LEDE: A Senate Commerce Committee subpanel will take a look at the state of transportation technology on Tuesday afternoon.
The Commerce Subcommittee on Surface Transportation and Merchant Marine Infrastructure, Safety and Security will hold a hearing on innovations in the technology used along America’s supply chains.
{mosads}”How technology integrates with our railroads, trucks, pipelines, and ports will have a major impact on safety, efficiency, and reliability,” said subcommittee Chairwoman Deb Fischer (R-Neb.). “This hearing is an important opportunity to highlight America’s leadership and review how the federal government can better keep up with new technological developments.”
Witnesses are mostly drawn from the business world. The tech sector will be represented by Paul Misener, Amazon’s Vice President of Global Public Policy. He will talk about robots that Amazon uses to speed up the process of packing orders for shipment. Volvo, BNSF Railways and the Port of Long Beach will also send representatives to testify.
LEADERSHIP AT REDDIT LOOKS TO CALM TURMOIL: Interim Reddit CEO Ellen Pao apologized to the website’s top users on Monday after protests over the firing of a longtime employee. This weekend, moderators took many areas of the site private after the abrupt termination of Victoria Taylor — who joined the site in 2013 and became a liaison between moderators and the company’s executives. Pao announced that she would be introducing the role of a “moderator advocate” to represent the power users who the site relies on to govern its communities. And she expressed regret at how the site had handled its relationship with moderators in the past.
“We screwed up,” Pao said. “Not just on July 2, but also over the past several years. We haven’t communicated well, and we have surprised moderators and the community with big changes. We have apologized and made promises to you, the moderators and the community, over many years, but time and again, we haven’t delivered on them.”
BUT CALLS FOR PAO’S OUSTER GROW: Meanwhile, a Change.org petition asking Pao to step down has gathered over 190,000 signatures. Pao “has the full support of the team,” a Reddit spokesperson said in an email.
FTC FILES LAWSUIT AGAINST MEDICAL ALERT COMPANY: The Federal Trade Commission has joined with Florida’s attorney general in suing a company they say sent deceptive robocalls to customers, most of them elderly, about a medical alert system. They say that the New York-based Lifewatch has been “bombarding” customers with millions of unsolicited robocalls, often to people who had added themselves to the national Do Not Call list. The customers are allegedly told they’ve been given an alert system free of charge — but later asked to pay for a monthly fee. The regulators say that those customers who try to cancel face penalties if they cannot return the system. The FTC has already sued one of the telemarketing companies used by Lifewatch. “Some scammers won’t take a hint,” said Jessica Rich, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, in a statement.
STEPTOE PARTNER JOINS DIGITAL ASSET TRADE GROUP: Jason Weinstein, a partner at Steptoe & Johnson LLP, has joined the advisory board of the Chamber of Digital Commerce. The group advocates on behalf of digital assets like Bitcoin. “After 15 years with the Department of Justice, I am pleased to play a leadership role in engaging with government agencies on financial technology issues and helping the digital asset industry navigate the challenging regulatory and enforcement environment,” Weinstein said in a statement.
GREEKS TAKE TO GOOGLE AFTER REFERENDUM: A Google trends report provides a small window into what questions Greek citizens have after voting to reject the terms of a bailout from the European Union. Top questions about the issue in the last 24 hours include “What will happen after the referendum?,” “What does a no vote mean?,” and “What came out in the referendum?”
LA TIMES HIRES REPORTER TO COVER BLACK TWITTER: The Los Angeles Times has hired a reporter to find stories about minority communities online, including on the social network that has been labeled Black Twitter. “He will work closely with the newsroom and #EmergingUS to find communities online (Black Medium to Latino Tumblr to Line in Japan) and both create stories with and pull stories from those worlds,” said Managing Editor S. Mitra Kalita in a memo, according to Poynter.
ON TAP:
At 1:30 p.m., the Senate Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Surface Transportation and Merchant Marine Infrastructure, Safety and Security will host a hearing on transportation technology.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:
Internet advocacy group Free Press now has access to a particularly large megaphone: a billboard in New York’s Times Square.
Government leaker Edward Snowden may some day be able to strike a deal to return to the U.S. without jail time, according to former Attorney General Eric Holder.
Sen. Charles Schumer wants violators of a ban on robocalls to face stiffer penalties, including potential jail time.
Google has launched a pilot carpooling service in Israel.
Hillary Clinton and Jeb Bush have been the most Googled candidates in the 2016 presidential race over the last six months, according to data published by CNN.
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