The Supreme Court this week rejected an appeal by UPS that would have forced the US Postal Service to increase prices on package delivery. UPS claimed the Postal Service had an unfair advantage because its rates were not tied to the free market.
⋅ CNBC
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., will attend Walmart's annual meeting this year to urge the company to improve wages and benefits for its employees. Sanders, a presidential candidate, also plans to present the idea of putting hourly workers on Walmart's board.
⋅ EdSurge
The education sector has long struggled to integrate efficacy in education-technology decision-making, write Jennifer Carolan of Reach Capital and Molly Zielezinski of MBZ Labs. Carolan and Zielezinski share several strategies to foster research-backed purchasing.
Federal Reserve officials are discussing ways to drive inflation higher that are more effective than previous efforts, which for a decade have kept the central bank short of 2%. Strategies include letting prices rise as much as 3% or 4% in some years, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago President Charles Evans says.
⋅ CNN
Kroger and Walgreens have partnered with zero-waste platform Loop for a pilot program in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Washington, D.C. Loop provides reusable packaging on hundreds of food products and everyday household items that is later picked up by a delivery service to be cleaned and refilled.
⋅ Reuters
Researchers found that the annual rate of newly diagnosed pediatric asthma cases in southern California dropped from 2.7 per 100 children between 1993 and 2001 to 1.8 between 2006 and 2014, amid a decline in regional levels of pollutants such as fine particulate matter, nitrogen dioxide and ozone gasses during the same period. The findings were published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
⋅ ClickZ
Marketers' propensity toward "shrink-and-squeeze" mobile marketing design (i.e., simply making your content fit mobile screens), can be missing the big picture, according to a Forrester report. Thomas Husson, author of "Reimagine Mobile to Activate the Total Brand Experience," says mobile is much like "electricity in the second industrial revolution," noting that augmented reality, voice, visual search and other tools can be used to create unique consumer experiences.
J.C. Penney is in the midst of a turnaround effort designed to create sustainable future profit growth, a process that will take time, said CEO Jill Soltau, who took the reins last fall. The retailer has also hired former Target and Sprouts Farmers Market executive Shawn Gensch as its new executive vice president and chief customer officer.
Urban Outfitters has launched a monthly clothing rental subscription service called Nuuly, which it hopes will attract new customers and spur brand fans to spend more. Subscribers will pay $88 per month to rent up to six items from Urban Outfitters, Free People and Anthropologie.
⋅ Reuters
A unanimous US Supreme Court decision has thrown out a lower court decision that had revived lawsuits accusing Merck of failing to warn patients about fracture risks associated with Fosamax, an osteoporosis drug. The court agreed with the drugmaker that it cannot be penalized after the FDA rejected its proposal to add a warning to the label.
Charter Communications netted 428,000 broadband customers in the first quarter along with 176,000 new wireless lines while growing revenue by 5.1% compared to the period a year ago. The company reported gains in small and medium-size business video subscribers although overall it shed 145,000 video customers.
Changing weather patterns are leading to higher temperatures and safety and labor groups are urging the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to create heat stress standards for workers. OSHA currently has no clear guidelines on heat but has sought to enlighten employers on the dangers.
Elon Musk on Wednesday said that Tesla's Solar Roof tiles will be manufactured at a slower rate to ensure they last as long as expected. Musk's comment came as his company reported a reduction in solar installations.
In 2018, UPS delivered 5.2 billion packages and documents, and some of those deliveries included human organs and tissues. UPS made its first successful live organ delivery in 2016 -- a "gift" package with a kidney for a woman in South Carolina. "When I see them [UPS] in the store and all I just look at them and smile. You know, in the truck and it's UPS -- they delivered my kidney," said Sharon Cauthen.
Italy's Monteverdi Tuscany, Arizona's Enchantment Resort and New Zealand's Matakauri Lodge top this list of hotels that feature luxury spas.