What we are trying to do is create different feelings depending on what mood you want to be in and how you want to feel. We have an ‘energy,’ a 'create,’ a 'bliss,’ a 'chill’ and one other one. What was it? Oh yes, 'giggle.’ How could I forget 'giggle’?
— John Strickler, a longtime management consultant who now works for Ebbu, a Denver startup seeking to parse the chemical components of marijuana with unprecedented precision. The rapid spread of laws permitting recreational pot is enticing hedge fund managers, venture capitalists, software developers and many others to get in on what inevitably is being touted as a green rush.

Sexism and ‘brogrammer’ culture in Silicon Valley

From tech reporter Jessica Guynn’s story about the troubling perseverance of sexist culture in the nation’s most forward-thinking technological hub:

It’s no secret that the tech industry has a shortage of women. What’s less well known is that the industry famous for its bravado about changing the world still lags decades behind other industries in its treatment of women, many of whom say they routinely confront sexism in the companies where they work and at the technology conferences they attend.

Many blame the industry’s growing gender gap on a “brogrammer” culture, a hybrid of “bro” and “programmer” that’s become a tongue-in-check name for engineers.

Read the fully story here.

Photos: David Paul Morris, Chris Ratcliffe / Bloomberg, Glenn Chapman / AFP/Getty Images

Evaluating Satan worshiping’s effects on real estate

Plenty of people have had some strange living situations, from incompetent landlords, fixer-upers that never quite seem to get fixed and beyond. But what about properties affixed with a legacy of ghosts and murder?

They came to the Las Vegas mansion in waves, chasing tales of ghosts and murder. Some came to gawk or snap photos in front of its black metal gate. Others came to worship Satan. Thrill seekers broke in and drew pentagrams and carved upside-down crosses throughout the house.

The vandals came after “Ghost Adventures” featured the mansion on an episode that warned of a “nasty, evil spirit” that lurked inside. The homeowner fumed and sued. He wanted the Travel Channel show to pay damages.

Simply bring in Randall Bell, a real estate appraiser whose entire career is focused around evaluating stigmatized property, but the aforementioned Satanic-associated haunts to the World Trade Center site and areas damaged during the Rodney King riots. 

Read the full story, possible mob hit site renovations and all, in our latest Column One feature.

Photos: Isaac Brekken for the Times

Say hello to the new $100 bill!

The launch of the redesigned bills may have been delayed for years, but the new look will finally be in circulation starting this week. Money & Co. has the full details, and be sure to give yourself a pat on the back if you manage to get a hold of one.

Photos: Brendan Smialowski / AFP/Getty Images

The recession’s aftershocks, five years later

It’s been five years since the financial meltdown that spurred the Great Recession, and the effects of the downturn are still rampant. Students are saddled with debt while unable to find work, adult workers are seeing their wages stagnate while older workers who lose their jobs may not have a chance at attaining another.

Reporters Walter Hamilton and Shan Li recently looked at the economic status of a middle class family from Redondo Beach. Janet Barker, an eighth-grade teacher, thought her life was completely in order just a few years ago:

Then the financial crisis struck in 2008. She has abandoned her dreams, and these days, she’s just trying to hold her family together. Five people squeeze into her 1,000-square-foot house because they can’t afford to live anywhere else. She’s supporting her ex-husband, their daughter, an unemployed son-in-law and a grandchild.

As Carl Van Horn, labor economist and director of the Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University, puts it:

“American workers are between two uncomfortable realities: Either they are working and terrified about the future or they are not working at all.”

Read the full story from reporters Walter Hamilton and Shan Li here.

Photos: Bethany Mollenkof / Los Angeles Times

theatlanticcities:

“We’re at a point where we don’t need retailers,“ D.C. council member Vincent B. Orange said. “Retailers need us.”

D.C.’s city council approved a very specific living wage law earlier this week, one that requires companies with annual sales of more than $1 billion to pay its employees a local living wage ($12.50). 

Before the vote, Walmart announced it would abandon plans for three of six soon-to-be-built District stores if the city passed the law.

D.C. isn’t the first to engage in a game of chicken between itself and the mega-retailer. Emily Badger looks at Walmart’s struggles with other city governments and wonders, when exactly is it safe to make Walmart play by rules it doesn’t like?

Read: Exactly When Is a City Strong Enough to Spar With Walmart?

[Image: Reuters]

Wal-Mart’s trouble moving into urban areas isn’t limited to D.C. - a number of groups have recently opposed a new store from being built in L.A.

So long, plastic grocery bags?

The Los Angeles City Council voted for an ordinance banning plastic bags Tuesday, making L.A. the largest city to possibly forbid grocers from providing anything other than paper bags (at 10 cents a pop).

Plenty of people have voiced their disapproval of the ban, including one bag-totting Target customer in Eagle Rock:

“I’m going to forget to bring my bag, and I’m not going to want to pay, so Target will probably lose some of my business,” the Highland Park resident said. “Then I’ll be putting even more things back.”

But the inconvenience may be worth it for the greater good, as Karin Klein writes in her account of the bag-less lifestyle (with a bit of a learning curve):

Truth is, though, it can be a pain. Sometimes, you just crave a flimsy wisp of plastic with built-in handles to carry out the trash, or to hold some messy item that should not see the inside of a backpack. The reality is that life without plastic bags is entirely doable and a lot better for the environment, but it does require some adjusting.

Read more on the possible ban, which would begin in 2014, here.

Photo: Kevork Djansezian / Getty Images

It’s not a recovery. It’s not even normal growth. It’s bad.

UCLA economists sure have written a sunny assessment of the economy in their quarterly Anderson Forecast.

Read more on the report here, including the rosier picture for California as compared to the rest of the country.

The end of the Postal Service?

Neither snow nor rain nor heat are supposed to keep mail carriers from doing their duty, but the current crisis facing the postal service is a bit more of a man-made problem.

The U.S. Postal Service lost a mind-boggling $15.9 billion last year, and currently loses $25 million every day. Employee numbers have been cut down, facilities have been consolidated and delivery standards have been lowered - but the organization is still hemorrhaging cash.

It may be run as a corporation, but the Postal Service still faces congressional oversight, which has hampered its reform efforts.

Postal officials recently tried to end Saturday letter delivery, which could have saved $2 billion per year, but Congress blocked it. A legislative proposal to replace doorstep delivery with curbside delivery, which would save $4.5 billion, failed last year. A plan to close thousands of rural post offices was abandoned after postal officials deemed the closures would “upset Congress a great deal.”

And then there’s the 2006 Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act, which mandated that the Postal Service pre-fund the health benefits of future retirees 50 years into the future. The yearly cost of that measure? About $5.6 billion.

Read more to learn about some measures in the works to save the 238-year-old service before it collapses in financial ruin.

Photo: Justin Lane / EPA

Are hipsters to blame for rising beer prices?

Hipsters get a bad rap from a lot of people, with a recent poll finding that just 16% of Americans having a positive opinion

But now there’s one more thing hipster-haters can add to their list of complaints (besides thinking Grizzly Bear’s boring or fedoras fell out of fashion for a reason): Rising beer prices.

Research Sciences President Chuck Ellis, who has been studying beer prices, has discovered that sub-premium beer prices have jumped 6.8% over the past seven months, with craft beer prices increasing at half that rate. And what does he think the cause is?

“I believe the single biggest driver in sub-premium beer price increases is indeed specifically PBR. It has become quite fashionable.”

As an aside, with all of that said: What the heck is the definition of a hipster anyway?

Read the full story over at Money & Co.

Photos: Arkasha Stevenson, Glenn Koenig, Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times

Background on the Yahoo-Tumblr deal

Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer has been looking to revitalize Yahoo since hopping aboard last year, examining several companies for possible acquisition. But it wasn’t until early this morning that Yahoo’s big push to gain the trust of a younger online audience was finally confirmed with a $1.1-billion purchase of Tumblr.

But many of the Tumblr faithful are concerned about Yahoo’s shaky track record in properly handling fresh acquisitions:

Yahoo has a history of buying promising young companies only to let them waste away. Acquisitions under previous Yahoo chiefs such as Geocities, an early social networking site, and Flickr, the popular photo sharing website, were long neglected within the company.

Mayer, aware of the widespread concerns of an audience that contains many users who weren’t even alive when Yahoo began, maintains that Tumblr will be independent:

We promise not to screw it up. Tumblr is incredibly special and has a great thing going. We will operate Tumblr independently. David Karp will remain CEO. The product roadmap, their team, their wit and irreverence will all remain the same as will their mission to empower creators to make their best work and get it in front of the audience they deserve.

Read more on the Yahoo-Tumblr deal via tech reporter Jessica Guynn, or sound off below on whether Yahoo’s move is brilliant, or doomed to be a bust.

.gif: Yahoo

Theme by Other