Category: News and Views

Meet 3 angry Volkswagen owners | CNN Money

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Volkswagen’s costly lie has left the giant automaker in crisis. It has also left its customers feeling confused, cheated and steaming mad.

The emissions scandal affects nearly 500,000 diesel Volkswagen and Audi cars in the U.S. alone — and millions more around the world. The scandal came to light when the EPA said Volkswagen had cheated on smog tests.

U.S. regulators have ordered the company to recall the cars at issue. But VW hasn’t done that yet, nor has it said how it will get the cars to comply with the law or how it will compensate customers.

Bottom line: Who knows what comes next? CNNMoney has heard from many Volkswagen customers in recent days. Here are some of their stories.

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Google launches Customer Match, Similar Audiences and Universal App Campaigns | Business Insider

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On Sunday evening, Google announced two new ad products it hopes will help it gain more share of the mobile advertising market.

The new products are quite similar to a service and a format already available from Facebook. And they’re two of the advertising products marketers love most about the social network.

First up, Google has announced a new product called “Customer Match.” It works in a similar way to Facebook’s popular “Custom Audiences” product, which the social network rolled out to all advertisers back in 2013.

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What Does the Pope Think About Technology? #It’sComplicated | WIRED

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HE’S GOT A stunning 7.2 million followers on Twitter but believes digital media “can stop people from learning how to live wisely, to think deeply and to love generously.”

He has posed for selfies in St. Peter’s Square, but has lamented the fact that so much communication online is purely about display, not real connection.

He’s called the Internet a “gift from God.” But he’s also warned that the abundance of data and digital stimulation we all consume each day can amount to a kind of “mental pollution” that harms our relationships and shields us from the real pain and joy that comes with human interaction.

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New Bill Would Cut Off Federal Forfeiture Funds For DEA Marijuana Seizures | Forbes

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A new bipartisan bill would eliminate a controversial source of funding for one federal marijuana seizure program. Last week, Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA) and Rep. Justin Amash (R-MI) introduced the “Stop Civil Asset Forfeiture Funding for Marijuana Suppression Act.” The bill is quite simple: It would prevent the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) from using federal forfeiture funds to pay for its Domestic Cannabis Eradication/Suppression Program. Additionally, the bill would ban transferring property to federal, state or local agencies if that property “is used for any purpose pertaining to” the DEA’s marijuana eradication program.

Under this program, the DEA receives federal forfeiture funds ($18 million in 2013), which it then funnels to over 120 local and state agencies to eliminate marijuana grow sites nationwide. Last year, the program was responsible for over 6,300 arrests, eradicating over 4.3 million marijuana plants and seizing $27.3 million in assets. More than half of all plants destroyed were in California, which also accounted for over one-third of seized assets and nearly 40 percent of the arrests.

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What Does the Google Buy Button Mean for Your E-Commerce Business? | All Business

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It takes a lot to run a successful e-commerce business these days,and there are plenty of resources to help you when it comes to looking for strong business advice. But with all of this advice, comes more obstacles, like how to convert customers.

If you want customers, then you need Google’s help; Google essentially controls what traffic goes to which site. So when Google changes how it operates, it puts a lot of strain on businesses in order to comply. The Google “buy button” is next up in the queue of things changing, and e-commerce store owners are worried it will impact their businesses.

Why Are E-Commerce Stores Worried About the Google Buy Button?

The fear for e-commerce business owners is that Google will be more than a search engine, instead becoming a reseller or middleman. This obviously robs e-commerce stores of important relationships with their customers. The fear is that this will lead to an Amazon-style situation, where customers often believe that they are doing business with Amazon as opposed to third-party sellers, and any customer service and returns processing will be handled without the control of the e-commerce store operator.

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Weekly Economic Update | LAEDC

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v.19 n. 39 – Released September 22, 2015

This Week’s Headlines:

Google’s New Logo Marks a Trend of Friendlier Fonts | Bloomberg Business

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Google updated its logo earlier this month. You’ve surely seen it by now, but let’s take a closer look: It retains the primary colors and playfully tilted “e” but introduces a new typeface. Called Product Sans, the update disposes of serifs, those flicks on the ends of letters, and uses fatter strokes reminiscent of kindergarten lesson books. The spaces within the two “g”s and two “o”s are near-perfect circles. “We think we’ve taken the best of Google (simple, uncluttered, colorful, friendly) and recast it not just for the Google of today, but for the Google of the future,” brand executives wrote in a launch announcement.

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The Planet Is Going To Have Its Hottest Year on Record | Live Science

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This year is in the pole position to take the title for hottest year on record and it shows no signs of slowing down.

August is the sixth month of the year to set a heat record, according to new data from the National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) released on Thursday. Five of those months also happen to be among the 10 most freakishly warm months that NCEI has ever recorded.

According to calculations NCEI performed using temperatures through July, this year had a 97 percent chance of being the hottest year on record, taking over the dubious title from 2014. That percentage will have to be revised upward with August’s new record.

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Hot Bread Kitchen fights inequality with bread | Money CNN

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Forget the cook’s whim. Baking is math.

And for 25 year-old Clarisse Sango, class is in session.

The single mother emigrated from Burkina Faso in 2011. Her English was limited. Her resume nonexistent. She struggled to find a job.

“If you just came from Africa and you don’t have any resume or any experience, it’s hard,” Sango told CNNMoney’s Cristina Alesci.

But now Sango is enrolled at Hot Bread Kitchen, a New York City nonprofit that trains low-income immigrant women in the craft and commerce of baking.

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