The daily business briefing: February 15, 2019

Amazon scraps its plan for a new headquarters in New York, Congress sends Trump the deal to avert another shutdown, and more

1. Amazon cancels plans for headquarters in New York City

Amazon announced Thursday that it is canceling its plan to build one of its two big new headquarters in New York. The facility would have brought the city 25,000 jobs, but critics of the plan objected to the city's promise of nearly $3 billion in tax breaks to one of the richest companies in the world. "We are disappointed to have reached this conclusion — we love New York," the online retail giant said in a blog post, citing political opposition as reason for the decision. Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D), who had lobbied for the project, slammed politicians who opposed it, accusing them of putting "their own narrow political interests above our community." Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) rejoiced, saying, "everyday New Yorkers and their neighbors defeated Amazon's corporate greed."

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Harold Maass, The Week US

Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.