Daily Pulse: Verizon lashes out at Bernie Sanders, Theranos founder faces federal ban, and more news

Federal regulators have proposed banning Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes from the blood-testing business for failing to fix “major problems” at the company’s California lab, the Wall Street Journal reports. The plan is to revoke that lab’s license and also prohibit Holmes and Theranos president Sunny Balwani from operating the company's Arizona facility. Those two labs generate most of the embattled unicorn’s revenues.

Two Senators circulated a proposed bill that would require companies to “unlock encrypted technology” under court order. The proposal in its present form would almost certainly be met with unalloyed opposition by the industry. But as Damian Palette writes in the Wall Street Journal, “The draft has a long way to go before becoming law, and its chances for adoption in the short term are slim.”

Regulators rejected orderly bankruptcy plans submitted by five major banks, a requirement borne of the 2008 financial crisis designed to avert cascading failures that could cripple the US economy. These so-called “too big to fail” institutions — JPMorgan, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Bank of New York and State Street — have until Oct. 1 to craft “living wills” that pass muster.

#Quote

"TSA is our No. 1 problem right now, and it's only going to get worse."

— Leslie Scott, a spokeswoman for American Airlines.

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Volkswagen will cut (though not eliminate) executive bonuses as it continues to manage the crisis over rigged US diesels. Someone “familiar with the matter” told the Financial Times the cuts could be 70%, but the final figure had not yet been decided. Consider this a trial balloon.

A second Fortune 15 CEO lashed out at Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders over critical remarks directed at his company. Verizon’s Lowell McAdam called Sanders’ “uninformed views … contemptible.” Last week Jeff Immelt noted GE has “never been a big hit with socialists.” Everything about the 2016 presidential election is weird, but major CEOs taking on major candidates is extremely rare.

Coincidence? Verizon employees went on strike up and down the east coast. Some 36,000 workers participated in the walkout, making it “one of the largest in recent years,” per Naom Shrieber of The New York Times. Bernie Sanders addressed and joined picketers in Brooklyn. Picket lines were expected at “hundreds of Verizon facilities from Virginia to Massachusetts.” The main issues are pension cuts and outsourcing.

Elizabeth Holmes, Theranos CEO and the world's youngest self-made female billionaire, in an interview on September 29, 2015