Hasta La Gadget!

WASHINGTON ― In 2004, shortly after James Comey rushed to the hospital to stop Bush White House officials from trying to get a bedridden John Ashcroft to reauthorize a surveillance program Comey believed was illegal, another top Department of Justice official stopped him in the hallway.

The DOJ official had gotten wind that a group of his senior colleagues, including Comey and FBI Director Robert Mueller, were contemplating resigning. He told Comey that he would leave the department if they did.

“Look, I don’t know what’s going on, but before you guys all pull the rip cords, please give me a heads-up so I can jump with you,” Christopher Wray, the assistant attorney general who ran the department’s criminal division, told Comey, according to a 2008 report in The Washington Post.

Comey went on to become director of the FBI, but President Donald Trump fired him in May as the agency investigated possible collusion between Trump officials and Russia. On Wednesday, the president announced via Twitter that he would nominate Wray to succeed Comey.

Trump doesn’t like Comey. But former colleagues say Wray shares some of the characteristics of his predecessor.

“Chris, in so many ways, is cut from the same cloth as James Comey is,”  Bill Mateja, who worked with Wray in George W. Bush’s Justice Department, told HuffPost. “They have terrific moral compasses, and they’re very motivated to do the right thing and will do the right thing no matter what.”

Wray is, however, “much more introverted” than Comey, Mateja said. He said Comey and Wray had a strong relationship.

They have terrific moral compasses, and they’re very motivated to do the right thing and will do the right thing no matter what.
Bill Mateja, former colleague of Chris Wray

While Wray earned bipartisan praise after Trump’s announcement, his work on Bush-era programs and some of his work in private practice is sure to raise questions during his confirmation hearings. Wray represented New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) during the “Bridgegate” trial, in which two of the governor’s top former aides were sent to prison for their role in closing lanes on the George Washington Bridge for political retaliation. The governor was not charged.

Another partner at Wray’s firm, King and Spalding, is an adviser to the trust that holds Trump’s business assets. The firm has done work on energy issues in Russia, and a 2016 biography of Wray on the firm’s site noted he represented “an energy company president in a criminal investigation by Russian authorities.”

Wray was also involved in a Republican effort under Bush to crack down on voter fraud, which didn’t turn up much. (Trump has claimed there was widespread fraud in the 2016 election, but offered no evidence.) As part of a 2008 Inspector General investigation into allegations that Democrats and liberals were being unfairly blocked from the Attorney General’s Honors Program and Summer Law Intern Program, Wray told investigators ideology was only considered in hiring to make the program more diverse.

He did not donate to either presidential candidate in 2016, but has donated to Republicans in the past, including Mitt Romney in 2012 and John McCain in 2008. 

In 2003, he provided briefings to Ashcroft on an investigation into who unmasked Valerie Plame, a CIA agent, amid concern the attorney general was too involved in an investigation involving political allies.

“Christopher Wray’s firm’s legal work for the Trump family, his history of partisan activity, as well as his history of defending Trump’s transition director during a criminal scandal makes us question his ability to lead the FBI with the independence, even-handed judgment, and commitment to the rule of law that the agency deserves,” Faiz Shakir, the national political director of the American Civil Liberties Union, said in a statement.

“Given that Wray touts his deep involvement in the Bush administration’s response to the 9/11 attacks, which includes his connections to some of the most unlawful legal memos on Bush-era torture programs, the Senate should press Wray to come clean about his role in the programs,” Shakir added. 

Wray was just 36 when he was nominated to lead the DOJ’s criminal division in 2003, making him the youngest lawyer to lead the division in two decades at a time when there was significant emphasis on counterterrorism initiatives. He had joined the department six years earlier, as an assistant U.S. attorney in the Northern District of Atlanta before becoming an associate deputy attorney general in 2001.

Some people wondered whether Wray was too young for the job, but he earned praise from department colleagues, including Comey, who told the National Law Journal at the time that Wray was a “spectacular choice.”

He also earned a reputation for not getting tied up in office politics and being a hard worker. Trump has publicly criticized Comey as a “showboat” and “grandstander.”

“The hard cases would inevitably be assigned to him. The guy comes in to work. He doesn’t gossip. He stays as long as it takes. He’d be there on the weekends when the air conditioner wasn’t running,” Daniel Griffin, who worked with Wray in the U.S. attorney’s office, told the National Law Journal in 2003.

On his first day at the Department of Justice, Wray was tasked with figuring out how the FBI had misplaced boxes during the trial of Timothy McVeigh, who was sentenced to death for setting off a bomb at a federal building in Oklahoma City in 1995 that killed 168 people.

After graduating from Yale Law School in 1992, Wray went to clerk for J. Michael Luttig, a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit, where his modesty made an impression.

“He’s not flashy. He’s not showy. He’s understated,” Luttig told The New York Times.

Wray began his career as a federal prosecutor working on violent crime cases, but eventually moved more toward fraud and public corruption, according to the National Law Journal. As head of the criminal division, he pursued high-profile corruption cases against lobbyist Jack Abramoff and former Reps. Randy Cunningham (R-Calif.) and William Jefferson (D-La.). He also oversaw the Enron Task Force, charged with investigating and prosecuting officials after the company’s collapse.

Mateja, the former DOJ official who served with Wray in the deputy attorney general’s office, said Wray was not traditionally partisan. 

“There’s no denying that Chris is a Republican, but there’s a difference between Republicans that serve in public offices who are deeply Republican, versus those who just happen to be Republican,” he said. “Chris is one of those ones where he doesn’t wear politics on his sleeve.”

But Mateja said Wray was a conservative who grew up in a Justice Department run by Ashcroft. And, if confirmed, Wray could spend the next 10 years of his term shaping the bureau.

“His vision can’t help but be formed by that experience,” Mateja said. “He’s going to approach things much more in that conservative, Republican tone than what we saw over the last eight years, that’s for sure.”

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Drinking even moderate amounts of alcohol is linked to changes in brain structure and an increased risk of worsening brain function, scientists said on Tuesday.

In a 30-year study that looked at the brains of 550 middle-aged heavy drinkers, moderate drinkers and teetotallers, the researchers found people drank more alcohol had a greater risk of hippocampal atrophy – a form of brain damage that affects memory and spatial navigation.

People who drank more than 30 units a week on average had the highest risk, but even those who drank moderately – between 14 and 21 units a week – were far more likely than abstainers to have hippocampal atrophy, the scientists said.

“And we found no support for a protective effect of light consumption on brain structure,” they added.

The research team – from the University of Oxford and University College London – said their results supported a recent lowering of drinking limit guidelines in Britain, but posed questions about limits recommended in the United States.

U.S. guidelines suggest that up to 24.5 units of alcohol a week is safe for men, but the study found increased risk of brain structure changes at just 14 to 21 units a week.

A unit is defined as 10 milliliters (ml) of pure alcohol. There are roughly two in a large beer, nine in a bottle of wine and one in a 25 ml spirit shot.

Killian Welch, a Royal Edinburgh Hospital neuropsychiatrist who was not directly involved in the study, said the results, published in the BMJ British Medical Journal, underlined “the argument that drinking habits many regard as normal have adverse consequences for health”.

“We all use rationalizations to justify persistence with behaviors not in our long term interest. With (these results) justification of ‘moderate’ drinking on the grounds of brain health becomes a little harder,” he said.

The study analyzed data on weekly alcohol intake and cognitive performance measured repeatedly over 30 years between 1985 and 2015 for 550 healthy men and women with an average age of 43 at the start of the study. Brain function tests were carried out at regular intervals, and at the end of the study participants were given a MRI brain scan.

After adjusting for several important potential confounders such as gender, education, social class, physical and social activity, smoking, stroke risk and medical history, the scientists found that higher alcohol consumption was associated with increased risk of brain function decline.

Drinking more was also linked to poorer “white matter integrity” – a factor they described as critical when it comes to cognitive functioning.

The researchers noted that with an observational study like this, no firm conclusions can be drawn about cause and effect. They added, however, that the findings could have important public health implications for a large sector of the population.

(Editing by Robin Pomeroy)

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Can Uber really change its toxic bro culture if bro-in-chief Travis Kalanick sticks around? 

As the company scrambles to fix a broken workplace, rife with inexperienced managers, weak human resource processes, sexual harassment and bullying, it’s hard to tell if CEO Kalanick, the Uber co-founder known for arrogance and misogyny, is capable of change.

On Tuesday, Uber fired a stunning 20 employees ― some senior executives ― for a variety of offenses, including sexual harassment, bullying, bias and retaliation unearthed by an outside law firm. The departed may include one executive who mishandled the case of a customer raped by an Uber driver, tracking down her medical records and sharing them with colleagues. More firings are likely.

Next week, Uber is expected to release a report on harassment and discrimination at a company-wide meeting, the result of a separate investigation led by former attorney general Eric Holder, now a partner at a big D.C. law firm. 

The company is desperately seeking to change its reputation, in the gutter since at least February, when former engineer Susan Fowler published a blog post detailing horrifying sexual harassment.

Not only did Fowler’s boss sexually proposition her on her first day, her complaint to human resources was blown off because her manager was considered too valuable an employee. Fowler said she heard similar stories of sexual harassment from female colleagues.

Since then, Uber has taken steps to improve its human resources department and its image, and a stream of top executives have fled.

“Do I trigger something in certain people that’s related to something that I didn’t do? Or am I an asshole? I’d love to know,” Kalanick told Fortune magazine’s Adam Lashinsky. “I don’t think I’m an asshole. I’m pretty sure I’m not.”

“Culture changes have been well underway at the company for months now,” an Uber spokeswoman told HuffPost. “Moving forward, we’re more committed than ever to turning the page. We want to change.”

Just this week, Uber hired Harvard Business School professor Francis Frei, a management consultant and expert in company culture best known for her efforts to change how Harvard’s B-school treats women. Uber also hired a brand consultant from Apple, also a woman, to help improve its image.

Thing is, you don’t need fancy consultants to tell you this simple truth about company culture: It starts at the top. The boss sets the example, the tone and the norms for the entire company. (This applies to government, as well. Just ask any White House staffer trying to work under President Donald Trump.)

Uber is just now fixing a computer algorithm to determine how much to pay new hires. The old system reinforced gender pay gaps, allowing women to be paid less than men. 

Kalanick’s vibe is well known at this point: He works obsessively hard, and expects everyone at Uber to do the same. The result is a company worth billions, and a brutal, hard-driving culture with incredibly high turnover.

Apple CEO and founder Steve Jobs also had a reputation for driving workers hard, and saying things bluntly. That’s not unusual for a startup founder. At Uber, problems have come when Kalanick has opened his mouth and said incredibly arrogant and misogynistic things.

“Do I trigger something in certain people that’s related to something that I didn’t do? Or am I an asshole? I’d love to know,” Kalanick told Fortune magazine’s Adam Lashinsky. “I don’t think I’m an asshole. I’m pretty sure I’m not.” (Kalanick has been keeping a low profile since the recent sudden death of his mother. They were reportedly very close.)

Kalanick has amassed quite a track record for inappropriate comments: In an interview with GQ in 2014, he bragged about how his newfound fame as a tech CEO was attracting women. “Yeah, we call that Boob-er,” he said.

A recent story in tech publication The Information described Kalanick’s visit to a South Korean karaoke and escort bar with executives, mostly men and at least one woman, who reported being extremely uncomfortable.

His former girlfriend told HuffPost recently that when she was with him, they’d frequently attend parties, where most of the women were models flown in to serve as, essentially, decor.

After a video of Kalanick fighting with an Uber driver went viral earlier this year, he finally admitted his behavior was a problem. “It’s clear this video is a reflection of me ― and the criticism we’ve received is a stark reminder that I must fundamentally change as a leader and grow up,” Kalanick wrote in a blog post titled “A profound apology.”

Who decided it was profound?

“This is the first time I’ve been willing to admit that I need leadership help and I intend to get it,” he wrote.

He’s begun meditating, according to Uber board member and HuffPost founder Arianna Huffington.

Kalanick, it is worth emphasizing, is not a 20-something prodigy running a tech company. He is a relatively experienced executive who has been running Uber since 2010. He is 40 years old.

This was an adult male admitting he’d behaved like a child. He hasn’t yet proven whether he has the chops to actually grapple with his behavior.

Companies that have managed big culture shifts usually do it with new leaders. Microsoft, for example, seems to have really changed its way since hiring Satya Nadella to replace Steve Ballmer, known for fueling a toxic, competitive culture.

Kalanick has admitted he needs leadership help, and this week’s hires are part of the change, it seems. But it’s not at all clear that this is enough. Indeed, the company’s HR chief, Liane Hornsey, who is close to Kalanick, seemed to downplay the idea that sexual harassment is even a problem at Uber just last month in an interview with USA Today. She said pay and “pride” are more at issue.

Fowler’s “blog shocked me,” Hornsey said. “But, what did surprise me, was when I did the listening sessions, this didn’t come up as an issue. It wasn’t one of our big themes. Other things came up that are in that area, that our values are masculine and a little aggressive, but the harassment issue, I just didn’t find that at all.”

But it seems Hornsey was downplaying the situation. Of the 215 claims investigated by Perkins Coie, the law firm whose report led to this week’s firings, 47 involved sexual harassment, Uber’s only female board member told CNBC on Wednesday.

Leaders aren’t solely responsible for the way a company operates. “Leaders set an example,” Joseph Badaracco, a professor at Harvard Business School, told HuffPost recently. Still, he said, companies need to have systems in place that reinforce employee behavior. Workers need to have strong managers, understand the rules of the workplace, and know that misbehavior will not be tolerated. 

A fast-growing startup inevitably has a lot of problems as it expands. A majority of Uber’s managers are in a supervisory role for the first time, creating all kinds of complications. Uber also hired very quickly ― a notoriously way to build a company culture ― and basically had been using its human resources department as a recruiting arm, not a place to help employees with issues.

But for all the layers of ingredients that brought Uber to where it is, it would seem that problems came baked in with one of its very first workers.

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Twenty-five years since the release of “Juice,” Ernest R. Dickerson is proud that his directorial debut has stood as a cultural staple in America.

This month, Paramount Home Media Distribution will commemorate the film’s anniversary with a special release of a Blu-ray disc. Starring Tupac Shakur, Omar Epps, Khalil Kain and Jermaine Hopkins ― with cameos by Samuel L. Jackson and Queen Latifah ― the powerful drama follows the lives of four teenage friends in pursuit of power and respect in their Harlem neighborhood as they grapple with the trials of inner-city life.

Inspired by his adolescent years growing up in Newark, New Jersey, Dickerson ― who broke into the industry as Spike Lee’s cinematographer ― tells HuffPost that he wanted the drama to accurately portray the obstacles young black men and boys face living in America.

“It took about nine years to get the film made. But it grew from out of several places,” he said. “I wanted to talk about how kids were growing up in society and we were horrified by that. And so, in wanting to craft a thriller and a film noir around 16-, 17-year-old antagonists, it just felt like that was the way to go and the best story to tell. Peer pressure was always gonna be a part of it.”

The commemorative release will feature new and vintage interviews with members of the cast and crew, never-before-released footage and the original film’s alternate ending.

“Juice” marked Shakur’s first major starring film role. He beat out the likes of actor Donald Faison and fellow rapper Treach for the role of the troubled, gun-toting teen Bishop. Shakur’s seminal performance was applauded by fans and film critics.

“He understood the pain inside Bishop and could express that in his acting,” Dickerson recalled. “He made Bishop a more four-dimensional character in that he knew that this anger came from someplace. The anger came from a deep hurt.”

“Part of it was the experience of having to see [Bishop’s] father brutalized and traumatized in prison; that’s one of the things that we end at in the film. That’s the thing that Pac brought, too. When he came to the audition, people believed he was Bishop. And he believed he was Bishop, too,” he said.

The filmmaker added that prior to Shakur’s untimely death in 1996, he was “hoping to find another project” to work on with the rapper-actor.

With its January 1992 opening, the film debuted at No. 2 at the box office. It earned over $8 million in its opening weekend and has grossed $20.1 million domestically to date, according to Box Office Mojo.

Despite its relatively low earnings, Dickerson says it’s imperative to reintroduce black cult classic films ― such as “Juice,” “Boyz n the Hood” and “Menace II Society” ― to enlighten a new generation of viewers. 

“These films are a part of our cultural heritage,” the filmmaker said. “And we have to make sure that they’re there for future generations to experience, and to enjoy and learn from. These are not throwaway films, this is the cultural heritage of America, and we need to make sure that we preserve that.”

“Not just these films, but all films. Films are important,” he continued. “It’s one of the greatest art forms of the 20th and 21st century. People need to take film much more seriously and the preservation of film much more serious.”

The special 25th anniversary edition of “Juice” is now available on Blu-ray and DVD. It will also be released on Digital HD on June 13.

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Hours after suicide bombers and gunmen launched deadly assaults against Iran’s parliament and the tomb of its former supreme leader in Tehran on Wednesday, U.S. President Donald Trump extended seemingly backhanded condolences to the grieving nation.

“We grieve and pray for the innocent victims of the terrorist attacks in Iran, and for the Iranian people, who are going through such challenging times,” Trump said in a press release.

He didn’t stop there.

“We underscore that states that sponsor terrorism risk falling victim to the evil that they promote,” Trump concluded.

The twin attacks, claimed by the so-called Islamic State terrorist group, killed at least 12 people and injured dozens. The six known assailants were also killed, and five other suspects have been detained so far. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards have blamed Saudi Arabia and vowed to seek revenge.

During his recent visit to Saudi Arabia, Trump criticized Iran for fueling “the fires of sectarian conflict and terror” and blamed the country for supporting militias and extremist groups that “spread destruction and chaos.” He called on other nations to isolate Tehran and to stop prioritizing political correctness while addressing terrorism.

Trump had already faced a backlash over his response to foreign terrorism last weekend when he seized on carnage in London to promote his internationally condemned travel ban affecting several Muslim-majority nations, including Iran.

He tweeted his condolences to the British people Saturday, then swiftly attacked London Mayor Sadiq Khan as support and messages of solidarity flowed in from other leaders around the globe.

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