Tuesday Scoop: Riding a Harley to Europe

Welcome to the Morning Scoop for June 26, 2018. The symbol of all-American freedom actually relies heavily on European goods, so results of the ongoing trade war have severely impacted the way we ride. Speaking of American products, we also have some news about corrupt banking and medical marijuana. 

Yesterday, our team wrote about Frankenstein, Kanye and college physicians, because they’re diverse like that. 

Harley Rides Away With Increased Tariffs

Coming to a foreign country near you. (Image: Flickr)

Iconic motorcycle maker Harley Davidson is shifting production of some of its bikes out of the US to avoid retaliatory tariffs imposed by the European Union. The EU hit back in response to President Trump’s move to increase tariffs on steel and aluminum coming from Europe.

The EU levied tariffs on nearly $3.2 billion worth of American goods, including motorcycles, orange juice, bourbon, peanut butter, motorboats, cigarettes and denim. Harley announced that they stood to lose $100 million dollars in business if they didn’t shift production.

The motorcycle tariff went from 6 percent to 31 percent, which Harley estimated would make each bike about $2,200 more expensive to export. The company does plan to raise the price for consumers.

President Trump went after Harley in a series of tweets early this morning, and swore that the company will never leave the U.S., lest they face serious threats. He tweeted, “A Harley-Davidson should never be built in another country-never! Their employees and customers are already very angry at them. If they move, watch, it will be the beginning of the end – they surrendered, they quit! The Aura will be gone and they will be taxed like never before!”

Wells Fargo Accused of Misconduct (Again)

Wells Fargo is being accused of misconduct again, this time due to its alleged use of complex financial investments to take advantage of mom-and-pop investors.

CNN reports, “The Securities and Exchange Commission said on Monday that between 2009 and 2013, Wells Fargo reaped large fees by ‘improperly encouraging’ brokerage clients to actively trade high-fee debt products that were intended to be held to maturity.”

For the last two years, Wells Fargo has been caught up in a series of scandals over how the bank has treated its account holders, employees and borrowers.

First Marijuana Plant-Based Drug for Epilepsy Approved

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved a prescription medicine yesterday to treat rare and severe forms of epilepsy. The drug, Epidiolex, is derived from the marijuana plant, but doesn’t contain THC, the element that provides the high that is the central appeal for most pot users.

FDA Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb made it clear in a statement that this does not signal approval of marijuana, rather an acknowledgement of the success of CBD use in clinical trials. Furthermore, Dr. Gottlieb stated that those who continue to push unapproved medication will be punished accordingly, since this prevents patients from receiving safe and acceptable pharmaceutical care.

Today in a Tweet: Primary Election Day!

Today marks primary elections in New York, Maryland, Colorado, Oklahoma and Utah. This is also a public service announcement to head to the polls!

Last But Not Least: iOS 12 Beta Has Arrived

iPhone users rejoice! The latest iOS has been released for public beta, and users are into it. Besides fixing many bugs in the iOS 11 system, Apple has built some cool new features, including setting screen time limits, group FaceTime conversations, and Memoji. Similar to Snapchat’s use of Bitmoji, Apple’s Memoji allows iPhone users to create an emoji replica of their face and send it out, although this is limited in conversation to iPhone X users.

The full launch of iOS 12 is set for September.

Tuesday’s Morning Scoop was made possible by Nicole Kitchens, Carla Loebenstein, Kelly Granger, and the CMN staff. We swear we invented Memoji, we’ve been using it for months (see below). We should sue Apple.