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BofA hit with $250 million in fines, penalties, refunds for ‘double-dipping’ fees, fake accounts

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:15:31 GMT

Bank of America must reimburse customers more than $100 million and pay $150 million in fines for “double-dipping” on overdraft fees, withholding reward bonuses on credit cards and opening accounts without customer consent.It is one of the highest financial penalties in years against Bank of America, which has largely spent the last 15 years trying to clean up its reputation and market itself to the public as a bank focused on financial health and not on overdraft fee income.BofA will need to refund $100 million to customers, pay $90 million in penalties to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and $60 million to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. “Bank of America wrongfully withheld credit card rewards, double-dipped on fees, and opened accounts without consent,” said CFPB Director Rohit Chopra, in a statement. “These practices are illegal and undermine customer trust.”Bank of America had a policy of charging customers $35 after the bank declined a transaction ...

Cold temperatures to continue in South Africa but no further snowfall is predicted

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:15:31 GMT

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — South African weather officials warned on Tuesday of continued extremely cold weather, but said no further snow was predicted for the rest of the week after parts of the country experienced unusual flurries.In Johannesburg, residents experienced snowfall on Monday for the first time since 2012.Snow was reported in the provinces of Gauteng, Mpumalanga, Eastern Cape and the Free State starting Monday morning, according to the South African Weather Services.On Tuesday, parts of Johannesburg remained very cold, with temperatures falling to 1 degree Celsius (34 F).“We will have these extremely cold weather conditions for the rest of the week,” forecaster Puseletso Mofokeng said.He said no further snow is expected for the rest of the week.“In parts of Mpumalanga we still have snow on the ground, but it will melt over the next few days. We are not expecting any more snowfall this week,” he said.Officials were still determining how much snow fell, since amounts varied ac...

NATO membership offer falls short of Ukraine’s hopes

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:15:31 GMT

VILNIUS — NATO leaders on Tuesday said they would invite Ukraine to join the alliance only when conditions are met and allies agree — a move intended as a gesture of support for Ukrainians but which was met with disappointment in Kyiv. “We will be in a position to extend an invitation to Ukraine to join the Alliance when Allies agree and conditions are met,” the leaders wrote in a summit communiqué, published Tuesday evening.The carefully-crafted sentence is the outcome of intensive negotiations among the alliance’s 31 members. While all allies agree Ukraine cannot join NATO while the war against Russia is ongoing, many of Kyiv’s partners had pushed for a strong political gesture at the summit, saying that it is on the path toward membership. Washington and Berlin, however, opposed giving Kyiv concrete pledges. In the summit communiqué, the allies stressed that Ukraine is developing a closer relationship with the alliance and that Tuesday’s wording represents a step f...

Ukraine says cluster munitions will be ‘game changer’ against Russia

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:15:31 GMT

VILNIUS — Kyiv sees cluster munitions as the next “game changer” in its battle against Russian forces, Ukraine’s defense minister said Tuesday.Speaking on the sidelines of the NATO summit, Oleksiy Reznikov rejected disapproval from some countries and humanitarian groups over the U.S. government’s decision last week to send Ukraine the controversial weapons. “As we got in May 2022 155-millimeter artillery systems, it became a game changer. In July, we got different types of [Multiple Launch Rocket Systems] it became [the] next game changer … And I hope that cluster munitions [become] a next game changer as weaponry or ammunition for liberation of our temporarily occupied territories,” he said.Reznikov insisted the use of these weapons would be limited to non-urban areas within Ukraine’s territory. Ukraine’s partners will also be informed about the use and effect of the cluster weapons, he said.Earlier, U.S. Secretary of State...

Police make arrest in connection with nighttime assault on woman in Medford

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:15:31 GMT

An 18-year-old man is facing assault and attempted kidnapping charges after being arrested in connection with a nighttime assault on a woman in Medford, according to authorities.The Medford Police Department said Nature Moncoeur was arrested in Somerville on Tuesday morning, a week after authorities began investigating an assault that occurred on Royall Street, near Tufts University.Police said a woman in her 20s was attacked in the area of Main and Royall streets while she was out for a walk on the night of July 2. According to Medford PD, a male suspect ran up to the victim and struck her several times after grabbing her from behind.“After a brief struggle in which the woman was fighting back and screaming loudly, the suspect fled back down Royall Street toward College Avenue,” Medford PD stated in a news release at the time.The police department later obtained and released nearby surveillance footage of a man they considered to be the assault suspect.Moncoeur was taken into custo...

Gunshot investigation leads to Shrewsbury PD seizing $11 million worth of counterfeit goods from storage facility

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:15:31 GMT

What started as a call for shots being fired in Shrewsbury led to police discovering a trove of counterfeit goods worth $11.3 million at a storage facility, according to officials.The Shrewsbury Police Department said the discovery came after officers were first called to the area of Holden and Bow streets on Saturday, June 17, for a report of multiple gunshots being fired earlier in the afternoon.While investigating, the search led officials onto the property of Extra Space Storage on Clinton Street where, according to the department, officers “observed multiple vehicles and encountered an individual in front of a storage unit.”“The investigation led officers into the storage unit which they observed this individual exiting,” the police department stated in a news release. “When officers entered the storage unit, they observed what appeared to be thousands of items of merchandise. The merchandise was neatly displayed on shelves, tables and boxes, and l...

Comedian Sarah Silverman sues tech firms over AI book capture

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:15:31 GMT

By Ethan Baron, Bay Area News GroupComedian and author Sarah Silverman is suing social media giant Meta and ChatGPT pioneer OpenAI in a pair of related lawsuits accusing the high-profile California technology companies of breaking state and federal laws by using her memoir “The Bedwetter” as fodder for their artificial intelligence products.Silverman and two novelists claim Menlo Park-based Meta and San Francisco-based OpenAI violated copyright and other laws by ingesting their books — and those of thousands of other authors — to train their artificial intelligence software.Both companies copied works protected by copyright law, including books by Silverman, Pennsylvania author Richard Kadrey and Massachusetts writer Christopher Golden “without consent, without credit, and without compensation,” according to the lawsuits filed Friday in U.S. District Court in San Francisco.OpenAI, which sells ChatGPT via subscription, and Meta, which according to Silverman’s lawsuit is planning to c...

Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes’ sentence reduced by almost two years

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:15:31 GMT

Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes is now scheduled to get out of prison nearly two years earlier than her original sentence mandated, according to an update from the U.S. Bureau of Prisons.Holmes, 39, surrendered herself for imprisonment May 30, to start serving a sentence of 11 years and three months. But her updated release date is December 29, 2032, just over the 9½ years that federal prison rules say she must remain locked up at a minimum.The prisons bureau confirmed Holmes’ new release date, but said privacy, safety and security reasons prevent it from discussing inmates’ release plans.Generally, those incarcerated in federal prisons can earn 54 days of “Good Conduct Time” off their sentences for each year of their sentence, according to the prisons bureau. Eligible inmates can also earn time off from their sentences by participating and completing programs for reducing post-prison re-offending, and educational, health, recovery, victim-impact and employment-training programs. ...

Powerball jackpot climbs to $725 million, 2nd-highest this year

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:15:31 GMT

Joseph Wilkinson | (TNS) New York Daily NewsThe Powerball jackpot rose to $725 million after no one secured the jackpot in Monday night’s drawing.The winning numbers were white balls 2, 24, 34, 53, 58 and red Powerball 13. Two people, one in California and one in Iowa, matched all five white balls but missed on the Powerball.Wednesday night’s Powerball drawing will have the second-highest grand prize of the year, behind only a $754.6 million jackpot in February that was won by a single person in Washington State.The grand prize money could still increase as more people buy tickets in an attempt to claim the elusive jackpot. If anyone wins, the immediate cash option will be $366.2 million before taxes, according to Powerball.To receive the full $725 million, the winner would have to select the annuity option, which comes with a much smaller immediate payment and slightly increased payments across 29 years.A $725 million winner would take home the seventh-richest jackpot in Powerball ...

Former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer launches Board of Supervisors campaign

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:15:31 GMT

SAN DIEGO — Former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer announced Tuesday that he will be running for a seat on the San Diego County Board of Supervisors.Faulconer will be vying for the county's District 3 seat, which is currently held by Vice Chair Terra Lawson-Remer and spans the coastal area from Coronado to Carlsbad.The former San Diego mayor cited a rise in homelessness and a lack of affordable housing as some of the top priorities of his campaign.Faulconer served as mayor from 2014 until 2020 and was also on the San Diego City Council from 2006 to 2014. Voters in District 4 to receive information pamphlets ahead of special primary election You can find more information about his campaign here.The District 3 seat will be up for election next in 2024.Faulconer last ran for office in 2021 when he placed third in the gubernatorial recall election, where voters elected not to replace California Governor Gavin Newsom.No other challengers have officially announced their candidacy for th...