Full coverage of Hurricane Ian, Betty White’s belongings up for auction, and more top news from the past week

LOS ANGELES — A whole lot of Betty White's estate is going on sale this weekend.

More than 1,500 lots of the late actor's property — representing her life and her prolific career — will be auctioned off over three days — Friday, Saturday and Sunday — in person and online at www.julienslive.com, by Julien's Auctions in Beverly Hills.

White's Screen Actors Guild Lifetime Achievement Award is among the highlights, along with scripts from notable TV episodes, including Part 1 of "The Golden Girls" finale. That one is signed by White and her co-stars Bea Arthur, Rue McClanahan and Estelle Getty.

There's also a handwritten note from Mary Tyler Moore and NBC executive Grant Tinker, a framed cast photo from "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" with "Betty" engraved on it, White's 2015 People's Choice Award for favorite icon, her original director's chair from the set of "The Golden Girls" and a number of gowns she wore on award show red carpets.

Buyers can also pick up art, furniture, fine jewelry and more from her homes in Brentwood and Carmel in California.

There will also be another offering that might grab the hearts of romantics everywhere: White's diamond-set wedding band and the wedding band worn by her third and final husband, Allen Ludden, whom White called "one of the nicest, dearest people."

Ludden bought the ring for White after she initially turned down his proposals of marriage, according to E! News, then he wore it on a chain around his neck for three months so she couldn't miss it.

"It got full of soap and suntan oil," she said in "Betty White in Person," her 1987 memoir, "but he vowed he would only take it off for one reason."

The two finally married in 1963 and stayed together until Ludden's death in 1981. The inscription inside the ring reads "6-14-63 I really do," marking their wedding date.

Alas, some of White's most iconic items won't be available for purchase, as they were recently donated to the National Comedy Center and have been installed at its museum in Jamestown, New York.

Among the museum's goodies?

There are five Emmy statuettes marking White's wins for "Life With Elizabeth" in 1952, "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" in 1975 and 1976, "The Golden Girls" in 1986 and guest host of "Saturday Night Live" in 2010. The blue-and-white sweater White wore in her 2010 Snickers Super Bowl ad is there as well, along with a tracksuit from "Hot in Cleveland" and sweater from "The Golden Girls."

White died in December 2021 at age 99.

Photos: Remembering Betty White (1922-2021)

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla., (AP) — Hurricane Ian's most damaging winds began hitting Florida's southwest coast Wednesday, lashing the state with heavy rain and pushing a devastating storm surge after strengthening to the threshold of the most dangerous Category 5 status.

Fueled by warm waters in the Gulf of Mexico, Ian grew to a catastrophic Category 4 hurricane overnight with top winds of 155 mph (250 kph), according to the National Hurricane Center. The storm trudged on a track to make landfall north of the heavily populated Fort Myers area, which forecasters said could be inundated by a storm surge of up to 18 feet (5.5 meters).

“This is going to be a nasty nasty day, two days,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said early Wednesday, stressing that people in Ian’s path along the coast should rush to the safest possible shelter and stay there.

Ian’s plodding pace meant the storm was expected to spend a day or more crawling across the Florida peninsula, dumping flooding rains of 12 to 18 inches (30 to 45 centimeters) across a broad area including Tampa, Orlando and Jacksonville in the state’s northeast corner.

Catastrophic storm surges could push 12 to (3.6 meters) of water or more across more than 250 miles (400 kilometers) of coastline, from Bonita Beach to Englewood, the hurricane center warned.

“It’s going to get a lot worse very quickly. So please hunker down," DeSantis said.

Here are the latest updates:

Latest Headlines

Waste from Florida's old phosphate mines a concern as Hurricane Ian approaches

• By CURT ANDERSON, Associated Press

Photos: Florida prepares for Hurricane Ian

Buckingham Palace has released a photograph of Queen Elizabeth II's final resting place within St. George's Chapel following her interment in Windsor on Monday.

An engraved ledger stone featuring the name of the late monarch was installed in the King George VI Memorial Chapel, an annex to the main chapel, on Monday evening after a private service attended by her family.

The slab is hand-carved from Belgian black marble and features brass letter inlays reading the names of her parents -- King George VI and Queen Elizabeth -- followed by the late Queen's name along with that of her husband, Prince Philip. A garter star separates the two royal couples, and the years of birth and death have been inscribed next to each name.

The four royals were members of the Order of the Garter, the country's most senior order of chivalry that dates back to medieval times and the reign of King Edward III. The group's members are personally chosen by the sovereign in recognition of an individual's service to the nation and includes several members of the royal family, former prime ministers and other senior figures. The order's spiritual home is St. George's Chapel.

The Queen was laid to rest, after an elaborate state funeral at London's Westminster Abbey attended by leaders from across the world. More than 26 million people in the United Kingdom tuned in to watch the funeral service on Monday, the first to be televised for a British monarch.

When the Queen's husband of 73 years Prince Philip died in April 2021, his coffin was initially placed in the Royal Vault, set below St. George's, where it remained until it could be relocated to the memorial chapel upon the Queen's death. The ashes of the Queen's sister Princess Margaret, who died in 2002, are also interred in the chapel.

Royal residences, including Windsor Castle, have been closed since the monarch's death on September 8. But the general public will be able to visit the Queen's resting place when the castle reopens on September 29.

Some areas within royal residences reopened to tourists on Thursday, including the Queen's Gallery at Buckingham Palace, the Palace of Holyroodhouse and the Queen's Gallery in Edinburgh, Scotland, according to the Royal Collection Trust. However, Buckingham Palace's summer opening of the State Rooms and Royal Mews will not return this year.

Additionally, special displays marking the Queen's Platinum Jubilee at Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle and the Palace of Holyroodhouse will not reopen to the public, the trust added.

The photograph of the ledger stone comes a day after Buckingham Palace released a new portrait of King Charles III with the sovereign's signature red boxes.

The image was taken by Britain's PA Images and shows Charles at work last week.

"The image was taken in the Eighteenth Century Room at Buckingham Palace last week and shows His Majesty The King carrying out official government duties from The King's Red Box," the palace said in a statement.

The red boxes contain important papers from government ministers in the UK and from representatives across the Commonwealth and beyond.

"The documents are sent from the Private Secretary's Office to The King, wherever he may be in residence, in a locked red despatch box," it added.

In the background behind the new monarch is a black and white photograph of the late monarch and Duke of Edinburgh, which was a Christmas gift to the couple from King George VI in 1951.

The royal family are observing a further week of mourning after the state funeral at the King's request. Charles III has now reportedly returned to Scotland with the Queen Consort to grieve privately.

Photos: The funeral of Queen Elizabeth II

An unusual animal rescue played out along a North Carolina highway when passersby noticed an abandoned suitcase mysteriously “moving” by itself.

A closer inspection revealed four live puppies were zipped inside, according to Guilford County Animal Services.

It happened Saturday, Sept. 17, and agency officials are lauding the good Samaritans who stopped to investigate.

Their identity and details of where in the county the suitcase was found were not released. Guilford County is about 75 miles west of Raleigh, along Interstate 40.

“They saw the suitcase moving, and a nose was poking out of an unzipped corner. There were four puppies in the suitcase,” shelter officials said. “They were shocked as to what they found, and immediately brought them to the shelter.”

The four puppies, all female, are about 10 weeks old and are believed to be “Labrador/pit bull mixes.” The shelter has given them “suitcase/travel names,” including Tumi, Samsonite, Stowaway, and Carion (carry on).

The couple who found the suitcase brought it to the shelter along with the puppies, but an inspection of it gave no indication of an owner.

“This was a first for us,” shelter officials said. “These puppies will now be medically evaluated and hopefully up for adoption or rescue soon.”

News of the rescue has gotten hundreds of reactions on social media, with most lauding the rescuers and condemning whoever left the dogs trapped.

“This just breaks my heart and makes me so angry all at the same time,” one woman wrote on the shelter’s Facebook page. “It’s so cruel. They all had to be terrified.”

Photos: Ukrainians fleeing war can't leave pets behind

This is the adorable moment a playful elephant slid down a muddy hill on its knees after heavy rain in Thailand. The male jumbo named Somsak was filmed sliding down the slippery dirt path while returning home in Ranong province on September 17.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — An abducted 15-year-old girl and her father — a fugitive wanted in the death of the teen's mother — were both killed amid a shootout with law enforcement Tuesday on a highway in California's high desert, authorities said.

San Bernardino County Sheriff Shannon Dicus did not specify whether Savannah Graziano was shot by the responding deputies. Deputies had been in pursuit of the father's pickup truck, and multiple shots were fired out of the rear window during the chase.

The vehicle became disabled around Hesperia, and the firefight ensued. Dicus said the girl was wearing tactical gear as she exited a truck's passenger side and ran toward the sheriff's deputies. The deputies did not initially realize it was the girl who was running toward them, Dicus said, because she was wearing a helmet and a military-style vest that can hold armored plates.

She was taken to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead shortly before noon.

Her father, 45-year-old Anthony John Graziano, was found in the driver's seat and pronounced dead at the scene. A rifle was found inside the car.

Read the rest of the story here:

ISTANBUL (AP) — Military-aged men fled Russia in droves Friday, filling planes and causing traffic jams at border crossings to avoid being rounded up to fight in Ukraine following the Kremlin's partial military mobilization.

Queues stretching for 10 kilometers (6 miles) formed on a road leading to the southern border with Georgia, according to Yandex Maps, a Russian online map service.

The lines of cars were so long at the border with Kazakhstan that some people abandoned their vehicles and proceeded on foot — just as some Ukrainians did after Russia invaded their country on Feb. 24.

Meanwhile, dozens of flights out of Russia — with tickets sold at sky-high prices — carried men to international destinations such as Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Serbia, where Russians don't need visas.

Among those who reached Turkey was a 41-year-old who landed in Istanbul with a suitcase and a backpack and plans to start a new life in Israel.

"I'm against this war, and I'm not going to be a part of it. I'm not going to be a murderer. I'm not going to kill people," said the man, who identified himself only as Yevgeny to avoid potential retribution against his family left behind in Russia.

He referred to Russian President Vladimir Putin as a "war criminal."

Read the full story here:

MORE RUSSIA-UKRAINE DEVELOPMENTS

***

***

PHOTOS FROM THE RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR

Warning: Some of the images in this gallery are graphic

Photos: 6 months of war in Ukraine

President Joe Biden on Wednesday asked if a congresswoman who died last month was present at a White House food insecurity conference.

At the event, the White House's first hunger conference since 1969, Biden took a moment during his remarks to credit a list of bipartisan elected officials. All of the officials he listed were behind a bill establishing Wednesday's conference, and the late Indiana Republican Rep. Jackie Walorski was a co-sponsor.

"I want to thank all of you here for including bipartisan elected officials like Rep. (Jim) McGovern, Sen. (Mike) Braun, Sen. (Cory) Booker, Representative — Jackie, are you here? Where's Jackie? I think she wasn't going to be here — to help make this a reality," Biden said.

Walorski, who was 58, died in August in a car accident that also killed two of her staffers. She began serving in Congress in 2013. Before her death, the congresswoman was the co-chair of the House Hunger Caucus.

When asked by reporters about the comment later on Wednesday, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Biden was, in fact, referencing Walorski.

"The president was naming the congressional champions on this issue and was acknowledging her incredible work. He had already planned to welcome the congresswoman's family to the White House on Friday. There will be a bill signing in her honor this coming Friday, so, of course, she was on his mind," Jean-Pierre said. "She was top of mind for the president. He very much looks forward to discussing her remarkable legacy of public service with them when he sees her family this coming Friday."

When Jean-Pierre was read the president's remarks about Walorski, she responded, "I totally understand. I just explained — she was top of mind. You know, what we were able to witness today and what the President was able to lift up at this conference, at this event was how her focus on wanting to deal with, combat food insecurity in America. And it's something he was lifting up and honoring."

When CNN's Phil Mattingly pressed Jean-Pierre about why the president was looking for the deceased congresswoman at the conference, the press secretary said, "I don't think it's all that unusual to have someone top of mind, especially as there's a big event."

Biden had issued a statement upon her death, saying that both he and first lady Jill Biden were "shocked and saddened" by her passing. The White House also flew flags at half-staff in her honor.

"We may have represented different parties and disagreed on many issues, but she was respected by members of both parties for her work on the House Ways and Means Committee on which she served," Biden's statement last month said. "She also served as co-chair of the House Hunger Caucus, and my team and I appreciated her partnership as we plan for a historic White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health this fall that will be marked by her deep care for the needs of rural America."

At the end of a panel later during Wednesday's hunger conference, White House Domestic Policy Council Director Susan Rice mentioned Walorski and the rest of the congressional group responsible for facilitating the conference.

"Well, all right everybody, please join me in thanking Sens. Booker and Braun, Chairman McGovern and the late Jackie Walorski for her extraordinary leadership to make this possible. We would not be here without them," she said.

Today’s top pics: State funeral of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe

A NASA spacecraft will deliberately slam into an asteroid Monday, and it's all in the name of planetary protection.

The DART mission, or the Double Asteroid Redirection Test, will crash into the space rock at 7:14 p.m. ET after launching 10 months ago.

The spacecraft will attempt to affect the motion of an asteroid in space. A live stream of images captured by the spacecraft will be available on NASA's website beginning at 6 p.m. ET.

The mission is heading for Dimorphos, a small moon orbiting the near-Earth asteroid Didymos. The asteroid system poses no threat to Earth, NASA officials have said, making it a perfect target to test out a kinetic impact -- which may be needed if an asteroid is ever on track to hit Earth.

The event will be the agency's first full-scale demonstration of deflection technology that can protect the planet.

Get the full story here:

Photos: Artemis mission awaits liftoff

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Louise Fletcher, a late-blooming star whose riveting performance as the cruel and calculating Nurse Ratched in "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" set a new standard for screen villains and won her an Academy Award, has died at age 88.

Fletcher died in her sleep surrounded by family at her home in Montdurausse, France, her agent David Shaul told The Associated Press on Friday. No cause was given.

Keep scrolling for a look at those we've lost in 2022

After putting her career on hold for years to raise her children, Fletcher was in her early 40s and little known when chosen for the role opposite Jack Nicholson in the 1975 film by director Milos Forman, who had admired her work the year before in director Robert Altman's "Thieves Like Us." At the time, she didn't know that many other prominent stars, including Anne Bancroft, Ellen Burstyn and Angela Lansbury, had turned it down.

"I was the last person cast," she recalled in a 2004 interview. "It wasn't until we were halfway through shooting that I realized the part had been offered to other actresses who didn't want to appear so horrible on the screen."

"One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" went on to become the first film since 1934's "It Happened One Night" to win best picture, best director, best actor, best actress and best screenplay.

Clutching her Oscar at the 1976 ceremony, Fletcher told the audience, "It looks as though you all hated me."

She then addressed her deaf parents in Birmingham, Alabama, talking and using sign language: "I want to thank you for teaching me to have a dream. You are seeing my dream come true."

A moment of silence was followed by thunderous applause.

Read the full obituary here:

***

Photos: Notable Deaths in 2022

Queen Elizabeth II

Olivia Newton-John

Bill Russell

Sidney Poitier

Naomi Judd

James Caan

Bob Saget

Anne Heche

2022: Meat Loaf

Nichelle Nichols

Taylor Hawkins

Bernard Shaw

Madeleine Albright

Mikhail Gorbachev

Ivana Trump

Gilbert Gottfried

Estelle Harris

Liz Sheridan

Vin Scully

Len Dawson

David McCullough

Pat Carroll

Tony Dow

Shinzo Abe

Philip Baker Hall

Ray Liotta

Paul Sorvino

Tony Sirico

Fred Ward

Sonny Barger

Howard Hesseman

Larry Storch

Emilio Delgado

Louie Anderson

Orrin Hatch

Bob Lanier

Mickey Gilley

Ronnie Spector

Bobby Rydell

William Hurt

Claes Oldenburg

Tony Siragusa

Scott Hall

Mike Bossy

Guy Lafleur

André Leon Talley

Peter Bogdanovich

Ivan Reitman

Vangelis

John Clayton

Bobbie Nelson

Sally Kellerman

Marilyn Bergman

Manfred Thierry Mugler

Gaspard Ulliel

Dan Reeves

Don Maynard

Don Young

Michael Lang

Lawrence N. Brooks

Charles McGee

Tom Parker

Shirley Spork

Rayfield Wright

Charley Taylor

Tommy Davis

Bill Fitch

Robert Morse

Dede Robertson

Robert Krueger

Johnnie A. Jones Sr.

Gary Brooker

Brent Renaud

Ronnie Hawkins

Andy Fletcher

Ann Turner Cook

Dwayne Hickman

Mark Shields

James Rado

Bruton Smith

Marlin Briscoe

Vernon Winfrey

William “Poogie” Hart

David Warner

Issey Miyake

Bert Fields

Melissa Bank

Albert Woodfox

Barbara Ehrenreich

Coolio

Loretta Lynn

Angela Lansbury

Louise Fletcher

Sacheen Littlefeather

Eileen Ryan

Ken Starr

Jean-Luc Godard

Hilary Mantel

Art Laboe

Judy Tenuta

Pharoah Sanders

Leslie Jordan

James A. McDivitt

Robbie Coltrane

Jerry Lee Lewis

Disgruntled Airbnb guests are taking to Twitter and TikTok to vent about everything from cleaning fees to misleading listings. But they aren’t the only ones with complaints: Airbnb hosts themselves have become increasingly disillusioned with the platform and its disrespectful guests.

On message boards and Facebook groups, hosts are sharing their own challenges and horror stories. One host claimed that a group of guests was unwilling to leave the property despite receiving a full refund from Airbnb.

“I went to the apartment to check what was going on, and I was in shock to discover that the tenants were still in the apartment,” the host wrote on the website AirbnbHell. “They immediately called the police on me and I was kicked out of my own apartment by a team of the police — a complete shock.”

While these anecdotes might seem like the natural byproduct of the largely unregulated short-term rental industry, they speak to larger trends impacting hosts. A 2021 report from Bloomberg detailed how Airbnb’s secretive crisis team spends millions of dollars to cover up crimes and other publicity nightmares in its listings. And the platform recently launched “anti-party technology” in an effort to defray hosts’ frustrations with large, destructive gatherings.

These issues raise the question: Is Airbnb itself the problem — or are the guests?

Silly String and Foul Odors

In May of this year, Airbnb launched a new “AirCover” protection plan for guests and hosts. It promises quick reimbursement for hosts and up to $1 million in damage protection. And while many hosts consider this policy generous, it still comes with plenty of gray areas.

Emily Muskin Rathner, a digital marketing professional living in Cleveland, began renting her house on Airbnb in August 2021. She says that hosting has been a pleasant and profitable enterprise overall, but a few guests have caused major problems, including a family that rented the house this June.

“They left the house a mess,” she says. “There was human feces on our laundry. They sprayed Silly String all over the place. I don’t care about Silly String, but can you pick it up? It left stains, oddly.”

Muskin Rathner received reimbursement from Airbnb for most of her claims. But some damage, such as nail polish smeared on the bathroom tile, didn’t qualify for reimbursement because she wasn’t able to provide documentation for the cost of the tile. And then there was the smell.

“It really, really stunk. The air conditioning had been left off for a week — in June.”

Red tape everywhere

The early days of short-term vacation rentals offered hosts a simple proposition: Rent your home and earn some extra money. Yet as the industry has matured, it’s been met with regulation efforts from local governments.

Cities such as Denver and Portland, Oregon, have been cracking down on unlicensed short-term rentals, levying fines against hosts and requiring expensive permits. These policies allow local governments to collect taxes and regulate problematic behavior, but they add one more layer of complexity for hosts, many of whom have little experience in hospitality.

Furthermore, many local governments place the burden of tax collection on hosts, not Airbnb. A 2022 analysis by the National League of Cities, an advocacy organization composed of city, town and village leaders, estimated that 82% of cities require hosts to remit taxes themselves, while only 5% require the platform to do so on hosts’ behalf.

Hosts must now not only act as full-time customer service agents and hospitality experts, but also navigate local regulations and master convoluted taxation laws.

Competition from management companies

The romantic notion of home sharing as a means for homeowners to pay their mortgages has given way to management companies inserting themselves and aiming to maximize profits. And small-time hosts can’t keep up with these corporate competitors.

A study of short-term rentals in the U.K. found that the number of listings managed by hosts with a single property dropped from 69% in 2015 to 39% in 2019. And data from the nonprofit Inside Airbnb suggests that only 39.1% of properties in Los Angeles are managed by single-property hosts.

These mega-hosts are able to operate at scale, maximizing efficiency on everything from pricing adjustments to cleaning staff. Single-property hosts can’t keep up, or are unwilling to deal with the hassle, and are being elbowed out of the ecosystem.

Using flashlights and WiFi could help spot hidden cameras in your Airbnb rental property

Shine a flashlight at oddly placed objects

Cover up items that seem out of place

Unplug devices that don’t need to be plugged in

Turn off the Airbnb’s WiFi

For nine years, Arnold Marcus had been making a living selling spice grinders on Amazon.

His company, Golden Gate Grinders, had several colors available, repeat customers and an invitation to join the Amazon Accelerator program, a path toward becoming a supplier for Amazon's private label. Marcus, 68, would package orders and take customers' calls from his living room in San Francisco, proud that he was involved in every aspect of the business he built.

That changed overnight last year when Amazon removed his listings, flagging his products as a violation of company policy prohibiting the sale of drugs and drug paraphernalia. For the uninitiated, a grinder can be used for spices like oregano or rosemary, or for weed.

Marcus spent months fighting his ejection from Amazon's online marketplace, to no avail.

"There was no indication in all those years that this is a prohibited product," Marcus said this summer. "One day, they were supporting me and then one day it ended."

Amazon says its guidelines around drugs and drug paraphernalia are longstanding and state that products can't be primarily designed for making, preparing or using a controlled substance. Grinders that are equipped with features specifically for marijuana-related use are not allowed on the platform.

"Third-party sellers are independent businesses and are required to follow all applicable laws, regulations and Amazon policies when listing items for sale in our store," a spokesperson said. "We have proactive measures in place to prevent prohibited products from being listed, including drug paraphernalia, and we continuously monitor our store, remove any such products and take corrective actions when we find them."

For sellers, the language of the policy is clear but enforcement is ambiguous.

In some cases, Amazon has flagged products that have been sold on the platform for years. It has removed some spice grinders, like those that Marcus was selling, while allowing similar products to remain for sale. One grinder that is still on sale includes in its product description that users can "just keep your weed in it until you need it."

A search for "spice grinders" on Amazon.com brings up more than 8,000 results. "Spice grinders for cannabis" has over 660.

"They've always said there's no drug paraphernalia but there were lots of products that were ambiguous products that were able to sell on the platform for years and years," said Lesley Hensell, co-founder of Riverbend Consulting, which helps third-party sellers on Amazon.

For sellers, there was a period of very little enforcement followed by a period of very strict enforcement, leaving them with a lot of questions and a lot of products in their garage, Hensell said. "These guys are talking about unloading stuff at flea markets."

Riverbend Consulting started hearing from more sellers about problems listing grinders last year when, Hensell says, Amazon changed the artificial intelligence it used to search for contraband on the site. Now, listings that slipped through the cracks are flagged by the software right away.

The cannabis industry is inherently risky, said Chris Shreeve, co-founder and vice president of business development at PrograMetrix, a Seattle-based ad agency with a cannabis and CBD division. Shreeve also co-owns The Bakeréé, a dispensary with two locations in Seattle.

"We have to play the hand that we're dealt in the cannabis space," he said. "It's a difficult hand, but we've got to do it."

Platforms like Google, Meta and Amazon are "tiptoeing around acceptance," Shreeve said, hoping to follow federal rules and keep up with changing guidelines across state lines — while also finding some way to tap into the roughly $30 billion cannabis industry. Amazon has campaigned for marijuana legalization at the federal level and, in June 2021, announced it would no longer include marijuana in its drug screening program.

The tech giants tend to leave gray areas for products that are not "plant facing," like grow lights that can be used for lots of different kinds of plants and grinders that can be used for lots of different kinds of herbs, Shreeve said.

That ambiguity has left many companies in the cannabis industry looking for workarounds, Shreeve said.

On Google, a company can share information about cannabis but can't sell the product or a related product. So brands will market blog posts about the industry in the hopes potential customers will click through and later make a purchase. Meta allows companies to market topical CBD or hemp products but not anything that users would smoke or chew. So brands will create separate landing pages for different products, hoping again to reach new customers.

"Each platform has its own hoops to jump through and red tape to navigate but there are brands that are sidestepping those rules and regulations because of the importance of exposure for the company and the product," Shreeve said.

"I don't fault cannabis and CBD brands for trying to navigate the ambiguous rules and regulations on some of these larger platforms," he continued. "But it needs to be done under the assumption that there is risk."

Marcus, from Golden Gate Grinders, has spent the past year tweaking his product and the way it appears on the website to respond to Amazon's concerns. His seller account is still active, but his products aren't listed for purchase, meaning he can't bring in any revenue.

One Amazon representative suggested his product was removed because he had a mesh screen. He removed the screen, relisted the grinder and watched it get flagged again. Another representative told him the product was taken down because there were keywords related to tobacco. Marcus checked his listing and didn't find any references to tobacco. Yet another representative pinned the blame on specific semicolons and quotation marks.

After months of small changes, Marcus scrapped his listing entirely and created a new product: a 2.5-inch silver spice mill without any key words, photos or descriptions. Amazon still flagged and removed the product.

"I'm done, there's nothing else I'll do or can do that will change what's going on," Marcus said. "I feel even if I create a Golden Gate Grinders toothbrush, it'll be removed."

Many third-party sellers outside the cannabis industry have run into similar problems, reporting that a confusing decision — often driven by an algorithm — has kicked products off Amazon's platform with little explanation and little room for recourse. Last year, Chukar Cherries was removed suddenly when Amazon's fraud-prevention algorithm inexplicably linked it to another seller in China that had been deactivated for violating company policy. It took 67 days to get the sweets back online.

In online forums for third-party sellers, concerns specific to grinders have cropped up again and again. One user posted that they "can't understand why others can sell" but they cannot. Another said it was unclear what triggered it, "but for whatever reason (the) majority of the listings were yanked." Another said Amazon's "one size fits all policy makes sellers lose millions."

Before Golden Gate Grinders ran into its own trouble, Marcus had been a vocal supporter of Amazon on these types of forums. He posted that being a third-party seller on Amazon gave "a burnt-out software engineer, an old man, an opportunity to recreate himself."

Now, he is considering filing for bankruptcy, has had to ask his brother for a loan and has taken on credit card debt.

He had been buying inventory to prepare for the moment Amazon relisted his products but, after nearly a year off the platform, he's no longer optimistic he could build his business back up. He's lost customer reviews that are crucial to getting his product on the top of the search results, and his competitors have been operating while he's been sidelined.

"Even if somebody woke up one morning and said 'Let's let him back on,' that would be very challenging," Marcus said. "I have to start from the beginning. They seriously damaged and hurt my company."

Explainer: What to know about 'buy now, pay later'

Q: How does buy now, pay later work?

Answer: Branded as “interest-free loans,” buy now, pay later services require you to download an app, link a bank account or debit or credit card, and sign up to pay in weekly or monthly installments. Some companies, such as Klarna and Afterpay, do soft credit checks, which aren't reported to credit bureaus, before approving borrowers. Most are approved in minutes. Scheduled payments are then automatically deducted from your account or charged to your card.

The services generally don't charge you more than you would have paid up front, meaning there's technically no interest, so long as you make the payments on time.

But if you pay late, you may be subject to a flat fee or a fee calculated as a percentage of the total you owe. These can run as high as $34 plus interest. If you miss multiple payments, you may be shut out from using the service in the future, and the delinquency could hurt your credit score.

Q: Are my purchases protected?

Answer: In the U.S., buy now, pay later services are not currently covered by the Truth in Lending Act, which regulates credit cards and other types of loans (those paid back in more than four installments).

That means you could find it more difficult to settle disputes with merchants, return items, or get your money back in cases of fraud. Companies can offer protections, but they don't have to.

Lauren Saunders, associate director at the National Consumer Law Center, advises borrowers to avoid linking a credit card to buy now, pay later apps whenever possible. If you do, you lose the protections you get from using the credit card while also opening yourself to owing interest to the card company.

“Use the credit card directly and get those protections,” she said. “Otherwise, it’s the worst of both worlds.”

Q: What are the other risks?

Answer: Because there's no centralized reporting of buy now, pay later purchases, those debts won't necessarily appear on your credit profile with major credit rating agencies.

That means more companies may let you buy more items, even if you can't afford them, because the lenders don't know how many loans you have set up with other companies.

Payments you make on time aren't reported to credit rating agencies, but missed payments are.

“Right now, buy now, pay later can’t generally help you build credit, but it can hurt,” said Saunders.

Elyse Hicks, consumer policy counsel at Americans for Financial Reform, a progressive nonprofit, said people may not consider seriously enough whether they'll still be able to afford payments down the road.

“Because of inflation, people may think, ‘I’m going to have to get what I need and pay for it later in these installments,’” she said. “But are you still going to be able to afford the things you’re affording now six months from now?”

Q: Why do retailers offer buy now, pay later?

Answer: Retailers accept the backend fees of buy now, pay later services because the products increase cart sizes. When shoppers are given the option to pay off purchases in installments, they're more likely to buy more goods in one go.

When Apple recently announced it will be creating its own buy now, pay later service, Josiah Herndon, 23, joked on Twitter about “paying off 6 carts of (things) I can’t afford with Apple, Klarna, Afterpay, PayPal Pay in 4, Shop Pay in 4, & Affirm.”

Herndon, who works in insurance in Indianapolis, said he started using the services because it was taking a long time for him to be approved for a credit card, since his age meant he didn’t have an extensive credit history. He’s since used them to pay for high-end clothes, shoes, and other luxury goods. Herndon said he lines the payment schedules up with his paychecks so he doesn’t miss installments, and called the option “very convenient."

Q: Who should use buy now, pay later?

Answer: If you have the ability to make all payments on time, buy now, pay later loans are a relatively healthy, interest-free form of consumer credit.

“If (the loans) work as promised, and if people can avoid late fees and don’t have trouble managing their finances, they have a place,” said Saunders, of the National Consumer Law Center.

But if you're looking to build your credit score, and you’re able to make payments on time, a credit card is a better choice. The same goes if you want strong legal protections from fraud, and clear, centralized reporting of loans.

If you're uncertain whether you'll be able to make payments on time, consider whether the fees charged by buy now, pay later companies will add up to higher charges than the penalties and interest a credit card company or other lender would charge.

Q: How will economic instability affect buy now, pay later?

Answer: As the cost of living increases, some shoppers have started breaking up payments on essentials, rather than just big-ticket items like electronics or designer clothes. A poll by Morning Consult released this week found 15% of buy now, pay later customers are using the service for routine purchases, such as groceries and gas, sounding alarm bells among financial advisors.

Hicks points to the rising number of delinquent payments as a sign that buy now, pay later could already be contributing to unmanageable debt for consumers. A July report from the Fitch ratings agency found delinquencies on the apps increased sharply in the 12 months that ended March 31, to as high as 4.1% for Afterpay, while credit card delinquencies held relatively steady at 1.4%.

“The increasing popularity of this is going to be interesting to see over these different economic waves,” Hicks said. “The immediate fallout is what’s happening now.”

The Ethical Life: Why do Americans have so much respect for small businesses?

Listen now and subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher | RSS Feed | Omny Studio