Archives 2017

Every two minutes someone is injured in a drunk driving crash around the country. And the Department of Transportation is looking to change that.

For their new nationwide ad campaign, the DOT focuses on the “Four E’s” — enforcement, education, engineering, and emergency medical services. So far, the Four E’s have brought a lot of success as nationwide long-term anti drunk driving trends are positive.

The DOT believes this success is due in part to their creative and hard hitting ad campaigns, which vary all across the nation. While the ad campaigns may differ state by state, the message is crystal clear.

Take Oregon, for example. The state has made it a law to specifically use billboard advertisements as part of their comprehensive traffic safety program. New Mexico has utilized an intensive media campaign, including social media posts to make drivers aware of the dangers and potential risks of driving intoxicated. They also have one of the strictest interlock device laws in the country, which is used both to punish repeat offenders and to prevent them from driving with any alcohol in their system.

Montana is another state that is getting creative with their laws. Native Americans make up about 7% of the population but represent about 20% of traffic fatalities over the past five years. So, the state DOT branch has decided to produce safety advertisements that are relevant and relatable to different Native American cultures, and they are posting them, with permission, on reservation lands.

The Texas DOT is reminding people not to drink and drive by putting the faces of victims of drunk driving on billboardsfor everyone to see. They hope that by making a personal connection to those killed by this serious matter, people won’t even attempt to drive intoxicated.

These creative and unique campaigns seem to be working. In recent years more than 90% of Americans report wearing a seatbelt. Traffic fatalities nationwide also dropped from more than 51,000 in 1980 to 33,000 in 2014.

Hiring individuals that are perfect for the job can be rough, and keeping them onboard can be even more challenging. This was demonstrated in 2015, when some 2.7 million workers left their jobs in June, a 25% increase from the years prior. And while the market has recovered and grown since The Great Recession, the War For Talent rages on.

But Amazon is making a big move, having announced that they intended to hire 50,000 workers. With the labor market still little tight, others will be competing for many of those jobs.

The major retail company will be opening their doors to job seekers Wednesday at more than 10 shipping sites, and the majority of the jobs offered will be full-time positions. Around 10,000 part-time jobs will also be offered at sorting centers, and some supporting and manager positions have also opened.

Back in January, Amazon stated their intent to hire some 100,000 full-time workers in 18 months time. Since then, they’ve steadily announced jobs, like plans to grow their Boston and Michigan employments between 900 and 1,600 workers.

The labor market is uncertain in its ability to support the retail giant’s demands. The U.S. experienced a drop in unemployment to just 4.4%, a nearly 16-year low, but the average hourly pay only rose 2.5% in the last year. This is in contrast to the 4% raise that occurred the last time unemployment was so low.

Amazon stated that the jobs will offer “highly competitive” pay and include health insurance, disability insurance, retirement-savings options, and company stock. These come along with 20 weeks of paid leave and other benefits.

In the last few years, Amazon’s growth has been phenomenal. They’ve had sales that nearly doubled in a three-year span, and Amazon is growing outside of its original position of just retail. They’ve purchased grocer Whole Foods with a $13.7 billion deal and then added Sears’ Kenmore products to their website and rolled out ready-to-eat meals that compete with companies like Blue Apron.

If the plans of the company to hire so many workers goes just as planned, then they could see another large increase in sales.

In San Francisco’s Mission District, what should’ve been an impromptu yet enjoyable skateboarding event ended up turning into something resembling a brawl with law enforcement.

The Los Angeles Times reports that the encounter started at around 7 p.m. at a competition called a “hill bombing.” About 11 million people self-report that they enjoy skateboarding on a regular basis, but it can definitely cause injuries, and when law enforcement was called to Dolores Park to help an injured skateboarder, another rider collided with an officer, sending the rider through the air.

Many of the almost 300 onlookers say the injury looked deliberate, and videos posted to Twitter clearly show that the officer was, in fact, standing in the center of the street.

“Dude, a cop just (messed) him up,” one witness said.

The video also shows just how steep the street was and how fast the riders were going.

“It seems pretty obvious to me that the police officer just kind of stuck his shoulder out, and you know, it’s a really dangerous, reckless thing to do at that speed,” said Chris Atwood in an interview with CBS.

Incidents such as these inevitably beg the question as to whether or not the use of police body cameras should be more heavily enforced. While it is estimated that 67% of burglaries can be avoided by the installation of video surveillance, it’s not at all a stretch to say that video surveillance can also improve the conduct of law enforcement, who should be held to higher standards upholding the law as it is.

The skater was taken to the hospital and treated for minor, but unspecified, injuries, and the park was shut down.

As a result of the confrontation, however, multiple police cruisers were defaced, and one even had its windows smashed.

Although nobody was arrested, the investigation is still underway.

Probably the biggest propeller in this story was social media.

Witness Joel Hamill posted his own video as well. “Purposely push skateboarder into car causing serious injury,” he Tweeted as a caption.

“We literally shut down Dolores Street,” a 22-year-old San Francisco skater who identified himself only as Pete told SF Gate. “They (police) were doing their job. That doesn’t mean we always agree with it … It got very very serious very fast. Then the cops got involved and the skaters got mad.”

Grace Gatpandan, police spokesperson, fully supports the actions of the officers.

“The officers were just trying to keep them safe when this all happened,” she said.

The housing market has been hit in a big way by the millennial generation, who have entered it with force recently. For years now, the millennial generation had been seemingly uninterested with owning homes, but for the first time they make up the majority of home purchasers.

According to a millennial real estate agent, Nick Sakkis, the reason why this took so long to occur is really tied to the lifestyles and employment options that the generation had.

“I think Millennials have a lot of options that the GenX-ers or Boomers didn’t have. They can work remotely so the idea of putting down roots in one place might not appeal to a lot of them, so that’s where the disconnect comes in.”

But that appears to no longer be the case with the older members of the generation, who are no longer restrained by the burdens they had early in their professional lives. A lot of their resources had been tied into their education and career until now, and financial analysts say not to underestimate that. It’ll have a lot of impact on the power of their purchasing and in a good way.

Greg McBride, Bankrate.com’s chief financial analyst, is one of the voices speaking about the power of the millennial real estate buyer.

“A lot of those Millennials who were reluctant to buy because of student loan debt or career mobility will look in their 30s and – by virtue of those investments in education and career early on – will be able to skip right over the starter home.”

So, while the big bank results state otherwise, the housing market could see an exponential increase in the coming years as millennials obtain a little more financial freedom, especially amongst military members finally leaving duty.

Veterans who’ve served for a period of time longer than six months get access to special VA home loans that require no mortgage insurance and give 100% financing options. So, not only will older millennials have the benefit of an education, but also potentially great housing options from the armed services, too.

As the millennial generation begins to settle down and have families of their own, the investments made in their future are starting to show a good return. If this will drive the housing market out of its slump has yet to be determined.

Since its inception nearly 50 years ago, the inflatable industry has been growing steadily as a market. This can include jump houses, obstacle courses, and water slides, which are the real summertime pleasure.

And that’s something even the police can agree on!

During a Fourth of July party, the police received a complaint that a large water slide was causing a disturbance in a residential area. Upon arriving on the scene, the police officers did the most logical thing they could do:

They partook in the fun.

A resident of the area, Katlen Joyce Smith, said that one of the local parents had decided to build a slip-and-slide for the neighborhood kids to enjoy during the annual block party for the holiday.

Although the initial complaint claimed that the water slide was blocking the road, the officers found no apparent violations.

“When the police came, they quickly realized that wasn’t the case and asked if they could take a turn,” Smith said.

One of the officers to arrive at the scene, Carrie Lee, stated in a video posted on Twitter that there weren’t any violations that could be seen with the slide. It did not block the road.

“We looked at it and determined it wasn’t really an issue. So the first thing I said, I said I’m not here to break up your fun,” Lee reported to CNN.

In that same video, Lee can be seen using the trash bag as her raft while her partner, Officer Joe Jones, slides down on an inner tube with one of the neighborhood kids.

Smith was ecstatic about the events and could hardly believe how the complaint had turned out, taking to Facebook to share:

“I still can’t handle the amazing mess of it all I hope the neighbor who called them saw it all go down!!”

Officer Jones didn’t have any intention of going down the slide originally but caved to pressure from one of the local kids.

“I thought I was going to be able to get out of it, because I’m too big to fit in a trash bag. But then when the kids pulled out this big raft … I had no choice.”

The events can be seen on YouTube and the Police Department’s Twitter feed.

The CEO and interim-President of pharmaceutical giant Teva, Yitzhak Peterburg, believes that the health-care industry is facing a “huge disruption” in the coming years. The cause, Peterburg believes, is the fact that technology heavyweights are not “jostling” for consumers with more traditional providers.

“I am a very great believer that we are now in a huge disruption within the health-care (industry),” he said, “and I think it will affect our industry. For me, the digital reform, or whatever we see, is a huge enabler.”

Teva Pharmaceutical, which is located in Israel, is one of the largest producers of generic medicines. It also has treatments for sclerosis as well as late-stage programs for disorders of the nervous system.

Peterburg believes that pharmaceutical companies need to start thinking of ways to navigate their changing landscapes and take a look at the competitors that are appearing.

“Being good at manufacturing pills and injections is no longer enough for pharma companies. Consumers have also changed and they expect very different value from pharmaceutical companies and the healthcare industry as a whole,” said Peterburg.

Some of the competitors he listed that need to be watched out for in the modern pharmacy world are companies like Amazon and Google. Amazon was reported to be attempting to enter into the multi-billion dollar pharmaceutical industry earlier in the year.

Peterburg believes that there is no easy solution to the issue and that it’s not as straightforward as one would expect. This is due to the fact that the industry is, according to him, “not moving at the same pace.”

“It’s very, very difficult, especially for incumbents, to find the right way and where to move,” he noted. “That’s why we have to do it by collaboration maybe with start-ups, with small companies and try to find the solution.”

What this collaboration would mean for the hundreds of thousands of individuals working in the industry (there were 397,430 pharmacy technicians working in the U.S alone in 2015), is unknown.

It’s no secret that information technology is a wide and varied field, encompassing hundreds of different types of jobs dealing with different sectors of the industry. And while the managed security services market is expected to almost double by 2020, from $17.02 billion to $33.68 billion, a second-annual study conducted by Cocero Network Security determined that DDoS mitigation will likely become an essential managed service in the future, according to Infosecurity Magazine.

The study found that 37% of IT services providers thought of DDoS mitigation as more of a priority than other types of managed services. About 56% said that it was equally as imperative.

The findings could be a result of the fact that around 87% of small businesses experienced a security breach in 2012 alone, according to a recent survey, and DDoS mitigation ultimately means faster resolutions to many different types of security issues.

“Given that DDoS attacks are growing in frequency and sophistication, it’s not at all surprising that providers are prioritizing and enhancing DDoS mitigation service offerings, and understand the revenue opportunity that such a service brings to the table,” said Stephanie Weagle, Corero vice president of marketing. “It’s much more cost effective — and less complicated — for a business to secure DDoS protection from their trusted provider.”

Verizon is just one big name that’s attempting to keep up with the IT needs of businesses, recently implementing a new security service based in cloud management. Software-Defined Perimeter (SDP) allows businesses to scope out potential security breaches and prevent them before they occur.

When Verizon released its 10th Annual Data Breach Investigations Report in April, it found that 98% of DDoS attacks are targeted toward enterprises. Verizon partner RDS solutions, telecom solution provider based in Clinton, New Jersey, recognizes that security is an absolute priority to businesses of all sizes.

“In addition to providing the connectivity between locations and the internet, our customers rely on us to recommend and assist in understanding and implementing the necessary safeguards,” said Paul Vuoso, RDS’ vice president of technology.

According to Verizon, SDP is currently available to its business customers who are located in the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom, the European Union, and Norway. Vuoso assures that security will remain a priority to both RDS and Verizon.

“Connectivity and access are crucial for today’s enterprises, but it cannot come at the expense of security,” he said.

In the United States, ducted heating and cooling is quite commonplace as it is installed in about 90% of new homes. This goes for colleges and other professional buildings as well, much to one professor’s dismay.
John Cain was returning to his University of Kentucky office late at night when he heard some rumbling above him. His front door was blocked and he immediately shouted that he was going to call the police.
Right after this claim, two students came tearing down the hallway holding a sheet of paper. It turns out that these students had climbed into their statistics professor’s office through the ceiling ducts to attempt to steal answers for an upcoming final exam.
According to University Spokesman Jay Blanton, there was a drop ceiling near Cain’s office, giving the students an easy way to enter the office. One student had climbed through the opening and the other was waiting outside the door for it to open. Much to their surprise, Cain was working late that night and caught them both red-handed.
One of the adventurous culprits returned to the scene a few hours later and confessed to University Police. Henry Lynch, 21, confessed not only to that night’s crime but one a few weeks prior.
“He told police that two things. One, that he had been there earlier in the evening trying to steal a test, had been unsuccessful at that point and presumably, that’s why he had come back later. And then apparently earlier in the semester, had successfully stolen a test,” Blanton explained to the Lexington Herald-Leader. “Said he didn’t share the answers with anybody but had successfully stolen a test at that time.”
Both Lynch and his accomplice, who has not been named, have been charged with third-degree burglary and are expected to appear in their area’s local Circuit Court later this summer.
In addition, the University of Kentucky will be conducting a further investigation into the burglary. Once more information is discovered, they will respond with action against the two test bandits.

If April 2017 felt particularly rainy, that’s because it was actually record-breaking rainy.

In fact, April was the second wettest year on record in the United States, according to data released by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

This onslaught of rain caused torrential downpours and deadly floods around the country, including the Mississippi Valley, the central Plains, the Northwest, and the Great Lakes area. Missouri, Arkansas, and North Carolina suffered from deadly flooding the most, with North Carolina reporting 6.75 inches of rain, obliterating its previous record of 3.42 inches, USA Today reports.

Americans just aren’t used to all this rain, considering the last time the country reported numbers like this it was 1957. The average precipitation rate for the country was 3.43 inches, a full 0.91 inches above what is expected for this time of year.

So, while 20% of all home insurance claims are related to water damage of some kind, it seems that April 2017 will make that number increase even more.

Of all 50 states, only North Dakota and Arizona were drier than usual last month.

On top of all these record-breaking floods, April ushered in a period of extreme warmth, which worsened the drought in the Southwest and parts of the Southeast. This was in part due to massive wildfires burning in Florida and areas of Georgia, which were so powerful the rain had no effect. April was the 11th warmest April on record, staying consistent with the fact that 2017 is on its way to being the second-warmest year in recorded human history, second only to 2012.

However, despite all these environmental changes, there has been one positive. Despite the wildfires in Florida and Georgia, all this rain helped to shrink the nationwide drought. According to NOAA, the drought threat is now at the lowest level it has been since the year 2000, which is when the U.S. Drought monitor was established and started to collect data.

The music industry is struggling and technology is to blame. Such has been the lament of artists, producers, and music labels for almost two decades.

Gone are the days of passing out flyers to promote a band’s new record or upcoming album release, despite the fact that Americans use 9 billion tons of paper a year. Technology is undoubtedly revolutionizing the music industry, but certain groups of people within the industry believe it’s changing for the better, while others, specifically many smaller musicians, are worried about their future.

In 2014, there were roughly 173,000 self-employed musicians working in the United States. Although some of those artists went on to have extremely lucrative and successful careers in the music industry, the majority of self-employed artists have to continually fight to survive in this competitive and increasingly digital industry.

According to Forbes, payments to musicians, songwriters, and the companies that represent them are at extremely low rates in 2017, and computers are actually making a bad problem worse. With more music fans streaming music online, incorrect metadata is resulting in missed payments, low payments, or the wrong rights holders receiving payments altogether.

Digital Music News, however, is optimistic about the outlook for the music industry, which might be showing signs of a comeback.

“The revenue returning to rights holders through these [streaming] services in 2016 amounted to $553 million,” reported the International Federation of Phonographic Industries. “By contrast, a much smaller use base of 212 million users of auto subscription services [both paid and ad-supported], that have negotiated licenses on fair terms, contributed over $3.9 billion.”

Some old school musicians, especially those who made fortunes off the “old way” of doing thing, are much less optimistic about the industry. Now, some of these music legends are speaking out.

And according to at least one aging rocker, the prognosis for the future of the music industry is grim:

“Good luck to ’em. I am not a supporter,” said co-leader of KISS Gene Simmons, referring to Spotify and other streaming services. “If you wanna earn a living, you can’t get the music out there. So you’re living in your mother’s basement, you have to have a day job and the kids get your music for free…And the people that killed all the new bands are the fans themselves. It wasn’t corporate America, it wasn’t aliens from space.

“The people that killed the music they love are the people who love the music.”