policy

CHICAGO (AP) President Donald Trump announced Thursday that he would pardon anti-abortion activists convicted of blocking abortion clinic entrances.

Trump called it “a great honor to sign this.”

“They should not have been prosecuted,” he said as he signed pardons for “peaceful pro-life protesters.”

The pardoners were involved within the invasion and blockade of a clinic in Washington in October 2020.

Lauren Handy was sentenced to almost five years in prison for leading the blockade, leading blockaders to band along with locks and chains to dam the clinic's doors. A nurse sprained her ankle when an individual pushed her as she entered the clinic, and a girl was accosted by one other obstructionist while she was in labor pain, prosecutors said. Police found five fetuses in Handy's home after she was charged.

Trump pardoned Handy and her nine co-defendants: Jonathan Darnel of Virginia; Jay Smith, John Hinshaw and William Goodman, all of New York; Joan Bell of New Jersey; Paulette Harlow and Jean Marshall, each of Massachusetts; Heather Idoni of Michigan; and Herb Geraghty of Pennsylvania.

In the primary week of Trump's presidency, anti-abortion advocates have increased calls for Trump to pardon protesters charged with violating Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances, which is meant to guard abortion clinics from obstruction and threats. The 1994 law was passed at a time when clinic protests and blockades were on the rise, as was violence against abortion providers, reminiscent of the murder of Dr. David Gunn in 1993.

Trump specifically mentioned Harlow In a speech in June Criticizing former President Joe Biden's Justice Department for pursuing charges against protesters involved in blockades.

“A lot of people are in prison over this,” he said in June, adding, “We will take care of them immediately.”

Abortion rights advocates hit Trump's pardons as evidence of his opposition to abortion access, despite his vague, contradictory statements on the problem as he tried to navigate the campaign trail between anti-abortion allies and nearly all of Americans who support abortion rights to seek out a middle ground.

“Donald Trump on the campaign trail tried to have it both ways – bragging about his role in overturning Roe v. Wade while saying he wouldn't take action on abortion” The national abortion rights organization Reproductive Freedom for All. “We never believed that to be true, and this shows us that we were right.”

SBA Pro-Life America President Marjorie Dannenfelser thanked Trump for the “immediate promise” to pardon the protesters and argued their prosecutions were political.

Legal group Thomas More Society argued that the face law defendants they represent had been “wrongfully imprisoned” and were “imprisoned”. In a January letter to Trump. The group had assured the defendants that Trump would review their cases and pardon them when he took office.

“Today, freedom rings in our great nation,” said Steve Crampton, senior counsel for the Thomas More Society, adding: “What happened to them can never be erased, but today’s pardons are an enormous step toward restoring justice .”

Republican Sen. Josh Hawley, amongst Trump's most loyal supporters, called the prosecution of anti-abortion protesters “a grotesque attack on the principles of this country” and urged Trump to pardon them as they read the stories of such anti-abortion protesters on the Senate floor Thursday . He singled out Eva Edl, who was involved in a 2021 blockade of the Tennessee clinic and whose story has drawn attention from the most important national anti-abortion groups.

Hawley said He “had a great conversation” with Trump on Thursday morning concerning the protesters.

News of the pardons comes ahead of Friday's annual pro-life anti-abortion protest in Washington, where the president will address the gang in a video.

Suspicions that U.S. consumers' personal information may very well be accessed from India prompted regulators in August to abruptly block two major private sector enrollment web sites from accessing the Affordable Care Act marketplace.

New details in regards to the suspensions are included in legal documents filed late Friday and are the results of the pair's effort to regain access to the Obamacare marketplace before the ACA program's open enrollment period begins Nov. 1.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services wrote in a Letter dated 2 September The firms were told they were suspended after the agency identified “a serious security breach” that will have led to marketplace data, including consumers' personal information, being accessed from abroad.

The letter, which is attached to the court documents, also states that regulators will investigate the 2 firms because they’ve “reasonable suspicion” that they’re players in a separate issue: Enrolling people in Obamacare insurance or changing their policies without consumers’ permission.

Whether these legal issues will likely be resolved before the upcoming enrollment deadline is an open query. At this time, the concerns raised against the businesses remain allegations, and neither the legal challenges nor the audit are impending a choice or conclusion.

Still, the larger problem of fraudulent ACA filing by rogue insurance agents searching for commissions will proceed to be a headache for regulators, with greater than 200,000 consumer complaints filed in the primary six months of 2024. And it has change into a political problem for the Biden administration. GOP lawmakers accused the plans partly as a consequence of the expansion of Obamacare premium subsidies supported by Biden.

President Joe Biden called the record enrollment numbers under the ACA one in all the best achievements of his administration. Regulators at the moment are trying to forestall fraudulent enrollment programs without slowing legitimate enrollment. In recent weeks, they’ve stripped not less than 200 agents of access to the federal ACA marketplace, and in July began to requirethat in lots of cases brokers take part in three-way conferences with their clients and the healthcare.gov Help Center before changes could be finalized.

The CMS letter now adds one other layer. It is the primary time this yr that the agency has taken an organization to task for questionable enrollment. It suspects that “the Speridian Companies” can have directed its “employees and other agents to change the insurance coverage of Marketplace enrollees and to enroll insured and uninsured consumers without the enrollees' consent.”

California-based Speridian Global Holdings owns the businesses in query, including the Benefitalign enrollment platform and TrueCoverage, which operates because the Inshura enrollment site. The company has an information center in India.

According to court documents, the now-blocked Benefitalign site processed not less than 1.2 million applications for ACA coverage in the course of the last open enrollment period, making it one in all the most important private enrollment sites allowed to integrate with the federal healthcare.gov marketplace.

Previously, CMS had only publicly stated that it had blocked the web sites for “abnormal activity.”

The suspended firms deny any wrongdoing related to the enrollment programs. Spokeswoman Catherine Riedel declined to comment beyond the court documents.

At the top of August, they filed a lawsuit against CMS within the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia over the suspensions and requested an injunction. added to this grievance on September 6, calling CMS’s suspension motion “unlawful.”

On August 8, CMS blocked each web sites from accessing information from healthcare.gov.

According to the September 2 letter, the explanation for this was concern that certain consumer data was being “processed and/or stored” in India and the “suspicion” that the info was being “accessed from outside the United States.”

That's an issue, the letter says, since the marketplace's data must remain within the U.S. to “eliminate the possibility of foreign powers gaining access to it.” In addition, web sites approved by the CMS to integrate with the federal marketplace are usually not allowed to transfer data outside the U.S. or provide access from outside the country, under the terms of the contracts those firms sign to realize CMS approval to operate.

CMS didn’t explain what consumer information might need been included, but ACA applications can include information resembling an individual's name, date of birth, address and detailed household income information.

In previous years, Sperdian firms had been suspended after which reinstated from the marketplace for other reasons, including issues with incorrect Social Security numbers provided on some TrueCoverage ACA applications in 2018 and an attempt by Benefitalign in 2023 to access the federal marketplace's “software test environment” from India, the CMS letter said.

In their request for a preliminary injunction against CMS, the businesses argue that the agency's decision to suspend them now is unfair and capricious and violates its own regulations and the Due Process Clause of the Constitution.

The filing describes the Sept. 2 CMS letter explaining the explanations for the suspensions as an “ex post facto justification” that comprises a litany of “'concerns,' 'suspicions,' and 'allegations.'” The filing also states: “These insinuations of violations are made without evidence of actual violations.”

The court documents say the suspensions will prevent the businesses from participating within the upcoming open enrollment period, harming themselves in addition to “the thousands of brokers” and “millions of consumers who rely on brokers” who use these sites to enroll in ACA insurance.

The suspension will remain in effect, CMS's letter says, partly because the corporate's concerns weren’t addressed by the data provided by the businesses, but additionally at some point of the review.

CMS has “reasonable suspicion based on credible evidence it has reviewed” that the businesses were involved in enrolling consumers or changing their coverage without explicit permission, the letter says, noting that such allegations are in a Civil motion filed by private sector attorneys within the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.

The firms had previously stated that the allegations within the civil lawsuit were unfounded.

Brokers who’ve used the blocked sites prior to now produce other options for enrolling customers, including several other sites currently approved for integration with the federal Obamacare marketplace. Consumers may also go on to the federal or state ACA web sites and enroll themselves or get help from the decision centers related to those marketplaces.

___

©2024 KFF Health News. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Originally published: September 11, 2024 at 1:53 p.m.

Walt Disney Co. shut down ESPN and other DirecTV channels on Sunday, minutes before kickoff of a high-profile USC football game and in the course of the U.S. Open tennis tournament – to the anger of sports fans who were within the midst of a bitter contract dispute.

More than 10 million DirecTV and U-Verse video customers were drawn into the dispute when DirecTV lost the rights to broadcast Disney programming, including Disney-owned ABC television stations.

The two corporations had been negotiating for weeks at DirecTV headquarters, but were unable to agree on a brand new licensing agreement by the September 1 deadline.

The ban is the newest sign of the strain on traditional TV broadcasters as their customers switch to streaming.

“Consumers will blame someone, but really both companies had to put themselves in this situation,” Ross Benes, senior analyst at Emarketer, said recently.

Here’s what it is best to know in regards to the dispute:

Why does this occur?

Pay-TV providers like DirecTV have seen dramatic increases in the price of licensing programming as their customer bases have shrunk resulting from cable cancellations. TV providers are struggling to make cash from their video channels and fear that big price increases will only drive away more customers.

The cost of carrying television networks (ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC) and sports channels corresponding to ESPN has skyrocketed as broadcasters seek to pass on the value increases they’ve promised to sports leagues and conferences. These price increases must increasingly be borne by the shrinking variety of traditional pay-TV subscribers.

DirecTV asked Disney for flexibility to supply smaller, genre-specific packages. Disney has long required pay-TV corporations to hold its cable channels, including ESPN, within the homes of most of its customers. ESPN is the costliest basic cable channel, costing providers nearly $10 per thirty days per subscriber household.

This has led to one of the crucial sensitive points in the present dispute: Disney's “minimum penetration” requirements for its channels, including ESPN. Disney requires that ESPN be broadcast to about 82 percent of DirecTV subscribers.

Minimum penetration has allowed Disney to gather huge fees over time, even from subscribers who don't watch much sports. Pay-TV corporations need to pay penalties in the event that they don't meet the minimum threshold.

DirecTV argues that it’s unfair to burden these subscribers with the high cost of sports programming, since lower than 40% of its customers repeatedly watch Disney sports content. Disney counters that the corporate has invested heavily in high-quality programming and has offered its channels, including ESPN, to DirecTV at market prices.

DirecTV is attempting to lower these penetration rates and reduce the fees it has to pay if it doesn't meet the edge.

The satellite provider also points out that only 10% of its customers repeatedly watch children's programs, but greater than 80% of its subscribers pay for these channels.

In addition, DirecTV and other distributors have also chafed at efforts by Disney and other entertainment giants to construct their very own streaming services that compete with their longtime partners, the pay-TV corporations. Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery and Fox Corp. teamed up this 12 months to construct a sports streaming service called Venu as a substitute for corporations like DirecTV. The effort was challenged in court, and a federal judge in New York issued a short lived restraining order temporarily blocking Venu from launching.

How long will this dispute last?

That is unclear.

A 12 months ago an analogous dispute between Disney and Charter Communicationswhich operates the Spectrum service, lasted 12 days.

Following that bitter battle, Charter dropped some smaller Disney-owned channels, including Freeform, and won the precise to supply Disney streaming services, including Disney+, as a part of its package. But the outage proved costly for Charter, which lost more subscribers than expected.

The suspension ended just as ESPN's first Monday Night Football game of the season began.

Usually a dispute ends when either side feel the economic consequences.

“There is always a lot at stake,” said Benes. “But if [DirecTV doesn’t] If there are not any more ESPN channels in the subsequent three months, that can result in much more cable TV cancellations. That could possibly be one other nail within the coffin.”

Which programs could be affected?

Customers living in cities where a Disney-owned ABC television station, such as KABC-TV Channel 7 in Los Angeles, can be expected to experience interruptions to some of their favorite shows, including “Good Morning America,” “Jeopardy” and local newscasts. Disney owns eight ABC stations, including those in San Francisco, Fresno, New York, Chicago, Houston, Philadelphia and Raleigh-Durham.

Right now, the biggest pain is being felt by sports fans. College football fans are still upset about missing Sunday's clash between USC and Louisiana State University, in which the 23rd-ranked Trojans achieve an exciting last-minute victory over the Tigers in 13th place.

ESPN owns the rights to the US Open tennis tournament, which is in the final rounds of men's and women's quarterfinals and semifinals, with the finals taking place this weekend.

College football also plays a big role on ABC and ESPN.

Monday Night Football on ESPN and ABC kicks off with a high-profile matchup between the New York Jets and San Francisco 49ers, two markets served by ABC-owned networks. The game is expected to feature the return of Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers, who suffered a season-ending injury in last year's MNF opener.

ABC will also host the first presidential debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Trump on September 10. However, the debate will also be broadcast by other networks.

The Disney-owned channel will also broadcast the 76th Primetime Emmy Awards show on September 15, meaning millions of customers will not be able to watch the TV fan fest – hosted by father-son comedy duo Eugene and Dan Levy — if the dispute lasts for more than two weeks.

Is there a workaround?

Viewers can receive ABC signals via a digital Over-the-air antennaBut that won't help viewers of Disney cable channels ESPN, ESPN2, Disney Channel, FX or National Geographic.

Competing services offering Disney's cable channels include YouTube TV, Sling TV, Hulu + Live TV (owned by Disney), FuboTV, and traditional cable and satellite providers including Charter Spectrum, Cox Communications, Comcast and Dish Networks.

Can I get a refund?

Yes, sort of. DirecTV is offering its customers a $20 credit as compensation for the outage. must apply for the loan to an upcoming bill.

©2024 Los Angeles Times. Visit www.latimes.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Originally published: September 4, 2024 at 11:21 am

​​DUBLIN – Four days after a ransomware attack crippled Patelco Credit Union’s systems, the union was still unable to inform its members when banking operations would return to normal.

The Dublin-based credit union has not disclosed further details in regards to the security breach, which has left its members unable to make electronic payments, deposits and transfers since last weekend.

On Tuesday, customers continued to attend in queues at ATMs and were still forced to go to Patelco branches across the state to withdraw money, but were still unable to access their account balances or online banking information.

Enrique Juarez, certainly one of the credit union's estimated 500,000 members, visited the branch on Story Road in San Jose to inquire about his Social Security check, which had bounced and has been his only source of income since he retired in January. A bank worker told him to examine with the federal agency, he said Tuesday.

“I've never had a problem,” said Juarez, a retired warehouse employee who lives in San Jose. “Everything is frozen, I can't even check my account balance until the problem is resolved – and they don't know” when that can occur.

Ahmed Banafa, a lecturer at San Jose State University and a cybersecurity expert, said Tuesday that it was likely that hackers had penetrated the bank's internal databases via a “phishing email” and encrypted their contents, locking the bank out of its own systems.

“The hackers usually demand cryptocurrency, they demand payment. That's why it's called ransomware,” Banafa said.

Patelco is estimated to administer over $9 billion in assets in 37 branches across the state. It is unclear how most of the bank's 500,000 accounts were compromised and the extent to which the bank's assets have been affected.

Banafa called Patelco an “easy target” for hackers, or a low-security goal akin to schools and hospitals, in comparison with other better-known corporations with more sophisticated cybersecurity safeguards akin to federal government databases. It's possible the hackers are targeting either personal information from bank customers or money directly from the credit union, he said.

“Hackers can take this kind of information and sell and exploit it on the dark web,” Banafa said, referring to illegal online servers that sell contraband and other illegal services.

He said the hackers would likely demand a sum of cash from the credit union to return its systems to normal, and they’d proceed to carry the bank's accounts hostage until the bank either finds a option to circumvent the hack or until the hackers are paid. He said payment will likely be demanded in cryptocurrencies akin to BitCoin and is usually wired to an offshore account outside the U.S.

After Patelco waited greater than 24 hours to offer an update on the initial attack on Saturday, Banafa said, “It was clear they were having problems.”

Patelco arrange its own website on Monday to notify customers of the breach, with one other message from CEO Erin Mendez. Mendez wrote that they’re continuing to work with “external cybersecurity experts” to revive Patelco's functionality and that they’re cooperating with law enforcement.

“To our valued members – rest assured that we will refund any fees you are charged late due to this outage. If any of our members have concerns about late payments impacting their credit score, we will write letters on your behalf. We will also waive any Patelco overdraft, late payment or ATM fees until we are back up and running,” Mendez wrote.

She added: “We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience our members have experienced and look forward to providing further updates in the coming days and weeks.”

Banafa said the perpetrator also deliberately carried out this attack by selecting the start of a brand new month and an upcoming holiday because the goal.

“The timing is very bad for the users, but it's well planned for the hackers,” Banafa said. “The problems are made worse by the timing… The people who planned this planned it when there was a lot of money at stake.”

Many customers face the issue of paying their rent, mortgage and other bills.

“I don't feel comfortable using my card even though I could,” said Lakeisha Thomas of downtown San Jose. She added that her bills are piling up and he or she's afraid of overdrawing her account because she doesn't understand how much money is in her account at any given time. “I don't want to owe anything later.”

Jermaine Johnson, a Mountain View resident, said in an interview that he would likely move his savings account to a different bank after first hearing in regards to the debacle 4 days ago on Tuesday.

“It's scary to begin with,” Johnson said. “If I didn't have the small amount of money that's in there, I'd be even more scared. But it's scary because you put your money in a place that you think is safe and then it turns out it's not safe.”

Boom and bust

Non-systemic collapse

“Money doesn’t just disappear”