From Morning Edition: As Citizens United Turns 2, SuperPACs Draw Protests

As Colbert has revealed the flaws and abuses in SuperPACs and in politics, this is a welcome progression… my 2 cents.

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Saturday is the second anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision, a key element in establishing the big-dollar superPACs now influencing the presidential campaign. It’s also primary day in South Carolina, where a superPAC backing Newt Gingrich has been blasting away at Mitt Romney.

from Morning Edition

From Morning Edition: Consumer Protection Bureau Takes On Payday Loans

I for one think this is way over due! Those insanely high rate loans need to be prosecuted for abusing power!

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The recently created Consumer Financial Protection Bureau went on the road to hold its first public hearing. The bureau traveled to Birmingham, Ala., to talk about payday lenders. In Alabama, there are four times as many store-front payday businesses than there are McDonalds.

from Morning Edition

From Engadget: Human Birdwings project takes flight… on video!

Just now catching up with the Human Birdwings project? Nice timing. The human flight machine — built by Jarnos Smeets to rely on a Wiimote and Wildfire S, among other niceties — has just enjoyed its first moments of liftoff. In essence, the wings were strapped onto a willing Earthling, and as he began to flap his arms… well, it’s a sight you need to see to fully appreciate. We’ll confess that the “flight” didn’t last long, but Jarno himself told us that it was but a first “test run.” Promising? Oh, yes. Head on past the break for the vid.

Continue reading Human Birdwings project takes flight… on video!

 

from Engadget

From Engadget: DOJ investigation yields fresh evidence against Google, Apple in antitrust lawsuit

Back in 2009, a small controversy began swirling around Google and Apple, amid allegations that the two companies had struck an informal agreement to not poach each other’s employees. The Department of Justice launched an investigation into the matter in 2010, but details of the case were only made public for the first time yesterday. TechCrunchwas the first to sift through the documents, and has uncovered some ostensibly incriminating evidence against not only Google and Apple, but Pixar, Lucasfilm, Adobe, Intel, and Intuit, as well. According to filings from the US District Court for the Northern District of California, these companies did indeed enter “no poach” agreements with each other, and agreed to refrain from engaging in bidding wars. The documents also suggest that they collectively sought to limit their employees’ power to negotiate for higher salaries.Some of the most apparently damning evidence derives from archived e-mails, including one that Adobe CEO Bruce Chizen penned to Steve Jobs in May 2005. In the message, sent under the subject “Recruitment of Apple Employees,” Adobe’s SVP of human resources explains that “Bruce and Steve Jobs have an agreement that we are not to solicit ANY Apple employees, and vice versa.” Pixar’s Lori McAdams expressed similar sentiments in an internal e-mail from 2007, writing: “I just got off the phone with Danielle Lambert [of Apple], and we agreed that effective now, we’ll follow a Gentleman’s agreement with Apple that is similar to our Lucasfilm agreement.” This would suggest, as the DOJ writes, that there’s “strong evidence that the companies knew about the other express agreements, patterned their own agreements off of them, and operated them concurrently with the others to accomplish the same objective.” The DOJ announced in September that it had reached settlements with the six implicated firms, but a class-action lawsuit is scheduled to get underway next week in San Jose.

 

from Engadget