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Good morning, Broadsheet readers! Biden VP speculation picks up steam, GM finalizes its contract to make 30,000 ventilators, and some female-founded startups have good news. Have a nice Thursday.
– Cookies and hair color. Startups have been battered by the coronavirus crisis. Layoffs at The Wing, ClassPass, the now-public company Eventbrite—the crisis has not been kind to female founders.
So it seems worth calling out two stories about positive developments at women-led businesses.
First, dessert chain Milk Bar. The brand founded by Christina Tosi is entering consumer-packaged goods for the first time, Bloomberg reports. That means that you’ll soon be able to buy Milk Bar cookies at Whole Foods and on Amazon. The cookies——made slightly differently than the ones available in the chain’s own stores—are sold in containers that look like milk cartons, of course.
Milk Bar’s grocery-store debut was delayed by the coronavirus pandemic, but Tosi is taking the long view; she expects packaged products to make up 20% of the brand’s business by 2021 and more Milk Bar products to hit grocery shelves by the end of this year. “The American cookie aisle is relatively stagnant, and that’s what we’re coming out for,” she says.
The other piece, in Marker, is about Madison Reed, the hair-color brand founded by Amy Errett. When the pandemic hit, Errett quickly closed the company’s 12 “color bar” locations. She was able to pivot, retraining those retail employees to instead help manage the 1,200% increase in orders for at-home hair color products. Now colorists are working in remote customer service.
Cookies and hair color—exactly the kind of news diversions I needed this week. Read on for the rest.
Emma Hinchliffe
emma.hinchliffe@fortune.com
@_emmahinchliffe
ALSO IN THE HEADLINES
- In the running. After Sen. Bernie Sanders dropped out of the presidential race yesterday, the speculation is on for who will be Joe Biden's VP. Sen. Kamala Harris is at the top of the lists—especially after especially after inking a DNC fundraising deal usually reserved for those on the party's ticket. Another popular choice, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, says her "sole focus is being the best governor I can be."
- Ventilator-maker. The terms are in place: GM, led by CEO Mary Barra, will make 30,000 ventilators for the country's stockpile in a $489 million contract. The first 6,000 are expected to be delivered by June 1. Wall Street Journal
- Stock sell-off. Sen. Kelly Loeffler and her husband, Intercontinental Exchange CEO Jeff Sprecher, will liquidate their individual stock shares amid the furor over trades the couple made after Loeffler was part of Congressional briefings on the coronavirus crisis (she denied wrongdoing). "The temptation to circulate lies and misinformation is too great for the media and my political opponents. That is why I’m taking steps to remove this temptation," she said in a statement. CNBC
MOVERS AND SHAKERS: Headspace hired Intuit's CeCe Morken as president and COO.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
- Defending DACA. In an op-ed, Laurene Powell Jobs argues that the Supreme Court should not allow the Trump administration to terminate the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, during the coronavirus pandemic. Leaving "undocumented immigrants to fend for themselves would be callous and cruel to some of the very people helping the rest of us weather this crisis," she writes. Washington Post
- Election protection. After the primary election in Wisconsin on Tuesday, Sen. Elizabeth Warren put out a plan to ensure no one else has to risk their health to vote this election season. In the next coronavirus recovery package, Warren would require states to mail a ballot to every registered voter with a prepaid return envelope and allocate $4 billion in federal funding to help states transition to universal vote-by-mail. Mother Jones
- 'Congresswoman, you're live!' As Congress has gotten used to conference calls, one voice on the phone is cheering up lawmakers as they draft coronavirus legislation: Earnestine Dawson, digital director for the House Democratic Caucus. Along with her regular job, Dawson now moderates the calls, and she's becoming a celebrity among the families of members of Congress for her voice and style. New York Times
ON MY RADAR
Former Clinton staffers invited to 'Bye, Bye Bernard' Zoom call (It’s now canceled) BuzzFeed
Dua Lipa’s unplanned, uncertain, unprecedented album launch New York Times
The accidental female gamers of coronavirus lockdown MEL Magazine
The Coronavirus Economy: How my job as a sommelier has changed through the pandemic Fortune
PARTING WORDS
"It's like when people get married and say, Through thick and thin. That's how I feel about myself."
-Lady Gaga, on the cover of InStyle
