AT&T sacks president Aaron Slator amid $100m racial discrimination suit

Knoyme King, a black woman who worked for Slator, alleges she was passed over for promotions because of her race.
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David Simon: 'My Country Is a Horror Show'

The man behind the hit series 'The Wire' gave an impromptu speech about the divide between rich and poor in America.
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Waiting for Dark: Inside Two Anarchists' Quest for Untraceable Money

AMIR TAAKI AND Cody Wilson are cruising north through Texas on Interstate 35 in the 4:30 am predawn darkness. One of the headlights on the aging BMW Wilson’s driving is burned out, and he’s wearing sunglasses. “They’re prescription,” he says drily.
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The Coming Food Bubble

In 1851, Charles Mackay wrote his 600-page tome, Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds. In it, he describes 86 economic bubbles, like the tulip and the South Sea bubbles during the 17th and 18th centuries, both which burst and caused thousands to lose their fortunes through speculation. Mackay believed this economic phenomenon was evidence of a reckless obsession.
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Secret Anonymous App To Shut Down After Failing To Attract College Students The Way Rival Yik Yak Did

Secret, which aimed to attract college students, will shut down after raising $35 million in 2014.
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The global economy’s weird problem is that we have too much stuff

Excesses in capital, labor and commodities are challenging some of the basic principles of conventional economics.It ought to be a good thing that human society is richer than ever before, so rich that the storage tanks in Cushing, Okla., are nearly overflowing with crude oil and some 110 million bales of cotton are sitting in warehouses around the world, as Josh Zumbrun and Carolyn Cui report in The Wall Street Journal.
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AT&T stumbles in helping customer with $24,000 phone bill

It wasn't what Ron Dorff said. It was how he said it. The 83-year-old Woodland Hills resident wanted to let me know he was having problems with his phone company, AT&T. I get calls like this every day. But Dorff's desperation was clear. I could hear it in his voice. "It's the bill," he explained. "The company says I have to pay it. I can't pay this bill." I asked how much it was for. "Twenty-four thousand dollars," Dorff replied. Clearly something screwy was going on.
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Is Downloading Really Stealing? The Ethics of Digital Piracy

You wouldn't steal a car, you wouldn't steal a handbag, you wouldn't steal a television. But what about downloading pirated films? Is intellectual property infringement really morally equivalent with common theft, such as snatching someone's handbag? Read philosopher Christian Barry's take on this issue.
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'A Gronking to Remember' Becomes Memorable Lawsuit Against Amazon, Apple

A couple is suing the tech giants after finding their faces on an e-book that went viral.
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Why Buy the Hardware When China Is Getting the IP for Free?

IBM is sharing proprietary technology with Beijing in exchange for market access. Is it savvy or suicide?
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New bank fees target kids' accounts and allow 'double-dipping,' say customers

Banking fees are going up at all of Canada's five big banks, but some customers of RBC in particular are outraged about the changes. They're accusing Canada's biggest bank of targeting children and those who can least afford it.​
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NFL Relinquishing Tax-Exempt Status

Every so often, in a bid to sound threatening, a member of Congress has vowed to revoke the NFL's tax-exempt status. Now Commissioner Roger Goodell says the league will give it up voluntarily to "eliminate this distraction." One result is that Goodell's compensation — about $35 million 2013, and approximately $44 million in 2012 — will no longer need to be made public.
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Negative interest rates put world on course for biggest mass default in history

More than €2 trillion-worth of eurozone government bonds trade on a negative interest rate. It's a bubble that is bound to end badly
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The War Nerd: The Art of Turf War

There’s a war on now in South African cities, but no one’s calling it what it is. South Africans, mostly Zulu, are attacking shops run by foreigners, driving the aliens (mostly Zimbabwean, Somali, ...
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The great unraveling of globalization

U.S. businesses rethink a strategy that promised to lift companies and consumers the world over.
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This Microsoft ad paints a terrifying future where employees are working literally 24 hours a day

Your work isn't done until you keel over dead, Surface Pro in hand.
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Why GoPro's Success Isn't Really About the Cameras

Millions of people have used GoPro’s wearable cameras to record their every sky-diving, drone-flying, shark-riding adventure. But the San Mateo, California-based company might have just pulled off the greatest stunt of all with the biggest initial public offering of a consumer electronics company in more than 20 years.
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When AT&T promises broadband—but delivers only 300Kbps

For new homeowners, accurate information from Internet providers is hard to find.
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Don't Believe Everything You Read: Lower Fuel Prices Aren't Why U.S. Airlines Are Earning Big Profits

The nation’s largest airlines last week reported ridiculous – for them – first-quarter profits. And it had far less to do with the price of oil and jet fuel than you’ve probably read. Oh, to be sure, a 43 percent drop in the price of a gallon of jet fuel in the first quarter this year vs. the first quarter of 2014 is noteworthy and important.
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First Offshore Wind Farm In The U.S. Kicks Off Construction

Offshore wind is coming to the United States
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The Exile of the Bohemians

Can our gentrifying cities keep their artists? Should we care?
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Can paper survive the digital age?

We have long heard about the demise of paper in the digital age, but will there ever be a time when we don't use it?
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Local Food Systems: A Green Way of Life, or a Luxury Only for Elites?

While many celebrate salad greens, the local food movement is cultivating exclusivity and becoming less and less budget friendly.
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Google will pay you to keep your ideas out of the hands of patent trolls

2013 was a record year for patent lawsuits, which have been rising rapidly. As University of Iowa law professor Jason Rantenan recently pointed out, "in the 16 years from 1994 until 2010, the annual number of patent lawsuit filings doubled; it doubled again in the three years from 2010 to 2013." Today Google announced a new initiative to try and keep patents out of the hands of patent trolls, entities whose only business is amassing intellectual property and filing lawsuits.
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Obama shifts his pitch for the Trans-Pacific Partnership

The president’s frustration is showing as he fends off attacks from the left.
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Mankiw Mendacity and Morality and his League of Failed Economists

By William K. Black
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ESPN Sues Verizon Over 'Custom TV' Bundles

The network is seeking damages related to the plan, which lets Verizon FiOS customers choose a bundle of channels.
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When Exxon Wanted to Be the Next Apple

This weekend is the anniversary of the release of the Apple IIc, the company's fourth personal computer iteration and its first attempt at creating a portable computer. In 1981, Apple's leading competitor in the world of consumer ("novice") computer users was IBM, but the market was about to experience a deluge of also-rans and other silent partners in PC history, including the multinational descendant of Standard Oil, Exxon.
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Farmers Unable to Repair Tractors Because Copyright: Never a Side Effect, But Core Intention of Law

Stories are starting to appear about farmers unable to repair tractors and car aficionados unable to tinker with cars because of copyright legislation. That's not a side effect. It was the whole idea of the law.
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Denying New York Libraries the Fuel They Need

In New York, libraries have more users than major professional sports, performing arts, museums, gardens and zoos combined, but see only a fraction of the funding.
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Experts Urge Canada to Stop Threatening Piracy Notices

Due to a recent change i Canada’s copyright law, ISPs are now required to forward copyright infringement notices to their customers. As a result, hundreds of thousands of Internet subscribers have received warnings in their mailboxes since the start of the year, with some asking for cash settlements.
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Why are you still here?

In Grimsby, the former fishing capital of England, sandpipers scurry across the tarmac of derelict streets. The sandpiper isn’t a creature of asphalt and paving. It’s a small white-breasted bird usually to be found foraging on British foreshores in groups of twenty or so, scuttling...
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Looking Up Symptoms Online? These Companies Are Tracking You

​It’s 2015—when we feel sick, fear disease, or have questions about our health, we turn first to the internet. According to the Pew Internet Project, 72 percent of US internet users look up health-related information online. But an astonishing number of the pages we visit to learn about private health concerns—confidentially, we assume—are tracking our queries, sending the sensitive data to third party corporations, even shipping the information directly to the same brokers who...
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64-year-old engineer sues Google for age discrimination

A Florida man named Robert Heath has filed an age-discrimination lawsuit against Google in federal court, seeking to form a class action of workers who allege they were denied a chance to work at the search giant because of their age. Heath was rejected by Google in 2011, despite the fact that he had "highly-pertinent qualifications and experience," with a Google recruiter calling him a "great candidate," according to the complaint (PDF). At the time, Heath was 60 years old.
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The Next Great Gold Rush Won't Be Taking Place on Earth

here's a new gold rush heating up, but the hunt isn't for oil, gas or tech stocks — it's for asteroids. There are more than 10,000 near-Earth asteroids shooting by at any given moment, and many of them contain valuable resources like water, platinum and iron. While water and iron don't seem worthy of a gold rush by Earth standards, their value skyrockets due to their scarcity in space and the challenge of extracting them. If private companies can figure out a sustainable way to mine...
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5 Ways It's Become a Crime to Be Poor in America, Punishable by Further Impoverishment

New report details perverse policies that are driving more people into hopeless, inescapable poverty.
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Minnesota House passes lower minimum wage for tip workers

A change to the minimum wage that would lead to a pay cut for thousands of tip workers passed the Republican led Minnesota House Wednesday by a vote of 73-56
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TV maker Vizio may finally get paid after beating 17th patent troll

Lawsuits brought by "patent trolls," companies that have no product but file barrages of patent lawsuits, have become commonplace across the tech sector. For the few companies that choose to fight these cases until the end, it's an expensive endeavor, since defending a patent suit can cost anywhere from $1 million to several times that amount.
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Scientists are skeptical about the secret blood test that has made Elizabeth Holmes a billionaire

Faster, cheaper, better. An innovation that accomplishes those three things has the potential to disrupt an industry. But such innovations are rare. Theranos, a company founded by Stanford sophomore Elizabeth Holmes in the fall of 2003 (she dropped out a few months later) has generated a lot of buzz for developing a revolutionary approach to the blood test.
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Obama Tries to Make His Bones Again with the TPP

Apparently Obama is angry at progressives for attacking the Trans-Pacific Partnership. By Ian Welsh
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Slow Fashion Shows Consumers What It's Made Of

It has been two years since more than 1,100 workers were killed in a garment factory collapse in Bangladesh. "Ethical fashion" is gaining momentum — though what that means depends on whom you ask.
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The secret struggles of "Quirky", a seemingly successful startup

In February of this year, the staff of the New York startup Quirky gathered at the company’s headquarters on the West Side of Manhattan. Hundreds of community members also tuned in to a live stream of the event. Normally, these Town Hall meetings were a celebration of the company’s growth, a chance to highlight exciting new products and discuss upcoming partnerships. But this evening would be different. This was a reckoning.
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Every Starbucks in the US Is Giving Away Free Coffee Right Now

According to Twitter, Starbucks stores across the country are all having a major computer system failure right now—and they’re giving away all the drinks for free.
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Harley Recalls Nearly 46,000 Motorcycles

Harley-Davidson is recalling nearly 46,000 motorcycles in the U.S. because they could stay in gear due to clutches that won't fully disengage. The recall covers certain Electra Glide, Ultra Limited, Police Electra Glide, Street Glide, Road Glide and Road King models from the 2014 and 2015 model years.
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Volkswagen chairman Ferdinand Piech quits in power struggle

Ferdinand Piech, the chairman of VW, Europe's biggest carmaker, resigns after a power struggle with his chief executive.
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Amazon's Jeff Bezos is having a $5B(!) day

Friday has been a good day for Jeff Bezos. Amazon's CEO, who owned 83,933,463 company shares as of Feb. 19, is on track to having a $5 billion day. The company's stock surged more than $59, or nearly 15 percent, to about $449 a share, according to FactSet. (Tweet This). To put this into perspective, Bezos' one-day paper gain would be larger than the individual market caps of 17 S&P 500 companies.
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Charter Advisers Said to Contact Time Warner Cable for Talks

Advisers for Charter Communications Inc. have reached out to Time Warner Cable Inc. to begin friendly talks on an acquisition after Comcast Corp. withdrew its bid for the company, people with knowledge of the matter said. Charter’s goal is to buy Time Warner Cable quickly, though executives from the companies haven’t spoken yet, the people said, asking not to be identified because the negotiations are private.
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The Curious Case of $2 Bills in Ecuador

Fifteen years after Ecuador adopted the U.S. dollar as its official currency, the issue still stirs debate. Dollarization was so unpopular when it was first announced that protesters took over the capital and the government collapsed. The replacement government stuck with the plan—there wasn’t much choice. The Sucre, Ecuador’s native currency, was in the midst of a decade of hyper-inflation which was destroying the economy.
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HSBC considers moving HQ out of UK

The bank said the review followed "regulatory and structural reforms" since the financial crisis. HSBC's board has asked its management to "look at where the best place is for HSBC to be headquartered in this new environment," the bank said.
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Cheaper bandwidth or bust: How Google saved YouTube

YouTube, the Web's de-facto video service, is turning 10 this year. The site has become so indispensable that it feels like a basic part of the Internet itself rather than a service that lives on top of it. YouTube is just the place to put videos, and it's used by everyone from individuals to billion-dollar companies. It's obvious to say, but YouTube revolutionized Web video.
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