Your Evening Briefing: Walt Disney Is Going After DeSantis

Walt Disney is taking its feud with Ron DeSantis to court. On Wednesday, the company sued the likely contender for the Republican presidential nomination, saying he’s threatening billions of dollars in business as retaliation for the company speaking out against his social policies. Disney filed the complaint after a board of DeSantis appointees voided an agreement that gave Disney control over its own 25,000-acre theme park. It’s the latest volley in a dispute between one of Florida’s largest employers and taxpayers and its polarizing governor. The war first began when Disney, under pressure from its own employees to weigh in, criticized DeSantis’s so-called don’t say gay bill, which restricted classroom instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity. Soon after, DeSantis moved to revoke the company’s special tax and self-governing privileges. Since then, DeSantis has proposed and had passed numerous inflammatory policies as part of what observers see as a move to mollify the GOP’s right-wing base.

Beleaguered First Republic shares fell to their lowest ever Wednesday as US regulators weighed downgrading their private assessments of the regional bank—a move that may curb the troubled firm’s access to Federal Reserve lending facilities. For weeks, First Republic has struggled to find a rescuer, and any steps to quickly raise capital or sell holdings could be painful for shareholders. The stock lost half of its remaining value on Tuesday after quarterly results disappointed investors and news broke that the bank might sell $50 billion to $100 billion of assets.