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Tax prep companies shared private taxpayer data with Google and Meta for years, congressional probe finds

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:19:32 GMT

By Brian Fung | CNNSome of America’s largest tax-prep companies have spent years sharing Americans’ sensitive financial data with tech titans including Meta and Google in a potential violation of federal law — data that in some cases was misused for targeted advertising, according to a seven-month congressional investigation.The report highlights what legal experts described to CNN as a “five-alarm fire” for taxpayer privacy that could lead to government and private lawsuits, criminal penalties or perhaps even a “mortal blow” for some industry giants involved in the probe including TaxSlayer, H&R Block and TaxAct.Using visitor tracking technology embedded on their websites, the three tax-prep companies allegedly sent tens of millions of Americans’ personal information to the tech industry without consent or appropriate disclosures, according to the congressional report reviewed by CNN.Beyond ordinary personal data such as people’s names, phone numbers and email addresses, the li...

These 7 California metro areas have the lowest young adult homeownership rates in the country

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:19:32 GMT

So you’re in your late 20’s or early 30’s, and you’re thinking about buying your first home somewhere in California. You scroll through housing websites and realize that you can’t afford a single listing.Sound familiar? Well, you’re not alone. All seven of the country’s major metro areas with the lowest homeownership rates for 25-to-34 year-olds are in California, a Bay Area News Group analysis of Census Bureau data from 2017 to 2021 has found. And the ripple effect is having a profound impact on more than just young people.The Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim metro area, where only 2 out of 10 young adults ages 25-34 own their home, scored lowest in the country.Santa Maria-Santa Barbara was just a fraction better with a young adult home ownership rate of 21%, followed by Santa Cruz-Watsonville (22.5%), San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara (22.8%), Salinas (23.3%), San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward (23.4%) and San Diego-Carlsbad (23.8%). Our analysis fi...

Federal bill to make online platforms pay for news they use advances while California bill slows

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:19:32 GMT

While California lawmakers have put the brakes on a bill that would make the likes of Facebook and Google pay news publishers for using their stories, a similar federal bill has once again advanced in Congress.But it remains to be seen whether this year’s version of the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act advances beyond the U.S. Senate, where an earlier version quietly died last winter.Once again co-authored by Senators Amy Klobuchar, a Minnesota Democrat, and John Kennedy, a Louisiana Republican, S.1094, the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act, sailed out of the Senate Judiciary Committee last month on a 14-7 vote with broad bipartisan backing.Klobuchar, the daughter of a former newspaperman, told the committee that since 2005, some 2,200 local newspapers across America have closed and a third of U.S. newspapers that existed two decades ago are expected be gone by 2025.“This isn’t because of a lack of talent or a lack of things to cover or a lack ...

A’s All-Star Brent Rooker heard ‘sell the team’ chants at Midsummer Classic

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:19:32 GMT

SEATTLE — Brent Rooker, the Oakland A’s lone All-Star representative, told himself to take mental snapshots throughout the festivities on a picture-perfect Tuesday afternoon.The one he’ll remember was walking off the field after the top of the ninth. But the moment that will last in the minds of most fans came during his first at-bat.Before lacing a ground-rule double over the right-field fence in the sixth inning, Rooker was greeted by a chorus of chanting fans as he stepped into the batter’s box.Sell-the-team! Sell-the-team!A popular refrain from disgruntled fans to owner John Fisher, whose intent to move the team to Las Vegas becomes clearer by the day, made its way to baseball’s biggest stage. At commissioner Rob Manfred’s news conference earlier in the day, he said the A’s had begun the relocation process.“I don’t know if it’s a large presence of Oakland fans here or if fans across the league share the sentiment, but I did n...

Huge San Jose housing project will include scores of affordable homes

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:19:32 GMT

SAN JOSE — A 737-unit housing development proposed for an older tech campus in north San Jose will feature a diverse mix of residences including numerous affordable units, new plans on file with city officials show.The proposed development is slated to be built in phases, according to documents that the project developer, San Jose-based Valley Oak Partners, submitted to municipal planners.It wasn’t immediately how the project might be phased.The 737 units will consist of 132 apartment units that will all be offered at affordable rates, 101 townhomes and 504 apartments that will be rented at market rates, the planning documents show.The apartments, both market rate and affordable, would include a mix of studios, as well as one-, two- and three-bedroom units.The housing project would be constructed on a 9.8-acre site that’s near the intersection of River Oaks Parkway and Zanker Road.This multi-faceted residential development has become a real possibility after the cu...

Editorial: Pink Poodle strip club ruling provides critical voice for transparency

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:19:32 GMT

It was a victory for transparency when a Superior Court judge last week ordered San Jose officials to release investigative records of firefighters’ involvement in the Pink Poodle strip club fiasco.Too many local government leaders across the Bay Area and California have forgotten whom they work for. Public workers have reasonable rights to privacy. But that doesn’t extend to malfeasance on the job.That doesn’t extend to social workers in Alameda County who fail to protect vulnerable youth. Nor to Contra Costa County law enforcement who send racist texts or abuse their power. And, as Judge Thomas Kuhnle ruled in a case brought by this news organization, it doesn’t extend to San Jose firefighters who take a bikini-clad woman for a ride in a firetruck and then drop her off at a strip club.California law is clear: The public has a right to see details of investigations in which the complaints are well-founded and substantial. The Pink Poodle incident met both tests. As then-Mayor Sam L...

Opinion: Delta tunnel will address California’s water challenges

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:19:32 GMT

California is running out of time to adapt to the very real impacts of climate change already plaguing our state — extreme dry periods, reduced Sierra snowpack and short, intense periods of warmer and wetter rains. We must act now to upgrade our water infrastructure to capture and move water when we have it so that it’s available when we do not. Failure to improve our water infrastructure is the equivalent of denying climate change.That’s why it is frustrating to see the same tired arguments against the Delta Conveyance Project, one of the most important water infrastructure projects we can build as a state to secure our water supply for millions of Californians well into the future.California is navigating another dramatic swing in climate conditions, with a year of unprecedented rainfall resulting in snow water supplies in the Sierra Nevada mountains at 346% of normal at the outset of summer, according to the California Department of Water Resources. While this should be wel...

Police: MMA fighter helped detain Bay Area arson suspect

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:19:32 GMT

A day after the Vallejo Fire Department announced that an arsonist was arrested Saturday night after stealing a vehicle and setting a field on fire, the Vallejo Police Department released a statement saying a bystander first caught the suspect by using mixed martial arts.According to the VPD news release, a “vigilant Vallejo citizen observed a man deliberately starting a vegetation fire with a flare near the intersection of Admiral Callaghan Lane and Turner Parkway. The citizen followed the arsonist as he ran across the street and entered a black Tesla parked on the 900 block of Admiral Callaghan Lane.“Before the arsonist could drive away, the brave citizen contacted the arsonist and removed him from the vehicle,” the VPD statement continues. “The arsonist knew he was in trouble and quickly learned he was being detained by a trained mixed martial artist who introduced him to a double armbar. The arsonist stayed submitted with the double armbar until our officers arrived and arrested...

Alleged scams cost California doctor, pain clinics $11.4 million in settlement

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:19:32 GMT

A California physician and his medical practice, which once operated 29 pain clinics statewide, have agreed to pay nearly $11.4 million to resolve allegations of false claims being submitted to federal and state health insurance programs for medically unnecessary procedures and care, a U.S. Attorney in Sacramento said Tuesday.Lags Spine & Sportscare Medical Centers Inc., and Dr. Francis P. Lagattuta, the owner and medical director of Lags Medical, agreed to settle allegations that they violated the False Claims Act by submitting millions of dollars in bogus claims to Medicare, Medi-Cal and the Oregon Medicaid programs for skin biopsies, spinal cord stimulation surgeries and urine drug testing, Phillip A. Talbert, the U.S. Attorney for the Department of Justice’s Eastern District of California, stated in a press release.Of the three-part settlement, Talbert said it resolves allegations  from 2016 to 202 that  Lagattuta and Lags Medical performed medically unnecessary skin biopsie...

Anchor Brewing Company to cease operations in San Francisco

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:19:32 GMT

(BCN) -- A landmark company in San Francisco has turned off its taps. Anchor Brewing Company officials announced early Wednesday that it will cease operations and liquidate the business -- established in 1896 -- citing economic factors including declining sales since 2016. The company gave employees 60-day notices "with the intent to provide transition support and separation packages in line with company practices and policies," according to the announcement from company spokesperson San Singer. Serial South Bay arson suspect arrested; confessed to 15+ fires: police "This was an extremely difficult decision that Anchor reached only after many months of careful evaluation," Singer said in the announcement. "We recognize the importance and historic significance of Anchor to San Francisco and to the craft brewing industry, but the impacts of the pandemic, inflation, especially in San Francisco, and a highly competitive market left the company with no option but to make this...