GisermanGroup.com #BreakingNews

💭Lots of Hot Air from Politicians after #Chinese #Spy #Balloon Shot Down

👍HELP WANTED, Stocks Have Winning Week, Experts Wrong Again

🎢#SuperBowl, Super Ticket Prices

🏠#Housing: Cinderella Story of Year

🚨#GeorgeSantos Saga

🎼#Beyonce Sets Grammy Record

💭Hot Air After Chinese Spy Balloon Shot Down

Lots of hot air from politicians after U.S. Fighter Jets shot down a Chinese spy balloon over the Atlantic off SouthCarolina.

The balloon, which spent five days traveling in a diagonal southeast route from Idaho to the Carolinas, had moved off the coast by midday Saturday and was over the Atlantic Ocean.

The Chinese government says President Biden’s decision to shoot down the spy balloon was an “excessive reaction” and that it “retains the right to respond further.”

Biden and his speechwriters expected to rewrite the China sections of his Tuesday State of the Union Address in wake of this incident.

Late Word: during Donald Trump’s administration three similar balloons flew over the U.S, and no action was taken by the military, as Republicans criticize the Biden administration for not acting quicker to shoot down the balloon.

The Federal Aviation Administration had paused departures and arrivals at airports in Wilmington, N.C., and in Myrtle Beach and Charleston in South Carolina, which the agency said was meant to “support the Department of Defense in a national security effort.”

President Biden said the Pentagon did not want to injure anyone on the ground when shooting down the balloon. “They decided that the best time to do that was when it got over water within our 12-mile limit," the president said. "They successfully took it down and I want to compliment our aviators.”

Meantine, the Pentagon confirmed that a 2nd Chinese spy balloon is “transiting Latin America.”

Sec­re­tary of State Antony Blinken has cancelled a trip to Bei­jing af­ter de­ter­min­ing “that U.S. sov­er­eignty was vi­o­lated by the re­connais­sance bal­loon loi­tering above the con­ti­nen­tal U.S.”, according to the State De­partment.

🏈Super Bowl Super Ticket Prices

After reading this you’ll feel pretty good about those plans to sit at home to watch the Super Bowl Here’s how much it will cost to go see it in person:

NFL on Location

There are a variety of different packages here, ranging from $5,525 all the way up to $18,275, and that doesn’t include a $1,989 “service fee.” This includes some “Touchdown Club” hospitality for even the least expensive seats, but the cheap ones are in Section 453 as of now, which is the upper corner of the stadium by the scoreboard.

Ticketmaster

So you might see the cheapest ticket at a mere $4,700 on Ticketmaster and think that’s a bargain! But one small problem; the $1,081 in “service fee” ... per seat!! This kind of bait and fee is something the Biden Administration is looking into for now. What I’d love to know is what the $2.95 “order processing fee” covers that the service fee of 350 times as much doesn’t.

SeatGeek

Make sure to click that “include fees” option as well, as it will take the least-expensive ducats from $4,653 each to $6,169 per. They’re happy to give you a 50-yard line slot 10 rows up for a mere $30,469, fees included.

StubHub

On StubHub we found a pair for $4,698, but you’ll need another $844 per as well as a “service fee.” And fine, but then the $2 fulfillment fee (per ticket!) is the real insult. Why are we paying you to fulfill your only job?

TickPick

If you want to avoid fees, TickPick offers just one price with everything included. Their tickets as of now start at $5,779, but it’s likely that market will ebb and flow plenty right up until kickoff. But as of now it does seem to be the best price available.

👍HELP WANTED, Stocks Have Winning Week, Experts Wrong Again

Jobs numbers soar to 517,000 in January about four-times more than expected ans unemployment dipped to 3.4%, lowest since 1969!

Stocks have a winning week: S&P 500 up more than 1% for the week week. The Nasdaq gained more than 3% as it rode a tech-fueled rally to outperform the other major indexes. The Dow was down 0.3% .

Apple’s holiday sales fell more than expected. Amazon’s core business in North America lost money for the fifth straight quarter. And Alphabet, Google’s parent, suffered from the advertising slump.

Shares of Facebook’s parent company Meta up close to 25% after the company reported fourth-quarter revenue topping estimates and announcing a $40-billion stock buyback.

The S&P 500 posted its best January since 2019, the Nasdaq had its strongest January since 2001.

All of the major averages are up for the year.

Nobody predicted this!

Re­pub­licans are back­ing away from pro­pos­als to re­duce spend­ing on So­cial Se­curity and Medicare as they en­ter talks with De­mocrats over rais­ing the na­tion’s debt limit.

Be Prepared for The Unexpected

Exiger CEO Brandon Daniels, a GisermanGroup client, tells FBN "Further interest rate hikes could still move us into a recession”:

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🏠#Housing: Cinderella Story of 2023

The average rate on the 30-year fixed rate mortgage has fallen to 5.99%, New Home Sales up 2.3% in December.

Time to Buy That House?

SitusAMC’s Tim Rood, former FannieMae Executive, and a GisermanGroup client, on Yahoo Finance, FBN's Cavuto and on Scripps News says Housing is the Cinderella Story of the Year:

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#GeorgeSantos Won’t Serve on Congressional Committees

Embattled Congressman George San­tos told his Re­pub­li­can col­leagues he would re­cuse him­self from serv­ing on Congressional committees until issues swirling around him are resolved. According to a new survey of his district, 78% of voters want Santos to resign.

Santos is facing an ethics investigation for misleading voters about his past, including his professional experience. He is also facing investigations into false statements he made during his campaign about his education, work history and ancestry. More questions arose recently regarding the source of six-figure loans to his campaign.

A disabled veteran claims that Santos lied about large portions of his resume — purportedly bilked him out of $3,000 meant to go toward life-saving care for his dog.

Santos reportedly dressed as a drag queen named “Kitara” while living in Brazil more than a decade ago as more details of the congressman’s convoluted identity continue to emerge.

Researchers found no evidence that Santos had earned degrees at Baruch College and New York University, as he has claimed. They turned up records showing his involvement with the company accused of a Ponzi scheme — a relationship he had played down. They found eviction records, business records and a suspended Florida driver’s license, which together raised questions about whether he was a legal New York resident and as rich as he claimed to be.

The House Republican leadership is facing growing pressure to punish Santos after GOP leaders in New York call on the congressman to step down.

It’s a trying time for all of us.

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👍👎🏿He’s Back: #Facebook Reinstates #Trump

Face­book says it is re­in­stating Don­ald Trump‘s ac­count, more than two years af­ter it was sus­pended following the January 6th Capi­tol riot. Trump was earlier reinstated to Twitter, but he’s yet to write on that platform, preferring to keep to his own Truth Social.

“Meta (Facebook’s parent company) is moving backwards,” said Free Press co-CEO Jessica González, “returning us to a time when Donald Trump used the company’s powerful tools to spread lies and dangerous rhetoric, and incite violence targeted at disenfranchised communities and his ideological enemies.”

A report published by the watchdog group Accountable Tech found that Trump has written more than 200 posts on Truth Social containing "harmful disinformation" since he was banished from Facebook, claiming the election was stolen.

🎼Beyoncé Makes Grammy History

Beyonce has become the most awarded artist in Grammys history after receiving four more awards on Sunday. Despite winning a record 32 Grammys in her career, she has never won album of the year or record of the year, which went to Harry Styles and Lizzo, respectively. The record for most Grammy wins was previously held by classical music figure Georg Solti.

🎶Taylor Swift Unites Dems & GOP

It took Taylor Swift to unite Senate Democrats and Republicans.

Ticketmaster and Live Nation Entertainment, the concert industry giant that owns it, came under attack during a Senate hearing with committee members from both parties criticizing it for the botched sale of tickets to Taylor Swift’s latest tour and calling the company a monopoly that hinders competition and harms consumers.

Over nearly three hours, senators took verbal swings at Live Nation executive,Joe Berchtold over the handling of Swift’s tickets last November and over longstanding allegations that the company badgers its competitors to win new business.

Some at the hearing went so far as to question whether the two companies, whose agreement with the Justice Department expires in 2025, should be broken up.

And speaking of musical high notes: Justin Bieber has sold his music catalog, reportedly at a $200 million valuation, to an intellectual-property investment venture.

📝Now It’s Mike Pence with Classified Docs

Aides to former Vice President Mike Pence found a number of documents with classified markings at his home in Indiana.

Aides say the documents were “inadvertently boxed and transported” to Pence’s home at the end of the Trump’s administration.

Both President Biden and Donald Trump being investigated by special counsels

The DOJ searched Biden’s Wilmington home on Friday and discovered 6 more classified documents, which they took possession of. Some of the documents were from Biden’s time in the Senate, others from his time as VP.

It comes after Biden’s aides earlier found pages of classified information at his Delaware home. The President is now facing a special counsel investigation after Obama-era classified files were found at his private office in Washington and his home in Delaware. Former US attorney Robert Hur will lead the probe into the handling of the documents from when Biden was vice president. .

Jack Smith, the special counsel appointed to investigate Donald Trump, was already working 12-hour days before moving from his home in The Hague to Washington for a new job and an uncertain future. The actions Smith has taken since he began in November suggest a prosecutor on the move to resolve concurrent investigations into Trump’s retention of government documents and his actions during the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol

Democrats and Republicans charging each other with having double-standard

But remember: Trump and his aides resisted the government’s repeated efforts to retrieve many of the documents. Biden’s lawyers reported the problem, and the White House says it has fully cooperated.

🚨Spotify Google, Microsoft, Amazon Job Cuts

Spo­tify is the latest tech company to announce cuts to its work­force by about 6%.

Google par­ent Al­pha­bet plans to elim­i­nate 12,000 jobs, re­duc­ing its staff by 6% and mark­ing the com­pany’s largest-ever round of lay­offs as it copes with a dark­ened eco­nomic out­look.

Microsoft says it will lay off 10,000 workers by the middle of the summer as the tech giant looks to cut costs in the face of growing economic uncertainty.

The announcement came on the same day that Amazon began cutting 18,000 jobs from its payroll.

Scotch Tape maker 3M is cut­ting 2,500 man­u­fac­tur­ing jobs glob­ally as the com­pany con­fronts weak­en­ing con­sumer de­mand.

PayPal announced plans to lay off 2,000 employees, or around 7% of its workforce, according to a release posted to the company’s website.

And reports are Twitter will cut another 50 employees from its product organization, as more tech companies slim down.

More than 1,000 tech companies laid off nearly 160,000 workers last year, according to Layoffs.fyi, which is tracking job cuts across the industry, and another 185 companies have cut some 57,000 tech workers since the start of this year.

📺Out at ABC

T.J. Holmes and Amy Robach are both out at ABC ... according to TMZ.

Sources are quoted saying that after a marathon mediation session Thursday, ABC and the 2 'GMA3' anchors have severed ties, and both will receive payouts per their contracts.

👾ChatBots: People Vs Machines

It sounds like science-fiction, but it’s real: machines that seem to think like humans.

College professors are having to change the way they teach — thanks to A.I. chatbots, which some students are using for essays. In response to the use of new tech to cheat the system, teachers are asking students to compose first drafts inside classrooms, as well as using more oral exams to test, while being on the lookout for essays that are "eerily articulate."

Watch out these machines will only get smarter. Google, Microsoft and many others are working to incorporate this technology into search-engines and more.

Oh yea, you can buy ChatBot’s parent company for a mere $28 Billion!!

💻U.S. TikTok Ban: China Tries To Stop It

A Democratic lawmaker calls on Apple and Google to remove TikTok from their app stores. Senator Michael Bennet of Colorado became the first member of Congress to urge an immediate ban of the Chinese-owned video app from leading smartphone platforms, calling TikTok “an unacceptable threat to the national security of the United States.”

Major universities and governments across the U.S. are banning TikTok use on their internet systems. Now, China - which owns the popular social network has reportedly proposed having an independent, third-party monitor check the app’s algorithms to determine if the Chinese government is spying on YOU.

Exiger’s Bob Kolasky, former Cybersecurity Official at the Department of Homeland Security and a GisermanGroup client, has been warning for years that, “You and especially Your Business need to protect key data now from TikTok, the Chinese Government and others who desperately want to get their hands on it.” 

Kolasky, on Cheddar also warns of Russia hacking U.S. companies:

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🔫More Mass Shooting Deaths

The 72-year old man suspected of killing 11 people in a shooting barrage amid Lunar New Year festivities in Southern California shot himself to death in his van as law enforcement agents approached Sunday, authorities said.

Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna identified the man as Huu Can Tran, 72, during a news conference Sunday. Luna said Tran's white van was spotted in Torrance, about 22 miles from the site of Saturday's attack at a Monterey Park dance studio.

The shooting occurred on West Garvey Avenue in Monterey Park at 10:22 p.m., around the area where the city hosted the first night of its annual Lunar New Year Celebration.

Officials revealed 10 others were injured in the shooting and transported to local hospitals from stable to critical condition.

Also in California 7 people were fatally shot at a farm and another business in Half Moon Bay Monday — and a suspect later turned himself in to authorities.

The victims were killed in the shootings at Mountain Mushroom Farm and Rice Trucking-Soil Farm, a landscaping supply company, in the small city along the coast.

Meantime: 2 students were killed Monday and an adult employee was injured in what police said was a targeted shooting at a Des Moines school that is dedicated to helping at-risk youth, and three suspects were arrested afterward. The shooting was at an educational program called Starts Right Here..

🔫Alec Baldwin Charged in Movie Shooting Death

Alec Baldwin and the armorer on the set of “Rust” will be charged with involuntary manslaughter in the death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins in October 2021.

Baldwin fired the shot that killed Hutchins while preparing to film a scene in the church building of the Bonanza Creek Ranch near Santa Fe, N.M. The armorer, Hannah Gutierrez Reed, loaded the weapon.

🎢#KevinMcCarthy: Gridlock Ahead

The U.S. has hit a congressionally imposed borrowing limit.

The milestone is the product of decades of tax cuts and increased government spending by both Republicans and Democrats. But at a moment of heightened partisanship and divided government, it is also a warning of the entrenched partisan battles that are set to dominate Washington in the months to come, and that could end in economic shock.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is employing “extraordinary measures” to continue paying the nation’s bills this month if lawmakers do not act to raise the statutory debt limit and that her powers to delay a default could be exhausted by early June. Yellen’s letter to Congress was the first sign that resistance by House Republicans to lifting the borrowing cap could put the U.S. economy at risk and signals the beginning of an intense fight in Washington this year over spending and deficits.

It took 15 ballots for Kevin McCarthy to become Speaker of the House, and countless deals.

McCarthy made many deals with Maga-Republicans in order to gervhis opponents votes. McCarthy agreed to allow a single lawmaker to force a snap vote at any time to oust him as speaker, a rule that he had previously refused to accept, regarding it as tantamount to signing the death warrant for his speakership in advance.

This and other concessions could lead to gridlock between the GOP-controlled House and Democrat-run Senate and White House.

The drama even included Rep. Richard Hudson, R-NC, pulling back Rep. Mike Rogers, R-AL, as the battle to get Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-FL on board the McCarthy train turned into a near-brawl on the House floor.

The House hasn’t had this many failed votes to decide on a speaker since before the Civil War. This year’s vote was the first time in 100 years that a speaker didn’t win on the first ballot.

It’s a sign of what’s ahead on important measures such as funding the government and budget bills. .

Democrats are loving the circus for now.

😷China Admits 60K Covid Deaths

China could suffer 36,000 Covid deaths a day, during the Lunar New Year holiday.

Beijing has made a significant revision of its official death toll in the latest outbreak of the coronavirus — to nearly 60,000 deaths from just 37.

China has been widely accused of underreporting coronavirus deaths, despite evidence of hospitals and crematoriums being overrun.

According to officials, China recorded 59,938 Covid-related deaths between 8 December and 12 January.

The real death count is likely higher.

🕕FTX Drama Leads to Crypto Collapse

The fallout from the collapse of FTX is expanding as a growing number of crypto businesses report that they’re struggling financially.Silvergate’s shares plunged after a run on the bank. The crypto-focused bank’s stock fell nearly 43%. Coinbase, a cryptocurrency trading platform, said it would lay off about 20% of its employees, its latest move to cut costs as crypto markets decline. The layoffs come after nearly a fifth of employees were let go in June.

Federal authorities are moving to seize hundreds of millions of dollars in assets in the U.S. tied to the bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX, a sign that the battle over control of the company’s remaining funds is escalating.

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried pleaded not guilty to fraud and other criminal charges, in New York Federal Court following the collapse of his cryptocurrency exchange. His trial is scheduled for October.

Politicians were among the biggest benefactors. Bankman-Fried; Ryan Salame, the former co-C.E.O. of FTX; and Nishad Singh, a former head of engineering at the company, have donated a total of $84.3 million to Democrats, Republicans and political action committees since 2019, according to data collected by OpenSecrets.org.

Meantime, a lawsuit has been filed against stars who promoted the firm including Larry David, Tom Brady, and Stephen Curry.

Exiger’s Samar Pratt on FinTechTV explains how Crypto had just gained a foothold at BNY Mellon before this meltdown:

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Get The Notice You Deserve in 2023

It’s a trying time for all of us.

>>Get your business noticed now<<

GisermanGroup.com will design a campaign to get you and your business in front of the public.

GisermanGroup.com gets YOU noticed, contact us now

👑Crowning Ratings

Prince Harry’s Sunday 60 Minutes interview with Anderson Cooper brought in a season-high audience for the CBS newsmagazine, drawing 11.2 million total viewers, according to Nielsen’s time-zone adjusted Live + Same Day data. That audience count is up from the 10.52 million viewers reported Monday for the Prince Harry-Anderson Cooper sitdown, per the earliest available Nielsen data. That initial number alone was up 16% from the 60 Minutesseason average viewership to-date and made the episode the third-most watched of the season.

💊Weight Loss Wonder Drug Worth Billions

What price beauty?

An Eli Lilly drug if approved for weight loss could become the best-selling drug of all time.

Experts are confident that the drug, called tirzepatide, will be granted approval by the Food and Drug Administration sometime this year.  If that’s the case, it would join two other popular — and expensive — recently approved weight loss drugs on the market, Wegovy and Saxenda, both from the drugmaker Novo Nordisk.

The drugs have been shown in clinical trials to be highly effective for weight loss. All three drugs — which are given as injections — work in a similar way: They’re a class of drugs called GLP-1 agonists, which mimic a hormone that helps reduce food intake and appetite.

Oh yea it would cost you $13,000 a year (and most insurances won’t pay)!

😷Another Year Another Covid Warning

A new version of omicron has taken hold in the U.S., according to the most recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The subvariant of omicron, named XBB.1.5, has raised concerns about another potential wave of Covid cases following the busy holiday travel season. 

The CDC projects about 40% of confirmed Covid cases are caused by the XBB.1.5 strain, up from 20% a week ago. In the Northeast, about 75% of confirmed cases are reported to be XBB.1.5. 

There’s a lot that’s still unknown about the latest subvariant, including whether it’s more contagious than other forms of omicron.

🚨Trump Prosecution - Will Justice Dept Act?

Donald Trump and his wife, Melania, paid $750 or less in federal income tax in 2016 and 2017. The couple paid zero taxes in 2020 and claimed a $5.5-million refund, according to the returns released by the House Ways and Means Committee, which oversees tax legislation.

In three other years, Trump paid significant amounts. As a share of his income, however, his payments were far below those of the average taxpayer. The returns show he paid $641,931 in 2015, just under $1 million in 2018 and $133,445 in 2019.

Meantime the former President been accused of insurrection, conspiracy to defraud the United States and obstruction of an act of congress by the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol as it referred him to the Justice Department for potential prosecution. His tax returns have just been releases as well

The action, the first time in American history that Congress has referred a former president for criminal prosecution, for his efforts to overturn the 2020 election that culminated in a violent mob of the former president’s supporters laying siege to the Capitol.

The key question: Will the Justice Department follow up and bring charges?

Trump's business has been convicted of criminal tax fraud. A New York jury finding the Trump Organization engaged in an off-the-books compensation scheme to pay some executives in car leases, apartments and cash.

Trump and his family were not personally charged in this case, but the former president was mentioned repeatedly during the trial by prosecutors about his connection to the benefits doled out to executives.

The maximum penalty is $1.62 million, a rounding error for Trump.

Musk Looking for New Twitter CEO

Elon Musk @elonmusk

I will resign as CEO as soon as I find someone foolish enough to take the job! After that, I will just run the software & servers teams.

Elon Musk says he’s searching for a CEO to run Twit­ter. It follows his poll ask­ing users whether he should step down as head of the so­cial-me­dia plat­form showing they want him to go.

Elon Musk @elonmusk

Should I step down as head of Twitter? I will abide by the results of this poll.

More than 17 mil­lion users had voted by the time the poll closed af­ter 6 a.m. ET, with 57.5% say­ing he should leave as head of the com­pany he bought in Oc­to­ber for $44 bil­lion. Mr. Musk had said when he launched the Twit­ter poll that he would abide by the re­sults.

Musk has reinstated the journalists he banned from Twitter saying he allowed the users back on the platform based on the results of a 24-hour Twitter survey that he posted Thursday night where he asked if the accounts should be reinstated immediately or in seven days. More than 58% of voters urged him to unsuspend the journalists “now.”

Musk without warning or explanation Friday banned the accounts of several high-profile journalists including: The New York Times' Ryan Mac, The Washington Post's Drew Harwell., CNN's Donnie O'Sullivan, Progressive journalist Aaron Rupar and pundit Keith Olbermann.

Musk earlier reinstated Donald Trump’ Twitter account three weeks after acquiring the social media company for $44 billion and shortly after millions of accounts voted in favor (52% of more than 15 million total votes) of the decision through a poll Musk posted Friday night. Twitter previously suspended Trump's account two days after the January 6th insurrection at the Capitol, in what it said was a response to the "risk of further incitement of violence." Trump has yet to Tweet.

Meantime, Tesla's sell-off intensified on Tuesday, with the stock closing down 11%. Musk's electric car company is days away from closing out its worst month, quarter and year on record and has moved past Meta to become the worst-performing stock in 2022 among the most valuable tech companies.

💸Trump’s AntiSemitism

Jewish Republicans are finally distancing themselves from Trump after his dinner with Kanye West, who has been denounced for making antisemitic statements, and with Nick Fuentes, an outspoken antisemite and Holocaust denier. Twit­ter has again suspended West’s ac­count af­ter he posted a swastika in a tweet.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell saying that anyone who thinks the Constitution can be suspended will have a “very hard time” becoming president.

Has anyone heard from Ivanka or Jarred Kushner?

And Get This: two more documents marked as classified have been found during a search of a Trump storage locker. A source familiar with the situation is quoted as saying it contained a wide array of items, including bizarrely wrestling belts!

🚨Domestic Terror Alert

Warning to Jews, the LGBTQ community and migrants over violent extremists inside the U.S. from, the Department of Homeland Security.

Americans motivated by violent ideologies pose a “persistent and lethal threat,” a senior DHS official told reporters. Intelligence officials across the federal government have consistently highlighted the growing threat of American extremists in recent years, while explaining that foreign threats such as the Islamic State terrorist group and Al Qaeda are no longer as persistent as they once were.

Col­lege cam­puses have long hosted heated de­bates about the Is­rael-Pales­tin­ian con­flict. But now, stu­dents say anti-Jew­ish an­tag­o­nism is on the rise: An­ti­semitic in­ci­dents have in­creased, and a grow­ing num­ber of cam­pus groups bar stu­dents who sup­port Is­rael from speak­ing or join­ing.

President Biden @POTUS

I just want to make a few things clear: The Holocaust happened. Hitler was a demonic figure. And instead of giving it a platform, our political leaders should be calling out and rejecting antisemitism wherever it hides. Silence is complicity.

Widespread power outages caused by vandalism of electrical substations in Central North Carolina blamed on Anti-LGBTQ terror. Electricity shutoff to 450,000 homes and businesses. The outages are the result of intentional damage by firearms to two substations in the county, according to Moore County and Duke Energy officials. A curfew is in effect.

💻They Want Your Password

Warning-New Scams to steal your passwords.

If you've had a password hacked recently, you aren't alone. The volume of password attacks has soared to an estimated 921 attacks every second. That's a 74% rise in one year, according to the latest Microsoft Digital Defense Report.

Exiger's Robert Kolasky with more on Bloomberg & CBS:

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🎶Chorus Against Ticketmaster

The chorus against Ticketmaster’s contentious concert pricing practices is growing, numbering among them Zach Bryan and friends.

The country music artist dropped a live album, “All My Homies Hate Ticketmaster,” on Sunday. With it came a statement posted to social media in which he decried “a massive issue with fair ticket prices to live shows lately.”

Ticketmaster has faced a slew of bad press and scrutiny in recent weeks, notably around the botched rollout of tickets for superstar Taylor Swift’s upcoming Eras Tour.

A presale event in mid-November crashed the site and left many fans without tickets; the planned general sale for the stadium tour was subsequently scrapped because the dominant ticketing giant had run out of tickets. The debacle has even led several state attorneys general to open investigations.