Chamber of Progress launches dedicated focus on promoting transformational tech services in cities and communities — Apps and online platforms have changed the way we work, learn, shop, date, get informed, and entertain ourselves. And a wave of tech services have also changed the way that we live in cities and communities — from ride sharing, to short-term rentals, to ordering delivery from local businesses.

Bill would guarantee iPhone access for hate, hoax, conspiracy, and disinformation apps — Remember after the January 6 insurrection when Apple removed the right-wing social network Parler from its App Store? If you can believe this, a new bill being considered by the Senate in the coming days — written by Spotify, Epic Games, and Match Group as part of a lobbying campaign…

eBay entrepreneurs, Etsy artisans, and Nextdoor sellers could be collateral damage — January is when many state legislatures start their work for the year. Though the month is young, we’re already seeing a 2022 revival of a 2021 play that wasn’t very good in the first place: Walmart’s state lobbying campaign to put restrictions on its biggest competitor, Amazon. I wrote last…

Why do Senators want to threaten a service used by nearly half of all Americans? — Amazon Prime is a pretty incredible thing. For $13 a month, you get free, fast shipping (typically one or two day, but sometimes even same-day) on many Amazon products. …

New study on caps’ impact & new service tiers show permanent caps are counterproductive, outdated — All around the country, leaders of local restaurant associations have urged cities to permanently cap the fees that restaurants pay to third party delivery services like DoorDash, Grubhub, and Uber Eats. They’ve characterized these fee caps as an important life preserver — but a new study and the delivery services’…

Why are Senators embracing unpopular ideas that voters oppose? — No, you didn’t miss the thousands of voters marching on Washington demanding that Congress make their smartphones dumber, their Amazon shipments slower, and their Google results less helpful. That protest never happened. Yet amazingly, some of our elected officials are working on legislation that would do all these things. According…

Voters want policymakers to make tech work for them — not mess with services they like — Chuck Schumer didn’t become Senate Majority Leader by being bad at politics. Quite the opposite: he’s won more than a dozen elections, served 40 years in Congress, and worked his way to the top of the Senate Democratic Caucus in part by keeping in mind two of his imaginary constituents. …

Americans want safe self-driving cars, and Congress needs to act to unleash them — One of the most exciting things about self-driving cars is their ability to make our roads safer. As the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) likes to note, 94 percent of serious crashes are due to human error, and self-driving cars could eliminate those accidents. So why are Tesla’s cars…

The crypto industry proved its might — now it needs to show its impact, inclusiveness, and responsibility — The Biden White House and Senate negotiators wanted to spend more than a trillion dollars on infrastructure — without increasing taxes. …