Warren Buffett's PacifiCorp utility reaches $178 million wildfire settlement

Story by Jonathan Stempel • 

 A ponderosa pine tree is cut down after having burnt in the Brattain Fire, at Fremont National Forest, near Paisley, Oregon, U.S., September 19, 2020.

 REUTERS/Adrees Latif/File photo© Thomson Reuters

By Jonathan Stempel

(Reuters) - PacifiCorp, a utility owned by billionaire Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway, said on Monday it agreed to pay $178 million to resolve claims by 403 plaintiffs arising from two Oregon wildfires in 2020.

PacifiCorp now settled nearly 1,500 claims arising from the Labor Day weekend fires with individuals and businesses in Oregon and northern California.

The latest settlements cover victims of the Beachie Creek and Echo Mountain Complex fires in northwestern Oregon.

PacifiCorp said the "vast majority" of plaintiffs opted out of class-action litigation where other plaintiffs are seeking at least $30 billion.

The Portland, Oregon utility views that amount as excessive, but plans to continue settling "all reasonable claims."

It has agreed to pay more than $900 million to wildfire victims, and through March 31 had $2.4 billion of projected losses. Victims blame PacifiCorp for failing to shut down power lines during a windstorm.

Ryan Flynn, president of PacifiCorp's Pacific Power unit, said he hoped the latest settlements will provide "some closure" to plaintiffs.

George McCoy, a lawyer at Warren Allen representing the settling plaintiffs, said the accord provides "meaningful compensation" and lets victims "rebuild and recover from these traumatic events."

Related video: PacifiCorp will pay $178M to Oregon 2020 wildfire victims (KOIN Portland)   View on Watch

PacifiCorp is a unit of Berkshire Hathaway Energy, which is 92% owned by Berkshire Hathaway, the Omaha, Nebraska-based conglomerate run by Buffett since 1965.

Buffett said in his annual letter to Berkshire shareholders on Feb. 24 that he "made a costly mistake" in not anticipating the financial risks from wildfires.

Greg Abel, Buffett's expected successor as chief executive, said at Berkshire's annual meeting on May 4 that PacifiCorp will continue challenging "unfounded" wildfire litigation, and that legislative and regulatory reform to help utilities was needed.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by David Gregorio)

U$A

Zero-down mortgages are back sparking fears of being the new subprime loans which caused the 2008 market crash

Story by Mike Bedigan •  THE INDEPENDENT UK

A new “zero-down” mortgage program has sparked concern of fueling another housing bubble given its similarities to the disastrous subprime loans that contributed to the 2008 housing market crash.

The programs, announced two weeks ago and offered by United Wholesale Mortgage, allow qualified borrowers to receive up to $15,000 in down payment assistance.

The interest-free loan program does not require monthly payments and aims to “help more borrowers become homeowners without an upfront down payment,” the company said.

However, experts have warned that the programs – which, according to company, have already proved incredibly popular – could backfire on homeowners should the US housing market begin to cool, and prices begin to drop.

To qualify for the loans, borrowers must be at or below 80 percent of the Area Median Income for the property they are buying, or one borrower must be a first-time homebuyer.

The assistance loan, given as a second lien, offers flexibility in repayment and must be paid in full by the end of the loan term or when the first lien loan is paid off - for many homeowners, that would be at the end of 30 years of paying their mortgage.

“UWM’s 0% Down Purchase program is going to change the game this purchase season,” UWM chief executive Mat Ishbia said.

“No other wholesale lender in the country is offering this, meaning independent mortgage brokers now have a significant advantage with consumers and real estate agents. Thousands of borrowers are sitting on the sidelines because they don’t have a downpayment – this program removes that barrier.”

However, one of the risks of prospective homeowners paying no down payment, is that they will begin with no home equity – i.e the current market value of a home, minus any liens such as a mortgage.

Should house prices begin to drop, borrowers could find themselves owing more than the home is worth on repayments. This could lead to a failure to comply with the mortgage terms, known as being in “default.”

Further problems could arise if the homeowner needs to sell the property quickly, but are unable to repay the second mortgage.

Patricia McCoy, a professor at Boston College Law School and former mortgage regulator, told CNN that scenario is “exactly what happened” during the subprime crisis, when millions of homeowners were unable to make payments and went into default.

The housing bubble that popped around 2006 was fueled in part by a boom on the amount of subprime mortgages, and adjustable rate mortgages being offered.

A subprime mortgage is generally a loan that is meant to be offered to prospective borrowers with impaired credit records. The higher interest rate is intended to compensate the lender for accepting the greater risk in lending to such borrowers.



A new “zero-down” mortgage purchase program has sparked concern within the industry, due to similarities with the disastrous subprime loans that contributed to the 2008 housing market crash (AP)© Provided by The Independent

Jonathan Adams, an assistant professor at Saint Joseph’s University teaching real estate finance, said the zero-down loan program has “all the features that made subprime bad,” noting that those who qualified for the program are likely to suffer when home prices are falling.

“One of the lessons of the subprime crisis was that you are not doing any favors to borrowers by making it too easy to borrow,” Adams told CNN.

The company rejected the concerns over potential fallout from its programs, saying that borrowers must still go through strict underwriting guidelines.

“People who make these claims are uneducated about the current state of the industry,” Alex Elezaj, the company’s chief strategy officer, told CNN. “In today’s environment, UWM is responsible for underwriting the loan, which gives us confidence that these are high quality loans.

“This is a huge positive. It’s helping consumers and is a great win across the board.

“Think about all the people who are renting and would love to buy a house, but they face this roadblock of coming up with $10,000 or $15,000 for a down payment. This eliminates that.”

Twister spotted in central Alberta

Environment and Climate Change Canada is investigating reports that a tornado touched down near Edberg, Alta. A tornado watch was in effect for much of east-central Alberta Monday afternoon, before the advisory was lifted just after 7 p.m. 

Myanmar junta arrests dozens in bid to stabilise currency

Story by Reuters • 

 Stacks of Myanmar kyat are seen on the counter before a client collects them, at a bank in Yangon, Myanmar 

(Reuters) - Myanmar's junta is cracking down on gold and foreign exchange traders and agents selling foreign real estate, with 35 arrests announced in the last two days as part of efforts to stabilise its rapidly depreciating currency.

State media said these include five people charged with illegally selling condominium units in Thailand and 14 people arrested for allegedly destabilising the foreign currency exchange rate.

The kyat currency hit a record low last week, plummeting to around 4,500 per dollar on the black market, according to five foreign exchange traders.

Black market rates for the kyat have for years been significantly higher than the reference rate of Myanmar's central bank, currently set at 2,100 kyat per dollar.

"The government is working towards the stability of the country and the rule of law," the Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper said on Tuesday, carrying photographs of over a dozen suspects.

"Security organisations have taken action against business people engaged in speculation to hinder the country's economic development," it said.

Another 21 people have been arrested for allegedly destabilising gold prices, the newspaper reported on Monday.

The impoverished Southeast Asian country of about 55 million people has been in political and economic turmoil since a 2021 coup when the military ousted an elected civilian government after a decade of tentative democracy and economic reform.


Related video: Myanmar armed conflict: Peoples Defence Forces fight for Myawaddy town (Al Jazeera)   Duration 6:51   View on Watch


Myanmar's economy, already fragile after decades of military rule and the pandemic, has wilted since the coup, with foreign investment drying up, exacerbated by western sanctions.

Poverty rates have almost doubled from 24.8 percent in 2017 to 49.7 percent in 2023, according to the United Nations Development Programme.

The shadow National Unity Government (NUG), comprising former lawmakers and other junta opponents, said the military government has printed large volumes of currency since taking power and ramped up military spending, exacerbating the country's economic problems.

A junta spokesman did not respond to a call from Reuters seeking comment.

"We understand that they are continuing to print kyat," NUG finance minister Tin Tun Naing said at an online press conference on Monday.

(Reporting by Reuters Staff, Editing by Devjyot Ghoshal, Martin Petty)

INDIA

Election Results: In Uttar Pradesh, BJP Stares at Stunning Losses in 2024 Trends

LOK SABHA MEANS PARLIMENT

Story by News Desk •

In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the BJP had won 62 of the 80 seats in Uttar Pradesh. 

(PTI)© Copyright (C) new18.com. All Rights Reserved.

As counting progresses for Lok Sabha election results 2024, the BJP appears to be suffering surprising reverses in some Hindi heartland states, most crucially in Uttar Pradesh, which has been key to its electoral dominance nationally since 2014.

In the politically crucial state of Uttar Pradesh, which sends 80 MPs to the 543-member Lok Sabha, the BJP is locked in a neck-and-neck fight with Akhilesh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party, which is part of the opposition INDIA bloc.

At 12 noon, the Samajwadi Party was leading in 36 seats, the BJP on 33, the Congress on seven, and the RLD on two. The SP and Congress are partners in the INDIA bloc, while the BJP and Jayant Chaudhry’s RLD struck an alliance before the polls.

The picture is in stark contrast to the Lok Sabha election results in 2014 and 2019 that played the most decisive role in bringing Narendra Modi to the Centre.
2019 and 2014 GENERAL ELECTIONS

In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the BJP had won 62 of the 80 seats in the state, while the BSP stood second at 10 seats. The Samajwadi Party managed a single-digit tally of five seats, while the Congress stood at a dismal one seat. Back then, the SP had allied with Mayawati’s BSP.

The BJP ceded some ground in the 2019 general election, when the opposition parties scraped their combined tally to 16. Even with the conventional anti-incumbency apprehensions at work, the saffron party had laid its claim on the state winning 62 seats, bolstered further by two more won by its ally Apna Dal (Sonelal).

In 2019, the maximum seats — 23 — for the BJP came from the state’s western part, where the SP-BSP alliance could manage to win only four seats each.

The BSP won Saharanpur, Bijnor, Amroha and Nagina (SC seat) in the western UP, while the Samajwadi Party emerged victorious in Sambhal, Moradabad, Mainpuri (first held by Mulayam Singh Yadav then by Dimple Yadav in a bypoll) and Rampur that year.

The central region of the state has prominent parliamentary constituencies of Amethi and Rae Bareli — both long considered bastions of the Congress.

In 2019, former Congress president Sonia Gandhi retained her Rae Bareli seat, while her son Rahul Gandhi lost the long held Amethi constituency to Union minister Smriti Irani.

The Bundelkhand region was swept in 2019 by the BJP, which won all four Lok Sabha seats of Jhansi, Banda, Hamirpur, and Jalaun-SC.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, then-allies Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Samajwadi Party (SP) and Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) achieved success in the Muslim-dominated region of western Uttar Pradesh. However, the political equations have completely changed this time

In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP and allies won 73 out of 80 Lok Sabha seats in the state.

2024 STORY SO FAR

The Samajwadi Party-Bahujan Samaj Party alliance in 2019 had offered some resistance to the BJP on a handful of seats in the western and eastern parts of UP, but failed to make a big impact.

With BSP supremo Mayawati deciding to duke it out alone this time, it was up to the SP and Congress to stop the marauding juggernaut of the NDA, which had RLD on its side this time, as well as a number of caste-based regional parties in the Poorvanchal region.

In 2024, the BJP, besides its existing allies Apna Dal (Sonelal) and NISHAD Party, fought the polls along with new partners of the NDA — Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) and Om Prakash Rajbhar-led Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party.

It appears that the election marked a return to regular politics, where voters were more concerned about bread and butter issues, especially in the Hindi heartland states where the opposition INDIA alliance managed to rally supporters around the issues of unemployment and price rise.

On its own, the Bharatiya Janata Party appeared to be falling below the majority mark with leads in 236 seats despite significant gains in Odisha, Telangana and Kerala, giving some solace to the party after the unexpected losses in the Hindi belt.

Its rival INDIA bloc, forged together by their common dislike for the BJP and its ideology, was leading in about 230 seats. In the last elections, the BJP had 303 seats on its own, while NDA had over 350.

The Congress party was leading in 99 seats as against 52 it had won in 2019. However, the bigger surprise was the performance of its ally Samajwadi Party, which was leading in 34 seats in Uttar Pradesh. In the last elections it had won only five seats.

The alliance of SP and Congress turned the tables on the BJP in its strongest bastion by ensuring a consolidation of anti-BJP votes, limiting the party to leads in only 35 seats as against 62 it had won last time. Together, the SP-Congress alliance was ahead in 42 seats.

Rahul Gandhi was leading from Rae Bareli with 1.24 lakh votes, while Union minister Smriti Irani of the BJP was trailing in Amethi by about 32,000 votes.

Modi was leading by over 60,000 votes in Varanasi. SP leader Akhilesh Yadav was leading by 52,000 votes in Kannauj.

Catch live updates of the 2024 Lok Sabha election results here. Follow real-time updates from key states such as Maharashtra,Karnataka,Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and New Delhi. Catch the latest Lok Sabha and Assembly election news from Odisha and Andhra Pradesh.

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M
Elon Musk accused of selling $7.5 billion of Tesla stock before releasing disappointing sales data that plunged the share price to two-year low


Fortune· Beata Zawrzel—NurPhoto/Getty Images
Christiaan Hetzner
Mon, Jun 3, 2024, 8:15 AM MDT3 min read

Elon Musk faces allegations that he illegally sold $7.5 billion worth of equity in Tesla in the fourth quarter of 2022, knowing that the business would disappoint after promising investors an "epic end of year."

In a lawsuit filed with a Delaware court late last week, shareholder Michael Perry accused both the CEO of deliberately unloading nearly 45 million shares in advance of poor vehicle sales data to prevent an estimated 55% hit in value, and almost the entire board of collectively violating their responsibility of directors toward shareholders.

“By disposing of $7,530,113,926 worth of Tesla stock in November and December 2022 while he was in possession of adverse, material non-public information, E. Musk exploited his position at Tesla, and he breached his fiduciary duties to Tesla,” the lawsuit claims, adding other directors were both “knowing and culpable” as well.

Unlike previous stock sales by Tesla insiders, however, these were not the result of a Rule 10b5-1 trading plan, which removes discretion over timing from an insider and hands them to a third-party broker.

Tesla shares slumped to a two-year low on Jan. 3, 2023, following the release of the car sales data.

He is asking for Musk’s illegal gains—which the plaintiff estimates at $3 billion—to be returned to the company via disgorgement, and is seeking damages from all eight directors at the time for their “reckless disregard.”

The insider trading claims are Musk's latest legal headache following the January ruling that voided his 2018 shareholder vote for a record compensation deal. Tesla is re-running the vote at the June 13 annual meeting.
'Ruthless measurers' at Tesla knew Q4 would disappoint

Core to Perry’s argument is establishing motive through the assertions that Musk knew, first, that he still needed to liquidate stock at as high a price as possible to cover a loan for purchasing Twitter; and second, that fourth-quarter sales trended well behind his bullish October 2022 expectations (Fortune even predicted as much at the time).

Just days after boasting about “excellent demand for Q4,” he slashed prices in China—the first of many cuts yet to come.

Musk may have been aware of softening sales because of what his former powertrain head Drew Baglino described last March as a corporate culture composed of “ruthless measurers,” all harnessing up-to-the-minute data to boost sales and optimize every aspect of Tesla’s business.

“I’m not sure there’s any company on Earth that has better real-time data than Tesla,” Musk said during the Q1 investor call last year. “Our finger on the pulse is real-time and does not have latency.”

Musk went so far as to say he personally examines the results of each price change to ensure production can continuously balance demand, rising when Tesla has too many orders and falling when it has too few.

“We see what happens immediately, and adjust course. We’re thinking about it literally every day,” he continued. “Seven days a week I look at that email and so does the rest of the team.”

Using his logic, the CEO would have known that Q4 would not meet market expectations and sold his shares anyway.

Perry’s lawsuit argued that it was reasonable to infer he did so to avoid losing money, having promised nothing short of an “epic end of year” only weeks earlier.

“Musk sold this stock before the non-public information in his possession could be publicly disclosed and affect the company’s stock price,” the suit claims.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

Exclusive-Tesla director Gebbia says he discussed selling house to Musk


Tesla CEO and Twitter owner Elon Musk attends the VivaTech conference in Paris·

Reuters

Mon, Jun 3, 2024,
By Rachael Levy

(Reuters) - Joe Gebbia, the Tesla director who exited a board committee that made key decisions about the car maker's future, told Reuters that CEO Elon Musk had discussed purchasing a house from his start-up and that he was concerned their friendship could be seized on to attack the committee's independence.

Gebbia, whose start-up Samara makes tiny prefabricated houses, was one of two directors that Tesla's eight-member board deemed independent enough to serve on a "special committee" that deliberated on the company reincorporating from Delaware to Texas.

The board formed the special committee after Musk called in January for Tesla to move its corporate domicile out of Delaware, where a court shot down his $56 billion pay package.

The special committee was initially comprised of Gebbia, an Airbnb co-founder, and Kathleen Wilson-Thompson, a former Walgreens Boots Alliance human resources chief, according to a regulatory filing.

Gebbia stepped down from the committee in March after its mandate was expanded from deciding on the redomestication to also considering what to do about Musk's pay package, the filing states. His exit left behind a special committee of one, an unusual corporate governance setup that has been criticized by some of Tesla's shareholders.

Gebbia left the special committee "out of an abundance of caution", citing his personal relationship with Musk and a "potential business transaction" involving Samara that was "currently on hold", according to the filing.

Gebbia told Reuters that the transaction the filing was referring to was about Musk potentially buying a house made by Samara.

"I did not want Elon's status as a potential customer of Samara to be used against the committee, so I disclosed that I had put that potential business transaction on hold," Gebbia said in a statement.

The special committee's lawyers at Sidley Austin concluded that Gebbia's ties to Musk did not constitute a conflict of interest that jeopardized Gebbia's independence, according to the regulatory filing. Gebbia, however, chose to step down from the special committee regardless.

"I believed I was and am independent, but decided to step down because I did not want my relationship with Elon to be used to unfairly attack the committee," Gebbia said in a statement to Reuters.

Tesla chair Robyn Denholm said in her own statement to Reuters that the board followed Delaware law in setting up the special committee, and that it was committed to strong corporate governance. "Whether and where to reincorporate was clearly a board decision, not a CEO decision," Denholm said.

Musk and Wilson-Thompson could not be reached for comment.

The previously unreported details on the circumstances of Gebbia's exit from the special committee shed new light on Tesla's efforts to counter criticism that many of its directors are beholden to Musk.

Convincing investors that its board can deliberate without influence from its larger-than-life CEO will be key to Tesla securing shareholder approval for its move from Delaware to Texas and for reinstating Musk's pay package in a vote at the company's annual meeting on June 13.

Proxy solicitor Glass Lewis and a group that represents the interest of workers invested in union pension funds last month questioned the special committee's findings and called on other Tesla shareholders to reject both moves. Institutional Shareholder Services, another proxy adviser, also recommended against reinstating Musk's pay package, but sided in favor of the move from Delaware to Texas.

"Several legal experts expect Texas to prove more forgiving to directors and executives when it comes to reviewing corporate acts such as the approval of pay packages," Glass Lewis wrote in its recommendation. Tesla's special committee, on the other hand, found that the litigation rights of investors are "substantially equivalent" in Texas and Delaware.

Wilson-Thompson, who also sits on the boards of drug wholesaler McKesson and footwear maker Wolverine Worldwide, made decisions for Tesla's special committee in consultation with several advisers she tapped, the regulatory filing shows.

Special committees are deliberative bodies responsible for deciding some of a company's thorniest issues independent of management or controlling shareholders. Having a special committee of one director is rare and could make the company more vulnerable to legal challenges, four corporate governance experts said in interviews.

"Tesla has employed something akin to corporate governance-lite... a board substantially comprised of the CEO's friends and family," said Adam Epstein, whose firm Third Creek Advisors advises company boards.

DELAWARE RULING

The Delaware judge who in January ruled that Tesla's $56 billion payout to Musk should be rescinded, because it was unfair to shareholders, questioned in her ruling the independence of the board that approved it.

"At least as to this transaction, Musk controlled Tesla," the judge, Kathaleen McCormick, wrote in her ruling, referring to the board's decision to grant Musk's pay package. The package was worth as much as $56 billion, but is now valued at about $43 billion based on Tesla's current stock price.

Since the approval of Musk's payout in 2018, five directors have remained on Tesla's board: venture capitalist Ira Ehrenpreis, former Twenty-First Century Fox Chief Executive James Murdoch, Denholm, Musk, and his brother Kimbal.

McCormick criticized Ehrenpreis, Murdoch and Denholm as beholden to Musk, and said she expected Musk's brother to be loyal to him. In its regulatory filings, Tesla has stated that JB Straubel, a Musk protégé and former Tesla chief technology officer who has since joined the board, owns a company that provides scrap materials to Tesla.

That left only two out of eight directors – Gebbia and Wilson-Thompson – as independent enough to serve on the special committee, well below corporate America's average of 85% of directors in a board deemed independent of the chief executive, according to corporate consulting firm Spencer Stuart.

PRECEDENT

Delaware courts have found that one-member special committees are permissible, if the director can be shown to be independent.

In November 2023, for example, a Delaware judge upheld drug distributor AmerisourceBergen's decision to form a one-member special committee to decide on litigation facing the company, ruling that the director involved was independent. In April, in a case involving online dating company Match Group, Delaware's Supreme Court ruled that every member of a special committee should be independent, showing that having more than one independent director does not shield the committee from legal challenges.

The corporate governance experts Reuters interviewed, however, said that staffing special committees with one director was a risky choice, because courts in Delaware have ruled that the sole member has to be above reproach "like Caesar's wife".

"The court is likely to be particularly suspicious of whether the single director was truly independent and acted with care and might allow, for example, more discovery into that issue if there is a suggestion of lack of independence," said Ann Lipton, a corporate law professor at Tulane University.

(Reporting by Rachael Levy in Washington, D.C.; Editing by Greg Roumeliotis and Diane Craft)

Trump Denies Ever Saying 

‘Lock Her Up.’ 

He Did… Several Times

Peter Wade

ROLLING STONE

Sun, June 2, 2024 

In an interview on Fox & Friends, filmed 48 hours after he was convicted on 34 counts of falsifying business records, Donald Trump attempted to re-write history. Now that he is facing legal consequences for paying hush money to adult film actress Stormy Daniels, the former president is denying he ever said, “Lock her up,” about Hillary Clinton, his 2016 opponent.

“You famously said regarding Hillary Clinton, ‘Lock her up.’ You declined to do that as president,” said Fox host Will Cain, implying that the president has control over who is prosecuted.

“I beat her,” Trump replied. “It’s easier when you win. They always said, ‘Lock her up.’ And I could have done it, but I felt it would have been a terrible thing. And then this happened to me, so I may feel differently about it. I can’t tell you, I’m not sure I can answer the question,” Trump hemmed and hawed.

He continued, “Hillary Clinton — I didn’t say, ‘Lock her up,’ but the people would all say, ‘Lock her up, lock her up.’ OK. Then we won, and I said pretty openly, I’d say, ‘Alright, come on, just relax. Let’s go. We gotta make our country great.'”

That is, of course, a lie. Trump not only beamed and nodded from the podium as his rally crowds chanted, “Lock her up,” he also said it himself, multiple times. He said it on Oct. 14, 2016, at a rally in Greensboro, N.C. As the crowd chanted the line, Trump said, “For what she’s done, they should lock her up.”

In fact, he said it numerous times on the 2016 campaign trail, and he carried the line forward during his presidency. He even said it of Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in October 2020. When the crowd chanted, “Lock her up!” about Whitmer, Trump responded with, “Lock them all up.” And that same month, he told a crowd of the Bidens, “You should lock them up. Lock up the Bidens, lock up Hillary.”

When a crowd chanted, “Lock her up!” about Dr. Christine Blasey-Ford, the professor who accused Supreme Court Justice Bret Kavanaugh of assaulting her when both were teens, Trump gave the crowd enthusiastic nods and a thumbs-up.

As recently as last August, Trump hinted he might attempt to lock up his opponents. In an interview with Glenn Beck, the host asked, “Do you regret not ‘locking her up.’ And if you’re president again, will you lock people up?”

“The answer is you have no choice, because they’re doing it to us,” Trump responded.

Even with his conviction, it is unlikely that Trump himself will be “locked up” for any period of time. He will almost certainly appeal, and a prison sentence is unlikely for someone convicted of falsifying business records. But even though he faces a vanishingly small chance of time behind bars, Trump is all of a sudden painting himself as soft on crime.

Washington Post Staffers Push Back on Sally Buzbee’s Sudden Exit as Executive Editor

Natalie Korach
Mon, June 3, 2024 

Washington Post staffers are concerned about the abrupt departure of their executive editor Sally Buzbee, after her resignation and newsroom restructuring were announced on Sunday.

Buzbee stepped down Sunday after three years leading the outlet, with Matt Murray taking the helm until the 2024 presidential election and Robert Winnett announced as his successor.

An all-hands meeting held by Washington Post CEO Will Lewis and Murray on Monday turned tense as staffers expressed concern about the sudden changes to the outlet, according to Vanity Fair special correspondent Brian Stelter. He wrote on social media that “Lewis bluntly told them to get with the program, so to speak.”

According to Semafor’s Max Tani, staffers questioned Lewis on the new leadership’s lack of diversity, citing Buzbee’s departure as the paper’s first female top editor.

In response to the departure and changes, The Washington Post Guild wrote in a new statement, “We’re troubled by the sudden departure of our executive editor Sally Buzbee and the suggestion from our Publisher & CEO Will Lewis that the financial issues plaguing our company span from the work of us as journalists instead of mismanagement from our leadership.”

“We are also concerned about the lack of diversity at the top levels of the organization,” they noted, citing leadership’s goal to reach new audiences while maintaining quality coverage.

According to the New York Times, Buzbee’s resignation was a result of Lewis’ restructuring of the Post. His choice to split the newsroom into three smaller departments “didn’t work for her.”

“I would have preferred to stay to help us get through this period, but it just got to the point where it wasn’t possible,” Buzbee said during an editorial call, according to the Times.

The restructuring comes just over a week after the paper announced it lost $77 million in the past year and planned to expand the use of artificial intelligence throughout its newsroom. The Post’s traffic has also been cut in half since its 2020 high, as news publishers across the industry continue to struggle with reader retention.

During Monday’s staff meeting, Lewis said it would be “nuts” to continue to operate on the business practices that contributed to the losses, according to NPR’s David Folkenflik.

“We are going to turn this thing around, but let’s not sugarcoat it: it needs turning around,” he said. “We are losing large amounts of money. Your audience is halved. People are not reading your stuff. I can’t sugarcoat it anymore.”

The post Washington Post Staffers Push Back on Sally Buzbee’s Sudden Exit as Executive Editor appeared first on TheWrap.

RIGHT WING WHITE BOY

Black scholars criticize white writer's 'dehumanizing' use of blackface to write book on U.S. race relations

CBC
Sun, June 2, 2024 

Canadian writer Sam Forster is facing heavy criticism for wearing blackface to write his book Seven Shoulders, which documents his experiences hitchhiking in various cities in the U.S. (Sam Forster/Instagram - image credit)


A Canadian journalist is defending his decision to travel the U.S. in blackface and write a book about racism, after facing a storm of criticism online.

"Last summer, I disguised myself as a Black man and traveled throughout the United States to document how racism persists in American society," Sam Forster, who is white, posted Tuesday on X, formerly Twitter. "Writing Seven Shoulders was one of the hardest things I've ever done as a journalist."

The reaction was swift and brutal, with X users expressing anger, amusement and confusion, and telling Forster he should have simply spoken to Black people to understand their experiences.

"It's hard to simultaneously draw the ire of black people, white people, conservatives, AND liberals… But I think you've just done it," rapper and podcaster Zuby replied on X.

Several Black scholars who study race relations and write about the Black experience told CBC News that Forster's use of blackface is dehumanizing and troublesome, regardless of the context. Forster himself defended the book and the methods he used to write it in an interview with CBC News.

'Why do we need a white person to do that?'

George Dei, director of the Centre for Integrated Anti-Racism Studies and a social justice professor at the University of Toronto, told CBC that Seven Shoulders feeds into questions around who has the authority to speak about the Black experience.

"There are Black scholars who write on these issues, and they have said all that needs to be said. So why do we need a white person to do that?" he said.

"We also need to question why we live in a society where people have to pretend who they are not in order to understand something."


Professor George Dei works at the University of Toronto's Faculty of Social Justice Education.

George Dei is the director of the Centre for Integrated Anti-Racism Studies and a social justice professor at the University of Toronto. (Gary Beechey)

Forster grew up in Edmonton and attended both the University of Alberta and the University of Toronto. He now lives in Montreal, and has written for various publications including The National Post.

He describes the self-published book as an homage to John Howard Griffin's 1961 book Black Like Me, and others who did "journalistic blackface" in the 1940s and 50s.

In Black Like Me, Griffin recounts the six weeks he spent travelling through the southern U.S. after darkening his skin to better understand what life was like for Black Americans under segregation.

John Howard Griffin was an American author who wrote about race and racial equality. In his 1961 book Black Like Me, he documented his experiences travelling in the southern U.S. after having darkened his skin to gain an understanding of what life was like for Black Americans during segregation.

In Seven Shoulders, Forster writes that his book offers a unique perspective on race in the modern era, because "for a short window, I became Black. I experienced the world as a Black man."

He goes on to write, "Nobody has an experiential barometer with respect to race, for that matter … nobody except for me," concluding, "My barometer is better than anyone else's."

Speaking with CBC News in a phone interview Thursday, Forster said he understands there's a distinction between a project like his and living one's entire life as a Black person — but he stands by his statement in the book summary on Amazon, where he calls Seven Shoulders "the most important book on American race relations that has ever been written."

"If I thought this would be the second best book, I wouldn't put it out," he said.

The book includes transcripts from two interviews with unnamed Black politicians — Forster says he didn't want to stigmatize them by attaching their names to the book — and says they were not aware of his blackface project.

Author wore contacts, makeup, afro wig

In the book, he describes his disguise as consisting of coloured contact lenses, makeup and an afro wig. He said no one recognized his disguise during his reporting.

Forster would not send a photo of himself in blackface, saying he wants the book to be taken seriously and not become a "minstrel show," in reference to the historical use of blackface by white comedic performers to disparage Black people.

"I went about it in a way that was thoughtful and creative, and I think the insights that can be gleaned from the book are tremendously valuable," he told CBC News.

Paul Lawrie, an associate professor at York University and Afro-America historian, says his initial reaction to Forster's announcement that he'd written a book about travelling in blackface was not one of outrage, but "bafflement."

Paul Lawrie, associate professor of History at the University of Winnipeg explained the historical differences between blackface and brownface. Paul Lawrie is an associate professor at York University and an Afro-America historian. (Lyzaville Sale/CBC)

He says the use of blackface is still troublesome, regardless of context.

"I think at the heart of it is the dehumanization of Black folks, because it's being able to say, 'We can inhabit your body, at will, to whatever effect we wish,' " he said. "And just because it's not a comic effect doesn't mean it's any less dehumanizing."

In the book, Forster poses as a hitchhiker in various U.S. cities, first as a white man and then later in blackface, which he says he wore for about three weeks last September. He writes that he is ultimately offered seven rides as a white man, and only one while in blackface.

He concludes that this is an example of subtle discriminatory behaviour, or what he calls "shoulder racism," named for the shoulders of the highways where he thumbed rides, but he dismisses broader notions of systemic racism.

Institutional racism (the anti-Black variety) is effectively dead," Forster concludes in the book. "Most of what's left of racism in this country are the few, socially narrow opportunities for soft interpersonal racism: shoulder racism."

A 'comically ahistorical' understanding of racism

Lawrie says Forster's conclusion reflects a misunderstanding of the connections between individual attitudes and broader societal issues, noting the actions of the dismissive motorists "don't exist in a vacuum."

As for Forster's claim that he's written the most important book on race relations in America, Lawrie says that shows a "comically ahistorical" understanding of the issue.

"To just disregard centuries of writing and thinking by scholars and individuals of all racial backgrounds on this issue is … wow," he said.

In Lawrie's view, Forster's approach ultimately perpetuates the notion of Blackness as a "problem" to be solved.

In the era when Griffin wrote Black Like Me, this was commonly called the "Negro problem," before the language shifted to the "race problem" in the 1960s. Lawrie says it's an idea that still exists today in various iterations.

"If you just continue to see a group of people or peoples as problems and objects of inquiry and things to be investigated, poked and prodded and questioned, where does that leave — not just their humanity — but where does that leave our actual understanding of various forms of Black lives?" he said.
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Why Michael Crichton's widow chose James Patterson to finish his 'Eruption' book

Marco della Cava, USA TODAY
Mon, June 3, 2024 

James Patterson has written around 200 books, often with famous co-authors ranging from President Bill Clinton to Dolly Parton.But his latest collaboration presented the perennial bestseller with a first: Write with an author who is no longer alive.

Patterson got a call in 2022 asking if he’d finish a manuscript by Michael Crichton, the creative mind behind “Jurassic Park,” “Westworld” and the TV show “ER,” who died from cancer at 66 in 2008.

Patterson’s keen “Yes!” to that question has yielded “Eruption” (out Monday), a volcanic man versus mother nature page-turner that, according to Patterson and Crichton’s widow, Sherri Crichton, will eventually be coming to a movie theater near you.


"Eruption," by James Patterson and the late Michael Crichton, leverages a story started years ago by Crichton, who died in 2008.

“We can’t say much about who we’re talking to, but we think this movie has the potential to be one of those raise-the-bar blockbusters like ‘Jurassic Park’ was,” says Patterson, demurring when asked if Crichton’s good pal – Steven Spielberg – was in the mix.

For Sherri Crichton, the book and the possible movie are nothing short of a miraculous return of a man who she married in 2005 and abruptly lost while carrying their now 15-year-old son, John Michael.

“We lost him too early,” says Crichton, tearing up. “He was not done. He was in his professional prime.”

For those unfamiliar with Crichton, the summary is: wildly prolific Harvard-educated doctor turned writer who leveraged real science to spin fantastic yarns that captured millions.

The late Michael Crichton, shown here in an undated photo, was a science lover whose passion for the natural world permeated his books, as is the case with "Eruption," a new book from James Patterson and Crichton who used Crichton's archives to complete the work.

Crichton famously is the only writer to have a No. 1 book, movie and TV show at the same time – twice. For the curious, that would be: In 1995, “The Lost World,” “Congo” and “ER,” and a year later a repeat with “Airframe,” “Twister” and “ER.”

Patterson, 77, may well have sold some 425 million books to date, but even he concedes his current co-author had some magic chops.

“The thing about Michael’s work is you always felt after reading it you had learned something, and a lot of people like that,” says Patterson. “I didn’t feel pressure so much as I felt dutiful. I had a responsibility, to Sherri and to Michael. I think it worked out. I defy anyone to figure out where (in ‘Eruption’) Michael’s work ends and where mine begins.”

Without spoiling anything, “Eruption” is the story of a gruff unlucky-in-love volcanologist, John “Mac” MacGregor, whose outpost on the Big Island of Hawaii suddenly becomes ground zero for a possible global Armageddon when one of the island’s two volcanoes gets set to erupt.


Author James Patterson used notes and files from the office of the late Michael Crichton to conjure his latest joint-project, "Eruption," about a deadly volcanic drama on the island of Hawaii.

The book is a classic summer beach read, with many of its 400 pages broken into two- or three-page chapters that each end in cliffhanger fashion. “Eruption” will revive the art of speed-reading. And Patterson is correct: the story is told with a singular voice that is a compelling amalgam of the two writers.

So how it is that “Eruption” was laying dormant for all these years? Crichton says after her husband died, she was eager to dive into his office archives, both digital and physical, as a way of bringing her closer to him. In that process, she unearthed countless hard drives and folders that hinted at myriad in-the-works projects.

But she soon realized Crichton was almost obsessed with the story of an impending volcanic disaster.

Her husband would detour often on trips to Hawaii to research Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa, the island’s twin dynamos, and their honeymoon to Italy included a stop in Pompeii, which was destroyed by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD.

“The manuscript he had started in 1994 was called ‘Vulcan’ at first, and later it was ‘The Black Zone,’ but when I dug deeper I could tell his research in this area went back to the 1970s,” she says.

Once she turned over the partial manuscript, notes and other research to Patterson, the two stayed in close touch. “The pages came fast from Jim," she says. "Michael also wrote fast. I could tell I’d made the right decision."

Patterson says other than hiring a few volcano experts as consultants, he dug into the work by himself. “It came naturally,” he says. “The science was a challenge for me, but I feel more and more comfortable with that.”

The 1993 blockbuster "Jurassic Park" was born out of the fertile mind of author Michael Crichton, who died in 2008 from cancer at 66. His other hits include books-turned-movies such as "Westworld," and screenplays such as "Twister."

The only time to two truly compared notes was in sections of the new book that tackle the sentiments of native Hawaiians vis-à-vis nature, science and white leadership on the islands.

“I just wanted to be sure that all that was handled carefully,” says Crichton. “We had to be sensitive to the culture, and Jim was very gracious about all that. It worked out well.”

One of the best parts about digging into her husband’s treasure trove was being able to share his meticulous thought process and story-outlining method with the couple’s teenage son.

“I would say look at how your father pieced things together,” says Crichton. “John Michael is 6-foot-5 and almost as tall as his father (Crichton was 6-foot-9), and he is a very good writer. I said to him, ‘Honey, your father left you all these pieces, maybe one day you can finish them.’ He said, ‘I could but I have my own ideas.’ I laughed and said ‘Touche.’”

In this undated photo, the late author Michael Crichton poses with his wife Sherri during a travel adventure. Sherri Crichton provided author James Patterson with extensive notes and files which has resulted in the new book, "Eruption."

Crichton says that there could well be more collaborative works coming out of her late husband’s archives, but she’s not focused too much on that just now.

“I’m simply pleased this worked out,” she says. “Michael didn’t read much fiction, but he did have two (Patterson) Alex Cross books in his library. So I just loved the idea of two of the most powerful storytellers of our time coming together.”

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: For 'Eruption,' James Patterson revives a Michael Crichton manuscript