FOR PROFIT HEALTHCARE
Inaccurate medical bills are trapping Americans in a 'doom loop' costing them $88 billion last year, Biden's top consumer watchdog finds

asheffey@businessinsider.com (Ayelet Sheffey) 

 A person walks past the emergency room of a hospital in New York, on December 13, 2021. 

Wang Ying/Xinhua via Getty Image

The CFPB found $88 billion in medical debt landed on consumers' credit reports last year.

Patients were often stuck with big bills from emergency situations that were processed inaccurately.

Medical bills that end up in collections can reduce access to credit and lead to avoidance of medical care.

Paying off medical debt is difficult on its own, and President Joe Biden's top consumer watchdog just found that billions of dollars of that debt hurt Americans' credit reports last year.

Some of those bills weren't even accurate.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) released a report on Tuesday that estimated $88 billion in medical debt landed on consumer credit reports as of June 2021. According to the agency, the "complicated and burdensome" medical billing system in the US has not only pushed patients into debt they struggle to pay off — it's also a result of errors in hospital bills that are difficult to resolve and reflect poorly on credit scores.

"When it comes to medical bills, Americans are often caught in a doom loop between their medical provider and insurance company," CFPB Director Rohit Chopra said in a statement. "Our credit reporting system is too often used as a tool to coerce and extort patients into paying medical bills they may not even owe."

Total medical debt in the US stands at $140 billion, according to the Journal of the American Medical Association, and it continues to grow. While lawmakers have taken steps to act on the issue, like making surprise medical billing illegal early this year, patients continue to bear significant medical costs for often unavoidable emergency health situations. Some advocates say medical debt shouldn't even be included on a credit report as it doesn't reflect a choice the consumer made.

That's why the CFPB says it will work with credit reporting companies to ensure Americans aren't suffering unnecessary financial costs for vital healthcare.

Here are the other main findings from the CFPB's report:
About 20% of US households reported having medical debt, and data on that debt appeared on 43 million credit reports.
Most medical debts on credit reports are under $500 each, but many people have multiple.
Overdue medical debt is more prevalent among individuals of color and is more common in the Southern US regions, where Medicaid coverage hasn't been expanded.
As of 2021, medical debt was the most common debt collection type on credit reports.

The CFPB also noted that medical debt appearing on credit reports is particularly problematic given that type of debt does not indicate whether an individual might fall behind on other payments in the future. Given most of the debt is unavoidable, and is incurred for emergency medical situations, taking on that debt is often not a choice the patient makes.

"Medical bills placed on credit reports can result in reduced access to credit, increased risk of bankruptcy, avoidance of medical care, and difficulty securing employment, even when the bill itself is inaccurate or erroneous," the report said.

To ensure credit reporting does not further hurt patients with medical debt, the CFPB said it will take action, if necessary, against companies that report inaccurate information, work with other government agencies to ensure patients do not pay more than they owe, and determine whether unpaid medical bills should be included in credit reports.

The CFPB has been overseeing medical billing over the past decade, and this is only the latest action it's taking to protect American patients. In 2014, a CFPB a 2014 report found medical debt was typically not a good indicator of whether someone would default on future debt, partly because of most of that debt resulted from emergency circumstances.

More recently, the Department of Veterans Affairs worked with CFPB to allow most of veterans' medical debt to go unreported to credit bureaus, following years of unfair processing of veterans' debt that left them paying amounts they didn't owe.

Insurer AIG steps back from coal, Arctic energy underwriting

(Reuters) - U.S. insurer American International Group said on Tuesday it would no longer provide underwriting services and investments for the construction of any new coal-fired power plants, thermal coal mines or oil sands.

© Reuters/Brendan McDermid FILE PHOTO: The AIG logo is seen at its building in New York's financial district

The company also said it would stop providing insurance cover and investments for any new Arctic energy exploration activities.

It also revealed a target of achieving net zero greenhouse gas emissions across its global underwriting and investment portfolios by 2050.

"As one of the last major insurers without restrictions on coal insurance, AIG's new commitments to reduce underwriting for coal, tar sands oil, and Arctic oil and gas are a major step forward for people and the planet," said Hannah Saggau, an insurance campaigner with Public Citizen, an influential consumer advocacy group.

Lloyd's of London in late 2020 asked its members to stop providing new insurance cover for thermal coal, oil sands, or new Arctic energy exploration from Jan. 1, 2022, with a target date of Jan. 1, 2030 to phase out the renewal of existing cover.

European insurers, including AXA and Zurich, have for long pulled back from underwriting fossil fuels such as coal and oil sands, turning the focus on their U.S. and Asian peers, which have long been viewed as laggards.

Chubb in November set a new goal to achieve carbon neutrality in its global operations by 2022 end through a combination of renewable energy and carbon offset purchases.

AIG said on Tuesday it would phase out the underwriting of all existing operation insurance risks and cease new investments in clients that derive 30% or more of their revenues from coal-fired power, thermal coal mines or oil sands, or generate more than 30% of their energy production from coal by Jan. 1, 2030 or sooner.

(Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru and Carolyn Cohn in London; Editing by Amy Caren Daniel)

WORKING CONDITIONS
More than half of Americans who switched jobs in 2021 took a pay cut. 

How to budget for a lower salary

About 47 million workers left their jobs in 2021 amid the Great Resignation.

© Provided by CNBC

Carmen Reinicke 

Many of them did so for less pay.

Last year, 53% of workers who left their jobs said they made less money in their new roles, according to a January online survey of 1,000 adults by Real Estate Witch.

The average pay cut was around $8,000 per year, according to the survey, but some workers indicated they would be willing to take an even bigger reduction. What's more, those who quit in 2021 but have yet to find another job said they would take an average $23,000 pay cut, the survey found.

The catalyst for taking that lower-paying job? Overall satisfaction and work/life balance. More than 60% of those surveyed said they were happy in their new roles, and those who said they were very satisfied compared to their previous position jumped nearly 50%.

An earlier survey of workers from Paro, which provides accounting and finance solutions for businesses, focused on workers who do mental tasks for a living — such as programmers, pharmacists and lawyers. The survey found the group also prioritized their work/life balance over making more money.

"The pandemic and experiences they have had have shifted their values," said Anita Samojednik, CEO of Paro. "Right now, the salary is just not enough."

To be sure, many people who switched jobs have seen increases in take-home pay. A survey from The Conference Board found that about one-third of workers who left jobs during the pandemic are making 30% more in new roles. However, about 27% who switched jobs said pay was the same or less in their new job.
What to consider

Of course, taking a pay cut will directly affect your finances and may not be advisable right away, according to Tania Brown, an Atlanta-based certified financial planner and founder of FinanciallyConfidentMom.com.

If you're considering taking a job where you will make less money, there are a few things you need to consider before you do so, she said.

First, ask yourself why you want to leave your current job, she said. Are you burned out? Will a different job or career be more fulfilling? Are you planning to move?

Contemplating the answers to these questions will help ensure that you don't make a rash decision you'll later regret, said Brown.

"Emotions have no logic, and you're trying to make a math decision based on emotion," Brown said. "It's just not going to turn out."

More from Invest in You:
66% of employers plan to address pay equity this year, survey finds

Additionally, if you're only a few months from paying off debts or hitting a similar financial goal, you may want to hold off.

Plus, you may realize you don't want to leave your job, but instead would like more flexibility or a change in your role. If that is the case, now is a great time to ask for a different schedule, to take on different responsibilities or to try to introduce other flexibilities into your job, Samojednik said.

She said she's seen many people dip their toes into freelancing in addition to a full-time job to test the waters of a new gig or becoming their own boss.
Doing the math

If you discover that switching jobs is truly what you want, then you have some important math to do, Brown said.

That includes doing a deep dive into your current budget needs and financial goals and seeing if you can achieve your objectives on a smaller income.

Brown suggests you should over a trial period of a few months, say, try to see if you can meet your goals on smaller take-home pay. That test run could help you decide if a pay cut is right for you.

You should also think about how making less will affect your long-term goals, Brown said. If you're saving up for a house or plan on having a baby, how will your new income change the timelines on those milestones? If it will take longer, is it worth it for you to wait?

If you're part of a family, you should also consult the other members in your household before making your move. That means talking with your spouse and children about what changes would take place, such as fewer trips or less money for extra activities — and deciding if it works for everyone.

"This has to be a family decision because your decision is impacting everyone in the household," said Brown.

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With MLB games canceled and fan apathy blooming, blame rests solely on owners

Ryan Fagan 7 hrs ago

This lockout will be the final straw for some baseball fans. Truth is, I can’t blame them.

My hope is that, before you bid a not-so-fond farewell to the game of your youth, know the truth about which side bears the blame for this unnecessary and disgusting interruption of what used to be America’s favorite pastime. This disastrous stoppage — the first two regular-season series for now — is solely because the owners are putting money over the good of the game and the people who make their living off the sport other than the players.

This isn’t a “both sides” problem. It’s just not, by any objective measure.

Baseball has been wildly profitable over the past decade, with franchise values soaring and season-over-season revenues skyrocketing. The players wanted to work out a fair and equitable way for both sides to share in the enormous wealth produced by the game; the owners wanted, essentially, a bending of every single knee in the MLBPA.

The players wanted to sit at the table and negotiate a way to end the owner-created lockout; the owners were completely immersed in a laughably transparent PR strategy aimed at deflecting blame on the other side, a marketing campaign that was see-through from the moment

Commissioner Rob Manfred issued his “create urgency” statement in the early moments of Dec. 2, then waited 43 days to make a proposal. He was asked about that during his news conference Tuesday afternoon, and he deflected.

“I think the best answer to that question is the last 10 days,” he said. “We’ve been here, ready to bargain, full committees, owners and players for 10 days, and it got going two days before the deadline. That’s the best explanation I can give you.”

So, basically, ignore the inaction of the previous two-plus months. Gotcha.

The bottom line: The players want to play ball and made considerable concessions that would have resulted in a deal that would have still been overwhelmingly favorable to the owners — again, by any objective measure — but the owners were more concerned about controlling the narrative than actually working out a deal to restart this game fans want to love but are constantly being force-fed reasons to turn away.

The owners made a series of long-overdue, bare minimum upgrades, true. Manfred was careful to talk about those in his news conference at length — such as with the minimum salaries. Manfred trumpeted MLB’s offer of $700,000, a raise of $130,000, failing to mention that the NBA minimum is $925,258, the NHL’s is $750,000 and the NFL’s is $660,000 (and $780,000 for players with one year of experience). Sorry, but a minimum that falls short of the NHL is not something to be proud of. The financials of the two sports are not comparable.

Meanwhile, the owners barely budged on the real money, the Competitive Balance Tax, even while landing a deal with ESPN for an extra $85 million if the playoffs are expanded to 12 teams ($100 million if 14 teams). It’s something that only affects a handful of teams — in 2021, only the Dodgers and Padres exceeded the number and the Phillies, Yankees, Mets, Red Sox and Astros were within $5 million. The number was $210 million in 2021, and the owners proposed an increase of 5 percent (less than inflation), and stalled that $220 number for two more years.

This is their line in the sand? Owners preventing owners from spending money? This is worth canceling games? Yikes.

What’s the actual PR hit of turning this negotiation into a debacle? Hard to know exactly, but it ain’t good.

MORE: Delayed regular season could send MLB to a very bad place

Here’s what I do know: People hate being lied to. They hate being treated like they don’t matter. Listen to the players vent on social media and it’s pretty clear they felt both of those things. And, maybe more importantly, that’s exactly how the owners treated fans of their sport for the past three months.

The words Manfred said sounded good — “create urgency” by starting the lockout on Dec. 2.

“I see missing games as a disastrous outcome” on Feb. 10 — but the actions?

When your actions don’t match your words, people notice. Distrust grows. Resentment blooms. Anger flowers. The only thing worse than anger?

Apathy.

Folks, for a large portion of would-be baseball audience, that’s settled in.

And, yeah, it’s hard to blame them.

Canada's Nutrien eyes prolonged global fertilizer disruption from invasion of Ukraine

By Rod Nickel

© Reuters/TODD KOROL

 The Nutrien Redwater Fertilizer plant near Fort Saskatchewan

WINNIPEG, Manitoba (Reuters) -Canada’s Nutrien Ltd, the world’s biggest fertilizer producer, said on Tuesday that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine could result in prolonged disruptions to the global supply of potash and nitrogen crop nutrients.

Interim Chief Executive Ken Seitz said Nutrien will boost potash production if it sees sustained supply problems in Russia and Belarus, the world’s second- and third-largest potash producing countries after Canada.

The United States, European Union and other countries have imposed economic sanctions against Russia, moves that could hinder its exports of natural gas, potash and nitrogen. Belarus, Russia's ally, is already subject to European and U.S. sanctions that have restricted its potash exports.

Russia's war on Ukraine has also raised concerns about wheat, corn and vegetable oil supply problems in the Black Sea region, driving up world prices.

"We could probably see a prolonged, more prolonged disruption in (potash) supply out of that part of the world," Seitz said at a BMO Capital Markets investor conference.

"We're looking very closely at, if this is sustained, how do we deploy miners and open up ground in a very practical, pragmatic way?" he added.

Nutrien expects to sell up to 14.3 million tonnes of potash this year, its most ever, and has said it is considering further expansion.

Brazilian agricultural exports are especially vulnerable to a scarcity of fertilizer, with Russia a key supplier.

Russia's aggression also has jeopardized its nitrogen fertilizer exports. Prices of European natural gas, a key input in nitrogen production, have jumped in the past week, much higher than North American prices.

"We're going to run our plants, run them flat out," Seitz said. "Could we see interruptions in exports out of Russia? Yes. Can we see plant closures? We could."

(Reporting by Rod Nickel in WinnipegEditing by Bill Berkrot)

BOURGEOIS BULLSHIT
Exorbitant growth in tech wages could be the factor that bursts the tech bubble
Bianca Bharti 

© Provided by Financial Post A pedestrian crosses Bay Street in the financial district of Toronto.


Wages at some of Canada’s fastest growing technology companies have increased 20 per cent over the past year, adding to the evidence that the industry is headed for a new, more challenging phase that some might not survive.

The Canadian Council of Innovators, a trade association that represents companies such as Lightspeed Commerce Inc. and SkipTheDishes Restaurant Services Inc., surveyed its members at the beginning of the year and found that businesses are seeing wage expectations for skilled talent ring in 20 per cent above 2021 levels.

“It’s hard to quantify but I would say that this is probably the biggest concern that is keeping CEOs up at night,” said CCI president Ben Bergen. “Having a product or a service delayed by months because you weren’t able to find engineers or salespeople that are required to get it to commercialization, it’s really challenging for companies.”

Salaries are taking up additional space on the balance sheets just as technology companies are about to find it more difficult to raise money to finance their rapid — and often unprofitable — growth strategies. The industry has seen a great run, as private and public capital threw cash at companies built for the digital economy. But that boom of enthusiasm could soon crash, as the central banks in the United States, Canada and elsewhere have made clear they intend to raise interest rates.

As borrowing costs rise, the “risk-on” attitude to investing that favoured technology companies will change. The tech-heavy NASDAQ so far this year has dropped more than 14 per cent, while the S&P/TSX, heavy with banks and energy companies, has dropped only about one per cent.

“The point at which we are in the business cycle is certainly a high point. It might well be a peak,” said Ambrus Kecskés, a finance professor at York University’s Schulich School of Business. “How long this can continue is a matter of debate but it’s probably not going to go on at this rate without interruption for another decade.”

Still, growth strategies require lots of hiring to keep up with orders. Even though companies are spending more on wages, appetites to hire remain strong. The CCI survey found that tech firms are planning to expand their workforce by more than 20 per cent in 2022. The trade organization set out to see what challenges its members are facing with economic and industry conditions and received 50 responses back from 150 companies.

“I sit on boards of companies where our estimate is that engineers salaries have gone up 30 to 40 per cent in the last year,” said Damien Steel, global managing partner at OMERS Ventures, the venture capital arm of the Canadian pension fund.

The reasons salaries have risen for software developers or product specialists vary. Some founders and CEOs pin it on U.S. tech giants setting up shop in Canada and luring talent away. Others say it’s because the work-from-anywhere trend is forcing Canadian firms to compete with wages offered by some of the most profitable companies in the world

But, a long-time issue has been a chronic undersupply of software developers and engineers. The number of companies seeking such talent surged during the pandemic, and firms with long capital runways simply opted to pay top dollar rather than disappoint investors who expected aggressive growth, Steel said.

“You have Series As that are being done now at $50 to $80 million. Financings like that never happened five years ago,” he said. “You know, $20 million used to be a massive Series A three or four years ago.”

© Leddartech Charles Boulanger, CEO of LeddarTech Inc.

Charles Boulanger, CEO of LeddarTech Inc., which makes sensors used in vehicles, raised US$140-million in a Series D round in February. The Quebec-City-based company wants to grow its staff of 240 to 300 within 12 months, and it’s proving a difficult target.

To help it ensure its keeping pace with market rates, LeddarTech hired a third-party company to research and benchmark salaries for all of its employees. Typically, the company does this for senior management every three years, but with fierce competition for talent, it felt compelled to do it for the entire staff, Boulanger said. LeddarTech decided to craft pay packages where salaries were slightly below the average but instead beefed up options packages to incentivize workers.

But the economic road ahead looks bumpy with inflation at 30-year highs and central banks around the world set to raise key rates. “It certainly becomes more expensive to do all sorts of development and the competition becomes international as well with people working remote more,” Boulanger said.

At Coveo Solutions Inc., which makes software for use in the cloud, CEO Louis Têtu has seen wages climb 20 per cent over the last year. Têtu had to readjust the budget every few months because wages kept accelerating.

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“When your R&D line, your talent expenses, increases by 20 per cent, frankly, your headcount plans diminish by a number as well because you can’t just spend 20 per cent more unless you back it up with 20 per cent more revenue, and that doesn’t happen as quickly,” Têtu said.

To compensate for rising pay, subscription prices at the company have gone up five to 10 per cent in the last few years, he said.

In November, the company closed a $215-million initial public offering, one of the largest in Canadian tech last year. The money it raised through public markets was designated to help it grow and hire more talent, however current market volatility makes it unclear investors will pour more money into stocks. On Tuesday, Coveo shares closed at $9.58, more than 40 per cent below it’s initial offer price of $15.

As with other markets, venture capital is cyclical, said Steel, and it’s been on an abnormally long tear for the last eight years which has meant an abnormal amount of companies received cash to burn.

“I would argue in three to four years, you’re going to have an unusual amount of companies that are shutting down. And so that (talent) shortage right now is going to lead to an abundance later, at a time when all the wages have been marked up. You can see how you get into this really, really difficult position down the line,” he said.

• Email: bbharti@postmedia.com | Twitter: biancabharti

New satellite launches to track Earth's wild weather and dangerous space storms

By Ashley Strickland, CNN 

Whether it's wildfires that sweep across the West Coast, storms rolling in from the Pacific Ocean, or dense fog that blankets the Pacific Northwest, a new weather satellite will be able to track them all.

© NOAA/Lockheed Martin This is an artist's rendering of geostationary weather satellites that monitor Earth.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration launched GOES-T, the third in its series of advanced geostationary weather satellites, at 4:38 p.m. ET on March 1 from Cape Canaveral, Florida.

Once the satellite is in orbit, it will be renamed GOES-18 and monitor weather that impacts the western United States, Alaska, Hawaii, Mexico, Central America and the Pacific Ocean.

The satellite will provide our most sophisticated and sharpest look yet at what Earth's Western Hemisphere looks like from 22,236 miles (35,785 kilometers) above the planet.

GOES-T is equipped with a suite of instruments that can provide measurements of the atmosphere, map lightning in real time and send back stunning ultra high-definition images. Its continuous collection of data will improve weather forecasting on Earth.

Together with the GOES-16 satellite, which launched in 2016, the two will actively monitor more than half the globe, spanning from the west coast of Africa to New Zealand.

"The observations from these satellites are even more critical now, when the US is experiencing a record number of billion-dollar disasters," said Pam Sullivan, director of NOAA's GOES-R program, during a press conference. "Compared to the previous generation, GOES-R satellites deliver 60 times more imagery, and they have a new lightning camera to track severe storms that spawn tornadoes and damaging winds."

The northeastern part of the Pacific Ocean is where many of the storms that impact the US begin.

"Since many of the weather systems of the United States move from west to east, GOES-T will improve model forecasts for the entire country," said James Yoe, chief administrative officer for the Joint Center for Satellite Data Assimilation, during a press conference on Tuesday.

And it's not just reporting back weather on Earth -- GOES-18 will also keep an eye on solar storms and space weather, providing early warnings ahead of any possible disruptions to our power grid on Earth.

Tracking dangerous conditions

Flooding and mudslides in coastal areas can often be traced to a type of weather phenomena called atmospheric rivers. These "rivers in the sky" deliver columns of water vapor from the tropics and release rain or snow when they make landfall, according to NOAA. Hurricanes that form in the Pacific can spin toward Hawaii or Mexico.

The GOES-T satellite will provide better monitoring of both types of weather events.

Warm ocean surface temperatures can contribute to the formation of hurricanes, so the satellite's monitoring of these increases could provide early warning about hurricane formation.

The satellite's capabilities will also help weather forecasters track and monitor tropical storms and hurricanes practically in real time, sharing data about the storm's structure and features, wind speeds, and lightning. All of these factors can be used to calculate the intensity of a storm.

Tracking rising ocean temperatures can also allow for better monitoring of marine heat waves that cause coral bleaching events en masse and alter entire marine ecosystems.

Wildfires are another hazard for those living in much of the western US, and GOES-18 is armed with a multitude of ways to spot and peer inside the destructive nature of these extreme events.

The satellite will be able to find wildfire hot spots, detect changes in the behavior of the fire, and predict its motion, as well as estimate the intensity, smoke output and air quality. It will also have the accuracy to identify the lightning strikes most likely to cause these fires and detect the pyrocumulonimbus clouds that form over wildfires.

These massive clouds can stretch for miles. A dangerous combination of their size and heat allows the clouds to create their own weather and threaten firefighters trapped beneath them.

"The Advanced Baseline Imager, or ABI, is ideal for detecting the thermal signature, or the hot spots, from the fires," said Dan Lindsey, NOAA's GOES-R program scientist, during the press conference. "Sometimes, it's even able to detect the fires before they're reported from the public. This is really critical information to get to firefighters so that they can take care of the fires before they can become out of control."

The satellite's ABI can scan our planet five times faster with four times the resolution of previous geostationary satellites. And the instrument recently surprised NOAA scientists with another previously unknown capability: detecting pressure waves from volcanic eruptions, which they were able to do after the recent Tonga eruption.

And the GOES satellites don't just monitor Earth. They have specialized instruments that image the sun and spot solar flares and monitor incoming space radiation particles. Without proper tracking or early warnings, this space weather can damage satellites that provide the basis for our communications and GPS, as well as spacecraft like the International Space Station.

Once GOES-18 is operational, it will replace the current GOES-17 satellite, which will remain in orbit as a spare. Post-launch testing of GOES-17 in 2018 revealed an issue with the cooling system on the satellite's imager, leading to a loss of imagery from time to time. This issue was corrected in the ABI for GOES-18, which will effectively replace GOES-17's monitoring of the western hemisphere.

The agency anticipates that the first imagery and data from GOES-18 will be available in the summer of 2023.

© NOAA This artist's rendering shows a GOES spacecraft in orbit around Earth.

PRESENT TENSE

RCMP inappropriately shares personal information on thousands of individuals with other federal agencies

MobileSyrup 

The RCMP disclosed the personal information of thousands of foreign individuals based on incomplete information to the Department of Defence – Canadian Armed Forces (DND-CAF)

.

© VANCOUVER, CANADA – JANUARY 26, 2015: A sign for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in English and Fr... RCMP inappropriately shares personal information on thousands of individuals with other federal agencies

This was revealed after the National Security and Intelligence Review Agency (NSIRA) and the Office of the Privacy Commissioner (OPC) took part in a joint review examining disclosures federal institutions made under the Security of Canada Information Disclosure Act (SCIDA).

Approved in 2019, SCIDA allows 17 federal institutions to share information with each other to protect security. This includes sharing personal information.

A two-part test, known as the disclosure test, must be satisfied before any information can be shared under this act. The first is the institution sharing the information is satisfied the information they’re sharing will help the institution that’s receiving the information. The second is personal privacy won’t be impacted “more than is reasonably necessary.”

The review examined 215 disclosures from 2020, 212 of which passed both parts of the test. The three that didn’t were all disclosure made by the RCMP.
The specifics

The first part of the test was not satisfied in two of the disclosures. Made on a proactive basis, one went to Global Affairs Canada (GAC) and the other to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC). The review notes the RCMP failed to show they considered how each disclosure would help the recipient deliver on national security.

The information was shared “based on a mistaken belief that disclosed information fell within the recipient’s jurisdiction.” The review notes the RCMP acknowledged to the NSIRA the information they shared was not compliant under SCIDA. The RCMP said it was also in the process of updating its SCIDA policy.

In its third disclosure, the RCMP failed to meet the second part of the disclosure test.

According to the review, the RCMP received information on thousands of men, women, and children who an unknown third party detained for their alleged involvement in terrorist organizations. The information was sent by a “trusted foreign partner,” along with detailed notes indicating how the information was obtained.

The RCMP shared the initial data set with the DND – CAF because of its counter-terrorism mandate and their operations in the regions where the named individuals were detained. But the RCMP failed to share the additional detailed information on how the information was collected. It also didn’t have any record of receiving this information.

DND – CAF said the information was not integrated into its system but the information has to be held onto for “force protection and to rapidly identify threats.”
Recommendations

The review led to two recommendations relevant to this case. The first asks the RCMP to finish updating its SCIDA policy, update decision-makers on the requirements of the disclosure test, and make sure all information is appropriately documented.

The second is that the RCMP provides the remaining information to the armed forces, and DND-CAF assesses whether or not keeping the personal information they have on hand is necessary.

Image credit: Shutterstock

Source: National Security and Intelligence Review Agency/Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada

BUCKET LIST

This Tennessee Town Is Home to America's Largest Underground Lake — and You Can Sail a Glass-bottomed Boat on It

Stacey Leasca 

© Provided by Travel + Leisure Trey Sullins/Courtesy of The Lost Sea Adventure

So, you've traveled the globe and reached corners far and wide. You've seen and done it all — or, so you think. But there are still places even the most well-trodden travelers have yet to discover. You just have to go under the Earth's surface to get to them.

Those looking for a unique getaway that will certainly add to their already stellar travel repertoire can head to the town of Sweetwater, Tennessee. There, travelers will find America's largest underground lake, known as The Lost Sea.

The Lost Sea is located inside the greater Craighead Caverns, an extensive cave network that extends from Sweetwater to Madisonville, Tennessee. The sea is calm, still, and clear, and you can tour it on a glass-bottomed boat to see what lurks beneath the surface.

As TheLostSea.com explains, the cave has likely been used by animals for thousands of years. As for humans, it notes that the "caverns have been known and used since the days of the Cherokee Indians. From the tiny natural opening on the side of the mountain, the cave expands into a series of huge rooms. Nearly a mile from the entrance, in a room now known as 'The Council Room,' a wide range of Indian artifacts including pottery, arrowheads, weapons, and jewelry have been found, testifying to the use of the cave by the Cherokees."

Though the lake has been widely visited since the early 1900s, Lake Scientist reports, there has been very little research or scientific exploration into the waters. Though one diver noted on the website, "We had no way of knowing what depths we would encounter, but we all suspected that the depths would be in excess of 100 feet very shortly after beginning the exploration. We were correct. The underwater section of the cave angled down just as sharply as the dry cave did."

Though you cannot readily go diving in the cave, you can very easily hop aboard one of those aforementioned glass-bottomed boats for a 75-minute tour, which begins with a .75-mile walk to the lake, then a ride around nearly four acres of water. On the tour, guides will even point out a few gorgeous formations known as anthodites, or cave flowers. Admission to the cave starts at $13.95. Learn more about the caves and book your visit here.

Scientist uses tiny trackers to keep tabs on funnel-web spiders

By Jill Gralow

© Reuters/JILL GRALOW Caitlin Creak, PhD candidate from the School of Biological Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of New South Wales, holds an antenna as she searches for a male Sydney funnel-web spider with a telemetry tracker attached, in Sydney

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Some Sydney funnel-web spiders are scrambling into the Australian brush carrying special cargo: a telemetry tracker to study how far a mature male can travel at night and whether their movements are affected by the environment and weather.

Caitlin Creak, a PhD candidate at the School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences of the University of New South Wales, has been tracking the male Sydney funnel-web, one of the world's deadliest spiders, for two summers. The nocturnal arachnid lives within around 100km (62 miles) of Australia's largest city, and is mostly active between November and April.© Reuters/JILL GRALOW Caitlin Creak, PhD candidate from the School of Biological Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of New South Wales, holds an antenna as she searches for a male Sydney funnel-web spider with a telemetry tracker attached, in Sydney

Having grown up in Australia's bushland, the 27-year-old is no stranger to spiders, but her love for them grew after she learned about them during her biology degree, and interacted with the creatures she thinks are wonderful.

© Reuters/JILL GRALOW Caitlin Creak, PhD candidate from the School of Biological Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of New South Wales, holds a male Sydney funnel-web spider with a telemetry tracker attached, in a container, in Sydney

Most studies on the Sydney funnel-web spider are about its venom and taxonomy, but Creak's study focuses on its behaviour and ecology.

"The Sydney funnel-web has a human-lethal venom, which is just a bit of an evolutionary coincidence, as we suspect at this stage," she said. "That's kind of all we know about them to be honest. We don't actually really know anything else in terms of their behaviour, their biology or their ecology."

© Reuters/JILL GRALOW A male Sydney funnel-web spider with a telemetry tracker attached waits in a container to be released back into the bushland by Caitlin Creak, PhD candidate from the School of Biological Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of New South Wales

To be able to attach the tracker, the spider must first be knocked out with carbon dioxide, a standard practice for sedating invertebrates, Creak said.

As the spider dozes for a couple of minutes on a wet sponge that keeps it hydrated, Creak places a second sponge around its head to safely glue the small tracking device, slightly bigger than a grain of rice, to its fused head and thorax, called the cephalothorax.

Creak is extremely cautious when handling the spider, never touching them with her hands. Instead, she uses 30cm-long forceps and when awake, the spider is kept in a thick plastic container.

Weather permitting, Creak tracks the spider daily for as long as the trackers stay functional. They can sometimes become dislodged, and the tiny batteries last about a month.

"In the morning, I'll come back, and I'll be able to see how far he's gone overnight," said Creak. "Once they're used to having a tracker on, they're off. They can go, God, anywhere between a metre to 60 metres in a night, that I've recorded."

It is no easy task to track the arachnids. With a receiver and antenna, Creak must tread carefully over vegetation, logs and leaf litter. The telemetry tracker on the spider sends beeps to the receiver as Creaks gets close.

Australia has many species of funnel-webs but only the male Sydney funnel-web is responsible for human deaths. Only 13 deaths have been recorded but more than 30 people are bitten by the spider each year, according to the Australian Museum.

"We're with them all the time, we might as well try and coexist and to do that, we need to know more about them," Creak said of spiders during a recent tracking expedition.

(Reporting by Jill Gralow. Editing by Gerry Doyle and Karishma Singh)