Beyoncé Donates $6M to Coronavirus Relief

The donation is in partnership with several organizations to provide mental health help and other services to communities in need.

Beyoncé is getting into formation to help those in need during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

The Grammy winner, 38, announced that she has committed $6 million to help those disproportionately affected by the public health crisis, particularly those on the frontlines who will need assistance even after the pandemic.

"Beyoncé’s BeyGOOD recognizes the immense mental and personal health burdens being placed on essential workers during the COVID-19 pandemic," a rep for Beyoncé said in a statement. Beyoncé spoke about the heroes of the pandemic, while also shining a light on the communities devastated the most by the deadly virus.

Tobacco Company To Cut 2,300 Jobs

The world’s second largest tobacco company by sales looks to streamline its operations. British American Tobacco Plc (BATS.L) said on Thursday it would lay off 2,300 employees globally by January.

The company said the move would impact over 20% of its senior roles as it takes steps to eliminate duplicate roles in its aim to create fewer but larger business units among other things.

BAT plans to cut 2,300 jobs

The “New Category” business includes brands like vuse for e-cigarettes, velo - a nicotine pouch for the gums and glo for tobacco heating devices.

More Tobacco News:

Illinois Raises Smoking Age To 21

Cocaine And Money

Jay-Z Takes Role At San Jose Weed Firm

Jay-Z has ventured off into another business role. The hip-hop superstar Jay-Z has been named chief brand ambassador for San Jose marijuana company Caliva.

“Anything I do, I want to do correctly and at the highest level,” Jay-Z said in the announcement. “With all the potential in the cannabis industry, Caliva’s expertise and ethos makes them the best partner for this endeavor."

"Many people recently out of jail or prison don’t reap financial rewards from marijuana legalization, Caliva said. Jay-Z will promote their economic participation through advocacy, job training, and employee and workforce development."

Caliva, which says it has more than 600 employees state-wide, and more than 150,000 square feet of cultivation, manufacturing and retail space, has broader ambitions for its work with Jay-Z.

Caliva sells varieties of indoor-grown marijuana along with other cannabis products including vape pens, pipes, edibles, tinctures, drinks and pre-rolled reefers. Caliva also makes deliveries of online orders, and numerous dispensaries stock its goods.

Facebook Raises Minimum Wages For Employees

Facebook is increasing wages for its contract workers in the US, from janitors to content moderators.

On Monday, the Silicon Valley tech giant said that it will pay at least $22 per hour for content reviewers in the Bay Area, New York City, and Washington, DC; $20 per hour to those living in Seattle; and $18 per hour in all other metro areas in the United States.

Facebook has faced scrutiny over the pay and working conditions of its content moderators. An investigation from The Verge found that workers, who were being paid just $28,800 a year, faced intense working conditions and some developed PTSD.

The $520 billion company is also raising wages for US contract workers like cafeteria staff and janitors to a minimum of $20 per hour in San Francisco Bay Area, New York, and Washington, DC, and to $18 per hour in Seattle.

"In the years since, it's become clear that $15 per hour doesn't meet the cost of living in some of the places where we operate. After reviewing a number of factors including third-party guidelines, we're committing to a higher standard that better reflects local costs of living," the social media giant said in a blog post.

Walmart, the world's largest retailer and the largest US private sector employer, pays workers $11 an hour at entry-level, while Target said in April it would raise its US minimum wage to $13 an hour.

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$17 Million Awarded To Injured Woman At Walmart

A jury in West Virginia has returned a nearly $17 million verdict after a woman was injured when staffers tried to detain a shoplifter in Walmart.

A lawyer for 53-year-old Diane Ankrom says employees tried to detain the shoplifter when he ran into her shopping cart, in which she was pushing her granddaughter. Ankrom fell to the ground with the cart falling on top of her.

The jury found Walmart 30 percent responsible and the shoplifter 70 percent, though it's unclear how the money will be split.

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A.J. Calloway Under Investigation For Sexual Misconduct

It seems as if every star is under fire these days. Longtime Extra host A.J. Calloway has been suspended after several women have come forward with allegations of sexual misconduct.

The suspension comes months after THR first reported a claim of abuse against Calloway and as the publication has been preparing a new story with additional allegations. THR has reached out to an attorney for Calloway for comment on the suspension. The host previously has denied any wrongdoing.

Full Story

"Upon becoming aware of allegations of sexual misconduct against AJ Calloway, we began an internal review to determine whether there had been any misconduct by Mr. Calloway on Extra and whether any employee of the show had been the victim of any such misconduct."

Warner Bros. added, "In light of additional allegations brought to our attention, we are expanding our ongoing inquiries, and Mr. Calloway has been suspended pending further review. We take such allegations very seriously and are committed to doing everything we can to ensure a safe and inclusive workplace for all of our employees."

Subsequently, more accusers came forward in a Jan. 4 article published by The Daily Beast. In the wake of these allegations, Warner Bros. said the company had not received any complaints regarding Calloway.

General Motors To Layoff 4,ooo Employees

General Motors is planning to layoff at least 4,000 salaried workers in North America starting Monday ahead of the company’s fourth-quarter earnings report.

The reductions come as the largest U.S. automaker undergoes a massive restructuring announced by CEO Mary Barra in November. GM is halting production at five plants in North America and cutting 14,000 jobs as it realigns its workforce and plants to produce more electric vehicles.

Company executives want to complete as many of the layoffs as possible before the company reports its earnings Wednesday.

GM offered buyouts to 17,700 employees in North America with at least 12 years of service in November. The company was aiming for 8,000 voluntary buyouts, the company previously confirmed.

That leaves roughly 4,250 salaried workers and 6,000 hourly employees targeted for layoffs. The company said in November that half of the hourly workers were in Canada with the other half in the U.S.

The company has offered jobs to all 2,800 hourly workers affected in the U.S., and about 1,000 have accepted. The other 3,000 hourly workers located in Canada are getting help finding jobs and training.

Many of the cuts are planned at factories in the United States and Canada that make sedans and compact cars — vehicles that have not been selling well in North America, as customers turn toward trucks, sport utility vehicles and crossovers. These vehicles tend to be more profitable for automakers.

Source

Man Makes Millions Buying From Walmart and Selling on Amazon

This shows how you can make money any kind of way is willing to put the time into it. Ryan Grant, a 30-year-old entrepreneur whose company notched over $6 million in sales last year, in part by buying items at his local Walmart and reselling them on Amazon.

“My initial goal with this was just to replace the income that I was making from my accounting job, which at the time that I quit was $50,000 a year,” he said on Yahoo Finance’s live show YFi PM. “This has definitely exceeded what I thought possible and it has definitely exceeded my initial goals.”

“At the very beginning it was just me doing this out of half of a duplex that I was owner-occupying so there was product literally in every room of the house,” he said.

When he started making just as much through his side hustle as he was from his accounting day job, he decided to quit in 2013.

“It’s turned into a lot more than that today,” he said. “We’re still doing the retail arbitrage where we’re buying in retail stores and it’s expanded into buying from manufacturers and distributors of existing brands as well but it really all began with retail arbitrage.”

Source

Now, Grant has moved his flipping operation to a 3,800-square-foot office with a staff of about 10 employees helping ship in bulk to Amazon. Selling through Amazon’s “Fulfilled by Amazon” program means individual orders are processed by Amazon out of their own warehouses, sparing Grant and his team the pain of shipping each individual order. He’s also started to branch out into selling on eBay and Jet, as well as his own e-commerce sites rather than relying solely on Amazon.

That said, sales continue to grow — from about $3.5 million in 2017 to $6.1 million in 2018. Despite the sales increase, Grant has dialed back his own annual salary to around $60,000 to instead opt to reinvest profits into the business. While that seems low, Grant said he’s only spending about 15 hours a week on the project as his staff handles day-to-day logistics, and is free to travel and work remotely.

Minimum Wage In Ohio Goes Up 25-cent

Here is another great way to bring in the new year for alot of Ohio residences. The Ohio minimum wage was last changed in 2008, when it was raised to $7.00. Ohio’s minimum wage is scheduled to increase on Jan. 1, 2019, to $8.55 per hour for non-tipped employees and $4.30 per hour for tipped employees.

This wage only applies to companies with annual gross receipts over $314,000. According to data from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a single adult would need to make $10.15 an hour, or $21,112 a year, in Mahoning or Trumbull county to pay for bare necessities, assuming the person lives in a studio apartment, has a low-cost food plan and drives a used car or uses cheap public transportation. A family of two adults and two children with one of the parents working would need that person to make $22.57, or $46,945 a year.

“The living wage is the minimum income standard that, if met, draws a very fine line between the financial independence of the working poor and the need to seek out public assistance or suffer consistent and severe housing and food insecurity.”

“Most studies show that incremental increases in minimum wage do not have adverse impacts in terms of unemployment rates and do not cause inflation, which are the biggest concerns associated with increasing minimum wage.”

Source

When the minimum wage increases throughout a geographic region rather than one city, it’s less likely to impact local businesses in a negative way, Sumell explained. For example, if only Youngstown increased minimum wage, businesses there might be inclined to move to a neighboring municipality to decrease costs.

Mold Found In Staten Island Hospital

More than 50 nurses and other staffers sickened at Staten Island University Hospital after mold found in nursery.

Dozens of people working in the hospital’s maternity unit have reported getting ill with everything from headaches to dizziness to swollen throats in recent months, after air monitoring devices found the presence of mold and trace amounts of anesthetic gases, nurses and administrators say.

53 employees have reported getting sick in the unit, according to both nurses and hospital execs. A nursery has been relocated, but nurses are asking for their entire unit to be moved, something the hospital says is not necessary because tests show the air is safe.

After the odor was reported, babies were moved to a backup nursery in the unit and air monitoring began. Mold was detected at moderately elevated levels, similar to outdoor levels, hospital execs say. Workers found water-borne mold behind a sink wall and decontaminated the area.

Source

The hospital said in a statement that air monitoring this month detected “the presence of anesthetic gases sevoflurane and nitrous oxide, which are routinely used during surgical procedures.”


Those concentrations were “significantly below” the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health’s recommended exposure limit and pose “no risk to patients, staff or visitors,” the statement said.

A certified air gas specialist was brought in to inspect the gas system’s infrastructure and found zero leaks, hospital administrators say. The air is now being retested to see if the trace amounts still remain.

“Hospital administration has been directly communicating with staff multiple times a week, met with union representatives six times and notified the appropriate regulatory agencies to proactively address this matter,” the statement added.

Apple Set To Build New Headquarters In Texas

Apple Inc said on Thursday it would spend $1 billion to build a second campus in Austin, Texas that will house as many as 15,000 workers, amid a broader push by many U.S. companies to create more jobs at home.

The iPhone maker had announced at the start of the year it would invest $30 billion in the United States, taking advantage of a tax windfall stemming from U.S. President Donald Trump's sweeping tax reforms.

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The 133-acre campus in Austin will employ workers across various functions including engineering, R&D, operations and finance. The city is already home to the second largest number of Apple employees outside its headquarters in Cupertino, California.


Apple will also set up sites in Seattle, San Diego and Culver City, California and hire over 1,000 employees each in these locations, while also expanding operations in Pittsburgh, New York and Boulder, Colorado over the next three years.

Many American multinationals have been facing political pressure to ramp up investments at home as part of Trump's "America First" policies, which have left the United States embroiled in a bitter trade war with China. The president has also warned of tariffs on iPhones and other Apple products imported from China.

Apple's technology rival Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O) last month ended a months-long search for its second headquarters, picking New York City and an area just outside Washington, D.C. for massive new offices, with plans to create thousands of jobs.

The new Austin campus will be located less than a mile away from Apple's existing facilities, and will first house 5,000 new employees with the capacity to expand to 15,000.

How Lyft and Uber Is Killing The Taxi Industry

It's starting to get rare to see Taxi drivers on the road, but Uber and Lyft are starting to pop up every where. Why is that all of a sudden. Who would have ever thought that a App could change the way we get transportation?

Many taxi drivers worked part time or temporarily, like Uber drivers. In so many way's they are the same. As Uber and Lyft expand into Chicago, taxi drivers in the city are struggling to afford medallions as the number of riders drops.

The taxicab industry believes the playing field has so far not been level. With their limited capital investment in vehicles (drivers generally bring their own) and employees (the overwhelming majority of ride-share drivers are independent contractors without benefits), and so far limited regulation, the ride-share companies have severely damaged the traditional yellow cab industry.

Lyft matches drivers with passengers who request rides through our smartphone app, and passengers pay automatically through the app. Lyft provides additional insurance policies, at no cost to the driver.

Uber Technologies Inc. is a peer-to-peer ridesharing, taxi cab, food delivery, bicycle-sharing, and transportation network company. Its platforms can be accessed via its websites and mobile apps.

A taxicab, also known as a taxi or a cab, is a type of vehicle for hire with a driver, used by a single passenger or small group of passengers, often for a non-shared ride. A taxicab conveys passengers between locations of their choice. This differs from other modes of public transport where the pick-up and drop-off locations are determined by the service provider, not by the passenger.

Amazon Raises Minimum Wage For It's Employees

Amazon

Amazon announced on Tuesday (October 2) that they will be raising the minimum wage for their U.S. full-time, part-time, seasonal and temporary employees to $15 starting on November 1. There are currently 250,000 people that work for Amazon with plans to hire another 100,000 for the upcoming holiday season.

CEO Jeff Bezos commented on the decision, stating, "We listened to our critics, thought hard about what we wanted to do, and decided we want to lead. We’re excited about this change and encourage our competitors and other large employers to join us."

Jay Carney, senior vice president of Amazon Global Corporate Affairs, also revealed that Amazon will be lobbying to raise the current $7.25 minimum wage. He explained, "The current rate ... was set nearly a decade ago. We intend to advocate for a minimum wage increase that will have a profound impact on the lives of tens of millions of people and families across this country."

Amazon To Start Selling Groceries

$15 Minimum Wage Raise For Seattle Wa

Google Gives Chance the Rapper $1.5M

Chance the Rapper announced that Google funded coding classes for 20 schools in his hometown of Chicago. Google has donated a generous amount of $1.5 million to Chano’s non-profit organization SocialWorks, to bring computer science to Chicago Public Schools. 

Kanye West Sues Lloyds Of London For $10 Million

Kanye West is looking to recoup money lost when he had to cancel dates on his 2016 Saint Pablo Tour. The rapper's company, Very Good Touring, has filed a $9.8 million lawsuit against Lloyds of London for failing to cover the funds lost on the crossed out dates.

TMZ reports that VTG claims in court documents that it had an insurance policy with Lloyds to cover cancellation or non-appearance fees. They blame West's alleged marijuana use for the cancelled dates. Very Good Touring says Lloyds has no proof to back up their accusation and is just looking for "any ostensible excuse no matter how fanciful" to deny payment on the policy.

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Will The Music Giant Shut Down?

I don't know how true it is, according to a TechCrunch report released on Thursday, July 12, someone from among the highest ranks of the company gave it 50 days before SoundCloud sees the total depletion of its funds.

The fast approaching deadline was announced during an urgent conference call held by co-founders Alexander Ljung and Eric Wahlforss on Monday. SoundCloud just recently made headlines when the company's leadership laid off 40% of its employees amid financial struggles to stay afloat. The conference call was scheduled in order to catch remaining staff up to speed with the future of the company in its tumultuous times.

A SoundCloud representative has since batted the TechCrunch article down, by citing "a misinterpretation of information by one or two laid off employees during a recent all-hands meeting." The specific wording that was reportedly used by the staff member, was that SoundCloud was only funded "until" the 4th quarter. The SoundCloud rep clarifies that the company is actually fully funded "through" Q4.

60 Ounces Of Weed Donated To Goodwill

Employees at a Washington Goodwill center were sorting through donations earlier this week when they came upon a cooler containing 60 ounces of marijuana.

Goodwill workers often attest to discovering odds and ends, at times recovering cash left in the pockets of pants and bags, but rarely is anything found in such abundance as was on Monday [March 13], in Monroe. "This is a reminder to check your purse, pockets, or cooler to make sure you're donating the items you mean to," Goodwill spokesperson Katherine Boury said following the incident.

Recreational marijuana is legal in marijuana, but can only be carried in one-ounce quantities, by persons over 21 years old. Thus, whoever left the five large bags containing the drug would have stood to be prosecuted if they were busted with it in their possession. According to authorities who've attempted to track the cooler's owner down, many have suggested that the donation might have been theirs, but none have come forward with the admission. "There are many people on social media claiming it's theirs, but we have yet to have one walk through the door," said Debbie Willis of the Monroe Police Department.

Related articles

• Utah mother generously donates breast milk after baby's death
• Marijuana-filled cooler worth $24G donated to Goodwill
• Feds threaten to shut down giant Las Vegas marijuana festival
• You can now use Apple Pay to donate to 22 UK charities

Meek Mill Charged With Assault

Meek Mill landed himself in some trouble while traveling to Miami from the St. Louis Airport, where he got into an altercation with an airport employee. According to TMZ, the employee wanted a photo with Meek, but he wasn't having it. The interaction between the men led to an altercation, and Meek and two airport employees were charged with a misdemeanor assault.

Meek was given a summons to appear in court but was not arrested after the incident. Meek is currently on probation for a weapons and drug conviction, although it's unclear if this would be considered a violation of his probation.

Ben Carson Talks Slaves Being Immigrants

Newly confirmed Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson referred to slaves as "immigrants" while speaking on Monday to department employees.

"That's what America is about, a land of dreams and opportunity," Carson said. "There were other immigrants who came here in the bottom of slave ships, worked even longer, even harder for less. But they too had a dream that one day their sons, daughters, grandsons, granddaughters, great-grandsons, great-granddaughters, might pursue prosperity and happiness in this land."

Ariana Grande Ft Future – Everyday

With Ariana Grande, Future, Michael Canetty, Jeremy Fiorentino. The clip features Grande singing in the streets, in a laundromat and on the bus while couples of different races, ages and sexuality are kissing. Future raps his verse in an office surrounded by employees.

Ariana Grande links up with Future for her latest visual for Everyday directed by Chris Marrs Piliero. Taken from the album Dangerous Woman.