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Social Security Administration will no longer allow changes by phone

(NYT) — The Social Security Administration said Tuesday that people who wanted to file for benefits or change the bank where their payments were deposited could no longer do so by phone and must first verify their identity online or go into a field office.

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The change, which takes effect March 31, is expected to add stress to the agency’s already thinning workforce, which is being significantly downsized as part of the broad effort to aggressively shrink the federal government. At the same time, the change would also make things more difficult for older and disabled beneficiaries who might have trouble getting into an office or struggle with online services.

“This change will substantially delay their access to their earned benefits,” said Kathleen Romig, director of Social Security and disability policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. “All families with children who qualify for benefits will have to visit SSA in person because children cannot have ‘my Social Security’ accounts.”

Greenpeace must pay $667M over Standing Rock protests

(Reuters) — Greenpeace must pay a Texas-based pipeline company nearly $667 million in damages for the environmental advocacy group’s role in 2016-2017 protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline in North Dakota, a jury said Wednesday.

The verdict in North Dakota state court came after two days of deliberations in a trial where pipeline company Energy Transfer accused Greenpeace of paying protesters to disrupt construction of the pipeline unlawfully and spreading falsehoods about the controversial project, located near the Standing Rock Indian Reservation.

The verdict included damages for defamation, trespassing and conspiracy. The jury awarded more than $400 million in punitive damages, which are intended to punish defendants for their conduct.

Greenpeace denied wrongdoing and called the case an attack on free speech rights. The group’s lawyers said they would appeal Wednesday’s verdict.

“We’re an advocacy group. We engage in peaceful protest,” said Greenpeace attorney Deepa Padmanabha, asserting that the group only played a minor role in the demonstrations.

Trump administration wants to return gun rights to some convicts

WASHINGTON (NYT) — The Justice Department plans to create a path for people with criminal convictions to own guns again, an issue that became contentious at the agency when officials there sought to restore that right to actor Mel Gibson, a prominent supporter of President Donald Trump’s.

The move would hand a victory to gun rights supporters less than a year after the Supreme Court ruled that the government could restrict firearms access to people facing restraining orders for domestic violence. Shortly after Attorney General Pam Bondi was confirmed in February, Trump ordered a review of the federal government’s gun policies.

The department still supports laws ensuring “violent and dangerous people” cannot lawfully acquire firearms, as long as there is “an appropriate avenue” to restore rights to people who have earned the chance to own guns again, according to an interim rule set to be published on Thursday in The Federal Register.