Good morning, Broadsheet readers! Washington D.C. Mayor Muriel Brown backs legal marijuana, Janet Yellen stands up to Congress and Walmart makes another big announcement. And that’s just the beginning.
EVERYONE'S TALKING
•A city gone to pot. Marijuana became legal today in the nation's capital. Well, sort of. The new law was approved by 70% of D.C. Voters last November but, because it's a law regulating Washington D.C., Congress had a window to review it. That opportunity closed at midnight, but not before Congressional Republicans warned D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser that she would be subject to criminal charges if she proceeded with the legalization. “I have a lot of things to do in the District of Columbia,” Bowser responded. “Me being in jail wouldn’t be a good thing.” Washington Post
ALSO IN THE HEADLINES
•Walmart's goodwill. Walmart plans to give $16 million in grants to non-profits that help entry-level workers in retail and related industries find available jobs. Grantees include The Act Foundation, Dress for Success and Goodwill Industries. “The education-to-employment system is broken,” says Walmart Foundation president Kathleen McLaughlin told Coins2Day's Pattie Sellers. Coins2Day
•Yellen at Republicans. In her second day of Congressional testimony, Fed chair Janet Yellen fended off questions from frustrated House Republicans. She spoke over her questioners and, according to The New York Times, "responded sharply." NY Times
•Not a joke. There are more men named John, Robert, William and James on the boards of S&P 1500 companies than there are women on those boards. Washington Post
•Flat-lining. In an earnings call following a rough quarter, Hewlett-Packard CEO Meg Whitman and her team repeatedly expressed their belief that they could be "flat in constant currency." As currency woes plague HP, Coins2Day's Andrew Nusca put it, "Flat is the new up." (The company is also reportedly in talks to buy WiFi access equipment maker Aruba Networks.) Coins2Day
•Flippin' awesome. Women's college gymnastics meets in Utah bring in bigger crowds than the WNBA does. NY Times
•Ice from Rice. U.S. National Security Adviser Susan Rice rebuked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's upcoming plans to address Congress on Iran's nuclear ambitions. "I think it’s destructive of the fabric of the relationship [between the two countries]," Rice told Charlie Rose.NY Times
•Booking her next act. Jill Abramson, the ousted executive editor of The New York Times, is reportedly shopping a book on the future of the business of news. NY Post
•Braga-ing rights. Leda Braga's Systematica Investments is the largest hedge fund led by a woman, with $9.2 billion in assets under management. Bloomberg
•Because she's worth it. The French trial surrounding Liliane Bettencourt, heiress to the estimated $40 billion L’Oréal fortune, concluded this week. In 2007, Bettencourt's daughter, Françoise Bettencourt-Meyers, sued photographer François-Marie Banier, alleging he took advantage of Bettencourt's failing mental health to gain access to her money. The case later widened to include a long list of defendants accused of siphoning an approximate €1 billion through a range of schemes. The verdict is expected May 28. NY Times
•MOVERS AND SHAKERS. DuPont CEO Ellen Kullman has been elected to the National Academy of Engineering. CNN
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
•Team spirit. After a Title IX investigation into New York City schools found that high school girls have been denied an equal chance to play sports, district officials have promised to add more teams. To provide fair access, the school system will need to add 3,862 spots for girls, the report found. WSJ
•Grab a tissue. Julissa Arce earned more than $300,000 per year as a vice president at Goldman Sachs. She also was an undocumented Mexican immigrant. Bloomberg
•Objection. Last week, I included an article about UPenn Law School professors opposed to the university's new sexual assault policy. Students have responded with their own public letter, asking professors, "Why do you think it should be legally harder to expel someone for rape than for moving newspapers, or cheating or assaulting a police officer?" (Full disclosure: I'm a Penn Law grad.) Scribd
•Spider spinoff. Gwen Stacy, Spider-Man's girlfriend, died in 1973 in a battle between Spidey and the Green Goblin. But Marvel Comics has revived her, creating Spider-Gwen, a parallel-universe super-heroine with all of Spider-Man's powers. USA Today
•Seeing clearly. We can rate restaurants on Yelp and boyfriends on Lulu. Now we can rate where we work on InHerSight, a year-old platform for women to score employers on how friendly they are to women, whether it's related to maternity leave, hours or management opportunities. Huffington Post
•Be a boss. Refinery29 interviewed GM CEO Mary Barra about good advice, bad advice and her feelings on the #banbossy campaign. "If someone calls you bossy because you didn’t let them push you around, so be it." Refinery29
•The future of food? Lynette Kucsma thinks her company's Foodini, a 3-D food printer, could be the next microwave. Coins2Day
Share today's Broadsheet with a friend:
http://coins2day.com/2015/02/26/the-broadsheet-02-26th/
ON MY RADAR
Ivanka Trump knows what it means to be a modern millenial Vogue
Meet the new trophy husbandsCoins2Day
An outspoken voice for women in tech, foiled by his tone NY Times
The two most important words in a job interview Coins2Day
Why women are undervalued in Silicon Valley Coins2Day
QUOTE
Laugh loudly, laugh often, and most importantly, laugh at yourself.