DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

☆ Meet Hakeem Jeffries, the New York congressman likely to succeed Nancy Pelosi as House Democratic leader
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-17 | by ( John L. Dorman | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: 1 min

Hakeem Jeffries was born and raised in Brooklyn. Hakeem Jeffries. FacebookUS Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, 52, was born in Brooklyn and grew up in the Crown Heights neighborhood of the borough. He earned a bachelor's degree in political science from the State University of New York at Binghamton, as well as a master's degree in public policy from Georgetown University. He then earned a law degree from the New York University School of Law, where he served on the Law Review.

Rep. Katie Porter ran against Republican Scott Baugh in California's 47th Congressional District. 2022 General EmbedsCalifornia's 47th Congressional District candidatesPorter ran for her third term in the House and sits on the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. This was Baugh's third time running for the 47th Congressional District seat. Voting history for California's 47th Congressional DistrictCalifornia's 47th Congressional District is an affluent coastal district that covers a large swath of Orange County. Her opponent, Baugh, raised $2.7 million, spent nearly $2.6 million, and had $139,000 cash on hand, as of October 19.

☆ The Trump-appointed judge who blocked Biden's student-loan forgiveness compared the debt relief to a law enabling Hitler
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-15 | by ( Ayelet Sheffey | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Mark Pittman, a federal judge in Texas, blocked Biden's student-debt relief last week. In a hearing prior to the ruling, Pittman compared the relief to a law that gave Hitler power. The ruling was in response to a lawsuit filed by two student-loan borrowers who sued because they did not qualify for the full amount of debt relief. Replying to that argument, Pittman suggested that allowing loan forgiveness in response to an emergency is similar to a German law that gave Hitler power. "Again this is a Trump-appointed judge invalidating student debt cancellation (after likening statutes authorizing debt cancellation to ... the rise of Hitler!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)"

☆ Would Twitter get online publisher immunity in fake 'blue check' suits?
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-14 | by ( Alison Frankel | Thomson Reuters | Alison Frankel Has Covered High-Stakes Commercial Litigation As A Columnist For Reuters Since A Dartmouth College Graduate | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

(Reuters) - Twitter Inc’s introduction last week of a new subscription system to dole out blue-check verification badges was a flop by any standard. Edelson's preliminary theory: By awarding verification badges to the fake corporate tweeters, Twitter enabled the imposters to trick consumers and even shareholders. (Eli Lilly and Co and Lockheed Martin Corp both experienced sharp, if temporary, stock drops after tweets from corporate accounts that carried the blue-check verification.) Twitter also did not respond to my email query about potential private lawsuits arising from last week’s fake tweets. What about shareholders or consumers who claim to have been duped by tweets from fake corporate accounts?

☆ Why a Trump-appointed Texas judge blocked Biden's student-debt cancellation plan
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-14 | by ( Ayelet Sheffey | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Trump-appointed Judge Mark Pittman struck down Biden's debt relief in Texas last week. They claimed that enacting broad student-loan forgiveness is an overreach of the authority and should require Congressional approval, while Biden has maintained one-time student-loan forgiveness is well within the administration's legal authority. The plaintiffs' standing to sueBoth of the plaintiffs who brought the Texas lawsuit hold student loans. The first plaintiff, Myra Brown, sued because her loans are commercially-held and therefore ineligible for Biden's debt relief, which requires the borrower to owe their debt directly to the federal government. Pittman said that Biden's Justice Department argument that the plaintiffs' standing does not exist is "untrue."

☆ Here's how Donald Trump could theoretically run for president in 2024 and govern the US from prison, according to 9 legal scholars
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-13 | by ( Robin Bravender | Tina Sfondeles | Dave Levinthal | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +17 min

If Trump landed in prison, nothing in the Constitution would block him from another White House run, according to nine legal experts interviewed by Insider. He served eight years in federal prison after being convicted on public-corruption charges. In the Oval Office, Trump conducted business at the ornate Resolute Desk. If he wound up in federal prison, he'd likely have more sway over his fate. Hochul would all but certainly reject calls to cut Trump legal slack in any fashion, pardons included.

WASHINGTON — The conservative-majority Supreme Court left its imprint on the 2022 elections, galvanizing Democrats with decisions on guns and abortion and potentially aiding Republicans with election rulings. For decades, it was the Republican Party that benefited from conservative anger over the Supreme Court's original ruling in Roe v. Wade. Using the new map, Republicans won five of the six districts Tuesday. Under the newly drawn map, Republicans won 20 of 28 seats. The Supreme Court's 2019 ruling said partisan gerrymandering claims could not be adjudicated by federal courts.

That is why, leaders say, HBCUs and other minority-serving institutions will be even more important to students of color should the Supreme Court end affirmative action in college admissions. Allison ShelleyThe Supreme Court is hearing cases that challenge affirmative action policies at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina. Although HBCUs are predominantly Black institutions, non-Black students made up 24% of HBCU enrollment in 2020, according to the NCES. That diversity is important to consider amid claims that HBCUs make race-conscious admissions unnecessary, said Marie Bigham, the founder and executive director of the race-conscious admissions advocacy group Admissions Community Cultivating Equity & Peace Today. Late last month, the coalition and students from across the country protested outside the Supreme Court as it weighed the cases.

WILMINGTON, Del, Nov 11 (Reuters) - Elon Musk has taken on Detroit's automakers, short-sellers and securities regulators. Next week, the Tesla (TSLA.O) chief executive is set to square off in court against an unlikely foe - a thrash metal drummer who hopes to strip Musk of his $56 billion pay. Tornetta sued Musk and the Tesla board on behalf of the company in what is known as a shareholder derivative lawsuit. The pay package was widely criticized and California's teachers retirement system known as CalSTRS was among the investors who voted against it. The disputed pay package allows Musk to buy 1% of Tesla's stock at a deep discount each time escalating performance and financial targets are met; otherwise Musk gets nothing.

(Reuters) - The shooting death of teenager Michael Brown by a Ferguson, Missouri, police officer prompted the U.S. Justice Department's most significant investigation of policing practices since the beginning of the Black Lives Matter movement. The DOJ also pointed out that “police departments in surrounding municipalities and the County” have practices similar to Ferguson, although that issue was “beyond the scope” of the investigation. In fact, federal officials even considered opening another investigation of the St. Louis police department for similar problems, Reuters reported in October 2020. Ferguson officials expressed concerns that the reforms required to stop exploitative policing in their city would “cripple city finances,” Reuters reported in March 2016. (A measure to institute a modest property tax increase to fund the reforms didn't get the required two-thirds majority vote.)

Proposition 26, which sought to bring point spreads to Native American casinos, was being rejected by 70.1% to 29.9%, tallies showed Wednesday night. Meanwhile, Proposition 27, the measure that sought to legalize online sports betting, was going down to even greater defeat by 83.3% to 16.7%. Proposition 26 garnered $120.7 million in donor support and $43.8 million in opposition efforts, according to the California secretary of state's contribution records. Meanwhile, Proposition 27 drew $169.5 million in support and $237.8 million in opposition. Proposition 27's backers didn't strongly oppose Proposition 26, whose backers aggressively fought the former measure in hopes of bringing Native American casinos a near-monopoly in sports betting.

☆ Law firms that make billions fighting injuries and frauds are very hush-hush about what they pay. Here are the starting salaries at 19 firms from Altshuler to Wigdor.
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-08 | by ( Jack Newsham | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Many plaintiffs' firms pay somewhere in between. Despite more law firms increasingly paying their top earners like professional athletes, many law school grads only make between $50,000 and $80,000 a year. Things do appear to be changing as more plaintiffs firms seek to compete with Big Law firm talent. But firms like Edelson that pay as much as Big Law firms are the exception. For more information on how these law firms pay, see our table below:Do you have more information on how plaintiffs' firms pay their lawyers?

Organizations: & $

[1/2] SpaceX Chief Engineer Elon Musk gestures during a joint news conference with T-Mobile CEO Mike Sievert at the SpaceX Starbase, in Brownsville, Texas, U.S., August 25, 2022. REUTERS/Adrees LatifCompanies Twitter Inc FollowTesla Inc FollowWILMINGTON, Del., Nov 7 (Reuters) - As Elon Musk is engulfed in his overhaul of Twitter, the entrepreneur is headed to trial to defend his record $56 billion Tesla Inc pay package against claims it unjustly enriches him without requiring his full-time presence at the carmaker. The disputed pay package allows Musk to buy 1% of Tesla's stock at a deep discount each time escalating performance and financial targets are met; otherwise Musk gets nothing. Does Elon Musk work for the board or does the board work for Elon Musk," said Minor Myers, a professor at UConn School of Law. Myers said if the pay package is rescinded, the board could simply create a new one and do so with McCormick's ruling to guide them.

☆ Fact Check-As voter registration mailers trigger claims of ‘dead voters’ in Texas, officials and experts say there are safeguards in place against voter impersonation
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-03 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +8 min

Allegations that voter registration applications sent to deceased voters in Texas equate to or would lead to voter fraud are circulating on social media ahead of the U.S. midterms. The Texas Secretary of State stressed that there are multiple safeguards in place against voter impersonation. If someone received an application addressed to a deceased voter, to actually commit voter fraud, they would still need to: complete the application, request a mail-in ballot and ultimately, cast that ballot. “It would seem unlikely, but not impossible to acquire these pieces of information and then receive, complete and return a mail ballot for the deceased voter. The use of non-official datasets containing outdated information could result in some mailers being sent to deceased voters.

In the aftermath of the 2020 election, local election officials became frequent targets of supporters of former President Donald Trump who supported his false claims of election fraud. Election officials also said that the courts could inject chaos into the process if results are contested for weeks following the vote. Droves of election workers throughout Georgia quit their positions following the 2020 election. And in Pennsylvania, nearly 50 top election officials have left their post within the past two years. “Election workers and election officials leave or stop coming in, more errors can occur as a result, which in turn can fuel disinformation,” he said.

☆ Democratic Rep. Katie Porter faces off against Republican Scott Baugh in California's 47th Congressional District election
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-02 | by ( Hanna Kang | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Rep. Katie Porter is running against Republican Scott Baugh in California's 47th Congressional District. California's 47th Congressional District candidatesPorter is running for her third term in the House and sits on the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. This is Baugh's third time running for the 47th Congressional District seat. Voting history for California's 47th Congressional DistrictCalifornia's 47th Congressional District is an affluent coastal district that covers a large swath of Orange County. After the district lines were finalized, Porter announced she would switch districts to run in the new 47th District, a coastal district that encompasses her hometown of Irvine.

☆ Rising tensions between 2 of NATO's biggest militaries are driving fears of the first war between alliance members
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-02 | by ( Constantine Atlamazoglou | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

Greece and Turkey have two of NATO's largest militaries and are in an important corner of Europe. Their tensions have escalated in recent years, stoking new fears about the first war within NATO. Greece's defense spending in 2022 was the highest in the alliance as a share of GDP. (NATO also calls for 20% of members' defense spending to go toward equipment purchases and upgrades.) Greece's defense minister said that "as long as there is a threat of territorial sovereignty, it renders futile any attempt at communication."

☆ A Walmart-backed fintech has been making changes to an online bank it acquired. Long-standing customers are getting fed up.
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-02 | by ( Carter Johnson | Ben Tobin | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +15 min

But once the Walmart-backed fintech venture Hazel acquired One and adopted its moniker in January, some of the features that drew Gastley to the bank disappeared. The page has become, in some cases, the first place customers turn to for information about product changes. (Like most neobanks, One has partnered with a sponsor bank, the Washington-based Coastal Community Bank, to provide financial services.) But then One customers received an email from the bank on May 12: It would be closing current credit lines, effective immediately. That's not the only change to Pockets for which Joseph, who has dozens of the virtual bank accounts, didn't receive a notification about, he said.

☆ Arizona early voting marred by ballot box intimidation. Courts needs to intervene.
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-01 | by ( Richard L. Hasen | Richard L. Hasen Is Professor At Ucla School Of Law | Where He Directs Its Safeguarding Democracy Project. He Is An Nbc News Msnbc Election Law Analyst. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +9 min

First Amendment rights do not extend to threats of violence and voter intimidation. A great deal of the attention has been on ballot drop boxes. There has been no indication of any widespread fraud through the use of ballot drop boxes. Nonetheless, conspiracy theories about the drop boxes have continued to circulate, fueled in part by a widely debunked film by Dinesh D’Souza, “2000 Mules,” which uses false and unproven claims to try to show drop boxes being used for fraud. Reporting by NBC News shows that ballot drop box conspiracies have flooded Trump’s social media website, Truth Social, and that has led to organizing on the ground, including in places like Arizona.

☆ Over 200,000 trans people could face voting restrictions because of state ID laws
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-01 | by ( Jo Yurcaba | Jo Yurcaba Is A Reporter For Nbc Out. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +12 min

Seaton showed his state ID. “So I expect that we’re going to hear more stories of trans people being harassed, whether by voters, poll workers, poll monitors or other folks who are present during the election.”Impact of voter ID laws on trans votersVoter identification laws differ widely by state. Eight of those states have strict photo ID laws. Since the 2020 election, 12 states have enacted new or stricter voter ID laws, according to VoteRiders, a nonpartisan voting rights organization. In the 15 states without ID laws, voters’ identities are usually verified by checking them against their voter registration information, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

☆ You may experience a 'mysterious disappearance’ on Halloween — and insurance probably won't pay for it
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-31 | by ( Greg Iacurci | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Renters and homeowners insurance claims related to a "mysterious disappearance" increased by 5% on Halloween and 3% on Mischief Night, which is the night before Halloween, according to Travelers Insurance claims data from 2011 to 2021. Some have clauses that explicitly deny payment in cases of such a "mysterious disappearance." Why 'named perils' matter in insurance coverageHowever, you're not necessarily in the clear just because your policy doesn't explicitly omit a "mysterious disappearance." When it comes to personal property, insurance generally only covers renters and homeowners for a "named peril," Griffin said. So-called all-risk policies or open perils policies, by contrast, cover any event the policy doesn't specifically exclude.

☆ Europe's militaries have been working together for years to keep an eye on what Russia is up to at sea
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-31 | by ( Constantine Atlamazoglou | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

The Nord Stream pipeline sabotage in September drew new attention to maritime threats in Europe. European militaries have already been working on new ways to protect undersea infrastructure. Although the pipelines were not in use— Nord Stream 1 was shut down in March by EU sanctions against Russia, and Nord Stream 2 wasn't yet operational—the incident highlights the risks to underwater infrastructure. Even before the war in Ukraine, Western officials had grown worried about increasing activity by Russian ships and submarines around underwater cables crossing the Atlantic. "Russia is clearly taking an interest in NATO and NATO nations' undersea infrastructure," the admiral said at the time.

If election deniers in those races win, their ability to affect future elections could be made more robust by having cooperative election deniers in their state houses to help push legislation remaking certain election laws in those states. The group’s analysis found that election deniers were most prevalent in Arizona state legislative races, where they made up 87% of all Republican nominees in those races. In both Pennsylvania and Michigan, 62% of all Republican state legislative nominees in each state were election deniers, the group found. In Minnesota, 42% of all Republican nominees in state legislative races were election deniers, while in Nevada, 31% were. That included several incumbents and candidates in Minnesota who'd who had questioned or challenged the results of the 2020 election.

☆ Russia's anti-satellite threat tests laws of war in space
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-28 | by ( Joey Roulette | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

Such an act during the war in Ukraine could sharply escalate tensions between Russia and the United States. And tens of thousands of communications devices in Ukraine rely on U.S. satellite communications giant Iridium's (IRDM.O) satellite network. "If somebody starts shooting satellites in space, I'd imagine it would quickly make space unusable," Desch said. COMPLICATED CALCULUSWhether a Russian anti-satellite strike would violate the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, such as its prohibition on placing weapons of mass destruction in space, is debatable, lawyers say. SpaceX's Starlink network consists of roughly 3,000 satellites, and there are several dozen commercial U.S. imagery satellites eyeing Russia and Ukraine.

The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments in the two cases on Monday, with rulings due by the end of June. Blum's goal is for the Supreme Court to overturn its own precedents allowing race as a factor in admissions. Blum raised more than $8 million from 2015 to 2020 for Students for Fair Admissions, most going to covering legal fees. No Students for Fair Admissions members served as plaintiffs or testified in court in the Harvard and UNC cases as the group lost in lower courts. The Supreme Court in January agreed to hear appeals backed by Blum in both cases.

Search resuls for: "School of Law"

25 mentions found