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Trump is selling $60 Bibles with ‘God Bless the U.S.A.’ singer Lee Greenwood 2024-03-26 21:06:00+00:00 - Donald Trump on Tuesday started promoting a line of pricey Bibles in a partnership with country music star Lee Greenwood, whose song “God Bless the U.S.A.” is omnipresent at the former president’s political rallies. “All Americans need a Bible in their home, and I have many,” Trump said in a video on Truth Social announcing the business deal. “It’s my favorite book. It’s a lot of people’s favorite book,” he added. “Religion and Christianity are the biggest things missing from this country, and I truly believe that we need to bring them back,” he said. “It’s one of the biggest problems we have, that’s why our country’s going haywire, we’ve lost religion in our country.” The ubiquitous Christian holy text is the world’s best-selling book, and churches are often more than happy to hand them out for free. The Bible is also free to read on a wide range of websites and apps, not to mention hotel rooms and other places. The “God Bless the U.S.A. Bible” costs $59.99, not including shipping and other fees. For that money, buyers get a range of extra features not typically included in run-of-the-mill Bibles. The Trump-Greenwood Bible, a King James translation, includes a copy of a “handwritten chorus” to the eponymous Greenwood hit, according to the website. It also includes the U.S. Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Declaration of Independence and the Pledge of Allegiance, the site says. It’s the “only Bible” endorsed by either Trump or Greenwood, the site proclaims. And, it adds, it’s “the ONLY Bible inspired by America’s most recognized patriotic anthem, God Bless The USA.” The text is also printed in a large font that highlights the words of Jesus in red, per the site. It was not immediately clear how much money Trump and Greenwood stood to make off the promotion. The partnership comes at an especially turbulent moment for Trump’s finances. The presumptive Republican nominee has recently seen his net worth explode by billions of dollars, following a successful merger allowing his media company to publicly trade on the NASDAQ. But he can’t cash in on his stake in that company for months. In the meantime, he has just days to put up $175 million for an appeal bond that will stop the state of New York from enforcing a $454 million civil fraud judgment against him. Trump is also fighting other hefty civil judgments, including a federal jury verdict ordering him to pay $83.3 million for defaming writer E. Jean Carroll after she accused the former president of raping her years earlier. Trump’s political fundraising operation, meanwhile, is falling far behind the campaign of his rival, Democratic incumbent President Joe Biden. Trump said Monday that he “might” put his own money into his White House bid. The website selling the Trump-backed Bibles specifies that none of its proceeds will go toward the Trump campaign. The site says it “is not political and has nothing to do with any political campaign.” “GodBlessTheUSABible.com is not owned, managed or controlled by Donald J. Trump, The Trump Organization, CIC Ventures LLC or any of their respective principals or affiliates.” Rather, it says it is licensed by CIC Ventures to use Trump’s name, likeness and image. Trump’s 2023 financial disclosure shows he has made more than $5 million in speaking engagements through CIC Ventures.
Trump gets gag order in hush money case ahead of New York trial 2024-03-26 20:47:47+00:00 - Donald Trump earned his latest gag order Tuesday, in his New York criminal case ahead of the recently set April 15 trial in the hush money case. Imposing the order, Judge Juan Merchan cited the presumptive GOP presidential nominee’s “threatening” and “inflammatory” statements against people across the legal system. Per Merchan’s order, the former president is barred from making or directing others to make public statements about witnesses; lawyers other than Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg; members of Merchan’s staff and the DA’s office; and family members of any counsel or staff member, if those statements are made to materially interfere with, or to cause others to materially interfere with, counsel’s or staff’s work in the case, or with the knowledge that such interference is likely to result. Trump is also barred from making, or directing others to make, public statements about jurors or prospective jurors. It’s unsurprising that Merchan imposed these limits ahead of trial. That’s not only because of the defendant’s documented and continuing anti-social behavior, but also because Bragg’s request largely mirrored the one approved by the federal appeals court in Washington in Trump’s federal election interference case. Of course, that doesn’t make the adjudicated necessity of such an order any less remarkable. Indeed, it’s another ignominious achievement from the former and potentially future commander in chief, who has pleaded not guilty to charges of falsifying business records to cover up a hush money scheme in connection with the 2016 presidential election. Subscribe to the Deadline: Legal Newsletter for weekly updates on the top legal stories, including news from the Supreme Court, the Donald Trump cases and more.
Reddit investors shrug off hold rating, bid up stock another 9% as post-IPO rally continues 2024-03-26 20:47:00+00:00 - Reddit CEO Steve Huffman stands on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) while ringing a bell on the floor setting the share price at $47 in its initial public offering (IPO) on March 21, 2024 in New York City. Reddit's first stock rating among analysts was a hold. But the rally continued anyway. The shares climbed 8.8% on Tuesday to close at $65.11. They're now up 92% since debuting on the stock market last week under ticker symbol "RDDT." It was the first social media IPO since Pinterest's offering in 2019. Reddit and existing shareholders sold 22 million shares in the offering, raising almost $750 million combined. Over 35 million Reddit shares changed hands on Tuesday, the most since 48.7 million shares were traded on the company's opening day on the market. Investors continued to snap up Reddit shares despite New Street Research issuing a neutral rating on the company "after the stock goes to the moon," analysts wrote in a note published on Tuesday. The analysts said they wouldn't change their $54 price target, and that they expect "volatility into the first earnings report." The company hasn't scheduled its announcement yet, but New Street said it will likely come in May. Insiders are forbidden from selling shares until the post-IPO lockup period expires 180 days after the offering. The New Street analysts wrote that "an OpenAI data licensing win is baked into the stock," implying investors see Reddit benefitting if it inks a licensing deal with the ChatGPT maker. Investors expect such a deal "to be added soon," they wrote, considering OpenAI CEO Sam Altman owns a significant stake in Reddit. The company's market cap has swelled to about $12.3 billion as of Tuesday's close. Altman's shares are worth almost $800 million. Although Reddit's core business is online advertising, the company has pointed to data licensing as a potential big revenue source. It also recently entered into an expanded partnership with Google , allowing the search giant to access more Reddit data to train its AI models. However, the Federal Trade Commission is conducting an inquiry into Reddit's data licensing business. "At first blush, it seems relatively benign, but it could be an overhang," the New Street analysts wrote, noting that the "FTC inquiry could slow the pace of new deal signings and will certainly require attention and time dedicated to addressing the inquiry." Meanwhile, some Reddit users took to the company's subreddits on Tuesday to discuss the stock rally. A number of users, along with certain company employees and their family members, were part of Reddit's directed-share program and not subject to a lockup period, allowing them to collectively make millions of dollars by selling after the pop. One Reddit user with the username "bkarp00" wrote, "Looks like all the quick cash IPO people out are helping it rally today with less people willing to sell at these levels," referring to shareholders who believe that Reddit's stock will continue to increase in value. User "IrishRun" wrote, "I've been kicking myself for not buying more shares, but there was no guarantee I would have received the requested number and then I would probably still be wishing I'd bought more."
How to stop Instagram from limiting politics on your recommended feeds 2024-03-26 20:27:09+00:00 - Last month, Meta announced it that it would no longer "proactively recommend content about politics " on Instagram and Threads as part of an effort to improve user experience. "If you decide to follow accounts that post political content, we don’t want to get between you and their posts, but we also don’t want to proactively recommend political content from accounts you don’t follow," the company said in a note in February. That change began to roll out last week, when many users noticed that their default settings on the apps were different. The new restriction on political content does not affect what you see from accounts you follow on your feed. It only applies to content that the app recommends to you. But if you want to opt out of the new changes, here's how: On your profile page, tap the menu on the top right with three lines, go to "content preferences," select "political content," and choose the "Don't limit" option. Meta's decision to cut out politics from its recommended content on Threads and Instagram has not been a wholly popular one, especially considering it is a critical election year for many countries, the United States included. Creators who post political content on social media have also criticized Meta's latest move, as NBC News reported. An increasing number of users are consuming news and politics on social media, according to the Pew Research Center. It's a shift that has elevated voices from communities that are typically underserved by mainstream media and put some traditional news corporations at a disadvantage.
Justice Jackson points out a 'commonsense' problem in the mifepristone case 2024-03-26 20:26:11+00:00 - Ahead of the Supreme Court’s mifepristone hearing Tuesday, I wrote that the case should’ve never been allowed in court to begin with. That’s because the anti-abortion doctors and groups who brought the contrived challenge don’t have legal standing. From the hearing, it sounds like the court might actually agree and reject the lawsuit on that ground. The prospect of that outcome apparently distressed Justice Samuel Alito. In a desperate line of questioning, the Dobbs author searched for any possible way that someone, somewhere could legally attack the drug’s approval and regulation. “Shouldn’t somebody be able to challenge that in court?” Alito pleaded. The prospect of that outcome apparently distressed Justice Samuel Alito. But he didn’t have much company in his quest to save the unprecedented abortion pill challenge. That’s probably because it doesn’t make sense to let people file lawsuits against something just because they don’t like it, which is essentially what happened here. In fact, there are legal rules guarding against that sort of behavior. To bring lawsuits, parties need to show that they’re injured — or soon will be — and that their suit can remedy their claimed injury. With that basic principle in mind, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson pointed out the absurdity of what the challengers seek. She noted that if the doctors are opposed to abortion, then the “commonsense remedy” would be to exempt them from the procedure — and federal law gives them such an exemption. But Jackson observed that the plaintiffs want much more than that: They want to prevent anyone from accessing mifepristone at all. So, the justice said, she was “just trying to understand how they could possibly be entitled to that, given the injury that they have alleged.” The reason that it’s difficult to understand is because it doesn’t make sense. The reason that it’s difficult to understand is because it doesn’t make sense. And Jackson was far from alone in questioning the broad relief the plaintiffs are seeking and their right to bring this suit in the first place, given their apparent lack of standing. Indeed, if the hearing is any indication, a lopsided majority might reject the challenge without even needing to address the merits of the case, such as they are. But whether a Supreme Court opinion will coalesce in that way remains to be seen, with a ruling expected by late June. Even if the court reaches that logical conclusion, that would say more about the extreme nature of the Republican appointees on the lower courts who let the case get this far. Subscribe to the Deadline: Legal Newsletter for weekly updates on the top legal stories, including news from the Supreme Court, the Donald Trump cases and more.
Visa and Mastercard Agree to Cap Swipe Fees in Settlement 2024-03-26 20:07:19.335000+00:00 - Visa and Mastercard have agreed to cap the so-called swipe fees they charge to merchants that accept their credit cards, as part of a class-action settlement that could save merchants an estimated $30 billion over five years — the latest development in a nearly 20-year legal battle. Each time a customer uses one of its credit cards, Visa or Mastercard collects a swipe fee — also called an interchange fee — for processing the transaction, which it shares with banks issuing the cards. The merchants pass those fees along to customers, a practice that effectively inflates prices (and may motivate discounts given to customers paying with cash). The settlement, which was announced on Tuesday and is subject to court approval, can be traced back to a 2005 lawsuit by merchants arguing that they paid excessive fees to accept Visa and Mastercard credit cards. As more consumer spending has shifted to credit cards over the years, processing fees have also risen. To accept Visa and Mastercard, U.S. merchants paid $101 billion in total fees in 2023, including $72 billion in interchange fees, according to the Nilson Report, which tracks the payments industry. The fees also generate profits for big banks that issue the cards, and indirectly pay for credit card rewards programs, which aren’t expected to be affected by the settlement deal.
Judge sends strong message about Elon Musk's attacks on disinformation experts 2024-03-26 19:57:40+00:00 - Happy Tuesday, all! Here's your Tuesday Tech Drop, the top stories in tech and politics from the past week. Musk's intimidation tactics take a hit Tech billionaire Elon Musk took an embarrassing loss in court on Monday after a federal judge tossed out his lawsuit accusing a disinformation watchdog of attempting to hurt his social media company’s bottom line. Judge Charles Breyer agreed to throw out the lawsuit Musk filed against the Center for Countering Digital Hate, in which he alleged the nonprofit organization’s reporting on the rise of hate speech on X, his social platform, was part of a “scare campaign” to deter advertisers from buying ads on the site. The opening paragraph of Breyer’s ruling makes clear the judge condemns the premise of Musk’s lawsuit, in which he claimed research shared by the Center for Countering Digital Hate hurt his company’s bottom line. He wrote: Sometimes it is unclear what is driving a litigation, and only by reading between the lines of a complaint can one attempt to surmise a plaintiff’s true purpose. Other times, a complaint is so unabashedly and vociferously about one thing that there can be no mistaking that purpose. This case represents the latter circumstance. This case is about punishing the Defendants for their speech. The Center for Countering Digital Hate is one of several organizations that’s been attacked by conservatives like Musk and Republican Rep. Jim Jordan, who pushed the false claim that anti-disinformation efforts — by the government, by private organizations, or through some collaboration of the two — amount to anti-conservative censorship. Musk and other conservatives clearly don’t like the idea that their, or their allies’, extremist behavior online might be studied and possibly even regulated in any way. In fact, Musk filed a lawsuit against media watchdog Media Matters that’s virtually identical to his lawsuit against the CCDH. But Judge Breyer’s ruling goes a long way in the effort to highlight the dubiousness of the anti-anti-disinformation crowd's arguments. Read more from NBC News. Trump's new moneyman, Jeff Yass Last week, it was reported that Jeff Yass, the uber-rich, right-wing megadonor, is part-owner of a company that just merged with Donald Trump's media company, potentially netting the multitime indictee a crucial lifeline as he faces steep payments rooted in criminal and civil lawsuits filed against him. For the ReidOut Blog this week, I wrote about what Yass stands to gain from essentially buying a presidential candidate, and why this is disturbingly shameless oligarchy in action. Read my post here. Russia relies on deepfakes after attack The immediate aftermath of an ISIS-led attack in a Russian theater highlighted the danger artificial intelligence can pose to the dissemination of facts during times of crisis. Mother Jones has a report on Russian officials and a state-run television network in Russia who spread deepfakes falsely depicting a Ukrainian appearing to take credit for the deadly attack. Read more at Mother Jones. Putin's ostensibly Black propagandists Since we’re on the topic of Russia-based disinformation, I want to raise awareness about the pro-Putin propaganda being spread across tabloids centered on Black culture. WorldStarHipHop and SayCheeseTV, two popular tabloid-style sites with large social media followings, have become frequent peddlers of Russophilic propaganda, as of late. (Take a gander at WorldStar’s fawning Putin posts here, and some from SayCheeseTV here and here). That pattern came to mind after I noticed both outlets shared links last week purporting to show Putin acknowledging that Jesus was Black (shocker: the claim is false). It fits a trend I’ve written about a lot over the past couple years: ostensibly Black tabloids pushing conservative-friendly propaganda and disinformation. Stay woke, y’all. Warrant woes for police NBC News published a report last week on the looming obstacles for police and other law enforcement authorities to use “geofence warrants,” a controversial investigative tool that uses a mobile device’s geolocation data to determine who was in a particular area at a particular time. As NBC News explains, law enforcement officials are concerned about changes coming to Google that could make it much harder for police to get this data and use it for their investigations. But as I discussed with artificial intelligence ethicist Albert Fox Cahn last year, there have also been concerns by civil rights activists that geofence warrants can be used to violate people’s privacy. Read more at NBC News. DeSantis goes anti-social Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis signed House Bill 3, the latest in several states’ attempts to restrict youths’ access to social media sites and other sites alleged to be harmful to children. The law bars children 14 and younger from having social media accounts and requires children under 16 to get parental consent if they want one. Similar laws in Arkansas, Utah and Ohio have all faced legal challenges. Fulton County Tech Troubles Georgia investigative reporter George Chidi is a potential witness in the Trump RICO case and he’s been closely following a somewhat similar RICO case being tried in Fulton County — the one involving rapper Young Thug. He sat for a newly released interview on clout-chasing YouTuber VladTV’s channel that sounded alarms for me. In it, he explained how recent hacks of Fulton County’s government servers underscore the technological threats District Attorney Fani Willis’ is facing — potentially from backers of Trump and Young Thug — that could hamper her investigations or make a mistrial more likely in either case. Watch a clip of Chidi’s VladTV interview here.
An 'often overlooked' retirement savings option can lower your tax bill, advisor says. Here's how it works 2024-03-26 19:51:00+00:00 - 10'000 Hours | Digitalvision | Getty Images There's still time to lower your 2023 tax bill or boost your refund with a lesser-known retirement savings strategy for married couples. One requirement for individual retirement account contributions is "earned income," such as wages or salary from a job or self-employment earnings. But there's an exception for single-income households: the spousal IRA. A spousal IRA is a separate Roth or traditional IRA for the non-working spouse — and it's "often overlooked," according to certified financial planner Judy Brown at SC&H Group in the Washington, D.C., and Baltimore area. These accounts can provide a current-year tax break and boost retirement savings for nonearning spouses. As of 2021, some 18% of parents didn't work outside of the home and most stay-at-home parents were women, according to Pew Research Center. "My advice to [nonearning] women would be make sure you're at least doing that spousal IRA," said Boston-based CFP Catherine Valega, founder of Green Bee Advisory. My advice to [nonearning] women would be make sure you're at least doing that spousal IRA. Catherine Valega Founder of Green Bee Advisory How the spousal IRA works Married couples who file jointly have until the federal tax deadline — April 15 for most taxpayers — to make 2023 IRA contributions for each spouse, assuming there's enough earned income for the combined deposits. Traditional pretax spousal IRA contributions can provide a 2023 tax break, depending on income and workplace retirement plan participation, explained Brown, who is also a certified public accountant. With income phaseouts for IRA deductibility and Roth IRA contributions, many wait until March or April for the previous year's IRA deposits. It can be a "game-time decision" while doing your taxes, Brown said. The annual IRA contribution limit is $6,500 for 2023 or $7,500 for savers age 50 and older. The limit increased to $7,000 for 2024, with an extra $1,000 for investors age 50 and up. However, "it doesn't have to be all or nothing," Brown said. Even a $500 or $1,000 spousal IRA contribution could provide tax savings. watch now Contributions could create a 'tax problem'
Trump hit with gag order in New York hush money case after slamming judge 2024-03-26 19:50:00+00:00 - Former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks from the hallway outside a courtroom where he is attending a hearing in his criminal case on charges stemming from hush money paid to a porn star, in New York City on March 25, 2024. A judge on Tuesday imposed a limited gag order on Donald Trump ahead of his criminal hush money trial in New York. Trump's statements about various figures involved in the case "were threatening, inflammatory [and] denigrating," Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Juan Merchan said in a court order. "Such inflammatory statements undoubtedly risk impeding the orderly administration of this Court," Merchan ruled. The gag order bars Trump from making public statements about likely witnesses and jurors in the case. He must also refrain from speaking about lawyers in the case, court staff, employees in the Manhattan District Attorney's office and their family members if those statements are made with the "intent to materially interfere" with the case. Merchan's order still allows Trump to speak out about Alvin Bragg, the district attorney prosecuting the former president on charges of falsifying business records to conceal a hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels. The gag order does not specifically bar Trump from criticizing the judge. Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung in a statement to NBC News said the gag order prevents the presumptive Republican presidential nominee "from engaging in core political speech, which is entitled to the highest level of protection under the First Amendment." Merchan's decision, which granted a Feb. 22 request by Bragg to restrict Trump's speech about the case, came hours after Trump tore into the judge as a "Trump Hater" on social media. Trump in multiple Truth Social posts called on Merchan to recuse himself from the case, and roped the judge's daughter into his attacks by pointing to her work for a Democratic consulting firm. The fusillade against Merchan came one day after the judge scheduled the trial to start April 15, rejecting a bid by Trump's attorneys to delay it further. Trump, who was in court when Merchan delivered that decision, said at a press conference afterward that he would be willing to testify in the trial. Merchan's gag order ruling Tuesday afternoon appeared to reference Trump's remarks about his daughter. He noted "the nature and impact of the statements made against this Court and a family member thereof," along with Trump's remarks about witnesses such as Michael Cohen, his former attorney who is set to testify in the trial. "Given that the eve of trial is upon us, it is without question that the imminency of the risk of harm is now paramount," the judge wrote. Merchan also noted in a footnote that Trump targeted a prosecutor in the case "within hours" of the April 15 trial date being set. Trump attorney Todd Blanche declined a request for comment. Trump is already bound by a gag order in a separate criminal case in Washington, D.C., federal court, where he is charged with illegally trying to overturn his 2020 election loss to President Joe Biden. A federal appeals court in December upheld Trump's challenge of that gag order, but narrowed it to allow him to speak about his prosecutor, special counsel Jack Smith. Trump also was under a gag order in his civil fraud case, in which he was found liable for fraudulently inflating his asset values on business records for financial gain. Bragg, in his own gag order request in late February, noted that Trump has a "long history of making public and inflammatory remarks about the participants in various judicial proceedings against him, including jurors, witnesses, lawyers, and court staff." Trump's attorneys argued in response that it would be "unconstitutional and unlawful to impose a prior restraint" on the First Amendment-protected speech of the leading presidential candidate. They instead said they would continue to comply with a judge's admonition at the start of the case, cautioning Trump not to make statements that would prejudice the trial process. But Merchan in Tuesday's order said he was "unpersuaded" by that proposal.
Healthy Returns: Drugmakers are capping inhaler prices at $35 in a win for some patients 2024-03-26 19:46:00+00:00 - In this article AZN-GB Follow your favorite stocks CREATE FREE ACCOUNT A woman using an inhaler. BSIP | Universal Images Group | Getty Images Think a friend or colleague should be getting this newsletter? Share this link with them to sign up. Good afternoon! Inhalers will soon get a whole lot cheaper for some Americans. Three of the world's largest inhaler makers have agreed to cap the out-of-pocket price of their inhaler products and similar inhaled medicines at $35 a month for certain U.S. patients. British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline announced its cost cap last week following similar moves by AstraZeneca and the privately held Boehringer Ingelheim. But there's one holdout: Teva Pharmaceuticals, another major inhaler manufacturer, has not made a similar commitment. The cost caps from the three other companies won't go into effect immediately. They also didn't come from out of nowhere. In January, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and other members of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions launched an investigation into why all four companies charge more for inhalers in the U.S. than in other countries. It adds to the years of political scrutiny and public outrage that the broader pharmaceutical industry has faced over high health-care costs in the U.S. Last year, Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk and Sanofi moved to slash the cost of certain insulin products for some U.S. patients following pressure from the same Senate panel. So, who typically uses inhalers, and how much do they cost in the first place? People with chronic lung conditions that affect their breathing, such as asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder, or COPD, most commonly use inhalers. They can use daily inhalers to prevent or manage their symptoms and fast-acting inhalers at times when their breathing worsens, like during an asthma attack. An estimated 25 million Americans have asthma, while around 16 million suffer from COPD. Many of those patients rely on inhalers to help them breathe, and some end up having to ration those products due to price, the Senate HELP committee said in a release in January. Here's what the panel says drugmakers have been charging for some of their inhaler products: Advair HFA from GSK: $319 in the U.S.; $26 in the U.K. Combivent Respimat from Boehringer Ingelheim: $489 in the U.S.; $7 in France Breztri Aerosphere from AstraZeneca: $645 in the U.S; $49 in the U.K. QVAR RediHaler from Teva Pharmaceuticals: $286 in the U.S.; $9 in Germany In addition to the price differences, the panel argued that the companies extended monopolies on their products inappropriately. The committee argued the drugmakers used tactics like obtaining additional patents close to the end of their period of market exclusivity, shifting patients to newer versions of inhalers with longer patent protection and entering into agreements with generic manufacturers to stave off cheaper competition. Generic inhalers can cost as little as $30. School nurse Keri Personnete holds a child's inhaler in the nurse's office at the Barrington Early Learning Center in Barrington, Illinois, on Feb. 15, 2017. Stacey Wescott | Chicago Tribune | Tribune News Service | Getty Images Notably, GSK said it recently reduced the list price of Advair HFA by an average of 20% and a similar product, Advair Diskus, by an average of 50%. GSK's new price cap applies to both of those products and the rest of its asthma and COPD inhaler portfolio. That includes the company's popular Trelegy Ellipta and other Ellipta inhaler products, among others. The caps come after GSK discontinued the branded asthma inhalers Flovent HFA and Flovent Diskus at the beginning of January. The company replaced them with "authorized generic" versions of the inhaler, which are identical aside from branding. The company's price ceiling will specifically benefit patients taking those medicines whose monthly costs currently exceed $35. It will go into effect on Jan. 1, 2025, GSK added in a release. Meanwhile, AstraZeneca's price cap will apply to the company's entire range of inhaler products used to treat asthma and COPD. That includes Symbicort, Breztri Aerosphere, Bevespi Aerosphere and Airsupra. The cap will apply to patients who are uninsured or underinsured and will go into effect on June 1. That's the same day Boehringer Ingeleim's out-of-pocket cost cap on all of its inhaler products will take effect. Boehringer Ingelheim's cap will apply for "the most vulnerable patients," including those who are uninsured or underinsured. The cap applies to its Atrovent HFA, Combivent Respimat and Spiriva products, among others. Sanders applauded the three companies for announcing their cost caps. "This will significantly cut costs for millions of Americans with asthma and COPD so that they will be able to afford the inhalers they need," he said in a release last week. We'll be watching to see whether Teva announces its own cap. Feel free to send any tips, suggestions, story ideas and data to Annika at annikakim.constantino@nbcuni.com. Latest in health-care technology
Who is Nicole Shanahan, the philanthropist picked by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as his running mate? 2024-03-26 19:36:56+00:00 - COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has picked Nicole Shanahan, a California lawyer and philanthropist who’s never held elected office, to be his running mate in his independent bid for president, he announced on Tuesday. An unconventional choice, Shanahan, who is 38, brings youth and considerable wealth to Kennedy’s long-shot campaign but is little known outside Silicon Valley. Shanahan leads the Bia-Echo Foundation, an organization she founded to direct money toward issues including women’s reproductive science, criminal justice reform and environmental causes. She also is a Stanford University fellow and was the founder and chief executive of ClearAccessIP, a patent management firm that was sold in 2020. Shanahan was married to Google co-founder Sergey Brin from 2018 to 2023, and they have a young daughter. She was raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, where Kennedy made his announcement. On Tuesday, Shanahan talked about her hardscrabble upbringing in Oakland, the daughter of a mother who immigrated from China and an Irish and German-American father “plagued by substance abuse” who “struggled to keep a job.” Touching on her family’s reliance on government assistance, Shanahan said that, although she had become “very wealthy later on in life,” she felt she could relate to Americans being “just one misfortune away from disaster.” “The purpose of wealth is to help those in need. That’s what it’s for,” Shanahan said. “And I want to bring that back to politics, too. That is the purpose of privilege.” Before the announcement, Kennedy’s campaign manager and daughter-in-law, Amaryllis Fox Kennedy, praised Shanahan’s work on behalf of “honest governance, racial equity, regenerative agriculture and children’s and maternal health.” She said the work “reflects many of our country’s most urgent needs.” Kennedy, who said in an interview Monday with “The State of California” on KCBS radio that his VP search placed a priority on ”somebody who could represent young people,” said Tuesday that Shanahan — who he said, like him, has “left the Democratic Party” — also shares his concerns about government overreach and his distrust in major political parties’ abilities to make lasting change. “She’ll tell you that she now understands at the defense agencies work for the military industrial complex, that health agencies work for big pharma and the USDA works for big ag and the processed food cartels,” Kennedy said at his Oakland rally. “The EPA is in cahoots with the polluters, that the scientists can be mercenaries, that government officials sometimes act as sensors, and that the Fed works for Wall Street and allows millionaire bankers to prey upon on Main Street and the American worker.” Kennedy also said that, in part, Shanahan’s heritage played at least some role in his selection of her. “I wanted someone who would honor the traditions our nation, as a nation of immigrants, but who also understands that to be a nation, we need to secure borders,” he said. Kennedy had previously signaled interest in picking a celebrity or a household name such as NFL quarterback Aaron Rogers, “Dirty Jobs” star Mike Rowe or former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura, who was a wrestler and actor. According to campaign finance records, Shanahan has long donated to Democratic candidates, including giving the maximum amount allowed to Kennedy when he was still pursuing that party’s nomination before switching to an independent bid in October. It was unclear if Shanahan would use her own money on the campaign, but she has already opened her wallet to back Kennedy. She was a driving force and the primary donor behind a Super Bowl ad produced by a pro-Kennedy super PAC, American Values 2024, for which she contributed $4 million. In response to criticism following the ad’s release, the super PAC said its “idea, funding, and execution came primarily” from Shanahan. The super PAC can accept unlimited funds but is legally barred from coordinating with Kennedy’s team. But as a candidate for vice president, Shanahan can give unlimited sums to the campaign directly. That’s potentially a huge boost for Kennedy’s expensive push to get on the ballot in all 50 states, an endeavor he has said will cost $15 million and require collecting more than 1 million signatures. ___ Meg Kinnard can be reached at http://twitter.com/MegKinnardAP. ___ Jonathan J. Cooper contributed from Oakland.
How Nicole Shanahan rose through tech and law to RFK Jr.'s ticket 2024-03-26 19:36:00+00:00 - Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has found an unlikely — but liked-minded — running mate for his independent presidential ticket. Tech lawyer Nicole Shanahan has no government experience, no national profile and is one of the most unusual selections for a high-profile running mate in recent memory. She is far less-known than some of the other names Kennedy considered, including NFL star Aaron Rogers and actor and former Gov. Jesse Ventura. But what she does offer is a similar worldview to Kennedy, presumed loyalty to the person who plucked her from relative obscurity and — perhaps most importantly — enormous wealth that could be tapped by the Kennedy-Shanahan campaign far in excess of contribution limits that would apply to donors who are not themselves candidates. Shanahan, 38, also offers a youth and vitality that Kennedy often says is necessary in politics. And she has already demonstrated her commitment to Kennedy’s cause, revealing in February that she donated $4 million to a pro-Kennedy super PAC to help pay for a Super Bowl ad. Despite mostly supporting progressive and center-left Democrats in the past, Shanahan has said that she was motivated to support Kennedy in part because of concerns about children’s health and the environment, including vaccines, and she has also expressed opposition to the research money that has poured into the in-vitro fertilization (IVF) industry. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. at Boston Park Plaza on April 19, 2023.. David L. Ryan / Boston Globe via Getty Images file She defended Kennedy’s advocacy against vaccines to Newsweek earlier this year, saying “being called an anti-vaxxer is so unfair” and that “we need to have a safe space” to discuss the issue. A life in the world's tech capital A tech lawyer and entrepreneur turned philanthropist, Shanahan’s life has intersected with some of the most important technologies and business titans in Silicon Valley. The Oakland native, born to parents who struggled financially, said her family was on food stamps and that she started working at age 12 to help make ends meet. “My dad was diagnosed with bipolar schizophrenia when I was 9, and my Chinese-born mom had only been in the United States for two years when I was born,” she told San Francisco magazine for a profile in 2021. “So not only was there no money, there was almost no parental guidance, and as you can imagine with a mentally ill father, there was lots of chaos and fear.” She credits the internet with helping her escape, and technology would come to dominate her life after she graduated from the University of Puget Sound and returned to the Bay Area, attending Santa Clara University School of Law and then diving into the intersection of the legal and tech worlds. In a landscape where innovation often outpaces regulation, she founded ClearAccessIP, a company that uses AI technology to help patent holders manage their intellectual property, according to its website. The company was acquired by IPwe in 2020. Shanahan married Google co-founder Sergey Brin in 2018 and divorced him in 2022. That year, The Wall Street Journal reported that she had an affair with billionaire Elon Musk, but both Shanahan and Musk have denied the accusation. The Journal has stood by its reporting. “The WSJ’s narrative that an affair with Elon Musk led to the end of my marriage was about as accurate as claiming that the body heat of polar bears is responsible for the melting of the Arctic ice caps,” she wrote last year in a first-person essay for People. “It felt senseless and cruel.” After the divorce from Brin, who is worth an estimated $121 billion, according to Forbes, she transitioned to full-time philanthropy work. Shanahan’s charity, the Bia-Echo Foundation, says its mission is to “create a multiplying effect” on issues Shanahan cares about, including “reproductive longevity & equality, criminal justice reform and a healthy & livable planet.” She started that work through her ex-husband’s foundation, announcing a $100 million commitment in 2019 to programs aimed at helping women become pregnant later in life, in addition to exploring solutions to criminal justice reform and climate change. Fertility issues have been a focus of her foundation and investment firm, Planeta Ventures, and a later gift of $6 million helped create the Center for Female Reproductive Longevity and Equality, saying her goal is to help women be able to have children into their mid-50s. However, Shanahan has advocated against supporting IVF research, because, in her view, it detracts from understanding the root causes of infertility. And she has argued the procedure is “sold irresponsibly” and has become more of a “commercial endeavor” than a scientific one, calling its promise “one of the biggest lies that’s being told about women’s health today.” “Many of the IVF clinics are financially incentivized to offer you egg freezing and IVF and not incentivized to offer you other fertility services,” Shanahan told the New Yorker last year. “I’m so often told that IVF is this great technology and I always get questioned why I’m not more supportive of IVF,” she said in an online video series. “I’ve tried to imagine where we would be as a field if all of the money that has been invested in IVF and all of the money that’s been invested into marketing IVF and all of the government money that has been invested in subsidizing IVF, if just 10% of that went into reproductive longevity, research, and fundamental research.” That view could be especially relevant this year as both parties debate abortion rights in the wake of the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision overturning Roe v. Wade. Earlier this year, an Alabama Supreme Court ruling that frozen embryos created for IVF were people, briefly halting procedures in the state — and made the issue a national political hot button. Politicians from both parties rushed to voice their support for IVF, and Democrats argued that longtime GOP positioning on abortion legislation and “personhood” laws would have the effect of restricting IVF. Her position on vaccines and other past advocacy Shanahan’s 2023 essay also reveals how her experience with the reporting around her marriage led her to adopt a more jaundiced view of the news media, which is a frequent target of Kennedy’s. “They displayed a reckless thirst for a popular hit piece, no matter the cost it would have on my life,” she wrote. She and Brin had one daughter, Echo, who was diagnosed with autism at a young age. Shanahan has said she is committed to investing her wealth in understanding the causes and treatments of the disorder. Many vaccine skeptics, including Kennedy, have said vaccines cause autism — even though experts say there is no evidence supporting the claim and the key research papers that made the link were later retracted, with their lead author widely discredited after he was found to have manipulated his data. Kennedy took a leave from his post as the leader of the country’s best-funded anti-vaccine organization, Children’s Health Defense, to run for president, and has since included a number of anti-vaccine activists in his campaign. Last summer, Shanahan “committed“ to her partner, Jacob Strumwasser, an executive of a company working on “next-generation of bitcoin financial software,” whom she met at Burning Man. “We were living parallel surfing lives,” she told People last year, “and then we met at Burning Man, which is the driest place on the planet.” Kennedy kicked off his campaign with a speech at a Bitcoin convention in Miami, which was his first public appearance as a candidate. And he has spoken often about the promise of cryptocurrency. Politically, Shanahan has donated heavily to Democrats and progressive causes, such criminal justice reform ballot measures, according to campaign finance records. In 2020, she gave $2,800 to Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg and co-hosted a fundraiser for the now-Transportation secretary. She also gave $2,800 to Democratic contender Marianne Williamson during the last election cycle, before donating $25,000 to the fundraising efforts backing Joe Biden. She also gave the maximum $6,600 to Kennedy’s campaign last year, before announcing the larger gift to the super PAC for the Super Bowl ads. Shanahan also gave to several Democratic congressional candidates in battleground districts in 2018. And she gave the maximum $5,400 contribution to Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign in 2016. Asked in 2022 about her politics, she told Puck, “I don’t think about it in terms of party. I think about it in terms of people, places and ideas.” That attitude reflects Kennedy’s own rhetoric, especially since he left the Democratic presidential primary to run as an independent. While there is no obvious precedent for a vice presidential candidate bankrolling their campaign, FEC rules exempt candidates funding their own campaigns from contribution limits, so it appears she would be able to contribute or loan as much money as she wants to the Kennedy campaign. The campaign needs money to fund its ballot access work, including the painstaking and expensive work of gathering hundreds of thousands of signatures from dozens of states across the country. While major party candidates typically wait until the summer to announce their running mates, one reason Kennedy did so now is because deadlines are coming up in some states that require submission of both names on a ticket in order to get on the ballot.
California Restaurant Association says Berkeley to halt ban on natural gas piping in new buildings 2024-03-26 19:35:57+00:00 - BERKELEY, Calif. (AP) — The city of Berkeley, California, has agreed to halt enforcement of a ban on natural gas piping in new homes and buildings that was successfully opposed in court by the California Restaurant Association, the organization said. The settlement follows the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals’ refusal to reconsider a 2023 ruling that the ban violates federal law that gives the U.S. government the authority to set energy-efficiency standards for appliances, the association said in a statement last week. The office of the Berkeley city attorney did not immediately respond Tuesday to an email from The Associated Press seeking comment on the association’s statement. The association said Berkeley agreed to settle the case by taking steps to repeal its ordinance, but because the process will take several months, the city will immediately stop enforcing the ban to comply with the court ruling. In 2019, Berkeley became the first U.S. city to adopt a ban on natural gas in new homes and buildings, starting a climate change-driven move in many other cities and counties that morphed into a culture war over the future of gas stoves. The California Restaurant Association filed suit in federal court to overturn Berkeley’s ban. After the 9th Circuit’s ruling, environmental groups contended it would not affect the majority of cities and counties that have already banned or curtailed natural gas through building codes that meet certain federal requirements. But they said jurisdictions with ordinances constructed similar to Berkeley’s might be at risk. There have been no new bans since the 9th Circuit’s ruling and some communities have suspended or stopped enforcing their rules, The Sacramento Bee reported Monday. Sacramento, for example, has not enforced its electrification ordinance since August 2023, the Bee reported. Jot Condie, president and CEO of the restaurant association, said all cities and counties that passed a similar ordinance should now undo them. “Climate change must be addressed, but piecemeal policies at the local level like bans on natural gas piping in new buildings or all-electric ordinances, which are preempted by federal energy laws, are not the answer,” Condie said in the association statement that was issued Friday.
Co-workers worry about missing colleagues in bridge collapse 2024-03-26 19:19:00+00:00 - The frantic phone calls jolted Earl Schneider awake. A friend who works at a hospital wanted to make sure Schneider, a structural foreman for Brawner Builders, was not on the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore when it was struck by a cargo ship and collapsed early Tuesday morning. He was not, and he had not worked on the bridge, a major part of the busy Port of Baltimore, for about two weeks. But he knew every person who had been assigned that morning to fix potholes on the bridge’s roadway, directly above where the ship hit. One by one, he called his colleagues, including some who had recently had babies. Each call went to voicemail. “I know everybody on that crew personally. They’re all great people,” Schneider said, declining to name them. “It’s tough. It’s been a rough morning.” At least six people are missing after the cargo ship notified authorities of a “power issue” and issued a mayday moments before slamming into the bridge a little after 1 a.m., authorities said. Maryland Gov. Wes Moore said an unknown number of workers were doing repairs on the bridge when the ship hit a support pillar. About three or four of them had welcomed newborns within the last year, according to Schneider, 33. The Dali was on its way to Sri Lanka when it struck the Francis Scott Key Bridge. Tasos Katopodis / Getty Images “Folks had their lives changed in a blink of an eye,” he said. “You don’t know how much time you’ve got.” The crash is under investigation. The governor said it was likely the result of an accident and not an act of terrorism. The bridge, which is about a mile-and-a-half long, was “fully up to code," he said. Two people were rescued from the water, Baltimore Fire Chief James Wallace said. One was in good condition, and the other was seriously injured. It's unclear if they are construction workers. One of the missing workers is Maynor Suazo, a father of two, who is originally from Honduras, his brother said. Suazo’s family were informed of his disappearance between 3 and 4 a.m. but had not heard any updates Tuesday evening. “The hope we have is to be able to see the body,” Suazo’s brother said. “We want to see him, find him, know whether he is dead, because we don’t know anything.” Schneider last worked on the bridge about two weeks ago, leaving him grappling with some guilt over feeling grateful. “It’s tragic in a sense of like, it’s a blessing I wasn’t on there, but it comes at the cost of somebody else,” he said. James Krutzfeldt, 34, another foreman for Brawner Builders, was also recently moved off bridge repairs — a project that he said has been ongoing for about four years. He also last worked on the bridge two weeks ago. “We all bounce around,” he said. “It’s sad. I haven’t really realized it yet. I’m still kind of in shock.” One of the workers who is unaccounted for is another foreman whom Krutzfeldt considers his mentor and “work dad.” That worker “brought me up through Brawner’s ranks to become a foreman,” Krutzfeldt said, declining to name his colleagues. “We’re all just waiting for a phone call,” he said. “It’s all up in the air."
Conservative Commentators Condemn Uproar at NBC 2024-03-26 19:17:51+00:00 - The decision by NBC News to hire Ronna McDaniel, the former chair of the Republican National Committee, as a political commentator set off a round of sharp criticism from her new colleagues in recent days. Leading on-air figures at NBC and its cable cousin, MSNBC, including Chuck Todd and Rachel Maddow, took the unusual step of condemning their bosses’ decision in public. Those internal critics have said that by hiring Ms. McDaniel, the network was authorizing election denialism. In the days after the 2020 election, Ms. McDaniel promoted some false theories pushed by then-President Donald J. Trump, including that votes had been miscounted in key battleground states, and she helped pressure election officials in one Michigan county to hold off from certifying the results. She has since tried to downplay her role in questioning the integrity of the election, and on Sunday, she said on “Meet The Press” that President Biden had defeated Mr. Trump “fair and square.” Many mainstream news organizations have focused on the internal tensions at NBC. But the uproar at the network has played out differently among many conservative commentators, who have argued that it shows how the journalists at NBC News are overwhelmingly liberal and intolerant of conservative views. Fox News In one segment, after playing clips in which Mr. Todd and the MSNBC hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski described their opposition to Ms. McDaniel’s hire on the air, panelists on the Fox News show “America’s Newsroom” expressed incredulity at the backlash.
Kansas moves to join Texas and other states in requiring porn sites to verify people’s ages 2024-03-26 18:24:19+00:00 - TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas is poised to require pornography websites to verify visitors are adults, a move that would follow Texas and a handful of other states despite concerns about privacy and how broadly the law could be applied. The Republican-controlled Kansas Legislature passed the proposal Tuesday, sending it to Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly. The House voted for it 92-31 and the Senate approved it unanimously last month. Kelly hasn’t announced her plans, but she typically signs bills with bipartisan backing, and supporters have enough votes to override a veto anyway. At least eight states have enacted age-verification laws since 2022 — Texas, Arkansas, Indiana, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Utah and Virginia, and lawmakers have introduced proposals in more than 20 other states, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures and an analysis from The Associated Press of data from the Plural bill-tracking service. Weeks ago, a federal appeals court upheld the Texas age-verification requirement as constitutional and a the Oklahoma House sent a similar measure to the state Senate. Supporters argue that they’re protecting children from widespread pornography online. Oklahoma Rep. Toni Hasenbeck, a sponsor of the legislation, said pornography is dramatically more available now than when “there might be a sixth-grade boy who would find a Playboy magazine in a ditch somewhere.” “What is commonplace in our society is for a child to be alone with their digital device in their bedroom,” said Hasenbeck, a Republican representing a rural southwest Oklahoma district. In Kansas, some critics questioned whether the measure would violate free speech and press rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment. Last year, that issue was raised in a federal lawsuit over the Texas law from the Free Speech Coalition, a trade association for the adult entertainment industry. A three-judge panel of the conservative, New Orleans-based Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found that Texas’ age-verification requirement did not violate the First Amendment. The judges concluded that such a law can stand as long as a state has a rational basis for it and states have a legitimate interest in blocking minors’ access to pornography. The Kansas bill would make it a violation of state consumer protection laws for a website to fail to verify that a Kansas visitor is 18 if the website has material “harmful to minors.” The attorney general then could go to court seeking a fine of up to $10,000 for each violation. Parents also could sue for damages of at least $50,000. Under an existing Kansas criminal law, material is harmful to minors if it involves “nudity, sexual conduct, sexual excitement or sadomasochistic abuse.” But critics of the bill, mostly Democrats, argued that the law could be interpreted broadly enough that LGBTQ+ teenagers could not access information about sexual orientation or gender identity because the legal definition of sexual conduct includes acts of “homosexuality.” That means “being who we are” is defined as harmful to minors, said Rep. Brandon Woodard, who is gay and a Kansas City-area Democrat. Woodard also said opponents don’t understand “how technology works.” He said people could bypass an age-verification requirement by accessing pornography through the dark web or unregulated social media sites. Other lawmakers questioned whether the state could prevent websites based outside Kansas from retaining people’s personal information. “The information used to verify a person’s age could fall into the hands of entities who could use it for fraudulent purposes,” said southeastern Kansas Rep. Ken Collins, one of two Republicans to vote against the bill. Yet even critics acknowledged parents and other constituents have a strong interest in keeping minors from seeing pornography. Another southeastern Kansas Republican, Rep. Chuck Smith, chided the House because it didn’t approve the bill unanimously, as the Senate did. “Kids need to be protected,” he said. “Everybody in here knows what pornography is — everybody.” ___ Murphy reported from Oklahoma City.
Customers from the East Coast to the Midwest could see costly impact from Baltimore bridge collapse 2024-03-26 18:22:00+00:00 - Customers from the East Coast to the Midwest who were expecting goods shipped in via the Port of Baltimore could see significant cost increases as a result of Tuesday's collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore. In a statement released after the bridge collapsed early Tuesday, the American Trucking Association estimated some 4,900 trucks per day carrying an annual average of $28 billion worth of goods would have to be re-rerouted — at a cost to shippers and ultimately consumers. “The Key Bridge and Port of Baltimore are critical components of our nation’s infrastructure and supply chain," the association said. "Aside from the obvious tragedy, this incident will have significant and long-lasting impacts on the region." It noted the greatest impact is likely to be on shipments of hazardous materials, like diesel fuel, which are not allowed to be brought through tunnels. The closure, the association said, will "add significant cost in time, fuel and delays for trucks traveling through the region, on top of the disruption that a closure of the Port of Baltimore will inflict on our economy." “We urge state and federal government agencies to swiftly target appropriate resources to open the port and replace this bridge as quickly as possible,” the association said. A spokesperson for the Council on Safe Transportation of Hazardous Articles said it was declining to comment on the situation. The collapse is being blamed on a cargo ship that lost power and slammed into a bridge pylon early Tuesday. Maryland Gov. Wes Moore has declared a state of emergency, and President Joe Biden said he would direct federal resources to address the situation. The incident comes as global supply chains are already in brittle shape from pandemic-related stresses and geopolitical changes. “If this were the only issue, I think we’d be in a much better position," said Abe Eshkenazi, CEO of the Association for Supply Chain Management. "The unfortunate circumstance is that we’ve been dealing with multiple disruptions that have already stretched a system that is low on capacity.” Baltimore is the largest entry point in the U.S. for large agriculture and construction equipment like tractors, farming combines, fork lifts, bulldozers and heavy-duty trucks that are bound for the Midwest, according to DAT Freight and Analytics, a freight-exchange service. Any disruption to agriculture and construction equipment shipments would come at a particularly bad time as Midwest farmers have begun to plant this year’s crops, while construction picks up in colder climates as the ground begins to thaw, said Dean Croke, principal analyst with DAT. “I think it has a huge economic impact on the farming industry,” said Croke. “This is peak planting season in the Midwest and peak machinery import season. March is the biggest month for machinery shipments into the U.S. via Baltimore.” Companies may have to reroute their shipments to nearby ports, like those in Georgia or Florida, he said. That will mean higher freight shipping costs as trucks have to travel further and may have to wait longer to pick up their loads if those ports become congested, said Croke. The complete collapse of the bridge means it could take up to a year for normal logistics patterns to return, said Tinglong Dai, a professor at the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School. "It's very difficult to estimate the [shipping] cost impact, but it’s fair to say it's going to be costlier to transport autos and trucks to and from the U.S. in the short term because of the oversize impact on the port of Baltimore," he said. Baltimore is also the No. 1 automobile port in the U.S. Other Eastern Seaboard ports are expected to be able to shoulder some Baltimore-bound auto shipments, said Emily Stausbøll, market analyst with the shipping group Xeneta, which could limit the impact on global shipping rates. “However, there is only so much port capacity available and this will leave supply chains vulnerable to any further pressure,” Stausbøll wrote in a note to clients. In an interview with CNBC, Richard Meade, the editor-in-chief of Lloyd's list, a shipping journal, said: “It will be expensive but it is not a supply chain story like the EverGiven (which was stuck in the Suez Canal) because ocean carriers will find alternative routes,” said Meade. “Logistically, ocean carriers and trucking have the ability to be pretty adapt and agile.” A spokesperson for the port of Norfolk, Virginia — another major terminal along the East Coast — said its team was already working with ocean carriers whose vessels were bound for Baltimore to see about rerouting south. "The Port of Virginia has a significant amount of experience in handling surges of import and export cargo and is ready to provide whatever assistance we can to the team at the Port of Baltimore,” the spokesperson said. Some automakers said there may not be a major impact. A General Motors spokesperson said it expected the incident to have a minimal affect on its operations, and that it was working to re-reroute vehicle shipments to other ports. A BMW spokesperson said that its receiving terminal is located at the Baltimore harbor’s entrance in front of the bridge and was still accessible. “We do not expect this morning’s tragedy in Baltimore to have any immediate impact on our business, other than short term traffic delays,” the BMW spokesperson said in an email. Other companies with significant operations in the port area said the impact from the collapse would be minimal. In a statement, a Home Depot representative said its distribution centers in the area remained open and operating. Amazon, which also has a major distribution center at the port, declined to specify what, if any, effects there might be. "We’re assessing the immediate and future impacts to our employees and delivery partners, as well as the surrounding community and will make any adjustments to our operations that are needed," an Amazon rep said in an emailed statement.
Georgia lawmakers agree on pay raises in upcoming budget, but must resolve differences by Thursday 2024-03-26 18:09:23+00:00 - ATLANTA (AP) — The Georgia Senate on Tuesday approved a budget that would include pay raises for public school teachers and state employees, as well as boost spending on education, health care and mental health. Senators and representatives now must work out their differences on House Bill 916 before 2024’s legislative session ends Thursday. The budget, which passed 53-1, spends $36.1 billion in state money and $61 billion overall in the year beginning July 1. Spending would fall from this year’s budget after Gov. Brian Kemp and lawmakers supplemented that budget will billions in one-time cash, boosting state spending to $38 billion in the year ending June 30. Public school teachers would get a $2,500 raise starting July 1, boosting average teacher pay in Georgia above $65,000 annually, as the Republican governor proposed in January. That is in addition to a $1,000 bonus Kemp sent out in December. Prekindergarten teachers would also get a $2,500 raise. State and university employees also would get a 4% pay increase, up to $70,000 in salary. The typical state employee makes $50,400. Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Blake Tillery, a Vidalia Republican, said those pay raises are among “big things we agree on.” Some employees would get more. State law enforcement officers would get an additional $3,000 bump, atop the $6,000 special boost they got last year. Child welfare workers would also receive extra $3,000 raises. One thing that is unclear under the plan is judicial pay raises. There is money in the Senate budget for nearly $20 million, which would implement almost all of a plan to raise and standardize judicial pay. But Tillery wants the plan to be contained in a state constitutional amendment that hasn’t advanced. The House is still trying to implement the plan in a regular bill. The state would spend hundreds of millions of dollars more to increase what it pays to nursing homes, home health care providers, dialysis providers, physical and occupational therapists, and some physicians. The Senate proposes spending $30 million more on domestic violence shelters and sexual assault response. Tillery said that money would offset big cuts in federal funding that some agencies face. While the House and Senate have agreed on some things, there are also significant differences. The Senate would spend $80 million more to increase pay for companies that provide home-based services to people with intellectual and physical disabilities. The Senate would also raise the amount that local school boards have to pay for health insurance for non-certified employees such as custodians, cafeteria workers and secretaries. Tillery argues it is fair to speed up the phase-in of higher premiums because of other money the state is pumping into education, including boosting by $205 million the state’s share of buying and operating school buses and $104 million for school security. The Senate would add another $5 million for school security for developing school safety plans. Tillery said one key element in final talks will be a push from Kemp’s administration to not spend so much additional money on continuing programs, instead focusing more on one-time spending. That could, for example, endanger some of the rate increases House and Senate members have proposed for medical and social service providers. The state already plans to pay cash for new buildings and equipment in the upcoming budget, instead of borrowing as normal, reflecting billions in surplus cash Georgia has built up in recent years. The Senate would go farther, taking $33 million the House planned to spend elsewhere and use it instead to pay down debt, which Tillery said would free up spending in future years. “Let’s find the bonds where the interest rates are higher than we’re making in our banks and let’s go ahead and pay them off early,” Tillery told senators.
US prosecutors try to send warning to cryptocurrency world with KuCoin prosecution 2024-03-26 17:59:59+00:00 - NEW YORK (AP) — A top U.S. prosecutor announced criminal charges Tuesday against a once-ascending company in the cryptocurrency world and two of its founders in a bid to send a message to other players in the industry to follow U.S. laws. U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said conspiracy charges against KuCoin and two executives should warn other crypto exchanges that they cannot serve U.S. customers without following U.S. laws. An indictment in Manhattan federal court said the company and its founders tried to conceal the existence of its U.S. customer base. In December, New York Attorney General Letitia James secured a payout of more than $22 million from KuCoin to refund $16.7 million to over 150,000 New York investors and provide New York state with over $5.3 million. KuCoin was also required to cease New York operations after falsely representing itself as a crypto exchange without registering as a securities and commodities broker-dealer, James said. Williams said in a release that KuCoin, formed in 2017, “took advantage of its sizeable U.S. customer base to become one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency derivatives and spot exchanges, with billions of dollars of daily trades and trillions of dollars of annual trade volume.” He said the company deliberately chose to flout U.S. laws designed to help identify and eliminate crime and corrupt financing schemes on financial platforms. As a result, authorities said, the company was used as a vehicle to launder large sums of proceeds from criminal malware, ransomware and fraud schemes. KuCoin failed to implement even basic anti-money laundering policies as it let customers process over $4 billion of suspicious and criminal funds as KuCoin operated in the shadows of the financial markets and provided a haven for illicit money laundering, Williams said. Darren McCormack, who heads the New York office of Homeland Security Investigations, said the prosecution exposes one of the largest global cryptocurrency exchanges as a multibillion-dollar criminal conspiracy. “KuCoin grew to service over 30 million customers, despite its alleged failure to follow laws necessary to ensuring the security and stability of our world’s digital banking infrastructure,” McCormack said. In a statement posted on social media, the company said it was “operating well, and the assets of our users are absolutely safe.” It added: “We are aware of the related reports and are currently investigating the details through our lawyers. KuCoin respect the laws and regulations of various countries and strictly adheres to compliance standards.” Also on social media, the company’s chief executive, identifying himself as “Johnny,” said the “regulatory matter related to KuCoin has come to my attention. While we’re working on it, the platform is unaffected and operating normally as usual. Your assets are safe and sound with us. Our team and I will provide timely updates about the progress.” Charged along with the company were Chun Gan, 34, and Ke Tang, 39, two of the company’s founders and both citizens of China. Charged with conspiring to violate the Bank Secrecy Act and conspiring to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business, they remain at large. The Bank Secrecy Act charge stemmed from the failure of the men to maintain an adequate anti-money laundering program to prevent KuCoin from being used for money laundering and terrorist financing, along with failing to verify customers and failing to file any suspicious activity reports common in the financial industry, prosecutors said. Three companies doing business as KuCoin were incorporated in the Cayman Islands, the Republic of Seychelles and Singapore. They were also facing conspiracy charges. On the KuCoin website Tuesday, U.S. residents were greeted with the following message: “Based on your IP address, we currently do not provide services in your country or region due to local laws, regulations, or policies. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. If you are from a region where our services are available, please access our platform from a supported location to complete KYC verification.” The company claims it has 30 million registered users across more than 200 countries and regions worldwide.
Twitter usage in US ‘fallen by a fifth’ since Elon Musk’s takeover 2024-03-26 17:41:00+00:00 - Use of Twitter in the US has slumped by more than a fifth since Elon Musk bought the site and rebranded it to X, according to data from app-monitoring company Sensor Tower. As of February 2024, the social network’s daily app users in America had fallen by 23% since November 2022, just after Musk completed his takeover. Every other major social network experienced a reduction in the same period, but none by anywhere near X’s drop in user numbers. The closest was TikTok, which fell by just short of 10%, while Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat all had user slumps of less than 5%, according to the data, first reported by NBC News. Globally, X fared slightly better, dropping 15% of its users to hit 174 million daily active app users, according to Sensor Tower’s data. The analytics company does not track users who visit the social network through the web, nor those who use desktop apps, and relies on a number of sources to maintain an accurate panel of users to sample. While X did not respond to a request for comment, the company implicitly rebuffed Sensor Tower’s claims in a public post. In an unsigned message, it said that “250 million people use X every day”, with 550 million visiting every month, and that “daily average time spent on platform” and “daily active user minutes” are both up year on year. The fall in the value of the company has been reflected in assessments by the fund manager Fidelity, one of the investors in Musk’s buyout of the previously publicly traded company. Fidelity’s blue chip growth fund, which holds its stake, has continuously marked down the value it attributes to the company, hitting its latest low of a 71.5% reduction in value from November 2022 to November 2023. Since Musk paid $44bn for his stake, that brings Fidelity’s assessed value for the overall company to just over $12.5bn. On Monday, a judge in California dismissed Musk’s lawsuit against the Center for Countering Digital Hate, a non-profit that has published reports chronicling the rise of racist, antisemitic and extremist content on the platform since Musk’s acquisition. “Sometimes it is unclear what is driving a litigation, and only by reading between the lines of a complaint can one attempt to surmise a plaintiff’s true purpose,” wrote Charles Breyer, the US district judge, in the ruling. “Other times, a complaint is so unabashedly and vociferously about one thing that there can be no mistaking that purpose. This case represents the latter circumstance. This case is about punishing the defendants for their speech.”