Overnight Tech: Uber CEO resigns | Trump’s Iowa tech trip | Dems push Sessions to block AT&T-Time Warner deal | Lawmakers warned on threat to election systems |

KALANICK OUT AT UBER: Travis Kalanick resigned as Uber’s chief executive on Wednesday after being forced from the job by top investors in the company.

The former CEO will remain on Uber’s board of directors, a spokesman confirmed to The Hill.

“I love Uber more than anything in the world and at this difficult moment in my personal life I have accepted the investor’s request to step aside so that Uber can go back to building rather than be distracted with another fight,” Kalanick said in a statement obtained by The Hill.

Uber in recent months has been reeling from a number of controversies and missteps, including allegations of widespread sexual harassment.

{mosads}The company has been heavily scrutinized over its treatment of women after former employee Susan Fowler wrote a blog post that went viral in which she alleged numerous instances of sexual harassment that were ignored and mishandled by Uber. Fowler’s post and subsequent criticism prompted Uber to hire former Attorney General Eric Holder and his law firm to conduct an independent investigation of the company.

Uber has also been embroiled in a court battle with Waymo, the driverless car business run by Google parent company Alphabet, which accused the ride-sharing giant of stealing trade secrets. And Uber is also under a criminal investigation over its use of technology to evade regulators in certain cities.

Read more here.

 

Please send your tips, comments and speculation on Uber CEO candidates to Ali Breland (abreland@digital-staging.thehill.com) and Harper Neidig (hneidig@digital-staging.thehill.com) and follow us on Twitter: @alibreland, @hneidig and @HilliconValley. We’re also on Signal. Email or DM us for our numbers. 

 

TRUMP HEADS TO IOWA FOR TECH WEEK: President Trump will be in Iowa on Wednesday night to highlight the need for Internet connectivity in rural areas and to promote the administration’s technology agenda, as the White House takes its policy push outside of the frenzy of the Beltway.

Trump will visit Kirkwood Community College in Cedar Rapids, home of the nation’s largest two-year agricultural college program, to view the school’s cutting edge “agricultural geo-spatial technology and precision farming” techniques.

Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross will join the president at an event that will also act as an unofficial send-off for former Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad, who will soon take up residence in China as the U.S. ambassador.

Read more here and check out TheHill.com for more on Trump’s trip.

 

BLACKBURN CALLS OUT DEMS OVER PRIVACY BILL: Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) chastised Democrats on Wednesday for not rallying around her internet privacy bill, after they criticized the GOP’s efforts to kill privacy restrictions earlier this year.

At a House Commerce technology subcommittee hearing on broadband coverage, Democrats criticized the committee’s leadership for not holding hearings on net neutrality, internet privacy or oversight for the FCC.

“I will say to my colleagues that I would be happy to discuss my Browser Act on the privacy issue, and we have reached out to all of the Democratic offices in the House on this issue,” Blackburn responded, adding that she was “disappointed” by the lack of response to her outreach.

Read more here. 

 

DEM OFFERS PATENT REFORM BILL: Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) is introducing legislation aimed at making it easier and cheaper for patent holders to enforce their patents.

The bill is based on legislation Coons introduced last year, which aimed at making patent proceedings “more fair and efficient,” according to a statement from his office.

“We must work together to ensure that the patent laws keep up with the innovators, so their ideas and businesses can fuel the American economy for generations to come,” Coons said in a statement.

“This means working to ensure that a patent continues to play its historic role in enabling inventors and small businesses to get funding and protect their ideas from being copied by larger corporate infringers,” he added.

Read more here.

 

DEM SENATORS WANT DOJ TO BLOCK AT&T-TIME WARNER MERGER: A group of Democratic senators is calling on the Justice Department to block the proposed AT&T-Time Warner merger, arguing the megadeal would hurt consumers.

“Before initiating the next big wave of media consolidation, you must consider how the $85 billion deal will impact Americans’ wallets, as well as their access to a wide-range of news and entertainment programming,” the senators wrote in a letter to Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

“Should you determine that the substantial harms to competition and consumers arising from the transaction outweigh the purported benefits, you should reject the proposed acquisition.”

Read more here.

 

FCC TAPS NEW ENFORCEMENT CHIEF: Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai is appointing a new chief for the agency’s enforcement bureau.

Pai on Wednesday announced his pick, Rosemary Harold, a partner at Wilkinson Barker Knauer LLP. According to the firm’s website, Harold specializes in “media, broadband, and First Amendment issues.”

She previously served as an attorney at the FCC under Republican Commissioner Robert McDowell and worked as a reporter before joining the agency.

Read more here.

 

SENATE INTEL BRIEFED ON CYBER THREAT TO ELECTION SYSTEMS: Lawmakers on Wednesday learned that federal officials have evidence that election-related systems in 21 states were targeted by Russia ahead of the 2016 presidential election.

Members of the Senate Intelligence Committee received the information amid growing concerns on Capitol Hill about the possibility of foreign interference in future electoral processes.

“We could be here in two or four years talking about a much worse crisis,” said Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr (R-N.C.) at the hearing Wednesday morning.

Read more here.

 

EXPANDING RURAL TELEHEALTH: Sens. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) and Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) introduced bipartisan legislation on Wednesday that will expand rural telehealth services. Under their legislation non-rural hospitals serving rural communities would be eligible for support from the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) Healthcare Connect Fund (HCF).

“Our bill will give telehealth service providers better incentives to serve more rural areas,” said Schatz. “Ultimately, that is good news for anyone who cares about expanding access to health care in Hawai’i and other rural areas across the country.”

 

ON TAP:

The FCC holds its June open meeting at 10:30 a.m.

 

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

House panel to explore 14 driverless car bills next week

The Internet Association releases a new net neutrality white paper

San Francisco Chronicle: White House to scrap International Entrepreneur Rule

The Verge: Verizon is killing Tumblr’s net neutrality fight

CNN: Tech industry food fight

TechCrunch: Snapchat’s new Snap Maps

Reuters: Oracle beats profit estimates