Dedicated and effective government employees can come from many prior walks of life, it’s true; the path through any career can be winding and complex. But choosing someone with major ties to a for-profit college that engaged in questionable behaviors to head up a division tasked with investigating for-profit colleges that engage in questionable behaviors seems like a bad sign. [More]
Government Policy
Education Dept. Hires Exec From Scandalized For-Profit School To Run Enforcement Division
By 8.30.17
Did Uber Violate Bribery Laws Involving Foreign Officials?
By 8.30.17
Uber’s brand new CEO already has a lot to deal with: The U.S. Justice Department is in the first stages of investigating whether managers at the company ran afoul of a federal law that prohibits companies and their employees from bribing foreign officials in the course of doing business. [More]
TaxSlayer Settles FTC Charges That Lax Security Led To Identity Theft
By 8.29.17
Sure, it might be convenient to do your own income tax preparation online, but it could be risky: Scammers all over the globe have exploited these risks, slurping billions of dollars’ worth of ill-gotten tax refunds into their bank accounts. In order to prevent even more of this, federal regulators have settled charges TaxSlayer violated federal rules on financial privacy and security. [More]
FDA Issuing Fewest Warning Letters Since 2008
By 8.29.17
The Trump administration has not been shy about its desire to cut regulations, so perhaps it’s not surprising that the Food and Drug Administration could be pulling back on its efforts to hold companies accountable. The FDA has sent out fewer warning letters to date this year than in any year since 2008. If warning letters and enforcement actions are down, does that mean we’re all less safe? [More]
More Than 1-In-4 Nursing Home Abuse Cases May Go Unreported To Police
By 8.28.17
Just as the Trump administration is attempting to prevent nursing home residents or their families from ever being able to sue longterm care facilities for neglect or fraud, a federal audit claims that an alarming percentage of physical and sexual abuse cases at nursing homes may be going unreported to law enforcement. [More]
Is A Facebook ‘Friend’ The Same As A Real Friend, Legally Speaking?
By 8.25.17
Thanks to Facebook, the term “friend” has been stretched far beyond its traditional definition. Many Facebook users have “friends” they have never met in person, haven’t seen in years or decades, know very little about, and who you may actually find objectionable in spite of the “friend” designation. That’s why, according to one Florida appeals court, being someone’s Facebook friend is no indication of any genuine familiar or intimate connection to that person. [More]
If You Win Tonight’s Powerball, Where You Bought Your Ticket Matters
By 8.23.17
The odds are that you are going to win tonight’s Powerball multi-state lottery drawing are very small. You’re more likely to be struck by lightning, or eaten by a shark. Still, that doesn’t stop people from paying $2 for a slip of hope. As long as you’re planning what you’re going to do with that money, you should keep in mind that where you buy a ticket matters for tax reasons. [More]
Washington State Begs Anglers To Go Fishing, Help Clean Up Farmed Salmon Spill
By 8.23.17
When you hear about a “spill” in a waterway, you might picture waste products or some kind of noxious liquid. In Washington state, though, the state is asking for the public’s help in cleaning up a massive and very problematic spill of live salmon from an aquaculture farm north of Seattle. [More]
Justice Dept. Decides It No Longer Wants Info On 1.3 Million Visitors To Anti-Trump Site
By 8.23.17
The U.S. Department of Justice recently tried to compel a website hosting company to turn over all the information the company has on the approximately 1.3 million internet users who visited a site created to organize a protest during President Trump’s inauguration. Now the DOJ is rethinking that plan, withdrawing its demand for this mountain of data. [More]
Philadelphia Learns That Soda Tax May Be A Bad Long-Term School Funding Solution
By 8.22.17
Here’s the problem with “sin” taxes, like those on alcohol, tobacco, and fizzy beverages: You can use those taxes to raise money for a specific purpose, or to encourage citizens to consume less of the thing being taxed, but you can’t hope for both. That’s what Philadelphia has learned as its tax on sweetened beverages has failed to raise as much money as the city hoped. [More]
More Than A Third Of Americans Have Been Unknowingly Enrolled In Auto-Pay Plans
By 8.22.17
If you’ve ever been surprised to find you’ve been automatically charged for a subscription or a service you don’t remember signing up for, you’re not alone: A new survey says that more than a third of Americans have been enrolled in autopay programs — for anything from a gym membership to a streaming service — without realizing it. [More]
CDC: Backyard Chickens Mean Salmonella Outbreaks, So Wash Your Hands
By 8.22.17
In the last decade or so, raising backyard chickens has become a popular hobby. Maybe it’s due to a receession-era homesteading impulse, or people prioritizing really local food. However, live chickens and ducks have been linked to almost 1,000 known cases of Salmonella, which have sent hundreds of people to the hospital and killed one person. About one-third of those cases were in children under age 5. [More]
FDA Sprout Study Finds Bacterial Contamination, But You Can Still Eat Sprouts
By 8.22.17
How do you keep contaminated food from reaching consumers? The Food and Drug Administration recently set out on a project to test fresh foods that are often the subject of recalls, hoping to learn how common bacterial contamination is and how to prevent these foods from making people sick. This week, it released its report on sprouts, a fresh salad topping that makes people sick surprisingly often. [More]
Trump Administration Halts Study On Health Risks Associated With Coal Mining
By 8.22.17
A federal study examining the potential health risks of living near surface coal mining sites in Appalachia has been put on hold by the White House as it reviews its grant and agreements. [More]
Verizon Suspends Customer’s Service On Her 84th Birthday
By 8.21.17
It might be hard to remember, but before Facebook existed, people would call each other on the phone to wish them a happy birthday. A woman who lives near Boston and was turning 84 waited for friends and family to call her, but the calls never came. [More]
Report: FBI Asks Private Sector Companies To Stop Using Kaspersky Products
By 8.21.17
Obviously, it’s best practice to use antivirus and malware protection on anything you have that can connect to a network — and that goes double for businesses. But a new report says that the FBI is now asking several companies in the private sector to phase out use of products from Kaspersky Labs over concerns about the founder’s Russian background and ties. [More]
Lawmakers Seek Investigation Into Alleged Attack On FCC Commenting System
By 8.18.17
When the FCC’s new leadership officially began the process of dismantling net neutrality rules, it didn’t come as much of a surprise when an overwhelming amount of traffic crashed the Commission’s public commenting system. After all, it happened a few years ago when these rules were being written. What did surprise people was the FCC’s claim — made without providing any additional information — that the system failure was not the result of too many people trying to comment, but a malicious attack. The FCC has never fully explained how it reached that conclusion, and now some lawmakers want to know why. [More]
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos Will Allow For-Profit Schools To Continue Offering Programs That Don’t Meet Standards
By 8.17.17
Earlier this year, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos revealed plans to “reset” the Gainful Employment rule meant to hold for-profit colleges more accountable for the education they provide students. Today, she continued tearing apart the rule, announcing the intention to allow colleges to continue enrolling students in programs that run afoul of the regulation. [More]
