NATION & WORLD IN BRIEF

Trump social media company hits Wall Street with $5B-plus valuation

Former President Trump’s Truth Social is coming to Wall Street — with a multibilliondollar price tag.

The Trump Media & Technology Group, whose main product is the social media site Truth Social, rocketed Monday on the news it filed paperwork in Delaware to merge with a shell company and will start trading on the tech-heavy NASDAQ platform.

It will use the catchy ticker symbol DJT, which are Trump’s initials.

The soaring stock price, which climbed by more than 30% on Monday, would value the company at more than $5 billion, which could give Trump an eye-popping personal windfall of about $3 billion for the 79 million shares he owns.

The former president is barred from selling the shares for six months, although the company could tweak those restrictions.

The newly public Trump Media company will still be led by ex-rep. Devin Nunes, a MAGA loyalist who ran the firm before the big-money merger with the Digital World Acquisition Corp. shell company.

Nearly 3,000 pounds of methamphetamine found in carrot shipment at Us-mexico border

It’s a good idea to wash carrots after they’re pulled from the ground because they might have some dirt on them. They don’t typically come with more than a ton of methamphetamine, but you can never be too careful.

A 44-year-old truck driver is in federal custody after he allegedly tried to cross into the U.S. from Mexico at the Otay Mesa border checkpoint in

San Diego with roughly 3,000 pounds of meth hidden amid a large shipment of carrots.

The driver arrived in a commercial tractor trailer just before noon on March 17 with a valid border crossing card and a shipping manifest that said he was hauling carrots, U.S. Customs and Border Protection said in a news release.

But a secondary inspection revealed suspicious packages hidden underneath the bunches of carrots — exactly 574 packages that tested positive for methamphetamine, according to officials.

The meth and the truck were seized, and the driver, who was not identified, was turned over to the Department of Homeland Security for further investigation, officials said. The seizure was part of an ongoing operation at the border, dubbed Operation Apollo, focused on stopping fentanyl and other synthetic drugs from being smuggled into the U.S.

Florida reports 11th measles case of 2024

Florida reported another measles case on Friday, bringing the state’s total to 11 cases this year amid a worldwide uptick in a highly infectious disease once thought to be eliminated in the U.S.

The case was identified in South Florida’s Martin County, in an individual age 55-59. It was linked to travel outside of the country, according to data from the state health department’s web-based reportable disease surveillance system.

“A travel-related case of a communicable disease is not abnormal and should be distinguished with appropriate context. … We recommend that the Orlando Sentinel stops attempting to be armchair epidemiologists,” Grant Kemp, Florida Department of Health spokesman, said in an emailed response to questions about the case.

Florida recorded two measles cases last year, both linked to international travel.

In addition to the new Martin County case, there have been nine cases in Broward County this year — largely linked to local spread among kids at Manatee Bay Elementary — and one in Polk County related to travel. No additional cases have occurred at Manatee

Bay Elementary since Feb. 16, according to a March 8 news release from the governor’s office.

Even more people with measles have visited the state but are not counted in its public online tally, although the Florida Department of Health is aware and conducts contact tracing on any cases seen in Florida.

As of March 21, there have been 64 cases across 17 states, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Florida Gov. Ron Desantis signs ban on kids using social media

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Gov. Ron Desantis on Monday signed a bill blocking most kids from social media websites, setting up an expected court battle that could prevent the legislation from ever taking effect.

House Bill 3, passed by lawmakers with bipartisan support this month, forbids kids 13 and younger from creating social media accounts and requires the platforms to seek out and remove their profiles. Kids 14 and 15 would need parents’ consent.

The legislation also blocks all minors from adult websites, requiring all visitors to prove their age before viewing content.

Florida follows a handful of other states, from California to Arkansas, that have placed similar limits on kids’ social media use in response to rising rates of teen depression and suicide.

None of those states’ bans have yet taken effect, however. A coalition of social media companies, including Meta and Tiktok, have sued, claiming the bans violate kids’ First Amendment right to free speech.

It’s not clear which media platforms would be affected by Florida’s legislation, which takes effect on Jan. 1, 2025.

HB 3 applies to platforms that have “addictive features” such as infinite scrolling and push alerts — and in which at least 10% of users are kids under 16 who spend at least two hours per day on the platform. The legislation requires those platforms to automatically delete the accounts of people it “treats or categorizes as belonging” to someone under the age of 14.

Source: Tribune News Service