Eden Foods' Hobby Lobby-esque Birth Control Fight Sparks Boycott

Spurred on by the Supreme Court’s recent Hobby Lobby ruling, Eden Foods CEO Michael Potter has revived a March 2013 case to nix coverage of all birth control from his employees’ healthcare plans. In turn, many shoppers have soured on the organic food giant and are boycotting its products.

“In accordance with his Catholic faith, Potter believes that any action which either before, at the moment of, or after sexual intercourse, is specifically intended to prevent procreation, whether as an end or means -- including abortifacients and contraception -- is wrong,” Erin Mersino, Eden’s lawyer from the conservative Thomas More Law Center, said in a statement sent to The Huffington Post on Friday.

Last month, Hobby Lobby won the right to shirk a clause in the Affordable Care Act that requires employers who provide health insurance to cover all Food and Drug Administration-approved forms of birth control. The company, which is owned by a family of evangelical Christians, opposed emergency contraceptives such as “morning after” pills Plan B and Ella and intrauterine devices, which it believes are tantamount to abortion.

Eden's founder and chief executive goes one step further, opposing all birth control.

“Just went thru my cupboard and pulled out 4 Eden products,” Jackie Ellison, a woman in Atlanta, wrote in a comment on Eden's Facebook page. “My last four until you allow women their due health coverage.”

The company known for its popular brand of soy milk, and a staple on the shelves of grocers such as Whole Foods, sued the federal government in March 2013, according to legal filings. But a federal appeals court tossed out the case.

“A secular, for-profit corporation cannot establish that it can exercise religion,” three judges wrote in their decision.

But the Hobby Lobby ruling changed that. Five of the male justices on the nation’s highest court decided that “closely-held” corporations can opt out of covering some forms of birth control to which they object for religious reasons.

Invigorated by the Hobby Lobby ruling, Eden renewed their case, which is currently being reconsidered by the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals.

“We were convinced that actions of the federal government were illegal, and so filed a formal objection,” Eden said in a statement earlier this month. “The recent Supreme Court decision confirms, at least in part, that we were correct.”

But the move has also fueled shoppers' backlash.

At least two online petitions and a Facebook page are urging customers to stop buying Eden’s foods.

Todd Kolod, of St. Paul, Minnesota, holds up a sign outside a Mississippi Market that stocks Eden Foods products. He is a member of the Boycott Eden Foods Facebook page.

Meanwhile, angry commenters are trolling the company’s official Facebook page, where it posts articles about organic food and recipes.

"My concern is more about women's rights than the actual coverage of contraceptives, and how the policies of Eden Foods and like companies unequally effects women," Tanner Roan, who started the Boycott Eden Foods page on Facebook, told HuffPost in an email. "With the recent Hobby Lobby decision, the boycott has gained quite a bit of ground and has inspired many other people to join in and take further action."

Malaysian Airliner Crash Sends Stocks Tumbling

* Malaysian Airliner downed in Ukraine war zone, 295 dead

* Morgan Stanley profit more than doubles, beats estimates

* Microsoft to cut up to 18,000 jobs, 14 percent of workforce

* Dow off 0.5 pct; S&P 500 down 0.7 pct; Nasdaq off 0.9 pct (Updates to afternoon)

By Angela Moon

NEW YORK, July 17 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks fell on Thursday in volatile trading on news that a Malaysian Airlines passenger jet crashed near the Ukraine-Russia border, after the United States and European Union imposed sanctions on Russia.

Investors sold equities in a move to avoid risk because of conflicting reports about the reason why the plane went down. A New York Stock Exchange floor trader, who spoke on condition of anonymity, cited reports that the plane might been shot down.

"What's happening in the market is what you'd expect, a risk reversal. Stocks fall a bit, gold rises a bit, energy prices are still high, the volatility index spikes," said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at Wunderlich Securities in New York.

The CBOE Volatility index surged 17.6 percent to 12.94 and was on track to post its biggest daily percentage gain in at least three months. Spot gold rose 1.4 percent to above $1,315 an ounce and U.S. crude shot up 1.8 percent to $103.03 a barrel.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 89.26 points or 0.52 percent, to 17,048.94. The S&P 500 lost 14.37 points or 0.73 percent, to 1,967.20. The Nasdaq Composite dropped 40.89 points or 0.92 percent, to 4,385.08.

The major U.S. stock indexes opened modestly lower following news of fresh U.S. and European Union sanctions on Russia. Stronger-than-expected earnings, however, helped curb the declines.


By late morning, stocks slid to session lows after news that a Malaysian airliner was brought down over eastern Ukraine on Thursday. The crash killed all 295 people aboard and sharply increased the stakes in a conflict between Kiev and pro-Moscow rebels in which Russia and the West back opposing sides.

Ukraine accused "terrorists" - militants fighting to unite eastern Ukraine with Russia - of shooting down the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 with a heavy Soviet-era ground-to-air missile as it flew from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur.

"If there's an escalation here and we go to Tier Three sanctions, think about the economic effect it has on Russia and its trading partners," Hogan said. "If sanctions become harsh enough and have enough economic impact on Russia, it could drag the core of Europe into a recession. That's the economic possibility."

The iShares China Large Cap ETF slipped 1.1 percent. The NYSE Arca airline index was down 1.6 percent.

The U.S. sanctions, which were announced late on Wednesday, hit some of Russia's biggest companies while the EU sanctions were aimed at Russian companies that help destabilize Ukraine and will block new loans to Russia through two multilateral lenders. The Market Vectors Russia ETF lost 6.4 percent.

Equities had been holding near the unchanged mark earlier in the session, largely on the back of solid earnings from companies such as Morgan Stanley, down 0.2 percent at $32.44, and UnitedHealth, up 2.4 percent at $85.77.

Microsoft shares rose 1.3 percent to $44.64 after the company said it would cut up to 18,000 jobs, or about 14 percent of its workforce, resulting in pre-tax charges of $1.1 billion to $1.6 billion over the next four quarters.

Data on manufacturing and the labor market indicated that the U.S. economy was improving, although the housing market remains weak. The PHLX housing index fell 1.6 percent.

S&P 500 companies' profits are expected to grow 4.9 percent in the second quarter, according to Thomson Reuters data, down from the 8.4 percent growth forecast at the start of April. Revenue is seen up 3 percent. (Reporting by Angela Moon; Editing by Jan Paschal)

Microsoft To Lay Off Up To 18,000 Workers Over Next Year

REDMOND, Wash. (AP) — Microsoft has announced the biggest layoffs in its history, saying it will cut up to 18,000 jobs or 14 percent of its staff as it works to cut down on management layers and integrate the Nokia cellphone business it bought in April.

The news sent Microsoft's stock up 3 percent in morning trading.

Although the job cuts had been expected, the extent of them was a surprise. It's the boldest move by CEO Satya Nadella since he took the reins from Steve Ballmer in February. In a public email to employees Thursday, he said the changes were needed for the company to "become more agile and move faster."

Of the job cuts, about 12,500 professional and factory jobs will be cut. Microsoft expects charges of $1.1 billion to $1.6 billion over the next four quarters, which includes $750 million to $800 million for severance and related benefit costs.

FBR Capital Markets analyst Daniel Ives said the cuts were about double what Wall Street was expecting.

But he said they were necessary to streamline operations and clean up a bloated management structure.

"Microsoft needs to be a 'leaner and meaner' technology giant over the coming years in order to strike the right balance of growth and profitability around its cloud and mobile endeavors."

The move dwarfs Microsoft's previous biggest job cut, when it cut about 5,800 jobs in 2009. That was the company's first ever widespread layoff.

Microsoft has been shifting its focus from traditional PC software to cloud computing and cloud-based products like its Office 365 productivity software.

With its $7.3 billion acquisition of Nokia's cellphone business, Microsoft has been seeking to meld its software and hardware business into a cohesive package, similar to rival Apple. In a letter to employees, Executive Vice President Stephen Elop said the company will drive sales of its Windows Phone by targeting the lower-price smartphone market with its Lumia devices. It also plans to develop more products for the higher-end smartphone segment.

In a blog post a week ago, Nadella hinted at the move, saying Microsoft had to "change and evolve" its culture for the "mobile-first and cloud-first world."

Nadella said Thursday that he would give more details when Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft reports fiscal 2014 results on Tuesday.

Shares of Microsoft rose $1.27, or 3 percent to $45.35 in premarket trading. The stock is up nearly 18 percent since the beginning of the year.

Microsoft Plans Biggest Round Of Job Cuts In 5 Years

(Reuters) - Microsoft Corp is planning its biggest round of job cuts in five years as the software maker looks to integrate Nokia Oyj's handset unit, Bloomberg reported, citing people with knowledge of the company's plans.

The reductions, expected to be announced as soon as this week, could be in the Nokia unit and the parts of Microsoft that overlap with that business, as well as in marketing and engineering, Bloomberg reported.

Since absorbing the handset business of Nokia this spring, Microsoft has 127,000 employees, far more than rivals Apple Inc and Google Inc. Wall Street is expecting Chief Executive Satya Nadella to make some cuts, which would represent Microsoft's first major layoffs since 2009.

The restructuring may end up being the biggest in Microsoft history, topping the 5,800 jobs cut in 2009, the report said.

Some of the job cuts will be in marketing departments for businesses such as the global Xbox team, and among software testers, while other job cuts may result from changes Nadella is making to the engineering organization, Bloomberg reported.

Last week, Nadella circulated a memo to employees promising to "flatten the organization and develop leaner business processes" but deferred any comment on widely expected job cuts at the software company.

Nadella said he would address detailed organizational and financial issues for the company's new financial year, which started at the beginning of this month, when Microsoft reports quarterly results on July 22.

Microsoft could not be immediately reached for comment outside regular business hours.

(Reporting by Supriya Kurane in Bangalore; Editing by Gopakumar Warrier)

In States That Didn't Expand Medicaid, It's As If Obamacare Doesn't Even Exist For The Poor

Twenty-five states didn't take up the Obamacare Medicaid expansion at the beginning of this year, and the results speak for themselves: A new survey shows more than one-third of their lowest-income residents remain uninsured, a rate virtually unchanged from last year, even as millions gained coverage elsewhere.

Nationwide, the share of Americans 19 to 64 years old without health insurance fell from 20 percent to 10 percent, as 9.5 million people got covered by Medicaid or private health insurance, according to a poll of Obamacare enrollees published Thursday by the Commonwealth Fund.

Among adults who earn less than poverty wages in states that didn't expand Medicaid, the uninsured rate is 36 percent, a decline of two percentage points (termed not statistically significant) from last year. That compares to a dramatic drop from 28 percent to 17 percent in states that expanded Medicaid.

The debate over the Medicaid expansion remains arguably the most consequential unresolved matter related to the Affordable Care Act, as the refusal by Republican governors and state legislatures to accept federal dollars to provide health care to poor people is having real effects on the ground.

Medicaid Expansion Decisions By States Have Predictable Results

The authors of the ACA didn't foresee this outcome, which was made possible by a Supreme Court ruling in 2012 giving states the right to opt out of Medicaid expansion and granting GOP politicians another cudgel to use against Obamacare.

Source: The Advisory Board Company

The law was originally designed to make Medicaid available to anyone who earns less than 133 percent of the federal poverty level, or $15,282 this year for a single person. The law also lets individuals who make between the poverty level of $11,490 to four times that amount get tax credits to cut the cost of private health insurance. But anyone who makes less than that -- or even nothing -- gets no assistance if they live in Texas, Florida, Louisiana or the other states didn't didn't expand the program.

Law Meant To Cover The Uninsured Is Covering Them

Among Obamacare enrollees with either Medicaid or private health insurance obtained through insurance exchanges, 63 percent didn't have health coverage before. Two-thirds of new Medicaid enrollees were previously uninsured. The greatest gains in health coverage were among young adults, poor adults and Latinos, the survey found.

The Commonwealth Fund poll, conducted through telephone interviews of 4,425 people by the firm SSRS from April to June, focused special attention on the six most populous states.

California, which expanded Medicaid, cut its uninsured rate in half to 11 percent. In Florida, which did not expand the program to more people, the share of uninsured residents declined from 30 percent to 26 percent, a difference deemed statistically insignificant. Texas also didn't expand Medicaid, but its uninsured rate still fell from 34 percent to 22 percent, the survey found. Texas and Florida still have the highest uninsured rates in the nation.

Big Variations In The Uninsured Rate In The Big States

Government Made $100 Billion In Improper Payments

WASHINGTON (AP) — Tax credits for families that don't qualify. Medicare payments for treatments that might not be necessary. Unemployment benefits for people who are secretly working. Federal agencies reported making $100 billion in payments last year to people who may not have been entitled to receive them.

Congressional investigators say the figure could be even higher.

"The amounts here are absolutely staggering," said Rep. John Mica, R-Fla. "It's over $100 billion each of the last five years. That's a staggering half a trillion dollars in improper payments."

Mica chairs the House Oversight government operations subcommittee, which held a hearing on improper payments Wednesday.

Each year, federal agencies are required to estimate the amount of improper payments they issue. They include overpayments, underpayments, payments to the wrong recipient and payments that were made without proper documentation.

Some improper payments are the result of fraud, while others are unintentional, caused by clerical errors or mistakes in awarding benefits without proper verification.

In 2013, federal agencies made $97 billion in overpayments, according to agency estimates. Underpayments totaled $9 billion. That adds up to $106 billion in improper payments, or 3.5 percent of all the payments made by the federal government.

The Obama administration has reduced the amount of improper payments since they peaked at $121 billion in 2010. The administration has stepped up efforts to measure improper payments, identify the cause and develop plans to reduce them, said Beth Cobert, deputy director of the White House budget office.

Federal agencies recovered more than $22 billion in overpayments last year, she said.

"We have taken an aggressive approach to attacking waste, fraud and abuse within federal agencies, and we will continue to seek out new and innovative tools to help us in this fight," Cobert told the subcommittee.

However, a new report by the Government Accountability Office questions the accuracy of agency estimates, suggesting that the real tally could be higher. The GAO is the investigative arm of Congress.

"The federal government is unable to determine the full extent to which improper payments occur and reasonably assure that appropriate actions are taken to reduce them," Beryl H. Davis, director of financial management at the GAO, told the subcommittee.

Davis said some agencies don't develop estimates for programs that could be susceptible to improper payments. She also said estimates by the Defense Department "may not be reliable."

The Pentagon estimates that less than 1 percent of its payments are improper. However, the GAO found last year that the Pentagon's estimates for 2011 "were neither reliable nor statistically valid because of long-standing and pervasive financial management weaknesses."

"We have reason to believe that the numbers are sound but we certainly understand why the skepticism exists," Mark E. Easton, the Defense Department's deputy chief financial officer, told the subcommittee.

"I hope you won't stand too strongly behind your numbers," Rep. Gerald Connolly, D-Va., replied.

The largest sources of improper payments are government health care programs, according to agency estimates. Medicare's various health insurance programs for older Americans accounted for $50 billion in improper payments in the 2013 budget year, far exceeding any other program.

Most of the payments were deemed improper because they were issued without proper documentation, said Shantanu Agrawal, a deputy administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. In some cases, the paperwork didn't verify that services were medically necessary.

"Payments deemed 'improper' under these circumstances tend to be the result of documentation and coding errors made by the provider as opposed to payments made for inappropriate claims," Agrawal told the subcommittee.

Among other programs with large amounts of improper payments:

—The earned income tax credit, which provides payments to the working poor in the form of tax refunds. Last year, improper payments totaled $14.5 billion. That's 24 percent of all payments under the program.

"It's an unacceptable rate of improper payments, an unacceptable rate of dollars out the door, and we need to do whatever we can to make a dent in it," IRS Commissioner John Koskinen told the subcommittee.

The tax credit is one of the largest anti-poverty programs in the U.S., providing $60.3 billion in payments last year. Eligibility depends on income and family size, making it complicated to apply for the credit — and difficult to enforce — Koskinen said.

People get credits they don't deserve by claiming children they don't have or misreporting their income or filing status, Koskinen said.

The IRS prides itself on issuing most tax refunds most within three weeks, often before the agency gets wage and other financial information from employers and banks. To combat fraud, the IRS has asked Congress to make employers and banks submit this information more quickly. The IRS also wants more authority to correct errors on tax returns without doing a full audit.

— Medicaid, the government health care program for the poor. Last year, improper payments totaled $14.4 billion.

Medicaid, which is run jointly by the federal government and the states, has seen a steady decline in improper payments since 2010, when they peaked at $23 billion.

The program is expanding under President Barack Obama's health law.

—Unemployment insurance, a joint federal-state program that provides temporary benefits to laid-off workers. Amount of improper payments last year: $6.2 billion, or 9 percent of all payments under the program.

The Labor Department said most overpayments went to people who continued to get benefits after returning to work, or who didn't meet state requirements to look for work while they were unemployed. Others were ineligible for benefits because they voluntarily quit their jobs or were fired.

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Online: http://www.paymentaccuracy.gov/about-improper-payments

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Follow Stephen Ohlemacher on Twitter: http://twitter.com/stephenatap

Jamie Dimon Has Throat Cancer: Report

JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon has been diagnosed with throat cancer, according to multiple reports.

Dimon's cancer was revealed in a memo emailed to the company's employees on Tuesday. In the email, Dimon said that the cancer is "curable" and "the prognosis from doctors is excellent," according to Forbes.

Dimon, who reportedly will undergo roughly eight weeks of radiation and chemotherapy, also "will continue to be actively involved" in the company, according to a portion of the email cited by fastFT.

Buzzfeed has published the letter in its entirety. You can see it here.