After a nearly four-month delay, the Trump administration has decided to allow the Department of Labor to move forward with a rule intended to stop investment advisors from pushing customers into products that primarily benefit the advisor. However, some question whether the administration will actually enforce this rule. [More]
Government Policy
Investment Advisors Will Be Required To Work In Your Best Interest, But Will Trump Administration Enforce Rule?
By 5.23.17 — Updated: 5.25.17
White House Trying To Delay Ethics Inquiry Into Ex-Lobbyists Hired By Trump Administration
By 5.22.17
The executive branch’s Office of Government Ethics is trying to find out which of the many former lobbyists hired by the Trump administration may currently be working on issues on which they previously lobbied. However, the White House is delaying that inquiry, claiming the head of OGE may not have legal authority to make this request. [More]
Apple Fights Bill That Could Make Fixing iPhone Easier, Cheaper
By 5.22.17
When iPhones first came on the market, customers could only get their devices fixed at an actual Apple store. Now that the phones have become ubiquitous, phone repair store have popped up on nearly every block and in every mall, providing owners with a plethora of options and prices when it comes to seeking repairs for their devices. But a new report shows that Apple and other tech manufacturers and organizations are fighting against these choices, pushing to eliminate state legislation that aims to make it easier for anyone to repair electronics. [More]
Education Secretary DeVos To Give All Student Loan Accounts To One Company; Strip Away More Protections
By 5.22.17 — Updated: 5.25.17
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has made another sweeping change to the student loan system that consumer advocates claim favors student loan collectors over the American people repaying those loans. [More]
Court Rules Drone Hobbyists Don’t Have To Register With FAA
By 5.19.17
An appeals court has overturned a recent Federal Aviation Administration rule requiring hobbyists drone operators to register their tiny unmanned, non-commercial aircraft. [More]
18 Cable Companies Promise To Support Net Neutrality; None Will Guarantee You In Writing
By 5.19.17
Every time the net neutrality fight comes back around, we hear the same tired promise from the cable industry: We love net neutrality, we will promise you net neutrality, just don’t pass or enforce any laws that actually require us to do it. [More]
15 States Go To Court Against Congress In Effort To Save Obamacare Subsidies
By 5.18.17
Three years ago, the House of Representatives sued then Secretary of Health and Human Services Sylvia Burwell in an attempt to end an Affordable Care Act provision that providers federal payments to insurance companies to reduce policyholders’ out-of-pocket costs like co-payments and deductibles. That lawsuit is still being sorted out by a federal appeals court, but with a new White House and HHS Secretary publicly committed to ending these payments, attorneys general from 15 states and the District of Columbia are attempting to step in. [More]
Appeals Court: Your Naked Protest At Airport Security Is Not Protected By First Amendment
By 5.18.17
Five years ago, when we told you about an Oregon man protesting new airport security measures by stripping down to nothing at a TSA checkpoint, we had no idea it would eventually blossom into a years-long legal battle over whether or not one has a First Amendment right to get naked at the airport, but this week a federal appeals court disagreed with a local judge, saying that the man’s protest was not a form of constitutionally protected free speech. [More]
How To Tell The FCC Just What You Think Of Its Plan To Break Net Neutrality
By 5.18.17 — Updated: 7.12.17
Do you like being able to access what you want on the internet without Comcast, Charter, AT&T, or some other ISP slowing it down, blocking it, or charging you extra? Well, bad news: The FCC has begun a process that will — unless things change dramatically in the coming months — repeal rules intended to protect internet users from this sort of interference. Here’s the better news: You can tell them what you think about that. [More]
FCC Votes To Move Forward With Process Of Killing Net Neutrality
By 5.18.17
As expected, the Federal Communications Commission voted 2-1 this morning to move forward with Chairman Ajit Pai’s plan to roll back “net neutrality” rules that currently prevent internet service providers from having any say in what you see or do online. [More]
Trump Administration Looking To End Student Loan Forgiveness Program
By 5.18.17
This October will mark the first time that student loan borrowers who have worked for 10 years with the government or a qualifying non-profit will be eligible to have their debts wiped clean. It may also be the last time, as the Trump administration is reportedly targeting this and other Department of Education repayment programs for elimination.
[More]
Federal Safety Official Reminds Parents: Crib Bumpers Are Pointless, Possibly Dangerous
By 5.17.17 — Updated: 5.18.17
No one likes the idea of their baby’s soft noggin getting caught in a crib’s slats, but a federal safety official is reminding parents that crib bumpers don’t really keep your child safe, and they could be hazardous. [More]
Diabetes Drug Invokana Must Warn Patients About Increased Risk Of Foot, Leg Amputation
By 5.17.17 — Updated: 5.19.17
A new class of diabetes medicines is heavily advertised on TV and shows great promise in getting patients’ blood sugar levels down, but a safety announcement from the Food and Drug Administration warns that one of the drugs, Johnson & Johnson’s Invokana, doubles those patients’ chance of needing parts of their legs or feet amputated. [More]
USDA Not Thrilled That Restaurant Served Raw Horse Meat
By 5.17.17
While you might be such a foodie that you scoff at those who freak out when they hear “horse tartare,” the fact is that serving horse meat at a restaurant is currently illegal in the U.S. And the federal government is advising one Pittsburgh-area restaurant to not put this item on the menu again. [More]
Airline Industry Says Expanding Ban On Laptops Would Cost Travelers $1 Billion
By 5.17.17
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has banned any electronic device larger than a smartphone from the cabins of flights from 10 airports in the Middle East and Africa, and is considering extending the ban to flights from Europe as well. This has airlines freaking out because it means banning laptops from thousands of flights, not hundreds, and a trade group representing the airlines estimates that an expanded ban would cost travelers $1 billion. [More]
Philadelphia Accuses Wells Fargo Of Discriminating Against Minority Mortgage Borrowers
By 5.16.17
Philadelphia has become the latest city to accuse one the nation’s largest banks of deliberately pushing minority mortgage applicants into home loans that cost more than these borrowers would have received if they were white. [More]
Could FCC Commissioner Choose Nuclear Option And Resign To Protect Net Neutrality?
By 5.16.17
Later this week, the three sitting members of the Federal Communications Commission are expected to vote 2-1 in favor of officially beginning the process of killing net neutrality. The lone neutrality defender on the FCC stands little chance of swaying her colleagues, leading some to speculate that she could slow down the repeal effort by removing herself from the equation altogether. [More]
Man Behind $1.1M Home Depot Receipt Scam Gets Two-Year Prison Sentence
By 5.16.17
A Texas man who used Home Depot’s program for tax-exempt business purchases to scam more than $1.1 million from the retailer has been sentenced to two years in federal prison and ordered to repay all his ill-gotten gains. [More]
