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The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida has entered into a consent decree with the Florida-based company LGM Pharma LLC and two executives of the company, CEO Prasad Raje and Senior Vice President of Quality and Regulatory Affairs, Shailesh Vengurlekar. According to a Jan. 30 announcement by the FDA, LGM, an importer and distributor of active pharmaceutical ingredients, is now under permanent injunction.
Active pharmaceutical ingredient importers such as LGM transport materials into the U.S. where they are used to manufacture or compound drugs. According to the complaint filed by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) on behalf of the FDA, LGM Pharma LLC distributed “adulterated drugs” that were in violation of the current good manufacturing practice (GMP) requirements of the Food Drug & Cosmetics Act.
The FDA inspected LGM Pharma’s facilities in Florida and Kentucky in 2022. The agency found “significant departures” from current GMP requirements, including failure-to-perform investigations of quality-related customers’ complaints of active pharmaceutical ingredients that were out-of-specification, distributing altered active pharmaceutical ingredients, and failure to establish procedures for drugs with active pharmaceutical ingredients supplied by a non-compliant supplier.
The findings of this investigation, combined with a previous inspection of LGM Pharma’s Kentucky facility that returned similar results as well as improper relabeling of active ingredients, led to the decision to ask the DOJ to step in. Under the new consent decree, a strict timetable is established by which LGM Pharma must enter into compliance with current GMP requirements. The consent decree enforces this timetable through ongoing compliance audits and reports submitted to the FDA. Failure to comply will result in the FDA ceasing LGM Pharma’s ability to receive, label, hold, or distribute “any or all drug substances.”
Acting director of the FDA’s Office of Compliance in the agency’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, Jill P. Furman, J.D. stated, “Protecting patients means we must hold all parts of our drug supply chain to the highest standards of quality allowed by law, including importers and distributors of both finished drug products and active pharmaceutical ingredients.”
Furman added that LGM Pharma’s failure to keep to current GMP requirements has placed the safety of patients at risk.


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Jersey Shore: Snooki Truck is not coming to Seaside Heights, says Nicole Polizzi
Snooki has hit the brakes.
Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi of MTV's "Jersey Shore" fame will not be bringing her Snooki Shop Truck to the Jersey Shore house in Seaside Heights on Aug. 13, as she previously announced July 31 on social media.
The truck is not coming because the borough “is not allowing us to sell,” said Polizzi on Monday. Polizzi said that she wasn't going to be accompanying the truck on the trip during her “It's Happening with Snooki and Joey” podcast of July 31.
"Sadly, our (Snooki Shop Truck) on August 13th is (cancelled) in Seaside Heights, NJ due to the town not allowing us to sell," tweeted Polizzi on Monday morning. "We will reschedule in another town ASAP."
Polizzi ended the post with a kiss mark.
Borough officials had not been in touch with Polizzi regarding the Snooki Shop Truck visit on Aug. 13 in Seaside Heights prior to her Monday announcement that she’s not coming.
"We plan to reach out to her Monday (Aug. 3) with the goal of getting to yes," said Borough Administrator Christopher Vaz to the USA TODAY NETWORK New Jersey over the weekend.
The borough’s Arts and Crafts Festival on Saturday was possibly a good fit for the Snooki Truck, Vaz said.
The truck was to have parked outside the famed Jersey Shore house at 1209 Boardwalk, adjacent to the Shore Store T-shirt shop on the boardwalk. Both were made famous on the original run of the MTV "Jersey Shore" series and sightseers still come to both to this day.
The cast of "Jersey Shore" still film at the Jersey Shore house from time to time for the series spin-off, "Jersey Shore Family Vacation." The last time was in the fall, just prior to the wedding of cast member Angelina Pivarnick.
Polizzi, who lives in Florham Park, had asked fans to register through Eventbrite for access to the Aug. 13 event.
"We will have bathing suits, cover ups, shorts, dresses, and official Snooki Shop merch available for purchase!," said the event description. "During the pandemic and practicing social distancing, we ask that you come shop wearing a mask. We are allowing 2 people at a time in our truck to shop at a time. We will also have racks near the truck so customers can safely shop outside."
"Beyond excited to be holding this event for my VIP shoppers & to meet all of you!"
"I don't blame them for not allowing you to sell," commented Rangers_#1 Girl to the Polizzi Monday tweet. "They want to keep the small local (not reality tv stars) shops in business. Smart move from the town."
"I am a small business, lol," replied Polizzi, who announced previously that she's leaving "Jersey Shore Family Vacation." "And i was bringing in traffic for The Shore Store and the entire boardwalk to support the business. But alright, Rangers Girl."
A request for comment from Polizzi for this article was not replied to as of press time.
The Snooki Shop is located in Madison. Visit thesnookishop.com for more info.
Chris Jordan, a Jersey Shore native, covers entertainment and features for the USA Today Network New Jersey. His multiple awards include recognition for stories on both Bruce Springsteen and "Jersey Shore." Contact him at @chrisfhjordan; email@example.com.

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New guidelines set limit on sugar
For the first time, a U.S. government-appointed panel has recommended a strict limit on sugar consumption. The panel, charged with coming up with federal dietary guidelines, says that Americans should limit their added sugar intake to no more than 10 percent of their daily calories, or approximately 200 calories a day for most people. That's about what you consume in one 16-ounce bottle of soda. The group noted that people shouldn't replace that sugar in their diets with with low-calorie sweeteners, but try to drink more water instead.
The panel also recommended that people should ingest fewer than 2,300 mg of sodium a day and that less than 10 percent of their calories should come from saturated fat, It did provide some good news, however, noting that moderate consumption of coffee is not associated with any long-term health risks and that warnings against eating high-cholesterol foods, such as eggs, be dropped.
Overall, the panel made other general dietary recommendations, such as the need for Americans to eat more health fruits and vegetables, whole grains, legumes, seafood, and nuts. It also suggested that Americans need to give more consideration to the impact on the environment when choosing what to eat. Red meat, in particular, is seen as being harmful to the environment because of the land and feed required to produce it.
The guidelines will be submitted to the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Agriculture, which will act on them later this year.


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The company, however, has kept its office open for employees who want to access special technologies available within the premise for their work, it said.
Prioritising employee safety and well-being amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the company said it has adopted "remote-first approach for the rest of 2020."
Backed by global investors including SoftBank, Tiger Global, Tencent, Foxconn and Bharti Enterprises, Hike has over 160 employees at present.
The company, in a statement, said that "valuing employee wellbeing over everything else, Hike's move to a remote-first culture would make working remotely their default modus operandi."
However, for those looking to come to the office, it will remain an option with strict guidelines to ensure social distancing and sanitation.
Hike has that it will spend up to Rs 40,000 per employee to help them create a workspace at home.
"Hike would be delivering an ergonomic office chair and a brand new compact office table to its employees residing in Delhi NCR.
"For employees presently outside of Delhi NCR Hike has announced a reimbursement of up to Rs 10,000 for the purchase of their own chair and table to set up their workstation at home," the statement said.
Hike would also be supporting its employees for any internet and IT accessories requirement.
- Front Page
- Pure Politics
- Companies & Economy
- Economy & Companies
- Adani Group Stocks Rally, Close Off Day’s Highs
Adani Group stocks rallied in early trade on Tuesday after the promoters said they had repaid ₹9,250 crore ($1.1 billion) of debt backed by shares in three companies.MHA, IT Min to Talk App Ban with RBI
The home and IT ministries, along with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), will hold discussions over the next few days to decide on the next steps after the government blocked 94 online lending apps earlier this week, multiple people aware of the developments said.Health Info-with-Price Norm likely for Ecomm
India’s food safety regulator is likely to mandate online marketplaces to prominently display key health and nutritional alerts alongside the retail price for packaged items sold on their platforms, multiple people aware of the matter told ET.
ETPrime stories of the day
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Inventors and entrepreneurs working on hardware solutions aimed at those living in poverty—hardware pioneers—need early and sustained philanthropic support in order to bring their ideas to fruition. This is Part One in a two-part series that highlights the particular challenges faced by hardware pioneers and the ways they can be overcome.
Founding any new business is extremely difficult and more hard work than most people can imagine. Founding a new technology-based business is arguably tougher than that, and founding a tech hardware (rather than software) venture even tougher than that. But perhaps the toughest of all is developing and scaling a technology-based hardware venture in remote areas with scarce resources for the benefit people living in extreme poverty.
A new report from FSG, Hardware Pioneers: Harnessing the Impact Potential of Technology Entrepreneurs, funded by The Lemelson Foundation, investigates the obstacles specific to these hardware pioneers–people working on toilets, lighting, clean water and other innovations that if brought to scale could have major impact on the health, lifespan, and productivity of the world’s poor.
Hardware pioneers face a number of unique challenges: accessing prototyping equipment and capital; finding manufacturers and suppliers; and distributing and maintaining their products. As the report highlights on page 6, the target markets of hardware pioneers contribute to this difficulty, typically suffering from poor infrastructure, fragmented value chains, a hard-to-reach consumer base, and, often, weak demand for innovative, socially beneficial products. Taken together, these challenges can be called the “hardware pioneer gap”.
To address the gap and help these companies scale up, the report calls for greater levels of enterprise philanthropy—catalytic, early-stage donor funding. VentureWell has been doing enterprise philanthropy for 20 years now, providing small grants to teams of university students to develop new products (including those targeting the poor) as well as grants to institutions of higher education in the US to found courses and programs where students can learn how to be entrepreneurs. Here in Part 1 we highlight one of the ventures featured in the report, Promethean Power, which received its first funding from VentureWell. We review some of the problems the company faced in scaling and how our brand of enterprise philanthropy helped them overcome the hardware pioneer gap.
Overcoming Common Hardware Startup Obstacles: Promethean Power
Promethean Power’s story is a classic case of the challenges of being a hardware pioneer, involving huge pivots, technical and logistical problems, long delays, and lots of stops and starts. Their story begins with a supply chain issue: small, rural dairy farmers in India struggle to get the milk from their cows to market fast enough before it spoils. Big, commercial milk-chilling units in their villages would solve the problem, but require a constant energy supply often absent, and the diesel generators that could provide power are prohibitively expensive.
Promethean developed a hardware solution: the Rapid Milk Chiller, which cools milk instantly to four degrees Celsius with the help of a proprietary thermal battery. The system can chill up to 1,000 liters of milk per day even when there’s no power.
The company is experiencing success and currently growing, but it took eight years for Promethean to reach 100 units sold–from 2007 to 2015 (see Figure 1). The reasons why highlight the core challenge of hardware listed in the report: the process of developing, manufacturing, and distributing hardware requires higher development costs and longer development cycles. Without enterprise philanthropy to cover initial development, many hardware pioneers do not make it.
Figure 1: Promethean Power Systems’ Journey
The first challenge Promethean faced was getting the value proposition for the customer sorted (an issue not exclusive to hardware pioneers). The team of MIT students Sam White and Sorin Gramma started out in solar power, not milk chilling: in 2007 VentureWell gave the team a grant to develop a solar generator for off-grid communities that would meet all of a village’s commercial and residential energy needs (heating, cooling, and electricity) using auto parts and plumbing supplies.
The small grant met a central need for the team: the funding to build and refine prototypes (the developing phase for hardware pioneers). Refining the business end of the project is also key, and they used part of the seed funding to travel to India to develop partnerships and evaluate business models.
This is where things got interesting. When they got to India, according to Sorin it turned out “no one wanted our solution.” It was the age-old solution in need of a problem. They pivoted to what they discovered customers did want: the ability to chill milk.
So they had their market need. But it then took years of trial and error, prototype iteration, and shuttling between MIT and India to develop a sellable, durable, workable milk chiller–a long but important developing phase that was supported through critical funding from NSF and USAID.
Hardware done, they then needed to form a real business around it, and here VentureWell stepped in again, connecting Sam and Sorin to Villgro, a leading social enterprise incubator based in Chennai. According to this case study on Promethean, Villgro provided guidance to Sam and Sorin in a range of different areas, including initial market testing, selection of local manufacturers, building a robust supply chain, and developing an effective sales and marketing strategy. Villgro also provided critical grant funding to help Promethean produce trial units for early buyers. This is the second crucial phase, manufacturing and distributing, that often trips up hardware pioneers.
Promethean has now sold more than 200 Rapid Milk Chillers. The company has received orders from customers in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka and anticipates gaining more customers throughout Southeast Asia. They have raised more than $4 million from angel investors, venture capital funds, government grants, and private companies. But Promethean’s early development would not have been possible without the early grants, as the company found it challenging to attract interest from investors, who wanted to see a working product and a track record of sales before having serious discussions. This is where VentureWell and other enterprise philanthropists can and should come in to cover the gap.
Part 2 will cover the challenges faced by Greenlight Planet, a University of Illinois team that developed solar-powered lighting solutions for people living off the grid.
About the authors
Tim Binkert leads storytelling activity at VentureWell, managing the blog, the website and its content, and social media. Tim brings years of experience at VentureWell to bear in relating the stories of faculty and early stage innovators who have moved their ideas to impact through VentureWell’s programs. Tim holds a BA from Syracuse University and a Certificate in Professional Writing and Technical Communication from University of Massachusetts Amherst.
Clinton Parks is a Washington, DC-based freelance science writer who writes for AAAS’ ScienceCareers, American Chemical Society’s Axial, and American Physical Society’s Physics Buzz, among others. He has written features, profiles and reports for AAAS’ Minority Scientists Network; written and edited articles for AAAS’ Science Careers; developed columns for SpaceNews’ “This Week in Space History”; and written case studies of the work the strategic communications firm BrandEvolve.


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Do you ever apply your own music to moments in “Harry Potter”? Here’s one list of songs for key moments in “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.”
Tagged: half-blood prince book
“Half-Blood Prince” is ranked #1 on the list of best-selling novels in the US for 2005.
BlogPulse has released their end-of-year lists for 2005 and Harry Potter topped the charts in the category of Most Blogged Person.
Scholastic broke all publishing records, selling 6.9 million copies of “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” in its first 24 hours on sale.
“Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” has finally been released, and fans across the globe are waiting in lines to get a copy!


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Buying Nuance would give Samsung an edge in the crucial field of virtual assistance technology, with applications in smartphones, tablets, smart TVs, wearables, autos, and smart homes.
Dragon is bringing its popular Swype keyboard and Dragon Mobile Assistant to smartwatches for those who want another way to input text on their smartwatch. Read on for more!
Nuance Voice Ads will allow businesses to better engage with consumers thanks to talkative mobile ads.
Driving and mobile devices don’t mix well if your smartphone or tablet ends up breaking your focus on driving. But with voice-enabled apps, you can still interact with your device for much-needed information.
Nuance has unveiled its new project which it hopes will become a challenger to Siri and Google Now. The project, which is codenamed Wintermute – after the AI in William Gibson’s novel Neuromancer, is a cross-platform, cloud-based virtual assistant.
Nuance has expanded upon their previously available Dragon Go! app for Android with a new (and still beta) release of Dragon Mobile Assistant. The app brings voice controls and will allow you to do things such as making calls, sending text messages, setting calendar appointments and more.
Ever heard the old saying, “the walls have ears?” Apparently smartphones have ears as well at least if Nuance has its way. Okay, so voice communication with a smartphone isn’t anything new, but Nuance is hoping to take things up a notch. The company has already begun active work with chip companies to create a chipset that would allow phones and tablets to wake themselves up from sleep mode and start answering your voice-based questions.
A company called Angel has recently launched a platform called Lexee, which lets app developers incorporate speech control into just about any application. Currently focusing on the enterprise market, Lexee “goes beyond the usual voice assistant” and actually lets businesses “talk” to their customers through an interactive voice interface.
Nuance is offering a simpler way for enterprises, businesses, and application developers to feature speech recognition in their apps. Nuance is the same company behind the Dragon Naturally... Speaking line of speech-recognition apps for PCs, and the Dragon Go and Dragon Dictation app for smartphones. With Nina, Nuance offers an SDK and a set of APIs that enable companies to build on th...


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And so, it seems, the wheels just keep on spinning in this seemingly unending patent case between Apple and VirnetX. After objecting to the jury’s almost unanimous decision to hand down a whopping $625 million judgment against Apple, the iPhone maker has apparently filed for mistrial within just days of the verdict.
Apple’s motion to file for mistrial, according to a report published in the Texas Lawyer, alleges that VirnetX lawyers’ Caldwell, Cassidy & Curry included, among other things, “arguments outside the evidence and blatantly misrepresented testimony from Apple’s witnesses.”
Just in case you haven’t been following the trial, it made headlines last week when the East Texas District Court handed down it’s understandably scathing judgment of $625.6 million against the Cupertino tech-giant — alleging the company knowing and willfully infringed on several of VirnetX patents relating to VPN protocols such as Apple’s iMessage and FaceTime.
This was just the latest, however, in a series of courtroom brawls between the two companies. The previous trial, held in 2012, had awarded VirnetX just $368.2 million; however the verdict in that case was vacated on appeal last September. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, as part of it’s ruling in that case, called for a retrial to assess damages.
Notoriously referred to as a patent troll — having accumulated a number of intellectual property patents without commercializing a single product to date — VirnetX originally filed it’s case against Apple in the East Texas town of Tyler. Strange it may seem, especially considering how the product-less company is headquartered in the tiny little village of Zephyr Cove, Nevada, just a stones throw distance from the renowned resort town of South Lake Tahoe.
“But why did they file in Texas, then?” you might be wondering. “That doesn’t even make sense!”
Right? Well, surprisingly enough, over the course of the last few decades, the East Texas District Court (which covers the small towns of Tyler, Marshall, and others), has become well-known as “the patent litigation capital of America.” Texas Monthly, in 2014, profiled why towns such as Tyler and Marshall, in particular, are the preferred location for patent trials in America.
As former federal magistrate judge, Judith Guthrie, best said it, “the area was always popular with plaintiff’s lawyers. The perception was that juries weren’t as sophisticated as in other parts of the district.”
To that end, Judges in the district are said to have set up certain parameters to rapidly process cases, which, in turn, has resulted in East Texas courts being referred to as “the rocket docket” — due to its nearly unprecedented attraction of companies seeking quick and easy verdicts on complex intellectual property claims.
For their part, however, big-name corporations that actually produce products — such as Apple and Google — have been lobbying Congress for quite some time in an attempt to close the loopholes that allow “non-practicing” patent trolls around the country to drag firms into East Texas courts.
The goal? To streamline verdict awards involving little to no significant argument, which often tend to generate huge jury awards that only encourage companies like VirnetX to keep on digging for gold.
President Obama has weighed in on the issue a few times, too, believe it or not — having repeatedly addressed “costly, needless” patent litigation in his State of the Union speeches, often referring to them as “an American problem that needs to be addressed.” In a similar context, Supreme Court justice, Antonin Scalia, has referred to East Texas as being a “renegade jurisdiction,” in light of its notoriety for leaning towards unconventional judgments.


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Optus Announces iPhone 3G Pricing in Australia
Mobile carrier Optus has announced iPhone 3G pricing and plans in Australia. Optus is offering both pre-paid and traditional post-paid plans.
The pre-paid price for the iPhone is $729 (8GB) and $849 (16GB) and allows you to sign up as needed without need for a long term contract. Pricing appears to start at $30 per "recharge" but without data service. 50MB is included in the $40 Turbo Cap pricing. Full details are available at Optus.
The post-paid pricing appears slightly more confusing (to this U.S. resident), with no upfront phone charge, but a monthly "handset repayment" which ranges from $0/month to $59/month depending on the plan and model of iPhone you get.
"Cap" plans start at $19/month with 100MB of internet data and "$50 of calls and text". Prices go up from there, with the highest price priced at $179/month with 1GB of data and "$1500 of calls and text". Full details are available at Optus.
Vodafone and Telstra are also providing iPhone service in Australia but have not yet announced their pricing plans.
Update: Telstra announced their plans today:
iPhone 3G will be available from Telstra on July 11 with a range of specially designed Next G iPhone 3G plans that meet the needs of any customer. The Next G iPhone 3G plans start at $30 per month with an upfront cost of $279 for the 8GB model and $399 for the 16GB model. Customers will receive the 8GB iPhone 3G model at no cost with the $80 plan and either the 8GB or the 16GB model at no cost with plans starting at $100 per month. All plans include free Wi-Fi access at Telstra hotspots and require a 24-month contract.
The M2 MacBook Pro has started making its way into customers' hands and we're learning more about how it performs in a variety of situations, but all eyes are really on the upcoming M2 MacBook Air which has seen a complete redesign and should be arriving in a couple of weeks.
Other top stories this week included a host of product rumors including additional M2 and even M3 Macs, an updated...
Apple today began selling refurbished Mac Studio models for the first time in the United States, Canada, and select European countries, such as Belgium, Germany, Ireland, Spain, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom.
In the United States, two refurbished Mac Studio configurations are currently available, including one with the M1 Max chip (10-core CPU and 24-core GPU) for...
While past rumors have indicated the upcoming second-generation AirPods Pro will feature a built-in heart rate and body temperature sensor, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman has cast doubt on those rumors turning out to be true, saying instead such a feature is unlikely to come anytime soon.
"Over the past few months, there have been rumors about this year's model gaining the ability to determine a...
Apple is working on an Apple Watch Series 8 model with a larger display, according to DSCC's Ross Young and Haitong International Securities's Jeff Pu.
In October last year, Young suggested that the Apple Watch Series 8 could come in three display sizes. Now, responding to a query about the rumor on Twitter, Young claims that the additional display size joining the Apple Watch lineup will be ...
The redesigned MacBook Air with the all-new M2 Apple silicon chip will be available for customers starting Friday, July 15, MacRumors has learned from a retail source. The new MacBook Air was announced and previewed during WWDC earlier this month, with Apple stating availability will begin in July. The MacBook Air features a redesigned body that is thinner and lighter than the previous...


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Police looking for mystery woman who saw robbery victims '˜being watched'
Police are looking for a mystery woman who warned victims of a Crawley robbery they were in danger just before they were attacked.
A delivery man was hit over the head by thieves who stole cash from his lorry in the town centre.
The robbery happened at 3.50pm yesterday (Wednesday January 22) after the men had made a delivery to a shop in The Boulevard.
Just before the attack, the woman, described as white, aged about 35 and wearing an ash coloured coat, was outside a store called Sussex Food and Wine and spoke to one of the delivery drivers, warning him that he was ‘being watched’.
Detective Sergeant Glenn Willcocks said; “The town centre was very busy at the time and we hope people, especially this woman, will have seen what happened and have valuable information.”
Jayesh Limbachia, owner of the shop that received the delivery, said: “It was surprising, we are in the main town and this just happens.
“We got a lot of deliveries and they might stop delivering to us if it’s dangerous.”
The 22-year-old victim, from London, said he was climbing the steps into the passenger side of the lorry when he was attacked.
He added: “I think it was a bottle because of the wound on my head.
“They pulled my jacket and threw me out on to the road. After they took the money they ran away.”
Witnesses or anyone with information should contact Sussex Police on 101.


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Is electromagnetic interference enough to justify disabling AM radio in the BMW i3? Saab parent NEVS begins joint ventures to build cars in Tianjin, China. Renault upgrades its Cléon factory to build the Zoe's R240 electric motor.
Monaco-based Venturi Automobiles will longer produce automobiles, and has also ceased its Voxan electric motorcycle project. Instead, it will focus on racing in the Formula E and setting speed records.
The Dodge Grand Caravan is set to live through the 2016 and 2017 model years, according to a leaked FCA production document. Under the company's five-year plan, the minivan was previously scheduled to retire in 2016 when the new Chrysler Town and Country debuted.
Tesla has received a line of credit worth up to $750 million from some of the world's top financial instutiions, including Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan Chase, to finance growth over the next five years.
General Motors is announcing further cuts in production of the Chevy Sonic and Buick Verano at the Orion Assembly plant. Sales of both vehicles are down through May 2015. The plant is also laying off about 100 workers in phases starting in July.
BMW finds "technical challenges" with Malaysia's proposed B10 biodiesel blend. A new real estate lease allows Tesla to expand manufacturing in California. Pacific Ethanol becomes the fifth-largest US producer.


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The reduction in Thailand's 2012 export projection from 15.1 per cent as announced earlier to 7.3 per cent is in line with the data collected by the National Economic and Social Development Board (NESDB) in the first half of this year.
NESDB Secretary General Akom Termpitayapaisith said there is no getting away from the fact that Thailand was severely affected by last year's massive floods, which resulted in a three-month suspension of production.
Production in unflooded zones was also affected, as industries relied upon parts and supplies from manufacturers in flooded areas, he said, according to Thai News Agency.
In November and December last year, he added, logistics links were severely hit by the floods and exports could not get up to pace until production restarted early this year.
Akom said the export slump worsened after the European Union’s debt crisis.
The outlook in the next six months depends on the performance of government agencies and exporters who must find measures to turn around the situation, especially at the end of the third quarter when containers of goods will be shipped out.
“If we ease some regulations and make it more convenient for exporters to ship out their goods as well as extend assistance to factories in their recovery process, overall exports can improve,” he said.
Meanwhile, Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Kittiratt na Ranong took sick leave on Monday and all his appointments were cancelled.
He was scheduled to chair a meeting of the Office of Atomic Energy for Peace at Government House in the morning.


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WASHINGTON, May 18 (Korea Bizwire) — A U.S. court ruled Monday that Apple cannot collect damages from Samsung Electronics for its claims that the South Korean electronics giant copied the overall look and feel of iPhone, a decision expected to lower the US$930 million damages awarded to Apple.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit made the decision that Samsung did not infringe upon Apple’s “trade dress” intellectual property, partially overturning an earlier jury decision and sending the case back to a California federal court.
“We therefore vacate the jury’s damages awards against the Samsung products that were found liable for trade dress dilution and remand for further proceedings consistent with this opinion,” the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit said in the decision.
The court, however, upheld the jury’s verdict that Samsung violated Apple’s design and utility patents.
Samsung was first found guilty in 2012 of violating Apple’s patents and ordered to pay Apple $1.05 billion. But the amount was later lowered to $930 million. Of that, about $382 million is believed to be the part about “trade dress” infringement.
Should the trade dress porting be knocked off, the total damages awarded to Apple will be $548 million.


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Pfizer sees Covid-19 as 'durable' revenue stream as profits rise
- The drugmaker reported a jump in first-quarter profits based on surging revenues, with nearly one-fourth of sales coming from Covid-19 vaccines
Pfizer sharply increased its 2021 profit projections on Tuesday, citing much higher Covid-19 vaccine sales which are on track to provide a "durable" revenue stream in the wake of the pandemic.
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- The shares of Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA) have received a price target of $900 by New Street. These are the details.
The shares of Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA) have received a price target of $900 by New Street. And New Street analyst Pierre Ferragu issued a “Buy” rating on the company shares.
At the time of the research report, Ferragu noted that the consensus forecast for Tesla Q1 deliveries was 174,000 vehicles. And Ferragu estimated that there was about a 5% downside risk and he saw about 100,000 units being delivered out of Fremont and 65,000 from Shanghai for the quarter.
But on April 2, Tesla announced it produced over 180,000 vehicles and delivered nearly 185,000 in the first quarter. Ferragu pointed out that he would be a “Buyer” on any related weakness on Tesla shares though. And he strongly believes in Tesla’s ability to nearly double capacity over the next couple of years.
New Street is not the only brokerage to issue a bullish rating on Tesla shares recently. Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas had reiterated an Overweight rating and an $880 price target on Tesla shares.
Disclaimer: This content is intended for informational purposes. Before making any investment, you should do your own analysis.


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TED Kennedy’s memoir, which will be published posthumously in mid-September by Hachette Book Group, already looks like it will be an instant bestseller.
Pre-orders this week pushed “True Compass” to No. 7 on Amazon.com’s sales list and No. 3 on Barnes and Noble’s Web site.
But don’t expect to get any sneak peeks — the book is being held under strict embargo. The publisher plans to send a staggering 1.5 million copies to bookstores for a one-day lay down on Sept. 14.
Time and Newsweek, which would usually be duking it out for first serial rights, are being bypassed entirely this time around. Newsweek Editor-in-Chief Jon Meacham told Charlie Rose on Wednesday night that he was scouring the country trying to get an advance copy, with no luck.
Skipping the traditional newsweeklies suggests that the publisher will rely on the publicity blitz from TV, newspapers and the Internet to help sell the book.
“We’ve released no information about our publicity plans,” said a spokesman for the Twelve imprint of Hachette Book Group.
The publisher had originally set the release of the book, called “True Compass,” for sometime next year, but shifted that to October when Kennedy was diagnosed with inoperable brain cancer in May 2008.
The Hachette spokesman said editing on the manuscript was completed “earlier this summer,” and that the company decided three weeks ago to move publication up to next month.
Kennedy received an estimated advance of $8 million for the book in November 2007. That put him on par with Hillary Rodham Clinton and close to former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who is said to have raked in $9 million for his memoir. They’re all behind former President Bill Clinton, who received an estimated $12 million for “My Life.”
Hachette will have to sell 685,000 copies of Kennedy’s book to break even.
But it won’t have to rely exclusively on regular sales — a leather-bound limited edition will be available in mid- October for $1,000 per copy. One thousand copies, signed electronically in ink and featuring rare family photos not included in the standard edition, will be sold through Hachette’s Web site on a first-come, first- served basis.
New York State won’t license live events for Ultimate Fighting Championship, but by November the violent (and fast growing) sport will have its own magazine.
David Pecker, CEO of American Media, has inked a two-year joint venture with Dana White and UFC to begin producing the national magazine, also called UFC, six times a year.
“The magazine makes a lot of sense right now,” White said.
Seth Kelly, an editor at Men’s Fitness and a former deputy editor at Maxim, has been tapped as editor- in-chief.
UFC will have a lean staff of free lancers and Men’s Fitness staffers doing double duty.
Contrary to ste reoptypes, he claims, his audience of males 18-34 is highly educated with a lot of disposable income.
Ticket prices for the live mixed martial arts events sell for up to $1,000, and Pecker said it is one of the most lucrative pay-per-franchises in country.
SNL Kagan research estimates the company’s revenues reached $270 million last year.
American Media, which went through a restructuring that left bondholders in control of its equity earlier this year, is looking for ways to boost its revenue stream, which has slipped from more than $500 million to around $450 million.
When a test issue of UFC magazine went out earlier this year, 150,000 of the 350,000 copies put on newsstands sold. That’s a decent sell-through rate in an industry where even established titles usually only sell about one third of the copies placed on newsstands. The test issue sold for $4.99 and attracted advertisers from Bud Light to Ford Mustang.
Pecker said following issues will be priced at $5.99 and be sold domestically as well as overseas. “We’re handling all the production costs and we’ll split the profits on a 50-50 basis with UFC,” he said.
White and two high school friends, Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta, bought the moribund UFC for $2 million 10 years ago. A year and a half ago, White said, he turned down an offer from a network to buy the franchise for $1.2 billion.
“Even in the current environment, we’re still growing,” he said. email@example.com


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Washington, D.C. -- U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand today announced legislation that would allow New York fruit growers to take full advantage of federal recovery tax breaks.
She said New York's apple and peach growers and vineyards currently cannot use the tax break since new plants do not produce fruit immediately.
As a way of encouraging businesses to make more capital investments in the short term, the recovery act allowed companies to depreciate capital investment property "placed in service" in 2009 at a faster rate.
However, under current law, fruit and nut trees are not considered "placed in service" until the taxable year in which they actually produce fruit that can be sold, which often can take years. Therefore, farmers in New York that grow grapes, apples, cherries, peaches, and wine are not able to take advantage of the stimulus benefit.
"New York's fruit growers should be eligible for the same recovery act tax breaks as other farms and businesses," Gillibrand said. "During these tough economic times, New York's agriculture sector has been hit hard. It is critical that our grape, apple, cherry, and peach growers be allowed to take full advantage of incentives in our economic recovery bill."
New York's fruit crop receipts were valued at $244 million in 2005, with apples and grapes leading in value, according to statistics from the state Department of Agriculture and Markets.
New York's apples come primarily from along the southern Lake Ontario shore, along the Hudson Valley, and along the upper Lake Champlain Valley. Cornell cites that grape industry tourism and associated industries have a statewide economic impact of $6 billion - primarily produced around Lake Erie, the Finger Lakes, Hudson Valley and the eastern end of Long Island. In addition, New York is fourth in the nation to produce tart cherries and pears.


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liv. the digital-only lifestyle bank by Emirates NBD, has appointed Dubai-based digital marketing agency Netizency as its new social media agency. Targeted at millennials, Emirates NBD’s latest offering liv. is a no paper work bank. The mobile-only bank was launched a few months ago and is now available for both Android and iOS users.
Effective immediately, the contract covers strategy, content, community management and analytics, with the objective of launching the brand and driving registration to liv.
The win comes after a 3-month pitch against several agencies. Netizency was awarded the business at the beginning of July 2017.
“liv. is banking reimagined by Emirates NBD, a first-of-its kind service in the UAE. We neither operate like a traditional bank, nor communicate like a traditional bank. Our criteria for selecting a social media agency was very much rooted in our ethos: innovative, youthful, and always one-step ahead,” says Jayash Patel, head of liv. at Emirates NBD, in a statement. “During the pitch process, Netizency proved they were the right partner for us by demonstrating a clear understanding of our vision for the brand.
Commenting on the win, Fadi Khater, founder and managing partner at Netizency adds: “The liv. win is a strategic one for us. We see liv. as part of a new generation of digital-only brands targeting millennials; with a new-age mindset that can help in changing the traditional advertising model. The win is a testament to our team’s passion, creativity and strategic prowess.”


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AceShowbiz - Sarah Jessica Parker is countersuing a jewellery designer who launched a lawsuit against the actress earlier this year.
Kat Florence is suing the Sex and the City star, claiming she signed a multi-million endorsement agreement in 2015 to promote and assist in the advertising of a new gem collection, but failed to live up to her end of the diamond deal.
Parker's representative previously alleged Florence "reneged" on the contract and slammed the lawsuit, claiming the jewellery designer "refused to compensate (Parker) after fulfilling her contractual obligations and continued to use her image for advertising and publicity to promote their brand".
According to The Blast, Parker has now launched a countersuit against bosses at Kat Florence Design for $6.1 million (£4.6 million), alleging she has only received $1.4 million (£1.1 million) of her $7.5 million (£5.6 million) pay cheque.
The 53-year-old also claims that after she signed the contract with Florence, more demands were added to the agreement.
Parker insists she warned company officials that she was going to sue, but they raced to court first to beat her to it.


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If it seems like there's suddenly a whole bunch of different music streaming services, that's because there is.
166 Recent Stories
Does Spotify, Rdio, Rhapsody and Google Play Music pay artists for subscribers' free trials similar to what Apple Music will do because of Taylor Swift?
Heavy metal fans are the most loyal fan base on Spotify -- but that's a mixed blessing for metal bands and their record labels.
Spotify is running for its life. Spotify announced its expansion into streaming video and podcasts as well as a new feature that will help runners. CEO Daniel Ek said Spotify's new additions were meant to integrate with people's everyday lives, which...
Spotify and Starbucks have announced a multi-year partnership to put the music streaming service in stores across the U.S., Canada and the United Kingdom.
Ed Sheeran asked for some loving on "Give Me Love" in 2011, and since then, the British singer's fans have certainly showered him with much love on Spotify.
No other song in the history of Spotify has been listened to more in one day than Wiz Khalifa's tear-jerking "See You Again," a tribute to Paul Walker.
"That’s just commercial bullshit ... I don’t want to align myself with Spotify, Beats, Tidal, or whatever."
Madonna tried to premiere her "Ghosttown" music video on live-streaming app Meerkat on Tuesday, but the Meerkat stream failed and disappointed her fans.
It's a highlight reel of sorts including highs and lows in U.S. history, from Obama's inauguration to the Sept. 11 attacks.
Your questions, answered: What is Tidal? How much is it? Why are 16 celebrity stakeholders involved? Where is it available? What is "lossless" streaming?
Jay-Z started Tidal to compete with Spotify. Now he has to show he's not just making the rich richer.
Many of the world's biggest artists are rallying behind Jay Z's new music streaming service Tidal by changing their profile and cover photos to teal blue.
Streaming music service iHeartRadio has hit 60 million registered users, putting it among the biggest players in the market.
Spotify has shaken off Taylor Swift's snub and is now claiming 15 million paid subscribers and 60 million users total.
Taylor Swift's daily YouTube views doubled in the first week after she and her label began no longer offering her music on Spotify, Nielsen told Mashable.
Billboard will begin using Nielsen SoundScan's streaming data and download numbers of individual tracks to rank the top albums on its Billboard 200 chart.
Apple will reportedly include Spotify rival Beats Music as a pre-installed app in an iOS update in 2015, similar to how Apple paired iTunes Radio with iOS 7.
Jason Aldean's "Old Boots, New Dirt" album stream — available on Mashable first as well as CMT.com and the CMT Artists app — features 15 new songs.
Apple and U2 want to spark an unforgettable fire in the music industry with yet another collaborative project — one they hope will help artists sell music.
Mashable's Q&A with U2's manager Guy Oseary delves into U2's unconventional album release, the reception to it and retailers' fears about exclusives.
He's back (again). Garth Brooks has a new single and just started touring. To boot, he is bringing his entire collection into the modern-listening era.
The highly anticipated streaming music service from Google, in conjunction with its video site YouTube, is a bit more real.


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Domino’s had pledged to donate a further £4 million worth of pizzas to NHS and hospital workers, as part of its ongoing commitment to help frontline workers across the UK and Ireland.
This initiative builds on Domino’s recent Local Legends campaign, which awarded key worker heroes with free monthly pizza deliveries to enjoy with their households and work colleagues for a year, and Domino’s initial giveaway, which launched when the pandemic first began.
It has been surprising frontline healthcare workers in hospitals nationwide with free pizza deliveries, to provide a much-needed boost after a long shift during these challenging times and this will continue for the next few weeks.
Dominic Paul, chief executive at Domino’s UK & Ireland, said: “We’re proud to have supported our frontline heroes during this time, and once again, Domino’s would like to offer our heartfelt thanks to all the healthcare workers who are currently working exceptionally hard to tackle Covid-19.
“We’ve been privileged to remain open throughout the pandemic so we can continue serving our communities. Whilst we may not be saving lives, we want to show our gratitude to those who do, so we’ve been surprising as many healthcare workers across the UK and Ireland as we can with freshly prepared pizza deliveries.”
Meanwhile, Domino’s has rolled out a new hassle-free way to collect orders in stores across Wales.
In Car Collection has already been trialled in a handful of stores, and after some great customer feedback, the technology is now being rolled out in another 11 outlets - Cardiff Llandaff, Cardiff Cathays, Cardiff Penarth, Barry, Bridgend Tremains Road, Porthcawl, Aberdare, Nelson, Blackwood, Caerphilly Castle View and Gorseinon.
This new, quick and easy way to collect pizza uses location-sharing to track a customer’s journey from sofa to store.
Clive West, Domino’s digital director, said: “We are delighted to launch In Car Collection in even more stores across Wales. Feedback from stores already offering the service has been fantastic, so I’m sure our latest innovation will be a hit with local customers.
"In Car Collection offers another safe collection method. Simply order online or via the app and let us brave the cold to deliver you piping hot pizza to your car.”


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Toyota Plants Hold Events to Educate Students About Careers in Manufacturing
PLANO, Texas (October 13, 2017) – “After you graduate, we would like you to go to work in a factory,” said no parents, ever. Dispelling the lingering perception that careers in manufacturing are dark, dirty and dangerous has been the mission of the National Manufacturing Association’s Manufacturing Day since 2012.
Manufacturing Day is a celebration of modern manufacturing meant to inspire the next generation of manufacturing professionals. It is celebrated the first Friday in October (this year October 6).
Companies and community organizations plan their events on that date or at other dates in October with the goal of introducing students, parents and educators to the wide range of careers in manufacturing.
“We need to change the perceptions of parents, teachers, counselors and the students themselves about careers in manufacturing,” said Leah Curry, president of Toyota Motor Manufacturing West Virginia (TMMWV) and member of the board of advisors of the Manufacturing Institute. “Manufacturing provides a wide range of stable, rewarding and enriching careers with some of the best companies in the country.”
This year all of Toyota’s U.S. manufacturing plants held Manufacturing Day events, including career fairs, robotics events, plant tours, parent nights and chamber of commerce events.
Toyota (NYSE:TM) has been a part of the cultural fabric in the U.S. and North America for 60 years, and is committed to advancing sustainable, next-generation mobility through our Toyota and Lexus brands. During that time, Toyota has created a tremendous value chain as our teams have contributed to world-class design, engineering, and assembly of more than 33 million cars and trucks in North America, where we operate 14 manufacturing plants (10 in the U.S.) and directly employ more than 46,000 people (more than 36,000 in the U.S.). Our 1,800 North American dealerships (nearly 1,500 in the U.S.) sold almost 2.7 million cars and trucks (2.45 million in the U.S.) in 2016 – and about 85 percent of all Toyota vehicles sold over the past 15 years are still on the road today.
Toyota partners with community, civic, academic, and governmental organizations to address our society’s most pressing mobility challenges. We share company resources and extensive know-how to support non-profits to help expand their ability to assist more people move more places. For more information about Toyota, visit www.toyotanewsroom.com.


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Innovation | Minnesota
Smart-assistant app maker gets $300K
Tech startup AsystMe has raised $300,000 in capital and hired a chief technology officer as it prepares to launch its automated personal-assistant app.
The recent round of funding, led by angel investors from North Dakota and Minnesota, comes on top of $200,000 in capital the company raised last summer.
Waconia-based AsystMe is building a smartphone application that acts as a personal assistant to users. What distinguishes AsystMe from other time-management apps is its ability to anticipate a user’s needs, said CEO Joel Nash. For instance, it can automatically check traffic conditions for you before you leave for work, deliver customized news reports to your phone or order your favorite espresso beverage before you reach the drive-through.
AsystMe’s notifications are delivered via text message or an automated phone call. The service works even if a user’s phone is off.
AsystMe plans to use the fresh round of funding for product development and marketing. To help with development, the company has hired Thomas Raeuchle to serve as chief technology officer. Raeuchle is a long-time consultant to startups and has held tech positions at firms such as Cray Research and Ancor Communications.
AsystMe plans to release a beta version of its application for Android phones in June.
Initially, the app will be free to download. However, the company anticipates it will later generate revenue via monthly subscription fees, or by charging users for particular features. Nash also will seek partnerships with retailers and other businesses to drive sales. For instance, the AsystMe app could remind users that their car needs an oil change and suggest a trip to an auto-service place. If the consumer makes the trip, AsystMe could get a cut of the revenue from the transaction.
Katharine Grayson covers med tech, clean tech, technology, health care, and venture capital, and she writes the Innovation|Minnesota blog
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Sony is about to be embroiled in another lawsuit concerning force feedback technology, according to a complaint filed in New Jersey.
As first reported by website Patent Arcade, the lawsuit concerns patent holder Craig Thorner, who alleges that Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA) conspired with peripheral maker Performance Designed Products (PDP) to have him sign away patent rights for a fraction of their value.
Thorner held several patents relating to force feedback technology, which became central to Sony's defence in its infamous legal action against Immersion. He claims that after Sony's loss against Immersion he was contacted by PDP, who were also involved in legal action with Immersion.
PDP licensed Thorner's patents using the same attorneys representing Sony and Thorner now alleges that the two companies conspired to cheat him out of a more favourable deal. Thorner is suing PDP for legal malpractice and Sony for patent infringement.
Both Microsoft and Sony were sued by force feedback maker Immersion, in actions dating back to 2003. Sony fought and lost the lawsuit. As a result they ended up paying USD 90 million in damages and saw the PlayStation 3 launch without any force feedback technology in its SixAxis controllers.
Microsoft initially settled for USD 26 million, before receiving USD 20.75 million back in royalties Immersion obtained from Sony.
Welcome to the DCEmu Homebrew and Gaming Network. This Network of sites is owned and ran by fans of all games consoles, we post news on all the consoles we cover about hardware aspects, gaming and Homebrew. Homebrew and Emulation are software thats made using free and legal tools to play on games consoles. This Network is the only worldwide network of sites where coders can upload and post comments they deserve for all their hardwork. We have a Network that currently supports PSVita, WiiU, Nintendo Wii, Xbox360, PS3, PS2,PS1, Snes, N64, Gameboy, Nes, Xbox, Gamecube, Nintendo DS, PSP, GBA, Dreamcast, Sega Saturn,3DS, DSi, Switch, PS4, Pandora, xboxone, GP2X, iPhone, Windows Phone, iPad, Android and also Mobile Phone Emulation. When new consoles appear we will expand to cover those consoles. We also cover Theme Park News and news and reviews of Beer, cider, lager, wines and spirits.
news of their own releases and get the credit and
Please help DCEmu become stronger by posting on the forums every day and make our community larger.


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Financial empowerment is critical for a prosperous society. To improve access to financial products and services, Santander created the Prospera programme, a microcredit platform through which we contribute to the growth of small businesses without access to the financial system.
Today, financial inclusion is one of the big challenges for companies, institutions and governments. There are estimated to be more than two billion people without access to basic financial services. Having access to these services helps improve the living conditions of vulnerable groups. In this context, microcredit has become an essential tool for favouring the financial inclusion of the most disadvantaged societies.
To contribute to the progress of people without access to financial products, Santander has programmes such as Prospera, an initiative that drives the growth of small businesses in Brazil through microcredit. In 2018 alone, we helped 100,000 entrepreneurs with little financial capacity in the Latin American country to boost their businesses.
70% of these microcredits goes to helping entrepreneurs with small businesses – mostly seamstresses, waitresses or saleswomen – to finance their enterprise expenses and to grow professionally, thanks to financing for purchasing machinery, refurbishing facilities or creating a new project.
One of these female entrepreneurs is Dona Valderine. She has always loved baking, which is why she decided to start selling her cakes. At first, she made the products at home, in a small kitchen, and only sold to friends and neighbours. With the support of the Prospera initiative, she was able to hire a premises and buy materials and equipment to make more products. Now she makes more than 100 cakes a week and employs one person at her establishment. She assures us that this is just the start of her growth.
Another female entrepreneur helped by Prospera is Rosa Mesquita. She had been selling books door-to-door for some time, to help her father provide for their family. It had always been her dream to be a teacher and have her own nursery school for impoverished children. A few years ago, she gained access to a Santander microcredit and was able to build a classroom with the money. Rosa currently teaches more than 90 children whose families cannot pay for them to go to school.
Dona and Rosa, and hundreds of other Prospera users have managed to make progress and help their communities prosper. In the words of our Group executive chairman, Ana Botín: "This is responsible banking in action: helping people to make their dreams come true, supporting the creation of new jobs and new opportunities, and in this way share the benefits of economic growth."


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A number of other equities research analysts also recently weighed in on INTC. Northland Securities downgraded Intel from a market perform rating to an underperform rating and set a $60.00 target price for the company. in a research report on Friday, July 24th. BofA Securities downgraded Intel from a buy rating to a neutral rating in a research report on Friday, July 24th. Needham & Company LLC restated a hold rating on shares of Intel in a research report on Tuesday, July 7th. Wedbush dropped their price objective on Intel from $52.50 to $51.00 and set an underperform rating for the company in a report on Friday, April 24th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Co dropped their price objective on Intel from $60.00 to $55.00 in a report on Friday, July 24th. Twelve research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eighteen have assigned a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Intel presently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average price target of $61.67.
INTC stock traded down $0.26 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $47.73. The company had a trading volume of 46,569,883 shares, compared to its average volume of 36,590,264. The company has a current ratio of 1.97, a quick ratio of 1.58 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.44. The company has a market cap of $204.10 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.79, a P/E/G ratio of 1.32 and a beta of 0.78. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $58.00 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $59.19. Intel has a fifty-two week low of $43.63 and a fifty-two week high of $69.29.
The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 7th will be given a $0.33 dividend. This represents a $1.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.77%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, August 6th. Intel’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 27.10%.
In related news, EVP Navin Shenoy sold 7,018 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $59.83, for a total value of $419,886.94. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 68,942 shares in the company, valued at $4,124,799.86. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Robert Holmes Swan acquired 8,021 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 24th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $50.00 per share, for a total transaction of $401,050.00. Following the purchase, the chief executive officer now owns 293,594 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $14,679,700. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders own 0.04% of the company’s stock.
Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. TL Private Wealth increased its stake in Intel by 1.3% in the first quarter. TL Private Wealth now owns 13,178 shares of the chip maker’s stock valued at $774,000 after acquiring an additional 170 shares during the last quarter. Bay Harbor Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in Intel by 17.3% during the first quarter. Bay Harbor Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,218 shares of the chip maker’s stock valued at $66,000 after buying an additional 180 shares during the period. Bridgeworth LLC boosted its position in Intel by 3.1% during the first quarter. Bridgeworth LLC now owns 6,283 shares of the chip maker’s stock valued at $340,000 after buying an additional 189 shares during the period. Financial Insights Inc. boosted its position in Intel by 5.5% during the first quarter. Financial Insights Inc. now owns 3,730 shares of the chip maker’s stock valued at $202,000 after buying an additional 195 shares during the period. Finally, Pure Financial Advisors Inc. boosted its position in Intel by 4.4% during the second quarter. Pure Financial Advisors Inc. now owns 4,748 shares of the chip maker’s stock valued at $284,000 after buying an additional 199 shares during the period. 64.95% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.
Intel Company Profile
Intel Corporation offers computing, networking, data storage, and communication solutions worldwide. It operates through Client Computing Group, Data Center Group, Internet of Things Group, Non-Volatile Memory Solutions Group, Programmable Solutions Group, and All Other segments. The company offers microprocessors, and system-on-chip and multichip packaging products.
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Black Desert New Korean Pearl Shop Costumes for May 18 | RSS News Feed
Black Desert New Korean Pearl Shop Costumes for May 18 - Latest News
Arts and Leisure Guide
Directed by Dennis Rosa, with sets and costumes by Edward Gorey ... JULIUS CAESAR and CORIOLANUS Two productions presented by a new black and Hispanic company. Directed by Michael Langham. Richard Eder wrote of the former, “Always serious and occasionall ... read more
E3 2017: Black Desert Announced for Xbox One
Korean developer Pearl Abyss' MMORPG Black Desert is ... Check out the announcement trailer below: Additionally, Black Desert will launch as an Xbox One console exclusive, suggesting the game may eventually make its way to other platforms at some point ... read more
How Apple's New Face ID Works
Apple is rolling out facial recognition to unlock its new iPhone X, as has been rumored for months and confirmed in leaks over the weekend. It’s iPhone day! The technology builds on Touch ID and is called Face ID, of course. It uses a new selfie camera ... read more
Looking for another news?
Baby's first outing! The Hills vet Whitney Port is spotted taking son Sonny on errands in LA with her mother by her side
The happy couple got engaged in 2013 and later tied the knot in a small ceremony in the desert of Palm Springs, California in 2015. Tim and Whitney first announced that they were expecting their first child in February. But being a new mother has not ... read more
News 101: When a story is ‘news’
Editors and reporters will be on hand from 3 to 5 p.m. Wednesday, May 15, at the Lounge located in The Sun’s office at 290 N. D St., Suite 102, San Bernardino. Staffers will discuss how to contact the newsroom; what is news and what is not; opportunities ... read more
How A Man Born Without Eyes Plays Video Games
While this obviously presents significant challenges to enjoying a medium that’s primarily visual, as the short documentary Gaming Through New Eyes explains, that hasn’t stopped Toby from playing all kinds of games over the decades. He loves playing ... read more
Pearl Black: One-year-old daughter of 'The Voice' star Paul Black killed in 'freak car accident'
A South Wales Police spokesman said: "We can confirm officers responded to an emergency call at an address in Heolgerrig, Merthyr Tydfil. "A female child was taken to hospital by air ambulance after an incident involving a single vehicle understood to be ... read more
Mindy Kaling’s Pearl-Rimmed Sneakers Are The Glam-Meets-Comfort Look We Need
Kaling’s Gucci New Ace faux pearl studded leather sneakers retail for about $980, but that doesn’t mean this comfortably cute look is out of reach for those of us who don’t have a sixth and final season of “The Mindy Project” hitting Hulu on Sept. read more
For $29,999, Could This Orange And Black 2005 Lotus Elise Have You Ready For Halloween?
Florida’s finest as a base coat, accented with black stripes scoops and trim may connote images of pumpkin lattes and ... Check out its styling and almost as-new condition, and then realize that when it was built, George W. Bush was president, Million ... read more
NYIAS: Fifty-Year-Old Toyota Corolla Gets New Nose
The eleventh generation Toyota Corolla has been refreshed with a new beak ... and Black Cherry accents on the door and dash. Unsurprisingly, the Anniversary car is in Black Cherry, as well as Classic Silver and Blizzard Pearl, and will be available ... read more


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With the release of models like the Clubman and new Countryman crossover, there are fears that the MINI brand is treading away from what its very name reflects, mini cars. Heck, even its smallest model, the MINI Cooper hatch is nearly double the size of the original 1960s models, an issue BMW development chief Klaus Draeger pointed out recently. Not to worry as MINI is reportedly planning a new concept car for next month’s 2011 Detroit Auto Show, a ‘mini’ MINI of sorts, which is expected to preview a new model smaller than anything we’ve seen before. The information...
Report: BMW Looking To Co-Develop Next-Gen MINI Platform With Rival Automaker
BMW has been seeking a partner to co-develop a brand new platform for its future small cars for the past couple of years, with rival automakers like Mercedes-Benz and Fiat most recently linked to the German luxury automaker. While nothing substantial has materialized on those fronts, the vice...Viknesh Vijayenthiran


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UPDATED: Google is capitalising on their own software with the release of the Samsung-made Google Nexus S with the latest version of Android, coined Gingerbread.
The new release, slated for release on December 16 in the US (under a year since the last Nexus release) will use version 2.3 of the Android operating system. Google is withholding Gingerbread from open-source until sometime in the coming weeks, being the only firm on the market with the software.
“Samsung Electronics Australia is excited at the prospect of bringing
the Nexus S to Australia. We are currently reviewing our options on how
to bring this to market locally and look forward to sharing more details
at a later stage,” said a spokesperson for Samsung.
Vodafone is the current carrier for previous Google phones in Australia, with the original Nexus One going for $79 per month of a 24-month cap plan. The US price of US$199 on a two year contract or US$529 outright has remained consistent across the Nexus One and Nexus S, so pricing with Vodafone in Australia could follow suit.
Vodafone are yet to lock in a carrier contract of any sort with Google to supply their phones, and an Australian release is also yet to be set.
The Nexus One suffered low sales earlier this year compared to other Android phones and the iPhone, but touting new technology and the latest Android upgrade could fare well for the mobile contender.
The Nexus S uses new hardware like Near Field Communications (NFC), a short-range wireless technology that allows phones to be used as e-tickets, for small payments and scanning ‘smart adverts’ that display information on the handset. The technology, which has been widely used in Japan for years, can scan objects implanted with an unpowered NFC chip that relays information back to the handset.


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Pili Carrera Takes its Traditional Childrenswear to Africa
After making waves in Florida and Abu Dhabi, the Spanish brand heads to the Angolan capital, while expanding its online store to Europe and the United States.
All the miniature heirs of the finest European royal families wear Pili Carrera: Amalia, Ariadna and Alexia of the Netherlands; Isabella from Denmark; Estelle of Sweden; even Leonor, the current Princess of Asturias and her sister Infanta Sofía… But beyond the media allure of the sartorial inclinations of royal babies and those that dress them, Pili Carrera has a long tradition of providing “high-quality and impeccable design” that stretches over fifty years.
With a vast single-brand chain of stores across 16 countries and a presence in more than 600 multi-brand points of sale, including the prestigious department stores Neiman Marcus in the US and Harvey Nichols in the UK, Pili Carrera is now headed to Angola.
The boutique is located in Baía de Luanda, the capital’s new and most emblematic shopping area. “The Angolan market is growing exponentially and its customer profile is very demanding,” officials at Pili Carrera explained.
The company, headquartered in Mos (Pontevedra) where it carries out 100% of its production, is preparing to expand its online store to the rest of Europe and the United States. It simultaneously seeks to strengthen its presence in the US, Asia and Arab states, as it negotiates its entry into new markets over the course of 2016.


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The NFU’s complaint to Trading Standards over ‘fake’ farm branding on supermarket foods is “unlikely” to lead to any prosecutions, legal experts insist.
The NFU lodged a formal complaint with National Trading Standards last week, claiming the use of ‘fake’ farm names by the likes of Tesco, Aldi and Lidl was “misleading” for shoppers and potentially fell foul of legal labelling requirements.
But lawyers this week said the complaint was unlikely to lead to prosecutions. “What the NFU is trying to allege is food fraud or a breach of food regulations,” said Rachel Adamson, a partner at Stephensons. “But whilst the complaint does have a legal basis I think it would be difficult to prosecute any of the retailers for food fraud in this instance as the allegation is too hard to substantiate, and the packaging is not misleading enough to constitute a criminal offence.”
Retailers would have undertaken their own checks to ensure their brands were in line with labelling rules, added David Young, a partner at Eversheds. “I feel it won’t end up in a formal legal challenge.”
A third legal expert said when judging whether farm brands were misleading, any prosecutor would have to take into account the “entirety of the information provided” on packs. “If the label also contains details of the name and address of the producer and country of origin labelling the risk of being misled might be less.”
In response to the NFU’s complaint, Tesco this week said its Farms range had gone through all necessary checks with Trading Standards, while Aldi and Lidl both insisted their lines carried “clear origin labelling”.
A spokesman for National Trading Standards said it was “carefully reviewing” the complaint and would respond within weeks.


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A decade ago, the concept of a computerized phone wasn’t brought up, but thanks to advances in technology, a second attempt now has a better chance.
Motorola and innovation, pushing boundaries have always been good friends. In the United States, for example, a company founded in 1928 produced the first mobile phone in 1971. But later (like Nokia) the manufacturer turned a little slowly when smartphones came out.
Then attempts were made to address this problem through special solutions such as Atrix 4G released in 2011. Compared to the technological level of this era, a very powerful mobile phone can be connected to a not very powerful laptop through a docking station and using the phone toolbar on its screen. Although the solution was highly regarded in many professional forums, sales did not confirm the viability of the business idea.
Motorola, or more specifically the mobility division, which grew out of the previous company, turned to Google over the past decade and then joined Lenovo in less than two years. However, Motorola, a subsidiary of the Japanese manufacturer, remains active and makes itself heard from time to time.
Let’s try again
For example, A. Ready for The platform, which will be available for the first time in the US for Edge Plus owners. The latest model was launched last year and is considered the most serious member of Motorola’s portfolio. By combining a flagship mobile phone with a ready-made, you will be able to achieve something similar to what the engineers dreamed of that year with Atrix 4G.
This is because by connecting your phone to an external monitor or almost any TV, you can use it as if you were running a traditional computer. For complete convenience, you can add a Bluetooth keyboard or console to control your games to your mobile phone’s arsenal.
According to the official announcement about the platform, all of this will be very easy to use in practice, as no other program or application is required to run it. The connected terminal devices are automatically detected by the phone and you can decide what and where the owner wants to see it on their control panel.
In addition to the fact that something is transferred from a mobile phone to a larger device, the phone can still be used separately thanks to multiple tasks, such as video chatting or any other function.
For complete comfort and stylish ergonomics, special support will also arrive in April for Edge Plus, which will allow the mobile phone to be fixed in both horizontal and vertical positions.
Where is the science already ?!
What was a dream ten years ago may now be a fully functional model. This is made possible not only by the fact that the capabilities of phones have improved many times, but also, for example, by the spread of stable and high-speed access to the Internet at home, not to mention the emergence of 5G. It is no coincidence that Motorola can no longer be considered a leader in this area, as Samsung’s DeX platform is also trying to expand our phone usage habits in this area.
“Friendly thinker. Wannabe social media geek. Extreme student. Total troublemaker. Web evangelist. Tv advocate.”


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According to a study conducted by alternative data provider Indexica, Bitcoin no longer rules the roost in the cryptocurrency market despite its high dominance.
Bitcoin is not alone
The BTC price endured a massive plunge to the $8,000 level after the Bakkt launch. This made many wonder whether Jeffrey Sprecher's new venture put a spanner in the works for Bitcoin bulls.
As reported by U.Today, JPMorgan analysts suggested that Bakk's underwhelming trading volumes could have had a negative impact on the market. However, Indexica invalidates this theory by showing that Bitcoin's price woes have more to do with rivaling cryptocurrencies and innovative Blockchain technologies.
For instance, Mastercard made an announcement about its partnership with enterprise-oriented blockchain firm R3 on Sept. 11. According to the study, the talk about this tie-up made the Bitcoin price surge above the $10,400 in the following days.
The silver lining
Indexica Zak Selbert clarified that the fact that competing altcoins can influence the price of Bitcoin is not necessarily bad news for the top cryptocurrency. He told Bloomberg that the crypto king is now treated as "a big kid" whose price can be moved by anything, comparing BTC to gold and other fiat currencies.
“Now that Bitcoin is a big kid, anything can make it move, just like anything can make gold or a G-10 currency move.”
Earlier, Indexica alleged that Bitcoin turned into a mature asset given it started to attract the attention of high-brow academics and market analysts.
Can altcoins influence the price of the crypto king? Share your take in the comment section!


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Eritmo.Com Intros Music Subscription Service
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Eritmo.com, an Internet community of Latin music artists and aficionados, Friday announced that this coming November it will launch version 1.0 of KONECTOR, a subscription-based music streaming service. Eritmo.com's KONECTOR technology will allow fans to create and edit their own music playlists, as well as stream their favorite tunes on their computer for a monthly fee.
"In addition to bringing Latin music aficionados the latest in music innovation, eritmo.com's KONECTOR represents a substantial additional revenue stream for our company and will play a major role in the recording industry's efforts to monetize digital music on the Internet," said Francisco de la Torre, founder, president and CEO of eritmo.com.
Soon after the release of KONECTOR version 1.0 Eritmo.com says it will develop an enhanced version to provide video capabilities to all Latin music aficionados. Among KONECTOR's other features will be the options to purchase CDs while listening to streamed audio, participate in chats, post personal song reviews, learn about concerts and tour schedules, visit artist fan clubs, receive song recommendations or send playlists to a friend.
"Eritmo.com knows that music is a very powerful and personal medium and we have always strived to bring our fans the latest in technology and industry innovations," added de la Torre. "People want music and they want it quickly, conveniently and inexpensively - KONECTOR will bring them just that, coupled with the legitimacy that a music streaming subscription service can provide."


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If you can make smartphone apps, Chinese tech giant Huawei wants you.
The No. 2 global smartphone brand is struggling to hold onto its ma
Huawei, was named among the top 10 most valuable brands across the globe by the Brand Finance, a leading consultancy farm of brand valuation and st
The first stage of an extradition hearing for a senior executive of Chinese tech giant Huawei started in a Vancouver courtroom M onday, a case that
The first stage of an extradition hearing for a senior executive of Chinese telecom giant Huawei begins Monday in a Vancouver courtroom, a case tha
Germany's interior minister is suggesting that his country can't build a 5G mobile network without Chinese tech giant Huawei, at least for
Chinese technology and smartphone giant Huawei on Thursday launched the HUAWEI Mate 30 Pro 5G, a new-generation 5G smartphone, in Kuwait.
The people are going to experience 5G demonstration for the first time in Bangladesh. Huawei, the titanium sponsor of the fair, is going to r


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In a recent press release, the British firm Sotheby’s announced that 2019 was the best year ever for fine watchmaking, with a result estimated at 109 million dollars.
By Luxus Plus
Numerous records reached
First record of the year 2019, the sale for 4.6 million dollars of the iconic “Space Traveller 1” watch by George Daniels. Designed as a tribute to the astronauts so admired by the watchmaker, this watch is one of the most sophisticated timepieces of our time.
“2019 was a historic year for us, and it confirms the ever-growing popularity of this category around the world. Several factors contributed to this success, including the sale of exceptional objects, the rigorous selection of lots, as well as the increase in sales via the internet,” Sam Hines, global head of fine watchmaking at Sotheby’s, told the press.
According to him, “for many collectors, watches transcend their primary function as timepieces and consumers now appreciate the vision, tradition, craftsmanship and prowess that a watch represents”.
Another record, the average value of a batch of watches is 49,000 dollars (+10% compared to the previous year) and 44% of the batches exceeded estimates. In terms of private sales, 2019 was once again a record year and for the first time in its history, Sotheby’s sold 7 timepieces worth more than 1 million dollars.
The Flagship Lot Collection
“Masterworks of time”: Pocket watches have triumphed this year, thanks to the famous “Masterworks of time” collection. With new sales in 2020, the first two installments in July and November together achieved 15.8 million dollars, which already exceeds the estimates set by the brand for the entire collection, which comprises 800 watches. The latter were between $15 and $27 million.
Still in the same collection, the masterpiece created by watchmaker Jehan Cremsdorff, a yellow gold watch perfectly adorned with enamel and diamonds, sold for an estimated $2.7 million. In 1986, this pocket watch had reached a record price at auction as it sold for $998,400.
Sotheby’s, a luxury watchmaking brand that is expanding rapidly, particularly on the internet as 56% of lots were sold online (4 times more than in 2014). The proportion in value of internet auctions has tripled in 5 years and the total number of digital sales has doubled since 2018 thanks to numerous innovations and new partnerships. For example, in February an IWC Big Pilot aviator’s watch worn by actor Bradley Cooper when he performed alongside Lady Gaga during the 91st Academy Awards sold for $75,000.


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Ringing the changes as Ding starts to think global
Chief technology officer Barbara McCarthy has big plans to scale the international mobile top-up provider - but first she needs to spread the word, writes Emmet Ryan
After three years at Hubspot, Barbara McCarthy knew she was going in head first when she joined Ding just two months ago.
McCarthy is the new chief technology officer at the international mobile top-up provider. The service is typically used by diaspora to top up family devices in their home countries. It’s also used at retail and wholesale level, with the likes of Digicel using the platform to manage its own top-up service.
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Podcast: CWSI on securing remote workers during lockdown working
Emmet Ryan speaks to Paul Conaty, Principal Consultant at CWSI, about the challenges of maintaining privacy and security through remote working
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Emmet Ryan speaks to Aidan Furlong, Avaya country manager, and Seamus Carter, sales engineer about the evolution of the company during the coronavirus crisis
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Yahoo! All About You
Yahoo! is working with Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide to launch a global brand campaign celebrating advanced social networking capacity in the Yahoo! online world. The “All About Y!ou” campaign, launched in the United States on September 28, in the UK and India on October 5, will gradually spread to other parts of the world in 2010, including Brazil, Canada, France, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Korea, and Taiwan.
Elisa Steele, Yahoo! executive vice president and chief marketing officer, introduced the campaign at the IAB MIXX Conference and Expo during Advertising Week in New York City. “Our vision is to be at the center of people’s online lives — to be at the place where their world meets the larger world”, she said. “Our new branding will focus on people—the power and promise of ‘you’.”
“Today the Web and your world are inseparable,” said Yahoo! Chief Executive Officer Carol Bartz. “Hundreds of millions of people use Yahoo! ® to get the information they need, connect with friends and family, and be entertained. We are about creating online experiences people find meaningful, relevant, and fun.”
The brand campaign focuses on increased simplicity and customized interactivity for Yahoo! users. Recent advances covered in the campaign will include the the fine tuning of the homepage to increase personal customization, photosharing and apps for Yahoo! Mail, a new launch for Yahoo! Search, video-calling in Yahoo! Messenger, a new mobile homepage and the release of new Yahoo! apps for mobile, Yahoo! Finance, Yahoo! Fantasy Football, Yahoo! Messenger and Flickr.
Tag lines featured on the homepage will include “It’s time to get personal”, “The new Yahoo lets you do it your way every day”, “Now the Internet has a Personality – Yours”, “There’s a New Master of the Digital Universe – You”, “The Internet is Under New Management – You”.


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Virgin Trains to invest £100,000 in Preston business
Virgin Trains has invited local Preston entrepreneurs to take part in its nationwide POP-UP scheme on 6th December at Preston Station.The scheme, which will see Virgin Trains invest over £100,000 worth of support into the independent businesses taking part, is offering 90 different local stores the chance to set up shop at 17 different stations along its West Coast line.
Taking to the platform from 9am to 3pm to sell its unique array of products will be All About Cheese, Heritage Kitchen Preserves, Crossmoor Honey Farm and Made In Preston who will join 90 different companies popping up between London Euston and Carlisle, as part of Virgin Trains’ largest POP-UP event to date.Launched in 2008, Heritage Kitchen Preserves is a Preston-based company managed by Derek Jones, dedicated to creating speciality chutneys, relishes and marmalades. The local Made In Lancashire scheme brought Derek and Virgin Trains together, now he has been able to expand his customer base outside of Lancashire.
The Virgin Trains’ POP-UP initiative aims to support local businesses by offering them the chance to gain extra exposure, increased interest and larger footfall and is part of a wider business initiative. As part of this, Virgin Trains has decided to host a POP-UP event on Small Business Saturday, a nationwide campaign supported by the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB), which encourages people to show their support for independent businesses by choosing to visit local stores year round.As part of its pledge to back local businesses Virgin Trains is investing £100,000 in the POP-UP scheme. Each trader invited to take part in this weekend’s POP-UP event will also be offered access to the Virgin Trains Talent Academy, for networking groups and management skills building classes plus they are invited on board Virgin Trains carriages to showcase their wares along the network.
On the same day, Virgin Trains will be supporting an on-board First Class networking event between Preston and Carlisle for 40 members of the FSB. This is the first FSB networking event of its kind on a train, and the service is being offered to entrepreneurs by Virgin Trains complete with afternoon tea provided by The Sharrow Bay hotel.Derek Jones, founder of Preston-based business Heritage Kitchen Preserves, said: “We’re absolutely thrilled to be working with Virgin Trains and can’t wait to pop up at Preston this Saturday. The support we’ve been offered by the Virgin Trains team has had an immeasurable positive impact on the growth of our business.”
Nicola Griffiths, POP-UP business manager at Virgin Trains, said: “We’re delighted to be inviting Heritage Kitchen Preserves to not only take part in our latest POP-UP scheme, but also reap the benefits of the £100,000 worth of investment we’ll be using to offer ongoing support for local businesses across the nation. We’re committed to supporting the local business communities in all the areas we operate in and being able to run these events on Small Business Saturday is a great way for us to encourage consumers to support their local stores.”Gary Lovett, FSB spokesperson, added: “The FSB is very pleased to cement its growing relationship with Virgin Trains by supporting their endeavours around Small Business Saturday. The POP-UPs that are being held across the West Coast Mainline are a tremendous opportunity for small retailers and we have been delighted to support Virgin in developing these opportunities for small businesses. “Networking ‘on the move’ aboard a First Class train is a fantastic opportunity and our members have grasped the opportunity with both hands. The clear synergy between both parties in supporting small businesses to develop and grow means this project is only the first step in what we hope will be a long and successful relationship.”


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Satellite TV provider Dish Network is being sued by the federal government for alleged violations to the national Do Not Call Registry.
The Federal Trade Commission said Wednesday that the company, formerly known as EchoStar, has made thousands of phone calls to people on the Do Not Call list. Dish Network is the biggest violator to date, the FTC said, based on the number of complaints to the agency.
According to the FTC, Dish refused to settle the case, the first time the agency hasn't been able to get such a settlement.
Since the registry began in 2003, the FTC has brought more than 40 cases for Do Not Call violations. Companies face fines of up to $16,000 for each violation.


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The market for Chicago-area homes selling at $1 million or more showed broad strength in the first quarter of 2018, according to the RE/MAX Luxury Report on Metro Chicago Real Estate, a quarterly analysis of market activity.
First-quarter sales totaled 489 units, the most in that quarter since RE/MAX began tracking luxury sales in 2011 and an increase of 7.5 percent over the same quarter last year.
Perhaps of even greater significance was the 5.5 percent increase in the median sales price of $1-million-plus homes, which came in at $1.35 million. It was the second consecutive quarterly gain following four quarters in which the median price declined in comparison to the same period one year earlier.
In addition, there was a continued reduction in the number of unsold homes listed for at least $1 million. Luxury listings fell 5.6 percent to 2,742 units, declining only .6 percent in the city of Chicago but falling 8.4 percent in the suburbs where the inventory had been especially high for the last few years. Even with that reduction, existing luxury listings in the suburbs still represent a 22.5-month supply of homes based on the pace of first-quarter sales.
“Demand for luxury homes is clearly on the upswing right now, but only time will tell if this is a temporary situation sparked by buyers eager to act before interest rates move higher, or if this reflects a longer-term trend that will help pare down the large number of luxury listings on the market,” said Jeff LaGrange, vice president, RE/MAX Northern Illinois Region.
“Of particular interest going forward will be the trend in the median sales price. If it continues to advance, it will confirm that demand and supply are moving into better balance,” he said.
Suburban luxury sales, which almost exclusively involve detached homes, delivered generally positive results, he said. Sales activity rose 7.5 percent to 229 units during the first quarter, and the median sales price climbed 2.4 percent to $1.3 million compared to the same period last year. Average market time, however, increased to 257 days from 228 days a year earlier.
Hinsdale had the most active luxury market during the quarter, with 29 sales completed, a 16 percent increase, while its traditional rival for the top spot, Winnetka, recorded 23 sales, a decline of 17.9 percent.
Solid sales gains were seen in several other leading suburban luxury markets, including, Wilmette, up 8.7 percent to 25 units, Lake Forest, up 84.6 percent to 24 units, Naperville, up 116.7 percent to 13 units and Glencoe up 120 percent to 11 units.
Source: Daily Herald


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In April 2014, Intel announced the closure of its manufacturing plant in the country, as production would be moved to Asia. However, in December of the same year, the company surprised with the opening of a mega-lab in Costa Rica in which devices and software are designed and tested, which will later be mass-produced for consumers in the world.
For two years, Costa Rican talent has been the raw material of the Mega Lab. There are 90 technicians and engineers in electronics, electro-mechanics and computer science test the latest generation of servers, laptops and As well as technologies for devices such as tablets and phones.
According to Max Ramirez, manager of Mega Lab, this is a global asset of Intel, to which engineers located in latitudes as Poland, Israel, Malaysia, the United States access remotely, to take advantage of their capabilities and to test both software and hardware .