Daily Bafflements

• Drivers in California for both Lyft and Uber are filing cases against their employers; the drivers object to the companies’ classifying them as “independent contractors” rather than employees so as to avoid paying overtime and the threat of unionization. But, as Tim Fernholz explains for Quartz, the drivers may not fit into either “employee” or “independent contractor” category. “Uber in particular has tried for some time now to have it both ways—citing ‘jobs created’ by its operations (and the supposedly high earnings of its drivers) to generate good publicity, and describing itself as a ‘peer-to-peer’ service when it needs to avoid onerous taxi regulations,” Fernholz writes. “These cases may force it to finally pick a side—or at least articulate a compelling middle ground.”

• Viacom is settling a lawsuit brought by its former unpaid interns, according to the Hollywood Reporter. “If approved by a New York federal judge, the settlement will represent the most amount of money ever set aside to resolve labor claims on the internship front.”

• Here’s Kathleen Geier in Pacific Standard, on “the rigged economics of race in America.”

• Headline of the Day, from AFP: “Italian scientists ‘recreate DNA’ of fascist warrior poet from semen stains.” (Via Gretchen Gavett.) Happy Friday!