The Daily Populous

Friday March 3rd, 2023 night edition

image for 'You cannot hide': Biden administration to go after scammers who stole billions in COVID relief

'You cannot hide': Biden administration to go after scammers who stole billions in COVID relief.

WASHINGTON – The Biden administration announced a series of measures Thursday to track down and punish fraudsters who scammed billions of taxpayer dollars that were supposed to provide relief to Americans during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Three strike forces already are in place and have recovered millions of dollars in stolen relief funds, officials said.

The federal government distributed more than $5 trillion in pandemic relief under programs approved by Biden and former President Donald Trump.

From March 2020 to last January, at least 1,044 people pleaded guilty or were convicted of defrauding COVID relief programs, the GAO report said.

COVID relief: About 18 million college students got a financial boost from Biden's COVID-19 rescue law.

Student debt: Could Biden's student loan debt forgiveness plan be affected by the end of the COVID emergency?. »

U.S. regulators rejected Elon Musk’s bid to test brain chips in humans

Authored by reuters.com

The rejection also raises the stakes and the difficulty of the company’s subsequent requests for trial approval, the experts said.

February 2021: Musk tweets: “Neuralink is working super hard to ensure implant safety & is in close communication with the FDA.

He responded that, because of the threads’ small size, scarring “within the brain is so minimal that they're actually removed quite easily.”. »

Over 7,500 Pot Convictions Expunged in Missouri

Authored by hightimes.com
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More than 7,500 individuals in Missouri have had their prior marijuana-related convictions expunged with recreational cannabis now legal in the state.

“The majority of expunged convictions so far are misdemeanors.

In October, the Missouri Supreme Court requested almost $7 million to cover the cost of erasing eligible marijuana convictions. »

The FTC has told PlayStation it has to reveal its third-party exclusivity deals

Authored by videogameschronicle.com
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Microsoft served Sony with the subpoena in January as part of its defence-building process ahead of an FTC lawsuit regarding its proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard.

The FTC rejected this, saying Sony couldn’t “persuasively explain why searching for and producing [these] files presents an undue burden”.

The FTC said in January that there had been no “substantive” settlement talks with Microsoft over the proposed acquisition. »

Putin calls emergency meeting after 'Ukraine took hostages in Russia'

Authored by msn.com
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© Provided by Metro Russian president Vladimir Putin is understood to have called an emergency security council meeting (Picture: AP).

Vladimir Putin is expected to hold a meeting of his national security council today over an alleged Ukrainian sabotage group that has ‘taken hostages’ in Russia.

© Provided by Metro Putin and director of Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) Alexander Bortnikov attend a meeting of the service’s collegium in Moscow (Picture: Reuters). »