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☆ The 10 Senate seats most likely to flip in 2024
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-30 | by ( Simone Pathe | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +19 min

The GOP needs a net gain of one or two seats to flip the chamber, depending on which party wins the White House in 2024, and it’s Democrats who are defending the tougher seats. Jim Justice announcing his Senate bid in West Virginia – the seat most likely to flip party control in 2024. In a presidential year, the national environment is likely to loom large, especially with battleground states hosting key Senate races. Two businessmen with the ability to tap into or raise significant resources could be in the mix – Eric Hovde, who lost the GOP Senate nomination in 2012, and Scott Mayer. Still, unseating Cruz in a state Trump won by nearly 6 points in 2020 will be a tall order.

☆ FAA Acting Chief Billy Nolen to Depart
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-21 | by ( Andrew Tangel | Alison Sider | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Billy Nolen has taken himself out of consideration by the White House to fill the job permanently. Photo: Anna Moneymaker/Getty ImagesThe Federal Aviation Administration faces a potential leadership vacuum as its acting chief, Billy Nolen, has decided to leave the U.S. air-safety regulator. Mr. Nolen announced his departure plans Friday in a letter to agency employees. He plans to leave the agency sometime this summer, according to his letter.

☆ House Set to Vote on Transgender Sports Ban
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( David Harrison | Louise Radnofsky | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

The House transgender sports bill faces dimmer prospects in the Senate, where Democrats hold a majority. Photo: Anna Moneymaker/Getty ImagesThe Republican-controlled House is set to take up legislation Thursday effectively barring transgender girls and women from competing in female event categories in school sports, a vote that is likely to fall along party lines. The bill is unlikely to pass the Senate, where Democrats are the majority. But Thursday’s vote reflects House Republicans’ desire to weigh in on one of the most contentious issues in sports—and culture.

☆ House Approves Transgender Sports Ban
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( David Harrison | Louise Radnofsky | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

The House transgender sports bill faces dimmer prospects in the Senate, where Democrats hold a majority. Photo: Anna Moneymaker/Getty ImagesThe Republican-controlled House approved a bill Thursday that effectively bars transgender girls and women from competing in female event categories in school sports. The 219-203 vote fell along party lines, with all Democrats present voting against it. The measure is unlikely to pass the Senate, where Democrats are the majority. But Thursday’s vote reflects House Republicans’ desire to weigh in on one of the most contentious issues in sports and culture.

☆ Big tech companies continue cost cutting
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-03 | by ( Paayal Zaveri | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Tech companies have chased short-term fads in a desperate attempt to win the favor of Wall Street investors — and it's making the online experience worse. As tech companies continue to focus on efficiency, it's clear that one metric is the most important: revenue per employee. After years of over-hiring, tech companies are now looking to squeeze the most efficient performance from each worker, my colleague Hasan Chowdhury reports. But it's another sign that tech companies are drifting away from pro-remote work policies. Google, Meta, and Microsoft have all failed to make their AR and VR devices into mainstream successes.

☆ Starbucks fires Alexis Rizzo, the Buffalo union worker who 'ignited a movement' to organize
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-02 | by ( Ramishah Maruf | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

New York CNN —Starbucks has fired a Buffalo, New York, worker who “ignited a movement” from one of the first stores in the coffee chain to unionize, Starbucks Workers United said Friday. Alexis Rizzo had been shift supervisor at the Genesee Street store in Buffalo for 7 years, the union said. “This is retaliation at its worst,” a statement from Starbucks Workers United said. Nearly 300 locations have voted to join Starbucks Workers United. “What is outrageous to me is not only Starbucks’ anti-union activities and their willingness to break the law, it is their calculated and intentional efforts to stall, stall and stall,” Sanders said during the hearing.

☆ The Nasdaq 100 just entered a fresh bull market - and a top analyst says tech names look like the new safety trade
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-31 | by ( Phil Rosen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Those rate forecasts have bolstered tech names, and mega-caps like Apple and Microsoft have pulled the Nasdaq higher. "While it sounds like Twilight Zone comment to many investors, tech stocks have become the new safety trade with Big Tech names a major beneficiary of this dynamic," Ives, a managing director and senior equity research analyst at Wedbush, wrote in a note. "And these tech stocks have been under owned and still remain in that camp in our opinion." Short sellers generated paper profit of $14 billion betting against bank stocks over the last month. Shorting bank names in March produced a "wide swath of profitable trades that returned +17.2% in less than a month," S3 Partners said.

A Manhattan grand jury voted to indict Donald Trump, possibly over a "hush-money" payment. Here's a timeline of Trump and Daniels' alleged relationship, the $130,000 payment to keep Daniels silent, and the testimonies leading to a possible indictment. Markus Schreiber/APManhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg convened a grand jury in mid-January of this year to consider an indictment against Trump. And Trump's former fixer and lawyer Michael Cohen, prosecutors' key witness, has made repeated visits to the DA's office and to the grand jury. Anna Moneymaker/Getty ImagesThe Manhattan grand jury voted to indict Trump on Thursday, March 30.

☆ Republicans are starting to split over exactly how — and whether — to ban TikTok
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-30 | by ( Bryan Metzger | Eliza Relman | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Republicans generally support banning TikTok, but they're beginning to disagree on how. Sen. Rand Paul has also come out against a TikTok ban, blocking a bill from Sen. Josh Hawley. But even among Republicans who favor a TikTok ban, there are growing concerns about the RESTRICT Act — arguably the most prominent proposal put forward to deal with the issue. "So, I think we should ban TikTok. "It's worse than banning TikTok, because it can be applied to lots of other companies," said Paul.

☆ TikTok CEO set for grilling in House hearing. But U.S. lawmakers also face questions
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-23 | by ( Lauren Feiner | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +15 min

U.S. tech platforms including Meta's Facebook and Instagram, Google's YouTube , Twitter and Snap's Snapchat have raised similar fears for lawmakers and users. Evaluating a potential banThere's little appetite in Washington to accept the potential risks that TikTok's ownership by Chinese company ByteDance poses to U.S. national security. The interagency panel tasked with reviewing national security risks stemming from ByteDance's ownership has threatened a ban if the company won't sell its stake in the app. Trahan said members should ask about national security risks of the app, but those questions should be substantive. Bowman noted lawmakers haven't received a bipartisan congressional briefing from the administration on national security risks stemming from TikTok.

☆ Google nixes paying out remainder of maternity and medical leave for laid-off employees
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-17 | by ( Jennifer Elias | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +10 min

The group includes people who were approved for or are currently on maternity leave, baby bonding leave, caregiver's leave, medical leave and personal leave. Early last year, Google announced it would be increasing parental leave for full-time employees to 18 weeks for all parents and 24 weeks for birth parents. Pichai said U.S.-based employees would receive 16 weeks of severance pay plus two weeks for each additional year they worked at Google. The Laid off on Leave group sent its first email to executives in January, and shared specific examples of Google employees impacted by the job cuts while on their previously approved leave. The company didn't address whether it would cover full medical leave on top of the severance payout.

"Not only are these big banks not sitting around and waiting for the phone to ring, they are also being proactive." Amid the nation's most troubling turmoil in banking since the global financial crisis nearly 15 years ago, the big banks are flexing their collective muscle. The 2008 financial crisis humbled the banking behemoths; the 2023 crisis of regional banks has now only cemented their power. For an increasingly stretched financial system, the big banks provide a needed stability. The flight to safety that is benefiting the big banks will have a cost, however.

☆ 'I hate him passionately': New court documents reveal Tucker Carlson's true feelings about Donald Trump
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-08 | by ( Natalie Musumeci | Sonam Sheth | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

Fox News host Tucker Carlson's true feelings about former President Donald Trump have been revealed. 'I hate him passionately'In one exchange, Carlson fantasized about not having to cover Trump after the 2020 election, saying that he "passionately" hated Trump. Referring to the decision desk staffers who made the Arizona call, Carlson texted: "Those fuckers are destroying our credibility. At another point in the same day, Carlson texted that "we've got to be incredibly careful right now. Tucker Carlson, who's ardently supported former President Donald Trump on his show, privately said he hated Trump, court filings show.

☆ The UFO shoot-downs show the hardest part of discovering alien life may be announcing it. Here's how NASA might break the news.
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-18 | by ( Morgan Mcfall-Johnsen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

Extraterrestrial life likely wouldn't show up as flying objects, but finding it could cause similar chaos. An illustration of the CoLD scale for determining confidence in a detection of alien life. The president or other countries could be involved in announcing extraterrestrial life existsPresident Joe Biden speaks at Delaware State University. Anna Moneymaker/Getty ImagesAnnouncing the existence of alien life would be an "administration-level" affair, Glaze said, referring to the US presidency. Needless to say, any discovery of alien life would likely lead to chaos — at least in public discourse.

☆ Elderly senators have mixed feelings about Nikki Haley's call for 'mandatory mental competency tests' for politicians over 75
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-16 | by ( Bryan Metzger | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Nikki Haley is calling for "mandatory mental competency tests" for politicians over the age of 75. Over a sixth of the US Senate is age 75 or older. "We'll have term limits for Congress, and mandatory mental competency tests for politicians over 75 years old." "I think she should test her own mental competency," said Democratic Sen. Mazie Hirono of Hawaii, who recently turned 75. Republican Sen. Jim Risch of Idaho said he'd take a mental competency test Drew Angerer/Getty ImagesSome aging lawmakers expressed general openness to taking the test.

☆ Google CEO tells employees some of company's top products 'were not first to market' as A.I. pressure mounts
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-15 | by ( Jennifer Elias | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Google CEO Sundar Pichai speaks at a panel at the CEO Summit of the Americas hosted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce on June 09, 2022 in Los Angeles, California. “I know this moment is uncomfortably exciting, and that's to be expected: the underlying technology is evolving rapidly with so much potential,” Pichai wrote in a companywide email, which was viewed by CNBC. "Some of our most successful products were not first to market,” Pichai wrote. He said it's time to “embrace the challenge and keep iterating.”“Channel the energy and excitement of the moment into our products," Pichai wrote. “Pressure test Bard and make the product better.”WATCH: CNBC's full interview with Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai

☆ Retailers are hoarding labor even as tech layoffs mount
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-14 | by ( Avery Hartmans | Dominick Reuter | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Some retailers are bucking the trend of layoffs and holding on to workers. But on the store level, retailers are holding on tight to their workers, even seasonal workers who they typically would have dismissed by now, in a practice known as "labor hoarding." "The concept of labor hoarding is alive and well," Kenneth Kim, a senior economist at KPMG, told Insider. Anna Moneymaker/Getty ImagesThose layoffs don't seem to be an emerging trend in the retail sector, Kim from KPMG said. And while there were 417,000 job cuts in January, the official models were accounting for a lot more, since that's when many retailers typically begin laying off seasonal workers.

Shortly after the opening bell, we'll be buying 55 shares of Caterpillar (CAT) at roughly $247 a share, and selling 100 shares of Qualcomm (QCOM) at roughly $132.25 apiece. With CAT shares down more than 5% since last Tuesday, we reiterate that the recent pullback is a long-term buying opportunity. To fund this purchase, we're scaling back our position in Qualcomm on a near cash-for-cash basis. The semiconductor firm on Feb. 2 delivered softer-than-anticipated guidance , while warning that weak smartphone demand would keep handset chip inventories elevated through the first half of 2023, longer than expected. (Jim Cramer's Charitable Trust is long CAT, QCOM, APPL.

☆ Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene is cleaning up her image and cozying up with GOP leadership to gain power. It's working.
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-01 | by ( Madison Hall | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene is cozying up with GOP leadership after two years of being an outsider. Two years later, under Republican leadership, she's angling herself into positions of power. It's clear she's learned valuable lessons from two of her GOP colleagues, Rep. Lauren Boebert and former Rep. Madison Cawthorn. In spite of this, Gingrich ultimately gained prominence among the GOP, becoming the Republican whip and later speaker of the House. Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia takes a selfie with Kevin McCarthy after his election as speaker of the House.

☆ House GOP study group is proposing changes to Medicare. Here's what you need to know
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-26 | by ( Sarah O'Brien | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

There also is Part D (prescription drug coverage) and Part C (Medicare Advantage Plans), both of which are offered by private insurers. The stakes in a debate like this are high, given the importance of Medicare. Tricia Neuman executive director for the Kaiser Family Foundation's program on Medicare policyRight now, Neuman said, the savings proposals are being described at a fairly high level. "The policy debate starts to get real when the specifics are laid out," she said. "The stakes in a debate like this are high, given the importance of Medicare [for] seniors and younger people with disabilities."

☆ Candidates to become top Biden economist include Fed Vice Chair Lael Brainard, Treasury official Wally Adeyemo
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-25 | by ( Matt Egan | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

The process to replace Deese as head of the powerful National Economic Council remains ongoing and the situation is fluid, the person said. The Washington Post first reported the leading candidates to replace Deese. Brainard was viewed as a leading contender to become Fed chair before Biden ultimately decided to renominate Jerome Powell. Brainard, a former Treasury official in the Obama administration and a Fed governor since 2014, was instead elevated to vice chair, the central bank’s No. U.S. Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo on October 13, 2022 in Washington, DC.

WASHINGTON — Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego announced Monday he will run for the Arizona U.S. Senate seat currently held by centrist Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, who left the Democratic Party in December to become an independent. In his statement Monday, Gallego said: “The problem isn’t that Senator Sinema abandoned the Democratic Party — it’s that she’s abandoned Arizona. Karrin Taylor Robson, who narrowly lost to Lake in the 2022 primary after spending $20 million of her family’s money, is seriously considering a Senate run, a source close to her said. And Mark Lamb, the Pinal County sheriff, is also considering a Senate run in 2024, said an Arizona Republican source. A Gallego adviser said he's prepared for a two-way race if Sinema steps aside or a three-way race if she chooses to run.

☆ Matt Gaetz tried playing kingmaker during the House speaker vote after spending 2 years as a political pariah. Republicans say the grandstanding is unlikely to stop.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-23 | by ( Warren Rojas | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz was a key player in the House speaker vote fight. "I don't think this guy's looking to be a policymaker," the GOP strategist told Insider. Doug Heye, a former House leadership aide turned GOP strategist, said the jury's still very much out on Gaetz's motivations and his endgame. Or, it could be as easy as believing that guy who donned a gas mask to ridicule a House vote on COVID-19 relief is committed to troublemaking. Not a workaholicA former House GOP leadership aide said Gaetz's reputation precedes him on Capitol HIll.

☆ Here’s what will happen to the economy as the debt ceiling drama deepens
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-22 | by ( Alicia Wallace | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

Minneapolis CNN —After the United States hit its debt ceiling on Thursday, the Treasury Department is now undertaking “extraordinary measures” to keep paying the government’s bills. And Americans — many people — would lose their jobs and certainly their borrowing costs would rise.”Dire warnings of debt ceiling trouble aren’t new. “2011 was the first time in a long time that we came close to a debt ceiling breach,” he said. “I think you would be hard pressed to say [the debt ceiling debacle] was a positive thing,” he said. Considering the potential consequences in the United States and abroad, Sheiner believes the debt ceiling will be lifted or suspended — eventually.

Those confidentiality interests include not divulging information on ongoing investigations, Urierte said. Jordan sent Garland a letter demanding information on that investigation last week. Longstanding Department policy prevents us from confirming or denying the existence of pending investigations in response to congressional requests or providing non-public information about our investigations,” the letter said. Without prioritization, requests will take longer to resolve and will be more likely to yield irrelevant information," the letter said. The committee responded in a tweet later Friday, saying, "Why’s DOJ scared to cooperate with our investigations?"

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