#Amazon’s New Headquarters May Be a Prime Deal for Two Cities | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

gypsydanger01 · 5 years ago

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Fandom: The Boys (amazon prime series)

Requested by @seasalt-888: can you do a starlight X an ex who she broke up with because he didn't show he cared enough? Something like him coming back and showing her he's trying to change for the better?

Word count: 1850 words

A/N: I’ve got to say, this was a challenge for me because I wasn’t quite sure how you wanted it to go. That’s the reason why I gave this a more or less open ending. I hope you enjoy it!! Let me know if you want a continuation, or how you want Annie to deal with his reappearance in her life. Will it work or not? It’s completely up to you, dear!

Let me know what you think!

Reviews, constructive criticism and requests are always welcome!

Disclaimer: I don’t own Amazon Prime’s The Boys or any of its characters.

10 pm confessions

Walking groggily through her living space at the top of Vought Headquarters, Annie pulled her sneakers on and a sweater over her shoulders. She grabbed her grocery list off of the kitchenette counter and headed towards the door. The building had long since gone quiet, and her fellow team members were either out, or off to sleep for the night. She sighed, impatient to do the same. Nonetheless, she’d realized a while back that buying groceries was best done near closing hours at a small store a few blocks away. She could collect the products she needed without being bombarded by fans, or reporters. Sure, she loved the attention and the impact she knew she could have on their lives. She liked to be around people and spread a positive influence. But she also knew to value her time alone, those quiet hours of the night when she could finally think in a peaceful silence.

In the elevator, she felt her phone vibrate from an incoming call. Brad. She rolled her eyes, and bit her lip. She felt herself grow hot in the stuffy elevator, a cheery tune sounding from the speakers. In the metallic interior, she stared at her image, pulled and twisted like a fun house mirror.

She let her thumb hover over her phone, conflicted with the decision she was about to make. Finally, she let it fall and accepted his call.

The elevator had reached the ground floor, but she let the doors close on her once again. She brought the phone to her ear.

“Annie?” his voice questioned.

“Brad.”

“Annie, how are you?”

She sighed, “Brad, I’m doing fine. Why are you calling?”

“Look Annie, you were right, and I just really need to talk to you--”

“Brad, the time for that has passed; you know I’m in New York, I can’t do this right now”

“I’m here in the city, I came here for you. Tell me a place and I’ll come see you,” he rambled trying to convince her. “Please, Annie, I need to do this.”

Leaning back against the elevator wall, she soaked it in. He was in New York. He was there to see her. And if this had happened two months ago, she would have been ecstatic. She wouldn’t hesitate. And yet, prolonged disappointments and neglect tend to numb you in front of these occasions.

“Annie?”

His plea hanged in the air along with another more somber tune. The melody the elevator music switched to felt appropriate, both distant and melancholic. Detached, even.

“It’s always about what you need, Brad,” she sighed softly.

After a moment of silence, “Annie, that isn’t what I meant. I want you to hear this from me, because after everything you deserve it. You deserve it.”

“Please,” he finally added.

“I’ll send you a location,” and with that, she hanged up.

Sighing deeply and now fully awake, she sent him the grocery store address. Might as well finish running her errands. She wasn’t at his beck-and-call anymore. She was her own person. She had places to be. She would not re-arrange her plans for him. He’d since lost that privilege.

Pressing a button on the side of the elevator, she let the doors slide open, and walked towards the exit.

There was no denying the slight twist in her chest as she crossed the street in front of Dave’s Shop. He’d beg for her forgiveness reopening both of their wounds, she surmised.

Upon entering, she was greeted by the store owner, Dave McCall, a middle-aged, lanky man with a mischievous glint in his eyes. He was the type of person to crack jokes, or hand out candy. Annie had fallen in love with the grocery store mostly due to the simple, yet gleeful atmosphere its owner perspired. It made her feel normal and reminded her of the good in people.

“Good evening, Dave.”

“Hello, Annie, how are you this fine evening?”

“All right, I guess. Busy” she said smiling, and held up her grocery list.

“Ah,” he nodded approvingly, “I guess that’s something I can help with.”

“Yeah, do you have any fresh bread left over?”

“Let me check in the back, you know New Yorkers...,” he trailed off, moving to the back.

She wasn’t sure where his train of thought was leading him, but she began to look for her usual items. Packing them onto the front counter, she waited for him to reappear with her usual order of baked items.

“There you go, will that be all?”

“Yeah, that’s everything for tonight.”

He ringed her items up and she payed. With a charming smile, and crinkled eyes he waved at her on her way out.

Once on the street, she let her nerves tug her towards a bench where she sat. She understood New York had a traffic issue. And not knowing where Brad was staying, she decided to give him the benefit of doubt.

Not even five minutes later, she saw him approaching and cross the street on his way towards her. She immediately stood.

“Annie,” he came to a stop a few feet from her. “Thank you so much for agreeing to see me.”

She only nodded, while he moved his feet about.

After a few moments of awkward silence, she cleared her throat, “Listen, I really--”

“I’m so sorry Annie.”

She stood still and cautiously listened.

He looked at her in her eyes. “I was such a jerk, and I shouldn’t have ever blamed you for it all. That was me deflecting, and not believing I could ever push you away.”

“Brad.”

“I truly blame myself for it all. You’re amazing, Annie. Brilliant. And I’m not even talking about your powers, or even you being part of the Seven, though that is incredible. I’m talking about just Annie. Just you and your kindness, your resiliency, your strength. You always see the good in people, and you truly do want to help people. Saying you’re brilliant doesn’t even scratch the surface. You’re genuine, and you carry a light...” he trailed off, “so bright, I’m glad so many more people can see it.”

He continued, “And I took it for granted, couldn’t really see the damage I was doing to us until you had to end it.”

Letting his eyes fall to the ground, he cleared his throat and finally said it, “I regret it.”

Annie felt herself get choked up with emotions that hadn’t surfaced in a long time. She collected herself and spoke up, “Brad why are you here, exactly. What was the point of reliving this.”

He moved a step closer. “I don’t deserve your forgiveness. I just don’t. But I did want you to hear what I had to say-- what I’ve come to realize. You deserve it-- to be told just how incredible you are.”

She smiled bitterly, as her inner turmoil threatened to manifest in the form of tears. She kept them at bay. Time had passed, she shouldn’t feel this way-- and so strongly, too.

“Annie, I got a small apartment here. I signed for a month...” he seemed unsure on whether he should proceed. “If you want me to leave, I will, I swear. But I thought we could try again. Y’know I could move here, and we could start back at the beginning.”

She looked at him long and hard.

“Of course, if you disagree I will respect that, and you will never hear from me again. It’s up to you, Annie. I just don’t want to ever lose you like that again... but I don’t want to hurt you anymore than I already have, either.”

Tired and feeling vulnerable, she wrapped her arms around herself, swinging slightly from side to side. A part of her didn’t want to forgive him, it wanted to hurt him inside. And yet, she realized it also meant self-inflicted pain, fresh wounds on top of their already brutal break-up. They’d loved each other in a very truthful way. He’d strayed, and forgotten what they were, what they had.

Nevertheless, he’d remembered when she’d finally left.

He was important to her, just as she was important to him. Maybe he’d truly changed. Annie deeply wanted it to be so.

Watching him with softening eyes, she finally made an offer.

“How about we talk about this tomorrow? We can go grab something to eat in the afternoon.”

He immediately lightened up. It may have been an extremely small, almost non-existent progress to some, but it was still a step forward to him.

“Sure, that’s perfect. If you have a place in mind you can text me a time and address and I’ll be ready”

“Okay, I might be late. Things tend to pop up at the last minute--”

“No worries, I’ll wait for you.”

“All right.” She gave him the first genuine smile of the night and he tried to print it into his memory. He’d been so foolish: she was brilliant in every way.

“All right.” He nodded his head towards her and started moving backwards, “Good night.”

“Good night, Brad.”

She could see his big, goofy smile as he turned around and headed off in the direction he’d come from, a certain energy in his step.

“Annie! You never told me you were in the business of making soap operas,” a voice exclaimed.

Twisting around, she saw Dave closing up shop. At her blank stare, he proceeded with what he was saying.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to butt it, but I was kinda stuck in the store. Didn’t want to ruin your moment, y’know.”

Her features immediately relaxed, and she laughed lightly.

“I’m sorry we held you up, and I’m so sorry you had to see that”

“No worries, dear. He seemed sincere,” he thought out loud. “I don’t know what he did, just make sure he respects you, treats you right.”

“Oh that’s a given. I think he’s learned his lesson, though.”

Dave shook his head lightly, chuckling.

“Well, I’m off. Do you need help?”

Lifting all of her heavy groceries without any apparent difficulty, he raised his hands, “Of course, forgot about that detail. I think I might actually slow you down.”

“Thanks anyway, Dave, I’ll be seeing you in a week.”

“Anytime, dear.” He hopped into his car. It started it with some questionably dark fumes rising, and he was off.

Annie started walking back, forgetting her surroundings, the bags in hand, her own tiredness. All she could do was fixate on Brad, and his words. The tired look in his eyes mirrored her own, had the break-up really weighed on him as much as it had on her? Was he sincere? Like Dave said, he did seem truthful.

Finally back at the Tower, she pushed the thoughts away. She’d deal with them later, after a long and refreshing night of sleep. Once she’d packed her groceries into the fridge, she could do nothing but sigh at the sight of her soft, warm bed.

g.e.

#the boys #the boys amazon #amazon prime #annie january #starlight #ex boyfriend #fanfiction #one-shot #the boys tv #the boys comic

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davidoespailla · 6 years ago

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Amazon’s New Headquarters May Be a Prime Deal for Two Cities, but Where Will Workers Live?

Getty Images; realtor.com

For the past year, Amazon has artfully whipped cities all over the country into a frenzy as they vied for a prize: home to the online retailing giant’s second corporate headquarters and up to 50,000 high-paying jobs. And now it appears there’s not one, but two winners. Ooh, last-minute plot twists!

The tech giant is reportedly close to deals to split HQ2, as it’s known, between Long Island City, a burgeoning Queens neighborhood in New York City, and Crystal City, an Arlington, VA, area just across the river from Washington, DC. (Amazon officials have declined to comment.) The addition of up to 25,000 jobs with average salaries topping $100,000 is something local politicians will brag about for years.

But these cities, and the folks who live in them, may not want to pop open the Champagne just yet. The new headquarters are likely to worsen some of the problems both of these uber-pricey metros are grappling with: namely the lack of affordable housing, and traffic and public transit woes.

For clues on what may be in store for these markets, experts are looking westward to Seattle, Amazon’s birthplace and current home.

Over the course of its two-decade existence, the online behemoth has utterly transformed this coastal city, creating a turbocharged economy and a go-go housing market to match. Seattle rebounded more quickly from the past recession than most other places. But home prices rose rapidly as more well-paid workers flocked to the area and many longtime residents were priced out. Median list prices shot up 12.1% just in the past year, to a median $550,050 in the Seattle metro area as of Oct. 1, according to the most recent realtor.com® data available. That’s much higher price growth than the 7.3% rise nationally.

“They created a big problem with a lack of affordable housing in Seattle,” says KC Conway, chief economist at CCIM Institute, a Chicago-based commercial real estate professional group. “And now they’re dragging it with them to the East Coast.”

Even with only 25,000 workers apiece, each of the two new sites will still be among the largest corporate relocations or expansions ever, says Andrew Scott, a Chicago-based attorney who specializes in corporate site selections at Dykema. That means there’s no point of comparison for how this will shake out for the winning cities in the long term.

“You just don’t know what the ripple effects are going to be on a particular location,” he says.

(In separate news, it appears that Google is looking for additional space to accommodate up to 12,000 additional workers to Manhattan’s chic West Village neighborhood in New York City, according to The Wall Street Journal.)

Jonathan Miller of Miller Samuel, a New York City–based real estate appraiser, believes rents and home prices will go up 5% to 10% as a result of Amazon moving into these cities.

Real estate prices poised to soar in Long Island City

Long Island City has already gone through a dramatic reinvention in recent years.

Located directly across the East River from Manhattan, it was once a desolate hellscape of abandoned warehouses and high crime. But developers transformed the area, putting up a spate of luxury high-rises along the waterfront, many of them expensive rentals.

Over the past year or so, developers have been forced to offer concessions to lure tenants and buyers who have their choice of recently opened buildings in the neighborhood. But since the news leaked this week that Amazon is likely moving in, those same developers have been emailing local real estate broker Eric Benaim of Modern Spaces to say they need to raise prices.

“It’s going to turn Long Island City into the new Silicon Valley,” Benaim says.

Not long ago the area seemed in danger of becoming overdeveloped. But that same building boom may become its saving grace if Amazon comes into town: 6,000 new rentals are in the pipeline to come on the market over the next three years, Benaim says. The mix of predominantly studio, one-bedroom, and two-bedroom apartments is in addition to the roughly 650 to 750 apartments already on the market.

In addition, about 2,100 new condo units are projected to go up for sale over the next 15 months. These are mostly one- and two-bedroom units with a smaller percentage of studios and three- and four-bedrooms units mixed in. Currently, there are around 350 condos for sale.

But even this much housing won’t be enough if all 25,000 workers come to town. With a limited supply and increased demand, Benaim expects incentives will disappear and then prices will go up—at least a few hundred dollars a month for renters. Monthly rents averaged nearly $3,500 for a one-bedroom apartment and $4,700 for a two-bedroom apartment in the third quarter of the year, according to Modern Spaces.

Meanwhile, condo prices could rise 10% to 15% over the next few years, he predicts. They averaged just over $800,000 for one-bedroom units and nearly $1.3 million for two-bedroom units in the third quarter of 2018, according to Modern Spaces.

And the neighborhoods adjacent to Long Island City would likely absorb some of the new residents. The surrounding Queens neighborhoods of Astoria and Sunnyside, middle-class enclaves of single- and multi-family brick and row homes, have already been rapidly gentrifying in recent years. Trendy Brooklyn neighborhoods such as Williamsburg are also nearby. Even the tony Upper East Side of Manhattan, which sits just across the river, is likely to be affected.

The increase in highly paid jobs will be a boon to the area, says Rob MacKay, spokesman for the Queens Economic Development Corp. But some fear that Queens, one of the most ethnically diverse corners of the nation, may lose some of the character that it’s known for. Its middle-class and immigrant residents are already being pushed out by increasingly higher prices. Amazon is likely to only exacerbate the flight as more luxury buildings go up well out of the price ranges of existing residents.

And not every resident is thrilled at the prospect of an influx of new neighbors. Wayne Chiarella, 42, has been renting in the neighborhood for 14 years. He shares a two-bedroom apartment with his girlfriend, and he says that the rush-hour trains at his stop are already unbearably packed.

“I just can’t imagine how much worse it’s going to be when there’s an additional 25,000 people commuting in and out of the neighborhood every day,” he says.

Where will Crystal City workers live?

Crystal City, a neighborhood of mostly bland concrete office and government buildings, may not seem like a top pick for one of the world’s most exciting companies.

But located right outside DC proper and sandwiched between the Pentagon and Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, the area would make an ideal base for lobbying and meetings on Capitol Hill (as well as drop-ins by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, who owns a house in DC). And it has easy access to a diverse, highly skilled workforce.

Still, it’s not all roses. Northern Virginia is already struggling with heavy traffic and a lack of housing across the price spectrum. To accommodate the potential new workers, the area will need to undergo something of a housing boom of high-rise rental buildings and townhomes, says Robert Dietz, chief economist for the National Association of Home Builders.

Now, that could be eased a little by the roughly 9,500 new apartment units expected to go online in the Washington, DC, metro area by the end of the year, according to apartment listings website RENTCafé.

But that’s a 19% decline from 2017, and about 88% are expected to be pricier units. And as in Queens, the rumors of Amazon’s likely arrival is already pushing up costs.

After getting wind of the Amazon move, real estate agent Jordan Stuart increased the price of a two-bedroom condo in an older building in Crystal City by $20,000, to $580,000, with his client’s permission. The home has been on the market for two months.

“Crystal City doesn’t have many residential opportunities,” says Stuart, of Keller Williams Capital Properties. There isn’t much land nearby to build new homes, either.

What’s available is mostly rentals, with a few condos sprinkled in. The neighborhood of Aurora Highlands, which offers older, single-family homes, is just next door. But as of Wednesday, there were only six homes there for sale on realtor.com. They range from $850,000 to $1.4 million, Stuart says.

“The midtier inventory [between $450,000 and $700,000] right now is stable. You can definitely find product,” Stuart says. But that’s not likely to last if Amazon workers start descending. “Those are the first homes that are going to get shorted.”

Amazon HQ2 losers may turn out to be the biggest winners

While New York City and Washington, DC–area officials are salivating over what all of those good-paying Amazon gigs will mean for their economies and tax revenues, the biggest winners, surprisingly, may be the losers: the lower-cost cities that got bypassed in Amazon’s national beauty contest.

“The cities that didn’t get [the headquarters] dodged a bullet,” says Conway, of CCIM and the Alabama Center for Real Estate.

The six-figure salaries Amazon promises won’t go too far in either New York or the DC metro area, and might not be enough to lure highly skilled workers. Those with families, in particular, may not look kindly on pricey single-family homes that require long commutes.

“You can’t attract the skilled workforce in New York or Northern Virginia without the affordable housing,” says Conway.

The median home price is $559,000 in Crystal City, part of Arlington (where prices are $599,000), and $437,050 in the DC metro area, according to realtor.com. They’re a whopping $997,000 in Long Island City and $529,545 in the New York City metro area.

Many financially savvy workers may still prefer cheaper cities that still offer good jobs. For example, Pittsburgh offers a median home price of $180,000 within the city limits. It’s $285,000 in Charlotte, NC; $289,900 in Raleigh, NC; $325,000 in Chicago; $389,000 in Dallas; and $419,900 in Austin, TX. With those housing prices, workers can live like tech titans off their healthy paychecks.

And here’s the thing: Even in New York City and DC, there aren’t enough skilled workers to fulfill Amazon’s needs. So this could lead to bidding wars for the most in-demand talent—and, of course, poaching from other companies. With unemployment already so low, this could make it harder for some tech companies to compete. So if Amazon moves in, they may ultimately decide to move out.

Amazon “picked two of the most expensive housing markets in the country,” says Conway. “That could be a big factor in [whether they] succeed.”

The post Amazon’s New Headquarters May Be a Prime Deal for Two Cities, but Where Will Workers Live? appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com®.

Amazon’s New Headquarters May Be a Prime Deal for Two Cities, but Where Will Workers Live?

#TRUSTED LOCAL REALTOR #Amazon’s New Headquarters May Be a Prime Deal for Two Cities #but Where Will

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notourlasthunt · 7 years ago

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‘Shadowhunters’ Takes Manhattan: Fans Will Air an Ad in Times Square in Hopes of Finding a New Home

Science Fiction. Jason Motes. June 27, 2018.

‘Shadowhunters’ fans continue their hunt for a haven for the supernatural angels-vs.-demons series that Freeform cancelled after three seasons, when producers Constantin Films lost a financial deal with Netflix. Without the funding from Netflix, Freeform and Constantin could not afford to keep the expensive fantasy series going. The series was not a huge smash for Freeform, but it did average a decent 500,000 live views.

But fans haven’t given up hope and have collected well over 100,000 signatures and raised over $20,000 for charity. Last week, fans paid to have a plane fly over Netflix headquarters, trailing a sign that read “Save Shadowhunters.” Fans of ‘The Expanse’ did the same, buzzing Amazon headquarters, which helped that service finalize plans to resuscitate the science fiction series after Syfy axed it.

‘Shadowhunters’ fans are at it again, as this Friday, June 29, they will air a five-minute commercial in Times Square in downtown New York City. The ad will air at 3pm on 42nd Street and 7th Avenue, facing east. The ad is what is described as a “roadblock billboard,” although it doesn’t literally block traffic, but is very large and eye catching and may cause some to stop in their tracks to watch it.

In the US, ‘Shadowhunters’ is available to stream on Hulu. Elsewhere, it is available on Netflix, but it is not on Netflix in the US at all. It is also available on the Freeform app for free and individual episodes are available to purchase via iTunes, Amazon Prime, Google Play and Youtube.

There are still ten episodes left unaired. When Freeform decided to cancel the series, the final ten episodes were pushed back from this summer to spring of 2019, with plans to film a two-hour series finale movie to cap things off.

Within the last few months, not only did Amazon choose to salvage Syfy’s cancelled ‘The Expanse’, but Netflix picked up FOX’s ‘Lucifer’ as well. Both are expensive-to-produce genre shows that didn’t generate high enough ratings for their starter networks. But the streaming services saw their potential– and the massive love and support that their fans showered upon them– and took a chance on rescuing them. Hopefully the same will happen for ‘Shadowhunters’.

To sign the petition, click here.

If you would like to make a financial contribution to the Trevor Project, on behalf of ‘Shadowhunters’, click here.

And if you are in downtown Manhattan this Friday, make sure you’re in the right place at 3pm EST!

#news #saveshadowhunters news #science fiction

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magzoso-tech · 5 years ago

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New Post has been published on https://magzoso.com/tech/in-the-shadow-of-amazon-and-microsoft-seattle-startups-are-having-a-moment/

In the shadow of Amazon and Microsoft, Seattle startups are having a moment

Venture capital investment exploded across a number of geographies in 2019 despite the constant threat of an economic downturn.

San Francisco, of course, remains the startup epicenter of the world, shutting out all other geographies when it comes to capital invested. Still, other regions continue to grow, raking in more capital this year than ever.

In Utah, a new hotbed for startups, companies like Weave, Divvy and MX Technology raised a collective $370 million from private market investors. In the Northeast, New York City experienced record-breaking deal volume with median deal sizes climbing steadily. Boston is closing out the decade with at least 10 deals larger than $100 million announced this year alone. And in the lovely Pacific Northwest, home to tech heavyweights Amazon and Microsoft, Seattle is experiencing an uptick in VC interest in what could be a sign the town is finally reaching its full potential.

Seattle startups raised a total of $3.5 billion in VC funding across roughly 375 deals this year, according to data collected by PitchBook. That’s up from $3 billion in 2018 across 346 deals and a meager $1.7 billion in 2017 across 348 deals. Much of Seattle’s recent growth can be attributed to a few fast-growing businesses.

Convoy, the digital freight network that connects truckers with shippers, closed a $400 million round last month bringing its valuation to $2.75 billion. The deal was remarkable for a number of reasons. Firstly, it was the largest venture round for a Seattle-based company in a decade, PitchBook claims. And it pushed Convoy to the top of the list of the most valuable companies in the city, surpassing OfferUp, which raised a sizable Series D in 2018 at a $1.4 billion valuation.

Convoy has managed to attract a slew of high-profile investors, including Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff and even U2’s Bono and the Edge. Since it was founded in 2015, the business has raised a total of more than $668 million.

Remitly, another Seattle-headquartered business, has helped bolster Seattle’s startup ecosystem. The fintech company focused on international money transfer raised a $135 million Series E led by Generation Investment Management, and $85 million in debt from Barclays, Bridge Bank, Goldman Sachs and Silicon Valley Bank earlier this year. Owl Rock Capital, Princeville Global, Prudential Financial, Schroder & Co Bank AG and Top Tier Capital Partners, and previous investors DN Capital, Naspers’ PayU and Stripes Group also participated in the equity round, which valued Remitly at nearly $1 billion.

Up-and-coming startups, including co-working space provider The Riveter, real estate business Modus and same-day delivery service Dolly, have recently attracted investment too.

A number of other factors have contributed to Seattle’s long-awaited rise in venture activity. Top-performing companies like Stripe, Airbnb and Dropbox have established engineering offices in Seattle, as has Uber, Twitter, Facebook, Disney and many others. This, of course, has attracted copious engineers, a key ingredient to building a successful tech hub. Plus, the pipeline of engineers provided by the nearby University of Washington (shout-out to my alma mater) means there’s no shortage of brainiacs.

There’s long been plenty of smart people in Seattle, mostly working at Microsoft and Amazon, however. The issue has been a shortage of entrepreneurs, or those willing to exit a well-paying gig in favor of a risky venture. Fortunately for Seattle venture capitalists, new efforts have been made to entice corporate workers to the startup universe. Pioneer Square Labs, which I profiled earlier this year, is a prime example of this movement. On a mission to champion Seattle’s unique entrepreneurial DNA, Pioneer Square Labs cropped up in 2015 to create, launch and fund technology companies headquartered in the Pacific Northwest.

Boundless CEO Xiao Wang at TechCrunch Disrupt 2017

Operating under the startup studio model, PSL’s team of former founders and venture capitalists, including Rover and Mighty AI founder Greg Gottesman, collaborate to craft and incubate startup ideas, then recruit a founding CEO from their network of entrepreneurs to lead the business. Seattle is home to two of the most valuable businesses in the world, but it has not created as many founders as anticipated. PSL hopes that by removing some of the risk, it can encourage prospective founders, like Boundless CEO Xiao Wang, a former senior product manager at Amazon, to build.

“The studio model lends itself really well to people who are 99% there, thinking ‘damn, I want to start a company,’ ” PSL co-founder Ben Gilbert said in March. “These are people that are incredible entrepreneurs but if not for the studio as a catalyst, they may not have [left].”

Boundless is one of several successful PSL spin-outs. The business, which helps families navigate the convoluted green card process, raised a $7.8 million Series A led by Foundry Group earlier this year, with participation from existing investors Trilogy Equity Partners, PSL, Two Sigma Ventures and Founders’ Co-Op.

Years-old institutional funds like Seattle’s Madrona Venture Group have done their part to bolster the Seattle startup community too. Madrona raised a $100 million Acceleration Fund earlier this year, and although it plans to look beyond its backyard for its newest deals, the firm continues to be one of the largest supporters of Pacific Northwest upstarts. Founded in 1995, Madrona’s portfolio includes Amazon, Mighty AI, UiPath, Branch and more.

Voyager Capital, another Seattle-based VC, also raised another $100 million this year to invest in the PNW. Maveron, a venture capital fund co-founded by Starbucks mastermind Howard Schultz, closed on another $180 million to invest in early-stage consumer startups in May. And new efforts like Flying Fish Partners have been busy deploying capital to promising local companies.

There’s a lot more to say about all this. Like the growing role of deep-pocketed angel investors in Seattle have in expanding the startup ecosystem, or the non-local investors, like Silicon Valley’s best, who’ve funneled cash into Seattle’s talent. In short, Seattle deal activity is finally climbing thanks to top talent, new accelerator models and several refueled venture funds. Now we wait to see how the Seattle startup community leverages this growth period and what startups emerge on top.

#Miscellaneous

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wordlap-blog · 6 years ago

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Staff from Amazon to United Airways demand extra pay after earnings soared

Pilots demonstrating for higher working circumstances individuals who fly planes for Amazon.com and Atlas Air Worldwide picket exterior Amazon.com's annual shareholders assembly, Might 22, 2019, in Seattle, Washington.Ted S. Warren | AP PictureWithin the decade for the reason that U.S. emerged from the recession, many industries, together with airways and automakers, have loved a close to uninterrupted streak of earnings.U.S. airways, higher identified for his or her growth and bust cycles, are headed for his or her 10th straight yr of profitability. The highest 4 largest airways and three largest automakers within the nation introduced in additional than $25 billion in revenue final yr.Now, throughout the U.S., staff who assemble automobiles, fly planes, put together airplane meals, clear resort rooms and inventory grocery retailer cabinets, simply to call a number of — lots of them unionized workers in the midst of contract talks — are decided to get an even bigger reduce of the spoils.

Avoiding strikes

The contracts presently below negotiation between the United Auto Staff and Massive Three Detroit automakers expire in September and can set the wages and advantages for about 158,000 workers for the following few years. The greater than 37,000 pilots on the three largest U.S. airways — Delta, United and American — are searching for larger pay and higher retirement advantages after cuts in previous downturns. "Our objective is to succeed in an settlement that continues to acknowledge the contributions of our pilots towards our firm's success whereas additionally positioning Delta to proceed its momentum," Delta mentioned in an announcement.After 35 years of shrinking union participation charges throughout the U.S., non-unionized workers at JetBlue, Amazon, Uber and Lyft are more and more making calls for for larger pay or making an attempt to arrange — emboldened by the tight labor market, low company taxes, wholesome firm earnings, and rising dwelling prices.Grocers owned by Kroger and Albertsons in Southern California, together with Albertsons, Vons, Pavilions and Ralph's, are deep in negotiations with native members of the United Meals and Business Staff in hopes of staving off their very own strike. The area's final grocery strike, fifteen years in the past, reportedly value the grocers $1.5 billion in gross sales. "You may't reverse 40 years of inequality in a single to 2 years," mentioned Dean Baker, senior economist on the Middle for Financial and Coverage Analysis.

Wage development lags

The foundation of the strain, economists say, is that wage development has not stored tempo with a rise in productiveness and the price of dwelling, regardless of a latest uptick. That comes as U.S. unemployment is close to a 50-year low and firms want these staff. "Which means somebody is getting extra of the cash," mentioned Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz. "It's completely comprehensible why staff say 'we must do one thing.' I feel the concern is: As unhealthy as issues are actually they may worsen and that if we do not do one thing preemptively we're in for much more difficulties."Weekly wages within the U.S. elevated a median of two.6% annually from 2008 to 2018, in accordance with the Bureau of Labor Statistics.Staff are actually searching for not solely larger pay however higher working circumstances, well being advantages and higher retirement packages, simply as some corporations are bracing for decrease financial development forecasts and the impression of tariffs.

Making ends meet

"The American employee ... has been stretched additional and additional and additional to make ends meet," mentioned labor chief and United flight attendant Sara Nelson, president of the Affiliation of Flight Attendants-CWA, which represents some 50,000 flight attendants at 20 airways. "That is an unimaginable hamster wheel to remain on."Labor unions are actually arguing that their members deserve larger pay as their employers are flush with earnings. Their ranks had been hit by layoffs, furloughs, pay, pension and profit cuts as their employers struggled in recessions and chapter.United Auto Staff President Gary Jones made it clear final month that union members anticipate to be rewarded for previous work throughout contract negotiations this yr with the Massive Three in Detroit, though U.S. auto gross sales this yr are anticipated to fall under 17 million automobiles for the primary time since 2014. The drop would mark the second decline in U.S. business gross sales for the reason that report of 17.55 million automobiles bought in 2016.

Amazon protest

The unionized staff aren't the one firm workers demanding higher pay and dealing circumstances.Non-unionized staff at JetBlue and Delta have not too long ago organized or are contemplating organizing, regardless of firm messages in opposition to it.In Might, Uber and Lyft drivers in cities from London to Los Angeles demonstrated for larger wages, a few of them shutting off the ride-hailing apps through the strike. Drivers at Lyft and Uber not too long ago received pay will increase in New York.At Amazon, warehouse staff have used the web retailer's two-day Prime Day sale to demand larger wages. In Minnesota in July, Amazon staff held indicators that learn: "We're human; not robots" throughout their strike. Amazon staff in Europe additionally held strikes.The demonstrations happened after Amazon staff raised the minimal hourly wage it pays U.S. staff to $15 final yr. The corporate final month mentioned it's spending $700 million to retrain 100,000 U.S. staff as present job features change into extra automated.Different corporations have elevated pay not too long ago. Financial institution of America, for instance, raised its staff' minimal pay to $20 an hour in March.Buyers aren't at all times receptive. When American Airways introduced pay will increase in April 2017 for its pilots and flight attendants, not tied to contract negotiations, shares fell greater than 5% that day.

Report earnings

"We're seeing report revenue for our American corporations, it is unhappy to say these positive factors aren't actually translating to our members," United Auto Staff' president Jones mentioned throughout an occasion final month to formally begin collective bargaining at Ford's headquarters in Dearborn, Mich. "On this time of company prosperity, labor continues to be being requested to take concessions … This should cease now."Aviation staff are additionally clamoring for extra pay and advantages. They argue they nonetheless have not totally recovered from cuts for the reason that Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist assaults that roiled air journey demand and sparked a wave of airline bankruptcies. "You do not undergo chapter and win issues," mentioned Dennis Tajer, a Boeing 737 captain at American and spokesman for the Allied Pilots Affiliation, which represents American's pilots. "It is like a therapeutic massage with a cheese grater: It hurts."Tensions between firm administration and a few of their workers have grown so extreme that disputes are ending up in courtrooms as corporations allege staff are disrupting operations to achieve leverage in contract talks.

Pleasing Wall Road

Unions have argued their corporations are aiming to please Wall Road as an alternative of their very own workers. Firms within the S&P 500 are reporting what is about to be their ninth-straight quarter of revenue development — bolstered by President Donald Trump's 2017 company tax cuts. Firms have spent lots of that windfall to purchase again their very own shares, to the chagrin of staff searching for larger wages. Within the first quarter, S&P 500 corporations spent $205.eight billion on buybacks, the second-biggest sum on report after the earlier quarter and 9% greater than a yr earlier, in accordance with an evaluation from S&P Dow Jones Indices.United, Southwest, American and Delta's buybacks are among the many prime 150 largest within the S&P over the previous decade by way of the primary quarter of this yr, in accordance with S&P Dow Jones Indices. United spent near $3.9 billion shopping for again its personal shares during the last two years, the info present. The Chicago-based airline's internet revenue within the final two full calendar years was $4.2 billion, in accordance with FactSet.

Revenue sharing

UAW members, in the meantime, get a slice of the automakers' earnings by way of profit-sharing bonuses. Nevertheless, the union continues to be making an attempt to make up for concessions it gave up over the past financial downturn, together with a decade of stagnated wages previous to 2015.The union agreed to chop advantages and obtain extra substantial revenue sharing in lieu of annual wage will increase on account of the Nice Recession and the government-backed bankruptcies of Basic Motors and then-Chrysler in 2009.Below the present four-year offers, the automakers have paid greater than $Four billion in profit-sharing bonuses to UAW members. The report funds, that are primarily based on every firm's annual earnings in North America, have averaged roughly $20,500 per employee at Fiat Chrysler, $33,400 at Ford and $45,500 for GM since 2015.

First raises in years

UAW members additionally acquired their first raises in a decade 4 years in the past. Beginning pay for hourly manufacturing staff is roughly $17 to $30 an hour primarily based on seniority — nicely above different unionized workforces.The profit-sharing bonuses and stagnant wages have helped the automakers management mounted prices and put labor bills extra in step with non-unionized opponents — one thing executives hope to proceed with these negotiations. "We can not, we won't, repeat these actions that put us in these harmful monetary positions," Mark Stewart, chief working officer of FCA - North America, mentioned final month on the firm's headquarters in Auburn Hills, Mich. "We can not return to our previous methods of doing enterprise or we're risking the identical consequence."

A long time of bankruptcies

Airline unions, whose members weathered a long time of bankruptcies and their aftermath, are actually searching for extra for his or her staff in cockpits, cabins and upkeep hangars. The robust U.S. financial system is propelling journey demand and placing the nation's carriers on observe this yr for his or her 10th-straight yr within the black. That is a pointy turnaround for a capital-intensive business identified for its boom-and-bust cycles that impressed not too long ago born-again airline evangelist Warren Buffett to inform shareholders in 2008: "Certainly, if a farsighted capitalist had been current at Kitty Hawk, he would have completed his successors an enormous favor by capturing Orville down."Between the height in 2001 and 2011, on the depths of airline business turmoil, the sector had shed about 28% of its workforce or 145,000 jobs, in accordance with the Division of Transportation. Full-time equal airline workers are again as much as greater than 440,000 jobs however off the pre-9/11 peak of greater than 530,000 positions.A decade of consolidation that left 4 huge airways answerable for many of the U.S. market and powerful financial development helped home carriers rake in practically $90 billion in earnings since 2010, in accordance with Airways for America, an business group. "There's cash to get," mentioned Orley Ashenfelter, a Princeton College economics professor who makes a speciality of labor relations and wages. "When the corporate's dropping cash it is arduous to say you are essential."

Nasty fights

Some labor tensions have grown so bitter they're ending up in courtrooms.American Airways, for instance, mentioned in a lawsuit this spring that it needed to cancel a whole lot of flights as a result of the unions that signify its greater than 12,000 mechanics had been engaged in an unlawful work slowdown. The unions are demanding higher pay and stronger limits on how a lot upkeep work the airline can outsource to staff abroad and have denied the allegations. A federal courtroom in Texas in June ordered the unions to inform staff to not interact in actions that would harm the airline.Pilots for Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings, one of many cargo carriers that operates Amazon's package-delivery airline Amazon Air, in July misplaced their attraction to overturn an injunction in opposition to what Atlas referred to as extreme sick calls and an unlawful employee slowdown. The corporate mentioned the labor dispute contributed to its disappointing quarterly earnings, which pushed down its inventory 25% after it reported on Aug. 1. Pilots there have complained about grueling work hours and low pay in contrast with their counterparts at rivals.Earlier this yr, Southwest had an identical dispute with its mechanics, however later reached a contract with the group, their first in additional than six years, and the next pay increase than Southwest supplied in earlier rounds of negotiations.Even staff which have comparatively good relations with their employers are demanding higher circumstances. United Airways flight attendants final winter picketed at United's hubs across the nation after the corporate decreased staffing on board to FAA minimums (American and Delta had been already staffed at that degree), saying it compromised their security, significantly as airways match extra seats on board.

Protest in D.C.

Final month, the unions representing greater than 20,000 airline catering staff across the nation staged a protest at Washington D.C.'s Ronald Reagan Nationwide Airport demanding larger pay for the individuals who put together airplane meals.Some 11,000 catering staff voted in June to strike. However they, like different airline workers, are below the Railway Labor Act, which prohibits work stoppages and walkouts until they're launched by the president-appointed Nationwide Mediation Board. The final business U.S. airline pilot strike, for instance, was in 2010, when Spirit's pilots walked off the job.Presidential hopefuls are keenly eyeing the labor dynamic. Democratic candidates like Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders attended the catering staff' picket in Washington on July 23 as presidential hopefuls eye the rising hole between haves and have-nots as a key precedence for hundreds of thousands of voters. "Trump has actually heightened the difficulty as a result of he did win… the working class was key to his victory" mentioned Dean Baker, Senior Economist on the Middle for Financial and Coverage Analysis. "He did create extra emphasis on working class points, after which he finally ends up making lots of guarantees. Democrats can be claiming he did not hold that."@'s Lauren Hirsch contributed to this text. Read the full article

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presssorg · 6 years ago

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Amazon Logistics Lead: $575M investment in Deliveroo

Amazon leads $575M investment in Deliveroo

Amazon wants to own the “channel” in more ways than one. With its core retail business settling down, it’s pushing into new investments that build on its pillars of E-commerce, Cloud and smart home technologies. Amazon has been investing heavily over the past year in areas such as transportation and logistics. Especially logistics that I think many analysts believe one day Amazon will dominate. Amazon is taking a slice of Europe’s food delivery market after the U.S. e-commerce giant led a $575 million investment in Deliveroo. This could set it up nicely to acquire Deliveroo one day, meaning it will likely disrupt part of Uber’s business. Uber thought it could be like Amazon, but while the two both deal with slim margin industries like E-commerce and Transportation, that’s pretty much where the similarities end. We know that in the age of automation, technology empowers a robotic logistics and transportation system governed by machine intelligence. There’s no way around that, the AI of the smart city especially means that. Amazon even just revealed it will expand its Delivery Service Partner program in the U.S., paying eligible employees $10,000 to start their own delivery businesses. As it begins to automate the E-commerce warehouse further with packing robots, for instance, some of those employees who will be let go could get into delivery, at least until that and logistics is more automated by drones, robots and AI as well, roughly around 2030.

Amazon wants to own the “channel” in more ways than one. With its core retail business settling down, it’s pushing into new investments that build on its pillars of E-commerce, Cloud and smart home technologies. The Next Stage of Amazon Amazon seems to be preparing for the future of its business as revenue growth is slowing. What does this mean? It means: Advertising Healthcare and healthcare technology Owning more of the logistics market Upgrading its AI-consumer relationship with Alexa Gaining traction in grocery and investing in self-driving truck technology I agree with CNBC, essentially Amazon has been gradually racking up investments to position itself for the future as its core business slows. Amazon is diversifying its business model and will continue to do so in the 2020s, where its prime as a business will likely be in the 2035–2045 period. Within the past year alone, Amazon has announced more than half a dozen major investments representing billions of dollars. The investments primarily focus on new delivery businesses and logistics, but also include other areas, such as its investment in a new headquarters. Amazon is positioning itself also to grow up in advertising which will be a great cash cow necessary for its expansion into Healthcare services, to help an aging population with their healthcare needs. However, as impressive as Amazon’s foray into healthcare, advertising and AI seem to be, they are the likely candidate to evolve into the next logistics monopoly. Amazon’s growth has been largely buoyed by its cloud business, Amazon Web Services, which has become a major profit driver for the company. However, as it gains in advertising stealing search share especially from Google, it will disrupt the advertising duopoly. At this point it could acquire Snapchat or Pinterest, or likely both. While Facebook is trying to innovate in a pivot to privacy and Alphabet has its “other bets” Amazon’s R&D is at a whole other scale. It’s becoming a bit like Softbank’s Vision Fund or what Tencent & Alibaba have done in China. In the logistics chain, Amazon has made several moves recently that bode well for its expansion in these multiple areas. For instance, Amazon took a major step into the medicinal space in June 2018 when it announced it was buying online pharmacy PillPack in what was later revealed to be a $753 million purchase. By owning the smart home Amazon has cornered the essential segment of the market. Because Google is primarily a data company its efforts in the smart home are mostly just about information, not products or the go-to channel. Unless you consider YouTube a great play here? Amazon getting the Pentagon's $10 Billion contract is likely a reason for its choice of Northern Virginia. Amazon pledged a $5 billion economic investment for its second headquarters, which it ultimately split between two locations, in Northern Virginia and New York. It backed out of New York due to resistance there however settled on a new Operations Center of Excellence in Nashville, where it pledged a $230 million investment. Amazon hasn’t even reached its prime as a company, even as Facebook and Google appear to flounder, and Apple and Facebook especially need to pivot. Amazon can also continue to disrupt even more industries as it is the most impressive Cloud and AI hybrid company right now in the world. This is not to mention Amazon’s foray into entertainment, streaming and increasing the value of its ecosystem. Aurora — Yes Amazon is also into Autonomous Driving Tech Amazon invested an undisclosed amount in self-driving car start-up Aurora earlier this year. Sequoia Capital and Shell’s investment arm were also among the investors in the $530 million funding round announced in February. This is a major move for Amazon that signals it’s ready to gear up to dominate the future of logistics. While we think of flashy names like Waymo One, Tesla, Baidu and others, there’s still incredible self-driving car startups and partnerships occurring. As strong as Amazon could be in advertising, it could become a significant player in logistics which arguably adds even more value to its core businesses. This is because Amazon’s rivals like Alibaba, Walmart, JD.com and others are really investing in a brick-and-mortar presence. Although Amazon has not publicly disclosed plans for the investment, it’s not hard to imagine the company’s interest in self-driving technology. Amazon spent more than $27 billion on delivery costs in 2018. If robot cars and robot delivery is the future, you can be sure Amazon will be a big player in that future. Logistics of everything is actually the key in the future of an internet of things 4th industrial revolution of 5G convenience for consumers. Logistics, like the Cloud, connects the dots. Amazon doesn’t just want to dominate, it wants to own the foundations of the age of automation. While Walmart is investing to become a technology company, and Alibaba is following Amazon into the Cloud, smart home and entertainment, Amazon needs to disrupt companies like Uber, Meituan and others in logistics eventually to realize its full potential. Amazon needs to beat out Google and Huawei in AI to reach its full potential. Many things need to happen for Amazon to rule logistics and the machine intelligence era of the future of convenience, but it already has a head start in most key fields. While Baidu and Google take a tumble, other companies will take their place. We won’t be searching on a personal computer like we do today, forever. Amazon’s logistics play may also be the key part of making its E-commerce and retail venture more profitable as it continues to acquire more paying prime members. AWS could be spun off as a separate company it’s so advanced. But the online to offline process is key to Amazon’s future. Published at Mon, 20 May 2019 15:59:15 +0000 Read the full article

#acquisition #amazon #deliveroo #logistics #shipping #strategy

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retailtouchpoints · 6 years ago

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Amazon Pulls HQ2 Out Of NYC, But Could It Have A Future Elsewhere?

After months of criticism regarding its HQ2 selection process, Amazon called off its plans to build one of its headquarters in Long Island City, Queens. In the aftermath of the exit, the general public has blamed every party involved for something: Amazon for selecting New York in the first place, politicians (in particular the New York City Council) for vehemently standing against the deal and the city and state of New York for pledging economic incentives for the deal that would have cost as much as $3 billion.

But with no plan to reopen its search for a second HQ2 location, instead proceeding only with its planned Northern Virginia headquarters, the question remains: where does Amazon go from here?

Three months after addressing the criticisms of Amazon’s HQ2 selection process, the RTP team revisits the discussion by sharing what the fallout of the New York exit means for Amazon.

Adam Blair, Editor: Covering the often-mysterious doings of Amazon can bring out the latent conspiracy theorist in me, so let me put on my tinfoil hat for a moment. The online retailer’s precipitous pullout from New York City as the site for its other HQ2 — HQ2.5? — only makes sense if Amazon’s real goal was to rapidly gather up a ton of information from as many cities as possible. Like many tech companies, Amazon is a hungry data vacuum: many have said its Prime program is really just the company’s way of learning everything about members, from what they eat and wear to what they watch and listen to. The same with the HQ2 process: In the space of a little under two years, Amazon got bids from 238 municipalities, and detailed data from the 20 finalists. So when local opposition turned the prospect of actually building a corporate campus in Long Island City into a major hassle, Amazon didn’t use a threat to leave as a bargaining chip, the way sports teams do when they want a new stadium. It just up and left — because it had already gotten what it wanted.

Glenn Taylor, Senior Editor: Amazon will survive this just fine, but it does make me wonder if the company will approach its protocol differently for any serious expansion efforts going forward. If the company wants to build out an international headquarters, will it embark on a similar path that it did before selecting NoVa and Queens? I feel like the sheer amount of uproar that the HQ2 development generated basically means they won’t pull that kind of stunt again, but in reality, nothing could really stop them from doing it. I would hope that this would be a lesson in transparency going forward for the e-Commerce giant (I know that’s expecting a lot from a business of that caliber). Like I said in the previous Q&A that touched on the topic, the moves to New York and D.C. really didn’t bother me as much as the process to get there, and I think the people living in the area had a right to be more than skeptical of any related motives, even if it meant bringing more economic growth to the area. No one likes more traffic and higher rent payments.

Bryan Wassel, Associate Editor: While I don’t think getting chased out of one city will have any effect on Amazon’s performance, I wonder what this holds for future expansion. First blood has been drawn, and activists concerned about rising real estate prices and gentrification nationwide have been shown that protests can affect real change. This may not impact any future plans in smaller cities where becoming an Amazon hub would be a serious boost in prestige, but other major cities where housing costs are a bigger concern than adding a few thousand jobs may be even more emboldened to oppose Amazon’s insertion into their neighborhood. If nothing else, it may force politicians to be more transparent in future bids — one of the major complaints about the process was how opaque the entire affair felt for the common people, and giving them access to the full details of each plan means proponents can offer concrete information on why Amazon’s presence would be a benefit. Of course, this could also mean fewer politicians woo Amazon in the future for fear of officials getting voted out by unhappy constituents.

#Editor Q&A #Amazon HQ2 #NYC

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businessloans00 · 7 years ago

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2018 2019 How To Start A #Amazon Delivery Business? Amazon Delivery Business Vs Amazon Flex Reviews

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Package delivery or parcel delivery is the delivery of shipping containers, parcels, or high value mail as single shipments. The service is provided by most postal systems, express mail, private courier companies, and less than truckload shipping carriers.

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notes about becoming an amazon delivery service partner (dsp).. in this video i discuss a wall street journal article about a new opportunity amazon is offering to entrepreneurs to start their own delivery business.

companies will lease vans (on favorable terms, apparently, negotiated by Amazon) that will be branded with the Amazon Prime logo.

Successful owners can earn as much as $300,000 in annual profit operating a fleet of up to 40 delivery vehicles,” the company said in its announcement.

Very low startup costs

low as $10,000

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three weeks of training, including one week at Amazon headquarters in Seattle, and two weeks “in the field working

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can grow to support in the neighborhood of 40 to 100 employees, with 20 to 40 Amazon-branded vans (and a corresponding number of routes).

recruit and manage drivers and routes, “while we take care of getting you set up and ready to operate out of an Amazon delivery station in your city,”

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one month to six months to get started as a Delivery Service Partner

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Amazon is offering branded vans to help you start a delivery business, but you may want to think twice before

Amazon Flex: What it’s like delivering packages for Amazon

GeekWire reporter Taylor Soper delivers packages to Amazon customers in … area, working as part of the

Amazon is recruiting entrepreneurs to start delivery networks

Amazon unveils Delivery Service Partners, a new program designed to let entrepreneurs run their own local

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Amazon has unveiled its long-awaited delivery service plans, asking entrepreneurs to set up small companies .

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Online retailing giant will pay startup companies to operate the vans, which will add to, not replace,

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deniscollins · 5 years ago

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Workplace vs. Coronavirus: ‘No One Has a Playbook for This’

So far, coronavirus , which has spawned more than 90,000 cases and caused more than 3,000 deaths around the world. A contractor in Facebook’s Seattle office has just been diagnosed with coronavirus and concerned employees have asked who it was in case they worked closely with him/her. If you were a Facebook executive would you inform employees of the person’s name: (1) Yes, (2) No? Why? What are the ethics underlying your decision?

At Facebook on Thursday, the questions from spooked employees came thick and fast.

The evening before, the social network had disclosed that the coronavirus had been diagnosed in a contractor in its Seattle office and had said all employees in that city should work from home until March 31.

Other Facebook employees, some of whom had recently traveled for work, soon began asking their managers and one another: Who was the contractor? Had that person been near them? And what did that mean for their work?

That same alarm has now spread through other companies around the world, despite escalating efforts by many of the firms to deal with disruptions from the coronavirus outbreak that started in China. Microsoft, Amazon, Ford Motor, CNN, Citigroup and Twitter have put employees through work-from-home drills, dusted off emergency-response plans and ordered increasingly stringent safety measures to protect their workers.

Even so, the coronavirus has moved faster than their preparations. Amazon said this week that two employees in Europe, who had been in Milan, were infected with the virus and that one employee at its Seattle headquarters had tested positive for it. HSBC said on Thursday that the coronavirus had been diagnosed in an employee at its global headquarters in London. And AT&T said a retail employee at one of its stores in San Diego had tested positive.

The challenges faced by workplaces have become a new front in the battle over the coronavirus, which has spawned more than 90,000 cases and caused more than 3,000 deaths around the world. While factories in China had already been closed by the outbreak and are now just ramping back up, global white-collar companies have rarely grappled with this scale of disruption — or the level of fear that has gripped workers.

“No one has a playbook for this,” said Dan Levin, who runs a small company outside Chicago, Cain Millwork, which makes furniture and wall paneling. He said he was planning to have some of his office employees work from home.

Many corporate memos, including those from HSBC and Facebook, now mention deep cleaning of office spaces and self-quarantining. Face-to-face job interviews have been all but banned by some firms, in favor of interviews conducted by teleconference.

At Microsoft, which is based in Redmond, Wash., near a cluster of coronavirus cases, employees swapped stories this week about the outbreak in internal chat rooms. In one online conversation on Wednesday, which The New York Times reviewed, a Microsoft employee wrote of a rumor that someone at headquarters had been infected.

“Could it be true?” he wrote. “FWIW,” he noted, the corporate emails telling employees to work from home “don’t mention that NO Microsoft employees had been infected.”

Late Thursday, Microsoft said two employees in the Seattle area had been infected, the first known cases at the company. “The affected employees remain in quarantine, and we are supporting them as the recover,” Microsoft executive Kurt DelBene said in an email to employees obtained by The Times.

Inside Amazon, while some workers emailed each other about whether masks provide effective protection, many were scrambling to deal with business problems caused by the virus, according to four employees, who were not authorized to speak publicly. Those included whether Amazon will have enough products to offer for Prime Day, its summer sale event, or have enough drivers to handle a surge in online grocery orders as the virus spreads.

The depth of employee anxiety has forced senior executives to take calming measures. Uber sent out a memo to staff on Wednesday saying it had formed an internal task force to handle its response to the virus, according to a copy viewed by The Times.

The ride-hailing company urged employees to have empathy for one another, to make decisions based on data and to restrict all nonessential travel until April. Uber added that it was working with an epidemiology consultant for further guidance.

“Much of this situation is new — not only for Uber, but for the world,” Andrew MacDonald, a senior vice president at Uber, wrote in the memo. “We won’t get everything right from the start.”

At its headquarters in Mountain View, Calif., Google also increased the amount of hand sanitizer available to employees, putting it in conference rooms and kitchen areas.

Other companies have tightened their travel restrictions. Citigroup and JPMorgan Chase have said senior managers must approve international business trips. Walmart said on Thursday that employees could travel internationally only for “business-critical trips” and that it was limiting their travel to conferences and trade shows in the United States. And at CNN, the chief executive officer has begun personally vetting all intercontinental travel.

How companies have altered their response to the coronavirus over time has been evident with Twitter. On Sunday, the San Francisco social media company said it was suspending all nonessential travel for employees. A day later, it encouraged all of its employees — it has just over 5,000 — to work from home if they were able to.

Then on Thursday, Jack Dorsey, Twitter’s chief executive, appeared at a financial conference in San Francisco and said he was rethinking a plan he had formulated to work remotely from Africa for three to six months this year.

“Everything happening in the world, particularly with coronavirus, I have to reconsider what’s going on and what that means for me and for our company,” said Mr. Dorsey, who is also facing a challenge from activist investors.

The measures that companies are taking in response to the virus may shift workplace behavior over the long term. Telecommuting, which has been in and out of favor for decades, may become more ingrained. The use of digital tools for remote collaboration may also rise.

Yet in the near term, having workers stay home could be devastating for some smaller businesses. Robert Luft, who runs a company in Cincinnati that installs technology in health care facilities and distribution centers, said an outbreak that prevented his technicians from showing up to work would put his business in a precarious situation.

“If it’s unsafe for people to have them on site, that definitely impacts my business,” Mr. Luft said. “Unfortunately there isn’t any type of contingency plan.”

Because Microsoft’s employees in the Seattle region are supposed to work from home for several weeks, the company does not need as many services from the vendors whose workers staff its cafes, drive its shuttles and support other on-site needs. On Thursday, the company said it would continue to pay the 4,500 hourly employees who work in its facilities, even if they are needed for fewer hours.

At Facebook, the company has been working on contingency plans for the impact of the coronavirus since January. Executives have tried to walk the line of hewing closely to advice from public health officials while trying not to cause a panic among employees, two Facebook employees said.

The social network quickly canceled its participation in a half-dozen events — from its annual F8 developer conference to its presence at South by Southwest in Austin, Texas — and has worked to use its products to help health experts study the spread of the virus. Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s chief executive, said in a post this week that the company was giving unlimited free Facebook ads to the World Health Organization to distribute information to users.

When one of its contractors was found to have the virus on Wednesday, Facebook shut down two of its four offices in the Seattle area — in Bellevue and Redmond — for a deep cleaning, according to two employees.

An Amazon employee who was later found to have the virus had also separately visited one of Facebook’s Seattle offices last month, prompting fresh concerns among employees. Facebook said it had carried out “targeted deep cleaning and enhanced sanitation measures” at the office building that the Amazon employee visited.

The company has also tried to keep its 44,000 employees sticking to business as usual. On Wednesday, it held a training session for managers on how to supervise teams of remote workers, the two employees said. And the social network was staying on course with a weekly question-and-answer session led by Mr. Zuckerberg on Thursday, which would be live streamed from Facebook’s Silicon Valley headquarters.

#Coronavirus

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krea8ivcode · 5 years ago

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In the shadow of Amazon and Microsoft, Seattle startups are having a moment

Venture capital investment exploded across a number of geographies in 2019 despite the constant threat of an economic downturn. San Francisco, of course, remains the startup epicenter of the world, shutting out all other geographies when it comes to capital invested. Still, other regions continue to grow, raking in more capital this year than ever. In Utah, a new hotbed for startups, companies like Weave, Divvy and MX Technology raised a collective $370 million from private market investors. In the Northeast, New York City experienced record-breaking deal volume with median deal sizes climbing steadily. Boston is closing out the decade with at least 10 deals larger than $100 million announced this year alone. And in the lovely Pacific Northwest, home to tech heavyweights Amazon and Microsoft, Seattle is experiencing an uptick in VC interest in what could be a sign the town is finally reaching its full potential. Seattle startups raised a total of $3.5 billion in VC funding across roughly 375 deals this year, according to data collected by PitchBook. That’s up from $3 billion in 2018 across 346 deals and a meager $1.7 billion in 2017 across 348 deals. Much of Seattle’s recent growth can be attributed to a few fast-growing businesses. Startups Weekly: Will the Seattle tech scene ever reach its full potential? Convoy, the digital freight network that connects truckers with shippers, closed a $400 million round last month bringing its valuation to $2.75 billion. The deal was remarkable for a number of reasons. Firstly, it was the largest venture round for a Seattle-based company in a decade, PitchBook claims. And it pushed Convoy to the top of the list of the most valuable companies in the city, surpassing OfferUp, which raised a sizable Series D in 2018 at a $1.4 billion valuation. Convoy has managed to attract a slew of high-profile investors, including Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff and even U2’s Bono and the Edge. Since it was founded in 2015, the business has raised a total of more than $668 million. Remitly, another Seattle-headquartered business, has helped bolster Seattle’s startup ecosystem. The fintech company focused on international money transfer raised a $135 million Series E led by Generation Investment Management, and $85 million in debt from Barclays, Bridge Bank, Goldman Sachs and Silicon Valley Bank earlier this year. Owl Rock Capital, Princeville Global, Prudential Financial, Schroder & Co Bank AG and Top Tier Capital Partners, and previous investors DN Capital, Naspers’ PayU and Stripes Group also participated in the equity round, which valued Remitly at nearly $1 billion. Up-and-coming startups, including co-working space provider The Riveter, real estate business Modus and same-day delivery service Dolly, have recently attracted investment too. Pioneer Square Labs is invigorating Seattle’s startup ecosystem A number of other factors have contributed to Seattle’s long-awaited rise in venture activity. Top-performing companies like Stripe, Airbnb and Dropbox have established engineering offices in Seattle, as has Uber, Twitter, Facebook, Disney and many others. This, of course, has attracted copious engineers, a key ingredient to building a successful tech hub. Plus, the pipeline of engineers provided by the nearby University of Washington (shout-out to my alma mater) means there’s no shortage of brainiacs. There’s long been plenty of smart people in Seattle, mostly working at Microsoft and Amazon, however. The issue has been a shortage of entrepreneurs, or those willing to exit a well-paying gig in favor of a risky venture. Fortunately for Seattle venture capitalists, new efforts have been made to entice corporate workers to the startup universe. Pioneer Square Labs, which I profiled earlier this year, is a prime example of this movement. On a mission to champion Seattle’s unique entrepreneurial DNA, Pioneer Square Labs cropped up in 2015 to create, launch and fund technology companies headquartered in the Pacific Northwest. Boundless CEO Xiao Wang at TechCrunch Disrupt 2017 Operating under the startup studio model, PSL’s team of former founders and venture capitalists, including Rover and Mighty AI founder Greg Gottesman, collaborate to craft and incubate startup ideas, then recruit a founding CEO from their network of entrepreneurs to lead the business. Seattle is home to two of the most valuable businesses in the world, but it has not created as many founders as anticipated. PSL hopes that by removing some of the risk, it can encourage prospective founders, like Boundless CEO Xiao Wang, a former senior product manager at Amazon, to build. “The studio model lends itself really well to people who are 99% there, thinking ‘damn, I want to start a company,’ ” PSL co-founder Ben Gilbert said in March. “These are people that are incredible entrepreneurs but if not for the studio as a catalyst, they may not have [left].” Boundless is one of several successful PSL spin-outs. The business, which helps families navigate the convoluted green card process, raised a $7.8 million Series A led by Foundry Group earlier this year, with participation from existing investors Trilogy Equity Partners, PSL, Two Sigma Ventures and Founders’ Co-Op. Years-old institutional funds like Seattle’s Madrona Venture Group have done their part to bolster the Seattle startup community too. Madrona raised a $100 million Acceleration Fund earlier this year, and although it plans to look beyond its backyard for its newest deals, the firm continues to be one of the largest supporters of Pacific Northwest upstarts. Founded in 1995, Madrona’s portfolio includes Amazon, Mighty AI, UiPath, Branch and more. Voyager Capital, another Seattle-based VC, also raised another $100 million this year to invest in the PNW. Maveron, a venture capital fund co-founded by Starbucks mastermind Howard Schultz, closed on another $180 million to invest in early-stage consumer startups in May. And new efforts like Flying Fish Partners have been busy deploying capital to promising local companies. There’s a lot more to say about all this. Like the growing role of deep-pocketed angel investors in Seattle have in expanding the startup ecosystem, or the non-local investors, like Silicon Valley’s best, who’ve funneled cash into Seattle’s talent. In short, Seattle deal activity is finally climbing thanks to top talent, new accelerator models and several refueled venture funds. Now we wait to see how the Seattle startup community leverages this growth period and what startups emerge on top. Startups Weekly: Will the Seattle tech scene ever reach its full potential? http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techcrunch/startups/~3/HjBmrGsGlpg/

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thisdaynews · 5 years ago

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Prime time: New York's Amazon fight returns in 2020 elections

New Post has been published on https://thebiafrastar.com/prime-time-new-yorks-amazon-fight-returns-in-2020-elections/

Prime time: New York's Amazon fight returns in 2020 elections

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez advocated for Amazon to cancel its move to Long Island City in Queens. Now an opponent is making her advocacy a central point of attack. | Stephen Maturen/Getty Images

NEW YORK — Democrats who torpedoed Amazon’s plans to set up a second headquarters in New York City are finding their stance could come back to bite them on the 2020 ballot.

Under pressure from liberal activists, a group of New York Democrats including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez won an unexpected victory when they drove one of the world’s wealthiest corporations, lured by the promise of $3 billion in tax breaks and subsidies, to ditch its massive investment plans in Queens.

Now, in at least three 2020 races in the city, Democratic primary challengers are taking on leading Amazon opponents with an explicit appeal to voters who supported the corporation’s bid earlier this year to locate its second headquarters in Queens. In another race, an Amazon opponent is challenging a lawmaker who supported the plan.

Former Deputy Mayor Alicia Glen, who is backing City Council Member Donovan Richards in his bid for Queens borough president against anti-Amazon Council Member Jimmy Van Bramer, argues the Amazon fight was the tip of the iceberg of a broader anti-development movement holding back progress in the city.

“Amazon sort of is a poster child of the problem. But the problem, I think, runs a little deeper, which is sort of anti-growth, anti-development cancel culture mentality,” Glen told POLITICO.

Democrats who thought they were gaining political capital with the party’s ascendant left wing by fighting the tech behemoth will now find out whether their push translates into electoral support, or political backlash among many voters who favored the promise of thousands of new Amazon jobs, according to polls.

“At the end of the day, those people who are the most vociferous in their opposition to these important projects are not speaking for the majority of New Yorkers who want new jobs and more mixed-income housing,” Glen said. “I think this is fantastic that this is going to be an issue in the next election. It should be.”

City Council Member Fernando Cabrera, who launched a primary challenge against Ocasio-Cortez, is making Ocasio-Cortez’s opposition to Amazon’s Long Island City move a central point of his attacks. He said he expects interest groups to run ads going after her stance.

“They lost an opportunity that everybody else in America was fighting for,” Cabrera (D-Bronx) told POLITICO.

“It’s shocking that AOC had to put her two cents in there when she was totally misinformed and was clueless about the deal,” he said. “It tells you that she doesn’t have the judgment. She doesn’t understand how government works.”

Amazon chose the Long Island City waterfront along with northern Virginia to house its new campus a year ago after a nationwide contest, in a deal that had the backing of Mayor Bill de Blasio and Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

But after a flood of opposition from local politicians and activists — centered on the $3 billion the company was set to receive in tax breaks and subsidies, as well as its anti-union stance — Amazon abruptly pulled out of the deal in February.

Ocasio-Cortez said she has no regrets about the fight. The tech behemoth’s planned headquarters would have helped drive up rents and drive longtime Queens residents out of their homes, she said.

“What we were really seeing in that part of the district was a huge displacement and surge in rent,” she said. “We’ve seen the other Amazon headquarters that is starting to move forward in Virginia — we’re talking about rent prices surging for communities there anywhere between 10 percent and 20 percent already. And so right now, cost of living in our district is already getting to untenable levels. So I don’t think it’s an argument that holds much water.”

The freshman congresswoman pointed to Seattle, where Amazon spent heavily in an effort to influence local elections. Ocasio-Cortez said New York would have ended up in the same position “if we invited a bad actor into our city that did not want to negotiate, did not want to operate in good faith.”

State Sen. Mike Gianaris (D-Queens), who played a key role in scuttling the deal after being named to a seat on a board that could veto it, has drawn a primary challenger inspired by his opposition to Amazon.

Long Island City resident Justin Potter started a “Defeat Gianaris” website and Twitter account soon after the deal collapsed, and then jumped into the race himself.

“I was excited that Amazon might be coming to the neighborhood. I knew it would be a big challenge, but I knew we could handle it,” said Potter, who started his own e-commerce company.

A first-time candidate, he said he considered it his “civic duty” to make sure Gianaris had a challenge, and felt the incumbent opposed the tech behemoth for political reasons.

“It’s clear he ignored a majority of his constituents,” Potter said. “He was killing the deal for his own political benefit, and I found that very problematic.”

Polls found that a majority of voters citywide and in Queens supported the Amazon project, though they were more divided on the incentive package planned for the company.

“It’s spoken like someone who really does not have their finger on the pulse of the neighborhood and what people here actually deal with in their daily lives,” Gianaris said of his opponent’s charges that he ignored his constituents.

“There is incredible stress on the affordability of housing that would have gotten exponentially worse with that project,” he said. “The stress on the mass transit in that neighborhood is incredible, and that would have gotten worse.”

He said he’s not worried about the primary challenge. “If someone wants to run waving the flag of Amazon, they’re welcome to do it, and they will be soundly defeated.”

Gianaris and Ocasio-Cortez crowed this weekend when Amazon announced it would bring 1,500 office jobs to Midtown Manhattan without any incentives, but the announcement is not likely to slake critics in Queens who are still left out of the 25,000 jobs promised by the HQ2 expansion.

In the other direction, Assemblywoman Cathy Nolan (D-Queens), who supported the Amazon project, is facing a primary challenger targeting her backing of the deal.

Mary Jobaida, an immigrant from Bangladesh, said she was already fed up with a host of neighborhood issues, and seeing Nolan speak in favor of Amazon was the last straw, spurring her to enter politics.

Few of her neighbors would have been qualified for the 25,000 jobs Amazon was dangling, she said.

“The people who are advocating for Amazon are either very selfish, well-off people who wouldn’t be impacted, or they were misguided,” Jobaida said.

Nolan did not respond to requests for comment. Amazon declined to comment for this story.

In a crowded race to replace Queens Borough President Melinda Katz, some contenders are lining up along lines drawn during the Amazon fight.

Van Bramer said he expects opponents to use his anti-Amazon stance against him, but he has found that voters who may have loosely favored the project appreciate his position once they learn more about it — especially Amazon’s treatment of workers and anti-union stance.

“I’m ready to fight that battle, and talk about the values that were behind that fight,” he said. “I firmly believe that the opposition is broader and deeper than many people think.”

But Richards said Queens constituents are missing the job opportunities Amazon promised to bring.

“You’re going to have to explain killing 25,000 jobs,” he said. “I think this is going to be continuously raised throughout the campaign. … I don’t think I’m even going to have to be the one who raises it.”

“I’m not saying Amazon was going to save the world, because I would be foolish to say that, but at the end of the day this is $28 billion in revenue we could have leveraged,” Richards said.

The progressive activists, real estate interests and business owners who clashed over the HQ2 proposal have plenty of time to get involved in the still-forming races, but deep divides remain in the neighborhood and beyond.

Frank Raffaele, owner of the Long Island City-based coffee company, Coffeed, said the project would be a “primary factor” for many voters still seething over the deal’s collapse.

“The hangover is almost finished,” he said. “I think people really had a chance to reflect, and I think there’s a really strong sentiment, especially since that land is vacant, that something could have happened.”

Tania Mattos, the co-founder of Queens Neighborhoods United, countered that the uproar that greeted Amazon’s plans was more reflective of residents’ sentiments.

“The community spoke loud and clear on their position on Amazon,” she said.

#Elections #Foreign #Politics #returns

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biofunmy · 5 years ago

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Boris Johnson, Giuseppe Conte, Dorian: Your Friday Briefing

(Want to get this briefing by email? Here’s the sign-up.)

Good morning.

We’re covering Boris Johnson’s promises to speed up Brexit talks, how Giuseppe Conte went from irrelevant to irreplaceable and a chicken-sandwich battle for the ages.

Mr. Johnson promised that Britain’s Brexit negotiators would sit down with their European counterparts twice a week through September, with the possibility of additional technical meetings, to try to reach a deal that would avert the risk of a cliff-edge departure.

“While I have been encouraged with my discussions with E.U. leaders over recent weeks that there is a willingness to talk about alternatives to the anti-democratic backstop,” he said in comments released by his office, “it is now time for both sides to step up the tempo.”

Details: The Conservative Party leader in Scotland, Ruth Davidson, resigned, and Lord Young of Cookham, a former cabinet minister, resigned as a Conservative whip in the House of Lords on Thursday.

Meaning: The move seemed to acknowledge the mounting concern about the suspension of Parliament, a decision that provoked spontaneous protests in London and other cities.

How Giuseppe Conte became irreplaceable

The departing prime minister of Italy, after 14 months of being ignored and mocked, has been using his resignation last week to catapult himself into a leading role in the country’s government.

In accepting the mandate to form a government on Thursday, Mr. Conte said that he wanted to win back lost time “to allow Italy, a founding member of the European Union, to rise again as a protagonist” and “transform this moment of crisis into an opportunity.”

What’s next: Mr. Conte will now begin meetings with all party leaders and is expected next week to submit to President Sergio Mattarella a cabinet that, if approved, will be brought to Parliament for a confidence vote.

Reminder: Mr. Conte will preside over a populist/anti-populist coalition between the Five Star Movement and the center-left Democratic Party.

What genes say (and don’t say) about sexuality

An ambitious new study found that many genes play a role in sexual behavior, and that there is no one “gay gene.”

The study in the journal Science found that genes account for perhaps a third of the influence on whether someone has same-sex sex, along with social and environmental factors.

“I hope that the science can be used to educate people a little bit more about how natural and normal same-sex behavior is,” said one of the lead researchers. “It’s written into our genes and it’s part of our environment. This is part of our species and it’s part of who we are.”

Perspective: One of the study’s researchers and a colleague, both gay men, parse the implications and limitations of the work in an Op-Ed.

Accused of recruiting for Jeffrey Epstein

The Times is reporting on disturbing new accusations that Jeffrey Epstein relied on a ring of women close to him to feed his insatiable appetite for girls.

Mr. Epstein’s accusers contend in court papers that his onetime partner Ghislaine Maxwell, along with a small cadre of other women — including several assistants and one referred to as Ms. Maxwell’s “lieutenant” — helped Mr. Epstein lure girls into his orbit and managed the logistics of his encounters with them.

Legal dilemma: Experts also told The Times that prosecutors may struggle in deciding whether to charge the women, because some may have initially been victims themselves.

If you have 8 minutes, this is worth it

Those excluded from France’s sacred August holidays

France is famous for its long summer vacations. In Paris, handwritten notes pop up on the doors of the local bakery, brasserie or locksmith indicating that the owners are away and that you should be, too.

But for many, vacations are becoming increasingly out of reach financially, especially as traditional summer hot spots cater to high-income clients. The gap reflects an increasingly unequal French society — another sign of the things that gave rise to the Yellow Vest movement.

Here’s what else is happening

Measles: There is a “dramatic resurgence” in the disease on the Continent, the World Health Organization said — fueled in part by a rising wave of people who are refusing to be vaccinated. Albania, Britain, the Czech Republic and Greece joined 12 other nations where the disease is endemic.

Hurricane Dorian: The powerful storm is on course to hit Florida as a Category 4 hurricane. It could start as early as Saturday night, with winds of up to 130 miles per hour. Forecasters predict that the hurricane will drop 4 to 8 inches of rain, with up to a foot in some areas.

Climate change: The Trump administration laid out a far-reaching plan to cut back on the regulation of methane emissions, a major contributor to climate change.

Colombia: A former rebel commander called for a return to arms, saying the government has failed to honor the peace deal that ended a 52-year war.

Snapshot: Above, a Popeyes location that sold out of chicken sandwiches in New York, after Twitter insults led to the most successful product launch in the fast-food chain’s history. A viral social media debate between Popeyes and Chick-fil-A had customers flocking to restaurants across the country to see for themselves — and it turned into a logistical headache.

U.S. Open: Taylor Townsend upset the Wimbledon champion Simona Halep for the biggest win of her career. Coco Gauff, the 15-year-old who has captivated the tennis world, beat Timea Babos to reach the third round. Next she will face the defending champion, Naomi Osaka.

What we’re reading: This piece in the Atlantic. Remy Tumin on the briefings team, says: “My friend and former colleague Peter Brannen puts the fires in the Amazon into the context of humanity’s burning of fossil fuels, which summons ‘creatures long dead to return to Earth’s surface and give up the ancient energy they took to the grave,’ he writes.”

Now, a break from the news

Listen: Lana Del Rey’s fifth major-label album, “Norman ____ Rockwell!,” is a collaboration with Jack Antonoff packed with fiery lyrics.

Smarter Living: One thing you can do for the environment is drive less. Our Climate Fwd: newsletter did the math for the U.S. Since Americans drive trillions of miles every year, a 10 percent reduction would equal taking about 28 coal-fired power plants offline for a year. Short trips are the lowest-hanging fruit — you can ditch the car and walk, bike or take public transit.

And if you use Slack to escape from email hell, we can help you keep it from taking over your life.

And now for the Back Story on …

Namor, the Sub-Mariner

The Marvel Comics character turns 80 on Saturday. Created by the writer-artist Bill Everett, he has been a villain, a hero, a corporate tycoon and more.

In his origin story, published on Aug. 31, 1939, he is a force of nature personified. Two divers who spot him in the ocean depths are in awe of “the long strokes of his powerful arms.”

Under water, his hair and skin color vary. On land, he has brown hair and is Caucasian — closer to his modern look.

The cartoonist Art Spiegelman, writing about how fascism shaped the golden age of comics in the 1940s, noted that the volatile Sub-Mariner was “a marked contrast to the square and square-jawed vigilante do-gooders who lived in the less scruffy DC Comics neighbourhood.”

The reason for Namor’s rage resonates today: undersea explosions set off by a scientific expedition. With the kingdom of Atlantis threatened, his mother tells him, “It is your duty to lead us into battle!” And so he has, for eight decades and counting.

That’s it for this briefing. We’re off on Monday for the U.S. Labor Day holiday. See you next time.

— Melina

Thank you Mark Josephson, Eleanor Stanford and Chris Harcum provided the break from the news. George Gustines, a senior editor for graphics and video, wrote today’s Back Story. You can reach the team at [email protected].

P.S. • We’re listening to “The Daily.” Our latest episode is about Uber’s struggle to make a profit. • Here’s today’s Mini Crossword puzzle, and a clue: Philosopher John who lent his name to a “Lost” character (five letters). You can find all our puzzles here. • On Thursday, we distributed 2,000 copies of the Times Magazine special issue “The 1619 Project,” along with a related newspaper section, for free to readers outside our headquarters in New York.

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womenofcolor15 · 6 years ago

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Meek Mill's 2008 Drug & Gun Conviction Thrown Out, Case May Get Dropped! + Launches New Dream Chasers Label With Roc Nation

Meek Mill just scored a MAJOR victory! His decade-old conviction in a drug and gun case has been overturned. And the case may get tossed. Also, he just joined forces with Jay Z for his own record label. Everything inside...

To say today is a good day for Robert Rihmeek Williams would be an understatement!

The Philadelphia native has been fighting for his freedom for over a decade after he copped a drug & gun conviction. Now, he sees the light at the end of the tunnel.

Today, a Pennsylvania appeal court overturned the Championships rapper's conviction in a drug and gun case that has kept him on probabtion for over 10 years. Last week, his lawyers appeared in appeals court on his behalf to get the conviction overturned and it worked!

The unanimous three-judge panel said since new evidence was presented that undermined the credibility of the officer who testified against the rapper at his trial, it's likely the case would be acquitted if it was retried.

Not only that, the court overturned a trial judge’s parole violation findings that hauled Meek back to prison for five months in 2017. You'll recall, Judge Genece Brinkley caught hella backlash for her controversial role in Meek's criminal justice troubles.

“We conclude the after-discovered evidence is of such a strong nature and character that a different verdict will likely result at a retrial,” the opinion read, which cited “highly prejudicial testimony” given during Meek’s first trial.

The AP reports:

City prosecutors have backed the defense bid for a new trial and confirmed they do not trust the officer, who has since left the force and was the only prosecution witness at the 2008 nonjury trial. Still, District Attorney Larry Krasner said Wednesday his office needs time to decide whether to drop the case.

Now-retired police officer Reginald Graham testified during Meek's trial that the rapper pointed a gun at him while being busted for drugs outside his southwest Philadelphia home. Officer Graham - who now lives in Florida - left the force a few years ago after he was investigated internally.

The investigation concluded Officer Graham had stolen money during a drug bust in 2005 and then lied to the FBI about it. He was NOT charged. Hmph.

“The past 11 years have been mentally and emotionally challenging, but I’m ecstatic that justice prevailed,” the 32-year-old rapper said in a statement. “Unfortunately, millions of people are dealing with similar issues in our country and don’t have the resources to fight back like I did. We need to continue supporting them.”

The "Going Bad" rapper also hopped on Twitter with excitement after the ruling:

Now, the "Dreamchasers" rapper is getting to some BIG business with a BIG wig. The rapper-turned-entrepreneur, who is the co-chair of the REFORM Alliance, is launching a new record label in a joint venture with Jay Z's Roc Nation.

Meek's new label will be called "Dream Chasers." The two entertainers celebrated the launch of Dream Chasers Records today in NYC right before Mekk's court ruling came down.

A few weeks ago, "CBS This Morning" anchor Gayle King sat down with Meek and Hov at Roc Nation headquarters to chat about the record label, why they think it's important to establish a legacy as entrepreneurs for the next generation of artists, and more. Check it:

youtube

View this post on Instagram

@DreamChasers Records x @rocnation official joint venture label “Black entrepreneur, nobody did us no favors...Nobody gave us shit, WE MADE US” - HOV

A post shared by Meek Mill (@meekmill) on Jul 24, 2019 at 5:12am PDT

Also, REFORM Alliance CEO Van Jones, Sixers owner/billionaire Michael Rubin, Patriots owner Robert Kraft, new Roc Nation record label co-president Shari Bryant and more are moving forward to reach their goal of freeing one million people who have got caught up in the system within the next five years. They held their third board meeting recently where they heard stories from people who have been directly impacted by the probation and parole system.

View this post on Instagram

Proud to be CEO of @reform. Our third board meeting and the opportunity to hear stories from people directly impacted by the probation & parole system has left us even more motivated to #FightDifferent and win. #REFORM

A post shared by Van Jones (@vanjones68) on Jul 24, 2019 at 9:03am PDT

View this post on Instagram

Rare meetings about important stuff

A post shared by Meek Mill (@meekmill) on Jul 22, 2019 at 6:41pm PDT

View this post on Instagram

This my level I’m making myself be on @reform

A post shared by Meek Mill (@meekmill) on Jul 23, 2019 at 3:15pm PDT

View this post on Instagram

Had our third @reform board meeting yesterday - continued laser focus on getting one million people out of the system by 2023 while keeping communities safe!!!! Spent the last part of the meeting hearing people’s stories who have been affected by our broken probation and parole system - nothing could motivate the Reform Alliance more than hearing these stories firsthand!! #fightdifferent

A post shared by Michael Rubin (@michaelrubin) on Jul 23, 2019 at 10:37am PDT

Nice!

Meek Mill's "Free Meek" documentary - which chronicles how he became the criminal justice system poster child - premieres August 9th via Amazon Prime Video.

Photos: Meek's IG

[Read More ...] source http://theybf.com/2019/07/24/meek-mill-granted-new-trial-after-2008-drug-gun-conviction-gets-thrown-out

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