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Latest Articles: Business
Google eavesdropping tool installed on computers without permission
Post Date: 2015-06-23 12:30:43 by cranky
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Privacy advocates claim always-listening component was involuntarily activated within Chromium, potentially exposing private conversations Privacy and open source advocates complain over secret installation of audio-snooping software from Google.Privacy campaigners and open source developers are up in arms over the secret installing of Google software which is capable of listening in on conversations held in front of a computer. First spotted by open source developers, the Chromium browser – the open source basis for Google’s Chrome – began remotely installing audio-snooping code that was capable of listening to users. It was designed to support Chrome’s new “OK, ...
Major internet providers slowing traffic speeds for thousands across US
Post Date: 2015-06-23 08:25:52 by Willie Green
1 Comments
Study finds significant degradations of networks for five largest ISPs, including AT&T and Time Warner, representing 75% of all wireline households in US Major internet providers, including AT&T, Time Warner and Verizon, are slowing data from popular websites to thousands of US businesses and residential customers in dozens of cities across the country, according to a study released on Monday. The study, conducted by internet activists BattlefortheNet, looked at the results from 300,000 internet users and found significant degradations on the networks of the five largest internet service providers (ISPs), representing 75% of all wireline households across the US. The findings come ...
Walmart: No more items with Confederate flags
Post Date: 2015-06-22 21:00:14 by Willie Green
6 Comments
Walmart said in a statement Monday that it is removing "all items" promoting the Confederate flag for sale from its stores and its website. The move came the same day that Gov. Nikki Haley of South Carolina called for the removal of a Confederate flag from the state Capitol grounds in Columbia. Her announcement in turn came in the wake of last week's shooting at a historically black Charleston church that left nine dead. Charged in the killing is Dylan Roof, 21, who is white and has been attributed with making white supremacist statements. He has been pictured with images of a Confederate flag. "We never want to offend anyone with the products that we offer," ...
‘Sweet Baby Jesus’ beer pulled from Ohio grocery store shelves
Post Date: 2015-06-18 07:21:51 by Willie Green
26 Comments
A Cleveland-based grocery chain has yanked a popular beer after one too many customers complained about its name: Sweet Baby Jesus. The chocolate and peanut butter porter, released two years ago by Baltimore-based DuClaw Brewing Co., started selling in Ohio just two months ago. But now, after hearing from customers who said they were offended by its name, Heinen’s Grocery Store, which has 22 locations in Ohio and Illinois, has pulled it from its shelves, the Baltimore Business Journal reports. Sweet Baby Jesus accounts for about 35 to 40 percent of DuClaw’s total sales, making it the brewery’s most popular beer. “When you push boundaries and try to get one group excited ...
GOP Leadership’s Latest Obamatrade Ploy Revealed: Small Business Tax Hike That Violates GOP’s Anti-Tax Pledge
Post Date: 2015-06-14 23:32:37 by Tooconservative
28 Comments
Establishment Republicans desperately trying to secure the passage of Trade Promotion Authority (TPA), which would give President Obama fast-track authority to secure congressional approval of at least three secretive trade deals, are now willing to increase taxes on small businesses in a way that would violate a pledge almost every Republican Congressman has taken when elected into office. To secure final passage through Congress of a package that would include TPA fast-track authority—which would ensure finalization of the secretive Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (T-TIP) and Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA), among other ...
How Policing Works in a Privatized City
Post Date: 2015-06-12 12:29:42 by cranko
1 Comments
“All the common areas of Atlantic Station including the streets, sidewalks, parks, and alleys are private property.” Thus reads one line buried in the Rules of Conduct for Atlantic Station, Atlanta, Georgia: a marvelous city within a city. But it’s this one line that makes the critical difference. It’s why this one-square mile in the heart of this great city has done more to model beauty, prosperity, diversity, and happy living than 50 years of “urban renewal” and other government programs. The entire community was built on top of the old Atlanta Steel Mill, which opened in 1901 and closed in the 1970s, leaving desolation in its wake. Atlantic Station opened ...
The big business map of America: Richest company in each state revealed with Arkansas' Wal-Mart taking the country's top spot
Post Date: 2015-06-10 08:55:46 by cranky
5 Comments
Spots were based on total revenue from the last year and company's headquarters location Many companies kept 2014 spots, including Verizon in New YorkWest Coast remained unchanged with Chevron, Nike and Costco at topSprint in Kansas was replaced by Koch Industries, which outdid the phone company's 2014 revenue by $81billion this year A new map has revealed the richest company in each state based on total revenue from the last year, and Wal-Mart has once again taken the top spot. The mega retailer, whose headquarters are based in Arkansas, made $485.65billion in revenue this year, up $9billion from 2014. A number of companies continued their reign in their respective home ...
Last Task After Layoff at Disney: Train Foreign Replacements [Full Thread]
Post Date: 2015-06-03 13:54:58 by Willie Green
66 Comments
ORLANDO, Fla. — The employees who kept the data systems humming in the vast Walt Disney fantasy fief did not suspect trouble when they were suddenly summoned to meetings with their boss.While families rode the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train and searched for Nemo on clamobiles in the theme parks, these workers monitored computers in industrial buildings nearby, making sure millions of Walt Disney World ticket sales, store purchases and hotel reservations went through without a hitch. Some were performing so well that they thought they had been called in for bonuses.Instead, about 250 Disney employees were told in late October that they would be laid off. Many of their jobs were transferred to ...
Scoop!: Hi-Tech Kitty Litter Does It All
Post Date: 2015-06-01 08:57:41 by Willie Green
2 Comments
In the world of stealth startups, the timing of a launch is everything. But Colin Heilbut and Carly Martinetti let the cat out of the bag on their "Uber for Kitty Litter" startup when they advertised for beta-testers on Craigslist May 18. "We're a new startup that is testing a new Kitty Litter delivery and cleaning service," the ad explained. "During the six-month beta-period we will come to your house or apartment twice a month to deliver our patented next-generation kitty litter product and while there we will happily clean your litter box until it's sparkling fresh." The $20-a-month poop-scooping service isn't the real draw here though. According ...
House bill would make vodka, whiskey and rum cheaper
Post Date: 2015-05-28 15:48:13 by Hondo68
1 Comments
Thinkstock House Republican Todd Young (Ind.) has introduced legislation to reduce the excise tax on vodka, rum, gin and whiskey.Excise taxes are paid when purchases are made on a specific good and often included in the price of the product.The Distillery Innovation and Excise Tax Reform Act unveiled Tuesday would drop the current tax rate for distilled spirits from $13.50 per proof gallon to $2.70 per proof gallon on the first 10,000 gallons of productions for all distillers and then $9 per proof gallon after that. In a news release citing the Distilled Spirits Council and the American Craft Spirits Association, Young said more than half the purchase price of a bottle of spirits is used ...
Airlines jack up fares along closed Amtrak corridor
Post Date: 2015-05-15 15:40:24 by Willie Green
5 Comments
Airfares between New York and Washington, DC, have taken off since the fatal Amtrak derailing — with some round-trip flights going for four times the normal amount. With rail service suspended at least until Monday, travelers have been scrambling to grab tickets on the busy, popular route. American Airlines on Friday morning offered the few seats left on round-trip flights for as much as $1,000 leaving Saturday and returning Monday. Prices on US Airways’ website hovered above $770, with many seats sold out even on connecting flights. Fares on Delta Air Lines were more down to earth, with prices of about $530. Travel sites Orbitz and Expedia didn’t offer any amazing ...
Are you a Richard Branson or a Bill Gates? The quiz that reveals YOUR leadership style
Post Date: 2015-05-10 20:44:24 by out damned spot
5 Comments
Sponsored by The Jack Welch Management Institute at Strayer University Being a leader is about more than telling people what to do. The way you manage your team and interact with those around you affects every aspect of your company – whether you work with three people or three thousand. And one person who knows more about this than most is Jack Welch. As one of the most successful business leaders in the world, Welch has helped countless individuals and companies to grow and develop by honing their management skills. He was also the CEO who saw General Electric's market capitalization soar from $13 billion to over $400 billion during his 21-year tenure at the company. As ...
Robot Suits help Bankers lug piles of Cash
Post Date: 2015-05-09 06:31:21 by Willie Green
1 Comments
A bank employee demonstrates use of a robot suit to help lift heavy packages of cash.-- Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp.Robots are starting to turn up in bank branches to greet customers, and now they’re getting ready for service behind the scenes to help older employees lift heavy stacks of cash. Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp., the core banking unit of Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc., said Thursday it has rented eight robotic suits developed by Japanese robotic maker Cyberdyne Inc. to ease the burden on the employees delivering cash. The bank says that would be a first among Japanese financial institutions. “There have been many cases when a physical burden was placed on senior ...
The World’s First Self-Driving Semi-Truck Hits the Road
Post Date: 2015-05-06 10:15:07 by Willie Green
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“AU 010.” License plates are rarely an object of attention, but this one’s special—the funky number is the giveaway. That’s why Daimler bigwig Wolfgang Bernhard and Nevada governor Brian Sandoval are sharing a stage, mugging for the phalanx of cameras, together holding the metal rectangle that will, in just a minute, be slapped onto the world’s first officially recognized self-driving truck. The truck in question is the Freightliner Inspiration, a teched-up version of the Daimler 18-wheeler sold around the world. And according to Daimler, which owns Mercedes-Benz, it will make long-haul road transportation safer, cheaper, and better for the planet. ...
The death of the 40-hour work week
Post Date: 2015-05-06 08:03:16 by Willie Green
7 Comments
When you’re hired for a full-time job, the understanding is that you’ll put in at least a 40-hour workweek. The expectation, especially for salaried employees who don’t qualify for overtime, is that you’ll put in more to ensure your projects get done. Or because the boss needs something at the last minute. Or just because everyone at the office regularly works more than 8 hours a day, and you’re seen as kind of a slacker if you don’t. So how long do full-time U.S. employees really work every week? A Gallup survey last summer found that the average for full-time employees was actually 47 hours, or 46 if you isolate those workers with just one job. Either way, ...
U.S. Permits Ferry Service to Cuba
Post Date: 2015-05-05 21:42:38 by Willie Green
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The U.S. Treasury granted licenses to three American companies to operate ferry services to Cuba for the first time in more than a half century, potentially bringing the former Cold War antagonists closer. The move is part of President Barack Obama’s strategy to normalize relations with Cuba by engaging in direct talks with the government of President Raúl Castro. Reviving a mode of travel between the two countries that was common in the 1950s would ease the people-to-people contact that is a cornerstone of Mr. Obama’s policy of engagement. “It’s an important symbol that re-establishing of relations with Cuba is a legacy project for Obama,” said Robert Muse, ...
America's trailer parks: the residents may be poor but the owners are getting rich
Post Date: 2015-05-03 14:27:29 by Willie Green
11 Comments
It’s an unusual but potentially lucrative investment: billionaire Warren Buffett is heavily invested, and his and others’ success is prompting ordinary people to attend Mobile Home University, a ‘boot camp’ in trailer park ownership The number one rule is stated twice, once in the classroom and once on the bus: “Don’t make fun of the residents.” Welcome to Mobile Home University, a three-day, $2,000 “boot camp” that teaches people from across the US how to make a fortune by buying up trailer parks. Trailer parks are big and profitable business – particularly after hundreds of thousands of Americans who lost their homes in the financial ...
Wells Fargo Is Baltimore’s Real Looter
Post Date: 2015-05-03 09:11:11 by Willie Green
9 Comments
Wall Street created the nightmare economic context of the unrest in Baltimore. You don’t need to have watched The Wire, one of the greatest dramas in American television history, to know that Baltimore has some rough neighborhoods. But things got a lot worse when the subprime mortgage crisis blew up in 2008. The wealth destroyed by some of the biggest banks foisting predatory loans on unsuspecting, unprotected consumers was staggering, and triggered the Great Recession. Baltimore was hit particularly hard, and around the Baltimore area, the black community was specifically and intentionally targeted for these predatory loans. The resulting implosion dialed the black community’s ...
Comcast sued a city trying to build high-speed internet — then offered its own version
Post Date: 2015-05-02 09:55:28 by Willie Green
2 Comments
Competition wins again The small city of Chattanooga, Tennessee, has played a large role in the movement to expand high-speed internet around the US. It wanted to build its own municipal fiber network, but was sued by incumbents like Comcast. After winning in court, Chattanooga built its own high-speed offering, but was prevented from expanding this offering to neighboring areas by state laws. Earlier this year, the FCC voted to overturn those restrictions. And today Comcast has come crawling back, announcing it will begin offering its own 2-gigabit service in Chattanooga. "I think we would have welcomed the incumbents to come into town and to have done some of this ...
As contributions fall, House GOP rebels blame party leaders
Post Date: 2015-04-25 12:35:46 by Willie Green
1 Comments
WASHINGTON (AP) — As he began his first re-election run in early 2013, tea party Rep. Thomas Massie had no trouble raising money from business interests. Then came 2015. The Kentucky Republican voted against returning John Boehner, R-Ohio, to the speaker's job and opposed an effort by GOP leaders to avoid a standoff with President Barack Obama over immigration that threatened to shut down the Department of Homeland Security. In the first three months of 2013, Massie reported $46,000 rolling in from tobacco, trucking, health care and other industries. During the first quarter of 2015, Massie has collected just $1,000 from political action committees, which funnel contributions ...
The American Dream is a myth, says Nobel-prize winner [Full Thread]
Post Date: 2015-04-24 10:32:47 by Willie Green
41 Comments
It has become increasingly difficult for Americans to climb the economic ladder, says Joseph Stiglitz, a Nobel-prize winning economist. The U.S. has one of the highest levels of income inequality among its peers and is among the worst in offering equal opportunities for advancement, said Stiglitz, who spoke Tuesday in New York City. Whether an American gets ahead is also more dependent on the income and education of their parents, he said. "The American Dream is a myth," said Stiglitz. A left-leaning authority on income inequality who teaches at Columbia University, Stiglitz is on a publicity tour for his new book, The Great Divide, which is a compilation of his articles on ...
The Threat of Gravity Payments [The Great Bloviator himself, Rush Limbaugh, ruptured a vessel railing] [Full Thread]
Post Date: 2015-04-24 02:42:13 by A Pole
44 Comments
I won't pretend that I understand what the digital company Gravity Payments actually does (in fact, I don't understand what most digital companies do) but I want to congratulate CEO Dan Price for providing us all with a useful economics lesson. You've undoubtedly heard that Price recently decided to cut his own salary in order to help finance a radical experiment in employee pay: everyone who works for Gravity Payments, based in Seattle, will now make $70,000/year. He delivered the news to all 120 Gravity employees on April 13. Actually, the economics lesson didn't come from Mr. Price directly. Rather, it has come from the angry, near hysterical reactions that have greeted ...
GM, Ford, And Others Want to Make Working on Your Own Car Illegal
Post Date: 2015-04-23 14:27:14 by Willie Green
26 Comments
One of the inherent rights of owning a vehicle is the ability to get on one’s backside — a wrench in one hand and a grease rag in the other, and just tinker to your little heart’s desire. Since the vehicle was invented, it’s been an important facet within the community of gearheads. General Motors — the same company responsible for 87 deaths related to faulty ignition switches, FYI — wants to take that right away from you citing safety and security issues. Along with a few other big names.It’s called the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). It’s been around since 2000 and started as anti-Internet piracy legislation. But automakers want to use ...
Robin Hood: Why Ayn Rand Got It Wrong
Post Date: 2015-04-20 13:11:52 by Hondo68
3 Comments
For sixty years I have been captivated by the heroic stories of Robin Hood. The Adventures of Robin Hood was my favorite movie as a kid, Errol Flynn my favorite actor. Adventures of Robin Hood, by Eleanor Graham Vance, was my favorite book as a kindergartener. I still have it in my library. Over the past several days I have once again been reliving my corrupted youth by watching on DVD the 143 episodes of The Adventures of Robin Hood starring Richard Greene. Above is Outlaw Money, one of my favorites with many themes LRC enthusiasts will relish. The television series was produced in England by Sapphire Films. Sapphire Films was founded by producer Hannah Weinstein allegedly with funds ...
Closure Of Private Prison Forces Texas County To Plug Financial Gap
Post Date: 2015-04-20 08:31:12 by Willie Green
3 Comments
The Willacy County Correctional Center is empty now. The tall security fences and dome-like housing units set out on the coastal prairie have no one inside them. One morning late last month, the prisoners rioted. They set fires and tore the place up. Guards put down the uprising in about five hours. But the destruction was so severe that the sprawling detention compound has been shut down. All 2,800 inmates were transferred. Willacy County is now facing the question — what does it do now that its biggest moneymaker is out of business? "Worst scenario, we'll lose about $2.3 million annually, which is about 23 percent of our income," says Beto Guerra, Willacy County ...
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