Alabama may be on the verge of its own disinformation investigation.
Sen. Doug Jones (D-Ala.) narrowly beat Republican Roy Moore in the deep-red state's U.S. Senate race last year. But after a New York Times report detailed how Democrats led a social media disinformation campaign against Moore during the race, Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall has decided to probe further, The Washington Post reports.
Moore's tight loss is largely attributed to multiple credible allegations of sexual predation levied against him as the race went on — allegations which Moore denied. But the Times detailed how "Democratic tech experts" deployed a Russia-style deception campaign on Facebook and Twitter to influence the race in Jones' favor. The project was an "elaborate 'false flag' operation" that made it look as if Moore's social media accounts were flooded with Russian bot followers, the report says. The follower count gained national attention, and so did the race. LinkedIn co-found Reid Hoffman was named in the article and said Wednesday he didn't know his money would fund disinformation.
"The secret project ... was likely too small to have a significant effect on the race," the Times wrote. But Marshall countered, telling the Post on Thursday that the "impact it had on the election is something that's significant for us to explore." Marshall didn't commit to a full investigation into the project, but said his office would "explore the issue further." Jones called on federal investigators to probe the disinformation campaign after the Times report surfaced, and Hoffman agreed in his Wednesday statement.
Spokespersons for Moore and Jones did not immediately respond to the Post's requests for comment. Read more at The Washington Post. Kathryn Krawczyk
New year, clearer hospital bills.
A federal rule change requiring hospitals to post their procedure prices online will officially take effect Jan. 1. It won't detail what costs are covered by insurance and government programs, but should give patients a better idea of what eventually shows up on their bill, per The Associated Press.
The Department of Health and Human Services first announced the new mandate in April as part of a Medicare services rule change. Called the Inpatient Prospective Payment System rule, the new policy is aimed at stopping "surprise bills" from hospitals, the April press release said. And on Tuesday, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services head Seema Verma announced the new rule was official.
Hospitals already have price information readily available, and the new rule just requires it's posted online, Verma told AP. The policy change also hones in on electronic medical records, asking technology companies to develop ways to consolidate records from across medical facilities into one easy-to-use portal. In the future, how well hospitals' records portals work could determine how much federal funding they receive.
Patients will still have to talk with their insurers to clarify exactly what they're expected to pay before it shows up on a bill. But Verma promised this is "just [the] beginning on price transparency," AP reports, and the policy change suggests deeper work on online records is yet to come. Kathryn Krawczyk
Democrats may not be ready to feel the Bern a second time.
Some backers of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)'s 2016 presidential bid, including lawmakers as well as former staffers and advisers, spoke with The New York Times on Thursday and said they won't necessarily support him if he runs again in 2020. This includes Sanders' former press secretary, Symone Sanders, who said "there are a lot of good candidates this time" and that she'll "wait and see" who she backs.
Two other 2016 campaign staffers told the Times they'll be supporting Rep. Beto O'Rourke (D-Texas) if he runs; both helped organize his 2018 Texas Senate race. Additionally, a consulting firm led by three key Sanders 2016 aides also hopes to work for O'Rourke in 2020. A few devoted Sanders backers, though, did tell the Times they're ready to support him again in 2020.
But the Times spoke with plenty of others who were reluctant about Bernie 2020, including former Nevada state Assemblywoman Lucy Flores, who said it's "not a given" that she'll endorse him again. Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.), the first congressman to endorse Sanders in 2016, said that "one has to wait and see who’s got the best chance mathematically."
A common concern among the Democrats the Times spoke to was Sanders' age; the Vermont senator would be 79 by the time he took office, which would make him the oldest president in U.S. history. Others noted that Sanders no longer sticks out among Democrats as much when many of his policy proposals, such as single-payer health care, have been adopted by other candidates, including O'Rourke and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.)
Progressive talk show host Bill Press, who thinks a Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) 2020 bid could be the way to go, observed, "What I hear from a lot of friends is that a younger Bernie is what we need." Brendan Morrow
The Good Memories Choir in Chicago is unlike any other singing group — you don't even need to be able to carry a tune to join.
The choir was formed as a way for people with Alzheimer's and dementia and their caregivers to have a place to gather, an outlet for them to sing and have fun. Their first rehearsal was in September, and since then, about 40 members have joined the group. Volunteers also participate, stepping in to help when a singer loses their place or needs assistance hitting the correct note. Earlier this month, the Good Memories Choir held its inaugural concert, belting out songs like "What a Wonderful World" and "Que Sera Sera."
Wanting to study how singing affects people with memory loss and their families, research professor Mary Mittelman started the Unforgettables Chorus in 2011. She quickly discovered that members with early to mid-stage dementia were able to better communicate with their caregivers, felt an increase in self-esteem, forged deeper social connections, and experienced an improved overall quality of life, The Washington Post reports. Additional research shows that more regions of the brain are used when making musical memories, and some of those regions are not as affected by Alzheimer's and dementia.
In 2018, at least 10 choirs for people with memory loss and their families were launched in the United States, the Giving Voice Initiative says, and they are making a difference. "Whether or not people remember things, and whether or not they are cognitively present, we know they can feel joy," Good Memories Choir co-founder and conductor Jonathan Miller told the Post. Catherine Garcia
The government shutdown has left President Trump with some unexpected benefits.
Trump is facing a number of ongoing lawsuits, including one that alleges he illegally profits when foreign officials stay at his Washington, D.C., hotel. But Justice Department lawyers representing Trump in the case aren't being paid during the shutdown, so they've sought to freeze its litigation while the shutdown continues, Politico reports.
The ongoing suit says Trump has violated the Constitution's emoluments clause "by maintaining a financial interest in his company’s Washington hotel," per The Washington Post. The clause prohibits government officials from accepting gifts from foreign officials, and the suit says profits from their stays at the hotel could constitute gifts.
DOJ lawyers' next filing in the case isn't due until Jan. 22, but they've already asked the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to delay filings indefinitely. "The Department does not know when funding will be restored by Congress," the lawyers' request says, and they can't work "even on a voluntary basis" in the meantime. The court quickly granted the DOJ's request, Politico reports. Other requests to delay civil government lawsuits, including a suit involving Trump's asylum ban, were also filed Wednesday.
It's not clear when the case will proceed, seeing as the request appears to "extend [deadlines] by the duration of the shutdown once Congress and the president put new funding in place," Politico writes. It's also unclear if Trump will own up to the shutdown like he said he would just two weeks ago. Kathryn Krawczyk
Michael Cohen's cell phone was picked up in the Prague area during the summer of 2016, four people with knowledge of the matter told McClatchy. Cohen, President Trump's former personal lawyer and fixer, has denied ever going to Prague, denouncing reports that he attended a secret meeting there with Russian officials.
Two people also told McClatchy that an Eastern European intelligence agency overheard Russians discussing his visit to Prague, and Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election, is aware of this intercept.
In 2016, former British spy Christopher Steele put together a dossier based on information he received from people with ties to the Kremlin. It states that Cohen and at least one Russian official met in Prague in order to come up with a plan to conceal ties between the Trump campaign and Russia. The dossier asserts that a member of the Russian Senate, Konstantin Kosachev, "facilitated" the meeting and may have been at it; he has denied going to Prague in 2016.
The dossier was first made public in January 2017, and Cohen was adamant that he never visited Prague. He is now cooperating with Mueller's team, and pleaded guilty in August to bank and tax fraud and campaign finance law violations and in December to one count of lying to Congress. He was sentenced to three years in prison. Read more about Cohen and how cell phones are easily tracked at McClatchy. Catherine Garcia
A controversial Instagram update that radically altered the app's user experience is already being rolled back, with the company's head of product admitting it was an accident.
Instagram users were surprised on Thursday to find they had to swipe horizontally to view photos on the app rather than scroll vertically, a change few felt was for the better. But only hours after the change was first unveiled, users began to report that the app had already gone back to normal.
That's because, as Instagram head of product Adam Mosseri soon explained on Twitter, it was just meant to be a "very small test," but it "went broad by accident." "Sorry about that," he added in another tweet. When Mosseri was asked if the feature is still coming or if it's just being tested, he replied, "Just a test."
It remains to be seen whether Instagram will ever actually roll out the horizontal feed for good, but seeing as the negative reactions were so widespread Thursday that phrases like "Wtf Instagram" began to trend on Twitter, they'd probably be wise to reconsider. Brendan Morrow
