Lyft to halt California service by 11:59 p.m. Thursday

Publicly traded ride-hailing giant Lyft's chariots are now, in the parlance of fairy tales, turning into pumpkins by midnight. Lyft (NYSE: LYFT) made the announcement Thursday morning that it will suspend its California service by the end of the day. On a blog post, the company stated that its business model has been upended by the new employment model for its drivers mandated under AB 5, something the company claims would cost 80% of drivers to lose work and the rest to be capped at hourly earnings. "This…