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WASHINGTON (AP) — A proposed law meant to encourage companies to share information about cyberthreats with the U.S. government includes measures that could significantly limit what details, if any, the public can review about the program through federal and state public records laws.

The legislation — already passed in both houses of Congress but not yet finalized — would keep secret any information a company hands over to the Obama administration under a new cybersecurity agreement, including specifics the firms decide themselves shouldn’t be disclosed. It’s not clear whether that secrecy would extend to learning whether particular companies are even participating.

The cyber agreement passed with bipartisan support, despite privacy concerns over Senate language from some lawmakers and technology companies, including Apple Inc. and Dropbox Inc. It’s the culmination of a roughly six-year effort made possible by recent additions of antitrust and consumer-liability protections for the companies’ participation.

Transparency advocates said the new law would provide excessive cover to tech companies through new restrictions to the U.S. Freedom of Information Act, which also supersedes state and tribal open-records laws. That could shield all sorts of information about what the government is — or isn’t — doing to protect Americans who are increasingly victimized by cybercriminals.

“There should be an element of public debate,” said Rick Blum, director of the Washington-based Sunshine in Government Initiative. “Oftentimes, public disclosure and accountability motivates people to be doing more and to be making the right choices.”

Under the federal records law, requesters can obtain government information unless disclosure would hurt national security, violate personal privacy or expose business secrets or certain confidential decision-making. Critical-infrastructure information is also excluded, but the new law explicitly allows additional exemptions for “cyberthreat indicators” and “defensive measures” shared by companies. Those terms aren’t well defined, so there is more leeway to interpret what could be kept secret.

Federal agencies are encouraged to apply discretion in balancing some protections against what can be revealed, but no such discretion would be allowed under the proposed bills. Requesters may have to file a lawsuit in federal court to resolve disputes.

Congress has yet to work out differences between the House and Senate bills before any legislation would ultimately go to President Barack Obama, who early in his administration pledged greater transparency. The White House supports the new exemptions.

The Senate bill passed last month was co-sponsored by Republican Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina, who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee, and California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the top Democrat on the panel.

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Follow Tami Abdollah on Twitter at https://twitter.com/latams

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CLEMSON, S.C. (AP) — Dabo Swinney says there pizza party he promised will be held at Clemson on Sunday — whether the Tigers win or lose the Atlantic Coast Conference game on Saturday night.

The Tigers coach said Tuesday his top-ranked team “deserves a celebration” for what they’ve already accomplished. Clemson is 12-0 for the first time in 34 years. Should the Tigers defeat No. 8 North Carolina (11-1) in Charlotte, North Carolina, the Tigers are headed to the College Football Playoff.

A loss would still get them into one of the New Year’s six bowl games, which Swinney says is a stellar accomplishment.

Swinney told fans to look for an early Sunday morning announcement. The playoff teams will be named at noon Sunday with the rest of the bowl slots revealed Sunday afternoon.

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Economists are stressing that the manufacturing recession is not bad news for the entire US economy.

On Tuesday, the two headline data points on American manufacturing showed that the sector is still in recession.

The Institute of Supply Management’s manufacturing index for November slipped into contraction for the first time since mid-2009. At 48.6, it fell short of the expectation for 50.5.

And, Markit’s manufacturing purchasing manager’s index was 52.8, the lowest level in two years. 

Manufacturers said new business growth slowed down, as the strong dollar, a decline in energy-industry investment, and weak global demand continued to hammer their industries. 

But following this ugly data, economists were quick to highlight that manufacturing makes up a small part of the economy. 

In a note to clients, Capital Economics’ Steve Murphy wrote, “While the decline in the ISM manufacturing index to 48.6 in November, from 50.1, left it at the lowest level since the recession ended in mid-2009, it doesn’t mean that the economy is headed for another collapse.“

He pointed out that manufacturing accounts for only 12% of the US economy, and the other 88% is performing well. And when the FOMC meets later this month to decide whether to raise rates, it would weight what’s happening in manufacturing accordingly. 

“This is beginning to look very much like a repeat of the second half of the 1990s,” Murphy recalled, “when a sharp rise in the dollar also pushed the ISM manufacturing index well below the 50 mark on more than one occasion, yet headline GDP growth remained unusually strong.”

Then, the manufacturing index fell to as low as 46, while GDP growth surpassed 4%. 

Amid a barrage of client inquiries about the data, Deutsche Bank’s Torsten Sløk sent a note stressing that the much larger service sector should withstand the weakness in manufacturing, and is in fact, doing just fine.

But the real test for the Fed, Sløk wrote, comes later this week, when the jobs report and nonmanufacturing ISM data are released. 

Here’s Sløk’s chart showing the divergence between manufacturing and services:

SEE ALSO: The most creative thing central banks have done since the financial crisis has had ‘unspectacular’ results

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ATLANTA (AP) — The latest on the gun battle involving police in downtown Atlanta that left one man dead (all times local):

12:20 p.m.

Atlanta police say three of the department’s officers fired their weapons during a shootout with a gunman in downtown Atlanta on Monday evening.

Atlanta police Maj. Adam Lee III says an officer was patrolling downtown shortly before 8 p.m. Monday when a Jeep was spotted driving the wrong way. When the officer attempted to stop the Jeep, it sped up, struck a shuttle bus and then a pole.

Police say at least two men were in the Jeep. Police say the driver was arrested, but the passenger ran behind the Aloft Downtown Atlanta hotel with a gun, exchanged fire with officers and was shot multiple times.

Mark Guilbeau, an investigator with the Fulton County Medical Examiner’s Office, identified the dead man as 18-year-old Darius Smith of Greer, South Carolina.

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10:45 a.m.

Authorities say a man killed in a gunfight with police officers in a busy downtown area of Atlanta was from South Carolina.

Mark Guilbeau, an investigator with the Fulton County Medical Examiner’s Office, identified him as 18-year-old Darius Smith of Greer, South Carolina.

Atlanta police Maj. Adam Lee III says an officer was patrolling downtown shortly before 8 p.m. Monday when a Jeep was spotted driving the wrong way. When the officer attempted to stop the Jeep, it sped up, struck a shuttle bus and then a pole.

The driver and passenger fled. The passenger ran behind a hotel and exchanged gunfire with officers. Witnesses say officers ducked behind cars as gunshots whizzed through the busy area, not far from several high-rise convention hotels.

Lee says Smith was found dead behind a trash bin. Lee says the driver was arrested.

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In August, a new anti-piracy campaign aimed at highlighting the impact of illegal downloads and streaming media sites launched, with an animated television ad and a range of public arts projects. You can be forgiven for not noticing — it seems very few people have.

The clumsily named GetItRightFromAGenuineSite.org aims to dissuade customers from using dodgy online services. To that end, it curates a list of legitimate providers offering video, music, ebooks, games, and sport content, and invites users to suggest legal sources it may have missed.

By: Matt Kamen,

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This week, 600-or-so peculiar billboards have popped up around Paris, just in time for the UN’s climate change summit.

One for Air France reads, “We’ll keep bribing politicians and emitting greenhouse gases.”

The satirical ad is part of activist group Brandalism’s latest guerrilla art campaign, which targets climate change deniers and the summit’s corporate sponsors.

More than 80 street artists from 19 different countries worked with Brandalism to create the ads.

“We are taking these spaces back, because we want to challenge the role advertising plays in promoting unsustainable consumerism,” Joe Elan of Brandalism said in a statement.

Here are some of the tongue-in-cheek ads.

A hacked ad accuses Mobil of knowing about the impact of fossil fuels on global warming.

A man and woman wade through “the climate experience.”

People sort through a trash dump, refusing to let go of shopping bags.

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The holiday season offers the most prime opportunities to experience some quality binge-watching.

Don’t spend these weeks with breaks getting to know your family better. Or rediscovering yourself at a wellness retreat. Instead, take this time to check off some real worthwhile goals from your list — like taking in hours of entertainment. That’s something you’ll never regret.

Business Insider put together a list of shows that will keep you both entertained and caught up on what’s coming down the pop-culture pike. You’ll always have something to talk about at parties and maybe, just maybe, you’ll make others feel horribly insecure about their own lack of pop-culture prowess.

Have a really happy holiday season with these binge-worthy 13 TV shows and movie franchises:

SEE ALSO: 13 TV shows that became massive because of social media

MORE: Someone’s getting resurrected on ‘Game of Thrones’ — here are 5 likely candidates

“Black Mirror”

After British anthology series “Black Mirror” arrived to Netflix, it steadily found an American audience, and a rabid one at that. Even one of our greatest assets, Jon Hamm, deigned to star on its Christmas special last year.

Earning comparisons to “The Twilight Zone,” “Black Mirror” explores the line between life and tech.

Netflix is producing the next season of “Black Mirror.” 

“Twin Peaks”

After a rocky start, Showtime is a bit behind on its revival of director David Lynch’s “Twin Peaks.” That’s okay, because it gives you time to really soak in the show’s two bizarre and twist-filled seasons before its 2017 launch date.

The two seasons are available now on Netflix.

“Gilmore Girls”

With Netflix working on a new season of the cult favorite show, here’s your chance to find out why it’s beloved by so many.

“Gilmore Girls” stars “Parenthood” actress Lauren Graham as Lorelai Gilmore, a young, single mother who’s best friends with her daughter, Rory (Alexis Bledel). Things get complicated when Lorelai’s estranged parents come back into the picture with a desire for a relationship with their granddaughter.

All seven seasons of the series are available on Netflix now.

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Billionaire hedge fund manager David Tepper sent out a rare, public letter to the board of one of his holdings, TerraForm Power (TERP), a company that owns and manages solar energy projects.

Appaloosa, Tepper’s fund, holds TerraForm Power stock and senior notes, according to the letter.

TerraForm Power’s stock surged 22% in trading on Tuesday on Tepper’s disclosure of a position in the company.

The basic crux of the letter is that Tepper is upset about TerraForm Power’s relationship with its parent company, SunEdison, a solar power manufacturer.

SunEdison created TerraForm Power as a yieldco — a company that buys solar projects from the sponsor company and manages them like an MLP does for oil and gas companies. These deals are called drop-down transactions.

SunEdison stock is down 83% year to date. TerraForm Power is down 72% over the same period.

Drop-down transactions

In his letter, Tepper accuses SunEdison of pushing low-grade projects onto TerraForm Power through the drop-down transactions. He also accuses SunEdison of stacking TerraForm Power’s management and board with SunEdison loyalists during a shake-up last month.

“Thus, it is obvious that the deterioration in TERP’s security prices and credit profile this month results from (among other things): (1) the transmission of financial stress related to its “Sponsor’s” ambitious growth objectives  and over-extended  financial commitments;  and  (2)  TERP’s incomplete  and selective disclosures,” Tepper wrote.

What’s more, Tepper discussed the event that triggered the precipitous fall in SunEdison’s stock price in July — it’s announcement that it would purchase residential solar company, Vivint.

To Tepper, the deal signaled that SunEdison was moving toward lower-quality assets — assets that would then be passed on to TerraForm Power.

“The July announcement of the acquisition of the Vivint Solar (“VSLR”) portfolio of residential rooftop assets marks an unfortunate departure from this business model and appears to serve the sole purpose of promoting SUNE’s desire to acquire VSLR’s development and operating assets, rather than enhancing the quality and value of TERP’s holdings,” Tepper wrote.

It should be noted that back in October there were rumors circling that Appaloosa owned SunEdison stock.

Tepper told CNBC then that people who thought that “must be high,” and that there was “some really good ganja coming into this country.”

Read the full letter below:

Attention: Board of Directors

Gentlemen:

We write in respect of Appaloosa Management LP’s (“AMLP”) holdings of TerraForm Power, Inc. (“TERP”) common equity and senior notes.  We note with interest this week’s announced changes to the TERP management team and Board of Directors.   Notwithstanding your explanation in the release, we find that “aligning the company’s strategic focus around acquiring projects from its Sponsor” offers little apparent benefit for TERP stakeholders and raises concern for obvious conflicts between the interests of TERP and its “Sponsor”, SunEdison (“SUNE”).

Until recently, TERP’s business purpose was to act as a vehicle to hold and finance a high quality portfolio of fully-developed wind and solar power assets that were supported by long-term power purchase agreements with large, investment-grade corporate counterparties.  Isolating these projects within a ring-fenced vehicle made sense for both TERP and SUNE, as the most efficient cost of capital could be obtained by segregating them from the operational, developmental and construction risks of SUNE’s main operating businesses.

The July announcement of the acquisition of the Vivint Solar (“VSLR”) portfolio of residential rooftop assets marks an unfortunate departure from this business model and appears to serve the sole purpose of promoting SUNE’s desire to acquire VSLR’s development and operating assets, rather than enhancing the quality and value of TERP’s holdings.  Indeed, the shift to weaker counterparties (homeowners) and the higher risk profile inherent in these assets (small rooftop panels) also appears to disproportionately benefit the “Sponsor’s” incentive distribution right (“lOR”) at the expense of significant downside financial risk to TERP.  Worse yet, is SUNE’s stated intention (revealed through the release of an Interim Agreement between SUNE and TERP) to place 500MW per year of these inferior assets in TERP for the next 5 years.

Disclosure of the precise details of this acquisition plan is long overdue, as well.  So too, are the details surrounding the distinct possibility that TERP will be forced to accept a note from SUNE (which is of dubious credit quality and market value) due to a shortfall in the market value of the assets to be delivered in the first leg of the VSLR portfolio transaction relative to the $922 million purchase price (i.e., the “Advanced Amount” mandated under the Summary of the Note Terms in Exhibit E to the Purchase Agreement between SUNE and TERP).  Given the erosion in the market value of comparable rooftop operators to VSLR (SunRun and Solar City, for example) the face value of that note will likely need to be considerable (but of suspect worth given the obligor).

The reconfiguration of the lnvenergy transaction announced November 9th is no better for TERP stakeholders and is obviously intended for the sole benefit of SUNE.  These modifications will hand off SUNE’s responsibility for a $388 million equity warehouse commitment to TERP — yet another departure from TERP’s traditional role of owning permanently-financed, income-producing assets. The investment also strains TERP’S resources and significantly raises its leverage and financial risk profile. In downgrading TERP’s debt to a highly-speculative rating of B2, Moody’s cited the change in operating arrangement brought about from both the Vivint and lnvenergy transactions, and the inherent financial strain thereof.  Greater linkage to the “Sponsor” also figured significantly in Moody’s analysis.

Thus, it is obvious that the deterioration in TERP’s security prices and credit profile this month results from (among other things): (1) the transmission of financial stress related to its “Sponsor’s” ambitious growth objectives  and  over-extended  financial  commitments;  and  (2)  TERP’s incomplete  and selective disclosures. TERP’s “reliance on third party acquisitions” has little bearing on either of those factors.  We note the advertised increase in the number of independent directors on TERP’s board and trust that the Corporate Governance and Conflicts Committee (the “Conflicts Committee”) will appropriately investigate these and any other related-party transactions to ensure that they are conducted for the benefit of TERP stakeholders.  Recent rumors of discussions between SUNE and VSLR regarding “strategic options” for the proposed merger transaction, if true, may represent an opportunity for the Committee to exercise its independence and relieve the financial pressures on both TERP and its “Sponsor” from this harmful transaction. Such efforts would be strongly supported by Appaloosa.

As previously suggested, substantial further disclosures are incumbent on TERP so that investors can assess the full impact of the pending transactions, the relationship between TERP and its “Sponsor”, and the circumstances surrounding the changes in TERP’s management and Board. We look forward to such disclosures and stand ready to meet and discuss any of the issues raised by this letter.  In the meantime, we expect the Board and the Conflicts Committee to respect and defend the integrity of TERP’s corporate identity and the interests of its stakeholders.  We reserve all rights accordingly.

Sincerely,

David A. Tepper
President

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CHICAGO (AP) — Mayor Rahm Emanuel fired the city’s police superintendent Tuesday, a week after the release of a dash-cam video that showed a white Chicago officer fatally shooting a black teenager 16 times.

Emanuel called a news conference to announce the dismissal of Garry McCarthy, who only days ago insisted to reporters that the mayor had his “back.”

The mayor praised McCarthy’s leadership of the force but called it an “undeniable fact” that the public’s trust in the police has eroded.

“Now is the time for fresh eyes and leadership,” Emanuel said.

Protesters have been calling for McCarthy’s dismissal in response to the handling of the death of Laquan McDonald, a 17-year-old who was killed in October 2014.

The city released video of the shooting only after a judge ordered it to be made public. The release set off several days of largely peaceful protests. Officer Jason Van Dyke has been charged with first-degree murder.

Emanuel introduced McCarthy as his pick to lead the department in May 2011, replacing former FBI agent Jody Weis, who was unpopular with many rank-and-file officers who claimed Weis did not stand behind them.

McCarthy rose through the ranks of New York City’s police department and was police director in Newark, New Jersey, when he was hired in Chicago. At the time he promised he would “have the cops’ backs.”

Emanuel praised him for knowing how to run a large police force and said the city needed “a leader with Garry’s depth of experience and a track record for delivering results.”

In New York, McCarthy rose from patrolman to an executive position and was involved in rescue and recovery efforts after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks before taking the job in New Jersey. But his time in Newark was not without challenges or complaints.

The NAACP in New Jersey said McCarthy was more concerned about improving the safety of downtown Newark than of its neighborhoods. The American Civil Liberties Union complained that Newark police were plagued with problems from lax internal oversight to issues of excessive force during arrests.

In Chicago, the silent video shows McDonald walking down the middle of a four-lane street. He appears to veer away from two officers as they emerge from a vehicle, drawing their guns. Van Dyke opens fire from close range and continues firing after McDonald crumples to the ground.

Police have said McDonald was carrying a knife, and an autopsy revealed that he had PCP, a hallucinogenic drug, in his system. Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez has said the 3-inch blade recovered from the scene had been folded into the handle.

Defense attorney Dan Herbert says his client feared for his life, acted lawfully and that the video does not tell the whole story.

Van Dyke was released from jail Monday after paying the $150,000 required of his $1.5 million bail.

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CLEVELAND (AP) — LeBron James says Kobe Bryant inspired him to greatness and he was “kind of sad” when he learned the Lakers star is retiring.

James spent much of his interview session Tuesday praising Bryant, who announced on Sunday that his 20th NBA season will be his last. James, who had posters of Bryant on his wall as a kid, said he was always motivated by his former Olympic teammate.

James said he even wore an afro when he was in high school so he could look like Bryant.

James says: “I wanted to be just like him, man.”

James said he regrets not holding “up my end of the bargain” and getting to the NBA Finals in 2009, when fans were clamoring for a matchup between the two All-Stars.

James says he “always thought of Kobe” during offseason workouts and pushed himself harder because he knew Bryant was in a gym somewhere.

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