“… the Education Department quietly informed the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that it would stop sharing critical information on $1.3 trillion of federal student loans, ending a partnership that has let the CFPB sue loan companies and force others to change their practices in the nation’s second-largest household debt market.” More …
Month: September 2017
University of Wisconsin and the Aftermath of Destroying Professor Tenure
“This past June, American academia went into an uproar over Gov. Scott Walker’s new budget in Wisconsin, which not only cut $250 million from higher education, but also severly weakened shared faculty governance and effectively destroyed professor tenure at state universities: Specifically, any professor in the system—tenured or not—could be dismissed or laid off by the 18-member Board of Regents using maddeningly vague criteria: ‘when such an action is deemed necessary due to a budget or program decision requiring program discontinuance, curtailment, modification or redirection.'” More …
News Use Across Social Media Platforms 2017
“As of August 2017, two-thirds (67%) of Americans report that they get at least some of their news on social media – with two-in-ten doing so often, according to a new survey from Pew Research Center.” More …
Trump’s ‘Election Integrity’ Group is Waging War on the Right to Vote
“The president’s commission lead by Kris Kobach, a champion of repressive voting laws, could do significant damage to hard-won voting rights.” More …
Committee to Investigate Russia
“The Russian Active Measures campaign aimed at the United States has been exposed. Using hacking, Twitter armies, and fake news, the Kremlin engaged in an aggressive effort to subvert the American democratic process. Now, only months into his term of office, the President and his staff are facing multiple investigations in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives and by a Special Counsel for the Department of Justice. The Committee to Investigate Russia is a nonprofit, non-partisan resource provided to help Americans recognize and understand the gravity of Russia’s continuing attacks on our democracy. ” More …
Facebook Enabled Advertisers to Reach ‘Jew Haters’
“After being contacted by ProPublica, Facebook removed several anti-Semitic ad categories and promised to improve monitoring.” More …
Steve Bannon Sought to Infiltrate Facebook Hiring
According to emails obtained by BuzzFeed News, Bannon hoped to spy on Facebook’s job application process. More …
Donald Trump’s Bodyguard Tied to Figure in Russia Probe
“Another connection has emerged between Donald Trump and Felix Sater, the Russian emigre and ex-con who’s become a key figure in widening investigations into ties between Trump associates and Russian figures.” More …
Russians Appear to Use Facebook to Push Trump Rallies in 17 U.S. Cities
‘Being Patriotic,’ a Facebook group uncovered by The Daily Beast, is the first evidence of suspected Russian provocateurs explicitly mobilizing Trump supporters in real life. More …
Federal Government Notifies 21 States of Election Hacking
“The federal government on Friday told election officials in 21 states that hackers targeted their systems before last year’s presidential election. The notification came roughly a year after U.S. Department of Homeland Security officials first said states were targeted by hacking efforts possibly connected to Russia. The states that told The Associated Press they had been targeted included some key political battlegrounds, such as Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin.” More …