#Women are still being charged for #contraception even though federal #law dictates it should be free. The chair of the #Senate#health cmte wants a govt watchdog to investigate why.
Under the #ACA, health plans are required to provide #BirthControl to patients as a #preventive. Repeated probes have found that plans flout the law & #patients are asked to pay, Sen #BernieSanders said in a letter being sent Mon to the Govt #Accountability Office.
In his letter to GAO, #BernieSanders cites a recent investigation by the state of VT that found 3 #insurers wrongly charged residents >$1.5M for #contraception. A 2022 investigation by the #House#Oversight Cmte found that #HealthInsurance companies persistently denied their members’ requests for no-cost #contraceptives. Some insurers deny coverage for certain brand-name contraceptives, saying they cover generic versions that are therapeutically equivalent.
…the #judiciary is an equal branch of #government & congressional #Democrats have limited opportunities to enact concrete changes.…
#Republicans, who control the #House, oppose legislation to tighten ethical guidelines for the justices & have portrayed overhaul as a political effort to damage the legitimacy of a #conservative#SCOTUS that has delivered them major victories on #abortion & other issues [+ they worked decades to install this court].
“The importance of confirming judges is no excuse for his failure to exercise his committee’s #oversight authority to investigate the most serious #ethics & #corruption scandals in #SupremeCourt history, especially when the few judges #Durbin hopes to confirm before November would inevitably see their rulings shredded by the Court’s captured #RightWing#supermajority in service to its #billionaire backers,” Aronson said.
#Durbin also announced action on another #oversight issue, which pleased progressive activists including Aronson. The #Judiciary Cmte had issued subpoenas for #Texas#billionaire#HarlanCrow & #conservative activist #LeonardLeo in Nov related to their interactions w/the justices, but had not enforced them. The Cmte reached a deal w/Crow on Thurs in which he disclosed he paid for an additional 3 trips on a private jet by #ClarenceThomas.
While helpful, the provision won’t be a panacea, said Tim Whitehouse, the exec dir of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility [#PEER ], a nonprofit…, which helped advise #AFGE on the #ScientificIntegrity language.
“It will be impossible to fully #Trump-proof any agency or protect any #scientist if Trump wins a new term & either the #House or #Senate is in #Republican control,” Whitehouse said. “Then there will be absolutely no meaningful #oversight.”
#FDIC Chair #MartinGruenberg will resign after an outside report found #evidence of a “misogynistic” & “patriarchal” culture at the #banking regulator. #Gruenberg… announced Mon he would resign once President #Biden appoints & the Senate confirms a successor….
An independent investigation led by an outside law firm found rampant instances of #abusive workplace conduct…, incl’g #SexualHarassment, #stalking & inappropriate supervisor-subordinate relationships….
Lawmakers last week grilled #Gruenberg over the allegations. Back-to-back hearings in both the #House & #Senate, initially intended to address #oversight of #financial regulators, last week instead focused heavily on the culture at the #FDIC & Gruenberg’s behavior. Multiple members of #Congress…called for his resignation.
The company said Friday that it will apply “#MadeWithAI” labels to a range of video, audio & images. Meta’s previous policies against #manipulated#media, which were written in 2020 before the #tech industry’s #AI boom, only applied to video content.
The expansion follows criticism from #Meta’s #Oversight Board, which called the company’s existing policies “incoherent” in Feb after an altered video of President #Biden remained on #Facebook because it didn’t violate Meta’s rules.
The #Oversight Board, an outside group funded by #Meta, called on the company to extend the policy to address #altered audio as well as videos when they falsely depict people doing things.
“We agree w/the Oversight Board’s argument that our existing approach is too narrow” because it only applies to #fake speech & not altered actions, Meta VP of #Content Policy Monika Bickert said in a stmnt.
In Feb, #Meta unveiled plans to develop a system to identify #AIgenerated#content that users create using services from other #tech companies which have agreed to embed an AI identifier or a watermark.
Meta’s #AI policy will probably be a welcome development to #civil society groups & experts who have been warning that AI-generated #misinformation is already proliferating online during a pivotal #election year.