Thursday Morning Scoop: Making Strides for Net Neutrality

Welcome to the Morning Scoop for May 17, 2018. You know you’re extra AF about everything, but faster internet might not have to be a part of that, thanks to the Senate vote yesterday. 

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Senate Passes Bill to Reverse Net Neutrality Repeal 

Ajit Pai, chairman of the FCC, laughing at Senate Democrats. Or probably not. (Image: Wikimedia Commons).

The Senate voted yesterday 52-47 to reinstate Net Neutrality, after the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted in December 2017 to repeal the act.

Net Neutrality, also known as the Open Internet Order, was passed in 2015 to prevent internet providers from giving preferential treatment to higher-paying customers. The act guaranteed that there would be no “fast lanes,” i.e. faster web service for extra fees, in an effort to keep internet accessible to all users regardless of income.

Telecommunications companies lobbied against Net Neutrality for two years, until Ajit Pai, chairman of the FCC, shot it down. According to CNN, Pai stated that the act was full of “unnecessary and harmful internet regulations,” and was hopeful that with the repeal, “the bipartisan, light-touch approach that served the online world well for nearly 20 years will be restored.”

The repeal was set to go into effect June 11, but Democratic Senators were just not ready to give up the fight. According to CBS, Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) called yesterday’s vote “our best chance to make the internet affordable and accessible to all Americans.”

Trump Reveals Stormy Daniels Payment to Cohen Via Financial Disclosure

Trump reported a reimbursement of over $100,000 to his personal lawyer Michael Cohen in new financial-disclosure agreements released Wednesday, an apparent reference to Cohen paying adult film actress Stormy Daniels $130,000 to keep quiet before the 2016 election about her alleged affair with Trump.

The Washington Post reports, “The information was included as a footnote in the 92-page form filed with the Office of Government Ethics. The ethics agency said it had concluded Trump should list a debt to Cohen in the ‘liabilities’ section of his financial statement.”

However, Trump’s lawyers say he chose to disclose the payment voluntarily to be more transparent.

LGBT Students Bullied and Forced to Read From Bible

At North Bend High School, located in rural Oregon, gay and lesbian students students were recently harassed with homophobic slurs. Shortly following, a transgender student had food thrown at them in the cafeteria. When punished — the school’s principle assignment a specific punishment for these LGBT+ students: reading from the Bible.

School officials initially denied that students were required to read the Bible as punishment; however later investigators were told, allegations were true and that the punishment was not to promote a religion but rather “to assist students in understanding the effects of certain behaviors.”

Danielle Germain tells us more in her report. 

Today in a Tweet: Second Year ‘Witch Hunt’

Today marks one year since Special Counsel Mueller began his investigation on Russian collusion in the 2016 election. Here’s how our president is handling that:

Last But Not Least: Congrats Chrissy and John!

Last night, Chrissy Teigen announced the arrival of her baby boy via Twitter. The baby is her second child with singer John Legend after their daughter, Luna. The pregnancy was announced in November with a video of Luna pointing at Teigen’s stomach and shouting “Baby!”

Both Teigen and Legend have been open about their use of in-vitro fertilization (IVF) in the newborn’s conception, which has made this pregnancy all the more exciting for them. No other details about the birth have been released.

Congratulations!

This Thursday Morning Scoop was compiled by Natalia Kolenko, Danielle Germain and the CMN Staff. It wasn’t Starship, we were the ones who built this city on rock and roll.