Mai Ishikawa Sutton and Alicia Urquidi Díaz discuss the vision behind the movement known as DWeb, and how the decentralized web combines the community aspect of the '90s online experience with today's equity and accessibility principles.

Canada's second failure in a row to win a Security Council seat was a blow to the Trudeau government's prestige. But how much will it matter to this country in the long run?

Scientists agree that dogs evolved from wolves and were the first domesticated animals. But exactly how that happened is hotly contested. IDEAS contributor Neil Sandell examines the theories and the evolution of the relationship between dogs and humans.

Without permission to use sandwich boards to attract business, the Irish had to get resourceful.

[Written by Stephen Wright] Boxer Tyler Christopher will return to the ring after recovering from a broken hand for a fight at the Holiday Inn in Birmingham, England, on May 18. The 27-year-old fractured his left hand during his points win over Connor Meanwell at the H Suite in Edgbaston, Birmingham, in October last year. […]

[Written by Stephen Wright] Boxer Tyler Christopher will make his long-awaited return from injury when he faces Cameroonian Serge Ambomo in Birmingham, England, on May 18. Christopher has not fought since his points victory over Connor Meanwell in Edgbaston, Birmingham, in which he fractured his left hand in October last year. The 27-year-old is scheduled […]

[Written by Stephen Wright] Boxer Tyler Christopher must “box clever” when he returns to action after a six-month injury lay-off against Cameroonian Serge Ambomo in Birmingham, England, on Saturday [May 18]. That is the view of his coach, Anthony Hull, who will be in the Bermudian’s corner when he faces journeyman Ambomo in a six-round […]

A calmer, more measured set than fans of the man’s music might be expecting.

Business group Logistics UK has expressed its members’ mixed emotions about the new government’s first Budget. While the industry is reassured by the freeze in fuel duty, the hike in National Insurance contributions from employers and higher business rates, amongst other tax rises, will be a real challenge for a sector that operates on small margins.

Printing and Labelling Technology Report

Manufacturing & Logistics IT Magazine spoke with leading analysts, vendors and associations about current developments within the printing and labelling technology marketplace about recent developments and what to look out for over the next year or two.

The Law and Political Economy Project at Yale Law School is hosting the following panel:

The Political Economy of Inequality, Democracy & Oligarchy, on Friday, November 13, 2020 at 5:00 pm eastern time.

This panel discussion will focus upon the erosion of democratic institutions and the rise of oligarchy that has followed in the wake of unprecedented economic inequality. The panel will address elite efforts to entrench themselves politically as well as economically, including the consequences of such efforts in terms of human development. The panel will focus upon the specific context of election 2020 and the uncertainty it is creating. The subversion of democracy and the law governing our democracy naturally holds many costs, and each panelist will address such costs. Each panelist will also seek to articulate some mechanism for a path forward.  Register here

PANELISTS:

Emma Coleman Jordan, Georgetown Law Center

andré douglas pond cummings, Univ. of Arkansas at Little Rock William H. Bowen School of Law

Atiba Ellis, Marquette University Law School

Steven Ramirez, Loyola University of Chicago School of Law

Gerald Torres, Yale Law School

On December 1st, 2020, Nasdaq filed a proposal with the Securities and Exchange Commission to adopt additional listing rules requiring enhanced board diversity and disclosure of firm diversity efforts.  The new listing rules require Nasdaq-listed companies to have on their board of directors, at least two diverse directors, including one who self-identifies as female and one who self-identifies as an underrepresented minority or LGBTQ+.  If the firm does not meet this listing requirement, it must explain why they do not have at least two diverse directors sitting on their board.  Additionally, the new listing rules require Nasdaq-listed companies to publicly disclose consistent, transparent diversity statistics regarding its board of directors.  Nasdaq defines underrepresented minorities to include Black or African America, Hispanic or Latinx, Asian, Native American or Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, two or more races or ethnicities.  Smaller reporting companies and foreign companies have additional flexibility in satisfying these new listing requirements by seating at least two female directors.  These new listing rules require approval from the SEC.

NASDAQ's stated goal for requiring diversity among its listed companies board makeups is to provide the investing public with a "better understanding of the company's current board composition and enhance investor confidence that all listed companies are considering diversity in the context of selecting directors, either by including at least two diverse directors on their boards or explaining their rationale for not meeting that objective." To support this new listing requirement, Nasdaq pointed to over 24 studies that found a link between diverse board and more robust financial performance with better corporate governance.  Under this proposal, Nasdaq-listed companies are required to publicly disclose board-level diversity statistics within one year of the SEC's approval of the rule.

CNN reports that Nasdaq CEO Adena Friedman stated, "Nasdaq's purpose is to champion inclusive growth and prosperity to power stronger economies." Non compliance by Nasdaq-listed companies could lead to delisting.  

Nasdaq's move is part of a growing momentum to see that corporate board diversity is taken seriously across the United States.  California has for two years been requiring gender diversity on corporate boards and has recently begun requiring racial and ethnic diversity on California boards as well.  Goldman Sachs has recently announced that it will require any company that it assists in taking public must include at least one diverse board member. 

The Corporate Justice Blog has long advocated for board diversity as a priority for expanding human capital and realizing greater financial benefits for the firms and its shareholders. We argue that a commitment to diversifying the board, both in gender and racial diversity as well as worldview diversity enhances the performance of the corporations that so commit.  See here, here, here and here.

hat tip:  Deepali Lal, 3L, Arkansas at Little Rock William H. Bowen School of Law 

photo: courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Some of the most significant corporate commitments have come from JPMorgan Chase, Microsoft, AMEX, Bank of America, PayPal, Salesforce and Chase.  These large corporate commitments do not account for the other minority-focused investments, such as JP Morgan's initiative to lend more openly to minority owned businesses and black and brown home purchasers.  The corporate giving trend is fueled by changing expectations of younger employees and progressive consumers that expect corporations to become serious about corporate responsibilities to social issues and causes.  Advocates argue that these corporate commitments will not be enough to achieve racial equity in housing, employment and policing, but acknowledge that if these corporations are serious about their commitments, that it can mark an important start.  "'The world is changing, and the expectations of how companies engage are changing,' said Brandee McHale, Citi’s head of community investing and development."

ABC News reports that "[s]ince late May, Grabois said, financial commitments by companies to racial equity causes have grown 'exponentially larger' than any other cause other than COVID-19. A report by McKinsey & Company, which tracked corporate responses from May to October, found that of the top 1,000 U.S. companies, 18% made internal commitments, like diversifying their hiring, and 22% pledged to promote racial equity through donations or other means."

Whether corporate giving to racial equity causes results in systemic change and reform remains to be seen.  Holding corporations to their commitments will likely be an important undertaking.

photo courtesy of wikimedia commons

 

All times are Eastern.  

To register and attend by Zoom for free, click here.

 I just published a new law review article with the Seattle University Law Review entitled: Students for Fair Admissions: Affirming Affirmative Action and Shapeshifting Towards Cognitive Diversity? The article can be downloaded here: https://digitalcommons.law.seattleu.edu/sulr/vol47/iss4/7/. Here is the abstract:

The Roberts Court holds a well-earned reputation for overturning Supreme Court precedent regardless of the long-standing nature of the case. The Roberts Court knows how to overrule precedent. In Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard (SFFA), the Court’s majority opinion never intimates that it overrules Grutter v. Bollinger, the Court’s leading opinion permitting race-based affirmative action in college admissions. Instead, the Roberts Court applied Grutter as authoritative to hold certain affirmative action programs entailing racial preferences violative of the Constitution. These programs did not provide an end point, nor did they require assessment, review, periodic expiration, or revision for greater institutional efficacy, including possible race-neutral alternatives. The programs also failed to break down stereotypes through the introduction of a critical mass to empower diverse voices. The programs thereby resembled prohibited quotas or racial balancing. As such, the programs at issue violated Grutter, which still governs race-based affirmative action in college admissions. More importantly, the Roberts court paved the way for more expansive diversity-based admissions programs by permitting institutions to value individual racial experiences, which authentically further an institution’s mission and interests. After SFFA, the use of race as a factor could well face time limits. Contrastingly, individualized racial experiences may benefit college applicants at institutions that embrace diversity in an authentic way without facing any time limitation. Further, institutions with distinct missions may value diversity in a race-conscious way but without any racial preference. In sum, the Roberts Court guides the use of race in college admissions toward a race-neutral, diversity-based paradigm such that institutions may still unlock the empirically proven benefits of cultural diversity with only de minimus interference from the courts. This approach rests upon a powerful policy basis that leads to superior innovation, macroeconomic outcomes, social cohesion and, therefore, superior national security for the United States. This approach thus could support a powerful interest convergence.

The article shows that Supreme Court did not overrule its prior affirmative action precedents, and in fact paved the way for universities to embrace cultural and cognitive diversity to enrich their educational missions. This is important because the case has been widely misconstrued.

My next article will extend the Court's holding to corporate DEI efforts and demonstrate that such efforts are not only remain lawful but also essential to rational human resources management.

 On March 11, 2024, Donald Trump claimed that cutting Social Security and Medicare could help him cut the national debt tremendously. (See video above). On March 22, 2024, the House GOP announced cuts including a plan to raise the retirement age. This was the second straight year that the House GOP proposed a budget with deep Social Security and Medicare cuts. Trump started promising cuts to Social Security and Medicare in his second term before some audiences as early as January of 2020.  At a Fox News Town Hall in March of 2020, again promised to cut Social Security and Medicare.

All of this talk of cuts forms the prelude to last Thursday's debate which included a question about cuts to Social Security and Medicare. Biden gave a straight-forward answer saying that no cuts are necessary if we raise the Social Security tax to the same level for all. Currently, those making high incomes pay much lower rates than those making low incomes. As President Biden explained at the debate:

Right now, everybody making under $170,000 pays 6 percent of their income, of their paycheck, every single time they get a paycheck, [But] millionaires pay 1 percent – 1 percent. So . . . I would not raise the cost of Social Security for anybody under $400,000. After that, I begin to make the wealthy begin to pay their fair share, by increasing from 1 percent beyond, to be able to guarantee the program for life.

That provides a sensible and efficient means of securing Social Security. And, Biden never varies from that position.

Trump on the other hand, takes different positions with different audiences and covers the full spectrum of options. According to NBC News:

An NBC News examination found that Trump's views have zigzagged over the years — from calling Social Security a “Ponzi scheme” in 2000 to endorsing then-Rep. Paul Ryan’s plans to restructure Medicare in 2012 to positioning himself as the protector of those programs in 2016 to taking aim at some retirement spending in his White House budgets (which never became law).

Essentially we know Trump is lying because of his radically divergent positions over time. In fact, in 2016 he promised to preserve Social Security and Medicare, and then in his budgets he proposed cuts.

 In recent months, Trump opened the way for Social Security and Medicare cuts and refuses to disclaim the GOP plan to cut those programs as, shown above. Which brings us to the his debate comments in response to a question about entitlement cuts. While Biden gave a simple and clear statement of how he intends to save Social Security and Medicare, Trump attacked Biden's honesty and switched the topic to immigration, Russia, Ukraine, a mysterious laptop, the VA, and luxury hotels. Trump was incoherent. Remarkably, he never addressed his recent comments about Social Security and Medicare cuts, nor the GOP plan to cut Social Security and Medicare. Trump provided no explanation of his prior budget proposals including Social Security and Medicare cuts.  As stated in the Washington Post: "Protecting Social Security . . . was also a major theme of Trump’s 2016 campaign. His avowed stance, however, is at odds with Trump’s own record as president: Each of his White House budget proposals included cuts to Social Security and Medicare programs."

Trump has staked out so many positions on Social Security that no matter what he says he lies. The only thing we know for sure about Trump and entitlements is that despite campaign promises to the contrary he included Social Security and Medicare cuts in each of his annual budget proposals as President. Given the GOP commitment to cutting Social Security and Medicare a vote for any GOP candidate is a vote to slash your Social Security and Medicare benefits by about 30 percent. If Trump gets elected the GOP will have a clear path to gutting Social Security and Medicare as he promised to do in a second term in 2020, and regardless of any lies or gibberish he feeds the voters today. 

The “extreme” need for a footpath on Manor Rd in Hornsby was finally heard by the council who will fast track a decision by 20 years.

Matilda Finnegan is inviting locals for an afternoon tea which she hopes will help land her a place in a top beauty contest

A Guide to Building Dependable Distributed Systems

a 1% change in several swing states...

A simple framework for hosting bots on the Fediverse

The Democratic Party should jettison its consultant class and move toward a local-membership model that would help to rejuvenate civic life across the country. via Pocket

REVERED Parramatta Eels legend Nathan Hindmarsh has been immortalised by artistic titan Stormie Mills in the heart of Parramatta.

CONSTRUCTION will soon start on a massive new $3.7m play area in Centennial Park that is expected to attract 200,000 visits in its first year.

Law-breaking pedestrians are keeping officers from Sydney’s Motorcycle Response Team busy as statistics show a city which has an attitude problem about road safety.

EVE-NG PRO platform is ready for today’s IT-world requirements. It allows enterprises, e-learning providers/centers, individuals and group collaborators to create virtual proof of concepts, solutions and training environments. EVE-NG PRO is the first clientless multivendor network emulation software that empowers network and security professionals with huge opportunities in the networking world. Clientless management options will allow EVE-NG PRO to be as the best choice for Enterprise engineers without influence of corporate security policies as it can be run in a completely isolated environment.

President Donald Trump has picked South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem to run the vast Department of Homeland Security, according to multiple reports.

The post Reports: Kristi Noem to Get Homeland Security Job appeared first on Breitbart.

President-elect Donald Trump selected Rep. Mike Waltz (R-FL) to serve as his National Security Adviser, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal.

The post President-Elect Donald Trump Picks GOP Rep. Mike Waltz to Be National Security Adviser appeared first on Breitbart.

We need a Majority Leader who understands the needs of the American people and has a proven track record of fighting for them.

The post Exclusive—Rep. Scott Perry: Senator Rick Scott Is a Majority Leader for the American People appeared first on Breitbart.

Americans gave Republicans a mandate to "enact President Trump's agenda," Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) said on Tuesday as he vies for the Senate leadership position.

The post Senate Majority Leader Contender Rick Scott: America Gave Us a Mandate to ‘Enact President Trump’s Agenda’ appeared first on Breitbart.

YouTuber Jake Paul and boxing heavyweight legend Mike Tyson are finally set to battle in their much-anticipated match at AT&T Stadium in Dallas on Friday night.

The post ‘I’m a Natural-Born Killer’: Mike Tyson Highlights the Difference Between Him and YouTuber Jake Paul appeared first on Breitbart.

For a recent project, a client required a front end uploader to allow their customers to submit a consent form. Once they completed the form they could upload it as…

The post Eliminate Thumbnails for Custom Post Types appeared first on bavotasan.com.

We spin some very collectible new releases including a split from Styx and Foreigner, a picture disc from Michael Hutchence, the soundtrack to the film "Black Girl" and an album from none other than The Dalai Lama!

The acoustics in the intimate music theater at The Musical Instrument Museum (MIM) in Phoenix makes it a favorite venue for touring musicians and their fans and as always the theater has an eclectic bunch of shows coming up

Our look at reggae-related fun begins with a taste of some new adult beverages from Seagram's before moving into a new album from Stephen Marley on vinyl and an awesome highly-illustrated book about Bob Marley and the Wailers

The People for a New America organization has announced the inaugural Unity, Peace & Freedom Festival

Here are our suggestions for a couple of things to do during the spooky Halloween season in the Phoenix metropolitan area: Candytopia and Glowing Pumpkins.

Tracy Nelson, Samantha Fish, Ana Popovic and Joanna Connor all have new music out. Add in Larry Taylor, Tony Holiday, and Alabama Mike and you get a terrific cross-section of new Blues on Mick’s show this weekend