In a continuing campaign against Chasidic Jews, yet another Williamsburg resident found themselves the focus of harassment linked with the disreputable measles outbreak. Last Thursday afternoon, an Uber driver reportedly made an obscene measles-related comment to a 23-year old female passenger, who was dressed in traditional Chassidic garb.

The victim and her husband, who chose to be identified only by their last name, Krausz, said the incident took place close to 5:30 in the afternoon. Mr. Krausz called an Uber for his wife, so that she could pick up their son from a relative’s house. The driver was given a pickup location of Kent Avenue and Wallabout Street. As reported by VIN News, as Mrs. Krausz entered the Uber, the driver blatantly remarked “You are of those [obscenity] measles people.”

Mrs. Krausz relates, “At first, when I heard the statement, I wasn’t sure who he was talking to.” Mrs. Krausz, her husband and their children are all vaccinated. Mr. Krausz too heard the obscenity over the phone, and he stayed on the call until his wife arrived at her destination, as he was undoubtedly anxious and concerned about her safety.

The driver, identified on the Uber app as Anthony, made no further negative comments during the ride. Still, Mrs. Krausz said that the half mile trip took nearly twice as long as usual. She said it seemed to her as though the driver was intentionally slowing down in an effort to miss every traffic light.

Though rightfully shaken by the incident, Mrs. Krausz tried to downplay it and give the driver the benefit of a doubt. “Maybe the driver was having a hard day,” said Mrs. Krausz. “And there is a lot of misinformation out there about Chasidim and vaccinations.

Mr. Krausz reported the incident and also contacted Yossi Gestetner of the Orthodox Jewish Public Affairs Council. Gestetner shared the story on Twitter, tagging Uber in his tweet. His efforts drew responses from the company and the TLC, who have both launched investigations into the occurrence. Last week, OJPAC also took out a billboard in Times Square to raise awareness about the high vaccination rate in the Chasidic community, hoping to counter the overwhelming misinformation and all the negative attention. The billboard, located above Ripley’s Believe it or Not!, simply states, “96% Hasidim Vaccinate. Do you?”

Mayor Bill de Blasio took a firm stand supporting the Jewish community. “Don’t ever accept bigotry like this. You have your rights and your city has your back. Thank you to @NYCTaxi for your swift action in investigating this incident. Anti-Semitism has no home in this town,” he tweeted in response to the incident.

Maybe it was Queens itself, but after abandoning plans to build a headquarters in Long Island City, Amazon is now said to be contemplating coming to the Big Apple after all.

The mammoth company is now reported to be searching for office space on Manhattan’s West Side. “The tech giant has been in talks with owners of two shiny new skyscrapers located just one block west of Penn Station — the newly built One Manhattan West and its soon-to-be sister project, Two Manhattan West,” sources told The New York Post. “The online retailer is seeking “at least 100,000 square feet or much more” — just to start, one well-placed source said.”

Rumor has it that Amazon personnel have their eye on a pair of office buildings situated just west of Penn Station: One Manhattan West and Two Manhattan West. The tech giant is said to be looking for something in excess of 100,000 square feet.

“That footprint is significantly smaller than the 4 million to 8 million square feet of space Amazon planned to build out for its HQ2 project,” Slate magazine has reported. “But the fact that the company is still planning to grow its New York presence without a large, specially crafted subsidy package seems to prove the basic point many of the deal’s critics made, which is that major cities with large pools of business and engineering talent do not need to stoop to corporate welfare in order to attract major tech companies, which tend to go where they can find enough employees.”

In point of fact, midtown was the first area considered when Amazon said it was searching for New York real estate. “But the tech giant went for Long Island City, where it was planning to build a 4 million square foot campus around Anable Basin,” reported ny.curbed.com. “The backlash was swift and loud, and ultimately, Amazon pulled out of the deal.

There is, the web site pointed out, “no indication that Amazon’s search for New York office space will be on par with what it had planned for HQ2: a hub for 25,000 employees, along with investments in public infrastructure and new schools, that came with the promise of billions of dollars in subsidies.”

Mayor Bill de Blasio, whose campaign for the Democratic nomination for president is widely considered a joke, reportedly commented that he wouldn’t help Amazon expand its footprint in New York City. As a recent press conference, he noted, “It doesn’t surprise me at all but again, they’re going to have to do it on their own.”

A group of citizens worried over changes to their neighborhood is protesting a lobbyist’s attempt to develop real estate in the East Village. The local complain that such a move would mar and maybe even ruin the community’s character.

At issue: Real Estate Equities Corporation’s intention plans to get changes to zoning that would allow it to construct a 10-story, 175-foot-tall office tower at 3 St. Mark’s Place.

“To move forward with the plan, which would mean demolishing the now-shuttered punk rock haven, the Continental, as well as a neighboring building erected in the 19th century, the developer has enlisted the lobbying firm of Jim Capalino, a fundraiser for Mayor de Blasio and a player in several controversial land deals downtown,” New York Daily News reported.

“The mayor’s prodigious fundraiser, lobbyist Jim Capalino, is seeking favors from City Hall for his clients to lift restrictions and facilitate inappropriate development in the East Village,” Andrew Berman, executive director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation told the Daily News. “The number of projects this lobbying firm has gotten approvals for in this neighborhood is mind-boggling… Each new favor builds upon the next. First he got permission for an upzoning south of Union Square for an oversized ‘tech hub.’ Now he’s seeking air rights transfers to continue the spread of ‘Silicon Alley’ to St. Mark’s Place. The mayor’s pay-to-play practices are utterly transforming this neighborhood.”

The Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation addressed the issue on its web site, noting: “From the 14th Street Tech Hub upzoning to multiple towers up to 1,000 ft. tall that sidestepped zoning approvals, from a huge new hotel on East 11th Street for which five “landmark-eligible” buildings were demolished without objection by the City to lifting a deed restriction allowing housing for seniors with AIDS to become luxury condos, Capalino+Company has been one of the most successful lobbyists in New York City.”

Particularly in the East Village/Lower East Side, the group continued, “even as its principal has been one of the Mayor’s most prodigious fundraisers. As reported in today’s Daily News, this pattern of getting (or avoiding the need for) approvals from the City while supporting the Mayor’s fundraising activities is breathtaking in its scope. In this one community board, this lobbyist is shepherding through projects dramatically transforming the character of this neighborhood.”

The group’s statement concluded, “Capalino+Co. are seeking to build upon that success with approval of an air rights transfer on St. Marks Place that would allow a planned ‘boutique’ office tower to grow 20% larger than zoning normally allows. With the approval they also recently secured for the “Tech Hub” upzoning on 14th Street from the Mayor and City Council last year, the transformation of the area south of Union Square into an extension of ‘Silicon Alley’ and Midtown South is in full swing… Community Board #3 Manhattan has already opposed the transfer, as have State Senator Brad Hoylman and Assemblymember Deborah Glick. Borough President Gale Brewer, the Landmarks Preservation Commission, the City Planning Commission, and ultimately City Councilmember Carlina Rivera and the City Council will vote upon and decide whether or not this latest project is approved.”

Democrat wunderkind Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez went after the New York Times over the weekend, on fire over the paper’s take on former Trump administration staff member Hope Hicks complying – or not — with a subpoena as “Hope’s Choice.”

“What gets me is news breaks that this woman is weighing committing a crime before Congress & it’s getting framed by the NYT as some Lifetime drama called ‘Hope’s Choice’ ” Ocasio-Cortez pointed out on Twitter. “This is a fmr admin official considering participating in a coverup led by the President. Treat her equally.”

Printed in Thursday’s edition, the article referred to Hicks as among the “best-known but least visible” members of the White House. It also suggested that Hicks faced an “existential question” on the question of obeying or ignoring the subpoena.

It was nearly a week ago that the House Judiciary Committee sent subpoenas to both Hicks and Anne Donaldson, the one-time staff chief for ex-White House counsel Don McGahn. The aim was to get them to turn over documents and testify.

“This is a good example of bias in the @nytimes: a picture of a person who is considering not complying with a subpoena is basically a glam shot, and it’s framed as a thoughtful, perfectly equal choice,” tweeted Soledad O’Brien, the chief executive officer of Starfish Media Group.

Ocasio-Cortez followed with this tweet of her own: “Yup. Where’s the ‘no angel’ take now?… In the immediate aftermath of shootings, media routinely post menacing photos of people-of-color victims + dredge up any questionable thing they’d ever done. But when Hope Hicks considers not complying w a subpoena, it’s glamour shot time.”

“The article comes as the White House has been defying subpoenas from congressional committee investigating the Trump administration,” the New York Post reported, adding, “McGahn blew off a subpoena to testify before the House Judiciary Committee last week after the Trump administration said he had “immunity.” House Democrats are also considering dates for when the full House chamber would vote to hold Attorney General William Barr in contempt for not turning over to Congress a full, unredacted version of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report.”

Adding to the Twitter storm was Rolling Stone writer Jamil Smith. “There is nothing for Hope Hicks to ‘decide.’ She got a subpoena from Congress. Were she not white, wealthy, and connected, we wouldn’t be having this conversation. She would appear, or she would face the threat of prison like the rest of us. As she should.”

There have been 535 cases of measles confirmed as of May 23 since the beginning of the outbreak last October. The majority of cases (78%) remain confined to the neighborhood of Williamsburg (ZIP codes 11205, 11206, 11211, 11249), which has been under an Emergency Order since April 9, requiring people who live or work in these ZIP codes to be vaccinated with the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine (MMR). There have been 40 hospitalizations and 11 admissions to the ICU due to complications. In addition, outside of Williamsburg, there have now been 12 confirmed cases in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, which is an increase of four since the last public update on May 20.

“Williamsburg remains the epicenter of this outbreak, though we have seen some cases in people outside of the Orthodox Jewish community,” said Health Commissioner Dr. Oxiris Barbot. “Given the high vaccination rates in Sunset Park, we do not foresee sustained transmission in this neighborhood. However, measles is extremely contagious, and I strongly urge unvaccinated New Yorkers to immediately get the vaccine, unless there is a medical condition that prevents them from doing so. All New Yorkers should get vaccinated or confirm their immunity status with their doctor.”

The cases in Sunset Park are among individuals who do not identify as part of the Orthodox Jewish community. While the vaccination rate among children in this neighborhood is high, the Health Department will scale up community outreach in the area’s most commonly spoken languages to raise awareness and encourage vaccinations among children and adults. The Health Department will:

• Publish ads and distribute educational materials in English, Spanish and Chinese beginning next week.
• Conduct robocalls in English, Spanish and Mandarin.
• Engage with local leaders on events and other opportunities to inform people about the importance of vaccination as well as how to get vaccinated.

Individual Summonses

To stop the spread of measles in New York City, the Health Department on April 9 ordered adults and children ages 6 months and older who live, work or go to school in ZIP codes 11205, 11206, 11211 and 11249 receive a measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine within 48 hours. If non-compliant, the Health Department announced it would issue a civil summons to those in the affected ZIP codes who had not been vaccinated as of April 12.

To date, 122 individuals have received summonses for being non-compliant with the Emergency Order in ZIP codes 11205, 11206, 11211, and 11249 since the City began issuing summonses in mid-April. Any person receiving the summons is entitled to a hearing, and if the hearing officer upholds the summons, a $1,000 penalty will be imposed. Failing to appear at the hearing or respond to the summons will result in a $2,000 fine.

As of May 23, 25,510 doses of MMR have been administered to children 18 years and younger in Williamsburg and Borough Park since October 1, 2018, which is 11,387 more doses than the same time period last year. 12,238 of those individuals reside in Williamsburg, which is 6,298 more than last year.

For more information, New Yorkers can visit the Health Department’s Measles page.

Educators instructed to treat black students as “victims” and white students as members of the “privileged class”

Racism is reportedly alive and well in the ultra-liberal New York City public school system, as reports surface of teachers being instructed to put more focus on black students than white ones.

Still worse, colleagues are saying that a Jewish superintendent who talked about her family’s Holocaust experience was yelled at. humiliated and publicly embarrassed.

More: so-called “racial equity” necessarily means that black students should receive favored treatment over whites, a New York City Department of Education consultant reportedly suggested.

“If I had a poor white male student and I had a middle-class black boy, I would actually put my equitable strategies and interventions into that middle class black boy because over the course of his lifetime he will have less access and less opportunities than that poor white boy,” the consultant, Darnisa Amante, is alleged to have said, according to the New York Post. “That’s what racial equity is,” Amante explained.

Reaction from the president of the New York City Parents Union, Mona Davids, an African-American, was immediate. “It’s completely absurd — they want to treat black students as victims and punish white students. That defeats the purpose of what bias awareness training should be.”

“Anti-bias and equity trainings are about creating high expectations and improving outcomes for all of our students,” DOE spokesman Will Mantell pointed out in a prepared statement. “These trainings are used across the country because they help kids, and out-of-context quotes and anonymous allegations just distract from this important work.”

“The DOE’s anti-bias training — a $23 million mandatory program for all DOE employees — has irked some administrators, teachers and parents who contend parts are ugly and divisive,” the Post noted. “Four white female DOE executives demoted under Carranza’s new regime plan to sue the city for racial discrimination, claiming whiteness has become “toxic.”

Only days ago, it was reported that the very same New York City Department of Education had put the word out to teachers that “objectivity” and “individuals” are “white supremacist” concepts. “According to a report from the New York Times, Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza gave a presentation about “white supremacy” culture. In the lesson, Carranza claims that concepts like “perfectionism,” “paternalism,” and “objectivity” are part of “white supremacy culture,” Breitbart reported.

“Surprisingly, documents from Carranza’s presentation do little to tie these concepts to “white supremacy.” A graphic from Carranza’s lesson explains why “objectivity” is a negative concept. “This can lead to the belief that there is an ultimate truth and that alternative viewpoints or emotions are bad, it’s even inherent in the ‘belief that there is such a thing as being objective,’” the graphic reads,” the Breitbart piece continued.

Auction house Sotheby’s will be auctioning off what it calls “Important Judaica” beginning June 5th.

The lot includes a large number of rare and valuable artifacts from across the Jewish world. among the items, Sotheby’s said:

* An Isidor Kaufmann portrait of a rabbi with a young pupil, valued at $220,000

* An elaborately illustrated ketubah (marriage certificate) from Corfu, dating from 1796

* A silver-gilt hanging Shabbat lamp, from 18th century Germany, which is expected to fetch between $600,000 and $800,000.

* A pair of large Dutch parcel-gilt silver and filigree Torah finials (Hedde Buys of Shoonhoven, 1845)

* A pair of unusual English silver “chinoiserie” Torah finials, (John Robins, London, 1803)

* A collection of nearly 300 picture postcards of resorts in the Catskills area of New York, famously popular among Jews of New York between the 1940’s and 1970’s. Informally known as the “Borscht Belt” and the “Jewish Alps,” the Catskills were frequented every summer and during Jewish festivals by New York Jews, as antisemitism prevented them from vacationing elsewhere.

“Many of the postcards advertise all the different amenities on offer during this period, from sports facilities to the many forms of entertainment available,” noted The Jerusalem Post. “The 1987 film Dirty Dancing, as well as the second season of Amazon’s award-winning 1950s-set comedy The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, reflect on this era of American Jewish history.”

The upcoming auction is only one of several such auctions of Judaica that has been offered by the renowned auction house. In December, Sotheby’s presented a ketubah (Jewish marriage contract) dating from 1884 in Kingston, Jamaica. Officials said that while it regularly offers ketubot in its auctions, such a document from Jamaica is a first for the auction house and – it believes – the auction world as a whole, according to the Post.

The document “solemnized the marriage of David ben Abraham Nunes Henriques and Amy bat Alfred Delgado in Kingston on August 14, 1884, according to Sotheby’s. The auction house said the bride’s grandfather, Moses Delgado, was a significant figure in Jamaica’s Jewish community, and one of the leaders of the movement to grant full civil rights to Jews in the former British colony,” the paper added.

Earlier in 2018, Sotheby’s presented another trove of Jewish items. “A Sotheby’s auction is a forum of pure exchange, where the prices are so astronomical, and spent with such astounding speed, that they stop corresponding to any conceivable earthly value. The difference between a $15,000 pair of 18th-century Torah finials and a $20,000 pair of 18th-century Torah finials, sold within minutes of each other, is hopelessly abstract, although obviously the difference is also pretty concrete, namely $5,000,” Tablet magazine suggested. “Paying a quarter-million bucks for a single book, even a very beautiful or rare one, is an absurdity when you really get down to it, and yet at a Sotheby’s auction the coffee, and the drama, both come free of charge.”

Nothing says Memorial Day like a day at the beach, boardwalk or arcades in Coney Island.

In fact, many are hyping the amusement area’s comeback as a major triumph for New York City.

“Coney Island’s fun zone, which jumps into high gear Memorial Day weekend, marks a victory of civic order over urban chaos — a milestone as precious to the city as was the rebirth of “Slime Square,” the New York Post recently wrote. “The boardwalk and environs miraculously morphed from a creepy, 1980s grotesquerie-by-the sea into today’s easygoing pleasure zone that’s a blast for everyone. Like most of the Big Apple’s recent renaissance hot spots, this one owes itself to our most significant stroke of fortune since the early 1990s: the spectacular drop in crime — especially street crime.”

The Post’s feature story looked back in time to an era in which Coney Island was anything but a New York City bright spot. The arrival of low-income apartment buildings had sounded what was nearly the death knell for the South Brooklyn community. As the feature points out, “The boardwalk and environs miraculously morphed from a creepy, 1980s grotesquerie-by-the sea into today’s easygoing pleasure zone that’s a blast for everyone.”

Nothing makes the case for Coney Island’s resurgence better than crime figures. As the Post found out, “Not a single murder occurred in Coney Island in all of 2018, according to the NYPD. By comparison, the 60th Precinct — which includes Coney Island, Brighton Beach and Sea Gate — saw 21 homicides in 1990. The death toll didn’t tell the full story. While most victims weren’t Cyclone-riding thrill-seekers, but rather innocent residents of nearby housing projects, the lawlessness spilled into the amusement zone, including on the beach and boardwalk.”

The world famous Steeplechase Park amusement complex was bulldozed in 1966, just part of what drove longtime fans away, and to more suburban locations.

“In the crime-scourged 1980s, the boardwalk and beach swarmed with predatory youths, drunks and crack dealers. Shuttered rides and restaurants lent a dystopian air. Winter defined a surreal land-and-seascape dominated by the derelict Parachute Jump and ruins of the crumbling Thunderbolt roller coaster,” the Post explained.

There has been even more for Coney Islanders to smile about. It was announced in January that the city would add Coney Island to the NYC Ferry system, providing a much faster commute to Manhattan for outer-borough New Yorkers. “It shouldn’t be this hard to get around in the greatest city in the world,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said at the time. “And so we’re giving people more and better options.”

The Bronx is getting another facelift at an industrial wasteland along the east side of the Harlem River’s waterfront.

Dynamic Star, a Connecticut- based developer founded by Gary Segal and Brad Zackson, is planning a massive $3.5 billion mixed-use, named Fordham Landing project. Five million square feet of land between the Harlem River and the Major Deegan Expressway is being planned out by architects at NADAAA and Perkins Eastman. Margie Ruddick Landscape is also involved and will focus on planning the 12.5 acres of open spaces, esplanades, playing fields as well as waterside activities such as kayaking.

As reported by the NY Post, plans are being discussed with the Department of City Planning, and still need to undergo approvals for uniform land use. Housing and commercial space are in the works, as well as big improvements for the nearby University Heights Metro-North station. The discussions also include talk of a long awaited new elementary school for K-5, south of the University Heights Bridge.

Andy Gerringer, a Marketing Director, is guiding the residential leasing and layouts of almost 2,800 units, with 30% of them to be affordable. Plans also include an approximately 700,000-square-foot Life Science Center and offices, on the north side, which ends by 193rd Street. John Reinertsen of CBRE has been selected to lease the offices, along with Steve Purpura leading the CBRE Life Science team. There will also be retail space, a hotel, a conference center and community space. Jeff Winick of Winick Realty Group will oversee the retail section. His designs include an e-sports stadium by ITEC Entertainment, with a virtual level for watching global sports. The entire project will come together sharing a new waterfront esplanade with paths for pedestrians and bikes, all connected with public Wi-Fi.

In the beginning of April, Dynamic Star announced its purchase of the site at 320 West Fordham Road for $31.5 million from the Lasala family. Other nearby sites are also being negotiated, as the Bronx continues to attract investment dollars.

Segal, a veteran union electrical contractor who in 2011 sold his company and went into residential development, pledges to build the project in phases, using all union labor, which is something almost unheard of in the Bronx. “Being a third-generation union contractor, in my opinion, unions build better, build quicker and build safer,” he said. A project labor agreement (PLA) will need to be put in place to make sure the pricing meets the Bronx spending limits.

New York’s real estate market is mostly an open market, available to all, especially thanks to listing websites such as StreetEasy, Trulia and Realtor.com. Notwithstanding, the city’s poshest mansions are increasingly inaccessible and unadvertised, even to other millionaires.

Take the ritzy apartments at 220 Central Park South, for example. At the 953-foot-tall urban country club developed by Steve Roth and designed by architect Robert A.M. Stern, no one knew there were apartments available for sale until after they were sold. As reported by the NY Post, numerous eager and affluent buyers were brushed away. Only a group of insiders were in the know, and the prospective clients were each handpicked. The Midtown building is now mostly sold, despite the strict vetting process and a slowing market for high priced condos. Among other well-known buyers in the building, Citadel CEO Ken Griffin purchased a penthouse there in January for a whopping $238 million, shattering the record for the most expensive home sold in the entire country.

Of the 43 NY homes that sold for over $20 million in 2018, 21 of them were not formally on the market when they were sold, as per Compass data. The hushed transactions, known as whisper sales, can be a result of disgrace, divorce or bankruptcy, but in more cases than not, it is just a matter of privacy. Many affluent homeowners just don’t want other people to know their net worth, or how much they made or lost on a transaction. Aside from that though, there is a certain feeling of extravagance in knowing that you were the chosen one, who was offered what no one else was permitted to see. “If you want to get someone’s attention with a whisper, scream!” says Leonard Steinberg, of the brokerage Compass. “220 [Central Park South] was the loudest whisper I have ever heard in my life. People feel like they are buying into a club that is word-of-mouth only and for ‘people like us.’ That has value for them.”

There is almost no way to know how many of these secret listings are available at any given time. Further, since many of the elite have more than one home, anything may be up for sale if the price is right.

“If you talk to anybody but the top-tier brokers, they’ll tell you that they hate whisper listings,” because they can often take longer to sell and fetch lower prices, says Douglas Elliman broker Noble Black. “It’s very inefficient. A lot of brokers don’t even know about those listings. But those unknown brokers can bring serious clients to the table.”

Are political conservatives now being targeted in the banking arena?

JPMorgan Chase is alleged to have shut down bank accounts belonging to customers in the conservative movement – and others on the right who are outraged are saying they plan to close their own accounts if the situation is not addressed to their satisfaction.

“If Jamie Dimon can’t absolutely guarantee that Chase Bank won’t ever discriminate against conservatives, conservatives should consider banking elsewhere,” warned David Almasi, vice president of the conservative-leaning National Center for Public Policy Research, referring to JPMorgan’s chairman and CEO,” the New York Post reported.

The controversy involving JPMorgan began when

activists Enrique Tarrio, Joe Biggs, Laura Loomer and Martina Markota – conservatives all — found that their Chase accounts had been shut down without a good explanation.

Of course, the primary arena in which bias against political conservatives has been playing out over the past couple of years has been in social media. The drama continued last week, with President Donald Trump instructing users of social media to let the White House know when they feel giant players such as Facebook and Twitter have acted unfairly because of their political viewpoint.

An online form available to approximately 18.5 million Twitter followers instructed Americans to “share your story” of political bias directly with the president. “SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS should advance FREEDOM OF SPEECH. Yet too many Americans have seen their accounts suspended, banned, or fraudulently reported for unclear ‘violations’ of user policies,” noted the website.

“The request comes as President Donald Trump and other Republicans ramp up allegations that social media networks discriminate against conservatives by disproportionately banning or limiting the visibility of right-leaning users and content,” reported Politico. “It’s a charge the companies deny, but that hasn’t tamped down conservatives’ embrace of the idea. Anti-conservative bias claims have been the subject of multiple congressional hearings and appeared to resonate with the GOP base in the midterm election cycle, all but guaranteeing they will feature in 2020 campaign-trail messaging from Trump and his surrogates and Capitol Hill allies.”

In April, Texas’ Republican Senator Ted Cruz convened a hearing focused on conservative bias on social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter. “Not only does Big Tech have the power to silence voices with which they disagree, but Big Tech likewise has the power to collate a person’s feed so they only receive the news that comports with their own political agenda,” Cruz said during the event.

“Cruz conceded that most of his party’s complaints were derived solely from personal stories,” noted theverge.com. “Much of the argument on this topic is anecdotal. It’s based on one example or another example,” Cruz said last month. “There’s a reason for that: because we have no data. There is no transparency. Nobody knows how many speakers Facebook is blocking, how many speakers Twitter is blocking. Nobody knows what the raw data is in terms of bias.”

It’s good to be CEO.

Compensation for chief executive officers (CEOs) running at S&P 500 firms jumped by 7% last year, or approximately $800,000.

Overall, salaries for CEOs grew to a median of $12 million last year, including salary, stock and other compensation, according to data analyzed by Equilar for The Associated Press.

Each year, the Equilar 100 examines CEO compensation at the largest companies by revenue to provide an early look at executive pay trends. The study includes companies that filed annual proxy statements before March 31, considered the “half-way” point in the annual proxy season.

“The eight-figure packages continue to rise as companies tie more of their CEOs’ pay to their stock prices, which are still near record levels, and as profits hit an all-time high last year due to lower tax bills and a still-growing economy,” noted AP. “Pay for typical workers at these companies isn’t rising nearly as quickly. The median increase was 3% last year, less than half the growth for the top bosses. Median means half were larger, and half were smaller.”

Naturally, not everyone is pleased to see these numbers. “It’s a natural thing for a CEO and a board to say, ‘How are others who are doing similar work paid?’ And there’s a natural sense that if the board believes and supports their CEO, they don’t expect their CEO to be paid less than the others in the industry,” Eric Hosken, a partner at Compensation Advisory Partners, a consulting firm that works with boards, told AP.

“Anger about widening income inequality is rising around the world, from Capitol Hill to protests in streets,” the AP story continued. “But it’s only slowly seeping into the conference rooms where boards of directors set the pay for CEOs. Boards are often more concerned with what a competitor may pay to poach their CEO than how much more that person makes versus the rest of the workforce.”

Median pay for Equilar 100 CEOs overall was $15.6 million in fiscal year 2018, in comparison to $15.7 million for the CEOs on the previous year’s list, the company reported. On an individual level, Equilar 100 CEOs saw a 0.6% pay decrease at the median in fiscal year 2018. By comparison, median pay for CEOs on last year’s Equilar 100 list increased by 5%.

Women represent less than 10% of Equilar 100 CEOs. Just nine women hold a chief executive position at an Equilar 100 company, this is an increase from eight in 2017. Among the nine, three are on the top 20 highest-paid on the list. Safra Catz of Oracle, third on the list, was awarded $108.3 million in 2018. Indra Nooyi—who made the top 10 highest-paid list in the previous year’s study—departed as CEO of Pepsi, leaving Catz as the only women on the top 10 highest-paid list this year.