ICE nets 133 illegal immigrants in alleged worker exploitation scam

Federal authorities Thursday announced the arrest of 13 people they say were ringleaders in a massive scheme to exploit illegal immigrants as cheap labor on farms and Hispanic-oriented businesses in Minnesota and Nebraska. They also carried out search warrants on 11 of the businesses Wednesday and nabbed 133 illegal immigrant workers they found at the time.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said they suspect some of the migrants were coerced into working in rough conditions, either by force or threats of being reported to authorities for deportation. The migrants were forced to cash their paychecks at a remittance business run by the scammers, and had taxes taken from their paychecks, even though the businesses didn’t actually send the money to the IRS, officials said. “These targeted businesses were knowingly hiring illegal workers to unlawfully line their own pockets by cheating the workers, cheating the taxpayers, and cheating their business competitors,” said Tracy J. Cormier, special agent in charge at Homeland Security Investigations in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Some 17 people were identified as the ringleaders, and 13 of them were arrested Wednesday. The government said some of 133 illegal immigrants nabbed will be held in detention but others will be released with a future court date, on the hope they return to be deported when their case is finished. ICE set up a phone line for relatives of the illegal immigrant workers arrested to call to find out their status.

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/aug/9/ice-nets-133-illegal-immigrants-worker-scam/

Tribune Media rejects $3.9 billion sale to Sinclair and files suit against the US's largest broadcast station owner

Tribune Media Company on Thursday said it rejected Sinclair Broadcast Group's $3.9 billion acquisition deal.

US regulators had objected to the deal, though President Donald Trump expressed support for it.

With 192 stations, Sinclair is the largest US broadcast station owner, and the Chicago-based Tribune owns 42 TV stations in 33 markets.

Tribune filed a lawsuit against Sinclair, the largest US broadcast station owner, alleging material breach of contract 15 months after the merger was first announced.

"To maintain control over stations it was obligated to sell, Sinclair engaged in unnecessarily aggressive and protracted negotiations with the Department of Justice and the FCC over regulatory requirements," Tribune said. "Sinclair's entire course of conduct has been in blatant violation of the merger agreement and, but for Sinclair's actions, the transaction could have closed long ago," the company said.

The Federal Communications Commission said in July that Sinclair "did not fully disclose" facts about the merger, raising questions about whether the company "attempted to skirt the commission's broadcast ownership rules." The FCC's chairman, Ajit Pai, has been vocal in his opposition to the deal, a stance that was criticized by Trump. "So sad and unfair that the FCC wouldn't approve the Sinclair Broadcast merger with Tribune," Trump said on Twitter in July. "This would have been a great and much needed Conservative voice for and of the People."

The advocacy group Free Press said in an FCC filing in August 2017 that Sinclair forced its stations to "air pro-Trump propaganda and then seeks favors from the Trump administration." Pai told Congress after Trump's tweet that he stood by his decision to refer the issue to a hearing. Sinclair, which owns 192 stations, said in May 2017 that it planned to acquire the Chicago-based Tribune's 42 TV stations in 33 markets in a deal that would significantly expand its reach. Sinclair did not immediately comment on Thursday but said last month "at no time have we withheld information or misled the FCC in any manner whatsoever." The FCC voted last month to refer the proposed merger to an administrative law judge to review questions about Sinclair's candor, a move analysts had then said would most likely lead to the deal's collapse. "In light of the FCC's unanimous decision, referring the issue of Sinclair's conduct for a hearing before an administrative law judge, our merger cannot be completed within an acceptable time frame, if ever," Tribune Media CEO Peter Kern said.

https://www.businessinsider.com/r-tribune-media-terminates-deal-to-be-bought-by-sinclair-2018-8

After a catastrophic few weeks, Facebook could now lose its place as America's 2nd-biggest website in a 'paradigm shift'

Facebook has had a chastening couple of weeks, and it now seems likely to be overtaken by YouTube as the second-biggest website in the US.

The market-research firm SimilarWeb said Facebook's monthly visits had fallen from 8.5 billion two years ago to 4.7 billion in July, while YouTube has been quietly edging up.

Facebook's losses must be seen in context, however, as its portfolio is growing on the back of its app and other platforms, like Instagram.

The biggest share-price nosedive in Wall Street history, a shareholder revolt , another round of election meddling , and the barring of a notorious conspiracy theorist only after a rival had acted. It's been a cataclysmic couple of weeks for Facebook. And, according to a study by SimilarWeb, the news is not about to get any better. In a blog post published Wednesday , the market-research firm said it thought Facebook was about to lose its place as the second-biggest website in America to YouTube. In what SimilarWeb's Stephen Kraus described as a "paradigm shift," he said his projections suggested "YouTube's traffic will pull ahead of Facebook" as the runner-up to Google in the next two to three months. Facebook's monthly visits fell from 8.5 billion two years ago to 4.7 billion in July, SimilarWeb found, while YouTube has been quietly edging up, hitting 4.5 billion visits last month. You can see the trend in SimilarWeb's chart above. There were signs of flattening in Facebook's second-quarter earnings in July , when it revealed that overall monthly active users in the US and Canada were flat at 241 million. It also lost a million users in Europe, where it had 376 million monthly active users in the three months that ended at the end of June. But SimilarWeb said Facebook's losses over the past two years must be seen in context. While the main website may be shedding traffic, Facebook's network, including Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger, is actually growing. Use of the Facebook mobile app is also increasing. "This transition reflects how Facebook is focused, not just on growth for their main site, but rather on expanding their entire ecosystem," SimilarWeb said. As Facebook noted in its earnings , 2.5 billion people — a third of the world's population — now use at least one of its products each month.

YouTube has established itself as the "primary entertainment/information source for the younger generation" and benefited from a "growing openness among consumers" to video, SimilarWeb said in the blog post. Google remains comfortably the biggest website in the US, with 15.2 billion monthly visits. There's no danger of Facebook or YouTube knocking the search engine off its lofty perch anytime soon. But another interesting trend SimilarWeb spotted was Amazon creeping ahead of Yahoo, in large part down to the success of Prime Day. "If current trends continue, Amazon will soon begin generating more traffic than Yahoo on a regular basis," the market-research company added.

https://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-could-be-overtaken-by-youtube-similarweb-2018-8

The controlling shareholder of CBS is reportedly looking for a new CEO to replace Les Moonves

CBS's controlling shareholder, Shari Redstone, is looking for a candidate to replace CEO Les Moonves, according to a NBC News report.

The CBS board has hired multiple law firms to investigate recent sexual harassment allegations against Moonves.

Moonves, 68, has been allowed to stay in his position as chief executive for the time being.

The investigation into sexual harassment allegations against CBS CEO Les Moonves is just getting started, but it looks like the company's controlling shareholder has little faith the 68-year-old will be vindicated. According to a NBC News , CBS' controlling shareholder, Shari Redstone, is already asking around about a possible replacement for Moonves, who has worked at the company for 23 years. Two people close to Redstone, who asked to remain anonymous since they are not authorized to speak publicly on the matter, told the outlet that she has been asking people to suggest candidates who could run the network. One executive who spoke with NBC said that Richard Parsons, the former CEO of Time Warner, is helping come up with a list of possible replacements for Moonves. Business Insider has contacted CBS, their parent company National Amusements, and representatives for Parsons Thursday morning, but did not immediately receive a response. Representatives for all three declined to comment to NBC News, according to the original report.

Moonves has been allowed to stay in his position while law firms hired by CBS investigate the allegations made in a New Yorker exposé earlier this month. Six women came forward in the report. Four said Moonves forcibly touched or kissed them. The other two accused the executive of sexual misconduct and harassment. Moonves partially admitted to misbehavior in a statement to the magazine. He said: "I recognize that there were times decades ago when I may have made some women uncomfortable by making advances. Those were mistakes, and I regret them immensely. But I always understood and respected — and abided by the principle — that 'no' means 'no,' and I have never misused my position to harm or hinder anyone's career."

Redstone and Moonves have a had bad blood recently over Redstone's plans to merge CBS with her other family-owned company, Viacom. The two disagreed over who would act as Moonves' deputy if the two companies were merged. Sources familiar with the deal told CNBC in April that Redstone was likely to replace Moonves if the two companies merged, because of this disagreement.

https://www.businessinsider.com/cbs-controlling-shareholder-reportedly-looking-for-les-moonves-replacement-2018-8

>>2523981

>>2524006

Maybe people are finally waking up to the C_A operation it has always been, finally!:)