Inside: Classifieds
THEIJNIONDEMOCRAT
Section
'Chip cards' designed to fight fraud Real estate-
By LACEY PETERSON
TuolumneCounty land transfers from July 10 through July 17.B2
The Unr'on Democrat
Credit and debit cards will soon make the switch to have micro-chips on the front designed to reduce fraud.
CEO Pay — Federal mandate will require companies to reveal extent of their own pay gapa.B3
BRIEFING
Highway Patrol recruiting
Business owners who accept credit or
Maggie Beck/ Union Democrat
New card readers scan the front and back of "chip cards."
The California Highway Patrol is accepting online applications for officers. The CHP's goal is to hire 600 cadets per year. In addition to traditional patrol duties, the CHP offers opportunities to join specialized units throughout the state, such as air operations, dignitary protection, computer crimes investigations, vehicle theft task forces, homeland security operations, and commercial vehicle inspection programs. Anyone interested can go online to www. chpcareers.corn for more information to include testing dates. Candidates must be a U.S. citizen between the ages of 20 and 35, possess a high school diploma, and be able to pass an extensive physical and background check.
Mixer set at Lazy Z The Twain Harte Area Chamber of Commerce will host a free poolside mixer at the Lazy Z Resort on Aug. 11. The event will include live music by The Brothers Strong 5 Co., drinks, food and a raffle. It will begin at 5:45 p.m. at 22732 MiddleCamp Road, Twain Harte. For more information, call the chamber at 586-4482.
Biz workshop set in Angels A free business symposium will take place from 11 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Sept. 28 at the Calaveras County Fairgrounds. The theme will be "Create Gold in the Mother Lode," and is designed to give business owners motivation and tools with which to grow and sustain business in the markets of rural Calaveras County and surrounding areas. "Learn the latest marketing, financing, HR and customer relationship strategies that will substantially increase your network and take your business to the next level in 2016 the event flyer said. This event is a collaboration of Calaveras County Women' s Network, Calaveras County Chamber of Commerce and Calaveras County Economic Development Company. Space is limited so register to reserve a spot at calaverasexpol gmail. corn.
BUSINESS TIPS? PHONE:588-4535 EMAIL: features@uniondemocrat.corn
debit cards should talk to their terminal providers about updating their point-ofsale devices, because as of Oct. 1, liability will shift from credit card issuers to merchants in certain cases of fraud. Widely used in Europe and throughout the world, the U.S. and local banks are in the process of making the migration to EMV technology.
EMV stands for Europay, MasterCard and Visa," according to the U.S. Small Business Administration. To reduce fraud, EMV chips are becoming the standard for integrated circuit cards (IC cards or "chip cards"), IC card capable point-of-sale terminals, and automated teller machines. cEMV chip cards" on credit and debit cards generatea one-time-use code for every transaction, making it virtually impossible to create a counterfeit card, according to the Service Corps of Retired Executives. Because of this, the transition to chip cards isexpected to significantly reduce fraud.
Traditional cards hold static information that does not change once encoded by the card's manufacturer. Fraudsters can get this data by hacking point-of-sale terminals and re-using the numbers. Smart cards generate one-time codes that expire after each transaction, which prevents the transaction data from being reused.
The expiring codes will help protect consumers who physically use their cards, but doesn't protect against online fraud. The transition to chip cards will also bring a change in liability. Today, if an in-store transaction is conSee CARDS/Page B2
Tech Notes Wayne Collins
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Maggie Beck / Union Democrat
Old Skool Pie co-owner Steve Curto (left) works with Todd Birkestrand, of Soulsbyville (center), and Jonny Curto, of Twain Harte, at the Columbia Farmers Market.
Mobile pizza oven keeps work all in the family which was owned by DeeDee's parents, Anna and Michael Daley. She was a server and Steve was a chef. Who would haveever thought to The couple started dating, then make a mobile pizza oven? moved to San Francisco. Steve also Sonora residents Steve and DeeDee attended culinary school on the East Curto did, and it's become a hit among Coast, DeeDee said. locals and special-event coordinators. They lived there for 10 years while The couplerecently celebrated the he worked as a chef and she as a servbusiness' first year and say they hope er atvarious restaurants. to expand with another oven by next It was while living in San Franyear to meet demand. cisco — which had a big food truck "Old Skool Pica can be seen/eaten scene — that the couple started talkat various weekly events during the ing about having their own food truck summer including the Tuolumne Vil- or foodbusiness,but food trucks are lage Farmers Market and concerts on expensive, DeeDee Curto said. PreWednesday nights, Columbia Farm- made mobile pizza ovens range from ers Market on Thursday nights, An- $30,000 to $80,000, and food trucks gels Camp Farmers Market on Friday start at $20,000, she said. nights and, on Saturday nights, either The couple moved back to TuTwain Harte Concerts in the Pines or olumne Countythree years agowhen at Mountain Sage concerts in Grove- their daughter was born and put their land. pizza truck dream on hold. Steve conThe mobile pizza oven can also be tinued to commute to work in the found at events like the Twain Harte Bay Area because he couldn't find a Arts and Wine Festival, the Father' s job that paid enough to support their Day Fly-In and Murphys Irish Day, growing family. among others. The couple began working toward Old Skool Pie also operates at the their dream after finding a 1957 Mountain People Organics "farmory" Chevy pickup bed at a junkyard. It in Columbia once a month. cost $400, and Steve began researchThe business started as a way for ing how to convert the truck bed into a the Curto's to make a living in the lo- pizza oven. Family and friends helped cal food business. work on the truck's suspension, paint, DeeDee isa Tuolumne County na- etc., so it could be towed, DeeDee said, tivewho graduated from Sonora High, and it was soon an operating unit. as didSteve,who moved to Sonora DeeDee said they named the busiduring high school from Fremont. ness Old Skool Pie because it's built The couple met at Villa D'Oro, in an old Chevy bed. The couple also By LACEY PETERSON The Union Democrat
plays oldies music during events, like Ray Charles and Otis Redding. "People say,rYou play the best mu-
sic,' " Steve said. The business started out at the Tuolumne Village Farmers Market in 2014, which was the first organized event that would "have them," Curto said.
Then they started doing Twain Harte Concerts in the Pines and a few music festivals in the Valley. The Curto's started out thinking they would get more business outside of Tuolumne County, but found the opposite was true. "The more we do here, the better we' re doing," Curto said. "That small town thing — we' ve gotten so much support and great feedback." The Tuolumne Village Farmers Market clientele has "blown up," Curto said. Sometimes they have a line of 70 people waiting for pizza, and they assemble and cook the pies for four hours straight, she said. Market co-founder Melitta Varosy, of Tuolumne, said Old Skool Pie is "incredibly popular." "People are just lining up waiting for their pizza," Varosy said. "They' re just wonderful, the whole family and the whole operation, I couldn't say anything better about them." In 2014, the business printed some cheap flyers and put them on people' s See PIZZA/ Page B2
So, by now many who have Windows 7 or — especially — Windows 8 have been presentedthe option toupgrade, for free, to the new Windows 10 operating system. This is a radical move by Microsoft to position the company moving forward. It is an acknowledgement that Windows 8 was widely rejected by the user base. There are two things to watch with this move. Microsoft seems to be putting up a trial balloon of sorts, testing the waters of Google and others who give away their operatingsystem software. Is this the new Microsoft model, to give away the desktop operating system? It will be interesting to see how this pans out. And is Microsoft doing away with operating systems that rely only on a mouse fora pointer device? Trivial, yes, but I have had a long working relationship with the computer mouse, and I might not be ready yet to give it up completely. The question I' ve heard the most when I am meeting with customers is, "Should I upgrade?" The answer most likely will be yes. If you want to be cautious, wait tw o weeks and then do an online search for
"windows 10 software incompatibility." You can even add at the end of the search the name of the software you are curious about. By then, chances are someone else with your software is having some sort of an issue. If what you find is that your software generally does run on Windows 10, you probably want to upgrade. If you are in a little bit more of a hurry because you find Windows 8 frustrating and cumbersome, then I suggest you make a list of any software you may be concerned about and Google the specific version and name of the software that you are using, including the keywords aWindows 10.a If there are
Sellers urged to prep inhot housing market stock, while still r easonably balanced between sellers and buyers nationwide, is low by historical meaIs a bull market emerging in real sures in a number of markets. Both estate? Denver and Seattle,for example, The National Association of Real- have less than one month's supply, torsrecently reported that pending compared with a national average sales ofexisting homes are at their of 5.1 months. Homes sell quickly in highest level in m ore t han n i ne hot markets — in 25 days in Denver, years. Sales of new homes are at a compared with the national median seven-year high. of 40 days. Demand is being fueled by strong Prices refiect these imbalances. In job growth, high rents and relatively some cities, such as Seattle, Denver low mortgageinterest rates. and Tampa, prices are up by doubleThe supply of existing housing digit percentages compared with a By PATRICIA MERTZ ESSWEIN Kiplinger's Personal Finance
year ago, says Clear Capital, a real estate data and analysis firm. The hot housing market could start to cool as prices reach affordability limits. Even NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun says that prices have risen at an "unhealthy and unsustainable pace." But for now, sellers in sizzling markets face a Catch-22. You may get multiple offers and sell your home quickly for top dollar. See HOUSING/Page B3
any pre-release issues with your software and Windows 10, someone most likely is aware of it and published a report. A quick search should alleviate any concerns. Quickbooks 2013 versions and new users seem to be in the clear from my research, but remembertodoa backup beforeany major upgradel I know quite of few people who wish they could go back to Windows 7. This new version looks like Microsoft got wise with Windows 10 and returned the Start Menu Taskbar that has been so See WINDOWS / Page B2