Original Story: USAToday.com
During its CES press conference this morning, LG Electronics announced a whopping 15 new TV product lines for 2014. That's on top of the three OLED series already tipped last week, bringing LG's tally to 18 new series for the year. Four of the newly announced lines are UHD, seven are LCD, and four are plasmas. These products make a great addition to a Novi home theater system.
It's a bold statement of intent: This is LG saying it can go toe to toe with Samsung, by far the dominant force in today's TV market.
UHD will be big in 2014.
There's no doubt that ultra high definition—particularly 4K—will be the biggest story in display tech in 2014, and LG is jumping right on the bandwagon.
The company's UHD models include the 105-inch curved UC9; the UB9800 in 65, 79, 84, and 98 inches; the UB9500 in 55 and 65 inches; and the UB8500 in 49 and 55 inches. Each series is 3D-capable and fitted with LG's 2014 smart platform, also new for this year. The 105UC9 carries an eye-popping MSRP of $69,999. An LG TV is the perfect complement to a Troy home theater design.
OLED? Yeah, that's coming too.
LG's new OLED TVs build upon the foundation laid by last year's EA9800. LG showed off the stunning 77-inch, 4K-resolution OLED TV announced last week—the EC9800. It's the only LG OLED that's also 3D-capable, and compatible with the company's smart platform. The 77EC9800 carries a MSRP of $29,999, putting it well out of reach for most mere mortals.
The other two OLED series—the EC9300 and the EA8800—are 55-inch, 1080p iterations. The 55EA8800, also known as the "Gallery OLED," is fitted with a speaker system that's hidden behind a picture frame—perfect for everyone who's ever wanted to disguise their TV as a painting.
LCD is still the dominant tech.
While less flashy than the UHD and OLED tech, LG's new LCDs are the heart of their product lineup. New models include the high-end LB7100, LB6500, and LB6300 models; the midrange LB6000 and LB5800; and the entry-level LB4700, and LB4500.
The high-end TVs are all WebOS compatible, come with LG's signature Magic Remote controller, and are capable of at least 120 Hz (the LB7100 is 240 Hz). That last series will also make use of LG's TruBlack contrast-enhancement software. The flagship LB7100 comes in 55-, 60-, 65-, and 70-inch varieties; the LB6500 in 47, 50, 55, and 60 inches; and the LB6300 as 42-, 47-, 50-, 55-, 60-, and 65-inchers.
The midrange TVs are all Full-HD 1080p models, but none are 3D-capable or particularly smart. The LB6000 houses a 120 Hz panel, while the LB5800 stands in as the more-affordable mid-range option with a 60 Hz panel. The LB6000 is available in 47, 50, 55, and 60 inches, the LB5800 in 32-, 39-, 42-, 47-inch sizes.
Last and decidedly least, LG's two entry-level series are available in only three sizes this year: the LB7400 can only be had in a 28-inch form factor, and the LB4500 comes in even smaller 22- and 24-inch varieties. Both of the entry-level LCD series are only capable of 720p resolution.
Plasma TVs are still kicking.
Despite the recent departure of Panasonic from the plasma TV market, it appears not all hands are ready to abandon ship.
LG's new plasma lineup includes four PDPs and the PN4500 from last year. The new plasma series include the flagship PN6900, the PB6600, the PB5600, and the PB560B. None of LG's plasmas will be equipped with the new smart platform.
The 60-inch PN6900 features a native 1080p resolution and is LG's only 3D-capable plasma this year. The PB6600 and PB5600 are 1080p varieties; the PB6600 is available in 50- and 60-inch sizes, while the PB5600 is only available in 60-inch form. Finally, the PB560B stands in as the year's entry-level option, available as a 50-inch model at 720p resolution.
Home audio is important, too.
LG's big addition to the home audio category is its new LAB540W sound plate, which fits underneath a 32- to 55-inch TV and provides 4.1-channel, 320-watt sound. It even comes with an external wireless subwoofer. Other features include a built-in 3D Blu-ray player that also includes LG's Smart TV platform, essentially turning any display into a smart TV. Compatible smartphones and tablets can stream music directly to the LAB540W.
Two wireless speakers are also part of LG's home audio plan: the 70-watt NP8740 and the 40-watt NP8540. Consumers will be able to stream music to these speakers via a smartphone and tablet app. The company touts a dual-tweeter arrangement capable of playing hi-fi 24-bit/192kHz audio.
LG will have two sound bars for 2014: the flagship NB5540 and the NB3740A. Both feature 4.1-channel, 320-watt sound, and content-streaming from Netflix, Vudu, CinemaNow, Pandora and vTuner. The flagship NB5540 model will come with a high fidelity digital-to-analog converter for superior audio quality.
Thursday, September 18, 2014
YELLOW CAB MEDALLION OWNER HIT WITH $1.6 MILLION TLC FINE HAS A POLICE RECORD INCLUDING PUBLIC NUDITY
Original Story: Betabeat.com
As Uber and Lyft battle to disrupt the next generation of moving New Yorkers around in cars, Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has slapped a giant fine on a dubious practitioner of the current method — a fine that just might “scare the pants off” Symon Garber, the medallion impressario whose penchant for taking his trousers off has previously landed him in hot water with the authorities.
Working with the Taxi and Limousine Commission, the AG’s office has hit Yellow Cab SLS Jet Management Corp with a whopping $1.6 million fine. Jet Management, one of the largest medallion owners in the city with 275 in total, charged almost 2,000 drivers using its yellow cabs “late fees.” A Boca Raton Business Litigation lawyer is reviewing the details of this case.
“Late” charges of any kind are not in line with TLC standards nor New York State regulations, but these were not really late fees in any normal sense of the word. Jet Management charged drivers for late payment if they did not pre-pay for their shift; however, prepayment is not allowed by the TLC. This caught drivers in a bind. So when they paid for their cars at the end of their shifts, the drivers were assessed fees for paying the prepayments “late.” The company also claimed these were actually additional charges for leasing a hybrid vehicle, and while they were not, those charges are also not within TLC regulations.
According to the TLC, “Lease cap rules, among the few workplace protections for drivers, limit the dollar amount drivers may be charged for leasing medallions and taxicabs, in order to ensure a baseline level of take-home earnings for drivers. The rules also strictly limit add-on charges that can be imposed upon drivers and limit the purposes for which charges may be assessed. Overcharges by owners or agents chisel away at drivers’ limited income.”
$1,387,500 of the fine will head back to the pockets of ripped-off city cab drivers, $150,000 will be paid towards compliance monitoring, and $125,000 will be paid to the Attorney General.
“Every worker in New York deserves an honest day’s pay for an honest day’s work, and taxicab drivers are no exception,” said Attorney General Schneiderman in a statement, “With most cabbies already struggling to make ends meet, our agreement will put money back in their pockets and prevent this company from cheating drivers out of their hard-earned wages. Working with Commissioner Joshi and the TLC, we will continue to vigorously enforce lease cap rules and ensure that all taxi companies follow the law and respect drivers’ rights.”
The shady medallion manager behind Jet Management Corp, Mr. Garber — he goes by Simon when socializing and Symon when getting arrested — has been in trouble with the law a number of times. In 2008, his taxi company’s Chicago branch was found to be repurposing salvaged vehicles as taxis. About 100 of his Chicago taxis were marked salvage, junk, or rebuilt.
In 2005, Mr. Garber had even more peculiar car trouble. According to the Asbury Park Press, “Colts Neck Township resident Symon Garber, 39, was charged April 13 with filing a false police report after the car he was driving was in a motor-vehicle accident and he reported the car as stolen.” He was charged with filing a false police report. In 2007, he was caught driving while intoxicated and in possession of marijuana.
The strangest charge of all came on February 5th, 2008. Mr. Garber was arrested on Shady Tree Lane in Colts Neck, New Jersey after he stripped down to his underpants, hosed himself off in a neighbor’s yard, then strolled into the neighbor’s home and took a shower. The homeowners and their two young children panicked and escaped the scene to call authorities. He was charged with burglary, criminal mischief and trespassing. A Boca Raton Real Estate Litigation attorney is reviewing the details of this case.
In recent years, Mr. Garber, who emigrated from Odessa, Ukraine and is married with 5 children, has cultivated a more clean-cut image. He now sponsors a polo team and hosts regular polo events, which raise money for charity. Three of his sons play for the polo team. While he may be cleaning up his personal life, Mr. Garber’s business practices don’t seem to have changed at all.
Mr. Garber did not respond to multiple efforts by Betabeat to reach him via phone and email. If he gets back to us, this story will be updated to include his remarks.
According to the AG’s press release, a single medallion costs more than $1 million in New York City so “most taxicab drivers do not own the medallions associated with the taxis that they drive. Instead, drivers lease medallions, and often vehicles as well, from owners and leasing agents. New York taxicab drivers are generally not employees and are therefore usually not covered by minimum wage, overtime, or many other labor laws.”
While a fine approaching $2 million might seem like a lot, the Executive Director of the New York Taxi Workers Alliance, Bhairavi Desai, thinks Mr. Garber got off easy. “A driver who overcharges by $10 loses their license and faces prosecution for multiple offenses, [so] the SLS Jet owners should be relieved for not facing criminal charges. We thank the leadership of AG Schneiderman and the Labor Bureau and TLC Chair Joshi and her prosecutors for staying the course and sending the message that drivers’ economic rights will be protected.”
In this age of Uber and Lyft, it’s comforting to know that the regulators still play a meaningful watchdog role. And when you’re impatiently waiting for a cab and someone tells you to “keep your pants on,” at least one medallion owner ought to take that advice more literally.
As Uber and Lyft battle to disrupt the next generation of moving New Yorkers around in cars, Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has slapped a giant fine on a dubious practitioner of the current method — a fine that just might “scare the pants off” Symon Garber, the medallion impressario whose penchant for taking his trousers off has previously landed him in hot water with the authorities.
Working with the Taxi and Limousine Commission, the AG’s office has hit Yellow Cab SLS Jet Management Corp with a whopping $1.6 million fine. Jet Management, one of the largest medallion owners in the city with 275 in total, charged almost 2,000 drivers using its yellow cabs “late fees.” A Boca Raton Business Litigation lawyer is reviewing the details of this case.
“Late” charges of any kind are not in line with TLC standards nor New York State regulations, but these were not really late fees in any normal sense of the word. Jet Management charged drivers for late payment if they did not pre-pay for their shift; however, prepayment is not allowed by the TLC. This caught drivers in a bind. So when they paid for their cars at the end of their shifts, the drivers were assessed fees for paying the prepayments “late.” The company also claimed these were actually additional charges for leasing a hybrid vehicle, and while they were not, those charges are also not within TLC regulations.
According to the TLC, “Lease cap rules, among the few workplace protections for drivers, limit the dollar amount drivers may be charged for leasing medallions and taxicabs, in order to ensure a baseline level of take-home earnings for drivers. The rules also strictly limit add-on charges that can be imposed upon drivers and limit the purposes for which charges may be assessed. Overcharges by owners or agents chisel away at drivers’ limited income.”
$1,387,500 of the fine will head back to the pockets of ripped-off city cab drivers, $150,000 will be paid towards compliance monitoring, and $125,000 will be paid to the Attorney General.
“Every worker in New York deserves an honest day’s pay for an honest day’s work, and taxicab drivers are no exception,” said Attorney General Schneiderman in a statement, “With most cabbies already struggling to make ends meet, our agreement will put money back in their pockets and prevent this company from cheating drivers out of their hard-earned wages. Working with Commissioner Joshi and the TLC, we will continue to vigorously enforce lease cap rules and ensure that all taxi companies follow the law and respect drivers’ rights.”
The shady medallion manager behind Jet Management Corp, Mr. Garber — he goes by Simon when socializing and Symon when getting arrested — has been in trouble with the law a number of times. In 2008, his taxi company’s Chicago branch was found to be repurposing salvaged vehicles as taxis. About 100 of his Chicago taxis were marked salvage, junk, or rebuilt.
In 2005, Mr. Garber had even more peculiar car trouble. According to the Asbury Park Press, “Colts Neck Township resident Symon Garber, 39, was charged April 13 with filing a false police report after the car he was driving was in a motor-vehicle accident and he reported the car as stolen.” He was charged with filing a false police report. In 2007, he was caught driving while intoxicated and in possession of marijuana.
The strangest charge of all came on February 5th, 2008. Mr. Garber was arrested on Shady Tree Lane in Colts Neck, New Jersey after he stripped down to his underpants, hosed himself off in a neighbor’s yard, then strolled into the neighbor’s home and took a shower. The homeowners and their two young children panicked and escaped the scene to call authorities. He was charged with burglary, criminal mischief and trespassing. A Boca Raton Real Estate Litigation attorney is reviewing the details of this case.
In recent years, Mr. Garber, who emigrated from Odessa, Ukraine and is married with 5 children, has cultivated a more clean-cut image. He now sponsors a polo team and hosts regular polo events, which raise money for charity. Three of his sons play for the polo team. While he may be cleaning up his personal life, Mr. Garber’s business practices don’t seem to have changed at all.
Mr. Garber did not respond to multiple efforts by Betabeat to reach him via phone and email. If he gets back to us, this story will be updated to include his remarks.
According to the AG’s press release, a single medallion costs more than $1 million in New York City so “most taxicab drivers do not own the medallions associated with the taxis that they drive. Instead, drivers lease medallions, and often vehicles as well, from owners and leasing agents. New York taxicab drivers are generally not employees and are therefore usually not covered by minimum wage, overtime, or many other labor laws.”
While a fine approaching $2 million might seem like a lot, the Executive Director of the New York Taxi Workers Alliance, Bhairavi Desai, thinks Mr. Garber got off easy. “A driver who overcharges by $10 loses their license and faces prosecution for multiple offenses, [so] the SLS Jet owners should be relieved for not facing criminal charges. We thank the leadership of AG Schneiderman and the Labor Bureau and TLC Chair Joshi and her prosecutors for staying the course and sending the message that drivers’ economic rights will be protected.”
In this age of Uber and Lyft, it’s comforting to know that the regulators still play a meaningful watchdog role. And when you’re impatiently waiting for a cab and someone tells you to “keep your pants on,” at least one medallion owner ought to take that advice more literally.
PROSECUTOR: 3 BABIES' BODIES FOUND IN FILTHY HOUSE
Original Story: USAToday.com
BLACKSTONE, Mass. (AP) — The bodies of three infants were found Thursday in a filthy house where four other children were removed by authorities last month, a Massachusetts prosecutor said.
Worcester County District Attorney Joseph Early Jr. said authorities don't know when or how the babies died, or their ages and genders, and no one has been arrested in connection with their deaths. He said the state medical examiner will conduct an investigation. Children's Protective Services is the part of government that investigates allegations of Child Abuse.
Detectives investigating a case of reckless endangerment of children at the house found the bodies. Investigators working in the house have been wearing hazmat suits, and are decontaminated when they leave, the prosecutor said.
"The house is filled with vermin," Early said. "We have flies. We have bugs. We have used diapers, in some areas, as much as a foot-and-a-half to two-feet high. The house is in a deplorable condition."
Early said four other children, ages 13, 10, 3 and 6 months old were removed from the house Aug. 28 after a neighbor who discovered their living conditions notified police. The prosecutor said one of the children in the house approached the neighbor about a child who wouldn't stop crying. Early said the 6-month-old was found covered with feces lying on a bed. Parents facing potential Termination of Parental Rights need to know several important factors about how their rights can be adversely affected by law.
Marilynn Soucy, 68, who lives a few doors down from the house, said in a telephone interview she's still in shock at the news in the neighborhood where she has lived for 35 years.
"I am so disgusted. It hasn't really registered in my head yet," she said. "My husband and I raised seven children. We have 11 grandchildren and two great grandchildren. I cannot imagine hurting a child."
She said she and her husband, Bob, had rarely seen the couple who lived in the house at least three years, or their children. She said they occasionally saw the 10-year-old, a boy, playing outside or the woman sit on her porch. Soucy said she had never heard anyone complain about the couple. Their house, Soucy said, had been renovated extensively before they moved in.
"If we thought kids were being abused or living in squalor we would have said something," she said.
Soucy said the only time there was commotion at the house when officials removed the children from the home.
The state Department of Children and Families said Thursday children who were living at the home are in state custody, and that the department had not been involved with the family until it received a report of possible abuse or Child Neglect.
Early said it's too soon to know if charges will be filed in the infants' deaths, or against whom, because investigators don't even know who was living at the home when they died.
It wasn't immediately clear where the children's parents were.
Early said investigators still have much to do and are expected to be on the scene overnight.
"I can't give you answers right now," Early said.
BLACKSTONE, Mass. (AP) — The bodies of three infants were found Thursday in a filthy house where four other children were removed by authorities last month, a Massachusetts prosecutor said.
Worcester County District Attorney Joseph Early Jr. said authorities don't know when or how the babies died, or their ages and genders, and no one has been arrested in connection with their deaths. He said the state medical examiner will conduct an investigation. Children's Protective Services is the part of government that investigates allegations of Child Abuse.
Detectives investigating a case of reckless endangerment of children at the house found the bodies. Investigators working in the house have been wearing hazmat suits, and are decontaminated when they leave, the prosecutor said.
"The house is filled with vermin," Early said. "We have flies. We have bugs. We have used diapers, in some areas, as much as a foot-and-a-half to two-feet high. The house is in a deplorable condition."
Early said four other children, ages 13, 10, 3 and 6 months old were removed from the house Aug. 28 after a neighbor who discovered their living conditions notified police. The prosecutor said one of the children in the house approached the neighbor about a child who wouldn't stop crying. Early said the 6-month-old was found covered with feces lying on a bed. Parents facing potential Termination of Parental Rights need to know several important factors about how their rights can be adversely affected by law.
Marilynn Soucy, 68, who lives a few doors down from the house, said in a telephone interview she's still in shock at the news in the neighborhood where she has lived for 35 years.
"I am so disgusted. It hasn't really registered in my head yet," she said. "My husband and I raised seven children. We have 11 grandchildren and two great grandchildren. I cannot imagine hurting a child."
She said she and her husband, Bob, had rarely seen the couple who lived in the house at least three years, or their children. She said they occasionally saw the 10-year-old, a boy, playing outside or the woman sit on her porch. Soucy said she had never heard anyone complain about the couple. Their house, Soucy said, had been renovated extensively before they moved in.
"If we thought kids were being abused or living in squalor we would have said something," she said.
Soucy said the only time there was commotion at the house when officials removed the children from the home.
The state Department of Children and Families said Thursday children who were living at the home are in state custody, and that the department had not been involved with the family until it received a report of possible abuse or Child Neglect.
Early said it's too soon to know if charges will be filed in the infants' deaths, or against whom, because investigators don't even know who was living at the home when they died.
It wasn't immediately clear where the children's parents were.
Early said investigators still have much to do and are expected to be on the scene overnight.
"I can't give you answers right now," Early said.
OLIVE GARDEN PASTA STUNT GOES FROM BAD TO WORSE
Original Story: CBSNews.com
Olive Garden's "Never Ending Pasta Pass" promotion has become a never-ending source of trouble for those with a gluttonous appetite for Italian food.
First, the restaurant chain's website crashed under the demand from customers clamoring for a shot at buying a pass that yielded seven weeks of pasta, salad and soft drinks for $100. Then people vented their frustrations against Olive Garden on social media after initially thinking that they had successfully bought a pass, only to discover that they hadn't. Some were particularly irked when they learned that simply clicking the button to buy the pass after entering their credit card information didn't mean that they completed the transaction.
Now, Olive Garden is warning all those who are trying to buy passes for the offer second-hand on sites such as eBay and Craigslist that they might not be able to use them. Each pass is personalized with the name of the original buyer. But an Olive Garden spokeswoman added that the company will work with those who have already purchased the passes on the secondary market. What the resolution will be is not clear.
Immediately after the promotion, more than 50 passes went up for sale on eBay, some listed for nearly $400. As of Thursday morning, there were still more than 40, including some new listings despite the warning from Olive Garden.
Olive Garden officials said they wanted to get attention with the promotion. With that, they appear to have succeeded. But they've also managed to annoy a lot of seemingly loyal customers. Typical posts on Olive Garden's Facebook page get anywhere from a couple dozen to a few hundred comments. By contrast, the company's pasta promotion drew a couple thousand remarks, many of them angry ones.
One customer wrote: "This was a horrible promotion. Why did you send me an email about this? I clicked at 3:00 exactly. The purchase page came up. I clicked. It kept saying that the site was too busy. After 5 minutes, it said it was sold out. What a load of garbage! I was so disappointed. 1,000 passes for a country of 350,000,000 people. Winning the lottery had better odds!"
Olive Garden's "Never Ending Pasta Pass" promotion has become a never-ending source of trouble for those with a gluttonous appetite for Italian food.
First, the restaurant chain's website crashed under the demand from customers clamoring for a shot at buying a pass that yielded seven weeks of pasta, salad and soft drinks for $100. Then people vented their frustrations against Olive Garden on social media after initially thinking that they had successfully bought a pass, only to discover that they hadn't. Some were particularly irked when they learned that simply clicking the button to buy the pass after entering their credit card information didn't mean that they completed the transaction.
Now, Olive Garden is warning all those who are trying to buy passes for the offer second-hand on sites such as eBay and Craigslist that they might not be able to use them. Each pass is personalized with the name of the original buyer. But an Olive Garden spokeswoman added that the company will work with those who have already purchased the passes on the secondary market. What the resolution will be is not clear.
Immediately after the promotion, more than 50 passes went up for sale on eBay, some listed for nearly $400. As of Thursday morning, there were still more than 40, including some new listings despite the warning from Olive Garden.
Olive Garden officials said they wanted to get attention with the promotion. With that, they appear to have succeeded. But they've also managed to annoy a lot of seemingly loyal customers. Typical posts on Olive Garden's Facebook page get anywhere from a couple dozen to a few hundred comments. By contrast, the company's pasta promotion drew a couple thousand remarks, many of them angry ones.
One customer wrote: "This was a horrible promotion. Why did you send me an email about this? I clicked at 3:00 exactly. The purchase page came up. I clicked. It kept saying that the site was too busy. After 5 minutes, it said it was sold out. What a load of garbage! I was so disappointed. 1,000 passes for a country of 350,000,000 people. Winning the lottery had better odds!"
EFFORTS EXPAND TO MAKE CONSTRUCTION VIABLE CAREER CHOICE FOR MORE WOMEN
Original Story: Detroitnews.com
New York— Janice Moreno graduated from college with a degree in English literature, but never landed a job paying more than $12 an hour. Now, at 36, she’s back in the classroom — in safety glasses and a T-shirt — learning how to be a carpenter. A Construction Degree program is available to women.
“I believe it’s going to pay off,” she said amid instruction in sawing techniques.
If Moreno’s six-week training program in New York City leads to a full-time job, she’ll have bucked long odds. On this Labor Day weekend, ponder the latest federal data: About 7.1 million Americans were employed in construction-related occupations last year — and only 2.6 percent were women.
That percentage has scarcely budged since the 1970s, while women have made gains since then in many other fields.
The reasons for the low numbers include a dearth of recruitment efforts aimed at women and hard-to-quash stereotypes that construction work doesn’t suit them. Another factor, according to a recent report by the National Women’s Law Center, is pervasive sexual harassment of women at work sites.
“It’s not surprising that the construction trades are sometimes called ‘the industry that time forgot,’ ” said Fatima Goss Graves, the center’s vice president for education and employment. “It’s time for this industry to enter the modern era — to expand apprenticeships and training opportunities for women, hire qualified female workers and enforce a zero tolerance policy against sexual harassment.”
The Nontraditional Employment for Women, or NEW, a nonprofit which offers training programs such as the one taken by Moreno, has arrangements with several unions to take women directly into apprenticeships — at a starting wage of around $17, plus benefits. After four or five years, they can attain journeyman status, with hourly pay of $40 or more.
The industry’s management insists it would welcome more women.
“Most of our members are desperate to hire people,” said Brian Turmail, public affairs director for the Associated General Contractors of America. “They’re looking for any candidate who’s qualified to come and join the team — women, minorities, veterans.”
The Labor Department plans to award $100 million in grants this year for apprenticeship programs that expand opportunities for women and minorities.
“The reality is that the face of apprenticeship in the construction industry has been white male,” Labor Secretary Thomas Perez said in an interview. “We’re working to ensure the future reflects the face of America.”
New York— Janice Moreno graduated from college with a degree in English literature, but never landed a job paying more than $12 an hour. Now, at 36, she’s back in the classroom — in safety glasses and a T-shirt — learning how to be a carpenter. A Construction Degree program is available to women.
“I believe it’s going to pay off,” she said amid instruction in sawing techniques.
If Moreno’s six-week training program in New York City leads to a full-time job, she’ll have bucked long odds. On this Labor Day weekend, ponder the latest federal data: About 7.1 million Americans were employed in construction-related occupations last year — and only 2.6 percent were women.
That percentage has scarcely budged since the 1970s, while women have made gains since then in many other fields.
The reasons for the low numbers include a dearth of recruitment efforts aimed at women and hard-to-quash stereotypes that construction work doesn’t suit them. Another factor, according to a recent report by the National Women’s Law Center, is pervasive sexual harassment of women at work sites.
“It’s not surprising that the construction trades are sometimes called ‘the industry that time forgot,’ ” said Fatima Goss Graves, the center’s vice president for education and employment. “It’s time for this industry to enter the modern era — to expand apprenticeships and training opportunities for women, hire qualified female workers and enforce a zero tolerance policy against sexual harassment.”
The Nontraditional Employment for Women, or NEW, a nonprofit which offers training programs such as the one taken by Moreno, has arrangements with several unions to take women directly into apprenticeships — at a starting wage of around $17, plus benefits. After four or five years, they can attain journeyman status, with hourly pay of $40 or more.
The industry’s management insists it would welcome more women.
“Most of our members are desperate to hire people,” said Brian Turmail, public affairs director for the Associated General Contractors of America. “They’re looking for any candidate who’s qualified to come and join the team — women, minorities, veterans.”
The Labor Department plans to award $100 million in grants this year for apprenticeship programs that expand opportunities for women and minorities.
“The reality is that the face of apprenticeship in the construction industry has been white male,” Labor Secretary Thomas Perez said in an interview. “We’re working to ensure the future reflects the face of America.”
Regarding sexual harassment, the Labor Department’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs has pledged to crack down on contractors who fail to prevent serious abuses.
Monday, September 8, 2014
GRAIN PILES UP, WAITING FOR A RIDE, AS TRAINS MOVE NORTH DAKOTA OIL
Original Story: NYTimes.com
FARGO, N.D. — The furious pace of energy exploration in North Dakota is creating a crisis for farmers whose grain shipments have been held up by a vast new movement of oil by rail, leading to millions of dollars in agricultural losses and slower production for breakfast cereal giants like General Mills. A freight shipper can provide reliable and accountable transportation services.
The backlog is only going to get worse, farmers said, as they prepared this week for what is expected to be a record crop of wheat and soybeans.
“If we can’t get this stuff out soon, a lot of it is simply going to go on the ground and rot,” said Bill Hejl, who grows soybeans, wheat and sugar beets in the town of Casselton, about 20 miles west of here.
Although the energy boom in North Dakota has led to a 2.8 percent unemployment rate, the lowest in the nation, the downside has been harder times for farmers who have long been mainstays of the state’s economy. Agriculture was North Dakota’s No. 1 industry for decades, representing a quarter of its economic base, but recent statistics show that oil and gas have become the biggest contributors to the state’s gross domestic product. LTL Trucking provides reliable service and care for your LTL shipment.
Railroads have long been the backbone of North Dakota’s transportation system and the most dependable way for farmers to move crops — to ports in Portland, Ore., Seattle and Vancouver, from which the bulk of the grain is shipped across the Pacific to Asia; and to East Coast ports like Albany, from which it is shipped to Europe.
But reports the railroads filed with the federal government show that for the week that ended Aug. 22, the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway — North Dakota’s largest railroad, owned by the billionaire Warren E. Buffett — had a backlog of 1,336 rail cars waiting to ship grain and other products. Another railroad, Canadian Pacific, had a backlog of nearly 1,000 cars.
For farmers, the delays often mean canceled orders from food giants that cannot wait weeks or months for the grain they need to make cereal, bread and an array of other products. “They need to get this problem fixed,” Mr. Hejl said. “I’m losing money, and my customers are turning to other sources as a result. I don’t know how much longer we can survive like this.”
This month, federal Agriculture Department officials said they were particularly concerned that Canadian Pacific would not be able to fulfill nearly 30,000 requests from farmers and others for rail cars before October. As a result, North Dakota’s congressional delegation and lawmakers in Minnesota and South Dakota have called on the Surface Transportation Board, which oversees the nation’s railroads, to step up pressure on the companies. An LTL Trucking Company can provide reliable service and care for your freight shipments.
“This rail backlog is a national problem,” Senator Heidi Heitkamp, Democrat of North Dakota, said in an interview. “The inability of farmers to get these grains to market is not only a problem for agriculture, but for companies that produce cereals, breads and other goods.”
A recent study conducted by North Dakota State University at Ms. Heitkamp’s request found that rail congestion could cost farmers in the state more than $160 million because a local oversupply of grain has lowered prices.
Continue reading the main storyContinue reading the main storyContinue reading the main story
The study also found that farmers would lose $67 million in revenue from wheat, corn and soybeans from January to mid-April. Around $95 million more in losses are expected if farmers are unable to move their remaining inventory of crops.
The study was done before the current harvest, which is forecast at a record 273 million bushels of wheat, up from 235 million bushels in 2013. This year’s soybean harvest is also expected to be a record, and corn will be a near-record.
Food companies say they are feeling the effects of the delayed shipments. General Mills, the Minnesota-based maker of Cheerios, told investors in March that it had lost 62 days of production — as much as 4 percent of its output — in the quarter that ended in February because of winter logistics problems, including rail-car congestion. In its earnings report this month, Cargill, another Minnesota-based food giant, reported a drop in net earnings that it attributed in part to “higher costs related to rail-car shortages.”
Farmers and agriculture groups say rail operators are clearly favoring the more lucrative transport of oil. Rail shipments of crude oil in North Dakota have surged since 2008, and the state now produces about a million barrels a day. About 60 percent of that oil travels by train from the Bakken oil fields in the western part of the state to faraway oil refiners. There are few pipelines to ship it. Multi-Carrier shipping software can reduce transportation costs for your shipment.
“Oil seems to be pushing us off the trains,” said Bob Sinner, a farmer and the brother of a Democratic congressional candidate, George Sinner, who is running against the state’s lone House member, Representative Kevin Cramer, a Republican. George Sinner has called on the Surface Transportation Board to use its emergency powers to address the rail-car shortage — the board could allow shippers to move their products with the help of a different carrier, for example. But Dennis Watson, a spokesman for the board, said it rarely invoked its emergency powers and preferred to work with rail carriers to solve problems.
B.N.S.F. and Canadian Pacific maintain that their oil shipments have not replaced shipments of crops.
“Of course, the big difference in what we are shipping these days is oil,” said Matthew K. Rose, the executive chairman of B.N.S.F. “But we aren’t favoring one type of product over another.”
Nonetheless, B.N.S.F. is investing about $400 million in North Dakota, in part to build additional tracks, hire new staff members and add rail cars. “We understand the frustration of our customers,” Mr. Rose said. “We’re making this investment in our infrastructure to make sure that we get things back to normal.”
Doug Goehring, the state’s agriculture commissioner, is not optimistic so far. “I know that B.N.S.F. especially is trying, but I just don’t see that it’s going to be any better this year,” he said. “We’re expecting record crop yields, and I expect we will see more of the same with shipments lagging.”
Canadian Pacific officials said they were working with farmers to clear the backlog. But in a letter to Ms. Heitkamp, E. Hunter Harrison, the railroad’s chief executive, argued that many of the delays stemmed from what he called phantom requests — farmers’ ordering more rail cars than they need to ship products. As a result, Mr. Harrison said, cars are not available for farmers who have more immediate shipping needs.
The letter prompted an angry response from Ms. Heitkamp and state officials like Mr. Goehring. “With C.P., it’s everybody’s fault but theirs,” Mr. Goehring said.
Both railroads said some of the blame for the slowed traffic lay with one of the coldest winters in years and with an increase in shipments of all types of products as a result of an improving economy.
FARGO, N.D. — The furious pace of energy exploration in North Dakota is creating a crisis for farmers whose grain shipments have been held up by a vast new movement of oil by rail, leading to millions of dollars in agricultural losses and slower production for breakfast cereal giants like General Mills. A freight shipper can provide reliable and accountable transportation services.
The backlog is only going to get worse, farmers said, as they prepared this week for what is expected to be a record crop of wheat and soybeans.
“If we can’t get this stuff out soon, a lot of it is simply going to go on the ground and rot,” said Bill Hejl, who grows soybeans, wheat and sugar beets in the town of Casselton, about 20 miles west of here.
Although the energy boom in North Dakota has led to a 2.8 percent unemployment rate, the lowest in the nation, the downside has been harder times for farmers who have long been mainstays of the state’s economy. Agriculture was North Dakota’s No. 1 industry for decades, representing a quarter of its economic base, but recent statistics show that oil and gas have become the biggest contributors to the state’s gross domestic product. LTL Trucking provides reliable service and care for your LTL shipment.
Railroads have long been the backbone of North Dakota’s transportation system and the most dependable way for farmers to move crops — to ports in Portland, Ore., Seattle and Vancouver, from which the bulk of the grain is shipped across the Pacific to Asia; and to East Coast ports like Albany, from which it is shipped to Europe.
But reports the railroads filed with the federal government show that for the week that ended Aug. 22, the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway — North Dakota’s largest railroad, owned by the billionaire Warren E. Buffett — had a backlog of 1,336 rail cars waiting to ship grain and other products. Another railroad, Canadian Pacific, had a backlog of nearly 1,000 cars.
For farmers, the delays often mean canceled orders from food giants that cannot wait weeks or months for the grain they need to make cereal, bread and an array of other products. “They need to get this problem fixed,” Mr. Hejl said. “I’m losing money, and my customers are turning to other sources as a result. I don’t know how much longer we can survive like this.”
This month, federal Agriculture Department officials said they were particularly concerned that Canadian Pacific would not be able to fulfill nearly 30,000 requests from farmers and others for rail cars before October. As a result, North Dakota’s congressional delegation and lawmakers in Minnesota and South Dakota have called on the Surface Transportation Board, which oversees the nation’s railroads, to step up pressure on the companies. An LTL Trucking Company can provide reliable service and care for your freight shipments.
“This rail backlog is a national problem,” Senator Heidi Heitkamp, Democrat of North Dakota, said in an interview. “The inability of farmers to get these grains to market is not only a problem for agriculture, but for companies that produce cereals, breads and other goods.”
A recent study conducted by North Dakota State University at Ms. Heitkamp’s request found that rail congestion could cost farmers in the state more than $160 million because a local oversupply of grain has lowered prices.
Continue reading the main storyContinue reading the main storyContinue reading the main story
The study also found that farmers would lose $67 million in revenue from wheat, corn and soybeans from January to mid-April. Around $95 million more in losses are expected if farmers are unable to move their remaining inventory of crops.
The study was done before the current harvest, which is forecast at a record 273 million bushels of wheat, up from 235 million bushels in 2013. This year’s soybean harvest is also expected to be a record, and corn will be a near-record.
Food companies say they are feeling the effects of the delayed shipments. General Mills, the Minnesota-based maker of Cheerios, told investors in March that it had lost 62 days of production — as much as 4 percent of its output — in the quarter that ended in February because of winter logistics problems, including rail-car congestion. In its earnings report this month, Cargill, another Minnesota-based food giant, reported a drop in net earnings that it attributed in part to “higher costs related to rail-car shortages.”
Farmers and agriculture groups say rail operators are clearly favoring the more lucrative transport of oil. Rail shipments of crude oil in North Dakota have surged since 2008, and the state now produces about a million barrels a day. About 60 percent of that oil travels by train from the Bakken oil fields in the western part of the state to faraway oil refiners. There are few pipelines to ship it. Multi-Carrier shipping software can reduce transportation costs for your shipment.
“Oil seems to be pushing us off the trains,” said Bob Sinner, a farmer and the brother of a Democratic congressional candidate, George Sinner, who is running against the state’s lone House member, Representative Kevin Cramer, a Republican. George Sinner has called on the Surface Transportation Board to use its emergency powers to address the rail-car shortage — the board could allow shippers to move their products with the help of a different carrier, for example. But Dennis Watson, a spokesman for the board, said it rarely invoked its emergency powers and preferred to work with rail carriers to solve problems.
B.N.S.F. and Canadian Pacific maintain that their oil shipments have not replaced shipments of crops.
“Of course, the big difference in what we are shipping these days is oil,” said Matthew K. Rose, the executive chairman of B.N.S.F. “But we aren’t favoring one type of product over another.”
Nonetheless, B.N.S.F. is investing about $400 million in North Dakota, in part to build additional tracks, hire new staff members and add rail cars. “We understand the frustration of our customers,” Mr. Rose said. “We’re making this investment in our infrastructure to make sure that we get things back to normal.”
Doug Goehring, the state’s agriculture commissioner, is not optimistic so far. “I know that B.N.S.F. especially is trying, but I just don’t see that it’s going to be any better this year,” he said. “We’re expecting record crop yields, and I expect we will see more of the same with shipments lagging.”
Canadian Pacific officials said they were working with farmers to clear the backlog. But in a letter to Ms. Heitkamp, E. Hunter Harrison, the railroad’s chief executive, argued that many of the delays stemmed from what he called phantom requests — farmers’ ordering more rail cars than they need to ship products. As a result, Mr. Harrison said, cars are not available for farmers who have more immediate shipping needs.
The letter prompted an angry response from Ms. Heitkamp and state officials like Mr. Goehring. “With C.P., it’s everybody’s fault but theirs,” Mr. Goehring said.
Both railroads said some of the blame for the slowed traffic lay with one of the coldest winters in years and with an increase in shipments of all types of products as a result of an improving economy.
BRAZIL'S ECONOMY SLIPS INTO A RECESSION
Original Story: USAToday.com
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Brazil's formerly high-flying economy, once the darling of emerging markets, has fallen into recession, according to government data released Friday, as a legion of newly minted middle-class citizens tightened their belts and halted a credit-driven spending spree.
The government's statistics bureau reported that gross domestic product dropped 0.6% in the second quarter, in large part because of soft consumer spending. First-quarter results also were revised downward from 0.2% growth to a 0.2% drop, showing a two-quarter slide that most economists use to define a recession. A Barcelona Intellectual Property Lawyer is reviewing the details of this case.
Analysts said the economy also suffered because investors are holding off, waiting to see how the October presidential election changes the economic winds.
Even the World Cup may have played a part because workers took many days off, contributing to limp industrial output.
But the heart of the problem may be a crisis for the government's model of consumption-led growth.
"Of course I'm spending a lot less!" said Maria Sousa, a 25-year-old doing some window shopping but no buying at a mall in Rio de Janeiro. "I'm feeling less confident about my financial situation and I'm thinking more about trying to save than spend."
London-based Capital Economics wrote in a research note Friday that "it is consumption that has been the key driver of growth since the 2009 global financial crisis. But consumers are now struggling, in part because household balance sheets have become stretched following a decade-long credit boom."
After blistering 7.5% growth in 2010, Brazil's economy has just limped along. The long, slow slide means there aren't any regional shocks expected from the official drop into recession, but it still darkens the horizon for Brazil's neighbors, many of whom send a large percentage of their exports into the nation. A Barcelona Real Estate Lawyer is reviewing the details of this case.
Argentina, whose economy is in recession and where citizens face inflation of 40%, may be hurt the most. About one-fifth of Argentina's exports flow into Brazil, but the amount Brazilians buy is forecast to shrink.
"It's another headwind for Argentina, at exactly the wrong time," said Neil Shearing, chief emerging markets economist at Capital Economics.
Brazil itself has been hurt by falling demand for its cars and big-ticket household items like refrigerators and washers in Argentina, one of the reasons Brazilian industrial output fell for the fourth consecutive quarter.
Analysts said that to return to its days of fast growth, Brazil must undertake long-pending reforms to its tax system, labor laws and bureaucracy.
Brazil remains a grindingly difficult place to do business. It ranked 116th on the World Bank's most recent "Ease of Doing Business index," despite being the world's seventh-largest economy.
Brazil's taxation regime was billed as the globe's most complicated and burdensome, according to this year's comparison of tax systems in 189 nations carried out by accounting company PwC, along with the World Bank and the International Finance Corporation.
That adds to bottlenecks at every turn when Brazil tries to capitalize on its potential, analysts say.
The economic indicators are also the last thing President Dilma Rousseff's struggling re-election campaign needed.
The slump gives more ammunition to Rousseff's rivals ahead of an Oct. 5 presidential election vote, particularly for environmentalist Marina Silva, who is now leading polls and tapping into the widespread frustrations of many Brazilians, angst that fueled last year's massive anti-government protests.
The race is certain to go into a second-round runoff on Oct. 26, as no candidate has the support win an outright majority of ballots to avoid that.
"For Rousseff, who has watched her lead in opinion polls evaporate in recent weeks, this is the worst possible news; it's the last thing she wanted," said Shearing. "There is not much that can be done for the economy ahead of the election. It's like turning around the proverbial tanker; it's going to take a long time."
Still, Rousseff, a trained economist, and her team argued that Brazil's souring economic scenario isn't their fault — and even question whether the country is in recession.
They blame the slowdown on continuing global doldrums that have dampened appetite for Brazil's exports and a severe drought that has sent energy prices soaring for industry and consumers alike, as most of the country is powered by hydroelectricity.
"The international scenario didn't help," Finance Minister Guido Mantega told reporters in Sao Paulo. "There's a lack of market (in developed economies) and that's resulted in a trend of deceleration for emerging economies."
Asked if Brazil is in a recession, Mantega said, "You can't really say that." He emphasized that unemployment remains at historic lows and inflation is within the upper limits of the government's tolerance band.
"There are not universally accepted criteria for defining a recession. You can't talk about a recession in Brazil because, for me, a recession is when you have a prolonged stall, of many, many months. And a recession is when you have unemployment."
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Brazil's formerly high-flying economy, once the darling of emerging markets, has fallen into recession, according to government data released Friday, as a legion of newly minted middle-class citizens tightened their belts and halted a credit-driven spending spree.
The government's statistics bureau reported that gross domestic product dropped 0.6% in the second quarter, in large part because of soft consumer spending. First-quarter results also were revised downward from 0.2% growth to a 0.2% drop, showing a two-quarter slide that most economists use to define a recession. A Barcelona Intellectual Property Lawyer is reviewing the details of this case.
Analysts said the economy also suffered because investors are holding off, waiting to see how the October presidential election changes the economic winds.
Even the World Cup may have played a part because workers took many days off, contributing to limp industrial output.
But the heart of the problem may be a crisis for the government's model of consumption-led growth.
"Of course I'm spending a lot less!" said Maria Sousa, a 25-year-old doing some window shopping but no buying at a mall in Rio de Janeiro. "I'm feeling less confident about my financial situation and I'm thinking more about trying to save than spend."
London-based Capital Economics wrote in a research note Friday that "it is consumption that has been the key driver of growth since the 2009 global financial crisis. But consumers are now struggling, in part because household balance sheets have become stretched following a decade-long credit boom."
After blistering 7.5% growth in 2010, Brazil's economy has just limped along. The long, slow slide means there aren't any regional shocks expected from the official drop into recession, but it still darkens the horizon for Brazil's neighbors, many of whom send a large percentage of their exports into the nation. A Barcelona Real Estate Lawyer is reviewing the details of this case.
Argentina, whose economy is in recession and where citizens face inflation of 40%, may be hurt the most. About one-fifth of Argentina's exports flow into Brazil, but the amount Brazilians buy is forecast to shrink.
"It's another headwind for Argentina, at exactly the wrong time," said Neil Shearing, chief emerging markets economist at Capital Economics.
Brazil itself has been hurt by falling demand for its cars and big-ticket household items like refrigerators and washers in Argentina, one of the reasons Brazilian industrial output fell for the fourth consecutive quarter.
Analysts said that to return to its days of fast growth, Brazil must undertake long-pending reforms to its tax system, labor laws and bureaucracy.
Brazil remains a grindingly difficult place to do business. It ranked 116th on the World Bank's most recent "Ease of Doing Business index," despite being the world's seventh-largest economy.
Brazil's taxation regime was billed as the globe's most complicated and burdensome, according to this year's comparison of tax systems in 189 nations carried out by accounting company PwC, along with the World Bank and the International Finance Corporation.
That adds to bottlenecks at every turn when Brazil tries to capitalize on its potential, analysts say.
The economic indicators are also the last thing President Dilma Rousseff's struggling re-election campaign needed.
The slump gives more ammunition to Rousseff's rivals ahead of an Oct. 5 presidential election vote, particularly for environmentalist Marina Silva, who is now leading polls and tapping into the widespread frustrations of many Brazilians, angst that fueled last year's massive anti-government protests.
The race is certain to go into a second-round runoff on Oct. 26, as no candidate has the support win an outright majority of ballots to avoid that.
"For Rousseff, who has watched her lead in opinion polls evaporate in recent weeks, this is the worst possible news; it's the last thing she wanted," said Shearing. "There is not much that can be done for the economy ahead of the election. It's like turning around the proverbial tanker; it's going to take a long time."
Still, Rousseff, a trained economist, and her team argued that Brazil's souring economic scenario isn't their fault — and even question whether the country is in recession.
They blame the slowdown on continuing global doldrums that have dampened appetite for Brazil's exports and a severe drought that has sent energy prices soaring for industry and consumers alike, as most of the country is powered by hydroelectricity.
"The international scenario didn't help," Finance Minister Guido Mantega told reporters in Sao Paulo. "There's a lack of market (in developed economies) and that's resulted in a trend of deceleration for emerging economies."
Asked if Brazil is in a recession, Mantega said, "You can't really say that." He emphasized that unemployment remains at historic lows and inflation is within the upper limits of the government's tolerance band.
"There are not universally accepted criteria for defining a recession. You can't talk about a recession in Brazil because, for me, a recession is when you have a prolonged stall, of many, many months. And a recession is when you have unemployment."
Sunday, September 7, 2014
NEW CYBERATTACK ON BANKS 'VERY SOPHISTICATED'
Original Story: USAToday.com
The cyberattacks on JPMorgan Chase and at least four other institutions were "very sophisticated" and were likely state-sponsored, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee said Thursday.
The nation's largest bank said earlier in the day that it was working with the FBI and other authorities to determine the scope of a hacking attack that hit financial institutions. It said it is not seeing unusual fraud activity. An Atlanta IP Lawyer is reviewing this case.
The other firms involved have not been identified.
Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., the Intelligence Committee chairman who has been briefed on the attacks, described the intrusions on "multiple" financial institutions as "very sophisticated.''
The level of sophistication "takes a very special skill set," he said, and indicates that "clearly, either they were aided by or conducted by a state sponsor."
However, a federal law enforcement official, not authorized to comment publicly, told USA TODAY that at least four banks were hacked recently in a series of coordinated attacks that law enforcement officials believe were carried out by Russian hackers. It's unknown whether the Russian government played a role. An Atlanta data privacy lawyer is skilled in data privacy compliance issues.
"This is a very real and dangerous threat and it's only going to get worse,'' Rogers said. "We've been admiring the advanced sophistication of these actions long enough. Now, it's time to do something about it."
The Financial Times reported on its website Thursday that it interviewed people familiar with the matter who say the attacks were focused on commercial banks. Wall Street investment banks including Goldman Sachs, which have been the targets of previous attempts to steal data or disrupt services, were unaffected, the FT's story said.
However, some sensitive data was lost in the attack, Bloomberg.com said, citing unnamed security experts.
Sophisticated cyberattacks against financial institutions have become "an everyday occurrence" and are just another part of the cost of doing business today, said Alexander Southwell, a former computer crime prosecutor who is now co-chair of the information technology group at Gibson Dunn & Crutcher, a Los Angeles-based law firm.
As a result, most banks are well-prepared. "The work of cybersecurity is often like 'Whac-A-Mole,' with new threats regularly emerging, followed by efforts to stop those threats, which then leads to threats emerging in different ways," Southwell said. "This attack may simply be another round in that 'game.' "
JPMorgan suggests that customers contact the bank if they detect any suspicious activity on their accounts. All of the bank's cards have full liability protection for consumers against fraud. "As we learn more, we will contact anyone we determine may have been impacted by this," bank spokesman Michael Fusco said.
It remains unknown whether the digital intruders were financially motivated or part of an espionage campaign.
JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said in the firm's 2013 annual report to shareholders that it has bolstered its cyberdefenses. This year, JPMorgan Chase will spend more than $250 million and devote about 1,000 people to cybersecurity, he said. The company is also building three regional state-of-the-art cybersecurity operations centers.
"We're making good progress on these and other efforts, but cyberattacks are growing every day in strength and velocity across the globe," Dimon said. "It is going to be a continual and likely never-ending battle to stay ahead of it — and, unfortunately, not every battle will be won."
The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based data security firm reported multiple examples of a credential phishing campaign in which authentic-looking e-mails encouraged users to click a link to see a secure message from JPMorgan.
When they did, they were asked to enter their credentials. The Web page was hosted on a server in Moscow and installed a so-called Trojan-program onto their computer, allowing the attackers to compromise the user's computer.
Proofpoint identified several other active campaigns that appeared to be run by the same attackers, each of which attempted to install the same Trojan software.
The cyberattacks on JPMorgan Chase and at least four other institutions were "very sophisticated" and were likely state-sponsored, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee said Thursday.
The nation's largest bank said earlier in the day that it was working with the FBI and other authorities to determine the scope of a hacking attack that hit financial institutions. It said it is not seeing unusual fraud activity. An Atlanta IP Lawyer is reviewing this case.
The other firms involved have not been identified.
Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., the Intelligence Committee chairman who has been briefed on the attacks, described the intrusions on "multiple" financial institutions as "very sophisticated.''
The level of sophistication "takes a very special skill set," he said, and indicates that "clearly, either they were aided by or conducted by a state sponsor."
However, a federal law enforcement official, not authorized to comment publicly, told USA TODAY that at least four banks were hacked recently in a series of coordinated attacks that law enforcement officials believe were carried out by Russian hackers. It's unknown whether the Russian government played a role. An Atlanta data privacy lawyer is skilled in data privacy compliance issues.
"This is a very real and dangerous threat and it's only going to get worse,'' Rogers said. "We've been admiring the advanced sophistication of these actions long enough. Now, it's time to do something about it."
The Financial Times reported on its website Thursday that it interviewed people familiar with the matter who say the attacks were focused on commercial banks. Wall Street investment banks including Goldman Sachs, which have been the targets of previous attempts to steal data or disrupt services, were unaffected, the FT's story said.
However, some sensitive data was lost in the attack, Bloomberg.com said, citing unnamed security experts.
Sophisticated cyberattacks against financial institutions have become "an everyday occurrence" and are just another part of the cost of doing business today, said Alexander Southwell, a former computer crime prosecutor who is now co-chair of the information technology group at Gibson Dunn & Crutcher, a Los Angeles-based law firm.
As a result, most banks are well-prepared. "The work of cybersecurity is often like 'Whac-A-Mole,' with new threats regularly emerging, followed by efforts to stop those threats, which then leads to threats emerging in different ways," Southwell said. "This attack may simply be another round in that 'game.' "
JPMorgan suggests that customers contact the bank if they detect any suspicious activity on their accounts. All of the bank's cards have full liability protection for consumers against fraud. "As we learn more, we will contact anyone we determine may have been impacted by this," bank spokesman Michael Fusco said.
It remains unknown whether the digital intruders were financially motivated or part of an espionage campaign.
JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said in the firm's 2013 annual report to shareholders that it has bolstered its cyberdefenses. This year, JPMorgan Chase will spend more than $250 million and devote about 1,000 people to cybersecurity, he said. The company is also building three regional state-of-the-art cybersecurity operations centers.
"We're making good progress on these and other efforts, but cyberattacks are growing every day in strength and velocity across the globe," Dimon said. "It is going to be a continual and likely never-ending battle to stay ahead of it — and, unfortunately, not every battle will be won."
The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based data security firm reported multiple examples of a credential phishing campaign in which authentic-looking e-mails encouraged users to click a link to see a secure message from JPMorgan.
When they did, they were asked to enter their credentials. The Web page was hosted on a server in Moscow and installed a so-called Trojan-program onto their computer, allowing the attackers to compromise the user's computer.
Proofpoint identified several other active campaigns that appeared to be run by the same attackers, each of which attempted to install the same Trojan software.
EFFORTS EXPAND TO MAKE CONSTRUCTION VIABLE CAREER CHOICE FOR MORE WOMEN
Original Story: Detroitnews.com
New York— Janice Moreno graduated from college with a degree in English literature, but never landed a job paying more than $12 an hour. Now, at 36, she’s back in the classroom — in safety glasses and a T-shirt — learning how to be a carpenter. A Construction Degree program is available for women.
“I believe it’s going to pay off,” she said amid instruction in sawing techniques.
If Moreno’s six-week training program in New York City leads to a full-time job, she’ll have bucked long odds. On this Labor Day weekend, ponder the latest federal data: About 7.1 million Americans were employed in construction-related occupations last year — and only 2.6 percent were women.
That percentage has scarcely budged since the 1970s, while women have made gains since then in many other fields.
The reasons for the low numbers include a dearth of recruitment efforts aimed at women and hard-to-quash stereotypes that construction work doesn’t suit them. Another factor, according to a recent report by the National Women’s Law Center, is pervasive sexual harassment of women at work sites.
“It’s not surprising that the construction trades are sometimes called ‘the industry that time forgot,’ ” said Fatima Goss Graves, the center’s vice president for education and employment. “It’s time for this industry to enter the modern era — to expand apprenticeships and training opportunities for women, hire qualified female workers and enforce a zero tolerance policy against sexual harassment.”
The Nontraditional Employment for Women, or NEW, a nonprofit which offers training programs such as the one taken by Moreno, has arrangements with several unions to take women directly into apprenticeships — at a starting wage of around $17, plus benefits. After four or five years, they can attain journeyman status, with hourly pay of $40 or more.
The industry’s management insists it would welcome more women.
“Most of our members are desperate to hire people,” said Brian Turmail, public affairs director for the Associated General Contractors of America. “They’re looking for any candidate who’s qualified to come and join the team — women, minorities, veterans.”
The Labor Department plans to award $100 million in grants this year for apprenticeship programs that expand opportunities for women and minorities.
“The reality is that the face of apprenticeship in the construction industry has been white male,” Labor Secretary Thomas Perez said in an interview. “We’re working to ensure the future reflects the face of America.”
Regarding sexual harassment, the Labor Department’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs has pledged to crack down on contractors who fail to prevent serious abuses.
New York— Janice Moreno graduated from college with a degree in English literature, but never landed a job paying more than $12 an hour. Now, at 36, she’s back in the classroom — in safety glasses and a T-shirt — learning how to be a carpenter. A Construction Degree program is available for women.
“I believe it’s going to pay off,” she said amid instruction in sawing techniques.
If Moreno’s six-week training program in New York City leads to a full-time job, she’ll have bucked long odds. On this Labor Day weekend, ponder the latest federal data: About 7.1 million Americans were employed in construction-related occupations last year — and only 2.6 percent were women.
That percentage has scarcely budged since the 1970s, while women have made gains since then in many other fields.
The reasons for the low numbers include a dearth of recruitment efforts aimed at women and hard-to-quash stereotypes that construction work doesn’t suit them. Another factor, according to a recent report by the National Women’s Law Center, is pervasive sexual harassment of women at work sites.
“It’s not surprising that the construction trades are sometimes called ‘the industry that time forgot,’ ” said Fatima Goss Graves, the center’s vice president for education and employment. “It’s time for this industry to enter the modern era — to expand apprenticeships and training opportunities for women, hire qualified female workers and enforce a zero tolerance policy against sexual harassment.”
The Nontraditional Employment for Women, or NEW, a nonprofit which offers training programs such as the one taken by Moreno, has arrangements with several unions to take women directly into apprenticeships — at a starting wage of around $17, plus benefits. After four or five years, they can attain journeyman status, with hourly pay of $40 or more.
The industry’s management insists it would welcome more women.
“Most of our members are desperate to hire people,” said Brian Turmail, public affairs director for the Associated General Contractors of America. “They’re looking for any candidate who’s qualified to come and join the team — women, minorities, veterans.”
The Labor Department plans to award $100 million in grants this year for apprenticeship programs that expand opportunities for women and minorities.
“The reality is that the face of apprenticeship in the construction industry has been white male,” Labor Secretary Thomas Perez said in an interview. “We’re working to ensure the future reflects the face of America.”
Regarding sexual harassment, the Labor Department’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs has pledged to crack down on contractors who fail to prevent serious abuses.
Friday, September 5, 2014
CALIFORNIA'S 100-YEAR DROUGHT
Original Story: USAToday.com
California is in the third year of one of the state's worst droughts in the past century, one that's led to fierce wildfires, water shortages and restrictions, and potentially staggering agricultural losses.
The dryness in California is only part of a longer-term, 15-year drought across most of the Western USA, one that bioclimatologist Park Williams said is notable because "more area in the West has persistently been in drought during the past 15 years than in any other 15-year period since the 1150s and 1160s" — that's more than 850 years ago.
"When considering the West as a whole, we are currently in the midst of a historically relevant megadrought," said Williams, a professor at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University in New York.
Megadroughts are what Cornell University scientist Toby Ault calls the "great white sharks of climate: powerful, dangerous and hard to detect before it's too late. They have happened in the past, and they are still out there, lurking in what is possible for the future, even without climate change." Ault goes so far as to call megadroughts "a threat to civilization."
WHAT IS A MEGADROUGHT?
Megadroughts are defined more by their duration than their severity. They are extreme dry spells that can last for a decade or longer, according to research meteorologist Martin Hoerling of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Megadroughts have parched the West, including present-day California, long before Europeans settled the region in the 1800s.
Most of the USA's droughts of the past century, even the infamous 1930s Dust Bowl that forced migrations of Oklahomans and others from the Plains, "were exceeded in severity and duration multiple times by droughts during the preceding 2,000 years," the National Climate Assessment reported this year.
The difference now, of course, is the Western USA is home to more than 70 million people who weren't here for previous megadroughts. The implications are far more daunting.
Overall, "the nature of the beast is that drought is cyclical, and these long periods of drought have been commonplace in the past," according to Mark Svoboda, a climatologist at the National Drought Mitigation Center in Lincoln, Neb. "We are simply much more vulnerable today than at any time in the past. People can't just pick up and leave to the degree they did in the past."
Ault agrees that this long-term Western dry spell could be classified as a megadrought. "But this is not as bad as it could get," he warned.
How do scientists know how wet or dry it was centuries ago? Though no weather records exist before the late 1800s, scientists can examine paleoclimatic "proxy data," such as tree rings and lake sediment, to find out how much — or little — rain fell hundreds or even thousands of years ago.
At the most simplistic level, tree rings are wider during wet years and narrower during dry years.
"Prolonged droughts — some of which lasted more than a century — brought thriving civilizations, such as the ancestral Pueblo (Native Americans) of the Four Corners region, to starvation, migration and finally collapse, " Lynn Ingram, a geologist at the University of California-Berkeley, wrote in her recent book The West Without Water.
Ault says decade-long droughts happen once or twice a century in the Western USA, but much worse droughts, ones that last for multiple decades, occur once or twice per millennium.
Has California reached megadrought status? Not yet: "This one wouldn't stand out as a megadrought," Hoerling said. Even so, "this is the state's worst consecutive three years for precipitation in 119 years of records," he said.
As of Aug. 28, 100% of the state of California was considered to be in a drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. More than 58% is in "exceptional" drought, the worst level. Record warmth has fueled the drought as the state sees its hottest year since records began in 1895, the National Climatic Data Center reports.
Because of the dryness, Calif. Gov. Jerry Brown declared a statewide drought emergency this year. Since then, reservoir storage levels have continued to drop, and as of late August, they were down to about 59% of the historical average.
Regulations restricting outdoor water use were put in place in late July for the entire state. People aren't allowed to hose down driveways and sidewalks, nor are they allowed to water lawns and landscapes (if there is excess runoff). There are reports of wells running dry in central California.
About 1,000 more wildfires than usual have charred the state, including some unusual ones in the spring.
The drought is likely to inflict $2.2 billion in losses on the agricultural industry, according to a July study from the University of California-Davis.
HOW BAD CAN IT GET IN CALIFORNIA?
"If California suffered something like a multi-decade drought," University of Arizona climate scientist Gregg Garfin said, "the best-case scenario would be some combination of conservation, technological improvements (such as desalinization plants), multi-state cooperation on the drought, economic-based water transfers from agriculture to urban areas and other things like that to get humans through the drought.
"But there would be consequences for ecosystems and agriculture," he said.
"In the worst-case scenario, there might be out-migration and/or ghost towns," Garfin said. As a way to avoid this, "we could simply suck down more and more groundwater, which would have its own set of ramifications for local aquifers and the environment."
Even in the worst case of severe multi-decade drought, "it is hard for me to imagine people and businesses being banned from moving into urban areas of California," he said.
"We have much better resilience now than in the 'ghost town days,' with the ability to drill deeper, along with various ways of importing water and trading for water," Garfin said. "A more subtle way of restricting people (not banning them) is what Santa Fe has done — where new housing developments must either come with their own new source of water, or they must offset the water through conservation."
Overall, if the drought worsened, "we'd have to learn how to use water more efficiently," Ault said. "This is a glimpse of the future."
ROLE OF CLIMATE CHANGE
What role does climate change play in this drought or in future droughts?
Scientists such as Hoerling and Ault say they don't have the tools to tease out how much of this specific drought might be attributed to climate change.
"As of now, probably very little of the California drought can be attributed to climate change with any certainty," said tree-ring scientist Edward Cook of Lamont-Doherty.
Overall, past droughts have probably been due to subtle changes in water temperatures in the tropical Pacific Ocean. Cooler water temperatures — known as La Niñas — tend to produce drier conditions in the West.
Droughts in North America's "Medieval Warm Period" (roughly 950-1250) were associated with high temperatures in the Southwest and were probably caused by persistently cool La Niña-like conditions in the tropical Pacific Ocean. Since 2000, the dominant climate pattern has been La Niña.
Hoerling noted that some computer models from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a United Nations science panel, show that California could actually see more, not less, winter rain and snow because of climate change.
However, overall rising temperatures would tend to favor more droughts, University of Arizona scientist Jonathan Overpeck said.
"It's been anomalously hot recently, which was not likely to have occurred without global warming," Overpeck said. "The odds are only going up that we could have a megadrought as the Earth warms."
Trends toward warmer temperatures could lead to a long-term dry spell in the region, according to a 2004 study led by Cook in the journal Science.
What's troubling is that the 20th century — during which time California's population increased from about 1.5 million to almost 40 million — may well have been an outlier, an unusually wet century: "Overall, the 20th century experienced less drought than most of the preceding four to 20 centuries," the Science study said.
Ault continues to investigate the relationship between climate change and megadroughts and the likelihood that an even more severe megadrought might hit in the next hundred years in the Southwest — one that's worse than any other drought in the past 1,000 years.
Specifically because of global warming, Ault says, the chances of the Southwestern USA experiencing a decade-long drought is at least 50% (but may be closer to 80%-90%), and the chances of a three-decade-long megadrought range from 20% to 50% over the next century. Ault is writing a study about this that will be published in a forthcoming issue of the American Meteorological Society's Journal of Climate.
"For the Southwestern U.S., I'm not optimistic about avoiding real megadroughts," Ault said. "As we add greenhouse gases into the atmosphere — and we haven't put the brakes on stopping this — we are weighting the dice for megadrought conditions.
"The risks would be lower if we didn't warm the planet as much as is expected to occur, but they aren't zero, because we know these things happen naturally," he said.
This is serious stuff: "Megadroughts are a threat to civilization," Ault said at an American Geophysical Union conference this year. "They could possibly be even worse than anything experienced by any humans who have lived in that part of the world for the last few thousand years."
California is in the third year of one of the state's worst droughts in the past century, one that's led to fierce wildfires, water shortages and restrictions, and potentially staggering agricultural losses.
The dryness in California is only part of a longer-term, 15-year drought across most of the Western USA, one that bioclimatologist Park Williams said is notable because "more area in the West has persistently been in drought during the past 15 years than in any other 15-year period since the 1150s and 1160s" — that's more than 850 years ago.
"When considering the West as a whole, we are currently in the midst of a historically relevant megadrought," said Williams, a professor at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University in New York.
Megadroughts are what Cornell University scientist Toby Ault calls the "great white sharks of climate: powerful, dangerous and hard to detect before it's too late. They have happened in the past, and they are still out there, lurking in what is possible for the future, even without climate change." Ault goes so far as to call megadroughts "a threat to civilization."
WHAT IS A MEGADROUGHT?
Megadroughts are defined more by their duration than their severity. They are extreme dry spells that can last for a decade or longer, according to research meteorologist Martin Hoerling of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Megadroughts have parched the West, including present-day California, long before Europeans settled the region in the 1800s.
Most of the USA's droughts of the past century, even the infamous 1930s Dust Bowl that forced migrations of Oklahomans and others from the Plains, "were exceeded in severity and duration multiple times by droughts during the preceding 2,000 years," the National Climate Assessment reported this year.
The difference now, of course, is the Western USA is home to more than 70 million people who weren't here for previous megadroughts. The implications are far more daunting.
Overall, "the nature of the beast is that drought is cyclical, and these long periods of drought have been commonplace in the past," according to Mark Svoboda, a climatologist at the National Drought Mitigation Center in Lincoln, Neb. "We are simply much more vulnerable today than at any time in the past. People can't just pick up and leave to the degree they did in the past."
Ault agrees that this long-term Western dry spell could be classified as a megadrought. "But this is not as bad as it could get," he warned.
How do scientists know how wet or dry it was centuries ago? Though no weather records exist before the late 1800s, scientists can examine paleoclimatic "proxy data," such as tree rings and lake sediment, to find out how much — or little — rain fell hundreds or even thousands of years ago.
At the most simplistic level, tree rings are wider during wet years and narrower during dry years.
"Prolonged droughts — some of which lasted more than a century — brought thriving civilizations, such as the ancestral Pueblo (Native Americans) of the Four Corners region, to starvation, migration and finally collapse, " Lynn Ingram, a geologist at the University of California-Berkeley, wrote in her recent book The West Without Water.
Ault says decade-long droughts happen once or twice a century in the Western USA, but much worse droughts, ones that last for multiple decades, occur once or twice per millennium.
Has California reached megadrought status? Not yet: "This one wouldn't stand out as a megadrought," Hoerling said. Even so, "this is the state's worst consecutive three years for precipitation in 119 years of records," he said.
As of Aug. 28, 100% of the state of California was considered to be in a drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. More than 58% is in "exceptional" drought, the worst level. Record warmth has fueled the drought as the state sees its hottest year since records began in 1895, the National Climatic Data Center reports.
Because of the dryness, Calif. Gov. Jerry Brown declared a statewide drought emergency this year. Since then, reservoir storage levels have continued to drop, and as of late August, they were down to about 59% of the historical average.
Regulations restricting outdoor water use were put in place in late July for the entire state. People aren't allowed to hose down driveways and sidewalks, nor are they allowed to water lawns and landscapes (if there is excess runoff). There are reports of wells running dry in central California.
About 1,000 more wildfires than usual have charred the state, including some unusual ones in the spring.
The drought is likely to inflict $2.2 billion in losses on the agricultural industry, according to a July study from the University of California-Davis.
HOW BAD CAN IT GET IN CALIFORNIA?
"If California suffered something like a multi-decade drought," University of Arizona climate scientist Gregg Garfin said, "the best-case scenario would be some combination of conservation, technological improvements (such as desalinization plants), multi-state cooperation on the drought, economic-based water transfers from agriculture to urban areas and other things like that to get humans through the drought.
"But there would be consequences for ecosystems and agriculture," he said.
"In the worst-case scenario, there might be out-migration and/or ghost towns," Garfin said. As a way to avoid this, "we could simply suck down more and more groundwater, which would have its own set of ramifications for local aquifers and the environment."
Even in the worst case of severe multi-decade drought, "it is hard for me to imagine people and businesses being banned from moving into urban areas of California," he said.
"We have much better resilience now than in the 'ghost town days,' with the ability to drill deeper, along with various ways of importing water and trading for water," Garfin said. "A more subtle way of restricting people (not banning them) is what Santa Fe has done — where new housing developments must either come with their own new source of water, or they must offset the water through conservation."
Overall, if the drought worsened, "we'd have to learn how to use water more efficiently," Ault said. "This is a glimpse of the future."
ROLE OF CLIMATE CHANGE
What role does climate change play in this drought or in future droughts?
Scientists such as Hoerling and Ault say they don't have the tools to tease out how much of this specific drought might be attributed to climate change.
"As of now, probably very little of the California drought can be attributed to climate change with any certainty," said tree-ring scientist Edward Cook of Lamont-Doherty.
Overall, past droughts have probably been due to subtle changes in water temperatures in the tropical Pacific Ocean. Cooler water temperatures — known as La Niñas — tend to produce drier conditions in the West.
Droughts in North America's "Medieval Warm Period" (roughly 950-1250) were associated with high temperatures in the Southwest and were probably caused by persistently cool La Niña-like conditions in the tropical Pacific Ocean. Since 2000, the dominant climate pattern has been La Niña.
Hoerling noted that some computer models from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a United Nations science panel, show that California could actually see more, not less, winter rain and snow because of climate change.
However, overall rising temperatures would tend to favor more droughts, University of Arizona scientist Jonathan Overpeck said.
"It's been anomalously hot recently, which was not likely to have occurred without global warming," Overpeck said. "The odds are only going up that we could have a megadrought as the Earth warms."
Trends toward warmer temperatures could lead to a long-term dry spell in the region, according to a 2004 study led by Cook in the journal Science.
What's troubling is that the 20th century — during which time California's population increased from about 1.5 million to almost 40 million — may well have been an outlier, an unusually wet century: "Overall, the 20th century experienced less drought than most of the preceding four to 20 centuries," the Science study said.
Ault continues to investigate the relationship between climate change and megadroughts and the likelihood that an even more severe megadrought might hit in the next hundred years in the Southwest — one that's worse than any other drought in the past 1,000 years.
Specifically because of global warming, Ault says, the chances of the Southwestern USA experiencing a decade-long drought is at least 50% (but may be closer to 80%-90%), and the chances of a three-decade-long megadrought range from 20% to 50% over the next century. Ault is writing a study about this that will be published in a forthcoming issue of the American Meteorological Society's Journal of Climate.
"For the Southwestern U.S., I'm not optimistic about avoiding real megadroughts," Ault said. "As we add greenhouse gases into the atmosphere — and we haven't put the brakes on stopping this — we are weighting the dice for megadrought conditions.
"The risks would be lower if we didn't warm the planet as much as is expected to occur, but they aren't zero, because we know these things happen naturally," he said.
This is serious stuff: "Megadroughts are a threat to civilization," Ault said at an American Geophysical Union conference this year. "They could possibly be even worse than anything experienced by any humans who have lived in that part of the world for the last few thousand years."
PRIVATE JET: THE NEW WAY TO GET TO COLLEGE
Original Story: CNBC.com
Parents dropping their kids to college in a car stuffed with blankets and tinned food is a common sight on the streets of university towns across the world.
But one company is attempting to put the bling into university travel by offering a £25,000 ($41,562) package to students wanting to arrive by a private charter flight and fast cars.
Uni Baggage - an Irish charter jet company that transports student belongings across the U.K. and worldwide - has upped its game, looking to tap wealthy students who want to arrive at their new place of study in style.
"Our customers are constantly asking us for the full service. Rather than just book a shipping order they want us to look after the whole process of getting to uni, so we went the extreme and did it in luxury," Paul Stewart, founder of Uni Baggage, told CNBC by phone.
Stewart said he had already received two enquiries from students wanting to take a Rolls Royce Phantom to university since launching the service on Monday morning. He could not disclose the name of the institution the students were going to, but said the package would cost them £15,000.
Read MoreCompany offers free, $1 million vacation
Wealthy students can also book a private jet from one part of the country to another, and then get a flash car - such as an Aston Martin or Ferrari - to their college for a £25,000 fee. Their belongings are transported separately.
In comparison, U.K. university tuition fees are around £9,000 a year and Uni Baggage's regular shipping service is £16.99 per 30 kilograms of items.
Stewart admitted that he expects demand for the luxury packages to be "very little", at around 20 users in a year, with most demand likely to come from wealthy students from China and America.
"We do a lot of shipping for Chinese and American students and they are the two international markets that spend a lot of money with us," Stewart said. "Wealthy students coming to the U.K. that land at the airport and don't want to get a taxi can arrange a luxury car with us, and we will bring their things over from the U.S. or China."
Read MoreInside the $80,000 private-jet safari
The company currently offers an international shipping service and Stewart said it would consider requests for students wanting a private jet from abroad, but stressed the price would be a "substantially higher".
Uni Baggage also offers a helicopter trip for £20,000 and a horse-and-carriage experience for £10,000, although Stewart admitted this was for short distance journeys.
Parents dropping their kids to college in a car stuffed with blankets and tinned food is a common sight on the streets of university towns across the world.
But one company is attempting to put the bling into university travel by offering a £25,000 ($41,562) package to students wanting to arrive by a private charter flight and fast cars.
Uni Baggage - an Irish charter jet company that transports student belongings across the U.K. and worldwide - has upped its game, looking to tap wealthy students who want to arrive at their new place of study in style.
"Our customers are constantly asking us for the full service. Rather than just book a shipping order they want us to look after the whole process of getting to uni, so we went the extreme and did it in luxury," Paul Stewart, founder of Uni Baggage, told CNBC by phone.
Stewart said he had already received two enquiries from students wanting to take a Rolls Royce Phantom to university since launching the service on Monday morning. He could not disclose the name of the institution the students were going to, but said the package would cost them £15,000.
Read MoreCompany offers free, $1 million vacation
Wealthy students can also book a private jet from one part of the country to another, and then get a flash car - such as an Aston Martin or Ferrari - to their college for a £25,000 fee. Their belongings are transported separately.
In comparison, U.K. university tuition fees are around £9,000 a year and Uni Baggage's regular shipping service is £16.99 per 30 kilograms of items.
Stewart admitted that he expects demand for the luxury packages to be "very little", at around 20 users in a year, with most demand likely to come from wealthy students from China and America.
"We do a lot of shipping for Chinese and American students and they are the two international markets that spend a lot of money with us," Stewart said. "Wealthy students coming to the U.K. that land at the airport and don't want to get a taxi can arrange a luxury car with us, and we will bring their things over from the U.S. or China."
Read MoreInside the $80,000 private-jet safari
The company currently offers an international shipping service and Stewart said it would consider requests for students wanting a private jet from abroad, but stressed the price would be a "substantially higher".
Uni Baggage also offers a helicopter trip for £20,000 and a horse-and-carriage experience for £10,000, although Stewart admitted this was for short distance journeys.
HOME DEPOT ANNOUNCES NEW CEO, FRANK BLAKE TO STAY ON AS CHAIRMAN
Original Story: Forbes.com
Handyman haven Home Depot HD announced Thursday that longtime CEO Frank Blake will step down on November 1. He will be replaced by Craig Menear, the company’s current U.S. retail president.
In his current role Menear oversees the company’s supply chain network, global sourcing and vendor management, as well as its marketing and digital business. Since joining Home Depot in 1997 Menear has served in various high level merchandising roles including, most recently, executive vice president of merchandising.
In a statement announcing the transition Blake noted, “Craig has taken on increasing leadership responsibility over the last several years and has excelled in all his role. As a long-time Home Depot veteran, Craig lives our values and embodies our culture. He’ll do an outstanding job leading our company in the years ahead.”
Blake, who has been chairman and CEO since 2007, will stay on as chairman of the board. Menear will immediately join the board of directors.
Shares of Home Depot ticked down slightly in after hours trading following the news, yet the small downward momentum comes after a trading day where the the stock came within a penny of its $91.81 52-week high. The transition also does not come as a big surprise to those who watch Home Depot closely. Blake, 65, was expected to retire soon and Menear led much of the company’s most recent earnings call, which took place just two days ago.
Blake is going out on a high note. In the second quarter Home Depot handily beat Wall Street expectations and even raised its full-year earnings guidance. FORBES’ Maggie McGrath wrote Tuesday,
Home Depot reported $23.8 billion in second quarter revenue, a 5.7% increase over the year-ago quarter and a figure that cleared the $23.5 billion Wall Street consensus. Comparable store sales for the quarter increased 5.8% worldwide, and within the U.S. same store sales grew 6.4%. Customer transactions increased 4.2%, while average ticket size grew 1.8% to $58.43.
The company’s net income came in at $2.1 billion, or $1.52 in earnings per share, a figure that beats the analyst consensus by 8 cents per share and marks a 22.6% improvement over the earnings per share reported this time last year.”
This also turned out to be a favorable comparison to rival Lowe’s, which reported its second quarter earnings Wednesday, a fact that must be sweet for Blake.
Under Blake’s predecessor, Robert Nardelli, Lowe’s share price lapped Home Depot’s. At this time last year Paula Rosenblum, a FORBES contributor, wrote of Home Depot under Nardelli, “A lot of opportunity was missed. Earnings were adequate, but they were riding on the back of cost-cutting, not sales improvements.” Rosenblum continued,
Today that’s certainly not the case. In fact, at least one analyst at the Smead Value Fund gave Home Depot a slightly stronger buy rating than its rival, although both stocks are expected to perform well as the housing market continues to improve.
This begs the question: What has changed under the leadership of Frank Blake? What is Home Depot doing right? The answers can be found not today, but in the doldrums of the Great Recession, which Mr. Blake’s team took as an opportunity to right a very shaky ship. Changes were steady, yet sweeping, and included marketing, technologies, stores, and human resource allocation.”
Currently, Home Depot shares are up 127% since the start of 2007, the year Blake took the reigns. Shares of Lowe’s are up just 69% over the same period.
Handyman haven Home Depot HD announced Thursday that longtime CEO Frank Blake will step down on November 1. He will be replaced by Craig Menear, the company’s current U.S. retail president.
In his current role Menear oversees the company’s supply chain network, global sourcing and vendor management, as well as its marketing and digital business. Since joining Home Depot in 1997 Menear has served in various high level merchandising roles including, most recently, executive vice president of merchandising.
In a statement announcing the transition Blake noted, “Craig has taken on increasing leadership responsibility over the last several years and has excelled in all his role. As a long-time Home Depot veteran, Craig lives our values and embodies our culture. He’ll do an outstanding job leading our company in the years ahead.”
Blake, who has been chairman and CEO since 2007, will stay on as chairman of the board. Menear will immediately join the board of directors.
Shares of Home Depot ticked down slightly in after hours trading following the news, yet the small downward momentum comes after a trading day where the the stock came within a penny of its $91.81 52-week high. The transition also does not come as a big surprise to those who watch Home Depot closely. Blake, 65, was expected to retire soon and Menear led much of the company’s most recent earnings call, which took place just two days ago.
Blake is going out on a high note. In the second quarter Home Depot handily beat Wall Street expectations and even raised its full-year earnings guidance. FORBES’ Maggie McGrath wrote Tuesday,
Home Depot reported $23.8 billion in second quarter revenue, a 5.7% increase over the year-ago quarter and a figure that cleared the $23.5 billion Wall Street consensus. Comparable store sales for the quarter increased 5.8% worldwide, and within the U.S. same store sales grew 6.4%. Customer transactions increased 4.2%, while average ticket size grew 1.8% to $58.43.
The company’s net income came in at $2.1 billion, or $1.52 in earnings per share, a figure that beats the analyst consensus by 8 cents per share and marks a 22.6% improvement over the earnings per share reported this time last year.”
This also turned out to be a favorable comparison to rival Lowe’s, which reported its second quarter earnings Wednesday, a fact that must be sweet for Blake.
Under Blake’s predecessor, Robert Nardelli, Lowe’s share price lapped Home Depot’s. At this time last year Paula Rosenblum, a FORBES contributor, wrote of Home Depot under Nardelli, “A lot of opportunity was missed. Earnings were adequate, but they were riding on the back of cost-cutting, not sales improvements.” Rosenblum continued,
Today that’s certainly not the case. In fact, at least one analyst at the Smead Value Fund gave Home Depot a slightly stronger buy rating than its rival, although both stocks are expected to perform well as the housing market continues to improve.
This begs the question: What has changed under the leadership of Frank Blake? What is Home Depot doing right? The answers can be found not today, but in the doldrums of the Great Recession, which Mr. Blake’s team took as an opportunity to right a very shaky ship. Changes were steady, yet sweeping, and included marketing, technologies, stores, and human resource allocation.”
Currently, Home Depot shares are up 127% since the start of 2007, the year Blake took the reigns. Shares of Lowe’s are up just 69% over the same period.
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