President Barack Obama on Tuesday will extend a new proposal to Republicans that he hopes will break the political gridlock on budget negotiations.
Staff Jacksonville Business Journal
President Barack Obama is extending a new proposal to Republicans that he hopes will break the political gridlock on budget negotiations, offering to cut corporate tax rates in exchange for job investments, the Associated Press reports.
Obama plans to use a trip to an Amazon.com distribution center in Chattanooga, Tenn., on Tuesday to propose a ?grand bargain for middle-class jobs.? White House officials say just because they?re at an impasse with congressional Republicans over reducing the deficit doesn?t mean they shouldn?t look for other areas of agreement.
Google has decided to pull down the shutters on the mobile apps for its Catalogs service, but will continue to keep it running for US users on the Web.
The service, which brings together digital versions of traditional catalogs stored all in one place for easy perusal and purchasing, will stop working on its iOS and Google Android apps on August 15, according to Android Police. It never made it beyond the US.
While the service will live on online, and the apps are still available to download as of now, the closure of Catalogs suggests that just not that many people found shopping from catalogs on their tablets a very worthwhile use of time. It probably doesn?t help that virtually no one had heard of it either.
The closure is also the latest to be issued from Google and follows the shuttering of its Google Reader service on July 1 this year. Google also plans to close its location tracking and sharing service Latitude on August 9, too.
OK, boys and girls. We're in the home stretch now. Just four Chromecasts remaining on our desk, and one of them can be yours today.
We're declaring this "No-hoop Hump Day." To enter to win, just leave a comment on this post. We'll collect 'em through midnight PDT (anything after that won't count) and pick a winner in the morning.
And congrats to the winners of the first two days — Ben in Utah and Ray in Houston! Your Chromecasts are on their way!
TORII STATION, Okinawa, Japan (July 29, 2013) -- The Army's Sexual Harassment/Assault Response and Prevention program was established to serve as a proactive initiative to prevent sexual harassment and sexual assaults before they occur.
To emphasize the importance of this program, Maj. Gen. James C. Boozer Sr., commander of United States Army Japan and I Corps (Forward), personally met with each unit victim advocate during his command visit to Okinawa, July 22-25.
"We met with Major General James Boozer, commander, United States Army Japan and I Corps (Forward), individually," explained Sgt. 1st Class Diana Ulloa, master evaluator with 1st Battalion, 1st Air Defense Artillery. "The fact that a two-star general took time out of his busy schedule to meet with every single Sexual Harassment/Assault Response and Prevention [unit victim advocate] individually reinforced the importance and emphasis the Army is putting towards eliminating sexual assault and harassment in our ranks."
On July 10, 2013, 25 personnel graduated the 80-hour Sexual Harassment/Assault Response and Prevention, or SHARP, training, which gave students the appropriate tools to become proactive advocates eliminating sexual harassment and sexual assault among their peers.
"There were a total of 13 modules that incorporated hands-on role playing scenarios and daily reading [homework]," explained Sgt. 1st Class Tamara Todman, equal opportunity adviser/sexual assault response coordinator, 10th Regional Support Group. "The instructors, Patrick Stevenson and Dr. Rubin Cockrell, were knowledgeable on each facet, which eliminated a lot of confusion and kept the confidence of each student. The result was each participant felt empowered to be successful out in the field."
Kevin Edwards, with the 835th Transportation Battalion in Naha, and a recent SHARP graduate, explained about the importance of this proactive initiative.
"As a retired Army Soldier, this is my way of giving back," Edwards said. "This provides me the opportunity to make a difference with the individuals around me. I honesty did not know much about the SHARP program before the training. In fact, I thought it was under Equal Opportunity. The SHARP training is an eye-opening experience, and hopefully will provide me with an opportunity to foster change."
"I found the training very informative," explained Ulloa. "There is much more to the SHARP program when what was previously perceived by the entire class. We gained a lot of knowledge about the issues. There are situations which occur that you would not perceive as sexual harassment when in fact they are."
According to Boozer, "We had the opportunity to speak with all of our SHARP unit victim advocates; visited with the 10th RSG, 1-1 ADA, 78th Signal Battalion, 1-1 Special Forces Group and spent with our Torii Station Garrison. A great team of teams."
Foxconn has started reducing its reliance on Apple, but the Cupertino giant has been compensating for this (rumored) loss with Pegatron, another electronics assembler in China.
And just like the Mac is now getting more malware because of its growing market share, Pegatron is increasingly coming under fire for alleged safety and environmental violations.
According to the Wall Street Journal, New York-based nonprofit China Labor Watch is coming out with a report which claims its investigators have found that Pegatron is withholding worker pay and the identification cards these people would need to get a job elsewhere.
The nonprofit is also set to report poor living conditions at several factories owned by Pegatron Corp. and two of its subsidiaries.
Apple responded with a brief statement, singing the usual tune: ?[Apple is] committed to providing safe and fair working conditions throughout our supply chain.?
The Cupertino giant says it has conducted 15 audits at Pegatron?s plants since 2007, including a couple of surprise audits.
But Apple never said it was all nice and well at Pegatron. The iPhone maker confirmed the withholding of worker ID cards in some cases, and that it demanded Pegatron ?put a stop? to it.
Apple also plans to investigate the claims in the China Labor Watch report. If it finds that the accusations are legitimate, the American behemoth promises to take the necessary action.
Pegatron, for its part, said, ?work hours are within local regulations and we will do our best to meet customer requirements. For the past two months, work hours have been below 60 hours a week.?
The Chinese electronics assembler also said that it is finalizing four new dorms, to ease crowding.
China Labor Watch is also reporting workweeks that exceed Apple's 60-hour limit on a regular basis, yet Apple said in a recent survey that Pegatron employees making its products worked an average of 46 hours a week.
Massachusetts Republican Gabriel Gomez has joined the board of GOProud, the conservative, gay rights organization announced Tuesday.
Last month, Gomez lost the Bay State special election for Senate to Democrat Edward J. Markey. But he?s hinted that he might run for office again soon.
He hasn?t shut the door on another bid against Markey in the 2014 general, telling the Boston Globe in a post-election interview that ?nothing?s off the table? in terms of future runs. And the National Republican Congressional Committee has said Gomez would be an attractive candidate to run against Democratic Rep. William Keating in the 9th District.
?I?m honored to join the board of GOProud,? Gomez said in a statement. ?I?m looking forward to working with the rest of the GOProud board and staff, reaching out to young voters, conservative activists and lawmakers with our message of free markets, limited government, and personal responsibility. I often said during my campaign that I did not support any type of discrimination and groups like GOProud are important, now more than ever, as we expand the conservative movement.?
The Massachusetts Senate race and the 9th District contest are both rated Safe Democratic?by Rothenberg Political Report/Roll Call.
China has a government debt problem -- but even Beijing doesn't know exactly what is lurking on the books of local and provincial governments.
In order to find out, the Chinese government has launched a review of all public debt, according to a one-sentence statement posted on a government website.
The audit, which will begin Aug. 1, is the third effort in as many years to "take the pulse" of China's debt problem, according to state-run news agency Xinhua.
Analysts worry that China's credit boom has saddled unworthy businesses with large loans, fueled the country's shadow banking system and put local governments on the hook for trillions. Due to lax accounting and transparency standards, it's difficult for outside analysts to estimate the size of the problem or quantify associated risks.
"It is a little unsettling that the government has to do an audit at this late date to determine the full extent of local government indebtedness," said Jim Antos, a China bank analyst at Mizuho Securities. "This suggests that the full scope of borrowing has not been revealed."
As Chinese economic growth drags, concerns are mounting over the ability of local governments to repay what they owe. If city and provincial officials are unable to meet their obligations, the central government will likely be forced to bail them out.
That means very few municipalities will default, Fitch Ratings analyst Terry Gao said. But a wave of bailouts could strain Beijing's finances.
"The central government [has] the willingness and ability to prevent [defaults] from happening," Gao said. Fitch currently estimates that total local government debt is in the 15 to 18 trillion yuan ($2.5 to 3 trillion) range.
China's national audit office plans to suspend all other projects in order to conduct this "urgent" investigation, according to People's Daily, the official newspaper of the Communist Party.
It's worth noting that the credit worthiness of local governments can range widely. With 34 governing bodies at the provincial level, 333 at the prefecture level and more than 2,800 at the county level, local finances are all over the map.
