Twitter will pay a $150 million penalty and put in new safeguards to settle federal regulators' allegations that the social platform failed to protect the privacy of users' data over a six-year span.

The Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission announced the settlement on Wednesday with Twitter. The regulators allege that Twitter violated a 2011 FTC order by deceiving users about how well the company maintained and protected the privacy and security of their nonpublic contact information.

The government alleged that the violations occurred from May 2013 to September 2019.

“Twitter obtained data from users on the pretext of harnessing it for security purposes but then ended up also using the data to target users with ads,” FTC Chair Lina Khan said in a statement. “This practice affected more than 140 million Twitter users, while boosting Twitter’s primary source of revenue.”

A milestone environmental measure designed to tap the brakes on the spread of cryptocurrency mining operations burning fossil fuels in New York has passed the state legislature.

The closely watched bill approved early Friday by the state Senate would establish a two-year moratorium on new and renewed air permits for fossil fuel power plants used for energy-intensive “proof-of-work” cryptomining.

Proof-of-work is the blockchain-based algorithm used by bitcoin and some other cryptocurrencies.

The bill, which supporters say is the first of its kind, now goes to Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul for consideration. The governor has said she wants to make sure any legislation balances economic and environmental concerns.

Environmentalists who lobbied for the bill said natural gas-burning power plants being used for cryptomining operations threaten the state’s ability to meet its long-term climate goals.

Supporters of the cryptocurrency industry said the measure would crimp economic development in New York. The Blockchain Association, an industry group, said it would simply prompt mining operations to move to other states.

Cryptocurrency mining requires specialized computers that consume huge amounts of energy.

One study calculated that as of November 2018, bitcoin’s annual electricity consumption was comparable to Hong Kong’s in 2019, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

Some miners are looking for ways to reduce their reliance on fossil fuels to produce the necessary electricity.

A coalition of environmental groups has separately been urging the Hochul administration to deny the air permit renewal for Greenidge Generation in the Finger Lakes, which also produces power for the state's electricity grid. A decision could come at the end of the month.

This measure, if signed into law, would not affect pending applications like the one from Greenidge.

The measure also would require the state Department of Environmental Conservation to perform an environmental impact assessment on how cryptomining affect the state’s ability to meet its climate goals.

Additional reporting by The Associated Press.

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Stocks fell broadly in afternoon trading on Wall Street Tuesday, extending a slump for the major indexes as investors continue to worry about the state of the economy.

The S&P 500 fell 1.5% as of 12:01 p.m. Eastern. More than 85% of stocks in the benchmark index fell in the weak opening following a long weekend for the Independence Day holiday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 562 points, or 1.8%, to 30,532 and the Nasdaq fell 0.3%.

Small-company stocks also fell. The Russell 2000 shed 1.2%.

Energy companies had some of the biggest losses as U.S. oil prices fell 8.1%. Exxon Mobil shed 4%.

Banks also fell significantly, along with bond yields. The yield on the 10-year Treasury, which helps set mortgage rates, fell to 2.79% from 2.90% late Friday. JPMorgan Chase fell 2.3%.

European markets were also lower.

Stocks remain in a slump that pulled the S&P 500 into a bear market last month, meaning an extended decline of 20% or more from a recent peak. The market's performance in the first half of 2022 was the worst since the first six months of 1970.

Inflation has been squeezing businesses and consumers throughout the year, but tightened its grip after Russia invaded Ukraine in February. The invasion sent oil prices higher globally and sent gasoline prices in the U.S. to record highs. That prompted a pullback in spending from consumers struggling with higher prices on everything from food to clothing.

Lockdowns in China from rising COVID-19 cases have also made supply chain problems worse.

Central banks have been raising interest rates in an attempt to temper inflation. The Federal Reserve has been aggressive in its shift from historically low-interest rates at the height of the pandemic to unusually big rate increases. But, that has raised concerns that the central bank could go too far in raising rates and hitting the brakes too hard on economic growth, which could bring on a recession.

Wall Street has been closely watching the latest economic updates for more clues on how inflation is impacting the economy and whether that could shift the Fed's position on rate hikes. Wall Street will get a closer look at the employment market on Friday when the government releases employment data for June.

Investors are also looking ahead to the next round of corporate earnings for a clearer picture of inflation's impact. Several big companies recently warned that their financial results are being squeezed by inflation, including spice and seasonings maker McCormick.

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Stock indexes are mixed on Wall Street in afternoon trading Thursday as more big companies report quarterly results.

The S&P 500 fell 0.4% as of 3:25 p.m. Eastern. Roughly 60% of stocks within the benchmark index gained ground, but slides in several big technology stocks more than offset hose gains.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq fell 1.4%. Facebook's parent company, Meta Platforms, plummeted 24.3% after reporting a second straight quarter of revenue decline amid falling advertising sales and stiff competition from TikTok. It joins other tech and communications stocks, such as Google's parent company, Alphabet, and Microsoft, in reporting weak results and worrisome forecasts over advertising demand.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 293 points, or 0.9%, to 32,132. Construction equipment maker Caterpillar jumped 8.2% and contributed greatly to the index's gains after it handily beat analysts' third-quarter profit forecasts.

Long-term Treasury yields fell. The yield on the 10-year Treasury, which influences mortgage rates, fell to 3.96% from 4.01% late Wednesday. The two-year yield fell to 4.35% from 4.42%.

"What you're seeing is a little bit of relief," said Megan Horneman, chief investment officer at Verdence Capital Advisors. "Earnings are not great but they're not awful either."

The benchmark S&P 500 is still holding on to weekly gains and remains solidly on track to end October in the green.

Earnings have been the big focus for Wall Street this week, but markets got some encouraging economic news Thursday as the government reported the U.S. economy returned to growth last quarter, expanding 2.6%. That marks a turnaround after the economy contracted during the first half of the year.

The economy has been under pressure from stubbornly hot inflation and the Federal Reserve's efforts to raise interest rates in order to cool prices. The central bank is trying to slow economic growth through rate increases, but the strategy risks going too far and brining on a recession.

The rising interest rates have made borrowing more difficult, particularly with mortgage rates. Average long-term U.S. mortgage rates topped 7% for the first time in more than two decades this week.

The latest economic data is being closely watched for any signs of a slowdown or that inflation might be easing as Wall Street tries to determine if and when the Fed might pull back on its interest rate increases.

The central bank is expected to raise interest rates another three-quarters of a percentage point at its upcoming meeting in November. But traders have grown more confident that it will dial down to a more modest increase of 0.50 percentage points in December, according to CME Group.

Central banks around the world have also been raising interest rates in an effort to tame inflation. The European Central Bank piled on another outsized interest rate hike on Thursday. Markets in Europe were mixed.

Wall Street has more earnings to review later Thursday. Internet retail giant Amazon and iPhone maker Apple report results after the market closes. Exxon Mobil will report its latest financial results on Friday.

___

Joe McDonald and Matt Ott contributed to this report.

Friday, U.S. Sen. Ed Markey of Massachusetts insisted that Twitter reveal its process for verifying users who pay for a subscription.

A Washington Post reporter, with Markey's permission, set up a fake account impersonating the Senator under the username @realedmarkey.

After paying the subscription fee the account received a blue verification mark, The Hill reported.

In a letter from Markey to Twitter's new CEO, Elon Musk, the Senator heavily criticized the platform's process and launch of the new feature which allows users to pay for a blue check mark that is meant to verify their authenticity.

Twitter appeared to have paused the program shortly after the Washington Post ran the test.

Sen. Markey wrote in a letter, “Allowing an imposter to impersonate a U.S. Senator on Twitter is a serious matter that you need to address promptly.”

Markey asked Musk to respond to his inquiry by Nov. 25 regarding how an impersonation was allowed.

CNBC and other outlets said that Twitter did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the matter.

Warner Bros. Discovery is reportedly close to deciding on the name "Max" for their planned combination of the HBO Max and Discovery+ streaming services.

The company plans to merge the two streaming services in the spring according to a report from CNBC.

The report says lawyers are currently vetting the name that executives with the company have chosen. The combined platform would contain content from brands including HBO, Discovery and DC Comics.

CNBC previously reported that executives from the company had been looking for a new name for the combined streaming services.

As The Verge reported, pricing for the new service has not been announced yet.

The company wants to increase their subscription base and improve profitability, while also choosing a name that doesn't overshadow the other branded content offerings.

Holiday travelers may notice that the TSA has been expanding the use of facial recognition technology. It's now at more than a dozen airports across the country.

The agency says it's evaluating the efficiency of this technology before taking it nationwide.

The technology matches your face to the ID a passenger provides at security.

The agency is also testing another system, on a more limited scale, where a person's face is their ID. The machine compares a person's face to a database of pictures the government already has. With new technology also comes new concerns.

"There's a consent aspect, there's a privacy aspect, and there's a security aspect that really needs to be considered a lot more thoughtfully before TSA moves forward with any of this," said India McKinney, director of federal affairs with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital rights group.

McKinney contends there are more privacy protections around the machine checking a person's ID than there are with the system that scans a traveler's face. She notes that the machine checking an ID does not have to be connected to the internet.

McKinney also says it's a mistake to assume the technology will work 100% of the time for everyone.

The TSA said it's continuing to monitor its systems to ensure there is no inherent bias. The agency adds use is voluntary.

"The question, when they say something is voluntary is, how easy is it to opt out? And we've gotten conflicting reports on exactly how easy that is," McKinney contends.

She believes it's going to be up to Congress to make sure people continue to have the ability to opt-out.

Apps are playing an increasingly important role in schools.

“Edtech apps have become incredibly popular. Part of it was the pandemic,” said Kris Astle, an education strategist at SMART Technologies. The company grows technologies that help teachers collaborate with students.

However, with this growing use, there are some security concerns.

A recent study found that 96% of K-12 edtech apps share children's personal data with third parties, according to Internet Safety Labs. The December 2022 report sampled 663 schools in all 50 states.

About 78% of the time this personal information was shared with advertising and monetization entities, the report found.

“When we think about bringing apps into the classroom for kids, it's really understanding what data is being collected, where is this data going, and what is the potential risk that we’re opening our kids up to,” Astle said.

She said there’s a balance between using apps to maximize the learning experience and learning about the apps themselves.

“One of the things we can do to protect this data and protect students is to think about the tools that are being used and make sure we’re not duplicating functionality. Any time we have multiple apps that are doing the same thing, that’s more information out there in more spaces,” said Astle.

Experts say parents and school administrators should consider the following when it comes to data privacy:

• What data is being shared
• Where is it being stored
• Is it encrypted
• How long is it stored for

“Can I have my data erased? If I leave the district and my student is no longer using this tool, do I have the ability to do that,” Astle said.

Next time you download an education app, make sure to ask questions about your privacy.

RIVERSIDE, Calif. — Gerson Lemus has been cutting hair for about 10 years.

“I say it found me more than I found it,” said Lemus.

People come to his shop, J’Bez barbershop in Riverside, Cailfornia, to get a fresh haircut and feel good about their appearance.

But when you sit down on the couch, you might feel something else.

It’s not an ordinary couch. It’s a speaker.

“I felt the music, so it was cool, it was cool,” said customer Jeremiah Mittchell, who was sitting on the couch.

“I like the fact that you can feel the noise while you’re there, and people can feel what 5d audio. I try to explain it, but it’s hard to get it through words, so you sit down on the couch, and you can experience it,” said Lemus.

It is hard to explain. So I just put the camera down on the couch, and you can see how much it vibrates as the music plays.

It’s a unique experience, all made possible by this guy, Ethan Castro, and his team at Edge Sound Research.

“Sound is vibration, so if you can control vibrations, you can control sounds and most of reality, right? So that’s essentially what we do, are we take advantage of vibration to make things seem really, really real,” said Castro.

He says those vibrations can help those who are deaf or have hearing issues experience the world more like those that can hear. He knows all about it.

“I was born premature, and that led to me having issues that caused me to be hard of hearing,” said Castro, “As I got older, it became more apparent that I was really missing half of all words that were being said or I couldn’t understand what people were saying as much as I knew someone was talking, but I didn’t know what they were saying.”

That’s what drives him to create products that can help the estimated 10 million people in the U.S. that are hard of hearing and the one million functionally deaf Americans according to the Survey of Income and Program Participation.

Castro hopes this technology can help people with hearing issues feel like they belong.

“When we invented it all together at UC Riverside, and I finally turned it on for the first time, I started feeling the music through my body like directly. I remember I was a little overwhelmed by trying to contend with my emotions of just like, hey, I don’t have to struggle anymore. I don’t have to worry anymore of trying so hard to try to fit in,” he said.

The classic problems cities face are poverty, traffic, public safety, energy and water. Some are turning to technology in hopes of addressing some of those issues. 

"There is this desperate need for improving living conditions," said Philip Bane, managing director of the Smart Cities Council.

He's part of an organization dedicated to helping cities navigate smart city technologies — a billion dollar global industry.

"Nashville is doing something where they're putting in sensors to measure water flow in all these places it could be dangerous," Bane said. 

Nashville — prone to urban flooding — is installing thousands of sensors for early warning detection.

"How does that flooding affect someone who's disabled, or who's an immigrant and doesn't speak English," Bane asked. "That's the key to being smart. It's not that you collect the data. It's what you do with it."

Homayra Yusufi is a refugee from Afghanistan who is now an advocate, alarmed by a program in San Diego that was paused over privacy concerns. Streetlights were equipped with LED bulbs, cameras and sensors that were capable of monitoring air quality and optimizing traffic and parking. It promised to pay for itself through energy cost savings.

"Our communities have historically been affected by over-surveillance, especially after September 11," Yusufi said. "We had never heard of the lights. They were not only installed — thousands throughout San Diego — but they had also given exclusive access to the police department, which did not have a use policy."

The program was costing taxpayers millions of dollars more than expected. Community groups joined together calling for oversight and transparency about what it does with the data.

San Diego is now developing new policies with input from organizations, privacy advocates and technology experts. Yusufi hopes as interest grow in other cities, privacy is top of mind.

This story was originally published by Amanda Brandeis of Newsy.

Netflix is raising prices for its video streaming customers in the U.S. and Canada, less than a year and a half after its last price increase.

The move comes as competition from other streaming services ramps up.

The company said Friday that prices are going up depending on the plan. The "standard" plan that most people subscribe to is increasing by $1.50, to $15.50. The Canadian version is going up by the same amount in their local currency, to $16.50 Canadian dollars.

Price increases are becoming more of a regular feature at Netflix, which is facing saturation in the U.S. market. Of Netflix's 213.5 million subscribers, some 74 million are in the U.S. and Canada.

Netflix received an influx of global subscribers early in the pandemic, but is investing in video games as it looks beyond movies and TV for growth.

In the U.S., Netflix's most expensive plan is increasing and the platform's basic plan is up too. The plans vary based on options like the number of screens users can watch Netflix on at the same time and the number of phones or tablets that can download content.

The company still mails out DVDs in a service that requires a separate plan.

Netflix will tell customers by email and inside the Netflix app before the new price is applied to them. Customers in New York, Alabama and Louisiana also got hit with a new local sales tax bill, which Netflix says was because of the addition of video games to the service.

Raising prices carries the risk that people will cancel. Netflix remains the dominant U.S. streaming service, but others, such as HBO Max and Disney+, have increased in popularity.

This story was originally published by Dave Briggs of Newsy, and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

How your food gets to you and where it comes from is shifting.

“It pretty much goes back to the 1950s and 60s. It was pizza companies and Chinese food companies that were trying to get an edge on other types of food delivery,” said Amanda Belarmino, an assistant professor at the William F. Harrah College of Hospitality at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

Tech has made that easier for restaurants of every kind.

“It’s actually one of the oldest businesses to not be impacted by technology, but that’s changing very quickly,” said Alex Canter, CEO and co-founder of Nextbite. “The way that e-commerce came in and changed retail and people shop online now and order products and services on Amazon or through Instagram, whatever is being targeted to them, the same thing is happening for food.”

Nextbite was one of the dozens of companies showcasing their business at the Food on Demand Conference, a space for cutting edge food delivery tech.

“This is the fourth year of the Food on Demand Conference. It’s actually been growing substantially year over year.”

“Online ordering has taken such a big place in the priority for restaurants when they’re looking at technology,” said Hadi Rashid, the co-founder of Lunchbox.

“People are having this desire for restaurant-quality food. There also sometimes comes this desire to not leave the house at the same time,” Belarmino said.

She has done research on the sharing economy and consumer behavior with meal delivery services.

“More and more restaurants feel that they need to be on the apps in order for their visibility, just like we saw that happen with social media,” she said.

The food delivery market has more than tripled since 2017, according to stats from management consulting firm McKinsey & Company. The food delivery global market has a worth of more than $150 billion.

“We’ve seen a rapid marketplace acceptance,” Belarmino said.

It’s not just your favorite brick and mortar restaurant that’s having to adapt. The doors have opened to a whole new space for ghost kitchens and virtual restaurants.

“There’s a new type of restaurant called a virtual restaurant, which is essentially a restaurant that only exists online. Which means there's no physical storefront or building you can walk into and order or eat at a place under this name,” Canter explained.

Nextbite has a portfolio of these delivery-only restaurants. They partner with brick and mortar restaurants across the U.S. to use their kitchen space and staff to operate these virtual restaurants.

“The rent is fixed, the lights are already on, the staff is already in the kitchen, whether you're doing one brand or multiple brands,” he said.

There’s a growing share of ghost kitchens, too. A similar concept, but they operate out of industrial kitchen spaces that might host multiple virtual brands.

“Ghost kitchens in the 2020s are kind of what food trucks are 10 years ago,” Belarmino said.

She said the food delivery industry may still have some adjusting to do.

“We might see some changes in fees for the consumer. In a lot of places, there's no delivery fee or a dollar delivery fee, and that may start to increase so that restaurants can get a little more profit back for it,” she said.

All this change comes at a time when restaurants have been working to get back on their feet from the pandemic.

“This is a very exciting time for the restaurant industry because there's so much innovation happening, but it's also a very devastating time. Lots of restaurant owners are struggling,” Canter said.

“This is going to be the future of food delivery and restaurants,” Belarmino said.

As winter approaches, schools are preparing for a number of illnesses in addition to COVID-19.

“Since we especially didn't see a flu season last season, we’re on the ready for a potentially severe influenza season. Particularly because of circulation of COVID,” said Dr. Sara Saporta-Keating, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at Children’s Hospital Colorado, Colorado Springs.

But schools are more prepared than before after balancing education with pandemic safety.

“Push this button and it will turn on -- like this -- and if it's green that means you’re good,” 7-year-old Lexi Ansardi said. She is a second grader at Centennial Elementary School. Every morning, she checks her temperature and with the help of her mom, Ann. She can keep track of her health on an app.

“I am concerned about flu, COVID of course, but this app, it actually gives you ideas about what might be happening with your student depending on the fever,” Ann Ansardi said. “It really gives the parents a way of knowing what's going on in the building in terms of health.”

Most families at this elementary school are using these thermometers consistently through something called the FLUency program -- a free program to reduce the spread of illness in schools through health technology company Kinsa.

“It is an initiative to stop the spread of illness in classrooms to help the entire community know more about what symptoms and illnesses are going around,” Nita Nehru, vice president of communications at Kinsa, said.

“On a population level, we’re able to understand where symptoms are starting and how fast they are spreading,” she explained. Nehru said the app provides anonymous, aggregated information on what symptoms and illnesses are going around in any given classroom, school, or community.

“It’s a way of reducing some of your clinic load for school nurses,” she said. “Schools, right now, are really acting as that first line of defense, and that’s just not sustainable.”

With the app, it’s easier for schools to see multiple cases of illness at the onset, leading to more accurate decisions about when to temporarily go to remote learning or distance kids more.

“Once you put the app in, you have a running tally of what your illness and your child has looked like…and you take that right to the doctor with you,” Ann Ansardi said.

Pediatric doctors are prepared for what they could see this season.

“What we have been doing to mitigate COVID can also be helpful for mitigating flu. So the first thing is good hand washing, another thing is making sure that if you're ill you don't go to work or school. And then getting vaccinated if you're able to against the flu particularly, as well as COVID,” Dr. Saporta-Keating said. She said she is also seeing higher rates of more common respiratory viruses.

“Usually we see those later in the season, so really it's important for schools again to be making sure they understand what’s going on,” she explained.

Centennial Elementary School principal Kim Noyes said the FLUency program has been a huge help in detecting potential outbreaks.

“The vast majority of our school and our families are using the digital thermometer and I think that has led to very low incidents of illness in our school,” she said.

All it takes is a little participation from students and families.

“If one person is sick, a whole bunch of other people can get sick. So if you're sick, this helps,” Lexi said.

As we move into the winter months, Noyes feels prepared. “We can't control the future but we can take every single preventative step possible,” she said.

Bitcoin rallied to a record Wednesday, topping $66,000 for the first time, amid a wave of excitement about how the financial establishment increasingly accepts the digital currency's rise.

Bitcoin was trading at $66,439, up 5.9%, as of 12:40 p.m. ET, after earlier climbing as high as $66,974.77.

It has roared back after sinking below $30,000 during the summer to top its prior record set in April. That previous all-time high was nearly $64,889, according to CoinDesk.

The surge has come as more businesses, professional investors, and even the government of El Salvador buy into Bitcoin, further broadening its base beyond its initial core of fanatics.

 

The latest converts came into the world of crypto on Tuesday, when the first exchange-traded fund linked to Bitcoin found massive interest from investors.

Shares of the ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF changed hands 24.1 million times in a resounding debut.

ProShares, an exchange trading company, listed an ETF that tracks Bitcoin futures on the New York Stock Exchange, the New York Times reported.

“2021 will be remembered for this milestone,” said Michael Sapir, the C.E.O. of ProShares, in an interview with the news outlet.

It was off to another strong start Wednesday, with volume topping 19.6 million within the first three hours of trading.

The ETF doesn’t invest directly in Bitcoin. It instead invests in the futures market tied to Bitcoin, but the industry sees the ETF bringing in a new class of investors.

Someone with an old-school brokerage account can buy the ETF, for example, without opening a trading account for crypto.

Investors are getting more interested in Bitcoin because they always look for assets whose prices move independently of everything else in their portfolios.

One school of thought says Bitcoin can offer investors protection from high inflation, and some fans see it as akin to “digital gold,” though it doesn't have a long track record to back that up.

More high-minded fans say digital assets are simply the future of finance, allowing transactions to sidestep intermediaries and fees with a currency that’s not beholden to any government.

Cryptocurrencies are still very far from winning over everyone, though. Critics point to how they're still not widely used as forms of payment. They also criticize how much energy is used by the cryptosystem, which adds to climate-changing emissions.

The biggest threat, meanwhile, is all the regulatory scrutiny shining on it.

Veronica De La Cruz at Newsy first reported this story.

CLEVELAND — It’s not a secret, and the tech industry has a problem.

“It’s always been pretty abysmal,” said David Ferreira.

For David Ferreira, tech’s diversity issues are more than numbers. It’s his experience.

“I went off to college. I was the only Black person in my program there for four years," he said, “Being the only representation of my race.”

When he reached the professional world, things got a little better. He was no longer the only Black person he worked with. But Black people and other minorities were still wildly underrepresented.

White people represent 60% of the US population but 78% of the tech world. Minority groups in tech make up just over half (22%) of where they stand in the real world (40%).

Tech Elevator, a coding boot camp company where David is an instructor, is trying to make a dent in those numbers.

“Here at Tech Elevator, because we have that scholarship that we talked about, we can actually just make it seem that the workforce in our classroom matches what society looks like,” said Ferreira.

Tech Elevator’s Represent Tech Scholarship is available to anyone a member of an underrepresented group in the industry.

So far, it’s paid for all or almost all of 135 students’ tuition through the program. Those recipients have gone on to make a combined $337 million, according to the company.

Jasmine Brown had been looking for a change after spending seven years as a speech therapist.

“With speech pathology, there really isn’t too much to do other than being a speech therapist. It wasn’t horrible, but I didn’t feel the field, and the passion wasn’t there,” said Brown.

85% of her tuition is taken care of because of the scholarship.

“That was the only way I was going to be able to come, was with the scholarship," she said.

She loves the program but growing up, and she never saw this career as an option.

“When I was younger it was just something I didn’t really think about just probably because I didn’t see myself represented,” said Brown, “I have a lot of families that’s in education social work, things like that and so it just seemed natural to go that way,”

She didn’t have an example or role model in this world, so she never thought it was an option.

The hope is this scholarship will help build the pool of qualified coders, so diversity in tech can grow. And tech elevator isn’t the only one offering scholarships.

A quick search on bestcolleges.com shows 25 scholarships available to minorities and the same number to women.

“You have that network starting to build of candidates who are used to and willing to vouch and reach out to folks of different backgrounds,” said Ferreira.

While the pace of change is still slow, Tech Elevator hopes to make the industry look more like the world we live in.

Imagine going to work, talking to your co-workers, and collaborating in an office space without actually leaving your dining room table.

“It literally just feels like you're in another world,” said Renji Bijoy, the founder of Immersed.

Bijoy and the rest of the team at Immersed are creating an office away from the office, so to speak.

“Say you have your laptop and your headset, you can go to your couch, your porch, on the road, and you'll have all the screens around you,” he explained.

It’s more than just a room. Inside this headset, you can customize your workspace -- coffee shop, conference room, you name it.

“This is called the space lounge. It’s just a really cool space lounge environment,” Gavin Menichini, another employee at Immersed, demonstrated.

And you have the flexibility to have multiple screens with the flick of a hand.

“Kind of like Jedi Star Wars with the force, I can click and grab these monitors and I can move them around left and right. I can pinch and expand them to make them bigger, make them smaller,” Menichini said.

So why VR for work? Beyond remote capabilities, Bijoy said it boils down to productivity and focus.

“We have sort of this, I guess, short attention span world that now all of us and our kids now live in, and we feel like Immersed is going to retrain the human brain so that we can get people to be more focused,” he said. “I feel like we don't have to look at technology as this negative connotation or this thing that's kind of screwing up and frying our brains. It’s something that can enhance humans.”

The virtual reality industry is gaining traction. Tech companies like Facebook are investing in research.

“Back in 2012 through 2014, there was a lot of hype around VR, but then there were a lot of technological obstacles. People were getting headaches and things like that, and a lot of people rushing that space,” Bijoy said.

The hardware, Bijoy said, is catching up.

“This is like in the next second-ish years as far as glasses being a thing. You can put them on to teleport to an office.”

In a way, the pandemic accelerated the possibilities.

“When the pandemic hit, more people were just exploring virtual office-type solutions,” Bijoy said.

For leaders like Aaron Miri, two-dimensional communication may not be enough.

“Tech, although it's a great augmenter, is not a replacement for that one to one communication, but VR can negate that and really eliminate that 2D screen in front of you because you really do feel like someone is sitting across from you talking to you,” said Aaron Miri, Chief Information Officer at the University of Texas at Austin Dell Medical School.

He says VR is critical moving forward.

“These tools are critical for us because it allow us to experiment and talk to each other and give a different level of dynamic engagement just like we’re doing here, as opposed to sitting at home behind a two-dimensional screen,” he said.

Beyond productivity, Immersed has a way for you to collaborate with coworkers in real-time, too.

“If I wanted to join Caleb, all I have to do is hover over his name, and then I can press the ‘join room’ button if Caleb is in an open collaboration room. Simple as that. It's going to spawn me into his room with Caleb,” Menichini explained.

Bijoy said they do face some setbacks.

“There are a lot of barriers to entry for even just getting a user to get a headset, or just turning on the app and getting into the app together with their team,” he said.

However, he believes there are endless opportunities for VR as an added option for businesses to collaborate and have location flexibility.

“We 100% anticipate there being a hybrid approach moving forward. We don’t think things will snap back just like to the way it was before COVID, where employers don't allow people to work from home. I think this past year and a half has enabled people to see the freedom that's possible through working from home,” Bijoy said.

The packing and shipping of a third COVID-19 vaccine approved for use in the U.S. is underway. Johnson & Johnson’s single-dose shot will start going into Americans’ arms in a matter of days.

Nearly 4 million doses are going out just this week. That's all of the current supply.

The number of doses states are getting is proportional to population, like with the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.

Johnson & Johnson’s CEO says he's confident the company will be able to deliver on its promise of 100 million doses by June, and up to 1 billion by the end of the year.

“Johnson &Johnson built its vaccine from a virus that causes the common cold, known as adenovirus,” said Dr. Leo Nissola, a COVID Act Now medical advisor.

The science behind Johnson & Johnson's single-dose COVID-19 vaccine and the Moderna and Pfizer two-shot vaccines is different, but not new.

Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine takes a small amount of genetic material from the coronavirus and combines it with a weakened version of a common cold virus called adenovirus. That combination doesn't make us sick.

Adenovirus technology was also used to make Ebola and tuberculosis vaccines.

Pfizer and moderna use mRNA technology, which uses a genetic code to make the antigen protein specific to COVID-19. This code tells our body to make the antigen itself, prompting an immune response.

“The messenger RNA platform allows for scientists and drug makers to update the coding on these vaccines sooner, faster and at a different pace than adenovirus vectored vaccine, so in that sense, should we need a boost, our immune shot very likely will come from those mRNA based platforms,” said Dr. Nissola.

Pfizer and Moderna are already testing a third, booster shot to protect against COVID-19 variants.

Meanwhile, Johnson & Johnson may have the advantage of one and done for now, since it only requires a single dose. It can be stored for months in a refrigerator.

All three were found to be highly effective in preventing severe disease and death.

“It makes me hopeful that by summer, we will be able to vaccinate millions and millions of people and have a little bit more normalcy back,” said Dr. Nissola.

The J&J vaccine is also expected to boost vaccination equity since it's only one dose and is easier to store.