Weekend Digest: Inside The Mermaid Economy

The U.S.-Iran deal has a Congressional showdown. Debates in the House, debates in the Senate leave the President with a foreign policy victory. What’s next from opponents? Sen. Tom Cotton is in studio for a conversation.

Plus, Sen. John Boozman has a Democratic challenger in 2016. Former U.S. Attorney Conner Eldridge says he’s in. Sen. Boozman joined us from Washington to discuss 2016 and a host of other hot button political headlines.

In other headlines, business editor Wes Brown and politics contributor Jessica DeLoach Sabin offer their big stories of the week. Tune in to Talk Business & Politics on KATV Ch. 7 Sunday at 9 a.m.

RUN UBER RUN
In fact the transportation service that “has become a global brand, an economic force, and a cultural lightning rod” is growing so dominantly, Fast Company looked into “What makes Uber run.”It started with Jordan Kretchmer and CEO Travis Kalanick.

Kretchmer was a 25-year-old college dropout with a lot of ideas, and Kalanick had even more. He was in his early thirties, an engineer who talked like a sales guy, smart as hell and high on life. He wore a cowboy hat and referred to himself as the Wolf, after the cold-blooded, coolly rational fixer played by Harvey Keitel in Pulp Fiction. He was tireless—always on the move, always thirsty.

They met in 2009 at South by Southwest and bonded at an all-night “jam session” about the future of the Internet. These gatherings were full of young people like Kretchmer who had come up through the wreckage of the first dotcom bust, before jobs in tech were thrown around like free T-shirts at a launch party, before venture capitalists regularly talked about startups as if they were mythical creatures.

They were entrepreneurs who knew about hustle, who saw opportunity even in the muck of a desperate economy and were going to take advantage. This is what drew them to Kalanick, and vice versa.

Click on this link to learn more about how Uber, an on-demand personal limo app that Kalanick and its founders and friends used in 2009, became one of the biggest success stories in the world.

GAMING MATTERS
Why do people love gaming so much? The shared-experience is a global phenomenon.

And Forbes has posted a video with American actress, writer and comedian Felicia Day, who gives some beautiful insights on why gaming is so important as part of social media.

Forbes contributor Todd Kenreck speaks to Felicia Day about why diversity in movies, games and comic books is just a more honest take on reality.

Click here for the honest, fun look.

COCA-COLA MET ITS WATER GOALS EARLY. WERE THEY TOO EASY?
Harvard Business Review reports, “Coca-Cola, in an impressive display of leadership on water issues, recently announced it would meet its water targets five years early.

But the company’s achievement also raises some interesting questions about how goals are set, how they’re viewed in the court of public opinion, and what Coca-Cola should focus on going forward.

The quick background: Coca-Cola needs water badly. For every liter of its beverage products (like Sprite, Dasani, teas, juices, and energy drinks) you’re drinking about a liter of the life-giving liquid. And the company uses a significant amount of water — some 300 billion liters annually to make 160 billion liters of product.

Because Coca-Cola uses so much of a precious resource, it needs the support of local communities (a so-called license to operate), and thus the company must maintain a good and credible reputation for water stewardship.

Has it? Full story at this link.

FACEBOOK TAKES THE NEXT STEP IN THE LIVESTREAM REVOLUTION
Forbes says, “Facebook’s answer to Periscope and Meerkat has gone live for some profiles. Here’s what this means for the livestream revolution.”

Livestreaming is all the rage with kids these days. Periscope, Meerkat, Blab – and, of course, no new technology would be complete without Facebook jumping into the fray.

So what has Facebook done? Find out here.

COULD IRAN DEAL END UP IN COURT?
“House conservatives may end up in court to kill Iran deal,” reports The Washington Post.

House Republicans may have quelled a budding internal revolt with a last-minute tactical switch on the Iran nuclear deal. But now, they have all but committed to settling the Iran fight in the courts — or admitting defeat.

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) promised Thursday that House Republicans will “use every tool at our disposal to stop, slow and delay this agreement from being fully implemented” up to and including suing President Obama to keep him from enforcing the agreement.

“That is an option that is very possible,” Boehner said.

For the complete story, click on this link.

HOW THE GOP ENDED IN DISARRAY ON IRAN
“The discord over something Republicans agree on doesn’t bode well for the rest of September,” says POLITICO.

This was supposed to be the easy part of September.

Congressional Republicans wanted to use the first week back from August recess to hammer President Barack Obama with two bipartisan votes showcasing the strong disapproval of his nuclear deal with Iran.

Instead, the GOP’s plans have again morphed into a mess.

How big of a mess? Connect here to find out.

SANDERS STUNS CLINTON AND SELF IN LATEST IOWA POLL
POLITICO reports, “Count Bernie Sanders as someone who is surprised by Bernie Sanders’ rapid ascent in the polls.”

Yes, I’m stunned,” Sanders said in an interview Thursday afternoon with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on “Wolf.” “Look, we have a message that I believed from day one was going to resonate with the American people.” The independent Vermont senator said that while he anticipated that his campaign’s focus on issues related to inequality and the middle class would resonate with voters, he did not think it would resonate so quickly.

What were those stunning Quinnipiac poll numbers in Iowa that came a day after an NBC News/Marist poll with even better results? Go to this link for the numbers.

THE FUTURE OF (DISRUPTED) HEALTH CARE
Inc. posts ,”The CEOs of Athenahealth and Cohealo – Jonathan Bush and Mark Slaughter, respectively talk in-depth about the future of one of the largest sectors of the U.S. economy.”

Jonathan Bush, 46, is related to two former U.S. presidents (and one presidential aspirant), but that’s not why Mark Slaughter, 29, was so excited to meet him. Bush, you see, is co-founder and CEO of Athenahealth, an 18-year-old cloud-based medical records and billing company intent on “virtualizing health care,” while Slaughter, co-founder and CEO of Cohealo (“It’s like Uber, but for medical equipment”), is one of the young entrepreneurs driving that transformation.

They met at Athenahealth headquarters in Watertown, Massachusetts, not far from Cohealo’s new digs in Boston’s financial district, for an hour of spirited conversation – about overcoming resistance to change, anger as a motivational asset, the benefits of time off, and the perils of going public.

What follows are edited highlights here.

NEW SPECIES
So say scientists after examining fossils found in an African cave.

Two amateur cavers had to feel their way along the cave’s winding passages, crawl on their stomachs through an opening less than 10 inches high, ascend a jagged wall, cross a narrow ledge dubbed the “Dragon’s Back,” and make a 400-foot descent, sideways, through a vertical crack before finally arriving at the prize: a 30-foot-long chamber probably between 2 million and 3 million years old.

American paleoanthropologist Lee Berger had asked the men to keep their eyes open for fossils, though the well-explored cave at the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site in South Africa had given up most of its treasures decades ago.

What they found in September 2013 nearly took their breath away.

What was it?

Learn the astounding findings here from The Washington Post.

AN INSIDER’S GUIDE TO THE 30TH ANNUAL KING BISCUIT BLUES FESTIVAL
“Every October, for the past 29 years, music fans, and blues enthusiasts in particular have made the pilgrimage to historic Helena, Ark., for the King Biscuit Blues Festival, considered by many to be one of the most authentic blues festivals in the world,” reports Travel Arkansas.

This year, as the venerable festival turns 30, here’s a list of 30 things to do during your time in historic Helena…and a few “selfie stops” to document your time at the King Biscuit Blues Festival.

Are you ready to go? Click on this link for the Top 30.