Weekly unemployment claims decrease slightly
For the Week of 09/26/2009. There were 760 new regular benefit claims for Unemployment Insurance last week, a decrease of 20 from the week before. Altogether 9,384 new and continuing claims were filed, 304 fewer than a week ago and 3,645 more than a year earlier. The Department also processed 4,595 First Tier claims for benefits under Emergency Unemployment Compensation, 2008 (EUC08), 22 more than a week ago. In addition, there were 923 Second Tier claims for benefits processed under the EUC08 program, which is an increase of 54 from the week before. The Unemployment Weekly Report can be found at: http://www.vtlmi.info/(link is external). Previously released Unemployment Weekly Reports and other UI reports can be found at: http://www.vtlmi.info/lmipub.htm#uc(link is external)
Bar offers help to Katrina’s victims September 15, 2005 Regular News Bar offers help to Katrina’s victims Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama bars organize relief efforts In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina’s catastrophe, The Florida Bar is prepared to help raise money, share expertise, and donate blood.“It is with great empathy and sincere sorrow that we view the scenes of devastation from Hurricane Katrina to our neighboring states, and The Florida Bar stands ready to assist in relief efforts in every way possible,” said President Alan Bookman, a native of New Orleans who knows firsthand the destruction wrought by hurricanes, having experienced several at his Pensacola home.“We have been in contact with our colleagues in the Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama state bars, and we have offered our resources and experience in their recovery efforts,” Bookman said.Bookman encourages Florida lawyers to help by donating to relief efforts established by the neighboring states’ bars (see box) and Florida’s own Attorney’s Charitable Trust.The Florida Bar is also offering its expertise gained from last year’s four hurricanes. In 2004, The Florida Bar Young Lawyers Division, in coordination with the ABA and FEMA, activated a toll-free hotline for victims who needed immediate legal assistance but did not have financial resources to hire an attorney. Over the course of this service, over 800 volunteer lawyers took 2,061 referrals while Bar staff referred an additional 1,000 callers to other agencies. In all, the hotline received 6,097 calls. To assist the volunteers, an extensive disaster legal services manual was prepared and distributed.Other key programs were also implemented by the Bar during the 2004 hurriane season, including a hurricane relief Web page, coordination of assistance to Bar members whose law practices were disrupted or destroyed, and public information activities.“Already we have shared information on these programs with Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama bar staff, but we hope to be of considerable assistance to them as they assess the needs of their members and communities and work to meet those needs,” Bookman said.The Florida YLD is using its extensive hurricane experience to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina. In addition to offering assistance to the YLD leaders in AL, MS, and LA in setting up their individual disaster response plans, The Florida Bar YLD is coordinating a fundraising effort among the young lawyers sections of Florida’s voluntary bar associations. Contact Austin Newberry at (800) 342-8060, ext. 5624 or at anewberry@flabar.org for more information. The YLD also has developed an orientation packet that will assist volunteer lawyers in helping the victims of hurricanes.Suggestions for monetary donations are being provided on the Bar’s Web site at floridabar.org. The Louisiana State Bar Association has set up a Hurricane Katrina Legal Community Relief Fund to help assist lawyers who lost their homes and offices. The Mississippi Bar Foundation is collecting donations to help Mississippi Bar members. The Florida Attorney’s Charitable Trust (ACT), a 501(c)(3) disaster relief fund that offers Florida’s attorneys an avenue for making donations to victims of disasters, is also accepting donations. Details on these funds, and on the American Red Cross, are listed on The Florida Bar Web site.“As the recovery proceeds, our hearts and prayers will be with everyone who has been affected by this storm,” Bookman said.How to help
• The American Red Cross — www.redcross.org.• Hurricane Katrina Legal Community Relief Fund, c/o Baton Rouge Bar Foundation, 544 Main St., Baton Rouge, LA 70802.• The Mississippi Bar Foundation, 643 North State St., P.O. Box 2168, Jackson, MS 39225-2168.• Florida Attorney’s Charitable Trust, 651 East Jefferson St., Tallahassee 32399-3200 or floridabar.org.
Sign up for our COVID-19 newsletter to stay up-to-date on the latest coronavirus news throughout New York Thanksgiving is less than a week away, and in anticipation of Turkey Day, Long Island is hosting a variety of events marking the annual national feast. Here are five.Thanksgiving Pet ParadeCalling all dogs and (strollered) cats! This weekend marks the inaugural Thanksgiving Pet Parade in the heart of the North Fork. Pet parents are encouraged to bring their animal companions in holiday-related costumes, such as turkeys, sweet potatoes and pilgrims. Judges will issues prizes for best costume, most creative, best human-pet combo costume and other categories. Proceeds benefit North Fork Animal Welfare League. Signup at noon before the parade. Harbor Pet, 25 Front St., Greenport. Harbor-Pet.com $10. 12:30 p.m. Nov. 22.Turkey ClassDid you know that the turkey was a contender with the bald eagle to be named the national bird? Learn about the turkey, a native bird of America, and find out the difference between a turkey and a chicken! Long Island Science Center, 11 West Main St., Riverhead. lisciencecenter.org $5. 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Nov. 22. RELATED: 2014 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade: 7 Things to Know Before You Go 2014 Annual Thanksgiving Native American FeastThis celebration held the weekend before Thanksgiving for more than 25 years includes Native American foods, spear throwing, face painting, fire making, pottery making, wigwam and much more, including the museum’s famous popcorn soup! Films about Native American culture will be shown throughout. Activities are appropriate for all ages. Activities are held both indoors and outdoors. Garvies Point Museum, 50 Barry Dr., Glen Cove. garviespointmuseum.com $5 ages 5 and above. 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Nov. 22, 23.1863 Thanksgiving Holiday CelebrationVisitors to Old Bethpage Village, the re-created mid-19th Century village, will be able to enjoy the sights and aromas of an old-fashioned Thanksgiving including decorated pumpkin pies baked in a beehive oven, and turkey roasted over an open fire. In addition, each afternoon, Traditional Fiddle music will be played and children’s stories will be read. Old Bethpage Village Restoration, 1303 Round Swamp Rd., in Old Bethpage. nassaucountyny.gov/parks $10 adults, $7 kids are 5 to 12, seniors and volunteer firefighters. 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Nov. 22, 23.Who Took Tom The Turkey? Everyone is a suspect in the case of the kidnapping most foul. An annual holiday musical sure to delight to children of all ages. BayWay Arts Center, 265 East Main St., East Islip. broadhollow.org $12. 12 p.m. Nov. 23.
CUNA CUNA will host a webinar Nov. 20 discussing patent enforcement of certain remote deposit capture (RDC) technology, particularly in the wake of the $200 million verdict awarded to USAA from Wells Fargo earlier this month. The webinar is free for CUNA members, and is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. (ET).CUNA Senior Director for Advocacy for Payments and Cybersecurity Lance Noggle and CUNA’s patent litigation attorneys Mike Rounds and Adam Yowell, of Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck will discuss the background of the issue, the court decision against Wells Fargo and what ramifications that decision could have for credit unions.USAA filed suit in June 2018 against Wells Fargo alleging that the bank infringed on certain USAA patents for remote check capture (RDC), specifically patents related to mobile check capture.Credit unions around the country have received letters from USAA asking them to negotiate licensing deals for using RDC technology that USAA claims it developed. continue reading »
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16SHARESShareShareSharePrintMailGooglePinterestDiggRedditStumbleuponDeliciousBufferTumblr continue reading » I admit, I was a huge fan of the ’90s cult classic television show “The X-Files” and its two lead agents, Dana Scully and Fox Mulder. Uniting their strengths of science and gut instinct, Scully and Mulder would, week after week, thwart assumptions to reveal that the “truth is out there.”If you are a growth-minded credit union, you should be on your own search for the truth and specifically looking for the X-factors that will deliver results. In this case, X stands for experience. There is an emerging trend of having CXOs (chief experience officers) on the executive team at financial institutions and many other growing companies for good reason. Consumers today are looking for personal and memorable experiences that will keep them coming back to your organization time and time again.The masters of retail—think Apple, Disney, Ritz Carlton and Zappos—know that what matters is not simply serving their customers but providing an experience. Service is inherently transactional or reactionary in nature, such as doing what is asked or fixing a problem after it has occurred. To provide an experience, however, is to make an interaction personal and memorable for the customer by anticipating needs and proactively recognizing an opportunity. Good experiences can foster a long-term relationship with a customer based on engagement, which leads to loyalty.
continue reading » In my previous blog post, I discussed how COVID-19 is impacting the auto lending industry. While industry analysts were not expecting 2020 to be a record year, with the widespread outbreak of COVID-19 in March, vehicle sales effectively dropped off a cliff, reaching their worst level, based on a seasonally adjusted rate since March 2010, during the Great Recession. Today, I want to provide some specific strategies your financial institution can deploy in order to supplement auto loan originations and increase loan volume.Focus on RefinancingOne way to compete in this unprecedentedly competitive landscape is to focus on refinancing. Whether you are looking to capture new borrowers or recapture the loans of existing borrowers, refinance programs are a way to keep your financial institution’s lending portfolio strong. Refinance programs are not a new phenomenon, but now is a good time to evaluate and refocus your efforts on this channel.The fact is, there are millions of prospective borrowers that are paying too much for their auto loans. According to U.S. News and World Report, consumers with FICO scores from 700 to 749 were paying an average of 4.73% for a new car loan and 4.98% for a used car loan as of August 2020. This indicates there is significant opportunity to audit your auto loan portfolio to conduct a targeted outreach to borrowers who could benefit from refinancing their auto loans. One way to tactically run a refinance campaign is to follow these steps: ShareShareSharePrintMailGooglePinterestDiggRedditStumbleuponDeliciousBufferTumblr
Topics : Indonesia’s economy shrank by 5.32 percent year-on-year (yoy) in the second quarter as economic activity fell after the government imposed large-scale social restrictions (PSBB) to curb the spread of COVID-19.Indonesia’s total investment still grew by 1.8 percent yoy in the first half of 2020 to Rp 402.6 trillion (US$27.5 billion), although foreign direct investment (FDI) fell by 8.1 percent yoy over the same period, according to Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM) data.Meanwhile, the data also showed that the FDI in Riau Islands from January to June this year dipped 15.3 percent yoy to $767.5 million from the same period last year.Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) Singapore committee chairperson Michael Goutama echoed the sentiment, stating that the government should solve the underlying problems in the Batam FTZ.Seaport infrastructure development in Batam should be the government’s top priority, followed by human capital development, the electricity cost and social stability in the region, according to Michael.“Investors see Batam as a promising place to do business. However, we need to solve the underlying issues in the region to lure investment,” he said.In January, state port operator PT Pelabuhan Indonesia II (Pelindo II) signed an agreement with BP Batam, the authority of the Batam FTZ, to develop Batu Ampar Port, with work slated to begin this year.The development will see the container stacking area of the port expanded from the current 2 hectares to 12 ha, while the container loading and unloading performance would see an upgrade to 20 containers per hour from an average of 5 containers per hour.Susiwijono Moegiarso, the secretary of the Office of the Coordinating Economic Minister, said the government was planning to place the FTZ authorities of Batam, Bintan, Tanjung Pinang and Karimun Island—all located in Riau Islands—under a unified council led by the coordinating economic minister, in order to simplify licensing processes.Bintan, Tanjung Pinang, and Karimun Island’s FTZ authorities are currently under the leadership of the Riau Island governor, unlike BP Batam, which is directly led by the coordinating economic minister, Susiwijono explained.“We are currently mulling the masterplan for FTZ authorities’ integration. Through the integration, we could reduce the bureaucratic complexity and unify FTZ asset ownership,” he said.Besides the integration of FTZ authorities, the government is planning to establish six special economic zones (KEK) within the Batam FTZ. It has recently approved the establishment of maintenance, repair and operations (MRO) at the Hang Nadim KEK and the Nongsa Digital Park KEK with estimated investment of Rp 6.2 trillion and Rp 16 trillion, respectively.Additional investment incentives, such as 100 percent corporate tax holiday, value added tax (VAT) and luxury tax exemptions for imported goods and import duty deferment for raw materials, will be provided for companies operating inside the KEK, according to Susiwijono.“We will also allow 100 percent foreign ownership of companies within the enclave [KEK] and apply a zero-percent duty for products with at least 40 percent local content,” he added. High costs for logistics and electricity in Batam are burdensome for business, hampering the government’s effort to attract investors to the free trade zone (FTZ) in Riau Islands, business players have said.Abidin Hasibuan, the president director of publicly listed electronics manufacturer PT Sat Nusapersada, said on Thursday that container shipment costs from Batam remained uncompetitive given the poor infrastructure and inefficiency of the area’s main seaport, Batu Ampar Port.“Shipping containers from Jakarta to Hong Kong is around 50 percent cheaper than from Batam. That doesn’t make sense, as Batam is closer to Hong Kong than Jakarta,” he said during an online discussion held by Media Indonesia.
Furthermore, high electricity and labor costs on the islands also make Batam less competitive than other countries, and that is especially dire for industries relying on exports, according to Abidin.“We are lucky that the rupiah is still relatively weak compared to the US dollar. If the rupiah strengthens to Rp 12,000 per dollar, then we are done,” he said.The rupiah gained slightly against the US dollar on Monday at Rp 14,547, an improvement from its steep depreciation in March at around Rp 16,500 per US dollar, the lowest since the 1998 crisis.The government has taken measures to woo investors with new regulations and tax deals for the Batam FTZ that it expects to aid the region and national economic rebound after the pandemic.
The British government will routinely deny asylum to migrants who board boats to cross the English Channel or come to Britain through illegal routes, the Sunday Times reported.Under new laws that will be unveiled by Britain’s interior minister Priti Patel on Sunday, the government will unveil its “fair borders bill,” outlining its plan of a two-tier system in which migrants are treated differently if they pay criminal gangs to help them come to Britain, the newspaper said.New legal routes will be created for those who are at genuine risk of harm, and foreign criminals and asylum seekers who are not at risk will be deported, the report added. “Currently, everybody that comes to our country and makes an asylum claim, they are treated the same, irrespective of the route through which they have entered our country – and that simply isn’t right,” Patel said.Earlier this week, the British government came under fire after media reports revealed it had studied housing asylum seekers on disused oil rigs, banishing them to camps in Moldova or Papua New Guinea, or building floating walls in the sea to keep them out.Topics :
We at PennDOT are doing our part to make sure we operate as efficiently as possible. We have set new goals that include delivering efficient winter operations, roadway maintenance and bridge improvements, investing in state of the art equipment and I-T and making the best use of technology to deliver our services.One example of using technology to improve winter services is Governor Tom Wolf’s recent announcement of the expanded pilot of our Automated Vehicle Location (AVL) system in more than 500 PennDOT plow trucks and more than 200 contracted rental trucks. The system will allow us to better manage storms and later this winter, give our customers the opportunity to go on 511 PA and see just where trucks are operating.We are working hard at PennDOT every day to keep you moving. We prepare to enter 2016 with a renewed commitment to put your dollars invested with us to effective and efficient use. By: Leslie S. Richards, Secretary of Transportation Read more agency year in review blog posts.Like Governor Tom Wolf on Facebook: Facebook.com/GovernorWolf Government That Works, Infrastructure, The Blog, Transportation, Year in Review Over the last year, PennDOT’s 12,000 employees have worked diligently to keep the roads and bridges of the commonwealth safe, and our operations transparent to the public.On the road and bridge system, we have started work on nearly 600 projects worth nearly $2.5 billion, almost double what we were able to do about two years ago. We improved more than 6,000 miles of pavements this year, including over 200 miles in the five-county Philadelphia region.Watch Secretary Leslie S. Richards talk about how the Department of Transportation delivered transportation value in 2015.We are fixing more bridges and making headway against the backlog of bridges in need of immediate repair. We have reduced the number of structurally deficient bridges by 2,000.More resources are going to your communities to fix local roads as well. Local communities will receive nearly $434 million this year, a 35 percent increase from only two years ago.Because we know transparency and proactive communication with the public and stakeholders is critical, we launched a new website this year showing where investments are being made across the state.The website – Projects.PennDOT.gov – features statewide and county updates on:Construction projects that are underway or will be bid or begin this yearProjects that are completed, underway, planned or in development because of Act 89’s historic investmentProjects included in the department’s Four and Twelve Year Plans. January 14, 2016 BLOG: PennDOT Delivering Transportation Value SHARE Email Facebook Twitter
The main geographical change in asset allocation was a 10 percentage-point reduction in Latvian securities, to 33%.The review’s authors bemoaned the lack of domestic long-term savings instruments other than government securities and Latvenergo (green energy) bonds, and called for a greater use of financial instruments other than loans for state and local government project financing, as well as the development of real estate and forest funds.The latter have been already been launched in Estonia as an alternative asset for institutional portfolio managers.Latvian pension funds’ exposure to eastern European securities increased by five percentage points to 25%, and to North America from 4% to 8%. Exposure to western Europe fell from 16% to 14%.The active plans took advantage of stock market rallies, increasing their equity and equity fund exposure over the year by 4 percentage points to 30%, while allocation to bonds and bond funds grew from 49% to 55%.These shifts were largely at the expense of cash holdings, which fell from 15% to 7%.The balanced funds, with 16% in equities and 74% in bonds, recorded minimal changes, while the main shift in the conservative funds’ structure was a 4 percentage-point increase in bond holdings to 82%.Total net assets grew by 18.3%, or approximately €428m, year on year to €2.8bn. Of this, €53m came from investment profits and the remainder from the 6% social security contribution.Membership rose slightly, by 1.1%, to 1.27m.The much smaller voluntary third pillar generated better results, with the average return up by 1.1 percentage points to 3.38%.As in the case of the second pillar, the active funds generated the best results, of 4.34%, compared with 3.34% in 2015.Of the 11 active funds, the two US dollar-denominated plans returned an average 2.87%, against 4.40% from the remaining euro-denominated ones.The four balanced funds raised their returns from 1.71% to 2.81%. The annual gain from First Closed Pension Fund, for Latvia’s state-owned electricity utilities and part-state-owned telecommunication company employees, increased from 1.75% to 2.98%.Geographically, asset allocation likewise shifted out of Latvia, which accounted for 26% of the aggregate portfolio.Western Europe accounted for 24%, eastern Europe 17%, and global securities 16%. Membership grew by 6.8% to 272,237, and assets by 15.2% to €381m. Latvia’s second and third-pillar pension funds recorded a modest increase in 12-month returns for 2016, according to the Association of Commercial Banks of Latvia (LKA).The weighted average return for the mandatory second-pillar funds rose to 2.02%, from 1.93% a year earlier.The eight active, equity-weighted funds generated the best results, gaining 2.24% compared with 2.29% in 2015.The returns of the four balanced funds rose from 1.43% to 2.01%, while those of the eight conservative funds remained unchanged at 1.26%.