Flexible Scheduling Makes Dollars and Sense

Goodman & Co. to merge with big N.C. accountant
VIRGINIA BEACH Under pressure from greater competition and a sluggish economy, the Accounting and auditing firm Goodman & Co. said Monday that it will become part of a larger, North Carolina-based firm on March 1. Goodman agreed to merge with Dixon Hughes partly because that firm was seeking to expand into Virginia and the Washington area, while Goodman wanted to broaden its reach to North Carolina, said Thomas H. Wilson, Goodman's managing partner. The Virginia Beach-based firm has remained...

Rangels Plan for Saving the Economy, Hes Not Going Anywhere
In one of his first interviews for this legislative session, Veteran lawmaker Charles Rangel (D-NY) spoke to Politc365 about ways to reduce the country’s $14 Trillion dollar Debt, starting with a bill to lower the Corporate Tax rate and close out tax code loop holes.  He’s introduced similar efforts in previous sessions, and this may be the year that Congress finally moves on it, he hopes. According to Rangel, “there are hundreds and thousands of millions of dollars in tax...

The Great Wage Drop and wage insurance
Big WSJ story on how the Great Recession has reduced wage growth. When the unemployed do return to work, it is often with markedly lower salaries. Here is the money graf: Between 2007 and 2009, more than half the full-time workers who lost jobs that they had held for at least three years and then found new full-time work by early last year reported wage declines, according to the Labor Department. Thirty-six percent reported the new job paid at least 20% less than the one they lost The severit...

Airports Consider Using Private Security Screeners
Following the furor over invasive Airport Security screenings and personal pat-downs, some airports are now considering replacing government security screeners with private companies. It's a step the new chairman of the House Transportation Committee has been urging the nation's airports to take. But it's not clear travelers would notice much of a difference. The Kansas City International Airport is one of 17 in the United States where the screeners work for private contractors, not the Transpor...

Poor Judges Mull A Union-like Association
Miss Justice is angry (via urbanblitz's flickr). New York State’s 1,300 judges are unhappy. And if we had gone 12 years without a raise we'd probably be a bit peeved too. But are they unhappy enough to start a union? Possibly! See, the highest-level trial judges in the state, New York's Supreme Court justices, earn $136,700 a year, $37,300 less t...

Wealthy Treated Themselves During The Holidays
NEW YORK — The rich treated themselves like royalty this Holiday Season. That spun the holidays into gold for Tiffany & Co. and other high-end Retailers. Wealthier shoppers traded up to more expensive gold and diamond jewelry from silver charms at Tiffany. At Saks and Neiman Marcus, designer clothing and handbags were the hot holiday items. The strong reports are a big improvement from six months ago, when wealthy Americans got spooked by a Stock Market slide and cut back spending. It shows ...

Wealthy treated themselves during the holidays
NEW YORK (AP) — The rich treated themselves like royalty this Holiday Season. That spun the holidays into gold for Tiffany & Co. and other high-end Retailers. Wealthier shoppers traded up to more expensive gold and diamond jewelry from silver charms at Tiffany. At Saks and Neiman Marcus designer clothing and handbags were the hot holiday items. The strong reports are a big improvement from six months ago, when wealthy Americans got spooked by a Stock Market slide and cut back spending....

What Went Wrong at Borders
Let me start with an unequivocal declaration: I hope Borders finds the means to avoid Bankruptcy, or worse, liquidation. The immediate consequence of a Borders default on what it owes publishers would be a cash short-fall of millions of dollars. Even the most profitable publishers have limited leeway to deal with months of unpaid bills. The irony is that the surge in E-book sales across many platforms, the popularity of reading devices and tablets, some effective re-tooling at Barnes & Noble...

JCPenney Ranks Tops in Customer Service for Third Consecutive Year
PLANO, Texas, Jan. 12, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- For the third consecutive year, J. C. Penney Company, Inc. (NYSE: JCP) was recognized for its industry-leading Customer Service by ranking No. 1 among Department Store Retailers in the Customers' Choice survey released by the NRF Foundation and American Express. The positive results signify the impact JCPenney associates have made with customers as a result of the Company's CustomerFIRST initiative.  Launched in 2008, CustomerFIRST is a comprehens...

When flash mobs go bad
A flash mob is a group of people who assemble suddenly in a public place, perform an unusual act for a brief time and then disperse. Flash mobs are usually organized via Social Media or e-mails. Flash mob folklore says the first successful flash mob occurred in June 2003 in Manhattan and was staged by Bill Wasik, then senior editor of Harper's Magazine. At Wasik's behest, more than 100 people converged upon the ninth-floor rug department of Macy's Department Store, gathering around an expensiv...

Retired Navy man collects scores of tiny timepieces
NORFOLK Time figures large in Roland Campbell's life. He spent 30 years in the Navy in some interesting places. He's been retired about as long. He lives in a house with an address that he gives as if it were a clock - on such and such street at "half past noon." So, it's a small surprise that time is a tiny thing to him, too. Little enough to fit in the palm of his hand. "This was the first one," Campbell said, reaching into a corner curio in his living room and taking out a...

New Department Store Oedipus
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S.C. mandating managed care for Medicaid patients
COLUMBIA -- Most Medicaid patients in South Carolina will be required to choose a managed care plan starting this spring, a state agency announced Tuesday. With few exceptions, the state Department of Health and Human Services is getting rid of the traditional fee-for-service model when it comes to Medicaid, the government Health Care program for the poor. Those who don't have to choose include disabled and Foster Care Children. The mandate, which received federal approval last month, expands on...

U.S. to be allowed to probe Lehman UK auditors: report
Legal Opinions and Ernst & Young: The Grim Repo’s next targets? - Westlaw Business n">(Reuters) - The United States and UK have settled a jurisdictional dispute that will allow U.S. inspectors to examine whether the British auditors of Lehman Brothers Holdings (LEHMQ.PK) improperly cleared questionable Accounting, Bloomberg said on Monday. The U.S. Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) will get access to the books under an agreement set to be announced on Monday, the...

Robert Lenzner: US Banks Report Phantom Income on $1.4 Trillion Delinquent Mortgages
The giant US banks have been bailed out again from huge potential writeoffs by loosey-goosey Accounting accepted by the Accounting profession and the Regulators. They are allowed to accrue interest on non-performing Mortgages " until the actual Foreclosure takes place, which on average takes about 16 months. All the phantom interest that is not actually collected is booked as income until the actual act of foreclosure. As a resullt, many bank Financial Statements actually look much better than...

DFAS Offers Tax Help for Military Retirees, Annuitants
NEWS RELEASE DEFENSE FINANCE AND Accounting SERVICE 8899 East 56th Street Indianapolis, IN 46249 Press Release 0111-001 For Immediate Release January 4, 2011 Making it easy to get your Military Retiree/annuitant tax statements Indianapolis (Jan. 4, 2011) -- Now that you have the holiday decorations put away and you've begun your New Years resolutions, it's time to get things ready to file your tax returns. The Defense Finance and Accounting Service, the folks who pay Military retirees and annu...

Pannell Kerr Forster of Texas, P.C. (PKF Texas) Director Karen Love Named One of Houston's 50 Most Influential Women of 2010
HOUSTON, Jan. 11, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Pannell Kerr Forster of Texas, P.C. (PKF Texas) is pleased to announce Karen Love, Director, Practice Growth has been named one of "Houston's 50 Most Influential Women of 2010" by Houston Woman Magazine.   "Karen has been a catalyst for transformation of our firm. She continues to make a difference in the lives of any and all who have passed through the doors of PKF Texas, and the Houston business community," said Kenneth Guidry, CPA, President.  ...

Hick: It aint about the salary
It was pointed out to incoming Gov. John Hickenlooper today that if his plan turns out to be legal, Lt. Gov. Joe Garcia will be making more than him. Hickenlooper plans to appoint Garcia as head of the Department of Higher Education, giving the Lieutenant Governor a major responsibility and saving on Salary. The idea is that Garcia will get paid $146,040, the salary for a director of higher education, but $68,500 of that amount will be his salary as lieutenant Governor. So, it would represent ...

3 questions facing New York elected officials
On January 10, 2011 M V Consulting, Inc. contacted the following New York State elected politicians: The reason for contacting all the above was obvious. The shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, and 19 other Arizonans, had ramifications that will affect every politician in the nation. The insane actions of Jared Loughner will renew debate over the 2nd Amendment, and Freedom of Speech. This is something that affects New York and the other States almost as directly as it does Arizona. In a letter ...

Bill would prevent names of public employees from release with their salaries
A bill introduced by Sen. Stephen H. Martin, R-Chesterfield, would prevent the names of Public Employees and officials from being released with information about their salaries. As proposed, Senate Bill 812 would amend Virginia Freedom of Information Act laws to exclude names from release with compensation information. "In my judgment, it's not necessary for the public to know who makes exactly what," Martin said by phone Tuesday. Martin said the bill was introduced in response to a state sal...

Another reason to torpedo teacher pensions
At one point when I was chancellor, based on discussions with many new and prospective teachers, I proposed that we offer each new hire a choice between the current Salary and benefit package and an alternative based on a higher entry Salary and lower Pension benefits. No one would lose anything: new hires that wanted the lifetime Pension benefit could still have it, while those who preferred the proposed alternative obviously would be better off. Neve...

Pension pay freeze proposal approved and ready
The proposal made by Councilman DeMaio to freeze city employee salaries used to pay for Pensions is in mid-course. On Monday, January 10, the City Attorney approved the proposal in a memorandum. The councilman will now stand up for the proposal he made in his Roadmap to Recovery Plan. Yesterday, he said, "With this analysis in hand, we have real momentum and must push the Mayor and City Council to act." He expects $290 million in pension cost savings during five years will keep vital neighborhoo...

Duly Noted
Bureaucracy, Democracy and Their Conflict. Ever since the 18th century, many Democrats or Progressives have believed that the public-realm aspects of the problems of man and society can be solved by providing good government. Numerous theories and not a few experiments -- some of these soared while others crashed -- have attempted to find practical responses to the dilemmas posed by their Thesis. In our time, albeit under different labels, two basic approaches that reach back to that tradition c...

How to Convince a Manger to Hire You
Tim Tyrell-Smith Hiring managers are in a tough spot. With smaller budgets and fewer hiring opportunities, every job offer counts. And the pressure builds when several people have their hands in a hiring decision and department executives focus heavily on significant ROI for new hires. A poor hiring decision is felt for months or even years. That means hiring managers are cautious. And if they cross the line to indecisive, the interview and offer process can drag out for you, the job Candidate...

Payday with a new boss
ALBANY -- Larry Schwartz takes home more state money than Gov. Andrew Cuomo does. In fact, the former secretary to Gov. David Paterson -- now a "senior adviser" tasked with reforming the Budget process -- makes more than everyone else in the administration's inner circle. That's because Cuomo's order to reduce the new pay for incoming staff members by 5 percent did not apply to Schwartz or other holdovers from the Paterson administration. That means Schwartz retains his $178,000 Salary from his ...