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A judge in California is going to determine whether or not coffee causes cancer.
Think about that. We live in a society where judges and lawyers -- not medical doctors, scientists, or even a group of really clever AP biology high school students -- get to determine the credibility of biomedical research. The stakes are high: If coffee is deemed carcinogenic, then the State of California will be required to give up all pretense at common sense and sanity.
To give just a small flavor of the level of insanity California has reached, attorney Raphael Metzger and his group's trial lawyer NGO Council for Education and Research on Toxics (CERT - founded by U.C. Berkeley Professor Martyn Smith in 2002, who then got himself into IARC and lobbied for Environmental Defense Fund) (1) sued several coffee companies, alleging that their product causes cancer. For restitution, they want to slap a Proposition 65 label on coffee cups and, as you probably guessed, a giant bag full of money.
If you've been to California, you've almost certainly seen the Proposition 65 warning. The signs ominously warn, "This area contains chemicals known to the State of California to cause cancer and birth defects or other reproductive harm," and they can be found just about everywhere, including airports and Disneyland.
According to Bloomberg, "the Council for Education and Research on Toxics needed only to allege that coffee contains trace amounts of one of almost 1,000 Proposition 65 chemicals to pursue its lawsuit." Then, as is so often the case, unscrupulous lawyers use well-intentioned but overly broad laws to shake down innocent companies. Last year alone, Wall Street Journal reports that $25.6 million in cash and prizes were handed out in 681 settlements. Lawyers took home 75% of it.
7-Eleven has already surrendered and forked over $900,000. Starbucks has placed Proposition 65 signs in its store, but they might be required to place the warning directly on cups. If they don't comply, "[f]ines can run up to $2,500 for each cup sold without a proper warning," says Bloomberg.
What Happens in Cali Doesn't Stay in Cali
One may be tempted to conclude that Californians deserve the government that they get. That might be true, but the rest of the country doesn't deserve it.
Because California is such a large state, what happens in California doesn't stay in California. Manufacturers don't want to print different food labels for different states. So, in order to comply with California law, a company like Starbucks might just decide to slap cancer warnings on every single cup of coffee sold in America. (This is one of the reasons why the GMO label debate in California drew national attention.) The notion that a handful of activists in California can dictate science and health policy for 320 million Americans is, quite frankly, obscene.
Yet, that's where we find ourselves. Lawyers who are hellbent on destroying science to make a quick buck can find plenty of fertile ground and ample opportunity in California.
(1) Similar to discredited IARC activist Chris Portier. They even worked together on a monograph for IARC, which did not regard their lobbying for EDF or their financial relationship with trial lawyers as a conflict of interest, because they made sure to change IARC criteria so only for-profit corporations were a conflict.


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On Tuesday, January 30, the Senate Regulated Industries and Utilities Committee voted 6 to 4 in favor of Senate Bill 17 (SB 17) better known as the ‘Brunch Bill’. The committee handles the licensing and regulating of Georgia’s utilities such as gas and electric as well as alcoholic beverages.
This latest iteration of the Brunch Bill would allow restaurants to serve alcohol and retail stores to sell beer and wine on Sundays beginning at 11 a.m. rather than 12:30 p.m. The new bill was introduced by Republican state senator Renee Unterman of Buford. She has referred to it as her “mimosa mandate”.
Last year, SB 17 failed to make the cut on the state legislature’s ‘Crossover Day’. The day marks the deadline in the legislative calendar in which lawmakers can pass a bill and move it forward to the other chamber.
In 2015, the Georgia Restaurant Association estimated allowing Sunday morning alcohol sales could generate an average of $25,000 per year for the state’s restaurants, many of whom are independently owned or small, family-owned businesses.

domain: news


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AutoNation, the country's largest vehicle retailer, on Thursday reported double-digit increases in revenues and profits for the just-ended quarter, leading yet again to record earnings per share.
Net income reached $89 million and revenue hit $4.4 billion, up 11 percent and 13 percent respectively from a year ago, as auto sales recover from recession, the Fort Lauderdale-based company said.
Chief Executive Officer Mike Jackson said the auto recovery remains in the "early innings" and forecasts gains for years to come.
AutoNation has been growing partly by acquisitions and by opening new franchises.
On Thursday, the company announced plans to build a new Mercedes-Benz dealership in Atlanta, slated to debut next year. It had announced just weeks ago that it will open a new Mercedes store in Tampa.
Over the past year, AutoNation has bought 10 franchises and been awarded rights to open four more. The combined revenue of those stores, when fully operational, should reach $1 billon per year, the statement said.
For the quarter ended June 30, AutoNation said it sold 11 percent more new vehicles,13 percent more used vehicles and boosted service revenues by 9 percent from a year earlier.
The service business is revving up, partly because more vehicles are on the road. AutoNation has beefed up its service division to handle more vehicles more efficiently, adding new top managers as well as new information technology systems.
For example, it has introduced hand-held tablets in eight stores that allow staff to call up a customer's service record, take pictures of a car and communicate by e-mail and text with technicians and customers to speed the service process, said Chief Operating Officer Mike Maroone.


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San Francisco, CA (PRWEB) October 10, 2011
It’s time to bring birthdays back, according to giftiki, which today launched a collaborative gifting engine and social commerce platform that will alter the act of gift giving as we know it. With so many friends to appreciate – both online and off – it’s tough to give substantially to each and every one. With giftiki, friends have a free, fun and social way to pool small monetary gifts into one fund so givers don’t have to break the bank and recipients can get the things they really want.
Users join giftiki quickly and easily through Facebook, automatically pulling in their friends and their birthdays. An interactive, game-like interface lets users know which of their friends’ birthdays have past, which are happening that day, and which are coming up. Givers can then decide on a friend and how much to give—anywhere from $1 to $10 – and accompany their gift with a personalized message and fun icon of their choosing. Gifts and icons then automatically post to recipient’s Facebook and Twitter profiles, and the giftiki Gift-o-Meter shows how much has been given.
Giftiki is working with American Express to integrate Serve, American Express’s new digital payments platform, as a future redemption option. In the meantime, recipients can instantly redeem their giftiki dollars at amazon.com, choose from a variety of retailers to include Macy’s, Starbucks and Sports Authority, or receive an American Express gift card. Giftiki will be implementing several other instant redemptions options in the near future.
Giftiki’s iPhone App, coming soon, is the perfect tool for mobile gifters; it provides birthday notifications, status updates and even allows users to preemptively send gifts that will arrive on their friend’s special day. Apple push notifications alert users each time someone sends them a gift.
An estimated 82 million birthday-related posts are circulating through Facebook every day, according to giftiki.
Gitiki’s CEO, Justin Stanislaw says, “The idea of Collaborative Commerce, which is a space that is gaining significant momentum, is simple: when everyone gives a little, together you give a lot. In these tough economic times, giftiki encourages small gifts that pool together and allow the recipient to buy something they actually want.”
In honor of their launch, giftiki has decided to award one lucky user who joins between October 10 and October 17 a free trip to Vegas. So sign up and let the gifting begin!
Giftiki is transforming the act of giving by providing a fun and social way to gift. A leader in Collaborative Commerce, giftiki pools monetary gifts together into one fund allowing users to contribute to more substantial and meaningful gifts. Giftiki is headquartered in San Francisco, CA and has raised $1 million from Draper Associates, Crosslink Capital, GoldHill Capital and Transmedia Capital. For more information and updates, check out giftiki’s Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/giftiki or visit http://www.giftiki.com.
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Trade reform must be a part of President Barack Obama's economic plan if the U.S. manufacturing base is to recover from the current recession, United Auto Workers president Ron Gettelfinger said on Jan. 22.
"We must take action to fix our broken trading system," Ron Gettelfinger said. "We can no longer afford to have the most open market in the world, while other countries use currency manipulation and non-tariff barriers to keep out U.S.-made products."
Gettelfinger noted that the overall U.S. merchandise trade deficit is projected at $845 billion for 2008. The deficit in automotive trade alone is expected to hit $109 billion and the U.S. has an automotive trade imbalance with every one of its major trading partners, including Britain, which has a small automotive industry.
"We will never stabilize the U.S. auto industry or our economy, if we continue to buy more than we sell from every other industrialized nation," Gettelfinger said. "Let me be clear, the UAW is not opposed to fair trade, but it's time to recognize that so-called 'free trade' is a fiction; every trading relationship is managed in one form or another.
"Our trading partners manage their trade relationships to benefit their industries and their citizens. There's no reason we can't do the same, and still maintain a healthy exchange of goods and services across international borders."
Gettelfinger also said the union is willing to consider concessions like those spelled out in the terms of the federal bridge loans for GM and Chrysler. However, before the UAW agrees to any kind of wage concessions, he wants to be able to examine the books of Japanese companies such as Toyota, Honda and Nissan to how they calculate labor costs.
The union chief said he hoped the new "car czar" that the Obama administration will appoint to oversee the restructuring of GM and Chrysler will also examine the subsidies used by states such as Alabama to entice foreign automakers to build plants in their states.
Health care is another area where U.S. manufacturers are operating at a competitive disadvantage, he added, noting that "every other industrial country provides universal health care insurance for its citizens, delivering quality care at a much lower cost."
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2009


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Google’s new Nexus is a monster of a phone, designed with wireless capabilities that outclass all other Android phones today. Launching with Android 5.0 Lollipop, it’s sure to be the best flagship of the year.
Whether you like it or not, it seems this fall will be all about the smartwatch. This morning, following LG’s tease of the round-faced G Watch R, Samsung has unveiled the Gear S — the first major smartwatch with its own 3G connection, allowing it to send/receive calls and generally act as an internet-connected smart device without being paired to a nearby smartphone. Is the world ready for a standalone smartwatch? Do we even have the battery technology to allow a 3G smartwatch to run for more than a few hours?
European regulators may be about to take a closer look at Qualcomm’s dominance of the 4G modem business, thanks to an old complaint from rival Icera. Did Qualcomm climb to the top with technological prowess or has it used its market position to take down challengers?
GE Global Research announced it developed a brand new switch technology that can be used for enhancing the radios used in 4G phones to provide much faster speeds. Called a “MEMS switch”, it promises to drastically improve 4G efficiency and performance.
Just before the one-year anniversary of the launch of the “Un-carrier”, T-Mobile has announced the next round of network modernization upgrades. This upgrade cycle will bring LTE service to 250 million people by the end of the year, and 300 million by the summer of next year.
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Games views on Facebook have overtaken YouTube, according to Streamlabs
The story is hard to believe for some, but in all of reality the inevitable has happened. The views on Facebook Gaming would have taken those of YouTube games in terms of total hours watched on Facebook Gaming.
According to Streamlabs, people have started spending more time on Facebook Gaming, with the platform garnering more views than YouTube Gaming. Streamlabs released its third quarter 2021 live streaming industry report on Wednesday 27e October 2021; the report read, “For the first time, Facebook Gaming overtakes YouTube Gaming in viewing hours.”
Third Quarter 2021 Live Streaming Industry Report
The Stremlabs report also mentioned that compared to Twitch and YouTube Gaming, Facebook Gaming is the only platform to experience increased growth in terms of viewing hours in the third quarter of 2021. Additionally, YouTube Gaming would also improve the streaming functionality and place big bets on other streamers acquisitions.
The third quarter Live Streaming Industry Report also found that viewers watched 1.29 billion hours of content on Facebook Streaming from August through September. The figure represents a 9.2 percent increase in numbers from the second quarter of this year. Across all comparisons, the number of people increased from 1.294 hours in the second quarter of 2021 to 1.13 billion in the third quarter of 2021 who watched Facebook Gaming.
The number may not seem like much on paper; However, given that the change took place over a period of just 3 months, this is a staggering feat for Facebook Gaming. Meanwhile, the current report from Streamlabs shows the potential of Facebook Gaming as a streaming platform.
While it’s amazing to see Facebook Gaming growing up with competitors like Twitch and YouTube Gaming, at the same time, Youtube Gaming has seen a steady decline since the platform’s peak last year. In the meantime, Twitch remains grappling with its own set of issues, contributing to Twitch’s total drop in standby hours from previous reports, which stood at 6.51 billion hours in the second quarter.
All things considered, Twitch maintained its top spot in total hours watched, with 5.79 billion hours watched in the third quarter of 2021. Meanwhile, it is still too early to say whether Facebook Gaming will maintain this. progress and will top YouTube Gaming in the last quarter. 2021. However, Streamlabs predicts that the company is on the right track for now.


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In 2012, Daikin Airconditioning India (Daikin), a 100-per-cent subsidiary of Daikin Industries, Japan, earned 70 per cent of its India revenue from the commercial air-conditioning segment and the balance from residential. In 2014, it garners 70 per cent of its revenue from residential and 30 per cent from commercial. In 2009-10, Daikin sold 34,000 air-conditioners (ACs); by 2013-14, this figure had grown 12 times to about 400,000 units. In this period, the company has also increased its revenues manifold - from Rs 440 crore in 2009-10 to Rs 2,200 crore in 2013-14. It is now the second-largest AC maker after Voltas in terms of revenue, according to available data.
Daikin has done a complete u-turn in its strategy over the years. It started out with an eye on the commercial segment to becoming a major player in the residential market. From all accounts, the two things have gone hand in hand. "The turnaround in Daikin's fortunes in India is in large measure an outcome of higher localisation," says Kanwal Jeet Jawa, managing director, and the mastermind of the company's turnaround plan. "Till about two years back, Daikin was only making commercial ACs and chillers in India, and was importing all its residential ACs from Thailand and Japan. By 2012, Daikin stopped all imports and started manufacturing residential ACs at the Neemrana plant."
But that is not all the Gurgaon-headquartered company has done to be able to count itself among the A-list AC manufacturers. "The company has devised a five-point strategy which revolves not only around products, but also people, service, systems and the brand," adds Jawa.
In 2012, Daikin began commercial production of residential ACs with about 50 per cent localisation. It now manufactures all its models at the 40-acre facility in Rajasthan. With production facilities running on full capacity, Daikin manufactures nearly 500,000 residential ACs along with nearly 20,000 VRV units and 1,800 chiller units every year.
This move has made a big difference - local sourcing has helped it to cut nearly 45 per cent of its costs. By eliminating costs in the value chain, the company can now pursue a low-price strategy. While the Daikin non-inverter AC range starts from Rs 29,600, its inverter AC range starts from Rs 35,400. The price-points give it a smooth entry into Tier I and II cities.
Increasing the distribution network and improving customer service have also helped. It now has a 1,800-strong dealer network across the country (set to go up to 2,500 this fiscal) with close to 100 exclusive Daikin Solutions Plazas (set to go up to 200 this fiscal).
Technology indeed has been a key differentiator for the company. As per recent research tests, Daikin's products topped the chart in energy efficiency ratio (EER) as declared by the various 5- star rated air-conditioner brands. Eyeing a turnover of Rs 3,000 crore this fiscal, Daikin aims to be the top HVAC player in India. "Significant efforts in terms of infrastructure, products, processes, brand and people are being formulated and adopted to fulfil the desired outcome by 2015," Jawa maintains.
Changing the settings
Looking back, the company started its innings on the back-foot. In 2000, Daikin entered India with a joint-venture (JV) with the Usha Shriram group (in which Daikin had 80 per cent stake). "When the company set up operations, it was seen as a premium player operating largely in the commercial space," observes a senior marketing executive with a rival consumer durables maker. "Indeed, being part of a JV, Daikin wasn't seen to be majorly interested in the country," he adds.
In a sense, between 2000 and 2004, Daikin was trying to find its feet. A lot changed after 2004, albeit gradually, when Daikin bought out shares of the Shriram Group to make the Indian subsidiary a wholly-owned arm. The company also began to take baby-steps into the residential AC segment and began importing units. As expected, with costly imports, it could never dream of becoming a mass player. So, it simply cruised along in the next four-five years, waiting for the next big push.
Jawa joined Daikin in early-2010 as the deputy managing director and chief operating officer, and in eight months, was named MD of the company. It was also the time the company was reviewing its pricing strategy. In the previous year, the company had cut product prices by about 40 per cent and launched a slew of models to give its offering some muscle at the retail end. By then, local production had commenced.
Analysts say, the new pricing strategy was the simple-most important factor in giving sales the big push: In one year (between 2009-10 and 2010-11), its revenue doubled, shooting from Rs 440 crore to Rs 850 crore.


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CALUMET, Mich. (WJMN) — The ticket raffle registration for Kraft Hockeyville USA is now open.
From 4 to 8 p.m. tomorrow and 12 to 4 p.m. on Saturday, you can stop by the Calumet Colosseum to enter the lottery.
All you have to do is:
- Be present at the Colosseum to register
- Bring a photo ID and proof of residency
- Only one entry per household will be accepted
Those drawn will receive two tickets. All tickets are free.
Tickets are non-transferrable, meaning they can not be sold or given to anyone else.


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Toyota looking for holiday tweets during second annual Shareathon
(TorqueNews) Building on the success of last year’s program, the 2011 Shareathon has an additional reward program for those whose followers retweet the original message, increasing the debit card amount by $50, up to a maximum total per card of $1,000. Starting today through Dec. 21, shoppers who register online, tweet a scripted Shareathon message, and then purchase or lease a new vehicle on or before Jan. 3, 2012 will be eligible for a certificate and unique coupon code redeemable for a $500 prepaid debit card. Participants then have 48 hours to get their followers to retweet the message. As an added bonus, the retweeters will be entered to win a 2011 Prius from Toyota. How tweet it is!
“This year Shareathon not only rewards shoppers for tweeting about their plans for a new Toyota, but is also a fun and unique way for us to engage their friends and followers,” said Kimberley Gardiner, national digital marketing and social media manager for Toyota. “Last year’s Shareathon was such a huge success that we decided to add an incremental element to expand the social footprint and impact of the program.”


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The UK‘s leading retailer Tesco continues to grow food sales slower than the overall grocery market and has lost ground to its closest competitor, according to the latest data.
Figures from research firm Kantar Worldpanel show that the second largest chain in the domestic grocery sector Asda reached a record share of the market during the 12 weeks to March 18th 2012 of 17.9 per cent.
With the addition of ex-Netto stores to its portfolio, Asda sales grew at just below the overall market level of four per cent, with the Walmart owned business posting 3.8 per cent growth, while Tesco managed less than a three per cent rise during the period.
Edward Garner, director at Kantar Worldpanel, commented: “The findings make particularly good reading for Asda.
“Its 17.9 per cent share is an all-time record performance and its year-on-year growth rate of 7.8 per cent is leading the big four, largely thanks to the full integration of its Netto stores.
“Elsewhere, Tesco‘s growth rate of 2.7 per cent still lags behind the market and results in a drop in share. However, it is an improvement on the growth rates seen so far this year. Both Sainsbury‘s and Morrisons‘ shares remain unchanged from the same period last year.”
Sainsbury‘s growth was slightly ahead of the market at 4.1 per cent and Morrisons‘ growth totalled 3.4 per cent during the quarter but it was the smaller operators who saw the biggest gains with Waitrose, Aldi, Lidl and Iceland recording growth of 6.7 per cent, 28.5 per cent, 10.7 per cent and 10.2 per cent respectively.
Tesco now holds 30.2 per cent of the market, Asda has 17.9 per cent, Sainsbury‘s 16.6 per cent, Morrisons has 12.3 per cent and all the other supermarket chains have less than five per cent each.
With grocery inflation standing at 5.5 per cent, according to the Kantar Worldpanel, the rate of growth in the sector is still being dragged down by consumers trying to manage the rising cost of living through special offers and selective purchasing.


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Okay, we’ll call it a draw. Zola and Vita Coco have tied in the race to be the first to announce that they will be rolling out a product that combines two of the fastest-growing beverage trends, coconut water and lemonade. Zola is going ingredient-first, calling its product “Coconut Water Lemonade,” while Vita Coco is sticking with the brand, calling itself “Vita Coco Lemonade.”
Last week the Associated Press reported that San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera had started working with New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, who issued subpoenas to several energy drink companies in 2012 as part of an investigation of his own, into the marketing practices, ingredients, and overall assessment of health risks that those products might present.
In its “Guidance for Industry: Distinguishing Liquid Dietary Supplements from Beverages” the FDA updated its 2009 draft guidance, explaining its current thinking on the topic as a way “to help dietary supplement and beverage manufacturers and distributors determine whether a product in liquid form is properly classified as a dietary supplement or as a beverage.”
From Southern California, Juiceology is two years into a marketing push that saw a cattle family from Brazil try its hand at a branded product in the U.S. Founded by Brazilian national Felipe Davila, the products include flash-pasteurized, aseptically-filled refrigerated juices that are blended with whole grain extracts for a higher fiber content to promote satiety. Another juice company, New Jersey-based Mojo Organics, recently launched behind a line of juices licensed from Chiquita Brands.
Company CEO Paddy Spence revealed to BevNET yesterday that the brand was in the process of implementing a new sweetener mix – “Sweet Smart” – which deploys a purer form of Rebaudioside A (more commonly known as Stevia) mixed with Erythritol and Monkfruit extract.
What does it say about the beverage business that the small companies on display at Natural Products Expo East, the little sibling of the massive West Coast show, could generate more energy than those who were attending the annual showpiece fiesta of a giant organization?
Coke has finalized its purchase of Zico coconut water, purchasing the remaining outstanding shares. Zico was purchased through Coke’s Venturing and Emerging Brands Group (VEB). Founder and current CEO Mark Rampolla will be moving into a role of non-executive advisor during the transition; G. Scott Uzzell will become President, rejoining Coke a year after he left VEB to become Zico’s Chief Commercial Officer and EVP of Sales.
First Aid Shot Therapy (F.A.S.T.), a brand of condition-specific shots that are designed to offer liquid versions of over-the-counter remedies, is launching in Boston behind a second round of funding, one that included a very familiar name in these parts.
Mere months after picking up an $8 million investment at a valuation of $100 million from Boulder Brands’ venture capital arm, the cold-pressed juice company has pulled in another, undisclosed investment from investment fund Alliance Consumer Growth (ACG), a consumer-product focused group that tries to find next-generation versions of existing categories and deploy minority growth capital as fuel for their growth.
Taking a gamble that the future of beverage – specifically, juice — is going to include snatching meal occasions from quick-serve restaurants and soda companies alike, First Beverage Ventures has invested in Project Juice, a combination storefront and packaged fresh juice operation from the San Francisco Bay area.
Schnell, the CEO of outsource consulting firm MetaBrand, has teamed with 6Pacific Capital, a West Coast private equity fund, to make investments in early-stage health and wellness companies doing business in food, beverage, and nutrition.
Eisner, who co-created the brand with Burke Eiteljorg as the Rising Beverage Co., Inc. in 2005, announced Friday that he was buying the company back from its current investors and that he would be taking over the position of President. Craig Berger was taking on a dual COO/CFO role while current president Reza Mirza was departing.
The stigma is receding. The notion of bubbles isn’t so bad. From the gourmet to the Stevia generation, fewer products are afraid to fizz. Even as sprawling soda giants like Coke and Pepsi have seen overall volume declines, existing gourmet products like Fentiman’s, Reed’s, GuS, Fever Tree, Maine Root and Q Tonic have all ridden the expansion of the natural and specialty channel to increasing sales.
VEB President Deryck van Rensburg has tapped Chuck Muth, Honest Tea’s VP of sales, with the responsibility for leading an internal group focused on selling VEB-affiliated brands to bottlers and Coke’s own distribution network. He will move into the role of SVP, Sales at VEB on Jan. 1.


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A little fruit with big ideas has retained its title as the coolest brand in Britain, beating off competition from big luxury names and poor reviews for some of its products, research has shown.
Apple topped the CoolBrands list after 3,000 consumers and a panel of 38 "key influences" like model Daisy Lowe backed the iconic company behind the iPhone and MacBook.
James Bond car maker Aston Martin came second with Rolex in third.
This year's losers included Skype, BBC iplayer and high end brands like Selfridges and Liberty.
BBC iPlayer dropped from last year's sixth position to 16, Skype fell out of the top 20 altogether, while music streaming service Spotify is the only new digital entry at 20.
Both Selfridges and Liberty failed to place within the top 20, having featured at 14 and 10 last year, meaning no retailers made the top group.
Stephen Cheliotis, chairman of the CoolBrands council, said: "While Apple remained number one this year, question marks remain as to how long they might hold this position in the face of an increasingly competitive set of rivals."
And the top 10 are:
- Aston Martin
- Virgin Atlantic


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The use of software that blocks online ads is expected to cost websites some $21.8 billion globally in 2015, a study showed Monday.
Twitter rolled out a News Tab feature to some of its U.S. users Tuesday, an experimental effort to make it easier for people to find headlines that are trending on the platform.
Facebook on Thursday confirmed that it is dabbling in video ads and sharing revenue with content creators, in a move that would compete with Google-owned YouTube.
Popular disappearing-message app Snapchat is introducing content from media companies such as Vice, CNN and People to its service as it works to broaden its audience.
Facebook grew its advertising revenue by 64 percent in the third quarter, helped by a boost in mobile ads that are becoming an increasingly large chunk of the social networking giant's overall advertising business.
SoundCloud said Thursday that it will start paying artists and record companies whose music is played on the popular streaming site, a move that will bring it in line with competitors such as YouTube and Spotify.
(AP)—Facebook and most other social networks are built on the premise that just about everything should be shared —except the money those posts produce.
Microsoft is expected to overtake Yahoo for the first time in digital advertising revenues, a research firm said Tuesday.
Facebook profits tripled to $642 million in the first quarter on a 72-percent surge in revenues helped by strong gains in mobile users and mobile advertising.
Comcast's first-quarter net income rose by nearly a third as ad revenue surged at broadcast network NBC, helped by the Winter Olympics in Sochi and Jimmy Fallon's elevation as host of "The Tonight Show."


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The Franchise Industry Is Growing
Customers at these times of economic difficulty have second thoughts about spending their money on untried businesses. They would rather spend on tested brands. It is in this context that the IFX Enterprise has scheduled a three-day conference in Las Vegas. The Las Vegas Business Press says this summit will guide potential suppliers on franchising fundamentals – how and where to offer their products for franchises.
The franchise industry is on the rise, with 784,802 franchises projected to be in business by year’s end. At the end of 2010, there were 765,723 franchises, according to the 2011 Franchise Business Economic Outlook, published by The International Franchise Association.
The reason? Patrick Walls, chief operating officer of Capriotti’s, said it’s because people want a sure thing.
Investors are more likely to pour their money into these turnkey businesses during uncertain economic times than an independent venture.
“People are comfortable with household names,” Walls said. “They know what they’re going to get.”
When you order a Big Mac from one McDonald’s restaurant, chances are, it will taste exactly the same at a McDonald’s across the country. Franchisors can control the quality and specifications of a product by limiting the suppliers from which franchisees order.
For instance, Capriotti’s uses Butterball-brand turkey at all of its locations. If another turkey supplier were to try to sell its meat to the company, it would have to go through Capriotti’s corporate office to do so.
Walls said he has seen potential suppliers approach local franchisees and market to them, which is incorrect.
“We have very strict criteria,” he said. “They could not make the decision.”
IFX Enterprise, a consulting firm for franchise organizations and suppliers, is trying to bridge the gap between franchisors and potential suppliers with its business model. The company is hosting its first Las Vegas-based conference Oct. 19-21 at the Signature at MGM Grand. The event is aimed at supplier-type companies.
“Franchisors are always looking for new and better products from suppliers,” IFX Enterprise CEO Dan Martin said.
The IFX Franchise Supplier Executive Summit will try to teach current and potential suppliers about the economics of franchising and how they can change their model to better fit a franchise.
“The franchising industry as a whole is a very dynamic industry,” Walls said.
Because of that, Martin, who formerly was the chairman of the supplier board of directors for the International Franchise Association, created a blueprint for suppliers to follow when approaching potential franchisor partners. The workbook gives 138 strategies in linear form that businesses can use when they leave the conference. Martin said the blueprint represents the franchisor’s viewpoint.
Entry costs $497 per person for the three-day event. Martin expects 30 to 50 supplier companies to attend.
Interested businesses can register to attend on the conference’s website, ifxsuppliersummit.com.
Educational sessions will be offered at the three-day event, including a shark tank panel of franchisors that will critique five suppliers’ approaches. Martin said attendees can expect a complete education on franchising fundamentals.
These fundamentals are slated to include ways to increase revenues, maximize exposure, increase market share and reduce costs.
“The takeaway is significant,” Martin said.
Walls he said he’s interested in the conference because it seemed like an opportunity to network in a nonthreatening environment.
“My guess is there will be a lot of business done,” Walls said. “It’s win-win.”
Photo by GimmieSomethingToEat


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India's Bharti Airtel has launched what it says is a first-of-its-kind carrier digital platform for wholesale voice services.
The new Global Voice service will allow global operators to enter wholesale voice arrangements with Airtel at the click of a button.
The platform will offer paperless sign-up, quick voice interconnects and real-time traffic analysis for carriers worldwide.
Customers will be able to buy voice termination services from Airtel and propose sell rates for their target markets.
Airtel said Global Voice can reduce on-boarding time to a matter of hours. It also offers live rates for routes across the world for faster decision making during traffic exchange.
Users will also be able to access various real-time online reports based on usage analytics tracking KPIs such as traffic, traffic rates and payments for a selected destination.
Airtel also plans to soon provision a single window on the digital platform for product discovery, on-boarding, billing, payment, enquiry, and support across multiple B2B products.“
"This is yet another digital innovation from Airtel to empower our customers, who can now leverage Airtel's global voice network on a real-time basis with high quality voice termination,” Airtel director and CEO for global voice and data Ajay Chitkara said.
“The platform will bring enhanced efficiency, convenience, agility and transparency and further strengthen our position as the preferred partner for customers across the world."
Airtel's worldwide network covers 250,000 route kilometers across 50 countries in five continents and already terminates 23 billion voice minutes globally.


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Companies can now easily deploy digital signing
because their users will already have the Arcot signing
solution embedded in every copy of Adobe Acrobat and Adobe Reader," stated Ram Varadarajan, President and CEO of Arcot Systems.
The enhancements DocuSign has made it its interface ensure that all our clients can take advantage of the speed, security and convenience of online signing.
Since its inception, DocuSign has continually made improvements in its user interface to make the online signing experience as simple as point and click while maintaining state-of-the-art security behind the scenes.
We saw an opportunity with DocuSign to make online signing as easy and intuitive as lifting a pen, while dramatically improving speed, convenience and security," said Tom Gonser, DocuSign founder and vice-president of product strategy.
Custom Data Collection Tabs -- In addition to requiring signatures or initials, document senders can now define custom data tabs to collect information from signers such as address or bank routing number at the point of signing.
certificates are extremely important as they are used by businesses and consumers to verify which company supplied the software, giving Internet users confidence in the identity of the source of the software," said Brian O'Higgins, executive vice president and CTO, Entrust Technologies Inc.
This signature remains valid only while the document contents at the time of signing
remain intact, and cannot be copied into other documents.
Aside from being unique to a person and verifiable as belonging to a specific user, electronic signing
must also permanently attach the e-signature to data in such a way that it authenticates both the attachment of the signature and the integrity of the data transmitted.
This demonstrates that there is significant consumer interest in electronic signing
and that the need for electronic signing
tools is real.
Nasdaq: ENTU), a global leader in solutions that bring trust to e-business, showcased its industry-leading digital signature technology today in Tokyo by digitally signing
an agreement with Secom Co.
We hope that this demonstration will ensure company executives that signing
online transactions and conducting online business can be safe, secure and legal.
To ensure the integrity of a document after the time of signing
, the Sign-it product includes a document analyzer module.


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SNAP spending and the rural economy
December 2, 2021
Center for Rural Affairs
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, is often misunderstood as favoring urban residents over rural. Formerly known as food stamps, a new study analyzing this program shows the opposite may be true.
SNAP provides nutrition assistance payments to one in eight Americans every month. Approximately 16% of rural households use SNAP benefits, compared to 13% of metro households. In those rural households, a large majority of benefits assist vulnerable populations, including children, seniors and people with disabilities.
The study, conducted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service, shows that SNAP spending provides a significant boost to the overall rural economy. Benefits are helping grow rural household income by 0.68%, far higher than the 0.28% growth seen in urban areas.
Researchers examined household expenses of SNAP recipients between 2009 and 2014 to learn more about how this spending affected local employment, income, and more. They found the benefit increased overall economic output by 1.25% in rural areas, compared to 0.53% in urban areas and added 1.18% more jobs in non-metropolitan areas, compared to just 0.5% in metro areas.
However, the benefits do not end there. For small town and rural grocery stores, SNAP dollars help keep the doors open and, in doing so, gives recipients a place to buy fresh food closer to home. Having the benefit also allows rural households to use the money they would normally spend on food for other goods and services. This helps keep the Main Street businesses in their community open for all residents.
SNAP is not a perfect program. It requires meaningful safeguards that must protect against fraud and abuse. As decision makers continue to balance the positives with potential negatives, this report shows that the value of rural economic output should be considered.


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As a late comer to the Super Bowl pre-release party, Kia just released a new spot for the 2014 Forte entitled “HotBots,” which explores what would happen if auto show models were actually androids.
Getting greasy fingerprints all over a shiny new car at an auto show is definitely frowned upon, and Kia takes matters into its own hands in the commercial. The ad has the tagline “respect the tech” tacked on at the end, seemingly to show off that Kia is a company focused on cutting-edge new car tech.
The commercial is expected to air during the Super Bowl, this coming Sunday.
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- Rijpmeesters Bananen - Boom, België
- Logistiek Planner - Boom, België
- (Senior) Kwaliteitscontroleur - Boom, België
- Lead Engineer (Horticultural Systems)
- Head Grower - Kenya
- Environmental Officer - Home based
- Commercial Manager - Fresh Produce, Kenya
- Assistant Growers - Australia
- Grower Managers and Senior Growers - Australia
- Sales Manager Europe - Mont-Ras (Girona), ES
Western Australian apples and pears soon to be free of pest trade restrictions
An in-principle agreement that apple and pear fruit do not represent a risk of carrying TPP, provided they are free of leafy material, was reached at a meeting in Adelaide earlier this month, which included representatives from the Commonwealth and jurisdictions, Plant Health Australia, AusVeg, PomeWest and representatives from other WA industries similarly affected. It is expected that SA, Victoria and NSW will amend entry conditions soon and growers are advised to check the latest interstate trade requirements on state department websites linked below.
The psyllid, which is native to the south west of North America, was detected for the first time in Australia in Western Australia in early February 2017. It affects potatoes, tomato, eggplant, capsicum, chilli, tamarillo, sweet potato and goji berry. There have been many subsequent detections and TPP has now been deemed ineradicable. The Department of Agriculture and Food, Western Australia (DAFWA) is now focusing its efforts on management instead of eradication.
Despite apples and pears not being an affected industry under the EPPRD (Emergency Plant Pest Response Deed), Western Australian apple and pear growers effectively found themselves locked out of interstate trade as some states took extra precautions over concerns apples and pears might be potential carriers of TPP.
An agreement to place apples and pears in a new category and recognise they were a non-TPP carrier was heralded by industry as ‘major progress’, but states are still working through arrangements to allow trade to resume.
If growers have crops that are ready for immediate export, they can apply for an import permit from the receiving state. These permit requests are to be sent to the DAFWA Market Access team: TPP- marketAccess@agric.wa.gov.au.
Full details of the entry conditions are updated on the NSW, Victorian and South Australian department websites.
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Other news in this sector:
- 2019-05-21 Late start for Arizona honeydew season
- 2019-05-21 South African deciduous fruit exports keep up positive growth
- 2019-05-21 Belgian fruit growers unite in Actiegroep Fruittelers
- 2019-05-21 Lifting of Mexican tariffs welcome relief to US apple growers
- 2019-05-20 Chinese statistics bureau says high fruit prices will not last
- 2019-05-20 Polish fruit growers want an end to Russian fruit embargo
- 2019-05-20 China: Consumers shocked by 78 percent fruit price hike
- 2019-05-17 Summerfruit NZ has big growth plans
- 2019-05-15 Australian researchers trying to fix ugly fruit
- 2019-05-08 Argentinian fruit exports fall to alarming levels
- 2019-05-06 China: Fruit imports exceed exports for the first time
- 2019-05-06 Crisis of fruit sector in Spanish region of Aragon
- 2019-05-03 German apples reach the Taiwanese market for the first time
- 2019-04-30 Israel: Cold weather before Pesach hurt summer fruits
- 2019-04-29 India: Fruit Box & Co delivers fresh fruit to your doorstep
- 2019-04-25 Argentina: Fruit producers from Entre Rios, Rio Negro, and Neuquen protest
- 2019-04-24 Danish fruit growers dealing with surpluses
- 2019-04-24 China: "Keeping cost of fruit imports low by direct investment in overseas plantations"
- 2019-04-24 "Southeast Asian market offers opportunities to Chinese fruit"
- 2019-04-23 China: Average price of fruit in Shenzhen expected to rise in April


text: The news is out that the Pre will be running $199.99 after mail-in-rebates with a two year contract. For those that do not want to commit to a contract, you can purchase the device for a mere $549.99. It might be a worthy investment for those who don't like the idea of being tethered to a long term agreement. Still, the price point is what can be found on similar devices. From the looks of an online Sprint chat with a customer service agent, its a safe bet to say you can get your hands on this device on day one without a contract.


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Common grocery store purchases may contain higher levels of artery-clogging trans fats than you think. Here’s how to be a smarter shopper.
The bad trans fat
It’s a public health message we’ve heard nonstop—avoid trans fat. However, a 2012 study published in the journal Preventing Chronic Disease revealed that 84 percent of packaged foods that listed “0 grams trans fat” on their Nutrition Facts label still had partially hydrogenated oil (the main dietary source of trans fat) in the ingredient list. Current laws allow companies to “round down” fewer than 0.5 grams of trans fat per serving to zero. While it sounds small, these tiny numbers can still have a major negative impact on your health. “We eat a lot of packaged foods,” says Dawn Napoli, RD, a registered dietitian with UF Health Cancer Center at Orlando Health. “Over time that can make a huge difference.”
The good news? The amount of trans fat we eat has dropped in the past 30 years, according to a recent study published in the Journal of the American Heart Association. Men are consuming 32 percent less trans fat, and women 35 percent less, than they were in 1980. Still, 1.9 percent of men’s daily calories and 1.7 percent of women’s daily calories come from trans fat today (the American Heart Association recommends limiting trans fats to no more than 1 percent of total calories consumed). Even a few daily grams of these fats increase bad cholesterol, decrease good cholesterol, and clog arteries; and Harvard researchers estimate that trans fats cause up to 228,000 cases of heart disease and 50,000 deaths annually. Read on for 7 foods that are packing trans fat—even if the food label makes it hard to tell and watch out for these subtle signs that you’re eating too much bad fat.
Nondairy coffee creamer
Michelle Lee Photography/Shutterstock
Half a gram of trans fat in creamer can quickly turn into multiple, since consumers tend to use more than the serving size of a teaspoon per cup (and the typical American coffee drinker guzzles an average of three cups of joe per day). On many “0 trans fat” labels, you can find partially hydrogenated oils as the second or third ingredient listed. Nondairy creamer is just one of the many worst foods for your stomach.
Some companies use partially hydrogenated oils to achieve a long shelf life and creamy texture, so check the label. To be safe, opt for the natural variety; although it’s chunkier, it’s also healthier and normally made with just salt and peanuts—not oils loaded with trans fat. Here are other foods that are surprisingly unhealthy.


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Thousands of job losses ‘imminent’ as companies ‘days away’ from collapse
HOSPITALITY and tourism trade groups have expressed “bitter disappointment” after Scottish economy secretary Fiona Hyslop said the Scottish Government’s grant scheme will not be extended to businesses with a rateable value over £51,000.
Groups including The Scottish Tourism Alliance (STA), UK Hospitality and the Scottish Licensed Trade Association (SLTA) have been lobbying the Scottish Government for greater financial support for businesses since the beginning of the COVID-19 shutdown.
Scottish hospitality businesses with a rateable value of up to £18,000 are eligible for a one-off grant of £10,000 through the Scottish Government’s Business Support Fund, with businesses that have a rateable value between £18,001 and £51,000 eligible for a grant of £25,000. Any subsequent properties owned by a company, and which fall into either of those rateable value brackets, are eligible for 75% of either the £10,000 or £25,000 grant.
However, businesses with a rateable value above £51,000 are not eligible for either grant. The Scottish Government established two further funds -the Creative, Tourism & Hospitality Enterprises Hardship Fund and the Pivotal Enterprise Resilience Fund – but these are administered by enterprise agencies and distributed on a case-by-case basis.
When asked by Conservative MSP Murdo Fraser at a meeting of the parliament yesterday (May 26) whether further grant support would be available to businesses above the £51,000 threshold Hyslop said: “I agree with the member that that would be desirable if we could do it, but we are not currently in a position to do it.”
STA chief executive, Marc Crothall, said the support provided to the industry so far, though welcome, “is not enough”.
“Despite the recent increases to the Hardship and Pivotal funds announced by Scottish Government the total sum of support available still falls well short of what is needed to protect business from collapse,” said Crothall.
“We are hearing of many tourism business above the RV51 threshold who have had their applications to these funds declined. As such it remains the case that at this juncture there are hundreds of tourism businesses, pubs, hotels, visitor attractions, and event venues who are all incurring significant monthly costs with no income coming in still not having received any grant support and many about to go the wall.
“These medium to large businesses are the lifeblood of Scotland’s tourism industry, major employers and the recovery of our industry and wider economy is dependent on them.
“Their monthly hibernation costs range from £10k per month to £350k-plus and with no income or support, they are now collapsing.
“The loss of thousands of jobs is imminent as these businesses simply have no revenue; we are now days away from this.
“If as we are being told by Scottish Government ministers there is no more money to support these business then we urge them, as the industry are doing, to press their UK counterparts in the Treasury harder still.”
The SLTA called Hyslop’s statement “absolutely appalling and a betrayal to a sector that it has still been left adrift with no grant support from government whilst others, disproportionate to their needs, have received support”.
“The Scottish Government must immediately come out and support those hospitality and tourism businesses that are over the £51,000 RV threshold, and show them that you have their interests at heart, because at the moment, they have been shown no worth at all, left helpless, left isolated whilst they now stare into the abyss,” said the association.
And UK Hospitality’s executive director for Scotland, Willie Macleod, said Hyslop’s comments were “disappointing”.
“There is still no grant support for those businesses occupying premises with a rateable value above £51k,” he said.
“These businesses have been hit just as hard as any other. They are not being shielded from the effects of COVID-19 simply because their premises are more highly rated.
“These businesses have had no revenue since lockdown began on March 23, are incurring significant costs while closed, an average of £60,000 per month, and are at severe risk of going out of business altogether with the potential loss of thousands of jobs.
“We hope that these businesses will be able to help spearhead the economic recovery of Scotland once the crisis has passed. They will not be able to if they have gone out of business before they have a chance to reopen. Grant support must be extended to these businesses, otherwise we are going to see even more failures and more people unemployed.”
At the meeting of the Scottish Parliament Hyslop said that the Scottish Government had made the case to Westminster that money not utilised for the UK Government’s Business Interruption Loan Scheme could be earmarked for further grants but “that has not been taken up as yet”.
“On the one hand, people want us to be the same as the UK, but on the other, they want us to do something different,” said Hyslop.
“We are trying to chart a course that is both fair and equitable. The issues around businesses with rateable values over £51,000 in the tourism sector are one reason why we set up the hardship fund and the pivotal resilience fund, and companies can apply to those two funds.
“As we speak, those funds are starting to deliver. However, that will not stop us impressing on the UK Government the need to provide more funding for businesses with rateable values over £51,000.
“Can we do it on a sector-by-sector basis? That is always problematic, but there may be a case for it, particularly in relation to tourism and hospitality.
“I will try to maximise my opportunities for resources in making those decisions, but ultimately it will be (finance secretary) Kate Forbes and (tourism secretary) Fergus Ewing who will take that forward.”


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The Show Time/source macrumers.com
Apple on Wednesday, 19 August 2020, scripted history by becoming the first American firm to hit the $2 trillion market cap with doubling in the time of pandemic, following several months of explosive growth, Apple's stock came crashing down on Thursday, dropping around eight percent in a single day. It was the worst day of trading for technology stocks as a whole since March.
Apple's market capitalization slid over $180 billion as a result of the sell-off, marking the largest one-day loss in value for any company ever,the previous record was set by Volkswagen in October 2008, when the automaker lost $153 billion in value in a day, shortly after a massive short squeeze. Apple's stock price is still twice as high as it was in late March. Despite the global health crisis, the company set a June quarter revenue record of $59.7 billion, buoyed by strong Mac and iPad sales as more people work, learn, and connect with others from home.
The company also faces a lawsuit from “Fortnite” developer Epic Games, which accuses Apple of monopolistic practices for retaining a big cut of digital purchases and not allowing developers to take purchases within apps using their own payment mechanisms. Epic’s complaint has drawn support from other high-profile developers including Spotify Technology and Match Group Inc.


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From Gigi Hadid to Kristen Stewart to multiple Kardashians.
From cross-body styles to totes and clutches.
The sibling duo really cleaned up this season.
The best of the best of the best. Plus more!
Start stocking up on blush now.
It seems like plenty of showgoers got the memo last week.
Your spring 2017 backstage beauty report.
Of the over 200 shows and presentations on the calendar, our editors reveal the collections that moved them the most.
Including the most all-star model lineup, biggest PR stunt and best underboob.
Plus, all of our images from the entire week in one place.
A closer look at what goes on backstage.
What happens when two brands team up for one fashion show?
The designer took over the Hammerstein Ballroom for a block rockin' show that brought the house down.
From the runways at Michael Kors, Marchesa, Ralph Lauren and more.
About those dreadlocks.
Who said you can't wear the color after Labor Day?
We spoke with models backstage at Addition Elle's runway show Wednesday.


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Lowe's Ups Bridgeford, Damron to New Posts
April 20, 2012,
MOORESVILLE, N.C.-Lowe's has promoted Gregory Bridgeford to chief customer officer and Rick Damron to chief operating officer.
Bridgeford, previously executive vice president of business development, has now assumed charge over customer-experience design, merchandising, marketing and communications, digital interfaces and pricing and promotion. Damron, who was executive vice president of store operations, is now responsible for store operations, sales and service fulfillment, product fulfillment, real estate and facilities, and loss prevention and safety. Both executives report directly to Robert Niblock, chairman, president and CEO.
Other Articles By Author
SPONSORED: Abbyson's Fashion-Forward Collections Shine in High Point


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DraftKings Inc. is partnering with Bay Mills Resort & Casino to enter into a new market access agreement, subject to all applicable licences and approvals, which will bring its mobile sportsbook to sports fans throughout the state of Michigan. Currently the mobile DraftKings Sportsbook app is available in Colorado, Indiana, Iowa, New Jersey, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and West Virginia.
Ezra Kucharz, DraftKings’ Chief Business Office said: “Through a commitment to provide customers with a premier sports betting experience, DraftKings is happy to partner with Bay Mills Resort & Casino.
“The Great Lakes State presents a number of gaming opportunities and we look forward to collaborating with Bay Mills to provide residents with the best-in-class experience DraftKings is known for.”
MIn a Michigan Consumer Study led by DraftKings, of Michiganders who expressed interest in online sports betting, more than a third already actively placed a legal bet via mobile by travelling to another state or internationally where permitted. Another 55 percent had never before made an online wager demonstrating potential at market entry among casual bettors. As sports return across the US, DraftKings Sportsbook will provide an innovative, immersive, and entertaining gaming experience for consumers.
The partnership will also allow Michigan sports fans to place sports bets in person at a Bay Mills Resort & Casino retail betting location, in addition to mobile and online sportsbook access. Michigan is the seventh state to announce a retail sportsbook with the DraftKings brand, joining Colorado, Iowa, Mississippi, New Hampshire , New Jersey and New York. The retail sportsbook partnership is subject to applicable regulations and both parties are securing the necessary gaming licences and other approvals required.
Bryan Newland, Tribal Chairman for the Bay Mills Indian Community said: “We are excited about our new partnership with DraftKings. Expanding on what entertainment options we can offer at Michigan’s longest operating gaming facility is always our goal. Our new on-site DraftKings Sportsbook will be one more great reason for Michiganders to vacation with us in the Upper Peninsula.”


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As another major retailer leaves downtown San Francisco, Mayor London Breed continues to downplay the problem.
Shoplifting costs retailers millions of dollars every year.
Of course, retailers don’t just eat the cost of shoplifting shrinkage; they pass it on to customers in the form of higher prices. Retailers take all sorts of measures to remain profitable, even in high-traffic stores and areas where retail theft is a major ongoing concern.
Most retailers focus on preventive measures to deter potential shoplifters, including video monitoring, mirrors, and open store layouts: These design elements increase visibility, making it harder for shoplifters to conceal their actions.
Retailers often utilize security tags or electronic article surveillance (EAS) systems that trigger an alarm if an item is taken without proper deactivation or removal.
Retailers employ loss prevention officers or security personnel who are trained to identify and apprehend shoplifters. Benighted retailers often cooperate with local law enforcement agencies to address shoplifting. They may share surveillance footage or provide detailed incident reports to aid in investigations and prosecutions. Some retailers may also employ off-duty police officers to provide additional security.
None of these measures seem to be working to deter shoplifting in San Francisco, as evidenced by a parade of store closures.
“San Francisco Targets Closing Early Due to Rise in Thefts,” reported the NBC Bay Area staff on July 2, 2021.
“For more than a month, we’ve been experiencing a significant and alarming rise in theft and security incidents at our San Francisco stores, similar to reports from other retailers in the area,” said a Target spokesperson via a statement to NBC Bay Area. “Target is engaging local law enforcement, elected officials and community partners to address our concerns. With the safety of our guests, team members and communities as our top priority, we’ve temporarily reduced our operating hours in six San Francisco stores.”
“San Francisco mayor London Breed claims Walgreens is only shutting five stores to cut costs — but pharmacy chain says it spends nearly FIFTY TIMES as much on security…


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Chairman, Association Farmers Market Traders, Usman Mohammed, has decried the continued siege by soldiers on the popular vegetables and fruits market, in Maitama District, Abuja, rarely 24 hours of the last weeks’ car bomb explosion that rocked the EMAB plaza, in Wuse II.
He said there more than 300 traders, who depend on the market to feed themselves and their families, but since the incident most have relocated to their villages, as they could no other find another place to trade.
According to him, “what happened was that we were here last Thursday when some soldiers stormed the market around 5 o’clock and said they gave everybody ten minutes only to vacant the market and up till now we have not heard anything from them. That’s about 5 days now.
In an interview with Peoples Daily, yesterday, Mohammed that the timing of the action at a time the Muslims were starting Ramadan fast, was very unfortunate, as usually during the period, there is always high patronage in the market, as people troop into the place for things to break their fast.
He said they were told that the rationale behind siege on the market, which forced them out of their shops, was for security reason.
When Peoples Daily visited the market, soldiers were spotted keeping a close watch on the market, while some traders display some goods near a mosque within the vicinity of the market, located at Yedeseram Street, off Ibrahim Babagida Boulevard, Maitama District.
On how the displaced traders have been coping with the situation, he said their business have suffered, as most of the goods in the market have become rotten, as none of them were allowed to pick their goods from their shops.
“Whenever it is getting close to Ramadan fasting period, traders in the markets stack commodities in high demand during the period. But it was only yesterday (Saturday) that I was allowed to pick some of my goods from the shop, but most of them have spoiled already.
“Normally, most of our goods would become damaged as they are vegetables and fruits, which are perishables. Only few grocery and bottle water were still intact.
“You know that now we are in the month of Ramadan fasting period, but we had stored our commodities. Everybody had supplies when they lock the market.
“We have more than 300 traders, who depend on this market to feed themselves and their families, but since the incident most have relocated to their villages; and the few ones are now managing with what they can lay their hands on.
On whether there have been any form discussions with the security officials, he said no, as it is only the management of the market that are in any form of talks with the officials.
He added that there has never been any security issue in the market, because they have register for traders in the market, which enables the association to know those trading together with them in the place.
He however appealed to the authorities especially the FCT minister to intervene, so as to them return to their shops, in order to continue with their business.
“I’m begging the government to please look us in good eyes and treat us the same way and manners others in the country are being treated,” Mohammed pleads.


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Various sources have been reporting on the recent Java hole that enabled malicious individuals to infect upwards of 600,000 Apple Macs that were running the latest, fully patched version of the O/S.
This Java vulnerability was actually known about sometime last year and has been patched on other systems. Apple in it’s continued, and frankly misguided, belief that it’s systems are safe and don’t need protection like anti-virus software chose not to patch the hole until 100s of thousands of it’s customers had been infected.
The reality is that all consumer computer systems have vulnerabilities and it should be the expected duty of vendors to patch these as quickly as possible to protect their customers and their privacy.
We have all knocked companies like Microsoft for the amount of vulnerabilities and attacks that have occurred against their software, but the reality is that over the last few years Microsoft has made huge progress in producing more secure software, patching in a very timely manner, providing free tools like anti-virus, and working with law enforcement to bring down criminal bot nets.
Apple has avoided many exploits being created as it has historically been such a niche player. Why create an exploit for a few machines when you can create one for orders of magnitude more? As Apple has become more successful and there has been an increased uptake of it’s products in office it has become a more interesting and valuable target for criminals to try and exploit any vulnerabilities.
It is time for Apple to pull it’s socks up from a security stand point, and to become both more proactive and transparent in how it deals with issues and helps protect it’s customers.
For us users of any operating system it’s yet another reminder that we should keep our systems patched and run software to protect us from viruses etc. Oh and not to trust vendors when then tell us their systems are safe and don’t need further protection.
Some detail and commentary on this issue can be found here at the links below;


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December 19, 2008
The Syndney Morning Herald reviews the Apple iPhone 3G and writes, "...what you see with the iPhone 3G is what you get: a powerful, multi-featured, music and video-playing, internet- and email-capable mobile phone with a crappy camera...While Apple has added a feature which allows you to attach geo-locational data to photos taken on the phone, the camera is otherwise unchanged from the first version."
Read more about the Apple iPhone 3G.
See more from our Camera Phone Reviews category »
Posted by BJ at December 19, 2008 10:43 AM


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The City of Edmonds welcomes the return of its Winter Market on Saturday, Jan. 27. The market will run from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on 5th Avenue North between Main and Bell Streets.
Local vendors will offer a wide range of items including artisan packaged food, jewelry, and home items.
The remaining markets are scheduled for Feb. 24, March 30, and April 27 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Follow City of Edmonds Markets on Facebook for more details.


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PeeCee, Sonu Nigam, Sunidhi Chauhan and Mika Singh will soon be seen at an exclusive residential project that is cleared of legal bounds
Priyanka Chopra had invested in a space at a building in Andheri which was stuck in legal dispute since 2013. Windsor Grande Residencies in the posh neighbourhood now called “Upper Lokhandwala” finally has the green signal, and Priyanka might be setting up home or office there. Her mother Madhu Chopra is the owner of a 15,000 sqft office space in the luxury residential complex which has four towers and one commercial building.
Over 70 apartments have been sold to celebrities like Sonu Nigam, Sunidhi Chauhan, Alka Yagnik, Mika Singh and industrialists Jagmohan Arora, and Birla Sunlife CEO Pankaj Razdan. The project was on hold since 2013 after the National Green Tribunal pointed out missing approvals. The buyers had subsequently formed a group called 'Windsor Grande Residences Forum' to address this. They can heave a sigh of relief as the BMC has put the project in the clear with an Occupation Certificate (OC).
Meanwhile, Priyanka continues to win the west. Her latest feather-in-the-cap is a catchy new commercial for clothing giant GAP where she's grooving alongside rapper Wiz Khalifa, TV star Jonathan Groff, supermodel Christie Brinkley and Olympic athlete Miles Chamley-Watson. The music is Boney M's retro hit, Sunny and the campaign taglined #BridgingTheGap has gone viral.
After making an appearance in practically every talk show in America, PeeCee is now basking in the afterglow of her villainous turn in Baywatch and enjoying the red carpet spotlight. She attended a fashion awards show in New York with top designer Michael Kors and spent the weekend at a polo match in New Jersey with Hollywood actress Nicole Kidman, model Kendall Jenner and Kate Mara. PeeCee was twinning with none other than Nicole Kidman this time, in polka dot dresses. Atta girl!
Watch the complete commercial here:


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Immediate steps to take if your state legalizes adult-use cannabis
by John Schroyer
Numerous states with medical cannabis programs could wind up legalizing recreational marijuana this November, giving MMJ business owners in these markets an opportunity to pivot to a completely new customer base.
Marijuana Business Magazine reached out to seasoned industry insiders in Colorado, Oregon and Washington – three states that have already made the transition to recreational – to get their advice on how to prepare for the adult–use market.
We tapped: William Simpson, the founder and president of Oregon-based Chalice Farms, a marijuana cultivator and retailer; Luke Ramirez, the owner of Colorado-based Premium Pete’s Cultivation; and Patrick Devlin, co-owner of Washington State-based edibles producer Db3.
Here’s their advice:
Many of the business-related rules and regulations for recreational marijuana will be hammered out during the rulemaking process well after the election, so make sure you’re represented.
“A lot of these rules will not be set in stone the day after it’s passed. In fact, none of them probably will,” Ramirez said. “So I highly recommend either hiring your own lobbyist or joining a trade group that will lobby for your interests.”
The rulemaking process often addresses a host of critical issues, such as the number of permits available for cannabis businesses, zoning requirements, product packaging and labeling rules, allowable hours of operation and licensing fees. Having a voice in those discussions is key to getting business-friendly rules in place.
Develop relationships with local politicians, regulators and officials.
“Getting politically involved is the first thing you should do,” Simpson said. “Talk to the local commissioners, your house reps, your senators. That’s super important. Those are going to be really big pieces to your whole world.”
“Before you can do anything, you have to have a decent understanding of how they view the industry and how they’re going to treat it.” Devlin said. “It’s in everybody’s best interests that the regulators see those coming out of the medical marijuana industry as being experts in what will make things work.”
Read and understand the laws, both at the state and local level.
“I’d certainly understand what the new law would require to be part of the business. Whether that’s getting a consultant or an attorney, (you) should start that process yesterday,” Ramirez said.
“I see a lot of newer people not pay enough attention to that, not diving enough into local laws and what the city and county are going to require, and that takes a lot of diligence,” he added. “It’s not like you can just Google it. You have to make a real effort to attend local city council meetings and really figure out how that area is going to approach recreational marijuana.”
Make sure all the taxes for your existing MMJ business are paid and up to date. Otherwise, decision makers at the licensing level could nix your chances at a recreational business.
“Make sure, from a business standpoint, that you’re good, because what happens is that during the licensing process, the bureaucrats decide who the good actors are and who the bad actors are,” Devlin said. “And some of the regulators get fed up with some players as opposed to others. If you don’t follow good business practices there’s potential that they’ll find a way to filter you out of the licensing process” for the recreational industry.
Look for Locations
Scout locations immediately.
“To find a property that qualifies is extremely difficult, so you need to get on that process right away. Don’t take that process for granted,” Ramirez said. “You’ll get a lot of hurdles like landlords not wanting to lease to you because you’re in the marijuana business.”
He added: “If you’re going to buy a property, you’ll have to keep in mind that you won’t be able to get a loan for that, so it’ll need to be an all-cash transaction.”
Reconsider Your Current Space
If you’re looking to open a retail location, consider the difference in atmosphere between classic MMJ dispensaries and more mainstream shops – and think about how to appeal to a broader demographic. Design and plan accordingly.
“What does your retail space look like? Is it a retail shop or is it a hangout zone for people who get really, really buzzed?” Devlin said. “What will happen is competitors will come in that understand retail sales and create a very different experience than most dispensaries look like now. So be prepared for that.”
Figure Out Your Finances
Immediately start trying to put numbers around how much it will cost to start your rec business and where you’ll get the money. More than anything, plan to keep costs low, such as growing for under $1 a gram, Ramirez said. Otherwise, the competition will kill you quickly.
“If you’re bootstrapping a company in a new, hot market, you’re likely to get priced out because there are people with a lot more money and investors than you, Ramirez said.


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Apple’s highly anticipated September event is expected to showcase a host of new products and updates, marking a significant leap in tech innovation.
iPhone 15 Models: A New Chapter in Smartphone Design
The iPhone 15 is predicted to be the event’s main attraction, with four new models slated for unveiling. The standard iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus are set to feature a subtle redesign, with more curved edges and a frosted back glass for a premium feel. A super bright pink and an updated blue are the new additions to the color palette.
The introduction of USB-C, a first for iPhones, is the most notable design change. Although this means replacing all lightning accessories, the ubiquity of USB-C in other tech products should make the transition smooth for most users. The standard iPhone 15 models will also be equipped with a faster A16 processor.
The iPhone 15 Pro, designed for a premium experience, will undergo a more dramatic redesign, with a larger camera bump and curved edges. The Pro models will be the first iPhones made from titanium, promising a lighter, more durable device with a new matte look. The Pro models will also feature a new action button, replacing the traditional mute switch, which can be programmed to perform various functions.
The iPhone 15 Pro will boast superior camera capabilities, including a periscope zoom lens for the Pro Max model. The new A17 chip, based on the three-nanometer architecture, is expected to deliver significant performance and battery life improvements. The Pro models will also feature USB-C with Thunderbolt support, offering fast data transfer speeds.
AirPods Pro Update: A Unified Charging Experience
The AirPods Pro are also set to receive an update, with the main change being the switch from a lightning port to USB-C. This change will allow users to use a single cable to charge their MacBook, iPad, iPhone, and AirPods.
Apple Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2: Advancements in Wearable Tech
The Apple Watch Series 9 is expected to be identical in design to the Series 8, with the main upgrade being a faster and more efficient processor. This update will future-proof the device, ensuring it can handle larger software updates like watchOS 10. There are also rumors of a new ceramic finish for the Series 9.
The Apple Watch Ultra 2 is expected to feature satellite connectivity, allowing users to send emergency SOS signals even in areas with no cell reception. This feature could potentially save lives and is seen as the groundwork for future capabilities, such as sending texts, making phone calls, and accessing data via satellites.
The Ultra 2 is also expected to be lighter than its predecessor, thanks to the use of new 3D printed parts. This change could also speed up production times and make more watches available at launch.
iPad Mini: A Potential Surprise
Finally, there’s a possibility that a new version of the iPad Mini with a faster chip could be unveiled at the September event. However, this update has been in the works for a few years and could potentially be delayed until Apple’s October event.
In conclusion, Apple’s September event is shaping up to be a landmark occasion, with a host of new products and updates set to redefine the tech landscape. From the iPhone 15 to the Apple Watch Ultra 2, the future of tech is looking brighter than ever.


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As Microsoft preps Slack rival, Slack goes on offensive
In the leadup to Microsoft's Office event in New York Wednesday, there were many reports and indications that the Windows maker was about to introduce its own Slack competitor called Microsoft Teams.
Turns out the rumors were right, with Microsoft coming out with its rival messaging platform that ties in heavily to the company's current line of work-focused products including Office, Skype and SharePoint. It offers many of the same functionality as Slack and even looks a lot like the messaging company's app.
But Slack seemed ready.
In anticipation of today's event, the company took out a full page ad on the back of the New York Times offering Microsoft some "friendly advice."
"Wow. Big news! Congratulations on today's announcements," the ad begins. "We're genuinely excited to have some competition."
The ad continues, telling Microsoft that "it's not the features that matter" and that if they want to do this right they will need to do it "with love."
In addition to the New York Times ad, Slack also posted the text on its website.
This type of friendly tech advertising isn't uncommon in the tech industry. In 2010, Adobe took out ads saying "Adobe (hearts) Apple" following a post from Steve Jobs on Apple's website bashing the company's Flash software.
Microsoft even deployed a similar style in 2014 featuring a chat between digital assistants Siri and Cortana when it was promoting its ill-fated Windows Phone.
While its marketing is fun today, it remains to be seen if Slack is as welcoming to Microsoft in the future. Microsoft plans to roll out Teams in the first quarter of 2017.
Follow Eli Blumenthal on Twitter @eliblumenthal


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The Top Five 3D Printing News Announcements Today at Additive Manufacturing Europe 2016
Just one week after the inaugural In(3D)ustry exhibition in Barcelona, 3D printing professionals, engineers and manufacturers flocked to Amsterdam for the Additive Manufacturing Europe 2016 Expo, also a first for the ever-growing 3D printing industry.
Inside 3D Printing Seoul 2016: Hardware Finally Going Big?
The Inside 3D Printing Conference & Expo Seoul opened at the expansive Kintex Convention Center in downtown Seoul, South Korea yesterday. Being this was to be the third annual incarnation of…
Rokit Releases a New 3D Bioprinter, Expected to “Change the Landscape” of Bioprinting
Until recently, 3D bioprinting was all but unheard of. Now, it’s everywhere as research institutions and private companies alike scramble to be a part of this rapidly growing, lifesaving, revolutionary…


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The Atlantic Media Company is hardly new to publishing. Its history stretches to 1857, but for an old guy it’s proven to have some serious digital moves. Its outlets — The Atlantic, The National Journal and Government Executive — have aggressively transformed it into a digital company. Now, the company is trying to prove that it can build a global brand from scratch.
Four years ago, its traditional-to-digital-audience metrics were at a one-to-one basis, meaning for every traditional reader there was a digital one, according to Justin Smith, president of the Atlantic Media Company. Now, he says, on average, its digital audience is 25 times higher than the print audience. According to ComScore, The Atlantic got 3.6 million uniques in April 2012. On the advertising side, more than 50 percent of its revenue will come from digital.
“Our history is in traditional print media,” said Smith. “What we set out to do was to disrupt ourselves in a sense. We decided that we wanted to be a digital media company participating in the high-growth markets and digital media. We went about the process of thinking through the questions, how do we disrupt our own company if we were challenging digital brands attacking us?”
The Atlantic Wire might be the best example of this. Launched in 2009, it has become a mainstay of the blog set, delivering a fast-paced news experience. It also has Atlantic Cities, which started in 2011, that looks at the cross-section of trends around the urbanization across the globe.
Quartz is its boldest move yet. Helmed by ex-Wall Street Journal reporter Kevin Delaney and slated to officially launch later this year, Quartz is looking to succeed where Portfolio most recently failed. It plans to take a global perspective — sprinkling correspondents around the globe — and offer a mix of magazine-like analytical content and the short bursts and infographic fare that’s more au courrant on the Web but aimed at global business leaders.
Quartz is also taking an interesting distribution by focusing more on mobile and tablets. Its content won’t be created for Web reading, then ported over to tablet and mobile, Delaney said. Instead, features will be native to those environments. One trend Quartz is not joining: paywalls. All its content will be free on desktop, mobile and tablet.
“I think there’s room for a new outlet that’s digital, that’s focused on mobile and tablet with themes on the global economy, and not constrained by having a paywall around the reporting,” Delaney said.
Smith says 2012 has been good to the company. It’s on course to having its best financial performance in its history — both on revenue and profit. Smith points to two key reasons: disrupting itself and then anticipating the next curve.
“The main reason we’ve succeeded is that we’ve been radical and aggressive about implementing a digital-first strategy,” said Smith. “What you see in traditional media, companies pay lip service to digital transformation or consider digital transformation as an incremental or partial exercise — change around the edges or reorganize, but not a complete, radical, aggressive uprooting of the culture and talent base. And that’s what we’ve done.”
Smith is no stranger to the global marketplace, having spent many years at The Economist working in London, Hong Kong and Paris. He believes the company is in a good position to go on the offensive. As the company and its culture has rallied around the digital-first mantra, it has created the opportunity to be in what Smith calls “adjacent marketplaces.” Cue Quartz.
“Our feeling is there’s an opportunity to innovate that others haven’t exploited,” said Delaney. “It’s an opportunity we have because we’re starting from scratch. Mobile is a pretty logical step to view as the primary platform.”
Headquartered in New York City, the outlet plans on having at least one correspondent in Asia, one in Europe, and it will work with freelancers and stringers in important areas of the world for its launch. The company already snagged a few top industry people; Chris Batty, from Gawker, will serve as publisher; former WSJer Zach Seward will be its senior editor; and former New York Times product engineer, Michael Donohoe will be Quartz’s product engineering director.
“The people we’re hiring in New York are international people,” Delaney said. “We’re looking for people who speak different languages, who can write about the world in a sophisticated fashion.”
The publication will also take a different path down the content creation road. There will be data visualization, short- and long-form articles, and blog-like aggregation.
“Core to us is the fact that editorial innovation and a desire to be creative about the form of what will be excellent journalism underpins what we’ll do,” said Delaney.
Quartz will have its own dedicated sales team but will also lean on the Atlantic Media Company’s sales force. It will target big global brands. Like other publishers nowadays, Quartz is turning its back on standard display ads. Instead, according to Smith, Quartz will be “innovating and experimenting quite widely in the area of branded content.”
“Many of the advertisers we have relationships with care about global business and want to target influential customers,” Smith said. “The high-quality content required to engage this global business audience is something we believe we can create and produce given our heritage and history of the company — of producing high-end intelligent content.”
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In its bid to offer a competitor to ChatGPT for the Chinese market, Alibaba Group is moving to integrate its new artificial intelligence model into Amazon Echo-like smart speakers as well as office chat software.
According to reports, the new AI model, Tongyi Qianwen, which was unveiled by Chief Executive Officer Daniel Zhang, is going to be added to the company’s Slack-like DingTalk app as well as its smart home appliance provider Tmall Genie.
According to Zhang, the large language model, roughly translated as “Truth from a Thousand Questions” will be incorporated across all of Alibaba’s products and services in the “near future,”. He, however, did not specify a timeframe.
The new model came amid the launch of similar debuts from SenseTime Group Inc and Baidu Inc. which were eyeing to build the definitive next-generation AI platform for the world’s largest internet market.
The trend marks a growing wave of development abroad, with Alphabet Inc’s Google and Microsoft Corp among the many tech companies exploring generative AI, a high-end tool that creates original content from poetry to art just with simple user prompts.
According to reports, Alibaba shares rose as much as 3.8% in Hong Kong on Tuesday, while Baidu slumped 6.4% and SenseTime gave up most of the gains of an early surge of 11% in the wake of its introduction the prior day.
Alibaba endeavours to cash in on the AI frenzy triggered by OpenAI’s ChatGPT which attracted large customers for its cloud computing platform.
“We are at a technological watershed moment driven by generative AI and cloud computing, and businesses across all sectors have started to embrace intelligence transformation to stay ahead of the game,” Zhang was quoted as saying by Bloomberg.
Zhang’s keynote speech was peppered with details of Alicloud’s years-long history. He talked about Tongyi Qianwen’s potential to better serve enterprise clients, both large and small. The presentation came a day after Chinese AI specialist SenseTime spent hours demonstrating how its new models, SenseNova and SenseChat, could handle a range of common questions in both English and Chinese.
Alibaba Cloud began offering invitation codes for corporate users and developers to test out its flagship AI product last Friday. Like SenseTime, Alibaba’s AI model will provide services in English and Chinese and will soon include capabilities for image recognition and text-to-image generation.
The debut of Alibaba’s AI model marked the first major product launch since Zhang personally took charge of the cloud intelligence arm in the firm’s newly reconfigured corporate structure.
Zhang has often spoken of AI as a driver of potentially exponential growth for Alibaba, which can both provide services of its own and support other AI businesses with its cloud computing products.
At a December conference call, Zhang stated that due to the need for extensive computing power, there will be an exponential increase in demand for these technologies.
Alibaba has been scaling up its AI capability for quite some time. Its DAMO Academy launched M6, a 10-trillion-parameter pre-training model last year. The model has been used to power searches and recommendations on Alibaba’s marketplace Taobao, especially for text and image pairing. Alibaba’s ChatGPT-like bot is also currently conducting internal testing. Online retailing rival JD.com Inc. has said its cloud business is working on natural language processing and conversation generation.
AI rivalry has intensified between the US and China, raising concerns over whether Chinese companies will be able to retain reliable access to the high-end chips needed to develop large-scale AI models in the long run.
While Chinese AI efforts are playing catch-up to their American competitors, investors have cheered domestic efforts from every major tech firm to build ChatGPT alternatives.
Among Chinese big firms, Baidu stole the show by announcing its public entry in the race — with its Ernie Bot last month — and scaling up pressure for similar offerings from Alibaba and Tencent Holdings Ltd, the other major player in China’s internet sphere.


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For the 2020, amidst a major international pandemic, three banks by yourself-JPMorgan Pursue, Wells Fargo https://paydayloanservice.org/title-loans-ga/, and you can Bank off The united states-
pulled in more or less $5 mil in overdraft fees, despite issuing press releases promising to act charitably toward Americans under financial duress.
Those 2020 figures, first reported by the outlook, went on to inform a congressional hearing that featured Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) doing competition with JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon, who forwarded some implausible theories about his bank’s behavior. They also went into a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) report penned in December, which estimated that overdraft fees churned out $15.5 billion in profits in 2019, and announced that the bureau would be ratcheting up scrutiny of the notoriously exploitative practice.
The consumer agency had issued some fines in the past over improper overdraft fees, like $122 billion so you can TD Lender and $30 mil in order to TCF Bank. The vow to take on companies whose business models relied on gouging their most vulnerable customers has, in just a few short months, led to a series of announcements by banks backing off the practice. Rohit Chopra, brand new CFPB’s the newest movie director, had achieved progress simply by signaling that his regulatory cops would patrol this beat.
Last Wednesday, that signal was met with condemnation by nearly the entire Republican delegation of the House Financial Services Committee. In a letter to Chopra, the GOP side of the committee, led by ranking member Patrick McHenry (R-NC), issued a stern warning about the CFPB’s “efforts to weaken the financial system” by curtailing banks’ ability to exploit low-income Americans with usurious rates. All Republican committee members except Frank Lucas (R-OK) signed their name to it.
For years, overdraft charge, instantly caused when a buyers attempts to pull out significantly more out-of their membership than they have in the lender, was indeed a natural and often egregious cash servers having financial organizations
It’s an interested technique for a beneficial Republican Party who has got loudly clamored throughout the whatever was considered “defunding the police.” However, if the perpetrator of your own offense wears a healthy and you may deals with Wall structure Highway, Republicans have a look prepared to reverse by themselves, in such a case needing the police to face down.
Overdraft charges try an organic and you may called for element of proper monetary features market, the new Republicans insisted, contacting they “an initial-label liquidity merchandise that can aid consumers in making finishes satisfy when a deposit account balance are reduced, especially for the individuals consumers who are struggling to qualify for antique credit things.” This will be a routine argument regularly justify all sorts of predatory borrowing products, away from pay day loan to test-cashing areas: The indegent you want borrowing from the bank, this might be because of their benefit.
Yet the average overdraft fee, typically around $35 per incident, is effectively a payday loan delivered without negotiation at a usurious rate. Often that fee is levied on a charge much smaller than the penalty itself. Though the House Republicans use survey data to claim that “most consumers are well aware of the cost” of overdraft, as University of California, Irvine professor Mehrsa Baradaran writes in her book The Other half Banking companies, “If you consider the fee as a payment the customer makes for the extension of credit for the overdrawn amount, a 2008 Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) study showed that these fees carry an effective APR in excess of 3,500 percent!”
The typical overdraft commission, usually doing $thirty five for each event, are efficiently an online payday loan lead as opposed to settlement during the good usurious speed.
Overdraft fees are also a major reason why Blacks and Latinos, who have disproportionately lower incomes, pay about double the in bank fees on average as do whites. One of the main reasons given by those racial groups for going without a bank account, or being “unbanked,” is that they are trying to avoid bank fees.