Justice Department Files Suit to Shut Down Florida Tax Return Preparers | Small Business Trends

January 17, 2025January 16, 2025 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

The Justice Department has filed a civil injunction in federal court in Tampa, Florida, seeking to shut down Madison & Sons Enterprises, a tax return preparation business operating as Madison Tax Services. The suit targets the business’s owner, Darryl J. Madison, along with Malik F. Eugene, Yvette Madison, and Marlesa J. Brown, alleging they engaged in fraudulent practices to inflate customer refunds.

According to the complaint, Darryl Madison oversaw operations at Madison Tax Services, where he and his associates allegedly prepared and filed tax returns that falsely reduced taxable income and inflated customer refunds. The alleged schemes included:

5 Mistakes Managers Make When Giving Negative Feedback | HBR

January 16, 2025January 14, 2025 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

One of the toughest responsibilities people leaders must take on is confronting their direct reports about performance issues. I still remember how nervous I was giving corrective feedback to a team member as a first-time manager. I didn’t sleep much the night before and leaned heavily on the notes our HR department helped me prepare.

During my career as a CEO and people leader, I watched many new managers struggle with these conversations. We humans have an innate desire to be liked and to belong. Confrontation of any kind can threaten that, and leaders who are new to performance conversations often feel this the most. They fear that sharing critical feedback might damage their reporting relationships.

Can Employees Be More Productive From Home? | Business

January 15, 2025January 14, 2025 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

The world has undergone many lasting changes in recent years, with one of the most notable being the rise of remote work. Many companies transitioned to full-time work-from-home setups during the COVID-19 pandemic. This shift caused the number of people working remotely to triple between 2019 and 2021, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. However, what was originally a temporary fix has become the norm: Gallup data shows that over 70 million U.S. full-time workers can conduct their jobs remotely.

Now, working from home is the preference of many employees across nearly all industries — even as some companies look for employees to return to the office. Many employers have retained at least hybrid work policies, in which businesses allow employees to work from home a few days per week.

But how do these arrangements impact productivity? And do hybrid and remote work policies offer help or hindrance to business goals? Here’s what the research has to say and how managers can optimize hybrid and remote work arrangements.

The latest iMessage phishing scam is easy to fall for. Here’s how to avoid it | Digital Trends

January 14, 2025January 13, 2025 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

It’s a new year, but bad actors are still at it with an old trick repackaged for iPhone users. Bleeping Computer reports a rise in phishing attacks targeting iPhone users that involves tricking them into disabling built-in protections and clicking on malicious links.

In an increasing number of cases, text messages appear to come from fake delivery agents posing as service messages from the U.S. Postal Service (USPS). Two Digital Trends contributors have received such sham messages recently in North America.

LA wildfire damages set to cost record $135bn | BBC News

January 10, 2025 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

The Los Angeles wildfires are on track to be among the costliest in US history, with losses already expected to exceed $135bn (£109.7bn).

In a preliminary estimate, private forecaster Accuweather said it expected losses of between $135bn-$150bn as the blazes rip through an area that is home to some of the most expensive property in the US.

The insurance industry is also bracing for a major hit, with analysts from firms such as Morningstar and JP Morgan forecasting insured losses of more than $8bn.

TikTok plea live: Supreme Court hears arguments with TikTok ban looming | BBC News

January 10, 2025 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Just as the former solicitor general Noel Francisco, appearing for TikTok and ByteDance, sought to drive home their argument that the sale-or-ban law would burden the platform’s speech – current Solicitor General Elizabeth B Prelogar repeatedly returned to the government’s view that the Chinese state could, at some point, try to access sensitive US user data via the companies.

She stressed that TikTok collects more data than other platforms on an “unprecedented” scale – a claim the company has denied – and warned it represented risks of espionage and blackmail.

Medical debt soon will be banned on credit reports under Biden administration rule | CNN Business

January 7, 2025 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Americans won’t have to worry about unpaid medical bills damaging their credit reports and scores much longer.

The Biden administration is finalizing a rule Tuesday that will end the inclusion of medical debt on credit reports and ban lenders from using certain medical information in loan decisions.

The rule will also remove an estimated $49 billion in medical bills from the credit reports of about 15 million people, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) said in a press release

Here’s the latest sign the job market is cooling | CNN Business

January 7, 2025January 7, 2025 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

The “Great Stay” deepened in November as the number of people who quit their jobs that month dropped to under 3.1 million, a level not seen since the height of the pandemic.

The latest Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey report, which was released Tuesday, also showed that hiring activity remained at a decade-low, a further indication that a much cooler labor market is at hand.

Despite continued signs of a broader slowdown, Tuesday’s report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed that layoff activity held fairly steady in November. Additionally, the number of job openings increased to 8.1 million, its highest level since May.

Viral disease HMPV is on the rise among kids in China — what is it? | Live Science

January 6, 2025 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

A viral infection called human metapneumovirus (HMPV) is on the rise among children in China, according to Chinese state media.

The virus can cause upper respiratory tract infections — like colds — as well as serious lung infections and, according to state media, it’s now one of the top four most common viral infections among hospital visitors in China.

“HMPV has been recognized as a significant problem in the at-risk population across the world since the turn of the century when it was first discovered,” Andrew Easton, a virology professor at the University of Warwick in the U.K. who studies pneumoviruses, told Live Science in an email. “That risk has not changed significantly over the last almost 25 years.”

EPA allows California to ban sales of new gas cars by 2035 | Fast Company

December 18, 2024 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Wednesday granted two requests from California to enforce strict standards for vehicle emissions, including a rule aimed at banning sales of new gasoline-powered cars in the state by 2035. The incoming Trump administration is likely to try to reverse the action.

The California rule is stricter than a federal rule adopted this year that tightens emissions standards but does not require sales of electric vehicles.

EPA said its review found that opponents of the two waivers did not meet their legal burden to show how either the EV rule or a separate measure on heavy-duty vehicles was inconsistent with the federal Clean Air Act.