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Johnson & Johnson Attempts To Side-Step
$100 Million Baby Powder Settlement

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Johnson & Johnson Attempts To Side-Step<br>$100 Million Baby Powder Settlement

Kori Hale
forbes.com
Contributor

I’m the CEO of CultureBanx, redefining business news for minorities.
Pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson JNJ -0.9% wants to claim bankruptcy to side-step anymore talcum claims, which was a primary ingredient in its popular baby powder. Right now the company is facing more than 38,000 cases that allege J&J talc products caused cancer, after agreeing to a $100 million settlement back in 2021. The bankruptcy setup claim is even more concerning for Black women, who 15 years ago, were selected by J&J as “the right place” to sell more baby powder to, specifically targeting  “under-developed geographical areas.”


The Breakdown You Need To Know:
J&J plans to dance a “Texas two-step” through its subsidiary, LTL Management, as part of a legal strategy that allows companies to separate liabilities from assets through a divisive merger, according to Reuters. CultureBanx noted the company had set aside $3.9 billion in a ‘trust fund’ for litigation expenses to cover payouts for trust lost from 25,000 consumers who purchased its Baby Powder.


An attorney for J&J told a New Jersey bankruptcy court judge that its plan to use a subsidiary to resolve talc claims against it is the best way to achieve an “equitable, efficient, and consensual resolution.” Lawyers representing cancer patients say that the bankruptcy case is meant to delay and frustrate lawsuits that would otherwise go to a jury trial against J&J directly.


Baby Powder Targets:
Racial and ethic disparities in U.S. healthcare are rife, with Black women facing higher risks to their health from discrimination. In 2006, the company began distributing baby powder through a specially curated network of churches and beauty salons targeting Black & Hispanic communities. 


Moreover, J&J launched a $300,000 radio advertising campaign in six markets with the prime goal of reaching “curvy Southern women 18-49 skewing African American.” To add insult to injury,  an independent investigation discovered that the company knew for decades that asbestos was mixed in with the talcum. 


The lack of care for Black & Hispanic consumers is evident, fueling fears about the ethical standards of J&J’s health & safety protocols. In 2020 alone, J&J was ordered to pay $2.1 billion to a group of women who linked their ovarian cancer to J&J products; with six of the plaintiffs dying before the trial started and five more passing since 2018. 


Situational Awareness:
J&J maintains that its consumer talc products are safe, even though it stopped selling baby powder in the U.S. and Canada back in May 2020. If J&J reached comparable settlements in all of the 38,000 talc cases pending against it, the company would have about $5.5 billion in liability.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/financialfinesse/2022/05/31/are-you-concerned-about-investing-in-a-529-plan/?sh=126ad2a44c97

CLSJ Statement On Special Master’s Redistricting Maps

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CLSJ Statement On Special Master’s Redistricting Maps

by Lurie Daniel Favors
As a member of the Unity Map Coalition, a consortium of New York City civil rights organizations, the Center for Law and Social Justice at Medgar Evers College is alarmed that the new proposed redistricting maps disregard decades of hard-fought efforts to preserve and enhance electoral power among historically disenfranchised communities.  The maps drawn by court-appointed Special Master Dr. Jonathan Cervas ignore many communities of interest, which are essential to protecting the voting rights and electoral power of New York City’s Black, Latino and Asian communities.


While the Court’s order emphasized the need for non-partisan maps, it is just as important for these maps to preserve communities of interest, as required by New York State’s Constitution. As our Unity Maps demonstrate, it is possible to draw equitable maps that adhere to the U.S. Constitution’s principles of “one person, one vote”; comply with the Voting Rights Act; protect communities of interest as required by the New York State Constitution, and preserve traditional and emerging neighborhoods. Special Master Cervas’ maps fall short of meeting all of these requirements: they unnecessarily split communities and neighborhoods without regard to the impact on voters of color or the protections of the federal Voting Rights Act.  
Our communities will suffer if these maps are adopted, which divide multiple historic Black districts including Bedford Stuyvesant, Crown Heights, and Co-op City, diluting Black voting power at a time when voting rights are under attack nationally. 


As members of the Unity Map coalition, we stand with our coalition partners to call for changes to the proposed maps that ensure an equitable distribution of electoral power in New York State. 

Lurie Daniel-Favors, Esq.
Executive Director, Center for Law and Social Justice at Medgar Evers College

Again the Pain.
When Will it End?

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Again the Pain.<br>When Will it End?

“What are We Doing?”
Senator Asks Question for All Americans

After another horrific shooting, this time killing 19 students and two teachers in an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, Sen. Chris Murphy took to the floor of the U. S Senate to express his deep anger and frustration.
The text of the senator’s remarks:
Mr. President, 14 kids dead [19 later confirmed] in an elementary school in Texas right now. What are we doing? What are we doing? Just days after a shooter walked into a grocery story to gun down African American patrons, we have another Sandy Hook on our hands. What are we doing? There were more mass shootings than days in the year. Our kids are living in fear every single time they set foot in the classroom because they think they’re going to be next. What are we doing? Why do you spend all this time running for the United States Senate, why do you go through all the hassle of getting this job, of putting yourself in a position of authority, if your answer as the slaughter increases, as our kids run for their lives — we do nothing?
What are we doing, why are you here, if not to solve a problem as existential as this. This isn’t inevitable. These kids weren’t unlucky. This only happens in this country and nowhere else, nowhere else do little kids go to school thinking that they might be shot that day. Nowhere else do parents have to talk to their kids as I have had to do about why they got locked into a bathroom and told to be quiet for five minutes just in case a bad man entered that building. Nowhere else does that happen except here in the United States of America. It is a choice. It is our choice to let it continue. What are we doing?


In Sandy Hook Elementary School, after those kids came back into those classrooms, they had to adopt a practice in which there would be a safe word that the kids would say. If they started to get thoughts in their brain about what they saw that day, if they started to get nightmares during the day reliving stepping over their classmates’ bodies as they tried to flee the school. In one classroom that word was ‘monkey.’ Over and over and over through the day, kids would stand up and yell ‘monkey’ and a teacher or a paraprofessional would have to go to that kid, take them out of the classroom, talk to them about what they had seen, work them through their issues. Sandy Hook will never be the same. This community in Texas will never be the same. Why? Why are we here if not to try to make sure that fewer schools and fewer communities go through what Sandy Hook has gone through, what Uvalde is going through. Our heart is breaking for these families. Every ounce of love and thoughts and prayers we can send we are sending, but I’m here on this floor to beg, to literally get down on my hands and knees and beg, beg my colleagues to find a path forward here, to work with us to find a way to pass laws that make this less likely.


I understand my Republican colleagues will not agree to everything that I may support, but there is a common denominator that we can find. There is a place where we can achieve agreement that may not guarantee that American never ever again sees a mass shooting, that may not overnight cut in half the number of murders that happen in America. It will not solve the problem of American violence by itself, but by doing something, we at least stop sending this quiet message of endorsement to these killers whose brains are breaking, who see the highest levels of government doing nothing shooting after shooting. What are we doing? Why are we here? What are we doing? I yield the floor.”

B.I.G. ART

David Mark Greaves
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B.I.G. ART

It felt like all of New York attended the late legend Biggie Small’s 50th birthday party on Saturday, May 21. Lines were queuing from the streets into subways for a special MetroCard issued by the MTA in his honor. The Empire State Building lit up like a monumental birthday candle saluting the music icon that Rolling Stone, Billboard and The Source have called “the greatest rapper.”


Family members, industry friends and notables attended the Empire’s two-day celebrations on Friday and Saturday. Hundreds of people — all ages- showed up on St. James Place and Fulton/Christopher ‘Notorious B.I.G.” Wallace Way to salute the late artist on the block where he grew up.  Roller skating, Double Dutch, dancing, hip hop performances and “juicy” Notorious beats–like his signature songs “Juicy” and “Big Poppa” – on a constant soundtrack. The celebration had the energy of a fabulous family reunion dedicated to Brooklyn’s Biggie with love.  


Art was a major star at the St. James party, as fine artists from the metro area armed with charcoal, paints, pencils, and brushes converged on the block and took up their spots to create their personal interpretations of Biggie. 


For those who were not able to attend the celebrations; get a MetroCard, or share in the experience of being on Biggie’s  block, the party is ongoing all year long … along Fulton Street with Biggie murals forming great backdrops for photos at the supermarket.  Mural locations near his home include, on the exterior of the supermarket at Fulton &t St. James where he bagged groceries as a youngster; across the street on the corner a few doors down from the Respect for Life barbershop where he had his hair cut; and the “Brooklyn Love Building” at Fulton and South Portland.  For other mural images and locations, visit: rockthebells.com/biggie-smalls.
(BG)

BK Photographer Barron Claiborne Created Iconic Biggie Pic

Biggie Smalls’ limited edition birthday MetroCard was like a collectible gift to 50,000 buyers. The iconic photo of the legend with the glistening golden jeweled crown titled on his forehead hit the secondary market with sellers. The Biggie commemorative card was being bought on eBay from $35 to $1,000. However, the biggest Biggie photo winner was acclaimed Brooklyn photographer Barron Claiborne, a protégé of Gordon Parks, St. Clair Bourne and Richard Avedon. The veteran Black photographer created the royal Biggie image for Rap Pages Magazine in 1997 when he purchased a $6 plastic crown shoot. Tragically, Biggie died days after the photo shoot. In 2020, Claiborne sold the iconic Biggie crown at Sotheby’s Hip Hop Auction for a phenomenal $594, 750! (FG)

Biden orders federal policing reform on 2nd anniversary of George Floyd’s death

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Biden orders federal policing reform on 2nd anniversary of George Floyd’s death

By Alexandra Hutzler, ABC News
May 25, 2022
President Joe Biden marked the anniversary of George Floyd’s death by signing the order in an effort to advance effective, accountable policing.
On the second anniversary of George Floyd’s death at the hands of Minneapolis police, President Joe Biden on Wednesday signed an executive order on policing reforms for federal law enforcement.


He had made a campaign promise to enact broader reform — but Democrats in Congress failed to overcome Republican opposition to a measure that would hold local police accountable — by making federal funding contingent on departments following congressionally-imposed requirements. The order signed Wednesday will apply to roughly 100,000 federal officers total, administration officials said.

George Floyd’s family was present at the President’s signing of the Executive Order on Police Reform at the White House, May 25, 2022.


Speaking in the East Room surrounded by Floyd’s family members, relatives of Breonna Taylor and civil rights leaders, Biden celebrated the order as a “measure of what we can do together to heal the very soul of this nation to address profound fear and trauma exhaustion.”
But first, he and Vice President Kamala Harris briefly addressed the shooting that took place Tuesday at a Texas elementary school that left 19 young children and two teachers dead.
“Enough is enough,” Harris said. “We must work together to create an America where everyone feels safe in their community, where children feel safe in their schools.”
Biden, who confirmed he will be traveling to Texas with first lady Jill Biden in the coming days, called for gun control reform.


“We’re here today for the same purpose,” Biden said, “to come together and say enough, to act, we must.”
The executive order signed by Biden will create a new national database that contains records of federal officer misconduct, including convictions, terminations, de-certifications, civil judgments, resignations and retirements while under investigation for serious misconduct.
It also requires all federal law enforcement agencies to revise use-of-force policies, banning chokeholds and restricting the use of no-knock warrants — two tactics that were widely criticized following the deaths of Floyd and Taylor.


Floyd died after a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for more than nine minutes. Taylor, a Black medical worker, was shot and killed by Louisville, Kentucky, police using a no-knock warrant in March 2020.

Vice President Harris said Wednesday it was an honor to be joined by the families, stating she’s been moved by their courage.
“Your loved ones should be with us today,” she added. “You should not have to mourn, should never have had to mourn in order for our nation to feel your pain and to understand what is wrong and to agree that something must be done.”

Harris also criticized Senate Republicans for not supporting the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, a package of reforms passed by the House last year, stating the GOP members, “walked away from their moral obligation to address what caused millions of Americans to march in the streets.”


On Wednesday, Biden once again called on lawmakers to pass the George Floyd Justice and Policing Act, stating he held off on signing the executive order because he was afraid it would undercut the effort on Capitol Hill to pass reforms. “Today we’re acting,” Biden said. “We’re showing that speaking out matters, feeling engaged matters, that the work of our time — healing the soul of this nation — is ongoing and unfinished and requires all of us never to give up.” Biden invited Floyd’s daughter, Gianna, to come and sit at the desk where he signed the order.


“A few years ago … she pulled me aside and she said, ‘My daddy is gonna change the world,’” Biden said at the ceremony.
ABC News’ Armando Garcia contributed to this report.

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