Silicon Valley Bank’s demise disrupts the disruptors in tech

Silicon Valley Bank’s collapse has rattled the technology industry that had been the bank’s backbone. It’s left shell-shocked entrepreneurs thankful for the government reprieve that saved their money, while they mourned the loss of a place that served as a chummy club of innovation. Even as tech startups felt relief for the deposit guarantees that will allow them to continue to pay their workers and other bills, startup CEOs and the venture capitalists who back them worried that it may be more difficult to finance risky ideas in the future without the presence of an institution that had been a reliable partner for the past 40 years.

Oprah Winfrey reflects on book club, announces 100th pickFor her 100th book club pick, Oprah Winfrey relied on the same instincts she has drawn upon from the start: Does the story move her? Does she think about it for days after? In a work of fiction, do the characters seem real to her? “When I don’t move on, that’s always a sign to me there’s something powerful and moving,” Winfrey told The Associated Press in a recent telephone interview. On Tuesday, she announced that she had chosen Ann Napolitano’s “Hello Beautiful,” a modern-day homage to “Little Women” from the author of the bestselling “Dear Edward.” The novel was published Tuesday by Dial Press, a Penguin Random House imprint, and Winfrey believes its themes of family, resilience and perspective give “Hello Beautiful” a “universal appeal” that makes it a proper milestone. A Winfrey pick no longer ensures blockbuster sales, but it retains a special status within the industry; for authors, a call from Winfrey still feels like being told they’ve won an Oscar. Winfrey told AP that she is in “awe” of the club and its history, “the very notion” that someone might go and buy a copy of “Anna Karenina” simply because she suggested it.

Conn. woman 1st non-Vermonter granted assisted suicide rightVermont has agreed to a legal settlement that will allow a Connecticut woman to be the first out-of-stater to take advantage of its decade-old law that allows people who are terminally ill to end their own lives. Seventy-five-year-old Lynda Bluestein, of Bridgeport, Connecticut, sued Vermont last summer, claiming its ban on non-state residents using Vermont’s medically assisted suicide law was unconstitutional. Under the settlement filed Tuesday that was shared first with The Associated Press, she will be allowed to end her life in Vermont when the time comes. Vermont’s Legislature is also considering lifting the restriction on non-residents taking advantage of the law. Only Oregon currently allows non-residents to die by medically assisted suicide.

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