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Fairfax has greater than twice as a lot federally leased office area compared to Prince George’s, in accordance with The Post’s evaluation. Kevin Harris, founder of the Alexandria Minority Business Association, mentioned the $500,000 grant program represented “less than zero.05 percent” of the city’s 2023 finances of more than $1 billion. In a news launch last month, he criticized the Tridentis lawsuit as “political theater that comes on the expense of the Alexandria group.” Other neighborhood advocates questioned why a naval-engineering contractor with high costs and cash flows was seeking a grant from the town capped at $7,000. In an interview Wednesday, Alexandria Mayor Justin M. Wilson stated the coronavirus pandemic helped uncover ways by which minority-owned companies struggle in contrast with White-owned businesses in coping with banks and coronavirus-relief programs at the federal, state and local ranges. ” Connolly stated, disputing the concept Prince George’s is underserved by the federal government. Causing tension with Virginia leaders, Rep. Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) and Sens. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) and Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) unsuccessfully sought to regulate how the criteria was weighted through language in the spending invoice.

They believe the current weighting unfairly advantages the Springfield location for its proximity to Quantico, and de-prioritizes racial equity and price. Alexandria officers stated that as part of an agreement with Tridentis, the city admitted that the grant standards as previously written violated the 14th Amendment. A city spokeswoman added that the funds can be utilized in other methods to assist minority businesses. YouTube chief govt Susan Wojcicki will step down after practically a decade on the helm of the Google-owned video web site, leaving all of the major social media and leisure platforms within the administration of men.

Wojcicki Oversaw Google’s Video Platform For Nearly A Decade

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Chew, a former Facebook intern and ByteDance finance chief who became TikTok’s CEO in 2021, said he is in management of all of TikTok’s strategic decisions. But ByteDance has performed an lively role in TikTok’s shift to defend itself more aggressively in Washington, Chew stated, and he couldn’t provide a particular occasion on which he had pushed again towards a decree from ByteDance’s leadership. But the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, the cross-government panel known as CFIUS that has led negotiations between TikTok and the united states for 3 years, has but to approve the restructuring package or publicly state any excellent concerns. TikTok says it has spent $1.5 billion — and expects to spend another $700 million a 12 months — standing up a company restructuring plan, known as Project Texas, that may topic the corporate to a stage of U.S. government affect and oversight unmatched by any of its American rivals.

“Other jurisdictions and states that implement similar BIPOC-only applications could have them vigorously challenged in the courts,” Blum said. During her tenure, activists and regulators around the globe criticized the company for permitting hate speech, misinformation and conspiracy theories. Even before the pandemic, anti-vaccine influencers had grown in style on the platform, and the site had turn out to be a key a part of the ecosystem of vaccine skeptics that exploded when the coronavirus started spreading.

Maryland got here out swinging last fall on the racial-equity argument, with a news conference and letters from civil rights groups to make its case. Prince George’s is doubtless certainly one of the most populous majority-Black counties in the country, but Maryland lawmakers argue that it has been “overlooked” in comparability with Fairfax County in terms of federal investment, suggesting it could quantity to discrimination. Some measures have already been launched, including the opening final month of a code-review center in Columbia, Md., the place officers from the Texas-based tech big Oracle can examine TikTok’s algorithm and source code for potential flaws. TikTok officers have argued to lawmakers that this fashion of intense authorities monitoring and compliance is extra generally seen with military or protection contractors, not social media apps. Maryland lawmakers, however, have also focused on leased federal office house, which provides property tax advantages for local governments, as opposed to federally owned property.

Alexandria Agrees To Scrap Grant Program For Minority-owned Companies

A spokeswoman for County Executive Angela D. Alsobrooks declined to touch upon funding discussions. “If you’re going to go to the trouble of building a model new one, wouldn’t you need your headquarters comparatively near an present FBI facility, your coaching academy? Well, that happens to be in Winchester,” he mentioned, additionally noting the presence of the Pentagon and CIA in Virginia. While the Marylanders say they’re still able to win the headquarters under the present standards, they are additionally not accomplished preventing for what they are saying must be fairer guidelines, organising one last battle in the dizzying bureaucratic saga of the FBI headquarters hunt.

But he also stated it made sense to weight serving the FBI mission most heavily, together with proximity to Quantico, if the FBI thought that was necessary — and that Congress ought to leave changes alone. Deborah Liu, a former Facebook executive, is the CEO of Ancestry.com, while Safra Catz is the CEO of software company Oracle. Some in Washington level to dangers corresponding to a Chinese legislation that permits the federal government to compel tech firms at hand over consumer information to help with “national intelligence” work. TikTok is a private company with main Western buyers, nearly a dozen worldwide places of work and hundreds of American staff. But its parent company, ByteDance, was created by Chinese founders and operates a central office in Beijing — a incontrovertible fact that U.S. lawmakers have argued could leave them weak to China’s authoritarian fashion of on-line surveillance and media management.

Brandon joins us from NPR, the place he has labored as a producer on the politics team specializing in viewers engagement efforts. He has directed NPR’s social technique for 3 election cycles, two impeachments and dozens of other political information events. We are pleased to announce that Brandon Carter will join The Post as an task editor on the social staff. Chew known as the occasion “very disturbing” and blamed it on a “completely misguided” group of staff appearing with out corporate approval. He noted that the chief of the group was an American and stated the corporate had started restructuring its internal-audit team to forestall it from happening again. The U.S. government has shared no evidence that the Chinese Communist Party has mined TikTok’s knowledge for info on American customers or warped its advice algorithm to attain political factors.

The current spate of job cuts within the tech sector has jeopardized the progress many major corporations made in diversifying their workforces during the pandemic with the lure of remote work. Silicon Valley layoffs have hit ladies significantly onerous, as a outcome of they were newer to their jobs and occupied roles that companies had been less excited about retaining, in accordance with consultants. Wojcicki is leaving to spend more time along with her household and focus on her well being and private projects, based on a letter she despatched to workers that was posted on YouTube’s company blog.

And the baseball operations are limited by a tiny budget indicative of homeowners who are reluctant to make additional investment in a franchise they may be selling soon and who most likely can’t depend on significant income in a season with low competitive prospects.

The state of Maryland and the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority own the Greenbelt website. The federal authorities already controls the property on the Springfield site, eliminating acquisition costs. But there are also federal tenants already in place, and the GSA did not immediately respond to a query about price projections for relocating them and preparing the positioning. Fairfax has grown increasingly numerous over the past decade and is now majority-minority, with giant populations of Asian Americans and Hispanic residents. That range extends into surrounding localities, the Virginia group famous, describing large populations of Central American immigrants and households where English is a second language in locations such as eastern Prince William County. Warner stated he welcomed new criteria about serving underserved communities, noting lawmakers’ eagerness to broaden on Northern Virginia’s broad racial and spiritual range.

Wojcicki was seen by many Google staff as roughly a member of Brin and Page’s household, given her lengthy relationship with them and status as one of many company’s founding employees. Wojcicki is doubtless one of the most prominent girls in Silicon Valley, which for years has struggled to diversify. Brandon grew up in the small city of Fulton, Ky., and is a graduate of Western Kentucky University, the place he studied journalism and promoting. Stay updated on the news from Silicon Valley, and tips on how to take again management of your knowledge and units.

She has frolicked prior to now months away from the workplace for well being causes, mentioned a person who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the delicate matter. She might be replaced by Neal Mohan, YouTube’s head of product, who first got here to Google via the company’s acquisition of advertising tech platform DoubleClick in 2008. His public persona could change after next month’s listening to — including, possibly, to cement him as the face of a company some in Congress argue could warp the brains of American youth. TikTok’s proprietor, ByteDance, also undermined its argument in December when it announced it had fired 4 workers for attempting to use TikTok data — including IP addresses, which might provide rough estimates of locations — to seek out journalists’ sources. TikTok’s U.S. operations would be sequestered in a subsidiary, known as TikTok U.S. Data Security, whose leaders can be vetted by the united states government and whose U.S. consumer knowledge could be intently monitored and firewalled. But he said he has additionally had to navigate discussions with people who have never used TikTok however still argue in tweets and TV interviews that the app is an insidious threat — and that the company’s arguments are compromised, silly or naive.

“White-owned businesses are not eligible — a degree this system reiterates several instances,” attorneys for the defense contractor, Tridentis, wrote in a lawsuit filed Jan. 22. The firm has additionally faced the ire of civil rights teams and lawmakers over its lack of transparency about how the platform fights misinformation in languages other than English and the spread of election-misinformation on its social network. Last yr, Wojcicki promised members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus in a personal meeting to offer more data about how misinformation in Spanish is moderated on the video-sharing community, in accordance with the lawmakers. Before NPR, Brandon was a social media curator at the Hill, where he ran social media accounts and blogged about breaking information. Brandon will lead our Instagram team, which curates our @washingtonpost, @coveringpolitics and @postclimate accounts, and focus on optimizing Post journalism for considered one of our fastest-growing audiences off-platform.

• YouTube chief executive Susan Wojcicki will step down after nearly a decade on the helm of the Google-owned video site, leaving all of the main social media and entertainment platforms within the management of males.
• In the ten months since they announced they’d explore that possibility, a number of interested parties signed the required nondisclosure agreements and perused the franchise’s finances, in accordance with individuals familiar with the method.
• She has spent time prior to now months away from the office for health causes, said an individual who spoke on the situation of anonymity to debate the sensitive matter.
• TikTok is a non-public company with major Western investors, almost a dozen international places of work and thousands of American workers.
• “The purpose it’s so important and why the county and the state really feel so strongly about it’s as a outcome of, if you put a constructing of this quality with the kind of people which would possibly be working there, you’ll substantially benefit a county which has been undervalued by the federal authorities growth,” Hoyer said.

Alexandria metropolis officers canceled plans to launch a new grant program for minority-owned companies this week, after dealing with blowback from conservatives and allegations in a federal lawsuit that the grant criteria discriminated against White folks. Wojcicki’s departure follows different high-profile feminine leaders who have left massive expertise corporations. Earlier this week, Meta Chief Business Officer Marne Levine introduced she can be leaving after thirteen years at the firm. Last yr, Sheryl Sandberg introduced she was stepping down as chief operating officer after a 14-year stint on the social media giant.

A VEDP spokeswoman, Suzanne Clark, stated the General Assembly’s Major Employment and Investment Project Approval Commission accredited a funding package deal, largely related to transportation upgrades across the Springfield site to accommodate the FBI’s wants. She stated the panel is maintaining the funding details confidential “to uphold the integrity” of the process. Fairfax can additionally be among the richest counties within the country, with a median family earnings of about $134,000, whereas Prince George’s has a median household earnings of about $90,000, according to census information.

But both concerns have become outstanding themes of criticism within the United States, leading to common attacks on the app in Washington and greater than two dozen state-device bans. But with criticism heating up, Chew has launched a room-to-room offensive on Capitol Hill, meeting with federal and state lawmakers, journalists and assume tanks in an effort to influence critics that concerns about information privacy and censorship can be resolved without the nuclear choice of a nationwide ban. The married father of two, a Harvard Business School graduate based mostly in his native Singapore, spent Tuesday in the halls of Congress trying to convince lawmakers that the corporate isn’t run — as some argue — by Chinese government lackeys, propagandists or spies. The tributes and remembrances following Ted Lerner’s dying Sunday have been joined by curiosity about what, if anything, his passing meant to the future of the Washington Nationals, the Major League Baseball staff his family has owned since 2006. As the staff opened its spring training in West Palm Beach, Fla., answers remained elusive, and even many close to the scenario did not anticipate clarity quickly. Prince George’s officers also previously mentioned offering funding for certain infrastructure upgrades across the websites.

“The reason it’s so important and why the county and the state feel so strongly about it’s because, if you put a constructing of this quality with the kind of folks that are working there, you will substantially benefit a county which has been undervalued by the federal government development,” Hoyer said. In an 11th-hour negotiation with Virginia congressional leaders, Maryland lawmakers secured language in a December federal spending bill that gave each states ninety more days to make last presentations to the General Services Administration. Wojcicki oversaw super growth, taking YouTube from around a billion users a few decade in the past to the over 2 billion individuals who use it month-to-month right now. She additionally oversaw the growth of YouTube’s Creator program and helped spearhead efforts to assist creators monetize their work. During her tenure, YouTube was considered one of Google’s most essential revenue progress drivers, going from $3.6 billion in income within the fourth quarter of 2018, when the corporate first broke out YouTube’s financial numbers, to just about $8 billion in the fourth quarter of 2022. Wall Street analysts sometimes pointed out, nevertheless, that YouTube’s revenue per user was significantly decrease than such opponents as Facebook.

But no deal has come collectively, partially as a end result of the Nationals are unable to guarantee a future owner local television revenue. Unlike other MLB groups, they do not own the rights to their broadcasts, they usually have spent years combating the Baltimore Orioles in court to discover out how much they need to have been paid for past seasons — and what they deserve sooner or later. The Orioles personal Mid-Atlantic Sports Network, which broadcasts Nationals games and has been stripped down to bare bones in latest times. Uncertainty over the television broadcast rights has been, as one MLB official put it, “a massive roadblock” to a possible sale. Multiple folks familiar with the process and the family’s thinking say any predictions about what the family’s next steps — whether or not moving ahead with an entire sale, taking up a new minority associate or retrenching and reinvesting themselves — are untimely. The offices of Warner and Youngkin referred questions on funding incentives to the Virginia Economic Development Partnership.

Although they devoted more power to racial equity, a primary thrust of their argument facilities on Springfield’s proximity to key federal property, such because the FBI Academy, the CIA and an FBI archives facility. Connolly mentioned with these benefits — mixed with easy access to public transportation, airports and the Beltway — the Springfield website offers a “synergy” to make it probably the most fascinating possibility for the FBI. Tridentis and its owner, David K. Jochum, argued that the Supreme Court has stated racial classifications are allowed solely in uncommon circumstances and have to be “narrowly tailored” to achieve “compelling governmental interests.” The Alexandria grant program failed that take a look at and violated the 14th Amendment, his authorized staff said.

He may even work to launch new accounts and collaborate with editors throughout the newsroom to bring the work we’re doing on Instagram again to our owned and operated surfaces. A New York State Court is scheduled to pay attention to an enchantment in the MASN dispute March 14, based on courtroom filings. People conversant in the sale course of hope that a call in that case may thaw the chill between the teams enough to facilitate an agreement about what the Nationals could expect in tv rights fees going ahead. Maryland has pre-authorized $200 million in state funding in fiscal 2024 and 2025 for the attainable FBI growth in Landover, a privately owned 80-acre website, or Greenbelt, looking for to lower federal costs of acquisition and improvement for the project.

TikTok’s executives had for years hoped the company’s backroom negotiations with nationwide security officials — and its viral-dance-filled self-promotion because the “last sunny corner of the internet” — would neutralize suspicions in Washington over the app’s China-based ownership. Chew arrived in Washington this week after attending the Super Bowl, the place an official with TikTok father or mother ByteDance stated he was a visitor of NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. The league is a significant promotional companion of the app, where movies of big performs are viral and heavily promoted, together with by the NFL’s 10 million-follower official account.

After months of virtual silence, TikTok’s chief govt Shou Zi Chew is making ready for the fight of his skilled life, meeting with members of Congress and state governors as part of an aggressive push to prove the wildly popular Chinese-owned app just isn’t a national security threat. In the 10 months since they introduced they might explore that chance, a quantity of fascinated parties signed the required nondisclosure agreements and perused the franchise’s finances, based on individuals acquainted with the process. But by the tip of the Nationals’ dismal 2022 season, during which they traded superstar Juan Soto for a haul of younger gamers in a sign of their intent to rebuild from the ground up, few serious suitors emerged.