Demand for H1-B visas is so strong that the annual cap of 65,000 was hit last week. VCs and tech executives want to see the quota boosted to 300,000, but some U.S. tech workers and academics say the tech talent shortage is exaggerated — and the H1-B program serves mainly as a source of cheap labor.

Ron Conway may have stepped back from funding Y Combinator startups, but FundersClub has stepped in. The online platform for seed investing said it raised a $1.1 million fund to invest in Y Combinator startups.

Y Combinator is paring back its 2013 winter class to less than 50 startups, saying it grew too fast earlier this year.

SV Angel is in the market for a fresh $40 million, according to a new SEC filing.

Want to catch up on the slideshows that your peers found most interesting on peHUB this week? Here are the top 10 slideshows that garnered the most pageviews from regular readers from Aug. 1 to Aug. 5. They focused on how the biggest VC-backed IPOs fared in the market wipeout on Thursday, VC performance numbers from CalPERS, a review of the year’s biggest PR disasters, and the proliferating number of bank spin-outs in the market seeking money.

1. How This Year’s Ten Biggest VC-Backed IPOs Fared In The Market Plunge by Lawrence Aragon
2. CalPERS’s 2008 Banner Year For VC: Top Commitments And Current IRRs by Mark Boslet
3. CalPERS’s Mid-Decade Enthusiasm: More Funds, Greater Diversification In 2007 by Mark Boslet
4. If You Thought Airbnb’s PR Crisis Was Bad… by Connie Loizos
5. Spinning Their Way To New Investors by Jon Marino
6. Idaho Public Employee Retirement System Top Performing Funds by David M. Toll
7. Spotify And Other Top European Deals in 2011 by Alastair Goldfisher (subscribers only)
8. Textbook Startups Raise Big VC Rounds by Joanna Glasner
9. VCs Tackle Baldness, Love Handles, And Assorted Blemishes With Big Bucks by Joanna Glasner
10. Who’s Getting Rich Off of the Dunkin’ IPO? Here Are the Top Shareholders, by Luisa Beltran (subscribers only)

The rental agency Airbnb issued a lengthy public apology yesterday afternoon, following days of dreadful press spawned by the story of “EJ,” a customer whose home was ransacked by someone who’d rented it through Airbnb. In the letter, CEO and co-founder Brian Chesky (pictured) stated that the company had “really screwed things up” in not [...]

The CEO of hot VC-backed startup Airbnb today issued a public apology for how the online home rental service responded when one of its customers had her home trashed and identity stolen by another customer. Chief executive Brian Chesky also announced new safety measures and a $50,000 “guarantee” to any customers who suffer property damage.

But is Chesky’s mea culpa too little too, too late? It comes more than a month after a blog post from aggrieved Airbnb customer “EJ” went viral and earned the Twitter hashtag #ransackgate. During that time, Airbnb made a number of missteps, appearing uncaring and keeping the story alive. This morning, before Chesky’s apology, 10 media outlets had covered the story, including CNN, Reuters and the Washington Post. That’s in addition to previous stories from popular tech blog TechCrunch, which were widely retweeted.

“I think this is the right response [from Chesky], but it took them too long to get to it and they’ve done a lot of

Done Deal? Has Washington averted disaster?

We Smell a Rat: Is Dook Duke guilty of shady recruiting?

Snitchin’: Ex-SAC manager to do time

Cuts-a-Comin: HSBC to slice jobs

Airbnbeatdown: The travel booking site continues to get bad press

Broken System: Xconomy’s Luke Timmerman on the healthcare delivery system

Time to catch up on the blog posts and news items that your peers found most interesting on peHUB this week. Following are the top 10 posts that garnered the most pageviews from regular readers from July 25 to July 29. (We did a separate list for the week’s most popular slideshows.) This week’s hot topics include David Lowe leaving the San Francisco buyout shop he co-founded; Elevation’s Roger McNamee announcing plans to get into seed investing; the sale of fried chicken restaurant Bojangles’; and strong interest among buyout shops to buy brokerage Morgan Keegan.
1. Co-Founder Has Left San Fran Firm, by Bernard Vaughan
2. McNamee Promises to Make Seed Investments from Buyout Shop Elevation Partners (subscribers only), by Mark Boslet
3. The Mystery of Bojangles’s New York Store Is Solved, by Luisa Beltran
4. Blackstone, Carlyle Among Bidders for Morgan Keegan, by Paritosh Bansal and Megan Davies, Reuters
5. Dealtalk: Buyout Firms Target Unloved Corporate Divisions, by Simon Meads, Reuters

Yesterday, it came to light that a San Francisco-based freelance writer used the peer-to-peer vacation rental Website Airbnb to disastrous effect last month.  Among other damage to her apartment were smashed doors, stolen family heirlooms, and guest sheets turned to ash in the fireplace. The injury to Airbnb’s reputation may prove extensive, given the image it [...]