Government

Axios reports: Federal regulators are poised to ban the impersonation of anyone, aiming to thwart scams in an AI-driven world. An imminent onslaught of deepfake video and audio is creating a sense of urgency to protect consumers. The FTC announced Thursday that it’s proposing to modify a rule that already prevents the impersonation of government and businesses to include the …

NBC News reports: Super Bowl LVIII will feature a tough defensive scheme that has nothing to do with a football. This one is about stopping drones. The NFL and federal law enforcement officials are taking a hard line Sunday to keep players and fans safe from unauthorized drones at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas where the Kansas City Chiefs will …

Ars Technica reports: Health insurance companies cannot use algorithms or artificial intelligence to determine care or deny coverage to members on Medicare Advantage plans, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) clarified in a memo sent to all Medicare Advantage insurers. The memo—formatted like an FAQ on Medicare Advantage (MA) plan rules—comes just months after patients filed lawsuits claiming …

CBS News reports: The Federal Communications Commission on Thursday declared the use of voice-cloning technology in robocalls to be illegal, giving states another tool to go after fraudsters behind the calls. The ruling takes effect immediately and comes amid an increase in such calls due to technology that offers the ability to confuse people with recordings that mimic the voices …

Axios reports: A former CIA software engineer who was convicted of carrying out the largest data breach in the agency’s history was sentenced to 40 years in prison on Thursday, the Department of Justice announced. Joshua Adam Schulte’s “transmission of that stolen information to WikiLeaks is one of the largest unauthorized disclosures of classified information in the history of the …

From the US Embassy in Jamaica: The State Department has recently changed the Travel Advisory for Jamaica. Reconsider travel to Jamaica due to crime and medical services. U.S. government personnel under Chief of Mission (COM) security responsibility are prohibited from traveling to many areas due to increased risk. Violent crimes, such as home invasions, armed robberies, sexual assaults, and homicides, …

From the Justice Department: eBay Inc., an e-commerce company headquartered in San Jose, California, has agreed to pay $59 million and to enhance its compliance program to resolve allegations that it violated the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) in connection with thousands of pill presses and encapsulating machines that were sold through its website. Pill presses and encapsulating machines can be …

The Washington Post reports: A British resident accused of using the dark web to sell illicit drugs around the world has agreed to surrender bitcoin valued at hundreds of millions in what officials said is believed to be the largest seizure of cryptocurrency in the history of the Drug Enforcement Administration. Banmeet Singh, 40, who was extradited from the United …

Gothamist reports: The Cannabis Control Board will vote on regulations that would let New Yorkers who are at least 21 years old cultivate up to six mature plants — meaning they have visible buds — and six immature plants per residence. Home cultivators would be able to keep up to 5 pounds of flower that’s been trimmed from those plants, …

ABC News reports: The FAA said Tuesday it will investigate after a tire under the front nose of a Delta Boeing 757 fell off one of the wheels and rolled down a nearby embankment. The incident occurred on Saturday around 11:15 a.m. local time at Georgia’s Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport while Delta Flight 982 was taxiing before takeoff to Bogota, …

The Hill reports: The House on Thursday approved a short-term spending bill to keep the government funded through March, sending the stopgap to President Biden’s desk for his signature one day before a partial shutdown deadline. The chamber cleared the two-step continuing resolution (CR) in a 314-108 vote hours after the Senate approved the measure, punting government funding deadlines to …

The New York Times reports: The Senate on Thursday passed a bill to avert a partial government shutdown as Congress raced one day before its spending deadline to send President Biden stopgap legislation to fund federal agencies through early March. The 77-to-18 vote cleared the way for a vote in the House later Thursday on the measure, which would provide …

The New York Times reports: Marijuana is neither as risky nor as prone to abuse as other tightly controlled substances and has potential medical benefits, and therefore should be removed from the nation’s most restrictive category of drugs, federal scientists have concluded. The recommendations are contained in a 250-page scientific review provided to Matthew Zorn, a Texas lawyer who sued …

Reuters reports: The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected a request by Elon Musk’s X Corp to consider whether the social media company, formerly called Twitter, can publicly disclose how often federal law enforcement seeks information about users for national security investigations. The justices declined to hear X’s appeal of a lower court’s ruling holding that the FBI’s restrictions on …

The Washington Post reports: Congressional leaders reached a $1.66 trillion agreement Sunday to finance the federal government in 2024, preserving funding for key domestic and social safety net programs in the face of GOP demands to cut the government’s budget. Now lawmakers are up against a stiff deadline to pass legislation to codify the deal and avert a partial government …

CNBC reports: The Federal Aviation Administration on Saturday ordered airlines to ground more than 170 Boeing 737 Max 9 aircraft for inspections, a day after after a panel on one blew out in the middle of an Alaska Airlines flight. The emergency airworthiness directive will affect planes worldwide and applies to U.S. airlines and carriers operating in U.S. territory. Images …

The Hill reports: The price to ship your letters and packages is going up in the new year. Starting Jan. 21, 2024, the price for a First-Class Forever U.S. Postage Stamp will increase from 66 cents to 68 cents, according to the U.S. Postal Service. In addition to stamp prices increasing, the price to send priority mail and other postal …

The New York Times reports: Detroit is on track to record the fewest murders since the 1960s. In Philadelphia, where there were more murders in 2021 than in any year on record, the number of homicides this year has fallen more than 20 percent from last year. And in Los Angeles, the number of shooting victims this year is down …

The Associated Press reports: The world population grew by 75 million people over the past year and on New Year’s Day it will stand at more than 8 billion people, according to figures released by the U.S. Census Bureau on Thursday. The worldwide growth rate in the past year was just under 1%. At the start of 2024, 4.3 births …

The Washington Post reports: Americans’ life expectancy decline remains a pressing public health problem — but not a political priority. The Washington Post spoke with more than 100 public health experts, lawmakers and senior health officials, including 29 across the past three presidential administrations, who described the challenges of attempting to turn around the nation’s declining life expectancy. Those challenges …