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☆ Johnson & Johnson’s Talc Plan Spotlights Chapter 11 Voting Power
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-09 | by ( Andrew Scurria | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Johnson & Johnson’s latest plan to resolve mass cancer lawsuits through bankruptcy could force some cosmetic-talc users and their lawyers into a settlement they don’t want, highlighting the leverage that voting majorities enjoy in chapter 11. Plaintiffs’ lawyers are divided over the healthcare-products giant’s $8.9 billion offer to compensate women alleging J&J’s talcum-based baby powder caused them to develop gynecologic cancer or asbestos disease. Some law firms have rejected J&J’s overture, while others representing nearly...

☆ Ron DeSantis and the Florida GOP want to make it harder for public-sector unions to collect dues — with exceptions for police and firemen
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-08 | by ( Ethan Dodd | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

The Florida senate passed a bill that would make it harder for public sector unions to collect dues and recertify. While it will impact Democratic-leaning teachers' unions, along with most other public-sector unions, Republican-supporting police and firefighters' unions will be exempt. By making it harder for public employees to pay their union dues, the law makes it harder for teachers' unions to reach the new 60% threshold and recertify. "The governor's staff apparently called around to see the membership of public unions, specifically teachers," Spar said. Of the 100 local teachers unions Spar represents, 70-75 of those locals would need to hold an election to recertify, he said.

☆ Trump Indictment Accelerates America’s Race to the Bottom
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-06 | by ( Mark Penn | Andrew Stein | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

The demonization of political opponents is entering its next depressing but predictable phase—the use of the most partisan parts of the criminal-justice system to arrest and prosecute political opponents on flimsy charges. Too much of the public, increasingly divorced from bedrock national values, is cheering it on. It’s the logical extension of Donald Trump’s claiming he won the election he lost; of Joe Biden’s branding “MAGA Republicans” a “clear and present danger” to “our democracy”; of right-wing groups planning and executing an assault on the Capitol; of the Russia-collusion hoax; of partisan impeachments; of tech companies censoring political and scientific information to promote ideological and partisan agendas; of retired intelligence officials interfering with the 2020 election by making false claims about the Hunter Biden laptop; of law students shouting down federal judges with the encouragement of university administrators.

☆ Johnson & Johnson Seeks $9 Billion Settlement of Talc Lawsuits
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-05 | by ( Peter Loftus | Andrew Scurria | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Johnson & Johnson has proposed paying at least $8.9 billion to thousands of people who sued the company alleging that their use of J&J’s talc-containing powders caused cancer, in what would be one of the biggest product-liability settlements ever. The company also said Tuesday its LTL Management LLC unit, which J&J had established to deal with the litigation, has refiled for bankruptcy protection to seek approval of the plan to make the payments over 25 years.

☆ Johnson & Johnson Proposes Paying $9 Billion to Settle Talc Lawsuits
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-04 | by ( Peter Loftus | Andrew Scurria | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Johnson & Johnson has stopped selling versions of Johnson’s Baby Powder that contain talc in the U.S. and Canada. Johnson & Johnson said it has proposed to pay at least $8.9 billion to thousands of people who sued the company alleging that their use of J&J’s talc-containing powders caused cancer, in what would be one of the biggest product-liability settlements ever. The company said Tuesday its LTL Management LLC unit has refiled for bankruptcy protection to seek approval of a plan to pay $8.9 billion over 25 years. J&J said more than 60,000 claimants have committed to support the proposed resolution, which requires approval in bankruptcy court.

☆ Weakened euro has fueled opportunity in foreign markets, says Centerstone's Abhay Deshpande
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-04 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailWeakened euro has fueled opportunity in foreign markets, says Centerstone's Abhay DeshpandeAndrew Slimmon, senior portfolio manager at Morgan Stanley Investment Management, and Abhay Deshpande, CIO at Centerstone Investors, join 'The Exchange' to discuss the dollar index under stress, offsetting cyclical stock with defensive ones, and investing in foreign markets.

☆ Watch CNBC's full interview with Morgan Stanley's Andrew Slimmon and Centerstone's Abhay Deshpande
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-04 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailWatch CNBC's full interview with Morgan Stanley's Andrew Slimmon and Centerstone's Abhay DeshpandeAndrew Slimmon, senior portfolio manager at Morgan Stanley Investment Management, and Abhay Deshpande, CIO at Centerstone Investors, join 'The Exchange' to discuss the dollar index under stress, offsetting cyclical stock with defensive ones, and investing in foreign markets.

☆ AUKUS needs to pool tech resources as US edge erodes -Australian intelligence chief
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-04 | by ( Kirsty Needham | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Andrew Shearer, the director-general of the Office of National Intelligence, said the balance of power in the Indo-Pacific region was starting to "shift away from the United States and its allies, undermining deterrence". "We are seeing our longstanding technological edge start to erode, and in some cases that edge is totally gone," he added. Schmidt, who has advised United States Department of Defense on artificial intelligence, said China is organised around drones, hypersonic and automation technology, and this should influence Australia's military spending decisions. Although it was likely there would be decoupling between China and Western allies in critical technology, China was not an enemy and the could work together in other areas, he added. He criticised the U.S. government for restricting Chinese researchers from moving to the United States to work on technologies like quantum computing.

REUTERS/Lawrence Bryant/File PhotoApril 3 (Reuters) - Planned Parenthood on Monday asked a state court judge in Utah to block a law set to take effect next month that would effectively ban abortion clinics from operating in the state. The case is before Judge Andrew Stone, who last year issued a preliminary order preventing the state from enforcing an earlier abortion ban while he hears a legal challenge by Planned Parenthood. Planned Parenthood argued that Stone should block the newer law for the same reason, saying it would ban 95% of abortions in the state if allowed to take effect on May 3. "As promised, Planned Parenthood Association of Utah is fighting back and doing everything in our power to make sure that Utahns can get the care they need to stay healthy," Sarah Stoez, interim president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Association of Utah, said in a statement. Twelve of the 50 U.S. states now ban abortion outright while many others prohibit it after a certain length of pregnancy, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research organization that supports abortion rights.

☆ Potential regulator challenges to Big Tech M&A may have far-reaching consequences for the tech ecosystem
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-30 | by ( Paayal Zaveri | April Joyner | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

M&A deals involving large tech companies may get harder as US regulators ramp up scrutiny. If regulators increase scrutiny, it could deter other large tech companies from buying startups. More challenges to proposed tech M&A deals may also mean that the pool of potential acquirers shrinks. Of course, there are cases where a large tech company seeks to buy out a smaller, more innovative competitor because it is scared of getting displaced. "There has to be the hope and dream of selling to a larger tech company some day," Sherman said.

☆ Ron DeSantis will spend up to $4 billion on school vouchers for Florida families to challenge 'woke' public schools
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-29 | by ( Ethan Dodd | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Ron DeSantis is waging a war against 'woke' public schools. On Monday, the governor signed universal school vouchers into law, which both conservatives and liberals expect to hurt public schools. Public school enrollment has only dropped a few percentage points, from 89.6% to 87.2%, since Republican Gov. Now, however, DeSantis' move to broaden the voucher program to all Florida families could meaningfully threaten funding for public schools. Spar fears universal vouchers "will literally siphon money away" from public schools because it's all under the same education budget.

☆ NASA's James Webb Space Telescope is so powerful it discovered sand storms on a planet 235 trillion miles away
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-22 | by ( Grace Eliza Goodwin | Morgan Mcfall-Johnsen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope found sand storms on a planet hundreds of trillions of miles away. From its vantage point in space, Webb can peer at a distant world and analyze the entire infrared spectrum of starlight passing through the planet's atmosphere. The James Webb Space Telescope fully deploys its primary mirror during development at Northrop Grumman Space Systems in Redondo Beach, California. The spectrum Webb found on the planet VHS 1256 b, showing signatures of silicate clouds, water, methane, and carbon monoxide. That means the stars' light doesn't drown out the light of the planet, making it an ideal target for the Webb telescope.

☆ The priority for Beijing is to deepen its relationship with Russia, analyst says
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-20 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailThe priority for Beijing is to deepen its relationship with Russia, analyst saysAndrew Small, senior fellow at the GMF Indo-Pacific Program, says that the priority for Beijing is to deepen its relationship with Russia, ahead of Chinese president Xi Jinping's meeting with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.

☆ Analysis: China's Xi takes 'diplomatic dance' to Russia
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-18 | by ( John Geddie | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

"There's been kind of an increasingly pronounced diplomatic dance on China's part as the war has played out," said Andrew Small, senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund. The U.S. and European leaders have said intelligence showed China was considering sending arms to Russia, which Beijing has denied. Xi called Putin his "best friend" during a 2019 visit where they admired pandas in a Moscow zoo. It is not clear if there will be any such photo ops this time amid more serious business and the bloody Ukraine war. "Whatever support Xi gives to Russia will be on China’s terms," another European diplomat said.

☆ Analysis: China's Xi takes 'diplomatic dance' to isolated Russia
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-18 | by ( John Geddie | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

Following are some of the issues China and others are likely to be taking into account as it considers prospects for peace in Ukraine. Attempting to broker peace is a low-cost venture that can yield high returns for China, even if a quick breakthrough is highly unlikely, analysts say. The plan got lukewarm welcomes in both Russia and Ukraine while the United States and NATO were sceptical. China expanded trade with Ukraine after Russia invaded Crimea in 2014 and did not recognise the annexed territory as Russian, he said. Days before Russia invaded Ukraine, China and Russia announced a "no-limits" partnership.

☆ ‘Retracing the Iron Curtain’ Review: The Border of Borders
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-15 | by ( Andrew Stuttaford | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

In 2019, writer and historian Timothy Phillips embarked on a 3,000-mile trek along the route of Europe’s postwar dividing line—almost a third was on foot. The trip began in Norway’s far north and ended where Turkey and Azerbaijan meet, and in his engrossing “Retracing the Iron Curtain,” Mr. Phillips uses that journey to tell the story of this brutal “border of borders,” which in the early days after World War II reached much further than is typically recalled. And so Mr. Phillips shows up in Bornholm, a Danish island in the Baltic, which was still being “liberated” by the Soviets when Churchill spoke of an Iron Curtain. The Soviets eventually left, with conditions—just as there were conditions when they handed back Porkkala, a Finnish peninsula a few miles west of Helsinki that for a decade or so had been an exclave of the Leningrad region. The Soviets departed abruptly, but when the Finns returned home, “it wasn’t so much a case of the coffee still steaming on the stove as of the smoke still rising from the wreckage.”

☆ 4 elite stocks to play defense in this tough market
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-10 | by ( Michelle Fox | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

As investors search for calm amid the volatile market, four names stand out as ways to play defense. The companies have low debt, with debt as a percentage of equity under 150%, along with a three-year beta under 1 — meaning they're less volatile than the broader market. It also has a dividend yield of 1.1% and its earnings per share growth for 2023 is expected to be 1%. Its three-year beta is 0.8 and it has a projected earnings per share growth of 8% for 2023. Lastly, Linde has debt as a percentage of equity of nearly 47% and a three-year beta of 1.

Companies Google Inc FollowAlphabet Inc FollowMarch 2 (Reuters) - Consumers suing Alphabet Inc's (GOOGL.O) Google LLC over its data collection practices have lost their early appeal to pursue money damages as a class action seeking billions of dollars. Plaintiffs sued Google in 2020, claiming that Google continued to collect data from users despite their use of private-browsing in Chrome's "Incognito" mode. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco on Wednesday rejected the plaintiffs' bid to appeal a lower court decision last year that denied class action status for money damages claims against Google. The damages class would include at least "tens of millions" of Google browser users, court filings indicate. Google has denied that it deceived anyone over private-browsing, saying its Chrome browser users consented to the company's data collection.

☆ Marc Andreessen says he feels great after quitting drinking 6 months ago, but he's 'super mad' about being so focused and working until bedtime
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-02 | by ( Lakshmi Varanasi | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Veteran venture capitalist Marc Andreessen wrote Wednesday that he stopped drinking alcohol 6 months ago. Andreessen said he feels much better since he stopped drinking. In his post, Andreessen said he never really drank in his 20s and 30s, but "grew to really enjoy whiskey" in his 40s. He referenced a podcast episode from neuroscientist Andrew Huberman that distilled the physiological effects of drinking alcohol on the human body and brain. Andreessen admitted in his post that since he stopped drinking he feels better, and not only sleeps better, but needs less sleep.

☆ Slowing growth is still a significant downside risk to stocks, Morgan Stanley says
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-01 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailSlowing growth is still a significant downside risk to stocks, Morgan Stanley saysAndrew Sheets, chief cross-asset strategist at Morgan Stanley, discusses recent economic data out of the U.K., Europe and the U.S., and the potential risks to stock markets.

☆ It's not just you: Cybercriminals are also using ChatGPT to make their jobs easier
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-26 | by ( Hannah Getahun | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

ChatGPT can quickly generate targeted phishing emails or malicious code for malware attacks. AI companies could be held liable for chatbots counseling criminals since Section 230 may not apply. Sergey Shykevich, a lead ChatGPT researcher at cybersecurity company Checkpoint security, has already seen cybercriminals harness the AI's power to create code that can be used in a ransomware attack. In dealing with unlawful or criminal content on their sites from third-party users, most tech companies cite Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996. In addition, ChatGPT continues to implement guardrails to deter illegal activity, although these guardrails can often be sidestepped with the right script.

☆ The white-gold, black-blue dress controversy raised scientific questions about visual perception, but the way our eyes and brains work explain the illusion
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-26 | by ( Dina Spector | Morgan Mcfall-Johnsen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Depending on whom you ask, this dress might be black and blue or white and gold. Some people saw a blue and black dress, while others saw a white and gold dress. It makes the blue part look white and the black part look gold. In other words, our individual sensitivity to the blue background lighting of the photo is changing how we see the object in the image. The blue bars are the same at the top, bottom, and middle but appear to change color (look darker) as your eyes move down the figure.

☆ Stocks are reversing course as inflation looks sticky with more retail earnings on deck
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-24 | by ( Jesse Pound | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

The optimism about inflation and the U.S. economy is quickly waning on Wall Street, and the early 2023 rally for stocks is fading. The market was under pressure again on Friday after a hotter-than-expected reading for personal consumption expenditures, sending rates higher and stocks lower. Economic updates Next week brings a new round of economic indicators to see how the sticky inflation is affecting consumers and business. Other looks at the economy will come through key earnings reports. Speech by Fed Governor Christopher Waller Friday: 9:45 a.m. Markit Services PMI 10:00 a.m. ISM Services PMI 3:00 p.m.

☆ Two charged with insider trading in Kodak before COVID loan announcement
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-23 | by ( Jonathan Stempel | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The defendants then traded in Kodak stock, resulting in profits of more than $500,000 for Andrew Stiles and more than $700,000 for Gray Stiles, the indictment said. One day before the proposed loan was announced, Andrew Stiles texted his cousin "tmw," prompting Gray Stiles to respond "hot damn," the indictment said. Andrew Stiles was arrested at his Charleston, South Carolina home, and Gray Stiles was arrested in Virginia. Ron Fischetti, a lawyer for Andrew Stiles, said his client's arrest came "out of nowhere" following a year of communications with prosecutors. A lawyer for Gray Stiles did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

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