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She was part of a wave of recruited Black reporters who began changing the face of the paper in the ’70s. She also helped rebuild New Orleans after Katrina.
Democrats embark on a new long-shot mission to give 700,000 Americans voting representation in Congress.
As the United States withdraws from its longest war, a memorial that recognizes one of its most complicated ones officially opens in Washington, D.C., on Friday.
The force’s inspector general testified that a top official ordered officers not to use their most powerful anti-riot tools on Jan. 6 because of concerns they did not know how.
Defense lawyers have complained that some charges do not apply to what unfolded on Jan. 6, and one argues it will be impossible to get a fair trial in Washington.
Despite being tipped that “Congress itself is the target” on Jan. 6, Capitol Police were ordered not to use their most powerful crowd-control weapons, according to a scathing new watchdog report.
Suburban homeowners who have profited from the urban exodus during the pandemic are leaving small-town life behind to find out what they have been missing.
The attack shocked a Capitol slowly returning to normalcy after the Jan. 6 riot, raising new questions about securing the complex.
Former President Donald J. Trump “inflamed, encouraged, incited, directed, and aided and abetted” the Capitol Riot on Jan. 6, the officers’ lawsuit said.
The Minnesota senator presents her case for why regulating big tech is crucial for the future of our democracy.
Swarms of cicadas, part of a group called Brood X, are expected to appear in 18 states in the next few weeks, just in time to help orchestrate the soundtrack of summer.
The partners at MaC Venture Capital, the Los Angeles-based investment firm that has just closed on $103 million for its inaugural fund, have spent the bulk of their careers breaking barriers.
Formed when M Ventures (a firm founded by former Washington DC mayor Adrian Fenty); the first Black talent agency partner in the history of Hollywood, Charles D. King; and longtime operating executive (and former agent) Michael Palank joined forces with Marlon Nichols, a co-founder of the LA-based investment firm Cross Culture Capital, MaC Venture Capital wanted to be a different kind of fund.
The firm combines the focus on investing in software that Fenty had honed from his years spent as a special advisor to Andreessen Horowitz, where he spent five years before setting out to launch M Ventures; and Nichols’ thesis-driven approach to focusing on particular sectors that are being transformed by global cultural shifts wrought by changing consumer behavior and demographics.
“There’s a long history and a lot of relationships here,” said King, one of Hollywood’s premier power players and the founder of the global media company, Macro. “Adrian and I go back to 93 [when] we were in law school. We went on to conquer the world, where he went out to Washington DC and I became a senior partner at WME.”
Palank was connected to the team through King as well, since the two men worked together at William Morris before running business development for Will Smith and others.
“There was this idea of having connectivity between tech and innovation… that’s when we formed M Ventures [but] that understanding of media and culture… that focus… was complimentary with what Marlon was doing at Cross Culture,” King said.
Few firms could merge the cultural revolutions wrought by DJ Herc spinning records in the rec room of a Bronx apartment building and Sir Tim Berners Lee’s invention of the internet, but that’s exactly what MaC VC aims to do.
And while the firm’s founding partnership would prefer to focus on the financial achievements of their respective firms and the investments that now comprise the new portfolio of their combined efforts — it includes Stoke, Goodfair, Finesse, PureStream, and Sote — it’s hard to overstate the significance that a general partnership that includes three Black men have raised $103 million in an industry that’s been repeatedly called out for problems with diversity and inclusion.
MaC Venture Capital co-founders Marlon Nichols, Michael Palank, Charles King, and Adrian Fenty. Image Credit: MaC Venture Capital
“Our LPs invested in us… for lots of different reasons but at the top of the list was that we are a diverse team in so many ways. We’re going to show them a set of companies that they would not have seen from any [other] VC fund,” said Fenty. “We also, in turn, have the same investing thesis when we look at companies. We want to have women founders, African American founders, Latino founders… In our fund now we have some companies that are all women, all African American or all Latino.”
The diversity of the firm’s ethos is also reflected in the broad group of limited partners that have come on to bankroll its operations: it includes Goldman Sachs, the University of Michigan, Howard University, Mitch and Freada Kapor, Foot Locker, and Greenspring Associates.
“We are thrilled to join MaC Venture Capital in this key milestone toward building a new kind of venture capital firm that is anchored around a cultural investment thesis and supports transformative companies and dynamic founders,” said Daniel Feder, Managing Director with the University of Michigan Investment Office, in a statement. “Their unified understanding of technology, media, entertainment, and government, along with a successful track record of investing, give them deep insights into burgeoning shifts in culture and behavior.”
And it extends to the firm’s portfolio, a clutch of startup companies headquartered around the globe — from Seattle to Houston and Los Angeles to Nairobi.
“We look at all verticals. We’re very happy to be generalists,” said Fenty.
A laser focus on software-enabled businesses is complemented by the thesis-driven approach laid out in position papers staking out predictions for how the ubiquity of gaming; conscious consumerism; new parenting paradigms; and cultural and demographic shifts will transform the global economy.
Increasingly, that thesis also means moving into areas of frontier technologies that include the space industry, mixed reality and everything at the intersection of computing and the transformation of the physical world — drawn in part by the firm’s close connection to the diverse tech ecosystem that’s emerging in Los Angeles. “We’re seeing these SpaceX and Tesla mafias spin out, entrepreneurs who have had best-in-class training at an Elon Musk company,” said Palank. “It’s a great talent pool, and LA has more computer science students graduating every year than Northern California.”
With its current portfolio, though early, the venture firm is operating in the top 5% of funds — at least on paper — and its early investments are up 3 times what the firm invested, Nichols said.
“The way to think about it is MaC is essentially an extension of what we were building before,” the Cross Culture Ventures co-founder said. “We’re sticking with the concept that talent is ubiquitous but access to capital and opportunity is not. We want to be the source and access to capital for those founders.”
The league is expected to approve a measure that will allow Daniel Snyder to buy total control of the team.
Proponents of granting statehood pointed to the riot on Jan. 6, when a botched federal response contributed to disastrous results, as the latest proof that the District of Columbia should be a state.
But it’s not the same as Facebook’s. C.E.O. Brian Chesky discusses why he and Mark Zuckerberg have different consequences to consider.
She used her networking skills and social connections to establish the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, the first of its kind.
Regional inequality has deepened across the country.
After painting a portrait of Taylor, whose killing by police helped galvanize national protests, the artist decided she wanted the work to live on in public.
Too many local governments are still struggling with the technology that people use to get appointments.
Maj. Gen. William J. Walker testified that he did not receive permission to deploy troops for hours on Jan. 6, as violence by pro-Trump supporters escalated.
Mr. Jordan, who was selected to head the National Urban League while still in his 30s, counseled presidents and business leaders.
Mr. Jordan, who was selected to head the Urban League while still in his 30s, counseled presidents and business leaders.
Sasha Jackson remembered passing by Stephen Small-Warner II on a New York subway car, but they didn’t officially meet until years later at Howard University. A collaboration soon began.
“Tangled Up in Blue,” by Rosa Brooks, and “We Own This City,” by Justin Fenton, take readers inside two police forces (in Washington and Baltimore) to examine a complicated culture.
President Biden is uninterested in generating headlines, which only emphasizes how the Trump-size hole in Washington has created a sense of free time in the capital — psychically, if not literally.
Democracy depends on understanding the connection.
Once the Trump mob attacked officers, Republican hypocrisy was exposed.
A star society reporter for The Washington Post, she was the scourge of presidents, foreign operatives and philandering politicians.
Micromobility startup Helbiz, which now operates across Europe and the USA, is merging with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) to become a publicly listed company, giving it a war chest to potentially roll-up smaller competitors in the space, as well as the resources to expand into “cloud” or “ghost” kitchens as part of a move into food delivery.
Helbiz intends to merge with GreenVision Acquisition Corp. (Nasdaq: GRNV) in the second quarter of 2021. The combined entity will be named Helbiz Inc. and will be listed on the Nasdaq Capital Market under the new ticker symbol, “HLBZ.”
The transaction includes $30 million PIPE anchored by institutional investors and approximately $80 million in net proceeds will be fed into Helbiz’s micromobility and advertising businesses, which have 2.7 million users.
Helbiz says the merged entity will have a valuation of $408 million, and by run Helbiz’s existing management under CEO Salvatore Palella.
Palella said: “Through this transaction, we’re committed to fulfilling our vision in revolutionizing transport by using micromobility to become a seamless last-mile solution.”
He further revealed to me that the company plans to establish “ghost kitchens” in Milan and Washington, DC later this year, with the aim of introducing a five-minute delivery time.
Helbiz has tried to differentiate itself from other players like Lime and Bird by offering e-scooters, e-bicycles and e-mopeds all on one platform.
Key to Helbiz’s offering is an integrated geofencing platform that tends to appeal to city authorities who don’t want scooters left in random places, as well as a swappable battery that enables easier charging of the devices. Its subscription service allows users to take unlimited 30-minute trips on its e-bikes and e-scooters every month.
In Europe the company currently operates a fleet of e-scooters and e-bicycles in Milan, Turin, Verona, Rome, Madrid and Belgrade, and in the U.S. it operates in Washington, DC, Alexandria, Arlington and Miami.
David Fu, chairman, and CEO of GreenVision, commented: “Helbiz has distinguished itself as the only company to offer e-scooters, e-bicycles, and e-mopeds all on one user-friendly platform… Helbiz has a proven and capital-light business model that combines hardware, software, and services with extensive customer relationships.”
In court papers, prosecutors have painted a picture that indicates planning among members of the extremist group on Jan. 6.
Times Opinion was able to identify individuals from a trove of leaked smartphone location data.
Federal law provides a way to charge people in cases of deaths that they did not directly cause. But it is a limited provision that has raised questions about complicity and fairness.
“I haven’t told many people that in my life,” the Democratic congresswoman said. “But when we go through trauma, trauma compounds on each other.”
Washington’s representative in Congress urged the Capitol Police to allow sledding to continue on the complex’s heavily secured grounds.
Video obtained by The Times provides a police officer’s view of the deadly battle to defend a key entryway from the surging mob.
The Capitol Police, Washington’s mayor and lawmakers are weighing options for permanent fencing around Congress and bigger forces to respond to continuing threats.
Teacher resistance is a disaster for the most vulnerable.
Religious resentment has become a potent recruiting tool for the hard right.
The acting chief of the Capitol Police told lawmakers that the department knew days ahead of time of the risk of violence targeting lawmakers but was unprepared when the mob attacked on Jan. 6.
With a mob approaching, a police lieutenant fatally shot a woman trying to vault through a window near the House Chamber.
Photographs of Guard soldiers resting on the concrete floor of a parking garage prompted swift condemnation and apologies from members of Congress.
Photographs of Guard soldiers resting on the concrete floor of a parking garage prompted swift condemnation and apologies from members of Congress.
An expert in conserving garments for museums and collectors finds a new calling in saving the clothes worn by victims of atrocities.
An initial wave of arrests was based on news accounts and social media. Proving a conspiracy could be a lot tougher.
An initial wave of arrests was based on news accounts and social media. Proving a conspiracy could be a lot tougher.
The arrest is the latest in a growing number of prosecutions against people accused of attacking law enforcement officials in the storming of the Capitol.
At a charter school in a poor area of Washington, some teachers spend one day a week going door to door, tracking down students who aren’t logging on, and whose education is suffering.
To assess how public schools have navigated the pandemic and the impact on students, The Times examined seven representative districts. The answers were strikingly different.
President Biden and his inner circle wanted the ceremony to take place outside the Capitol as usual to show Americans and the world that democracy would endure despite attempts to upend it.