all News of 01/16/21

Tracy Chou Launches Block Party To Combat Online Harassment And Abuse

Tracy Chou launches Block Party to combat online harassment and abuse image Block Party , an anti-harassment startup that aims to help folks feel safer on social media founded by Tracy Chou, launched today. Currently only available for Twitter, Block Party helps people filter out the content they don’t want to see and ...

Fired GitHub Employee Who Warned Co-Workers About Nazis Is Seeking Legal Counsel

On the day a violent mob of Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol, a worried GitHub employee warned his co-workers in the D.C. area to be safe. After making a comment in Slack saying, “stay safe homies, Nazis are about,” a fellow employee took ...

DOT Evaluated 11 GPS Replacements And Found Only One That Worked Across Use Cases

The United States’ GPS system, which is operated by the Defense Department, offers every one of us critical infrastructure around what is known as positioning, navigation and timing (PNT). Positioning and navigation is obvious every time we open up a ...

Bumble Files To Go Public

Bumble files to go public image The dating and networking service Bumble has  filed to go public. The company, launched by a former co-founder of the IAC-owned Tinder , plans to list on the Nasdaq stock exchange, using the ticker symbol “BMBL.” Bumble’s ...

Corporate Credit Card Platform Moss Raises $25.5 Million

German startup Moss has raised a $25.5 million (€21 million) funding round led by Valar Ventures. Existing investors Cherry Ventures and Global Founders Capital are also participating. Moss provides credit cards and a spending platform to small and ...

Don't Pack The Courts

Don't Pack the Courts image On February 5, 1937, President Franklin Roosevelt made what would prove to be one of the biggest blunders of his political career. "The personnel of the Federal Judiciary is insufficient to meet the business before them," Roosevelt announced in a ...

"The Law School Acknowledges That The Racial And Gender References On The Examination Were Deeply Offensive"

[1.] Here's the text of an exam question (worth 1 point out of 50) administered in Prof. Jason Kilborn's civil procedure class at University of Illinois Chicago John Marshall Law School: After she was fired from her job, Plaintiff sued Employer ...

A New Report Casts Doubt On Both Fears And Hopes About The Consequences Of Abolishing Qualified Immunity

A New Report Casts Doubt on Both Fears and Hopes About the Consequences of Abolishing Qualified Immunity image George Floyd's horrific death at the hands of Minneapolis police last year focused national attention on qualified immunity , the court-invented doctrine that can shield cops from federal civil rights lawsuits even for outrageous misconduct . ...

Short Circuit: A Roundup Of Recent Federal Court Decisions

Please enjoy the latest edition of  Short Circuit , a weekly feature from the Institute for Justice. This week, IJ's own Rob Frommer told the South Carolina Supreme Court that the state's civil forfeiture law is unconstitutional: when property is ...

Contra The Luttig Impeachment Thread

Former Judge Michael Luttig is a very respected conservative jurist and for good reason. As a consequence, when he said on Twitter that a former president cannot be impeached in the House or put on trial in the Senate on impeachment charges, people on ...

There's Still No Evidence Antifa Was Significantly Involved In The Capitol Riots

There's Still No Evidence Antifa Was Significantly Involved in the Capitol Riots image The riots that gripped the Capitol on January 6 were overwhelmingly the fault of President Donald Trump's supporters, who stormed the halls of Congress, vandalized lawmakers' offices, and assaulted police officers in some hopes of preventing the ...

Extra Crunch Roundup: Antitrust Jitters, SPAC Odyssey, White-Hot IPOs, More

Extra Crunch roundup: Antitrust jitters, SPAC odyssey, white-hot IPOs, more image Some time ago, I gave up on the idea of finding a thread that connects each story in the weekly Extra Crunch roundup; there are no unified theories of technology news. The stories that left the deepest impression were related to two news pegs that ...

Facebook Blocks New Events Around DC And State Capitols

As a precaution against coordinated violence as the U.S. approaches President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration, Facebook announced a few new measures it’s putting in place. In a blog post and tweets from Facebook Policy Communications ...

GitLab Oversaw A $195 Million Secondary Sale That Values The Company At $6 Billion

GitLab has confirmed with TechCrunch that it oversaw a $195 million secondary sale that values the company at $6 billion. CNBC broke the story earlier today. The company’s impressive valuation comes after its most recent 2019 Series E in ...

The Pandemic Was Top Of Mind In The Tech Of CES 2021

The pandemic was top of mind in the tech of CES 2021 image Of course COVID-19 was bound to be an unavoidable topic during the first-ever all-virtual CES. After all, the topic is at front of mind regardless of the topic these days. Close to a year into the pandemic, presenters still understandably feel ...

Daily Crunch: WhatsApp Responds To Privacy Backlash

Daily Crunch: WhatsApp responds to privacy backlash image WhatsApp delays enforcement of a controversial privacy change, Apple may get rid of the Touch Bar in future MacBooks and Bumble files to go public. This is your Daily Crunch for January 15, 2021. The big story: WhatsApp responds to privacy backlash ...

Twitter’S Decentralized Future

Twitter’s decentralized future image This week, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey finally responded publicly to the company’s decision to ban President Trump from its platform, writing that Twitter had “faced an extraordinary and untenable circumstance” and that he did not ...

Marc Lore Leaves Walmart A Little Over Four Years After Selling Jet.Com For $3b

Marc Lore, the executive vice president, president and CEO of U.S. e-commerce for Walmart, is stepping down a little over four years after selling his e-commerce company Jet.com to the country’s largest retailer for $3 billion. Lore’s ...

Coinbase Commits To A ‘Better Customer Experience’ Following Complaints

Coinbase has a problem. As interest in Bitcoin has soared along with its price, the popular cryptocurrency exchange has found itself the target of a growing spate of angry customers who haven’t been able to access customer service. A quick ...

15 Steps To Fundraising A New VC Or Private Equity Fund

David Teten Contributor Share on Twitter David Teten is founder of Versatile VC and writes periodically at teten.com and @dteten . More posts by this contributor 12 ...