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We should know more because HDA members (including some of the companies you work for) literally touch the products you develop, process, manufacture and outsource, and set them down safely and securely at the interface of the patient in the United States.
Here’s another reason I learned directly from Perry Fri, EVP, Industry Relations, Membership & Education at HDA and COO of the HDA Research Foundation: the industry research, surveys, data, and insight the organization generates for members – and the pharma community at large – is impressive, and can be put to good use.
Some of the most important work the HDA has undertaken recently has been its advocacy and leadership in DSCSA (Drug Supply Chain Security Act) creation and implementation.
But before we get to that, there’s another subject we might have given less thought to than warranted: “drug importation.”
Although until recently the HDA has been solely focused on domestic policy and supply chain, it has released an important analysis of current drug-importation plans.
Manufacture And Distribution
Fri describes the HDA as “the association for primary pharmaceutical wholesalers in the healthcare supply chain.” By “primary,” he refers to wholesalers buying from manufacturers who sell directly to dispensers. “They are a vital link in the supply chain, ensuring products safely and efficiently get to patients at the dispenser level,” he explains.
The largest of these are AmerisourceBergen Corporation, Cardinal Health, and McKesson. HDA also includes traditional, regional wholesalers, with examples such as Smith Drug (South Carolina), Morris & Dickson (Louisiana), Value Drug (Pennsylvania), and Dakota Drug (Minnesota), and companies such as Henry Schein, a large med-service distributor in the physician space.
Specific to Outsourced Pharma readers, what makes HDA unique is its “very involved manufacturer-associate membership.” Fri says there are 135 manufacturers, ranging from the largest public pharma companies to companies just launching products, as well as 50 service-provider and international members.
Manufacturer-member companies include entities engaged in developing, manufacturing or labeling of healthcare products. The membership is designed to build close relationships with wholesale distributors, and share expertise with the industry through member events.
Fri says another reason manufacturers join HDA “is the work we do on the supply-chain side to help make processes, operations, and technology more standardized, and more effective in the way those companies interact with one another.”
During my conversation with Fri, it seemed no matter the topic of discussion, HDA had some form of research report on the subject.
The day we spoke, HDA released “The Role of Distributors in the US Health Care Industry,” an analysis highlighting distributors’ value, which concludes providing “between $33 and $53 billion in cost savings annually to the U.S. healthcare ecosystem.”
Regarding DSCSA specifically, I was pointed to a recent survey on manufacturer serialization readiness, which we’ll cover in detail next time.
And when I mentioned the drugs that make their way to the U.S. from outside the country, I was provided a copy of the HDA Research Foundation’s report, “The Risks and Realities of Commercial Drug Importation.” What Fri and this report have to say on the subject warrant our immediate attention.
Fri clarifies that HDA member companies are not involved with importing material or products from abroad – manufacturers themselves are responsible for bringing the drugs into the U.S.
Nonetheless, the HDA Foundation has put together a report on what challenges we might face should the U.S. decide on currently discussed plans (in Congress and elsewhere) for “drug importation.” These plans would allow drugs manufactured and packaged abroad, and intended for foreign markets, to reach U.S. patients as well.
The subtitle of this report is “An End-to-End Analysis of Drug Importation Policy on Patient Safety and the Pharmaceutical Supply Chain” (posted here).
The final analysis is stark: The currently proposed drug importation policies would come up well short of meeting “current safety and quality standards for drugs in the U.S. Proposed importation policies likely place the integrity of the commercial supply chain at risk.”
“What we’ve seen,” says Fri regarding these discussed initiatives, “not only by the U.S. president, but also individual states aimed at lowering the cost of drugs, is in fact importation creates opportunity for unsafe practices, and the potential for counterfeited or diverted drugs to enter our supply chain. These ideas effectively take away some of the responsibility and coverage that the FDA has with manufacturers and packagers today,” he adds.
The report stipulates countries would need to have similar regulatory frameworks for us to actually be able to import products, and we would most likely have to exclude biologics and other hard-to-handle drugs. Opioids, for example, and drugs with external patent protection in the U.S., would also have to be excluded.
“Therefore,” concludes Fri, “when you start defining this, you realize maybe it's five EU countries and Canada we could import from, also because they're actually close enough to ship product efficiently. But looking at specific product categories, you realize maybe only 20% of the U.S. drug market would actually be at risk of competition from imported drugs, and those are probably in product categories where drug pricing is not a major concern.”
We’ll cover the HDA’s DSCSA manufacturer readiness report in a following editorial, but it’s important to wrap up our conversation on drug importation, with something John Parker, HDA’s Senior Vice President of Communications, told me regarding proposals:
“They do not take into account – or at best only in a passing way – the new DSCSA. A structured system to further enhance the integrity of the drug supply chain is being implemented — and now we are going to create this other importation pathway that doesn’t align or sync up with DSCSA and the new regulatory framework?
“By affecting supply chain operations and the high standards that exist today, drug-importation policy could adversely impact the quality and safety of drugs and ultimately patient health.”
Parker gives an example: “A drug is manufactured for Germany. Packaging and labeling are in German; it’ll include a numbering system that applies to German regulatory standards – nothing to do with the NDC [national drug code] or embedded serial numbers in the U.S.”
If anything else, this certainly sounds like a large step back from current efforts at traceability in the U.S.
An outcome none of us should accept.
Next up: An analysis of the HDA report on the state of manufacturers’ DSCSA readiness.


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Queen Elizabeth II is banning plastic straws and bottles across the royal estates.
The Telegraph reported that the monarch is behind Buckingham Palace's plans to phase out single-use plastics from public cafes, royal residences and staff dining rooms.
Royal caterers will instead use china plates and glasses or recyclable paper cups. Takeaway food from the Royal Collection cafes must be made of compostable or biodegradable packaging.
"Across the organization, the Royal Household is committed to reducing its environmental impact," a palace spokesman said, according to the Telegraph.
"As part of that, we have taken a number of practical steps to cut back on the use of plastics. At all levels, there's a strong desire to tackle this issue."
The Queen was reportedly inspired to take action after working with famed naturalist Sir David Attenborough on a conservation documentary about wildlife in the Commonwealth.
The Royal family is dedicated to a number of environmental causes. Last year, Prince Charles helped launch a $2 million competition to stop the 8 million tons of plastics from entering our oceans each year, which Charles described as an "escalating ecological and human disaster."
British lawmakers are also urging for more action to fight plastic pollution. A ban on microbeads came into force in Britain last month, an initiative that will "stop billions of pieces of plastic entering our ecosystem, helping to protect our precious seas and oceans," Prime Minister Theresa May tweeted then.
In 2015, a 5p (5 British pennies) fee was introduced on plastic carrier bags, which led to 9 billion fewer bags being used.
"It's making a real difference," May said of the bag fee. "We want to do the same with single use plastics."
Many businesses in the UK are getting on board with cutting out plastics. Starbucks recently introduced a 5p disposable cup charge in 20 to 25 central London outlets to encourage customers to switch to reusable cups. And Iceland Foods, a major UK supermarket chain specializing in frozen food, announced that it will eliminate plastic packaging from its own brand of products by the end of 2023.
EcoWatch Daily Newsletter
By Alina Petre, MS, RD (CA)
Veganism refers to a way of living that attempts to minimize animal exploitation and cruelty. For this reason, vegans aim to exclude all foods containing meat, poultry, fish, eggs, dairy and honey from their diet (1).
'Finally!': Court Orders EPA to Stop Stalling Potential Ban on Pesticide Tied to Brain Damage in Kids
By Jessica Corbett
In a ruling welcomed by public health advocates, a federal court on Friday ordered the Trump administration to stop stalling a potential ban on a pesticide linked to brain damage in children, giving regulators until mid-July to make a final decision.
At EcoWatch, our team knows that changing personal habits and taking actions that contribute to a better planet is an ongoing journey. Earth Day, happening on April 22, is a great reminder for all of us to learn more about the environmental costs of our behaviors like food waste or fast fashion.
To offer readers some inspiration this Earth Day, our team rounded up their top picks for films to watch. So, sit back and take in one of these documentary films this Earth Day. Maybe it will spark a small change you can make in your own life.
By Shuchi Talati
Solar geoengineering describes a set of approaches that would reflect sunlight to cool the planet. The most prevalent of these approaches entails mimicking volcanic eruptions by releasing aerosols (tiny particles) into the upper atmosphere to reduce global temperatures — a method that comes with immense uncertainty and risk. We don't yet know how it will affect regional weather patterns, and in turn its geopolitical consequences. One way we can attempt to understand potential outcomes is through models.
By Julia Conley
Green groups on Saturday celebrated the latest federal ruling aimed at preventing President Donald Trump from rolling back environmental regulations that were put in place by his predecessor.
By Tim Radford
Scientists have identified yet another hazard linked to the thawing permafrost: laughing gas. A series of flights over the North Slope of Alaska has detected unexpected levels of emissions of the greenhouse gas nitrous oxide from the rapidly warming soils.

domain: news


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The merger between Yamanouchi and Fujisawa is the first step towards creating a global mega-player, but additional tie-ups will be required if the new entity is to join the top tier of multinational pharmaceutical companies.
And at a press conference to announce the merger, executives from both Yamanouchi and Fujisawa said that further deals could not be ruled out.
Market research firm Datamonitor notes that the relatively small size of Japanese pharma players means that independent overseas growth can only take them so far, with international subsidiaries lacking the scale to promote a blockbuster drug.
Following the completion of its merger with Fujisawa in April 2005, Yamanouchi will be the second largest Japanese pharmaceutical company, with global sales of around $7.6 billion (€6bn), compared with Takeda's $9 billion, for the year ended March 2003.
The transaction follows the increasingly intense competition Japanese players are now facing in their domestic market, while overseas players have targeted Japan as a new growth opportunity now that barriers to western firms' entry have been removed.
Recent merger and acquisition deals between western and domestic companies demonstrate the increased interest. In 2001, Roche bought more than half of Chugai Pharmaceutical for $1.2 billion, while last year Merck & Co spent about $1.5 billion to buy the 49 per cent of Banyu Pharmaceutical that it did not already own. And following its merger with Pharmacia, Pfizer now has the largest sales force in Japan, boasting over 3,000 reps. But merger talks between major Japanese drugs companies - including negotiations between Taisho and Tanabe and Teijin and Kyorin - have come to nothing.
As a result, domestic players have been driven toward international markets to maintain sales growth, and both Yamanouchi and Fujisawa have overseas operations. Based on Datamonitor's analysis of 17 Japanese companies, Fujisawa and Yamanouchi receive the second and fourth highest proportion of total sales from overseas markets, respectively. Despite this, neither has the scale to promote a blockbuster drug and both have alliances with western companies to promote their drugs in global markets.
The tie-up can therefore be seen as defending the firms' position in Japan against the threat from western companies. It is also a step towards building an independent global presence, although its combined sales mean the operation will still only rank 17th on a global scale.


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It follows plans by the global company to invest more heavily in digital media in response to changing media consumption habits.
In a statement released this week, the fast-moving consumer goods giant, one of the largest buyers of media in the world, confirmed it is taking part in one of its "regular reviews", designed to find "new and improved ways" to spend its advertising budget.
The company claims it has "excellent" working relationships with the media agencies on its global roster, which include Omnicom's OMD in the UK and Havas' MPG and Publicis Groupe's ZenithOptimedia elsewhere.
The review will be conducted on a market-by-market basis and is being led by Ian Hutchinson, worldwide media director of Reckitt Benckiser. He said: "The profile and direction of Reckitt Benckiser's spend has changed over the past few years and, as part of this, the type of service and skills we require both internally and from our agencies has also changed.
"We are always exploring with our partners, better ways to support our brands and always pushing for higher creativity in content and delivery."
It is unclear at this stage whether the pitch process will be opened to include non-roster agencies.
Reckitt Benckiser is the name behind many well-known packaged goods brands in the household and specialty food products industries. It employs 23,000 staff at operations in 60 countries, and its products are sold across 180.
Last year, the company defied the general trend and increased its media spend by almost 30% despite the global financial downturn.
This week, it has restated its intention to continue to support its brands throughout the tough climate and its belief that, in such times, targeted investment in advertising is "key to the future growth" of the company.
The firm said: "Our commercial success lies in the fact that we constantly work with our agencies to review the opportunities available to us, and to ensure that we remain ahead of the market in our use and understanding of all the options.
"Nowhere is this more important than in the field of media, where we must reflect not just rapidly changing technology but also changing consumer habits, social attitudes and trends."
Reckitt Benckiser reported like-for-like net revenue increased 8% in the three months to 21 December, despite many parts of the world officially falling into recession.
In its full-year results, like-for-like revenue was up 10%, with net revenue increasing 7% in Europe, said to be driven by its 17 "powerbrands".
In 2009, the company is aiming for a net revenue increase of 4% to about £6.5bn, and a net income rise of +8 to 10%, equating to £1.1bn.


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Email security specialist Tumbleweed has unveiled a new strategy to take its products into different vertical markets, such as local government, retail and manufacturing. Until now, Tumbleweed said...
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IDC’s converged systems tracker for Q1 2020 shows resilient demand despite the early effects of the pandemic.
The status quo remained the status quo, with VMware leading Nutanix, and HP and Cisco duking it out a long way behind.
The market segment revenue splits were:
- HCI – $1.95bn revenues, 8.3 per cent growth Y/Y, 50.9 per cent revenue market share
- Certified Reference Systems & Integrated Infrastructure – $1.46bn revenues, 4.4 per cent growth, 36.8 per cent market share
- Integrated Platforms – $478m, -8.7 per cent decline, 12.3 per cent share.
Sebastian Lagana, IDC research manager, said in a statement: “While the hyperconverged system market continued to expand as enterprises seek to take advantage of software-defined infrastructure, the Certified Reference Systems and Integrated Infrastructure segment posted its best quarter of growth since 2Q19 on the strength of richly configured platform sales related to demanding workloads in industries such as healthcare and telecoms.”
Let’s look at the trends with this chart of the converged systems market.
The Certified Reference Systems boost is accompanied by an HCI drop but this is only a quarter-on-quarter change and may not be significant.
A closer look at the top three HCI vendors reveals a quarter-on-quarter revenue drop by the two leaders and also by Cisco. HPE’s Q/Q change is unclear because IDC is not revealing all its numbers as HPE weaves in and out of a top three spot where it ties for third place with Cisco.
We have charted the revenues of these suppliers over the past few quarters using revenue attributed to the owner of the HCI software rather than IDC’s measure of revenue by HCI brand.
Basically, apart from the first 2020 quarter pandemic hit causing revenues to fall, there’s little or no change in the vendors’ relative positions. (Revenues from other contenders such as those from Pivot3 and Scale Computing, are too low to show in IDC’s public tables.)
Let’s check if HCI is taking more revenue from the overall external storage market. The Q1 IDC numbers for both storage categories are:
- HCI – $1.95bn revenue; 8.3 per cent change Y/Y.
- External storage – $6.52bn revenue, -8.2 per cent change Y/Y.
Charting the trends to see the longer term picture shows a pretty consistent gap between the two.
External storage sales are much more seasonal than HCI sales. Note the Q4 peaks on external storage sales, but there is no general sign yet of HCI sales eating into external storage sales.


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Japan is the birthplace of Sony and the PlayStation, so it is not surprising that in this market, the Sony console often outperforms the Microsoft set-top box in sales. However, the situation changed last week.
According to sources, last week the Xbox console was ahead of the PlayStation in sales, and this happened for the first time in eight years.
We are talking about weekly sales, so in a normal situation this information would hardly be interesting, but still such an important achievement for Microsoft is worth attention.
True, the point is not at all in the decline in demand for the PS5 and the growth in demand for the Xbox, but simply in the availability of one or another set-top box. Actually, it is the offer that has been the main factor for the entire year and a half since the launch of the current generation consoles.
So, to the numbers. Last week, only 2693 PS5 consoles were sold in Japan, only 105 Xbox Series X consoles were sold, while the Series S sold 6120 units. That is, it was the younger Microsoft console that bypassed the Sony consoles.
For comparison, in the two weeks from April 25 to May 8, more than 46,000 PS5 consoles were sold. That is, their availability was simply many times higher. And the Xbox Series S sold 10,610 units.
In any case, the undisputed leader remains the Nintendo Switch. Last week, 35,868 Switch OLEDs, 20,443 Switch units and 9011 Switch Lite units were sold.
Windows 11’s share on Steam has fallen, but not for long
Microsoft’s latest operating system is quite popular among gamers. However, according to recent statistics published by Valve on the digital distribution platform Steam, the popularity of Windows 11 is declining.
Windows 10 has recovered from falling below 56% in August 2023. Microsoft’s not-so-new operating system now holds nearly 57.97%, up 1.99 percentage points from the previous month.
At the same time, the share of Windows 11 fell from 39.22% in August to 37.43%. Windows 11 and 10 together account for more than 95% of all Steam users. However, the situation will soon change, as Valve plans to stop supporting OS versions released before Windows 10 in January 2024. This step will be taken due to the recent end of support for Chromium in Windows 7 and 8.
So, the full rating looks like this:
- Windows 10 64-bit – 57.97%
- Windows 11 – 37.43%
- Windows 7 64-bit – 1.23%
- Windows 8.1 64-bit – 0.18%
- Windows 7 32-bit – 0.06%
The market shares of other operating systems on Steam are similar to Windows 7. 1.43% use macOS and 1.63% use Linux.
GeForce RTX 3060 is officially the most popular video card among gamers on Steam
Valve has published another statistics for the Steam service. This time based on the results of the end of September.
And the changes this time are quite noticeable. GeForce RTX 3060 has finally become the clear leader in the rating. Now this card is available to 6.27% of gamers on Steam, and in just a month its share has grown by 1.4 percentage points, which is a lot.
Let us remind you that formally the leader has been the GTX 1650 lately, but, as we have said more than once, in fact it was the RTX 3060 about six months ago, because before the RTX 30 line, Steam statistics combined mobile and desktop adapters of the same name into one position. That is, the share of the GTX 1650 is the total share of the mobile and desktop GTX 1650. While in the case of the RTX 3060 there is a desktop card, which occupies the same 6.27%, as well as the mobile RTX 3060 Laptop, which has another 3.83% at this time moment.
If we return to the rating, the GTX 1650 is in second place with a share of 4.78%, and the RTX 2060 closes the top three with a share of 4.69%, which has surpassed the GTX 1060.
Extra frame adders from AMD and Nvidia were compared in one game. FSR 3 vs DLSS 3 can now only be pitted in Immortals of Aveum
FSR 3’s supersampling technology with Fluid Motion Frames (AFMF) was tested in the game Immortals of Aveum, comparing different modes, and at the same time comparing with DLSS 3. Currently, this is the only game where you can directly compare DLSS 3 and FSR 3.
If we talk specifically about this comparison, then on the RTX 4090 video card, activating FSR 3 gives a greater performance increase, while the 1% Low and 0.2% Low indicators are less than those of DLSS 3.
In both cases, there were stutters and other manifestations of lack of performance, which was due to poor optimization of the game as a whole, but in the case of DLSS 3 there were still fewer problems.
Another interesting feature is that the game allows you to enable FSR 3 while also enabling Nvidia Reflex to reduce latency.
As for image quality, the authors from WCCF Tech did not notice any particular difference. At the same time, Nvidia DLAA cannot be enabled in the game, but FSR AA can be activated, which improves image clarity. As a reminder, there is no scaling in these modes.
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Unhealthy habit: Sales of cigarettes to children are up by 50 per cent according to new figures
Sales of cigarettes to under-age children have increased by almost 50 per cent in the last year, an investigation suggests.
One retailer in five was found to be breaking the law during a six-month operation by trading standards officers from across England.
Under-age volunteers had even greater success with coin-operated vending machines, buying cigarettes on more than four in ten attempts without anyone intervening.
Some councils reported a 100 per cent failure by supervisors to prevent youngsters using them.
The findings prompted council leaders to call for a ban on such machines.
While they account for less than one per cent of cigarette sales, research suggests around one in six underage smokers considers them an 'easy target' compared with over-the-counter sales, the Local Government Association said.
Almost a quarter of independent newsagents surveyed illegally sold tobacco products to under-18s, risking a £2,500 fine if caught.
David Rogers of the LGA warned that under-age smokers were using vending machines after being turned away elsewhere.
He said: 'Banning coin-operated machines would mean they are no longer the easy target for young people that these shocking figures show they clearly are.'
Cllr Geoffrey Theobald, chairman of the Local Authorities Co-ordinators of Regulatory Services (Lacors), said: 'Despite the progress council trading standards teams have made in recent years on cutting underage sales, this worrying increase shows that retailers are not doing enough to make sure they aren't selling cigarettes to kids.
'This isn't rocket science and it isn't anything new for retailers. If they suspect someone is underage who can't prove otherwise, then they must refuse to serve them or face the consequences.
'Council trading standards officers will not hesitate to prosecute retailers who persistently flout the law and damage the health of young people by illegally selling cigarettes to children.'
A number of councils reported a 100 per cent failure rate in preventing young people from buying cigarettes from the machines.


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Once again, Apple Computer has looked competition squarely in the face and, to borrow an American football metaphor, punted on third and long.
The Power of Apple’s Eye — Apple last Monday announced its acquisition of leading Mac OS clone manufacturer Power Computing’s "core assets," including the customer database, key personnel, and Power Computing’s Mac OS license. In return, the private investors who bankrolled Power Computing get $100 million in Apple common stock. That’s more than half of what Power Computing valued itself at – in late June, the company announced now-withdrawn IPO plans to sell three million shares of stock at $8 to $10 per share, out of an authorized 17,720,000 shares, giving an initial total market value of between $142 million and $177 million.
Power’s investors may think that the $100 million in Apple stock is a good deal, considering how difficult Apple was making their future business plans. Apple’s Mac OS licensing has all but ground to a halt under the xenophobic administration of Steve Jobs – and more seriously, the company has also stopped all licensing that would let clone makers design their own motherboards. Monday’s announcement is the latest sign that Apple is reliving the past, choosing any route feasible to avoid the most fundamental task of a public corporation: competition.
Chip Wars — Power Computing, although suffering some initial quality and timeliness problems, has been kicking Apple’s six-colored posterior in both performance and public opinion. Using blazingly fast state-of-the-art PowerPC chips that aren’t available in the quantities Apple needs for global manufacturing, Power Computing has built a reputation for making the fastest computers on the planet, offering 225 MHz and 250 MHz models that beat Pentium Pro speeds earlier this year. The company’s latest offerings include systems based on the new "third-generation" PowerPC 750 processor from Motorola, and preliminary results show that these systems, which start at 275 MHz, may be twice as fast as the older 250 MHz machines thanks to the incredible performance gains in the PowerPC family over the past two years, including the new chip’s advanced cache architecture.
Apple, on the other hand, has no systems ready to go using these new chips, often still referred to by the code-name Arthur. Instead, Apple’s latest systems are based on the Mach 5 PowerPC processor, the latest incarnation of the PowerPC 604e, with speeds up to 350 MHz. The Mach 5 chips are fast – faster on a per-megahertz basis in systems than the 604e chips they replace thanks to better caches – but they’re not as fast as Arthur processors, and they’re more expensive. That leaves Apple’s fastest systems, historically those with the fattest profit margins, in extreme danger of irrelevance at the hands of Apple’s own licensees.
Licensing Theory and Reality — Theoretically, Apple shouldn’t care, because licensing should be a profitable business that grows the Mac OS market and makes the platform healthier. In reality, Apple’s licensing agreements, spanning the terms of the last two CEOs (Michael Spindler and Gil Amelio), give Apple fees based only on Apple’s cost to produce and support the Mac OS, not based on the value it has to the clone makers. Apple was apparently trying to match the relatively low per-computer charges that Microsoft charges for Windows, but in the process Apple virtually guaranteed that only by expanding the Mac OS market could licensing be profitable. If a clone manufacturer went after existing Apple customers, instead of into the areas Apple couldn’t reach but felt other companies might, then the lost hardware profits would more than offset the licensing revenue.
To Apple’s ongoing annoyance, this is in large part what Power Computing was doing. In an effort to build a reputation, Power Computing focused its marketing efforts on existing Apple and Macintosh customers. Once Apple had done the relatively difficult job of selling customers on the Mac OS instead of Windows, Power Computing went for the jugular and convinced these folks to buy the Mac OS systems from them instead of Apple – especially the high-end systems, using those speedy chips Apple couldn’t get in sufficient quantities. Four months ago, Apple was selling 180 MHz machines with 512K Level 2 caches for more than Power Computing was selling 210 MHz machines with 1 MB of Level 2 cache.
With Apple losing money faster than ice melts in an Austin summer, the company had to take remedial steps. Apple’s average unit price hovers around $2,000, and the company enjoys a relatively steady 20 percent profit margin, so each sale lost to licensing cost around $400 in normal revenue (complete with all the risks, like building a bunch of machines and hoping someone buys them) and brought in around $50 of risk-free revenue (and perhaps three times that much in hardware royalties for motherboard licensing fees). It would seem obvious that licensing would never be as profitable as Apple’s own hardware sales, so the logical course of action for Apple would be to produce highly competitive machines that forced clone manufacturers scramble to keep up, while boosting licensing fees enough to at least accommodate cannibalized sales.
What About Competition? That, of course, is the logical way, not the Apple way. For a while, the two coincided under the reign of recently deposed CEO Gil Amelio. In a recent interview with MacAddict magazine, Amelio explained one reason he expressed support for Mac OS licensing was that Apple had to learn to compete. "Apple does not know how to compete. It knows how to innovate, but it doesn’t know how to compete, and they’re different. … [Apple’s] things are great, but in the final analysis, if you can’t compete, you can’t make it attractive in the marketplace, and if you can’t have people lusting after buying it, it doesn’t matter." Amelio intended that the company would learn, by fire if necessary, how business actually works.
Time and again, Apple’s products have been challenged by similar entries from competitors, and time and again Apple has either lost the battle or refused to show up for the fight. When Microsoft’s Windows brought many of the graphical Macintosh advantages to the DOS-based market for the first time, Apple focused less on improving than they did on avoiding competition by suing Microsoft, an ultimately unsuccessful strategy. When Windows 95 blurred the lines further, Apple responded with smug "Been there, done that" ads that did little to encourage any new computer purchaser to buck the Windows trend. Apple’s latest effort, Mac OS 8, includes "innovations" like pop-up windows, but those same windows were awarded patent protection for Apple four years before. A company that knows how to compete, as Amelio puts it, would not have waited so long to reap the benefits of innovation.
It’s easy to see why Amelio was asked in July to resign as Apple’s CEO and Chairman. The man makes far too much sense to survive in Apple management. In a late Monday press conference discussing the Power Computing asset purchase, Apple CFO and stand-in leader, Fred Anderson, made it clear that licensing is over as far as Apple is concerned. The company will honor existing agreements for Mac OS 7.6 (and clone manufacturers PowerTools and Umax have renegotiated licenses so they can distribute Mac OS 8) and existing motherboard designs that Apple has chosen to license. Apple has no intention of authorizing system manufacturers to use the CHRP specification to, for the first time, design their own motherboards instead of using Apple’s designs. Apple doesn’t even intend to release a version of the Mac OS capable of running on CHRP machines. The company insists that licensing was unprofitable, which is clearly the case, but rather than face the competitive market head on, they’re ending the game so they can declare themselves the winners.
Apple sees it differently. Executive vice-president of marketing Guerrino de Luca told the press conference that licensees were not expanding the Mac OS market and were not paying fees high enough to cover Apple’s entire cost of producing and marketing the Mac OS, including R&D, developer support and platform marketing. However, de Luca bristled at the suggestion that Apple is once again backing away from competition. "If you look at the economic consideration, every time a licensee shipped a clone, we were subsidizing that clone with several hundred dollars. We want to, and we will, compete fiercely in the marketplace (and in the PC marketplace as well), but we’re not planning to subsidize anybody in this competitive space. Actually, it is because we want to be able to compete that we’re taking this position."
The idea that Apple is subsidizing clone makers by charging low fees comes from looking in the mirror through rose-colored glasses. Apple is only subsidizing Mac OS licensees in that clone sales earn less for the company than Apple hardware sales, but there is no guarantee that the inability to purchase a Mac OS clone will return a customer to Apple: there are reasons why those customers left in the first place. Arrogantly, Apple is implying that Power Computing’s direct marketing and build-to-order sales system that are mainly responsible for defections from the mother ship; Apple discounts the idea that the well-received Power Computing machines had anything to do with it, and confirms as much when they say they have no plans to bring any in-progress Power Computing products to market.
Anderson says that Power Computing’s database of 200,000 Mac OS customers is a key asset in the purchase, and Apple expects to get a fair number of those purchasers back as customers. Yet Anderson also said that licensing was not expanding the Mac OS market, and that "99 percent" of clone purchasers were former Apple customers. If that’s the case, Apple already has their names, but hasn’t been building products strong enough to attract their sales dollars; purchasing updated name and address listings isn’t likely to change this situation.
The Source of the Problem — The real motive behind all this is far more suspect, and far less encouraging for Apple aficionados and Macintosh users. Henry Norr of MacWEEK magazine pointed out statements, on the record, that Apple had in June reached financial agreements on Mac OS 8 and CHRP licensing fees with Power Computing and other major clone makers, to be finalized by 28-Sep-97. These are the same agreements that Anderson and de Luca said Monday could not be achieved while still providing "shareholder value" to Apple. Norr asked what changed between June and July to make these term sheet agreements unprofitable, and Anderson confirmed most rumors on the subject: it was a "change in leadership."
Read that as "Steve Jobs." The Apple co-founder is now a "special advisor" to the board of directors, where he also has a seat, and is spending up to half his time setting directions and strategies for Apple, even though he turned down the job of Chairman and CEO. Jobs has reason to avoid the captain’s chair – with his current arrangement, he’s effectively running the show without a title and can exercise power without any responsibility… or any blame in case his vintage-1982 strategies turn sour. Jobs was always against licensing the Mac OS and was opposed even to having expansion slots in the machines.
Jobs’s product vision is a matter of fact – he foresaw the entire personal computer business; he foresaw the utility of a graphical interface; and he today foresees a day when ubiquitous high-speed Internet connections mean you don’t have to take information with you to access it. It’s his business savvy that’s a matter of fiction. Microsoft could have dominated entire continents with an operating system as advanced as Jobs’s NeXTstep and OpenStep (on which Rhapsody will be based), but Jobs couldn’t get more than a small but loyal following for the system in ten years, even after abandoning an expensive hardware business and making OpenStep run on standard Intel-based computers. He has twice sold large blocks of Apple stock at low prices; just last month, Jobs confirmed for Time Magazine that he sold 1.5 million shares he acquired as part of Apple’s purchase of NeXT at record low prices. He has changed personnel policies at Apple (at the cost of losing the company’s head of human resources) and lectures the employees about being more "entrepreneurial" when he, as the putative head of the company, has no personal investment in it whatsoever. An employee who wrote a biting satire of Jobs’s sanctimonious preaching is lucky he or she did so anonymously, because Jobs told the entire rank and file the culprit will be fired if discovered.
Now Jobs is again leading Apple’s retreat from the battles it must win to return as a major force in personal computing. Jobs’s field of dreams still whispers in his ear: "If you build it, they will come." Never mind that Apple is building some of the best computers on the planet, and the customers are not coming. Instead of building better, or competing better, Apple hopes to keep others from building. Never mind that Apple’s systems wouldn’t be as strong today as they are if competition, specifically from Power Computing, hadn’t raised the standards.
Past comments from Jobs include remarks about how Apple should "milk" the Mac OS until it’s dry and then move on to the next big thing, perhaps board member Larry Ellison’s beloved network computers based on the reabsorbed Newton technology. If this is what Jobs is doing, while telling the public exactly the opposite (not exactly a new move for him, as Apple II owners can attest), he may think that the Mac OS has less than two years of useful life left because the single-source strategy he’s now adopted for Apple won’t win new converts for the platform. Frittering away what could be a viable platform in favor of using your customer’s money for something potentially unrelated doesn’t build customer confidence.
Apple fans can continue to hope that Jobs will one day understand that bizarre repetition of failed strategies is less often recognized as a sign of genius than as evidence of dementia. Until then, the company is again pulling defeat from the jaws of victory in its struggle to become profitable, alienating the most intense Mac OS supporters. Now that customers have seen the benefits of free-market Mac OS competition, they’re unlikely to accept Apple’s word that the company’s products are the best that could exist.
Apple, which still aspires to be a champion, still hasn’t learned that winning the title belt requires staying in the ring, not fleeing when you’re behind at the end of the fourth round, or the eighth, or the fourteenth. The real question is if Apple will figure it out before receiving a knockout punch or running out of time.
[Matt Deatherage publishes the Macintosh newsletter MDJ, which is currently on hiatus.]


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The diesel ban brought with it the misery of lower sales for many of the car manufacturers. As India was embracing the diesel technology due to better fuel efficiency and the technology of the diesel engine had improved tremendously.
Companies like Mahindra & Mahindra and Toyota who had a wide range of diesel vehicles under their portfolio felt the heat and sales number lowered. On the other hand, Maruti Suzuki predominantly a petrol car manufacturer was hardly affected by the ban.
Maruti Suzuki took advantage of the situation and sales by nearly 5 percent increased only in the NCR. It also saw a 8 percent increase in sales in major cities like Bangalore, Mumbai, Chennai, and even tier I cities like Pune, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Lucknow where Maruti saw an increase of 3 to 8 percent in sales.
Along with the anti-diesel trend among buyers, it launched the Baleno and the Brezza which helped the sales and acceptance from car buyers.
RS Kalsi, executive director, sales and marketing at Maruti Suzuki said, "Our network is much stronger in these markets. Nexa has redefined the purchase and ownership experience. Technologies like mild hybrid and AMT have made our vehicles much more appealing for urban customers,"


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Buckhead Butcher Shop owner Connor Boney doesn’t just want to sell his customers cuts of meat and meal accompaniments, he aims to greatly improve the quality of life for those who visit his sleek and modern shop. At the heart of the unique business — an amalgam of butcher shop, food retailer, private dining space and instructional kitchen — is the intention of getting people together around a table to enjoy a top-tier meal, prepared with passion, so it can be the centerpiece in an evening of togetherness.
“It is my belief, and why we started this, if I can make you a better cook, you’re going to do it more,” Boney said. “And if you do it more, you’re going to experience better fellowship at the table, and with better fellowship at the table, you’re going to have a better quality of life. And I fully believe that. Although that might come off as sort of arrogant, I believe life happens through fellowship and relationships, and I’ve found if you’re better at cooking, with industry experts helping you, the more you are going to do it and the more fun you’re going to have. I think that’s quality of life.”
Boney’s mission to improve the home dining experience took a significant leap in January when Buckhead Butcher Shop opened its permanent location at 3198 Cains Hill Place NW. The completely transformed space now houses a notable selection of ultra-premium cuts sourced from the same producers who supply the top restaurants in Atlanta and beyond. In addition to the wide selection of meats running the gamut from ground beef to foie gras, Buckhead Butcher Shop also carries an extensive array of seafood, oils, pickled vegetables, spices, olives, dessert fare, sauces and more. Boney says everything available has been selected purposefully to elevate the home cooking and dining experience, and that starts well before his customers have left the store.
A significant goal of the business, Boney said, is creating an atmosphere that does not come with the intimidation of a typical butcher shop.
“We had to get rid of the stigma you feel when walking into a normal butcher shop where you feel either overwhelmed by the choices or under served by the person behind the counter,” he said. “In that environment, growth isn’t going to happen. It was very important to find people from the industry that were not only in love with food but could convey and teach that passion.”
Boney says his staff is intent on helping people become better cooks, not creating an air of pompousness he feels is synonymous with many traditional butcher shops. This allows customers to feel “vulnerable” enough to share what they don’t know about cooking. In turn, he says, that inspires them to become better cooks.
“I want to create an environment here where people can come in and feel vulnerable enough to let their guard down to get better,” he said. “That vulnerability is huge in creating an atmosphere for education, learning, and ultimately, the growth factor.”
Those who want to take things a step further can also sign up for a cooking class in Buckhead Butcher Shop’s instructional kitchen. The workspace was purposefully designed as an upscale residential kitchen, allowing people to learn using the type of equipment they have at home rather than an industrial, professional workspace. Leading the classes is Chef Leonard Lewis, the James Beard Award nominated former executive chef for Bones Restaurant and an industry veteran of over 40 years.
Chef Lewis also consults with clients for private dinner parties adjacent to the retail area of the business. With seating for up to 32 with arrangements for larger parties offered and a full bar, the dining room can offer a private oasis for gatherings. Coupled with the cooking classes, large retail space, and planned expansion into offering other meal adjuncts like cigars, Boney says Buckhead Butcher Shop is perhaps the only business of its kind in the country.
Its progression is made all the more significant given its relatively humble roots.
Boney, along with his business partners, created Revere Meat Company, a food service processing and distribution company, and operated the business for six years. Boney was led to create the business after a “faith awakening” inspired him to help people and bring them together. In this case, through food. Revere distributed premium meat and seafood to some of the top restaurants in Georgia, but the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic served a crushing blow to the entire restaurant industry and, subsequently, the food service industry.
With the doors locked on restaurants and grocery store shelves barren, Boney and his partners decided to set up a box truck at a residence in Buckhead to sell their stock of premium cuts to budding and experienced home cooks. Neighbors certainly took notice with Boney stating a socially distanced line stretched out for 400 feet at one point. The small bright spot in the otherwise tumultuous time allowed Boney to connect with people, and in turn, inspired families to cook together. In a sense, that experience led to the creation of Buckhead Butcher Shop.
After operating a temporary location in Buckhead, the new, permanent building was completely reconfigured and redesigned to create what Boney calls an immediately unique business.
“The vision, being from Buckhead, was to always give something to Buckhead that relates to the uniqueness of this city,” he said. “I wanted to create a place where people who live here tell those visiting them, ‘You have to try this place before you leave.’”
Buckhead Butcher Shop has been cementing its unique standing and helping to improve the cooking prowess of its customers since opening its new location in January 2023.
The journey from wholesale distribution to the back of a box truck to the current business has been eye-opening for Boney.
“It’s been fantastic being able to connect with the end consumer and get immediate feedback that they’re excited and thankful for what we’ve built here, but then when they come back after having tried our product and they’re so much more passionate to try something else, that’s invigorating,” he said.
And again, it comes down to improving the quality of life through exceptional meals. “The quality-of-life purpose in our mission is so important,” Boney said. “Right now, more than anything, so much of what we’ve lost is the ability to be vulnerable and have those connections with family and friends at the dinner table. If I can get more people to be confident in their cooking, they are going to do it a lot more, with more people, and they’re going to enjoy their life more. I just want to be able to help people to do that, and our staff can help people do that.”


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Brian Krebs, a security researcher, found that the Apple’s iPhone 11 Pro tracks users’ locations even when is set to not to do so.
According to Mr Krebs, the phone continues to collect data regarding their user’s position even when the location sharing option is turned off in every individual app.
For Apple this is an “expected behaviour” and not a security issue as it allows their users to have more control over their sharing location with the apps they choose.
This means that a person can choose to have their location switched on for maps and off for everything else.
Mr Krebs wrote on his blog that “One of the more curious behaviours of Apple’s new iPhone 11 Pro is that it intermittently seeks the user’s location information even when all applications and system services on the phone are individually set to never request this data.”
Mr Krebs contacted Apple to report the issue by sharing a video which showed that the location services icon appears on the top corner even though every app and system service on his phone was set to “never request” his location.
The engineer who took the call, informed Mr Krebs that some system services do not have a switch in the phone settings, meaning that they are permanently on!
To read the full article please visit the Source link


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Italians push prices up at Newcastle wool sales
There has been a significant jump in super-fine quality wool prices, on the first day of the Newcastle wool sales.
Italian buyers dominated the sales, paying between $22 and $26 per kilogram for the top quality wool, around $10 up on last year's prices.
Craig Brennan from Elders says with wool supplies down on previous years, he expects the high prices to continue.
"The drop in the Australian dollar has also helped things because Chinese pay for everything in U-S currency so when our dollar's expensive, obviously it makes it more expensive for them," he said.
"But with the quantity that we're seeing on offer each week relatively low, yeah, demand will be maintained for sure."


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Cisco will abandon its InterCloud cloud-computing offering on March 31 and will move any InterCloud workloads to other, unnamed cloud providers, including “in some cases, public cloud,” VentureBeat quoted Cisco as saying.
Cisco’s pull-back from the cloud scene marks the latest example of smaller participants — many of them hardware-makers — bailing in the face of huge growth by Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure, and to some extent by Google Cloud, IBM and other, smaller public-cloud services.
Hewlett-Packard in 2015 abandoned its efforts to be a public-cloud company. Then, Hewlett-Packard Enterprises essentially shut down its much-ballyhooed Helion cloud offering earlier this year. VMware still offers its vCloud Air hybrid-cloud service, though it has agreed to partner with AWS, which it once viewed as its arch-rival for cloud workloads.
“We do not expect any material customer issues as a result of this transition,” Cisco said in response to a request for comment. “For the last several months, we have been evolving our cloud strategy and our service provider partners are aware of this.”
Cisco launched InterCloud almost exactly two years ago. It anticipated spending $1 billion over the next two years building the offering, which it called “a network of clouds” and “a way to lower the total cost of cloud services ownership and pave the way for interoperable and highly secure public, private and hybrid clouds.” It was to be, Cisco said in March 2014, “the world’s largest global intercloud” and yet also “the first of its kind, delivering a new enterprise-class portfolio of cloud IT services.”
Cisco said it planned to build the product through partners, including Australian service provider Telstra; Canadian business communications provider Allstream; European cloud company Canopy; cloud services aggregator Ingram Micro Inc. and others. InterCloud would include platform and infrastructure as a service and Cisco’s collaboration, security and network management, and would be “architected for the Internet of Everything.”
But successfully competing in the public-cloud market requires resources few companies can afford, and the private-cloud market hasn’t really taken off as many (especially hardware vendors) predicted and hoped it would. And so far, no one has achieved much success at tying them all together, or has apparently even found much demand for such a thing, possibly because the big public-cloud companies’ offerings are already so vast in themselves and because those companies seem to be successfully addressing the need for joint public-cloud and in-house computing.
Cisco faced pressure to enter the cloud market because the long-time maker of the switches, routers and networking gear that are essentials in corporate data centers has suffered as cloud computing grows. A market analysis from Cisco itself this spring predicted that 83 percent of all data-center traffic will be based in the cloud. Of course, corporate data centers still exist, and will continue to do so, but they are fewer. And rather than using other manufacturers’ gear in their huge and numerous data centers, public-cloud services AWS and Azure are increasingly designing their own, using some off-the-shelf components. They are also virtualizing some gear, replicating hardware in software.
AWS’s share of the market for infrastructure and platform as a service as of June was over 30 percent, with year-over-year revenue growth of 53 percent, according to Synergy Research Group. Azure’s was over 10 percent, with revenue growth of 100 percent. IBM’s share was about 8 percent, Google Cloud’s was about 5 percent, and the remainder was collectively consumed by 12 or more companies.
The market appeared to shrug off the news. Cisco shares fell 15 cents, or 0.5 percent, in after-hours trading today. Shares of the company are up 16 percent in the past year.


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Los Angeles startup Wantboards wants to disrupt the traditional understanding of commerce by putting the pricing power into the hands of consumers. It’s doing this with a demand-based marketplace where users can post a “Wantboard,” along with the price, condition, and brand of a product they’re looking for. The team then finds sellers who have what they’re looking for, and—if things go well—the process ends with a sale.
“It all started with a little car shopping,” says Wantboards’ Shannon Lotka. “Rudy Marilla first came up with the idea for Wantboards while searching for an offroad SUV for his family. He knew what target [...]
Chicago startup Tailgater Concierge is a new service that aims to offer college football fans an easier way to tailgate. It provides amenities including tents, tables, chairs, ice-filled coolers, and even BBQs and TVs.
Behind the company are co-founders Jennie LaGrow and Neil Golden. Jennie is a businesswoman from the financial world who has worked for companies like The Walt Disney Company and Computershare. Neil previously worked as Chief Marketing Officer for McDonald’s USA where he oversaw the national marketing efforts for nearly 14,000 McDonald’s restaurants in the U.S.
“Tailgater Concierge makes it easier for fans to enjoy their time with [...]
ZenPayroll, the startup that aims to make payroll painless for business owners, today announced that it’s changing its name to Gusto and plans to expand into offering employee benefits to compete with companies like Zenefits and ADP.
In the past, the company focused on the six million U.S. small businesses that have done payroll by hand. But going forward, Gusto will position itself as a one-stop-shop for all compensation based needs—including health benefits and workers’ compensation.
CEO Josh Reeves says this has been in the works for a while, and plans to eventually offer benefits even appeared in the company’s 2012 seed fundraising [...]
Eatsa, a new San Francisco restaurant specializing in quinoa, is doing something that turns the traditional understanding of food service on its head: the entire process, from ordering to delivery, is automated. The only humans on-site are those working behind the scenes—and even they may soon be replaced by machines.
The result is something as-of-yet unheard of, but long anticipated, in the fast food industry. From the moment you walk in the door until you leave the restaurant, no human interaction is required.
What this means depends on whether you’re a glass-half-full or half-empty kind of person. On one hand, it makes restaurant-going cheaper and more [...]
Over the last few years, services like Uber and Lyft have disrupted the transportation industry, leaving many traditional cab companies in the dust because they’ve failed to adapt to the mobile-centric world of 2015. But it’s not too late.
TaxiTapp is a mobile taxi booking platform that aims to improve the passenger experience and help cab companies better compete with Uber. It’s more important than ever for taxi drivers and fleets to have a mobile presence, and TaxiTapp provides just that.
When users open the TaxiTapp app, they can choose the cheapest, nearest, or highest rated taxi in the area and see an estimated fare before summoning a driver. [...]
Keurig has changed the way people think about coffee, streamlining the experience to make it simpler than ever before. Just pop in a coffee pod, press a button, and within minutes you’ve got a perfect cup of Joe. But what if the same principles could be applied to food?
Chicago startup Maestro is taking on that challenge with a new countertop appliance that turns raw ingredients into a complete meal, all by itself. Using it is actually quite similar to using a Keurig coffee maker: you buy ingredient pods called M-Pots, which contain fresh, raw ingredients; drop each pod into one of Maestro’s three compartments; and after 10–30 minutes, enjoy a delicious, perfectly [...]
Chicago startup ChariPick is re-imagining the way charitable giving works. Its new app makes it super easy for people to donate to a curated selection of “small, interesting charities,” using a simple giving model that starts at just $1 a day. The goal is to help charities make a difference while giving donors the satisfaction of supporting causes they’re passionate about.
ChariPick was founded by Stephen Lee, who has 15 years’ experience at the intersection of technology and finance as a partner for a hedge fund, director for a technology division of a Fortune 500 company, and a strategy consultant for private equity and Fortune 500 firms. ChariPick is [...]
Chicago startup Hooks has developed a comprehensive platform to help people stay updated on things they care about. You can use the app to get alerts about almost anything—news, weather, sports, stocks, tweets (by author or keyword), new movies, software vulnerabilities, and more.
Currently, the notifications you care about are driven by a ton of different apps and services. Hooks simplifies this by bringing all sorts of notifications into a single central location.
Behind Hooks are co-founders Oleg Kozynenko, José Luis Pérez, and Miguel Ángel Ortuño. Kozynenko and Pérez also co-founded B2B white label travel guide platform Guiomatic, and Ortuño is a lead iOS developer [...]
While smartphones have become ubiquitous in tech-savvy circles over the last few years, a significant number of people around the world still use feature phones—which often don’t have Web browsers, data plans, or third-party apps. You and I have the entirety of human knowledge at our fingertips, but feature phone users are just out of luck.
Well, not anymore.
New Jersey startup Text Engine aims to bring the Web to feature phones using an old technology we all know and love: SMS.
The platform essentially converts the Web to text messages, allowing users to get on-demand weather, news, yellow pages, flight status, and more—all without having direct access to [...]
Have you ever gotten a gift card and wished you could turn it into cash? That’s precisely what Chicago startup Raise allows you to do. It’s a marketplace for gift cards: sellers get cash for unwanted cards, and buyers can purchase gift cards for less than their total value.
Raise allows you to sell gift cards from any brand or restaurant at the price of your choice. Just enter the gift card details and choose the selling price, and your listing will be featured in front of thousands of shoppers. You get paid when the card sells. All cards are free to list, but Raise takes a 15 percent commission from the final selling price. For physical cards, the greater of $1.00 [...]


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The residence and the office of Minister P. Harrison would be surrounded if issuing paddy from government stores is not temporarily stopped and immediate and intensive action regarding serious frauds and irregularities are not taken says the National Organizer of All Ceylon Farmers’ Federation Namal Karunaratna.
At a press conference held at Dambulla today (30th) and participated by the representatives of small and medium scale rice mill owners and All Ceylon Farmers’ Federation Mr. Karunaratna said the revelations made by his Federation and small and medium scale rice mill owners that frauds and irregularities are committed in the process of issuing paddy stocks from government stores to control the increasing rice prices are being confirmed now and the government should take immediate steps to prevent such malpractices. He said if the government fails to take any action they are preparing to take legal action.
Mr. Karunaratna said when they met the Chairman of the Paddy Marketing Board he did not admit frauds and irregularities were committed and despite saying paddy stocks are sold in a transparent manner with the mediation of a tender board of representatives of the subject minister, statements made by certain groups in the government and also by the brother of the President have confirmed that frauds and irregularities are committed in the process of issuing paddy. Mr. Karunaratna said the Chairman of Paddy Marketing Board who refused to admit there were malpractices should resign from his post.
He pointed out that the stocks in government stores are adequate until next August and added that certain politicians of the government and corrupt officials buy paddy from farmers at low prices and earn commissions to allow large scale rice mill owners to exploit the consumer making the whole process a racket.


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A New Year will bring a new president, a new FDA chief, many new drug regulations, and, possibly, health insurance reform. Mindful of the ton of major drug brands that will go off-patent in 2009, drug companies have not rested in their lobbying efforts over generics and patent issues. They continue to spend millions urging government to do things in their favor.
In fact President Obama is already sitting down with lobbyists. He's scheduled 4,200 meetings (is that even possible?), many with healthcare interests. (Although, as BNET readers know, some lobbyists have been tied up on sushi dates in California.) Here's a look, per the AP, at a selection of companies and reports on what they spent their lobbying money on in Q3 of 2008:
- Pfizer, $3.1 million Pfizer lobbied on whether the federal government can negotiate price discounts for drugs bought under the Medicare program. It lobbied Congress on efforts to allow importation of cheaper prescription drugs from Canada and other foreign countries. Proponents say foreign competition would help drive down U.S. drug prices; domestic drugmakers [like Pfizer] argue imports would expose consumers to risky counterfeit products. The issue hasn't gained much traction in Congress so far, but that could change under the administration of President-elect Barack Obama.
- Teva, $570,000 Teva and the Generic Pharmaceutical Association lobbied the US Congress, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and other US authorities on various issues although top of the agenda at present is the moving forward of biogeneric legislation, which is expected to make progress in 2009. Teva has also lobbied on issues relating to patents and product commercialization. The competition between ethical drug makers and their generic counterparts also includes the spending of vast sums of money and efforts in lobbying in the US. As part of this drive, The Generic Pharmaceutical Association spent $507,000 on lobbying in the third quarter, with the world's largest generics maker, Teva spending a further $570,000 alone,
- Merck, $1.1 million ... the Whitehouse Station, N.J.-based company opposed a proposal by House Democrats to let the government negotiate drug prices for seniors in Medicare. Currently, private health insurers negotiate drug prices with pharmaceutical companies and offer various plans to seniors. Merck lobbied for demonstration projects to assess how effective obesity management programs are and to support "congressional interest in obesity awareness efforts." Anti-obesity drugs have been one of the company's priority research areas for a few years, but in October it halted development of its lead candidate, taranabant, because of links to depression and other psychiatric problems. Merck's lobbyists opposed efforts that would allow importing cheaper prescription drugs from foreign countries such as Canada that put price controls on medicines. Proponents say they would help drive down U.S. drug prices, but domestic drugmakers argue imports would expose consumers to risky counterfeit products. The issue hasn't gained much traction in Congress so far, but that could change under the administration of President-elect Barack Obama.
- Bristol-Myers Squibb, $840,000 The New York-based company also lobbied Congress on a bill that would ban the use of a plastic-hardening chemical called bisphenol-A in children's food packaging. The chemical has been used to seal food containers, including baby formula. Bristol-Myers, the maker of Enfamil infant formula, lobbied to inform Congress that the materials used to line infant formula cans are safe. Bristol-Myers also lobbied to retain the current rebate levels companies get for drugs sold through the Medicare program and to extend a tax credit on research, according to the form filed Oct. 16 with the House clerk's officeThe company lobbied for increased awareness and funding to help pay for medicines in several areas where it sells products, including anti-clotting drugs to prevent strokes - it sells Plavix, the second best-selling drug in the world, as well as Coumadin - and drugs for AIDS (Atripla and Sustiva) and mental health disorders (Abilify for depression and schizophrenia).
- Wyeth, $757,000 The Madison, N.J.-based company lobbied on extending the State Children's Health Insurance Program, disclosing drugmaker payments to doctors, drugs rebates paid to the Medicaid program and government negotiation of prices paid for drugs for seniors under the Medicare program. Wyeth lobbied against efforts to allow the importation of cheaper prescription medicines from Canada and other foreign countries.
- Novartis, $1.4 million Novartis lobbied on bills designed to ensure the government has a sufficient stockpile of influenza vaccine in case of an outbreak, and that the government helps pay for vaccines for seniors, children and uninsured adults. The company makes flu vaccine, as well as vaccines against rabies, meningitis and several childhood illnesses. Novartis also lobbied on the Defense Department's budget and another bill involving the military's Tricare program, which insures about 9 million current and retired service members and dependents. The company, which makes two anti-rejection drugs, Neoral and Myfortic, lobbied to provide comprehensive coverage for immune-suppressing drugs for kidney transplant patients.
- GlaxoSmithKline, $2 million Glaxo lobbied on the budgets for the departments of Labor, Education and Health and Human Services, as well as related agencies, and on bills funding the state Children's Health Insurance Programs. It lobbied on legislation related to drug safety, drugmaker payments to doctors, vaccine supply programs and the law covering industry whistleblowers. The company is one of the few major makers of vaccines, with about two dozen on the market, including flu shots and several standard children's vaccines against diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus and rotavirus.
- Johnson & Johnson, $1.5 million The New Brunswick, N.J.-based company lobbied against legislation that would allow the U.S. to import cheaper prescription drugs from Canada and other foreign countries. Proponents said foreign competition would help drive down U.S. drug prices, but the domestic drug industry argues imports would expose consumers to risky counterfeit products.
- Sanofi-Aventis, $1.8 million The U.S. subsidiary lobbied on issues related to men's health, cancer awareness, diabetes care and treatment of life-threatening blood clots called deep vein thrombosis. Sanofi-Aventis makes multiple cancer drugs, insulin pens and injections. It also jointly markets, with Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. (nyse: BMY - news - people ), the anti-clotting pill Plavix, the world's No. 2-selling drug, and also sells and an injected drug called Lovenox for deep vein thrombosis. Sanofi-Aventis U.S. Inc. also lobbied on issues related to the Medicaid program and on a bill that would extend a research and development tax credit popular in the pharmaceutical industry.
- Novo Nordisk, $300,000 Novo Nordisk also lobbied on legislation, widely opposed by the pharmaceutical industry, to allow government negotiation of prices paid for drugs for seniors under the Medicare program. Company representatives also lobbied on drug imports, patient safety protection, patent reform, disclosing industry gifts and payments to doctors, and a bill to reduce health disparities among minorities.
- PhRMA, $5.4 million ... lobbied the federal government on legislation involving allowing generic versions of biologic drugs, reimportation of prescription drugs, and the budgets for the Food and Drug Administration and the Department of Health and Human Services. PhRMA opposed an effort in Congress to reform the U.S. patent system. High-tech companies support the bill that passed the House last year, saying it would cut down on frivolous patent-infringement lawsuits. But the pharmaceutical industry has argued it will weaken patent protections on drugs by reducing infringement penalties. The bill has stalled in the Senate and is not expected to pass this year.
- Amgen, $2.4 million The Thousand Oaks, Calif.-based company lobbied on legislation that would allow the Food and Drug Administration to approve generic copies of biotech drugs and on drug safety issues. (Amgen fears competition from generic biotech drugs.)
- Amylin, $540,000 Amylin Pharmaceuticals spent $540K on the generic biotech drug issue. While a system to approve generic pharmaceuticals has long been in place, no such pathway exists for quickly approving generic biotech drugs. This has been a major boon for biotech companies since they don't have to worry about patent expiration and generic competition the way pharmaceutical companies do. But with the Obama Administration looking to drastically cut healthcare costs, biotech's virtually generic competition-free golden age may be coming to a close. Drug prices were a major focus for both candidates in the election, and biotech drugs top the charts as some of the most expensive treatments available. Improving the approval process for generic copies of these drugs would be one way to cut those costs--an approach that the new administration will certainly consider.
- Genentech, $570,000 The South San Francisco, Calif.-based-based company lobbied on plans that would allow generic drug companies to make cheaper versions of biotech drugs, on a bill that would require drug companies to disclose spending on gifts to physicians, and on patent reform.
- Biotechnology Industry Organization, $1.9 million Genentech and Amgen are members. The group also has been at the forefront in the now stalled efforts to allow generic drug companies to make cheaper versions of biotech drugs. Currently, the Food and Drug Administration only has a system in place for approving generic versions of chemical-based drugs. Biotech drugs are made using living cells and are more complex.


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The Huffington Post – Latino Voices | October 16, 2011
There’s been a lot of debate, no pun intended, about Herman Cain’s 9-9-9 plan. Cain claims his plan is a bold solution to kick-start our economy and create jobs. His plan would institute a 9 percent business flat tax, 9 percent individual flat tax and a 9 percent national sales tax in place of the current federal income tax. Cain advocates that it is fair, neutral, transparent, and efficient.
With regard to the third nine, I think many of Florida’s hospitality business owners may disagree with him.
Cain proposes to add, add being the key word, a 9 percent sales tax to each sale, admission charge, hotel stay, meal, and purchase of goods made by visitors and residents. This 9 percent sales tax would be added to Florida’s existing 6 percent general sales tax on top of the price of the taxable goods and services collected at the time of sale. In other words, under Cain’s plan visitors and residents will pay a minimum of 15 percent in taxes on every transaction, not to mention gratuities.
But it doesn’t stop there. Current state law authorizes five separate but important tourist development taxes on lodging, which is defined broadly. Depending on a county’s classification, the maximum tax rate varies from a minimum of three to a maximum of six percent. Those revenues go to capital construction of tourist-related facilities, tourist promotion, and the beach and shoreline maintenance necessary to maintain the beauty of our Sunshine State.
Furthermore, on hotel stays, some visitors are also charged necessary convention development taxes which can be as high as 3 percent as well as local option food and beverage taxes of up to 3 percent on the sale of food, beverages, and alcoholic drinks in hotels and motels.
In other words, Cain’s fair and streamlined 9-9-9 plan could result in a family visiting Florida paying up to 27 percent sales tax on their hotel stay. That is $270.00 per thousand dollars spent. Add to that the 15 percent sales tax (6 percent Florida + 9 percent Cain) that will apply to their meals (breakfast, lunch, and dinner), park passes to visit the Mouse, transportation, fuel, souvenirs, and sunscreen! And please don’t forget to add a tip.
In 2010, during the worst year of the global economic recession, Florida’s hospitality industry employed over 974,000 individuals, hosted more than 82 million visitors from the U.S. and abroad, and generated over $62.7 billion dollars in tourism spending. With the other sectors of our state’s economy leading the nation for the wrong reasons, we cannot afford to lose any of that business due to Cain’s national sales tax.
Finally, yes I’m going there – when tourism opens in Cuba, Florida is going to have to do everything it can to keep our visitors coming back. Paying a third of their travel budget on taxes is going keep our guests away and will cast a shadow on our sunshine.
Luis Andre Gazitua, a lawyer, and Miami Lobbyist, specializing in government affairs, authored the strong-mayor charter amendment approved by the voters in January 2007.
Read more: The Huffington Post


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JDRF honors Roche with Chancellor’s Award
INDIANAPOLIS A maker of blood-glucose meters, infusion pumps and other diabetes management tools was awarded by the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation for its long-standing corporate partnership with the organization.
Roche was given the Chancellor’s Award at JDRF’s annual conference in Washington, D.C., and was noted as “an exceptional partner in the education and management of diabetes.” Roche and JDRF work together on the Bag of Hope program, which provides education materials on juvenile diabetes and a free Accu-Chek blood-glucose meter. The bags contain products and materials valued at about $100, which are distributed to families by local Roche and JDRF representatives.
Since 2004, Roche has committed almost $10 million to the Bag of Hope program.
“Roche is an exceptional partner in the education and management of diabetes. During the past several years, the Bag of Hope program has become the cornerstone of our outreach program to families with newly diagnosed children, and we thank Roche for its continued funding of this incredibly important educational initiative,” said Courtney Davies, national director of corporate relations at JDRF.
CRN addresses senatorial committee about dietary supplement use by seniors
WASHINGTON The Council for Responsible Nutrition last week testified before the Senate Special Committee on Aging concerning the committee’s “Dietary Supplements: What Seniors Need to Know” hearing.
In his remarks, Steve Mister, CRN president and CEO, reassured the more than 150 million Americans who take dietary supplements each year that “the dietary supplement industry is committed to manufacturing and marketing high quality, safe and beneficial products that have a valuable role in a wellness regimen. This industry is likewise committed to ensuring consumers receive truthful, accurate and non-misleading information on dietary supplements.”
Mister noted the supplement industry—through its five trade associations—had developed a variety of voluntary, self-regulatory programs that address issues that potentially tarnish the industry, and pointed specifically to the $1.5 million unrestricted grant provided by CRN to the National Advertising Division of the Council of Better Business Bureaus to monitor dietary supplement ads to help ensure they are truthful and not misleading.
Mister advised that new legislation introduced last week by Sens. Orrin Hatch , R-Utah, and Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, would provide additional funding and accountability for the Food and Drug Administration in further enforcing the law, and he urged Congress to support that bill.
Mister also referred to consumer research that demonstrates that dietary supplement consumers are more likely than those who don’t take supplements to also engage in other healthy habits such as trying to eat a healthy diet, exercising regularly and visiting their doctors.
“Dietary supplements help to preserve good health and help reduce the risks of certain chronic diseases,” he said. “Vitamins fill in nutritional gaps, and are especially important when seniors fail to get a nutritious diet or aging itself reduces their bodies’ natural ability to absorb nutrients from conventional food.”
GSK Consumer Healthcare to update Alli label
PARSIPPANY, N.J. GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare last week announced it will update the Alli product label to alert consumers to certain symptoms that have been associated with rare instances of severe liver injury reported in people taking orlistat, the active ingredient in Alli. This update followed FDA’s completion of its safety review of orlistat and is being implemented in conjunction with Roche, the manufacturer of the prescription dose of orlistat (Xenical). The agency stated that a cause-and-effect relationship has not been established.
The updated Alli label will advise consumers to: “Stop use and ask a doctor if you develop itching, yellow eyes or skin, dark urine or loss of appetite. There have been rare reports of liver injury in people taking orlistat.”
“GSK is committed to ensuring that consumers and physicians understand the safety profile of orlistat and alli,” stated Howard March, chief medical officer for GSK Consumer Healthcare. “Although reports of serious liver injury in people taking orlistat are rare, GSK takes all adverse events reports seriously.”
Since Alli was made available over-the-counter in 2007, more than 10 million people worldwide have used the product. With more than 100 clinical studies involving 30,000 patients, orlistat is the most extensively studied weight loss drug in the world and continues to be a safe and effective product when used as directed to help people lose weight. More than 40 million people have used orlistat since it first became available in 1998.


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While most wait at least 24 hours before jailbreaking the newest iPhone, some avid jailbreak fans couldn't wait that long.
According the Twitter page of Grant Paul, aka chpwn, it seems like he has the world's first jailbroken iPhone 5.
The jailbreaking dev-team know how anxious users are to jailbreak their new iPhone's and use iOS 6 with Cydia on their new Apple devices. However, the fact is that it might take awhile. Many jailbreak fans didn't even believe this was real, asking Paul via Twitter whether it was.
The Twitter page, which you can see here, has an image of Cydia on the iPhone 5 home screen, and tweeted "Taller screens like Cydia too."
Also, Paul tweeted a picture of Cydia running on the iPhone 5, which you can see above.
The tweet itself has been retweeted over 1,500 times, and was also retweeted by MuscleNerd of the iPhone Dev-Team, which just shows its authenticity.
Got any tips for us? Send us an email at the address below!
iOS 6, which was released earlier this week, has been jailbroken for iPhones that have an A4 processor, meaning not iPhone 4S's and iPhone 5's. Techspot explains why the A5 and A6 processors in the new iPhones take so long to jailbreak:
"Possibly worse than the A5 though, is the A6 -- Apple's latest, heavily customized silicon. This latest system-on-a-chip will power iPhone 5 handsets (and possibly future iPads) when they arrive, posing a potentially fresh set of challenges for iPhone hackers."
However, it seems like the jailbreak isn't available for everyone yet. There are still a lot of little things that need to be worked out by the developers. But, I'm sure that everyone is still hard at work trying to jailbreak the new iPhone 5, and it seems like theres still hope that the iPhone 5, and the new A6 processor, will be jailbroken for the public soon.
Stay tuned for more news on jailbreaking the iPhone 5.


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As part of its rebrand Mavenzeal (formerly Superb Learning) has launched its new digital Academy. Matthew Mason, the founder of Mavenzeal, is a multi-ward winning learning designer with over two decades of experience developing learning programs for large corporates, universities and training organisations.
In 2021, as part of a desire to do more “heart” work Matthew started to shift the company to work with coaches, consultants, and authors. Experts wanting to deliver impactful experiences to their clients. As part of this shift, he has now developed his own series of learning programs to help coaches, consultants and authors leverage their expertise through digital learning programs.
Market trends and research shows the online education business is booming. With more edupreneurs (educational entrepreneurs) delivering online learning programs than ever before, the online education market surpassed USD 315 billion in 2021 and is projected to observe 20% compound annual growth rate from 2022 to 2028.
The Mavenzeal Academy was designed to support these edupreneurs. With a range of exciting and expertly developed learning program designed to help coaches and consultants get their educational content online so they can scale their business. The Academy programs are focused around Mavenzeal’s six key pillars essential for creating a scalable and impactful educational business, with programs related to strategy, learning design, sales and marketing, and technology.
More information can be found at http://www.mavenzeal.academy/


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New Skate Title Information Coming
Tweeted on July 18 by the game's official Twitter account, the Skate team is "stoked to share a little something with you all tomorrow."
After a year of officially announcing that they were going to develop the fourth game in the Skate franchise, the team behind the game has acquired a new studio, Full Circle, as of January that's equipped with "super talented people to join the family," and that they've "been working hard on the new game."
As to what the announcement will be is currently unknown, but the "little something" may prove to be a big bombshell for those who are very invested in the franchise.
Possibly due to the new studio that is working on the game at the moment, the announcement noted that the game is "still early and we are committed to doing this thing right, which means it's (going to) take some time." On top of that, the studio confirmed that it won't have a true showcase of the game ready for the EA Play Live show that will happen on July 22, though it was widely speculated that there was going to be some news for it.
Although it is disheartening for some fans, it's likely that the studio does not have a finished product that it'd be willing to show to its community quite yet. Perhaps, it's justified for those who have long awaited the new game as the announcement stated, "We know many of you were hoping to see more from us this year, but we're not ready for prime time just yet." And to ease the uproar of what's to come, the studio stated, "our number one goal is not to blow it."


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Adarsh Mishra has joined Dabang Duniya as Chief Operating Officer. He will report to the Chairman Kishore Wadhwani.
The Hindi daily has ten editions across the country including Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and New Delhi.
Mishra will look after the entire operations of the Hindi daily and plans are afoot to launch more editions under his leadership.
Before joining Dabang Duniya, he was heading advertising and sales for Mi Marathi and Live India. He joined Mi Marathi and Live India in February this year. He was responsible for all media and ad sales at India level for the channel.
Mishra is a media veteran with over 18 years spent in premium Media and Entertainment brands. Before joining Live India, he was working with DNA as Vice President, where he headed the crucial network development and distribution functions.


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Hunter X Hunter will make its U.S. debut with the first box set on 12/9/08 for $49.98. Viz plans to release the sixth season of Inu-Yasha on 12/2/08 in both regular ($99.98) and deluxe editions with a watch ($119.98). Speaking of boxes, Naruto will also be getting a December release, with the 11th uncut box […]
Bender’s Game, the third Futurama direct-to-video film, will be released on 11/4/08 for both DVD ($29.98) and Blu-ray ($39.98). Special features include a commentary track, a storyboard animatic, Futurama Genetics Lab, Dungeons & Dragons & Futurama featurette, How to Draw Futurama in 83 Easy Steps, 3D models featurette, a deleted scene, bloopers, Bender’s Anti-Piracy warning, […]
Karaterice and the New York Anime Festival has issued a press release trumpeting the Far East to East Showcase (FETES), a music festival that will bring together six musicians from Asia and the East Coast during this year’s New York Anime Festival on Saturday, September 27. The musicians hosted will be BakuBeni, Echostream, Falsies on […]
Worlds Finest Online has posted a downloadable version of the trailer to the Wonder Woman direct-to-video movie, which was aired for attendees at last month’s San Diego Comic-Con.
In conjunction with Warner Brothers Animation, Toon Zone got the chance to interview the talent behind the upcoming Batman: The Brave and the Bold TV series. Andrea Romano’s resume could double as a list of some the best television animation since the late 1980’s. Since she joined a breakaway group of Hanna-Barbera animators who were […]
KARATERICE & THE NY ANIME FESTIVAL PRESENT THE FAR EAST TO EAST SHOWCASE SIX ASIAN BANDS TO PLAY TOGETHER AT THE KNITTING FACTORY New York, NY, August 4, 2008: Karaterice and the New York Anime Festival (NYAF) today announced the Far East To East Showcase (FETES), a night of innovative music that brings together six […]
The Los Angeles Times has taken a look at Disney’s big push to make the Disney Fairies into a franchise to challenge their wildly successful Disney Princesses line, with Tinker Bell leading the charge (free registration required). According to the article, Disney made $800 million in retail sales of Tinker Bell merchandise last year (vs. […]
After a brief lull, it seems the mecha genre is trying for a resurgence here in America. The Gundam blitz is as prolific as ever, Code Geass is beginning to ramp up support, and Gurren Lagann is just around the corner. Unfortunately, all of those have television deals, while the cheesy but awesome Aquarion gets […]
Every Saturday and Sunday in August, Canada’s TELETOON will premiere a new episode of their new daytime shows at 8:30 PM (Eastern/Pacific), with the episode available for viewing on the Flash Forward microsite on teletoon.com to watch the episode for one week after its premiere. Debuting shows include World of Quest, Out of Jimmy’s Head, […]
TVShowsOnDVD is reporting that the first DVD of Cartoon Network’s new show Chowder will be shipping on November 4, 2008. The disc will contain 10 episodes and with a suggested retail price of $14.98.


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Livemint: May 22, 2017
Mumbai: Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd on Monday said it plans to invest directly or through its subsidiaries “in high-end electric powertrain technology as part of its plan for the future of mobility; and electrification of some of its existing and future products”.
The investments will also be utilised towards increasing the capacity for electric powertrains and electric vehicles, it said in a notification to the National Stock Exchange on Monday. The high-end electric powertrains will be used for the group’s future line-up of electric vehicles (EV).
“As the pioneers of electric vehicles in the country, the Group is committed towards making electric vehicles more accessible in order to build a clean and green tomorrow,” it said.
The announcement, it added, is in line with its efforts to accelerate the transformation as well as be in sync with the government of India’s thrust on promoting hybrid and electric mobility in the country, through the ambitious National Electric Mobility Mission Plan 2030//2020?.
The Mumbai-based firm, the only manufacturer of an electric car, at present sells a range of small commercial vehicles with electric drivetrain and plans to step up the portfolio of such models both in passenger vehicles and commercial vehicles segments. It’s also working closely with its Korean subsidiary, Mahindra Ssangyong, to develop electric sports utility vehicles (SUVs) in three years, it said at a press meet last month. It has set a lofty goal of selling 100,000 of them by 2022, Business Standard reported on 6 May.
Mahindra’s intent to pump investment in EV technology comes amid the policy push to promote electric vehicles. The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government plans to put an electric vehicle policy in place by the end of this year, minister for road transport and highways Nitin Gadkari said last Monday.
The government wants to see 6 million electric and hybrid vehicles on the roads by 2020 under the National Electric Mobility Mission Plan 2020 and Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of (Hybrid &) Electric Vehicles in India (FAME India Scheme). It has been offering subsidies on electric and hybrid vehicles of up to Rs29,000 for bikes and Rs1.38 lakh for cars under FAME India Scheme, but the plan is to make it economically viable on its own.
Disclaimer: This information has been collected through secondary research and IBEF is not responsible for any errors in the same.


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Market comments for June 30th
More Americans than forecast filed applications for unemployment benefits last week, indicating little progress in the labor market. So is that saying that claims fell? a drop of only 1,000 is statistically indifferent from last weeks number and if they gave weight to the fact that Continuing Claims had increased too, it would have been more accurate.
It is true that Jobless claims fell by 1,000 to 428,000 in the week ended June 25, Labor Department figures showed today in Washington. And that the median forecast of economists in a Bloomberg News survey called for a drop to 420,000. So is 428K versus an expectation a big miss or not? Well it's a lot more than only a 1,000 drop is. These headlines are so misleading and manipulative, no wonder Consumer Confidence is at the lowest level in a non recession period since 1978. People just don't believe the media manipulation of the data anymore. The truth of this story is that we are still having over 400K Initial Jobless claims weekly and not below 400K weekly which we were for a stretch. As long as we continue to create so many unemployed, the economy is not going to get better and we are not going to be able to pay the debt off! That's a fact!
Oh, and on a separate note this: The Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index rose to minus 43.9 from minus 44.9. So is this that much better? Think not as it is still minus and not plus.
Labels: Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index, Consumer Confidence, Continuing Claims, Initial jobless claims, Last trading day of the quarter, manipulating the story, Market comments, misleading, unemployment


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MILWAUKEE -- Taxing tampons.
It's an issue making waves this week on social media. Some people want to know why feminine hygiene products are subject to the same sales tax as luxury items.
TODAY'S TMJ4 found most shoppers didn't even know they were paying for it. Wisconsin is one of 40 states with a tax on femine hygene products. At least one state lawmaker says changes could be coming.
Five states already consider feminine hygiene products tax-exempt. That's Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Pennyslvania and New Jersey.
Others make exceptions for items of necessity, like groceries, prescriptions and agriculture supplies. So the question is, are tampons a luxury item or not?
"I would not consider it a luxury item. I don't think anybody would consider it a luxury item. I think it's more of a necessity than it is a luxury item," said Brookfield resident Katie Gerstmeier.
There's no debate yet in the Wisconsin Assembly on this issue, but we could see something later this year.
"Unfortunately, it's gonna be too late to probably get something moving for this legislative session, but I'm more than happy to take it up next session," said State Rep. Christine Sinicki (D) Milwaukee.
But could it pass?
"With the abundance of men doing the voting it's hit or miss but yes, I would be for trying," said Menomonee Falls resident Vicki Vondrak.
Some men TODAY'S TMJ4 met think the taxes should continue, as is.
"Everybody's the same, right? I think that everybody should pay taxes," said Milwaukee resident Willy Stegall.
"I'm a Vietnam vet and I just think you know, paying taxes helps everybody. The pennies goes in every way, so everybody should pay taxes," said Milwaukee resident. Ralph Perdue.
President Obama's taken some tough questions in office, but none with this kind of flow.
"I gotta tell ya, I have no idea why states would tax these as luxury items. I suspect it's cause men were making the laws," Obama said recently.