Big Take

The US narrowly averted a disruptive and costly shutdown of federal agencies as Congress passed compromise legislation to keep the government running until November 17th. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s embrace of the bipartisan deal has triggered a mutiny by far-right Republicans to depose him from his role.

Bloomberg Washington Correspondent Joe Mathieu is joined by Bloomberg's Jack Fitzpatrick and Laura Davison to discuss the road ahead.

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Google is able to collect a lot of information about the people who use its products on their phones, including where they are at any given time. A growing number of police departments across the US are seeking to obtain this data from Google to help solve crimes. Bloomberg’s Davey Alba and Julia Love join this episode to weigh the pros and cons of using location data in law enforcement, and the privacy concerns it raises. And Travis Staab, a police detective in Arizona, shares how he and his colleagues have used the information to track down suspects.

Read more: Google User Data Has Become a Favorite Police Shortcut

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Guatemala-based Megapaca is the number one importer of used clothing from the United States. The company has seen massive success in secondhand retail in Latin America, and now they have their sights set on expanding to the US.

Bloomberg’s Adam Minter walks us through this complex, data-driven operation. And Megapaca's back-office manager Jose Rivera talks about the company’s ethos and its goal to become the leading seller of used clothing in the world.

Read more: The Massive Guatemalan Operation That Wants to Sell Americans Their Old Clothes Back

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Bloomberg’s Hannah Miller is back today to explain why Sam Altman’s Worldcoin is collecting iris scans in exchange for crypto tokens.

Read more: Worldcoin’s Eyeball-Scanning Crypto Dream Is Under Threat

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After the murder of George Floyd and subsequent protests in 2020, corporate America made bold promises to address racial disparities in the workplace. And they delivered. Bloomberg’s Jeff Green and Rebecca Greenfield join this episode to dig into the data about US companies’ DEI efforts.

Read more: Corporate America Promised to Hire a Lot More People of Color.
It Actually Did.

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Hundreds of thousands of people charged with crimes in the US each year are incarcerated while they await trial. Often it’s because they can’t afford to pay bail. New York City’s pretrial supervised release program aims to change that. A judge can opt to release some defendants under the supervision of a caseworker, who monitors their progress as they await their day in court. Bloomberg’s Fola Akinnibi and Sarah Holder join this episode to talk about how the program works, the fraught politics around it–and why it may become a blueprint for other cities and states.

Read more: America Is the World Leader in Locking People Up. One City Found a Fix

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Catch up on some of the week’s biggest stories from the US and across the globe. Bloomberg’s Rosalind Mathieson, Mario Parker and Ben Sills join this episode to talk about the major issues on the table at the United Nations meeting in New York; the Biden administration’s push for a deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia; and the ongoing US auto workers strike. 

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Bloomberg’s Shawn Donnan and Maeva Cousin join this episode to explain how rising political tensions around the world are leading to a re-ordering of trade and commerce into rival economic blocs.

Read more: The Global Economy Enters an Era of Upheaval

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The Dollar General retail chain has 19,000-plus locations, more than Walmart and Wendy’s combined. Its business model is to open in towns too small to support bigger retailers, sell necessities at low prices and keep staff to a minimum, sometimes as few as one or two people per shift. This bare bones approach has led to profits but also numerous OSHA citations and millions of dollars in proposed fines against the company since 2017. 

Bloomberg reporters Josh Eidelson and Brendan Case join this episode to talk about their reporting on Dollar General, what current and former employees say about what it’s like to work there–and how the company has responded. 

Read more: Why Dollar General Might Just Be the Worst Retail Job in America

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Bloomberg Businessweek national political correspondent Joshua Green joins this episode to describe a political phenomenon that’s emerging in parts of the US: red states encroaching on blue cities. In Nashville, Austin and elsewhere, Republican legislatures have successfully used supermajorities to block liberal reforms and enact conservative policies.

Read more: The Hostile Takeover of Blue Cities by Red States

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