Politics

"Around 40 percent of all potatoes grown in the United States are sold to frozen potato companies — 17 billion pounds annually," the lawsuit said. Four firms then buy the potatoes, prepare and freeze them before packaging them.

While there were over a dozen companies 20 years ago, that number has slowly shrunk to just four. They're named: Lamb Weston, Canada-based company McCain Foods, the J.R. Simplot Company, and Cavendish Farms. The first two control about 70% of the market, while J.R. Simplot manages about 20%, the report says.

They've all told restaurants and bars that they'll increase prices by $0.12 per pound in April.

“It was just the most obvious example of collusion I’ve seen in a long time,” said Washington, D.C., bar owner Josh Saltzman. “All of them were raising their prices by virtually the exact same amount within a week of each other.”

Last week, on Christmas Eve, their efforts paid off when President Joe Biden signed the Stop Campus Hazing Act. The law requires all colleges and universities to publicly disclose hazing incidents, making them a separate category in the crime statistics colleges must report. It also mandates the creation of prevention and education programs to help students understand the dangers of hazing.

The lead plaintiff in the class action lawsuit, Fumiko Lopez, alleged that Apple devices improperly recorded their daughter, who was a minor, mentioning brand names like Olive Garden and Air Jordans and then served her advertisements for those brands on Apple’s Safari browser. Other named plaintiffs alleged that their Siri-enabled devices entered listening mode without them saying “Hey Siri” while they were having intimate conversations in their bedrooms or were talking with their doctors.

In their suit, the plaintiffs characterized the privacy invasions as particularly egregious given that a core component of Apple’s marketing strategy in recent years has been to frame its devices as privacy-friendly. For example, an Apple billboard at the 2019 Consumer Electronics Show read “What happens on your iPhone, stays on your iPhone,” according to the lawsuit.

The proposed settlement, filed in California federal district court on Tuesday, covers people who owned Siri-enabled devices from September 17, 2014 to December 31, 2024 and whose private communications were recorded by an unintended Siri activation. Payout amounts will be determined by how many Apple devices a class member owned that improperly activated a listening session.

The Biden administration came to the Supreme Court on Tuesday afternoon, asking the justices to let it enforce an anti-money-laundering law while the government appeals to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit and, if necessary, the Supreme Court. U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar told the justices that an order by a federal judge barring the government from enforcing the Corporate Transparency Act “impedes efforts to prevent financial crime and protect national security” and “undermines the United States’ ability to press other countries to improve their own anti-money laundering regimes.”

Authorities identified the man as Master Sgt. Matthew Alan Livelsberger, who enlisted as a U.S. Army Special Operations soldier. He served in the active duty Army from January 2006 to March 2011. He then joined the National Guard from March 2011 to July 2012, followed by the Army Reserve from July 2012 to December 2012. Livelsberger entered the active duty Army in December 2012 and was a U.S. Army Special Operations Soldier.

U.S. Army Special Operations Command confirmed that Livelsberger was on approved leave at the time of his death.

On Wednesday Las Vegas police said that crews pulled gasoline canisters, camp fuel canisters and large firework mortars from the back of the Cybertruck. The explosion, which was caught on video, also injured seven people.

The group says it’s impossible to know exactly how many trees were lost, but the restoration program that will be executed in Tennessee, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Florida, with assistance from state and local governments, corporate sponsors, community groups and individual volunteers, will be the most ambitious undertaking of its more than 50-year existence.

It said it was made aware of the hack on 8 December by BeyondTrust, a spokesperson told the BBC. According to the company, the suspicious activity was first spotted on 2 December, but it took three days for the company to determine it had been hacked.

The spokesperson said the hackers were able to remotely access several Treasury user workstations and some unclassified documents that were kept by those users.

The department did not specify the nature of these files, or when and for how long the hack took place. They also did not specify the level of confidentiality of the computer systems or the seniority of the staff whose materials were accessed.

The hackers may have been able to create accounts or change passwords in the three days that they were being watched by BeyondTrust.

As espionage agents, the hackers are believed to have been seeking information, rather than attempting to steal funds.

More than 1.3 million people living in Puerto Rico sat in darkness Tuesday morning after a sweeping blackout washed over the island.

As the country awoke to celebrate New Year’s Eve, a blackout hit, leaving people without electrical appliances, air conditioning, lights and more.

Luma Energy, the private company that oversees electricity transmission and distribution, said on X that the cause of the outage is under investigation but preliminary findings suggest a fault on an underground line. Restoring power could take anywhere from 24 to 48 hours.

Unless those markets are checked by U.S. regulators. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has oversight on prediction markets like Kalshi and PredictIt. On December 13, all wagers related to Magione vanished from the sites. According to Bloomberg, Kalshi removed the Mangione-related wagers from its sites after it received a “notice from…regulators.” The outlet writes that the CFTC “bans futures trading linked to crimes including assassination, terrorism, and war if the agency decides the so-called events contracts are against the public interest.”

On Polymarket all assassin-related bets are on. “Will Luigi Mangione fire his lawyer before 2025?” Polymarket has the odds at just 1 percent. “Will it be confirmed that Luigi Mangione used psychedelics?” The users give it a 43 percent chance. “Luigi Mangione motivated by denied claims?” On December 10, Polymarket had this at a 75 percent chance, but it plummeted to around 25 percent.

Son of US senator jailed for 28 years over chase and crash that killed police officer

Ian Cramer, 43, son of North Dakota senator Kevin Cramer, sentenced over incident last year in which he fled hospital Associated Press Mon 30 Dec 2024 15.40 EST

The adult son of the Republican North Dakota US senator Kevin Cramer has been sentenced to serve 28 years in prison in connection with a wild chase in which he fled from a hospital and drove into a deputy’s vehicle, killing the deputy.

Ian Cramer, 43, pleaded guilty in September to all of the charges against him, including homicide while fleeing a peace officer, preventing arrest, reckless endangerment, fleeing an officer and drug- and driving-related offenses. Those charges related to the chase and crash in December last year that killed the Mercer county sheriff’s deputy Paul Martin, 53.

The state court judge Bobbi Weiler handed down the sentence of 38 years with 10 years suspended, three years of probation and credit for more than a year served in jail. She also included recommended treatment for addiction and mental health. But he likely will not serve the full 28 years, the judge said.

The camp is part of a US naval base complex in south-eastern Cuba.

According to the New York Times, Mr Yazidi was never charged and was approved for transfer more than a decade ago.

Human Rights Watch and Cage International said he had been at Guantanamo Bay since the facility was first set up in 2002.

According to Monday's Pentagon statement, 26 detainees remain at Guantanamo Bay, of whom 14 are eligible for transfer.

Earlier in December, the Pentagon announced that the US had repatriated three other detainees, the Associated Press news agency reported.

The United States on Monday announced nearly $6 billion in additional military and budget assistance for Ukraine as President Joe Biden uses his final weeks in office to surge aid to Kyiv before President-elect Donald Trump takes power.

Biden announced $2.5 billion in additional security assistance for Ukraine.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said the United States has made available $3.4 billion in additional budget aid to Ukraine, giving the war-torn country critical resources amid intensifying Russian attacks on Ukrainian civilians and infrastructure.

The cases, ProPublica found, expose in blunt terms how insurance companies can put their clients’ health in jeopardy, in ways that some judges have ruled “arbitrary and capricious.” To do so, court records reveal, the insurers have turned to a coterie of psychiatrists and have continued relying on them even after one or more of their decisions have been criticized or overturned in court.

In their rulings, judges have found that insurers, in part through their psychiatrists, have acted in ways that are “puzzling,” “disingenuous” and even “dishonest.” The companies have engaged in “selective readings” of the medical evidence, “shut their eyes” to medical opinions that opposed their conclusions and made “baseless arguments” in court. Doctors reviewing the same cases have even repeated nearly identical language in denial letters, casting “significant doubt” on whether they’re independent.

Some doctors made critical errors, contradicted by the very records they claimed they reviewed, according to thousands of pages of court documents, interviews and insurance records. Ruling after ruling reveals how they failed to meaningfully engage with patients’ families or medical providers or to adequately explain their decisions.

The Free Speech Coalition, an adult-entertainment industry group, and other plaintiffs filed suit Dec. 16 challenging the law on First Amendment and other constitutional grounds. The law, which supporters say is designed to keep minors from viewing pornography online, is scheduled to take effect Wednesday.

In a motion filed Tuesday, Moody’s office requested that Chief U.S. District Judge Mark Walker issue a stay of the lawsuit. If granted, the motion would allow the Florida law to take effect and continue at least until the Supreme Court rules in the Texas case.

The practice includes DEA special agents or task force officers approaching individuals at airports and then asking for consent to search the individual’s belongings.

The DOJ's move comes four years after Scripps News Tampa Investigative Reporter Kylie McGivern highlighted the practice of civil asset forfeiture at airports by the DEA.

Civil asset forfeiture allows federal agencies to seize cash and other property suspected of being involved in a crime, even if charges are never filed against the owner.

The Institute for Justice called the move a "pretty significant change."

"It means that air travelers across the United States, at all domestic airports, will not be subjected to these 'consensual encounter' interrogations by DEA," said Dan Alban, senior attorney for the Institute for Justice.

Musk’s clout and his role as DOGE co-chair are even more significant given the billions of dollars in federal contracts held by his various companies and the array of federal agencies that regulate those companies. Americans are entitled to know about his communications and activities with the federal government before he and Trump go about overhauling it. That’s why our organization, the State Democracy Defenders Fund, has begun our inquiry into DOGE by filing Freedom of Information Act requests across the federal government.

But an internal FDA document showed the agency classified the benzene levels in Johnson & Johnson sunscreens as “life threatening.” The agency didn’t share that information with consumers at the time. The document came to light through a public records request.

Federal law doesn’t give the agency power to force a recall. Instead, companies use their own discretion to decide when to pull contaminated products off shelves.

After Valisure discovered benzene in widely used benzoyl peroxide acne products like Proactiv and Clearasil in March, the FDA and consumer-goods makers said the lab didn’t test the products in real-world conditions. Valisure has said its testing meets international standards and it gets its test results checked by another lab.

Congressional pay for rank-and-file members is $174,000 and hasn't been adjusted since 2009.

A recent change allows members to claim reimbursement for some lodging expenses, aimed at helping those struggling to maintain two residences.

"It changes the makeup a lot," the Wisconsin Republican said in an interview. "We have a real disincentive for people to run for Congress unless you're a fairly affluent person. People think that $174,000 is a lot of money — and if you're making $50 to $60,000, it appears that way. But having that separate place to live and providing utilities in a very expensive city, you burn through that money pretty quickly."

The King County Sheriff’s Office has an expansive contracting model with over a dozen cities receiving policing services through interlocal agreements. Cheol Kang, the office’s chief of the community programs and services division, said there are alluring cost-cutting measures for smaller cities. Rather than pouring resources and staff time into training, recruitment and discipline, cities can pay for, essentially, the “service delivery of a fully commissioned … deputy to serve in their community.” Those deputies work in the community day-to-day, too, he said.

Contracting out policing services has not been without snags. In Burien, for instance, the city and Sheriff’s Office have gotten into dramatic legal and political battle over the Sheriff’s Office’s refusal to enforce a camping ban.

The Federal Trade Commission is investigating Microsoft in a wide-ranging probe that will examine whether the company’s business practices have run afoul of antitrust laws, according to people familiar with the matter. In recent weeks, FTC attorneys have been conducting interviews and setting up meetings with Microsoft competitors.

One key area of interest is how the world’s largest software provider packages popular Office products together with cybersecurity and cloud computing services, said one of the people, who asked not to be named discussing a confidential matter.

A racist letter reportedly circulating through Lincoln County, which has a population of about 50,000 people and is located on the state’s western coast, encourages residents to surveil and report “brown illegals…who you suspect are here in our country on an illegal basis” to the Department of Homeland Security.

"Sit in your church’s parking lot and write down the license plate [number] of brown folks. This is extremely important if you attend a catholic church—many brown folks are catholics!! Shopping, again if you see a bunch of brown folks getting in a car—write down the plate [number]. Schools, as you wait in line to pick up the kiddos or the grandkiddos—if you see brown folks—record the plate [number]. Your neighborhood—you know where the brown folks live in your neighborhood—again record the plate [numbers]. If you see a construction crew and/or a landscaping crew who have brown folks—write down the name of the company and a phone [number].”