Month: July 2016

Money in Politics July 22, 2016July 22, 2016

Humana co-founder Jones gives $250K more to PAC aiming to flip state House, joining Trump and other heavy-hitters

David Jones Sr.‘s contribution is on top of the $200,000 he gave to Kentuckians for Strong Leadership last September, and $125,000 he gave in February 2014 — a total $575,000, according to new Federal Election Commission records.

The super PAC was created three years ago by allies of U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell to help Kentucky’s senior senator win re-election in 2014, according to The Courier-Journal.

With McConnell’s win in November 2014, the PAC’s priority is now helping Republicans capture a majority in the Kentucky House of Representatives this fall. If they succeed, Kentucky would be the last state government in the south to fall completely under GOP control.

Jones’ most recent donation came May 13, according to the PAC’s second-quarter report, and formed the bulk of the $290,000 receipts for the period. Since it was launched, the PAC has raised at least $8.3 million from 164 donors, according to FEC records. It had $5.5 million on hand at the end of the quarter.

High-profile PAC donors include Donald Trump, the newly nominated GOP candidate for the White House; he gave $60,000 in October 2014 and May 2013. But Jones has been most generous, with his total $575,000 more than any other single donor, according to a Boulevard analysis of FEC records. Another top donor was Robert McNair of Houston, who gave $500,000 in September 2014; he’s founder and CEO of the NFL’s Houston Texans. And here are four more:

Lawrence F. DeGeorge of Jupiter, Fla., $500,000 in two donations, in July 2014 and November 2013. He lists his employer as venture capital firm LPL Investment Group
Christine Chao of New York, $400,000 in September 2014; she lists her occupation as self-employed. (McConnell’s wife, Elaine Chao, has a sister named Christine, but it’s unclear whether they two women are one in the same. Through the wealthy Chao family, McConnell is one of the richest U.S. senators, with as much as $43 million)
John W. Childs of Vero Beach, Fla., $390,000 combined in August and May 2014 and April 2013. He’s chairman of his namesake private-equity firm.
Murray Energy Corp. of St. Clarksville, Ohio, $300,000, also in September 2014. The coal producer announced earlier this month that it may lay off up to 4,400 coal miners by September in Kentucky, Ohio, West Virginia, Illinois, Utah and Pennsylvania

Read this Boulevard spreadsheet to see all 164 donors.

GOP leads in June

Overall, the Kentucky Republican Party raised $209,000 in June, and spent $105,000, giving it $1.6 million in the bank, according to its FEC report for the month.

The Kentucky Democratic Party didn’t do nearly as well. The state Democratic Central Executive Committee took in only $68,000 during the month and spent $102,000, leaving just $72,651 on hand.

Cops and Courts July 22, 2016July 22, 2016

Video at Russian KFC: one man knocks another unconscious with ‘jaw-crushing right hook’; and U.K. man to be tried in horrific attack on 17-year-old at Hut

The latest crime news across the world of 48,000 restaurants*; updated 3:02 p.m.

At a KFC in Russia, one man cold-cocked another diner out cold in an incident caught on video by a witness who described it as “the hardest punch I’ve ever seen.”

In the background of the video, according to the U.K.’s Daily Star, a large man dressed in a blue polo shirt engages in an escalating war of words with another diner in a pink sleeveless vest. The man in the vest appears to try and grab his dining partner, “but it’s clearly a mistake — the man in blue pushes him away “before launching a jaw-crushing right hook.”

The Daily Star story doesn’t say when the fight took place. Here’s the video:

Pizza Hut

In the U.K. 18 miles south of London, a 32-year-old man accused of raping, stabbing and kidnapping a teenage girl last month will face trial in November. The incident started at a Pizza Hut in Epsom, according to news reports.

The man, Costica Voedes of Epsom, has been charged with two counts of wounding with intent, two counts of rape, kidnap, false imprisonment, possession of an offensive weapon, affray and common assault, according to the Epsom Guardian. He will be tried at Guildford Crown Court on Nov. 21, with the trial expected to last seven days.

Voedes did not appear at a pre-trial preparation hearing at Guildford Crown Court yesterday, and so did not enter a plea, the Guardian said.

Surrey police said the charges relate to an incident that took place shortly after 10.30 p.m. on June 17 — a Friday — at the Pizza Hut restaurant on Waterloo Road and Court Recreation Ground. Police say Voedes burst into the outlet and dragged the 17-year-old girl outside, later raping her at a nearby recreation ground, according to the Sun.

A restaurant employee who rushed to intervene was also attacked and injured, the Sun said.

* Yum has 43,000 KFCs, Pizza Huts and Taco Bells in nearly 140 countries; Papa John’s has 4,900 in 37 countries, and Texas Roadhouse has 485 restaurants in five countries. With that many locations, crimes inevitably will occur — with potentially serious legal consequences for the companies.

Latest Headlines July 22, 2016July 23, 2016

Lexington judge won’t budge on $5.3M bias award against UPS; Humana’s got slim chance beating anti-trusters; BF nabs top disability award; and Chinese nationalists expand protests beyond KFC

A news summary focused on 10 big employers; updated 4:37 p.m.

UPS: This morning in Lexington, Ky., a Fayette Circuit judge denied a motion to overturn a jury’s April verdict and $5.3 million in damages to eight black men who claimed a hostile work environment at a UPS facility in the city. Judge Ernesto Scorscone also rejected UPS attorney Neal Shah’s motion for a new trial. Shah didn’t have any comment after the hearing (Herald-Leader).

HUMANA and Aetna have only a slight chance to reverse the Justice Department’s decision yesterday to block their $37 billion merger, analysts and investors told Reuters, even as the two insurance giants promise to fight tooth and nail to win. “My initial impression from the complaint . . . is that the Justice Department and the states are on much safer ground” in their argument against an Aetna-Humana, said Beau Buffier, co-head of the antitrust group at Shearman & Sterling in New York (Reuters). Meanwhile, New Hampshire and Florida — with an especially big population of seniors — joined the Justice Department suit filed yesterday to block its $37 billion acquisition by Aetna of Hartford; Illinois joined the suit yesterday (Union Leader and News 4 Jax).

In more encouraging news, Humana was awarded a six-year Defense Department contract for the East Region of TRICARE, the military health care program providing benefits to service members, retirees and their families. Under the award, Humana’s service area would expand to about six million beneficiaries in a 30-state region. The Louisville-based insurer already has the contract for the South Region: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, most of Texas and the Ft. Campbell-area in Kentucky. The new East Region is a combination of the current South and North regions (press release). The contract is worth $41 million (Federal News Radio). Humana’s announcement, nearly buried in yesterday’s DOJ news, to exit eight of 19 state health-care exchanges drew critics, who saw the move as a direct challenge to the Obama administration to block the Humana-Aetna merger (New York Post).

BROWN-FORMAN was awarded a score of 100 in the 2016 Disability Equality Index survey, by the US Business Leadership Network and the American Association of People with Disabilities. The survey awarded points in four major categories: culture and leadership, company-wide access, employment practices, and community engagement and support services. This year, 83 Fortune 1000-size companies completed the survey; two-thirds of these top the Fortune 500 list; complete list (news release).

KFC: Chinese nationalists have added iPhones and Continue reading “Lexington judge won’t budge on $5.3M bias award against UPS; Humana’s got slim chance beating anti-trusters; BF nabs top disability award; and Chinese nationalists expand protests beyond KFC” →

Latest Headlines July 21, 2016July 22, 2016

BULLETIN: DOJ SUES TO HALT BLOCKBUSTER HUMANA-AETNA AND ANTHEM-CIGNA MERGERS; VOWS TO FIGHT, BUT STUNNING MOVE CASTS SHADOW OVER COMPANY AND CITY

In a pair of widely anticipated lawsuits, the Department of Justice said the two multi-billion dollar mergers would reduce competition, raise prices for consumers and stifle innovation if the number of large, national insurers were to fall from five to three, according to Reuters and multiple other news outlets. Latest news developments at 4:19 p.m.

“We will not hesitate to intervene. We will not shy away from complex cases,” U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch told a news conference today. “We will protect the interests of the American people.”

Although the DOJ had signaled its opposition a week ago, today’s suits were still a stunning turn of events for Humana, which announced its planned $37 billion tie-up with Aetna of Hartford a year ago. The agency’s move immediately threw into doubt the future of the Fortune 500 company, founded in 1961 by attorneys and Kentucky natives David A. Jones and Wendell Cherry with a single nursing home. With 12,500 workers in Louisville alone, it’s one of the city’s biggest private employers.

The DOJ’s move was the latest example of the Obama administration challenging massive combinations in major industries, from oilfield services to telecommunications, according to Reuters. “We have no doubt that these mergers would reduce competition from what it is today,” said Principal Deputy Associate Attorney General William Baer, who spearheaded the antitrust reviews.

Humana shares roared 8% higher, closing at $171.53 a share, up $13.12, after the news broke shortly before noon. That gain may be due to the insurer’s raising full-year earnings guidance. In a press release amid the DOJ news, Humana said the higher guidance is primarily the result of better-than-anticipated year-to-date performance for its individual Medicare Advantage and Healthcare Services businesses, partially offset by continued challenges in the individual commercial medical business. Humana also said it plans to exit eight of 19 state Obamacare health care exchanges.

The stock’s rise may also reflect Wall Street’s preference for certainty over doubt. With the DOJ’s suit, stockholders now know what may be the worst. More than 10 million shares changed hands by the close of trading at 4 p.m. ET, nearly four times average volume.

Aetna’s stock rose a slimmer 1.6%, closing at $118.30. Unlike Humana’s, Aetna’s shares hadn’t been beaten down as much in the week since the DOJ’s opposition became clear last Thursday and Friday.

Will ‘vigorously defend’ plan

In the Humana-Aetna case, the government focused on the companies’ offering for Medicare Advantage and their ability to compete on public exchanges that were set up by the Affordable Care Act, according to The New York Times.

Humana and Aetna said they would “vigorously defend” their pending merger. The Hartford company said previously that it would challenge a DOJ decision to block the merger, the Times said. Cigna said it was evaluating its options but did not expect the transaction to close anytime soon, “if at all.”

Aetna CEO Mark Bertolini said the company has proposed divesting enough assets to ensure competition in markets where it overlaps with Humana.

“If we can’t come to a negotiation on what markets to divest, although we have two very complete remedies in front of the Department of Justice now, I think I’m willing to let a judge decide,” Bertolini told business news channel CNBC, according to Reuters. “We’ll go all the way we need to make this happen.”

At least two states joined the DOJ suits. Illinois moved against Humana-Aetna, according to the Chicago Tribune, and Tennessee against Anthem-Cigna, said the Knoxville News-Sentinel.

Frank Morgan and his team at RBC Capital Markets looked at a review by international law firm Arnold & Porter of the more than 1,600 proposed mergers in 2015, of which the FTC and DOJ collectively brought formal actions in 34 cases, according to Barron’s.

“Of these, the vast majority (23 or 68%) were resolved by consent decree,” the RBC team found.

Would create a colossus

But for Humana-Aetna to reach such a settlement, they might need to so fundamentally alter the deal’s terms that it no longer makes business sense.

If it can be salvaged, it would create an insurance colossus, with a combined $114 billion in annual revenue, up to 60 million members, and 110,000 employees. Humana has more than 21.3 million members and does business in all 50 states. It has approximately 50,000 employees, including those nearly 13,000 in Louisville housed in the company’s iconic skyscraper on Main Street downtown. Last year’s Humana revenues were $54 billion.

Anthem and Cigna announced their proposed $48 billion merger on July 24, three weeks after Aetna and Humana announced their own deal.

Wayback News July 21, 2016September 4, 2016

48 years ago: Cops under attack, terrorism warnings in U.S., and racial unrest at a Louisville amusement park

Chicago police 1968 — Chicago police attacked protestors outside the Democratic convention in August 1968.

By Jim Hopkins
Boulevard Publisher

It’s summertime at the height of the presidential nominating contest, and the nation is transfixed by civil unrest: Protestors are attacking police amid dark warnings about terrorism on the streets and claims the powerful news media is spreading liberal propaganda.

Richard Daley 1968 Sound familiar? It should, because that was the scene 48 years ago this summer, when Democrats gathered in Chicago for a convention to pick Vice President Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota and Sen. Edmund Muskie of Maine as their nominees for the 1968 presidential elections.

On The Courier-Journal’s front page that Friday morning, Aug. 30, 1968, a headline told the story: “Angry Daley Defends Police; Assails Press.” From Chicago, New York Times correspondent R. W. Apple Jr. wrote:

Infuriated by attacks upon himself, his city and his police force, Mayor Richard J. Daley yesterday defended the manner in which anti-war, anti-Humphrey demonstrations were suppressed in downtown Chicago Wednesday night.

Daley described the demonstrators as “terrorists” and said they had come here determined to “assault, harass and taunt the police into reacting before television cameras.”

“In the heat of emotion and riot,” Daley said, “some policemen may have over-reacted, but to judge the entire police force by the alleged action of a few would be just as unfair as to judge our entire younger generation by the actions of the mob.”

Daley Convention 1968 — A defiant Mayor Richard Daley on the convention floor reacts to criticism Chicago police were overacting to protests outside.

In fact, an independent study found four months later, the clash between 10,000 protestors and police devolved into a police riot when officers broke through and began beating one man as the crowd pelted cops with rocks and chunks of concrete. Protestors’ chants shifted from “hell no, we won’t go” to “pigs are whores.”

By then, civil unrest had come to Louisville in a different form: A popular amusement park reserved for whites for six decades had been integrated four years before. Fontaine Ferry Park would be heavily vandalized during racial turmoil less than a year after the Chicago convention.

Fontaine Ferry Park ad August 30 1968

None of that was reflected in an advertisement that Aug. 30 on page 21 Continue reading “48 years ago: Cops under attack, terrorism warnings in U.S., and racial unrest at a Louisville amusement park” →

Latest Headlines July 21, 2016July 23, 2016

BF starts distribution system in Spain; GE Appliances owner Haier dragged into GOP China politics; and Tenn. man arrested over 20 lbs. of marijuana allegedly shipped via UPS

A news summary focused on 10 big employers; updated 4:55 p.m.

BROWN-FORMAN announced this morning that it’s launching its own distribution network in Spain, Europe’s third-largest whiskey market and the world’s ninth-biggest overall. The Louisville spirits giant will add about 40 employees in the expansion. The current distributor is Importaciones y Exportaciones Varma S.A. under a contract that will end June 30, 2017. “Establishing our own distribution organization in Spain will support the development of the Jack Daniel’s trademark as well as our broader portfolio in this dynamic market where premium spirits are growing,” said Thomas Hinrichs, president of Brown-Forman’s Europe and Asia markets.

Spain will join Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Mexico, Poland, South Korea, Thailand, Turkey, and the U.K. as markets where Brown-Forman owns or directly manages its own distribution. (press release). The company employs 1,300 workers in Louisville and another 3,300 across the U.S. and around the globe.

GE: Haier Group has been drawn into the bitterly contested Republican race for the White House, less than two months after the Chinese company completed its $5.6 billion purchase of GE Appliances. The conservative Federalist website says Indiana Gov. Mike Pence’s past support of Haier’s research and development center in Evansville, Ind., is an example of the politician’s helping China “steal” U.S. jobs. Although Donald Trump has run on a campaign attacking U.S.-China trade, the website implies his selection of Pence as running mate casts doubt on the GOP nominees’ anti-China bonafides (Federalist). In the past, the site has sparked stories in more mainstream media, including Politico and The Daily Beast.

Haier Pence — Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, second from right, and Haier Group President Liang Haishan, far right, at the Evansville ribbon-cutting.

A year ago, Pence joined Haier executives at a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the Evansville center. The pro-trade America China Society of Indiana quoted Pence saying at the time: “When I met with Haier executives in China this spring, I was invigorated by the company’s plans to accelerate technology development in Indiana. In addition to our strong workforce and pro-growth business climate, Indiana has quickly become a center for innovation, making the Hoosier State the natural choice for this facility as Haier continues to increase its presence in the United States” (America China Society). GE Appliances employs 6,000 workers at Appliance Park in Louisville’s south end.

UPS: In Spring City, Tenn., a man was arrested and charged with drug trafficking after Rhea County Sheriff’s deputies caught him with 20 lbs. of marijuana he allegedly received via UPS from California. Sheriff’s investigator Charlie Jenkins said the man, George Robert Luttenberger Jr., told him he’d been getting pot from California since 2012 (Herald-News). In Brooklyn, a federal judge allowed the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to proceed with a lawsuit accusing UPS of discriminating against male workers and job applicants who wore beards or long hair for religious reasons (Reuters).

PAPA JOHN’S fired a Denver employee who used a racial slur on a customer’s order slip and apologized to the teenager who placed the pizza order. “This action is inexcusable and doesn’t reflect our company values,” company spokesman Peter Collins told the Denver Post.

This was the second instance in less than a month where a Papa John’s employee was fired over an apparently racist order slip circulated on Twitter; the first one involved an Asian-American customer’s order at a Louisville restaurant near the end of June.

The Denver area restaurant is owned by Peyton Manning, the retired Denver Broncos quarterback who’s promoted Papa John’s in TV commercials. The teenager’s mother saw the order ticket and asked a community activist named Brother Jeff Fard for help (Denver Post). Yesterday, Fard sent a Tweet that included a possibly NSFW photo of the racial slur: Continue reading “BF starts distribution system in Spain; GE Appliances owner Haier dragged into GOP China politics; and Tenn. man arrested over 20 lbs. of marijuana allegedly shipped via UPS” →

GOP leads in June

Pizza Hut

Will ‘vigorously defend’ plan

Would create a colossus

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