New York City seeks a 'bloodthirsty' rat czar: Ad for director of rodent mitigation job to fight serious, gnawing problem is ... actually pretty funny

Bethany Biron
Thu, December 1, 2022 

A rat sniffs a box with food in it on the platform at the Herald Square subway station in New York City/Gary Hershorn/Getty Images

New York City is hiring a "director of rodent mitigation" for a salary of between $120,000 and $170,000.

The individual selected for the role will be tasked with "keeping the city's rats in check and on notice."

Rat sightings are up 71% this year from 2020, according to data from the NYC Department of Sanitation.

New York City is looking for a leader to fight one of its biggest and most persistent foes — rats.

In a job listing posted this week, the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Operations announced it is hiring a director of rodent mitigation who will be tasked with "keeping the city's rats in check and on notice." The salary range for the "24/7 job requiring stamina and stagecraft" is listed between $120,000 and $170,000.

The cheeky posting goes on to describe a qualified candidate who has a "virulent vehemence for vermin" with "the drive, determination, and killer instinct needed to fight the real enemy — New York City's relentless rat population."

"The ideal candidate is highly motivated and somewhat bloodthirsty, determined to look at all solutions from various angles, including improving operational efficiency, data collection, technology innovation, trash management, and wholesale slaughter," the listing reads.

At one point the listing even appears to reference to "Ratatouille," the popular Pixar-animated movie about an aspiring rat chef named Remy, who secretly directs Alfredo Linguini from under his hat in a kitchen in France.

"Rodents spread disease, damage homes and wiring, and even attempt to control the movements of kitchen staffers in an effort to take over human jobs," the listing reads.

A rat is seen by a trash bin in New York City on October 19, 2022.Lokman Vural Elibol/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

While New York City has long been synonymous with rats, sightings have skyrocketed. According to data from the New York City Sanitation Department, as of October there were 21,600 sightings and complaints about rats so far in 2022, up 71% from October 2020.

As a result, the city has increased efforts to curb the rodent population, including establishing a new policy that New Yorkers must bring trash bags to the curb no earlier than 8 p.m. or they will face a fine beginning April 2023.

The push even led to the creation of an T-shirt through a collaboration between the Department of Sanitation and streetwear brand Only NY. Sanitation Commissioner Jessica Tisch made an anti-rat statement in November that went viral, and became the subject of countless memes, New York City marathon signs — and now a shirt.

Her infamous comment is emblazoned on the front: "The rats are absolutely going to hate this announcement, but the rats don't run this city. We do."

DON'T BE FOOLED BY THEIR CUTENESS

ILLEGAL ANIMAL TESTING

Elon Musk's brain-chip startup shares video it says shows a monkey telepathically 'typing'

Grace Kay

Thu, December 1, 2022 

A monkey demoing Neuralink's brain chip at the company's show-and-tell event on November 30, 2022.YouTube

• Elon Musk shared a video he said showed a monkey with a brain chip selecting letters with its mind.

• Musk clarified that the monkey was not spelling on its own.

• The demo video was shown at Neuralink's show-and-tell event on Wednesday night.

Elon Musk shared a video of a monkey demonstrating "telepathic typing" during Neuralink's show-and-tell event on Wednesday night.

In the demo video, the monkey appears to type out words on a screen using only his mind, thanks to an implanted brain chip. Musk was quick to explain that the monkey was using his mind to move the computer cursor to a highlighted keys to spell out what the computer program wanted him to write.

"Technically, he can't actually spell so I don't want to over sell this thing." Musk said.

The founder of the startup said the video shows how the Neuralink implant could help people who were quadriplegic use their phone, saying that individuals with the brain chip "would be able to control their phone better than someone who has working hands."

A Neuralink spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment ahead of publication.

Musk cofounded Neuralink in 2016 as a brain-computer interface company. The billionaire has said in the past that Neuralink's chips — which are coin-sized devices designed to be implanted in the brain via a surgical robot — could one day do anything from cure paralysis to give people telepathic powers, referring to the device as "a Fitbit in your skull."

Last year, Neuralink shared a demo video that appeared to show a monkey playing the video game "Pong," using only its mind. The year before, Neuralink shared footage that appeared to be neural readouts from a chip that had been implanted in a pig.

On Wednesday, Musk also used the video to address concerns from an activist group over Neuralink's treatment of its monkey test subjects. Earlier this year, the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine said it had obtained records showing the monkeys experienced "extreme suffering as a result of inadequate animal care and the highly invasive experimental head implants during the experiments." Ahead of the Neuralink event, the animal rights group called on Musk to release details about the experiments on the monkeys.

"It's important to show that Sake [the monkey] actually likes doing the demo and is not like strapped to the chair or anything," Musk said on Wednesday, adding that "the monkeys actually enjoy doing the demos" as they are rewarded with banana smoothies and other fruits.

In the video, Sake gets a handful of grapes and the monkey appears to suck on a metal feeding straw.

The Neuralink founder said that he expects the company will begin human trials in the next six months, pending approval from the US Food and Drug Administration. The billionaire added that he plans to get his own brain implant once the device is available. Musk has repeatedly set and missed his own projections for when Neuralink would begin implanting its devices in human brains since 2019.

How entrepreneurs are turning mining waste into usable metals amid the electrification boom

Gabriel Friedman
Thu, December 1, 2022 

Tailings Pond Breach 20140805

In the middle of the night in August 2014, the Mount Polley Mine Dam in British Columbia failed, spilling an estimated 25 million cubic meters of tailings and wastewater from an open pit copper and gold mine onto the valley below. The damage to the environment and everyone who lived nearby or visited the area was, by some measures, incalculable.

But it wasn’t the first time that a mine’s tailings dam had failed — nor would it be the last. Such disasters highlight a key issue hanging over the mining sector: where to store waste from mines, whether in tailings dams or piles on the ground.

As efforts to limit climate change lead to more and more investment in electrification, which adds exponential new demand for copper, nickel and many other conductive metals, the environmental track record of mining companies is facing heightened scrutiny from investors and the world.

In response, a wave of entrepreneurs — sometimes supported by larger mining companies — are studying waste from old mining operations and discovering that what was waste in years past may not be waste anymore and indeed, may be valuable.

“We are seeing tailings being evaluated more and more for metals extraction,” said Kiril Mugerman, chief executive of Boucherville, Que.-based Geomega Resources Inc., which is focused on recycling. “It’s already crushed and ground up, so it’s easy to work with, and so more and more processes will be evaluated to extract material from mining tailings.”

The company announced earlier this year that mining giant Rio Tinto PLC, the Quebec government and the federal government’s Sustainable Development Technology Canada would invest $4 million in Geomaga’s Innord Inc. subsidiary to refine a metal extraction process from bauxite waste. The rock is the world’s main source of aluminum, but is also often laden with iron ore and other metals. Mostly mined for aluminum alone, any other metals contained in bauxite historically have been treated as waste — called residues or red mud — and set aside, sometimes in piles.

The Rio Tinto PLC logo on a visitor’s helmet at a borates mine in Boron, California.

Mugerman estimates that 150 million tonnes of bauxite residues are produced annually around the world, and that on average, there’s $80 to $120 worth of metal in every tonne.

In the past, Mugerman said research into bauxite waste may have focused on how to grow vegetation in it, or how to store it safely.

“A lot of the money went into how can we make sure it doesn’t look bad, but in terms of actually creating value and giving value to all the metals, there’s very, very little work,” he said. “It’s very, very complex, but we think there’s a solution.”

Mugerman’s move towards recycling was also born out of necessity. Separately from the bauxite residue research, Geomega is building a demonstration plant in Quebec where it hopes to recycle rare earths magnets. It created that project as a means to generate enough revenue to build a rare earths mine one day, which typically involves higher upfront capital costs than a recycling facility.

“We felt like it was an easier way to demonstrate that our technology can be scaled up because in the mining space, you need cash flow,” he said.

Geomega isn’t the only company zeroing in on rare earths recycling. In Kingston Ont., Cyclic Materials Inc. was born when Ahmad Ghahreman, a professor at Queens’ University’s mining department, struck on the recycling idea and took a leave of absence to start the company.

Ghahreman said that though most rare earths magnets end up in landfills, a small percentage are recycled. But he said the process involves burning products to separate out the metals, an inefficient method that can release its own emissions, counteracting any of the hoped-for environmental benefits of recycling.

Toronto's Li-Cycle leapfrogs miners in the green transition by focusing on recycling metals

Canadian battery recycler teams up with global commodity giant in supply deal for crucial EV metals

Ontario to apologize today to miners forced to inhale aluminum powder for years

Trained in hydrometallurgy — and previously employed by Toronto-based mining giant Barrick Gold Corp. — Ghahreman has developed a process that uses a water-based solution to recycle rare earths magnets. He recently completed a bench scale test designed to show his method works and is now raising money to further develop the technology at scale.

“There’s a lot of economic and environmental benefits to recycling,” he said on the Financial Post’s Down to Business podcast.

Rare earths can be mined, Ghahreman said, but in general the deposits tend to be smaller scale, which means they may not provide the returns on capital that attract investors. It’s one of the reasons why rare earths production and processing has largely moved out of North America during the last two decades. He estimated that within that timeframe, 93 per cent of rare earths magnet production moved to China, where iron ore mines produce rare earths as a byproduct, and where the government has invested heavily in technology to refine and produce rare earths magnets.

Finding low-cost sources of rare earths, including from waste piles, is a major driver of growth in the North American supply chain over the past few years. For example, in July 2021, Toronto-based Neo Performance Materials Inc. announced it had struck a deal with Colorado-based Energy Fuels Inc., a uranium mining company, for a new source of rare earths. Under the agreement, Energy Fuels will provide Neo with monazite sands — a byproduct of other mining operations — that contain rare earths elements.

“It was a hugely capital efficient project,” Constantine Karayannopoulos, chief executive of Neo, said.

Researchers are also looking for resourceful ways to source metals in the battery supply chain. In a 2021 report titled “Reducing new mining for EV battery metals for U.S.-based environmental advocacy non-profit Earthworks, researchers at Australia’s Institute for Sustainable Futures at University of Technology Sydney concluded it was technically possible to recover up to 90 per cent of the copper, cobalt, lithium and nickel found in a lithium-ion battery.

Battery material being recycled in a Li-Cycle Holdings Corp. plant.

Although current recovery rates are much lower, the report noted that the energy transition is spurring new investment in recycling.

“As greater priority is given to a circular economy approach, novel reuse strategies are also being developed,” the report said.

Companies in Canada are also working on recycling strategies. Toronto-based Li-Cycle Holdings Corp. has raised hundreds of millions of dollars and opened facilities around the world to collect electronic waste and battery metal scrap, which it then ships to a refinery where lithium, nickel, cobalt and other metals are extracted.

Tim Johnston, Li-Cycle’s co-founder and executive chairman, has estimated that in several decades, recycling could account for 75 to 80 per cent of the material in the electric-vehicle battery supply chain.

“We can produce the materials cheaper than what they can mine them for,” Johnston said. “We can refine them cheaper than they can refine them.”

• Email: gfriedman@postmedia.com | Twitter: GabeFriedz

New York court issues liability ruling against CIBC in Cerberus lawsuit

Fri, December 2, 2022


TORONTO — CIBC says a New York court has issued a liability ruling against the Canadian bank in a lawsuit brought by Cerberus Capital Management LP.

Cerberus filed the lawsuit in November 2015.

The case related to an October 2008 transaction in which CIBC issued a limited recourse note to Cerberus specifying certain payment streams, and a subsequent transaction in 2011 in which CIBC sold a residual interest in the streams to the private equity firm.

Cerberus claimed damages of US$1.067 billion at trial earlier this year.

CIBC says it intends to appeal the liability ruling and will dispute Cerberus's measure of damages at a hearing on Dec. 19.

The bank says it expects to recognize a provision in its first-quarter 2023 results, the estimate of which will be determined by developments during the quarter.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 2, 2022.

Companies in this story: (TSX:CM)

The Canadian Press

Canada's labour market ekes out another jobs gain in November as wages rise

Michelle Zadikian
·Senior Reporter
Fri, December 2, 2022 

Statistics Canada reported the latest jobs report for November on Friday.

 REUTERS/Jesse Winter

Canada’s labour market added 10,000 jobs in November, building slightly on its massive 108,000 gain from the month prior, Statistics Canada reported on Friday.

The unemployment rate ticked lower to 5.1 per cent.

Wage growth, a key measure the Bank of Canada is watching as it tries to avoid a wage-price spiral, remained unchanged at 5.6 per cent. It’s the sixth month in a row that wages have risen by more than five per cent.

The small gain in employment comes as economic growth in the third quarter was stronger than expected.

GDP grew 2.9 per cent on an annualized basis in the three-month period, bolstering some Bay Street economists’ conviction that the central bank will opt for a half-point interest rate hike at its meeting next week.

Michelle Zadikian is a senior reporter at Yahoo Finance Canada. Follow her on Twitter @m_zadikian.

Unemployment rate drops slightly to 5.1% in November: Statistics Canada

Fri, December 2, 2022



OTTAWA — Statistics Canada says employment was little changed in November as the economy added a modest 10,000 jobs.

In its latest labour force survey, the federal agency says Canada’s unemployment rate fell slightly to 5.1 per cent last month.

Employment rose in several industries, including finance, insurance, real estate, rental and leasing, manufacturing and in information, culture and recreation.

It fell in construction as well as wholesale and retail trade.

Wages were up 5.6 per cent compared to a year ago, marking the sixth consecutive month of wage growth above 5 per cent.

The agency says the employment rate among core-aged women hit a record high of 81.6 per cent in November.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 2, 2022.

The Canadian Press

Here's a quick glance at unemployment rates for November, by province


Fri, December 2, 2022

OTTAWA — Canada's national unemployment rate held steady at 5.1 per cent in November. Here are the jobless rates last month by province (numbers from the previous month in brackets):

_ Newfoundland and Labrador 10.7 per cent (10.3)

_ Prince Edward Island 6.8 per cent (5.4)

_ Nova Scotia 6.0 per cent (6.7)

_ New Brunswick 7.3 per cent (6.7)

_ Quebec 3.8 per cent (4.1)

_ Ontario 5.5 per cent (5.9)

_ Manitoba 4.4 per cent (4.6)

_ Saskatchewan 4.2 per cent (4.6)

_ Alberta 5.8 per cent (5.2)

_ British Columbia 4.4 per cent (4.2)

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 2, 2022.

The Canadian Press


Here's a quick glance at unemployment rates for November, by Canadian city

Fri, December 2, 2022

OTTAWA — The national unemployment rate held steady at 5.1 per cent in November. Statistics Canada also released seasonally adjusted, three-month moving average unemployment rates for major cities. It cautions, however, that the figures may fluctuate widely because they are based on small statistical samples. Here are the jobless rates last month by city (numbers from the previous month in brackets):

_ St. John's, N.L. 6.9 per cent (5.9)

_ Halifax 5.2 per cent (5.5)

_ Moncton, N.B. 5.2 per cent (5.6)

_ Saint John, N.B. 6.5 per cent (6.5)

_ Saguenay, Que. 5.4 per cent (4.9)

_ Quebec City 3.0 per cent (2.9)

_ Sherbrooke, Que. 2.7 per cent (2.6)

_ Trois-Rivieres, Que. 4.1 per cent (4.3)

_ Montreal 4.3 per cent (4.7)

_ Gatineau, Que. 4.6 per cent (4.3)

_ Ottawa 4.4 per cent (4.2)

_ Kingston, Ont. 5.7 per cent (5.4)

_ Belleville, Ont. 5.2 per cent (5.9)

_ Peterborough, Ont. 3.1 per cent (4.8)

_ Oshawa, Ont. 5.1 per cent (5.5)

_ Toronto 6.3 per cent (6.2)

_ Hamilton, Ont. 5.0 per cent (4.9)

_ St. Catharines-Niagara, Ont. 5.4 per cent (6.4)

_ Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo, Ont. 6.0 per cent (5.9)

_ Brantford, Ont. 5.2 per cent (4.8)

_ Guelph, Ont. 5.0 per cent (5.0)

_ London, Ont. 5.9 per cent (6.5)

_ Windsor, Ont. 8.6 per cent (8.5)

_ Barrie, Ont. 4.8 per cent (4.9)

_ Greater Sudbury, Ont. 4.6 per cent (4.7)

_ Thunder Bay, Ont. 4.8 per cent (5.2)

_ Winnipeg 4.8 per cent (5.0)

_ Regina 4.5 per cent (5.0)

_ Saskatoon 4.0 per cent (4.1)

_ Lethbridge, Alta. 3.5 per cent (4.1)

_ Calgary 6.0 per cent (5.3)

_ Edmonton 5.5 per cent (5.2)

_ Kelowna, B.C. 4.9 per cent (4.3)

_ Abbotsford-Mission, B.C. 4.6 per cent (5.4)

_ Vancouver 4.4 per cent (4.4)

_ Victoria 3.5 per cent (4.3)

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 2, 2022.

The Canadian Press

Rail strike to be averted: Biden to sign bill

Fri, December 2, 2022 


President Joe Biden is signing a bill Friday to avert a freight rail strike that he said could have plunged the U.S. into recession.

The White House said that Biden would sign a measure passed Thursday by the Senate and Wednesday by the House that binds rail companies and workers to a proposed settlement that was reached between the rail companies and union leaders in September.

Members in four of the 12 unions involved rejected the proposed contract, creating the risk of a strike beginning Dec. 9 that the government has likely staved off with the bill signing. A freight rail strike also would have a big potential impact on passenger rail, with Amtrak and many commuter railroads relying on tracks owned by the freight railroads.

The president has said that a strike would have sunk the U.S. economy, causing roughly 750,000 job losses as the work stoppage ruptured supply chains for basic goods, food and the chemicals needed to ensure clean drinking water.

Rising prices already have many Americans afraid of a coming downturn, but the U.S. job market has been steady. The government reported Friday that employers added 263,000 jobs in November as the unemployment rate held at 3.7%.

Though Biden is a staunch union ally, he said the rail order was necessary to prevent a strike.

The Biden administration helped broker deals between the railroads and union leaders in September, but four of the unions rejected the deals. Eight others approved five-year deals and all 12 are getting back pay for their workers for the 24% raises that are retroactive to 2020.

But the absence of a meaningful increase in paid sick leave and other quality-of-life issues was a key concern for many union members whose votes were required for the settlement. The railroads say the unions have agreed in negotiations over the decades to forgo paid sick time in favor of higher wages and strong short-term disability benefits. Union members say railroads could afford the paid leave given their profit margins.

House Democrats narrowly adopted a measure to add seven days of paid sick leave to the tentative agreement, but that change fell eight votes shy of the 60-vote threshold needed for Senate passage.

Josh Boak, The Associated Press

PERVERSITY OF CAPITALI$M

Stocks fall after gains for worker wages fan inflation fears

Fri, December 2, 2022 


NEW YORK (AP) — Worries about inflation are hitting Wall Street Friday after a report showed wages for U.S. workers are accelerating, which is good news for them but could feed into even higher inflation for the nation.

The S&P 500 was 1% lower in early trading, on track to wipe out most of what had been a healthy week of gains. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 281 points, or 0.8%, at 34,112, as of 9:42 a.m. Eastern time, while the Nasdaq composite was 1.2% lower.

Stocks had been on the upswing for more than a month on hopes that the worst of the nation’s high inflation may have passed already. That fed expectations for the Federal Reserve to ease up on its fusillade of big interest-rate hikes, which are supposed to undercut inflation by slowing the economy and dragging down on prices of stocks and other investments.

But Friday’s jobs report showed that wages for workers rose 5.1% last month from a year earlier. That’s an acceleration from October’s 4.9% gain and easily topped economists’ expectations for a slowdown.

Such jumps in pay are helpful to workers who are struggling to keep up with higher prices for daily necessities. But the Federal Reserve worries too-strong gains could cause inflation to become further entrenched in the economy. That’s because wages make up a big part of costs for companies in services industries, and they could end up raising their own prices further to cover higher wages for their employees.

Across the economy, employers also added 263,000 jobs last month. That was stronger hiring than economists’ forecasts for 200,000, while the unemployment rate held steady at 3.7%.

“The most important number for the Fed is probably the wage number,” said Brian Jacobsen, senior investment strategist at Allspring Global Investments.

Many traders are still betting on the Fed to downshift the size of its rate hikes at its next meeting later this month, to half a percentage point from the three-quarters of a point it had shoved through for four straight meetings.

But Treasury yields still jumped immediately after the jobs report’s release. That indicates strengthened expectations for the Fed to stay resolute in hiking interest rates to get inflation under control.

The yield on the two-year Treasury jumped to 4.34% from 4.24% late Thursday. The 10-year yield, which helps set rates for mortgages and many other loans, rose to 3.56% from 3.51%.

“Another month with a strong jobs report and torrid wage gains is a reality check for where we stand in the inflation fight,” said Mike Loewengart, head of model portfolio construction at Morgan Stanley Global Investment Office.

The strong jobs data follows up on several mixed reports on the economy. The nation's manufacturing activity shrank last month for the first time in 30 months, for example, while the housing industry is struggling under the weight of much higher mortgage rates.

That's largely by design, because the Fed is raising interest rates as a way of slowing the economy just enough to starve inflation in the prices of things that households and businesses need to stay alive. But the rate hikes also risk causing a recession if they go too far. A jobs market that remains much stronger than expected could make an already dicey situation for the Fed even more complicated.

More economists are forecasting the U.S. economy to fall into a recession next year in large part because of higher interest rates.

“While the Fed won't back away from” a hike of just half a percentage point “in December, they still have no clue what they'll do in 2023,” said Allpsring's Jacobsen.

——

AP Business Writers Elaine Kurtenbach and Matt Ott contributed.

Stan Choe, The Associated Press

WAGE THEFT

A lawyer for fired Twitter staff says Elon Musk is trying to 'tap-dance' his way out of paying severance, and threatens a 'fun as hell' arbitration campaign

Pete Syme
Fri, December 2, 2022 

Elon Musk has reduced Twitter's workforce by almost 70%.

Muhammed Selim Korkutata/Getty Images

A lawyer representing laid-off Twitter staff sent a fiery letter to Elon Musk's lawyer, Alex Spiro.

Akiva Cohen claimed his clients weren't receiving the severance package they had been promised.

Cohen tweeted that he hoped Musk would do the right thing, otherwise "it'll be fun as hell."

A lawyer for fired Twitter staff has given Elon Musk a deadline of December 7 to confirm that he will pay them full severance as promised, or face an arbitration campaign to settle the dispute.

Akiva Cohen — a partner at law firm Kamerman, Uncyk, Soniker & Klein — tweeted a copy of his letter which addresses Musk as the "Chief Twit."

He accused the world's richest person of "attempting to tap-dance your way out of Twitter's binding obligations to its employees."

"If you don't unequivocally confirm by Wednesday, December 7 that you intend to provide our clients with the full severance Twitter promised them, we will commence an arbitration campaign on their behalf," Cohen said.

Since Musk took over the company, Twitter's workforce has fallen from 7,500 to 2,300, per Insider's Kali Hays.

That means almost 70% of staff were laid-off, mostly during the first round when Musk halved employee numbers, and his ultimatum to commit to working "extremely hardcore" or be laid-off with three months severance.

The cuts resulted in the closure of Twitter's office responsible for complying with European misinformation laws, and just one employee left on the Asia child safety team.

One executive has also been reinstated after she was dismissed for not responding to the "hardcore" ultimatum.

Musk now stands accused by some former Twitter staff of failing to provide the severance package they were promised, as alleged in a previous lawsuit.

Cohen said that his clients weren't receiving their full benefits, like 401k deductions.

His fiery letter says: "To be clear, Elon, you will lose, and you know it."

He adds that even if Musk did win, it would be "Pyrrhic" because "Twitter will pay far more in attorneys' fees and arbitration costs than it could possibly 'save' in severance due our clients."

In a tweet, Cohen added: "You can only violate people's legal rights and your own word so far before they lawyer up and come after you."

"I really do hope Musk changes his mind and does the right thing — the employees deserve that. But it'll be fun as hell if he doesn't."

The letter was also addressed to Alex Spiro, the acting general counsel at Twitter, who previously defended Musk after he called a British diver "pedo guy."

Cohen told Musk he still had time to avoid a legal case, "or you can double down on breaking your word and screwing over your ex-employees as they head into the holidays."

Spiro and Twitter did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Twitter says it's reinstated an exec who says she was effectively dismissed after she didn't respond to Elon Musk's 'hardcore' ultimatum

Grace Dean
Fri, December 2, 2022

Twitter exec Sinéad McSweeney said she was effectively dismissed for failing to respond to Elon Musk's "hardcore" ultimatum.

The company told an Irish court it has reinstated McSweeney as its global VP for public policy.

McSweeney said she didn't respond to the email due to confusion around her contract, The Irish Times reported.

Twitter says it has reinstated an executive who says she was effectively dismissed for failing to respond to Elon Musk's "hardcore" ultimatum.

The social-media giant told the Irish High Court on Wednesday that it had reinstated Sinéad McSweeney as its global vice president for public policy, a number of Irish publications including The Irish Times reported. She has worked at the company since 2012, according to her LinkedIn.

McSweeney had previously told the court that the company had told her she had submitted a "voluntary resignation" after failing to respond to a company-wide email by new owner Elon Musk, even though she didn't intend to resign.

The email, sent late on November 15, told workers that they would need to be "extremely hardcore" and work "long hours at high intensity" to stay on at the company and asked them to respond to Google form committing to Musk's vision for "Twitter 2.0." If they didn't respond by the end of the business day on November 17, they would be laid off and given three months severance, Twitter said.

McSweeney said she didn't respond because of confusion related to her contract of employment, The Irish Times reported.

The day after the ultimatum's deadline, Twitter emailed McSweeney on her personal account, acknowledging her "voluntary resignation" and saying it accepted her severance package, she said. The company also locked her out of its systems, email, and Dublin office.

After her solicitors sent a letter to the company, Twitter's lawyers acknowledged that she hadn't intended to resign and said the company would restore her access to its systems, but failed to do so, McSweeney had claimed.

A High Court judge granted McSweeney a temporary injunction last Friday to stop Twitter from terminating her contract based on the ultimatum email.

Twitter's lawyers told the court on Wednesday that the company would restore McSweeney's access to its IT systems and Dublin office, per The Irish Times.

Lawyers for both Twitter and McSweeney didn't immediately respond to Insider's request for comment on whether McSweeney had regained access.

Insider previously reported that fewer people committed to Twitter 2.0 than Musk and his team had expected, leading to the company's vice-presidents and Musk himself calling some "critical" workers in a desperate bid to persuade them to stay on. Since taking ownership of Twitter in late October, around three-quarters of the company's workforce has been laid off, fired, or has resigned.

FINED NO MANSLAUGHTER CHARGE
Top exec at pharmacy in deadly meningitis outbreak sentenced

Fri, December 2, 2022 

BOSTON (AP) — A former co-owner of a Massachusetts compounding pharmacy at the center of a nationwide fungal meningitis outbreak that resulted in more than 100 patient deaths has been sentenced to a year in prison for conspiring to defraud the federal government.

Gregory Conigliaro, 57, as the vice president and general manager of the New England Compounding Center, was the company's primary point of contact with federal and state regulators, federal prosecutors said in a statement after sentencing Thursday.

He and other company officials lied to the federal Food and Drug Administration and the Massachusetts Board of Registration in Pharmacy by saying the business was dispensing medications for patient-specific prescriptions.

The truth, according to prosecutors, is that the company was evading regulatory oversight through fraud and misrepresentation from 2002 until 2012, routinely shipping drugs to customers without patient-specific prescriptions and even creating fraudulent prescriptions to fool regulators.

About 800 patients in 20 states were sickened with fungal meningitis or other infections and about 100 died in 2012 after receiving injections of medical steroids manufactured by the now-closed New England Compounding Center in Framingham, Massachusetts, according to federal officials. The drugs were mostly intended to treat back pain.

“Mr. Conigliaro and his co-conspirators repeatedly made the choice to put their greed over patient safety,” U.S. Attorney Rachael Rollins said in a statement. “In turn, nearly 800 patients suffered terribly and over 100 died. Today’s sentence sends a clear message to health care executives — if you lie to regulators, the outcomes can be deadly and we will hold you accountable.”

Conigliaro was among 14 company officials indicted in the case. The indictment did not charge Conigliaro with having any role in the manufacturing process. He was convicted by a jury in U.S. District Court in Boston in December 2018 of conspiracy to defraud the United States.

Barry Cadden, another co-owner who was also the head pharmacist, was sentenced in July 2021 to 14 1/2 years in prison, ordered to forfeit $1.4 million and pay restitution of $82 million. Former supervisory pharmacist Glenn Chin was sentenced in July 2021 to 10 1/2 years in prison and ordered to pay $82 million in restitution.

Both were convicted of fraud, racketeering and other crimes but acquitted of second-degree murder under under the federal racketeering law.

The Associated Press

DECRIMINALIZE DRUGS

Rhode Island latest state to allow recreational pot sales


Thu, December 1, 2022 


PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — Customers started lining up to buy recreational marijuana in Rhode Island on Thursday, a little more than six months after Gov. Dan McKee signed legislation permitting such sales to people 21 and older.

Five stores are currently allowed to sell recreational cannabis products, but the state could eventually have as many as 33 stores, according to the law. The stores authorized to open by the state Office of Cannabis Regulation so far are in Central Falls, Providence, Pawtucket, Portsmouth and Warwick. All five had already been selling medical marijuana.

“This milestone is the result of a carefully executed process to ensure that our state’s entry into this emerging market was done in a safe, controlled and equitable manner,” the Democratic governor said in a statement last week.

Mother Earth Wellness in Pawtucket normally opens at 8 a.m. but people were already waiting outside when it opened at 5 a.m. on Thursday, co-owner Joe Pakuris said. The store made its first recreational sale at 5:18 a.m.

The store had welcomed about 300 customers by mid-morning, about 80% of whom were recreational buyers, he said.

“We've had a very successful day," he said. “I think it has been a smooth transition and the state has done an excellent job of rolling out this program. Everything's great."

The law imposes a 10% state cannabis excise tax in addition to the 7% state sales tax and 3% local tax for the city or town in which the sale takes place. It's expected to generate about $15 million in tax revenues in the first full fiscal year of sales.

The law prohibits smoking or vaping cannabis products in any public place where smoking or vaping of tobacco products is prohibited, and anywhere where there is potential harm to children. People are also not allowed to operate a vehicle while under the influence of cannabis.

The legislation also provides for the expungement of any prior conviction for possession of cannabis that will be decriminalized.

About 20 states nationwide had approved recreational marijuana sales, including neighboring Massachusetts where it's been legal for about four years. In Connecticut, recreational pot has been legalized but sales are not expected to start until next year.

Not everyone is happy. State law enforcement agencies have expressed concern about the potential for more impaired motorists on the roads.

The Associated Press