VentureBeat

Here’s the latest [updated] action:

1) NVCA thanks the Senate for blocking VC tax
2) Feedster goes belly-up
3) David Chao is new head of Doll Capital
4) Asian telcos may finally find a US toehold
5) Biofuels could be worse than gasoline
6) TechForward raises financing
7) Facebook blocked in Syria

Senate blocks carried interest tax — The National Venture Capital Asoociation expressed its gratitude to the US Senate for dropping a provision to change carried interest tax rates, again. This isn’t any real surprise — we reported in October that the bill would likely fail in Senate, as it has before. Senator Charles Rangel, the Democratic chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, promised to “continue to pursue this issue.” For more on why it’s an issue in the first place, check out our past post arguing in favor of the tax.

Feedster drops off the radar — The blog search site may or may not be dead, but its servers are no longer responsive and the company isn’t responding to our inquiries, either. The company first got funding back in 2004, but we hadn’t heard much from it since last year. Considering the trouble other, similar companies have had, including competitor Technorati, chances seem good that Feedster is done for.

David Chao taking helm retains leadership role within Doll Capital Management — You could see it coming, but it’s now official. David Chao is becoming the head [update: I’m told by Chao that he is not the sole leader of the firm, as a source close to the firm had originally told me. Chao tells me the firm has a management committee comprised of four partners that makes recommendations to the general partners, and he is on the management committee.] Chao is characterized by his hard-charging, workaholic attitude — which we’ve been following for years (see here and here). The Wall Street Journal was inspired enough to paint an admiring portrait of him in an article last year. Under Chao, DCM may tend to cut its losses more quickly and play a faster hand with its investments. He helped found the firm over a decade ago.

Asian telcos are eyeing the US market — NTT DoCoMo, KDDI and other large Asian cellular operators have always been interested in the United States market, but past investments haven’t worked out well for them. The upcoming 700MHz auction, however, may provide them with a useful overseas toehold, especially if Google places a winning bid. More from BusinessWeek.

Biofuels could actually produce more carbon — We all know that corn-based ethanol is inefficient and wasteful (unless you’re a corn farmer). Going a step further, this Environmental Science & Technology article suggests that ethanol’s production might actually release more carbon into the atmosphere than just using gasoline. And another article from the same publication points out the polluting side of harvesting sugarcane in Brazil, a more effective source of ethanol. (For those of you about to point out cellulosic ethanol as an answer, check out this piece from our own Contributor series, written by UC Berkeley professor Ted Patzek.

TechForward, a company that lets consumers upgrade their consumer electronics after purchasing, raises financing — The Los Angeles, Calif., company raised an undisclosed second round of funding from Silicon Valley venture firm New Enterprise Associates, as well as First Round Capital.

Syrian authorities block Facebook –Apparently, the country took the action out of fears of Israeli “infiltration” of Syrian social networks, according to residents and media reports.