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Leonardo DRS CEO to retire; successor named

Summary:

William J. “Bill” Lynn III will retire as chairman and CEO of Arlington defense contractor Leonardo DRS at the end of the year, with Chief Operating Officer John Baylouny named as his successor, set to lead the company as its president and CEO, the company announced Wednesday.

Also, longtime board member Frances Fragos Townsend will become chair of the company’s board of directors. All changes will be effective Jan. 1, 2026.

Lynn has led Leonardo DRS since 2012. It went public in 2022 after the completion of an all-stock merger with Israel-based radar company Rada Electronic Industries. Leonardo DRS’ parent company is Italian defense contractor Leonardo SpA, which retains 80.5% ownership of the corporation.

Lynn served as deputy secretary of defense during President Barack Obama’s first term, as comptroller of the Department of Defense from 1997 to 2001, and as counsel for U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy on the Senate Armed Services Committee from 1987 to 1993. He also worked as senior vice president of government operations and strategy for Raytheon.

John Baylouny. Photo courtesy Leonardo DRS

“It has been a profound honor to lead this company and work alongside such a talented and committed team, united in our mission to support the men and women of our armed forces. I am confident that this exceptional company will continue to play a vital role in shaping the future of our national defense,” Lynn said in a statement. “I have a longstanding relationship with John built on deep respect for his invaluable contributions in enabling the success of the company. He has a strong track record and reputation for driving innovation and execution excellence with an emphasis on meeting and exceeding the needs of our customers.”

Baylouny became COO in 2018 and previously served as Leonardo DRS’s chief technology officer and general manager of the company’s land systems and advanced ISR businesses. Baylouny earned an electrical engineering master’s degree at Stevens Institute of Technology.

Townsend has served on Leonardo’s board since 2009 and is currently its lead independent director. She has worked in the public and private sectors, serving as assistant to President George W. Bush for homeland security and counterterrorism, and held leadership positions at Activision Blizzard and MacAndrews & Forbes.

In 2024, Leonardo DRS reported $3.2 billion in revenue, up from $2.8 billion in 2023. In October 2024, the company received a U.S. Navy contract valued up to $235 million to manufacture, inspect and test AN/SPS-9B radars.

Lynn has a bachelor’s degree from Dartmouth, a master’s degree from Princeton and a law degree from Cornell Law School. He serves on the boards of Accenture Federal Services, the USO Foundation, the Atlantic Council, the Center for a New American Security, and National Cathedral School.

Judge blocks Trump administration’s shutdown firings

Summary

  • A federal judge indefinitely barred Trump’s shutdown-related firings.
  • The injunction halts while unions’ proceeds.
  • Unions say the cuts were politically motivated and unlawful.
  • The case involves thousands of federal workers across agencies.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A federal judge in San Francisco on Tuesday indefinitely barred the from firing during the , saying that were likely to prevail on their claims that the cuts were arbitrary and politically motivated.

U.S. District Judge granted a preliminary injunction that bars the firings while a lawsuit challenging them plays out. She had previously issued a temporary restraining order against the job cuts that was set to expire Wednesday.

Illston, who was nominated by Democratic President Bill Clinton, has said she believes the evidence will ultimately show the mass firings were illegal and in excess of authority.

Federal agencies are enjoined from issuing layoff notices or acting on notices issued since the government shut down Oct. 1. Illston said that her order does not apply to notices sent before the shutdown.

The Republican administration has slashed jobs in education, health and other areas it says are favored by . The administration has also said it will not tap roughly $5 billion in contingency funds to keep benefits through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly referred to as SNAP, flowing into November.

The American Federation of Government Employees and other labor unions have sued to stop the “reductions in force” layoffs, saying the firings were an abuse of power designed to punish workers and pressure Congress.

“President Trump is using the government shutdown as a pretense to illegally fire thousands of federal workers – specifically those employees carrying out programs and policies that the administration finds objectionable,” said AFGE National President Everett Kelley, in a statement thanking the court.

The White House referred a request for comment to the Office of Management and Budget, which did not immediately respond.

Lawyers for the government say the district court does not have the authority to hear personnel challenges, and that Trump has broad authority to reduce the federal workforce as he pledged to do during the campaign.

“The president was elected on this specific platform,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Velchik. “The American people selected someone known above all else for his eloquence in communicating to employees that you’re fired, this is what they voted for.”

Trump starred on a long-running reality TV series called “The Apprentice” in which his signature catchphrase was telling candidates they were fired.

About 4,100 layoff notices have gone out since Oct. 10, some sent to work email addresses that furloughed employees are not allowed to check. Some personnel were called back to work, without pay, to issue layoff notices to others.

The lawsuit has expanded to include employees represented by additional labor unions, including the National Treasury Employees Union, the American Federation of Teachers, and the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers. All Cabinet departments and two dozen independent agencies are included in the lawsuit.

Democratic lawmakers are demanding that any deal to reopen the address expiring  subsidies that have made health insurance more affordable for millions of Americans. They also want any government funding bill to reverse the Medicaid cuts in Trump’s big tax breaks and spending cuts bill passed this summer.

Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson has refused to negotiate with Democrats until they first agree to reopen the government.

This is now the second-longest shutdown in U.S. history.

The longest shutdown occurred during Trump’s first term over his demands for funds to build the U.S.-Mexico border wall. That one ended in 2019 after 35 days.

Ham producer to build $1.2M facility in Isle of Wight County

Isle of Wight County is bringing home the bacon in the form of a $1.2 million Darden Hams production facility.

Based in , the company will build a 7,200-square-foot facility on a 10-acre site at 17297 Carroll Bridge Road, bringing ham production back to the “Ham Capital of the World,” according to a Tuesday news release from Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s office.

The town of Smithfield was for centuries the home of the famous Smithfield cured ham, but in 2024, production was discontinued for Genuine Smithfield Hams, a brand owned by Smithfield Foods. The company, still based in Virginia, said the salty country hams were less popular than other kinds of ham.

“Virginia’s economy grows stronger when our local businesses expand, invest and create new opportunities right here at home,” Youngkin said in a statement. “Darden Hams’ expansion reflects the strength of Virginia , the commonwealth’s largest private industry, and the confidence that family-owned businesses have in our economy and our communities.”

Darden Hams will use the facility to expand production of Darden’s Country Ham as a product line under TLD Hams (dba Darden Hams). The building will have more than five times the company’s current production capacity and will house a curing and smoking operation, a warehouse, a processing area and a show kitchen for demonstrations and product tastings.

The company will seek a U.S. Department of Agriculture grant of inspection for the facility in January 2026, Darden Hams owner Thomas Darden said in an email, which will allow the company to sell products online and through wholesale interstate distribution.

Additionally, Darden Hams has committed to buying $306,331 (or 300,942 pounds) of Virginia-grown , according to a news release.

Dating to 1952, Darden Hams began with a smokehouse at the intersection of Bowling Green and Carroll Bridge roads, now next to Darden’s Country Store. The company also has Darden’s Country Store – Outpost at the northern end of . The company has two full-time and three part-time employees and expects to hire additional staff for the planned facility but doesn’t yet know how many employees it will need, according to Darden.

“We are excited for this opportunity to expand our facility and product line and reach new market opportunities while also helping to strengthen the agricultural economy of Southeastern Virginia,” Darden said in a statement.

The Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services worked with Isle of Wight to help fund the project. Youngkin approved a $50,000 facility grant from the Governor’s Agriculture and Forestry Industries Development Fund, which the county will match.

Virginia Democrats say U.Va.-DOJ deal violates state law

Summary:

Updated Oct. 31

In a new letter addressed to the ‘s rector and interim president, Democratic state Senate leaders raised concerns about U.Va.’s recent agreement with the U.S. .

Among the lawmakers’ allegations is that U.Va.’s agreement to end all diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives at the state’s flagship university is in violation of state law and possibly goes against federal civil rights law, although that is a matter currently under litigation in federal courts.

The letter also accuses U.Va. leaders of evading legislative oversight.

Signed by Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell and Senate President Pro Tempore Louise Lucas, the Oct. 26 letter asks U.Va. Rector Rachel Sheridan and interim U.Va. President Paul Mahoney to “commission independent constitutional analysis” of the Oct. 22 agreement by outside legal counsel; explore whether the agreement allows withdrawal or judicial review; consider joining other public universities to “mount coordinated constitutional challenges;” and provide the General Assembly with a detailed briefing on U.Va.’s specific actions on eliminating DEI and what authority the DOJ claims for these conditions.

Mahoney publicly released a letter Friday he sent to Surovell and Lucas in response. The interim president wrote that the senators’ letter “provides a detailed analysis of the potential grounds on which the university might have sued the United States to oppose any withdrawal of federal funding based on unreasonable conditions. It does not, however, consider whether initiating a legal confrontation with the federal government would have been necessary or appropriate, particularly before we had exhausted other less costly and risky options.”

Mahoney argues that he and other U.Va. officials are “bound to consider the costs and benefits to U.Va. of different paths forward. … It is essentially a cease fire agreement, and a far better option than leaping straight into a legal battle that might be unnecessary.” He adds that Harvard decided to sue the government only after many of its research grants were terminated, a sanction not imposed on U.Va.

The Senate Democrats also questioned if Republican state Attorney General Jason Miyares is “competent and capable of providing truly independent legal advice to Virginia’s public universities in this area of the law, especially when dealing with the Trump DOJ.”

Noting that President Donald Trump has endorsed Miyares’ reelection campaign, the letter says that the state’s public universities “need legal counsel who will zealously defend state sovereignty and institutional autonomy — not counsel whose political fortunes are tied to the very administration applying the pressure.”

The gist of the senators’ argument is that the DOJ is relying on an overly expansive interpretation of federal civil rights law in a July 29 guidance memo from Attorney General Pam Bondi. “By agreeing to comply with the guidance rather than the statutes themselves as interpreted by courts, U.Va. has agreed to a more restrictive regime than federal law actually requires,” Surovell and Lucas wrote, noting that Bondi’s interpretation of the law is currently under dispute in courts.

By agreeing to cooperate with Justice, U.Va. has “established dangerous precedent for other Virginia public institutions,” they wrote.

However, Mahoney wrote in his Oct. 31 response, that he does “not share your concern that, by agreeing simply to affirm that we are not violating the law every quarter, the university has somehow surrendered itself to onerous federal interference.” He also says that he disagrees with the senators’ view that U.Va. is violating state law or failing to maintain a “comprehensive diversity, equity and inclusion strategic plan.”

The DOJ announced Oct. 22 that it had reached an agreement with U.Va. leaders, five days after the university turned down the federal government’s “compact” offering preferential treatment in federal funding in return for instituting the ‘s priorities.

The agreement with DOJ requires U.Va.’s president to report quarterly to Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon, head of the DOJ’s civil rights division, through the end of 2028 to confirm the university is making progress on ending all DEI initiatives, which the Trump administration argues are discriminatory against white and male employees, students and prospective job candidates.

Mahoney, a former law school dean who succeeded former U.Va. President Jim Ryan after Ryan’s resignation in July under federal pressure, said in a statement last week that the agreement does not include a monetary penalty and no external monitoring.

“We intend to continue our thorough review of our practices and policies to ensure that we are complying with all federal laws,” Mahoney wrote. “We will also redouble our commitment to the principles of academic freedom, ideological diversity, free expression, and the unyielding pursuit of ‘truth, wherever it may lead,’ as Thomas Jefferson put it.”

However, the senators’ letter says that the agreement’s ambiguity is problematic: “What specific actions constitute complete ‘elimination’ of DEI programs? How does quarterly presidential certification work when the very standards for compliance appear to be moving targets subject to ongoing DOJ interpretation?”

Also, under state law, state agencies are required to “maintain a comprehensive diversity, equity and inclusion strategic plan,” a measure enacted under former Gov. Ralph Northam. The senators write, “this is not optional — it is a mandatory requirement of Virginia law. … Yet, the DOJ agreement requires U.Va. to eliminate DEI programs as a condition of maintaining federal funding eligibility.”

But in his Oct. 31 letter to Surovell and Lucas, Mahoney wrote, “Your letter suggests that the agreement also commits the university ‘to complete planned reforms prohibiting DEI at the university,’ and argues that such a promise is vague and overreaching. That language appears nowhere in the agreement.”

Further, the state legislature is in charge of U.Va. as a state university and the bulk of its funding, the senators’ letter adds — although, unlike an earlier missive from Senate Democrats opposing the federal compact, the senators did not explicitly threaten the withholding of state funding in the Oct. 26 letter.

The letter also mentions attempts by Democratic Sen. Creigh Deeds, who represents Charlottesville, to “obtain answers about President Ryan’s forced resignation” since Aug. 1. He sent a letter to the university’s rector and vice rector with 46 questions, 38 of which were not answered, according to the senators. “The board has repeatedly claimed it cannot provide information due to ‘ongoing DOJ investigations,’ yet somehow found itself able to enter into this comprehensive agreement with DOJ without any legislative consultation or transparency,” the letter says.

Mahoney and Rector Sheridan responded to Deeds and Del. Katrina Callsen, who penned a letter Oct. 23 expressing disappointment in the university’s deal, in a letter Oct. 27.

The U.Va. officials call the agreement “essentially a truce,” and that the university “will respect DOJ’s July 29 interpretation of [civil rights laws] when consistent with applicable judicial precedents — a condition we have vetted carefully and believe is consistent with our existing policies” since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned considering race in admissions decisions. The letter does not get into the issue of Deeds’ questions that the university allegedly failed to answer.

Meanwhile on Thursday, Miyares’ office is set to present arguments to the over state university governance, a politically charged dispute between the governor and the Senate, which votes on all governor board appointments, often outside the General Assembly’s regular session.

This year, Virginia Senate Democrats have rejected 22 of Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s appointees to the boards of George Mason University, Virginia Military Institute and U.Va. through committee votes, but Miyares and other argue that the entire General Assembly should be required to vote before board candidates are removed from positions of authority. Miyares will ask the Supreme Court to overturn a Circuit in the senators’ favor.

Rallies for PayPal and UPS lead US stocks toward more records

Summary

NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. is ticking further into record heights on Tuesday.

The S&P 500 added 0.4% in late trading. The Industrial Average was up 265 points, or 0.6%, with a little less than an hour remaining in trading, and the Nasdaq composite was 1% higher. All three indexes are coming off their latest all-time highs.

Moves were also relatively modest in the bond market as Wall Street waits for a few events that could shake things up. On Wednesday, the Federal Reserve will announce its latest move on , while some of the stock market’s most influential companies will report how much profit they made during the summer. On Thursday, President Donald Trump will meet China’s leader, Xi Jinping, in hopes of smoothing tensions between the world’s two largest economies.

Until then, profit reports from overnight and the morning were the main drivers of Tuesday’s action.

United Parcel Service rallied 7.5% after delivering stronger profit and revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected. UPS also gave a forecast for revenue in the all-important holiday shipping season that was slightly above analysts’ expectations.

PayPal jumped 6.9% after saying it made a bigger profit during the summer than analysts expected. It also said it plans to pay its shareholders a dividend every three months, while announcing a deal where internet users will be able to pay for purchases through OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

Skyworks Solutions climbed 8.1% after saying it would merge with Qorvo in a cash-and-stock deal where Skyworks shareholders will own roughly 63% of the combined company, valued at $22 billion. Qorvo’s stock rose nearly as much, 7.8%.

On the losing end of Wall Street was Royal Caribbean, which lost 8.7% despite reporting a stronger profit than analysts expected. Its revenue for the latest quarter fell short of expectations. The cruise operator also said it’s seen a “minimal” hit to its business this quarter because of bad weather, along with the temporary closure of one of its exclusive destinations in Haiti.

Homebuilder D.R. Horton sank 3.3% after reporting a weaker profit for the summer than analysts expected. Executive Chairman David Auld said his company is still dealing with homebuyers finding it challenging to afford a house, along with cautious consumer sentiment. He said D.R. Horton will likely have to keep offering incentives in the upcoming fiscal year to attract buyers.

Amazon, meanwhile, rose 1.5% after saying it will cut about 14,000 corporate jobs, or about 4% of its corporate workforce, as it ramps up spending on artificial intelligence while cutting costs elsewhere.

A slowing job market is one of the main reasons Wall Street is expecting the Fed will announce another cut to interest rates on Wednesday. If it does, it would be the second time this year where it’s lowered the federal funds rate in hopes of helping the job market.

The widespread expectation is that the Fed will cut rates for a third time at its final meeting of the year. A lot is riding on that, in part because U.S. stock prices have already rallied to records on expectations for it. That’s why the most important part of Wednesday’s announcement for Wall Street will be whether Fed Chair Jerome Powell gives any hints about upcoming moves.

Fed officials have indicated that they’re likely to keep cutting interest rates into next year, but they may have to change course if accelerates beyond its still-high level. That’s because low interest rates can make inflation worse.

In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury eased to 3.98% from 4.01% late Monday. A report showing confidence among U.S. consumers is a smidgen better than economists expected had little effect on the market.

In stock markets abroad, indexes were mixed in Europe following modest losses in Asia.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 0.6% from its record high. South Korea’s Kospi sank 0.8% for another one of the world’s larger moves.

Some of the strongest action in financial markets was again for the price of gold. It’s been struggling after an astonishing run this year, setting records and nearly reaching $4,400 per ounce last week. It’s since dropped below $4,000 per ounce, and its gain for the year so far has trimmed to roughly 50%.

___

AP Business Writers Yuri Kageyama and Matt Ott contributed.

Virginia Supreme Court hears $2B trade secrets case

Summary:

  • In 2022, was awarded $2.04 billion in a jury verdict
  • The jury found that rival used Appian’s in its software
  • An appeals court panel reversed the verdict in 2024 and ordered a new trial
  • Appian seeks to have the appeals verdict overturned by the state Supreme Court

McLean-based software company Appian presented arguments Tuesday before the that it should receive a record-breaking $2.04 billion jury award decided in 2022 — a jackpot overturned by three appeals court justices last year.

In 2022, Appian won what was estimated to be the largest jury award in Virginia state court history after it sued Massachusetts-based Pegasystems and an individual, Youyong Zou, in 2020, alleging that Zou, an employee of a government contractor using Appian software, illegally provided Pega with copies of Appian’s software and documentation. Pega disputed that claim, stating that anything viewed was available to the public. 

However, in July 2024, a panel of three Virginia Court of Appeals judges reversed the verdict and ordered a new trial, saying that Appian was improperly relieved of the burden of proving that Pega financially benefited from misappropriating Appian’s trade secrets.

In March, the state’s high court agreed to hear a petition from Appian to reinstate the 2022 judgment. Arguments took place in Richmond Tuesday.

In its petition to the Supreme Court of Virginia, Appian raised four errors it believes the Court of Appeals made, and the petition was granted on each of the four issues.

The Virginia Supreme Court also agreed to hear Pega’s cross-appeal issues, which asks the court to review whether the trial court and court of appeals made an error by finding that there was sufficient evidence that Appian “took reasonable efforts to maintain the secrecy of its alleged trade secrets when Appian disclosed that information to others who were under no obligation to keep it secret in holding” and whether Appian failed to sufficiently identify some of its trade secrets.

The 2024 appeals court opinion authored by Judge Frank K. Friedman rejected Pega’s claim that “Appian failed to establish misappropriation of any trade secret as a matter of law. However, we agree with Pega that the trial court erred in granting [a jury instruction], which relieved Appian of its proper burden to prove causation between the alleged misappropriation and any damages.”

Appian’s attorney, Robert W. Loftin of McGuireWoods, said during Tuesday’s arguments that the original Fairfax County Circuit Court judge who oversaw the 2022 jury trial “lived with this case for 16 months, he knew the parties. … There was no abuse of discretion in the manner in which Judge [Richard] Gardiner conducted the trial.”

Loftin argued that the Virginia Court of Appeals panel “failed to acknowledge or even cite” the standard that a jury verdict “approved by a circuit court occupies the most favored position known to the law.”

He also said that Gardiner was within his authority to rule against Pega’s attempt to introduce new testimony during the trial that would contradict how much profit it had gained from its misappropriation of Appian’s trade secrets in pretrial discovery.

According to Loftin, the jury heard that Pega incorporated Appian’s trade secrets into its entire platform, leaving all $3 billion in profits tainted, according to pretrial deposition testimony by Pega’s chief financial officer.

However, Pega attorney E. Joshua Rosencranz of Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe argued Tuesday that Judge Gardiner shifted the burden of proof to Pega with regard to how much of its profits were due to the misappropriation of Appian’s trade secrets, instead of Appian’s proving how much it deserved, and then refused to let the defendant give more precise testimony during trial.

“This was a terribly unfair and disastrous … one-two punch,” Rosencranz argued. “The court basically took away Pega’s only defense on damages, which is that half of our products don’t even incorporate the trade secrets.”

Asking Rosencranz about the source of that allegation, Justice Wesley G. Russell Jr. said, “It surprises me a bit … that you can break [the profits] down” by product.

Rosencranz responded by saying that this information was in the attorneys’ expert report, breaking down profits by product instead of by platform.

The pretrial questioning of Pega’s CFO, the attorney said, involved seeking a breakdown of profits by platform — leading to the deposition testimony that both versions of Pega’s platforms incorporated Appian’s trade secrets, without specifying that not all products supported by Pega’s platforms were tainted.

Rosencranz argued Tuesday that if Gardiner had allowed Pega’s to testify, he would have affirmed that half of the company’s profits are untainted by the misappropriation of trade secrets from Appian.

“Judge Gardiner was wrong,” Rosencranz said. “You don’t hold companies to their [pretrial] interrogatories, except in extraordinary circumstances where there’s sandbagging. There was no sandbagging here. We had an expert report that actually broke things down by product.”

The Supreme Court will take the arguments under advisement and issue a verdict, likely in coming months.

Texas lawsuit against companies behind Tylenol asserts unproven claims of autism risk

Summary

  • Texas AG alleges was deceptively marketed as safe for pregnant women.
  • claims early exposure may increase risk.
  • allegedly transferred liabilities to to shield assets.
  • Kenvue defends acetaminophen as the safest option for pregnant women.

Ken Paxton on Tuesday accused the companies behind Tylenol of deceptively marketing the pain reliever to pregnant mothers in a lawsuit that asserted unproven claims that early exposure to acetaminophen increased risk of autism and other disorders.

Paxton, an ally of and a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, announced the suit against Johnson & Johnson and Kenvue weeks after Trump and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. asserted an unproven link between the pain reliever and autism while announcing a wide-ranging effort to study the causes of the complex brain disorder.

The suit alleges that the companies violated Texas laws by hiding the danger that acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol, posed to fetuses and young children and “deceptively marketed Tylenol as the only safe painkiller for pregnant women.”

It also alleges that Johnson & Johnson fraudulently transferred liabilities arising from Tylenol to Kenvue to shield assets against lawsuits.

In 2021, New Brunswick, New Jersey-based J&J, announced that it would turn its consumer health business, which makes Tylenol and other products, into a separate company now known as Kenvue. It referenced that divestment in a statement Tuesday, saying “all rights and liabilities associated with the sale of its over-the-counter products, including Tylenol (acetaminophen), are owned by Kenvue.”

“Big Pharma betrayed America by profiting off of pain and pushing pills regardless of the risks. These corporations lied for decades, knowingly endangering millions to line their pockets,” Paxton said in a statement. “Additionally, seeing that the day of reckoning was coming, Johnson & Johnson attempted to escape responsibility by illegally offloading their liability onto a different company.”

Acetaminophen has long been one of the most popular pain relievers and fever reducers in the U.S., used by upward of 100 million Americans annually. Some studies have raised the possibility that taking Tylenol in might be associated with a risk of autism — but many others haven’t found a connection.

Kenvue stressed in a statement Tuesday that acetaminophen is the safest pain reliever option for pregnant women, noting that high fevers and pain are recognized as potential risks to pregnancies if left untreated. The Summit, New Jersey-based company said it would defend itself against the claims and expressed concern about the “perpetuation of misinformation” about acetaminophen’s safety and the potential impact on the health of women and children.

“We stand firmly with the global medical community that acknowledges the safety of acetaminophen and believe we will continue to be successful in litigation as these claims lack legal merit and scientific support,” Kenvue said.

Kenvue has said it faces litigation in federal court over the autism claims, noting earlier this year in an annual filing that many of those claims have been dismissed but are being appealed.

Carilion exceeds $100M fundraising goal for cancer center

SUMMARY: 

  • raised more than $105.6 million for its center
  • The health system announced Tuesday a new $50 million campaign to bring proton therapy to the center
  • Nicholas and Jenny Taubman donated additional $17.5 million to effort

When leaders at Carilion Clinic began planning a campaign to raise funds for a cancer center in Roanoke, they didn’t have a development office, so they hired a consultant.

“The consultant did what consultants do … and they came back to us and they said, essentially, ‘Good luck with that. The most we think you could possibly do is $50 million,'” Nancy Howell Agee, the Roanoke-based health system’s emeritus, recalled during a press event Tuesday. “So, we fired the consultant.”

Carilion President and CEO Steve Arner announced Tuesday that the health system has raised more than $105.6 million in its campaign for the , exceeding the campaign’s $100 million goal. The seven-story, 260,000-square-foot cancer center, which will be located on Carilion’s Riverside campus, is currently under construction and expected to open in 2028.

“Literally thousands of individual donors have made contributions to this campaign and powered it forward,” Arner said.

On Tuesday, Carilion leaders also announced the launch of a new $50 million initiative to bring proton therapy to the center.

Nicholas F. and Jenny Taubman. Photo courtesy Carilion Clinic
Nicholas F. and Jenny Taubman. Photo courtesy Carilion Clinic

“Proton therapy is the most precise form of radiation available today,” said Dr. Tony Seupaul, Carilion’s chief physician executive. “[Allowing] our clinicians to destroy cancer cells with pinpoint accuracy for those with tumors near delicate structures like the brain, spine or heart, and especially for children who need highly specialized treatment, we can treat cancer aggressively while protecting healthy tissue.”

Currently, there are fewer than 50 proton therapy centers in the United States. In Virginia, the treatment is offered at the Hampton University Proton Cancer Institute and the Inova Mather Proton Therapy Center in Fairfax. Carilion would be the only location in Central and Western Virginia to offer proton therapy.

Having the advanced radiation treatment in Roanoke will present Carilion, and its partners at the Virginia Carilion School of Medicine and the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC, with opportunities to participate in proton beam-based research. “Together, we’ll take part in clinical trials and new clinical education programs that advance the boundaries of what’s possible in cancer care,” Seupaul said.

Former Advance Auto Parts CEO Nicholas Taubman, a past U.S. ambassador to Romania, and his wife, Jenny, attended Tuesday’s events. In July 2024, the couple gave $25 million to the center, which is named in their honor. On Tuesday, Agee announced the Taubmans had given an additional $17.5 million lead gift for the $50 million campaign.

Carilion also received a $2.5 million donation from an anonymous donor. The campaign has raised roughly $20 million so far.

“Jenny and I are profoundly grateful to our friends, neighbors and the entire community for helping make the Carilion Taubman Cancer Center a reality,” Nicholas Taubman said in a statement. “Your generosity has brought this dream to life, and together we can take the next step by bringing this transformative technology to our region.”

The campaign to raise $100 million for a cancer center began in 2019. Agee and her husband, Steve, kicked off fundraising for the effort with a $1 million gift. Carilion employees donated $7.7 million. The health system had raised $96 million before inviting the community to give during Roanoke’s annual Freedom Festival in July.

Construction began on the cancer center in October 2024. HDR, an employee-owned design firm with headquarters in Nebraska, worked with Carilion oncology teams to design the building.

Serving nearly 1 million patients in Virginia through hospitals, outpatient specialty centers and primary care practices, Carilion Clinic has more than 13,000 employees.

OpenAI may move forward with new business structure, partnership with Microsoft, regulator says

Summary

  • OpenAI has converted into a public benefit corporation.
  • Delaware’s attorney general approved the restructuring plan.
  • Microsoft gains a 27% stake in OpenAI’s new for-profit arm.
  • A new OpenAI Foundation will grant $25B toward health and AI safety.

OpenAI said Tuesday it has reorganized its ownership structure and converted its business into a public benefit corporation and a crucial regulator, the Delaware attorney general, said she approved the plan.

The restructuring paves the way for the ChatGPT maker to more easily profit off its artificial intelligence technology even as it remains technically under the control of a nonprofit.

Delaware Attorney General Kathy Jennings said in a statement she did not object to the proposal, seemingly bringing to an end more than a year of negotiations and announcements about the future of OpenAI’s governance and the power that for profit investors and its nonprofit board will have over the organization’s technology.

The company also said it has signed a new agreement with its longtime backer Microsoft that gives the software giant a roughly 27% stake in OpenAI’s new for-profit corporation but changes some of the details of their close partnership.

The attorneys general of Delaware, where OpenAI is incorporated, and California, where it is headquartered, had both said they’re investigating the proposed changes. California Attorney General Rob Bonta’s office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday.

OpenAI said it completed its restructuring “after nearly a year of engaging in constructive dialogue” with the offices in both states.

“OpenAI has completed its recapitalization, simplifying its corporate structure,” said a blog post Tuesday from Bret Taylor, the chair of OpenAI’s board of directors. “The nonprofit remains in control of the for-profit, and now has a direct path to major resources before AGI arrives.”

AGI stands for artificial general intelligence, which OpenAI defines as “highly autonomous systems that outperform humans at most economically valuable work.” OpenAI was founded as a nonprofit in 2015 with a mission to safely build AGI for humanity’s benefit.

OpenAI had previously said its own board will decide when AGI is reached, effectively ending its Microsoft partnership. But it now says that “once AGI is declared by OpenAI, that declaration will now be verified by an independent expert panel,” and that Microsoft’s rights to OpenAI’s confidential research methods “will remain until either the expert panel verifies AGI or through 2030, whichever is first.” Microsoft will also retain some commercial rights to OpenAI products “post-AGI.”

Microsoft put out the same announcement about the revised partnership Tuesday but declined further comment.

Going forward, the nonprofit will be called the OpenAI Foundation and Taylor said it would grant out $25 billion toward health and curing diseases and protecting against the cybersecurity risks of AI. He did not say over what time period those funds would be dispersed.

Robert Weissman, co-president of the nonprofit Public Citizen, said this arrangement does not guarantee the nonprofit independence, likening it to a corporate foundation that will serve the interests of the for profit.

Even as the nonprofit’s board may technically remain in control, Weissman said that control “is illusory because there is no evidence of the nonprofit ever imposing its values on the for profit.”

Fed expected to cut interest rate again Wednesday

Summary

  • The Fed is expected to cut rates for the second time this year.
  • Another could follow in December, analysts say.
  • Lower rates could ease for mortgages and auto loans.
  • The remains difficult to predict, Fed officials note.

The will almost certainly cut its key interest rate on Wednesday and could signal it expects another cut in December as the central bank seeks to bolster hiring.

A cut Wednesday would be the second this year and could benefit consumers by bringing down borrowing costs for mortgages and auto loans. Since Fed chair strongly signaled in late August that rate cuts were likely this year, the average 30-year mortgage rate has fallen to about 6.2% from 6.6%, providing a boost to the otherwise-sluggish housing market.

Still, the Fed is navigating an unusual period for the U.S. economy and its future moves are harder to anticipate than is typically the case. Hiring has ground nearly to a halt, yet  remains elevated, and the economy’s mostly solid growth is heavily dependent on massive investment by leading companies in artificial intelligence infrastructure.

The central bank is assessing these trends without most of the government data it uses to gauge the economy’s health. The release of September’s jobs report has been postponed because of the . The White House said last week October’s inflation figure may not even be compiled.

The shutdown itself may also crimp the economy in the coming months, depending on how long it lasts. Roughly 750,000 federal workers are nearing a month without pay, which could soon start weakening consumer spending, a critical driver of the economy.

Federal workers laid off by the ‘s Department of Government Efficiency efforts earlier this year may formally show up in jobs data if it is reported next month, which could make the monthly hiring data look even worse.

Powell has said that the risk of weaker hiring is rising, which makes it as much of a concern as still-elevated inflation. As a result, the central bank needs to move its key rate closer to a level that would neither slow nor stimulate the economy.

Most Fed officials view the current level of its key rate — 4.1% — as high enough to slow growth and cool inflation, which has been their main goal since price increases spiked to a four-decade high three years ago. The Fed is widely expected to reduce it to about 3.9% Wednesday. WIth job gains at risk, the goal is to move rates to a less-restrictive level.

Kris Dawsey, head of economic research at D.E. Shaw, an investment bank, said that the lack of data during the shutdown means the Fed will likely stay on the path it sketched out in September, when it forecast cuts this month and in December.

“Imagine you’re driving in a winter storm and suddenly lose visibility in whiteout conditions,” Dawsey said. “While you slow the car down, you’re going to continue going in the direction you were going versus making an abrupt change once you lose that visibility.”

In recent remarks, the Fed chair has made clear that the sluggish job market has become a signficant concern.

“The labor market has actually softened pretty considerably,” Powell said. “The downside risks to employment appear to have risen.”

Before the government shutdown cut off the flow of data Oct. 1, monthly hiring gains had weakened to an average of just 29,000 a month for the previous three months. The unemployment rate ticked up to a still-low 4.3% in August from 4.2% in July.

also remain low, however, leading Powell and other officials to refer to the “low-hire, low-fire” job market.

At the same time, last week’s inflation report — released more than a week late because of the shutdown — showed that inflation remain elevated but isn’t accelerating and may not need higher rates to tame it.

Yet a key question is how long the job market can remain in what Powell has described as a “curious kind of balance.”

“There have been some worrisome data points in the last few months,” said Stephen Stanley, chief U.S. economist at Santander, an investment bank. “Is that a weakening trend or are we just hitting an air pocket?”

The uncertainty has prompted some top Fed officials to suggest that they may not necessarily support a cut at its next meeting in December. At its September meeting, the Fed signaled it would cut three times this year, though its policymaking committee is divided. Nine of 19 officials supported two or fewer reductions.

Christopher Waller, a member of the Fed’s governing board and one of five people being considered by the Trump administration to replace Powell as Fed chair next year, said in a recent speech that while hiring data is weak, other figures suggest the economy is growing at a healthy pace.

“So, something’s gotta give,” Waller said. “Either economic growth softens to match a soft labor market, or the labor market rebounds to match stronger economic growth.”

Since it’s unclear how the contradiction will play out, Waller added, “we need to move with care when adjusting the policy rate.”

Waller said he supported a quarter-point cut this month, “but beyond that point” it will depend on what the economic data says, assuming the shutdown ends.

Financial markets have put the odds of another cut in December at above 90%, according to CME Fedwatch — and Fed officials have so far said little to defuse that expectation.

Jonathan Pingle, chief U.S. economist at UBS, said that he will look to see if Powell, at a news conference Wednesday, repeats his assertion that the risks of a weaker job market remain high.

“If I hear that, I think they’re on track to lowering rates again in December,” he said.