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Tobacco Cos. To Pay $200M To End Texas' Settlement Fight
Texas notified a federal court Wednesday that R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. and fellow tobacco company ITG Brands LLC have agreed to pay a total of more than $200 million to end the state's suit to enforce a 1998 tobacco settlement agreement.
Reynolds agreed to pay Texas roughly $173 million in funds owed to the state under the 1998 tobacco master settlement for the years 2015 through 2020, plus $2.5 million in attorney fees. ITG agreed to pay Texas about $19 million for payments owed to the state in 2020, according to court documents. Reynolds has also agreed to pay about $17 million to tobacco giant Philip Morris USA Inc., which joined the dispute and sided with Texas.
The settlement agreement filed in the Eastern District of Texas on Wednesday ends litigation launched by Texas in January 2019 after both Reynolds and ITG refused to make annual payments under the 1998 settlement agreement. That agreement requires tobacco companies to pay annual amounts based on their cigarette sales in the state to cover costs incurred by Texas for tobacco-related health issues.
Reynolds sold its Winston, Salem, Kool and Maverick cigarette brands to ITG in 2015, after which both companies denied responsibility and refused to make the payments, according to court documents. ITG, which was not a party to the original litigation, claimed it didn't assume any payment obligations through the sale.
Under Wednesday's agreement, ITG has agreed to assume all obligations and benefits for the four brands moving forward.
Counsel for the parties did not immediately respond to requests for comment Wednesday.
Texas originally sued The American Tobacco Co., Reynolds and nine other tobacco companies, including Philip Morris, in 1996 for not being truthful about the dangers of smoking. Those claims were settled in 1998 for more than $15 billion, which included annual payments based upon sales in the state.
But after the 2015 deal between
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House Votes To Extend Pandemic-Era Bankruptcy Relief
Just days before a key deadline, the House on Wednesday easily voted to extend personal and small business bankruptcy relief provisions that were part of last year's pandemic aid packages through March 2022.
The relief packages raised the maximum debt limit for small businesses using a streamlined bankruptcy process, and allowed individuals to seek COVID-19-related hardship modifications, among other changes. Bankruptcy provisions in the CARES Act are set to expire March 22, while others included in the December relief package have an end date of Dec. 27.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., sponsored the COVID-19 Bankruptcy Relief Extension Act, which would extend certain elements until March 27, 2022. The bipartisan measure passed the House on a 399-14 vote with all opposition coming from Republicans, mostly members of the conservative Freedom Caucus.
"These provisions were enacted last year to provide critical relief to families and small businesses forced into bankruptcy due to the ongoing pandemic," Nadler said Tuesday on the House floor. "Extending these necessary protections until March of next year will provide much-needed certainty that the bankruptcy system will remain responsive to debtors and creditors alike during this extraordinarily disruptive crisis."
Rep. Ben Cline of Virginia, the Republican co-sponsor, noted that pandemic lockdowns started just weeks after the Small Business Reorganization Act took effect in February 2020. He said nearly a third of the small businesses entering that streamlined bankruptcy process over the last year would not have been eligible if the CARES Act had not raised the maximum debt limit.
"Our districts depend on their small businesses," Cline said Tuesday on the House floor. "Those who endeavor to open and run a small business are proud of their work and their standing in our communities. Unfortunately, they also take on a sometimes insurmoun
Minneapolis To Pay George Floyd's Family $27M To End Suit
Minneapolis will pay the family of George Floyd $27 million to end a Minnesota federal suit accusing the city of a history of unconstitutional policing practices that ultimately led to Floyd's death at the hands of the police, the family, its legal team and city officials announced Friday.
A copy of the settlement has not been made public. At a news conference, Floyd's family members and their legal team lauded the city for coming to the agreement, with both sides noting that an additional $500,000 will be set aside to support businesses in the neighborhood where Floyd was killed last year.
One of the Floyd family's attorneys, Ben Crump, called it the largest pretrial settlement in a police violence case in U.S. history. Another, Chris Stewart, said that the settlement is deeper than a large financial number.
"The number today changes evaluations and civil rights for a Black person when they die," he said. "Because what you don't know is the rigged game that we always have to play when we take one of these cases. Because African Americans are not valued high when they are murdered by law enforcement in these cases. And we are changing that precedent."
Stewart said the settlement will trickle down to communities across the country.
"When there's a city council or a mayor deciding, 'Should we get rid of no-knock warrants? Should we get rid of chokeholds? Should we change these policies?' They have 27 million reasons now why they should," he said.
Floyd's killing in May sparked a wave of demonstrations against racial injustice and police brutality worldwide. Three police officers kneeled on Floyd while he was face-down in the street, according to the complaint, and Derek Chauvin, who is also named in the suit, drove his knee into Floyd's neck as Floyd begged for his life. Officers Thomas Lane, J. Alexander Kueng and Tou Thao are also named in the suit, which was filed in July.
Chauvin is currently on tri
Pi Day celebrates the mathematical constant π (3.14). It is celebrated in countries that follow the month/day (m/dd) date format, because the digits in the date, March 14 or 3/14, are the first three digits of π (3.14). Pi Day was founded by Physicist Larry Shaw in 1988.
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