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This weeks business headlines reflected a market still finding its footing in a post-pandemic, tech-driven, politically charged economy. The themes were clear: Companies are refining strategies to capture new audiences, governments are making moves with high economic stakes, and consumer behavior is forcing industries to adapt. In finance, the credit-card-rewards arms race saw a surprising twistwhile premium travel cards have leaned on hefty fees and luxury perks, one player is going in the opposite direction, offering big benefits at no annual cost. Meanwhile, the housing market showed early signs of strain in certain U.S. hot spots, with negative equity creeping up in Florida and Texas. The corporate world saw significant leadership changes and some unsettling labor trends. Layoff numbers for 2025 have already surpassed all of last year, driven by a mix of government spending cuts, tariffs, and AI-driven restructuring. Consumer industries faced their own disruptionsfrom tipping declines in restaurants to public backlash over a beauty brands ad campaign. Here are the 10 biggest business stories of the week. Capital One ups the ante with no-fee travel card perks In a bold move against high-fee competitors like Amex Platinum and Chase Sapphire Reserve, Capital One is adding new perks like $100 travel credits, vacation rental access, and Hertz Five Star status to its no-annual-fee cards, allowing them to better compete with their for-fee rivals. FDA recall: Contaminated soaps pose sepsis risk DermaRite Industries recalled several soap and skincare products after finding they were contaminated with Burkholderia cepacia, a bacterium that can cause life-threatening infections in immunocompromised individuals. Consumers are advised to destroy affected products immediately. Underwater mortgages rise in Florida and Texas Housing data shows negative equity is increasing in pandemic boomtowns like Cape Coral and Austin, though still far from 2009 crisis levels. Many of the affected homeowners bought during the 20222024 market peak. Whitmer confronts Trump over tariff impact on auto industry Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer met privately with President Trump to warn that new tariffs could damage the states auto sector. Automakers report billions in added costs that threaten factory investments and jobs. U.S. layoffs hit 800,000 in 2025already exceeding last years total Job cuts have surged 75% over the last year, driven by government spending reductions, tariffs, and AI automation. The hardest-hit sectors include government, tech, and retail. Tipping in America falls to a 7-year low Restaurant management platform Toast reports the average tip at full-service restaurants has slipped to 19.1%, with California at the bottom (17.3%) and Delaware leading (21.4%). Analysts cite tipflation and shifting consumer habits. LinkedIn names top AI-focused colleges In its first-ever ranking, LinkedIn highlights schools producing the most AI-ready graduates. Caltech and MIT lead both in AI job placement and in graduates with AI skills. Threads nears Xs mobile user numbers Metas Threads hit 400 million monthly active users and 115 million daily mobile users, narrowing the gap with Elon Musks X to just 17 million in the U.S. daily mobile audience. E.l.f. Beauty faces backlash over Matt Rife ad The cosmetics brand is under fire for casting stand-up comic Matt Rife, criticized for past jokes about domestic violence and trans people. E.l.f.s statement acknowledged missing the mark but stopped short of an apology. Life360 appoints Lauren Antonoff as CEO Location-tracking company Life360 promoted COO Lauren Antonoff to CEO, succeeding cofounder Chris Hulls. The company is eyeing international expansion and deeper integration with everyday family life.
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Learning to drive may be a major rite of passage for American teenagers, but its also the leading cause of stress eating for their parentsand for good reason. Compared to drivers who are 20 years old or older, teenagers crash rates per mile driven are nearly four times as high. If youve ever met a teenager, this can hardly come as a surprise. Kids that age lack experience, are convinced of their own immortality, and tend to make impulsive and risky decisions. Unsurprisingly, those are the exact same reasons why teens pay the most for auto insurance premiums of any age cohort. The good news is that you can reduce auto insurance costs for teen drivers using strategies that also help keep them safe. Heres what you need to know about affording your teens car insuranceand keeping your worry to a minimum. Let driving and grades be the carrot-and-stick Teen drivers who maintain good grades are statistically less likely to get into car crashes than those with low GPAs. While this statistical phenomenon is a correlation rather than a causationthe school Valedictorian is just as capable of driving like a boneheaded speed demon as the 6th-year seniorit can benefit parents in two ways. The first benefit is that students with high GPAs can generally expect to receive a good student discount on their auto insurance premiums. Insurance companies certainly understand the good grade statistics (even if theyre just correlations) and they want to encourage the punctilious, Type-A teens to get experience and confidence behind the wheel. Many insurers offer discounts anywhere from 15% up to 25% to teen drivers with B averages or above. This also gives parents a way to encourage unmotivated students. Considering the level of savings on offer (depending on your insurer), it seems reasonable to make adding your teen to your auto insurance conditional on them bringing up their GPA to the discount qualification level. Many a slacker will improve their grades in exchange for the freedom of the open road in Moms 2018 Kia Carnival. Let safety be your guide Though you cant encase a teen in bubble wrap, making sure they drive a safe vehicle may be the next best thing. Not only will that give you peace of mind, but it may also save you money. Insurance companies commonly offer discounts to customers who drive cars with certain safety features, including the kinds of features most helpful to newbie drivers, such as: Backup and side cameras Lane departure detection Blind spot detection Anti-lock braking Automatic emergency braking systems Before you assume only brand new or expensive cars will have these kinds of discount-worthy safety features, check out this list of safe cars for teens created by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and Consumer Reports. Many of the vehicles on the IIHS list, which includes both new and used cars at prices ranging from $5,000 to $20,000, have the kind of safety features that insurers offer discounts for. Let someone else teach them defensive driving Many insurance companies offer discounts to customers who have successfully completed a defensive driving course, including new teenage drivers. But even if theres no price break on offer from your insurer, its still a good idea to enroll your kid in one of these kinds of classes, preferably one that includes classroom and driving instruction. There are several reasons why this can be helpful. First, these classes help train drivers to recognize and anticipate situations that could lead to collisions. With a focus on the drivers own behavior and judgment, your teen will learn how to make better decisions on the road and recognize the signs of potential problems and how to avoid them. Though it may not lower your insurance premium immediately, it will get your kid in the habit of safe driving now, which will lead to lower insurance costs over time. Secondly, its a lot easier for your child to learn these skills from someone other than you. Not only do you vividly remember when your kid got a Cheeto lodged in her nose, but youre also quite aware of the fact that shes operating a two-ton death trap on roads populated entirely by maniacs. Allowing a professional instructor (who has probably seen it all) guide your teen through the process of learning situational awareness on the road is much less likely to end in a shouting match, tears, or anyone threatening to live with Aunt Sophie. Let the insurer be Big Brother Its admittedly a bit creepy, but most insurance companies these days provide telematics monitoring programs that can potentially reduce your premium. When you sign up for one of these auto insurance Panopticons, your insurer provides you with an app or a plug-in device for your car that will automatically measure specific risky driving behavior, such as phone use while driving, sudden braking, speeding, or your teen trying to corner your 2012 Odyssey like its on rails. These programs are designed to lower premiums for safe drivers, but they can also provide parents important information about how their teens are behaving behind the wheel. Signing up for a telematics insurance program can encourage your young driver to make good choicesor else lose their privileges. Practice your deep breathing Reducing the cost of car insurance for your teen driver is a solvable problemand happily, its one that coincides with helping to keep your kid safer on the road. Encouraging your kid to hit the books, making sure theyre driving a safe car, enrolling your child in a defensive driving course, and signing up for a telematics monitoring program will all potentially help lower your premiumsand your blood pressure.
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E-Commerce
In Taco Bell restaurants across the nation, a new electric purple beverage is now available on tap. Its called Mountain Dew Baja Midnight, and one sip would probably send a Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) supporter into a cold faint. Baja Midnight is the first permanent menu expansion in 20 years of Taco Bells iconic collaboration with Mountain Dew, Baja Blast. The new beverage rolled out nationwide on August 14th in both liquid and frozen forms. According to a press release, Baja Midnight is designed specifically with younger generations and modern flavors in mind. As Gen Z has become increasingly obsessed with colorful beverage creations like bubble tea, functional soda, and energy drinks, restaurants like Starbucks, Dunkin, and McDonalds have all rushed to meet the demand. For Taco Bells part, the company is currently experimenting with a beverage-only spin-off called Live Más Café. In a June news release, Taco Bell announced plans to open 30 new Live Más Café locations this year, aiming to grow its beverage sales to $5 billion in the next five years. One glance at Baja Midnights ingredient list is enough to know that this goal stands in direct opposition with the core tenets of the MAHA movement, the initiative and PAC championed by Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. [Photo: Taco Bell] Where MAHA stands on soda Generally, the MAHA PAC has aligned itself with the goals of reducing corporate influence in public health and environmental policy decisions, and eliminating harmful chemicals from food, water, and air. RFK Jr. has also repeatedly voiced his opposition to fluoride in drinking water and vaccine mandates. When it comes to soda, RFK Jr. has proposed a ban on eight widely used synthetic food dyes that are common in major soda brands, including Yellow 5 and Red 40, both of which are already restricted in Europe. In response to the potential ban, companies including Heinz and General Mills have promised to remove said dyes from their product lines in a matter of years. Alongside President Trump, RFK Jr. has also called for soda brands to replace high fructose corn syrup with cane sugara move that seemingly caused Coca-Cola to announce it would roll out a cane sugar soda in the U.S. this fall. Taco Bell, meanwhile, is going full steam ahead with both of these ingredient categoriesand nothing encapsulates that more than Baja Midnight. [Photo: courtesy of the author] I tried Baja Midnight. It was terrible To see what Taco Bells hype around this new soda was all about, I headed to my local Taco Bell to give it a try. For the sake of a fair comparison, I grabbed both a Baja Midnight and a regular Baja Blast. Classic Baja Blast is a bright teal color, achieved using Yellow 5 and Blue 1 food dye. Its second ingredient is high fructose corn syrup after only carbonated water, clocking in at 44 grams of sugar in a 12 fluid ounce serving, which is equivalent to 89% of the average persons daily sugar intake. A serving of Baja Midnight contains the same amount of sugar, although its dark purple hue requires both Red 40 and Blue 1. Per Taco Bells official descriptions, Baja Blast is a tropical lime soda, and Baja Midnight adds a refreshing blast of passion fruit flavor to the classic drink. Consistent with that description, my Baja Blast had a fruity flavor with a definite citrus note. Baja Midnight was something else entirely. Im no stranger to an artificially flavored beverage, but there is something seriously weird with this purple liquid. Right off the bat, it has none of Baja Blasts refreshing citrus flavor, but it also doesnt taste like anything else that Ive ever tried beforeit could be passion fruit, but if you told me it was every soda in the fountain mixed together, I would be equally willing to believe that. Somehow it tasted like artificial sweetener, though Im fairly certain I got the full 44 grams of sugar. The whole experience ended with a deeply unpleasant aftertaste of bubblegum. Health risks aside, I would recommend steering clear of Baja Midnight. If you need to get your anti-MAHA beverage kicks, stick with the timeless Baja Blast.
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E-Commerce
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