The One-Minute Meeting

Though the U.S. Supreme Court justices said over and over Tuesday that they were “confused” by a lawsuit before them, their ruling may affect nothing less than the future of the internet. What’s more, there’s a similar case before them today. The core of the case involves the protections Section 230 (47 U.S. Code § 230) gives to online publishers. The specific case examines whether YouTube aided ISIS in recruiting and spreading their hate that led to a Paris terrorist attack. If the court were to rule that Section 230 should not protect publishers from legal liability for what others post on their sites, such a ruling would change our fundamental understanding of how the internet works.Justice Elena Kagan warned, “We’re a court. We really don't know about these things. You know, these are not like the nine greatest experts on the internet.” Which gives one pause.

Just a month ago, I whined to you about how natural gas prices spiked and so your electric bills would be sky high, too. But yesterday alone, in just one day, natural gas prices dropped 10% and now are at the lowest price since 2020. We will see how quickly utility companies lower your bills since they seemed to hike them pretty fast. 

The Federal Administration for Children and Families is proposing new rules that would make it easier for grandparents to become the foster parents of kin. In some states, grandparents who get the responsibility and cost of raising grandchildren find it difficult to get the states to recognize them as foster parents to help them out with those costs. Advocates who know about such things say this is long overdue and should help a lot. At last count, around 2.5 million grandparents are raising a second generation of children in the U.S. right now.