NC unemployment rate 8.9 percent ?, Greensboro News Record AP article quotes Duke University Economics Professor, Labor force participation rate dropped .3 percent, Good news?
?With a 63.7% labor force participation, ?conditions in the labor market are considerably worse than indicated? in July?s report??economist Joshua Shapiro, WSJ August 3, 2012
?Although the numbers are not directly comparable, local labor markets across much of North Carolina began 2013 no differently than they began 2012,? said Quinterno. ?Simply put, unemployment rates remain elevated across the state, and twice as many North Carolinians are jobless and seeking work than was the case five years ago.??SBN Strategies March 22, 2013
?Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.??George Orwell, ?1984?
?
The Associated Press has always been a problem. A member ?news? organization creates a report and it is regurgitated across the nation & world, in most cases without fact checking.
We have another example recently from the Greensboro News Record.
Is this because the Rhino Times just shut down?
Or because John Coleman, an economics professor at the Duke University Fuqua School of Business was quoted?
?North Carolina?s unemployment rate fell to 8.9 percent in April _ the lowest in the state in four years.
The state?s unemployment rate was 9.2 percent in March.
?This is very encouraging for North Carolina,? said John Coleman, economics professor at Duke University?s Fuqua School of Business.
The state Commerce Department said Friday the number of people unemployed fell by 15,259 between March and April. On the downside, nearly 4,200 fewer people held jobs than in March.
The industry with the largest monthly increase: Leisure and hospitality services, which added 6,100 jobs. It was followed by financial activities with 2,000; government with 1,300, and professional and business services with 1,300.
January 2009 was the last time the state?s unemployment rate was at 8.9 percent.?
??Coleman said the report contained good news about North Carolina?s economy.?
??What?s encouraging about the report is the large drop in the number of unemployed,? he said. That number seems to have more to do with new jobs than people who are deciding to give up rather than keep competing for work.
He also said the new figures bode well for North Carolina in the future.?
(Reuters) - Nearly 50 people were injured on Friday when two commuter trains collided during evening rush hour near the Connecticut town of Fairfield, shutting down Amtrak service between New York and Boston indefinitely, police and transit officials said.
Authorities said there were no reports of fatalities in the accident that occurred shortly after 6 p.m. EDT (2200 GMT).
Anita Shrum, a spokeswoman for Bridgeport Hospital, said one person was seriously injured but the other 21 people it had received could be described as "walking wounded" with a variety of injuries. "They are doing OK, they are very stable," Shrum said.
Dianne Auger, a spokeswoman for St. Vincent's Medical Center in Bridgeport, said one of the 27 people taken there was in serious condition with head and neck injuries. Commuter trains on this busy commuter line to New York typically carry up to 300 passengers.
The number of injured could rise because hospital officials were told to prepare to receive up to 180 patients total.
The accident occurred when an eastbound train on the Metro-North commuter rial line derailed and collided with a train headed in the opposite direction near the suburban town of Fairfield, said spokesman Aaron Donovan of the Metropolitan Transit Authority, which runs the railroad.
Amtrak officials said in a statement that it suspended service indefinitely on the heavily traveled Northeast Corridor between Boston and New York.
The cause of the derailment was not immediately known. Fairfield is about 50 miles north of New York City.
(Reporting by Sharon Bernstein, David Bailey, Kevin Gray and Dan Whitcomb; Writing by Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Cynthia Johnston and Philip Barbara)
DAMASCUS, Va. (AP) ? An elderly driver plowed into dozens of hikers marching in a Saturday parade in a small Virginia mountain town and investigators were looking into whether he suffered a medical emergency before the accident.
About 50 to 60 people suffered injuries ranging from critical to superficial, but no fatalities were reported. Three of the worst injured were flown by helicopter to area hospitals. Their conditions weren't immediately available.
Another 12 to 15 victims were taken to hospitals by ambulance and the rest were treated at the scene, where some paramedics and other first-responders were participating in the parade.
It happened around 2:10 p.m. during the Hikers Parade at the Trail Days festival, an annual celebration of the Appalachian Trail in Damascus, near the Tennessee state line about a half-hour drive east of Bristol.
Damascus Police Chief Bill Nunley didn't release the driver's name or age but said he was participating in the parade and he had traversed the Appalachian Trail in the past. Multiple witnesses described him as an elderly man.
Nunley said the man's 1997 Cadillac was one of the last vehicles in the parade and the driver might have suffered an unspecified medical problem when his car accelerated to about 25 mph and struck the crowd on a two-lane bridge along the town's main road. The driver was among those taken to hospitals.
"It is under investigation and charges may be placed," Nunley said.
Witnesses said the car had a handicapped parking sticker and it went more than 100 feet before coming to a stop.
"He was hitting hikers," said Vickie Harmon, a witness from Damascus. "I saw hikers just go everywhere."
Amanda Puckett, who was watching the parade with her children, ran to the car, where she and others lifted the car off those pinned underneath.
"Everybody just threw our hands up on the car and we just lifted the car up," she said.
Keith Neumann, a hiker from South Carolina, said he was part of the group that scrambled around the car. They pushed the car backward to free a woman trapped underneath and lifted it off the ground to make sure no one else was trapped.
"There's no single heroes. We're talking about a group effort of everybody jumping in," he said.
Nunley cited quick action by police, firefighters, paramedics and hikers to tend to the victims, including a volunteer firefighter who dove into the car to turn off the ignition. The firefighter, whose name wasn't released, suffered minor injuries.
Mayor Jack McCrady encouraged people to attend the festival on Sunday, its final day.
"In 27 years of this, we've never had anything of this magnitude, and is it our job to make sure it doesn't happen again," he said.
McCrady said a donation fund was being set up to assist the injured, some of whom don't have medical insurance.
"We want to make sure they don't suffer any greater loss than they already have," he said.
Nobel Prize-winning psychologist Daniel Kahneman is the latest subject in our Desktop Diaries series, although he has no desk. Kahneman, professor emeritus at Princeton University, won the Nobel Prize in economic sciences in 2002 for his research with the late Amos Tversky on our sometimes irrational intuitions and how they affect decision-making.
Tenants of a New York City apartment complex are fuming after its owner raised their rents -- some by more than $1,000 a month -- in the middle of their leases, WABC-TV in New York reported. Residents of the Stuyvesant Town-Peter Cooper Village complex on the east side of Manhattan got the surprise rent hikes when notices were slipped under their doors. Four thousand units are being affected by the increases.
The rent hikes are part of a longstanding court battle between tenants and building management. In 2009, tenants won a fight against Tishman Speyer, then-owner of the complex, charging that many apartments were illegally deregulated under rent-stabilization laws. The tenants were given a temporary agreement to lower rents. But a permanent settlement was reached in November, allowing the current owner, CW Capital, to raise rents on 4,000 units, according to the Daily News. Now the notices give those residents two weeks' notice that there rents will be raised anywhere from hundreds of dollars to $1,100 a month starting June 1. (The complex has 11,200 units.)
"We signed a two-year lease, we've been here for one year and our rent just went up $700," tenant Heidi Fredrick told WABC-TV. Another tenant, Jennifer Lutz, had a $1,000 hike on her rent. "Oh, there's no way -- it's $1,000," Lutz told WABC-TV. "That's $12,000 a year."
Tenants are reportedly planning to protest the rent increases, and they are even considering a rent strike. "It is simply unfair and disrespectful, and we are tired of people treating this community like an ATM," New York City Councilman and Peter Cooper Village resident Daniel Garodnick told the Daily News. "Make no mistake about it. These increases are eviction notices."
CW Capital said in a statement that in recognition of the hardship the short-notice rent increases causes for some residents, the company is willing to give them a 30-day extension until July 1 to decide whether they will pay the rent hikes or move out.
See more on landlord disputes: When You Can Force Your Landlord To Listen To You Gun Owner Sean Blakley Says Landlord Is Evicting Him Over Firearms Tenants' Rights in Eviction: When Do Landlords Go Too Far?
More on AOL Real Estate: Find homes for rent. Find out how to calculate mortgage payments. Find homes for sale in your area. Find foreclosures in your area.
Follow us on Twitter at @AOLRealEstate or connect with AOL Real Estate on Facebook.
There have been a number of weird news stories this week, so the Bloomberg terminal data breach scandal may not be getting enough time in the limelight.? Recently, it has come to light that employees at Bloomberg have access to at least some information regarding users' search habits.? Bloomberg currently has more than 315,000 terminals at client offices, mostly financial institutions, but also law firms.? (Our campus also has some.)? From these terminals, users can do a vast array of things, from researching specific companies to chatting to sending emails to making financial trades.? Think of it like Westlaw or Lexis -- you can do a thousand things on those websites, but you mainly read law review articles, cases and statutes.? Bloomberg terminals are very expensive ($20k/year) and also not committed to being user-friendly.? Though Westlaw and Lexis gave up dedicated terminals decades ago and went from dial-up access to a web-friendly interface, Bloomberg has remained pretty hard to learn how to use, which may be why users are so hesitant to give it up after mastering it.
This week, Bloomberg is trying allay?its clients'?fears?that journalists could see some data, but not important data (chatting, emailing, trading, specific research), and Wall Street firms are trying to get more commitments from Bloomberg as to what was accessible and what will be accessible going forward.? But what interests me is what I'm not seeing anywhere -- what does the SEC think is important here?
Back in the day, and I assume now, lots of people devoted a lot of time to try to collect information on companies that might be engaged in M&A activity.? A common legend around my law firm was that individuals would pose as messengers to go to the conference room floor and peruse the sign-in book to see what sorts of people were in the same conference room.? I'm sure that was an example of an amateurish effort.? A famous insider trading case involved the guy who worked for the financial printer trading on information he gleaned from reading documents there.? I don't think you have to be a mystery novelist to come up with a scenario whereby a journalist at Bloomberg sees which (M&A lawyer) users are logging on and what sorts of things they are looking at and cobbles together insider information.? The EIC of Bloomberg, Matthew Winkler, says that no one could access specific securities information, but could see aggregate information "akin to being able to see how many times someone used Microsoft Word vs. Excel."? What about aggregate information such as a steep increase in users accessing company information on Company X?? (N.B.:? Bloomberg offers a service called Bloomberg Law, which is separate from the terminals that are at the heart of the breach this week.? However, many law firms have Bloomberg business terminals.)
And now that we realize that Bloomberg could see that individual users were logging on and off (or not) of their terminals, is anyone interested in what folks at Westlaw or Lexis see?? I would think that a sudden unease now exists for any research service that gives us a user logon associated with an individual's name and employer, whether that's a law firm or an investment bank.
Art of Science exhibit celebrates the 'unpredictability of beauty'Public release date: 16-May-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Teresa Riordan triordan@princeton.edu 609-258-9754 Princeton University, Engineering School
Online gallery features images from research
The Princeton University Art of Science 2013 exhibit can now be viewed in a new online gallery. The exhibit consists of 43 images of artistic merit created during the course of scientific research:
The gallery features the top three awards in a juried competition as well as the top three "People's Choice" images.
The physical Art of Science 2013 gallery opened May 10 with a reception attended by about 200 people in the Friend Center on the Princeton University campus. The works were chosen from 170 images submitted from 24 different departments across campus.
"Like art, science and engineering are deeply creative activities," said Pablo Debenedetti, the recently appointed Dean for Research at Princeton who served as master of ceremonies at the opening reception. "Also like art, science and engineering at their very best are highly unpredictable in their outcomes. The Art of Science exhibit celebrates the beauty of unpredictability and the unpredictability of beauty."
Adam Finkelstein, professor of computer science and one of the exhibit organizers, said that Art of Science spurs debate among artists about the nature of art while opening scientists to new ways of "seeing" their own research. "At the same time," Finkelstein said, "this striking imagery serves as a democratic window through which non-experts can appreciate the thrill of scientific discovery."
The top three entrants as chosen by a distinguished jury received cash prizes in amounts calculated by the golden ratio (whose proportions have since antiquity been considered to be aesthetically pleasing): first prize, $250; second prize, $154.51; and third prize, $95.49.
The first prize image was "East-West, West-East" by Martin Jucker in the Program in Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences. Second Prize went to "Crushed birch," by Michael Kosk, Class of 2016, in the Woodrow Wilson School. Third Prize went to "Web of Art and Science" by Paul Csogi of the Lewis Center for the Arts and Chris Cane of the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory.
The juried prize winners were selected by a distinguished panel of judges: David Dobkin, Dean of the Faculty; the photographer Emmet Gowin; the poet Paul Muldoon; Shirley M. Tilghman, molecular biologist and President of Princeton University; and Katherine Bussard, Peter C. Bunnell curator of photography at the Princeton Art Museum.
Bussard said she was delighted to see the range of subject matter in the 2013 exhibit. "This year's theme of 'connections' generated such an array of images," she said. "The exhibit includes structural diagrams that resemble flowers, a close-up of cellulose that looks like an aerial photograph, and lots of pictures of worms!"
Bussard said she was particularly enchanted by a photograph of C. elegans worms under a microscope that undergraduate Meredith Wright '13 snapped with her cellphone camera. "She cleverly titled her work 'C. instagram' to drive home the way such a image shared through social media can instantly connect new audiences with science," Bussard said.
The People's Choice award winners were selected by paper ballots filled out by those attending the Art of Science 2013 opening reception. Out of 139 ballots cast, first prize for People's Choice went to "Messenger Meshwork," by Shawn C. Little, Kristina S. Sinsimer, Elizabeth R. Gavis, and Eric F. Wieschaus in the Department of Molecular Biology. Second People's Choice prize went to "Bridging the Gap," by Jason Wexler and Howard A. Stone of the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. Third prize went to "Medusa," by Jamie Barr and Cliff Brangwynne of the Departments of Chemical and Biological Engineering and Molecular Biology.
Victoria Sanchez, a graduate student in chemical and biological engineering and one of the 2013 organizers, noted that the winners selected by the jury and those selected by visitors to the opening reception were completely different. "It is a very nice example of how subjective art is," she said. "The way you view an image can be strongly influenced by your own scientific background since each image has scientific merit as well as an aesthetic one."
The physical exhibit is located in the Friend Center on the Princeton University campus in Princeton, N.J.. The exhibit is free and open to the public, Monday through Friday, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
###
Art of Science 2013 is sponsored by the David A. Gardner '69 Fund in the Council of the Humanities, the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, and the School of Engineering and Applied Science. It is co-sponsored by the Office of the Dean for Research, Lewis Center for the Arts, PICSciE, Keller Center, Office of the Vice President for Facilities, Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics, the Cooperative Institute for Climate Science, and the departments of Astrophysical Sciences, Computer Science, Chemical and Biological Engineering, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Molecular Biology, Physics, and Psychology.
The organizers for Art of Science 2013 are Zach Donnell, Department of Molecular Biology; Adam Finkelstein, Department of Computer Science; Teresa Riordan, School of Engineering and Applied Science, Victoria Sanchez, Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, and Andrew Zwicker, Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory.
###
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Art of Science exhibit celebrates the 'unpredictability of beauty'Public release date: 16-May-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Teresa Riordan triordan@princeton.edu 609-258-9754 Princeton University, Engineering School
Online gallery features images from research
The Princeton University Art of Science 2013 exhibit can now be viewed in a new online gallery. The exhibit consists of 43 images of artistic merit created during the course of scientific research:
The gallery features the top three awards in a juried competition as well as the top three "People's Choice" images.
The physical Art of Science 2013 gallery opened May 10 with a reception attended by about 200 people in the Friend Center on the Princeton University campus. The works were chosen from 170 images submitted from 24 different departments across campus.
"Like art, science and engineering are deeply creative activities," said Pablo Debenedetti, the recently appointed Dean for Research at Princeton who served as master of ceremonies at the opening reception. "Also like art, science and engineering at their very best are highly unpredictable in their outcomes. The Art of Science exhibit celebrates the beauty of unpredictability and the unpredictability of beauty."
Adam Finkelstein, professor of computer science and one of the exhibit organizers, said that Art of Science spurs debate among artists about the nature of art while opening scientists to new ways of "seeing" their own research. "At the same time," Finkelstein said, "this striking imagery serves as a democratic window through which non-experts can appreciate the thrill of scientific discovery."
The top three entrants as chosen by a distinguished jury received cash prizes in amounts calculated by the golden ratio (whose proportions have since antiquity been considered to be aesthetically pleasing): first prize, $250; second prize, $154.51; and third prize, $95.49.
The first prize image was "East-West, West-East" by Martin Jucker in the Program in Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences. Second Prize went to "Crushed birch," by Michael Kosk, Class of 2016, in the Woodrow Wilson School. Third Prize went to "Web of Art and Science" by Paul Csogi of the Lewis Center for the Arts and Chris Cane of the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory.
The juried prize winners were selected by a distinguished panel of judges: David Dobkin, Dean of the Faculty; the photographer Emmet Gowin; the poet Paul Muldoon; Shirley M. Tilghman, molecular biologist and President of Princeton University; and Katherine Bussard, Peter C. Bunnell curator of photography at the Princeton Art Museum.
Bussard said she was delighted to see the range of subject matter in the 2013 exhibit. "This year's theme of 'connections' generated such an array of images," she said. "The exhibit includes structural diagrams that resemble flowers, a close-up of cellulose that looks like an aerial photograph, and lots of pictures of worms!"
Bussard said she was particularly enchanted by a photograph of C. elegans worms under a microscope that undergraduate Meredith Wright '13 snapped with her cellphone camera. "She cleverly titled her work 'C. instagram' to drive home the way such a image shared through social media can instantly connect new audiences with science," Bussard said.
The People's Choice award winners were selected by paper ballots filled out by those attending the Art of Science 2013 opening reception. Out of 139 ballots cast, first prize for People's Choice went to "Messenger Meshwork," by Shawn C. Little, Kristina S. Sinsimer, Elizabeth R. Gavis, and Eric F. Wieschaus in the Department of Molecular Biology. Second People's Choice prize went to "Bridging the Gap," by Jason Wexler and Howard A. Stone of the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. Third prize went to "Medusa," by Jamie Barr and Cliff Brangwynne of the Departments of Chemical and Biological Engineering and Molecular Biology.
Victoria Sanchez, a graduate student in chemical and biological engineering and one of the 2013 organizers, noted that the winners selected by the jury and those selected by visitors to the opening reception were completely different. "It is a very nice example of how subjective art is," she said. "The way you view an image can be strongly influenced by your own scientific background since each image has scientific merit as well as an aesthetic one."
The physical exhibit is located in the Friend Center on the Princeton University campus in Princeton, N.J.. The exhibit is free and open to the public, Monday through Friday, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
###
Art of Science 2013 is sponsored by the David A. Gardner '69 Fund in the Council of the Humanities, the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, and the School of Engineering and Applied Science. It is co-sponsored by the Office of the Dean for Research, Lewis Center for the Arts, PICSciE, Keller Center, Office of the Vice President for Facilities, Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics, the Cooperative Institute for Climate Science, and the departments of Astrophysical Sciences, Computer Science, Chemical and Biological Engineering, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Molecular Biology, Physics, and Psychology.
The organizers for Art of Science 2013 are Zach Donnell, Department of Molecular Biology; Adam Finkelstein, Department of Computer Science; Teresa Riordan, School of Engineering and Applied Science, Victoria Sanchez, Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, and Andrew Zwicker, Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory.
###
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
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Public release date: 16-May-2013
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