Popular app-based dating services—from Tinder to OkCupid to Grindr—are the subject of unwanted scrutiny this week after a report by the Norwegian Consumer Council that they’re “spreading user information like dating choices and precise location to advertising and marketing companies in ways that may violate privacy laws” – NYTimes and Forbes and Law360

Here’s a primer on new EU trade chief Phil Hogan, the “blunt-talking, physically imposing Irishman” tasked with repairing trade relations between the bloc and the United States and negotiating “a trade deal with Britain as part of its withdrawal from the European Union.” What did your first day on the job look like? – NYTimes

Even as the US and China prepare to sign phase one of a trade deal between the nations later today, a “continuing battle over technology”—including White House restrictions on Chinese telecom giant Huawei—is keeping “relations between the two superpowers on edge” – WSJ and MarketWatch

Here’s where things stand on the tariff-relief front – Bloomberg

The CFPB is refusing to halt its investigation of student loan relief company Equitable Acceptance Corp. while the Supreme Court considers the Bureau’s very existence, saying “its administrative process for civil investigative demands is not the proper forum for raising or deciding constitutional challenges to provisions in the bureau’s statute” – Law360

Ratings firm Morningstar—something of an upstart in a space dominated by just three agencies—is closing in on a deal with the SEC to resolve allegations that it “violated rules in its bond-rating business that prohibit analysts who hand out credit ratings from being involved in sales and marketing for their companies.” The potential settlement “is an embarrassment for a firm that made its name analyzing mutual funds” and has made a play for a piece of the bond-rating market in recent years – WSJ

The Times offers up a few thoughts about what the year ahead will hold for white collar prosecutions, and it’s got 1MDB, accounting fraud, and insider trading at the top of the list – NYTimes

Amazon has lifted its ban on third-party vendors sending Prime shipments through FedEx, just a month after Bezos & Co. banned the service “because of performance issues” – WSJ

The White House is reportedly considering changes to the “longstanding practice” of giving media an early look at “sensitive U.S. economic data such as inflation and employment” by curbing or even phasing out the lockup—a half-hour to hour period in which a small group of reporters currently has access to government reports to write their news articles before the group simultaneously files them as the data’s released to the public – MarketWatch and Bloomberg

America’s federal budget deficit topped $1 trillion in 2019, growing 17% from the year before, as “tax cuts and spending increases continued to force heavy government borrowing amid a record-long economic expansion” – NYTimes

As most Minnesotans know, the best way to deal with our months and months of winter is to get out and make it your own. My daughter and I hit the neighborhood park rink just the other night for some outdoor skating, and we were not alone—especially in the land of 10,000 lakes and thousands of backyard rinks – MPR