Facebook is facing scrutiny from federal regulators after public reporting on the company's research into its impact on users.
"Federal Trade Commission staffers have begun looking into disclosures that Facebook Inc.'s FB -3.92% internal company research had identified ill effects from its products, according to people familiar with the matter," the Wall Street Journal reported. "Officials are looking into whether Facebook research documents indicate that it might have violated a 2019 settlement with the agency over privacy concerns, for which the company paid a record $5 billion penalty, one of the people said."
The newspaper reported extensively on the product's impact on users in its Facebook files investigation spurned by whistleblower Frances Haugen.
"I think the FTC should be really angry if Facebook concealed this material from them as it did from us in the Congress and the public," Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) said.
It may not be the only agency investigating the company.
"Separately, the Securities and Exchange Commission has been communicating with attorneys for Ms. Haugen, according to one of the lawyers representing her," the newspaper reported. "The FTC also has been in communication with Ms. Haugen's team, according to another of the people familiar with the matter."
Read the full report.
The building manager of a Washington D.C. apartment building was captured on video pepper spraying a woman today who had come to his office to complain that residents’ efforts to organize a tenant’s group were being resisted, TV station WUSA9 reported.
Residents of the 1841 Columbia Road apartments have been “fed up” with management after it “routinely shut off the water multiple times,” WUSA9 reported. That prompted them to begin organizing a tenant’s association, which led to the encounter today.
“When tenant Christine Corbin went to the building's office to speak about the issue, she decided to record her interaction with the building manager," according to the report. "I'm not saying you actually did, but if you took the signs down about us forming a tenant association, that's illegal," the woman can be heard saying in a video shared with WUSA9.
“In the video, the resident tells the building manager that she sent an email about the issue and informed the management that the signs will be going back up," according to the report. "The manager can be heard telling the woman to leave the office several times, saying he's already received her email.”
IN OTHER NEWS: Biden takes victory lap in debt ceiling speech: 'The American people got what they needed'
“The interaction takes a turn when the woman says the manager's name, at which point he can be seen grabbing his car keys before spraying the woman with pepper spray. The woman screams before yelling, "I just got pepper sprayed!"
A police report stated that “officers were called to the apartment building, to help the woman, who was taken to an area hospital for treatment,” WUSA9 reported. It added that “the building manager left before police arrived and has not been located as of 2:30 p.m. Friday. He would face a simple assault charge if caught.”
On Friday evening, President Joe Biden gave an Oval Office address triumphantly announcing the bipartisan deal to lift the debt ceiling — and touting the latest reports showing the strength of the economy.
"This is vital," said Biden. "Because it is essential to the progress we have made over the last few years. Keeping full faith and credit of the United States of America. Passing a budget that continues to grow our economy and reflects our values as a nation. That is why I am speaking to you tonight. To report on the crisis averted and what we are doing to protect America's future. Passing this budget agreement was critical."
The consequences of a default, said Biden, would have been disastrous, from 8 million people losing their jobs, to interest rates skyrocketing and America's credit rating being devalued, which "would have made everything from mortgages to car loans to funding for the government much more expensive. It would have taken years to climb out of the hole."
"Nobody got everything they wanted, but the American people got what they needed," said Biden. "We averted an economic crisis and economic collapse. We are cutting spending and bringing the deficits down at the same time. We are protecting important priorities from Social Security to Medicare to Medicaid to veterans to the transformational investments in infrastructure and clean energy."
Biden went on to thank House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), as well as all other congressional leaders, for allowing the deal to come together.
"Over the next 10 years the deficit will be cut by more than $1 trillion," said Biden. "That will be on top of a record $1.7 trillion I already cut the deficit in my first two years in office. It is clear we are all in a much more fiscally responsible course than the one I inherited when I took office four years ago."
But Biden also went out of his way to jab Republicans, noting that their opening proposal would have cut vital programs including veterans' health care, and "would have cut healthcare for up to 21 millions americans on Medicaid."
"We are investing in America and our people and our future," said Biden. "We have created over 13 million new jobs. More than 800,000 manufacturing jobs. Where is it written that America cannot lead the world in manufacturing? Unemployment is at 3.7 percent. More Americans are working today than ever in the history of this country. Inflation has dropped 10 straight months in a row. In this debate, I refused to put what was responsible for all of this economic progress on the chopping block."
"I've never been more optimistic about the future," Biden concluded. "We just need to remember who we are. We are the United States of America. And there's nothing — nothing we can't do, when we do it together."
Watch the speech below or at the link:
\u201cTune in as I deliver remarks on the passage of the bipartisan budget agreement. https://t.co/NAnAAvVmtG\u201d— President Biden (@President Biden) 1685746868
The publication of a Florida high school yearbook that included an LGBTQ section has drawn rebuke from a conservative group, The Orlando Sentinel reports.
Lyman High School’s 256-page yearbook includes two pages that highlight the school’s LGBTQ students and features gender identity terms such as “genderfluid” and “nonbinary.”
The Seminole County Public Schools in response to the criticism is offering to issue refunds or reprint the yearbook without the LGBTQ section that the conservative Seminole County Moms for Liberty claims is offensive.
“They shouldn’t have any sexual definitions in a yearbook,” the group’s chapter chair Jessica Tillmann told The Sentinel.
“This is a yearbook that goes to every student as young as 14.”
The school’s yearbook is stirring controversy for a second straight year after the district in 2022 considered putting stickers over photos of a student walkout protesting the so-called “don’t say gay” law, the report said.
The Sentinel’s Skyler Swisher reports that “An LGBTQ+ section in this year’s yearbook includes a picture of members of the student’s Gay-Straight Alliance, definitions of key LGBTQ+ terms, a passage on the evolution of pronouns and a profile of a student who advocates for the LGBTQ+ community.”
Danielle Pomeranz, the school yearbook’s faculty advisor, isn’t on board with the district’s decision to remove the LGBTQ content.
“They are definitions,” Pomeranz told The Sentinel.
“They are not teaching anything about sex at all. … Nobody is teaching anybody about sex acts. It is ridiculous.”
Pomeranz has since resigned from her position in the district, citing in part the Sunshine State’s political climate and an unsupportive district, the report said.
“We’ve always had the LGBTQ+ spread in there,” she said.
“Our job as journalists and members of the yearbook staff is to provide coverage of the entire school and that includes all of the communities, including the LGBTQ+ community.”
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