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Education and Workforce Development Cabinet
Kentucky’s jobless rate increases in September
Editor’s Note: Preliminary September and revised August labor market information are included in this release.
FRANKFORT, Ky. — Kentucky’s seasonally adjusted preliminary unemployment rate for September 2008 rose to 7.1 percent from August 2008’s revised 6.8 percent, according to the Office of Employment and Training (OET), an agency of the Kentucky Education and Workforce Development Cabinet. September 2007’s jobless rate was 5.4 percent.
The U.S. seasonally adjusted jobless rate stayed at 6.1 percent from August 2008 to September 2008, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.
Unemployment statistics are based on estimates and are compiled to measure trends rather than actually to count people working.
“Nearly every sector of Kentucky's economy experienced job losses in September 2008, showcasing widespread economic weakness. Employment declines reflect government cutbacks in the face of austere budgets, a prolonged manufacturing slump reverberating throughout the economy, and retailers and accommodations and food services enterprises suffering as financially strained consumers clamp down on discretionary spending,” said Justine Detzel, OET chief labor market analyst.
Three of the 11 major nonfarm North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) job sectors reported employment increases in September 2008, while eight decreased, according to OET. A decrease of 13,200 jobs in September 2008 brought Kentucky’s nonfarm employment to a seasonally adjusted total of 1,864,200. Since September 2007, Kentucky’s nonfarm employment has dropped by 6,600.
According to the seasonally adjusted employment data, between August 2008 and September 2008, the number of positions in the natural resources and mining sector rose by 200 jobs. The sector has gained 500 jobs since September 2007.
The information sector rose by 100 jobs in September 2008. This segment, which includes firms involved in publishing, Internet activities, data processing, broadcasting and news syndication, has lost 600 positions since September 2007.
The number of jobs in the financial activities sector increased by 100 in September 2008. This segment, which includes businesses involved in finance, insurance, real estate and property leasing or rental, has lost 600 positions over the past 12 months.
Kentucky’s leisure and hospitality sector reported an employment decrease of 3,100 jobs in September 2008. Since September 2007, employment in the sector has declined by 800 positions. The leisure and hospitality sector includes arts, entertainment and recreation, accommodations and food services and drinking places industries.
“Accommodation and food services enterprises accounted for the month-to-month employment declines in the leisure and hospitality sector. Stagnant wages, rising food and energy costs, a plummeting stock market, declining home equity and mounting job losses are causing households to splurge less on nights out,” Detzel said.
The manufacturing sector lost 3,000 jobs in September 2008. Compared to September 2007, jobs in the sector were down by 12,400 in September 2008.
“The durable goods subsector comprised the lion’s share of these job losses in manufacturing, reflecting layoffs at multiple automobile parts manufacturers and layoffs at another major manufacturer. The impact of the automobile slump is rippling through Kentucky’s economy with shock waves felt by employees, automobile parts suppliers, and non-manufacturing enterprises such as railroads and trucking companies faced with a reduction of cargo. The non-durable goods subsector also exhibited employment declines, which is indicative of the closings of a plastic and rubber manufacturer and a rubber product manufacturer,” said Detzel.
The government sector, which includes public education, public administration agencies and state-owned hospitals, lost 2,500 positions in September 2008. Since September 2007, this sector has risen by 9,500 jobs.
“This is the first decline in employment in the government sector since January 2008. The majority of these job losses are attributed to the local government subsector, which reflects positions eliminated at Kentucky schools in response to budget cuts,” said Detzel.
Kentucky’s trade, transportation and utilities sector dropped by 2,100 jobs from August 2008 to September 2008. This area includes retail and wholesale trade, transportation and warehousing businesses and utilities. It is the largest sector in Kentucky with 391,000 employees. Since September 2007, the number of jobs in this sector has jumped by 4,100.
“Retail trade businesses accounted for the decline in the number of jobs in September 2008, which is indicative of multiple retail store closings. Yet, the transportation industry experienced an increase of 100 professionals, reflecting the opening of a ground-package sorting hub,” said Detzel. “Most of the year-over-year job gains of 4,100 occurred in retail trade enterprises. However, transportation, warehousing and utilities companies also exhibited sizable year-over-year employment gains.”
The educational and health services sector lost 1,500 jobs in September 2008. Since last September, the number of jobs in this sector has fallen by 1,800 jobs. This sector includes private and nonprofit establishments that provide either education and training or health care and social assistance to their clients.
The number of jobs in the professional and business services sector dropped by 600 in September 2008. This area had 2,200 fewer employees in September 2008 than in September 2007. The professional and business services sector includes professional, scientific and technical services, management of companies and administrative and support management, including temporary help agencies.
The construction sector recorded 400 fewer positions in September 2008. Since September 2007, employment in the construction sector has decreased by 1,600 positions.
The state’s other services sector, which includes such establishments as repair and maintenance businesses, personal and laundry services, religious organizations and civic and professional organizations, fell by 400 jobs in September 2008. This sector had 700 fewer jobs in September 2008 than in September 2007.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ monthly estimate of the number of employed Kentuckians for September 2008 was 1,901,763 on a seasonally adjusted basis. This figure is up 941 from the 1,900,822 employed in August 2008, but down 31,037 from the 1,932,800 employed in September 2007.
The monthly estimate of the number of unemployed Kentuckians for September 2008 was 145,843, up 6,790 from the 139,053 Kentuckians unemployed in August 2008, and up 35,400 from the 110,443 unemployed in September 2007.
The monthly estimate of the number of Kentuckians in the civilian labor force for September 2008 was 2,047,606. This figure is up 7,731 from the 2,039,875 recorded in August 2008, and up 4,363 from the 2,043,243 recorded for September 2007.
Civilian labor force statistics include non-military workers and unemployed Kentuckians who are actively seeking work. They do not include unemployed Kentuckians who have not looked for employment within the past four weeks.
Kentucky’s statewide unemployment rate and employment levels are seasonally adjusted. Employment statistics undergo sharp fluctuations due to seasonal events, such as weather changes, harvests, holidays and school openings and closings. Seasonal adjustments eliminate these influences and make it easier to observe statistical trends. However, because of the small sample size, county unemployment rates are not seasonally adjusted.
Learn more about the Office of Employment and Training at www.workforce.ky.gov.
A complementary experimental hours and earnings series is available at http://www.bls.gov/sae/saeaepp.htm.


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The sneaky thieves tampered with 18 bales, which is estimated at a value of more than $2,000 each, before they were sent out of the city of Melbourne. Chinese buyers raised the red flag when the bullets came, and Victoria Police are now investigating.
Victoria Police believe that these incidents have been occurring since the month of May of this year. Detective Inspector Jamie Templeton said that the reports are considered “very serious”.
Australia exported 254 million kilos of wool to China, which represents 79.3% of the clip of Australian wool during the last year.
“This is not only because the total value of the wool stolen, but also the potential harm that it poses to the Australian export industry,” Mr Templeton said.
“These thefts are very harmful to the life and reputation of the agents that the export of this product.”
In 2016/17, Australia exported 254 million kilos of wool to China, which represents 79.3% of the clip of Australian wool, with a value of $2.4 million, according to woolgrower representative body WoolProducers Australia.
WoolProducers CEO, Jo Hall said: “Australian woolgrowers produce the best quality Merino wool in the world, but incidents like these are detrimental to the integrity of our industry.
“The replacement of Australian wool puts at risk the excellent reputation that Australian woolgrowers
and the whole of the industry have strived to achieve”.
Industry experts say that the affected 18 bales represent only 0.02% of Australia’s wool exports to China.
However, he said that the Australian wool industry has robust processes in place to ensure the quality and integrity of the product to our business partners.
“While this incident is totally unacceptable and the fact that it has been discovered shows
that the integrity of the systems in place for quality assurance of the Australian wool do the work,” Ms Hall said.
Matt Part, the President of the Australian Council of Exporters of Wool, and director-general of the united States of Wool, the Company said that the affected 18 bales represent only 0.02% of Australia’s wool exports to China.
“The incident, and the fact that it was detected, displays the strong bond that the Australian wool industry has with its buyers,” he said. “It also shows that our testing is second to none and the quality of our product is exceptional.
“It is also extremely rare. I have been in the industry for 25 years and I can count the number of incidents of this type in one hand. This shows that if you try to do something like this, then you will get caught.
The Australian wool industry is worth around $2.4 billion a year, according to WoolProducers Australia.
“Anyone who has been in the industry for more than two minutes will have noticed a problem with the bottom of the wool of the quality right away â€” just by their appearance.”
He added that the affected lots have not been picked up immediately because the process of exporting to China can take up to three months and, once there, the wool can sit in storage for weeks before being sent to the mills.
National council of Wool Selling Brokers executive director Chris Wilcox said that the bottom bales of wool contained in black and coloured wool, which would have ruined any material that if you had gone so far.
Do not think of the permanent damage to the China-Australia relationship â€” as long as the scam is stopped and the culprits found.
Mr. Templeton said that there may be more people who have been victims of these thefts, and encouraged them to come forward and report it to the police.

domain: news


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Honest Co, the consumer goods company founded by actress Jessica Alba, filed an initial public offering on Friday.
The company, founded in 2012, manufactures baby, beauty and household products, and markets itself as a “better for you” own brand. In the S-1 document that announced its official IPO status, Honest Co. said its revenue jumped about 28% to $ 300 million for the fiscal year ended Dec.31, 2020. It is seeking to raise $ 100 million in stock (although this dollar amount may be a placeholder used to calculate filing fees). Its skin and personal care category grew by around 36%, in particular. The company’s products are sold online and at 32,000 outlets, including Walgreens, Amazon and Nordstrom, and Boots in the UK.
“As we continue our mission to inspire everyone to love living consciously, we regularly explore all of the different financial strategies and options – including our decision to file an IPO,” a spokesperson said. by Honest Co ..
As the first ‘best for you’ brand in the consumer products and beauty industry to debut via an IPO, Honest Co. will likely set expectations and a manual for other companies to follow. If it fails to perform well and impress stock investors, it could also serve as a harbinger of waning support for clean acquisitions or public offerings in the beauty industry.
“Investors will want to know how the Honest company compares to some of the other competitors in the clean products or clean beauty arena,” said Lise Buyer, director and founder of consulting firm IPO Class V Group. “But in a way, every IPO is evaluated by at least institutional investors on its own merits.”
The Honest Co. has already set a precedent for high expectations and a bumpy result. In 2016, Honest was valued at $ 1.7 billion, according to data from PitchBook. Since then, a series of public backlashes, product recalls and class actions against products and ingredients have resulted in a decline in the company’s valuation and stagnation in growth.
In 2016, Honest Co. was rumored to be planning an IPO, but did not go through with it. Brian Lee, former CEO of Honest and co-founder, has also reportedly discussed the company’s IPO since 2014. Nick Vlahos, the current CEO, joined the company in March 2017. Vlahos previously served as COO at The Clorox Company and vice president and vice president. Managing Director of Burt’s Bees. To date, Honest Co. has raised $ 497 million in funding, according to Pitchbook. In 2018, L Catterton, the private equity firm, invested $ 200 million for a minority stake. L Catterton executives did not respond to a request for comment.
Since the appointment of Vlahos, Honest Co. has worked hard to improve its brand image and underlying business strategies. Vlahos has been credited with shifting the business from a DTC e-commerce strategy to an omnichannel one. In S-1, Honest Co. touted its product innovation and new product development pipeline, citing that 22% of its revenue was generated by products introduced in 2020. According to Vogue Business, Vlahos has expanded the internal laboratories and the brand’s R&D team. It also opened an order fulfillment center, helping the company to better control its production and ingredient standards, execute shipments faster, and move quickly to rising trends like wellness and consumer goods. personal care.
The company’s beauty category, first launched in 2015, was revamped in 2018 to have fewer products, new formulations and packaging, simpler names, and lower prices. WWD noted at the time that the company’s primary display for beauty was mothers between the ages of 25 and 35. At the same time, Alba has retired from day-to-day operations, but she remains the Creative Director.
Despite these improvements, there are still many risks for Honest Co. when entering public markets. The S-1 notes that Honest Co. has suffered net losses every year since its inception and may not be able to achieve or maintain profitability in the future. Honest Co. also points out that it may fail to compete successfully in its highly competitive market. According to the Wall Street Journal, the percentage of unprofitable companies going public has increased.
“Investors will want to understand the long-term operating model. They won’t care if the business is profitable now; they’ll care if the business thinks it can be profitable over time, ”the buyer said.
Honest Co. outlined its growth strategy following the IPO, indicating that it has a spending growth strategy. This includes plans to increase customer engagement and brand awareness, improve existing products and launch new categories, and expand international distribution – international sales currently represent only 2% of its total sales. According to S-1, the plan is “to accelerate our growth outside the United States by leveraging the Honest brand and global reach of Jessica Alba,” who has 39 million subscribers on her media accounts. social. However, S-1 states that competition may intensify with this course of growth, and terms like “clean”, “natural” and “organic” have different labels or designations in different markets.
The S-1 indicates that the company’s customer relationships are the primary competitive advantage over traditional CPG companies. Its product innovation is informed by consumer feedback gathered through customer service, social media and product reviews. Between its Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube accounts, Honest Co. has approximately 3.3 million subscribers.
“As a potential investor, these people will want to know how much they are going to spend, where they are going to spend and how they are going to know if [those strategies are] actually works, ”the buyer said.


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Get in touch: send your photos, videos, news & views by texting YORK to 80360 or send an email»
Yorkshire Water in customer bills pledge
9:36am Tuesday 3rd December 2013 in News
The bills of Yorkshire Water customers are not expected to rise as high as planned in the next financial year.
Following concerns about rising household costs, the company has decided not to push ahead with a price increase planned for 2014-15 and agreed with industry-regulator Ofwat in 2009.
This means that next year the average household bill in Yorkshire will be in line with the current rate of inflation, with the average bill being £373, £6 lower than planned.
The company also published plans to keep bills at this lower level between 2015 and 2020.
Richard Flint, chief executive, said: “Over the last 18 months, we have listened to the views of more than 30,000 customers to help shape where we invest over the next five years, and how that will impact on customer bills.
“The overwhelming message is that they don’t want to see any deterioration in service but that they want us to keep bills as low as possible.”
For more details on the proposals visit blueprintforyorkshire.com
Comments are closed on this article.


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How Audi used Twitter to drive conversation and connect with auto enthusiasts
Takeover engagement rate
View rate vs nearest competitor
When launching a trilogy of concept cars, how do you ensure that third time is still the charm? For the reveal of their new urbansphere concept car, Audi (@AudiOfficial) and its partner agency We Are Social (@WeAreSocialDE) turned to Twitter to boost the launch, tapping into millions of auto enthusiasts on the platform to drive real-time conversation.
Activated in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Finland, the first stage of Audi’s urbansphere campaign was raising awareness of the pending livestream launch. To do this, Audi utilised a Video Ad, teasing the upcoming launch and offering brand notifications to encourage sign-ups for the event. All users who signed up received a reminder notification on the day to watch the launch, which effectively drove audiences through to the livestream page.
To amplify awareness further, a Twitter Takeover was also deployed on the day of launch, with Audi placing the urbansphere’s teaser content at the top of the Timeline and the Explore tab, linking audiences to Audi’s livestream to discover more. This ensured that auto-enthusiasts were aware of the launch as it happened, encouraging engagement with the campaign there and then.
After the successful livestream, Audi didn’t rest on the laurels of a successful launch. The original Twitter Takeover asset was updated to showcase the newly revealed urbansphere, allowing @AudiOfficial to promote the concept to the widest audience possible.
In the following days, conversation around the launch was humming amongst the auto enthusiasts, with over 1.9k mentions of the #WorldPremiere hashtag used after the urbansphere’s launch. This buzz was sustained by @AudiOfficial through further video ads, which promoted the urbansphere reveal to those who had missed out on launch day.
Build hype with teaser content
The best way to pique interest is to build hype before launch. @AudiOfficial’s teaser built brand awareness and ad recall by giving glimpses of the futuristic-looking concept car and exciting audiences ahead of the launch event.
Set the Stage with Brand Notifications
The smartest campaigns make the journey as easy as possible for your audience, and Audi did just that. By using Brand Notifications, Audi were able to encourage audiences to sign up for their livestream, providing reminders on the day of launch to ensure they didn’t miss out.
Seize the moment with a Twitter Takeover
Running a Twitter Takeover on the livestream launch day ensured maximum reach and awareness for their event, securing additional audiences that Audi may have missed with their initial teaser campaign, while providing a great reminder for those that had.
With a total of 8.9 million impressions for their Twitter Takeover and a 3.2% engagement rate, Audi’s campaign was a phenomenal success. Having successfully reached the auto enthusiast audience, not only did they continue to drive engagement and discussion around their concept car launch for a third time, but @AudiOfficial also achieved a video view rate that was 46% higher than its nearest competitor.
Twitter was an integral part of our campaign, providing a space for us to inform our followers about the upcoming reveal date. We used scheduled notifications to communicate the date and time as well as to remind them to tune in, which was a great feature and a unique aspect of the campaign. Combined with other elements of the campaign on Twitter, the reveal of the Audi Urbansphere concept was a great success


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Group14 Technologies, a provider of silicon-carbon composite materials for lithium-ion markets, has launched its first commercial-scale US factory to meet the demand for lithium-silicon anode materials. The 27,000-square- foot facility, located at Group14 HQ in Woodinville, Washington, will house a new R&D center and corporate offices, and is the first of several planned commercial manufacturing sites.
The company says the factory is capable of producing 120 tons per year of Group14’s lithium-silicon technology, SCC55TM, which can deliver up to 50% more energy density per volume than current lithium-ion batteries.
“We leveraged our team’s deep commercial manufacturing experience to prioritize process development and designing for cost from the beginning, which is key to scaling as rapidly as possible without sacrificing quality, performance and safety,” said CTO Rick Costantino. “The process to manufacture SCC55TM was designed from the start to be scaled quickly and efficiently, an approach that has kept us on track to bring our technology online to help power consumer electronics, EVs and more.”
Source: Group14 Technologies


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LONDON/ZURICH, March 13 (Reuters) – Biotech fever is
spreading to Europe from the United States with a successful
stock market debut for a cat allergy company in Britain seen as
a bellwether that could help unlock listings in other countries
including Switzerland and France.
Top candidates for a share sale include Swiss firms AC
Immune and Molecular Partners, which are both weighing up a
possible initial public offering (IPO), according to people
familiar with the companies.
MUMBAI, March 12 (Reuters) – Global drugmakers have had a
nauseous time in India’s $14 billion market. Prices have dropped
and valuable patents have been overruled as the authorities
strive to make medicines affordable for the 70 percent of people
living on less than $2 a day.
From a regulatory perspective, the government has “messed
up”, as one top industry consultant put it. But with 1.2 billion
people increasingly seeking both on- and off-prescription drugs,
the market is too big for firms to simply throw in the towel.
MUMBAI/LONDON (Reuters) – Indian drugmaker Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd is in talks with at least two companies on sourcing ingredients for a generic version of AstraZeneca Plc’s heartburn drug Nexium, a source said, to ensure the pills can be sold in the United States.
The United States banned shipments from one of Ranbaxy’s plants in India following an inspection that found poor manufacturing practices, effectively barring India’s top drugmaker by revenue from selling drugs in the United States from its India plants.


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Author: Book stores help create community
May 7, 2005
Steamboat Springs — Betsy Burton thinks all independent businesses contribute to a community, but she’d like to think that mom-and-pop bookstores play a special role.
“I can remember when 9/11 happened, everybody in our community came into our store to talk about it and cry to each other,” Burton said. “Bookstores really are community centers.”
Burton owns The King’s English, a bookstore in Salt Lake City, Utah, and recently published a book of the same name. She was in Steamboat Springs last week to read from the book and talk about the changes affecting her industry.
“The King’s English” is organized into chapters that alternate between Burton’s recollections of hosting famous authors at her store, and her observations about running an independent bookstore. Interspersed among the chapters are recommended reading lists. They come from a variety of sources, including other independent bookstores such as Steamboat Springs’ own Off the Beaten Path Bookstore, which hosted her visit here.
Burton’s thesis that independent bookstores contribute to a sense of community dovetails with the theme for Steamboat Springs Economic Summit 2005, to be held May 18 and 19 (see related story).
Organizer Noreen Moore said people relocating to Steamboat increasingly are seeking to become part of a community that shares their values. Moore is convinced that residents of Steamboat are not fully aware of how the pace of this migration will influence the community as they know it.
Internet booksellers such as Amazon and the large chains are rewriting the book selling landscape, but Burton is confident that the role of the surviving independents is more secure than it was five years ago.
“When (the chains) first came to Salt Lake City, it was horrible,” Burton said. We had to fight just to stay alive. But two to three years ago, I think we saw a sea change in our community. All but two or three of the independent book stores had closed. People started to realize they were losing their community to anonymous businesses, and they started to care. I think we’ve seen a tipping point in my city.”
Burton said the mass merchandising by the chains disguises the fact that they have driven up the price of books, made it more difficult for publishers to sell their press run at retail and diminished opportunities for new authors to get published.
Burton’s store and Off the Beaten Path belong to an association of independents called the Mountains and Plains booksellers Association, which is affiliated with the larger American Booksellers Association. It markets and advocates on behalf of independent booksellers.
The associations have allowed individual stores to counteract the chains by selling gift cards that are good at affiliated stores across the country.
Burton said selling books to customers one knows is an art.
“The art of being a good book-seller is not recommending what you like to read,” she said. “You have to listen to the customer.”
She hopes that consumers from Salt Lake to Steamboat will go to independents to practice that art the next time they purchase a book.
— To reach Tom Ross call 871-4205
or e-mail email@example.com


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News By Tag
News By Location
Forest Economic Advisors Predicts Long-Term Price Increases for the Wood Biomass Market
Near-term downturn in biomass prices will be followed by long-term price increases after 2012, according to a new report by Forest Economic Advisors
“A developed and diversified wood-based energy sector will have a profound impact on the economics of the entire forest products industry”, said Erik Kankainen, FEA’s Senior Economist for Bioenergy and Timber. “Our forecasting service will answer the many questions surrounding the scale of the sector’s development, as well as quantify the economic effects growth in bioenergy will have on the rest of the industry".
FEA’s first Wood Biomass Forecast also finds that rising housing starts and an improving economy will boost residue production over the next several years, returning almost 90% of the supply that was lost from 2005 to 2009 by the end of 2012. After accounting for increases in biomass demand related to production from the traditional forest products industry (namely pulp and nonstructural panels), FEA estimates that mill residue supplies available for bioenergy will grow by 5.4 million oven-dry tons from 2009 to 2012. Wood pellet production will continue to rise at a rapid pace, driven by domestic and export demand, and biomass electricity generation will also grow. Biofuel production will be a key consumer of wood biomass over the long-term, though not until conversion technologies are proven and tested on a commercial scale by a round of first generation biofuel facilties currently in the planning phases.
About the Wood Biomass Forecast
The Wood Biomass Forecast marks the debut of FEA’s quarterly forecasting service, which offers three five-year forecasts and one 15-year forecast per year. Each report contains a detailed analysis of the macroeconomic and policy environment for biomass energy, analyses of the supply and demand outlook, as well as price forecasts for a variety of biomass concepts and regions. Membership in the biomass service includes phone access to FEA’s team of analysts.
FEA performs cutting-edge economic analysis on lumber, wood panels, timber, biomass energy and macroeconomics. Founded in 2009 and based in Westford, MA, FEA brings a fresh perspective to the forest products industry, providing insight to help clients make effective business decisions.
# # #
FEA provides independent economic analysis and third-party forecasts for the forest products industry with a focus on lumber, wood panels, timber, biomass energy and macroeconomics sectors.


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Shoppers vacate HH Walmart for bomb threat
Walmart shoppers vacated the Horseheads grocery store Saturday after a bomb threat was called in.
"They received a call at Walmart, a bomb threat — one subject, a male subject," said New York State Police Captain Erik Dauber. The threatening call was placed shortly after 11 a.m.
Shoppers and employees were ushered outside immediately, no other businesses in the shopping complex were vacated.
All entry points were secured by law enforcement as the search for any threat began.
"First, they just check the area itself," Dauber said. "Then we brings dogs in that are specific to checking for that kind of threat."
The biosensor canine searched the entire facility and "came up negative" for explosives, Dauber said, later adding nothing of interest was found at the scene.
"Then employees themselves check to see if anything is out of the ordinary," the captain said. "That’s why it takes a little while but we just want to be sure."
Walmart employees began entering the store again around 12:38 p.m. Approximately 15 minutes later, the doors were opened back up to the public.
"Unfortunately, bomb threats do come in but you have to take every one seriously," Dauber said. "It really is out of an abundance of caution that we want to make sure the whole place is checked."
NYSP will be working on the case "for quite a while," Dauber said, and is currently following up on leads. The Chemung County Sheriff's Office assisted in the investigation.
Follow Kelly Gampel on Twitter @theSGphotos


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|By Kevin Benedict||
|January 8, 2014 09:00 AM EST||
Also read Enterprise Mobility Asia News Weekly
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Roberto Medrano, Executive Vice President at SOA Software, had reached 30,000 page views on his home page - http://RobertoMedrano.SYS-CON.com/ - on the SYS-CON family of online magazines, which includes Cloud Computing Journal, Internet of Things Journal, Big Data Journal, and SOA World Magazine. He is a recognized executive in the information technology fields of SOA, internet security, governance, and compliance. He has extensive experience with both start-ups and large companies, having been involved at the beginning of four IT industries: EDA, Open Systems, Computer Security and now SOA.
Feb. 28, 2015 04:00 PM EST Reads: 1,060
From telemedicine to smart cars, digital homes and industrial monitoring, the explosive growth of IoT has created exciting new business opportunities for real time calls and messaging. In his session at @ThingsExpo, Ivelin Ivanov, CEO and Co-Founder of Telestax, shared some of the new revenue sources that IoT created for Restcomm – the open source telephony platform from Telestax. Ivelin Ivanov is a technology entrepreneur who founded Mobicents, an Open Source VoIP Platform, to help create, deploy, and manage applications integrating voice, video and data. He is the co-founder of TeleStax, a...
Feb. 28, 2015 03:30 PM EST Reads: 3,967
The industrial software market has treated data with the mentality of “collect everything now, worry about how to use it later.” We now find ourselves buried in data, with the pervasive connectivity of the (Industrial) Internet of Things only piling on more numbers. There’s too much data and not enough information. In his session at @ThingsExpo, Bob Gates, Global Marketing Director, GE’s Intelligent Platforms business, to discuss how realizing the power of IoT, software developers are now focused on understanding how industrial data can create intelligence for industrial operations. Imagine ...
Feb. 28, 2015 03:15 PM EST Reads: 1,228
Operational Hadoop and the Lambda Architecture for Streaming Data Apache Hadoop is emerging as a distributed platform for handling large and fast incoming streams of data. Predictive maintenance, supply chain optimization, and Internet-of-Things analysis are examples where Hadoop provides the scalable storage, processing, and analytics platform to gain meaningful insights from granular data that is typically only valuable from a large-scale, aggregate view. One architecture useful for capturing and analyzing streaming data is the Lambda Architecture, representing a model of how to analyze rea...
Feb. 28, 2015 02:00 PM EST Reads: 1,203
SYS-CON Events announced today that Vitria Technology, Inc. will exhibit at SYS-CON’s @ThingsExpo, which will take place on June 9-11, 2015, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY. Vitria will showcase the company’s new IoT Analytics Platform through live demonstrations at booth #330. Vitria’s IoT Analytics Platform, fully integrated and powered by an operational intelligence engine, enables customers to rapidly build and operationalize advanced analytics to deliver timely business outcomes for use cases across the industrial, enterprise, and consumer segments.
Feb. 28, 2015 01:45 PM EST Reads: 1,137
The explosion of connected devices / sensors is creating an ever-expanding set of new and valuable data. In parallel the emerging capability of Big Data technologies to store, access, analyze, and react to this data is producing changes in business models under the umbrella of the Internet of Things (IoT). In particular within the Insurance industry, IoT appears positioned to enable deep changes by altering relationships between insurers, distributors, and the insured. In his session at @ThingsExpo, Michael Sick, a Senior Manager and Big Data Architect within Ernst and Young's Financial Servi...
Feb. 28, 2015 12:00 PM EST Reads: 1,147
SYS-CON Events announced today that Open Data Centers (ODC), a carrier-neutral colocation provider, will exhibit at SYS-CON's 16th International Cloud Expo®, which will take place June 9-11, 2015, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY. Open Data Centers is a carrier-neutral data center operator in New Jersey and New York City offering alternative connectivity options for carriers, service providers and enterprise customers.
Feb. 28, 2015 12:00 PM EST Reads: 1,842
When it comes to the Internet of Things, hooking up will get you only so far. If you want customers to commit, you need to go beyond simply connecting products. You need to use the devices themselves to transform how you engage with every customer and how you manage the entire product lifecycle. In his session at @ThingsExpo, Sean Lorenz, Technical Product Manager for Xively at LogMeIn, will show how “product relationship management” can help you leverage your connected devices and the data they generate about customer usage and product performance to deliver extremely compelling and reliabl...
Feb. 28, 2015 12:00 PM EST Reads: 1,279
SYS-CON Events announced today that CodeFutures, a leading supplier of database performance tools, has been named a “Sponsor” of SYS-CON's 16th International Cloud Expo®, which will take place on June 9–11, 2015, at the Javits Center in New York, NY. CodeFutures is an independent software vendor focused on providing tools that deliver database performance tools that increase productivity during database development and increase database performance and scalability during production.
Feb. 28, 2015 11:00 AM EST Reads: 2,431
The IoT market is projected to be $1.9 trillion tidal wave that’s bigger than the combined market for smartphones, tablets and PCs. While IoT is widely discussed, what not being talked about are the monetization opportunities that are created from ubiquitous connectivity and the ensuing avalanche of data. While we cannot foresee every service that the IoT will enable, we should future-proof operations by preparing to monetize them with extremely agile systems.
Feb. 28, 2015 11:00 AM EST Reads: 1,169
There’s Big Data, then there’s really Big Data from the Internet of Things. IoT is evolving to include many data possibilities like new types of event, log and network data. The volumes are enormous, generating tens of billions of logs per day, which raise data challenges. Early IoT deployments are relying heavily on both the cloud and managed service providers to navigate these challenges. Learn about IoT, Big Data and deployments processing massive data volumes from wearables, utilities and other machines.
Feb. 28, 2015 11:00 AM EST Reads: 1,015
Feb. 28, 2015 10:30 AM EST Reads: 2,422
The major cloud platforms defy a simple, side-by-side analysis. Each of the major IaaS public-cloud platforms offers their own unique strengths and functionality. Options for on-site private cloud are diverse as well, and must be designed and deployed while taking existing legacy architecture and infrastructure into account. Then the reality is that most enterprises are embarking on a hybrid cloud strategy and programs. In this Power Panel at 15th Cloud Expo (http://www.CloudComputingExpo.com), moderated by Ashar Baig, Research Director, Cloud, at Gigaom Research, Nate Gordon, Director of T...
Feb. 28, 2015 10:00 AM EST Reads: 3,968
“In the past year we've seen a lot of stabilization of WebRTC. You can now use it in production with a far greater degree of certainty. A lot of the real developments in the past year have been in things like the data channel, which will enable a whole new type of application," explained Peter Dunkley, Technical Director at Acision, in this SYS-CON.tv interview at @ThingsExpo, held Nov 4–6, 2014, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA.
Feb. 28, 2015 10:00 AM EST Reads: 3,222
SYS-CON Events announced today that Intelligent Systems Services will exhibit at SYS-CON's 16th International Cloud Expo®, which will take place on June 9-11, 2015, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY. Established in 1994, Intelligent Systems Services Inc. is located near Washington, DC, with representatives and partners nationwide. ISS’s well-established track record is based on the continuous pursuit of excellence in designing, implementing and supporting nationwide clients’ mission-critical systems. ISS has completed many successful projects in Healthcare, Commercial, Manufacturing, ...
Feb. 28, 2015 10:00 AM EST Reads: 1,183
PubNub on Monday has announced that it is partnering with IBM to bring its sophisticated real-time data streaming and messaging capabilities to Bluemix, IBM’s cloud development platform. “Today’s app and connected devices require an always-on connection, but building a secure, scalable solution from the ground up is time consuming, resource intensive, and error-prone,” said Todd Greene, CEO of PubNub. “PubNub enables web, mobile and IoT developers building apps on IBM Bluemix to quickly add scalable realtime functionality with minimal effort and cost.”
Feb. 28, 2015 10:00 AM EST Reads: 4,627
Sensor-enabled things are becoming more commonplace, precursors to a larger and more complex framework that most consider the ultimate promise of the IoT: things connecting, interacting, sharing, storing, and over time perhaps learning and predicting based on habits, behaviors, location, preferences, purchases and more. In his session at @ThingsExpo, Tom Wesselman, Director of Communications Ecosystem Architecture at Plantronics, will examine the still nascent IoT as it is coalescing, including what it is today, what it might ultimately be, the role of wearable tech, and technology gaps stil...
Feb. 28, 2015 09:45 AM EST Reads: 772
DevOps tends to focus on the relationship between Dev and Ops, putting an emphasis on the ops and application infrastructure. But that’s changing with microservices architectures. In her session at DevOps Summit, Lori MacVittie, Evangelist for F5 Networks, will focus on how microservices are changing the underlying architectures needed to scale, secure and deliver applications based on highly distributed (micro) services and why that means an expansion into “the network” for DevOps.
Feb. 28, 2015 09:15 AM EST Reads: 1,198
In the consumer IoT, everything is new, and the IT world of bits and bytes holds sway. But industrial and commercial realms encompass operational technology (OT) that has been around for 25 or 50 years. This grittier, pre-IP, more hands-on world has much to gain from Industrial IoT (IIoT) applications and principles. But adding sensors and wireless connectivity won’t work in environments that demand unwavering reliability and performance. In his session at @ThingsExpo, Ron Sege, CEO of Echelon, will discuss how as enterprise IT embraces other IoT-related technology trends, enterprises with i...
Feb. 28, 2015 09:00 AM EST Reads: 2,095


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NZAI backs rebate scheme
The owner of 2 Cheap Cars says availability, affordability and awareness are three key factors to persuading more Kiwis to choose electric vehicles (EVs).
NZ Automotive Investments (NZAI) is supporting the government’s recently announced clean-car discount scheme and describes it as “good news for Kiwis who are looking to make the switch”.
David Page, chief executive, says the company has a long-term strategy to increase the market share of EVs based around the “three A’s”.
He explains NZAI’s retail subsidiary, 2 Cheap Cars, is well placed to tackle availability issues and service the growing demand for EVs and low-emissions vehicles (LEVs).
With regards to affordability and awareness, he says: “Making sure that electric vehicles are affordable, safe and reliable will be fundamental to New Zealand making the switch that needs to happen over time.
“In order for Kiwis to feel confident in making the switch to an electric or hybrid vehicle, it is important that they understand the benefits and are provided with the right information to make an informed decision.”
NZAI highlights why it is backing the government’s rebate programme for EVs and plug-in hybrids (PHEVs), which comes into force from July 1, 2021. The scheme will see rebates of up to $8,625 for new vehicles and $3,450 for used.
It agrees a transition towards lower-emissions vehicles over time will be essential to reduce New Zealand’s carbon footprint and help the government achieve its 2050 carbon-neutral target.
The business also predicts the clean-car discount will help make EVs and LEVs more affordable and accessible, while at the same time improving people’s understanding of how EVs can play a part in hitting our climate goals.
Page, pictured, adds: “We acknowledge that there is still significant work to be done to ensure we have the appropriate infrastructure in place around the country to enable Kiwis to confidently make the shift towards electric vehicles.”
NZAI has a 7.5 per cent market share of used car imports. It notes that 2 Cheap Cars, which has 12 branches nationwide, sold 51 EVs and 751 petrol hybrids (HEV) in 2020.
In the first three months of 2021, such vehicles accounted for 21 per cent of sales, up from eight per cent from the same period a year earlier.


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Swedish Match to Launch Snus in U.S. Markets
Nordic Mint and Classic Blend to debut in Chicago, Dallas and Philadelphia
NEW YORK -- Swedish Match AB, the Scandinavian snus maker, has unveiled plans to release two new versions of its General brand and expand retail distribution in the United States, according to an article in the Wall Street Journal.
Snus is a type of smokeless tobacco that comes in small pouches and requires no spitting. Initial U.S. markets will be Chicago, Dallas and Philadelphia, the paper reports.
The company reportedly intends to compete with Reynolds American Inc.'s Camel Snus and Altria Group Inc.'s Marlboro Snus and Skoal Snus, by emphasizing to consumers [image-nocss] that General is an authentic Swedish snus made in Sweden for more than 150 years.
The new Nordic Mint and Classic Blend varieties will sell at a slight premium to Camel Snus, the Journal reports.
The company also will reportedly look into the possibility of filing an application with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to have its snus products designated as "modified risk."
Snus accounts for about 2.5% of smokeless tobacco sales in the United States, according to Swedish Match numbers cited in the article.
Swedish Match accounts for 85% of the snus market in Sweden and about 70% of the Norway market. Clark Darrah, vice president for next generation products for Swedish Match's U.S. division acknowledged to the paper that his company faces challenges in gaining retail space in the United States, among Altria and Reynolds products. "What we need to do is sell the opportunity," he told the paper.
Swedish Match is a global group of companies with a broad assortment of brands in snus and snuff, chewing tobacco, cigars, matches and lighters. Some of the company's well-known brands in the United States include Red Man, Timber Wolf, Longhorn, General, Garcia y Vega, Game and White Owl.


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Most Americans do not know that many non-traditional payments are not included in their credit history, according to a survey conducted by the Atlanta– based alternative credit bureau, FactorTrust.
Of those surveyed, 71% assumed that all consumer history including short-term loans, online payments, rent-to-own payments were included in their credit history. Lending Club, for example, says it does report to the credit bureaus, but does not specify what exactly it reports, or to which bureaus.
This means that people who successfully repay their non-traditional loans do not receive the credit they deserve, according to FactorTrust’s Monday, July 24 announcement.
Of the 2,279 surveyed, 84% said that their payments for all loans, regardless of size, should be included in their history. And 68% of these participants said they believed their credit score would improve if all these types of non-traditional loans were taken into consideration while generating their credit profiles.
“The true nature of their payment habits is not accurately being reflected,” said Greg Rable, CEO of FactorTrust said in a Monday statement. “It’s no surprise there are so many misperceptions around what constitutes a consumer’s credit profile and why lenders are seeking new and progressive methods to develop better ways to learn about the consumers they serve, or could be serving.”
In the U.S. an individual’s credit history is tallied and stored by three major credit bureaus. They are Equifax, Experian and TransUnion and collectively referred to as the Big 3.
See FactorTrust’s full survey report, conducted by New York-based Radius Global Market Research, here.1 - Reader Likes This Post


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July 01, 2017:With GST kicking in, prices of the Maruti Suzuki S-Cross have been revised. The ex-showroom prices have been reduced across variants.
Mumbai: The crossover now starts at Rs 8.08 lakh, as opposed to Rs 8.65 lakh pre-GST. That's a reduction of approximately Rs 57,000.
Delhi: The crossover now starts at Rs 7.94 lakh, as opposed to Rs 8.07 lakh pre-GST. That's a reduction of approximately Rs 13,000.
* Showing information of base variants
Pearl Arctic White
Cabin Space, Features, Engine Options
Design, No Automatic Option, Tyres
Maruti's first step in creating a niche for itself in the more premium range of cars, to be sold exclusively from its upmarket Nexa showrooms. The S-Cross checks all the boxes to be a great crossover, except for its understated exterior design.
Maruti is trying many things in one stroke – entering the crossover segment, launching just diesel variants, introducing a new and more powerful diesel engine, and improving on every aspect of car building (which they know mighty well). All this with the launch of the new Maruti Suzuki S-Cross.
The S-Cross has had its second service done and with the advent of the monsoon, longer drives are guaranteed
Hopes of long road trips arise as the Maruti Suzuki S-Cross 1.6 joins the ZigWheels long-term fleet
With the official launch of Maruti's flagship just weeks away, here's all the important information about the updated crossover
Maruti’s most expensive offering is all-set to get a makeover. It isn’t particularly pretty, and we hear the fun 1.6-litre diesel is on its way out too!
The car is likely to hit Indian shores in the second half of 2017


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Delinquencies on bank card payments fell to an 18-year low for the third quarter ended Sept. 30, and a combined ratio covering late payments in eight loan categories also dropped, the American Bankers Association reported Thursday. Still, delinquencies rose in five of those eight categories.
The composite ratio's delinquency rate fell to 2.16 percent of all accounts in the third quarter from 2.24 percent in the second quarter. Bank card delinquencies, which are not part of the composite, fell to 2.75 percent during the quarter, the lowest mark since 1994, the ABA reported.
Consumers kept paying down debt in the third quarter, but slow job growth and the expiration of a tax cut could make it harder for many to repay loans, according to the ABA.
The ABA tracks late payments for bank-provided credit cards, auto loans and other consumer loans but does not track delinquency rates for traditional mortgage payments. The ABA defines a delinquency as a late payment that is 30 days or more overdue.
ABA Chief Economist James Chessen in a statement said low consumer confidence in the economy could mean more delinquencies are coming. A recent measure of U.S. consumer attitudes showed confidence at a four-month low.
Consumers also could see lower income because Congress did not extend a temporary reduction in the Social Security payroll tax, which could hurt consumers' ability to repay loans in the future, Chessen said.
"The conservative approach consumers have taken to credit over the last several years has allowed them to better manage their debt and better position themselves for the future," he added.


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Bright Times News: Goods and Service Taxes or GST Council meeting starting today. Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will preside over the 47th meeting of the GST Council. The GST Council meeting started at eleven o’clock. This year’s GST Council meeting is being held in Chandigarh The whole country is looking forward to this GST Council meeting.
The GST Council meeting this year is significant for several reasons. This meeting may discuss the GST rate reshuffle. GST rates on various items may be discussed. The amount of GST on different items may vary. In addition, the GST Council meeting this year is important for another reason.
This meeting will discuss the compensation of the states. The GST Council meeting will decide how much the states will receive for GST compensation, and when.
The GST Council meeting this year is significant for several sons. This is the first time a committee has been established to take the interests of the state seriously. The committee consists of multiple representatives from the states and the center. At the top of the committee is a retired judge.
Before this year’s GST Council meeting, there was speculation as to whether the amount of GST on goods would increase. However, given the current rate of inflation in the country, many feel that neither the Center nor the state would suggest a way to increase GST.
The GST Council discussed bringing gasoline and diesel under the tax last year. Although in the end, the center did not make that decision. It remains to be seen whether the Center can take such a big decision at this year’s GST Council meeting.
The GST Council meeting will last for two days. The gathering will take place on June 28 and 29. After the meeting, Nirmala Sitharaman will meet the journalists.


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Hyundai Venue is the bestselling sub-compact SUV, Creta leads Hyundai sales
March 2020 has been difficult in terms of sales and Hyundai was no exceptions. While the sales have almost halved as compared to March 2019 or even February 2020, there are some green shoots as well.
Hyundai Venue sales have not been too affected unlike its competition and hence the Venue has turned out to be the highest selling sub-4m compact SUV. Segment-leader Maruti Suzuki Vitara Brezza sold 5513 units as against the 6127 units of the Venue which is followed by the Tata Nexon.
Despite its launch being mired in the COVID scare, the Hyundai Creta has begun strongly garnering 6,706 units in its first month. The numbers are a result of the strong pre-launch booking performance and that has helped the Creta become the bestselling Hyundai in March 2020.
One of the hardest hit Hyundai cars have been the Hyundai Elite i20 and the Hyundai Santro. Sales numbers are down by almost 70 per cent while the Grand i10 Nios and the Hyundai Aura doing reasonably well.
Starts Rs 6.7 Lakhs
Starts Rs 5.8 Lakhs
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Starts Rs 3.9 Lakhs
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- Roku announced plans Thursday to bring Nielsen Digital Ad ratings to its over-the-top TV streaming service.
- The deal means that Roku publishers—like Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon—will have the opportunity later this year to switch audience data measurement tools to Nielsen.
- Publishers could potentially be able to compare ratings between their streaming services and traditional TV—a medium that Nielsen is most known for tracking.
This partnership could be what the direct streaming TV option needs to prove its worth to advertisers over traditional TV. Streaming services are seeing an immense surge in popularity, but without proper measurements, publishers could have a hard time proving their worth to advertisers. Nielsen is a trusted name in data that could persuade brands to look more closely at streaming TV.


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Mumbai: Projecting India’s small towns and cities as better investment destinations, an Indo-UK trade body on Wednesday said Pune, Ahmedabad and Chandigarh among others are more likely to produce economic miracles on the back of a growing middle-class.
India is increasingly seen as a source of value-added goods and services and an important business partner, the UK India Business Council (UKIBC), which promotes trade between the two countries said in a report.
The report, “Emerging Cities of India”, identifies Pune, Ahmedabad, Chandigarh and Jaipur as the top four emerging cities followed by Vadodara, Goa, Indore, Kochi and Nagpur.
“While India’s urban giants may dominate the business agenda in the short-term due to the sheer size of their human capital clusters...we believe it is the country’s lesser known small towns and cities that are more likely to produce the economic miracles,” the report said.
The key areas of consumption include healthcare, education, transport communications, food and entertainment, consumer durables and travel, UKIBC added.
“India’s middle-class today numbers 50 million but is expected to reach 583 million by 2025 to account for 41% of the (country’s total) population and 75% of the urban population,” it added.
“Despite the global slowdown, the continued expansion of the Indian economy is well recognised and many UK companies are keenly aware of the need for an increasingly entrepreneurial approach to do business in India,” the report observed.
Benchmarking Pune as a premier business hub, UKIBC said the city could help create potential linkages with UK industry capacity in the financial services, ICT and creative and media sectors.
While Ahmedabad presented plum opportunities for UK companies to invest in media and creative sectors, Chandigarh showed potential for software, IT and BPO.
“In Kochi, opportunities exist for tie-ups in food production, especially technical know-how,” the UKIBC report said.
“A common feature across emerging cities in our research is the active role of state and state agencies in promoting economic development. These include steps taken by state governments to allow privatisation of Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) to promote employment,” it said.
UKIBC took into consideration social and economic indicators like population and infrastructure in its study covering 200 surveys.


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Monitoring Devices to Ensure Tax Compliance in Zimbabwe
December 16, 2015 Taxation in Zimbabwe
HARARE – Zimbabwe will use new ever-watching technology to make sure that businesses comply with their tax obligations.
At a conference held earlier this week the Commissioner General of the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority Gershem Pasi said that at the start of next year the government will begin rolling out new electronic monitoring devices aimed at ensuring that businesses are paying all necessary taxes.
The new devices will be installed inside businesses, at points of sales, and inside mobile services such as taxis, and will provide real-time logging of all sales, transactions, product and service types, cash taken, and payments made.
The collected data will be remitted in real-time back to tax authorities for inspection and analysis.
The new monitoring system will help businesses to comply with their tax filing and payment obligations, and will increase the difficulty of hiding transactions in order to forego tax payments.
It was also noted that the new devices will be setup in a manner which will lead to a notification being sent to the tax authority if any attempts are made to turn-off or tamper with the monitoring device or transmissions made back to tax authorities.
Photo by: Kenny Louie


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Nickelodeon has pulled a popular SpongeBob app from the App Store amidst a consumer group's privacy complaint.
Apple iOS users who have already downloaded SpongeBob Diner Dash can still access the game, but it is currently not available in Apple's store. "We elected to voluntarily take the app down while we investigate the complaint," a Nickelodeon spokesman said in a statement.
On Monday, the Center for Digital Democracy (CDD) filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission, which asked the agency to "investigate and bring action against" Nickelodeon and developer PlayFirst for deceptive marketing and violations of the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).
According to CDD, the SpongeBob Diner Dash app description says it complies with COPPA. "However, as CDD's filing documents, Nickelodeon and PlayFirst engage in several practices that are clear violations of the children's privacy law," the group said.
COPPA bans online services from collecting information from children under the age of 13 without parental consent; (hence why Facebook does not allow kids under 13). CDD said that the SpongeBob Diner Dash game "asks children to provide a wide range of personal information, including full name, email address, and other online contact information, without providing notice to parents or obtaining prior parental consent." The app also does not adequately explain what information is collected.
The complaint asks the FTC to investigate how the app collects data, its privacy policies, and how it might use mobile marketing technologies like unique device identifiers (UDIDs) and "device tokens" for push notifications.
"It is disturbing to learn that a well known children's brand such as Nickelodeon is flouting basic privacy protections for children. Even more troubling, Nickelodeon tells parents that it complies with the law protecting children's privacy when it does not," said Laura Moy, an attorney at Georgetown Law's Institute for Public Representation (IPR), which prepared the complaint on behalf of CDD.
The complaint comes shortly after the FTC released a report that found app makers are failing to provide parents with adequate information about how their apps collect and distribute information about children. Mobile apps are siphoning an "alarming" amount of data about kids without disclosure, the FTC said last week.
"As the FTC report last week on children's mobile apps revealed, this industry is not taking seriously its obligations under COPPA," said Jeff Chester, CDD's executive director. "The Commission needs to step up its enforcement actions and adopt new rules that will address the growing threats to children's privacy in the expanding mobile marketplace."
For more from Chloe, follow her on Twitter @ChloeAlbanesius.


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Car sales expected to dive after vehicles are pre-registered to dodge new emissions rules
Stricter tests for vehicle emissions mean sales have been suffering during the traditionally strong plate-change month of September
Strong new car sales figures posted in August are likely to crash in September, after artificially high levels were caused by dealers pre-registering vehicles.
It’s suspected that impressive highs of 94,094 registrations are merely a response to new WLTP regulations, with manufacturers keen to offload vehicles before they became noncompliant on September 1.
The Worldwide Harmonised Light Vehicle Testing Procedure, or WLTP, came into full force on September 1 – and all new vehicles registered after this date are required to conform to the system’s strict new testing procedure for fuel consumption, CO2 and pollutant emissions.
However, rather than risk having hundreds of non-WLTP compliant cars to deal with, manufacturers have inundated dealers with pre-registered models instead.
Pre-registering refers to car dealers registering cars themselves, before selling them on as ultra-low mileage used vehicles, normally at a large discount. In this case, it also allowed them to circumvent WLTP regulations, which would have seen a great number of cars left unable to be registered without being put through a costly testing process.
New car registration data showed the true picture, with a 23.1 per cent jump in August over the previous year. Used car buying website Auto Trader saw a 22 per cent rise in the number of cars with fewer than 100 miles on the clock, further indicating large numbers of pre-reg cars.
Ian Plummer, director at Auto Trader, said: “We’ve seen more tactically registered new cars advertised each month, and can only assume there are more out in the market.”
Dealers are now expecting a sales plunge in September, against the market’s usual upward trend. With September being one of two months when number plates change, it usually sees a sales boost.
Even new vehicles aren’t immune, with several model ranges being taken off sale until they’re made WLTP-compliant. Some vehicles, such as the Volkswagen Golf R, have had small reductions in power, while others such as the BMW M3 have been canned altogether, with the cost of conformity considered too great.
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Why buy local?
Because you can.
There are several small, local businesses in our area who really really need our help this holiday season.
Small businesses are the foundation of our economy half of America’s workers either own or work for a small business. Buying gifts close to home affords us the opportunity to support our friends and neighbors who are growing our local economy.
Small businesses have generated two out of every three net new jobs over the past 15 years and employ over half of all private sector employees. These small-business are creating jobs, while boosting our unsteady economy. They are also preserving our neighborhoods for generations to come.
Tyler County has been blessed with a bevy of small business offerings, including and an award winning condiment company and several highly talented crafters and artisans. If we are spending money, why not support the local economy, too! It’s a win-win!
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In the same vein, businesses in Sistersville will come together on Thursday, Dec. 8 from 5-9 p.m. for a “Hometown Christmas” event.
There will be a “Cookie Contest” where a winner will be named for best cookie baked. Also, there will be a “Christmas House Decorating Contest” and an “Indoor Cornhole Contest”.
Applications for each contest will be available at the city building.
Best all of – the events are free!


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Experts in Coordination Council of Logistics shared their effective solutions and secrets of express improvements in logistics
The conference on Supply Chain Management and Warehouse Technology for the Present-Day Business was held as part of the STL. Systems for Transport and Logistics exhibition on May 12, 2016. The conference participants were over 120 representatives of trade, manufacturing and logistics companies. During the conference the industry experts got the most important questions answered.


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From indoor gardening fridges to personalised wardrobe mirrors, home appliances are getting smarter to make our lives easier.
Sunrise Consumer Correspondent Shaun White has been at CES, the largest consumer electronic show in the world, to see how incredible new technology is changing the way we dress, garden, travel and more.
Watch his report from Las Vegas in the clip above
Want more from Sunrise? Tap here!
Watch Sunrise on Channel 7 and stream it for free on 7plus >>
Stream Free on


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New reports indicate that Apple plans to ditch Intel and start making its own processors as early as 2020.
How to Use Your PS4 Controller With Your Laptop
Learn what you need and the steps you need to take to setup your PS4 Controller with your laptop so you can game with one of the best controllers on the market today.
How to Limit What Windows 10 Sends to Microsoft
Find out how to limit what Windows 10 sends to Microsoft so you can decide how much of your usage data gets sent to Microsoft to help it improve Windows 10.
Soon SMB support will be added to Chrome OS to give the platform native support for the popular file sharing platform.
A new Windows 10 Preview build has been released featuring two new features – Calendar Search and Cortana Show Me.
A new update to macOS High Sierra has finally added support for external GPUs, opening up new doors to VR, video editing and gaming on the Mac platform.
My first week with the Asus Chromebook Flip C302CA proves that Chromebooks can be used for much more than just the Internet.
It seems EA may be working on a new open world Star Wars game from the ashes of what Visceral created before their closing by EA.
President Trumps latest waves of tariffs aimed at China could drive up the cost of all goods that are produced and there and then imported into the United States.
In a new survey of developers from Stack Overflow, Linux has become the most popular development platform across the world.
The Spring Creators Update looks to bring some extensive new features to Windows 10 users.
A new MacBook Air could be coming in 2018 as rumors swirl that Apple is finally looking to update the aging line.
Learn about the five main things to look for in a gaming laptop so you know what you need to look for when shopping for a new gaming laptop.
Become a Mac OS expert with these useful tips and tricks for getting the most out of your Apple PC.
According to a new patent filed by Microsoft, the company could be hard at work to bring us a flexible screen laptop that is all touchscreen.
Split-screen Android apps are coming to Chrome OS in the next few months and a demo is already available for all to see online.
Learn everything you need to know to upgrade the RAM on your laptop and increase your laptops performance.
Stand a chance of winning a brand new Samsung Chromebook 2 with LaptopNinja.
New Intel graphics drivers hope to bring an improved gameplay experience that can be customized automatically for each game.
It’s another patch Tuesday and Microsoft has released the latest build update for all the supported versions of Windows in this latest update for Windows 10.
Lenovo has issued a voluntary recall of the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon after a loose screw was found that could damage the battery and potentially cause a fire.
New details including hardware specs, price, and a release data have been revealed for the SNES remake, Secret of Mana.
If you don’t have Windows 10, you won’t be able to run Office 2019. Microsoft has announced that the latest version of Office will require users to run Windows 10.
The latest version of the Linux, the Linux 4.15 kernel, has now gone stable.


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Chicken wings took off more than a decade ago, but after 25 consecutive quarters of same-store sales increases, East Coast Wings and Grill is proving that the trend still has legs. The concept was founded in 1995 in Winston-Salem, N.C., and in 2000 was taken over by the current chief executive, Steve Ballas, who believed it had potential as a family-oriented concept. East Coast Wings has since grown to 15 units throughout North Carolina, and Ballas expects to expand the chain into the ...
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The Fox Innovation Lab announces Alien: Covenant VR Experience! At the end of November, we reported on the possibility of Alien: Covenant receiving the Virtual Reality Experience treatment. According to various news outlets (Deadline, The Verge, Variety), it was announced at Consumer Electronics Show 2017 that, as we suggested, Fox Innovation Labs are indeed putting together an Alien: Covenant – VR Experience!
According to The Verge, the Alien: Covenant – VR Experience is “to be directed by David Karlak, the project will be a collaboration between Scott’s RSA Films, the virtual reality production house MPC VR, and the Fox Innovation Lab — Twentieth Century Fox’s in-house VR and immersive experience division. Described as a “dread-inducing journey into the depths of the Alien universe,” the project will be released this year, though further details on platforms and distribution strategy haven’t been announced as of yet.”
According to WWG, those in attendance at Consumer Electronics Show (CES) will get to experience a demo of the VR Experience. There doesn’t appear to be any solid release date or further information just yet.
The Fox Innovation Lab previously released a VR Experience based on Sir Ridley’s Scott last science-fiction film, The Martian. They also brought a VR Experience for the recently released Assassin’s Creed (starring Alien: Covenant’s Michael Fassbender) to a few cinemas in America.
Thanks to Willie Goldman and Prometheops for the news. Stick with Alien vs. Predator Galaxy for the latest on Alien: Covenant! You can follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to get the latest on your social media walls. You can also join in with fellow Alien fans on our forums!


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Sweden’s state-run betting monopoly reported falling revenue and profits in Q3 but expressed confidence in its ability to compete with new international competition in 2019.
This week, the state-owned Svenska Spel monopoly reported net gaming revenue of SEK2.12 (US$233m) in the three months ending September 30, a 2.3% decline from the same period last year. Profit was similarly down 2.2% to SEK1.17b.
The company blamed the shortfall on its Vegas video lottery terminal business, which reported revenue falling one-fifth. The decline spoiled an otherwise solid performance by Svenska Spel’s digital operations, which reported sales up 22% to SEK675m.
Digital sales accounted for nearly 32% of group revenue, up from 25% in Q3 2017. The company credited the surge to strong mobile growth (+42%), thanks to overall consumer trends, an improved user interface and enhanced mobile banking facilities.
Svenska Spel’s acting CEO Marie Loob, who is holding the chair warm until permanent CEO Patrik Hofbauer arrives in December, hailed the company’s “big success” during the 2018 FIFA World Cup. Loob (pictured) said Svenska Spel surpassed its goals for both sales and customer recruitment during the tournament, giving the company good momentum ahead of the Swedish online market’s liberalization on January 1, 2019.
That said, a Mediavision survey found that Svenska Spel was losing (badly) the fight for customers’ hearts and minds over the past 12 months, despite the Swedish government intervening to reduce international operators’ ability to market their wares to Swedish punters through local media.
For years, Svenska Spel’s leadership had publicly chafed at its inability to offer an online casino product that could compete with the internationally licensed sites that cater to Swedish punters. Those restrictions will no longer apply as of January 1 and Loob said her outfit was looking forward to “finally playing on equal terms” and offering products “that we and our customers have missed for a long time.”
As part of Sweden’s market shakeup, Svenska Spel is being split up into separate online, land-based gaming and lottery operations. The intention behind this separation is to avoid giving Svenska Spel an unfair advantage by allowing it to cross-market its wares via channels to which the new Swedish online licensees have no access. Loob called the efforts to separate the group’s internal connections the “largest IT project ever.”


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DUDLEY, England — ABS Holdings will host another edition of its ABS EXPOsed event next month on Nov. 7-8.
Our very first ABS Exposed event was held earlier this year, and was so popular (and so much fun) that we’ve decided to do it all again this November,” the company said. “Meet and mingle with our sales team and brand reps, and enjoy a light breakfast and lunch. We’ll be hosting a fun and informative day of product training workshops with the sales team and brand reps as well as a special guest speaker!”
Vendors participating in the event include Pipedream, Wicked, Rock Candy, Doc Johnson, Ox Balls, Perfect Fit, Bathmate, MLK, BMS, Nexus, Wet, Clandestine, Rocks Off, Doxy, Clone a Willy and Swiss Navy.
The event will be held at the Village Hotel Dudley.
“We’ve also secured an excellent hotel deal of just £95 per night (with breakfast) for those who attend,” the company said “There is limited availably of these, so be quick! To secure your space at our Dudley EXPOsed event, RSVP to your sales executive ASAP. Spaces are limited — we hope to see you there!”


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Billboard Advertising Cost is Big for Advertisers, but the Bigger Advertising Can Be Done More Effectively article The Advertisment Cost of the Biggest Brand in the World is Still Large enough to Affect the Advertisments Cost for the Bigest Advertisors article The Biggest Advertisor in the world, Facebook, is still the biggest brand on the internet and it is still worth billions of dollars.
Facebook is still a major source of ad revenue for the ad industry, despite being one of the most highly regulated brands in the United States.
In 2018, Facebook had an estimated annual revenue of over $60 billion, which is $1.5 billion more than Google had in 2018, according to a new study from AdTech Insights.
The study estimates that Facebook’s revenue of $18.8 billion is about $1 billion higher than the same year, and $4.5 million higher than Amazon’s.
Facebook’s growth is likely due to a number of factors including its growth in user growth, increased use of Messenger, and increased usage of Messenger’s native messaging app.
The number of people who use Messenger increased by nearly 300 percent over last year, while Messenger’s share of the world’s mobile phone conversation volume is still in the low-single digits.
Facebook also enjoys a large user base with more than 75 million users.
Facebook has expanded Messenger’s user base and reach through the introduction of Facebook Stories and the integration of Facebook into the Chrome browser.
Facebook Stories allows users to share photos, videos, and other content with one another, and is available on a variety of devices including phones, computers, and tablets.
The Facebook Stories integration allows users who have access to the Messenger app to see the content they share and add it to their news feeds.
A large number of users have embraced the integration with their Messenger accounts, including former Vice President Joe Biden.
Facebook users are also using Messenger to send and receive video messages, and have started to share their videos directly with the world through Facebook Live.
This is likely a key driver for the Facebook ad market growth.
Facebook Messenger is also becoming a huge revenue generator for brands.
Facebook owns more than half of the global ad market, according the latest data from eMarketer.
Facebook was ranked as the No. 1 mobile ad network by the adtech company in 2018.
With Messenger’s integration with the Chrome Web browser, the app has become a key platform for advertisers to promote their products.
In 2017, Facebook was the No


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Taylor Wimberly of Huawei Device USA has chimed in on Google+ to announce the company's plan to commit to a 2-year time frame of software updates. Starting this year, the company will provide new customers with access to new features for up to 24 months after device purchase.
Wimberly added that updates during the first year will be more frequent with new features coming out at least once every 3 months.
Since Android has been undergoing some security hurdles, Wimberly noted that software updates related to bug fixes and security will be provided in a timely manner.
Is this news for only honor devieces or also for other huawei models like p9, p9 lite, mate 8 etc
Nice, hope it will come true like they say.
I don't think I've owned a phone that lasted 2 years! S6 Edge lasted 9 months! I just bought a P8 in Bahamas from local carrier for US$240! Updated to 6.0 with a European update I downloaded and am good to go. Nice phone, no more Samsungs after S3, 2...


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Sept 10 - Syrian refugees in Jordan struggle as the value of the Syrian pound continues to drop, due to the ongoing war in their home country. David Pollard reports.
Money talks. But for now, the Syrian pound is increasingly silent. Last week, Syria ordered merchants and shopkeepers to price goods in their home currency - or face jail. But at this money shop in neighbouring Jordan, cash from its crisis-hit neighbour is worth less and less. (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) YASSER ABUSHEIKHA, OWNER OF THE ABUSHEIKHA EXCHANGE SHOP, SAYING: "One thousand Syrian pounds can't buy anything. Inflation exists and it may become worse. If the situation stays as it is, the Syrian pound may drop even further." Here's where they really feel the pinch. 120,000 Syrian refugees live in this camp - it's a daily struggle to get supplies. They need over 300 Syrian pounds to buy one Jordanian dinar - compared to just 60 before the crisis. (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) HUSSEIN HOURANI, SYRIAN OWNER OF A CURRENCY EXCHANGE SHOP, SAYING: "The Jordanian dinar is okay, the dollar is okay, everything is fine except the Syrian currency." The refugees believe they're only seeing a fraction of the hundreds of millions of dollars of international aid pledged. But one small comfort: some money traders are dispensing with their usual commissions - currently around 4 pounds for a trade against the dinar. (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) ABU ABDULRAHMAN, SYRIAN OWNER OF CURRENCY EXCHANGE SHOP IN THE CAMP, SAYING: "Here in the camp, in order to help our fellow citizens, we don't sell for 300. We remove the four pounds and sell for 296." As always in crisis zones - the greenback rules. Before the conflict, 50 Syrian pounds would buy one US dollar. Now it's anything up to 300 and - without a solution to the crisis - still rising


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Living in the States, it's easy to forget just how large a global presence Nokia has managed to maintain, in spite of some difficulties keeping up with the likes of iOS and Android. The company certainly had a presence at IFA this year, between its own booth and appearances in Vodafone's show offerings. And despite what detractors might say about the Finnish hardware manufacturer, it's hard to deny that the company has given us fine offerings on the hardware front.
The 701 doesn't have the most exciting build we've seen from the Nokia, but it certainly has a lot going for it, including a bright 3.5-inch display, steel backing, an eight megapixel camera and built-in NFC. On the software side, we're of course looking at Symbian Belle, with its customizable home screens, which is managed quite nicely with the smartphone's 1GHz processor. Check out our hands-on photos below.


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Google phone users rejoice as they’re finally launching their Pixel 6 series on October 19th. Tune in at 10 am PST that day for some exciting details of their new fall launch. On paper, a new season is here, and what better way to celebrate than with the latest in tech. This news follows the announcement of Google’s Tensor chipset last month.
Here’s a sneak peek at their latest edition below.
Now, the questions remain. Will it be available in my region? How is the live-action with processors? How will the cameras rank against the iPhone 13 line? The good thing is that the Tensor chipset was developed to enhance the photography and videography of the series so count on that. The Android 12 gave us a minimalist look we all died for and now the P6 series design may very well follow that up.
From the Twitter press photo leak, we can see that sleek pinhole camera and the very aesthetically pleasing color options. Past history of the phone line sees a bigger screen, bigger aspect ratio, full 24-bit depth for 16 million colors, and HDR support. The Corning Gorilla Glass 3 cover allows for top-notch viewing of the screen with all-day battery life. Equipped with fast charging and IP67 water and dust resistance, this could be Apple’s rival. Perhaps they’ll even keep the same Titan M security module and Pixel imprint. What if different could be better?


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McDonald’s (MCD) Chief Executive Don Thompson’s is having almost as much difficulty winning over investors as he is diners.
Case in point: this week’s olive branch to Wall Street.
Though Thompson promised to raise the company’s payout to shareholders by as much as 20% to $20 billion in the form of share buybacks and dividends, investors couldn’t care less. Shares of MCD company have slowly fallen for the past few days.
Wall Street had plenty of reasons to yawn at the company’s announcement, though, especially because Thompson was vague in his promises. For one thing, I am skeptical about the company’s enthusiasm for stock buybacks. The chain only purchased 18.7 million shares of MCD stock in 2013, at a cost of $1.8 billion — the least it has done since 2007, according to the company’s website. This makes no sense — McDonald’s stock, at least on paper, appears to be a bargain, making it a prime opportunity to buy back shares.
Of course, no shareholder is going to turn down a higher McDonald’s dividend. But McDonald’s dividend already offers a yield of 3.2%, which is far better than Burger King’s (BKW) 1.1%, Wendy’s (WEN) 2.4% and Yum Brand’s (YUM) 2%. Unless that dividend doubles, which seems unlikely, a bump in payout doesn’t make MCD stock look that much better.
McDonald’s plans to refranchise 1,500 restaurants outside the U.S. is a smart idea and should generate a decent amount of cash. But it’s not exactly groundbreaking. Both Burger King and Wendy’s undertook refranchisings last year. What took McDonald’s so long to catch-up to its rivals?
Though MCD stock trades at cheap price-to-earnings multiple of about 18 and comes with a sweet enough dividend, I just can’t recommend buying the stock. The company, which was known as innovator, now spends far too much time playing catch-up to its rivals. People might not lose much money buying MCD stock, but they won’t gain much either. Pundits keep waiting for MCD’s next big thing, and they are still waiting. They’ll be waiting for a long time.
The Real Problem for MCD Stock
Finally, all the fiscal gymnastics in the world don’t address the company’s core problem: people don’t like McDonald’s food. McDonald’s hasn’t had a hit product since Ronald McDonald graduated clown college. The last good idea that the chain had may have been McCafe from 2009, which in the fast-paced world of fast-food might as well be the Paleolithic era.
Ever since then, the company’s batting average for new products has been awful. Remember the Angus Third Pounder? No? Don’t feel bad, because few people ordered the high-priced menu item which was unceremoniously dropped last year. Though I like the Premium McWrap Chicken sandwiches, they aren’t exactly flying off the shelves, either, and neither are the variations on the Quarter Pounder introduced last year.
U.S. monthly same store sales did end their 5-month skid in April, but don’t pop the champagne corks just yet. The 1.2% gain was mainly the result of gains in China, where market leader Yum Brands is struggling to regain the trust of consumers spooked by concerns about the safety of the food at its KFC locations.
MCD Sales in the U.S. were flat, which is hardly better than being down. This has to be disheartening for McDonald’s, which has been giving away free coffee to drive traffic. And the company might be in for even more pain, given the buzz generated by Taco Bell’s new breakfast menu and fierce competition from other rivals. Breakfast is both the fastest-growing and most profitable segment for many restaurant chains. If McDonald’s loses ground here, it’s in serious trouble.
If MCD is serious about its “Plan to Win,” it has a lot of work ahead of it. Franchisees are furious with the chain over increasing fees and a ballooning menu chock full of items that few people order. Its customer service remains dismal. (I eat at McDonald’s more than I should, and my orders are messed up regularly.) The company’s drive-throughs are also the slowest in the quick service restaurant industry. Even more worrisome is that Millennials, a key demographic for fast-food operators, are avoiding the chain for healthier alternatives such as Chipolte (CMG).
While higher dividends and more stock buyback are nice, shareholders want to see McDonald’s post meaningful growth. But MCD stock seems unable to deliver.
As of this writing, Jonathan Berr did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.


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Capstone Partners advised Lantern, a revolutionary financial technology company, on its acquisition by a leading financial lending corporation. The buyer was not disclosed.
You have two of the best-of-breed companies in their respective markets and by combining the technology with the buyer’s footprint will provide a very differentiated offering in the marketplace.
The seller offers a flexible platform that uses transformative technology to empower customers in their credit decision-making process. They are a financial technology company partnering with lenders, banks, strategic partners, and credit reporting agencies to provide a proprietary platform that enhances the existing financial infrastructure.
The buyer provides tailored financial products and solutions to several hundred thousand members for borrowing, saving, spending, investing, and protecting their income.
This is one of several transactions Capstone has recently advised in the Fintech industry.


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You may have heard that local Internet service providers PLDT and Globe Telecom are now offering ultra-fast fiber broadband service to residents in select upscale condominiums and communities in Metro Manila.
What may have escaped your notice, however, is that SkyCable has also updated its broadband offerings to lure higher-paying customers who want faster Internet speeds sans the constraints of a monthly data cap.
SkyCable’s broadband offers should be available to more Metro Manila residents, as opposed to fiber connections that have limited reach at the moment.
SkyCable’s high-speed and unlimited subscriptions start at P2,000 a month for 16Mbps speeds and goes up to P30,000 monthly for 300Mbps speeds. All subscriptions come with a 24-month lock-in and free access to video-streaming platforms HBO Go and Sky On Demand.
Those prices may sound steep, at least compared to Globe’s fiber-based offers, which start at P2,500 for a 50Mbps connection, but do take note that SkyCable’s existing broadband network relies on coaxial cables, not fiber-optic cables, to transmit data.
That means it should be available to more Metro Manila residents, including current SkyCable customers, as opposed to fiber-to-the-home connections that have limited reach at the moment.
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CHINA: To western children, Disney is a fairytale world of talking mice and princesses. To Chinese children, sometimes it means working from 8am to 10pm, handling chemicals without protection, being chastised for failing to hit production targets and eating unhealthy food.
Staff at two factories making Disney toys for Westerners employed children between the ages of 14 and 16 in breach of local labour laws and the entertainment giant’s own code of conduct, according to a report by China Labour Watch, a United States non-governmental organisation.
Adults and children worked 12-hour days in “unacceptable conditions”, said the 25-page document. One factory was making Winnie the Pooh and Piglet toys, the other was making Disney dolls and stamps.
The organisation launched the undercover investigation because problems had been found before at factories producing Disney-branded goods.
In 1996, another non-governmental organisation, the US National Labour Committee, detailed abuses at Haiti suppliers in a report called “The US in Haiti: How to Get Rich on 11c an Hour”.
Last year, China Labour Watch found breaches of working hours, wage and contract laws at a factory in Guangdong producing Disney gifts after a 17-year-old worker had been crushed to death in machinery.
To check working conditions, China Labour Watch randomly selected two plants making Disney-branded merchandise, and sent in undercover investigators and interviewed staff. Working hours were excessively long – up to 330 a month – sometimes working seven days in a row.
Workers were supplied with gloves for handling hazardous chemicals but did not wear them because it made their work rate too slow. As a result, some developed skin rashes, while others had layers of skin “falling off”.
After deductions for accommodation, meals and water, one factory paid about three yuan (50c) an hour.
Disney said it sent investigators into the factories this week. A spokeswoman said: “Clearly, conditions outlined in this report are a breach of our labour standards and are unacceptable.”