(PHILADELPHIA) — Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit that runs Sesame Street, said it will “conduct bias training and a thorough review of the ways in which they engage families and guests” at Sesame Place after a video of a potential racial bias incident went viral online.
“As a global nonprofit educational organization with a mission to help children grow smarter, stronger and kinder, Sesame Workshop has always stood for respect, inclusion and belonging and is committed to providing the highest quality engaging experiences for all children and families,” the organization said in a statement.
In a video posted on Twitter, two young Black girls at Sesame Place Philadelphia waved excitedly and held out their arms as a performer dressed in a Rosita costume approached.
Rosita high-fives parkgoers as she walks down the line, before appearing to shake her head at and wave off the two girls as she walks away from them.
“#BabyPaige & her cute lil friends went to @SesamePlace this weekend to celebrate Paige’s 4th birthday & this is how #SesamePlace treated these beautiful Black children,” the tweet, posted by the apparent aunt of the girl celebrating her birthday, read.
“While we hate to speculate and consider ‘race’ as the motivating factor, which would explain the performer’s actions, such actions both before and after the young girls reached out only leads us to one conclusion,” said attorney B’Ivory LaMarr, who is representing the family.
He continued, “Although Sesame Place purports to stand for inclusivity and equality, this was not demonstrated this past Saturday. We are currently investigating this incident and will exercise every legal remedy possible to further protect this family.”
Outrage ensued online, as more footage of similar incidents with park characters were posted online in response to the viral video. Calls to boycott Sesame Place are growing on social media.
Sesame Place Philadelphia released a statement on the incident, saying, “We know that it’s not OK. We are taking actions to do better. We are committed to making this right.”
The park said it will conduct training for employees to deliver an “inclusive, equitable and entertaining” experience for parkgoers.
Sesame Place is a licensed park partner of Sesame Workshop.
ABC News’ Sabina Ghebremedhin and Kendall Ross contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — A Delaware court on Tuesday determined that the trial in a lawsuit brought by Twitter against Elon Musk should take place in October, granting an expedited timeline for the case.
Twitter sued Musk — the chief executive of Tesla and the richest person in the world, according to Forbes’ Billionaires List — in an attempt to force him to complete his purchase of the company, after he declared in early July he was walking away from the deal.
The scheduling decision made Tuesday — to hold the trial over five days in October — appeared to align more closely with a timeline requested by Twitter, which had sought a four-day trial in September. Musk asked the court to set a trial date no earlier than mid-February 2023.
“The reality is that delay risks irreparable harm” to Twitter, said Court Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick.
Attorneys for Musk and Twitter alleged on Tuesday that their opponents held ulterior motives for the timelines they sought.
William Savitt, an attorney from Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, who is representing Twitter, accused Musk of delaying the court proceeding in the hope of increasing his negotiating leverage or scuttling the deal with Twitter altogether.
“The company is faced with substantial increasing risk specifically by the overhanging of the merger agreement — and it’s by design,” Savitt said.
“Mr. Musk has been and remains contractually obligated to use his best efforts to close this deal,” Savitt added. “What he’s doing is the exact opposite of best efforts. It’s attempted sabotage.”
Andrew Rossman, an attorney for Musk and a managing partner at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, rebuked the claim. Instead, he argued that Twitter has sought to accelerate the case to prevent Musk and his representatives from assessing the company’s estimate in an SEC filing that less than 5% of accounts on the platform are bot or fake accounts.
“There’s no reason to try to do this in two months, except for one. The one reason is what Twitter wants to do is continue to shroud in secrecy the issue regarding their less than 5% spam and false account representation,” he said.
“As long as is necessary to get this deal railroaded through and force Mr. Musk to close,” he added.
“Twitter’s bid for extreme expedition rests on the false premise that the Termination Date in the merger agreement is October 24, glossing over that this date is automatically stayed if either party files litigation. By filing its complaint, Plaintiff has rendered its supposed need for a September trial moot,” Alex Spiro, an attorney for Musk, wrote in a court filing on Friday.
The Delaware Chancery Court will determine whether Musk remains obligated to purchase Twitter.
Musk has claimed Twitter failed to disclose the number of fake accounts on the platform. Twitter has said 5% of active users are bots but Musk has said he believes the figure is higher.
“Post-signing, Defendants promptly sought to understand Twitter’s process for identifying false or spam accounts. In a May 6 meeting with Twitter executives, Musk was flabbergasted to learn just how meager Twitter’s process was,” Musk’s filing said.
The legal battle marks the latest chapter in a monthslong saga that began in January when Musk started investing in Twitter.
Musk reached an acquisition deal with Twitter in April, but in the weeks since, he has raised concerns over spam accounts on the platform, claiming Twitter has not provided him with an accurate estimate of their number. Twitter has rebuked that claim, saying it has provided Musk with information in accordance with conditions set out in the acquisition deal.
Last Tuesday, Twitter sued Musk to force him to complete the deal.
“Musk refuses to honor his obligations to Twitter and its stockholders because the deal he signed no longer serves his personal interests,” Twitter said in the lawsuit. “Musk apparently believes that he — unlike every other party subject to Delaware contract law — is free to change his mind, trash the company, disrupt its operations, destroy stockholder value, and walk away.”
(NEW YORK) — A Delaware court on Tuesday is set to hold the first hearing in a lawsuit brought by Twitter against Elon Musk that would force him to complete his $44 billion acquisition of the company.
Court Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick has set a 90-minute hearing to debate whether to set a trial date for September.
Musk, the chief executive of Tesla and the richest person in the world, according to Forbes‘ Billionaires List, asked a Delaware court on Friday to reject Twitter’s attempt to put the merger case on trial in September, arguing it’s an “unjustifiable” time frame.
Twitter sued Musk in an attempt to force him to complete his purchase of the company, after he declared in early July he was walking away from the deal.
Twitter sought a four-day trial in September, saying the deal must be closed by an October deadline.
“Twitter’s bid for extreme expedition rests on the false premise that the Termination Date in the merger agreement is October 24, glossing over that this date is automatically stayed if either party files litigation. By filing its complaint, Plaintiff has rendered its supposed need for a September trial moot,” Alex Spiro, Musk’s attorney, wrote in Friday’s court filing.
The Delaware Chancery Court will determine whether Musk remains obligated to purchase Twitter.
Musk has claimed Twitter failed to disclose the number of fake accounts on the platform. Twitter has said 5% of active users are bots but Musk has said he believes the figure is higher.
“Post-signing, Defendants promptly sought to understand Twitter’s process for identifying false or spam accounts. In a May 6 meeting with Twitter executives, Musk was flabbergasted to learn just how meager Twitter’s process was,” Musk’s filing said.
The legal battle marks the latest chapter in a monthslong saga that began in January when Musk started investing in Twitter.
Musk reached an acquisition deal with Twitter in April, but in the weeks since, he has raised concerns over spam accounts on the platform, claiming Twitter has not provided him with an accurate estimate of their number. Twitter has rebuked that claim, saying it has provided Musk with information in accordance with conditions set out in the acquisition deal.
Musk asked the court to set a trial date no earlier than mid-February 2023.
Last Tuesday, Twitter sued Musk to force him to complete the deal.
“Musk refuses to honor his obligations to Twitter and its stockholders because the deal he signed no longer serves his personal interests,” Twitter said in the lawsuit. “Musk apparently believes that he — unlike every other party subject to Delaware contract law — is free to change his mind, trash the company, disrupt its operations, destroy stockholder value, and walk away.”
(NEW YORK) — A classic toy superstore is being brought back to life ahead of the holiday season.
Macy’s, in partnership with Toys “R” Us parent company WHP Global, announced Monday that it plans to bring the Toys “R” Us brand to every Macy’s store in the U.S. for the holiday season.
The rollout of the new pop-up stores is set to begin in late July, with all locations expected to be complete by Oct. 15, according to a press release. In-store shops will vary in size, but span up to 10,000 square feet in flagship locations like Atlanta, Chicago, Honolulu, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York and San Francisco.
Toys “R” Us, a beloved toy chain, liquidated its U.S. stores in 2018 after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2017. The brick-and-mortar toy megastore buckled under the competition from online retailers like Amazon.
According to a recent report by the U.S. Commerce Department, U.S. retail sales rebounded more strongly than expected in June, even amid historically soaring inflation. Retail sales rose 1% last month, and revised data from May showed sales falling only 0.1% instead of 0.3%, as previously reported.
As to where it stands, retail sales are 18% above pre-pandemic marks, according to data collected by Mastercard.
Since last summer, Toys “R” Us products have been available at Macy’s exclusively online. In Macy’s reported earnings for the first quarter of 2022, the retailer recorded that toy sales were 15 times higher than before its partnership with Toys “R” Us.
“Macy’s cannot wait to bring the Toys ‘R’ Us experience to life in our stores,” said Nata Dvir, Macy’s chief merchandising officer, in part of a statement. “The customer response to our partnership with Toys ‘R’ Us has been incredible and our toy business has seen tremendous growth.”
(NEW YORK) — BrandStorm Inc. has announced a voluntary recall of two lots of its organic freeze-dried blueberry pouches due to “the presence or potential presence of lead above the FDA’s recommended limits; per the serving size specified on the nutritional facts panel.”
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration shared the company’s recall announcement on Thursday, stating that the two affected products were sold under the brand Natierra.
The recalled items include Natierra Organic Freeze-Dried Blueberries in 1.2-ounce packages and the issue was isolated to products with “best by” dates 12/2024 and 01/2025. According to BrandStorm Inc., the products used the following codes:
Lot 2021363-1, Best By Date: 12/2024; 1 serving, 1.2oz (34g), UPC 812907011160
Lot 2022026-1, Best By Date: 01/2025; 1 serving, 1.2oz (34g), UPC 812907011160
Both batches were distributed in the U.S. through retail and online stores services, according to the company.
Click here for more information on how to identify the label, lot codes and UPC numbers from the FDA recall notice.
“The concern was identified upon testing conducted by a lab in Maryland,” BrandStorm Inc. stated Thursday. “An investigation was conducted by the packing site. The original heavy metal reports received for the crop year showed no presence of lead and-or cause for batch testing. After further investigation it was found that the products’ [country] of Origin is Lithuania and aggressive monitoring of heavy metals may be deemed necessary.”
The company added that “as an immediate action, the packing site is actively working to enhance food safety system by implementing mandatory batch testing for heavy metal.”
According to the Food and Drug Administration, lead in the environment may be “naturally occurring,” but is often present due to “past industrial uses that contributed to environmental contamination.”
“Most intentional uses of lead in products and processes are banned in the United States, including the use of lead solder to seal the external seams of metal cans,” the FDA states on its website. “However, lead does not disappear from the environment over time and therefore these past uses can combine with natural levels to contaminate our food supply.”
Exposure to larger amounts may cause lead poisoning, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Lead exposure is particularly harmful to children, the CDC states on its website.
“No safe blood lead level in children has been identified,” it says. “Even low levels of lead in blood have been shown to negatively affect a child’s intelligence, ability to pay attention, and academic achievement.”
To date, BrandStorm Inc. said it “has not received any reports of adverse events related to use of the product as part of this proactive recall.”
The company has urged consumers who purchased the two impacted Natierra Organic Freeze-Dried Blueberries to discard and not consume the product.
Refunds will be available to customers at the location of purchase, provided at the point of sale through validation of lot codes on the affected pouches.
For online purchases, BrandStorm Inc. stated that customers may email salesadmin@BrandStormInc.com to request a refund. Those with additional questions may call 310-559-0259 from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. PT and email salesadmin@BrandStormInc.com or send a direct message through the product website.
Consumers who experience any symptoms listed on the FDA recall should seek immediate medical advice from a physician.
“First and foremost, we remain focused on the health and welfare of our employees, customers, and partners,” BrandStorm said in Thursday’s recall announcement. “We are committed to taking the appropriate steps to ensure our network and services continue to operate seamlessly for our customers.”
(NEW YORK) — Federal prosecutors in New York and the Department of Labor are inspecting Amazon warehouses around the country as part of a civil investigation into unsafe and unseemly workplace conditions.
The inspections began Monday morning, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.
“This morning, the United States Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration entered Amazon warehouses outside New York City, Chicago and Orlando to conduct workplace safety inspections in response to referrals received from the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York concerning potential workplace hazards related, among other things, to Amazon’s required pace of work for its warehouse employees,” a spokesman for the office, Nicholas Biase, said in a statement provided to ABC News.
“The Civil Division of the SDNY is investigating potential worker safety hazards at Amazon warehouses across the country, as well as possible fraudulent conduct designed to hide injuries from OSHA and others,” Biase added.
Workers at Amazon warehouses, which the company calls fulfillment centers, have complained of a grueling pace, uncomfortable heat and the potential for injury.
In recent years, Amazon has also confronted a lawsuit by New York State Attorney General Letitia James that alleged the company failed to protect workers from COVID-19.
Drivers have said the demand to meet quotas caused them to skip bathroom breaks and urinate in plastic bottles, a practice first reported in a 2018 book, “Hired: Six Months Undercover in Low-Wage Britain,” by James Bloodworth.
After first denying the claim, Amazon wrote in a 2021 blog post, “We know that drivers can and do have trouble finding restrooms because of traffic or sometimes rural routes, and this has been especially the case during COVID when many public restrooms have been closed.”
The complaints led some Amazon employees to seek to unionize, with mixed results.
The U.S. Attorney’s office pointed members of the public who want to report workplace safety and injury-related issues at Amazon warehouses to the Justice Department’s website.
Current and former Amazon warehouse workers who have information about safety issues — including safety issues related to the pace of work — or a failure to report injuries, or who were injured and did not receive adequate care at Amazon’s onsite first-aid center or at a clinic recommended by Amazon, were urged to share that information with the SDNY.
Amazon did not immediately respond to ABC News about the inspections and investigation.
Hauke-Christian Dittrich/picture alliance via Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — You won’t find many electric vehicles on the back roads in Alabama and Tennessee yet thousands of residents in these states are building them to meet growing demand.
Automakers such as Mercedes-Benz, Ford and Volkswagen are investing billions of dollars in high-tech plants that will supply the battery packs necessary for the transition to EVs.
Last month, Volkswagen of America opened a $22 million Battery Engineering Lab (BEL), a 32,000-square-foot facility located near its Chattanooga, Tennessee, plant. Engineers at the lab test batteries for safety, durability and quality in extreme climate conditions and the company’s compact ID.4 SUV, currently imported from Germany, will roll off assembly lines for U.S. consumers later this year. More than 4,000 workers are employed at the Chattanooga plant and Volkswagen plans to hire 1,000 new production team members by year-end.
Producing battery packs locally “makes us faster,” Wolfgang Maluche, vice president of engineering at Volkswagen of America, told ABC News. “Chattanooga [will] become Volkswagen’s hub for electric mobility in the United States.”
More battery plants are coming and southern states will continue to benefit, according to Arun Kumar, a managing director at consulting firm AlixPartners, which forecasts a 54% EV market share globally by 2035.
“Southern states are definitely aggressive … 46% of vehicle production in the U.S. currently happens in the South. It’s not a surprise to me that more investment is going there,” Kumar told ABC News. “This is just a start. The EV era is real.”
Gil Tal of UC Davis’ Institute of Transportation Studies said southern states are “fighting hard” to be chosen by automakers, offering attractive tax incentives and favorable investment packages. As the Biden administration pushes consumers toward EVs, setting an ambitious target to make half of all new vehicles sold by 2030 electric, Tal, like Kumar, expects automakers to diversify their supply chain.
“Demand is going up for EVs and there will be new regulations that mandate sales of them,” Tal told ABC News. “Battery production is changing and getting better and more efficient. Any company that sells a significant amount of cars in the U.S. will build battery plants here.”
Producing these highly technological batteries within the U.S. solves many of the headaches plaguing automakers in recent years, Kumar argued. Tesla, the No. 1 seller of EVs in the country, produces batteries and electric motors for the Model 3 at its Gigafactory in Sparks, Nevada, which broke ground in June 2014. The site currently produces more batteries in terms of kWh than all other carmakers combined, making it the highest-volume battery plant in the world, according to Tesla.
Mercedes, which said it would go all electric by the end of the decade, will invest over 40 billion euros into battery electric vehicles between 2022 and 2030. The Bibb County plant joins the company’s global battery production network with factories on three continents.
In September, Ford Motor said it would construct twin battery plants in central Kentucky to power a new lineup of Lincoln and Ford EVs. Another battery campus in Tennessee will focus on next-generation electric F-Series pickups like the F-150 Lightning. The two projects will cost $11.4 billion and create nearly 11,000 new jobs, Ford said. The Dearborn automaker expects 40% to 50% of its global vehicle volume to be fully electric by 2030.
BMW expanded its battery facility at Plant Spartanburg in South Carolina in late 2019, more than doubling its capacity for battery assembly. Higher performing, fourth-generation batteries are assembled on-site for the BMW X5 and BMW X3 plug-in hybrid electric variants and 120 employees were specially trained to work the new line, having completed an extensive program in battery production, robotics and electrical inline quality inspection along with end-of-line testing, BMW said.
States in the traditional “auto belt” are still vying for automakers’ investment dollars. Panasonic, a major supplier to Tesla, announced this week it would build a new U.S. lithium-ion battery cell factory in De Soto, Kansas, investing $4 billion and creating up to 4,000 new jobs. The plant will primarily supply batteries to Tesla but is not limited to the company, Reuters reported.
Stellantis said it would build an EV battery plant in Kokomo, Indiana, with its partner Samsung SDI. The plant, on target for a 2025 launch, would create 1,400 jobs in Kokomo and the surrounding area, Stellantis said, for a total investment of $2.5 billion.
Ultium Cells, a joint venture of LG Energy Solution and General Motors, will open a new 2.8 million-square-foot facility in Lansing, Michigan, its third battery cell manufacturing plant in the country. At least 1,700 manufacturing jobs will be available at the location and workers will supply battery cells to Orion Assembly in Michigan and other GM EV assembly plants.
The southern shift by automakers and intense focus on EVs has some long-time industry workers worried about their future. EVs take 40% less powertrain assembly hours than a gas-powered vehicle, according to Kumar. Workers with core skills in combustion engine technology would need significant retraining to work in a battery plant, he noted. EVs in general are less complicated to manufacture, are not labor intensive and many parts of the process are automated.
“Workers are worried about job security and concerned their sons and daughters won’t have jobs” in the industry, said Erik Gordon, a professor at the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan. “Working in an auto plant is often a family affair — and these are pretty good jobs.”
The U.S. may be viewed as a laggard in EV battery production compared to China, where EVs caught on early with consumers and government leaders deemed batteries to be a critical industry. Gordon argued that automakers are tackling U.S. battery production at the right time and any earlier could have been a foolhardy move.
“People would have been laughing 10 years ago if automakers wanted to build these plants,” Gordon said. “They would be obsolete today. The underlining tech is changing so quickly and for the better.”
What will happen to these plants and the workers if EV sales in the U.S. hit the brakes in the next five, 10 years?
“The interest in EVs won’t die off,” Tal said. “Automakers have a secure EV market. All this investment won’t go away.”
(NEW YORK) — Elon Musk asked a Delaware court on Friday to reject Twitter’s attempt to put the $44 billion merger case on trial in September, arguing it’s an “unjustifiable” timeframe.
Twitter sued Musk in an attempt to force him to complete his purchase of the company, after declaring he was walking away from the deal.
Twitter sought a four-day trial in September, arguing the deal faces an October deadline to close.
“Twitter’s bid for extreme expedition rests on the false premise that the Termination Date in the merger agreement is October 24, glossing over that this date is automatically stayed if either party files litigation. By filing its complaint, Plaintiff has rendered its supposed need for a September trial moot,” Musk’s attorney, Alex Spiro, wrote in a Friday court filing.
Delaware Chancery Court will determine whether Musk remains obligated to purchase Twitter or whether he was entitled to walk away because the company failed to provide him data he requested.
“Twitter’s sudden request for warp speed after two months of foot-dragging and obfuscation is its latest tactic to shroud the truth about spam accounts long enough to railroad Defendants into closing,” the filing said.
Musk has claimed Twitter failed to disclose the number of fake accounts on the platform. Twitter has said 5% of active users are bots but Musk has said he does not believe the figure.
“Post-signing, Defendants promptly sought to understand Twitter’s process for identifying false or spam accounts. In a May 6 meeting with Twitter executives, Musk was flabbergasted to learn just how meager Twitter’s process was,” Musk’s filing said.
Musk asked the court to set a trial date no earlier than mid-February.
(NEW YORK) — Car manufacturer Ford is recalling over 100,000 SUVs and trucks because of fire risks in the engine, nearly a month after recalling millions of its vehicles.
The company is recalling some of its 2020-2022 Ford Escapes, 2021-2022 Lincoln Corsairs and 2022 Mavericks equipped with 2.5-liter hybrid or plug-in hybrid powertrains, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
If engine failure occurs, engine oil and fuel vapor could be released into the chamber where the engine is stored and collected around ignition sources such as the engine and exhaust components.
People who own any of the vehicles affected should park and turn off the engines “as quickly as possible” when they hear “unexpected engine noises, notice a reduction in vehicle power, or see smoke,” NHTSA said.
There have been no reported injuries, Ford said.
In May, Ford recalled over 39,000 Ford Expeditions and Lincoln Navigators because they ran the risk of catching fire under the hood even when parked or turned off. The company expanded that recall to include 66,000 more vehicles after it received reports of five more fires, according to the Associated Press.
Last month, the company recalled 2.9 million vehicles with transmission issues that increased the risk of rolling away even when parked.
(NEW YORK, NY) — Uber is being sued by approximately 550 female passengers who claim they were attacked by their drivers, according to the law firm Slater, Slater, Schulman, LLP, which filed a legal complaint against Uber in a San Francisco court on Wednesday.
The women, who live in multiple states, “were kidnapped, sexually assaulted, sexually battered, raped, falsely imprisoned, stalked, harassed, or otherwise attacked by Uber drivers with whom they had been paired through the Uber application,” according to allegations in a statement from Slater, Slater, Schulman, LLP.
The abuse at issue took place between 2015 and this year, Adam Slater, founding partner of Slater, Slater, Schulman, LLP, told ABC News. The firm has filed roughly 25 lawsuits so far and plans to file the remainder within the next several months, he added.
The legal complaint comes about two weeks after Uber released a safety report that revealed at least 3,824 incidences of sexual assault in 2019 and 2020, ranging from “non-consensual kissing of a non-sexual body part” to “non-consensual sexual penetration.”
The company said in a prior report that the number of such sexual assault reports had declined 38% for the years 2017 and 2018.
The new safety report acknowledged that the number of sexual assault claims may have been impacted by a shift in overall usage of the platform amid the COVID pandemic. For instance, bookings on Uber’s core ride-sharing service declined 73% over a three-month period ending in June 2020 compared to the same period a year prior, according to a company earnings report.
“Uber’s whole business model is predicated on giving people a safe ride home, but rider safety was never their concern – growth was at the expense of their passengers’ safety,” Slater, the founding partner of Slater, Slater, Schulman, LLP, said in a statement.
“While the company has acknowledged this crisis of sexual assault in recent years, its actual response has been slow and inadequate, with horrific consequences,” he added.
In a statement, Uber told ABC News that safety is its top priority.
“Sexual assault is a horrific crime and we take every single report seriously,” the company said. “There is nothing more important than safety, which is why Uber has built new safety features, established survivor-centric policies, and been more transparent about serious incidents. While we can’t comment on pending litigation, we will continue to keep safety at the heart of our work.”
Uber’s report points to a set of safety measures that include background checks for prospective drivers, tools for passengers in the app and emergency response from the company.
A feature that allows drivers and passengers to record audio of their trips is available in 14 countries, including Mexico and Brazil, Uber said in December. A pilot program of that safety feature was set to begin in three U.S. cities the following month, the company added.
In the complaint, Slater, Slater, Schulman, LLP allege that Uber first became aware of assault allegations from female Uber passengers as early as 2014.
In 2018, Uber acknowledged that it is not “immune to this deeply rooted problem” of sexual assault.
Travis Kalanick, the founder and former CEO of Uber, resigned in 2017 after a former Uber employee Susan Fowler said she had been sexually harassed while working there and a passenger in India brought a lawsuit against the company tied to her rape by an Uber driver. The case was later settled.
