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Amtrak spars with freight train industry over rules of the railroad

Sep 10, 2024
In a rare lawsuit, the Justice Department is trying to make freight lines comply with policy giving preference to Amtrak trains on the tracks.
Amtrak relies on freight rail lines for many of its routes, but it says freight companies often prevent its trains from running on time.
Henry Epp/Marketplace

Private equity's role in health care is under increasing scrutiny

Apr 8, 2024
A Senate committee and two federal agencies are taking closer looks at how private equity’s ownership of hospitals and physician staffing companies is affecting health care.
"About 25% of emergency room departments are staffed by private equity-owned physician companies," said Sabrina Howell of NYU’s Stern School of Business.
Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Who controls the data that fuels real estate deals?

Jun 5, 2018
A decade ago, the government told the real estate industry to start sharing its data. What has that meant for competition?
David Paul Morris/Getty Images

How the DOJ could approach the AT&T bid for Time Warner

Nov 15, 2017
Telecom giant AT&T’s $85 billion bid for Time Warner has, depending on who you ask, been held up by legitimate antitrust concerns, or by politics.  President Donald Trump has spoken out against the merger since his campaign days, and yesterday, when Attorney General Jeff Sessions testified before the House Judiciary Committee, he ducked the question […]

Private prisons benefit from new Trump rules

May 12, 2017
The Trump administration is going back to the “tough on crime” policies of the 1980s and ’90s. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has ordered federal prosecutors to bring charges that carry heavy penalties – sometimes mandatory minimum sentences. This is a roll-back of Obama administration rules telling prosecutors not to charge nonviolent drug offenders with crimes that […]

DOJ will review consent decrees at police departments across the nation

Apr 4, 2017
U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has ordered the Department of Justice to take a close look at consent decrees in place at police departments across the country. They’re agreements a local police department signs on to after the department’s civil rights division investigates its policing practices, often in the wake of a high-profile shooting or […]

Homeland Security rethinking private detention centers

Aug 31, 2016
Homeland Security is evaluating the use of contractors for immigrant detention centers.
A guard escorts an immigrant detainee from a "segregation cell" back into the general population at the Adelanto Detention Facility.
John Moore/Getty Images

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NAND mirroring could be key to unlocking terrorist's phone

Mar 23, 2016
'Groundhog Day' helps explain the new method the government may be using to hack into the device.
NAND mirroring can grant a user unlimited tries at guessing a phone's passcode.
Wikipedia

Justice Department targets white-collar criminals

Sep 10, 2015
A new DOJ memo encourages prosecutors to more aggressively go after executives.

Justice dept. targets GM in subprime auto loan probe

Aug 5, 2014
These loans resemble the subprime mortgages that led to the financial crisis.