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In the same week that Gov. Gavin Newsom's council on homelessness blamed local governments for a state audit report that found California has failed to track how billions of dollars have been spent trying to tackle the homelessness crisis , the Los Angeles City Council agreed to pay an outside firm $2.2 million to audit its own programs.  A federal judge in California, U.S. District Judge David O. Carter, requested last month an independent audit of Los Angeles' homelessness programs, accusing the city of failing to do enough to significantly curb the problem in recent years. City and county officials are also demanding that its lead homeless service provider release data about its efforts. The $2.2 million agreement is roughly half of what the independent firm, selected by Carter, originally requested. It's unclear why the amount was reduced.  FLORIDA HOUSE PASSES BILL TO PROHIBIT HOMELESS PEOPLE FROM SLEEPING IN PUBLIC The audit comes after a lawsuit filed by the LA ...

Wes Davis / The Verge : Bluesky says it is now allowing heads of state to sign up, and adds features including hashtags in profile bios and the ability to long press a link to share   —  Bluesky is apparently ready for a bigger challenge.  It says it's allowing heads of state to sign up now, a little over two months after it opened for general signups.

A handful of House seats currently held by Democrats could flip in the 2024 elections , giving Republicans a potential sigh of relief as they seek to build on their slim majority. All 435 seats in the House are up for grabs this cycle amid the GOP's fight to pick up seats in districts that favor right-wing candidates. That fight will likely take place in districts that were won, or narrowly lost, by Republicans in recent elections . Republicans currently hold a 218-to-213 majority in the chamber. Amid the resignations and departures by several Republicans from the House in recent months, that number is expected to fall even further on April 19, when Wisconsin GOP Rep. Mike Gallagher , the chairman of the House select committee on China, leaves Congress. The Cook Political Report, a nonpartisan election analyst, currently ranks 11 Democrat-held seats as "Toss Up" races this cycle. Several of those races also include districts won, or nearly won, by former President Dona...

Anthony Ha / TechCrunch : Airchat, Naval Ravikant's social media app built around audio recordings, which the app transcribes, relaunches on iOS and Android; it is currently invite-only   —  Airchat is a new social media app that encourages users to “just talk.”  —  A previous version of Airchat was released last year …

Jamie Grierson / The Guardian : As Meta lowers the minimum age for WhatsApp users from 16 to 13 in the UK and EU, after announcing the move in February, child safety groups criticize the move   —  Child safety group says Meta ‘putting profits before protecting children’, as messaging app lowers age limit from 16

President Biden said he expects Iran to attack Israel "sooner than later" as tensions continue to heightened between the Middle East powers.  Biden was asked Friday how imminent an is a potential attack on Israel is from Tehran.  "I don't want to get into secure information, but my expectation [is] sooner than later," he replied.

Chris Dolmetsch / Bloomberg : A US judge sentences ex-Amazon security engineer Shakeeb Ahmed to three years in prison for stealing $12.3M+ from Nirvana and another crypto exchange in 2022   —  - Shakeeb Ahmed was sentenced Friday for hacking smart contracts  — Ahmed admitted to stealing $12 million from two platforms

Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch : Meta is testing an AI-powered search bar in Instagram to let users chat with Meta AI and discover content   —  Meta is pushing ahead with its efforts to make its generative AI-powered products available to more users.  Apart from testing Meta AI chatbot with users in countries like India on WhatsApp …

A Florida judge temporarily blocked a pronoun law from being enforced against one nonbinary and two transgender teachers this week. "Once again, the State of Florida has a First Amendment problem," Chief U.S. District Judge Mark Walker wrote in the temporary injunction. "Of late, it has happened so frequently, some might say you can set your clock by it." "This time, the State of Florida declares that it has the absolute authority to redefine your identity if you choose to teach in a public school," the opinion, released Tuesday, continued. "So, the question before this Court is whether the First Amendment permits the State to dictate, without limitation, how public-school teachers refer to themselves when communicating to students. The answer is a thunderous ‘no.’" 3 MONTHS AND 28 DAYS: LGBTQ EVENTS CLOG CALENDAR AS WHITE HOUSE FACES BACKLASH OVER EASTER ANNOUNCEMENT Two trans teachers and one nonbinary teacher filed a lawsuit in December ...

Ben Thompson / Stratechery : Q&A with Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian on why Google doesn't need to raise trillions to build a supercomputer, why AI offers a reset in competition, and more   —  This week's Stratechery Interview is with Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian.  Kurian joined Google to lead the company's cloud division in 2018 …

An unexpected bump up in inflation is giving former President Trump more ammunition to fire at President Biden as the two face off in their 2024 election rematch. After the Labor Department reported on Wednesday that the consumer price index – a broad measure of the cost of everyday goods such as gas and groceries, as well as rent – rose 0.4% in March, Trump took aim at Biden. "INFLATION is BACK—and RAGING!," the former president emphasized in a post on his social media platform. And speaking with reporters an hour later as he arrived in Atlanta, Georgia, for the first of two campaign fundraising events, Trump argued, "Biden has totally lost control of inflation. It's back. It's raging back." WHY INFLATION IS ACCELERATING HIGHER THAN EXPECTED  The consumer price index was higher than the 0.3% many economists had expected. Gas, rent, and car insurance helped push the overall inflation numbers higher. The monthly rate nudged the year-over-year increas...

Sarah Fortinsky / The Hill : Rep. Adam Schiff introduced a bill that would require companies training generative AI models to disclose all of the copyrighted work they used to do so   —  Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) unveiled legislation on Tuesday that would require companies using copyrighted material to train …

EXCLUSIVE : Amid a congressional stalemate, the U.S. intelligence community is straining to spotlight the critical nature of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act without providing so much public detail that its targets adapt — while also fighting widespread misunderstandings about the law within Congress.   "In trying to describe the value, you also provide to your adversary, whoever they are, a sense of how you’re using the authority," Christine Abizaid, director of the National Counterterrorism Center told FOX in an exclusive interview. "That’s why it’s so painful to get meaningful examples from us."  Section 702 allows warrantless surveillance of foreigners outside the U.S. — people who are not protected by the Fourth Amendment. American citizens and people within the United States cannot be targeted under the authority, but if they happen to be on the other end of talks with a known foreign terrorist target , their electronic communica...

Jeff John Roberts / Fortune : The US SEC sends decentralized crypto exchange Uniswap a Wells notice warning that the agency intends to bring an enforcement action against the company   —  The Securities and Exchange Commission warned Uniswap on Wednesday that it intends to bring an enforcement action against the company …

A Washington judge ruled the state's high-capacity magazine ban unconstitutional on Monday, but the law will remain in place for now after an emergency order from the state Supreme Court. Cowlitz County Superior Court Judge Gary Bashor ruled Washington lawmakers' 2022 ban on sales of magazines that hold more than 10 rounds violates both the state and U.S. constitutions, the Seattle Times reported. CRISIS IN NORTHWEST: ARE VOTERS 'BEYOND A TURNING POINT' AFTER DECADES OF PROGRESSIVE POLITICS? "There was no appetite to limit gun rights by the Founders. Though the specific technology available today may not have been envisioned, the Founders expected technological advancements," Bashor wrote. "The result is few, if any, historical analogue laws by which a state can justify a modern firearms regulation." He issued an injunction, which would have stopped the state from enforcing the ban and allowed stores to resume selling high-capacity magazines. B...

Zack Whittaker / TechCrunch : Researchers found an exposed Azure server with credentials used by Microsoft staff to access internal systems; Microsoft was told Feb. 6 and secured it March 5   —  Microsoft has resolved a security lapse that exposed internal company files and credentials to the open internet.

New Jersey county clerks have withdrawn their appeals to a federal court ruling requiring them to redraw primary election ballots that some argued favored candidates backed by the state's Democratic Party. The 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals based in Philadelphia dismissed the appeals on Friday in response to the clerks' action. U.S. Judge Zahid Quraishi had ordered Democrats to scrap a ballot that listed party-endorsed candidates together in a bracketed group on the ballot — commonly called the county line — while listing others outside the bracket. New Jersey is the only state to set its primary ballots in this way. LANDMARK NJ BALLOT REDESIGN RULING ASKED TO BE PUT ON HOLD Democratic Rep. Andy Kim filed the lawsuit as part of his bid for the Senate seat held by indicted Sen. Bob Menendez, who said he would not run in the primary. Republicans will not be affected by Quraishi's order; the judge said it applies only to Democrats and only to the June 4 election. Asked why...

Haleluya Hadero / Associated Press : A look at the Amazon Labor Union, two years after its victory at an NYC facility, as the group is divided, running out of funds, and faces a leadership election   —  Two years after clenching a historic victory at a warehouse in New York City, the first labor union for Amazon workers …

Samantha Murphy Kelly / CNN : How some teachers are using AI tools like ChatGPT, Writable, Grammarly, and EssayGrader to help grade papers, make lesson plans, and create assignments   —  When Diane Gayeski, a professor of strategic communications at Ithaca College, receives an essay from one of her students …

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy implored the U.S. to approve more military funding for his country on Sunday, warning that Ukraine would "lose the war" without it. Zelenskyy predicted that if Ukraine falls, Russia will move to invade "other states" next. Republicans in Congress have held up further military payments to Ukraine for months, pointing to the well over $100 billion the U.S. has already sent. "It is necessary to specifically tell Congress that if Congress does not help Ukraine, Ukraine will lose the war," Zelenskyy said in a video statement on Sunday. "If Ukraine loses the war, other states will be attacked," he added. MCCONNELL PUTTING 'MAIN PART OF MY FOCUS' ON OPPOSING RUSSIA IN UKRAINE: 'A WORLDWIDE PROBLEM FOR DEMOCRACIES' Zelenskyy's plea comes as Russia continues to launch waves of missile and drone attacks into Ukraine, killing civilians and soldiers alike. PUTIN ISSUES CHILLING WARNING AGAINS...

Anthony Boadle / Reuters : Elon Musk says X is “lifting all restrictions” it imposed in Brazil after a court ruling to block “certain popular accounts” and is defying the court's ruling   —  Elon Musk is challenging a decision by a Supreme Court justice in Brazil who ordered his social media platform X …