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The difficulties Microsoft is having in integrating Skype into its products even as the use of Skype increases by 26%. This is similiar to the situation EBay faced when Microsoft acquired Skype from EBay in 2011. Skype users are now estimated at 250 million Microsoft has given Skype management special autonomy with its head offices and president Bates located in Silicon Valley. Microsoft CEO Ballmer say it is importaant that Skype work well on all platforms and devices.

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The Moderna and Pfizer vaccines are effective against the virus variant identified in Britain. It is less effective against the virus variant from South Africa. The U.S. banned all travel to and from South Africa effective Jan 30. U.S. coronavirus cases were at 125,000 on Jan 24 down 20% for the week. 

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Over the next 20 years China will need 6500 737 Max single aisle planes and 1500 Dreamliners, Boeing says. China will make up 20% of world demand. The US visit of Xi Jinping and the major efforts for good relations of president Biden through vigorous diplomacy by Blinken, Yellen and others gives Boeing an opportunity to meet this demand.

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Former Secretary of State James Baker III on the Obama administration's negotiations with Iran for a nuclear deal. He points out the importance of the U.S. making the removal of sanctions gradual manner as Iran fulfills its part of the agreement. Baker says Iran in the past has broken agreements to resume nuclear weapons research, making the verification process and snap back of sanctions critical. Baker does not address the issues related to how effective verification would take place, calling this the work of negotiators to work out the bureaucratic and cumbersome provisions. He also does not address the problems other critics have raised about any future snap back of sanctions because of the reluctance of European countries, saying only that the U.S. should maintain its credible position on the negtiations with its other partners- China, Russia, Germany, France and the UK.

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Alberto Carvalho, Superintendent LA Unified School District ,following work as Superintendent at Miami-Dade County School District, and tech contracts that did not work out for schools leading to an FBI investigation.

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After the secession of South Carolina in late December 1860, for a brief period New York city's governing body, the Common Council, considered secession to become an independent city state. Pro-independence position was because as an independent city state, similiar to the northern German port cities, New York could keep to itself the tax revenue of $56 million- tariffs on imported goods collected at ports- as two thirds of imports by value passed through New York. The state's merchant class was pro-south, especially as most of the cotton exports passed through New York. New York made 40 cents on every dollar that Europeans paid for cotton from the South. The money came from warehouse fees, shipping, insurance and profits. Cotton helped build most of the mercantile buildings in lower Manhattan and rows of upscale brownstones. Wall street businessmen and The New York Herald newspaper opposed Lincoln's election. The New York Daily News was edited by the mayor's brother, Benjamin Wood, and it warned working class whites about competing with emancipated black labor. New York financiers even threatened to stop buying federal bonds. At which point Horace Greeley, pro-Union publisher of the New York Tribune, urged the Treasury to sell bonds directly to individuals. What changed all this was the firing of the cannon at Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861. Hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers gathered in a patriotic rally in Union Square on April 20. New York quickly declared its support for the Union alongside other Northern states that April. ...

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In 2020 soccer at filled football stadiums in northern Italy acted as superspreader events. Here the NYT looks at conventions as superspreader events and one recent convention in New York City, Anime (Japanese animation) convention at Javits Center, in late November 2021, that potentially could have acted as a spreader event though not confirmed according to NYT. Dense atmosphere and large crowds increase the risk of a super spreader event happening say experts.This happens as the new omicron variant in South Africa is seen in several countries. 

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Newspapers slant is influenced as much by reader preferences and bias as by the political identity of the newspaper. This is one of the research findings in a 2010 paper by Gentzkow and Shapiro. Gentzkow, a professor at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, was given the 2014 John Bates Clark Medal by the American Economic Association.

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All government workers are ordered to return to their offices full time by executive order of the president.

The Secretary of the Treasury says he will be in the office all days of the week and expects every worker at his agency to be in the office.

This will have some other consequences-

As workers return to offices it will increase the efficiency of government and its responsiveness to the people after the pandemic years.

It will set a model for the private sector to get people back to the office. As people return to offices this will reduce the demand for remote work travel that put upward pressure on prices of airline travel and hotel travel that increased the inflation in this area and sector of the economy.

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Otis Elevator is moving a plant based in Nogales, Mexico, back to the U.S. This plant was moved to Mexico in 1998 for cost reasons. Now Otis CEO, Didier Michaud-Daniel, says producing at a new South Carolina plant will cost less than Mexico. Logistics and freight costs are 17.3% less in the U.S. than Mexico, and an additional 20% in savings come from "efficiencies" gained by having all its white collar workers associated with elevator design and production. Most companies that manufacture in China and Mexico keep their design and engineering jobs in the the U.S. It is not clear to what extent American companies have considered all the costs of separating design and engineering from manufacturing, including the opportunities for close cooperation possible in one location that are lost when everything is so spread out. At Otis toolmakers in Dallas and engineers and designers located in Indiana and Arizona traveled to the Nogales, Mexico plant. This can be especially important when as in Otis's case the new plant in Florence, South Carolina, plans the launch of a new generation of elevator designs. In this case there is an added benefit by making it easier for customers to visit the plant and look at the product. The new plant will have more automation and use fewer workers on the factory floor. The new factory will employ 360 workers including white collar workers, the same as the Nogales, Mexico, plant with a lower number of factory floor workers. ...

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Independent contractors rule reinstated by DJT administration following employee status push by Biden and unions. This affects 11.9 million workers in the US. Independent contractors cannot unionize and lack some of the protections of labor law. The independent contractors get to choose where they work for remote work days and get to choose the projects they want to take up, set their own hours which can help for childcare or care for parents. It includes workers in real estate, construction, arts, design, and personal care, where most of these independent contractors work. Only a small part is in Uber drivers or DoorDash delivery gig workers. This Editorial Board opinion in Wash. post cites Bureau of Labor Statistics that says from a 2023 survey that 80% of this worker group prefers independent contractor work to full time traditional employment which has less flexibility.

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The Samaras government cuts some government perks including one that gave public sector civil servants 6 days of computer leave for spending more than 5 hours a day in front of a computer.

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The plans for the $1 billion renovation of the New York Public Library.

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Emmanuel Macron faces a challenging situation in  the 2022 second round. He badly needs left wing supporters of Mr. Melenchon who came with one percentage point of right wing Marie Le Pen. Macron had expressed right wing sentiments about immigration and terrorism even more than Le Pen during the year leading upto this election. That this has alienated some left wing supporters is evident in a nIpsos poll for FR24 that shows 30% or about a third of the 22% of the voters that supported former Socialist candidate Jean Luc-Melenchon are likely to vote for Le Pen, who has campaigned on the issue of cost of living and softened her image and position on the European Union. 34% of Melenchon's supporters said they will support Macron and 36% said they are undecided. It is this undecided vote that could make a difference. Add to this the 25% of the voters who did not vote at all and the election depends on who can convince this segment. To reach these voters is Macron's main concern in the 2 weeks before the second round of the election on April 24. Macron says he will campaign hard-"from dawn to dusk, in direct contact with voters." He will have to offer something that convinces working class voters who some see he has humiliated during his first term.  ...

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New York state governor Andrew Cuomo says the turnaound in the last 15 months for the state budget shows that things went from "a model of dysfunction to a model of function."

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Wellsville is 80 miles south of Rochester, New York. The town of 7000 made parts for coal fired power plants for 100 years till the impact of climate change led to decline. Today it is recovering from the loss of jobs as it is building parts for wind turbines. It is a very Republican area and one resident says Republicans were quick to say that anything renewable, wind or solar was bad. Gradually there is a sense that the town can thrive once more.