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ATT39s nationwide outage is being investigated by New York39s attorney

AT&T's nationwide outage is being investigated by New York's attorney general

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The AT&T network service outage, which left tens of thousands of customers across the United States without calls or data for hours, is currently being investigated by New York's top prosecutor.

New York Attorney General Letitia James announced Thursday that she would investigate the causes of the Feb. 22 outage and AT&T's response to the disruption.

The power outage left users unable to make calls, send text messages or access the Internet for up to 12 hours and left many unable to call 911, a news release from James' office said.

“Americans rely on wireless providers to provide consistent, reliable service to help them in almost every aspect of their daily lives,” James said. “Nationwide outages are not just an inconvenience, they can be dangerous, and it is critical that we protect consumers when an outage occurs.”

She encouraged affected New Yorkers to file a complaint with her office.

At the height of the AT&T outage, more than 71,000 customers were out of service on the morning of February 22nd. While the outage lasted several hours, service was restored by the afternoon.

The network operator said the outage was likely due to a process error and not a cyberattack. The Federal Communications Commission investigated the incident.

Days after the outage, AT&T announced it would issue a $5 credit to affected accounts.

“We recognize the frustration this outage has caused and know that we have let many of our customers down,” the carrier said in a statement. “We understand this may have impacted their ability to connect with family, friends and others. Small business owners could be affected, potentially disrupting a key way they engage with customers.”

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com

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Quebec hardware retailer BMR39s net income fell 65 million

Quebec hardware retailer BMR's net income fell $6.5 million

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Declining housing starts, explosions in household debt, rising interest rates and runaway inflation have caused BMR's net surplus to fall to $34.5 million a year from $41 million in 2022, Sollio said Cooperative Group on Thursday lunchtime.

“In Quebec in particular, we have seen a significant decline in housing starts. We're talking thirty percent here. It's enormous. These are catastrophic numbers. It hurts,” BMR CEO Alexandre Lefebvre told the Journal.

“It has curbed demand,” he said.

Pork crisis

For Olymel, net surplus reached $138.3 million, compared to a colossal loss of $446.1 million in 2022, due to the good performance of the fresh pork sector, the decline in its culling and the consolidation of factories and distribution centers is.

“The pork industry is in serious crisis almost everywhere in the world,” Pascal Houle, CEO of Sollio Cooperative Group, warned of the headwinds ahead.

At Sollio Agriculture (agricultural inputs and agronomic services), we note a decrease in net surplus of $72.6 million, that is, a loss of $53.0 million in 2023 compared to a profit of $19.6 million US dollars in 2022.

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Sam Bankman Fried39s Conviction Plea Stunt

Sam Bankman-Fried's Conviction Plea Stunt

Business News / By

Sam Bankman Fried39s Conviction Plea Stunt

Sam Bankman-Fried, co-founder of FTX. Victor J. Blue-Bloomberg/Getty Images

If you're a 31-year-old accused of serious crimes, the normal course of action is to take a deal to reduce the sentence and then hope for the best in front of the judge. You will also likely be resigned to spending decades in prison. Unless you're rich and connected, of course. Then you can try another strategy.

Take Sam Bankman-Fried. Despite being faced with a mountain of evidence proving he had perpetrated one of the largest frauds in U.S. history, he decided to roll the dice on a three-week trial. For his trouble, Bankman-Fried was brought to trial by a jury in less than four hours. And now, as he faces a maximum sentence of 100 years or more before a judge next month, he is doing something else that only wealthy and entitled people can do. He's trying to get out of the whole mess.

As The New York Times reported Tuesday night, Bankman-Fried has hired “a new lawyer known for his courtroom showmanship” and another high-profile attorney to work on a long-term appeals process. He also has his law professor parents – the Bay Area power couple known to their fellow Stanford campus residents as “Barb and Joe” – working on legal issues and organizing a sympathy campaign to show why everyone is over the poor guy Boys are wrong.

All of this is a “long-term strategy orchestrated by Mr. Bankman-Fried’s family and friends to reverse his conviction and bring about a public reassessment of his leadership at FTX.” The Times does not acknowledge that it is a vehicle for this strategy – as demonstrated by Bankman-Fried's team waiting for their sympathetic article to be published before filing a trove of letters and arguments in court to support their position. Nor does the article raise the awkward question of how the Bankman-Fried clan pays these high-profile lawyers and a PR firm whose monthly fees start at $50,000.

The likely answer is that Bankman-Fried's parents are paying the bills with the help of $10 million they asked him to pay his father for legal work – money that came from the coffers of the crypto companies that had collapsed under a mountain of deceit. That's bad enough, but even more disgusting when you read things like this: “His lawyers said Bankman-Fried was motivated not by greed, but by a desire to improve the world through charitable giving. Material things and extravagance had no use for him, they said.”

Really? Remember, this is the same man who lived in a luxury villa and enjoyed jetting around the world, meeting the likes of Tom Brady and Katy Perry at lavish events. There is nothing material or extravagant about it. And let's not forget that Bankman-Fried's parents are being sued by the FTX estate not only for the return of the $10 million (in his father's case), but also for a $16.4 million villa in the Bahamas that was built on theirs name is.

All of this is what makes the parents' current attempt to bring about a “public reevaluation” of their Sam so galling. They remind us at every turn that Sam shouldn't be punished for robbing his customers, because he's on the spectrum, or because he's the victim of cruel media caricatures. And so forth. What they don't want to say is that Sam is a 31-year-old man who grew up with all the privilege in the world and has shown every sign of being a liar and a sociopath.

You can't blame Barb and Joe for doing everything they could to protect their child. Any parent would do the same. But if they really wanted to show their love and help their son, they could – just once – stop telling Sam how special he is.

Jeff John Roberts
[email protected]
@jeffjohnroberts

DECENTRALIZED NEWS

Coinbase says it has fixed a bug caused by heavy trading after Bitcoin crossed $60,000, causing many users to see their balances show as $0. (Portal)

In a comparison with New York, Winklevii led Twins agreed to pay $1 billion to exempt customers from its ill-fated Earn program and pay a $37 million fine for failing to conduct due diligence. (Assets)

The Re-Stake Project Ether.fi– allowing users to stake tokens they have already locked on Ethereum – triggered a $23 million Series A At a time when the capital parked on its platform recently increased to $1.66 billion. (CoinDesk)

Trading app Webull, which made a name for itself during the meme stock era, has reportedly exited its crypto business in an attempt to get regulators to approve its just-announced plan to go public via a SPAC. (Bloomberg)

Morgan Stanley The company is reportedly planning to add Bitcoin ETFs to its massive brokerage platform, which would make it the first major registered investment advisor (RIA) to do so – and likely lead to further price increases. (CoinDesk)

MEME O' THE MOMENT

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Sam Bankman Fried39s Conviction Plea Stunt

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The owner of Panera Bread, a longtime donor to Gavin Newsom, is exempt from California's minimum wage law, according to a Bloomberg report

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LOS ANGELES (KABC) — California Gov. Gavin Newsom is facing scrutiny over the state's new minimum wage law after a report apparently revealed that one of his longtime donors benefited from an exemption in the law.

When the $20 minimum wage law was announced, it was no secret that places like Panera Bread would be exempt, and many people wondered why.

The reason given was that the restaurant, considered “fast food” by most people, baked its own bread. In fact, the exemption is quite specific and intended for chains that not only bake bread but also sell it as a standalone product.

Bloomberg News has revealed that a billionaire Bay Area restaurant owner who owns two dozen Panera franchises has donated at least $173,000 to Newsom since 2021.

That franchise owner, Greg Flynn, was quoted in 2022 as saying that the wage increase bill would “all but kill” the franchising business model in the state. Now the top Republican in the California legislature has called for an investigation and called the deal crooked.

In a statement to ABC News, a Newsom spokesman said the minimum wage law was “the result of countless hours of negotiations with dozens of stakeholders over two years.”

The bill's lead author is Pasadena Rep. Chris Holden. Asked about the exemption reported by Bloomberg, his chief of staff replied: “We don't know how it came about.”

Most fast food chains like McDonald's and Chipotle are not exempt from this law. Chipotle said it is considering a price increase to offset the additional costs.

This state minimum wage increase goes into effect on April 1st.

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Trump Media co founders Andy Litinsky and Wes Moss are suing.jpgw1440

Trump Media co-founders Andy Litinsky and Wes Moss are suing to retain shares in the company

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The co-founders of former President Donald Trump's media company filed a lawsuit Wednesday, alleging that Trump and other executives plotted to strip them of a stake in the company that could be worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

The case could complicate a long-delayed bid by Trump Media & Technology Group, owner of the social network Truth Social, to merge with a special purpose acquisition company called Digital World Acquisition and become a publicly traded company.

That merger deal, which could increase the value of Trump's stake in the company to more than $3 billion, would provide the former president with a financial lifeline if he faces penalties of more than $2 billion in a civil fraud ruling in New York this month There is a threat of $454 million.

Representatives for Trump, Trump Media and Digital World did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Andy Litinsky and Wes Moss, who met Trump as contestants on his reality show “The Apprentice,” pitched Trump the idea of ​​a Trump-branded tech start-up and social media platform in early 2021 after he White House had lost and was banned from Twitter, now called X.

Trump agreed to the deal and received 90 percent of the company, according to a motion for expedited proceedings filed Wednesday in the Delaware Court of Chancery by co-founder partnership United Atlantic Ventures. The partnership received 8.6 percent, while an attorney on the deal, Bradford Cohen, received the remaining 1.4 percent, the filing said.

UAV launched the Trump Media business, hired employees and raised funding without receiving “a fee or payment for its work,” the filing said. And although Litinsky and Moss left Trump Media this year due to a dispute with current leadership, UAV retained its shares, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing this month by Digital World.

The filing said Trump would receive 78 million shares of the post-merger company – a stake worth $3.5 billion at today's stock price – and that UAV would receive more than 7 million shares, a stake in the Worth around $339 million. “Throughout TMTG’s corporate history,” the application states, “UAV’s 8.6 percent ownership interest has been recognized and honored.”

But UAV's lawyers allege in the filing that Trump recently attempted to “drastically dilute” the partnership's stake as part of a tactic they described as “eleventh-hour pre-merger corporate maneuvering” to increase the amount authorized shares to increase from 120 million shares to 1 billion shares.

UAV's lawyers wrote that the “dilution plan” had “no legitimate business purpose” and suggested that Trump and Trump Media's board planned to issue the new shares to “Trump and/or his employees and children,” thereby reducing the stake of UAV would be reduced to less than 1 percent.

UAV was promised “8.6 percent of this company, and unfortunately its business partners are baselessly trying to deny that,” said the partnership's lead attorney, Christopher J. Clark of Clark Smith Villazor, in an interview with The Washington Post in which he the lawsuit described. “You have the feeling: We made Truth Social for you. You get 90 percent. But some people are just not happy with 90 percent.”

Clark has represented high-profile defendants including Hunter Biden, Elon Musk and billionaire businessman Mark Cuban. After representing President Biden's son for several years in negotiations related to a Justice Department investigation, Clark resigned in August amid the possibility that he could be called as a witness on Hunter Biden's behalf.

In the filing, Digital World said the planned issuance of 1 billion shares of “New Digital World” stock is part of a series of business changes following the merger. The SEC declared this month that the merger's registration statement was effective, clearing the way for Digital World shareholders to vote to complete the merger at a meeting next month.

Digital World acknowledged the UAV dispute in the SEC filing and said it had received letters from a UAV attorney since last month claiming that the partnership still had the right to appoint directors to Trump's board Media to appoint and “approve or disapprove the creation of additional TMTG.” Shares.”

UAV argued in the filing that its original 2021 services agreement with Trump remains in effect. Digital World said in the filing that the agreement was “nullified” by a Trump lawyer “nearly two and a half years earlier.”

Digital World said in the filing that Trump Media stated that it “strongly disagrees with UAV's assertion of rights with respect to TMTG under the Services Agreement and that it believes that TMTG has effective defenses against UAV's potential claims.” .”

The filing said a UAV representative sent a text message to a Trump Media bondholder this month suggesting that UAV might try to “order” or block the merger. The filing also noted that a UAV attorney had sent Trump Media a letter recommending “legal action regarding UAV's purported rights to TMTG, including, if necessary, a lawsuit to order” the merger threatened.

Digital World said in the filing that the litigation could prevent or delay the merger agreement, “materially adversely affect” the company's future performance or “negatively impact investor confidence and market perception.”

Delaware, where Trump Media is incorporated, is a common state for American corporate registrations, and its chancery court is a mainstay for corporate litigation.

A sealed legal complaint was filed in the case late Wednesday. Under Delaware's chancellor law, it won't be released for another five days as both sides discuss possible redactions. A copy of the motion for expedited processing outlining the dispute was publicly available in court records.

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Meta is accused of massive illegal data collection by European

Meta is accused of “massive, illegal” data collection by European consumer rights groups

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London CNN –

European consumer rights groups have accused Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, of carrying out a “massive” and “illegal” operation that collected data from hundreds of millions of users in the region.

The European Consumer Organization (BEUC), an umbrella organization of 45 consumer groups, said eight of the groups had filed complaints with their respective national data protection authorities on Thursday.

The groups claim that Meta (META) collects unnecessary amounts of information about its users – such as data that infers their sexual orientation, emotional state or even their susceptibility to addiction – to which they cannot voluntarily consent.

The groups argue that the company's practices violate parts of the European Union's main data protection law, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

“With its illegal practices, Meta drives the surveillance-based advertising system that tracks consumers online and collects large amounts of personal data in order to show them advertisements,” the BEUC said in a statement.

Meta denies the allegations.

“We take our regulatory obligations extremely seriously and are confident that our approach is compliant with the GDPR,” a company spokesperson said in a statement.

“We have revised data protection at Meta since 2019. We are held accountable by regulators, policymakers and experts for protecting people's privacy. We work with them to ensure what we build follows best practices and meets high data protection standards,” the spokesperson added.

Thursday's complaints will potentially expose the company, which has been the subject of intense regulatory scrutiny in Europe for years, to even further legal action.

Last May, EU regulators fined the tech giant a record-breaking 1.2 billion euros ($1.3 billion) for violating GDPR rules by sending Facebook users' personal data to servers in the United States .

According to the European Data Protection Board, the fine is still the highest ever imposed under the law in force in the EU since 2018.

“We are deeply concerned about Meta's practices,” a spokesman for the Norwegian Data Protection Authority told CNN on Thursday.

“Privacy is a human right for everyone, not a premium feature reserved for the rich. “We hope that the complaints can trigger greater regulatory scrutiny at the European level,” the spokesman said, adding that Norway would forward the complaint to the Irish authorities, the lead regulators for meta in Europe.

Graham Doyle, deputy commissioner of the Irish Data Protection Commission, told CNN the agency had not yet received any complaints from its colleagues.

“We expect these complaints to go through an initial complaint review with the respective (data protection authorities) before being forwarded to the DPC for consideration,” he said.

In October, EU regulators forced Meta to obtain explicit consent from its users to process their personal data for the purpose of providing targeted advertising.

A few days later, Meta launched a subscription service that allows its European users to pay up to 12.99 euros ($14) per month to use ad-free versions of Facebook and Instagram. Starting Friday, it also plans to introduce additional monthly fees for each new account a user creates under this offer.

Meta said the service is part of its efforts to comply with GDPR.

“'Subscription for No Ads' covers the latest regulatory developments, guidance and rulings from leading European regulators and courts over the past few years,” the company said in a blog post in October.

However, the BEUC argued on Thursday that Meta's subscription service offers users “an unfair and misleading choice” because data processing is not transparent, meaning users cannot know how a subscription would change the way how your information is processed. Additionally, Meta's market dominance means that users cannot easily leave the platforms without isolating themselves from their family and friends.

The organization filed a complaint with European consumer protection authorities in November, arguing that this “pay or consent” approach was an example of an unfair and “aggressive” business practice that is banned under EU law.

“Meta's offer to consumers is smoke and mirrors to cover up what is, at its core, the same old hoovering up of all sorts of sensitive information about people's lives, which it then monetizes through its invasive advertising model,” says Ursula Pachl, deputy director General of BEUC said in a statement on Thursday.

Brian Fung contributed to this article.

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Oprah Winfrey is leaving the board of WeightWatchers a setback.jpgw1440

Oprah Winfrey is leaving the board of WeightWatchers, a setback as weight-loss drugs are on the rise

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Oprah Winfrey is leaving the WeightWatchers board after eight years in the role, dealing a new blow to the company as it struggles with financial losses and competes with weight-loss drugs.

Winfrey won't stand for it re-election at the company's shareholder meeting in May, the company said in a statement Wednesday. Winfrey said she would continue to work with the company “to stimulate discussion about recognizing obesity as a chronic disease, advocate for reducing stigma, and advocate for health equity.”

Share prices of the company, which was renamed WW International in 2018, fell more than 27 percent in after-hours trading following the announcement.

Oprah's stake in WeightWatchers is a great deal for shareholders

Weight loss companies face stiff competition from injectable drugs such as Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro, which have skyrocketed in popularity worldwide in recent years.

WeightWatchers suffered a loss of more than $88 million in 2023, according to a financial report released by the company this week. The loss was more than double the previous year's figure (US$35.8 million).

Meanwhile, manufacturers of weight-loss drugs say they are trying to meet demand and are spending heavily to increase their production capacity.

The drugs have proven effective in treating obesity, diabetes and even heart problems (although some patients also reported side effects such as nausea, diarrhea and heart palpitations). Social media and influencer-led promotions have also sparked interest in the drugs, although new marketing strategies of pitching them to plus-size influencers have sparked backlash.

Experts have also expressed concern about the drugs, saying that while they can be helpful for people with obesity and chronic illnesses, they are challenging for people with eating disorders who are not overweight and people with body dysmorphia.

In December, Winfrey told People magazine that she also uses weight loss medication prescribed by her doctor as a “maintenance measure,” but did not name the medication.

“The fact that there is a doctor-approved prescription to control my weight and stay healthier feels like a relief, like a redemption, like a gift in my lifetime and not something I hide behind and still “It can make fun of me,” she said. “I’m completely done with being shamed by other people and especially myself.”

In 2023, WeightWatchers announced its acquisition of healthcare company Sequence, noting that the program would provide subscribers with advice and access to prescription weight loss medications. The company also created the WeightWatchers Clinic, which gives members access to doctors who can prescribe weight loss medications.

“Given advances in chronic weight management medications, moving into clinical interventions for those who are medically qualified is a natural next step for WeightWatchers,” CEO Sima Sistani said in the company statement at the time. “Our goal is to provide sustainable, science-based solutions for all weight loss journeys, whether medications are part of an individual’s journey or not.”

New marketing push from Ozempic and others sparks body-positive backlash

Winfrey joined the board in 2015 and paid $43 million for a 10 percent stake, The Washington Post reported, noting that the company was struggling to retain subscribers at the time as people focused on fitness, dieting -Apps and wearables.

When Winfrey joined WeightWatchers, she said she lost 40 pounds through the program. The star has long been vocal about issues with her weight and appearance, and has spoken publicly about yo-yo dieting and fad diets.

Her website states that she has “fallen victim to just about every diet scam women know.” In 2007, Winfrey was diagnosed with hypothyroidism – a condition in which the body produces too little thyroid hormone and results in a variety of symptoms, including weight gain.

Winfrey said Wednesday that she would donate her shares in the company to the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington.

WeightWatchers' board said it supported Winfrey's decision and thanked her for her time with the company.

Oprah Winfrey is leaving the board of WeightWatchers, a setback as weight-loss drugs are on the rise Read More »

Job openings fall to 32 month low as US hiring boom

Applications for unemployment benefits have increased over the past week

Business News / By

Last updated: February 29, 2024 at 8:42 a.m. ET

First published: February 29, 2024 at 8:32 a.m. ET

The numbers: Initial jobless claims rose by 13,000 to 215,000 in the week ended February 24, the U.S. Labor Department said Thursday.

Economists polled by the Wall Street Journal had estimated that the number of new applications would rise to 210,000.

Key details: The number of Americans already collecting unemployment benefits in the week ending February 17 increased by…

The numbers: Initial jobless claims rose 13,000 to 215,000 in the week ended Feb. 24, the U.S. Labor Department said Thursday.

Economists polled by the Wall Street Journal had estimated that the number of new applications would rise to 210,000.

Important details: The number of Americans already collecting unemployment benefits in the week ending February 17 rose by 45,000 to 1.91 million.

Big picture: The damage reports are at a low level. Economists are noticing some weakening in the labor market and do not expect applications to remain as low in the coming weeks. If we take a step back, the data points to continued solid economic growth and stable unemployment.

Market reaction: Shares of DJIA SPX are expected to open lower on Thursday. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note BX:TMUBMUSD10Y rose to 4.291%.

Applications for unemployment benefits have increased over the past week Read More »