Feb 9, 2017

Zenefits lays off nearly half its workforce

New Zenefits CEO Jay Fulcher (Ooyala / Courtesy of Zenefits)

Zenefits, an insurance startup that is no stranger to difficulties, is laying off more than 400 workers. That's a big deal: those employees account for 45 percent of its workforce, according to BuzzFeed News, which broke the news.

The layoffs are just the latest cuts at the embattled company. They will largely hit workers in San Francisco as well as Arizona, according to reports.

What the company is saying: "This has been planned for some time and is the result of a lot of hard work over the past year to improve our products and service and make the operations of the company more efficient," a company spokesperson said in a statement.

The bigger picture: This is not the start of Zenefits' problems. It has grappled in recent years with revelations that it was skirting legal requirements and the related departure of its co-founder. The company appointed a new CEO just last week.

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Shawna Chen
Updated 37 mins ago - Politics & Policy

Voters in Wisconsin, Michigan urged to return absentee ballots to drop boxes

Signs for Joe Biden are seen outside a home in Coon Valle, Wisconsin, on Oct. 3. Photo by KEREM YUCEL via Getty

Wisconsin Democrats and the Democratic attorney general of Michigan are urging voters to return absentee ballots to election clerks’ offices or drop boxes, warning that the USPS may not be able to deliver ballots by the Election Day deadline.

Driving the news: The Supreme Court rejected an effort by Wisconsin Democrats and civil rights groups to extend the state's deadline for counting absentee ballots to six days after Election Day, as long as they were postmarked by Nov. 3. In Michigan, absentee ballots must also be received by 8 p.m. on Election Day in order to be counted.

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45 mins ago - Technology

Facebook warns of "perception hacks" undermining trust in democracy

Photo Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios. Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images

Facebook warned Tuesday that bad actors are increasingly taking to social media to create the false perception that they’ve pulled off major hacks of electoral systems or have otherwise seriously disrupted elections.

Why it matters: "Perception hacking," as Facebook calls it, can have dire consequences on people's faith in democracy, sowing distrust, division and confusion among the voters it targets.

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Orion Rummler
1 hour ago - Politics & Policy

Obama: Trump is "jealous of COVID's media coverage"

Former President Barack Obama launched a blistering attack on President Trump while campaigning for Joe Biden in Orlando on Tuesday, criticizing Trump for complaining about the pandemic as cases soar and joking that he's "jealous of COVID's media coverage."

Driving the news: Trump has baselessly accused the news media of only focusing on covering the coronavirus pandemic — which has killed over 226,000 Americans so far and is surging across the country once again — as a way to deter people from voting on Election Day and distract from other issues.

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