So Comey is in NZ…How does this figure with..Kim Dotcom @ this point?
I almost forgot about him..
Sauce…https://www.ibtimes.com/kim-dotcom-wants-fbi-director-james-comey-be-questioned-new-zealand-police-2529975
https://twitter.com/KimDotcom/status/582068295366410240
HUD: Facebook broke discrimination laws with housing ads
"We're surprised," a Facebook representative reacted Thursday.
March 28 (UPI) – U.S. housing regulators charged Facebook Thursday with violating federal law with targeted ads that promote houses based on criteria that include race and income level. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development said Facebook uses discriminatory practices to determine who sees housing advertisements. According to the complaint, Facebook mines user data and builds profiles to choose which ads they should see, including homes for sale. HUD also accuses Facebook of drawing a red line around certain neighborhoods so people who live there won't see the homes. "Using a computer to limit a person's housing choices can be just as discriminatory as slamming a door in someone's face," HUD Secretary Ben Carson said in a statement. The charges also accuse Facebook of excluding certain other demographics that violate protection clauses in the Fair Housing Act.
"HUD claims Facebook combines data it collects about user attributes and behavior with data it obtains about user behavior on other websites and in the non-digital world," the agency said. "Facebook then allegedly uses machine learning and other prediction techniques to classify and group users to project each user's likely response to a given ad, and in doing so, may recreate groupings defined by their protected class." The department seeks to address unresolved fair housing issues and provide relief, including punitive damages.
The federal charges come a week after Facebook agreed to overhaul its micro-targeting ad system for jobs, housing and loans after several discrimination complaints – and news that the social network exposed passwords to millions of accounts to company employees.
Facebook said it didn't anticipate the move Thursday. "We're surprised by HUD's decision, as we've been working with them to address their concerns and have taken significant steps to prevent ads discrimination," a spokesperson told Yahoo Finance. "While we were eager to find a solution, HUD insisted on access to sensitive information – like user data – without adequate safeguards. We're disappointed by today's developments, but we'll continue working with civil rights experts on these issues."
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2019/03/28/HUD-Facebook-broke-discrimination-laws-with-housing-ads/2981553773540/
https://www.hud.gov/press/press_releases_media_advisories/HUD_No_19_035
https://www.hud.gov/press/press_releases_media_advisories/HUD_No_18_085
STATEMENT OF INTEREST OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
https://www.justice.gov/crt/case-document/file/1089231/download
Supreme Court declines to block national bump stock ban
March 28 (UPI) – The Supreme Court on Thursday declined to block the Trump administration's ban on bump stocks while lawsuits against the measure make their way through lower courts. The high court denied the request by a group of plaintiffs led by gun advocacy group Gun Owners of America.
Bump stocks increase a gun's rate of fire by using the recoil to have the gun fire continuously, nearly converting a semi-automatic weapon into a fully automatic machine gun. With a bump stock, some guns can fire between 400 and 500 rounds per minute. The devices have been opposed by lawmakers and President Donald Trump since the October 2017 Las Vegas shooting, in which Stephen Paddock used one to fire more than 1,000 rounds at concertgoers. He killed 58 people.
Since the Las Vegas shooting, the Justice Department has evaluated existing laws against automatic weapons and in December interpreted the law to also ban bump stocks. A ban on the devices went into effect earlier this week.
"We still feel that the regulation is a factual misreading of the statute, and that ultimately we will be vindicated on it," Michael Hammond, legislative counsel for Gun Owners of America, said of the challenge. Gun Owners of America has led the charge against bump stock ban with lawsuits in Washington state, Ohio, Utah and Michigan. The organization estimates more than 500,000 Americans own bump stocks. A federal court in Cincinnati also denied the group's request for a preliminary injunction.
The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court not to block the bump stock ban. "Every Court to rule on a request to preliminarily enjoin the rule has determined that a preliminary injunction is unwarranted," Solicitor General Noel Francisco said in a filing.
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2019/03/28/Supreme-Court-declines-to-block-national-bump-stock-ban/1221553796722/
https://www.supremecourt.gov/search.aspx?filename=/docket/docketfiles/html/public/18a963.html
8 members of billionaire Sackler family added to N.Y. opioid suit
March 28 (UPI) – The state of New York is suing members of the billionaire family behind the manufacture of the opioid painkiller OxyContin, arguing they profited from the drug at the expense of patient safety. New York Attorney General Letitia James announced the suit Thursday, which adds eight members of the Sackler family to the suit against OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma. It says the family played a large role in creating the opioid crisis through deceptive marketing about the drug's dangers. Such marketing dates back to the mid 1990s, when the painkiller was introduced, the suit says.
The crisis has led to "widespread addiction, overdose deaths, and suffering," James said in a statement. "We found that pharmaceutical manufacturers and distributors engaged in years of deceptive marketing about the risks of opioids and failed to exercise their basic duty to report suspicious behavior," she added. "As the Sackler Family and the other defendants grew richer, New Yorkers' health grew poorer and our state was left to foot the bill." The suit says the family, which bought Purdue in the 1950s, used a web of corporate entities to funnel company funds to themselves – maneuvers James called fraudulent, as the company was unable to pay debts. Purdue, which has long produced narcotic pain medications including fentanyl and codeine, introduced OxyContin in 1996.
The suit expands the complaint against Purdue to add the eight Sacklers, five other opioid manufacturers and four prescription drug distributors as defendants. The action is based on long-running investigation in New York. Richard Sackler, Jonathan Sackler, Mortimer Sackler, Kathe Sackler, Ilene Sackler Lefcourt, David Sackler, Beverly Sackler and Theresa Sackler are members of the family added to the suit.
Prosecutors say the opioid epidemic has harmed New York due to "fraud, willful misconduct, and gross negligence" of distributors who bought the drugs in bulk and shipped them to pharmacies, despite "red flags." The warning signs included a large number of cash payments for prescriptions and some providers charged unlawful prescribing. The suit also says manufacturers followed deceptive marketing "playbook" that promoted the drugs falsely as non-addictive and masked signs of addiction. New York has spent many millions of dollars to treat addiction and phony claims for opioid prescriptions, authorities said. Tuesday, the state of Oklahoma reached a $270 million agreement with Purdue to settle a suit that accused the company of facilitating the opioid crisis. Purdue, which denied wrongdoing in the settlement, faces nearly 2,000 lawsuits over the matter, which it said could lead to bankruptcy.
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2019/03/28/8-members-of-billionaire-Sackler-family-added-to-NY-opioid-suit/7481553790063/
https://ag.ny.gov/sites/default/files/oag_opioid_lawsuit.pdf