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TV executive Jamie Horowitz out abruptly at Fox Sports

Silicon Valley's sexism problem: Could the tide be turning?

Been waiting for the $35,000 Tesla? It won't be long now

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BARBARA ORTUTAY

ASSOCIATED PRESS | July 3, 2017, 2:35PM

| Updated 2 hours ago.

NEW YORK Sexism in Silicon Valley has been an open secret for years. What's changing: A growing number of women are coming forward with personal stories of sexual harassment and discrimination, prompting apologies, resignations and plenty of hand-wringing.

It's too soon to tell whether the incidents will lead to meaningful, long-term change. But the revelations, many implicating industry bigshots, are at least leading to some humbled self-reflection in an industry long criticized as arrogant and self-centered.

In the latest example, prominent venture investor Dave McClure apologized over the weekend for making "inappropriate advances" toward several women. His apology titled "I'm a Creep. I'm Sorry" follows a New York Times report that described offensive behavior by McClure and other prominent venture investors, as related by female entrepreneurs. On Monday, he resigned from the venture capital fund he co-founded, 500 Startups.

Reports of sexism in the industry are not new, as the male-dominated tech and venture capital industry has often downplayed or turned a blind eye to issues of discrimination and worse. The problems can be particularly acute for women leading startups, as their companies are dependent on clubby venture capitalists for funding.

So what's prompting more women to speak out? Credit Susan Fowler, a former Uber engineer who outlined a culture of harassment at the company. Uber CEO Travis Kalanick resigned in the aftermath , and the company has promised to institute broad changes.

Last month, meanwhile, several female entrepreneurs told the trade publication The Information about harassment by a partner at the VC firm Binary Capital. He and another partner resigned in late June. The accused partner, Justin Caldbeck, issued an apology, but that itself drew criticism from others in the tech industry.

"It feels like you're trying to nudge us to feel sorry for you that you need to leave your precious firm behind. YOU CAUSED THIS," Google product manager Brenden Mulligan wrote in a post on Medium.

One of Caldbeck's accusers, Niniane Wang, wrote that she "laughed out loud" reading the apology.

Indeed, plenty of skepticism remains about the tech industry's ability to change overnight.

After the allegations against Caldbeck came to light, LinkedIn co-founder and former CEO Reid Hoffman lamented a "lack of outrage and commentary" following the VC harassment reports.

In a post on LinkedIn, Hoffman called the renewed attention on Silicon Valley's gender problems "very good criticism." He urged venture capitalists to establish human resources policies just as companies and other institutions do "so that venture capitalists who engage in such behavior face the same sort of consequences that they would if their overtures were directed at an employee."

Experts and advocates also have long called for improving gender and racial diversity in the industry. Companies with more women overall and more women in leadership positions, the thinking goes, are less likely to face problems of sexism and sexual harassment.

While tech companies are often blamed for hiring too few women, the issue is also persistent at VC firms. According to a report by Deloitte and the National Venture Capital Association, women hold 26 percent of senior positions at VC firms and 11 percent of investment partners and equivalent positions. The 2016 report surveyed 1,336 firms in the U.S., which the groups say is representative of the overall VC workforce in the country.

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Of course, the tech industry isn't alone. In 2014, the nonprofit worker rights group Restaurant Opportunities Centers United estimated that two-thirds of female workers and more than half of male workers experienced some form of sexual harassment, whether from customers, co-workers or bosses. The group called sexual harassment "endemic to the restaurant industry."

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission received 6,758 complaints alleging workplace sexual harassment in 2016, the latest available figure. That's down from 7,944 in 2010 though the decline of complaints does not necessarily indicate a decline of incidents.

"Tech companies are supposed to be doing things different," said Tom Spiggle, founder of the Spiggle Law Firm, which focuses on workplace law. "And they have been like Uber, almost a retro kind of sexual harassment behavior."

Spiggle, who often represents workers alleging sexual harassment and discrimination, said in a recent interview that he doesn't see the problems getting better, despite high-profile cases such as Uber's.

He said he was shocked when he started taking workers' cases in 2009, saying, "It felt like the 1950s."

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Silicon Valley's sexism problem: Could the tide be turning? - Santa Rosa Press Democrat

WASHINGTON -- A leading lawmaker on the Senate Intelligence Committee says President Donald Trump has hampered the panels investigation of Russias meddling in the 2016 election by not accepting the conclusions of U.S. intelligence agencies.

Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the panel, made the remarks in a CNN interview to be broadcast on July 2.

The Senate committee is one of several investigating not only Russian meddling but also contacts between Trump associates and Russian officials.

In terms of contacts and collusions, Ive never seen so much smoke and so many possible threads, Warner said, according to a transcript.

He also warned Trumps reluctance to accept the conclusions of the intelligence community was harming efforts to prevent intrusions in future elections.

In addition to the congressional probes, the FBI had been investigating contacts between Trump associates and Russian officials. But Trump fired its director in May, which led to the appointment of a special counsel to oversee the investigation.

The special counsel, Robert Mueller, is ramping up his efforts with new powerhouse hires, including a well-regarded federal prosecutor from New York City who was involved in the prosecution of politicians accused of corruption.

Mueller is also reportedly looking into whether Trump sought to obstruct the FBIs investigation, which is a felony crime.

Read more:
Top Senate Democrat: More Urgency Needed In Response To Russian Election Meddling - RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty

Idahos state Capitol, where the House and Senate Education committees convened a rare summer meeting last week to examine state schools Superintendent Sherri Ybarras plan for complying with the new federal education law, the Every Student Succeeds Act, or ESSA. (Betsy Z. Russell)

So, who is that little-known Democrat who filed back in March to run for Idahos 1st District congressional seat? After many weeks of trying to reach him, I received a call from Michael William Smith of Post Falls last week, and he filled me in.

Hes a veteran of both the Army and the Marines who served for 14 years, including deployments to Qatar, Iraq and Afghanistan. He moved from southern California to North Idaho just a year and a half ago. This is his first-ever run for political office.

A lifelong Democrat, Smith says hes always been concerned about politics. All of my friends would get sick of how much I would talk about politics, he said. Our most recent 2016 elections have proven that you dont have to have a career in politics in order to serve.

Smith said his family and friends the 38-year-old is married with two sons said he should put his words into action. So I agreed with them and took it as a calling, that Im not only more apt to serve, but also have a duty to try to represent the peoples interests, he said.

Since moving to Post Falls, hes gone to meetings of the Indivisible group that opposes President Donald Trump, and hes been inspired. It makes me hopeful that what I want to do is what most of the people would like to see happen in their governments, he said.

Smith said hes not convinced that Idaho is as heavily Republican as most people think, despite the GOP controlling the vast majority of elective offices.

Considering that 40 percent of the people dont vote if theyre not inspired to, he said, I think that it is just a lack of candidates that could represent them that is causing it to appear as though we are a heavily Republican area.

Smith describes his politics as pretty progressive, and lists his top issues as the economy, livable wages, protecting public lands and the environment, renewable energy and working to get a single-payer health system.

Smith worked in technical support for Time Warner Cable before quitting this year to focus on his political run. Hes a 1997 graduate of Garden Grove High School. Right now Im running this campaign full-time, he said. Im doing nothing but studying whats going on and learning what I will need to do.

So far, hes the only Democrat to file for what will be an open seat in Congress. Two Republicans, former Idaho Lt. Gov. and Attorney General David Leroy and former state Sen. Russ Fulcher of Meridian, are already campaigning; and two others, state Rep. Luke Malek of Coeur dAlene and Layne Bangerter, who was director of the Trump presidential campaign in Idaho, are considering the race.

Idaho Rep. Raul Labrador, the new chair of a House subcommittee on immigration, told reporters last week that he hopes to fix the broken immigration system between now and the end of his current two-year term, after which hes running for governor rather than seeking re-election.

I actually think its the perfect time, Labrador said. This is what I came to Congress to work on, is to modernize and fix the broken immigration system. This is a golden opportunity for me to do this while Im also running for governor. I can walk and chew gum, I think Ive shown that, at the same time.

Labrador said, We can bring the immigration system into the 21st century have a system that puts Americans first and looks at the needs of the United States, not the needs of people that are here illegally.

Labrador, an immigration attorney, is sponsoring two bills, an immigration enforcement crackdown bill dubbed the Davis-Oliver Act, and a bill to limit refugee resettlement. Both have cleared the House Judiciary Committee on party-line votes.

He said the two measures are major reforms to the current immigration system.

We need to modernize the immigration system, he said, make sure local law enforcement can work with the system, and make sure we vet refugees and other immigrants coming to the United States carefully.

Asked whether that was the extent of his proposed reforms to immigration, Labrador said no.

We have right now five bills that deal with interior enforcement, he said. We are then going to move on to working on the guest worker program, and especially the H2A (visa) that deals with our farmers. That could include expanding that program, which currently doesnt cover year-round workers like those employed by Idaho dairies, to allow foreign dairy workers to fall under it and work in the United States for up to three years, if they return to their home country for a month a year, he said.

Were also going to deal with visa entry, e-verify, he said. We have a pretty big, broad agenda of all the things were going to do to modernize this immigration system.

He said his proposed expansion of the H2A visa program, which still is in draft form, likely wouldnt allow dairy workers who are already in the country illegally to apply.

Labrador said another reason he thinks the time is ripe for immigration reform is that you get past this cycle, this next 18 months or so, then you get into the silly season, where youre talking about re-election of a president and things like that.

The Idaho House and Senate Education committees held a rare summer meeting last week at the state Capitol. The top item of concern was the states plan to comply with the federal Every Student Succeeds Act.

Idaho faces a Sept. 18 deadline for submitting its compliance plan to the federal government for school accountability and for spending $83 million in federal education funds.

Both Senate Education Chairman Dean Mortimer, R-Idaho Falls, and House Education Chair Julie VanOrden, R-Pingree, said they wanted the committee members to help them provide input on the proposed plan. The meeting came a day after the state Board of Education convened a summit meeting with prominent education groups in Idaho after they complained in a letter to the board and Gov. Butch Otter that they felt disrespected after being excluded from developing the state plan.

State schools Superintendent Sherri Ybarra told the lawmakers the plan reflects lots of public and stakeholder input. This was not done in a vacuum, she said. This is a collaborative plan thats taken quite a few months to put together. They have traveled over the state, my team, held several listening tours. She said, We welcome your input.

But a major point of contention quickly surfaced that also came up a day earlier at the state boards summit meeting: The long-term goals for student achievement within every sub-group outlined in the plan were deemed extremely unrealistic by stakeholder groups, lawmakers and others, and are being revised.

Duncan Robb, Ybarras chief policy adviser, said there was agreement to revise those long-term goals, which initially contemplated decreasing the percentage of students who arent 100 percent proficient in reading and math by 50 percent over six years and applying that same percentage decrease to every sub-group, including students with disabilities, English language learners, and more.

State Rep. Ryan Kerby, R-New Plymouth, a retired school district superintendent, pointed out that on reading and language arts proficiency for the base year of 2016, currently 15 percent of students with disabilities are proficient.

Youre going to try to get them all the way to 57 percent in six years? Thats really aggressive, he said. Then on English learners, we only have 6.9 percent of them proficient right now, and try to get clear to 53.5 percent thats probably clearly impossible.

What we dont want to do is put schools in a situation where they almost certainly know theyre not going to make it, and so you kind of dismiss the whole thing, Kerby said.

So state officials and stakeholders are now focusing on instead increasing the proficiency percentages in each sub-group by 3 percentage points each year. That means the 6.9 percent proficiency number would rise to 27 percent over six years, Kerby said, which schools would feel is an achievable goal.

Sen. Janie Ward-Engelking, D-Boise, said the goals appear to be very ambitious across the board, specifically for English language learners and special-ed populations.

Robb told her thats why theyre now being revised. Were going to be doing a lot of work at the department over the next couple of weeks to model that out and see what that looks like, because thats very valid feedback, he said.

Additional meetings between state education officials and stakeholders are planned over the next month.

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Eye on Boise: Little-known North Idaho Democrat steps forward in 1st CD race - The Spokesman-Review

It was back in the 1930s that comedian-commentator Will Rogers said: "I am not a member of any organized political party. I am a Democrat."

What was true then is true now. As the Democrats have demonstrated in four special elections since Donald Trump became president, they are too much in shambles to exploit the contempt that millions of people feel for him. His disapproval is trumped by their disarray.

Will Rogers also described Congress as "the best that money can buy." More than 80 years later, that's even more the reality but in the case of Georgia's 6th Congressional District, more than $25 million wasn't enough for Democrat Jon Ossoff. Republican Karen Handel easily handled Ossoff, as well as the Democrats. On the same night, the Dems also managed to drop the ball in South Carolina's 5th District. That's another red one they wanted to turn blue to show how deeply Trump has offended the nation. It's still red.

Georgia's 6th District is near Atlanta. It's gone GOP for 40 years, producing the likes of Newt Gingrich and Tom Price, whose contribution as Trump's Health and Human Services Secretary will be to gut medical care in this country.

While this district mainly grew out of the white flight that created many suburbs, it has evolved into a more polite form of conservatism. Now, its people are better educated and more socially progressive than in your standard Trump enclave. In other words, Democrats considered it fertile ground to plant a political victory that would grow into congressional control after the 2018 midterm elections.

The GOPs haven't so much won these special elections, the Dems have lost them with their garbled message. The Democratic Party can't get together.

There are roughly two compound faction fractures. The Bernie Sanders followers, let's call them the Sandernistas, want to move our society leftward, taking on the advantages of the rich even in essentials areas like health care, nutrition and education. They'd spread the wealth with government takeover of social needs financed by higher taxes on the well-off. The party establishment figures, let's call them the Centrististas, agree that there's a problem with our economic disparity. But many of them have gotten prosperous by playing the game. So they argue that more radical ideas will drive away voters. The Sandernistas charge that there's little to distinguish the Centrististas from Republicans.

In the case of Ossoff, he refused to play the Trump card, rejecting most attacks on the president and opting to run a civilized, moderate campaign. The immoderates on the left argue that civility is highly overrated, that only attacks on the Trumpsters will get them to the promised land, which is control of the House and/or Senate after 2018.

Relying on Trump to "self-impeach," as Nancy Pelosi describes it, is an incredibly long shot. And speaking of Pelosi, Republicans have achieved great success by demonizing her. Democrats will need to do something about that.

There are so many ways they need to get their acts together. Or, as Will Rogers observed, the downhill trek will continue: "Last year we said, 'Things can't go on like this,' and they didn't they got worse."

Bob Franken is a nationally syndicated columnist. He can be reached by emailing bob@bobfranken.tv

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FRANKEN: Divided Democrats fail again - Rapid City Journal

CHARLOTTE, NC (Jim Morrill/The Charlotte Observer) -

Democrat Vi Lyles said Saturday that she has raised $215,000 for her mayoral race.

Lyles said she raised the money from over 1,000 individuals.

I am thrilled with the show of support for this campaign in bringing new leadership to our city, she said in a statement. Charlotte deserves a mayor that is focused on improving all neighborhoods, and a leader with the vision to bring our city together culturally and economically.

Reports for state Sen. Joel Ford and Mayor Jennifer Roberts, the other main Democratic candidates, were not available. Reports reflect fundraising and spending through the first half of the year. Theyre not due to be made public until late this month.

Ford, Lyles and Roberts are expected to face off in the Sept. 12 Democratic primary.

Through the first six months of 2015, Roberts had raised $302,000. Then-incumbent Democratic Mayor Dan Clodfelter had raised $183,000.

The two-week filing period for mayor, City Council and other local offices opens Friday.

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Democrat Vi Lyles raises $215000 for Charlotte's mayoral race - WBTV