New search underway for World War II shipwreck that poses pollution threat

Story by Emily Mae Czachor • Yesterday 

Scientists have resumed their search for the SS Norlindo, an elusive and potentially hazardous World War II shipwreck off the coast of Florida, for the third time in less than two years, officials said. This latest attempt to locate the sunken vessel, considered "the first casualty of WWII in the Gulf of Mexico," comes after previous expeditions led by an international team of oceanic explorers and archeologists in 2021 and 2022.

The SS Norlindo was a sprawling American steam freighter measuring 253 feet in length, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. It went down near the small island of Dry Tortugas, about 75 miles from Key West, on May 4, 1942, after being torpedoed by a German U-boat. Officials say the freighter sunk so quickly that five people on its 28-person crew could not escape, and the location of the wreck has remained a mystery ever since.

The most recent attempt to find the SS Norlindo is led by scientists at the University of Southern Mississippi, who ventured out on their research vessel Point Sur on April 14, for an expedition scheduled to wrap up this Saturday. Previous expeditions, led by a team of German, Italian and American scientists and archeologists, began with a three-week search toward the end of 2021. The same team returned for a second search in late January and early February of last year, NOAA said, but bad weather conditions ultimately hampered their efforts.

Although the SS Norlindo has not been found, those expeditions led scientists to identify "several magnetic anomalies" in the Gulf waters that they probed, which they believe could indicate the presence of a shipwreck. Explorers could not survey the designated search area in full during either of their past expeditions because of the early cancellations.


During the first expedition to search for SS Norlindo, scientists used autonomous underwater vehicle Eagle Ray to collect bathymetry and backscatter data to identify potential targets that may be the shipwreck. 

 Image courtesy of L. Macelloni via NOAA

The team involved in the newest search is using high-resolution side-scar sonar technology to reach areas of the potential wreck site that were left unexplored in previous years, according to NOAA.

"If promising targets are located, the team will conduct a successive expedition to deploy a remotely operated vehicle to visually determine if they have indeed found the wreck of this significant piece of our nation's history," the agency wrote in a statement.

In addition to its historical value, finding the SS Norlindo is potentially a matter of environmental importance, as the freighter could still have fuel barrels on board. While scientists cannot predict whether "an acute hazard is present" without seeing the shipwreck and its fuel contents, they have said that the presence of an "intact, but corroding fuel container" on the SS Norlindo could present serious pollution risks and pose threats to the surrounding marine microbiome.

Some estimates by the NOAA's Offices of Marine Sanctuaries suggest that the shipwreck, if intact, could be carrying as much as 5,000 barrels — or about 200,000 gallons — of fuel, the Miami Herald reported. A screening level risk assessment report compiled by that same branch of NOAA has determined that the SS Norlindo is one of 87 shipwrecks in U.S. waters that pose potential pollution threats linked to fuel contents on board the ships when they sunk, the agency said.

US, memory chipmaker Micron settle claim of immigration-related discrimination

Story by By Kanishka Singh • Yesterday 

 Illustration shows Micron logo© Thomson Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Justice Department said on Thursday it reached a settlement with memory chipmaker Micron Technology Inc to resolve an allegation of immigration-related employment discrimination.

"The settlement resolves the department's determination that Micron violated the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) by discriminating against a U.S. citizen when it failed to hire him for a position and instead hired a temporary visa worker," the Justice Department said in a statement.

The investigation began when a U.S. citizen worker complained that Micron unfairly denied him employment because of his citizenship status.

The Justice Department said it determined that Micron unlawfully preferred a temporary visa worker for the position, failing to meaningfully consider the U.S. citizen's qualifications.

The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Micron will pay a civil penalty to the United States and offer back pay totaling $85,000 to the affected worker, according to the settlement details. The amount of the civil penalty was not specified in the Justice Department statement.

Micron will also need to train its staff on the anti-discrimination provision of the federal Immigration and Nationality Act, change its policies and procedures, and be subject to departmental monitoring for a two-year period, according to the settlement.

Earlier this week, the Justice Department reached a settlement with General Motors Co to resolve the department's allegation that the automaker discriminated against non-U.S. citizens.

The Justice Department also released a fact sheet on Tuesday to help employers avoid immigration-related discrimination.

(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by Aurora Ellis

Canada approves major west coast port expansion with 370 conditions

Story by By Nia Williams • Yesterday

(Reuters) - Canada approved a port major expansion on the coast of southern British Columbia on Thursday, while requiring the project meets 370 legally binding conditions designed to protect the environment and marine life.

The government said the Roberts Bank Terminal 2 Project, proposed by the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority, will be key to supporting Canadian economic growth and help prevent congestion in west coast ports.

More than C$275 billion ($204 billion) of trade passes through Vancouver Fraser Port Authority each year. The Roberts Bank expansion involves building a three-berth marine container terminal near the mouth of the Fraser river, and will increase the port's capacity by 50%.

Environmental campaigners have long opposed the project, arguing it will harm endangered species like chinook salmon and Southern resident killer whales.

"With 370 environmental protection measures that the port must meet, we have set a high bar for this project to proceed," Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault said in a statement, adding the federal government will invest in protecting endangered wildlife.

Conditions include installing infrastructure to allow for the safe passage of fish and noise level limits to protect killer whales.

2,000-year-old graves found in ancient necropolis below busy Paris train station

Story by CBSNews • Yesterday 

Just meters from a busy train station in the heart of Paris, scientists have uncovered 50 graves in an ancient necropolis which offer a rare glimpse of life in the modern-day French capital's predecessor, Lutetia, nearly 2,000 years ago.

Somehow, the buried necropolis was never stumbled upon during multiple road works over the years, as well as the construction of the Port-Royal station on the historic Left Bank in the 1970s.

However, plans for a new exit for the train station prompted an archaeological excavation by France's National Institute of Preventive Archaeological Research (INRAP), which covers about 200 square meters of land. The excavation revealed burials believed to be part of the Saint Jacques necropolis dating back to the 2nd century, the research institute said in a news release.

Camille Colonna, an anthropologist at INRAP, told a press conference that there were already "strong suspicions" the site was close to Lutetia's southern necropolis.

The Saint Jacques necropolis, the largest burial site in the Gallo–Roman town of Lutetia, was previously partially excavated in the 1800s.

However, only objects considered precious were taken from the graves, with the many skeletons, burial offerings and other artifacts abandoned.

The necropolis was then covered over and again lost to time.

The INRAP team discovered one section that had never before been excavated.

"No one has seen it since antiquity," said INRAP president Dominique Garcia.

Colonna said the team was also "very happy" to have found a skeleton with a coin in its mouth, allowing them to date the burial to the 2nd century A.D.

The excavation, which began in March, has uncovered 50 graves, all of which were used for burial -- not cremation, which was also common at the time.


One of the skeletons unearthed in an ancient necropolis found

 meters from a busy Paris train station.

 / Credit: Thomas Samson/AFP

Ferryman of Hades

The remains of the men, women and children are believed to be Parisii, a Gallic people who lived in Lutetia, from when the town on the banks of the Seine river was under the control of the Roman Empire.

The skeletons were buried in wooden coffins, which are now only identifiable by their nails

About half of the remains found during the recent excavation were buried alongside offerings, such as ceramic jugs goblets, dishes and glassware.

Sometimes a coin was placed in the coffin, or even in the mouth of the dead, a common burial practice at the time called "Charon's obol." In Greek mythology, Charon is the ferryman of Hades, and the coin was considered a bribe to carry the souls of the dead across the river Styx.

The archaeologists also found traces of shoes inside the graves. They identified them based on the remains of small nails that would have been used in the soles. Some of the dead appeared to have been buried with shoes on their feet, while others were seemingly buried with shoes placed on either side of the body inside the grave, according to INRAP.

Colonna said the shoes were placed "either at the feet of the dead or next to them, like an offering."

Jewelry, hairpins and belts were also discovered with the graves, while the entire skeleton of a pig and another small animal was discovered in a pit where animals were thought to have been sacrificed to the gods.

Unlike the excavation in the 1800s, this time the team plans to remove everything from the necropolis for analysis.

"This will allow us to understand the life of the Parisii through their funeral rites, as well as their health by studying their DNA," Colonna said.

Garcia said that the ancient history of Paris was "generally not well known," adding that the unearthed graves open "a window into the world of Paris during antiquity."

The messy, high-stakes world of private equity's fossil-fuel dilemma

Story by rungarino@businessinsider.com (Rebecca Ungarino) • Yesterday 

Getty Images; Alyssa Powell/Insider

Giants like Blackstone and Carlyle are aiming to cut emissions. But states' intense ESG division complicate the backdrop — all while firms stay in fossil fuels.

Most major private-investment firms are working to cut down on emissions their portfolio companies send into the atmosphere. Private-equity executives know they need to make these changes to win investor commitments, especially from the $5.2 trillion public-pension sector.

Efforts are underway at Blackstone, KKR, Carlyle, Apollo, and other private-equity heavyweights. They're moving quickly to profit from decarbonization as an investment theme, pushing into a crowded field of solar-panel suppliers and climate-data providers. The competition for seizing on these opportunities is fierce: annual global clean-energy investments need to triple to $4 trillion in the next few years to reach net-zero emissions by 2050, the International Energy Agency estimated.

This urgent, historic process is shaping up to be a messy undertaking. Private-equity firms, a growing, influential group flush with cash from investors allocating more money to private markets, risk angering a set of their clientele in Republican-led states if they see it as investing public-sector dollars through a lens that seems left-leaning.

Environmental advocates are meanwhile raising concerns that efforts by the industry, where firms sell companies after holding them for several years, may be in vain if they sell their assets to irresponsible buyers.

"The biggest challenges are directly coming from the different states," Josh Lichtenstein, a partner at the law firm Ropes & Gray who advises investors on pension regulation, told Insider.

"If you want to be able to manage money in red states and blue states and across the whole universe of institutional investors, then it can be pretty challenging to figure out how you thread the needle in describing what you are actually doing, what you've undertaken, and what you're willing to do for any particular investor — in a way that avoids any contradictions," he said.

Republicans have seized on anti-ESG rhetoric to rally their bases and frame climate-conscious investing as a boogeyman. Democrats are generally divided on whether to divest from oil and gas — or to focus on working with the oil-and-gas sector to reduce its emissions. Wall Street prefers the latter, prompting criticism from climate advocates pushing for divestment.

"We need to stay invested in conventional energy because that needs to be a part of the transition," Megan Starr, the global head of impact at Carlyle, which manages $373 billion in assets, told Insider. "One of the things we say a lot is that if you want to decarbonize the global economy, you have to go to where the carbon is."

Carlyle is in the process of collecting the first year's worth of data from its portfolio companies after the firm said in February 2022 that it would commit to reaching net-zero emissions across investments by 2050. It's also set targets to get three-quarters of its majority-owned power-and-energy portfolio companies' emissions that they generate directly and indirectly covered by Paris-aligned climate goals by 2025. Starr said that in the past year, about 20 additional portfolio companies, including the oil-and-gas companies Neptune and Varo, have set climate goals.

Last year, Apollo, which manages $548 billion in assets, committed to reducing median carbon intensity by 15% for new investments it controls in its flagship strategy. Meanwhile, KKR is working with some of its majority-owned businesses to implement plans to reach net zero by 2050, and Blackstone won't make new investments in companies involved in oil and gas production in two recently launched funds focused on the energy transition.

Characterizing the overall effectiveness of the private-equity industry's climate-crisis response relative to public-money managers is difficult because some firms have more robust decarbonization plans than others, with commitments all over the map, Andrew Howell, the director of investor influence at the Environmental Defense Fund, said.

"On one hand, private equity is in a very good position to put through action because they do have more influence," Howell said, pointing to advantages including board seats and a bigger say in business operations. "But the reality is that the private-equity industry has been slower to adopt a focus on these issues."

A growing number of private-equity firms' pension-fund limited partners are under pressure themselves to either invest around environmental, social, and governance matters or shun investing through those lenses altogether. States are drawing lines in the sand, complicating the way firms are communicating their strategies to investors

"Is there a strong risk-return case, standalone? Is it purely impact-oriented? Is it purely values-based or are they trying to hit two or three of those at the same time?" Rich Nuzum, the chief investment strategist at investment consultant Mercer, which advises pension plans and other large investors, said. "Because you don't want to get thrown out by a sophisticated investor in due diligence if they think you're one thing and they find out you're another."

As of mid-April, states have introduced 34 total divestment bills and actions overall, with six in effect, including some in New York, Maine, and Connecticut. According to Ropes & Gray, 23 are pending and in committee, and five have failed to pass.

But states have also introduced 85 total actions seeking to restrict ESG considerations from investment decisions. Currently, 24 are in effect in states including Florida, Arizona, and South Carolina; 49 are pending, and 12 failed to pass.


Campaigners held a rally in 2018 outside of then-New York State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli's office to pressure him to divest a state pension fund from fossil fuels.

 Erik McGregor/Getty Images

New York City said this month that as part of its plans to reach net-zero emissions by 2040 across two of its public-sector employee-pension plans, it would request that all of their private markets managers exclude upstream fossil-fuel investments, or those involved in the exploration and production of new oil and gas.

The New York City Employees' Retirement System and the New York City Teachers' Retirement System manage some $77 billion and $90 billion, respectively, as of December, each with roughly $8 billion in private-equity allocation. The plans have already divested from some $4 billion of public securities tied to fossil-fuel-reserve owners after announcing plans to do so in 2018.

The New York City Comptroller, Brad Lander, New York City's top finance official who had advocated for a bill that allows for pension plans to increase their private-markets allocations, has championed the net-zero effort that counts divestment as a key step. New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed that bill in December.

Lander's team gathered extensive feedback from asset managers in advance of the net-zero implementation commitment and took into consideration variables including the period of several years that private-equity managers typically hold their investments and what they could feasibly achieve during that time.

"Because we are getting more prescriptive, we really did have a lot of conversations with our managers to say, 'Our goal is to hit this 2040 net-zero goal, and we're externally managed, so that's only going to work if our managers are working with us,'" Lander said in an interview.

Divestment efforts in Maine offer another window into how a big pension plan is seeking to wind down fossil-fuel holdings. The state's $18.2 billion public-employees' retirement system, which had a $10 billion private-markets portfolio as of December, is now working through how it will divest from fossil fuels by 2026 after a law requiring it took effect in 2021.

Each private-equity giant has its own approach to walking this new fine line of trying to make its portfolios more environmentally friendly — and more likely to generate better returns in the long run because of it, they say as fiduciaries — while not alienating investors who might accuse them of making political decisions with their funds.

Firms' plans with their upstream investments tend to draw the most attention because they're involved in drilling for new oil and gas. "If you're a bank, and you continue to lend on expansion projects, if you're a private-equity firm and you continue to make new upstream investments — I don't believe you have a Paris-aligned plan, and the International Energy Agency says you don't have one," Lander said.

The private-equity giant KKR, whose upstream investments are largely within Crescent Energy, is invested in conventional energy through its infrastructure and energy-real assets businesses, Ken Mehlman, the global head of public affairs and the co-head of global impact at KKR, said.

Mehlman told Insider that by responsibly operating traditional energy assets, KKR "can contribute to producing better outcomes than if we exited the space — and therefore transferred emissions — to other operators who may not share our commitment to stewardship." By 2027, Crescent Energy aims to halve emissions its operations have directly caused as of its 2021 figures.

If you're a private-equity firm and you continue to make new upstream investments, I don't believe you have a Paris-aligned plan. New York City Comptroller Brad Lander

Carlyle's relationship with NGP, a Dallas-based energy-focused private-equity firm that Carlyle invested in with a non-controlling stake a decade ago, has drawn scrutiny from environmental advocates partly because of NGP's upstream investments. After the Private Equity Stakeholder Project published a report that criticized Carlyle and NGP's energy holdings last year, Carlyle told the nonprofit group in a letter, which Insider viewed, that it does not have a say in NGP's portfolio companies or operations. NGP has its own ESG considerations that it factors into the investment processes, with a particular focus on reducing emissions from its upstream and midstream oil-and-gas assets.

At Blackstone, the world's largest private-equity firm with some $991 billion of assets under management, about 1% of the firm's overall portfolio was invested in upstream companies at the end of 2022. The firm controls two oil-and-gas producers and about half of a coal plant, the James M. Gavin Power Plant in Ohio, and it has continued to invest in infrastructure such as natural-gas pipelines. In 2021 Blackstone started working toward a goal of cutting emissions by 15% at new investments where it controls the energy usage within three years.

"As fiduciaries, we believe we can create more resilient, valuable companies through effective energy management and reduced emissions. We also believe global decarbonization goals create compelling investment opportunities for private capital," a Blackstone spokesperson said.

Investors and environmental advocates are scrutinizing not just firms' current oil-and-gas holdings, but where those holdings go once private-equity managers sell them off after their investment periods. What falls into focus is whether the buyer has sufficient decarbonization plans. In January the Environmental Defense Fund, and Ceres, another major climate-focused nonprofit, published climate-related guidance for oil-and-gas dealmaking.

"If you have a management plan or decarbonization plan for an oil-and-gas field which you're selling, it goes without saying that you should be handing those over to the buyer and really encourage them to follow those plans," Howell said.

That additional scrutiny on dealmaking — core to the private-equity model — is one of the myriad challenges firms are grappling with now. Lichtenstein said he is advising clients such as asset managers to watch out for broad statements about how ESG principles are core to everything the firm does. "Those can then have to be walked back, potentially," he said, if a firm is in talks with a pension plan in a Republican-led state.

KKR is a large shareholder in Insider parent company Axel Springer.

This article is part of "The Great Transition," a series covering the big changes across industries that are leading to a more sustainable future. For more climate-action news, visit Insider's One Planet hub.

BY CRICKEY THATS GOOD NEWS

Rupert Murdoch's son Lachlan ends Australian defamation suit

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Fox Corp. chief executive Lachlan Murdoch on Friday dropped his defamation lawsuit against Australian news website Crikey, citing the Fox News settlement of a U.S. court case where the network agreed to pay almost $800 million over its lies involving the 2020 U.S. presidential election.



Media mogul Rupert Murdoch’s son filed the Crikey suit last August a day after executives at Crikey's publisher put their names to an ad in The New York Times inviting Lachlan Murdoch to sue to test the press freedom issue in court.

Murdoch's lawsuit targeted the publisher, Private Media, its then-managing editor Peter Fray, who was also the website’s editor-in-chief, and Crikey’s political editor, Bernard Keane.

Murdoch claimed he was defamed by Keane’s column about the U.S. congressional investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the Capitol building which Crikey published in June last year under the headlines: “Trump is a confirmed unhinged traitor. And Murdoch is his unindicted co-conspirator.”

Murdoch’s lawyer John Churchill said in a statement he had filed a notice of discontinuance in Federal Court on Friday.

“Crikey has tried to introduce thousands of pages of documents from a defamation case in another jurisdiction, which has now settled," the statement said, referring to the Fox News settlement with Dominion Voting Systems that was announced Tuesday.

Related video: Blame Rupert Murdoch and Fox for Iraq, Trump, and The Big Lie (MSNBC)

Duration 24:32  View on Watch

“Mr. Murdoch remains confident that the court would ultimately find in his favor, however he does not wish to further enable Crikey’s use of the court to litigate a case from another jurisdiction that has already been settled and facilitate a marketing campaign designed to attract subscribers and boost their profits,” Churchill said.

Crikey’s lawyer firm Marque Lawyers welcomed the backdown.

“He’ll (Lachlan Murdoch) be up for Crikey’s legal costs. We and our client are well pleased,” the firm tweeted.

The Crikey suit had been set for a three-week hearing in Sydney starting Oct. 9.

Lachlan Murdoch had alleged the Crikey article conveyed a meaning that he illegally conspired with former President Donald Trump to “incite a mob with murderous intent to march on the Capitol" to prevent the transfer of power to President Joe Biden.

In its defense, Crikey had argued Lachlan Murdoch was “morally and ethically culpable” for the attack on the Capitol “because Fox News, under his control and management, promoted and peddled Trump’s lie of the stolen election despite Lachlan Murdoch knowing it was false."

The article did not name Lachlan Murdoch, but referred to “the Murdochs and their slew of poisonous Fox News commentators.”

Crikey attracts an audience of at least 175,000 unique readers a month and has at least 15,000 paid subscribers, according to court documents filed last year.

Rod Mcguirk, The Associated Press

U.S. bankruptcy judge halts 40,000 Johnson & Johnson talc and cancer lawsuits

Story by Annika Kim Constantino • Yesterday 

A federal bankruptcy judge halted roughly 40,000 of lawsuits alleging Johnson & Johnson's baby powder and other talc products caused cancer.

Judge Michael Kaplan put a temporary hold on the suits that will last through mid-June, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The decision is part of J&J subsidiary LTL Management's second attempt to settle talc cases in bankruptcy proceedings.


In this photo illustration, a container of Johnson and Johnson baby powder is displayed on April 05, 2023 in San Anselmo, California.© Provided by CNBC

A federal bankruptcy judge on Thursday halted roughly 40,000 lawsuits that allege Johnson & Johnson's baby powder and other talc products caused cancer.

The decision is part of J&J's second attempt to settle thousands of talc cases in bankruptcy proceedings.

J&J in 2021 spun off its subsidiary, LTL Management, to carry its talc-related liabilities and file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protections.

Judge Michael Kaplan during a hearing Thursday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Trenton, New Jersey, put a temporary hold on the suits that will last through mid-June, The Wall Street Journal reported.

J&J won't have to go to trial over any other talc claims during the pause, but new lawsuits can still be filed against the company, The Journal reported.

Kaplan said during the hearing that J&J has an "uphill battle" ahead, according to the newspaper.

The pause will give J&J time to reach a permanent settlement with plaintiffs in the talc cases. The company recently proposed an $8.9 million settlement for current and future talc-related claims and said it expects to bring that plan to bankruptcy court in mid-May.

J&J in a statement called Kaplan' decision "a win for claimants" because it brings them "one step closer" to being able to vote on the proposed settlement.

The New Brunswick, New Jersey-based company also said it believes claimants will overwhelmingly support the proposal.

J&J previously said more than 60,000 claimants have already committed to voting in favor of the plan.

"When presented with a clear and complete explanation and the opportunity to make an informed choice, we firmly believe the claimants will approve the plan," said Erik Haas, J&J's worldwide vice president of litigation.

Kaplan's decision is narrower than the one he made after LTL Management first filed for Chapter 11 in 2021.

The judge ruled in February 2022 that J&J can use the bankruptcy system to resolve talc allegations, enabling the company to avoid fighting thousands of individual lawsuits.

Kaplan essentially affirmed J&J's use of a strategy known as the "Texas two-step," which allows companies to split valuable assets from liabilities through a so-called divisive merger.

But in January, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit overturned that ruling. The appeals court said that neither LTL nor J&J had a legitimate need for bankruptcy protection because they were not in "financial distress."

Amid the ongoing legal fights, J&J has continued to deny the allegations that its talc products caused cancer.

Chief Financial Officer Joseph Wolk said on an earnings call Tuesday that it was "unfortunate" that J&J has to "put dollars towards quite frankly baseless scientific claims."

The suits allege J&J's talc products were contaminated with the carcinogen asbestos, which caused ovarian cancer in thousands of individuals.

Some lawsuits link several deaths to J&J's talc products.

US judge halts most talc lawsuits against J&J, stops trials

Story by By Mike Spector • Yesterday 


FILE PHOTO: Bottles of Johnson & Johnson baby powder line a drugstore shelf in New York© Thomson Reuters

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A U.S. judge on Thursday halted most of the tens of thousands of lawsuits alleging Johnson & Johnson’s baby powder and other talc products caused cancer and stopped any trials as part of a company subsidiary’s second attempt to settle cases in bankruptcy proceedings.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Michael Kaplan put most of the litigation temporarily on hold during a hearing in Trenton, New Jersey. The decision, for the most part, granted a request from J&J to freeze cases while it attempts to reach a permanent settlement with current plaintiffs that would also set aside money for future lawsuits.

J&J says it has broad support for a proposed $8.9 billion settlement, a contention disputed by lawyers representing talc claimants who oppose it.

The J&J subsidiary, LTL Management, filed for bankruptcy a second time earlier this month to help finalize the latest deal, despite a federal appeals court’s decision in January that invalidated its first Chapter 11 filing, on the grounds the J&J unit was not in financial distress.

“I have more questions than answers,” Kaplan said during Thursday's court hearing, referring to arguments made to him about the second bankruptcy case earlier this week.

The judge halted roughly 38,000 talc lawsuits consolidated in a federal district court in New Jersey. He allowed other cases to proceed as long as no trials commence.

He said he would revisit the ruling in late May.

Erik Haas, J&J’s worldwide vice president of litigation, in a statement called the ruling “a win for claimants” and expressed confidence they would ultimately approve the proposed settlement.

LTL Management argued that allowing litigation against J&J to continue would imperil current settlement efforts. J&J previously used a complex legal maneuver, known as a Texas two-step, to shift responsibility for the lawsuits to LTL.

Leigh O’Dell, one of the lead lawyers for plaintiffs in cases consolidated in the New Jersey federal court, said prohibiting trials limits pressure on J&J.


Related video: J&J talc unit asks judge to halt cancer lawsuits as it pursues $8.9 bln settlement (WION)  Duration 1:12  View on Watch

“We continue to believe that this bankruptcy effort is illegitimate … and that stance will be affirmed through the appellate process,” she said in a statement.

The judge’s ruling kept in legal limbo consumers alleging J&J talc caused their ovarian cancer or mesothelioma. Some plaintiffs allege asbestos in the talc sickened them. For now, none can test their claims before juries.

J&J has said its talc is safe, asbestos-free and does not cause cancer.

The healthcare conglomerate has not filed for bankruptcy itself. In October 2021, J&J divided its consumer business in two and offloaded the talc lawsuits onto a newly created subsidiary, LTL, which then declared bankruptcy.

In January, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia invalidated LTL's bankruptcy filing. Kaplan dismissed the bankruptcy earlier this month, only for LTL to file for Chapter 11 again in his court about two hours later.

'UPHILL BATTLE'

Talc plaintiffs opposing J&J's proposed settlement plan to file a motion to dismiss the second bankruptcy filing, one of their lawyers said in court on Tuesday.

They portray J&J’s actions as an abuse of the bankruptcy system by a multinational conglomerate valued at more than $400 billion and in little danger of running out of money to pay cancer victims.

A U.S. Department of Justice official charged with monitoring the case has also pushed back against the second bankruptcy.

“Undoubtedly, the debtor has an uphill battle,” Kaplan said, referring to LTL’s settlement and reorganization prospects.

J&J and its subsidiary have argued bankruptcy delivers settlement payouts more fairly, efficiently and equitably than a “lottery” offered by trial courts, where some litigants get large awards and others nothing.

Jim Murdica, a lawyer tasked with resolving talc cases for J&J, testified in a deposition last weekend that as many as 80,000 claimants support the company’s settlement offer - enough to meet a bankruptcy threshold requiring agreement from 75% of all claimants, he said.

Lawyers representing opposing talc plaintiffs contend those figures reflect mostly unfiled claims and that people behind them have not yet agreed to the settlement. J&J and LTL argue their settlement process is typical.

LTL terminated a funding agreement with its parent company that the appeals court found insulated it from the financial distress necessary to legitimately declare bankruptcy.

Its lawyers now argue that new financing agreements leave LTL Management in financial distress. At the same time, they contend the agreements provide enough funds to pay plaintiffs and avoid rendering LTL insolvent, countering arguments from plaintiffs' lawyers that the transactions were fraudulent.

(Reporting by Mike Spector; Editing by Bill Berkrot)

MP Han Dong sues Global News for defamation over foreign meddling allegations

Story by The Canadian Press • Yesterday

OTTAWA — Toronto MP Han Dong is suing Global News and its parent company, Corus Entertainment, over stories he says portrayed him as a "traitor" and a knowing participant in Chinese interference in Canada.


MP Han Dong sues Global News for defamation over foreign meddling allegations© Provided by The Canadian Press

The statement of claim, provided by his lawyers and filed Thursday with the Ontario Superior Court in Toronto, accuses Global News of publishing "false, malicious, irresponsible, and defamatory" stories that have "destroyed … Dong's hard-earned reputation and career."

In March, Global published a story citing unidentified security sources who alleged Dong told a Chinese diplomat in February 2021 that releasing Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor would benefit the Conservatives.

The two Canadian men at that time had been detained in China since December 2018, just over a week after the RCMP arrested Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou in Vancouver on a U.S. extradition warrant.

Global had previously published allegations that Dong benefited from Chinese foreign interference in his successful bid to become the Liberal candidate for his riding in 2019, which is also included in the lawsuit.

The Canadian Press has not independently verified the allegations.

Shortly after the allegations about his conversation regarding Kovrig and Spavor were published, Dong resigned from the Liberal caucus to sit as the Independent MP for Don Valley North.

He told the House of Commons he would defend himself against "absolutely untrue claims." The next day, he voted with opposition parties in favour of a public inquiry into foreign meddling in Canada's elections.

Rishma Govani, a spokeswoman for Global News and Corus Entertainment, said in an email Thursday night that she was unable to provide further comment, but referred to an earlier statement.

"Global News is governed by a rigorous set of Journalistic Principles and Practices. We are very mindful of the public interest and legal responsibility of this important accountability reporting," she wrote.


Dong, whose statement of claim has not been tested in court, also wants Global to remove the stories and broadcasts.

The statement of claim, which names several Global News reporters and editors as defendants, alleges the media outlet acted "irresponsibly" in the way it reported and wrote the stories.

"These allegations were made by anonymous sources whose credibility and reliability were assumed, rather than vigorously tested," said the statement of claim.

It also says that Dong won a "hard-fought race" for the 2019 Liberal nomination and followed all election rules.

The statement claims that Global did not review a transcript or recording of the February 2021 conversation between Dong and Han Tao, the Chinese consul general in Toronto, which is at the heart of the allegations.

It says that while Dong does not have notes from that telephone call, in which he and Tao were both speaking Mandarin, "he is certain that he did not (and would never) advocate for the continued arbitrary detention" of the two Canadians.

"The defendants knew or ought to have known that the call took place in a specific cultural context and in Mandarin," the statement says. "There was an obvious risk that Canadian intelligence 'sources' could have interpretative challenges in this context."

China's Toronto consulate has described the allegations reported by Global regarding the February 2021 call as "utterly groundless.''

Dong's statement of claim says there were three other conversations with Chinese diplomats between 2020 and 2021 in which Dong pushed for their release.

It also said that Dong's conversations with the Chinese consul general and other diplomats were taking place in the context of helping his constituents, many of whom are Chinese Canadian, or as part of his role as co-chair, along with Quebec Sen. Paul Massicotte, of the Canada-China Legislative Association.

He also said he would sometimes seek guidance from the Global Affairs Department ahead of these conversations and "from time to time" share notes from his calls with the department.

The Prime Minister's Office has previously said it was unaware of the February 2021 conversation between Dong and Tao until the MP informed the office about it after receiving questions from the media.

The Globe and Mail reported in March, citing an unnamed source, that the PMO had reviewed a transcript of the conversation provided by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service and concluded there was "no actionable evidence."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 20, 2023.

MP Han Dong seeking $15M in defamation suit against Global News

Story by Darren Major • CBC - Yesterday 

MP Han Dong is seeking $15 million in damages from Global News over articles alleging he was a "witting" participant in a Beijing-backed foreign interference network.

The statement of claim, provided by Dong's legal team, accuses Global of publishing "a series of false, malicious, irresponsible and defamatory," stories about the MP.

Last month, Global published a story alleging Dong advised a senior Chinese diplomat in February 2021 that Beijing should hold off on freeing Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, the two Canadians being held by China at the time.

The story quotes two anonymous national security sources who alleged that Dong told China's consul general Han Tao in Toronto that releasing the men would benefit the Conservatives.

In a February story, Global News cited anonymous sources who alleged national security officials gave an urgent briefing to senior aides from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's office in 2019 "warning them that one of their candidates was part of a Chinese foreign interference network."



Michael Spavor, left, and Michael Kovrig were released from detention in China in September 2021.© Colin Hall/CBC, Chris Helgren/Reuters

The statement of claim says that both articles are "false and defamatory" and that Global acted "irresponsibly" in its reporting.

"These allegations were made by anonymous sources whose credibility and reliability were assumed, rather than vigorously tested," the statement reads. It also says Global failed to provide enough context about the sources' jobs or seniority.

The lawsuit names a number of Global reporters, including the author of the two stories in question. Dong is also asking that the articles and associated broadcasts be retracted and removed from Global's website.

"The defendants… have maliciously destroyed Han Dong's hard-earned reputation and career and have exposed Dong and his family to a campaign of hateful messages and threats," the statement of claim says.

Dong said last month he planned to take legal action against Global. Sonia Verma, editor-in-chief of Global News, said then that Global "is governed by a rigorous set of journalistic principles and practices. We are very mindful of the public interest and legal responsibility of this important accountability reporting."

A spokesperson for Global said on Thursday they had no further comment.

Dong stepped down from the Liberal caucus last month to sit as an Independent, saying he would work to clear his name.

WAGE THEFT
Bed Bath & Beyond stiffed thousands of workers on severance pay

Story by Nathaniel Meyersohn • Yesterday 

In early February, Diane Zaccagna learned that the Bed Bath & Beyond store in New Jersey where she had been working for 18 and a half years was closing and she would be laid off.

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Why Bed Bath & Beyond is in big trouble

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“We knew Bed Bath was in trouble, but we thought we would have at least a couple more years,” said Zaccagna, 50, who started out as a part-time employee and climbed her way to a merchandise supervisor.

Zaccagna loved working for Bed Bath & Beyond and said the company treated her well. Even during the depths of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, when the deadly virus was spreading and Bed Bath & Beyond temporarily closed stores to customers, she showed up to help ship out online delivery orders.

Managers initially told Zaccagna and around 25 employees at the store that they would receive severance pay. Bed Bath & Beyond has been on bankruptcy watch and has been closing hundreds of stores since late 2022.



 Bed Bath & Beyond store in Clifton, New Jersey, in February. The company laid off more than 1,000 workers in the state days before a new severance law took effect.

 - Kena Betancur/VIEWpress/Getty Images

Laid-off workers at previously shuttered stores received severance packages, and so Zaccagna assumed it would be the same for her store. The severance plan for full-time workers laid off in earlier rounds of Bed Bath & Beyond closures was one week of regular pay for each year of service, with a maximum of 10 weeks severance. For supervisors, the maximum was 12 weeks of severance pay.

But Bed Bath & Beyond never paid severance to Zaccagna and her co-workers. The company also told employees it would not match annual contributions to their 401(k) retirement savings plans they paid into for all of 2022.

“In the end, I’m heartbroken. I’m very disappointed in how they handled it,” she told CNN. “It was a punch in the gut.”

She feels the company abandoned her and co-workers and that their years of loyalty meant nothing at the end.

But the timing of the layoffs angered her most.

Gaps in severance protections

Bed Bath & Beyond, based in Union, New Jersey, laid off 1,295 workers in its home state, including at Harmon Face Value stores, just days before a new law kicked in that mandates severance pay — equal to one week of pay for each year of employment — for workers who lose their job in mass layoffs at large employers in New Jersey.

The law also requires that large employers, defined as businesses with more than 100 workers, must give workers at least 90 days notice for mass layoffs, up from 60 days. Prior to the law’s enactment, employers in the state were only required to pay workers severance if they failed to notify employees they were being let go within 60 days. The law also expands severance benefits for part-time workers and includes other worker protections.

“Knowing the law took effect a week after — it’s even worse,” said Zaccagna, who is job hunting and plans to start a new career outside of retail. “Every single person in New Jersey knows it’s wrong.”

Bed Bath & Beyond said in a statement that, as a practice, it does not comment on specific employee matters.

“Every decision over the past several months has been the product of diligent analysis, advisement, and consideration,” the company said. “The difficult but necessary decision to reduce our workforce impacted valued colleagues and is one of many crucial actions taken to enable Bed Bath & Beyond to improve our financial position and serve our customers well into the future.”

The company did not specifically address not paying severance.

New Jersey is the first state in the country to implement guaranteed severance pay protections for workers at large chains. The law was inspired by Toys “R” Us, Sears and Forever 21 and other chains that filed for bankruptcy and attempted to avoid paying workers severance, said New Jersey State Sen. Joseph Cryan, who introduced the legislation.


 Toys "R" Us store in Totowa, New Jersey, in 2018. Toys "R" Us and other chains that filed for bankruptcy have been criticized for failing to pay workers severance. - Julio Cortez/AP

Bed Bath & Beyond’s timing was deliberate and designed to get around the new legislation, Cryan charged. “It is intentional, it is calculated, and it is disgraceful,” he said.

Business Insider first reported the layoffs in the state.

There is no federal requirement for severance pay, although some collective bargaining agreements with unions cover severance agreements. Senior executives often have multimillion-dollar severance plans with employers and receive lucrative retention bonuses to stay with companies if they file for bankruptcy.

At Bed Bath & Beyond, CEO Sue Gove is eligible for $7.1 million in severance pay and former Bed Bath & Beyond CEO Mark Tritton is suing the company for $6.8 million in unpaid severance.

The absence of severance pay requirements for frontline workers in the United States is “one of the many holes in our protective workplace legislation,” said David Weil, a professor at Brandeis University and administrator of the Labor Department’s Wage and Hour Division under former President Barack Obama.

It can also be difficult for rank-and-file workers to claw back unpaid severance once a company files for bankruptcy.

“It’s all about the bankruptcy court’s jurisdiction,” Weil said. “The Labor Department has little authority to demand severance.”

Policy approaches for laid-off workers have tended to focus on unemployment insurance programs, he said, but severance protections help soften the economic hit for displaced workers as they search for a new job.

‘This was our reward’

Some Bed Bath & Beyond employees recently laid off in other states did not receive severance pay either, as first reported by Bloomberg.

A former Harmon store manager has filed a proposed class action lawsuit alleging the company did not give him and others required notice of mass layoffs and denied severance pay.

In late January, Bed Bath & Beyond store manager Norman Frisch, 65, got a call from a regional vice president notifying him that his St. Louis store would close in 10 to 12 weeks and the store’s roughly 20 employees would be laid off.

Frisch, who had been with Bed Bath & Beyond for 12 years and ran a top-performing store that company leaders used as a model for other stores in the area, was told that there would be severance pay and was given talking points to inform employees of the closing.

He sat down with each of his employees individually and explained to them that they should stick around to help close out the store. He assured them a severance package was coming.

Frisch reached out to human resources three times over the next month to ask for more details on the severance plan. Each time, he was told they were on the way.

Bed Bath & Beyond store set to close in Paramus, New Jersey, shown in February. All items were on sale for 10% off. - Ted Shaffrey/AP

But in late February, he got a call from a supervisor saying there would be no severance. He was stunned and felt the company lied.

“My store was the only perfect 5 store in the region, meaning our rating was the best of the best,” he said. “And this was our reward.”

Frisch had been planning to pay his credit card and car bills using his severance, but will instead dip into his retirement savings.

Bigger than the financial hit, though, was his guilt. He felt he personally misled his loyal employees.

“I’m the guy who sat down face to face with each one of these people, and now I had to tell them they weren’t going to get anything,” he said. “I still feel that I betrayed them. They deserved so much more.”

Additionally, the store closing date was moved up, so workers had less time to find new work than they had been led to believe. And they found out the company was not matching 401(k) contributions.

During his final weeks at the company, he made it his job to help his employees find other work. All but two found work by the time the store closed for good in March.

Before Frisch’s email was shut down, he reached out to Gove, the CEO. The way the company handled the layoffs was wrong and workers deserved better, he told her.

“When people invest their life in something, they should be treated right,” he said.

He never heard back.

US West Coast port union, employers reach tentative agreement on some issues

Story by Reuters • Yesterday

(Reuters) - The International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) said on Thursday it had reached a tentative agreement with an association representing the U.S. West Coast employers of port laborers on some key issues.

Negotiations over a new deal have dragged on for roughly a year since the contract between the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA) and the union expired on July 1, 2022.

Any strike in the absence of a deal may prove costly as supply chain issues persist, and high inflation takes a toll on consumer spending, compounding challenges for many companies that are bouncing back from a pandemic slump.

In anticipation of a possible action, major shippers - including suppliers to retailers such as Walmart Inc and Home Depot Inc - have been diverting cargo from the West Coast to rival seaports on the East Coast and Gulf of Mexico to avoid potential work stoppages.

Terms of the tentative agreement announced on Thursday were not disclosed, but the parties had previously struck a deal on terms for maintenance of health benefits.

The agreement that's being negotiated will cover more than 22,000 longshore workers at 29 U.S. West Coast ports.

(Reporting by Priyamvada C in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli)