Offering asides, recommended links, blogworthy quotations, and more, In Brief is the Northwest Progressive Institute's microblog of world, national, and local politics.
Via The Los Angeles Times, summarizing reporting from the German newspaper Handelsblatt: “How bad is Tesla Autopilot’s safety problem? According to thousands of complaints allegedly from Tesla customers in the U.S. and around the world, pretty bad.”
Launch
“Crude oil, wheat and lumber are among commodities that have tumbled recently. Shipping rates on major trade routes are sinking from record highs. And used-car prices, which surged during the past two years, are showing early signs of tailing off,” The Globe and Mail reports.
Launch
“The legislation was introduced after the Wall Street Journal reported in September that more than 130 federal judges had violated U.S. law and judicial ethics by overseeing court cases involving companies in which either they or members of their family owned stock,” Time’s Madeleine Carlisle explains.
Launch
“They can’t get their hands on money or securities or goods or services. They are outcast and they will over the shorter term freeze to death,” financial services veteran George Ball said in comments to The Washington Post.
Launch
“The war came and the money ran out — the money ran out sooner than the war ended,” said Sergei Aleksashenko.
Launch
“GETTR has existed as a Chinese language social media network linked to Guo Wengui,” Politico reports. “It was unveiled as a new platform by Jason Miller on Thursday.”
Launch
“I’m surprised that tech bosses can still appear clueless about the reasons behind the questioning of their industry,” Shira Ovide writes.
Launch
Amazon has apologized to one of Congress’ most progressive leaders for a rude and false tweet that suggested reports about drivers relieving themselves in bottles were made up.
Launch
“Cumulus Media, which employs some of the most popular right-leaning talk-radio hosts in the United States, has told its on-air personalities to stop suggesting that the election was stolen from President Trump — or else face termination,” The Washington Post reports.
Launch
“More than 1,500 people on the company’s cruise ships have been diagnosed with COVID-19, and dozens have died,” a report from Bloomberg says. How did this happen? Austin Carr and Chris Palmeri explain.
Launch
“Allegations of abuse have surfaced at a Bangladeshi factory whose multinational owner manufactures for some of the most popular outdoor brands we love. Here’s why that should surprise no one,” Joe Lindsey writes.
Launch
Norweigan Cruise Line is phasing out plastic water bottles and switching to lower impact containers made by Just Water.
Launch
“We are a nation with a tradition of reining in monopolies, no matter how well intentioned the leaders of these companies may be. Mark’s power is unprecedented and un-American,” Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes writes, referring to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. “It is time to break up Facebook.”
Launch
“The private equity business model is to strip assets from companies that they acquire. The latest victims: retail grocery chains.”
Launch
Justin Welby, the top clergyman in the Anglican Church, recently gave a fiery speech in which he criticized Amazon for its unethical, exploitative business practices and poor treatment of workers. The Washington Post has a good synopsis of the speech.
Launch
Fast Magazine has just published a must-read profile of Buttonsmith, Inc., a Carnation-based union print shop and trusted NPI vendor founded by Henry Burner when he was ten years old. As author Glenn Fleishman explains, the business has grown rapidly and now does millions of dollars in business thanks to the Burner family’s technological prowess and smart business sense. Henry’s mother Darcy serves as CEO, while his father Mike Burner serves as the lead software developer.
Launch
“At the store on East 57th Street in Manhattan, organic fuji apples were marked down to $1.99 a pound from $3.49 a pound; organic avocados went to $1.99 each from $2.79; organic rotisserie chicken fell to $9.99 each from $13.99, and the price of some bananas was slashed to 49 cents per pound from 79 cents. The marked-down items had orange signs reading ‘Whole Foods + Amazon.’ The signs listed the old price, the new price and ‘More to come…’.
Launch
“Russia is facing a showdown with European leaders over claims it is ‘abusing’ the international “red notice” system for arresting criminals, in an attempt to silence critics of Vladimir Putin,” reports The Telegraph. Red Notice is, not coincidentally, the title of Browder’s book about his experiences in Russia.
Launch
“The business advisory councils that Trump has put together are exercises in public relations,” writes Joe Nocera. “They allow Trump to be seen to be presiding over the kind of serious, successful executives he never was himself. The executives attending these meetings are simply lending their prestige to a president who needs their validation.”
Launch
Required reading from NPR.
Launch
“The changes are coming at Boeing’s Shared Services Group (SSG), which employs about 3,000 people in the Puget Sound region and provides a wide range of support services to Boeing’s corporate and production units.”
Launch