Business

Twitter Kills Off 6-Second Video Platform Vine

TechCrunch reports: With Twitter’s future still in question following failed attempts at finding an acquirer and the recently announced layoffs of nine percent of its workforce, the company today announced it’s shutting down its standalone short-form video app, Vine. According a post, nothing is changing immediately — the website and apps will remain online for the time being, and users …

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PHILADELPHIA: Brian Sims Calls For Boycott After Owner Of Famed Local Brewery Yuengling Backs Trump

The Philadelphia Voice reports: The owner of America’s oldest brewery has come out in support of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, and the company’s faithful drinkers aren’t too happy about it. Eric Trump, the nominee’s son, stopped at D. G. Yuengling & Son’s in Pottsville on Monday while campaigning on behalf of his father. His message to the company? Hard-working …

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NORTH CAROLINA: Petulant State Officials Demand That PayPal Return Pre-HB2 Ceremonial Wooden Bowl

The Charlotte Observer reports: Over the last year, when companies announced plans to grow their footprints in North Carolina, state leaders have presented them with an unusual gift: An oak bowl carved from wood from the state capitol grounds. So when PayPal unceremoniously canceled its plans for an expansion in Charlotte over opposition to House Bill 2, state officials did …

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NORTHERN IRELAND: Anti-Gay Bakers Lose Appeal

The BBC reports: The Christian owners of a Northern Ireland bakery have lost their appeal against a ruling that their refusal to make a “gay cake” was discriminatory. Appeal court judges said that, under law, the bakers were not allowed to provide a service only to people who agreed with their religious beliefs. Two years ago, the family-run firm refused …

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John Oliver On The Opioid Epidemic [VIDEO]

The Week recaps: “I would like to talk to you about drugs,” John Oliver said on Sunday’s Last Week Tonight, but not in some 1960s “reefer madness” way. “Unfortunately, America is now in the midst of a new drug crisis, and it seems that no one is safe from it,” he said. That would be the “epidemic of addiction to …

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AT&T Closes Deal Buy Time Warner For $80B

The New York Times reports: AT&T has agreed to buy Time Warner for more than $80 billion, a person briefed on the matter said on Saturday, a move that would create a new colossus in the worlds of media and telecommunications. Putting together AT&T, a sprawling video and internet empire that encompasses cellphone and cable service along with DirecTV, and …

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New Trump Hotels To Dump Trump Name

Travel & Leisure reports: Amidst reports that occupancy rates at Trump Hotels have slipped this election season, the company has announced that new brand hotels will no longer bear the Trump name. The newest line of luxury hotels, geared towards millennials, will be called Scion, the company said. “We wanted a name that would be a nod to the Trump …

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Nobody Wants To Stay At Trump’s New DC Hotel

Not even with the room rates slashed by 50%. New York Magazine reports: Last weekend bankers and dignitaries from around the world descended on Washington for the annual World Bank–IMF meetings. But just a few days before the conference, rooms were not only still available at Trump International, they were heavily discounted. On October 2, a deluxe room, with a …

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Wells Fargo CEO Resigns After Massive Scam Scandal

Via press release: Wells Fargo & Company announced today that Chairman and Chief Executive Officer John Stumpf has informed the Company’s Board of Directors that he is retiring from the Company and the Board, effective immediately. The Board has elected Tim Sloan, the Company’s President and Chief Operating Officer, to succeed him as CEO, and Stephen Sanger, its Lead Director, …

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Samsung Scraps Production Of Galaxy Note 7

Reuters reports: Samsung Electronics Co Ltd scrapped its flagship Galaxy Note 7 smartphone on Tuesday less than two months after its launch, dealing a huge blow to its reputation and outlook after failing to resolve safety concerns. Samsung announced the recall of 2.5 million Note 7s in early September following numerous reports of the phones catching fire and on Tuesday …

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ATLANTIC CITY: Trump Taj Mahal Casino Closes

USA Today reports: The Trump Taj Mahal, an iconic casino hotel on the Atlantic City boardwalk, ceased operations Monday after hemorrhaging losses for years and negotiations with employees’ union broke down, according to its owner, billionaire investor Carl Icahn. The shutdown, which leaves 3,000 employees out of work, was widely expected after its management announced the planned closure in August. …

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LOUISIANA: Dem Governor Sues Attorney General For Blocking Contracts Over Their LGBT Protections

The New Orleans Times-Picayune reports: Gov. John Bel Edwards is suing Attorney General Jeff Landry for blocking state legal contracts over language meant to protect gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people from discrimination in the workplace. Edwards filed the lawsuit in a Baton Rouge state court Friday (Sept. 30), following a meeting with Landry in which the two officials were …

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New York AG Eric Schneiderman Expands Trump Probe To Include “Self-Dealing” By Trump Foundation

Talking Points Memo reports: The New York attorney general’s investigation of the Donald J. Trump Foundation appears to have broadened to include new allegations of self-dealing by Trump that surfaced after the probe began, TPM has learned. The town of Palm Beach, Florida, has provided documents to the New York Attorney General’s Office as part of the probe, a lawyer …

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REPORT: 2012 Lawsuit Alleged That Trump Demanded That “Unattractive” Women Be Fired From His Resort

The Los Angeles Times reports: Donald Trump wanted only the pretty ones, his employees said. After the Trump National Golf Club in Rancho Palos Verdes opened for play in 2005, its world-famous owner didn’t stop by more than a few times a year to visit the course hugging the coast of the Pacific. When Trump did visit, the club’s managers …

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Gay Magazines Next And Frontiers Shut Down

South Florida Gay News reports: Bobby Blair’s dream to build an international media enterprise has apparently come crashing to a halt this week. SFGN has received information that the staff of Multimedia Platforms, which includes the Florida Agenda and Next Magazine in New York, has been let go, and there will be no print editions this week. Frontiers in LA, …

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REPORT: Trump Violated US Trade Embargo On Cuba

Newsweek reports: A company controlled by Donald Trump, the Republican nominee for president, secretly conducted business in Communist Cuba during Fidel Castro’s presidency despite strict American trade bans that made such undertakings illegal, according to interviews with former Trump executives, internal company records and court filings. Documents show that the Trump company spent a minimum of $68,000 for its 1998 …

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Wells Fargo CEO Loses $41M Bonus, Keeps Job

Fortune reports: Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf may not lose his job over the phony account scandal that has cost his bank its reputation (and $185 million in fines), but he will lose his bonus — and then some. After weeks of public outcry and prodding from some Wall Street analysts, the Wells Fargo board announced late Tuesday that it …

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Feds Sue Homocon Peter Thiel’s Startup For Hiring Discrimination: White Applicants Allegedly Given Priority

Vice News reports: Working at Palantir sounds pretty sweet. According to jobs site Glassdoor, the secretive data analysis startup pays software engineers six-figure salaries, and interns can get $7,500 a month plus corporate housing in places like Palo Alto or New York. But according to the Department of Labor, white applicants have a dramatically unfair advantage in landing those gigs. …

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Fired Wells Fargo Staffers File $2.6B Class Action Suit

The New York Daily News reports: Wells Fargo’s spiraling “sandbagging” scam might get a lot more expensive for the nation’s biggest bank. Two former employees filed a $2.6 billion class action lawsuit last week accusing the bank of demoting or ousting workers who failed to meet “unrealistic quotas” that drove other employees to rip off customers. “Wells Fargo knew that …

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REPORT: Twitter Is Actively Seeking A Buyer

For weeks the alt-right has claimed that Twitter’s falling stock value is the direct result of their crackdown on hate speech and the banning of homocon Milo Yiannopoulos. Surely the latest news will headline shortly at Breitbart. Via the Daily Beast: Social-media giant Twitter is now actively exploring a sale and has initiated talks with technology companies, according to a …

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