Report: President Trump is Fixated with Amazon – Wants to Change Its Tax Treatment

Axios is reporting that Trump wants to "go after" the e-commerce giant, citing five sources who have talked about Amazon with him. Trump has discussed altering the company's tax treatment because several of his friends told him Amazon is hurting their businesses and "killing shopping malls and brick-and-mortar retailers," according to Axios.

Illustration on Federal contracting by Greg Groesch/The Washington Times

President Obama has been out of office for 14 months now, but his ability - and that of his allies still in government - to steer gargantuan federal contracts to his friends seems not to have diminished. Earlier this month, the Pentagon announced it was looking to purchase cloud computing services for its 3.4 million users and their 4 million devices.

Civic leaders meeting with Amazon executives Friday – but press, public not invited

There are more than 40,000 Amazon employees in Seattle, stretching from South Lake Union to Amazon's Denny Triangle skyscrapers. Government-transparency advocates say the meeting between Seattle-area political leaders and the city's largest employer should be open to outsiders.

Dow falls more than 200 pts, extending decline to 2nd day after early rally in 2018

Stakes are high for President Donald Trump as he prepares to give his first State of the Union Address and is tasked with helping his party keep control of Congress in the midterm election. Veuer's Chandra Lanier has the story.

Amazon dials up Chicago, other HQ2 contenders, to explain selection process

Amazon has begun briefing officials in Chicago and 19 other cities in the running for the company's HQ2 second headquarters on the next phase of the process, after announcing the 20 contenders last week. Amazon has begun briefing officials in Chicago and 19 other cities in the running for the company's HQ2 second headquarters on the next phase of the process, after announcing the 20 contenders last week.

Public Cynicism Enables Costly Political Hypocrisy

The political hypocrisy of crony capitalism - touting market capitalism while making taxpayers fund corporate welfare - is a rare and unfortunate case of bipartisan consensus. Republicans openly embrace it, but many Democrats also fall prey to government-guaranteed corporate capitalism when they believe it to be politically expedient.

McCaskill, Blunt pitch Missouri cities for Amazon HQ2

Seattle-based Amazon is considering opening a second headquarters somewhere in North America, and Missouri politicians are making a pitch for it to be in the Show-Me State. Missouri's U.S. senators are pitching the Kansas City and St. Louis metropolitan areas as potential sites for Amazon's second headquarters.

Ninth Circuit Rejects Claim That Amazon’s Terms and Conditions Are an Unconscionable Contract

In an unpublished opinion, the Ninth Circuit affirmed a lower court's ruling that had sent a putative class action against Amazon over its pricing practices to arbitration, as per Amazon's terms of service. ). In finding that Amazon's "Conditions of Use" were not unconscionable and presented in a reasonable manner, this holding differs from a Second Circuit decision from last year that declined to compel arbitration because reasonable minds could disagree regarding the sufficiency of notice provided to Amazon.com customers when placing an order through the website.

Amazon opens bidding to US cities for $US5b ‘HQ2’

Amazon.com Inc said on Thursday it would build a $US5 billion second headquarters in North America, kicking off a competition between cities and states to offer tax cuts and incentives that could bring 50,000 new jobs. The largest e-commerce company said it intended to create "HQ2", a headquarters that would be a "full equal" to its Seattle office, Chief Executive Jeff Bezos said in a statement.