Jeff Bezos' ex-wife MacKenzie has donated $1.7 billion of her wealth since their divorce, and taken a new last name

* Last year Jeff Bezos and his wife MacKenzie divorced, leaving her with a fortune of about $36 billion and thirteenth-richest person in the world. * In a blog post on Tuesday MacKenzie announced she has donated $1.7 billion to 116 organizations over the past year. * She has also changed her name to MacKenzie Scott. * Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. MacKenzie Scott, ex-wife of Amazon's billionaire chief executive Jeff Bezos, has donated $1.7 billion of her wealth in the past year to causes including racial equality, LGBTQ rights, public health and climate change, she said in a blog post on Tuesday. Scott, who was previously known as MacKenzie Bezos, also announced her new last name, which she said was taken from her middle name. Last year, Scott signed the Giving Pledge in a commitment to donate the majority of her fortune after her split from Bezos — the world's richest man — left her with a 4% stake in Amazon. "Like many, I watched the first half of 2020 with a mixture of heartbreak and horror," she wrote in a post on Medium. "I began work to complete my pledge with the belief that my life had yielded two assets that could be of particular value to others: the money these systems helped deliver to me, and a conviction that people who have experience with inequities are the ones best equipped to design solutions," she added. In her blog post Scott listed a total of 116 organizations which she has donated to. She also broke down how much she has donated to various causes by category, the top three causes Scott donated to were: racial equity ($587 million), economic mobility ($400 millon), and gender equity ($133 million). At the time of the divorce, Scott's Amazon stake was worth about $36 billion. Her fortune has grown to over $60 billion with a jump in Amazon's shares this year. Jeff Bezos' fortune has also skyrocketed, growing by more than $60 billion since the beginning of this year putting his net worth at roughly $178 billion, per Bloomberg's Billionaires Index. Scott made her announcement a day before Jeff Bezos will appear for his first-ever Congressional testimony in front of an antitrust panel, which has been investigating how Amazon has allegedly used its market power to hurt smaller rivals. Join the conversation about this story »
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SpaceX has a 'go' from NASA to return 2 astronauts to Earth on Sunday as Hurricane Isaias threatens several Florida splashdown locations

* NASA on Saturday gave SpaceX a "go" to undock the company's first crewed space mission, called Demo-2, and land it on Sunday evening. * Hurricane Isaias complicated original plans to return two astronauts to Earth aboard SpaceX's Crew Dragon spaceship in the Atlantic Ocean. * Elon Musk's aerospace company may now try to splash down NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley in the Gulf of Mexico. * Two out of seven total landing sites near Florida must have good weather conditions, and NASA has until about 5 p.m. ET on Saturday to call off the undocking. * Should the weather worsen, NASA and SpaceX can try again a day later or some other date over the next two months. * Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. Astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley have a "go" to return to Earth this weekend and wrap up an historic space mission for both NASA and SpaceX. Behnken and Hurley launched to orbit aboard SpaceX's Crew Dragon vehic...

What an independent contractor actually is and how it's classified under California's Assembly Bill 5, the gig worker law Uber, Lyft, and others are fighting with a November ballot measure

* California's Assembly Bill 5 (AB5) went into effect in January, adopting a narrow definition of independent contractor that forces Uber and other gig economy businesses to choose between reclassifying workers as employees or risking significant liability for misclassification. * The law serves as a reminder to California businesses to be careful when classifying workers as contractors. * Classifying independent contractors falls into two main categories: the "right to control" test (often called the "IRS test") and the tougher "ABC test" recently adopted in AB5. * Uber, Lyft, and DoorDash have recently poured $30 million into Proposition 22 — a ballot measure intended to exempt major ridesharing and food delivery companies from AB5. If California residents vote the measure into effect in November, Uber and Lyft can continue classifying drivers as contractors. * Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. In September 2019, Californ...

PayPal parts with top advertising executive after shifting its marketing strategy during the pandemic

* PayPal's chief creative officer Steve Simpson, its top advertising executive, left the company after about a year. * The move came after PayPal shifted its marketing strategy during the coronavirus pandemic, placing less emphasis on the brand and more on catering to small businesses, said a source with direct knowledge of the marketing operation. * Simpson's departure followed that of CMO and former Apple executive Allison Johnson in May. Both "decided to leave PayPal" as the company streamlines its global marketing functions, according to a PayPal spokeswoman. * Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. PayPal's highest-ranking ad executive Steve Simpson left earlier this month after just over a year as part of a restructuring of its global marketing business. Simpson, who was chief creative officer, was hired to make high-minded ad campaigns to help PayPal stand out from competitors like Square, Stripe, and Apple Pay. But this strategy chan...

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