TIKTOK USERS SUE MONTANA: HYUNDAI, KIA TO PAY OVER AUTO THEFTS:
A court battle over First Amendment rights kicked off in Montana on Thursday after a group of TikTok users challenged the state’s new TikTok ban, which is set to take effect Jan. 1 and is the first of its kind in the nation. The TikTok users said in a lawsuit that the law violated their First Amendment rights and claimed that the ban, which Gov. Greg Gianforte signed Wednesday, far outstripped Montana’s legal authority as a state. The lawsuit was filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court but was added to a public court records system Thursday.
Hyundai and Kia have agreed to pay up to about $200 million combined to settle a classaction lawsuit over a manufacturing defect that made it so easy to steal certain vehicles that teenagers were challenging each other to do it on social media. Both companies, as well as attorneys for the plaintiffs, said Thursday that they had agreed on the proposed settlement amount, which still must be approved by the court. In a joint statement, the car manufacturers said the proposed agreement “could be valued at approximately $200 million depending on how many customers elect to participate.” Kia and Hyundai failed to equip certain models manufactured from 2011 to 2022 with immobilizers, an anti-theft device that prevents cars from being started unless it receives a signal from the correct key, according to the lawsuit, which was litigated in federal court in the Southern District of California.
WHAT’S NEXT FOR THE FEDERAL RESERVE?:
The stubbornness of high inflation is dividing the Federal Reserve over how to manage interest rates in the coming months, leaving the outlook for the Fed’s policies cloudier than at any time since it unleashed a streak of 10 straight rate hikes in March 2022. Many Fed watchers have expected the officials to forgo another increase in their benchmark rate when they next meet in midJune. Yet recent warnings from several of them about the continuing inflation threat suggest that that outcome is far from certain. On Thursday, Lorie Logan of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas said she believes that the economic data so far doesn’t support a pause in the central bank’s rate hikes next month.