Contractor debate

The California Senate passed a bill yesterday – which the Governor has said he will sign – that would make it more difficult for companies to classify workers as independent contractors. Uber, Lyft, and Doordash have voiced their opposition to the bill.

Tit for tat

China announced early yesterday that it would exempt American-made lubricants, fish meal and whey, and some anticancer drugs from tariff hikes. Later in the day, the U.S. delayed tariff hikes scheduled for October 1 by two weeks.

Split deal

Purdue Pharma, a drug manufacturer that makes OxyContin, reached a settlement deal yesterday with 23 states and more than 2,000 cities over its role in the opioid crisis. At least 16 other states have openly opposed the deal, saying that it does not sufficiently punish those responsible for the opioid epidemic.

Stock options

Hong Kong’s stock exchange made a ~$37 billion offer to acquire the London Stock Exchange yesterday. The offer was unsolicited, and contains certain conditions like blocking the LSE’s proposed $14.5 billion acquisition of financial information and terminal business Refinitiv Holdings.

A reason to Smile

Online dentistry company SmileDirectClub will begin trading on the Nasdaq today at $23 per share, which values the company at $8.9 billion. The company generated ~$423 million in sales last year and posted a net loss of $74.8 million, and plans to use the money raised from its IPO to fund expansion and R&D.

Leaving the Hurd

Oracle co-CEO Mark Hurd is taking a leave of absence from the software giant, citing health reasons. Hurd joined Oracle as co-president in 2010, and became its CEO in 2014 before splitting the role with Safra Catz, who formerly held the CFO position.

Forever uncertain

The WSJ reported that Forever 21 plans to file for bankruptcy as early as Sunday. In a statement to USA Today, however, the retailer stated, "The reports are inaccurate; Forever 21 is not planning to file for bankruptcy on Sunday. Our stores are open and it is our intention to continue to operate the vast majority of U.S. stores, as well as a smaller amount of international stores."

These shoes are made for walking

Every day, high school science teacher Cesar Punzalan walks five miles to school, where he devotedly educates his students in the Philippines on biology and chemistry. His salary isn’t exorbitant, and whatever little he has left over goes to care for one of his own children who is stricken with a serious illness.

So when his 12th graders noticed the shoes he wears to walk 10 miles each day had holes in them, they got an idea. Pooling their savings, they bought him a brand new pair of leather shoes and surprised him with them one day at the beginning of class.

As Cesar unwrapped the box and realized what the teenagers had done for him he was overwhelmed – his job is rewarding enough, and he didn’t expect anything in return for his work. One of the students spoke for the whole class when he said, “That’s just our way of helping you a little bit. That’s nothing compared to what you have done for us and taught us.”

Go nuts

After his son had a harrowing reaction to peanuts at nine months old, Edwin Kim, MD, began researching what could be done for children – like his – to protect them from life-threatening nut allergies. And he just might have a solution.

Usually, doctors direct kids with nut allergies to immunotherapy, which involves exposing them to trace amounts of nut protein in incremental doses to strengthen the immune system against accidental exposure. That’s done through oral consumption or a skin patch.

But Kim has a new method: depositing miniscule amounts of liquified nut protein under the tongue so it bypasses digestion. And the results have been very encouraging - patients have been able to tolerate 10 to 20 times more of the protein than what would previously make them sick. Could this be the beginning of the end for dangerous nut allergies? For the sake of his kids, Kim sure hopes so.