Daily Dozen: Winter Storm | TikTok Tracks Journalists

The Senate passed a $1.7 trillion spending bill to fund the government through September 2023. FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried was released from federal custody on $250 million bail. Plus, a close read of the biggest revelations from the House Ways and Means Committee’s report on former President Trump’s tax returns.

Dear readers: The Daily Dozen will be taking a holiday break during the week of December 26 with a special year-end edition on December 28. We’ll be back on Monday, January 2. Have a Happy New Year!

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In The News Today

• The Senate passed the fiscal year $1.7 trillion 2023 budget that would fund the government until September 30, 2023, through a sprawling piece of legislation known as the “omnibus bill.” The budget, passed 68-29 in the upper chamber less than 48 hours before the current funding measure was set to expire, includes $858 billion in defense spending and $773 billion in what’s referred to as non-defense spending, including $45 billion in funding for Ukraine amid its war with Russia.
• The House Committee’s highly anticipated 845-page report released Wednesday blamed former President Donald Trump alone for triggering the deadly riots as he attempted to overturn the results of the 2020 election, and recommended the 2024 hopeful be barred from holding government.

Top Take-Aways

Exclusive: An internal investigation by ByteDance, the parent company of video-sharing platform TikTok, found that employees tracked multiple journalists covering the company, including three Forbes journalists, improperly gaining access to their IP addresses and user data in an attempt to identify whether they had been in the same locales as ByteDance employees. “This is a direct assault on the idea of a free press and its critical role in a functioning democracy,” says Randall Lane, the chief content officer of Forbes.

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried was released from federal custody Thursday after his attorneys struck a deal with prosecutors on a bail amount of $250 million, as the disgraced cryptocurrency mogul made his first court appearance in New York on eight criminal charges over the disappearance of billions of dollars in customer money. Bankman-Fried was released on a personal recognizance bond, requiring his parents to put up equity on their Stanford, California, home, which had an assessed value this year of just under $1.8 million, and will have to pay the remaining sum only should he not appear at his next court hearing set for January 3.

Google’s YouTube TV and YouTube Primetime Channels will be the exclusive home to out-of-market NFL games starting next season, as the world’s dominant technology and streaming companies push into live sports. Google’s reported seven-year, $14 billion agreement follows the NFL’s 11-year, $13 billion contract with Amazon for the exclusive rights to Thursday primetime games and the league’s roughly $10 billion annual TV deals with legacy broadcasters.

“Disaster Of Epic Proportions:” Tesla shares sank 9% to their lowest level since October 2020 after the company upped discounts on its electric vehicles, as investors grow more skeptical of Tesla’s growth story. The latest worries are focused on CEO Elon Musk’s head turned by the new apple of his eye, Twitter.

This holiday season, a Ukrainian cyber intelligence expert is giving back to his homeland. The Mequon, Wisconsin, resident is playing dark web Robin Hood: Alex Holden’s team at Hold Security has hacked into one of Russia’s largest online drug markets, dubbed Solaris, and diverted crypto due to dealers and the site’s owners to a charity, Enjoying Life, which provides humanitarian aid across Ukraine.

Over 3,100 flights in the U.S. have been canceled as Winter Storm Elliott brings snowfall, wind gusts and freezing temperatures to parts of the country and throws a wrench into Americans’ holiday travel plans. The storm also brought record-low temperatures in Montana and Wyoming this week; The temperature in Lincoln, Montana, set a daily low at -49 degrees F, while the coldest recorded wind chill was in Malta, Montana, where it dropped to an astounding -72 degrees F.

Today’s Must-Read

Sex Scandals Don’t Seem To Be Helping The NFL’s Goal Of Attracting More Women Fans

The NFL says it wants to welcome more female fans, but the number of women viewers has gone down over the last eight years, and the league’s reactions to recent sex scandals make a turnaround less likely.

In Case You Missed It

The year 2022 was record-breaking at the top levels of the art market for valuable collections coming to market, expensive paintings and auction house sales. However, some experts say sales at the lower market levels are beginning to slow as fears of a recession grow.

Tips You Can Trust

• Real estate experts say January and February are the best times for renters to move. Signing a new lease in the early winter could save you hundreds—or even thousands—of dollars over the year. Here are several reasons why a new rental should be on your list of resolutions and some essential questions to ask the landlord—and yourself—before moving.

• The key to succeeding in the job hunt for 2023 is to accept the uncertainty and take action. There’s no returning to the halcyon days of companies hiring with reckless abandon (for now), so make yourself indispensable at the office while keeping an eye open for new opportunities. Most importantly, start searching for a new job now to gain a competitive edge.

Video

‘The Dysfunction Within The IRS:’ Here’s What Stood Out About Trump’s Tax Returns

Forbes Washington D.C. bureau chief and Assistant Managing Editor joins Forbes Newsroom with Brittany Lewis for a close read of the biggest revelations from the House Ways and Means Committee’s report on former President Trump’s tax returns– and what it indicates about the IRS.

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