Amazon Echo - image credit: Ian Morris Cops have asked Amazon to reveal any audio it might have stored after a man is murdered in a hot tub in Arkansas. The crime, committed in Bentonville, happened in a hot tub, but police found an Echo at the scene and wanted Amazon to unlock any audio it has sent…

Charles Mohr, left, a senior at Shoreham-Wading River High School, speaks to the media about his classmate Tom Cutinella, Thursday, Oct. 2, 2014, in Shoreham, N.Y. Authorities say Cutinella, 16-year-old football player at the high school, died at a hospital the night before after suffering a head…

By the Numbers By The Numbers: It’s All Happening at the Zoo What's it like working in the animal kingdom? December 27, 2016 by Each month Workforce looks at important stats in the human resources sector. This month?: how does it all happen at the zoo? Comment below or email editors@workforce.com .…

Ransomware events quadrupled in 2016 with an average of 4,000 attacks occurring every day according to research from IBM Security . Adding to the pain are new varieties of ransomware that have continued to emerge and evolve using more sophisticated techniques. Kaspersky Lab found 62 new variants of…

When Claire Coder learned from her mother, an art therapist, that some of the low-income clients she served could not afford menstrual products—and had to use socks and plastic bags as a substitute—she decided to do something about it. Finding out through her research that lack of access to these…

Amazon.com Inc. said Tuesday it had its best-ever holiday season in 2016, shipping more than 1 billion items worldwide. The company’s Alexa-powered devices, the Echo Dot and Amazon Echo, topped the best-selling list, contributing to a record-setting number of Echo family devices being sold, with…

The benefits of agile measurement and marketing are clear. As an example, a McKinsey study published in Harvard Business Review rated the analytics and agility capabilities of various companies’ marketing orgs on a scale of 1 to 7; they found that being 3 points higher on the scale corresponded to…

This is the third annual appearance of this column, which ranked as two of my most popular postings in 2016 and 2015 . Today I am providing my list of the top “hidden gem” networking and educational events in 2017 for entrepreneurs. I have made these picks with an eye toward high networking and…

Cartoon by Shannon Wheeler Saying it's because he's "smart," president-elect Donald Trump has decided not to take the traditional daily intelligence briefings given by the CIA and other intelligence agencies about threats foreign and domestic. Could be he has an even better reason. Cartoon by…

Elated zombie children open a Christmas present containing a large brain

Cartoon by Ted Rall This Christmas the biggest movie at the box office is "Star Wars Rogue One." Which makes one think of the legendarily benighted TV special, the "Star Wars Holiday Special." Cartoon by Ted Rall . 15 Cartoons A Scruffy Looking Nerf Herder Would Love Launch Gallery Comment on this…

Getty Images Slide 1 of 11 1. Subscription boxes ‘surprises’ There seems to be a subscription box service for everything these days, from a “ salami of the month ” club to beauty products to toys for a pet. Signing up for such a service seems fun until you get a surprise you weren’t expecting: A…

If you run an e-commerce store using any of today’s popular platforms, you’ve got access to a tremendous amount of data. Your customer insights, marketing, and merchandising data offer untold opportunities for boosting revenue and growing your business – but only if you’re reading and acting on…

Bitcoin has had a banner 2016. After two years of lackluster returns, the price of a single coin soared more than 100% this year — putting bitcoin on track for its best annual performance since 2013. A wave of exuberance carried bitcoin from around $90 in January of that year to an all-time high of…

Two years ago, I happened upon a small, yet startlingly beautiful, act of hospitality and customer service. The venue was a modest, economical, extended-stay hotel, while I was in the course of researching my new book, The Heart of Hospitality: Great Hotel and Restaurant Leaders Share Their Secrets…

Cartoon by Ted Rall It's Secret Santa time at the office . Normally it's not a terrifying event, just a silly one. But what if your Secret Santa is your boss? Cartoon by Ted Rall. Launch Gallery Comment on this story

In the last couple days before Christmas, people are frantically buying last-minute gifts. But being harried sets you up to be the perfect hacking victim. And the latest scam is preying on people using a seemingly innocuous tool -- the wish list, employed by a range of stores including Amazon,…

Home Economy & Politics Key Words Get email alerts Published: Dec 23, 2016 5:03 p.m. ET Share YouGov/Economist/MSNBC Screen capture of MSNBC infographic depicting result of a poll by the Economist and YouGov. For a twice-elected president of the United States, the result of a poll conducted by the…

Workplace Culture Bullying — It’s Not Just for Kids Bullying in the workplace is common and often goes unreported because employees think, ‘That’s just the way it is.’ A Q&A with Andrew Faas. December 23, 2016 by Andrew Faas Bullying isn’t just something that happens among children on the…

The new year is almost here, so time to review what has shaken up tech innovation and venture capital in the world's leading hubs - U.S., China, India, Israel. The year 2016 was marked with several highlights: the continued rise of China innovators from a nation of young entrepreneurial copycats of…

Cartoon by Andy Singer Now that there aren't any Hillary Clinton email hacks to publish ( at least any that anyone would care about ), WikiLeaks may decide on a more mass-market, retail approach. A Las Vegas just launched MormonWikiLeaks for anonymous sharing of church-related document. Who knows…

A man sees on television that wikileaks has released email showing that he was lying about enjoying his wife's cooking, as his wife looks at him angrily

5 Minutes of Management 5MM: Zenefits in the News Again December 22, 2016 by Workforce editors Frank Kalman and Rick Bell focus on Zenefits and its latest scrape with regulators in the state of Washington. The benefits broker will now charge $5 per employee. The good news is, David Sacks tweeted…

Uber's self-driving Volvo SUVs are shipped off to Arizona from San Francisco on Dec. 22 (Uber) Uber packed up its fleet of self-driving Volvo XC90s SUVs from its home city of San Francisco on Thursday and shipped them to Arizona following a puzzling standoff with California over a requirement that…

Adam Saleh tweets about being booted off Delta Flight 1. Twitter photo. Hold the hashtags folks. I know we live in polarizing times, but before boycotting Delta Air Lines for kicking two young Arabic-speaking men off a flight on Wednesday, let’s see if there is more to the story. Adam Saleh, 23, is…

It’s not something you hear often these days, but, heading into the home stretch of the holiday season shopping, bricks-and-mortar retail has the edge. “Amazon.com Inc. AMZN, -0.55% is on the sidelines in competition with final in-store and in-app promotions and deals,” said Guru Hariharan, chief…

This will mark the fourth time I have posted this piece, but a) rumors are swirling about cuts to Social Security and b) I am too busy getting everything ready for Christmas to write something new! In short, Social Security isn't going bankrupt, it can't. And there is no reason that with our…

Until Tokyo Markets Close Currencies Europe Markets London Markets Home Industries Internet/Online Services By Published: Dec 21, 2016 8:41 p.m. ET Share Regulators say Uber just needs to get a permit Uber An Uber driverless car crosses the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. By Mike Murphy Editor…

The United Nations is catching up with Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte’s human rights record, asking the country’s judicial authorities to launch an investigation . That’s bad news for President Duterte and for financial markets, which have been crushed following his flip-flops on South China…

Benefits Commuters Find an Alternative in Uber-WageWorks Pact WageWorks and Uber have partnered together to offer transit benefits for commuters to use UberPool. December 21, 2016 by

Until Tokyo Markets Open US Market Snapshot Currencies Commodities Home Industries Internet/Online Services The Wall Street Journal Get email alerts The Wall Street Journal By Published: Dec 21, 2016 4:56 p.m. ET Share Trade Representative lists markets ‘notorious’ for fakes Bloomberg News An…

Dojo by BullGuard, a small security device to protect your home against cyber threats. (Image credit: BullGuard) By 2025, IDC says 80 billion devices will be connected to the internet. In the near future, Gartner predicts that by 2020 there will be approximately 25 billion Internet of Things (IoT)…

Uber Technologies Inc.’s pattern of defying regulations and corporate norms is accomplishing a likely goal for the ride-hailing app developer: Keeping the public in the dark. While most companies that have had as much obvious investor interest and need for capital as Uber would have gone public by…

I just read a fascinating report about how consumer-facing companies can build a better relationship with consumers. It’s called a Report on Customer Quotient and it’s written by a company called C Space . The report focuses on several factors that, not coincidentally, are some of the most…

The Practical Employer From the Archives: Santa’s Employee Handbook If you’re looking for a good holiday gift for that special HR person in your life, I strongly recommend 'The North Pole Employee Handbook.' December 20, 2016 by

We expect certain professionals to go above and beyond just showing up for work. Educators are good examples of this. They are the backbone of our society and we rely on them to prepare the next generation of entrepreneurs. is an unintended result of going above and beyond, and it provides some…

Home Industries Internet/Online Services The Wall Street Journal Get email alerts The Wall Street Journal By Published: Dec 19, 2016 10:35 p.m. ET Share Steep losses could delay widely anticipated IPO Shutterstock.com Uber is valued around $68 billion. By Greg Bensinger Uber Technologies Inc.…

Ola says all it wants is a level-playing field. Pic redit: REUTERS/Anindito Mukherjee The founders of Indian unicorns Ola and Flipkart have been at the centre of considerable controversy recently for comments made over how local companies should receive protection from the government. At a recent…

BlackBerry, the developer of phones that sport mini keyboards and grew cultishly popular among executives a decade ago, says it is “transitioning” away from those devices to chase software. The Nasdaq-listed Canadian firm all but announced in September it was finished with smartphones after once…

Compensation Push for Gender Parity Undergoes a Paradigm Shift Business leaders come together to level the gender gap in leadership by 2030. Here’s how they plan to do it. December 19, 2016 by