Система Рябко в двух словах, боевые искусства единоборства самооборона (11:31:27)
Система Рябко в двух словах, боевые искусства единоборства самооборона https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gquPb76W1TI
by macaleo kalkins via bugreg mobile version site
in автовыкуп киевby macaleo kalkins via bugreg mobile version site
in автовыкуп киев
Vladimir.Vasiliev - Strikes боевые искусства система Рябко (00:08:23)
Необходима проверка безопасности
Ученик Михаила Рябко - Vladimir Vasiliev - Strikes боевые искусства система Рябко https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpa3WknAwOM
Facebook http://ift.tt/2wlEVFi
Youtube
https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCR-iFWCweRwbzRCtoa2UpxA
Поддержите контент подпиской и будьте в курсе событий.
by macaleo kalkins via bugreg mobile version site
in автовыкуп киев
Удары, несколько нюансов (00:01:44)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-15aPJbeg1I&sns=fb
я присутствовал при данной демонстрации ударов от Михаила Васильевича Рябко. По видео этого не ощутить, но я хорошо помню вибрацию от ударов, которая волной проходила по полу
by macaleo kalkins via bugreg mobile version site
in автовыкуп киев
Valentin Talanov. Chain against attacker. (00:02:44)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTnCHugL1TQ
Защита от атак цепью
by macaleo kalkins via bugreg mobile version site
in автовыкуп киев
д/ф СТАЛЬНОЕ СЕРДЦЕ. Кас Д'Амато. 1 серия (01:00:01)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0w_lzFfYQw
масса интересной информации, но плохая подача материала. Кое-где просто приходится проматывать фильм, потому как раздражает
by macaleo kalkins via bugreg mobile version site
in автовыкуп киев
Как наносить удар вовремя.Упражнения для наработки удара. (00:13:26)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FyWHEVFhYI&feature=share
Интересные упражнения
by macaleo kalkins via bugreg mobile version site
in автовыкуп киевBack in 2005, you needed a standalone GPS device if you wanted a disembodied voice to yell at you when you made a wrong turn. Before smartphones existed, a pocket-size GPS device that was small enough to be convenient for motorcycle and bike use was novel and useful. However, such a device available on the shelf at Walmart in 2017 isn’t so impressive. It’s also not much of a deal.
Reader Patrick is one of the Raiders of the Lost Walmart, a brave team of retail archaeologists who comb through the electronics sections of big-box stores to find gadgets that aren’t just obsolete or just plain old, but are also comically overpriced.
Reader Patrick noticed the Garmin Quest 2, a device first released in 2005, for sale at Walmart. He looked back at the price stickers, noting the rich history. It had been marked $578.76 in May 2009 and in July 2016, and finally discounted a little bit to $350.00 in June of 2017, a few days before he unearthed this artifact.
If you don’t mind having a used unit and downloading the manual online, you can buy this same GPS on eBay for $84.
Or you could spend more than four times that much in the bizarro electronics universe of Walmart.
“Hey, that could just be a photo from 2008!” you might be saying — so here’s a close-up of the dated shelf tag.
Dunkin’ Donuts, faced with slipping sales, has undergone a bit of a revamp in recent months, such as dropping the “Donuts” portion of its name at a California store to paring down its menu. Now, the company is focusing on deals, as in, giving customers more of them.
The chain announced its third quarter financials Thursday, noting that for the sixth straight quarter traffic to locations had fallen.
In all, traffic at U.S.-based restaurants declined 2% for the third quarter.
While same store sales increased by 0.6%, overall income for Dunkin’ Brands — which also counts Baskin Robins in its portfolio — fell slightly by about $500,000.
In the face of falling sales, and fewer customers walking through the doors, Dunkin’ CEO Nigel Travis tells Reuters the chain will increase the number of promotions it runs.
“Our franchisees are now seeing the value of value and you will see a lot more in the future,” said Travis.
The company plans to focus the deals on its mobile app, providing loyalty members with personalized ads and perks, Reuters notes.
In the past, the company has run promotions such as “2 for $2” egg and cheese wraps and prize promotions on drinks.
Nigel pointed to the company’s recent “Sip. Peel. Win” promotion as an example of a successful deal, noting it had driven hot coffee sales.
This month is the first in which student loan borrowers enrolled in the Department of Education’s Public Service Loan Forgiveness program were expecting to see their student loan tab cleared. But that’s not happening for some borrowers after learning they were never actually enrolled in the programs, despite assurances from the companies servicing their debts.
The situation is a culmination of problems within the servicing industry and the complicated forgiveness program.
It also further bolsters recent findings from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that highlighted borrower complaints about student loan servicers mishandling the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program.
For those unfamiliar, in 2007 the government began offering a public service loan-forgiveness program that will forgive certain federal student loans for borrowers who work for government organizations and non-profit groups for 10 years and make 120 on-time monthly payments on their loans.
The New York Times spoke with one such borrower who expected to have his debt wiped away via the program this month.
However, that didn’t happen, despite the fact the man had followed the rules; making 120 on-time payments and working full-time as a teacher.
Instead, just two years before his debt was supposed to be forgiven, the man was informed that he hadn’t made a single eligible payment. That’s because he wasn’t enrolled in the correct program.
The man’s story begins back in 2002, when he entered a graduated repayment plan that allowed him to start with smaller monthly payments that grew over time as his income did.
In 2007, he signed up for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program through his loan servicer ACS Education Services, The Times reports. The company told him that as long as he made the 120 months of payments, his debt would be forgiven. ACS left the federal student loan business, and the man’s loans were sold to Mohela in 2012.
He continued making payments, The Times reports. However, the following year, a co-worker told him that just one servicer could forgive the loans, FedLoan. So the man worked to transfer his debts to that company.
FedLoan is the company contracted by the Dept. of Education to handle the forgiveness program and determine borrower’s eligibility. It’s also party to a lawsuit by Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey, accused of putting borrowers at risk of losing their eligibility for forgiveness.
Nearly two years after his loan was transferred, the man found out that the repayment plan he entered in 2002 wasn’t eligible for the forgiveness program. That meant that none of the payments the man had made counted toward forgiveness. He’d have to start all over.
The news was in contradiction to what servicers had been telling him. He tells The Times that he was told his loan was in “good status” by each company.
A rep for the owner of his first servicer ACS told The Times they could not comment on the man’s loans, while a rep for Mohela (the second servicer) didn’t have specific records noting what the man was told.
A rep for FedLoan tells The Times that the company informed the man of issues with his loan several times.
The Times, in reviewing the man’s documents, did find a notice in 2014 that stated the borrower hadn’t made any eligible payments.
The only problem was that the notice was on the back of a statement and not clearly visible to the borrower.
It’s a missed sign that several borrower likely made, The Times reports.
“There is going to be an enormous crush of borrowers who think they are eligible only to find that they are not,” Seth Frotman, the student loan ombudsman at the CFPB, said a statement. “We need to get ready for it.”
In fact, some borrowers have already accused the government of failing to keep its promise to forgive loans. As cited in a lawsuit against the Dept. of Education, some borrowers reported they believed they were fulfilling the program’s requirements when they weren’t.
According to a lawsuit [PDF], filed by four previously qualified participants and the American Bar Association, the Department of Education acted “arbitrarily and capriciously” when it changed its interpretation eligibility requirements without explanation.
While it’s fairly simple to determine what a government agency is, finding a qualified non-profit is more difficult. For that reason, the Dept. allowed prospective program participants to fill out an Employment Certification for Public Service Loan Forgiveness form.
The forms, which the Department encourages participants to fill out each year, are reviewed by FedLoan Servicing.
But at some point in the last several years, FedLoan began telling people who had previously been qualified for the forgiveness program that they were no longer eligible to have their loans forgiven. What’s more, the decision was retroactive, meaning none of the time they’d spent working toward the forgiveness goal would be counted.
After receiving such letters, the borrowers sued the Department of Education to find out why the changes were being made.
The Dept. of Education replied to the lawsuit, noting in a filing that the FedLoan approval letter was never a reflection of a “final agency action on the borrower’s qualifications” for the program.
After giving employees more than six months to recover from this spring’s Unicorn Frappuccino, Starbucks has another limited-time novelty beverage that’s made more for Instagram than for human consumption. Yet the good news (perhaps?) for many of the chain’s employees is that supplies for the drink have already run out in many locations. Darn.
The zombeverage consists of a caramel-apple sweet blended base with mocha “blood,” topped with whipped cream that’s supposed to look like brains.
Like the Unicorn frap, the drink is designed more for looks than for flavor, and many employees report that the beverages are going straight in the trash after one sip. Or, at least, after customers snap a photo.
“I think the drink tastes pretty bad so I get it,” one worker observed on Reddit. “But not a single empty zombie frapp at my store yet, figure someone would suck it down.”
What Starbucks wisely did this time, though, was make sure that the drink is only in circulation for as long as supplies last. Business Insider noticed that this means a lot of stores have already sold out, with their staff presumably sighing with relief.
The sparkly color-changing unicorn beverage became an object of nationwide derision back in April, creating a brief and peaceful moment when all Americans agreed on something.
As the saying goes, when life hands you lemons, make lemonade. However, if life locks you in the beer cooler, don’t crack open a few cold ones — tempting though that may be — or you may find yourself charged with retail theft.
According to Marshfield, WI, police, a 38-year-old man entered a walk-in beer cooler at a Kwik Trip convenience store before midnight on Tuesday night, reports WAOW.com.
Although the store is open 24/7, the beer cooler automatically locks at 12. a.m. Thus, at the stroke of midnight, the man was stuck… and it sounds like he was fine with that situation.
“The subject found himself locked in the beer cooler, knew that Kwik Trip would not sell him any beer, so he decided to remain in the beer cooler,” the chief of police told the news station, adding that there were actions he could’ve taken to let someone know he was in there.
Instead, he allegedly drank an 18-ounce bottle of Icehouse Beer and three cans of Four Loko (which yes, still exists), and tumbled over a stack of Busch Light 30-packs.
He was only discovered at about 6 a.m. when another customer spotted him in the cooler. Though he fled the scene, he was later arrested and charged with stealing the beer. He’s in county jail on a probation hold from another case that required him to remain sober.
Kwik-Trip says it will review its security.
“I’ve heard of people being locked inside of buildings, never inside of a beer cooler or a beer cave,” the chief said, calling the situation a “unique” one in his 20-year career.
Are Amazon’s bookstores headed for the same future as struggling chains like Barnes & Noble? It’s possible, according to the company’s latest financials, which suggest the company’s physical bookstores aren’t doing so hot.
Amazon announced its third-quarter earnings on Thursday. For the first time, it also broke out performance for its physical stores, noting that these entities accounted for $1.276 billion during the quarter.
Physical stores — which Amazon helpfully describes as places where a customer “can physically select items in a store” — include both Amazon’s bookstores and its newly acquired Whole Foods grocery chain.
While $1.276 billion in sales is pretty impressive for a company just jumping into the physical retail world, Amazon notes that a majority of those sales are from Whole Foods.
In fact, the company estimates that net sales from Whole Foods — since it was acquired in August — totaled $1.3 billion, which likely includes online sales of the brand’s products.
Additionally, Amazon doesn’t note exactly how much the bookstores contributed in sales for the third quarter, which means the figure could be so minuscule it doesn’t make a dent in the $1.27 billion in sales. We’ve reached out to Amazon for more information.
So what’s that mean? Mainly, that Amazon physical bookstores don’t ring up much in the way of sales.
Business Insider surmises that there are a few reason for this: There are only 12 Amazon bookstores, and the locations often function as a benefit to Prime members, not everyday customers.
For instance, as we’ve previously reported, Amazon has been charging different prices for Prime and non-Prime customers visiting the store.
Under the company’s pricing structure, customers who pay $99/year (or $10.99/month) for Prime membership can buy books and other products at the store for the same price they are listed on Amazon.com.
Customers who aren’t Prime members will be charged the product’s “list price.” As a result, many non-Prime members are better off purchasing books online.
In the end, the stores often function as a place for customers to simply browse books and test out Amazon’s devices, like the Kindle or Echo speaker.
Still, the lack of sales doesn’t mean Amazon is ready to give up on its bookstore concept. In fact, the company is doing just the opposite with three more stores slated to open in the future.
Would you consider an in-air concert on your next flight an amenity, or something that would make you switch airlines? Southwest Airlines is continuing its series of concerts for captive audiences, partnering with Warner Music to have the label’s artists perform mini-concerts for Southwest’s passengers.
You may not be familiar with the series, but Southwest calls its in-air concerts “Live at 35,” as in 35,000 feet of altitude. They’ve been happening since 2011, and Southwest and Warner Music Nashville recently made a deal to make their midair concert series official.
A recent show on a flight from Nashville to Philadelphia, for example, featured country artist Devin Dawson. Billboard referred to the concert as having a “capacity crowd,” which one could also frame as a “fully booked flight of people forced to attend a concert.”
The audience mostly seems happy about the surprise, if a bit confused at first. You can watch a longer clip on Southwest’s site.
“You know, some people don’t really enjoy flying; some people get very nervous and don’t like it,” Dawson told Billboard. “I hope that something like this [concert] is just a cool surprise for some [passengers] that helps them forget about their everyday woes, and I’ll just play a couple of songs to make them smile.”
It’s been nearly two years since customers have been able to shop at an FAO Schwarz store. That’s about to change… kind of: Department store chain Bon-Ton will open nearly 200 FAO Schwarz toy departments at stores this holiday season.
Bon-Ton announced Thursday that it will begin selling FAO Schwarz toys online and in newly developed toy departments at 186 of its department stores on Nov. 4.
The new toy department will open in each of Bon-Ton’s department stores, including Bon-Ton, Boston Store, Bergner’s, Carson’s, Elder-Beerman, Herberger’s, and Younkers locations in 24 states.
“This cherished brand has been enjoyed by children and families for 155 years and we are delighted to carry this unique toy collection in our stores,” Chad Stauffer, Executive Vice President and Chief Merchandising Officer for The Bon-Ton Stores, said in a statement.
The FAO Schwarz toy departments, which will be open year-round, will feature several classic toys from the brand, including the Piano Mat, All Aboard Train Set, Cuddly Plush bear, and other items.
FAO Schwarz closed its flagship store in New York City back in 2015, marking the first time in 153 years that the store didn’t have a physical retail presence.
At the time, FAO Schwarz owner — and now struggling retailer — Toys “R” Us said the closure was due to the high cost of operating the location on Fifth Avenue, noting that it was looking for other space to house the toy store.
Fast forward a year, and Toys “R” Us had changed its tune, selling FAO Schwarz for an undisclosed sum to ThreeSixty Group, a company that licenses and buys well-known brands.
We hate to break it to the pumpkin purists out there, but that canned orange stuff you so lovingly scoop into pie shells every Thanksgiving is probably some other kind of squash dressed up as its gourd cousin.
“But the can says ‘100% pumpkin’ right on it!” you may be exclaiming in outrage. It does, and it’s totally allowed to, as MarketPlace pointed out in an August segment that’s been making the rounds recently: The Food and Drug Administration doesn’t make distinctions between pumpkins and its squash relatives, so food companies can slap whatever they want on the label.
“They’re all in the same botanical family, and it’s just a game of semantics,” Serious Eats senior editor Stella Parks told MarketPlace.
Indeed, the the FDA says canned “pumpkin” has been packed from either field pumpkin — Cucurbita pepo — or “certain varieties of firm-shelled, golden-fleshed, sweet squash (Cucurbita maxima), or mixtures of these. Pumpkin and squash are sometimes mixed intentionally to obtain the consistency most acceptable to users.”
To that end, the FDA notes that since 1938, the agency has “consistently advised canners that we would not initiate regulatory action solely because of their using the designation ‘pumpkin’ or ‘canned pumpkin’ on labels for articles prepared from golden-fleshed, sweet squash, or mixtures of such squash with field pumpkins.”
The FDA’s views on mixed gourds probably won’t change any time soon, as the FDA says the absence of evidence that this designation misleads or deceives consumers gives it no reason to revise its stance.
Hey, at least you’ve got something else to talk about with your family at the table this year.
LuLaRoe is a multilevel-marketing company that has brought brightly colored leggings and dresses to communities across the country since its debut five years ago. Yet the company’s sales representatives say that the company is really peddling false hope and intense stress alongside leggings and the dream of being an independent businessperson, and two new class action lawsuits against the company accuse it of exactly that.
Specifically, class actions filed this week [PDF] and two weeks ago [PDF] both accuse the company of running what California law calls an “endless chain scheme,” an even better term than “pyramid scheme.” That’s a term for a marketing scheme where selling actual merchandise to new participants isn’t the point, but recruiting new participants is.
LEARN MORE: John Oliver Wants To Sell You On Why Multi-Level Marketing Stinks
The plaintiffs also allege that LuLaRoe changed the rules and rates after implementing a recent refund program.
“Once consultants signed up, they were pressured to invest and reinvest by purchasing Defendants’ clothing products — regardless of whether they were able to sell their inventory. Plaintiffs were inundated with the slogan ‘buy more sell more’ and were told they would recoup their investments through retail sales and recruitment,” the initial complaint for one class action explains.
READ MORE: 4 Things LuLaRoe Sellers Say About The Stress & Cost Of Their Job
The plaintiffs allege that they were rewarded for placing larger and larger orders from the company, but not necessarily for selling that merchandise. You know, to customers.
Distributors with poor sales were told that they needed to recruit more participants and buy more inventory, with leaders suggesting tactics like running up credit cards, taking out loans, and selling pumped breast milk to finance their original assortment of inventory and ever-greater inventory purchases. Distributors have no control over the selection of sizes and patterns that they’re sent.
READ MORE: 4 Things To Know About LuLaRoe Sales Reps’ Problems With The Company
LuLaRoe said in a statement that its success “has made us the target of orchestrated competitive attacks and predatory litigation,” but that the company does take lawsuits filed against it seriously. “We have not been served with the recent complaints, but from what we have seen in media reports, the allegations are baseless, factually inaccurate and misinformed,” the company stated to the Press-Enterprise.
There are a lot of things you’d rather not have happen when driving your car. “Steering wheel falling off and into your lap” likely ranks pretty high on that list. For that reason, federal safety regulators have opened an investigation into more than 841,000 Ford Fusion vehicles.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Office of Defects Investigations opened an investigation [PDF] into model year 2014 to 2016 Ford Fusion vehicles after receiving three reports that the steering wheel either became loose or completely detached from the vehicles.
This obviously poses a serious problem: If the steering wheel is no longer attached to the vehicle, the driver can’t control the car. This, NHTSA says, can increase the risk of a crash.
According to documents [PDF] from the regulator, the three reports submitted by Fusion owners involve one vehicle in each of the 2014, 2015, and 2016 model years.
In a complaint submitted in June 2016, the owner of a 2014 Fusion tells NHTSA that the vehicle’s steering wheel came loose while in motion. The car was taken to a dealer, where the airbag was removed and the wheel re-tightened to the steering column.
The owner of a 2016 Fusion tells NHTSA in a complaint that the vehicle’s steering wheel came loose while driving. He was able to steer the car to a mechanic, where it was discovered that the bolt holding the steering wheel to the column had come loose.
Finally, the owner of a 2015 Fusion tells NHTSA that the steering wheel came completely detached from the vehicle and fell into the driver’s lap as it was turning into a gas station.
NHTSA’s investigation documents note that no injuries or crashes have been linked to the issue to date.
The Office of Defects Investigations opened a preliminary evaluation of the issue in order assess the scope, frequency, and safety related consequences of the alleged defect.
If you’re a fan of Haribo gummy candies, you may want to put that bag down for just a second: New reports about the candy company claim it’s sourcing ingredients that are made by workers living in deplorable conditions, as well as others that come from animals that are mistreated.
The A.V. Club points to a documentary from ARD, a German public broadcaster, that found that the workers harvesting carnauba wax — which gives gummies’ tummies that shine and prevents stickage — “are forced to sleep outside or in trucks, have no access to toilets and have to drink unfiltered water straight from nearby rivers.”
Many of these workers are reportedly underage. Authorities have attempted to raid the plantations to liberate workers from conditions that one Brazilian Labor Ministry official said “could be described as slavery.”
“The workers are treated as objects, worse than animals,” he said.
That’s not all, folks: The documentary also reports on footage circulated by animal-rights groups show the pigs that are used to make the gelatin for Haribo gummies “with open sores and abscesses living in indoor pens in their own excrement, and in some cases among their own dead.”
The two companies involved supplying the gelatin say they weren’t aware of these conditions and that measures for “species appropriate animal farming” were in place at the farms.
In a statement to Vice’s Munchies, Haribo expressed concern at these reports.
“We would like to emphasize that we are extremely concerned by some of the images shown on the consumer program broadcast on German TV channel ARD last week,” a Haribo spokesperson said. “The conditions on the pig farms and the Brazilian plantations shown are insupportable.”
Haribo says it will now be auditing its suppliers and has pledged to keep the public informed of what it finds.
“Should it transpire that urgent improvements are needed in this area, we will insist on their implementation and will not rest until these improvements have been implemented.”
Could Equifax have suffered a second data breach following the massive hack exposing the personal information of more than 145.5 million consumers? It’s possible, according to a security researcher who claims to have found a second, separate security vulnerability within the company.
Motherboard reports that in late 2016, a security researcher tipped off Equifax to a security flaw after finding a webpage that could have allowed anyone to access the personal information of consumers.
According to the researcher, just a few hours after he began looking at Equifax’s servers and websites he found an access point to consumers’ Social Security numbers, full names, birthdates, and city and state of residence.
A webpage on Equifax’s system appeared to be a portal for employees, but was actually available to anyone on the internet, Motherboard reports.
The researcher said the page included a number of search boxes that anyone could force to display the personal data of Equifax customers.
The vulnerability, dubbed a “forced browsing” bug, allowed the researcher to compile several lists of customers’ personal information, Motherboard notes, after seeing the data.
“All you had to do was put in a search term and get millions of results, just instantly — in cleartext, through a web app,” the researcher said.
In addition to uncovering the flaw to gather personal data of customers, the researcher says he was also able to take control of several Equifax servers and find several other smaller bugs.
The discoveries, which occurred in December, were quickly reported to Equifax, the researcher tells Motherboard.
“It should’ve been fixed the moment it was found,” the researcher says, noting that the site remained up until June when Equifax finally took it down.
While this particular vulnerability hasn’t been tied to the massive data breach that Equifax suffered for several months this year — that hack was the result of a vulnerability in the Apache Struts software used in the company’s disputes portal — it shows that there were a number of ways hackers could have accessed the company’s data.
It also further illustrates that Equifax was not prepared to handle a breach or keep consumers’ data secure.
Equifax declined to provide comment to Motherboard on the issue, noting that, “as a matter of policy, Equifax does not comment publicly on internal security operations.”
Consumerist has reached out to the company for comment, we’ll update this post if we hear back.
About a year after Lyft started allowing riders to request multiple stops on their trips, Uber is joining its rival in offering the option for extra destinations.
Perhaps you’d like to pick up a few friends for a night on the town — or carpool home with your pals later. Either way, Uber passengers can have up to three stops on every trip.
Here’s how it works:
1. Press “Where to?” and then “+”
2. Add any addresses you’d like to travel to.
3. Request your ride.
4. Take that trip.
If you need to make changes during the trip you can add and remove stops as you go.
Here are five of the best photos that readers added to the Consumerist Flickr Pool in the last week, picked for usability in a Consumerist post or for just plain neatness.
There are a few things left that Amazon.com doesn’t sell, and one of them is prescription drugs. Yet for most of the last year, analysts and retail-watchers have speculated that Amazon may be looking to get into the prescription drug business. Now there’s proof that the retailer has taken more official steps toward becoming a mail-order pharmacy.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that Amazon has become a licensed pharmaceutical wholesaler in 12 states, with a pending application in a thirteenth. To ship drugs directly to consumers, competing with large pharmacy benefit managers and mail-order pharmacies like Caremark or Express Scripts, Amazon would also need to be licensed as a pharmacy in each state to which it shipped drugs.
The facilities listed on the applications are distribution centers in Indiana. One industry analyst observed to the Post-Dispatch that Amazon may be building its own pharmacy capabilities, or could acquire an existing pharmacy, as it did when it acquired Whole Foods to bolster the grocery business that it had been building for years.
The Post-Dispatch was able to confirm through public records that Amazon has been approved as a pharmaceutical wholesaler in the states of Alabama, Arizona, Connecticut, Idaho, Louisiana, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Dakota, Oregon, and Tennessee. An application in Maine is still pending.
The names on applications are people who previously worked in the medical supplies and mail-order pharmacy industry, according to LinkedIn.
Amazon declined to comment to the Post-Dispatch, calling the clues “rumors and speculation.”
Earlier this year, health insurance giant Aetna was left broken-hearted when its $37 billion merger with Humana fell through because federal antitrust regulators apparently hate to see two mammoth insurers so in love with each other. But in this autumn season, there’s a rare bloom of corporate romance peeking out, as Aetna has reportedly found itself a suitor in the form of CVS Health.
The Wall Street Journal — citing the ever-anonymous but always chatty “people familiar with the matter” — claims that CVS Health is angling to purchase the Connecticut-based Aetna for $200 a share, which would currently put the deal at around $66 billion.
While most people know CVS for its vast chain of retail drugstores and pharmacies, parent company CVS Health also has businesses that are more directly related to Aetna’s operations, like CVS Caremark, which operates prescription benefits management (PBM) services for thousands of health insurance plans. In the world of prescription drugs and insurance, PBMs operate in the role of middle-man, negotiating prices with drug makers for insurance providers.
Aetna attempted to acquire Humana in 2015 — around the same time of another proposed insurance mega-merger between Cigna and Anthem. In July 2016, the U.S. Department of Justice, along with attorneys general from nine states, filed lawsuits seeking to halt both mergers, arguing that they would result in over-consolidation and fewer choices for insurance buyers in just about every type of health insurance: Individual plans purchased through exchanges; employer-sponsored group insurance; and plans sold to supplement Medicare.
Such DOJ lawsuits often end with the merger partners calling off the deal or making concessions to appease antitrust regulators, but Aetna and Humana attempted to make their case in court. In Jan. 2017, a federal judge ruled against the insurers, saying the merger would “likely to substantially lessen competition in Medicare Advantage” in each of the 364 counties challenging the deal.
The insurers subsequently called off their engagement in Feb. 2017.
The state of Illinois has filed a lawsuit against payday lender Check Into Cash, but not for its short-term lending practices. Instead, the company is accused of exploiting its low-wage employees by forcing them to sign non-compete agreements that restrict their ability to find jobs elsewhere.
Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan’s office filed a lawsuit [PDF] against Check Into Cash of Illinois — a subsidiary of the national payday lending venture — accusing the company of running afoul of state laws by imposing highly restrictive non-compete agreements on low-wage customer service employees.
According to the lawsuit, employees at Check Into Cash’s 33 Illinois locations are subject to a non-compete clause that restricts them from working for any other business that provides consumer lending services or products for one year after they leave the company.
The lawsuit alleges that these clauses are in violation of the Illinois Freedom to Work Act, which prohibits the use of non-compete agreements for employees earning minimum wage or less than $13/ hour.
The AG’s office contends that most of Check Into Cash’s employee make less than $13/hour, meaning they fall within the scope of the law.
Additionally, under Illinois law, non-compete agreements must be premised on a legitimate business interest and narrowly tailored in terms of time, activity, and place.
The AG’s office alleges that Check Into Cash’s non-compete clause is in violation of these requirements, as they include restrictions that cover too many different employment options and places too many limitations on the location of future employment.
For instance, consumer lending services and products can include any payday advance services; check-cashing services; pawn or title pawn services; secured or unsecured credit lending services; secured or unsecured installment lending services; or essentially any other consumer lending service or money transmission service.
The state’s lawsuit contends this is too wide-reaching, noting it could also apply to retail stores or auto dealerships that extend credit or companies like Western Union or the U.S. postal service that transmit money.
Additionally, the non-compete agreements prohibit employees from finding future employment at these types of companies if they are located within 15 miles of any office or retail location of Check Into Cash, or any location of the company’s parents, affiliates or subsidiary companies.
“Check Into Cash inappropriately tries to retain low-income workers by requiring them to sign unfair non-compete agreements that attempt to prevent workers from getting better jobs elsewhere,” Madigan said in a statement.
With the lawsuit, Madigan’s office seeks to void the non-compete clauses and prevent Check Into Cash from imposing future clauses.
This isn’t the first time Madigan’s office has tackled unfair non-compete clauses.
In Dec. 2016, Jimmy Johns entered into a settlement with the AG’s office over the use of restricted non-compete clauses that prevented employees from working for other sandwich companies.
Under the deal, Jimmy Johns agreed to pay $100,000 to establish education and outreach programs, putting an end to a months-old lawsuit that alleged the fast food company illegally required all employees to sign a highly restrictive non-compete agreement as a condition of employment.
The AG’s office notes that it is currently investigating other companies that have also used restrictive non-compete clauses.
As Halloween draws closer, here’s a reminder of what you should really be scared of: ATM skimmers, or devices that attach to cash machines to slurp up customers’ card numbers and PINs. You should also be afraid of adults in creepy baby doll masks. According to police in Minnesota, a recent crime there incorporates both of these terrifying prospects, with a mask-wearing suspect accused of placing skimmers on ATMs in two counties and stealing tens of thousands of dollars.
The team, a man and a woman, only try to disguise themselves in one image released to the public. Police believe that they may have traveled from out of town, and may be part of a larger skimming ring, they told the Minneapolis Star-Tribune.
The skimmer installations were first discovered on Sept. 23 when someone (we don’t know whether it was a customer or an employee) alerted the cops to a skimming device on an exterior ATM at the City County Credit Union.
More devices were found in the following days, but police can’t be sure that they have them all. The local sheriff’s department shared tips that are useful for everyone. The sheriff’s department recommends inspecting ATMs before you begin a transaction.
“If it looks suspicious, don’t use the ATM and go inside the bank,” a sergeant with the sheriff’s department told the Star-Tribune. Alert the bank if you see something on the machine’s exterior that doesn’t look right.
We also recommend sticking to the same few ATMs when you’re at home so you’re more likely to notice parts stuck on or other oddities. It’s also a good idea to poke and pull at pieces of the device, making sure that there isn’t a false front, an extra card reader, or a pinhole camera attached to the front of the machine. Cover your hand while entering your PIN in case there’s a hidden camera.
Skimmers can also be completely invisible, which is why it’s important to keep an eye on your bank statements and immediately report any suspicious transactions.
The Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office posted a Tweet with images of the suspects, but it’s the last picture, where the suspect is wearing a creepy cracked baby doll mask while fiddling with a drive-up ATM, that startles the entire Consumerist team every time that we look at it.
READ MORE:
Here’s A Gas Pump Skimmer That Texts Victims’ Card Data To Crooks
Here’s A Snap-On Bluetooth Skimmer Spotted Out In The Wild
Let’s Watch Some Promotional Videos From Makers Of ATM Skimmers
Here’s What You’ll Find Inside A Real ATM Skimmer Found In Indonesia
6 Things We Learned About Bluetooth ATM Skimmers In Mexico
Would You Have Spotted This Skimmer Found On An ATM In Mexico?
Watch Suspected Scammers Install And Harvest Data From ATM Skimmers
Tiny Bluetooth Card Skimmers Will Make You Hug Your Debit Card
A Visual 3-Step Guide To Detecting ATM Skimmers
If you’re like many other humans on this planet, winter’s shorter days may get you feeling a bit down from lack of sunlight. But some folks in the state are on a mission to reclaim one hour of sunlight, with a campaign to get Massachusetts to leave the Eastern Time Zone.
One member of a Massachusetts state commission that’s currently looking at whether or not the state should move to the Atlantic Time Zone — and thus, opt out of Daylight Savings Time — said he started his quest when he moved from Washington, D.C., to Massachusetts.
“I knew I was moving north, but I had no idea how far I was moving east, and so you can imagine my horror when in December the sun was setting” at 4:11 p.m., he told PDFNBC News.
If Massachusetts does move time zones, it would be an hour ahead of the rest of the East Coast for roughly four months each year.
In September, the state commission released a draft report [PDF] that found Massachusetts “could make a data-driven case for moving to the Atlantic Time Zone year-round.”
The commission’s report notes that year-round DST would positively impact consumer spending, which could help the state attract and retain more talented workers; would increase residents’ productivity and cut down on both the number and severity of on-the-job injuries; and improve public health in general.
A second draft will be voted on Nov. 1, and if approved could go on to lawmakers.
Massachusetts isn’t the only state to consider such a move, the commission notes: Four of the other five New England states have also looked into year-round DST. In Maine, a bill that would’ve prompted such a change in the state if Massachusetts and New Hampshire also participated was passed by both legislative chambers before it was laid aside.
Another bill in New Hampshire passed the House but was voted down in the Senate, while bills establishing year-round DST were also filed in the Connecticut and Rhode Island legislatures. Elsewhere in the country, legislators have introduced bills in Illinois, Michigan, Mississippi, New Mexico, and Wyoming.
Is a $50 discount on a new LG phone enough to offset having to look at ads everytime the device locks? That’s the question some Amazon customer are debating, as the company is offering to knock $50 off LG smartphones that show ads on the phone’s lock screen.
Amazon announced the deal today, noting that it would be offered to members of its $99/year (or $10/month) Prime subscription service who purchase certain LG phones.
Discounts on the LG G6 and LG G6+ devices, as well as the LG Q6 and LG X charge phones vary.
For instance, Amazon currently advertises the LG G6 as costing $449.99. However, through the Prime Exclusive program, the phone shows an original price of $638 with a $238.01 discount, bringing the price of the phone to $399.99. The difference between the discounted phone and the non-discounted device is $50.
A current listing for the LG Q6 shows the price as $299.99. Through the Prime Exclusive program, customers receive a $70 discount, bringing the cost of the phone to $229.99.
Amazon has long sold discounted, ad-subsidized versions of its own Kindle and Kindle Fire e-readers and tablets. The company began using ads to subsidize the cost of third-party devices last year when it began offering the same discount on Android phones.
Though Amazon is offering this deal now, it will still be a few weeks until buyers get their new phones, as they aren’t being released until Nov. 9.
After the NAACP issued a travel advisory warning non-white travelers that their safety and well-being may be at risk when flying American Airlines, the social justice advocacy group and the airline will be meeting to discuss numerous claims of racial mistreatment.
In its advisory this week, the NAACP said that after monitoring for several months “a pattern of disturbing incidents reported by African-American passengers, specific to American Airline,” the group was alerting travelers — “especially African Americans” — to “exercise caution, in that booking and boarding flights on American Airlines could subject them disrespectful, discriminatory or unsafe conditions.”
The group went on to list some recently reported incidents, including a black man who was required to give up his purchased seats on a flight “merely because he responded to disrespectful and discriminatory comments directed toward him by two unruly white passengers” and a black woman and her infant child who were removed from an AA flight “asked that her stroller be retrieved from checked baggage before she would disembark.”
Other travelers have been documenting their experiences flying AA online, using the hashtags “#Happened2MeOnAA” and “#FlyingWhileBlack.”
The day after the NAACP issued its travel advisory, American CEO Doug Parker sent a letter [PDF] to employees saying that the airline has reached out to the NAACP, and “we are eager to meet with them to listen to their issues and concerns.”
“The mission statement of the NAACP states that it ‘seeks to remove all barriers of racial discrimination.’ That’s a mission that the people of American Airlines endorse and facilitate every day – we do not and will not tolerate discrimination of any kind.”
The NAACP tells the Dallas News that “wheels are in motion” to set up a formal discussion with AA soon. We’ve also reached out to the group for more information and will update this post if we receive a response.
Bloomberg ran the numbers from the Department of Transportation’s Consumer Travel Reports, and found that American Airlines passengers have filed 29 complaints of racial discrimination from 2016 through Aug. 2017, the most of any U.S. airline in those 20 months. United Airlines was next with 17 complaints, Delta Air Lines and Southwest Airlines both had nine complaints.
Earlier this month, a group of 30 civil rights organizations sent a letter to Southwest accusing the airline of racial profiling, reports the Dallas News, in response to a recent incident where a pregnant Pakistani woman was pulled from her seat after she told crew members she had a dog allergy.
While the airline claims the woman said she had a life-threatening allergy, and needed an EpiPen due to the presence of a dog on the flight, she denied ever saying either of those things.
It’s pretty clear to anyone who has been paying attention that the opioid abuse epidemic in America has reached emergency status. But it’s one thing for people to casually use that term and another for the White House to actually declare a “Public Health Emergency.” Here’s why.
There’s more than one kind of “Emergency,” when it comes to federal guidelines, and what kind of “Emergency” the White House calls some urgent catastrophe has significant implications for the kind of funding and federal attention it receives.
The White House will later today be declaring the opioid crisis a Public Health Emergency, Politico and others report.
The President doesn’t actually get to do the declaring; technically, Trump will be directing the Department of Health and Human Services, led by Acting Secretary Eric Hargan since Tom Price’s resignation, to declare the Emergency.
The Public Health Emergency declaration still increases resources directed toward combatting the opioid overdose and addiction crisis, but does so differently than a National Emergency would.
A Public Health Emergency, at its most basic, allows government agencies to design and implement plans for reallocating resources and starting programs designed to mitigate the crisis.
As Stat explains, this particular emergency declaration has a few main components to it.
1. Telemedicine
Telemedicine — the ability to video conference your medical providers, basically — is often touted as one of the great solutions the 21st century can offer for healthcare.
The administration is expected to announce a regulatory change that would permit providers using teleconferencing to serve patience the ability to prescribe medications that are used to assist with substance abuse or mental health treatment.
The increased permissions granted to telemedicine providers would largely help residents of rural areas, who have a harder time accessing in-person care — but no word on if improving rural Americans’ access to broadband that supports telemedicine is also on deck.
2. More specialists
Helping individuals and communities combat addiction is highly specialized work. The problem is, the specialists aren’t necessarily in the same places the people are. So the declaration will allow HHS and states’ governors to appoint specialists “with the tools and talent needed to respond effectively” temporarily to positions in order to provide help where needed.
3. Jobs
The Department of Labor will be instructed to make dislocated worker grants available to folks who work in areas where the labor market has been decimated by the opioid crisis.
Basically, these grants provide money for states and localities to retrain workers and provide temporary jobs in areas where some federally-recognized disaster has created an artificially high unemployment situation.
There’s a big “but” on this, though: Labor is instructed to provide the grants “subject to available funding.” No funding? No grants.
4. Shifting priorities
The Administration also proposes to shift some resources from dedicated HIV/AIDS support programs to programs that support both HIV/AIDS and substance abuse issues, in order to address the needs of the population dealing with both.
The biggest thing not on the table right now is money.
A declaration of emergency usually makes some kind of funding available — from FEMA, at least.
But as Stat says, this entire declaration relies on an already-existing public health emergency fund that HHS says is currently worth about $57,000.
When it comes to a nationwide disaster, that’s basically nothing.
The administration said that they expect funding to show up in the eventual budget spending bill that Congress must pass by December in order to keep the government running.
But assembling that budget is going to be a fraught and complicated process, with a ridiculous number of moving parts, and it’s anyone’s guess what will actually have made it in by the end.
If you’ve ever wondered why massive, international beer behemoths like AB InBev, which is already home to Budweiser and dozens of others, keep gobbling up small craft brewers? Because more Americans are sneering at mass-produced lagers and seeking out local and craft brews instead. As a country, we’re still drinking plenty of beer; we’re just not drinking Bud.If you’ve ever wondered why massive, international beer behemoths like AB InBev, which is already home to Budweiser and dozens of others, keep gobbling up small craft brewers? Because more…
“The underlying business remains incredibly weak,” one industry analyst told Bloomberg News.
AB InBev considers Budweiser a “premium” brand within its portfolio, compared to lower-prestige brands like Busch. While the brands’ marketing campaigns are successful in that people are paying attention to them, actual sales of the beer aren’t increasing.
“Budweiser’s ‘American Summer’ campaign and the return of the ‘America’ packaging contributed to upward trends in brand health and led to Budweiser becoming the leading brand in the industry in ad awareness and consideration growth in 3Q17,” the company wrote about its American business in its quarterly earnings report [PDF].
What’s conspicuously missing there is any sales increase in exchange for all of that marketing — because the market shares for Budweiser and Bud Lite are falling. The company also blamed some poor sales performance on hurricanes in Florida and in Texas that presumably disrupted residents’ beer drinking briefly, but temporary disasters aren’t the issue. Customers’ distaste for Budweiser is.
Budweiser is hoping for a sales boost from a limited-edition release of a pre-Prohibition recipe later this year, and is investing $2 billion in trying to increase sales. Customers are already aware of the brand: Have they just rejected the beer itself?
Maybe the craft brewers who are trying to raise a few hundred billion through crowdfunding to buy AB InBev will have some fresh marketing and product ideas. The campaign has already received nearly $3 million in pledges — only $212.997 billion to go!
Two months after Verizon revamped its unlimited data plans to severely throttle video, the wireless provider is once again tweaking the system, announcing that customers with “unlimited” data plans can finally watch all their videos in high-definition… if they’re willing to pay an additional $10/month for the privilege.
The Verge reports that starting Nov. 3, Verizon will remove video streaming restrictions from its unlimited plans if customers pay an extra $10/month per line.
The change could significantly increase customers’ bill depending on their current unlimited plan, how many lines the have, and how they use those lines.
For instance, customers who subscribed to Verizon’s “top-tier” $85 “Beyond Unlimited” plan, which topped out at 720p video on smartphones and 1080p on tablets, will now pay $95 for the ability to stream video at the maximum quality supported by their device.
But if this customer happens to have three other family members on the plan, and they all just love to stream high quality video, the total bill will be around $125/month.
Likewise, customers who used Verizon’s $75 lower tier that restricted video quality to 480p resolution will now pay $85 for higher video quality. And, of course, if this customer has other family members on the plan, that increase is $10/line.
As always, the change doesn’t really affect customers who only watch video on their devices via a wireless connection.
As noted above, this isn’t the first time Verizon has changed its unlimited plans since jumping back on the unlimited wagon in February.
In August, the company introduced the video streaming caps.
Those changes in video quality applied to existing customers — not just those on this year’s new unlimited plans, but all Verizon Wireless customers.
The company said at the time that the changes were about network management, as customers were using their connection to watch too much video.
“We’re really managing our network in a way to be able to expand unlimited data to more people,” an executive for the company said in August.
The new plan was a significant change from what Verizon had offered in February. At the time, Verizon’s offering was more generous with HD video than AT&T or T-Mobile, permitting it by default; now it’s the worst, behind Sprint, not even allowing phone video to reach 1080p.
