DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

☆ Analysis: Lula confronts Brazil military's pro-Bolsonaro lean with carrot and stick
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-23 | by ( Anthony Boadle | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

But at a Friday meeting the commanders of the armed forces, Lula did not bring up the attack, according to a government official who witnessed the meeting. The armed forces' strategic plans to modernize its equipment included developing a nuclear-powered submarine contracted with France's Naval Group, a subsidiary of defense contractor Thales (TCFP.PA). GENIE OUT OF THE BOTTLEWhether a splurge on military hardware will help tamp down pro-Bolsonaro sentiment in the armed forces is open to question. "Lula wants this to go away as soon as possible," he added. "Starting to punish members of the armed forces for what happened may be legally the right thing to do but politically it would open a Pandora's box."

☆ U.S. House eyes creating task force on flawed aviation computer system
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-20 | by ( David Shepardson | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The outage of the Notice to Air Missions (NOTAM) database prompted the Jan. 11 nationwide groundstop of U.S. passenger traffic, the first since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. The NOTAM system provides pilots, flight crews and other users of U.S. airspace with critical safety notices. The FAA next week plans to hold a briefing for House lawmakers. There are two separate databases including a 30-year-old system known as the U.S. NOTAM System" based in Oklahoma City being phased out in favor of the newer "Federal NOTAM system" based in Atlantic City, the sources said. Last week, the corruption occurred in the US NOTAM system, which then infiltrated the federal NOTAM database.

☆ U.S., Taiwan officials pledge ambitious trade negotiating schedule
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-17 | by ( David Lawder | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

WASHINGTON, Jan 17 (Reuters) - The United States and Taiwan concluded four days of trade negotiations on Monday and reached consensus on a number of areas related to trade facilitation, anti-corruption, small and medium-sized enterprises and regulatory practices, the U.S. Trade Representative's office said. The first major negotiating round of the U.S.-Taiwan Initiative on 21st Century Trade saw the two sides exchange texts on those areas in Taipei, USTR said in a statement. "Officials also reached consensus in a number of areas and pledged to maintain an ambitious negotiating schedule in the months ahead to continue this momentum," USTR said. Taiwan last year was excluded from a broader U.S. trade initiative covering Indo-Pacific countries that also focuses on non-tariff issues. USTR said that the trade texts exchanged during the Taipei negotiating round "follow through on the two sides' shared commitment to pursue a high-ambition trade initiative" that would "strengthen and deepen economic and trade ties."

WASHINGTON — Aides to President Joe Biden have discovered at least one additional batch of classified documents in a location separate from the Washington office he used after leaving the Obama administration, according to a person familiar with the matter. The initial discovery of classified documents in an office used by Biden after his vice presidency was first reported on Monday by CBS News. It also was not immediately clear when the additional documents were discovered and if the search for any other classified materials Biden may have from the Obama administration is complete. Two sources familiar with the matter said less than a dozen documents with classified markings were found at the office. Trump's possession of over 100 documents with classified markings despite have been subpoenaed for their return is the subject of a federal criminal investigation by the Justice Department.

☆ McCarthy's dream job could become a nightmare
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-07 | by ( David Morgan | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

But that role could turn into a nightmare because it requires leading a caucus that strongly rejects leadership. He told reporters on Friday night that he would be a more effective leader because of the drawn-out process. So now we'll be able to get the job done," McCarthy said. The Congressional Leadership Fund, a group tied to him, contributed more than $160 million to help Republican House candidates. McCarthy sent candidates $6.5 million from his own campaign and four other entities under his control, according to his campaign team.

☆ McCarthy's dream of being U.S. House speaker faces a political nightmare
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-03 | by ( David Morgan | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

McCarthy has spent his adult life in politics, first as a congressional staffer and then state legislator before being elected to the House in 2006. At the same time, McCarthy, who has been House minority leader since 2019, would need to work with a Democratic Senate and the Biden White House on must-pass legislation. House Republicans and Democrats will then move quickly to a floor election for speaker, at which McCarthy will need support from a majority of members present to obtain the top congressional post. But already there is speculation that incoming House Majority Leader Steve Scalise or conservative leader Jim Jordan could emerge as a Republican compromise candidate. The House Freedom Caucus is pushing for rule changes that would make it easier to control the speaker and enhance the hard-line group's influence within the Republican conference.

☆ 77 members of the 117th Congress violated a federal conflicts-of-interest and financial transparency law
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-31 | by ( Madison Hall | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

77 members of Congress violated the STOCK Act in the 117th session of Congress. The Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act of 2012 is designed to curb insider trading and requires timely disclosure of financial trades. But a decade on, Republican and Democratic lawmakers alike routinely violate the STOCK Act: 40 Republicans and 37 Democrats in the current Congress violated the law, per Insider's tally. Some members of Congress violated the law more egregiously than others. GOP Rep. Pat Fallon of Texas, for example, violated the STOCK Act multiple times and waited months to disclose up to $17 million in trades.

☆ Privacy and crypto will likely lead tech policy under split Congress as hope for passing ambitious antitrust reforms dwindles
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-27 | by ( Lauren Feiner | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +9 min

After what started as a hopeful year for tech policy, the 117th Congress is about to close out its term with many key efforts tabled. That's the case with privacy legislation, where a bill proposed this year gained bipartisan support, passing out of a House committee with a near-unanimous vote. The pair blamed the bills' failure to advance on intense lobbying efforts by the tech industry against them. One prominent bipartisan bill in the Senate would put the CFTC in charge. "But the importance of tech policy issues will still be strong."

Share this -Link copied'It's too much for me': Zelenskyy begins speech by thanking U.S. Zelenskyy began his remarks before a joint meeting of Congress at 7:40 p.m. "I think we share the exact same vision, that of a free, independent and prosperous Ukraine," Biden said. The Ukrainian president added that the soldier told him that "many (of) his brothers, this system saved." President Joe Biden holds a medal presented to him by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Oval Office. Share this -Link copiedPhoto: Zelenskyy shakes hands with Biden as he arrives President Joe Biden welcomes Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to the White House.

WASHINGTON — The House Jan. 6 committee found that law enforcement agencies gathered “substantial evidence” of potential violence at the Capitol as Congress met to formalize Joe Biden's election as president, a member of the panel said at its final meeting Monday. But the executive summary of the committee's final report doesn’t address questions of why the FBI, U.S. Capitol Police and other law enforcement agencies didn’t do more to increase security that day. The executive summary, released Monday, avoids criticizing or reaching conclusions about law enforcement and intelligence shortfalls in the lead-up to the attack, which many law enforcement experts have called the biggest intelligence failure since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. A representative for the committee didn’t respond to a request for comment about the decision not to include more information about the role law enforcement played ahead of the Capitol attack. The committee's executive summary discusses information that the FBI and other law enforcement agencies received in the days before Jan. 6, saying some of the intelligence was shared with partners like the Capitol Police.

☆ Top government ethics officer was late disclosing his personal finances on multiple occasions
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-20 | by ( Kimberly Leonard | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

The attorney, Office of Government Ethics General Counsel David Apol, missed deadlines to report at least 12 different bond transactions since 2015. Improperly reporting purchases and sales of bonds or stocks is a violation of the 2012 Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act, or STOCK Act. Officials are only required to report transactions in broad ranges. Democratic Rep. Abigail Spanberger of Virginia has been one of the lead proponents in Congress of reforming the STOCK Act. Congress this year discussed changes to the STOCK Act and the US House even held a hearing following the publication of "Conflicted Congress."

☆ Democrats run out the clock on a congressional stock-ban bill
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-20 | by ( Madison Hall | Dave Levinthal | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

After months of wrangling over a congressional stock-trade ban, Pelosi is getting that wish. Some government ethics advocates had hoped that congressional stock-ban legislation would be packaged with the 2023 omnibus spending bill. Meanwhile, lawmakers from both the Republican and Democratic parties continue violating the STOCK Act while 11th-hour pleas from Democratic stock-ban advocates go unanswered by Democratic leaders. A ban on members of Congress trading individual stocks and cryptocurrencies will officially die on January 3, when the 118th Congress is seated. Any stock-ban bill introduced next year will therefore require bipartisan support across Congress' two chambers.

☆ Scandal-plagued Republican Rep. Madison Cawthorn failed to report another trade of 'Let's Go Brandon' coin — a violation of the federal STOCK Act
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-15 | by ( Madison Hall | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Rep. Madison Cawthorn just violated a federal conflict-of-interest law, the STOCK Act, for the third time this year. Cawthorn in January sold up to $50,000 in Let's Go Brandon coin, a cryptocurrency, but waited months to disclose it. The House Ethics Committee recently fined Cawthorn $15,000 for purchasing the cryptocurrency on terms more favorable than available to the public. Cawthorn's latest personal financial disclosure, mandated by federal law, shows he sold an amount of "Let's Go Brandon" coin valued between $15,001 and $50,000 in January. He waited until earlier this month to report the trade, in violation of the federal Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act of 2012.

☆ What to know about a judicial privacy bill Congress is passing with a major defense package
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-14 | by ( Tierney Sneed | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +11 min

But the legislation is also rankling court watchdogs who contend the bill could complicate efforts to scrutinize the judicial branch for ethics issues. The bill does not displace the ethical disclosure requirements judges already face, the congressional aide noted to CNN. And it extends the threat-monitoring programs that are being offered to Article III judges to administrative judges as well. Now that the bill has been added to the National Defense Authorization Act, a massive defense package that Congress passes annually, Paul’s options for scuttling it are limited. “Because, if I am sued, someone is going to be bringing it to a federal judge.

☆ Ethics panel directs Madison Cawthorn to donate $15K for improperly promoting Let's Go Brandon cryptocurrency
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-06 | by ( Zoë Richards | Zoë Richards Is The Evening Politics Reporter For Nbc News. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +2 min

The House Ethics Committee directed GOP Rep. Madison Cawthorn of North Carolina to pay nearly $15,000 to a charity Tuesday after finding "substantial evidence" that he improperly promoted a cryptocurrency while in Congress. The committee said in its 81-page report that it did not find evidence of improprieties between Cawthorn and the staffer. However, the subcommittee that conducted the probe said Cawthorn violated rules against conflicts of interest surrounding the cryptocurrency and directed him to pay $14,237.49 to an appropriate charitable organization by Dec. 31. It also found that Cawthorn, 27, failed to file timely reports to the House "disclosing his transactions relating to the cryptocurrency." In its complaint, the PAC also accused Cawthorn of having a relationship with one of his aides.

The answer is simple, according to more than a dozen Washington insiders, FTX employees, and crypto industry observers who spoke with Insider. I don't think anyone believed that he was going to fund candidates who were, quote unquote, committed to ending pandemics who were also hostile to the crypto industry." Alex Wong/Getty ImagesRebuffed by the SEC, Bankman-Fried turned his attention to Congress. "It's not that he was welcoming regulation," says the senior figure in the crypto industry who attended meetings with Bankman-Fried. But while Bankman-Fried was busy wooing Washington, FTX was about to become Exhibit A in the case for more effective oversight of the crypto industry.

The Ways and Means Committee has said it wanted copies of Trump's returns, and the tax returns of several Trump legal entities, for an inquiry into how the IRS audits presidential tax returns. The committee had been seeking Trump's tax returns since 2019, when the Republican was still president. Trump as a presidential candidate and then as president broke decades of tradition by refusing to publicly release his tax returns. When the committee first asked for Trump's returns three years ago, the Treasury Department refused to turn them over. "The Supreme Court has lost its honor, prestige, and standing, & has become nothing more than a political body, with our Country paying the price."

☆ Twitter searches for China protests bombarded by spam and porn, raising alarms among researchers
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-28 | by ( Brian Fung | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

The fire, and long simmering frustration over the country’s zero Covid policies, helped spur the rare protests in China. GreatFire.org, which helps Chinese citizens get around the country’s internet censorship, noted a torrent of “dating” spam tweets appearing on Friday tagged with “Urumqi,” the capital of Xinjiang. The flood of spam tweets is still ongoing, Smith told CNN on Monday. Twitter is officially blocked in China, but estimates of the number of Twitter users in China have ranged between 3 million and 10 million. Musk has pushed back on suggestions that his ownership of Tesla, which is heavily invested in China, may give the Chinese government “leverage” over Twitter.

☆ House Republicans say TikTok made misleading claims in briefings on data handling
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-23 | by ( Brian Fung | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

Washington CNN Business —House Republicans say TikTok may have misled congressional staff in private briefings about the company’s handling of US user data, in a new letter to the short-form video app this week. And it foreshadows how House Republicans, having gained a majority in the 2022 midterm elections, are likely to approach TikTok in the coming months. “Both claims appear to be misleading at best, and at worst, false,” Comer and McMorris Rodgers wrote. Tuesday’s letter calls on TikTok to preserve a broad swath of documents, communications and other records, in a preview of how House lawmakers could investigate the company in the coming months. And it reiterated a half-dozen other requests for information the GOP lawmakers had sent to the company during the summer.

The law allows the government to choose 10 drugs to negotiate from among the 50 costliest drugs for Medicare. Even so, Republicans will "chip away" at the drug price negotiation provision and its implementation, said Joel White, founder and president of Horizon Government Affairs. Biden is unlikely to weaken his signature domestic achievement, said Larry Levitt, Executive Vice President for Health Policy at the Kaiser Family Foundation. Even Republican support for the drug pricing provision is not guaranteed because it is popular with voters across the political spectrum, he said. "All Republicans voted against drug price negotiation, but they have to tread carefully in any effort to weaken it."

☆ Trump promises to ban lawmakers from trading stocks during his 2024 announcement
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-16 | by ( Brent D. Griffiths | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Trump endorsed a ban on members of Congress trading stocks. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle support a ban but progress has stalled during the current Congress. Trump has previously attacked the idea of lawmakers trading stocks before, but his comments on Tuesday appeared to be his most fulsome endorsement of a ban thus far. House leaders have pledged to move forward on stock-ban legislation this month, but it's not immediately clear where negotiations for passing a stock ban stand. While the issue has bipartisan support, lawmakers on both sides of the Capitol have a number of issues to deal with during the so-called "lame duck" session.

☆ Kevin McCarthy faces high-wire act as Republicans close in on U.S. House majority
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-15 | by ( David Morgan | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

As speaker, McCarthy would be well placed to frustrate Democratic President Joe Biden's legislative ambitions. In Republican House leadership elections on Tuesday, McCarthy is expected to overcome a challenge from hard-line conservative Representative Andy Biggs. Republicans fell short of the "red wave" that some had predicted for a comfortable House majority and control of the Senate. The last two Republican House speakers, John Boehner and Paul Ryan, came under varying degrees of pressure from the right flank of the Republican caucus. The Congressional Leadership Fund, a group tied to him, contributed more than $160 million to help Republican House candidates.

☆ Casey DeSantis, Florida's 'co-governor': Rivals, friends, and former colleagues say she's the secret behind husband Ron DeSantis' meteoric rise
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-04 | by ( Lyz Lenz | Kimberly Leonard | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +29 min

Florida's first lady, Casey DeSantis, is a close confidant to her powerful husband, several people told Insider. He added, "We would not see Ron DeSantis outside of press conferences if he did not have a wife and kids." Ron DeSantis began clawing his way into the national spotlight in 2017 as a member of the US House of Representatives. She smiled wryly and said: "Everyone knows my husband, Ron DeSantis, is endorsed by President Trump, but he's also an amazing dad. "Ron DeSantis would be a very good candidate for the St. Johns county commission if he did not have Casey DeSantis in his life," Schorsch said.

☆ Factbox: Threats and attacks on members of Congress
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-28 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

Oct 28 (Reuters) - The assault on U.S. businessman Paul Pelosi, the husband of U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi, in their San Francisco home early on Friday morning comes amid a rising number of reported threats against members of Congress. According to data provided by the United States Capitol Police, a law enforcement agency charged with protecting members of Congress, cases related to "concerning statements and threats" jumped from 3,939 in 2017 to 9,625 in 2021. Aug. 29, 2022 - A Pennsylvania man pleaded guilty to threatening to shoot and kill an unnamed member of Congress, federal prosecutors said. Four of the people who stormed the Capitol died on the day of the attack. June 14, 2017 - U.S. Republican Representative Steve Scalise, then-Majority Whip, was shot in the hip and taken to the hospital after a gunman opened fire on Republican members of Congress at a baseball practice in Alexandria, Virginia, for their annual congressional charity game with Democratic members.

☆ Trump may try to delay the January 6 committee subpoena until well after the midterms — in which the GOP might win back the House and make the whole thing moot
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-23 | by ( Kelsey Vlamis | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

The January 6 committee formally issued a subpoena to Trump on Friday. If Trump refuses to comply, he could be held in contempt of Congress and potentially prosecuted. Failing to cooperate with the subpoena could result in Trump being held in contempt of Congress and referred to the Justice Department for prosecution. However, if Republicans take back the House in November — as they appear likely to do — the committee itself could be over. Should Republicans win the House and take over in January, McCarthy is the most likely candidate to become House speaker.

Search resuls for: "Congressional Staff"

25 mentions found