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USAID Weaponized FOIA Delays Against Journalists Probing Failed Cuban Twitter Operation

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When journalists uncovered a bungled social media project designed to destabilize the Cuban government, US officials relied on the State Department’s poor transparency record to dodge future questions about the program. According to emails revealed on Monday by the Associated Press, a former senior official with the US Agency for International Development (USAID) worried that the department’s scheme could be exposed by Freedom of Information Act Requests, if USAID obtained records from a private contractor involved in the Cuban ZunZuneo program. “The risk is that it gets FOIA’d later,”…

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Non-Banks Now Service Quarter of Mortgage Industry; GAO, Warren, Cummings Sound Alarm

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The federal government is limited in its ability to oversee the housing market due to a trend that has emerged since the financial crisis—one that disproportionately impacts the poor and troubled borrowers. Non-bank firms grew to account for nearly one-quarter of the mortgage servicing market in 2015, up from 6.8 percent of the sector in 2012, according to a report published Monday by the Government Accountability Office. The development has left the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) hamstrung…

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Tweaked Email Privacy Act Headed Toward Committee Vote This Week

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A House judiciary panel will attempt on Wednesday to pass new privacy measures to protect Americans’ email and digital communications from warrantless government spying. With broad bipartisan support, including more than 300 co-sponsors, the Email Privacy Act is expected to pass committee, but with some last-minute changes to it made by Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.). Late last week, Rep. Goodlatte proposed stripping out a provision that required the government to notify citizens after ten days that it had collected emails from their provider, The…

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Discontent Index Drops By Two Points Around the New Year

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The District Sentinel Discontent Index dropped by over two points around the turn of the year. The measurement fell to 99.17 in December 2015, and then to 98.04 in January 2016. It was at 100.26 in November 2015, the last month for which a reading was released. The movement over the two months was driven by broad improvements in the economy, reflected in each of the index’s subcomponents. Labor Discontent was down by 0.89 points, Consumer Discontent dropped by 0.72 points, and Housing Discontent fell…

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Senate Dems Obstruct SEC Picks, Decry “Gobbledygook” Opinions on Money in Politics

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Senate Democrats held up the nomination of financial regulators, taking exception to two Securities and Exchange Commission nominees’ opinions about corporate disclosure of political spending. Senate Banking Committee members Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), Jeff Merkley and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said Thursday they wouldn’t support Lisa Fairfax and Hester Maria Peirce—the former is a Democrat, the latter is a Republican. The move caused committee chair Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) to hold off on attempting to advance the SEC nominations, which were paired “en bloc” with…

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Armed With New Hacking Tools, Administration Hints at Crypto Wars Thaw

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The White House will reportedly not advocate for anti-encryption legislation about to make its way through Congress. The administration “remains deeply divided on the issue” sources told Reuters, and will provide “minimal public input, if any,” on a bill being worked on by leadership on the Senate Intelligence Committee. Sens. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) and Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) plan to introduce their measure as early as next week. The proposal would give federal judges the power to order tech companies to break into cryptographically-secured information at the behest…

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Key Watchdog: Pentagon Hurtling Toward Missing “Audit-Ready” Deadline Set 7 Years Ago By Congress

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The chief federal government-wide watchdog warned on Wednesday that the Pentagon looks almost certain to fail a basic oversight test mandated by law. Government Accountability Office (GAO) head Gene Dodaro told the Senate Budget Committee that the Defense Department is “not really fixing underlying problems” stopping the agency from being held to a full financial examination. “They weren’t able to pass the test of an audit on one-year budget activity at the department,” the Comptroller General noted, citing Army, Navy and Air Force efforts in 2015.…

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Attorney General Calls Oil Merger “Not Fixable,” Sues to Block It

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A proposed wedding of two behemoths in the oil services industry is on the rocks after the Department of Justice filed suit to block it. The $25 billion merger between Halliburton and Baker Hughes—the number two and three largest companies in the field—would violate “core antitrust principles,” Attorney General Loretta Lynch stated in a press call Wednesday morning, announcing the launching of litigation in a Delaware federal court. “The proposed merger would substantially reduce competition in 23 separate markets for oil field products and services,…

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Recent Trade Deficit Uptick Casts Pall Over Economy

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Import-export data released this week by the Census Bureau calls into question the long-term strength of the US economy. The United States’ monthly trade deficit increased by 2.6 percent in February to $47.1 billion, the agency reported on Tuesday. A three-month moving average of the gap—a mean calculated to give a more clear reading of trends—was also up in February by 2.6 percent, and up by 7.7 percent on an annual basis. The data shows economic activity in the US passing over job creators. It…

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Bernie Takes Huge Chunk of Cheddar in Wisconsin, Historic Comeback Still Within Reach

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Wisconsin voters gave Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) exactly what he needed Tuesday night: a lifeline to stay in the race. The Sanders campaign had to not only win the Badger state primary, it had to win big. And with nearly all the vote counted, it did just that, beating the former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton 57 to 43 percent. The Democratic Socialist was fueled by the support of young voters, winning 82 percent of voters 19-29 years old, according to CNN exit polls. He also…

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Obama Cites Panama Papers Hours Before Massive Leak Sheds Light on CIA “Gun-Runners”

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President Obama on Tuesday made the case for tax reform by citing the Panama Papers. Obama mentioned the massive leak of documents detailing the offshoring of assets by wealthy and powerful people from around the world, when touting a new Treasury Department enforcement policy. The initiative is aimed at preventing future corporate inversions–moves by US-based multinationals to shift operations on paper overseas specifically to reduce tax burdens. “In the news over the last couple of days, we’ve had another reminder, in this data dump coming out…

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