Jeff Bezos Archives - The Virginia Star

Bezos Hosted Treasury Officials to Discuss Private Sector Climate Action: FOIA Documents Show

May 17, 2024 Just the News

Newly revealed documents obtained by a watchdog group show that Amazon founder, multibillionaire, and Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos hosted an event bringing together international bureaucrats, a liberal foundation, and senior Treasury Department officials at his palatial Washington, D.C. home to advance “Climate Action” efforts.

The event shows how Bezos has used his convenient capital city location and private foundation to help the Biden Administration advance its climate goals by galvanizing private finance through grants.

Media Trumpet Study Finding Gas Stoves Impact Health While Ignoring Studies with Different Results

May 9, 2024 Just the News

Stanford researchers recently claimed to have found a link between childhood respiratory illnesses and the use of gas stoves.

The study, which was reported last week across multiple national news outlets, posed an interesting contrast to a study in February funded by the World Health Organization and published in The Lancet that found no such link and appeared to received no mention in any such outlet.

Jeff Bezos’ Charity Spending Millions to Fund Development of Fake Meat

March 18, 2024 Virginia Star Staff

The charitable foundation of Amazon founder and billionaire Jeff Bezos is pouring tens of millions of dollars into efforts to advance synthetic meat.

The Bezos Earth Fund (BEF) will be spending an initial $60 million to fund research and development of “alternative proteins,” which the University of Melbourne defines as “plant-based and food-technology alternatives to animal protein,” the BEF announced Tuesday. The $60 million commitment is part of the BEF’s $1 billion campaign to transform food systems to fight climate change.

Former IRS Contractor Charles Littlejohn Sentenced to 5 Years for Releasing Trump Tax Records

January 29, 2024 Admin

Former IRS contractor Charles Littlejohn was sentenced to five years in prison on Monday after leaking former President Donald Trump’s tax records, according to NBC News.

Washington Post Disavows Its Own Poll Showing Trump Up by 10 Over Biden

September 26, 2023 Virginia Star Staff

The Washington Post cast doubt on its own poll with ABC that showed former President Trump up by 10 points over his likely rival President Joe Biden in the 2024 presidential contest.

Trump leads Biden 52 percent to 42 percent in a hypothetical general election matchup, according to the Post. The outlet suggested that, given other polling showing a closer race, its own poll is “probably an outlier” and appeared to cast doubt on the sample.

Soros and Bezos Back Initiative to Raise $3 Trillion Annually to Fight Climate Change

January 18, 2023January 17, 2023 Virginia Star Staff

Left-wing billionaire George Soros and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos are helping a World Economic Forum (WEF) climate financing program that aims to raise $3 trillion annually to help slash emissions and restore “nature loss” by 2050.

The WEF and the Soros-backed Open Society Foundations and Bezos Earth Fund, along with more than 43 other nonprofits, businesses and academic institutions, will become part of the “Giving to Amplify Earth Action” (GAEA) initiative that will fund efforts intended to limit global warming, according to a Tuesday WEF announcement. GAEA and its partners will finance charitable partnerships between public and private entities while identifying where the $3 trillion in funding is most needed.

Jeff Bezos’ Ex-Wife Donates $130 Million to Organization Pushing Woke Education in Schools

February 6, 2022February 5, 2022 Virginia Star Staff

Jeff Bezos’ ex-wife, MacKenzie Scott, is donating over $130 million to an organization that advocates for diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) principles to be taught in schools, Communities In Schools announced Thursday.

Communities In Schools, a national organization working to support student access to education and resources, announced the $133.5 million donation from Scott on Thursday. The investment is reportedly intended to broaden the efforts of the organization and expand its mission in schools across the country.

Top Ten Wealthiest Men in the World Doubled Their Wealth During the Pandemic

January 19, 2022January 18, 2022 Virginia Star Staff

A recent report claims that the world’s top 10 richest men all saw their wealth double over the course of the Coronavirus pandemic, while 99 percent of global income dropped dramatically during the same period.

As reported by ABC News, a study published on Monday by the group Oxfam showed that the collective wealth of the top 10 doubled from approximately $700 billion to over $1.5 trillion between March of 2020 and November of 2021. During that same time, over 160 million people fell into poverty as incomes plummeted. The increase for the top 10 in less than two years represented a greater increase for their wealth than their growth over the previous 14 years combined.

The 10 men who were the focus of Oxfam’s study were: Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Bernard Arnault, Bill Gates, Larry Ellison, Larry Page, Sergey Brin, Mark Zuckerberg, Steve Ballmer and Warren Buffett. The data for the study was gathered from the World Bank.

Amazon Mogul Jeff Bezos Will Donate $100 Million to Obama Foundation in Honor of John Lewis

November 23, 2021November 22, 2021 Virginia Star Staff

Jeff Bezos, the founder and former CEO of Amazon, has announced a donation of $100 million to the Obama Foundation in honor of the legacy of civil rights icon and former Congressman John Lewis.

“Freedom fighters deserve a special place in the pantheon of heroes, and I can’t think of a more fitting person to honor with this gift than John Lewis, a great American leader and a man of extraordinary decency and courage,” Bezos said in a statement. “I’m thrilled to support President and Mrs. Obama and their Foundation in its mission to train and inspire tomorrow’s leaders.”

Lawmakers Say Amazon ‘Misled’ and ‘May Have Lied’ to Congress

October 19, 2021October 18, 2021 Virginia Star Staff

Top members of the House Judiciary Committee sent a letter to Amazon chief executive Andy Jassy on Monday questioning whether the tech company’s executives lied under oath to Congress.

The letter, sent by a bipartisan group of lawmakers including House Judiciary Committee Chair Democratic Rep. Jerry Nadler of New York and House Judiciary antitrust subcommittee Ranking Member Republican Rep. Ken Buck of Colorado, referred to Wednesday reporting from Reuters stating that Amazon used its online marketplace to collect data on competitors and manufacture imitations of their products, prioritizing its imitations over competitors’ products in search results. The lawmakers also cited a Thursday investigation by The Markup which found that Amazon provided its “brands” better search result locations than those awarded to competitors with better ratings and reviews.

Employees Criticize Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin for Being ‘Mostly Male and Overwhelmingly White’

October 4, 2021October 3, 2021 Virginia Star Staff

A letter written by current and former employees of Jeff Bezos’ rocket company Blue Origin took aim at the company’s workplace culture.

The letter, posted on website Lioness and written by former Head of Blue Origin Employee Communications Alexandra Abrams along with 20 unnamed current and former employees, criticized the company’s culture and work environment as “stuck in a toxic past.”

“One-hundred percent of the senior technical and program leaders are men,” the employees wrote, bashing the Blue Origin workforce for being “mostly male and overwhelmingly white.”

Amazon Plans to Open Department Stores

August 20, 2021August 19, 2021 Virginia Star Staff

Amazon is planning to open department stores where consumers can purchase a variety of goods like clothing and electronics, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The planned expansion of Amazon brick-and-mortar stores is the online retail giant’s latest attempt to disrupt the industry, according to a WSJ report Thursday. The Seattle-based company has recently expanded its brick-and-mortar grocery store footprint, opening 17 Amazon Fresh stores nationwide, and is developing at least 20 more, Bloomberg reported.

Bezos Offers to Waive $2 Billion in Fees to Secure Lunar Landing Contract

July 28, 2021July 27, 2021 Virginia Star Staff

Former Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos offered to waive $2 billion in payments to secure his spaceflight company Blue Origin a NASA contract.

Bezos asked NASA Administrator Bill Nelson in an open letter Monday to award Blue Origin a contract to construct a Human Landing System (HLS), a lunar-landing vehicle, as part of the Artemis program, offering to waive up to $2 billion in fees. Elon Musk’s space company SpaceX had been awarded the $2.9 billion contract in April, beating out Blue Origin’s bid, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The Artemis program is intended to return human astronauts to the Moon, with a manned mission to Mars planned as well. Though the program was initially planned as a joint contract, it was awarded solely to SpaceX due to budgetary constraints which Bezos’ offer sought to alleviate, according to the letter.

“Blue Origin will bridge the HLS budgetary funding shortfall by waiving all payments in the current and next two government fiscal years up to $2 billion to get the program back on track right now,” Bezos wrote in the letter.

The Billionaire Space Race: A Competition Between the World’s Richest Men Is Resurrecting an Industry

July 26, 2021July 25, 2021 Virginia Star Staff

Jeff Bezos became the second billionaire to successfully reach outer space this month when his Blue Origin New Shepard spacecraft exited the atmosphere Tuesday, the latest development in the ongoing space race between Bezos, SpaceX’s Elon Musk, and Virgin Galactic’s Richard Branson.

Branson was the first billionaire in space last week when he and several crew members aboard his VSS Unity spaceplane successfully flew to an altitude of 53.5 miles. His company Virgin Galactic, founded in 2004, is developing commercial spacecraft to be used in suborbital flights for those seeking a trip to outer space. Musk’s SpaceX, founded in 2002, has been at the forefront of the private space industry for over a decade, with Musk planning a mission to Mars as early as 2024.

Jeff Bezos Gifts $200 Million to Liberal Activists Van Jones and José Andrés

July 21, 2021 Cooper Moran

After completing a 10 minute flight to the edge of space, Jeff Bezos announced on Tuesday that he is gifting $100 million each to Van Jones and José Andrés.

According to Bezos, the new philanthropic endeavor, The Courage and Civility Award, awarded to the two “recognizes leaders who aim high, and who pursue solutions with courage, and who always do so with civility.”

Jeff Bezos Reaches Space in Successful Blue Origin Launch

July 21, 2021July 20, 2021 Virginia Star Staff

Former Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and three other passengers successfully launched into space Tuesday aboard the billionaire’s Blue Origin New Shepard spacecraft.

Liftoff!!

Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket launches, carrying the company’s first crew and heading toward space.https://t.co/kYI3pmFsLB #BlueOrigin #JeffBezos pic.twitter.com/Xs0TnjpVbE

— Michael Sheetz (@thesheetztweetz) July 20, 2021

Jeff Bezos Steps Down as CEO of Amazon

July 7, 2021July 6, 2021 Virginia Star Staff

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos officially handed over the position of CEO to successor Andy Jassy on Monday, transitioning to the role of executive chair.

Bezos, whose stake in Amazon is worth roughly $180 billion according to the Associated Press, announced in a blog post his plans to step down from the chief executive officer position in February. Bezos said his new position as executive chair would allow him “to focus my energies and attention on new products and early initiatives.”

Amazon, Which Routinely Avoids Taxes, Supports Biden’s Corporate Tax Rate Hike

April 8, 2021April 7, 2021 Virginia Star Staff

Amazon endorsed President Joe Biden’s proposed higher corporate tax rate despite its history of routinely avoiding most or all of its federal tax obligations.

The massive online retailer supports President Joe Biden’s plan to pay for the $2 trillion infrastructure plan he unveiled last week, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said in a statement Tuesday. Biden announced that the plan would raise the corporate tax rate from 21% to 28%.

Bezos to Spend $10 Billion by 2030 on Climate Change

March 15, 2021March 14, 2021 Virginia Star Staff

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos who announced plans to step down as Amazon’s CEO last month to focus on philanthropic and science interests, is set to spend the $10 billion he invested in the Bezos Earth Fund by 2030, the Associated Press reported.

Bezos announced the fund in February 2020, but he offered few details on how exactly the money would be distributed. Andrew Steer, who for eight years has been the head of the environmental nonprofit World Resources Institute (WRI), will be the fund’s CEO.

In a series of tweets, Steer revealed very few details, however he did say Bezos’ “goal is to spend it down between now and 2030.”

Bezos to Step Down as Amazon CEO

February 2, 2021February 2, 2021 Virginia Star Staff

Amazon announced Tuesday that CEO Jeff Bezos is stepping down later this year and will become executive chair of the company.

Andy Jassy, who is the CEO of Amazon Web Services, will become Amazon’s new CEO when Bezos departs in the third quarter of this year from the CEO post.

Jeff Bezos’ Net Worth Reaches $200 Billion

August 31, 2020August 30, 2020 Virginia Star Staff

Jeff Bezos, the founder and CEO of Amazon and owner of The Washington Post, solidified his status as the world’s wealthiest man after his net worth reached the $200 billion mark, according to the Daily Caller.

Bezos reached the astounding milestone on Wednesday, with the Caller noting that he is not alone in expanding his wealth during the coronavirus pandemic and lockdown, which has significantly increased business for Amazon due to the rise in online shopping. Two other prominent CEOs who saw their net worths reach significant landmarks are Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who both reached $100 billion.

Zuckerberg Was the Only Tech CEO to Unequivocally Say China Is Stealing American Technology

July 31, 2020July 31, 2020 Virginia Star Staff

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was the only tech executive at Wednesday’s antitrust hearing who unequivocally said China is stealing technology from American companies.

“I think it’s well documented that the Chinese government steals technology from American companies,” the 36-year-old Silicon Valley executive said after Rep. Greg Steube asked him if China is stealing from U.S. technology companies. The Florida Republican posed the same question to CEOs Tim Cook of Apple, Jeff Bezos of Amazon, and Sundar Pichai of Google.

Spotlight on Four Big Tech CEOs Testifying in Competition Probe

July 29, 2020July 28, 2020 The Associated Press

They command corporations with gold-plated brands, millions or even billions of customers, and a combined value greater than the entire German economy. One of them is the world’s richest individual; another is the fourth-ranked billionaire. Their industry has transformed society, linked people around the globe, mined and commercialized users’ personal data, and infuriated critics on both the left and right over speech.

Bezos Could Become World’s First Trillionaire as Amazon Rakes in Cash During Pandemic, Research Shows

May 15, 2020May 14, 2020 Virginia Star Staff

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos is expected to ride the wave of business his company is collecting during the coronavirus pandemic to become the world’s first trillionaire, research shows.

Bezos’s net worth has grown by 34% on average over the past half decade, which could make him a trillionaire, according to an analysis from Comparisun, a platform that helps companies create business management tools. Along with creating marketing tools, the company also conducts studies forecasting what will happen in the business sector, Comparisun’s website noted.

Congress Members Call for Investigation Into Pentagon’s Handling of Controversial $10 Billion Cloud Contract

October 24, 2018October 24, 2018 Admin

by Andrew Kerr Two members of the House Appropriations Committee requested an investigation Monday into the Pentagon’s handling of its $10 billion winner-take-all cloud computing contract following widespread criticism that the deal has been rigged from the start to favor Amazon. Amazon Web Services is the only cloud computing…

Bernie Sanders’ Misguided ‘Stop BEZOS’ Bill Would Backfire on Workers

September 29, 2018September 28, 2018 Admin

by Amanda Snell and David Kreutzer No single company gets perhaps as much attention in the news as Amazon. The online retailing giant has surpassed $1 trillion in market value and is now searching for a city to place its second headquarters. Amazon has done enormous good in making Americans’…

Why Amazon Associates Removed Legal Insurrection From Its Program

May 26, 2018July 18, 2018 Admin

by Kyle Perisic Amazon dropped the conservative news and law publication Legal Insurrection from its profit sharing associate program, the publication announced Wednesday. The reason behind why Legal Insurrection was terminated from the associates program raises unanswered questions about Legal Insurrection’s supposed violations of an agreement with Amazon, including…