Our annual list of the largest women-owned businesses is always especially interesting. Even more so with this year’s edition, which includes the list itself and a front-page story that has Jesse Draper offering the latest reason to rethink whatever is going on up in Silicon Valley. Draper is the daughter of Tim Draper, a renowned Silcon Valley investor, and her role as founder of Santa Monica-based Halogen Ventures makes her a fourth-generation venture capitalist. It also gives her a fairly rare perspective on the worlds of finance and tech, and she told our Shwanika Narayan that L.A. offers a friendlier atmosphere for women in the tech industry compared with Silicon Valley – a potentially powerful point of difference for economic development around here … The women-owned business list promises to take another interesting turn next year, when Anastasia Soare’s Beverly Hills-based beauty megabrand should be a lock to debut. Anastasia of Beverly Hills recently struck a deal to sell a minority stake to San Francisco-based private equity firm TPG Capital. Soare has made it a matter of policy to remain mum about her company’s financials, and that has applied to any comment about terms of the deal with TPG, which came amid chatter that it values her brand at $3 billion or more. There should be enough indicators in any case for a solid estimate on revenue by next year – and that will likely put Anastasia of Beverly Hills at the upper reaches of the list … Kareem Abdul-Jabbar continues to occupy life’s upper reaches in literal and figurative terms. He stands 7 feet and two inches tall, after all, and is a six-time NBA champion and MVP, and the league’s all-time leading scorer. Abdul-Jabbar maintains a high standard for his career as a journalist – the L.A. Press Club recently picked him as Best Columnist for his work for the Hollywood Reporter for the second year in a row. He also aims high with his wardrobe – he showed up for the event at the Millennium Biltmore in a classic grey pinstriped suit that hung on his coat-hanger shoulders with sufficient gravitas to provide a counterpoint to his still-youthful countenance, snappy bow tie and a pair of UCLA socks with bright splashes of blue and gold … Abdul-Jabbar worked a 24-second clock on the court. Get ready for an interesting 90-day countdown that would start if Walt Disney Corp. wins its bid for 21st Century Fox. Would-be buyer Disney – keep in mind that Comcast Corp. might still have something to say on the matter – has already met with Justice Department officials and agreed to sell the 22 Fox Sports regional networks that would come with the deal, which is currently pegged at $71.3 billion. Federal regulators view a combination of the Fox Sports operations with Disney’s ESPN as too close to a monopoly. Disney would have to sell them off within 90 days of the deal’s close. No telling where that could go, given the scope of reformation the world of media is facing these days … Anyone else notice the full-page ad in the June 24 edition of the Los Angeles Times that seemed to weigh in against the Trump administration’s ham-handed approach to family separations on the border? Call it a finely calibrated projection of soft power by a number of area nonprofits under the banner of Southern California Grant Makers. Not sure if Steven Spielberg should get credit for the red that emphasizes the point in this version of an image that’s quickly becoming famous. Do know that more than a dozen nonprofits of various stripes joined to put their name on the message, which managed to call the White House into question without lowering any of sponsors into the ugly fray of today’s national political landscape … All kinds of reasons to jump into the local political fray and just say no to any plans by the city to start a bank to serve the cannabis businesses. Start with the notion that politicians, weed and money don’t belong in the same sentence let alone the same business … Sullivan Says: No telling what an oat tortilla might taste like, but here’s betting one will come straight outta Fairfax with kosher credentials.