Business

Amazon to Axe "Associates" in California Over Sales-Tax Threat

By Curtis Cartier Wed., Jun. 29 2011 at 3:34 PM
Categories: Business

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​Amazon is on its way toward running out of states to run its "Amazon Associates" program. The retail giant just sent a letter to all its Associates (website owners who make money off placing ads and widgets to Amazon products on their websites) warning them that the program will be killed if Gov. Jerry Brown signs a bill that would force the company to collect sales taxes from the shillers.

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Amazon Associates, Amazon sales tax, sales tax
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Business

Exit Interview: Marsha Massey, Outgoing Tourism Director for Washington State

By Jonathan Kaminsky Tue., Jun. 28 2011 at 5:46 PM
Categories: Business

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​This marks the final week for the state's tourism office, which has fallen victim to budget cuts going into effect July 1. As of that date, Washington will be the only state in the nation without a publicly funded office to promote tourism. How does that sit with the state's outgoing tourism czar? We caught up with Marsha Massey to find out.

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Tags:

budget cuts, Marsha Massey, tourism, Washington Tourism Alliance
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Business

Electronic Arts to Buy Seattle-Based PopCap Games for $1 Billion, Sources Say

By Curtis Cartier Thu., Jun. 23 2011 at 7:00 AM
Categories: Business

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​Rumor has it that local video-game maker PopCap Games (Plants vs Zombies, Bejeweled 3) is about to bought for a whopping $1 billion. That's billion. With a B.

But until late last night, no one knew who the buyer was.

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Tags:

Bejeweled, Electronic Arts, Plants vs Zombies, PopCap, PopCap buy out, Zynga
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Business

Walmart Ruling May Not Spell Doom for Costco Discrimination Case, Insists Plaintiffs' Lawyer

By Nina Shapiro Tue., Jun. 21 2011 at 12:31 PM
Categories: Business

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​Last year, when the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals gave the green light to class-action litigation against Walmart, the law firm handling the case hailed the decision as good news not only for that lawsuit but for one the firm is pursuing against Issaquah-based Costco. Brad Seligman, lead counsel for the plaintiffs, told SW that the two gender discrimination cases were oh-so-similar. Yesterday, however, the U.S. Supreme Court came down on Walmart's side. Now Seligman is saying that the cases aren't so similar after all.

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Brad Seligman, Costco, Jim Sinegal, Joel Benoliel, the Impact Fund, Wal-Mart
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Crime & Punishment

This Week in Starbucks Crime: Camper Sex, Peeper Suicide, Secret Police, and More!

By Jonathan Kaminsky Fri., Jun. 17 2011 at 12:37 PM
Categories: Business, Crime & Punishment

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​Welcome back to TWISC, in which we catalog the bad acts occurring at Starbucks' 17,000-odd worldwide locations over the past seven days, as well as the week's fallout from prior Starbucks-related misdeeds. This was a busy week for Starbucks crime, so we'll jump right in with a sad update from Florida.

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Business

Starbucks Accused of Firing Gay Employee for Having Gay Conversation

By Curtis Cartier Thu., Jun. 16 2011 at 8:00 AM
Categories: Business

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​It's almost Pride Weekend here in Seattle. And what better way to gear up for the festivities than with a tale of blatant homosexual discrimination?

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Tags:

discrimination, Jeffrey Warren, Missy Allison, Starbucks gay firing, Starbucks homophobia
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Business

Shel Kaphan, Amazon's First Employee, Sounds Off on the Company That Made Him Rich But Let Him Down

By Curtis Cartier Wed., Jun. 15 2011 at 1:07 PM
Categories: Business, Technology

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​Shel Kaphan was the first employee Jeff Bezos hired back in 1994 when Amazon.com was just a few geeks operating out of a converted garage in Bellevue. Migrating from Santa Cruz, Calif., Kaphan had gone to work laying the groundwork for what would eventually become a multibillion-dollar retail empire.

Later he would be "sidelined" from his work and would quit. But thanks to early stock options, he's a very rich man today. That doesn't mean he's not bitter, though.

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Tags:

Amazon, Amazon founder, Jeff Bezos, Paul Davis, Shel Kaphan
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Business

Target's Mandatory Anti-Union Propaganda Video Leaked; See It Before the New Store Opens in Downtown Seattle

By Curtis Cartier Mon., Jun. 13 2011 at 1:03 PM
Categories: Business

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​Some day soon a new Target store will open in downtown Seattle. Folks who would like to work at this store will be forced to sit through a whole bunch of training videos before they start. But the go-getters out there can impress their future employers by prewashing their brains with this leaked copy of one of the company's most important vids--the one that shows how important it is that they never, ever, under any circumstance, join a union.

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anti union, labor, labor union, Taget union video, Target
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Business

The New York Times Claims Microsoft Is the New Kodak; Facts Suggest Otherwise

By Curtis Cartier Mon., Jun. 13 2011 at 8:00 AM
Categories: Business

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​The New York Times editorial board took some time for a little old-fashioned Microsoft-bashing this weekend. The paper thinks that our local software giant is on its way to becoming the new Kodak: a former business and technology icon made all but obsolete by more agile companies with better innovations.

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David Einhorn, Kodak, Microsoft, New York Times, Steve Ballmer
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Business

This Week in Starbucks Crime

By Jonathan Kaminsky Fri., Jun. 10 2011 at 1:39 PM
Categories: Business, Crime & Punishment

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​Welcome to TWISC, in which we catalog the bad acts occurring at Starbucks' 17,000-odd worldwide locations over the past seven days, as well as the week's fallout from prior Starbucks-related misdeeds. In this edition: another toilet-cam is uncovered, a public masturbator arrested, a police-officer impersonator and armed robber sentenced, and more!

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Business

AT&T and T-Mobile Grease Liberal Groups With Cash for Their Support of Merger

By Curtis Cartier Fri., Jun. 10 2011 at 12:12 PM
Categories: Business

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​Ever wonder why a bunch of liberal groups like the NAACP, the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, and the National Education Association would sing the praises of a gigantic telecommunications-company merger?

Might it have something to do with the loads of cash that the groups have been receiving from the telecom companies?

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AT&T, AT&T T-Mobile merger, NAACP, National Education Association, the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation
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Business

Get Motivated! Seminar Fails to Trick Savvy Seattleites Into Buying Useless Crap (VIDEO)

By Curtis Cartier Fri., Jun. 10 2011 at 8:00 AM
Categories: Business, Celebrities

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​Last month we told you about the Get Motivated! seminar series and how, despite big-name speakers like Colin Powell, Laura Bush, and Joe Montana, it's really just a clever scheme to get people to buy expensive sales-training software and other dumb products.

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Colin Powel, Conor Hurley, Get Motivated!, Joe Montana, KeyArena, Laura Bush
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Business

Seattle's Best Coffee, Booted From Borders, Still on Course for World Domination

By Jonathan Kaminsky Tue., Jun. 7 2011 at 3:52 PM
Categories: Business

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​If you're the type of fellow who buys his tomes at the middling, bankrupted bookseller known as Borders, it is now official: By August you will no longer be able to combine this activity with purchasing a cup of joe at the middling, onsite coffee purveyor calling itself Seattle's Best. But fear not, middling coffee junkies! Seattle's Best is coming to (or has already arrived at) several unfancy locations near you! In fact, it is in the process of taking over the world!

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Tags:

Borders, breakups, Michelle Gass, Seattle's Best, Starbucks
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Business

Boeing Makes List of Top 12 Corporate Welfare Queens

By Jonathan Kaminsky Mon., Jun. 6 2011 at 5:31 PM
Categories: Business, Civics 101

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Soaring to new heights, thanks in part to free government money!
​Citizens for Tax Justice, a left-leaning pressure group advocating for higher corporate taxes and fewer loopholes, recently released a list of a dozen Fortune 500 companies that, between 2008 and 2010, actually made money on their federal tax returns. And guess what? Our very own Boeing made the cut!

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Business

Ezell's Food Fight: Court Battle Over Oprah's Favorite Fried-Chicken Empire Nearing End?

By Rick Anderson Mon., Jun. 6 2011 at 10:06 AM
Categories: Business

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​A federal judge has sent the long-running Ezell's Famous Chicken food fight back to state court, where it is now heading for a summary judgment hearing and perhaps a conclusion. Ezell Stephens, the namesake founder of Oprah's favorite chicken joint, lost his bid to turn the dispute into a federal case over trademark issues. He now faces an uphill battle in King County Superior Court, where a majority of Ezell's ownership claims Stephens breached contracts and misappropriated his own recipes.

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Ezell Stephens, Ezell's Famous Chicken, Lewis Rudd
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Business

Amazon Sales Tax Bill to Hit Congress Soon

By Curtis Cartier Fri., Jun. 3 2011 at 10:13 AM
Categories: Business

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​Every so often a state will propose legislation that would force Amazon to collect sales taxes on purchases. Amazon typically responds to such propositions with threats to close shipping centers and lay off workers (see: Texas and South Carolina). This usually scares the shit out of legislators who simply cave to the pressure and ax the taxes.

But what happens when the sales-tax law is proposed nationwide?

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Amazon sales tax, Dick Durbin, Main Street Fairness Act, online retail tax, tax hike
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Business

Howard Schultz Reveals $15 Million Worth of Groupon Stock

By Curtis Cartier Fri., Jun. 3 2011 at 9:00 AM
Categories: Business

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​Howard Schultz has a net worth of $1.1 billion, so having $15 million worth of Groupon stock is somewhat of a drop in the bucket. The real question it seems then, is what does that kind of personal investment in another company mean for Starbucks?

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Groupon, Groupon IPO, Howard Schultz, Howard Schultz Groupon, IPO, Starbucks
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Business

Starbucks Gets the Boot From the Oregon Convention Center for Lack of Sustainability

By Curtis Cartier Thu., Jun. 2 2011 at 1:50 PM
Categories: Business, Environment

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​Starbucks is not local enough, not sustainable enough, and too expensive to continue as the coffee supplier for the Oregon Convention Center, Jeffrey Blosser, the center's executive director, tells Seattle Weekly today.

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Tags:

Oregon Convention Center, Portland Roasting Co., Specialty Coffee Association of America, Starbucks, START coffee program, sustainability
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Business

WSJ: Seattle Is Becoming the New Silicon Valley

By Curtis Cartier Thu., Jun. 2 2011 at 12:31 PM
Categories: Business, Technology

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​This may not come as news to the legions of local computer programmers who are already working for satellite hubs of companies like Facebook, Zynga, and Salesforce, but Seattle is on a path to eclipse the Bay Area as America's technology hub.

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Facebook, Google, Salesforce, Silicon Valley, tech industry, Zynga
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Business

Did Microsoft Just Buy Nokia for $19 Billion?

By Curtis Cartier Wed., Jun. 1 2011 at 11:43 AM
Categories: Business, Technology

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​The company won't tell us one way or another. But if a particular Russian tech analyst (with a relatively sterling reputation) is right, a deal for Microsoft to buy Finnish phone company Nokia for around $19 billion is either already done or will be very soon.

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Tags:

Eldar Murtazin, Microsoft, Microsoft buys Nokia, Nokia, Stephan Elop, Steve Ballmer, Windows Phone
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