robocalls

The building of the U.S. Supreme Court is pictured in Washington, D.C., U.S., January 19, 2020.

Trump’s Taxes, Birth Control, ‘Faithless Electors’ Headline Supreme Court’s Historic Phone Arguments

During historic telephonic arguments this week and next, the U.S. Supreme Court will take up major challenges involving access to President Donald Trump’s financial records, birth control health insurance, “faithless electors” in presidential elections and the constitutionality of the federal ban on robocalls, among others.

File photo. A 2018 poster for then-missing University of Iowa student Mollie Tibbetts hangs in the window of a local business in Brooklyn, Iowa. Regulators are proposing a nearly $13 million fine against Scott Rhodes, who they say illegally hid the origin of automated phone calls that used the slaying of Tibbetts, and election campaigns in other states to promote white nationalist and anti-Semitic messages. CREDIT: Charlie Neibergall / AP

Local News

FCC Proposes $13M Fine For Idaho White Supremacist Over Racist Robocalls

The Federal Communications Commission said in a news release Thursday that Scott Rhodes violated the Truth in Caller ID Act that bars the manipulation of caller ID information so calls appear to come from local numbers — a technique called “neighbor spoofing.

A deal was announced Thursday between 12 phone companies and 51 attorneys general to renew efforts to crack down on robocalls. John Raoux/AP

National News

Phone Companies Ink Deal With All 50 States And D.C. To Combat Robocalls

In the plan, service providers will provide technology to combat a practice known as spoofing to aid state attorneys general in locating and prosecuting the fraudulent robocallers.