At least five U.S. grain ships packed with sorghum changed course Friday just hours after China imposed higher tariffs on the grain. Around 1.2 tons of USA-made sorghum will have to return home amid an ongoing trade war between Washington and Beijing.

On Friday, an armada of twenty ships ferrying the grain reached China, but five of them had to make a U-turn after hearing that the deposit was hiked to 178% overnight. Earlier this week, China accused the U.S. of dumping low-priced sorghum on the country’s market, which has harmed local farmers.

Sorghum is a key ingredient in the country’s baijiu liquor production, as well as an important feed for livestock.

Beijing announced Friday that it will start imposing a deposit of 178% of the entire value of grain shipments. Within hours of the announcement, five cargos shipping sorghum from Texas to China changed course. U.S. ship operators said that the deposit would have led to losses.

China Hikes Tariffs on U.S. Grain Shipments

China explained that the new levy is the consequence of an earlier investigation on the U.S. imports’ impact on local companies and farmers. The investigation was spurred by Washington’s decision to up the tariffs on washing machines and solar modules coming from China in February.

At the time, the Trump administration explained that cheaper Asian washing machines and solar panels killed local businesses.

While the White House accuses China of unfair trade policies, China accuses the U.S. of harming local farmers. After President Donald Trump promised to place higher tariffs on $150 billion in Chinese merchandise, China eyed a similar measure for U.S. imports.

Earlier this week, U.S. regulators barred local companies from doing business with China’s largest telecom equipment manufacturer ZTE. U.S. companies are also barred from purchasing network equipment from Chinese companies over national security concerns.
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On Monday, an industry group representing the U.S. loan sharks filed a lawsuit against the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in a bid to block an Obama-era rule that would kill the payday-lending business.

Under that rule, lenders are required to ensure that prospective borrowers can repay the loans. The payday-lending industry will also be forced to do business with a specific customer only a limited number of times.

The industry slammed the new rule for being “draconian” and putting at risk the existence of the very payday-lending industry, according to court records. The lawsuit was filed with the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas by the Community Financial Services Association of America (CFSAA).

CFSAA argues that the Obama administration had a “deeply paternalistic view” when it concluded that consumers cannot take care of their finances. The Obama-era rule is very controversial, with Republicans in both houses of the United States Congress trying to block it.

Loan Sharks “Pursuing All Options”

CFPB’s acting director Mick Mulvaney has announced that his team was reviewing the rule. However, the payday-lending industry wants to push things even further and faster by blocking the regulation in the nation’s courts.

A spokesperson of the CFSAA said that the industry group is “pursuing all options” including litigation when it comes to the Obama-era “harmful small-dollar lending rule”.

The CFPB has not commented on the reports about the lawsuit. It wasn’t immediately clear if the federal agency would take action in court.

Payday loans are offered by an extremely lucrative, but controversial industry in the United States. There are more payday lenders than Starbucks and McDonalds’ restaurants in the states where the practice is legal.

Every year, 12 million Americans take out a loan from loan sharks. The total cost of these loans climbs to $7 billion each year.
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On Monday, a woman was sentenced to five years in prison by a Maryland court for robbing a McDonald’s restaurant last year. The woman, known as the ‘Hamburglar,’ was able to get into a McDonalds in Columbia, MD, through the drive-thru window.

The entire incident was filmed by the closed restaurant’s CCTV cameras. The suspect Jessica Marie Cross pushed her way into the fast-food outlet via a drive-thru window at around 1:00 a.m. on Nov. 5, 2017.

Her initial goal was just to take a sip of some free soda, but she quickly changed her mind and started looking for something to eat too. The police said that she had arrived at the restaurant to place an order, but it was closed.

Robbing McDonald’s

Cross got into the restaurant by climbing through an open window and walked out with soda, burgers, Happy Meals, one of the employees’ purse, and $1,400. The suspect spent around 35 minutes in the restaurant, and even brought a large box to carry her booty.

She had to get the stolen items through the drive-thru window, get outside, and shut down the window after leaving.

After the robbery appeared on the news the next day, many people gave the police tips on who the Hamburglar may be. The woman eventually turned herself in and the police took her into custody nearly two weeks later.

In court, Cross pleaded guilty, and was sentenced to five years in jail. She will serve just 90 days and stay three years on probation. The judge also ordered her to enter drug and alcohol addiction rehab.

Last month, a McDonald’s restaurant witnessed another weird incident when a man attacked the store’s golden arches for having a order of 30 double-cheeseburgers rejected.
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Following a fatal strike of a pedestrian last week, Arizona Governor Doug Ducey announced a ban on all of Uber’s self-driving cars on the state’s public roadways. Ducey penned a letter to Uber’s chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi on Monday explaining the move.

The governor told Khosrowshahi Uber’s ability to test the technology on public roads is banned indefinitely because of the crash. Uber operates over 150 driverless cars and several autonomous semi-trucks. Both types of vehicles were banned.

Last week, an Uber driverless car rammed into a 49-year-old pedestrian and killed her. The woman was slowly walking a bicycle across the street, so it is unclear why the car’s sensors failed to detect her.

The Tempe police released footage of the crash which clearly showed that the driverless car failed to spot the woman on the road. Also, the safety driver, who was supposed to take control of the car in such situations, failed to see the woman.

Arizona Governor Blasts Uber over the Accident

Ducey argued that public safety comes first in the case of driverless vehicle testing. The governor criticized Uber for failing to meet the state’s safety standards and described the March 18 crash “an unquestionable failure” to meet those standards.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and National Transportation Safety Board have both launched an investigation into the incident. It isn’t clear what caused the accident.

Uber put on hold the driverless car testing in San Francisco, Pittsburgh, Toronto and Arizona following the crash. Sources said the company halted its autonomous semi-truck testing as well.

We proactively suspended self-driving operations in all cities immediately following the tragic incident last week,

the company announced yesterday.

It pledged to continue to cooperate with the investigators and Governor’s office.

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Bookstore chain, Barnes & Noble, has announced it will be laying off a portion of its staff due to a lackluster holiday season. The new model would help the company save around $40 million annually.

“Given our sales decline this holiday, we’re adjusting staffing so that it meets the needs of our existing business and our customers,” the bookseller said in a statement on Monday.

Barnes & Noble did not specify how many of its employees will be laid off as a result of the restructuring nor which positions will be cut. Several sources familiar with the situation claim that the people affected will be lead cashiers. They also said that many employees learned they’d been laid off on Monday when the company announced their restructuring.

On Tuesday, the bookseller said that severance payments will be delivered in full by 2019 fiscal year.

Barnes & Noble holiday sales fell more than 6 percent to $953 million in 2017, when compared to 2016. Same-store sales also experienced a drop of 6.4 during the holiday season while online sales fell 4.5 percent.

The book chain has been faced with a number of powerful competitors such as Amazon and Walmart, which have been slowly pushing a stake into the e-books and audiobooks industry.

In addition to emerging rivals in the book market, the company is also under pressure from one of its investors.

Last year in July, hedge fund sponsor, Sandell Asset Management Corp called for Barnes & Noble to sell its assets, claiming that the company could acquire about 12$ per share.

The bookseller refused to sell and so Sandell proposed to buy them in a private deal that valued the company at approximately $650 million, or about $9 per share.

Barnes & Noble shares were up 1 percent on Tuesday, trading around $4,80 a share.

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As the tradition goes, Starbucks has to be there to set the tone for a new period of the year. The Frankenstein Frapp has already vanished into thin air leaving empty space for the next big thing. Starbucks decided to fill this void with the new winter holiday cups. This time, the company ditched the scandalous red and instead left it to each of its customers to decide how to garnish it through a do it yourself concept.

The New Winter Holiday Cups Seem that They Took Inspiration from Adult Coloring Books

On Wednesday, Starbucks revealed this year’s design for Christmas themed cups. This time, the company chose to go with a message: “Give Good.” Customers can color their cups by themselves. The executive creative director at Starbucks, Leanne Fremar, stated that the company loved the idea of giving their customers so much freedom.

“This year’s cup is intentionally designed to encourage our customers to add their own color and illustrations.”

This year’s cup design seems like a page cut from an adult coloring book. The paper has the contour of an illustration that Starbucks fans can fill with color or their own graphics. The pattern focuses on a pair of hands that hold red cups. The design clearly hints at past years’ models of winter holiday cups dipped in a bright color of red.

The Main Illustration Reveals a Pair of Hands Holding Red Starbucks Cups

The image of holding hands symbolizes connection and community. The cardboard sleeves come with their own design where the company decided to place its main message ‘Give Good.’ Fremar stated that this invitation regards even small gestures such as holding the door for someone else.

The company learned two years ago that wrappings matter a lot, especially to Starbucks enthusiasts. This was when the chain of coffee shops decided to go with a plain red design for the cups. This convenience backfired for the firm. Numerous clients felt the pattern wasn’t festive enough to celebrate winter holidays.

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William Redington Hewlett and David Packard were two students at Stanford University who took full advantage of their youth’s enthusiasm. With a fresh degree in electrical engineering and no grand budget, they opened a company in a garage. In just a few years, their partnership became known as the Hewlett Packard organization. Thanks to their groundbreaking work with semiconductor devices, they are considered the unofficial founders of today’s Silicon Valley tech hub.

However, this significant piece of history of the tech world might be lost forever. The recent wildfires in Santa Rosa engulfed the archive of HP in scorching flames leading to its total destruction.

The Burnt Archives Consisted of Correspondence, Speeches, and Writings Created in 79 Years from HP’s Inauguration

In today’s world, HP is worth multi-billion dollars. It holds the title of the biggest manufacturer of personal computers in the world. HP was present even at the inception of machine learning technology.

The company has one of the most fascinating success stories. The two founders started off from a Palo Alto garage with only $538 in their pockets.

On October 29, the wildfires laid siege to HP’s files in Santa Rosa. The event concluded with the loss of physical testaments of the glorious period for Hewlett Packard. Nonetheless, the archive was one of the numerous victims of the phenomenon. The blazing rage destroyed 6,800 households throughout Northern California’s wine country and killed 23 locals.

The Tubbs fire turned 100 boxes of HP documents into ash. These folders consisted of speeches, letters, and writings of Hewlett and Packard. Keysight Technologies, an electronics measurement company, housed these assets in their stores.

The Santa Rosa Wildfires Annihilated Important Evidence for the History of Silicon Valley

The archives were extremely valuable within the tech industry. In 2014, they were worth $2 million when the Keysight Technologies acquired them. Such a burnt page in the history of the American business might prove a hurdle for historians to document the amazing phenomenon that changed the face of the Silicon Valley.

Harvard Business School professor, Geoffrey Jones, claimed that this tragedy might lead to dire consequences for the national consciousness. The wildfires created a gap in the history of Silicon Valley. Therefore, specialists might create influential theories based on wrong perceptions of the past.

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Intel Corp. has remained dependent on the personal-computer market. This department has recorded flat sales for years. Despite this pair of shackles, the tech company succeeded to bring its business to new heights thanks to additional projects. The company has been keeping up with latest trends and created new products that support most of the profits despite the flat PC industry.

Intel Can’t Yet Detach from the PC Industry

Intel announced that the company managed to encompass expectations for its third quarter when it comes to profit and revenue. The organization assessed the sales over the last three mounts to amount to a total of $16.3 billion.

On the other hand, the numbers are similar to the activity company recorded same period last year. This sign of stagnation underlines a difficulty level for the biggest chipmaker in the world to gain momentum.

The slackness might be attributed to Intel’s largest business that is in charge of PC components. The PC industry came to be a pitfall for any chance of profitability since it encourages no massive sales.

Shares in Intel Grew by 2%

Chief Executive Officer Brian Krzanich has been trying to fix his company’s misplaced reliance on the flat PC industry. His solution was to open new profitable portfolio of products. This way, the company managed to find a place in the growing electric car and artificial intelligence markets by tailoring its chips to fit these modern trends.

“Our transformation is accelerating. We’re excited about both our products and progress. There’s lots of room to grow our market share.”

Intel has been having problems with the PC branch since 2011. However, the company refused to close this chapter for good.

The products designed for cloud computing technologies and data centers were the most profitable for the third quarter. As a result, the net income reached $4.5 billion or 94 cents per share. Last year this sector recorded $3.4 billion or 69 cents by comparison. The trade market reacted to these improvements with a 2% increase in shares.

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Whitefish Energy run a small family business in the ski town of Whitefish, Montana. Mr. Techmanski and his son are the only employees this energy company has. Their most important projects concern a power line rebuild after a fire incident in Washington State as well as an ongoing transformer supply to an electric entity in Montana. However, the same small firm won a $300 million contract to reconnect hurricane-ravaged Puerto Rico to energy.

The Owner of the Small Energy Company Claimed that Being the First to Respond to Puerto Rican Authority Got Him a $300 Million Contract

The Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority hired Whitefish Energy to fix 100 miles of power transmission cables all around the island. Hurricane Maria heavily damaged the electric grid of the commonwealth.

A month after the devastating storm struck Puerto Rico, the region solved few of its problems. Locals are still living in the dark, and the landscape has still kept the image of a disaster outcome.

While the island needs large efforts to regain the same position as before Hurricane Maria, authorities turned to small companies for help. Mr. Techmanski claimed that Puerto Rico’s bankrupt power authority contacted them through a telephone.

Afterward, the business owner hopped on a plane and reached the devastated island. As he was the first to appear on site and didn’t ask for an advance, Mr. Techmanski was the one who won the contract.

The opposition decries this collaboration. A Puerto Rican opposition senator, Eduardo Bhatia, claimed that the story doesn’t add up.

“A two-employee company from Whitefish, Mont., gets a $300 million contract out of nowhere? Based on what?”

Bhatia believes that authorities infringed numerous rules to get help. They didn’t run any background checks before hiring the small energy company for a $300 million project.

The Power Authority Could Have Resorted to Mutual Aid Agreements Instead of Hiring Help

After a devastating event that impacts an entire nation, authorities have the right to turn to ‘mutual aid’ agreement. Once this accord gets activated, all workers and companies are summoned even out of state to restore balance. Florida enjoyed the support of 180,000 workers who fixed energy problems after Hurricane Irma.

However, the American Public Power Association announced that Puerto Rican authorities didn’t contact them after Hurricane Maria. This agency is the sole organization that can coordinate municipally owned utilities. Instead of getting help from thousands of specialists free of charge, chief executive Ricardo Ramos hired a two-person company six days after the hurricane hit the island.

Mr. Techmanski has now 300 workers under his supervision. Nonetheless, his contractual work is not going to cover all the energy problems Puerto Rico has. There are other 2,300 miles of transmission lines that need repairs. At the moment, 75% of the island doesn’t have power.

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Even though numerous kids each day return home from school with a broken image of society, adults haven’t come up with a solution yet for bullying. Burger King may sell just fast food, but it is a company that did something to open people’s eyes. The chain of restaurants took the liberty to film customers who were part of a social experiment. The results were put together in a bullying awareness ad.

The Bullying Awareness Ad Is Burger King’s Input for the National Bullying Prevention Month

Burger King took the National Bullying Prevention Month seriously. The company released a short video entitled ‘Bullying Jr.’ On the one hand, some young actors pretended to bully a high school student. On the other hand, one of the employees acted like a bully of Whopper Jr. sandwiches. The way people acted in defense of these two brutalized sides underlined how much people have yet to learn to stand up for others.

The Burger King experiment tested how people reacted when they were on the side of the oppressed and the way they choose to act when they could have stopped a social injustice. Around ninety-five percent of customers reported to the manager of the restaurant that their sandwich was smashed.

The employee responsible for this rude gesture was called to answer for his gesture. When the employee asked the client if they had stood up for it to prevent bullying, the customers answered affirmatively. However, their actions didn’t reflect this attitude when they truly witnessed an act of bullying.

Only 12% of Burger King Customers Stood Up for the Bullied Kid

That’s because while customers were concerned about their Whopper Jr. sandwiches, a kid was suffering from the audacity of other two boys right in front of them. The young actors spilled soda on their victim’s table, ate his food, and mocked him. However, only 12% of customers defended the child. They banished the bullies with an educational approach and did not try to replicate their own demeaning weapons.

“But the first step to putting an end to bullying is to take a stand against it.”

The bullying awareness ad was the result of a partnership between Burger King and No Bully organization. CEO and Founder Nicholas Carlisle claimed that oppression is still a ubiquitous presence nowadays.

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