Mario Trujillo

Cyber squatters sitting on valuable VP web addresses

Many of the most intuitive Internet addresses that Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton might use to help unveil their vice presidential picks were snatched up months or even years ago. The most obvious dot-com addresses with the last name of the presumptive nominees alongside their most likely running mates redirect to a mishmash of blank pages, domain auction sites, high offers to sell, and, in one case, Clinton-"Harry Potter" fan fiction. Donald Trump is slated to unveil his vice president choice on July 15, and the Republican's most likely picks in betting markets include Gov Mike Pence (R-IN), former Speaker Newt Gingrich, Gov Chris Christie (R-NJ) and Sen Jeff Sessions (R-AL).

Owners, both named and anonymous, have been squatting on addresses associated with those names for a while now. As of July 14, the website TrumpPence.com redirects to a page that is under construction, TrumpChristie.com directs to a blank page, TrumpGingrich.com is a scaled down site with a host of related political search terms, and TrumpSessions.com has a months-old announcement that the site is "coming soon." Each of the domain names was claimed in the last year, going back to June 2015. The registry information for both the Gingrich and the Gov Pence sites has been updated as recently as July. The stories make for amusing headlines, but it remains unclear just how valuable those addresses are when many people primarily use search engines or social media to find candidate websites.

House Majority Leader pushes to preserve President Obama’s tech fellow program

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarty (R-CA) is pushing a bill to protect one of President Barack Obama’s tech priorities after he leaves office. The GOP leader’s bill would put the force of law behind President Obama’s 2012 Presidential Innovation Fellows Program, which brings on a small number of tech-savvy employees from the private sector every year and places them around the government for short stints of service.

President Obama already signed an executive order in 2015 making the program permanent. At the time, President Obama said he hoped the program would help build “a government that’s as modern, as innovative, and as engaging as our incredible tech sector is.” While unlikely in the case of the fellows program, executive orders can always be undone by the next administration. That is not the case with legislation signed into law. The program was part of a 2008 campaign promise from President Obama and was created with the help of former White House Chief Technology Officer Todd Park.

Tech industry wants Trump agenda

The tech industry is pressing Donald Trump to “get into the game” after Hillary Clinton released a wide-ranging platform that touched on internet connectivity, cybersecurity and computer science education. Industry officials generally applauded Clinton’s agenda as hitting many of their top priorities. Now they want to hear from Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee.

Republicans on Capitol Hill said it is important for candidates to detail their platforms early, but said the decision is Trump’s to make. Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune (R-SD) said he expects Trump to release something on tech policy before the general election debates begin, noting the presumptive nominee's business background and social media savvy. “I think both candidates are going to be vying on some of these issues for the so-called tech vote, and whether it happens now or some point in the future, I’m sure that Donald Trump will also have an agenda that will compete for the support of the tech community,” said Chairman Thune, a major voice on tech issues. A spokesperson for Trump’s campaign did not respond to a question about the campaign’s plans.

Trump appears to be lacking support in the tech industry heading into the general election, after the candidate clashed with several major companies during the Republican primaries.