Tag: policy

California’s billionaire utopia faces a major setback

Silicon Valley’s billionaire-backed plan to turn 60,000 acres into a utopian “city of yesterday” is officially delayed by at least two years. California Forever confirmed on July 22 that its “East Solano Plan” rezoning proposal will not appear on the region’s November election ballot. Instead, the $900 million project will first receive a full, independent […]

Like cigarettes and alcohol, Surgeon General says social media needs warning labels

US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy believes social media platforms like Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, and X should be legally required to feature health warning labels similar to tobacco and alcohol products. The nation’s chief public health officer wrote an op-ed published in The New York Times on Monday morning, offering some of his strongest condemnations yet […]

California’s billionaire utopia may not be as eco-friendly as advertised

Silicon Valley billionaires are still aggressively moving forward with their attempt to create a utopian, sustainable “city of yesterday” near San Francisco atop what they describe as “non-prime farmland.” However, an accredited land trust now claims California Forever’s East Solano Plan is intentionally misleading local residents about the “detrimental harm” it will cause ecosystems, as […]

Your driving could be monitored by popular apps

Millions of people rely on smartphone apps to keep an eye on their children, locate the cheapest nearby gas station, learn the week’s weather forecast, or even simply listen to music—but before doing so, app makers generally require their users to agree to lengthy terms and conditions. And as a June 9 report from The […]

Tracking private jets just got much harder

The latest Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization bill contains a pointed amendment within it—the government is making it much more difficult to monitor and track private aircraft travel. The new law passed last week will almost exclusively benefit the nation’s wealthiest flyers and obscure public attempts to hold them accountable for their disproportionate carbon emissions. As […]

Law enforcement collected over 1.5 million people’s DNA since 2020

A new investigation published today by Georgetown University’s Center on Privacy & Technology reveals the Department of Homeland Security has amassed 1.5 million people’s DNA in recent years thanks to a potentially unconstitutional and predatory legal amendment targeting marginalized communities—a 5,000-percent increase compared to its database’s previous two decades of existence. This genetic material is […]

Washington state deploys $30,000 drone to combat graffiti

Washington state is readying a $1 million anti-vandalism project, part of which involves testing a $30,000 drone that paints over graffiti. Signed into law on March 15 by Gov. Jay Inslee, the “Graffiti Abatement and Reduction Pilot Program” is scheduled to go into effect on June 6, and includes “field testing spray drone technology” along […]

Many rural areas could soon lose cell service

Rural and Indigenous communities are at risk of losing cell service thanks to a 2019 law intended to strip US telecom networks of Chinese-made equipment. And while local companies were promised reimbursements as part of the “rip-and-replace” program, many of them have so far seen little of the funding, if any at all. The federal […]