Before we begin, I wanted to ask if any readers recently lost a rule of one hundred dollar bills wrapped in a rubber band. Well, we found the rubber band and would love to return it to you.
Was it yours? Oh, well, here’s a special edition of what you missed from the news over the weekend.
Goodbye, Old Friend
Sears has officially said, “farewell,” filling for Chapter 11 bankruptcy early on Monday. After 132 years, the once-dominant retail store is no more. The original department store came to life at a time when rural American demand for goods was met with unaffordable retail costs, and Sears built its entire business around affordable, quality, wholesale product. With the advent of stores like Target, Ikea, Nordstroms, and so on, Sears couldn’t compete.
As of the filing, about 700 stores remained open and the company employed 68,000 workers. That’s down from 1,000 stores with 89,000 employees that it had recently as of February, CNN reports.
Although retailers typically file for bankruptcy to save their businesses, some companies pass the point of no return and end up going under. Stores like RadioShack, Toys “R” Us and Sports Authority are several examples of this fate.
Where In The World Is Jamal Khashoggi?
For those of you unfamiliar with the name in the catchy header above, let me briefly fill you in. Jamal Khashoggi is a Saudi Journalist who moved to the US to work as a columnist for The Washington Post. Up until recently, he was practically family with the Saudi royals but has since become a harsh critic. About two weeks ago, Khashoggi visited the Saudi consulate to file paperwork to marry his new fiancee, whom he said: “just chill in the car, I’ll be right back.” He has never returned.
Reports have been released, by Turkey, that Khashoggi was killed by a “15-person Saudi hit squad” while inside the consulate. The Saudi Government says that Khashoggi picked up the paperwork and walked out the front door.
The US, the person at the party who always seems to have an opinion, threatened “severe punishment” if Saudi Arabia ends up guilty for the alleged murder of Khashoggi.
How is Jared Kushner Similar To A Kilt?
Both are trying to skirt. Budum, pshh. This weekend, reports came out that Kushner has figured out how to “skirt” federal income taxes because of depreciation. To make it simple, you can report a property-related loss as a deduction for your tax filings, and if you make “less” than the loss, you may even be refunded. In the case of Kushner, in 2015, he reported $1.7 million in salary but listed $8.3 million lost to “significant depreciation” to the owned real estate, thus decreasing taxes owed.
What Kushner has managed to do is legal. Where it gets a bit fishy is this report comes less than two weeks after his daddy (in-law), President Trump, allegedly committed tax fraud.
A School Founded In 1683 Is Racist? What? No….
Well, yes. Harvard University, perhaps the most iconic university in the world, is on trial for whether the institution is illegally discriminating against Asian-American applicants. The group, Students for Fair Admissions, has accused the school of holding the Asian-American population to higher standards than students of other races.
The lawsuit alleges that Harvard practices “racial balancing,” essentially working to maintain a certain distribution of each race on campus, Associated Press reports. Harvard, naturally, denies the accusations and insists the plaintiffs have yet to provide any concrete evidence of this discrimination.
“Look, if you were the inventors of Racebook, you’d have invented Racebook.”
– Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) The Social Network
