44-year-old who moved from California to Indiana saves $3,210 a month and thinks more people should consider living in the Midwest: 'LA is the glitz and glamour, but when you take that aside, are yo
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-01 | by ( Alcynna Lloyd | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Vanessa Hughes recently moved to West Lafayette, Indiana, a city of 45,000 and a major university. In West Lafayette, she's paying half the amount for a significantly bigger space with a yard for their two dogs. In 2023, the search for affordable housing could pull more homebuyers towards Midwestern spots like West Lafayette. Michael Hickey/Getty ImagesBy the end of November, they had made the move to West Lafayette. West Lafayette is just one place that offers people incentives to move there.

☆ Without radical changes, TikTok could vanish from the US
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-30 | by ( Jordan Parker Erb | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

From burnout among open-source developers to the downfall of Andreessen Horowitz's buzzy tech publication, Future, it's a packed edition. The worker told Insider that they used "exam dumps" to pass technical certifications, and that the answers were easy to find online with a quick Google search. This year, developers told us that they're fed up, and some are quitting and even sabotaging their own projects. Despite the 10% raise, doled out in April, Mailchimp employees told Insider that people nonetheless felt belittled and were quitting in droves. Earlier this year, Andreessen Horowitz's buzzy tech publication Future shut down.

☆ Analysis: Southwest got billions of dollars in taxpayer aid. Why is its service still a mess?
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-28 | by ( Alicia Wallace | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +10 min

Southwest Airlines received more than $7 billion from that program. However, analysts say, Southwest’s service meltdown is unrelated to the taxpayer assistance the airline received in 2020. Cancelled Southwest Airlines flights are seen on the flight schedules at LaGuardia Airport, Tuesday, Dec. 27, 2022, in New York. In April 2020, airline passenger traffic plummeted 96% and stayed 60% below 2019 levels in 2020, according to the US Government Accountability Office. “The problems at Southwest Airlines over the last several days go beyond weather,” she said in a statement.

☆ Marijuana's black market is undercutting legal businesses
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-23 | by ( Stefan Sykes | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Thriving, unregulated marijuana businesses across the United States are undercutting legal markets awaiting banking and tax reform. Unlicensed businesses are "taking a pretty hefty percent of the potential market share," according to Amanda Reiman, a researcher at cannabis intelligence company New Frontier Data. The problem is particularly cumbersome in New York City, Knowles said. Besides cease-and-desist letters, New York City has begun cracking down in other ways, too. "We will not let the economic opportunities that legal cannabis offers be taken for a ride by unlicensed establishments," the mayor said at a news conference.

☆ Some Wells Fargo customers have already received their share of the $2 billion misconduct settlement. Here's what you need to know
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-21 | by ( Sarah O'Brien | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

wdstock | iStock Editorial | Getty ImagesPeople owed a piece of the $2 billion that Wells Fargo has agreed to pay to customers affected by some of its banking practices could soon receive those funds. related investing news Wells Fargo ordered to pay $3.7 billion for past scandals. Here's why we see it as a positive Wells Fargo also agreed to pay a $1.7 billion civil penalty — the largest ever doled out by the CFPB. "We have already communicated with many of the customers who may have been impacted by the matters covered in the settlement, and those efforts are ongoing," a Wells Fargo spokesperson told CNBC. watch nowIn other words, if you are among the affected customers, you may already have received your share of the $2 billion, or you will automatically hear from Wells Fargo.

The agency did not respond to requests for comment on its record monitoring animal research experiments nationally. The USDA inspector general has published at least three reports since 2014 critical of the agency’s lax oversight, though its criticism dates back to the 1990s. Neuralink says on its website that it champions animal welfare and tries to reduce animal testing where possible. Two academic studies conducted in 2009 and 2012 found that animal research committees approved between 98% and 99% of experiments proposed by researchers. Envigo was made to sign the consent decree giving up the beagles only after the USDA inspector general and the Justice Department investigated and found evidence of inhumane treatment.

☆ MoffettNathanson downgrades AT&T, says telecom stock is overvalued heading into 2023
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-19 | by ( Sarah Min | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Analyst Craig Moffett downgraded AT & T to underperform from market perform, saying it's time to sell the stock ahead of 2023 after its outperformance this year. Shares of AT & T are down just 0.5% in 2022, compared to the S & P 500's roughly 19% decline. "Over the period of AT & T's sharp bounce, free cash flow expectations for the company have only worsened," Moffett wrote. Unfortunately, the heavy stream of promotions from Verizon are starting to weigh on AT & T, according to the analyst. Separately, the analyst upgraded shares of Verizon to market perform from underperform.

☆ Larry Page, Sergey Brin Post-Google Lives: Investments, Yachts, Islands
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-11 | by ( Hugh Langley | Rob Price | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +33 min

Even before their retirement from Google, Page and Brin relied heavily on their respective family offices to bring order to their worlds. The Bay Area headquarters of Koop, Larry Page's family office, is nondescript and gives little indication of the billionaire's empire. Insider; Marianne Ayala/Insider Show less Bayshore Global Management, Sergey Brin's family office, is based in Palo Alto and has a bit more of a public face. Insider; Marianne Ayala/Insider Show lessThe difference in styles holds true for Brin's family office, Bayshore Global Management. The CEO of Page's family office is Wayne Osborne, a former elder in the Presbyterian Church who attended Princeton Theological Seminary.

☆ Free for a month, Ukraine's Kherson still toils to clear Russian traps
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-11 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

An elderly woman looks at damaged caused by overnight Russian shelling of a residential building on Dec. 1, 2022 in Kherson, Ukraine. Sunday marks exactly one month since Russia's troops withdrew from Kherson and its vicinity after an eight-month occupation, sparking jubilation across Ukraine. The regional administration said Saturday that shelling over the past month has killed 41 people, including a child, in Kherson, and 96 were hospitalized. When aid trucks arrived a month ago, war-weary and desperate residents flocked to the central Svoboda (Freedom) Square for food and supplies. Longer-term questions remain: Kherson sits in an agricultural region that produces crops as diverse as wheat, tomatoes, and watermelon — a regional symbol.

☆ North Korea Wants Dollars. It’s a Sign of Trouble.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-09 | by ( Choe Sang-Hun | Pablo Robles | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +18 min

Media Korean Studies 2016 2008 New Finished New buildings Repainted TAEDONG RIVER TAEDONG RIVER Pyongyang in 2008. Media Korean Studies 2008 2016 New Finished New buildings Repainted TAEDONG RIVER TAEDONG RIVER Pyongyang in 2008. Under Mr. Kim, North Korea has opened a new terminal at the city’s international airport, renovated subway stations and opened new amusement parks. Missile tests this year alone cost North Korea hundreds of millions of dollars, according to estimates by South Korean and American researchers. An array of cell phones, assembled in North Korea with components imported from China, is on sale and advertised on state TV.

☆ Southwest to Resume Quarterly Dividend Payment After More Than Two Years
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-07 | by ( Alison Sider | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Southwest will pay stockholders a dividend at the same rate it did before the pandemic. Southwest Airlines Co. is reinstating its quarterly dividend after more than two years as the airline says it is confident that the travel recovery will continue next year. Southwest suspended the payment early in the Covid-19 pandemic, when carriers were bleeding cash and weren’t sure when travelers would return. The government barred airlines from paying dividends or buying back shares under the terms of the $54 billion in federal aid it doled out to help avert mass layoffs in the industry. The restrictions expired this past fall.

☆ Hoping to beat the tourist crowd on your trip to Japan? That ship has sailed
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-29 | by ( Abigail Ng | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

I thought I managed to beat the tourist crowds on my recent trip to Japan. Visitors gather on a terrace near the Kiyomizu-dera to watch the sunset and autumn leaves in Kyoto, Japan. In the months before those rules were lifted on Oct. 11, there were fewer traffic jams and queues, said Aw. Tokudaw's Aw said bookings with her company remain strong for the year-end period, at around 85% of pre-Covid levels. Travel, however, told CNBC Travel that its customers from Singapore have made bookings all the way through to April.

☆ At Trump Org, a 'generous,' 'forgiving' Trump reigned over thankful executives, the defense theory claims
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-24 | by ( Laura Italiano | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

Manhattan jurors are being asked by the defense to see Donald Trump as a forgiving, generous boss. In summations, prosecutors may call the 'Trump is just generous' defense a total turkey. The tuition schemeTake the total $359,000 in tuition checks Trump or his son, Eric Trump, signed for ex-CFO Allen Weisselberg's grandchildren. Instead, under the "generous Trump" defense, the checks, written from Trump's personal account, are explained away as not a suspicious, tax-dodging perk at all, but a "gift." Here, the defense can be expected to tell jurors that Trump is not only a generous boss, but a forgiving one, too.

☆ Factbox: What is at stake in Georgia's U.S. Senate runoff?
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-21 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

As Election Day neared, Georgia election officials reported heavy turnout in early voting. But he may have less opportunity for flashy moves, with Republicans holding a narrow majority in the House of Representatives. SENATE COMMITTEESBecause of the 50-50 Senate divide, committee memberships are currently doled out evenly between Democrats and Republicans. Tied votes in committees block legislation and presidential appointments, at least temporarily, from advancing to the full Senate. One-third of Senate seats are up for election every two years.

☆ Factbox: What's at stake in Georgia's U.S. Senate runoff?
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-21 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

But he may have less opportunity for flashy moves, as Republicans will hold a narrow majority in the House of Representatives. SENATE COMMITTEESBecause of the 50-50 Senate divide, committee memberships are currently doled out evenly. Tied votes in committees on legislation or presidential nominations block, at least temporarily, such measures from advancing to the full Senate. A Walker win would give national Republicans a boost, having seen their standing in the state of Georgia erode toward Democrats over the last few years. A Warnock victory could indicate that Democrats are making inroads in places where they have had difficulties gaining traction in the past.

Michael M. Santiago/Getty ImagesCredit card issuers are getting too caught up in quantity of perks instead of focusing on quality. Cards like the Chase Sapphire Reserve® and The Platinum Card® from American Express offer potentially thousands of dollars in niche benefits. Intro Offer Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. When using a credit card, it's important to pay your balance in full each month, make payments on time, and only spend what you can afford to pay. I'd rather have a card with five astonishing benefits than a card with 12 neat benefits.

☆ How small-town Maine embraced a family that fled the Taliban
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-18 | by ( Elyse Lightman Samuels | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +36 min

CAPE ELIZABETH, Maine — Last November, at about midnight, Omid was lying in bed in his new home in Cape Elizabeth, Maine — exhausted, but unable to sleep. On this night, and on many nights during Omid's first few months in Maine, Nasir was soon at his door. Omid's family arrived in Maine just before Halloween in 2021 and recently celebrated one year in Maine. Catholic Charities, the local refugee-resettlement organization in Maine, was working with Omid's family to help them resettle. After Omid's family escaped Kabul, members of his extended family came by to collect some of their more precious items, and gave other things away.

☆ I've been a licensed psychotherapist in Silicon Valley for the past decade, and I've never witnessed such an atmosphere of panic and insecurity amid the massive tech layoffs
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-17 | by ( Lakshmi Varanasi | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Since the Twitter and Meta layoffs, she and her team are speaking to hundreds of patients a week. For many across Silicon Valley, that all contributed to an environment of professional safety and security. Over time, I too, became convinced that Silicon Valley was untouchable. Since Twitter announced mass layoffs in early November, shockwaves have been rippling through Silicon Valley. There's a general sobering across Silicon Valley that will extend into the new year.

☆ Elon Musk has set November 29 for the relaunch of Twitter's 'Blue Verified' to 'make sure it is rock solid'
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-16 | by ( Lakshmi Varanasi | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Elon Musk tweeted Tuesday that Blue Verified would be relaunched on November 29. Musk said he was postponing the launch to make sure "it is rock solid." Musk wrote, "Punting relaunch of Blue Verified to November 29th to make sure that it is rock solid." Blue Verified is Musk's addendum to Twitter Blue, a paid tier that the company first launched in June 2021. But Musk's initial rollout of the new Twitter Blue didn't go as planned.

☆ U.S. SEC stepped up enforcement activity in fy2022, assessed record penalties
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-15 | by ( John Mccrank | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The total assessed included a record $4.2 billion in civil penalties, up from a total amount of $3.6 billion in 2021, as it filed 760 total enforcement actions, including 462 new or stand-alone ones. The SEC chair previously announced the amount of fines and fees assessed, but the annual report published on Wednesday provided more details in its roundup of activity in the year ended Sept. 30. SEC actions against JP Morgan Securities LLC, 15 other broker dealers, and one investment adviser for widespread and long-standing failures to maintain and preserve work-related text messages conducted on employees' personal devices made up over $1.2 billion of SEC penalties in 2022. The SEC also filed charges against Deloitte's China-based affiliate of failing to comply with U.S. auditing requirements and secured a record penalty against crypto firm BlockFi for selling unregistered securities. Reporting by John McCrank in New York; Additional reporting by Chris Prentice; Editing by Jonathan OatisOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Lending activity at China's banks hits lowest level in nearly 5 years despite Beijing's efforts to boost activity and prop up its slowing economy
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-10 | by ( Phil Rosen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Institutions made 615 billion yuan in new loans in October, down 2.5 trillion yuan from September, the People's Bank of China said Thursday. Beijing has ramped up policy to encourage lending in recent months, but corporate borrowing still softened in October. Chinese banks and firms lended 615 billion yuan ($84.8 billion) in new loans in October, a steep drop from September's 2.5 trillion yuan. Similarly, aggregate financing slipped from 3.5 trillion yuan to 908 billion yuan in the same stretch, Bloomberg reports, which marks the lowest mark for October since 2019. While results have appeared mixed so far, in recent months Beijing has moved to encourage lending and financing.

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