California bans hotels from offering tiny plastic bottles
SACRAMENTO — Hotels in the nation’s most populous state will have to stop giving guests small plastic shampoo bottles under a new law set to take effect starting in 2023. Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Wednesday he had signed a law banning hotels from giving guests plastic bottles filled with shampoo, conditioner or soap. It takes effect…
Microsoft employees call to end GitHub ICE contract
Microsoft Corp. employees are circulating a letter supporting an effort to get its GitHub subsidiary to cancel a contract with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, the latest effort among tech-company staff to influence corporate policy on government work. The letter reflects concerns that Microsoft’s sales to the agency implicate the software maker in…
Fine print in leveraged loans sparks market backlash
Some of the largest investors in the $1.2 trillion market for risky corporate loans say they’re being given too little time to comb through the hundreds of pages of documents that govern the deals, leaving them exposed to potentially dangerous loopholes. Now many are urging the industry’s main trade group to do something about it.…
This Pasadena roaster sells coffee that lures even Starbucks
Chuck Jones, 49, is a co-founder and co-owner of Jones Coffee Roasters in Pasadena. Jones represents the fifth generation of a family that has earned its money growing, roasting and selling coffee beans, mostly sourced from its own 3,000-acre Guatemalan farm begun in 1870. Jones’ company sells organic coffee beans to select roasters throughout the…
The Middle Ages: A homecoming 45 years in the making
CHICAGO — If you can’t go home again, why do they hold homecomings? In my suburban hometown, the prairie is just starting to pop — a maple here, a birch there. Damn these wide lush lawns, soft as quilts. You know you’ll always be a Midwestern guy when you still have grass envy. In a couple…
An urban farm grows in Los Angeles. You can be a part of it.
Finding the Avenue 33 Farm is a serious challenge. Plug the address into GPS and you end up on a steep residential street packed with older, neatly landscaped homes. To the west, downtown L.A. fills the horizon and, to the south, your destination looks like a modest home with a slightly scruffy frontyard and a…
Ukraine president says there was no 'blackmail' in Trump phone conversation
KYIV, Ukraine — The Ukrainian president said Thursday that there was no pressure from the White House during his now-infamous July phone call with President Trump, who had asked him to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden as well as a theory that Ukraine had interfered in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. “There was no pressure…
Iranian women allowed to attend FIFA soccer match at home for the first time in decades
1/6 Iranian women cheer during the World Cup Qatar 2022 Group C qualification match between Iran and Cambodia at Azadi Stadium in Tehran. (Atta Kenare / AFP / Getty Images) 2/6 An Iranian woman flashes a victory sign during a soccer match between Iran and Cambodia in the 2022 World Cup qualifier at the Azadi…
Turkey carries out dozens of strikes in northern Syria as thousands flee
AMMAN, Jordan — Turkey said Thursday that it had carried out military strikes on dozens of targets in Syria during two days of an offensive against Kurdish fighters, a move that sent tens of thousands of people fleeing in fear. Dozens of Kurdish civilians were killed or wounded by a heavy barrage of artillery and airstrikes…
ICE and sheriff say immigration database ruling threatens public safety
WASHINGTON — The acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Thursday criticized a judge’s ruling barring his agency from relying solely on databases that have at times led to the wrongful detention of American citizens. Speaking Thursday at the White House, Matthew Albence called the September ruling an example of “judicial overreach” that threatened…