<span>Monthly Archives</span><h1>March 2019</h1>
    World News

    Officers shot, man killed at Church of Scientology – 10News

    March 27, 2019
    1. Officers shot, man killed at Church of Scientology  10News
    2. Man armed with sword fatally shot at Scientology church near Los Angeles  NBCNews.com
    3. Shootout at Church of Scientology near LA leaves sword-wielding suspect dead, 2 cops wounded  Fox News
    4. Man With Sword Fatally Shot by Police at Church of Scientology in Inglewood; 2 Officers Struck by Gunfire  KTLA Los Angeles
    5. Man with sword fatally shot at Scientology church, two California officers injured  USA TODAY
    6. View full coverage on Google News

    Source: Google News | Officers shot, man killed at Church of Scientology – 10News

    World News

    NASA explains why it didn’t have enough space suits for an all-female spacewalk – BGR

    March 27, 2019
    1. NASA explains why it didn’t have enough space suits for an all-female spacewalk  BGR
    2. What the Failed All-Female Spacewalk Tells Us About Office Temperature  The New York Times
    3. The Original Sin of NASA Space Suits  The Atlantic
    4. All-female spacewalk is a ludicrous casualty of all-male assumptions  CNN
    5. NASA astronaut Anne McClain speaks out about all-female spacewalk change  CNET
    6. View full coverage on Google News

    Source: Google News | NASA explains why it didn’t have enough space suits for an all-female spacewalk – BGR

    Tech News

    FTC smacks down robocallers, but the penalties don’t match their heinous crimes

    March 27, 2019

    The fight against robocallers is just getting started, and the wheel of justice turns slowly, but the FTC just took down a handful of major operations responsible for billions of unwanted calls, some of them adding additional fraud to the mix. The money coming out of the cases is surprisingly small, however — but there’s a reason for that.

    In an announcement yesterday, the FTC said it had taken down four operations: NetDotSolutions, which did all kinds of marketing with a custom mass dialing platform; Higher Goals Marketing, which promised fake debt relief; Pointbreak Media, which threatened to delist companies from Google unless they paid; Veterans of America, AKA Saving Our Soldiers, AKA Act of Valor, whose creator Travis Deloy Peterson deserves a special place in hell for scamming people trying to donate vehicles to vets.

    Together they accounted for some two billion calls, which in the context of the five billion made every month may seem to be a drop in the bucket, but at this point even a slight reduction is welcome.

    FCC tells carriers they must adopt a system to detect scam robocalls by next year

    What is less heartening is the scale of the penalties. Although the cases resulted in judgments totaling some 24 million dollars, the actual amount the scammers will end up paying will end up closer to $3-4 million. One scammer whose judgments totaled more than $5 million will be suspended when he pays just $18,332 — and whatever comes from the sale of his shiny new Mercedes.

    I talked with an FTC spokesperson about why this is the case. They explained that the judgment amount is essentially a ceiling defined by how much consumer harm was done, but most times the defendants have nowhere near that much available as money or assets. You can only get as much as they have, and sometimes that’s not a lot.

    Especially in Florida, they went on, where the Homestead rule means that houses can’t be seized in these proceedings — meaning a robocall scammer based in the state could make 10 million bucks, drop it all on a house, and then declare they have no assets when the FTC or whoever comes knocking. This seems likely to be the case with Mr “I only have 18 grand and a 2017 Mercedes CLS” above, who is indeed a Floridian.

    The FTC goes to great lengths to investigate and enumerate a defendant’s assets, but they can’t seize what isn’t there. In the case of a large company like Dish, a massive judgment like last year’s $180 million one may end up being paid in full — but individuals and small, fly-by-night businesses are considerably harder to pin down.

    Even so, the agency collects quite a bit of cash to return to affected consumers, which should happen with the money here as well. You won’t see a dime just for getting annoyed by calls, though — you’d need to show that it was one of these companies and that they defrauded you, or attempted to.

    More importantly, the people and companies in question are immediately shut down and the people involved forbidden from doing anything like this again. Consumer relief is the FTC’s goal, and if they chose to litigate, the case could be drawn out for years, all while the company and call network continues to operate or develops layers of insulation against the law.

    You can read the full release and order documents at the FTC’s site — but be warned it may make you angry to hear about these slimeballs living the high life.

    Source: Tech Crunch Mobiles | FTC smacks down robocallers, but the penalties don’t match their heinous crimes

    Startups

    Mattress startup Casper valued at $1.1B with new funding

    March 27, 2019

    Direct-to-consumer mattress business Casper has secured a $100 million Series D investment from existing investors Target, NEA, IVP and Norwest Venture Partners.

    The fresh infusion of capital values Casper at $1.1 billion, Bloomberg first reported and Casper confirmed.

    “We are in the very early chapters of our growth story as demand for Casper products continues to expand across the globe,” Casper chief executive officer and co-founder Philip Krim said in a statement. “Today’s financing accelerates Casper’s vision to become the world’s largest end-to-end sleep company. Our growth will continue to be catalyzed by state-of-the-art sleep products, best-in-class customer experiences, and world-class leadership.”

    Casper posted $373 million in net revenue in 2018, according to leaked financials published by The Information this week. In a press release issued today, however, Casper said 2018 revenue topped $400 million. The company, of course, isn’t profitable, with losses reaching $64 million last year, again per The Information. According to Casper’s projections, it will become profitable on an EBITDA basis in 2019 and is expecting revenues of $556 million this year.

    Casper has previously raised $240 million in equity funding from celebrity investors Leonardo DiCaprio and 50 Cent, as well as institutional investors, including Lerer Hippeau .

    Founded in 2014, the New York business will use the latest investment to expand overseas and open additional brick-and-mortar stores. Competing with other well-funded startups in the business of sleep, like the publicly traded Purple and the VC-backed Leesa Sleep, Casper has taken to physical retail to augment its following. The company opened its first store in New York City in 2018 and has detailed additional plans to open another 200 stores.

    An initial public offering is likely the next step for the sleep products retailer, which sells pillows and an $89 sleep-friendly light, in addition to mattresses. Per a recent Reuters report, Casper is in the process of hiring underwriters for its IPO.

    Casper announces the Glow — a portable, sleep-friendly light


    Source: Tech Crunch Startups | Mattress startup Casper valued at .1B with new funding

    Startups

    How to make sure that your product is accessible to all users

    March 27, 2019
    Beth Franssen
    Contributor
    Beth Franssen is an expert in digital accessibility, WCAG and Section 508 compliance. She helps fintech, retail and payment companies implement digital accessibility strategies for Nexient, a leading provider of 100% US-based Agile software product development.

    Every founder wants an eye-catching website or app, but it’s easy to overlook a basic fact: not all your potential visitors will experience your content with their eyes. If you haven’t considered whether a user with differing visual, motor or hearing abilities can easily navigate your software, it’s time to get serious about digital accessibility.

    As tempting as it might be to prioritize a stunning visual and mobile experience over an accessible design, accessibility is a legal requirement—not an option—for many businesses.

    Just ask high-profile founder Beyoncé Knowles. In January, Beyoncé’s Parkwood Entertainment was hit with a class-action lawsuit that includes “all legally blind individuals in the United States who have attempted to access Beyonce.com.” The lawsuit claims that the site’s lack of visual alternatives make the site inaccessible to blind users like the plaintiff and therefore illegal.

    Failing to accommodate people with disabilities not only limits your market (blind people buy concert tickets and merchandise too), it can also bring legal and reputational consequences.

    The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requires US businesses that serve the public to provide equal access and accommodations to everyone, whether through a physical building or a digital experience. Just as stores provide ramps as well as stairs, websites need to accommodate people with varying abilities, from movement disorders to visual and auditory impairments. The number of website accessibility lawsuits raised against private companies more than doubled last year. A single plaintiff won $100K in a similar ADA lawsuit in 2017.

    While ADA is the enforcing legislation in the United States for the private sector, the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) provide de facto global standards web designers should follow. The guidelines are based on four principles: content must be perceivable, operable, understandable and robust.

    If you’re not sure whether your digital content (websites, apps, e-books, etc) is WCAG-compliant, have a certified accessibility consultant conduct an assessment immediately, and contact your legal team should you identify any risks.

    However, simple compliance is only the first step. Understanding how accessibility is defined will broaden your understanding of the overall user experience, so you can create better content for all users.

    This article is part of Extra Crunch’s exclusive “Startup Law A to Z” series, following previous articles on employment law, customer contracts, intellectual property (IP) and corporate matters. This series is designed to provide founders the information needed to assess legal risks in the areas common to most startups.

    Should you identify legal risks facing your startup after reading this or other articles in the series, Extra Crunch resources can help. You can reach out to the Verified Experts of Extra Crunch, who focus on serving companies at your stage, for further guidance in the particular issues at hand.

    The Web Content Accessibility Checklist:

    • Perceivable
      • Time-based media
      • Text alternatives
      • Adaptable
      • Distinguishable (Use of color)
    • Operable
      • Keyboard accessible
      • Navigable
      • Input modalities
      • Enough time
      • Seizures and physical reactions
    • Understandable
      • Readable
      • Predictable
      • Input assistance
    • Robust
      • Compatible for various assistive technologies (Links can be programmatically determined)

    Perceivable

    A website must present content so that users of different abilities can perceive it. That means providing alternatives for any non-text content, like images or music.

    For time-based media (audio and video), captions, content descriptions and sign language are acceptable options. 


    Source: Tech Crunch Startups | How to make sure that your product is accessible to all users