U.S. sues Southwest, fines Frontier

The Transportation Department is stepping up enforcement of persistent flight delays with a lawsuit against Southwest Airlines and a fine against Frontier Airlines.

The agency said the U.S. District Court lawsuit it filed in California on Wednesday alleges that Southwest illegally operated chronically delayed flights and disrupted passengers’ travel plans. It says it’s seeking “maximum civil penalties.”

“Airlines have a legal obligation to ensure that their flight schedules provide travelers with realistic departure and arrival times,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in a statement.

The Transportation Department said its investigation found that Dallas-based Southwest operated two chronically delayed flights — one between Chicago Midway International Airport and Oakland, California, and another between Baltimore, Maryland and Cleveland, Ohio.

The department fined Frontier Airlines $650,000 in civil penalties, with $325,000 to be paid to the U.S. Treasury.

Newspapers ask judge to reject openAI lawsuit challenges

Lawyers for newspapers and media groups nationwide on Tuesday asked a Manhattan judge to reject an effort by OpenAI and Microsoft to dismiss parts of their lawsuits accusing the tech giants of stealing reporters’ stories to train their AI products.

The New York Daily News, its affiliated newspapers in Media News Group and Tribune Publishing, the New York Times and the Center for Investigative Reporting all have accused OpenAI and Microsoft of pilfering millions of their copyrighted news stories — without consent, credit or compensation — to fuel lucrative AI products exploding in popularity like ChatGPT and Copilot.

Microsoft and OpenAI don’t deny they depend on copyrighted material, but say it’s their right under the fair use doctrine and that their products are “a powerful tool for human flourishing.”

Within their motions to dismiss portions of the case — the topic of Tuesday’s hearing — Microsoft and OpenAI did not challenge core portions of the case, ensuring the copyright infringement claims at the heart of the case can go forward.

The motions, respectively, argue that the newspapers failed to cite examples of infringement, provide evidence that the tech companies knowingly contributed to it, and didn’t file suit within the statute of limitations, among other arguments. The cases were filed separately and have been consolidated into one case.

Stocks up on inflation data, bank profits

U.S. stocks ripped higher Wednesday following a shot of adrenaline from an encouraging update on U.S. inflation. Strong profit reports from Wells Fargo and other big U.S. banks also helped launch indexes to their best day in two months.

Treasury yields also eased in the bond market following the update on how much more U.S. households had to pay in December for eggs, gasoline, housing and other costs of living. The report said overall inflation accelerated to 2.9% from 2.7% in November.

While no one wants higher inflation, the numbers were more encouraging underneath the surface. After ignoring prices for food and energy, which can zigzag sharply from month to month, underlying inflation trends slowed to 3.2% in December. Economists had thought it would remain at 3.3% for a fourth straight month, according to FactSet.

Compiled from Associated Press and New York Daily News reports.