Why are giant conglomerates falling out of fashion?

This week, General Electric, Toshiba and Johnson & Johnson all announced they were breaking up their empires into separate companies.

Having struggled under its sheer weight for decades, GE finally decided to break itself up into three separate publically traded companies 

[File: Charles Krupa/AP]

Published On 12 Nov 2021

Bigger is not always better. That appears to be the verdict sweeping some of the biggest corporations on the planet this week.

After once-mighty United States conglomerate General Electric announced on Tuesday that it’s breaking itself up into three separate units, Japanese industrial giant Toshiba and US drugs and healthcare behemoth Johnson & Johnson followed suit on Friday, with spin-off announcements of their own.

Each firm has its own unique reasons for wanting to get small, but in general, conglomerates start spinning off units because they want to “unlock value”.

Put simply, that means they think investors see less value in the company’s businesses if they remain combined, and that shareholders will be better off if those businesses are spun off into separate companies.

Of course, the reasoning behind forming a conglomerate is that a giant firm with lots of businesses can find synergies and cost savings.

But such is the ebb and flow of the corporate landscape.

Just look at General Electric. Back in the 1980s, then-CEO Jack Welch achieved rock-star executive status by ditching businesses where GE didn’t dominate, buying up new ones where he thought the firm could be a market leader, and ruthlessly firing underperforming employees and managers – earning him the moniker “Neutron Jack”.

But just as shoulder pads have fallen out of fashion, so too have Jack Welch-style industrial giants.

Having struggled under its sheer weight for decades, GE finally decided to break itself up into three separate publically traded companies: aviation (which will keep the GE name), healthcare and energy.

Toshiba said on Friday that it is also breaking itself up by spinning off its energy infrastructure and computer devices units into two separate companies. The rest of its assets will be held under the Toshiba name.

Also on Friday, Johnson & Johnson said it is splitting into two separate companies. One as-yet-to-be-named unit will focus on healthcare products like Band-Aids, Listerine and over-the-counter medicines. The other – which will keep the J&J name – will encompass prescription drugs and medical devices.

But this week’s announcements don’t mean investors are turning against all big corporations.

Just look at the technology sector. On Monday, Google parent Alphabet breached the $2 trillion value mark for the first time, joining the likes of Microsoft and Apple in the exclusive $2 trillion-and-higher valuation club.

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES

CVS withdraws US Supreme Court case on disability rights



Michael Roppolo
Thu, November 11, 2021, 4:01 PM·2 min read

The CVS pharmacy chain has reached an agreement with a coalition of disability rights organizations and dropped a legal case that had made it all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. The court was scheduled to hear arguments in the dispute next month, and the ruling could have had far-reaching effects on disability rights.

The company formally withdrew its complaint Thursday and announced a new partnership to work with four groups, including the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD) and the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund.

"We've agreed to pursue policy solutions in collaboration with the disability community to help protect access to affordable health plan programs that apply equally to all members," a CVS spokesperson told CBS News. "Any further legal proceedings will take place in district court when the case is remanded."

The case, CVS Pharmacy, Inc. vs. Doe, stemmed from a lawsuit filed against CVS by multiple people who take prescription drugs for HIV/AIDS. The plaintiffs objected to changes to the company's terms that meant they could not opt out of mail-only delivery or utilize another pharmacy with experience handling their special medication needs. They argued it had a discriminatory impact on them, even if that wasn't the company's intent.

"When encouraging CVS to withdraw this case, the disability community asked CVS to find a different regulatory or policy venue other than the Supreme Court to address its concerns and agreed to work with CVS to do so," Maria Town, president and CEO of AAPD, told CBS News in a statement.

"A core [tenet] of the disability rights movement is 'Nothing about us without us,' and that's what this partnership achieves," Town added.

CVS Health said the new partnership builds on their longstanding relationship with those in the disability community and they will be exploring solutions together.

Disability rights advocates celebrated news of the agreement when it was first announced Wednesday.

Our power!!! https://t.co/QMnYxTa5lJ

— Imani Barbarin, MAGC | Crutches&Spice ♿️ (@Imani_Barbarin) November 11, 2021

When the case was first heard in trial court, the judge ruled the problems the plaintiffs described did not violate federal disability laws. But when they appealed, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals sided with the unnamed plaintiffs.

CVS then appealed to the Supreme Court, saying in court filings the ruling would "upend insurance plans and skyrocket healthcare costs nationwide." The justices agreed to take the case and scheduled arguments for December 7, but both sides have now asked the court to dismiss the case.

The US Supreme Court Tactic That Aims to Kill Affirmative Action

Anemona Hartocollis
Fri, November 12, 2021

Demonstrators in Boston on Oct. 14, 2018 supported a lawsuit accusing Harvard of discrimination against Asian Americans in its admissions decisions. (Kayana Szymczak/The New York Times)

The plaintiffs who filed lawsuits accusing Harvard and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill of racial discrimination in their admissions policies are asking the Supreme Court to hear both cases together, potentially increasing the chances that the justices will issue a sweeping ruling that strikes down affirmative action across higher education.

A group known as Students for Fair Admissions sued both schools on the same day in 2014. Its targeting of both a private and a public university was part of a long-term legal strategy that seeks to overturn a practice that the Supreme Court has upheld in some fashion for more than four decades, as colleges have worked to admit a more racially diverse student body.

The Harvard case has already been heard by a federal appeals court, while the North Carolina case has only reached the district level — with rulings against the plaintiffs in both. But Students for Fair Admissions argues in a petition filed to the Supreme Court on Thursday that the justices regularly fast track cases when similar issues are already pending before them and should hear the two suits together.

And indeed, that is what happened almost two decades ago in a ruling that affirmed the very precedent that Students for Fair Admissions seeks to overturn. The court decided to hear two affirmative action challenges at the University of Michigan — one at the law school and one at the undergraduate level — at the same time, bypassing the appeals court in the undergraduate case.

In 2003, those cases, known as Grutter and Gratz v. Bollinger, resulted in decisions striking down the college’s system for admitting a more racially diverse student body as too mechanical but affirming the law school’s consideration of race in admissions, allowing affirmative action to continue.

The Supreme Court has tilted more conservative in recent years with the addition of three justices nominated by former President Donald Trump, who are considered potentially receptive to arguments against race-conscious admissions practices, emboldening opponents of affirmative action to seek quick reconsideration of the policy.

But the court has put off a decision on whether to accept the Harvard case until it hears from the Biden administration, whose brief is expected soon. If the justices take the Harvard case, it would make sense for them to consider the North Carolina lawsuit at the same time, some legal experts said — especially as there might be greater public interest in the use of affirmative action at a taxpayer-supported institution.

“It’s possible that the court would feel more comfortable with a case involving a public university,” said Justin Driver, a Yale law professor and expert in constitutional law, adding, “I think this can be seen as trying to force the hand of the Supreme Court to issue a decision invalidating affirmative action sooner rather than later.”

Ilya Shapiro, a constitutional law expert at the Cato Institute, threw some cold water on the strategy. He said that at the end of the day, he did not believe it would make any difference whether North Carolina was added to the Harvard case, because the court was unlikely to treat public universities differently from private ones that accept federal funds. But he said that if he were in the plaintiff’s position, he would probably pursue the same maneuver to remind the court that if it did not review Harvard’s policy, there was another case coming behind.

The strategy of filing against both North Carolina and Harvard was orchestrated by Edward Blum, a financial adviser who founded Students for Fair Admissions. He has spearheaded more than two dozen lawsuits challenging affirmative action practices and voting rights laws, including a case against the University of Texas at Austin that led to the Supreme Court’s most recent decision supporting race-conscious college admissions policies in 2016.

The plaintiffs accused Harvard of using a subjective personal metric to discriminate against high-performing Asian Americans and to create an unspoken ceiling for them in admissions. The argument in North Carolina was more conventional, contending that the university discriminated against white and Asian applicants by giving preferences to Black, Hispanic and Native American applicants. The universities denied those accusations and defended their admissions practices.

The two-pronged attack faltered when the North Carolina case fell behind the Harvard case by about two years. A federal judge ruled for Harvard in the fall of 2019, and the appeals court affirmed that ruling in the fall of 2020, while a judge did not rule in the North Carolina case until last month — also in favor of the university.

If the justices choose to hear both cases, the court could rule in a narrow way, either upholding the admissions systems at one or the other university or both, or asking for specific fixes, which would have little relevance to higher education as a whole. Or it could rule more broadly, taking on the bigger topic of race-conscious admissions in a decision that would apply across the land.

Harvard declined to comment on the plaintiffs’ petition to the Supreme Court. The University of North Carolina did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Apart from clearly linked companion cases, such as the University of Michigan lawsuits that led to the 2003 affirmative action decisions, the Supreme Court usually does not hear cases before an appellate decision unless they involve exceptional or urgent matters, like the Texas abortion challenges argued recently.

Such immediate review, leapfrogging an appeals court, is called “certiorari before judgment,” and is used typically in cases involving national crises, such as President Richard Nixon’s refusal to turn over tape recordings to a special prosecutor.

© 2021 The New York Times Company

#MeTooMédias: French journalists denounce sexual harassment and rape in media industry

by Arshiya Jahanpour
November 12, 2021
in France

A new #MeToo scandal has seized French media after seven women publicly accused Patrick Poivre d’Arvor, a former top news anchor for the French TV channel TF1, of rape and sexual assault. Now more journalists are taking to social media to denounce the harassment, intimidation and abuse they say they’ve suffered in the industry.

“Sexual harassment, humiliation, discrimination, exploitation … Just having the strength to continue, even at my low level, already feels like a victory,” said journalist Tiphaine Blot on Twitter.

Another woman tweeted about a “journalist who raped me, harassed me and slandered me when I told him I didn’t want anything more than friendship. I almost left journalism because of him, and because of his girlfriend who told me I was ‘too ugly to be raped’.”

Emma Audrey, a journalist who often does live reporting for Radio BIP/Média 25, reminded her followers in a tweet that harassment doesn’t just happen in the workplace, but also in the street, where “violence comes from every side (police, protesters, passers-by, etc).”

The French media industry is undergoing a reckoning as more and more journalists are using the hashtag #MeTooMédias to speak up about violence and harassment experienced in and outside the workplace.

Some journalists have spoken about how they were doubly impacted, first with the harassment and then with what felt like a punishment for speaking up about that harassment.

Marie Albert, a former journalist at the news agency Agence France-Presse, says that her contract was not renewed after she went public about the sexual harassment she had endured from a colleague for six months.

Élodie Hervé says that the news channel LCI stopped giving her regular work after she reported an attempted sexual assault at work, and that she was still fighting for her rights with her lawyer.

The wave of men and women coming forward to describe abuse in the workplace was prompted by an explosive report by the French newspaper Libération in which seven women accusing the former TV presenter Patrick Poivre d’Arvor of rape and sexual assault decided to shed their anonymity and publicly share their experiences.

‘Complicit silence’ and ‘impunity’

Poivre d’Arvor is a household name in France. The now 74-year-old presented TF1’s evening news bulletin on weekdays for 21 years. In 2003, then French president Jacques Chirac awarded him the Légion d’Honneur – the country’s highest honour.

The women who have come forward have described an enduring system of “domination” during his years working at TF1 – an “abuse of power” sustained by “complicit silence” and Poivre d’Arvor’s apparent feeling of total “impunity”.

One of the women to speak out publicly, Stéphanie Khayat, says she was raped by Poivre d’Arvor for the first time in 1994. She was suffering from anorexia at the time. She worked alongside him for four years after that.

“I never spoke to anyone about that encounter,” she told Libération. “Never, never. Because I was ashamed. Because I felt dirty […] Because I agreed to work with him … It goes round and round in my head: How could I have accepted that job? I wasn’t backed up against a wall, I wasn’t forced to. So why?”

Poivre d’Arvor’s daughter Solenn had also suffered from anorexia, and she committed suicide in 1995. Khayat says that because of that he was extra attentive when she was working with him: He helped her through her illness and put her in touch with a specialist when he saw that her health had seriously deteriorated. He supported her decision to go to hospital for treatment for her anorexia. When she came out of hospital, she says he raped her again.

Support within the industry

Poivre d’Arvor has denied all of the charges against him. A case brought against him earlier in the year was dismissed, the court judging that there wasn’t enough evidence despite the testimonies of 22 women.

A group of his accusers have decided to set up an organisation called #MeTooMédias to support the fight of “the men and women who are silently suffering in the media industry”. When contacted by FRANCE 24, they said that they weren’t yet ready to give further details about the organisation as it was still in its early stages.

Media trade unions and associations are also supporting the movement. The top trade union for journalists in France, the Syndicat National des Journalistes, tweeted its support for victims of sexual violence and for the new organisation.

Prenons La Une, an organisation that fights for gender parity and professional equality in the media, tweeted: “To all those who are using the hashtag #MeTooMédias to tell their story, and to all those who remain silent, we support you and we believe you.”

Source: France 24

Amazon birds becoming smaller, longer-winged due to climate change

A Collared Puffbird of the Amazon rainforest (AFP/Vitek Jirinec)

Issam AHMED
Fri, November 12, 2021

Even the wildest parts of the Amazon untouched by humanity are being impacted by climate change, according to new research.

Hotter, drier conditions over the past four decades are decreasing the body size of the rainforest's birds while increasing their wingspans, a study published in the journal Science Advances said Friday.

The changes are thought to be a response to nutritional and physiological challenges, especially during the June to November dry season.

"The biggest takeaway for me is that this is happening far from direct human disturbance, such as deforestation, in the heart of the world's biggest rainforest," Vitek Jirinec, an ecologist at the Integral Ecology Research Center and the paper's lead author told AFP.

"That is something to ponder on the last day of COP26," he added.

Jirinec and colleagues analyzed data collected on more than 15,000 birds that were caught, measured, weighed, and tagged over the course of 40 years of field work.

They found that nearly all the birds had become lighter since the 1980s.

Most species lost an average of two percent of body weight every decade, meaning a bird species that would have weighed 30 grams in the 1980s would now average 27.6 grams.

The data was not tied to a specific site but rather collected from a large range of the rainforest, meaning the phenomenon is ubiquitous.

- More efficient flight -

In all, the scientists investigated 77 species whose habitats ranged from the cool, dark forest floor to the sunlit and warmer midstory -- the forest's middle layer of vegetation.

The birds at the highest sections of the midstory, which fly more and are exposed to heat for longer, had the most pronounced changes in body weight and wing size.

The team hypothesized this was an adaptation to energy pressures -- for example decreased availability of fruit and insect resources -- and also to thermal stress.

"There's good theoretical reasoning why a smaller size is beneficial under climate warming -- you can cool yourself better -- but the larger wings are more difficult to explain," said Jirinec.

"That's why we proposed the 'wing loading' hypothesis," he added.

Longer wings, and a reduced mass-to-wing ratio, produce more efficient flight -- similar to how a glider plane with a slim body and long wings can soar with less energy.

A higher mass-to-wing ratio requires birds to flap faster to stay aloft, using more energy and producing more metabolic heat.

Jirinec added that the study was not designed to tell whether these differences were driven by natural selection resulting in genetic changes, or whether they were the result of different growth patterns based on available resources.

Both are possible, "but there's good evidence that evolution can happen over short intervals," he said. A confirmed example of rapid evolution is the recent emergence of tuskless African elephants, which are poached for their ivory.

The Amazon birds "are fairly fine-tuned, so when everyone in the population is a couple of grams smaller, it's significant," added co-author Philip Stouffer of Louisiana State University, in a statement.

How well they deal with increasingly hotter and drier conditions in the future remains an open question.

The team behind Friday's paper last month published a study showing a dramatic decline in sensitive bird species in the Amazon owing to a warming climate -- particularly those that dwell on forest floor where they forage for insects.

The authors believe other species across the world are likely to be facing similar pressures that have not yet been documented.

"This is undoubtedly happening all over and probably not just with birds," Stouffer said.

ia/dw

US BILLIONAIRE space tourist dies in plane crash


Glen de Vries (R) with fellow Blue Origin crew members at the New Shepard rocket landing pad in Texas on October 13, 2021 (AFP/Patrick T. FALLON)


Fri, November 12, 2021

US businessman Glen de Vries, who flew into space with "Star Trek" actor William Shatner on last month's Blue Origin flight, has died in a plane crash, police said Friday.

The small aircraft came down in Hampton Township, New Jersey, about 60 miles (95 kilometers) west of New York City, shortly before 3:00 pm (1900 GMT) on Thursday, a spokesman for New Jersey state police told AFP.

"There are two confirmed fatalities," the spokesman said, naming de Vries, 49, and 54-year-old Thomas Fischer.


"The FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) will be the lead investigating agency," he added, without providing more details.

De Vries, the founder of clinical research platform Medidata Solutions, joined Shatner on Blue Origin's second crewed mission on October 13.

Also on board for the 11-minute journey that took them beyond Earth's atmosphere and back again were Blue Origin executive Audrey Powers and Planet Labs co-founder Chris Boshuizen.

"We are devastated to hear of the sudden passing of Glen de Vries," Blue Origin said in a tweet.

"He brought so much life and energy to the entire Blue Origin team and to his fellow crewmates. His passion for aviation, his charitable work, and his dedication to his craft will long be revered and admired."

pdh/bgs

‘Dolphin Tale’ Star Winter Dies Of Gastrointestinal Abnormality, Aquarium Says
By Giulia Campos
11/12/21 

Dolphin Photo: Pixabay

The 16-year-old female bottlenose dolphin that starred in the popular movie “Dolphin Tale” died of a gastrointestinal abnormality on Thursday evening at Florida’s Clearwater Marine Aquarium.

The prosthetic-tailed dolphin named Winter was being prepared for a procedure by specialists and marine mammal experts from around the country to treat her for a gastrointestinal abnormality. She died while being held by the experts despite life-saving efforts.

“While we are heartbroken by Winter’s death, we are comforted knowing that our team did everything possible to give her the best chance at survival,” veterinarian Dr. Shelly Marquardt said in a statement.

“I’m honored to work alongside such dedicated and talented professionals who gave their all for Winter,” Marquardt added.

Aquarium president James Powell told reporters Winter previously experienced intestinal issues but she was not responding to treatment like she had in the past.

The aquarium will be closed on Friday to provide time for the staff and fans to grieve. Plans for a memorial will be announced soon.

“Many are inspired by her resiliency and this amazing response reminds us of how deeply she has affected millions, including so many on their own health journey,” the aquarium said in a statement.

Winter’s tail had to be amputated when she was 2 months old after she got entangled in a crab trap near Cape Canaveral. “Dolphin Tale,” which was released in 2011, chronicled Winter’s recovery and the efforts to fit her with a prosthetic tail, the Associated Press noted.

The film, which was mainly shot at the Clearwater aquarium, starred Harry Connick Jr., Ashley Judd, Kris Kristofferson, Morgan Freeman and Nathan Gamble. The film brought legions of fans to the aquarium to see the inspiration for the story

Disorder In The Court: ‘Black Pastors’, ‘Asian Food’ Comments Raise Racist Ire In Arbery, Rittenhouse Cases


By Maggie Valenti
11/12/21 

William "Roddie" Bryan listens to opening arguments at his trial for the murder of Black jogger Ahmaud Arbery in Brunswick, Georgia

 Photo: GETTY IMAGES / POOL


Two high-profile murder cases are underway, the trials of Kyle Rittenhouse and the three men charged with gunning down Ahmaud Arbery, and those involved in the trials are receiving backlash for racist comments, including a judge and a defense attorney.

During the trial of the three men in Georgia, defense attorney Kevin Gough, who represents co-defendant William “Roddie” Bryan, took issue with the presence in the courtroom of Rev. Al Sharpton, a Baptist minister and civil rights activist who was invited by the Arbery family.

"We don't want any more Black pastors coming in here or other Jesse Jackson, whoever was in here earlier this week, sitting with the victim's family trying to influence a jury in this case," said Gough, adding that he has "nothing personally against" Sharpton. “If we're going to start a precedent, starting yesterday, where we're going to bring high-profile members of the African-American community into the courtroom to sit with the family during the trial in the presence of the jury, I believe that's intimidating and it's an attempt to pressure ... or influence the jury.”

During the trial of Rittenhouse, Kenosha County Circuit Judge Bruce Schroeder made a joke about an upcoming lunch break and has come under criticism for heavy-handed behavior during the trial.

He joked, “I hope the Asian food isn’t coming . . . isn’t on one of those boats along Long Beach Harbor.”

The joke plays on stereotypes in the U.S. about Asian cuisine and Asian people. Throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, hate crimes against Asian Americans have risen around the globe and in the U.S., many based on harmful stereotypes.

Both trials have come under criticism due to their predominantly white juries. In Kenosha County, Wisconsin, where Rittenhouse’s trial is taking place, the area is 75% white and the jury is overwhelmingly white, according to a New York Times breakdown of the jury selection.

In Glynn County, Georgia, where the Arbery trial is taking place, over a quarter of the residents are Black and yet there is only one Black juror, according to an analysis by USA Today.

Sharpton was quick to point this out. He called the Arbery case a lynching in the 21st century.

THAT IS CORRECT

'Ruled By The Capital': Chinese Official Criticizes Western Democracy

By Maggie Valenti
11/12/21

The top leaders of China's ruling Communist Party are set to begin a pivotal meeting expected to further firm President Xi Jinping's grip on power 

 Photo: AFP / GREG BAKER

During a press conference in China on Friday, Chinese officials voiced rare, public criticism of Western democracies ahead of the U.S. “Summit for Democracy” to be held in early December.

The press conference addressed Chinese President Xi Jinping’s vision for a system dominated by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Jiang Jinquan, the director of the policy research office for the CCP, made comments critical of Western countries that impose their ideas of democracy on the world, specifically China.

“The electoral democracy of Western countries are actually democracy rules by the capital, and they are a game of the rich, not real democracy,” Jiang said, according to translations.

Jiang also criticized the Summit for Democracy, saying “the US will host a so-called democracy summit and seeks to revive Western democracy, and it’s a huge irony to host it against the mounting problems faced by Western democracy."

The Summit for Democracy in December is the first of two which will bring together leaders from around the world. However, the CCP official cited an unspecified study that 81% of Americans claimed there was a serious threat to U.S. democracy, according to the South China Morning Post. In contrast, Jiang cited a number often provided by Chinese officials that 90% of citizens are satisfied with their government.

“Which is better, and which is worse?” Jiang said. “Anyone with a clear eye can tell themselves.”

The comments come a day after Xi became China’s third leader, including Mao Zedong, founder of the CCP, and Deng Xiaoping, to adopt a “historical resolution” at a CCP meeting. According to Reuters, the resolution has yet to be released in full to the public.

SCHADENFREUDE

GOP Lawmaker Who Organized Anti-Vaccine Rally Gets COVID-19, Misses Own Event

By Danielle Ong
11/11/21 

Anti-vaccine rally protesters hold signs outside of Houston Methodist Hospital in June 2021 - employees had sought to overturn a vaccine mandate, but their case was dismissed in a federal court

 Photo: AFP / Mark Felix

KEY POINTS

The rally aimed to protest President Biden's vaccine mandates

Hoverson was previously accused of having an altercation with a TSA agent

The lawmaker also sponsored a bill making abortion a Class AA felony

A Republican lawmaker who organized an anti-vaccine rally skipped the event after he was diagnosed with COVID-19.

Rep. Jeff Hoverson, R-ND, assisted in the organization of the “We The People rally” that was set to gather at the steps of the state capitol in Bismarck, North Dakota, on Monday. The protest aimed to oppose President Joe Biden’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate.

But while the rally went ahead as scheduled, Hoverson did not make it to the event. On Sunday, a day before the rally, the Republican took to his Facebook account to announce that he had been infected with COVID-19.

“Covid is real and like a really bad flu. I am currently quarantining and each day is getting better,” he wrote in his post.

In the same post, Hoverson said he was taking the deworming drug ivermectin — a drug that some people promote as a treatment for COVID-19.

“Ivermectin, Hydroxychloroquine, vitamins, etc; according to hundreds upon hundreds of medical experts, including in ND, SHOULD BE OUR EARLY AMBULATORY CARE,” Hoverson added.

The Food and Drug Administration has already advised against the use of the drug, noting that many who self-medicated using ivermectin required hospitalization.

The North Dakota Republican also said he was taking hydroxychloroquine, a drug previously touted by former President Donald Trump as the cure to COVID-19. A randomized trial held by the World Health Organization found that hydroxychloroquine did not reduce mortality among COVID-19 patients nor did it reduce the need for a ventilator.

Hoverson has become the topic of several news headlines in the past months. In October, the lawmaker was barred from boarding a flight at Minot International Airport after an alleged run-in with a TSA agent.

The incident occurred after a TSA officer initiated a pat-down when the lawmaker set off the alarm in a screening machine. The agent said Hoverson refused to comply with the pat-down and moved the agent’s hand away. The lawmaker eventually complied when police arrived, but the airline decided to deny him boarding, according to The Associated Press.

Early this year, Hoverson also sponsored House Bill 1313, which would make anyone found to have performed an abortion to be guilty of a Class AA felony. Anyone who aided or facilitated the abortion could also be found guilty of a Class C felony.

In this file photo, a NASA worker is protesting a requirement for federal workers to receive the Covid-19 vaccine 

Photo: AFP / Robyn Beck