Why not ignore the law if there are no consequences?
Trump fought to keep the ballroom fundraising contract secret. Here’s what’s in it.
Follow-up to Banquet of Greed: Trump Ballroom Donors Feast on Federal Funds and Favors – See Washington Post – no paywall: “The agreement governing hundreds of millions in private donations was kept secret until a watchdog group sued and a judge ordered it disclosed [the full text of this document is embedded in this WaPo article – view the 14 page PDF without the paywall here ]… “The Trump administration’s failure to disclose this contract was flatly unlawful,” said Wendy Liu, a Public Citizen attorney and lead counsel on the lawsuit, filed after the Park Service and the Interior Department failed to fulfill a public records request for the document. “The American people are entitled to transparency over this multi-million-dollar project.” The secrecy surrounding the contract mirrors the administration’s broader approach to the project. White House officials have declined to disclose the total amount raised, the identities of all donors or, until recently, basic details about the building’s design. Court documents show Trump knew he was going to tear down the East Wing at least two months before doing so, but he never told the public. The contract provisions, taken together, allow wealthy donors with business before the federal government to contribute anonymously to a sitting president’s pet project, while exempting the White House from key conflict of interest safeguards and limiting scrutiny by Congress and the public… The contract resembles templates used by the Park Service for more routine fundraising partnerships — with several notable differences: Provisions peppered throughout the agreement prevent the signatories from revealing the identities of anonymous donors, and a review process for detecting conflicts of interest with the Park Service and Interior Department makes no mention of doing the same for the president, other White House officials or the 14 other executive departments he oversees.
Still not a majority…
https://pogowasright.org/alabama-becomes-21st-state-with-comprehensive-consumer-privacy-law/
Alabama Becomes 21st State With Comprehensive Consumer Privacy Law
Hunton Andrews Kurth writes:
On April 17, 2026, Alabama Governor Kay Ivey signed into law the Alabama Personal Data Protection Act (HB 351) (“APDPA” or “the Act”), making Alabama the twenty-first state to enact a comprehensive consumer privacy law. The law goes into effect on May 1, 2027.
Alabama enacted the APDPA within an already maturing ecosystem of state-level privacy regulation that has increasingly coalesced around a shared statutory model. Rather than departing significantly from prevailing approaches, the Act largely aligns with the Virginia-style framework that has become the dominant template for U.S. comprehensive consumer privacy laws. Nevertheless, the APDPA contains several material distinctions in scope, applicability and enforcement that warrant careful examination.
The Structure and Main Provisions of the Act
At a structural level, the APDPA adopts the now-standard controller–processor paradigm, imposing obligations on entities that determine the purposes and means of processing personal data, while allocating more limited duties to processors acting on behalf of such entities. The Act also provides consumers a familiar set of data rights, including rights of access, correction, deletion and opt-out with respect to targeted advertising, sale of personal data and certain forms of profiling.
Read more about the Act’s provisions at Hunton.com.
When will this become inexcusable?
AI hallucinations found in high-profile Wall Street law firm filing
… The firm said that it maintains “comprehensive policies and training requirements governing the use of AI tools in legal work” that are designed to catch any potential errors.
However, the letter said those AI policies were not followed and that a secondary review process also “did not identify the inaccurate citations generated by AI”.
Shoot. I was going to bet on that.
New York sues prediction markets Coinbase and Gemini Titan, calls their operations gambling
About time?
https://www.theregister.com/2026/04/21/exfbi_cyber_chief_urges_felony_charges_ransomware/
Murder, she wrote: Ex-FBI chief wants some ransomware crims charged with homicide
If a cyberattack leads to a death, that's murder. A former FBI cyber division chief urged the US Justice Department to consider felony homicide charges against ransomware actors when attacks on hospitals lead to patient deaths.
In testimony before a US House of Representatives subcommittee hearing, Cynthia Kaiser, former deputy assistant director of the FBI's cyber division, implored lawmakers to "champion" the federal government to use three existing legal authorities to go after ransomware criminals who encrypt healthcare networks and systems.
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