FRIDAY WRAP: Montana bans everything, Target's DEI growth fuel, billionaire Chuck Johnson's clam war, Florida investigates teachers, winners and predictions

LIVE from your ESG salad spinner, it’s a Business Pants Friday Show here at May 18th Lane Studios, featuring all your favorites: Ari the data queen, Jessie the money whisperer, BS-man Matt Moscardi. On today’s weekly wrap up: Disney does a thing, Target says a thing, Exxon ignores a thing, Montana is triggered by everything

Story of the Week (DR):

1. Disney kills $1 billion development in Florida just days before DeSantis' expected presidential announcement

2. Montana is first state to ban TikTok over national security concerns MM DR

3. Big Tech got a big win as the Supreme Court stayed out of the Section 230 fight, leaving intact the legal shield Trump raged against

1. The Supreme Court says Twitter and Google aren't legally liable for terrorists using their platforms.

2. But the court didn't weigh in on Section 230, a legal protection that Trump has raged against.

3. The Supreme Court handed twin victories to technology platforms on Thursday by declining in two cases to hold them liable for content posted by their users.

4. In a case involving Google, the court for now rejected efforts to limit the sweep of the law that frees the platforms from liability for user content, Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.

5. In a separate case involving Twitter, the court ruled unanimously that another law allowing suits for aiding terrorism did not apply to the ordinary activities of social media companies.

6. In the end, the justices sidestepped Section 230. The court’s opinion makes no mention of the law. Instead, the justices leaned heavily on legal questions around antiterrorism laws, finding the firms did not violate those.

4. Lab monkey prices soar in U.S. after China cuts off exports

1. Hunt for new supplier continues as Beijing keeps research animals on short leash

2. Prices of laboratory monkeys in the U.S. have jumped around 15-fold from pre-COVID levels, with China having blocked exports and a new stable source yet to be found.

3. The shortage could delay development by American pharmaceutical manufacturers, making the problem a matter of national economic security.

Goodliest of the Week (AB):

1. Miller Lite Defends Marketing Chief Over Satirical Ad Criticized as ‘Woke’

1. Conservative commentators target brewer for spot hitting past depictions of women in beer marketing

2. Molson Coors Beverage defended a marketing executive who came under attack on social media this week from conservative commentators unhappy with a satirical ad the brewer ran during Women’s History Month.

3. “People can take issue with our ads or our brands, but we won’t stand by as people personally attack our employees—especially given that these are company decisions, and are never made by one single person,” company spokesman Adam Collins said in an email.

2. Target CEO: DEI has ‘fueled much of our growth over the last 9 years’ MM DR

1. CEO Brian Cornell says doing what's right for employees and the company culture adds value for shareholders.

3. Get ready for a Starbucks ice overhaul: new 'nugget' ice is coming to stores

1. Starbucks said the rollout of its ice nuggets would take several years.

2. The round, pellet-like ice nuggets will replace the thin ice chips Starbucks currently offers.

4. Georgia’s carbon emissions fell. Is it enough to halt climate change?

1. Per capita emissions fell roughly 8% between 2017 and 2021, driven by a shift toward cleaner sources of electricity

Assholiest of the Week (MM):

1. Not with that attitude

1. Exxon Says Reaching Net Zero Global Emissions by 2050 ‘Highly Unlikely’ - Yahoo Finance

2. “It is highly unlikely that society would accept the degradation in global standard of living required to permanently achieve a scenario like the IEA NZE.”

2. Worker misinterpreted colleague's 'XX' on doc as kisses, tribunal hears - HR Grapevine

1. Thought her boss’s initials, AJG, stood for A Jumbo Genital.

3. Charles Johnson DR MM

1. Johnson's attorney - Danielle deBenedictis: “We flew here from Florida, in spite of the storm, to make our utmost opposition known to you on a personal level”

4. This question:

1. “At what rate did your firm vote in favor of proposals submitted by the National Center for Public Policy Research in 2022 and 2023 (through the date of this letter)?”

2. The GOP is now asking how often Blackrock sided with proposals on “religious deplatforming” and white discrimination?? 

Exhausting-est of the Week (JS):

1. A Florida teacher says the state is investigating her for showing students the Disney movie 'Strange World,' which features an LGBTQ character MM

2. Billionaires with too much time (and money) on their hands

1. Billionaire Sues Nantucket Clam Shack Set To Open Near His House

1. Johnson, who made his fortune at the investment firm Franklin Resources, was part of a cohort of wealthy property owners who previously tried to keep the clam shack from opening, claiming it would “destroy the ambiance” near their homes on the swanky island. In March, the local select board voted against them 3-1. 

2. Virtually all of the big shots have since moved on. Johnson, not so much.

3. Anti-Climate Montana DR

1. Montana Republican lawmakers have passed legislation that bars state agencies from considering climate change when permitting large projects that require environmental reviews, including coal mines and power plants. Gov. Greg Gianforte signed the bill last week, marking what could be considered the nation’s most aggressive anti-climate law.

Who Won the Week?

1. DR: Idiot billionaires who invested in a college dropout:

1. In a ruling yesterday (May 16), US district judge Edward Davila ordered Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes to pay $452 million in restitution to those she duped while building her hoax blood-testing business:

1. At $125 million, the biggest payout will be made to media mogul Rupert Murdoch.

2. Murdoch, alongside a group of high-profile individuals like Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, former secretary of state Henry Kissinger, and former education secretary Betsy Davos

3. Walgreens: $40M

2. AB: Me, I’m on vacation.

3. MM: Clam shacks

4. JS: Me, I get to marry Rob

Predictions

1. DR: A beer company–let’s say Heineken mostly because I hate Heineken–inadvertently enters the woke wars by running a spoof ad mocking Bud Light and Miller Lite featuring a black trans woman in a wheelchair

2. AB: Our platform 1.0 happens before my next trip to Oregon

3. MM: Montana bans Board Sabermetrics

4. JS: Rob and I have 12 children