Friday, July 31, 2015
NBA To Play Its First Exhibition Game In Africa
Team Africa will face off against Team World in South Africa on Aug. 1, featuring international superstars like Luol Deng and Festus Ezeli.
This Saturday, the NBA will play its first game in Africa. The two teams, one consisting of NBA players from Africa and one of NBA players from the rest of the world, will face off at Ellis Park Arena in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Joe Murphy / Getty Images
Team Africa’s roster includes two-time NBA All-Star Luol Deng, Al-Farouq Aminu, Giannis Antetokounmpo, and Festus Ezeli.
Serge Ibaka, while out with an injury, was also named to the squad.
Each player on the African team’s squad is from the continent, or has at least one parent who is. Collectively, they represent South Sudan (Deng); Nigeria (Aminu, Antetokounmpo, and Ezeli); Cameroon (Nicolas Batum and Luc Mbah a Moute); Democratic Republic of Congo (Bismack Biyombo); Senegal (Boris Diaw and Gorgui Dieng); and the Congo (Ibaka).
Joe Murphy / Getty Images
Team World includes Nikola Vucevic from Montenegro, and Spanish brothers Pau and Marc Gasol.
Joe Murphy / Getty Images
Several American players, like Chris Paul and Kenneth Faried, round out the roster.
Chris Paul runs a drill at the Basketball without Borders camp in Johannesburg.
Joe Murphy / Getty Images
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Mark Zuckerberg Announces Pregnancy With First Child And Opens Up About Past Miscarriages
“We hope that sharing our experience will give more people the same hope we felt.”
"Priscilla and I have some exciting news: we're expecting a baby girl!" Zuckerberg writes.
The 31-year-old Facebook founder and 30-year-old doctor have been married since 2012. The pregnancy marks a new chapter in the couples' lives, as they prepare to "make the world a better place for [their] child and the next generation."
Zuckerberg continues the announcement by sharing that this pregnancy marks the end of a difficult struggle with miscarriages over the past few years.
"We've been trying to have a child for a couple of years and have had three miscarriages along the way," Zuckerberg writes. He goes on to explain how isolating and lonely the experience was for him and his wife.
"You feel so hopeful when you learn you're going to have a child," he writes. "You start imagining who they'll become and dreaming of hopes for their future. You start making plans, and then they're gone. It's a lonely experience."
Mark Zuckerberg / Via facebook.com
"Most people don't discuss miscarriages because you worry your problems will distance you or reflect upon you [...] So you struggle on your own. [But] When we started talking to our friends, we realized how frequently this happened — that many people we knew had similar issues and that nearly all had healthy children after all."
"In today's open and connected world, discussing these issues doesn't distance us; it brings us together. It creates understanding and tolerance, and it gives us hope [...] We hope that sharing our experience will give more people the same hope we felt and will help more people feel comfortable sharing their stories as well," Zuckerberg writes.
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21 Fabulous Kitchen Gadgets Every Family Needs
Ward off the witching hour with these sanity saving tools.
BabyCakes Doughnut Maker
Who needs trips to the donut shop when you can make your own healthier versions at home? Make Saturday mornings special again with this fun favorite that will have the whole family smiling.
Find it here for $29.99
Babycakes / Via amazon.com
Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer
From bread to cakes to cookies and doughnuts these heavy duty mixers are putting in work in the kitchen and living up their names as a true "aid."
Find it here for $239.99
Kitchen Aid / Via target.com
Calphalon Apple Slicer
It might not look like much but this handy little tool can save you both time and sanity to get snacks on the table.
Find it here for $9.99
Calphalon / Via amazon.com
The Cook & Carry Crockpot
No longer a 70's splurge, the latest version of the crockpot is the millennial parent's dream. Throw in your ingredients in the morning, turn it on and walk away. Dinner is done, son!
Find it here for $29.99
Amazon / Via amazon.com
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Bakers Around The World Celebrated J.K. Rowling's Birthday With Incredible "Harry Potter" Cakes
How do you art? How do you cake?
As many fans know, J.K. Rowling and her most famous character, Harry Potter, were born on July 31.
AFP / Getty Images
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
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22 Tim Hortons Fails Every Canadian Will Recognize
Is Rand Paul Following Dad's Advice On How To Prepare For The Coming Economic Collapse?
Ron’s golden boy.
BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI / Getty Images
Is Rand Paul taking his dad's advice on how to prepare for the alleged coming economic collapse?
The Kentucky senator's father, Ron Paul, has appeared in radio, television, and Internet ads suggesting impending economic doom and offering (for a one-time payment of $49.50) a survival guide. Part of Ron Paul's investment strategy to prepare for the collapse of paper currency is to invest heavily in precious metals like gold and silver.
According to his latest financial disclosure filed Thursday with the Federal Election Commission, the younger Paul has anywhere between $10,000 and $50,000 invested in a USAA Precious Metals and Minerals and $1,001-$15,000 in assets in the fund American Century Global Gold Inv.
Since running for public office and serving in the Senate, Paul hasn't been as stringent as his father in his adherence to Austrian economics, which favors a return to the value of currency being tied to gold. He has noted before that "a gold standard would work well if you have a tight fiscal ship."
Ron Paul said earlier this month that "an accident" or "false flag" will cause the collapse of the dollar and has said after the collapse people will buy gold and silver. He had previously noted there was "pure fascism" (in an economic sense) coming.
The Wall Street Journal noted in their review of Rand Paul's financial disclosure his reported assets are valued between $576,000 and $1.7 million. Paul has zero liabilities according to the disclosure.
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Huckabee Says Holocaust Survivors Hugged And Thanked Him After "Oven" Comments
“The support from the Jewish community has been overwhelmingly positive.”
Denis Poroy / AP
Mike Huckabee said on Thursday that Holocaust survivors and descendants of those who survived the Holocaust "hugged" and "thanked" him for saying that, by trusting Iran, the Obama administration's nuclear deal "will take the Israelis and march them to the door of the oven."
Huckabee has received widespread criticism for the remark.
Hukcabee told the Jan Mickelson Show that "the Jewish community" expressed its appreciation for his outspokenness when he visited the home of a Jewish doctor on Monday night, at an event where everyone was Jewish and which "several" Holocaust survivors attended.
"The support from the Jewish community has been overwhelmingly positive," Huckabee said. "I was in an event on Monday night this week, right after all this blew up on Monday, and I was in a home, a Jewish doctor who hosted an event for me, everyone at that event was Jewish — there were about seven rabbis, about a 150 Jewish people, several of them were Holocaust survivors and many of them were Holocaust descendants — they were the children or the grandchildren of Holocaust survivors."
"They hugged me," Huckabee said. "They thanked me."
Huckabee, who throughout the week has defended his "oven" remarks despite bipartisan criticism, reiterated earlier in the interview that the comments shouldn't be considered offensive.
"I'll tell you what's offensive," Huckabee said. "Offensive is that the United States government believes they can trust the Iranians. What's offensive is that the president of the United States left four hostages sitting in an Iranian prison and didn't negotiate for their release as part of this deal, part of a precondition. What's offensive is that many of the Democrats and the liberals in an overwhelmingly insane attempt to try to protect Barack Obama and John Kerry and Hillary Clinton for this agreement are turning the attention about something that I said to Breitbart on a Saturday afternoon satellite radio show into the point of discussion."
To drive home his analogy, Huckabee invoked the example of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, whom he described as "one of the few voices in the German theological world, in the German church world, who had the guts and the courage to stand up against Hitler and to declare it's wrong," as others looked the other way.
"That's why we've got to learn the lessons of history or, as has often been said, we will unfortunately be forced to repeat them," Huckabee said.
Here's the audio:
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23 Food Gadgets For Lazy People
Do less.
Jenny Chang / BuzzFeed
Corn Zipper
This easy-to-use corn "zipper" cuts and collects your kernels with one push. Get it here.
These herb scissors:
Quickly chop your herbs with these handy, multi-cut scissors. Recipe here.
This pizza-cutting fork:
If you’re too proper to eat pizza with your hands, but also too lazy to get and knife and a fork, then this is for you! Get it here.
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What Is An Artificial Ingredient, Anyway?
Food companies are taking artificial additives out of food to suit consumers’ changing tastes. But “natural” doesn’t necessarily mean “better,” scientists say.
Matt Rourke / AP
This spring, some of America's biggest fast-food chains proudly announced that their menus were going natural, a change that would ripple through tens of thousands of restaurants nationwide.
Panera committed to removing artificial additives and banned more than 150 ingredients from its menu. Taco Bell and Pizza Hut — both owned by Yum Brands — followed with their own plans to nix artificial ingredients. Subway, the country's biggest chain with 27,200 stores, declared that it too would no longer serve foods with artificial colors, flavors, or preservatives. Papa John's jumped in to advertise its long-held policy of using "clean" ingredients. And Chipotle, which helped to pioneer the healthy fast-food movement, announced it would switch to a natural tortilla.
Meanwhile, in supermarkets, giant food manufacturers including General Mills, Nestlé, and Kraft all made their own promises about removing artificial ingredients.
It seemed as if the food industry had reached a turning point in the name of wellness, and consumers largely greeted these changes with relief and support. But what many people don't seem to realize is that removing artificial ingredients isn't likely to have any impact on their health.
Olgna / Getty Images
What is missing from the discussion about ingredients is the fact that "natural and artificial flavors really aren't that different," according to the Environmental Working Group. "The actual chemicals in these two kinds of flavors may be exactly the same: The chemical structures of the individual molecules may be indistinguishable."
The chemical vanillin, for example, is found in vanilla bean extract and is the primary flavor people associate with vanilla. Vanillin can also be synthetically produced as an artificial flavor. It doesn't have the same range of flavors as natural vanilla extract, which contains other chemicals that make the taste more complex, but it does the job at a lower cost. According to Markus Lipp, a senior director of food standards at United States Pharmacopeial Convention, a nonprofit that publishes quality standards for the food industry, "there is no known and accepted study that would prove" it is less healthy than natural vanilla.
It gets even trickier when it comes to whether finished products, rather than the specific ingredients in them, can be labeled "natural." According to the FDA, "It is difficult to define a food product that is 'natural' because the food has probably been processed and is no longer the product of the earth."
Consider for example, the very idea of an all-natural hot dog.
"However, the agency has not objected to the use of the term if the food does not contain added color, artificial flavors, or synthetic substances," Kenneth Cook, president of the Environmental Working Group, said. "A food is not healthy because it has fewer industrial additives in it. But we're waking up to the fact that industrial additives are put in without rigorous review."
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Sports: Which Cities Even Want the Olympics Anymore?
Sports on TIME.com
Which Cities Even Want the Olympics Anymore?
More democracies are taking a pass
Published on July 31, 2015 at 07:49PM
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The Congressional Black Caucus Presses Tech Companies On Diversity
Members of the Congressional Black Caucus will meet with executives of Apple, Google and Intel to encourage greater inclusion in the tech sector.
Chair G.K. Butterfield and members of the Congressional Black Caucus. Mark Wilson / Getty Images
Five years from now will the workplaces of Silicon Valley's leading tech companies remain as overwhelmingly white as they are today? The Congressional Black Caucus hopes not.
Lawmakers from the CBC's diversity task force, Reps. Barbara Lee, Hakeem Jeffries and G. K. Butterfield, the Chair of the Caucus, will meet with top brass of several major tech firms next week, in a push to increase representation of African Americans. Apple, Google, Intel, and Pandora are among the firms hosting the CBC delegation. The trip is part of the Caucus' Tech 2020 initiative, a five-year plan to address the dearth of black employees within the tech world.
"Increasing the representation of African Americans in the tech sector is a moral and economic imperative," Rep. Lee told BuzzFeed News. "When you have a diverse and inclusive workforce and leadership, new doors for growth and opportunity are opened."
A central goal of the Congressional Black Caucus is getting tech companies to develop and publish their plans to increase diversity. These inclusion plans, the Caucus says, should define short and long term benchmarks and capture both engineering and non-technical jobs. That many of the Valley's heavyweights have made a recent habit of releasing their diversity numbers has sparked real optimism within the Caucus, a group eager to partner with the private sector to grapple with enduring racial bias.
"I don't believe that the technology and innovation-economy companies are reluctant to diversify their workforce," Rep. Jeffries told BuzzFeed News. "Quite the contrary, there is a refreshing acknowledgement of the problem, and a commitment amongst many to do everything possible to remedy it."
For the CBC, the pledges of transparency and improvement coming from tech companies is an encouraging first step. Solid plans come next. "This trip will help develop concrete steps that we could collectively take to ensure that the diversity problem is addressed in a meaningful fashion," Jeffries said.
A major focus of the CBC's Tech 2020 initiative, Lee and Jeffries said, is strengthening the pipeline of qualified talent. Not only does this include exposing middle and high school-aged students to the STEM disciplines, but also connecting talented women and people of color with tech companies that have narrow, monochromatic professional networks.
Juanita Leveroni, diversity account manager at CODE2040, a nonprofit that promotes greater representation of black and Latino technologists, says she wants to expand the discussion of the pipeline problem to encompass how tech companies recruit and hire. "We can broaden the pipeline, but if we are not doing anything to change the funnel — the vetting process, the interview process, company culture, company leadership, then we are essentially just getting different people to the same result," she told BuzzFeed News.
In a statement to BuzzFeed News, Pandora expressed excitement for the upcoming visit, while also using a phrase common among tech companies earnestly describing their efforts to improve diversity. "We have work that we need to do, and the CBC will certainly add an important voice in this conversation." Pandora's diversity numbers published last August showed a near 50/50 gender split of its overall workforce.
Intel, another company hosting the lawmakers, has pledged by 2020 to shape its workforce to match the available talent pool of minorities. The company told BuzzFeed News that their diversity programs are aligned with the CBC's goals.
"I look forward to working with the tech executives to find new and innovative ways of advancing our goal of greater inclusion for African Americans in the tech sector," Lee said. "Our goal is to make this a cooperative effort."
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Here's What Apple Is Worth In Terms We Can Actually Understand
Explain it to me like I’m not in tech.
That's 16 trillion calories.
Starbucks / Michelle Rial / BuzzFeed
*Kind of makes sense to get a package at that point?
Michelle Rial / BuzzFeed
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Here Comes More Of Hillary Clinton's Email
It’s the third release of the year, as questions continue about how Clinton handled sensitive information with her personal account.
Scott Olson / Getty Images
The State Department will release more of the email Hillary Clinton sent and received as secretary of state on Friday, the third batch of the monthly email releases that are expected to continue into early next year.
Last week, the inspector general of the intelligence community informed Congress that Clinton sent at least four emails that contained classified information during her time at the State Department, the Wall Street Journal reported.
While serving as secretary of state, Clinton exclusively used a personal email account, which was housed on a personal server; both the account and the server have raised questions about the security of Clinton's communication. Clinton has maintained that she did not send classified information from the account.
In December, Clinton provided approximately 55,000 pages of email to the State Department. Clinton's personal staff selected which emails to send; she deleted all email deemed by her staff to be "personal."
The emails Clinton submitted to the State Department remain on her personal server, and on a thumb drive in possession of her lawyer, the Journal reported.
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Women Have Been Sharing Pictures Of Themselves Eating Cake After A Troll Tried To Fat-Shame A Blogger
Jenny Rushmore says she’s seen an “overwhelming tide of support and positivity and public cake eating”.
When Cashmerette blogger Jenny Rushmore shared a picture of a swimsuit she was designing from her "curvy sketchbook", she experienced some all-too-familiar trolling.
In a comment that has now been deleted, "a guy in his early 20s, who really, REALLY, loves gym selfies" said that her body was disgusting and that she should eat less cake, Rushmore said in a blog post on 29 July.
"To be perfectly honest, I wasn’t that surprised or upset: this is the kind of thing that happens every day to women like me," she added.
But when Rushmore mentioned the incident in this Instagram post using the hashtag #CakeWithCashmerette, something amazing happened.
The caption read: "Also: to the random jerk who fat shamed me this morning in a comment and suggest I eat less cake: as you can see from this pic my life is just a sad mess, so I'm glad you've helped steer my dietary choices, cheers! #effyourbeautystandards #CakeWithCashmerette."
Women on Instagram responded to Rushmore's picture by posting pictures of themselves proudly eating cake and dessert, also using the hashtag.
On her blog, Rushmore called it a "lady-cake explosion," adding that "bigger women deserve to eat whatever they’re hungry for just as much as smaller women".
Instagram user sarajoliesews said "sorry someone tried to rain on your parade! You are beautiful!" as she shared her support.
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I Ate Like A Tourist In London For A Week
Table for one at the Aberdeen Angus Steakhouse.
Novelty cafés open and close on the regular but Spaghetti House continues to please its punters with the food its been serving since 1955. Peruvian flavours might come and go, but Garfunkel's stands tall.
What is about these chains that makes them so successful? Is the food that good? Are they that good value? Is the atmosphere warm and charming? And if so, why is it no Londoner ever thinks, "Yeah actually, Angus Steak House looks like a nice little spot for dinner".
Here's my list of destinations:
Spaghetti House: A popular know-what-you're-getting option for visitors with various locations across the city.
Hard Rock Café: An international site of pilgrimage for many fast food fans.
Rainforest Café: Shaftesbury Avenue's most remarkable restaurant that's half-zoo half-restaurant.
Garfunkel's: A proper classic West End institution.
Angus Steak House: The most ubiquitous steak house in London, and the true corner stone of Piccadilly Circus.
I'd approach each restaurant with an open mind. I'd visit for dinner after finishing a day's work, bringing my boyfriend along to help me test the menu. We'd order modestly, as we usually do when out for dinner, with probably a wine or beer each, a main each and the odd side for share.
How would we rate the restaurants? Success in our eyes is good food, enough food, and affordable food.
Day One, Spaghetti House, Holborn
Lynzy Billing / BuzzFeed
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27 Things Everyone Who Played Netball Growing Up Will Relate To
Ball hits frozen finger, finger breaks.
Getting up early every Saturday morning and losing that sweet, sweet sleep in.
FOX
Putting on your bodysuit or pleated skirt knowing it was going to be like 4 degrees out.
Disney / Via dreamingofdisney.tumblr.com
Matching your hair ribbon and your "scungies" to your netball outfit.
Getting to the courts when it was still actually foggy and not even being able to find your designated court.
CW
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We Dare You To Get Through This Post Without Drooling All Over Yourself
… Introducing 13 sandwiches from around the world.
NO. EXPLANATION. NEEDED. SINK. YOUR. EYEBALLS. INTO. YOUR. SCREEN.... AND SALIVATE!
youtube.com / Via youtube.com
DON'T.
Food, People, Places / Via youtube.com
LICK.
Food, People, Places / Via youtube.com
YOUR.
Food, People, Places / Via youtube.com
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The Mexican Torta Is A Perfect Sandwich
And you should use it as a template for all sandwiches from here on out.
Ahh, yes. The torta.
James Ransom/Food52 / Via food52.com
To Mexico, it's a kind of sandwich. And to me, it's one of the most perfect eats of all time.
Equal parts simple to make and versatile to eat, it's the ideal blank canvas for your sandwich dreams.
James Ransom/Food52 / Via food52.com
Bread
Tortas are traditionally made on rolls — like telera, bolillo or birote. The roll should have a nice crust, but not be overly crisp.
James Ransom/Food52 / Via food52.com
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25 Fruit Juice Cocktails That Don't Suck
You know what they say: An apple (juice cocktail) a day…
Jenny Chang / BuzzFeed
Margarita with Blood Orange Juice
This is what you serve Dexter when he comes over for drinks. Here's the recipe.
Vodka Martini with Blueberry Juice
Yes, you can find unsweetened blueberry juice at most grocery stores. Go look in the juice aisle. Here's the recipe.
The Poison Apple, with Cranberry Juice
The "apple" part comes from sour apple schnapps. Here's the recipe.
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Have You Been Paying Attention During The Summer Transfer Window?
This week’s Alternative Table is all about net spending in the transfer window.
The transfer window isn't over yet, but many clubs have already conducted the majority of their business... Like Newcastle, for example:
Each week, BuzzFeed will be producing an alternative Premier League table, but with a catch. We'll give you the stat the table is based on, and you have to put the teams in the right order.
Serena Taylor / Getty Images
This week, the BuzzFeed Alternative Table is based on net spend in the transfer window. How quickly can you drag the teams in the right order? From the BIGGEST spenders at the top, to the teams who have profited at the bottom. Good luck...
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Beijing Announced As The Host City For The 2022 Winter Olympics
Beijing is now the first city to host both the summer and the winter Olympics.
President of the International Olympic Committee Thomas Bach announcing the winning bid to host the 2022 Winter Olympic Games at the 128th International Olympic Committee session in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on Friday.
The International Olympic Committee has picked Beijing, China, as the host city for the 2022 Winter Olympic games. The committee came together in Kuala Lumpur, Friday, and picked Beijing over Almaty, Kazakhstan.
The bids were voted on by a group of 85 participants. Beijing's bid received 44 votes, Almaty's received 40 votes, with one abstention.
Beijing is now the first city to host both the summer and the winter Olympics.
"China is a reliable partner because we always honor our commitment," Wei Jizhong, a senior consultant for the Beijing bid, told the Chinese news agency Xinhua before the vote. "The Beijing 2008 Summer Games are a perfect example."
The International Olympic Committee also chose Lausanne, Switzerland, as the host city for the 2020 Youth Winter Olympics on Friday. Lausanne beat Brasov, Romania for the chance to host the Youth Winter Olympics.
Last month, the committee announced that Pyeongchang, South Korea, will be the host of the 2018 Winter Olympics.
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Why Patrick Leahy Is Wary Of A Big, Bipartisan Breakthrough On Criminal Justice
Stringer . / Reuters
WASHINGTON — Sen. Patrick Leahy, 75, is just about everything one would expect from a longtime progressive lawmaker. And when it comes to the criminal justice movement now reaching a fever pitch in Washington, that means he's a bit ornery, a bit skeptical, and a bit less ready to embrace the spirit of compromise breaking out all over town.
"The frustrating part, I find, are the kind of talks they're having now we've been having for years and felt kind of lonely," the Democratic senator told BuzzFeed News in a recent interview. "I'm glad to see people are paying attention, but we need to make sure it's real. You talk about mandatory minimums. You know, get rid of all of them."
Criminal justice is for Leahy, like many of the most prominent advocates in Washington, a life's passion. He started his political career as an elected District Attorney in his native Vermont and said the experience gave him a deep understanding of the system and its potential flaws. He was working on the issue for years before its current moment in the spotlight.
The modern criminal justice legislative advocacy movement is now all about young politicians crossing aisles and sloughing off the crime policy ideas of the past. Younger Republicans in Congress have led their party away from the tough-on-crime mindset of the 1980s and 90s. Older Democrats like Bill Clinton have apologized for their hand in creating the modern war on drugs, which research has shown focuses the toughest penalties on young, male, minority offenders.
Policymakers from both sides of the polarized political debate have been meeting at various high-profile summits across Washington, setting the stage, many say, for passing legislation by the end of the year that will reduce or maybe even eliminate some mandatory minimum federal drug sentences.
Leahy is now a central figure in the summits, in the Capitol Hill negotiations and in the rhetorical push for change in Washington. The veteran statesman, tempered by past disappointments and what he calls past mistakes, is quick to welcome conservative support to the cause of reexamining mandatory minimums, but in conversation he regularly warns advocates to look closely at whatever legislation emerges.
"What I say to people, don't just say 'I'm tough on crime.' There aren't too many elected officials who say, 'I'm in favor of crime.' Seriously, ask them, 'what are the real things you do to make the criminal justice system better and our country better?" he said. "Go beyond the bumper sticker."
When he chaired the Judiciary Committee the last time, from 2007 until the Republicans took over the Senate 2014, Leahy railed against mandatory minimum sentences and tried to unravel them. All of them.
It led to some politically delicate moments, such as the time in 2009 when he spoke out against a Republican amendment to add a mandatory minimum 10-year prison sentence for sexual assault. (A five-year sentence eventually passed.) A year later, he took on a Republican amendment to create one-year mandatory sentences for possession of child pornography, apologizing for his support for mandatory minimum sentences in the past.
"I would note incidentally that in the past I have voted for a number of mandatory minimums, and I just have in mind that a lot of them were mistakes, and I see a lot of states facing bankruptcy because of the costs of just handling a lot of mandatory minimums," Leahy said during debate over the new mandatory penalty at the time. "I have a real reluctance to see mandatory minimums."
He's saltier when he's not talking about mandatory minimums in a Senate hearing.
"They haven't worked," Leahy told BuzzFeed News. "People ought to stand up and say, 'Mandatory minimums don't work, they don't deter crime, they create problems for law enforcement, they're extraordinarily expensive, and you get nothing in return.'"
Leahy is quick to dismiss the policies of the past he says have failed, taking stances that are still politically dangerous (or at least dangerous as evidenced by how few politicians sound like him). For the past few years, he has declared the war on drugs "lost," joining the chorus who say the costs of trying to destroy the drug trade in the United States — as well as the costs associated with the resulting incarceration rates, especially among communities of color — are too high for what they say are meager results.
The racial implications of the ongoing war on drugs are the basis for Leahy's favorite mandatory minimum sentence political allegory: the tale of the coked-up, presumably white lawyer and the inner-city black crack user. Leahy tells this story a lot, and he offered a particularly rousing rendition of it in the recent phone interview with BuzzFeed News:
"You're a lawyer on Wall Street — well, I don't want to say Wall Street — you're in a prestigious law firm. Every Friday afternoon, your supplier comes by with $200 worth of powder cocaine. If you're caught, people say, 'my goodness, I can't imagine somebody, such a pillar of society [buying cocaine.] We're going to teach him a lesson. They're going to have to serve three weekends in a soup kitchen, working for the homeless,'" Leahy said. "If you're a black kid in the inner-city and you buy $200 worth of crack cocaine, you're going to go to jail. Tell me where you're going to get a job when you get out?"
More and more politicians have begun to come around to Leahy's feelings on the story, and that's led to the current high-tide moment for criminal justice advocates in D.C. But Leahy has seen the bipartisan fervor on criminal justice stall out in the toxic legislative mixture of floor votes and a rapidly approaching election.
Early in 2014, the Leahy-led Judiciary Committee advanced the Smarter Sentencing Act by a vote of 13-5, a vote that brought together an unusual cast of partisans. Sens. Ted Cruz and and Dianne Feinstein both voted to send the bill to the floor.
The bill was heralded by advocates for its breath: It would slash federal mandatory minimum sentences on drug offenders and make retroactive changes already passed to the crack-vs-powder cocaine minimum sentence disparity, giving thousands of federal prisoners the opportunity to have their sentences reviewed. It also included sweeteners for the tough-on-crime crowd like new mandatory minimums for sexual abuse, domestic violence and terrorism.
The Smarter Sentencing Act was not Leahy's first choice in mandatory minimum sentence reduction that cycle. He co-sponsored a bill with Sen. Rand Paul that would have allowed federal judges to ignore all mandatory minimum requirements if they determined cases merited it. In a nod to so-called back-end advocates, who want to reduce the prison population with programs aimed at cutting down on recidivism, he also co-sponsored the effort to reauthorize a 2008 law that bolsters reentry programs easing the transition back into society for prisoners. He held a high-profile hearing on the subject where he condemned mandatory minimums and invited the families of some prisoners serving what he said were unfair sentences to attend. He called for compromise.
Once he got it, though, there were still plenty of tough-on-crime Senators willing to cast the Smarter Sentencing Act as "dangerous," however, and as Democrats got into a cautious crouch ahead of the 2014 elections they would go on to badly lose, the bill never made it to the floor.
The experience led Leahy to be more wary of the chances for serious change this cycle than most, though he said he remains hopeful.
"When I saw us get a 13-5 vote, which is pretty substantial, and it didn't go anywhere, I get skeptical," he said. "But let's see what happens. As far as I'm concerned, we should push the envelope as far as we can because what we have now is a failure."
At yet another bipartisan criminal justice policy summit in Washington earlier this month hosted by #Cut50, a group with Van Jones and Newt Gingrich among its public faces, Leahy again said Congress has to undo the mistakes he said it made when it passed mandatory minimum sentences in the past. But he warned against too much compromise on the part of advocates.
"We must not squander this moment," he told the audience. "We must demand that the reforms be both measurable and meaningful."
Speaking to BuzzFeed News, Leahy praised the efforts of Republicans like Sen. Mike Lee and Democratic advocates like Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates in bringing the sides together with regular bipartisan meetings and negotiations, but said that there was no room for half-measures.
"We had progress last year, I'd hate to see us lose the process we had last year. I'm afraid if we do a really half-hearted attempt, that you're not going to see people willing to take the steps to get a final bill through. I may be wrong." he said. "If I get half a loaf, am I happy? No. I want to reduce mandatory minimums. We did that with a bipartisan bill last year. I think we should be doing at least that."
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A New App Lets Uber Drivers Report Fare Discrepancies
SquaredFare, an app independent of Uber, keeps track of rides to make sure Uber pays drivers the right amount.
When it comes to interacting with Uber, its drivers have only two options: email support or physically go into the nearest office. Neither of which is easy for someone who spends all day driving to wherever their next passenger will take them. If, say, there is a problem with the fare Uber calculated, how does a driver know — much less quickly report it to Uber?
Now, drivers have a fast, efficient means to rectify a fare discrepancy. SquaredFare, an app created by president of the California App-Based Drivers Association Joseph DeWolf, works alongside and yet independently of the Uber app to keep track of all your fares in order to ensure they are accurate. (This app, DeWolf told BuzzFeed News, is not affiliated with CADA.)
"Another thing the app does is it allows the driver to report rider issues in a very efficient way," DeWolf told BuzzFeed News. "If there was an unsupervised child in the car, drivers can immediately send Uber a pre-scripted email explaining exactly what's happening. Drivers don't have a lot of time to stop their cars and type out emails so we have tried to make it as simple as possible to report fare issues and rider issues and get back on the road."
And even if there is nothing to report, SquaredFare keeps a record of all of a driver's rides and fares in case a driver's account is deactivated or deleted for any reason. The logistics of the app is much like that of Uber: A driver will start and stop the trip and the GPS-activated algorithm will input the time, distance, and local base fare and any applicable surge pricing into Uber's formula to determine how much that trip costs. SquaredFare, however, is not integrated with Uber's open API, which prevents the app from starting and stopping a trip automatically when the driver does so in the Uber app. In other words drivers have to start and stop the trips in SquaredFare themselves. But DeWolf said there was good reason for that choice.
"We did not use their API because number one we didn't want them to access what we're doing," DeWolf said. "It's just a trust issue, but also if we were using their API any network error that was happening in the Uber app would happen to us too. Our calculation would be shorted if Uber's was."
Though DeWolf initially feared a backlash from Uber he provided emails to BuzzFeed News showing that Uber's customer service has responded well to the pre-scripted requests to change a fare. After listing the pick up and drop off locations the pre-scripted email reads:
Please be advised that Uber undercharged the rider.
My calculation shows my mileage at 4.43 Miles, and the trip duration was hours:0, mins:13, secs:55. The fare breakdown was a base fare of $5.00. Mile charges were $10.41. Time charges were $5.57. Toll charges were $5.00. The safe rides fee was $1.00. The surge was 1.00 x.
According to my calculation, that the fare should have been $26.98. The Uber fare was shown on my phone was $26.39.
And after requesting some more information, Uber responded:
Happy to adjust this trip for you, Mohsen.
The fare has been adjusted to the correct amount of $26.98 to reflect the pickup and drop-off locations you provided.
Please continue to let us know about any trips that may need adjustment within 48 hours so that we may charge the rider and adjust appropriately.
As of right now, SquaredFare is only available in Los Angeles and San Francisco and cannot be used to report Lyft fare discrepancies. It is free to download and use for now, but DeWolf says all that will change as the company grows. "When we come up with the second version that we're already working on we'll ask for a subscription from the drivers," he said. "Some of our drivers are saving up to $70 a month on just fare adjustments and they have said to us for this particular service they'd be willing to pay up to $10 a month for this."
As for why DeWolf and his team chose not to build an app that reports discrepancies to Lyft, he said: "The vast majority of the complaints were regarding the Uber network and we saw fewer complaints about Lyft. We decided that there was a definite need for Uber riders but not so much for Lyft drivers. But certainly if they reach out to us we can build one for Lyft."
A pre-scripted email an Uber driver sent through SquaredFare
BuzzFeed News
Uber's response:
BuzzFeed News
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Rare blue moon comes Friday
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Source CNN.com - Technology http://ift.tt/1KDMPOR
Source CNN.com - Technology http://ift.tt/1KDMPOR
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