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How liberal California compares to Florida, Texas on social media regulation

October 16, 2023

The dichotomy between blue and red states – in essence California vs. Florida and Texas – has played out in many arenas on many specific issues, including immigration and abortion.

The whole nation will get a full dose of the running conflict next month when California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat who’s obsessed with building a national image, debates Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a declared 2024 Republican candidate for president, on national television.

Meanwhile, an ironic twist to the rivalry has developed over how the competing states seek to force social media companies, such as X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook, to toe the official line on content that runs afoul of their very different ideological outlooks.

When it reconvened this month, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to examine laws in Florida and Texas that would prohibit social media outlets from barring controversial political speech. The laws were enacted after both Facebook and Twitter suspended former President Donald Trump’s account.

The Texas law, now on hold, would classify social media companies as common carriers such as public utilities and require them to disclose their “moderation standards” affecting what they allow to be posted, and declare why they remove certain conduct.

The Florida law – similar in thrust – would prohibit banning certain users, such as journalists or politicians, and require social media companies to explain the rationale for each instance of content moderation.

In both cases, the social media companies say Florida and Texas are attempting to control how they edit their platforms in violation of the Constitution’s right to freedom of speech.

“At bottom, government ‘may not … tell Twitter or YouTube what videos to post; or tell Facebook or Google what content to favor,’” Scott Keller, an attorney for internet trade groups, told the court in a petition.

The issues before the Supreme Court are remarkably similar to a lawsuit filed in federal court this month by X Corp. against California, alleging that a 2022 law violates its free speech right as well.

The law, Assembly Bill 587, also bores into the standards that social media use to moderate content, requiring them to make extensive disclosures to the state Department of Justice. The measure was sponsored by the Anti-Defamation League and is aimed at pressuring the social media companies to remove what the sponsor deems to be hate speech.

“The line between providing an open forum for productive discourse and permitting the proliferation of hate speech and misinformation is a fine one, and depends largely on the structure and practices of the platform,” Assemblyman Jesse Gabriel, a Woodland Hills Democrat, said in a statement as his bill was being considered.

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X Corp. claims that Gabriel’s law violates the First Amendment because it interferes with social media companies’ constitutionally protected editorial judgements, requires them to post terms “dictated by the government,” and pressures them to remove content the state “deems undesirable or harmful.”

Fundamentally, then, while Texas and Florida accuse social media of being too eager to censor inflammatory content, the California law implies that they are not eager enough.

California, meanwhile, has rolled back another censorship law passed last year.

Assembly Bill 2098 threatened doctors with losing their licenses for “unprofessional conduct” if they openly disagreed with officialdom on the nature of COVID-19 or the vaccines used to battle the pandemic.

This year, a few words that repealed the law were slipped into an omnibus medical licensing measure, Senate Bill 815, that Newsom quietly signed. The repeal short-circuited what could have been another legal battle over censorship and the First Amendment and is a lesson about legislating without considering effects on constitutional rights.

Dan Walters is a CalMatters columnist.

Orange County Register

The Eagles add fourth and final Long Goodbye Tour date at Kia Forum

October 16, 2023

The Eagles have added a fourth and final date to its Long Goodbye Tour at Kia Forum in Inglewood on Jan. 13, 2024 with special guest Steely Dan.

The Los Angeles-based band announced on Monday, Oct. 4 that it would play a pair of hometown shows at the Forum on Friday, Jan. 5 and Saturday, Jan. 6. Due to popular demand, a third show was added for Friday, Jan. 12. Now the band has included Jan. 13 in that run of gigs.

The Long Goodbye Final Tour was designed with room to add shows as needed. As a final tour, the band, which includes members Don Henley, Joe Walsh, Timothy B. Schmit, with Vince Gill and Deacon Frey, has previously said it will play as many shows as each city demands.

While the other dates went on sale last week and are still available starting at $149.50, tickets for the Jan. 13 show go on sale at 10 a.m. Friday, Oct. 20 at Ticketmaster.com.

The January shows come almost exactly 10 years after the Eagles played six shows at the Forum to reopen it after a $100 million renovation in 2014.

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Rite Aid seeks Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection as it deals with lawsuits and losses

October 16, 2023

By TOM MURPHY and ELAINE KURTENBACH

Rite Aid has filed for bankruptcy protection and plans to sell part of its business as it attempts to restructure while dealing with losses and opioid-related lawsuits.

The company said Rite Aid stores will continue to fill prescriptions, and customers will still be able to visit its locations or shop online while it goes through its voluntary Chapter 11 process. But that process also will allow it to speed up its plan to close underperforming stores.

Going through Chapter 11 will help “significantly reduce the company’s debt” while helping to “resolve litigation claims in an equitable manner,” Rite Aid late Sunday.

Rite Aid Corp. runs more than 2,100 stores in the United States, mostly on the East and West Coasts, and has posted annual losses for several years.

The Philadelphia company, which is marking its 60th birthday this year, has been cutting costs and closing some stores as it has dealt with long-standing financial challenges.

The company, like its rivals, also faces financial risk from lawsuits over opioid prescriptions. Rite Aid already has reached several settlements, including one announced last year with the state of West Virginia for up to $30 million.

In March, the U.S. Justice Department intervened in a whistleblower lawsuit brought by former employees under the False Claims Act. Federal officials said in a statement that the drugstore chain filled “at least hundreds of thousands” of illegal prescriptions for drugs including opioids.

Rite Aid called the government’s claims “hyperbolic” in a subsequent motion to dismiss. The company said facts alleged in the case actually showed it exceeded regulatory requirements for diversion control.

Drugstores also have been dealing with several issues that frustrate customers. They’ve handled prescription drug shortages, and they have struggled to fill their stores with enough pharmacists and technicians to run the pharmacies. Rivals CVS and Walgreens both have dealt with walkouts by pharmacy employees concerned about their growing workloads and lack of help.

The stores also have had to weather tight prescription reimbursement and waning COVID-19 vaccine and testing business in recent quarters. But Rite Aid’s larger competitors have moved more aggressively into health care, opening clinics and adding other sources of revenue.

Walgreens and CVS Health each run about 9,000 locations or more in the U.S.

Deutsche Bank analyst George Hill said in an August note that Rite Aid operates on a much thinner profit margin than its competitors and while it can pay costs to service its debt, it won’t be able to cover principal payments “based on the current trajectory of the business.”

Rite Aid said Sunday that it had reached an agreement with some key creditors on a financial restructuring plan to cut its debt. The company also said it obtained $3.45 billion in fresh financing from some of its lenders, which will help support the company through the Chapter 11 process.

The company also said it reached a deal to sell its small pharmacy benefits manager, Elixir, to MedImpact Healthcare Systems. Elixir runs prescription drug coverage and a specialty pharmacy among other services.

Rite Aid said MedImpact will serve as the “stalking horse bidder” in a court-supervised sale process.

Rite Aid says it does not know yet which stores it will close, but it will make “every effort” to ensure that customers have access to health services either at another Rite Aid location or another nearby pharmacy.

The company also said Sunday that Jeffrey Stein, who heads a financial advisory firm, was named CEO, replacing interim leader Elizabeth Burr, who remains on Rite Aid’s board. She had replaced Heyward Donigan, who left in January.

Rite Aid said Stein has experience working with companies that are undergoing financial restructuring.

The company earlier reported that its revenue fell to $5.7 billion in the fiscal quarter that ended June 3, down from $6.0 billion a year earlier, logging a net loss of $306.7 million.

A few years ago, Rite Aid propped up its share price with a 1-for-20 reverse stock split that took more than a billion shares off the market. But the share price has slid for most of this year and tumbled back below $1 in August. The stock last traded at roughly 65 cents.

Earlier this month, Rite Aid notified the New York Stock Exchange that it was not in compliance with listing standards. During a grace period, the company’s stock continues to be listed and traded.

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Walgreens attempted to buy Rite Aid for about $9.4 billion in a deal announced in 2015. But the larger drugstore chain scaled back its ambition a couple years later and bought only a chunk of Rite Aid, around 1,900 stores, to get the deal past antitrust regulators.

In 2018, Rite Aid shares plunged after the company called off a separate merger with the grocer Albertsons, which is currently trying to merge with another grocer, Kroger.

Murphy reported from Indianapolis. Kurtenbach reported from Bangkok.

Orange County Register

10 new horror movies to rent, download or stream leading up to Halloween

October 16, 2023

The horror movie genre has been a bit of a mixed bag in 2023.

On one hand, fright fans witnessed the release of one of the most thrilling horror films in years.

But on the other hand, viewers got a bunch of sequels — including a goodly number worth watching — as well as some fairly fresh takes on old ideas.

And on yet the other hand — since we are taking horror here and monsters can have as many hands/claws as they want — there was a seemingly never-ending parade of (at best) macabre mediocrity and (more often than not) horribly bad films.

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I’ve combed through a huge number of these flicks and have come up with a list of some of the top horror releases from 2023. Try mixing some of these new offerings in with your old favorites (“Texas Chainsaw Massacre,” “Let the Right One In,” “Zoltan Hound of Dracula,” etc.) during your own scary movie marathons in the days and nights leading up to Halloween.

I limited my picks to ones that are all available to stream/rent/download, which means some of the more recently released gems won’t be found here. Also, the picks are ranked from (very, very) best to, yeah, possibly still worth your time if you don’t have any other plans.

1. “Talk to Me”

I simply can’t get enough of this low budget Australian horror film, having already seen it a record (for me) five times in theaters and looking forward to even more viewings via streaming in the near future.

Obviously, I’m not alone, as “Talk to Me” — which premiered at the Adelaide Film Festival in October 2022 — has been a surprise hit at the box office.

Everything about this film works – from the writing and acting to the special effects and convincing scares – in this tale of a group of teenagers who find they can contact the dead with the use of a freaky embalmed hand.

The result is more than just the finest horror film of 2023. It’s simply one of the best horror movies of all time.

2. “M3GAN”

Although the film premiered back in December 2022 (obviously for Oscar consideration purposes), it wasn’t released theatrically until early January and, thus, is fair game for this list.

“M3GAN” is a wonderful update on the “Chucky” premise, as a child in need of a forever friend is given an extraordinary doll with a taste for blood. Only this time around, the resulting killing spree can’t be credited to a serial killer who has transferred his soul (via voodoo, of course) into a doll, but rather must be blamed on faulty programming.

So 2023, right?

The film is fun, clever and menacing, with a killer doll who already seems to have achieved icon status. Further following in Chucky’s footsteps, M3GAN seems destined to be a highly successful horror movie franchise.

3. “Meg 2: The Trench”

Nobody beats up sharks — especially deadly prehistoric sharks that are roughly the size of 18-wheelers — quite like Jason Statham.

And he’s back at it again in this sequel that’s even better than the original model from 2018. OK, maybe it’s not technically better — in terms of quality writing, fine acting and all those other things that aren’t all that important in a film like this. But it’s certainly more fun — and way more over the top — and that translates to a shark tale that is very worth your time this Halloween season.

4. “Viking Wolf”

The title is reminiscent of one of those goofy Syfy channel numbers — like “Ghost Shark” or “Ice Spiders” — where you spend more time scoffing at the special effects than actually being afraid.

Yet, “Viking Wolf” is anything but a laughing matter. Instead, this Norwegian horror film — which was released on Netflix in early 2023 — ranks as one of the most chilling werewolf epics to come around in years.

The story kicks off more than a thousand years in the past, when Vikings discover a wolf cub during a raid in Normandy. They decide to take the cub with them back to Norway — a decision that proves costly for generations to come.

The feature grows increasingly intense as the rest of the tale unfolds, doubling down on cool creature moments and big scares. Yet, “Viking Wolf” is also a film with a ton of heart — which is what’s really likely to stick with viewers long after the end credits roll.

5. “The Boogeyman”

The film is wonderfully unsettling, slowly building a nightmare scenario that feels both surreal and right around the corner. It’s based on a 1973 Stephen King short story of the same name. And when it comes to the wildly varying quality of King adaptations, “Boogeyman” is closer to “It’ than “Dreamcatcher.”

It’s not, however, recommended late-night viewing for all parties, given that the film might leave you questioning whether you’re actually hearing something moving in your bedroom closet as you turn off the light and rethinking whether you need to check under the bed just one more time.

I actually got a bit of the shivers just from writing that last paragraph, which further underscores the effectiveness of this Rob Savage-directed supernatural horror flick addressing the thing “that comes for your kids when you’re not paying attention.”

6. “The Blackening”

I tend to steer clear of the intentionally funny horror-movie lampoons — including most of the “Scary Movie” flicks — preferring instead to get laughs from horror films that aren’t trying to be funny. That’s why “Children of the Corn III: Urban Harvest” is by far my favorite in that franchise.

Yet, this lampoon, specifically skewering how Black people have long been portrayed in horror films, is a definite keeper. The film, which tells of a reunion of friends for a Juneteenth getaway in a cabin the woods, is smart, funny, well-acted and produces more legitimate scares than one typically gets in these types of horror lampoons.

7. “Evil Dead Rise”

I’m part of the camp that will always have a hard time with any “Evil Dead” film that doesn’t star the great Bruce Campbell. Yet, I still enjoyed this latest chapter in the seemingly never-ending tale of the dastardly Deadites.

It’s a wholly intense film, which gets off to a incredibly strong start and then just continues to ratchet up the menace, blood and gore as we move from a lakeside cabin to the home of what’s about to be a very unhappy family.

Ellie, the possessed mom played by Alyssa Sutherland, is nothing short of the stuff of nightmares.

8. “Cocaine Bear”

“Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” were quite likely the only films in 2023 to scare up more advance buzz than “Cocaine Bear,” which brought the Internet to its knees with its amazing coming attractions trailer.

The Elizabeth Banks-directed film then lived up to its advance hype, offering up equal amounts of ludicrous humor and horror as it tells the story of a forest creature who is certainly willing to fight for its right to party.

It’s worth seeing for many reasons, not the least of which being the chance to witness the late great Ray Liotta — in one of his last performances — do what only Ray Liotta could.

9. “Renfield”

There’s something to be said about having low expectations, which is exactly what I had after watching just a few seconds of Nicholas Cage overact (yet again) in the trailer for this film. Yet, I try to be somewhat of a horror completist, and I had a few hours to kill in Los Angeles before going to see Phish at the Hollywood Bowl, so I plopped down the money for a matinee screening.

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