Welcome to RantCrush Top 5, where we take you through today’s top five controversial stories in the world of law and policy. Who’s ranting and raving right now? Check it out below:

Matt Lauer #LauerstheBar

Matt Lauer was the moderator last night for an open forum with Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. Lauer sat down for a 30 minute interview with each candidate, and the forum was broadcast live on NBC. But as the forum progressed, the audience had a lot of criticism for Lauer. Specifically, many were mad that Lauer didn’t press Trump on statements he made about the Iraq War:

Would be good, maybe, if Matt Lauer had done some ~basic~ research about Trump’s repeated lies before you know, doing an interview with him.

— Chris Geidner (@chrisgeidner) September 8, 2016

And a new hashtag, #LaueringTheBar was created to mock Lauer’s performance:

No one could have predicted that someone who normally does waterskiing squirrel stories would have failed at real journalism #LaueringTheBar

— Arthur Bannister (@NeverMetAMorph) September 8, 2016

Ouch!

Rant Crush

RantCrush collects the top trending topics in the law and policy world each day just for you.

The post RantCrush Top 5: September 8, 2016 appeared first on Law Street.

I’ve often aimlessly walked through Walmart looking for something and found myself in an aisle surrounded by weapons. There was always something pretty eerie about the retailer selling firearms. Maybe it was the fact that you could run to the store and pick up doughnuts and guns in the same place, or maybe it was the fact that young children were trying out bicycles just two aisles down from my store’s gun depot. Either way, it was always unsettling.

New York’s Trinity Church. Courtesy of Mith Huang via Flickr

Now, it is these very guns that has Walmart heading to court in a battle with company shareholders. New York based Episcopal Trinity Church, which has about $300,000 worth of shares in Walmart as part of their diverse portfolio, is behind the lawsuit. While Trinity’s investment isn’t huge, its moral bargaining power is strong. Trinity’s main concern lies in Walmart selling high-capacity magazines like those used in mass killings. According to Forbes:

Trinity’s proposal would require Walmart’s board to oversee the sale of “products that especially endanger public safety and well-being, risk impairing the company’s reputation, or offend the family and community values integral to the company’s brand,” as the document first filed with the Security and Exchange Commission last year reads.

This lawsuit looks like an effort from the church to protect its investment in the company in light of recent mass shootings in places like Newtown, Connecticut, where 20-year-old Adam Lanza fatally shot 20 children and 6 adult staff members at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

Shootings like these have  many Americans supporting stricter background checks for those buying firearms. Customers who come into Walmart to buy guns often just have to undergo a quick background check using the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) and can walk out the same day with a firearm.

If one of Walmart’s guns was to be used in a mass shooting, the potential public blowback could negatively affect the company financially, and as result, Trinity Church. The church’s rector, Rev. Dr. James Cooper, told Forbes:

Somebody is making decisions about what they sell. Trinity doesn’t need to. We would just like them to tell us they have a system in place at the board level to protect the reputation of the company, its values, and protect the citizens who live in that community from extreme harm.

Rev. Cooper and Trinity’s legal counsel Evan Davis were shocked to learn that the company chooses not to sell CDs and games with Parental Advisory warning labels, but will instead sell assault rifles with the capacity for 30 rounds of ammunition. Davis told Forbes:

If it were a video with somebody shooting up a school, or a rap song with somebody talking about shooting up a school, they wouldn’t sell it. So why sell the gun? It doesn’t make sense.

This lawsuit is part of a long battle between the church and Walmart execs for board room oversight. In December 2013, Trinity submitted its shareholder proposal for inclusion in the company’s 2014 proxy materials, but the SEC sided with Walmart, issuing a no-action letter permitting the retailer to exclude the church’s submission from its 2014 annual filings. That’s when Trinity took its case to Delaware’s federal courts.

In November, after months of back-and-forth, U.S. District Judge Leonard Stark decided in Trinity’s favor, ordering Walmart to let its shareholders vote on the church’s proposal. In January, Walmart appealed.

The result of this case could end up affecting how other companies and their shareholders do business, but will more board room oversight be welcomed? In most cases probably not, if Walmart’s resistance is any indication. Regardless, the church still isn’t willing to back down from this gun fight.

Alexis Evans

Alexis Evans is an Assistant Editor at Law Street and a Buckeye State native. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism and a minor in Business from Ohio University. Contact Alexis at aevans@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post New York Church Challenges Walmart Over Gun Sales appeared first on Law Street.

As you’ve come to know, this blog is pretty millennial-focused. It has to be. We’re experiencing drastic changes in a market to which we’re newcomers. We’re learning the rules as they continually change.

Dan Schawbel, contributor at Forbes, jumped on the millennial bandwagon by publishing a piece dedicated to our generation. In “My 10 Best Pieces Of Career Advice For Millennials,” Schawbel discusses his top tips for a millennial in today’s economy.

Below I’ve listed a few of my favorites.

Take risks early and often in your career. One of the important lessons this economy has taught us is that not taking risks is risky. There is so much out of our control and if we just keep doing what we did yesterday, we can’t get ahead. By taking a risk, you are putting yourself in a position to learn, whether you succeed or fail. You’re also showing to your management that you’re willing to put your reputation on the line to make things happen. As we become an ever more entrepreneurial society, those that take risks, both inside and outside of the corporate walls, will become more successful.

Focus on making a big impact immediately. The quicker you make an impact in a company the more attention and support you will get. Millennials understand this well because they won’t want to wait five years to get on a project where they can make this type of impact. Starting on day one, you have to learn as much as possible and start mastering your job so you can latch on to the bigger projects faster and prove yourself. By doing this, you will explode your career and become more valuable in your company, which will increase your pay, title and you’ll get to work on better projects.

Sacrifice today to position yourself for tomorrow. You can’t have everything you want today so you need to work hard to put yourself in a better position in the future. From 2007 to 2009, I put in over one hundred hours a week working on something I loved. As a result, now I have the freedom to do what I want, when I want. While others would have used that same time to go out every night and party, I realized the bigger picture and you can too. The more you do early in your career, the more it will pay off later in life and you will be thankful just like I am.

Be sure to check out the full article at Forbes.

Happy hunting!

xo The Capitalista

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Alexandra Saville (@CapitalistaBlog) is a PR & Media Outreach Manager. She has experience in the publishing and marketing worlds and started her own publishing company right out of college.

Alexandra Saville

Alexandra Saville is the Media and Writing Specialist at Law Street Media. She has experience in the publishing and marketing worlds and started her own publishing company right out of college. Her blogs, The Capitalista and Capitalista Careers, focus on the young and the entrepreneurial.

The post Job Hunting as a Millennial appeared first on Law Street.