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Juul to settle multi-state youth vaping investigation for $438 million

E-cigarette company Juul on Tuesday tentatively agreed to pay $438.5 million to settle an investigation by 34 states and territories into the company’s marketing and sales practices that were alleged to fuel the youth vaping crisis. 

The investigation found the company deliberately engaged in an advertising campaign that appealed to youth with launch parties, advertisements using young and trendy-looking models, social media posts and free samples.

According to Connecticut Attorney General William Tong (D), who was one of the leaders of the investigation and negotiations, Juul also manipulated the chemical composition of its product to make the vapor less harsh on the throats of young and inexperienced users. 

“JUUL’s cynically calculated advertising campaigns created a new generation of nicotine addicts. They relentlessly marketed vaping products to underage youth, manipulated their chemical composition to be palatable to inexperienced users, employed an inadequate age verification process, and misled consumers about the nicotine content and addictiveness of its products,” Tong said in a statement.

Juul was once the leading vaping product on the market, and was the most popular brand used by teens. But Juul has fallen out of favor ever since it stopped selling its fruity flavors, after coming under pressure from lawmakers, advocates and regulators at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).  

The settlement would severely limit Juul’s marketing and sales practices. It would prohibit Juul from marketing to youth and from funding education programs in schools. Nobody under the age of 35 would be depicted in any of the company’s marketing materials, and the company would be prohibited from misrepresenting the level of nicotine in its products.  

In a statement, Juul said the settlement “is a significant part of our ongoing commitment to resolve issues from the past. The terms of the agreement are aligned with our current business practices,” which began with a companywide “reset” in 2019.

Juul is currently embroiled in a fight with the FDA over whether it can continue to sell its products. The agency in June denied Juul’s marketing authorization request, saying Juul did not prove that keeping its products on the market “would be appropriate for the protection of the public health.”

A federal appeals court a day later temporarily blocked the ban, and FDA eventually said it would allow the products to stay on the market pending additional review of “scientific issues.” 

Electronic cigarettes were first introduced on the market as a “healthier” alternative to smoking traditional tobacco cigarettes, but it began to spread to young people, who were drawn in by sweet and fruit-flavored e-cigarette pods easily accessible in stores. Since 2014, e-cigarettes have been the most commonly used tobacco product among U.S. youth.

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Sen. Rosen tests positive for COVID-19, will work remotely this week

Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.) announced she tested positive for COVID-19 on Tuesday and will work remotely this week as the Senate returns from its recess. 

Rosen said in a release she is experiencing mild symptoms, having been fully vaccinated and boosted to protect herself against severe illness. She said she will isolate and work remotely in accordance with guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

Rosen’s absence from the Capitol means a second lawmaker will not be present for any votes this week. Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) announced on Monday that he will miss votes this week as the Senate reconvenes from its monthlong recess while he recovers from hip replacement surgery. 

Senate Democrats are looking to pass a bill that would protect marriage equality on the federal level in the home stretch before midterm elections.

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Preserving quality, trusted journalism in communities is essential to our democracy

This month, our nation commemorates the signing of the U.S. Constitution that took place more than 200 years ago. Today’s media landscape is much more complex, yet our forefathers’ fundamental embrace of the free speech principles enshrined in the First Amendment has been an enduring constant. 
Founding Father Thomas Jefferson wrote, “Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost.”  
The role of America’s local television and radio stations in a nation that promises freedom of the press is the duty to discover the truth and to report the same. The more than 12,000 local radio and television stations in the United States play an essential role in their communities, providing trusted, unbiased local news and other critical information.  

But billion-dollar tech companies are threatening the future of local journalism that is the very bedrock of our democracy. Without congressional action, your trusted local news may someday be nothing more than misinformation and clickbait.  

Thanks to advertising revenue, broadcasters provide a uniquely free over-the-air service to the public. However, the rapid, often anticompetitive expansion of the dominant Big Tech platforms has upended the advertising marketplace, posing a grave threat to the industry.  

The rise of Big Tech has put broadcasters and other news publishers in an unprecedented position. Local news outlets must compete with multibillion-dollar companies that are siphoning broadcasters’ trusted content for their own profit. Attempts at negotiation with these tech giants over local news content often results in take-it-or-leave-it terms, which means most of the profit goes to Big Tech, if not all of it.  

It feels like an impossible situation for local news outlets that must remain active on these platforms for the benefit of their audiences, yet are unable to fairly negotiate the terms of access with behemoth Big Tech companies. Left unchecked, Americans will lose access to the most trusted local news as broadcasters and newspapers face an uncertain and daunting future. 

In a world where Big Tech reigns, Americans could face the accelerated disappearance of their once-daily local paper. Already more than 40 percent of the largest 100 newspapers are delivering less than seven times per week. 

As the public’s faith in social media and polarizing cable news shows dwindles, dependence on local broadcasting grows stronger. Americans turn to local radio and TV stations for “just the facts” news, real journalism and robust civic debate that allows engagement from both sides. But this all goes away unless Congress levels the playing field with Big Tech. 

A bipartisan group of lawmakers thankfully recognizes that the status quo is unsustainable, which is why local news producers are applauding the Senate Judiciary Committee’s willingness to act on the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act (JCPA). This is not a government handout, nor would it create a new regulatory regime. It would simply create a framework for news publishers to negotiate on equal terms with the Big Tech behemoths in the marketplace.  

This bill has bipartisan sponsors and support in both chambers of Congress. Reps. David Cicilline (D-R.I.) and Ken Buck (R-Colo.) and Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and John Kennedy (R-La.) are courageous leaders in advocating for a level playing field in how local news content is accessed and monetized on Big Tech’s platforms.  

Preserving quality, trusted journalism in communities is essential to our democracy and will require policies that ensure broadcasters and other news publishers are fairly and justly compensated for their valuable content and investigative reporting.  

Passage of this legislation is vital to broadcasters’ mission to create an informed citizenry, ensuring the fundamental truths espoused by our nation’s founders will endure. Never has our role been so critical in our democratic process. 

Smith is former CEO of the National Association of Broadcasters. He currently serves as an advisor. He served as senator from Oregon from 1997-2009. 

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Seattle teachers union authorizes strike, potentially delaying school year start

Unionized educators at Seattle Public Schools (SPS) on Tuesday voted to authorize a strike, which threatens to delay the start of the school year on Wednesday if a contract agreement is not reached.

The Seattle Education Association (SEA) announced on Tuesday afternoon that 95 percent of voters authorized the strike, with three-quarters of its roughly 6,000 members participating.

Union leaders said they are continuing to bargain with the school district throughout the day, but they may begin picketing on Wednesday morning if no agreement is reached.

The union is seeking a commitment to maintain certain staffing ratios for multilingual students and special education students, as the district works to integrate the latter group into general education classrooms. 

It is also seeking higher pay increases and policies to cap employees’ workloads.

Jennifer Matter, the union’s president, said students’ needs were “off the charts” last year, calling the school district’s existing proposals “unsustainable” and leading to burnout among teachers.

“No one wants to strike, it’s not something that people just choose,” Matter said. “But SPS has given us no choice, because, again, we can’t go back to the way things have been. We need to fight for something better.”

The union’s contract expired at the end of last month, and the group has been negotiating with the school district since early June. 

With no agreement in sight, school system officials on Sunday asked the union to accept a memorandum of understanding (MOU) that would allow the school year to start on time and commit the district to recommending any future salary increase in the new contract be applied retroactively to Sept. 1.

“At this time, SEA has rejected the proposed MOU,” the district said earlier this week. “Starting school on Wednesday is what is best for our students. We understand this uncertainty about a delay is difficult and unsettling for our students, staff and families. We hope that SEA will reconsider this MOU and sign it before Tuesday.”

The district wrote on its website that it will update families and employees as soon as possible if the first day of school is delayed.

The Hill has reached out to the district for further comment.

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Climate change overwhelming California power grid

A record heat wave is pushing California’s electric grid up against the point of failure this week, with officials pointing to climate change for putting continued stress on the system.

The state issued an emergency alert for a seventh consecutive day on Tuesday, urging customers to conserve energy between 4 p.m. and 9 p.m.

“We have now entered the most intense phase of this heat wave,” Elliot Mainzer, chief executive officer of California’s principal electric grid, California ISO, said in a briefing on Monday. 

As temperatures in the state capital of Sacramento head toward 114 degrees, California ISO said Tuesday that demand could hit an all-time record of 51,000 megawatts by 5:30 p.m., as solar capacity begins to taper off with sunset while temperatures — and power demand for air conditioner use — remain high.

Officials said the grid was expected to be as much as 4,000 megawatts short of demand by late afternoon on Monday.

To make matters worse, the older natural gas plants that provide additional power when demand is at its highest are less reliable in extreme heat, The Associated Press reported.

“We are on razor thin margins,” Siva Gunda, vice chairman of the California Energy Commission, told the Sacramento Bee.

California is attempting to meet demand by spinning up emergency natural gas generators — enough to power 120,000 homes.

But those plants will provide just 120 megawatts — about 3 percent of the potential shortfall. That has the state calling on business and industry to cut power usage while asking households to raise thermostats and turn off large appliances in the evening.

Citizen attempts to cut electricity usage over the weekend helped cut power by 1,000 megawatts — enough to supply 750,000 households, Mainzer said.

“Your efforts have been making a real difference,” he said.

But with temperatures set to keep rising throughout the week, if consumers can’t close the gap by cutting demand, then “blackouts, rolling, rotating outages are a possibility,” Mainzer added.

In a rolling blackout, grid officials deal with power shortfalls by cycling outages among users. In California in August 2020, that meant outages ranging from 15 minutes to more than two hours.

“We never want to get to that point, of course,” Mainzer said. “We want everyone to be prepared.”

The state’s power crunch is one more sign of how climate change is straining the national grid and forcing even climate-forward states to depend even more on traditional energy sources.

“Climate change is causing unprecedented stress on California’s energy system,” Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) said in a statement last week while signing a bill to extend the life of a controversial nuclear power plant.

The power issues also highlight the strain on infrastructure in general. 

California avoided blackouts this week in part by postponing maintenance on power plants between noon and 10 p.m. on Tuesday, The Wall Street Journal reported. 

That is a strategy that only works for so long. 

In Texas, which saw record demand this summer, grid officials avoided blackouts in large part by forestalling scheduled maintenance on power plants for months, a move that faced criticism.

“Things are going to break. We have an aging fleet that’s being run harder than it’s ever been run,” Michele Richmond, executive director of Texas Competitive Power Advocates, told Bloomberg in July.

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BYU students dressed as angels shield LGBTQ+ classmates from protesters at Pride event

A dozen people dressed as angels surrounded their LGBTQ+ peers and allies at a “Back to School Pride Night” event Saturday in Provo, Utah, shielding them from a crowd of protesters that yelled anti-LGBTQ+ slurs and held up handmade signs quoting the Book of Mormon.

Community members sporting wings made of white sheets draped over PVC pipe stood hand-in-hand to block the messages of the protesters, who had gathered at Kiwanis Park to object to the off-campus Pride event organized by students at Brigham Young University (BYU).

Protesters yelled hateful slurs at the group of LGBTQ+ students and allies that attended Saturday’s celebration, calling them “pedophiles” and “groomers.” Many attended to voice their opposition to a drag show that featured current and former BYU students as performers.

Under BYU’s Honor Code, which students agree to live by as part of their admission requirements, same-sex relationships are strictly prohibited and LGBTQ+ student groups are not permitted to meet or hold events on-campus.

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The religious school, operated by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which does not recognize same-sex marriage, was praised by students and LGBTQ+ advocates in 2020 when it removed a rule from its Honor Code that banned “homosexual behavior.”

Just three weeks later, however, officials clarified that students in same-sex relationships who engaged in public displays of affection like hand-holding or kissing would be subject to disciplinary action.

Students and community members say they dressed as angels not only to protect LGBTQ+ students from protesters, but also to push back against the university’s policies.

“I’m doing this because I want our LGBTQ community to feel like they can be themselves and know we have their backs,” Sabrina Wong, a BYU student and ally who stood as one of the angels, told the Salt Lake Tribune.

Late last month, LGBTQ+ student groups including the RaYnbow Collective, an off-campus organization that supports BYU’s LGBTQ+ community and organized Saturday’s Pride event, said the university had removed resources for queer students from welcome bags given to first-year students.

The groups in a statement said the school’s decision “follows a consistent pattern of BYU breaking its promises and agreements with LGBTQ+ students.”

“No student should feel alone, and no student should feel rejected by their university because of their identity,” the groups wrote.

Todd Hollingshead, a spokesperson for BYU, at the time said the university “loves and welcomes” its LGBTQ+ students and employees.

Students on Saturday challenged that claim, comparing the chants of the protesters at Kiwanis Park to the stigma and contempt they often face on campus.

“This is the kind of stuff we have to deal with here,” Carolyn Gassert, the president of Understanding Sexuality, Gender, and Allyship (USGA), told the Salt Lake Tribune. “It’s not just tonight. We hear these comments in the classroom.”

In February, the Education Department dropped an investigation into BYU over its controversial ban on same-sex relationships, claiming the university is entitled to a number of exemptions from Title IX, which prohibits sex-based discrimination, because of its religious affiliation.

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Is McDonald's really bringing all-day breakfast back?

(NEXSTAR) — Despite how excited a few social media posts may have gotten you for the return of all-day breakfast at McDonald’s, don’t make your way to the drive-thru just yet.

In a written statement to Nexstar, a McDonald’s representative said the information being shared online is actually from a 2015 press release, when McDonald’s USA first announced all-day breakfast.

“We don’t have any updates to share about breakfast offerings at this time,” the representative said.

McDonald’s’ all-day breakfast was halted in March 2020, at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, as the company made adjustments to simplify operations for local workers. The original 2015 rollout of all-day breakfast was a boon for McDonald’s, with the company saying the change was a “very strong catalyst for momentum.” McDonald’s posted higher-than-expected first-quarter earnings in 2016, much of which was attributed to the popularity of its breakfast, CNBC reports.

So what time does McDonald’s stop serving breakfast now?

Prior to 2015, McDonald’s stopped serving breakfast at 10:30 a.m. Since the end of all-day breakfast, that time has been re-instated, though some locations may serve breakfast until 11 a.m.

McDonald’s’ breakfast menu is home to some of America’s fast-food breakfast faves, including the Egg McMuffin and the Bacon, Egg and Cheese Biscuit.

Breakfast at McDonald’s 101

The company officially added the breakfast line to menus nationwide in 1977, Mcdonald’s says. The full line came about after a long development of the Egg McMuffin, which began in early 1971.

According to McDonald’s owner Ray Kroc’s 1977 autobiography, local franchise owner Herb Peterson developed the sandwich and asked Kroc to try it. Kroc says Peterson refused to tell him what it was — fearful the owner would reject the idea — until after he’d tried it.

“He didn’t want me to reject it out of hand, which I might have done, because it was a crazy idea — a breakfast sandwich,” Kroc writes in “Grinding it Out: The Making of McDonald’s.” “… I boggled a bit at the presentation. But then I tasted it and I was sold. Wow!”

Egg McMuffins — the first McDonald’s breakfast item — were tested in select locations in 1972 and priced at 63 cents.

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Biden tarnished his democracy speech with partisan rhetoric

President Biden’s effort at a statesmen-like warning of imminent threats to U.S. democracy was well-intentioned. Yet his important appeal was sullied by conflating millions of voters with the GOP politicians and their media/social media perpetual grievance machine and by touting his own political agenda, veering into the partisan lane.                   

For starters, when 250 election deniers (a sad euphemism for embracing a self-serving political fiction over hard factual evidence) win GOP primaries, Biden’s fear of a polarized, tribalized America heading off a cliff can’t be dismissed. The Founding Fathers would be scratching their heads at how the leaders of a major political party could consciously reject facts, embrace what they know to be lies and then base “reform” of the election process on that fantasy.

Biden would have done well to remind Americans of the overwhelming evidence: Trump filed and lost 61 lawsuits, and many of the appeals were rejected by GOP-appointed judges, the conservative Supreme Court and Republican state election officials. That would be one heck of a conspiracy.

The peaceful transfer of power is a fundamental principle of democracy. It is what separates democracy from autocracy. That core principle is what made the first attack on the nation’s capitol since 1812 by a Trump-inspired insurrectionist mob so disgraceful.

But democracy requires a shared national purpose and a common set of facts. Without facts, democracy is not possible. Yet many Republican legislators in the House, the Senate and state houses reject factual evidence and base their politics and identity on a contrived fiction invented by a narcissistic ex-president who can’t accept losing.

This is where Biden’s partisan detour begins. It is one thing to criticize the leaders – ambitious, opportunistic GOP senators and representatives, many with Harvard and Yale law degrees – for denigrating the rule of law and deriding institutions, from the electoral process to the FBI. But it is quite another to place tens of millions of Trump voters in that category.

An appreciable number of those voting for Trump previously voted for Obama. The numbers are estimates, but upwards of 40 percent of voters are independents, center left to center right. The failure of the political class to address the nation’s major problems has led to growing disaffection and alienation.

To lump these millions of voters together as “MAGA Republicans” is too simplistic, not to mention politically unwise. It is reminiscent of  Hillary Clinton’s dismissive comment during the 2016 campaign that many Trump supporters were “a basket of deplorables.” In contrast, Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wy.) argued that Trump and his congressional acolytes “misled millions of voters” by lying about the 2020 elections.

In any event, the point is that Biden’s partisan rhetoric tarnished the credibility of his “soul of the nation” theme that was otherwise well argued. It would also have strengthened his case had he referred to authoritarian tendencies of some on the left in the Democratic Party as well.

Biden’s listing of his administration’s legislative achievements and his agenda added to the speeches unnecessary partisan tinge. It’s not that Biden doesn’t have a compelling list of legislative achievements but rather that they belong in a separate speech.

These flaws notwithstanding, the evidence of imperiled democracy mounts in at least 19 states that have changed the electoral process, making it more difficult to vote and passing new laws potentially enabling state legislators to overturn election results. The evidence mounts of threats and attacks on election workers and even Republican state officials from Arizona to Georgia who defied the “Big Lie.”

Perhaps most troubling is that the drumbeat of lies about alleged rigged elections and purported fraud are destroying faith in the election process itself. Call it what you will, but assaults on reality and efforts to delegitimize institutions are the classic preludes to authoritarian rule, from Putin’s Russian and Erdogan’s Turkey to Orban’s Hungary.

For as one Russian author, explaining Putin’s methodology, has put it, if “nothing is true, then everything is possible.” 

Robert A. Manning is a Distinguished Fellow at the Stimson Center. He was a senior counselor to the undersecretary of state for global affairs from 2001 to 2004, a member of the U.S. Department of State policy planning staff from 2004 to 2008 and on the National Intelligence Council strategic futures group from 2008 to 2012. Follow him on Twitter @Rmanning4.

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Trump tried to pay lawyer with horse, New York Times reporter writes in new book

Former President Donald Trump once tried to pay a lawyer with a horse, New York Times reporter David Enrich revealed in his new book, per The Guardian. 

Trump offered the lawyer, who he owed $2 million, the deed to a stallion, Enrich reported in his book, “Servants of the Damned: Giant Law Firms, Donald Trump and the Corruption of Justice,” out next week.

The unidentified lawyer, from a law firm that worked for Trump in the 1990s, visited the former president at Trump Tower after he refused to pay, according to The Guardian.

“Trump made some apologetic noises. Then he said: ‘I’m not going to pay your bill. I’m going to give you something more valuable,’” Enrich wrote, per The Guardian. The former president then “rummaged around in a filing cabinet” and pulled out a deed to a horse supposedly worth $5 million. 

“Once he regained the capacity for speech,” the lawyer reportedly said “‘This isn’t the 1800s. You can’t pay me with a horse,’” according to The Guardian.

After the lawyer threatened to sue, Trump eventually paid “at least a portion of what he owed,” Enrich wrote, per The Guardian. 

Trump has racked up extensive legal fees in the last few years in the face of personal litigation and government investigations, according to ABC News. 

The Republican National Committee, which has paid nearly $2 million to law firms representing the former president since October 2021, recently threatened to stop paying Trump’s legal fees if he announces another run for president, an RNC spokesperson recently told the network. 

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Longtime counselor to Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts stepping down

A longtime counselor to U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts is stepping down from his post, the court announced on Tuesday.

Jeffrey Minear will retire as the counselor to Roberts on Sept. 30, a position he was appointed to in 2006, not long after Roberts assumed his role as chief justice.

The counselor to a justice works essentially as a chief of staff, working with other court officers on initiatives and cases and acting as a liaison with the executive and legislative branches of the federal government.

Minear said in a statement he was “profoundly honored to support Chief Justice Roberts and his colleagues.”

“I am departing the office with appreciation for the opportunity, with esteem for each member of the Supreme Court, and with the utmost confidence in the independence and integrity of our courts,” Minear said.

The departure comes as the Supreme Court’s conservative majority has faced additional scrutiny for overturning Roe v. Wade and the nearly 50-year constitutional right to abortion as well as for other cases reforming laws around gun control and religion in public government.

Polling last month revealed Democrats’ approval of the Supreme Court dropped to 13 percent, down from 36 percent in September 2021.

Roberts is a conservative justice who agreed with the Dobbs v. Jackson case that upheld a 15-week abortion ban in Mississippi, but he disagreed with overturning Roe v. Wade, which enshrined abortion as a constitutional right.

Roberts also took the spotlight this year when he ordered an investigation into the leak of a draft opinion that previewed the Supreme Court overturning Roe V. Wade.

Minear has had a long career with the legal system, working before he became a counselor for the Office of the Solicitor General of the United States, where he argued 56 cases before the Supreme Court.

Roberts in a statement said, “Minear has exemplified the finest tradition of Court staff.”

“He has brought deep knowledge, outstanding judgment, and a tireless work ethic to court management and improvement,” the chief justice said. “I am grateful for the many years he has served so well as my counselor and as an officer of federal judicial administration.”

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