Montana Becomes Latest State To Ban Lab-Grown Meat

 On Tuesday, Montana State Governor Greg Gianforte announced that he had signed a bill into law banning the manufacturing and sale of lab-grown meat. 

"So-called "lab-grown meat" has no place in Montana," Gov. Gianforte wrote on X, adding, "By signing HB 401 into law, I am proud to defend our way of life and the hardworking Montana ranchers who produce the best beef in the world."

So-called "lab-grown meat" has no place in Montana.

By signing HB 401 into law, I am proud to defend our way of life and the hardworking Montana ranchers who produce the best beef in the world. pic.twitter.com/INc2WuAvNI

— Governor Greg Gianforte (@GovGianforte) May 13, 2025

Montana is now the fifth state in the nation to pass legislation prohibiting lab-cultivated proteins. The push comes after concurrent Biden-era policies that simultaneously created a loophole for safety testing while prioritizing lab-cultivated proteins as "Climate-Friendly" ahead of labeling requirements. 

Not exactly a drug, but not necessarily food harvested in nature, in 2019, Congress directed the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) to establish a formal agreement delineating each agency's responsibilities for regulating lab-made or "cellular-cultivated" meat.

By early 2021, the Biden administration prioritized lab-made meat products as a "Climate-Smart" Agricultural alternative, promising a fast track to manufacturers Good Meat Inc and the Bill Gates-backed Upside Foods.

By 2023, the FDA had issued a "No Questions Asked" approval for lab-cultivated "chicken cells with characteristics of fibroblasts." 

While the USDA does not regulate processed food, the agreement stipulated that the USDA's Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS) would be handed off regulatory oversight "at the point of harvest." 

Bureaucratic translation: The USDA's regulatory role would be limited to "labeling and sanitation." 

While sanitation seems fairly straightforward, it's the labeling requirement - which has yet to materialize - that has state lawmakers pumping the brakes.

Since early 2020, FSIS has gone round-after-round with "stakeholders" about what to call this petri-dish creation. During the last round of "name the thingamajig" stakeholders warned the FSIS that transparent labeling would "hamper innovation," and "violate the First Amendment."

To-date, the USDA has not fulfilled its regulatory role, according to the delineated agreement. To be fair, the FDA didn't exactly uphold its end of the bargain either with fast-tracked "No Questions" approvals. 

Some employees are comparing the lab-grown meat startup, Upside Foods, to Theranos.

“Are we the next Theranos?” asks one former employee. "People are being lied to, but no one is going to die. Ideally.”

"Batches of meat growing in the custom-made bioreactors would frequently… pic.twitter.com/2kMhz7ZOju

— Meat Head (@markeatsmeat) September 27, 2023

Even as whistleblowers were equating lab-made meats to the next Theranos, the "Big 4" meat packers began rapidly investing billions to replace ranchers with biotech.

With the FDA's blessing and zero red tape requiring transparent labeling, companies like JBS, Tyson, and Cargill have quickly begun producing lab-grown beef, cultured chicken, pork, fish, sausages, burgers, meatballs, and other prepared foods.

While some argue that state-level bans harm the free market, local lawmakers see them as part of a larger fight to preserve Western values.

"Agriculture is our state's number one industry, and this bill takes a clear stand to protect our ranchers and our food supply," Montana State Rep. Braxton Mitchell said. "We won't let synthetic products with misleading labels undercut the hard work of Montana's farm and ranch families."

https://www.zerohedge.com/food/montana-becomes-latest-state-ban-lab-grown-meat

Rite Aid Says It Enters Into Series Of Sale Transactions To Ensure Continuity Of Care

 Rite Aid Corporation ("Rite Aid" or the "Company") today announced that it has successfully entered into a series of sale agreements and pharmacy services transition agreements. This includes the rolling transition of pharmacy assets from more than 1,000 store locations across the U.S. to operators including CVS Pharmacy, Walgreens, Albertsons, Kroger, and Giant Eagle, among others, as well as the sale and operation by CVS Pharmacy of many Rite Aid and Bartell Drugs stores located in Washington, Oregon, and Idaho.

Importantly, during the transition, Rite Aid stores will remain open, and customers can continue to access their pharmacy services, including prescription refills and immunizations, without interruption.

Matt Schroeder, Chief Executive Officer of Rite Aid, said, "A key priority for Rite Aid is to ensure that as many of our loyal customers as possible continue to receive the pharmacy services and care they require without interruption. These agreements ensure our pharmacy customers will experience a smooth transition while preserving jobs for some of our valued team members."

The sale transactions are subject to approval by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Jersey (the "Court"). The Court is currently scheduled to conduct a hearing to approve the sales on May 21, 2025. Upon approval from the Court, the sales will remain subject to certain regulatory notices and approvals, and other customary closing conditions.

https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/rite-aid-enters-series-sale-224000231.html

Amgen owes $406 million for monopolizing cholesterol drug market, US jury says

 A federal jury in Delaware said on Thursday that biotech company Amgen owes competitor Regeneron more than $406 million for engaging in anticompetitive behavior to increase sales of its cholesterol-reduction drug Repatha at the expense of Regeneron's rival drug Praluent.

The jury agreed with Regeneron that Amgen unlawfully bundled Repatha with two of its blockbuster anti-inflammatory drugs to persuade pharmacy benefit managers to buy it instead of Praluent.

The verdict includes $271.2 million for Regeneron in punitive damages. Amgen said in a statement that it "has always competed fairly and in compliance with the antitrust laws" and "look[s] forward to post-trial proceedings."

"Larger companies should not be allowed to use anticompetitive tactics to push competitors out of the market," Regeneron CEO Leonard Schleifer said in a statement.

Tarrytown, N.Y.-based Regeneron filed the lawsuit in 2022, accusing Amgen of engaging in an anticompetitive scheme to drive Amgen's drug out of the market. Thousand Oaks, California-based Amgen denied the allegations and countered that Regeneron's business decisions caused lost Praluent sales.

Regeneron earned more than $241 million from sales of Praluent in the U.S. last year, while Amgen made over $1.1 billion from U.S. Repatha sales, according to company reports.

https://www.marketscreener.com/quote/stock/AMGEN-INC-4847/news/Amgen-owes-406-million-for-monopolizing-cholesterol-drug-market-US-jury-says-49971103/

"86 47" - Former FBI Director Comey Posts-Then-Deletes Creepy Threat Aimed At Trump

 Former FBI Director James Comey posted a photo of sea shells arranged into the numbers "86 47" on his Instagram account today, before shortly deleting the post.

The immediately preceding post shows Comey lounging at the beach while pretending to read his own crime novel, his presence at the beach lending to the fact that this was not a hack.

Many are blasting Comey for issuing a not-so-thinly-veiled threat at sitting President Donald Trump, including the President's son and Congressman Andy Biggs:

And here is his explanation for the 'shells' and the deletion...

...you simply cannot make this shit up!!!

And we screen-grabbed this before it was deleted too - oh the inspiration...

Runs in the family...

As covered previously in a ZeroHedge piece titled "From Epstein To Diddy: Spotlight Shines On James Comey's Prosecutor Daughter", Comey's offspring smell a little swampy as well. From the piece:

In a thinly covered news story from December that's suddenly relevant again (read on), New York Prosecutor Maurene Comey - whose father James Comey famously refused to prosecute Hillary Clinton for mishandling classified information & then participated in the Russia collusion hoax - joined the prosecution against Combs. The younger Comey has previously worked as lead prosecutor on both the Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell cases, as well as that of former Epstein cellmate Nicholas Tartaglione.

...

Maurene Comey becamse a US attorney in the Southern District of New York in 2015.

In 2019, when she was just 30-years-old, Comey became one of the lead prosecutors in the Jeffrey Epstein case before he was found dead in his jail cell in August 2019.

Two years later, she became one of three lead prosecutors in the trial of Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein's partner in crime and daughter of suspected Mossad operative Robert Maxwell. 

Before becoming a US attorney, Comey clerked for US District Court chief judge Loretta Preska of the SDNY - who notably oversaw a long-running defamation case filed by Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre against Maxwell.

Comey was also involved in the case of Nicholas Tartaglione, a former NYPD officer who was convicted of killing four men in 2016, and who was briefly Epstein's cellmate in the Manhattan Metro Correctional Center. Tartaglione claims to have helped Epstein after 'finding him unconscious' (and totally not trying to kill him) prior to Epstein's actual death.

In 2016, Tartaglione suspected a man named Martin Luna had stolen money from him - for which "Tartaglione tortured Martin and then forced one of Martin’s nephews to watch as he strangled him to death with a zip-tie," according to a statement by the US Attorney's Office.

Two days after Epstein's death, NY Times reporter James B Stewart, who had spent 90 minutes with Epstein a year prior, wrote "The overriding impression I took away from our roughly 90-minute conversation was that Mr. Epstein knew an astonishing number of rich, famous and powerful people, and had photos to prove it. He also claimed to know a great deal about these people, some of it potentially damaging or embarrassing, including details about their supposed sexual proclivities and recreational drug use.

And so, whether this is just a case of 'it's a small world' or something a little (or a lot) less innocent, James Comey's daughter is now involved in a second case where high-profile celebrities and politicians may have been secretly filmed engaging in sexual activity with minors.

Comey's deep state tentacles make the cryptic Instragram post that much more unsettling. Might there be some hints in Comey's shitty novel? Donald Barr's Space Relations anyone?

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/86-47-former-fbi-director-comey-posts-then-deletes-creepy-threat-aimed-trump

Khanna: ‘Obvious now’ Biden ‘was not in a condition’ to run for reelection

 Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) said it’s “obvious now” that former President Biden “was not in a condition” to run for reelection, following new reporting from CNN’s Jake Tapper and Axios’s Alex Thompson.

Khanna, who was a surrogate for the Biden campaign in 2024, addressed his previous defense of the former president and said the party must admit it made a “mistake.”

“In my limited public interactions with the President, he appeared coherent,” Khanna wrote in a post Wednesday on social platform X.

“It is obvious now to me, based on @jaketapper and others reporting, that he was not in a condition to run for reelection, and he should have made the decision not to,” Khanna continued.

“We must be honest with people about our party’s mistake,” he added.

The statement from the California Democrat included a clip from an interview he did on Fox News’s “The Story with Martha MacCallum” in which Khanna was grilled over his defense of the former president and his mental acuity.

“Were you telling the truth back then?” MacCallum asked, after playing a montage of moments in which Khanna defended Biden’s mental acuity in the early months of 2024.

“I was,” Khanna responded. “I had met him a few times at public events, and he was, but of course, I didn’t have the full picture. I mean, I met him maybe two times on rope lines and at public events.”

Khanna said “obviously” there should have been an open primary and that, for Democrats “to move on and move forward,” they must “take accountability and be straightforward with the American people.”

His remarks come amid new reporting from excerpts of Tapper and Thompson’s forthcoming book, “Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again.”

The reporting suggests members of the former president’s Cabinet were iced out toward the end of his term and that only a handful of long-time close advisers and members of his family would interact frequently with the president.

But Khanna said he doesn’t blame members of Biden’s inner circle for not intervening to stop him from running for reelection earlier.

A spokesperson for Biden criticized the forthcoming book in a statement to CNN.

“We continue to await anything that shows where Joe Biden had to make a presidential decision or where national security was threatened or where he was unable to do his job. In fact, the evidence points to the opposite – he was a very effective president,” the statement said, according to CNN.

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/5302861-house-democrat-obvious-now-biden-was-not-in-a-condition-to-run-for-reelection/

Kroger stores nationwide overcharging on items, some expired by 90 days: investigation

 Kroger stores nationwide have been overcharging shoppers on expired and discounted sale items – potentially breaking federal and state laws and sapping extra dollars from cash-strapped customers, according to a monthslong investigation.

The Cincinnati-based chain has long been accused of inaccurate price labels, fending off several class-action lawsuits filed by customers in California, Illinois, Ohio and Utah who claim they were charged full price at the register for items with sale tags.

Executives at the major grocery chain have allegedly discussed the need to remedy the issue at internal meetings – but the faulty tags have stuck around at dozens of Kroger stores, according to an investigation led by Consumer Reports, The Guardian and the Food & Environment Reporting Network.

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Kroger stores have been overcharging customers on expired and discounted sale items, according to an investigation.Getty Images

“The Consumer Reports allegations boil down to misinformation, reviewing a handful of discrete issues from billions of daily transactions,” a Kroger spokesperson told The Post in a statement. 

“It in no way reflects the seriousness with which we take our transparent and affordable pricing,” they said, adding that the company regularly conducts price checks, reviewing millions of items each week.

The news outlets recruited shoppers to check prices at 26 Kroger and Kroger-owned stores, including Harris Teeter, Fred Meyer, Fry’s and Ralphs, across 14 states and the District of Columbia in March, April and May.

These undercover customers were overcharged on more than 150 items with incorrect sales labels, from Cheerios and Nescafe instant coffee to Mucinex cold medicine and dog food – and at least five items that had expired 90 days ago.

In one instance, an undercover shopper paid $4.99 for salt and pepper pistachios – $2.50 more than the advertised $2.49 sales price. 

In another, Kroger rang up a pack of flour tortillas for $4.99 at the register, though they had been advertised at a discounted $2.99.

“The scale of the price errors identified at Kroger, and the length of time that these issues have persisted, are deeply concerning,” Nina DiSalvo, policy director of the nonprofit legal organization Towards Justice, told Consumer Reports.

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An undercover shopper was charged $4.99 for pistachios that had been advertised at $2.49.Consumer Reports

Kroger’s persistent price tag errors could violate both federal and state consumer protection laws, according to several lawyers.

The grocery chain is especially dominant in parts of the Midwest and the South, where it is often one of few grocers to choose from, leaving shoppers with few alternatives.

Overcharges, which can easily go unnoticed, could be hitting customers especially hard after years of food inflation and a downturn in consumer sentiment amid President Trump’s trade war.

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Kroger’s persistent price tag errors could violate both federal and state laws, according to several lawyers.Getty Images

“It really makes me feel bad because some of [the customers] are on fixed incomes and they’re older. They’re not going to pay attention,” Joy Alexander, who has worked at a Kroger-owned King Soopers store in Denver for 18 years, told Consumer Reports. 

“They think that when they took it off the shelf, it was $2.50. They don’t know that they’re paying $3.75 for that one item.”

Just over the past year, Kroger customers Allison and Derek Hadfield have filed three separate complaints against the Belpre, Ohio location, where they spend about $500 on groceries each month.

“Almost every single time I go in the store, the listed price of an item is NOT what rings up at the register,” Allison Hadfield wrote in a complaint.

The couple claimed Kroger employees told them the store didn’t have enough staff to keep the tags up to date. 

Though Kroger has reported record sales and profits since the COVID-19 pandemic, it has cut back on staffing and hours, especially in the stores with egregious price tag errors, according to Consumer Reports.

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Consumer Reports claimed Kroger has cut back on staffing and hours, especially in the stores with egregious price tag errors.wolterke – stock.adobe.com

Between 2019 and 2024, the average number of employees at these stores dropped by 17, with 2.7 fewer hours worked each week, according to data from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

Kroger said it has not reduced labor hours, and that it intentionally makes “data-driven” staffing decisions to keep stores “running smoothly while creating an enjoyable place to shop.”

Several other retail chains have found themselves in hot water over inaccurate pricing allegations over the past few years.

Walmart is facing a lawsuit from an Illinois shopper who alleged overcharges between 10% and 15% on six items. 

Grocery chains Safeway, Albertsons and Vons in October agreed to pay nearly $4 million to settle allegations they charged customers higher prices than advertised.

And earlier this year, North Carolina fined several Dollar General and Family Dollar stores thousands of dollars after its agriculture division uncovered repeated price tag errors.

https://nypost.com/2025/05/15/business/kroger-overcharging-shoppers-on-sale-items-investigation/

Can the brain be targeted to treat type 2 diabetes?

 Successfully treating type 2 diabetes may involve focusing on brain neurons, rather than simply concentrating on obesity or insulin resistance, according to a study published today in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.

For several years, researchers have known that hyperactivity of a subset of neurons located in the hypothalamus, called AgRP neurons, is common in mice with diabetes.

"These neurons are playing an outsized role in hyperglycemia and type 2 diabetes," said UW Medicine endocrinologist Dr. Michael Schwartz, corresponding author of the paper.

To determine if these neurons contribute to elevated blood sugar in diabetic mice, researchers employed a widely used viral genetics approach to make AgRP neurons express tetanus toxin, which prevents the neurons from communicating with other neurons.

Unexpectedly, this intervention normalized high blood sugar for months, despite having no effect on body weight or food consumption.

Conventional wisdom is that diabetes, particularly type 2 diabetes, stems from a combination of genetic predisposition and lifestyle factors, including obesity, lack of physical activity and poor diet. This mix of factors leads to insulin resistance or insufficient insulin production.

Until now, scientists have traditionally thought the brain doesn't play a role in type 2 diabetes, according to Schwartz.

The paper challenges this and is a "departure from the conventional wisdom of what causes diabetes," he said.

The new findings align with studies published by the same scientists showing that injection of a peptide called FGF1 directly into the brain also causes diabetes remission in mice. This effect was subsequently shown to involve sustained inhibition of AgRP neurons.

Together, the data suggest that, while these neurons are important for controlling blood sugar in diabetes, they don't play a major role in causing obesity in these mice, the researchers noted in their report.

In other words, targeting these neurons may not reverse obesity, even as it causes diabetes to go into remission, Schwartz explained.

More research is needed on how to regulate activity in these neurons, and how they become hyperactive in the first place, he said. Once these questions are answered, Schwartz said that a therapeutic approach might then be developed to calm them down.

This approach could represent a shift in how clinicians understand and treat this chronic disease, Schwartz said. He noted, for instance, that Ozempic and other new drugs used to treat type 2 diabetes are also able to inhibit AgRP neurons.

The extent to which this effect contributes to the antidiabetic action of these drugs is unknown. Further research might help scientists to better understand the role of AgRP neurons in how the body normally controls blood sugar, and to ultimately translate these findings into human clinical trials, he added.

More information: Yang Gou et al, AgRP neuron hyperactivity drives hyperglycemia in a mouse model of type 2 diabetes, Journal of Clinical Investigation (2025). DOI: 10.1172/JCI189842

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-05-brain-diabetes.html