While Democrats won some important elections this year already in local races, there’s one race coming up on February 21 in Wisconsin that’s already being dubbed as the most important race you’ve never heard of. It’s a nonpartisan election for a state Supreme Court seat – although I say nonpartisan in only the strictest sense, as none of the four candidates running have R’s or D’s after their name on the ballot.

Right-wing donors are pouring a lot of money into the race to ensure that self-described “constitutional conservative” Daniel Kelly makes it to the runoff on April 4, to be held between the top two finishers. There’s also Jennifer Dorow who boasts her conservative credentials and is vying for the seat.

2023 gives voters a unique opportunity to reshape the alignment of this court – something they can do by preventing either of those two candidates from making it to the April 4 runoff – and even more importantly, keeping them from winning at all costs – something they can do by promoting candidates Judge Everett Mitchell and Judge Janet Protasiewicz. Mitchell is a staunch advocate for voting rights – badly needed in a state where the last Republican governor did all he could for voter suppression, and Protasiewicz is a longtime community leader who was the first liberal to enter the race.

Fortunately, Kelly has managed to create a whole bunch of scandals for himself by rambling about judicial activists and already made history as the first Supreme Court judge to lose re-election. Let’s do all we can to make sure he loses again in 2023.

The post There’s a huge election taking place next month and no one is talking about it appeared first on Palmer Report.

Meta Platforms Inc’s (META.O) social media apps were down on Wednesday for thousands of users in the United States, according to outage tracking website Downdetector.com.

More than 18,000 Instagram users reported issues with accessing the app and about 13,000 incidents were reported for the Facebook app, according to Downdetector.com. Outage reports also spiked for WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger, Downdetector.com data showed.

Downdetector tracks outages by collating status reports from several sources including user-submitted errors on its platform.

Outages of Big Tech platforms are not uncommon as several companies ranging from Google to Microsoft have seen service disruptions.

Microsoft (MSFT.O) was hit with a networking outage earlier on Wednesday that took down its cloud platform Azure along with services such as Teams and Outlook, affecting millions of users globally.

Meta did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment.

A former Deutsche Bank AG trader whose conviction for rigging the Libor rate benchmark was overturned has begun a $30 million legal action in New York accusing the German bank of malicious prosecution for making him a scapegoat.

Gavin Black, who worked on the bank’s money market and derivatives desk in London, said Deutsche Bank and others conspired to commit “malicious prosecution and abuse of process,” leading to his unjustified conviction.

Black wants at least $30 million plus punitive damages from Deutsche Bank and other defendants, according to a summons filed on Wednesday in a New York state court in Manhattan. A formal complaint has yet to be filed.

Deutsche Bank did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Seth Levine, a lawyer for Black, declined to comment.

The legal action came two months after Matthew Connolly, who lead Deutsche Bank’s pool trading desk in New York, filed a $150 million lawsuit also accusing the bank of malicious prosecution.

Deutsche Bank asked a judge on Jan. 13 to dismiss Connolly’s case.

Black and Connolly were convicted in 2018 for rigging Libor, but the federal appeals court in Manhattan overturned both convictions last January, citing a lack of evidence of guilt.

Libor, short for London interbank offered rate, underpinned hundreds of trillions of dollars of financial products including credit cards and mortgages before being phased out last January.

Investigations worldwide into Libor manipulation resulted in about $9 billion of fines for banks, including $2.5 billion for Deutsche Bank in 2015.

Three individuals are also defendants in Black’s case.

They include Timothy Parietti, a former managing director of Deutsche Bank’s money markets derivatives trading desk in New York who testified against Black and Connolly after pleading guilty to a conspiracy charge.

Last August, a judge exonerated Parietti in the “interests of justice” because voiding Black’s and Connolly’s convictions meant there was not enough evidence to support Parietti’s plea.

Larry Krantz, a lawyer for Parietti, declined to comment.

(JTA) — Doug Emhoff’s itinerary on an upcoming trip to Poland and Germany includes a stop at the factory where Oskar Schindler saved over 1,000 Jews, a Shabbat dinner with local Jewish leaders and a visit to a United Nations center housing refugees from Ukraine.

Senior administration officials outlined the trip’s details in a call with reporters on Wednesday, a day before the second gentleman heads overseas, where he will be accompanied by Deborah Lipstadt, the U.S. special envoy for monitoring and combating antisemitism.

As the first Jewish spouse of an American president or vice president, Emhoff has made fighting antisemitism a main focus. Last month he convened a group of top Biden administration officials to discuss the topic, and he has toured Jewish college groups and other Jewish institutions in recent months. As officials noted on Wednesday’s call, the administration is working towards releasing a “national action plan” on fighting antisemitism.

Here’s a summary of the itinerary for the trip, which coincides with International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

Friday

Emhoff will attend a commemoration ceremony with other government officials and some survivors to mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day at the Auschwitz-Birkenau museum. The day is tied to the date in 1945 when the Nazi concentration camp where more than 1 million Jews were murdered was liberated. He will then join a Shabbat dinner in Krakow with members of the small but vibrant local Jewish community.

Saturday

In the morning, Emhoff will visit the former Schindler Enamel Factory, which now hosts two museums (one of fine art and another on the history of Krakow). It’s estimated that Oskar Schindler, immortalized in Steven Spielberg’s Oscar-winning film “Schindler’s List,” helped over 1,000 Jewish workers there avoid being sent to death camps.

After that, Emhoff will join a roundtable with Polish community leaders, antisemitism experts, religious leaders and academics who “promote tolerance, education and inclusiveness.”

Then Emhoff will visit a site run by the United Nations’ High Commissioner for Refugees, which is housing refugees from Ukraine who have fled the violence there. Emhoff will talk with refugees and UNHCR officials.

Sunday

Emhoff will tour Krakow’s historic Jewish Quarter and meet with Jewish community leaders before traveling to a southern Polish town to talk with locals about the country’s prewar Jewish history. He will then depart for Berlin.

Monday

In Berlin, Emhoff will convene a group of special envoys and coordinators working to combat antisemitism in their respective governments — Lipstadt’s “counterparts from various European and other countries.”

Emhoff will then tour the Topography of Terror Museum and the Museum of Jewish Life before participating in a dinner hosted by U.S. Ambassador Amy Gutmann, which will include German government officials and Jewish community leaders. Gutmann’s Jewish father fled Nazi Germany as a college student in 1934.

Tuesday

Emhoff will host a roundtable with Jewish, Muslim and Christian faith leaders, discussing “interfaith dialogue and understanding.” He will then visit a local synagogue and a series of memorials in Berlin, including the famed Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. Along the way, he will meet with German officials and a small group of Holocaust survivors before returning to the United States.

This article originally appeared on JTA.org.

The post Doug Emhoff will visit Oskar Schindler’s factory during Poland and Germany visit appeared first on The Forward.

Jack Sweeney and Getty

• Jet-tracking student Jack Sweeney is calling for people to boycott ADS-B Exchange.
• JetNet announced it had purchased the public flight-tracking site on Wednesday.
• Sweeney uses the site to share flight data on celebrities, including Elon Musk and Donald Trump.

The college student who tracks Elon Musk’s jet says he’s worried the tracking software he uses to keep tabs on celebrity aircraft could soon be yanked from the public after it was sold Wednesday.

Aviation data company JetNet said on Wednesday that it bought ADS-B Exchange, a free website that tracked thousands of commercial aircraft around the world.

Now it’s unclear whether the flight information on the ADS-B exchange will remain free to the public. Jack Sweeney, the 20-year-old student behind the @ElonJetNextDay account and other Twitter accounts that track celebrity jets, said selling the company violates the spirit of the air enthusiast community that’s powered the site. He’s even calling for a boycott.

Dan Streufert, president and founder of ADS-B Exchange, said in a statement that the deal would “meet the business needs of our users while maintaining our enthusiast roots and unfiltered data.” He didn’t respond to a request for comment from Insider.

The plane-tracking company, which was founded in 2016, uses more than 9,000 volunteer-run radios, or “feeders,” to transmit data from ADS-B-equipped aircrafts. ADS-B is a surveillance technology that broadcasts information like GPS location and altitude from one aircraft to another, and to ground stations.

The software was sold for an undisclosed amount. The website has been popularized by Sweeney, who attends the University of Central Florida. Sweeney uses ADS-B to follow certain aircraft, like those owned by Musk, Donald Trump, and Taylor Swift. He then sets up bots to automatically upload their flights to Twitter.

Sweeney took a jab at JetNet and Streufert for the sale, saying the move undermines the point of creating ADS-B Exchange in the first place. “The whole basis of the organization was that it’s a community,” he told Insider. “Everyone is choosing to give their data to make a community server, not to a private equity firm or company that is trying to make money.”

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

Meanwhile, Sweeney is calling for feeders to boycott the platform, calling it a “sad day.” He said he’s looking for alternatives to ADS-B Exchange, like creating his own version or using another tracking websites, like Open Sky Network and airframe.io.

This is not the first challenge Sweeney has faced since he opened his jet-tracking Twitter accounts. In early 2022, Musk offered him $5,000 to stop sharing the information, but the then-teen upped the ante and asked for $50,000. Musk never followed up, Sweeney said.

Later, his accounts, including @ElonJet and @ZuccJet, were suspended in December after the billionaire took over Twitter, with Musk citing the jet-tracking accounts as a “physical safety violation.”

Twitter has even updated its private information policy to restrict users from sharing people’s live locations and Sweeney has begun posting flight data with a 24-hour waiting period to adhere to the social media site’s policies.

According to the FAA, sharing the public information is legal, but there are a few federal programs that can help block the tracker, however the agency acknowledges that these are not a “silver bullet” and can be skirted via ADS-B Exchange.

This week, Arizona Rep. Ruben Gallego announced he would challenge Sen. Kyrsten Sinema for her U.S. Senate seat.

Sinema, the erstwhile Democrat who recently switched her party allegiance to independent, had come under fire from her fellow Democrats for voting down the $15 minimum wage, protecting the carried-income tax loophole that gives tax breaks to hedge fund managers and private equity executives, and blocking voting rights legislation. Former canvassers have said they feel betrayed by the Senator they helped elect, and her critics in the Arizona Democratic Party have accused her of avoiding public events. Her popularity is underwater in her state, and she has the second-lowest approval rating in the Senate, according to Morning Consult.

[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]

All that has left Sinema vulnerable to a 2024 challenge. Democratic Rep. Gallego, a Marine Corps Iraq combat veteran who is serving his fifth term in Congress, is the first serious candidate to put his hat in the ring.

TIME spoke to Gallego in a coffee shop in the bowels of Rockefeller Center on Jan. 24 about his platform, his dark times after returning from the war, and how he turned from supporting Sen. Sinema to challenging her for her seat.

The following interview has been lightly edited and condensed.

TIME: Why are you challenging Sen. Kyrsten Sinema for this seat?

Gallego: She’s just abandoned Arizona. We hardly see her anywhere, she doesn’t have an unscripted moment, we see her fighting for pharmaceutical companies, for hedge fund managers. She skipped votes to go do the Iron Man in New Zealand. Her priorities aren’t the priorities of Arizonans anymore. There’s an opportunity to change that, and I’m going to do that.

What would you say are your three most important issues?

Passing the Child Tax Credit. My mom did amazing work, raising four kids on her own on a secretary’s salary; we were on school free lunch program, but she prides herself on never being on welfare or food stamps. I slept in the living room because we couldn’t afford a bigger apartment. That woman had so much stress on her. She didn’t want to raise these kids on her own, she would have loved to have stayed married, except my father was an a–hole; it was an extremely dangerous situation for her to stay with him. He was abusive to me, he was abusive to my mother. Every night I’d hear her crying because she’s just trying to figure out how to make this work. There’s millions of Americans who deal with this every day.

And for six months, we had this beautiful period where Americans had a little stress relief. I heard from parents all over the country who said for those six months, I didn’t have to worry about how I’m going to pay for childcare this month. For those six months, I didn’t have to go to overtime, I actually got to stay home with my kid. It reduces child poverty by 60%. This is the kind of thing that could be revolutionary to this country, and we just kind of gave it up.

Second, we have to deal with climate change and drought in Arizona. Our future is entirely tied with how we’re going to manage this.

And lastly, immigration reform. We can’t ignore what is happening at the border, we clearly have a refugee and asylum crisis. We can fix it, but right now everyone’s solution is one-sided. We passed three bipartisan immigration reform bills out of the House and they got to the Senate, and even though we had control of the Senate, we didn’t really because of the filibuster.

Where are you on the filibuster?

I think at a minimum, we should be reforming the filibuster. It’s clearly been abused over the last couple years, and now it’s now used as a tool of obstruction instead of to create room for compromise.

You mentioned in your launch video that there were some dark moments after you got back from serving as a Marine in Iraq. Can you tell me about that?

The biggest problem is you don’t really know who you are when you get back from the war, because you were a totally different person when you went. I was a lot more anxious, I was quick to get angry. You have survivor’s guilt. There were a couple times when I should have died instead of my friends dying because we switched places. There were times where instead of dealing with it in a smart, sane way, I decided to drink instead of going to a therapist. I never got into a DUI or anything like that, but it’s also not a healthy way to deal with anything. And instead of healthy relationships I focused on a superficial idea of success. Focusing on getting a job, getting a better job, when I was really internally just breaking apart.

It took years for me to accept where I was in terms of that problem, and finally got help. I never felt the urge for suicide or anything of that nature, but it’s a weird situation where you don’t feel like yourself anymore. Whenever I feel a flare-up coming, I go back to a therapist. But it’s never going to ever go away, it’s part of my life. A lot of times people think veterans or people with PTSD can’t function, like we’re these ticking time bombs and you can’t trust them with anything. That’s one of the reasons why I’m really open about talking about it. But it’s something you have to actively work on.

What were the most difficult periods?

The breaking point was when my son was coming, because I was afraid I was going to be a bad father. Especially coming from my background where I didn’t have a good father, it was a scary moment. I knew I was going to be a bad father if I didn’t work on my PTSD.

But you don’t really have good years or bad years, you just have years. We’re 17, 18 years removed. Sh-t, my PTSD can vote!

You used to be a strong supporter of Senator Sinema’s, what do you anticipate her pushback will be?

Nobody trusts her. She has a lot of trust to repair with voters, and she’s not gonna take the necessary steps to do that: talking to people that you’ve pissed off the last four years, people you’ve ignored, people you don’t return phone calls from. A lot of us were with her from day one. I’ve been a big supporter of hers since even before she got to the Senate. There are thousands of people in Arizona that feel that way that are gonna have their say.

What was your breaking point? Take me through your period of disillusionment.

That sounds like a Gabriel García Márquez title right there. We always knew that Sinema was maybe more conservative than we would have liked, but we all felt that when push came to shove, she was going to be with us.

But post-January 6, after talking about being friends with John Lewis and John Lewis being her mentor, she uses the filibuster to stop the John Lewis Voting Rights Act.

And then it was other things that kept on moving in that direction, whether it was rejecting the $15 per hour minimum wage or negotiating for pharmaceutical companies to keep their pricing. Or lastly, when she went to the floor to fight for private equity managers and hedge fund managers, while the poor in Arizona are hoping to get a Child Tax Credit.

So how did you get from there to deciding to challenge her?

Knowing Kyrsten, and knowing Arizona, I also knew that nobody would take her on. In Arizona she has a reputation for being a very fierce fighter. We know she has a lot of support from the money groups. At the end of the day you can complain all you want, but she doesn’t change because of that; she doesn’t really care about the opinions of Arizonans, she doesn’t care about the opinions of anybody except for a few people. And so in order to make change, we have to get her out of the way.

Obviously there’s going to be a Republican challenger, and Arizona has a lot of independents. What is your strategy to make sure Democrats come out on top?

Our first place strategy is to solidify Democrats, and we think we have that in hand already. She is really, really unpopular and has been for quite a while. There’s also a large segment of Latinos that have not been engaged, that are going to be engaged, and are going to get excited about our race. People are talking about how proud they are that there is a Latino running, and they’re proud that it’s a Latino that comes from a working class background they actually understand. And I think energizing that young base is going to be extremely important. In Arizona, close to 5-6,000 Latinos turn 18 per month, and a lot of them are registering as independents. We’re going to be able to attract that vote. We’re going to energize the Native American vote; we’re probably one of the first campaigns to ever have a kickoff on Native American land. And we’re going to talk to people in red areas, we’re going to talk to anyone who wants to come to a town hall. We’re going to hit every county in Arizona.

What happens if potential Republican challengers like Kari Lake or Blake Masters create a narrative that you’re a far-left progressive?

So the same narrative they used on Sen. Mark Kelly and every Democrat last year? And in 2018, 2020, and 2022? They can say all they want about that, but the problem is that narrative doesn’t work.

Are you a progressive?

I definitely am in some areas and in some areas I’m in the mainstream norm. My voting record is almost the same as Mark Kelly’s.

What are the areas in which you’re a progressive?

Those labels keep moving around. I feel like now they’re just thrown at anything where people just want to say ‘that person’s bad.’

What is your message to independent Arizonans?

It is not independent nor is it moderate for you to be negotiating for pharmaceutical companies in Arizona. We’ve got Arizona seniors who are driving to Mexico to get cheaper drugs in Mexico than they could at Walgreens or CVS. That’s not moderate. It’s not moderate to be negotiating for private equity managers. Your Senator is supposed to be negotiating for you, not for people who have power. You may not agree with me 100% of the time as a citizen of Arizona, but I guarantee you’re always going to know where I stand.

Facebook parent Meta is reinstating former President Donald Trump’s personal account after two-year suspension following the Jan. 6 insurrection.

The company said in a blog post Wednesday it is adding “new guardrails” to ensure there are no “repeat offenders” who violate its rules.

“In the event that Mr. Trump posts further violating content, the content will be removed and he will be suspended for between one month and two years, depending on the severity of the violation,” Meta, which is based in Menlo Park, California, said.

Trump’s spokesperson did no immediately respond to a request for comment on the decision.

He was suspended on Jan. 7, a day after the deadly 2021 insurrection. Other social media companies also kicked him off their platforms, though he was recently reinstated on Twitter after Elon Musk took over the company. He has not tweeted.

Banned from mainstream social media, Trump has been relying on his own, much smaller site, Truth Social, which he launched after being blocked from Twitter.

Chevron Corp (CVX.N) on Wednesday said it would triple its budget for buybacks to $75 billion, the oil industry’s most ambitious shareholder payouts to date, as high oil and gas prices pad profits.

The oil industry has been facing calls from investors and the White House to put last year’s record earnings from sky high energy prices into more drilling, acquisitions, or to reduce prices for consumers.

Chevron on Friday is expected to report profits for 2022 doubled to $37.2 billion, according to estimates by Refinitiv. It has budgeted $17 billion on new oil and gas projects this year, up $2 billion.

It and Exxon Mobil (XOM.N) are poised to post record annual profits for 2022 of nearly $100 billion combined, analysts forecast.

Those unprecedented earnings led analysts at Citi on Wednesday to ask if one of the two might buy BP (BP.L)
, Shell (SHEL.L)
or TotalEnergies (TTEF.PA)
.

The U.S. oil majors’ valuations are about 40% above European rivals, Citi said. BP’s market value is about $108 billion, compared to Chevron’s $346 billion and Exxon’s $466 billion.

Chevron’s disclosure of the share buyback and a 6% increase in its quarterly shareholder dividend signaled it will allocate a big chunk of those profits to reward shareholders. It did not set a timetable for the buybacks.

Exxon Mobil, which led shareholder returns among oil majors last year, last month increased its buyback plan to $50 billion through 2024.

The White House last year criticized oil producers for distributing cash to shareholders instead of investing in production to reduce energy prices for consumers. It also pressed oil producers to raise investments in renewable energy.

The White House had no immediate comment on Chevron’s buyback.

U.S. oil producers overall are increasing their budgets for new energy projects this year, but the expenditures will be dwarfed by the amounts paid to shareholders.

Chevron shares rose almost 3% in after-market trade.

The energy industry last year was one of the top sectors in the S&P 500 index after trailing the broader market for years.

Eva Hambach/Getty Images

• The e-cigarette company Juul reportedly is in talks with three big tobacco companies about its future.
• The talks with giants like Philip Morris are aimed at securing a possible sale, strategic investment, or other deal, the Wall Street Journal reported.
• Here’s a rundown of the company’s history, from its $38 billion valuation to legal settlements.

Juul is looking for a fresh start.

The e-cigarette maker is talking to some of the biggest names in the tobacco industry, including Altria, Philip Morris, and Japan Tobacco, about options for its future, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday. 

The talks were in early stages and covered a range of potential options, ranging from an outright sale to one of the larger companies to licensing deals, distribution deals, or a strategic investment, the Journal reported.

Juul did not immediately respond to a request from Insider for comment.

Over the last several years, Juul has gone from a darling of Silicon Valley to a company beset by legal challenges. It also fell from a valuation of $38 billion in 2018 to just $1 billion last October, according to the Journal.

Scroll down to see Juul’s rise and decline:

2004: At Stanford, the product-design grad students James Monsees and Adam Bowen create the idea for Ploom, Juul’s precursor.

Juul.com / YouTube

Monsees and Bowen have said they were smokers who met on smoke breaks while pursuing master’s degrees in product design at Stanford University. Their thesis presentation, now posted on Juul’s website, describes their product as “the rational future of smoking.”

2007: Monsees and Bowen found the vaporizer startup Ploom in San Francisco.

YouTube / Hyphy SF

By February 2008, Ploom raised $900,000 in venture funding, putting its valuation at roughly $3 million, according to PitchBook.

A 2011 description of the Ploom device, which sold for $75, described it as a heat-not-burn product that could be filled with single-serve refills called “Ploom Pods.” The pods could include tobacco or non-tobacco ingredients, it said.

Aug. 1, 2013: Ploom debuts the Pax with a launch party in San Francisco.Ploom at Robin Thicke’s album-release party in 2013 in New York.

Andrew Toth / Getty Images

After raising close to $5 million, Ploom launched a device called the Pax, a vaporizer for loose-leaf tobacco that could also be used for cannabis.

To debut the device, Ploom hosted a launch party in San Francisco’s trendy Mission District.

At this time, Ploom investors included Japan Tobacco, the maker of Winston and Salem cigarettes, along with the software company Originate and the angel investment group Sand Hill.

 

Feb. 16, 2015: Monsees and Bowen sell the Ploom brand and a vaporizer line to the Japanese tobacco company JTI. They rebrand as Pax Labs.Japan Tobacco Inc.’s president and CEO, Mitsuomi Koizumi, using a Ploom during an interview with Reuters at the company’s headquarters in Tokyo in 2017.

Toru Hanai / Reuters

As part of the deal, JTI said in a statement that Ploom would buy back JTI’s minority stake in the startup.

June 1, 2015: Pax Labs launches the Juul with a party in New York City.

SRITA

Pax introduced the Juul with a launch party in New York City.

A trove of images collected by Stanford researchers suggested that the campaign focused on a young audience. Guests were invited to try Juul’s products free and share selfies on social media, Business Insider reported.

“Juul’s launch campaign was patently youth-oriented,” Robert Jackler, a practicing Stanford physician who was the principal investigator behind the tobacco-image collection, told Business Insider.

2016: Juul sales skyrocket 700%.

An ad on Juul’s website from 2016.

Juul devices gained popularity. Sales rose 700% in 2016, ABC 7 News reported.

July 1, 2017: Monsees and Bowen spin out Juul Labs as an independent company and name former Pax Labs CEO Tyler Goldman CEO.

Pax Labs; Melia Robinson/Business Insider

Goldman came to Pax from the music-streaming startup Deezer then took over Juul Labs.

Nov. 2017: Juul is the best-selling e-cigarette on the market.

Pax Labs

Juul said it’d sold 1 million units. The company also captured a third of the e-cigarette market, according to Nielsen data.

Dec. 11, 2017: CEO Tyler Goldman leaves Juul. The company replaces him with Kevin Burns.Juul’s new CEO, Kevin Burns.

Juul/YouTube

Goldman left Juul to “pursue new entrepreneurial activities.” The company hired Burns from the yogurt company Chobani.

Dec. 2017: Juul raises $112 million in venture funds and adds Nicholas Pritzker to its board, according to PitchBook.The industrialist A.N. Pritzker in 1982. The wealthy Pritzker family owned the chewing-tobacco giant Conwood before selling it to the tobacco giant Reynolds. They also founded and expanded the Hyatt Hotels chain.

AP Photo

The fresh funds came from firms including Tao Capital, Fidelity, and Evolution, according to PitchBook.

Nicholas Pritzker, Tao’s cofounder, joined Juul’s board, CNBC reported. Pritzker is a member of the wealthy Pritzker family, which owned the chewing-tobacco giant Conwood before selling it to the tobacco giant Reynolds. The Pritzkers also founded and expanded the Hyatt Hotels chain.

On an undisclosed date, Tao Capital sold its stake in Juul to the hedge fund Tiger Global and Manhattan Venture Partners, PitchBook said.

The venture fund M13, another early Juul investor, sold its shares in the spring of 2018.

This slide has been updated with new information about M13’s investment.

March 2018: Dozens of outlets report that ‘Juuling’ is an epidemic at high schools.A Juul ad from 2016.

Pax Labs

National news outlets including National Public Radio, USA Today, and Business Insider reported that the Juul had a loyal and growing following among young people.

All of the reports said teens were taking to social media to brag about being able to sneak puffs in class or in the bathroom thanks to Juul’s discreet design.

April 2018: Led by Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, the US Food and Drug Administration starts an ‘undercover blitz’ to crack down on sales of the Juul to minors.Scott Gottlieb, then the FDA commissioner.

Reuters

In what the FDA said was the largest coordinated enforcement effort in agency history, the FDA issued more than 1,300 warning letters and fines to retailers who it said were illegally selling Juuls and other e-cigarettes to minors. The FDA found the retailers by conducting what it called “a nationwide, undercover blitz.”

“Let me be clear to retailers,” Gottlieb, then the FDA’s commissioner, said in the statement, “this blitz, and resulting actions, should serve as notice that we will not tolerate the sale of any tobacco products to youth.”

April 2018: Wall Street analysts warn that Juul is starting to encroach on Big Tobacco’s financial terrain and could negatively affect Altria stock.A close-up view of cigarettes on June 10, 2015 in Bristol, England. Health campaigners have asked for a levy on the tobacco industry to help fund anti-smoking measures

Matt Cardy/Getty Images

In a research note, Citigroup analysts warned investors that the Juul was beginning to disrupt tobacco stocks.

The note suggested that the rise of the Juul could bode poorly for tobacco companies — including Altria, British American Tobacco, and Imperial Brands — as sales were falling faster than expected.

“The US tobacco market is beginning to be disrupted by Juul,” the analysts wrote, adding, “We don’t expect underlying cigarette trends to improve much in the rest of 2018.”

May 2018: Juul doubles its staff to 400 people.

Pax Labs

June 2018: San Francisco bans flavored e-cigs like the Juul, prompting an endorsement from Michael Bloomberg.An ad from the California Department of Public Health supporting San Francisco’s ballot measure to ban the sale of flavored e-cigarettes like Juul.

California Department of Public Health

Bloomberg, the former New York City mayor who is CEO of Bloomberg Philanthropies, called the move “an important step forward for public health” and said it should embolden other cities and states to follow suit.

July 8, 2018: Wall Street analysts say Juul is reviving the formerly comatose e-cig market, which had been slumping since 2014.

AP Photo/Craig Mitchelldyer

In a research note, Morgan Stanley analysts credited Juul with “driving a revival in the US e-cig market,” adding that sales of Juul devices “accounted for almost the entire incremental increase in US e-cig sales as a percent of total cigarette and e-cigarette sales in the last year.”

July 10, 2018: Juul raises $1.2 billion in a round that values the company at more than $16 billion, according to PitchBook.Bowen and Monsees at the Hotel Tortue in December 2018 for Juul’s launch in Germany.

Getty Images / Picture Alliance

The seven investors in the round included a maker of marijuana therapeutics, called Applied Biosciences, along with the the venture firm Bracket Capital, the hedge funds Darsana Capital and E Squared Capital, the investment giant Fidelity, the angel investor Sand Hill, and Tiger, according to PitchBook.

Aug. 21, 2018: Israel bans Juul products, calling them a ‘grave risk to public health’ because of their high nicotine content.A package of the Juul device and flavored Juul nicotine Pods.

JUUL Labs

In a statement, Israel’s Health Ministry said it’s banning the sale and import of Juul devices because they contained more than 20 milligrams per milliliter of nicotine and presented “a grave risk to public health,” Reuters reported.

Sept. 11, 2018: The FDA deepens its crackdown on Juul and other e-cig makers.FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb

Reuters

In a statement, then-Commissioner Gottlieb said the FDA was working on creating a system to “properly regulate” e-cigarettes like the Juul.

He said the aim was twofold: make e-cigarettes available as a less-dangerous alternative for adult smokers, but also keep them out of the hands of young people.

Oct. 2, 2018: The FDA surprises Juul at its headquarters and seizes ‘thousands of pages of documents’ as part of an investigation into its marketing practices.

Reuters/Ronen Zvulun

The agency was running an investigation into whether Juul marketed its products to teens, CNBC said.

The visit was an extension of the FDA’s request in April for materials related to how Juul presented its products and whether they were designed to appeal to kids, according to CNBC.

Oct. 2018: Juul surges in popularity, now accounting for over 70% of the US e-cigarette market, according to Nielsen data.

Reuters / Brendan McDermid

Nov. 13, 2018: Juul stops selling its sweet and fruity flavors at stores, making those varieties only available online.

Hollis Johnson/Business Insider

Juul says it will temporarily stop selling its flavored e-cigarettes in stores.

The move comes on the heels of a similar ban on flavored e-cigs that the city of San Francisco enacted over the summer.

Researchers nearly unanimously praised the move, which they say could help protect young people by making the products less appealing and harder to purchase. Juul’s flavored varieties will still be sold online, the company says.

Nov. 15, 2018: The FDA announces plans to curb flavored e-cig sales after reports that youth vaping has ballooned 78%.A high-school student vaping near a school campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Associated Press

2018: The Federal Trade Commission begins investigating whether Juul marketed its products to minors.Members of the Federal Trade Commission.

REUTERS/ Leah Millis

The Federal Trade Commission began looking into Juul’s use of influencers and other marketing tools to appeal to young people, The Wall Street Journal reported in August 2019.

According to The Journal, the FTC’s investigation began before it started reviewing a deal between Juul and the Marlboro maker, Altria, in December 2018.

Dec. 20, 2018: Altria buys 35% of Juul for $12.8 billion, bumping Juul’s valuation to $38 billion. Gottlieb accuses both companies of backing away from pledges to curb youth vaping.Packs of Marlboro cigarettes on sale.

REUTERS/Brian Snyder

In what the Silicon Valley Business Journal called “the biggest investment ever in a US venture-backed company,” Marlboro and the Parliament cigarette maker, Altria, paid $12.8 billion for a third of Juul. That gave Altria more combustible-cigarette market share than the next seven brands combined, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Juul, which had an annual revenue of about $2 billion at the time, also received a $2 billion bonus from Altria to distribute among its 1,500 employees, CNBC reported. That would have been about $1.3 million a person.

On the heels of the deal, Gottlieb called out both companies, saying they were backing away from previous pledges to fight teen vaping.

 

March 5, 2019: In a surprise announcement, Gottlieb announces he’s leaving his post as FDA commissioner.FILE PHOTO: U.S. Food and Drug Commissioner Gottlieb attends interview at Reuters HQ in New York

Thomson Reuters

Gottlieb, a well-liked figure who spent just two years steering the country’s top food and drug regulator, said he was leaving in a month to spend more time with his family in Connecticut.

The commissioner had made a name for himself as both a vocal critic of e-cigarette startups like Juul and a speedy approver of new pharmaceutical drugs.

In a resignation letter, Gottlieb wrote that one of his accomplishments at the FDA was taking actions against “bad actors that put Americans at risk.”

March 13, 2019: Gottlieb announces a crackdown on flavored e-cig sales.

Reuters / Mike Segar

Roughly a week after announcing his departure from the FDA, Gottlieb released a plan to crack down on flavored e-cigarette sales at gas stations, pharmacies, and convenience stores. The plan would also crack down on websites without buffers against youth purchases, such as age-verification software or quantity limits.

April 3, 2019: The FDA says it’s looking into a ‘potential safety issue’ related to seizures tied to vaping.

Shutterstock

In a statement, Gottlieb said his agency had seen reports suggesting that a small number of e-cigarette users (35 cases from 2010 to early 2019) had experienced seizures after vaping.

By August, the FDA said it had received 127 reports — but noted that the new figure might simply mean more people were coming forward, not necessarily that cases were increasing.

Gottlieb also noted that seizures were known as possible side effects of nicotine poisoning and said the agency would continue exploring whether there was a connection.

April 8, 2019: Democrats in the US Senate launch an investigation into Juul’s deal with Altria as well as its social media and advertising practices.Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts.

Sergio Flores/Getty Images

Eleven Democratic senators, including the party whip Dick Durbin and the presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren, wrote a letter to Juul demanding that the company answer questions about its advertising practices and its deal with Altria, CNBC reported.

June 13, 2019: The US House of Representatives announces an investigation of Juul’s marketing and the Altria deal.Members of the U.S. House of Representatives are sworn in on the House floor January 3, 2017.

Jonathan Ernst/Reuters

House Democrats launch their own investigation into Juul, Fortune reports.

July 16, 2019: Juul’s CEO apologizes to parents of teens addicted to its vaping products.

CBS This Morning

In a CNBC documentary, Juul Labs CEO Kevin Burns issued an apology to parents of teens who were addicted to the company’s vaping products.

“First of all, I’d tell them that I’m sorry that their child’s using the product,” Burns said.

July 25, 2019: Officials in Wisconsin warn of eight cases of severe lung disease in teens who’d vaped. It’s unclear what kinds of products or substances are involved.Simah Herman, 18, on September 19 with a photo of her former vaping devices in Los Angeles. Herman was in a medically induced coma and treated for pneumonia and lung-disease from vaping.

Reuters / Lucy Nicholson

In July, Wisconsin’s chief medical officer wrote a memo to healthcare providers warning them about a cluster of sick adolescents who had used e-cigarettes. Chest X-rays of the teens revealed similarities in lung damage, he says. 

The following month, the CDC released an emergency notice about 30 cases of vaping-related lung illness in Wisconsin. 

In mid-August, officials reported the first death tied to vaping-related lung illness: an adult in Illinois. 

By September, the CDC and the FDA said there had been 530 confirmed and probable cases of the mystery illness since June. Seven people died. The investigation is ongoing, and officials have yet to find a substance or brand that’s common among all the cases.

Aug. 16, 2019: Juul raises $785 million in equity and debt financing from Proioxis Ventures, according to PitchBook.

Melia Robinson/Business Insider

The funds will be used to speed Juul’s expansion overseas, according to PitchBook. The figure brings the company to $14.2 billion in funds raised.

Aug. 29, 2019: Bloomberg says Juul devices were involved in three reports of seizures linked to vaping.

Brendan McDermid / Reuters

In three reports submitted to the FDA, people said they or their children had used a Juul before experiencing seizures, Bloomberg News reported. Bloomberg obtained the reports through a public records request.

In two of the three reports, the FDA wasn’t able to officially confirm that a Juul device was involved, according to Bloomberg.

Aug. 29, 2019: Juul’s CEO warns people against using Juuls and says vaping’s long-term health effects are unknown.Juul’s new CEO, Kevin Burns.

Juul/YouTube

In an interview with CBS, Burns said anyone who wasn’t already using nicotine, the addictive drug in Juul, should not start.

“Don’t vape. Don’t use Juul,” Burns told CBS.

Sept. 9, 2019: The FDA slams Juul for portraying its e-cigs as ‘totally safe’ and marketing them to kids at schools.An ad showing a plate of food suggesting that users “save room for Juul.”

Juul

In a warning letter, the FDA said Juul wrongly painted its e-cigarettes, known in the industry as ENDS, as safer than cigarettes and marketed them intentionally to young people.

“Referring to your ENDS products as ‘99% safer’ than cigarettes, ‘much safer’ than cigarettes, ‘totally safe,’ and ‘a safer alternative than smoking cigarettes’ is particularly concerning because these statements were made directly to children in school,” the FDA letter said.

“Our concern is amplified by the epidemic rate of increase in youth use of ENDS products, including Juul’s products,” the letter added.

Sept. 17, 2019: Juul sales are halted in China for unclear reasons.An employee at a Tmall logistics center in Suzhou, China.

Thomson Reuters

A selection of flavored Juul products that went up for sale on two online Chinese marketplaces, JD.com and Tmall, were removed within a week, The Wall Street Journal reported. Both retailers declined to say why.

Juul had long been planning to launch in China, where more than 300 million people smoke, according to the World Health Organization. Its nicotine refills, or Juul Pods, are manufactured in Shenzhen, China.

Sept. 18, 2019: India bans vaping, citing the “impact of e-cigarettes on the youth.”

Reuters / Neil Hall

India outlawed the production, sale, import, and advertising of e-cigarettes, citing the need to stop the “impact of e-cigarettes on the youth,” BuzzFeed News reported. Penalties include jail time and fines of up to $7,000.

Juul had been planning to launch in India, home to more than 106 million smokers — second only to China — by the end of 2019.

Sept. 23, 2019: The US Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California has reportedly launched a criminal investigation into Juul.

REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun

The Wall Street Journal reported that federal prosecutors in the US Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California were conducting a criminal investigation of Juul. Further details, such as the focus of the investigation, were not available, and Juul didn’t respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

Several other investigations are ongoing, including an investigation by the Federal Trade Commission focusing on whether Juul marketed to teens and an FDA investigation focused on marketing, outreach, and Juul’s uniquely high nicotine content.

Sept. 24, 2019: Juul reportedly prepares to scale back its staff.A woman exhaling a puff of vapor from a Juul e-cigarette.

Associated Press / Craig Mitchelldyer

Juul began preparing to restructure its staff as it faced slower sales resulting from increasing reports about the mysterious vaping-related lung illness, the proposed US ban on flavored e-cigarettes, and a variety of other investigations, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The company employs roughly 3,900 people, according to The Journal, up from the 200 it had in 2017.

For now, Juul plans to hire less aggressively and start outlining plans to cut some jobs, according to The Journal, but will still continue to expand.

 

Sept. 25, 2019: CEO Kevin Burns steps down and is replaced by longtime tobacco executive K.C. Crosthwaite.Former Juul CEO Kevin Burns.

CBS This Morning

Crosthwaite was most recently chief growth officer at Altria, and has worked in tobacco for more than 20 years.

In announcing the change, Juul also said it would suspend US advertising and some lobbying efforts. Crosthwaite said he would “strive to work with regulators, policymakers and other stakeholders, and earn the trust of the societies in which we operate.”

Oct. 7, 2019: A crop of school districts across three states sues Juul.

Shutterstock

Four school districts sue Juul in what appears to be the beginning of a trend.

The districts include Three Village Central in New York, La Conner in Washington, Olathe in Kansas, and Francis Howell in Missouri. In separate suits filed on Monday, the districts argue that Juul created a public nuisance by intentionally marketing to kids; misrepresenting its products’ nicotine content; and endangering teens’ health, according to public documents that Business Insider viewed.

Cindy Ormsby, an attorney for the Missouri case, told the Riverfront Times that the Francis Howell lawsuit is “part of a coordinated package of litigation filed by school districts across the country, each dealing with a similar crisis of students addicted to nicotine.” 

In September, Kansas City school district Goddard became one of the first to announce that it was preparing a lawsuit against Juul.

The lawsuits seek unspecified damages and legal fees.

Oct. 17, 2019: Juul extends its ban on sweet and fruity flavors to include online sales.

SRITA

Juul announces that it is stopping online sales of its mango, fruit, cucumber, and cream varieties. Last fall, the company temporarily banned sales of those varieties in stores. As of Oct. 17, those flavors can’t be purchased in-person or online.

In a statement, Juul says it “will continue to develop scientific evidence to support the use of these flavored products.”

Oct. 28, 2019: Juul reportedly plans to cut 500 jobs before year’s end. Its chief marketing officer departs the following day.

Robyn Beck / AFP / Getty Images

Juul looks to eliminate roughly 500 jobs by the end of the year, the Wall Street Journal reports.

The cuts are part of a company-wide reorganization effort, according to the journal, and will involve anywhere between 10-15% of Juul’s total workforce. 

“As the vapor category undergoes a necessary reset, this reorganization will help Juul Labs focus on reducing underage use, investing in scientific research, and creating new technologies while earning a license to operate in the US and around the world,” KC Crosthwaite, Juul’s new CEO, said in an emailed statement provided to Business Insider.

The following day, the Journal reports that Juul’s chief marketing officer is departing.

“Craig Brommers, an incredibly talented marketing executive, has asked to transition out of Juul Labs in the coming months so that he can pursue opportunities with other companies,” a Juul spokesperson told the Journal.

The spokesperson also said that as a result of Brommer’s departure, the CMO position would be cut.

Oct. 29, 2019: Juul names a new chief financial officer after its existing CFO asks to leave.

Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images

Juul appoints Guy Cartwright its new chief financial officer after CFO Tim Danaher asks to leave the company, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Cartwright previously served as managing director of the investment firm TowerBrook Capital Partners LP, and joined Juul in July, according to the Journal. Danaher had served as Juul’s CFO since 2014.

Oct. 31, 2019: Marlboro maker Altria, which owns a third of Juul, slashes the value of its stake in the company. Juul is now valued at $24 billion instead of $38 billion.

Justin Sullivan / Getty Images

Marlboro maker Altria, which last December purchased a 35% stake in Juul for $12.8 billion, cuts the value of its investment in the company by $4.5 billion.

The move reveals that Juul is now worth $24 billion, down from $38 billion.

On a conference call, Altria cited unexpected market shifts like regulatory crackdowns abroad and a proposed US flavor ban.

“We’re not pleased to have to take an impairment charge on the Juul investment,” Altria CEO Howard Willard said on the call. “We did not anticipate this dramatic a change in the e-vapor category,” he added.

November 7, 2019: Juul stops selling mint flavored options, leaving only menthol and tobacco flavored refillable cartridges.A screenshot shows 2015 advertising for Juul products displayed in a print magazine

Reuters

Juul announces it will stop selling mint-flavored refillable cartridges, or Juul pods. 

In a press release, the company said it would immediately stop accepting orders for the mint-flavored pods from retail partners and stop selling mint-flavored pods online.

According to the release, Juul’s decision was based partially on new research  which suggested that mint and mango were the most popular flavors among high school students who Juul.

“These results are unacceptable,” Juul Labs CEO KC Crosthwaite said in the release, adding, “that is why we must reset the vapor category in the US and earn the trust of society by working cooperatively with regulators, Attorneys General, public health officials, and other stakeholders to combat underage use.”

2020: Amid the pandemic, Juul lays off 40% of its workforce in April, 2020. It then lays off over half of its remaining staff, resulting in about a further 1,000 employees being cut.Shopkeepers stand inside a Juul shop at a shopping mall in Jakarta, Indonesia, December 30, 2019.

REUTERS/Ajeng Dinar Ulfiana

2021: By 2021, Altria slashes its valuation for Juul to $5 billion, while Juul itself asserts it was worth $10 billion. Two years prior, the company was valued at $38 billion.A hand with a cigarette is seen in front of displayed logos of Philip Morris and Altria in this picture illustration

Reuters

September 30, 2021: The CDC and FDA releases a study that finds that over 2 million middle-and-high-school students in the US were using e-cigarettes.

Eva Hambach/Getty Images

The study found that eight in 10 of those students used flavored e-cigarettes.

“These data highlight the fact that flavored e-cigarettes are still extremely popular with kids,” said Mitch Seller, the director of the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products. “And we are equally disturbed by the quarter of high school students who use e-cigarettes and say they vape every single day.”

February, 2022: A judge rules that Altria can keep its investment in Juul.FILE – In this Dec. 20, 2018, file photo Juul products are displayed at a smoke shop in New York. The company that makes Marlboro cigarettes will take a $4.1 billion hit from its investment in Juul. Altria took a 35% stake in the e-cigarette company at the end of 2018 at a cost of almost $13 billion. The Richmond, Va., company on Thursday, Jan. 30, 2020 cited burgeoning legal cases that it expects to grow. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)

Associated Press

An administrative judge ruled that Altria didn’t break antitrust laws by taking a 35% stake in Juul. The Federal Trade Commission had sued in 2019, and can still appeal the ruling. 

June 23, 2022: The FDA bans Juul from selling and distributing its e-cigarette products in the US, and also orders that all products currently in the market be removed.

Markets Insider

Altria’s stock plunged 10% on news of the ban. The FDA did briefly prohibit Juul products in the US, though an appeal of the decision forced the agency to put its decision on hold.

December 6, 2022: Juul agrees to settle roughly 5,000 lawsuits that accused the company of marketing its products to teens and children.

Julia Naftulin

Juul got an equity investment to pay for the settlement costs, though the financial terms were not disclosed, the Wall Street Journal reported at the time.

January 25, 2023: Juul executives were in discussions with major tobacco companies, including Philip Morris, Japan Tobacco, and Altria, the Wall Street Journal reported.Close-up of logo for e-cigarette or vape company Juul on glass window of convenience store in San Ramon, California, December 6, 2019.

Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images

The talks included multiple possibilities, including an outright sale of Juul as well as strategic investments and licensing and distribution deals, the Journal reported.

Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call and Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

• The GOP wants to remove Ilhan Omar from a committee over years-old comments seen as anti-Semitic.
• Two Republicans have said they won’t vote for the resolution, which is expected in the coming weeks.
• George Santos, who has lied about being the Jewish descendant of Holocaust survivors, is undecided.

Rep. Ilhan Omar’s continued service on the House Committee on Foreign Affairs may ultimately be decided, in part, by George Santos.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is poised to hold a vote in the coming weeks on a resolution that would remove the Minnesota Democrat from the committee, citing comments she made years ago about Americans’ support for Israel.

But two Republicans — Reps. Nancy Mace of South Carolina and Victoria Spartz of Indiana — have said they will oppose the effort.

And Santos — who has admitted to lying about his purported Jewish background by claiming that he was simply saying “Jew-ish” — told Insider at the Capitol on Wednesday that he had not decided how he’ll vote on the matter.

“That’s a good question,” said Santos. “I don’t know.”

Santos, currently battling allegations that he once performed in drag in Brazil, was then interrupted by a man filming with his cellphone who asked the Long Island congressman who he thinks will win this season of “RuPaul’s Drag Race.”

“I have not watched this season of Drag Race,” Santos replied. 

As he boarded an elevator, Santos re-affirmed that he hadn’t decided how he would vote on Omar.

“Not yet. No,” he said. “But we’ll get back to you, we’ll get back to you.”

McCarthy can only lose a handful of Republican votes on the resolution in a closely divided House, and several other Republicans have said they’re undecided. Democrats are expected to remain unanimous in voting to keep Omar on the committee.

That makes Santos’s decision on the matter pivotal to Omar’s future.

Santos, who once claimed to be a “proud Jew” and the descendant of Holocaust survivors, owned up to lying about that aspect of his background after reporting revealed it to be a fabrication. Some fellow Republicans have cited that lie in particular as they’ve called for him to resign from Congress.

The effort to block Omar from serving on Foreign Affairs is part of a broader effort by McCarthy to deny committee seats to Democrats, in part as retribution for a duo of bipartisan votes that removed Republican Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Paul Gosar of Arizona from their committees over violent rhetoric during the last Congress.

McCarthy also officially rejected the appointments of Democratic Reps. Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell of California to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence on Tuesday, accusing Schiff of lying to the public ahead of former President Donald Trump’s first impeachment and pointing to Swalwell’s brief association with a Chinese spy.

As House Speaker, McCarthy has the unilateral ability to reject Jeffries’s picks for any select committee but must subject votes for the Foreign Affairs Committee to a full floor vote.

McCarthy and other Republicans have pointed to comments that Omar made about Israel during her first term, when she insinuated that American support for the Jewish nation was primarily rooted in money. Many members of Congress, including some Democrats, said the comments were anti-Semitic.

Omar apologized at the time, and on Wednesday, she called the effort to remove her from the committee was a “political stunt.”

—Rep. Ilhan Omar (@Ilhan) January 25, 2023