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Ethan McLeod is an associate editor at the Baltimore Business Journal and a former senior editor at Baltimore Fishbowl.
The pioneering festival marketplace was among the most trendsetting urban attractions of the last 40 years. Now it’s looking for a new place in a changed city.
On a Sunday afternoon in November, downtown Baltimore’s Inner Harbor is abuzz. It’s day three of Brilliant Baltimore, the city’s newly combined light-art-and-book festival. Crowds pack the waterfront promenade, perusing tents and stalls selling books, stationery, crafts, food, drink, and more. Some pose in front of the light installations that dot the perimeter of the harbor. Skaters glide around to music at the ice rink near the amphitheater, which opened for the holidays.
But just steps away, Harborplace—a twin-pavilion festival marketplace with an attached mall that’s been the anchor of Charm City tourism for almost four decades—sits all but idle. Music echoes overhead in a mostly empty lower-level food court in the Light Street pavilion. A few stray customers peruse Natty Boh gear and Maryland-proud attire at Crabby Jack’s General Store. Except for a few food vendors, a two-story H&M, a Hooters franchise (half-full on an NFL game day), and the kitschy Ripley’s Believe It or Not! museum upstairs, vacancies abound.
The pavilion on the Pratt Street side is faring slightly better, with a handful of half-full bars and restaurants, food stalls, and tchotchke vendors seeing a trickle of customers. But its narrow hallways lack foot traffic and are similarly plagued by empty storefronts.
Surendra Chaddha, part-owner of smoke shop Tobacco ETC, says business is down 35 percent from when his store opened in the Pratt Street pavilion nearly a decade ago. He blames years-delayed and poorly executed interior renovations, as well as the constant drumbeat of news about crime happening nearby, which he says discourages visitors. ”Foot traffic is getting, every day, lower and lower and lower.”
Harborplace’s dying-mall vibe is no secret to Baltimoreans, but it’s still a shocking reversal for an attraction hailed as an urban game-changer and a national model when it opened in 1980. The brainchild of developer James Rouse and architect Benjamin Thompson, Harborplace was the Rouse Company’s first scratch-built festival marketplace, following their successful transformation of Boston’s historic Faneuil Hall into a retail attraction in 1976. Supported by a controversial 1978 ballot referendum and federal funding for an adjoining hotel from HUD’s Urban Development Action Grant program, the $20 million waterfront shopping plaza debuted on July 2, 1980, at a celebration reportedly attended by thousands featuring a live performance from the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and fireworks to boot.
Harborplace joined a cluster of waterfront elements that the city’s leaders were assembling around its U-shaped harbor, a grim landscape of rotting wharves that had fallen into disuse since World War II. A science center and the I.M. Pei-designed World Trade Center office tower were already in place; an aquarium and the first of several downtown hotels were on their way. Nearby were a new convention center and the Charles Center complex—the city’s 1960’s-era urban renewal centerpiece. “This is the missing ingredient that makes it all work as one,” declared Martin Millspaugh, the head of Charles Center-Inner Harbor Management and an architect of the city’s postwar revival. “Instead of a series of attractions, we’ll have one massive attraction: the shoreline.”
It worked, brilliantly. Harborplace collected 7 million visitors—its projected total for the first year—within three months. In the New York Times, critic Paul Goldberger praised the pavilions as a “stunning success.” James Rouse landed on Time magazine in 1981, his beaming face beside the ebullient coverline “Cities Are Fun!” Baltimore was celebrated—and copied—in cities across the country for blazing a path to post-industrial resurgence, one paved in tourist dollars: Harborplace went on to inspire a slew of other festival marketplaces around the country, from Toledo’s Portside to New Orleans’ Riverwalk.
“They created the demand. There wasn’t this phenomenon of festival marketplaces at the time,” says Laurie Schwartz, president of the Waterfront Partnership of Baltimore, which sponsors programming around the Inner Harbor and cares for its public spaces. “It was a very unique feature that created a curiosity and interest and excitement that drove people to the Inner Harbor, both tourists and locals.”
But 40 years out, the festival marketplace party is over—and not just in Baltimore. A few cities—including Tampa, Miami and Norfolk (which did demolish part of its original Waterside complex)—have given these facilities new life by working with developers to rebrand and update them. Others have succumbed to the wrecking ball. In Richmond, Virginia, the failed 6th Street Marketplace was razed in 2003, and the land reopened to pedestrians and traffic. In Jacksonville, Florida, crews recently demolished the Jacksonville Landing marketplace to replace the complex with, well, nothing, after the city agreed to a $15 million settlement to acquire it from its now-former owner.
Harborplace remains, for now, but it faces a deeply uncertain future. Last June, a city circuit court judge placed the property under receivership, putting New Jersey-based IVL Group in possession of the buildings and wresting control from New York City’s Ashkenazy Acquisition Corporation. Ashkenazy had purchased Harborplace—also acquiring its lease of city-owned property running through 2087—for nearly $100 million in 2012. A recent Baltimore Business Journal investigation noted, among other discoveries, that Ashkenazy did not pay ground rent on the property since July 2014 under a now-finished rent abatement deal with the city.
IVL Group, whose website says it specializes in “distressed asset and property management,” is managing and leasing Harborplace on behalf of Deutsche Bank Trust Co. Americas, the trustee for UBS-Barclays Commercial Mortgage Trust, which holds the mortgage on the property. The receivership opened the door for a potential sale of the troubled plaza, though IVL Group’s plans remain unclear. Asked about the pavilions’ future, the firm’s president, Ian Lagowitz, responded via email, “at this time I have no comment.”
Last summer’s receivership news and sluggish foot traffic prompted plenty of concern about the fate of the struggling pavilions. Baltimore Mayor Jack Young opined at one point that they should “be torn down and redone” (comments he later walked back, sort of). The Baltimore Sun’s editorial board suggested a “a partial tear-down and rebuild,” among other ideas.
Not long ago, it would have been unthinkable for a Baltimore leader to suggest taking a wrecking ball to the city’s marquee attraction. But now the groundbreaking shopping center that saved the city is fighting for its own life.
Harborplace was never supposed to just be just a mall. Its initial strength was its locally made goods and food, says Jimmy Rouse, a Baltimore artist and one of the late developer’s two sons. He recalls his father bringing them to the Lexington Market and North Avenue Market—outposts of Baltimore’s network of public markets, the nation’s oldest—when they were growing up. The crowded, chaotic sheds full of vegetable stands, fish stalls, and lunch carry-outs provided the kind of urban vitality that the elder Rouse tried to inject into the shopping malls and planned communities he was known for.
“He loved the idea of having a meat purveyor, a cheese purveyor, a produce purveyor, all these separate, individual merchants,” Jimmy Rouse says. “When he started Harborplace, part of the vision was to recreate that, have an independent meat and cheese dealer… produce, flowers, all these individual merchants in there, along with retail that was impulse buying.”
When the New York Times ventured back to Harborplace for a food review in 1983, writer Marian Burros found dozens of vendors selling everything “from crabcakes to kielbasa,” and cited Indian, Greek, Chinese and other options, plus indigenous favorites like cheese bread from Ms. Desserts, lemon sticks, and coddies. A mainstay of the early Harborplace was The Fudgery, an aggressively fun candy vendor known for its exuberant young staff of singing fudge-makers. (The R&B group Dru Hill began their careers there.)
It’s hard to overstate how transformative Harborplace was for Baltimore’s sense of itself in the 1980s and ‘90s. Even locals who shunned the twin pavilions as cartoony tourist traps often found themselves drawn to the waterside, especially when hosting out-of-town visitors. Baltimore held plenty of more “authentic” haunts, but it was Harborplace, and the circuit of Inner Harbor attractions it anchored, that dominated every television ad or visitor’s center brochure.
As time wore on, however—and cookie-cutter festival marketplaces popped up in dozens of other cities—the facility’s charms began to seem less distinctive. What was once a one-of-kind attraction became just one of a network of glitzy waterfront shopping emporia. The homogenization was internal, as well, as national brands began to replace the local merchants. “Chains dilute local flavor of Harborplace,” read a headline on a 2002 Baltimore Sun story that noted a troubling loss of independent retailers at the water’s edge.
Joshua Olsen, an executive vice president for D.C.-based developer Monument Realty and author of a 2003 biography on James Rouse, says Harborplace and other festival marketplaces “were victims of their own success.” Big names like Starbucks, Hooters, and UNO Pizzeria saw the retail spaces’ popularity and moved in, and smaller, locally owned retailers were priced out of leases.
Even the ownership lost its local flavor. Harborplace changed hands in 2004, when the Rouse Company was acquired by Chicago-based General Growth Properties, which at the time owned or managed 178 regional shopping malls in 41 states. New York-based Ashkenazy acquired the pavilions from GGP in 2013.
Ashkenazy had planned to modernize the pavilions in 2016 and 2017, including updating the facades and interior retail spaces and adding a marketplace on the second floor of the Pratt Street side. But the work lagged and, based on previously presented designs, never fully materialized. And the exodus of tenants quickened.
Jimmy Rouse has watched as all this misfortune descended on the pavilions his father built, and he’s convinced that they could be be revitalized by simply going back to the original formula that made Harborplace such a hit in 1980: a renewed focus on local. His ideal restoration would “emphasize small merchants, not big national chains that the previous owners have tried to bring in there and that didn’t work. You need made-in-Maryland, made-in-Baltimore.”
It would also ideally be managed by an invested, Maryland-based owner, not an outside firm with an entire national portfolio to manage, Rouse says: “It needs an owner that cares. It’s had two really bad owners in a row, both from out of town.”
But the customer base is there and untapped, he argues, pointing to newly built high-rises and conversions of offices into apartments around the harbor. “There are more residents living downtown than at any time in Baltimore’s history,” Rouse says—not to mention the still-vigorous stream of visitors drawn by other Inner Harbor attractions like the National Aquarium and the Maryland Science Center. In neighborhoods beyond the harbor, freshly minted food halls are packing in hungry crowds; by returning to its 1980s roots, Harborplace could jump aboard a very hot urban dining trend.
“I think there’s a grand opportunity there,” Rouse says. “And I’m sure if my father were alive, he’d see it as a grand opportunity.”
But saving Harborplace might not be that simple: Changing consumer demands, design considerations, and even rising sea levels may all be working against the future viability of the two pavilions.
“They fall into the period of malls being social places of gathering,” says Klaus Philipsen, a Baltimore architect and urban design blogger. “And the mall is obsolete now, and the mini-mall on the waterfront is obsolete as well.”
Harborplace’s connectivity to the city is also hampered by street design, Philipsen notes: It’s ringed by multi-lane thoroughfares feeding the two interstate highways, I-95 and I-83, that penetrate the city. Pedestrians coming from downtown need to cross thick spans of traffic to reach the shopping areas. To facilitate better walkability, he suggests eliminating lanes on Pratt and Light streets, to “make these highways less highway-like and more like a city boulevard.”
Another local architect, Adam Gross of downtown architecture firm Ayers Saint Gross, which prepared a comprehensive Inner Harbor master plan for the Waterfront Partnership in 2013, blames the pavilions themselves: While they collected many design awards in their time, they have “dated horribly, architecturally,” he says. “There’s just way too much ill-defined space.” Many of the pavilions’ tenant spaces have entryways facing busy streets, not the water nearby, and have exposed loading docks. “I would strip it back to the raw concrete, at a minimum, and just make them glass pavilions,” Gross says.
Business leaders have called for addressing the market’s subpar street-level access and compromised views for years. A spokesperson for the Downtown Partnership of Baltimore, a nonprofit that represents downtown neighborhoods’ commercial and residential interests, noted its 2008 Pratt Street renewal plan recommended better screening of mechanical equipment and loading docks, among other aesthetic improvements. (The organization otherwise declined to comment on Harborplace’s future, saying its territory ends north of the waterfront, and deferred to the Waterfront Partnership.)
Randy Sovich, a North Baltimore-based architect, says for both pavilions, “the existing building shell would lend itself to other uses or configurations” like city-owned public makerspaces and marketplaces. Design-wise, he similarly envisions more transparent structures, offering New York City’s Pier 17—a recent transformation of another early waterfront Rouse project—as an example.
“I’m picturing a new expanded roof structure/platform that would be a public space,” he said via email. He also suggested the Pratt Street pavilion’s second level may be superfluous and could instead be made into “an open elevated park space.”
Sovich is co-editor of the architecture zine T3XTURE, which collaborated with the AIA’s Baltimore chapter and the Baltimore Architecture Foundation in 2019 on a design competition that challenged designers and architects to rethink the harbor’s edge. While a number of the 13 finalist proposals retained the pavilions, some of them proposed replacing one or both with green or public space. Many included ambitious plans to better connect waterways flowing into the harbor, or providing for more softscape and natural elements.
One, designed by University of Maryland landscape architecture students, proposes reforesting the area where the Light Street pavilion now sits to create a new softscape canopy. Another, from Murphy and Dittenhafer Architects, suggests using repurposed dredged material in the Inner Harbor to mitigate storm surges.
Architects Kelly Danz and Amanda Ganginis submitted a design that Danz says is “based around recreation, not shopping like it is now.” The current Inner Harbor, she says, includes “too much hardscape. It just needs to be more green, and I think it could be more open.” Their idea centers around carving out inlets to let water flow from the harbor to Oriole Park at Camden Yards, the Maryland Science Center, and other nearby inland areas. It would also add waterside recreational spaces and install permeable surfaces, parks, and green roofs to better manage stormwater runoff.
Yet, even while removing the Light Street pavilion, they opted to keep the Pratt Street one in their vision. “We should have some sense of history,” Danz says. “We didn’t want to completely disregard the entire existing fabric.”
Repurposing the property for noncommercial use like a wetland park would take more than just re-engineering the space: It would almost surely require changing the city charter. The document, which serves as Baltimore’s local constitution, says the city-owned land where Harborplace was built “shall be set aside” for use as “eating places and other commercial uses.” Any changes to the charter must be passed by the Baltimore City Council, and then approved by voters via ballot referenda.
As Danz suggests, there’s also an argument to be made that the buildings are too culturally valuable to simply erase from the map. Approaching their 40th birthday, the pavilions represent the nucleus of a successful revitalization campaign for a post-industrial wasteland where few locals (and even fewer tourists) once wanted to set foot.
Olsen, the developer and Rouse biographer, says “to some extent, the structures are historic—with a little ‘h’—in terms of the role they played in remaking Baltimore and the city as a whole.” But “just because a design had an impact 30 years ago doesn’t mean it’s the right design for today,” he says. “Those pavilions were always designed to disappear to some extent.”
The harbor itself may have its own role to play in that erasure. A 2017 U.S. Army Corps of Engineers report found the Chesapeake Bay area is the third most vulnerable area to climate change in the United States. Projections published last year by researchers at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science predict that so-called nuisance flooding days in Baltimore are likely to continue growing annually to 100 per year on average by 2050; flooding could occur almost daily in the Inner Harbor by 2100.
One graphic from their report shows the pavilions surrounded by water in 2100 following a potential one-two punch of a powerful hurricane storm surge and sea-level rise. Residents got a taste of this already following Hurricane Isabel in 2003, when the Inner Harbor promenade submerged under four feet of water.
“Climate change has and will have a greater impact in the years to come,” notes Schwartz of the Waterfront Partnership, “so that’s got to be incorporated into any plans as well.”
Whatever happens to Harborplace—whether it gets reborn as an eco-friendly park or as a bustling urban market more in line with its creators’ vision—many locals are hoping that it can cater to the wants and needs of different kinds of users.
Standing outside the Light Street pavilion in early November, Alice Kennedy, visiting with her daughter for the day, says her ideal revamped Harborplace would boast more family-friendly entertainment, and pivot more towards what Baltimoreans—not just tourists—want.
“Building a space specifically just for tourism, I don’t think benefits us as a city as a whole,” she says. “The local is not looking for a Boh shirt. It’s about finding that balance between what can help and drive the tourism economy, but what can be captured by our local economy as well.”
Schwartz thinks that answering the question about what to do with Harborplace will require “serious research and conversation” with those who will spend time there. It should also account for landscape and programming changes already planned, she said, like the forthcoming first phase of renovations of Rash Field—a somewhat neglected waterfront park space at the southern end of the Inner Harbor—or the National Aquarium’s $14 million floating wetlands project.
The existential question is thus about “not just that one property,” but the broader area, she says. “It’s a very, very different environment now than when Harborplace opened… It is time for a new look at the Inner Harbor. It is 40 years old. I think it could use some new thinking.”


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EXCLUSIVE: Peacock has tapped Casey Benesch as Senior Vice President, Title Creative and Marketing.
In this position, which has been newly created, Benesch will lead the development of integrated marketing campaigns for Peacock series and films programming.
More from Deadline
He will report to Chief Marketing Officer Shannon Willett, whose team has been undergoing an organizational restructure, beginning last year with the hire of Zaid Al-Asady.
Most recently, Benesch worked as the Global Head of Series Marketing at Amazon MGM Studios, where he oversaw strategy and development for all the streamer’s originals. He joined Amazon as the Head of Comedy, working across both TV and film.
Prior to that, he was the Head of Comedy at Netflix for around six years. His team launched “Netflix Is A Joke,” which is still the creative team behind the streamer’s comedy launches.
He previously served as VP of Creative Marketing at Funny of Die and has also worked at Creative Artists Agency, Deutsch LA and Saatchi & Saatchi LA.
Best of Deadline

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Kolkata: The Central government is considering a package for the tea industry, the junior trade minister said on Wednesday. “Social cost is a major issue with the tea industry. The government is taking this matter very seriously and shortly we are going to come out with a package for this industry,” Jyotiraditya Scindia told reporters.
Social cost includes all the basic amenities which are provided to labours by the plantation owners, he said.
“Social amenities adds around Rs7 per kg in the production cost, and we have proposed that half of this cost should be borne by the Centre and the state government,” said Indian Tea Association, chairman, Aditya Khaitan.
This would be in addition to the Rs6 billion alloted this year through the Tea Board under Special Purpose Tea Fund (SPTF) for re-plantations and rejuvenation in tea gardens, he added.
The SPTF was announced in 2005, under which federal government would give Rs42 billion grant to the tea industry over a period of 15 years.
An industry expert said the proposed package would be helpful in reducing the production cost, boosting global competitiveness of Indian tea.
“A package for this would unable us to reduce the fixed (production) cost and be more competitive, as in countries like Sri Lanka and Kenya, the producers do not bear such cost,” he added.
The minister said the industry should look to improve the quality of the tea produced and focus more on exporting the orthodox variety of tea rather than crushed tear and curl (CTC) variety leafs.
“The real market for export in the tea sector lies in the orthodox variety, whereas we only export CTC leafs. So we should look to reorganise our tea export basket,” Scindia told an industry chamber.
“There is also a need to focus on more value-added products like the tea-bags,” he added.
Debt relief package
The federal government is also planing to come out with a separate and comprehensive debt-relief package for the plantation sector, Scindia said.
“Government is very serious about addressing the problems of indebtedness of the plantation sector. A note has been sent to the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA), so we should come out with a package shortly,” he added.
The package would particularly address small and medium plantation growers, he said.


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One of the most successful parts of Sony is its mobile camera division market, with the company having their sensors in many flagship smartphones - but their new one? Yeah, it's going to be even better.
Sony has been teasing a new sensor that will be capable of capturing 1000FPS at 1080p, which allows you to slow the video down 64x. In the current smartphone camera sensors, there is no mechanical shutter, which is why we have that horizontal scrolling effect when panning quickly, or with fast-moving objects.
A new layer of DRAM has been added to Sony's new camera sensors, directly into the camera sensor - something that will let the sensor process and buffer frames at a much quicker rate, resulting in a higher frame rates. This will reduce the horizontal scrolling effect, resulting in smoother video.
We should expect Sony's new camera sensor to be inside of Apple's new iPhone X smartphone - well, at least I expect it to be, and upcoming flagship smartphones from Samsung next year, or maybe the Galaxy Note 8 later this year.


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Dragon's Den star Touker Suleyman expands empire with stake in Finery London
Touker Suleyman, the fashion entrepreneur and TV Dragon, is expanding his empire with a stake in British womenswear label Finery London.
The brand, two years old next month, joins Hawes & Curtis and Ghost in Suleyman’s portfolio. He bought shirt maker Hawes & Curtis in 2001 for £1, followed by fashion label Ghost in 2008.
He has invested in start-ups including boat shoe brand Docks Rio and handbag maker Huxley & Cox.
Expanding empire: Touker Suleyman, the fashion entrepreneur and TV Dragon, is expanding his empire with a stake in British womenswear label Finery London
His company Low-Profile supplies retailers including Marks & Spencer. Finery said Suleyman’s manufacturing experience would help it to improve its product offering.
Nickyl Raithatha, chief executive of Finery, which launched in February 2015, said Touker’s involvement ‘comes at the perfect time as we look to establish Finery as the most exciting brand on the British high street’.
Finery was founded by Caren Downie and Rachel Morgans, former fashion director and head buyer respectively at Asos, and former Topshop design director Emma Farrow.
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Ugadi: Minister Suresh Kumar appeals to people not to panic and help poor during festival
25, Mar 2020, 1:23 PM IST
Ugadi, a big festival for Karnataka, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh has turned out to be a low-key affair this year due to coronavirus. Realising the situation and the fear that looms large, Primary Education minister S Suresh Kumar has appealed to public not to panic and hoard items and has requested residents to look for daily wage laborers and offer them help to celebrate Ugadi in true sense.
Kumar asked people not to panic assuming that essentials and other items will be suspended. He instead assured people that the government will make sure all the necessary items will be made available.
He asked people not to rush to grocery stores and instead help daily wage workers near their homes during Ugadi festival.


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The investigation into Tesco's accounting errors points so "some failure of corporate governance", CNBC's Catherine Boyle reports.» Read More
Discussing IBM's transition to the cloud, and the health of its stock, with Brian White, Cantor Fitzgerald, and Peter Misek, Jefferies & Co.
Living Proof co-owner and actress Jennifer Aniston, discusses the consumer hair care market and how current beauty companies are failing shoppers.
Jimmy Bannos, Jr. has a problem that a lot of business owners would love to have -- his restaurant, The Purple Pig, is too popular. Marcus Lemonis of "The Biz Fix" shared his advice on how Bannos can capitalize on that.
Allergan has rejected a $47 billion takeover bid by Valeant Pharmaceuticals. The "Squawk on the Street" news team discuss m&a in pharmaceuticals and the IPO market.
Discussing the stigma attached to women who take career breaks to raise a family and try to come back to work, with Shirley Leung, The Boston Globe, and CNBC's Steve Liesman.
More men over the age of 50 have college degrees, but under the age of 35, the figures reverse. CNBC's Steve Liesman questions how businesses will react to the rising "she-conomy."
Jay Yarrow, Business Insider, weighs in on Apple's potential buy of Beats Electronics for $3.2 billion. The "Fast Money" traders debate if this is the right deal for Apple.
Michael Wolf, Activate co-founder, explains when he thinks the reported deal of Apple to buy Beat makes sense. Wolf says the fact that analysts don't get the deal probably means it's the right thing.
Piper Jaffray's Gene Munster discusses Apple's reported buy of Beats Electronics for $3.2 billion. Munster says the deal doesn't make sense and the bigger story is what Jimmy Iovine's role will be with Apple.
There is a right and a wrong way to answer a Wall Street interview question. Here's how to nail it, says former trader Raj Mahal.
Doug Sanders, Sprouts Farmers Market president & CEO, discusses rising food costs and breaks down competition in the natural foods and organics space.
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Proposed regulations clarify data privacy rules in California
A proposed new set of regulations in California gives businesses guidance on how they should handle sensitive personal data.
On May 27, the California Consumer Protection Agency released new regulations relating to the California Privacy Protection Act. The agency was scheduled to meet on June 8 and will likely issue a notice of proposed rulemaking, followed by a 45-day public comment period before the new regulations are finalized.
“There may be more regulations coming later this year,” said Darcey Groden, attorney at San Diego-based Fisher Phillips. The agency’s board considered a second set of regulations to address annual cybersecurity audits, regular risk assessments and automated decision-making. This second set of regulations could be released before the process of finalizing the current set of proposed regulations is complete, she added.
But don’t wait to take steps to make sure you’re compliant with recent privacy laws.
“Companies need to start preparing because the California Privacy Agency has made it clear that they want the regulations to give the law some real teeth,” Groden said.
Companies that share or sell personal information must notify consumers in advance and allow them to opt out. Companies must pass on these legal obligations to their service providers and subcontractors in their contracts.
The state privacy law, passed in 2020, gives consumers the right to tell companies not to share or sell their personal information. Consumers also have the right to ask a company to delete all of their personal information.
Steps to follow
The first step is to know what sensitive personal information your organization collects from customers and employees. “Companies should take a close look at the sensitive personal information they have, if they need it, and ensure that their privacy policies and practices provide adequate security,” Groden advised.
Sensitive personal information includes:
- Social Security number.
- Driver’s license or passport number.
- Precise geolocation.
- Account login, financial account, debit or credit card number.
- Racial or ethnic identity.
- religious affiliation.
- Biometric or genetic information.
- Union membership.
The second step is to update your written privacy policies and notices to customers and employees. Include the right to limit the use of sensitive personal information and the right to correct any inaccurate information.
“You should plan to start working with your IT vendors early to make sure this is done before 2023,” Groden advised. “It’s not enough to have a written policy on how long information should be retained. You need to work on the process of deleting outdated data on a large scale, versus deleting personal information in response to individual consumer requests. .”
The proposed regulations prohibit “dark schemes” designed to manipulate or subvert consumer choice. Here are some examples :
- Offer options on a website that say “yes” or “ask me later” (rather than “yes” or “no”).
- Opt by default for a choice considered less protective of privacy.
- Manipulative language, such as getting a consumer to click on why opting out of selling personal information is a bad choice.
“Dark patterns were already prohibited under the California Privacy Rights Act, and the proposed regulations add that obtaining consumer consent with the use of a dark pattern voids consumer consent,” said Ryan Blaney, lawyer with Proskauer in Washington, DC.
The proposed regulations would allow the agency to verify a business under three scenarios:
- To investigate possible violations of privacy laws.
- If a company’s processing of personal information poses a significant risk to consumer privacy or security.
- Whether the company has a history of non-compliance with state privacy laws or any other privacy laws.
“If the proposed regulations pass as written, the agency will have a broad basis from which to decide whether to initiate an investigation,” Groden said. “Not only will the agency be able to initiate an investigation based on information from sworn affidavits from the general public, but it will have the authority to initiate an investigation based on referrals from other government agencies, private organizations, and even unsworn or anonymous complaints.”
If a company violates privacy law, the agency can order the company to stop the violation and pay a fine of $2,500 per violation or $7,500 per intentional violation.
Businesses that operate in multiple states need to keep up to date with various legal changes.
“Five states, including California, have comprehensive data protection laws that are expected to go into effect in the near future,” Groden noted. “This is in addition to other more narrowly focused consumer protection laws at the federal level, in California and in other states. Failure to comply with these could make a company the target of an audit. in California.”
“I don’t think California is going to be copied as a model,” said Philip Gordon, attorney at Denver-based Littler. “I think other states will follow with data protection laws.”


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READ MORE: Millicent crowd sends message
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READ MORE: Honeymoon’s over McBride
WORKERS at the Woolworths supermarket in Millicent do not want deregulated shopping in the town, according to their union.
Shop Distributive and Allied Employees Union (SDA) regional organiser Sean Pudney made the claim at the shopping hours public meeting in Millicent on Friday night.
Mr Pudney said he had recently spoken to 15 employees at the Davenport Street store and all opposed deregulation.
Speaking to The South Eastern Times after the meeting, Mr Pudney said the supermarket had 65 employees and 48 were members of his union.
He said the union had surveyed its Millicent Woolworths members over a year ago at the same time as Wattle Range Council staged its own poll of the community.
“The results mirrored the community vote to oppose deregulation in Millicent,” Mr Pudney said.
His union has a small number of members at the IGA supermarket and none at Foster’s Foodland.
The South Eastern Times has approached Woolworths for comment.
Meanwhile, the SDA has started an advertising campaign in the electronic media to oppose further deregulation by the new Liberal State Government.
SDA assistant secretary Josh Peak said deregulation would cost South Australians jobs.
“Premier Steven Marshall needs to stop siding with the interstate retailers and shopping centre owners and start standing up for SA jobs,” Mr Peak said.
“If deregulation goes ahead, local businesses will be squeezed out of the retail market by interstate supermarket chains and hardworking South Australians will suffer the consequences.
“It just means retail workers will have to work more unsociable hours.
“If trading hours are deregulated, retail workers will be pressured to work public holidays and more on weekends.
“Retail workers should not have to work from 4am on Boxing Day.
“Weekends and public holidays should be for everyone.”
However, Mr Marshall has dismissed union concerns and said studies had shown deregulation would boost economic growth and generate employment.


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Audi AG announced it is on track to reach its goal of selling a record 1.4 million vehicles in 2012.
The world’s second-largest maker of luxury cars expects sales to grow next year as well. “We are successfully performing against the European trend. We expect Audi to perform well 2013,” Audi CEO Rupert Stadler told journalists today in Ingolstadt, Germany. Audi’s operating profit in the first nine months of this year fell to 11.1 percent of sales from 12.1 percent a year earlier, while deliveries rose 8.8 percent.
Audi plans to building a factory in San Jose Chiapa, Mexico, in 2013 following in the footstepts of its German competitors BMW and Mercedes-Benz which added production outside their home market.
Until three years ago, Audi produced 75 percent of its vehicles in the Germany, in Ingolstadt and Neckarsulm, focusing largely on increasing quality and expanding its model lineup. Since then, Audi has begun making the A1 subcompact, A7 four-door luxury coupe and Q5 sport-utility vehicle.
In order to accommodate added production, Audi used spare capacity at a former VW facility in Belgium and a factory owned by Volkswagen’s Spanish brand SEAT. In contrast, BMW and Mercedes have long-established factories in South Africa, the U.S. and China.


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Every few years, we see a new car rise to the top while some of the popular models lose its shine. We might not know what will happen in five years time but some people are confident that the Alfa Romeo Giulia will be the model to look out for in the next few years.
We already know what the Alfa Romeo Giulia is going to offer. The design, engine options, and features have already been announced. While we do agree that the Alfa Romeo Giulia is great, we are not sure if it is going to be good enough to shake up the market.
Some people are saying that Alfa Romeo’s reliability reputation will cost the Alfa Romeo Guilia the win it deserves despite sites like Motor Trend giving it high points.
Others think that EV models like the Bolt will rule in the next five years. What do you think? Which model will be the one that shakes things up in the near future?


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Published Wednesday 9 December 2015 at 12:58
Join this year’s Santa Stroll taking place at Blackburn’s Witton Park on Sunday, December 13th.
There’s fun for all the family with a Christmas themed walk setting off from the Arena at 12noon.
Blackburn’s Mayor will be launching the Santa stroll and participants are invited to wear Christmas themed outfits.
Tickets can be purchased on the day outside WPA, all money goes towards the Christmas Wishes appeal 2015.
For more information see the attached poster.


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Advanced Micro Devices Inc. stock jumped upwards of 30 percent to $3.41 at the start of trading Friday, bolstered by the news that AMD is working on processors for three new gaming consoles. Amid declining PC sales, AMD has turned to the video game industry to reverse slumping revenue.
At the market's close Thursday, AMD's stock sat at $2.62, but after-hours trading saw a jump of 24 percent based on what analysts called a strong first quarter. Leading the charge was the potential $1.8 billion revenue from three semicustom processor "wins" for new consoles. The revenue would be spread out over the next three to four years, AMD CEO Lisa Su said on an earnings call Thursday.
"We do expect to start ramping that new business in the second half of the year. But we also expect the seasonal uplift of our traditional game console business," said Su.
With competition from Intel, Nvidia and others in the computing industry, AMD has carved a niche for itself in the console industry. AMD has semicustom processing units in Sony's PS4 and Microsoft's Xbox One. The PS4 has been the industry leader with sales of close to 40 million since its release in November 2013. Microsoft has not disclosed Xbox One sales, but recent estimates suggest sales of around 19 million. IBM designs the processor for Nintendo's Wii U.
Despite being relatively early in their life cycles, there are rumors of new consoles from Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft. Wii U sales are a disappointment compared to the blockbuster sales of the Nintendo Wii. Nintendo previously announced it was working on the Nintendo NX, but did not reveal any details about the new console. Recent reports indicate Sony is working on the PS4K, or NEO, as a console that would live alongside the current PS4. The new console would offer 4K support and improved graphics, but would not receive exclusive titles.
Comments made by Phil Spencer, head of Microsoft's Xbox division, led to speculation that there could be an Xbox One successor or a console refresh in the near future. A user on the gaming forum NEOGaf discovered two FCC filings that could indicate a revamped Xbox One and a possible new console from Microsoft.
AMD is likely making the processing unit for the PS4K/NEO, based on leaked spec documents. The two other consoles are more speculative. Nintendo NX was rumored to be a console-handheld hybrid, so AMD could be developing two separate processors for the company. AMD could develop the processor for a new Xbox, but not for an upgraded Xbox One. Su said all three consoles will be available by 2017.
AMD's revenue fell 19 percent year-over-year to $832 million for the first three months of 2016, but the $109 million loss for the quarter was better than the $180 million loss reported for the same period in 2015. The Enterprise, Embedded and Semi-Custom category was the only segment to post a profit for AMD. The category posted revenue of $372 million — down from $498 million from the same period in 2015 and a net income of $16 million — down from $45 million posted in the first quarter of 2015.
The downturn in AMD's fortunes was due to decreased sales of desktop and notebook processors. Lower operating costs helped negate the loss of revenue for the company. AMD cited a new $293 million licensing deal with Tianjin Haiguang Advanced Technology Investment Co. to develop processors for the Chinese server market — in addition to its semicustom business — for its forecast of an 15 percent, plus or minus 3 percent, increase in revenue for the second quarter of 2016.


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* Car industry group demands 2-3 yr delay to refrigerant ban * Suppliers say green alternatives proven and available * Scientists say threat from refrigerants worse than thought By Pete Harrison BRUSSELS, June 23 (Reuters) - Car makers are lobbying the European Union to delay an agreed 2011 ban on climate-damaging chemicals in car air-conditioners, a letter from auto industry group ACEA shows. The European Union ruled in 2006 that from 2011 it would ban the use of fluorinated ...
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Politico Highlights Launch of the Alliance for Drone Innovation in Leading Transportation Newsletter
Politico's leading transportation newsletter, Morning Transpiration, highlighted the launch of the Alliance for Drone innovation in today's morning tip sheet. "Former Obama DOT and FAA official Jenny Rosenberg is the executive director of the Alliance for Drone Innovation, the successor group to the Drone Manufacturers Alliance that now includes a range of drone makers, suppliers and software developers of recreational and commercial unmanned aircraft. The coalition 'will seek to preserve the role of the [FAA] and Congress in regulating the National Airspace System for drones, creating a reasonable regulatory framework for the smallest ‘micro’ drones, and fostering technological solutions that eliminate the need for static technology mandates,' according to a news release."
The newsletter is available in its entirety here.


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The Recreation Vehicle Industry Association commissioned an Economic Impact Study on the RV industry, released on June 7, 2016. The study found that the RV industry contributes about $49.7 billion in economic output or 0.28 percent of the Gross Domestic Product. Through its production and distribution linkages, the industry impacts firms in 426 of the 440 sectors of the United States economy.
Nationwide, the industry is responsible for 216,170 jobs, both directly and inderectly, creating an economic impact of $37.5 billion. The full study results, along with each individual state and congressional district's economic impact is available on the website by clicking here .
Fri Sep 7, 2018
Author: RV News Staff
RV and Camper Classifieds launched a new web site Sept. 1 to track new listings, business activity, events and financial information. The site offers responsive functionality and user-generated content features that lets customers post pictures and videos and use a geo-targeted RV locator. The site is also multi-lingual to help serve non-English speakers.
"We are excited about the launch of our website. Dealers, private owners, or anyone who visits our site will initially notice it is user-friendly and offers many amenities," said RV and Camper Classifieds CEO Christopher Allen.
“We believe this new site will allow our visitors to have an exceptional experience as we continue to grow and increase our market presence,” Allen said.
“Additionally, our website will deliver a low-cost alternative to similar RV classified websites that operate in the U.S. and Canada. Our platform has expanded functionality for standard listings including location mapping tools and offering Featured listings far below the cost of current competitors. Moreover, the site will complement the dealer-partner business model allowing them to offer their current inventory on our platform. Strengthened by our SEO, social media and advertising channels, listings will reach more users in the local and global markets.”
The website is available at: https://RVCclassifieds.com/.


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Google is trialing a lightweight Search app on Android with some users in Indonesia, that should work better than the default tool on slow mobile networks.
First spotted by Android Police, the app is currently labeled ‘experimental’ and features a search bar along with customizable shortcuts to get to various kinds of content, including news, weather, popular sites, and Google’s translation service.
‘Search’ works blazing fast when it comes to surfacing results, and you can use the baked-in browser, which seems to be delivering pages in Google’s Lite Mode to reduce load times. There’s even an option to switch between languages for search by simply swiping sideways on the screen.
You’ll also find shortcuts to take you straight to different categories of content, like motoring and entertainment news; for ‘fashion’ and ‘beauty’, the app simply displays an endless stream of images, which you can share, download or follow through to the pages they’re from.
It’s an interesting move for Google, as this app appears to be more of a launchpad for all sorts of web content rather than just a search tool. It’s not yet clear if this will roll out globally or only be available in countries with limited connectivity; the company previously launched an app called Triangle to help Android users save data, and it looks like its new experiment is another effort in this vein to make its services accessible to people in developing countries.
You can give the app a try yourself by downloading the installer from APKMirror and sideloading it onto your device; when prompted to choose a second language, pick any one and you’ll be on your way.


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By our Correspondent
property worth millions of Naira have been destroyed in Damaturu town following a reported fire incident at Damaturu GSM market, Yobe state.
According to the reports , the fire started at around 0623 and lasted for several hours before it was brought under control by firefighters, security personnel and members of the community.
DSP Dungus Abdulkarim, the Public Relations Officer of the Police Command Yobe state who confirmed the incident, said that the security, firefighting vehicles were deployed to the scene of the fire.
He said the incident started at about 0623 hours destroyed over thirty shops during the incident. But no life were lost.
Added that, ” the fire is gradually being controlled by the firefighting, while over 30 shops were completely burnt down.
He added that the service would conduct an assessment to ascertain the extent of the damage.
One of the trade, said the fire started in one of the shops and engulfed other shops in the market.
Garba who is a cell-phon vendor lamented that a number of traders list their good in the inferno.
The market popularly called Kasuwar Jagol is located at Abashawa Ward area of the metropolis of Damaturu, providing business spaces to thousands of traders and artisans in the area
Our correspondent learnt that, security personal were deployed in the market to prevent hoodlums from looting.


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Vape shop announces move to Chichester
A new vape shop has announced it will be moving into Chichester this week.
Every Cloud Vape Shop will move into a premises in Cathedral Courtyard on Saturday (March 16), the owners have announced.
A spokesman for the store said it hoped to change decrease the number of smokers in the city.
The spokesman said: "We're always on the look out for new locations as we have been opening a new store almost every month for the last year and will continue to do so.
"Chichester is quite close to a few of our stores and we’ve always had customers coming from Chichester saying it would be great if we could open there. It’s a beautiful town with great people and there seems to be a lot of vapers and unfortunately a lot of smokers which we would like to change.
"We’ve helped thousands of people give up smoking cigarettes and want to continue with this."
The company has 14 other stores including Cosham, Fareham, Havant, Waterlooville and two in Portsmouth.
A pop-up streetwear shop opened in the same spot in December where the now closed Pushka Fashion Boutique was previously based.


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CCC’s mission to ensure common-sense regulation garnered an article in Marijuana Venture last month. The article, “A Force for Stability” explains some of the challenges we face in this industry and features CCC’s new executive director, Joanna Monroe.
Several members – Daniela Bernhard, , Eric Gaston and TJ Werth – helped paint the picture of the uphill battle we’ve faced since the beginning, including forced unionization, inspectors with too much control, and revision of oversight and processes set up in the industry’s infancy.
Please read and share the article with others who could benefit from a deeper understanding of CCC’s mission: https://www.marijuanaventure.com/a-force-for-stability/.
Marijuana Ventures is offering free subscriptions to up to 500 CCC members and affiliates. Use the code MJVTrade2020 to subscribe.


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Premium on Disney’s microSD films
Disney Japan plans to package blockbuster movies on microSD cards and sell them with DVDs, but at an added cost.
The idea is that consumers will be able to stick the card in their mobile phones or other devices and watch the movie on the go without breaking the law. Panasonic will provide the cards.
Reuters reports that the microSD movies, packaged together with a DVD, will cost 4,935 yen, or $53. That’s roughly $11 more than the DVD alone — and Ars Technica notes that Amazon.jp sells Pirates of the Caribbean, one of the movies slated for the program, on DVD for 1,118 yen, or $12. Clearly this is not a value proposition.
The microSD and DVD combo will be available in Japan this November, but I wouldn’t be surprised if this is a test run of sorts for other regions. Disney told Reuters that it’s hard to make a sales forecast because the company hasn’t paired the two formats before, but if the combination is a hit, I have a feeling we’ll see it elsewhere.
As with Sonic’s plans to sell movies on USB, details are missing on the microSD content, specifically the format and file size of the film. There’s no talk of DRM in the Reuters story, but I’d expect Disney to carefully guard its content. Regardless, the fact remains that Disney is hoping viewers will pay more money for a copy of something they already own.
Sigh. I could get into the same tired rant about how locking down content or charging consumers extra to use it as they please only encourages piracy and overall ill will. But I’m tired. Let’s just hope this idea crashes and burns, so we can laugh at Disney’s cheap attempt to make a quick buck.
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Money Laundering the World OverRising Global Payments and Emerging Tech Pose New Fraud Concerns
At the top of the list of growing fraud is money laundering; it's the fraud that most-often gets through cross-border security gaps, says Stacy Rosenthal, who heads up banking and corporate strategy in the Americas for SWIFT, The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication. Rosenthal says security is a top concern for any payments processor. But unique risks have to be addressed in unique markets, and that's making standardization and sweeping regulatory guidance aimed at fraud prevention next-to impossible.
"Globalization will continue to bring new issues to bear, and compliance is something all institutions try to balance," Rosenthal says. "We always want to think about security and maintaining integrity across the payments chain; sometimes it's a difficult balance bringing innovation to market and security."
The Innovation Demand2011, she says, will mark a tipping point for innovation, and some cultural challenges will have to be overcome as well. While the use of payment cards continues to grow or remain steady in the U.S., usage in other parts of the world, even Europe, is not quite so accelerated. So, developing innovative solutions that enhance security to meet the demands of all markets is not easy.
From a money-laundering perspective and overall fraud perspective, those cultural differences create opportunity for fraudsters. Fake payments cards, created with account details from European accountholders, can easily be used in the U.S., where cards are widely accepted and card technology is not so secure. In Europe, cards are used less frequently, ""even though they have done much more from a technology perspective," Rosenthal says. "They are leaps and bounds ahead in the technology."
But it cuts both ways, says Erik Stein, vice president of solutions architecture for risk and compliance at Fiserv. While European banks might be worried about card fraud perpetrated in the U.S., American banks are worried about International ACH, check fraud and fraud perpetrated via emerging channels such as mobile.
Consider the example of mobile remittance provider M-Pesa. Provided in developing markets, such as Kenya and Afghanistan, M-Pesa is offered via mobile carriers, which raises all kinds of concerns, especially when funds are transferred to and from U.S. accountholders with users in developing markets, Stein says.
"When you think about M-Pesa, it works in those markets like Kenya, because you don't have a bank on every corner," he says. "At the same time, you have the potential, as you're moving money around that quickly and easily, for money laundering. So, there are some real concerns about AML there. M-Pesa has moved to countries like the U.K., because there are a lot of Kenyans who work in the U.K. and want to send the money back home. ... There are caps on these payments, but then when you look at how often payments are moving from one party to the next, you see that AML monitoring can be challenging."
Complying with the RulesMobile services, like mobile remote deposit capture, are so new that banks are still trying to figure out how to deploy them correctly, much less figure out how to prevent money laundering, says Andy Schmidt, an analyst at TowerGroup. "We're hearing very different reports from the vendors and the banks about the amount of fraud and money laundering in the mobile RDC channel," he says.
But no bank wants to get slapped with a fine for AML violations, so bankers are mindful of the security risks.
Tracking anomalous behavior requires comparative historical data - something most banking institutions don't have for emerging channels in emerging markets. "When it comes to complying with BSA (Bank Secrecy Act), including AML, certainly our clients are looking at us to provide solutions that can help them," Stein says. "So, when it comes to these emerging technologies, they are looking to us to build in what they need. If they have different product mixes, we have to be flexible."
The lack of uniformity among global regulatory requirements only compounds the issue. "The regulatory regimes are probably as close as they're going to be. I don't see that the countries are going to come up with ways to have a similar form or standard for security and mandates," Stein says. "In fact, I think they would argue that there are reasons why they are unique in their approaches. ... That poses a challenge for vendors like us, which provide services in 78 countries. We have to be flexible. Each country has a unique flavor of the reports they require, and so any solution we offer has to be able to comply with unique standards."


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EyeQue Enables Free At-Home Vision Tests During COVID-19
EyeQue, maker of the Personal Vision Tracker device, which works in tandem with a smartphone app to allow consumers to test their own vision, is now, in light of the coronavirus outbreak, offering consumers a free device via their website, so that consumers can do personal vision tests without needing to leave home to attend the optician’s office.
Moreover, the company says that, through April, it is offering for free a single $4.99/year All Access Membership account; the account is required to complete refraction testing and to access test results using the Personal Vision Tracker. The only cost for this period is shipping.
The company has relationships with online eyeglass retailers including Zenni Optical, EyeGlasses USA and EyeBuyDirect that will allow users of its device to order glasses from these vendors using the examination results.


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WASHINGTON, Dec. 18, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Suppliers Partnership for the Environment (SP) today announced the addition of its newest member company, Braskem America, Inc., a leading thermoplastic resins producer in the Americas. Braskem is also a leader in the field of biopolymers, producing materials such as Green Polyethylene (Green PE) from a renewable source - sugarcane ethanol.
"We are pleased to welcome Braskem to SP," said SP's Chair, Randy Leslie, Group Vice President & General Manager, Johnson Controls, Inc., Automotive Experience. "Braskem's commitment to sustainable chemistry will make the company an excellent asset for SP's members as we work together to improve environmental performance while increasing value throughout the automobile supply chain."
"Braskem is excited to join the Suppliers Partnership for the Environment," said Erin Neely, Market Development Manager for Braskem. "Braskem seeks to engage the entire supply chain in its continuous pursuit of increasingly sustainable operations, resources and products, and we look forward to working together with SP's member companies in building a more sustainable future," Neely concluded.
"Braskem is a solid addition to SP as a leader in the sustainable chemistry field," said Jim Laney, SP's Membership Chair and Senior Manager, Environmental, Safety and Health, DENSO International America Inc. "The company's commitment to environmentally sustainable products and economic development is totally consistent with the commitments and actions of the SP membership and we look forward to working with them."
The Suppliers Partnership for the Environment (SP) is an innovative collaboration between automobile manufacturers – including American Honda Motor Co Inc., Chrysler Group LLC, Ford Motor Company, General Motors, Hyundai America Technical Center, Inc., Nissan North America Inc., and Subaru of America Inc. – their suppliers, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
For More Information Contact:
Kellen Mahoney: +1-202-530-0096, firstname.lastname@example.org
SOURCE Suppliers Partnership for the Environment (SP)


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New Delhi: Secretary (MSME) BB Swain has said that the IBSA forum plays an important role in creating awareness about the strengths, opportunities and challenges of MSMEs and help in creating markets for finished products and provide hand-holding support to MSMEs through capacity building trainings, exchange of best practices and technologies.
Inaugurating the IBSA 6th Tri-nation Virtual Conference on Small and Medium sized Enterprises (SME), Swain stated that these meetings are being held with the objective to promote trade, understand trade barriers, facilitate investments through collective efforts towards better collaborations amongst the three nations.
IBSA is a unique Forum which brings together India, Brazil and South Africa, three large democracies and major economies from three different continents, facing similar challenges.
The Conference was hosted by the Ministry of MSME last week in association with the National Small Industries Corporation Ltd (NSIC), Brazilian Micro and Small Business Support Service (SEBRAE), Department of Small Business Development (DSBD) and Small Enterprise Development Agency (SEDA), South Africa.
The conference is an important initiative to enhance cooperation amongst the IBSA members in MSME sector synergizing the competencies and inherent strengths of each country. A roadmap will be drawn based on the deliberations held during the sessions to strengthen MSMEs networking, to help overcome the challenges and make the MSMEs competitive on the global platform.


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The 8th Ford Dealership of the WQT Group opens in the Southern Tagalog Region
Ford Palawan, the newest dealership in the WQT group, officially launched last September 16, 2015. Ford Palawan or Palawan Business Ventures, Inc. is represented by Efren and Jackie Chua, our Palawan Local Partners.
The dealership is located along North National Highway, San Jose, Puerto Princesa, Palawan, with contact numbers (048)433-03333 and (0998)8686849/ (0917)5555859.
“I would like to thank Ford Group Philippines headed by Ms. Kay Hart for the support in our vision to give every Filipino a chance to experience the brand that has conquered the world for over a hundred years.”, says Willy Tee Ten, President of the Autohub Group of Companies.
Puerto Princesa is considered to be the heart of trade, commerce, service, and industry in the province. It is a growing economy that has established its potential in keeping up with market trends and competing with the most prosperous cities in the country.
“I am very proud of this milestone for the Ford Palawan team, and I am more than honored to bring in the very first North American Brand of cars in the city that I’ve called home for the past 39 years. I believe this city is ready for an upgrade; I am inviting all of you to invite your friends, tell your family members, Ford is here. We are now officially open to serve you, and together, LET US GO FURTHER!”, says Efren Chua, Ford Palawan Stockholder/Business Partner.
As an introductory treat to Palawenos, Ford Palawan is offering All-in Low Down Payment Promos on the Focus, Fiesta, Ecosport, Escape, and Explorer. As new models of the Ranger and the Everest come in, Ford Palawan is giving special all-in promos to fit their customer’s budget. On top of this, they are giving out limited edition Ford jackets to the first few clients to purchase in the dealership from Sept. 16 – 30.
For more information, follow Ford Palawan on Facebook for updates on their latest promos and events.


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According to the first report of its kind released by Malta Chamber in partnership with VISTAGE Malta, 41 per cent of businesses in Malta experienced declines in their revenue of greater than 25 per cent.
The report, titled Vistage Malta Confidence Index, aims to create a healthy conversation about the mindset of business leaders in Malta.
One key finding is that 80 per cent of Malta’s business leaders believe that economic conditions in Malta worsened in the previous year.
More surprisingly, it seems a tiny minority of businesses actually saw the economic situation as improved, with one per cent indicating that they believe this is the case.
19 per cent of businesses consulted either didn’t know how the situation had changed, or responded that they didn’t think it had.
Looking to the future, 40 per cent of businesses believe the economic situation will get worse, 38 per cent think it’ll stay the same, and 21 per cent believe it is going to continue to get worse.
Almost half of businesses consulted (49 per cent) anticipated making more sales in the next 12 months, indicating at least some level of confidence in an economic rebound.
35 per cent answered that they believe sales will remain the same, whereas 14 per cent indicated they believe they’ll decline.
Despite their predicted increase in sales, a much lower proportion actually expect business to become more profitable in the next 12 months, with 59 per cent believing that it will either remain the same or worsen. 38 per cent thought that their profits will improve.
In promising news for the jobs market, only 15 per cent of businesses believed that they will be decreasing their workforce in the coming year.
25 per cent of respondents believe their firm’s total number of employees would increase, whereas 57 per cent believed it would stay the same.
Summarising the report, VISTAGE said it believes that perhaps the report reflects an optimism in business owners that in some cases has subsided.
This is because, it said, “the survey included a number of businesses from the tourism sector who, at the end of 2020, may have hopefully expected a reasonable 2021 summer season. These may currently be worried about the delays in opening travel in time for the summer months”.
The report also expressed concerns that whilst 34 per cent of businesses think it will take longer than one year to recover, 60 per cent of businesses indicate that their cash reserves will run out before a year if the situation does not improve.
The full report can be accessed via the Malta Chamber website.
Wages remain low in part because major policy change that made real estate the primary focus of investment, she said
WasteServ describes the park, which features an artificial lake, as a ‘green sanctuary’
The sector also generates much higher value added than it does for any other EU country


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Dow officials say more brands are beginning to adopt its recently released stand-up pouch, which is made from one polymer and is recyclable through retail bag drop-off locations.
The City of San Antonio began accepting plastic bags in curbside single-stream carts two years ago. In its first year, 550 tons were recovered through the program, which excludes black plastic bags, but that number fell by more than two-thirds in the second year.
The world’s largest retailer has identified packaging recyclability as a key component of Project Gigaton, its recently announced effort to reduce greenhouse gases in its supply chain.
How can recycling players be sure their material choices aren’t damaging other links in the recovery chain? One industry collaboration has developed a resource to help.
With Plastics Recycling 2017 just days away, we’re excited to offer up the final installment of our series of interviews with industry leaders who will be on stage in New Orleans.
The State of Curbside Recycling Report offered one of the most comprehensive assessments to date of the factors affecting municipal collection. The lead researcher for the study discusses some of the statistics and surprises (see related story).


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Jensen should really invest in a voice augment.
US flag emoji, UK flag emoji, gun emoji, Russian flag emoji, Ferris wheel emoji.
The 1.5 update is finally out of beta, allowing all PC players access to Survival Mode.
Uncharted 4: A Thief's End is still over a week away, but its massive 5GB day one patch is already available to download.
Blizzard has released the 2.4.1 patch for Diablo III which includes a new selection of cosmetic items, a number of server improvements, and changes ...
Ubisoft has pushed live another update for The Division that fixes an issue with the Protection from Elites stat and removes a couple of exploits.


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UK Mega Monday data reveals 81% rise in sales via mobile
Before the surge of U.S. data from Black Friday and Cyber Monday hits your screen, IBM have given an insight into U.K. sales figures and mobile shopping habits resulting from this week's 'Mega Monday' ecommerce activity.
IBM's latest findings come from Monday, 25 November, 2013, when millions of e-commerce transactions were tracked from more than 200 UK retail websites. The results reveal that online sales increased by 33.5% compared to the same day last year.
The stats surrounding mobile use speak for themselves - mobile traffic accounted for a whopping 42.4% of all online traffic, up 68% on the same day last year. Furthermore, mobile users weren't just using their device to research purchases. Almost a third (31%) of online sales were completed on a mobile device, an 81.5% rise on last year.
While smartphones accounted for almost a quarter (22.3%) of all online traffic, and tablets just 20%, tablets were the device of choice for making a purchase - 19.4% of online sales were made via tablet compared with just 12.4% via a smartphone.
According to IBM, Mega Mondays are specific to the UK and are similar to the U.S.'s Cyber Monday. IBM are reporting on two Mega Mondays this year - 25 November and 2 December.
Visa Europe believes Monday, 2 December, 2013 will be the UK's busiest Mega Monday. Visa predicts that that day will see their customers alone spend £450 million (US$735 million), the equivalent of £312,500 (US$510,000) every minute, or £5,208 (US$8,525) every second.
"UK consumers' love affair with online shopping will reach its peak on Mega Monday when we predict that we will process 7.7 million Visa transactions - a 16% rise on last year," said Jeremy Nicholds, director of commercial development at Visa Europe.
Image via Shutterstock
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There hasn’t been a state of Play since September 2022. PlayStation hasn’t even held one solely focused on the PS VR2. But for fans eager to find out what PlayStation has in store, a new State of Play is rumoured to be just on the horizon.
The rumour about a new State of Play comes from games journalist Jeff Grub, who told viewers of his Games Mess youtube show that a State of Play is happening “pretty soon.” But he also told viewers to not get their hopes up as it will apparently be a “low-key” State of Play.
So when will this State of Play take place? Grubb was hesitant to give a timeframe but thinks it might take place within a “month or so”, or “maybe a little sooner.”
The day after Grubb’s Games Mess show, he posted to Twitter to state that he thinks the State of Play will actually take place before the end of February.
Going back to Grubb’s original rumour on his YouTUbe show, the journalist reiterated that the next State of Play will be a low-key affair. This is because Sony is keeping some game announcements for an actual PlayStation Showcase. The Showcase, according to Grubb, will likely come “before E3 time.”


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MANIPAL: There is more than trade and economic co-operation that the European Union (EU) contributes to India. Promoting peace, sustainable development and the protection of the environment and cultural heritage also form the salient features of the common understanding between India and EU, said Fernando Nino Page, head Economic Co-operation Section, delegation of European Union to India.
He was speaking after formally inaugurating the Manipal Centre for European Studies, on Wednesday in Manipal. He said India became one of EU's strategic partners in 2004, a partner with whom EU shares historical bonds, democratic values and increasingly important economic relations. A number of joint initiatives launched in 2005 and regularly revitalized to which the opening of the EU Study centre belongs, are helping to realize the full potential of this partnership in key areas of interest to India. Fernando said, " Let me also give credit to the increasing importance that EU pays to India. We are the main trade partner for India and we are negotiating a comprehensive trade agreement that will increase trade to 120-130 billion Euros in the next four years, which would cover around 500 million consumers in EU and India.''


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Single Malt Players Aim To Maintain Strong Momentum Heading Into Holiday SeasonNovember 13, 2019
While single malt Scotch whisky distillers and importers are weighing how best to surmount the challenge presented by the 25% tariffs recently imposed on the category in the U.S., they remain bullish that malts will continue their strong long-term trend.
Single malts have been the main growth driver for Scotch whisky in the U.S. lately, collectively crossing 1.7 million cases on a 4.5% increase last year, according to Impact Databank. By comparison, blended Scotch was up just 0.3%. Single malt’s momentum has been ongoing thus far in 2019, with Nielsen channels registering 5% volume growth and a 6% gain in dollar value in the 52 weeks through October 5. Meanwhile, the single malt segment was up 4% on a volume basis in control states over the first nine months of the year.
“Generally speaking, consumers have been looking for higher-end offerings, and single malt is well positioned to benefit from that trend,” says Michael Giardina, brand director for Glenfiddich at William Grant & Sons USA. “Innovation continues to be a core driver for the category, and a key way to differentiate with consumers who are constantly in search of what’s new and interesting.” Glenfiddich’s most recent extension, Grand Cru ($300 a 750-ml.), is a 23-year-old liquid finished in French casks previously used for aging sparkling wine. Glenfiddich was up 4% by volume in Nielsen channels over the 52 weeks through October 5, while stablemate The Balvenie increased 8%.
“Single malt Scotch brands in the ultra-premium and prestige segments are outgrowing the competition,” says Raul Gonzalez, vice president, marketing and business development for The Macallan at Edrington USA. This past June saw the launch of The Macallan Estate ($250), distilled with barley grown on the brand’s Easter Elchies estate in Speyside. In September followed Macallan Edition No. 5 ($120), a non-chill filtered blend of whiskies assembled from ex-Bourbon barrels and hogsheads, all made from American oak. The Macallan is now above a quarter-million cases in the U.S., according to Impact Databank.
The Glenlivet remains the top single malt brand in the U.S., and has also been investing in innovation. This summer, brand owner Pernod Ricard released The Glenlivet 14-Year-Old ($55), which is matured in American oak and first-fill Sherry casks before being finished in Cognac casks. The Glenlivet sells above 400,000 cases in the U.S. annually, and is up about 9% in Nielsen channels over the past year.
Diageo’s top three single malt brands—Oban (+20.3%), Lagavulin (+20.5%), and Dalwhinnie (+34.2%)—each grew by double digits in the U.S. last year, and have continued that robust pace so far in 2019. Sophie Kelly, senior vice president of whiskies at Diageo North America, notes that the company’s single malts were up 30% in its fiscal year through June. Most recently, Diageo added to its malt lineup with Six Kingdoms, a 15-year-old Mortlach that marks the final release in its Game of Thrones series.—Mary Keefe
|U.S. ̶ Top Eight Single Malt Scotch Whisky Brands
(thousands of 9-liter case depletions)
|1||The Glenlivet||Pernod Ricard USA||420||429||2.3%|
|2||The Macallan||Edrington Americas||250||261||4.6%|
|3||Glenfiddich||William Grant & Sons USA||201||206||2.3%|
|4||Glenmorangie||Moët Hennessy USA||115||118||2.5%|
|5||The Balvenie||William Grant & Sons USA||106||110||3.6%|
|7||Oban||Diageo North America||50||61||20.3%|
|8||Lagavulin||Diageo North America||45||55||20.5%|
|Total Top Eight2||1,258||1,312||4.2%|
|Total Single Malt||1,648||1,722||4.5%|
1 based on unrounded data
2 addition of columns may not agree due to rounding
Source: IMPACT DATABANK © 2019


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By Jeanie Borremans
A new Edmonton-based e-retailer, Emart Canada (www.emartcanada.ca) opened its proverbial doors on Sunday, August 31st with a selection of mid-range men’s, women’s and children’s brands. Shipping strictly within Canada, the website’s aim is to provide fashion to all corners of Canada by using Canada Post as their main shipping provider. The website aims to provide new and exciting brands that aren’t readily available to the Canadian shopper.
The website has no ads, facilitating a clean, easy to shop environment. They also have “E Points Rewards” – 10 points for every $1 spent, with rewards levels starting at 500 points. Brands currently in stock include William Rast, Buffalo David Bitton, AngelEye, LouenHide, Appaman, Outbaks and Jojo Maman Bebe, with more brands being added daily.


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- Massive horsepower and torque
- Strong off-road capability
- Big payload and towing capacities
- Potentially controversial styling
- EV charging challenges
- Associations with Hummers past
GMC Hummer EV Expert Review
Talk about a pivot—or, according to LeBron James, a "quiet revolution." Unlike gas-guzzling Hummers of the past, the upcoming 2022 GMC Hummer EV will be all-electric. It will debut as a pickup truck on March 20, 2020, with a possible SUV-bodied variant arriving at a later date.
Read more about the 2022 GMC Hummer EV:
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- 1,000 hp and Insane Torque Promised From 2022 GMC Hummer EV
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Electric motors make lots of sense for pickup trucks like the 2022 GMC Hummer EV. The instant torque they provide could improve towing and hauling capability over even the strongest diesel-powered heavy duties. Of course, there's also the benefit of not producing any of the emissions that earn some trucks—in particular, past Hummer models—a negative reputation.
GMC's move to develop an electric pickup truck is timely. Ford is well underway in bringing an electric F-150 to market, and its partner Rivian has earned attention with updates on its forthcoming R1T. Karma Automotive has dropped a shadowy teaser of its pickup. Of course, there's the shocking Tesla Cybertruck is also in development. All of these vehicles are expected to hit the market between 2021 and 2022, right in line with the Hummer EV's expected availability. It seems the stage is set for some electric pickup comparison tests—and a quantum shift of the truck market as we know it.
Although it's not yet known what kind of electric drivetrain will power the Hummer EV, GMC has indicated it'll produce huge numbers. Some 1,000 hp will be on tap, as well as a claimed 11,500 lb-ft of torque, but how GMC measures those figures may not be in line with common industry practices. Regardless, a 0-60 mph time of just 3.0 seconds is targeted.
The Hummer EV will need to launch with strong payload and towing numbers. Tesla claims Cybertruck will carry 3,500 lbs in its bed, and tow up to 14,000 lbs with the tri-motor drivetrain. We've seen Ford do the incredible with its F-150 EV prototype, using the vehicle to tow a million-pound train car. Hummer's entrant in the field should provide similar numbers if it wants to be taken seriously in the nascent EV pickup segment.
- Tesla Cybertruck
- Ford F-150 EV
- Rivian R1T


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From truck driver to bike rider? In an autonomous future where robots pilot trucks through city streets, pedaling a "cargo bicycle" may become a new career choice for working adults. In fact, some "truckers" already are pedalers.
Cargo bikes have been an urban delivery staple in major European and Asian cities for some time now. And it appears New York City is about to give this decidedly old-school transportation method a trial run to see if bicycle-driven deliveries can move some delivery trucks off of its crowded streets while reducing diesel emissions.
According to recent news reports, including from The New York Times and StreetsblogNYC, the Big Apple is rolling out a pilot program in conjunction with Amazon, DHL, UPS, and other parcel delivery companies to evaluate how cargo bikes will perform making deliveries that are the domain of diesel-powered trucks.
A report by The New York Times states that the program, announced on Dec. 4, will permit as many as 100 pedal-assisted cargo bikes operated by Amazon, UPS and DHL and other P&D fleets to park in hundreds of existing commercial loading areas that are typically reserved for trucks and vans. Unlike those vehicles, the bikes will not have to feed parking meters.
UPS has long expressed a desire to operate cargo bikes in New York City, according to a StreetsblogNYC post, provided the bicycles would be able to park in loading zones usually reserved for trucks to expedite their deliveries. The carrier began operating cargo bikes with a “modular package delivery trailer” in Seattle last year. UPS said it already operates dozens of cargo bikes in major cities around the globe, after introducing them in Hamburg, Germany, in 2012.
DHL also operates cargo bikes in major cities around the world. ”Cargo bicycles will play an important role in hitting our environmental targets," Mike Parra, DHL Express Americas CEO, said of the New York City initiative. "The DHL Cubicycle has enjoyed great success in Europe, with each bicycle deployed taking at least one conventional delivery van off the road, helping to relieve congestion and increasing our service levels,” “We are grateful to the City of New York for enabling this pilot and hope to see the DHL Cubicycle have a similar positive impact on the city’s transport network.”
The New York Times also reported that smaller cargo bikes will also be allowed to park on wider sidewalks in the Big Apple. And under the pilot program guidelines, cargo bikes wil be able to travel along the city’s growing network of more than 1,400 miles of bike lanes.
Under the pilot program, the cargo bikes will be concentrated in the most congested parts of Manhattan, from 60th Street south to the Battery.
Originally posted on Trucking Info


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Steve Jobs' Death: Warren Buffett, Other Business Leaders React
Hailed as a visionary innovator, Steve Jobs, CEO and co-founder of Apple, built the company in his image and changed the way users interact with computers, listen to music, and talk on their phones.
Almost immediately after news of his death became public on Apple’s website on Wednesday, reactions from politicians, celebrities and ordinary Americans began pouring in. Jobs’ fellow business leaders were also quick to react to news of the CEOs passing.
Statements and Twitter postings came from business leaders such as Jobs’ rival Microsoft CEO Bill Gates and famed billionaire investor Warren Buffett. In the messages, the business community praised Jobs both for his managerial and leadership skills as well as his ability to push just a little farther.
Here are business leaders’ reactions to Steve Jobs’ death:
Disney President Bob Iger
"Despite all he accomplished, it feels like he was just getting started"
Berkshire Hathaway's Warren Buffett
"He was one of the most remarkable business managers and innovators in American business history."
Microsoft's Bill Gates
"The world rarely sees someone who has had the profound impact Steve has had, the effects of which will be felt for many generations to come"
NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg
"Steve's passionate belief in the power of technology to transform the way we live brought us more than smart phones and iPads: it brought knowledge and power that is reshaping the face of civilization"
News Corp.'s Rupert Murdoch
"We lost one of the most influential thinkers, creators and entrepreneurs of all time."
Recording Industry Assn. Of America's Cary Sherman
"Like all music fans, we are saddened to hear of the passing of Steve Jobs. Steve was a larger-than-life personality -- passionate about music and one of its biggest fans and advocates. He was a true visionary who forever transformed how fans access and enjoy music."
Hewlett-Packard's Meg Whitman
"Steve Jobs was an iconic entrepreneur and businessman whose impact on technology was felt beyond Silicon Valley. He will be remembered for the innovation he brought to market and the inspiration he brought to the world."
Time Warner's Jeff Bewkes
"In a society that has seen incredible technological innovation during our lifetimes, Steve may be the one true icon whose legacy will be remembered for a thousand years."
Google CEO Eric Schmidt
"Steve defined a generation of style and technology that's unlikely to be matched again."


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Facing issues with the speakers on your Google Pixel phone? Here’s how you can easily fix Google Pixel 2 XL speaker distortion issue.
The Google Pixel 2 phones released in 2017 have gained a strong fan base, majorly due to the features that it offers and being branded by “Google” has a thing of its own. But the phone has also faced a fair share of problems ever since the release. Some of the most widely-faced issues include blue-shift and burn-in display, slowed down fingerprint scanner, and a few more to count.
There’s yet another issue that was added to the list back in December 2017. According to SlashGear, several Pixel 2 XL owners reported of speaker distortion problems with the bottom speaker. If you have a similar problem, then there’s a pretty simple way to fix Google Pixel 2 XL speaker distortion problem.
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Google Pixel 2 XL Speaker Distortion Issue
The Google Pixel 2 series was launched back in 2017 with a powerful order of hardware specs. The device has managed to rule the high-end smartphone market with several unique features like unlimited Photos storage, Active Edge, Always On Display, Google Lens, and much more. The phone also highly appreciated for its improved design over the original Pixel series launched back in 2016. Even though the phone came up with such good features and specifications, it lacks in some issues which Google is still trying to resolve.
Before we get to the steps to fix Google Pixel 2 XL speaker distortion issue, let us do a quick sweep of the exact problem. According to users at Google Product Forums, XDA-Developers, and various other online communities, the hiccup persists with the bottom one of the two front facing speakers on the phone. To describe, the distortion could be observed as a rattling, low-quality sound when the volume level is pushed far beyond 70-75%. For some, the distortion is faced with both the speakers, but the majority have reported for the bottom one.
Previously several users have reported the hissing sound from the earpiece, which Google has fixed last month. Even though the speaker distortion issues continue to arise. Google is still looking into it. While several users have already opted for a replacement, there are still some who have managed to overlook the problem and still using their device. A crafty user named RealCaracas over at the XDA Forums has come up with a neat little fix to help fix speaker distortion issue on Google Pixel 2 XL.
Steps to Fix Google Pixel 2 XL Speaker Distortion Problem
- Go to ‘Settings’ -> ‘Apps & notifications’.
- Tap on ‘See all apps’.
- Press the menu icon (3 dots) on top-right.
- Select ‘Show system’.
- Find ‘MusicFX’ and disable it.
- Install Equalizer FX from Google Play.
- Open ‘Equalizer FX’ from the app drawer.
- Finally, set ‘910Hz’ frequency to ‘-7 db’ to fix Google Pixel 2 XL speaker distortion issue.
Once done, you can try playing some music and see if the issue has been fixed on higher volumes. We are highly thankful to XDA member RealCaracas for find this quick workaround for the problem. We hope Google will now looking into it and provide a fix in upcoming software updates. Ever since the launch, the Pixel 2 XL has been surrounded by such troubles. At least now we have a neat little trick overcome at least one of such problems.
Did the above instructions give you a quick and easy way to fix Google Pixel 2 XL speaker distortion issue? If not, let us know through the comments.


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Nissan India has announced that its has delivered over 720 units of the Magnite SUV across India since its launch last month. The company celebrates the number of deliveries in accordance with the 72nd Indian Republic Day this year.
According to the company's press release, the new milestone event is another step towards fulfilling Nissan India's promise & commitment to the Indian market, and the significance of this special occasion.
Additionally, Nissan India has also launched the 12th edition of ‘Happy with Nissan' aftersales service campaign for a month as well. In the latest edition of service campaign, customers can avail benefits such as a free 60-point vehicle check-up, free car top wash, free oil filter for customers who could not avail the service due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The company is also offering up to 50 per cent discount on select parts and accessories, and up to 20 per cent discount on labour charges, and antimicrobial treatment to avail the best hygiene for the vehicles.
The Happy with Nissan campaign also offers existing customers of Nissan and Datsun brand to upgrade to newer models available in the country. Customers can download the ‘Nissan Connect' app to avail the upgrade offer on both brands.
Rakesh Srivastava, Managing Director, Nissan Motor India, said, "On the joyous celebration of India's 72nd Republic Day, the Nissan India family commemorated this special occasion with 720+ deliveries of the all-new Nissan Magnite, an SUV built on the philosophy of ‘Make in India, Make for the World". We thank our customers for their overwhelming response, our dealer partners for their immense support & congratulate every Indian on this special day!"
Speaking about the Nissan Magnite itself, the company is offering the compact-SUV in four variants: XE, XL, XV and XV Premium. The Nissan Magnite recently received a price hike and currently retails between Rs 5.49 lakh and Rs 9.35 lakh. All prices mentioned are ex-showroom (India).
Despite the price increase the Magnite continues to be the cheapest compact-SUV sold in India. The company recently announced it has received over 35,000 bookings for the Magnite since its launch last month — here are all details.
The Nissan Magnite rival the Hyundai Venue, Tata Nexon, Ford EcoSport, Maruti Suzuki Vitara Brezza, Kia Sonet, Toyota Urban Cruiser and the list go on. However, its primary rival will be the new Renualt Kiger, which is scheduled to arrive in the first quarter of 2021.
Thoughts About The Nissan Magnite Deliveries Cross Over 720 Units Across India
The Nissan Magnite has become popular model raking numbers and helped gain momentum for the brand in the Indian market. The Magnite is a well-packed product that represents extremely good value for money among a whole host of compact-SUVs available in the country.