Alana Semuels
I Delivered Packages for Amazon and It Was a Nightmare
Amazon Flex allows drivers to get paid to deliver packages from their own vehicles. But is it a good deal for workers?
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Hussain Warraich / Shutterstock / SA 3.0 / ... When Your Amazon Purchase Explodes
Shoddily made lithium-ion batteries can cause serious injury and even death. How do they keep ending up in consumers’ hands?
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Joan Wong The Utter Inadequacy of America’s Efforts to Desegregate Schools
In 1966, a group of Boston-area parents and administrators created a busing program called METCO to help desegregate schools. They thought of it as a quick fix to a passing problem. But the problem hasn’t passed, and METCO isn’t enough to fix it.
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Beck Diefenbach / Reuters Your AirPods Will Die Soon
The surprisingly short life of new electronic devices
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Robert Galbraith / Reuters Is This the End of Recycling?
Americans are consuming more and more stuff. Now that other countries won’t take our papers and plastics, they’re ending up in the trash.
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rSnapshotPhotos / andrea crisante / kai celvin / ... When Wall Street Is Your Landlord
With help from the federal government, institutional investors became major players in the rental market. They promised to return profits to their investors and convenience to their tenants. Investors are happy. Tenants are not.
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Cliff Owen / AP Jeff Bezos Brings the Receipts
The Amazon founder is at war with a tabloid.
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Why People Still Don’t Buy Groceries Online
We shop online for almost everything. Why not food?
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Jae C. Hong / AP The End of the American Chinatown
How renewed interest in downtown living is threatening neighborhoods that long provided a first stop for new immigrants
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Dustin Chambers The White Flight From Football
Parents know that football comes with a risk of brain damage. But many black families feel that the sport is still the best option for their kids.
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Amazon / vipman / Gemenacom / Shutterstock / ... How to Lose Tens of Thousands of Dollars on Amazon
A growing number of self-proclaimed experts promise they can teach anyone how to make a passive income selling cheap Chinese goods in the internet's largest store. Not everyone’s getting rich quick.
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Jack Taylor / Getty Images The Strange Phenomenon of L.O.L. Surprise Dolls
“Mystery” toys that kids peel open and cast aside speak volumes about consumer culture.
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Alex Wong / Getty / Will Mullery When Elon Musk Tunnels Under Your Home
The billionaire is drilling for futuristic transit under Los Angeles. He didn’t have to ask the neighbors first.
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Bebeto Matthews / AP Amazon’s HQ2 Will Only Worsen America’s ‘Great Divergence’
In today’s economy, well-off people live in big cities, while everyone else gets pushed out. Bringing new Amazon offices to Virginia and New York could hasten the process.
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Eric Risberg / AP The Homeless Can’t Escape San Francisco’s Smoke-Ridden Air
As wildfires burn out of control, they are impacting the state’s other crisis—the growing number of people living on the streets.
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Richard Vogel / AP Denver Says Not So Fast, Amazon
Despite reports that Amazon is locating its new headquarters in New York and Virginia, the company may still open offices somewhere else, taking advantage of big incentives.
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Eric Risberg / AP Tech Billionaires’ Obligation to the Cities Around Them
California voters are being asked to tax big corporations to solve local problems. But is that the companies’ responsibility?
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Quinn Rooney / Getty The Amazon Selling Machine
The e-commerce company has so much information about us that it’s become expert at shilling us things we didn’t even know we needed. No wonder its advertising business is booming.
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Athit Perawongmetha / Reuters The End of Cheap Shipping From China
The White House wants to put an end to low-cost shipping from overseas, a move widely supported among U.S. e-commerce sellers.
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Elaine Thompson / AP Paul Allen Shows It’s Hard to Give Away $10 Billion
The Microsoft co-founder was one of the most prolific philanthropists in the world—but he still died with $20 billion.
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Matt Rourke / AP What Happens When Gig-Economy Workers Become Employees
Drivers for cannabis companies in California now have to be classified as employees, rather than independent contractors. But has that been a good thing?
