Daily Dozen | Forbes: Twitter Layoffs Cloud Midterms | Dr. Oz’s Billionaire Backer | The Year Of Moving Farther

Lawmakers pressed the chief executives of Apple and Google to take action against apps that present potential security and surveillance risks. Twitter employees filed a class action lawsuit against the social media company, alleging that it didn’t provide adequate notice about sweeping layoffs. Meet Geoffrey Palmer, a real estate billionaire who hates affordable housing and loves Donald Trump and the GOP.

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In The News Today

• Texas furniture kingpin Jim “Mattress Mack” McIngvale took home what is thought to be the largest payout in legal sports betting history on Saturday when he won $75 million from betting on the Houston Astros to beat the Philadelphia Phillies in the World Series.
• Meta, parent company of Facebook and Instagram, temporarily suspended all “political, electoral and social issue” ads from its platforms as Americans gear up to hit the polls for the midterm elections on Tuesday, November 8. Here’s how other social media giants are preparing to manage misinformation and election-related discourse.

Top Take-Aways

Billionaire Elon Musk fired thousands of people across Twitter ahead of reported plans that he will launch Twitter’s new verification subscription plan this week. Many laid off employees had been charged with monitoring the midterms on the platform, and now some remaining staff members tell Forbes they don’t have access to critical tools used for certain content moderation decisions.

Twitter was also hit by a class action lawsuit accusing the company of violating federal and state labor laws by failing to provide adequate notice to workers about mass layoffs. The filing urges a California federal court to intervene and bar the company from requiring laid off workers to sign releases that would prevent them from pursuing further litigation against the social media company.

Two members of Congress sent letters to the CEOs of Apple and Google pressing them to ban or take other punitive actions against apps in their app stores that pose security weaknesses and surveillance threats. Most notably, the lawmakers referenced TikTok's use of code that could enable the platform to monitor keystrokes on outside websites through its in-app browser, as Forbes first reported in August. The letters also called out Meta-owned Facebook, Facebook Messenger and Instagram for tracking user activity through in-app browsers.

Apartment mogul Richard Kurtz, a Florida resident with longstanding ties to New Jersey, has donated at least $232,500 in support of Republican Dr. Mehmet Oz’s Senate campaign; $200,000 came from four different apartment complexes that Kurtz owns in eastern Pennsylvania, the state where Oz is on the ballot. Kurtz’s donations put him on Forbes' radar to qualify him as one of the country’s newest billionaires.

Home buyers in the U.S. expanded their horizons in 2022, tending to move 50 miles from their previous residence—smashing the previous high-bar of 15 miles. Affordability and buying to be near loved ones were among the primary factors leading the change.

Evolving beauty standards and rising health concerns about chemical ingredients are pushing the U.S. market of hair straighteners and relaxers—for which Black women account for 60% of consumers—to the brink of extinction. Sales of chemical hair relaxers to salons and other professionals has drastically declined from $71 million in 2011 to $30 million in 2021, with year-over-year sales dropping 25% in 2020 alone.

Today's Must-Read

The Heiresses, The Oilmen, And The $200 Million Bonus Battle

After two oil executives made $1.6 billion for the family of late wildcatter J. Cleo Thompson and helped defend them against T. Boone Pickens, the Thompsons rewarded them each with $100 million bonuses. Then they tried to claw it all back.

In Case You Missed It

Meet Geoffrey Palmer, an anti-affordable housing crusader who made a multibillion-dollar fortune building luxury residential buildings in southern California. To keep rents high and taxes low, he’s spent nearly $32 million in the past six years opposing ballot initiatives and backing Republicans—particularly Donald Trump.

Tips You Can Trust

• In the new world of work that emphasizes hybrid and remote flexibility, traditional ways of measuring and rewarding work just don’t make sense anymore, and some outdated metrics leave employees feeling controlled, micromanaged and unmotivated. Here are some pitfalls to avoid, such as mistaking productivity for performance or overreacting to slight variations in an employee’s work rather than assessing a trend over time.
• The Federal Reserve’s sustained interest rate hikes—with yet another 0.75 percentage point jump announced last week—are causing turmoil across the economy, but commercial real estate has yet to weather a big hit. Still, looming downward pressures on commercial offices have some scholars worried that a commercial real estate “apocalypse” is in store as the sector struggles to return to pre-pandemic heights and cities depend on office work to generate local economic activity. Here’s why the industry could have further to fall under the Fed’s plan.

Must-Watch Video

Carl Icahn Speaks About Inflation, Jerome Powell, And More At The Forbes Iconoclast Summit

The billionaire investor spoke at the the Forbes Iconoclast Summit to share his views on the current state of the markets and economy. “I think we have a major problem,” he said, noting he’s maintained that bearish view for a couple of years. Particularly of concern? How challenging it is to get rid of inflation once it starts. “Powell is very right to do anything he can to stop this inflation that’s coming on,” Icahn said about the Federal Reserve chair.

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