We started this competition with 20 impressive startups. After five days of fierce pitching in a wholly new virtual Startup Battlefield arena, we have a winner. The startups taking part in the Startup Battlefield have all been hand-picked to participate in our highly competitive startup competition. It was an unprecedented year as we moved all of the nail-biting excitement of our physical contest to a virtual stage. They all presented in front of multiple groups of VCs and tech leaders serving as judges for a chance to win $100,000 and the coveted Disrupt Cup. After hours of deliberations, TechCrunch editors pored over the judges’ notes and narrowed the list down… Read More
Continue ReadingJoe Rogan apologized for spreading misinformation about Oregon fires amid Spotify employee backlash
Summary List Placement Podcast host Joe Rogan is apologizing for echoing a false claim about the ongoing wildfires in Portland, Oregon. On Thursday, the “Joe Rogan Experience” host repeated a debunked claim that left-wing activists had been arrested on suspicion of setting forest fires in Oregon. “They’ve arrested left-wing people for lighting these forest fires — you know, air-quote ‘activists,’” the 53-year-old said on his latest podcast episode in which he spoke with author and political commentator Douglas Murray. “This is also something that’s not being widely reported, you know, that people have actually been arrested for lighting fires up there.” The Federal Bureau of Investigation and local law enforcement,… Read More
Continue Reading$100,000 in bribes helped fraudulent Amazon sellers earn $100 million, DOJ says
Enlarge / Amazon boxes. (credit: Getty Images | Julie Clopper) Six people were indicted on allegations of paying over $100,000 in bribes to Amazon employees and contractors as part of a scheme to give third-party sellers unfair advantages on the Amazon marketplace. Among other things, the indictment says that Amazon workers who accepted bribes reinstated sellers whose accounts had been suspended for offering dangerous products, and these workers suspended the seller accounts of fraudulent sellers’ competitors. The US Department of Justice today announced the indictment handed down by a grand jury in the Western District of Washington. The “defendants paid bribes to at least ten different Amazon employees and contractors,”… Read More
Continue ReadingA dentist who pulled someone’s tooth while riding a hoverboard has been sentenced to 12 years in prison for fraud and ‘unlawful dental acts’
Summary List Placement An Alaska dentist who was videotaped pulling a woman’s tooth while riding a hoverboard is now facing jail time after he was found guilty by an Alaska court. Seth Lookhart went viral when the video surfaced as part of an investigation into his Anchorage dental practice last year. In the 2016 video, Lookhart rolls up to a sedated patient, pulls her tooth while standing on the hoverboard, and rolls away. Prosecutors said they obtained the video after Lookhart sent it to people outside his office. This week, an Alaska judge sentenced Lookhart to 20 years in prison with eight years suspended, state law enforcement officials announced. Lookhart… Read More
Continue ReadingGeek of the Week: Elizabeth Lawlor brings her lab — and hope for a cancer cure — to Seattle Children’s
(Photo courtesy of Elizabeth Lawlor) A native of Vancouver, B.C., Dr. Elizabeth Lawlor is thrilled to be back in the Pacific Northwest. And she’s equally excited about joining the research community in Seattle, as Lawlor and her lab have moved to Seattle Children’s Hospital and the Ben Towne Center for Childhood Cancer Research. Lawlor, who arrived in June from the University of Michigan, is co-center director for basic and translational science and the associate director for cancer biology at Children’s. She’s also Professor of Pediatrics and adjunct professor in the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology at the University of Washington and an affiliate member of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer… Read More
Continue Reading