Pixelate: The Red Stick International Digital Festival, hosted by the LSU Center for Computation and Technology, will take place April 24-28. The festival includes seven free events open to the public over the course of four days and will be held at the LSU Digital Media Center, Patrick F. Taylor Hall and the Main Library at Goodwood Boulevard. The festival aims to introduce and celebrate Louisiana’s achievements within science, technology and art. Jonathon Oudthone, the president of NGAGE Esports, will present a keynote address. See the festival’s full schedule and get more details.
Closing early: Starbucks will close more than 8,000 of U.S. stores for an afternoon next month to conduct “racial-bias education” training for employees after two black men were arrested while waiting at one of the coffee chain’s Philadelphia stores last week. The training will occur on May 29 and be provided to nearly 175,000 employees, the company says. The Washington Post has the full story.
The Supremes: The U.S. Supreme Court today expressed concern about doing away with a rule that allows consumers not to get charged sales tax on some online purchases. The justices heard arguments in a case addressing the online sales tax issue. Under a decades-old Supreme Court rule, if a business is shipping a product to a state where it doesn’t have an office, warehouse or other physical presence, it doesn’t have to collect the state’s sales tax. More than 40 states are asking the Supreme Court to abandon that rule. But several Supreme Court justices suggested that Congress should act to correct the problem if it sees an issue, not the court. Read more.
