Rick Karlin is reporting for the Times Union New York Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli has announced he is asking the mega-retailer Amazon to allow an independent audit to assess the company’s policies and practices on civil rights, equity, diversity and inclusion. “Corporate America can only benefit by joining the ongoing national reckoning over racial injustice and confronting institutionalized inequality, just as it would seek to root out any other systemic problem and mitigate risks for long-term investors,” DiNapoli said December 18, in the shareholder proposal. The comptroller is trustee of the state’s $226 billion Common Retirement Fund for public employees, and the fund owns Amazon shares. Bloomberg reported that Vermont State Treasurers Office, also an investor, co-filed the shareholder resolution with DiNapoli. DiNapoli cited several complaints about Amazon including alleged discrimination against a former employee who led a walkout over concerns about workplace safety and was described by Amazon’s General Counsel as “not smart or articulate.” The company’s Whole Foods division has also allegedly discriminated against employees for wearing Black Lives Matter masks on the job. Read the full story in the Times Union.