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Len Sirowitz, Whose Bold, Offbeat Ads Captured an Era, Dies at 91 2024-03-13 23:51:22+00:00 - Len Sirowitz, an award-winning advertising art director whose creative work in the 1960s included memorable print ads for the Volkswagen Beetle — like one declaring, “Ugly is only skin-deep” — and a campaign for Mobil in which a car was dropped off a 10-story building to make a point about the perils of speeding, died on March 4 at his home in Manhattan. He was 91. His daughter, Laura Sirowitz, confirmed the death. Mr. Sirowitz joined the influential Doyle Dane Bernbach advertising agency, known as DDB, in 1959, at 27, and spent the next 11 years at the firm conceiving the look of ads for numerous accounts with wit and passion. “It was quite early in my career that I began to realize that my message needed to not only be bold and daring, but it must stem from the truth … and touch people’s emotions,” he told Dave Dye, who runs the advertising blog From the Loft, in 2015.
Elon Musk abruptly scraps X partnership with former CNN anchor Don Lemon 2024-03-13 23:49:00+00:00 - Don Lemon's partnership with Elon Musk's social media network is over before it began. X (formerly known as Twitter) ended its commercial partnership with the former CNN anchor shortly after he interviewed the billionaire, the company said Wednesday in a post on the platform. The interview was scheduled to run on the maiden broadcast of "The Don Lemon show" on X on March 18. X in January announced that Lemon would bring his "unique and honest voice" to the service in three 30-minute episodes per week. The company at the time also unveiled two other news shows featuring former U.S. congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard and sports radio host and former ESPN star Jim Rome. But Musk on Wednesday derided Lemon's approach as "basically just 'CNN, but on social media.'" X said Lemon is "welcome to publish its content on X, without censorship, as we believe in providing a platform for creators to scale their work and connect with new communities." In a video posted on his own X account, Lemon said "Musk is mad at me." "Throughout our conversation, I kept reiterating to him that although it was tense at times, I thought it was good for people to see and hear our exchange and that they would learn from our conversation," Lemon said. Elon Musk canceled #TheDonLemonShow👀 Watch on YouTube and listen everywhere on Monday March 18. pic.twitter.com/AAhnvcY0ny — Don Lemon (@donlemon) March 13, 2024 "Apparently free speech absolutism doesn't apply when it comes to questions about him from people like me," Lemon added, noting that his March 8 interview with Musk would appear March 18 on YouTube and via podcast. Musk has repeatedly professed his belief in uncensored expression on social media, calling himself a "free speech absolutist." Lemon was fired by CNN in 2023 after a 17-year run with the network. His ouster came a little over two months after he apologized for on-air comments about then-Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley not being in "her prime" that he made during his short run as a morning show host on the network. —The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Under Armour’s Founder Will Return as C.E.O. 2024-03-13 23:26:45+00:00 - Under Armour, the sports apparel company, said on Wednesday that its founder, Kevin Plank, would return as chief executive, in a leadership shake-up that will seek to revitalize the struggling brand. Mr. Plank, who founded Under Armour in 1996, had remained the company’s executive chair and controlling shareholder after exiting as chief executive at the end of 2019. He will take over on April 1 from Stephanie Linnartz, who led the company for just over a year. Ms. Linnartz took over from Patrik Frisk, who served in that role for two years. Under Armour, once hyped as the next Nike, has faltered in recent years amid a series of missteps and shifting consumer tastes in a highly competitive market. With sales slumping, the company’s stock has fallen by about 85 percent since reaching a record high in 2015. It rose slightly in after-hours trading after the news that Mr. Plank would be returning to lead the company after four years away from the job. In a note to employees posted on LinkedIn announcing his return, Mr. Plank said that the company was assessing its direction in an effort to “help us make the right choices to put us back on a path to actively build and drive toward our full brand potential.”
Boeing, Alaska Airlines point fingers at each other in lawsuit over door plug blowout 2024-03-13 22:40:00+00:00 - Boeing and Alaska Airlines have separately denied any legal responsibility for the injuries allegedly caused to dozens of passengers after a door plug blew out of a 737-Max 9 jet during a flight in January. In its formal answers this week to a class-action lawsuit brought by dozens of passengers of Alaska Airlines Flight 1282, Boeing generally acknowledged the preliminary findings of a National Transportation Safety Board investigation that determined the door plug was improperly installed. The company also acknowledged that, in an interview with CNBC, Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun publicly described the incident as “our mistake.” But Boeing denied liability for any damages alleged by the passengers, saying their lawsuit should be dismissed. The company also contended it cannot be held responsible for any injuries that may have resulted because its products were “improperly maintained, or misused by persons and/or entities other than Boeing.” Likewise, Alaska Airlines denied liability, claiming that any injuries stemming from the door plug blowout “were caused by the fault of persons or entities over whom Alaska Airlines has no control … including Defendant The Boeing Company and/or non-party Spirit AeroSystems.” Alaska Airlines also denied that the activation of the plane’s cabin-pressure warning light three times within the previous month — including on the day before the door incident — was related or meant that the plane was unsafe to fly. The legal filings, submitted as part of the case in the U.S. District Court in Seattle, represent the first formal response from the companies to any of the several lawsuits filed in the wake of the Jan. 5 incident. Daniel Laurence, an attorney representing passengers who are part of the class action, said Wednesday he was “frankly surprised” that Boeing and Alaska Airlines “don’t want to simply admit liability and put this case behind them.” “They’re putting up a wall and circling the wagons,” added Laurence, with the Strimatter Kessler Koehler Moore law firm in Seattle. “That’s disappointing, given what I think most of the population believes and the evidence appears to clearly support — that they put this aircraft into the air with an unsecured door plug that, had it come out a few minutes later, would have killed everybody on board.” Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun in the Hart Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill on Jan. 25. Aaron Schwartz / NurPhoto via Getty Images file The incident occurred shortly after the Boeing-manufactured jet, carrying 171 passengers and six flight crew members, took off from Portland International Airport bound for Ontario International Airport in San Bernardino County, California. After reaching an altitude of about 16,000 feet, the door plug blew out, leaving a large hole in the plane’s fuselage and forcing the plane to turn back to Portland, where it landed safely. Following the incident, which has brought new scrutiny to Boeing and its troubled 737 Max airplanes, the Federal Aviation Administration temporarily grounded some models of the plane. The NTSB investigation preliminarily found no bolts had been installed to secure the plug. The FAA separately launched an audit into Boeing and its supplier, Spirit AeroSystems, finding “multiple instances where the companies allegedly failed to comply with manufacturing quality control requirements.” The Department of Justice has also separately opened a criminal probe into the door plug blowout, according to a source familiar with the investigation. In the wake of the incident, at least three separate lawsuits have been filed by Flight 1282 passengers and their spouses, including cases in state courts in Washington and Oregon. Passengers involved in the federal lawsuit, seeking class-action status, claim they were physically injured and traumatized by the door plug’s blowout, which caused rapid depressurization of the plane’s cabin and led to widespread panic. “The pressure change made ears bleed and combined with low oxygen, loud wind noise and traumatic stress made heads ache severely,” the lawsuit states. “Passengers were shocked, terrorized and confused, thrust into a waking nightmare, hoping they would live long enough to walk the earth again.” Since the incident, some passengers have avoided flying on any airplane, and some have sought counseling to deal with emotional trauma, Laurence said. The lawsuit also alleges that several passengers had trouble breathing in the aftermath of the door plug blowout because oxygen masks that dropped during the incident weren’t functioning. Alaska Airlines denied that any oxygen masks did not work in its filing this week. The airline acknowledged that the jet’s auto cabin pressure controller light had activated three times before the door plug blowout, leading Alaska Airlines to restrict the plane from flying on long routes over water. But the airline disputed that the light warnings “made the aircraft unsafe to fly (and) denies any correlation between the pressurization controller warning light activations and the door plug accident on Flight 1282,” its filing says.
TikTok ban bill: What's next in Congress, Senate, what it means 2024-03-13 22:31:00+00:00 - A U.S. government ban of TikTok could push users to figure out alternative ways to access the app, something that has become more common in other parts of the world as governments have instituted varying rules on tech companies. On Wednesday, the House passed the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, which would amount to a ban on TikTok unless TikTok’s parent company sells the app. The bill still needs to clear the Senate, but President Joe Biden said last week that he would sign it if it comes to his desk. If passed as written, the bill would give the president the power to force certain foreign-owned social media apps to choose between selling them off or being banned if U.S. intelligence agencies deem them a threat. The bill’s most vocal proponents and national security officials have said this would apply to TikTok’s parent company, China-based Bytedance, for two reasons: the app collects data on its 170 million American users, and in theory it could be used to push Chinese propaganda. Privacy advocates have long said that TikTok doesn’t collect substantially more information on its users than other apps, and a better solution would be to simply pass a substantial data privacy law, which the U.S. does not have. And while China is frequently accused of trying to seed online propaganda aimed at swaying American opinion, it is usually strikingly ineffective at it. If the bill passed and Biden were to use its authorities to compel Bytedance to sell TikTok, the company would have 180 days to find a buyer. That would be enormously frantic, said Kate Ruane, director of the Free Expression Project at the Center for Democracy and Technology, a Washington-based tech policy think tank that opposes the bill. “There aren’t really that many entities in this world with the kind of money that it would take to be able to purchase something as expensive as TikTok likely is,” Ruane said. “And in a deal that’s big, it would probably need to undergo — and I think that we would likely want it to undergo — antitrust review in the United States. And antitrust merger review, especially in big complicated deals, can take a long time. Likely longer than six months,” she said. It’s also unclear that Bytedance has any interest in selling TikTok, regardless of the U.S. Congress. Bytedance didn’t respond to an email requesting comment. Sarah Kreps, the director of Cornell University’s Tech Policy Institute, said she was skeptical Bytedance would sell. “China’s not in a great place economically, but this is something they’ve done that is very visibly successful around the world. So I don’t see why they would sell it off,” Kreps said. If a sale didn’t happen, it could set off an unprecedented situation in American history: A popular smartphone app used by half the country’s population would suddenly become banned. Under the language of the bill, app stores would be forbidden from hosting any banned app. That would mostly apply to Google, which maintains the Play Store for Android users; and Apple, which hosts the App Store. Neither company responded to a request for comment, but both historically comply with U.S. law. In that case, the TikTok app would no longer be easily accessible for most Americans, and ease of use is a huge part of the app’s appeal. But it also would likely drive many TikTok fans to find workarounds, said Cooper Quintin, the senior staff technologist at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit that promotes civil liberties in relation to technology. “I think you’ll see a lot of kids learning how to circumvent the restrictions on their phones, Quintin said. “They’re certainly not going to stop people from using TikTok by banning it. Yeah, you’ll probably cut down on the number of people using it, but that just makes it more exciting,” he said. “They’re gonna create a whole new generation of hackers.” TikTok users in India, for instance, which banned TikTok in 2020, often post videos showing ways to circumvent the ban, though it isn’t clear that they all always work. It also isn’t fully clear how the app store ban would work. Both Google and Apple require users to have accounts with their services to use their app stores, and those accounts have several potential ways of identifying the user’s location. While app stores may generally categorize a person by country, both companies allow users to change what country they’re in. And it’s possible to make a second account while visiting another country in order to appear to be resident there and download its apps. Laurin Weissinger, a visiting scholar at the Department of Computer Science at Tufts University, told NBC News that he frequently does this while traveling in Europe. “During Covid, I went to Europe, flying into Frankfurt. Germany at the time had an app to show vaccination status,” he said. “The app was not available in the U.S. App Store. So I had to make another account and get the app." It’s also possible to load apps directly onto a phone without going through a store, though it’s significantly harder to do so on iPhones than on Android phones. That may lead to more TikTok obsessives trying to load the program directly onto their phone — or to accidentally downloading a malicious hacker’s version, Quintin said. “My concern is what’ll spread is links to backdoored versions of TikTok that are malicious, that are actually malware,” he said.
Trump's RNC officially kills the GOP's mail-in voter effort 2024-03-13 22:23:12+00:00 - In a victory for the extremist wing of the Republican Party, it looks like Donald Trump’s hand-picked leadership team at the Republican National Committee has officially scrapped the GOP’s plan to encourage early voting this election cycle. Instead, the party is taking steps to prioritize legal challenges to voting systems ahead of November. As part of the layoffs and budget cuts carried out this week by the newly installed leadership team, they are shuttering a program dedicated to mail-in voting, according to The Washington Post. The significance, of course, is that Trump has pushed false claims that mail-in voting is rife with voter fraud since 2020, months before he lost the election to Joe Biden. Ever since the election, Trump has continued to spread conspiracy theories that mail-in voter fraud cost him that race. In reality, there’s ample evidence that allowing people to vote by mail doesn’t have a partisan effect (and if it does, data shows the impact appears to favor Republicans). Nonetheless, the Post reported that the “Bank Your Vote” program, which was designed to encourage Republicans to vote early, is over with: A nationwide network of community outreach centers, once a fixture of the party’s efforts to attract minority voters, will be shuttered or refocused on get-out-the-vote efforts. The much heralded “Bank Your Vote” program, aimed at getting Republicans to vote early, will shift to a “Grow The Vote” program focused more on expanding the party’s outreach to less likely Trump voters. Former RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel was a staunch supporter of the "Bank Your Vote" program, which may be one of the many reasons she was ousted. The “Grow the Vote” program appears to be a way for Republicans to continue their mission of getting “low information, low propensity voters” — specifically those who don’t typically vote — to the polls this November. (It’s like Republicans have just rediscovered voter outreach or something.) But the end of the "Bank Your Vote" program isn’t the only sign the GOP is doubling down on its standard-bearer’s antidemocratic tendencies. The Post also reported: [RNC Chief Operating Officer Chris] LaCivita is installing Christina Bobb — a former OAN reporter who has espoused false claims that the 2020 election was stolen — as senior counsel for election integrity. Bobb is the author of a book called “Stealing Your Vote: The Inside Story of the 2020 Election and What It Means for 2024” and promoted the audit of Arizona elections. This appears to be a realization of the far right’s goal of focusing the Republican Party on election-related “lawfare,” that is legal challenges designed to restrict ballot access and undercut election systems in ways that make it harder to vote. Back in 2022, I reported that this vision was behind right-wing lawyer Harmeet Dhillon’s long-shot bid to become RNC chair. Dhillon insisted that the RNC needed to hire an army of lawyers to lob legal challenges ahead of the 2024 elections. Nothing screams “We can’t win a majority of voters fairly” like prioritizing legal attacks on voting rights. But that’s precisely what the Trump-branded RNC is preparing to do. Lara Trump, the former president’s daughter-in-law and the current RNC co-chair, claimed “massive resources” will go to its so-called election integrity division. All the more reason for Democrats to be on the lookout for antidemocratic election schemes this fall.
Yeezy shoe sales lead Adidas to $150 million in donations to anti-hate groups 2024-03-13 22:21:00+00:00 - Adidas said Wednesday that it’s donated or is planning to give away more than $150 million to groups fighting antisemitism and other forms of hate from the sales of Yeezy shoes last year after it severed ties with Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West. The German sportswear brand had 1.2 billion euros ($1.3 billion) worth of popular Yeezy sneakers piled up in warehouses after it broke off its partnership with Ye in October 2022 over his antisemitic and other offensive comments on social media and in interviews. Adidas decided to sell some of the remaining shoes in batches, with two releases last year and another that launched late last month, and donate a portion of the proceeds to anti-hate groups. The company has made donations to the Anti-Defamation League and the Philonise & Keeta Floyd Institute for Social Change, run by social justice advocate Philonise Floyd, the brother of George Floyd. Net sales of what’s left of Adidas’ former banner line of sneakers brought in about 750 million euros last year, compared with over 1.2 billion euros in 2022, the company reported. Of the 300 million-euro profit it earned from the sales of Yeezy shoes last year, the company said it had given away or planned to donate over 140 million euros (about $152 million). Adidas said deciding to sell a big chunk of its Yeezy inventory and improved operations helped it pull out operating profit of 268 million euros last year, a nearly 60% plunge from the previous year. It blamed a high tax rate for ending the year with a net loss of 58 million euros, a massive turnaround from net income of 254 million euros in 2022. “Although by far not good enough, 2023 ended better than what I had expected at the beginning of the year,” said CEO Bjørn Gulden, who took over the top job last year. Looking forward, Adidas expects to make about 250 million euros in sales of the remaining Yeezy shoes this year. But the Herzogenaurach, Germany-based company points to North America as a persistent problem spot, expecting revenue to decline in the mid-single digits this year and grow everywhere else. It said that North America was “particularly affected by the negative Yeezy impact” and that revenue there dropped 16% last year. Adidas expects to almost double operating profit to about 500 million euros this year despite “macroeconomic challenges and geopolitical tensions.” It plans to further scale up popular shoe lines like Samba that are seeing “extraordinary demand,” launch new ones and get a boost from major sports events like the Paris Olympics this summer. Adidas shares were up slightly in late morning trading.
Eli Lilly teams with Amazon to offer home delivery of its Zepbound weight-loss drug 2024-03-13 21:59:00+00:00 - Four months after Eli Lilly obtained regulatory approval to sell its diabetes medication under a different name for weight loss, the pharmaceutical giant is teaming up with Amazon to deliver the drug and other medications directly to people's door. The drugmaker's tirzepatide medication, branded as Mounjaro for diabetes, is now being marketed as Zepbound for weight loss and is administered with an injection pen. "Lilly has selected Amazon Pharmacy as a dispensing pharmacy option, allowing patients to receive fast, free delivery of medications and 24/7 access to clinical pharmacists," Amazon announced Wednesday in a news release. Lilly confirmed adding Amazon Pharmacy as a third-party dispensing provider to its network. "We look forward to continuing to enhance LillyDirect with additional medicines, partners and service providers in the near future," the company told CBS MoneyWatch. Lilly earlier this year began selling weight-loss drugs directly to patients, who can communicate with physicians online and obtain certain prescriptions through digital pharmacies that now include Truepill and Amazon Pharmacy. Only certain drugs can be ordered through Lilly's platform, which uses third-party online pharmacies to fill and ship prescriptions. The process in many cases eliminates the need to physically see a doctor to obtain a prescription and, in certain cases, trekking to a pharmacy to fill it. The partnership with Amazon comes amid surging demand for Zepbound and other weight-loss drugs, some of which have seen intermittent shortages during the last year. Amazon Pharmacy offers two-day deliveries to those with an Amazon Prime membership, with the service applicable for those using LillyDirect. The retailer launched its pharmacy in 2020 after acquiring online pharmacy PillPack in 2018 in a move that upended the drug delivery business. Despite the growing demand for drugs like Zepbound and Novo Nordisk's Ozempic and Wegovy, scientists continue to investigate their potential long-term health issues or side effects. In January, for example, the Food and Drug Administration disclosed that the agency is investigating reports of alopecia, a hair loss condition, and aspiration, a complication during surgery when people inhale food or other objects into their airway, linked to the drugs.
Is the US really preparing to ban TikTok? 2024-03-13 21:36:00+00:00 - The House of Representatives passed a bill Wednesday that would require TikTok owner ByteDance to sell the social media platform or face a total ban in the United States. The legislation now moves to the Senate, where its likelihood of passing is uncertain. But with a landslide of support in the House – 352 Congress members voted in favor of the bill and only 65 voted against – it’s clear that TikTok is facing its biggest existential threat yet in the US. Here’s what you need to know about the bill, how likely TikTok is to be banned, and what that means for the platform’s 170 million US users. Is the US really trying to ban TikTok, and why? The bill that passed in the House on Wednesday is the latest salvo in an ongoing political battle over the platform, which exploded in popularity after its emergence in 2017. It quickly surpassed Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and YouTube in downloads in 2018 and reported a 45% increase in monthly active users between July 2020 and July 2022. The platform’s meteoric rise alarmed some lawmakers, who believe that TikTok’s China-based parent company could collect sensitive user data and censor content that goes against the Chinese government. TikTok has repeatedly stated it has not and would not share US user data with the Chinese government, but lawmakers’ concerns were exacerbated by news investigations that showed China-based employees at ByteDance had accessed nonpublic data about US TikTok users. TikTok has argued that US user data is not held in China but in Singapore and in the US, where it is routed through cloud infrastructure operated by Oracle, an American company. In 2023, TikTok opened a data center in Ireland where it handles EU citizen data. These measures have not been sufficient for many US lawmakers, and in March 2023 the TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew was called before Congress, where he faced more than five hours of intensive questioning about these and other practices. Lawmakers asked Chew about his own nationality, accusing him of fealty to China. He is, in fact, Singaporean. Various efforts to police TikTok and how it engages with US user data have been floated in Congress in the past year, culminating in the bill passed on Wednesday. 00:00:54 'I’m Singaporean': TikTok CEO grilled by US senator repeatedly about ties with China – video Is this bill really a TikTok ban? Under the new bill, ByteDance would have 165 days to divest from TikTok, meaning it would have to sell the social media platform to a company not based in China. If it did not, app stores including the Apple App Store and Google Play would be legally barred from hosting TikTok or providing web-hosting services to ByteDance-controlled applications. Authors of the bill have argued it does not constitute a ban, as it gives ByteDance the opportunity to sell TikTok and avoid being blocked in the US. “TikTok could live on and people could do whatever they want on it provided there is that separation,” said Representative Mike Gallagher, the Republican chair of the House select China committee. “It is not a ban – think of this as a surgery designed to remove the tumor and thereby save the patient in the process.” TikTok has argued otherwise, stating that it is not clear whether China would approve a sale or that it could even complete a sale within six months. “This legislation has a predetermined outcome: a total ban of TikTok in the United States,” the company said after the committee vote. “The government is attempting to strip 170 million Americans of their constitutional right to free expression. This will damage millions of businesses, deny artists an audience, and destroy the livelihoods of countless creators across the country.” How did we get here? TikTok has faced a number of bans and attempted bans in recent years, starting with an executive order by Donald Trump in 2020, which was ultimately blocked by courts on first amendment grounds. Trump has since reversed his stance, now opposing a ban on TikTok. Joe Biden, by contrast, has said he will sign the bill if it reaches his desk. Montana attempted to impose a statewide ban on the app in 2023, but the law was struck down by a federal judge over first amendment violations. The app was banned on government-issued phones in the US in 2022, and as of 2023 at least 34 states have also banned TikTok from government devices. At least 50 universities in the US have banned TikTok from on-campus wifi and university-owned computers. The treasury-led Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) in March 2023 demanded ByteDance sell its TikTok shares or face the possibility of the app being banned, Reuters reported, but no action has been taken. TikTok was banned in India in 2020 after a wave of dangerous “challenges” led to the deaths of some users. The ban had a marked effect on competition in India, handing a significant market to YouTube’s Shorts and Instagram Reels, direct competitors of TikTok. The app is not available in China itself, where Douyin, a separate app from parent company ByteDance with firmer moderation, is widely used. 00:00:16 Pelosi makes bizarre reference to tic-tac-toe during speech about TikTok – video How would a ban on TikTok be enforced? Due to the decentralized nature of the internet, enforcing a ban would be complex. The bill passed by the House would penalize app stores daily for making TikTok available for download, but for users who already have the app on their phones, it would be difficult to stop individual use. Internet service providers could also be forced to block IP addresses associated with TikTok, but such practices can be easily evaded on computer browsers by using a VPN, or virtual private network, which re-routes computer connections to other locations. To fully limit access to TikTok, the US government would have to employ methods used by countries like Iran and China, which structure their internet in a way that makes content restrictions more easily enforceable. Who supports the potential TikTok ban? While Trump – who started the war on TikTok in 2020 – has reversed his stance on the potential ban, most Republican lawmakers have expressed support of it. The Biden administration has also backed the bill, with the press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre saying the administration wants “to see this bill get done so it can get to the president’s desk”. Biden’s campaign joined TikTok last month. Despite Trump’s opposition to the bill, many Republicans are pushing forward with the effort to ban TikTok or force its sale to an American company. “Well, he’s wrong. And by the way, he had his own executive orders and his own actions he was doing, and now … he’s suddenly flipped around on that,” said the representative Chip Roy, a Texas Republican and member of the far-right Freedom Caucus. “I mean, it’s not the first or last time that I’ll disagree with the former president. The TikTok issue is pretty straightforward.” Who opposes the TikTok bill? TikTok has vocally opposed the legislation, urging the Senate not to pass it. “We are hopeful that the Senate will consider the facts, listen to their constituents, and realize the impact on the economy, 7m small businesses, and the 170 million Americans who use our service,” TikTok spokesperson Alex Haurek said following Wednesday’s vote. Within the House, 50 Democrats and 15 Republicans voted against the bill, including the Republican representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, who cited her experiences of being banned from social media. House Democrats including Maxwell Frost of Florida and Delia Ramirez of Illinois joined TikTok creators outside the Capitol following the vote to express opposition to the bill. View image in fullscreen Devotees of TikTok Mona Swain (center) and her sister, Rachel Swain, both of Atlanta, at the Capitol in Washington DC on 13 March 2024. Photograph: J Scott Applewhite/AP Some Senate Democrats have already publicly opposed the bill, citing freedom of speech concerns, and suggested measures that would address concerns of foreign influence across social media without targeting TikTok specifically. “We need curbs on social media, but we need those curbs to apply across the board,” the senator Elizabeth Warren said. The Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer issued a neutral statement regarding the next steps in the Senate, stating it will “review the legislation when it comes over from the House”. Freedom of speech and civil rights advocacy groups have vehemently opposed a ban, stating that such legislation could have a profound impact on the internet at large. They have argued that TikTok’s data practices, while problematic, are not substantially different from those of US-based tech firms. “TikTok isn’t perfect, but banning it is the wrong solution,” said Jenna Ruddock, policy counsel at the media advocacy group Free Press. “Like all popular platforms, including those that Meta and Google own, TikTok collects too much data on its users. But unilaterally dismantling spaces for free expression limits people’s access to information and cuts off avenues for creators to build community.” What will happen to TikTok next? The bill still faces an uphill battle to become law. While Biden has confirmed he would sign it, it still has to pass a Senate vote. It’s unclear when that vote would take place, but TikTok is likely to increase its lobbying efforts on the Hill as it moves forward, with CEO Chew heading to Congress on Wednesday to speak with senators. Even if the bill were to pass, it is likely to face similar challenges on the grounds of free speech that prevented similar legislation – like that from Trump in 2020 and the Montana ban of 2023 – from moving forward.
Speaker Mike Johnson is still dealing with Kevin McCarthy's baggage 2024-03-13 21:18:00+00:00 - WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, W.Va. — Four and a half months on the job, House Speaker Mike Johnson is still struggling with the baggage of the tumultuous Kevin McCarthy era. The Louisiana Republican is trying to fund the government and avert a shutdown based on a budget deal McCarthy and President Joe Biden struck last year that infuriated conservative hard-liners. Johnson inherited McCarthy’s Rules Committee, which decides how bills make it to the House floor but which McCarthy stacked with conservatives to help defuse their anger. That's forced Johnson to bypass conservatives on the committee and work with Democrats to enact must-pass legislation. And Johnson is grappling with a Biden impeachment inquiry that was unilaterally set in motion by his predecessor — even though it appears to be losing steam. “The former Speaker left us in a really bad spot, and Johnson has to negotiate under the set criteria of the former speaker and the leadership,” said Rep. Tim Burchett, of Tennessee, one of the eight GOP rebels who helped depose McCarthy. “And then some of those in the former speaker’s leadership group are, frankly, stabbing Johnson in the back — or in the front.” Johnson is now gathering with his fractious and minuscule majority at the Greenbrier Resort in West Virginia, hosting his first House Republican retreat as speaker as he works through the difficult to-do list that McCarthy left for him. Given their two years of infighting and the four-hour drive to the annual confab, only about half of them came. McCarthy's Rules Committee One nagging obstacle for Johnson is the House Rules Committee, a carry-over from the McCarthy days. The panel is typically stacked with loyal foot soldiers closely aligned with leadership since GOP members are carefully handpicked by the speaker. But after barely winning the speakership in January 2023, McCarthy appointed a trio of conservative rabble-rousers — Reps. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., Chip Roy, R-Texas, and Thomas Massie, R-Ky. — to the powerful panel as an olive branch to the hard right. Once McCarthy was ousted, Johnson was saddled with McCarthy’s Rules Committee, and the challenges that came with it. The trio has enough votes on the panel to team with Democrats to block GOP legislation that they don’t find sufficiently conservative. It has meant that Johnson has often had to work around his own rules panel, bringing legislation to the floor on an expedited process known as “suspension of the rules,” and rely on Democrats to clear critical bills because of the much higher two-thirds vote threshold. But that's only created more bad blood with conservatives, especially those on the panel. “That is a point of disagreement. That’s what we fought for, regular order. Let’s bring it through Rules Committee and let’s debate it. He’s got to get people in a room and hammer it out. The speaker’s got to use his power,” said Norman, a member of the far-right Freedom Caucus, describing Johnson's opening months as a baptism by fire. “This is fire by fire by fire." Rep. Garret Graves, R-La., one of McCarthy’s top allies who helped broker the deal to usher him into the speakership, defended McCarthy’s decision to install Freedom Caucus members on key committees, including rules. Involving those members in debates on the front-end prevents problems when bills hit the floor, he said. “The reality is Freedom Caucus and others are part of our majority right now,” Graves said in an interview. “They need to be part of the process and we need to deal with their perspective and priorities at the lowest level possible.” But even when bills have passed through the Rules Committee, Republicans have shown an unusual willingness to vote down procedural rules, effectively blocking legislation before a final vote. That's happened six times this Congress. And it means Johnson has less leverage with a Democratic-controlled Senate and White House, as he's privately acknowledged to Republicans on more than one occasion because they know the House can’t muscle through a rule. McCarthy's funding deal When Johnson acquired the gavel at the end of October, he also inherited a government that was on the brink of a shutdown three weeks later — and a band of conservative agitators that didn’t care to avert it. McCarthy had cut a massive deal with Biden to avert a debt default that also set spending caps for the next two years with cuts conservatives complained didn’t go deep enough. And Congress had failed to pass any long-term funding bills through both chambers while he was speaker. With little leadership experience, Johnson may not have anticipated how heavy a lift it would be to fund the government and avert a shutdown. Johnson, 52, never chaired a House committee; the last leadership job he held — GOP Conference vice chair — was so low it wasn’t even listed on the official House website. Johnson, who declared in November he would not put another short-term funding bill (known as a "CR") on the floor, has since done so twice to extend funding deadlines that he set. He did so both times by going around his Rules Committee and relying equally as much on Democratic votes as he did on Republicans. “It’s the fourth CR since he’s been speaker and the fifth CR of the year. It’s just another kick the can down the road exercise,” said Roy, a member of the far-right Freedom Caucus whom McCarthy installed on the rules panel. “We’re buying time to negotiate a bill to spend more money and he’s not gonna get any policy wins.” For his part, Johnson managed to pass a first tranche of funding bills last week, keeping a portion of the government afloat through the fiscal year that ends in October. Next comes the real test: passing a second tranche of spending bills — funding critical agencies like the Defense, State and Homeland Security departments — before another shutdown deadline on March 22. Johnson’s team has argued that, under his leadership, it’s the first time since 2018 that the government has not been funded through one massive omnibus package. And they pointed to GOP wins in the first package, including cuts to the FBI, Environmental Protection Agency, and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; more money for the Drug Enforcement Administration to combat fentanyl; and a policy giving veterans easier access to firearms even if they have been deemed unable to handle their own finances. "We are actually moving the ball forward and getting the job done. We are governing," Johnson said at the opening retreat news conference in West Virginia. His allies say he's doing well with a tiny majority and inherited problems. Rep. Brian Babin, R-Texas, who, like Johnson, had initially joined the Freedom Caucus before dropping out, said he's "totally convinced" that Johnson shares his right flank's goals of cutting spending but acknowledged the "challenging job" he has. "I’m very sympathetic to him. I really am," Babin said. Unlike his predecessor McCarthy, Johnson isn’t facing serious threats to oust him from the top job — even from those who disagree with his approach. During a news conference last week, the former chair of the House Freedom Caucus, Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., put his arm around the speaker and shielded him from potential criticism, reminding those in the room that Johnson inherited the parameters that constrain him from negotiating more conservative budget deals. A McCarthy-launched impeachment inquiry As he fought to save his job last year, McCarthy unilaterally launched an impeachment investigation into Biden and his family’s foreign business dealings. When McCarthy was ousted from power just weeks later, the Biden impeachment was suddenly Johnson’s to deal with. “He cocked that gun and then didn’t even have the bullets to fire it,” Burchett, the Tennessee congressman, said of McCarthy. With the White House arguing that the inquiry was unconstitutional, Johnson made the case to reluctant rank-and-file Republicans that they needed to formalize it with a vote to enforce their subpoenas. With that argument, the former constitutional lawyer managed to get all 221 Republicans to vote yes — something of a pre-Christmas miracle. But that’s where the unity ended on the issue. Many Republicans have grown skeptical of the effort to impeach Biden and the evidence that’s been presented so far — and that was before an FBI informant at the "heart" of the inquiry was charged with lying to the bureau about the Bidens. One impeachment-averse Republican even sped up his planned retirement over the dysfunction. “We’ve taken impeachment and we’ve made it a social media issue as opposed to a constitutional concept,” Rep. Ken Buck, R-Colo., told reporters on Wednesday moments after announcing that he would resign next week from Congress. “This place keeps going downhill, and I don’t need to spend more time here.” Buck’s planned resignation, coupled with Democrat Tom Suozzi flipping a GOP seat in New York last month, has made the impeachment math virtually impossible for Johnson and the Republicans this year. They can afford to lose only two GOP defections on any vote. Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., a Johnson ally who served with him in the House, told NBC News that if Johnson survives the funding and foreign aid battles on Capitol Hill, “He is probably the most effective speaker they’re going to have in the coming years.” “Because since he was thrown right into the water, sink or swim — if he comes out of this thing, he’s gone through more than the last three months than most speakers deal with the whole time they’re in office.”
Nearly half of U.S. homes face severe threat from climate change, study finds 2024-03-13 21:14:00+00:00 - Climate change will cause more severe storms in parts of U.S., study says Climate change will cause more severe storms in parts of U.S., study says 01:44 Nearly half of all U.S. homes are threatened by extreme weather conditions, according to a new analysis that examines the potential impact of climate change on the country's housing market. Across the nation, roughly $22 trillion in residential properties are at risk of "severe or extreme damage" from flooding, high winds, wildfires, heat or poor air quality, Realtor.com found. An economist with the online real estate firm said that such dangers can impact home prices, drive up insurance costs and even destabilize the broader housing market. "These natural disasters can destroy homes and communities," Realtor.com said in its report. "Even properties that aren't directly affected by climate risks are being affected by higher insurance premiums — threatening potential sales and making homeownership increasingly more expensive." The total value of the U.S. housing market is roughly $52 trillion, according to Zillow. Such findings jibe with a growing body of research, along with ample anecdotal evidence, that underscores the vast scale of the problem for homeowners. Nearly 36 million homes — a quarter of all U.S. real estate — face rising insurance costs and reduced coverage options due to mounting climate risks, First Street Foundation, a nonprofit that studies climate risks, found last year. Climate risks aren't contained to coastal areas threatened by rising sea levels or mountainous regions prone to wildfires. Research from First Street also shows that residents of inland states such as Kentucky, South Dakota and West Virginia are facing sharply higher insurance premiums because of increased damage from extreme weather. A homeowner searches for items in the remains of her house after it was destroyed by the Smokehouse Creek fire near Stinnett, Texas, on March 3, 2024. Scott Olson/Getty Image Realtor.com tapped First Street's data to estimate the number of homes facing potential climate damage, focusing its study on the 100 largest cities. Other key findings from Realtor.com's analysis: 5.5% of homes, worth $3 trillion, face a severe or extreme risk from wildfires, with 39% of these properties in California. 6.6% of homes, worth $3.4 trillion, are at high risk of flooding, with New Orleans having the largest share of vulnerable homes. Over the next 30 years, 18% of homes will be at risk of damage from hurricane-strength winds. 9% of homes, worth $6.6 billion, face severe or extreme risks because of declining air quality. Homeowners in 19 states and Washington, D.C., are now required to carry additional hurricane-related policies. Beyond its impact on the housing market, climate change is already influencing where people live. More than 3 million Americans have moved because of the growing risks of flooding, First Street has found. Meanwhile, some 83 million Americans — or roughly 1 in 4 — are exposed each year to unhealthy air, according to the group. "The changes that we're already seeing over these past two decades are already beginning to impact almost every major sector of our society," Jay Banner, a climate scientist and director of the Environmental Science Institute at the University of Texas at Austin, said Wednesday in a panel discussion organized by Realtor.com.
Death of transgender student Nex Benedict ruled suicide by medical examiner 2024-03-13 21:04:00+00:00 - The death of Oklahoma student Nex Benedict has been ruled a suicide, according to a medical examiner’s report released Wednesday. The 16-year-old, who was transgender and used he and they pronouns, according to friends and family, died Feb. 8, a day after a fight at Owasso High School. His name has become a rallying cry among LGBTQ activists, who argue that an onslaught of legislation targeting the community has made schools less safe for queer and trans students like Nex. Nex had reportedly told his mother that he faced bullying at school due to his gender identity, and body-camera footage released last month by police from the hours after the school fight shows Nex lying in a hospital bed. In the video, he tells a police officer how three students “jumped” him after he threw water on them because they were bullying him and his friend for the way they dressed. The Owasso Police Department released preliminary information from an autopsy report on Feb. 21 that they said shows Nex’s death was not the result of trauma. Days later, a spokesperson for the department clarified that the fight had not been ruled out as having contributed to or caused his death. The medical examiner’s report listed probable cause of death as “combined toxicity” from two drugs, one of which is available over the counter and the other by prescription. In a statement posted on its Facebook account Wednesday, following the release of the medical examiner’s report, the Owasso Police Department wrote, in part: “From the beginning of this investigation, Owasso Police observed many indications that this death was the result of suicide. However, investigators did not wish to confirm that information without the final results being presented by the Oklahoma Medical Examiner’s Office.” Margaret Coates, the superintendent for Owasso Public Schools, acknowledged Nex's cause of death on Wednesday and encouraged students struggling with the news to seek school counseling. "The loss of Nex, a member of the Ram Family and the Owasso community, is devastating," Coates wrote in a letter to families and educators that was shared with NBC News. "We understand that the information released today may bring up additional thoughts, feelings and emotions for students and staff members." An attorney for the Benedict family, Jacob Biby, did not respond to a request for comment on the medical examiner’s report. Owasso High School students organized a walkout on Feb. 26 to protest what they described as a pervasive culture of bullying that often goes unpunished. Kane, one of the organizers of the walkout who asked to go by first name only to protect his privacy, said at the time that students had speculated that Nex may have died by suicide. But, to Kane, who is nonbinary, the key contributing factor to Nex’s death was bullying. “There’s been bullying issues. This time, the bullying has gone so far that a student has passed,” Kane said ahead of last month’s walkout. “To me, it doesn’t matter if Nex passed from a traumatic brain injury or if they passed from suicide. What matters is the fact that they died after getting bullied, and that is the story for so many other students. I’ve been close to ending it myself because of bullying. It’s not new for so many students.” LGBTQ advocates and the medical community have long warned that queer youths face disproportionate rates of suicidal ideation. In a survey conducted in 2022 by The Trevor Project, an LGBTQ youth suicide prevention organization, more than 40% of LGBTQ people age 13-24 said they seriously considered attempting suicide in the previous year, with trans and nonbinary respondents reporting even higher rates. That same survey of approximately 28,000 LGBTQ young people found 14% had attempted suicide within the past year, including 1 in 5 transgender respondents. Earlier this month, the Department of Education opened an investigation into whether Nex’s high school failed to appropriately respond to sex-based harassment. The investigation was opened after the nation’s largest LGBTQ advocacy group, the Human Rights Campaign, filed a complaint with the department after Nex’s death. A spokesperson for Owasso Public Schools, Brock Crawford, said at the time that the investigation was “not supported by the facts and is without merit.” Kelley Robinson, the president of the Human Rights Campaign, reiterated Wednesday the organization's call for an investigation into Nex's death. "Nex was failed by so many and should still be here today," she said in a statement. "We hold their family in our hearts as they grapple with the devastating reality that their beloved child, a teen with a bright future, is no longer making this world a brighter place." If you or someone you know is in crisis, call or text 988 to reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline or chat live at 988lifeline.org. You can also visit SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources for additional support. If you are an LGBTQ young person in crisis, feeling suicidal or in need of a safe and judgment-free place to talk, call the TrevorLifeline now at 1-866-488-7386 or the Rainbow Youth Project at 1-317-643-4888.
Trump intends to highlight lawyers’ involvement as part of hush money defense 2024-03-13 21:02:52+00:00 - With the Manhattan district attorney’s criminal trial of Donald Trump set to open in less than two weeks, Judge Juan Merchan has ordered that neither side may file new motions without his express permission. But that prohibition did not extend to a filing Trump made Tuesday pursuant to Merchan’s order last month. Specifically, Merchan directed Trump to disclose by Tuesday whether he intends to rely on an advice of counsel defense and “to produce all discoverable statements and communications within his possession or control” by that date, too. “What exactly is an advice of counsel defense, Lisa?” you might be asking. As Judge Lew Kaplan (who oversaw both E. Jean Carroll trials) explained in the lead-up to last year’s trial of Sam Bankman-Fried, it’s a collection of evidence that a defendant uses to raise reasonable doubt in the jury’s mind as to whether prosecutors have adequately demonstrated his intent to commit the crime or crimes in question. Specifically, it consists of proof that a defendant: “made a complete disclosure to counsel [concerning the matter at issue];” “sought advice as to the legality of his conduct;” “received advice that his conduct was legal;” and “relied on that advice in good faith.” And significantly, when a defendant invokes the advice of counsel defense, that typically waives any privilege he or she could claim over communications with their lawyers about the matter in question. In the New York criminal trial, however, Trump wants to point to his lawyers’ involvement in the Stormy Daniels settlement and related events as proof that he lacked intent, while at the same time disclaiming a “formal advice-of-counsel defense” and insisting that he is not waiving any attorney-client privilege. Instead, Trump announced in Tuesday’s filing that he “intends to elicit evidence concerning the presence, involvement and advice of lawyers in relevant events giving rise” to the 34 felony counts with which he has been charged. And he makes clear how he intends to elicit that evidence: through the testimony of witnesses, including former executives of the National Enquirer’s parent company, American Media Inc., and his former lawyer-turned-archnemesis, Michael Cohen. Collectively, Trump argues, those witnesses are expected to testify to “Trump’s awareness of counsel’s involvement in the charged conduct.” The question now is whether Trump’s attempt to thread the needle will succeed. After all, in one of the cases he cites to support his kind-of, sort-of advice of counsel defense — the same Kaplan opinion cited above, in fact — the defendant declined a formal advice of counsel defense, opting instead to highlight Bankman-Fried's awareness that attorneys were involved in certain decisions at his companies that related to the charges against him. That involvement, the defendant insisted, could show “his good faith and lack of criminal intent.” But the government objected, and the court reasoned that merely pointing to the “presence or involvement of lawyers at or for” the defendant’s companies “without any degree of specificity about what they were present for or involved in, what their tasks were, what exactly they knew, and what the defendant knew about what the lawyers knew and were doing” could confuse the jury and prejudice the government. Ultimately, the court ruled that the defendant could not discuss the presence or involvement of lawyers in his opening statement — and also could not offer any evidence, argument or testimony on those issues without advance notice to the court and the prosecution outside the jury’s presence. Merchan could similarly require Trump’s criminal defense team to detail, in advance, what Cohen and potentially other lawyers knew and were doing in Fall 2016 and beyond in addition to what Trump himself understood about his lawyers’ knowledge and activities. Alternatively, Merchan could find that the “informal” advice of counsel defense Trump wants to advance is not supported by New York law. Or he could — although I find this to be the least likely possibility — do nothing and let Trump proceed as he describes in the filing. In any event, the jurors might also receive an instruction that goes something like this: “[N]o man can willfully and knowingly violate the law and excuse himself from the consequences of his conduct by pleading that he followed the advice of his lawyer”— or that his lawyer was involved directly in his conduct. Not even a former — and, potentially, future — president.
Supreme Court charade helps Trump push weak immunity claim in New York 2024-03-13 20:58:20+00:00 - The Supreme Court’s choice to review Donald Trump’s immunity claim and set it for argument in late April has obvious implications for his federal election interference case. But the former president has also recently raised the issue in his Florida and New York prosecutions. While his bids should fail in those other cases too, the fact that the issue is still unresolved — and might not be for another couple months, at least — raises the prospect of unnecessary delays in those other cases. To understand the high court’s role, look at the recent timeline. On Feb. 28, the justices granted review of Trump’s immunity appeal in the Washington case. The court didn’t have to do that. It could have summarily affirmed the D.C. Circuit ruling against Trump. But the court not only took up the case but set the hearing for the very last argument day, April 25, about two months from the date review was granted. It could easily take another two months to decide the case after that. Of course, that would put the possibility of a D.C. trial before the presidential election in grave doubt. Meanwhile, Trump has raised immunity claims that are even more ridiculous than the one in the D.C. case — a high bar since, as you may remember, a federal appeals judge pointed out that siding with Trump could condone presidents ordering the murder of their rivals. In the classified documents case, the former president’s lawyers claimed immunity from charges for conduct that allegedly took place after Trump left office. And now in New York, just weeks ahead of jury selection set for March 25, his lawyers have cited the pending Supreme Court ruling as reason to delay the criminal trial. To be clear, these are weak arguments that should be rejected out of hand. Had the Supreme Court resolved the issue, or at least made an effort to do so more quickly, Trump would be harder pressed to raise them. 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.
How major US stock indexes fared Wednesday, 3/13/2024 2024-03-13 20:18:01+00:00 - Stocks drifted to a mixed close on Wall Street as a lull carried through financial markets worldwide. The S&P 500 edged down 0.2% Wednesday, a day after setting an all-time high. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.1%, and the Nasdaq composite fell 0.5%. The bond market was also quiet, with Treasury yields edging a bit higher. Stock markets around the world likewise moved only modestly. Oil prices rose, adding to their gains for the year so far. That helped the stocks of energy producers. Dollar Tree tumbled after reporting weaker results than analysts expected. On Wednesday: The S&P 500 fell 9.96 points, or 0.2%, to 5,165.31 The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 37.83 points, or 0.1%, to 39,043.32. The Nasdaq composite fell 87.87 points, or 0.5%, to 16,177.77. The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies rose 6.23 points, or 0.3%, to 2,071.71. For the week: The S&P 500 is up 41.62 points, or 0.8%. The Dow is up 320.63 points, or 0.8%. The Nasdaq is up 92.65 points, or 0.6%. The Russell 2000 is down 11 points, or 0.5%. For the year: The S&P 500 is up 395.48 points, or 8.3%. The Dow is up 1,353.78 points, or 3.6%. The Nasdaq is up 1,166.41 points, or 7.8%. The Russell 2000 is up 44.64 points, or 2.2%.
Two friends turned their side hustle into a full-time snack business—it could bring in $500 million in 2024 2024-03-13 19:54:00+00:00 - Pete Maldonado turned his biggest vice into a multimillion-dollar business. It all started with a late-night poker game — but this isn't a story about gambling. In 2011, Maldonado met his future business partner, Rashid Ali, at a friend's apartment in Chicago. After a couple of betting rounds, their conversation turned to guilty pleasures. Maldonado immediately thought of his favorite gas station snack, Slim Jims. Growing up on New York's Long Island, Maldonado spent countless afternoons biking up the street to the local 7-Eleven and buying a bundle of beef jerky sticks, as many as he could fit in his basket. "I'd finish all of them before I got home," Maldonado, 42, recalls. But after becoming a personal trainer in college, he started cutting Slim Jims — with ingredients that include mechanically separated chicken and corn syrup — out of his diet. Still, Maldonado craved his favorite gas station snack. He told Ali that he wanted to create a "healthier" meat stick that was high in protein, low in calories and tasted just as good as the snack that defined his childhood. Ali, who was working as a business operations consultant at the time, thought it was a smart pitch — and just a few weeks later, the pair launched Chomps, a "healthier" beef jerky, as a side hustle from Maldonado's condo in Chicago. Since then, Chomps has grown into a nationwide brand attracting more health-conscious consumers to the $17 billion meat snacks market, selling more than 350 million jerky sticks to date. Maldonado and Ali, 43, have stayed on as Chomps' co-founders and co-CEOs. Here's how Maldonado and Ali built up Chomps from a side hustle into a company poised to bring in close to $500 million in sales over the next year. Coming up with a 'healthier' jerky recipe In 2012, after months of sampling hundreds of jerky sticks in stores across Chicago — and begging friends in other states to mail them their favorite meat snacks — Maldonado and Ali found Chomps' base recipe at a small corner store six hours away in Greentop, Missouri. One of their friends in Missouri had mailed them meat sticks made by Kevin Western, a Greentop local who made the snacks for fun and sold them around town. Maldonado and Ali reached out to Western, who agreed to help them develop Chomps' initial recipe. He also mentioned that his family ran Western Smokehouse, a local smokehouse operator in Greentop, and could help manufacture the products on a larger scale. "We wanted to use grass-fed beef and remove a lot of ingredients jerky typically uses, like sugar and nitrates, which can create a lot of manufacturing challenges," says Ali. "A lot of manufacturers didn't want to deal with those challenges and do the old way of approaching it. But the Westerns were willing to work with us, and together we came up with a recipe that's similar to the one we still use today." Chomps' main ingredients include grass-fed beef, water, celery powder, sea salt and red pepper. "I bought a $99 Photoshop Elements subscription and taught myself how to make packaging," Maldonado says of Chomps' original packaging. "It was terrible looking, it had a cowhide print on it." Photo courtesy of Chomps The co-founders pooled about $6,500 of their own money to fund Chomps' first production run, design packaging, build a website and run ads on Facebook. "I bought a $99 Photoshop Elements subscription and taught myself how to make packaging," says Maldonado. "It was terrible looking, it had a cowhide print on it." In December 2012, Maldonado and Ali started selling Chomps' first product — the original beef jerky stick — on its website. At launch, the price point was about $2 a stick (now, the sticks cost about $2.49 each). Much to their surprise, the company started turning a profit "within a month," says Maldonado, all of which was reinvested into more product and social media marketing. A side hustle turned instant success At first, Maldonado and Ali had full-time jobs and ran Chomps in their spare time for the first couple of years it was in business. Maldonado, who moved to Naples, Florida in 2013, worked as a real estate agent throughout his 20s and 30s, while Ali stayed in Chicago and continued consulting. "We took turns hand-packing and shipping orders," says Ali. "I remember working anywhere from 60 to 80 hours a week as a consultant, then waking up early in the morning or logging off work at 9 p.m. and immediately switching over to Chomps … looking back, I can't even believe I was able to do that for as long as I did." They didn't expect Chomps to amount to much more than a side hustle, but, as Maldonado jokes, "Chomps had other plans for us." In 2013, Chomps' first full year in business, the pair sold about $50,000 worth of meat sticks. The following year, their sales doubled to $100,000, and the numbers kept climbing from there. Zoom In Icon Arrows pointing outwards Chomps closed out 2023 with nearly $245 million in retail sales. Gene Woo Kim Maldonado credits Chomps' early success with the rising popularity of different diets including paleo, Whole30 and keto, all of which encourage eliminating ultra-processed foods and replacing them with whole foods like fresh vegetables, meat and fish. He and Ali started marketing Chomps as a low-carb, sugar-free snack that fit these "healthier" lifestyles, even adding language like "Whole 30 approved" on its packaging. During its first four years of operation, Chomps sold the snacks directly to consumers through its website, and also to some CrossFit gyms, independent specialty stores and doctor's offices across the U.S. Chomps started introducing new flavors in 2013, starting with jalapeno beef. Now, the company offers dozens of spins on the original meat stick, including taco-seasoned beef, pepperoni-seasoned turkey and Italian-seasoned beef. "A lot of the time, we didn't even have enough product available on our website because we sold through it so quickly," says Maldonado. "We'd reach out to people and say, 'Thank you so much for your purchase. We ran out of product. We'd love to send it to you after if you'll wait for it. Or we could just refund your money.'" The phone call from Trader Joe's that changed everything In 2016, Maldonado and Ali received a phone call that would change their careers — and Chomps' trajectory. Trader Joe's wanted to start selling Chomps' original beef sticks in all of their stores across the U.S. "One of the executives' daughters was doing the Whole 30 diet and discovered Chomps through researching Whole 30 compliant foods," says Maldonado. "She quickly became a fan of the product and recommended it to the people she knew that were high up at Trader Joe's, who then reached out to Rashid and me." Trader Joe's placed an initial order for a million meat sticks to stock in over 400 stores. Maldonado and Ali were still running Chomps as a side hustle by themselves at the time, and felt unprepared — but ecstatic — to fulfill such a big order. "When you grow that quickly, it blows up your entire infrastructure," says Ali. "You have to think about the business completely differently, and it forced us to do that." Maldonado and Ali say their first big order from Trader Joe's, which requested a million sticks to stock in their stores across the U.S., changed the trajectory of Chomps' business. Photo courtesy of Chomps Up to that point, Maldonado says Chomps produced up to 10,000 pounds of meat each month "at most" to fulfill customer orders. But the Trader Joe's order alone required at least 120,000 pounds of meat to be produced within weeks. To help them fulfill that massive order, Maldonado says he and Ali ended up renting additional storage space in Chicago and hiring temp workers to hand inspect the products before shipping them to Trader Joe's. Chomps started selling meat sticks in Trader Joe's, its first national retailer, in July 2016. Maldonado quit his real-estate career soon after to work on scaling Chomps from Naples full time, while Ali waited until 2018, when Chomps opened an office in Chicago and hired its first employee, to leave consulting for good. "I had people saying, 'You really want to sell meat snacks for a living?'" Maldonado recalls. "We were passionate about it, though, and we had the conviction that this was going to work." Building a jerky empire Once Chomps started selling its sticks in Trader Joe's, other stores quickly followed, including Whole Foods, Target and Walmart. Getting into those retailers has given the business a massive boost: In 2020, Chomps' retail sales hovered around $45 million, but in 2023, it closed out with nearly $250 million in retail sales. As Maldonado and Ali will tell it, Chomps' success can be largely attributed to its commitment to attracting a consumer niche that might feel shut out by its competitors: women. "The meat snacks market is very heavily male-dominated, and other companies are hitting younger male customers," says Maldonado. "But we did a brand study in 2018 and found that over 70% of our customer base is female, which is not something Rashid and I were ready for, or expecting, by any means." Chomps' strongest demographic, he adds, is women ages 25 to 45, who "really respond" to the snack's low sugar content and diet certifications. Chomps re-designed its packaging to appeal more to a female consumer: bright colors, "zero sugar" in large, bold text and an eye-catching slogan in the center ("All stick without the ick"). Photo: Clint Boland for CNBC Make It
Palantir CEO Alex Karp says short sellers 'love pulling down great American companies' to pay for their cocaine 2024-03-13 19:47:00+00:00 - Palantir CEO Alex Karp skewered short sellers — investors who bet on the decline in a company's stock price — in an interview with CNBC on Wednesday. "I love burning the short sellers," Karp told CNBC's Sara Eisen on "Money Movers." "Almost nothing makes a human happier than taking the lines of cocaine away from these short sellers, who like, are going short on a truly great American company. Not just ours, but just love pulling down great American companies so they can pay for their coke." Shares of Palantir jumped 9.8% on March 6 after Palantir announced its Tactical Intelligence Targeting Access Node was selected by the U.S. Army. TITAN uses artificial intelligence to provide targeting information for missiles. When a stock goes up, short sellers are on the hook to buy back shares, potentially at a huge loss. "The best thing that could happen to them is we will lead their coke dealers to their homes after they can't pay their bills," Karp said. "You know, do your thing, we'll do our thing." Palantir shares are up about 47% this year. Roughly 5% of the company's outstanding shares that are publicly available to be traded were being sold short as of late February. Karp also told CNBC that the company has lost employees and expects to lose more over his public support for Israel. Palantir, known for its government contract work in defense and intelligence, has provided its technology to support the Ukrainian and Israeli militaries in their respective wars. Subscribe to CNBC on YouTube.
Family Dollar to Close Nearly 1,000 Stores 2024-03-13 19:23:08+00:00 - Family Dollar will close nearly 1,000 stores, a move its executives say is a result of declining sales and economic headwinds. Dollar Tree, which owns Family Dollar, said Wednesday that it would close 600 Family Dollar locations this year and phase out 370 more when their leases expire. Family Dollar currently has about 8,000 stores. The company said stubborn inflation, theft and the end of pandemic-era additional benefits from the federal government’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program were weighing on the company. “Family Dollar is a victim of the macro environment out there,” Dollar Tree’s chief executive, Rick Dreiling, told analysts on Wednesday.
10 lies scammers tell to separate you from your money 2024-03-13 17:30:00+00:00 - Gift card scam robs DFW couple of thousands Gift card scam robs DFW couple of thousands 05:03 New York Magazine financial columnist Charlotte Cowles made waves last month with an article revealing that she'd been scammed out of $50,000. While some people were sympathetic, others criticized the author for falling for what even she herself admitted seemed like an obvious, if highly elaborate, con. With scams on the rise, now often abetted by artificial intelligence, government watchdogs want people to be aware of the language fraudsters typically use to dupe their victims. The Federal Trade Commission lists 10 lies fraudsters often use to separate you from your money. Here's what to watch out for. Act now! A common tactic scammers use is to pressure you to act immediately — whether it's to send them money, buy a gift card or provide them with personal information. That sense of urgency is always a sign someone is trying to rip you off, the FTC says. Only say what I tell you to say. Scammers may instruct you to lie to someone, such as a spouse, financial adviser or even your bank. Don't fall for it. Don't trust anyone — they're in on it. The scammers who ripped off Cowles told her that, although she'd been the victim of an identity theft scheme serious enough to land her behind bars, she shouldn't tell her husband about the situation. As the FTC notes, cybercriminals want you to feel isolated and unable to turn to someone who might tell you to pump the brakes. Do [this] or you'll be arrested. "Any threat like this is a lie," the FTC says bluntly, adding that any suggestions that you could go to jail or get deported unless you fork over some money or information is a surefire scam. Don't hang up. Yep, a scam. Con artists may ask you to stay on the phone while you buy a gift card or withdraw money from the bank so they can monitor what you're saying and talk you out of backing out of the transaction. Move your money to protect it. It may seem obvious, but instructions from a total stranger on the other end of the phone telling you to move money from your bank or investment accounts to anywhere else is a scam, according to regulators. Withdraw money and buy gold bars. Really? Afraid so. The FBI has warned about scammers telling victims to cash out their assets and buy gold, silver or other precious metals. Don't fall for it. Withdraw cash and give it to [anyone]. If you're sensing a trend, you're onto something. Never hand over cash to anyone no matter who they claim to be. "Don't give it to a courier, don't deliver it anywhere, don't send it," the FTC warns. Go to a Bitcoin ATM. Cryptocurrency-related scams are surging, according to the Better Business Bureau. That includes ripoffs in which you're encouraged to transfer your funds into cryptocurrency or withdraw money using a Bitcoin ATM. Buy gift cards. Fraudsters have gotten creative in how they exploit the well-documented vulnerabilities around gift cards. Sometimes that involves stealing barcode and PIN information so they can make unauthorized transactions, but more commonly it means asking their victims to pay for something using a gift card. And once they have the PIN numbers on the back of the card, you can kiss your cash goodbye. As for what you should do if you come across any of these phrases in the usual places where scammers lurk, that's easy: Don't respond. "Hang up. Delete the email. Stop texting. Block their number — anything to get away from them," the FTC says, which also urges people to report possible scams to the agency at ReportFraud.ftc.gov.
Williams-Sonoma Surged 20% and Could Double in Price 2024-03-13 17:25:00+00:00 - Key Points Williams-Sonoma had a solid quarter highlighted by full-price selling and wide margins. Cash flow is robust and allows for balance sheet improvement and an increase in capital returns. The stock is up and may move significantly higher if it can cross a critical threshold. 5 stocks we like better than Williams-Sonoma Williams-Sonoma’s NYSE: WSM stock surge is due to its persistent outperformance and quality business. The company contracted in 2023 along with the housing market, but cash flow remained solid, driving substantial capital returns for investors. The Q4 results continue the trend and point to a pivot this year. That will be a pivot back to growth accompanied by solid margins and sustained capital returns. Among the drivers for the share price is the valuation. The stock is arguably a highly-valued issued trading at 19X earnings, but that perspective is based on the brick-and-mortar business. Lifestyle retailers are struggling in 2023 with consumers shifting to dailies, consumables, and off-price retailers like The TJX Companies NYSE: TJX, as seen in their share prices. And it’s not like lifestyle stores trade at high valuations. Haverty’s NYSE: HVT trades at 16X earnings, aligning with Williams-Sonoma’s pre-release valuation, while Ethan Allen Interiors NYSE: ETD trades closer to 12X Get Williams-Sonoma alerts: Sign Up Looking at the company from the eCommerce perspective, it is undervalued. eCommerce category leaders such as Arhaus NASDAQ: ARHS, RH NYSE: RH, and Wayfair NYSE: W trade at much higher valuations. Besides WSM, Arhaus is the cheapest of the group; it trades for 24X earnings, while RH trades at 36X and Wayfair at 60X. From this perspective, the stock could gain another 25% to 200% on price-multiple expansion. eCommerce accounts for roughly 65% of the business, so it makes sense to value it like one. Is Williams-Sonoma a Best in Breed? The Results Say Yes Williams-Sonoma’s results, guidance, balance sheet, and capital returns prove it is a best-in-breed quality stock for investors. The company’s revenue fell 6.9% compared to last year but exceeded expectations and is up 29% compared to the pre-COVID quarter. Comps are down 6.8% across the network, with the most weakness in West Elm. West Elm contracted by 15%, Pottery Barn fell 9.6%, and Pottery Barn Kids 2.5%. The core Williams-Sonoma brand grew by 1.6%. Margin news is the most impressive aspect of the report. The company reported a solid 20.1% operating margin, well above its long-term target. This represents Williams-Sonoma’s brand strength and market, which is more affluent and discerning, allowing for full-price selling. The takeaway is that earnings outpaced the consensus by a wide margin, and the outlook for next year is good. The company guided for flat revenue +/- 3%, including an extra 53rd week, and for margins to remain strong. Margin is expected to contract over the year but remains within the long-term target of mid-to-high teens. Analysts expected revenue to fall more than 1% at the consensus. Did Williams-Sonoma Increase its Capital Return? Substantially Another catalyst from the report is an increase in capital returns. The company increased the dividend by 25% and raised the repurchase authorization by $1 billion. $1 billion in stock repurchases is worth 6.5% in market cap with shares at the new high: the new dividend yield is just over 1.5% and sustainable. The payout ratio is still below 30%, and the balance sheet has no red flags. Cash flow allowed for a significant improvement in the balance sheet, and robust cash flow is expected again this year. Balance sheet and cash flow highlights include $1.7 billion in cash flow, a 3X build in cash, and a 5% increase in equity. Do Analysts Think Williams-Sonoma is Overvalued? Analysts' sentiment may cap gains in Williams-Sonoma because the market has outrun the estimates. The stock surge has this market trading above the analysts' highest target, and they are not gushing over the news. The first revision on Marketbeat’s radar is a reiterated Outperform from Telsey Advisory Group with a price target of $265, $20 below current action, and the consensus is $80 lower than that. The bottom line is that Williams-Sonoma's stock price may not sustain the new highs without upward revisions. Technically speaking, the market is at a critical resistance target projected when it broke to new highs this year. That point is near $290; a move above it would open the door to another $90 upside. → Americans Now Favor Gold Over Stocks as an Investment Vehicle (From Edge On The Street) (Ad) Before you consider Williams-Sonoma, you'll want to hear this. MarketBeat keeps track of Wall Street's top-rated and best performing research analysts and the stocks they recommend to their clients on a daily basis. MarketBeat has identified the five stocks that top analysts are quietly whispering to their clients to buy now before the broader market catches on... and Williams-Sonoma wasn't on the list. While Williams-Sonoma currently has a "Reduce" rating among analysts, top-rated analysts believe these five stocks are better buys. View The Five Stocks Here