Kristen Scholer, Hive editor Jon Kelly, and the VF Hive panel discuss the top five stories of the week in technology, politics in business. Nick Bilton reports on his story about Donald Trump's threats to devalue the social media platforms that gave him his rise.
Nick also weighs in on early Facebook executive Chamath Palihapitiya's assertion that social media is tearing society apart. Scholer, Kelly and Bilton discuss whether that's true, and whether Facebook and Twitter will reach an inflection point.
Hive panelist Bess Levin talks about the latest trouble in Trumpland, with commerce secretary Wilbur Ross being accused of insider trading. Abigail Tracy reports on her story about Nikki Haley's potential political ambitions in 2020.
T.A. Frank winds up the Hive 5 with his analysis of the recent Senate Special Election in Alabama. Frank and the panel discuss Roy Moore's defeat and unlikely victory for Democrat Doug Jones. They cover the potential for future Democratic victories in Alabama, as well as Charles Barkley's message to the state prior to the election.
Emily Hoeven, newsletter editor at CalMatters, joins Cheddar News to discuss California Governor Gavin Newsom's gun law modeled after Texas's abortion law.
Chuck Rocha, host of 'Nuestro' podcast and opinion contributor at The New York Times, joins Cheddar News to discuss why Democrats are losing Hispanic voters.
More businesses are requiring workers to return to the office, but there is concern that many employees in the middle class, especially women and people of color, need remote work options for reasons including childcare and financial security. Joan Williams, director of the Center for WorkLife Law at the University of California, joined Cheddar to discuss why office mandates could be detrimental to the middle class. She noted that while companies claim a return to offices would help foster more collaboration and efficiency, reports show that they are successfully able to do their jobs from home.
The U.S. postal service has confirmed that it secretly developed and tested a blockchain-based mobile voting system ahead of the 2020 election. Susan Greenhalgh, senior advisor on election security, Free Speech for People, joins Cheddar News to discuss the cybersecurity complications of a mobile voting system.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled to allow the controversial Texas abortion law to remain in effect, banning abortion at six weeks and allowing any private citizen to sue a person or doctor aiding or abetting someone seeking an abortion. Outraged at this decision, California Governor Gavin Newsom is working to draft a proposal in line with the law as it relates to guns. Shawn Hubler, California correspondent at the New York Times, joins Cheddar News to discuss.
Even as tech giant Google implements a vaccination mandate, charging its employees to declare their vaccine status within a time frame or risk dismissal, the federal government is tangled up in the court system trying to impose one of its own. Cindy Cohn, the executive director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and Harry Nelson, founder and managing partner of Nelson Hardiman LLP, joined Cheddar to debate the ethics, efficacy, and legality surrounding the issue. While Cohn noted that she thinks the federal mandate might be legally sound, her organization is also concerned with a separate question of privacy. "At EFF what we're most interested in is the digital surveillance that's going along with some of these attempts to try to track and confirm whether people are vaccinated or not," she said.
