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China’s Google is being told to stop ranking results based on the fees it charges

China’s internet regulator has ordered the country’s biggest search engine to change how it handles medical advertisements and stop ranking results largely by the fees it charges, as the government wrapped up an investigation prompted by the death of a student with cancer.

Baidu said it would make the necessary changes and establish a billion-yuan fund to compensate consumers who suffered from misleading adverts hosted on its site.

The paramilitary force’s ­hospital in Beijing, where the ­student received treatment, was found to have violated regulations on outsourcing some ­specialist departments, and to have made false claims in medical ­advertisements.

The inquiry came after a public outcry over the death of Wei Zexi, 21, who sought cancer treatment at the No 2 Beijing Armed Police Hospital, which topped his Baidu search. Wei and his family paid 200,000 yuan (HK$240,000) for the treatment but it did not save him. Doctors say the immunotherapy treatment he received is still in the experimental stage.

Health authorities, officials from the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) and the State Administration for Industry and Commerce launched the joint investigation into the search engine and the hospital last week.

The CAC found Baidu’s business model – which allows advertisers who pay a fee to be featured more prominently in search ­results – had affected Wei’s choice of treatment.

Baidu must go through all medical advertisements shown in its search results and remove those by medical institutions that had not been qualified by regulators, the CAC said.

The company must change its search result model, as the listings returned were determined by fees the companies paid, the authorities said.

It also required Baidu to provide distinctive labeling for sponsored search results, which should account for no more than 30 per cent of results displayed on a page.

Additionally, the company would need to establish a mechanism through which people who suffered losses from misleading adverts found on the site could claim compensation, it said.

The company said it would alter its search engine operations and advertisement rankings as suggested, and set up the compensation fund.

The national health commission and the military’s health bureaus ordered the hospital to terminate its partnership with the private Shanghai Claison Bio-tech, which provided the experimental cancer treatment.

The hospital should clean up similar outsourcing deals with other private contractors. The hospital and its private contractors must immediately stop advertising.

Read Full Article – http://www.businessinsider.com/chinas-google-is-being-ordered-to-change-its-results-ranking-2016-5

Study: There’s no scientific basis for laws regulating marijuana and driving

WASHINGTON (AP) — Six states that allow marijuana use legal tests to determine driving while impaired by the drug that have no scientific basis, according to a study by the nation’s largest automobile club that calls for scrapping those laws.

The study commissioned by AAA’s safety foundation said it’s not possible to set a blood-test threshold for THC, the chemical in marijuana that makes people high, that can reliably determine impairment.

Yet the laws in five of the six states automatically presume a driver guilty if that person tests higher than the limit, and not guilty if it’s lower.

As a result, drivers who are unsafe may be going free while others may be wrongly convicted, the foundation said.

The foundation recommends replacing the laws with ones that rely on specially trained police officers to determine if a driver is impaired, backed up by a test for the presence of THC rather than a specific threshold. The officers are supposed to screen for dozens of indicators of drug use, from pupil dilation and tongue color to behavior.

The foundation’s recommendation to scrap the laws in Colorado, Montana, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Washington comes as legislatures in several more states consider adopting similar laws.

At least three states, and possibly as many as eleven, will vote this fall on ballot measures to legalize marijuana for either recreational or medicinal use, or both. Several legislatures are also considering legalization bills.

“There is understandably a strong desire by both lawmakers and the public to create legal limits for marijuana impairment in the same manner we do alcohol,” said Marshall Doney, AAA’s president and CEO. “In the case of marijuana, this approach is flawed and not supported by scientific research.”

Determining whether someone is impaired by marijuana, as opposed to having simply used the drug at some time, is far more complex than the simple and reliable tests that have been developed for alcohol impairment.

There’s no science that shows drivers become impaired at a specific level of THC in the blood. A lot depends upon the individual. Drivers with relatively high levels of THC in their systems might not be impaired, especially if they are regular users, while others with relatively low levels may be unsafe behind the wheel.

Full Article – http://www.businessinsider.com/study-theres-no-scientific-basis-for-laws-regulating-marijuana-and-driving-2016-5

The Department of Justice is suing North Carolina over its same-sex bathroom law

The US Justice Department on Monday filed a complaint against North Carolina over its controversial transgender bathroom law, saying the law constituted a pattern and practice of discrimination and violated the Civil Rights Act.

The law, signed by Governor Pat McCrory in March, prevents local governments in North Carolina from passing nondiscrimination ordinances, and bans transgender people from using the bathroom that corresponds with their gender identity.

The state of North Carolina, McCrory, the state’s Department of Public Safety, and the University of North Carolina were named as defendants in the lawsuit.

According to a statement from the Justice Department, the law is in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, Title IX of the Education Acts Amendment of 1972, and the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act, all of which bar discrimination based on sex.

Speaking at a press conference, Attorney General Loretta Lynch called the law “impermissibly discriminatory,” and compared the struggle transgender Americans are facing to civil-rights battles against women and African-Americans.

“It was not so very long ago that states, including North Carolina, had signs above restrooms, water fountains and on public accommodations keeping people out based upon a distinction without a difference,” she said.

Lynch made it clear that the law puts North Carolina, and particularly the 17-school University of North Carolina system, at risk of losing federal funding. Some have estimated the potential losses in funding as high as $1.4 billion.

Earlier Monday, North Carolina sued the federal government for mandating the state abandon the law.

Mexican Mafia’s O.C. boss sentenced to 15 years in federal prison

Prosecutors say Peter “Sana” Ojeda, shown in an undated image, has been the Mexican Mafia’s Orange County leader for decades.

Peter “Sana” Ojeda, reputed godfather of the Mexican Mafia in Orange County, was sentenced Monday to 15 years in federal prison for federal racketeering charges.

United States District Judge James V. Selna said that Ojeda, despite being 74, still represented a “danger to the community,” according to the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles.

In January, Ojeda was convicted on one count each of racketeering and committing violent crimes to support a racketeering conspiracy.

The jury found that Ojeda was involved in the operation of Mexican Mafia activities in Orange County, which included conspiring to commit murder, extortion and narcotics trafficking.

The jury also found that Ojeda was involved in plots to kill other gang members as part of a turf war. That plotting occurred while Ojeda was in prison, prosecutors argued.

Ojeda — who is also known as “Sana” and “The Big Homie” — has been in federal custody since he was indicted in a prior racketeering case in 2005.

“Ojeda is a career criminal and a Mexican Mafia leader, which means he is intimately familiar with the violence, drug trafficking and extortion that fuels this criminal organization,” U.S. Atty. Eileen M. Decker said.

“Prior criminal cases against Mr. Ojeda have not had any deterrent effect, but today’s sentence makes it unlikely that Mr. Ojeda will ever be able to walk freely on the streets where his criminal organization has caused so much harm,” Decker said.

The trial, which began in November, offered an inside look into the clandestine organization that wields power within the prison system and among Latino gangs.

Ojeda ordered Latino street gangs in Orange County to pay “taxes” that consisted of a portion of proceeds gangs earned from criminal activities, including drug trafficking, according to the attorney’s office. In return, gang members could exert influence over their neighborhoods and territories and seek protection from the Mexican Mafia.

Suzie Rodriguez, the 53-year-old girlfriend of Ojeda, was also found guilty in the conspiracies for acting as a messenger between Ojeda and local gang leaders during his stay in a Pennsylvania federal prison. Rodriguez is scheduled for sentencing June 6.

In 2006, Ojeda was convicted on racketeering charges as well.

Full Article – http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-mexican-mafia-oc-boss-sentenced-15-years-20160509-story.html