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The timeline shows the challenges of quickly finding and implementing replacements for Packers Sanitation Services Inc (PSSI), which provides cleaning services at slaughterhouses. "We made the decision to terminate the agreements with PSSI," Hans Kabat, who leads Cargill's protein business in North America, told Reuters. Cargill said it notified PSSI in March that it was terminating services at a beef plant in Dodge City, Kansas, and then followed with all PSSI's sanitation contracts. One of the largest penalties stemmed from PSSI's contracts at Cargill's plant in Dodge City. Cargill, the world's largest ground beef producer, is reviewing options for cleaning plants, Kabat said.

☆ North Dakota governor signs law banning nearly all abortions in the state
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-25 | by ( Shawna Mizelle | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

Doug Burgum of North Dakota signed a near-total abortion ban bill into law Monday. The bill joins other GOP-led legislation aimed at restricting abortion access that has become law in a post-Roe v. Wade world. Georgia, South Carolina, Florida, Ohio and Texas have also passed six-week abortion bans, sparking legal challenges. North Dakota’s new law follows a legal battle over a 2007 trigger law that was blocked by a district judge last year. With the trigger ban on pause, North Dakota law had allowed abortion up until 20 weeks or more post-fertilization.

☆ Selling AR-15-Style Rifles Is Now Banned in 9 States
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-25 | by ( Mike Baker | Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Washington State approved a package of gun control measures on Tuesday that includes a ban on the sale of military-style semiautomatic weapons, making it the ninth state to join efforts to prevent the distribution of AR-15s and other powerful rifles often used in mass shootings. The new laws put Washington in the ranks of states with the strongest gun control measures in the nation. They include a 10-day waiting period on gun purchases, gun safety training requirements and a provision allowing the state attorney general and consumers to sue gun manufacturers or dealers under public nuisance laws if they negligently allow their guns to fall into the hands of minors or “dangerous individuals.”Gun rights proponents swiftly filed a lawsuit to challenge the semiautomatic rifle ban, saying it infringed on Second Amendment rights. Washington is among a series of states, largely led by Democrats, that have advanced gun legislation this year as the nation continues to grapple with repeated mass shootings. Republicans have moved in the opposite direction, with lawmakers in several states introducing legislation to expand the ability to carry concealed weapons without a permit and eliminate such things as gun-free zones, background checks and red-flag laws, which allow the removal of guns from people deemed to be at high risk of violence or self-harm.

☆ Subway is making an epic comeback at the best possible time
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-24 | by ( Gloria Dawson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Subway's global same-store sales surged by more than 12% in the most recent quarter, the chain said. In the most recent quarter, global same-store sales surged by more than 12%, the chain said. He told Restaurant Business that Subway currently has 16,500 stores overseas but believes it should have 40,000 or even 60,000. Subway's recent menu updates have helped spur growth. In February, Subway's app was the third-most downloaded fast-food app in the US, logging 1 million downloads, Apptopia said in an article published in QSR Magazine.

☆ Inside the AI talent wars: Tech companies are ransacking university AI programs at Stanford, MIT, and Cornell in search of engineers
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-24 | by ( Stephanie Palazzolo | Melia Russell | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +11 min

Driven by the recent AI boom, companies are raiding top college campuses for rare technical talent. She's currently on leave from her Stanford AI Ph.D. program to focus on Moonhub. In 2011, new AI Ph.D. graduates took jobs in the tech industry and academia in about equal measure. But since then, the majority of new grads have headed to the AI industry, with nearly double the percentage of AI Ph.D. grads taking industry jobs versus academic roles in 2021, according to Stanford's Institute for Human-Centered AI's 2023 AI Index Report. "All AI companies have roles for people with Ph.D.s and without," said Attaluri, the soon-to-be researcher at DeepMind.

☆ Michigan passes 3 gun safety laws, and lawmakers say they're not done yet: 'We don't have to live like this'
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-23 | by ( Katie Balevic | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

The Michigan governor has signed multiple gun safety laws this month, including more background checks. Gretchen Whitmer is expected to also sign a "red flag" law, allowing judges to confiscate guns from people they deem dangerous. Lawmakers say they hope to target gun manufacturers and domestic abusers next, per Bridge Michigan. The new background check law requires checks for all firearms purchased in Michigan and strengthens penalties for illegal sales. Next on their gun safety agenda, Michigan state Democratic lawmakers say they hope to keep domestic abusers from getting their hands on firearms, ban the sale of large-capacity magazines, and force gun manufacturers to be liable for gun deaths, the Bridge Michigan reported.

☆ Many States Are Trying to Restrict Gender Treatments for Adults, Too
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-22 | by ( Azeen Ghorayshi | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Missouri this month became the first state in the country to severely restrict gender treatments for people of all ages, following a series of quieter moves across the country that have been chipping away at transgender adults’ access to medical care. Last year, Florida joined six other states in banning Medicaid from covering some form of gender care for transgender people of all ages. These bans affect an estimated 38,000 beneficiaries of the public insurance program, according to the Williams Institute, a research center at U.C.L.A.’s law school. And in at least five states, Republican legislators have proposed bills that would abolish gender care for minors as well as young adults. The rule also said that patients should not receive gender treatments until any mental health issues are “resolved.”

☆ Snap CEO Evan Spiegel says he would love a US TikTok ban in the short term
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-21 | by ( Beatrice Nolan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Snap CEO Evan Spiegel says the company would love a US TikTok ban in the short term. TikTok is being reviewed by Congress, which has concerns about data privacy. Snap CEO Evan Spiegel says the company would love a US TikTok ban — but only in the short term. Spiegel was asked by a reporter at the Snap Partner Summit on Wednesday if he thought Congress should ban TikTok. "In the short term, that is something that would help us out."

But many medical associations have said the law is transphobic and that gender-affirming care can be life-saving. The new lawsuit says depriving transgender youth of medically necessary care will have devastating consequences for them and their families. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of three families with transgender children and a Memphis-based doctor who performs gender-affirming procedures. Republican Tennessee Governor Bill Lee signed the ban into law last month along with a separate measure restricting drag performances in public. Several other U.S. states have banned gender-affirming care for minors, and over the last several weeks groups have sued over laws adopted in Utah, Florida, Indiana and Arkansas.

☆ Montana Republicans are trying to censure a transgender legislator for castigating them about a bill banning gender-affirming care for minors
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Madison Hall | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Democratic Montana Rep. Zooey Zephyr is the state's first openly transgender legislator. Following her speech, Montana's Freedom Caucus demanded Zephyr be censured. Additionally, the caucus also misgendered Zephyr, the first openly transgender member of the Montana legislature, in the letter. House Minority Leader Kim Abbott, in a statement to the Helena Independent Record, admonished the Montana Freedom Caucus for disrespecting her colleague. "I stand by my accurate description of the devastating consequences of banning essential medical care for transgender youth," Zephyr wrote.

☆ Republicans Call for Censure of Transgender Lawmaker Who Condemned Care Ban
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Remy Tumin | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Representative Zooey Zephyr took to the floor of the Montana Legislature on Tuesday to make an impassioned plea for her colleagues to reject a bill that would ban transition care for transgender minors, saying that denying such care would be “tantamount to torture.”“This body should be ashamed,” Ms. Zephyr, a first-term Democrat and the Legislature’s first transgender member, said. “If you vote yes on this bill and yes on these amendments I hope the next time there’s an invocation, when you bow your heads in prayer, you see the blood on your hands.”The Montana Freedom Caucus, a group of conservative lawmakers, responded by accusing Ms. Zephyr in a letter of “attempting to shame the legislative body” by using “hateful rhetoric.” The letter, which misgendered Ms. Zephyr, called for her to be censured. On Thursday, however, the House adjourned without taking that step. It was unclear if they planned to take up the matter on Friday.

☆ Top pro leagues, media outlets team up to combat problematic sports-betting ads
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-19 | by ( Stefan Sykes | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

The nation's top professional leagues are teaming up with some TV broadcasters to tackle irresponsible sports-betting advertising. The NFL, NBA, NHL, MLB, WNBA, NASCAR, and MLS have joined media companies NBCUniversal and Fox to form The Coalition for Responsible Sports Betting Advertising. The coalition, led by NFL vice president of public policy and government affairs, Jonathan Nabavi, aims to regulate sports-betting advertising as it floods television, internet and print media. The move comes as sports betting becomes legal in more states and opponents worry its advertising targets minors. The National Council on Problem Gambling has commended the coalition and promised to work in collaboration with it to "better mitigate problem gambling related harm."

☆ Porn on Amazon's Kindle app prompts warnings from Apple, Alphabet
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-18 | by ( Greg Bensinger | Thomson Reuters | Greg Bensinger Joined Reuters As A Technology Correspondent In Focusing On The World'S Largest Technology Companies. He Was Previously A Member Of The New York Times Editorial Board | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

Reuters learned of the issue when two families told Reuters their pre-teen sons downloaded the explicit material via Amazon's Kindle Unlimited e-book subscription service and viewed the full-color photographs on the Kindle iPhone app. Pornography also is available through Amazon's Kindle online store and viewable on versions of the Kindle app. The adult material at issue is primarily self-published through Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing arm. The Apple app store’s guidelines “prohibit apps dedicated to portraying overtly sexual or pornographic material,” the company said in a statement. As of Monday, adult materials were still accessible on Kindle and Kindle Unlimited via the iOS and Android apps.

☆ A Comfort Inn hotel in Tennessee employed 2 children under the age of 12, the labor department says
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-15 | by ( Grace Dean | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

A hotel in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, employed two children under the age of 12, the DOL said. The operators of the Comfort Inn hotel also paid some workers below the minimum wage, it said. The DOL said in the lawsuit that since at least March 2021, Pigeon Forge Hospitality had employed "oppressive child labor" by hiring two minors under the age of 12. It had also employed a 15-year-old to perform baking and cooking activities that weren't allowed for their age group. The lawsuit doesn't state the name of the hotel, but the DOL press release said that Pigeon Forge Hospitality and Patel operated a Comfort Inn hotel in the city.

☆ Should parents decide what their kids do online? These states think so
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-15 | by ( Samantha Murphy Kelly | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

That, at least, is the vision emerging from a growing number of states introducing — and in some cases passing — legislation intended to protect kids online. Now, in the absence of federal legislation, states are taking action, and raising some alarms in the process. On the surface, providing more guardrails for teens is a step forward that some parents may welcome after years of worrying about the potential harms kids face on social media. “Not all parents are passionate, kind and supportive of their kids, and even the ones who are don’t have the capacity or time to deal with the 24/7 nature of social media,” said Heitner. “It’s an unfair burden.”Enforcement issuesGiven that the bills are unprecedented, it’s unclear how exactly social media companies will adapt and enforce it.

☆ Bans on Transition Care for Young People Spread Across U.S.
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-15 | by ( Francesca Paris | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Florida’s state medical boards also issued a rule last year prohibiting doctors from offering gender-affirming care to new patients under 18. Though not a law, the decree has the same effect of ending care. Two more state legislatures, in Oklahoma and South Carolina, have successfully pushed major hospitals to stop providing gender-affirming care for minors by linking the care to the use of public funds. And hospitals have faced significant harassment for providing gender-affirming care in the last few years. Republican state legislators have called gender-affirming care experimental and harmful, and say that children are not mature enough to make permanent decisions.

☆ A Florida Republican who sponsored an anti-drag bill 'can't answer' whether his wife's charity event featuring 'sultry performers' would be criminalized under his own law
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-14 | by ( Erin Snodgrass | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

A Florida Republican couldn't say whether his wife's charity event would flout his anti-drag bill. The wife of Rep. Randy Fine is hosting a gala featuring "sultry performers," and kids have attended in the past. The description for the event advertises an "evening filled with sultry performers." But the lawmaker could not ultimately answer whether such an event would be criminalized if his bill becomes law. "That said, whether this law passes or not, I would agree that children should not be invited to an event involving 'sultry performers,'" he added.

☆ Mike Pence in pink boots, Ron DeSantis in a big ball gown. Here's how the 'RuPublicans' Instagram account uses AI art to call out GOP lawmakers — by dressing them in drag.
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-14 | by ( Aditi Bharade | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

The "RuPublicans" Instagram account posts AI-generated pictures of GOP lawmakers in full drag. The images range from Mike Pence in sparkly pink boots to Ron DeSantis in a big ball gown. The images are the work of an Instagram account called "RuPublicans," which uses AI to dress Republican lawmakers in drag — complete with frills, feathers, jewels, and wigs. Some of the GOP lawmakers in drag have a history of pushing anti-trans rhetoricSeveral GOP lawmakers that the "RuPublicans" account called out have, in the past, pushed anti-trans messages. Representatives of Pence, DeSantis, Graham, Cruz, Hawley, and McConnell did not immediately respond to Insider's requests for comment sent outside regular business hours.

☆ Catholic leader accuses Ron DeSantis — who has positioned himself as a defender of the Christian faith — and Florida Republicans of seeking to criminalize 'empathy' with new anti-immigrant crackdown
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-14 | by ( Charles R. Davis | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Miami Archbishop Thomas Wenski says a Republican immigration bill would criminalize "empathy." Wenski accused Florida Republicans of trying to "demonize" vulnerable people. In a statement issued Thursday, Miami Archbishop Thomas Wenski echoed that criticism, accusing Florida Republicans of playing state-level politics with a federal issue. It is not the first time that DeSantis and Florida's Republicans have run afoul of the Catholic Church. In February, the Florida Catholic Conference, which represents the state's bishops, told Insider that it opposes a DeSantis-led push to expand the death penalty.

☆ Missouri's attorney general opened a new front in the GOP's attacks on transgender people: banning treatment for any adult with depression
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-13 | by ( Chris Panella | Brent D. Griffiths | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Adults with depression are banned from seeking care until their mental health issues are resolved. Attorney General Andrew Bailey's sweeping regulation would prohibit medical providers from providing gender-affirming care unless a number of requirements are met. The ACLU of Missouri previously said that the attorney general, a Republican, overstepped his authority when it condemned Bailey's initial announcement of the policy in March. The state attorney general is basing his regulation on a law aimed at fraudulent business practices, The Missouri Independent reported. Republicans and conservatives have moved to restrict gender-affirming care and other trans rights in recent years.

The deal, which also included Colorado, Illinois, Massachusetts and New Mexico, means that San Francisco-based Juul has now settled with 45 states for more than $1 billion. The various states had accused Juul of falsely marketing its e-cigarettes as less addictive than cigarettes and targeted minors with glamorous advertising campaigns. It previously reached a $439 million settlement with 34 states and territories, as well as settlements with several individual states. As of December, its share of Juul was valued at $250 million, down from $12.8 billion in 2018. The CDC also has said using nicotine in adolescence may raise the risk for future addiction to other drugs.

NEW YORK, April 12 (Reuters) - E-cigarette maker Juul Labs Inc has agreed to pay $462 million to settle claims by six U.S. states including New York and California that it unlawfully marketed its addictive products to minors, the states announced on Wednesday. With the deal, Juul has now settled with 45 states for more than $1 billion. The states had accused Juul of falsely marketing its e-cigarettes as less addictive than cigarettes and targeted minors with glamorous advertising campaigns. As of December, its share of Juul was valued at $250 million, down from $12.8 billion in 2018. The CDC also has said using nicotine in adolescence may raise the risk for future addiction to other drugs.

☆ Juul settlement: E-cigarette maker to pay $462 million in several states for marketing nicotine for youth vaping
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-12 | by ( Associated Press | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Juul Labs Inc. will pay $462 million for its role in the youth vaping surge. The settlement includes restrictions on Juul's marketing and distribution of vaping products. Like some other settlements reached by Juul, this latest includes restrictions on the marketing and distribution of the company's vaping products. For example, it is barred from any direct or indirect marketing that targets youth, which includes anyone under age 35. The spokesperson added that underage use of Juul products has declined by 95% since 2019 based on the National Youth Tobacco Survey.

☆ Juul to pay $462 million to six states in its largest settlement ever
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-12 | by ( Jordan Valinsky | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

New York CNN —Juul Labs, the e-cigarette maker, is paying $462 million to six US states and DC in the largest multi-state settlement yet for the troubled company that has been accused of contributing to the rise of vaping among youth. Based on responses to the 2022 National Youth Tobacco Survey, 14.1% of high school students and 3.3% of middle school students reported using e-cigarettes within the previous 30 days. California is getting $175.8 million, Illinois is getting $67.6 million, Massachusetts is getting $41.7 million, Colorado is getting $31.7 million, New Mexico is getting $17 million and District of Columbia is getting $15 million. West Virginia said on Monday that Juul is paying $7.9 million for similar accusations of marketing toward youth. Last summer, the FDA ordered Juul products to be removed from the US market.

☆ ChatGPT can resume in Italy if meets data watchdog's demands
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-12 | by ( Elvira Pollina | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Almost two weeks ago Microsoft Corp-backed (MSFT.O) OpenAI took ChatGPT offline in Italy after the authority, known as Garante, temporarily restricted its personal data processing and began a probe into a suspected breach of privacy rules. The authority said OpenAI is required to inform users in Italy of "the methods and logic" behind the processing of data necessary for ChatGPT to operate. OpenAI should also allow non-users to oppose "in a simple and accessible manner" the processing of their personal data to run its algorithms, Garante said. Spain's data protection agency has asked the European Union's privacy watchdog to evaluate privacy concerns surrounding ChatGPT. In February, the Italian regulator banned AI chatbot company Replika from using the personal data of users in Italy, citing risks to minors and emotionally fragile people.

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