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Branson’s Virgin Galactic has been revvings its engines to take to the stars (or at least the Earth’s orbit) and now it’s got official clearance to start mapping those flights out, reports CNNMoney.
The company has said in the past that it’d like to send the first commercial flights up by the end of this year, with Branson and his family traveling on the initial voyage on SpaceShipTwo.
Flights will take off from New Mexico’s Spaceport, which was built solely for the purpose of sending off commercial space flights.
The Federal Aviation Administration is also on board, as it were, and will figure out particulars with local air traffic control to make sure those flights aren’t interfering with any others in the airspace.
It’ll be a bustling business for Virgin, as the company says it’s already received more than $70 million in deposits for spots from around 580 people.
The National Consumer Law Center reports that the court decision [PDF] has serious repercussions for illegal online payday lenders who claim to have affiliation with Native American tribes in order to avoid repercussions.
While Wednesday’s court decision in the case of Michigan v. Bay Mills Indian Community affirmed that the state could not sue an American Indian tribe for operating an off-reservation casino, it also made clear that the state has other, equally powerful, options when a tribe conducts activity off-reservation.
“The game is up for payday lenders who attempt to cloak illegal conduct in tribal immunity,” National Consumer Law Center Associate Director Lauren Saunders, says in a news release [PDF]. “The Supreme Court’s decision makes clear that purportedly tribal payday lenders who loan off-reservation must comply with state laws, including interest rate caps and state licensing laws, and that courts can enter an injunction stopping illegal lending—even by tribal entities.”
The Supreme Court emphasized that when a tribe conducts off-reservation activities they are subject to any generally applicable state law. Meaning the state can deny a license and if a tribe goes ahead with the unlicensed activity the state could bring suit against tribal officials and employees seeking an injunction or pursue criminal charges.
Officials with NCLC say the decision makes a clear statement that states can “shutter, quickly and permanently, an illegal casino” and that the same is true for illegal payday loans that claim tribal affiliation.
Payday lending businesses that align themselves with American Indian tribes have come under greater scrutiny by federal regulators in recent years.
In March, a U.S. District Court judge upheld a magistrate judge’s 2013 ruling that the Federal Trade Commission has authority to regulate certain companies associated with Indian tribes.
That ruling revolved around Colorado-based AMG Services’ claim that it was exempt from FTC enforcement because of its affiliation with American Indian tribes.
Last November, New York State sent cease and desist orders to dozens of online payday lenders to make them stop pursuing residents through advertisements in the state.
In August 2013, Western Sky Financial, a payday lender operating out of a tribal reservation in South Dakota, announced it would discontinue offering loans after facing lawsuits from around the country over three-digit interest rates for its loans. The company had perviously claimed they were not bound by state law because of their tribal affiliation.
These lenders are just a few of the payday operations that claim they are not bound by state law because they operate on tribal reservations.
Wednesday’s Supreme Court decision gives new life for a push by states to rein in the payday lending industry.
“Tribal sovereignty is an important principle that respects the dignity of nations mistreated throughout American history,” Andrew Pizor, staff attorney at the NCLC, says. “Fortunately, the Supreme Court decision affirms that states need not tolerate payday lenders attempting to use tribal sovereignty as a shield for illegal conduct.”
Supreme Court Decision Strikes Blow against Tribal Online Payday Lenders [National Consumer Law Center]
Netflix CEO Reed Hastings delivered some pointed thoughts about Comcast’s play for national broadband dominance and the world of net neutrality while speaking at a conference in California this morning.
Hastings spoke in no uncertain terms before the audience at Code Conference today, making clear his issues with the ever-growing scope of Comcast.
He called residential internet a “natural monopoly,” which in most places it is, and drew attention to the fact that for most consumers, the only non-cable option is fiber — and even that’s limited. Cable, Hastings said, is pretty much the entire residential internet.
That turned the conversation to the recent peering deal Comcast and Netflix made earlier this year. Comcast continues to claim that Netflix is thirty percent of their internet traffic, and so should pay its fair share. Hastings quipped, “We offered to pay 30 percent of the costs if we get 30 percent of the revenue.” Comcast was not particularly interested in that arrangement.
Though the details of the arrangement between Comcast and Netflix remain confidential, Hastings expressed his displeasure with the fact that it needed to exist at all. The principle of the thing, he said, is the problem. “They want the whole internet to pay them for when their subscribers” do anything online. It starts with a small charge now, but over time, Comcast will want more and more. “Not just us, but to the whole internet,” Hastings said.
Comcast’s double-dipping money-making doesn’t just face the consumers, after all. It can hit businesses, too. And of course, it’s not just Comcast. Now, Netflix has to cut similar deals with everyone else, too.
Hastings pivoted from there to say that’s why Netflix endorses net neutrality: “If you have a monopoly structure, you need some protections,” he said. “That’s why we’ve been talking about creating an Internet with no slow lane.”
“When you listen to the radio more, it doesn’t cost you more,” explained Hastings. “But with gasoline, you pay more. The Internet is much closer to radio than to gas. There’s only a marginal increase in costs.”
Hastings has been on the record before saying that the Comcast/TWC merger is a terrible idea. When asked why he and his company have been such staunch and solo voices against the Comcast merger and for net neutrality, Hastings readily admitted that it was in the company’s best interests to do so. But, he added, someone has to:
“Someone has to stand up for what’s important. We’re raising the question –- [Comcast will] have 40 percent of residential Internet – what does it mean when one company has that kind of control?”
Data caps, higher prices, and even tighter control, that’s what. Netflix doesn’t see Comcast as the competition; that place is reserved for content companies like HBO. But it does need to get to viewers to succeed. And for that, it needs Comcast.
For more, not only about Comcast and net neutrality, but also about upcoming Netflix shows and why its DVD-only spinoff failed, check out the full liveblog at Re/Code.
Netflix CEO Reed Hastings Talks Net Neutrality [Re/Code]
In a profile that is solely dedicated to uncovering the apparent mystery behind the waffle taco (which seems pretty straightforward if you can read its name), Businessweek spoke with the director of product development at Taco Bell, Heather Mottershaw.
She says inspiration struck while she was scrolling through Facebook and saw a friend’s snap of a waffle sandwich filled with eggs, avocados and other Southern California ingredients.
“I went, huh, that’s an interesting idea,” she says.
So she ran out and bought supermarket waffles and started trying to figure out how to make it into a taco-like holder. She ended up leaving a frozen waffle to thaw at room temperature, then folding it, flash frying it in a chalupa basket and voila, a crispy waffle taco shell to hold eggs, sausage and cheese.
Mottershaw took her discovery back to Taco Bell the next morning and served it up.
“As soon as the team started to see it,” she says, “there was this instant excitement, this buzz that this is a cool idea, this is a big idea.”
And now you know where that thing you’d either chow down on happily or have it be the last thing that ever gets near your mouth came from [cue "the more you know" rainbow].
Taco Bell’s Secret Recipe for New Products [Businessweek]
The top performer in their tests was Sinful Colors, a brand that’s available at your neighborhood discount or drug store. The polish itself costs just $2, and a full Sinful Colors set including base coat and top coat costs $10.
If you want to spend almost eight times that much and get a much worse product, maybe Chanel’s Le Vernis (English: “The Polish”) is for you. When comparing products objectively, testers found that the polish chipped on the first day, and smelled very unpleasant.
CND, a brand available online and in nail salons, also performed well in the tests. The top performer among polishes with one-step application was Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure. Despite the name, it does not include a professional manicurist in the bottle. They checked.
A $2 Sinful Colors polish beat a $27 Chanel in Consumer Reports’ tests [Consumer Reports]
California-based Consumer Portfolio Services, Inc. allegedly used illegal tactics, such as collecting money consumers did not owe, harassing consumers and third parties, and disclosing debts to family, friends and employers, when servicing and collection consumers’ loans.
According to the FTC complaint, CPS’ loan-servicing violations include:
To settle the charges, the company agreed to refund or adjust 128,000 consumers’ accounts more than $3.5 million and forebear collections on an additional 35,000 accounts. Additionally, the company will pay $2 million in civil penalties for violating the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and the Fair Credit Reporting Act Furnisher Rule.
Under the settlement order, CPS is required to change its business practices to comply with the requirements set forth by the law and establish a comprehensive data integrity program to ensure accuracy, integrity and completeness of its loan servicing process.
Refunds and adjustments to consumer accounts must begin within 90 days.
Auto Lender Will Pay $5.5 Million to Settle FTC Charges It Harassed Consumers, Collected Amounts They Did Not Owe [Federal Trade Commission]
One visitor said he thought he was about to fall 103 stories when the pane of glass started to crack as he sat on it posing for pictures with his family, reports the Chicago Tribune.
“I had my palms on the floor and I could feel it cracking,” he said. “Honestly, I was in shock, in disbelief. I was scared.”
Officials say he was always safe, however, as it was only a protective coating on the glass that had cracked, and not the three half-inch-thick layers of glass underneath it. Those can hold up to five tons, which is a heck of a lot of tourists.
“This protective coating occasionally cracks,” said Willis Tower spokesman Bill Utter. “Usually when someone has something sharp in their pocket and it gets poked. It did what it was designed to do.”
Despite the family group feeling like “there was only cracked glass between us and 103 floors down,” as one of the visitors said, this isn’t an abnormal occurrence.
“It’s happened in the past,” the spokesman said, confirming there is no structural damage to the ledge. “We hope they come back.”
Scare of a lifetime in just a few seconds at the Willis Tower [Chicago Tribune]
The DOT on Thursday announced that Southwest Airlines violated the full-fare adverting rule that requires the price advertised to be the price that the customer pays with a set of television advertisements in October 2013.
The advertisements, which aired in the Atlanta area, promised $59 sale fares to New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago on certain dates. However, the DOT found that Southwest did not have any seats available for $59 between Atlanta and the three other cities.
In addition to paying $100,000 for the most recent violation, Southwest must fork over another $100,000 for violation of a cease and desist order issued in July 2013 for the same issue.
According to a report by USA Today, Southwest says the cities listed during the October 2012 advertisement were a mistake.
“The DOT fine is related to an October 2013 fare sale in the Atlanta market that was supported by television ads offering fares starting at $59 one-way. Unfortunately, the audio portion of the TV advertisement incorrectly stated three cities that were never intended to be a part of the $59 sale (New York, Los Angeles and Chicago). As soon as we became aware of our mistake, we pulled all incorrect advertisements off the air.
“Despite our error, the sale offered substantial discounts in over 500 city pairs throughout Southwest’s system. Collectively, more than 300,000 consumers saved millions of dollars by taking advantage of the ATL fare sale. Once we discovered the error, we did honor the $59 fare for those consumers who called reservations requesting the $59 price point for those three markets.”
DOT Fines Southwest for Violating Price Advertising Rule, Assesses Additional Penalties for Violating Previous Cease and Desist Provisions [U.S. Department of Transportation]
DOT fines Southwest $200,000 for fare ad violations [USA Today]
