If you were eagerly planning to fete the rumored Halloween elopement of T-Mobile and Sprint, you might want to hold on to your candy corn. The corporate nuptials may now be delayed a few weeks, with the telecom lovebirds announcing their “I do”s closer to Thanksgiving. [More]
Government Policy
T-Mobile & Sprint May Have To Delay Their Halloween Wedding Until Closer To Thanksgiving
By 10.20.17
Some Cities Vying For New Amazon HQ Haven’t Learned From Past Mistakes
By 10.20.17
It’s like the Olympics for corporations: Cities all over the country have put themselves into the running to be the home to Amazon’s planned second headquarters, and many of them are offering huge tax breaks and other incentives. But just like the Olympics, cities may regret making such a deal, and several places vying for Amazon’s attention have apparently not learned important lessons from themselves and others that were overly eager to court a new corporate HQ. [More]
Will Republican Tax Cuts Mean Lower Limit On 401(k) Contributions?
By 10.20.17
Some people with 401(k) retirement plans will put as much money into it as they can, but there are whispers that the tax cuts being drafted by Republicans in Congress could reduce the maximum amount of money you contribute to your retirement savings each year. [More]
Why Does Capital One Need My Income To Sign Into Website?
By 10.19.17
By now you’re probably used to going to your bank’s website and being upsold on everything from car loans to mortgages to retirement accounts before you can move on to see how your money is doing. But have you ever gone to your bank’s site only to be told you must update your income with the bank before going any further? [More]
Trump Changes Mind, Comes Out Against Bipartisan Obamacare Stabilization Bill
By 10.18.17
If you feel like you’re getting whiplash just from trying to follow the healthcare policy debate in Washington, you’re not alone; the hits in this saga have been coming seemingly nonstop. After saying the federal government would no longer pay certain subsidies that make the insurance marketplace work, President Trump at first seemed to support a bill that would create short-term stability. But that was yesterday. Today, he’s apparently changed his mind and is now against it.
[More]
5 Potentially Harmful Chemicals Now Banned From Kids’ Products
By 10.18.17
Almost a decade after the Consumer Product Safety Commission was ordered to study the potential health affects of phthalates — chemicals often used in plastic products for children — and make recommendations on what further steps should be taken, the agency has voted to approve a final rule that prohibits manufacturers from selling items that have more than a minimal level of five of these chemicals. [More]
Senators Propose Bipartisan Compromise To Restore Insurance Subsidies
By 10.17.17
President Trump recently announced that he was pulling the plug on $7 billion a year in federal cost-sharing subsidies to insurance companies selling individual policies to lower-income Americans, but today a pair of influential senators announced a bipartisan compromise that, if approved, would restore those payments for two years, while also giving states more flexibility with rules under the current law. [More]
FCC Chair Confirms He Can’t & Won’t Take Away Broadcast Licenses Because President Doesn’t Like A News Story
By 10.17.17
FCC Chair, and self-proclaimed supporter of the First Amendment, Ajit Pai has been noticeably silent in the wake of President Trump’s recent suggestion that the FCC look into revoking the broadcast licenses of NBC and others that air news stories that are unfavorable to the White House. Pai is finally speaking up, and confirming what we already knew: That the FCC doesn’t have the legal authority to take NBC off the air over a news story. [More]
Most Philadelphia Stores Claim Double-Digit Sales Declines Due To Soda Tax
By 10.17.17
With the Chicago-area soda tax falling apart after only a few months, could the same soon happen to a similar sweetened beverage tax in Philadelphia? A new survey from the city’s Controller claims that the majority of retail businesses in the city have been harmed by the tax. [More]
Supreme Court Will Decide If American Express Can Stop Stores From Encouraging Customers To Use Less-Expensive Cards
By 10.16.17
If you have multiple credit cards in your wallet, you probably decide which one to use based on factors like each card’s interest rate, current balance, and rewards programs. Merchants want to make that choice easier by offering discounts or other incentives for using cards that cost the retailer less to process, but American Express forbids its merchants from offering such deals, but it will soon be up to the Supreme Court to decide whether or not that’s legal. [More]
States Sue Trump Administration For Halting $7 Billion In Cost-Sharing Payments To Insurers
By 10.13.17
With a one-paragraph statement released late in the evening on Thursday, President Trump announced he was pulling the plug on $7 billion a year in payments from the federal government to insurance companies who sell individual policies through the exchanges set up by the Affordable Care Act. Today, at least five states say they are suing to keep these subsidies in place. [More]
IRS Has Second Thoughts About Giving $7.2M Fraud-Prevention Contract To Equifax
By 10.13.17
What does it take for the Internal Revenue Service to realize that maybe, just maybe, it picked the wrong company to award a $7.25 million fraud-prevention contract? It wasn’t enough that Equifax’s network was so poorly prepared for a hack that a months-long cyber attack compromised the sensitive information of more than 140 million Americans. And then that same company may have served up malware to consumers visiting its publicly available website. Whatever the reason, the IRS has finally begun to realize Equifax might just be absolutely terrible at its job. [More]
Trump Cuts Off Billions Of Dollars In Cost-Sharing Payments To Insurers, Putting Obamacare Marketplaces At Risk
By 10.12.17 — Updated: 10.13.17
Only hours after signing an executive order that undermines several key aspects of the current health care law, President Trump has made good on his repeated threat to pull the plug on billions of dollars in subsidies provided by the federal government to insurers in the individual plan market. [More]
Possible Sprint, T-Mobile Merger Could Face DOJ Antitrust Opposition
By 10.11.17
Though the romance rumor mill is still claiming that Sprint and T-Mobile are hoping to announce their engagement in the weeks to come, and it’s highly unlikely that the pro-industry FCC will do anything to slow these crazy kids from merging, the wireless wedding could be spoiled by the anti-trust wet blankets at the Justice Department. [More]
Can The President Actually Take Away A Network’s Broadcast License For “Fake News”?
By 10.11.17
Irked by an NBC News story he claims is false, President Trump stated this morning that it may be time to “challenge” the network’s broadcast license. But what does that even mean — and would the Trump administration have the authority to yank a TV station’s access to the airwaves over a news story? [More]
Chicago-Area Soda Tax Fails After Only A Few Months
By 10.11.17
Cook County, IL, which includes the city of Chicago, recently became the largest local government in the country to successfully impose a tax on sweetened beverages. Now the same County Board of Commissioners that approved the tax has repealed it, only a few months after it went into effect. [More]
Judge Reins In DOJ’s Attempt To Get Info On Users Of Anti-Trump Site
By 10.10.17
A judge in Washington, D.C., has thrown a wrench into the Justice Department’s effort to collect information on people who communicated through a website site critical of President Trump, ruling that the DOJ “does not have the right to rummage through the information” on the site to “discover the identity of, or access communications by, individuals not participating in alleged criminal activity.” [More]
