Category: Money, Class, and Poverty,

Philly’s new top prosecutor is rolling out wild, unprecedented criminal justice reforms.

On By peanutgallerynhIn American Injustice System,, Domestic Affairs,, Drugs & Drink,, Local Interest,, Money, Class, and Poverty,Leave a comment

In the church, queries and complaints from constituents that might have made his predecessors cringe were softballs for Krasner: a loved one has been wrongfully incarcerated? Send the case to the revamped Conviction Review Unit, a sort of in-house innocence project. How can lying officers be kept off the stand? He has staff working to verify and expand a formerly secret “do not call” list of 29 suspect officers. Late in the meeting, one elderly woman asked a question that cuts to the core of concerns for those who doubt Krasner’s reforms: What would he do about the drug dealers and users on her street that make her feel unsafe? He didn’t miss a beat: “The past solution was to lock [corner drug dealers] all up and that didn’t work. We have to go after root cause,” he says. This came after an extended riff promising “to go after doctors, and pharmaceutical corporations” for their role in the nation’s opioid crisis. Notably, his office had already initiated legal proceedings against some of those pharmaceutical companies.

…Krasner issued a memo to his staff making official a wave of new policies he had announced his attorneys last month. The memo starts: “These policies are an effort to end mass incarceration and bring balance back to sentencing.”

Over 90 percent of criminal cases nationwide are decided in plea bargains. …In an about-face from how these transactions typically work, Krasner’s 300 lawyers are to start many plea offers at the low end of sentencing guidelines. For most nonviolent and nonsexual crimes, or economic crimes below a $50,000 threshold, Krasner’s lawyers are now to offer defendants sentences below the bottom end of the state’s guidelines. So, for example, if a person with no prior convictions is accused of breaking into a store at night and emptying the cash register, he would normally face up to 14 months in jail. Under Krasner’s paradigm, he’ll be offered probation. If prosecutors want to use their discretion to deviate from these guidelines, say if a person has a particularly troubling rap sheet, Krasner must personally sign off.

…Krasner’s lawyers are also now to decline charges for marijuana possession, no matter the weight, effectively decriminalizing possession of the drug in the city for all nonfederal cases. Sex workers will not be charged with prostitution unless they have more than two priors, in which case they’ll be diverted to a specialized court. Retail theft under $500 is no longer a misdemeanor in the eyes of Philly prosecutors, but a summary offense—the lowest possible criminal charge. 

…When a person does break the rules of probation, minor infractions such as missing a PO meeting are not to be punished with jail time or probation revocation, and more serious infractions are to be disciplined with no more than two years in jail.

In a move that may have less impact on the lives of defendants, but is very on-brand for Kranser, prosecutors must now calculate the amount of money a sentence would cost before recommending it to a judge, and argue why the cost is justified. He estimates that it costs $115 a day, or $42,000 a year, to incarcerate one person. So, if a prosecutor seeks a three-year sentence, she must state, on the record, that it would cost taxpayers $126,000 and explain why she thinks this cost is justified. Krasner reminds his attorneys that the cost of one year of unnecessary incarceration “is in the range of the cost of one year’s salary for a beginning teacher, police officer, fire fighter, social worker, Assistant District Attorney, or addiction counselor.”

…Krasner’s election was consistent with Philadelphia’s recent mood around criminal justice. Two years ago, the city elected Mayor Jim Kenney, who Philadelphia Magazine labeled “Mr. Criminal Justice Reform.” Under his leadership and with the help of a multimillion-dollar grant from the MacArthur Foundation, the city has brought the jail population down by 26 percent since July 2015.

Philly’s new top prosecutor is rolling out wild, unprecedented criminal justice reforms.

Wild.

Theories on why American passenger trains are so bad

On By peanutgallerynhIn Infrastructure and Transportation,, Money, Class, and Poverty,Leave a comment

The way Amtrak is currently set up, there’s no real incentive to undertake incremental improvements. The Northeast Corridor already generates an operating profit, which simply defrays losses elsewhere in the system. Making it run better doesn’t generate any wins for the people who would have to do the work, and would plausibly just lead Congress to reduce subsidies.

…America’s railroads ship a dramatically larger share of total goods than their European peers. And this is no coincidence. Outside of the Northeast Corridor, the railroad infrastructure is generally owned by freight companies — Amtrak is just piggybacking on the spare capacity.

That means the technology isn’t optimized for passenger rail needs. But it also means passenger train scheduling needs to take a back seat to freight priorities.

The real reason American passenger trains are so bad – Vox

hmmm

In rural America, tightened access to Medicaid means tough choices

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,, Money, Class, and Poverty,Leave a comment

Life expectancy in much of Appalachia, where poverty has kept a tight hold for generations, is lower than in Bangladesh or Vietnam, said Carolyn Miles, president and chief executive officer of Save the Children. “That’s a really shocking statistic,” she added.

…In 2016, 14.1 million children grew up in poverty nationwide. But that proportion is higher in rural areas, where 24 percent of kids live in poverty, compared to 19 percent of those in urban areas, according to a new report on rural poverty from Save the Children. That gap widened after the Great Recession, according to Census Bureau data, and remains most persistent for single-parent homes, children with disabilities and African-American children. In the latest report, Tennessee ranks 40th nationwide for states where childhood is most under threat. Nearly 1.5 million Tennessee children were enrolled in Medicaid in 2017. In Perry County, there were 2,078 children enrolled. Britton’s two sons were among them.

…After the Great Recession hit, Perry County, Tennessee, reported an unemployment rate of 29.8 percent, among the nation’s highest. People left if they were able or found jobs in Nashville or as far as Memphis — more than 140 miles away. Today, the jobless rate is much lower, at 4.2 percent, but 22 percent of the county’s nearly 8,000 residents live in poverty, according to the Census. Britton said the community needs more jobs that pay better so families like hers can thrive.

..Having health care coverage is one victory, but actually getting care is another story. The county has no pediatrician, so Britton either takes her sons to a nurse practitioner at a local walk-in clinic or drives 60 miles — twice the distance the federal government defines as reasonable access to care — to see a doctor. She forgoes her own health care “unless I feel like I’m dying.”

Tennessee legislators voted to set up work requirements for Medicaid recipients, joining a number of states, including Kentucky, Indiana and Arkansas, that have passed similar laws in recent months. …It is the latest in a series of moves nationwide to tighten access to Medicaid.

…In January, the Tennessee Justice Center estimated that more than 480,000 Tennesseans could lose Medicaid coverage under the state’s then-proposed work requirement. Bureaucratic red tape — not ineligibility — could pose an obstacle to access. And nationwide, 60 percent of 24.6 million current adult Medicaid recipients work at least part-time, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.

…Health care advocates say work requirements will deny health care to people already vulnerable to the slightest shift in their economic equation, meaning they are more likely to neglect chronic conditions, end up in emergency rooms more often and ultimately cost the system more money.

…At his Tuesday ‘campaign’ rally in Nashville, President Donald Trump told the crowd that “wages are going up, and they’re going up fast. The forgotten men and women of our country are no longer forgotten.”

Britton isn’t as optimistic.

In rural America, tightened access to Medicaid means tough choices | PBS NewsHour

hmmmm

Flight 3407 families unhappy with Transportation Secretary’s comments

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,, Infrastructure and Transportation,, Money, Class, and Poverty,Leave a comment

Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao discussed a current shortage of pilots, and she feels training requirements are partly to blame.

“There is the 1,500 hour rule, which came about because of a tragic accident in Upstate New York,” Chao said to the moderator, referring to Flight 3407, which crashed in Clarence on Feb. 12, 2009.

…”The 1,500-hour rule has been in place for 30 or 40 years. It’s an FAA rule. We didn’t come up with that number,” Kausner said.

…Kausner and Eckert, along with Rep. Collins say training isn’t to blame for a pilot shortage; Pay and the nature of the job are to blame. Entry level pilots make only about $20,000 a year.

wgrz.com | Flight 3407 families unhappy with Transportation Secretary’s comments

You can trust this administration to do one thing: not get the facts right.

Pam Bondi heckled at Mister Rogers movie over healthcare, immigration

On By peanutgallerynhIn Gulf Coast Region,, Local Interest,, Media and Culture,, Modern Parenting,, Money, Class, and Poverty,Leave a comment

Florida’s Republican attorney general, Pam Bondi, was escorted out of a movie theater by police on Friday night after being confronted by labor activists over her positions on healthcare and immigration policy.

…One activist can be heard asking, “Would Mr. Rogers take children away from their parents?” Unlike Florida Gov. Rick Scott, Bondi has not publicly come out against the family separations.

…”What would Mister Rogers think about your legacy in Florida? Taking away health insurance from people with existing conditions? Shame on you! Shame on you!” one protester can be heard shouting at Bondi as uniformed officers walked her to her car.

…Approximately 1.7 million people in Florida get their health insurance through the market created by the ACA, and over 90% receive subsidies from the federal government to lower their premiums, according to the Orlando Sun Sentinel.

Pam Bondi heckled at Mister Rogers movie over healthcare, immigration – Business Insider

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Walgreens Pharmacy Refuses to Give Woman With An Impending Miscarriage Pregnancy Termination Drugs Prescribed by Her Doctor

On By peanutgallerynhIn Chick Stuff,, Money, Class, and Poverty,Leave a comment

[Nicole Arteaga] was given the choice of terminating the pregnancy through surgery or prescription medication. She chose the latter option. 

…”If you have gone thru [sic] a miscarriage you know the pain and emotional roller it can be.”

…”I stood at the mercy of this pharmacist explaining my situation in front of my 7-year-old and five customers standing behind, only to be denied because of his ethical beliefs,” she wrote on Facebook and Instagram.

…”I left Walgreens in tears, ashamed and feeling humiliated by a man who knows nothing of my struggles but feels it is his right to deny medication prescribed to me by my doctor.”

Walgreens Pharmacy Refuses to Give Woman Pregnancy Termination Drugs Prescribed by Her Doctor

Unconscionable that Walgreen’s would permit its employees to act in such an unprofessional and callous manner. Interfering with the prescribed medical care of their customers because of a personal issue shouldn’t be tolerated.

What Sarah Sanders’s Red Hen controversy says about civility

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,, Europe,, Media and Culture,, Money, Class, and Poverty,Leave a comment

There’s evidence that inflicting personal punishments on political leaders does cause them to grapple with their actions and even change their behavior.

One study, for example, looked at a fine imposed on legislators in the French National Assembly when they skipped important committee meetings. The study looked at two things: the effect of the fine itself and the impact of it being widely publicized that a legislator skipped a meeting and thus was fined. The scholars found legislators “strongly increase their committee attendance both after the private experience of sanctions and after their public exposure.” So there’s reason to think that public officials do mind being sanctioned, both privately and in the public eye.

What Sarah Sanders’s Red Hen controversy says about civility – Vox

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The big business of housing immigrant children

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,, Modern Parenting,, Money, Class, and Poverty,Leave a comment

According to recent tax filings, [Southwest Key Programs Inc CEO Juan] Sanchez received nearly $1.5 million in total compensation in 2016 as CEO of the non-profit he founded more than 30 years ago. His salary nearly doubled from the year before, when he was paid $786,822.

…”The salary is extraordinarily high for a charity, even a large charity,” said Marcus Owens, the former head of the Internal Revenue Service division that oversees nonprofits.

…Over the past 10 years, the organization has received about $1.5 billion for operating 83 programs across the country that include shelters for migrant children and youth justice initiatives.

 
This year, it is slated to take in about a half billion dollars in federal contracts.


…Sanchez defended his salary in the KLRU interview. “When we started, we started with nothing, very low salaries, no health insurance… Over time our board had got to the point where they said we are now at a position where we can pay you a decent salary and give you some good retirement packages,” he said.

The big business of housing immigrant children – CNN

$1.5 million in in salary? Non-profit, my ass.

Private prison company moves annual conference to Trump-owned golf resort

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An investigation into the company’s activities found the GEO Group secured the Trump administration’s first contract for a detention centre reportedly worth tens of millions of dollars a year. 

This comes after the company’s spending on lobbying and donations rose sharply during the 2016 election cycle, with nearly half a million dollars donated to Mr Trump’s inaugural committee and to a pro-Trump super PAC.

..Early in his presidency, The Hill reported Mr Trump rolled back plans under the Obama administration to phase out the federal government’s use of private prisons. 

Private prison company moves annual conference to Trump-owned golf resort | The Independent

Agggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggh!!!!!!!!!!!

Princeton economists find that unions had historical role in helping address income inequality

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,, Infrastructure and Transportation,, Media and Culture,, Money, Class, and Poverty,, Race,Leave a comment

The rise in income inequality between skilled and unskilled workers since the 1970s might be due, at least in part, to a decline in union membership, Princeton University researchers have found.

…The researchers examined a new source of union membership data dating to the 1930s: monthly Gallup opinion polls that collected a variety of information about Americans, including their race, gender, income and political opinions. The pollsters also asked interviewees whether a member of their household belonged to a union.

Among the study’s findings were that unions consistently have provided workers with a 10- to 20-percent wage boost over their non-union counterparts over the past eight decades. The researchers also discovered that when unions have expanded, whether at the national or state level, they tended to draw in more unskilled workers and raise their relative wages, with significant impacts on inequality.

…Herbst oversaw the team of research assistants that combed through Gallup archives from 1936 to 1986. The data was indexed primarily in documents handwritten by pollsters who called people’s homes for interviews, which made it a challenge to collect and standardize the information for study. Reporting categories changed over the years, as did the methods of collecting information. In all, the team assessed 980,000 data points across 500 surveys. 

They then filled in union membership numbers from 1986 to the present using the Current Population Survey from the Census Bureau. Doing so gave the researchers a big-picture view of how unions grew to their height in the 1950s and 1960s, then began to recede. Through access to data over a longer time frame, the researchers were able to see certain patterns emerge.

…Disadvantaged groups — those that are non-white, less educated or both — not only were enrolled in unions in higher numbers in the 1950s, but generally, their wage premium was even larger relative to their non-union counterparts than that of white and/or more-educated union workers.

Some economists see changes in technology and a demand for more-skilled workers as leading to lower union numbers and driving inequality in the late 20th century. But the new data suggests there might be more to the story, Herbst said.

“Those theories often predict that as more-skilled workers leave unions, the average union member should be less skilled and less advantaged, and what we’re finding is the opposite,” Herbst said. 

In fact, union members are more skilled than ever, even if smaller in their numbers.

Princeton economists find that unions had historical role in helping address income inequality

hmmm

House GOP plan would gut Medicare, Social Security, Medicaid

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House Republicans released a budget proposal Tuesday that would balance in nine years – but only by making large cuts to entitlement programs, including Medicare and Social Security, that President Donald Trump has vowed not to touch.

…Lawmakers of both parties agree that so-called mandatory spending that is not subject to Congress’s annual appropriations process is becoming unsustainable. But Trump has largely taken it off the table by refusing to touch Medicare or Social Security, and Democrats have little interest in addressing it except as part of a larger deal including tax hikes – the sort of “Grand Bargain” that eluded former President Barack Obama.

…The budget also proposes …adding more work requirements for food stamp and welfare recipients and requiring federal employees – including members of Congress – to contribute more to their retirement plans. It relies on rosy economic growth projections and proposes using a budgetary mechanism to require other congressional committees to come up with a combined $302 billion in unspecified deficit reduction.

House GOP plan would cut Medicare, Social Security to balance budget – The Denver Post

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#PermitPatty Episode Blows Up on California Cannabis Company

On By peanutgallerynhIn American Injustice System,, Domestic Affairs,, Drugs & Drink,, Money, Class, and Poverty,, Race,Leave a comment

Calling the Cops While White

Indeed, the incident comes amid heightened focus on calling the police over seemingly innocuous behavior by people of color.

On April 12, two black men were arrested in a Philadelphia Starbucks after the barista called the police because the men, who were waiting for a colleague to join them for a business meeting, hadn’t purchased anything yet. In early May, a white Yale student called campus police on a black Yale graduate student for napping during an all-night study session in a dorm common room. That same week, a white woman on a tour of Colorado State University called the police on two Native American students who were on the same tour, because she said they made her “nervous.” Around the same time, a white neighbor in Rialto, California, called the police when she saw three black women exiting a nearby house that the women had rented as an Airbnb. The neighbor said she called the cops because the women didn’t wave at her.

Just across the bay in Oakland, the video of a white woman calling the police on a black man for enjoying a barbecue in a park near Oakland’s Lake Merritt went viral last month and sparked further outrage.

…In the cannabis world, the act of a white entrepreneur calling the police on a black entrepreneur for selling a product without a permit strikes a particularly sensitive nerve.

Today, as the legal adult-use cannabis industry takes hold in California, the industry remains predominantly white-owned and white-run, even though people of color suffered far greater harm during prohibition and the war on drugs. People of color who want to get into the business face greater hurdles in terms of access to capital, and are more likely to be held back by past cannabis arrests due to well-documented racial disparities in arrest rates.

So the optics of a successful white cannabis entrepreneur, operating her company with a state permit, calling the cops on a black person for operating without a permit, are not good. The fact that the black person happens to be a child, selling water at what is essentially a lemonade stand, turned Ettel’s “complete mistake” into an act whose symbolism has deep and troubling roots in both American history and the recent history of cannabis in California.

#PermitPatty Episode Blows Up on California Cannabis Company | Leafly

Yup.

Emails Raise Questions About Interior Secretary Zinke’s Link With Oil Executive

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,, Environment,, Money, Class, and Poverty,Leave a comment

A few years ago, the Zinke family foundation announced plans to build a public veterans park along with a public sledding hill and a skating pond on land it owned in Whitefish. The park has not been built, but in the meantime, the surrounding area has become a hot spot for wealthy tourists and second-home buyers.

…According to reporting by Politico, the Zinke foundation and 95 Karrow have made a deal that would allow the real estate project to build a shared parking lot on the land owned by Zinke’s family foundation.

But 95 Karrow is backed by an investment group that includes the chairman and former CEO of Halliburton.

…Halliburton is one of the world’s largest oil field service companies. The Department of the Interior regulates oil and gas drilling on hundreds of millions of acres of public land in the U.S.

Newly surfaced emails are raising questions about that timing.

They show Zinke was still in touch with 95 Karrow’s chief project developer, Casey Malmquist, six months after becoming interior secretary and six months after he resigned from the foundation.

In those emails to Zinke from Malmquist, the developer told Zinke, “our development project and your park plan are an absolute grand slam.”

…”What this email suggests is that Ryan Zinke was not removed from negotiations of the project,” he says. “Instead we are seeing the 95 Karrow project developers negotiating directly with Ryan Zinke.”

Emails Raise Questions About Interior Secretary Zinke’s Link With Oil Executive : NPR

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Zinke’s Halliburton mess deepens

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,, Environment,, Money, Class, and Poverty,Leave a comment

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke met at department headquarters in August with Halliburton Chairman David Lesar and other developers involved in a Montana real estate deal that relied on help from a foundation Zinke established, according to a participant in the meeting and records cited by House Democrats late Thursday.

…The new details raise further questions about Zinke’s involvement in the project, and whether his conversations with the developers — especially in Interior’s office — violated federal conflict of interest laws given Halliburton’s extensive business before this department.

…Ethics analysts have said Zinke, with his wife serving as the nonprofit’s head, may not be removed enough from its actions to ward off an appearance of conflict of interest.

Zinke’s Halliburton mess deepens – POLITICO

hmmm

Gallery Owner Arrested After Dropping Sculpture Of Giant Drug Spoon At Purdue Pharma

On By peanutgallerynhIn Addiction,, Drugs & Drink,, Media and Culture,, Money, Class, and Poverty,Leave a comment

A Stamford art gallery owner was arrested and charged with a criminal misdemeanor and a felony Friday morning after dropping an 800-pound steel sculpture of a bent, burnt heroin spoon in front of Purdue Pharma, a top manufacturer of opioids, and then refusing to remove it.

…Alvarez said the sculpture and its placement are a statement intended to create a groundswell of outrage against Purdue and the billionaire Sackler family, who are majority owners of the company, which developed OxyContin.

…The interactions between Alvarez and police were cordial. While waiting to issue the summons, the gallerist and the cops chatted amiably about civic matters and the opioid epidemic.

The sculpture, named “Purdue,” was made by Boston-based artist Domenic Esposito, who was present at the time of the sculpture drop. Esposito was not charged or arrested. He said before the art drop that he and Alvarez decided who would take the criminal charges.

Esposito said he was was inspired to create the artwork by his brother’s drug addiction. Esposito said his brother started with OxyContin and Percocet and moved to heroin.

Gallery Owner Arrested After Dropping Sculpture Of Giant Drug Spoon At Purdue Pharma – Hartford Courant

Heh, nice.

At least one major advertiser drops Fox News’ Ingraham over migrant comments

On By peanutgallerynhIn Media and Culture,, Money, Class, and Poverty,Leave a comment

During her show on Monday night, Ingraham described the detention centers for immigrant children separated from their parents on the Mexican border as “essentially like summer camps,” further comparing them to “boarding schools.”

…The media and internet company IAC will no longer be running ads for HomeAdvisor or Angie’s List on the show, an IAC spokesperson confirmed on Thursday.

At least one major advertiser drops Fox News’ Ingraham over migrant comments – POLITICO

 

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Trump rescinds Obama policy protecting oceans | TheHill

On By peanutgallerynhIn Environment,, Money, Class, and Poverty,Leave a comment

Trump is repealing [an] …executive order drafted by former President Obama that was meant to protect the Great Lakes and the oceans bordering the United States.

…Trump put a new emphasis on industries that use the oceans, particularly oil and natural gas drilling.

…“Ocean industries employ millions of Americans and support a strong national economy,” the new order states, mentioning energy production, the military, freight transportation and other industries.

…The order encourages more drilling and other industrial uses of the oceans and Great Lakes.

The order stands in contrast to Obama’s policy, which focused heavily on conservation and climate change. His policy was written in 2010, shortly after the deadly BP Deepwater Horizon offshore drilling explosion and 87-day oil spill.

“America’s stewardship of the ocean, our coasts, and the Great Lakes is intrinsically linked to environmental sustainability, human health and well-being, national prosperity, adaptation to climate and other environmental changes, social justice, international diplomacy, and national and homeland security,” Obama’s order stated.

It established a federal council with the responsibility to oversee various programs and decisions that could impact the oceans or Great Lakes.

Trump rescinds Obama policy protecting oceans | TheHill

Aggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggh

Facebook accused of conducting mass surveillance through its apps

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,, Media and Culture,, Money, Class, and Poverty,, Privacy,Leave a comment

Facebook used its apps to gather information about users and their friends, including some who had not signed up to the social network, reading their text messages, tracking their locations and accessing photos on their phones, a court case in California alleges.

The claims of what would amount to mass surveillance are part of a lawsuit brought against the company by the former startup Six4Three, listed in legal documents filed at the superior court in San Mateo as part of a court case that has been ongoing for more than two years.

…Documents filed in the court last week draw upon extensive confidential emails and messages between Facebook senior executives, which are currently sealed.

…The allegations about surveillance appear in a January filing, the fifth amended complaint made by Six4Three. It alleges that Facebook used a range of methods, some adapted to the different phones that users carried, to collect information it could use for commercial purposes.

“Facebook continued to explore and implement ways to track users’ location, to track and read their texts, to access and record their microphones on their phones, to track and monitor their usage of competitive apps on their phones, and to track and monitor their calls,” one court document says.

…It claims the social media company lured developers and investors on to the platform by intentionally misleading them about data controls and privacy settings. As part of the January filing, it claims Facebook tracked users extensively, sometimes without consent.

On Android phones, the company was able to collect metadata and content from text messages, the lawsuit alleges. On iPhones it could access most photos, including those that had not been uploaded to Facebook, Six4Three claims.

Other alleged projects included one to remotely activate Bluetooth, allowing the company to pinpoint a user’s location without them explicitly agreeing to it. Another involved the development of privacy settings with an early end date that was not flagged to users, letting them expire without notice, the court documents claim.

…It also collected information sent by non-subscribers to friends or contacts who had Facebook apps installed on their phones, the court documents claim. Because these people would not have been Facebook users, it would have been impossible for them to have consented to Facebook’s collection of their data.

…Facebook has not fully disclosed the manner in which it pre-processes photos on the iOS camera roll, meaning if a user has any Facebook app installed on their iPhone, then Facebook accesses and analyses the photos the user takes and/or stores on the iPhone, the complainant alleges.

Facebook accused of conducting mass surveillance through its apps | Technology | The Guardian

hmmmm

Zuckerberg set up fraudulent scheme to ‘weaponise’ data, court case alleges

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,, Media and Culture,, Money, Class, and Poverty,Leave a comment

Mark Zuckerberg faces allegations that he developed a “malicious and fraudulent scheme” to exploit vast amounts of private data to earn Facebook billions and force rivals out of business.

A company suing Facebook in a California court claims the social network’s chief executive “weaponised” the ability to access data from any user’s network of friends – the feature at the heart of the Cambridge Analytica scandal.

A legal motion filed last week in the superior court of San Mateo draws upon extensive confidential emails and messages between Facebook senior executives including Mark Zuckerberg. He is named individually in the case and, it is claimed, had personal oversight of the scheme.

…The developer alleges the correspondence shows Facebook paid lip service to privacy concerns in public but behind the scenes exploited its users’ private information.

It claims internal emails and messages reveal a cynical and abusive system set up to exploit access to users’ private information, alongside a raft of anti-competitive behaviours.

…The papers submitted to the court last week allege Facebook was not only aware of the implications of its privacy policy, but actively exploited them, intentionally creating and effectively flagging up the loophole that Cambridge Analytica used to collect data on up to 87 million American users.

The lawsuit also claims Zuckerberg misled the public and Congress about Facebook’s role in the Cambridge Analytica scandal by portraying it as a victim of a third party that had abused its rules for collecting and sharing data.

“The evidence uncovered by plaintiff demonstrates that the Cambridge Analytica scandal was not the result of mere negligence on Facebook’s part but was rather the direct consequence of the malicious and fraudulent scheme Zuckerberg designed in 2012 to cover up his failure to anticipate the world’s transition to smartphones,” legal documents said.

The lawsuit claims to have uncovered fresh evidence concerning how Facebook made decisions about users’ privacy. It sets out allegations that, in 2012, Facebook’s advertising business, which focused on desktop ads, was devastated by a rapid and unexpected shift to smartphones.

Zuckerberg responded by forcing developers to buy expensive ads on the new, underused mobile service or risk having their access to data at the core of their business cut off, the court case alleges.

“Zuckerberg weaponised the data of one-third of the planet’s population in order to cover up his failure to transition Facebook’s business from desktop computers to mobile ads before the market became aware that Facebook’s financial projections in its 2012 IPO filings were false,” one court filing said.

…Sandy Parakilas, a former Facebook employee turned whistleblower who has testified to the UK parliament about its business practices, said the allegations were a “bombshell”. He claimed to MPs Facebook’s senior executives were aware of abuses of friends’ data back in 2011-12 and he was warned not to look into the issue.

“They felt that it was better not to know. I found that utterly horrifying,” he said. “If true, these allegations show a huge betrayal of users, partners and regulators. They would also show Facebook using its monopoly power to kill competition and putting profits over protecting its users.”

Zuckerberg set up fraudulent scheme to ‘weaponise’ data, court case alleges | Technology | The Guardian

hmmm

Walmart ‘surprised’ old store Is a migrant shelter. Records hinted at the possibility.

On By peanutgallerynhIn American Injustice System,, Domestic Affairs,, Modern Parenting,, Money, Class, and Poverty,, Race,Leave a comment

Walmart said it was “surprised and deeply disturbed” to learn that one of its former Texas stores was being used to house migrant children who had been separated from their parents. “We sold the building in 2016 to a developer and had no knowledge then of its intended use today,” the giant retailer said in a Twitter post last week.

…As part of the sales agreement, Walmart made a long list of what the building could not be used for — mostly to thwart rivals and prevent adult or alcohol-related businesses from moving into the space.

The developer could not convert the property into a grocery store or a discount department store that might compete with Walmart. Also banned: a billiards parlor, slot machines and video stores selling NC-17 films.

There also could be no nude or “bathing suit-clad” models or dancers in the former store, according to real estate documents.

The deed did offer some potential uses, exceptions to the restrictions that included an “emergency care center, urgent or non-urgent medical service provider, or flea market.”

…But real estate records pointed to the potential use. A Walmart executive signed a document that indicated the buyer was purchasing the property with a $4.5 million loan from a nonprofit that runs migrant children shelters.

Walmart ‘surprised’ old store Is a migrant shelter. Records hinted at the possibility.

hmmmm