FCC Commissioner reacts to blistering Facebook report: Time to 'engage' in Section 230 reform

FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr joined "Cavuto: Coast to Coast" Thursday to discuss reports that revealed the damaging consequences from Facebook’s decision-making and the possibility of revisiting Section 230 reform.

"I think what this really bombshell reporting exposes is that the so-called self-regulation efforts by social media companies have been little more than a smokescreen," said the FCC Commissioner. "As these reports come out, more and more people are seeing through it," he added. READ MORE

Labor shortage poses biggest threat to US economy, most CFOs say

The  U.S. economy is poised for a strong recovery from the coronavirus pandemic, but faces fresh risks from a widespread labor shortage and rising infections among the unvaccinated, according to a survey of American CFOs.

Although 78% of CFOs surveyed by the Deloitte Global CFO Program said that economic conditions in North America are "good" or "very good" – an increase from the previous quarter – only 54% think the outlook is set to improve over the course of the next year. READ MORE

A Closer Look At Theranos’ Big-Name Investors, Partners And Board As Elizabeth Holmes’ Criminal Trial Begins

Theranos was once a Silicon Valley golden child, expanding rapidly, partnering with a major pharmacy, and raising over a billion dollars in funding.

But all of that came crashing down after a series of explosive reports, starting in 2015, by The Wall Street Journal reporter John Carreyrou called into question the efficacy of Theranos’ technology. The company claimed its technology could run blood tests with just a prick of a finger, but it was later revealed that Theranos used traditional blood testing machines for the majority of its tests, and that its own technology could produce inaccurate test results. READ MORE

Biology Starts to Get a Technological Makeover

Two white-coated lab technicians, seated at work stations in a corner, are vastly outnumbered by the machines. Robotic arms calibrate liquids in microdrops. Small trays, with 96 tiny wells each, shuttle around the lab on magnetic tracks. Centrifuges whir. Gene sequencers hum.

The highly mechanized lab — operated by Ginkgo Bioworks, a fast-growing start-up in Boston — is an engine room of synthetic biology, an emerging field that applies the tools of engineering and computing to make entirely new organisms or genetically turbocharge existing ones. READ MORE

For many workers, the return to offices has become ‘The Great Wait.’ It’s costing employers millions

On Tuesday, Google became the latest major company to announce another delay in its return-to-office plan, pushing its reopening date to January 2022. Most recently, the tech giant planned its return for October, which was a delay from September, which was a delay from July 2021.

Companies including Apple, Amazon, Facebook and Starbucks already announced postponements with similar timelines, and more employers are expected to follow as the U.S. heads into the fall with the delta variant spreading throughout much of the country. READ MORE

Lead Qualification Process: A Step-by-Step Guide

Sales lead qualification has always been a time-consuming and intensive process. Generating leads is a challenge in itself, then you must determine if that lead can be qualified as a sales prospect, which takes time, research and often connecting with leads directly. 

The good news is there are a number of strategies, techniques and frameworks that can make the lead qualification process a bit less daunting and help you score, qualify and move leads through the sales cycle more efficiently. READ MORE

For the Office, the Future Is Now

Throughout the past year, countless conversations have been prompted by the question “What will the post-COVID-19 office look like?” Understandably so, as the pandemic has rapidly changed the built environment in unparalleled ways.

But at ThinkLab, we’ve been wondering whether that’s even the right question to ask. The “future” of the workplace makes it sound as though we’re headed toward a fixed, monolithic destination. In reality, aren’t we all on the metaphorical job site together, hammers in hand, building and defining our individual realities in real time? With this in mind, our team is challenging the concept of “normal,” but probably not in the way you might think. Here’s how—and why. READ MORE

Who’s Raking Off All Your Awful Office Meetings?

This year’s Labor Day finds millions of Americans — those who labor in offices — almost bubbling about the prospects for an epic transformation of their workspaces. Within Corporate America, working remotely may soon become a permanent standard operating practice.

Imagine that. No more horrific daily commutes. No more stressing in cramped cubicles. And, maybe most of all, no more hours spent trapped in corporate meeting rooms that deaden the soul. READ MORE

Raising wages isn’t enough to attract and keep workers, experts say

Hiring has perhaps never been harder for employers.

As pandemic restrictions eased amid the accessibility of Covid vaccines and businesses started bouncing back, many employers faced workforce shortages. Workers who may have lost their jobs during the peak of the pandemic were now highly desired.

In June, there were more than 10 million job openings in the U.S., the most ever recorded by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In comparison, only 8.7 million people were still unemployed in July, according to the BLS. READ MORE

College graduate starting salaries are at an all-time high—and these 10 majors earn the most

Despite a global pandemic that caused massive unemployment and slashed earnings among working-class Americans, starting salaries for recent college graduates continue to rise. 

According to a recent report from the National Association of Colleges and Employers, the average starting salary for the college Class of 2020 was $55,260 — 2.5% higher than that of the Class of 2019 ($53,889 ) and 8.5% higher than the Class of ’18 ($50,944).  READ MORE

Wells Fargo's long road to repair extends with prospect of more penalties

It has been nearly five years since Wells Fargo & Co (WFC.N) began addressing widespread customer abuses that led to regulatory penalties, lawsuits, reputational damage, business overhauls and management changes, but the fourth-largest U.S. bank apparently still has a lot of work to do, analysts say.

Regulators at two key agencies – the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) – are considering additional sanctions against Wells Fargo because it has been too slow to compensate victims and address underlying weaknesses in business practices, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday. READ MORE

Google pushes its return to the office back to 2022

Google has yet again postponed a full return to the office, announcing that its employees can continue to work remotely until next year. The decision follows similar ones already made by the company's tech industry peers like Facebook and Amazon.

Google (GOOGL) workers around the world will not be required to return to their offices until at least Jan. 10, 2022, CEO Sundar Pichai said in a note to employees on Tuesday. (The policy only applies to Google and not its parent company Alphabet, a company spokesperson said). READ MORE

White House COVID-19 czar urges businesses require employees to be vaccinated

The White House COVID-19 response team on Tuesday urged businesses in the country to require employees to be vaccinated.

COVID-19 response coordinator Jeff Zients presented a White House briefing alongside the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Dr. Rochelle Walensky and the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and White House chief medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci. READ MORE

The Investors Trying to Fix the Most Toxic Company in Video Games

In July, the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing sued video-game giant Activision Blizzard, alleging, more or less, that the company has a workplace environment from hell. Regulators said a two-year investigation into the company revealed an alcohol-drenched “frat boy” culture that included inappropriate conduct by executives, men openly joking about rape, and a general “breeding ground for harassment and discrimination against women.” The company called the lawsuit “truly meritless and irresponsible” (though it seemed to have some trouble figuring out how to respond), and more than 2,000 current and former employees responded by putting their names on an open letter that said, “We no longer trust that our leaders will place employee safety above their own interests.” In early August, employees shared their salaries en masse, Bloomberg reported, to pressure the company into confronting pay inequities. One executive, Blizzard head J. Allen Brack, resigned. California has since expanded its suit against the gamemaker, alleging the company shredded documents “related to investigations and complaints.” Activision Blizzard denied these allegations, and the fate of the legal and organizing efforts is uncertain. READ MORE

Big Tech wants to build the ‘metaverse.’ What on Earth does that mean?

The 2018 sci-fi film “Ready Player One” offers a glimpse of what many tech companies prophesize is the Internet’s next big thing.

Inspired by a 2011 Ernest Cline novel, the film’s orphaned teenage hero flees his bleak real-world existence by immersing in a dazzling virtual reality fantasy. The boy straps on his headset, reminiscent of a pair of VR goggles, and escapes into a trippy virtual universe, dubbed “OASIS.” READ MORE