A class action lawsuit filed by ticket-holders of the ill-fated Fyre Festival can go forward for now, a judge ruled, while also tossing the fraud claims against rapper and festival promoter Ja Rule.
Federal Judge Kevin Castel ruled that Ja Rule, real name Jeffrey Atkins, and the Fyre Festival's chief marketing officer, Grant Margolin, could not have known the festival was going to devolve into chaos when they were promoting it to wealthy attendees and social-media influencers. He gave plaintiffs three weeks to provide new evidence that Rule and Margolin were party to anything more than marketing "puffery."
Ja Rule was a regular presence in the months leading up to Fyre, alongside Billy MacFarland, the Fyre Festival organizer who is now serving a six-year fraud sentence. The two were captured on video in dueling documentaries on Netflix and Hulu boasting about the success of the 2017 concert in the Bahamas, even in the 24 hours leading up to it, when it became obvious to even casual observers that the festival was doomed.
Judge Castel wrote: "There is no assertion that the Festival when first conceived or introduced to the public was intended not to go forward or that defendants intended not to perform by organizing the advertised amenities and accommodation."
Ja Rule's freedom from legal entanglement with the Fyre Festival may help him as he embarks on his latest business endeavor: a music festival that he says he wants to be just like Fyre, only functional.
An independent watchdog within the IRS reports that while taxpayer services have vastly improved, the agency is still too slow to resolve identity theft cases. And National Taxpayer Advocate Erin Collins says those delays are “unconscionable.” Erin M. Collins said in the report released Wednesday that overall the 2024 filing season went smoothly, though IRS delays in resolving identity theft victim assistance cases are worsening. It took nearly 19 months to resolve self-reported identity theft cases as of January, and Wednesday's report states that now it takes 22 months to resolve these cases.
Amazon.com Inc. surpassed $2 trillion in market value for the first time in afternoon trading on Wednesday. The push higher for Amazon’s stock market valuation comes a little more than a week after Nvidia hit $3 trillion and briefly became the most valuable company on Wall Street. Nvidia’s chips are used to power many AI application and its valuation has soared as a result. Amazon has also been making big investments in AI as global interest has grown in the technology. Most of the company’s focus has been on business-focused products.
Climate change doesn’t just mean more extreme weather – it also leads to billions of dollars in lost productivity, tourism, and stresses infrastructure.
