“Ketron votes to delay own bill - Daily News Journal” plus 4 more |
- Ketron votes to delay own bill - Daily News Journal
- Stocks narrowly mixed before jobless claims, retail sales, business ... - San Francisco Examiner
- Send this page - CJAD
- Gov. Crist orders suspension of Spence-Jones - Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel
- More Malware Expected To Target Social Networks - Enterprise Security Today
| Ketron votes to delay own bill - Daily News Journal Posted: 15 Jan 2010 12:59 AM PST Senate Finance Committee members unanimously agreed to suspend a new law requiring contractors to carry workers' compensation coverage. State Sen. Bill Ketron, R-Murfreesboro, who chairs the committee, sponsored the bill last year, but decided the bill should be suspended because of unintended consequences. The law took effect on Dec. 31. "The action taken by the committee to suspend the workers' compensation law (Thursday), moves us closer to having an opportunity to address this matter in a way that does not harm our small business owners," Ketron stated in a news release. "Unfortunately, the law which was passed in 2008, met with a perfect storm of the declining economy to result in these unintended effects. Recommendations for alternatives have been collected from consumers and affected industries and are being examined," he stated. "Those recommendations will be studied and taken up so we can address the problem without harming our small business owners." State Rep. Kent Coleman, D-Murfreesboro, however, told Murfreesboro city leaders recently that the lawmakers must go beyond just suspending the workers' compensation legislation. "I think it needs to be repealed," Coleman said after meeting with city officials on Jan. 8. "Any bad law needs to be repealed." In a Thursday phone interview with The Daily News Journal, Coleman admitted he did vote for the law that he wants repealed and noted that Ketron is not entirely responsible for the legislation. "Bill Ketorn and (state Rep.) Jason Mumpower (R-Bristol) passed a bill in May 2008, which has received enormous opposition from construction trade providers," Coleman said. "And instead of repealing the law that has been in existence for almost two years they have delayed the implementation date beyond the qualifying deadline for indivuals to run for the state legislature." The deadline to qualify for the Aug. 5 primaries for the Tennessee General Assembly is noon April 1. Coleman said he doesn't know of other legislation that has been delayed in similar fashion. According to the news release from the Senate Republican Caucus spokeswoman, the law as amended by the committee would be suspended until March 28, 2011. "I think the public would be more confident in the action of the legislature to solve this problem if we had repealed the Ketron bill and not delayed the implementation of the law past the filing deadline," he said. A Joint Workers' Compensation Committee heard testimony on the unintended effects of the new law in Nashville in October. Legislators asked Gov. Phil Bredesen to broaden the call of the Special Session on Education so suspension of the workers' compensation law could be addressed immediately. "In the meantime, our legislature will discuss alternative ways to address gaps in coverage for workers in companies of all sizes in the various construction fields," Ketron said in the news release. "I look forward to finding a solution that will work for all concerned and protect those who might be harmed on the job." Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. | |
| Stocks narrowly mixed before jobless claims, retail sales, business ... - San Francisco Examiner Posted: 14 Jan 2010 03:52 AM PST NEW YORK — The Dow Jones industrial average closed above 10,700 for the first time in 15 months on Thursday as investors bet that the corporate earnings season would overcome a rocky start. The advance was slightly uneven, with technology stocks rising ahead of quarterly earnings from chip maker Intel Corp. and financials climbing before a profit report from JPMorgan Chase & Co. due Friday. Safe havens like utilities and consumer staples stocks fell. The Dow industrials gained 30 points, and broader indexes also rose. The results from Intel after the closing bell more than confirmed traders' hunch that things were looking up at the technology company. Intel's income, revenues and profit margins all came in well ahead of expectations. The market got off to a good start after SAP, a major business software maker based in Germany, said its fourth-quarter revenue fell less than forecast. That provided some reassurance that companies are becoming more willing to invest in technology. Investors are also watching to see whether companies can bolster their earnings with higher revenues instead of just continuing to cut costs. Anticipation that corporate earnings reports would turn around following a weak showing by aluminum maker Alcoa Inc. on Monday helped investors look past a mixed bag of economic news. The Commerce Department reported that businesses increased their inventories by a larger-than-expected amount in November. The gain is a welcome sign for the economy and suggests that businesses are feeling more confident that sales will pick up. It was the second straight month that stockpiles rose after 13 months of drops. The news on inventories helped offset weaker reports on retail sales and initial unemployment claims. Inventories rose by 0.4 percent, double the increase economists expected. Meanwhile the government also reported that retail sales fell 0.3 percent in December. Economists polled by Thomson Reuters had been expected an increase. Dave Stepherson, portfolio manager at Hardesty Capital Management in Baltimore, said the retail sales report was disappointing, but not terribly surprising because of uncertainty still surrounding the job market. "You're not going to get one until you get the other," Stepherson said, referring to sales and job growth. "It's sort of a Catch-22." The Labor Department said workers seeking unemployment benefits for the first time rose by 11,000 last week, more than economists had expected. Investors are becoming accustomed to seeing jagged indicators on the economy and have generally not lost their cool on the occasional poor economic report. However, many analysts believe that there will need to be a meaningful pickup in job creation if a 10-month stock rally is to continue. "The economy has already shown signs of improvement and in investors' minds the question is how much of that is already priced into the market," said Brian Lazorishak, portfolio manager at Chase Investment Council in Charlottesville, Va. The Dow rose 29.78, or 0.3 percent, to 10,710.55, its highest close since Oct. 1, 2008. Even with a gain of 63.6 percent since March, the index is still down 24.4 percent from its record high of 14,164.53 in October 2007. The broader Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 2.78, or 0.2 percent, to 1,148.46, and the Nasdaq composite index rose 8.84, or 0.4 percent, to 2,316.74. Demand for the safety of government debt rose following the economic reports and a successful Treasury Department auction of $13 billion in 30-year bonds. Treasury prices rose, pushing yields lower. The yield on the benchmark 10-year note fell to 3.74 percent from 3.80 percent late Wednesday. SAP rose much of the day but ended down 23 cents at $50.16. Intel rose 52 cents, or 2.5 percent, to $21.48 and gained 1 percent in after-hours electronic trading following the release of its results. JPMorgan rose 44 cents to $44.69. The dollar was mixed again other major currencies. Gold rose modestly. Crude oil fell 26 cents to $79.39 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Three stocks rose for every two that fell on the New York Stock Exchange. Consolidated volume, which has been light since late 2009, fell to 3.9 billion shares from 4.2 billion Wednesday. The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies rose 2.87, or 0.5 percent, to 646.43. Overseas markets rallied as investors became more comfortable with China's recent moves to tighten monetary policy. China is making the moves, such as forcing banks to hold more reserves, to discourage excess lending. Britain's FTSE 100 gained 0.5 percent, Germany's DAX index and France's CAC-40 each rose 0.4 percent. Japan's Nikkei stock average rose 1.6 percent. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. | |
| Posted: 14 Jan 2010 08:41 PM PST Chavez calls off rolling blackouts in Venezuela's capital, sacks electricity ministerCARACAS, Venezuela - President Hugo Chavez suspended rolling blackouts in Venezuela's capital a day after they began and sacked his electricity minister, saying government officials imposed a rationin... Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. | |
| Gov. Crist orders suspension of Spence-Jones - Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel Posted: 14 Jan 2010 12:41 PM PST Gov. Charlie Crist on Thursday issued a new executive order to re-suspend Miami City Commissioner Michelle Spence-Jones, whom he suspended from office after she was charged in a corruption probe. Crist immediately suspended the popular commissioner after state prosecutors arrested her in November for allegedly redirecting $50,000 in county money to a family business, before she won her first election. She denies wrongdoing and pleaded not guilty. Spence Jones then won reelection Tuesday and, comparing herself to Martin Luther King Jr., warned Crist not to thwart the will of the people by suspending her again. But Crist said that the state Constitution empowers him to suspend a city commissioner who has been criminally charged. And a separate state law gives him even more broad powers to suspend her. Neither law bans him from re-suspending a commissioner who has won reelection. His order says that, upon being sworn back into office, she'll be suspended again. Legal experts are split on Crist's decision, and Spence-Jones has already filed a legal challenge to the move. Copyright © 2010, South Florida Sun-Sentinel  COMMENTS (15) | Add Comment Now you know why that ghetto is a ghetto. When people have no standards, they live that way. Act like a pig, live like a pig!!! Probably still waiting for their "FREE" health care. I am sure they are all on medicaid anyway!! ObamaLied (01/14/2010, 9:46 PM ) Shame on this woman!! Someone should do Miami a favor and drop Michelle right into Haiti NOW! With her gone, this would spare all the expense and folly that yet another ridiculous suspension and special election would cause. More importantly, hopefully, it would be a humbling, somber, and reality check of an experience for her to see how people who have been REALLY, genuinely mistreated and in dire need try to live. Put her down there and let her work her graceless a** off doing meaningful work, so that she can learn what SERVICE to others REALLY means! And while she is helping to dig out dead human beings from the rubble in Haiti, perhaps she will count her REAL blessings and dedicate her life to doing some GOOD instead of continuing to sin and performing in the circus she perpetuates on the honest people of Miami! HateHypocrisy (01/14/2010, 6:31 PM ) More stupid people voting--but didn't Marion Barry get re-elected in DC? Gimme a break! I don't think she should be serving either. However what does Marion Barry have to do with it? George Bush was a coward who ran from military service and lied to cause the deaths of thousands of people and idiots like yourself voted him back in after he and his brother stole the first election. DC is a long ways from Miami. know1special2000 (01/14/2010, 6:06 PM ) Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. | |
| More Malware Expected To Target Social Networks - Enterprise Security Today Posted: 14 Jan 2010 11:54 PM PST |  Social networkers of the world, it's time to amp up your security  software and put on your cynical cap before clicking on friend requests and links to "funny videos." Facebook and Twitter will be the top targets for cyber attacks in 2010, according to several security firms.
Networks like Facebook are a gold mine of information for identity theft scams. You may have stumbled upon a cyberattack or two before on Facebook. It's usually an inbox message from someone you don't talk to often, with the message: "Hey is this you in this video? LOLZ!!!" followed by a strange link with random letters in it. Click on the link, and it can take you to a site that will download a program designed to steal your personal information and spread the malicious link to all your Facebook connections, without you even knowing it. The Koobface worm was one such program. In 2009, the CA Internet Security Business Unit found more than 100 mutated strains of that worm. But it's more than just inbox links. It can be a friend request from a fake account, or an invitation to an event that takes you to a page that looks like a Facebook event, but instead takes you to a page to download something.
Dave Marcus, director of security research and communications Those that recognize fakes are in the vast minority of users, Marcus said. This is because on social networks, people are more trusting of links and get click happy. Users may think twice about clicking something unusual in an e-mail, but they are more likely to click without thinking on Facebook or Twitter. The growing popularity of URL shorteners adds to the problem. Sites like http://bit.ly or http://tinyURL.com let you paste in a really long URL and then generate a link that is just a few characters long -- usually just random letters and numbers. URL shorteners are widely used on Twitter, which limits how many characters you can type. Some shorteners also let you track how many clicks that link got. These URL shorteners mean users are getting used to clicking links, not knowing where they are going, and trusting that nothing bad will happen. "I think people need to look at the Internet with a little more skepticism and stop always accepting things being sent to them as real," Marcus said. Since cybercriminals are constantly changing their tactics, Marcus said the best way to keep protected is to keep your computer security software up to date -- and if you're not sure about a link, just ask the IT folks in your office.
They would much rather help you figure out if a link is malicious, rather than spending the day cleaning up a worm you spread through the office. © 2010 The Miami Herald under contract with MarketWatch. All rights reserved. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
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