Amid the ongoing protests, Google and Facebook stood up last week for racial equality and promised millions of dollars to groups trying to make that goal a reality. But inside the companies, the racial inequity is stark: Few black people are among their top executives. 

Last year, black people made up 3% of Facebook’s senior leadership, an increase of one percentage point over 2018. During the same year, they represented 2.6% of Google’s leadership, unchanged from the year prior.

In terms of its board, at Facebook, two of its nine members are black. And at Alphabet, Google’s parent, two of its 11 members are black.

“Their data speaks for itself,” said Leslie Miley, a former Google engineering leader who is black. “The numbers are fairly consistent with where they were in 2016…and if that’s not a failure, I don’t know what is.”

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The clash between President Trump and Twitter reached new heights over the past few days. Twitter started to more rigorously police Trump’s posts, while Trump tried to weaken legal protections that shield social media companies like Twitter from liability for what their users post.

But as Trump tries to clamp down on Twitter, and Twitter similarly cracks down on the President’s posts, one question remains: Who needs who more?

Three experts say the answer is simple: Trump, who depends on Twitter to reach his base, especially during an election year that revolves around the global pandemic.

“Right now, traditional campaigning is going to be at best problematic through at least summer,” said Steven Livingston, director of the Institute for Data, Democracy, and Politics at George Washington University. “By picking a fight with Twitter, he’s actually attacking the principal mechanism he needs to run in a COVID environment.”

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Sarah Clarke still remembers the regulars. Working a full schedule as an Instacart shopper, a job she stopped doing regularly last year, she had plenty of customers who she periodically delivered groceries to. But there was one elderly couple, in particular, that she recalls most. One time she was unable to find the mangos they typically ordered. So during a trip for a different customer to a different store, Clarke grabbed some for them. And without any promise or expectation of compensation, the former Mountain View, Calif.-based product designer drove to the couple’s home and surprised them with the fruit.

“It’s what you do when you’re happy on the job,” Clarke says. “When we’re happy, the customers are happy.” 

But for many Instacart shoppers, gig workers who pick and deliver groceries for the online service's customers, that happiness has since faded, Clarke says. Over the past few years, some shoppers, including Clarke, say their base pay has dwindled, tips have been misappropriated, and various bonuses have disappeared. What was once enjoyable, full-time work for some, has increasingly become a gig where shoppers have had to quickly snag the few well-priced jobs on the app—and they often aren't enough to make ends meet, shoppers say. Meanwhile, they're finding opportunities with other companies like Uber, DoorDash, and Amazon Flex who are looking for more gig workers to support their contractor-driven platforms.

Now, a group of Instacart contractors, led by a small, unofficial committee of a dozen activist workers from across the nation, is asking the U.S. Department of Labor to investigate how Instacart has handled shoppers' tips. The group plans to file a petition with more than 500 shoppers' signatures supporting the audit in upcoming weeks.

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Before introducing its digital voice assistant in 2016, Google deployed a group of employees to make sure the service could field questions involving race and gender without stumbling. Any problems after publicly introducing the service would be a major embarrassment to the company, which has been criticized for creating products and features that discriminated against minorities.

The so-called product champions found 28 problems in all, including that the assistant failed to understand the significance of Black History Month and Hispanic Heritage Month. It also sometimes used incorrect pronouns—making unfair associations including that doctors were men—and fell well short when responding to someone who admits they’re gay for the first time to the assistant.

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Savvy investors and consumers looking for love are increasingly swiping right on Match Group’s ever-growing empire of online dating apps and websites.

The Dallas-based company is on a hot streak — boosting its forecast, raking in billions of dollars in revenue and expanding its portfolio of products to offer new features and attract new users.

"Despite our dominance in the market, we always act like the underdog," Match Group CEO Mandy Ginsberg told Lee Cullum in a KERA-TVCEO segment that aired in October 2017.

Whatever Match Group’s mind-set, it’s working. Over the last year, Match's stock price has more than doubled — jumping from $18.74 a share at market close on Aug. 24 of last year to $50.42 on the same day this year.

But in the process of concocting a combination of uniquely different brands — such as Tinder, OkCupid and Hinge — for the last two decades, Match Group has had to manage culture clashes, outspoken startup executives and messy public spats.

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Now sitting atop their own successful business ventures, three formerly undocumented immigrants are committed to spreading the wealth.

He was only 17 years old but, given the trials he had already endured, he had outgrown his childhood years before. Tall and lanky, Alfredo Duarte stood at the edge of the Tijuana River. He was going to seek a better life and in turn provide for his family back home in San Pedro, Guanaceví, in Durango, Mexico. It was 1975, and Tijuana had been experiencing torrential rain and flooding, making the river level perilously high. He knew it was dangerous, but so was living in abject poverty.

His uncle had arranged to pay a “coyote”—a smuggler of undocumented immigrants—for his nephew’s safe arrival in Los Angeles. Duarte remembers stripping down to his underwear along with other immigrants making the journey. Clothes would only cause additional risks of getting pulled down into the current. They put their clothes atop their heads, linked arms, and entered the water.

“I remember that night like it was yesterday,” Duarte says. “We were in a chain, water up to our necks. We were pulling up girls who were falling down. … We almost drowned because it was the worst rains they had seen that year.”

When Duarte made it safely across, he was put in the trunk of a Mercury Grand Marquis with six other people. He remained balled up inside for three hours. “Someone was already drunk … so the smell,” he says, shaking his head. “I remember getting out of the trunk and not being able to walk. Quite often, I think I would die [on that trip] now. That was a good thing—I was young.”

Now the CEO of a $60 million food distribution company, Taxco Produce, Duarte, an American citizen, looks back with a smile and a few tears. “Being a little hungry and needy is not a bad thing. It gives you the drive to try,” he says. “God permitted me to build a company, make money,” and take care of my family.

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After allegedly attacking his wife with a hammer after a night out, Dallas venture capitalist Stephen Hays will have to work through a host of legal issues that could land him in prison for 20 years, suspend his business licenses or at a minimum require some jail time, according to one attorney not related to the case.

That's because Hays, who represented Deep Space Ventures’ transactions, is already facing deferred charges and jail time and was on probation for a previous incident that occurred during a ski trip in Vail, Colorado. There, he pleaded guilty to charges of criminal attempt to commit assault and criminal attempt to commit criminal extortion, a misdemeanor and felony, respectively. That incident came with a four-year probation term and a 90-day deferred jail sentence. With the latest incident, he's added the charge of a second-degree felony for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. If convicted, he could serve two to 20 years in prison and up to a $10,000 fine plus additional consequences in Colorado.

"He's got significant problems right now," said Doug Richards, partner at Denver- and Los Angeles-based Richards Carrington, who has served as both a criminal prosecutor and defense attorney in Texas and Colorado. The chances that he won't end up with a felony record or jail time is "extremely unlikely on the felonies and has zero possibility on the jail time."

"The worst thing you could do is pick up another felony for a similar crime," Richards said, referring to the aggravated assault charge. "That's literally the worst thing you can ever do."

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Companies seeking to bolster the pipeline of women in tech target education.

Before Jaime Chambron was even 10 years old, she had already discovered she had an affinity for math and problem-solving. Her interests led her on a path that eventually landed her the title of vice president of customer engagement at NTT Data Services. Though it never really bothered Chambron, she was often one of few females, if not the only one, at the math and computer science classes and competitions she attended. It was early exposure, along with the confidence she was provided at home, that aided in her career’s trajectory. "I was put into a math magnet program where they nurtured that capacity," Chambron says. "It was the educational environment that nurtured the need to explore."

Many companies and researchers believe education and exposure at a young age ultimately will improve the gender imbalance within the technical workforce. In a 2015 report released by the American Association of University Women, researchers found that, starting in middle school, boys feel "more positive" about science, technology, engineering, and math—or STEM—subjects than their female counterparts. The divide grows from there.

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North Texas is becoming an esports magnet, attracting big-name investors, new stadiums, and some of video gaming’s hottest teams.

Thousands of people decked out in fan gear await the "battle to the death" they’ve been promised. They’re armed with blow-up thundersticks, cell phone cameras, and poster boards championing their favorite competitors. One woman, screaming at the stage, holds up a sign referring to Alexandre "boddy" Pianaro, one of the players: "Bodyy, you can have my body!" A man shakes another sign above his head. It reads "G2 Army!" Still another fan, dressed all in black and sporting a cape, flexes his bicep to show off a team-logo tattoo.

"Ladies and gentleman, it’s time for the finals, baby! How are you doin’ Dallas?" an announcer booms into the microphone, his voice thundering across the Verizon Theater in Grand Prairie, eliciting a roar from the crowd.

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A drunken night in Vail turns into a legal battle for the managing partner of Dallas’ Deep Space Ventures.

A Dallas investor aims to fight charges to which he pled guilty after a rambunctious night of drinking during a ski trip to Vail, Colorado.

Stephen Hays, managing partner of Dallas venture capital firm Deep Space Ventures, turned himself in on June 7 and pled guilty on Nov. 8 to charges of criminal attempt to commit assault, a misdemeanor, and criminal attempt to commit criminal extortion, a felony, according to Eagle County District Court in Colorado. Hays was ordered to pay restitution, court fees, and serve four years of probation, according to the court. He was also charged with two counts of harassment, both misdemeanors, and intimidating a witness or victim, a felony. Those charges were dismissed.

Hays also is currently tied up in another civil suit related to the incident. That suit, filed against Hays Jan. 17 claims negligence, negligent infliction of emotional distress, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and assault, battery, and unlawful contact.

Hays claims that he was "wrongly and grossly overcharged" by Eagle County authorities for something he says he didn’t do, and suggests that, instead, he was the victim of similar crimes. His attorney has filed for dismissal of the civil suit, and Hays says he also intends to file a Victim’s Rights Act violation in regards to the court’s handling of his case in Eagle County.

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In the increasingly dangerous world of cybercrime, Dallas-Fort Worth cybersecurity professionals are on the defense. But how much protection is enough?

All it took was one menacing message to create turmoil at Dallas-based Dickey’s Barbecue.

CEO Laura Rea Dickey remembers it like it was yesterday. "It [said], ‘Congratulations, you have downloaded our physical CryptoLocker virus," Dickey, then-chief information officer, remembers about the April 2015 incident. The message, displayed across an employee’s computer screen, set off an unexpected mini-crisis on what was otherwise a typical day at the headquarters of the barbecue-restaurant company. Normally, the headquarters is focused on developing new ways to meet its customers and leverage its slow-smoked barbecue and southern hospitality. "We’re barbecue, not brain surgery," says Dickey. But the day quickly became complicated when a marketing department computer went black, displaying nothing else but the threat. The virus infiltrated the company’s marketing files, holding them for a ransom of $6,000. The company had 72 hours to meet the request or access to the files would be permanently denied. It was a first for Dickey, whose husband was running the company as CEO at the time. "It was a very bad day at the office, and a very bad dinner at home," she says.

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Dallas Cowboys' owner Jerry Jones is expanding his empire, and transforming the region, with what may be the most impactful franchise in sports. Read about D CEO's 2017 CEO of the Year.

It was his first time at a Dallas Cowboys football game. It was 1988, and the then-oil tycoon and his family joined former Cowboys quarterback Roger Staubach at a suite inside Texas Stadium in Irving. Coach Bill Parcells was leading the New York Giants to victory on one side of the field, and Tom Landry was fighting the good fight with the Cowboys on the other. The game had started with about 20,000 fans packed into the stands, but as the scoreboard hacked away at any hope for a Cowboys win, the crowd dwindled to about 5,000. It was then that he chose to leave the suite. He climbed down rows and rows of stairs to sit in some abandoned seats. Snacks, coolers, liquor, and beer bottles and cans—back then guests could bring in their own alcohol—lay strewn across the aisles. He sat in the mess, quietly taking it all in, and then asked himself a question that would forever change the course of his life, that of his family, and the future of the NFL. "I asked, ‘If you had already bought [this team], and there was no turning back—you had burned your ships—how are you going to be able to handle this?" he remembers, wispy-eyed. "I really sat in it. I got up and said, ‘I can handle it.’"

With no experience in owning a sports franchise, and little strategy beforehand, Jerry Jones bought the Dallas Cowboys for $140 million in 1989. The team was bleeding cash—losing more than $1 million a month—and had dropped to fifth in the standings in the NFL’s NFC East division. But with Jones’ willingness to risk it all on a dicey deal, and his determination to make it work, he and his family transformed the struggling franchise into the world’s most valuable sports team.

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Hackers were able to steal customer information from the Dallas-based retailer as recently as January.

Neiman Marcus may have recently settled a $1.6 million class-action lawsuit regarding its 2013 data breach, but its cybersecurity issues didn’t end there. The Dallas-based retailer has had at least two other data breaches since 2013, with the most recent hitting earlier this year.

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A management shakeup, no more new funds, and a pause on new classes has some questioning the future of Dallas’ first startup accelerator.

The two-floor office in downtown Dallas was eerily quiet. A place where startups, mentors, and investors usually are buzzing with fervor looked emptier that Wednesday—a day when fledgling companies often are prepping for their evening "pitch" practice. But on this day there were only a few people inside the brightly decorated space. Gabriella Draney Zielke and her partner John Reed were deep in discussion, strategizing about the future of Dallas’ pioneering startup accelerator program called Tech Wildcatters.

The seven-year-old limited liability company has fueled a new generation of entrepreneurs, built a local investment source, and generated buzz for Dallas’ budding startup community. Its ultimate goal: help Dallas-Fort Worth ventures score big exits to put the region on the map as a hub for business innovation.

And, at the beginning of last year, the program reached new heights. It launched a model called the Gauntlet, a year-round program that offered its startups investment based on specific milestones, and attracted its largest classes. It also was coming off a strong 2015, during which it was stocked with a healthy supply of mentors and had raised its largest fund up to that point.

Today, however, the accelerator has slowed, halting the launch of new classes and the raising of a new fund and laying off most of its leadership.

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While the region’s gaming roots run deep, North Texas companies are developing new concepts that get people to pay for pixels.

In a labyrinth of dungeons, demons and soldiers, four video game industry veterans led by a former magician set out to mystify the minds of the masses.

Little did they know that about 16 years and a dozen games later, they would be leading one of the largest North Texas gaming companies and employ about 250 employees. They would also contribute to a billion dollar industry that would more than double in 10 years.

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Increased demand for urban centers pressures zoning officials to act soon.

PLANO - With successful developments like Legacy Town Center creating a greater demand for urban living, Plano city leaders have decided it's time to set some ground rules.

The Planning and Zoning Commission has begun creating an ordinance for urban mixed-use zoning districts - areas like Legacy that offer a combination of residential, retail, office and restaurants - that would outline a standard set of regulations. Its goal is to have it completed by the end of the year.

"It's important we have an adopted plan," Phyllis Jarrell, planning and zoning director, said at the commission's meeting Monday night. "So that everyone upfront understands what this mixed-use development district is."

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Three years after almost $1.8 million was approved for an experimental mass-transit link between low-income residents and jobs in several North Texas cities, no wheels are yet in motion.

The program is supposed to provide bus service between McKinney and Allen and the Parker Road Rapid Transit station in Plano. Federal funding took a year, but for 18 more months the project has been awaiting approval by Dallas Area Rapid Transit, which runs the transit station.

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