Here's all you have to know about men and women: women are crazy, men are stupid. And the main reason women are crazy is that men are stupid.
Data brokers can keep selling your social security number, says new CFPB chief The Verge
The Verge: “Treasure Secretary Scott Bessent has been named the Acting Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), the bureau announced today.
quickly instructed the agency to “to stop all rulemaking, communications, litigation, and other activities,” reports Bloomberg Law. A source inside the CFPB told Bloomberg Law that his order “appeared to shut down the CFPB altogether for the time being.
DOGE Emails Went Out to Federal Judges by Mistake
As if we have not been in a lessons not learned class since noon on January 20, 2025 today Newsweek reported: “One of the people who received an email from allies of Elon Musk was a federal judge overseeing a lawsuit aimed at blocking these messages. “I, like probably every other judge in the country, also received the [Office of Personnel Management] email,” U.S. District Judge Randolph Daniel Moss said during a hearing related to the lawsuit on Thursday. “I did not respond to it. I suspect it was sent to the judges by mistake.” [No, I think, not.]
Charlie Warzel and Ian Bogost from The Atlantic talked to four experienced federal-government IT professionals who have all “built, modified, or maintained the kind of technological infrastructure” that Elon Musk’s team of young hackers are attacking. They are beyond concerned about the potential consequences.
Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, February 8, 2025 – Privacy and cybersecurity issues impact every aspect of our lives – home, work, travel, education, finance, health and medical records – to name but a few. On a weekly basis Pete Weiss highlights articles and information that focus on the increasingly complex and wide ranging ways technology is used to compromise and diminish our privacy and online security, often without our situational awareness.
Five highlights from this week: Federal workers: Here’s how to lock down your communications; Why rebooting your phone daily is your best defense against zero-click hackers; EFF – Basics | Surveillance Self-Defense; Even the US government can fall victim to cryptojacking; and Federal immigration officials have extensive technology at their disposal.
Ex-minister wants separate corruption trial to Obeid
Three former NSW Labor ministers facing long-standing corruption allegations will be judged by separate juries in a series of "document heavy" trials running into mid-2026.
Eddie Obeid and Joe Tripodi both pleaded not guilty to the allegations when they faced Sydney's Downing Centre District Court on Wednesday
Their co-accused, former state infrastructure minister Tony Kelly, did not appear but previously pleaded not guilty.
The three men each face one count of misconduct in public office over allegations they deliberately mishandled a major water infrastructure bid between 2009 and 2010.
Prosecutors allege the men misused their roles as members of parliament to assist Australian Water Holdings to enter into a public-private partnership with the NSW government.
Tripodi's request to stand trial separate to Obeid was not opposed by prosecutors and was granted by Judge Stephen Hanley, who vacated a joint trial due to start in May.
Prosecutors asked for the trials to be run in succession with three-week intervals in between, with the court setting dates beginning with Kelly in September and finally Obeid in April 2026.
"The trial will be document heavy," prosecutor Elodie Somerville said.
"We are hopeful there will be some agreed facts."
Obeid is accused of attempting to influence his senior parliamentary colleagues - Michael Costa, Nathan Rees, Morris Iemma, Philip Costa and Kristina Keneally - to promote Australian Water Holdings' interests.
Tripodi allegedly prepared a minute document for the cabinet standing committee on the budget, which supported the company's bid for a public-private partnership.
Kelly, who at the time was minister for infrastructure, then signed and authorised the submission of the minute, according to court documents.
The minute allegedly contained information the men either knew to be untrue or had made no appropriate inquiries to verify.
Australian Associated Press
