Business

Faith Driven Consumer is exploiting the ridiculous Starbucks flap to promote the launch of this year’s Shopping For Jesus campaign. They write: “Starbucks is free to design cups and other materials as they see fit, and each consumer—driven by their values and ideals—will respond based on the relative appeal of these products. For those Faith Driven Consumers and others dissatisfied …

“It’s not the Holy Grail, folks. It’s a cranberry-colored, environmentally-friendly coffee cup. I stopped drinking Starbucks coffee years ago – back when their chief executive officer said he did not want to do business with people like me – a gun-toting, Bible-believing offspring of white privilege. So I figured – why spend my hard-earned money on a company that actively …

Former Health & Human Services Secretary Kathleen Seblius has joined the global advisory board of Out Leadership and penned an op-ed for the Guardian in which she calls on corporations to back the Equality Act. She writes: We can’t do this without the support of the business community, which was vital throughout the marriage equality fight and will be no …

With four days left before the referendum, Apple has joined dozens of major corporations in backing Houston’s LGBT rights law. Their statement: “Apple is proud to be a part of Houston with four stores that employ over 500 people. Our stores and our company are open to everyone, regardless of where they come from, what they look like, how they …

Just opened on the Lower East Side is Gotham’s third kitty coffee shop, where you can play with (and adopt!) felines over your nonfat extra-hot no-foam light-whip semen-free mocha latte. This one also serves booze! Gothamist reports: The Lower East Side grew ten cats stronger yesterday with the opening of Koneko, NYC’s newest cat cafe located on Clinton Street. Koneko …

Actor Wil Wheaton unloaded on the Huffington Post yesterday: I’m very lucky to not need exposure or “reach” or anything like that, at least not right now and not this way. I’m also very lucky to be able to walk away from things like this because I believe it’s the right thing to do. If I’d offered this to Huffington …

Via the Denver Post: The Lakewood baker who, citing his religious beliefs, refused to make a wedding cake for a same-sex couple, is asking the Colorado Supreme Court to hear his case. On Aug. 13, the Colorado Court of Appeals upheld two previous rulings and found that Masterpiece Cakeshop owner Jack Phillips cannot cite his religious beliefs or free-speech rights …

Tech sites are up in arms about YouTube’s coming subscription service and what it might mean for consumers. First, the basics from the BBC: YouTube is to launch a subscription service offering original, exclusive videos – including feature-length films starring high-profile vloggers. Initially only available in the US, YouTube Red will cost $9.99 (£6.50) a month and have no adverts. …

The parent companies of Budweiser and Miller, the world’s two largest breweries, have agreed to merge and create an entity that would control one-third of the global beer market. After turning down five offers, British-based brewer SABMiller accepted in principle an improved takeover bid worth $106 billion from Anheuser Busch InBev, which along with Budweiser makes Corona, Stella Artois and …

Declaring that the “battle” to see naked women has been won thanks to the internet, Playboy Magazine says they will no longer publish nude photos. The New York Times reports: Last month, Cory Jones, a top editor at Playboy, went to see its founder Hugh Hefner at the Playboy Mansion. In a wood-paneled dining room, with Picasso and de Kooning …

Also marking National Coming Out Day yesterday was Google, which gave a nod to their famed LGBT employees group.

Yesterday Coca-Cola marked National Coming Out Day with the above tweet. Stand by for an avalanche of outrage.

Russian police are investigating whether Apple’s so-called “gay emojis” violate the national ban on gay propaganda. Billboard reports: The “administrative case” under controversial laws that prohibit the propagation of homosexual (termed “non-traditional”) relationships to minors, carry fines of between $12,000 and $15,000 if an offender is convicted. The case, brought by police in Russia’s Kirov region 600 miles northeast of …

The rainbow Doritos promotion has been over for more than a week, but don’t tell that to nutjob Monica Cole, who is screaming about anti-Christian persecution by a bag of corn chips. She writes: The latest assault on Christian values comes from a company you’d never guess. Frito-Lay has designed “Dorito Rainbows” chips along with a rainbow colored bag, all …

Today the Human Rights Campaign sent a letter to New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman [photo] in which they call for an investigation of price-gouging by pharma CEO Martin Shkreli.  HRC head Chad Griffin writes: Daraprim is a lifesaving treatment for toxoplasmosis, a parasitic infection impacting patients with compromised immune systems including those who are pregnant or living with HIV. …

Broadcasters and filmmakers may finally use Happy Birthday To You without paying royalties to Warner Music. Via the Guardian: A federal court judge in Los Angeles has declared the song Happy Birthday To You belongs in the public domain, dealing a blow to the music publishing company that has been collecting royalties from the song for decades. US district judge …

But he won’t say by how much. NBC News reports: The pharmaceutical company boss under fire for increasing the price of the drug Daraprim by more than 5,000 percent said Tuesday he will lower the cost of the life-saving medication. Martin Shkreli did not say what the new price would be, but expected a determination to be made over the …

Hillary Clinton yesterday tweeted the above reaction to a New York Times story about drug price gouging. Then this happened: The former first lady’s comments clearly spooked investors. The iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology ETF (IBB) went from flat on the day before the Clinton tweet to closing down nearly 5%. Biotech stocks helped knock the Nasdaq into the red on what …

Yesterday we learned that pharma CEO Martin Shkreli has raised the price of a vital AIDS drug by 5500%. Folks have gone digging into Shkreli’s past and there’s quite a story there. US Uncut reports that Shkreli was recently accused of hacking the email account of a rival pharma executive and threatening his family. They write: The report, taken by …

Raw Story reports: Appearing on Bloomberg TV, the CEO of a pharmaceutical company that recently hiked the price of a drug used for critically ill infants and AIDS patients by 5,500 percent, defended the price increase by promising better things to come for future patients. Martin Shkreli, 32, the founder and chief executive of Turing Pharmaceuticals, recently purchased the rights …