Venture Capitalists Are Making Bigger Bets on Food Start-Ups

By JENNA WORTHAM and CLAIRE CAIN MILLER

April 28, 2013

What if the next big thing in tech does not arrive on your smartphone or in the cloud? What if it lands on your plate?

Workers in the Plated warehouse in Brooklyn. The founders spent $15,000 on a warehouse in Queens that proved unsuitable.

That idea is enticing a wide group of venture capitalists in Silicon Valley into making big bets on food.

In some cases, the goal is to connect restaurants with food purveyors, or to create on-demand delivery services from local farms, or ready-to-cook dinner kits. In others, the goal is to invent new foods, like creating cheese, meat and egg substitutes from plants. Since this is Silicon Valley money, though, the ultimate goal is often nothing short of grand: transforming the food industry.

“Part of the reason you’re seeing all these V.C.’s get interested in this is the food industry is not only is it massive, but like the energy industry, it is terribly broken in terms of its impact on the environment, health, animals,” said Josh Tetrick, founder and chief executive of Hampton Creek Foods, a start-up making egg alternatives.

Continue at:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/29/business/venture-capitalists-are-making-bigger-bets-on-food-start-ups.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

Waiting Until 70 for Social Security: How Long Must You Live to Make it Worth the Wait?

By Larry Kotlikoff

April 29, 2013

If you outlive your life expectancy, economist Larry Kotlikoff says you will want the highest possible Social Security check. If you don't, you won't need one.

Joe Ruthenberg -- Vista, Calif.: How many years will it take me to recover passed over benefits if I wait until age 70? At age 66, I will receive $1,512. At age 70, $2,119 per month.

Larry Kotlikoff: You seem to be thinking something like, "Gee, if it takes me 15 years to break even after waiting until 70 to start collecting and my life expectancy is only 82, it doesn't make sense to wait." This is not the right way to think about waiting to collect. The reason is that you won't die precisely at 82 or whatever your life expectancy happens to be.

Look at the actuarial tables used by Social Security (though they figure to underestimate longevity, since they date from 2007 and life expectancy has grown since).

Here are the 2007 projections for the ages at which you might make a Social Security decision, 62 to 69. The first column is age; the second, the odds of your dying in the next year at that age, if you're a man. The third column lists the number of years of life expectancy left, on average (again, for men). The next two columns provide the same data for women.

Continue at:

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/businessdesk/2013/04/waiting-til-70-for-social-secu.html

The Myth of America's Tech-Talent Shortage

And what it should mean for immigration reform.

by Jordan Weissmann

Apr 29 2013


So it turns out the United States is not, in fact, the educational wasteland tech industry lobbyists would have you think.

Companies like Microsoft often claim that America is suffering from an economically hobbling shortage of science, math, and computer talent. The solution, they argue, is to let employers fill their hiring gaps by importing tens of thousands of educated guest workers beyond what the law currently allows. Much as farmers want to bring in field workers from Mexico on short-term visas, software developers desperately want to bring in more coders from India.

The Senate's current immigration bill would grant their wish. As written, it vastly increases the annual limit on H1-B visas, which allow corporations to bring employees with a bachelor's degree to the U.S. from overseas for up to six years. Roughly half the guest workers who currently arrive through the program come for computer-related jobs. When Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced earlier this month that he was forming a political action group to back the reform effort, it was in part seen as a move to ensure that the H1-B provision would make it to President Obama's desk intact.

There's just one problem. That whole skills shortage? It's a myth, as was amply illustrated (yet again) by a report this week from the Economic Policy Institute. It still might be the case that tech companies are having trouble finding specific skill sets in certain niches (think cloud software development, or Android programming), but there simply aren't any signs pointing to a broad dearth of talent.

Continue at:

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/04/the-myth-of-americas-tech-talent-shortage/275319/?google_editors_picks=true

The Mind of a Con Man

By YUDHIJIT BHATTACHARJEE

April 26, 2013

One summer night in 2011, a tall, 40-something professor named Diederik Stapel stepped out of his elegant brick house in the Dutch city of Tilburg to visit a friend around the corner. It was close to midnight, but his colleague Marcel Zeelenberg had called and texted Stapel that evening to say that he wanted to see him about an urgent matter. The two had known each other since the early ’90s, when they were Ph.D. students at the University of Amsterdam; now both were psychologists at Tilburg University. In 2010, Stapel became dean of the university’s School of Social and Behavioral Sciences and Zeelenberg head of the social psychology department. Stapel and his wife, Marcelle, had supported Zeelenberg through a difficult divorce a few years earlier. As he approached Zeelenberg’s door, Stapel wondered if his colleague was having problems with his new girlfriend.
Zeelenberg, a stocky man with a shaved head, led Stapel into his living room. “What’s up?” Stapel asked, settling onto a couch. Two graduate students had made an accusation, Zeelenberg explained. His eyes began to fill with tears. “They suspect you have been committing research fraud.”

Stapel was an academic star in the Netherlands and abroad, the author of several well-regarded studies on human attitudes and behavior. That spring, he published a widely publicized study in Science about an experiment done at the Utrecht train station showing that a trash-filled environment tended to bring out racist tendencies in individuals. And just days earlier, he received more media attention for a study indicating that eating meat made people selfish and less social.

Continue at:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/28/magazine/diederik-stapels-audacious-academic-fraud.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

The Unluckiest Generation: What Will Become of Millennials?

Coming of age in a recession has set back Millennials for decades. The good news? In the age of abundance, they could turn out to be pretty great decades, anyway.

by Derek Thompson

Apr 26 2013

The nearly 3.7 million American babies born in 1982 weren't special, except to their families. But in the eyes of demographers, they were categorically different from the 3.6 million Americans born in 1981. They were the first members of a new club: Generation Y.

This so-called millennial cohort, the largest generation in American history, landed in the cradle during an awful recession, learned to walk during the Reagan recovery, came of age in the booming 1990s, and entered the labor market after the Sept. 11 attacks and before the Great Recession, the two tragedies of the early 21st century. They've survived an eventful few decades.

Yet nothing in those vertiginous 30 years could have prepared them for the economic sledgehammer that followed the collapse of the housing market in 2007-08. And the aftereffects, economists fear, may dog them for the rest of their working lives.

Continue at:

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/04/the-unluckiest-generation-what-will-become-of-millennials/275336/?google_editors_picks=true

The Atlantic

Our Feel-Good War on Breast Cancer

By PEGGY ORENSTEIN

Published: April 25, 2013 313 Comments

I used to believe that a mammogram saved my life. I even wrote that in the pages of this magazine. It was 1996, and I had just turned 35 when my doctor sent me for an initial screening — a relatively common practice at the time — that would serve as a base line when I began annual mammograms at 40. I had no family history of breast cancer, no particular risk factors for the disease.

So when the radiologist found an odd, bicycle-spoke-like pattern on the film — not even a lump — and sent me for a biopsy, I wasn’t worried. After all, who got breast cancer at 35?

It turns out I did. Recalling the fear, confusion, anger and grief of that time is still painful. My only solace was that the system worked precisely as it should: the mammogram caught my tumor early, and I was treated with a lumpectomy and six weeks of radiation; I was going to survive.

Continue at:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/28/magazine/our-feel-good-war-on-breast-cancer.html?pagewanted=all

Charleston's Spoleto Festival rises to greater heights

By Andrew Alexander

 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

April 23, 2013

For 17 days each summer, the sleepy seaside town of Charleston, S.C., turns into a busy hive of cultural activity, with every possible venue, large and small, filled from noon to night with the sights and sounds of opera, jazz, theater, dance and more during the annual Spoleto Festival USA.

Considered one of the top such annual cultural events in the country, if not the world, the festival brings cutting-edge performers and artists from around the globe to the Southeast for an intense art marathon that's sure to give a jolt to even the most jaded culture vulture.

This year, festival organizers have crammed more than 120 performances between May 24 and June 9, making 2013 the largest and busiest Spoleto Festival yet. The fringe-style events of the concurrent side-festival Piccolo Spoleto, which announced its lineup at the end of March, will more than double the options.

Continued at:

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/travel/vs-travel-spoleto-festival-20130423,0,7961075.story


The Orlando Sentinel

Two Cheers for Web U!

Massive Open Online Course classrooms are growing at Big Bang rates: more than five million students worldwide have registered for classes in topics ranging from physics to history to aboriginal worldviews.

By A. J. JACOBS
Published: April 20, 2013

 
I LEARNED many fascinating things while taking a series of free online college courses over the last few months. In my history class, I learned there was a Japanese political plot to assassinate Charlie Chaplin in 1932. In my genetics class, I learned that the ability to wiggle our ears is a holdover from animal ancestors who could shift the direction of their hearing organs.

But the first thing I learned? When it comes to Massive Open Online Courses, like those offered by Coursera, Udacity and edX, you can forget about the Socratic method.

The professor is, in most cases, out of students’ reach, only slightly more accessible than the pope or Thomas Pynchon. Several of my Coursera courses begin by warning students not to e-mail the professor. We are told not to “friend” the professor on Facebook. If you happen to see the professor on the street, avoid all eye contact (well, that last one is more implied than stated). There are, after all, often tens of thousands of students and just one top instructor.

Continue at:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/21/opinion/sunday/grading-the-mooc-university.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

Boston bombing: Reddit learns how 'witch hunts can start'

By Robin Abcarian

April 20, 2013

The social networking site Reddit found itself in the middle of a terrible situation this week after it fingered a missing Brown student as one of the Boston Marathon bombers.

Reddit, for those unfamiliar, is a popular site that consists entirely of user-generated content. “Redditors,” or users, can either vote a post up or down. The site’s “front page” consists of its most popular posts. Reddit’s thousands of threads on every sort of topic, called “subreddits,” are moderated by volunteers.

Last summer, in a savvy move that ratified the influence of Reddit, President Obama participated in a Q & A on the site, called an AMA (for “ask me anything”). He was on the hunt for younger voters. Some of his opponent’s strategists hadn’t ever heard of the site.

This week, a new subreddit popped up: “FindBostonBombers.” Scouring the Internet for photos and clues, redditors decided to play detective. Things soon spiraled out of control.

A young woman who said she was a classmate of the missing Brown student, Sunil Tripathi, tweeted that she recognized him as one of the bombing suspects. Though she later made her Twitter account private, which means it was inaccessible to unapproved followers, someone posted an image of her tweet on Reddit on “FindBostonBombers.”

Continue at:

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-boston-bombing-reddit-learns-how-a-witch-hunts-can-start-20130420,0,5670679.story?track=lat-pick

Arts taking center stage in rural SC town

By Associated Press

April 19, 2013

LAKE CITY, S.C. — An old South Carolina tobacco town working to reinvent itself as a cultural destination on Friday welcomed visitors to a 10-day arts festival that has drawn contributors from across the Southeast and is offering $100,000 in prizes.

ArtFields, featuring 400 pieces of art in both public venues and stores throughout Lake City’s quaint business district, is the latest step in efforts to revitalize the town of 6,700 about midway between Columbia and Myrtle Beach. The festival’s name conjures both the art and the area’s fertile fields.

Lake City is home of financier Darla Moore, who has donated millions to universities in South Carolina and is one of only two women members of the Augusta National Golf Club.

She worked with foundations to restore the 1930s-era bean market building — a market that was once one of the largest in the world — into a community center after former Gov. Mark Sanford called the project pork in a proposed state budget.

Continue at:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/travel/artfields-arts-taking-center-stage-in-rural-sc-town-that-is-home-to-financier-darla-moore/2013/04/19/9f025b3e-a91e-11e2-9e1c-bb0fb0c2edd9_story.html

 

How thermal imaging helped catch bomb suspect

By Alan Boyle, Science Editor, NBC News


Thermal-imaging devices have been used to seek out pot-growing operations, map Martian geology — and now, to watch the prime suspect in this week's Boston Marathon bombings as he was holed up in his last hiding place.

Authorities said a helicopter equipped with a thermal imager spotted the heat signature of a person inside a tarp-covered boat, sitting in a backyard in Watertown, Mass. Police used the sensors after an area resident reported seeing a trail of blood leading to the boat — and catching a glimpse of a blood-covered body inside. The thermal readings confirmed that there was indeed someone under the tarp, and that the person was still alive.
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"Probably been there all day," a senior police official told NBC News. "He wasn't moving at first. He is now."

After monitoring the body in the boat for more than an hour, police moved in and seized the wounded bombing suspect, 19-year-old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.

Continue at:
http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/04/19/17830076-secret-weapon-how-thermal-imaging-helped-catch-bomb-suspect?lite

 

The Top 10 Best AirPrint Printers

 
April 19, 2013

AirPrint lets you print from an iPhone or iPad to a compatible printer on your Wi-Fi network. Here are our 10 favorite AirPrint printers and MFPs

When Apple first included its AirPrint printing utility—which allows printing from an iPhone or iPad to a compatible printer on the same Wi-Fi network—in an iOS upgrade in late 2010, only a handful of HP printers were supported. Fortunately, AirPrint compatibility has greatly expanded, and many of the new Wi-Fi-enabled printers we test come with AirPrint ready to go.

AirPrint, which is built into recent versions of Apple's iOS operating system, is the simplest way to print from an iOS device, requiring no special software or apps. You initiate a Print command from your i-device, choose between AirPrint-compatible printers on your Wi-Fi network (if you have more than one). Tweak a few settings if you want, or just go ahead and print.

Continue at:
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2417817,00.asp?google_editors_picks=true

underwear sales may be an economic bellwether

underwear sales may be an economic bellwether

By Quentin Fottrell

April 18, 2013

Some have looked to the width or color of men’s ties as economic bellwethers. But a better sartorial indicator may be the size of a man’s underwear drawer.

American men’s apparel sales remained relatively flat in 2012, rising just 1% to $57 billion, according to a study by market researcher NPD Group. The exceptions were the two garments some men continue to wear even after they’re falling apart: underwear, up 13%, and socks, up 12%. “Men are updating the basics of their wardrobe,” says Marshal Cohen, chief industry analyst at NPD. And that may be a positive sign for consumer spending overall.

One sartorial indicator of the state of the economy may be the size of a man’s underwear drawer. Quentin Fottrell reports on Lunch Break.

“Some men’s underwear may be so worn out that they have no choice but to replace it — or to go commando,” says Vicki Morwitz, a professor of marketing at New York University. “For men who don’t care so much about underwear, during lean times, they probably made do with what they had.” Others agree that old underwear only stretches for so long. “With the economy improving, it must be the right time for men to get rid of all that holey underwear,” says Edgar Dworsky, founder of ConsumerWorld.org.

Continue at:

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/when-men-buy-underwear-economists-smile-2013-04-18?reflink=MW_GoogleNews&google_editors_picks=true

Google Glass customers release first videos captured with the wearable gadget

By Mark Prigg

PUBLISHED: 17 April 2013

It is billed as the future of computing - but from the first videos uploaded by owners of Google's Glass wearable computer, the future is far from exciting.

The glasses were released to the first group of developers outside the company on Wednesday and the excited testers rushed to upload footage to YouTube that they captured wearing the devices.

Clips show Google Glass wearers sitting in front of a computer playing a video game, driving a go kart, completing a plastic ball puzzle, and opening a box containing a pair of the hi-tech glasses.

The New Google Glass have been released for sale to at first a small group of people in the technology field.  The special eyeglasses comprise a camera that shoots 720 p and it's a wearable computer.  Price was $1,500 and they may not be re-sold.  If you re-sell your Google Glass, Google will remotely deactivate it.  There are at least two issues here in regards to privacy and buyer rights.  There are reports of businesses banning their use.  Whole New World.

Ref:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2310856/Google-Glass-customers-release-videos-captured-new-device.html

Why terrorist bombings have been rare in U.S. in past decade

By Peter Bergen 

April 16, 2013


Washington (CNN) -- It's too early to tell who is responsible for Monday's bombings in Boston. Yet after an incident like this, everyone is looking to find out who did it and why.

One possible guide is recent history: In the years since the 9/11 attacks, dozens of extremists have plotted to use explosives to further their causes in the United States.

Of the 380 individuals indicted for acts of political violence or for conspiring to carry out such attacks in the U.S. since 9/11, 77 were able to obtain explosives or the components necessary to build a bomb, according to a count by the New America Foundation.

Of those, 48 were right-wing extremists, 23 were militants inspired by al Qaeda's ideology, five have been described as anarchists and one was an environmentalist terrorist.

But in the years since 9/11, actual terrorist bombings in the U.S., like the ones at the Boston Marathon, have been exceedingly rare.

Continued at:

http://www.cnn.com/2013/04/16/opinion/bergen-bombings/?iref=obnetwork

Beware bogus Boston Marathon charity websites

By Melanie Hicken

April 17, 2013

As Americans rush to donate to the victims of Monday's Boston Marathon bombing, watchdog groups are warning of potential online scammers already looking to profit from the tragedy.

Within hours of the bombing, dozens of website domain names referencing the bombing were registered, including bostonmarathondonations.com, bostonmarathonvictimfund.com and bostonmarathonattack.com.

It's too early to know what websites like these will be used for, yet nonprofit experts say that charity fraud is often perpetrated in the days and weeks after tragedy hits and are warning consumers to be on guard.

While some scammers solicit donations, others use fake charities to steal credit card numbers or to infect computers with malware, often with a link promising "exclusive" news or video of the incident.

Continue at:

http://money.cnn.com/2013/04/17/pf/boston-marathon-charity/?google_editors_picks=true

 

Boston Marathon Bystanders Raced to the Rescue

 By CHRISTINA NG (@ChristinaNg27)

April 16, 2013

When two bombs exploded near the Boston Marathon finish line Monday, thousands of people ran for their lives and others ran straight into the chaos to help.

Carlos Arredondo and his wife were in a VIP section passing out U.S. flags to National Guard runners with Run for the Fallen Marine, an organization established to honor Marines who have been killed since the 9/11 attacks, when one of the bombs exploded right in front of them.

"My first instinct was just to run across the street and start helping people," Arredondo, 52, told "Good Morning America" today.

He sprang into action, rushing to help a bystander who had lost both of his legs. Arredondo helped control the bleeding and stayed by the man's side, holding his hand until help arrived.

Continued at:

http://abcnews.go.com/US/boston-marathon-bystanders-raced-rescue/story?id=18966272#.UW2KK6AodQs

In Mexico, Where the Waves Still Win

by JEANNIE RALSTON

Published: April 12, 2013

Planning a return trip to my favorite beach in the world, I was almost as apprehensive as I was excited. The last time I visited Troncones — a town of some 600 people pushed up against the Sierra Madre del Sur mountains on the Pacific coast of Mexico — was five years earlier. At the time, we’d been living in San Miguel de Allende, and we occasionally drove down with our two sons and two dogs. My husband — an avowed “non-beach guy” — and I had come to love this village of farmers and fishermen for its rawness, its drowsy authenticity.

In the intervening years, word got out that Julian Schnabel and Damien Hirst had homes in the area. That’s it, I thought, as I prepared for our vacation this past January. I was picturing all the practitioners of extreme cool who had surely followed in their wake. How was it possible that any place could thrive in the oxymoronic state of both newly chic and genuine? I figured we’d better get there quickly before it became totally overrun and turned into just any other beach town.

Continue at:

http://travel.nytimes.com/2013/04/14/travel/in-mexico-where-the-waves-still-win.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

 

5 reasons you want Google Fiber in your city

By Sam Gustin

April 12, 2013

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

    * Google said this week that its ultra-fast Internet service, Google Fiber, is coming to Austin, Texas
    * In Kansas City, where the service launched last fall, 1-gigabit service costs $70 per month
    * Google is offering seven years of free Internet service at current average broadband speeds
    * Service also could have benefits for education, health care

(CNN) -- This week, tech giant Google made it official: Google Fiber is coming to Austin. Residents of the hip Texas city will be the beneficiaries of Internet speeds of 1-gigabit, roughly 100 times faster than current speeds.

In Kansas City, where the service launched last fall, 1-gigabit service costs $70 per month. For $120 per month, consumers get Google's TV service in addition to gigabit speeds. The company also offers seven years of free Internet service at current (5 mbps) speeds, after a $300 installation fee.

It's entirely possible that Google Fiber could cost more in the future, but for now Google says it expects prices in Austin to be "roughly similar to Kansas City."

Continued at:
http://www.cnn.com/2013/04/11/tech/innovation/google-fiber-austin-cities/index.html

Time Magazine

In Simplifying Tax Code, How Do We Get Back to Fundamental Values?

ANALYSIS    
AIR DATE: April 12, 2013

SUMMARY

With tax day looming, tax reform is in the air. In his budget, President Obama introduced several proposals aimed at simplifying the tax code. David Cay Johnson, columnist for Tax Analysts magazine, and economist Douglas Holtz-Eakin join Jeffrey Brown to debate different strategies and whether real tax reform is possible.
 
Transcript

JEFFREY BROWN: Yes, taxes are due on Monday. And, yes, once again, tax reform is in the air. It's been more than a quarter-century since the last overhaul, and now President Obama and key leaders in both parties say they'd like to work on simplifying the tax code.

But if the past is a guide, that it's much easier said than done. This week, the president brought back some of his longstanding proposals as part of his budget. They include capping itemized deductions and exemptions, such as the mortgage interest and charitable deductions, for wealthier households earning $250,000 dollars or more, tax increases on the foreign earnings of American companies, and a rise in taxes to at least 30 percent for individuals earning a million dollars or more.

We take a look at all of this now with David Cay Johnston, a columnist for Tax Analysts magazine and professor of law at Syracuse University College of Law, and Douglas Holtz-Eakin, an economist and president of the American Action Forum.

David Cay Johnston, let me start with you, and start with personal taxes that so many people face a deadline on. Help us think about possible reforms. What is the biggest problem with the system right now?

DAVID CAY JOHNSTON, "The Fine Print": Well, for most people, it is that they shouldn't have to file.

The government has all the information it needs for people who only get income from wages or pensions. And so if we excluded a small amount of money from dividends and interest, which we did do in the 1970s, we could eliminate tax filing for about 100 million of the 140 million people. So that is at the bottom end.

Continue at:

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/business/jan-june13/taxes_04-12.html

Verizon Wireless Adds New, $35 Prepaid Plan

by Stephanie Mlot

 April 12, 2013


In a world full of smartphones, it's easy to forget that "dumb phones" are still in heavy use. In a nod to those customers, Verizon Wireless this week added a new $35 pre-paid plan for basic phones.

For $35, pre-paid customers get 500 minutes of talk time, plus unlimited texting and data.

The new option is aimed at customers who don't want or need unlimited voice calling, but still want access to unlimited texting and mobile data, a Verizon spokesman said. Stepping over the 500 monthly minutes costs an extra 25 cents per minute.

Currently, the plan is only available on four phones: the LG Cosmo 2, Samsung Gusto 2, Samsung Intensity III, and LG Extravert, which range in price from $49.99 to $69.99. However, those with older basic phones can reactivate them on the $35 plan, the spokesman said.

Continue at:
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2417715,00.asp
by Stephanie Mlot

REPORT: Can an Increase for National High School Graduation Rates Be Trusted?

AIR DATE: April 11, 2013

JUDY WOODRUFF:  Now to our series on dropouts and what educators are trying to get more high school students to graduate.

We have spent much time chronicling the problem and looking at different approaches that make a difference.  There's been better news to report of late, but with graduation season coming soon, there are also questions about what's behind the numbers.

The NewsHour's special correspondent for education, John Merrow, has the story for our American Graduate project.

JOHN MERROW:  It's graduation day for the high school class of 2012 at College Career Tech Academy in Pharr, Texas.  Graduation rates have been rising here.  In fact, according to a U.S. Department of Education report, they have been going up all across the country.

The latest data show the high school graduation rate has risen to 78.2 percent.  That's a 5 percentage point jump in just four years after flatlining for almost 40.

Continued at:

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/american-graduate/jan-june13/amgrad_04-11.html

Boeing plans $1 billion expansion in S.C.

by Bruce Smith
April 9, 2013

    Boeing says it will spend $1B to expand its North Charleston, S.C., plant
    It is expected to create 2,000 jobs over 8 years
    The state could kick in $120 million worth of incentives

CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — Boeing announced Tuesday it is expanding in South Carolina, investing another $1 billion and creating 2,000 new jobs over eight years.

"Boeing is now a part of the fabric of South Carolina. So this is family and when family does well, we all get excited," Gov. Nikki Haley said at an aerospace conference along with Boeing and state officials.

The state is providing $120 million in incentives for upfront expansion costs such as utilities and site preparation at Boeing's North Charleston manufacturing complex that now employs about 6,000.

Continue at:

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2013/04/09/boeing-expansion-south-carolina/2066469/

HOME INVASION PREVENTION TIPS

1. Lock all doors, windows, and garages at all times, even when you are home. Preliminary information from the Cheshire tragedy reveals that the suspects got in through an open door.

2. Harden and secure your home with strong doors and locks.

3. Never open your door to strangers or solicitors. Most home invaders knock on the front door to gain entry. Use your outside light at night to see who is at your door. Don’t rely on door chains to keep intruders out; they won’t.

4. If you have an alarm system in your home, activate the perimeter doors and windows while you are in the home. If someone attempts to gain entry, the alarm will sound, giving you time to set your plan in motion.

5. Automatic phone dialers that can call 911, in speakerphone mode, can be effective in getting police assistance if intruders come in. Every home phone should be pre-programmed with this feature and all family members should be trained on how to use it. When intruders come in you will not have much time to contact police.

6. Have an escape plan in mind for your family. Train family members on where to go and what to say. This plan should include your children. If someone can escape, the invaders will have lost their advantage of privacy and time.

7. Never stop thinking if you are held captive. Stay calm and take advantage of any opportunities that present themselves.

8. Report all suspicious activity to police. If you see something out of the ordinary, call. You are not bothering us.

9. Often, police are asked if people should resist invaders. There is no set answer for this, seeing as it depends on the physical and mental capabilities of each person.

10. Don’t fight over property with an intruder. Let them have the property; it is not worth your life and can be replaced. Never follow the intruder from the scene, call 911 immediately and get the best description you can get.

http://www.homeinvasionnews.com/10-tips-to-prevent-home-invasion/

Look Out Below, The Obamacare Chaos Is Coming

by Peter Ferrara

4/07/2013


The biggest political problem faced by so-called “liberals” and so-called “progressives” in President Obama’s second term is how to prevent voters from holding them politically responsible as the public comes to realize how badly they were lied to during the first

Most supporters of Obamacare embraced it because of a principled belief that everyone should have access to essential healthcare.  But even the establishment, still Democrat dominated, CBO admits that after 10 years of implementation, Obamacare will still leave 30 million uninsured.

We will see below why that is a woeful underestimate.  Even worse, John Goodman and I explain how universal health care for all can be assured without Obamacare, with no coercive individual mandate, no job-killing employer mandate, and a savings to taxpayers of roughly $2 trillion over the next 10 years.

Continue at:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/peterferrara/2013/04/07/look-out-below-the-obamacare-chaos-is-coming/

 

Where have all the business travelers gone?

 by Joe Brancatelli

Apr 3, 2013

The business-travel world is shrinking. Literally. And not only because airlines are squeezing us into smaller and smaller seats.

Fewer of us are traveling than anyone once imagined, there are fewer flights than ever before and government-compiled statistics for the state of the commercial airline system in 2012 indicate that substantial growth isn't coming anytime soon.

According to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, which does a remarkably good job of delivering travel numbers in palatable bites, U.S. airlines carried 736.6 million passengers last year. Not only was that essentially flat compared to 2011—nationwide traffic increased just 0.8 percent—it's a far cry from the rosy predictions issued in 2000.

Continue at:

http://www.bizjournals.com/bizjournals/blog/seat2B/2013/04/airline-mergers-means-less-biz-travel.html?ana=RSS&s=article_search&google_editors_picks=true