Hello and welcome to Regulator. When it comes to the news cycle, only the actual destruction of the White House could have overshadowed the slate of dubious pardons that President Donald Trump issued last week, including former Rep. George Santos, the compulsive fabulist who had been expelled from Congress for making false statements and went […]
OpenAI’s controversial for-profit restructuring is finally complete, along with a new deal with Microsoft. The company’s for-profit arm is now a public benefit corporation, dubbed OpenAI Group PBC. The nonprofit is now called the OpenAI Foundation and “holds equity in the for-profit currently valued at approximately $130 billion” — it will begin with a $25 […]
Senate Democrats are urging the Federal Communications Commission to enforce a rule that would lower the price of prison phone and video calls. In a letter led by Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), several Democrats, including Sens. Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), among others, criticize FCC Chair Brendan […]
ExxonMobil is suing California over state laws that compel large companies to share a more comprehensive picture of their greenhouse gas emissions, as well as disclose financial risks that climate change might pose to their investors. The oil and gas company claims that the two laws in question aim to “embarrass” large corporations the state […]
After using the original Pokémon theme song in a montage of ICE raids, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is using another popular video game franchise to promote itself on social media: Halo. This morning, the DHS posted an image featuring Halo characters, a Warthog vehicle from the games, and the text “DESTROY THE FLOOD” […]
As Immigration and Customs Enforcement carries out raids across the country, the agency is working rapidly to expand an online surveillance system that could potentially track millions of users on the web. Federal records uncovered by The Lever reveal that ICE is paying $5.7 million to use an AI-powered social media monitoring platform called Zignal […]
Changpeng Zhao, the founder of crypto exchange Binance, was pardoned by President Trump today, according to the Wall Street Journal. The move comes after months of lobbying by the company and Zhao’s own efforts to boost the Trump family’s crypto venture, World Liberty Financial. In April of 2024, Zhao was sentenced to four months in […]
Kin Lane fondly remembers working on the Free Application for Federal Student Aid in 2013. FAFSA is used by millions of college students each year to help access scholarship money, and Lane, an API expert, had an up-close look at the system. He saw the importance of ensuring financial data remains stored securely and can […]
Hello and welcome to Regulator. Of all the strange, unintended consequences stemming from major lawsuits, I never thought that the Trump administration’s power to force Apple to remove ICE-tracking mobile apps from its stores could have been connected to a legal battle over Fortnite V-Bucks. Yes, we are talking about the in-game digital currency that […]
By the time I arrived, the waterfront park in downtown Portland, Oregon was already awash with people as far as the eye could see. The No Kings protest in June had turned out around 10,000 people across the city; this one saw several times that number just downtown, with thousands more choosing to join localized […]