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Yaaasss!Eric Holder Says Obama Is Back And Ready To Roll

Former Attorney GeneralEric Holder said that former PresidentObama is set to return to politics and take on gerrymandering. He plans on joining forces withHolder and the new National Democratic Redistricting Committee, which Holder was asked to chair last year by Obama,says Politico.

Its coming. Hes coming, Holder said.And hes ready to roll.

Gerrymandering is themanipulation the county boundaries of (an electoral constituency) to favor one party or class, usually one that favors Republicans. AndHolder stressed thatObamas role in fighting them will be a more visible part of the effort.

This is really a battle for our democracy, Holder said. The notion that people are denied their ability to cast a meaningful vote is inconsistent with who we say we are, inconsistent with what we say our democracy is about.

We are ready to roll as well! Welcome back Sir!

Sigh: Trump Referred To HBCU Presidents As You People

Between being called The Blacks and being told our very existence is a living hell, its clear that #45 doesnt have the best grasp on racial sensitivity. Sadly, it continues to get worse.

According to Buzzfeed,when Trump invited HBCU leaders for the signing of his HBCU Executive order earlier this week, he reportedly said to all-Black group:You people are doing an amazing job.

Sigh. Guess Armarosa forgot to tell him that Black folks are not all that keen about being called You people.

In addition, four HBCU presidents that were in the room told Buzzfeed that Trump then repeated the refrain three more times, which led to some raised eyebrows amongst the college officials. However some leaders didnt trip, they brushed it off as Trump being Trump.

Ive heard a lot worse than that, and I mean a lot worse, an anonymous college president from a Southern state told a reporter at the website. Im sure if youre from the North or whatever you might be offended by something like that.

I was waiting on him to say something worse, they added.

Oh how low the has been set!

Kennedy Center Names Its First Director Of Hip-Hop Culture

The Kennedy Center recently announced their very first director of hip-hop culture and contemporary music!

NBC Washington reported thatSimone Eccleston, who is currently the director of programming at Harlem Stage in New York, has been tapped for this new position. Her first day will be onMarch 13.

In this role,Eccleston will oversee a center-wide commitment to hip-hop culture and contemporary music, which includes R&B, soul, folk and roots, indie, world music and Latin music, says a release. One of hermajor goals is to up community involvement and participation through the art of hip-hop and social action.

With the Kennedy Center serving as the preeminent home for our nations arts and culture, the creation of a programmatic platform for hip-hop culture is deeply significant, Eccleston said.

Kennedy Center Senior Vice President Robert van Leer stressed that she excited to have Eccleston on board.

We are thrilled to have an arts administrator of Simones caliber join us someone who can lead that exploration of what hip-hop at the Kennedy Center can become in the coming years, van Leer said in a statement.

And we believe it is the Centers responsibility to develop and elevate thought-leaders like Simone to champion the bright future of our nations cultural institutions.

Congrats Simone!

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Evening Minute: Eric Holder Says Obama Is Back And 'Ready To Roll' - HelloBeautiful

On Tuesday, Eric Holder said that former president Barack Obama is getting ready to return to politics and take on gerrymandering with Holder alongside thenew National Democratic Redistricting Committee, which Holder was asked to chair last year by Obama.

Its coming. Hes coming, Holder said.And hes ready to roll.

Holder said that throughout the NDRCs efforts to deal with the disadvantages of redistricting and gerrymandering, Obamawill be a more visible part of the effort. The committee hopes to work toward nonpartisan district-drawing commissions in an effort to create voting districts that more accurately reflect the population.

Petition calls for Obama to run for office in France

This is really a battle for our democracy, Holder said. The notion that people are denied their ability to cast a meaningful vote is inconsistent with who we say we are, inconsistent with what we say our democracy is about.

During his comments, Holder admitted that it would be more difficult for the committee to meet its goals with Jeff Sessions as the new attorney general. He admitted that whileit would be good to have the Justice Department on our side it doesnt mean that the argument cant be made, and cant be made well.

Originally posted here:
Eric Holder on Obama's return: 'He's ready to roll' - The Grio

Uber leadership is scrambling to react this week to the sexual harassment allegations of former employee Susan J. Fowler, whose blog post on her experience at Uber has gone viral. Fowler describes how she was repeatedly sexually harassed and discriminated against yet every time she made a report to her managers or to human resources, she was dismissed. Fowlers story throws a spotlight on sexism in an industry that loves to paint itself as forward thinking and inclusive, and her experience was not an isolated caseas Fowlers blog gained traction, women from a range of companies began sharing their experiences with sexual harassment in the tech world.

Ubers reputation already took a hit this winterwhen #deleteUber began to trend after Uber failed to condemn the Trump Administrations immigration ban and continued sendingcars to airports during a tax driver protest. After Fowlers blog post, the deleting trend is back in full force. With rival Lyft picking up some of theclient base that was once so loyal to Uber, the companys reputationand financial successcould begin to crumble.

Uber CEO Travis Kalanick has stated that he was disturbed and shocked by Fowlers experience and within a matter of hours had hired former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to conduct a review of sexual harassment claims at the company. This will be Holders second venture into creating a more inclusive Silicon Valley brand. After Airbnb received widespread complaints of discrimination from hosts, Holder and Laura Murphy, former head of the ACLU, were hired to craft ananti-discrimination policy for the company. Airbnb now has hosts accept its anti-discrimination rules before they can become part of the Airbnb community, and while there have been arguments that the rules are not actually effectiveand that they dont go far enough, the new rules were at least a step in the right direction. Holder has always been a staunch advocate for civil rights and was fully committed to womens rights during his tenure as attorney generalbut is he truly being asked to overhaul Ubers culture or simply being brought on for publicity reasons?

There are doubts that Holders team will be able to defeat sexism in an industry where women are rarely given a seat at the table within a nation where sexual harassment has gone unpunished for decades and where the sitting president has bragged about assaulting women. Uber, like most companies across Silicon Valley and around the world, prioritizes results over respect for women in the workplace. Multiple interviews from current and former Uber employees have revealed that the work environment can be very hostile but that no one reports it out of fear of retaliation.

Now that Fowlers case has shone a spotlight on a reality that we often ignore, Uber has at least taken steps to acknowledge the problem immediately, both by hiring Holder and by issuing a message that acknowledges Fowlers case when users try to delete the app. However, over the coming weeks as media attention shifts, Uber mayhave minimal incentives to improve its sexual harassment policies. Uber is still an exciting company for any young developer to work at, and while Fowlers case may give female programmers and engineers pause, there is little reason to think that many male candidates will choose not to work at Uber because of Fowlers story.

The most effective boycott would be taking #deleteUber a step furtherdont work for Uber. If Uber takes a hit in its hiring pool, that is when it will truly feel the pressure to reform. It is the responsibility of young, qualified candidates who are working in Silicon Valley to turn down offers at companies that subscribe to a toxic work environment that devalues female voices. Holder will be working to create new policies and investigate past offenses, but his investigation will be futile if we continue to ignore the results and sign up for Uber just the same.

Jillian Sequeira was a member of the College of William and Mary Class of 2016, with a double major in Government and Italian. When shes not blogging, shes photographing graffiti around the world and worshiping at the altar of Elon Musk and all things Tesla. Contact Jillian at Staff@LawStreetMedia.com

Continued here:
Why Eric Holder Can't Save Silicon Valley Alone - Law Street Media (blog)

Former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder. Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg

Eric Holder, the former U.S. attorney general hired by Uber Technologies Inc. to investigate sexual harassment claims, pledged to act with complete independence in his review of how the company handled the situation.

Speaking for the first time since he was appointed as a lead on an examination of the company, Holder said Uber has given him carte blanche and that he has the power to determine whether management is culpable. He said he would leave no stone unturned, responding to concerns about his impartiality expressed by two Uber investors.

I will put my personal reputation behind everything that I say, Holder said. I think Ive demonstrated throughout my career the ability to be independent, to not be afraid to express contrary views, and thats what Ive told everybody here at Uber. If you are going to ask me to do this, you have to be prepared for me to simply look at the facts as they are, look at the policies as they are, look at the culture as it is and make recommendations, make findings on that basis, without any regard for anything other than that.

Uber brought in Holder and Tammy Albarran, his colleague at law firm Covington & Burling, to lead an inquiry into allegations made by Susan Fowler, a former software engineer at Uber. In a blog post published Sunday, Fowler wrote that her manager at Uber had propositioned her for sex and that the San Francisco-based companys human resources department had told her that the manager would not be punished, in part, because he was a high performer.

Mitch and Freada Kapor, early Uber investors,voiced objections Thursday to aspects of the review process, specifically questions around independence of the investigators. Holder has worked for Uber on projects in the past. Uber board member Arianna Huffington, the companys new head of human resources Liane Hornsey and Ubers associate general counsel Angela Padilla will also participate in the inquiry.

After Holder stepped down as attorney general in 2015, he was hired a year later to conduct a review of Airbnb Inc.s processes after customers complained they were being racially discriminated against when trying to book rentals. He also worked on Ubers behalf last year in an effort to defeat fingerprint background check legislation.

Holder said his previous work for Uber shouldnt disqualify him from conducting an independent investigation. What I said in letters with regard to Ubers opposition to the use of fingerprinted background checks was consistent to what I said as attorney general of the United States, he said.

Bill Gurley, a venture capitalist who sits on Ubers board, said the company chose Holder to review itsworkplace practices and culture due to his stature, demonstrated interest in these areas and reputation for independence. Uberwill take Holders findingsand translate them into action, Gurley said. David Plouffe, a non-voting member of the board, also defended the pick on Thursday, describing Holderasideal for this assignment.

Since hiring Holder, the ride-hailing company has only spun further into crisis. On Tuesday, Uber Chief Executive Officer Travis Kalanick delivered a tearful apology to employees for the companys cultural failings. The next day, the New York Times reported that an Uber manager had groped several female employees at a company party in Las Vegas and was later fired. The report described a generally hostile work environment in which one manager shouted a homophobic slur at an employee and another threatened to beat an employee with a baseball bat.

Holders investigation is in its early stages, and he declined to provide a timeline. I dont want to emphasize speed over thoroughness, but I think speed is a component of doing this the right way, he said. This is not something we want to fester.

For more news, visit Bloomberg.

Excerpt from:
Uber Investigator Eric Holder Asserts His Independence - Bloomberg Big Law Business

Eric Holder.

Eric Holder, the former U.S. attorney general hired by Uber Technologies Inc. to investigate sexual harassment claims, pledged to act with complete independence in his review of how the company handled the situation.

Speaking for the first time since he was appointed as a lead on an examination of the company, Holder said Uber has given him carte blanche and that he has the power to determine whether management is culpable. He said he would leave no stone unturned, responding to concerns about his impartiality expressed by two Uber investors.

I will put my personal reputation behind everything that I say, Holder said. I think Ive demonstrated throughout my career the ability to be independent, to not be afraid to express contrary views, and thats what Ive told everybody here at Uber. If you are going to ask me to do this, you have to be prepared for me to simply look at the facts as they are, look at the policies as they are, look at the culture as it is and make recommendations, make findings on that basis, without any regard for anything other than that.

Uber brought in Holder and Tammy Albarran, his colleague at law firm Covington & Burling, to lead an inquiry into allegations made by Susan Fowler, a former software engineer at Uber. In a blog post published Sunday, Fowler wrote that her manager at Uber had propositioned her for sex and that the San Francisco-based companys human resources department had told her that the manager would not be punished, in part, because he was a high performer.

Mitch and Freada Kapor, early Uber investors,voiced objections Thursday to aspects of the review process, specifically questions around independence of the investigators. Holder has worked for Uber on projects in the past. Uber board member Arianna Huffington, the companys new head of human resources Liane Hornsey and Ubers associate general counsel Angela Padilla will also participate in the inquiry.

After Holder stepped down as attorney general in 2015, he was hired a year later to conduct a review of Airbnb Inc.s processes after customers complained they were being racially discriminated against when trying to book rentals. He also worked on Ubers behalf last year in an effort to defeat fingerprint background check legislation.

Holder said his previous work for Uber shouldnt disqualify him from conducting an independent investigation. What I said in letters with regard to Ubers opposition to the use of fingerprinted background checks was consistent to what I said as attorney general of the United States, he said.

Bill Gurley, a venture capitalist who sits on Ubers board, said the company chose Holder to review itsworkplace practices and culture due to his stature, demonstrated interest in these areas and reputation for independence. Uberwill take Holders findingsand translate them into action, Gurley said. David Plouffe, a non-voting member of the board, also defended the pick on Thursday, describing Holderasideal for this assignment.

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Holders investigation is in its early stages, and he declined to provide a timeline. I don't want to emphasize speed over thoroughness, but I think speed is a component of doing this the right way, he said. This is not something we want to fester.

Originally posted here:
Uber Investigator Eric Holder Asserts His Independence - Bloomberg