After suspending President Trump from Facebook and Instagram back in 2021, following the January 6 insurrection at the US Capitol complex, the social media giant said at the time that Trump might be allowed back on the service in two years. Since then, he’s launched a social platform of his own — whereby he can …
In the pre-pandemic days, the idea of the government — whether at the federal, state, or local level — offering someone a basic income guarantee, in the form of checks over an extended period of time, was not a mainstream sort of policy idea. Today, though, state and local governments around the US have undertaken …
Apple has never allowed third-party app stores on iPhone or iPad, and the company has had to fight against increasing pressure to do so. The battle over Fortnite, one that Apple largely won, is one such example. Other examples are the new laws in Korea and the Netherlands forcing Apple to allow third-party payment systems for …
A leak of personal data associated with California gun owners that’s enraged conservatives in recent days appears to be much more expansive than originally reported. In fact, that data breach at the California department of justice is now believed to have impacted hundreds of thousands of gun owners, potentially. The breach exposed personal information associated …
In a letter this month addressed to the CEOs of Apple and Google, FCC commissioner Brendan Carr in so many words said President Trump was right to try and crack down in 2020 on the mega-popular video-sharing app TikTok. The gist of Carr’s letter: TikTok shouldn’t be widely available to download in the US, given …
One of the US states hit hardest by high taxes and the effects of inflation has found a new pile of money to give away to 23 million people in the form of inflation relief checks. Notwithstanding the tax policy implications of states bleeding residents dry and then “finding” money to give them to mitigate …
Two years after the September 2018 release of the Netflix documentary Reversing Roe, US Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died at age 87 of pancreatic cancer. The documentary’s filmmakers Ricki Stern and Annie Sundberg could not have forecast that timing. But the chain of events that flowed from it — and which led inexorably …
During the 2008 presidential campaign, then-candidate Barack Obama dismissed the effectiveness of so-called gas tax holidays as little more than a “gimmick.” To be more specific, he said they weren’t effective at achieving the stated intent of providing consumers relief from high gas prices. Nevertheless, this is the policy that President Biden on Wednesday has …
US law enforcement officials have shut down a series of websites making $19 million in revenue by selling stolen data. The black market data the websites trafficked in included crucial personal information like stolen Social Security numbers and birthdates. So it’s definitely a big win that this operation was dismantled. The US Justice Department announced …
For a lucky few, new relief checks are going out again in a matter of days. The lucky few, being residents of the state of Maine — and the individual checks totaling $850 ($1,700, for households). The money is going out as soon as June 1, thanks to Gov. Janet Mills signing a $1.2 billion …
At the beginning of this year, it certainly looked like stimulus checks were going to be a thing of the past. A US Senator (Joe Manchin) had just signaled his opposition to continuing President Biden’s child tax credit checks, and that was that. Since then, however, states have taken up the mantle themselves, with one …
The stimulus checks keep flowing — sort of. In the absence of any more such handouts from the federal government, states and cities have taken a piecemeal, ad hoc approach to try and keep all this going on a local level. It’s why, for example, Californians might be getting money to offset high gas prices …
