theNewsWorthy: Monday, December 17th, 2018
ALL THE NEWS YOU NEED - IN ONE PLACE.
(in less than 10 minutes!)
Today's episode is brought to you by the podcast, Techmeme Ride Home, a daily news roundup of tech news in minutes.
Want more? I got you.
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...
Administration Changes: President Trump announced that Budget Director Mick Mulvaney will be the Acting White House Chief of Staff. Mulvaney will replace John Kelly (for now). He'll be the third person with the job in the last two years. That’s not the only shake-up: Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke resigned over the weekend. No word yet on who might replace him.
Read more: FOX News, The Washington Post
Obamacare “Unconstitutional”: A federal judge ruled the provision of the Affordable Care Act that requires Americans to have health insurance is unconstitutional. President Trump called it a victory, but former President Obama said it’ll put people’s coverage at risk. Advocates for the healthcare law will likely appeal the decision and it could go to the U.S. Supreme Court. For now, nothing has changed.
Read more: The Hill, NYT, USA Today
Student Debt Erased: Thousands of former students will be free of a total of $150 million in debt. Why? An Obama-era law that eliminates debt for students attending for-profit colleges when they shut down. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos fought against what she called a “free money” giveaway, but a judge ruled that it must be allowed.
Read more: CNN, FOX News
Migrant Death: An autopsy is scheduled for a 7-year-old girl from Guatemala who died while in the custody of U.S. Border Control. The girl died within hours of being picked up for illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border with her dad. Some reports say she may have been dehydrated. It could be weeks before any autopsy results are released to the public.
Read more: ABC News, PBS
HQ Trivia, Vine Co-Founder Dead: Colin Kroll, the CEO and co-founder of HQ Trivia, was found dead in his Manhattan apartment. He died from an apparent drug overdose. Kroll was also the co-founder of video app Vine, which was sold to Twitter and later shut down. Kroll was 34.
Read more: NYT, TMZ, TechCrunch
Facebook Photo Breach: Up to 6.8 million Facebook users may be affected by the latest data breach. This time, private photos may have been shared with as many as 1,500 third-party apps. Facebook says it found the bug in September.
Read more: Business Insider, The Verge
Robinhood Backlash: Remember Robinhood from last week? It said it offered zero fees and a 3% interest rate in a new kind of 'checking and savings' account. Well, some of its claims were misleading. Robinhood claimed to be insured by the SIPC (Securities Investor Protection Corporation). Turns out: the SIPC is not on board, so your money may not be protected. Robinhood deleted certain tweets and posts and is now calling it a “cash management” service.
Read more: Bloomberg, TechCrunch, Robinhood Letter
Starbucks Delivery: Starbucks is partnering with Uber Eats to deliver its food and drinks to your door. The option will be coming to about a quarter of its U.S. stores by early 2019.
Read more: Business Insider, CNBC
Apple + ‘Peanuts’: Snoopy and the Peanuts gang are heading to Apple’s upcoming streaming service. DHX Media will produce new series, specials and shorts for Apple, including content with Astronaut Snoopy. Apple is sparing no expense to build out its streaming platform, which is expected to launch in the second half of 2019.
Read more: Variety
Netflix + Springsteen, Swift: The two highest-grossing concert tours of the year are on video. You can find them on Netflix. Bruce Springsteen’s performance came out over the weekend, and Taylor Swift’s show will be released on New Year’s Eve.
Read more: WSJ
Pete Davidson: A post on SNL star Pete Davidson’s Instagram account worried fans and prompted a welfare check by police. Davidson is said to be "fine" and made a brief appearance on SNL after the post. Davidson has talked about his struggles with Borderline Personality Disorder in the past in an effort to raise awareness and help others. If you are or someone you know is struggling, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
Read more: CNN, Deadline, NYT
Weekend Box Office: This weekend’s box office winner was Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. It brought in more than $35 million in North America. Number two was The Mule, directed by and starring Clint Eastwood.
Read more: THR, Rotten Tomatoes
Miss Universe: Miss Universe 2018 goes to... Catriona Gray from the Philippines! The runner-up was Miss South Africa. Also: Miss Spain, while not a finalist, was the first transgender woman to compete in the pageant.
Read more: USA Today, E! Online, Newsweek