USA
The minimum wage just went up in 21 states — here's where it's highest

Doug Whiteman
Sat, January 1, 2022

The minimum wage just went up in 21 states — here's where it's highest

Hailed as frontline heroes during the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic, many of America's retail workers, cleaning staff and delivery people aren't paid like heroes.

These roles are often minimum-wage jobs, which pay just $7.25 an hour in many states that follow the federal minimum wage. It hasn't budged since the summer of 2009, the longest stretch without an increase since it was introduced in the 1930s.

But workers in 29 states and many cities are paid a higher minimum wage than federal law requires — and most of those states just raised their minimums to start the new year.


Here are the 14 states that are now on top, counting down to the one offering the very highest minimum wage.

14. Illinois

ShutterStock

Minimum wage: $12 per hour

In 2019, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed legislation to slowly increase the state’s minimum wage until it lands at $15 an hour in 2025.

For 2022, the minimum rate has been increased from $11 to $12 for most hourly workers, $7.20 for employees who receive tips, and $9.25 for youths under 18 who work fewer than 650 hours a year.

Chicago already has a $15-an-hour minimum wage, for employers with 21 or more workers. Smaller businesses must pay at least $14 an hour.

Even if they just got raises, minimum-wage workers across the U.S. still need to be very careful with their money. One smart way to hold down spending is to use a free browser extension to scan the internet for lower prices whenever shopping online.

13. Rhode Island

Sean Pavone / Shutterstock
Rhode Island is debating whether to raise the minimum wage again.

Minimum wage: $12.25 per hour

America's smallest state gives its minimum-wage workers some of the biggest paychecks. The state recently passed legislation that will further increase the minimum each year until it hits $15 on Jan. 1, 2025. A New Year's raise just boosted the minimum wage from $11.50 to $12.25 for 2022.

"This is an important step in the effort to help lift Rhode Island families out of poverty and support many of our essential workers who put themselves at risk to keep our state running during the pandemic," says Gov. Dan McKee in a news release.

Rhode Island's leaders also say the state's minimum wage needs to rise to stay competitive with neighboring Connecticut and Massachusetts. Officials say an estimated 25,000 workers in the Ocean State make the minimum.

Employers in Rhode Island also are required to pay workers time-and-a-half for Sundays and holidays.

12. Maryland

Sean Pavone / Shutterstock
Maryland's minimum wage is going up every year.

Minimum wage: $12.50 an hour

In Maryland, the state with the highest median household income ($94,384 in 2020, according to Federal Reserve data, the poorest workers have begun getting annual New Year's Day raises.

Like several other states on this list, Maryland is raising its minimum wage in stages on the way to an eventual $15 an hour. That level will be reached in 2025, under a bill that became law in 2019.

For 2022, the minimum just increased from $11.75 to $12.50.

In wealthy Montgomery County outside Washington, D.C., an increase last July 1 means businesses with at least 51 employees must now pay at least $15 hourly.

11. Vermont

Erika J Mitchell / Shutterstock
Vermont's minimum wage increases with inflation.

Minimum wage: $12.55 per hour

Though next-door New Hampshire has stuck with the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour, Vermont has been lifting its rate to keep up with the cost of living.

Low-paid workers in the Green Mountain State just got a 80-cent increase for 2022, up from the previous minimum wage of $11.75 an hour. The change came under a bill passed by the Vermont Legislature to 2020 increase the minimum by a combined $1.59 over two years.

This year's adjustment also impacts tipped employees, whose base wages have been upped from $5.88 an hour to $6.28.

A 2019 state study found Vermont's minimum wage wasn't enough to live on. For a working couple to get by in the state, each partner needed to earn at least $13.34 per hour, the Vermont Legislative Joint Fiscal Office reported.

10. Colorado

Andrew Zarivny / Shutterstock
Denver and other Colorado cities are now able to have their own separate minimum wage.

Minimum wage: $12.56 per hour

The Centennial State's minimum wage has gone up to $12.56 for the new year, from $12.32 in 2021.

But you can earn an even higher rate if you live in Denver. Taking advantage of a law that allows Colorado cities to set their own minimums, the Mile High City is requiring employers to pay at least $15.87 an hour in 2022.

One year ago, Denver's minimum wage jumped by nearly $2, from $12.85 to $14.77. Local officials said they went ahead with the scheduled increase despite challenges for businesses because of COVID-19.

“This was not an easy decision, but as our economy recovers — and we know it will — we don’t want to leave behind our minimum-wage workers,” Denver Mayor Michael Hancock wrote on Facebook.

8. (tie) Oregon

Bill45 / Shutterstock
Oregon's minimum wage rises in the summer.

Minimum wage: $12.75 per hour

Minimum-wage workers in Oregon are getting raises every summer under a 2016 law.

The latest increase went into effect last July 1 and took the Beaver State's minimum to $12.75 an hour, up from $12. The final hike in the series is scheduled for 2022 and will require that workers be paid at least $13.50 an hour. After that, Oregon will make annual increases in line with inflation.

But here's something quirky: The state's standard minimum wage applies in fewer than half of Oregon's counties. The Portland metro area has a higher rate than $12.75 (now $14 an hour) and the rest of the state is called "nonurban" and has a lower one ($12).

If you live in a "nonurban" area, you probably have to drive to get around. One of the most effective ways to make room in your monthly budget is to check for a better deal on your car insurance. Using a quote comparison site to shop around could save you as much as $1,100 a year.

8. (tie) Maine

Sean Pavone / Shutterstock
Maine's minimum wage has been rising annually.

Minimum wage: $12.75 per hour

In Maine — where you find more than 65 lighthouses, over 60,000 moose and a lobster industry worth $1.5 billion a year — the minimum wage has been rising steadily from $7.50 an hour, where it sat in 2016.

After a series of $1 New Year's Day raises lifted the rate to $12 in 2020, the Pine Tree State's minimum is now seeing smaller yearly increases to keep in step with inflation. For 2022, the rate has climbed from $12.15 an hour to $12.75.

"This cost of living increase means that workers will have a little more dignity and a little more money in their pockets to support their families and spend in the local economy," says Matt Schlobohm, executive director of the Maine AFL-CIO, in a news release.

Recent graduates stuck in minimum-wage jobs might want to refinance any student loans they have from private lenders, to cut expenses while they wait for a better opportunity. Interest rates on private student loans have been sitting at or near all-time lows.

7. Arizona

Dreamframer / Shutterstock
Arizona voters decided to raise the state's minimum wage.

Minimum wage: $12.80 per hour

The one they call the Grand Canyon State — which also is known for its Wild West history, college football's Fiesta Bowl and "dry heat" — has been steadily pushing up its minimum wage under a ballot measure voters approved in 2016.

A New Year's hike tied to the rising cost of living delivered a $12.80 minimum wage for 2022, up from $12.15 last year.

A local ballot initiative in 2016 gave the city of Flagstaff, Arizona, its very own minimum wage. The minimum there has jumped to $15.55 an hour with the arrival of 2022.

If your low wages weren't enough to see you safely through the pandemic, you might have racked up a hefty amount of credit card debt. Those sky-high interest rates will only make matters worse over time, so consider rolling all your balances into one, lower-interest consolidation loan.

6. (tie) New Jersey

ESB Professional / Shutterstock
New Jersey is moving toward a $15 minimum.

Minimum wage: $13 per hour

Minimum-wage hikes have become part of the fabric of New Jersey — like the state's unique law that doesn't let motorists pump their own gas.

A bill that the governor signed into law in early 2019 calls for annual $1 raises every January until 2024. That's when the Garden State's minimum will hit $15 for most workers.

The latest increase — from $11 to $12 as of Jan. 1 — put New Jersey among 20 states raising the minimum wage for the new year.

The route to $15 per hour "will grow our economy, uplift working families, make our state more affordable and ensure fairness for future generations," Gov. Phil Murphy wrote on Twitter when the minimum wage was first increased.

6. (tie) Connecticut

Jennifer Yakey-Ault / Shutterstock
Connecticut expects to have a $15-an-hour minimum wage in 2023.

Minimum wage: $13 per hour

Connecticut also is marching its way toward a minimum wage of $15 an hour.

The latest raise went into effect last Aug. 1, when the rate got bumped from $12 to $13 hourly. It will hit $14 on July 1 of this year, then hit the magic level of $15 is achieved in June 2023.

Gov. Ned Lamont and fellow Democrats in the Connecticut legislature say a higher minimum wage will make the Nutmeg State more appealing for workers and stop people from leaving.

"For too long, while the nation’s economy grew, the income of the lowest earning workers has stayed flat, making already existing pay disparities even worse and preventing hardworking families from obtaining financial security," Lamont says in a news release.

5. New York

spyarm / Shutterstock

New York is heading toward a $15 minimum wage.

Minimum wage: $13.20 per hour

In New York, where subway fares, State Thruway tolls and upstate snowfall totals seem to go up routinely, the minimum wage is making regular increases, too.

Thanks to a New Year's Eve raise, workers across the Empire State are now earning a minimum of $13.20 an hour in 2021, up from $12.50 in 2021.

The state is aiming to get to the $15-an-hour level, and some areas are arriving there faster than others. New York City is already at $15, and suburban Long Island and Westchester just joined the Big Apple at $15.

The planned increases have moved forward despite some business advocates calling for a pause, citing the coronavirus pandemic's deep financial impact on retailers and restaurants.

3. Massachusetts

Sean Pavone / Shutterstock

Massachusetts has been phasing in a $15 minimum wage.

Minimum wage: $14.25 per hour

Massachusetts is yet another state driving toward a minimum wage of $15 an hour; the goal is to get there in 2023.

The latest step has given the Bay State's lowest-paid workers a 75-cent raise for 2022. The previous minimum was $13.50.

Massachusetts workers who receive tips got a raise in their base pay from $5.55 to $6.15 hourly. They'll be getting $6.75 by 2023, but some members of the state Legislature have argued that it's time to do away with the low "tipped wage."

No matter how little you earn, you still have the power to save and invest. A popular app helps you invest your "spare change" from everyday purchases, and grow your pennies into a portfolio.

2. Washington

emperorcosar / Shutterstock
Washington's minimum wage is tall like the Seattle Space Needle and high like Mount Rainier.

Minimum wage: $14.49 per hour

In Washington, a state known for soaring mountain peaks and skyscraping man-made wonders like the Seattle Space Needle, the minimum wage has gone to similar heights.

A New Year's increase has raised the Evergreen State's minimum from last year’s $13.69. Statewide increases are now tied to inflation.

Meanwhile, two Washington cities have already reached the popular $15-an-hour level — and then some.

With the start of 2022, employers in Seattle are generally required to pay at least $17.27 an hour. And in SeaTac, which is home to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, hospitality and transportation workers now have a minimum wage of $17.53 per hour.

1. California

Lucky-photographer / Shutterstock

The Golden State is yet another one headed toward a minimum wage of $15 an hour.

Minimum wage: $15 per hour

An honorable mention to Washington, D.C., which raised its minimum wage to $15.20 an hour last July 1. But among states, heavily populated and pricey California is No. 1.

The minimum wage in the Golden State has been going up by $1 a year, so that now, in 2022, workers are required to earn at least — you guessed it — $15 an hour.

A number of California communities moved more quickly and have already gone beyond the $15 mark, especially in Silicon Valley. In 2022, San Jose is at $16.20 and Apple's hometown of Cupertino is paying $16.40.

The state's leader is Emeryville, the San Francisco suburb that's home to the Toy Story animation studio Pixar. The minimum wage there jumped last summer from $16.84 to $17.13 an hour.

 

Dear Eugene,   We want to send you our deepest appreciation for your incredible support to UNRWA and for standing by Palestine refugees.    This year has been challenging for Palestine refugees across all fields and our agency. However, your support and solidarity have kept us going. Your kindness and generosity have allowed UNRWA to provide vital and life-saving services to Palestine refugees.     Eugene, thank you for your dedication and care for the wellbeing of Palestine refugees. We hope that 2022 will bring much-needed certainty, stability, and health to you and your loved ones.    In solidarity and with gratitude,   Izz, Rahmeh, Yasmine, and Samer UNRWA Digital Fundraising Team  I DID YOU CAN TO

A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS

A bank accidentally paid thousands of people more than $175 million on Christmas Day due to a technical glitch

Stephen Jones
Fri, December 31, 2021


Santander UK is trying to recoup $175.9 million that it paid to customers by mistake.


A technical error meant that 75,000 scheduled payments were accidentally duplicated.


One person affected told Insider that she thought she'd been paid twice on Christmas Day.

Santander UK is trying to recoup about $175 million (130 million pounds) that it accidentally transferred to customers on Christmas Day.

A Santander branch.SOPA Images / Contributor

A technical error led 75,000 scheduled and one-off payments to be paid twice by the bank's system, The Times of London first reported.

A spokesperson for the bank said that the error had been identified and rectified. The bank will work to recover the duplicated transactions over the coming days, the spokesperson added.

The error affected 2,000 commercial and corporate accounts, which means many of those receiving money are employees or suppliers, who are customers of different banks, The Times reported.

Jenny, a UK resident who did not want to provide her surname, was among those affected. She told Insider that she thought she'd been paid twice.

She received her scheduled wage of 1,764.50 pounds on December 24. She then received a second payment for the same amount the next day. Both were listed as being from her employer, but when she contacted them they said they hadn't paid the money.

After investigating, her employer said the bank would be resolving the issue and that she didn't need to do anything.

The payments came from Santander's own funds, so individuals were unaffected. Nevertheless, Jenny described it as "frustrating."

She added: "It was confusing, I just wanted it out of my account because it's hard to tell how much money you have."

The Santander spokesperson told Insider that the problem affected only UK customers and that the process for recovering the funds is "underway and working effectively."

The industry's bank-error recovery process enables banks to retrieve transactions from third-party banks. In some cases, Santander could also contact those affected directly.

According to Jenny's bank statement, seen by Insider, the second payment of 1,764.50 pounds was retracted on December 30. Jenny is a customer of a different bank, NatWest. This suggests that at least some of the challenges Santander was facing have been resolved.

The spokesperson did not give a time frame for when the issue will be fully resolved.

Spanish-owned Santander has 14 million active customers and about 20,000 employees.

Banks' digital-payment systems can be prone to errors. It's not the first glitch to affect Santander's payments this year. In May, some customers were unable to pay for goods after a technical issue temporarily affected card payments

U.S. blocking tomato shipments from Mexican farms accused of abusing workers

Richard Marosi
Fri, December 31, 2021

A cargo truck is filled to the brim with Roma tomatoes from Mexico. (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)

An export powerhouse that provides much of America's vegetables, the Mexican produce industry in recent years has followed up on some promised reforms aimed at preventing the abuse of farmworkers. But a recent move by the Biden administration accusing two large Mexican agribusinesses of forced labor abuses has brought fresh scrutiny of the industry.

The administration is blocking all tomato shipments from the agribusinesses based in the Mexican state of San Luis Potosí, under a "withhold release order" handed down in late October by U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

According to a Times investigation, the businesses — Agropecuarios Tom and Horticola Tom — have shipped in the last year millions of pounds of tomatoes to U.S.-based distributors that supply supermarkets across the country, including Walmart and Albertsons.

The two targeted agribusinesses have withheld wages and subjected workers to abusive working and living conditions, among other violations, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

“The hope is that this brings greater awareness of horrible conditions that these workers are subjected to,” Ana Hinojosa, executive director of the agency’s forced labor division, said in an interview.

The unprecedented move by the administration blocks only a small portion of Mexican tomato exports in an industry with hundreds of producers but signals a more aggressive approach toward labor rights enforcement against U.S. trading partners. This summer the administration also slapped trade restrictions on a Chinese manufacturer of silica-based products accused of forced labor abuses against ethnic Uyghur workers.

Conditions for Mexican farmworkers appear to have improved substantially in recent years, according to agribusiness executives, labor organizers, industry trade groups and supply chain oversight groups, in part due to a 2014 Los Angeles Times investigation that led to a dramatic increase in the use of independent organizations that enforce labor standards, such as Fair Trade USA.

But the U.S. action suggests that labor abuses persist. The fast-growing industry, powered by dozens of giant agro-industrial complexes along with hundreds of smaller operators across northern and central Mexico, supplies more than half of all tomatoes consumed in the U.S.

The Mexican agribusinesses, which U.S. authorities said share an ownership structure, did not respond to several requests for comment.

Supply chains from Mexican farms to American dinner tables, often consisting of opaque networks of constantly shifting players, are difficult to unravel. Tomatoes plucked off vines by laborers at Mexican farms may change hands five or six times as they are trucked to U.S. distributors and passed on to restaurants, food service companies and retailers.

Most retailers and distributors say their supplier farms are free of forced labor, but enforcement of basic standards, through on-site visits and audits, varies, and critics question some companies' commitment to social responsibility.

The targeted agribusinesses, which have shipped about 20 million pounds of tomatoes to the U.S. since October 2020, were the first link of a supply chain with a relatively straightforward path to U.S. store shelves.

Del Campo Supreme, an Arizona distributor whose motto is “People First,” received the vast majority of the produce, according to import data obtained by The Times. The other customer, the data showed, was Mastronardi Produce, North America’s largest distributor of greenhouse tomatoes, which sells tomatoes under its Sunset label.

The exact destination of the tomatoes across the distributors' vast supply chains is unknown. Both companies have customers across the U.S., according to industry sources and the company websites.

The supply chain of Del Campo Supreme in the last year included Walmart and Albertsons, according to industry sources. Del Campo Supreme’s general manager, Diego Ley, declined to comment on whether the retailers were customers in the last year. Albertsons, he said, is not a current customer.

He said Horticola Tom has provided only a small portion of the tomatoes it distributes and has been dropped as a supplier.

The remaining inventory of Horticola Tom tomatoes has been destroyed, Ley said. “We take this matter extremely seriously.... Going forward, if Del Campo uses any third-party suppliers, we will require independent monitoring and auditing."

Mastronardi supplies most major U.S. retailers — including Walmart; Target; Kroger, which includes Ralphs Grocery and Food 4 Less; and Albertsons, the parent company of Safeway and Vons.

Farmworkers ride back to camp in an open-bed truck after a day picking tomatoes in Sinaloa, Mexico. (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)

The company declined to address questions about its supply chain, and it remains unclear whether the retailers received any of the tomatoes from the Mexican farms. In a statement, the company said it holds its suppliers to a code of conduct. “We are steadfast in our commitment to ensuring that workers are treated with respect and dignity and that working conditions across our supply chain are safe," said the statement from the Ontario, Canada, company.

U.S. officials said the labor issues were first uncovered in October 2020 by Mexican authorities. They did not detail the nature of the exploitation. But Hinojosa, the Customs and Border Protection official, said the abuses were similar to the ones revealed in The Times' 2014 “Product of Mexico" series.

The series showed that Mexico’s produce industry has become an economic powerhouse in part through a system that exploits some of the country’s poorest citizens, transporting them hundreds of miles from their homes to live in squalid labor camps with meager rations and overpriced provisions.

The most serious abuse, and the one most closely resembling forced labor, is the practice of withholding wages from workers who, left penniless and far from home, are essentially trapped inside camps. High fences, barbed wire and guards further discourage workers from leaving the compounds for the length of their contracts, typically three months.

The customs action in October caught some industry leaders by surprise. After The Times' 2014 investigation, the North American produce industry groups established labor guidelines, called the Ethical Charter, which were designed to raise worker standards. The charter has been endorsed by more than 350 retailers, growers and distributors.

But the recent accusations show that some companies are still not doing enough, industry leaders said.

"It’s another wake-up call for everybody to be more diligent," said Tom Stenzel, president of the United Fresh Produce Assn., a trade group representing the North American produce industry. "When something like this happens, it reverberates. People start looking hard … and they need to."

In recent years some industry players have followed up on pledges to improve the lives of Mexican laborers, according to produce distributors, labor organizers, agribusiness executives, watchdog groups and industry analysts.

The most substantive reforms are reflected in the dramatic growth of third-party companies that oversee labor standards. One company that partners with Costco, the Equitable Food Initiative, has grown its certification program from one to 26 farms since The Times’ series ran.

Another certification company, Fair Trade USA, which has among the strictest standards, has grown eightfold since 2014, from 10 to 84 farms, according to organization officials.

There are hundreds of export farms, but the certification groups focus on the dozens of large agro-industrial complexes that supply the majority of tomatoes to the U.S. Many holdouts remain, most notably farms that continue to rely on shady labor contractors who operate with impunity in the remote regions of Mexico where workers are recruited.

Tomato growers in Florida, who have long criticized Mexican agribusinesses, say they continue to struggle to compete against Mexican farms whose labor costs are much lower, sometimes because of forced labor tactics.

Florida farmers have improved labor conditions through the groundbreaking Fair Food Program, which raised wages and established strict guidelines against forced labor. Mexican farms, by contrast, continue to skirt oversight and accountability from some U.S. distributors and partners, some farmers say.

A woman carries Roma tomatoes through a field in Sinaloa, Mexico. 

(Don Bartletti/Los Angeles Times)

"It’s unacceptable that occurrences like this are still happening in a country that supplies the U.S. with a significant portion of the fruits and vegetables that Americans consume," said Michael Schadler, executive vice president of the Florida Tomato Exchange, an association of Florida farmers. "While some reforms have taken place in Mexico, this latest incident makes it clear that more action is needed."

Walmart, which pledged reforms in 2015 but did not provide details of the measures, declined to respond to specific questions about how it holds accountable suppliers accused of forced labor abuses. The company said in a statement that it is "grateful to those in our supply chain who help us bring quality, affordable products to our customers."

"We hold our suppliers to high standards as set out in our Standards for Suppliers to operate their facilities responsibly, safeguarding the well-being of their workers and workers from the facilities and farms they source from," said the statement provided by Blair Cromwell, the director of global responsibility communications for Walmart.

Albertsons, which was the parent company of Del Campo Supreme until January 2018, when it sold the company, declined to comment. Under the company's sustainability guidelines, its suppliers are encouraged to "implement effective protocols to eliminate child and forced labor."

A Kroger spokesperson, when asked whether Kroger had received tomatoes from the companies in question in the last year, said: "Not to our knowledge."

At the border, U.S. authorities say Horticola Tom has tried to skirt the withhold order. In late October, customs officers at the Pharr International Bridge in Texas stopped a suspicious tomato shipment after noting a discrepancy, authorities said. The paperwork listed a shipper as a company not subject to any withhold release order, but the packaging listed Horticola Tom.

"Something didn't add up," Carlos Rodriguez, the port director at the Anzalduas Port of Entry, said in a news release. The shipment was stopped and sent back to Mexico.

Cecilia Sanchez, special correspondent in The Times' Mexico City bureau, contributed to this report.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

Why it's important to see women as capable ... of terrible atrocities

Jessica Trisko Darden, Assistant Professor, Virginia Commonwealth University 

Izabela Steflja, Professor of Practice in Political Science, Tulane University
Fri, December 31, 2021

Artemisia Gentileschi's 'Judith Beheading Holofernes.' Google Art Project

Born in 1593, Italian painter Artemisia Gentileschi was the first woman to establish herself as a successful artist in a profession long dominated by men.

One of the most striking aspects of her work is the way she paints women. Her male contemporaries tended to portray women as passive victims or tentative actors. Artemisia’s women, on the other hand, defend themselves, scheme and relish in perpetrating violence.

When Italian painter Caravaggio painted the biblical scene of Judith beheading Holofernes, he depicted Judith as uneasy – even squeamish – as she decapitates him.

Judith tentatively slices off Holofernes' head.


But in Artemisia’s rendering of “Judith Beheading Holofernes,” Artemisia paints a determined Judith slaughtering the Assyrian general. The brutal and bloody act takes place with the assistance of Judith’s female accomplice, who pins Holofernes down.

In our new book, “Women as War Criminals: Gender, Agency, and Justice,” we chose Artemisia’s depiction of Judith for the cover because the painting shows that women, just like men, are capable of perpetrating violence and inciting genocidal acts.

Yet four centuries after Artemisia painted Judith, gender stereotypes and outdated assumptions about women as peaceful and innocent prevent women from being seen as blameworthy.

This matters, because if women are treated as less capable in one regard – even one that involves horrible atrocities – it can extend to other realms, too.
Women war criminals go free

International courts, military trials and domestic criminal justice systems often ignore or downplay women’s acts of violence.

Take the Nuremberg trials, the series of international military tribunals that prosecuted Nazi war criminals. Many Nazi women escaped trial and punishment for their roles in the Holocaust because prosecutors focused on high-level Nazi leaders, exempting those in roles commonly held by women, such as secretaries and clerks.

Decades later, the United Nations international tribunals that investigated atrocities committed in Rwanda and Yugoslavia in the 1990s brought, in each instance, only one woman to justice.

Women were overlooked by international tribunals despite their involvement in perpetrating violence because they were rarely in positions to command others. Nonetheless, Rwandan women participated in murders of adults and children, revealed hiding spots to killing squads and refused to feed refugees. Some of the thousands of women who served in military units across the former Yugoslavia participated in ethnic cleansing by committing extrajudicial killings and acts of torture.

The same double standard prevails in the 21st century. The only woman indicted in the 20-year history of the International Criminal Court is Simone Gbagbo, the former first lady of Cote d’Ivoire.

Gbagbo was indicted in 2012 on four counts of crimes against humanity, sexual violence and persecution for her role in the violence that followed her husband’s loss in the 2011 elections. In 2015, she was convicted of undermining the security of the state and sentenced to 20 years in prison by an Ivorian court. She was later acquitted of crimes against humanity and in 2018 received a presidential pardon. She was ultimately never brought before the International Criminal Court.

Simone Gbagbo never faced the International Criminal Court. Sia Kambou/AFP via Getty Images

Strategies to skirt blame

When women are taken to court, some will use gender strategically in an effort to secure favorable treatment.

Some, for example, claim that men made them do it. Despite her political rank, Biljana Plavšić, former co-president of Republika Srpska in Bosnia, argued during her trial that she was manipulated by men in similar leadership positions.

Lesser-known women have used similar arguments.

Samantha Elhassani, an American sentenced to 6 ½ years in prison for aiding and abetting the Islamic State, had her sentence reduced by arguing that her husband, who was killed fighting for the group, had misled and abused her.

Similarly, the defense team for Lynndie England, who was court-martialed and sentenced to three years in prison by the U.S. Army after she posed in the infamous photos of abuse at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, argued that she was just following the lead of her manipulative boyfriend.

Studies have also shown that when women choose to plead guilty or show remorse, they are more likely to see reduced charges and sentences, especially if their behavior contrasts with defiant male defendants.

For example, after Plavšić pleaded guilty to one count of persecution on political, racial and religious grounds, the prosecution dropped the remaining eight charges, which included genocide. In contrast, Radovan Karadžić, who served as co-president alongside Plavšić, pleaded not guilty to all charges against him. He received a 40-year sentence that was increased to life in prison on appeal.

After Biljana Plavšić pleaded guilty – while claiming she had been manipulated – she received a light sentence. Michel Porro/Getty Images

Closing the gap

Advocates of criminal justice reform argue that societies around the world – and the United States in particular – would benefit from lighter sentences and less punitive criminal justice systems.

Justice, then, would imply not harsher sentences for women, but rather fewer disparities in the treatment of men and women.

The fact that women can occupy the dual role of oppressor and oppressed is a reality that is still not fully understood. Yet 400 years ago, Artemisia skillfully portrayed women as victims and as victimizers. Adamant about her own capabilities, she once told one of her patrons, “I’ll show you what a woman can do.”

Centuries later, her words are just as resonant. Though Artemisia was popular in her era, art historians tended to overlook her contributions to the canon. No longer. This winter the National Gallery in London finally devoted a full-scale exhibition to this Baroque master.

Her works reflect that women’s agency is a double-edged sword. Women are capable of not just of achievement but also of depravity.

This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. It was written by: Jessica Trisko Darden, American University School of International Service and Izabela Steflja, Tulane University.

SALOME WITH THE HEAD OF JOHN THE BAPTIST 

The invention of satanic witchcraft by medieval authorities was initially met with skepticism


Michael D. Bailey, Professor of History, Iowa State University
Sat, January 1, 2022

Woodcut, circa 1400. A witch, a demon and a warlock fly toward a peasant woman. Hulton Archive /Handout via Getty Images

On a midsummer day in 1438, a young man from the north shore of Lake Geneva presented himself to the local church inquisitor. He had a confession to make. Five years earlier, his father had forced him to join a satanic cult of witches. They had flown at night on a small black horse to join more than a hundred people gathered in a meadow. The devil was there too, in the form of a black cat. The witches knelt before him, worshiped him and kissed his posterior.

The young man’s father had already been executed as a witch. It’s likely he was trying to secure a lighter punishment by voluntarily telling inquisitors what they wanted to hear.

The Middle Ages, A.D. 500-1500, have a reputation for both heartless cruelty and hopeless credulity. People commonly believed in all kinds of magic, monsters and fairies. But it wasn’t until the 15th century that the idea of organized satanic witchcraft took hold. As a historian who studies medieval magic, I’m fascinated by how a coterie of church and state authorities conspired to develop and promote this new concept of witchcraft for their own purposes.

Early medieval attitudes about witchcraft

Belief in witches, in the sense of wicked people performing harmful magic, had existed in Europe since before the Greeks and Romans. In the early part of the Middle Ages, authorities were largely unconcerned about it.

A church document from the early 10th century proclaimed that “sorcery and witchcraft” might be real, but the idea that groups of witches flew together with demons through the night was a delusion.

Things began to change in the 12th and 13th centuries, ironically because educated elites in Europe were becoming more sophisticated.


Universities were being founded, and scholars in Western Europe began to pore over ancient texts as well as learned writings from the Muslim world. Some of these presented complex systems of magic that claimed to draw on astral forces or conjure powerful spirits. Gradually, these ideas began to gain intellectual clout.

Ordinary people – the kind who eventually got accused of being witches – didn’t perform elaborate rites from books. They gathered herbs, brewed potions, maybe said a short spell, as they had for generations. And they did so for all sorts of reasons – perhaps to harm someone they disliked, but more often to heal or protect others. Such practices were important in a world with only rudimentary forms of medical care.

Christian authorities had previously dismissed this kind of magic as empty superstition. Now they took all magic much more seriously. They began to believe simple spells worked by summoning demons, which meant anyone who performed them secretly worshiped demons.

Inventing satanic witchcraft

In the 1430s, a small group of writers in Central Europe – church inquisitors, theologians, lay magistrates and even one historian – began to describe horrific assemblies where witches gathered and worshiped demons, had orgies, ate murdered babies and performed other abominable acts. Whether any of these authors ever met each other is unclear, but they all described groups of witches supposedly active in a zone around the western Alps.

The reason for this development may have been purely practical. Church inquisitors, active against religious heretics since the 13th century, and some secular courts were looking to expand their jurisdictions. Having a new and particularly horrible crime to prosecute might have struck them as useful.

I just translated a number of these early texts for a forthcoming book and was struck by how worried the authors were about readers not believing them. One fretted that his accounts would be “disparaged” by those who “think themselves learned.” Another feared that “simple folk” would refuse to believe the “fragile sex” would engage in such terrible practices.

Trial records show it was a hard sell. Most people remained concerned with harmful magic – witches causing illness or withering crops. They didn’t much care about secret satanic gatherings.

In 1486, clergyman Heinrich Kramer published the most widely circulated medieval text about organized witchcraft, Malleus Maleficarum (Hammer of Witches). But many people didn’t believe him. When he tried to start a witch hunt in Innsbruck, Austria, he was kicked out by the local bishop, who accused him of being senile.

Witch hunts

Unfortunately, the fear of satanic witchcraft grew. The 15th century seems to have provided ideal soil for this new idea to take root.

Europe was recovering from several crises: plague, wars and a split in the church between two, and then three, competing popes. Beginning in the 1450s, the printing press made it easier for new ideas to spread. Even prior to the Protestant Reformation, religious reform was in the air. As I explored in an earlier book, reformers used the idea of a diabolical conspiracy bent on corrupting Christianity as a boogeyman in their call for spiritual renewal.

Over time, more people came to accept this new idea. Church and state authorities kept telling them it was real. Still, many also kept relying on local “witches” for magical healing and protection.


The history of witchcraft can be quite grim. From the 1400s through the 1700s, authorities in Western Europe executed around 50,000 people, mostly women, for witchcraft. The worst witch hunts could claim hundreds of victims at a time. With 20 dead, colonial America’s largest hunt at Salem was moderate by comparison.

Salem, in 1692, marked the end of witch hunts in New England. In Europe, too, skepticism would eventually prevail. It’s worth remembering, though, that at the beginning, authorities had to work hard to convince others such malevolence was real.

This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. It was written by: Michael D. Bailey, Iowa State University.

FBI Informant Who Reportedly Helped Stop the Murder of a Black Man by the KKK Says the Klan Is More ‘Prevalent and Consequential’ Than the Agencies Would Like to Admit


Nyam Daniel
Fri, December 31, 2021

A U.S. Army veteran, who spent 10 years undercover in the Ku Klux Klan, said officials need to root out members of the domestic terrorism organization from law enforcement agencies.

Joseph Moore told the Associated Press he infiltrated two Klan organizations in North Florida, where he helped foil two murder plots and unveiled efforts to recruit members for law enforcement positions. Moore was able to help the FBI identify Klansmen that were law enforcement officers in Florida and Georgia.

Joseph Moore – Video Screengrab Associated Press

“If you want to know why people don’t trust the police, it’s because they have a relative or friend that they witness being targeted by an extremist who happens to have a badge and a gun. And I know as a fact that this has occurred. I stopped a murder plot of law enforcement officers,” Moore told AP News.

Among his efforts, Moore stopped a plot by three members of the Florida chapter of Traditionalist American Knights of the Ku Klux Klan from killing a Black man. The three men were current and former corrections officers among a group of other officer-Klan members at the Reception and Medical Center in Lake Butler, Florida.

When Moore attended Klan meetings, he wore a wire, sometimes captured video, and would often keep a record of license plate numbers registered to law enforcement officers who attended.

Moore said he discovered dozens of police officers, corrections officers, sheriff deputies and other law enforcement officers who were involved with the Klan and outlaw motorcycle clubs. While undercover in the United Northern and Southern Knights of the KKK in North Florida, Moore identified a detention officer with the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office, Wayne Kerschner.

Kerschner, who worked four years at the jail in Gainesville, confirmed his membership in the Klan when he was probed by investigators. He admitted to writing on a KKK blog and defended it as a faith-based organization, FOX News reported. Moore also stopped a ploy by members of that chapter to kill a Hispanic man.

“From where I sat, with the intelligence laid out, I can tell you that none of these agencies have any control over any of it. It is more prevalent and consequential than any of them are willing to admit,” Moore said.

According to the FBI, domestic terrorism is “violent, criminal acts committed by individuals and/or groups to further ideological goals stemming from domestic influences, such as those of a political, religious, social, racial, or environmental nature.”

The FBI has a page that chronicles some of its work in combatting violent activity by the KKK that dates back to 1915.

“White supremacist groups have historically engaged in strategic efforts to infiltrate and recruit from law enforcement,” the FBI wrote. The agency said some in law enforcement were volunteering “professional resources to white supremacist causes with which they sympathize.”

Moore said while undercover, he never adopted the Klan’s racist ideology. He said he refrained from using racial slurs. The AP confirmed they never heard Moore use the derogatory language while reviewing the FBI recordings.

The Florida Department of Corrections has denied claims of wider connections to white supremacist groups or a systemic problem. Department spokeswoman Michelle Glady said every allegation of wrongdoing is investigated by the agency’s inspector general.

“Every day more than 18,000 correctional officers throughout the state work as public servants, committed to the safety of Florida’s communities. They should not be defamed by the isolated actions of three individuals who committed abhorrent and illegal acts several years prior,” the department said in an emailed statement to AP News.

Moore said the department’s statement was inaccurate based on the number of active Klan members he has identified and those applying to the agency.

The FBI has warned about white supremacist groups’ efforts to saturate law enforcement agencies for more than a decade. In a 2006 bulletin, the federal agency warned about “ghost skins,” or hate group members who don’t overtly display their beliefs in order to “blend into society and covertly advance white supremacist causes.”

Moore said he feared for his life on numerous occasions while undercover. Since ending the operation for the FBI, he and his family have adopted new names and live secretive lives for their protection.

He fears the Klan may retaliate against him someday. He told the AP that people connected to the Klan have appeared at his house in recent months. He has beefed up security at his home and carries a gun with him wherever he goes.

Moore, who has pre-existing mental health issues, said he also has to deal with the psychological toll of his encounters during the Klan operation.

“We have had to change our names. We have tried to move, we have had our address placed in confidentiality. However, there are people that have investigative capacities that have tracked us, they’ve uncovered our names,” Moore said.

What socialist style can teach us in an age of fast fashion

Modern shoppers have a growing addiction to fast fashion. As a society, we’re buying more clothes and wearing individual garments less: a trend which has a devastating impact both on the environment, and on the vulnerable and underpaid workers who make the latest must-wear items. But as more of us strive to become conscious consumers, could the socialist past provide some unexpected inspiration?

8 September 2021

CALVERT 22
Fashion Slovakia Essay Style & Design
Text: Alex Bikard
Images: Writer Alex Bikard's grandmother in socialist Czechoslovakia. Images courtesy of the author

To say my grandmother loved fashion would be an understatement. She spent her free time scouring the streets of Bratislava in search of the perfect boot, the softest silk, or the most delicate lace. In socialist Slovakia, where consumer goods were scarce, such endeavours required the patience to spend hours standing in line, or the connections to know which shopkeepers could get their hands on the most sought-after items. Then there was individual craftmanship. Not only did my grandmother have a talent with the needle, but she would commission a personal seamstress to create the pieces she envisioned. She curated a personal closet filled with one-of-a-kind and made-to-measure outfits that she loved and treasured. Strutting around in the latest Western-inspired fashion was a point of pride, and a way to escape the reality of the day-to-day.

Then, capitalism arrived. Slovakia, much like the rest of the world, transitioned to a life of fast fashion: where quality, longevity, and individuality were trampled by the mass-production of cheap clothes designed to last only a season or two. We may have the same deep desire to express ourselves that carried my grandmother through the streets of Bratislava, but our clothes say otherwise: we have become adhering sheep of a deeply unsustainable system. We have learned that clothes are meant to be cheap and fleeting. Most UK shoppers wear each of their clothes just seven times on average, according to the British charity Barnado’s. The quality of what we wear has plummeted, but more importantly, factory-made clothes have become synonymous with poor working conditions and heavy pollution. Countless human lives and our planet have fallen victim to a world that can’t seem to stop consuming. The current system needs to change. But when I look for answers, I increasingly turn to my grandmother’s wardrobe.



Communism is not exactly a political exemplar. However, when I reminisce about my grandmother’s own passion for clothes, I think about how some aspects of socialist society could put our consumerist choices into perspective. During that era, women would invest in simpler and more traditional pieces that would last them a lifetime. Ultimately, my grandmother’s clothes will eventually outlive her.

READ MORE

Letter from Zlín: the Czech town where capitalism and constructivism co-exist


Many of her choices were made for very practical reasons. Money was scarce, as were consumer goods such as materials. Garments, therefore, were often made from recycled fabrics, or re-tailored from pre-existing pieces. Women were able to wear made-to-measure items from patterns they had chosen, created from materials they had wanted. Most Slovak women knew how to sew, knit, crochet, and embroider. And if they weren’t making their own clothes, then it would be turned over to a seamstress who was part of the community: someone’s cousin, a neighbour, the mother of a child’s classmate.

Thanks to these personal connections, people valued the time and work that went into their wardrobe. Clothes were personal, and therefore loved and cherished by their owners. It makes a stark contrast to today’s global supply chains, where we often forget the real people behind our clothes. This disconnect allows us to overlook the lives of the underpaid women and children who are often exploited under atrocious working conditions. So far, it has taken large-scale tragedies, such as the 2013 Rana Plaza collapse in Bangladesh, for companies to be held accountable for their social and environmental impact.

It also means that even though clothes were better made, women would make do with a smaller wardrobe because what they owned were quality clothes made to truly last. The clothes also fit them well, simply because they had been tailored specifically for their bodies.



So why haven’t we already gone back to this slower, more personal forms as fashion? Simply put, as long as people are expected to follow unsustainable trend cycles, these problems will perdure. Real societal change needs to happen in order to see the end micro-trends and throw-away, Instagram-only pieces. My grandmother’s generation wore and re-wore their garments without the modern guilt of “outfit repeating”. On the contrary, they wore their clothes with great pride.

We need to stop fixating on what we will lose when it comes to shedding fast fashion — the price, the convenience — and instead concentrate on what we have to gain. Small independent designers, Depop sellers, and thrift shops are the bread and butter of Gen Z, who yearn for brands that match their environmental and ethical considerations but still provide a unique look. A new generation of designers, such as Marine Serre or Bundgaard Nielson, are choosing to create new pieces from pre-loved clothes and materials.

But while thoughtfully-minded eco-projects are slowly filling up the pages of fashion magazines, this is about more than being on-trend. We have to gain back the sense of pride, community, and tradition that was associated with fashion for former generations. During socialism, it was scarcity that fuelled innovation. Now, we can learn from their creativity. While “slow fashion” is nothing but a return to the past, it is ultimately the way forward.

P3 PUBLIC PENSIONS FUND PRIVATE PROFIT

CPP Investments Establishes Joint Venture with Mitsubishi Estate to Strengthen Real Estate Presence in Japan

TOKYO AND TORONTO, Dec. 23, 2021 /CNW/ - Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP Investments) today announced a commitment of JPY 19 billion (C$205.6 million) to a joint venture with Mitsubishi Estate Co., Ltd (Mitsubishi Estate), a leading Japanese real estate developer, to pursue investments in commercial and residential assets in Japan. The joint venture will be managed by Mitsubishi Jisho Investment Advisors, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Mitsubishi Estate and one of the largest real estate fund managers in Japan with assets under management worth JPY 920.1 billion (C$10 billion).

Canada Pension Plan Investment Board logo (CNW Group/Canada Pension Plan Investment Board)

Established in 1937, Mitsubishi Estate specializes in development, leasing, and management of office buildings, retail, logistics, hotel and residential properties.

"As one of the most established real estate markets in Asia, Japan offers a broad range of investment opportunities across the sector with attractive risk-adjusted returns," said Gilles Chow, Managing Director, Head of Real Estate North Asia, CPP Investments. "Mitsubishi Estate is a highly respected partner with deep local real estate development and management experience and will help us to further diversify our real estate portfolio in Japan. The new venture is positioned to deliver long-term value for the Fund's contributors and beneficiaries."

About CPP Investments

Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP Investments™) is a professional investment management organization that manages the Fund in the best interest of the more than 20 million contributors and beneficiaries of the Canada Pension Plan. In order to build diversified portfolios of assets, investments are made around the world in public equities, private equities, real estate, infrastructure and fixed income. Headquartered in Toronto, with offices in Hong Kong, London, Luxembourg, Mumbai, New York City, San Francisco, São Paulo and Sydney, CPP Investments is governed and managed independently of the Canada Pension Plan and at arm's length from governments. 

At September 30, 2021, the Fund totalled C$541.5 billion.

 For more information, please visit www.cppinvestments.com or follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter.

SOURCE Canada Pension Plan Investment Board

Cision

View original content to download multimedia: http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/December2021/23/c0798.html

CPPIB, MITSUBISHI ESTATE INK $170M JAPAN COMMERCIAL, RESIDENTIAL JV

2021/12/23 BY CHRISTOPHER CAILLAVET LEAVE A COMMENT


Mitsubishi Estate’s Marunouchi Park project in Tokyo is home to the group’s headquarters

Canada’s biggest pension fund manager is broadening its Japan real estate strategy with a JPY 19 billion ($170 million) capital commitment to a joint venture with property giant Mitsubishi Estate to invest in commercial and residential assets in Asia’s second-largest economy.

The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, which in recent years has backed industrial and data centre vehicles in Japan, said Thursday that the JV would be managed by Mitsubishi Jisho Investment Advisors, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Mitsubishi Estate with assets under management worth JPY 920.1 billion ($8 billion).

Japan offers a broad range of property investment opportunities with attractive risk-adjusted returns, said Gilles Chow, managing director and head of real estate for North Asia at CPPIB, which has C$541.5 billion ($422.4 billion) in assets under management.

“Mitsubishi Estate is a highly respected partner with deep local real estate development and management experience and will help us to further diversify our real estate portfolio in Japan,” Chow said. “The new venture is positioned to deliver long-term value for the fund’s contributors and beneficiaries.”
Apartment Designs

Mitsubishi Estates is Japan’s fifth-largest player in the multi-family residential market with 335,980 rental homes under management as of 31 December last year, with Japanese apartments having become one of the top targets for real estate fund managers globally.

Gilles Chow of CPPIB

On Wednesday, Allianz Real Estate and CPPIB’s compatriots at Ivanhoe Cambridge announced a $2 billion strategy to invest in Japan’s multi-family sector, with the European insurer having already built a portfolio of 6,000 rental residential units in the country.

In recent months, Prudential affiliate PGIM Real Estate has been buying up new multi-family projects in Tokyo to add to a series of Japan residential acquisitions, with Blackstone also adding to its Tokyo apartment portfolio in recent months with an acquisition in the city’s Toshima-ku.
Beyond Industrial

The partnership with Mitsubishi involves Toronto-based CPPIB branching out from the industrial deals that have characterised the board’s Japan investments to date.

CPPIB has been among the major backers of GLP’s Japan strategies

In October the fund manager disclosed that it had committed JPY 110 billion to Singaporean industrial specialist GLP’s Japan Development Partners IV vehicle, which seeks to build modern warehouses in the country with a focus on the Tokyo and Osaka areas.

With its first closing of JPY 311 billion ($2.72 billion), GLP JDP IV attracted over 24 percent more capital than its predecessor vehicle, which closed on JPY 250 billion in equity in 2018 with CPPIB having provided $700 million of that total.

GLP and CPPIB established the original Japan Development Venture in 2011, with the partners having teamed up for subsequent editions as the series produced 2.7 million square metres (29 million square feet) of space over the past 10 years.

In September of last year, CPPIB confirmed its JPY 25 billion ($235 million) commitment to the $2.6 billion GLP Japan Income Fund, an open-ended core vehicle that GLP and its partners seeded with a portfolio of 11 logistics properties in Greater Tokyo and Osaka.

More recently, CPPIB formed the Japanese Data Centre Development Fund with finance group Mitsui, committing C$400 million ($319 million) in capital to the joint venture. The fund teamed up in a 50:50 joint venture with US-based Fidelity Investments to develop and operate data centres through Fidelity unit Colt, including a 45-megawatt facility east of Osaka that was announced in late August.
Cross-Border Conglomerate

Founded in 1937 as the property wing of one of Japan’s largest conglomerates, Mitsubishi Estate specialises in development, leasing and management of office, retail, logistics, hotel and residential properties. One of Japan’s busiest investors in overseas properties, the division of the Mitsubishi conglomerate has partnered with some of the region’s largest developers and investors, both in its home market and overseas.

In November, the developer announced its entry into a joint venture with Canada’s Oxford Properties and Australian operating partner Investa to develop the 39-storey office building and retail precinct known as Parkline Place in downtown Sydney.

In mid-2021, Mitsubishi Estate set up a joint venture with Australia’s Lendlease to develop Residences Two, a second residential tower at the One Sydney Harbour project, with the Japanese firm acquiring a 25 percent interest in the tower to match its existing 25 percent interest in Residences One.

In July, Mitsubishi Estate was revealed to be taking “a substantial stake” alongside ACR Asset Management in Beijing Diamond Plaza, an R&D building in the Chinese capital’s Zhongguancun area.

Back home, the property giant agreed to buy a section of the British Embassy compound in central Tokyo for an undisclosed amount in a deal announced in October. Mitsubishi Estate is likely to develop the site into high-end condos, Nikkei Asia speculated.

Korea Investment Corp and CPP Investments Dumped GE Stock Before Planned Company Split

Posted on 11/29/2021

According to SWFI open market transaction data, the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP Investments) sold off 85.58% of its position in U.S. industrial giant General Electric Company (GE), or an estimated US$ 761.75 million worth of stock. The Korea Investment Corporation (KIC) sold off 88.46% of its position in General Electric, or an estimated US$ 160.5 million worth of stock. These transactions were recorded from a period date ended September 30, 2021. For KIC and CPP Investments, these investments were major U.S. equity sell-offs than typical rebalancing procedures.

The major public fund seller was APG Asset Management. APG sold off around 88.35% of its position in GE for the period date ended September 30, 2021. The amount is estimated to be worth US$ 1,035,171,690. APG oversees the Stichting Pensioenfonds ABP.

These trades occurred before GE’s announcement to divide the company into three distinct units in November 2021. After a decade of having its stock underperform, GE will be divided into separate units focused on aviation, healthcare, and energy. GE plans to spin off the health-care unit by early 2023 and the energy unit by early 2024. GE stock was dropped from the Dow Jones Industrial Average in 2018.