Bisphenol A, or BPA, is a chemical found in plastics, including food packaging, that may interfere with the way our cells work. Are we exposed to enough BPA to harm us? And should we be afraid of the alternative products with their “BPA free” stickers? Let’s just say...it’s complicated.
Project Fi, Google’s carrier service, is a great idea currently stymied by a limited rollout. Only owners of Nexus 5X, 6, and 6P devices can test drive what it’s like to have Google as a carrier, for good or bad . Google’s now loosening that tight gadget grip a teeny bit and letting in data-only tablets free of charge, you just have to pay for data like always.
You don’t have to sacrifice good TV to ditch cable. In fact, some of the best TV and movies around only available on streaming services. We’ve put together a massive list of all the original shows and movies that are exclusive to Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime Instant Video.
Some parts of the country have experienced more gun-related deaths and injuries than others this year. The Guardian reveals how many people died from guns by district, congresspeople’s votes on gun legislation, and whether they have ties to the gun lobby.
Carrots are perfect for so many preparations, from salads to soups, but these “carrot dogs” are an unusual, tasty way to cook them. Best of all, they’re easy to make with ingredients you either have already, or can get easily.
CENTRAL ISLIP, N.Y. (AP) — A New York pediatrician who pleaded guilty to federal child exploitation charges has been sentenced to 30 years in prison.
Fifty-seven-year-old Rakesh Punn was sentenced Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Central Islip.
Prosecutors say he abused young patients, photographed them and submitted false insurance claims for the visits.
Punn initially was charged with abusing three children under the guise that he was giving them medical treatment. He admitted in April 2014 to sexually abusing an 11-year-old girl who was a patient in his office in Bethpage, Long Island.
Punn also pleaded guilty in 2014 to similar charges in Nassau County. He has since surrendered his medical license and is scheduled to be sentenced in that case next month.
His attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The post NY pediatrician gets 30 years for child sex exploitation appeared first on WTOP.
When staying at a hotel you have a reasonable expectation that what you do in your room remains your private business, and that it won’t be captured by a hidden camera. The same should be true for an Airbnb rental, right? But one user of the home-sharing service claims she was secretly filmed by the homeowner.
The woman, who stayed at an Irvine, CA, Airbnb rental in December 2013, filed a lawsuit [PDF] in San Francisco federal court this week accusing the rental company of negligence for failing to vet hosts before allowing them to post listings.
According to the complaint, which also accuses the residents who listed the home of violating privacy laws and inflicting emotional distress, a camera found hidden in the residence captured “personal and intimate” conversations between the woman and her partner, as well as the woman in an undressed state.
The plaintiff claims that when she agreed to be a guest at the home, which was actually rented by her partner, she was unaware that “her privacy would be violated on a daily basis,” the suit claims.
On the third day of a proposed month-long stay in the home, the couple discovered a small camera after noticing a light coming from a living room bookshelf.
The lawsuit describes the device as a “small, remote-controlled camera, capable of capturing the full spectrum of the living room and the area between the master bedroom and the guest bathroom within its view.”
After finding the camera, the man realized that it was on and could not only capture video at a “significant view angle,” but could also record audio.
The couple promptly filed a complaint with Airbnb and moved out of the property.
According to the complaint, the violation of privacy left the woman “humiliated and angry.”
“[W]hile staying as a guest in the property, at night [the woman] would sleep without any clothing, believing that with the front door closed and the window blinds drawn throughout the property, she was protected and free from prying eyes,” the complaint states. “This natural presumption proved to be incorrect.”
Additionally, the guest also says that she routinely walked naked from the bedroom to the guest bathroom.
Despite filing a complaint, the suit asserts that Airbnb continued to allow the homeowners to rent their property through the site.
The suit, which seeks unspecified damages, claims that Airbnb should be found negligent in the incident because it failed to conduct meaningful background checks or verify the personal details of people who lease their homes on the site, and fails to put into place policies and procedures to protect the rights of short-term rents.
An Airbnb spokesperson tells The Recorder that the company “takes privacy issues extremely seriously and all hosts must certify that they comply with all applicable laws in their locations and are of course expected to respect the privacy of their guests.”
Take, for example, the U.S. rug accessory industry — something you probably had never considered, but which is nevertheless real.
According to a complaint [PDF] filed by the Federal Trade Commission, Step N Grip LLC — the makers of a rug accessory called NeverCurl — has been trying to talk a competitor (yes, it has one) into fixing prices.
Starting on June 1, 2015, Step N Grip and the unnamed “Competitor A” engaged in a very brief price war, with Competitor A lower its price from $16.99 to $13.49 to undercut NeverCurl, which dropped its price to $12.99, and so on.
This went on for a week, at which point someone from Step N Grip sent off a one-sentence email to Competitor A, reading, “We both sell at $12.95? Or, $11.95?”
Competitor A didn’t take the bait and reported this invitation to collude to the FTC.
Today, the agency announced that it reached a deal with Step N Grip, in which the company agreed to stop communicating with its competitors about prices, and is barred from entering into, participating in, inviting, or soliciting an agreement with any competitor to divide markets, to allocate customers, or to fix prices; all of which is against the law to begin with. It’s also a no-no for Step N Grip to — as it allegedly did in the Competitor A case — urge a competitor to raise, fix, or maintain its price or rate levels.
No, this isn’t earth-shattering, but it does show that this sort of bad behavior takes place at even the smallest, arguably frivolous levels of commerce.
The owner of a former used car dealership in Arizona that admitted to defrauding dozens of customers just so happens to also be a long-time employee of the federal government, helping consumers with financial issues through an IRS Taxpayer Assistance Center.
The Arizona Republic reports that the owner of the now-defunct Uncle Joe’s Auto Sales dealership in Phoenix, dealership in Phoenix continues work for the IRS, despite admitting to taking advantage of poor and non-English speaking customers and being party to a consumer-fraud lawsuit filed by state prosecutors.
To make matters worse, the report also alleges that the woman’s husband, who was included in the lawsuit, may still be working in the auto sales industry despite a court order barring him from doing so.
According to the Republic, the IRS confirmed the woman has been an employee since 1998 and continues to work for the agency. However, officials declined to provide information on her specific duties.
The IRS Taxpayer Assistance Center in Phoenix, one of dozens across the country, functions to give taxpayers the option of talking face-to-face with an IRS representative to resolve issues or ask questions on tax law.
A spokesperson for the Arizona Attorney General says that the office will initiate an investigation into the man’s employment and whether or not it violated the terms of a settlement baring him from working in the used-car sales industry in the state.
Under the couple’s previous settlement with the state, a violation of the terms could result in $335,000 in civil penalties.
Issues with Uncle Joe’s Used Auto Sales began just eight months after it opened in February 2014, as it racked up dozens of consumer complaints, the Republic reports, including 30 filed with the Arizona AG.
According to the AG investigation, the company allegedly used Craigslist ads to get customers on to the lot. Once there, the couple persuaded individuals to buy vehicles, making promises to make repairs that were never completed.
The pair was also accused of overcharging customers hundreds of dollars in license, filing, registration, and other fees.
As part of a settlement to resolve the lawsuit, the owner admitted that she “approved, endorsed, directed, ratified, controlled or otherwise participated in the acts and practices of Uncle Joe’s.”
In the end, the pair agreed to pay $70,000 in restitution and at least $30,000 in penalties to settle the consumer-fraud lawsuit.
Phoenix auto dealer who scammed customers works for IRS [The Arizona Republic]
There’s mostly good news in the field of returned stuff. Sears made a change that tightens their policy but also simplifies it: instead of a plan where different categories of items had to be returned in 30, 60, or 90 days, now it’s much simpler. There’s a 30-day limit, with some understandable exceptions, like furniture, Christmas merchandise, and mobile phones.
Costco has changed what used to be a famously loose policy: now members have 90 days to return many electronics items, but can return anything else pretty much whenever.
Also, a growing trend is retailers paying return shipping on items purchased online, including retailers in the Gap family, Macy’s, and Saks. Check policies before buying: there may be limits, and some companies are offering return shipping only during the holiday season. Notably, PayPal is doing so as a promotion this year.
Remember that these policies may vary by state if your state’s laws differ. Provide a gift receipt when possible, look for holiday exceptions to normal policies, and don’t fight the crowds on December 26 if a policy states that you have until well into January to bring items in.
2015 Retailers’ Return Policies Compared [Consumer World]
#1: Scuttling The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
Lawmakers in both the House and Senate attempted to undermine the CFPB — a Bureau created by Congress itself only a few years ago — by eliminating its direct funding source and restructuring it as a commission. Those lawmakers failed and the CFPB will continue to exist as it is — at least until the next bank-funded attempt to scuttle it.
#2: Limiting Banks’ “Get Out Of Jail Free” Card
As we mentioned recently, certain riders sought to prevent the CFPB from implementing new rules that would limit the use of forced arbitration — which allows companies to effectively break the law by taking away consumers’ right to sue and to join together in class actions — by banks, credit card companies, and other creditors. These riders also failed to make the final cut.
#3: Neutering Net Neutrality
Riders intended to circumvent the legal system and preempt the FCC from enforcing the 2015 Open Internet Order (aka “net neutrality”) are not in the final omnibus.
The final spending bill also drops the rider that would have preempted the FCC from any sort of rate regulation on broadband services. While the FCC has said it will not set rates for these newly regulated services, it will allow consumers to challenge, on a case-by-case basis, allegedly unfair or unreasonable rates.
A number of high-profile Internet companies — both on the content and infrastructure sides of the business — recently called on Congress to drop this rider, even though some of them would benefit from a total lack of regulation on rates.
#4: Holding For-Profit Colleges Accountable
Lobbyists and lawyers representing the multibillion-dollar for-profit college industry — which produces a higher percentage of student loan defaulters and has a higher dropout rate than non-profit schools — have been fighting tooth-and-nail to stop the enforcement of the Dept. of Education’s new “gainful employment” rules, which require that schools demonstrate that a certain percentage of their students are able to obtain paying jobs in their trained fields.
Having failed to prevent the rules from being drafted (though it took two attempts by the DOE to get it sort-of right), and having failed in the courtroom, the for-profit industry helped introduce riders to the omnibus bill that would have blocked the DOE from implementing the gainful employment rules. But sanity won out over campaign funds, and no such riders made their way to the final bill.
#5: Airline Ticket Transparency:
The Dept. of Transportation is in the process of drafting rules that require companies to display any fees that would be added to the ticket price, and to explain how airline tickets are displayed when a customer searches for certain types of tickets online. But a Senate rider sought to undermine this rule by severely restricting the DOT’s ability to enforce it for most online ticketing sites. This rider did not make it to the gate on time and was left behind to wander the concourse.
#6: Super-Long Tractor-Trailers & Sleepy Drivers
You know those long trucks hauling two cargo trailers? A rider was attached to the omnibus with the intention of compelling all states to allow so-called “Double 33s” — trucks carrying two, 33-foot long trailers — on highways. Some believe that the existing double trailers on the road already pose enough of safety hazard, but the combined length of those trailers would exceed current limits for commercial trucks by 10 feet.
Following opposition from safety advocates and law enforcement groups, like the State Highway Patrol Association, the rider did not make it.
“Today, Congress put the safety of all motorists before the special interest agenda of a few select trucking and shipping companies,” says Jackie Gillan, President of Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, one of the groups that argued against this rider.
However, Gillan notes that the omnibus bill include an extension of the “tired truckers” provision from last year’s spending bill.
“This provision takes away truck drivers ‘weekends off’ and pushes them to work up to 82 hours a week,” says Gillan. “Annually 4,000 people are killed and another 100,000 more are injured in crashes involving a large truck, and fatigue is a major factor and well-known crash cause.”
#7: Genetically Modified Food Labeling
A rider that would have pre-empted states from having laws that require the labeling of genetically engineered or genetically modified food did not make it into the spending bill.
In fact, the bill does include another rider that directs the FDA to come up with some sort of labeling for the recently approved, genetically engineered AquAdvantage salmon. When the FDA approved this product earlier this month (the first of its kind in the U.S.), it said that special labeling was not required because there was no significant nutritional difference between the GE salmon and traditional farmed salmon.
#8: Approval Of New Tobacco Products
One rider aimed to expedite the process for approving potentially thousands of new tobacco and nicotine-delivery products — everything from e-cigarettes to cigars — without FDA approval. This also failed to make the cut.
#9: Doing Business With Marijuana Sellers
In states where marijuana is legal and regulated, many federally insured banks are still reluctant to do business with these businesses because the product has not been legalized by the federal government. One rider explicitly tried to block banks from any commercial activities with a pot seller in these states, but the rider did not succeed.
#10: Providing Solid Financial Advice
The House version of the omnibus bill included a rider that blocked funding for a “fiduciary responsibility” rule drafted by the Dept. of Labor. This rule is designed to ensure that
financial advisers are providing advice in the best interests of their clients, rather than advice that is better for the adviser’s bottom line.
Barbara Roper, director of investor protection at the Consumer Federation of America says this rider to block that rule was the result of one of the most aggressive lobbying campaigns in recent memory.
“Had they succeeded in getting a policy rider included in this must-pass bill, hopes that workers and retirees would finally get the protections they deserve when they turn to financial professionals for retirement investment advice would have been dashed,” says Roper.
#11: Where’s My Beef From?
One questionable rider that did make it into the omnibus bill repeals mandatory country-of-origin labeling (COOL) rules for beef and pork coming into the U.S. Supporters of this rider say the current rules are in violation of World Trade Organization standards. Interestingly, it appears that this repeal does not apply to poultry.
#12: Delayed Menu Labeling
Grocery stores and food retailers get a 1-year reprieve on the new mandatory menu labeling requirements, thanks to a rider that did make the cut.
This story is a work in progress. We’re still scouring through the omnibus bill and may be adding more things as the day goes on.
Krebs on Security learned about this issue in the usual way: from banks whose customers were affected. In this case, the banks worked to find a link between customers whose checking accounts were drained. They hadn’t just shopped at Safeway stores in the same area, but affected customers had used the same few checkout aisles in those Safeway stores.
To pull off this kind of physical credit card breach, the perpetrators would have needed physical access to the credit card processing terminals to add the tiny pieces of equipment needed to harvest customer card numbers and PINs.
Affected stores were in Denver and some surrounding towns, and potentially Castro Valley and Menlo Park, California. Banks told Krebs that transactions at Safeway before customers’ accounts were drained date back to the beginning of September of this year.
Skimmers Found at Some Calif., Colo. Safeways [Krebs on Security]
When I was a young thing, riding the rails of the Midwest to see my grandparents over the holidays, nothing was better than climbing the stairs to the train’s observation deck — essentially a bubble that allowed anyone sitting inside to feel like they were getting to see everything those down below were missing with that paltry view.
The same experience on a plane might be somewhat terrifying, or, depending on who you ask, totally tempting. Here’s where a company called Windspeed Technologies comes in, with its SkyDeck design, what it calls “the next exciting experiential in-flight entertainment for VIP aircraft owners and the airline industry.”
The SkyDeck system will depend on what kind of aircraft is involved, and will then either use an elevator or a staircase to ferry one or two passengers up to the clear canopy perched on the top of a plane.
Lest you’re afraid of say, a bird smacking into your transparent perch and ending your life, Windspeed says the bubble is “made of similar high-strength materials as those used to build the canopies of supersonic fighter jets.”
Again, that vantage point might not be for everyone.
“It’s like the first time you go on a roller-coaster ride,” Windspeed CEO Shakil Hussain told CBS Moneywatch . “This is quite revolutionary, but over time it’s going to be used by folks who want to have a better view when they fly.”
It will likely be awhile before this idea comes to fruition — the SkyDeck design’s patent and trademark are still pending.
Washington Post |
Secret Service officer on leave in domestic incident fatally shot in DC Washington Post A member of the uniformed division of the Secret Service who was on leave from the agency was shot and killed Tuesday afternoon in Southwest Washington in what police say was a robbery or attempted robbery. Arthur E. Baldwin, 30, of Upper Marlboro, ... Secret Service officer shot to death in WashingtonPolitico Secret Service officer slain in DC, had been suspendedStars and Stripes Secret Service officer shot, killed in DCWTOP NBC4 Washington all 223 news articles » |
This week’s Pet of the Week is Kuechly, a chocolate lab puppy who is new to Arlington but is learning the ropes quickly, exploring nearby trails and making friends with neighbors.
That’s not all the retriever is learning. Kuechly knows doing tricks means getting treats, dropping the ball means playing more fetch, and sticks can be a fun thing to munch on.
Here’s what Kuechly’s owners had to say about the happy pup:
Hi! My name is Kuechly and I’m a chocolate lab.
Yeah, I know, it’s a bit of an odd name. My dad is a huge Carolina Panthers fan, so he named me after a guy on their team. Nobody ever pronounces it correctly, but that’s okay. I’m such a happy little pup and will respond to almost anything. I just turned 3 months old and my favorite game is tug-of-war. I also love playing fetch and just learned how to drop the ball so we can keep playing! I’m learning lots of new tricks which is great because when I sit, I get lots of yummy treats!
I moved to Arlington from Alabama about a month ago and I’m loving it in the city! There are so many new friends to meet. I’ve already made some great friends at the building where I live and we love playing together on our morning and afternoon walks! My perfect weekend in Arlington is hitting the W&OD trail for a nice long walk to check out all the fall leaves and sticks lying around! I could just lay in the cool grass and chew on sticks all day long.
Life is great as a puppy in A-town!
Want your pet to be considered for the Arlington Pet of the Week? Email arlingtonnews@gmail.com with a 2-3 paragraph bio and at least 3-4 horizontally-oriented photos of your pet.
The post Arlington Pet of the Week: Kuechly appeared first on WTOP.
BALTIMORE (AP) — The first effort to convict an officer in Freddie Gray’s death from a broken neck in a Baltimore Police van ended Wednesday with a hung jury and a mistrial.
Officials appealed for calm as small crowds protested along streets lined with police officers. The situation was quiet at North and Pennsylvania, the intersection where the worst rioting happened in April as parts of West Baltimore were set on fire.
William Porter’s mistrial is a setback for prosecutors trying to respond to a citizenry frustrated by violent crime and allegations of police misconduct. Homicides have soared and the pressure on city officials has been unrelenting since Baltimore City State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby charged six officers in Gray’s death.
About 30 protesters chanting “send those killer cops to jail” outside the courthouse switched gears after the mistrial was announced, chanting “No justice, no peace!” and “Black Lives Matter.”
The case hinged not on what Porter did, but what prosecutors said he didn’t do. He was accused of failing to get medical help for a critically wounded Gray and was charged with manslaughter, assault, misconduct in office and reckless endangerment, carrying maximum sentences totaling 25 years.
The judge planned to discuss a possible retrial with both sides in his chambers on Thursday.
Mayor Stephanie Rawlings Blake and the new police commissioner she installed after last April’s riots warned people against more violence.
“We will not, we cannot be defined by the unrest of the spring,” the mayor said.
“Protesters who are lawfully assembled have a friend in the Baltimore Police Department,” Commissioner Kevin Davis said. “Folks who choose to commit crimes and break things and hurt people are no longer protesters.”
Mosby wouldn’t comment: “Gag order,” she said, smiling and shaking her head inside the courthouse.
Attorney Billy Murphy, who obtained a $6.4 million settlement for Gray’s family from the city before Porter’s trial, called the mistrial “a temporary bump on the road to justice.”
The racially diverse jury of seven men and five women deliberated for about 16 hours over three days. They indicated they were deadlocked on Tuesday, but Circuit Judge Barry Williams told them to keep at it, even as he denied their requests for help.
“It is clear you will not come to a unanimous agreement on any of the four charges,” the judge said Wednesday. “You have clearly been diligent.”
The Baltimore NAACP asked people to control their “frustration and anger” and respect “the rights of all people respected, on all sides.”
At least two activists were arrested, including Kwame Rose, a young black man who called the mistrial an “injustice.”
“We are going to fight for justice until it becomes a reality in our lives. A mistrial means that the prosecution did not do their jobs good enough,” he said.
Erika Alston, a West Baltimore community leader who founded Kids Safe Zone after the April riots, said she felt there was reasonable doubt that Porter committed manslaughter, but “it’s early. It’s one of six.”
“I’m not expecting our community to repeat April, but it is a bit of a kick in the chest,” she said.
Activist Duane “Shorty” Davis accused the prosecution of deliberately putting on a weak case to preserve its relationship with the police. “They’re not going to eat their own,” he said.
Porter left the courthouse after conferring solemnly with defense attorney Joseph Murtha, and was shielded by deputies from the media. Murtha declined to comment.
Gray was arrested while fleeing from officers and died April 19, a week after his neck was broken inside a police van as a seven-block trip to the station turned into a 45-minute journey around West Baltimore. The young black man had been left handcuffed and shackled but without a seatbelt in the metal compartment. The autopsy concluded that he probably couldn’t brace himself whenever the van turned a corner or braked suddenly.
Porter is also black, as are two of the other five officers charged. Race was never mentioned during the trial.
It wasn’t clear how the mistrial would affect the other officers. Prosecutors had planned to use Porter’s testimony against two of them.
Prosecutors argued that Porter, who was present at five of the van’s six stops, was criminally negligent for ignoring his department’s policy requiring officers to seatbelt prisoners, and for not calling an ambulance even though Gray repeatedly said he needed medical help.
The defense said Porter went beyond the call of duty when he moved Gray to a seated position at one point, and told the van driver and a supervisor that Gray had said “yes” when asked if he needed to go to a hospital. The driver, Officer Caesar Goodson, is scheduled for trial on Jan. 6.
___
Contributors include Brian Witte in Baltimore and Randall Chase in Dover, Delaware.
The post Mistrial in 1st officer’s trial in Freddie Gray case appeared first on WTOP.
NBC4 Washington |
15 Displaced After Fire Damages 4 Townhomes NBC4 Washington Fifteen people are without a home after a fire tore through four townhomes in Manassas Wednesday morning. Firefighters were called to the 9800 block of Maury Lane overnight. When they arrived, they found heavy fire coming from the rear of two townhomes. and more » |
BOSTON (AP) — When Darren Kisgen decided to make a game, his only goal was to entertain his family. But over the past few months, the finance professor at Boston College has seen his game selling thousands of copies around the world and winning a big prize.
“I’m surprised by all of this,” said Kisgen, a former Wall Street investment banker who now lives outside Boston. “Frankly, it’s been a lot of fun.”
Called Dragonwood, the game borrows ideas from poker and rummy but blends them into a fantasy world of dragons and goblins. By drawing a strong hand, players can boost their chances of “capturing” mythical creatures in a fictional forest, which helps them win the game. It’s advertised for anyone 8 years old and up.
The idea struck Kisgen two years ago after he found that most fantasy games were too complicated or violent for his two children, who were 5 and 7 at the time.
“I felt like I was missing a game that I would want to play with them, so I decided to try to come up with that game myself,” he said.
He called it Forest Quest, built with ordinary playing cards and dice. But over time, Kisgen thought it would be more fun with colorful cards illustrating the dragons, trolls and ogres. So he sent a prototype to a nearby game publisher, Gamewright, which provided art for the cards and began selling it as Dragonwood earlier this year.
The game has sold more than 20,000 copies since summer, Gamewright said, making it one of the top-selling games from the Massachusetts publisher.
It also won a top gaming prize from Mensa, a society for people with high IQs. Once a year, members of Mensa meet for a weekend to test dozens of new board games and recognize those seen as original, challenging and well-designed. This year, Kisgen’s game was one of five winners out of more than 60 they tested.
Greg Webster, the event’s chief judge, praised Dragonwood for its simplicity but said it also lets players employ a variety of strategies that can lead to victory.
“It makes it interesting to play when you’ve got different options and you’re not locked in,” he said.
In recent years, Webster added, it has become more common to see popular games that started out as a casual idea in someone’s living room.
“They say this is the golden age of board gaming, and I think that’s true,” he said. “There are so many ways for someone who has an idea for a board game to pull it together.”
The game is also winning nods as an educational tool that can teach kids about arithmetic, number patterns and probability.
Kisgen, who grew up in Omaha, Nebraska, said he remembers devising games for his brother and sister as a kid. But there’s little overlap between gaming and his finance career.
“To design a game takes some logic, takes understanding strategy, and this game has a lot of numbers in it,” he said. “But that’s where it ends.”
After hearing feedback from players around the world, Kisgen said he’s already thinking of ways to expand the game — but not too much. He still wants to keep it simple.
___
This story has been corrected to show the game is played with cards, not a board.
The post Made just for his kids, prof’s card game is now taking off appeared first on WTOP.
Yes, all of that excess stock means that shoppers can expect great markdowns after the holidays, but the unseasonable warm snap will hit companies in the profits. While consumers have more money in our pockets due to lower fuel prices, they’re spending that money somewhere other than the mall.
Normally, the first very cold day of the year prompts shoppers to head to the store for a new winter coat if they need one. While there, they shop for other seasonal clothing. This hasn’t happened yet, which leaves retailers with stacks of coats, sweaters, hats, mittens, and boots and nowhere to put their spring fashion offerings.
If you plan to do last-minute shopping in clothing stores before Christmas, be warned: weather prognosticators believe that temperatures will plummet in much of the country next week, and shoppers might run to the malls to buy parkas and sweaters that week, whether the items are marked down or not. At least that’s what retail executives hope is going to happen.
Stores Lost $185 Million in Sales Due to Warm Weather [AdAge]
As part of its ongoing End Robocalls campaign, CU lugged its boxes and boxes of petition pages to the front door of CenturyLink’s office in Phoenix, one of the company’s largest markets, on Tuesday.
“What we wanted to do is deliver a petition from over half a million people, calling on CenturyLink to provide customers with free and effective tools to end robocalls,” explained Tim Marvin, who has headed up the anti-robocall campaign for CU.
“My husband and I are retired, so when we start getting calls at eight in the morning it’s very disruptive,” said Sarah, a CenturyLink customer who was on hand for the petition delivery. “My mother is 100 years old, and she gets the same call every day. She’s tried and tried to get them to stop, but they won’t.”
“Everyone gets robocalled,” said Marvin, pointing out that the Federal Trade Commission alone received
more than 3.5 million complaints about these calls last year — and those are just the consumers who take the time to file a grievance with regulators.
While the Do Not Call list and strict FCC rules prohibit many unwanted autodialed and/or pre-recorded calls, many robocallers are scammers who don’t care if they violate the rules.
There are a number of options available to telecom companies to help consumers cut down on these phony phone calls, but the telecom industry has been dragging its feet in offering them. A frequently given explanation for the inaction is a concern that any sort of phone number blacklist may result in the occasional legitimate call being blocked.
So instead, telephone companies have left it for the customer to use some third party device or service to moderate suspicious calls.
“The onus right now is on the consumer to navigate these complex problems,” explained CU’s Delara Derakhshani at a recent panel discussion on the issue. “The options are limited in their capability to block calls and they cost money. Consumers are being forced to pay for tools to block calls they shouldn’t be receiving in the first place.”
Marvin said this isn’t about making call-blocking mandatory, but about giving consumers a simple option to rid themselves of these likely illegal nuisance calls.
“What we want CenturyLink to do is start to provide some relief to that annoyance,” he explained outside the telecom company’s office. “CenturyLink has the technology and the ability to give people free and effective tools to block these robocalls before they even get to their houses.”
“I think it’s an invasion of our privacy,” said CL customer Sarah, “and if CenturyLink has a way to stop them, I think they should.”
This is the second petition delivery for CU in recent weeks. The End Robocalls team knocked on the door of Verizon’s D.C. office a few weeks back, where the company agreed to sit down with CU to discuss the problem. The folks at AT&T HQ can expect to hear from consumers about robocalls in the coming weeks.
Finding a reliable service provider can be a test of patience for some consumers, despite sites like Angie’s List and Yelp that aim to connect customers with local professionals focused on repairs, installations, or other jobs around the house. Facebook thinks it has what it takes to make the quest for a dependable handyman, lawn care service, plumber, and other local businesses with its new “Professional Services” feature.
The new venture, currently only available on the desktop version of the social networking site, is Facebook’s latest attempt to reach small businesses, USA Today reports.
Professional Services provides users with a list of “local businesses with the best Facebook reviews and ratings” after they select from an extensive list of categories on the features homepage.
Results display a businesses’ contact information and hours of business, and excerpts of reviews, as well as a link to see more reviews on the company’s Facebook page.
“We’re in the early stages of testing a way for people to easily find more Pages for the services they’re interested in,” the company tells USA Today.
Facebook didn’t provide details on how the service determines a businesses’ rating, but Search Engine Land, which reported on the feature Monday, suggests the results take into account Facebook’s five-star rating system found on businesses’ “pages” into account.
According to USA Today, Facebook currently hosts more than 50 million active business pages.
Facebook tests local business feature [USA Today]
Is “Facebook Professional Services” Facebook’s Stealth Project To Beat Yelp? [Search Engine Land]
An extensive report from the Associated Press published on Monday said it found workers who were forced to peel shrimp in Thailand for up to 16 hours a day with little or no pay. Many were allegedly locked inside for months or years, the report said.
Journalists traced trucks from an abusive factory to major Thai distributors, with U.S. customs records showing how the shrimp made its way into the supply chains of major U.S. food stores and retailers such as Wal-Mart, Kroger, Dollar General and Petco, along with restaurants such as Olive Garden.
In responding to the AP reports, Red Lobster, Whole Foods and others said they’ve been assured by their supplier, Thai Union, that the shrimp they sell weren’t processed by children and slaves, despite the AP’s findings.
But Thai Union — one of the biggest names in the seafood industry — admitted that it hadn’t known the source of all its shrimp, and sent a note regarding how it’ll clean up its act to U.S. businesses, Thai Union CEO and president Thiraphong Chansiri told the AP.
“We were concerned that, despite regular audits, it is difficult to guarantee that all external pre-processors were adhering to our code of conduct,” he said of keeping labor abuses out of Thai Union’s supply chain.
“We realized that we could not ensure 100%,” Thiraphong said in a separate statement. “Even with the whole system that we established.”
Calling the report a “wake-up call” to the entire industry at large, Thiraphong pledged to only use in-house labor for shrimp processing starting Jan. 1, at about a $5 million cost to the company.
“This move will provide us with full oversight of all processing stages and will ensure that all workers, whether migrant or Thai, are in safe, legal employment and are treated fairly and with dignity,” Thiraphong said.
This isn’t the first storm to batter the Thai seafood industry: the AP issued a report earlier this year about a slave island in Indonesia where fishermen were caged when on shore, prompting Nestle to do its own investigation into the supply chain for its pet food. The company subsequently confirmed that some workers were severely mistreated.
As a result of this most recent report, Greenpeace is calling for a boycott of Thai Union and its Chicken of the Sea brand in the U.S.
“The company does just enough to weather the PR storm while continuing to profit off the backs of the migrant workers forced to work throughout its supply chains,” Greenpeace campaign director John Hocevar told the AP.
AP: Global supermarkets selling shrimp peeled by slaves [Associated Press]
Leading Thai Seafood Boss: AP Shrimp Probe ‘Wake-up Call’ [Associated Press]
Washington Post |
As Willard Scott retires, friends and fans remember his DC roots Washington Post Willard Scott, the genial great-uncle of TV weather reporting, retired today after a 35-year run on the “Today” show. On “Today,” there were plenty of warm tributes to the 81-year-old, whose signatures included a carnation perennially pinned to his ... and more » |
WASHINGTON — A Manassas police detective who worked on a regional task force to protect children from Internet crimes and was at the center of a child exploitation investigation killed himself Tuesday as police came to arrest him.
Investigators had evidence that Manassas City Det. David Abbott, 39, solicited at least two boys whom he had met while coaching youth hockey as far back as 2008.
Prince William County police say a 13-year-old boy reported to them that his hockey coach, Abbott, was soliciting sex acts from the boy by phone, text, email and social media.
“Through our investigation, we also identified a second victim, now 18 — but he was 13 when the offenses began. Similar set of circumstances, also involving the accused,” says Prince William County Sgt. Jonathan Perok.
Investigators obtained arrest and search warrants and went to Abbott’s Gainesville home where they attempted to charge him Tuesday morning.
Officers obtained felony charges for two counts of indecent liberties with a minor and two counts of use of communication device to solicit a minor, according to Manassas City Police.
Abbott would not cooperate with county officers and barricaded himself inside the house, Perok says. Assuming he was armed, Prince William County police officers evacuated neighbors and tried to talk Abbott into surrendering.
“Unfortunately, it ended with him taking his own life,” Perok says.
Police say that Abbott shot himself with a handgun. He died at the scene.
Afterward, officers were able to search his home and collect evidence, which could lead to identifying more victims, Perok says.
Police began investigating Abbott Monday when the 13-year-old reported the communications with his coach. The boy told police that the solicitations began in June 2013. During the investigation, police learned about the older boy, who also knew Abbott through the hockey league. He told police that the inappropriate communications with Abbott began in 2008.
Last year, Abbott was the center of a controversial dispute involving a sexting case in which he reportedly demanded a young boy take pictures of his genitalia as part of an sexting investigation. Abbott sued the boy’s defense attorney over the allegations, but later dropped the suit.
Abbott was an active member of the Northern Virginia-Washington D.C. Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force.
Manassas City Police and the regional task force were made aware of the investigation, Perok says.
The police department released a statement, which read in part:
“This is a tragic and sad day for the Abbott family, the juvenile victims and their families, the Manassas City Police Department, and our community. Despite these recent developments regarding the serious allegations against him, we are grateful for the contributions Det. Abbott made during his time with Manassas City Police, to include the prosecution and conviction of hundreds of criminals.”
The post Va. detective facing child sex-related charges kills self appeared first on WTOP.
OWINGS MILLS, Md. (AP) — The Baltimore Ravens have signed free agent quarterback Ryan Mallett, who played in six games with Houston earlier this season.
Mallett started four games with the Texans this season before being cut on Oct. 27. He threw three touchdown passes and four interceptions.
Mallett was selected out of Arkansas by New England in the third round of the 2011 draft. He appeared in four games in three years with the Patriots before being traded to the Texans in August 2014 for a draft pick.
Over his career, the 27-year-old Mallett has played in 13 games, throwing five TDs and seven interceptions while compiling a lackluster 62.7 quarterback rating.
In other moves Tuesday, the Ravens placed defensive end Chris Canty on injured reserve with a torn pectoral muscle; waived quarterback Bryn Renner and running back Raheem Mostert; and signed running back Terrence Magee and cornerback Jumal Rolle off the practice squad.
___
AP NFL website: www.pro32.ap.org and http://twitter.com/AP_NFL
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GAINESVILLE, Va. (AP) — Prince William County police say a Manassas City detective who served on a task force that investigates crimes against children killed himself before he could be arrested on child sex abuse charges.
Authorities say 39-year-old David Edward Abbott barricaded himself in his home Tuesday then shot himself as police tried to serve warrants charging him with indecent liberties and using a communications device to solicit sexual offenses.
The warrants stemmed from an investigation involving communications between Abbott and a 13-year-old boy he met while coaching for a local hockey league. Police say the contact began two years ago and included soliciting sexual acts by phone, text, social media and email.
Authorities say Abbott also had inappropriate communications with another hockey league player dating to 2008, when the victim was 13.
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By Jacob Bell
Capital News Service
BALTIMORE — Swimming through the 2.2 million gallons of water at the National Aquarium are more than 500 species of fish, including sharks, rays and eels. And whether the animals glide, float, slither or dart, they all poop.
They poop a lot.
To deal with that poop, as well as the accumulation of bacteria, algae and harmful chemicals, the aquarium employs full-time staff to physically vacuum and scrub its various tanks. Often the cleaning is done outside of the public view — conducted either behind the scenes or before the aquarium opens.
“It is a major undertaking to not only keep the exhibits clean, but to keep the animals healthy,” said Jay Bradley, curator of fishes at the National Aquarium. “It does depend on the exhibit how often things are done, but there’s something being worked on every day.”
In the aquarium’s Blacktip Reef, SCUBA-clad aquarists make dives almost daily to clean tank glass or power wash portions of the exhibit’s more than 3,000 pieces of faux coral, according to Bradley. Divers use specialized pads and bleaching equipment to eliminate algae, and small tools to collect waste in narrow crevices.
They also must maneuver around 65 species of sharks, rays, sea turtles and Indo-Pacific fish.
And in both the Blacktip Reef and the Living Seashores exhibits, staff use hydro-vacuums to suck up organic waste like poop and uneaten food from the tanks’ sandy bottoms. If left untreated, organic waste can break down into chemicals that are toxic to fish, such as ammonia or nitrite.
“There are a lot of different processes involved; there are protein skimmers, there are biofilters,” Bradley said. “(W) e’re also maintaining the life support elements and cleaning those as well.”
Last year, the aquarium spent $8.7 million — more than 18 percent of its total yearly expenses — on facility operations and marine life support, according to its 2014 annual report. It also spent more than $18 million on salaries and benefits for its 450-person staff, 50 to 70 of whom have some role in keeping exhibits clean, said Andy Aiken, director of life support for the National Aquarium.
Life support elements include the filtration, temperature, light and treatment systems used to safeguard water quality throughout the aquarium. The systems are tied into a centralized computer network, which, while capable of making some adjustments to the various exhibits, mostly flags when water quality is out of balance in terms of acidity, salinity or toxicity, according to Aiken.
“The life support system parameters really tell us how the system is operating, but its effectiveness is measured by water quality,” Aiken said. “Water quality tests are taken frequently. Some systems every day, other systems that are more stable maybe once a month.”
The tests measure factors like pH or ammonia levels, allowing staff to make adjustments to the aquarium’s three-part, biological, chemical and mechanical filtration system if necessary.
In biological filtration, bacteria living on exhibit surfaces or in chambers called “bioballs” convert chemicals formed from the breakdown of fish food and poop into less hazardous byproducts, according to a 2012 report from the Education Department at the National Aquarium.
Some of those byproducts are removed through mechanical filtration, during which water from the tanks passes over a bed of coarse gravel and sand that traps waste particles.
Any unwanted chemicals remaining in the tank after mechanical filtration undergo chemical filtration via carbon filters and surface skimmers. Hydro-vacuuming is part of chemical filtration as well.
Aquarium staff also adjust temperature and light in aquatic exhibits, as well as land-based ones like the Upland Tropical Rainforest or Australia: Wild Extremes, to mirror the conditions the animals would face in the wild.
The Pacific Coral Reef exhibit, for example, has programmed sunrise and sunsets, and the wavelength of light used allows for the growth of seaweed and algae that jellyfish in the exhibit rely on for food, according to the 2012 report.
In addition to staff, a team of divers from the aquarium’s nearly 950 volunteers assists with tank upkeep. In-water cleaning is more intrusive, according to Bradley, but the animals’ reactions often vary depending on the species and how comfortable they are with the process.
“Most of the time they’re pretty tolerant of the things we’re going in there to do,” Bradley said. “A lot of the times they’ll get a little startled, maybe (act like) ‘whoa, what’s going on,’ but then they’ll usually get used to it and settle back down and not have much trouble with it.”
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An Arlington resident is asking the community to keep their eyes out for his dog, which went missing more than a week ago.
Pumpkin Pie is a seven-year-old American Pit Bull Terrier mix who ran away from her home near Virginia Square last Sunday evening, Dec. 6. She has a white and light brown coat and is described as very timid.
According to her owner, Harry Puente-Duany, Pumpkin Pie was first spotted north of his home toward Lee Highway and Old Dominion Drive on the night she ran away. Since then, sightings have been reported in parts of South Arlington.
Most recently, Pumpkin Pie was seen on Sunday afternoon in Claremont near the Four Mile Run Trail.
“We’re kind of stuck right now praying for another lead,” Puente-Duany said. “She’s on the move, but we don’t know where she’s headed.”
Puente-Duany rescued Pumpkin Pie about five years ago from the Animal Welfare League of Arlington shelter. He added she can be finicky and very afraid of people because her previous owner treated her poorly.
Despite his dog being missing for several days, Puente-Duany is staying optimistic.
“The fact that we’ve continued to have sightings has helped me to remain hopeful,” he said. “It makes be believe she’s still out there, on the move and safe, for the most part. She could be going anywhere next, but I’m trying to continue to keep the faith.”
Puente-Duany said all the sightings so far have been reports of Pumpkin Pie running down a street or through wooded areas, suggesting she’s scared and spending most of her time running away or hiding out of sight.
He asks that anyone who sees Pumpkin Pie doesn’t chase her or call after her, or risk scaring her more or encouraging to run further away.
“If possible, give us a call and try to keep an eye on her,” he added. “People have been very active doing that so far, but it’s been hard to keep track of her. I’m still amazed by the amount of support from people in Arlington, giving me suggestions and letting me know they’re on the lookout. It’s been so encouraging.”
If anyone sees Pumpkin Pie, they can call Puente-Duany at 301-467-0433 or Animal Control at 703-931-9241.
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Manassas detective facing child sex charges kills self WTOP GAINESVILLE, Va. (AP) — Prince William County police say a Manassas City detective who served on a task force that investigates crimes against children killed himself before he could be arrested on child sex abuse charges. Authorities say 39-year-old ... Police: Manassas detective kills self while facing child sex chargesRichmond Times-Dispatch all 82 news articles » |
Manassas detective facing child sex charges kills self Richmond Times-Dispatch GAINESVILLE (AP) - Prince William County police say a Manassas City detective who served on a task force that investigates crimes against children killed himself before he could be arrested on child sex abuse charges. Authorities say 39-year-old David ... and more » |