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Sometimes you speed read a BBC article that you see on Twitter and don’t think much of it but then something in it stands out. This was exactly the case when I read about the Uber Files and how a $90m-a-year lobbying and public relations effort recruited friendly politicians to help in its campaign to disrupt Europe's taxi industry. “Uber Files: Massive leak reveals how top politicians secretly helped Uber” https://www.bbc.com/news/business-62057321 You are about to read what the MSM won’t tell you. It’s just a case of joining up the dots and being a critical thinker rather than a conspiracy...

Uber rides in New York City are getting uber expensive. The average Uber trip costs more per mile in the Big Apple than any other US city, according to a new study shared with The Post. Uber riders in the five boroughs have to shell out an average of $34.74 for a 6.2-mile ride, making New York the most expensive city to grab a ride in America, according to the study by NetCredit. The study comes as Uber has hiked prices around the world, citing surging gas prices and a persistent driver shortage. New York also has a minimum wage...

The US Supreme Court on June 28 declined to review a challenge by truck drivers to California’s controversial labor law AB5, meaning that it now goes into effect. The decision will throw up to 70,000 California truckers into legal limbo and further pressure the already-stressed supply chain.AB5 is a labor classification law that was designed to force gig-economy companies like Uber, Lyft, and DoorDash to classify workers as employees, instead of as independent contractors, meaning they’d be eligible for benefits. Of course, lobbyists from those tech giants managed to get their companies exempted.RedState has reported extensively on AB5 in the...

As Uber aggressively pushed into markets around the world, the ride-sharing service lobbied political leaders to relax labor and taxi laws, used a "kill switch'' to thwart regulators and law enforcement, channeled money through Bermuda and other tax havens and considered portraying violence against its drivers as a way to gain public sympathy, according to a report released Sunday. The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, a nonprofit network of investigative reporters, scoured internal Uber texts, emails, invoices and other documents to deliver what it called "an unprecedented look into the ways Uber defied taxi laws and upended workers' rights.'' **SNIP**...

(Translation) The number of taxicab drivers on the island is decreasing, which is felt by the tourist who needs a transportation service and passengers who arrive in Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport early in the morning. It is estimated that, in the last years, there has been a 40% decrease in the number of these workers, according to Juan de León, President of the Taxi Drivers Federation, who understands is due to factors that affect the economy in general. According to data collected among cab drivers, it is estimated that there were over 5,000 taxis in Puerto Rico one decade...

A Philippine government attorney was fatally shot while riding in an Uber with his mother on their way to the airport in Philadelphia, police said. Prosecutor John Albert Laylo, 35, and his mom, Leah Bustamante Laylo, were heading to Philadelphia International Airport to catch a flight home from a vacation in the US when gunfire broke out around 4 a.m. Saturday, police said. Police said someone in a black car fired several rounds into the victims’ Uber at a red light near the University of Pennsylvania, striking Laylo in the back of the head. The gunman then moved to the...

Federal authorities say Rajinder Pal Singh had figured out a pretty sweet scam, smuggling illegal immigrants from India across the northern border and into the Seattle area — by putting them in Ubers. Investigators revealed evidence of more than 90 Uber trips they say showed patterns of smuggling that they connected to Mr. Singh from just one Uber account. And they traced a total of 17 accounts to his organization, according to court documents. Mr. Singh’s arrest late last month underscored the dangers and vulnerabilities at the northern border, far from the U.S.-Mexico boundary that gets most of the attention...

Lyft and Uber said this week they will fully cover legal fees for their respective drivers who are sued under Oklahoma’s anticipated restrictive abortion law. The Oklahoma House on Thursday passed the Texas-style ban that prohibits most abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy, a time period before many women have even discovered they’re pregnant. The so-called Oklahoma Heartbeat Act now goes to Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt, who is expected to sign it within days. Like the Texas law, people aiding the procedure, including doctors, people paying for the procedure and clinic workers are at risk. That includes rideshare drivers...

In the best of times, the Internal Revenue Service is tough to deal with, and tax season is never fun. But the past few years have seen the IRS lurch from one crisis to another. And things are about to get much worse for millions of taxpayers. In 2021 Congress expanded the reporting requirements of the obscure Form 1099-K. This information-reporting form tracks business transactions done with a credit or debit card or such peer-to-peer services as Venmo and Paypal. Prior to the change, taxpayers received a 1099-K only if they processed more than 200 business transactions, amounting to more...

A 33-year-old French cryptocurrency expert who was shot at point-blank range by a robber trying to steal his $450,000 Richard Mille watch says he believes he was targeted and followed for hours or days before being ambushed outside his Manhattan hotel. Pierrick Jamaux told DailyMail.com he is shocked by how dangerous the city has become and would never have visited had he known how much it had changed since he lived there 10 years ago. The entrepreneur, who was visiting from Hong Kong with his Australian model wife, Sarah Watts, 26, was getting out of an Uber at the Fifty...

A Pennsylvania man accused of shooting an Uber driver and dumping her body in a wooded area was ordered held without bail on Friday pending a preliminary hearing later this month. Christine Spicuzza’s dash cam video shows Calvin Crew pulling a gun on her 10 minutes into the ride and ignoring her pleas for her life before grabbing the dash cam and shutting it off, the Pittsburgh Post Gazette reported. Investigators found the body of the 38-year-old mother of four, almost 24 hours after she picked up Crew, 22, to drive him from Pitcairn to Penn Hills. SNIP Spicuzza reached...

38-year-old Uber driver Christi Spicuzza, a mother of four, pleaded for her life before she was shot dead during what investigators believe was a robbery attempt, according to a transcript of dashcam video, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported. 38-year-old Uber driver Christi Spicuzza, a mother of four, pleaded for her life before she was shot dead during what investigators believe was a robbery attempt, according to a transcript of dashcam video, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported. "I got a family too," Crew reportedly said. "Now drive." Crew told Spicuzza multiple times to "complete the trip" when she asked him to put the gun down,...

Murdered Uber driver and mother of four begged passenger not to kill her A Pennsylvania Uber driver and mother of four begged a customer to spare her life before he allegedly shot and killed her during a robbery attempt, police said. “I’m begging you, I have four kids,” 38-year-old Christi Spicuzza pleaded, according to dashcam video of the horrific crime, The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported. Spicuzza, of Turtle Creek, was found dead with a single gunshot wound to the head in a wooded area on February 12 in Monroeville, according to the Allegheny County Police Department. She had picked up 22-year-old...

It began as a normal Uber pick-up for the mom of four moonlighting as a driver. That is until the man in the backseat put a gun to her head. According to police, that man was 22-year-old Calvin Crew, of Penn Hills, Allegheny County, who has been arrested and charged in the shooting death of Uber driver and mom of four, Christina (Christi) Spicuzza. Crew faces charges of criminal homicide, robbery and tampering with evidence, according to authorities, according to KDKA-TV in Pittsburgh, which reports: The dash cam footage recovered by police shows, 38-year-old Spicuzza begging for her life –...

An Uber driver begged for her life and pleaded that she had four children before a Penn Hills man fatally shot her, according to a transcript of dashcam video. Allegheny County police on Wednesday night charged Calvin Crew, 22, with killing of 38-year-old Christi Spicuzza, who was found dead in Monroeville this weekend. Mr. Crew is charged with criminal homicide, robbery and tampering with evidence. In a criminal complaint, police described how Mr. Crew allegedly used his girlfriend's phone to order an Uber and held a gun to Ms. Spicuzza’s head as she begged him to reconsider. On a video...

The tried-and-true gasoline engine has been around for a long time, and it likely will hang around for a long time. In the past half-century alone, automakers have seemingly turned reliability into a science, building million-mile cars with relative ease. With the popularization of electric cars on the rise, however, a new dawn of mileage records and durability might soon be on the horizon. With Tesla being the most popular EV-only brand in the world right now, it's only natural to hear about some high-mileage Teslas popping up out there. But what does one actually look like up close and...

Major tech companies Google and Uber have both postponed their office reopening dates indefinitely into 2022 due to the uncertainty surrounding the COVID-19 omicron variant. As The Washington Post reported, both companies have postponed their returns to the office, previously planned for Jan. 10, to indefinite times in 2022. These postponements come after the companies had already pushed back their returns multiple times throughout 2021. In a memo that was obtained by CNBC, Google's vice president of global security, Chris Rackow, told employees that the company will wait until next year to assess when they will be able to safely...

When it comes to the Texas abortion law, the liberal trope of the times is the poor, besieged, "Uber driver." The notion is that Uber drivers who transport women to abortion clinics will be sued by private citizens under the law, seeking an award of up to $10,000. On Friday's Morning Joe, MSNBC liberal analyst Jonathan Lemire, who also poses as a "reporter" for the Associated Press, mouthed the "Uber driver" line. We've put together a mash-up of multiple liberal worthies, starting with Lemire, all trotting out the "Uber driver" trope. Leftists prefer to focus on supposedly beleaguered Uber drivers...

New legislation in Texas bans abortions after six weeks of pregnancy and threatens legal repercussions for those who may help with the procedure — including rideshare drivers. On Friday, Uber and Lyft each said they'll cover the legal fees of drivers who are sued for driving passengers to the outlawed healthcare procedures. "This law is incompatible with people's basic rights to privacy, our community guidelines, the spirit of rideshare, and our values as a company," Lyft's co-founders and general counsel said in a statement. The rideshare company has created a Driver Legal Defense Fund that will cover all legal fees...

Gig economy giant Uber is pledging $1 million to help Afghan refugees in the wake of President Joe Biden’s disastrous withdrawal from Kabul, which resulted in 13 U.S. service members killed, American citizens left behind, the bombing and killing of citizens, as well as other forms of chaos that ensued as the president bungled the end of America’s costly 20-year war in Afghanistan. Uber is even reportedly adding two of Afghanistan’s major languages — Pashto and Dari— to its driver app so that refugees can more easily join its workforce, the report adds.