For NPR, I spent months trying to figure out why Salesforce CEO Benioff bought 100s of acres of land in Hawaii. He used anon LLCs to buy it, but in a small town locals still noticed. To get thru reporting, I read many great articles about Benioff and Hawaii, so I'm sharing some:
I learned about a new feature Lyft quietly rolled out a few months ago. Drivers hate it. It's called priority mode and Lyft pitches it to drivers as a way to "stay busy... We'll prioritize you over other drivers." But it comes with a 10% pay cut. cnet.co/3sNXu2w
Op-eds are popping up in Black and Latinx newspapers across the country. They're written by local orgs and say Uber/Lyft are a "lifeline" and "empower" drivers.
Turns out, a multimillion-dollar PR scheme is behind those op-eds. The latest fr me & @tenuous
Breaking: New lawsuit says #Prop22 violates CA constitution. "I'm confident the court will see Prop22 for the corporate power grab that it is... Prop22 will live in infamy along with unconstitutional ballot measures like Prop8 and Prop187," says a driver cnet.co/3nFrYQt
Iām joining NPR as a tech reporter and canāt be more excited ššš
Iāll be covering the industryās power and influence on our lives and am thrilled for the opportunity to work with NPR's exceptional team.
If you have any tips or leads, my DMs are open, get at me!
I spoke to 5 Uber/Lyft drivers, or their families, who were carjacked. The stories will haunt me. It's not just the attacks, it's the aftermath. No help from Uber/Lyft, severe injuries and drowning in bills with no way to work. This is being a gig worker.
I donāt have enough words for how great this podcast is. It gets at how contentious land is in Hawaii and why local people have often been left out. It's also so fun to listen to
Hosted by @RkThaStorytella
Breaking: Uber is hit with a class action lawsuit over "female riders that have experienced rape, sexual assault or gender-motivated harassment at the hands of their Uber drivers"
While reporting a story on Amazon warehouse workers with COVID, I did a public records request with Californiaās division of OSHA to see how many COVID-related worker deaths and hospitalizations Amazon reported in the state throughout the pandemic.
The answer: zero
Another Toronto driver said priority mode caused a 20% drop in his earnings. "We joke that our nickname for priority mode is 'poverty mode,'" he said. "Of all the things I've seen Uber and Lyft do, this is the ickiest."
.@CivilBeat is doing amazing on-the-ground investigative reporting in Hawaii. My favorite columnist there @nakanathaniel covers everything from billionaires buying land to Hawaiians leaving the state. His writing is so thoughtful and searing civilbeat.org/2024/01/naka-nā¦
