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☆ TikTok wants its advertisers to know the 'myths vs. facts' after its CEO's day in Congress
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-28 | by ( Paayal Zaveri | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Now, it seems, TikTok wants to clear up some facts that lawmakers may have gotten wrong. TikTok wants to clear up "Myth vs Fact." After the TikTok CEO's 5-hour hearing at Congress last Thursday, the company wants to reassure advertisers that it'll be fine. The document states: "TikTok does not permit any government to influence or change its recommendation model." Advertisers make up a large chunk of TikTok's user base, which the company says is now at 150 million monthly active users in the US.

☆ Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez rejected banning TikTok in her first TikTok video, saying it 'just doesn't feel right to me'
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-26 | by ( Sam Tabahriti | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez discussed calls to ban TikTok in her debut on the app. The New York Democrat said the bipartisan push to ban TikTok in the US "doesn't feel right to me." AOC said America needed stronger data and privacy protection laws rather than a TikTok ban. The New York Democrat started her video by saying: "This is not only my first TikTok, but it is a TikTok about TikTok. She pointed out that the US doesn't have "significant data or privacy protection laws," before mentioning the European Union's data privacy law, known as the General Data Protection Regulation.

☆ Companies say Elon Musk's plan to charge $1,000 for month for Twitter checkmarks is 'outlandish' and makes them 'meaningless'
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-26 | by ( Kate Duffy | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Companies have hit out at Elon Musk for charging them $1,000 a month to stay verified on Twitter. Twitter plans to make users and organizations on Twitter pay to keep their blue checkmark. Twitter said it's planning to remove legacy verified blue ticks from users' accounts starting on April 1 — that's April Fools' day. He said the bedding firm wouldn't miss being verified because the blue checkmark didn't offer a noticeable boost in engagement. Among the Twitter users that criticized the change was Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

☆ Parenting expert: 5 signs your kid will be successful
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-25 | by ( Carlos Waters | Anthony Cortez | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Author and parenting expert Margot Machol Bisnow talked to 70 parents who raised highly successful entrepreneurs. Here are the five traits their kids all had in common.

☆ AOC said the story of Rosa Parks is 'too woke' for the GOP after mention of her race was removed from teaching materials
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-24 | by ( Kelsey Vlamis | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Her comments came after a publisher in Florida removed mention of Parks's race from draft teaching materials. Look at these books that have already been banned due to Republican measures," Ocasio-Cortez said before holding up several books. "'The Life of Rosa Parks' — this apparently is too woke by the Republican Party," she said, referencing a book by Kathleen Connors. In another incident, a textbook publisher used in Florida schools removed references to Parks's race in a draft lesson plan in an effort to comply with the state's Stop WOKE Act, legislation pushed by Florida Gov. The Florida Department of Education later said the publisher was wrong to remove mention of Parks's race.

☆ AOC criticizes Elon Musk for plans to remove Twitter's legacy blue checkmarks on April Fool's day
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-24 | by ( Kate Duffy | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez criticized Twitter's plans to scrap legacy blue checkmarks. Elon Musk's company announced it was revoking legacy verified checkmarks from April 1. Twitter announced on Thursday it plans to soon sunset a legacy verified feature that gave users blue checkmarks next to their name. The company said users can sign up to its Twitter Blue subscription program that costs $8 a month to keep their checkmarks. Both accounts paid for Twitter's verification feature, which gave them the blue tick, making them look like Eli Lilly's official account.

☆ The SEC charges Tron founder Justin Sun and 8 celebrities including Lindsay Lohan and Jake Paul in crypto lawsuit
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-22 | by ( Sindhu Sundar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

The SEC sued Tron founder Justin Sun in a lawsuit involving Tronix and BitTorrent crypto tokens. It also charged eight celebrities with promoting the tokens without disclosing they were paid. Eight celebrities including the actress Lindsay Lohan, YouTuber Jake Paul, and singer Akon were also charged. The SEC said the celebrities it charged promoted crypto assets without making it clear they were being paid. Insider did not immediately receive comment from the charged celebrities it contacted ahead of publication.

☆ Lindsay Lohan, Jake Paul and other celebrities charged $400,000 for violating crypto rules
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-22 | by ( David Goldman | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

New York CNN —The Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday charged Lindsay Lohan, Jake Paul and several other celebrities with failing to disclose that they were paid to promote crypto. The celebrities agreed to pay $400,000, including fines, and return what they were paid for the promotion. For their violations, Lohan agreed to pay $30,000 in fines in addition to the $10,000 she earned for the promotion. Paul agreed to pay $75,000 in fines on top of the $25,000 he earned. “At the same time, Sun paid celebrities with millions of social media followers to tout the unregistered offerings, while specifically directing that they not disclose their compensation.”

Lindsay Lohan attends/performs during a photocall for "Speed The Plow" at Playhouse Theatre on September 30, 2014 in London, England. The Securities and Exchange Commission has unveiled fraud and unregistered securities charges against crypto founder and Grenadian diplomat Justin Sun, alongside separate violations against the celebrity backers of his Tronix and BitTorrent crypto assets, which included Jake Paul, Lindsay Lohan and Soulja Boy. The unregistered offer and sale charges, on the other hand, are similar to charges the SEC has unveiled against other crypto offerings and exchanges, including Genesis, Gemini and Do Kwon's Terraform Labs. “This case demonstrates again the high risk investors face when crypto asset securities are offered and sold without proper disclosure,” said SEC Chair Gary Gensler. Tron and his backers' alleged behavior was part of an "age-old playbook to mislead and harm investors," SEC enforcement chief Gurbir Grewal said in a statement.

☆ Italy's own version of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is shaking up politics in Rome
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-13 | by ( Silvia Amaro | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Italy has a new face in its national politics that's being compared to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the popular Democrat lawmaker stateside. Elly Schlein was elected as the center-left party Partito Democratico (PD) leader earlier this month — the first female to get the job. Earlier in her political career, she volunteered in the 2008 Obama campaign, when Barack Obama faced off against John McCain. But the picture might be changing, with Rome electing the first female prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, in October. Giorgia Meloni and Elly Schlein are emblematic of that change," he added.

☆ A conservative commentator who sexually harassed AOC is suing her for blocking him on Twitter
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-13 | by ( Hannah Getahun | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

The lawsuit also provides a screenshot from Stein's account showing that he was blocked. Stein's lawyer requests that he immediately be unblocked from the @AOC Twitter account, Ocasio-Cortez' personal account, which the suit describes as her de facto "official" account. "Mr. Stein desires to engage in political discussions in the robust public forum that is Ms. Cortez's huge Twitter account," Stein's lawyer wrote. Following the harassment from Stein, Ocasio-Cortez called the incident "deeply disgusting" and said Stein was "seeking extremist fame." However, she said in 2019 that she would not stop blocking people on her personal @AOC account and she stood by her decision.

☆ Comedian sues Ocasio-Cortez for blocking him on Twitter after he catcalled her outside U.S. Capitol
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-08 | by ( Dan Mangan | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a Democrat from New York, during a news conference outside the US Capitol in Washington, DC, on Thursday, Jan. 26, 2023. A political provocateur sued Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Wednesday for blocking him on Twitter after he heckled her outside the U.S. Capitol, shouting crude remarks about her body and her position on abortion. Look at that booty on AOC," he catcalled to Ocasio-Cortez. Hot, hot, hot like a tamale." The appeals court said Trump was acting in his official presidential capacity when he blocked those people.

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailMaking $86,000 a year as a subway conductor in NYCNatasha Dinnall, 51, works as a subway conductor in NYC and earns about $86,000 per year. Natasha joined the MTA in 1992 and took her first job with the agency as a property protection agent and later became a station agent, conductor, train operator, and finally a conductor again.

☆ Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Under House Scrutiny for Met Gala Participation
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-03 | by ( Eric Bazail-Eimil | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Aurora James, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Riley Roberts are seen leaving the 2021 Met Gala at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. WASHINGTON—House of Representatives ethics officials said Thursday that their probe of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.) centers on her participation in the 2021 Met Gala and whether she properly reimbursed vendors for her hair, makeup, clothing and transportation expenses. The focus of the probe was disclosed by the Office of Congressional Ethics, an internal, nonpartisan ethics office that reviews allegations of misconduct against lawmakers. The probe had been disclosed in December, but neither the OCE nor Ms. Ocasio-Cortez’s office had provided details.

☆ Democrats are venting over Biden's 'very infuriating' position on DC crime law
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-03 | by ( Nicole Gaudiano | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Democrats are "disappointed" and angry with Biden's position on a GOP move to block a DC crime law. "If the President supports DC statehood, he should govern like it," tweeted Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez. "If the President supports DC statehood, he should govern like it," she tweeted. The resolution's passage would mark the first time the federal government has voted to overrule DC legislation in decades and undermines the campaign for DC statehood. Asked about Biden's decision, Bowman said police unions are powerful.

☆ I built a 6-figure company designing sets for photoshoots and events. Here's how I turned my college hobby into a business.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-02 | by ( Skylar Mitchell | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Dotun Abeshinbioke is a set designer and the owner of Ábiké Studio in New York. She got into set design as a student and started making sets for friends, leading to paying clients. I initially started doing design work for T-shirts and flyers, then I started designing sets to showcase my photography. Ábiké Studio was inspired by my traditional Yoruba name, which means "born to treasure." As a creative studio, we do branding, web design, and experiential design for clients across creative fields.

☆ AOC only paid for her Met Gala outfit and other possible 'impermissible gifts' after investigators asked about it, ethics agency finds
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-02 | by ( Rebecca Cohen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez only paid for her rented Met Gala outfit after the House of Representatives' ethics office asked about it. The nonpartisan ethics agency also found that AOC's office didn't pay her $477 hair styling bill until February 2022, two days after the ethics agency reached out about the lack of payments. In an interview with the investigators, AOC blamed a campaign staffer for failing to pay for her rented dress and other accessories, according to ethics office findings. "The Board finds that there is substantial reason to believe that Rep. Ocasio-Cortez accepted impermissible gifts associated with her attendance at the Met Gala in 2021," the ethics agency said Thursday. The House Ethics Committee first opened a probe into AOC's attendance at the 2021 Met Gala in 2022.

☆ AOC blamed a campaign staffer for failing to pay for thousands of dollars in Met Gala goodies until after ethics investigators got involved
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-02 | by ( Chris Panella | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez blamed a campaign staffer for not paying Met Gala invoices on time. Her office only paid for the rented dress and accessories after the Office of Congressional Ethics asked about them. The staffer, who is no longer employed by AOC, acknowledged responsibility, saying "it fell off my radar." The ethics office's investigators found that AOC's office didn't pay bills for the rentals and services until after the investigators asked about it. According to the interviews, the AOC staffer acknowledged responsibility, saying the unpaid invoices "fell off my radar."

☆ AOC says there's still hope for Biden's student-loan forgiveness plan if the Supreme Court rules against it
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-02 | by ( Ayelet Sheffey | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

AOC said Biden "should be prepared to respond" to whatever the Supreme Court rules on student-debt relief. The White House has maintained it does not have a backup plan and is confident Biden's relief will prevail. Some other Democratic lawmakers have also said the focus right now should be on voicing the legality of Biden's current debt relief plan. Still, the White House has previously said that it is not deliberating a backup plan right now if the Supreme Court strikes down the relief. And there is no current backup plan, or anything like that.

☆ Lawmakers should subpoena AOC's Met Gala dress designer to assess if the lawmaker violated ethics rules, watchdog says
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-02 | by ( Oma Seddiq | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

A congressional watchdog said AOC might have violated ethics rules in connection to her 2021 Met Gala attendance. The watchdog recommended the House Ethics Committee further review the allegations. The Office of Congressional Ethics also recommended subpoenas to AOC's dress designers. A lawyer for Ocasio-Cortez said in a letter to the House Ethics Committee released Thursday that the congresswoman "finds these delays unacceptable, and she has taken several steps to ensure nothing of this nature will ever happen again." The House Ethics Committee, which released the OCE report and findings on Thursday, said in a statement that it "will refrain from making further public statements on this matter pending completion of its initial review."

☆ In surprise result, Italy's left picks Elly Schlein to rebuild party
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-27 | by ( Crispian Balmer | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

ROME, Feb 26 (Reuters) - Italy's opposition centre-left Democratic Party (PD) picked Elly Schlein, a 37-year-old U.S.-Italian national who grew up in Switzerland, to be its new leader and rebuild the group after its election rout last year. Schlein will lead opposition in parliament to Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, with two women for the first time in Italian history heading the country's two main parties. Although she has promised a new start for the party, many of the PD's grandees have rallied behind her in recent weeks. Polls suggested he would easily beat Schlein, but in the end he only drew strong backing in the more traditionalist south. Schlein faces a monumental struggle if she hopes to heal divisions within her party and beat Meloni's conservative bloc in the next national election in 2027.

☆ How entrepreneurs can use livestream shopping to make thousands of dollars
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-22 | by ( Jennifer Ortakales Dawkins | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +16 min

Live shopping in the US is expected to become a $25 billion market in 2023. Livestream shopping has been popular in China for over a decade, where the industry was estimated to be worth $305 billion in 2021, up from $63 billion in 2019, according to Coresight Research. Virgile Ollivier, a cofounder and the CEO of Livescale, told Insider livestream shopping would soon become just as important for brands as social-media marketing. Livestream-shopping platforms pick up where Instagram falls shortApps focused solely on livestream shopping show a disconnect on traditional social-media platforms. Most sellers livestream at least once a week, at the same time so their followers always know when to expect a show.

☆ Democratic Sen. Cortez Masto urges FEC to require campaigns to send illegal contributions to Treasury
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-21 | by ( Brian Schwartz | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., center, her husband Paul, and Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, are seen in the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, November 16, 2022. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., is calling on the Federal Election Commission to require campaigns to send illegal campaign contributions to the U.S. Treasury instead of refunding the money to the original donor. Cortez Masto's call for the new FEC rule comes after numerous foreign donors and companies have been caught making illegal campaign donations. Still, as Cortez Masto points out, the fine could have limited impact on Zekelman as there is expected to be a full refund of the illegal contribution. Though Cortez Masto does not mention cryptocurrency exchange FTX or its co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried in her letter, his contributions to campaigns could come under the same scrutiny by the FEC if it enacted such a rule.

☆ Donald Trump Jr. said he lived off gas station sushi for a year when his family financially cut him off
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-19 | by ( Alia Shoaib | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Donald Trump Jr. said that he lived off gas station sushi for a year after graduating college. He said that his family cut him off when he chose to take a year off, but forgot to cancel his gas card. "I was cut off, the only thing that they didn't cut off because they forgot was my gas card, so I had a car and a gas card," Trump said. "I'm the guy that lived off gas station sushi for like a year." After his self-described year in "the wilderness," he returned to New York City to work for his father's Trump Organization.

☆ The 'He Gets Us' Jesus ads that ran during the Super Bowl preached a message of unity. Instead, they just made everyone more angry.
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-17 | by ( Aidan Pollard | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

The $20 million pair of Super Bowl ads are part of a larger, $100 million campaign launched last spring, The Washington Post reported. "Something tells me Jesus would *not* spend millions of dollars on Super Bowl ads to make fascism look benign," Congresswoman Alexandria Ocassio-Cortez wrote in a tweet Sunday. "With the money the 'He Gets Us' people spent on their right-wing Jesus ads, they could permanently house 1,563 people experiencing homelessness," Democratic strategist Sawyer Hackett chimed in. —Allie Beth Stuckey (@conservmillen) February 12, 2023The backlash extends beyond the two commercials that ran during the Super Bowl, and into the campaign more broadly. In the days following the Super Bowl, the campaign has responded to some of the backlash.

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