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Monthly archive

August 2017 - page 2

Republicans Lean on Clinton-Era Law for Broadband Conglomerates

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The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is reinterpreting a key law to consider relaxing constraints on telecoms giants. Republican Chair Ajit Pai this week invoked Section 706 of the Telecommunications Act to argue that smartphones alone could help broadband providers meet statutory requirements on access and deployment. “We propose to incorporate both fixed and mobile advanced telecommunications services into our Section 706 inquiry,” agency filings said on Tuesday, in a notice of inquiry. The FCC will accept comments on the proposal for two weeks starting on…

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Bank CEOs Silent As Interest Groups Work to Preserve Abusive Forced Arbitration

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Senator Elizabeth Warren (D- Mass.) fired off letters to CEO’s of the nation’s top financial firms, calling on them to publicly reveal their positions on a lobbying effort in their name aimed at striking down new consumer protections. In her missive, Warren noted that interest groups that represent the firms, like the US Chamber of Commerce, the American Bankers Associated, and the Financial Services Roundtable, have been ginning up support to repeal a recently-implemented Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) rule against forced arbitration. The rule, which…

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Dirty Energy Swamp On the Rise–U.S. to Become Net Gas Exporter for First Time in 59 Years

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Any effort to green the economy in the coming years could encounter even greater resistance from the dirty energy industry: its stakeholders are growing in number. The United States is set to become a net-exporter of natural gas this year, according to an Energy Information Administration blog post published on Wednesday. The capacity of the US to ship liquid natural gas (LNG) abroad is only expected to increase in the coming years, too, with five export terminals currently under construction. Americans have, on average, been net…

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Demonstrations, Firings, Death Highlight Abuses In Farm Worker Program

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Migrant workers on temporary visas who say they were fired for workplace activism are demonstrating for a colleague who died on the job. The former employees of Sarbanand Farms, in a remote Washington town, are planning a protest on Tuesday afternoon, in the wake of Ernesto Silva Ibarra’s death. Ibarra, who was 28-years-old, had fallen ill in the fields on Friday—the result of Sarabanand threatening workers with deportation if they miss three days of work, advocates of the organizers said. The hospitalization led to 70…

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Guess What? The F-35 “Could Cost More,” Says GAO

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A federal oversight agency examined the latest developments in the Pentagon’s most expensive weapon system, the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, and found that more cost overruns and technological uncertainties are likely on the horizon. The jet, which has been in development for decades and has yet to see any combat, is currently undergoing modernization efforts projected to cost $3.9 billion, according to the Department of Defense. Known as Block 4, the technological upgrades focus on protecting the F-35 from defense systems and enemy aircraft it may…

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Big League Drop Off in Banking Fines Under Trump

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The amount of penalties that federal regulators have collected from misbehaving financial firms has declined sharply in just the first 200 days of the Trump administration. The immediate reduction amounts to a tangible benefit for Wall Street brokers, courtesy of a President who’s filled his executive offices with former bankers, and has signed executive order to roll back financial regulations. A Wall Street Journal analysis shows that The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CTFC) and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority…

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Dems Request Names of Those Behind Shadowy Deregulatory Push

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Top House Democrats are calling on the Trump administration to reveal the identities of those behind secretive efforts to deregulate the US economy. The lawmakers sent a letter on Monday to White House aides who oversee the regulatory process. They said the rule-slashing initiatives appear to run afoul of laws on transparency and record-keeping, citing reporting by The New York Times and ProPublica, “We believe the interests of the American public must be paramount when reviewing the worthiness of regulations,” the legislators said. They called for…

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As Part of Trump Assault on Immigrant Communities, Sessions Dangles Carrot to Cops in Four Cities

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Attorney General Jeff Sessions is turning up the heat on four cities with laws preventing local police from cooperating with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The lead US prosecutor said on Thursday that he wouldn’t consider the municipalities for a recently announced program until they agree to step up assistance to ICE agents carrying out deportations. The four cities are: Baltimore, Md., Albuquerque, N.M., San Bernardino, Calif., and Stockton, Calif. “By protecting criminals from immigration enforcement, cities and states with so-called ‘sanctuary’ policies make all of…

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Senate Advances Bill Ensuring Drug Companies Protected When Patients Die on Experimental Meds

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Legislation purporting to grant terminally-ill Americans easier access to unapproved therapies cleared the Senate on Thursday, despite concerns that it could lead to unsafe drugs creeping onto the market. The upper chamber unanimously approved of the FDA Reauthorization Act, including an amendment that contained Sen. Ron Johnson’s (R-Wisc.) “Right to Try” law. Similar laws have already been passed in 37 states, allowing those facing life-threatening illnesses to use medication that hasn’t been approved by the Food and Drug Administration. The laws stipulate that the therapies…

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Departing EPA Official Warns of More Crises Like Flint Under Current Leadership

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An inside look at the Trump administration’s deregulatory agenda was proffered in the resignation of a 30-year veteran of the Environmental Protection Agency. Elizabeth Southerland announced this week that she was leaving her post at the agency, where she served as a senior executive with both the Water and Superfund programs. On her way out, she sent a lengthy farewell message to her colleagues, which was posted by the advocacy group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). PEER described Southerland as “an eyewitness to the wreckage…

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Dems Push for More Wells Fargo Hearings After Latest Fake Accounts News, GOP Bid to Protect Banks From Lawsuits

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Amid Republican efforts to insulate banks from lawsuits, Democrats are hoping to grill Wells Fargo executives about recent developments in the bank’s fake accounts scandal. Every Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee sent a letter on Tuesday to Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), the panel’s chair, asking for a hearing featuring Wells CEO Timothy Sloan and the chair of the bank’s board of directors, Stephen Sanger. The move comes just days after Wells “admitted that it signed up hundreds of thousands of its auto loan customers for…

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