Does Anyone Know What to Make of Obama’s Sanctions?

The president’s move to punish Russia has scrambled partisan lines. By David A. Graham.
Read more: https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/12/the-disparate-reactions-to-obamas-sanctions/511910/?source=Snapzu

How Obama Failed Black Americans

The country’s first black president never pursued policies bold enough to close the racial wealth gap. By William A. Darity, Jr.
Read more: https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/12/how-barack-obama-failed-black-americans/511358/?source=Snapzu

As Groundwater Dwindles, a Global Food Shock Looms

By mid-century, says a new study, some of the biggest grain-producing regions could run dry. By Cheryl Katz.
Read more: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/12/groundwater-depletion-global-food-supply/?source=Snapzu

“Enough Is Better Than a Feast”: Christmas Dinner in the Time of the Great Depression

The authors Andrew Coe and Jane Ziegelman prepare a meal based on their research into what Americans ate in years of privation. By Talia Lavin.
Read more: http://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/enough-is-better-than-a-feast-christmas-dinner-in-the-time-of-the-great-depression?source=Snapzu

Uber driver saves 16-year-old girl from sex trafficking

For Uber driver Keith Avila, Monday's shift in Sacramento, California started out like any other — but ended with him helping save a 16-year-old girl from child sex trafficking. Avila said he picked up two women and the teen and drove them to a Holiday Inn in nearby Elk Grove, California. While in the car, the women openly talked about delivering the girl to a "John" and getting money from him. Once Avila dropped them off at the hotel, he called the police.
Read more: http://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/uber-driver-saves-16-year-old-girl-sex-trafficking-n701241?source=Snapzu

Trump’s Transition Team Is Stacked With Privatization Enthusiasts

If these officials get their way, America’s schools, roads, prisons, immigrant-detention centers, and critical social-insurance programs will soon fall into private hands. By David Dayen.
Read more: https://www.thenation.com/article/trumps-transition-team-is-stacked-with-privatization-enthusiasts/?source=Snapzu

The sharp rise in non-Latin American migrants trying to cross into the U.S. from Mexico

Mexican officials are calling it unprecedented: Some 15,000 migrants from outside Latin America passed through Baja California this year — nearly five times the number seen in 2015. By Alexandra Zavis. Photos by Genaro Molina.
Read more: http://www.latimes.com/projects/la-fg-immigration-trek-america-tijuana/?source=Snapzu

Amazon wins patent for a flying warehouse that will deploy drones to deliver parcels in minutes

Amazon has been awarded a patent for a giant flying warehouse that acts as a launchpad for drones to deliver items within minutes. The U.S. e-commerce giant described plans for an "airborne fulfillment center" (AFC) such as an airship or blimp that would float at an altitude of around 45,000. The airship will be stocked with lots of products.
Read more: http://www.cnbc.com/2016/12/29/amazon-flying-warehouse-deploy-delivery-drones-patent.html?source=Snapzu

Trump’s Treasury Pick Excelled at Kicking Elderly People Out of Their Homes

When Steven Mnuchin ran OneWest, the bank aggressively and in some cases, wrongly, foreclosed on elderly homeowners with reverse mortgages. The bank had a disproportionate share of such foreclosures. By Paul Kiel and Jesse Eisinger.
Read more: https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-treasury-pick-excelled-at-kicking-elderly-out-of-their-homes?source=Snapzu

The Ugly Unethical Underside of Silicon Valley

Silicon Valley’s startup scene celebrates iconoclasts and rule breakers. But are entrepreneurs taking “fake it till you make it” too far?
Read more: http://fortune.com/silicon-valley-startups-fraud-venture-capital/?source=Snapzu

How Jukin Media Built a Viral-Video Empire

All the company needed were content-hungry millennials and an algorithm.
Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/27/magazine/how-jukin-media-built-a-viral-video-empire.html?source=Snapzu

Toshiba shares fall 20% on deal warning

Toshiba shares fell 20% on Wednesday after the firm warned that its US nuclear business may be worth less than previously thought. The slump was large enough for trading in stocks of the Japanese industrial giant to be automatically halted. Shares had already fallen 12% on Tuesday, after reports of the likely write-down began circulating.
Read more: http://www.bbc.com/news/business-38448150?source=Snapzu

Suit: Versace used secret 'code' for black customers

A former Versace employee is suing the company for unfair business practices, and one of the allegations in his lawsuit is that the luxury fashion label uses a secret "code" to alert employees when a black customer enters the store. By Mayra Cuevas.
Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2016/12/27/us/versace-code-lawsuit-trnd/?source=Snapzu

Star Wars: The Financial Recession

This is not the outcome you're looking for.
Read more: http://bigthink.com/laurie-vazquez/the-cost-of-blowing-up-the-death-star-the-biggest-recession-in-the-universe?source=Snapzu

Why the 'Small Guys' are Putting Nova Scotia on the World Alcohol-Making Map

Nova Scotia is fast becoming known for something other than lobster and lighthouses. Distillers are also making alcohol such as whisky and rum that are being recognized as some of the best in the world.
Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/distillery-rum-whiskey-river-john-guysborough-glynn-williams-1.3912833?source=Snapzu

The Meat and Three Is the Ultimate Southern Food Experience

Meat and threes are foundational to Southern cuisine.
Read more: http://www.eater.com/2016/12/27/13990844/meat-and-three-north-carolina-alabama-georgia?source=Snapzu

Superflex’s robot suit is meant to help mobilize aging populations

Wearable tech is often geared toward the super-fit or the able-bodied, whether it’s tracking intense activities or your basic daily step count, but one company in Silicon Valley is focusing instead on building a “smart” suit for the aging population.
Read more: http://www.theverge.com/2016/12/20/14009890/superflex-robot-power-suit-aging-elderly-senior-citizens-mobility?source=Snapzu

U.S. inequality keeps getting uglier

The gap between the "haves" and "have nots" is widening, according to the latest data out this week. The rich are money-making machines. Today, the top mega wealthy -- the top 1% -- earn an average of $1.3 million a year. It's more than three times as much as the 1980s, when the rich "only" made $428,000, on average, according to economists Thomas Piketty, Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman.
Read more: http://money.cnn.com/2016/12/22/news/economy/us-inequality-worse/?source=Snapzu

At soaring rate, Nepalis seeking jobs abroad come home dead

“The number of Nepali workers going abroad has more than doubled since the country began promoting foreign labor in recent years: from about 220,000 in 2008 to about 500,000 in 2015.” By Martha Mendoza.
Read more: http://bigstory.ap.org/9fc158da86604e74af131c707eb60719?source=Snapzu

Boxing Day, explained

For some countries, the day after Christmas is a holiday in its own right.
Read more: http://www.vox.com/2015/12/26/10661754/boxing-day?source=Snapzu

£4m food crime unit set up over horse meat scandal has still not resulted in any prosecutions

Britain’s food-policing unit which was created following the horse meat scandal has still not resulted in any prosecutions despite costing the taxpayer £4m. By Nicola Harley.
Read more: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/12/25/4m-food-crime-unit-set-horse-meat-scandal-has-still-not-resulted/?source=Snapzu

Facing layoff at Carnival, IT employee makes bold counteroffer

In early December, Carnival Corp. told about 200 IT employees that the company was transferring their work to Capgemini, a large IT outsourcing firm. The employees had a choice: Either agree to take a job with the contractor or leave without severance.
Read more: http://computerworld.com/article/3152896/it-outsourcing/facing-layoff-at-carnival-it-employee-makes-bold-counteroffer.html?source=Snapzu

UK third quarter GDP growth revised up to 0.6%

The UK economy grew by 0.6% in the third quarter, according to official figures, faster than previous estimates. Growth for the July-to-September period had originally been estimated at 0.5%. New data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) suggested that the business and financial sector was more active than previously estimated. The ONS also said that growth in the third quarter of the year was helped by "robust consumer demand".
Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-38413787?source=Snapzu

The world's oldest bank is about to get saved by the government - but there's a catch

The world’s oldest bank, Monte dei Paschi di Siena, is poised for a multi-billion state bailout after it admitted on Wednesday that a private rescue plan was unlikely to succeed. The Italian parliament looks set to step in to save Monte dei Paschi di Siena, recently judged the weakest of the European Union's major banks, over the next few days using a new €20bn (£17bn) rescue fund designed to prop up Italy's struggling lenders.
Read more: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/monte-dei-paschi-di-siena-bailout-italy-government-state-private-rescue-fund-fail-a7489601.html?source=Snapzu

'Plastic rice' seized in Nigeria

Nigeria has confiscated 2.5 tonnes of "plastic rice" smuggled into the country by unscrupulous businessmen, the customs service says. Lagos customs chief Haruna Mamudu said the fake rice was intended to be sold in markets during the festive season. He said the rice was very sticky after it was boiled and "only God knows what would have happened" if people ate it. It is not clear where the seized sacks came from but rice made from plastic pellets was found in China last year.
Read more: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-38391998?source=Snapzu

2009: The year the Democratic Party died

Want to know why Hillary Clinton ultimately lost to Donald Trump? Look to President Obama’s first term. By Ryan Cooper. (Nov. 15, 2016)
Read more: http://theweek.com/articles/661871/2009-year-democratic-party-died?source=Snapzu

Why the GOP Wants to Gut Social Security

A group of Republican lawmakers has a proposal that would slash Social Security benefits for virtually everyone. By Judy Molland.
Read more: http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/38796-why-the-gop-wants-to-gut-social-security?source=Snapzu

How ant societies point to radical possibilities for humans

The ant colony has often served as a metaphor for human order and hierarchy. But real ant society is radical to its core.
Read more: https://aeon.co/essays/how-ant-societies-point-to-radical-possibilities-for-humans?source=Snapzu

Uber moves its self-driving cars to Arizona to escape California regulators

Uber is tired of arguing with California regulators over whether it’s allowed under existing laws to test self-driving cars on the streets of San Francisco without a permit. The company has announced it is moving its 16 prototypes across the state line to Phoenix, Arizona. Doug Ducey, the Republican governor of Arizona, has been aggressively campaigning for Uber to move to the Grand Canyon State since news of the tug-of-war between the ridesharing giant and California began making headlines.
Read more: http://www.digitaltrends.com/cars/uber-moves-autonomous-cars-to-az-news-details-quotes/?source=Snapzu

Stop calling almond, soy and rice milks 'milk,' 25 members of Congress say

Got milk? Twenty-five members of Congress say if it's from soybeans, almond or rice, it should not be labeled as milk.
Read more: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-almond-milk-soy-milk-20161223-story.html?source=Snapzu

Why Nestle pays next to nothing for Michigan groundwater

To say that Michigan is an ideal state in which to operate a bottled water factory is something of an understatement. Nestle Waters North America, the world's largest bottled water company, shipped the first bottle from its Ice Mountain plant in Stanwood in May 2002. Since then, the company has extracted billions of gallons of groundwater from underneath Michigan and has paid next to nothing for it.
Read more: http://www.mlive.com/news/index.ssf/2016/12/why_nestle_pays_next_to_nothin.html?source=Snapzu

How a great-grandmother’s body came to be used in an Army blast test

The story of how Doris Stauffer became part of a military experiment against family wish casts light on a growing but unregulated industry: human body brokers. By John Shiffman.
Read more: http://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-bodybrokers-industry/?source=Snapzu

Martin Shkreli Says ‘Of Course’ He’d Raise Drug Price Again

Outspoken former pharmaceutical executive Martin Shkreli said the national outrage over drug pricing was blown out of proportion and heightened by the U.S. presidential election, although he conceded he could have predicted the blowback better. “In terms of regret, maybe not seeing that as acutely would’ve been a minor regret,” Shkreli said during an interview on Bloomberg TV Friday. “But because the price increase has stuck, so to speak, I don’t really, that’s the main mission...
Read more: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-12-23/martin-shkreli-says-of-course-he-d-raise-drug-price-again?source=Snapzu

India Overtakes Britain as the World’s Sixth-Largest Economy

What was once Britain’s “crown jewel” has outshined the former empire. By Robbie.gramer.
Read more: http://foreignpolicy.com/2016/12/20/india-overtakes-britain-as-the-worlds-sixth-largest-economy/?source=Snapzu

Google employee sues company for 'illegal' confidentiality policies that violate labor laws

A Google product manager has accused the company of violating California labor laws via its restrictive confidentiality policies. According to The Information, the employee filed a suit with the California Superior Court in San Francisco, alleging that Google is running an internal "spying program" that encourages employees to report co-workers suspected of leaking information to the media.
Read more: http://www.androidcentral.com/google-employee-sues-company-illegal-confidentiality-policies-violate-labor-laws?source=Snapzu

India's federal bank just can't make up its mind on demonetization

Reserve Bank of India or Reverse Bank of India?
Read more: https://www.google.com/amp/mashable.com/2016/12/22/rbi-demonetization-rules-amedments-india.amp?source=Snapzu

Earliest evidence discovered of plants cooked in ancient pottery

A team of international scientists, led by the University of Bristol, has uncovered the earliest direct evidence of humans processing plants for food found anywhere in the world.
Read more: http://www.bristol.ac.uk/news/2016/december/prehistoric-plant-processing-.html?source=Snapzu

A Brief Economic History of Time

What is an economy? You might say it is how people who cannot predict the future deal with it. People save money to protect themselves from calamity. Banks charge interest to account for risk. People trade stocks to bet on the earnings trajectory of a company. The first taxes were levied to support standing armies that could fight in the event of an invasion.
Read more: https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/12/a-brief-economic-history-of-time/510566/?source=Snapzu

Making Green: The history of New York's Christmas tree market

For many, the Christmas holiday in New York City finally comes to life when the sidewalks sprout evergreens.
Read more: http://www.boweryboyshistory.com/2015/12/new-yorks-first-christmas-tree-seller.html?source=Snapzu

Feds indict two men in alleged $6 million ‘porno-trolling’ extortion scheme

More than three years have passed since a federal judge in California sanctioned attorneys Paul R. Hansmeier and John L. Steele for using deceptive legal maneuvers to win settlements from people they accused of illegally downloading pornography. Their tactics were complicated but effective. The attorneys, who ran a firm called Prenda Law, would use shell companies to buy up copyrights for pornographic movies, then upload those movies to file-sharing websites such as Pirate Bay, where they would monitor who downloaded them.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/12/19/feds-indict-two-men-for-alleged-6-million-porno-trolling-collection-extortion-scheme/?source=Snapzu

The marijuana industry has proven to be a prodigious jobs producer

The marijuana job market could double or triple in years to come. by Sean Williams.
Read more: http://www.fool.com/investing/2016/12/11/the-number-of-marijuana-jobs-could-triple-in-the-y.aspx?source=Snapzu

Pharma Execs Arrested in Shockingly Organized Scheme to Overprescribe Notorious Opioid

federal prosecutors in Massachusetts announced the arrest of six former employees, including a former CEO and two former vice presidents, of the Phoenix-based and NASDAQ-traded fentanyl producer Insys Therapeutics… By Ben Mathis-Lilley.
Read more: http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2016/12/09/executives_at_major_fentanyl_producer_arrested_in_overprescription_case.html?source=Snapzu

Uber Driver Fatally Shoots Would-Be Robber

Police say an Uber driver fatally shot a would-be robber who tried to ambush him near an upscale South Florida mall. Aventura police spokesman Chris Goranitis told local media that the driver had picked up a passenger about 5:30 a.m. Sunday when a minivan cut him off near the Aventura Mall. Goranitis said a robber emerged and pointed two handguns at the driver. Goranitis said the Uber driver pulled his own handgun and fired shots that killed the robber. Two others inside the minivan sped away and are being sought.
Read more: http://sacramento.cbslocal.com/2016/12/18/uber-driver-fatally-shoots-would-be-robber/?source=Snapzu

One of the biggest VC's in Silicon Valley explains how basic income could fail in America

Y Combinator President Sam Altman says Americans' love affair with work could get in the way of basic income making people any happier.
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/sam-altman-how-american-basic-income-could-fail-2016-12?source=Snapzu

Firm accused of hiking drug price by 12,000%

Drugs firm Actavis UK overcharged the NHS by hiking the price of a life-saving drug by more than 12,000%, the competition watchdog alleges. It said the amount charged for 10mg hydrocortisone tablets rose to £88 per pack by March 2016 from 70p when a branded version of the drug was sold by a different company prior to April 2008. There was also a 9,500% increase for 20mg tablets, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said.
Read more: http://news.sky.com/story/firm-accused-of-overcharging-nhs-by-hiking-life-saving-drug-price-by-12000-10697728?source=Snapzu

100 CEOs Have as Much Retirement Savings as 116 Million Americans - Monetary Watch

While many Americans are facing a “frightening retirement reality,” 100 CEOs are looking at “colossal nest eggs” and can look forward to monthly retirement checks of over $250,000 for the rest of their lives. The Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) puts a spotlight on this massive savings gap in its newreport (pdf), “A Tale of Two Retirements.”
Read more: http://monetarywatch.com/2016/12/100-ceos-much-retirement-savings-116-million-americans/?source=Snapzu

Automation Won't Create New Jobs Like Technology Did In The Past

"Increased productivity leads to more wealth, cheaper goods, greater spending power and ultimately, more jobs," said the Wall Street Journal in the latest entry in the counterpoint to articles declaring the end of work. People should trust things will work out and know the weight of historic experience is on their side, although no one really explains how. Financial services companies are required to note that previous performance is no promise of future gains.
Read more: http://www.forbes.com/sites/eriksherman/2016/12/17/automation-has-created-more-jobs-in-the-past-but-will-it-now/#48a817e727fd?source=Snapzu

Cuba offers to pay back £222m of Cold War-era debt to the Czech Republic in rum

It has long been immortalised as the tipple of gold-hungry pirates.
Read more: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/12/15/cuba-offers-pay-back-222m-cold-war-era-debt-czech-republic-rum/?platform=hootsuite?source=Snapzu

Lawyers indicted for using porn to fuel $6M copyright extortion scam

Two lawyers were charged Friday with a "massive extortion scheme" in which they uploaded X-rated films to file-sharing sites, sued the people who downloaded them — and collected millions from victims who feared public humiliation, prosecutors said. Paul Hansmeier and John Steele actually produced some of the pornography, solely for the purpose of copyrighting it so they could file "sham lawsuits" used to shake down their targets, Minnesota U.S. Attorney Andrew Luger said.
Read more: http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/two-lawyers-charged-porn-fueled-copyright-extortion-scheme-n697046?source=Snapzu

Why the Peak Oil Movement Failed

"The standard model of the future accepted through most of the peak oil scene started from a set of inescapable facts and an unexamined assumption, and the combination of those things produced consistently false predictions." By John Michael Greer.
Read more: http://thearchdruidreport.blogspot.com/2016/12/why-peak-oil-movement-failed.html?source=Snapzu