DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

☆ Kroger's new payroll system resulted in workers receiving less pay than owed or no paycheck at all according to 4 lawsuits filed agains the grocery chain
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-14 | by ( Alex Bitter | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Kroger employees say they were underpaid, or not paid at all, according to class-action lawsuits. A new payroll system known as "MyTime" or "MyInfo" is to blame, HR Dive reported. At least four class-action lawsuits claim that the system, implemented last year, resulted in workers receiving less pay than they were owed or no paycheck at all, industry publications HR Dive and Grocery Dive reported. "For example, Kroger employees have been forced to work second jobs, or take on high-interest and risky payday loans in order to meet daily expenses," according to the complaint. Kroger is one of the major retailers that have promoted their efforts to pay workers more in recent weeks.

☆ The war against TikTok won't solve the 'national embarrassment' of how poorly the US protects your data
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-08 | by ( Dan Whateley | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

"A big Chinese balloon in the sky and millions of Chinese TikTok balloons on our phones. TikTok has hurt its own cause when it comes to its reputation around data privacy. For example, the company misrepresented how US user data was managed and then its parent company monitored the locations of reporters who exposed its practices. Still, efforts by members of Congress to pass federal legislation around data privacy, such as the American Data Privacy and Protection Act, have faced an uphill battle. Apple's 2021 user privacy changes stunted ad revenue at Facebook and Snapchat-maker Snap, for example.

☆ IRS commissioner nomination advances amid debate over $80 billion agency funding
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-03 | by ( Kate Dore | Cfp | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., speaks during a Senate Finance Committee nomination hearing on Feb. 23, 2021. Greg Nash | Pool | ReutersThe Senate Finance Committee this week voted to advance Daniel Werfel's nomination to become IRS commissioner amid fierce debate over the agency's $80 billion in funding. Following a confirmation hearing on Feb. 15, the bipartisan committee vote was the final step before a full Senate vote for confirmation. Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said Werfel's February testimony demonstrated he's a "rule follower" who will work with "both sides of the Committee." Oversight of IRS funding is a priority for RepublicansThe Senate Finance Committee vote comes amid continued scrutiny of the $80 billion in IRS funding allocated in August through the Inflation Reduction Act.

☆ US senators reintroduce bill to make daylight saving time permanent
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-02 | by ( David Shepardson | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

WASHINGTON, March 2 (Reuters) - A bipartisan group of 12 U.S. senators on Thursday reintroduced legislation that would make daylight saving time permanent, nearly a year after the Senate voted unanimously to end clock switching. But the bill failed to get a vote last year in the U.S. House of Representatives because lawmakers could not agree on whether to keep standard time or permanent daylight saving time, said Representative Frank Pallone. Some sleep experts say daylight savings time makes it harder to be alert in the morning. Daylight saving time has been in place in nearly all of the United States since the 1960s after being first tried in 1918. The bill would allow Arizona and Hawaii, which do not observe daylight saving time, to remain on standard time.

☆ Live updates: Supreme Court hears Gonzalez v. Google case against Big Tech
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-21 | by ( Brian Fung | Tierney Sneed | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

The US Supreme Court is seen in Washington, DC, on January 19. (Stefani Reynolds/AFP/Getty Images)The Supreme Court is set to hear back-to-back oral arguments Tuesday and Wednesday on two cases that could significantly reshape online speech and content moderation. First up Tuesday is the Gonzalez v. Google case. The case involving Google zeroes in on whether it can be sued because of its subsidiary YouTube’s algorithmic promotion of terrorist videos on its platform. Beatrice Gonzalez and Jose Hernandez, the mother and stepfather of Nohemi Gonzalez, who was fatally shot and killed in a 2015 rampage by Islamist militants in Paris, are seen outside the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, on February 16.

☆ Supreme Court to hear oral arguments in Google case with potential to upend the internet
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-21 | by ( Brian Fung | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

CNN —The Supreme Court on Tuesday is set to hear oral arguments in the first of two cases this week with the potential to reshape how online platforms handle speech and content moderation. The oral arguments on Tuesday are for a case known as Gonzalez v. Google, which zeroes in on whether the tech giant can be sued because of its subsidiary YouTube’s algorithmic promotion of terrorist videos on its platform. The allegation seeks to carve out content recommendations so that they do not receive protections under Section 230, a federal law that has for decades largely protected websites from lawsuits over user-generated content. If successful, it could expose tech platforms to an array of new lawsuits and may reshape how social media companies run their services. On Wednesday, the Court will hear arguments in a second case, Twitter v. Taamneh.

☆ Two Supreme Court cases this week could upend the entire internet
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-20 | by ( Brian Fung | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

Washington CNN —The Supreme Court is set to hear back-to-back oral arguments this week in two cases that could significantly reshape online speech and content moderation. The closely watched cases, known as Gonzalez v. Google and Twitter v. Taamneh, carry significant stakes for the wider internet. Many Republican officials allege that Section 230 gives social media platforms a license to censor conservative viewpoints. In recent years, however, several Supreme Court justices have shown an active interest in Section 230, and have appeared to invite opportunities to hear cases related to the law. The Court last month delayed a decision on whether to hear those cases, asking instead for the Biden administration to submit its views.

☆ These 26 words ‘created the internet.’ Now the Supreme Court may be coming for them
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-18 | by ( Brian Fung | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +10 min

This week, the Supreme Court is set to hear oral arguments on two pivotal cases dealing with online speech and content moderation. A set of rulings against the tech industry could significantly narrow Section 230 and its legal protections for websites and social media companies. If that happens, the Court’s decisions could expose online platforms to an array of new lawsuits over how they present content to users. Such a result would represent the most consequential limitations ever placed on a legal shield that predates today’s biggest social media platforms and has allowed them to nip many content-related lawsuits in the bud. “The massive social media industry has grown up largely shielded from the courts and the normal development of a body of law.

☆ Lack of Crypto Audit Regulation Raises Questions About PCAOB Authority
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-17 | by ( Mark Maurer | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +6 min

Additionally, there isn’t a regulatory framework for audits for many crypto companies. The SEC, which oversees the PCAOB, is reviewing how crypto companies portray reports from audit firms in the aftermath of the FTX collapse. The PCAOB—which sets audit standards, inspects audits and disciplines audit firms—has said it can only oversee audits of public companies and SEC-registered broker-dealers. In a letter last month to PCAOB Chair Erica Williams, they said the watchdog ignored what they called questionable practices by auditors of crypto companies. Even potential improvements to crypto audit regulation might not prevent fraud in the crypto industry, said Andrew Kitto, an assistant professor of accounting at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and a former PCAOB economic research fellow.

☆ Ron Wyden’s Nullification Doctrine
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-17 | by ( The Editorial Board | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

The idea that politicians can ignore a court order they oppose isn’t new, but it is radical. Yet last week Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden , who runs the Finance Committee, called on the Biden Administration to ignore a legal ruling even before it is made. “In the coming days a lawless Trump-appointed judge is expected to ban access to abortion medication nationwide,” Mr. Wyden wrote on Twitter after making the same point on the Senate floor. “I’m calling on the FDA to protect the safety of every woman in America by keeping the drug on the market no matter the ruling.”

☆ IRS commissioner nominee to 'ensure that America's highest earners comply with tax laws.' Here are the key takeaways from Senate hearing
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-16 | by ( Kate Dore | Cfp | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden, D-Ore., questions IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig at a Senate Finance Committee hearing. Tom Williams | Pool | ReutersPresident Joe Biden's nominee to lead the IRS answered questions during a Senate Finance Committee hearing this week, highlighting key issues from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. If I am fortunate enough to be confirmed, the audit and compliance priorities will be focused on enhancing IRS' capabilities to ensure that America's highest earners comply with tax laws. Daniel Werfel IRS Commissioner nominee"Just because [Werfel's hearing] was smooth doesn't mean there won't be a fairly charged environment with the House in Republican hands and the election coming," Everson said. During fiscal 2022, millionaires faced a 1.1% chance of an IRS audit, according to a recent report from Syracuse University's Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse.

☆ House, Senate to renew fight pitting child tax credit vs. corporate cash
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-15 | by ( Eric Rosenbaum | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +9 min

The fate of that corporate tax policy, supported by many Democrats, had been linked to the Democratic Party's desire for a deal on the child tax credit . But House and Senate members are getting ready to reintroduce legislation on the R&D tax credit. Indexing the child tax credit to inflation would also be a matter of tax policy that both parties might agree on as a way to enshrine future increases in law. But there's still the divide on the corporate tax priorities and child tax credit, and at a basic level, getting a bipartisan tax bill through the House and Senate and to the White House is always challenging. Many companies were surprised that the R&D tax credit did not get extended in the late year legislative package because it had so much bipartisan support.

☆ Jared Kushner's private equity firm concealed the origins of Saudi-backed funds and used the SEC's own rules to help them do it, report says
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-13 | by ( Hannah Getahun | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

In April 2022, The New York Times reported Jared Kushner received $2.5 billion in Saudi-backed funds. A new Washington Post report reveals how Kushner's company concealed the source of the funds. On an SEC form, a box reading "Sovereign wealth funds and foreign official institutions" was blank. In the form, Kushner lists Affinity as an "other business name." Kushner and his father-in-law, Trump, have received a fair share of scrutiny for their ties to the Saudi prince and his allies.

It was created by OpenAI, a private company backed by Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O), and made available to the public for free. Its ubiquity has generated fear that generative AI such as ChatGPT could be used to spread disinformation, while educators worry it will be used by students to cheat. A second congressional aide described the discussions as focusing on the speed of changes in AI and how it could be used. In an interview with Time, Mira Murati, OpenAI's chief technology officer, said the company welcomed input, including from regulators and governments. "The whole value proposition of these types of AI systems is that they can generate content at scales and speeds that humans simply can't," he said.

Cooperman says he voted for Biden in 2020, but he accused Democrats of deliberately misleading people about how the billionaire tax proposal would work. The billionaire tax proposal is "completely dead on arrival," said Charles Myers, a 2020 bundler for Biden's presidential campaign and the chairman of Signum Global, an investment advisory firm. Myers said the purpose of Biden's billionaire tax announcement, however, was never to jumpstart a negotiation in Congress. But for some in the party, Biden's billionaire tax contains a fatal flaw. With plans for a billionaire tax stalled in Washington, wealth tax advocates and activists are turning to the states.

☆ Biden's stock buyback tax isn't working. In State of the Union, he's asking Congress for more
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-07 | by ( Eric Rosenbaum | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +14 min

In September 2021, Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) proposed that stock buybacks should be taxed at 2%. Lazonick, who thought any minor buyback tax would be ineffective, says he has been proven correct. If a higher buyback tax is enacted, he is betting it will not have the outcomes that Democrats envision. While it's hard to see a higher tax getting passed in the current Congress, it does make sense for Biden to state his desire for 4%. Changing a buyback tax, though, might first prove harder.

☆ Senators push for airline passenger protections after holiday travel meltdown
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-31 | by ( Leslie Josephs | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Two Senate Democrats on Tuesday reintroduced legislation to strengthen airline passenger protections following a year of travel disruptions that was capped by chaos that stranded thousands of people over the December holidays. The Airline Passengers' Bill of Rights, which is co-sponsored by Sens. Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., is planning to hold a hearing on the latest airline disruptions in the coming weeks. The bills also follow a push by the Biden administration for stricter airline passenger rules, including for traveler refunds. Airlines for America, said its members, the largest U.S. carriers, "abide by — and frequently exceed – all DOT regulations regarding consumer protections."

☆ How the market is rating the risk of debt ceiling default and a divided, dysfunctional Congress
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-27 | by ( Eric Rosenbaum | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +13 min

That would be the worst-case outcome, of course, but even the best case will probably see the sort of brinksmanship that occurred in the 2011 debt ceiling crisis." From the Senate, Mitch McConnell recently said it's an issue for Biden and the House GOP to work out. Kevin Brady , the former top Republican on the House Ways and Means Committee, dismissed talk of debt default as "fear mongering." Narrowness of GOP House majority does matterJPMorgan also referred to the path for a political agreement as being "narrow." In 2013, the Federal Reserve ran a simulation of a debt default by the U.S. government.

Jan 26 (Reuters) - U.S. Democratic Senators Elizabeth Warren and Ron Wyden are calling on the country's accounting watchdog to increase oversight of firms that audit cryptocurrency companies in the wake of the collapse of crypto exchange FTX. “When PCAOB-registered auditors perform sham audits – even for firms that may lay outside of the PCAOB’s jurisdiction – they tarnish the credibility of the PCAOB," Warren and Wyden wrote. A PCAOB spokesperson confirmed the board had received the letter and said it would respond to the lawmakers directly. Bankman-Fried has previously acknowledged risk-management failures at FTX but has said he does not believe he has criminal liability. Reporting by Hannah Lang and Douglas Gillison in Washington; Editing by Josie KaoOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Biden's new retirement law means you may not have to choose between paying off student debt and saving for the future
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-23 | by ( Jason Lalljee | Ayelet Sheffey | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

One will allow employers to match workers' student loan payments in the form of retirement plan contributions. It's a boon for those who owe student debt, Tamara Telesko, Director of Wealth Planning at TIAA, told Insider. "Under our reforms, many more workers would access resources for retirement and see meaningful federal retirement contributions year after year." Telesko explained that this provision would be a way for people with student debt to build savings, which many can't. Shanna Bennett, a 37-year-old borrower who had more than $130,000 in student debt last year, currently works as a human resources manager.

☆ Senator calls for probe of mass surveillance tool used by U.S. law enforcement
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-18 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Law enforcement agencies have routinely accessed the vast trove of money transfer records without court oversight, Wyden said. The TRAC database was created as part of a 2014 money laundering settlement between the Arizona attorney general's office and Western Union (WU.N). The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, DHS and Arizona attorney general's office have all asked for data from money transfer companies and directed them to send data to TRAC, Wyden said. Western Union, MoneyGram International (MGI.O), Viamericas Corp, and Euronet Worldwide (EEFT.O) are among the companies that have shared customer data with TRAC in bulk, he added. Wyden announced in March that HSI issued custom summonses, a type of subpoena, for millions of money transfer records between Mexican residents and people living in four U.S. states.

☆ Little-Known Surveillance Program Captures Money Transfers Between U.S. and More Than 20 Countries
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-18 | by ( Dustin Volz | Byron Tau | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

WASHINGTON—Hundreds of federal, state and local U.S. law-enforcement agencies have access without court oversight to a database of more than 150 million money transfers between people in the U.S. and in more than 20 countries, according to internal program documents and an investigation by Sen. Ron Wyden . The database, housed at a little-known nonprofit called the Transaction Record Analysis Center, or TRAC, was set up by the Arizona state attorney general’s office in 2014 as part of a settlement reached with Western Union to combat cross-border trafficking of drugs and people from Mexico. It has since expanded to allow officials of more than 600 law-enforcement entities—from federal agencies such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Drug Enforcement Administration, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement to small-town police departments in nearly every state—to monitor the flow of funds through money services between the U.S. and countries around the world.

☆ Janet Yellen is staying put to oversee billions in climate spending
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-10 | by ( Andrea Shalal | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

WASHINGTON, Jan 10 (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is digging in to oversee billions of dollars in federal climate and infrastructure spending that she believes will transform the economy, close associates say, defying demands from Republicans to step down. Yellen told CNBC late last year that she was "in good company" in misjudging inflation, and that Biden's COVID spending plans were needed to boost the recovery. White House and Treasury officials say inflation was spurred by supply chain problems and exacerbated by Russia's invasion of Ukraine, but note that inflation is now easing and investments in manufacturing will reduce future supply chain log-jams. Treasury had no comment on the Republican concerns, but officials have previously said the department's policies are overdue and urgently needed. In addition to advancing Biden's domestic climate agenda, Treasury officials say another key priority for Yellen in 2023 will be advancing reforms of the World Bank and other multilateral lenders to free up more resources for countries to address climate change and other priorities.

☆ Tesla, GM Among Car Makers Facing Senate Inquiry Into Possible Links to Uyghur Forced Labor
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-22 | by ( Yuka Hayashi | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

In a letter sent to auto makers, Sen. Ron Wyden (D., Ore.) says the U.S. can’t compromise its commitment to upholding human rights. WASHINGTON—The Senate Finance Committee has opened an inquiry into whether auto makers including Tesla Inc. and General Motors Co. are using parts and materials made with forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. In a letter sent Thursday, the committee asked the chief executives of eight car manufacturers to provide detailed information on their supply chains to help determine any links to Xinjiang, where the U.S. government has alleged the use of forced labor involving the Uyghur ethnic minority and others.

☆ Tesla, Mercedes, and GM are being probed by US Senate on whether they use forced Uyghur labor
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-22 | by ( Aaron Mok | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

The Senate Finance Committee sent letters to car makers about their links to forced Uyghur labor. The Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act bans most imports from the Xinjiang region. The letters also come a year after President Joe Biden signed the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, which seeks to ban most imports from the Xinjiang region. A Honda spokesperson told Insider that it expects its suppliers to comply with its global sustainability guidelines and "will work with policymakers on these important issues." Volkswagen, Honda, General Motors, and Stellantis previously told Insider that they reject forced labor in their supply chains and take accusations of abuse seriously.

Search resuls for: "Wyden"

25 mentions found