• Dog foods brands across the nation are being recalled after concerns have risen about the products being contaminated with mold
• The product brands involved are Sunshine Mills, Triumph, Evolve, Wild Harvest, Nurture Farms, Heart to Tail Beng, and Elm Pet Foods according to the FDA

Travel suppliers are beginning to accept cryptocurrencies

• Bitcoin, dogecoin, and many other cryptocurrencies are seeing more adoption from travel suppliers 
• A hotels and accommodations website called Travala currently accepts 50 cryptocurrencies and has structured its new home-sharing network on a decentralized platform like the blockchain

The post Business News – 07-31-2021 appeared first on Easy Ad - Local Small Business Resources.

• Despite a policy banning anti-vaccine messaging on its platform, Facebook continued to host frames with claims that users can overlay onto their profile pictures 
• After CNBC reached out for comment about one such frame claiming, “my immune system works better than the” followed by a graphic of a syringe, a Facebook spokesperson confirmed the image had violated its policies and was removed
• CNBC was quickly able to find well over a dozen other examples of profile picture frames that touted similar messages or at least toed the line of Facebook’s policy

• The amount of available sublease office space in San Francisco more than tripled during the pandemic, and tech companies are paying the price
• Dropbox and Salesforce have taken among the biggest impairments in the industry for their vacated space
• Airbnb said in its earnings report on Thursday that it took a $113 million charge in the first quarter “related to office space in San Francisco that we deemed no longer necessary”

• The semiconductor chip shortage is expected to cost the global automotive industry $110 billion in revenue in 2021, according to consulting firm AlixPartners
• The forecast is up by 81.5% from an initial forecast of $60.6 billion in late January
• A number of factors have contributed to the increase, including a fire at a chip supplier plant near Tokyo and weather-related kinks in the automotive supply chain

• Dogecoin’s price soared as high as 56 cents early Friday, according to Coin Metrics data
• Elon Musk tweeted that he was working with dogecoin developers to improve the efficiency of transactions
• Crypto exchange Coinbase said it would offer dogecoin support in the next six to eight weeks

The post Business News – 5-14-2021 appeared first on Easy Ad - Local Small Business Resources.

• Virgin Galactic delivered first quarter results after the market closed on Monday, announcing that it has yet to set a target date for its next spaceflight test, which the company previously planned for this month
• The space tourism company reported an adjusted EBITDA loss of $55.9 million, down from a loss of $59.5 million in the previous quarter
• The stock has fallen 24% year to date – having dropped more than 70% from highs above $60 a share hit in February

• NBC is pushing the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which hands out the awards, for quicker changes to boost diversity within its ranks
• WarnerMedia, Netflix and Amazon Studios have refused to participate in any more HFPA events until the organization demonstrates it is heading toward real and lasting reform

• Ford’s upcoming all-electric F-150 pickup truck will be called Lightning and the name was used by the automaker for street performance trucks in the 1990s and early 2000s
• The F-150 Lightning will be unveiled at 9:30 p.m. EDT on May 19 at the company’s world headquarters in Dearborn, Michigan

FDA permits use of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid vaccine in kids ages 12 to 15

• The FDA approved Pfizer and BioNTech’s request to allow their Covid-19 vaccine to be given to kids ages 12 to 15 on an emergency use basis
• The agency granting use of the shot in younger age groups will accelerate the nation’s efforts to drive down infections, experts say
• It will also allow middle school-aged students to get vaccinated before school starts this fall

• Ford Motor is recalling 661,000 Explorer sport utility vehicles in North America at the request of U.S. regulators
• Retention pins could loosen and allow roof rail covers to detach from the vehicle and the recall covers 2016 through 2019 model year vehicles

• The U.S. government’s auto safety agency is investigating multiple complaints about steering failures that could affect more than 1.1 million Honda Accord sedans
• Owners complained about a loss of steering control and the cars veering from their intended travel path. Two crashes and two injuries were reported
• In documents posted Monday, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says it received 31 complaints about the problem, and Honda has 77 more
• Owners complained about a loss of steering control and the cars veering from their intended travel path

• The rate of average daily new Covid cases in the U.S. fell to below 41,000 over the weekend, down 30% from two weeks ago and the lowest level since September
• CDC data shows that the country is averaging 2 million vaccinations per day over the past week, down from the peak level of 3.4 million daily shots on April 13

• Roku’s riveting earnings report has some traders doubling down on the streaming stock
• Roku in the first-quarter report posted its highest revenue growth rate since its 2017 IPO
• Loop Capital Markets upgraded the stock to a buy with a $450 price target after the results, citing its impressive platform growth, increasing market share and the overall shift to digital streaming

• Chipotle said it will increase restaurant wages resulting in a $15 average hourly wage by the end of June, as it looks to bring on 20,000 workers
• Starting pay for hourly crew members will range from $11 to $18 an hour and there are opportunities to advance to general manager positions with average annual pay of $100,000
• Chipotle CEO Brian Niccol said the current labor market is among the most challenging he’s seen in his career in the restaurant industry
• The company has also introduced employee referral bonuses of $200 for crew members and $750 for apprentices or general managers

• White House chief medical advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci said Sunday that people may wear masks during certain seasons when respiratory illnesses are more prevalent
• “We’ve had practically a non-existent flu season this year […],“Fauci said
• His comments come less than a month after the Biden administration announced a relaxation of federal guidance on wearing masks outdoors

• Elon Musk’s SpaceX will launch the “DOGE-1 Mission to the Moon” in the first quarter of 2022, with the company accepting the meme-inspired cryptocurrency as payment
• Geometric Energy Corporation announced the dogecoin-funded mission on Sunday, with DOGE-1 representing a 40 kilogram cube satellite flying as a payload on a Falcon 9 rocket
• SpaceX vice president of commercial sales Tom Ochinero said in a statement that DOGE-1 “will demonstrate the application of cryptocurrency beyond Earth orbit and set the foundation for interplanetary commerce”

The post Business News – 5-10-2021 appeared first on Easy Ad - Local Small Business Resources.

Apple Defends App Store in Epic Games Lawsuit

• Epic Games argued that Apple purposely locks in its customers in the first day of a landmark trial with Apple over the rules of the App Store
• Apple is arguing that it built the App Store and gets to set the rules — which are designed to ensure that apps are high quality and secure
• On Monday, Apple’s and Epic’s lawyers both made their opening statements, and Epic Games founder and CEO Tim Sweeney testified
• Epic is looking to force Apple to open up iPhone software distribution so it could use its own payment processor, bypassing Apple’s customary 30% fee on digital goods
• On Monday, Apple’s and Epic’s lawyers both made their opening statements, and Epic Games founder and CEO Tim Sweeney testified and the trial is expected to last three weeks

• Dogecoin’s price has soared 20% in the last 24 hours to 32 cents, according to data from Coin Metrics
• Elon Musk and Mark Cuban have both made tweets supporting the meme-inspired cryptocurrency
• The wild surge has led to warnings from some investors who view it as a speculative bubble
• On April 27, Elon Musk tweeted, “The Dogefather; SNL May 8”
• On April 26, Mark Cuban tweeted, “ Because Doge is the one coin that people actually use for transactions.  We take many others via @BitPay . But people spend their Doge and that means more businesses will start taking it. The greatest inhibitor to it’s growth is that you can’t spend the Doge you buy on Robinhood” 

• “India is a big country, and if there are large outbreaks there, of course we’re going to worry about more variants,” said Dr. Ashish Jha
• The Covid outbreak in India is putting the rest of the world at risk and is leaving a “humanitarian catastrophe” in its wake, the dean of Brown University’s School of Public Health warned
• The White House pledged to send more than $100 million worth of medical supplies to India as the country breaks global infection records on a near-daily basis
• The country recorded more than 300,000 new cases for 12 straight days, but experts fear the real numbers could be much higher
• Data shows that only about 2% of India’s population is fully vaccinated against Covid

• Lydall CEO Sara Greenstein told CNBC the filtration products company is supplying a system for NASA’s exploration program on Mars in hopes of making human travel to the planet safe
• According to Lydall CEO Sara Greenstein, The federal government contracted to help replenish the U.S. stockpile of personal protection equipment, supply the National Aeronautics and Space Administration with HEPA-grade filtration media to be used to produce oxygen on Mars
• The rover is equipped with filtration media made by Lydall, which is studying ways to convert carbon dioxide into oxygen that can be useful for human travel to the red planet

The post Business News – 05-03-2021 appeared first on Easy Ad - Local Small Business Resources.