Steven Davidoff Solomon quoted by Wired, May 20, 2016
“It comes down to what Theranos knew about its machines when it raised capital, and what its investors didn’t know,” says Steven Davidoff Solomon.
The politics of passenger rail in Los Angeles
Ethan Elkind interviewed by KCRW, May 20, 2016
“This is a momentous occasion for Los Angeles transit advocates, and for mobility and the region. And the reason is that the Westside of Los Angeles is the most densely populated within the county. When you have dense concentrations of people, that’s when technology like rail transit makes the most sense.”
In European reaction to presumptive 2016 GOP nominee, echoes of 1964
Ian Haney López quoted by CBS News: Face the Nation, May 20, 2016
“When you look at Goldwater you are looking at the inception of coded racial appeals,” notes Ian Haney López, Author of Dog Whistle Politics and Professor at Berkeley Law.
Airbnb clarifies rules: No class-action lawsuits
Mark Gergen quoted in San Francisco Chronicle, May 20, 2016
“Some people find the ubiquity of these arbitration terms troubling,” he said. “They don’t like the switch from courts to arbitration, but it’s where the world is heading.” Airbnb’s wording doesn’t strike him as particularly aggressive, he said.
Pushing students out of class a bad idea
Kate Weisburd writes for East Bay Times, May 19, 2016
Three pending bills in Sacramento will expand the ability of schools to push kids out of school and irreparably disrupt their education. … These bills significantly widen the school to a prison pipeline. Rather than address the root cause of the problems, these bills further criminalize and exclude students, especially students of color.
Humboldt County takes aim at racism
john a. powell quoted by Mad River Union, May 19, 2016
As powell put it, when “we are consciously aware of the [other] person, our stereotypes and beliefs about the person surface in our conscious mind but our emotional reaction has already occurred” before we know it. This happens even among people who are not prejudiced, he emphasized.
Oracle-Google dispute goes to heart of open-source software
Pamela Samuelson quoted in The New York Times, May 19, 2016
“The open-source community will heave a huge sigh of relief if Google wins, and will be very worried if Oracle wins,” said Pamela Samuelson, professor of law at the University of California, Berkeley. “It will have a chilling effect.”
Metro hoping riders will heed call to board $1.5 billion Santa Monica Expo train
Ethan Elkind interviewed by KPCC-FM, May 18, 2016
Metro’s return on investment comes down to ridership. … “It’s really dependent on something that sounds really straight-forward, but is hard to achieve in reality, which is that you have to have enough concentration of people and jobs within a half mile of stations,” he said.
Leaks abound as Yahoo auction gets underway
Steven Davidoff Solomon writes for The New York Times, May 18, 2016
It’s hard to sell any company, but Yahoo is finding that it may be even harder when the entire world seems to know about your supposedly secret bidding.
Oakland 8-year-old’s shooting death could yield first county death penalty in years
Franklin Zimring quoted in The Mercury News, May 18, 2016
Frank Zimring … said Alaysha’s slaying was a case of “extreme victimization” of an innocent girl caught in an enormous violence. There wasn’t a fight between equals; the gunfire blasted through the door, he said. Even an office that wouldn’t touch the death penalty with a 10-foot pole would feel an obligation to do so “in an extraordinary case of unprovoked and meaningless violence,” he said.