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Luigi Mangione is due in federal court Friday for a pivotal hearing in his fight to bar the government from seeking the death penalty against him in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.Mangione’s lawyers contend that authorities prejudiced his case by turning his December 2024 arrest into a “Marvel movie” spectacle and by publicly declaring their desire to see him executed even before he was formally indicted.If that doesn’t work, they argue, the charge that has enabled the government to seek the death penalty murder by firearm should be thrown out because it is legally flawed.Federal prosecutors say Mangione’s lawyers are wrong, countering that the murder charge is legally sufficient and that “pretrial publicity, even when intense” is hardly a constitutional crisis. Any concerns about public perceptions can be alleviated by carefully questioning prospective jurors about their knowledge of the case, prosecutors wrote in a court filing.Mangione has pleaded not guilty to federal and state murder charges, which carry the possibility of life in prison.Friday’s hearing, Mangione’s first trip to Manhattan federal court since his April 25 arraignment, is also expected to cover the defense’s bid to exclude certain evidence. U.S. District Judge Margaret Garnett has said she also plans to set a trial date.A cause célbre for people upset with the health insurance industry, Mangione’s court appearances have draw dozens of supporters, some of whom wear green clothing or carry signs expressing solidarity with him.Mangione’s lawyers have asked the judge to bar the government from using certain items found in a backpack during his arrest, arguing that the search was illegal because police had not yet obtained a warrant.Those items include a gun that police said matched the one used to kill Thompson and a notebook in which he purportedly described his intent to “wack” a health insurance executive.One big question is whether Garnett will need to hold a separate hearing on the evidence issue like one last month that took three weeks in Mangione’s parallel state murder case.Mangione’s lawyers want one. Prosecutors don’t. They contend police were justified in searching the backpack to make sure there were no dangerous items and that the gun, notebook and other evidence would have eventually been found anyway.Thompson, 50, was killed Dec. 4, 2024, as he walked to a Manhattan hotel for UnitedHealth Group’s annual investor conference. Surveillance video showed a masked gunman shooting him from behind. Police say “delay,” “deny” and “depose” were written on the ammunition, mimicking a phrase used to describe how insurers avoid paying claims.Mangione, 27, the Ivy League-educated scion of a wealthy Maryland family, was arrested five days later at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, about 230 miles (about 370 kilometers) west of Manhattan.He’s already had success paring down his state case. In September, a judge threw out state terrorism charges against him.U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi announced last year that she was directing federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty, declaring that capital punishment was warranted for a “premeditated, cold-blooded assassination that shocked America.”Mangione’s lawyers argue that Bondi’s announcement, which she followed with Instagram posts and a TV appearance, showed the decision was “based on politics, not merit.” Her remarks tainted the grand jury process that resulted in his indictment a few weeks later, they said.Bondi’s statements and other official actions, including a choreographed perp walk in which armed officers led Mangione from a Manhattan pier, “have violated Mr. Mangione’s constitutional and statutory rights and have fatally prejudiced this death penalty case,” his lawyers said.On Wednesday, federal prosecutors pushed back on what they said were the defense’s “meritless” and “misleading” claims that Bondi’s decision was tainted by her past work as a lobbyist for a firm whose clients include UnitedHealthcare’s parent company. Michael R. Sisak and Larry Neumeister, Associated Press
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E-Commerce
Hiring likely remained subdued last month as many companies have sought to avoid expanding their workforces, though the job gains may be enough to bring down the unemployment rate.December’s jobs report, to be released Friday, is likely to show that employers added a modest 55,000 jobs, economists forecast. That figure would be below November’s 64,000 but an improvement after the economy lost jobs in October. The unemployment rate is expected to slip to 4.5%, according to data provider FactSet, from a four-year high of 4.6% in November.The figures will be closely watched on Wall Street and in Washington because they will be the first clean readings on the labor market in three months. The government didn’t issue a report in October because of the six-week government shutdown, and November’s data was distorted by the closure, which lasted until Nov. 12.Another wrinkle: The economy lost 105,000 jobs in October, mostly because federal government employment fell 162,000, reflecting a purge of federal workers earlier last year by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency. That drop won’t be repeated.Still, sluggish hiring in December would underscore a key conundrum surrounding the economy as it enters 2026: Growth has picked up to healthy levels, yet hiring has weakened noticeably and the unemployment rate has increased in the last four jobs reports.Most economists expect hiring will accelerate this year as growth remains solid. Yet they acknowledge there are other possibilities: Weak job gains could drag down future growth. Or the economy could keep expanding at a healthy clip, while automation and the spread of artificial intelligence reduces the need for more jobs.Economists do expect Friday’s jobs report to have some good news, driven partly by a rebound from the government shutdown, which likely drove a higher unemployment rate in November. Still, should the rate remain at 4.6% or even tick higher, that would be a cause for concern.“I’m really looking for a lot of that weakness to reverse in December,” said Martha Gimbel, executive director of the Yale Budget Lab, “and if it doesn’t, I am going to start getting much iffier about the labor market.”Either way, December’s report will cap a year of sluggish hiring, particularly after “liberation day” in April when President Donald Trump imposed sweeping tariffs on dozens of countries, though many were later delayed or softened.The economy generated an average of 111,000 jobs a month in the first three months of the year. But that pace dropped to just 11,000 in the three months ended in August, before rebounding slightly to 22,000 in November.Even those figures are likely to be revised lower in February, when the government completes an annual benchmarking of the jobs figures to an actual count of jobs derived from companies’ unemployment insurance filings. A preliminary estimate of that revision showed it could reduce total jobs as of March 2025 by 911,000.And last month, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said that the government could still be overstating job gains by about 60,000 a month because of shortcomings in how it accounts for new companies as well as those that have gone out of business. The Labor Department is expected to update those methods in its report next month.Last November, the U.S. economy had just 770,000 more jobs than 12 months earlier, down from 1.9 million in the 12 months ending in November 2024 and the smallest yearly gain since early 2021. The benchmark revisions next month will likely reduce that figure even further.With hiring so weak, the Federal Reserve cut its key short-term interest rate three times late last year, in an effort to boost borrowing, spending, and hiring. Yet Powell signaled that the central bank may keep its rate unchanged in the coming months as it evaluates how the economy evolves.Should December’s jobs report come in surprisingly weak, it could strengthen case for a rate reduction at the Fed’s next meeting Jan. 27-28.Even with such sluggish job gains, the economy has continued to expand, with growth reaching a 4.3% annual rate in last year’s July-September quarter, the best in two years. Strong consumer spending helped drive the gain. The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta forecasts that growth could slow to a still-solid 2.7% in the final three months of last year.Many economists are optimistic that growth will pick up in 2026, in part because Trump’s tax legislation, approved last summer, should lead to outsize tax refunds this spring. If growth does accelerate, it’s possible hiring may as well. At the same time, there are signs that companies are using technology and other tools to make their workers more efficient, which can spur growth without requiring more jobs.At the same time, inflation remains elevated, eroding the value of Americans’ paychecks. Consumer prices rose 2.7% in November compared with a year ago, little changed from the beginning of the year and above the Fed’s 2% target. Christopher Rugaber, AP Economics Writer
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E-Commerce
Fans of Macy’s Inc. will be disappointed to learn that the iconic department store has announced its next round of store closures. Fourteen Macys locations in 12 states will shutter as a result of this move. Heres why and when the closures will take place. Whats happened? On Thursday, Macys published a letter from CEO Tony Spring to its employees updating them on the companys A Bold New Chapter strategy, which the department store chain unveiled in February 2024. As part of that strategy, Macys announced at the time that it would be closing 150 underproductive stores through the end of 2026. Fast Company previously reported on 66 stores marked for closure in January 2025. In his Thursday letter, Spring said that the Bold New Chapter strategy, which includes simplifying operations and investing in customer experiences that its shoppers value most, is working. We are seeing customers respond through strong performance in our go-forward business, record Net Promoter Scores, and improved results over the first three quarters, Spring stated. As a point used to highlight the A Bold New Chapters success, Spring said that the strategys Reimagine element, which is seeing Macys invest in 125 of its best-performing stores, was paying off. Those stores saw comparative sales grow 2.7% in the third quarter, which Spring said was the result of investment in those stores elevated merchandising, store design, and customer experience. Unfortunately for some Macys employees, Spring also confirmed that the next round of store closures is beginning now. How many Macys stores are closing? Springs memo confirmed that Macys will close additional stores. Axios reported earlier that 14 stores that are closing in this round, and those store locations have also been marked with the notation This location is closing on Macys store locator tool. The 14 stores are believed to be part of the 150 locations Macys previously said would close by the end of 2026 as part of its A Bold New Chapter strategy. When will the Macy’s stores close? In a FAQ about the store closures, Macys says the stores impacted will begin their clearance sales this month, and those sales will go on for approximately 10 weeks. That places the closing date for these 14 locations at around the third week in March. “These decisions are not made lightly,” Spring said in his letter. “We communicated directly with affected colleagues first and are providing support, including transfer opportunities where available, as well as severance and outplacement resources where applicable. Which Macys stores are closing? Fourteen Macys stores will be closing in this round. Those 14 stores are located in 12 states. Fast Company has reached out to Macy’s to confirm. The stores include: California Grossmont Center: 5500 Grossmont Center Drive, La Mesa, CA 91942 West Valley Mall: 3200 Naglee Rd, Tracy, CA 95304 Georgia Northlake Mall: 4880 Briarcliff Rd NE, Atlanta, GA 30345 Maryland Marley Station: 7900 Ritchie Highway, Glen Burnie, MD 21061 Michigan Rivertown Crossings: 3850 Rivertown Parkway SW, Grandville, MI 49418 Minnesota Crossroads Center: 4101 West Division Street, St Cloud, MN 56301 New Hampshire Fox Run: 50 Fox Run Road, Newington, NH 03801 New Jersey Livingston Mall: 112 Eisenhower Parkway, Livingston, NJ 07039 Interstate Shopping Center: 225 Interstate Shopping Center, Ramsey, NJ 07446 New York Boulevard Mall: 1255 Niagara Falls Boulevard, Amherst, NY 14226 North Carolina Triangle Town Center: 3801 Sumner Boulevard, Raleigh, NC 27616 Pennsylvania Galleria at Pittsburgh Mills: 100 Pittsburgh Mills Cir, Tarentum, PA 15084 Texas La Palmera Mall: 5488 S Padre Island Dr Ste 5000. Corpus Christi, TX 78411 Washington Parkway Super Center: 17855 Southcenter Pkwy, Tukwila, WA 98188 How has Macys store reacted? Yesterday, when Macys published Springs letter, the companys stock price (NYSE: M) closed up for the day, around 5.5% to $23.72 per share. However, the gain in shares probably has little to do with the announcement of the closure of those 14 stores, as the company has long informed investors that it plans to close 150 locations by the end of this year. Instead, the share price gain was most likely driven by Spring’s comments about the companys 2.7% comp growth in its Reimagine stores and 9% comp sales growth in its Bloomingdales stores in the third quarter. With yesterdays share price jump, Macys shares are now up 7.57% for the year as of the time of this writing. Over the past 12 months, Macys shares have jumped nearly 48% and in the last few months have traded around levels not seen since January 2023.
Category:
E-Commerce
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