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Florida man charged with stealing Wi-Fi

Update since publication

This article mentions that Wi-Fi stands for “Wireless Fidelity”, although this is disputed.

Thursday, July 7, 2005

A Florida man is being charged with 3rd degree felony for logging into a private Wi-Fi (Wireless Fidelity) Internet access point without permission. Benjamin Smith III, 41, is set for a pre-trial hearing this month in the first case of its kind in the United States.

This kind of activity occurs frequently, but often goes undetected by the owners of these wireless access points (WAPs). Unauthorized users range from casual Web browsers, to users sending e-mails, to users involved in pornography or even illegal endeavours.

According to Richard Dinon, owner of the WAP Smith allegedly broke into, Smith was using a laptop in an automobile while parked outside Dinon’s residence.

There are many steps an owner of one of these access points can take to secure them from outside users. Dinon reportedly knew how to take these steps, but had not bothered because his “neighbors are older.”

Retrieved from “https://en.wikinews.org/w/index.php?title=Florida_man_charged_with_stealing_Wi-Fi&oldid=850568”
Tax Specialist

Is It Time To Electronically File Your Income Tax Returns In Canada

By Thor Hanso

The old saying goes that two things in life are certain: death and taxes. Although this is true taxes don’t have to be quite as painful as it was 15 years ago. Prior to the internet and personal computers for everyone filing your taxes was a terrible affair that required either an accountant or plenty of time. However, with the introduction of the internet filing your taxes is much easier than before.

However and quite surprisingly, is that not everyone in Canada files their taxes online. In fact, according to CBC in 2009 only 56% of tax returns were filed online. This means that 44% of the people are either using the old-cumbersome method of paper or using the automated telephone method, Telefile. Here is the breakdown of various tax-filing methods.

Paper – 11.29 Miillion returns (42.4%)

Netfile – 4.63 Million returns (17.4%) – The system that individuals use when filing their taxes through software applications like TurboTax, Ufile, etc

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuZCTb2sp8Q[/youtube]

EFile – 10.24 Million returns (38.5%) – The system that tax professionals use to file other people’s taxes.

Telefile – 445,067 returns (1.7%) – An automated system used for VERY simple tax returns.

In this computer aided world where the internet, computers and various tax processing software making things easier it’s hard to see people filing their taxes with paper. However, over 11 million people filed their taxes with paper in 2009! The need for a paper version is fairly clear, however, for anyone with a slightly complex tax return the increased value in using a computer aided version must outweigh the costs of the software!

In fact, it would be interesting to know if people filing their taxes with paper missed out on money (ie: deductions) that they didn’t know existed. Did they get their full RRSP deduction, tuition transferred, investment income, etc Is it was worth saving the money for the tax-software? In addition, filing your taxes online provides a much quicker turn-around time for your tax-return if the government owes you money!

The next question is what are the costs to the tax-payers of Canada to have a paper-tax filing system? Surely an online tax filing method must be cheaper than paying government employees for data-entry. What about placing the paper-forms online so everyone can file online and the data-entry step is removed!

The Canada Revenue Agency’s NETFILE system, the system used to file your taxes online, is turning 12 this year. This means we’ve been able to file our taxes online for 12 years. In this time the citizen’s of Canada have gone from 0% filing online to 56% this is a huge increase but still much lower than expected from a computer dominated world! How many more years till everyone is filing their taxes online or till the government makes it mandatory to file online?

Like it or not taxes are complex and the amount of different government programs is hard to keep track. Might as well use a tax software where you simply fill in the required boxes, it checks your return for errors and provides all the calculations accurately. With the various tax-software platforms the cost associated with the software is very competitive and can be as in-expensive as $6.

About the Author: For a full review of the

best Canadian Tax Software

visit Thor’s website

Best Tax Software

.

Source:

isnare.com

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Uncategorized

US Immigrants protest Green Card delays with flowers

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Hundreds of legal, highly-skilled workers in the United States sent hundreds of flowers to the Director of the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), Emilio Gonzalez as part of a symbolic and peaceful protest over what they said was a “flip-flop” by the State Department and the USCIS on eliminating Green card processing delays.

Dr. Gonzalez announced on the USCIS website late last night that the flowers will be forwarded to the injured service members recuperating at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and at Bethesda Naval Hospital.

In response, Immigration Voice, a non-profit organization representing skilled, legal immigrants, said that they welcome the fact that Dr. Gonzalez acknowledged the symbolic gesture of our protest and are overjoyed that these flowers will brighten the day of the injured service brethren.

Immigration Voice also said that it is their sacrifice for American freedom that has made this country great and such a desirable destination for multitude of people from around the world and that they wanted to say “Thank you and god bless you” to the servicemen.

Retrieved from “https://en.wikinews.org/w/index.php?title=US_Immigrants_protest_Green_Card_delays_with_flowers&oldid=460587”
Uncategorized

Dell joins Microsoft-Nortel VoIP Team

Saturday, October 20, 2007

Dell Inc. announced on Tuesday that it will partner up with the Microsoft-Nortel Innovative communications alliance (ICA) team to sell Unified Communications and VoIP products.

The announcement on Tuesday the 16th of October 2007 includes Dell selling VoIP, data and wireless networking products from Nortel and the Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 and other unified communications products.

The partnership with both manufacturers should allow Dell to provide a pre-integrated solution.

In March 2007, competitors IBM and Cisco announced they would join in the competition for developing unified communications applications and the development of open technologies around the unified communications and collaboration (UC2) client platform an application programming interfaces (APIs) offered by IBM as a subset of Lotus Sametime.

“We want to make it simple for our customers to deploy unified communications so their end users can get access to all their messages in one place – whether its e-mail, phone or mobile device. This will pave the way for more business-ready productivity tools,” said vice president of solutions, Dell Product Group, Rick Becker.

  • Customers have four options:
    • Core Office Communication Server 2007 – provides instant messaging and on-premise Microsoft Live Meeting.
    • Office Communication Server: Telephony – enables call routing tracking and management, VoIP gateway and public branch exchange (PBX) integration.
    • Audio and Video Conferencing – allows point-to-point conference, video conference and VoIP audio conference.
    • Exchange Unified Messaging – provides voicemail, e-mail and fax in Microsoft Outlook, and anywhere access of Microsoft Outlook Inbox and Calendar.
Retrieved from “https://en.wikinews.org/w/index.php?title=Dell_joins_Microsoft-Nortel_VoIP_Team&oldid=2808441”
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Wikinews interviews Steve Burke, U.S. Democratic Party presidential candidate

Sunday, December 13, 2015

This article is a featured article. It is considered one of the best works of the Wikinews community. See Wikinews:Featured articles for more information.

Macomb, New York Councilman Steve Burke took some time to speak with Wikinews about his campaign for the U.S. Democratic Party’s 2016 presidential nomination.

Burke, an insurance adjuster and farmer, was elected councilman in Brookhaven, New York in 1979. He left the town after being accused and found not guilty of bribery in the 1980s. Since 1987 he has served as Macomb councilman off-and-on and currently holds the post. From 1993 to 1996 and 1999 to 2002 he worked as chairman of the Democratic Party of St. Lawrence County, New York. Among his many political campaigns, Burke unsuccessfully sought the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination in 1992 and recently attempted to run for U.S. Congress in 2014 but too many of his ballot petition signatures were found invalid. Burke filed with the Federal Election Commission to run for president in the 2016 election on September 18, 2015 and has qualified for the first-in-the-nation New Hampshire Primary.

With Wikinews reporter William S. Saturn?, Burke discusses his political background, his 2016 presidential campaign, and his policy proposals.

Retrieved from “https://en.wikinews.org/w/index.php?title=Wikinews_interviews_Steve_Burke,_U.S._Democratic_Party_presidential_candidate&oldid=4567472”
Financial Planner

Divorces In Tennessee

I practice law in Clarksville and Nashville. Without hardly trying, I have begun to make a name for myself doing divorces, part of this may be because I represent Singer Terry Clark’s husband in her divorce, but regardless, I enjoy divorces and like aggressive attorney work. Contact me at Philips Law, PLLC. | There are two types of divorce in Tennessee, uncontested divorce and contested divorce. What this really means is this:

(1) an uncontested divorce is based on irreconciliable divorces, this means the husband and wife agree to disagree; and

(2) a contested divorce is based on fault based grounds, which means that for the parties to get divorced one of them will have to prove at trial that the other did something wrong. Ok, what does this really mean, uncontested divorce or contested divorce? An uncontested divorce is basically a divorce where the parties agree to everything, including property and kids. The essential requirement for an uncontested divorce is that the parties (husband and wife) have an ability to agree on the division of their stuff. Basically, they have to split money, accounts, cars, retirement, houses, alimony, taxes. Everything that the parties have acquired together; operative word together, during the time they have married is up for grabs and can be equitably divided. Now, the division of marital property has some caveats.

If a party owned something before the marriage, it may not be divisible because it is separate property. Also, gifts are generally going to be separate property. Once the parties can has out an agreement, they will then document this agreement in the form of a Marital Dissolution Agreement (MDA). This agreement has some specific requirements and generally must comply with the rules established by each local court in each Tennessee County. Pre-Divorce, a party can revoke an MDA. Once the divorce is finalized and there is a final decree, the MDA is hard to revoke. If children are involved, then for the divorce to be uncontested, the parents will have to agree on a parenting plan. In Tennessee, a parenting plan consists of several things: a day to day schedule for visitation, a holiday schedule (major holidays, summer, spring, fall and winter break), a determination of financial requirements through child support, life insurance and health care, and also a division of the tax credit. The parenting plan is usually very specific and is designed for the time when the parents may have a dispute. The parenting plan is a guide to fall back on, but does not necessarilly have to be the rule. The child support will usually not be deviated from the Tennessee Child Support Guidelines. Once these two documents are completed and the statutory waiting period has ended, the parties can be divorced. This is done through a final decree and notice of hearing.

The main thing to remember is that an uncontested divorce requires the agreement of the parties. If the parties can’t agree, the divorce becomes contested. This can be one big ass fight. The pattern in a contested divorce normally involves these parts:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxLjRQgz7yU[/youtube]

(1) filing of a contested complaint,

(2) motions involving support, paternity, possession of the home, custody etc,

(3) mediation,

(4) interrogatories,

(4) depositions,

(5) trial preparation,

(5) trial brief and

(6) trial. Some time there will also be a requirement for a forensic accounting if there is a dispute over where all the money has gone. Generally, the filing of the divorce complaint begins the process. In a contested divorce fault-based grounds will be alleged and the other party will need to be served the paperwork. What this means is that person of some kind will need to get the paperwork into the other party’s hands. Once this is done, they have thirty days to respond to the paperwork. After thirty days, if there is not response, the filing party may fiile a motion for default. If the party responds with an answer and “counter-complaint,” then the original filing party must file an answer to the new filings. At this point, generally it is on like donkey-kong. Motions are next. These are temporary orders from the Court to get the parties through to the trial. For example, many times one party or the other will file a Motion to Set Support.

This can be in the form of Alimony or Child Support or Both. Once the Court orders support, the order will normally last until the final hearing and is not meant to be ongoing beyond that. Mediation is also now required by statute. Mediation is designed to get the parties to resolve the divorce through the use of an neutral attorney or a Rule 31 mediator. Mediation is either with or without attorneys. Generally, what takes place is that the parties sit down in one room and try to hash out the terms of the divorce. The goal here, once again, is to create a Marital Dissolution Agreement and Parenting Plan (see uncontested divorce). If the party’s can’t come up with a complete agreement, many times it is helpful if they just agree on parts of the divorce. Interrogatories are also normally filed. These are written questions to the other side that are required to be answered as part of the discovery. They are sworn to and must be answered truthfully. As part of the interrogatories, there is a request for production of documents. This also each side to flesh out their file and get anything that they may need for trial.

After the interrogatories are returned, the lawyers may want to schedule depositions. Depositions are conducted with a court-reporter present. This is a question and answer session where the lawyer can ask questions of your spouse and have the answers recorded. The answers are under oath and lying in a depostion is perjury. The court reporter is expensive and charges for each page of the transcript, so sometimes clients who don’t have a lot of money to spend on a divorce may want to forgo the depositions unless they believe they are a vital part of the discovery proceedings. Trial preparation will require preparation of witnesses, filing of trial briefs, preparation of evidence for the court and preparation of the client. This is done after the evidence is gathered through discovery and will follow the rules of the local court. A divorce trial can be disappointing for the client. Many times clients are more concerned with vindication and justice than they are with the distribution of their assets.

The judge is generally less interested in sorting out the fault than he or she is in splitting the parties’ stuff and creating a parenting plan that is in the best interest of the child. What the judge wants is what is going to happen in trial, so for the most part, the lawyers will spend a limited amount of time having clients and witnesses testify about adultery, abuse, etc. The real crux of the argument will be on issues such as equitable division of property, custody of the kids, alimony, attorney fees, and the granting of the divorce. Once the judge rules, the Court will put out an order that outlines all of the issues that were brought up in the final hearing. This order becomes final and the parties are divorced. If one side or the other disagrees with the ruling, the have a limited amounted of time to appeal and may go to the next higher court to ask that court to grant relief. Also, later on down the line, as things change, one party or the other may want to reopen the divorce to have the judge review some or all of the determinations. In my experience, a contested divorce should never be handled pro se in Tennessee. Pro se is when a client represents themselves. There are just too many issues and a divorce in Tennessee can be too complex for a client to represent themselves. They will be at a serious disadvantage in front of the judge. I hope this helps. . Nothing in this blog constitutes establishing an attorney-client relationship. Also, this blog is general advice and commentary and should not be construed as a substitute for either the need for getting specific advice from a lawyer or from hiring a lawyer. In Tennessee, Divorces are complex and require the hiring of a lawyer.

Article Source: sooperarticles.com/writing-articles/technical-writing-articles/divorces-tennessee-157814.html

About Author:

James Phillips bestclarksvillelawyer.comAuthor: James Phillips

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China overtakes Germany as world’s biggest exporter

Sunday, January 10, 2010

Chinese officials have said that their country’s exports surged last December to edge out Germany as the world’s biggest exporter.

The official Xinhua news agency reported today that figures from the General Administration for Customs showed that exports jumped 17.7% in December from a year earlier. Over the whole of 2009 total Chinese exports reached US$1.2 trillion, above Germany’s forecast $1.17 trillion.

Huang Guohua, a statistics official with the customs administration, said the December exports rebound was an important turning point for China’s export sector. He commented that the jump was an indication that exporters have emerged from their downslide.

“We can say that China’s export enterprises have completely emerged from their all-time low in exports,” he said.

However, although China overtook Germany in exports, China’s total foreign trade — both exports and imports — fell 13.9% last year.

Retrieved from “https://en.wikinews.org/w/index.php?title=China_overtakes_Germany_as_world%27s_biggest_exporter&oldid=3255271”
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New report details strain on US Army

Wednesday, January 25, 2006

A report commissioned under a Pentagon contract to ascertain the effects of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars on recruitment of personnel into the United States Army has been completed. Written by a retired U.S. Army officer and executive director of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, Andrew Krepinevich, it was not publicly released. Upon inquiry, a copy was provided to the Associated Press.

As part of the conclusions reached in the Krepinevich report, it notes a drop in Army recruiting for the year 2005, a first since 1999, which came after the Army recently adopted policies of offering increased enlistment incentives. The report states that the Army is unable to maintain troop deployment to Iraq for a period adequate to disable the insurgency occurring there, and is faced with declining recruitment and re-enlistment rates.

In an Krepinevich interview , he said the Army remains an effective force and has plans to expand the number of available combat brigades for use in Iraq and Afghanistan. The conditions described by the report are listed as being triggered by simultaneous force restructuring, training requirements, and troop deployment requirements as well as the length of the engagement. Krepinevich also said in the interview that he believes the reason that Pentagon officials do not publicly state that the reduction in troop levels was prompted by stress on the Army; “That gives too much encouragement to the enemy.”

George Joulwan, former NATO commander and retired four-star general in the US Army detailed his observations in an interview given on CNN in December of 2005; “Whether they’re broken or not, I think I would say if we don’t change the way we’re doing business, they’re in danger of being fractured and broken, and I would agree with that.”

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld’s comments made in a news conference at the Pentagon one day after the Associated Press article was published declared that the report “is just not consistent with the facts.” He continued and stated of the US Army that “The force is not broken,” and that such thoughts were “almost backward.”

He supported this with the following comments “The world saw the United States military go halfway around the world in a matter of weeks, throw the Al Qaida and Taliban out of Afghanistan, in a landlocked country thousands and thousands of miles away. They saw what the United States military did in Iraq. And the message from that is not that this armed force is broken, but that this armed force is enormously capable.”

He acknowledged the unique requirements of the campaigns in Iraq and in Afghanistan with the statement that “There is no question if a country is in a conflict and we are in the global war on terror, it requires our forces to do something other than what they do in peacetime.”

On the matter of the review of US defense strategy planned for February 2006, he stated that it was “the next step in a long line of bold changes.”

US Representative John Murtha incited controversy when he called for an early exit from Iraq in the fall of 2005, arguing in part that the US Army was “broken, worn out.”

Retrieved from “https://en.wikinews.org/w/index.php?title=New_report_details_strain_on_US_Army&oldid=4090139”
Recruitment

Human Resources Outsourcing Maintains Double Digit Growth

By Ari Rosenstein

Human Resources gained a permanent role in the American workplace during the 1950s, as the evolution of employment-related laws and sociological trends took shape. However, the past 20 years have witnesses an unprecedented rise of employment litigation, labor regulations, and tax laws far beyond the expectation of their originators.

Effectively managing Human Resources has become a daunting and complex task for small to mid-market business owners. U.S. corporations must grapple with one of the most complicated systems of employment laws in the world. This includes a laundry list of unfriendly policies, including laws governing hiring and termination, family leave, sexual harassment, paying employees, leaves of absence, employee benefits, and workers’ compensation. In just the first months of 2007, dozens of laws dealing with every subject from discrimination to wage deduction have been enacted.

Putting HR in Expert Hands

One solution for frustrated business owners is to turn to Human Resources Outsourcing. An HR Outsourcing firm allows companies to shift responsibility of nonessential jobs that can be handled easily, and inexpensively, by off-site experts. An HRO Firm can either specialize in a niche service, or in a wide range of management and strategic solutions. These broadly include:

— Labor Law Consulting

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O42WW3t4vlE[/youtube]

— Management Training and Employee Development

— Employment Paperwork Administration

— Employee Benefits Packages and Administration

— Risk Management and Safety Services

— Payroll and Tax Services

— Insurance Solutions, including Workers’ Compensation and EPLI (Employee Practices Liability Insurance)

In a recent survey by the Society for Human Resource Management, or SHRM, professionals in the industry were asked their opinions on HR outsourcing. Reasons to consider outsourcing included saving money, focusing on strategy, improving compliance, improving accuracy, lacking experience in-house, taking advantage of technological advances, and offering services they could not offer.

In that same SHRM report, HR professionals said the top function outsourced was 401k administration, along with training, health care and employee benefits administration, payroll, staffing, background checks, recruitment and policy writing.

Once HR and other operations are outsourced, many companies experience a strong return on investment, according to a recent survey of American executives. The 2006 survey of executives at the IDC Midwest Conference in Chicago showed nearly 85 percent of the respondents saved as much as they spent on outsourcing, with 26.4 percent reporting a savings of twice as much. And the savings, according to nearly 95 percent of the respondents, went toward operational performance and innovation, which improved shareholder value.

According to IDC, a market intelligence firm based in Massachusetts, companies worldwide are expected to spend more than $103.3 billion just on Human Resource Outsourcing this year, up significantly from the $61.2 billion spent in 2002. In the U.S., HR Outsourcing is the fastest-growing segment of business process outsourcing (BPO) and is expected to grow annually at a rate of 16 percent.

The frustration brought on by the government’s obtrusive standards can be offset by the value found in HR Outsourcing. As any business who has experienced the benefits of HR Outsourcing will say, they finally have the peace of mind and time to focus on the only thing in business that really matters: their bottom line.

About the Author: Ari Rosenstein is the Director of Marketing for CPE HR, Inc, an HR Outsourcing and PEO firm servicing the small and mid-sized business sector. With more than 13,000 worksite employees in 24 states, CPEhr is one of the largest privately-held HRO firms in the nation. To learn more about HR Outsourcing, visit CPEhr at

cpehr.com

.

Source:

isnare.com

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Uncategorized

Belgian Archbishop lectures on health care and religion

Friday, March 23, 2007

Yesterday, Belgian Archbishop Godfried Danneels visited the Catholic University of Leuven to give a lecture on health care and religion, entitled “Care for the body, care for the mind”. Some 120 people, mainly professors at the University Hospitals, but also clerics and students, attended the conference and following piano recital.

In his introduction speech, Dean of Medicine Bernard Himpens reminded the audience how much the art of medicine had changed since the time of Andreas Vesalius, probably the Faculty’s most famous scientist. The Dean stressed the important role of the Hospital’s Biomedical Ethics Committee, but added that religion continues to be important.

“Some people even believe that good ethics must be carried by faith, and any profound ethics should result in faith,” the Dean noted. He asked the question where the evolution of a merely “passive tolerance for the Christian starting points” would lead the health care system.

In his lecture, the Archbishop acknowledged that the technical aspects of health care were probably the most important to achieve results, but that on the other hand, the medical-technical approach by itself could not guarantee the happiness of the patients.

Wikinews asked Professor Martin Hiele, Chairman of the Commission for Medical Ethics, if he felt there was a need for a lecture on the subject of religion and health care. He replied that

Especially when it concerns health, disease and death, everyone is looking for answers. The influence of the Church and of religion on the way that the health care system deals with life and death is an important topic nowadays -that is the reason that a lot of people have come today, I think.

Prof. Bernard Spitz, from the University’s Department of Developmental Biology and head of the Hospital’s Obstetrics Department, told Wikinews that

Religion is important in our profession. Increasingly you see that it becomes more technical, but also that people start looking for differentiation. A lot of people do the same thing technically, but not everyone does it from the same perspective. Also, when in organisation that used to be based on an ideology, this ideology disappears, people become burn-out, asking themselves why it is that they work so hard.

The lecture was organised by the DeGroof Bank and the Faculty of Medicine. It is the first of three lectures on the subject of religion, spirituality and ethics in health care.

Retrieved from “https://en.wikinews.org/w/index.php?title=Belgian_Archbishop_lectures_on_health_care_and_religion&oldid=4496130”