Facebook emphasizes ‘trustworthy’ news
MENLO PARK, Calif. – Facebook is announcing a second major tweak to its algorithm, saying it will prioritize news based on survey results of trustworthiness.
The company says it is surveying users about their familiarity with and trust in news sources. Facebook announced last week that it would try to have users see fewer posts from publishers, businesses and celebrities. It has struggled to deal with fake news on its platform and Russian-linked content meant to influence the 2016 U.S. elections.
SEC questions bitcoin funds
Federal regulators have a long list of questions and concerns they want answered before they’ll approve a digital currency fund for Main Street investors. Among the concerns: How would funds calculate a fair value for volatile digital currencies, and what steps would the funds take to ensure that investors can easily cash out their shares?
New rules proposed for hog slaughters
Government regulators are proposing changes Friday in the way most hogs slaughtered for meat in the United States are processed.
The new rules would allow hog slaughter plants to voluntarily join a new proposed inspection system that would put plant employees in charge of determining which animals are unfit for processing. Critics say the proposals could imperil food safety, but officials insist they will improve industry practices.
Cuba tourism up under Trump
President Donald Trump drew cheers from a Cuban-American crowd last summer when he announced that he was rolling back some of Barack Obama’s opening to Cuba in order to starve the island’s military-run economy of U.S. tourism dollars and ratchet up pressure for regime change.
That doesn’t appear to be happening. The number of visitors rose last year, and more tourism dollars seem to be funneling to Cuba’s state sector and away from private business.
Quarles pushes rule efficiencies
The Federal Reserve’s top official on financial regulation is putting forward a wide-ranging agenda for improving the way the nation’s banks are regulated.
Randal Quarles says he wants to focus on “efficiency, transparency and simplicity” in bank regulations.
LA Times newsroom votes to unionize
Los Angeles Times journalists have voted to unionize for the first time in the newspaper’s 136-year history while its chief executive is taking an unpaid leave of absence amid allegations of improper behavior.
A National Labor Relations Board tally found that newsroom workers voted 248 to 44 on Jan. 4 for representation by NewsGuild-Communications Workers of America.
The union must now negotiate for a collective bargaining agreement. The union said it will seek better pay and benefits as well as “pay equity for women and people of color, greater diversity and better working conditions” for reporters, copy editors, graphic artists and photographers.