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Submission + - Former Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes found guilty on 4 counts (npr.org)

Submitted by McGruber
McGruber writes: From National Public Radio:

Elizabeth Holmes, the former chief executive of the once high-flying biotech startup Theranos, was found guilty on four of 11 charges of defrauding the company's investors and patients. She was found not guilty on three counts.

Holmes could face up to 20 years in prison, although legal experts say her sentence is likely to be less than that.

Submission + - Public corporation may someday bring broadband to all of Erie County, NY (buffalonews.com)

Submitted by McGruber
McGruber writes: The Buffalo, NY newspaper reports:

The Erie County Legislature recently approved plans to establish a new, county-controlled corporation to oversee and manage the creation of ErieNet, an ambitious county-sponsored fiber-optic network that could give all cities, towns and interested internet service providers unparalleled access to up to 500 miles of untapped fiber-optic lines.

Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz first announced a $20 million ErieNet initiative in the spring of 2019, with hopes that the full network could be built by the end of 2021. Nearly three years later, there is still no shovel in the ground. Business and design planning was delayed by Covid-19. Business planning has now restarted, though detailed network mapping is still months away.

The current ErieNet plan is for a more ambitious network than first proposed. Initially, Poloncarz said the county would lay roughly 360 miles of fiber-optic lines that would then be leased to public and private entities. But that was before federal stimulus aid was available. Now, county leaders are talking about an even larger network involving the laying of 400 to 500 miles of fiber. This would make Erie County one of the largest municipalities in the country to operate this type of backbone network, which could be leased by private internet service providers, individual companies, public institutions and local governments.

To get that ball rolling, Poloncarz requested that the County Legislature approve the creation of a local development corporation, with a board composed of elected and appointed county officials. This county-controlled, nonprofit corporation would administer and maintain ErieNet and market the program to interested users, who would be allowed to lease the county network. The board would provide governance and approve policies.

Submission + - Unpatented Low-Cost Covid Vaccine Secures Emergency Use Authorization in India (texaschildrens.org)

Submitted by McGruber
McGruber writes: Some hopeful Covid news:

Texas Children’s Hospital and Baylor College of Medicine announced today that CORBEVAX, a protein sub-unit COVID-19 Vaccine, whose technology was created and engineered at its Center for Vaccine Development (CVD), has received Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) approval from the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) to launch in India with other underserved countries to follow.

Dubbed “The World’s COVID-19 Vaccine”, it uses a traditional recombinant protein-based technology that will enable its production at large scales making it widely accessible to inoculate the global population. The initial construct and production process of the vaccine antigen was developed at Texas Children’s Hospital CVD, led by co-directors Drs. Maria Elena Bottazzi and Peter Hotez and in-licensed from BCM Ventures, Baylor College of Medicine’s integrated commercialization team, to Hyderabad-based vaccine and pharmaceutical company Biological E. Limited (BE).

“Protein-based vaccines have been widely used to prevent many other diseases, have proven safety records, and use economies of scale to achieve low-cost scalability across the world,” said Dr. Maria Elena Bottazzi, Professor and Associate Dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor and Co-Director of the Texas Children’s Hospital Center for Vaccine Development. “Our decade-long studies advancing coronavirus vaccine prototypes has led to the creation of this vaccine, which will fill the access gap created by the more expensive, newer vaccine technologies and that today are still not able to be quickly scaled for global production.”

In September, Professor Hotez said [https://twitter.com/PeterHotez/status/1437132434043285504] "We have not filed patents on this vaccine, our goal is to make as freely available as possible to the world's poorest people. But we depend on external philanthropy to continue this and other vaccine development programs."

Submission + - Florida Woman loses lawsuit against website that labeled her "Pantless Couponer" (11alive.com) 1

Submitted by McGruber
McGruber writes: A Florida woman who sued a website over labeling her a "pantless couponer" after she was arrested during an incident at a Best Buy has now had both a federal district court and the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals rule against her because the content was deemed a news article, or at least close enough to one.

It all began with a dispute between the woman and a Best Buy employee over using a coupon, which escalated to the manager calling 911 to have her removed from the premises. In the course of that call, the manager said the woman was "showing her a**." That led to the headline on the quasi-news site couponsinthenews.com: "Pantless Couponer Arrested After Checkout Dispute."

The Florida woman's argument, according to the 11th Circuit's ruling, boiled down to a claim that Coupons in the News was not a news website, but a "digital marketing tool known as a click funnel advertisement designed and used solely to promote the business of coupons which is advertising." The woman's argument, in effect, was that Coupons in the News wasn't designed for actual news purposes, but to create content that would eventually lead people to buying something (presumably, using a coupon).

But, in a ruling employing a deferential and expansive view of press protections, the 11th Circuit found the story was "on its face... an article reporting on (the) arrest. It is not an advertisement. Nor is it commercial speech." The Atlanta appeals court dismissed the woman's suit with prejudice.

Submission + - Better.com CEO Vishal Garg fires 15% of his workforce on a Zoom call (forbes.com)

Submitted by McGruber
McGruber writes: Vishal Garg, CEO of unicorn mortgage lender startup Better.com, bluntly informed his 900 employees that a large number of people will be fired in a cold, awkward one-way video announcement on Thursday.

Looking visibly uncomfortable, Garg said that 15% of the workforce would be laid off. In a monotone voice, he said, “This is the second time in my career I’m doing this and I do not want to do this. The last time I did it, I cried; this time, I hope to be stronger.”

During the holiday season, it's standard company practices to hold off on bad news, such as mass terminations. Instead of waiting some weeks for the staff to enjoy family and friends during the holiday season, Garg dropped the bombshell announcement, “If you’re on this call, you are part of the unlucky group that is being laid off. Your employment here is terminated effective immediately.”

In a video version of the termination call, a presumed disgruntled employee cursed out the CEO, saying “F*ck you, dude.” Garg did say, “I wish you all the best of luck.”

The mass-firing happened right after Better.com receivied a $750 million cash infusion bringing the company's valuation to around $7 billion.

Submission + - JPMorgan Sues Tesla For $162 Million in Dispute Tied To Elon Musk's Tweets (forbes.com)

Submitted by McGruber
McGruber writes: JPMorgan Chase sued Tesla for $162 million Monday, accusing the carmaker of breaching a contract over stock warrants after CEO Elon Musk tweeted about taking the company private in 2018, the latest fallout from the social media post that saw the billionaire charged with securities fraud.

According to court documents [https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nysd.569891/gov.uscourts.nysd.569891.1.0.pdf], Tesla sold JPMorgan stock warrants in 2014 and agreed to deliver shares or cash if its stock price was above a set price by the time they expire, with provisions for the bank to adjust the price in light of major corporate transactions like mergers or taking the company private.

When the warrants expired this year, the share price had risen tremendously and were “well above” the strike price, JPMorgan said, though Tesla “refused to settle at the contractual strike price.”

Tesla claimed the bank was “unreasonably swift” and “opportunistic” in its adjustments to “take advantage of changes in volatility in Tesla’s stock,” according to the court documents.

Submission + - Intuit slashes pay and cuts health benefits of Mailchimp employees (businessinsider.com)

Submitted by McGruber
McGruber writes: Some Mailchimp employees said their situation just kept getting worse after they learned their company was being sold to Intuit in September. Employees discovered their MailChimp health benefits were abruptly terminated Sunday. Some employees also found out last week that their total pay as Intuit employees may be less, multiple employees said.

"The general feeling from those I'm speaking to is that the transition has been so badly handled that the only explanation is that Intuit wants to drive attrition," one employee said. The employee, along with two others, spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak with the media. These employees said they learned their health benefits had lapsed only after their colleagues posted questions on Slack and in an online onboarding session. One said he found out when he went to go pick up a prescription and was told his coverage had expired.

The employees Business Insider spoke with said they would be covered retroactively only once the paperwork was finalized, which left them on the hook to pay upfront fees. Some employees had still not received their enrollment paperwork, they said. One said they canceled medical appointments for serious ongoing conditions to avoid bills for expensive treatments.

"I am extremely worried that in a 1,200-person company, it seems likely at least one person or dependent will need an ER visit before they get their new info and be saddled with the stress of a six-figure out-of-pocket bill," another employee said. "Or worse, some support colleague making 50K a year won't take a sick kid in because they are worried about the cost."

Submission + - Chip shortage causes First Responders to drive aging, less reliable vehicles (ajc.com)

Submitted by McGruber
McGruber writes: After more than two decades of service, Henry County, Georgia wants to retire the 1999 Crown Victoria models it still has in its fleet of police cruisers. There’s just one problem: The pandemic has caused a global shortage of computer chips and other parts necessary to power today’s cop cars.

“Our vehicles are very, very old,” Henry County Financial Services Director David Smith said of the Ford vehicles that were synonymous with police agencies for decades, but stopped production in 2013. Henry has about 200 vehicles in service that were purchased between 1999 and 2012, the county said.

“We’ve been working to replace all those old vehicles, not just for our police department but for our sheriff’s office as well,” Smith said. “They are way past their life span.”

Metro Atlanta public safety officials say the vehicle and parts shortfall, which extends to ambulances, fire trucks and motorcycles, is putting outsized pressure on a sector already stressed by fewer patrol officers because of labor shortages, increasing crime and more emergency calls due to COVID-19.

“You need a car that is dependable,” said Thaddeus Johnson, a former police officer and assistant professor in Georgia State University’s Department of Criminal Justices and Criminology. “You don’t want to have a car that breaks down on you when you’re in route to a call.

“You don’t want to have to be towed when someone’s calling 911.”

Submission + - Former Boeing 737 MAX Chief Technical Pilot Indicted for Fraud (justice.gov)

Submitted by McGruber
McGruber writes: A federal grand jury in the Northern District of Texas returned an indictment charging Mark A. Forkner, former Chief Technical Pilot for The Boeing Company (Boeing), with deceiving the Federal Aviation Administration’s Aircraft Evaluation Group (FAA AEG) in connection with the FAA AEG’s evaluation of Boeing’s 737 MAX airplane, and scheming to defraud Boeing’s U.S.based airline customers to obtain tens of millions of dollars for Boeing.

    As alleged in the indictment, Forkner provided the agency with materially false, inaccurate, and incomplete information about a new part of the flight controls for the Boeing 737 MAX called the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS). Because of his alleged deception, a key document published by the FAA AEG lacked any reference to MCAS. In turn, airplane manuals and pilot-training materials for U.S.-based airlines lacked any reference to MCAS — and Boeing’s U.S.-based airline customers were deprived of important information when making and finalizing their decisions to pay Boeing tens of millions of dollars for 737 MAX airplanes.

On or about Oct. 29, 2018, after the FAA AEG learned that Lion Air Flight 610 — a 737 MAX — had crashed near Jakarta, Indonesia, shortly after takeoff and that MCAS was operating in the moments before the crash, the FAA AEG discovered the information about the important change to MCAS that Forkner had withheld. Having discovered this information, the FAA AEG began reviewing and evaluating MCAS.

On or about March 10, 2019, while the FAA AEG was still reviewing MCAS, the FAA AEG learned that Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 — a 737 MAX — had crashed near Ejere, Ethiopia, shortly after takeoff and that MCAS was operating in the moments before the crash. Shortly after that crash, all 737 MAX airplanes were grounded in the United States.

Earlier Slashdot article: https://yro.slashdot.org/story...

Submission + - Former Boeing 737 MAX Chief Technical Pilot Indicted for Fraud

Submitted by McGruber
McGruber writes: A federal grand jury in the Northern District of Texas returned an indictment charging Mark A. Forkner, former Chief Technical Pilot for The Boeing Company (Boeing), with deceiving the Federal Aviation Administration’s Aircraft Evaluation Group (FAA AEG) in connection with the FAA AEG’s evaluation of Boeing’s 737 MAX airplane, and scheming to defraud Boeing’s U.S.based airline customers to obtain tens of millions of dollars for Boeing.
  As alleged in the indictment, Forkner provided the agency with materially false, inaccurate, and incomplete information about a new part of the flight controls for the Boeing 737 MAX called the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS). Because of his alleged deception, a key document published by the FAA AEG lacked any reference to MCAS. In turn, airplane manuals and pilot-training materials for U.S.-based airlines lacked any reference to MCAS — and Boeing’s U.S.-based airline customers were deprived of important information when making and finalizing their decisions to pay Boeing tens of millions of dollars for 737 MAX airplanes.
On or about Oct. 29, 2018, after the FAA AEG learned that Lion Air Flight 610 — a 737 MAX — had crashed near Jakarta, Indonesia, shortly after takeoff and that MCAS was operating in the moments before the crash, the FAA AEG discovered the information about the important change to MCAS that Forkner had withheld. Having discovered this information, the FAA AEG began reviewing and evaluating MCAS.

On or about March 10, 2019, while the FAA AEG was still reviewing MCAS, the FAA AEG learned that Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 — a 737 MAX — had crashed near Ejere, Ethiopia, shortly after takeoff and that MCAS was operating in the moments before the crash. Shortly after that crash, all 737 MAX airplanes were grounded in the United States.

Earlier article: https://yro.slashdot.org/story...

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