Podcast appearances and mentions of ali breland

The MAGA alliance that helped elect Donald Trump is starting to show signs of fracturing. It recently came to a head after an important argument broke out over H-1B visas between Silicon Valley and the nativist wing. We talk with Atlantic staff writer Ali Breland, who writes about the internet, technology, and politics, about the public infighting, and staff writer Rogé Karma takes us beyond the politics by discussing what the research shows about the relationship between immigrant labor and the American worker. Extra listening: Rogé Karma on Good on Paper. Get more from your favorite Atlantic voices when you subscribe. You'll enjoy unlimited access to Pulitzer-winning journalism, from clear-eyed analysis and insight on breaking news to fascinating explorations of our world. Subscribe today at TheAtlantic.com/podsub. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the weeks since United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson was gunned down on the street in Manhattan, the public's reaction has become a major part of the story. While some condemn the killing of an innocent man, many are publicly celebrating the shooter's act of violence. Why are so many Americans unfazed by the targeted killing of a CEO? Host David Smith speaks with Ali Breland, staff writer for The Atlantic, who has been writing about the public's treatment of alleged killer Luigi Mangione.  We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:Through email at hello@thebigstorypodcast.ca Or @thebigstoryfpn on Twitter

The murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson has sparked a massive reaction online that's veered into support for the alleged shooter, with an outpouring of sympathy on social media. This week we also saw a jury acquit Daniel Penny, a Marine veteran who killed a man named Jordan Neely using a chokehold on a New York Subway train. The verdict prompted a similar outpouring of support for Penny on the right. Suffice it to say, it was a big week for vigilantism. Atlantic staff writer Ali Breland explains what it all says about our political discourse. Later in the show, California Attorney General Rob Bonta joins us to discuss how the state is ‘Trump-proofing' its progressive laws.And in headlines: President-elect Donald Trump is Time magazine's ‘Person of the Year,' President Biden made history by commuting the prison sentences of nearly 1500 people and pardoning another 39, and the federal government says don't worry about all of those drone sightings over New Jersey.Show Notes:Check out Ali's piece – https://tinyurl.com/543phmv5Subscribe to the What A Day Newsletter – https://tinyurl.com/3kk4nyz8What A Day – YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/@whatadaypodcastFollow us on Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/crookedmedia/For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/whataday

Folks, they finally got him. A jury of Donald Trump's peers determined that he violated New York Penal Law 175-10 in the first degree. We chat about how the conspiracist right is reacting to the news with a combination of vows for revenge, lamenting the fall of the nation, and insisting that this is good for Trump, actually. Plus we touch on the film 2000 Mules getting pulled by its distributor in response to a lawsuit and the DOJ alleging that Epoch Times is funded through a giant money laundering operation. After that, we are joined by journalist Ali Breland to discuss his recent Mother Jones article “How Q Became Everything: The conspiracy group's goal was to convince people the world is run by pedophiles, and, well, mission accomplished.” REFERENCES How Q Became Everything: The conspiracy group's goal was to convince people the world is run by pedophiles, and, well, mission accomplished https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2024/06/how-q-became-everything-big-feature-wayfair-balenciaga/ Ali Breland On Twitter https://x.com/alibreland Guilty: Trump becomes first former US president convicted of felony crimes https://apnews.com/article/trump-trial-deliberations-jury-testimony-verdict-85558c6d08efb434d05b694364470aa0 The upside-down American flag goes mainstream as a form of right-wing protest https://www.npr.org/2024/06/03/nx-s1-4987590/upside-down-american-flag-protest-symbol-history Publisher of ‘2,000 Mules' election conspiracy theory film issues apology https://www.npr.org/2024/05/31/g-s1-2298/publisher-of-2000-mules-election-conspiracy-theory-film-issues-apology Epoch Times Executive Accused of Laundering $67 Million https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/03/us/politics/epoch-times-money-laundering-doj.html Subscribe for $5 a month to get an extra episode of QAA every week + access to podcast mini-series like Manclan, Trickle Down, Perverts and The Spectral Voyager: www.patreon.com/QAA Editing by Corey Klotz. Theme by Nick Sena. Additional music by Pontus Berghe. Theme Vocals by THEY/LIVE (instagram.com/theyylivve / sptfy.com/QrDm). Cover Art by Pedro Correa: (pedrocorrea.com) qaapodcast.com QAA was formerly known as the QAnon Anonymous podcast.

In this episode of OTNS, we spoke to Ali Breland, a journalist at Mother Jones who has written on crypto and politics, about his recent publication about the links between Praxis and far right figures. We spoke about his experience of going to a Praxis sponsored party in NYC, his interviews with ex-employees about the fascist sympathies of the founder Dryden Brown, and how they try to seduce " cool kids" to join them. We also try applying for a citizenship!Check out a previous episode to learn more about our framework for out network state alternative,  coordi-nations.JOIN THE BLOCKCHAINGOV DISCORD SERVER HERE IF YOU WANT TO TAKE PART IN THE CONTINUED OVERTHROW AND CONTRIBUTE TO THE RISE OF COORDI-NATIONS.Overthrowing the Network State (OTNS) is a series in collaboration with Blockchaingov where we critique The Network State  by Balaji Srinivasan while also pulling out the salvageable parts and concepts in discussion with a variety of guests. You can find the first episode of OTNS where we give our initial criticisms and  alternatives here.Blockchaingov is a 5-year long, transdisciplinary research effort aimed at restoring trust in institutions at the community and global levels, by promoting better on chain and off chain distributed governance practices. Throughout the series, each discussion will include me and a member of Blockchaingov with either a new guest each episode or a discussion between us to tackle various topics from the book.If you liked the podcast be sure to give it a review on your preferred podcast platform. If you find content like this important consider donating to my Patreon starting at just $3 per month. It takes quite a lot of my time and resources so any amount helps. Follow me on Twitter (@TBSocialist) or Mastodon (@theblockchainsocialist@social.coop) and join the r/CryptoLeftists subreddit and Discord to join the discussion.Support the showICYMI I've written a book about, no surprise, blockchains through a left political framework! The title is Blockchain Radicals: How Capitalism Ruined Crypto and How to Fix It and is being published through Repeater Books, the publishing house started by Mark Fisher who's work influenced me a lot in my thinking. The book is officially published and you use this linktree to find where you can purchase the book based on your region / country.

This week we have a chat with Mother Jones reporter Ali Breland about Nick Fuentes, neo-Nazis in Germany, and online anti-trans campaigns.

Since 2012, Germany has accepted more refugees than any other country in Europe aside from Turkey. The German government has dispersed these asylum seekers and other immigrants throughout the country, a policy roundly celebrated by refugee activists and governments alike. But as reporter Ali Breland recently wrote in the New Republic, “[T]hese seemingly well-intentioned policies have created dangerous situations where people of color are forced to reside in regions that may be hostile to their presence, and where they face greater threats from neo-Nazis and fascists.”Lawfare Managing Editor Tyler McBrien sat down with Ali, a reporter at Mother Jones covering internet disinformation, technology, race, and politics, to discuss his article and reporting trip to Germany. They discussed the roots of the current neo-Nazi resurgence there, the dark side of Germany's lauded refugee resettlement program, and why the country might be a warning sign for the rest of Europe. They also discussed parallels between the far right movements in Germany and the United States. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/lawfare. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Maria and Julio talk about the targeted attack on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's husband, Paul Pelosi, and how responses from some Republicans are normalizing this kind of political violence. They also get into the latest with voter intimidation and suppression efforts across the country leading up to the midterms, and what Elon Musk's takeover of Twitter means for the future of our democracy.  ITT Staff Picks:  “The political violence in our nation's history is organized and purposeful. It is normalized by rhetoric that justifies it, and often encourages it,” writes Jeremi Suri on the attack on Paul Pelosi, in this piece for Time Magazine.   Philip Bump compares the different voting processes in Brazil and the United States, in this analysis of Brazil's electronic vote-counting system following their presidential runoff election, for The Washington Post.  “Most of what we know about Musk is what he freely gives on Twitter every day. That means Elon Musk spent $44 billion dollars on the very thing that is revealing how flawed he is,” writes Ali Breland in this piece for Mother Jones. Photo credit: AP Photo/Jeff Chiu

Ali Breland is a reporter at Mother Jones who covers online disinformation. He joins the podcast this week to talk about two of his recent essays that confront the flaws and shortcomings of conversations around disinformation, extremism, violence and other harms. Ali discusses why terms like “echo chamber” don’t adequately capture the dynamic social media platforms play in shaping political ideology. Then we talk about the infinite cycle of doom that Americans face in public life. This episode isn’t a feel-good one but we hope you’ll agree that conversations like these are important to have—and especially so when they are unpleasant.Follow Ali on Twitter: @alibrelandRead Ali’s recent writing at Mother Jones:Who Exactly Is Trapped in an “Echo Chamber”?Mass Shootings and Our Never-ending DoomcycleAli’s favorite things online: hyper-niche meme accounts and Musical artist Bo Daddy HarrisSH!TPOST is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Theme music via DJ Danarchy: https://hearthis.at/danarchy/ This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit shtpost.substack.com/subscribe

Ali Breland of Mother Jones on Sen. Josh Hawley's obsession. Executive Producer: Adell Coleman Producer: Brittany Temple Distributor: DCP Entertainment For additional content: makeitplain.com

We had a long and wonderful chat with Ali after reading his "Who Goes Crypto?" piece on the increasing number of working people opting into investing money into the casino of crypto and meme stocks rather than adhere to crumbling narratives over how the economy works, and for whom. We also dive into an area of his expertise, online disinformation and it's political ramifications. Holly dips out half way through the discussion, she wasn't feeling great and we did not realise at the time she had contracted COVID. Fortunately all is well now, but that will explain the occasional coughing and spluttering.Thanks everyone, have a great week

The deadly insurrection at the US Capitol wasn't the start of something, nor was it the end. What happened on January 6 had been planned for weeks, and the ideology behind it, brewing for years. That day's chaos was the moment in which a dangerous mix of far-right factions came together in a way that won't be disentangled anytime soon. Even now, nearly five months later, there's still so much to process and still so many questions to answer (especially as Republicans work to forget the deadly attack ever happened). So at Mother Jones, we're continuing to unpack what led to that day and what has followed. In last week's episode of the Mother Jones Podcast, we brought you the story of an unlikely insurrectionist: Dr. Simone Gold, a Stanford-educated lawyer and emergency room physician who ended up on an FBI most wanted poster. And this week, with the help of Mother Jones disinformation reporter Ali Breland, we explore the historical foundations of modern political fringe movements, like QAnon, and consider how they are the outgrowth of paranoid conspiracy-mongering politics that have taken root across the US over the last century. We hear from a former Oath Keeper about why he joined and later left the extremist militia. We meet one of the overlooked characters who poured gasoline onto the fire leading up to the insurrection, someone whose online popularity with Gen Z extremists reveals why it is not necessarily the generation that will save us. Plus, we talk to experts about what's ahead and how we may not know how widespread extremist groups actually are.

Judas and the Black Messiah, a ground-breaking film about the life of Black Panther leader Fred Hampton, has been hailed as one of the best films of the year. The film is up for five Oscars, including Best Picture. It's a historic haul for a movie made by an all-Black team of producers. It's also a notable and somewhat unexpected achievement for Keith and Kenny Lucas, who, along with director Shaka King and co-writer Will Berson, wrote the semi-biopic's screenplay. The Hollywood honor for the 35-year-old identical twins known as the Lucas Brothers arrives after they built careers in comedy, including standup; appearances in 22 Jump Street and Arrested Development; and starring roles in the series Friends of the People and Lucas Bros. Moving Co. On today's bonus episode, Mother Jones reporter Ali Breland caught up with the brothers to chat about comedy, philosophy, and what it was like to make a movie about a revolutionary socialist who was committed to Black freedom. An edited transcript of the interview can be found on motherjones.com

If you’ve watched the HBO documentary on QAnon (“Q: Into the Storm”), or if you spend any time on the internet, you know it revealed some key details surrounding the group of conspiracy theorists. But what you don’t know is what the filmmaker, Cullen Hoback, chose to leave out, and that crucial information is what Mother Jones reporter Ali Breland is here today to discuss. Ali and his colleague AJ Vicens were able to connect Jim Watkins (founder of 8chan) to countless web domains that allegedly host child pornography (more details on how they can make these connections without viewing the illegal content are in the episode). Ali gives the background on his and AJ’s story, what Hoback said when Ali reached out about the documentary’s misrepresentations, and how he plans to move forward with what he believes is incriminating information on Jim Watkins. Executive Producer: Adell Coleman Producer: Brittany Temple Distributor: DCP Entertainment For additional content: makeitplain.com

Ali Breland is a reporter at Mother Jones covering internet disinformation. On today’s episode he details the ins and outs of QAnon, how the group continually evolves and grows despite any potentially discouraging roadblocks (i.e. Trump losing the election), how they’re tied to neo-nazism, and the recruitment that’s happening right now on Telegram.Read his work, including the articles discussed in this episode, here: https://www.motherjones.com/author/ali-breland/Executive Producer: Adell ColemanProducer: Brittany TempleDistributor: DCP EntertainmentFor additional content: makeitplain.com See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

On today's show: Everything you need to know about this infuriating, scary, hopeful, dumb, and exciting final sprint to the polls. Simply surviving this next week is going to be a feat of endurance—and then there's election night itself. But don't worry. We're here. October surprises are a staple of every election cycle, and this time the Mother Jones Podcast is bringing you one of our own: our first-ever live show! Eight Mother Jones reporters from across the country joined host Jamilah King this week for a free-wheeling and informative Zoom discussion of the most important issues facing voters as the country staggers into the final week before Election Day on November 3. This all-star cast dissects Trump's familiar smear tactics (he still thinks this is 2016) and what those latest polling and early voting numbers really tell us about the results. We tackle the question, “Could Trump still win?” and get into voter suppression, immigration, disinformation, and the weaponization of white supremacy—and how to stay calm as a patchwork of results roll in next week. Join Nathalie Baptiste, Ari Berman, Ali Breland, David Corn, Fernanda Echavarri, Pema Levy, Tim Murphy, and Kara Voght for an election episode unlike anything we've ever done before. We're almost there. Now, it's all come down to this. Rewatch the full livestream on YouTube or Facebook, or at motherjones.com.

An unplanned, emergency mini-sequel to our discussion of Tim Pool just a couple of days ago.  Reality, displaying its customary poor timing, waited until just after we dropped our Tim Pool episode to reveal the story of the Wolverine Watchmen, a group of militia types arrested for planning the abduction and 'trial' (i.e. murder, presumably) of Michigan Governer Gretchen Whitmer.  At least one of the conspirators seems to have been part of Tim's audience; Tim has been demonizing Whitmer as a dangerous tyrant for ages; and Tim himself reacted to the story in ways that combine the hilarious, disgusting, and accidentally instructive.  And so here we are. Content Warnings.  Contains Tim Pool. Links / Notes: Episode 67: Tim Pool https://idontspeakgerman.libsyn.com/66-tim-pool New York Times, "F.B.I. Says Michigan Anti-Government Group Plotted to Kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer" https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/08/us/gretchen-whitmer-michigan-militia.html Continuation of Criminal Complaint regarding kidnapping plot of Gretchen Whitmer: https://www.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.miwd.99213/gov.uscourts.miwd.99213.1.1_1.pdf Emily Lawler, MLive, "Accused Michigan terrorists found natural home among anti-Whitmer sentiment promoted by far right" https://www.mlive.com/public-interest/2020/10/accused-michigan-terrorists-found-natural-home-among-anti-whitmer-sentiment-promoted-by-far-right.html Samuel J. Robinson, MLive, "Man accused in Whitmer kidnapping plot defended Confederate statue at June protest" https://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/2020/10/man-accused-in-whitmer-kidnapping-plot-defended-confederate-statue-at-june-protest.html John Agar, MLive, "Grand Rapids man, alleged leader of plot to kidnap Gov. Whitmer, had to be ‘insane,’ boss says" https://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/2020/10/grand-rapids-man-alleged-leader-of-plot-to-kidnap-gov-whitmer-had-to-be-insane-boss-says.html Chad Livengood Twitter thread showing members of assassination plot at Re-open rally in June. https://twitter.com/ChadLivengood/status/1314332374759542784 Josh Russell Twitter thread collecting social media posts from assassination plot members. https://twitter.com/josh_emerson/status/1314234661820825609 Timbahontoast Twitter thread collected very non-leftist views of assasination plot members. https://twitter.com/timbahontoast/status/1314496845717143553 David Covucci and Mikael Thalen, The Daily Dot, "Pro-Kyle Rittenhouse coronavirus denier arrested in plot to kidnap Gretchen Whitmer" https://www.dailydot.com/debug/brandon-caserta-facebook-michigan-governor-kidnap/ Ali Breland, Mother Jones, "Men Who Allegedly Plotted to Kidnap Michigan’s Governor Celebrated Violent Far-Right Extremism" https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2020/10/men-who-allegedly-plotted-to-kidnap-michigan-governor-celebrated-violent-far-right-extremism/ The video Jack talks about: https://youtu.be/dSxyBqA8J8o Daily Kos article on Wolverine Watchmen and Trump’s rhetoric / domestic terror policies: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/10/8/1984983/-Trump-s-domestic-terror-policies-rhetoric-gave-flight-to-Michigan-militiamen-s-murderous-plot  

Today on Ring of Fire Radio, Ali Breland will join us from Mother Jones Magazine to discuss his piece, “Why Are Right-Wing Conspiracies so Obsessed With Pedophilia?” And Heather “Digby” Parton will join me to discuss Trump’s Election Tactics and more news from the past week.

Your Quick Six local news headlines. Then, an interview with Mother Jones reporter Ali Breland. News with Friends with Candace Avalos and Jeff Selby, followed by a new episode of Minority Retort with Jason Lamb.

As recently as March, "QAnon" was still a mostly fringe phenomenon. The conspiracy theory, which posits that a vast Democrat-led pedophile racket operates at the heart of the U.S. government, was well known among President Donald Trump's hardcore MAGA base, but too hot for anyone in the mainstream to touch. But this summer, the world's darkest and most outlandish political conspiracy is gaining new adherents and influence among conservatives. That's what Mother Jones's Ali Breland reported this month, after a recent press briefing in which President Donald Trump gave an approving answer that the QAnon community has been eagerly awaiting: "I don't know much about the movement other than I understand they like me very much," he said. "I've heard these are people who love our country." Trump's not alone. The movement has demonstrated real and growing power. Michael Flynn, the former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency and Trump's first national security adviser, boldly aligned himself with the conspiracy theory on July 4th, when he posted a video reciting a common QAnon motto; QAnon enthusiast Marjorie Taylor Greene just won the primary election for Georgia's 14th Congressional District; several other Republicans running for Congress have shared QAnon hashtags and used its catchphrases. Followers have been able to launch harassment campaigns so big and vitriolic that several high-profile targets—Wayfair, Oprah Winfrey, and Chrissy Teigen—felt the need to publicly respond. Q's followers have also mobilized to antagonize and harass a state senator in California in a vicious attempt to get him to drop legislation aimed at addressing LGBTQ inequality. QAnon's damage is too big to ignore, and so we're replaying a refreshed and updated version of our February 2020 episode featuring reporter Ali Breland, who takes you inside the conspiracy, traces its roots, and assesses its future.

Mother Jones Journalist Ali Breland On Bots

Mother Jones reporter Ali Breland on social media sleuths unmasking...the wrong guy.

Mother Jones correspondent Ali Breland discusses combating bigotry online, demonetizing extremism, and breaking up new media monopolies. 

Remember "Pizzagate"? That far-right fever dream about Hillary Clinton's allies running a pizza parlor child-sex ring turned out to be a precursor to QAnon, a bizarre and sprawling trove of pro-Trump conspiracy theories. Its strains have been mutating and adapting ever since 2017, finding new ways to infect our politics. Mother Jones' disinformation reporter Ali Breland and digital producer Mark Helenowski will take you inside the Trump rallies that served as offline nerve centers for the movement to ask supporters clad in Q-paraphernalia if the conspiracy is still alive and thriving, or has it peaked? They found that this once unmissable presence has faded to a crew of Q-diehards as a decline in the volume of related social media content took hold. But in an election year, QAnon is still shaping Trump's base and could be just one presidential tweet away from roaring back to life stronger than ever. Listen to hear how this far-right mega-conspiracy lives on, and about the danger it poses to an election already steeped in disinformation.

Mark Zuckerberg says he wants new rules for social media. Every year politicians and security experts meet in Munich to discuss how to keep the world safe. This year they invited Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook. He told the conference governments need to create new rules for social media platforms to stop the spread of harmful content and disinformation. So why is big tech’s biggest player asking for more regulation? The BBC’s tech reporter Zoe Kleinman came into the Beyond Today studio to talk what social media regulation might involve, and to Ali Breland, an expert on disinformation. Presenter: Matthew Price Producers: Alicia Burrell, Katie Gunning and Harriet Noble Mixed by Weidong Lin Editor: Philly Beaumont

On this episode, Jared Holt is joined by a trio of guests. Molly Conger talks about the federal arrest of Daniel McMahon (aka "Jack Corbin") after McMahon spent years as a blood-lusting Nazi. Osita Nwanevu joins to talk to us about the phenomenon of "Cancel Culture." Then, Ali Breland chats with us about "r/The_Donald" as a MAGA organizing hub and recent turmoil in its ranks. Follow Molly Conger: https://twitter.com/socialistdogmomFollow Osita Nwanevu: https://twitter.com/OsitaNwanevu/Follow Ali Breland: https://twitter.com/alibrelandSHOW NOTES: https://shtpostpodcast.com/73-canceled-9-23-19-ft-molly-conger-osita-nwanevu-ali-breland/ Get on the email list at shtpost.substack.com

In the wake of twin shooting tragedies that killed 31 people last weekend, Mother Jones takes you to El Paso, Texas. Host Jamilah King speaks to MoJo immigration reporter Fernanda Echavarri, who spent time at a makeshift memorial outside the Walmart where chaos erupted on Saturday at the hands of an anti-immigrant killer, to hear from a community reeling from its worst nightmare come true. Also in this episode, Jamilah speaks to MoJo disinformation reporter Ali Breland about the inspiration mass shooters derive from uncensored message boards in the darkest corners of the web, and what can be done to stem the flow of white nationalist hate.  

A military coup in Gabon was partially inspired by a video of the country's leader that may have been a deepfake. The coup failed, but the future of deepfake videos and politics remains deeply unsettling yet certainly tumultuous. Al Bawaba spoke with Ali Breland, a disinformation reporter, to understand what deepfake videos are and what their emergence means.

Last Friday, at least 50 people were killed at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand. While the perpetrator's exact path to radicalization is still unknown, one thing has become increasingly clear: This was an attack crafted by the internet and for the internet, representing a new level of super-viral violence. The Christchurch shooter exploited an unwitting ally in the form of giant tech companies, who have proven themselves unable or unwilling to stop the spread of hate speech on their platforms. In doing so, he immediately turned some of America's most profitable and influential companies into distributors of a lurid white nationalist recruitment video. Joining host Jamilah King are two experts on social media platforms and how they operate, Mother Jones reporters Ali Breland and Pema Levy. Also on the show, our National Affairs Editor, Mark Follman, describes how the rise of a global white supremacist movement combined with the rise of Trumpism, to create a highly combustible fuel for this kind of extreme violence.

Hi! This is Lexie of Read by AI. I read human-curated content for you to listen during work, exercise, your commute, or any other time. Without further ado: Facebook and Twitter Remove Thousands of Accounts Spreading Misinformation From Iran and Russia by Ali Breland from Mother Jones. Facebook and Twitter revealed Thursday that they had […]

Ali Breland is the technology reporter covering disinformation on the internet at Mother Jones. In this role Ali reports on Russian trolls, conspiracy theories on social media, surveillance tech, A.I. bias and general malfeasance and accountability reporting in tech. Prior to moving to MJ,  and at the time of our T4C interview, Ali was a technology reporter at The Hill newspaper where he wrote and reported 3-5 news stories a day, in addition to grinding out 1-3 more analytical, deeply reported stories a week.  Not bad for someone who just graduated from UT Austin in 2014 with a B.A. in Plan II and minors in English and Philosophy. To get to where he is now, Ali cut his teeth at The Alcalde (UT Austin Alumni Magazine) as an editorial intern and hustled outside of classes to interview artists and celebrities for CNN, The Christian Science Monitor, and The Huff Post. Ali also dabbled in a wide variety of other interests including winemaking as a Harvest intern (didn’t realize this was a job title) at Patz & Hall Winery and snowboarding.  His love of journalism and technology landed him a bunch of different jobs along the way, including one at POLITICO as a web producer.  Tune in to this episode of T4C to learn how this Java Junkie juggles the stress and demands of being a young journalist. The post 92: How to Break Into Tech Reporting as a Journalist w/ Ali Breland, The Hill newspaper [Espresso Shots] appeared first on Time4Coffee.

  Amy Cappellanti-Wolf: How to Instill a Culture of Mutual Respect (Ep. 161) Symantec’s Chief Human Resources Officer Amy Cappellanti-Wolf joined Joe Miller to discuss Symantec's efforts to instill a culture of mutual respect on diverse teams.  Bio Amy Cappellanti-Wolf (@amycappellanti) is CHRO at Symantec in Mountain View, CA. As CHRO, Amy leads the Global HR, Workforce Planning and Real Estate organizations. With more than three decades of experience leading companies across high tech, entertainment and consumer products industries through complex transformations, Amy is a proven organizational design and development leader and executive coach focusing on talent as the key driver of business growth. Amy specializes in helping businesses survive and thrive while undergoing deep transformation. Her focus areas include Business Transformation and Change Management, Organizational Design and Process Management, Business Partnership, Communication Strategy Facilitation, and Diversity in Tech. As CHRO at Symantec, Amy has successfully led the global organizational operating model, structure, change management and integration strategies for large scale acquisitions and divestitures. She has led effectiveness strategies related to organization and people optimization, and delivered systemic program and metrics related to structure, workforce planning, talent, and real estate consolidation. Amy has deep experience in architecting HR Operating Models in support of the business with her most recent emphasis on building Talent Development and HR Solutions capability. She has delivered high-impact automation and predictive data analytics and reporting, reducing operating expense, while improving operational effectiveness. In the real estate space, she has integrated workforce planning with real estate optimization, significantly reducing operating costs while also delivering award-winning workspaces for better collaboration and productivity, among other successes. Prior to joining Symantec, Amy was CHRO at Silver Spring Networks, where she led Global HR, Real Estate, and Technical Education organizations. Amy helped to deliver a successful IPO in March 2013. She established HR infrastructure, programs, and technology to drive global scale for the fast growing hardware, software, and services business, and she led several organizational companywide restructures. Amy built and ramped a professional talent acquisition team, doubled the employee population in less than eighteen months, implemented various automation and information systems, and opened up the European, South American, and Asian offices. From 2001 to 2009, Amy held key human resources roles at Cisco Systems, where she developed innovative leadership development programs and processes. She directly contributed to Cisco’s globalization efforts by developing workforce planning and global mobility practices to resource new and emerging capabilities outside of the US. Specifically, Amy led HR for the U.S. Enterprise Sales team; Worldwide Marketing; Business Functions; and the Decision Support, Services and Operations Businesses. Prior to Cisco, Amy also led HR teams at Sun Microsystems, The Walt Disney Company, and Frito-Lay. Amy provides ongoing support of children and foster children as a Board member of the non-profit Silicon Valley Children’s Fund. She was recently named one of the top 50 most influential women tech leaders by the National Diversity Council. Amy holds an M.S. in Industrial and Labor Relations and a B.S. in Journalism and Public Relations, both from West Virginia University. She is a frequent speaker and lecturer at industry-related conferences. Resources Symantec News Roundup Supreme Court declines to overturn ruling to uphold the 2015 net neutrality rules The Supreme Court has declined to overturn the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals’ ruling to uphold the 2015 net neutrality rules. Although the F.C.C. overturned the rules itself, and another lawsuit is working its way through the court’s, the Supreme Court’s denial to hear the original case preserves the FCC’s ability to regulate the internet like a public utility. Harper Niedig reports in the Hill. Google employees stage worldwide walkouts for company’s handling of sexual harassment; Sundar Pichai supports Thousands of Google employees staged walkouts around the world in protest of Google’s handling of Android creator Andy Rubin’s exit from the company, which was mired in sexual harassment allegations which he denies. In a bombshell report, The New York Times had reported that Google paid Rubin some $90 million after he left, even though an internal investigation at Google found the allegations against him to be credible. Protesting staffers are demanding an end to forced arbitration for discrimination and harassment claims, a commitment to pay and opportunity equity, a publicly-disclosed sexual harassment transparency report, a clear and uniform way to report sexual harassment, and a promotion of the Chief of Diversity Officer to direct-report status to the CEO. CEO Sundar Pichai wrote in support of the protests. Amazon commences paying workers $15/hour minimum wage Amazon has commenced paying workers a $15/hour minimum wage. It began on November first, and Amazon called on its competitors to follow suit. None of the big box retailers have set a minimum wage of $15 per hour. Google’s Susan Molinari to step down Susan Molinari—who has served at the head of Google’s Washington office for nearly seven years—will be stepping down from her post. The former Republican representative will remain on board as a Senior Advisor. Molinari sites family changes as the reason for stepping down. Facebook, Twitter fail to respond to aftermath of Pittsburgh massacre Facebook and Twitter both failed to adequately respond to the aftermath of the Pittsburgh massacre that left 11 Jewish congregants dead. The Intercept reports that Facebook allowed advertisers to use “white genocide” as a target keyword, and Twitter found itself apologizing for allowing “Kill all Jews” to be a trending topic. An uptick in hate speech on Instagram Columbia University media researcher Jonathan Albright found an uptick in hate speech appearing on Instagram. He found numerous instances of hashtags like #soros49 #maga #libtards and others associated with hate speech. Ali Breland reports in the Hill. Sens. Klobuchar/Warner: Facebook’s political ad transparency tools are ‘unacceptable’ Senators Amy Klobuchar and Mark Warner – both Democrats -- sent a letter to Facebook last week urging them to improve their political ad transparency tools saying they’re ‘unacceptable’ since they’re still capable display the wrong sources of funding for ad campaigns. The letter followed Vice News’ successful, experimental attempts to purchase Facebook ads posting as Mike Pence, the Islamic State in Iraq and all 100 Senators. U.S. charges 10 Chinese intelligence agents with commercial hacking The Trump administration has unsealed charges against 10 Chinese intelligence agents the U.S. accuses of engaging in a persistent campaign to hack into American aviation companies in Arizona, Massachusetts, Oregon, and elsewhere. The Chinese embassy in Washington denies the allegations. Back in 2015, former U.S. President  Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping signed an accord to refrain from conducting cyber operations against the other. But now some experts are saying that the Trump administration’s aggressive stance towards China has led the world’s second largest economy to stop enforcing the accord. Aruna Viswanatha and Dustin Volz have the report for the Wall Street Journal. 56 major companies oppose Trump administration’s efforts to erase legal protections for transgender people Fifty-six companies, including Airbnb, Amazon, Apple, Cisco, Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, Lyft, Twitter and others issued a business statement opposing the Trump administration’s plans to remove legal protections for transgender people. The statement calls for “respect and transparency in policy-making, and for equality under the law for transgender people.” HBO and Cinemax go dark for first time in 40 years AT&T’s HBO and Cinemax went dark last week after they couldn’t reach a carriage deal with Dish Networks. HBO said it’s the first time in 40 years they’ve gone dark. Dish accuses AT&T of preventing other carriers from accessing HBO. The dispute involves subscriber guarantees Dish would have to meet in order to carry HBO. Hackers continue to target U.S. elections Hackers have ramped up efforts to target the United States’ election infrastructure, according to the Department of Homeland Security. Attempts have largely been thwarted. But the agency is seeing as many as 10 hacking attempts per day. Atlantic: Democrats significantly outspent Republicans on Facebook Democrats have significantly outspent Republicans on Facebook with 63.5% of political spending on the platform, compared to just 17.8% for Republicans, according to the Atlantic. Democrats spent $9.4 million while Republicans have spent just $2.7 million. Alexis Madrigal reports in the Atlantic. California gives Waymo green light to test on public roads Finally, the state of California has given Waymo the green light to conduct tests of robot cars without human drivers on public roads. Waymo is the first company to which California has granted the privilege. The permit allows Waymo to test 40 cars on roads with speed limits up to 65 miles per hour.  

  Sean Perryman: How to Promote Diversity & Inclusion in Tech (Ep. 157) How do the internet sector's efforts to improve diversity and inclusion in tech align with its broader policy agenda? Sean Perryman joined us to discuss.   Bio   Sean Perryman (https://www.linkedin.com/in/seanperryman/) is the Director of Diversity and Inclusion Policy and Counsel at the Internet Association. He is responsible for leading IA’s advocacy efforts around diversity, inclusion, and workforce-related policies at the local, state, and federal level. Prior to joining IA, Sean served as Counsel on the House Oversight Committee, Democratic staff where he advised on technology policy including AI, cybersecurity, and privacy issues. Before working on the Oversight Committee, Sean practiced civil litigation both in Texas and D.C. Sean is passionate about issues of equity and inclusion. In his spare time he serves as Education Chair for the Fairfax County NAACP. He also regularly writes about issues related to race and advocates for a more equitable society. Sean earned his B.A. from City University of New York- Baruch College. He received his J.D. from Vanderbilt University Law School. A Brooklyn, New York native, he now resides in Fairfax, Virginia with his wife and daughter. Resources Internet Association Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America by Ibram X. Kendi News Roundup DOJ indicts 7 Russian intelligence officers for conspiracy The Department of Justice indicted 7 Russian intelligence officers on Thursday on  charges that they conspired to conduct malicious cyberattacks against the U.S., Canada, and Europe. Morgan Chalfant reports in the Hill that on that same day, the UK and the Netherlands announced that they had thwarted a Russian-led cyberattack against The Hague’s global chemical weapons watchdog. The indicted officials allegedly work for Russian military intelligence GRU. FBI special counsel Robert Mueller indicted 12 GRU officials earlier this year for their alleged role in hacking the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Google+ bug exposes 500,000 users to potential data breach Google announced that as many as 500,000 of its users may have had their personal data exposed from a breach in its unpopular social media platform, Google Plus. The company announced that it discovered the bug back in March but that there is no evidence that anyone exploited the bug. The company also announced that it will be shuttering Google Plus by August of next year. Facebook executive stokes internal conflict at Facebook for supporting Kavanaugh Joel Kaplan – Facebook’s vice president for global public policy is under internal fire at Facebook for supporting Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court nomination. Kaplan sat directly behind Kavanaugh at the hearing, then threw a party for him to celebrate his confirmation, which reports say Kavanaugh and his wife attended. Kaplan and his wife hosted the party despite apologizing, in a note to Facebook’s staff, in which Kaplan said he recognizes that this moment is a painful one. Kaplan, however, as a private supporter and personal friend of Kavanaugh’s, did not break any company rules, according to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Victim’s Fitbit data leads to arrest of 90-year-old murder suspect A Fitbit has led to the arrest of a 90-year-old San Jose man for allegedly murdering his 67-year-old stepdaughter after dropping off a homemade pizza and biscotti, according to police. The police tied the suspect to the victim’s heart rate which, according to her Fitbit device, surged and then rapidly declined while the suspect was still in the house. This was corroborated by surveillance footage, also synced up to internet time, that allegedly shows that his car was still parked outside, thus placing him in the house, when the victim expired. Amazon announces $15/hour minimum wage but cuts bonuses Amazon has announced a $15 minimum wage for all of its 250,000 employees, engendering the support of Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders. Amazon also announced that it will begin lobbying Congress to raise the national minimum wage. Target’s minimum hourly wage stands at $12 while Walmart’s stands at $11. Ranking Member Pallone questions tech CEOS about Russian influence on Kavanaugh hearing House Energy and Commerce Committee Ranking Member Frank Pallone sent several questions to the CEOs of Alphabet, Facebook, and Twitter to determine the extent to which Russian trolls impacted debate on the Kavanaugh hearing in ways that resembled Russian interference with the 2016 presidential election. U.S. officials believe that Russians have continued their hacking operations against the U.S. Pallone noted that one Facebook Group that was vocal about supporting Kavanaugh, also advocated for boycotting Nike and Colin Kaepernick. Ali Breland reports in the Hill. Trump administration relaxes restrictions on driverless trucks Finally, the Trump administration has decided to relax restrictions on driverless trucks—shifting the onus for safety away from the federal government to companies who develop driverless technologies. But transportation Secretary Elain Chao says that the administration continues to be concerned about the effect that driverless vehicles will have on the workforce.  

Ali Breland is the Technology reporter at The Hill newspaper where he writes and reports 3-5 news stories a day, in addition to grinding out 1-3 more analytical, deeply reported stories a week.  Not bad for someone who graduated from UT Austin in just 2014 with a B.A. in Plan II and minors in English and Philosophy. To get there Breland cut his teeth at The Alcalde (UT Austin Alumni Magazine) as an editorial intern and hustled outside of classes to interview artists and celebrities for CNN, The Christian Science Monitor, and The Huff Post. The post 16: How Hustle Helped Tech Journalist Ali Breland Scale The Hill …Newspaper appeared first on Time4Coffee.

    Jennifer Becker: Confronting Tech-Enabled Domestic Violence (Ep. 148) Legal Momentum's Jennifer Becker joined Joe Miller for Part 2 of our series on how perpetrators use technology to engage in domestic violence. Bio Jennifer Becker is Deputy Legal Director and National Judicial Education Program (NJEP) Senior Attorney. At Legal Momentum, Jennifer is engaged in a range of litigation, education, and policy on issues of gender-based discrimination and violence, including efforts to strengthen state gender-based violence statutes and reauthorization of the federal Violence Against Women Act. Jennifer has presented nationally and internationally on issues related to gender equality and gender-based violence. Jennifer is engaged in NJEP’s judicial training and technical assistance efforts and has developed and presented information about sexual assault and the intersection of sexual assault and domestic violence at national and state judicial conferences and multidisciplinary conferences. Jennifer is a former sex crimes and child abuse prosecutor, having served for seven years in the Bronx County District Attorney’s Office in Bronx, NY. During that time she handled hundreds of such cases throughout all stages of the criminal justice process. Prior to joining Legal Momentum, Jennifer was the Title IX Coordinator for the New York City public school system, a district of more than 1 million students and 135,000 employees. In that role she was responsible for overseeing gender equity compliance, including responding to and investigating sexual harassment and sexual misconduct in schools. Jennifer has developed and conducted trainings for attorneys and non-legal staff on substantive issues related to gender equity laws, discrimination, criminal law, and litigation techniques and strategies.  Jennifer is an active member of the New York City Bar Association Sex and Law Committee and co-chair of the New York County Lawyers Association Women in Law Committee. She is a graduate of CUNY Law School and Quinnipiac University.  Resources Legal Momentum Thermostats, Locks and Lights: Digital Tools of Domestic Abuse (N.Y. Times, June 23, 2018) News Roundup Facebook posts biggest single-day loss in stock market history Facebook’s market value dropped $119 billion Thursday after the company released a poor quarterly report.  The single-day drop was the biggest in stock market history and represented 19% of Facebook’s market cap , taking it down to $510 billion. In its quarterly report, Facebook reported usership that fell short of expectations by 20 million active daily users, and its  revenue fell short of analyst estimates by some $130 million for the second quarter. And at $1.72 Facebook’s earnings per share was also two cents lower than Thompson Reuters had estimated. Facebook and Amazon set lobbying records in 2Q18 Facebook and Amazon set new lobbying records for themselves in the second quarter, spending over $7 million combined on its lobbying efforts. This is according to lobbying disclosure records. Facebook spent $3.6 million to deal with the Cambridge Analytica and Russian hacking debacles. Amazon spent some $3.47 million.  Google spent its fair amount on lobbying as well, coming in at $5.9 million for the second quarter alone. Ali Breland reports in Politico. Is Trump doing enough to stave off Russian attacks on the midterms? President Donald Trump met with members of the National Security Council on Friday to discuss cyber threats to the rapidly approaching midterm election. The White House released a statement that said in part, “The president has made it clear that his Administration will not tolerate foreign interference in our elections from any nation state or other malicious actors.” The statement made no specific mention of Russia.   But the president tweeted that he is concerned that Russia might help Democrats—even though Russian President Vladimir Putin stated during the infamous Helsinki Summit that he wanted Trump to be re-elected in 2020. In addition, the Daily Beast reported that Russian hackers recently attempted to access Senator Claire McCaskill’s emails as she launched her 2018 re-election bid. Senator McCaskill acknowledged the attempt, saying it was “not successful”. House Democrats said that the White House’s effort to prevent election interference is insubstantial. They want a more robust action plan from the White House. And Politico reported that most states are unprepared for cyberattacks. Even though Congress appropriated $380 million back in March to help states replace their voting machines, Politico reports that only 14 states and DC plan to do so before he 2020 presidential election. Over in the UK, British lawmakers are proposing that tech companies be held liable for publishing fake news on their sites. Facebook signs binding agreement with Washington State not to help advertisers target customers on the basis of race Facebook signed a binding agreement with Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson last week in which the company promised not to allow advertisers to target users on the basis of race. This would include ads for housing, employment, credit, insurance and “public accommodations”. However, advertisers may not need to target race directly. They could target and exclude on the basis of race using non-racial proxies for race. Facebook could potentially still have the ability to cross-reference facial recognition data and users’ likes and dislikes to build psychometric profiles that show trends that correlate with race, which advertisers could then use without creating a paper trail.   DOJ Investigates Sinclair Finally, the Justice Department is now investigating whether Sinclair, Tribune and others engaged in anticompetitive behavior that affected advertising sales rates. The Wall Street Journal reports that the DOJ is looking into whether Sinclair and Tribune coordinated in such a way as to generate higher rates for tv ad spots. The DOJ had stumbled upon potential evidence of coordination practices as it was reviewing Sinclair’s proposed $3.9 billion acquisition of Tribune, which is now in the hands of administrative law judge after the FCC voted unanimously not to approve the acquisition.

  Bio Karina Cabrera Bell (@KarinaCBell) is the President of the Reach Mama Network and Host of the Reach Mama Podcast. Reach Mama’s mission is to increase the number of moms of color in leadership positions by 1) highlighting successful moms of color and having them share their strategies and tips, and 2) creating tools and support systems for moms of color that want to advance professionally. A mom of two, Karina has 15 years experience in government and political campaigns. Karina has worked at all levels of government and has seen firsthand the benefits of having women in leadership positions. Most recently, she worked in the Obama White House and the U.S. Department of Energy.  She honed her policy chops in the U.S. Senate as Policy Advisor for New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand. Karina has also worked on numerous campaigns including two presidential campaigns (Obama 08' and Kerry 04'). Karina is passionate about women's empowerment. She earned her undergraduate degree in Psychology from Mount Saint Mary and her Masters in Urban Policy from the New School. Resources Reach Mama Family and Medical Insurance Leave (FAMILY) Act Support the FAMILY Ac Off the Sidelines: Speak Up, Be Fearless, and Change Your World by Kirsten Gillibrand (Ballantine Books, 2014). News Roundup U.S./China appear to be backing away from trade war The U.S. and China appear to be backing away from a telecom trade war. The U.S. had issued strict sanctions against China-based telecommunications manufacturers including Huawei and ZTE due in part to fears that China was using the devices for spying purposes, and in part due to the countries’ respective efforts to dominate in the buildout of 5G. But according to Chinese officials, the sanctions would ruin ZTE, so it urged the Trump administration to reconsider. Trump tweeted Monday that he has now asked the Commerce Department to look into easing up on some of those sanctions in order to protect jobs that would be affected by the ZTE sanctions. And China has restarted its review of Qualcomm’s proposal to acquire China-based NXP Semiconductors. The Hill reports that lawmakers like Marco Rubion aren’t happy because of espionage and security concerns. Steven Yang reports in Bloomberg and Brent Griffiths reports in Politico. Senate forces a vote on net neutrality Thirty-three Senators, under the leadership of Ed Markey, have submitted what’s known as a discharge petition, under the Congressional Review Act (CRA), restore net neutrality over the Federal Communications Commission’s vote to repeal the 2015 rules. The net neutrality rules are set to expire on June 11th. The full Senate will vote on the resolution on Wednesday, and it seems likely to pass, since one Republican—Susan Collins from Maine—has agreed to support the petition, and an ailing Senator McCain is unlikely to cast a vote. But the petition would still need to clear the House, where Republicans are in the majority by a margin of 236-193. And president Trump would also need to sign it. Jon Brodkin reports in Ars Technica. AT&T retained Trump lawyer Michael Cohen Brian Fung and Rosalind Helderman reported last week that AT&T retained Michael Cohen’s firm, Essential Consultants, the same entity he allegedly used to pay Stormy Daniels $130,000 to keep quiet about her alleged affair with Donald Trump. According the Washington Post, AT&T’s company records show AT&T retained Essential Consultants for some $600,000 to help them with their $85 billion acquisition of Time Warner.  AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson said retaining Cohen was a “big mistake”. Senators Elizabeth Warren, Richard Blumenthal and Ron Wyden wrote to AT&T on Monday demanding answers. Facebook shuffles is leadership Recode reports that Facebook is re-shuffling its leadership. WhatsApp and Messenger now have new leaders. The company will now have three divisions, each with a separate leader. Those divisions include Family of apps, Blockchain, and Central product services. But it looks like no executives are leaving the company, which is surprising to some given the Cambridge Analytica debacle. Kurt Wagner has the report at Recode. Senate Intelligence Committee releases interim election security report Karoun Demirjian at the Washington Post reports that a new Senate Intelligence Committee report concludes that the Department of Homeland Security did an “inadequate job” at countering Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election. A House Intelligence Committee final report released in April made a similar conclusion, saying that U.S. Intelligence Committees failed to follow best practices. Black, Hispanic lawmakers blast Amazon directors for opposing diversity Members of Amazon’s board are advocating against a shareholder proposal to increase board diversity. Shareholders are advocating for a rule called the “Rooney Rule” which would require initial lists of board candidates to fill new board seats to include women and people of color. However, Amazon’s current Board Members are advising against the proposal, and many of Amazon’s employees are outraged, according to Recode. FAA ignores Amazon in drone pilot program Amazon is not included in a pilot program called the Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Integration Pilot Program being run by the US Department of Transportation and Federal Aviation Administration. Over the next three years the program will test out drone delivery service, with the goal of eventually rolling out drone delivery service throughout the country. Amazon is notably absent from the list of companies that will be participating, although Google parent Alphabet is included, as well as smaller startups including AirMap and Flirtey. Mike Murphy reports in Quartz. FCC issues a $120 million robocall fine The FCC has announced a $120 million fine to a Florida man -- Adrian Abramovich—for allegedly making some 100 million robocalls in three months. While the FCC has issued this fine, it still has not introduced new robocall regulations. Ali Breland has the report in the Hill.

Kadija Ferryman: Achieving Fairness in Precision Medicine (Ep. 135) Data & Society's Kadija Ferryman joined Joe Miller to discuss data-driven medicine and the policy issues surrounding fairness in precision medicine. Bio Dr. Kadija Ferryman (@KadijaFerryman) is a Postdoctoral Scholar at the Data and Society Research Institute in New York. Dr. Ferryman is a cultural anthropologist whose research examines how cultural and moral values are embedded in digital health information, social and biological influences on health, and the ethics of translational and digital health research. She earned a BA in Anthropology from Yale University and a PhD in Anthropology from The New School for Social Research. Before completing her PhD, she was a policy researcher at the Urban Institute where she studied how housing and neighborhoods impact well-being, specifically the effects of public housing redevelopment on children, families, and older adults. She has published research in journals such as Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved, European Journal of Human Genetics, and Genetics in Medicine. Resources What is Precision Medicine by Kadija Ferryman and Mikaela Pitcan (Data & Society, 2018) Fairness in Precision Medicine by Kadija Ferryman and Mikaela Pitcan (Data & Society, 2018) Fact Sheet: Obama Administration Announces Key Actions to Accelerate Precision Medicine Initiative (archived) Are Workarounds Ethical?: Managing Moral Problems in Health Care Systems by Nancy Berlinger (Oxford University Press, 2016)   News Roundup Facebook still under fire amidst looming GDPR implementation The EU’s Global Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is set to take effect on May 26th and Facebook is scrambling to manage a ceaseless onslaught of negative press regarding how it handles its users’ data. Ryan Browne at CNBC reports on the dangers of Facebook’s “log in with Facebook” feature, which apparently exposes users’ data to third-party trackers. Morgan Chalfant at the New York Times reported on a painting app that actually installs malware that harvests users’ payment information, among other things. Additionally, Ali Breland reports in the Hill that the Department of Housing and Urban Development has reopened an investigation it had closed last year into whether and how Facebook helps facilitate housing discrimination. Democrats are pushing for tighter data protection rules at the Federal Trade Commission, but that’s unlikely to mean much in the near-term since, with Commissioner Terrell McSweeny’s announcement last week that she’ll be stepping down at the end of this month, the FTC will now be operating with just one of five commissioners—Republican Acting Chair Maureen Ohlhausen. Auditors don’t seem to be offering much in the way of confidence in the manner with which Facebook protects user data. PricewaterhouseCoopers conducted an audit of Facebook and told the FTC, after Facebook knew about Cambridge Analytica, that Facebook was adequately protecting consumer privacy and in compliance with a 2011 consent decree. Meanwhile, David Ingram reports for Reuters that Facebook has changed its terms of service for 1.5 billion Facebook users in Africa, Asia, Australia and Latin America. Like Europe, their terms of service were governed by Facebook’s headquarters in Ireland. But since Ireland would come under GDPR, Facebook has changed the terms of service in those areas to fall under the more lenient U.S. privacy standards. Facebook says it will apply the same privacy standards around the world. Clyburn to step down from FCC Democratic FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn has announced that she will be stepping down from the dais at the end of the month. The Obama appointee served at the Commission for eight years and was a rare and passionate advocate for marginalized communities. President Trump will need to nominate a replacement Commissioner who would then need to be confirmed by the Senate. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is reportedly set to recommend current FCC Assistant Enforcement Bureau Chief Geoffrey Starks, who enjoys broad support from Democrats. U.S. investigates AT&T/Verizon collusion Cecilia Kang reports for the New York Times that the DOJ has launched an antitrust investigation into possible coordinated efforts between AT&T and Verizon and the G.S.M.A.— the standards-setting group, to make it more difficult for consumers to switch carriers.  The Justice Department is looking into whether the organizations intentionally attempted to stifle the development of eSIM which allows consumers to switch provides without a new SIM card. FCC to hold 5G spectrum auctions in November The Federal Communications Commission voted unanimously last week on a public notice that it will commence spectrum auctions for 5G in the 28- and 24- GHz bands. The auctions will commence on November 14th, beginning with the 28 GHz band. CNN report: YouTube ran ads for hundreds of brands on extremist YouTube channels A CNN report found that ads from over 300 companies appeared on YouTube channels promoting extremist groups like Neo-Nazis, conspiracy theorists and other extremist content. Adidas, Cisco, Hershey, Hilton and Under Armour were among the many companies whose ads appeared on these sites. Paul Murphy reports in CNN. Lyft to invest to offset carbon emissions Finally, Heather Somerville at Reuters reported that Lyft is launching a program to offset emissions from their 1.4 million drivers. The company will invest in things like renewable energy and reforestation to make up for its emissions, and the amount it invests will grow with the company.

Bio  Henry T. Greely (@HankGreelyLSJU) is the Director of the Center for Law and the Biosciences; and Professor (by courtesy) of Genetics at the Stanford School of Medicine. He is also the Chair of Stanford's Steering Committee of the Center for Biomedical Ethics and the Director of Stanford's Program in Neuroscience and Society. Hank specializes in the ethical, legal, and social implications of new biomedical technologies, particularly those related to neuroscience, genetics, or stem cell research. He frequently serves as an advisor on California, national, and international policy issues. He is chair of California's Human Stem Cell Research Advisory Committee, a member of the Advisory Council of the NIH's National Institute for General Medical Sciences, a member of the Committee on Science, Technology, and Law of the National Academies, a member of the Neuroscience Forum of the Institute of Medicine, and served from 2007-2010 as co-director of the Law and Neuroscience Project, funded by the MacArthur Foundation. In 2007 Professor Greely was elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Before joining the Stanford Law School faculty in 1985, Greely was a partner at Tuttle & Taylor, served as a staff assistant to the secretary of the U.S. Department of Energy, and as special assistant to the general counsel of the U.S. Department of Defense. He served as a law clerk to Justice Potter Stewart of the U.S. Supreme Court and to Judge John Minor Wisdom of the Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. He received Stanford University's Richard W. Lyman Prize in 2013.  Resources Stanford University Center for Law and the Biosciences War & Peace by Leo Tolstoy News Roundup N.Y. Times: Data Firm with links to Trump Campaign Exploited Facebook User Data  The New York Times dropped a bombshell story on Sunday and it has sent Washington and the stock market into a tailspin. The Dow dropped more than 1%, or by over 300 points, Facebook lost some $37 billion in value, and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg saw his net worth decline by $5 billion. In addition,  Congressional leaders including Dianne Feinstein, Amy Klobuchar, John Thune, Adam Schiff, Mark Warner and Chuck Grassley are just HAMMERING Facebook at this moment and I wouldn't want to be in Zukerberg's shoes right now. The New York Times investigation alleges that a London-based company called Cambridge Analytica, with deep ties to Republican donor Robert Mercer, who invested $15 million in Cambridge Analytica, Mercer's daughter who's on the board of Cambridge Analytica, and none other than Steve Bannon, who allegedly named the company, exploited Facebook user data to influence the 2016 presidential election to target users based on their psychographic profiles—things like religion, life statisfaction, conscientiousness, and extraversion. Of course, it's illegal under U.S. election laws to employ foreigners in political campaigns. So, The Times alleges, Cambridge set up a shell corporation and hired a Russian-American front man, Alexander Kogan, who was a researcher with the University of Cambridge. Kogan then created a Facebook personality quiz that paid users to share their private information and download the app. Some 50 million users were affected. This quiz allegedly scraped their information, and Cambridge Analytica gave him $800,000 for it. A former Cambridge Analytica employee, Christopher Wylie, was the whistleblower in all this. Facebook says it would suspend working with Cambridge Analytica and conduct an internal review, including the hiring of a forensics team. Channel 4 News London reported in an internal investigation that Cambridge Analytica uses bribes and sex workers to entrap politicians. This is just the surface. Summarizing every detail of this is way above my pay grade. But it's just layers upon layers of deception and bullshittery. You can find summaries and analysis in The New York Times, Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal. Trump administration issues new Russian sanctions on same day it reveals attacks on power plants Russia has stepped its capability with regard to cyberattacks on nuclear power plans, water, and electric systems, according to U.S. intelligence officials.The country now has moved from having the ability to surveil American power plants to having the ability to disable them anytime tensions escalate, and in a similar manner with which it disabled power in the Ukraine on two separate occasions in 2015 and 2016. The accusations came on the same day the Trump administration imposed new economic sanctions against Russia for its role in hacking the 2016 presidential election. Sanctions include freezing assets and prohibiting business deals from being transacted with two-dozen Russian individuals and entities. Nicole Perlroth and David Sanger report in the New York Times and Jonathan Easley reports in The Hill. First pedestrian casualty for self-driving cars Ali Breland reports in the Hill that a 49-year-old woman was struck and killed by an Uber fully self-driving car while she was walking through a crosswalk in Tempe, Arizona on Monday. The state attracted Uber because of its deregulatory approach to self-driving vehicle technology. The National Transportation Safety Board announced that it would be investigating. Uber has suspended its testing of self-driving cars in Phoenix, Pittsburgh, San Francisco and Toronto. Walmart whistleblower sues after reporting e-commerce cheating A former Walmart executive has sued the world's largest retailer for firing him after he reported that the company was fudging its e-commerce results to show better numbers against Amazon. The complaint alleges that Walmart mislabeled products and deliberately failed to properly process returns in order to inflate sales numbers. Jonathan Stempel and Nandita Bose report in Reuters. Japanese regulators raid Amazon Ali Breland reports for the Hill that Japanese regulators raided Amazon last week. Japan's Fair Trade Commission may be concerned about Amazon's alleged practice of strong-arming suppliers to show cheaper prices on Amazon as compared to their competitors in Japan. Amazon recalls portable chargers  Amazon is recalling 260,000 AmazonBasics portable chargers after it received 53 complaints that they were overheating. One person reported being burned by the charger's battery acid. Four others reported fire and smoke. Kate Gibson reports for CBS. Google introduces wheelchair accessibility in Maps Google released Thursday a new wheelchair-friendly maps navigation feature. The feature will include accessible routes and information on accommodations in public transportation. Josh Delk reports in the Hill. Google bans Bitcoin ads  Google has decided to ban ads for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Facebook had previously initiated a similar ban. The company did not state why it decided to make the policy change. However, it comes as many in the policy community have expressed concern that online ads could be used to promote cryptocurrency scams. Daisuke Wakabayashi reports for The New York Times. Microsoft logs 200 discrimination, harassment complaints over 6 years Ali Breland reported in the Hill that, according to court filings filed by women suing Microsoft for gender pay and promotion discrimination, women working at the company lodged some 238 gender discrimination or harassment complaints between 2010 and 2016. Of the 118 that were gender discrimination complaints, Microsoft found only one to be “founded”. According to Natasha Bach at Fortune, Microsoft has changed the way it addresses harassment complaints by banning forced arbitration agreements. The question, of course, is whether that's enough. Conservative forms bogus company to lure tech workers Finally, Gizmodo reports that James O'Keefe—the undercover conservative activist— created a fake company and sent in employees of his Project Veritas organization to pose as recruiters. These fake recruiters then reached out to employees at major tech companies like Twitter to interview them and record their responses. In one case, an employee stated that Twitter hired few conservatives and secretly hid content posted by conservative users in a practice called “shadow banning”. Project Veritas then allegedly posted the videos as evidence of an anti-conservative bias at Twitter. Twitter has denied in Congressional testimony that it engages in shadow banning activities.

    Bio Sally Culley is a Partner in the law firm of Rumberger, Kirk & Caldwell where she primarily practices in the areas of employment and commercial litigation. Her clients include large corporations as well as smaller, local businesses. With regard to employment law, Sally represents employers, both in the public and private sector, in defending employment-related claims, including claims of discrimination, wage and hour violations, whistle-blower violations, wrongful termination, harassment, and retaliation. She also provides consulting and training services designed to help prevent such claims and minimize risk. Finally, Sally assists with the creation and enforcement of employee handbooks, severance agreements, and non-compete agreements. With regard to commercial litigation, Sally handles matters involving contract disputes, fraud, and statutory claims such as Florida's Unfair and Deceptive Trade Practices Act, the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act/Florida Consumer Collection Practices Act, and RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act). Sally also represents clients in commercial mortgage foreclosures and workouts, construction lien compliance and litigation, quiet title actions, bankruptcy, and collection matters. Sally also has significant experience reviewing and interpreting insurance policies, and she assists insurers with matters involving coverage and bad faith claims, evaluating such matters, and participating in litigation where necessary. She earned her J.D. from the UNC Chapel Hill School of Law and her Bachelors from Samford University from which she graduated magna cum laude. Resources Rumberger, Kirk & Caldwell First Gig Economy Trial Decision: Independent Contractor by Sally Rogers Culley and Suzanne A. Singer (2018) News Roundup In political maneuver, House Republicans expose Senator Mark Warner's confidential texts The Senate Intelligence Committee concluded that the House Intelligence Committee, under the leadership of Devin Nunes, leaked confidential texts in which Senator Mark Warner sought from a lawyer associated with British spy Christopher Steele, a meeting with Mr. Steele, as Mr. Warner sought to investigate Russia's interference with the 2016 presidential election. The law firm for which the lawyer, Adam Waldman, works has also represented Oleg Deripaska—a Russian oil magnate. So after the text was leaked, President Trump tweeted “Wow! – Senator Mark Warner got caught having extensive contact with a lobbyist for a Russian oligarch …” Both Mark Warner and Republican Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Richard Burr, who ostensibly wasn't in on the leak, sought a meeting with House Speaker Paul Ryan to express their overall concern about the politicization of the House Intelligence Committee. Nicholas Fandos reports in the Washington Post. Online sex trafficking bill clears House The House overwhelmingly passed the Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (FOSTA) on Tuesday by a vote of 388-25. The bill would amend the Communications Decency Act to hold web platforms that knowingly help facilitate sex trafficking accountable. Currently, an exception to the CDA—Section 230—provides that web platforms are shielded from third-party liability for illegal content posted by their users. Opponents say the bill would erode free speech on the Internet and would ultimately not do enough to stop sex trafficking online. There's a Senate companion bill—the Stop Enabling Sex Trafficking Act (SESTA)—that the House will vote on next, which is also expected to pass. Harper Neidig reports in The Hill. Facebook polls users on how it should handle child porn Facebook conducted a strange survey in which it asked users how they should handle a “private message in which an adult man asks a 14 year old girl for sexual pictures.” The question turned on the extent to which Facebook should display the photo. Facebook says the question was a “mistake”. Supreme Court hears oral arguments in Microsoft overseas data case The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments on Tuesday regarding a dispute between Microsoft and the Department of Justice. The DOJ wants to be able to obtain data on Microsoft users suspected of drug trafficking. The problem is that the suspects' data are stored on a server in Ireland. Normally, the 1986 Stored Communications Act would apply, which would allow the DOJ to get a warrant. But Microsoft argues that since the data are stored overseas, the SCA doesn't apply. The court's liberal justices--namely, Justices Ginsburg and Sotomayor-- seemed to side with Microsoft, arguing that Congress should enact new legislation. But Justices Roberts and Alito seemed to favor an interim, judicial measure that would allow law enforcement to conduct investigations while Congress sorts it out. Amy Howe reports on SCOTUS Blog. On the net neutrality front … Democrats in both chambers introduce bill to stop net neutrality repeal Democrats in both chambers introduced bills to stop the FCC's repeal of the net neutrality rules. The Senate bill has 50 co-sponsors, with one Republican, Susan Collins. It needs 1 more vote to get through the Senate. There's also another bill in the House, that Representative Mike Doyle introduced, that's supported by 150 of representatives.  However, Donald Trump is not expected to sign off on these bills, even if they do pass. And the clock is ticking on Congress to do something by January 23rd, which is when the 60-day window closes on the Congressional Review Act process. Public Knowledge has a great primer on how the Congressional Review Act works here., which I've linked to in the show notes. Additionally, the state of Washington became the first state to pass net neutrality legislation of its own. And six more companies have decided to sue the FCC for repealing the net neutrality rules including Kickstarter, Foursquare, Etsy, Shutterstock, Expa, and Automattic. Pai to calls for new spectrum auctions FCC Chairman Ajit Pai is calling for new auctions to free up more spectrum. Pai announced at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona that he wants to free up more spectrum in the 24 and 28 GHz bands. The auction would be designed to accommodate 5G wireless. Pai proposes conducting the auction for the 28Gz band in November, and then proceed with a separate auction for the 24GHz band. Ali Breland has more at the Hill. Pai declines NRA award I reported last week that the National Rifle Association awarded FCC Chairman Ajit Pai the Charlton Heston Courage Under Fire Award. Politico now reports that Pai has turned it down. New lawsuit alleges that Google discriminated against white and Asian men  A new lawsuit filed in California's San Mateo County Superior Court alleges that Google executives actively discriminated against white and Asian men in the hiring process. But currently, whites and Asians comprise some 91% of Google's workforce. Kirsten Grind and Douglas MacMillan report in the Wall Street Journal. The Verge: Palantir has been secretly using predictive policying technology in New Orleans Ali Winston of the Verge wrote an investigative report on a secretive program carried out by Palantir, a data mining company that was seeded with funding from the CIA's venture capital firm.  Apparently, Palantir has been working with the New Orleans' police department to secretly track largely minority populations in New Orleans with an algorithm that claims to predict violence and crime. Not even the New Orleans city council admits that they were aware of the program.  Report: Sexting is on the rise among youth A new JAMA Pediatrics report finds that sexting is on the rise among tweens and teens. The study compiled data from 39 studies of 110,380 participants and found that some 27% of kids between 12 and 17 receive sexts. The average age is 15. Fifteen percent reported that they sent sexts. Beth Mole reports in Ars Technica. FCC relaxing environmental standards for 5G deployment In addition to the spectrum auction, Republican FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr last week announced that the Commission will vote on March 23rd on a measure that would relax some environmental review standards for small companies that want to deploy 5G. Carr claimed in his remarks that the proposal would remove regulatory burdens and help the U.S. remain competitive. To support relaxing these environmental standards, Carr also made unsubstantiated claims that 5G deployment would create 3 million new jobs and hundreds of billions of dollars in network investment and GDP growth. EU tells Facebook and Google to take down terror content in 1 hour The European Union released a set of voluntary guidelines for Facebook and Google to remove terrorist and other illegal content, including content that incites hatred. The guidelines provide that the companies should remove such content within one hour. Binding regulations could be forthcoming depending on how well the voluntary guidelines work. Natalia Drozdiak reports in the Wall Street Journal. Comcast wants to buy Sky for $31bn Harper Neidig reports in the Hill that Comcast now wants to buy Sky, the European broadcaster, for $31 billion. This offer is 16% higher than what Fox was offering. Disney is also a factor here, since they're making a bid for Fox's non-broadcast assets.

  Bio Randy Abreu (@AbreuForNYC) is an author, attorney, tech-policy nerd and former candidate for New York City Council from the Bronx. Abreu served in the Obama Administration where he was appointed to the Department of Energy's Office of Technology Transitions and Clean Energy Investment Center. He is an alum of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute and Google Policy fellowships and is currently a Google NextGen Leader, Internet Law and Policy Foundry fellow, and member of the Bronx Progressives. Abreu has a personal history of advocating for social justice, and federal experience producing regulations and initiatives on intellectual property, drones, self-driving cars, cybersecurity, broadband access, spectrum allocation, e-privacy, and tech-transfer. Resources Bronx Progressives  Public or Industry Interest? Debating the UHF Discount  by Randy Abreu and Jason Smith (International Journal of Media and Cultural Politics, March, 2014) Digital Divide, Race, and Ethnic Inequality by Randy Abreu (The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Race, Ethnicity, and Nationalism, December, 2015) Failure to Communicate: The Critical Information Needs Debate by Randy Abreu, Eds. Jason Smith, Bhoomi K. Thakore (Race and Contention in Twenty-First Century Media, May 2016) MOU or an IOU? Latina/os and the Racialization of Media Policy by Randy Abreu and Jason Smith (Ethnic and Racial Studies, forthcoming, Spring, 2018) News Roundup Online sex trafficking bill moves forward in House The FOSTA bill—the Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex trafficking bill—cleared the House Rules Committee on Monday. It now moves to a floor vote and it includes California Republican representative Mimi Walters' amendment to allow victims to sue and prosecutors to charge website operators who enable sex trafficking. The bill now moves to a floor vote and it now has the support of Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai gets NRA award The National Rifle Association awarded FCC Chairman Ajit Pai with a “Charlton Heston Courage Under Fire” award. The NRA wanted to recognize Pai for enduring the incredible public outcry over the push to repeal the net neutrality rules. FCC's net neutrality repeal published in federal register The FCC's repeal of the net neutrality rules was published in the Federal Register on Wednesday, giving Congress 60 days to block the repeal under the Congressional Review Act before the first few rules take effect. Senators who support the measure to block the repeal need one more vote. Eric Limer reports in Popular Mechanics. Meanwhile, a coalition of 22 state attorneys general have now refiled their lawsuits to block the repeal as well. Second Circuit: FTC can move forward with AT&T throttling suit The Second Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Monday that a lawsuit brought by the Federal Trade Commission against AT&T claiming the company throttled customers can move forward. The FTC alleges that AT&T slowed down customers' data even though the customers had unlimited data plans. As Harper Neidig notes in the Hill, the decision is seen as affirming the FTC's role as enforcer of net neutrality principles. Intel concealed chip flaws for months Intel concealed the Meltdown and Spectre security flaws from US officials until they were made public some six months after Google's parent company, Alphabet, told them about them. Intel now faces 32 pending lawsuits related to the flaws, as well as an insider-training investigation concerning the company's CEO, Brian Krzanich, who sold a chunk of company stock in the fourth quarter of last year, after the security flaws were known. Tom Warren has the story in the Verge. NLRB: Google's firing of James Damore was legal The U.S. National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) found that Google was justified in firing former Google computer engineer James Damore. Despite all the recent so-called research about a supposed lack of “viewpoint diversity” in Silicon Valley, and all of the histrionics around high profile individuals leaving Silicon Valley because they don't feel free to express themselves—the NLRB found that Damore's derogatory comments in a memo about how women's biological traits affect their work performance were “unprotected discriminatory comments”. Edward Moyer has a report in CNET. In another case, an employee who criticized Damore, whom Google also subsequently fired, is also now suing the company for letting him go. The employee, Tim Chevalier, who is queer and transgender, posted that Damore's memo was misogynistic and also that “'white boys' expect privilege and feel threatened if they don't receive it.'” Nearly half of parents worry about kids' mobile addition Forty-seven percent of parents are worried that their kids are addicted to mobile devices. That's according to a new survey from Common Sense Media and Survey Monkey. But 89% believe that they are in control of their kids' device use. Brett Molina reports in USA Today. SpaceX moved forward on test of high speed internet from space SpaceX launched two experimental satellites that will test the internet service it wants to provide to everyone on the planet via 10,000 low-orbiting satellites whizzing around the earth at over 200 miles per hour. The project has FCC Chairman Ajit Pai's blessing. Pai urged his fellow commissioners to approve SpaceX's proposal to provide broadband worldwide. Jackie Wattles reports in CNN. Facebook plans to use postcards to verify advertiser identities Facebook announced last week that it would begin sending postcards to ad buyers in order to verify their identities. In the aftermath of revelations that Russian hackers relied extensively on Facebook to push Russian propaganda, the social media giant wants to prove to regulators and the public that they are committed to weeding out bots and fake profiles. Dustin Volz reports for Reuters. Facebook to study economic inequality  Nancy Scola reported for Politico that Facebook will now study economic inequality in the United States using its own, massive data trove. The Stanford-led team will be led by economist Raj Chetty. DC grants Elon Musk Hyperloop permit Michael Laris and Jonathan O'Connell reported for the Washington post that the Washington, D.C. government has granted Elon Musk a permit to start digging for the Hyperloop. The Hyperloop would be a vacuum-based transportation system that's capable of traveling at 670 miles per hour. Tough week for the right on social media It was a tough week last week for right-wing conservatives on social media. Luis Sanchez reports for the Hill that conservatives on Twitter have been bleeding followers since itreportedly suspended thousands of user accounts. One claimed to have lost as many as 2,000 in a single night Twitter also announced Wednesday that it will be limiting users' ability to automate and post duplicate posts across platforms and accounts. Ali Breland of the Hill reports that over at Medium, the blogging platform suspended the accounts of far-right bloggers Mike Cernovich, Jack Posobiec and Laura Loomer And the YouTube channel of the far right outlet InfoWars posted a conspiracy video claiming that one of the Parkland survivors was an “actor”. YouTube issued an apology and issued a strike against InfoWars. According to YouTube's community guidelines, users that get 3 strikes within 3 months will have their channels terminated. Abby Ohlheiser has more at the Washington Post.

  Bio Brian Howard is a Research & Policy Analyst with the American Indian Policy Institute (AIPI) at Arizona State University. Prior to joining the AIPI team in November 2016, Brian served over five years as a Legislative Associate with the National Congress of American Indians in Washington, DC. Working on behalf of American Indian and Alaska Native tribal governments, Brian's work included developing and advocating tribal policy initiatives in Congress and the Administration on issues such as Telecommunications, Government Contracting, and Cultural Protections (Sacred Places, Eagle Feather/Eagle Protections, NAGPRA, and Mascot issues). Brian's work experience has included numerous D.C.-based research and policy internships, as well as with the New Mexico House of Representatives and the Gila River Indian Community Council's Office. Brian graduated from the University of New Mexico in 2009 with his Bachelor of Arts degree in Native American Studies focusing on Federal Indian Law and Policy with a minor in Political Science. He is Akimel O'odham, Tohono O'odham, and Pi-Pash, and an enrolled member of the Gila River Indian Community where he grew up in the Komatke District. Resources American Indian Policy Institute (AIPI) at Arizona State University National Congress of American Indians Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain Custer Died for Your Sins: An Indian Manifesto by Jr. Vine Deloria News Roundup N.Y. Times: U.S. spies paid Russians for cyberweapons/Trump secret Remember the dossier on Donald Trump that former British spy Christopher Steele built that made headlines about a year ago? The one that alleged encounters with prostitutes, bribes, and evidence of collaboration with Russians to hack Democrats? Well the problem with the dossier until now was that none of the allegations have been corroborated. But, over the weekend, the New York Times reported that U.S. spies paid a “shadowy Russian” some $100,000 in exchange for stolen National Security Agency cyberweapons. The Russian also promised secret information about President Trump. The total payout was to be $1 million. This was just the first installment. And the spies, according to the Times, delivered the cash in a suitcase to a Berlin hotel. The White House and CIA have obviously been trying to contain the report. Matthew Rosenberg reports in the New York Times. Russian hackers continue to exploit U.S. cyber vulnerabilities The Associated Press reports that Russian spies have continued to exploit vulnerabilities in U.S. defenses. According to the report, the spies fooled contractors with phishing scams disseminated via email, which allowed them to gain access to data acquired by spy drones. Waymo and Uber reach a settlement Uber and Waymo reached a settlement last week. Uber agreed to give Waymo, the self driving car company built by Google, a $245 million stake in Uber's equity, or about .34 percent. No cash was part of the settlement. Uber continues to deny that they either stole or used any of Waymo's trade secrets or self-driving car technology. Alex Castro reports for the Verge. U.S. arrests 36 in cyberfraud crackdown The Justice Department reported last week that it had arrested and charged 36 people for running a cyberfraud ring that stole some $350 million. Officials allege that Svyatoslav Bondarenko created Infraud in 2010 to make online purchases with counterfeit or stolen credit card information. Tom Schoenberg reports on the details of the scheme in Bloomberg. Internet giants back net neutrality bill The Internet Association--the trade association that represents internet giants like Google, Facebook and others--wrote a letter to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell last week in support of a bipartisan legislative solution that would overturn the FCC's repeal of the net neutrality rules. Harper Neidig reports in the Hill. British officials grill Google, Facebook and Twitter in Washington Eleven members of the British Parliament came to Washington last week to grill tech executives from Google, Facebook and Twitter about fake news. Hamza Shaban of the Chicago Tribune reported that the meeting was far from cordial, with the lawmakers sharply criticizing the companies' moral compass and failure to curtail the spread of misinformation online. YouTube maintained that it hadn't found any evidence of Russian interference in the Brexit vote. In a separate story last week, CNN brought to Twitter's attention the fact that hundreds of Russian propaganda videos remained on Vine—the video sharing platform that Twitter owns--until well after Twitter should have been aware that the Kremlin posted the videos Also, YouTube had to change some of its policies after YouTuber Logan Paul engaged in an ongoing pattern of posting really repulsive videos such as the video of a suicide victim in Japan. Google decided to suspend advertising on Paul's channel and announced a broader policy change under which it would make YouTube channels that post offensive content less discoverable. Ingrid Ludent reports for Tech Crunch Winter Olympics were cyberattacked An organizer of the winter Olympics in Pyeongchang reported that there was a cyberattack during the opening ceremony. However, the organizer won't disclose who carried out the attack. Peter Rutherford reports in Reuters New study finds gender pay gap among Uber drivers A new University of Chicago study found a gender pay gap among Uber drivers. The study found that women driving for Uber earned some 7% less per hour than their male counterparts. Mark Warner tees up ‘tech addiction' At a speech last week, Senator Mark Warner teed up tech addiction as a concern for policymakers. The remarks came amidst several studies conducted recently that purport to illustrate Americans' addition to tech. David McCabe has more in Axios M.I.T. study shows facial recognition AI skin color bias A new study from the M.I.T. Media Lab shows a commercial facial recognition technology is correct 99% of the time when it comes to identifying white man. But when it came to identifying black folks, the software was wrong 35% of the time. Steve Lohr reports in The New York Times Spouses of highly skilled immigrants face job losses under Trump The spouses of high skilled workers who enter the country under an H1B visa are permitted to work under an H-4 visa. But Trump's Department of Homeland Security is seeking to end the program, potentially affecting that additional source of income. Cleaver wants white supremacists out of cryptocurrencies Several reports say that white supremacists have been raising funding with Bitcoin to circumvent the established tech sector. So Missouri Democrat Emanuel Cleaver wrote a letter to the Bitcoin Foundation and Digital Chamber of Commerce, asking for measures to curtail white supremacists' cryptocurrency fundraising activities. Ali Breland reports in the Hill. Senators pressure CFPB on Equifax Thirty Senators want to know why Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Acting Director Mick Mulvaney, a Trump appointee has delayed the investigation into the Equifax breach that compromised the data of some 143 million Americans. Thirty Senators, led by Hawaii Democrat Brian Schatz, want to know why CFPB hasn't taken preliminary steps in the investigation. So far the CFPB has declined comment. Trump administration wants to privatize International Space station Christian Davenport reports for the Washington Post that the White House is planning to stop funding for the International Space Station after 2024. It is working on a plan to turn the space station into a commercial enterprise.    

Bio Brian Woolfolk (@brianpwoolfolk) is the Founding Executive Director of Full Color Future--a new think tank and advocacy organization committed to changing the narrative about people of color in media, tech and innovation. He has been passionate about inclusive tech, telecom and media policy for more than 20 years, since he got his start on Capitol Hill. Brian served as Democratic Counsel on the US House Judiciary Committee and advised Committee Members on the Telecommunications Act, media ownership diversity, and free speech issues. He also advised members and staff on constitutional, civil rights, antitrust, criminal justice and investigative issues. Prior to his Committee work, Brian served as legislative counsel to Congressman Robert C. (Bobby) Scott of Virginia, currently the Ranking Member of the House Education and Workforce Committee. Since leaving the Hill, Brian Woolfolk has worked in private practice, representing a broad array of clients with matters before Congress, federal agencies, and state and local governments. Brian also counsels clients involved in high profile Congressional Investigations. Mr. Woolfolk has extensive technology and media policy experience. His advocacy on tech policy issues began when he ran a pro bono project that provided government relations services to minority media companies challenging anti-competitive practices in the cable marketplace. Over the years, Brian has worked on surveillance, artificial intelligence, net neutrality, mergers, set top boxes, and a host of other issues related to the fight to ensure diverse tech and media interests are protected. Brian has a B.A. in Criminal Justice from the University of Maryland and a J.D. from the William & Mary Law School. Brian currently serves as a Member of the William and Mary Board of Visitors (Trustees). Resources Full Color Future Brothas Be, Yo Like George, Ain't That Funkin' Kinda Hard On You?: A Memoir by George Clinton (Atria Books, 2014) News Roundup Net neutrality and media ownership caps: next steps Of course you've heard by now that the Republican-led FCC voted to repeal the 2015 net neutrality rules which classified ISPs as "common carriers". This classification brought them directly within the scope of the Commission's so-called "Title II" authority, which is the section of the Communications Act that deals with common carriers. The net neutrality rules banned ISPs from blocking, slowing down, or prioritizing speeds for content creators who can afford to pay for higher speeds, while keeping everyone else's in the slow lane. Those rules are gone now. However, the FCC did keep the so-called "transparency rule", which continues to require ISPs to be transparent about their network management practices. Still, the definition of "transparency" is subject to broad interpretation since there is no longer any underlying rules that say what ISPs are supposed to be transparent about. The FCC and FTC have said that they intended to pursue a Memorandum of Understanding which would define how the two agencies would work together to enforce net neutrality principles. But until that's done--there are no net neutrality rules--only unenforceable principles of net neutrality. So what are the next steps? Well, first off, the FCC is likely to get sued. The most obvious basis for any lawsuit would be the way in which the FCC considered public comments in this proceeding, or, should I say--did NOT consider public comments. New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said last week that he would be suing the FCC for illegally rolling back the net neutrality rules. He points to the fact that there were millions of fake or fraudulent comments in the record. He also says that the Commission failed to hold public hearings. Schniederman says that repealing the rules "rewards the very perpetrators who scammed the system to advance their own agenda." Other states that are planning to sue include Washington, Illinois, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Oregon, Delaware, Vermont, DC and Massachusetts. Advocacy organizations, like Free Press, have also expressed their intention to sue. The other route is legislation. Verge reporter Jacob Kastrenakes reports that Senate Commerce Committee Chair John Thune called on Congress last week to pass a new net neutrality law. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has said that he would force a vote under he Congressional Review Act to preserve the net neutrality rules. Shannon Liao has excellent coverage of how all of this could play out in The Verge. The FCC also passed a notice of proposed rulemaking, in which it is exploring how the FCC might reduce the broadcast ownership cap. Currently, it is illegal for a single broadcast owner to reach more than 39% of the national market. This standard was set by Congress, and it was legislation that current Republican FCC Commissioner Michael O'Rielly worked on when he was a Legislative Assistant for former Republican New Hampshire Senator John Sununu. O'Rielly opposes raising the cap because he says the Commission doesn't have the authority to do so. However, he says that it is appropriate for the FCC to consider raising the cap, since it is unlikely that Congress will do so. John Eggerton explains in Broadcasting & Cable. We should also note that David Shepardson of Reuters reports that the FCC has voted behind closed doors to fine Sinclair Broadcasting $13.3 million for failing to disclose that it ran paid programming on some of its stations that was sponsored by a cancer institute. Sinclair's proposed acquisition of Tribune Media is still pending. U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal calls for Comcast-NBC merger investigation U.S. Senator Richard Blumental wants the DOJ to revisit the Comcast/NBCU merger that closed back in 2011. The merger conditions Comcast committed to in exchange for the merger being approved are set to expire next fall. So Blumenthal is concerned that the market harms that some have already pointed to will get worse. He wrote a letter last week to U.S. Assistant Attorney General Makan Delrahim asking him to consider breaking up Comcast/NBCU or, at a minimum, to extend the merger conditions. Ted Johnson reports for Variety. NASA discovers 8th planet orbiting distant star With the help of Google's artificial intelligence neural network, NASA has identified an 8th planet orbiting a distant star called Kepler 90, which is about 2,500 light years away from us. The planet, which is called Kepler 90i, has a 14-day orbit and is rocky and hot, with a surface temperature of 800 degrees Farenheit. It is within the first solar system humans have discovered with as many planets as our own. Maya Wei-Haas has the story in Smithsonian. Twitter cracks down on hate speech Twitter began enforcing a new policy to crack down on white nationalist hate speech on Monday, suspending accounts linked to white nationalists. The new policy prohibits users from advocating violence against civilians. Harper Neidig reports in the Hill. Former Uber lawyer alleges thatUber hacked and surveilled its competitors As you know, Uber, and Google parent company Alphabet's self driving car unit Waymo, have been embroiled in litigation. Waymo charges that a former employee took secrets back to Uber to help Uber develop its competing self-driving car. Well,  a new letter came to light last week, and it says that Uber hacked and surveilled its competitors to gain competitive insights in a way that went far beyond industry norms.  For example, the 37-page letter--dubbed Jacob's letter-- written by a former attorney to Uber's head of global intelligence, says that Uber collected the license, name and contact information of 35,000  drivers and used that information to entice them to work for Uber instead. The letter also states that Uber engaged in other less-than-savory practices as it spied on competitors. The letter was made public just days ahead of the trial that's set to commence in days. Jake Nicas reports in the Wall Street Journal. House releases answer to the Senate's Sex Trafficking bill The House of Representatives released its answer to the Senate's Stop Enabling Sex Trafficking Act last week. The House version, which is entitled the Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act, or FOSTA, would make it so that companies can no longer claim immunity from *state* laws for third-party content that promotes sex trafficking. Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act only prevents such immunity from federal law. The House bill also prohibits ads that solicit prostitution. Jack Corrigan reports in Next.gov. Democrats push back on Disney/21st Century Fox merger Democratic lawmakers are calling for hearings on Disney's $52 billion bid for 21st Century Fox. Senator Amy Klobuchar is concerned about the merger's potential competitive harms. Representatives David Cicilline and Emanuel Cleaver want hearings as well. Tony Romm reports for Recode. Senator Brian Schatz warns about a lack of diversity in AI Hawaii Senator Brian Schatz--the top ranking internet subcommittee Democrat--scolded the tech sector for its lack of diversity at an artificial intelligence hearing last week. Schatz was particularly concerned about the lack of diversity among artificial intelligence development teams. He said that these teams are predominantly white and male and pointed to the potential for bias in setting up AI algorithms.  Ali Breland reports in The Hill. YouTube takes down Ajit Pai's 'Harlem Shake' video for 7 hours FCC Chairman Ajit Pai's video of himself doing the Harlem Shake to ease minds about repealing net neutrality didn't go over so well with DJ Baauer, who created the track. Bauer filed a copyright claim and YouTube took the video down for  7 hours.      In any case the video's back up but the ratio of dislikes to likes is some 24 to 1. with just 9,000 likes and 217, 000 dislikes. Sarah Jeong reports in the Verge.                 

Bio Cheryl A. Leanza (@cleanza) is the President of her consulting firm, A Learned Hand, LLC, www.alearnedhand.com.  In this capacity she serves as policy advisor to the United Church of Christ's historic media advocacy arm and as the Co-Chair of the Leadership Conference of Civil Rights Media & Telecommunications Task Force.  Her other clients have included the Progressive States Network, Leadership Conference Education Fund, National Federation of Community Broadcasters, Future of Music Coalition, Public Knowledge, and Native Public Media, among others. Ms. Leanza helped to lead the victorious effort to pass the Local Community Radio Act, and has been a leader in public interest advocacy for more than 15 years, including advocacy for diversity in media ownership, protection for children in media, and other policies furthering First Amendment principles, including open Internet.  She has represented non-profits before the Federal Communications Commission, in the U.S. Appellate courts and before Congress, and has been widely quoted in the trade and mainstream press on these issues. Ms. Leanza's prior positions include a stint as Principal Legislative Counsel for telecommunications at the National League of Cities where she was lead lobbyist for local elected officials during the period when Congress was debating changes to local cable television franchising laws.  She also spent six and one-half years as Deputy Director of Media Access Project and began her career in the Federal Communications Commission's honor attorney program. Ms. Leanza is a cum laude graduate of the University of Michigan Law School and the Ford School of Public Policy and teaches at Georgetown University's Department of Communications, Culture and Technology.  Ms. Leanza serves on the board of the Prometheus Radio Project and has served as Vice Chair of the Media and Democracy Coalition, as well as on the Federal Communications Bar Association's Executive Committee and the Foundation Board.  She is admitted in the District of Columbia and New York; and in the United States Supreme Court; U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, Third, Fourth, and Ninth Circuits. Resources A Learned Hand, LLC United Church of Christ Office of Communication The Leavers by Lisa Ko News Roundup Donald Trump Jr. communicated with Wikileaks Juilia Ioffee reports for the Atlantic that Donald Trump, Jr. exchanged direct messages via Twitter with Wikileaks during the 2016 presidential campaign. The exchange went on at least through July of this year. This is the first connection that Congressional investigators have established between the White House and the notorious leaking site which investigators believe Russia enlisted to interfere with last year's election. Wikileaks warned Trump, Jr. ahead of time about a new website that was to be released showing ties between Trump and Putin. Wikileaks requested favors of Trump, Jr. including access to Trump's tax returns.  House Democrats call for an investigation into FCC Pai's ties to Sinclair Top House Democrats including House Oversight Committee Ranking Member Elijah Cummings and Energy and Commerce Committee Ranking Member Frank Pallone are seeking an investigation into FCC Chairman Ajit Pai's ties to Sinclair Broadcasting. Pai is accused of passing rules changes that clear the path for Sinclair's pending acquisition of Tribune Media, which would give the combined company access to some 70% of the U.S. TV market. Harper Neidig reports in the Hill.  Qualcomm rejects Broadcom's acquisition bid The Qualcomm Board of Directors has unanimously rejected Broadcom's $103 billion acquisition bid. Qualcomm said that the bid is too low. Harper Neidig reports in the Hill. Missouri's AG opens investigation into Google Prompted by a record, $2.8 billion fine against Google by the European Union, Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley has issued subpoenas to Google as part of a state investigation to determine whether the company prioritizes its own search results over that of its competitors. Harper Neidig reports on this as well in the Hill.  Softbank to participate in $1 billion bid for Uber Uber has accepted an investment offer from Asian telecom conglomerate Softbank that is part of a total $1 billion investment being made into the ride-sharing company by a consortium of other companies. This investment will open up the possibility of Softbank acquiring up to $9 billion in equity from the company's shareholders. Softbank also owns a majority stake in Sprint. The deal with Uber is seen, in part, as an opportunity for Uber to expand into Asia as it struggles against stiff competition from Lyft in the U.S. for which Google parent Alphabet is leading a $1 billion investment effort. Ali Breland reports in The Hill. Senate Commerce Committee approves sex trafficking bill The Senate Commerce Committee has approved the Stop Online Sex Trafficking Act, or SESTA, which would limit the exception created by section 230 of the Communications Decency Act which grants immunity to web sites for illegal posts made by their users. The current bill would crack down specifically on websites that facilitate sex trafficking. The current version of the bill is now supported by the Internet Association, as well as Amazon, Facebook, and Google. But Oregon Senator Ron Wyden has placed a public hold on the bill, which will now require it to meet a 60-vote threshold before moving on to the full Senate.  DC Circuit Court of Appeals narrows warrants for data from inauguration daty protests The DC Circuit Court of Appeals has blocked the Department of Justice's ability to obtain data from innocent, third party Facebook users who used a page dedicated to organizing a protest against Trump's inauguration. The court is seeking to institute what it terms as "procedural safeguards" to prevent innocent users' data from being sweept up with targeted suspects'. The Court will now be approving all of the DOJs search terms in connection with the investigation into criminal activity that occurred during inauguration protests. Silicon Valley disapproves of GOP tax plan Leading Silicon Valley figures are opposing the GOP tax plan to tax employee stock options once employees receive them. This is opposed to the current tax law providing that only the capital gains tax of stock options are taxable. Some five hundred Silicon Valley leaders from firms such as Facebook, Uber, Y Combinator and others criticized the plan in a letter to Orrin Hatch. Ali Breland reports in the Hill.   

  Bio Mary Madden (@mary_madden) is a veteran technology researcher, writer and public speaker, having studied trends in American internet users' behaviors and attitudes for more than a decade. With the support of a grant from the Digital Trust Foundation, she is currently leading a Data & Society initiative to understand the privacy and security experiences of low-socioeconomic status populations. Mary is also an Affiliate at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University where she has collaborated with the Berkman Center's Youth and Media Project to apply quantitative and qualitative research methods to study adolescents' technology use and privacy management on social media. Prior to her role at Data & Society, Mary was a Senior Researcher for the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project. She is a nationally recognized expert on privacy and technology, trends in social media use, and the impact of digital media on teens and parents. Mary is also a member of the National Cyber Security Coalition's Data Privacy Day Advisory Committee and the Research Advisory Committee for the Future of Music Coalition's Artist Revenue Streams Project. Resources Data & Society Privacy, Security and Digital Inequality by Mary Madden (Data & Society, 2017) Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University Overwhelmed: Work, Love and Play When No One Has the Time by Brigid Schulte News Roundup Social media giants tidy up ahead of big day on Hill Ahead of appearances before the House and Senate intelligence Committees this coming Wednesday, social media giants appear to be tidying up. Reddit has announced that it will now ban content from Nazi and alt-right groups.  Twitter announced that it will now ban the online media outlets RT and Sputnik. Twitter says the two sites are platforms for Kremlin messaging. Both Facebook and Twitter said that they will be more transparent about who is placing political ads on their platforms. The companies said they will begin to include links and other information enabling users to know who sponsored a political ad. The companies will also vet advertisers to weed out bots. But some Senators, including Virginia's Mark Warner are noting that explicit ads may only represent a tiny percentage of ad spend. Many expenditures, they say, are coming from content that appears to be legit--organic content designed to stoke emotions in favor of a political party. Mark Zuckerberg also upped his pr game last week. The Hill reports that Zuckerberg will be investing $45 million of his own money to address mass incarceration and the housing crisis. Still, however, Facebook is expected to reveal at Wednesday's hearings that the number of views Russia-sponsored ads garnered is closer to 126 million. This is compared to the 10 million views it initially reported. And Politico reports that in August and September of 2016, Twitter made a bizarre change to its privacy policy amidst research into the way in which Russian operatives may have been manipulating the platform. The company updated its privacy privacy to require all users associated with deleted accounts to clear their tracks by deleting the content on their end as well. Also revealed last week by the Senate Intelligence Committee--Twitter actually pitched RT to buy ads during the 2016 campaign season--the problem is that the company didn't disclose it. Congresswoman Maxine Waters is also demanding that Twitter turn over information about Russia-linked accounts that targeted her. The Congresswoman said that she noticed several mysterious accounts tweeting lies about her every time she tweeted  something negative about Donald Trump. On top of everything else, Axios and Survey Monkey released a study saying 54% of Americans think the issue of Russian meddling is a "serious issue". However, those results were along party lines with Democrats tending to think the issue is more serious than do Republicans. Apple doesn't want shareholders to tie senior executive diversity to CEO performance  Apple is asking the Securities and Exchange Commission to step in and prevent a shareholder proposal from taking effect which would base the assessment of the CEO's performance, in part, on the diversity of the ranks of Apple's senior executive team. The shareholder cohort that is pushing for the measure is said to hold almost $10 billion in Apple shares. Ali Breland reports in the Hill. Georgia wipes out election data after being sued for voting violations On July 3rd, election reform advocates concerned about the impact of Russian influence on the 2016 election filed a lawsuit against the state of Georgia which attempted to force the state to retire its antiquated election technology. And then Kennesaw State University, which runs the state election system, wiped everything on the voting system clean. The FBI is said to have taken a back-up image of the system back in March. But advocates say the State of Georgia must have had something to hide. Frank Bajak reports for the Associated Press on widespread concerns that outdated election systems in voting districts throughout the country may already be compromised by Russian actors and others seeking to undermine the electoral system. Facebook by lawsuit saying the company attempted to evade overtime pay rules Former Facebook employees are suing the company for deliberately evading overtime pay laws by misclassifying them as managers.  David Kravets reports in Ars Technica. Uber faces yet another discrimination lawsuit Uber is facing yet another discrimination lawsuit. This time, Latina engineers accuse Uber of not promoting or paying them at a rate that is comparable to their male, white and Asian counterparts. Joel Rosenblatt reports for Bloomberg. U.S. widened surveillance of "homegrown extremists" under Obama U.S. Air Force training slides obtained by a surveillance researcher at Human Rights Watch pursuant to a Freedom of Information Act request show the U.S. expanded its surveillance of suspected "homegrown violent extremists" in August of last year.  The guidance states that physical or digital surveillance of such suspects is authorized whether or not they're tied to a foreign terrorist organization. Dustin Volz reports in Reuters. FCC to roll back media ownership rules/Lifeline The FCC announced its agenda for its November 16th Open meeting. Trump's FCC plans to eliminate the media ownership rule that prevents a company from owning a full power TV station and newspaper in the same market. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai also wants to place a cap on Lifeline subsidies for low-income broadband subscribers. That subsidy now stands at $9.95/month. The cap would limit the availability of Lifeline support to new subscribers. Brian Fung reports for the Washington Post and Jon Brodkin reports for Ars Technica. Tech industry releases AI self-regulatory framework The Information Technology Industry Council, which boasts tech giants Facebook, Apple, Google, Microsoft and others as members, released a set of guiding principles around the industry's development of artificial technology. ITI President Dean Garfield says the  framework is intended to eliminate harmful bias, prejudice and discrimination from AI algorithms. Will Yakoqicz reports in Inc. SoftBank drops bid for T-Mobile SoftBank is ending its plan to merge its Sprint unit with T-Mobile, according to a report in the Asian Review.  This is the second time Softbank has abandoned its effort to acquire T-Mobile. The first time was during the Obama administration when the deal would have been faced with much harsher scrutiny.            

Bio Larry Miller (@larrysmiller) is a Clinical Music Associate Professor and Director of the Music Business Program at NYU. He is also a music and technology entrepreneur and advisor and host of the Musonomics podcast. He advises music creators and rights holders on public policy and litigation. Additionally, he has provided expert testimony before the Copyright Royalty Board and in arbitration. Larry supports media and technology companies and their financial sponsors on capital formation and growth strategy. Further, he advises on digital product & service development, as well as acquisitions and restructuring. Previously, Larry was a Partner at L.E.K. Consulting and a senior member of the firm's media and entertainment practice. He later served as Executive Vice President and General Manager of MediaNet. Larry founded and operated Or Music, a Grammy Award winning independent record label and music publisher where he signed, recorded and published multi-platinum artists Los Lonely Boys and Matisyahu; he was Vice President of Market Development at AT&T Labs Research, and began his career as a broadcaster at Tribune, NBC Radio Entertainment and WHTZ/Z100 New York, regarded as the most successful startup in U.S. radio history as the station went from “worst to first” within 72 days of signing-on in the country's most competitive radio market. Larry has commented on CBS, ABC, CNBC, CNN, Fox News and NPR; in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Time, Business Week, Financial Times, Los Angeles Times and Billboard. His article "Metadata: How to Develop the Foundation for the Music Business of Tomorrow" was published in The Licensing Journal and is available to NYU students on BobCat. He earned an MBA at Columbia Business School, and previously served as Entrepreneur-in-Residence and Adjunct Faculty member in the Music Business program at NYU-Steinhardt. Resources Paradigm Shift: Why Radio Must Adapt to the Rise of Digital by Larry S. Miller NYU Steinhardt Department of Music and Performing Arts Professions - Music Business Musonomics The Sound Machine:Inside the Hit Factory by John Seabrook News Roundup Senators announce bipartisan bill to require online political advertising disclosures Five Senators--3 Democrat and 2 Republican--unveiled a new bill that would require sites with more than 50 million visits per month to follow the same political ad disclosure rules that broadcasters follow. It would require disclosures for sponsored posts in addition to explicit ads. Sites would be required to include clear and conspicuous language stating which candidate sponsored the content. Further, it would require sites to keep a record of anyone who attempted to purchase a political placement worth $500 or more. The bill is supported by Senators Klobuchar, Warner, Kilmer, McCain and Coffman. Tech companies form 'Coalition for the American Dream' Major tech companies have lined up in support of young, undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. as children. The companies will be lobbying Congress for bipartisan legislation to allow so-called "Dreamers" to continue working in the U.S. President Trump decided in September to allow the Dreamers program, which began under the Obama administration, to expire in March of next year. This would affect some 900,000 immigrants. Salvador Rodriguez and Jeffrey Dastin cover this in Reuters. Tech giants to send General Counsels to offer Hill testimony on Nov. 1 Google, Facebook, and Twitter are planning to send their General Counsels to the Nov. 1st House and Senate Intelligence Committee hearings on Russia's use of the platforms to influence the 2016 election. Critics say the company should instead be sending executives with more technical expertise. Ali Breland reports in the Hill. U.S. proposes new controls to secure the electrical grid The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission last week proposed new controls to protect the nation's electrical grid from hacks. Experts have long worried about the effect an attack on the electrical grid might have on everything from the water supply to cars. The proposed rulemaking focuses on mitigating the impact of malicious transient devices, like laptops and mobile phones. Back in January, the Department of Energy released a report warning of an imminent danger to the electrical grid from cyberattacks. Naureen Malik reports in Bloomberg.   FCC review of Sinclair-Tribune merger delayed The FCC's Media Bureau has pushed back the deadline for the public to submit comments regarding the Sinclair-Tribune merger. The public now has until November 2 to weigh in. Harper Neidig has the story in the Hill. EU: US Privacy Shield implementation is 'adequate' The European Union has found that the Privacy Shield framework it agreed to with the U.S. last year is working adequately. The Privacy Shield requires the U.S. to ensure the private information of European citizens is adequately protected when it reaches the U.S. However, the first annual report does make some recommendations. It notes that the U.S. could do a better job informing European citizens of their right to redress. Additionally, it says that U.S. agencies should do more to coordinate their compliance efforts. Joe Uchill reports in the Hill. CNN awarded first FAA waiver of rules pertaining to drone flights over crowds The Federal Aviation Administration has awarded CNN with the first unlimited waiver of rules pertaining to drone flights over crowds. The FAA generally prohibits drone flights over crowds for safety reasons. However, CNN's 1.37 pound Snap drone's rotors are internal and it is designed to break apart in the event of a crash. Alan Levin reports for Bloomberg.   Whole Foods breach affected 100 taprooms Amazon's Whole Foods announced that the data breach it reported last month affected about 100 of its taprooms. Hackers stole cardholder names, account numbers and security codes. The hack did not affect purchases made in Whole Foods retail stores or purchases made on Amazon.com. Heatlher Haddon reports on the Wall Street Journal.

Bio Jason Resendez (@jason_r_dc) directs the LatinosAgainstAlzheimer's Network. LatinosAgainstAlzheimer's is the nation's first-ever coalition of Latino organizations focused on raising awareness of Alzheimer's disease within the Latino community. Previously, Jason served as senior manager of strategic partnerships at the National Council of La Raza (NCLR). NCLR is the nation's largest Latino advocacy organization.  Prior to NCLR, he served as the director of corporate relations and development at LULAC National Educational Service Centers Inc. (LNESC). LULAC is the nation's oldest Latino civil rights organization.  Jason has written about Latino issues for national and regional media outlets. Those outlets include NBC News, Huffington Post, and the El Paso Times. He graduated from Georgetown University with a B.A. in Government. Resources UsAgainstAlzheimer's Slow Dancing with a Stranger:Lost and Found in the Age of Alzheimer's by Meryl Comer Better: A Surgeon's Notes on Performance by Atul Gawande News Roundup Researchers discover vulnerability in Wi-Fi protocol Researchers at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in Belgium have discovered a vulnerability in the WPA2 protocol that secures most modern Wi-Fi connections. The researchers call the proof-of-concept exploit KRACK, or Key Reinstallation attacks. What it does is it tells devices connecting to the network to reinstall the network key and replace the password with all zeros. This lets in criminals to steal essentially anything off of your computer. The hack is particularly effective against Android and Linux devices, although other devices aren't immune. Further, websites encrypted with https protocol are also vulnerable. Fortunately, you can still install updates even if your device has already been hacked using this method. Dan Goodin explains in Ars Technica. Black and Hispanic lawmakers challenge tech companies on diversity, racist ads In closed-door meetings, the Congressional Black and Hispanic Caucuses met with Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg last week. According to Politico, the CBC blasted Facebook for allowing Russian operatives to place ads designed to stoke racial resentment. The ads were intended to sway the 2016 election in favor of Donald Trump. Additionally, the CBC challenged Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg about the lack of racial and ethnic diversity at the company. CBC Chair Cedric Richmond pointed to a persistent lack of staff and board diversity. Further, Sandberg met with members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. In addition to the diversity CBC raised issues, CHC reportedly focused on recovery efforts in Puerto Rico and the status of 700,000 Dreamers. Heather Caygle and Elana Schor report in Politico. Also, Olivia Beavers reports in the Hill that Pinterest has joined a growing list of companies including Facebook, Twitter and Google, that reported ads and content tied to Russia during last year's election cycle. Federal Election Commission seeks comment on online ad disclosure rules The Federal Election Commission has opened a rulemaking on disclosure rules for online political ads. Facebook and Google had both received exemptions from the existing rules during the 2012 election cycle.  Comments are due November 9th. Harper Neidig reports in the Hill. Supreme Court will hear Microsoft privacy case The Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case regarding whether U.S. law enforcement officials can obtain a warrant to access digital evidence stored abroad. The case against Microsoft is up on appeal from the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals. The Second Circuit had overturned a lower court decision upholding a warrant U.S. prosecutors served on Microsoft. The court issued the warrant for data stored on Microsoft's servers both in the US and in Ireland. Robert Barnes reports in the Washington Post. Supreme Court asks DOJ to weigh in on Apple case The Supreme Court has asked the Department of Justice to weigh in on whether the Court should hear a class-action against Apple.  The case involves the 30% commissions Apple charges app developers to be included in the App store. However, customers--people who download the apps--are the ones bringing the class-action. Apple is saying the customers don't have standing since they're not the ones being charged the commission. Andrew Chung has the story in Reuters. Facebook has suspended rapper Lil B for race-related post Ali Breland reports in the Hill that Facebook has removed rapper Lil B for posting race related material. Google unveils job training initiative Google announced a job training initiative last week called Grow with Google. Sundar Pichai, Google's CEO, said Google will be investing $1 billion over the next 5 years in the effort. The program will allow anyone to access training and professional certificates to improve their businesses.  

    Iris Recognition Technology and the U.S. Border Patrol One of Donald Trump's main campaign promises was to build a border wall on the U.S./Mexican border. But can iris recognition technology be used instead? Bio George Joseph (@GeorgeJoseph94) is a reporting fellow at Demos focusing on surveillance, immigration, law enforcement, and the entry of big data in criminal justice systems. His work has appeared in outlets such as The Guardian, NPR, The Atlantic, The Nation, The Verge, Slate, and CityLab. Resources Demos Migra!: A History of the U.S. Border Patrol by Kelly Lytle Hernandez   News Roundup Trump attacks Zuckerberg, Zuckerberg fires back President Trump attacked Mark Zuckerberg last week. The president complained on Twitter that “Facebook was always anti-Trump ... The Networks were always anti-Trump." He continued, " hence,Fake News, @nytimes(apologized) & @WaPo were anti-Trump. Collusion?” So Zuckerberg fired back "Both sides are upset about ideas and content they don't like. That's what running a platform for all ideas looks like.” Further, UNC Associate Professor Zeynep Tufekci wrote an op-ed for the New York Times. In it, she denounced Zuckerberg's rebuttal as more "both sides" false equivalency, pointing out Facebook's record ad revenues last year. Senate digs into social media's ties to Russia The Senate has called Twitter and Facebook to testify regarding Russian election interference. Facebook reports that 10 million users saw Russia-linked ads around the time of last year's election. One of the ads reportedly showed an image of a black woman shooting a rifle. In the meantime, Russia is threatening to ban Facebook unless the company stores Russian users' data on servers within Russia. Additionally, a new Oxford study has found that Twitter users shared more fake news, than real news, during the 2016 election. Senate confirms FCC's Pai to 5-year term On Monday, the Senate confirmed Republican Ajit Pai to a five-year term as FCC Chairman. The vote was 52-41 along party lines. Conservatives are railing against YouTube Conservatives are railing against YouTube for taking down ads appearing on content YouTube deemed to violate its terms of service. YouTube says the move was part of an effort to remove hate speech. But those on the right say YouTube is just discriminating against them. Ali Breland reports in the Hill. Senate unveiled driverless car bill The Senate unveiled a driverless car bill. However, it doesn't address driverless trucks. The bill places safety oversight with the federal government instead of the current patchwork of state laws. Moreover, the bill includes language on cybersecurity standards. Harper Neidig reports in theHill. Trump and tech sector team up on $500 million education plan Vindu Goel of the New York Times reports that a third of IBM's workforce is now based in India--more than any other country. Ivanka Trump last week announced a $200 million in Education Department grants to boost science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). Further, Amazon, Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Salesforce are kicking in about $300 million. Cecilia Kang reports for the New York Times. U.S. intrudes into social media accounts Ron Nixon of the New York Times reports that he U.S. government will require all immigrants to turn over their social media data. Their social media data will become part of their immigration file. The order is set to take effect on October 18th. However, U.S. citizens are not immune from government scrutiny of their social media data. Zoe Tillman reports in Buzzfeed that the Department of Justice is seeking identifying information and data from three Facebook users. The users are now challenging the warrants. The Trump administration seeks to identify Facebook users who helped organize inauguration day protests. Apple reports spike in secret national security orders Apple reported an uptick in secret National Security orders in the first half of this year. Zack Whittaker at ZDNet reports that there was a threefold increase in secret orders issued against Apple users compared to the same period last year. TechNet backs Trump tax plan TechNet president Linda Moore wrote an op-ed piece for the San Francisco Chronicle in support of the the Trump administrations tax plan. Moore wrote that the current tax code is outdated and that the Trump proposal would clear the way for jobs and investment. Securities and Exchange Commission charges two crytocurrency scammers The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is charging two scammers in connection with their sale of cryptocurrencies. ReCoin Group Foundation and DRC world allegedly told investors they could expect huge returns for their investments in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. The problem is that the companies weren't actually in operation.  Ali Breland reports in the Hill. FCC's has lackluster response to Puerto Rico Puerto Rican victims of Hurricane Maria are stranded on the island without water, food, electricity or access to the Internet. What is Ajit Pai's only proposed solution? Telling Apple to open up iPhones to receive FM signals. FCC Democratic Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel called out the FCC on its non-response in Puerto Rico. She tweeted that during hurricanes Katrina and Sandy, the FCC held network recovery hearings. But the FCC hasn't held network recovery hearings in response to hurricanse Irma, Harvey, or Maria. Ali Breland reports for the Hill. Senate confirms Makan Delrahim to DOJ Antitrust division The Senate has confirmed Makan Delrahim to lead the DOJ's antirust division. Previously, Delrahim worked in the White House counsel's office. Harper Neidig reports for the Hill that Delrahim will head up the review of the $85.4 billion AT&T/Time Warner Merger. EU threatens social media companies with fines for hate speech Ivana Kottasová at CNN reports that the European Union has issued a final warning against Facebook and Twitter regarding hate speech. Mariya Gabriel, the EU's top digital economy and society official, says flagged hate speech needs to come down quickly. Gabriel says that in almost a third of cases, it's taking more than a week.   Some European countries are cracking down on hate speech with or without the EU. Germany, for example, is instituting $59 million fines for failing to remove hate speech within 24 hours.  Dems propose $40 billion for rural broadband Democrats are proposing $40 billion to boost rural broadband. Democrats released the recommendation as part of their "Better Deal" agenda released in July. Harper Neidig reports in The Hill. Google separates shopping from search Google acted last week to separate its online shopping unit from its traditional search. Some experts see the move as a concession to European officials who fined Google $2.7 billion over the summer. The European Commission had found that Google had prioritized its shopping results over rivals. The new structure will allow officials to directly regulate Google shopping. James Kanter has the story in The New York Times. Equifax adds 2.5 million to data breach count Ali Breland reports in the Hill that Equifax as raised its estimate of the number of people affected by its massive data breach by 2.5 million. Equifax has now brought the total estimate of affected customers up to 145.5 million.    

Online Privacy Issues -- An Overview As online privacy issues mount in the U.S., regulators are pulling back. Earlier this year, Congress repealed the privacy rules the FCC passed under former Chairman Tom Wheeler. The rules would have required ISPs to obtain subscribers' permission before using their data for commercial purposes. The ISPs argued that they should be entitled to the same free reign over consumer data that large tech companies enjoy. But, of course, the FCC doesn't have jurisdiction to directly regulate tech companies. Jules Polonetsky discusses online privacy issues and where U.S. privacy law and policy now stand in light of recent data breaches. He also explains what consumers can do to protect their data from hackers. Bio Jules Polonetsky (@JulesPolonetsky) serves as CEO of the Future of Privacy Forum (FPF). FPF is a leading Washington, D.C.-based non-profit organization focused on privacy. The chief privacy officers of more than 130 leading companies support FPF. Further, FPF is supported by several foundations. FPF has an advisory board comprised of the country's leading academics and advocates. FPF's current projects focus on Big Data, Mobile, Location, Apps, the Internet of Things, Wearables, De-Identification, Connected Cars and Student Privacy. Jules' previous roles have included serving as Chief Privacy Officer at AOL and before that at DoubleClick, as Consumer Affairs Commissioner for New York City, as an elected New York State Legislator and as a congressional staffer, and as an attorney.Previously, Jules served as an elected member of the New York State Assembly from 1994 to 1997. From November 1992 through 1993, Jules was a legislative aide to Congressman Charles Schumer. Prior to that, he was also a District Representative for Congressman Steve Solarz.. Jules practiced law in the New York office of Stroock & Stroock & Lavan from 1989 to 1990. Jules has served on the boards of a number of privacy and consumer protection organizations. These include TRUSTe, the International Association of Privacy Professionals, and the Network Advertising Initiative. From 2011-2012, Jules served on the Department of Homeland Security Data Privacy and Integrity Advisory Committee. He is also a member of The George Washington University Law School Privacy and Security Advisory Council. Jules is a regular speaker at privacy and technology events. He has has testified or presented before Congressional committees and the Federal Trade Commission. Jules is a graduate of New York University School of Law and Yeshiva University. He is admitted to the Bars of New York and Washington, D.C. Jules is also a Certified Information Privacy Professional. Resources Future of Privacy Forum Commission on Evidence-Based Policymaking Machine Learning for Absolute Beginners by Oliver Theobald News Roundup Puerto Rico all but destroyed following Hurricane Maria Hurricane Maria left Puerto Rico absolutely devastated last week. Puerto Ricans living in the mainland U.S. remain unable to reach friends and family members. Maria made landfall on Wednesday as a Category 4 storm with 155 MPH winds, the likes of which the island hasn't seen in generations. The storm knocked off Puerto Rico's entire electrical grid leaving millions without power. Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai released a statement saying 95% of Puerto Rico's cell sites are out of service. The island is running out of supplies. Many were thunderstruck over the weekend by President Trump's silence about Puerto Rico. Instead, Trump spent the weekend news cycle railing against NBA and NFL players taking a knee against the national anthem. Tom McKay has the story in Gizmodo. Mother of slain sex trafficking victim testifies before Senate Commerce Committee Yvonne Ambrose, the mother of the 16-year-old girl who was raped and murdered by a 32-year-old Backpage.com user, testified on the Hill. Ambrose appeared before the Senate Commerce Committee in support of the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act (SESA). The bi-partisan bill, introduced by Senator Rob Portman, would hold internet companies more accountable for content on their sites. Currently, the Communications Decency Act shields websites from liability for content posted by third parties. That's what enabled Backpage.com to post ads placed by criminals selling opportunities to sexually abuse children. So the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act would hold web companies more accountable. It would do so by making them liable for knowingly hosting sex trafficking content. Sabrina Eaton reports on cleveland.com. SEC reports hackers breached EDGAR last year So the Securities and Exchange Commission--the nation's top Wall Street regulator--was hacked. Last year. The SEC decided last week that it would finally get around to telling us.  In an eight-page statement, SEC Chairman Jay Clayton announced that hackers breached the agency's filing system--EDGAR. That breach may have enabled improper trading to take place. The statement doesn't explain either  the reason for the delay in notifying the public or the date on which the breach occurred. Renae Merle reports in the Washington Post. Google signs $1.1 billion "cooperation agreement" with HTC Google invested $1.1 billion in struggling device manufacturer HTC last week and is expected to announce the release of two new devices on October 4th. David Pierce, Jordan McMahon, Issie Lapowsky, Jack Stewart, Eric Niiler, Andy Greenberg, and Michelle Dean report in Wired. Facebook to change ad targeting In response to revelations that it was allowing advertisers to target racists, Facebook announced changes to its ad targeting system. For example, according to the New York Times, advertisers had the ability to target self-described "Jew Haters"  Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg said the company would be adding more human review and oversight. Sapna Maheshwari reports in the New York Times. Facebook turning over thousands of Russia-linked ads to Congress In other Facebook news, Facebook announced last week that it would also be turning over some 3,000 advertisements placed by Russia-linked groups during the 2016 presidential campaign. Ali Breland reports in the Hill. U.S. and EU kick off first Privacy Shield review season EU Justice Commissioner Vera Jourova travelled to Washington last week to meet with U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross. The EU is set to release its first report on the efficacy of the U.S.-EU Privacy Shield on October 4th. The Privacy Shield allows data transfers between the U.S. and EU, which have entirely different standards when it comes to protecting consumer privacy. Privacy Shield replaced a previous framework that the EU overturned last year because it didn't provide enough oversight over U.S. mass surveillance practices.  Under the Privacy Shield, the U.S. is supposed to appoint an Ombudsman to review the U.S.'s mass surveillance tactics. However, the U.S. has yet to appoint anyone to the ombudsman role. Jimmy Koo reports for Bloomberg. Equifax breach happened months earlier than initially disclosed Ali Breland and Olivia Beavers report in the Hill that the Equifax breach happened in March rather than July. The breach exposed the personal data of an estimated 143 million Americans.  

Bio Licy Do Canto is founder and president of the Do Canto Group, a bipartisan government relations firm specializing in public health and health care legislative and regulatory policy, with a particular focus on underserved communities. An expert in health care policy with nearly 20 years of beltway experience, Licy has a track record of building bipartisan consensus, guiding federal legislation into law, and directing national issue campaigns and coalitions. Describing him as a “highly regarded healthcare lobbyist” among his peers, and Congressional officials and other decision-makers across the federal government, the prominent Capitol Hill newspaper The Hill named Licy one of Washington DC's top lobbyists for seven consecutive years, earning the recognition in 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011 and 2010. Prior to founding the Do Canto Group, Licy was a principal at the Raben Group, where he lead the firm's Health Practice Group, providing clients with a range of services, including policy development and analysis, coalition building, direct lobbying and strategic counsel and communications. Licy also served as chief executive officer of the AIDS Alliance for Children Youth and Families, a leading national, non-profit advocacy organization focused on improving access to HIV/AIDS prevention, care and treatment for underserved communities across the United States. Mr. Do Canto is largely credited with significantly strengthening the Alliance's operational and policy structure and considerably expanding and fortifying its relations with public and private sector partners. Prior to the Alliance, Licy served as the director of federal affairs for the National Association of Community Health Centers, the largest association of nonprofit clinics and health centers in the United States, representing over 1,000 clinics and 6,000 clinic sites that serve over 17 million people. Licy helped oversee the historic doubling of funding for the Federal Health Center program while also successfully managing the Association's legislative priorities on health center reauthorization and the Medicare, Medicaid and state Children's Health Insurance Programs. While at NACHC, Licy also founded and chaired the Association's Partnership for Medicaid, a nationwide coalition of eighteen safety net providers and other key organizations, including nursing homes, community health centers, public hospitals and unions, focused on improving the Medicaid program. In addition, he co-founded and served as chair of the Association's twenty-two member Partnership for Primary Care Workforce, a nationwide coalition of national professional, provider and educational organizations dedicated to strengthening the health care workforce. Before NACHC, Licy served as senior manager for federal affairs in the American Cancer Society's Federal Government Relations Department, directing the Society's federal legislative and executive branch advocacy efforts on health disparity issues. He also has extensive Capitol Hill experience, having served as senior legislative assistant for domestic policy to U.S. Congressman Barney Frank (D-MA) and held a number of positions in the office of Senator Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA). Licy is well known to key Congressional committee and non-committee staff with jurisdiction over health issues, having authored and successfully guided into law the $25 million bipartisan Patient Navigator Outreach and Chronic Disease Prevention Act (aimed at helping low-income patients overcome health system barriers), the first piece of health legislation signed into law by President George W. Bush in 2005. He successfully advocated for, and authored an array of, other key bipartisan-supported health policy issues before Congress, including passage of the Native American Breast and Cervical Cancer Treatment Technical Amendment Act; passage of the "Rep. Deal" amendment preserving hundreds of millions in Medicaid funding for Community Health Centers; the creation of a $50 million medical home program in Medicaid; a $100 million Health Center Medicare payment system; a $85 million Health Center financing system in the State Children's Health Insurance Program; and the establishment of a $1.5 billion Federal Early Childhood Home Visitation program within the US Department of Health and Human Services. Licy also served as staff to Commissioner John Rugge on the 2005-06 US Department of Health and Human Services National Medicaid Advisory Commission, established to advise the HHS Secretary on ways to strengthen and modernize the Medicaid program. Licy is often quoted in the media, including Politico, The Hill, Roll Call, Financial Times, Reuters, Bloomberg, Inside Health Policy, among others, on a broad range of issues relating to health and health care policy. The DoCanto Group's current and former clients include First Focus, AARP, the Nurse Family Partnership, the California Endowment, the New York State Health Foundation, the Direct Care Alliance and The MENTOR Network, as well as the Atlantic Sea Scallop Fishery and the Climate Reality Project. A native of Boston and fluent in Spanish and Cape Verdean Portuguese, Licy is a 1995 graduate of Duke University, with a Bachelor's Degree in Political Science, International Affairs and Spanish Studies. He also holds a W.K. Kellogg Foundation Certificate in Public Health Leadership from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill School of Public Health and Kenan-Flagler Business School. Resources The DoCanto Group America's Health-Inequality Problem by Olga Khazan (The Atlantic, 6/5/2017) The Head Game: High Efficiency Analytic Decision-Making and the Art of Solving Complex Problems Quickly by Philip Mudd News Roundup Facebook reports $100,000 in fake Russian political ads Facebook released new evidence last week that helps to illustrate Russia's role in impacting the 2016 U.S. presidential election. The social media company reported that a company called the Internet Research Agency spent more than $100,000 on 3,000 Facebook ads that ran between June 2015 and May 2017. While the ads did not endorse a particular political candidate, they did focus on divisive political issues such as race, LGBT rights, and gun control. They promoted views consistent with Donald Trump's platform. The New York Times' Scott Shane and Vindu Goel report on these and other suspicious ads appearing on Facebook that may have some connection to the Kremlin. Google, on the other hand, released a statement saying it has found no evidence of such advertising on its platform. Industry backlash against Trump's DACA decision A broad swath of major corporations and industry groups sharply rebuked President Trump for his decision to end  the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. The Obama-era program gave 2-year work permits to individuals who entered the United States illegally as children. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Google, Apple, Microsoft, Telemundo, Univision and many others expressed disapproval. Trump says he'll re-review the program if Congress doesn't pass definitive legislation with 6 months. Megan Wilson and Ali Breland report in The Hill. Google appeals EU's $2.7 billion antitrust fine Google has filed its appeal of the European Union's $2.7 billion fine against it for allegedly prioritizing its own search results over its competitors. A spokeswoman for the European Court of Justice told TechCrunch that it could take anywhere between 18 months and two years for the case to reach a final judgment. Natasha Lomas reports in TechCrunch. Tesla hooked its customers up with more battery juice to escape Irma For an extra fee, Tesla lets its vehicle owners unlock unused battery space. But the car company temporarily removed the restriction for its car owners in Florida as they evacuated in anticipation of Hurricane Irma.  Brian Fung reports in the Washington Post. FCC Extends s706 comment deadline Every year the FCC is required to report on whether broadband speeds are fast enough and whether the ISPs are moving fast enough to deploy them. A big part of that debate has to do with whether wireless service is an adequate substitute for wireline broadband service. While democratic administrations have held that wireless is not a substitute, the current Republican-led FCC has indicated that it may go the other way. Before it releases the report, though, the FCC is required to allow the public to comment. The FCC extended that initial comment deadline to September 21st. So if you use the internet to run an online business or something else that requires the fastest speed possible, but you live in a remote area--you may want to weigh in. Wireless, at least from my own personal experience running this podcast, is not a replacement for wired broadband by any stretch of the imagination. Oracle supports sex-trafficking bill Oracle has decided to go against the grain in supporting a sex trafficking bill most other tech companies oppose.  The bill, which is entitled the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act, was introduced by Republican Senator Bob Portman.  The bill has broad bipartisan support, with Senators McCain and McCaskill, among many others, on board. Precipitated by Backpage.com's advertisements of prostitutes and opportunities to sexually abuse underage victims, the bill seeks to hold websites more accountable for ads posted by third parties. Harper Neidig has the story in The Hill. FBI probes Uber over tactics against Lyft "Hell". That's the name of a now-defunct Uber program the New York Office of the FBI and U.S. Attorney are investigating. The program was the subject of a class-action lawsuit a Lyft driver brought earlier this year in a federal court in California. But the court threw out that case because the driver couldn't show any harm. But essentially the program allegedly created fake user accounts so Uber could see where Lyft drivers were going. This investigation adds to numerous legal matters Uber's new CEO Dara Khosrowshahi inherited when he took the helm last week. Rebecca Davis-O'Brien and Greg Bensinger report in the Wall Street Journal.

Lobbying and Advocacy for Entrepreneurs: The Business Case Lobbying and advocacy is not necessarily something that most entrepreneurs think about when they venture out on their own. Despite the fact that my business focuses on tech policy, when I launched WashingTECH.com,  lobbying and advocacy couldn't have been further from my mind. I was more concerned with the minutiae: configuring and registering domains, setting up my workflow, designing my own site, etc. While I intended to include lobbyists on the podcast, I was more concerned with lobbying and advocacy issues as content. I did not remotely consider that a small business like mine would have any pull amidst the many "white shoe" lobbying firms up and down K St.: The big guns were for huge corporations, not businesses like mine. But as I have progressed and interviewed 100 guests, I have learned that these issues indeed affect me. For example, I conduct most of my interviews via Skype. Buffering issues that I encounter during my guest interviews affect the quality of my work product, and thus my bottom line. That is a net neutrality issue. This is not "ivory tower" net neutrality. This is net neutrality from the perspective of how it affects my business. How Regulations Can Affect Your Business There are literally hundreds of laws and regulations, in addition to net neutrality, that could potentially affect your business. Changes to intellectual property frameworks like trademarks, copyright and patents are federal policy issues. If you operate an online business, you are subject to all federal regulations regarding how you collect and utilize customer data, register email subscribers, and many other consumer regulations. Differences and conflicts between U.S. regulations and those abroad could affect your business to the extent that you engage with international customers. The number of regulations, new and old, that you could be affected by are essentially limitless. Congress and the federal agencies are continuously introducing and revising policies that could directly impact your profits. Joining Forces: The Power of Strength in Numbers The sheer number of entrepreneurs complicates our ability to organize and respond collectively to policy issues affecting out interests. However, just as the end of World War II brought with it the need for labor organizations to advocate on behalf of the workforce, the need for effective lobbying and advocacy on behalf of entrepreneurs will also grow. These advocates must be at least as effective at representing entrepreneurs' interests as those post-war labor advocates who preceded them. Consider the growing number of Americans who are pursuing entrepreneurship as either a supplement to or substitute for full-time income. According to the U.S. Census's 2015 Annual Survey of Entrepreneurs released in July of this year: the number of minority-owned employer firms grew by 4.9% (from 949, 318 in 2014 to 996, 248 in 2015). firms owned by women increased by 3.0% since 2014 to approximately 1.1.million. veteran-owned firms totaled approximately 398, 453. most firms in the U.S. (78.2%) have fewer than 10 employees. Start-up entrepreneurs also need a place to belong. Networking and developing the right relationships is a breeze for powerful corporations. Small businesses are powerful in scale, but not as powerful in scope in terms of the expansiveness of their networks. Melissa Blaustein is working to change all that by leading lobbying and advocacy efforts for startup firms around the world. I hope you'll consider joining her in her efforts. BIO Melissa Blaustein (@MentionMelissa) is the Founder of Allied for Startups, a global network of startup policy associations whose goal is to make the voice of startups heard in government. Allied for Startups counts more than 19 countries on four continents as members, including 13 in the EU alone. Her background in digital policy and advocacy spans the local, national, and international levels, having held roles at The White House, UN Women, the UNEP, the G20 Research Group, with Fmr. Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and on the team of many San Francisco politicians. Melissa's entrepreneurial spirit has led her to take on challenges in the startup and technology space, including advising the French government on a taxation structure for the digital economy, serving as an ambassador at an accelerator in Paris and working at the Vice President of International Outreach at France Digitale, an association dedicated to lobbying the government on behalf of startups in France. Blaustein holds a Masters Degree Cum Laude from Sciences Po in Paris and an undergraduate degree with honors from UC Berkeley. She speaks four languages and has lived in four countries. RESOURCES Allied for Startups--The Voice for Startups in Politics and Government King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa by Adam Hochschild    NEWS ROUNDUP House Panel Green-lights Self Driving Car Legislation The  54-member House Energy and Commerce Committee voted unanimously to advance legislation to speed the commercialization of self-driving cars. The legislation would clear the way for the sale of up to 100,000 self-driving cars. It would also pre-empt state laws dealing with performance standards. States would continue to regulate things like licensing, liability, safety and insurance. David Shepardson has the story in Reuters. Lyft announced last week that it too has created a self-driving car division. Read more from Heather Somerville in Reuters. Congress seeks more government data on Kaspersky Labs Members of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology,  have asked some 22 cabinet-level government agencies for any information they have on Kaspersky Labs. Kaspersky is the Moscow-based cybersecurity firm. Several U.S. officials and members of Congress don't trust Kaspersky. They allege that Kaspersky could be a front that Russian officials use to spy on the U.S. It's an assertion that Kaspersky has vehemently denied. Dustin Voltz reports in Reuters. Russian Citizen Indicted for Bitcoin Laundering The Department of Justice has indicted a Russian citizen for money laundering. The DOJ alleges that Alexander Vinnick laundered $4 billion through the digital currency Bitcoin to fund drug trafficking, identity theft and hacking. Ali Breland at the Hill reports that Vinnick was arrested in Greece for allegedly using BTC-e--one of the largest Bitcoin exchanges--to carry out the crimes. Is FCC Chairman Ajit Pai's FCC 'Full of Sh*t'??? Remember when the FCC's site went down after John Oliver urged his viewers to submit comments regarding net neutrality? Ajit Pai claimed it went down because of a DDos attack. Gizmodo said, "Yeah right" and filed a FOIA request asking the FCC to provide documentation showing it was indeed caused by a DDos attack. Well, thus far, the FCC has apparently failed to corroborate the Chairman's story. So Oregon Senator Ron Wyden took the FCC to task last week, accusing the FCC of playing "word games". Wyden also suggested the FCC may be violating the Freedom of Information Act by failing to provide the information Gizmodo seeks. If there was indeed a 3,000 percent increase in network traffic at the FCC as FCC Chair Ajit Pai claimed, why wasn't anyone at the FCC freaking out??? Surely there would have been emails. But Gizmodo hasn't found emails, or anything else for that matter, to suggest that Chairman Pai was telling the truth. The FCC's net neutrality docket has thus far received over 10 million public comments. Jon Brodkin has the story in Ars Technica. Tech Earnings Reports Off-Target Major tech stocks showed lower than expected results in the second quarter. Amazon took a 77% hit to profits even though its sales were up. Google's parent Alphabet's profit fell 28%. The Wall Street Journal attributes the shortfall to the $2.74 billion fine the EU levied against Google last month for allegedly pumping its own search results. And while the number of clicks per ad were up at Google, revenues per click were down. Further, Twitter's stock dropped 12%. The company also reported flat user growth, which is stuck at 328 million, and a $116 million loss. Foxconn to build a U.S. plant in Wisconsin President Donald Trump indicated that Foxconn -- the  iPhone component maker-- would be spending $10 billion to build a Wisconsin plant. The president claims the plant would create 3,000 jobs.  Foxconn CEO Terry Gou did join Trump, Vice President Pence, House Speaker  Paul Ryan, and Wisconsin Senators Walker and Johnson at the White House. But it's not clear exactly what was discussed. Walker claims that the average job created by the plant will pay $53,000 per year. Google to Spend $50 million to help displaced workers Google announced last Wednesday that it would be spending $50 million to help workers displaced by technology to find new jobs. The company's head of philanthropy, Jacqueline Fuller, made the announcement in a blog post last week. Ali Breland has more details in the Hill. In other Google news, Google CEO Sundar Pichai has joined the board of Google's parent company Alphabet. The move comes as Alphabet seeks to accelerate many of the other initiatives it has been working on, such as Fiber X and self-driving cars. Dieter Bohn has the story in the Verge.   Will Amazon's Whole Foods Alleviate or Promote Food Deserts? New Jersey Senator Cory Booker and 11 members of Congress are asking the DOJ and FTC to investigate the Amazon-Whole Foods merger. The lawmakers are concerned about how the merger would affect underserved-communities' ability to access quality groceries. Many consumers live in so-called "food deserts"leaving them isolated from quality supermarkets. Airbnb and NAACP Team Up Airbnb and The NAACP have teamed up to open up the Airbnb platform to underserved communities. The company has come under fire for helping to facilitate an environment in which hosts routinely refuse to rent to people of color. Some cases are more explicit than others. In California in recent weeks, a host was fined $5,000 for explicitly refusing to rent to an Asian woman for no other reason other than the fact that she's Asian. The host will also have to take a college-level racial sensitivity course. The NAACP will work with Airbnb to identify underserved areas in which residents can learn more about how Airbnb can generate extra needed income. NAACP will be compensated 20% of all revenues that come from this initiative. No word yet on how much of that extra revenue will go to fund local schools and other need services. Nick Statt has the story in The Verge.

   Philanthropists in Silicon Valley Want Your Ideas The provincial Silicon Valley that was loathe to step outside of Northern California is practically ancient history. An industry that once shunned Washington, D.C.'s buttoned-up bureaucrats now leads in lobbying and campaign contributions. Increasingly, philanthropists in Silicon Valley are making investments that in many ways are changing the very structure of our institutions. The New York Times is running a series on the institutional investments Silicon Valley titans are making.  For example, Netflix's Reed Hastings and Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg are making investments to enhance and experiment with innovative new educational tools and models. Other tech philanthropists have long invested billions to fight more global, humanitarian problems, such as climate change and malaria. They also offer microloans to small businesses in developing nations. The election of Donald Trump to the presidency as not caused the mass tech exodus from Washington that was initially feared. Indeed, while Big Tech and the Trump administration remain worlds apart on net neutrality, there is some common ground. Issues like cybersecurity, government efficiency, and the effect of artificial intelligence on jobs are largely bipartisan. It is now inside-the-beltway institutions that are struggling to tweak their own insular tendencies. What should policy professionals be thinking about as they develop their outreach efforts to philanthropists in Silicon Valley? How does tech sector philanthropy work? The goal of this episodes is to help answer these questions and more as you structure your efforts. Bio Gina Dalma (@ginadalma) is Special Advisor to the CEO and vice president of government relations at the Silicon Valley Community Foundation (SVCF). SVCF is the largest community foundation in the world, with more than $8 billion in assets under management. Gina is responsible for leading SVCF's ongoing lobbying efforts in Sacramento and its emerging efforts in Washington, D.C.  SVCF's California lobbying work is currently centered around education, affordable housing, immigration and economic security. In Washington, D.C., SVCF hopes to be a leading voice on topics that have the potential to advance the philanthropic sector. Gina was pivotal in the passage of the California Mathematics Placement Act of 2015, which Gov. Brown signed into law on Oct. 5, 2015. SVCF sponsored this legislation. She serves as a member of the California Department of Education's STEM Taskforce Advisory Committee. She is also a member of the National Common Core Funders Steering Committee and an Advisory Board Member of the Silicon Valley Education Foundation. Prior to her promotion to special advisor in 2015, Gina was SVCF's director of grantmaking. In that role, she led the grantmaking team in using a diverse set of tools, including strategic investments, to solve our region's most challenging problems. She also led SVCF's education grantmaking strategy, as well as the Silicon Valley Common Core Initiative. Prior to joining SVCF, Gina was director of innovation at the Silicon Valley Education Foundation. Before moving to the United States, Gina held several positions related to urban economic development and regulatory economics in the federal and state public sector in Mexico. She holds a Bachelor of Science in economics from ITAM in Mexico City, a Master of Science in economics from the University of London and a Master of Arts in international policy studies from Stanford University. Resources Silicon Valley Community Foundation (SVCF) Parting the Waters: America in the King Years 1954-1963 by Taylor Branch News Roundup FCC's Net Neutrality Initial Comment Window Closes The FCC's initial comment period regarding its proposed rules to overturn  the Obama-era net neutrality rules closed on Monday. The comments span the gamut. Some commenters favor overturning the existing rules. Other commenters advocated for new legislation that would replace the FCC's rules. Still others advocated for upholding the existing rules entirely, without new legislation. A couple of data points this week on net neutrality -- Civis Analytics released one showing 81% of Americans are against blocking, throttling, and paid prioritization of some sites over others. Interestingly, Civis Analytics counts Verizon Ventures and Alphabet Chair Eric Schmidt among its investors. Another poll, this one by INCOMPAS and the GOP-polling firm IMGE, showed 72% of Republican voters oppose throttling and blocking sites like Netflix. Further, a Morning Consult released a report showing Senators who support net neutrality enjoy high approval ratings. Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey has a 55% approval rating, and Oregon Senator Ron Wyden has an approval rating of 61%. America's Cybersecurity Issues Intensify Verizon announced that "human error" that resulted in misconfigured security settings caused the personal data of some 6 million Verizon customers to be leaked online. We're talking customer phone numbers, names, and PIN codes. Apparently, an Amazon S3 storage server's settings were set to public instead of private. Selena Larson has the full story at CNN Money. As far as Russia is concerned--President Trump keeps equivocating. One day he says he thinks maybe Russia interfered with the election. The next day, he's publicly less sure. This is all amidst an intensifying investigation that has zeroed in on Trump's son, Donald Jr. Trump senior also met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Germany 2 weeks ago, as you know, at the G20 Summit in Hamburg.  After that meeting, Trump talked about needing to move forward with forming a cybersecurity unit with Russia. President Trump said he had questioned Putin about the hacks and that Putin had vehemently denied them. Republicans and Democrats quickly condemned the president's statements, questioning  the president's trust of Russia. Then, 3 days later, the Trump administration moved to limit federal agencies' use of Kaspersky Labs. Kaspersky Labs is the Russia-based cybersecurity firm.  Several officials believe the Kaspersky may be a Trojan Horse the Kremlin uses to hack government data. You can find coverage in the Washington Post by Phillip Rucker, as well as Politico, by Eric Geller, and Reuters' Phil Stewart.   Meanwhile, Joe Uchill reported in the Hill on a new poll conducted by the cyberscurity firm Carbon Black which shows 1 in 4 voters do not plan on voting due to cybersecurity concerns. Feds Uphold NSA's Gag Orders The gag orders the National Security Agency routinely uses when it requests identifying information from tech companies don't violate the 1st Amendment. That was the holding of a 9th Circuit Court of Appeals decision last week in a matter brought by Cloudflare and Credo Mobile. The companies wanted to notify customers when the National Security Agency obtained their information. The companies argued that notifying customers of such inquiries is their First Amendment right. But the Court disagreed. As long as certain civil liberties protections are in place, those gag orders that prevent companies from notifying customers that the NSA is investigating them are Constitutional. Joe Uchill has the story in the Hill. New Documents Suggest Backpage.com Facilitated Sex Advertising/Trafficking New evidence suggests Backpage.com did know alleged prostitution was going on on its website and that it indeed allegedly helped facilitate it,. Johnathan O'Connell and Tom Jackman report for the Washington Post. Documents show Backpage apparently did things like troll its competitors' websites for sex ads. After finding sex ad buyers, Backpage allegedly had staffers and contractors contact those buyers and offer them free advertising .  A 16-year-old girl the FBI says was being trafficked on the site was found dead in a Chicago-area garage on Christmas eve. Again, you can find long form coverage in the Washington Post. To report sex trafficking happening anywhere--you can contact the National Human Trafficking Resource Center at 1-888-373-7888. That's 1-888-373-7888. You can also text HELP or INFO to 233733. That's 233733. And those coordinates are available 24 hours a day 7 days per week. DraftKings/Fanduel Merger a No-Go DraftKings and FanDuel--the two leading fantasy sports sites--have dropped merger talks. The Federal Trade Commission was blocking the merger after finding the merged company would have controlled between 80 and 90% of the fantasy sports market. Ali Breland reports in the Hill. Musk: AI is "Biggest risk we face as a civilization" At a meeting of the National Governor's Association last week, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said Artificial Intelligence is "the biggest risk we face as a civilization". He called for more effective regulations. The Economist also published a report that shows China and the U.S. in head-to-head competition for dominance in the Artificial Intelligence market.  The article suggests China may account for up to half of the world's Artificial Intelligence-attributable GDP growth by 2030. By 2030, AI is expected to comprise some $16 trillion of total global GDP. Racist Airbnb host to pay Asian customer $5,000 Finally, Tami Barker, the Airbnb host who denied a UCLA law student her reservation because she is Asian will have to pay $5,000 in damages to the student, Dyne Suh, and take an Asian American studies course. "It's why we have Trump", is what Barker wrote to Suh via the Airbnb app. "I will not allow this country to be told what to do by foreigners," she said.

Privacy, Searches, Seizures and the Law The digital age is challenging the way our judicial system balances privacy against the needs of law enforcement. The Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution states: “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated.” Our devices, as well as cloud-based services like Dropbox, have revolutionized our concept of what information should be considered private. For example, in U.S. v. Graham, the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland applied the so-called "third party doctrine". In that case, the court held that the Fourth Amendment does not protect historical cell site location data. Therefore, law enforcement officers do not require warrants to obtain access to that data. The court reasoned that the defendant communicated the data to a "third party", namely the cell phone provider. These technologies also pose significant Constitutional challenges. For example, who should set the standard of what constitutes a "reasonable expectation of privacy" in the first place? Should judges or the public determine such reasonableness? My guest today is Professor Bernard Chao --a professor at the University of Denver's Sturm College of Law, where he co-Directs the law school's Empirical Justice Program. Chao has written that, up until now, judges have had to guess about what constitutes reasonableness. Historically, judges have had to place themselves in the shoes of a hypothetical reasonable person. However, according to Chao, judges are now in a position to gather empirical data via public surveys.  This data has the potential to inform judges about what members of the public actually think constitutes reasonableness in a given context. Further, the demographic characteristics of most judges in no way reflects the far more diverse demographics of the population as a whole. Judges are often white, male and wealthier than the average citizen. Thus, their notions of reasonableness exclude other diverse perspectives. Indeed, some of Chao's research has shown that members of certain minority groups had higher standards of privacy than did the control group. Professor Chao is the lead author  of a forthcoming California Law Review article he is co-authoring along with Catherine Durso, Ian Farrell and Christopher Robertson entitled "Why Courts Fail to Protect Privacy: Race, Age, Bias, and Technology". Resources Denver Empirical Justice Institute HUGO Consulting Intellectual Privacy: Rethinking Civil Liberties in the Digital Age by Neil Richards News Roundup Uber, as you know, has a laundry list of controversies ... Susan Fowler a former Uber engineer, accused the company of fostering a hostile, sexual harassment  culture. Google is suing Uber for stealing trade secrets from its self-driving car unit, Waymo. Uber CEO Travis Kalanick has been caught on video berating an Uber driver.  The company has been hemorrhaging money, showing billions in losses, in quarter after quarter, despite revenue growth … Now, Covington and Burling Partners Eric Holder-- who is former President Barack Obama's former Attorney General-- and Tammy Albarrán are wrapping up an independent investigation they've been conducting on behalf of the company. It looks like Uber may be on the brink of requiring Kalanick to take at least a 3 month leave of absence. We'll know more when Uber releases Holder's report to employees on Tuesday. But the Board has already indicated that it would be accepting all of Holder's recommendations. One of the recommendations is to fire Emil Michael--Kalanick's chief deputy.  In the meantime, you can check out Ali Breland's complete summary in the Hill. -- Tony Romm at Recode reported that current FCC General Counsel Brendan Carr and former FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel are the two front-runners President Trump is considering to fill the two remaining Commissioner slots at the FCC. - The federal government is accusing yet another NSA contractor with leaking classified information to the public. Last week, federal agents arrested twenty-five year old Reality Leigh Winner, who had a top secret security clearance. The feds have accused Winner of sending information about Russian hacking activities to the Intercept--the online newspaper. She had served in the Air Force for 6 years prior to becoming a contractor at Pluribus International Group in Augusta, Georgia. The leaked documents revealed that Russia may have hacked a U.S. voting system manufacturer just prior to last year's presidential election. Madison Park has a full summary at CNN.com. -- Finally, Jon Brodkin reported in Ars Technica on comments made by FCC Chair Ajit Pai and Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson on WTMJ Radio last week in which both Pai and Johnson called net neutrality a “slogan”. Johnson seemed to advocate for fast lanes (paid prioritization). But paid prioritization is a practice the Wheeler-era net neutrality rules specifically prohibits. The DC Circuit has upheld those rules, and the current FCC is now in the midst of a proceeding to overturn them. Brian Fung reports in the Washington Post that several tech companies including Etsy, Kickstarter, Mozilla, Reddit, Y Combinator, and Amazon will change their websites on July 12th to protest the FCC's apparent plan to reverse the net neutrality rules.

Yosef Getachew (@getachew2) is a Policy Fellow at Public Knowledge where he works on a variety of technology and communications issues. Prior to joining Public Knowledge, Yosef worked as a law clerk for several technology and communications organizations including the Federal Communications Commission, Comcast, Facebook, and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. Yosef has also served as a Project Coordinator and Research Assistant for the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies. Yosef received his J.D. from the George Washington University Law School. In law school, he was an Articles Editor for the Federal Communications Law Journal. Yosef was born and raised in Washington D.C. In his spare time, he enjoys reading, watching basketball, and spending time with friends. In this episode, we discussed: what 5G is and what it will mean for consumers. the potential of 5G for job creation, particularly for communities with disproportionately high unemployment rates. how to ensure underserved communities have access to 5G technology when it is deployed. Resources Public Knowledge Federal Trade Commission Privacy Law & Policy by Chris Jay Hoofnagle NEWS ROUNDUP The Republican-controlled FCC -- which is, by the way, still sitting with only 3 of its 5 Commission seats filled -- moved to roll back the Obama-era net neutrality rules last week. The new NPRM released Thursday is ostensibly designed to solicit comments it will actually be considering. But policy experts see this as just an administrative formality FCC Chair Ajit Pai needs to adhere to before doing what he has already made clear he is going to do anyway: eviscerate the net neutrality rules. FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn, a Democrat, called the NPRM a "political rush job". Mariam Baksh has additional coverage in Morning Consult.  The Supreme Court on Monday ruled that plaintiffs can no longer "forum shop" -- a practice by which plaintiffs look to pursue their case in a venue that will be most favorable to them -- which, for patent trolls, is a jurisdiction like the Eastern District of Texas which often rules in favor of patent trolls. In TC Heartland v. Kraft, the decision the Supreme Court reversed on Monday, the lower court had ruled that plaintiffs could bring a lawsuit anywhere the companies conduct business. Now, as a result of the Supreme Court's reversal of the lower court's decision, the standard will now limit plaintiffs to bringing suit where the company is incorporated. The outcome of this case has significant implications for so-called patent trolls that bring often frivolous lawsuits against companies for violating patents they hold but don't use to produce anything--they just profit from suing companies that violate them. Ali Breland covers this for the Hill. Tennessee Republican Representative Marsha Blackburn introduced a bill Friday that would require both broadband providers as well as internet companies to obtain consent from consumers before selling their internet data. In a set of FCC privacy rules President Trump nullified last month, only broadband providers were required to obtain such consent. Ali Breland has this story as well in the Hill. Last week, Democratic members of the House Science committee wrote a letter to president Trump urging him to appoint a Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). The lawmakers weighted in after Politico published an article revealing the fact that Trump's staffers occasionally pass fake science news to the president to sway him on certain issues -- it's all part of these little games they like to play jockeying for position within the White House. "We are concerned about the process by which you receive information," the letter begins. "Disseminating stories from dubious sources has been a recurring issue with your administration ... Until the OSTP is adequately staffed and the director position filled by a qualified, objective scientist who understands the difference between alternative news peddled on alt-right websites and legitimate well-vetted scientific facts, we fear that you will continue to be vulnerable to misinformation and fake news." Next.gov has the full story. Congress has responded to the recent ransomware attack that affected computers around the world with a new bill that would require the federal government to report security flaws much sooner so that companies like Microsoft will have a chance to fix them before they are exploited.  Jeremy Kirk outlines the the bipartisan PATCH Act at Bankinfosecurity.com. Finally, The European Union has slapped Facebook with a $122 million fine over the social media company's purchase of WhatsApp. Back in 2014, Facebook indicated  in its filing that it wouldn't be able to reliably link WhatsApp and Facebook accounts--and then last year it did just that. So the European Commission cried foul. Ali Breland reports in the Hill.

Matt Cagle is a Policy Attorney for Technology and Civil Liberties at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). Matt attended law school at Stanford and has a BA in Latin American Studies and Political Science from the University of Arizona. Before joining the ACLU as a Policy Attorney, Matt worked as an associate with BlurryEdge Strategies, a San Francisco-based law practice advising startups on privacy issues. In this episode, we discussed: how the police use social media to track American citizens.  Resources: ACLU of Northern California The Philipp K. Dick Collection by Phillip K. Dick   NEWS ROUNDUP A massive hack infected hundreds of thousands Microsoft Windows-based computers, disabling several large hospitals in the UK, requiring them to turn away some patients, as well as Fedex, Telefonica, and several other institutions. The ransomware, which is a program called "WannaCry", encrypts files so users can't access them and then demands payment, in the form of the digital currency known as Bitcoin, from victims to decrypt their files. WannaCry spread around the world beginning on Friday, although it did so to a lesser degree in other countries than it was felt in the UK. An engineer that goes by the screen name "Malware Tech" found a kill switch in the ransomware. The ransomware relies on infected computers not being able to access a particular domain name. Since the domain name wasn't registered, no computers could access it. Therefore Malware simply registered the domain, stopping it from spreading to additional computers. The U.S. was barely affected by the cyberattack, but researchers are on the lookout for copycats. Microsoft issued a statement saying the cyberattack should be a wake up call for governments as the hack was executed using stolen government data. U.S. Cyber Command head Admiral Mike Rodgers told the Senate Armed Services Committee just last Tuesday that Congress needed to provide clearer guidance as to how his agency should fight cyberattacks. Rogers also told the Senate panel that his agency witnessed Russian intrusions into French systems in the midst of the French election last week.  On Thursday, President Trump had signed an executive order authorizing a sweeping review of all federal agencies to identify the holes that hackers have been exploiting. The ransomware hack happened on Friday.   The Hill reports the ransomware attack has made the perpetrators over $57,000 worth of bitcoins thus far. A federal judge on Monday of this week ordered Uber to turn over some 14,000 documents to Waymo--the self-driving company owned by Google--which Waymo says were stolen by a former Google engineer by the name of Anthony Levandowski. The Waymo lawsuit alleges that Levandowski left Google to start a self-driving truck company called Otto, taking the documents with him. Then Uber subsequently acquired Otto, taking the documents with it.  Waymo also announced a new collaboration with Lyft on Monday of this week. Ali Breland has the story in The Hill. Finally, A number of policymakers are concerned about the ways in which Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) might begin to surveil immigrants or develop a database to track immigrants for deportation. But in an exclusive report for NPR, George Joseph outlined specific ways in which ICE is already using databases maintained by local law enforcement to accomplish the same ends.  Remember last week's John Oliver bit criticizing FCC Chairman Ajit Pai's plan to scale back the net neutrality rules? The one where Oliver urged viewers to go to a site the show created called gofccyourself.com, which redirected to the FCC's comments section, and then the comments section crashed? Well the incident left FCC Chairman Pai scrambling to contain his agency's embarrassment, and there was some confusion as to whether the site crashed because of the influx of comments provoked by the show, or by some kind of contemporaneous hack designed to prevent comments from being submitted. Well, the FCC maintains that it was indeed a hack and that the crash wasn't caused by John Oliver's segment. Democrats are saying, "yeah right"-- Senators Ron Wyden and Brian Schatz wrote Chairman Pai saying cyberattacks are a very serious matter and urging the agency to turn over any evidence of a cyberattack happening a few minutes after Oliver's segment. No word yet. But Oliver again this past Sunday rallied his viewers to submit comments.  Harper Neidig has more in The Hill.

Jane Taylor is the Founder and President of Bot Shop LLC. Bot Shop is an innovative one-stop shop specializing in integrating Robotics and Energy Education into K-12 public schools, informal education, non-profits and outreach programs. As a full-service consulting firm, Bot Shop provides turnkey solutions for effectively engaging youth in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics through making. BotShop supports robots in education from the classroom to competition. Jane Taylor began teaching middle school science in HISD in 2000 after graduating from Lamar University with a Bachelor of Science in Biology and joining Teach for America-Houston. She used robotics as an instructional tool in her science class in 2001 after securing a community grant which purchased LEGO Mindstorms RCX robots and registration fees for First LEGO League. In response to the amazing reaction from students to this new technology, Jane created a course called Project Based: STEM in 2004 and established one of the first robotics elective courses in the Houston Independent School Districts. She went on to successfully design, develop, and implement grassroots robotics competitions, after school programs, and course curricula throughout Greater Houston. Jane currently chairs the SHEbot Initiative for Girls in STEM, is an advisor to the 4H SET AgriBotics Robotics Challenge, and has been recognized by Teach for America for her “Energy in Education” and numerous "National Teacher of the Year" awards. She earned her Bachelor's in Biology from Lamar University and studied educational robotics at the Carnegie Mellon Robotics Academy. In this episodes we discussed: how to talk to kids about STEM subjects to help them see their relevance. which toys and activities teach STEM skills and which are a waste of money. how parents can help foster a home environment that is conducive to STEM achievement. Resources Botshoprocks.com Arduino Leg WeDo 2.0 Carnegie Mellon Robotics Academy Code.org Boss Women Pray by Kachelle Kelly   NEWS ROUNDUP Republicans are bracing for a backlash from Democrats over Congress' repeal of the FCC Privacy Rules, which the President signed on Monday night. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee has already been running attack ads against members who are up for re-electiom next year and who supported the repeal of the privacy rules. These members include Jeff Flake of Arizona and Dean Heller of Nevada. Daniel Strauss, Zack Kopplin, John Farrell, Jeff Greenfield, David Sliders, Alex Byers, Austin Wright, and Martin Matishak cover this in Politico.   At least one state, however, is developing its own set of privacy rules. The state of Minnesota passed its own privacy bill last week. The FCC's net neutrality rules are expected to be on the chopping block next. -- Wikileaks has struck again, this time releasing details about the CIA's Marble Framework, which shows how the CIA obfuscates itself when it is surveilling targets. This leak is considered to be especially damaging because it demonstrates how the CIA is able to mask its identity and cover its tracks when it conducts online surveillance. Ellen Nakishima reports in The Washington Post. -- Federal Law enforcement officials now say terrorists have figured out how to hide bombs in laptops and other devices in a way that evades airport screeners. So authorities are now considering expanding the device ban the White House began implementing a couple of weeks ago. Evan Perez reports for CNN. -- The once-thriving White House Office of Science and Technology Policy--OSTP--which was active under the Obama administration and staffed with elite Silicon Valley insiders and technologists, is now a ghost town. Michael Shear and Cecilia Kang report for The New York Times that the office is down from 24 to just 1 staffer. -- In another blow to the affordable internet access program known as Lifeline, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said last week that he would allow states to decide which companies can participate to dole out discounts to help low-income people afford broadband. The decision came a few months after Pai announced he'd cut 9 companies from the program. Now, in a shift, he doesn't think the federal government should be involved in providing broadband to the poor at all via the Lifeline program. Ali Breland reports in the Hill. -- Finally, Rebecca Ballhaus at the Wall Street Journal reported that the White House has stopped keeping visitor logs. Under the Obama administration, the log was freely shared with the public online.