CATEGORIES

BUSINESS LEADERS SURVEY HITS HIGHEST LEVEL IN 16 YEARS

The overall economic measure of a monthly survey of Midwest business leaders hit a 16year high for October, but the manufacturing sector of the economy remains stunted from the coronavirus outbreak, according to the Creighton University Mid-America Business Conditions Index released this week.

UBER, LYFT PREVAIL TO KEEP CALIFORNIA WORKERS INDEPENDENT

Uber, Lyft and other app-based ride-hailing and delivery services prevailed at the ballot box in their expensive gamble to keep drivers classified as independent contractors.

SEARCH: APPLE COULD RIVAL GOOGLE WITH NEW INDEXING SERVICE

As antitrust battles continue to dominate Silicon Valley, Apple is using its initiative, planning for a future where multibillion-dollar tie-ups aren’t acceptable.

NETFLIX RAISING US STREAMING PRICES AMID BOOMING GROWTH

Netflix is raising most of its U.S. prices by 8% to 13% as its video streaming service rides a wave of rising popularity spurred by government-imposed lockdowns that corralled people at home during the fight against the pandemic.

JETBLUE IS THE LATEST AIRLINE TO RETREAT FROM BLOCKING SEATS

The days of airlines blocking seats to make passengers feel safer about flying during the pandemic are coming closer to an end.

CALIFORNIANS CONSIDER EXPANDING LANDMARK DATA PRIVACY LAW

Two years ago, California became the first state to pass a sweeping digital privacy law seen as the strongest of its kind in the United States. Voters are now deciding whether to refine and expand that law, or leave it as is.

AIRBNB SETS UP ENDOWMENT, COUNCIL FOR HOSTS AHEAD OF IPO

Airbnb is setting up an endowment fund to support its 4 million hosts as part of its upcoming initial public offering.

VIDEO APP TIKTOK LEANS INTO E-COMMERCE WITH SHOPIFY DEAL

The popular short-form video app TikTok, still under U.S. government scrutiny for its Chinese ownership, is moving closer to becoming a marketplace for buying stuff.

T-MOBILE OFFERS UP YET ANOTHER TV STREAMING SERVICE

Yet another service provider is jumping into the TV streaming wars. This time it’s T-Mobile and its TVision service with live news, entertainment and sports channels, starting at $10 a month.

STRESSED FRESHMEN MISSING QUINTESSENTIAL COLLEGE EXPERIENCE

It’s a major life milestone, the first time many U.S. teens have ever been on their own. Even in normal times, freshman year in college can be a jumbled mix of anticipation, uncertainty and emotional highs and lows.

SOME BALLOT REQUESTS MAY BE AFFECTED BY COUNTY CYBER ATTACK

A hacker attack against an upstate New York county’s computer system raised concern that some emailed absentee ballot applications may not be processed, but the state Board of Elections said voting won’t be affected overall.

MUSIC TV: TAKING SHOTS AT MTV WITH NEW DIGITAL TV STATION

In an unexpected move, Apple announced in late October that it would launch Apple Music TV, a new 24-hour curated live stream of chart-topping music videos, designed to encourage more consumers to subscribe to its Apple TV+ streaming service.

SOCIAL MEDIA CEOS GET EARFUL ON BIAS, WARNING OF NEW LIMITS

With next week’s election looming, the CEOs of Twitter, Facebook and Google were scolded by Republicans at a Senate hearing for alleged anticonservative bias in the companies’ social media platforms and received a warning of coming restrictions from Congress.

MEDIA ELECTION PLANNERS PREPARE FOR A NIGHT OF MYSTERY

This coming weekend, CNN’s Sam Feist will distribute to his staff copies of the testimony news executives gave to Congress when they tried to explain how television networks got 2000’s disputed election so spectacularly wrong.

HALLOWEEN IN 2020: SOME FUN WITH DEATH AND FEAR, ANYONE?

The setting: a rolling patch of Pennsylvania farmland, about 15 miles from the little town where “Night of the Living Dead” was filmed. The moment: Halloween season 2020, a moonlit Friday night.

BORAT IS BACK, AND THIS TIME HE FITS RIGHT IN

Since Sacha Baron Cohen first appeared as his Kazakh journalist on “Da Ali G Show,” Borat Sagdiyev has been remarkably consistent. The accent is the same. The gray suit is still rumpled. “Nahce” and “Mah Wahfe” regularly exude from him with a mangled melody. Borat hasn’t changed in the last 20 years. But America has.

ASTEROID SAMPLES ESCAPING FROM JAMMED NASA SPACECRAFT

A NASA spacecraft is stuffed with so much asteroid rubble from this week’s grab that it’s jammed open and precious particles are drifting away in space, scientists said.

Australian Says Watchdog Considers Its Own Google Antitrust Case

Australia’s competition watchdog will consider its own antitrust case against Google, the commission chairman said this week after the U.S. Justice Department sued the company for abusing its dominance in online search and advertising.

A New Set Of Shopping Tips In The Pandemic

Now, shopping looks much different.

US SPACECRAFT TOUCHES ASTEROID SURFACE FOR RARE RUBBLE GRAB

A NASA spacecraft descended to an asteroid Tuesday and, dodging boulders the size of buildings, momentarily touched the surface to collect a handful of cosmic rubble for return to Earth.

AN ELECTRIC HUMMER? BATTERY POWERED TRUCKS HEAD TO SHOWROOMS

General Motors is among them, and this week its GMC brand introduced a new electric Hummer pickup, with a high-end version due in showrooms sometime in the fall of next year.

DC DEBUTS SMARTPHONE-BASED COVID-19 EXPOSURE ALERT SYSTEM

The nation’s capital has become one of the first jurisdictions in the country to employ a new COVID-19 notification system, a joint GoogleApple venture that delivers alerts to people’s phones, notifying them that they may have been exposed to the coronavirus.

HOMEPOD MINI: HUGE COMPUTATIONAL AUDIO IN A LITTLE PACKAGE

HomePod was introduced to much fanfare in 2018, but it was a smaller, more affordable smart device that consumers were crying out for.

‘SESAME STREET' LAUNCHES A PODCAST TO HELP EDUCATE KIDS

What has more letters than the alphabet? That’s easy: The post office.

NETFLIX REPORTS A SUMMER SLUMP IN SUBSCRIBER GROWTH

Netflix’s subscriber growth slowed dramatically during the summer months after surging in the spring fueled by pandemic lockdowns that corralled millions of people in their homes.

HOW GOOGLE EVOLVED FROM ‘CUDDLY' STARTUP TO ANTITRUST TARGET

In Google’s infancy, co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin reviled Microsoft as a technological bully that ruthlessly abused its dominance of the personal computer software market to choke off competition that could spawn better products.

FORTUNES OF CHINA'S INTERNET TYCOONS SOAR AMID PANDEMIC

Jack Ma, founder of e-commerce giant Alibaba, held onto his status as China’s richest tycoon this year as surging demand for online shopping and other services during the coronavirus pandemic swelled the fortunes of internet entrepreneurs, according to a survey released this week.

Global Watchdog Proposes Tax Overhaul For Big Tech

A global economic watchdog this week proposed an overhaul of international tax rules to make sure big tech companies pay their dues and warned that failure to adopt it would make the economic recovery from COVID-19 harder.

Airbnb Requires Hosts To Commit To Enhanced Cleaning

Airbnb said it will require hosts to comply with enhanced cleaning procedures as part of its effort to reassure guests and local officials during the coronavirus pandemic.

JPMORGAN, CITI PROFITS IMPROVE AMID SIGNS OF RECOVERY

Two of the nation’s biggest banks — JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup — said that their profits improved markedly over the summer, as the U.S. economy tried to bounce back from the coronavirus shutdowns that were imposed earlier this year.