Month: August 2023

Former President Donald Trump was indicted Tuesday by a federal grand jury on four counts related to charged he conspired to defraud the Unite States and overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. The indictment from special counsel Jack Smith’s office said: “The purpose of the conspiracy was to overturn the legitimate results of the 2020 presidential election by using knowingly false claims of election fraud to obstruct the government function by which those results are collected, counted and certified, and it accuses Trump of taking part in three criminal conspiracies: “to defraud the United States by using dishonesty, fraud and deceit” to obstruct the electoral vote process; to “impede the January 6 congressional proceeding at which the collected results of the presidential election are counted and certified;” and “against the right to vote and to have that vote counted.”

Tuesday’s development is the latest in a series of legal troubles for the former President. He also faces separate federal charges over allegedly obstructing an investigation into classified documents at his Florida resort, Mar-a-Lago. In addition to these federal charges, Trump is fighting criminal charges over accounting for hush money payments in Manhattan; a defamation lawsuit filed by E. Jean Carroll, the writer; and a grand jury investigation in Georgia over his attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in that state.

Trump is due to be arraigned on these latest charges on Thursday.  The continued legal troubles for Trump are looming over the 2024 presidential election; the former President remains the front-runner for the Republican Party nomination.

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CVS is laying off about 5,000 employees in a cost-cutting effort, the pharmacy chain confirmed Tuesday. CVS employs about 300,000 people. The news comes ahead of CVS’s quarterly earnings report on Wednesday.

The Rhode Island-based company said in a statement that it is “evolving to adapt to new consumer health needs and expectations” adding, “we do not expect there to be any impact to our customer-facing colleagues in our stores, pharmacies, clinics, or customer services centers as and communities deserve and depend on. Throughout our company’s history, we’ve continuously adapted to market dynamics to lead the industry. The difficult decision we are making will set the company up for long-term success.” Employees will receive notice of potential layoffs in the next few weeks and the company said affected employees will receive benefits as well as severance pay.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the changes are part of CVS’ effort to focus on health services. In recent years, the chain has added more primary care offerings and expanded its “HealthHub” store layout.

In 2021, CVS announced it was closing 900 stores nationwide, amounting to nearly 10% of its footprint, in response to the changing of “consumer buying patterns.” CVS has since increased its focus on healthcare services in recent months, acquiring Signify Health for $8 billion and Oak Street Health for $10.6 billion earlier this year.

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