Will.i.am is selling sheets made from old Coke bottles

Will.i.am is partnering with Coke and W Hotels on a line of bed sheets partially made from old plastic bottles.

It's not that he's fallen on hard times in the music biz, it's more that he's into recycling. So the Black Eyed Peas frontman has partnered with Coke (KO) and W Hotels on a line of bedding made with at least 30% recycled plastic.

The sheets will soon be on all W hotel beds worldwide. They don't look or feel any different than the hotel's current sheets -- the plastic is used to make polyester and simply replaces the virgin polyester currently used in the blended fabric. Each king-sized sheet will contain about 31 plastic bottles.

For W, the move was about being more eco-friendly as well as saving money. The new sheets are more durable and can be washed up to 200 times before wearing out (compared to about 100 washes now).

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The sheets will also be available for purchase at the W's store, though they aren't cheap -- a set starts at $207.

They'll carry both the W and Ekocycle brand. Ekocycle is a broader partnership between Will.i.am and Coke to use recycled content in more products.

Will.i.am said he got the idea for Ekocycle back in 2008 after attending conferences on corporate social responsibility and hearing about how firms want to cut waste.

"A lot of times the companies say what they want to do, but not how they're going to do it," he said. "Or they do it, but they don't tell anyone."

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So he pitched Coke with an idea to market recycled plastic to other firms that wanted to green their products. Coke bit, and Ekocycle launched in 2012. It now has its name on over 150 products including shoes, luggage, bicycles and chairs. Companies that want to use the Ekocycle brand pay a royalty, which is shared between Coke and Will.i.am.

"Our resources are not forever," Will.i.am said. "Sustainability is going to be something we're all talking about."

If all this sounds like a bunch of people making money while burnishing their green credentials, it is. But it's also important for those with branding experience to create a market for recycled material. This is especially true now that the cost of oil -- which is virgin plastic's main ingredient -- is so low. Cheap virgin plastic puts recycled plastic at a disadvantage.

"Recycling is more than just putting stuff in the right bin," said Darby Hoover, a resource specialist at the Natural Resources Defense Council. "And it's good that Coke is taking responsibility for its bottles."

CNNMoney (New York) April 13, 2015: 6:25 PM ET

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Hillary channels Elizabeth Warren in campaign bid

In her video campaign announcement Sunday, Hillary Clinton unveiled what's expected to be the central theme of her presidential bid: Serving as a champion for "Everyday Americans."

"Americans have fought their way back from tough economic times, but the deck is still stacked in favor of those at the top," she said in the short video. "Everyday Americans need a champion and I want to be that champion. So you can do more than just get by. You can get ahead and stay ahead."

Long considered a centrist, Clinton sounded strikingly similar to Warren, the outspoken darling of the left wing, which has been pushing the Massachusetts senator to run for the 2016 nomination. (So far, she has declined.) Warren's main talking point: Give every American a fighting chance.

"America's middle class is under attack. It's in trouble because the game is deliberately rigged," Warren wrote in her memoir, A Fighting Chance. "I am determined -- fiercely determined -- to do everything I can to help us once again be the America that creates opportunities for anyone who works hard and plays by the rules."

Related: Elizabeth Warren: 8 ways to restore the middle class

Warren's proposals to boost middle class prosperity include: Raising the minimum wage, supporting bargaining rights for workers, ensuring workers get overtime pay and creating good paying jobs through investments in roads, bridges, power grids, education and research, among other things.

In an election where every candidate is focused on the middle class, Clinton may have to shift left to appeal to the Democratic base. She and her advisers have been speaking to income inequality and economic mobility gurus, including Joseph Stiglitz of Columbia University and Raj Chetty of Harvard, according to media reports.

Stiglitz, a Nobel-prize winning economist, has argued that income inequality has exploded over the past 30 years. The widening gap endangers economic growth and makes it harder for people to achieve the American Dream.

Related: Stiglitz on how to fix the income gap

Chetty, on the other hand, focuses on economic mobility. His work has found that residents in communities with higher rates of segregation and income inequality, as well as fewer two-parent families, are less likely to climb the economic ladder.

Clinton's new top talking point is increasing opportunity for all Americans. She reiterated this in a new epilogue to the paperback versions of her book, Hard Choices, excerpted on Huffington Post on Friday. In it, she noted the advantages that her first grandchild, Charlotte, will have.

"Too few of the children born in the United States and around the world today will grow up with the same opportunities as Charlotte," she wrote. "I'm more convinced than ever that our future in the 21st century depends on our ability to ensure that a child born in the hills of Appalachia or the Mississippi Delta or the Rio Grande Valley grows up with the same shot at success that Charlotte will."

But some diehard liberal Democrats, including Warren, want to hear more on how Clinton plans to reduce inequality. So far, they say Clinton's message is long on rhetoric and short on specific policies.

A Clinton spokesman did not respond to a request for comment.

Related: NYC's Bill de Blasio not ready to endorse Hillary Clinton yet

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, who managed Clinton's Senate campaign in 2000, made waves when he said Sunday that he is holding off on endorsing Clinton until he learns more about her vision.

Warren, meanwhile, is also waiting for more details.

Asked in February by the Reverend Al Sharpton on MSNBC whether Clinton would be a "progressive warrior," Warren said "that's what we've got to see."

"I want to hear what she wants to run on and what she says she wants to do," Warren said.

Related: Republican? Or Elizabeth Warren? Who said it?

CNNMoney (New York) April 13, 2015: 6:18 PM ET

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High-skilled visa applications hit record high

These locations saw the most H-1B visa recipients in 2013, the only year for which data is currently available.

But it's getting tougher to "win" a work visa each year.

This year, 233,000 foreigners applied for the H-1B, the most common visa for high-skilled foreign workers. That's up significantly from 2014 (172,500 applications) and nearly double the applicants from two years ago (124,000).

"I'm not surprised by how high the number is," said immigration lawyer Tahmina Watson of Watson Immigration Law. "The world has changed and the law has not kept up with the world."

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services will grant just 85,000 H-1B visas (20,000 of which are reserved for master's degree holders), which it selected on Monday via a lottery process. The unlucky applicants will get the $325 filing fee back.

Watson says the number of applicants is proof that Congress needs to act.

Proposed bills like I-Squared Act would lift the quota to 195,000 visas annually. There is also a proposed bill for a Startup Visa. If passed, this would transfer foreign entrepreneurs currently in the H-1B pool into a separate category.

In the meantime, states like Massachusetts and Colorado have introduced programs to help applicants get around the H-1B cap.

"Businesses really need to fill positions," said Watson, "... and people will not be able to get their dream jobs."

Related: These cities have the most high-skilled foreigners

Related: The next Google is one visa away from leaving the U.S.

CNNMoney (New York) April 13, 2015: 6:28 PM ET

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Donald Trump: I don't want T-Mobile in my hotels

The Donald and the CEO of T-Mobile (TMUS) became embroiled in an epic Twitter battle this weekend, in which Trump said he wanted T-Mobile out of his establishments.

"T-Mobile service is terrible! Why can't you do something to improve it for your customers. I don't want it in my buildings," Trump tweeted Saturday at John Legere, T-Mobile's chief executive and no Twitter slouch himself.

The candid and brash Legere, who frequently drops F-bombs and once crashed (and was thrown out of) an AT&T (T, Tech30) party, fired back at Trump.

"I will serve all customers in the USA openly but I will obviously leave your hotel right away based on this. #checkingout," Legere tweeted.

Oh, if it only stopped there. The Donald, as he typically does, claimed victory.

"T Mobile service sucks and it took a Trump to call him out! @realDonaldTrump for President!"

But Legere didn't give up, firing off a tweetstorm that continued into Sunday morning. Legere, by far, delivered the lowest blows of the Twitter war.

"checked out.. Now I don't have to watch tv with the 1st 9 channels being the Trump family saying how wonderful they are:)"

Legere later added, "I am so happy to wake up in a hotel where every single item isn't labeled 'Trump' and all the books and TV is about him"

Trump also continued tweeting about T-Mobile into Sunday. In case you're wondering which carrier Trump uses, he said he believed Verizon was the best provider, tweeting Verizon's famous coverage map.

Related: This is the fastest cell phone network ever

Related: T-Mobile will pay $650 for you to switch

CNNMoney (New York) April 12, 2015: 12:54 PM ET

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The 'Hillary beat': Who's covering Clinton

The New York Times was particularly early out of the gate. The paper shifted reporter Amy Chozick to its politics team to cover Clinton in the summer of 2013 -- 649 days before Clinton's announcement on Sunday.

By the end of that year, BuzzFeed put reporter Ruby Cramer on the "Hillary beat." CNN promoted White House correspondent Brianna Keilar to serve as its lead Clinton reporter in early 2014. And last spring, the Washington Post assigned the same role to reporter Anne Gearan, who had covered Clinton during her time as secretary of state.

Chozick, who covered Clinton's failed 2008 presidential bid for the Wall Street Journal, told CNNMoney that she has relished her time on the beat ahead of the campaign launch.

Related: Gloria Borger analysis - What is Hillary Clinton thinking?

"I've loved the past 18 months or so when I've mostly written enterprise stories, observed Clinton at low-key events in New York and elsewhere and had the time to study up and get to know the people who will be characters in the narrative that will begin to take shape after Sunday's announcement," Chozick said.

Chozick said she's been to Arkansas, where former President Bill Clinton served as governor for 12 years, at least six times. She said she has read every "credible" book on the Clintons.

"That time was critical because as soon as the daily grind of a presidential campaign starts it's hard to find time to sleep, much less thoroughly study your subject," Chozick said.

The early coverage speaks to Clinton's stature. Unlike other presidential aspirants, the former secretary of state is already a household name and one of the most recognizable people in the world.

Related: Hillary Clinton's economic plans need overhaul

News outlets have devoted far more resources to Clinton than potential general election foes like Jeb Bush or Scott Walker. That has only tightened the competition to break news on Clinton.

Earlier this year, the New York Times poached former Politico writer Maggie Haberman, widely considered to be the best-sourced reporter in Clinton's orbit, to supplement the newspaper's coverage of the Democratic frontrunner.

The Clinton-focused scribes will also face competition from veteran reporters like Glenn Thrush of Politico and Julie Pace of the Associated Press. On Saturday, Pace nabbed a scoop on the Clinton campaign's economic message.

The assignment is a potential career-maker. Campaign reporters have often followed candidates to the White House. Pace covered President Obama's 2008 campaign and continued to report on him throughout his first term. In 2013, the AP promoted her to White House correspondent.

Covering a candidate before she's officially a candidate posed certain difficulties to the reporters.

"It's been challenging and frustrating to know that there was a campaign forming and a message being crafted and people being hired, and really only being able to see and write about a small portion of it," said Gearan, the Washington Post reporter.

Gearan said she has spent much of the last year cultivating sources in Iowa. "I'm certainly ready to get on with it," she added.

Clinton has given regularly scheduled speeches since last summer, and the recent controversy surrounding her use of a private email account at the State Department generated plenty of media attention. But many of the stories on Clinton's assumed presidential ambitions have been previews of her campaign.

"There's been a lot of stage-setting," Politico's Annie Karni said. "One story everybody is writing is what will Bill Clinton's role be. That's an important factor in the race and a big question to answer, but while we're in campaign-in-waiting mode, it is a stage-setting story."

Karni, who left the New York Daily News in March to cover Clinton for Politico, noted a tangible campaign development earlier this month.

Along with her colleague Gabriel Debenedetti, Karni reported that Clinton's team had signed a lease in Brooklyn for a campaign headquarters.

"If you think about it, signing a lease is a small thing," Karni said. "But it was something concrete to show us that it was coming and it took on new significance because there was nothing else official going on."

More news has trickled out since then. On Thursday, a group of reporters gathered at the Washington, D.C. home of Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta for an off-the-record dinner. Clinton's team hosted a similar gathering on Friday night in New York.

The dinners could be seen as an effort by Clinton to improve her complicated relationship with the press. At an awards ceremony last month, Clinton said, at least partly in jest, that she was interested in forging a "new relationship with the press."

"So here it goes. No more secrecy. No more zones of privacy. But first of all, before I go any further. If you look under your chairs, you'll find a simple nondisclosure agreement," she joked.

For reporters on the "Hillary beat," the outreach hasn't gone unnoticed.

"I'd say that everyone is trying to start off on the right foot, just being friendly as human beings and acknowledging that this is our job," Karni said. "There's an effort to start off on a collegial note and to get along."

CNNMoney (New York) April 12, 2015: 8:39 PM ET

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China is poised to report worst growth since the financial crisis

Gross domestic product is forecast to have expanded by 7.0% in the first quarter of 2015, compared to the same period last year, according to the survey's median estimate.

That's quite a drop from the final quarter of 2014, when economic growth came in at 7.3%. Looking ahead, economists expect to see 6.8% annual GDP growth for this year, and even slower expansion at 6.5% in 2016.

The strength of China's economy is often difficult to judge at the beginning of the year because of the Lunar New Year holiday. But many recent data points have been so disappointing that experts are bracing for the worst.

Although survey estimates remain in line with the government's target of 7%, economists expect Beijing to take stimulus action if the economy slows much further, according to the survey. One of the biggest risks facing the Chinese economy continues to be a waning property sector.

"While we do not expect a dramatic slowdown, we think downward pressures on growth stemming from the weakness in real estate will remain in the coming months," wrote Louis Kuijs of RBS in a research note. "Against this backdrop, we think more macroeconomic easing steps will follow in the coming months to ensure that GDP growth will not fall too much below the target of 7% in 2015."

So far this year, the government has already tried to shore up the real estate sector, putting in place measures to boost property sales and battle slowing construction. But UBS economists Harrison Hsu and Wang Tao said the measures won't be enough to reverse the overall slowdown.

Related: China's factories slump amid growth concerns

Other risks continue to loom, including capital outflow and massive local government debt.

Overall, analysts expect Beijing to consider interest rate cuts, a lower reserve requirement ratio, and further monetary easing to support the economy.

GDP growth in China remains the most comprehensive gauge of the country's economic health -- an important number to watch as the government tries to steer the country towards consumption-driven growth.

China averaged economic expansion of around 10% a year over the past three decades, making it the world's second-largest economy and boosting household wealth. But now, the pace of growth is languishing -- China recorded GDP growth of 7.4% last year, the worst in 24 years, a significant slowdown from double-digit growth in 2010.

The National Bureau of Statistics will announce first quarter GDP numbers on April 15.

Related: The world's hottest stock market is in China

CNNMoney (Hong Kong) April 12, 2015: 10:01 PM ET

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The Obamas paid $93,362 in federal income taxes

President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama reported about the same amount of income in 2014 as they did in 2013.

President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama reported $495,964 in gross income last year, according to their 2014 tax returns released by the White House on Friday afternoon.

The president's salary accounted for nearly $395,000 of that, while their net business income came to $88,181 from Random House and literary management company Dystel & Goderich. They also earned about $16,000 in taxable interest.

After accounting for $17,400 in tax-deferred retirement savings and a $1,181 deduction for the self-employment payroll taxes they paid, their adjusted gross income came to $477,383, just a little less than they earned the year before.

Related: Top 400 taxpayers' average income jumps to $336 million

So how much of all that went to Uncle Sam? The Obamas' federal income tax bite came to $93,362, or 19.6% of their AGI.

A piece of that tax burden -- $2,035 -- was attributable to the Medicare surtax on high earners that was created to help fund Obamacare.

The Obamas donated $70,712, or about 15% of their AGI, to more than 30 charities.

They also paid $22,640 in income taxes to their home state of Illinois.

CNNMoney (New York) April 10, 2015: 6:33 PM ET

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