Hannah Albarazi

Dr. Scott M. Crawford, a Jackson resident who uses a power wheelchair for mobility, testified that everyone should have equal access to Uber's services, saying "People who can drive & own their own vehicle have a spontaneity of transportation that people like me only dream of.”

Uber’s counsel said launching a wheelchair accessible vehicle (WAV) program in Jackson, MS would be “prohibitively expensive” & that ordering Uber to operate a WAV program there would lead to an "inevitable snowball effect" with the same relief being requested in "Anytown, USA."

Plaintiffs' counsel said during opening statements that Uber has a “deep rooted accessibility problem” and has treated accessibility as an afterthought. Plaintiffs say Uber can and should make reasonable modifications to accommodate people with disabilities.

A California federal judge kicked off a bench trial this morning to determine whether @Uber is violating the Americans with Disabilities Act by not providing wheelchair accessible vehicles in New Orleans, LA and Jackson, MS.

Waiting for an SF federal jury to decide if Calif.-based @illumina's patents behind its gene sequencers are valid & if @BGI_Genomics (China's largest provider of sequencing services) willfully infringed them. If the jury invalidates patents, BGI could sell its sequencers in U.S.

Dr. David I. Smith with the @MayoClinic testifies that he is a “huge fan” of Illumina’s sequencing platform & described Illumina’s contribution to gene sequencing as a “technological miracle.”

Illumina's chief commercial officer @susantousi is on the stand. She says MGI, which is part of BGI Genomics, came out with sequencers that were "almost identical to ours."

At the Illumina v. BGI jury trial in San Francisco today where @Illumina lawyers are explaining gene sequencing to jurors & telling them the evidence will show @BGI_Genomics engaged in willful patent infringement. But BGI’s lawyers say Illumina’s patents are obvious & invalid.