INBRIEF
CRITICS POUNCE ON ASTORINO ANNOUNCEmENT
By all accounts, Westchester County Executive Robert P. astorino will have his work cut out for him in his bid to unseat the heavily favored and well-funded incumbent, Gov. andrew cuomo. Astorino formally announced his bid for the governorship March 5 in a campaign video on his website, but his coming-out party was immediately met by a fast and furious backlash from his critics. Uphill battle or not, his opponents appear to be taking his chances seriously. Pro-choice groups took aim at Astorino’s pro-life views and what they called “anti-women” policies. Reine Schiffrin, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Hudson Peconic Action Fund, said Astorino had cut funding for teen sexual education programs and vetoed legislation that ensured safe access to reproductive clinics. (Astorino said at the time the law was flawed and noted it had been opposed by several pro-choice county legislators as well). “Rob Astorino is bad for women, bad for families, bad for New York,” Schiffrin said. “Apparently he takes his cues from politicians in places like Texas and North Dakota, putting ideology ahead of the commonsense health care needs of the people of Westchester.” Astorino, who is so far the only Republican to seek the party’s nomination, has also taken heat from environmentalists for his support of the hydraulic fracturing industry, a controversial method of mining natural gas, and his pro-nuclear energy stance. Cuomo has outwardly called for the closure of the Buchanan nuclear facility Indian Point Energy Center but has said more information was needed before he decided whether hydraulic fracturing poses environmental risks. Locally, county Democrats pounced on
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gains of having two screens. Dual monitors help you multitask by avoiding the constant minimizing and maximizing of programs on just one screen. Imagine writing an email on one monitor while looking at a spreadsheet on the other. Some power users are now asking for a third monitor because it really saves a lot of time. Why should small business owners care about what kind of operating system their
Astorino’s campaign and even prior to his announcement had held a press conference and funded television commercials that said as a candidate for governor he was not spending enough time focused on his county duties. Cuomo continues to see strong polling in comparison to potential GOP rivals, although his approval rating hit an all time law in a NBC4/Wall Street Journal/Marist Poll report released March 6. In that polling, he beat out Astorino by 40 percentage points, 65 percent to 25 percent. Cuomo’s job approval rating, according to the poll, dropped to 42 percent, down from 52 percent in November 2014.
INTERNET TOP CAUSE OF NEW YORKERS' FRAUD COmPLAINTS
The state attorney general’s office last year was flooded with web-related complaints from New Yorkers, prompting Attorney General eric T. Schneiderman to give the Internet the No. 1 spot on his top 10 list of consumer fraud complaints in 2013. His office received 4,753 emails and phone calls last year from Internet users whose causes of complaint ranged from privacy matters to spyware and online consumer frauds, Schneiderman said this month at the start of National Consumer Protection Week. That volume of gripes far exceeded the 2,614 contacts from consumers complaining about automobile-related scams, which ranked second on the attorney general’s list. The credit industry generated 2,295 complaints in 2013. New Yorkers reported problems with debt collection, credit card billing, debt settlement, payday loans, credit repair, credit reporting agencies and identity theft. Rounding out the fraud list were: n Furniture and major household appliances, 1,168 complaints. n Home repair and construction, 995 complaints about home improvement services not delivered or done poorly. n Retail sales, 913 complaints. n Mail order, purchases online or from catalogs, 816 complaints.
computers use? Does it affect the bottom line? Sometimes people forget that XP is a 12-year-old operating system. Enormous improvements have been made in the world of technology in this time, and the computing experience on a modern platform is vastly superior to that on an XP machine. In an age where there is so much emphasis on productivity, it’s counter intuitive to expect such an old system to offer the best performance. As mentioned above, there are also myriad issues related to security and network integrity. A data breach can put a small business out of business.
CREDIT CARD GIANTS TEAm UP ON SECURITY
Massive consumer credit-card security breaches at Target and other retailers have led two rival giants, Purchase-based MasterCard Inc. and Visa Inc., to form a new cross-industry group focused on enhancing payment system security for consumers, merchants and financial institutions. The corporate partners in a recent press release said the group initially will focus on the adoption of fraud-resistant EMV (Europay, MasterCard and Visa) chip technology in the U.S. and address other securityrelated topics, especially measures to protect mobile and online transactions. The group will include banks of all sizes, credit unions, acquirers, retailers, point-of-sale device manufacturers and industry trade groups.
“One of the critical roles we play is to protect consumers and businesses against criminals and fraudsters,” chris McWilton, president of North American markets at MasterCard, said in the joint announcement. “Only through industry collaboration and cooperation will we address the real and immediate issue of security and maintain consumer confidence and trust.” Ryan McInerney, president of Visa Inc., said the recent high-profile breaches “have served as a catalyst for much needed collaboration between the retail and financial services industry on the issue of payment security…These conversations will serve as a useful forum to share ideas, break down barriers and spur the adoption of next generation security solutions for the benefit of all.” — John Golden, Mark Lungariello
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WESTCHESTER BUSINESS EXPO March 20th | 2:00pm-6:00pm | Hilton Westchester
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WCBJ • March 17, 2014
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