Business
Newsom taps Magic Johnson, Casey Wasserman, Mark Walter to lead philanthropic L.A. fire recovery initiative
![Newsom taps Magic Johnson, Casey Wasserman, Mark Walter to lead philanthropic L.A. fire recovery initiative Newsom taps Magic Johnson, Casey Wasserman, Mark Walter to lead philanthropic L.A. fire recovery initiative](https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/9e3c7b1/2147483647/strip/true/crop/3000x1575+0+213/resize/1200x630!/quality/75/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fe5%2F1f%2F1027fb25461b9d1425b4f95d3475%2Fla-me-newsom-philanthropic-leaders-fire-recovery.jpg)
Gov. Gavin Newsom is tapping Magic Johnson, Dodgers Chairman Mark Walter and 2028 Olympics organizer Casey Wasserman to lead a new private-sector initiative to support wildfire recovery in Los Angeles.
The California governor’s office said the philanthropic effort, called LA Rises, will bring together business leaders to work with city, county and state officials to support rebuilding after the devastating fires. Walter, his foundation and the Los Angeles Dodgers Foundation will provide up to $100 million to jump-start fundraising.
“It’s not just about the state and federal government supporting local responses, it’s about the private sector, the civic society coming together,” Newsom said Tuesday, standing with Wasserman, Johnson and Dodgers Chief Executive Stan Kasten in the stadium parking lot overlooking the city. “It’s about active, engaged citizenship. It’s about people volunteering.”
The decision to lean on high-profile Angelenos outside government comes as state and local leaders face the monumental challenge of rebuilding the mixed-income community of Altadena and the wealthy Pacific Palisades neighborhood.
There will be enormous pressure on leaders to not just rebuild swiftly but also equally.
If the Palisades — where now-burned homes look out on sweeping ocean vistas and the newly homeless include enormously well-connected political donors — appears to be favored over the diverse enclave of Altadena, the disparity will undoubtedly become emblematic of the recovery efforts and potentially haunt Newsom’s political career.
Altadena is an unincorporated area, meaning its rebuilding effort will fall outside the purview of Mayor Karen Bass.
“My focus will be on Altadena because those people may be left behind and I want to make sure that that doesn’t happen,” Johnson said Tuesday.
The governor said he asked Johnson, the Hall of Fame Lakers point guard-turned-entrepreneur; Wasserman, an entertainment and sports executive; and Walter, the chief executive of the investment firm Guggenheim Partners and controlling owner of the Dodgers, to serve as co-chairs of the initiative because of their “proven leadership and deep commitment to Los Angeles.”
LA Rises will expand access to the philanthropic and private capital needed to rebuild in close coordination with government at all levels, come up with financing strategies to “close the gap between available resources and the cost to rebuild” and communicate information to residents, the governor’s office said.
Newsom’s new initiative comes weeks after Bass detailed her own plan to look outside City Hall to support recovery.
Bass appointed longtime civic leader and real estate developer Steve Soboroff to pilot the first phase of the city’s rebuilding efforts.
Soboroff, a onetime senior advisor to former Mayor Richard J. Riordan, also previously led the police commission and helped bring Crypto.com Arena (formerly Staples Center) to downtown Los Angeles.
As the city’s chief recovery officer, he will help build out the city’s plan for debris removal and streamlining rebuilding approvals and create a detailed program to rebuild parks and libraries, among other things.
Bass said her and Soboroff’s efforts would be closely coordinated with the governor’s office.
“Efforts to rebuild are underway in the City of Los Angeles and this announcement will be a vital component of a comprehensive effort to bring Angelenos home,” Bass said in a statement. “The number one question on the minds of Angelenos is about recovery and rebuilding.”
Wasserman, who worked with former Mayor Eric Garcetti to land the Olympics for the city, and Johnson, a part-owner of the Dodgers who has invested heavily in South L.A., have both long been involved in L.A. civic life.
“The private sector has to come together, both operationally and philanthropically, as part of the rebuild and in many ways, the rebirth of L.A.,” Wasserman said, noting that the Olympics will be welcoming the world to Los Angeles in 2028. “This process and this journey we’re about to start with LA Rises is not about the next month or the next year. This is about what L.A. is going to be like for the next 50 or 100 years.”
Newsom said Tuesday that community organizations had also received tens of millions of dollars in additional donations, including money from the Latino Community Foundation and the California Community Foundation. Kasten declined to specify Tuesday what “up to $100 million” meant, or if $100 million had been definitively pledged to LA Rises.
“The LA fires have wreaked havoc on LA’s neighborhoods,” Walter, who was not present Tuesday, said in a statement. “It’s time for those with means to come forward and make a positive impact to build back better.”
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Business
Amazon Union Push Falls Short at North Carolina Warehouse
![Amazon Union Push Falls Short at North Carolina Warehouse Amazon Union Push Falls Short at North Carolina Warehouse](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2025/02/15/multimedia/15amazon-union-mbkt/15amazon-union-mbkt-facebookJumbo.jpg)
Amazon workers voted overwhelmingly against a bid to unionize their North Carolina warehouse, the National Labor Relations Board said on Saturday, the latest setback in labor organizing efforts at the e-commerce giant.
Workers at the RDU1 fulfillment center in Garner, outside of Raleigh, voted 2,447 to 829 against unionizing with Carolina Amazonians United for Solidarity and Empowerment, or CAUSE, an upstart union founded by warehouse workers in 2022.
Organizers at the warehouse, which employs more than 4,000 people, sought starting wages of $30 an hour. The current pay range is about $18 to $24, Amazon said. The union also demanded longer lunch breaks and increased vacation time.
In a statement, leaders of CAUSE said the election outcome was the result of Amazon’s “relentless and illegal efforts to intimidate us.” They did not say whether they would challenge the outcome, but vowed to keep trying to organize.
Eileen Hards, a spokeswoman for Amazon, wrote: “We’re glad that our team in Garner was able to have their voices heard, and that they chose to keep a direct relationship with Amazon.”
Leading up to the election, the worker-led union filed charges with the labor relations board accusing Amazon of interfering with employees’ protected union activity. The company gave preferential treatment to workers who did not support the union, according to the charges filed by CAUSE. Amazon also unfairly fired the co-founder of the union one week before workers filed for a union election in December, CAUSE said in a filing.
Amazon denied any election interference. Employees have the choice of whether to join a union, and the company talks “openly, candidly and respectfully” about unionization, Ms. Hards said before the vote. She said the CAUSE co-founder had been fired for “repeated misconduct that included making derogatory and racist comments to his co-workers.”
Addressing demands voiced by the union, Ms. Hards said the company already offered safe workplaces, competitive pay, industry-leading benefits and consistent scheduling. The CAUSE union, she added, “has no experience representing workers or their interests.”
On top of what they characterized as resistance from the company, organizers at the warehouse faced an environment in the South that has historically been hostile to unions. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, union membership in North Carolina last year was 2.4 percent, the lowest rate in the country and far below the national average of 9.9 percent.
Amazon has aggressively fended off union campaigns and stalled the bargaining process in multiple segments of its business, including warehouses, delivery operations and grocery stores.
In 2022, workers at a Staten Island warehouse in New York voted to form Amazon’s first union in the United States; it is now affiliated with the Teamsters union. Amazon has challenged the election outcome in court, and has refused to recognize the union or bargain with it. Delivery drivers, who work for third-party package delivery companies serving Amazon, have also mounted campaigns with the Teamsters.
The Trump administration’s moves at the labor relations board since the inauguration — including the replacement of the general counsel appointed in the Biden administration, who was considered friendly to labor — could further embolden employers to clamp down on organizing and refuse to bargain, labor law experts said.
Workers at a Philadelphia location of Whole Foods Market voted in January to affiliate with the United Food and Commercial Workers union, establishing the first union beachhead at the Amazon-owned grocery chain. In a filing with the labor board challenging the election, the company cited President Trump’s firing of a Democratic board member, which stripped the board of a quorum necessary to issue decisions.
In January, Amazon said that it was closing its warehouse and logistics operations in the Canadian province of Quebec, where unions had gained a foothold among some Amazon workers, and that it would lay off 1,700 employees.
The North Carolina election is not the first unsuccessful union bid among Amazon warehouse workers. In 2021, workers at a warehouse in Bessemer, Ala., voted against unionizing, but labor officials later ruled that Amazon had illegally influenced the election. Workers voted a second time in 2022, but the outcome was too close to call, prompting a labor judge to order a third election. That vote has yet to be held, and Amazon has denied wrongdoing.
“Ultimately, the biggest thing that we’re fighting for is dignity,” Italo Medelius-Marsano, a member of the CAUSE organizing committee who works at the RDU1 ship dock, said before the vote. “We’re making sure Amazon knows that we are human beings,” he said, citing the movement’s catch phrase: “I am not a robot.”
Business
Google and Meta used to champion DEI efforts. Why Big Tech is pulling back
More than a decade ago, outcries about the lack of diversity in the tech industry reverberated across major Silicon Valley companies from Facebook to Google.
Women and minorities spoke out about feeling out of place in male-dominated professions, civil rights activists urged businesses to do more and tech workers like Tracy Chou, who was a software engineer at Pinterest at the time, pushed companies to release diversity data.
“There was already some movement in that direction, at least a feeling like we should do this,” said Chou, who wrote a viral Medium post in 2013 about the lack of female engineers. “What I happened to crystallize was a line of thinking that really resonated with the more data-driven side of the industry.”
For diversity advocates like Chou, the tide has now turned. Facing more political pressure and legal risks during President Trump’s second administration, tech companies that previously championed diversity including Google, Meta (Facebook’s parent company) and Amazon are scaling back, scrapping or rethinking their diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts.
It’s part of a broader retrenchment across the business community. About 20% of companies in the Standard & Poor’s 100 have retreated from DEI commitments since Trump was elected, according to a Bloomberg News analysis. Those include Target Corp., McDonald’s Corp. and Disney.
Trump and Elon Musk, who spent more than $200 million to help elect the president to a second term, have been vocal critics of DEI programs. In a fact sheet about Trump’s executive order, the White House said many corporations use DEI as “an excuse for biased and unlawful employment practices,” sending a message to businesses that they could get sued. Companies such as Google and Amazon also contract with federal agencies.
“They’re reading the room, especially with Trump and Elon running the country,” said Chou, now the chief executive of Block Party, a tool that helps users combat online harassment.
Corporate pledges to fight racism including from Musk’s company Tesla heightened after the 2020 police murder of George Floyd, sparking massive protests against police brutality.
But legal threats emerged in 2023 after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down race-based affirmative action in college admissions. As tech companies cut thousands of jobs, the massive cuts also hit DEI teams.
Spending on DEI roles at S&P 500 companies started to fall in 2022 as mass layoffs swept the tech industry, data from Revelio Labs show. In November 2024, these businesses spent an estimated $1.3 billion on DEI roles, down 10% compared to the same month in 2022.
From December 2022 to December 2024, tech companies including Google’s parent company Alphabet, Netflix and Amazon spent less on roles that promoted diversity and inclusion.
During this period, Tesla’s DEI spending was down by 84% and Meta’s DEI spending declined by 53%, according to Revelio Labs, which analyzes data from various sources including online profiles on sites like LinkedIn or Jobcase.
Tech companies have pointed to legal risks in internal memos about why they’re rethinking how they approach their DEI programs.
“They wanted to keep President Trump on their good side, because they don’t want to deal with any legal ramifications from the federal government,” said Jared Slater, partner at Ervin Cohen & Jessup.
The White House didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Meta’s Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg, a former Trump critic who also said previously that improving diversity in tech is important, has in recent months aligned himself with the president and talked about the benefits of “masculine energy.” The company told its employees in an internal memo that the legal and policy landscape surrounding DEI changed and pointed to Supreme Court decisions.
“The term ‘DEI’ has also become charged, in part because it is understood by some as a practice that suggests preferential treatment of some groups over others,” said Janelle Gale, Meta’s head of human resources, in an internal memo.
The company said it wanted to serve everyone and would no longer use its “diversity slate approach” in which hiring managers consider candidates from underrepresented backgrounds when interviewing for an open role.
Meta also ended representation goals for women and minorities, a program to source supplies from diverse-owned businesses and scrapped its DEI teams. Maxine Williams, Meta’s chief diversity officer, became the vice president of accessibility and engagement.
Websites for Meta’s unconscious bias training and TechPrep, a resource hub for underrepresented people and their parents to learn about computer science, are no longer online.
Meta declined to comment but confirmed the memo, first published by Axios.
Google said this month it was reevaluating its DEI programs “following recent court decisions and executive orders on this topic.” The company said it would no longer set hiring targets tied to improving diversity after previously setting a goal of increasing by 30% the proportion of “leadership representation of underrepresented groups” by 2025.
And Amazon told its employees that it’s “winding down” certain programs after evaluating their “effectiveness, impact and ROI [return on investment]” but didn’t specify which ones.
In a December memo to employees reviewed by The Times, the company’s Vice President of inclusive experiences and technology Candi Castleberry told employees that the company is focused on “programs with proven outcomes” while also aiming to “foster a more truly inclusive culture.” Amazon shared the memo.
Amazon Studios — which announced a series of ambitious inclusion goals in June 2021 — also has been making changes. Last September, the Culver City-based studio removed a public-facing inclusion playbook from its website along with a goal that films or series with three or more people in above-line roles such as directors and producers included at least 30% women and 30% members of an underrepresented group.
“We’ve said from the beginning that our efforts to ensure diverse and inclusive storytelling would be fluid and change over time,” Amazon spokesperson Brad Glasser said in a statement. He added that the company strives to “tell the very best stories, while empowering diverse voices in our storytelling wherever possible.”
Meanwhile, some tech companies such as Apple are fighting back against anti-DEI proposals from conservative shareholders. The National Center for Public Policy Research, a conservative think tank, is asking that Apple consider ending its DEI programs, policies, departments and goals.
“The risks to the company’s bottom line stem from potentially getting sued by individuals for discrimination, potentially getting legal action from the government for violating civil rights law, and then the market backlash,” said Stefan Padfield, executive director of the center’s Free Enterprise Project.
Apple recommended that shareholders reject the proposal at the company’s annual shareholder meeting on Feb. 25.
Apple didn’t respond to a request for comment, but the company said in a document to shareholders that the anti-DEI proposal was “unnecessary” partly because its board and management oversee legal and regulatory risks.
Netflix has remained committed to DEI after Trump’s executive order, stating in its annual report that a “major focus” is “fostering a work environment that is culturally diverse, inclusive and equitable” because it wants more people and cultures to see themselves reflected on screen.
The Los Gatos-based streaming giant said in its annual report released in January that it educates its recruiters on how to hire more inclusively.
A Netflix spokesperson didn’t respond to a request for comment.
“What we need to do in this moment in time is to stand up, to speak up, to be strategic and to keep moving forward,” said Vernā Myers, former Netflix vice president of inclusion strategy and founder of the Vernā Myers Co., a consultancy on diversity, equity and inclusion. “We can’t allow this kind of bullying to make us so fearful that we are paralyzed and that we draw back from our core values.”
The backlash against DEI is not only affecting workplace culture, but nonprofits focused on recruiting more women and minorities into the tech industry.
Last year, Women Who Code, a nonprofit that got its start in California, closed because of a lack of funding. AnitaB.org, which brings together women in tech at its annual Grace Hopper Celebration, cut its workforce in 2024 and pointed to a downturn in corporate DEI investments.
Some diversity advocates like Freada Kapor Klein, co-chair of the Kapor Center, question whether some tech companies ever took DEI that seriously.
Tech giants seemed more open to diversity efforts in times of talent shortages because it helps open up a pool of potential hires, she said. Now they’re rolling back DEI efforts amid layoffs and a political climate in which Republicans hold more power.
“It is now fashionable to be anti-DEI. It’s now fashionable to talk about masculine energy. It’s now fashionable … to align oneself with MAGA interests,” she said. “So you have to kind of ask, what is it that people actually, really and truly believe?”
Business
Prominent Cryptocurrency Investor Faces Senate Tax Inquiry
![Prominent Cryptocurrency Investor Faces Senate Tax Inquiry Prominent Cryptocurrency Investor Faces Senate Tax Inquiry](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2025/02/14/business/14crypto-tax/14crypto-tax-facebookJumbo.jpg)
A Senate committee is investigating whether a prominent cryptocurrency investor violated federal tax law to save hundreds of millions of dollars after he moved to Puerto Rico, a popular offshore tax haven, according to a letter reviewed by The New York Times.
Senator Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, sent the letter on Jan. 9 to Dan Morehead, the founder of Pantera Capital, one the largest crypto investment firms.
The letter said the Senate Finance Committee was investigating tax compliance by wealthy Americans who had moved to Puerto Rico to take advantage of a special tax break for the island’s residents that can reduce tax bills to zero.
The investigation was focused on people who had improperly applied the tax break to avoid paying taxes on income that was earned outside Puerto Rico, according to the letter.
“In most cases, the majority of the gain is actually U.S. source income, reportable on U.S. tax returns, and subject to U.S. tax,” the letter said.
The letter requested detailed information from Mr. Morehead about $850 million in investment profits he made after moving to Puerto Rico in 2020, noting that he “may have treated” the gains as exempt from U.S. taxes.
Mr. Morehead said in a statement that he moved to Puerto Rico in 2021. “I believe I acted appropriately with respect to my taxes,” he said.
Mr. Wyden was chairman of the Finance Committee until Republicans took control of the Senate last month. During his tenure, the committee investigated several strategies that wealthy Americans have used to avoid paying taxes.
It is unclear what may come of the investigation. Under the Biden administration, federal regulators and Democratic lawmakers cracked down on the crypto industry and prominent tech figures. President Trump and Republicans in Congress have embraced crypto, promising less aggressive enforcement.
A spokesman for Mr. Wyden said the investigation was “ongoing” and declined further comment. A spokeswoman for the Finance Committee’s new chair, Senator Michael D. Crapo of Idaho, did not respond to a request for comment.
For more than a decade, wealthy Americans, including many tech entrepreneurs, have flocked to Puerto Rico to take advantage of Act 60, a tax break established in 2012 under a different name. Any capital gains income generated in the U.S. territory isn’t subject to local or federal income tax.
In recent years, the Justice Department, the Internal Revenue Service and lawmakers have investigated abuses of that system. The I.R.S. has said its criminal division identified about 100 people who may have committed tax evasion.
A former Goldman Sachs trader, Mr. Morehead founded Pantera in the early 2000s and turned it into one of the largest investment firms focused on crypto, backing more than 100 crypto companies over the last 12 years. Those include major U.S. crypto firms such as Circle, Ripple and Coinbase, which operates the largest marketplace for digital currencies in the United States.
After Mr. Morehead moved to Puerto Rico, Pantera sold “a large position” and generated capital gains “in excess of $1 billion,” according to Mr. Wyden’s letter. Mr. Morehead’s share of the gains totaled more than $850 million, the letter said.
The letter asked Mr. Morehead to share information related to those transactions, including the names of his tax advisers. It also asked him to share a list of any assets he sold while a resident of Puerto Rico, including cryptocurrencies.
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