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☆ Lender Popular Bank Fined Over Bad Covid Relief Loans
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-25 | by ( Richard Vanderford | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +3 min

Popular Bank has been fined $2.3 million for allegedly failing to stop fraud by applicants to the Paycheck Protection Program, the federal government’s massive Covid-related bailout for struggling small businesses. The Federal Reserve announced the fine Tuesday, saying New York-based Popular Bank, a subsidiary of Puerto Rico-based Popular Inc., had processed six PPP loans worth about $1.1 million despite having detected significant signs of potential fraud. The federal government used PPP loans to help businesses that experienced hardship during the Covid-19 pandemic, leaning on banks to dole out the money. The bank consented to the fine, a Popular Bank spokeswoman said, though the Fed order said the bank didn’t formally admit to or deny the allegations. The loans at issue originated with Popular Bank in August 2020, during a year in which millions of applicants sought access to the government money to try to keep their struggling enterprises afloat.

☆ A buzzy healthcare startup breaks down how it 'overextended' and is ditching its plans to build hundreds of clinics despite a $100 million investment from CVS
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-13 | by ( Rebecca Torrence | Blake Dodge | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Carbon Health on Monday landed $100 million from CVS Health as digital-health funding slows. Its CEO, Eren Bali, said it took a valuation hit to get clean terms for its long-term success. In digital health's dismal funding market, Carbon Health just notched a big win. The startup, which operates clinics offering urgent and primary care, announced on Monday that it snagged $100 million in Series D funding from CVS Health Ventures. The pharmacy giant also said it would open Carbon Health clinics at some CVS Health locations.

☆ Salesforce insiders expect the sales teams to be hit with layoffs in February. Some say the company may cut an additional 10% later this year.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-13 | by ( Ashley Stewart | Ellen Thomas | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Salesforce insiders are expecting layoffs to sales staff in February, after the fiscal year ends. Employees told Insider there has been chaos and confusion since Salesforce announced layoffs. Execs have repeatedly told employees, through emails and all-hands meetings, to expect rounds of layoffs to last for weeks, Insider reported. So Salespeople were largely untouched by the company's first round of cuts earlier this month, sources told Insiders. In November, Salesforce cut hundreds of people, many of them in sales, for what it referred to as performance-based reasons.

☆ 16 cities where homebuyers are getting the most deal sweeteners and concessions from sellers as mortgage rates kill competition, according to Redfin
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-10 | by ( William Edwards | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Homebuyers are gaining back negotiating power as high mortgage rates slows demand. According to Redfin, sellers are offering concessions to buyers at the highest rate since 2020. High mortgage rates have killed affordability and therefore demand, so home prices are starting to come down. But in addition to falling prices, homebuyers are benefitting from extra deal sweeteners as they look to take advantage of reduced competition, according to real-estate brokerage Redfin. RedfinSellers have had to navigate an environment where mortgage rates have more than doubled in the last year, from around 3% to at times over 7%.

☆ Desperate home sellers are basically paying buyers to purchase their homes
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-07 | by ( Alcynna Lloyd | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Sellers gave concessions in a record 42% of home sales at the end of 2022, Redfin found. Sellers are more likely to negotiate to offload their properties to the few buyers still out there. It's making some home sellers so desperate they're offering buyers cash to purchase their properties. And in a stark contrast to the housing market of 2020, sellers are losing their grip on the US real estate market — it's costing them big. "Buyers are asking sellers for things that were unheard of during the past few years," Van Welborn, a Redfin real estate agent from Phoenix, said in the report.

☆ Thompson: Expect to see an increase in funding for infrastructure projects this year
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-04 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailThompson: Expect to see an increase in funding for infrastructure projects this yearKathryn Thompson, CEO of Thompson Research Group, discusses which companies may benefit as the Biden administration starts to dole out funding from the president's infrastructure law.

WASHINGTON — Patrick Leahy was swept into the Senate nearly a half-century ago in the wake of the Watergate scandal and President Richard Nixon’s resignation and pardon. Ron Frehm / APSen. Leahy take photos on the inaugural stand during Barack Obama's presidential inauguration at the Capitol on Jan. 21, 2013. Let’s stay here and vote where we can be seen.”Sen. Leahy, D-Vt., walks to the Senate Chamber on Jan. 6, 2021. Ira Schwarz / APSupreme Court nominee Judge Sonia Sotomayor is sworn in by committee chairman Sen. Leahy, D-Vt., during her confirmation hearing in 2009 in Washington. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., and Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., in the Senate subway.

☆ Six battleground states will hold the key to the White House in 2024
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-24 | by ( John L. Dorman | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +12 min

AP Photo/Andrew HarnikGeorgia2012 margin: Romney +7.8%2016 margin: Trump +5.1%2020 margin: Biden +0.2%For decades, Republicans could easily depend on the Peach State's electoral votes falling into their column. Two years later, Biden won the state by roughly 12,000 votes over Trump, followed by the dual 2021 runoff victories of Sens. AP Photo/Matt RourkePennsylvania2012 margin: Obama +5.4%2016 margin: Trump +0.7%2020 margin: Biden +1.2%Biden's hometown of Scranton is dear to his heart so Pennsylvania was always going to be a key state for the party in 2024. AP Photo/Andy Manis, FileWisconsin2012 margin: Obama +6.9%2016 margin: Trump +0.8%2020 margin: Biden +0.6%Wisconsin is one of the most politically-divided states in the country. But Trump flipped Wisconsin to the GOP in 2016, the first time it had supported a Republican presidential nominee since 1984.

I love giving and getting gift cards for the holidays, even though some people say they're impersonal. They offer the gift of timeNot only are you gifting store credit to their favorite places to shop, but gift cards also offer the gift of time. Plus, I can purchase gift cards online, or go to a store that offers a wall of different gift cards from other retailers to choose from. I've also scooped up discounts on gift cards during special promos, like 10% off gift cards up to a certain amount. Picking out gift cards to folks on my gift list have long been my go-to for the holidays, and as a gift card devotee, that's not going to change.

☆ 'The worst is yet to come': the curse of high inflation
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-08 | by ( Mark John | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

While wealthier consumers can rely on savings built up during pandemic lockdowns, others struggle to make ends meet and a growing number rely on food banks. Workers have taken strike action in sectors from healthcare to aviation to demand that wages keep pace with inflation. But if things are tough in industrialised economies, rocketing food prices are worsening poverty and suffering in poorer countries, from Haiti to Sudan and Lebanon to Sri Lanka. The world's central banks have embarked on steep interest rate hikes to cool demand and tame inflation. From U.S. Federal Reserve chief Jerome Powell to the European Central Bank's Christine Lagarde, there is growing talk that rate-hike medicine may taste bitter.

☆ Inflation in 2023: experts predict ‘worst is yet to come’ as recession looms
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-08 | by ( Mark John | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

☆ Disney insiders are worried about how Bob Iger will remake former CEO Bob Chapek's business structure — here's what they hated about it and what they hope will change
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-01 | by ( Elaine Low | Lucia Moses | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Disney CEO Bob Iger has said he will put "decision-making back in the hands of our creative teams." Under former CEO Bob Chapek's structure, distribution and budgets were taken out of the hands of creative execs. Chapek's 2020 restructuring — which focused the company's firepower on boosting streaming subscriber growth at Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+ — meant additional layers of approval for studio and network execs at Disney General Entertainment (DGE) to get projects made. That meant hands were tied across Disney's studios and networks, from Disney+ to 20th Century to Hulu. For creative execs whose careers were built on their ability to balance storytelling and business needs, losing control over the latter was frustrating.

☆ Tech kept talent happy doling out stock during the boom. It's screwing investors in the bust.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-01 | by ( Asia Martin | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

As tech stock prices plunge, firms are granting new stocks to staff to keep compensation high. But as stock values tumble in the second half of 2022, investors are looking at the increase in stock-based compensation (SBC) as an issue. And tech companies have been issuing a lot of shares to not only attract new employees but hang on to their existing ones. Peloton granted more than 4 million stock options and 1.7 million RSUs in its fiscal year that ended in June 2021. "The drop in the stock price makes the expense, for lack of a better way to phrase it, a lot more expensive," he added.

☆ Employees Are Using Job Offers to Win Big Raises From Their Employers
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-28 | by ( Aki Ito | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

Employers, not surprisingly, hate that people are using job offers as bargaining chips. That strategy may work for employers in a normal job market, when it's hard to find another job, let alone a better-paying one. "Employees are finding that there's a big gap between where they are and what they can get." "The job market is still performing very well," says Jay Denton, the chief analytics officer at LaborIQ, a compensation-data provider. Independence, it turns out, pays way, way better than loyalty.

☆ In Praise of the Office Suck-Up
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-21 | by ( Rachel Feintzeig | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

They loiter around the boss’s office. They dole out compliments to all the right people. They chime in enthusiastically at every meeting. The only thing more maddening than observing an office suck-up in action is realizing that it’s working.

☆ Make the Office Kiss-Up Work for You
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-21 | by ( Rachel Feintzeig | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

☆ Would Twitter get online publisher immunity in fake 'blue check' suits?
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-14 | by ( Alison Frankel | Thomson Reuters | Alison Frankel Has Covered High-Stakes Commercial Litigation As A Columnist For Reuters Since A Dartmouth College Graduate | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

(Reuters) - Twitter Inc’s introduction last week of a new subscription system to dole out blue-check verification badges was a flop by any standard. Edelson's preliminary theory: By awarding verification badges to the fake corporate tweeters, Twitter enabled the imposters to trick consumers and even shareholders. (Eli Lilly and Co and Lockheed Martin Corp both experienced sharp, if temporary, stock drops after tweets from corporate accounts that carried the blue-check verification.) Twitter also did not respond to my email query about potential private lawsuits arising from last week’s fake tweets. What about shareholders or consumers who claim to have been duped by tweets from fake corporate accounts?

☆ Inflation cools and markets soar, led by tech stocks: How we're making sense of this big week
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-11 | by ( Zev Fima | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

Markets closed higher for the week after a stellar rally Thursday that saw Big Tech stocks soar on the back of weaker-than-expected consumer price index (CPI) data for October. The S & P 500 closed up more than 5% for the week, its best week since June. Meanwhile, Club holding Amazon (AMZN) is reportedly conducting a broad cost-cutting review , according to The Wall Street Journal. But we think more data is needed before the Fed is able to tone down its hawkish commentary on rates. As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade.

☆ Kyrie Irving's 'sorry' to Jews shows how celebrity apologies have become meaningless
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-07 | by ( Lux Alptraum | Lux Alptraum Is A Writer | Producer Who Served As Development Producer For Fusion S Peabody-Nominated Show | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +6 min

Are we really supposed to believe that it’s a genuine change of heart and not a response to a pressure campaign from his employers? Like most Instagram apologies, Irving’s felt a bit perfunctory and performative, not least because it came the same day he was suspended indefinitely by the Nets over the controversy. Are we really supposed to believe that Irving underwent such a massive amount of personal growth in the span of hours? Are we really supposed to believe that it’s a genuine change of heart and not a response to a pressure campaign from his employers? And if they’d actually done that, well — who knows, they might have even spared us from having to read yet another celebrity apology on Instagram.

☆ Fact Check-Official U.S. election vote counts legally take weeks to certify
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-07 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

While media organizations often “call” elections on election night or soon after, experts on election processes told Reuters elections are frequently never confirmed on election night and the process of verifying ballots can take weeks. Confusion online may stem from the fact that media organizations “call” an election for a certain candidate on election night or shortly after. As explained by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC), “Many voters believe that the election results they see on television on election night are the final results. Similarly, during the 2020 general election, which resulted in a Biden win against Trump, Mississippi did not certify election results until Dec. 3 (here). Different states have specific rules on when mail-in ballots can start being counted, ranging from before election day, on election day before polls close and after polls close on election day (here).

☆ In meat-loving South Africa, climate concerns whet appetite for veggie burgers
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-03 | by ( Tim Cocks | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

[1/5] Workers prepare a plant-based polony used as an alternative or meat substitute at meat processor Feinschmecker, in Germiston, in the East Rand region of Johannesburg, South Africa, October 11, 2022. That could be heartening for climate scientists, who say shifting diets from emissions-heavy meat and dairy towards more plant-based foods is vital to the fight against climate change. Plant-based meat substitutes are growing by 6.5% a year and sales are expected to reach $561 million by 2023, according to Research and Markets - more than half Africa's share of a global market forecast to hit $162 billion by 2030. But the popularity of veggie alternatives would have been unthinkable even a decade ago and the market is outstripping forecast growth for meat. She gave up meat over climate concerns and her diabetes.

☆ Government Climate Funding Pushes Private Sector to Make Good on Promises
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-01 | by ( Amrith Ramkumar | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Startups such as Piedmont Lithium are trying to extract lithium from rocks and process it to help power rechargeable batteries. The Biden administration is starting to dole out billions of dollars for nascent climate industries such as battery metals. That is putting pressure on banks and investors to step up with additional funds to make good on their climate promises. The federal government granted about 20 producers of raw materials that power rechargeable batteries a total of nearly $3 billion. The goal is to kick-start a domestic supply chain for big auto makers and combat China’s dominance of battery materials.

Turkey Point sits on porous rock and underneath it is the Biscayne Aquifer – a primary source of drinking water. Nuclear plants have up to 60 years after they shut down to dispose of their nuclear waste. “FPL and the NRC regularly evaluate nuclear power plant operating conditions and physical infrastructure to ensure ongoing safe operations,” the company said. Electrical cables from Turkey Point Nuclear Power plant that power 1 million homes in South Florida. Alfonso Duran for NBC NewsNew homes under constructed near Turkey Point nuclear power plant in Miami in September.

☆ I listed 'sex work' on LinkedIn and caused a viral uproar. This is the last time I'll defend that choice.
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-20 | by ( Arielle Egozi | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +13 min

In July, I added "sex work" to my LinkedIn work experience. But at least in sex work, there's an audience and a desire for every type of body, gender, and play. Sex work may have the word "sex" in it, but most of the job — digital, in person, or otherwise — has little to do with sex. A lot of people seem to ignore the "work" part of sex work. Sex work of all kinds is work, and that's the last time I'll defend that statement.

☆ The Rock's 'Black Adam' is a bland, 'color-by-numbers' DC Comics superhero movie, critics say
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-20 | by ( Sarah Whitten | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

In this article WBD Follow your favorite stocks CREATE FREE ACCOUNTDwayne Johnson stars in Warner Bros.' "Black Adam." "Black Adam," which premieres Friday, did not impress critics, generating a meager 53% on Rotten Tomatoes from 102 reviews as of Thursday afternoon. Puchko noted that "Black Adam" rushes through the introductions of Cyclone, Atom Smasher, Hawkman and Doctor Fate "so quickly that it's actually comical." Pierce Brosnan and Dwayne Johnson star in Warner Bros.' "Black Adam." Dwayne Johnson is Black Adam in Warner Bros.' newest DC film "Black Adam."

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