THE NEWSWORTHY: WEDNESDAY, JULY 10TH, 2019
ALL THE NEWS YOU NEED - IN ONE PLACE.
(in less than 10 minutes!)
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All the news stories mentioned in today's episode are listed with links below, so you can spend as much -- or as little -- time as you want perusing the latest happenings...
Acosta Controversy: Top Democrats want U.S. Labor Secretary Alex Acosta to resign over how he handled a sex abuse case more than a decade ago. The case was against billionaire Jeffrey Epstein, who is now facing new federal charges. Epstein previously served only 13 months in jail when he was charged with sexually abusing dozens of young women and girls. Alex Acosta was the U.S. attorney on the case. Acosta says it was the toughest deal in a complicated case.
Read more: WSJ, AP, Reuters, The Hill
H. Ross Perot Died: Ross Perot, the self-made billionaire who unsuccessfully ran for president twice in the 1990s, has died. Perot’s third-party campaigns rallied some voters who weren’t loyal to Democrats or Republicans. He got 19 percent of the vote in 1992, one of the best showings by an independent candidate in the past century. Perot died of leukemia. He was 89.
Read more: CNN, WSJ, AP, FOX Business
Trump’s Twitter: A federal appeals court ruled that the president blocking people on Twitter violates the U.S. Constitution. The decision upholds an earlier ruling that says President Trump violated his critics’ First Amendment rights when he blocked them on Twitter (because Trump uses Twitter for official White House business). Trump's lawyers disagree with the court’s findings, arguing that it's Trump's personal Twitter account.
Read more: Washington Post, Fox News, USA Today, New York Times
DMV & Facial Recognition: New documents reportedly show that federal agents are scanning millions of Americans’ driver's license photos using facial recognition technology, and there will be a hearing about this on Capitol Hill today. Critics say the people in the DMV photos never gave permission to have them handed over to the FBI and ICE, but the FBI has said facial recognition tech is a critical tool in investigations.
Read more: Washington Post, NPR
Pentagon's “War Cloud”: Two tech giants are battling it out to build the U.S. military a “war cloud.” The computing system would store and process classified data and would use artificial intelligence to speed up war planning. Both Amazon and Microsoft are in the running for the $10 billion project. The Defense Department hopes to pick the winner soon, but the project is already facing a legal challenge.
Read more: AP
Virgin Galactic Going Public: Virgin Galactic could become the first space tourism company to go public. Billionaire Richard Branson’s company plans to enter the stock market by the end of this year. Though more than 600 people have already paid to reserve spots on future flights to space, the company needs more funds to make the flights a reality.
Read more: NPR, CNBC, WSJ
MLB All-Star Game: The American League beat the National League in the MLB All-Star game. The final score was 4-3.
Read more: CBS Sports, USA Today
Uber Comfort: Uber is rolling out a new ride option called Uber Comfort. The new feature lets you pick the temperature of the car, how much conversation you want to have with the driver, and an option for extra leg room. It will cost about 20 to 40 percent more than a typical UberX trip. Drivers must have nearly a perfect rating and the car can’t be more than five years old. Uber Comfort is now available in 40 markets in North America.
Read more: The Verge, Engadget, CNN
Last VW Beetle: After seven decades and three generations of designs, the last Volkswagen Beetle will be made today in Mexico. The car was first made in the 1930s.
Read more: TechCrunch, CBS News
Friends & HBO Max: Friends will be leaving Netflix, but you can watch it on the new HBO Max streaming service. AT&T's WarnerMedia's HBO Max will launch in spring of 2020. This is a big loss for Netflix, since Friends is one of the most popular shows on the streaming site.
Read more: People, CNBC