DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

☆ Google opposed a shareholder proposal asking for more transparency around its AI algorithms
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-02 | by ( Thomas Maxwell | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Google has opposed a shareholder's call for more transparency around its algorithms. CEO Sundar Pichai emphasized the potential of new generative AI and added safety is essential. Google's parent company Alphabet opposed a shareholder proposal that sought increased transparency surrounding its algorithms. It argued that accountability and transparency in artificial intelligence are needed if the technology is to remain safe to society. Google in its opposition to the proposal said that it already provides meaningful disclosures surrounding its algorithms, including through websites that provide overviews of how YouTube's algorithms sort content, for instance.

Persons: Sundar Pichai, Pichai, We've, Geoffrey Hinton, Timnit Gebru, ProPublica Organizations: Google, Trillium Asset Management, Trillium, New Zealand Royal Commission, Mozilla Foundation, New York University, SEC, Google's Locations: Christchurch, Saudi Arabia

☆ Harlan Crow says he's 'put away' his controversial Hitler paintings, even though he insists there's nothing wrong with displaying them
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-22 | by ( Rebecca Cohen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Harlan Crow said he has "put away" his two controversial Adolf Hitler paintings. Crow insisted it's obvious that Nazis are bad, even though others might misunderstand his intentions in displaying Hitler's artwork, The Atlantic reported. Crow thought that Hitler's teapot and table linens, two more items in Crow's collection of memorabilia, remained on display, The Atlantic reported. They were replaced with a note that read "not to commemorate, but to remember, in hopes that it may never happen again," The Atlantic reported. After checking in another case that turned up empty, The Atlantic reported that Crow said, "I didn't know that.

☆ GOP megadonor Harlan Crow says he doesn't understand the Supreme Court enough to talk law with Clarence Thomas. He says they chat about Motown.
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-22 | by ( Joshua Zitser | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

The GOP megadonor said he knows too little about the law to discuss Supreme Court cases with Thomas. He told The Atlantic he isn't a "law guy" and instead chats with Thomas about Motown and sports. But in an interview with The Atlantic, Crow brushed off any accusations of corruption or impropriety with an unusual defense — his ignorance. Being friends means that "work-related issues" do occasionally come up in conversation, Crow told The Atlantic. Those conversations were casual and not about jurisprudence, he said, with Crow describing the discussion of specific Supreme Court cases as "off limits."

CNN —A younger Congress may be a thing of the past. Ten years after meeting the age requirement for the Senate, age 30, baby boomers landed four seats, with millennials unable to get a single one. Millennials overtook baby boomers as America’s largest generation in 2020, according to Pew Research. Millennials and Generation Z (11-26) are winning their very first House seats faster than the previous four generations, CNN’s analysis shows. In the Senate, however, it’s taken more than 10 years for both Generation X and millennials to join Congress.

☆ Clarence Thomas's first public scandal came in 1980, when he was a no-name aide to a GOP senator and complained to a journalist that his sister just waited by the mailbox for her welfare check
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-18 | by ( Kelsey Vlamis | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

In 1980, 32-year-old Clarence Thomas was a no-name aide to a Republican senator. At a conference for Black conservatives, he complained to a journalist about his sister being on welfare. The journalist, Juan Williams, wrote a column about it that caught the attention of Reagan's team. "She gets mad when the mailman is late with her welfare check," Thomas said, according to Williams. Reagan ended up making massive cuts to welfare programs and allowing states to institute work requirements for welfare recipients.

☆ Opinion: Mitch McConnell’s confidence is being put to the test
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-14 | by ( Richard Galant | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +17 min

We’re looking back at the strongest, smartest opinion takes of the week from CNN and other outlets. Not to worry, said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a veteran of debt limit battles. McConnell’s reassurance that all will work out in the end is validated by history, but that doesn’t mean this time couldn’t be different. “If female voters are key to a Donald Trump victory in 2024, the former president should be in big trouble – but he doesn’t seem to care,” Jill Filipovic observed. “The town hall audience – selected on the basis of their intention to vote in the Republican primary in New Hampshire – appeared to be made up mostly of Trump fans.

The complaint was sent to the US judges' Committee on Financial Disclosure. For now, questions about Thomas's previously undisclosed financial dealings with Harlan Crow, a billionaire Texas real-estate developer, will fall to an obscure committee of sixteen federal judges — the Committee on Financial Disclosure. Koszczuk said the same letterhead was routinely sent to any member of the public who asked for a judge's financial disclosure report. When Ranjan wrote his article, a review of a Thomas biography, the controversies surrounding Thomas had nothing to do with his financial disclosures. Judges' financial disclosures are only updated annually, and until recently, it wasn't easy to get ahold of them.

☆ Dollar General's troubles have snowballed into cluttered aisles and stores forced to close by fire marshals. Employees tell us what went wrong.
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-11 | by ( Alex Bitter | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Current and former employees who spoke to Insider say clutter at Dollar General stores has gotten worse over the last few years. The clutter is one of the reasons that the Department of Labor labeled Dollar General a "severe violator" in March. In January, a Dollar General clerk was charged with manslaughter after police said he shot and killed an armed robber. Despite the problems on the ground, Dollar General continues to earn positive feedback from analysts on Wall Street. Do you work or shop at a Dollar General store or have a story to share?

☆ Clarence Thomas, who accepted lavish gifts from a billionaire, argued that a law prohibiting taking bribes is too vague to be fairly enforced
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-11 | by ( Rebecca Cohen | Madison Hall | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas — who accepted lavish gifts and luxury vacations from a billionaire for years — signed off on a Supreme Court opinion Thursday arguing that a law prohibiting taking bribes is too vague to be fairly enforced. Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote in a concurring opinion — on which Thomas signed off — that a federal anti-bribery law wasn't clear enough. "To this day, no one knows what 'honest-services fraud' encompasses," Gorsuch wrote. Crow described Thomas as a friend and insisted he never sought to influence the conservative Supreme Court justice. Additionally, the Senate Judiciary Committee asked Crow for a list of any gifts he's given to a Supreme Court justice or their family.

☆ Justice Elena Kagan was worried about the ethics of accepting bagels from friends, while Clarence Thomas was enjoying expensive vacations paid for by a GOP megadonor: report
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-11 | by ( Joshua Zitser | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan once turned down a care package of bagels and lox, per Forward. She was concerned she could be violating the court's ethics rules for accepting gifts, friends said. Meanwhile, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas was accepting lavish holidays from a GOP megadonor. And unlike the rest of the federal judiciary, the Supreme Court is not bound by a code of conduct. The Supreme Court did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

☆ Opinion: Clarence Thomas’ inability to fill out forms properly defies belief
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-10 | by ( Opinion Steven Lubet | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

CNN —Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has had to explain decades of omissions on his annual financial reports. As a Supreme Court justice, Thomas routinely interprets complex statutes that affect millions of Americans, priding himself on close adherence to the text. It beggars belief that he could repeatedly misinterpret plain statutory requirements and simple instructions on his annual disclosure reports. Supreme Court justices have life tenure. That is why full compliance with financial disclosure laws is so important, and why Thomas’ evasiveness is so wrong.

☆ Senate Democrats ask billionaire Harlan Crow to list gifts to Clarence Thomas and any other justices
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-09 | by ( Summer Concepcion | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

They also asked Crow to provide a full list of real estate transactions, transportation, lodging and admission to private clubs he might have provided. All 11 Democrats, including Sen. Diane Feinstein, D-Calif., who has been absent from the Senate due to health issues, signed the letter. Republicans on the committee and the Supreme Court did not immediately respond to NBC News' requests for comment. Wyden asked for answers by May 8, the same day Durbin issued his latest letter to Crow. The Supreme Court in March tightened some of its rules on what judges and justices need to include in annual financial disclosure statements.

☆ Senators asks billionaire for list of gifts to Supreme Court Justice Thomas
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-09 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

WASHINGTON, May 9 (Reuters) - The Senate Judiciary Committee has asked Texas billionaire Harlan Crow to detail gifts he or his companies have made to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, the panel said on Tuesday. "Many of these gifts, transactions, and items of value had not been previously disclosed by Justice Thomas," it said. Similar letters, dated Monday, were sent to the holding companies that own Crow's private jet and private yacht. The letter said Crow has acknowledged items of value given to Thomas and his family in public statements. It asked him to provide the information to the committee by May 22 as the panel works to craft legislation strengthening ethics rules and standards for Supreme Court justices.

☆ The Senate Judiciary Committee just asked GOP megadonor Harlan Crow for a list of any gifts he's given to a Supreme Court justice
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-09 | by ( Madison Hall | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee sent a letter to Harlan Crow on Monday. The letter asks Crow to list any gifts he's given to a Supreme Court justice or their family worth more than $415. The letter follows reporting from ProPublica documenting the many vacations Crow's paid for with Justice Clarence Thomas. The Judiciary Committee sent its letter to Crow a week after it held a hearing on ethics reform for the Supreme Court, which Chief Justice John Roberts declined to attend. "They've done a pretty good job in the last week or two of unfairly slamming me and more importantly than that, unfairly slamming Justice Thomas."

Washington CNN —Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee have asked Harlan Crow, the GOP megadonor and friend of Clarence Thomas whose gifts to the Supreme Court justice have prompted fresh criticism about the ethical standards of the nation’s highest court, for more information about the expenditures. The letters also state that the recent revelations come amid a lack of American confidence in the Supreme Court, pointing to recent polling. Thomas had not financially disclosed the hospitality from or the deal with the Texas billionaire. Democrats have vowed to keep investigating the ethics of the nation’s highest court, and Chief Justice John Roberts declined an invitation to testify at a hearing on Supreme Court ethics. Speaking to CNN’s Jake Tapper on Sunday, Senate Judiciary Chairman Dick Durbin said “everything is on the table” as the panel scrutinizes new ethics concerns around Thomas.

☆ Pulitzer Prizes: 2023 Winners List
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-08 | by ( The New York Times | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

PUBLIC SERVICEAssociated PressThe Pulitzer committee honored the A.P. for the work of Mstyslav Chernov, Evgeniy Maloletka, Vasilisa Stepanenko and Lori Hinnant, citing their “courageous reporting from the besieged city of Mariupol that bore witness to the slaughter of civilians in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.”Finalists Austin American-Statesman, in collaboration with the USA Today Network; The Washington PostBREAKING NEWSStaff of The Los Angeles TimesThe Los Angeles Times won for “revealing a secretly recorded conversation among city officials that included racist comments,” followed by additional coverage exploring racial issues in local politics. Finalists Staff of The New York Times; Josh Gerstein, Alex Ward, Peter S. Canellos, Hailey Fuchs and Heidi Przybyla of PoliticoINVESTIGATIVE REPORTINGStaff of The Wall Street JournalThe Wall Street Journal was honored for “sharp accountability reporting on financial conflicts of interest among officials at 50 federal agencies.”Finalists Joaquin Palomino and Trisha Thadani of the San Francisco Chronicle; staff of the Star Tribune of MinneapolisEXPLANATORY REPORTINGCaitlin Dickerson of The AtlanticMs. Dickerson’s work was a “deeply reported and compelling accounting of the Trump administration policy that forcefully separated migrant children from their parents,” the committee said. Finalists Duaa Eldeib of ProPublica; Terrence McCoy of The Washington Post

☆ Senate Judiciary chair says ‘everything is on the table’ in response to Clarence Thomas revelations
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-07 | by ( Aileen Graef | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

Washington CNN —Senate Judiciary Chair Dick Durbin said Sunday that “everything is on the table” as the panel scrutinizes new ethics concerns around Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. Crow also purchased several real estate properties, including the home where Thomas’ mother lives, from the Thomas family and paid boarding school tuition for Thomas’ grandnephew, according to ProPublica. But Durbin said Sunday the recent revelations “just embarrasses me” as he called on Chief Justice John Roberts to impose a code of conduct on the court. Roberts previously declined Durbin’s request to voluntarily testify in a hearing on Supreme Court ethics. Feinstein, 89, has been away from the Senate since March as she recovers at home in California from shingles.

☆ TurboTax is paying out $141 million in settlement checks to 4.4 million Americans this month. Here's how to know if you get one.
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Aaron Mcdade | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Payments from a $141 million TurboTax settlement will be sent to 4.4 million Americans this month. TurboTax and parent company Intuit agreed to the settlement last year over allegedly deceptive ads. In 2016, 2017, and 2018 millions of Americans paid TurboTax to file their taxes when the IRS would have done it for free. An estimated 4.4 million Americans will soon receive checks as part of a $141 million settlement from Intuit, the parent company of popular tax filing software TurboTax. The state attorneys general said the company deceived Americans with advertising campaigns that emphasized its products were "free, free, free" when its gratis program only covers Americans with "simple" tax returns, as defined by the company.

☆ Clarence Thomas — who let a GOP megadonor foot bills for him for years — said being a Supreme Court justice 'is not worth doing for what they pay'
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Kelsey Vlamis | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

In a 2001 speech, Thomas said serving on the Supreme Court wasn't worth it for the money. "The job is not worth doing for what they pay," Thomas said during a speech in 2001, The New York Post reported at the time. The Post reported Thomas cried during the speech and thanked his lawyer who worked on the custody battle. In 2001, the salary for an associate Supreme Court justice was $178,300, while the chief justice made $186,300. A group of 15 Democratic lawmakers now wants to withhold $10 million from Supreme Court funding until the court adopts a code of ethics, The Hill reported.

☆ Clarence Thomas' wife Ginni was paid nearly $100,000 for 'consulting' by a nonprofit that ended up filing an amicus brief to the Supreme Court: report
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Erin Snodgrass | Matthew Loh | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

A conservative activist helped Ginni Thomas rake in nearly $100,000 for consulting, The Washington Post reported. Conservative lawyer Leonard Leo reportedly ensured Ginni Thomas' name was kept off the paperwork. Leo's nonprofit filed an amicus brief before the Supreme Court that same year. Ginni Thomas has previously courted controversy with her public, pro-Trump activities, and other conservative activism. Neither Ginni Thomas, nor a representative for the Supreme Court immediately responded to Insider's request for comment.

☆ 2 Supreme Court justices failed to recuse themselves from cases involving their publisher after receiving exorbitant amounts in book advances and royalties
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Madison Hall | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

On two occasions, the Supreme Court has declined to take on cases involving publishing conglomerate Penguin Random House. There have been two cases that came before the Supreme Court involving publishing conglomerate Penguin Random House. In both situations, the Supreme Court declined to take on the copyright infringement cases, allowing the publisher to win at a lower court level. Conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch was confirmed in 2017 and was also a member of the Supreme Court during the second case. Sotomayor and Gorsuch had both signed major book deals with the publisher before the cases occurred, and both justices declined to recuse themselves from the cases involving Penguin Random House.

☆ ProPublica: GOP megadonor paid private school tuition for grandnephew of Justice Clarence Thomas
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( Tierney Sneed | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

CNN —A Texas billionaire and GOP megadonor paid boarding school tuition for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’ grandnephew, and the justice did not report the financial assistance for the child he helped raised on his annual disclosures, according to a new ProPublica report – the latest revelation raising ethical questions around the high court. The ProPublica report on Thursday revealed that the billionaire Harlan Crow paid tuition for Mark Martin, who lived with Thomas’ family as a child and for whom the justice became a legal guardian. ProPublica cited a 2009 bank statement and an interview with a former administrator at the Georgia boarding school Martin attended. The former administrator at the school, Hidden Lake Academy, told ProPublica that Crow paid for Martin’s tuition for the year or so Martin was at the boarding school. The administrator said, according to ProPublica, that he had been told by Crow that Crow also paid for Martin’s tuition at another school, the Randolph-Macon Academy in Virginia, which is Crow’s alma mater.

☆ A group of Democratic senators want to withhold $10 million in Supreme Court funding until it adopts a public code of ethics: report
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( Madison Hall | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

A group of fifteen Democratic senators sent a letter in March asking to withhold $10 million in Supreme Court funding. The senators said the $10 million should be withheld until a public code of ethics is instituted for the court. "Congress has broad authority to compel the Supreme Court to institute these reforms, which would join other requirements already legislatively mandated. At a Supreme Court ethics hearing on Tuesday, Republican Sen. Josh Hawley appeared to take umbrage at the Democratic senators' request, asserting the $10 million that would be cut from the Supreme Court's budget would directly impact their security. She added that cutting funding for the Supreme Court's security simply wasn't on the table.

☆ Top Senate Democrats push for new ethics rules in wake of Clarence Thomas report as Republicans defend justice
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( Manu Raju | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

Plus some Democrats on the panel, like Sen. Dick Blumenthal, want to go much further than Durbin in the Thomas probe – exposing divisions within the ranks. “I hope that Chief Justice Roberts reads his story this morning and understands something has to be done,” Durbin told CNN. “The reputation of the Supreme Court is at stake here. “The drip, drip, drip of these destructive disclosures is going to destroy the United States Supreme Court unless there is an effective proper investigation,” he said. “The court is responsible for their own guidelines in that regard,” Romney told CNN.

Search resuls for: "propublica"

25 mentions found