Business

Center for Public Integrity Weighs Merger or Shutdown Amid Dire Financial Straits
Business

Center for Public Integrity Weighs Merger or Shutdown Amid Dire Financial Straits

Associated media - Linked media “The board remains committed to C.P.I. and its essential mission, and is working hard to determine the best way forward for our journalism,” the nonprofit said in a statement. The financial peril facing the Center for Public Integrity threatens to extinguish a newsroom of about 30 journalists that has watchdogged powerful institutions for decades. Much of its funding has come from foundations interested in supporting investigative journalism, including the Knight Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation. As its reserves dwindle, its board of directors is contemplating drastic action to address the situation. The Center for Public Integrity explored a potential combination this year with The Markup, a nonprofit newsroom that publishes investiga...
Inquiry Into Ouster of OpenAI’s Chief Executive Nears End
Business

Inquiry Into Ouster of OpenAI’s Chief Executive Nears End

Associated media - Connected media WilmerHale, a prominent U.S. law firm, is close to wrapping up a detailed review of OpenAI’s chief executive, Sam Altman, and his ouster from the artificial intelligence start-up late last year, two people with knowledge of the proceedings said. The investigation, when complete, could give insight into what went on behind the scenes with Mr. Altman and OpenAI’s former board of directors, which fired him on Nov. 17 before reinstating him five days later. OpenAI, which is valued at more than $80 billion, has led a frenzy over A.I. and could help determine the direction of the transformative technology. Mr. Altman, 38, has told people in recent weeks that the investigation was nearing a close, the two people with knowledge of the matter said. The resul...
Donna Summer’s Estate Sues Ye for Sampling ‘I Feel Love’
Business

Donna Summer’s Estate Sues Ye for Sampling ‘I Feel Love’

Related media - Related media When Ye and Ty Dolla Sign asked last month for permission to sample Donna Summer’s 1977 song “I Feel Love,” the disco singer’s estate firmly told them no. Yet when their joint LP, “Vultures 1,” was released weeks ago, a song with strong similarities to Summer’s famous tune was there on the track list. A copyright infringement lawsuit detailing that timeline was filed against Ye, the rapper once known as Kanye West, and Ty Dolla Sign on Tuesday by Summer’s husband and executor, Bruce Sudano. Summer, known as the “Queen of Disco,” had three consecutive double albums reach No. 1 in the late 1970s and died of cancer in 2012. The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Los Angeles, said that Summer’s estate “wanted no association with West’s controversial history....
U.S. Proposes New Rules to Ease Flying for Travelers in Wheelchairs
Business

U.S. Proposes New Rules to Ease Flying for Travelers in Wheelchairs

Linked media - Related media The Biden administration announced on Thursday that it was proposing new regulations for how airlines must treat passengers in wheelchairs, an effort aimed at improving air travel for people with disabilities. Under the proposed rule, damaging or delaying the return of a wheelchair would be an automatic violation of an existing federal law that bars airlines from discriminating against people with disabilities. The Transportation Department said that change would make it easier for the agency to penalize airlines for mishandling wheelchairs. The proposed regulations would also require more robust training for workers who physically assist disabled passengers or handle their wheelchairs. “There are millions of Americans with disabilities who do not travel ...
Biden Calls Chinese Electric Vehicles a Security Threat
Business

Biden Calls Chinese Electric Vehicles a Security Threat

Associated media - Associated media The Treasury Department has already proposed rules meant to limit China’s ability to supply materials for cars and trucks that qualify for a $7,500 electric vehicle tax credit included in Mr. Biden’s signature climate bill. The Commerce Department investigation announced on Thursday grew from a series of conversations that administration officials had with automakers last fall, after the settlement of a United Automobile Workers strike during which Mr. Biden stood with the union and joined a picket line. The carmakers told administration officials about the restrictions they faced selling in China, including on software. Biden aides began to grow concerned about what might happen if the United States did not impose similar restrictions on Chinese s...
How the Media Industry Keeps Losing the Future
Business

How the Media Industry Keeps Losing the Future

Connected media - Related media Cutbacks were just announced at Law360, The Intercept and the youth-oriented video site NowThis, which laid off half its staff. The tech news site Engadget, which comprehensively tracks tech layoffs, laid off its top editors and other staff members. Condé Nast and Time are shedding employees. The continued existence of Vice Media, once valued at $5.7 billion, and Sports Illustrated, in another era the most influential sports publication, is uncertain. The Los Angeles Times and The Washington Post eliminated hundreds of journalists between them. One out of four newspapers that existed in 2005 no longer does. The slow crash of newspapers and magazines would be of limited interest save for one thing: Traditional media had at its core the exalted and diffi...