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☆ Disney has a ‘strong case’ against DeSantis over his ‘retaliatory campaign,’ First Amendment experts say
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( Oliver Darcy | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

CNN —Disney just cast Ron DeSantis as the villain in a story of good versus evil. DeSantis responded to the lawsuit by issuing a statement through his communications director, Taryn Fenske. “It’s a serious First Amendment case,” Floyd Abrams, the renowned First Amendment attorney of Pentagon Papers fame, told me. The truth is that characterizing Disney as a creepy company that aims to morally bankrupt kids has become a mainstream position in GOP media circles. DeSantis knows this — which is why he was happy to pick this battle with the company.

☆ 2023 layoff tracker: The latest on which companies have announced job cuts
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-25 | by ( Jennifer Korn | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +20 min

New York CNN —BuzzFeed, Lyft, Whole Foods and Deloitte all recently announced layoffs affecting thousands of US workers. With 11,000 job cuts announced in November and the 10,000 announced in March, Meta’s headcount will fall to around 66,000 — a total reduction of about 25%. The company announced in January that it was eliminating some 18,000 positions as part of a major cost-cutting bid at the e-commerce giant. IndeedJob listing website Indeed.com announced cuts of approximately 2,200 employees, representing almost 15% of its total workforce, the company said in March. The cuts come after the company announced several rounds of job cuts throughout the pandemic due to falling demand, followed by rapid hiring last year.

The reason this news pioneer is closingBuzzFeed’s decision to shut its news division — an innovator in digital journalism that published both prizewinning investigations and listicles designed to get clicks — drew many bittersweet tributes online. But its closure is the latest reminder that digital media start-ups, which deep-pocketed investors once valued at astronomical sums, are facing headwinds. With even tech giants struggling to navigate hurdles like a declining advertising market, smaller companies are facing potentially existential crises. BuzzFeed and its peers have also suffered from the same drop-off in online ads that is forcing sharp job cuts at Alphabet, Meta and others. BuzzFeed used one to list on the Nasdaq in late 2021 — and ended up raising just $16 million, far short of the $250 million it could have collected.

Many other hospitals were also reported to have come under attack on Monday, the third day of fighting in Sudan. Russia has also been trying to make inroads in Sudan, and members of the Kremlin-affiliated Wagner private military company are posted there. Leaders from around the world called for a cease-fire, but it was not clear who, if anyone, was in control of Sudan, Africa’s third-largest country, by area. “Everyone is afraid,” said Ahmed Abuhurira, a 28-year-old mechanical engineer who went out to try to charge his cellphone. “The humanitarian situation in Sudan was already precarious and is now catastrophic,” he said.

☆ Supreme Court Sides With Employee in Overtime Case
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-23 | by ( Jess Bravin | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

The oil-rig supervisor sued Helix Energy Solutions Group, which runs an offshore platform in the Gulf of Mexico. WASHINGTON—The Supreme Court on Wednesday declined to narrow eligibility for overtime pay, ruling 6-3 that an oil-rig supervisor making $200,000 a year qualified because he was paid by the day rather than receiving a fixed salary. “Employees are not ‘deprived of the benefits of [overtime compensation] simply because they are well paid,’” Justice Elena Kagan wrote for the court, citing a 1945 precedent involving mine workers. Besides, she added, nurses and many other workers making far less than those in the petroleum industry could lose overtime if the court ruled against Michael J. Hewitt, the “tool-pusher” who sued for back pay from Helix Energy Solutions Group Inc.

☆ New cars are crazy expensive but, if you’re careful, they don’t have to be
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-11 | by ( Peter Valdes-Dapena | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

Yet the average sticker for base models, adjusted for inflation, has actually gone down a little — even as consumers have shifted from sedans to more expensive SUVs. That’s good news for drivers willing to go no-frills: If you don’t want to pay lots of a new car, you don’t have to. It has a base price of $15,730. These base price models may not make much money, if any, for automakers. The average price of a GMC Sierra 2500 HD, as sold, is now double the base price.

☆ Fact Check-Viral tweet about Twitter employee fired after 6.5 years stems from satire account
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-10 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

A satire account posting as if they were an employee who had gotten fired from Twitter is being taken seriously by some online users. The user claiming to be the employee (@jdan) routinely posts content that is satirical in nature. The account does not clearly label itself as parody or satire but has previously touted working for Apple and Twitter with comical connotations. Another indicator the account posts parody is its bio, which says, “Author of the critically-acclaimed ‘Harry Potter’ series of children's fantasy novels.” J.K. Rowling is the real creator of the series (here). The tweet originates from an account that routinely posts satirical content.

☆ The Looting of Johnson & Johnson
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-04 | by ( The Editorial Board | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Trial lawyers don’t like threats to their business model, so they can thank the Third Circuit Court of Appeals for protecting the jackpot-justice status quo. A three-judge panel ruled this week that Johnson & Johnson can’t use the bankruptcy system to administer tens of thousands of talc claims, and it kicked the cases back to regular litigation. The fund the company created to pay talc claimants had too much money. In 2021, faced with proliferating lawsuits claiming that talcum powder caused a variety of ills, J&J restructured itself into two limited liability companies. One became “new” J&J and the other, called LTL, was given the talc liabilities and declared bankruptcy.

Jan 30 (Reuters) - A U.S. appeals court on Monday shot down Johnson & Johnson's (JNJ.N) attempt to offload tens of thousands of lawsuits over its talc products into bankruptcy court. The appeals court ruling revives those lawsuits. Monday's decision by the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia dismissed the bankruptcy filed by the J&J subsidiary in 2021. The appeals court decision could force companies considering the strategy to more carefully consider its risks, two legal experts said. The Texas two-step has garnered criticism from Democratic lawmakers in Washington, and inspired proposed legislation that would severely restrict the practice.

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☆ US court rejects J&J bankruptcy strategy for tens of thousands of talc lawsuits
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-30 | by ( ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

J&J said it will challenge the Third Circuit’s ruling and continue to seek a resolution of the lawsuits in bankruptcy court. The appeals court was urged to dismiss the bankruptcy petition by plaintiffs suing over the talc products. The cancer victims asked the appeals court to overrule a New Jersey bankruptcy judge who had allowed LTL’s bankruptcy to continue. LTL’s bankruptcy filing automatically stopped lawsuits from proceeding against it, and U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Michael Kaplan in Trenton, New Jersey ruled in February that LTL’s bankruptcy should also stop talc lawsuits from proceeding against parent company J&J. Kaplan said the bankruptcy court is better equipped to handle mass tort litigation than other courts.

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Towns said the lawmakers could have until early spring, otherwise, to develop and fine tune any proposals that emerge from Nichols' death. Share this -Link copiedMemphis police’s vaunted Scorpion unit is deactivated after Tyre Nichols' death Memphis police’s vaunted Scorpion unit has been permanently deactivated. Share this -Link copiedNFL calls for change after 'senseless death' of Tyre Nichols A day after the release of video showing the police beating of Tyre Nichols, the NFL on Saturday condemned the violence. Demonstrations continued Saturday in Atlanta, Boston and Charlotte following the release of video footage showing five former Memphis police officers beating Tyre Nichols, who died on Jan. 10. Attorney Blake Ballin’s comments follow the release of video footage showing the officers punching and kicking Tyre Nichols during a Jan. 7 traffic stop.

The U.S. government’s system for labeling and tracking classified documents appears to be broken, with potentially serious consequences for the country’s national security, lawmakers, former officials and scholars said Tuesday. Democratic and Republican lawmakers said there was a “systemic failure” if both the Obama and Trump administrations could not keep track of classified documents after their tenures ended. I don’t know how anybody ends up with classified documents. “We clearly don’t have an effective management system to oversee where classified documents go and how they’re retrieved,” said Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah. Goitein and others said the recent discoveries of classified documents present a political opportunity for the White House, and possibly Congress, to at last tackle the problem.

That was up from 10% in January 2022, but the pessimists were far outnumbered, with 71% of tech workers feeling positive. Many people spent Covid-19 lockdowns developing their digital skills, and plenty wound up switching from other sectors, like retail or education, into tech roles elsewhere. Professional and business services roles, which include engineering and “computer services,” were down 6,000 last month from November. Even so, employers’ broad appetite for tech skills could put something of a floor under wages — and prop up the appeal of tech roles in general — even as the economy slows. Experienced tech workers, rather than those new to the field, largely drove those pay gains, the jobs platform Hired found in research published in September.

☆ J.B. Hunt Expects Freight-Demand Volatility to Ease This Year
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-20 | by ( Paul Page | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +3 min

Trucking and logistics giant J.B. Hunt Transport Services Inc. expects freight demand to regain traction in the coming months as the pandemic-driven upheaval in supply chains fades and companies return to more conventional ordering cycles. “We have had good signals from our customers about Q2 starting up back to a more normalized or having a more normal environment,” J.B. Hunt President Shelley Simpson said in an earnings conference call Wednesday. “Demand for intermodal capacity was seasonally weaker than normal, as peak season activity leading up to the holidays was absent this year,” Darren Field, president of intermodal at J.B. Hunt, said in the earnings call. He said volumes weakened sequentially during the fourth quarter, with volumes up 4% in October before falling 3% in November and 5% in December. The steepest revenue decline came in J.B. Hunt’s Integrated Capacity Solutions unit, which matches freight loads to trucks.

Now, when she opens the app, “all I see is Black women, Black people and Black businesses. She would have to specifically type in “Black girl” to find other Black women. This was created so that Black women could support Black women because nobody else seems to be.”James said she never intended to put another race down and she encouraged the trend with the purpose of showing love to Black women. “Black women are navigating the combined force of racism and sexism on a daily basis,” she added. The creator of the trend, Michele, said she applauds Black men for sometimes defending Black women on the app.

☆ Six N.F.L. Players Show Football’s Grind on Their Feet and Hands
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-11 | by ( Ken Belson | Joe Drape | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +19 min

Players Show Football’s Grind on Their Feet and HandsOver the course of the long and brutal N.F.L. season, players’ feet and hands take a beating on nearly every snap. But in practice a few days later, he was running drills and landed awkwardly, spraining an ankle and stretching the tendons in his right foot. The next week Jones caught six passes for 109 yards and three touchdowns as the Jaguars shocked the Dallas Cowboys, 40-34. “The therapist spends a lot of time on my hands and feet,” he said.

Southwest finished first in economy and budget airline rankings published by the consumer research firm last May. Analysts say that Southwest's position among consumers remains strong despite the airline leaving hundreds of thousands of passengers stranded over the Christmas holiday weekend. "People think you're getting great value for the money," said Michael Taylor, managing director for travel, hospitality and retail at J.D. On Tuesday, the airline said it would issue 25,000 rewards points to anyone whose flight was affected. Taylor at J.D.

☆ Former teacher who wore MAGA hat to school was protected by First Amendment, court rules
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-04 | by ( The Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +2 min

VANCOUVER, Wash. — The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled in favor of a former teacher in Vancouver, Washington, concluding that his wearing a hat supporting former President Donald Trump to school was protected speech under the First Amendment. Court documents show that science teacher Eric Dodge brought the “Make America Great Again” baseball cap with him to an Evergreen Public Schools building twice before the 2019-2020 school year. Wy’east Middle School Principal Caroline Garret allegedly told him to use better judgment. Dodge said he was “verbally attacked” by Garret and other school employees after bringing the hat again, and that retaliation amounted to a violation of his First Amendment rights. Michael McFarland, a lawyer representing the school district and Gomes, said his clients are happy with the ruling.

☆ Final farewell: From Sidney Poitier to Pope Emeritus Benedict a look back at the influential figures who died in 2022
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-01 | by ( Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +55 min

Other world leaders who died in 2022 include former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, who died in August. The final days of 2022 saw the loss of some exceptionally notable figures, including Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI. Here is a roll call of some influential figures who died in 2022 (cause of death cited for younger people, if available):___JANUARY___Dan Reeves, 77. A Cuban-born artist whose radiant color palette and geometric paintings were overlooked for decades before the art world took notice. A prolific character actor best known for playing villains and tough guys in “The Manchurian Candidate,” “Ocean’s Eleven” and other films.

WASHINGTON — The House Jan. 6 committee found that law enforcement agencies gathered “substantial evidence” of potential violence at the Capitol as Congress met to formalize Joe Biden's election as president, a member of the panel said at its final meeting Monday. But the executive summary of the committee's final report doesn’t address questions of why the FBI, U.S. Capitol Police and other law enforcement agencies didn’t do more to increase security that day. The executive summary, released Monday, avoids criticizing or reaching conclusions about law enforcement and intelligence shortfalls in the lead-up to the attack, which many law enforcement experts have called the biggest intelligence failure since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. A representative for the committee didn’t respond to a request for comment about the decision not to include more information about the role law enforcement played ahead of the Capitol attack. The committee's executive summary discusses information that the FBI and other law enforcement agencies received in the days before Jan. 6, saying some of the intelligence was shared with partners like the Capitol Police.

☆ Does FTX’s New CEO Have the Worst Job in Corporate America?
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-15 | by ( Ben Cohen | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

There was one question that nobody in this week’s congressional hearing asked the new chief executive officer of FTX: Why would anybody want that job? “I am drawn to crisis,” John J. Ray III told me in an email. “There is something about the sheer chaos and human panic that creates an unbridled energy.”

☆ It’s Now His Job to Clean Up the Mess at FTX
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-15 | by ( Ben Cohen | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Car buyers are watching the clock tick down for the Inflation Reduction Act’s updated electric vehicle tax incentives to kick in. If you shop right nowState and federal EV incentives already exist. Their car was built in Tennessee and qualified for the full $7,500 federal tax credit, which they were able to combine with a Massachusetts EV tax exemption of $2,500, effectively knocking $10,000 off the price. Plus, caps on how many vehicles can qualify for existing tax incentives have kept some buyers on the sidelines. If you shop in 2024After next year, the IRA makes an important change to how consumers apply their tax credit.

☆ UN agency says Israel is delaying new visas for its staff
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-12 | by ( Hadas Gold | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +12 min

Jerusalem CNN —A United Nations agency that operates in the West Bank and Gaza says Israel is not processing visas for its newly recruited staff, while Israeli officials accuse the agency of “ignoring Israeli victims of terror” in East Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank, a charge the agency denies. The UN considers East Jerusalem and the West Bank to be occupied territory, and Israelis living there to be living in illegal settlements. Erdan said when OCHA is asked why they don’t count Israeli victims, they are told the agency does not have reliable data. “Of course you don’t, you don’t employ Hebrew speakers, and the senior manager of the agency is Palestinian,” Erdan said. OCHA’s latest report does record some instances of Israelis being injured by stones thrown at civilian vehicles traveling in the West Bank.

The tech industry accounts for about one-quarter of this year's job cuts, Challenger data show. The automotive industry has had 30,669 job cuts announced, compared with 10,277 through November 2021. And real estate has had 7,919 cuts announced this year, compared with 2,762 in 2021 year-to-date. "We've seen a lot of job cuts around mortgage origination and fintech firms in mortgages. U.S.-based employers announced 76,835 cuts in November alone, more than double the 33,843 cuts announced in October and four-times the number of cuts announced last November, Challenger data show.

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