In this Gallup poll from late 2018—and in almost every other national research poll on the concerns of American voters—healthcare ranks as the No. 1 issue. Of course, healthcare is a complex, multifaceted issue, and voter concerns include the cost, quality, and availability of care as well as the availability of insurance and coverage of pre-existing conditions. The issue was recently given even higher visibility by President Trump’s executive order of June 24 mandating improved pricing disclosure in healthcare.
Category: News and Views
Cities of Tomorrow: Syracuse and Others Opt for Citywide Smart Tech | Digital Trends
Smart home technology is no longer limited solely to residential use. Syracuse has begun to upgrade the city’s streetlights to LEDs equipped with a “smart node” on top. According to Andrew Donovan of WSYR, bucket trucks will begin installing 3,000 lights per month until they complete the project with a total of 18,000 new streetlights across the city. The brightness of the lights can be controlled remotely, and sensors will automatically inform officials of broken lights.
But Syracuse isn’t the only city switching to smart lights. Apolitical reports that Pittsburgh has reduced travel time by 25% through the use of smart traffic lights. The Baltimore Sun reports that Baltimore is fast-tracking a program to introduce smart lights throughout the city. According to the Rivard Report, San Antonio is testing smart streetlights that not only improve lighting conditions throughout the city, but also track and measure flood patterns, temperature, air quality, and even available parking spots.
Census 2020: Trump drops plan for controversial citizenship question | BBC News
The Trump administration has dropped a controversial plan to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census, marking a major victory for civil rights groups.
It comes just days after the Supreme Court blocked efforts to include the question, ruling that the government’s justification seemed “contrived”.
The White House argued it would bolster protections for minority voters.
Instagram Security Flaw Affected Millions Says Facebook, Showing a Shocking Lack of Basic Protection | Inc.com
If you were so inclined, you could spend the hours equivalent to a full-time job tracking how many ways Facebook has flubbed user privacy. The company’s chutzpah rating has been relentlessly strong. For example, it asked banks for user financial information while it was getting virtually pelted for playing so fast and loose with consumer data.
Now there’s yet another issue. Facebook announced that the passwords of “millions of Instagram users” had been kept in plain text–readable by anyone who could and wanted to–the way last month tens of millions of Facebook users learned their passwords had been so mishandled.
Uber Eats invades restaurants with Dine-In option | TechCrunch
Tired of cleaning up after take-out or getting hangry waiting at your table in restaurants? Well Uber Eats is barging into the dine-in business. A new option in some cities lets you order your food ahead of time, go to the restaurant, then sit down inside to eat, a tipster from competing dine-in app Allset tells us. We tested it, and Uber Eats Dine-In even waives the standard Uber delivery and service fees.
Your Company Might Offer High Salaries, But Does It Have Soul? | Entrepreneur
It’s a well-established stereotype that large-scale companies are about as approachable as a concrete wall. The clichés say it all: Those who “sell out” to work for the “man” become corporate cogs, dedicating their working lives to the daily grind.
The language we’ve assigned to corporate work brings to mind gray cubicles, professional drudgery and drab cultures. Larger enterprises have a reputation for offering excellent salaries and poor experiences — and for some, the tradeoff might not be worth it. For all their perks and benefits, corporations’ lack of approachability may prevent company recruiters from accessing the top-tier talent that should, by all rights, be within their reach.
Sustainable egg carton is made out of seeds that sprout when replanted | Inhabitat
As the world teeters on the brink of suffocating from single-use products, some designers are quickly coming up with ingenious ways to reduce our waste. For example, Greek designer George Bosnas has just unveiled the Biopack, a compact egg carton made out of cleared paper pulp, flour, starch and biological legume seeds. Instead of throwing out the eco-friendly container at the end of its use, it can be planted directly into the ground to sprout green plants.
General Mills: Pet food sales pop but snack demand down | CNN
Americans are splurging on food for their cats and dogs — but not snacks for them and their kids. That’s not great news for General Mills.
Shares of General Mills (GIS), the owner of Cheerios, Lucky Charms and Yoplait, fell 7% in early trading Wednesday after the company reported its latest quarterly results. That made General Mills the worst performing stock in the S&P 500.
Sales missed forecasts, despite soaring demand for the company’s Blue Buffalo pet food.
The weaker-than-expected revenue was largely because of a 2% drop in sales in its North American retail unit, the division that includes Annie’s branded cheddar bunnies, Chex, Fruit Snacks and the Fiber One and Nature Valley brands of bars.
Wayfair workers to walk out over furniture sales to migrant camps | Fast Company
Employees at the e-commerce company Wayfair are planning on staging a walkout tomorrow over an alleged decision to sell furniture to BCFS, a government contractor operating camps at the U.S. border that are detaining migrants. According to a tweet from the group of employees, they sent Wayfair CEO Niraj Shah a letter asking for the company to stop doing business with the contractor. Over 500 people allegedly signed the letter.
The Real Reason Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple’s XRP, And Litecoin Suddenly Rocketed? | Forbes
Bitcoin, ethereum, Ripple’s XRP, and litecoin suddenly rocketed this weekend, with the largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, bitcoin, shooting past the psychological $10,000 per bitcoin mark to highs of $11,200 on the Luxembourg-based Bitstamp exchange.
Ethereum, Ripple’s XRP, and litecoin all made double-digit gains, meanwhile, with the sudden push higher causing many to recall the great bitcoin and cryptocurrency bull run of late 2017 which saw the bitcoin price go from $10,000 per bitcoin to almost $20,000 in under 20 days.
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