Ellen Shepard

We empower communities in decision making, facilitate collective impact, and uplift locally-owned and BIPOC-owned businesses.

[Stacy Mitchell @stacyfmitchell]

1. Amazon is in a world of legal hurt — I just read the less-redacted version of the FTC’s monopoly lawsuit. Lots of evidence of Amazon execs knowingly screwing consumers & killing competition, aware of their own wrong-doing.

A few highlights. First, destroying evidence.

[Ellen Shepard @CommunityAllies]

@AVHndz Agreed. It's a great piece of work.

[Big Bird @BigBird]

Luckily I'm a bird so I can still tweet tweet! #TwitterX

[Ellen Shepard @CommunityAllies]

How is this remaining legal???

[Stacy Mitchell @stacyfmitchell]

Amazon is changing its search results to favor items located in a warehouse near the shopper -- This is another way to compel sellers to choose Amazon's logistics over USPS or UPS. If they don't, they could lose their spot on the first page of results. https://t.co/vUa8Y3npub

[xxxxxxxxxxx @MorganEliseJ]

🤔 I was told that downtown Chicago was a wasteland.

[xxxxxxxxxxx @MorganEliseJ]

The violent act of closing schools had a major impact on Black Chicago.

[Ellen Shepard @CommunityAllies]

Wow. Fox News staged anti-Johnson interviews.

[xxxxxxxxxxx @MorganEliseJ]

SCOOP: The @foxandfriends segment with @GiannoCaldwell in Naperville was staged. Big Dale confirmed it to @TheTRiiBE. Y’all will learn to stop playing with Black Chicago. And I mean that. Details ➡️ https://t.co/VcvwykiSUr

[Ellen Shepard @CommunityAllies]

Interesting idea. If you're sucking money out of the community, why not put some back in in the form of taxes?

[Stacy Mitchell @stacyfmitchell]

The chain store tax — once a common policy feature of many U.S. states — is making a comeback in Wales.
https://t.co/5Ool10DPcS

[Roosevelt Institute @rooseveltinst]

Small independent businesses are disadvantaged by a tax code—yet they still outperform corporations in important ways.

Here are two prime examples from our report with @stacyfmitchell @SusanRHolmberg at @ilsr: 1/3 🧵https://t.co/uYazzzbI9R

[Ellen Shepard @CommunityAllies]

@MartinSorge !!!! I'm having serious celebrity awe.

[Ellen Shepard @CommunityAllies]

@MartinSorge !!! Can't wait for the premiere this Saturday!

[Joe Ward @JayDubWard]

The former director of the Uptown Chamber of Commerce is one of three Chicago contestants on the Great American Baking Show.

https://t.co/ylTB3ydinH

[Ellen Shepard @CommunityAllies]

Well done, @Andrefor40th "The same kid out there 'wilding out' right now, can become the next elected official, or doctor, or artist, but we have to help get them there, as a village. That’s the Chicago we want to live in."

[Ellen Shepard @CommunityAllies]

"Local officials agreed to pay the company part of an increase in tax revenue from hotels and short-term rentals, assuming that the new headquarters would boost local hotel stays. . . That increase in Arlington revenue has yet to materialize."

[Alec MacGillis @AlecMacGillis]

Amazon is postponing much of HQ2 in Arlington VA and many of its new hires there are still working largely remote, yet it's about to collect its first tranch of $152 million in taxpayer subsidies from the state of Virginia. @teoarmus:
https://t.co/JSJiPT9GGW

[Ellen Shepard @CommunityAllies]

Why businesses aren't on a level playing field.

[Institute for Local Self-Reliance @ilsr]

The first corporate tax policies, enacted around 1900, were a clear check on monopoly power.

Today, our tax system seems tailor-made to do the reverse: fuel concentration and kill small businesses.

ILSR's @SusanRHolmberg and @NikoLusiani explain: https://t.co/5l0cT1NYbM

[Ellen Shepard @CommunityAllies]

Fingers crossed this helps stir up some antitrust action.

[Aaron Back @AaronBack]

After scooping up Whole Foods and MGM studios, it would ironic if Amazon's acquisition of a modest Roomba maker finally put it in the sights of antitrust enforcers.

But that could be just what happens, says @djtgallagher

https://t.co/Hq7c7LpTeM

[Stacy Mitchell @stacyfmitchell]

This is an important move by the CFPB. We have very little data on small business generally, and shockingly little on loan and credit outcomes. Without data, you can't fix problems, and there are a lot of problems in small business lending that need fixing.

[Ellen Shepard @CommunityAllies]

@MorganEliseJ is killing it tonight on WGN. Very grateful for her voice in the election coverage.

[Ellen Shepard @CommunityAllies]

These megadeal incentives almost never pay out. Why do governments keep chasing them? @GoodJobsFirst
https://t.co/oR882xyS8E via @citylab

[Ellen Shepard @CommunityAllies]

Amazon's HQ2 stunt helped galvanize the current anti-monopoly movement.

[Stacy Mitchell @stacyfmitchell]

Looking back on Amazon's HQ2 stunt (in light of today's news), I'm struck by two things. They are kind of contradictory.

One is that it helped Amazon amass power. It got so much strategically valuable data from cities that informed & powered its growth. 1/

[Ellen Shepard @CommunityAllies]

How Dollar Stores came to dominate the market in rural communities and communities of color. "The strategy is suffocation."

[ron knox @ronmknox]

1. Hello. Dollar stores are an invasive species - multiplying out of control and suffocating local ecosystems. In a new report, we show how they harm communities, the tactics they use to crush small shops - and how policymakers can help. A big thread.

https://t.co/sBwjbBEqEX