FDA authorizes Covid booster pictures that concentrate on omicron BA.5 variant

A medical staff prepares a booster dose of Pfizer’s coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine are seen at a vaccination center in Brussels, Belgium, January 5, 2022.

Yves Herman | Reuters

The Food and Drug Administration authorized Covid booster shots Wednesday that target the omicron BA.5 subvariant as the US prepares for another surge of infections this fall and winter.

It is the first time the FDA has authorized an updated vaccine formula since the original shots rolled out in Dec. 2020. Pharmacies are expected to start administering the new boosters after Labor Day weekend.

The US has secured 171 million doses of Pfizer’s and Moderna’s updated shots so far, according to the Health and Human Services Department.

Pfizer’s new booster dose is authorized for people ages 12 and older, while Moderna’s new shots are authorized for adults ages 18 and older. The eligible age groups can receive the boosters two months after completing their primary series or their most recent boosters with the old shots.

The US will no longer use the original vaccines as booster doses for individuals ages 12 and older now that the the updated shots have been authorized, according to the FDA.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has to sign off on the boosters before pharmacies can give them to patients. The CDC’s independent advisory committee is scheduled to meet on Thursday and Friday to review the data and issue its recommendations for health-care providers.

bivalent vaccines

Public health officials believe the redesigned boosters will provide longer lasting protection against the virus and reduce hospitalizations this fall and winter. The new boosters target both the original strain that emerged in China more than two years ago, which scientists refer to as the “wild type,” and omicron BA.4 and BA.5 which are now the dominant variants in the US

Shots that target two different strains are called bivalent vaccines.

The vaccine makers developed the original shots against the strain of Covid that first emerged in Wuhan, China in 2019. But the virus has mutated dramatically since then. Omicron and its subvariants have drifted so much from the original Covid strain that the virus is able to slip past the protective antibodies induced by the vaccines.

As a consequence, the shots’ effectiveness at preventing infection and mild illness has declined substantially as the virus has evolved. Though the vaccines are still generally preventing severe disease, the protection they provide against hospitalization has slipped over time as well.

“There is declining effectiveness against hospitalization and severe illness. The problem has been persuading the American people to get boosted on a regular basis,” said Dr. Peter Hotez, an infectious disease expert at Baylor College of Medicine in Texas. Hotez led a team that developed a Covid vaccine based on protein technology that is authorized in India.

Original vaccines losing effectiveness

About 76% of people ages 12 and older have received their first two vaccine doses in the US, according to CDC data. About 50% of those individuals have received their first booster dose.

For adults ages 18 and older, three doses of Pfizer’s or Moderna’s original vaccines were 55% effective at preventing hospitalization from the omicron BA.2 subvariant four months after the third shot, according to CDC data.

Three shots were 19% effective at preventing infection from omicron five months after the third shot, according to CDC data from Aug. 2021 through May 2022. The rapidly spreading BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants have since driven omicron BA.2 out of circulation.

dr Peter Marks, head of the FDA office responsible for reviewing vaccines, said the hope is that the updated boosters will restore the high level of protection against disease that vaccines demonstrated when they were first authorized in December 2020.

“We don’t know for a fact yet whether we will get to that same level, but that is the goal here. And that is what we believe the evidence that we’ve seen helps point to,” Marks told reporters during a press conference after the authorization Wednesday.

The Biden administration moved rapidly over the summer to get updated shots ready for the fall. Public health officials are worried that the US is on the verge of another wave of infection as more transmissible omicron variants spread, immunity from the original vaccines wears off, and people head indoors to escape colder weather.

Pfizer and Moderna were originally developing boosters to target omicron BA.1, the variant that caused the massive wave of infection last winter. But the FDA told the vaccine makers in late June to switch gears and target BA.4 and BA.5 instead as those variants quickly gained ground. The sudden change in plans left little time for clinical trials in humans before a fall rollout.

As a consequence, the authorization is based on human clinical trials from the BA.1 shots, which produced a better immune response than the original shots, according to FDA. But it’s unclear how the BA.5 boosters will perform in humans since the data is based on BA.1.

Marks said it will likely be at least another two months before human clinical data on the BA.5 shots is made available to the public.

The most common side effects from the human trials of the BA.1 shots was pain, redness, swelling at the injection site, fatigue, headaches, muscle pain, joint pain, chills, nausea, vomiting and fever, according to the FDA. The Covid vaccines also have a well established safety profile after administration to millions of people over the course of the pandemic, according to FDA.

Mouse data

In addition to human data from the BA.1 shots, the authorization was also based on animal studies from the BA.5 boosters, Marks said. In June, Pfizer also presented data to the FDA’s independent vaccine advisory committee that showed the bivalent omicron BA.5 shots increased antibodies in mice that protect against infection by about 2.6 fold compared with the original vaccine.

Marks said the FDA used the same process for the authorization that it relied on in the past for switching the strains in flu vaccines.

“We’re pretty confident that or what we have is very similar to the situation that we’ve done in the past with influenza changes where we don’t do clinical studies for them in the United States,” Marks said. “We know from the way the vaccine works, and from the data that we have, that we can predict how well the vaccine will be working.”

But some infectious disease and vaccine experts say the FDA should have waited for human data from the BA.5 shots before authorizing them. dr Paul Offit, a member of the FDA’s advisory committee, said data based on mice studies is not sufficient to justify authorizing the new boosters.

“You have to show some evidence in people that the immune response that you’re getting with the bivalent vaccine is clearly better, and those data haven’t been presented,” said Offit, an infectious disease and vaccine expert at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia .

Human trials

“You can’t ask millions of people to get this booster dose without showing some human data that you have a dramatic increase in neutralizing antibodies to the BA.4/BA.5 strains as compared to boosting with the ancestral type,” Offit said , referring to the currently authorized shots based on the version of Covid that emerged in China, more than two years ago.

Michael Osterholm, a leading epidemiologist and director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, also said more data needs to be presented on how the BA.5 shots perform in humans.

“It’s not that I don’t think it could work,” Osterholm said. “But I think we need the data first to show that the immune response to this vaccine is equivalent to or better than what we have already.”

But CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky, in a radio interview, said waiting longer for human data from the BA. 5 shots could mean the boosters become outdated if a new variant emerges. Walensky said the change in the vaccine formula is small and should not affect safety.

“There’s always a question here of being too slow versus too fast,” Walensky told Conversations on Health Care in a radio interview. “One of the challenges is if we wait for those data to emerge in human data […] we will be using what I would consider to be a potentially outdated vaccine.”

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Trump Seems to be Responsible As DOJ Unveils Damning Proof Of Categorized Docs In His Desk

In a filing arguing against a special master, the Department of Justice argued that Trump moved, hid, and concealed top secret and classified documents.

Via: The New York Times:

Among the new disclosures in the 36-page filing were that the search yielded three classified documents in desks located inside Mr. Trump’s office, with more than 100 documents in 13 boxes or containers with classification markings in the residence, including some at the most restrictive levels.

….

Investigators developed evidence that “government records were likely concealed and removed” from the storage room at Mar-a-Lago “and that efforts were likely undertaken to obstruct the government’s investigation,” prosecutors wrote in the filing.

Trump knew that he had classified documents in his position. The documents were not kept in a storage room that the former president never saw. Trump had top secret and classified information in his office. He had classified information in his personal desk.

There has never been a more clear-cut case of criminality than Donald Trump having three classified files in his personal desk. The former president knew that the documents were in his residence, and he hid the documents from the federal government and lied to federal investigators.

The DOJ’s filing came in response to Trump’s motion. Trump set himself up for this, and each new filing contains more damning evidence against the failed former one-term president.

Mr Easley is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.

Awards and Professional Memberships

Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association

The Fed disagrees, however Principal Avenue says ‘recession is already right here.’

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Small business confidence has hit an all-time low as the majority of Main Street expects runaway inflation and a Federal Reserve that is incapable of engineering a soft landing for the economy, leading to revenue declines and staffing cuts across sectors.

The majority of small business owners (57%) taking part in the CNBC/SurveyMonkey Small Business Survey for Q3 2022 think the recession has already begun, while another 14% predict recession before the end of the year.

The CNBC/SurveyMonkey online poll was conducted July 25-31, 2022 among a national sample of 2,557 self-identified small business owners.

The pessimism on Main Street is more widespread than in the general population, according to the survey, which included a companion poll of nearly 12,000 non-business owners. Among this group, 45% believe the US economy has entered a recession.

The CNBC|SurveyMonkey data is in line with other polling of the small business community.

“Outlook for business conditions in our monthly survey has deteriorated quite a bit from the beginning of the year,” said Holly Wade, executive director of research at the National Federation of Independent Business, speaking at CNBC’s Small Business Playbook virtual summit on Wednesday.

While inflation in input costs, energy prices and labor have been a top concern for small business owners throughout the year, its dominance in the minds of entrepreneurs continues to climb. According to the Q3 survey, 43% of small business owners say inflation is the biggest risk to their business right now, up again from last quarter, when it was 38%, and the highest this reading has reached in the past four quarters of surveys .

“It certainly ramped up since the beginning of the year, and most don’t see much end in sight or easing of this problem,” Wade said.

More than three-quarters (77%) of small business owners polled expect prices to continue going up. And while many large corporations continue to pass along price increases to customers and report healthy profits, only 13% of small businesses said now is a good one time to raise prices.

“Their No. 1 tool in dealing with inflation, those higher input costs, is passing along those costs to the customer. Unfortunately, a lot of times, they’re not able to do that immediately. So it’s really hurting cash flow and making managing cash flow really difficult and impacting earnings,” Wade said.

Only a minority of small business owners (26%) have confidence in the Federal Reserve to successfully battle inflation — a finding that is consistent with the Q2 survey results.

The Fed has continued to message inflation as its top priority and that interest rates will continue to increase until it has prices under control, but Fed senior leadership including Chair Jerome Powell have said they do not believe the economy is in a recession.

“We’re not in a recession right now. … To some extent, a recession is in the eyes of the beholder,” St. Louis Fed President James Bullard told CNBC on Wednesday.

GDP has been negative for two consecutive quarters, a recession indicator based on history, but by some measures, the US economy is proving resilient. While big box stores have been hit hard by shifting consumer behavior, overall consumer spending levels are still high. The labor market is strong, unemployment is low, and the latest macroeconomic data has given more support to the belief that recession may be avoided. The ISM non-manufacturing purchasing managers index, released Wednesday, showed a surprise rebound. The stock market, meanwhile, just turned into its best month since 2020.

Economists say that small business sentiment, similar to consumer sentiment, tends to be reactive rather than based on longer-term forecasting, and that can result in sharper, shorter-term shifts in sentiment. The current recession view on Main Street, as captured by the Small Business Survey, differs significantly from the Fed view. But in the details that make up the core confidence index, there is more general reflection of the economic slowdown that the Fed is attempting to engineer and that more optimistic economists call a soft landing.

According to SurveyMonkey, which conducts the poll for CNBC, nearly every index component worsened quarter-over-quarter, but the confidence indicator that looms largest this quarter is a weaker sales outlook on Main Street. As the Fed attempts to cool demand throughout the economy with higher interest rates, over one-quarter (28%) of small business owners expect their revenue to decrease over the next 12 months, up from 21% last quarter. This was the biggest swing factor in the overall confidence index hitting an all-time low in Q3.

More small businesses also anticipate cutting staff over the next year, up from 14% to 18% quarter over quarter.

The percentage of small business owners who describe business conditions as good (33%) went down again, from 36% in Q2 2022. Just over half (51%) of small business owners say the economy is “poor,” up from 44 % last quarter.

Almost three-quarters (74%) expect higher interest rates to be a negative for their business.

The confidence index score was 42 out of 100, down from 46 in the second quarter. The previous low was a score of 43 during the first quarter of the Biden Administration.

Wade said that even as many small business owners in the NFIB survey don’t think the recession has begun, they are anticipating economic headwinds. “We’ve seen a falling off of those expecting higher sales in the next quarter,” she said.

But currently, she said employment and sales in the small business sector are “holding up.”

Partisan politics and the economy

The small business demographic skews conservative and the confidence index reflects some partisan sentiment and persistent gaps in survey answers based on politics. For example, 69% of Republican small business owners believe the economy is in a recession, compared to 34% of Democrats polled. This gap is even reflected in how small business owners describe the economy, with 68% of Republicans using the word “poor,” compared with 19% of Democrats.

More trouble for President Joe Biden, though, is the significant percentage of small business owners who identify as Democrats and think inflation will continue to rise. While that figure is 89% among Republicans, and the partisan gap is wide, more than half of Democrats (51%) agree.

President Biden’s approval rating on Main Street hit the lowest level of his administration, with 31% of small business owners approving of how he has handled the job of president.

Zoom In IconArrows pointing outwards

While 81% of small business owners who are Democrats approve of Biden, pollsters have noted during this period of high inflation that presidents expect the vast majority of their party to offer support, often north of 90%. And as the CNBC/SurveyMonkey Small Business Survey has shown this year, Biden’s approval rating will not improve unless inflation goes down. Biden’s approval among important swing voters who identify as independents is at 29%.

Only 9% of Republicans approve of Biden’s handling of the presidency.

Final Flash Sale: $6 Offers From Too Confronted, Smashbox & Extra As we speak Solely

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Texas experiences what will be the first US dying from monkeypox

Texas health officials said Tuesday that a patient diagnosed with monkeypox died in what may be the nation’s first-known fatality from the virus.

The patient was an adult with a severely compromised immune system who lived in the Houston area, health officials said. The case is under investigation to determine what role monkeypox played in the individual’s death, officials said.

“Monkeypox is a serious disease, particularly for those with weakened immune systems,” said Dr. John Hellerstedt, the Texas state health commissioner. “We continue to urge people to seek treatment if they have been exposed to monkeypox or have symptoms consistent with the disease.”

Monkeypox is generally not life threatening, but people with compromised immune systems are at higher risk of severe disease. Patients typically develop lesions that often look similar to pimples or blisters and cause excruciating pain.

Eight countries have reported a total of 15 deaths from monkeypox since the global outbreak began this year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Deaths were previously reported in Cuba, Brazil, Ecuador, Ghana, India, Nigeria, Spain and the Central African Republic.

The US is battling the largest monkeypox outbreak in the world right now. More than 18,000 cases have been reported across the country, with infections now confirmed in every state as well as Puerto Rico and Washington, DC, according to CDC data.

Across the world, nearly 49,000 cases of monkeypox have been reported in 99 countries, the data shows.

The virus is primarily spreading through sexual contact among gay and bisexual men, according to the CDC. About 94% of confirmed cases were associated with sex and nearly all of the patients are men who have sex with men, Demetre Daskalakis, deputy head of the White House monkeypox response team, told reporters Friday.

The outbreak in the US is disproportionately affecting Black and Hispanic men. About 30% of monkeypox patients are white, 32% are Hispanic and 33% are Black, according to CDC data. Whites make up about 59% of the US population while Hispanics and Blacks account for 19% and 13%, respectively.

CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky on Friday said health officials are cautiously optimistic the spread of the virus may be slowing as new cases fall in major cities.

“We’re watching this with cautious optimism, and really hopeful that many of our harm-reduction messages and our vaccines are getting out there and working,” Walensky told reporters Friday.

The US is hoping to contain the outbreak by administering vaccines, expanding testing, distributing antiviral treatments, and educating gay and bisexual men about the virus.

The federal government has distributed 1.5 million doses of the monkeypox vaccine so far. More than 3 million doses should be available to states and local jurisdictions when the latest distribution round is complete, according to Dawn O’Connell, head of the office responsible for the national stockpile at the Health and Human Services Department.

The monkeypox vaccine, called Jynneos, is administered in two doses 28 days apart. It is the only vaccine approved by the Food and Drug Administration in the US for monkeypox. Jynneos is manufactured by Bavarian Nordic, a biotech company based in Denmark.

To increase the limited supply, the FDA has authorized a different method to administer the vaccine. The vaccine is now being given through intradermal injection for adults, or between the layers of the skin. This method uses a lower volume dosage which allows health-care providers to extract five doses from each vial.

There is no data on the real-world efficacy of the vaccine in the current outbreak, according to the CDC. But health officials have emphasized that it’s crucial for people to receive two doses in order to trigger the strongest response from the immune system. Protection against the virus is likely highest two weeks after the second dose, according to the CDC.

The World Health Organization and the CDC have said people at high risk can reduce their chances of exposure to monkeypox by limiting their sexual partners until the second week after they receive the second dose of the vaccine. People can also reduce their risk of exposure by avoiding sex parties until they are vaccinated, according to the CDC.

For people who have monkeypox or whose partners have the virus, the best way to avoid infection is by avoiding sex of any kind while sick, according to the CDC. It’s particularly important to avoid touching any rash and not to share objects or materials such as towels, sex toys, fetish gear or tooth brushes.

The CDC is also encouraging people to exchange contact information with any new sexual partners.

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Is ‘quiet quitting’ a good suggestion? Here is what office consultants say

Maggie Perkins said she started “quiet quitting” at her teaching job in 2018, even before it became a TikTok trend.

“There was no reason for me to hustle because as a teacher, there’s no promotion opportunities. If you’re the person who wins the award for teacher of the year, [you’ll] make the same salary as somebody who isn’t,” the 30-year-old mother told CNBC.

To be clear, there is no single definition of the term quiet acknowledgment. For some, it means setting boundaries and not taking on additional work; for others, it just means not going above and beyond. Most, however, agree it does not mean you’re leaving the job.

Four years on, after quiet quitting started making waves on TikTok, Perkins also made a video about how to do that as a teacher. It includes doing your job only during contract hours, not taking on extra work because that’s how you get burned out or taken advantage of, she said in her video.

@itsmaggieperkins

How to start “quiet quitting” your teaching job #quietquitting #teachersoftiktok #workboundaries #formerteacher #teacherquittok #sustainability

♬ Victoria’s Secret – Jax

“I didn’t volunteer for committees. I didn’t stay late and do extra. I just taught my classes, and I was a good teacher,” she told CNBC Make It in a virtual interview.

What workers are looking for

While the term quiet acknowledgment may be new, the concept isn’t.

Michael Timmes, a senior specialist at Insperity, a human resources consulting firm said that there have always been employees who react to burnout by “doing the bare minimum.”

“Today, this is being driven by Gen Z, however evident across all generations. It has taken steam through social media platforms,” ​​he added.

What used to be a passive aggressive challenge of work-life balance is now becoming a very direct request. It’s not a request anymore. It’s a demand.

jaya dass

Managing Director for Singapore and Malaysia, Randstad

For Jaya Dass, Randstad’s managing director for Singapore and Malaysia, quietly acknowledging is a “residual impact” of Covid-19 and the Great Resignation, where employees felt empowered to take control of their work and personal life.

“What used to be a passive aggressive challenge of work-life balance is now becoming a very direct request,” she said.

“It’s not a request anymore. It’s a demand.”

Kelsey Wat, a career coach agreed, and said quiet quitting is now a way for workers to “stick it” to companies who see them “as another cog in the machine.”

The problem with the Great Resignation is that it assumes everyone has somewhere else to go, that added. But for individuals who feel they don’t have alternative jobs to go to and need to stay employed, quiet acknowledgment has become the next available option.

“If no one’s asking you to leave, why not do less by default and get away with it? You’re buying time where you’re at,” Jass added.

“It could come from this general sense of hopelessness … with what’s happening with inflation or the cost of living, a whole bunch of things that people haven’t recovered from.”

Is quiet quitting beneficial and what do hiring managers think about quiet-quitters?

When quiet quitting backfires

However, quiet acknowledgment in theory and in practice can look different for every individual.

Experts said the concept is worrying because it can go beyond simply striking better work life balance.

“Quiet quitting removes any emotional investment you might have from your work, which is sad given the fact that most of us spend so much of our time at work,” said Wat.

“Most of us want to be proud of the work we do and the contributions we make. We want to see our impact and feel good about it. Quiet quitting doesn’t allow for that.”

She added that it is possible to maintain healthy boundaries and remain emotionally invested at work.

Timmes agreed, and said there’s a difference between better work-life balance and “being totally disengaged.”

From an office perspective, quiet quitting can cause conflicts between employees, as some employees will feel others aren’t carrying their weight.

Michael Timmes

Senior human resource specialist, Insperity

“An employee that shows up every day, goes through the motions, turns down certain projects due to lack of interest, and has no desire to advance in their current career or develop skills is very different to a case of work-life balance.”

He added that quiet quitting could be a positive trend if workers focused on maximizing their hours at the office. “The only problem: the trend isn’t reflecting this mentality at the moment,” Timmes said.

There are bad qualities that can be adopted from quiet quitting too, such as lack of motivation, underdevelopment of skills, lack of flexibility and inability to work in a team setting.

“From an office perspective, quiet quitting can cause conflicts between employees, as some employees will feel others aren’t carrying their weight,” he added.

“Overall, this can backfire on the employee and can also create a wave of inadequate and underdeveloped employees.”

Kevin O’Leary, an investor and star of ABC’s “Shark Tank” has also said that quiet acknowledgment is “a really bad idea.”

“People that go beyond to try to solve problems for the organization, their teams, their managers, their bosses, those are the ones that succeed in life,” O’Leary said.

However, Perkins insisted that quiet acknowledgment does not mean slacking off at work — though she acknowledged that some people may do so.

“I do value my work and I do put in the hours, but I just want to be respectful of my time and my energy,” she added.

Perkins has since left teaching and is now an academic consultant and full-time tutor. She says now that she’s willing to go above and beyond for her current role.

“That’s because it’s a company that has shown me that they value me and I get very respectful feedback from my boss, it’s a healthy work environment,” she explained.

“If my boss had been really negative towards me in the past, I would have just said no.”

Perkins said she used to quietly quit “out of necessity.”

“I had my first daughter [in 2018] … If I was late picking her up from day care, they would fine me a dollar a minute and so if I didn’t leave work almost as soon as my students left the building, then I was gonna have to pay a fee.”

Why quiet acknowledgment may work

Quiet quitting can be beneficial in terms of providing more time for employees to pursue passion projects, Timmes pointed out.

“The employee may be able to think more outside the box, feel more refreshed and become more efficient in the hours they are working.”

Wat added that quiet quitting can give employees short-term relief from a work environment that is “overly focused on outcomes.”

At the end of the day, quiet quitting is about … combatting the long-held belief that the only way to get ahead professionally is to work far beyond your limits and to take on a ‘yes man’ mentality.

“I can see how quiet quitting for a season may help them to refocus on their needs outside of work and hopefully lead them towards recovering from their burnout and getting clear on their needs and boundaries within the workplace moving forward,” she added.

“At the end of the day, quiet quitting is about … combatting the long-held belief that the only way to get ahead professionally is to work far beyond your limits and to take on a ‘yes man’ mentality.”

Maggie Perkins said that adopting quiet quitting gave her more “personal happiness and satisfaction.”

Maggie Perkins

Kim Kardashian Denies Claims That SKIMS “Ripped Pores and skin Off” Physique Tape

A representative for Kim Kardashian is denying claims made by a woman who says she had her “skin ripped off” by the mogul’s line of SKIMS body tape.

According to a lawsuit filed on Monday, a woman named Noelle Mahasin Smith made the allegation regarding the reality star’s body tape product, and is seeking unspecified damages for medical expenses caused by the injuries, TMZ reports.

However, a spokesperson for Kardashian’s SKIMS brand shut the accusation down just a day after the lawsuit was filed, and stated that the product Smith had purchased did not come from SKIMS and was instead “fake tape” bought on Amazon.

Kardashian Spokesperson Says Product Smith Purchased Was “Fake Tape” Bought On Amazon

The brand further distanced itself from the Smith product obtained from the online retailer, who they claim is “not an authorized or official retailer of SKIMS products,” the spokesperson said.

“We take feedback from our customers very seriously. Upon further review of this specific complaint, we have discovered that the customer purchased what appears to be fake tape from Amazon, who is not an authorized or official retailer of SKIMS products…”

NEW YORK, NEW YORK – FEBRUARY 05: SKIMS celebrates the collection launch at Nordstrom NYC on February 05, 2020 in New York City. (Photo by Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Nordstrom)

The spokesperson went on to say that counterfeit items “have become commonplace for the brand” and that they “strongly advise our customers to only purchase from SKIMS” or official retail partners, which can be found on their website.

“Unfortunately counterfeit items have become commonplace for the brand and we strongly advise our customers to only purchase from SKIMS or any of our official retail partners which can be found on our website to ensure that they receive authentic products that meet our quality standards.”

Lawsuit Requesting Unspecified Damages After Alleged Body Tape Injury

Smith’s lawsuit did not go into specifics, however she did say the body tape is directly responsible for the physical and mental pain she claims she endured by using it.

Meanwhile, a representative for Kim’s brand provided TMZ with photo evidence showing the tape Smith used did not have the SKIMS markings that make the reality star’s brand distinct from competitors and counterfeiters.

Another customer who said they purchased SKIMS body tape tweeted pictures in 2020 showing what appeared to be injuries caused by the tape, however those claims remain unsubstantiated.

GettyImages 1344827017PARIS, FRANCE – OCTOBER 04: A SKIMS giant poster with Kim Kardashian West is displayed at the ‘Galeries Lafayette’ department store on October 04, 2021 in Paris, France. (Photo by Marc Piasecki/Getty Images)

Kardashian’s SKIMS Lawsuit Comes Just Months After Skin-Care Line South For Trademark Infringement

Then there’s the price difference, as Smith’s purchase was $9.99 for a roll of tape and pack of 10 pasties. SKIMS retails for $36 for a roll and $12 for a pack of 10 pasties, according to the outlet.

The SKIMS site says its body tape is “engineered with flexible cotton for maximum breast lift. Lightweight pasties for nipple coverage that keep you comfortably concealed for up to 12 hours.”

It’s described as a “breathable, flexible, gentle adhesive cloth strip that is designed to make creating the perfect breast shape super easy for anyone.”

Kim is hardly a stranger to lawsuits, with her SKKN skin-care line having been accused in June of infringing on the trademarked name of a Brooklyn-based Black-owned small business called Beauty Concepts, who offers salon services under the name “SKKN+” according to The Cut.

Trump Mar-a-Lago raid affidavit for search warrant revealed

The Justice Department on Friday revealed a heavily redacted copy of the affidavit used to obtain a search warrant for former President Donald Trump’s home Mar-a-Lago.

The FBI had probable cause to believe that records containing classified national defense information would be found at the Palm Beach, Florida, residence, according to an agent who wrote the 32-page affidavit.

“There is also probable cause to believe that evidence of obstruction will be found” at Trump’s home, read an unredacted portion of the affidavit.

A federal judge had ordered the key document’s release over the objections of the DOJ, which argued it contains highly sensitive facts about the ongoing criminal investigation into Trump. US Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart accepted the DOJ’s proposed redactions to the affidavit one day before it was made public.

Click here or scroll down to read the heavily redacted affidavit.

“The government is conducting a criminal investigation concerning the improper removal and storage of classified information in unauthorized spaces, as well as the unlawful concealment and removal of government records,” the FBI agent, whose name was blacked out, wrote in the affidavit’s first line .

The agent then wrote that the probe began because of a referral from the National Archives and Records Administration in February, after NARA received 15 boxes of records from Trump’s residence in Florida. By law, presidential records must be turned over to the National Archives when a president departs office.

The FBI found that in those boxes were documents that bore classification markings, and included records relating to national defense information, which had been stored at Mar-a-Lago in an unsecured location.

The 15 boxes included 184 specific documents marked classified, 67 of which were marked “confidential,” 92 marked “secret” and 25 documents marked “top secret,” according to the affidavit.

“Based upon this investigation, I do not believe that any spaces within the PREMISES have been authorized for the storage of classified information at least since the end of FPOTUS’s Presidential Administration on January 20, 2021,” the agent wrote in the affidavit.

Of the 32 pages of the affidavit, 21 pages are almost totally or significantly blacked out.

The search warrant itself was revealed voluntarily by the DOJ less than a week after the Aug. 8 raid. The warrant indicated that FBI agents were looking for materials showing violations of laws against obstruction of justice and the removal of official records, as well as the US Espionage Act.

The FBI took at least 20 boxes of items in the August raid, including numerous sets of highly classified documents, according to a property receipt that was also made public by the DOJ.

In a social media post after the redacted affidavit was released, Trump accused the FBI and DOJ of “public relations subterfuge” by the fact that the word “Nuclear” did not appear in the document — though he also noted that it was “heavily redacted !!!” The affidavit did not detail the specific content of documents it expected to find.

Trump also lashed out at Reinhart, arguing that he should have recused himself from this matter because he had previously removed himself from another case involving the former president. The reason for that recusal was not clear, news outlets reported, but Trump claimed it was “based on his animosity and hatred of your favorite President, me.”

The government argued last week against releasing the affidavit, even in a redacted form.

“The redactions necessary to mitigate harms to the integrity of the investigation would be so extensive as to render the remaining unsealed text devoid of meaningful content,” read a court filing from Jay Bratt, head of the counterintelligence and export control section of the DOJ’s National Security Division.

Bratt also argued that the affidavit investigation “would serve as a roadmap to the government’s ongoing” if disclosed.

Reinhart disagreed, and ordered the government to propose redactions to US District Court in West Palm Beach, Florida, by Thursday. The judge accepted the DOJ’s redactions later that day.

The government said last week that the Mar-a-Lago raid is part of a probe that “implicates national security” and is still in its “early stages.”

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Trump, who first revealed the FBI’s search of his Florida residence, has cast himself as the victim of a political attack by the Biden administration that was carried out against the presumptive Republican front-runner in the 2024 presidential race.

The former president on Monday sued the government, asking a federal judge to block the DOJ from poring over the documents seized from Mar-a-Lago until a court-appointed third party reviews them.

“The political Hacks and Thugs had no right under the Presidential Records Act to storm Mar-a-Lago and steal everything in sight, including passports and privileged documents,” Trump said in a social media post earlier Friday morning.

Read the redacted affidavit:

Corporations hope to capitalize on rising market

Grainwave, a Belgian-Style white ale, THC infused, non-alcoholic cannabis beer at the Ceria Brewing Co. at the Keef Cola facility December 13, 2018.

Andy Cross | Denver Post | Getty Images

You can smoke it, vape it and eat it. Now as more US states legalize recreational marijuana, companies are betting people will also want to drink it.

Weed-infused beverages are popping up in more places, with major drink makers including Pabst Blue Ribbon and Constellation already pushing into the market. Unlike CBD-infused drinks that have been more widely available in dozens of states, cannabis or weed drinks contain marijuana’s psychoactive component, tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, which gets people high and is still federally prohibited in the United States.

In recent years, new emulsion technology has made it possible to mix THC into an array of beverages. Now, drink makers are betting that people who don’t want to smoke or vape marijuana or drink alcohol because of health or social reasons can find an alternative in cannabis beverages.

And the market is getting crowded, even in its infancy, according to Amanda Reiman, vice president of public policy research at New Frontier Data, a cannabis firm that tracks consumer habits.

“The choice for consumers was not as wide in the past but now we’ve seen dozens of companies get involved in the cannabis beverage space,” Reiman said.

Leveraging its beer and spirits manufacturing experience, Pabst Blue Ribbon has begun selling a lineup of non-alcoholic “High Seltzers.” Each 12-ounce can contains 10 milligrams of THC, which the company says “is the right amount to have a good time.” Flavors come in pineapple, mango, strawberry and lemon. They’re sold online or at dispensaries in states where medical or recreational marijuana use is allowed.

Other beer and spirit companies to have entered this space include Anheuser-Busch, the maker of Budweiser; Constellation Brands, which makes Modelo Especial and Corona Extra; Lagunitas Brewing Company; and Ceria. The lineup of weed drinks contains varied doses of THC — generally anywhere from 2.5 milligrams to 10 milligrams — mixed only with water-based drinks. The mixing of cannabis and alcohol is prohibited in most states that allow cannabis use.

Brightfield Group, a cannabis research agency, estimates that cannabis beverages overall will account for $1 billion in US sales by 2025.

Getting into the weeds

While beverages only represent about 1% of overall legal cannabis sales in the US, that just means the market has a lot of space to grow, according to Travis Tharp, the CEO of Keef Brands, which makes an array of cannabis products.

“There have been multiple false starts for announcing beverages the next big thing,” Tharp said. “But I think we’ve gotten to a point where we are showing that the year over year growth is something that is substantial.”

Keef, based in Colorado, has expanded to eight states where recreational or medical weed has been legalized, as well as Canada and Puerto Rico. Among the company’s products is a 100-milligram mocktail that Tharp compared to a hard bottle of alcohol.

“You should not drink a full bottle of this in your first serving,” Tharp said. “You wouldn’t drink a full bottle of vodka.”

There are experts who worry such higher-dose THC in drinks could pose serious health risks. Despite cannabis beverage brands often being touted for their wellness benefits or for being hangover free, there has been a lack of government-funded research about them.

Too much of anything can be bad, doctors warn.

“THC can increase the risk of paranoia, anxiety, and even psychosis and hallucinations,” said Charles Michael White, department head of the University of Connecticut’s School of Pharmacy. “The higher the dose, the greater the risk and severity of these adverse effects.”

White said consuming cannabis in liquid form still comes with a lot of unknowns. It falls somewhere in between inhaling cannabis, which gives an immediate high that leaves the body quickly, and eating it, which remains in the bloodstream longer for a slower, calmer high.

With cannabis beverages, he said the high can be intense and unpredictable, especially if too much of the drink is consumed in a short amount of time.

A need for more research

Tharp added that the market for THC beverages has been hampered by a lack of research into responsible consumption, as well as few standardized policies and best practices.

“There’s not a lot of research that can be performed on it because cannabis is a schedule one drug in the US,” he said, adding that this is one of the main roadblocks keeping the industry from joining the mainstream more quickly.

A schedule one drug is a substance that has no currently accepted medical use in the United States and has a high potential for abuse.

Reiman, of New Frontier Data, agrees. If legalized federally, she said the Food and Drug Administration would be studying and regulating THC beverages. That could put wary customers at ease and entice new ones to take a sip.

In addition to limiting research, today’s federal cannabis prohibition means cannabis beverage makers are largely operating under a patchwork of state laws, creating a disjointed supply chain. This keeps many companies from growing in a significant way, which has led to some pulling back on their efforts in the market and others giving up completely.

Earlier this year, Anheuser-Busch ended a partnership associated with manufacturing CBD and THC beverages, according to Hemp Today. The company said cannabis remains illegal at the federal level and that its current focus in the US is on its beer category. It said it will monitor efforts to legalize cannabis as conversations with policymakers continue.

With states including New York and New Jersey formulating plans for recreational markets, there’s still potential for reaching more consumers. And as laws evolve in more mature state markets like California, there’s a push for cannabis beverages to be sold alongside alcohol at lounges, clubs, restaurants and even grocers.

Reiman said increasing social acceptance of recreational marijuana will also be what mainstream THC beverages.

“Consumers are looking for something that will replace an alcoholic beverage but allow them to consume it in the same manner and environment in which they’re used to consuming alcoholic beverages,” she said.

Residence costs weaken however are nonetheless a lot increased than a yr in the past: S&P Case Shiller

A “For Sale” sign outside a house in Albany, California, on Tuesday, May 31, 2022.

David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Home prices in June were 18% higher than during the same month last year, according to the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Indices.

That’s a weaker pace than in May of this year, which showed an 19.9% ​​annual gain. The 10-city composite rose 17.4%, down from 19.1% in the previous month. The 20-city composite was 18.6% higher year over year, down from 20.5% in May.

Of the 20 cities, Tampa, Florida, Miami and Dallas saw the highest year-over-year pace in June, with increases of 35%, 33% and 28.2%, respectively. Only one of the 20 cities reported higher price increases in the year ended in June 2022 versus the year ended in May 2022.

“It’s important to bear in mind that deceleration and decline are two entirely different things, and that prices are still rising at a robust clip,” wrote Craig Lazzara, managing director at S&P Dow Jones Indices, in a release. “June’s growth rates for all three composites are at or above the 95th percentile of historical experience. For the first six months of 2022, in fact, the National Composite is up 10.6%.”

In the last 35 years, only four complete years have witnessed increases that large, he said.

Another report last week showed home prices declined 0.77% from June to July. It was the first monthly fall in nearly three years, according to Black Knight, a mortgage software, data and analytics firm.

While the drop may seem small, it is the largest single-month decline in prices since January 2011. It is also the second-worst July performance dating back to 1991, behind the 0.9% decline in July 2010, during the Great Recession.

Home prices are softening due to rising mortgage rates, making an already expensive housing market even more so. Sales of both new and existing homes have been dropping for several months, leading some economists to call a housing recession.

“We’ve noted previously that mortgage financing has become more expensive as the Federal Reserve ratchets up interest rates, a process that continued as our June data were gathered. As the macroeconomic environment continues to be challenging, home prices may well continue to decelerate, said Lazzara.