Business

From JetBlue’s website: Like many of you, we continue to watch reports of the Orlando nightclub shooting with great sadness. Our thoughts are with the victims and their loved ones. This weekend’s events are felt by all of our 19,000 crewmembers, many of whom live in, work from and travel through Orlando – one of our focus cities – at …

Homocon Peter Thiel is probably doing cartwheels in his mansion. Via the Hollywood Reporter: Gawker Media has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy after a Florida judge issued a $140 million final judgment in favor of Hulk Hogan in the invasion-of-privacy lawsuit over the posting of a sex tape. The online news organization founded in 2003 by Nick Denton which now …

Chicago’s WGN-TV reports: A small bomb exploded in the women’s bathroom at a Target store in Evanston on Wednesday, and officials are investigating whether it’s connected to the company’s policy allowing transgender people to use the bathroom of their choice. Commander Joe Dugan says no one was inside the bathroom when the small explosion happened a little after 4 o’clock. …

Just as they did at PepsiCo’s shareholders meeting in North Carolina last month and at Walmart’s shareholders meeting in Arkansas last week, anti-LGBT activists from the National Center for Public Policy Research ambushed Target executives at yesterday’s annual shareholders meeting in Costa Mesa, California. A spokesman for the group confronted Target’s board of directors, demanding to know if they had …

From the Straits Times: The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said on Tuesday (June 7) it will “take steps to make it clear that foreign entities should not fund, support or influence” events held at Speakers’ Corner, like the annual Pink Dot event last Saturday. This year’s event – the eighth such – attracted 18 sponsors, twice as many as …

At least they didn’t get his Facebook account. Via Gizmodo: First the hackers came for Katy Perry. Now they’ve come for someone who should know better than to use the same password on multiple sites: Mark Zuckerberg. Turns out he’s as dumb as the rest of us. Zuck’s Twitter and Pinterest (though, crucially, not Facebook) accounts were hacked over the …

Anti-LGBT activist Janet Porter flopped with ReaganBook, she flopped in her bid for the Ohio Senate, and this weekend she flopped again as it appears that only a handful of Target stores saw protesters for her “nationwide” event on Saturday. At this writing I’m only finding news accounts of protests at three of Target’s 1782 locations. Two of those protests …

TIME reports: The debt-buying industry has lead to some unscrupulous practices among debt collectors and debt collection proceedings are clogging up courts across the country with lawsuits, the vast majority of which go unanswered. Many debt collectors also seem to have little respect for consumers and simply do whatever is necessary to make more money. So Oliver did the only …

Just as they did at PepsiCo’s shareholders meeting in North Carolina last month, anti-LGBT activists from the National Center for Public Policy Research ambushed Walmart executives at yesterday’s annual shareholders meeting in Fayetteville, Arkansas, where the Duggar clan infamously launched its attacks on a local pro-LGBT civil rights ordinance. The group demanded that Walmart issued a report explaining its “hypocrisy” …

From the New York Daily News: Walmart, the country’s biggest retailer, is staying silent about its transgender bathroom policies. The Arkansas-based corporation repeatedly refused to reveal its stance about transgender bathroom use for its shoppers and employees, despite requests by the Daily News every day for the past week. Inquiries to Walmart’s media relations team were first sent last Tuesday, …

Whoa. From the Charlotte Observer: Mecklenburg County has suffered an economic blow of $285 million and a loss of as many as 1,300 jobs as a result of House Bill 2, a new Charlotte Chamber report says. The report also says inquiries about new economic development are down 58 percent since lawmakers passed the bill in March, and client visits …

Via press release: “Every year, the employees of Hershey Entertainment & Resorts (HE&R) welcome over 6 million guests from down the street and around the world. We recognize that the more perspectives we have within our company, the more welcoming we are to all those who visit and seek employment here. In fact, our company has four core values, one …

Via press release from the American Family Association: On a media call last, week Target CEO Brian Cornell was asked if the boycott had an effect on their sales or stock price. He responded by saying “To date we have not seen a material or measurable impact on our business. Just a handful of stores across the country have seen …

Customers usually scurry away when street preachers launch into one of their ranting tirades inside of a Target store. But not this customer, who got right in the nutjob’s face while he screamed about Jesus Christ, perverts, abominations, and his right to sue any Target employee who touches him. Watch below.

Via CBS Minnesota: From sidewalk picketing to online petitions, the opposition to Target’s bathroom and fitting room policy isn’t going away. Outside the state office building in St. Paul on Monday, a large truck rolled up carrying a strong anti-Target message. “Send Target a message — don’t shop where women and children’s emotional and physical safety and privacy are under …

Fortune reports: Target reported a disappointing set of first-quarter results on Wednesday and warned investors to expect a slight drop in business in the current quarter. The discount retailer pointed to many factors pinching sales, damp and cool weather in parts of the company and skittish consumers, among them. But one thing not hitting sales is the purported boycott of …

Back in February, I launched a twice-monthly column for the website of Britain’s Pride Life magazine, a quarterly LGBT rights and lifestyle magazine. Today’s seventh installment is titled Obama Administration Takes Bold Action On Transgender Rights. Hit the link for my status report on trans rights, Target, hate groups, and the feds. DISCLOSURE: Pride Life is owned by the US …

Investor’s Business Daily reports: Wendy’s said that self-service ordering kiosks will be made available across its 6,000-plus restaurants in the second half of the year as minimum wage hikes and a tight labor market push up wages. It will be up to franchisees whether to deploy the labor-saving technology, but Wendy’s President Todd Penegor did note that some franchise locations …

In so many words, of course. Via press release: “American Family Association is appreciative that Target representatives were willing to accept the signatures of more than one million Americans and meet with us about our deep distress over Target’s unsafe bathroom policy, which permits anyone who identifies with another gender to enter the restroom or fitting room of the opposite …

But it’s just a “coincidence” that these companies might lose their tax breaks. From Raleigh’s NBC affiliate: While Republican state leaders have complained about being “bullied” by the federal government over House Bill 2, lobbyists in Raleigh tell WRAL News they and the businesses they represent are being bullied by state lawmakers seeking to silence business opposition to the new …