Current Events in July 2018

In an effort to prevent users from uploading and spreading false information in times of crisis, YouTube is rolling out a new plan to help the public get accurate information.

Recently, whenever there’s a breaking news story, a slew of videos full of misinformation start circling around YouTube. While many individuals are just looking for the news, these misleading videos leave many misinformed and confused. However, the trend is set to end soon.

“We’re making changes to put more authoritative content in front of people,” said YouTube Chief Product Officer Neal Mohan.

Changes ahead

Moving forward, YouTube is striving to show users the importance of being an ally to news reporters. The platform has outlined a number of new investments and improvements that it will be implementing.

According to Mohan, YouTube’s recommendation engine has been altered to allow news-related videos from reputable outlets to appear first. He referenced a recent issue of conspiracy theory videos cropping up on the website following incidents like school shootings and other tragedies.

“It’s very easy to quickly produce and upload low-quality videos spreading misinformation around a developing news event,” Mohan said.

Mohan also noted that it’s harder to produce accurate videos in that short a timeframe. To combat this issue, YouTube will be releasing a “new information panel.” This will appear at the top of the search results and show developing news stories. Mohan said this new feature will “be activated in the immediate aftermath of the event.”

To make sure users are getting the most accurate information, YouTube’s new algorithm won’t show a video first. Instead, users will first be directed to a news article sourced by Google News. The results will also feature a banner informing users that the story is still in the developing stages and that information is “subject to change.”

The new feature is currently available in 17 countries, and Mohan said that YouTube is looking to expand, as the company hopes to “double that number” in the coming months.

Staying connected

As Google is YouTube’s parent company, these changes come as part of a three-year, $300 million Google News initiative. According to YouTube, $25 million will go to “innovation funding” grants for news organization, as well as for more support staff.

According to Robert Kyncl, YouTube’s Chief Business Officer, the efforts are designed to set up “long-term sustainable skills” for web videos. Additionally, Kyncl discussed YouTube’s new “working group” for executives and representatives of news outlets to “help shape the future of news on YouTube.”

Ford Motor Company is recalling 5,645 model year 2018 Ford Expeditions, F-150s, and Lincoln Navigators equipped with 3.5L GTDI V6 engines.

The vehicles have high pressure fuel pump assemblies with welds that can fracture, which may cause an oil or fuel leak.

A fuel leak in the presence of an ignition source may increase the risk of a fire.

What to do

Ford will notify owners, and dealers will replace the high pressure fuel pump and associated components, free of charge.

The recall is expected to begin July 16, 2018.

Owners may contact Ford customer service at 1-866-436-7332. Ford's number for this recall is 18S17.

Radagast Pet Food of Portland, Ore., is recalling three lots of Rad Cat Raw Diet Free-Range Chicken Recipe that maybe contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes.

Also being recalled is one lot of Rad Cat Raw Diet Pasture-Raised Venison Recipe that may be contaminated with Shiga Toxin producing E. coli O121.

No pet or human illnesses have been reported.

The following three lots of Rad Cat Raw Diet Free-Range Chicken Recipe, shipped to distributors nationwide in May and June 2018, are being recalled:

• Lot Code 63057, Best By Date: 10/9/2019
• Lot Code 63069, Best By Date: 10/23/2019*
• Lot Code 63076, Best By Date: 10/31/2019*

(8-oz. UPC 8 51536 00103 6, 16-oz. UPC 8 51536 00104 3, 24-oz. UPC 8 51536 00105 0)

*These two lots were shipped to one distributor in Vancouver, BC, Canada in addition to U.S. distributors in May and June, 2018.

The following single lot of Rad Cat Raw Diet Pasture-Raised Venison Recipe, shipped to distributors nationwide only in May and June, is being recalled:

• Lot Code 63063, Best By Date: 10/15/2019

(8-oz. UPC 8 51536 00121 0, 16-oz. UPC 8 51536 00122 7, 24-oz. UPC 8 51536 00123 4 and 1-oz. Samples)

What to do

Customers should check the lot codes printed on the bottom of the plastic containers and return any recalled products to the specialty retailer where purchased for a full refund.

Consumers with questions may contact Radagast Pet Food at (503) 736-4649 Monday – Friday, 9:00am – 5:00pm (PT) or online at www.RadFood.com.

Nissan Motor Co. has admitted to falsifying auto-emissions and fuel-economy data, in what is now a second compliance scandal for the company.

Based on reports from staff members at four Japanese plants, emissions and fuel-economy data was altered on 913 cars that were tested as far back as 2013, and over a dozen vehicle models in the Japanese market were affected. Following an internal review, Nissan also found the calibration of testing equipment to be faulty. Between bad testing and falsified data, Nissan believes over 1,000 cars were affected.

The problems came to light during company-wide compliance checks that were instated following issues of “misconduct” in vehicle inspections last year. Nissan said staff members were altering the data in an effort to meet rigorous internal standards.

“Nissan understands and regrets the concern and inconvenience caused to stakeholders as a result of its [inspection process] issues last year,” the company said in a statement. “Proactive initiatives to prevent recurrence of such issues have led to the discovery of this misconduct, for which the company is regretful.”

Moving forward

In the company’s statement, Nissan said an investigation into the falsifications is already underway, and it has retained the leading Japanese law firm Nishimura & Asahi to carry out the efforts.

The company also reported that all affected models still met Japanese auto standards, except the Nissan GT-R, a two-door sports car. Additionally, Nissan denied releasing false data on fuel economy.

“The Nissan-type vehicle approval average measurement values guarantee the catalog specifications for exhaust emissions,” the company said in a statement. “Similarly, Nissan has also re-verified log data to confirm that all models subject to sampling tests guarantee the Nissan catalog specifications for fuel economy, meaning there are no errors within the fuel economy figures disclosed by Nissan.”

Last year’s scandal

Just last year, Nissan was involved in another major scandal when the company reported unauthorized employees were performing parts of final inspections on vehicles. This included confirming that the lights and brake lights work, and then falsely stamping inspection documents with an authorized inspector’s seal, which is the equivalent of a signature in Japan. In that case, Nissan recalled over one million vehicles in the country.

At the time of the incident, Nissan performed an internal investigation and the report found that management set unrealistic targets that led factory workers to cut corners -- and ultimately hide the evidence -- to meet those targets.

Despite recent concerns, Nissan says it is committed to safety compliance and is working to make things right.

“As a companywide exercise, Nissan will continue to carry out comprehensive checks of frameworks, organizations, and processes related to regulatory compliance,” the company said in a statement. “Strict adherence to compliance is a top priority for Nissan’s management, and if issues are discovered, appropriate measures will be taken. Nissan is committed to promoting and enforcing compliance and awareness thereof in all operational areas.”

The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has suspended payments to health insurers with a large number of sick Obamacare clients.

The agency said it had no choice after a U.S. District Court in New Mexico said the payments are invalid, due to the formula used to make them.

The risk-adjustment payments – from insurance companies with a majority of healthy clients to those companies insuring people with chronic illnesses – were written into the Affordable Care Act (ACA) as a way to stabilize the system. Companies that end up insuring a large number of people who require ongoing care tend to be less profitable than those insuring mostly healthy people.

Insurance is normally based on risk, with premiums costing more for clients who are expected to require more healthcare services. However, under Obamacare, insurance companies cannot charge higher premiums, or even deny coverage, to clients with pre-existing conditions.

February court ruling

CMS cites the late February court ruling in deciding to place a freeze on the $10.4 billion which it collected last year, and which ordinarily would be dispersed among high-risk insurers. The agency says the court ruling also prevents it from collecting additional risk-adjustment funds until the issue is resolved.

Without the funds, insurance companies insuring a large number of sick clients may be forced to raise premiums on all clients.

“We were disappointed by the court’s recent ruling,” said CMS Administrator Seema Verma. “As a result of this litigation, billions of dollars in risk adjustment payments and collections are now on hold.”

Verma says CMS has asked the court to reconsider its ruling, and is hoping for a speedy resolution that allows CMS to “prevent more adverse impacts on Americans who receive their insurance in the individual and small group markets.”

Hostile to Obamacare

The Trump administration has made no secret of its hostility to the healthcare program, enacted in 2010. The White House supported two attempts in Congress last year to repeal the program, which insures about 20 million Americans.

Since then, it has taken administrative steps to weaken the law, including the removal of the individual mandate – which required everyone to purchase health insurance.

Earlier this year, Republican officials in 20 states filed a suit claiming that the healthcare law is unconstitutional.

Republicans made this argument once before, claiming that the individual mandate for consumers to buy health insurance is unconstitutional. But the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the law, finding that the fine consumers faced for not buying insurance was actually a tax.

But since the Trump Administration removed the fine for not buying health insurance, Republicans argue that the removal of the threat of that "tax" now makes the law unconstitutional.

Timehop announced today that the company suffered a major data security breach on July 4. The app reminds social media users of posts from their past, and according to the company, 21 million users have had some form of personal data stolen as part of the incident.

The app’s attackers allegedly obtained access tokens that allowed them to view users’ Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Foursquare posts.

According to a technical report from Timehop, the initial attack took place on December 19, 2017 when an authorized administrator’s credentials were used by an unauthorized user. However, the attacker waited until 2:04 PM on July 4th to “attack against the production database and transfer data.”

Timehop’s report also noted that the attackers created a new administrative account and “began conducting reconnaissance activities within [the] Cloud Computing Environment.” The unauthorized user then performed reconnaissance activities for two days after the initial attack, in addition to one day in March 2018 and one day in June 2018.

Timehop’s cloud servers were not protected by a multi-factor authentication -- a security protocol that many consider to be standard for most companies.

“The damage was limited because of our long-standing commitment to only use the data we absolutely need to provide our service,” Timehop said in a statement. “Timehop has never stored your credit card or any financial data, location data, or IP addresses; we don’t store copies of your social media profiles, we separate user information from social media content -- and we delete our copies of your ‘Memories’ after you’ve seen them.”

A look into the breach

The names and email addresses of 21 million users were stolen, with 4.7 million of those accounts having phone numbers attached to them. Additionally, because the attackers garnered control of Timehop’s access tokens, they were able to pull information from users’ social media accounts.

Timehop reported that the tokens were deactivated quickly so the attackers’ couldn’t view the posts or take any of the information from them, and there is no evidence that any accounts were accessed.

Following the breach, Timehop announced that it was conducting an investigation with the help of an outside cybersecurity incident response company. This will involve an audit of Timehop’s system, contact with law enforcement, and coordination with social media partners to prevent any future breaches.

“No financial data, private messages, direct messages, user photos, user social media content, social security numbers, or other private information was breached,” Timehop reported.

“There is no such thing as perfect when it comes to cyber security, but we are committed to protecting user data,” the company report said. “As soon as the incident was recognized we began a program of security upgrades.”

Notifying users

Users are being asked to log back into all social media accounts upon reopening the Timehop app, and are being notified of the breach.

“An email to the entire user base is in the works for today,” a Timehop spokesperson told TechCrunch. “[It] took some time to get our second grid account ready for that many emails, as we are not a big email sender in general.”

Timehop users who are concerned about their “Streak” -- the number that Timehop displays of how many consecutive days users have opened the app -- are being reassured by the company that it will “ensure all Streaks remain unaffected by this event.”

Health officials say a parasite discovered in Del Monte vegetable trays has caused more than 200 consumers in multiple Midwest states to become ill.

As of last week, there had been 212 cases of a parasitic intestinal infection called cyclosporiasis. Seven people have been hospitalized but no deaths have been reported, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The vegetable trays that have been identified as the source of the outbreak were sold in 6-, 12-, and 28-ounce plastic packages and have been recalled. They have a “Best If Enjoyed By” date of June 17, 2018.

The pre-packaged vegetables were sold in “clear, plastic clamshell containers” and were sold at Kwik Trip, Kwik Star, Demond’s, Sentry, Potash, Meehan’s, Country Market, FoodMax, and Peapod. A majority of the consumers who became ill said they purchased the Del Monte vegetable trays at Kwik Trip convenience stores, the CDC said.

Recalled UPC codes

So far, the outbreak has affected consumers in four states: Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. However, the trays were also sold in Illinois and Indiana in addition to the four states where illnesses were reported. Consumers who are ill range in age from 13 to 79 years old.

Symptoms of the cyclosporiasis include diarrhea, with frequent, sometimes explosive, bowel movements, according to the CDC. Other symptoms can include loss of appetite, weight loss, stomach cramps/pain, bloating, increased gas, nausea, and fatigue.

The UPC codes of the products that have been recalled are:

• Recalled 6 oz. Del Monte Fresh Produce vegetable tray UPC code: 7 1752472715 2

• Recalled 12 oz. Del Monte Fresh Produce vegetable tray UPC code: 7 1752472518 9

• Recalled 28 oz. Del Monte Fresh Produce small vegetable tray UPC code: 7 1752478604 3

The top 10 cryptocurrencies enjoyed a nice ride last week, with Bitcoin and Ethereum leading the way; the assets were up nearly 4 percent and 6 percent, respectively.

It was a breath of fresh air for the digital money market after a rough June that saw the value of Bitcoin (BTC) plummet on news that its 2,150 percent rise in 2017 had been artificially inflated, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) declaring Ether wasn’t a security, and Apple saying “no” to crypto mining apps.

Whether Bitcoin can see its way past the $7,000 mark again is debatable. It’s surged three times in the last week but has yet to make it past $6,773.

Does anyone have a crypto crystal ball?

There’s a ton of players in the crypto game. Trading volume is currently around 4 billion BTC, up nearly eight times what it was a year ago, but a fifth of what it was at its peak.

It’s that question of stability that looms large for the crypto market. Investment banks are starting to warm to the new breed of money, and that bodes well for the currency. For example, Goldman Sachs is reportedly developing plans to trade Bitcoin futures and is offering a limited number of cryptocurrency derivatives.

"This should be a battle of the best technology, and instead it seems to be a common wave of enthusiasm," said Steve Strongin, head of Goldman Sachs Research, regarding the buzz surrounding crypto’s incubation.

"Certainly these technologies offer some promise, but on the other hand, when you think about how much they will need to change to meet that need, you realize...how different those future generations are going to be,” Strongin predicted.

Gaining traction

Goldman Sachs’ move could possibly ignite a domino effect down Wall Street, said Blockchain Capital partner Spencer Bogart.

"That's what a lot of banks do, follow what Goldman does," Bogart said in an CNBC interview. "Most of these banks have heard about the numbers or seen the numbers that companies like Coinbase and Binance are putting up. There's a real risk that some of those companies could overtake some of Wall Street's biggest banks if they don't get in the market.”

One banking peer that might be hard to flip is Morgan Stanley analyst James Faucette, who sent a research note to clients earlier this year placing the real value of Bitcoin at zero.

While Faucette admitted that Bitcoin has value as a payment network, his take is that the cryptocurrency has “virtually no acceptance, and shrinking,” adding “if nobody accepts the technology for payment then the value would be 0.”

Starbucks announced on Monday that it intends to phase out plastic straws at all of its stores. The transition from straws to recyclable plastic lids with a raised lip is expected to be completed by 2020.

The initiative will eliminate more than one billion plastic straws per year, the company said.

"For our partners and customers, this is a significant milestone to achieve our global aspiration of sustainable coffee, served to our customers in more sustainable ways," said Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson.

Strawless lids

A strawless lid, designed and manufactured by the company, will take the place of plastic straws in all of the coffee giant’s iced beverages. The new lids -- which have drawn comparisons to “adult sippy cups” -- will be introduced to stores in Seattle and Vancouver this fall; they will be rolled out gradually to additional locations in the U.S. and Canada next year.  

The chain’s Frappuccino beverages will still come with dome lids, but with straws made from more environmentally friendly materials. Straws made of paper or compostable plastic will be available to customers who need or prefer one, but only upon request.

Seattle, where Starbucks is headquartered, recently banned plastic straws and utensils at all of its bars and restaurants. Starbucks said it has poured more than $10 million into developing recyclable, compostable cups for its hot beverages.

Earlier this year, McDonald’s announced that it would start phasing out straws in 1,300 of its U.K. restaurants and replacing them with paper straws. The company announced in June that it plans to test the use of paper straws at select U.S. locations later this year.

The initiatives come amid expert predictions that there will be more plastic than fish in the ocean by 2050.

"Plastic straws that end up in our oceans have a devastating effect on species," said Erin Simon, director of sustainability research & development and material science at World Wildlife Fund, US, in a statement. "We hope others will follow in [Starbucks'] footsteps."

After a series of disappointments, a major drug company has reported promising clinical trial results from its drug to treat Alzheimer's disease.

Massachusetts-based Biogen and its Japanese partner Eisai jointly announced positive topline results from the Phase II study with BAN2401, an anti-amyloid drug. The buildup of amyloid plaques in the brain is thought to be a key contributor to Alzheimer's.

The study was a large one, involving 856 patients in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease. The study achieved “statistical significance” in its effectiveness at 18 months, slowing the progression of the disease.

Researchers were encouraged because BAN2401 is the same drug that produced disappointing results back in December. The difference, they say, is the drug was only monitored for 12 months. In the second trial, the extra six months produced an improvement.

Mild to moderate side effects

This time, the researchers said BAN2401 showed an acceptable tolerability profile through 18 months of treatment. There were some side effects, but they were characterized as mild to moderate in severity.

All in all, researchers in the field of Alzheimer's disease treatment and study expressed new hope at the results.

“The 18-month results of the BAN2401 trial are impressive and provide important support for the amyloid hypothesis,” said Jeff Cummings, M.D., founding director, Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health. “I look forward to seeing the full data set shared with the broader Alzheimer’s community as we advance against this devastating disease.”

Alzheimer's is a type of dementia that causes problems with memory, thinking, and behavior. Symptoms usually develop slowly and get worse over time, becoming severe enough to interfere with daily tasks. Eventually, the disease is fatal.

Not a normal part of aging

Aging is a major risk factor, but the Alzheimer's Association points out that the disease is not a normal part of aging. Currently, an estimated 5.5 million people who are 65 or older have been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. About 200,000 people under age 65 have what is called younger-onset Alzheimer's.

“The prospect of being able to offer meaningful disease-modifying therapies to individuals suffering from this terrible disease is both exciting and humbling,” said Dr. Alfred Sandrock, executive vice president and chief medical officer at Biogen. “These BAN2401 18-month data offer important insights in the investigation of potential treatment options for patients with Alzheimer’s disease and underscores that neurodegenerative diseases may not be as intractable as they once seemed.”

In an interview with CNBC, Biogen chairman Stelios Papadopoulos called the results an encouraging first step, but he believes further progress is possible. He said a best case estimate for when BAN 2401 could be available to treat patients would be in two to three years.

A team of Harvard-led scientists is seeing positive results after testing a multi-strain HIV vaccine -- dubbed the “mosaic” -- in humans. The researchers found that every person who received the vaccine produced some kind of anti-HIV immune response, with nearly 80 percent producing more advanced responses. 

For the experiment, the researchers recruited 393 healthy (non-HIV infected) adults ranging in age from 18 to 50 from 12 clinics in East Africa, South Africa, Thailand, and the United States.

The participants were divided into two groups: those who were injected with one of seven vaccine combinations (a placebo), and those who were injected with four vaccines over the course of 49 weeks. Both groups were also given an injection of the common cold virus to boost their immune systems -- once at the start of the trial and again 12 weeks in.

Five participants reported side effects that the researchers considered tolerable, including diarrhea, postural dizziness, and back pain.

Sixty-seven rhesus monkeys were also given the vaccine, and the scientists found that it protected the monkeys against simian-human immunodeficiency virus. These results lead the researchers to believe that it might also be effective against HIV.

Next steps

While the researchers say these results are a step in the right direction, a new round of testing must occur to prove the drug is effective in staving off the disease in humans.

A second round of trials is now taking place on a group of 2,600 women in sub-Saharan Africa who are at risk of contracting HIV. The mosaic is one of five vaccines to ever make it this far in the testing stages, but none of the previous vaccines were successful enough to make it to the next round of testing.

Dr. Dan H. Barouch, a lead researcher on the study and a professor at Harvard Medical School, said he was “pleased” with the results but that they should still be treated with caution.

“We have to acknowledge that developing an HIV vaccine is an unprecedented challenge, and we will not know for sure whether this vaccine will protect humans,” he said.

Future effects

According to UNAIDS, the United Nations program on HIV and AIDS, an estimated 1.8 million people around the world become infected with the virus every year, with about 5,000 new cases every day.

Approximately 37 million people worldwide are believed to be living with HIV or AIDS, with children accounting for two million of them..

While advancements in treatment have made exponential strides since the disease was first identified in the early 1980s, a vaccine has yet to be proven effective. However, because the mosaic vaccine attacks multiple strains of the virus, doctors would be able to administer it on a much broader scale, and it could potentially be a powerful weapon against HIV if all goes well.

Tillamook Country Smoker of Bay City, Ore., is recalling approximately 102 pounds of ready-to-eat beef jerky.

The product may contain monosodium glutamate (MSG), which is not declared on the label.

There have been no confirmed reports of adverse reactions.

The the following ready-to-eat teriyaki beef jerky item, packaged and produced on June 7, 2018, is being recalled:

• 0.48 lbs. tray packages containing “Tillamook Country Smoker Teriyaki Beef Jerky” with lot code 11588 and best by unopened-date 03/09/19.

The recalled product, bearing establishment number “9295” inside the USDA mark of inspection, was shipped to distribution centers in Utah and North Carolina.

What to do

Customers with questions about the recall may contact Ashley Brandt at (763) 656-9014.

Businesses and government agencies across the world now suffer data breaches on a weekly basis, but they often leave out specific details about the scope of the hack, or, in some cases, fail to alert consumers about the hack at all.

In comes HaveIBeenPwned, a website developed by former Microsoft employee Troy Hunt. The service, which has actually been around since 2013 but has proven to be more useful as hacks grow more common in recent years, invites consumers to submit their email addresses into an online database, which then promises to uncover any data breaches linked  to the account in question.

Travel booking sites, flush with credit card information and other consumer data, have proven to be popular targets to hackers, and HaveIBeenPwned is now reporting that one such site appears to have been a major target.

Over five million accounts on Yatra, a travel-booking site based in India and available across the globe, had user data compromised, according to the service.

HaveIBeenPwned tweeted on Wednesday that the breach dates back to 2013 and includes phone numbers, passwords and PIN numbers. But Yatra never disclosed the apparent breach to consumers, according to the Huffington Post.

In a recent interview, Hunt explained that consumers are growing used to data breaches as a normal part of online life and that they are more concerned with how companies handle such breaches rather than whether or not they simply occurred. It would seem, then, that Yatra joins the ranks of Equifax and others accused of failing this important litmus test.

A single computer in Alaska

A state agency in rural Alaska says that 500 people may have had their data exposed in a hack that was possibly linked to Russian cyber criminals.

The Alaska Department of Health and Social Services announced that a computer in northern Alaska was found to be infected with a virus. That same computer also had unauthorized software installed onto it, and according to the state’s investigation, had accessed websites in Russia.

It’s unknown how or why that computer was targeted, but according to the agency, it contained documents “including information on pregnancy status, death status, incarceration status, Medicaid/Medicare billing codes, criminal justice, health billing, social security numbers, driver’s license numbers, first and last names, birthdates, phone numbers, and other confidential data.”

Alaskans are invited to call the agency to see if they were affected.

California's tough net neutrality bill, stripped of much of its enforcement powers by a legislative committee, is tough once again.

The bill's author, State Senator Scott Weiner, says the General Assembly's Communications Committee has restored most of the original provisions, which were written to mirror the national policy put in place under the Obama Administration.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC), under President Trump, began the process of repealing the national policy last December.

“After Donald Trump’s FCC obliterated net neutrality, we stepped in to protect California residents and businesses and to ensure an open internet,” Wiener said. “For months, we have worked with a broad coalition to pass strong and enforceable net neutrality protections. As internet service providers and media companies like AT&T and Time Warner consolidate, net neutrality is more important than ever."

Committee gutted the bill

Net neutrality supporters were outraged two weeks ago when the chairman of a key legislative committee amended the bill. At the time, Weiner said the watered down measure allowed for massive loopholes sought by major telecommunications companies.

For example, the amended bill would have allowed internet service providers (ISP) to charge websites a fee for consumers to access it. The amended bill also allowed ISPs to classify some content as "privileged," meaning it would not count against a consumer's allotted data, while other content would.

Critics were also unhappy that the amended bill would allow ISPs to throttle entire classes of applications. For example, providers could slow all online gaming or all online voice calls.

It prompted Weiner to call the amended version a "fake net neutrality bill." But after working with the chairman of the committee and other key lawmakers, Weiner says everyone has agreed to a version that closely resembles the original bill and reflects the FCC policy under the Obama administration.

States that pass strict net neutrality rules could pose a problem for ISPs and large telecom companies, which will have to abide by different sets of rules in different states.

What the bill does

Weiner said the revised net neutrality bill will prohibit the blocking of websites, the speeding up or slowing down of websites or whole classes of applications such as video, and the practice of charging websites for access to an ISP’s subscribers or for fast lanes to those subscribers.

The bill also bars ISPs from circumventing these protections at the point where data enters their networks, and from charging access fees to reach ISP customers.

It would also prevent companies like AT&T, which is both an ISP and a content provider, from not counting the content and websites they own against subscribers’ data caps.

Weiner said he is confident the revised package of net neutrality measures has the votes needed for passage. The California legislature has until August 31 to vote on it.

On Sunday, Tesla announced that it finally achieved its goal of producing 5,000 Model 3 units in a week.

Tesla said it expects to produce 6,000 Model 3 sedans per week “next month,” although experts say it remains to be seen whether the company can consistently produce 5,000 Model 3s per week.

With its production target met, the electric car maker is focusing on trying to make a profit during the second half of the year, Electrek reports. As a result, Model 3 buyers -- especially those who purchased the cheaper version of the Model 3 -- have had their delivery schedules changed.

Tesla delayed the production of the standard battery pack to the end of the year, seemingly with the goal of waiting until the company can show that Model 3 production can be profitable with more expensive versions of the vehicle.

Faster delivery with cash payments

Several Model 3 reservation holders who recently changed their order to request the Long Range rear-wheel-drive Model 3 were told they would have to wait months for their delivery. However, changing their payment method to cash without any trade-in reduced their delivery window to weeks rather than months.

Electrek noted that the fast-tracked delivery time still doesn’t appear to apply to the dual motor performance versions of the Model 3.

At the end of June, Tesla updated the Model 3 options and pricing. It also updated its delivery times to prioritize the Performance version with a 2- to 4-month delivery window. The Long Range battery pack with rear-wheel drive motor now has a 3- to 5-month delivery window, as does the dual motor version without the performance package.