Ex-Facebook manager criticizes company, urges more oversight

WASHINGTON (AP) — While accusing the giant social network of pursuing profits over safety, a former Facebook data scientist told Congress Tuesday she believes stricter government oversight could alleviate the dangers the company poses, from harming children to inciting political violence to fueling misinformation.

Frances Haugen, testifying to the Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, presented a wide-ranging condemnation of Facebook. She accused the company of failing to make changes to Instagram after internal research showed apparent harm to some teens and being dishonest in its public fight against hate and misinformation. Haugen’s accusations were buttressed by tens of thousands of pages of internal research documents she secretly copied before leaving her job in the company’s civic integrity unit.

But she also offered thoughtful ideas about how Facebook’s social media platforms could be made safer. Haugen laid responsibility for the company’s profits-over-safety strategy right at the top, with CEO Mark Zuckerberg, but she also expressed empathy for Facebook’s dilemma.

Haugen, who says she joined the company in 2019 because “Facebook has the potential to bring out the best in us,” said she didn’t leak internal documents to a newspaper and then come before Congress in order to destroy the company or call for its breakup, as many consumer advocates and lawmakers of both parties have called for.

Haugen is a 37-year-old data expert from Iowa with a degree in computer engineering and a master’s degree in business from Harvard. Prior to being recruited by Facebook, she worked for 15 years at tech companies including Google, Pinterest and Yelp.

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Biden: Senate filibuster change on debt a 'real possibility'

WASHINGTON (AP) — To get around Republican obstruction, President Joe Biden said Tuesday that Democrats are considering a change to the Senate's filibuster rules in order to quickly approve lifting the nation's debt limit and avoid what would be a devastating credit default.

The president's surprise remarks come as the Senate is tangled in a fiscally dangerous standoff over a vote that's needed to suspend the nation's debt limit and allow the federal government to continue borrowing to pay down its balances. Congress has just days to act before the Oct. 18 deadline when the Treasury Department has warned it will run short of funds to handle the nation’s already accrued debt load.

Biden has resisted any filibuster rule changes over other issues, but his off-the-cuff comments Tuesday night interjected a new urgency to an increasingly uncertain situation.

“It’s a real possibility,” Biden told reporters outside the White House.

Getting rid of the filibuster rule would lower the typical 60-vote threshold for passage to 50. In the split 50-50 Senate, Vice President Kamala Harris can break a tie, allowing Democrats to push past Republicans.

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Evidence suggests ship anchor snagged, dragged oil pipeline

LONG BEACH, Calif. (AP) — Evidence emerged Tuesday that a ship’s anchor snagged and dragged an underwater pipeline that ruptured and spilled tens of thousands of gallons of crude oil off Southern California, an accident the Coast Guard acknowledged it did not investigate for nearly 10 hours after the first call came in about a possible leak.

The pipe was split open and a nearly mile-long section apparently pulled along the ocean floor, possibly by “an anchor that hooked the pipeline, causing a partial tear,” federal transportation investigators said.

“The pipeline has essentially been pulled like a bow string,” said Martyn Willsher, CEO of Amplify Energy Corp., which operates the pipeline. “At its widest point, it is 105 feet (32 meters) away from where it was.”

Huge cargo ships regularly cross above the pipeline as they head into the massive Los Angeles-Long Beach port complex. They are given coordinates where they are to anchor until unloading.

Even when anchored, cargo ships continually move from shifting winds and tides. If a ship fails to properly set its anchor in the ocean floor, those forces of nature come into play and can push the ship and drag the anchor along the bottom, potentially catching anything in its way, said Steven Browne, a professor of marine transportation at California State University Maritime Academy.

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Dems edge toward pared-down spending plan to boost support

HOWELL, Mich. (AP) — President Joe Biden and congressional Democrats edged closer to agreement Tuesday on how sharply to cut back his ambitious social spending plan, even as the president made a public case that the package will help keep the nation from losing its “edge” in global competitiveness.

Biden went to Michigan to promote the proposal for expanded safety net, health and environmental programs, but after his speech he acknowledged the inevitable as Democrats focus on a now-$2 trillion top-line for the package to win support.

“I want to make sure that we have a package that everyone can agree on," Biden told reporters. "It’s not going to be $3.5 trillion. It’s going to be less than that.”

“We’re going to get it done.”

On Capitol Hill, strong signs emerged that Democrats were coalescing around Biden’s push for a package in the $2 trillion range, a figure that seemed potentially acceptable to Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and other centrists with reservations. With all Republicans opposed, Biden can’t spare the support of a single Democratic senator.

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Facebook whistleblower testifies: Five highlights

A former Facebook employee told members of Congress Tuesday that the company knows that its platform spreads misinformation and content that harms children but refuses to make changes that could hurt its profits.

Speaking before the Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, former Facebook data scientist Frances Haugen told lawmakers that new regulations are needed to force Facebook to improve its own platforms. But she stopped short of calling for a breakup of the company, saying it wouldn't fix existing problems and would instead turn Facebook into a “Frankenstein" that continues to cause harm around the world while a separate Instagram rakes in most advertising dollars.

Efforts to pass new regulations on social media have failed in the past, but senators said Tuesday that new revelations about Facebook show the time for inaction has ended.

Here are some key highlights from Tuesday's hearing.

FACEBOOK KNOWS IT'S CAUSING HARM TO VULNERABLE PEOPLE

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Black colleges' funding hopes dim amid federal budget battle

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Optimism for transformational funding for the nation’s historically Black colleges was running high after the Biden administration included $45 billion for the schools in its massive multitrillion dollar spending plan.

That outlook quickly soured as the funding became ensnared in Democratic infighting over the size of the economic package and what it should cover. The latest iteration of the bill includes just $2 billion that can go toward educational programs and infrastructure for Black colleges, and even that amount would be reduced to competitive grant funding rather than direct allocations.

That's especially disappointing for many smaller, private historically Black colleges that don't have the endowments as their larger and more well-known peers. They often struggle to upgrade their campuses and programs, hurting their ability to attract students.

The Biden administration's original $3.5 trillion proposal called for sending at least $45 billion to Black colleges and other minority-serving institutions to update their research programs, create incubators to help students innovate and help traditionally underserved populations.

Getting a slice of that would have been a boon to Philander Smith College in Little Rock, Arkansas, a private historically Black college. President Roderick L. Smothers said federal coronavirus relief money was instrumental in helping the university survive the pandemic with technology upgrades and student support, but he said Biden's original proposal provided the kind of money that would have had a long-term impact.

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Vaccines are here. School's open. Some parents still agonize

PHOENIX (AP) — Eight days into the school year, all five of Amber Cessac’s daughters, ages 4 to 10, had tested positive for COVID-19.

Having them all sick at once and worrying about long-term repercussions as other parents at their school, and even her own mother, downplayed the virus, “broke something inside of me,” Cessac said.

“The anxiety and the stress has sort of been bottled up,” she said. “It just felt so, I don’t know, defeating and made me feel so helpless.”

Like parents everywhere, Cessac has been dealing with pandemic stress for over 18 months now.

There's the exhaustion of worrying about the disease itself— made worse by the spread of the more infectious delta variant, particularly among people who refuse vaccinations, which has caused a big increase in infections in children.

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Missouri man executed for killing 3 workers in '94 robbery

BONNE TERRE, Mo. (AP) — A Missouri man was put to death Tuesday for killing three workers while robbing a convenience store nearly three decades ago, an execution performed over objections from racial justice activists, lawmakers and even the pope.

Ernest Johnson died from an injection of pentobarbital at the state prison in Bonne Terre. He silently mouthed words to relatives as the process began. His breathing became labored, he puffed out his cheeks, then swallowed hard. Within seconds, all movement stopped.

In his written last statement, Johnson said he was sorry “and have remorse for what I do.” He said he loved his family and friends and thanked those who prayed for him.

Johnson was pronounced dead at 6:11 p.m., nine minutes after the dose was administered. A corrections department spokeswoman said four relatives representing all three victims were present. Johnson's witnesses included relatives and his lawyer. No relatives spoke after the execution.

Corrections spokeswoman Karen Pojmann said 59 demonstrators gathered on the edge of the prison grounds.

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Taliban meet with UK, Iran delegations amid economic woes

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Afghanistan's Taliban leaders met Tuesday with U.K. officials for the first time since taking power, a move the group hopes will pave the way for the country to refill cash-starved coffers as it teeters on the brink of economic collapse.

The Taliban said meanwhile they arrested 11 members of the rival Islamic State group.

The Taliban's meeting with British diplomats in the capital Kabul came a day after they met with an Iranian delegation — another first since assuming the helm — to discuss trade relations, a key driver of Afghanistan's economy.

The Taliban met with Sir Simon Gass, the British prime minister’s high representative for Afghan transition, and Martin Longden, the chargé d’affaires of the U.K. mission to Afghanistan in Doha.

The meeting marked Britain's first diplomatic visit to the country since the Taliban seized Kabul on Aug. 15, and took control of Afghanistan following the U.S. exit.

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FBI raids offices of New York City police sergeants union

NEW YORK (AP) — Federal agents raided the offices Tuesday of a New York City police union, the Sergeants Benevolent Association, and the Long Island home of its bombastic leader, who has clashed with city officials over his incendiary tweets and hard-line tactics.

FBI spokesperson Martin Feely said agents were “carrying out a law enforcement action in connection with an ongoing investigation."

Agents were seen carrying boxes out of the union’s Manhattan headquarters and loading them into a van. The FBI also searched union president Ed Mullins' home in Port Washington, Long Island, Feely said.

Mullins resigned as the union’s president Tuesday night at the behest of its board, according to a message the union sent to its members. The union represents about 13,000 active and retired NYPD sergeants and controls a $264 million retirement fund.

“The nature and scope of this criminal investigation has yet to be determined. However, it is clear that President Mullins is apparently the target of the federal investigation. We have no reason to believe that any other member of the SBA is involved or targeted in this matter,” the union’s message said.

News from © The Associated Press, 2021