President Trump officially signed the $867 billion farm bill into law Thursday after months of negotiations in Congress.
The big picture: The massive bill legalizes the cultivation of industrialized hemp and provides billions in aid to farmers who have seen their business bogged down by the U.S. trade war with China. Earlier Thursday, the Trump administration announced a plan to tighten the work requirements for food stamps — a change House Republicans wanted to include in the farm bill, but was ultimately stripped out of the final version.
Companies are pulling their advertisements from Tucker Carlson's show on Fox News after he said mass immigration makes the U.S. "poorer and dirtier."
The big picture: This isn't the first time Fox News hosts have gotten heat for their rhetoric — Laura Ingraham faced similar pushback over tweets mocking Parkland school shooting survivor David Hogg earlier this year. Fox News stood by Ingraham then, and it continues to stand by Carlson now.
A New York City judge ruled that a criminal prosecution on several charges of sexual assault against former Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein will move forward, the Los Angeles Times reports.
What's new: Weinstein appeared in court Thursday to have his charges exonerated, but prosecutors said there's ample evidence to bring his case to trial. Defense attorney Ben Brafman said Weinstein is "obviously disappointed" the charges were not dismissed. The next hearing is scheduled for March 7.
A union representing 31,000 teachers and school staff plans to strike on Jan. 10 following months of stalled negotiations, the Los Angeles Times reports.
The state of play: United Teachers Los Angeles and the Los Angeles Unified School District have agreed on an initial salary number, but they can't agree on a raise structure. The union wants a 6.5% raise retroactive to July 1, 2016, but the school district is only offering a 3% raise retroactive to July 1, 2017. A statement by the union's leader on Wednesday suggests it's very unlikely there will be a resolution in time for the deadline.
FedEx CEO Fred Smith signaled darker times ahead for the transportation industry during an earnings call on Tuesday, citing negative economic impact stemming from President Trump's trade war, Brexit and other global issues caused by "bad political choices."
Why it matters: FedEx, along with the rest of the transports sector, is considered a good gauge of economic health.
