Sprint Nextel, joined by an army of thousands of consumers, have filed requests for the U.S. Federal Communications Commission to block AT&T's proposed acquisition of rival mobile carrier T-Mobile USA.
via pcworld.com
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Sprint, Others Ask FCC to Deny AT&T Deal for T-Mobile | PCWorld Business Center
Monday, May 30, 2011
Five Things You Need to Know About Memorial Day - Cinnaminson, NJ Patch
Today, Memorial Day, is one of America’s most solemn observances. We honor the men and women who died serving and defending our country—unlike Veterans Day, the day to honor all veterans.
Amid the parades, 21-gun salutes and long weekend trips, how much do you know the holiday? Here are five Memorial Day facts.
1. The sheer carnage of the Civil War, America’s deadliest war, inspired Memorial Day as a way to honor the war dead. The observances originally were called Decoration Day because thankful Americans decorated and cared for soldiers’ graves. “Memorial Day” usage began appearing in 1882, but “Decoration Day” was common until post-World War II. Congress officially changed the name in 1967.
2. This year’s Memorial Day falls on the same calendar day as the first national observation. Gen. John A. Logan, commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, issued an order in 1868 that May 30 be “designated for the purpose of strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country…” Memorial/Decoration Day was observed on May 30 every year until 1971, when Congress moved it to the last Monday of May.
3. On that first national Decoration Day in 1868, 5,000 citizens decorated 20,000 Civil War soldiers’ graves—both Union and Confederate—in Arlington Cemetery. But the show of solidarity did not last. Southern states protested what they saw as a holiday primarily honoring Union soldiers.
Many Southern states created their own observances on separate days, and did not rejoin the Memorial Day traditions until post-World War I, when the day evolved to honor the dead who served in all wars.
4. Not content to simply observe the holiday, several towns squabbled about which could lay claim to founding Memorial/Decoration Day. Historical accounts say women in the Confederate states decorated soldiers’ graves before it ever became a national movement. A handful of towns nationwide argued they were the first to mark Memorial Day.
President Lyndon B. Johnson (tried to) put the issue to rest in 1966 by declaring Waterloo, NY, the birthplace of Memorial Day. Waterloo won out because it had first marked Memorial Day on May 5, 1866 and since made it an annual community observance.
5. Enjoying the three-day weekend with a trip to the Shore, backyard barbecue or other fun pursuits? Some critics wish you wouldn’t. Ever since Congress moved Memorial Day to the last Monday in May, creating a three-day weekend, critics blame the change with removing the solemnity and original purpose from the day. Hawaiian Sen. Daniel Inouye (D) has tried since 1987 to get Congress to move Memorial Day back to May 30.
Bonus fact! Keep noon and 3 p.m. local time in mind today. At noon, all flags lowered to half-staff should be raised completely for the remainder of the day. And at 3 p.m., a National Moment of Remembrance takes place. President Bill Clinton started the tradition in 2000.
Asus Demos Phone-tablet Combo, Meego Netbook | PCWorld Business Center
Taiwan's Asustek Computer has previewed a smartphone-tablet PC combo device that seeks to bring together the strengths of both devices without completely duplicating the hardware.
via pcworld.com
Sunday, May 29, 2011
Saturday, May 28, 2011
2011 equals deadliest U.S. tornado year on record | Reuters
(Reuters) - The United States on Saturday equaled the record for deaths from tornadoes in a single year with 519 killed in 2011, and more than a month still to go in the tornado season, The National Weather Service said.
via reuters.com
Grocery chain expands $1-a-gallon gas discount - Yahoo! News
CINCINNATI – The Kroger Co. is pumping up its fuel discount program, more than tripling the number of grocery stores where regular shoppers can get up to a $1-a-gallon discount on a tankful of gas.
The nation's largest traditional grocery chain has pointed to the fuel discounts as an increasingly successful way to build sales as U.S. households see a rising share of their spending going to gas. Kroger officials said Friday the increase from a maximum 10 cents off per gallon to $1 has rolled out in markets such as Atlanta and Phoenix in time for Memorial Day weekend travel.
Loyalty-card users get 10 cents off a gallon for every $100 spent on groceries. The deal had been capped at 10 cents per fill-up in most markets.
via news.yahoo.com
Friday, May 27, 2011
FT.com / Middle East & North Africa - G8 offers $20bn to aid Arab democracies
Tunisia and Egypt could be offered more than $20bn in international loans if they continue their transformation into “democratic and tolerant societies”, the leaders of the world’s richest countries announced on Friday.
In a gesture of western solidarity, Tunisia and Egypt were invited to the Group of Eight summit in Deauville, where a draft final communiqué declared: “Democracy lays the best path to peace, stability, prosperity, shared growth and development.”
via ft.com
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Google teams with Mastercard on mobile payments - May. 26, 2011
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Google is teaming with MasterCard, Citigroup and Sprint to launch a new phone-based mobile payment system.
The project, called Google Wallet, will enable special chips embedded in many future Android devices to be used for payments. Instead of swiping a credit card, customers will be able to wave their Android phone in front of a reader to make a payment.
via money.cnn.com
-Judge voids controversial Wisconsin union law | Reuters
May 26 (Reuters) - A Wisconsin judge on Thursday voided a controversial Republican-backed law restricting the collective bargaining rights of public-sector unions.
Dane County Judge Maryann Sumi said Republican lawmakers violated the state's open meetings law in rushing the legislation through during massive protests at the state Capitol earlier this year.
via reuters.com
Supreme Court sustains Ariz. employer sanctions law
Supreme Court sustains Ariz. employer sanctions law
By Joan Biskupic, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON —The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld an Arizona law that revokes the business licenses of companies hiring illegal immigrants, in a closely watched case testing state efforts to stop people from crossing the border.
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www.ImmigrationLawNewOrleans.comBy a 5-3 vote, the court rejected arguments from a coalition of business and civil rights groups, including the Chamber of Commerce and ACLU, that the Arizona law conflicts with overriding federal immigration policy and could lead to race discrimination.
Arizona has taken the lead among the states to crackdown on illegal immigration. A separate law in that border state requires police to investigate the status of anyone an arresting officer suspects may be here illegally. That measure has been challenged in lawsuits, including from the Obama administration, that are still pending in lower courts.
A key question in challenges to state efforts is whether they are trampling on the domain of the federal government. Congress generally has authority over immigration and for decades has established comprehensive schemes for the admission and treatment of foreigners.
In Thursday's case, Chief Justice John Roberts said the 2007 Arizona law penalizing companies that hire illegal immigrants meets a "licensing" exception to the general federal rule dictating that states not set their own civil or criminal penalties in the immigration area.
Roberts stressed that the Arizona law covers only "knowing or intentional violations" of the federal prohibition on hiring illegal workers and that the licensing sanction is triggered only after the second violation.
"These limits ensure that licensing sanctions are imposed only when an employer's conduct fully justifies them," he said. "An employer acting in good faith need have no fear of the sanctions."
The court in Chamber of Commerce v. Whiting also upheld an Arizona provision requiring all employers in the state to use a federal electronic verification system to confirm that workers are authorized to take jobs. The federal government makes that E-verify system voluntary, and challengers said the records are incomplete and prone to error.
Roberts was joined by Justices Antonin Scalia, Anthony Kennedy, Samuel Alito and, for most of his opinion, Clarence Thomas.
Dissenting were Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer and Sonia Sotomayor. The court's ninth justice, Elena Kagan, who previously was U.S. solicitor general, did not participate.
The U.S. government had sided with the challengers, saying the state's law was not truly a "licensing" provision because it did not involve the granting of licenses, only the revocation. Federal immigration provisions specifically "preempt any state of local law imposing civil or criminal sanctions (other than through licensing and similar laws) upon those who employ" illegal immigrants.
During oral arguments in the case last December, Acting U.S. Solicitor General Neal Katyal had told the justices, "Nearly a quarter of a century ago, Congress declared federal employer sanctions central, not peripheral, to the policy of immigration law. Congress broadly swept away state and local laws, preempting any sanction upon those who employ unauthorized aliens."
In his opinion for the court, Chief Justice Roberts noted that several other states have followed Arizona with laws attempting to impose sanctions for the hiring of illegal workers, including Colorado, Mississippi and Pennsylvania.
Dissenting justices said the federal system was intended to prevent such a patchwork of state laws.
Justice Breyer, in a dissenting opinion signed also by Justice Ginsburg, noted that licensing sanctions could lead employers to decline to hire foreign-looking or foreign-sounding people to avoid state scrutiny. Overall, he wrote, state penalties "might prove more effective in stopping the hiring of unauthorized aliens. But they are unlikely to do so consistent with Congress' other critically important goals, in particular, Congress' efforts to protect from discrimination legal workers who look or sound foreign."
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Score: 15Name withheld
LiberalMisfit
12:30 PM on May 26, 2011
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I believe this is a great idea !! Stop the illegal hiring and cut off a large source of illegal immigration.
Score: 19Name withheld
Ndian
12:32 PM on May 26, 2011
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glad to see that there is still SOME america in america. Thanks Arizona. You are a shining example of how the rest of the nation should be. Below will be all the bleeding hearts, all those who are involved in illegal aliens and the illegals themselves saying that it isn't fair.
Go ahead.. I just wanted to be ahead of that crowd.
Score: 10Name withheld
archaelin
12:32 PM on May 26, 2011
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awesome
Score: 7Name withheld
irockOK
12:33 PM on May 26, 2011
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OMG Wait till that communist Obama get`s wind of this!
Score: 8Name withheld
ychuck46
12:35 PM on May 26, 2011
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Finally, a significant win in the Supreme Court. Let's have all 49 of the remaining states do the same thing and maybe we can afford to do some more for real American citizens that need a helping hand, not a hand out. Way to go, AZ - we're proud of you!
Score: 1Name withheld
ltTollsForThee
12:36 PM on May 26, 2011
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So many Liberals agreeing with the conservatives justices on the SCOTUS. What gives?
Score: -10Name withheld
communismNOW
12:36 PM on May 26, 2011
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I'll still hire whoever I feel like....legal or illegal...I'll just won't do business in AZ...no loss to me
Score: 3Name withheld
global777
12:36 PM on May 26, 2011
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Sonia Sotomayor dissenting. No surprise there.
BO and Holder are huddling up, trying to find a way to sue the Supeme Court.
BO needs the ILLEGAL alien votes to survive 2012.
Beware of the ILLEGAL alien sympathizers. They will do whatever it takes to grant amnesty to the invaders.
Congratulations Governor Brewer and the State of Arizona! Keep up the fight...
Score: 4Name withheld
nolemminghere
12:37 PM on May 26, 2011
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its about time someone acts to enforce our laws.
Score: -3Name withheld
Jacked Up Jerry
12:38 PM on May 26, 2011
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communismNOW
12:36 PM on May 26, 2011
I'll still hire whoever I feel like....legal or illegal...I'll just won't do business in AZ...no loss to me
_________________________________Wow....you are really fooling all of us you dumb connie.
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