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The smartest thing 23andMe CEO Anne Wojcicki says she did after the FDA told her personal genetics company to cease and desist — avoid reading the press.

Instead, she says she stayed in her pajamas and was on the phone with lawyers, calling everyone for 10 days to figure out what to do and what the next steps for her “doomed” (as the press called it) company were. 

“When you have a laser focus and you get distracted by what other people say, you can lose that laser focus,” Wojcicki said onstage at the Fortune Most Powerful Women Next Gen summit.

In November 2013, the FDA barred 23andMe from sending any of that data related to health to customers because of concerns that the company was misrepresenting genetic tests as medical advice. Providing information about things like your risk for developing type 2 diabetes or certain kinds of cancers, for example, was banned.

With half of its product put on hold by the FDA, the company looked as if it was on the verge of falling apart.

To Wojcicki, it was a speed bump, albeit a “big speed bump.” 

Her best advice came from the regulatory team at Genentech who told her she had two options: do the quick fix and sell the company, or just do the hard work to gain the long-term change. Wojcicki chose option two and stayed focused on what she needed to get done to do it. 

“By working with the FDA and working with the regulating body, you’ll actually drive the change,” Wojcicki said. 

At the end of October, the company relaunched with new FDA approvals and her team is working to get new tests approved over time.

In total, 23andMe now provides more than 60 reports based on the samples of saliva you submit, which are then sifted and scanned it for single genetic variations that are linked to specific traits, like hair and eye color and propensity for certain diseases.

One of the additional tests included in the $199 relaunched kit is a “carrier status” test, which can be used to tell users if they have a genetic mutation or if they carry a copy of a recessive (non-expressed) gene that could still be passed down to their children. 

The new test’s wellness component is also supposed to fill you in on how your DNA relates to your alcohol, caffeine, and milk consumption, as well as your muscle composition by showing you how your habits relate to other 23andMe customers with a similar genetic makeup.

To Wojcicki, the two-year hiatus was just the first chapter in the company’s history. Her vision of bringing personal genetic testing to everyone has remain unchanged, she said.

“Nothing was insurmountable,” she said. “It was just a question of figuring out the solution.”

SEE ALSO: What you can find out about your DNA with 23andMe’s new test

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WATERVILLE VALLEY, N.H. (AP) — Donald Trump got personal with New Hampshire voters Tuesday night, telling them of the guilt he sometimes feels for not serving in the Vietnam War and advising young people to stay away from drugs and alcohol.

“I always felt a little guilty, frankly, like other people who didn’t serve,” Trump said. “I had friends that served, and they’re very proud and some are no longer with us because of the fact that they served.”

Trump’s recent events have sometimes taken on a darker tone, with violent clashes between supporters and protesters and angry tirades against reporters in the room. But Tuesday evening’s event was more intimate, with frequent back-and-forths between Trump and audience members. He brought his usual bravado, but at times kept the audience near silence as he discussed where his patriotism comes from and what advice he’d give to young people seeking success.

“What makes you just love this country?” a man stood up and asked, prompting Trump’s reflection on the Vietnam War. He told the crowd he never served because of various deferments but came close to getting drafted near the end of the war.

Trump often talks about veterans on the campaign trail and reminds voters of his efforts to build the Vietnam War memorial in New York. He also called on U.S. politicians to be tougher in the war against the Islamic State and criticized rivals for saying his tone is too brash.

“That was a rough war, and there’s another war,” he said. “They’re chopping people’s heads off; if they’re Christian their heads are coming off in the Middle East. We need tough talk.”

Later, Trump offered a lengthy warning to young people about how drugs and alcohol can hamper their future success. Trump said he repeated one phrase to his children growing up: “No drugs, no alcohol, no cigarettes.”

“I see what it does to people when they lose control,” he said. “If you don’t drink and if you don’t take drugs, (you’re) going to have a tremendously enhanced chance of really being successful and having a good life and having a happy life.”

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Ouagadougou (AFP) – Burkina Faso awaited the results of parliamentary elections on Wednesday, with president elect Roch Marc Kabore hoping for strong support for his pledge to bring a “better tomorrow” to the west African country.

Kabore won 53.49 percent of ballots in Sunday’s presidential poll, sealing victory in the first round of the vote to become the first newly elected leader of the impoverished nation in three decades.

Spectators hope his win will restore stability after more than a year of upheaval that saw longtime leader Blaise Compaore toppled by a popular uprising and his supporters try to stage a coup.

“We must get to work immediately,” 58-year-old Kabore told crowds after the results were released Tuesday.

“Together we must serve the country,” he said, pledging “to open up opportunities for a better tomorrow”.

Kabore led the ruling Congress for Democracy and Progress (CDP) party for over a decade and was seen as Compaore’s likely heir, but fell out with the strongman in 2012 and last year formed his own opposition party.

He expressed his “warm congratulations” to the transitional government that has run the west African country since Compaore was deposed by an uprising last year after trying to change the constitution to extend his 27-year rule. 

The CDP was barred from fielding a candidate in the presidential poll under a contested law that prevented anybody connected with Compaore’s attempts to cling to power from seeking office.

But the well-entrenched party had several representatives standing in the parliamentary election and could score well under the system of proportional representation.

– ‘Waiting for the work’ –

Kabore’s victory was the largest in three decades with turnout at over 60 percent, far outstripping Compaore’s re-election results during his long stay in office. His nearest rival Zephirin Diabre scored 29.65 percent of votes.

Kabore, an affable strongly built ex-banker and politician, was long an ally of Compaore and even headed the ruling party.

But in 2012 he fell out of favour with the old regime and in his brief time in the opposition he became a driving force in the campaign to oppose Compaore’s bid for a third term in power.

“We have a new president, we hope he succeeds in his mission in the interests of the people who rose up and in the interests of all of Burkina Faso’s people,” said Harouna Kabore, spokesman for a score of civil society groups behind the October 2014 uprising.

Even Diabre supporters spoke out in support of the new leader, with waiter Medard Nedie saying: “The election was perfect, there were no problems, so he deserved to win. Now we’re waiting for the work.”

The United States hailed Burkina’s election as “a major milestone in the country’s democratic progress”.

“Burkinabe citizens have stood up to repeated attempts to infringe on their right to choose leaders in a legitimate process,” the National Security Council said in a statement. 

President Francois Hollande of France, the former colonial power, spoke to Kabore by phone to congratulate him on his “clean and undisputed” victory and wish him well.

– ‘Soft exit’ –

After almost a year of interim government, activists returned to the capital’s streets in September to protest a short-lived putsch by loyalists of the former strongman in the presidential guard.

That unrest forced the presidential and parliamentary elections to be delayed, but Sunday’s vote went off largely without incident, with voters hungry for change standing in long lines to cast their ballot.

Political scientist Salam Kassem dubbed the election “one of the cleanest ever organised in Africa.”

“People opted for Roch because they didn’t want a brutal break, they wanted a soft exit from the previous regime.”

Burkina Faso’s 18 million people, most of whom live in grinding poverty, are hoping for a long era of peace and democracy.

Seen as a consensus figure by some and an opportunist by others, Kabore has pledged to build “a new Burkina Faso” by fighting youth unemployment, improving education and modernising the health system.

Around 25,000 members of the security force were deployed to keep the peace during the election, reflecting the nervousness in Burkina Faso over the uptick in Islamist attacks in neighbouring Mali.

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San Francisco (AFP) – Yahoo’s board will meet to discuss whether it should sell its core business instead of its Alibaba stake, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.

Yahoo board members will hold a marathon series of meetings from Wednesday through Friday to hash out whether it would be best to go ahead with a plan to spinoff its multibillion-dollar stake in Alibaba or shift gears and sell its core business, the Journal said, citing unnamed people close to the matter.

Yahoo told AFP it would not comment on the Journal’s report.

A hedge fund with a stake in Yahoo urged the Internet giant last month to drop its planned spinoff of its stake in China’s Alibaba and instead sell the “core” search business.

The call by hedge fund Starboard Value came with Yahoo on track to set up a new corporate entity holding the Alibaba stake in coming months that would be spun off.

But that spinoff plan has been clouded by concerns that it may not get tax-free status from US authorities, resulting in a hefty tax bill for Yahoo shareholders.

Starboard said in a letter to Yahoo’s board and chief executive Marissa Mayer that the spinoff of the entity called Aabaco Holdings “is not Yahoo’s best alternative” and argued that “instead, you should be exploring a sale of Yahoo’s core search and display advertising businesses.”

This proposal, Starboard said, would leave the existing Yahoo corporate entity holding stakes in Alibaba and Yahoo Japan.

The hedge fund was worried about the plan to transfer the Alibaba stake to the new company and distributing stock in what could amount to a taxable gift of some $30 billion to shareholders.

Starboard would prefer that Yahoo, instead, split off its own Internet operations in a technical move apparently aimed at avoiding a tax bill.

Starboard said that even if the Alibaba spinoff is ruled tax-free, the market value for the rest of Yahoo is minimal or even negative.

Lack of a long-awaited turnaround at Yahoo has put pressure on Mayer to prove she has what it takes to revive the faded Internet pioneer.

The original decision to split Yahoo’s holding in Alibaba was seen as an attempt to calm restless shareholders, starting with activist fund Starboard, which lobbied for the strategy.

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The Department of Justice may be investigating Chicago PD, thanks to a pair of fresh scandals that have again placed the embattled police department under federal scrutiny.

Illinois Attorney General, Lisa Mandigan, is asking US Attorney General Loretta Lynch to look into the Chicago Police Department’s practices — including use of deadly force, amid the continuing fallout from the shooting death of a teenager.

Police officer Jason Van Dyke is facing murder charges on accusations that he shot 17-year-old Laquan McDonald 16 times during an encounter in October last year.

In a letter to Attorney General Lynch Tuesday that was obtained by NBC News Chicago, Mandigan cited questions about the Chicago Police Department’s “training, equipment and supervision of officers,” and whether there’s a “pattern or practice of discriminatory policing” as reasons for an investigation.

Mandigan says the McDonald shooting “highlights serious questions about the historic, systemic use” of excessive force by the Chicago Police Department.

Those claims have mobilized activists whose protests have indirectly led to Chicago Police Superintendent Gerry McCarthy’s firing Tuesday — one week after graphic video of the Laquan McDonald shooting was released.

Questions remain about how the police department handled the McDonald shooting.

Most of those questions center around alleged inconsistencies between the official police report and what can be seen on the video — and an alleged second video from a nearby restaurant that is reportedly missing footage of the crucial moments before, during and after McDonald was shot.

Chicago’s police department has been scrutinized for years over its law enforcement practices — including the operation of a massive secret police facility in which the thousands of people held there were reportedly treated and interrogated like terrorists.

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New York (AFP) – The Statue of Liberty, a symbol of democracy and freedom that has greeted countless immigrants to US shores, was inspired by a project representing an Arab woman guarding the Suez Canal, researchers said.

The recent findings are especially startling for some in the United States amid a heated debate over the arrival of refugees from war-scarred Syria and other Muslim majority countries.

French sculptor Frederic Auguste Bartholdi, who traveled to Egypt in 1855-1856, developed there a “passion for large-scale public monuments and colossal sculptures,” said the US National Park Service, which guards the Statue of Liberty in New York.

When the Egyptian government sought proposals in 1869 to build a lighthouse for the Suez Canal, Bartholdi designed a huge statue of a robed woman holding a torch, which he called “Egypt (or Progress) Brings Light to Asia.”

The sculpture originally took the “form of a veiled peasant woman,” explained Barry Moreno, who has written about the statue, as quoted by the US-funded Smithsonian Institution.

“Bartholdi produced a series of drawings in which the proposed statue began as a gigantic female fellah, or Arab peasant, and gradually evolved into a colossal goddess,” added Edward Berenson, who has also written about the subject.

At the time, most Egyptians were Muslims — about 86 percent in Alexandria and Cairo, and 91 percent in other regions, according to the Smithsonian.

Bartholdi’s second chance came when French historian Edouard de Laboulaye originated the idea of a monument presented by the French people to the United States representing “Liberty Enlightening the World.”

In 1870, Bartholdi began designing the statue based on his previous design. It was inaugurated in 1886.

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Twitter cofounder Evan Williams sold 1.8 million shares of Twitter stock on Monday, netting about $47 million, according to a new SEC filing.

Williams is one of the cofounders of the company, and served as its CEO from 2008 to 2010.

There’s reportedly some bad blood between Williams and Jack Dorsey, the CEO and fellow cofounder. Dorsey is also the head of Square, which just filed to go public.

Williams is usually cited as the driving force who got Dorsey fired in the first place so Williams could take his place. Then, according to a profile of Dorsey in The New Yorker, some insiders believe that Dorsey used his position on the board to oust Williams in 2010 and replace him with Dick Costolo. Costolo resigned in June, paving the way for Dorsey’s return this year.

Williams managed a lukewarm blog post welcoming Dorsey back as full-time CEO in October, writing, “I honestly didn’t think we’d land on Jack when we started unless he could step away from Square.”

He remains on the board of directors.

Williams has sold blocks of shares in the past, including almost 400,000 worth about $24 million in April. But that sale was exercised as part of a preplanned schedule, according to a note in the SEC filing accompanying it. The form for yesterday’s filing had no such note and was significantly larger.

Williams and Twitter did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

SEE ALSO: Why Square wound up pricing its IPO so low

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Zurich (AFP) – FIFA’s executive committee was set to open a crucial meeting on Wednesday with major reforms up for review, as outsiders voice doubt that world football’s tainted governing body is capable of fixing itself. 

The reform package is the work of a panel led by Francois Carrard, who won praise for overhauling a graft-ridden International Olympic Committee more than a decade ago and is now tasked with a similar job at FIFA, mired in an unprecedented scandal. 

At the two-day meeting at FIFA’s Zurich headquarters, Carrard’s proposals will be presented to the body’s top brass — minus its suspended president and vice president, Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini, the highest-profile casualties of the chaos within the organisation. 

FIFA’s executive committee can demand changes to the reform plan, but if approved the package will be sent for adoption at a meeting of FIFA’s 209-member associations on February 26, when Blatter’s replacement will also be chosen.

A FIFA official, who requested anonymity, said that if the reforms are approved quickly this week, “it means their content is inadequate and won’t change much.

“However, if there is a debate, it’s a good sign.”

– Reform from within? –

The source’s comments point to the main obstacle facing the reform effort: it must be approved by individuals who may be accustomed to FIFA’s well-documented rotten ways. 

In a preliminary report in October, Carrard’s panel floated the prospect of capping presidential terms at 12 years and barring those over 74 from serving on the executive committee. 

It further suggested that compensation for senior officials be published annually and audited by an independent body. The executive committee would also be stripped of some powers. 

Whether or not those reforms will ever come into force is not yet clear. 

But some say that despite Carrard’s strong credentials, his mission is destined to fail, as his panel is dominated by FIFA-insiders, a clear departure from the lauded IOC clean-up team he led in the past. 

“What is actually needed is an independent set of executives that have no ties in world football, walking in and cleaning this place up,” said Declan Hill, author of ‘The Fix: soccer and organised crime’. 

Hill, an expert on corruption in FIFA, described the Carrard panel as “an appearance of change, an appearance of reform.”

That sentiment echoes calls from some of the major corporations which sponsor the World Cup. 

Visa, McDonald’s, Coca-Cola, and Budweiser’s parent company Anheuser-Busch have all issued demands for outside figures to lead the rescue effort at FIFA. 

On the eve of the much-anticipated meeting, Transparency International’s chief Cobus de Swardt predicted Carrard’s committee “will likely avoid taking some hard decision about changing the way FIFA does business”, because doing so could affect the committee members themselves. 

– Campaign in full swing –

Whatever gets decided in Zurich, the glaring absences of Blatter and Platini will likely overshadow the meeting. 

Both men have been implicated in a criminal corruption probe by Swiss prosecutors, which triggered 90-day suspensions imposed by FIFA’s ethics committee.

FIFA’s in-house court will decide this month whether to enforce tougher penalties urged by ethics investigators, including possible life-time bans from football. 

Defences and appeals by both men are pending, but Platini’s chances of succeeding Blatter as FIFA’s president seemingly grow more remote each week.

The European football chief had been the favourite to win the vote, backed by the support of UEFA.

Meanwhile, the five approved candidates continue to make their case ahead of the poll. 

Platini’s deputy at UEFA, Gianni Infantino, told AFP in India at the weekend that he would start the clean up at FIFA on “day one” as president. 

Prince Ali bin Al Hussein of Jordan, ex-French diplomat Jerome Champagne, South African business tycoon Tokyo Sexwale and Asia’s football chief Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa round out the group of candidates. 

Their reactions to the Carrard reform plan will be closely watched by those calling for sweeping change within world football. 

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Your daily look at late-breaking news, upcoming events and the stories that will be talked about Wednesday:

1. MAYOR DISMISSES CHICAGO’S POLICE CHIEF

He says the public’s trust in the department has eroded since the release of a video showing a white officer shooting a black teenager 16 times.

2. WHO’S TAKING SLAP AT OBAMA

As the president pushes a climate deal in Paris, the GOP-led House tries to stop carbon limits the administration wants to impose on power plants in the U.S.

3. US MILITARY DEPLOYING NEW SPECIAL OPS FORCE TO IRAQ

The move puts American combat troops on the ground in a more permanent role in Iraq and Syria for the first time in the fight against the IS militants.

4. BATTLE FOR RAMADI LOOMS

Iraqi troops and militias backed by U.S.-led airstrikes have surrounded the city and appear poised to launch a new attempt to wrest it from the IS group.

5. UNDER RULE OF ISLAMIC STATE EXTREMISTS, GAYS UNDER THREAT OF CRUEL DEATH

A witness gives the AP a rare first-hand account of two men convicted of homosexuality who were thrown to their deaths from the roof of a hotel in Syria.

6. WHAT’S FRUSTRATING JEB BUSH

He and his super PAC allies are spending millions on TV ads, but the candidate remains mired in single digits in the GOP race.

7. NOVEMBER NO LONGER SLOW MONTH FOR US CAR SALES

Black Friday promotions pushed sales last month — traditionally a sluggish time in the car business — to a 14-year high of 1.3 million.

8. IN US, WELCOME NEWS ON DIABETES

After climbing for decades, fewer cases of the disease are being diagnosed in American adults.

9. HOW MARK ZUCKERBERG WANTS TO SPEND HIS MONEY

The Facebook CEO says he and his wife will devote nearly all their wealth — roughly $45 billion — to such causes as fighting diseases around the globe.

10. BACK PAIN KEEPING TIGER WOODS ON SIDELINES

The golfer, now at No. 400 in the world, tells the AP’s Doug Ferguson that he can’t even imagine when he might play again.

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BOSTON (AP) — The Boston Red Sox and ace pitcher David Price have agreed to a deal worth $217 million over seven years, a person familiar with the negotiations told The Associated Press.

The person spoke on condition of anonymity Tuesday night because the deal has not yet been signed and is pending a physical.

Price has a 3.09 ERA in eight major league seasons with 1,372 strikeouts and 104 wins. The left-hander was traded from Detroit to Toronto last season as the Blue Jays made a playoff push in the AL East. One year earlier, he was traded to Detroit from Tampa Bay, where he spent the early part of his career.

Price is a serious upgrade for the Red Sox pitching staff, which struggled last season as Boston finished 78-84, last in the division.

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