Business - Page 8

Michelle Obama Gives $2.5M to Empower Girls Worldwide

Written By Lexx Thornton In celebration of International Day of the Girl, former First Lady and founder of The Obama Foundation’s Girls Opportunity Alliance, Michelle Obama, announced a significant new commitment to support organizations dedicated to educating and empowering adolescent girls worldwide.  The Girls Opportunity Alliance will provide a total of $2.5 million to 54 organizations across 28 countries. This funding supports grassroots groups that offer essential services like scholarships, mentorship, and after-school programming, helping girls break down barriers and achieve their potential. These organizations join the 11 Chicago-based groups that received $500,000 earlier this year.  In a video released

AWS Outage Disrupts Global Internet, Services Restored

Written by Lexx Thornton On Monday afternoon, Amazon Web Services (AWS) finally confirmed it had resolved a massive cloud hosting outage that had caused widespread disruption for millions of internet users globally.  The event, which Reuters called “global turmoil,” was reportedly the worst outage since last year’s CrowdStrike incident. As the world’s largest cloud provider, AWS is, as ZDNet put it, the “backbone of much of the Internet.” The disruption affected more than 28 AWS services, leading to an estimated loss of billions in damages, according to one analyst’s estimate for CNN.  The impact was immediate and extensive:  Popular services

J&J Ordered to Pay $966M in Talc Cancer Verdict

Written By Lexx Thornton A Los Angeles jury has ordered Johnson & Johnson (J&J) to pay $966 million to the family of a woman who died from mesothelioma, delivering one of the largest verdicts to date in the ongoing litigation over the company’s talc products. The jury found J&J liable after the family of Mae Moore, a California resident who passed away in 2021 at age 88, claimed that the company’s talc-based baby powder contained asbestos fibers which caused her rare cancer, mesothelioma.  The verdict, announced late Monday, included a massive $950 million in punitive damages—intended to punish the company—in

AI Boom Drives Surge in U.S. Electricity Prices

Written By Lexx Thornton For homeowners across the US, the monthly electricity bill has become a source of sticker shock. Lindsey Martin, a registered nurse in Kentucky, shared her surprise on TikTok after her bill jumped from a mere $150 just a few years ago to a staggering $372 in August. Martin’s experience is far from isolated; it reflects a significant and growing national trend.  According to data from the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), the average price of residential electricity has increased by 13% since 2022. Experts predict that retail electricity costs will continue to outpace the general rate

Government Shutdown Deepens Strain on Military Families

Written by Lexx Thornton The ongoing federal government shutdown, now surpassing a week, is exacting a heavy human and economic toll that reaches far beyond the political squabbling in Washington. As Democrats and Republicans remain locked in a stalemate—debating everything from health insurance subsidies to immigration policies—the immediate victims are the nation’s civil servants and, crucially, our uniformed military personnel and their families. Furthermore, the crisis is generating significant hidden costs that erode taxpayer money and damage government efficiency.  The shutdown has left roughly 75,000 federal workers and untold numbers of military service members and their families in a severe

NBC News Cuts DEI Teams Amid Industry Diversity Rollback

Written By Lexx Thornton NBC News has recently confirmed the elimination of its dedicated editorial teams behind identity-focused verticals—NBC BLK, NBC Asian America, NBC Latino, and NBC OUT—as part of a layoff round that is impacting roughly 150 employees. While the network cites the need to streamline operations and integrate coverage ahead of a corporate separation, the move is widely seen by critics as a significant setback in mainstream media’s commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI).  The decision at NBC News is not isolated; it reflects a broader contraction in corporate America’s DEI commitments, which has serious implications for

California Creates First Reparations Agency in U.S.

Written By Lexx Thornton The California Legislative Black Caucus (CLBC) today announced a historic victory with the signing of Senate Bill 518 (Weber Pierson), which creates the nation’s first permanent state agency dedicated to advancing reparations: the Bureau for Descendants of American Slavery.  With Governor Gavin Newsom’s signature, California moves beyond simply acknowledging historic injustices and begins to build lasting, institutional pathways toward economic parity and repair for descendants of American slavery.  SB 518 establishes the new Bureau, which is charged with several core functions critical to the process of repair, including:  Confirming the descent of slavery.  Conducting public education

Michigan Adds 24% Cannabis Tax to Fund Major Road Projects

Written By Lexx Thornton On October 7, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer signed an $81 billion budget that includes a new 24% wholesale tax on cannabis to fund her ambitious road improvement plan. This tax, levied on transfers between cannabis businesses, takes effect on January 1, 2026, and is projected to raise approximately $420.7 million annually.  The new wholesale tax is added atop the existing 10% cannabis excise tax and the 6% state sales tax, raising concerns that the total tax burden will significantly increase dispensary prices and drive consumers toward the unregulated market.  Governor Whitmer hailed the budget, which passed

Trump Tariffs Spark Record $19B Crypto Market Crash

Written By Lexx Thornton A dramatic move by President Donald Trump to impose a 100% additional tariff on Chinese imports triggered a massive sell-off in the cryptocurrency market late last week, leading to the largest liquidation event in the history of digital assets. The shockwave from the escalating U.S.-China trade war revealed extreme leveraged risk in the crypto space, hitting major coins like Bitcoin, Ether, and Solana hardest. According to data platform CoinGlass, total liquidations surpassed $19 billion as of late Friday, October 11, with over $7 billion of those leveraged positions wiped out in a single hour. This historic

Maryland Launches Federal Shutdown Loan Program

Written by Lexx Thornton In response to the ongoing federal government shutdown, Governor Wes Moore today announced the launch of the Maryland Department of Labor’s Federal Shutdown Loan Program. Now accepting applications, the program provides financial support to Maryland residents who are “excepted” federal employees (also called “essential”), meaning they are required to continue working during a federal government shutdown but are not receiving a paycheck during that time.  “At a time when the federal government is stepping back from its most basic obligations, Maryland is stepping up to protect our people,” said Gov. Moore. “The emergency support we announce

1 … 6 7 8 9 10 … 42
Close

Never Miss A Story

Covering HBCUS
and The African American Community