JEDI HoloNet

After a failed attempt from the election season last cycle, The Diplomat party re-introduced their proposed legislation to implement tariffs on imported electronics, starship components, and other manufactured imports in order to shore up core world industry in light of the upset hyperlane routes that caused a sizeable negative impact on manufacturing in high-population core world planets. Signed into law across party lines by War Hawk Chancellor Rei, they go into effect today.

With the new Senate, and a new political party, senators from the Diplomat, Centrist, and Free Soil parties were able to get a majority vote in the Senate to pass these tariffs despite objections from the War Hawk party that it would further distance Corporate Sector worlds that were already cut off from the Republic directly with the expansion of the Third Estate into the Esstran sector. With that expansion the Third Estate has blocked all trade flow through the Hydian Way via Pho Ph’eah, requiring all trade from the Corporate Sector worlds flowing to the Republic to take longer, less maintained, hyperlanes that wind through Imperial space to arrive to their markets.

War Hawk Senator from the Herglic Space sector, Boonka Illeeb, shared his thoughts with the Affiliated Press on the legislation,

“The Third Estate is an expansionist force. The Corporate Sector has only one value: making money. In order to do so, all corporations will take the path of least resistance in order to find profits. Between the blockade along the Hydian Way and our own tariffs that further sabotage open and easy trade with this partner it only leaves them two viable trade partners: The Empire and the Third Estate. Between the two, the Empire has been showing firm isolationist tendencies from before the ascension of Emperor Jarek Fel. This move on the part of my colleagues across the isle will only serve to solidify ties between the Corporate Sector worlds and the Third Estate.”

Free Solier Senator Narmor Maroon from the Pacor Sector agreed to speak with me about his thoughts as well from the other side of the argument,

“The Republic hasn’t put its credits where its mouth is for decades. The Senate has been claiming to be the galactic police for years while doing nothing to intervene outside our borders. With this decision we’re dropping that facade. The Republic is the Galaxy’s largest state. By turning our focus inward to our own systems, our own sectors, and our own needs we’re -by definition- addressing the needs of the majority of the Galaxy. Let the Corporate Sector do what it needs to do, our GDP outstrips them by a large factor with only the core worlds. This move returns our attention to where it needs to be, at home in our own sectors promoting industry, our economy, innovation, and commerce.”

Finally, in response to the passage of the bill, a spokesperson for the Guild of Corporate Sector Industries (GCSI) based out of Bonadan gave us this official statement:

“The Empire has long ignored the outside galaxy in favor of looking inward. The Republic has decided to follow suit. As we move forward and look to our bottom line, in the red due to these policy decisions that backwards thinking Senators on Coruscant have made, we have to look forward and evolve with the market. Our corporations are not faceless entities. We employ, house, and provide for hundreds of millions of employees over a dozen star systems. Our obligation is to not only our investors, but those who make their livelihoods on our worlds. New markets are opening up and it’s our fiscal and moral obligation and duty to pursue what opportunities are presented to us no matter what they are.”

Already it’s been announced that the GCSI Board of Directors has made a meeting with the Third Estate’s Minister of the Interior to discuss future partnerships.

Reporting from Coruscant, this is Quan Regal of the Affiliated Press.

Companies such as Czerka Enterprises, Lerrimore Contracting Company, and Corellian Engineering Corporation – in cooperation with the Bank of Aargau, have granted 50 million credits to the University of Coruscant, Corellia University, and Mrlsst Trade and Science Academy. This unrestricted donation is meant to bolster creativity and ingenuity in the respective school’s engineering and science departments.

This contribution has been met with wide acclaim by the public.

One student from the University of Coruscant – Jaq Roznex (20 M), majoring in engineering, is thrilled.

This is insane! My class and I will be able to finish our robotic project without my professor coin pinching. Never thought companies like Czerka or Lerrimore cared like that.

We were able to catch up to Republic Senator Menzyx Kallian, a rising star in the Senate, leader of the Centrist party, and former executive for the Bank of Aargau, on the Senate floor – and he had this to say on the matter:

I am proud of the ceaseless work the Bank of Aargau has done to finance the Republic. And it is my firm belief that we are approaching a precipice. Every day I see more homeless people, more violence, and not on Tatooine where you would expect such a thing, but on planets that were once the models of dignity like Coruscant and even Aargau, my home. Why? The people of this great Republic, of all classes and races, have been crushed by the weight of its… imperialistic overreaching. More conflict in our Outer Rim territories? What a surprise! We must instead focus on investing in the next generation of top minds. Without their innovations, their… forward-thinking, it will be impossible to improve our infrastructure. It is imperative that we raise the quality of life and make smarter use of our resources, or this… fractured Republic will shatter.

Research done by the Affiliated Press Voter Study Group shows that Senator Kallian has had a significant uptick in the quarterly Senatorial polls since this interview. Time will tell if this really is just the nudge the Republic needs.

Reporting contributed by the Affiliated Press.

Planetary Counsel for Torque, regarded as the highest elected law enforcement official on the world, recently filed suit against DE-series droid manufacturer Industrial Automation in the Courts. This move comes after the world was afflicted by a catastrophic failure of the aforementioned droid series that was under recall at the time.

The initial hearing of the case was held at the Galactic Courts of Justice building on Coruscant in a closed session, so the exact particulars of the suit will not be known until a later date. However, our investigative reporters have uncovered two clues suggest the suit is not related directly to the incident, but rather statements made by Industrial Automation employees leading up to the tragedy.

A discarded draft of the initial filings reveal that the Galactic News Network was also named in the suit. However, the final filing was amended to remove them from the list of involved parties. Secondly, a leaked excerpt from Industrial Automation’s motion to dismiss indicates their defense theory is the detailed statements were to “stress the dangers to our clients and dissuade them from delaying to engage with the recall process.”

These two items hint that the government of Torque is claiming the attack on their world would not have occurred if the droid manufacturer had not released the following statement to the HoloNews:

“One of our Lead Engineers found a potentially dangerous subroutine error that, if triggered, could cause a catastrophic meltdown in the unit. It’s highly unlikely, and we have no reports of the bug causing any damage, but we don’t want to trust that this error won’t cause serious troubles down the line. Effects could include a dangerous detonation of the unit, as well as even EMP bursts that could wipe out on-board electronics including life-support systems on freighters.”

We have reached out to both parties in the suit. Both sides have declined to comment, citing the on-going nature of the case.

Industrial Automation’s Kuat branch, a droid manufacturing firm specializing in cutting-edge astromech units, has announced a galaxy-wide recall of the last generation of their latest model the, DE series. Their public relations spokesperson gave this explanation to news outlets when asked about the recall for the droid model, popular with independent contractors and small business freight companies for their reasonable price tag and trusted reliability,

“One of our Lead Engineers found a potentially dangerous subroutine error that, if triggered, could cause a catastrophic meltdown in the unit. It’s highly unlikely, and we have no reports of the bug causing any damage,” the company spokesperson said as they continued, “but we don’t want to trust that this error won’t cause serious troubles down the line. Effects could include a dangerous detonation of the unit, as well as even EMP bursts that could wipe out on-board electronics including life-support systems on freighters.” The spokesperson finished by reassuring their consumers, “All clients will be issued a new DE series droid from our latest generation, free of charge, with reassurances that all issues with programming have been resolved.”

When asked why this glitch existed in the first place, IA’s spokesperson responded that programming is incredibly byzantine with astromech units of all types. They cited that in order to process intense cosmological calculations in the short time it takes requires an abundance of algorithms and subroutines to work complex tasks in tandem. Occasionally errors are bound to happen.

However, competitor manufacturing company Cybot Galactica, known for their historically popular C3 series protocol droids, issued their own statement on the recall,

“We have industry standards for a reason. Subroutines like this are extraordinarily rare, and the fact that it’s been embedded within these trusted and reliable machines for over a cycle now is something that no other company has had happen in living memory. It’s a miscarriage of safety and, in fact, we call upon the Galactic Republic to launch a full investigation into how this ‘bug’ was implanted anyway. Something this severe could indicate no less than sabotage.”

The Affiliated Press have not found any evidence to support a theory that malignant intentions were involved with this programming error, however, the Galactic Republic’s Senatorial subcommittee on Business Ethics and Oversight did say that they would launch an investigation to clear the air. Industrial Automation responded saying they would fully cooperate with whatever the Galactic Republic required in order to clear their name of malfeasance.

More on this story as it develops, this is Quan Regal of the Affiliated Press

A horrific tragedy occurred, earlier this cycle, in the KEF12 commercial district of Pols Anaxes, Anaxes. An automated cargo shuttle belonging to the logistics mega-corporation, Standiartha, erroneously landed in a plaza that was occupied by pedestrians. As of this report, twenty-three victims are reported deceased and another thirty were rushed to nearby med-centers with injuries ranging from severe to critical.

The shipping company was quick to blame outside interference with the shuttle’s guidance system, has stated an internal investigation is on-going, and expressed willingness to fully comply with Pols Anaxes Security. The plaza remains a restricted area and is abuzz with security and investigator activity. The company’s statements, and their damage control ad-campaign “I stand with Standiartha,” have done little to prevent backlash. In the Interstellar Stock Exchange, shares of the company have lost almost 40% of their value in the days after the accident. Barristers representing many families of the decedents and injured victims have already filed claims against Standiartha. Multiple activist groups and HoloNews outlets have compared this to the Ghorman Massacre, a war crime perpetrated by a high-ranking official of Emperor Palpatine’s Galactic Empire wherein said official ordered a shuttle to deliberately land on a crowd of peaceful protestors. Executives of the company have reportedly been receiving death threats from around the Galaxy. The validity of those threats are also under investigation.

This incident is perhaps the most terrible example of growing pains in business. Standiartha amassed incredible wealth in some risky derivative bets on the outcome of the Coruscant-Duneeden negotiations. This play lead to the company securing a near monopoly on trade rights in the area after Duneeden affirmed its independence. To capitalize on this, Standiartha’s founder and CEO, Briggs Tannis, began to rapidly expand and supplement his shipping armada with automated and droid-brain shuttles.

It remains to be seen if the courts will hold that this method of expansion was negligent on the part of the company, or if this tragedy will prompt new bills being brought before legislative bodies around the Galaxy. Bills that bar the use of fully-automated cargo shuttles.

Update: Another two victims of this incident succumbed to their injuries at nearby med-centers, bringing the death toll to twenty-five.