office

Kat Griffin: Which Is Better: The Bigger Office or the Better-Located One?

by Kat Griffin on April 17, 2012

Huffington Post…

The other day, a reader of my blog Corporette wrote in with a great question: should she leave her well-located office and move to a bigger one down the hall? There is a large office that has been vacant in our firm for 9 months or so (another associate was let go). I have a small office, but I like the location of it. It’s right next to the partner I work for and the assistant we share, and there’s always activity around it, which suits my work style. The large office is down the hall a bit, in a quieter area with less activity and visibility, all of which are “cons” for me. I’ve been going back and forth with asking to move (I know they’d say yes). I think the large office looks better to clients, I’ve been here for several years now, and I’m the only attorney still in a small office, the rest are occupied by paralegals. Any thoughts as to size versus location and which is more important? Tough, tough question. My gut reaction is you should stay put because you seem happy in your current office… but your points about the paralegals and clients are serious things to consider. Whichever one you choose, you may want to read our suggestions on office decor. I suppose the first question to ask is whether there are any dream offices — i.e., larger offices, near your partner or in other active areas — even if they may be occupied at the moment? If so, first look at who’s occupying them. Does anyone have their door closed frequently because the activity level is too much for him or her? Is anyone far from his or her assistant? I might approach that person and see if he or she would be interested in moving down the hall to the vacant office, perhaps with the promise of a nice lunch out on you (or help moving?) or something of the like. If that doesn’t work out, have a conversation with whoever is in charge of office assignments and put in an informal request to have your dream office once it becomes vacant. If your choice is still between the small but well-located office or the larger but remote office, I think you have a few questions to ask yourself, such as: What percentage of your time is spent in meetings? Will this percentage greatly increase in one year, or two years? Are there conference rooms nearby that you can use for meetings instead (and a reliable reservation system to make sure you have a room when you need it)? Alternatively, can some of your meetings (such as new business pitches, etc) be held over lunch? If so, invest a little time in perfecting the networking lunch , such as picking one nearby spot with excellent service (and decent food) for lunch, and getting to know the staff there so the meal goes incredibly smoothly. If you would still prefer to hold meetings in your office, continue to the next question… Can you declutter your current office, perhaps by claiming file space near the vacant office? If your office is smaller than everyone else’s, it should be as clean and as orderly as possible (although in general, readers have said that that a messy office only crosses the line “when it looks like you can’t get work done in there.”) Finally: Do you need to break any bad patterns? You mention “the partner I work for.” I don’t know the particulars of your situation — maybe many associates in your firm are assigned to only help one partner. But in some companies, it can be a bad sign if you’re only working with one boss. Seriously take stock of that relationship: are you getting the opportunities you need for growth? Are you learning what you need to accomplish your goals, whether you want to become partner, go in house, open your own practice, etc? (Even if your goal is to be a stay at home mom, I would advise working with as many people as possible so you have numerous doors open to you if/when you return to work.) Would you benefit from feedback from other partners? If you take stock of that relationship and don’t like what you see… moving offices could be a great way to break up the pattern that has been established, and to start working with other partners at your firm. HuffPo readers, what are your thoughts — would you prefer a big office, or a well-located one? How much does “keeping up with the Joneses” play into it, versus having an office that suits your workstyle?

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Kat Griffin: Which Is Better: The Bigger Office or the Better-Located One?

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David Yarnold: Big Oil’s Arctic Bet: A Fool’s Risk

by David Yarnold on April 17, 2012

Huffington Post…

“Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.” We’ve all heard it — and lived it — as individuals and collectively as Americans. We’ve all had to confront someone who has fooled or even misled us. But when Big Oil repeatedly tells us a monumental lie, we’re struck with collective amnesia. Marking the second anniversary of the BP oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, which occurred April 20, 2010, we can’t help but remember the rage and heartbreak we all felt when 11 men died and we saw images of oiled Brown Pelicans flattened to the wet sand. Scientists are just now reporting ominous disruptions in the Gulf’s underwater food chain and we still don’t fully understand the long-term impact on birds and other wildlife. It was a case of “shame on you” in 1989, when the Exxon Valdez ran aground in Alaska, spilling tens of millions of gallons of crude oil into the pristine and achingly beautiful southern Alaska landscape. But there was plenty of shame to go around two years ago as the BP oil disaster unfolded in the Gulf, spewing more than 200 million gallons into what, from a bird and human standpoint, is one of America’s most precious ecosystems. William K. Reilly, a lifelong conservationist and moderate Republican, co-chaired the commission investigating the BP disaster. Reilly was EPA administrator at the time of the Valdez, and he was flabbergasted to find that nothing much had changed since 1989. Reilly concluded that the BP spill “evidenced a failure of management, and good management could have avoided the catastrophe … We are not dealing here with a sick or failing or unsuccessful industry but with a complacent one.” Reilly reminds us that we in fact dodged a bullet two years ago: “…there was a point in the management of this crisis when industry experts feared the entire 120-million-barrel reservoir might seep through the ocean floor and wreak total havoc… What would we be talking about today if the well couldn’t be canned?… We’d be having an existential conversation about whether offshore drilling should ever be permitted in US coastal waters again.” Bill Reilly is no bomb-thrower. At the time he co-chaired the BP spill commission he was serving on the boards of ConocoPhilips and DuPont. As we mark this anniversary, two immediate challenges leap to mind: First, we must restore the Gulf Coast. The BP spill was a major blow to a region already under stress from urban sprawl, wetlands loss and pollution. Congress is now weighing a measure — called the RESTORE Act — that would divert most or all of BP’s penalties to gulf cleanup. Bipartisan versions of this measure have passed both the Senate and the House; it’s time for Congress to finish the job and send a final bill to the president. Second, even as you read this, a drilling fleet under contract to Shell Oil is making its way to a patch of seabed less than 15 miles from Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Incredibly, Shell has secured nearly all the government permissions it needs to begin drilling operations in a body of water that is ice-covered much of the year, in a place where the sun does not shine for months on end, and where extreme weather is commonplace. The U.S. Government’s own non-partisan watchdog, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) thinks this is a terrible idea . We agree. Cleaning up a major spill in the Arctic would make the BP disaster look like child’s play. Last month the GAO issued a report raising fundamental concerns about whether a major spill could ever be managed in icy conditions. If there is a spot on Earth as sacred or as critical to the future of our wild birds as the Gulf of Mexico, it is probably the unspoiled Arctic. Here, hundreds of bird species arrive every spring from all four North American flyways — the superhighways in the sky that birds use to travel up and down the Americas. Here, they mate, lay eggs and raise their young. Here also, many of America’s remaining polar bears make their winter dens along the coasts. The potential harm from a BP-scale spill is almost beyond comprehension. And, there is growing evidence that we simply do not need to take risks like this to meet our nation’s energy needs. Oil imports are down. Oil production from domestic wells is up thanks to new technology. We’re driving farther on a gallon of gas and using less. Energy independence is becoming a real possibility. Since those who cannot remember history are doomed to repeat it, the price of social amnesia has become unacceptably high. A workable balance between powering the nation and protecting our natural bounty is within reach, but only if we remember, learn, and not be fooled again.

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David Yarnold: Big Oil’s Arctic Bet: A Fool’s Risk

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Euro zone inflation revised up to 2.7% in March

April 17, 2012

(MENAFN) Eurostat, the EU’s statistics office, said that inflation in the euro zone was revised up to 2.7 percent, compared with initial forecasts of 2.6 percent, reported AP. The agency added …

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UK’s inflation up to 3.5% in March

April 17, 2012

(MENAFN) UK’s Office for National Statistics said that last month, the country’s inflation went up to 3.5 percent, reported AP. The agency added that the rise was driven by higher food and …

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Toy Company Allegedly Laundered Drug Money

April 16, 2012

LOS ANGELES — Five people were arrested Monday in connection with a money laundering scheme that allegedly funneled millions of dollars in Colombian and Mexican drug money through an American toy company, federal officials said. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said the two owners of Industry-based Woody Toys and three company employees were arrested on charges of evading federal reporting requirements for financial transactions. Two Mexican toy dealers were arrested earlier this month in the case on similar charges, the agency said in a statement. Woody’s co-owner Jia Hui Zhou and toy dealer Luis Ernesto Flores Rivera are also charged with conspiring to launder money in a scheme that officials said channeled at least $6 million to the California toy company between 2005 and 2011. The case is the second involving a Los Angeles-area toy company accused of laundering drug profits and comes as countries such as Mexico tighten banking regulations, said Claude Arnold, special agent in charge for ICE homeland security investigations in Los Angeles. “They can’t walk up with duffel bags of money and continue with their business,” Arnold said. “They have to find creative ways to convert that money into pesos and launder it so it doesn’t look like illegal proceeds.” All seven of the defendants were due in federal court in Los Angeles Monday afternoon. The indictment was handed up last week against the seven defendants and the company. A message was left for Zhou’s attorney, David Elden. Flores Rivera had no attorney listed as of Monday afternoon, ICE officials said. The Mexican toy dealers bought U.S. dollars made off drug sales from currency brokers in a “black market peso exchange,” officials said. That exchange enabled drug traffickers to get rid of drug dollars and gave the toy dealers a more favorable exchange rate so they could then purchase toys in the United States, authorities said. The dealers would then send the money to Woody Toys via courier or bank deposits. Authorities said Woody Toys failed to file required paperwork when the company received deposits of more than $10,000 and also intentionally structured bank deposits in smaller increments to avoid having to do so. If convicted of evading federal reporting requirements, the defendants could face up to five years in prison. The money laundering charge can carry a sentence of up to 20 years in prison. The investigation started in November 2010 following a money laundering probe at Los Angeles-area toy wholesaler Angel Toy. That company’s two top executives were sentenced earlier this year to more than three years in prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy to structure currency transactions. The probe into Woody Toys – which features teddy bears and blond-haired dolls on its website – was carried out by immigration officials, Internal Revenue Service investigators and a Southern California task force headed by the Drug Enforcement Administration. No one at the company’s offices in Industry would comment for this story.

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For Once, Apple Drags Down Markets

April 16, 2012

NEW YORK — For most of the year, Apple has propelled the Nasdaq composite index forward. The stock climbed from $405 at the start of the year to more than $630 last week, and the Nasdaq easily beat the gains of other indexes. Now Apple is sliding the other way and taking the Nasdaq with it. Apple stock dropped more than $25 on Monday, its fifth straight day of declines. The losing streak has wiped out about $60 billion of Apple’s market value. That’s more than the most optimistic projections of the value of Facebook. Apple helped push the Nasdaq composite index down 22.93 points on Monday to 2,988.40. The index is now up about 15 percent for the year after almost reaching 20 percent by the end of March. “It’s been a very quirky market because it’s been a few companies that have delivered most of the rally this year,” said Mark Lamkin, CEO of Lamkin Wealth Management in Louisville, Ky. “It’s not been a broad-based rally.” Apple, still the most valuable company in the world, accounts for 12 percent of the Nasdaq, more than any other stock. It has been on an almost uninterrupted climb for three years, powered by its hot iPhones and iPads. But last week, a veteran technology analyst boldly issued a downgrade for Apple. He predicted that cellphone companies would probably stop offering such generous subsidies for customers to adopt the iPhone. Investors may also be locking in profits and getting out before Apple reports earnings April 24. Even after the five-day decline, Apple stock is up 43 percent for the year. “It’s had a huge run,” said Burt White, chief investment officer of LPL Financial in Boston. “Some investors probably said, `Might as well take some profits.’” The broader stock market was flat, helped by strong March retail sales but hurt by continuing concerns about rising borrowing costs for debt-troubled Spain. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index dropped 0.69 point to 1,369.57. Apple dragged down other technology stocks, which fell more than any other industry group in the S&P. Google, which went to trial Monday against Oracle in a copyright case over the Android phone, dropped for the second day in a row. Utility stocks and banks rose, while energy companies and so-called consumer discretionary stocks fell. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 71.82 points to 12,921.41, a gain of 0.6 percent. All but six of the 30 stocks that make up the Dow rose for the day, explaining why it rose while the S&P was flat. Apple is not part of the Dow. The government reported that retail sales rose 0.8 percent compared to the previous month, twice what analysts had been expecting. Skeptics noted that was less than February’s 1 percent increase. They also wondered whether the buying was just a result of the mild winter, rather than a sign of recovery: If people are buying lawn mowers and other warm-weather goods now, then they probably won’t be later in the year. Building materials and garden equipment enjoyed the biggest jump in March. “It’s nice to see the retail sales were strong, but it’s one month and it’s one data point and it’s not even the biggest data point,” said Ryan Detrick, senior technical strategist at Schaeffer’s Investment Research in Cincinnati. “Honestly, jobs are much more important.” Earlier this month, the government reported that the U.S. added 120,000 jobs in March, about half the pace of the previous three months. Spain’s borrowing costs climbed above the closely watched 6 percent mark as investors grew more worried about the country’s ability to pay its debts. Seven percent is the rate at which other European countries have been forced to seek bailouts. Sweden cut its economic forecast for the year, saying that problems elsewhere in Europe were spreading its way. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note was steady at 1.98 percent. Among stocks making moves: _ Mattel plummeted more than 9 percent after reporting a 53 percent drop in first-quarter earnings. The country’s largest toy maker is wrestling with lower sales of Hot Wheels and Barbies. It just bought HIT Entertainment, the company behind Thomas the Tank Engine and Bob the Builder. _ Endocyte doubled to $7.62 after reporting that Merck, the world’s second-largest drugmaker, will develop and market its experimental cancer drug. Endocyte, based in West Lafayette, Ind., has no products on the market.

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Scott Bittle: The Long and the Short of It: America’s Jobs Problem Now and For Years to Come

April 16, 2012

When it comes to jobs, can the U.S. walk and chew gum at the same time? After several months of robust, promising job creation, the economy only added about 120,000 jobs in March, barely enough to keep up with population growth . Last week, the number of claims for unemployment also jumped up . Maybe we’re on the road to recovery from the Great Recession, but when it comes to jobs, the after-effects are still haunting us. We’re also facing a historic shift in the nature of work — one that could turn out to be as extraordinary and wrenching as the Industrial Revolution. The combined impact of technology and globalization mean many businesses can do their work as effectively and more cheaply with fewer employees in the United States. If they can — and if that’s what their competitors are doing — then they’ll automate and move jobs offshore. Those jobs aren’t likely to come back just because the economy picks up. This means we need to do something we just aren’t good at: having a serious debate on how to tackle a near-term problem while also looking at what to do for the future. As the candidates for president and Congress begin offering up their ideas on “jobs,” voters need to consider whether their proposals are aimed at creating jobs quickly or whether they’re aimed at strengthening the job picture over the long haul, say the next decade or two. The truth is the country really needs both, but we can’t expect short-term cures to fix long-term problems (like job losses due to globalization or technology), and we can’t expect long-term solutions to kick in quickly. You probably won’t hear any subtleties like this on the campaign trail. Generally speaking, politicians are in the confusion business, so drawing these kinds of distinctions isn’t their strong suit. Here’s a quick tour of some of the jobs ideas out there and their short-term and long-term implications: Cut payroll taxes : According to studies by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), this is one of the better strategies for persuading employers to hire, and in a relatively short period of time. But unless we find some other way to fund Social Security and Medicare, this can’t possibly be a long-term solution. Both programs are paid for by payroll taxes, and both face serious long-term funding problems. Not collecting these taxes for years would make these shortfalls even worse. Cut income taxes : This gives people more money in their pockets, and that can bolster consumer spending and help merchants preserve existing jobs — maybe they can even expand a little. But when the CBO looked at 11 different ways to create new jobs quickly, this idea actually came in near the bottom. Over time, low tax rates can encourage wealthier Americans to invest in new ventures or stocks, which does support job creation over time. But those potential advantages have to be weighed against the country’s budget problems and our mounting federal debt. Have the government jumpstart big infrastructure projects : If the projects are “shovel-ready” (everybody is on board with the plans and the money), this can create jobs quickly. But if they’re not, getting all the approvals and raising the additional money can take years. This has been one of the biggest criticisms of the $787 billion “stimulus” program — rightly or wrongly, people expected bigger, faster results than they actually got. Obviously, construction projects don’t provide jobs forever, but major national infrastructure improvements like improving the electric grid can take decades to build. Plus, improved energy, communications, and transportation networks lay the groundwork for economic development in the future. Extending unemployment benefits : This does preserve and create jobs in the short term. When unemployed people have an income, even a small one, they’re more likely to spend at local businesses, so those businesses are less likely to lay off workers and more likely to hire. The CBO gives this strategy a high rating for helping create jobs quickly. But one of the most troubling problems we’re facing is the growth in long-term unemployment, where people struggle to find work for years. And the longer you’re unemployed, the harder it is to get back in the workforce. Unemployment benefits help people keep food on the table, but they don’t help get them back to work, especially when people’s skills are out-of-date for today’s jobs. Plus, supporting people who aren’t working for very long periods of time can become divisive. Eventually, a lot of the people who are working may come to resent paying for those who don’t, especially if they suspect that some people on unemployment aren’t really doing their best to find jobs. Investing in scientific research and cutting-edge technology : Again, this is mainly long-term. It provides some jobs for researchers and college professors when the grants come in, but discovering and commercializing innovations that open new industries and create thousands of jobs — well, that just doesn’t happen quickly. Pursuing more trade agreements : Opening up foreign markets for U.S. products can lead U.S. companies to beef up their work forces to meet the new demands, and most economists say that trade is good for jobs over the long haul. In the near term, though, some companies may lose business, reduce their work forces, or even close due to foreign competition. On the other hand, not trading with other countries could turn out to be even worse for jobs. Politicians have a knack for making their ideas on jobs (and everything else) sound quick and easy, but truth is more complicated, as well it should be. The United States needs a strategy to help people who need jobs now, and we need a plan to create good jobs for Americans in the years to come. Co-authored with Jean Johnson.

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With Health Care Reform, Workers May Trade Insurance For Raises

April 16, 2012

Would you give up your health insurance for a raise? A minority of big companies offered extra pay to workers who waived their health benefits last year. This practice, which was common decades ago, could see a resurgence once the biggest parts of President Barack Obama’s health care reform law take effect in 2014 and start to rearrange the health insurance market. Last year, 17 percent of employers with at least 500 workers gave a little extra money to those who turned down an offer of health insurance, according to a survey conducted by the human-resources advisory firm Mercer that will be published later this month. The Huffington Post obtained early access to the data. The median amount of extra pay was $1,000, which is considerably less than the $11,664 average cost an employer and worker incur for job-based health insurance this year, according to the consulting company Towers Watson. Jobs are the most common source of health insurance for working-age Americans and provide 154 million people with coverage, according to the Congressional Budget Office. But the implementation in 2014 of new benefit requirements on employers and individuals, along with the creation of health insurance “exchanges” and federal subsidies for individuals, families, and small businesses, will change how many Americans get health plans , unless the Supreme Court strikes down the law on constitutional grounds . The health care reform law includes a “pay or play” requirement that companies with at least 50 employees must either provide employees with health benefits or pay penalties as high as $3,000 per worker to offset the government’s cost of subsidizing insurance coverage. Although jobs are projected to remain the number-one source of health coverage, some workers will be affected, since the penalty is less money than the insurance coverage. In some cases, that will mean higher paychecks to make up for lost benefits . In 2006, Dallas resident Red Coine was offered that deal by Cisco Systems, where he was a network engineer working as a contractor. Coine, who is now 35, got an extra $200 a month and bought his own health insurance for $88, so he came out $112 ahead. “I never regretted giving up the company insurance, and no one ever mentioned to me or complained about not having it,” he told HuffPost via email. The connection between jobs and health insurance has been weakening over the years for reasons unrelated to Obama’s health care reform law. Rising health care costs have led more employers to drop coverage: Between 2001 and 2011, the percentage of companies offering health benefits dropped from 68 percent to 60 percent . The health care reform law created incentives that will lead some employers to maintain coverage or begin offering benefits, but cost pressures will likely cause other companies to stop providing health insurance to some or all of their workers. According to another Mercer survey , 91 percent of firms with at least 500 workers are likely to keep offering health benefits. Employees of smaller companies are more likely to lose coverage, but are already more likely to not have it in the first place, according to Mercer. Overall, 14 million fewer workers will get insurance from their jobs as a result of health care reform, and all but 2 million will find coverage elsewhere, thanks to the law’s federal subsidies and insurance market reforms, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Economists also predict companies that drop insurance for some or all of their workers will boost their compensation by raising pay or strengthening other fringe benefits. People earning between 133 percent and 400 percent of the federal poverty level — $30,657 to $92,200 for a family of four this year — would qualify for federal tax credits to defray the cost of health insurance, which could make it cheaper than the coverage available at work, said Tom Billet, a senior consultant at Towers Watson.

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Geri Stengel: Closing the Leadership Gap

April 16, 2012

What gives? As the Women Entrepreneurs as Economic Drivers, a report from the Kauffman Foundation shows, getting those women-owned businesses on a high-growth track would energize our sluggish economy. But it’s not happening. Why? I’ve been asking women who haven’t been stopped what they think the barriers are and here’s what they say: Dream bigger. When women start a businesses, they think too far ahead, to the day when they’ll be managing a family as well as a business.They opt for career paths that seem safer and more flexible than running a major corporation. Liz Elting, CEO and founder of global language service provider TransPerfect, advocates another tack: Go for broke when you are young and have nothing to lose. Don’t worry about what your life will be like in 10 years. Dream big and follow your dreams. When your business grows, so do your options for work/life balance. And being a high-powered CEO doesn’t mean you can’t be a good mom. “If you want to have a family and run a business, you can — and a growing number of us do,” says Elting. Be tough. Nice girls please people. CEOs have to make tough decisions, from firing people to cutting services. In a man, that’s being strong; in a woman it is seen as being bitchy. “If you want everyone to like you, you will have a hard time doing what is necessary,” Elting says. Wake up the men. At home, men must share in household responsibilities, recognizing that the woman’s career is as valuable as the man’s. At work, men need to be more inclusive. Networking events shouldn’t just be guy things. Deals are done in informal settings after the conference or out of the office — on golf courses and in the corporate box at the ball game. Yes, some women like sports, but a lot are left out of that schmoozing and dealing. It’s not that men are circling the wagons; they’re just not thinking it through. They’re losing, too, when possibly great deals get left at the clubhouse. Support each other. Whether in peer groups, such as the Women Presidents’ Organization, or through mentoring women starting out, women need to support and mentor each other. As Sheila Lirio Marcel, CEO of Care.com says, “We must lift as we climb, bring others along with us and collect talented people as we rise.” Men know how to network. Women seem to be falling behind . That needs to change. Change the way business is done. Let’s start firms that don’t follow the same old businesses model; let’s build a model that can accommodate the differing needs of GenY, parents, Type A workers and those who want to work reduced hours. You can retain and grow talent by being flexible — flexible about taking a year off for family without losing a rung on the career ladder; flexible in working hours; flexible about telecommuting. If we don’t restructure business culture, we’re going to keep losing the talented people we’ve paid money to train. Rosalie Mandel, principal of the alternative investments accounting firm Rothstein Kass, has changed the culture of her company. “Our firm had the vision to see the benefits of flexible scheduling — and it’s never said no. We’ve had an official flex policy since 1999,” she said in an article for The Glass Hammer . Changes now, in attitudes, awareness and culture could end the stagnation of small women-led businesses and make them into the economic drivers we need. For more articles about high-growth women entrepreneurs, visit Guiding the Way for Women Entrepreneurs , Ventureneer’s curated source for information women entrepreneurs can use to power-up their businesses.

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‘I’m Always The One Drinking Diet Coke At Happy Hour’

April 15, 2012

NAIEL IQBAL’S co-workers couldn’t figure him out. Ms. Jukaku, a former analyst at Goldman Sachs, prayed in her Manhattan apartment. He’d just started at a Midtown Manhattan hedge fund — the kind of elite enclave where overachievers in button-downs go to make a few hundred grand before heading off to Harvard Business School. But Mr. Iqbal, 27, a graduate of the Wharton School, wasn’t acting like a typical finance guy. He didn’t introduce himself around the office. Nor did he grab lunch with the other traders.

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Eliot Spitzer: Obama ‘Has Been On Wall Street’s Side Since Day One’

April 14, 2012

When it comes to reforming Wall Street, President Obama is all talk, according to Eliot Spitzer. The former New York governor took to Reuters TV’s Fast Forward with Chrystia Freeland to slam the president for what he says is a talk-tough, act-weak approach to the financial industry, which less than five years ago brought the global economy to the brink of disaster. “I’m not persuaded that this President has really been a voice for reform when it comes to Wall Street,” he said. “Wall Street has pretended that it has taken its hits, but it really hasn’t.” Spitzer summarized Obama’s efforts as the “occasional speech” criticizing Wall Street practices, largely followed by little to no substantial legislative action. “When it has come to actually putting in place the reform-based structure that would actually have changed the way the banking system works, he has really been on Wall Street’s side since day one,” Spitzer said. Spitzer criticized the Obama administration for what he perceives as opposition to the Volcker Rule, a key piece of financial reform that aimed to curb banks’ high-risk bets with their own money. Such trading has been criticized for pitting banks against their own clients. The president first introduced the rule more than two years ago, calling it a “simple and common-sense reform” at the time. Spitzer also claims the White House did not fight to give judges the ability to reform mortgages in the wake of the housing collapse. “The White House and Treasury intervened to defeat that in the Senate, something that could have fundamentally altered the course of our mortgage crisis that still continues to this day,” he said.

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President Obama: ‘For The Americas, This Is A Moment Of Great Promise’

April 14, 2012

By Laura MacInnis CARTAGENA, Colombia, April 14 (Reuters) – U.S. President Barack Obama stressed on Saturday the “great promise” for business growth in the Americas, seeking to play up the economic heft of the region he has paid little attention to in his first three years in office. In remarks prepared for a meeting of corporate chief executives in Cartagena, Colombia, where he is attending the 33-nation Summit of the Americas, Obama described U.S.-Latin American ties as “one of the world’s most dynamic trade relationships.” “With nearly a billion citizens – nearly a billion consumers – among us, there’s so much more we can do together,” according to excerpts of his speech released by the White House. “For the Americas, this is a moment of great promise. And I believe if we seize the opportunities before us, we’ll continue to be each other’s economic partners of choice,” he was set to tell the gathering of CEOs on Saturday morning, which precedes the formal start of the regional leaders’ summit. Among the companies represented at the CEO gathering were Pfizer Inc, Chevron, Pepsico and Cisco Systems Inc. Obama, a Democrat running for re-election in November, is under pressure in Colombia to show he is committed to engaging with Latin America and is addressing regional issues including drug trafficking and violence. His critics – including many pivotal Hispanic voters in the United States – have accused him of largely neglecting Washington’s neighbors to concentrate on crises in the Middle East and Afghanistan and on an effort to boost U.S. trade ties with fast-growing Asia. On his way to Colombia on Friday, Obama gave a speech at a shipping port in Tampa, Florida, on the ways U.S. businesses and workers can benefit from increased trade with Latin American countries like Mexico, Brazil and Argentina. Florida, with its large Hispanic population, is expected to be an electoral battleground on Nov. 6 and Latino voters could also make or break Obama’s re-election chances in swing states including Nevada, Colorado and Virginia. Polls show the president well ahead of Mitt Romney – the presumed Republican nominee for the White House race – among Latino voters despite concerns about his lack of attention to Latin American issues and disappointment about his failure to produce the broad immigration reform he promised in 2008.

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Doomed Legislation May Decide Presidential Election

April 14, 2012

WASHINGTON — Pay attention, America. Democrats and Republicans in Congress each will launch heated, political debates next week on tax bills that will never pass. But they nevertheless could be the most illuminating, consequential showdowns all year. The tussles will start Monday over the so-called Buffet Rule in the Democratic-led Senate — a $47 billion tax hike on $1 million-plus earners. That bill will likely fail the next day. Then, over in the GOP-controlled House, will be a $46 billion business tax cut plan. Together, the two bills offer Americans one of the clearest contrasts in the two parties’ political platforms and ideologies likely to be seen before the November election. “Taxes and the debates around them often offer an extra-clear window into the politics of each party,” said Julian Zelizer, a political historian at Princeton University whose latest book looks at the recent rise in Americans’ awareness of political history. Zelizer noted that the arguments next week should have added resonance, as millions of Americans finish their taxes, and will give people a fresh chance to decide which party’s vision they like better. “The contrast here essentially gets to the philosophy of each party,” Zelizer said. “Democrats with the Buffett Rule see it as an issue of tax fairness. The wealthy should help more at a time when most people have less money. The other side believes you have to lower taxes to spur economic development.” Both positions are popular, at first glance. A Gallup Poll released Friday found 60 percent of Americans favor taxing people who earn more than $1 million at a rate of 30 percent, as the Buffett Rule proposes. The office of Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.), sponsor of the competing tax cut proposal, pointed to a survey commissioned by his office that found 80 percent of the public favors his break. Partisans on both sides have been plotting intense messaging efforts, especially Democrats — including President Barack Obama — who have held numerous events and press conferences to push the Buffett Rule, which aims to make sure millionaires pay a higher rate that someone like Warren Buffett’s secretary. Republicans have been more focused on blaming Obama for high gas prices and slow economic growth. But with Cantor’s small business tax cut coming at the same time as the Buffett debate, the parties’ competing visions will be on display directly opposite one another. Cantor’s bill proposes cutting taxes for all small businesses (defined as having fewer than 500 workers, not by income) by 20 percent for a year. The cut would be capped at 50 percent of payroll. It would push tax rates toward 15 percent, from 35 percent, for one year. It would be funded by slapping $46 billion on the nation’s debt. The Buffett Rule aims to prevent the extremely rich from paying around 15 percent income tax rates — as many do, including likely GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney. It would cut the deficit by $47 billion over 10 years. “The contrast couldn’t be more clear,” said Cantor spokeswoman Laena Fallon.”While Democrats are busy formulating their latest tax hike that will do nothing to grow the economy or create jobs, House Republicans will pass a tax cut to help 22 million small business job creators keep more of their own money so they can grow and hire again.” According to Congress’ nonpartisan tax cruncher, the Joint Committee on Taxation, Cantor’s bill may benefit the 14.4 million small business entrepreneurs with an average break of about $6,500. From the GOP perspective, letting business owners keep more of their money will help them grow as they see fit. “We need to empower small business men and women,” Cantor said recently. But Democrats argue that the wealthy already have all they need to create jobs, and giving them more is just another giveaway. “It seems like in the Senate they’re keeping to the tune of job creation and deficit reduction,” said Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-Calif.), the vice chairman of the Democratic Caucus. “The Buffett Rule reduces the deficit. It has millionaires pay their fair share of taxes compared to their secretaries and middle class Americans. He called Cantor’s measure ” welfare for the wealthy ” and said it would give nothing to millions of sole proprietors and family-owned businesses that don’t have formal payrolls. Becerra said emphatically, “No,” when asked if either bill had a chance of hitting the president’s desk. “Republicans won’t support the Buffett Rule, it’s clear. And Democrats don’t believe we should be giving millionaires another tax break,” he said. “It really does crystallize where Republicans are on tax breaks, and I think with the Buffett Rule, it helps better define Democrats as truly trying to do everything possible to target our assistance and our efforts to create jobs at the middle class,” Becerra said. Democrats also have a proposal offered by Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York that would give small businesses tax breaks if they hire new workers or give raises. The GOP opposes it, saying the measure restricts businesses. “It really is a philosophical difference between, ‘We’re going to micromanage whether or not you’re entitled to tax relief and make it really complicated,’ versus, ‘You probably know what you’re business needs are, and we’re not going to try to figure all of that out from Washington,’” said a Republican leadership aide who was not cleared to speak publicly and asked who asked not to be identified. The Democrats’ Buffett Rule would clearly target very wealthy people. Both sides agree on that, though Republicans argue it would hurt “job-creators.” The impact of Cantor’s bill is less clear. His office touts it as a boon to all small business, but its largest beneficiaries will be businesses that are doing well, including celebrities, sports franchises, high-end medical operations and financial services. According to an analysis by the non-partisan Tax Policy Center, nearly 94 percent of the benefits would go to the top 20 percent of small businesses. Nearly 60 percent of the breaks would land in the monied laps of the ballyhooed 1 percent. Cantor’s office disputes those figures, and points to the Joint Committee on Taxation, which released its analysis Friday evening. Cantor spokeswoman Fallon said the new study examined the bill with a better methodology than the Tax Policy Center used. The Tax Policy Center study found that firms earning more than $200,000 a year would get nearly 84 percent of the breaks. Congress’ data found those businesses also would do disproportionately well. The Joint Committee on Taxation found that those $200,000-plus businesses would get more than 64 percent of the benefits, while they account for about 11 percent of the eligible firms. And the fraction of the top 1 percent of small businesses — the 125,000 that produce more than $1 million a year in adjusted gross income — would snag 18.3 percent of the tax break. The vast majority of small businesses — 9.2 million — would share about 15 percent of the break. Using either set of figures, it’s a large difference that highlights the ideological chasm like a radioactive-dyed X-ray. To Democrats, it’s the 1 percent getting even more. To Republicans, the Buffett Rule is a tax hike and the Cantor bill would let the job creators keep more of their money instead of giving it to the oppressive federal government. “Sadly, an administration that promised it would focus on jobs is wasting yet another day on a political event that won’t take a single person off the unemployment line,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said this week while Obama touted the Buffett measure. The Tax Policy Center, sponsored by the Brookings Institution and the Urban Institute, sides with the Democrats. “It puts a lot of money in the high end,” said Roberton Williams, a Tax Policy Center analyst of Cantor’s bill. “There’s already tons of cash sitting on the sidelines earning very low interest that is not being invested. This will add to that pile.” The vital question for voters watching the debate next week will be whether to add that pile, or take away. Would giving the wealthy more to invest help? Or would it be better spent on deficit reduction or the middle class? The answer may decide the fall elections.

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Governor Asks Feds To Stop Horse Slaughterhouse

April 13, 2012

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez said Friday she is asking federal officials not to allow a southeastern New Mexico company to open the nation’s first slaughterhouse for horses since 2007. Martinez plans to send a letter to the U.S. Department of Agriculture asking it deny a Roswell meat company’s request for inspections that would allow it to operate. “Despite the federal government’s decision to legalize horse slaughter for human consumption, I believe creating a horse slaughtering industry in New Mexico is wrong and I am strongly opposed,” Martinez said in a statement. Valley Meat Co. has filed an application with the U.S. Department of Agriculture for its 7,300-square-foot plant outside of town. Documents obtained by the Humane Society of the United States and Front Range Equine Rescue show that horses would be “custom slaughtered” and processed for human consumption at the plant, the Albuquerque Journal reported (http://bit.ly/IlnrcB ). Valley Meat didn’t immediately returns calls from the Associated Press on Friday. USDA spokesman Aaron Lavallee said in a statement that there are no facilities approved for horse slaughter in the United States. “One establishment, located in New Mexico, recently applied for a grant of inspection exclusively for equine and USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service is reviewing the application,” Lavallee said. Horse slaughter has effectively been blocked since Congress withheld funds for USDA inspections of horse meat plants in 2006. But a recently passed agriculture bill provides the money. The last horse slaughterhouse closed in Illinois in 2007. Since Congress renewed inspection funding, several plants are under consideration, including one in Missouri that would process up to 200 animals a day. More than 100,000 American horses are shipped out of the country to plants in Canada and Mexico for slaughter each year, and their meat is bound for markets in Europe and Asia, according to the Humane Society. Although there are reports of Americans dining on horse meat a recently as the 1940s, the practice is virtually non-existent in this country. A spokesman for New Mexico Attorney General Gary King said his office so far has found no legal basis for stopping the plant, but a lawyer has been assigned to continue looking into the matter. “A horse slaughtering plant in Roswell is a terrible idea. Such a practice, while not illegal, is certainly abhorrent to public sentiment, and I strongly suggest it be abandoned,” King, a Democrat, said in a written statement. “Horses are different and should be treated differently,” he said. The Humane Society, Front Range Equine Rescue and other groups are pushing the federal government to ban the export of American horses for the foreign meat market and to formally prohibit the slaughter of horses for human consumption in the United States. “Horse slaughter for food is a national disgrace, given the iconic nature of American horses and the especially brutal methods used to kill them,” Front Range Equine Rescue said in a statement. Pro-slaughter activists say the horse slaughter ban had unintended consequences, including an increase in neglect and the abandonment of the animals. Details about the extent of the proposed horse slaughtering operation were unavailable, but the application obtained by the groups says the plant would only handle horses, not cattle or chickens. The plant would operate eight hours a day year-round, according to the application. Front Range’s lawyer, Bruce Wagman, said Valley Meat first filed an application for USDA inspections in December, and then a second application in March. The groups said it has obtained email correspondence showing that company representatives have been talking for months to officials from the Denver office of the Food Safety and Inspection Service, which inspects animals and meats in American slaughterhouses. According to Front Range, one January email from an FSIS official said, “Public wants assurances there is no way for horse meat to get into their beef products.” The USDA said FSIS regulations prohibit horse slaughter or other preparation of horse products in the same establishment in which cattle, sheep, swine or goats are slaughtered or their products are prepared. Critics also contend former companion, working, racing and wild horses should not be used as human food because drugs routinely given to such horses are potentially dangerous to people. Elisabeth Jennings, executive director of Animal Protection of New Mexico, said residents of a state with roots in cowboy culture “have a deep and enduring appreciation for horses, especially given their important role in our state’s rural way of life.” “It is an affront to our citizens to suggest bringing the cruel, dangerous and polluting enterprise of horse slaughter to New Mexico as we celebrate our state’s centennial,” she said.

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Don’t Show Up To A Closed Post Office On Tax Day

April 13, 2012

If you plan on mailing in your taxes minutes before midnight on Tuesday, you might want to reconsider your plans. Most post offices are not staying open late on Tax Day this year, according to the U.S. Postal Service website and news reports . While post offices have historically extended their hours on Tax Day, USPS officials say that staying open late is obsolete and too expensive . The USPS has been grappling with a budget shortfall and plans to close up to 3,700 post offices, according to NPR. No post offices in the New York City area, the Los Angeles area or the Houston area will be staying open later than usual on Tax Day, according to the USPS website . New York’s main post office will be open until 10 p.m. as usual. This is the first year that no central Ohio post offices will be open late on tax day this year, according to the Columbus Dispatch . A USPS spokesman told the Dispatch that “it’s not really cost effective” to keep post offices open late. This is also the first year that no post office in the Bay Area will be open until midnight on Tax Day, according to the San Francisco Chronicle . The main branches in San Jose and Oakland will close at 10:30 p.m., which is later than usual. Post offices in St. Louis will not stay open late on tax day, according to Fox 2 Now. Many people still use the post office to file their tax returns at the last minute. Deadly car crashes spike 6 percent on tax day , according to a study by the University of Toronto, perhaps due to drivers rushing to file their tax forms on time. Late tax filers will be charged 0.5 percent of unpaid taxes per month, plus interest, which is currently 3 percent per year, according to Reuters. If you’re filing your taxes online, you’ll have until midnight on Tuesday, April 17. You can submit your taxed online here .

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VoxPop Worldwide, Inc. Announces Change of Management Control

April 13, 2012

OCALA, FL–(Marketwire – Apr 13, 2012) – VoxPop Worldwide , Inc. ( PINKSHEETS : VOXI ), a leader in music aggregation and digital distribution, announces several significant changes to the corporate management team including the resignations of Phil Quartararo, L. Joshua Eikov, Jim O’Mahony and Lawrence Solomon as the Company’s Board of Directors and officers. The Company also announces the election of Charles Lance, as the Chief Executive Officer and Director as well as Matthew Nicoletti as President and Director.

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Will The Judge Approve Dodger Sale?

April 13, 2012

WILMINGTON, Del. — A federal bankruptcy court judge in Delaware is deciding whether to approve a reorganization plan by the Los Angeles Dodgers that would put the team on track to exit bankruptcy by April 30. The team said earlier this week that it expects U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Kevin Gross will confirm Frank McCourt’s plan to sell the team for $2 billion to Guggenheim Baseball Management. Mark Walter, chief executive officer of the financial services firm Guggenheim Partners, would become the controlling owner; former Atlanta Braves president Stan Kasten would run the team. During a morning portion of the hearing, lawyers for the Dodgers and Fox, the Dodgers’ current broadcaster, said they’d agreed on language Fox had sought stating Time Warner Cable is not involved in the purchase.

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The Future Retail Wasteland

April 13, 2012

Brian Dunn was practically ebullient. “The one critical thing we offer the world is choice,” the Best Buy (BBY) chief executive officer said in a March phone interview with Bloomberg Businessweek. He was trumpeting in particular his company’s role in guiding customers through the expanding smartphone universe. “We provide the latest and greatest choice of all technology gear, from Apple (AAPL) products to Google (GOOG) products, and that brings more opportunity to help people put technology to use. That is a great place for us to be.” A week later, reality intruded. The consumer electronics retailer posted a $1.7 billion quarterly loss and announced it would close 50 stores nationwide. On April 10, Dunn resigned.

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Eviction Leads To Deadly Standoff, 2 Killed

April 13, 2012

MODESTO, Calif. — Officials have released the name of sheriff’s deputy who was one of two people killed while trying to serve an eviction notice at a Central California apartment complex Thursday. Stanislaus County sheriff’s officials say Deputy Robert Paris was killed when gunfire broke out around 11 a.m. The 53-year-old Paris was a 16-year veteran of the department. Officials say he is survived by his parents, a brother and two adult children. The name of the second person killed in the shooting has not yet been released. Meanwhile, the standoff continues with SWAT teams still surrounding the complex. THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below. A sheriff’s deputy and a civilian were killed Thursday when gunfire broke out as authorities tried to serve an eviction notice at a Central California apartment complex, officials said. The shooting led to a standoff with a suspect who was believed to be holed up inside an apartment at the Whispering Woods development in Modesto. More than 100 law enforcement officers from the Central Valley arrived at the scene. FBI and SWAT teams surrounded the building and authorities evacuated nearby residents while others remained in their homes. Authorities later fired flash grenades and tear gas in the area where the shooting occurred. The incident began about 11 a.m., when two Stanislaus County deputies went to the north Modesto home to deliver the notice, said Sheriff Adam Christianson, who called the incident “another dark day” for law enforcement in California. “One of my valued members of my team is dead,” a distraught Christianson told reporters. “I am overwhelmingly frustrated that we don’t have the sufficient resources to protect the community.” Neighbors Levi Middleton and Jennifer Diaz told the Modesto Bee () they heard multiple gunshots in rapid succession, as if fired from a semi-automatic weapon. http://bit.ly/HxXK7j Christianson said he believed that his deputies did not return fire. The names of those killed were not immediately released. Sheriff’s officials did not release any details about the civilian fatality. Authorities told the Bee the suspect is in his mid-40s and may have had military training. Sgt. Anthony Bejaran would not confirm if authorities had been in contact with the suspect. “There’s not much more information I can give out,” said Bejaran, a sheriff’s spokesman. The Whispering Woods development opened in 2002 on the site of the former Prescott Estates, which was known for decades as one of the most crime-plagued and substandard housing areas in Modesto, according to the Bee. The city shut down Prescott Estates, and the property was cleaned and extensively remodeled. Officer Chris Adams, a Modesto police spokesman, said the area isn’t as crime-ridden as it was a few years ago. He said authorities would be at the scene for the long haul, if necessary. “At this point, it’s about containment, keeping the suspect within our perimeter and hoping for a safe and peaceful resolution,” Adams said.

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Fewer Foreclosures For Michigan?

April 12, 2012

While Michigan’s economy appears to be doing better than last year, the state’s economically depressed cities are still struggling with widespread foreclosures. In March, Michigan ranked eighth in the country for number of foreclosures , with one out of 489 households receiving filings, according to RealtyTrac data. In Detroit, one in 300 households received filings in March. While Michigan still ranks high for its percentage of foreclosures, it was one of the few states to show an overall decline in filings from February — 31 other states had more foreclosure filings than the previous month. Nationally, the number of homes receiving foreclosure notices went up 7 percent from February, though foreclosures were down slightly for the whole quarter. But Brandon Moore, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac, warned that the lower quarterly numbers aren’t indicative of a rebound. “The dam may not burst in the next 30 to 45 days, but it will eventually burst, and everyone downstream should be prepared for that to happen — both in terms of new foreclosure activity and new short sale activity,” he said in a statement. Michigan’s foreclosure rate was down drastically from the same time last year , a 36.6 percent drop from March 2011, according to the Detroit News . But rather than showing big year-over-year changes in the housing market, the drop is likely due to a change in state law that no longer requires lenders to give as much notice when foreclosing on a property. Last month, RealtyTrac Vice President Daren Blomquist forecast a possible spike in Michigan foreclosures later in the year when those notices come due.

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PCS Edventures Announces Brett Newbold New COO

April 12, 2012

BOISE, ID–(Marketwire – Apr 12, 2012) – PCS Edventures!.com, Inc. ( OTCBB : PCSV ), a leading provider of K-12 programs that focus on Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), today announced the hiring of Brett Newbold as the new Chief Operating Officer.

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Bailout Money Fails To Reach Neediest Homeowners: Report

April 12, 2012

A federal housing program funded with taxpayer money left over from the government’s bailout of the banks and auto companies is failing to deliver on its promised relief to struggling homeowners. The Hardest Hit Fund, a $7.6 billion initiative established by the federal government in February 2010 to help families in states most crippled by the collapsed housing market, has distributed just 3 percent of its money — or $217.4 million — to help homeowners, according to a report released Thursday by the Office of the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Fund, or SIGTARP. “Look at the TARP money that goes out to the banks,” said Special Inspector General Christy Romero in an interview with The Huffington Post. “That goes out in a matter of days. This has been two years and only 3 percent of these funds have trickled out to homeowners.” The Hardest Hit Fund has helped just slightly more than 30,000 homeowners, or 7 percent of the roughly 480,000 homeowners targeted for assistance by the end of 2017 when the program expires, according to the report. The program is funded by TARP, the 2008 legislation that has provided a $600 billion to bail out various banks and other companies in the wake of the nation’s financial crisis. “The Hardest Hit Fund is really struggling to get off the ground and it’s a real concern about whether this money can get out to these homeowners,” Romero said. The 76-page report reads like the autopsy of a dead housing program, placing the blame for the program’s paltry performance squarely on the Treasury Department, the government agency responsible for TARP and, in turn, the Hardest Hit program. According to the report, Treasury initially dragged its heels in getting the largest mortgage servicers to participate in the initiative, instead relying on the individual states to broker arrangements with the servicers. Some of the states lacked the necessary clout to secure servicer participation, thus limiting the program’s ability to reach needy homeowners, concluded the report. “These states don’t have the bargaining power that Treasury has with these large servicers,” Romero said. “Treasury is already working with these same servicers, having similar conversations with them for other housing programs, so Treasury should be using its influence to really get these servicers on board.” The Treasury Department was similarly slow in securing support from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-owned mortgage giants that collectively control nearly half of all outstanding loans, further curtailing the initiative’s reach. The report also blames the Treasury Department for giving states too little time to roll out the program and for failing to establish clear, specific goals that would let the government and the public measure the program’s success. “Treasury actively and consistently engaged with servicers and [Fannie and Freddie] from the earliest stages of the program, encouraging support and addressing impediments to participation,” wrote Tim Massad, the department’s assistant secretary for financial stability, in a letter responding to the report’s findings . Massad also called the report “disappointing” for its focus on the program’s early months instead of more recent progress asserting that last quarter the number of homeowners helped by the fund grew 60 percent and the amount of money delivered to homeowners increased 93 percent. “This report misses the mark by not acknowledging the hard work of participating states and the innovative ways they are preventing foreclosures in their local communities,” wrote Massad in an email to The Huffington Post. “The Hardest Hit Fund is helping states address some of the most difficult problems caused by the housing crisis in ways that suit local conditions and have already kept tens of thousands of families in their homes.” While the Hardest Hit Fund’s performance is weak, it is not unique. Many of the federal government’s housing assistance programs have underdelivered, most notably the flagship Making Home Affordable loan modification program. Announced in the spring of 2009, the program was designed to help 3 million to 4 million homeowners avoid foreclosure by changing the terms of loans and lowering monthly payments. Nearly three years later, fewer than 1 million homeowners have received a permanent loan modification . The Home Affordable Refinance Program was also introduced in 2009 with the intent of helping 4 million to 5 million homeowners refinance their mortgages, taking advantage of the nation’s historically low interest rates. As of this past January, fewer than 1.1 million homeowners have refinanced through the program, which is reserved for borrowers whose loans are backed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. Thursday’s report concludes with suggestions for how the Treasury Department can strengthen the Hardest Hit Fund’s effectiveness, including establishing measurable program goals, making performance data available online for the public and developing a plan to win “industry support” for the initiative. “If Treasury doesn’t make a change, the Hardest Hit Fund risks becoming another government housing program with limited impact,” Romero said. “It’s time to change the status quo.”

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Income Inequality Worse Under Obama Than George W. Bush

April 11, 2012

President Obama may talk a big game about economic fairness, but his record on the issue doesn’t quite match up. There are lots of reasons to think so — and we’ll touch on several in just a minute — but the most recent comes from Matt Stoller, blogging at Naked Capitalism , who points us toward a recent bit of number-crunching from Emmanuel Saez, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley. Saez, who’s known for his work on the income gap, has highlighted a surprising and discouraging fact: during the post-recession period of 2009 and 2010, the rich snagged a greater share of total income growth than they did during the boom years of 2002 to 2007. In other words, inequality has been even more pronounced under Obama than it was under George W. Bush. This news may not come as a shock if you’re one of the many Americans who lost their job during the recession and couldn’t find another that paid as well . It also might not surprise you if you’re one of the 46 million people living in poverty — a record number, as it happens — or among the millions of Americans who can get by week to week, but would be ruined by a single financial emergency . You might likewise not be surprised if you already knew that some household-goods companies are catering to this new reality by quietly neglecting their mid-price product lines, focusing instead on their high-end and budget offerings , since wages are diverging so much. Or if you knew that the U.S. ranks closer to China, Serbia and Rwanda than any other country in the developed world when it comes to income inequality. On the other hand, if you’ve been listening to Obama decry the wealth gap on the campaign trail , and talk about the need to impose higher tax rates on millionaires , well, then you might be a little surprised. It was only a few months ago that the Congressional Budget Office released a report illustrating how the very richest Americans have pulled away from the rest of society in the past 30 years. But that report used data that was only complete through 2007. Saez’s calculations go through 2010, suggesting that White House rhetoric or no, the trends of the past three decades haven’t started to reverse themselves. Here’s how Saez’s math breaks down, for the curious: In the 2009-2010 period, a time of modest economic growth, the top 1 percent of U.S. earners captured 93 percent of all the income growth in the country. Got that? Now compare it to how the mega-rich made out during the Bush upswing years of 2002 to 2007. During that time, the top 1 percent of earners captured just 65 percent of all the income growth. That means the rising tide has lifted fewer boats during the Obama years — and the ones it’s lifted have been mostly yachts.

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Sandy Abrams: Mompreneurs: Should You Consider a Franchise?

April 11, 2012

This may be the year of the entrepreneur, but does that include franchising? Brenda Dronkers says: Yes! There are so many reasons that right now is a good time to buy into a franchise. For women in particular, there are so many low cost as well as home-based franchise brands. In the past, it seemed that franchising was geared more for the brick and mortar, high investment, high strung entrepreneurs. However, these days, with options like tutoring services, food trucks, home services and so many other industries adding a low cost franchise opportunity with flexible work schedules, it is primetime for women in franchising. Brenda Dronkers knows about franchising. She’s the founder and former president of Pump It Up, the Inflatable Party Zone. Founded in 2000, she grew it to what is now the largest children’s recreational franchise system in the country. She sold majority ownership in 2007 after sales hit $70 million. Brenda’s kids were 4,9, & 11 years old in 1999 when she attended a church carnival. There were two big inflatables in the church warehouse that were by far the most fun attraction at the carnival. Kids would wait in line to jump up and down for a few minutes then swing around to get right back in line again. Brenda found herself awestruck in two ways. The first was that both her youngest and oldest kids were both completely enthralled with the inflatables. Usually her kids weren’t entertained with the same activity since they were seven years apart. Secondly, she realized that because these were inside, there was no weather issue allowing for year-round fun and parties. Without a college education or biz experience, ten weeks after this aha moment, Brenda opened her first Pump It Up. If you are considering buying a franchise, Brenda recommends that you ask yourself these questions: Can I follow training and directions easily? Can I follow someone else’s system requirements? Am I a multi-tasker? Can I fund the franchise until it is up and running successfully? Last but certainly not least… Do I have my family’s support? If you answered yes to all of those questions, then franchising may be for you. If in fact it is, Brenda suggests these questions be asked of a potential franchise: How long has the franchisor been in business? What kind of ongoing support will the franchise offer? Does the franchise have a solid growth plan? How do the rest of the franchisees like working with the brand? How much freedom does the franchise give you? Brenda describes how she managed to balance mom & biz when she first launched: When I began PIU, my children were 4, 10 and 12. When hubby was at the firehouse, I took them with me to the PIU when I had parties booked. I had an office, and I taught them all to make goodie bags (free child labor, except for all the ‘goodies’ they grabbed). I brought a TV, books, toys and made a play area/homework room for them. This lasted for about six months, and then I was able to hire a manager to work the parties. I did the rest of the business from home. Many moms, if given the chance, would choose to work from home once they have their baby like I did. As moms, we have this amazing way of being able to balance our home and business life. It will take some practice, but it can be done. For many moms franchising can be an effective, flexible, rewarding and supportive business option. There are lots of franchise systems set up by franchisors that are focused on targeting women who want to work from home. Out of the approximate 3,500 franchise opportunities, Brenda says that about 1,000 are home-based options. She recommends the following franchises for mompreneurs who prefer to be home based: Games On the Go: This is a mobile RV that travels to birthday parties and events. The RV is full of retro games, such as Pac Man, Donkey Kong and more It has a very low start-up cost and is designed to be run from a home office. Stroller Moms: This is a franchise that trains you to host stroller fitness classes in your neighborhood. This is not only a great source of revenue, but the mompreneur actually makes friends and can take her baby to work! Bark Busters: This franchise will teach its franchisee to train dogs. So, if you love dogs, what a great way to get out of the house, and run your own business as well. Home Helpers: If you love senior citizens, you may love Home Helpers. The franchisee of this franchise work’s from home, making appointments to visit and assist senior citizens…o n your own schedule! Brenda talks about the benefits of going with a franchise as opposed to starting your own similar type of biz: When you invest in a franchise, you are investing in a proven business model. I was very blessed that PIU was a hit. According to About.com, studies show that franchises have a success rate of approximately 90 percent as compared to only about 15 percent for businesses that are started from the ground up. The increased probability of success usually far outweighs any initial franchise fee and nominal royalties that are paid monthly. Also, many franchises participate in women’s funding opportunities, or have pre-registered with the SBA to avoid lending issues. Franchising is amazing. But not all franchises are created equal. If you decide to explore franchises, be sure to use your talents as a woman…practice discernment and use your intuition as you speak to these franchise brands. Any doubt, find another brand. There’s such a variety of options available and if you spend enough time researching, Brenda is confident that you will find the right business match. You too can then jump for joy!

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UC Davis Investigation: Pepper Spray ‘Was Not Authorized’

April 11, 2012

The task force report on the controversial pepper-spraying of student protesters at the University of California, Davis concluded the campus police and administration made “critically flawed” decisions. The report, released Wednesday, said Lt. John Pike’s decision to use pepper spray on seated protesters was “not authorized by policy.” They also said there were multiple instances of other campus police officers, who were unnamed in the report, that were able to calmly walk arrestees through the crowd to a patrol car without the use of force. The 190-page report was the result of a task force put in place to investigate the pepper-spraying of seated protesters at UC Davis on Nov. 18, 2011. UC President Mark Yudof and UC Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi called for the task force and appointed Cruz Reynoso, the chair of the UC Davis School of Law, to lead it. Reynoso is also a former Associate Justice of the California Supreme Court. “There is little factual basis supporting Lt. Pike’s belief that he was trapped by the protesters or that his officers were prevented from leaving the Quad,” the report stated. “Further, there is little evidence that any protesters attempted to use violence against the police.” They added that the administration, including Katehi, “share responsibility for many of the decisions discussed and criticized in this report.” The task force also revealed that the type of pepper spray used was not an “authorized weapon of use” by UCPD. In addition, the report concluded a number of errors on the part of the UCPD and the administration, including: – A Failure to Investigate Whether or Not “Non-Affiliates” in the UC Davis Occupy Encampment Were Present – The Administration Decided to Deploy Police to Remove the Tents on Nov. 18 before Considering Other Reasonable Alternatives – The Scope of the Police Operation to Remove the Tents Was Ineffectively Communicated, Not Clearly Understood by Key Decision-Makers, and, Accordingly, Could Not Be Adequately Evaluated as to Its Costs and Consequences – There Were No Clear Lines Delineating the Responsibility for Decision-Making between Civilian Administrators and Police – There Was Confusion as to the Legal Basis for the Police Operation The UC Davis campus police officers’ union tried to halt the public disclosure of the report, citing privacy concerns. A judge ordered that some names could be withheld, but the report should be released to the public. Officials plan to discuss their findings in the report Wednesday afternoon during a town hall event at UC Davis . This is a developing story, more to come. Read the whole report here .

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Vitaliy N. Katsenelson: Not Buying Best Buy

April 11, 2012

Best Buy’s CEO Brian Dunn did a courageous and proper thing for shareholders by resigning. He was not the right person to lead Best Buy into battle against online-only competitors that use Best Buy’s spacious and beautiful stores as the showroom for their products. To make things even worse, smartphones make comparison shopping so much easier nowadays, and structurally, Best Buy cannot have lower prices than its online competitors. Its stores also lack the breadth of selection of Amazon and they are at a permanent, competitive cost disadvantage. The new strategy Dunn announced a few weeks ago of closing big stores and opening a lot of smaller stores for mobile sales makes little sense. It is basically morphing Best Buy into a Radio Shack. It would be great if this strategy had worked for Radio Shack, but it didn’t. Radio Shack’s margins are collapsing, and that is why its stock is scratching as-far-as-my-chart-goes-back lows. I don’t know what the solution is for Best Buy. It must involve a much tighter collaboration of physical stores and its Internet presence — the stores need to be turned from a liability into an asset. Or maybe a logistical miracle that would allow Best Buy to deliver a much, much greater range of products (like, hundreds of thousands) to its customers on the day they order them. One thing is for certain: The new strategy will require thinking that cannot be delivered by somebody who spent 28 years in the Best Buy box. It requires a Netflix or Amazon-like strategy, where management was willing to bring forward (and flawlessly execute) a disruptive strategy that undermines its current cash cowing business. Amazon did this by bringing electronic readers to the masses, which undermined its core book business. Netflix did it with streaming. I am sure I’ll get plenty of dissenting emails about Netflix: “We don’t know if its model will be successful down the road,” etc. I’ll admit, I don’t know what Netflix’s streaming business is worth. But one thing is for certain, if it did not bring out streaming, it would have been dead in three to five years. Now it has a fighting chance to survive and maybe even create value for shareholders. I am a value investor, and so when I see a stock dangling at six times earnings I’d be lying if I told you that I did not have an inkling to seriously consider it for our portfolios. But Best Buy is not a retailer that missed a fad (stacked the shelves with wrong-color shirts, etc.) — those sorts of situations often present great buying opportunities, as the problems are easily fixed. Best Buy is a retailer that so far has missed a structural change that may make its business obsolete. It is only cheap if the “E” projected for next year will be there. So far the market is betting that it won’t, and I have no insight that encourages me to disagree with the market. Reminder: The VALUEx Vail conference is June 20-22 in Vail. This is not your typical conference — think of it as the TED of value investing. Though this is a not-for-profit event, I hope what you’ll learn from attending will generate profits for you. You can find out more about VALUEx Vail here . Vitaliy N. Katsenelson, CFA, is Chief Investment Officer at Investment Management Associates in Denver, Colo. He is the author of The Little Book of Sideways Markets (Wiley, December 2010). To receive Vitaliy’s future articles by email, click here or read his articles here . Investment Management Associates Inc. is a value investing firm based in Denver, Colorado. Its main focus is on growing and preserving wealth for private investors and institutions while adhering to a disciplined value investment process, as detailed in Vitaliy Katsenelson’s Active Value Investing (Wiley, 2007) book.

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Kristie Arslan: Mr. President, Focus on the ‘Baffle Rule,’ not the ‘Buffett Rule’

April 11, 2012

President Obama is calling on Congress to raise taxes on the wealthy in a speech today, and he’s using a clever example to describe it. Calling it the “Buffett Rule,” he’s calling for tax law changes to ensure the Warren Buffetts of the world don’t pay a lower tax rate (due to their investment income) than their secretaries. Tax fairness is a top priority for the National Association for the Self-Employed , but we’re much more interested in tax laws that impact the 22 million self-employed Americans who aren’t household names but who create a whole lot more jobs than Mr. Buffett. In honor of the millions of Americans who are struggling this week to figure out the home office deduction and other baffling tax laws, we’re calling on Congress and the president to change all tax laws that are so baffling that taxpayers don’t take advantage of them. Let’s call it the “Baffle Rule.” The tax deduction for the use of a home office is one of the biggest headaches for taxpayers. It is probably the most notoriously complex and confusing broad-based tax credit offered by the federal government. An estimated 9 million Americans work out of their homes, but there are perhaps millions of these entrepreneurs each year who don’t claim this tax credit, simply because they don’t understand it. This is especially true for self-employed taxpayers, who usually prepare their own taxes. Unlike Mr. Buffett, they don’t have a platoon of tax lawyers on speed dial, so in many cases they just give up on the deduction out of frustration or fear of an audit from an incorrectly filed return. The NASE is asking Congress to simplify this deduction, by allowing home-based businesses to take a standard $1,500 deduction for home office expenses. By making the tax rule less confusing, more self-employed taxpayers will take advantage of it, thus providing more resources for these small businesses to grow and create jobs. Tax credits don’t work to encourage behavior if Americans can’t understand them, so let’s get Congress and the president to enact the “Baffle Rule” this year, so that our taxes for next year are friendlier and less baffling to the self-employed and small businesses.

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TexCom Announces Changes to Executive Management and Board of Directors

April 11, 2012

HOUSTON, TX–(Marketwire – Apr 11, 2012) – TexCom, Inc. ( PINKSHEETS : TEXC ), an environmental services company for the oil and gas industry, today announced the retirement of Louis Ross, who has elected to resign as Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Company. The Board of Directors has appointed Stephen Barth, who has been an independent member of TexCom’s Board since March 2011, to serve as Chairman; and has named Robert S. May as the Company’s Interim CEO, who will oversee TexCom’s daily business operations and lead the search for Ross’ successor as CEO. Ross has agreed to remain as an independent consultant to the Company to assist in the recruitment of and transition to a new executive leadership team.

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DISH Appoints James Moorhead Chief Marketing Officer

April 11, 2012

ENGLEWOOD, CO–(Marketwire – Apr 11, 2012) – DISH ( NASDAQ : DISH ), one of the nation’s leading pay-TV providers, today announced that James G. Moorhead has been named senior vice president, chief marketing officer. Mr. Moorhead will be responsible for marketing, advertising, public relations and market research. He will report to DISH CEO Joe Clayton and serve on DISH’s senior leadership team.

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Royal Bancshares of Pennsylvania Announces Management Succession Plan

April 11, 2012

Transition of Bank Leadership Underway; Robert R. Tabas to Retire From Active Management, Will Remain Chairman of the Board of Directors; Murray Stempel, III to Retire From Active Management, Will Remain on Board of Directors; James J. McSwiggan to Retire as President and Chief Operating Officer

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Philippine Navy In Tense Standoff With China Ships

April 11, 2012

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines’ largest warship was engaged in a tense standoff with Chinese surveillance vessels Wednesday at a disputed South China Sea shoal, after the ship attempted to arrest Chinese fishermen but was blocked by the surveillance craft. Philippine Foreign Secretary Albert Del Rosario has summoned Chinese Ambassador Ma Keqing in an attempt to resolve the impasse diplomatically. Del Rosario’s office said in a statement that the Scarborough Shoal “is an integral part of Philippine territory” and Filipino authorities would assert sovereignty over the offshore area. The Chinese Embassy has accused the Philippine warship of harassing the fishermen. China and the Philippines both claim ownership of the shoal – which lies off the northwestern Philippine province of Zambales – as well as other areas in the South China Sea. The Spratly Islands south of the shoal are claimed by China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Brunei, Malaysia and Taiwan. The chain of barren islands, reefs and coral outcrops are believed to be in rich in oil and gas and the overlapping claims have long been feared as Asia’s next flashpoint for armed conflict. The current standoff began Sunday when a Philippine navy surveillance plane sighted eight Chinese fishing vessels anchored in a lagoon at Scarborough, the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs said. That prompted the military to deploy its largest warship, the BRP Gregorio del Pilar, which was recently acquired from the United States. On Tuesday, Filipino sailors from the warship boarded the Chinese vessels for an inspection, discovering large amounts of illegally collected coral, giant clams and live sharks inside the first boat, the department said in a statement. Two Chinese maritime surveillance ships, identified as Zhonggou Haijian 75 and Zhonggou Haijian 84, later approached and positioned themselves between the Philippine warship and the Chinese fishing vessels “thus preventing the arrests of the erring Chinese fishermen,” the statement said. Philippine Foreign Affairs spokesman Raul Hernandez said Wednesday that the situation at the shoal “has not changed as of this morning. There’s a standoff.” The Chinese Embassy said 12 fishing boats had taken shelter from a storm in a lagoon. “Two Chinese marine surveillance ships are in this area fulfilling the duties of safeguarding Chinese maritime rights and interests,” it said in a statement. It said the shoal “is an integral part of the Chinese territory and the waters around it the traditional fishing area for Chinese fishermen.” The Philippine navy was sending additional vessels toward the shoal, which lies about 200 kilometers (124 miles) from the nearest Philippine coast, a Philippine navy official told The Associated Press. He spoke on condition of anonymity because of a lack of authority to discuss the situation with the media. Del Rosario protested to Ma, the Chinese ambassador in Manila, late Tuesday and told her that the navy would enforce Philippine laws, according to his office. Last year, the Philippines accused Chinese vessels of intruding into other parts of what it considers Philippine territory in the South China Sea. China has regularly dismissed the protests, saying Beijing has indisputable sovereignty over those areas on historical grounds. The United States has insisted it takes no sides in the territorial dispute but says it should be solved peacefully. China has balked at what it considered a U.S. interference in the region. The disputes over the Spratlys have settled into an uneasy standoff since the last major clash involving China and Vietnam killed more than 70 Vietnamese sailors in 1988. Faced with China’s formidable military, the Philippines and Vietnam have forged closer ties. Aside from military accords, the two countries have agreed to set up a hotline between their coast guards and maritime police to monitor maritime incidents, such as piracy and incursions into their territorial waters. The Philippine navy announced Tuesday that Philippine and Vietnamese would play football and basketball matches in the islands they occupy in the Spratlys as a novel way to build trust in the contested region.

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Brad Reid: The Supreme Court Applies Immunity to Prevent Suits

April 10, 2012

A significant preliminary issue in any suit against governmental bodies is the application of sovereign immunity. Sovereign immunity, historically phrased as the king can do no wrong, early became a part of the U.S. legal system. Governments may only allow suits to proceed against themselves by some affirmative action (waiver) of sovereign immunity. The U.S. Supreme Court recently has once again addressed immunity in two decisions with Justice Alito writing the opinions. In one recent case, a licensed pilot sued the Federal Aviation Administration, the U.S. Department of Transportation, and the Social Security Administration for mental and emotional distress for revealing his confidential medical information (FAA v. Cooper). The federal Privacy Act allows suits for “actual damages” if the government intentionally or willfully violates it. In discussing giving up sovereign immunity (waiver) the Supreme Court majority noted that the Government is entitled to the most favorable interpretation of protection. Since “actual damages” in the Privacy Act is somewhat unclear, the Court understood the phrase to mean a “proven precuniary loss,” not mental or emotional distress. Justices Sotomayor, Ginsburg, and Breyer dissented finding a broader meaning of the phrase “actual damages,” and stated that the narrow meaning was contrary to the purpose of the Privacy Act. These three Justices also dissented in a 2004 Privacy Act decision. The majority opinion in 2004 interpreted “entitlement for recovery” to require damages beyond a willful or intentional violation being proven (Doe v. Chao). A second recent unanimous Supreme Court decision granted absolute immunity from suit to a federal grand jury witness (Rehberg v. Paulk). The plaintiff alleged that an investigator for a district attorney’s office had presented false testimony in violation of a federal civil rights statute (42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983). The Court explained that this immunity from suit was the same protection already granted trial witnesses. Furthermore judicial precedents, the need for witnesses not to fear retaliatory litigation, available perjury remedies, and secrecy considerations for grand jury witnesses favored this result. Related but distinct from sovereign immunity is the “government contractor defense.” This defense broadly prevents military equipment manufacturers from being sued when equipment is constructed to government specifications. It was famously applied in 1988 by the Supreme Court in litigation involving a Marine helicopter crash to end a suit brought against the manufacturer (Boyle v. United Technologies). There were four dissenting justices. In January, 2012, a three judge panel of the Federal Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit decided that the legal remedies for the heirs of civilian convoy drivers who were killed in Iraq were those remedies granted by the Defense Base Act and Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act (Fisher v. Halliburton). These statutes grant workers’ compensation type awards. Federal law preempted state law tort claims of negligence and fraud against the Army contractors that the heirs had sued. Consequently, the public policy question to consider is how broadly to extend immunity from suits? The general arguments in favor of immunity are that retaliatory or frivolous lawsuits will be time consuming and detract from official duties, individuals will be deterred from seeking careers in public service or exercising their best judgment for fear of litigation, and burdensome and lengthy suits will waste public resources. The general arguments against immunity are that injustices will not be remedied, immunity discourages due care, and individuals or entities are exempted by immunity from the standards that apply to the rest of society. There are numerous additional forms of immunity from suit not discussed in this brief comment that are further subdivided into absolute and qualified.The general legal trend presently seems to expand immunity from suit based upon strict statutory interpretation of waiver provisions. Under this view statutory language is very precisely, and critics would say too narrowly, defined to prevent suits.

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Mark Steber: What to Know If You Owe

April 10, 2012

According to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), approximately three out of four taxpayers who file an annual tax return receive a refund. That’s good news for 75% of consumers, but not ideal for the remaining 25% of taxpayers who find they owe money at tax time. In fact, it’s one reason why some Americans will drag their feet, and wait until the last minute to get their tax return filed. If you are someone who has, or expects that you may have, a tax liability to pay, it’s important to be aware of the rules regarding tax payments and to manage your time wisely in advance of the April 17 tax deadline. Perhaps the most important thing to remember, and something that still surprises people when I remind them, is that while you can request a six month extension for filing a tax return, you still need to pay your taxes by April 17 in order to avoid interest and potential penalties. The additional six months (until October 15, 2012) may help some taxpayers breathe a sigh of relief, but more often than not it’s better to buckle down and file by the deadline, even if it requires paying. There are several ways to make payment on a tax liability. For those who wish to pay what they owe in full, they can send a check made payable to the United States Treasury, being sure to note the taxpayer’s social security number or employer identification number, tax period, and related tax form number. If you want to pay with cash, that’s an option, as well, though you must pay in person at a local IRS Office. Some people prefer to work with the IRS to set up an installment plan and pay down their tax debt each month in a predetermined amount based on the amount owed. However, there is a one-time fee charged by the IRS for this arrangement (at present, $52 for direct debit agreements and $105 for non-direct debit agreements). Similar to most installment payment plans, you will be charged interest on the unpaid amount of the debt, as well as potential penalties. You will also be expected to repay the full debt amount within 72 months. Another option for paying a tax burden is to pay by credit or debit card through an IRS e-pay service provider. This can be done via phone or electronically, though consumers should be aware that there is a fee charged by service providers to facilitate the transaction. Keep in mind that you can file your return at any time and wait until April 17 to pay, if desired. If no effort is made to pay, you could be subject to collection action, such as having your wages, bank accounts or other assets garnished. The bottom line is, plan ahead to find out if you owe, and to determine the best way for you to pay Uncle Sam based on your current financial situation.

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Panera Bread Appoints Thomas Patrick Kelly, Interim CFO

April 10, 2012

ST. LOUIS, MO–(Marketwire – Apr 10, 2012) – Panera Bread Company ( NASDAQ : PNRA ) announced that its Board of Directors has appointed Thomas Patrick Kelly Interim Chief Financial Officer, effective April 9, 2012. Mr. Kelly will report to Bill Moreton, President and Co-Chief Executive Officer, and is serving as Interim CFO while the Company searches for a permanent CFO.

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Income Tax Day Can Be Deadly: Study

April 10, 2012

TORONTO – This month’s income tax deadline day can not only be stressful for those who have left filing their return to the last minute, but it can also be deadly. A 30-year study of traffic accidents in the United States has found that the country’s mid-April tax deadline day is associated with an elevated risk of fatal crashes. Using data for fatal vehicle crashes for every April 15 over the last three decades, the study found that Americans have a six per cent increased risk of dying on tax day — and a similar risk likely occurs on Canada’s tax deadline day, April 30, researchers say. “We find about the same increase in risk both during the morning hours, the afternoon hours and the evening hours,” said lead researcher Dr. Donald Redelmeier, an internal medicine specialist at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto. “So it’s not all confined to the 11th hour, right before the stroke of midnight. But it prevails for the full day.” That differs from Super Bowl Sunday — another event Redelmeier has studied. His 2003 analysis of traffic deaths on the day of the hugely popular televised National Football League showdown found a 41 per cent increased risk in the average number of road fatalities over a 27-year period. But Super Bowl Sunday traffic deaths occurred primarily within three hours following the game’s completion — not throughout 24 hours, as is the case for tax-filing day. Redelmeier, who is often called on to treat victims of vehicle crashes at Sunnybrook’s regional trauma centre, said the increased risk on U.S. tax day translates into about 13 deaths per year. “None of these people had to die … Road trauma destroys the lives of thousands of people in the United States each year,” as it does in Canada, he said. “And driver error contributes to about 93 per cent of such events.” The study, published in this week’s issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, used tax day road fatalities as a marker for what high stress can do to driver behaviour on any day of the year, anywhere in the world. “Stress is often speculated as a contributing factor in driver error, and yet stress is almost impossible to study in a scientific manner,” Redelmeier said. “Here, we were trying to pull out one particular form of stress.” He said the largest jumps in risk for fatal crashes on tax deadline day occurred during the last two decades, despite the advent of electronic tax filing during that period. “So that we don’t think that what’s going on here is increased amounts of driving … like the proverbial rushing to the post office at the stroke before midnight. We don’t think that that’s the largest factor here.” Ironically, he said, electronic filing may encourage more people to leave tax-return preparation to the last minute. The study, which also looked at traffic death data for seven days before and seven days after tax day over 30 years, also found that bad weather, such as snow or rain storms, does not appear to be a factor. “We looked at different regions, and the increase in risk was about same, in northern versus southern states, west versus east, urban versus rural,” Redelmeier said. Researchers aren’t clear on what factors are behind the bump-up in the chance of dying in a road accident on the final day for filing taxes. While one explanation is that stressful deadlines can lead to driver distraction and human error, sleep deprivation and drinking alcohol could also play a role. And although the study data only allowed researchers to nail down the six per cent increased risk for fatalities, Redelmeier believes a similar level of risk applies to the spectrum of outcomes that can arise from collisions on roadways — from brain and spinal cord injuries to other kinds of physical trauma and property damage. Intriguingly, only about 20 per cent of Americans leave their tax filing to the deadline, yet there is still a significantly elevated risk of dying on that day. “What that means is even if you as an individual have filed early, it doesn’t mean you’re immunized against the situation, because you live in a community of all sorts of other drivers out there,” he said, noting that non-drivers aren’t immune either. “The increase in risk on tax day included the passengers and pedestrians, which is a common theme of all of road trauma — bad driving imposes risks on other people.” The study was not able to look at traffic deaths in Canada on April 30 because of a lack of good data, but he said high stress leads to distracted drivers in this country as well. “And that stressful tax deadline, like we’ve got in Canada on April 30, might also contribute to short-term human error and result in fatal road trauma.” Redelmeier said no matter how much stress is being experienced, it’s critical that drivers remember to wear their seatbelts, obey the speed limit, restrict alcohol consumption and minimize distractions while behind the wheel. “Almost every one of these fatal crashes could have been entirely avoided by a small change in driver behaviour. Basic safety practices should not be forgotten at times of stress.”

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Get Hired: Restaurant Biz Adds More Half A Million Jobs

April 10, 2012

Here’s some good news for the restaurant biz: The National Restaurant Association reports that more than 560,000 restaurant jobs have been added since the start of the employment recovery in March of 2010. More than 200,000 of those were created in the last six months. The numbers reflect the growing job market , which is rebounding after a long 18-month recession. Dawn Sweeney, the association’s president and chief executive officer, stressed the importance of the restaurant industry’s progress, saying, “The restaurant industry strongly contributes to the health of our nation’s economy by driving job growth across industry segments, and providing rewarding career and employment opportunities for millions.” One example of the hiring boom is at Landry’s Inc., which encompasses more than 400 restaurants, hotels and casinos. In an interview with Bloomberg, CEO Tilman J. Fertitta said that the company can’t find enough workers . “Business is good,” he told the news service. “The consumer is spending money.” He’s currently looking for about 40 employees for its corporate office in Houston and thousands more for roles across its many U.S. properties. The National Restaurant Association also points out that the industry’s growth has outpaced the overall economy’s recovery in recent months. In the 12 months ending March 2012, eating and drinking place employment jumped 3.2 percent, more than double the 1.5 percent increase in total U.S. employment during the same period. In addition, 2012 marks the 13th consecutive year in which restaurant employment growth has outpaced overall employment growth in the United States. However, the news comes amid reports of wages falling across the industry . Online compensation data website PayScale recently reported that wages for food service and restaurant dropped 0.6 percent from the first three months of 2011 to the first three months of 2012. In the same stretch, U.S. wages rost 1.4 percent on average across all industries.

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Debunking The Bogus Obamacare-Deficit Study

April 10, 2012

The Washington Post has an apparent blockbuster story today. It reports that a new study finds that Obamacare will increase the budget deficit, not decrease it, as the Congressional Budget Office has found: President Obama’s landmark health-care initiative, long touted as a means to control costs, will actually add more than $340 billion to the nation’s budget woes over the next decade, according to a new study by a Republican member of the board that oversees Medicare financing. That sounds pretty legit, right? Actually, no. It’s not even remotely legit.

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EnOcean Appoints Matthias Poppel as COO

April 10, 2012

BOSTON, MA and SALT LAKE CITY, UT–(Marketwire – Apr 10, 2012) – EnOcean, the inventor of energy harvesting wireless technology, has announced the appointment of Matthias Poppel as Chief Operation Officer (COO). In this newly created position, Matthias is responsible for the operational side of the business. The objective is to further align technology development with specific customer needs, the internationalization of the company and the opening of new markets. Matthias Poppel reports directly to Laurent Giai-Miniet, CEO of EnOcean.

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Facebook Takes Over Instagram — Which Local Company Is Next?

April 10, 2012

With the news breaking on Monday that social networking monolith Facebook went over to the San Francisco offices of mega-hot photo sharing app Instagram and dropped off a dump truck full of money, it looks like acquisition fever has come back to Silicon Valley. Facebook’s one billion dollar investment in the 13-person company was seen largely as an effort to bring a fast-growing potential rival into the fold and keep the approximately five million photos uploaded to the service every single day from eating into its page views/advertising dollars. (SCROLL DOWN FOR PHOTOS) News of the acquisition kicked up a major dust storm on Twitter , with legions of previously loyal Instagram users threatening to delete their accounts instead of letting Facebook get its grubby, data-mining paws on their personal information. While privacy definitely is a concern, some of the complaining smacks of jealousy stemming from Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom’s mind-boggling payday . Not to say that Systrom and Co. didn’t deserve it (those Instagram filters can make anything look artsy), but a whole bunch of other San Francisco tech startups seem just as ripe for a not-so-hostile takeover. We’ve compiled a list of a few of the most exciting ones:

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Is Instagram Really Worth More Than These Companies? (PHOTOS)

April 9, 2012

Facebook could have bought The New York Times for less. That’s right, the $1 billion in cash and stock that Facebook paid for Instagram Monday values the two-year old mobile photo-sharing app more than The New York Times . Instagram , a social network built around cellphone photos that has yet to make any money and has employed fewer than seven people for much of its existence , is now worth more in the eyes of its acquirer than a host of other name-brand public companies, including a major office supplies retailer with more than 1,100 stores, an 80-year old cosmetics company and the third-largest pizza chain in the United States. Here’s a list of companies now worth less, according to YChart’s market cap rankings , than Instagram: Drew Guarini contributed to this report.

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Unemployed For Years, Professor Turns To Ghostwriting For Students

April 9, 2012

Jennifer Sunseri lost her job as an assistant professor in 2009. Now, after nearly three years of unemployment, no health insurance, and diminished hopes of finding a new job, she’s earning money by anonymously writing “model papers” for college and graduate students — in other words, helping them cheat. “It’s highly unethical, though completely legal,” Sunseri said in an email when she first started writing for an essay mill in February. “As a former professor, this is the equivalent of prostitution to me. However, I’m behind on my rent and I have not seen a doctor in three years. Moreover, I am 53, have no kids or spouse or inheritance to help me out when I can no longer work, and I’ve already dipped into my retirement.” Since 1998, she’d taught at Texas Tech, where she developed a course on Slavic folklore that traced the history of vampires in popular fiction from their roots in Eastern Europe centuries ago, when people would dig up dead bodies because bad things had happened among the living. “The thought was, ‘If he isn’t decomposing, he must be leeching life out of others,’” Sunseri is quoted saying in a 2006 profile of her course on the school’s website. Now Sunseri is leeching the best life she can out of an academic system from which she couldn’t earn a living the normal way. She didn’t publish scholarly articles when she was at Texas Tech, she said, so when it came time to apply for tenure in 2009, she knew she wouldn’t be a strong candidate and probably wouldn’t be successful. So she left. She immediately moved from Lubbock, Texas to Eugene, Ore. partly to be closer to her mom and sister. She said she’s living with two cats in a studio apartment above a garage. When she first lost her job, Sunseri — who has master’s degrees in technical communications and Slavic linguistics as well as a Ph.D. — wasn’t worried. “I thought for sure my skills as an educator and writer would see me through,” Sunseri said. “I am still in shock at how many applications for writing instructor at the local community college, for GED tester, for office manager, for adjunct this and that at the local university, even for substitute teacher resulted in naught … I am astonished when I hear that those with college education are faring better than those without.” The unemployment rate for workers with college degrees is 4.2 percent. For workers who graduated high school, it’s 8 percent, and for those with less than a high school diploma, it’s 12.6 percent. But advanced degrees can lose their talismanic power. Once they become unemployed, college-educated workers are just as likely as high school grads to wind up unemployed for an extended period of time. During the year ending last June, 12.4 percent of jobless workers with high school diplomas had been out of work 99 weeks or longer, according to a Congressional Research Service report . Among unemployed Americans with a bachelor’s degree, 11.3 percent had been jobless 99 weeks or longer — a statistically insignificant difference. And unfortunately for Sunseri, workers older than 45 are more than twice as likely as workers younger than 35 to wind up jobless for that long. What gives? It could be that workers with just a high school education are more likely to leave the labor force — i.e., stop actively searching for work for whatever reason and therefore reduce the proportion of workers who count as officially unemployed. Or, it could be that since a majority of new jobs created during the economic recovery are lower-paying and lower-skilled, they are easier for less-educated workers to learn, while higher-educated workers are simultaneously being more selective about the jobs they’re willing to work. Sunseri is not being picky. She was searching for an online editing job when she fell into the paper-writing work. The company she has been working for most recently asked her to send writing samples; since being accepted, Sunseri said, she gets to bid on jobs in an online forum. Some of her recent assignments have included a six-page paper on fiscal policy and public debt, an eight-pager on a medieval polity in Europe, two pages on white privilege in the United States, and a gig editing somebody else’s 40-page paper. Altogether, the four assignments brought in just $130. Sunseri said she figures that if she keeps writing papers, she could eventually improve enough to earn $12,000 in a year. Sunseri first realized she could earn steady income ghostwriting after she read a November 2010 article in the Chronicle of Higher Education by an anonymous writer who claimed he made $66,000 a year ghostwriting graduate and undergraduate papers. “In the midst of this great recession, business is booming. At busy times, during midterms and finals, my company’s staff of roughly 50 writers is not large enough to satisfy the demands of students who will pay for our work and claim it as their own,” the ghostwriter claimed in his story. “You would be amazed by the incompetence of your students’ writing. I have seen the word ‘desperate’ misspelled every way you can imagine. And these students truly are desperate. They couldn’t write a convincing grocery list, yet they are in graduate school. They really need help. They need help learning and, separately, they need help passing their courses. But they aren’t getting it.” One benefit of the work, Sunseri said, is that she feels it keeps her from getting rusty. “Ethics be damned: You gotta kind of look after yourself,” Sunseri said. “You really do get afraid that your skills are deteriorating. It definitely is hard work. It’s challenging and it forces you to make deadlines. It’s kind of a training run to succeed at things I’d be proud of doing.” Sunseri’s intuition that her skills might deteriorate during a long unemployment spell may be correct. A 2008 study by Swedish economists found that workers performed worse on reading and writing tests the longer they were unemployed. One assignment was just too much for Sunseri to complete: She said she discovered it was for a business class at her former employer, Texas Tech University. She pulled out of the assignment partly because of the weirdness factor and partly because she felt she couldn’t actually complete the work. “And I was angry at the Tech kid I imagined partying in Florida,” she said, “while I slaved away on his or her assignment for his or her MBA from the university I used to serve at as a faculty member.” Sunseri’s goal remains to find Russian translation work, which comes in dribs and drabs. She said she’s also earning a little more than $100 from landscaping work one day a week. But she’s not quitting the paper-writing business, even though it will make her virtually unemployable in academia. “Ironically, the paper mill seems to be the only company that understands the value of my extensive education, and, really, two masters and a doctorate, well, I guess I’ve been training for a job like this all my life.”

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Joan Michelson: Innovation Requires Risk, but… Government Risk?

April 9, 2012

What is the government’s role in driving innovation? Listening to Senators during the recent Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearings on the Energy Department loan guarantee program (specifically loans to the now-infamous Solyndra), you’d think the federal government has no role in American innovation. The lawmakers love it when they can show up at a ribbon cutting or jobs creation announcement at a successful company they supported, but are quick to criticize when the pendulum swings the other direction (especially for the other party). Clearly, there is a role for government in innovation, or there would be no DARPA , no ARPA-E , no National Institutes of Health, no NASA, no Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grants and no Congressional Committees on the topic, such as the Subcommittee on Competitiveness, Innovation and Export Promotion. Even the Department of Energy’s mission statement pointedly refers to “ensuring America’s security and prosperity… through transformative science and technology solutions.” “There isn’t the financial incentive for industry to take on certain risks,” Dr. Mark Rohrbaugh, Director of the NIH’s Office of Technology Transfer told me, adding that the NIH “assumes the risk until the invention is ready for industry to take it over.” He added that the NIH’s investments are “more likely than those from industry to be meeting unmet needs.” In an email follow-up Dr. Rohrbaugh added, “NIH funding is complementary to research funded by the private sector in that it generally involves research that is too high risk for the private sector to conduct on its own.” This is precisely why those who say we need to “leave it to the markets” are dead wrong. Here are a few facts about the federal government’s investments in innovation: 1. The Small Business Innovation Research/Small Business Technology Transfer program (SBIR/STTR) disbursed grants through 11 federal agencies, and is very popular across party lines. The March 2012 issue of Hawaii Business cuts to the chase : “SBIR has always been a politically popular program. After all, it’s a way to direct federal funds into almost every congressional district under the cover of helping innovation and improving the economy.” According to the SBIR website, “Through FY2009, over 112,500 (SBIR/STTR) awards have been made totaling more than $26.9 billion.” In 2010, another $2 billion-plus was invested, and the program has been funded through 2017. This includes 11 agencies, each of which is required to allocate 2.5% of their annual research and development budget to SBIR/STTR grants: the USDA, Department of Commerce, Department of Defense (and DARPA), Education Department, Department of Energy (and ARPA-E), Health and Human Services (and the NIH), Department of Homeland Security, Department of Transportation, Environmental Protection Agency, NASA and the National Science Foundation. According to the New York Times : “The consensus view is that S.B.I.R. is probably the best R&D program in the federal government,’ said Jere Glover, executive director of the Small Business Technology Council, an affiliate of the National Small Business Association. A 2008 study by researchers from the University of California found that S.B.I.R. recipients accounted for between 20 and 25 percent of top American innovations since 1997,’” By the way, an SBIR-grantee company, MicroStrain, saved the Liberty Bell when it was discovered to have a hairline crack that would be exacerbated by the Bell being moved. 2. The DOE-Environmental Protection Agency Energy Star program provides another example of successful government innovation, as it turns 20 years old this year. The Energy Star program now “include(s) nearly 20,000 organizations from every sector of the economy. More than 80 percent of Americans now recognize the Energy Star label. American families and businesses have saved nearly $230 billion on utility bills and prevented more than 1.7 billion metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions, with help from Energy Star.” “Americans, with the help of Energy Star, saved enough energy in 2010 alone to avoid greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to those from 33 million cars — all while saving nearly $18 billion on their utility bills.” 3. Revenue generator: Many of these patents and inventions have resulted in royalties from licensing agreements, for example, Dr. Rohrbaugh told me they generated $97 million in 2011 for the NIH. It’s when the experiments and investment don’t turn out as hoped that suddenly there’s a “problem” with government’s role in supporting them. “We can’t put taxpayer dollars at risk” seems to be a rallying cry for some lawmakers. Yet, they bemoan that China is overtaking the U.S. in important markets for the future, such as in solar panel manufacturing, which was originally developed in the U.S. (and subsidized substantially by the Chinese government). The lesson that seems to be lost in the discussion on Capitol Hill these days is that it’s not about “picking winners.” It’s about keeping America competitive. It’s about hedging bets by investing in a number of innovative technologies knowing that some will thrive and others will lead to new ones that thrive. All “mistakes” or “failures” are merely lessons to be applied in the next go ’round. As Benjamin Franklin once said, “I haven’t failed. I just found 10,000 ways that do not work.” Isn’t keeping America competitive the federal government’s responsibility?

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North Sea Gas Leak Conjures Painful BP Memories

April 9, 2012

PARIS (AP) — Oil giant Total has moved to reassure investors and environmental activists over the past week that the financial and environmental damage from its gas leak in the North Sea would be limited, a task made more difficult by comparisons to BP’s handling of a catastrophic oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico nearly two years ago. Initial data showed that the leak from Total’s platform in the Elgin gas field 150 miles (250 kilometers) off the coast of Scotland — which was first detected March 25 — was pouring out about 7 million cubic feet (200,000 cubic meters) of natural gas each day. On Friday, the company said the rate of the leak appeared to have slowed but had no new figure. In a conference call to analysts and reporters last week, Total Chief Financial Officer Patrick de La Chevardiere appealed to those listening to avoid comparisons between the Elgin leak and the Gulf spill at BP’s Macondo well. “While we understand that comparisons to Macondo are inevitable, we would like to state clearly that the situations are very different,” he said. “There is no crude oil involved here and therefore the current impact on and risks for the environment are relatively low.” The Elgin leak is also on a smaller scale, according to George Hirasaki, a chemical engineering professor at Rice University in Texas who has worked in the oil industry. “It’s more of a very dangerous situation rather than a disaster so they may be able to get it back under control with minimal losses,” he said. Total moved to dispel fears of an explosion or any long-lasting environmental damage, saying that gas is dissipating quickly. A spokesman for the company said Thursday that about 40 cubic feet (1.2 cubic meters) of gas condensate remains in the water. He spoke on condition of anonymity, citing policy. Environmental activist group Greenpeace, however, has sent a boat to the area to take air and water samples. It said its tests would reveal in the coming days whether it considers whether the leak will cause damage to the environment or wildlife in the area. In the meantime, the group did note that the gas escaping is mostly methane, which is “20 times more dangerous for the climate than CO2 (carbon dioxide).” During the Gulf spill, roughly 200 million gallons (780 million liters) of oil spewed from the blown-out well. The spill affected sensitive tidal estuaries and beaches, killed wildlife and closed vast areas of the Gulf to commercial fishing for months. The disaster cost BP chief executive Tony Hayward his job after a series of public relations gaffes and derailed the company’s attempt to create an environmentally friendly image. BP has been hit with several lawsuits, which will likely cost it tens of billions of dollars to resolve. To pay for the cleanup and claims, BP was forced to cut its dividend, borrow money and sell off tens of billions of dollars in assets. The company’s share price is still some 30 percent below its 6.55 pound ($10.39) close before the spill on April 20, 2010. Total, however, is so confident that the leak will have minimal environmental impact that de La Chevardiere spent most of a recent call with analysts and journalists discussing the financial consequences. Those, too, he said, are manageable. Still, it’s unclear how quickly Total will be able to stop the leak. It is currently trying to get a team back on the platform to attempt to plug the leak by pumping in mud. On Thursday, a handful of experts landed on the platform for a few hours to gather data on the leak and figure out if it was safe to begin trying to plug it. Total is also preparing to drill relief wells, in case that first method doesn’t work. Drilling relief wells is an expensive and a fairly long process. When asked whether an estimate of six months was reasonable on the analyst call, Michel Hourcard, the director of development for Total’s exploration and production arm, said it was. Currently, the cost of the response is around $1 million per day, said de La Chevardiere. If relief wells are needed, the costs will rise to $1.5 million per day, while they’re being drilled. Added to those costs is the loss of production. The current impact on the company’s net operating income is about $1.5 million per day, he said. That’s a small fraction of the $16 billion in net operating income the company reported last year, and ratings agencies have indicated they are not concerned. It’s also nowhere near the around $40 billion BP has estimated the 85-day Gulf spill cost them, including response and compensation. Those costs are in flux because not all litigation has been resolved. “Even in the event of the shutdown of the whole Elgin field, Fitch believes Total is likely to retain its ‘AA’ credit rating as it has the cash resources to more than cover any associated costs,” Fitch said in a statement a few days into the leak. “These sorts of accidents are often difficult to resolve and unpredictable; nonetheless, in our view the potential is low for this leak to escalate to a crisis on the scale of Deepwater Horizon.” But, as de La Chevardiere noted, the comparisons are almost irresistible. “The comparison (with the Gulf spill) now is wholly unavoidable, just as for BP and the Deepwater Horizon spill, the comparison with Exxon Valdez was unavoidable,” said Gene Grabowski, a senior vice president with Levick Strategic Communications, which advises clients on communicating in a crisis. “We have a new standard by which all leaks will be measured.” But that doesn’t mean that the mere invocation of BP sullies Total’s reputation. Grabowski said that if the environmental damage is limited, then he expected the long-term impact of the spill to be fairly muted. Eric Smith, the associate director of the Energy Institute at Tulane University in Louisiana, said the company appeared to have learned one lesson from BP: that less information is better. He pointed to the fact that industry experts had expected most of the ways BP tried to plug its leak would fail; that’s simply how disaster-response works. You try everything, and all you need is one solution. “The problem with too much transparency when you’re in the middle of a situation like that is you know there are going to be failures,” he said. “The one lesson everybody learned (from the Gulf spill) is to turn the TV cameras off.” In the Gulf, an underwater camera showed oil gushing out of the well in real time. Media tracked the spread of a slick that took days to reach shore. And photos of sea birds covered in oil drove home the damage. By contrast, photos of the Total rig initially showed a small flame. That raised concern of an explosion but has since gone out, and now the rig looks fairly normal, at least to layman’s eyes. “As long as they don’t make any ridiculous statement, they’re going to benefit from the fact that there are no good pictures for this and that the environmental impact is unclear and that the constant glare of the U.S. media is not on this,” Grabowski said. ___ Associated Press writer Robert Barr contributed to this report from London.

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ProSight Specialty Insurance Announces the Appointment of Anthony "Buddy" Piszel as Chief Financial Officer

April 9, 2012

MORRISTOWN, NJ–(Marketwire – Apr 9, 2012) – ProSight Specialty Insurance appointed Anthony “Buddy” Piszel as Chief Financial Officer effective April 9 th , further strengthening its executive team of experienced insurance professionals.

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Housing Scarce As Number Of Homeless Female Vets Spikes

April 9, 2012

WASHINGTON — Misha McLamb helped keep fighter jets flying during a military career that took her halfway around the world to the Persian Gulf. But back home, the Navy aircraft specialist is barely getting by after a series of blows that undid her settled life. She was laid off from work last year and lost custody of her daughter. She’s grappled with alcohol abuse, a carry-over from heavy-drinking Navy days. She spent nights in her car before a friend’s boyfriend wrecked it, moving later to a homeless shelter where the insulin needles she needs for her diabetes were stolen. She now lives in transitional housing for homeless veterans – except the government recently advised occupants to leave because of unsafe building conditions. “I wasn’t a loser,” McLamb, 32, says. “Everybody who’s homeless doesn’t necessarily have to have something very mentally wrong with them. Some people just have bad circumstances with no resources.” Once primarily male veteran problems, homelessness and economic struggles are escalating among female veterans, whose numbers have grown during the past decade of U.S. wars while resources for them haven’t kept up. The population of female veterans without permanent shelter has more than doubled in the last half-dozen years and may continue climbing now that the Iraq war has ended, sending women home with the same stresses as their male counterparts – plus some gender-specific ones that make them more susceptible to homelessness. The problem, a hurdle to the Obama administration’s stated goal of ending veterans’ homelessness by 2015, is exacerbated by a shortage of temporary housing specifically designed to be safe and welcoming to women or mothers with children. The spike comes even as the overall homeless veteran population has gone down, dropping by nearly 12 percent to about 67,500 between January 2010 and January 2011, officials say. “It can’t get any worse,” McLamb says matter-of-factly, “’cause I’ve already been through hell.” Veterans’ homelessness, the subject of a March congressional hearing, has received fresh attention amid government reports documenting the numbers and identifying widespread flaws in buildings that shelter veterans. “I think it’s very clear that women veterans in particular lack the services they need,” Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., chairwoman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, said in an interview. Female veterans make up about 8 percent of all veterans, or about 1.8 million, compared to just 4 percent in 1990. The number of homeless female veterans has more than doubled from 1,380 to 3,328 between fiscal year 2006 and fiscal year 2010, according to a December U.S. Government Accountability Office report that found many with young children and nearly two-thirds between ages 40 and 59. A new report from the VA inspector general examining veteran housing that receive VA grants found bedrooms and bathrooms without locks, poorly lit hallways and women housed in facilities approved for men only. Nearly a third of the 26 facilities reviewed didn’t have adequate safety precautions. One female veteran and her 18-month-old son were placed in the same facility as a male veteran who was a registered sex offender. Female service members, who in wars with increasingly blurred front lines return with post-traumatic stress disorder, face unique challenges, advocates say. Many have suffered sexual assault and remain too traumatized to share common space with men. Many are single mothers struggling to find housing for themselves and their children. They’re also more likely to be jobless: Unemployment for female veterans who’ve served since September 2001 was 12.4 percent last year, slightly higher than for their male counterparts. Michele Panucci, a psychologist who treats women with military sexual trauma at a women-only VA clinic in Nashville, said traumatic experiences in the military can be a barrier to turn to the VA for help. “If it was authority that you don’t like because of what happened to you in the military, you can then associate that with the VA or other helpful authorities,” she said. The Department of Veterans Affairs says it’s making progress. The proposed VA budget calls for, among other things, $300 million for grants and technical assistance to community nonprofits to help veterans stay in their home or find alternate housing. The department is increasingly focused on preventing veterans from becoming homeless and helping families stay together when possible, said Pete Dougherty, executive director of the VA’s homeless veterans initiative office. One example is a support grant program for low-income veterans through which nonprofits and cooperatives provide health care services and financial planning, among other aid. “Part of what brings people to homelessness is isolation … The more you can keep that internal support around, the better,” he said. Chenae Perkins, who at 23 is the youngest woman in a transitional home for female veterans in Nashville, bears familiar hallmarks of homelessness. At 19, she deployed with her National Guard unit to Iraq, where she said she was sexually assaulted – she never reported it – endured an unnerving barrage of rocket attacks and witnessed gruesome injuries while working at a military hospital. She struggled to find steady jobs after returning from her 14-month deployment. “You go from making a certain amount of money while overseas and then coming back and living from paycheck to paycheck,” she said. “It felt kind of demeaning.” After substance abuse led to legal troubles, she was referred to a veterans service center in Nashville, which runs the women’s transitional house. She’s found women who understand her. “When I hear their stories, it relates to me, right on point. Their tempers and attitudes. How they changed from bubbly back then to how you are now. Everyone is irritable,” Perkins said. The system was “built around a guy soldier,” and female sexual trauma victims require extra care, said Kim Olson, a retired Air Force colonel and president and CEO of Grace After Fire, a female veterans’ advocacy organization. “You think she’s going to go to a facility with 46 other guys sleeping next door to her? No, she’s not. She’s simply not going to re-enter the environment if that is her issue,” Olson said. The VA accommodates homeless veterans through a few initiatives. One program operated with the Department of Housing and Urban Development provides housing vouchers for veterans is particularly popular among women and has housed tens of thousands of veterans and their families. But the program is geared toward veterans who are most in need, and is generally limited to those requiring substance abuse, medical and mental health problems and other issues that need continuing attention. Another program offers grant and per diem money to nonprofits and community organizations to house veterans. But current law doesn’t allow the VA to reimburse providers for housing children, creating a financial disincentive to do so. The GAO report said more than 60 percent of the grant and per diem programs it surveyed that serve homeless women didn’t house children. In Nashville, about an hour south of a major Army installation, there are just seven transitional beds for homeless single women veterans. “The new model is not in place around the country to serve women and children,” said Dan Heim, the homeless veteran program manager in Nashville. McLamb never expected to be homeless. She joined the Navy in 1998, where she helped ensure aircraft had the necessary components for launch, and deployed three times to the Middle East – including after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. She left the military in 2005 to care for her daughter and after, she says, she was sexually assaulted at a Navy base in California. She never reported it. She held various jobs in the following years, but the bottom fell out in January 2011, when she lost an administrative contracting position at Fort Belvoir, Va. Unable to pay rent, and without reliable income, she lost custody of her 8-year-old daughter. She pingponged between a car, a homeless shelter and alcohol treatment before arriving in a nondescript brick building in Washington that offers transitional housing for homeless veterans participating in a work-therapy program. She had been earning a minimum-wage stipend from a clerical job at a VA hospital, but she said that position has expired. Benefits under the post 9/11 GI Bill provide her with a housing allowance, but her shoddy credit makes it near impossible to find a place of her own. She carries with her reminders of her life – past, present and future. A pink U.S. Navy hat. A resume touting accurate typing and excellent administrative skills. A photograph of her daughter, Simone, who lives in Georgia with her father but whose name will one day grace the name of a restaurant McLamb dreams of opening. Sometimes she feels she shouldn’t be entitled to special treatment. But, she quickly added, “Then I jump back into the other mode and say, `They owe me this because I risked my life for them and now I need somebody else’s help, and I don’t think that that’s a bad thing to do, ask for help.” Hall reported from Nashville. Online: See the GAO report’s state-by-state breakdown of beds available for homeless female veterans. Support organizations filling in the gap to help homeless female vets find housing: U.S. Vets The VA National Coalition for Homeless Veterans provides resources related to housing, health care services, military sexual trauma and information on how the needs of female veterans is evolving. Get involved with this VA organization here. Steps ‘n Stages The program provides transitional and permanent housing for homeless female vets. The organization also assists with job searches, mentoring, financial literacy and more. Get involved with Steps n Stages here . The National Center on Family Homelessness The national initiative supports local nonprofits and organizations that provide housing, as well as those that address domestic violence, mental health and other issues for families not necessarily directly enrolled in programs. Get involved with the National Center on Family Homelessness here . National Call Center for Homeless Veterans Homeless veterans and veterans at risk can find services at the National Call Center for Homeless Veterans at 1-877-4AID-VET (1-877-424-3838), or online at veteranscrisisline.net .

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Jones Soda Co. Strengthens Board of Directors With Appointment of Jennifer Cue

April 9, 2012

SEATTLE, WA–(Marketwire – Apr 9, 2012) – Jones Soda Co. ( NASDAQ : JSDA ), a leader in the premium soda category and known for its unique branding and innovative marketing, today announced Jennifer Cue has joined the company’s Board of Directors. Cue was at Jones Soda from the beginning and held various leadership roles at the company from 1995 through 2005, including Chief Financial Officer, Chief Operating Officer and board member .

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Andreas Souvaliotis: When Profit and Social Responsibility Collide

April 9, 2012

Albert Einstein once famously said, “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” It may very well have been the great thinker’s most prophetic warning ever. Here we are, faced with some of the gravest existential threats in the history of our species, and all we’ve been doing is throwing conventional thinking at the problems — and then we wonder why things keep getting worse. The most obvious of those problems? Climate change, of course. The conventional thinking? Incremental, uninspiring, regressive “sustainability” strategies. In blatant disregard for the great thinker’s teachings, we are continuing to stick our head deep in the sand and convincing ourselves that if we simply do a little less bad, the whole thing will go away like a bad dream. We have even packaged up our brilliant thinking into neat little sound-bites: recycle a few more paper cups, build a few more green office buildings, drive a few more hybrid cars, buy a few more carbon offsets, and it will all be fixed! Really? Has anyone ever done the real math? A long time ago, as our parents and grandparents began to worry about some of the side effects of uncontrolled capitalism, society’s response was to build up a system of important checks and balances: health and environmental NGOs, government regulations, media watchdogs, etc. The explosion of prosperity in the Western world through the second half of the last century naturally resulted in an equivalent increase in the strength and pervasiveness of the counter-balancing systems. NGOs became huge and global, governments grew massive regulatory teeth and the media became angrier and sharper. And we went on with our happy lives, believing that we live in a beautifully balanced world… Clearly, we had it wrong. We thought the model was balanced, but in reality it was just polarized — and the wealthier we got, the more polarized it became. By birthing “forces for good” and giving them the simplistic mission to mop up the mess that we created with our for-profit businesses, we actually made things worse! We fuelled a very well-entrenched belief among all participants in our capitalist society that you can’t make a profit without harming the world — and that the only people who can do good for our world are the ones who don’t make a profit. In our obese, lazy, polluted, climate-threatened 21st-century society, “giving back” has become one of the most fashionable lines — as if to imply that we really must have stolen something from the world as we were making a profit! It’s time to hit the reset button. Time to heed Einstein’s advice. We’re in trouble. Our “balanced” model isn’t working. Our planet is getting sicker by the day; our children are already assuming they will have a lower standard of living and that their lives will be shorter and less healthy than ours. Could it be that we actually allowed ourselves to become the “peak” generation in the history of our species? We need real solutions, not yesterday’s ineffective incremental stuff. We need to ignite the imagination of our 7 billion fellow passengers if we stand a chance to really turn this thing around. A few recycled cups and carbon offsets, when some estimate we’re making more than a billion new babies a decade, is not the solution — it was just a nice, cute start. It’s time to re-invent our path to profit and wealth, because that’s what it will take to excite and drive our fellow passengers. We are creatures of nature and that makes us greedy by design. Yesterday’s sustainability preachings were all about suppressing our instincts and our nature. Tomorrow’s solutions need to be about prosperity through innovation and about practical ideas about a new kind of capitalism, like Michael Porter’s shared value model . It’s time for new, big thinking. Time to kill our polarized old models. Time to intertwine profit and good in such a way that you can’t generate one without the other. Time to start creating real value and prosperity and time to ban that awful line about “giving back”…

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Apple’s iPad: The Tablet People Know

April 8, 2012

NEW YORK — Apple is on the verge of doing what few others have: change the English language. When you have a boo-boo, you reach for a Band-Aid not a bandage. When you need to blow your nose, you ask for Kleenex not tissue. If you decide to look up something online, you Google instead of search for it. And if you want to buy a tablet computer, there’s a good chance there’s only one name you’ll remember. “For the vast majority, the idea of a tablet is really captured by the idea of an iPad,’” says Josh Davis, a manager at Abt Electronics in Chicago. “They gave birth to the whole category and brought it to life.” Companies trip over themselves to make their brands household names. But only a few brands become so engrained in the lexicon that they’re synonymous with the products themselves. This so-called “genericization” can be both good and bad for companies like Apple, which must balance their desire for brand recognition with their disdain for brand deterioration. It’s one of the biggest contradictions in business. Companies spend millions to create a brand. Then, they spend millions more on marketing that can have the unintended consequence of making those names so popular that they become shorthand for similar products. It’s like if people start calling station wagons Bentleys. It can diminish a brand’s reputation. “There’s tension between legal departments concerned about `genericide’ and marketing departments concerned about sales,” says Michael Atkins, a Seattle trademark attorney. “Marketing people want the brand name as widespread as possible and trademark lawyers worry … the brand will lose all trademark significance.” It doesn’t happen often. In fact, it’s estimated that fewer than 5 percent of U.S. brand names become generic. Those that do typically are inventions or products that improve on what’s already on the market. The brand names then become so popular that they eclipse rivals in sales, market share and in the minds’ of consumers. And then they spread through the English language like the common cold in a small office. “There’s nothing that can be done to prevent it once it starts happening,” says Michael Weiss, professor of linguistics at Cornell University. “There’s no controlling the growth of language.” FIGHTING BACK A company’s biggest fear is that their brand name becomes so commonly used to describe a product that a judge rules that it’s too “generic” to be a trademark. That means that any product – even inferior ones – can legally use the name. A brand usually is declared legally generic after a company sues another firm for using its name and the case goes to a federal court. Drug maker Bayer lost trademarks for the names “aspirin” and “heroin” this way in the 1920s. So did B.F. Goodrich, which sued to protect its trademark of “zipper” in the 1920s after the name joined the world of common nouns. Similar cases deemed “escalator” generic in 1950, “thermos” generic in 1963 and “yo-yo” generic in 1965. It’s difficult to quantify how much revenue a company loses when its brand is deemed generic. But companies worry that it breeds confusion among consumers. To prevent their names from becoming generic, some companies use marketing to reinforce their trademarks. For instance, after its Band-Aid brand name started becoming commonly used to refer to adhesive bandages, Johnson & Johnsons changed its jingle in ads from “I’m Stuck on Band-Aid” to “I’m Stuck on Band-Aid brand.” Kleenex uses “Kleenex brand” instead of just “Kleenex” on its packaging and in marketing and places ads to remind people Kleenex is trademarked. And the company contacts some people who use Kleenex generically to refer to tissue in order to correct them. “We’ve worked very hard to keep `Kleenex’ from going the route of `escalator’ and `aspirin,’” says Vicki Margolis, vice president and chief counsel, intellectual property and global marketing for Kimberly-Clark, which owns Kleenex. “If we lose the trademark, people can use it with sandpaper and call that a Kleenex.” Xerox is taking a similar route. The company, which introduced the first automatic copier in the U.S. in 1959, has been on a public crusade for decades to keep its brand from becoming generic. The machine’s success has led people to start using “Xerox” to refer to any copying machine, copies made from one and the act of copying. “In the mid- to late-1970s, we ran dangerously close to Xerox becoming `genericized,’” says Barbara Basney, vice president of global advertising. “That prompted a lot of proactive action to protect our trademark.” Xerox has spent millions taking out ads aimed at educating so-called “influencers” like lawyers, journalists and entertainers about its brand name. A 2003 ad said: “When you use `Xerox’ the way you use `aspirin,’ we get a headache.” More recently, a 2007 ad read: “If you use “Xerox” the way you use “zipper,” our trademark could be left wide open.” While people still use “Xerox” generically – the Merriam-Webster dictionary lists the word as both a lower-case verb with the definition “to copy on a xerographic copier” and a trademarked noun – the brand says its campaign has been a success. Xerox is still popular: It’s ranked the 57th most valuable global brand, worth $6.4 billion, according to brand consultancy Interbrand. And perhaps most importantly, Xerox hasn’t lost its trademark. TAKING IT IN STRIDE Sometimes companies embrace when their brands become common nouns. Perhaps the best example of this is Google, a company created in 1998 when Alta Vista and Yahoo.com were the top online search engines. Google, which created a formula that returned more accurate results than its competitors, became so popular that people began saying “Google” to refer to a Web search, in general. Experts say Google has benefited from its name becoming a part of the lexicon. “You don’t say `Why don’t I Google it’ and go to Yahoo or Bing,” says Jessica Litman, professor of copyright law at the University of Michigan Law School, referring to other search engines. Apple also has gotten a boost from its brand names becoming synonymous with products. The iPod, which was the first digital music player when it came out in 2001, is still the name people use for “digital music player” or “MP3 player.” And it appears Apple’s iPad is headed down the same path. For consumers like Mary Schmidt, 58, the “iPad” is generic for “tablet.” Schmidt, a Baltimore marketing executive, owns an iPad and doesn’t know the names of any other tablets. “When I think of tablets, I think of an iPad,” she says. “I think it’s going to be the generic name. They were first.” It remains to be seen if the iPad will maintain its name domination in the tablet market. Apple declined to comment for this article. For now, Apple Inc. has a majority of the tablet category, which includes Amazon’s Kindle Fire and Samsung Electronics Co.’s Galaxy Tablet. The iPad accounted for about 73 percent of the estimated 63.6 million tablets sold globally last year, according to research firm Gartner. Apple’s market share is likely to decline as more rivals roll out tablets. But experts say that won’t necessarily diminish iPad’s name recognition. “Apple is actually pretty good at this,” says Litman, the law school professor. “It’s able to skate pretty close to the generics line while making it very clear the name is a trademark of the Apple version of this general category.” When the iPad debuted in 2010, some people offered up “Apple Tablet” or the “iTab” as better names. Others even suggested that the name sounded more like a feminine hygiene product than a tablet: “Get ready for Maxi pad jokes and lots of `em!” wrote tech site Gizmo at the time. Two years later, those complaints are all but forgotten. “At the end of the day, the product was so successful that even if it wasn’t the `quote unquote’ best name, it made the name synonymous with the category,” says Allen Adamson, managing director at branding firm Landor.

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Recovery No Help For Many Laid-Off Government Employees

April 8, 2012

By Lisa Lambert April 8 (Reuters) – Since 2009, the city of Chesapeake, tucked up against the Great Dismal Swamp in southern Virginia, has cut its workforce twice. This summer, nearly three years after the recession ended, the city of 222,209 has plans for a third round of layoffs. “We’re not seeing the recovery we want to see,” said Budget Director Steven Jenkins, who is hoping many of the 20 people will move into other jobs. The city’s revenues are still feeling the concussions from the housing market downturn, which started in 2006, even as overall growth in the United States has improved. “We are heavily reliant on the residential real estate market,” said Jenkins. In a recent assessment the average property value dropped 3.7 percent, which hits property taxes, and hurts government budgets. “The reassessment we just had was as big as any we’ve seen since the recession started.” While Friday’s report of weak growth in U.S. March payrolls raised concerns about the pace of private-sector hiring, local government jobs remain a drag on the recovery, one that is not anticipated to end soon. State and local governments for a time were able to shield public safety and education workforces from harmful cuts as the recession deepened. The 2009 federal stimulus fund helped offset lost tax revenue, but that money is gone. Now, many cities and counties nationwide are facing the same dilemma as Chesapeake. Squeezed by depressed property tax revenues and cuts in state aid, they are chipping away at their workforces. The result? The last three years of job losses at the state and local government level has been the most dramatic since Labor Department records began in 1955, according to a Reuters analysis. Public-sector employees tended to have more job security, which in some ways helps during weak economic climates, as their steady demand for goods and services spread through the economy. The recent trend, conversely, can make things worse. “If public-sector employment had grown since June 2009 by the average amount it grew in the three previous recoveries (2.8 percent) instead of shrinking by 2.5 percent, there would be 1.2 million more public-sector jobs in the U.S. economy today,” said the Economic Policy Institute in a recent report, which included federal employees in the calculation. Local governments have cut 482,000 jobs since the beginning of 2009. They added jobs in just two months since 2011 started. Previously, states only had two consecutive years of layoffs, 1995 and 1996, when they scrapped about 57,000 jobs, or about one-third of the 150,000 cut since the beginning of 2009. “The current recovery is the only one that has seen public-sector losses over its first 31 months,” the report said. As of March, 14.1 million people worked for local governments and 5.1 million for states. Public employees outnumber those in manufacturing, construction, and other areas typically considered engines of the economy. HIT BY HOUSING, LOW DEMAND Three weeks ago, firefighters in Scranton, Pennsylvania, took 10 minutes to respond to a fire, instead of the usual four minutes or less. Lighter staffing was blamed, as the city had laid off 29 firefighters in January. “We had been telling them … there’s a catastrophe that’s going to happen here,” said John J. Judge IV, president of the International Association of Fire Fighters Local 60. After the delay, 12 of the firefighters were rehired, but that’s still a reduction of 17 workers. In March, local governments shed 3,000 jobs after gaining 1,000 in February, according to the Labor Department. State governments added 2,000 jobs. However, states employ 39,000 fewer people than a year ago, and the slight recent improvement is unlikely to be confirmed. “The rate of decline is slower,” said Christopher Hoene, research director at the National League of Cities. “But I don’t think the curve is shifting upward. I don’t think we’re going to see hiring in the local government sector.” Meanwhile, the private sector is creating jobs. Friday’s employment report showed private payrolls gained 121,000 jobs in March, while public payrolls lost 1,000. Moody’s expects states to lose at least another 15,000 jobs through 2012 and local governments between 150,000 and 175,000. “It’s going to continue to be a drag on overall employment,” said Moody’s Investors Services Economist Daniel White. STATES VS. LOCALS Des Moines, Iowa, weathered the recession better than many other cities. Its unemployment rate is 6.1 percent, more than two percentage points below the national average. Nonetheless, it recently eliminated more than 40 full-time positions after property valuations dropped 3.5 percent. It too wants to put those workers into other jobs, said Deputy City Manager Allen McKinley, a former finance director and budget officer for the Iowa capital. Des Moines also has fewer dollars to spend as the state recently mandated bigger contributions to police and fire pensions, McKinley said. As public pensions attempt to close total shortfalls of at least $600 billion, many state and local governments are having to pitch in more money to retirement systems, taking dollars away from other departments. Also, with fewer employees on the payrolls, the smaller the worker contributions to pension systems that must send retirees fixed amounts each month. A new threat has emerged in Iowa. Both parties in the legislature, along with the governor, hope to boost growth by cutting commercial property taxes, which make up around half of Des Moines revenues, by about 40 percent. Cities across the state are protesting the three proposals. All states except Vermont must end their fiscal years with balanced budgets. For its upcoming fiscal year, Florida cut 4,000 state jobs and reduced higher education and healthcare funds. Spending cuts in the $70 billion budget are so bad that Palm Beach County Clerk and Comptroller Sharon Bock said constituents might sue. Florida’s new budget means Bock must find $2.5 million in savings and still “keep the courts open,” she said. The office has already laid off 111 employees to cope with four years of budget cuts. Now, it will not fill 40 vacancies or replace departing employees – its annual turnover rate is about 10 percent. The staff size is currently around 430 people. The worker shortage will result in 10 hours of backlog each week, Bock said. “Here is the dilemma that I am in: I take an oath as a constitutional officer to provide services to the public,” she said about her duties, which include keeping vital records and operating court systems. “Do I get sued by the public because I can’t open a branch office or because I have to close one day a week? Or do I lay off people, and e n d up in the same scenario?”

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Facebook Engineer Explains Why It Matters There Aren’t More Girl Geeks

April 8, 2012

Jocelyn Goldfein has a simple reason for wanting to increase the number of female engineers: She’s tired of meetings where she’s surrounded entirely by men. “Personally, I care that there aren’t more women in tech because I love most aspects of my job, and the one thing I don’t love is often being the only woman in the room,” said Goldfein, director of engineering at Facebook. “I would just enjoy my job more if there were more women.” Goldfein has not only worked on some of Facebook’s best-known products, such as Questions, Photos, and the revamped News Feed, but she also helps hire people for the social networking site’s expanding army of engineers. The latter role has illustrated for Goldfein the urgency of encouraging women to specialize in technical fields. She says she can’t find enough engineers to meet her staffing needs, a problem she argues could be remedied if more women pursued computer science degrees. “As someone who spends a lot of time hiring engineers for Facebook, I can tell you there are not enough qualified software engineers in this country — or probably on this planet — for my needs,” Goldfein said. “And as it happens, we’re missing half of our computer science majors. If you look at the gender divide, women are taking 50 percent of bachelor’s degrees, but presently they represent at most 20 percent of computer science majors.” Goldfein has joined chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg in the growing ranks of female Facebook employees who are pushing women to take charge of their careers and working to overhaul the male-to-female ratio in tech . Doing so doesn’t require momentous societal shifts, or aggressive programs targeted at girls in elementary school, according to Goldfein. Her proposal: introduce female undergraduates to computer science courses early in their college careers. Goldfein notes that she’s spoken to many students who discovered an interest in engineering only after it was too late for them to switch their majors. “If I could shift that to freshman year and those women could have that epiphany in time, that’d make a huge difference,” she said. “A lot of people think you have to begin with pre-adolescents and four year olds. But I think it’s not too late to influence women entering college now and try to show them that this can be a great career for them.” In an attempt to woo more undergraduates to give engineering a try, the social network has experimented with targeting freshman students with Facebook ads promoting computer science courses at their universities. In an interview for The Huffington Post’s Women in Tech series , Goldfein shared her take on why there aren’t more female engineers, what mistakes some women make in their careers, how social media can change the ways women think about technology, and more. Why do you say you don’t love being the only woman in the room? Sometimes it subjectively feels lonely. I think anytime you’re the only one, you can feel singled out. You can feel like, “If I say something dumb, am I letting down all of womankind because all women will be judged by my representation?” I’d rather just be representing for myself, thank you. What’s the secret to increasing the number of women in tech? I’ve come to basically believe this is a self-fulfilling prophecy: The reason there aren’t more women in computer science is that there aren’t very many women in computer science. You look into a computer science classroom and see mostly men and think, “Oh, this classroom is not for me. I’m going to go find a class that has more people that look more like me.” Yes, it would be wonderful to have great social change — it would be wonderful to read books to my children that don’t have all male doctors and all female nurses – but I don’t think we need to solve that to solve this problem. I think all we need to do is hold up enough great examples of the phenomenal women who are in tech and inspire the next set of girls. They don’t have to look around and see 50 percent women, they just have to see enough people like themselves that they can imagine themselves there. Are there mistakes that up-and-coming female engineers make that their male counterparts do not? It’s hard to say there’s one quality I’d ascribe to all female engineers, but as a general rule I think that women can be less confident. They’re more apt to question themselves. It’s classic that men are going to negotiate harder for a position and role than women do and I’ve seen that play out. It’s classic that men assert all the credit for the things they did, whereas women will say that they should share the credit or that they’re lucky. And there’s good reason for that — we have lots of good sociological evidence that suggests if men do that it’s seen as confidence, but if women do it, it’s seen as arrogance or bitchiness. So I think women have learned that behavior not because they’re not capable or confident, but because they’ve been in an environment where we have to negotiate that. You have to negotiate what it takes to be liked while being self-confident. What advice do you give to the aspiring women who you work with? The advice I give a lot of women is “fake it till you make it.” I give it to men and women and I think it’s universally applicable. Sometimes you will be over your head, but the act of trying and the act of putting yourself outside of your comfort zone, and trying something you’re not sure you’re capable of, is what it takes to become capable of it. Women find “fake it till you make it” comforting because it says, “try anyway.” Netscape co-founder and venture capitalist Marc Andreessen told Fortune recently , “Our industry historically … do we produce products initially aimed primarily at men or women? You’d have to say men.” Do you agree? I think definitely there have been male-oriented interests that have driven technology forward. There have also been also gender-neutral interests that have driven technology forward. It is interesting and really true that in the last five years, we are seeing more and more things that are female first, which are being led by women’s interests. I think that’s tremendously interesting and good for the world. How does social media have the potential to change the way women think about tech? I think it’s fair to say that social media — and other forms of technology, too — have turned women into power users of technology and power consumers of it. There are all kinds of places where women are claiming their place as the power users of technology. That creates a place for women as entrepreneurs as well. Increasingly, as the next wave of really successful startups will be social media-based, I think you’ll see more room for female leaders creating those companies and creating those experiences. Her indispensable gadget: Mini Cooper S Her favorite app: Glitch Her favorite Twitter account to follow Facebook Subscription: Ben Horowitz Her “required reading” recommendation: How Does Biology Explain the Low Numbers of Women in Computer Science? It Doesn’t.

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