Billionaire reveals how much he’s paying in taxes this year after criticizing Trump tax cuts
Billionaire Mark Cuban said he was “proud” to pay hundreds of millions in taxes to the IRS in a ridiculed X post ahead of Tax Day.
The Dallas Mavericks owner made the statement on Sunday during a back-and-forth argument with OutKick writer Ian Miller after Cuban criticized former President Trump’s tax cut policies.
“Hey Mark just wondering if you or your corporations pay more than the required taxes in order to pay your fair share, thanks so much,” Miller wrote, referencing a frequent left-wing talking point about how much millionaires, billionaires and corporations pay in taxes.
MARK CUBAN WOULD SUPPORT BIDEN EVEN IF HE WAS ON HIS DEATHBED OVER TRUMP
“I pay what I owe. Tomorrow I will wire transfer to the IRS. $288,000,000.00. This country has done so much for me, I’m proud to pay my taxes every single year. Tag a former president that you know doesn’t,” Cuban responded, dodging Miller’s question about paying his “fair share.”
Miller replied, “So why don’t you and your companies pay more than what you owe in order to fix the injustice of the Trump tax cuts?”
Several fellow X users further piled on Cuban.
“So then why don’t you pay more than you’re required? #PayYourFairShare,” Grabien founder Tom Elliot remarked.
“Impossible. I was told the wealthy don’t pay anything,” former investment banker and author Carol Roth joked.
Political commentator Chad Felix Greene calculated, “That will cover about 0.00084% of the national debt. So your mandatory payment, at risk of imprisonment, does absolutely nothing ‘for’ the country. You can give every cent you earn to the government for the rest of your life and never fund a single program you support.”
Republican congressional candidate Irene Armendariz-Jackson wrote, “Post your tax returns and prove that you didn’t take any tax breaks. I’ll be waiting.”
On Monday, Cuban corrected the total amount, showing that he paid $275,900,000 in taxes.
“I was wrong with my number yesterday. Got the final number and the wire is complete. Wanted to be accurate. Do I expect all of it to be used wisely? Of course not. But I’m still proud to be able to give back to our country. I’ve said it for years. After military service, paying your taxes is the most patriotic thing we can do,” Cuban wrote.
American Principles Project President Terry Schilling ran the numbers then joked, “We just need 125k more billionaires to pay Mark Cuban level taxes to pay off our debt. Let’s go @mcuban!”
Syndicated radio host Joe “Pags” Pagliarulo commented, “none of it will be used wisely. It will barely scratch the surface of the interest on the debt. Mark, I trust you more than the government to build jobs, new businesses, more research and development et al. I’m really sorry your burden on the money YOU made through YOUR hard work is so high. It should not be.”
MARK CUBAN SAYS ‘SCREW YOU, ELIZABETH WARREN,’ DECLARES HER ‘EVERYTHING WRONG WITH POLITICS’
Cuban made an almost identical statement in 2019 during an interview with FOX Business’ Neil Cavuto on “Cavuto: Coast To Coast.”
“I don’t mind paying more taxes,” Cuban said. “I think after military service, it’s actually patriotic to pay taxes.”
Regarding the targeting of billionaires like him by then-2020 Democratic hopefuls Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, Cuban said, “[B]etter me a target than the guy or woman or family that’s making $30,000, $50,000 or $80,000 a year and grinding out and hustling every day. Come at me, that’s great.”
However, he expressed concerns over how the government would spend the money.
“The reality is if it’s Bernie, if it’s Elizabeth Warren, they’re going to max out how much they charge us with our taxes and how much we pay. But then what are they going to do with it?” Cuban asked.
He added, “What I’ve yet to see from any of them are the priorities. What are they going to choose first, second, third and fourth?”
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Biden’s past comment about niece’s China role could haunt re-election campaign
FIRST ON FOX: Then-Vice President Biden boasted about his Harvard-educated niece previously studying Chinese and living in China while delivering a speech in 2011 touting “a rising China” being “a positive, positive development, not only for China but for America…”
Biden gave a shout-out to Casey Owens, who was concluding her stint as a special assistant for the U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue at the Treasury Department, while delivering remarks to the opening session of the group, according to an email chain that was reviewed by Fox News Digital.
Owens, the daughter of Biden’s sister, emailed then-Vice President Biden’s “Auks” alias email address in May 2011, thanking him for the “memorable day” and said it was “very, very humbling” watching him speak.
“And your remarks. That was really something else, Uncle Joe. What a way to exit the Treasury,” Owens said, according to an email from Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop. “I’m simply happy to be close to you, and I just wanted to say thank you for including me.”
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In addition to the email from Owens to the elder Biden, a transcript from Biden’s speech was included in the email chain, highlighting what Biden thought about a “rising China.”
“We cannot claim the same number of Americans in China, but our 100,000 Strong Initiative will dramatically increase the number of young Americans living and studying in China,” Biden said. “As a matter of fact, my niece who — excuse me, as we say in the Senate, a point a personal privilege — who graduated from Harvard not too long ago, works for Secretary Geithner, she did exactly what we hope another 100,000 will do: She studied Chinese and went and lived in China and is now devoted to making sure the relationship gets better and better and better.”
“As a young member of a Foreign Relations Committee, I wrote and I said and I believed then what I believe now: That a rising China is a positive, positive development, not only for China but for America and the world writ large,” he added.
The “100,000 Strong Initiative” that Biden mentioned refers to the goal then-President Obama set near the beginning of his administration in hopes of “sending 100,000 American students to China in the next 4 years to learn Mandarin, to experience Chinese culture, and to learn about the hospitality of the Chinese people, while they serve as ambassadors for the United States in China.”
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Then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in May 2010 she was “pleased to sign” an agreement with State Councilor Liu Yandong, who has held some of the highest positions in the CCP.
Fox News Digital previously reported on how Yandong would meet with representatives from the Congressional Black Caucus and Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) a few years later and announced student scholarships.
“Our U.S.-China relationship must extend beyond the halls of government to our homes, our businesses, and our schools,” Clinton continued. “And these exchanges really offer the opportunity for people to connect and collaborate, and they remind us of how much we have in common.”
During Owens’ tenure at Treasury, she repeatedly emailed Hunter Biden and his now-former business partner Eric Schwerin about China Investment Corporation (CIC), China’s largest sovereign wealth fund, Fox News Digital previously reported. A former business associate confirmed to Fox News Digital on Monday that Owens was “definitely a resource” Hunter used and that a CIC meeting did occur.
On April 12, 2010, Owens emailed Hunter and Schwerin a schedule from her Treasury email address, highlighting a CIC investment conference that took place a couple of weeks earlier.
“FYI on recent CIC investment conference at a resort in Sanya, on Hainan Island, over the weekend of March 27-28,” Owens wrote.
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A Thornton Group press release dated that same day – April 12, 2010 – said the company’s chairman, James Bulger, and Hunter visited Beijing just three days earlier and met with CIC Chief Investment Officer Gao Xiqing, among others, according to the Republican Senate report released in September 2020.
A feature article about Owens published months later by the Tower Hill Bulletin said she and her team had traveled to Beijing in May 2010 with a U.S. delegation led by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.
A photo of Owens in the article showed her receiving a “small jade vase as a birthday gift” from China’s then-vice minister of finance, Zhu Guangyao. According to the Ministry of Finance website, its primary function is to implement the decisions and policies of the Chinese Communist Party in the area of public finance.
The Bulletin article said Owens’ team and Zhu “worked very closely during the U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue.”
Weeks after returning from Beijing, Owens emailed Schwerin a Bloomberg News article about CIC, titled, “China’s CIC May Post Record Year for 2009 as Markets Recover,” which Schwerin then forwarded to Hunter on July 23, 2010.
Owens, who now goes by Castello, left the Treasury in July 2011 and is currently an executive at Starbucks, according to her LinkedIn profile.
Owens isn’t the only member of her immediate family with ties to China. Fox News Digital previously reported on how her dad, John “Jack” Owens, pleaded for Hunter to help him secure a business license to expand his telemedicine company in China, saying it needed to be “secured very quickly.”
The elder Owens emailed Hunter on May 9, 2014, informing him that his companies, MediGuide America and MediGuide Insurance Services International (MISI), reached a “serious stage” in negotiations with a China-based insurance company, but said he won’t be able to “seal this deal” without a “Chinese Business License.”
“Time pressures are very tight, plus the fact that we do not yet have one has caused a slight credibility bump in the company’s mind. This all translates into a need for a Business License, and one secured very quickly,” Owens wrote. “While this might seem to be a mundane task, I have come to understand that matters such as a Business License can end up taking an inordinate amount of time…..time we just do not have.”
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Owens continued by saying he would be “most appreciative of any help.” Hunter Biden replied less than a hour later and said, “Working on it-back to you ASAP.” The younger Biden then forwarded Owens’ email to Thornton Group Chairman James Bulger, the nephew of mobster Whitey Bulger and co-founder of the Thornton Group.
He also sent it to Michael Lin, a Taiwanese-American businessman who has worked with the State Legislative Leaders Foundation (SLLF), a nonprofit that has been partnered since 2015 with the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, a propaganda group that pushes Chinese Communist Party (CCP) messaging. Lin and Bulger both arranged Hunter Biden’s first business trip to China in April 2010, the Washington Free Beacon reported.
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“See email below. It’s from my Uncle Jack. Is there a way we can help him expedite this? Time is of the essence here,” Hunter Biden wrote.
Bulger responded the next morning and said he would discuss with Lin how they can “help.” Three days later, Bulger sent an email to Hunter saying, “Me and Michael had a call with Jack this morning I think we have a solution for hi[s] China problem.”
“Michael and Ran are researching the regs and laws right now but our Thornton WOFE will likely be ok for Jacks company to use,” Bulger continued, likely referring to the wholly foreign-owned enterprise of the Thornton Group, the company Bulger and Lin co-founded.
A few days later, Bulger sent an email to Owens and Lin, and copied Hunter Biden, asking Owens to “give us until Monday to review a few more laws and regulations in Beijing.”
“I may have you answer a few question[s] on Monday so we can get specific with the appropriate authority’s in China,” Bulger wrote.
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It is unclear whether Bulger and Lin were able to successfully secure a business license for Owens or whether Thornton’s “WOFE” sufficed for China’s laws. However, MediGuide’s website says it has come to “an agreement with AnyHealth Shanghai.”
“MediGuide and Any Health intend to expand MediGuide’s business in China under the name of ‘MediGuide China,’” the website reads. “AnyHealth Shanghai will be legally representing MediGuide International LLC in China. ” It is unclear if AnyHealth Shanghai is the same company referenced in the emails.
Fox News Digital reached out to the White House and Owens for comment but did not receive a response.
Fox News’ Aubrie Spady contributed to this report.
Ex-PGA Tour star suggests Tiger Woods’ alleged PED use was known
Salacious rumors about Tiger Woods possibly using performance-enhancing drugs in the midst of his stellar golf career have been around for years.
Former PGA Tour star Mark Lye mentioned the rumors again on Monday in an interview with OutKick’s “Don’t @ Me with Dan Dakich.” Dakich asked whether “it was felt by many around golf – people that really know – that Tiger Woods has used ‘roids in the past or may have used ‘roids in the past?”
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“Yes, that is. It is except for the people in Tiger’s corner. ‘You better shut up about it.’ Nobody ever gone out like that,” Lye said. “Nobody’s ever said that like I’m saying it right now. There’s just no doubt. And I would say about 80 or 90% of the people out there know something ain’t right.”
Lye, who won on the PGA Tour in 1983 and finished tied for sixth at the 1984 Masters, didn’t get into specifics, but rumors about Woods and steroids have popped up in the past.
Woods’ treatment from controversial Canadian doctor Anthony Galea was detailed in the 2014 book “Blood Sport: Alex Rodriguez, Biogenesis and the Quest to End Baseball’s Steroid Era.” Woods’ former swing coach, Hank Haney, told Golf Digest at the time he never saw Woods do “anything like that” and was unsure “how it would help him.”
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Former PGA Tour player Dan Olsen said in July 2015, without evidence, that Woods was secretly suspended from the organization for failing a drug test.
Woods’ agent, Mark Steinberg, and the PGA Tour both denied the claim. Steinberg said at the time that the claims were “absolutely, unequivocally and completely false.” Olsen later retracted his claim.
Steinberg didn’t immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment on Lye’s remarks.
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Woods played all four rounds of the Masters at Augusta this past weekend. He finished 16-over par in one of the worst performances of his career.
Georgia parliament descends into chaos as lawmakers throw punches over bill
Georgia’s parliament descended into chaos Monday after the leader of the ruling Georgian Dream party’s parliamentary faction was punched in the face while discussing a controversial law on “foreign agents.”
Video obtained by Fox News Digital shows Mamuka Mdinaradze, 45, punched in the face by opposition MP Aleko Elisashvili, 46, while addressing the chamber.
Mdinaradze, who is a driving force behind the legislation, can be seen toppling over as several other MPs join the melee. Footage shows lawmakers on opposing sides leaping up from their desks and trading punches. Protesters later greeted Elisashvili with cheers outside the parliament building.
The “foreign agents” bill is controversial within Georgia and has been criticized by countries as a “Putin-style” import from Russia. A draft submitted last week calls for media and non-commercial organizations to register as being under foreign influence if they receive more than 20% of their budget from abroad.
The measure is nearly identical to a proposal that the governing Georgian Dream party was pressured to withdraw a year ago after large street protests.
The Georgian Dream party has insisted the law is necessary to combat what it derides as “pseudo-liberal values” imposed by foreigners, and to promote transparency. Georgian critics have labeled the bill as the “Russian law,” likening it to the Kremlin’s efforts to crack down on dissidents.
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Opponents have also argued that the law would complicate Georgia’s aim of joining the European Union, which issued the country long-desired candidate status last year.
The Georgian Dream party, has said it wants Georgia to join the EU and NATO, yet it is seen as deepening ties with Russia.
The EU, meanwhile, has said that the “foreign agent” law is incompatible with the block’s values.
“Creating and maintaining an enabling environment for civil society organizations and ensuring media freedom is at the core of democracy. It is also crucial for the EU accession process,” Peter Stano, spokesman for the EU’s foreign-policy arm, said last week.
Monday’s brawl came as Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze held a meeting with ambassadors from the EU, the U.K., and the U.S., to discuss the legislation.
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President Salome Zourabichvili would veto the law if it is passed by parliament, said her parliamentary representative Girogi Mskhiladze. But that veto might not be long-lasting. Zourabichvili’s term ends this year and under constitution changes the next president will be named by an electoral college that includes all members of parliament.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Families of Christian school victims claim ownership of crucial evidence in case
Can the estate of a mass murderer assert a posthumous copyright claim over the killer’s handwritten confession?
A Nashville judge is expected to weigh that issue today as part of a public records lawsuit against the city and its police department seeking the release of Audrey Elizabeth Hale’s manifesto in connection with the Covenant Christian School massacre.
When Hale died, her parents transferred her estate to her victims’ families. The families have intervened in the public records lawsuit against the city and are arguing that the estate includes the killer’s manifesto and that therefore they own the copyright.
Through that line of reasoning, they are also asking the judge to block its public release.
“You can’t just assume there is a copyright interest on any particular writing,” argued Doug Pierce, an attorney for plaintiffs Clata Renee Brewer and the National Police Association. “The only way they could get copyright protection established is if they would have to show the documents in federal court — in other words, they gotta let the cat out of the bag.”
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Hale, a 28-year old transgender artist who police say identified as a male named Aiden, shot her way into the Christian elementary school on the morning of March 27, 2023, and was seen prowling the hallways carrying firearms on surveillance video before responding officers killed her.
The attack claimed the lives of three adults and three children, identified as Mike Hill, 61, Cynthia Peak, 61, Katherine Koonce, 60, and three 9-year-olds, Hallie Scruggs, Evelyn Dieckhaus and William Kinney.
Prior to the shooting, she texted a friend warning that she was about to embark on a suicide mission and that “you’ll probably hear about me on the news after I die.”
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Shortly after the shooting, Metropolitan Nashville Police Chief John Drake said cops had recovered a manifesto and hand-drawn maps in the killer’s car.
Authorities said they would soon be made public. A year later, both city police and the FBI continue to deny public records requests, claiming the manifesto is exempt from release because if it were to be made public, it could harm a potential investigation.
Even if the judge sides with the plaintiffs, an appeal is likely, and the document won’t be made public any time soon.
“Every day, the public is being denied the right of access,” Pierce said.
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Multiple lawsuits have asked the courts to force the government to release the document, arguing that Hale was the only suspect and noting that she died at the scene when responding officers neutralized her on the school’s second floor.
“Obviously there’s no pending investigation,” Pierce told Fox News Digital. “It’s been 13 months, and they’ve always said the only person involved is the shooter who died at the scene.”
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In a separate federal lawsuit brought by the parent company of a local newspaper, a judge ordered the FBI to file the manifesto under seal so the court could review it while deciding whether the feds have a legal argument to validate the shroud of secrecy.
The manifesto is expected to reveal more about the killer’s motive and rage.
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Several pages believed to have come from the document leaked in November. However, the lawsuits are seeking the full extent of Hale’s writings.
Critics have questioned the government’s motive behind continued delays in its release.
High school students and parents warned about scandalous photo trend
Multiple Los Angeles-area school districts have investigated instances of “inappropriate,” artifical intelligence-generated images of students circulating online and in text messages in recent months.
Most recently, the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) announced that it is investigating “allegations of inappropriate photos being created and disseminated within the Fairfax High School community,” the school district told Fox News Digital in a statement. “These allegations are taken seriously, do not reflect the values of the Los Angeles Unified community and will result in appropriate disciplinary action if warranted.”
A preliminary investigation revealed that the images were allegedly “created and shared on a third-party messaging app unaffiliated with” LAUSD. The school district said it “remains steadfast in providing training on the ethical use of technology – including A.I. – and is committed to enhancing education around digital citizenship, privacy and safety for all in our school communities.”
AI apps and websites have the ability to superimpose photos of people’s faces onto AI-generated nude photos, or in some cases, videos.
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Titania Jordan, chief parent officer at social media safety company Bark Technologies, told Fox News Digital in a statement that the recent incident within LAUSD “is indicative of a larger problem affecting society: the use of AI for malicious purposes.”
“Deepfakes — and specifically shared, fabricated non-consensual intimate images and videos — aren’t just like fun TikTok or Snapchat filters. These deceptively realistic media can have devastating real-life consequences for the victims who did not consent for their likeness to be used,” she said. “Complicating matters is the fact that the technology behind them is getting better every day. It’s already to the point where it can be hard to tell the difference between an authentic video and a deepfake.”
The announcement comes after similar instances within the Beverly Hills Unified School District (BHUSD) and Laguna Beach Unified School District (LBUSD).
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Earlier this month, Dana Hills High School Principal Jason Allemann sent a letter to parents notifying them of AI-generated nude images of students circulating online, FOX 11 Los Angeles reported. The images circulated online and in text messages, according to the outlet.
“These actions not only compromise individual dignity but also undermine the positive and supportive environment we aim to foster at LBHS,” Allemann said in the letter, according to FOX 11.
Ariana Coulolias, a senior at Dana Hills, told FOX 11 that the images looked “really real.”
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“It’s just kind of scary to see stuff like that happen,” Coulolias told the outlet.
In February, middle school students informed Beverly Hills school administrators that inappropriate AI images were going around Beverly Vista Middle School.
“We want to make it unequivocally clear that this behavior is unacceptable and does not reflect the values of our school community,” the district said in a statement provided to Fox News Digital at the time. “Although we are aware of similar situations occurring all over the nation, we must act now. This behavior rises to a level that requires the entire community to work in partnership to ensure it stops immediately.”
The district noted that misusing AI in such acts may not technically be a crime, as the laws are still catching up with the technology.
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“[W]e are working closely with the Beverly Hills Police Department throughout this investigation,” the district said. “We assure you that if any criminal offenses are discovered, they will be addressed to the fullest extent possible.”
Titania Jordan with Bark Technologies noted that even Taylor Swift recently became a victim of “this violation of privacy” stemming from ” viral 4chan challenge” using AI deepfake technology. “Ms. Swift may have brought major attention to this issue, but it’s been around for a while, and it happens more often than most people realize. Unfortunately, law enforcement and legal action have been slow to catch up to this technology because of how new it is,” Jordan said.
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She added that “[s]tudents, families, and schools need to work together to educate their community about how dangerous and unacceptable it is to create deepfakes without permission.”
“It’s not just the potential harm from fake nudes, either — deepfake technology can also be used in scams, heists, and even to influence political behavior,” Jordan explained.
Fox News’ Bradford Betz contributed to this report.
Major retailer under fire for allegedly storing your looks with controversial technology
An Illinois woman filed a class action lawsuit against Target, accusing the retail giant of collecting and storing her biometric data, including face and fingerprint scans, without her consent in violation of state law.
Arnetta Dean, who filed the lawsuit with the intention of preventing Target from further violating the privacy rights of state residents, is also pursuing statutory damages for the company’s alleged collection, storage and use of customers’ biometric data, according to the lawsuit obtained by FOX 32 Chicago.
The lawsuit, filed last month in Cook County, claims Target’s surveillance systems, including cameras with facial recognition technology installed in Illinois stores, “surreptitiously” collect biometric data on customers without their knowledge or consent.
“Target does not notify customers of this fact prior to store entry, nor does it obtain consent prior to collecting its customers’ Biometric Data,” the lawsuit said.
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According to the lawsuit, Target violated the state’s Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) by collecting, storing and using biometric information without obtaining written consent from customers or providing them with adequate information about data retention and destruction policies.
BIPA, which passed in 2008, states that companies in Illinois are prohibited from collecting, storing or giving out biometric data without providing notice and obtaining personal consent. Companies are also required to inform individuals of the specific purpose and duration of data collection, and they must disclose how the information will be retained and when the information will be destroyed.
The lawsuit says Target failed to comply with the aforementioned requirements.
Biometric data is unlike other identifiers used to access sensitive information because it is biologically unique and cannot be easily changed if compromised, putting individuals at increased risk for identity theft, the lawsuit said.
“For example, social security numbers, when compromised, can be changed,” according to the lawsuit. “Biometrics, however, are biologically unique to the individual; therefore, once compromised, the individual has no recourse, is at heightened risk for identity theft, and is likely to withdraw from biometric-facilitated transactions.”
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Target’s “advanced system of electronic surveillance” includes operating 14 investigation centers and two forensic labs to “enhance video footage and analyze finger prints(sic),” according to the lawsuit, which noted that the system was created to detect shoplifters, but also captures customers’ faces every time they enter or leave the store.
Under BIPA, individuals have a private right of action to file a lawsuit for violations of the act, with damages ranging from $1,000 for negligent violations to $5,000 for intentional or reckless violations, as well as attorneys’ fees and injunctive relief.
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Dean’s lawsuit is attempting to do just that, seeking $5,000 for “each and every intentional reckless violation” of the law, or statuary damages of $1,000 for any violation found to have been committed negligently, along with attorneys’ fees and other litigation expenses.
Similar class action lawsuits have been filed recently against other companies on allegations they violated BIPA. In 2022, Facebook was accused of violating the law, leading to a $650 million settlement. More than a million Facebook users in Illinois received checks for nearly $400 each as part of the settlement.
Class-action lawsuits alleging the violation of Illinois’ BIPA law were also filed against Google, Snapchat and TikTok.
Is weight loss shot leading to surprise pregnancies? Why it’s happening to some women
A new kind of baby boom could be taking place.
Some women taking GLP-1 drugs, such as Ozempic and Wegovy, have reported that they’re getting pregnant unexpectedly.
The term “Ozempic babies” has been coined on TikTok, with many women posting there about their unplanned pregnancies.
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This includes Michigan mom Deb Oliviara (@dkalsolive), who posted a video on Feb. 16 announcing her “Ozempic pregnancy” with her boyfriend.
In a conversation with Fox News Digital, Oliviara said the pregnancy was “absolutely a surprise.”
“We recently moved into our dream home and just got engaged,” she said. “We were just enjoying our new life when we were surprised by a baby [boy] arriving in October.”
Oliviara has two children from a prior marriage and has been pregnant six times, including her current pregnancy, but has experienced “unidentified fertility issues.”
“I had a first trimester loss, second trimester loss and my stillbirth,” she said. “Thankfully, this baby is super healthy.”
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Each pregnancy changed her body, Oliviara said, which was a “reminder of the losses.”
“I spent two years in the gym about four to five days a week working out,” she said. “I worked with a health coach and a fitness coach and nothing was help[ing] me lose the last 20 pounds.”
After her sister-in-law found weight-loss success via Wegovy, Oliviara began her own GLP-1 journey, which ended once she found out she was pregnant.
Dr. Angela Fitch, chief medical officer of knownwell and president of the Obesity Medicine Association, confirmed that the correlation between weight loss and fertility is “well-known.”
“It’s likely the main driver in the ‘Ozempic baby’ boom we’re suddenly seeing,” Massachusetts-based Fitch wrote in an email to Fox News Digital.
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“As physicians, it’s our responsibility to emphasize the unknown and ensure that women take contraception use seriously — preferably using long-acting reversible contraception (LARC) methods, such as an IUD,” the doctor suggested.
Although the fertility effects of these drugs have not been studied extensively, Fitch said they are known to “slow gastric emptying and affect the absorption of oral medications,” including contraceptives.
Dr. Rachel McConnell, a fertility expert at Columbia University Fertility Center in New York, said she is hearing about Ozempic pregnancies “all the time.”
“I feel that patients who have obesity, or are overweight, will do much better by trying to lose weight,” she told Fox News Digital. “And there are plenty of studies to support that.”
“We encourage patients to be off the medication for at least two to three months before they even attempt conception.”
Losing weight also helps regulate a woman’s menstrual cycle, McConnell noted, which can help patients with obesity or conditions like PCOS (polycystic ovary syndrome) to get pregnant “much quicker.”
McConnell agreed with Fitch that GLP-1s could be decreasing the absorption of birth control medications.
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“Not only does Ozempic work by increasing insulin, causing a decrease in glucose levels, but it also causes a slowing of emptying of the stomach,” she said.
Experts warn of ‘unknown effects’
While the possibility of there being no negative effects could be “life-changing for pregnancy-related conditions like gestational diabetes,” according to Fitch, the impact of GLP-1s on babies is unknown.
McConnell added, “Not knowing the safety of the drug, I think [patients] should be cautious and try not to get pregnant while taking it because we don’t know the long-term effects.”
Both doctors recommended the use of “backup barriers,” or extra contraceptives, while taking GLP-1 drugs.
The general guidance is for pregnant women to not take Ozempic or other GLP-1s while pregnant, to prevent any potential drug toxicity to the fetus, according to McConnell.
“We encourage patients to be off the medication for at least two to three months before they even attempt conception, because it has a very long half-life of about five weeks,” she said.
OZEMPIC, THE HAPPY DRUG? STUDY SUGGESTS WEIGHT LOSS MEDICATIONS COULD REDUCE DEPRESSION, ANXIETY
Mom Oliviara said she wished she could have weaned herself off Ozempic instead of stopping abruptly “for the health of the baby.”
She said, “I experienced insatiable hunger. I tried to combat it by eating healthy, staying active and trying to stick with my new healthy habits I formed [while] on the GLP-1.”
The expectant mother said she gained back 20 pounds within the first three months of her pregnancy, which “significantly affected” her mental health.
“I felt super uncomfortable in my body again,” she said. “I now feel like the medication is out of my system and I’ve been able to have a normal pregnancy again.”
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She added, “We are just happy [the baby] is healthy after multiple losses.”
Oliviara said she plans to resume taking Ozempic after the baby is born.
“I think it is important for people to go into it knowing it is a tool and to use it as one,” she said. “It is up to you to make the lifestyle changes for long-term results.”
McConnell advised other GLP-1 patients to have a plan for how to maintain their healthy lifestyles, including eating well and getting exercise, once they’ve stopped taking these medications.
GLP-1s are meant for people who “actually need weight loss” and should not be taken for fertility purposes, one doctor reminded patients.
The doctor also reminded patients that GLP-1s are meant for people who “actually need weight loss” and should not be taken for fertility purposes.
Novo Nordisk, the maker of Ozempic and Wegovy, has created a Wegovy Pregnancy Registry to collect health data from women who take the GLP-1 medications during pregnancy.
“The goal of the Wegovy Pregnancy Registry is to help health care providers, patients and researchers better understand the safety of Wegovy … and other weight-loss medications during pregnancy,” the registry states.
“The study collects health information on pregnant women and their babies up to 1 year of age from enrolled pregnant women themselves and the health care providers involved in their care or the care of their babies.”
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The Wegovy website states that the medication “may cause fetal harm” and advises women to discontinue use if they become pregnant.
Fox News Digital reached out to Novo Nordisk for additional comment.
For more Health articles, visit www.foxnews.com/health.
HUGH HEWITT: What happens if Israel does nothing after Iran’s fusillade?
What happens if Israel does nothing after Iran’s fusillade on Saturday night?
President Biden told Iran: “Don’t.” Iran did.
Team Biden then quickly turned to “restraining” Israel from responding. “Take the win,” the president is reported to have counseled Prime Minister Netanyahu.
It is a good thing that Israel —with the help of the U.S., the U.K., France, Jordan and Saudi Arabia— fended off the worst result. But Iran escalated way beyond what it has ever hitherto dared to do. Biden urged Israel to stand down. Astonishing.
Yesterday’s column laid out the origins of the Biden appeasement policy. At this writing Israel has not responded. I hope by the time this column posts that Israel will have done so. The Wall Street Journal has reported that Israel is very close to unleashing a response.
We have also learned that nine missiles from Iran did manage to evade interception and strike the IAF’s Nevatim Air Base in southern Israel along with another nearby IAF base, and that 120 ballistic missiles were launched during the Iran attack, as well as 200 plus cruise missiles and drones. That’s not a symbolic attack. It is a “mostly failed” massive attack. It wasn’t intended to be a show. It was a strategic attack on the Jewish State. Iran wanted to kill and destroy.
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So Biden’s “Don’t!” didn’t work again. One poster on X quipped that every time he says “Don’t,” they do. Commentary’s Seth Mandel pointed out in a memorable Commentary podcast that Biden’s has met the “foreign policy fiasco” measure of former President Obama’s “red line” erasure. John Podhoretz noted in same podcast that Biden “hasn’t said anything” at all after Saturday night’s bombardment. “His policy toward Iran is shredded. There is no policy towards Iran anymore.”
Both are right, as are Abe Greenwald, Christine Rosen and Matthew Continetti who are also on this memorable pod. There is a bet amongst them now on whether Israel both responds to Iran and enters Rafah to finish off Hamas.
WHAT IS ISRAEL’S FIRST LINE OF DEFENSE, THE IRON DOME?
The United Kingdom’s Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Foreign Minister David Cameron have joined the Neville Chamberlain club anchored at the White House. If Israel acts it will do so despite their allies in the defense of the Jewish State asking them not to go on offense. But as former Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren bluntly stated on Monday’s radio show: “Defense is not deterrence.” He’s right too. The willingness to take a punch, or many punches, doesn’t deter the enemy. It encourages the enemy to try another assault.
This isn’t the sort of thing one has to learn from the Melian Dialogue in Thucydides (though it is indeed found there.) You get the same lesson from Ralphie in a Christmas Story when he finally snaps: Bullies have to be stopped. They don’t evolve into your friends. Not on a playground. Not in the realm of national security.
What does Hamas’s Sinwar think at that point? Is he going to continue to reject Israel’s cease-fire offers because he’s a religious fanatic or because he expects to emerge from the tunnels as the terrorist equivalent of Churchill at the close of the worst part of the Battle of Britain because the United States forces Israel to stay out of Rafah and thus not to destroy those tunnels?
What does Hezbollah’s Hassan Nasrallah see happening here? And how about “MBS” and “MBZ” —the rulers of our allies, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates?
And what do the triumvirs “Supreme Leader” of Iran, Ayatollah Khamenei, Russia’s dictator Vladimir Putin and the General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party Xi Jinping conclude if the United States succeeds in obliging Israel to accept this unprecedented attack on the Jewish State? Nothing good. Many things bad. For Israel, for Ukraine, for Taiwan. And for the United States.
Iran has funded and controlled its proxies to the north and south of Israel for decades. Iran never dared such an attack until now. Khamenei has taken the measure of Team Biden. Israel’s War Cabinet must persuade him that it is not the measure of the Jewish State.
We know Israel killed many Iranians with its strike on the Damascus headquarters of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps. We know that apologists for Tehran’s mullahs are suggesting, and sometimes asserting, that Israel’s strikes provoked this off-the-charts escalation from Tehran, as if there was some unspoken deal between Iran and Israel that Israel would not tag out Iran’s commanders in the field if they could get back to a base.
It’s up to Israel now to reset the understandings Iran has developed as well as the mullahs’ reliance on President Biden to always take and advise the wrong course on national security. Hopefully by the time you read this, Prime Minister Netanyahu and the War Cabinet have done just that.
Hugh Hewitt is one of the country’s leading journalists of the center-right. A son of Ohio and a graduate of Harvard College and the University of Michigan Law School, Hewitt has been a Professor of Law at Chapman University’s Fowler School of Law since 1996, where he teaches Constitutional Law. Hewitt launched his eponymous radio show from Los Angeles in 1990, and it is today syndicated to hundreds of stations and outlets across the country every Monday through Friday morning. Hewitt has frequently appeared on every major national news television network, hosted television shows for PBS and MSNBC, written for every major American paper, authored a dozen books and moderated a score of Republican candidate debates, most recently the November 2023 Republican presidential debate in Miami and four Republican presidential debates in the 2015-16 cycle. Hewitt focuses his radio show and this column on the Constitution, national security, American politics and the Cleveland Browns and Guardians. Hewitt has interviewed tens of thousands of guests from Democrats Hillary Clinton and John Kerry to Republican Presidents George W. Bush and Donald Trump over his 40 years in broadcast, and this column previews the lead story that will drive his radio show today.
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