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[1/2] A patient prepares to take Mifepristone, the first medication in a medical abortion, at Alamo Women's Clinic in Carbondale, Illinois, U.S., April 20, 2023. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein/File PhotoMay 17 (Reuters) - U.S. appeals court judges began hearing arguments on Wednesday in a legal battle over the availability of the abortion pill mifepristone, with potentially far-reaching consequences for abortion access across the United States. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans to overturn last month's unprecedented ruling by U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk in Amarillo, Texas suspending mifepristone's approval. Danco Laboratories, which sells the drug under the brand name Mifeprex, is also expected to argue before the court. The emergency room doctors said they were being forced to complete surgical abortions, which was against their conscience, for women who took the pill and failed to complete a medical abortion.

[1/2] A patient prepares to take Mifepristone, the first medication in a medical abortion, at Alamo Women's Clinic in Carbondale, Illinois, U.S., April 20, 2023. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein/File PhotoMay 17 (Reuters) - A federal appeals court in New Orleans will hear arguments on Wednesday in a closely watched case brought by anti-abortion activists seeking to ban the abortion pill mifepristone, with potentially far-reaching impact on abortion access across the United States. Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn last month's unprecedented ruling by U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk in Amarillo, Texas suspending mifepristone's FDA approval. Mifepristone remains available for now, following an emergency order from the U.S. Supreme Court putting Kacsmaryk's order on hold during the appeal. Whichever way the 5th Circuit panel rules, the decision is sure to be appealed, first to the full court and then to the U.S. Supreme Court.

☆ Access to abortion pill mifepristone at stake in federal appeals court hearing
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-17 | by ( Spencer Kimball | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

Evelyn Hockstein | ReutersA federal appeals court will hear arguments Wednesday afternoon in a closely watched lawsuit that seeks to pull the abortion pill mifepristone from the U.S. market. The hearing at the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans comes 11 months after the Supreme Court ruled there was no longer a federal constitutional right to abortion. But if it refuses to hear an appeal, the 5th Circuit decision will be the final word on the drug's fate. Days later, the DOJ appealed Kacsmaryk's decision to the 5th Circuit, which handles cases arising from the Northern District of Texas. He said the Supreme Court will likely agree to take the case if the 5th Circuit panel decides to pull mifepristone from the U.S. market.

☆ Fifth Circuit Judges Are Hearing Arguments in Abortion Pill Case
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-17 | by ( Abbie Vansickle | Pam Belluck | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

A federal appeals court is hearing arguments on Wednesday in a case that could determine the availability of a medication used in a majority of abortions in the country. As the hearing began in New Orleans, the three Republican-appointed judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit interjected questions and comments as lawyers from both sides presented their cases. Although the case is still in its early stages and any decision is likely to be appealed, it could ultimately have profound implications. If the initial judge’s ruling is upheld, access to medication abortion would be upended in states where abortion is legal, not just in states where bans and restrictions are in force. The F.D.A.’s regulatory authority over other drugs could be challenged with other lawsuits, and pharmaceutical companies say that uncertainty about the F.D.A.’s role could chill drug development in the United States.

☆ NJ Gov. Murphy would consider defying Supreme Court if justices back abortion pill ban
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-17 | by ( Annika Kim Constantino | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Phil Murphy on Wednesday said he would consider defying the Supreme Court and continue to provide mifepristone if the court rules in favor of a ban on the abortion pill. When asked if the state would prescribe mifepristone after such a ruling, Murphy told MSNBC: "To be determined." It's going to cost them health, it's also going to cost peoples' lives, women in particular sadly. That's what's at stake, we'll do whatever it takes to save lives," said Murphy, a Democrat. The case hinges on whether the Food and Drug Administration's approval of the abortion pill should be rolled back.

☆ Hertz apologizes after refusing rental to Puerto Rican
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-16 | by ( Maria Santana | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

CNN —Hertz has apologized to a Puerto Rican customer after one of its employees refused to rent him a car he had paid for in advance because he did not show her his passport. Humberto Marchand said that he traveled to New Orleans last Wednesday and presented his Puerto Rican driver’s license at the Hertz counter at the Louie Armstrong International Airport. Puerto Rico is a commonwealth of the United States, and anyone born on the island is by law a US citizen. In a statement to CNN, Hertz (HTZ) said that the company accepts Puerto Rican driver’s licenses from customers renting in the United States without requiring a valid passport. It is not clear if Hertz took any disciplinary action against the employee, however, the company said that this employee, like all their employees, has been reminded of their longstanding policy related to Puerto Rican driver’s licenses.

May 15 (Reuters) - A U.S. appeals court has temporarily halted a federal judge's ruling that struck down the Affordable Care Act's mandate requiring insurers to cover preventive care, the New York Times reported on Monday. The ruling stems from one of several legal challenges Republicans have brought against the 2010 healthcare law, former President Barack Obama's signature domestic achievement popularly known as "Obamacare." U.S. District Judge Reed O'Connor in March struck down the Affordable Care Act's mandate that health insurance plans cover preventive care, including screenings for certain cancers and pre-exposure prophylaxis against HIV, or the so-called PrEP mandate, at no cost to patients. Reed ruled that the PrEP mandate violated a federal religious freedom law and that other no-cost preventive care mandates were based on recommendations by an illegally appointed task force. The U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans put Reed's decision on hold, the Times reported, leaving the mandate in place for now.

☆ Abortion Pill Fight to Be Heard by One of Nation’s Most Conservative Courts
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-16 | by ( Abbie Vansickle | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The latest battle over a widely used abortion drug is set to play out on Wednesday before a conservative appeals court in New Orleans that has become the testing ground for some of the most contentious policy fights in the nation. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit will weigh in on the legal status of the medication, mifepristone, used in more than half of recent abortions in the United States. “By virtually any measure, it is the most conservative appeals court in the country,” said Stephen I. Vladeck, a law professor at the University of Texas. The court, which has jurisdiction over Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi, is almost certain to be skeptical of steps the Food and Drug Administration has taken to ease access to mifepristone, part of a two-pill regimen used in medication abortion. It has long been at the center of high-profile challenges to measures backed by the Obama and Biden administrations, including gun restrictions and transgender rights, and the arrival of a wave of Trump appointees has pushed it to the leading edge of potent policy decisions.

☆ Appeals court pauses ruling that could end Obamacare's preventative care mandate
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-16 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Circuit Court of Appeals issued an "administrative stay" of the March 30 ruling issued by U.S. District Judge Reed O'Connor of Texas. Administration lawyers said in court filings that O'Connor's decision would affect preventive care for 150 million people. In his March ruling, O'Conner blocked only the requirement that most insurers cover a range of preventive care. The appeal is in the early stages and the appeals court has not yet set a date for arguments. O'Connor ruled that enforcing the recommendations violated constitutional language on how government officials can be appointed.

☆ San Antonio Spurs Get the No. 1 Pick in the N.B.A. Draft Lottery
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-16 | by ( Sopan Deb | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

He plays for Metropolitans 92, a professional French league team, where he is averaging 21.6 points and 10.5 rebounds per game. G League hosted his team for a two-game exhibition near Las Vegas in October, and the N.B.A. The draft order is decided by a lottery that grants teams with worse regular-season records better odds for the No. This system has led to teams being accused of tanking — not prioritizing winning to position themselves for high draft picks. The three teams with the best chance — 14 percent — to get the top pick this year were the Detroit Pistons, the Houston Rockets and the San Antonio Spurs.

☆ Appeals Court Pauses Ruling That Threatened Free Preventive Health Care
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-15 | by ( Emily Baumgaertner | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

The NewsA federal appeals court on Monday temporarily blocked a lower court decision that overturned the Affordable Care Act’s requirement that all health plans fully cover certain preventive health services. The Justice Department had appealed the decision, and the appeals court’s stay will stand while the appeals process plays out. Why It Matters: Preventive health services are popular. While the case is under review, full coverage for preventive services will be legally required. For now, employers will still be required to provide no-cost coverage for preventive services.

In midsized metros Metros with 250,000 to one million residents. An Emerging Divide Mobility has risen for college-educated workers, even as it has fallen for workers without a degree. College-educated workers leaving the most expensive parts of the country are also not spreading out equally everywhere — or even going to parts of the country that are struggling. Net migration among college graduates Loss Gain Among the 12 most expensive metros, net college migration has generally declined or turned negative. “Consumer cities,” as she puts it, are increasingly replacing “producer cities” as the places where college graduates want to live.

☆ How MTV Broke News for a Generation
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-11 | by ( Remy Tumin | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

A little over a year into his first term, President Bill Clinton made good on a promise to return to MTV if young voters sent him to the White House. The town hall-style program in 1994 was meant to focus on violence in America, but it was a question of personal preference that made headlines and helped put MTV News on the media map. Now, a generation after MTV News bridged the gap between news and pop culture, Paramount, the network’s parent company, announced this week that it was shuttering the news service. They brought viewers on the presidential campaign trail and face to face with world leaders like Yasir Arafat, and took them into college dorms in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. They also embraced the messy chaos of 1990s and early 2000s celebrity, as when Courtney Love interrupted an interview with Madonna.

☆ See the pitch deck a startup trying to rival Airbnb used to raise $14 million to turn entire buildings in Miami and Nashville into short-term-rental apartments for bachelor parties and big groups
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-09 | by ( Alex Nicoll | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

CEO Andreas King-Geovanis walked Insider through the pitch deck he used to raise the funds. Guests can book units in more than 15 Roami buildings across Miami, New Orleans, Nashville, and Austin on Airbnb or Booking.com. King-Geovanis said that the end of 2022 was a challenging time to raise funds as a short-term-rental business. That's why the pitch deck King-Geovanis used during the recent fundraise focused so heavily on Roami's profitability, partly due to labor- and cost-saving technologies. King-Geovanis walked Insider through the pitch deck he used to raise Roami's latest round.

☆ Hurricanes of Data: The Tiny Craft Mapping Superstorms at Sea
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-09 | by ( Porter Fox | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +35 min

The Tiny Craft Mapping Superstorms at Sea Shortly after dawn on Sept. 30, 2021, Richard Jenkins watched a Category 4 hurricane overrun his life’s work. That August, a sister ship, SD 1031, successfully entered Tropical Storm Henri, but only in its early stages. Hurricane research, modeling and forecasting requires many terabytes of data for every square mile the storm passes through, including vitally important sea-level data from inside a storm. The next day, the depression was upgraded to a tropical storm and officially given the name Sam. And four months later, Tropical Storm Megi killed more than 150, wiped out several villages with landslides and displaced more than a million people.

☆ Opinion: Happiness is a trap. Here’s what to pursue instead
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-09 | by ( Opinion Monica C. Parker | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +10 min

Monica C. Parker Elena RossiniBetween chief happiness officers, the Happy Planet Index, Gross National Happiness, and the World Happiness Report (Finland scored the highest again this year), it seems as though happiness has some good PR. This one is: What if we’re so fixated on happiness that we’ve failed to question whether happiness is what we should be pursuing? We resist negative emotions such as sadness or fear at our peril. Even better than embracing your negative emotions is embracing both positive and negative emotions at the same time. Wonder makes us less stressed and feel like we have more time.

May 8 (Reuters) - A case brought by anti-abortion groups seeking to ban the abortion pill mifepristone nationwide will be heard next week by a panel of three deeply conservative judges hostile to abortion rights, a federal appeals court revealed on Monday. Circuit Court of Appeals panel in New Orleans on May 17 to overturn a court order that suspended the federal government's approval of mifepristone. The U.S. Supreme Court put that order on hold, meaning that mifepristone remains available while the case is appealed. In 2021, Ho was in the majority in a 2-1 ruling refusing to block Texas's six-week abortion ban. Wilson, another Trump appointee, as a state legislator voted to ban abortion once fetal cardiac activity is detected, around six weeks.

☆ Florida. Arizona. Climate Change Is Coming for Home Values. - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-07 | by ( Benjamin Keys | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

And that is pocket change compared with the impact climate change may ultimately have on the value of your home. We have reached a turning point: Climate risk is driving insurer decisions like never before. Both private and government-backed insurers are undercapitalized for dealing with the potentially massive disasters we could be facing in coming years. They are up even more in parts of Florida and the Southwest that are predicted to suffer significant impacts from a warming climate. Last summer, the water level in Lake Mead, a critical source of water for 25 million people in the Southwest, reached its lowest level since the reservoir was filled in 1937.

☆ Restaurants are prioritizing tables for big spenders and return customers through premium programs with SevenRooms and Resy Global Access
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-07 | by ( Jordan Hart | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Certain credit cardholders and frequent bookers are now the top of lists when it comes to booking restaurant reservations. SevenRooms says it shares data with restaurant clients to identify big spenders and offer premium reservations. Members of Resy's Global Access Dining program have access to exclusive reservations at popular restaurants around the world. Through partnerships with both SevenRooms and Resy's Global Dining Access program, Amex holders have special tables set aside for them. Whether that fish is a walk-in or from the Global Dining Access program," he said.

☆ Restaurants embrace premium reservations to target big spenders
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-06 | by ( Amelia Lucas | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

When cities and states rolled back lockdown rules, many implemented new orders for restaurants to help with contact tracing, such as requiring customers to book tables in advance. As a result of those pandemic-fueled changes, restaurants and the companies that help them book their tables are targeting big spenders with premium reservation options to drive higher sales. About two-thirds of SevenRooms' restaurant clients use its software to promote special experiences or sell upgrades when customers book reservations. Page said the move toward premium restaurant reservations can partially explain why it feels like it's so much more competitive to book a table in advance these days. "I kind of don't like the whole 'Disney FastPass line' of restaurant reservations," he said.

☆ Recession calls 'appear to be wrong' after U.S. jobs report, says former New Orleans Mayor Marc Morial
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | 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 EmailRecession calls 'appear to be wrong' after U.S. jobs report, says former New Orleans Mayor Marc MorialMarc Morial, former Mayor of New Orleans and National Urban League CEO, joins 'Power Lunch' to discuss the U.S. jobs report, the Federal Reserve, and the regional banking crisis.

☆ Dennis Barnes, a 16-year-old senior, picks Cornell University after getting over 185 college acceptances
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Chandelis Duster | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +1 min

CNN —Dennis “Maliq” Barnes, the New Orleans high school senior who was accepted at over 185 colleges and received more than $10 million in scholarship offers, announced Friday that he will attend Cornell University in the fall. Barnes made the announcement from his school, International High School of New Orleans. “I have committed to attend Cornell University and intend to pursue computer science and to later move on to practice software development,” said Barnes, who put on a Cornell University sweatshirt during the announcement. He started applying to schools in August 2022 and said that he didn’t initially intend to set any records. This is a developing story and will be updated.

☆ Analysis: Icahn's mark-up of meat packager extraordinary but possible, experts say
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Koh Gui Qing | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Hindenburg said Icahn Enterprises LP (IEP) (IEP.O) valued a meat packing company in which it owns a 90% stake three times over its market value. IEP cited "the lack of material trading volume" in Viskase's stock as grounds for the valuation mark-up in the filing. Viskase's shares are traded in the over-the-counter market rather than a major exchange such as Nasdaq or the New York Stock Exchange. On Thursday, IEP said after the stock market closed that it would preserve its dividend at $2 per unit for the first quarter. IEP's stock rose 10% in afterhours trading on the announcement.

☆ Best rice dishes: 20 delicious specialties from around the world
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( Terry Ward | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +16 min

And while famous rice dishes such as sushi, fried rice and paella are among the most prominent in the global spotlight, there are so many more rice recipes out there to put on your radar – and seek out on your travels. Wali wa kukaanga, KenyaWali wa kukaanga is Kenya’s answer to fried rice, and translates to just that in Swahili. So it’s no surprise that the Polynesian island country’s most popular rice dish, alaisa fa’apopo, has ties to the coconut, too. Thai fried rice (Khao Pad), ThailandThai fried rice uses the layering of flavors that's characteristic of the country's cuisine. ArenaCreative/Adobe StockWhen it comes to fried rice, the Chinese version tends to steal the spotlight.

☆ Crazy videos show a Coast Guard helicopter nearly crashing into the ocean after abandoning a rescue attempt on a Carnival cruise ship during a storm
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( Kelsey Vlamis | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

The helicopter came close to the water, but the Coast Guard said "superb piloting" helped save it. Videos shared online showed the helicopter hovering over the cruise ship, appearing very shaky and making sudden, jerking movements. The helicopter then turns away from the cruise ship but takes a sharp dive down toward the ocean. The Jayhawk helicopter and the Ocean Sentry were able to return safely to base. In December, the Coast Guard rescued a cruise ship passenger who spent over 20 hours in open water after going overboard.

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