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Archive for January 25, 2012

Two controversial anti-piracy bills, now effectively dead in the water, attracted enormous lobbying attention on both sides.

It’s not everyday a startup founder gets an invite to one of the White House’s most anticipated events.

Netflix said Wednesday it began to add customers again last quarter, after a series of blunders damaged its sterling reputation with consumers and investors.

Now that the National Highway Traffic Safety Admin station has closed its investigation into vehicle fires in the Chevrolet Volt, General Motors is left to clean up the public relations damage.

There’s no doubt that Apple is doing far better than the U.S. economy as a whole. But that doesn’t mean Steve Jobs had a better jobs record than Barack Obama.

In an effort to be more transparent with the public, the Federal Reserve gave more insight into its planning tools Wednesday than ever before.

Starbucks has come out in support of a bill that would make Washington the seventh state to legalize gay marriage. The company joins fellow Pacific Northwest-based firms including Microsoft and Nike in backing the bill, which also has support from Gov. Christine Gregoire and is close to passage in the state’s House and Senate. Gregoire has previously called corporate support for the bill “courageous and appreciated.” Starbucks said in a statement Tuesday that it was “proud to join other leading Northwest employers in support of Washington state legislation recognizing marriage equality for same-sex couples.” “This important legislation is aligned with Starbucks’ business practices and upholds our belief in the equal treatment of partners,” the statement read.

A new special task force to investigate and prosecute those responsible for bad mortgages during the housing boom will be part of President Obama’s 2012 agenda.

 In pursuing the exotic are we neglecting the mundane?

How vulnerable is the power grid to cyber-tooled terrorists, professional hackers and teenagers with nothing else to do? Will smart meters and home networks become naïve instruments of commercial espionage, spying on consumers’ personal habits? Or are terrorists cooking up codes to bring down regional transmission systems? Based on the number of available articles, workshops and news items related to smart grid cyber security from power plant to customer, one might conclude that the digital danger is definitely real.

 

 

Attention college students: The interest rate on federal student loans is scheduled to double this summer unless Congress acts soon.