Category: News

Nancy Pelosi Re-elected as House Speaker

Marivic Cabural Summers

U.S. Representative Nancy Pelosi (D-California) was narrowly re-elected to serve as House Speaker of the 117th Congress on Sunday. Pelosi won 216 votes compared with the 209 votes obtained by House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy who is also from California. Five House Democrats did not support Pelosi’s re-election. Rep, Jared Golden of Maine voted for Illinois Senator Tammy Duckworth and Rep. Conor Lamb of Pennsylvania voted for Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York. Three Democratic lawmakers voted present. In her remarks, Pelosi said, “As we are sworn in today, we…

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U.S. Senate passes $2 trillion emergency relief bill to stabilize economy devastated by coronavirus pandemic

Marivic Cabural Summers
U.S. Senate passes $2 trillio

The U.S. Senate passed the $2 trillion emergency relief legislation in an attempt to stabilize the country’s economy destroyed by the ongoing novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Late Wednesday night, the Senate unanimously (96-0) approved the “Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act” or the “CARES Act” after intense negotiations between senators and the White House. This is the third emergency funding legislation in response to the devastating crisis. He added that the “Senate stepped up” to help struggling Americans pay their bills, businesses to keep their operations and avoid lay-offs…

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T-Mobile to offer $15 phone plan, free 5G service, other freebies to remove hurdle on Sprint merger deal

Marivic Cabural Summers

T-Mobile (NASDAQ: TMUS) announced three big plans that are beneficial to consumers if its merger with Sprint Corporation (NYSE: S) closes as expected next year. The $26 billion T-Mobile-Sprint merger already obtained approval from the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and Department of Justice (DOJ). However, it is still facing a legal challenge from a coalition of state attorneys general, who believe that the deal will reduce competition and is harmful to consumers. On Thursday, T-Mobile used its Un-carrier event to make a compelling case about the merger by unveiling…

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Apple pledges $2.5 billion to help California resolve the housing shortage

Marivic Cabural Summers
Apple CEO Tim Cook discusses company's land in San Jose for affordable housing

Apple Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL) announced that it is committing $2.5 billion to help California resolve the housing shortage, which is impacting Californians in many ways. Californians are struggling to find affordable housing. As a result, some are forced to make the difficult decision to leave and move to another state where it is cheaper to rent or buy a home. Others end up living in their vehicles or worse in shelters. On Monday, Apple noted that “nearly 30,000 people left San Francisco between April and June this year and the…

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FTC shuts down stalking apps developer Retina-X Studios

Dan-Reina Aquino

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) filed a lawsuit against Retina-X Studios, owner and developer of stalking apps that compromise the privacy and security consumers’ mobile devices. In its complaint, the FTC alleged that Retina-X and its owner James Johns developed three stalking apps called MobileSpy, PhoneSheriff, and TeenShield. These apps monitored mobile devices on which they were installed. The company sold more than 15,000 subscriptions to all three stalking apps before stopping selling them last year. Consumers bought the apps to monitor their children or employees. The consumer watchdog alleged…

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Telegram faces SEC lawsuit for allegedly conducting unregistered digital token offering

Dan-Reina Aquino
SEC-Lawsuit-Telegram

Telegram Group and its wholly-owned subsidiary TON Issuer Inc. are facing a lawsuit filed by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for allegedly conducting an unregistered digital token offering or initial coin offering (ICO). On Friday, the SEC announced that it obtained an emergency restraining order against Telegram, which raised $1.7 billion selling its digital token called Grams in the United States and overseas. In its complaint, the securities regulator alleged that Telegram sold approximately 2.9 billion Grams to 171 initial purchasers worldwide. In the United States 39 investors…

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Justice Department Busts Credit Card Laundering Scheme Operator

Dan-Reina Aquino

The Department of Justice (DOJ) busted a former CEO of a credit card processing company for allegedly operating a credit card laundering scheme. The U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Geoffrey Berman filed a lawsuit against former CardReady CEO Brandon Becker on Friday. In the indictment, the U.S. Attorney alleged that Becker created sham merchant accounts to allow access to a credit card processing system for certain deceptive businesses including a telemarketing scheme. Becker through its telemarketing scheme allegedly bilked more than $19 million from thousands of…

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AdvoCare to pay $150 million for allegedly operating a pyramid scheme

Marivic Cabural Summers
AdvoCare Products

Is AdvoCare International operating a pyramid scheme? The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) said so in its lawsuit against the company, its former CEO Connolly, top promoters Danny and Diane McDaniel and distributors Carlton and Lisa Hardman. AdvoCare is selling weight-management and sports performance products using a multi-level marketing strategy. The company is based in Plano, Texas. Details of the settlement agreement between AdvoCare and FTC On Wednesday, the FTC announced the AdvoCare together with the other defendants agreed to settle its allegations against them and agreed to pay a monetary…

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