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Sorry, weed smokers. Carnival Cruise Line has become what those who imbibe might consider a buzzkill.

Despite continued momentum in the U.S. toward decriminalizing the drug or making it legal for medical and/or recreational use, Carnival has recently taken a sharp turn in the opposite direction by deploying drug detection dogs to deter passengers from bringing weed aboard its “fun ships.”

Dogs are routinely brought on board to inspect embarking passengers and their carry-on luggage, according to social media posts by recent cruisers.

It’s part of a new crackdown not just on weed, but on “people behaving badly” aboard cruises, Carnival CEO Christine Duffy explained in a video distributed to passengers in late February, just as spring break sailings were getting underway.

“It’s happening at stores, restaurants, sporting events, at schools, on airplanes, at theme parks, and yes, on cruise ships too,” Duffy said in the video.

Measures include adding security personnel to all of the cruise line’s ships, “and we’ve introduced narcotics-sniffing dogs at home ports to screen luggage on both a routine and random basis,” she said. “So our guests shouldn’t be surprised if they see guests come on board at both our home ports and our destination out-ports to make random searches. read more

By KEN SWEET (AP Business Writer)

NEW YORK (AP) — Customers of Chase’s online banking services saw double transactions, fees and payments in their accounts on Friday, in a glitch that was not fixed until late in the day.

Numerous Chase customers had posted on social media that their rent or bill payments were taken out of their accounts twice and reported hold times with customer service approaching more than an hour. The New York-based bank is one of the country’s largest financial institutions with millions of online customers.

Transactions over Zelle, the bank’s own peer-to-peer payment service, were also impacted with Chase customers.

Chase said late Friday that the bank had “resolved the underlying issue” and was in the process of issuing refunds or reversing transactions for customers.

Online banking services, while usually reliable, sometimes spectacularly fail or have temporary outages that tend to spook their customers. Banks typically will resolve an error in their services within hours, and no customer is liable for any errors in their accounts that occur when these happen. read more

By ZEKE MILLER and CHRIS MEGERIAN (Associated Press)

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden celebrated a “crisis averted” in his first speech to the nation from the Oval Office Friday evening, ready to sign a budget agreement that eliminates the potential for an unprecedented government default that he said would have been catastrophic for the U.S. and global economies.

The bipartisan measure was approved by the Senate late Thursday night after passing the House in yet another late session the night before. Biden is set to sign it at the White House on Saturday with just two days to spare until the Treasury Department has warned the U.S. wouldn’t be able to meet its obligations.

“Passing this budget agreement was critical. The stakes could not have been higher,” Biden said. “Nothing would have been more catastrophic,” he said, than defaulting on the country’s debt.

The agreement was hashed out by Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, giving Republicans some of their demanded federal spending cuts but holding the line on major Democratic priorities. It raises the debt limit until 2025 — after the 2024 presidential election — and gives legislators budget targets for the next two years, in hopes of assuring fiscal stability as the political season heats up. read more