Local businesses fined for licensing violations
In the first three months of 2022, regulatory boards in Tennessee cited a number of local businesses for licensing violations and unpaid fees, according to a report released Monday by the Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance.
Brown Truck & Equipment Sales LLC in Chattanooga was cited three times for unlicensed activity and given a total of $12,500 of civil penalties; The Final Kut Barbershop in Chattanooga was fined $1,000 for unlicensed activity; JAS Companies LLC was fined $1,000 for unlicensed activity; G.T. Issa Construction was cited for gross negligence and fined $750; Williams & Sons Funeral Home in Soddy-Daisy was cited for failing to pay delinquent examination fees and failure to pay all consumer production fees, yielding a $500 civil penalty; Wann Funeral Home was fined $1,000 for failure to pay delinquent examination fees and other issues; the John P. Franklin Funeral Home was fined $750 for failure to pay a delinquent examination fee and other issues; and Ralph Buckner Funeral Home in Cleveland was fined $500 for unprofessional conduct.
J&J pays $99 million penalty in West Virginia
West Virginia will receive $99 million in a settlement finalized Monday with Johnson & Johnson's subsidiary Janssen Pharmaceuticals Inc. over the drugmaker's role in perpetuating the opioid crisis in the state that has long led the nation in drug overdose deaths.
State Attorney General Patrick Morrisey said during a news briefing that he believes West Virginia's settlement is the largest in the country per capita with Johnson & Johnson's Janssen, which has faced opioid litigation in dozens of communities throughout the U.S.
The attorney general said the figure is reflective of the severity of the opioid crisis in West Virginia.
"We think it represents a major step forward to start to get money in the door to help West Virginians who have been devastated by the opioid epidemic," Morrisey said from his state Capitol office.
The settlement was announced at the start of the third week of testimony in the state's case against Janssen, Teva Pharmaceuticals Inc., AbbVie Inc.'s Allergan and their family of companies. The companies are accused of downplaying or failing to mention the risks of addiction associated with opioid use in West Virginia while overstating the prescription drugs' benefits.
In a statement Monday, a spokesperson for Johnson & Johnson and Janssen said the settlement is not an "admission of liability or wrongdoing" by the company.
"The company's actions relating to the marketing and promotion of important opioid prescription medications were appropriate and responsible," a news release said. The company no longer sells prescription opioid medications in the U.S., according to the release.
Court rejects challenge to tax deduction cap
The Supreme Court on Monday rejected a challenge from New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Maryland to the 2017 tax law that capped federal tax deductions for state and local taxes.
The lawsuit had previously been dismissed by lower courts. It argued that the Republican-led tax law, signed by then-President Donald Trump, unfairly singled out high-tax states in which Democrats predominate.
The law caps a deduction for state and local taxes, known as SALT, at $10,000. The lawsuit claimed that lawmakers crafted the provision to target Democratic states, interfering with the states' constitutionally granted taxing authority.
Legislation to raise the cap has passed the House of Representatives but not the Senate.
China growth slows to 4.8% in 1st quarter
China's economic growth edged up to a still-weak 4.8% over a year earlier in the first three months of 2022 as industrial cities shut down to fight coronavirus outbreaks, threatening to disrupt global trade and manufacturing.
Growth in the world's second-largest economy crept up from the previous quarter's 4% following a slump triggered by tighter controls on use of debt by China's vast real estate industry, government data showed Monday. Compared with the previous quarter, as other major economies are measured, growth slowed to 1.3% from 1.4%.
"More pain will come" in the current quarter, Iris Pang of ING said in a report. "Further impacts from lockdowns are imminent."
The slowdown hurts China's trading partners by depressing demand for oil, steel, consumer goods, food and other imports. Oil prices, which spiked after Russia's attack on Ukraine, have fallen back somewhat on expectations Chinese consumption will weaken.
The flow of industrial goods has been disrupted by the suspension of access to Shanghai, a business center with 25 million people and other industrial cities. Global automakers and other manufacturers have reduced or stopped production.
- Compiled by Dave Flessner