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Farhad Manjoo: This column is dedicated to Silicon Valley venture capitalists

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:58:00 GMT

Bust out your tiniest violin, because I’m about to stand up for Silicon Valley venture capitalists. The industry is not nearly as insufferable and out of touch as some of its blustering online influencers might lead you to believe. And despite its recent troubles, the world continues to need places like Silicon Valley and its financiers of risky ideas.When Silicon Valley Bank was taken over by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., some of the startup world’s best-known voices — or, at least, its most aggressively online voices, several of them venture capitalists — swarmed Twitter with shrill demands for a full federal bailout of SVB customers.Whatever the economic merit to making the bank’s depositors whole, the VCs’ sky-is-falling rhetoric did seem a bit rich. Some of those most clamorous for government intervention in SVB, like David Sacks of Craft Ventures, have often aligned themselves with Peter Thiel’s brand of fair-weather libertarianism. When it was THEIR industry’s money at...

Disabled Wisconsin voters say election clerks not following federal law, nullifying their votes

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:58:00 GMT

MADISON, Wis. — Disabled voters say local election administrators across Wisconsin are not following federal law during early voting in the high-stakes race for state Supreme Court, incorrectly telling them they can’t have another person return their absentee ballot for them.Absentee ballots, and who can return them, has been a political flashpoint in battleground Wisconsin, known for razor-thin margins in statewide races. The April 4 election will determine majority control of the state Supreme Court, with abortion access and the fate of Republican-drawn legislative maps on the line.Challenges to laws and practices in at least eight states that make it difficult or impossible for people with certain disabilities to vote have also arisen in the past two years. At the same time, there has been a push in many states to restrict rules affecting who can return absentee ballots.Wisconsin Republicans successfully sued last year to ban absentee ballot drop boxes, and the conservative...

Opinion: As water becomes even more scarce, Denver, Commerce City and Aurora adapt

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:58:00 GMT

Lately, the steady drip of news stories on the subject has become a subterranean stream in my subconscious.Now it’s affecting my entertainment choices.I found myself watching, for the umpteenth time, a splendidly animated pastiche of the 1974 noir Chinatown. In the movie Rango, water is the issue.This week, multiple news stories broke: The Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Arizona v. Navajo Nation, a case regarding the Navajo Nation’s access to Colorado River water. On the tribe’s reservation, one in three households lack running water. The 1868 Treaty of Bosque Redondo, the Navajos assert, obligates the U.S. government to ensure the tribe has enough water. That is an understandable position, but if the Court rules in their favor, it will disrupt the way the already strained river is managed for Colorado and other states.Also in the news: Colorado state engineer Kevin Rein responded to Nebraska’s plan to build a $567 million canal to divert water from the South Platte Rive...

John Elway’s ex-wife sells Belcaro mansion for $4M

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:58:00 GMT

When John Elway’s ex-wife listed her Belcaro home for $4.5 million in 2019, it sat on the market for 228 days. She reduced the price to $3.5 million before pulling it.Janet McKinnon had better luck listing 900 S. Steele St. this time. It went under contract in 12 days and closed at $4.1 million earlier this month.“We knew we had to tell a different story for a house that had previously been on the market for 200-plus days,” said realtor Delroy Gill, who listed it for McKinnon.Gill and his co-listor Stuart Crowell named the mansion “Magnifica Casa” and displayed its lush landscaping using posterboard photos illustrating the half-acre property in full bloom for potential buyers.“The home has a wonderful courtyard and flowers, but we were showing it snow-covered during some of the worst Denver weather,” Gill said.They also convinced McKinnon to replace light fixtures, refinish the floors with a lighter stain and repaint the walls a softer white.“Subtle changes can make huge impacts,” G...

Denver voters appear sluggish — or overwhelmed — as key ballot deadline nears for city election

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:58:00 GMT

With early ballot returns so far trailing the pace of the last two municipal elections in Denver, city officials are reminding voters that the clock is winding down on the 2023 contest and urging them to cast their votes.As of midday Friday, Denver elections officials had collected 22,036 of the 452,660 ballots sent out for the election, a return rate of 4.87%. That’s a lower turnout to that point than the city saw in 2019 or 2015, the only other two municipal elections conducted via mail ballots said Lucille Wenegieme, a strategic advisor to the city elections division.With 11 days to go before the 2019 municipal election in May of that year, 24,136 of the 405,638 ballots the city mailed out had been returned, according to elections division data, good for a return rate of 5.95%. “It seems that voters may be overwhelmed by their choices or waiting to see if other candidates drop out,” Wenegieme said. “While we don’t advise waiting, it’s understandable.”...

At this school, computer science class now includes critiquing chatbots

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:58:00 GMT

NEW YORK — Marisa Shuman’s computer science class at the Young Women’s Leadership School of the Bronx in New York City began as usual on a recent January morning.Just after 11:30, energetic 11th and 12th graders bounded into the classroom, settled down at communal study tables and pulled out their laptops. Then they turned to the front of the room, eyeing a whiteboard where Shuman had posted a question on wearable technology, the topic of that day’s class.For the first time in her decadelong teaching career, Shuman had not written any of the lesson plan. She had generated the class material using ChatGPT, a new chatbot that relies on artificial intelligence to deliver written responses to questions in clear prose. Shuman was using the algorithm-generated lesson to examine the chatbot’s potential usefulness and pitfalls with her students.“I don’t care if you learn anything about wearable technology today,” Shuman said to her students. “We are evaluating ChatGPT. Your goal is to...

Projecting the Colorado Rockies’ 2023 Opening Day 26-man roster

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:58:00 GMT

With the Rockies’ season set to begin March 30 at Petco Park against the NL West rival Padres, here is The Post’s projection for Colorado’s opening-day 26-man roster, from the no-brainers to the bubble picks.InfieldersFirst baseman C.J. Cron (25) has been one of the Rockies’ most prolific sluggers over the past two seasons. (Photo by AAron Ontiveroz/The Denver Post)1B C.J. Cron: Coming off his first career All-Star Game appearance, Cron is looking to provide power for the lineup once again after slugging 57 total homers the past two years. He’ll be a longball threat and the everyday first baseman. Cron slashed just .208/.270/.360 with nine home runs in his final 66 games last season, in part because of a sore left wrist.2B Ryan McMahon: After Brendan Rodgers was lost early in spring training to left shoulder surgery, McMahon took over at second, where he looks to have a redemptive season in the field and at the plate. He needs to hit for better average and power in 2023 ...

Google releases Bard, its competitor in the race to create AI chatbots

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:58:00 GMT

SAN FRANCISCO — For more than three months, Google executives have watched as projects at Microsoft and a San Francisco startup called OpenAI have stoked the public’s imagination with the potential for artificial intelligence.But on Tuesday, Google tentatively stepped off the sidelines as it released a chatbot called Bard. The new AI chatbot will be available to a limited number of users in the United States and Britain and will accommodate additional users, countries and languages over time, Google executives said in an interview.The cautious rollout is the company’s first public effort to address the recent chatbot craze driven by OpenAI and Microsoft, and it is meant to demonstrate that Google is capable of providing similar technology. But Google is taking a much more cautious approach than its competitors, which have faced criticism that they are proliferating an unpredictable and sometimes untrustworthy technology.Still, the release represents a significant step to stave...

After JBS shutters plant-based food company, Boulder startup expands its alternative-meat production

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:58:00 GMT

Just months after JBS USA pulled the plug on its plant-based protein business, a Boulder startup has opened a factory in Thornton to expand its version of a meat alternative.Meati Foods, founded in 2016, started operation in February at a 120,000-square-foot building where it produces plant-based food from mushroom root. The company, which has 300 employees, sells its cutlets and steaks in area Sprouts Farmer Market stores and Birdcall fast-food restaurants.The company recently started shipping to all 385 Sprouts stores nationwide, said Scott Tassani, president and chief operating officer. He said Meati’s footprint was tied to its production capacity, which was limited until the Thornton factory opened.“We have a pipeline of commercial partners that are interested and ready to launch as quickly as we can supply them,” said Tassani, who joined the company in 2021 after nearly 30 years at General Mills.As interest leveled off in meat alternatives and inflation rose, ...

Living with trees: What you need to know about storm protection and insurance coverage

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:58:00 GMT

As the Bay Area dries out from a parade of atmospheric rivers, leaving hundreds of downed trees in their wake, a new set of questions are facing residents: How can trees be protected and risks of damage and danger to life and property reduced? When the damage is already done, who pays?With so many losses, just finding help is a challenge. We asked some experts for insight: Tree Davis, a nonprofit which plants trees in Yolo County; Michal Brower, State Farm Insurance public affairs specialist; and Elizabeth Hartman, spokesperson for Berkshire Hathaway GUARD Insurance Companies. Q: How can I assess the risk of my trees?A: Tree care can significantly extend the performance, lifespan and the benefits of trees. Have your trees inspected periodically. Prune overextended or dead branches. Here are signs of trouble: leaning trees, with raised soil on the side of the trunk opposite the lean: cracks extending into the wood on the trunk or major limbs; “conks,” or fungal fruiting b...