Category: News and Views

Russia to Remain Banned From Olympics After Doping Scandal | ABC News

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Russian track-and-field athletes will remain barred from international competition over a doping scandal, the world athletics’ governing body announced today before this summer’s Olympics in Brazil.

After meeting in Vienna, the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) decided not to reinstate Russia’s track and field federation, which has been suspended from international competitions after it was implicated in an elaborate alleged state-sponsored doping cover-up in November.

Russia is the first country to be excluded from the Olympics over doping. Its track-and-field athletes are banned from the Rio de Janeiro Games.

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Whole Foods gets warning letter from FDA | Money CNN

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When it rains, it pours for Whole Foods. Literally, it seems.

The Food and Drug Administration sent a warning letter to Whole Foods co-CEOs John Mackey and Walter Robb about what the FDA called “serious violations” it found after inspecting a Whole Foods food preparation facility in Everett, MA, in February.

The FDA said in the letter — dated June 8 — that it found various items, including pesto pasta, mushroom quesadillas, egg salad and couscous, were in areas where “condensate” was leaking from ceiling joints, a doorway and condenser fan.

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Better late than never? Microsoft missed a chance to buy LinkedIn for $1.5 billion | Mashable 

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Microsoft’s blockbuster $26 billion acquisition of LinkedIn on Monday may have come out of left field, but it was a courtship many years in the making.

From LinkedIn’s earliest days after launching 14 years ago, Microsoft was considered the only possible “logical buyer,” according to one LinkedIn insider.

The problem was Microsoft — like most of its peers — didn’t see the logic in buying LinkedIn.

“People never fully understood the value LinkedIn was creating until after they went public,” says Mark Kvamme, an early LinkedIn investor and former member of its board of directors. “No one ever truly understood the value of what Reid [Hoffman, founder] and Jeff [Weiner, CEO] were building.”

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Brexit Europe risk | Business Insider

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Everyone is suddenly talking about the coming Brexit vote.

With Britain preparing to vote in a June 23 referendum on whether to leave the European Union, the latest polls seem to suggest that Brits are leaning toward Leave:

The ICM phone and online poll: Remain 47% / Leave 53%

ORB phone poll: Remain 48% / Leave 49%

YouGov online poll: Remain 39% / Leave 46%

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Etsy Brings Together Small Designers, Big Retailers With “Open Call” | Small Biz Trends

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What if you could pitch your products to a dream retailer like Nordstrom?

Etsy, known for being an innovative online marketplace for consumers to source handmade and other items from independent designers for their homes, wardrobes and more, is set to help members of its Etsy Wholesale community do just that. The company is bringing together small designers and heavy-hitting retailers from across the country via its Open Call program.

Now in its second year running, the Etsy Open Call program brings together buyers from top retail stores in the country and fresh talent from the Etsy Wholesale community through a series of live and online events to create pathways for valuable business partnerships.

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Why Bumble’s Anti-Bullying Open Letter to a Male User Is Totally on Brand | Entrepreneur

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On Bumble, women seeking men have to initiate the conversation. The app, which aims to prevent sexual harassment, does not enable men to make the first move. But that’s not where Bumble’s advocacy for women ends.

The dating app’s women-first approach prompted Ashley Helmbreck to message one of her matches, Connor, with a benign question, “How’s it going?” Connor responded, “Great, thanks and yourself?”  Ashley followed up with, “Pretty slow at work” and “What do you do?”

Instead of providing a straight answer, Connor immediately took offense. That’s when the conversation took the turn that prompted Bumble to defend Ashley with an open letter shaming him for his behavior.

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Airbnb Is None Too Pleased About San Francisco’s New Crackdown | WIRED

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AIRBNB IS SPEAKING out against tough new legislation in San Francisco that would require short-term rental sites to police their own listings for properties that violate city regulations.

This week, San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors voted 10-0 to toughen short-term rental laws already on the books. The city already requires hosts renting out their places on Airbnb to register with the city, though that’s proven difficult to enforce. But with a bulked-up progressive majority following the election of Supervisor Aaron Peskin, who campaigned on housing affordability, the board decided it needed to crack down harder. The new rules demand that Airbnb and sites like it only publish listings that include an official registration number that shows the property is officially approved by the city as a short-term rental. Sites that don’t comply could face fines of up to $1,000 daily for each listing in violation.

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Sears May Sell Its Best-Known Brands|Bloomberg

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Once upon a time, Sears was the Amazon.com and Walmart of U.S. merchandising. Customers could order just about anything for delivery—even a kit to build a 10-room colonial-style house—from the Sears catalog, a compendium of the American dream with a reach into the rural parts of the country that helped make Sears, Roebuck America’s largest merchant. Sears helped create the shopping mall in the 1950s, working with developers to build the retail centers that grew with the exodus to the suburbs. And when customers needed financing, it created a massive credit arm that paved the way for the MasterCards and Visas of today.

“They stood like a colossus on top of the American retail market—bigger than the next four companies combined,” says Craig Johnson, president of consultant Customer Growth Partners. That was as recently as the 1980s. “Now they’re a 98-pound weakling.”

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BuzzFeed Backs Out of ‘Significant’ Ad Deal With RNC Over Trump’s Rhetoric | Adweek

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What’s worse for our nation’s health? Donald Trump or cigarettes?

They’re about equal, per an email from BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti to his employees this morning. Peretti was explaining his decision to back out of advertising deal with the Republican National Committee, pointing to the GOP presumptive nominee’s hateful rhetoric about Muslims, Mexicans and others.

Politico obtained a copy of the email, where Peretti stated that earlier this spring that BuzzFeed and RNC inked a deal to “spend a significant amount on political advertisements slated to run during the fall election cycle.”

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