MSNBC host Joy Reid had promoted the 9/11 conspiracy film Loose Change — produced in part by Infowars’ Alex Jones — on her old blog in March 2006, which claimed that the terrorist attacks was orchestrated by the U.S. government, BuzzFeed News reports.
The fundamental question is: do you believe the official story of 9/11?. If you do, great. If you don't, then everything that happened after that is called into serious question. Even if you're agnostic, or you tend to believe that al-Qaida attacked the World Trade Center and Pentagon and that the government had no warning such a thing could happen, it's worth taking a second look.
— Joy Reid wrote on her blog.
Flashback: This report comes weeks after Reid apologized for homophobic blog posts. Neither Reid nor MSNBC responded to BuzzFeed News' requests for comment. The conspiracy claims have since been debunked.
Getting a retail job isn't what it once was, putting unskilled workers at a severe disadvantage.
The big picture: The skills required to apply for entry-level retail work have gone up since 2010, according to a Burning Glass Technologies analysis for the AP.
For the first time in a decade, the U.S. worker shortage is so pronounced that it is visible in suppressed aggregate hiring numbers, economists say, and it will probably become worse.
Quick take: Ahead of Friday's new U.S. jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, ADP, the payroll company, said the economy produced 178,000 new jobs in May, which economists said is strong but muted compared with demand.
Roseanne Barr responded to critics on Twitter saying "I'm not a racist" after her ABC show was cancelled due to a racist tweet she sent targeting former Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett. She added she was examining her options "carefully" and would let fans know what her next move is.
The background: Barr tweeted yesterday: "Muslim brotherhood & planet of the apes had a baby=vj," about Jarrett. Her show was cancelled by ABC 11 hours later. She cited being on Ambien as a reason for the tweet saying she was in an altered state when it was sent.
The demise of brick-and-mortar retail is no longer a sure investment bet.
What's going on: Shares of Dick's Sporting Goods have surged by as much as 28% today after surprisingly solid first-quarter earnings and a forecast for a rosy year overall, reports the WSJ's Elizabeth Winkler.
Venture capitalist and former Wall Street analyst Mary Meeker today presented her annual Internet Trends report, which is eagerly anticipated and analyzed by tech executives and investors.
Top trend: "At 3.6 billion, the number of Internet users has surpassed half the world’s population. When markets reach mainstream, new growth gets harder to find — evinced by 0% new smartphone unit shipment growth in 2017."
Walmart says it will cover college costs for its employees in the U.S. who want to pursue an associate’s or bachelor’s degrees in business or supply-chain management.
Yes, but: They would have to chose to attend either the University of Florida, California’s Brandman University or Bellevue University in Nebraska. The cost to employees will be the equivalent of $1 a day, the company said. Per Bloomberg, about 68,000 of Walmart's employees might sign up.
President Trump finally spoke out about Roseanne Barr's firing on Wednesday, saying Disney CEO Bob Iger "never called President Donald J. Trump to apologize for the HORRIBLE statements made and said about me on ABC."
Flashback: Just yesterday on Air Force One, Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said that Trump was focused on his upcoming summit with North Korea's Kim Jong-un, outstanding trade talks, and rebuilding the military, adding "that’s what he’s spending his time on; not responding to other things."
Auto, a stealthy manufacturing tech startup led by former Autodesk co-CEO Amar Hanspal, has raised around $200 million in funding, Axios has learned from a source close to the company.
Quiet growth: The source adds that Auto was spun out of Flex around 10 months ago, and already has around 400 employees and "tens of millions of dollars in recognized revenue."
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said on Wednesday that China will respond with "resolute and forceful" measures if the U.S. continues to act in an "arbitrary and reckless manner" on trade, CNBC reports.
The backdrop: In a reversal from the trade war truce that had seemingly been reached days earlier, the White House announced on Tuesday that it will impose a 25% tariff on $50 billion worth of Chinese tech goods. That followed criticism that the Trump administration had backed down without getting concrete concessions from China. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross is visiting Beijing over the weekend "to try and get China to agree to firm numbers to buy more U.S. goods," per CNBC.
Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross criticized the European Union on Wednesday for not negotiating on trade thanks to the United States' steel and aluminum tariffs, citing China as a counterexample, CNBC reports:
"China are paying their tariffs ... China hasn't used that as an excuse not to negotiate ... It's only the EU that is insisting we can't negotiate if there are tariffs."
The big picture: Dutch Foreign Trade and Development Minister Sigrid Kaag said at an economic forum in Paris on Wednesday that EU lawmakers are open to trade talks, but won't "negotiate under threat," per CNBC.
Meanwhile, a Hulu spokesperson told the publication that the show will be dropped from its streaming platform, and Laff broadcast network is cancelling reruns of the original series, which ran from 1988-1997 on ABC.
