June, 2019

A divided Supreme Court issued a major opinion on administrative law today. The justices declined to overrule a longstanding line of cases instructing courts to defer to an agency’s interpretation of its own regulation – a doctrine sometimes known as “Auer deference.” But in an opinion by Justice Elena Kagan, the court made clear that the doctrine has limits, and it will not apply in every scenario in which an agency is interpreting its own rules. That was not enough, however, for Justice Neil Gorsuch, who complained that today’s ruling had left the doctrine a “paper tiger” and warned that the court would almost certainly have to address the issue again soon.

Rep. Mark Meadows said the Justice Department is examining irregularities in the intelligence community as part of its review of the origins of the Russia investigation. Reacting to newly released documents on changes in U.S. procedures for sharing raw intelligence, Meadows said there was "unbelievably unusual activity" in the final months of the Obama administration.

The community has grown to over 700,000 subscribers and, as of September 2017, is ranked as one of the most active communities on Reddit.

It is not a coincidence that this subreddit was Quarantined on the eve of the first Democrat debate.

The Indian authorities had pledged that all debris would decay within 45 days of the anti-satellite strike aimed at testing the country’s military capabilities on 27 March.

More than six weeks on from the promised deadline, dozens of pieces of space junk from the satellite have been detected in orbit by specialist trackers.

Jonathan McDowell, astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics, said 41 debris objects were still in orbit. He predicted it would take “a year or so” for the debris to fall to Earth and burn up in the atmosphere.

In April, Nasa chief Jim Bridenstine called India’s destruction of a satellite as “terrible, terrible thing” that could endanger astronauts in the International Space Station (ISS)...

Nikola’s founders said in a court filing that Tesla’s first electric heavy duty rig, the Semi, is “substantially” similar to its own truck that it first unveiled in May 2016 and that Tesla copied its patents. The Salt Lake City, Utah-based company added that it was awarded six design patents between February and April 2018 for its wrap windshield, mid-entry door, fuselage, fender, side cladding and the overall design of the Nikola One...

Musk is the world’s 41st richest person with a net worth of US$22.4 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index... SpaceX’s success still hasn’t been enough to completely offset the decline in Musk’s wealth this year. It has dropped by US$1.7 billion...

It’s not clear just how much of Drive.ai will survive at Apple, or whether the startup’s mass layoffs will proceed as scheduled this Friday. According to Axios’ sources, Apple purchased the company’s assets, including its autonomous cars, but both Axios and the San Francisco Chronicle suggest that Apple chose to hire engineers away from Drive.ai directly. Other workers may not be coming along for the ride...

The influential gun rights group also cut ties with Ackerman McQueen, its estranged advertising firm that operates the organization’s broadcasting media arm, according to interviews and documents reviewed by The Times.

NRATV may continue to air past broadcasts, but its live programming and its on-air personalities will no longer be the NRA’s public faces. It was not immediately clear if the NRA may try to hire some employees over from NRATV...

Archaeologists were called in after the remains of a concrete “altar” and a pagan metal plaque were discovered on Whinny Hill above St Margaret’s Loch. The ornate metal plaque, which experts have confirmed to the Evening News as likely to be pagan, was found embedded in the ground within a sod of turf cut in a triangle shape. It depicted two figures – a male figure with horns and a female figure in a surrender pose – set within a pentagram within a circle.

Inside a locked vault at Johnson Space Center is treasure few have seen and fewer have touched. The restricted lab is home to hundreds of pounds of moon rocks collected by Apollo astronauts close to a half-century ago. And for the first time in decades, NASA is about to open some of the pristine samples and let geologists take a crack at them with 21st-century technology...

As Ars Technica reports, the lawsuit was filed by Ian Vianu and Irina Bukchin, AT&T customers who are seeking class-action status for all customers in California. The administration fee is currently set at $1.99, but has been added to customer bills since 2013, when it was introduced at a rate of $0.61 per month.

The fee isn't included in advertised rates and the description of what it covers can only be found within the "Additional Charges" section of AT&T's website. The description is less than clear and references "certain expenses AT&T incurs" before referencing charges related to interconnects with other carriers, cell site rents, and maintenance...

Internet service providers in the United States have spent more than $1.2 billion on lobbying since 1998, and 2018 was the biggest year so far with a total spend of more than $80 million... Top spenders include AT&T, Verizon, and Comcast, which have amassed lobbying expenses of $341 million, $265 million, and $200 million, respectively since 1998...

Elizabeth Ann Pierce was CEO of Quintillion, an Alaskan telecom company, when she lied to two investment firms in New York in order to raise $270 million to build a fiber network. She also defrauded two individual investors out of $365,000 and used a large chunk of that money for personal expenses...

Tuesday’s House vote is not expected to garner significant Republican support. The White House announced it was opposed to the bill Monday, and House GOP leaders said they favor a competing bipartisan bill that passed the Senate Appropriations Committee on a 30-to-1 vote last week. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) told reporters that Democrats were “playing politics” with the border aid and called on Pelosi to put the Senate bill to a vote. “Let’s send the bipartisan bill from the Senate to the president’s desk,” he said...

...other photos of the lake romp may be a bit more scarce as the governor of Laglio put in place a $565 fine for anyone trying to get within 300 feet of the Clooney’s Villa Oleandra while the Obamas were in town. Actor Clooney was not the only celeb the Obamas partied with on this latest jaunt around Europe. While in France, the Obamas met up with U2 frontman Bono and bandmate The Edge. The former White House occupant also had a tony dinner with Prince Albert II in Monaco...

Authorities are still counting fatalities around the U.S. from 2018, but provisional data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are pointing lower. Those data predict there were nearly 69,100 drug deaths in the 12-month period ending last November, down from almost 72,300 predicted deaths for 12 months ending November 2017. If the trend holds through December, annual drug deaths will fall for the first time since 1990, when overdoses killed about 8,400 people. December’s data will likely be available next month.