Vince McMahon to pay $1.7 million for failing to disclose settlements
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(WASHINGTON) — Vince McMahon, the former head of WWE, will pay $1.7 million to the Securities and Exchange Commission for failing to disclose two settlements he had with employees while he ran the formerly publicly traded company.
One settlement agreement, signed in 2019, obligated McMahon to pay a former employee $3 million in exchange for the former employee’s agreement not to disclose her relationship with McMahon and her release of potential claims against WWE and McMahon, and the second agreement, signed in 2021, obligated McMahon to pay a former WWE independent contractor $7.5 million in exchange for the independent contractor’s agreement not to disclose her allegations against McMahon and her release of potential claims against WWE and McMahon, according to the SEC.
These payments were not disclosed and, thus, “WWE overstated its 2018 net income by approximately 8 percent and its 2021 net income by approximately 1.7 percent,” according to the SEC.
McMahon agreed to pay a $400,000 civil penalty and reimburse WWE $1,330,915.90, the SEC said.
In a statement posted on X, McMahon said the “case is closed.”
“Today ends nearly three years of investigation by different governmental agencies,” he said.
“There has been a great deal of speculation about what exactly the government was investigating and what the outcome would be. As today’s resolution shows, much of that speculation was misguided and misleading,” he added. “In the end, there was never anything more to this than minor accounting errors with regard to some personal payments that I made several years ago while I was CEO of WWE. I’m thrilled that I can now put all this behind me.”
McMahon, who is married to President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to be education secretary, Linda McMahon, resigned from WWE’s parent company TKO Group Holdings in 2024 after he was sued by a former employee accusing him of sexual misconduct. McMahon has denied any wrongdoing in that suit.
(NEW YORK) — A dayslong holiday strike against Starbucks ended on Tuesday with the largest work stoppage ever carried out by the company’s unionized workers, involving strikes at more than 300 stores in dozens of cities nationwide, the union Starbucks Workers United said.
“The company should be concerned because this is just the beginning,” Michelle Eisen, a Starbucks barista in Buffalo, New York, and a member of the union’s bargaining team, told ABC News.
The union and the company remain without a collective bargaining agreement at organized stores. Monthslong negotiations recently broke off over a disagreement about economic issues, including potential wage increases.
As workers fold up their placards and return to their jobs, a question looms: What happens next?
Labor experts who spoke to ABC News said the worker unrest could give way to a resumption of negotiations and an eventual contract agreement, as both sides find reason to resolve the standoff.
However, if a deal proves elusive, the workers may escalate their opposition toward the company with additional strikes or other pressure tactics, the experts said. The company may also pivot toward a more adversarial approach, leaving the bargaining table and cracking down on union organizing, the experts added.
The strike in recent days interrupted a period of relative calm between Starbucks and the union.
Starbucks Workers United and Starbucks announced in February that they would work on a “foundational framework” to reach a collective bargaining agreement for unionized stores. The union says Starbucks has failed to offer a viable proposal on economic issues, taking issue as well with the company’s alleged refusal to resolve federal charges over illegal anti-union conduct.
Workers United told ABC News in a statement that Starbucks had proposed no immediate wage increases for most baristas and a guarantee of only 1.5% wage increases in future years.
Meanwhile, Starbucks said in a statement that the union had proposed an immediate increase in the minimum wage of hourly partners by 64%, as well as an overall 77% raise over the duration of a three-year contract. “This is not sustainable,” a Starbucks spokesperson told ABC News.
Starbucks United contests those figures as a disingenuous characterization of its proposal, the union told ABC News.
“We’ve reached the position in the bargaining where we need to remind Starbucks who we are,” Eisen said, pointing to public attention and worker strength demonstrated by the recent strike.
Starbucks did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
Sara Kelly, Starbucks’ executive vice president and chief partner officer, downplayed the impact of the strikes in a public letter to employees late Monday.
“The overwhelming majority of Starbucks stores across the country have opened as planned and are busy with customers enjoying the holidays,” Kelly said, noting that the company operates 10,000 stores and employs 200,000 people nationwide.
“The union chose to walk away from bargaining last week,” Kelly said. “We are ready to continue negotiations when the union comes back to the bargaining table.”
The show of worker strength could induce a better offer from Starbucks, since the company may recognize the public relations threat posed by the prospect of more headline-grabbing worker protests, some experts said.
“Starbucks has to continually worry about getting a new generation of customers on board with their product,” Matthew Bodie, a law professor at the University of Minnesota who focuses on labor issues, told ABC News, pointing to the company’s reputation as a liberal-minded employer.
Still, federal labor law affords wide latitude for a company to delay a collective bargaining agreement and lacks the large penalties necessary to compel an agreement, granting Starbucks sizable leverage over the next step in the labor dispute, Bodie added.
“The traditional management playbook is to fight, fight, fight,” Bodie said. “I see it as largely a decision for Starbucks to make because our system gives so much power and discretion to companies in how they manage collective bargaining.”
If Starbucks opts to forgo a new proposal, the union could shift toward a more militant strategy that resembles the previous approach taken by the campaign, experts said.
In 2022 and 2023, Starbucks workers at the company carried out about 100 strikes per year, Johnnie Kallas, a professor of labor relations at the University of Illinois who tracks strike activity, told ABC News. The recent holiday strike marks the first work stoppage of 2024, since the union had pivoted toward a more cooperative approach amid negotiations, Kallas said.
“If Starbucks doesn’t meaningfully negotiate on economic proposals, you’ll see a rise in militancy,” Kallas said. “The workers may reach a fork in the road.”
Meanwhile, the company could also opt for a more adversarial approach, experts said. The negotiations this year have reflected a friendlier public posture from Starbucks. As recently as last year, former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz said he didn’t believe unions had any place at the company.
The National Labor Relations Board, or NLRB, the federal agency that enforces labor rules, is expected to become more sympathetic toward management under President-elect Donald Trump, experts said. Starbucks could shift toward an increasingly hostile approach, knowing it’s unlikely to face much pushback from the NLRB, the experts added.
“If it remains a private negotiation between Starbucks and the union, it could go nowhere under Trump,” John Logan, a professor of U.S. labor history at San Francisco State University, told ABC News.
For now, Eisen said, union members plan to catch up on some rest over the holidays and weigh the path forward. Beyond doubt, however, are the union’s plans to continue organizing new stores, Eisen said.
Workers United organized more than 150 stores in 2024, bringing the total number of unionized stores to about 540.
“You always want your movement to grow,” Eisen said. “The bigger we are, the stronger we are.”
(WASHINGTON) — The Rainbow Youth Project, a national LGBTQ advocacy group, typically fields about 800 calls a month on its crisis outreach hotline. In just 10 days, as the 2024 presidential election came to a head, the organization told ABC News it received roughly 5,400.
Organizers say they were prepared for calls to spike given that the LGBTQ community — and specifically the transgender population — has been a subject of debate in this election cycle. But they weren’t prepared for the overwhelming call volume.
Some callers had to wait on hold over the weekend for operators — something they’ve never had to do before, Executive Director Lance Preston said in an interview. Callers weren’t just from the LGBTQ residents in need themselves; Preston’s staff were fielding calls from parents, grandparents, teachers, pastors and others asking how they can help their community members.
“I think it’s been a wake-up call for a lot of people,” Preston said in an interview.
The Rainbow Youth Project is not alone; LGBTQ hotlines nationwide are seeing massive surges amid the fallout of the election, as LGBTQ Americans and their loved ones search for answers, reassurance and guidance about future LGBTQ rights in America.
The Trevor Project, an LGBTQ youth suicide prevention organization, said it saw an overall crisis outreach volume increase of nearly 700% on Nov. 6, compared to the weeks prior.
“It’s just a general sense of fear, a sense of panic from young people who are reaching out; youth reporting feeling hopeless or helpless about what’s to come,” said Mandy Paul, a senior manager of crisis services at the Trevor Project. She listened to concerns about anti-LGBTQ discrimination, the fate of transgender health care access, and whether LGBTQ policies in Project 2025 — a conservative presidential wish list — would be implemented.
The LGBT National Hotline, another crisis outreach center, told ABC News it has received five times the typical call volume: “It’s been all hands on deck. Here, it is coming from all over the country. However, we are definitely seeing more calls coming from red states, though it’s not a huge amount more than blue states. The fear is from all over the country. It is all ages,” said Aaron Almanza, the program’s executive director.
The Rainbow Youth Project found that typically about 19% of its callers will screen positive for suicidal ideation. Now, for the month of November, that’s up to 31.6% of callers screening for acute mental health crisis with a specific notation of suicidal ideation.
As communities process what the recent elections mean for themselves and their loved ones, counselors and operators urge those who are feeling lonely, confused, helpless or scared to reach out to community members who can be supportive during this time — even if that support is from an LGBTQ hotline. Organizations say they often field calls from rural areas with less local in-person resources like LGBTQ advocacy groups.
“Right now we need to find each other, because that local support is going to be hugely important for us to move forward,” said Almanza.
Paul, who has been at the Trevor Project for six years, found that youth just “want to be heard and supported,” and has called upon allies to be a source for LGBTQ residents during this time.
“We hear that time and time again — it’s just wanting a place where they can share their fears, share, maybe the first time they’re sharing what their identities are in a place that they feel safe to do so.”
Preston encourages those who are experiencing despair to focus on the progress the LGBTQ community has made in recent years. A 2020 Pew Research Center study found that 72% of Americans believe homosexuality should be accepted, compared with just 49% in 2007. Additionally, Pew found that 64% of Americans favor laws that protect transgender individuals from discrimination in jobs, housing and public spaces.
As a gay man who came out in the ’80s amid the fight for anti-employment discrimination policies and marriage equality, Preston notes the amount of progress that LGBTQ advocates have lobbied for in recent years: “We’ve been there. We know how to do this. We’re going to be your voice if you can’t be your own voice.”
States nationwide have seen an increase in legislation and political rhetoric related to the LGBTQ community in recent years. In the 2024 legislative session, the American Civil Liberties Union tracked a record-breaking 532 anti-LGBTQ bills in state legislatures — only about 46 of those have passed into law, with roughly 351 bills defeated.
Some of the most prominent legislative proposals included restrictions on transgender youth health care, trans participation in sports, pronoun changes in schools and classroom content on gender and sex. President-elect Donald Trump has said he will embrace these restrictions during his presidency, calling it “transgender insanity” and declaring that gender is “determined at birth” in his Agenda47 policy proposals focused on schools.
Critics of this legislation said the rhetoric and legislative attacks will increase discrimination facing a small, marginalized community.
“I also want our LGBT+ youth to know that there are millions and millions of people fighting for their right to survive and thrive, and there is an expansive community of LGBTQ+ folks and allies who are shoulder to shoulder with them, and we simply will not give up,” said Trevor Project CEO Jaymes Black.
If you are struggling with thoughts of suicide or worried about a friend or loved one, call or text the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 for free, confidential emotional support 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
(WASHINGTON) — The largest pharmacy chain in America is accused of “unlawfully dispensing massive quantities of opioids and other controlled substances to fuel its own profits at the expense of public health and safety,” according to a civil lawsuit filed by the Justice Department, which was unsealed Wednesday.
The DOJ lawsuit alleges that CVS has, for more than a decade, knowingly filled sometimes-dubious prescriptions for controlled substances that lacked a legitimate medical purpose, or were not valid.
Those prescriptions included “dangerous and excessive quantities of opioids” and “trinity cocktails” — a blend of “especially dangerous and abused combination of drugs made up of an opioid, a benzodiazepine and a muscle relaxant,” the suit stated.
The suit also accuses the company of filling “at least thousands of controlled substance prescriptions” penned by “known ‘pill mills.'”
In a statement to ABC News, CVS spokesperson Amy Thibault called the suit “misguided” and said company officials “strongly disagree with the allegations and false narrative” described in the DOJ suit and will “defend ourselves vigorously.”
DOJ’s lawsuit says CVS “contributed to the opioid crisis, a national public health emergency with devastating effects in the United States.” The suit went on to say: “These included illegitimate prescriptions for extremely high doses and excessive quantities of potent opioids that fed dependence and addiction, as well as illegitimate prescriptions for dangerous combinations of opioids and other drugs.”
The suit accuses CVS of ignoring sometimes “egregious red flags” about prescriptions “bearing the hallmarks of abuse and diversion.” The lawsuit points to performance metrics and incentive compensation policies that allegedly pressured pharmacists to “fill prescriptions as quickly as possible, without assessing their legitimacy” and corporate policies that allegedly prioritized speed over safety.
The suit claims CVS refused to implement compliance measures recommended by its own experts to reduce the number of invalid prescriptions with red flags “primarily due to fear that they would slow the speed of prescription filling and increase labor costs,” according to the suit.
The government is seeking civil penalties, injunctive relief and damages to address what it called CVS’ unlawful practices and to prevent future violations.
In her statement, Thibault, the CVS spokesperson, said the company has been an industry leader in fighting opioid misuse.
“Each of the prescriptions in question was for an FDA-approved opioid medication prescribed by a practitioner who the government itself licensed, authorized, and empowered to write controlled-substance prescriptions,” Thibault’s statement said.
She said the DOJ lawsuit “intensifies a serious dilemma for pharmacists, who are simultaneously second-guessed for dispensing too many opioids, and too few.”
