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Marvin Ellison's exit as CEO of J.C. Penney means the struggling department store chain can't be turned around, CNBC's Jim Cramer said Tuesday. Loading... J.C. Penney shares plunged Tuesday after Lowe's announced it is naming Ellison president and CEO, effective July 2. J.C. Penney, which has struggled to compete within the quickly changing retail landscape, told CNBC that it was informed by Ellison a couple days ago of the move. "If there was any chance [of a turnaround], I think you would stay," Cramer said on "Squawk on the Street." "Because it would obviously be such a kick in the...

On Tuesday, all three network morning shows were gleeful over the news that Barack and Michelle Obama had signed a deal with Netflix to create original content for the online streaming service. Hosts happily touted “a lot of people very excited” about the announcement and cheered that the former president and first lady “got paid,” with the agreement rumored to be worth tens of millions of dollars. Missing from much of the adulation, except for a brief mention on NBC, was the fact that the Netflix executive in charge of content was a major Obama campaign donor. “This morning, the...

Chancellor Angela Merkel visits China on Thursday, seeking to close ranks with the world’s biggest exporting nation as US President Donald Trump shakes up explosive issues from trade to Iran’s nuclear deal. Finding a common strategy to ward off a trade war and keep markets open will be Merkel’s priority when she meets with President Xi Jinping, as Washington brandishes the threat of imposing punitive tariffs on aluminium and steel imports. “Both countries are in agreement that open markets and rules-based world trade are necessary. That’s the main focus of this trip,” Merkel’s spokeswoman Martina Fietz said in Berlin on...

Seattle Seahawks and Portland Trail Blazers owner, Paul Allen, is pushing a Washington State gun control initiative in response to the May 18 Santa Fe High School shooting. The initiative, No. 1639, is called “Safe Schools, Safe Communities,” and it expands the gun controls placed on law-abiding citizens via the universal background check initiative that passed in 2014. Allen tweeted: Paul Allen ✔ @PaulGAllen 18h My statement on a gun safety initiative in my home state of Washington: Initiative 1639 is a reasonable and necessary measure that will improve the safety of our schools and our communities, which is why...

A small St. Louis suburb has agreed to stop trying bankroll its government with a vicious regime of petty fines so excessive that the town has cited more than a third of its population. Credit goes to the Institute for Justice, which sued the tiny town of Pagedale (population: 3,300) on behalf of a handful of residents in 2015. Amid the outrage over Michael Brown's death in nearby Ferguson, citizens of these small fiefdoms drew attention to these governments' propensity to bankroll themselves via exorbitant traffic and code enforcement fines.Pagedale was one of those communities. In the course of a...

With her wedding just two months away, Icilma Cornelius arrived at the Lilburn office of Dr. Windell Boutte to prepare for her special day. The 54-year-old bride-to-be came to the doctor’s full-service medical spa and cosmetic surgery center for Botox and another anti-wrinkle treatment. While there, the staff recommended cosmetic surgery that could give her a flat stomach before she married. Cornelius agreed to the surgical makeover by Boutte, whose website promotes the doctor as “nationally and internationally known” and a “doctor to the stars!”

Bruce Kendall said Monday his phone at the Economic Development Board for Tacoma-Pierce County has been ringing steadily since last week's vote by the Seattle City Council to tax big businesses $275 per employee. "I've received inquiries over the last week from companies that have indicated they are exploring options for locations in Pierce County," Kendall said. "And they are telling me that's why they are calling me, because the head tax passed. Now companies have another reason to call: A $275 tax credit per employee for new, family-wage jobs. "Note the value, it's not random," tweeted state Rep. J.T....

SEOUL (THE KOREA HERALD/ASIA NEWS NETWORK) - North Koreans are upbeat about the economic changes the summit between their leader Kim Jong Un and US President Donald Trump might bring, according to a member of a non-profit group who was in Pyongyang just last week. Singapore-based Choson Exchange, which has trained some 20,000 North Koreans since 2007, held its latest workshop in Pyongyang last week, focusing on entrepreneurship and start-up skills. A record number of North Koreans - almost 130 - signed up for the workshop. Ian Bennett, London-based outreach coordinator for Choson Exchange, said the North Koreans appeared more...

The Trump administration threatened Iran with “unprecedented financial pressure” on Monday, issuing a laundry list of harsh demands for Tehran to change its foreign and domestic policies. In a speech touted to outline the administration’s strategy toward Iran, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo promised “the strongest sanctions in history” should Tehran not buckle to US demands. […] Pompeo said the United States would not try to renegotiate the JCPOA. Instead, any new deal would require Iran to meet 12 demands, including halting its ballistic missile program and ending interventions in Syria and Yemen, as well as wide-ranging concessions on its...

Super-star Lawyer Ms. Hillary Smith Just 16 months after joining the $22.5 billion payments company Square as General Counsel, Hillary Smith stepped down from the role. Ms. Smith, who joined Square in 2016 with a rich $8 million compensation package, officially resigned on March 18. She'll stay on as an employee at the company through September to manage the transition. It's unclear why Smith is stepping down. She did not respond to a request for comment and Square would not provide details about the change in its top legal post.

The Maryland State Highway Administration has completed two major projects that officials said will make the drive to the beach much easier.Construction is complete on adding a fourth eastbound lane to the Severn River Bridge in Annapolis, which can be a major source of afternoon congestion. "We found three things that were adding to the traffic on that bridge. One was just a lot of traffic. Two was everyone who gets at the top of that bridge, they like to slow down and look at the Severn River at the beautiful view. And, three, these merge areas before and after...

The “Third Place Policy” maintains that employees should consider anyone who enters Starbucks space, including restrooms, cafes and patios, a customer “regardless of whether they make a purchase,” the company said in a statement. In a Starbucks subreddit, people are voicing concerns that the new policy will lead to stores being filled with homeless people and drug users. One user who claims they work at a Chicago Starbucks wrote that a homeless person using the bathroom got into a fight with a customer and police requested to see the store policy before taking action. FRONTIER AIRLINES PASSENGER ARRESTED AFTER PEEING...

Germany is leading the charge to rescue the Iran deal and the economic inroads German and European companies have made into the restricted economy since 2016. EU leaders are keen to salvage the deal shaped by Obama’s administration after President Trump on May 12th pulled the US out of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). The deal, in which Iran committed to denuclearize in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions, was signed by Iran, the US and the international community in 2015. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Emmanuel Macron and a host of other EU leaders have...

It was easy to miss the U.S.-China trade statement that the White House released Saturday, right in the midst of royal wedding mania. But it's hard to hide that China looks as if it's winning President Trump's trade skirmish — so far. The statement said that, after several days of talks, the Chinese agreed to “substantially” reduce the United States' $375 billion trade deficit with China and that the details would be worked out later. It was noticeably vague. Notice China didn't agree to a specific amount. On Friday, Trump's top economic adviser, Larry Kudlow, was telling reporters that the...

ProPublica reports the Republican National Committee (RNC) has set yet another fundraising record, while the Democratic National Committee (DNC) registered its lowest figure in April during a midterm election cycle since 2006. In the same month, the report reveals the DNC had expenditures totaling $8.3 million and finished up with $8.7 million in cash. The party currently owes $5.3 million.

I think Yahoo or Rueters is link only. Bottom line: a contract willingly signed by an employee to eschew class-actions suits is actually a contract willingly signed by an employee to eschew class-actions suits.

The Obamas are getting into the movie-making business, teaming up with Netflix on a multiyear deal. Netflix announced the partnership in a Monday tweet.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo delivered a speech on Monday outlining President Trump's new strategy to counter the Islamic Republic of Iran: Intensify the Iranian regime's ongoing liquidity and political crisis to induce fundamental changes in behavior across a range of malign activities. In short, maximum diplomacy backed by maximum pressure. Pompeo's speech today was a reply to the critics of the administration's Iran policy who have argued that Trump had no "Plan B" for the day after his May 8 decision to withdraw from the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement. That deal gave the Islamic Republic patient pathways to...

SOFIA (Reuters) — French President Emmanuel Macron ruled out on Thursday any trade war with the United States over its withdrawal from the Iranian nuclear deal as a wave of European companies quit business with Tehran, fearing the global reach of U.S. sanctions. European Union leaders united behind the 2015 accord, and Brussels announced it would launch a legal process banning EU-based firms from complying with the sanctions that U.S. President Donald Trump has reimposed on Iran. However, corporations face the choice of trading with the biggest economy in the world, the United States, or with Iran, risking sanctions and...

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – The European Commission has launched a process to protect the interests of EU companies investing in Iran as part of its commitment to the 2015 nuclear deal. However, a number of firms are already pulling out to protect their far larger US investments from sanctions. ...snip However, multinational companies have not waited for EU leaders to find a way around US sanctions. Some have already begun cutting trade with Iran. On May 16, French oil company Total announced its intension to end its project in Iran unless it is exempted from sanctions after the US pulled...