If a US driver gets in an accident while a friend is in the car, the driver’s insurance will usually cover the costs. But if the driver gets in an accident while shuttling a passenger paying for the ride through a car-service app such as Uber or Lyft, things get significantly more complicated.
This week, the US hit its official borrowing limit, setting up yet another fiscal showdown when the government runs out of ready cash sometime in the fall. Judging by the budget released by Republicans in the House of Representatives, it’s going to be an ugly fight.
Is SpaceX so successful that it is jeopardizing the US government’s ability to access space? That’s the case its chief competitor in national security rocket launches made yesterday, while asking for permission to purchase more rocket engines from the Russian government.
The information superhighway got diverted last week when a Ukrainian internet service provider hijacked routes used by data heading for websites in the United Kingdom, according to a company that monitors and optimizes internet performance. The action could be a mere glitch—or something more sinister in an era of geopolitical cyber conflicts.
While you can always find next season’s most cutting-edge looks in Manhattan’s Garment District, the most futuristic outerwear in New York City wasn’t on the runways during the recent Fashion Week. Rather, it’s to be found in a small studio in Brooklyn, where an émigré Russian engineer and a US-born artist are making the ultimate in bespoke couture—the space suit—into a fast-fashion product, one-size-fits-all.
When the Obama administration changed the rules to make it harder for US companies to move their headquarters—and their taxable profits—overseas through the reverse mergers called tax inversions, it put the kibosh on at least one such deal. But now critics of the move say rules have made it easier for foreign companies to scoop up US firms. (paywall)
What’s the best way for a business to avoid labor rules that protect employees? Not have any employees at all.
The first bill that would make medical marijuana legal in the US on a state-by-state basis was introduced by three senators, including Republican presidential contender Rand Paul, a further sign that Americans are taking an increasingly favorable view toward the drug.
The US Congressional Budget Office’s estimate for the cost of Obamacare is falling fast.
Aaron Schock, the US congressman facing questions about his use of public funds after re-decorating his office in the style of Downton Abbey and leaving an Instagram trail of his travel on donors’ private planes, faces a new complaint today: Taking too many staffers to a party with Indian prime minister Narendra Modi.
New Jersey Senator Robert Menendez, a Democrat, will face federal corruption charges in the coming weeks, according to a CNN report.
Another strong jobs report has helped relieve the tension about the US job market, but the conversation has now turned to when the Federal Reserve will start to raise interest rates, a decision that will have repercussions across the global economy. Many expect a decision to lift rates at the June meeting of the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy committee, but that would be unprecedented in recent history—since 1990, the Fed hasn’t raised rates with wage growth this slow.
The US Department of Justice investigation into civil rights violations in the city where a police officer killed an unarmed teenager depicts the police and courts as a gang, expropriating money from the city’s black population—with revenue collection as the driving force behind racial discrimination.
Today the US Supreme Court will hear a challenge to one of the most important parts of the health care overhaul enacted in 2010—the subsidies that allow low-income Americans to purchase insurance in the 34 states where the individual marketplace is run by the federal government:
Investigations into the deaths of four Americans in Libya haven’t found evidence of the negligence or cover-up alleged by some Republican critics of the Obama administration—but in surfacing apparent transparency violations by then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, they have generated the political scandal that Democrats suspected was the true motivation of the relentless scrutiny all along.
The US Federal Communications Commission just adopted strict net neutrality rules that will treat the internet like a public utility. What’s in the new regulations? There are three major principles that internet service providers—like Comcast, AT&T, Time Warner Cable, and Verizon—have to follow when sending data from their networks to your computer:
Now that the FCC has mandated equal treatment of data on the internet, what’s in store for broadband providers? They’ve long argued that net neutrality will lead to less investment in their networks and worse service, thanks to putative new costs. But, judging by US equities markets, few investors have jumped ship ahead of the regulators’ widely-expected decision:
Spouses of skilled foreign guest workers in the US will be allowed to work legally for the first time, a decision expected to ease hardship on families, and encourage them to become permanent residents.
The Russian space agency has announced that it will extend its commitment to the International Space Station through 2024, before creating its own space station from the sections of the orbital laboratory it operates.
Europe’s most abstruse pen pals were busy yesterday, locked in correspondence to seal a four-month extension of its bailout program for Greece. Let’s cut through the bureaucratic language to see how the continent is papering over the lack of consensus on its economic problems.
US telecom regulators are set to vote Thursday (Feb. 26) to enforce net neutrality, the idea—backed by the White House and by content providers ranging from Netflix to Major League Baseball—that all data should be treated equally by internet service providers. A vote in the affirmative would usher in rules preventing internet providers from selling data “fast lanes” to customers who are willing and able to pay for the privilege.
After a week of contentious negotiations, Greece has reached a deal with its creditors in the rest of Europe to extend its rescue another four months.
Mars One, the non-profit group planning a one-way trip to the red planet in 2025, got lots of media attention this week when it announced it had narrowed its pool of potential astronauts to 100 candidates from around the world.
Update, 6.12.15: The podcast has now launched, and you can listen or subscribe to Actuality in iTunes.
