Not that long ago, when you saw a news story about a corporation doing something unethical — pollution, corruption, graft, fraud, to name just a few — you might holler “fire the CEO!” at the TV, but that was about as far as it got for many people; odds were you didn’t even know who that CEO was. Now, we not only have the CEO’s name and history at our fingertips, but also the means to repeat and amplify those calls for accountability, and a new study confirms that more top execs are indeed being fired for ethical concerns, even if it’s just to hold someone responsible. [More]
Government Policy
Medical Marijuana Industry Uneasy About Its Future Under Trump Administration
By 5.15.17
Despite the fact that Congress recently passed a new spending bill that included a provision prohibiting the Department of Justice and Drug Enforcement Agency from interfering in states’ medical marijuana programs, the industry remains wary of President Trump’s administration and its stance on the drug. [More]
Supreme Court Throws Out State Rule Protecting Nursing Home Residents From Having Rights Signed Away
By 5.15.17
A lot of people in nursing homes have adult children or other trusted people with authority to make financial, legal, and medical decisions on their behalf. However, can folks with power of attorney also sign away someone else’s right to have their day in court? According to the U.S. Supreme Court, yes. [More]
Book Stores Fuming Mad Over State Law Forcing Them To Keep Records Of All Autographed Books
By 5.12.17
Walk into an independent book store in most cities and you’re likely to find signed copies of various authors’ books sitting around. Sometimes the authors will sign a bunch as part of an in-store appearance; sometimes the writer or their publisher will ship a box of signed books; sometimes authors just go into stores and do ninja-style signings without anyone knowing. This is all fine in most of the country, but no longer in California, where a new law requires anyone sells virtually any autographed item to include a certificate of authenticity and to keep detailed records of each item for years. [More]
Even The Cable Lobby’s Questionable Survey Shows Most Americans Want Net Neutrality
By 5.12.17
It’s no secret that the cable lobby really, really hates the FCC’s net neutrality rule, and is cheering on its potential demise. So the industry’s biggest trade group is trumpeting a survey it commissioned to show that Americans’ support its view… except what the results actually say is that yeah, most Americans think net neutrality is a pretty good idea, actually. [More]
Virgin Atlantic Apologizes To Woman Kicked Out Of Lounge Because Of Her Service Dog
By 5.12.17
The seemingly endless parade of airline apologies continues apace today, with Virgin Atlantic admitting one of its employees shouldn’t have told a disabled woman she couldn’t enter the airline’s airport lounge with her service dog. [More]
Airlines Already Freaking Out About Possible Laptop Ban On Flights From Europe
By 5.12.17
Back in March, the Department of Homeland Security announced a new policy, which banned passengers from 10 airports in eight countries in the Middle East and Africa from having computers and some other electronics with them in the plane cabin on direct flights into the United States. Now DHS may expand the ban to flights from Europe as well, and airlines are freaking out about it. [More]
Senate Obamacare Repeal Bill May Result In Millions More Losing Insurance; Loss Of Additional Protections
By 5.11.17 — Updated: 5.14.17
When the House passed its version of the American Health Care Act — the budget resolution intended to gut much the 2010 Affordable Care act or “Obamacare” — many, including some Republicans who decided to give their support to the bill at the last minute, assumed that the Senate would address some of its perceived shortcomings: too many people being priced out of coverage, loss of essential health benefits. However, if some in the Senate get their way, the version it votes on could see millions more people without insurance. [More]
Man Declared Dead By Government For 29 Years, Kept Paying Taxes Anyway
By 5.11.17
Nearly 30 years ago, the Social Security Administration decided that a 4-year-old Minnesota boy was dead. He was not. SSA employees chalked it up to a “glitch” and promised to correct the error. They did not. And even as that boy grew up and began paying taxes, the federal government still considered him deceased, at least until his local TV station and a U.S. Senator got involved. [More]
FCC Commissioner Warns Against Dismantling Of Net Neutrality
By 5.11.17
The Federal Communications Commission will soon begin the long process of trying to roll back the Open Internet Order, the FCC’s barely two-year-old rule that prohibits internet service providers and wireless companies from having any say in what you do or where you go online. Though the Commission’s lone Democrat is unlikely to change the minds of her anti-regulation colleagues, she’s not ready to admit defeat just yet. [More]
President Trump Says He’s Immune From Restaurant’s Unfair Competition Lawsuit
By 5.10.17
In response to an unfair competition lawsuit filed against President Trump by a D.C. restaurant claiming that it’s lost business to a Trump-operated building within walking distance to the White House, the President’s legal team says that not only are the claims without merit, but that Trump is immune from this sort of legal action. [More]
Vermont Lawmakers Pass Bill Legalizing Recreational Marijuana
By 5.10.17 — Updated: 5.12.17
Your dreams of getting a good buzz in the Green Mountain State have moved one step closer to reality, as Vermont is on the verge of becoming the first state to enact legislation legalizing the recreational use of marijuana. [More]
Appeals Court Resurrects Federal Government’s Lawsuit Over AT&T’s Old “Unlimited” Plans
By 5.10.17
The years-long dispute between the Federal Trade Commission and AT&T over the wireless company’s old “unlimited” data plans is still not dead. A federal appeals court has zapped new life into the lawsuit, meaning there’s still hope that AT&T users who saw their data throttled despite having unlimited data plans may someday get justice. [More]
Astroturfing Robot Spamming FCC Site With Anti-Net Neutrality Comments
By 5.10.17
As if the saga of Net Neutrality 3.0 weren’t already strange and complicated enough, we can now chalk up another weirdness in the proceeding. Someone who really hates net neutrality has set up a spambot that is sending massive numbers of identical, cloned comments to the FCC’s website, using the identities of people who have no idea their names have been attached to these comments. [More]
Sprint, T-Mobile Merger Buzz Starts Up Again After CEO Says He’d “Love To Begin Talks”
By 5.10.17
If the U.S. wireless market were a John Hughes ’80s movie, Verizon would be Jake from Sixteen Candles — rich, expensive car, gets what he wants; AT&T would be Andrew from The Breakfast Club — dumb but popular, brutish, secretly just wanting to be loved; T-Mobile would be Duckie from Pretty In Pink — pugnacious, a flashy dresser, occasionally adorably profane; while Sprint would be Cameron from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off — always seemingly on the verge of failure, barely tolerated, has parents with a lot of money. And now those rich parents think that teaming up their awkward son with plucky T-Mobile will help them both take on the bigger, more handsome competitors. [More]
Reporter Arrested After Asking HHS Secretary Tom Price About Healthcare Bill
By 5.10.17
While a lot of questions remain about the legislative effort to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, one reporter’s attempts to get answers from Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price landed him in police custody. [More]
We Won’t Get Estimate On Cost Of Obamacare Repeal Bill Until At Least May 22
By 5.10.17
It’s already been nearly a week since the House of Representatives narrowly approved a controversial budget resolution that guts much of the 2010 Affordable Care Act, and we still don’t have any estimate from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office of what this massive change to the insurance system might cost. Now the CBO says it may be another two weeks until we get that estimate. [More]
