Customers Bank Eliminates Fees From Higher One's Controversial Student Business

Jack Hollingsworth / Getty Images

Pennsylvania-based Customers Bank wants to be the "anti-Higher-One."

Higher One is the financial services company that recently agreed to a settlement with federal bank regulators for improperly collecting more than $30 million in fees from students. Now, Customers Bank, headquartered in Wyomissing, is buying up Higher One's most controversial and criticized business and getting rid of the fees.

Customers Bank said Wednesday that it would offer students debit cards that could be filled up with their financial aid money and would charge no overdraft fees, PIN fees, or ATM fees in its 55,000 ATM network.

The company, which has $7.6 billion in assets and is the country's 115th largest bank, two weeks ago agreed to buy Higher One's disbursement business, which includes its fee-heavy OneAccount, for $42 million.

The Federal Reserve and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation ordered Higher One and a bank partner to pay tens of millions of penalties and fee reimbursements for over 1 million students. Regulators slammed the company, saying it had used “deceptive marketing practices" in selling its One Account.

“During our due diligence at Higher One, we identified the regulatory and compliance risks of the high-fee based model that the company was using to make money from its student loan disbursement business,” Customers Bank chairman and chief executive Jay Sidhu said in a statement. Referring to the massive settlement, Sidhu said "With BankMobile, students can be confident this will never happen again."

The Higher One business will be part of Customers Bank's BankMobile business, which Customers describes as "America’s first absolutely no-fee, mobile, tablet and online bank."

The changes will go into effect when the deal closes next year. The BankMobile business launched in January and already has over 100,000 accounts, BankMobile's chief strategy and marketing officer Luvleen Sidhu told BuzzFeed News. With the Higher One acquisition, BankMobile will pick up 2 million new accounts and expects to add another 500,000 a year.

AP Photo/David Mercer

Higher One's fees — including out of network ATM fees and a 50-cent fee on PIN transactions — drew frequent and harsh criticism from activists and students, who said the fees were both high and, in the case of the PIN fee, almost unique among debit card providers.

The Department of Education released final rules that will go into effect next year that mandate schools offer a wider range of options for students to receive their financial aid money and require schools not to provide options with "excessive and confusing fees."

Sidhu said that because BankMobile is a bank — unlike Higher One, which had technology to disburse student aid money and then partnered with existing banks to provide services to students — they are not as dependent on account fees to make money.

BankMobile makes money from merchants when customers use their cards to buy stuff, what's known as interchange, as well as from the difference in the interest rate they charge customers for loans and the rate they provide on deposits. The bank said that it expected about $250 million in new deposits.

"We hope people will start using their debit cards more," Sidhu said. "We make money primarily through interchange income."

When Customers Bank announced its deal with Higher One earlier this month, it said that it expected $65 to $75 million of income, mostly from interchange.

In a statement, Sidhu said that "BankMobile will never charge an overdraft fee" and described the roughly $30 billion a year banks collect in overdraft fees as "outrageous."

Sidhu said that its student accountholders, like BankMobile accountholders now, won't have to pay any ATM fees if they have a monthly deposit. BankMobile will also provide a range of financial education services to its customers including podcasts, consultations, and "financial management tools" in its app.

"We have 4 years to convince them by giving them the best banking experience, we’re going to be treating them as true customers," Sidhu said.

6 Important Business Stories That Got Buried Over The Holidays

6 Important Business Stories That Got Buried Over The Holidays

Companies disclosed some important details in filings — while everyone was on vacation.

Digital Vision. / Getty Images

The Christmas and New Year's holidays give much of corporate America a long vacation before the start of the new year — except corporate lawyers, that is.

Following what has become a late-December tradition, companies dropped some big news as 2015 drew to a close and fewer people were paying attention. Here are some of the best.

1. SAC Capital settles class action over insider trading in Wyeth shares.

Ho New / Reuters

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Urban Outfitters Is Still Fighting The Navajo Nation

Navajo Hipster Panty.

Urban Outfitters / Via Court Filings

Urban Outfitters is frequently criticized for making offensive clothing and for ripping off the work of independent designers without much in the way of consequences. But it may have picked the wrong fight with the Navajo Nation.

Urban Outfitters and the group have been locked in a legal battle since February 2012, when the Navajo Nation sued Urban for its use of "Navajo" and the misspelled "Navaho" on the retailer's flasks, underwear and more. It accused Urban of trademark infringement and of violating a law known as the Indian Arts and Crafts Act, which protects Native American-made goods.

Urban has pulled out a number of defenses, including the idea that tribal names are often used "as indicators of a fashion style or trend," but a judge said last week that the Navajo Nation has standing to keep pursuing the suit under the Act.

It's a blow for Urban Outfitters, which could now see the protracted case go to trial. It's unclear how much money the Navajo Nation is seeking. Lawyers for the group and the retailer didn't return requests for comment.

"Title Unknown Techno Navajo Quilt Oversized Crop Tee"

Urban Outfitters / Via Court Filings

The Indian Arts and Crafts Act, enacted in 1935 and amended in 1990, makes it illegal to falsely represent products as Native American-made if they're not. The Navajo Nation raised "sufficient evidence to raise jury questions on the issues of consumer confusion and deception" with Urban Outfitters' Navajo-labeled goods, the judge in the case wrote on Dec. 21.

Urban Outfitters' main defense throughout the litigation has been that "Navajo" is a generic term, and that its customers didn't associate items like its "Navajo Print Fabric Wrapped Flask" with the Navajo Nation anyway. Given the controversy began in 2011 with some Native Americans complaining that the Navajo name was being used insensitively, it can make for awkward reading:

"Just as the term 'Light Beer' is generic for a type of beer that is light in
body or taste or low in alcoholic and caloric content, 'Navajo' is today a generic descriptor for a particular category of design and style," lawyers for Urban Outfitters wrote in an April 2012 court filing.

An $18 "Navajo Print Fabric Wrapped Flask"

Urban Outfitters / Via Court Documents

A year later, Urban Outfitters filed photographs of other retailers with Native American prints in their stores, saying the fashion industry as a whole started "using the term 'navajo' to identify a particular type of southwestern Indian design and/or fashion that was originally influenced and/or inspired by the designs of Navajo Indians."

The company went on: "Just as FRENCH on wine and FLORIDA on grapefruit are descriptive, the term NAVAJO on textile products, including for example rugs and blankets, is not capable of protection."

The Navajo Nation, for its part, has contended that it has been known by the name Navajo since 1849, and that its Navajo Arts and Crafts Enterprise has marketed clothes, housewares and jewelry under the Navajo name since at least 1943. It has more than 300,000 members and owns a semi-autonomous territory that touches Arizona, Utah and New Mexico.

Urban, which also owns Free People and Anthropologie, also hired a trademark infringement expert, for $415 an hour, to research the use of the word "Navajo" in fashion and other industries. In an April court filing, the expert, Robert Frank, noted it's "quite possible that those in the printing and publishing industry, when hearing the word 'Navajo' do not think of the Navajo Nation but instead think of the Navajo paper manufactured by Mohawk Mills." He also offered a paint color called "Navajo White" and Jack Rogers "Navajo" sandals as other common associations.

Last year, the retailer cited a survey showing only 2.8% of its consumers mistakenly believed the Navajo products were, in fact, made by Navajo People. It added: "There can be no meaningful confusion that Defendant, a well-known mass retailer of lifestyle fashion items to a young urban demographic, was peddling Indian arts and crafts on its website."

The Navajo Nation said that it has sold more than $500 million worth of Navajo-branded goods. The group filed the lawsuit months after sending a cease-and-desist letter to Urban Outfitters, after which the company removed the offending product names from its website. The lawsuit alleges that Navajo-branded items were still being sold at Free People and in stores after that.

The group alleges it has lost sales because of Urban Outfitters' merchandise, and that the "imitation products have driven down prices of Authentic Indian products, forcing the Navajo Nation and American Indian People to offer and garner revenues for authentic products at lower prices."

10 Major Changes For Working Americans In 2015

JD Hancock / Men at Work / Via flic.kr

This past year was a turning point for many American workers. Recent legislation will raise the minimum wages in 13 states and several cities as 2016 kicks off. In California, the country’s toughest equal pay law will guarantee equal compensation for men and women doing “substantially similar work.” Home care workers will finally be covered by minimum wage laws.

As the late reporter and historian Studs Terkel wrote in Working: labor, at its best, can be a search “for daily meaning as well as daily bread, for recognition as well as cash, for astonishment rather than torpor; in short, for a sort of life rather than a Monday through Friday sort of dying.” Here are nine events of 2015 that breathed some life back into our Monday through Friday, and one that raises some questions about the future of work.

1. Low-wage workers won raises in 13 states and localities.

JD Handcock / Flickr / Via flic.kr

This year, America's two largest cities joined Seattle and San Francisco in phasing in a $15 minimum wage. Thanks to the Fight For 15, the movement to raise the minimum wage that began in 2012, fast food workers will earn minimum of $15 an hour by 2018 in New York City. In June, Los Angeles also approved a $15 wage for all workers by 2020.

With Wage Boards and other local strategies, the movement generated 16 pending pieces of legislation and 2016 ballot proposals. Companies individually took action too. Eighteen employers reportedly increased their minimum pay to between $14 and $16 per hour, including the insurance companies Aetna and Nationwide; the banks C1, First Green, and Amalgamated; the University of California; and ice cream maker Ben & Jerry's. Facebook pledged to pay contracted workers a minimum of $15 per hour, extending the raise beyond direct employees.

Notorious low-wage employer Walmart raised its starting pay to $9 an hour in 2015, with a planned raise to $10 in 2016. McDonald's also raised base wages at company-owned stores to $1 above the local minimums this year. Other restaurant chains including Chipotle and Starbucks increased some benefits as well, such as support for employees' education.

2. Black Lives Matter joined the wage battle.

Mario Anzuoni / Reuters

The movement, sparked by police killings and brutality, expanded further this year to include the racial gap in an unemployment and other economic issues. Black Lives Matter dovetailed with the fight for higher wages in 2015, with new reports on how black women can lead the labor movement, marches and solidarity actions with the Fight for 15, and blueprints for black worker progress. Union federation the AFL-CIO initiated a task force on racial and economic justice, and in June, federation President Trumka said the AFL-CIO was “deeply immersed in a thorough review of the way we approach race, justice, and work.”

3. The government ruled in favor of an expanded definition of "joint employer."

Andrew Kelly / Reuters

The National Labor Relations Board, a government agency charged with adjudicating labor disputes, decided in August to uphold an expanded definition of what companies constitute a “joint employer," a change that will affect workers at franchised and contracted business. Labor law experts say the decision paves the way for workers at franchises (such as those at franchised McDonald's stores) to hold a parent company (such as the McDonald's corporation) jointly responsible for labor violations. At online retailer Amazon, some workers contracted by an independent warehouse center drew on the new definition to try to hold Amazon responsible for conditions in the Port of Los Angeles this year. The decision has yet to be exhaustively put to the test, although it has been upheld in the face of industry lobbying and challenges from business groups.

4. Union members demanded more from their leadership.

Rebecca Cook / Reuters

Rank-and-file members of the United Auto Workers rejected a "yes" vote on a contract agreement approved by the top union brass, ultimately winning more concessions from Chrysler. Elsewhere, Walmart workers and organizers split from the United Food and Commercial Workers union to form an independent advocacy organization. Worker participation in a host of other alt labor (or non-union) actions — from protests to hunger strikes — showed a new embrace of tactics and strategies beyond collective bargaining. (Still, the Service Employees International union has devoted considerable financial support to these causes.)

5. Workers won a raft of scheduling reforms.

President Barack Obama signs a Presidential Memorandum on paid leave for federal employees.

Gary Cameron / Reuters

After the New York Attorney General's investigation of the legality of on-call scheduling — which requires retail workers to be available to work without any guarantee of paid hours — companies including Victoria's Secret, Bath and Body Works, and J. Crew eliminated the practice nationwide (as BuzzFeed News reported this year). Some tech companies also offered more paid leave for hourly workers, as well as improved overtime and paid parental leave offerings across the country.

6. Home care workers got higher wages.

Ai-jen Poo taking part in a #100Women100Miles pilgrimage to Pope Francis in September 2015.

National Domestic Workers Alliance / Via flic.kr

Nursing, child care, and home care workers campaigned with the Fight for 15 for higher pay, more protections, and more affordable child care. Their efforts resulted in a landmark union contract in Massachusetts, where the state raised the hourly pay of home health care workers to $15 by 2018 under a collective bargaining agreement with the Service Employee International Union Local 1199. A federal appeals court also upheld a rule requiring home care agencies to pay the federal minimum wage and overtime to their employees.

7. Agricultural workers won new protections.

JD Hancock / Flickr / Via flic.kr

Children under 18 are now forbidden from handling pesticides, thanks to a 2015 Environmental Protection Agency regulation, which also re-affirmed workers' rights to organize without retaliation. There's plenty still to be done in the industry: unsafe conditions and repetitive work in meatpacking leading to grisly accidents in poultry plants this past year; child workers are still permitted to work in tobacco harvesting; and 2015 saw the widespread abuse and exploitation of workers on H2 visas.

8. Workers won in Silicon Valley.

JD Hancock / Flickr / Via flic.kr

As hourly workers at some highly-valued startups, or "unicorns," went union — for example, office space powerhouse WeWork in New York — some corporate tech workers were introduced to a salary database for pay transparency. Teamsters successfully unionized shuttle drivers contracted by Facebook and Google, and the Department of Labor cracked down on employee misclassification, a major issue for the on-demand economy.

9. Candidates competed for workers' votes.

Brian Snyder / Reuters

Heading into the 2016 election, the year saw increased political targeting of low-wage workers as a potential voting bloc. Even as Hillary racked up union endorsements, alt-labor held back on playing politics as usual. And with Senator Bernie Sanders in the race, the most looked-up word of 2015, according to Merriam-Webster, was... socialism.

10. Robots rose.

SoftBank Corp's human-like robot named "Pepper" gestures.

Issei Kato / Reuters

More companies turned to some form of automation and self-service for their businesses. Kiosks, tablets, and self-check-out machines spread in fast food spots and grocery stores across the country.

It remains to be seen what lasting effect this will have on the workforce. The National Restaurant Association, the industry lobbying group, dubbed a kiosk “the new minimum wage employee.” Worker advocates, though, called fears of automation distracting and unfounded. Some industries have managed to maintain livable wages as automation reduced the number of people needed for those jobs — such as dockworkers in some ports and shipping hubs.

As Stephanie Luce, associate professor of labor studies at CUNY, told BuzzFeed News this summer, "The question isn't just the introduction of technology: the question is about who has the power to introduce the new technology, and how it will be introduced.”

Everlane's CEO Explains The Logic Of Its "Choose Your Price" Sale

The online retailer is offloading excess inventory in a novel way. Are some customers willing to pay more than the lowest possible price?

Everlane / Via everlane.com

Everlane, like many retailers, is holding a big sale right now to get rid of excess merchandise from shoes to sweaters. But in a twist, the online-only clothier is letting consumers pick from one of three prices on each item, betting that some people won't go for the lowest one.

Each item that's part of the "Choose Your Price" sale displays three discounted prices. On a $75 sweater, for example, the discounted prices are $32, $39 or $68. The cheapest price covers Everlane's production and shipping costs, while the second goes a step further, covering that plus "overhead for our 70-person team." The highest price, which is only $7 less than the sweater's original price, includes all of that and also allows Everlane to "invest in growth." ("Thanks!" the description adds.)

Everlane founder and CEO Michael Preysman told BuzzFeed News that the sale drew inspiration from Radiohead and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Radiohead, in 2007, successfully allowed fans to pay whatever they wanted to download its new album, while the Met technically only charges a "recommended" admission fee that people tend to pay.

"We've literally never put anything on the site on sale," said Preysman, who launched Everlane four years ago. "Everlane's obviously for profit, so for most people, we were trying to explain how sales work and how we think about them, and maybe for those with a stronger affinity, they may have wanted to contribute in a way beyond that."

Everlane / Via everlane.com

The promotion began this weekend and will run through Thursday, Dec. 31.

This reporter was skeptical of how many people would choose to pay something other than the lowest price. After all, consumers are value-hungry these days — and paying the highest price doesn't give you anything tangible. Like, you know, a keychain, or a pin, or a future discount.

But Preysman said that in a small test of existing customers about a week ago, roughly 10% of people chose either the middle or highest price points.

"If I had to guess, because we haven't selected it this way, they might have bought two things at the lowest price and one thing at a mid-price," he said.

Preysman said he was more involved than he would normally be in the promotion's presentation and limiting the sale prices to three distinct choices. The company also considered making it a "name your price" sale, but that got too confusing, he says.

"There's quite a bit of psychology on how you explain this, and how people click through on it," he said. "We tried to simplify the concept as much as possible."

As for why someone would pay more than the lowest price, he said: "It's the affinity ... If you're honest and transparent with people, then they'll sort of treat you with decency in return."

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Meet The Benedictine Monk Of Silicon Valley

William Alden / Via BuzzFeed News

Like many techies, Brother Eckhart Camden wears a hooded garment to work. But his uniform is not a hoodie, strictly speaking. Instead, Brother Eckhart wears a black tunic and scapular — reflecting his status as probably the only Benedictine monk working at a Silicon Valley software company.

"That's for the remembrance of death — the reason why the Benedictines wear black," Brother Eckhart told BuzzFeed News in an interview in the Palo Alto garden where he prays daily. "One of the things that's to help you keep humble is to remember that you are mortal."

Brother Eckhart, 56, with an unruly beard and long gray hair, has worked in technology for more than 30 years, though he moved to California's Bay Area only in 2013, to join a software startup. Until recently, he was known as Chip Camden, and his hair was buzzed short. (A photo that appeared in the Wall Street Journal in 2013 shows his previous incarnation.) But a series of spiritual experiences in recent years, he says, helped him rediscover his Christian faith and put him on a path that culminated in a ceremony in November, when he took Benedictine vows.

Since ancient times, monks of the Order of Saint Benedict have adhered to a tradition of chastity, asceticism, and prayer. Brother Eckhart's group, the Community of St. John Cassian, is a small and relatively new Benedictine organization within the Episcopal Church, founded only last year in Berkeley. Unlike other Benedictine communities, it doesn’t have a monastery, though it is hoping to be able to afford one soon. For now, its members live alone, in conventional society, and are expected to support themselves financially.

In a role seemingly befitting a monk, Brother Eckhart oversees quality at his software startup, which is now a division of one of the region's biggest tech companies. (His employer asked not to be named in this article; in the charitable spirit embraced by Brother Eckhart, we assented.) He spends four hours a day in prayer, including Bible study and meditation, in several sessions starting when he arises at 5 a.m. This practice, he says, has helped him improve his focus and made him calmer at work — useful traits for ensuring that software development be held to a high standard.

"I do see that quality benefits from that centeredness," Brother Eckhart said. "It's often about discipline, and awareness, and paying attention to the moment, and not getting too far ahead of yourself."

At the same time, life in Silicon Valley these days can be full of potential pitfalls for anyone trying to free themselves from material things. Tech companies of all sizes offer catered meals and abundant snacks while showering their employees with perks. Brother Eckhart gave up drinking long before taking his monastic vows (he makes an exception for communion wine), although he once accidentally took a sip of white wine at a company party. "I asked for water and they gave me wine, thinking I was joking," he said.

But despite the abundant temptations on offer in the current Silicon Valley gold rush, he has been able to maintain his monastic discipline. He gave up his car when he moved to Palo Alto and lives in a one-bedroom apartment with few possessions. His youngest son has a severe mental disability, he said, and he directs a large part of his earnings toward his son's care.

"The free lunches are great," Brother Eckhart said. "But as far as the rest of the lifestyle, I try not to be too acquisitive."

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Though he came to the Benedictine order later in life, Chip Camden studied the Bible as a student at Oral Roberts University in the late 1970s and planned to become a minister. He discovered computer programming almost by accident, working a part-time job in the university's data processing department.

Soon he taught himself programming languages like COBOL and DG Eclipse Assembler, while also studying Hebrew and Greek. His first wife, whom he married while in college, noticed those four languages seemingly melding in his brain.

"One night, my wife woke me up and described for me the things I was saying," Brother Eckhart recalled. "And I was actually talking in all four at the same time."

"Programming languages are actually human languages. They're not machine languages," he added. "They're just extremely well specified."

After that marriage and a second one fell apart, and after many years working as an independent software consultant, Brother Eckhart came back to Christianity. Studying the Bible in college had shown him inconsistencies in scripture and turned him into an atheist, he said. But while listening to Anton Bruckner's Symphony No. 4, on a CD recovered from his estranged second wife, he broke down in tears upon discovering an unexpectedly beautiful passage in the music.

Later, he believed he received a divine message after praying for strength in anticipation of a heart surgery. An eagle he had seen months earlier appeared on a branch before him, seeming to represent strength, and he noticed a biblical passage, Isaiah 40:31, inscribed on plaques on nearby benches. "But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength," it reads. "They will soar on wings like eagles."

He found the Benedictine community through an Episcopal church in Palo Alto. Adhering to a chaste life, he said, was not hard.

"After my second wife and I split, my therapist recommended that I not start another relationship for 18 months," Brother Eckhart said. "I decided to give it a try. And I suddenly found such freedom in not having to relate to people that way."

Benedictine monks are not common in the United States today, even in spiritually diverse Northern California. Brother Brendan E. Williams, the founder and prior of the Community of St. John Cassian, said he knew of just one other Benedictine community in the Bay Area, the Camaldolese monks at Incarnation Monastery in the Berkeley Hills, who are Catholic.

Still, the Bay Area is a stronghold of contemplative tradition, particularly the Buddhist variety. The Buddhist monk Shunryu Suzuki, who established the San Francisco Zen Center in the early 1960s, inspired countless Westerners to meditate, and mindfulness gurus have since infiltrated corporate offices. In the HBO show Silicon Valley, the CEO of the fictional tech giant Hooli often turns to his spiritual guru for counsel.

"It's a little trendier to be Buddhist, I think, than it is to be Christian," Brother Eckhart said. "Perhaps in Western culture we're a little too close to the seedy underbelly of Christianity's history."

Noting the similarities between his tradition and Buddhism, Brother Eckhart said he enjoys talking to a work colleague who is Buddhist.

"We have wonderful discussions about contemplative technique, and the kinds of experiences that we have in trying to find that place to be, or place to non-be, if you will," he said. “I find that I have more in common with him than I have with many Christians, who aren't familiar with the contemplative tradition of Christianity."

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In preparation for his vows ceremony in November, Brother Eckhart sent messages to colleagues informing them of his plans, including that he would be wearing a monk's habit to the office. "They've all been very supportive," he said.

His outfit — all black, down to his high-top Chuck Taylors — follows the precepts outlined by St. Benedict. He wears a traditional medal on a necklace, a black belt, and a hood, for warmth, which "gives me a Gandalf look."

And then there's that scraggly beard, which, in today's tech scene — with executives like Jack Dorsey of Twitter sporting mighty facial growth — doesn't seem very unusual at all.

"It is kind of trendy, unfortunately," Brother Eckhart said. "But I quit trimming it about a year and a half ago, and just kind of let it grow. I don't know why, exactly. I guess I like it."

Some Indian Students Are Being Blocked From Flying To The U.S.

Facebook / Via facebook.com

The Indian government has advised citizens enrolled in two small California colleges to temporarily defer travel to the U.S., after the country's state-owned airline said it has been warned by U.S. officials that the schools are under investigation.

On December 20, 19 Indian students were stopped at Rajiv Gandhi International Airport in Hyderabad, where they planned to take an Air India flight to San Francisco. They were prevented from flying by employees of Air India because their colleges are under “scrutiny” in the U.S., according to the Times of India.

The story has revived memories of a 2011 scandal, also involving international students from India, that ended with a college operator being sent to jail for 16 years on charges of visa fraud. Prosecutors at the time said she was operating a sham school that existed specifically to charge fees for securing student visas.

This time, the schools at the center of the controversy are accredited colleges: Silicon Valley University, in San Jose, and Northwestern Polytechnic University in Fremont.

In notes posted to their websites, both schools confirmed students have been denied entry. SVU said some of its new students have been "removed or deported back to India because they were not able to answer the questions adequately to the satisfaction of the inspectors at the port of entry." Northwestern Polytechnic wrote that "a small percentage of international students are being sent back to India, but only those that fail their immigration interviews."

Facebook / Via Facebook: NPUadmissions

Both denied suggestions the schools were under investigation, saying instead that U.S. border officials are tightening screening at airports across the board due to heightened security concerns. Each advised students to bring detailed documentation when traveling, and to be prepared for thorough questioning by border officials.

But in a statement to the Times of India, Air India said it “received communication on December 19, 2015 from the US Customs and Border Protection agency that two universities namely Silicon Valley, San Jose, California and North Western Polytechnic College, Fremont, CA are under scrutiny and students who arrived into San Francisco were not allowed to enter the US and were deported back to India."

A representative for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) told BuzzFeed News in an email that both schools "are still certified by SEVP [the Student and Exchange Visitor Program] to enroll international students.”

The representative added that border protection agents can “deny entry to anyone attempting to enter the U.S., based on a variety of factors.”

India's Ministry for External Affairs said it has "asked the US authorities to explain the reasons for denial of entry on a large scale to Indian students holding valid visas," in a statement Wednesday, naming both SVU and Northwestern Polytechnic. "Students seeking admission in aforementioned two institutions are advised to defer their travel to the United States," in the meantime, it said.

Simon Au, an associate dean at Silicon Valley University, told BuzzFeed News that the problem was rooted in "rumors on the Indian side" about the school. "It has nothing to do with the school," Au said.

Northwestern Polytechnic University president Peter Hsieh posted a video to YouTube echoing that the school had not been blacklisted. He cited a number of international students who had recently arrived back in the country from vacation without any major issues.

Hsieh went on to charge Air India with playing a part in Sunday’s incident with the 19 students. “I believe this panic stemmed from Air India unilaterally deciding not to allow their customers to purchase tickets to come study here,” he said.

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Both Silicon Valley University and Northwestern Polytechnic are accredited colleges that offer technical and computer science degrees, marketing their connections to the San Francisco tech world to prospective students. More than 90% of SVU students are in the U.S. on foreign student visas.

SVU said its students come primarily from India, mainland China, and Taiwan.

Since at least 2014, the schools’ official Facebook pages have been choked with posts from prospective students in India and other Asian countries, trading visa tips and advice for flights out of Hyderabad, as well as posts promising to send “liquid cash” and “complete immigration documents” via WhatsApp.

A reporter from the Times of India who visited the campuses in California earlier this week said that the vast majority of students appeared to be Indian. Students interviewed said that more than 70% of their class was made up of Indian students, the newspaper reported.

The agency that accredits the two schools, the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools, has come under fire this year for lax standards and poor oversight after a massive for-profit college it oversaw, Everest Colleges and Universities, collapsed in the midst of accusations that it had misled students and faked job placement numbers. ACICS confirmed to BuzzFeed News that it accredited both colleges, but declined to comment further.

A nonprofit tax form filed by Silicon Valley University in 2013 suggests the school is relatively small, taking in just $1.3 million in revenue for the year. A description of the school’s accomplishments in government filings says: “The university is getting recognition in the Silicon Valley as one of the good training institute for high-tech professionals.”

Silicon Valley University declined to comment on its financials.

The tax filing shows that SVU spent a total of $2.5 million for the year, $278,000 of which was paid in salary to the school’s president, Feng-Min Jerry Shiao, and his wife, Mei-Hsin Cheng, who is also the school’s treasurer. It paid $250,000 to a firm in Taiwan that markets and recruits students, according to the filings.

In 2013, the school also loaned $2.6 million, or 30% of the school’s total assets, to the wife of the school president. The purpose of the loan, tax filings said, was to “acquire a property to cope with the school campus expansion.”

Silicon Valley University / Via svuca.edu

Northwestern Polytechnic is much larger than Silicon Valley University, bringing in $38 million in revenue. But the university’s filings, too, are riddled with English usage errors. Its 2014 tax filing says the university’s mission is, “to provide an advance education and a high technology learning envirolment that motivats students to pursue intellectual growth.” In another box, the school’s mission is described as: “To provide an advance education and”.

Of Northwestern Polytechnic’s $11 million expenses in 2014, $299,000 went to the school’s president, George Hsieh, and another $257,000 to his son, Peter, who recently took over the school.

In 2011, an unaccredited California college called Tri-Valley University that had brought 1,500 Indian students to the United States was shuttered, and its owner sentenced to 16 years in prison for immigration fraud. In legal filings, the government called Tri-Valley a “sham university” — it existed only to provide visas and collect tuition payments from foreign students, rarely requiring them to attend class or even offering classes at all.

A 2011 investigation by the Chronicle of Higher Education in the wake of the Tri-Valley scandal found a network of other unaccredited colleges who were engaged in similar practices, enrolling almost exclusively Indian students and others on foreign visas. At a college where the founder of Tri-Valley had been a faculty member, Herguan University, most of the foreign students worked in out-of-state jobs, supposedly taking classes at Herguan online. The Chronicle reported that Herguan’s president had allowed a student living in Chicago to obtain three credits by paying $225 and taking a single test online.

At the time, Herguan’s president boasted to the Chronicle that, though it was unaccredited, the school’s credits were accepted at two other universities: Silicon Valley University and Northwestern Polytechnic. Herguan has since obtained accreditation from the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools, the same agency that has given its stamp of approval to Silicon Valley and Northwestern Polytechnic.

Am I A Robot? Because I Have No Idea What This CAPTCHA Says

Warner Bros / Via HBOGO

You're in a desert, walking along in the sand, when all of a sudden you look down and have to solve a CAPTCHA.

The ubiquitous authentication method is meant to distinguish real live humans from bots trying to overload a form on a website. It is always annoying, but never in my experience has it been genuinely baffling. Until today.

I got eyeglasses to deal with myopia two years and since then I fear that my overall eyesight has only gotten worse. Today at work I had to authenticate myself to send a message to a company when I saw this.

Even though my initial thought was that the image showed "exe11i," I wasn't at all sure. I asked my coworkers. While they couldn't agree with each other, they all thought I was wrong.

One suggested "xevui, " while two others put forward "xevnr" and "exvur" respectively. At best, this showed we all had varying degrees of poor vision that was no match for a nasty CAPTCHA, at worst it confirmed that the majority of us were not human.

Instead we are like Rachael in Blade Runner, human-seeming androids who had been able to pass simple tests but end up revealing our artificial natures under closer examination.

We reached no definitive conclusion about the CAPTCHA, but instead were left with a nagging feeling that our apprehension of reality is deficient.

The consensus was is said "xevur" — I entered that in and was rejected. A new CAPTCHA appeared, the old one disappeared forever and we'll never know what the right answer was.

For what it's worth, even my attempt at the subsequent image failed.

Finally after a third try, I passed. But that might have just been one machine taking pity on another.

Warner Bros / Via giphy.com

Student Finance Company Higher One Hit With Tens Of Millions In Penalties

AP Photo / David Mercer

Federal regulators have hammered the once high-flying student financial services company Higher One, saying it had "omitted material facts" from customers regarding the student checking account that was once its core product.

"As a result of these material omissions, Higher One improperly collected $31 million in fees from students" over a two-year period ending in mid-2014, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation said today. The Federal Reserve, which also penalized the company, said that Higher One used "deceptive marketing practices."

Higher One partnered with schools to market its checking account to their students, who would sometimes be required to go through a Higher One website, with the school's logo prominently displayed, to access their financial aid dollars. Students could choose to get their money through a Higher One account, a paper check, or direct deposit into another account.

"Higher One benefitted from students directing their financial aid refunds to the OneAccount instead of an alternative bank account or paper check," the FDIC's chairman Martin J. Gruenberg said in a statement.

Once students got a OneAccount, they would be charged fees for basic transactions, like a 50-cent fee for using a PIN to make a debit card purchase, a 3.5% fee for withdrawing money from a bank teller, or high out-of-network ATM fees.

"This is a company that had built a business model on nickel-and-diming away students' financial aid refunds," said Ben Miller, a former Department of Education official who is now a senior director at the Center for American Progress. "That is not a sustainable or legitimate way to get revenue, and the size of this settlement only confirms that."

Higher One has long been a target of student and activist complaints. Critics were particularly irked by its relationship with schools, which entered into partnerships that helped the company make money from students, including many low-income recipients of federal aid programs such as Pell Grants.

"We saw the use of the [school's] logo with the student loan kickback scandal, and with student credit cards, it’s deja vu," said former Consumer Financial Protection Bureau student loan ombudsman Rohit Chopra. "Schools with the hope of raising revenue are working with companies that break the law. Many students feel that when their school endorses a financial product, it must have been vetted."

Higher One

The Federal Reserve ordered that Higher One pay $24 million in restitution and a civil penalty of $2.2 million, while the FDIC imposed a $2.3 million civil penalty and said it had to split $31 million in restitution to about 900,000 customers with its bank partner WEX Bank.

Higher One said last week it was expecting to pay "approximately $70 million" to resolve investigations by regulators. It also disclosed that it had received a civil investigative demand from the Massachusetts Office of the Attorney General over debt collection practices. Last year it paid $15 million to settle a class-action lawsuit over the marketing of its checking account product, including disclosure of its fees.

The company also said last week it had hired advisory firm Raymond James "to assist in the evaluation of all strategic options" for its remaining payments business.

The company said in a statement today that the action was referring to old business practices and that it had agreed to sell the disbursement business.

Customers Bank, which has agreed to buy Higher One's disbursements business, said it would combine it with its BankMobile business — a "no-fee digital bank" — and "charge students no or low fees to use the student deposit product."

Higher One stock has tanked this year, down almost 25% to $3.22. The New Haven, Connecticut company went public in 2010 at $12 a share. As of Tuesday's closing price, the company was valued at about $156 million.

Its stock dropped as investors prepared for new Department of Education rules that will require colleges to provide a variety of options for students receiving their financial aid money, including restrictions on fees.

Its investors were also well aware of the heat the company was attracting from authorities. The regulatory actions today, which also cover a bank partner of Higher One, are not the first for the company — in 2012 the FDIC ordered it and a different bank partner to pay $11 million in restitution for violating consumer protection rules.

The FDIC's consent order said that for more than a year, "information about certain fees, features, and limitations of the OneAccount was omitted entirely or was not clear and conspicuous." On the first page of the promotional materials given to students explaining how they would receive financial aid money faster through a Higher One account, "there was no information about the fees, features, and limitations of the OneAccount," the regulator said.

Higher One CEO Marc Sheinbaum said he has "set new standards for transparency and compliance" since joining the company in 2014.

"Today, the account experience is significantly changed and an even better student experience will be unveiled in 2016," he said in a statement. "With the announcement of the sale of Higher One’s Disbursements and OneAccount businesses to Customers Bank, we’re bringing this longstanding matter to a close and look to begin a new chapter for Higher One.”

Chopra, the former student finance regulator, said the action today is a reminder for students that they are under no obligation to choose a financial product endorsed by their school.

"They should get their own bank account that they shop for and should sign up for direct deposit whenever they can," Chopra told BuzzFeed News. "No student should blindly trust the bank partner of their school."

Wheat Thins' Amazing New Idea Is Even Thinner Wheat Thins

Venessa Wong / BuzzFeed News

Wheat Thins is launching a new version of its original cracker, and the company is making a simple promise: Wheat Thins, but thinner.

Slimming down is a selling point in the iPhone era, and Wheat Thins maker Mondelēz is pushing the limited-time product as a cheeky parallel to a modern gadget launch. "When you think about tech products, the next generation is always getting thinner or better or stronger. And here, we have a Wheat Thins 2.0, if you will," said Julia Nathan, senior associate brand manager of Thins U.S. (a division that includes Wheat Thins and Rice Thins) at Mondelēz.

In case you were wondering, an original Wheat Thin is 1.44-inches wide, 1.31-inches tall, and 0.12-inches thick. Mondelēz said the new cracker is 14% slimmer, which would bring it to a lean 0.103-inches, give or take. A recommended serving of the thinned snack is 22 pieces — six more than the 16 you'd go through in a serving of original Wheat Thins.

It's a real boost to snackability, Nathan explains.

Venessa Wong / Venessa Wong

Thinner Wheat Thins came at the end of a tough year for crackers. Unit sales of all crackers in the U.S. fell by 2.3% in the 52 weeks ending Nov. 21, according to Market researcher Nielsen. In the last four years, unit sales of wheat crackers specifically are down by more than 16% compared to the same period ending in November 2011.

"People are just going to different types of products," Nathan said. "What hasn't changed is that they want a munchable snack."

Here's the launch video for Even Thinner Wheat Thins.

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Thin is in.

Portion control is most popular in North America as a means of managing weight, Nielsen found, which might explain why other foods such as Oreos have recently gone thin too. Earlier this year, Nielsen named Sargento’s line of Ultra Thin sliced cheese as a "breakthrough innovation," as the lower calorie count had strong appeal with consumers.

“The ‘thinning’ trend we are seeing in the grocery snack aisle reflects another way for consumers to indulge in their favorite snacks with a little less guilt," said James Russo, senior vice president of global consumer insights at Nielsen. "This dynamic of healthy and indulgent has inspired brands to introduce healthier versions of their classic offerings."

It's worth nothing here that with all illusions aside, serving to serving, the thinner Wheat Thins have the same calorie count (140 calories) as the original version.

While sales of original Wheat Thins are up about 1% this year, according to Mondelēz, it was time to introduce a "new format that is more munchable, more delicious, a different eating experience than they're used to," Nathan said. "It's our way to create something thinner, sleeker, munchier, more awesomeier — which is a word that we've now created!" (Indeed, while "munchier" is recognized in the dictionary, "awesomier" is not).

As we face the dreaded New Year's resolution season, may each 0.0168-inch thinner cracker help you achieve guilt-free satiety.

Venessa Wong / BuzzFeed News

Weight Watchers Is Struggling To Survive In The Digital Age

Oprah Winfrey bought a 10% stake in Weight Watchers in October.

Scott Barbour / Getty Images

Craig Gapter has belonged to Weight Watchers on and off for 16 years — “starting from when everything was pen and paper” — and credits it with having helped him shed 30 pounds. This fall, the 45-year-old Coloradan signed up for the online-only version of the food- and fitness-tracking program for the same reason so many others have done the same: Life is busy, and they’re already online all the time anyway.

But starting on Thanksgiving, the most food-crazed holiday of the year, an app upgrade caused a rash of glitches that prevented Gapter and many other paying customers from using it. Hundreds have taken to Weight Watchers' Facebook page to complain. “This is a large company that has a huge number of followers or members, and I just think that they just did not think this through,” Gapter told BuzzFeed News. “That’s been my biggest disappointment. I just feel like they were like, ‘You do what you want, you go on your way.’”

When Weight Watchers was founded in 1963, it was a pioneer. Today, it's a $1.3 billion global empire with nothing less than Oprah’s seal of approval. But its Thanksgiving stumble may be the latest indicator that the brand is struggling to hang on to consumers in a sea of slick, free food-and fitness-tracking apps.

The app upgrade was a prelude to a brand-new points system that Weight Watchers unveiled this month, designed to shift the program’s focus away from weight loss alone and help users take a more comprehensive approach to eating, exercising, and living healthfully. Executives hope the new program will provide a much-needed boost after a few years of declining revenue.

But not all customers immediately loved the new system. Some criticized the company for not explaining it well, and others were still experiencing glitches as of this week. Their discontent reflects a broader dissatisfaction with Weight Watchers’ digital presence: Online subscriptions fell more than 20% between the beginning of 2013 and early October 2015, from 1.87 million to 1.47 million.

Katherine Melvin, a 37-year-old self-proclaimed “serial dieter” in Charlotte, North Carolina, goes back and forth between Weight Watchers and MyFitnessPal — but the problems since Thanksgiving have dampened her loyalty to the former. “They need to hire people from MyFitnessPal because I don’t know if they’re just incompetent, or what their deal is,” she told BuzzFeed News. “It’s a big problem for them.”

In 1961, a Queens housewife named Jean Nidetch — 214 pounds with a 44-inch waist — ran into a neighbor who said, according to the New York Times, “Oh, Jean, you look so good! When are you due?” That inspired Nidetch to drop 72 pounds and try to turn dieting from a lonely, frustrating activity into an organized business. In 1979, then-CEO and chair Albert Lippert told the Times, “I don’t think we will ever run out of a market because people are becoming more affluent, and the economies of many countries lead some of them to eat some of these foods that are fattening.”

It was a prescient prediction. Weight Watchers has since expanded beyond meetings with weigh-ins and inspirational talks. Its empire now encompasses cookbooks, magazines, weight-loss camps, a line of packaged food, and food and restaurant guides. It has enlisted celebrity spokespeople including Jessica Simpson, Charles Barkley, and, now, Oprah, who bought a 10% stake in the company in October. In an April review of 32 major commercial weight-loss programs, independent researchers found that only Weight Watchers and Jenny Craig helped their clients maintain weight loss for at least year. That long-standing brand recognition draws a worldwide following of 2.6 million, a figure made up of subscribers who are both online-only ($19.95 a month) and online and in-person ($44.95 a month).

Gapter loved the convenience of the app and website, and his wife signed up with him. “It just fits in better with running kids around and sports and everything you’ve got to do as a family,” he said.

When Amanda Goldberg, 26, downgraded to just the online option in February because it was cheaper, she was happy to find the same level of camaraderie that she had previously enjoyed in the meetings. “It has such a big community,” said the Columbus, Ohio, graphic designer. “You can find people who are your age or in the same phase of life as you and talk about the problems or struggles you have, the ways to work the program.”

A 2004 Applebee's menu with Weight Watchers items.

Tim Boyle / Getty Images

But Weight Watchers hasn’t adopted new technology as fast as it admits it should have. “We have struggled to attract members in recent years,” CEO and president James Chambers told investors on a recent earnings call. “Why? What has changed? Over the last few years, as the world app-ified and activity monitors experienced significant increases in penetration, our competitive frame shifted dramatically and we were competing for consumer attention with new competitors in new ways.”

Indeed, R.J. Hottovy, a Morningstar consumer equity analyst, told BuzzFeed News, “with so many other calorie-counting apps or fitness monitors or any number of things out there, it’s really hard for consumers to distinguish why they should pay for Weight Watchers when there’s a lot of other technologies that in their mind do exactly the same thing.”

Among the rivals is MyFitnessPal, which offers free and premium tiers and is nearing 100 million members, according to spokesperson Rebecca Silliman. Founded in 2005 and acquired by athletic-gear maker Under Armour for $475 million in February, MyFitnessPal users log workouts, manually or by way of wearable devices, as well as recipes and meals. They can also seek support from other users through forums. What consumers want, Silliman said, is a balanced approach to health that is broader than just weight loss.

“If we have a food-grading system, people won’t use it because it makes them feel bad,” she said. “What they really love about MyFitnessPal is they can log chocolate cake — and as long as they exercise and make other healthy choices, they can still manage to stay within their goals and make positive changes.”

Tim Gunn and Weight Watchers member Abby Dale.

Larry Busacca / Getty Images for Weight Watchers

Only in September 2014 did Weight Watchers begin allowing U.S. members to sync activities from their Fitbit and Jawbone devices to its app, a move that Chambers admitted happened “belatedly.” And the Thanksgiving glitches — a result of migrating some members to a new database — weren’t the only times the app and website have crashed over the last few years. According to App Annie, an app analysis firm, Weight Watchers has held steady among the country’s 50 most downloaded iOS health apps this year, but its overall U.S. ranking has slipped from No. 650 to out of the top 1,500 over the same period.

Weight Watchers’ new point system, SmartPoints, which is fueled by a series of fitness startups acquired over the last year and a half, reflects some of the ethos of its competitors.

The system has always translated nutritional information about food into points to be spent or saved, with the goal of staying within a weekly budget. Now, weekly point allotments differ based on metabolic rate, height, and weight. The new algorithm also reflects more up-to-date nutritional research: It prioritizes lean protein, fruits, and vegetables, while steering dieters away from saturated fat, for example, and separately calculating sugar from carbohydrates. For example, an apple is 0 points and a cheesy chicken, broccoli, and rice casserole is 9. (Under the new system, weekly ranges can be as little as 14 and as high as 42, according to Weight Watchers.)

Instagram: @weightwatchers

What’s more, Weight Watchers also rolled out an app, FitBreak, that suggests exercises that can be done in as few as one or five minutes. Available to both Weight Watchers members and nonmembers, it is an attempt to restore the company’s reach to what it once was — this time with a more contemporary approach to health.

“It’s not just ‘my worth is some number on the scale,’” Chief Scientific Officer Gary Foster told BuzzFeed News. “It’s about me feeling better.”

But Gapter, the Colorado customer, doesn’t feel better about Weight Watchers now. In fact, even when he was finally able to log on to the app after days of trying, he felt baffled by the new SmartPoints program, which in his mind was launched without warning and adequate explanation.

So he’s left Weight Watchers, probably for good this time, and is awaiting a refund. In the meantime, he’s found a great new app that costs just $4: ProTracker. “This is my second full week on it and it’s actually pretty awesome,” he said, “way better than the original Weight Watchers app was.”

Study Shows Women Are Charged More For Being Women

The “gender tax” begins when the pink bike helmet costs more than the blue one, and keeps going well into adulthood, the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs said.

This was from Walgreens' website on Nov. 18.

NYC DCA / Via www1.nyc.gov

Not only do women get paid less than men, but it turns out they also get charged more for everyday goods.

A recent report from the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs found that, on average, products geared towards girls and women cost 7% more than similar goods for males. The agency, which analyzed almost 800 products from more than 90 brands sold in New York City, found that items targeting women cost more than the male versions 42% of the time.

The "gender tax," as the report calls it, starts in childhood, with pink, glittery helmets and scooters that might cost $13 to $25 more than similar items meant for boys. (The Washington Post noted that Target dropped the price on its Radio Flyer pink sparkle scooter to match a similar red sport one after the report came out, blaming the discrepancy on a "system error.") It goes on to appear in everything from razors to dress socks down the road.

Target has since changed the price on the girls scooter.

NYC DCA / Via www1.nyc.gov

The report said this was from Target in October.

NYC DCA / Via www1.nyc.gov

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17 Delicious Christmas Foods From Around The World

Jens Meyer / AP

Christmas, in many countries, is a chance to gather with loved ones, exchange gifts, and — perhaps most pleasurably — indulge in long-awaited holiday foods. One healthcare site estimated that the average Christmas meal ranges from 1,400 calories in Japan to 3,291 calories in the U.S.

With so much anticipation in the air, a fair amount of sorcery takes place at food manufacturers hoping to contribute to our massive calorie intakes. Lucky Americans, for example, get seasonal treats like White Chocolate Pringles and Candy Cane-flavored Peeps marshmallow candies.

Fortunately for diners with more traditional tastes, there's an abundance of Christmas dishes around the world that might put them in a more authentic holiday spirit.

Argentina: Vitel toné

cyclonebill / Via Flickr: cyclonebill

Also known in Italy as vitello tonnato, this holiday dish is sliced veal in a creamy tuna sauce, served cold. Traditionally a summer recipe, vitel toné is fitting for the Argentine summer, which lasts from December to February.

Australia: Prawns

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"Christmas in Australia means prawns. Lots and lots of them," wrote the Guardian. According to the Australian Prawns Farmers Association, 40% of prawn consumption in Australia happens over Christmas. Here are some other recipe ideas for Christmas in Australia.

Brazil: Farofa

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This popular Brazilian side dish made from toasted manioc (or cassava) flour is often served with raisins during the holidays.

Belgium: Cougnou

Instagram: @sabina141092

Typically given to children during the holidays, cougnou is a sweet bread shaped like a swaddled baby Jesus. See it?

Central and Eastern Europe: Babka

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Babka, also served on Easter, is a spongy yeast cake often topped with icing. The word "babka" means grandmother in Polish.

France: Bûche de Noël

Amy Ross / Via Flickr: donutgirl

Yule log, a sponge cake iced with buttercream or ganache, is also a popular Christmas dessert in Quebec. According to History.com, the significance of the log goes back to celebrations of the winter solstice, when families would burn logs "to cleanse the air of the previous year’s events and to usher in the spring." "The log’s ashes were valuable treasures said to have medicinal benefits and to guard against evil."

Germany: Glühwein

Instagram: @domme_hubert

Many Christmas markets in Germany and Austria offer this hot mulled wine, which can made with red wine, sugar, lemons, cloves, cinnamon sticks and orange.

Ireland: Spiced Beef

Instagram: @johnrelihan

This Irish beef dish is cured, spiced beef served cold. It sits in seasonings like peppercorns, allspice and juniper berries for days and then is cooked at a low temperature for several hours. One of the preservative ingredients, potassium nitrate, is now difficult to find, but "check with your pharmacist," advises the Irish Food Board.

Italy: Struffoli

Instagram: @barbaracarmelitadurso

A Christmas dessert originating in Naples, struffoli are marble-sized, deep fried balls of dough coated in honey and decorated with sprinkles or powdered sugar.

In Japan, KFC's busiest days are right around Christmas. The country has a tiny Christian population, but a wildly successful marketing campaign in 1974 promoting “Kurisumasu ni wa kentakkii!” (Kentucky for Christmas!) has made a bucket of chicken the go-to meal for the holiday, reported Smithsonian.com.

Mexico: Romeritos

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Romeritos get their name from the seepweed plant, called romerito in Spanish, meaning "little rosemary." While the plant looks like rosemary, it tastes more like spinach. The dish can be made with shrimp cakes and potatoes in mole sauce.

Philippines: Lechon

Instagram: @gatchalianslechonofficial

For larger parties, roast pig (lechon) is the main event of the meal. "December is the busiest and the best month for lechon makers and purveyors because of the bulk of order they receive," according to the travel site choosephilippines.com.

Scandinavia: Lutefisk

Instagram: @aha1va

Lutefisk, dried codfish preserved in lye and then repeatedly rinsed, is a traditional dish in Norway, Sweden, and parts of Finland, but is now more common among Scandinavian Americans, according to Smithsonian.com. While the dish is still eaten in Scandinavia, it's Madison, Minnesota that claimed the title "lutefisk capital of the world."

U.K.: Mince pies

Instagram: @beth_seddon1

Mince pies were once made with meat such as mutton or tongue, but modern versions a are sweet and use a fruit filling. As BuzzFeed pointed out, "Mince pies hog the Christmas dessert limelight...And such is the popularity of mince pies, they’ll probably be the only snack on offer at any occasion until January."

U.S.: Pecan Pie

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Americans eat all manner of things on Christmas, but just for now we'll focus now on the pecan pie, which is believed to have originated in New Orleans with French settlers. The pecan tree is native to North America. The U.S. remains the world's largest pecan producer.

Venezuela: Hallacas

Instagram: @donpanbakery

Hallacas — meat and dough mixture wrapped in banana leaves and steamed — are among the most popular Christmas dishes in Venezuela. It is "one of the most representative icons of Venezuelan multicultural heritage,as its preparation includes European ingredients (such as raisins, nuts and olives), indigenous ingredients (corn meal colored with annatto seeds), and African ingredients (smoked plantain leaves used for wrapping)," according to The Hallaca Factory, a food distributor.

Everywhere: Panettone

Instagram: @kanoacafe

Panettone, a fluffy sweet bead originally from Milan, is now enjoyed on Christmas around the world. It is often filled with candied fruits and raisins. According to a 2007 report by Reuters, each Christmas Italian bakers produce about 117 million panettone and pandoro cakes.

Sara Lee Will Pay $4 Million To Settle Racial Discrimination Suit

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Via flic.kr

The company formerly known as the Sara Lee Corporation will pay $4 million in fines, after the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in Dallas found African-American workers there were subject to a racially discriminatory and unsafe work environment. The attorneys for the former bakery workers also successfully argued for a charge of "environmental racism," meaning the employees were subject to a hostile work environment (in this case, hostile to their health) that was not altered or made better due to their race.

Employees at the Paris, Texas plant, which was shuttered in 2011, experienced racially offensive comments and graffiti at their workplace each day, including references to black workers as "boy" and "nigger" from white co-workers and supervisors, the Commission found in a two-year investigation. Some employees drew caricatures of apes, lynchings, and the phrase "KKK" on the factory's bathroom walls, according to a separate federal lawsuit, CBS reported.

The agency also found that black workers were disproportionately exposed to asbestos, toxins, and black mold, while white workers were given promotions and put on jobs away from these hazards, supporting the claim of "environmental racism."

"One of the cake lines was nicknamed the "cancer line," because so many people were getting sick," said Sara Kane, one of the workers' attorneys, of the law office Valli, Kane & Vagnini.

In November 2011, the Sara Lee Corporation sold the Paris, Texas facility, and in 2012, the company began operating under the Hillshire Brands name in North America, as part of a re-branding effort. A subsidiary of Tyson Foods, Chicago-headquartered Hillshire owns brands such as Jimmy Dean sausages and Ball Park franks.

Tyson Foods spokesperson Worth Sparkman told BuzzFeed News the company is "committed to treating our team members with dignity and respect and have a policy against harassment and discrimination," noting Tyson Foods requires annual training and offers a toll-free help line for workers to report any concerns without fear of retaliation.

"While we don’t agree with all of the allegations in this case, we oppose any unlawful discrimination in the workplace and believe it makes sense to resolve this matter," Sparkman wrote in an email.

When asked which allegations the company disagrees with Sparkman said, via email, "We’ll point out that any alleged conduct in this case occurred before portions of Sara Lee were acquired by Tyson Foods in 2014."

In its filing of the discrimination suit in July, the EEOC sought the formulation of policies to prevent and correct race discrimination, in addition to damages for affected employees.

"We hope to see Sara Lee and Hillshire Brands take effective steps to address racial harassment in its plants," said EEOC Trial Attorney Meaghan Shepard at the time. "Sara Lee failed to adequately protect its black employees from a racially hostile work environment."

"The bad seeds of racial animus planted in the workplace cannot be allowed to spread over time and to choke out mutual respect on the job," EEOC Dallas Regional Attorney Robert A. Canino said at in July. "Racism must be uprooted by decisive action to cultivate equal opportunity."

Benedict Evans Wants To Make Sure You Know What He Said

Benedict Evans writes smart things about mobile technology and works at the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. Did you read what he said?

Benedict Evans / Via Twitter: @BenedictEvans

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NYU Apologizes For Telling Low-Income Student They Probably Can't Afford Grad School

Robert Mecea / ASSOCIATED PRESS

New York University has apologized after an admissions advisor suggested a low-income student should reconsider their graduate school application until they could afford the school's sky-high tuition fees, with a spokesperson saying the employee's email was "wrong and unfortunate on many levels."

The admissions officer's advice came in response to a request by the prospective student for the school to waive the $65 fee required to apply to NYU's Tisch School of the Arts.

"Please do not take this the wrong way but if $65 is a hardship for you how will you be able to pay the tuition of $60,000?" Dan Sandford, director of admissions at Tisch, wrote in an email to the student, Joshua Jackson. "Maybe you should give yourself a year off looking at ways to fund your graduate education."

The email, which Jackson tweeted screenshots of, struck a nerve with NYU's critics, who said it was a sign that NYU does not do enough to help low-income students — even though the university has said in recent months that it is working to increase diversity and inclusion on campus. While the school is well-known both for its high fees and limited financial aid, rarely do admissions offers admit it so candidly to applicants.

The email, Jackson said in a statement to BuzzFeed News, was "disrespectful and oppressive."

"The institution's public response now does not match the very real lived experiences of people interfacing with the institution," Jackson said, adding that NYU students and alumni had reached out to share their experiences in the wake of the incident. "It's clear that the school doesn't care about me, and I urge people to look at their treatment of their students and faculty and staff who are calling out diversity and specifically class-related issues."

Rebecca Karl, a professor of history at NYU, said the exchange "exposed very clearly that there is a person behind the curtain saying to students, 'No, you do not belong here because you are poor,'"

"It was really that bald-faced. 'You can’t pay? You shouldn’t even think of coming here,'" Karl said. "That’s something that many students learn about NYU later on, only after they’ve taken up a lot of debt."

In a series of tweets, Jackson, a senior at Brown University, criticized NYU for the "audacity shown by a clearly privileged faculty member to tell me what I am capable of before ever meeting me. This shows how out of touch you are with the very communities y'all claim to work with."

"The exchange between a graduate admissions officer at NYU's Tisch School and a potential applicant for admission was wrong and unfortunate on many levels," said NYU spokesman John Beckman in a statement to BuzzFeed News. "We handled our communications with Joshua Jackson badly."

The Tisch School's policy had explicitly stated that it did not provide fee waivers to students, a practice that is common for other, similar programs. Beckman said the policy would be revised to say that waivers were available.

An analysis by ProPublica earlier this year found that of the country's wealthiest colleges, NYU provided the least assistance to low-income students. Its graduate students take out more debt to finance their degrees than at almost any other school in the country — nearly half a billion dollars in loans last year, putting it just below the University of Phoenix, a for-profit giant, on a national ranking. For undergraduate students, the university's financial aid is often ranked among the worst in the country.

In the wake of protests at the University of Missouri, Yale, and elsewhere, NYU said last month that it would appoint a "Director of Global Diversity" and increase funds for the university's multicultural center.

Tressie McMillan-Cottom, an academic, told the website Inside Higher Education that the email was indicative of a broader problem with elite graduate education. "The director of admissions at the Tisch School is saying that they 1) offer little funding, 2) are very expensive and 3) rely on application fees for revenue." she wrote. "That is not only true for Tisch, but it isn't often that it is so blatantly stated, much less to a possible applicant.”

Gusto Is Valued At $1 Billion In New Funding Round

Gusto / Via youtube.com

Gusto, the human resources startup formerly known as Zenpayroll, has been valued at $1 billion in a new financing round, doubling its valuation in under a year, the CEO told BuzzFeed News.

Gusto raised $50 million in the round, according to its CEO, Joshua Reeves. The new cash came from the company's existing investors, including Google Capital and General Catalyst Partners, and will help finance the startup's effort to expand in the highly competitive world of human resources software aimed at small businesses.

Though known for its payroll processing software, Gusto recently announced a foray into employee benefits, including health insurance. That put it into competition with a bigger startup, Zenefits, a fast-growing insurance broker that offers free HR software.

Partially in response to Gusto's move, Zenefits secretly developed its own payroll processing service, codenamed "Project Nutshot," BuzzFeed News reported at the time.

Gusto, which launched three years ago, collects revenue from subscriptions to its software. With the introduction of its benefits service, it now collects recurring commissions on health insurance plans as well. Reeves declined to discuss the company's finances.

Gusto's latest financing round was disclosed in a securities filing on Friday and reported earlier by VentureBeat. The $1 billion valuation, however, has not previously been disclosed.

In April, the startup announced a Series B round that gave it a $500 million valuation, or $560 million including the new capital. The new valuation of $1 billion does not include the $50 million capital infusion, according to Reeves.

Reeves said Gusto didn't need to raise the money and had around $50 million in the bank as of November. He said the financing round gave Gusto "a chance to build a relationship with a few of our key investors."

Rejecting alphabetical dictates, he described the round as a "Series B2," rather than a Series C.

"We decided to call it a Series B2 because we weren't really going to do any PR or have it be a big focus," he told BuzzFeed News. "We didn't really need the capital, per se."

"Technically you can call it whatever you want," he continued. "You can call it a Series Zebra or a Series Panda if you want. We just decided to call it a B2 because it felt like more of an opportunistic, quick process."

Cheerios Sales Are Growing Again After Switch To Gluten Free

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Cheerios sales have gone the way of most American cereals recently: down. So this year, manufacturer General Mills decided to make five varieties gluten-free to appeal to America's growing numbers of people avoiding the protein. Early signs now suggest the switch is having some success.

Sales of full-price, gluten-free varieties of Cheerios grew 3% to 4% last quarter, the company said, showing the fist signs of improvement after multiple quarters of declines (General Mills said it tracked sales of the full-priced product as a measure of consumer interest independent of any discounts).

"The launch of gluten-free Cheerios is an important component of our cereal growth plan and we’re encouraged by the results thus far," CEO Ken Powell said on an earnings call Thursday.

Other brands didn't fare as well: overall, General Mills' U.S. cereal sales fell 5% last quarter. "Our top priority in U.S. retail this year is to drive growth in cereal," Powell said.

General Mills

The news of a Cheerios sales lift follows an embarrassing recall of 1.8 million boxes of Cheerios and Honey Nut Cheerios in October, shortly after General Mills announced these varieties were going gluten-free.

After dozens of consumers reported getting ill from eating the cereal, General Mills discovered a factory in California had been using gluten-filled wheat flour for a few days due to "human error," the company said at the time. The effect of the recall now appears to have been short-lived.

"We saw minor slowdown the week of the recall and since then baselines have returned to growth," Powell told investors. "Obviously the recall was a stumble, but the fundamental consumer reaction is in line if not a little bit better than we anticipated at this point," he said.

General Mills plans to increase marketing for gluten-free Cheerios, and is also rolling out gluten-free Lucky Charms.

Gluten-Free Cheerios Recalled After Tests Find They Contain Gluten

Can An Old-School Cereal Giant Ride The Gluten-Free Wave?

Rent The Runway's "Exclusive" Dresses Are Sold Cheaper Elsewhere

The rental site has quietly introduced its own in-house labels, but the same products are often sold by department store websites at big discounts.

Kris Connor / Getty Images

Rent the Runway's supposedly exclusive private label dresses are showing up elsewhere online at discount prices, in some cases for hundreds of dollars less than the retail prices listed by the site.

When one customer complained after seeing a Slate & Willow dress she ordered — which Rent the Runway said retailed for $595 — on sale at Nordstrom under a different label for $118, a customer service staffer gave her a refund. The representative did not make clear that the Slate & Willow brand she rented was a Rent the Runway creation.

After BuzzFeed News asked about the price discrepancy between the two dresses, the company dropped its retail price by a whopping $250. Now, the listing for the once-$595 dress says its "retail price" is $345.

Until Friday, Rent the Runway said this dress had a retail value of $595.

Rent the Runway

Now it's $345.

Rent the Runway

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