Applebee's brouhaha: Readers take sides

Herb Weisbaum, NBC News contributor ? ? ? 1 day

Reaction is growing to the story of an Applebee?s waitress fired this week for posting a customer?s receipt online. It?s raised the issue of customer privacy, corporate policy and how to treat the people who serve us and count on tips as part of their income.

As we reported on Thursday, a waitress at an Applebee?s franchise in the St. Louis area waited on a table, and as is customary for parties larger than eight, the bill came with an automatic 18 percent tip added. That didn?t sit well with the person paying the bill, Pastor Alois Bell of the World Deliverance Ministries Church in Granite City, Ill.

Pastor Bell crossed out the automatic tip and wrote ?0? on the receipt, along with this message: ?I give God 10% why do you get 18??

Applebee?s says another waitress, one who did not wait on that table, took a photo of the bill and uploaded it to Reddit, where it soon went viral.

The pastor complained to the restaurant manager, and Chelsea Welch, the waitress who posted the receipt (which included the pastor?s signature), was fired.

?I thought the note was insulting, but it was also comical,? Welch told TheConsumerist. ?I posted it to Reddit because I thought other users would find it entertaining.?

Pastor Bell has apologized for her action. She told The Smoking Gun that she did leave a $6.29 cash tip (that?s 18 percent) on the table.

?My heart is really broken,? she told them. ?I?ve brought embarrassment to my church and my ministry.?

NBC News shared this story with the Emily Post Institute, the experts on social and business etiquette.

?The customer was absolutely out of line,? said Anna Post. ?In my opinion, what the pastor did was not only rude, but the message was just snarky. What she did was wrong. I appreciate that there are people who are frustrated with how tipping works in America; this is not the answer.?

In other words, for the servers at a restaurant, that tip is part of his/her salary.

?That?s why it?s so egregious not to leave an appropriate tip,? Post said. She pointed out that tithing is different than tipping.

?When you go into a restaurant in the U.S., you are essentially entering into a social contract that you will tip ? usually a minimum of 15 percent ? for the service rendered. Frankly, in most places now it?s 20 percent these days. So, an 18 percent tip might have been a little on the low side.?

And what about what the waitress did?

Post told me she understands why Welch might want to share something like this, but she warned that whenever you put something online that relates to your job, there can be negative consequences.

Many of you have shared your thoughts on my Facebook page. Here are just a few of the comments I?ve received so far.

• Rachel Quezada wrote: ?Shame on the pastor and shame on the waitress, too.?
• Charles A Lewis: ?The Pastor should be ashamed of herself, and the young lady should not have been fired.?
• Nicholas Worden: ?Most people in the service industry make minimum wage (or less), and depend on the tips from the customers. Since this pastor obviously hates leaving a tip, then maybe she should stick to McDonalds where she stands in line to order!?
• Linda Brown: ?If the pastor wishes to follow in Jesus' steps, the pastor should plead for the waitress to get her job back. The loss of work may be a terrible financial burden on the woman. That is not very Christian.?
• Jennifer Witters-Hopkins: ?The waitress should have been given a warning and the so-called pastor a bible lesson.?

Today, Applebee?s posted detailed information on its Facebook page about the action taken by its franchisee and noted that the company has a clear policy in the employee handbook about social media:

?Employees must honor the privacy rights of Applebee's and its employees by seeking permission before writing about or displaying internal Applebee's happenings that might be considered to be a breach of privacy and confidentiality. This shall include, but not be limited to, posting of photographs, video, or audio of Applebee's employees or its customers, suppliers, agents or competitors, without first obtaining written approval from the Vice President of Operations. The company said employees are told that if they violate this policy, they will be subject to ?disciplinary action, up to and including termination of employment.?

More information:

Herb Weisbaum is The ConsumerMan. Follow him on Facebook and Twitteror visit The ConsumerMan website.

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/business/applebees-brouhaha-readers-take-sides-1B8218082

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Chevron profit up on asset exchange, refineries

NEW YORK (AP) ? Chevron Corp. posted a 41 percent gain in net income for the fourth quarter as the company produced more oil and gas, improved the performance of its refinery business and realized a gain from swapping assets in an Australian natural gas field.

Chevron Corp. posted net income of $7.2 billion for the quarter on revenue of $60.6 billion. That's up from $5.1 billion on revenue of $60 billion a year ago.

It was the biggest fourth quarter profit in the company's history. The company's annual profit of $26.2 billion was second only to last year's numbers.

On a per-share basis, Chevron earned $3.70. Analysts had expected the company to earn $3.06 per share, according to FactSet, but analysts had not factored in the $1.4 billion gain from Chevron's asset exchange.

Stacey Hudson, an analyst at Raymond James, estimates the exchange was worth 72 cents per share, which would put Chevron's adjusted earnings 8 cents below what analysts had expected but 40 cents higher than the fourth quarter of last year. Chevron's results were also helped by the sale of the company's fuels marketing operations in the Caribbean.

Excluding the gain from the Australian asset sale Chevron's net income rose 14 percent in the quarter.

Hudson described the results as "solid." Chevron shares rose $1.35 to close at $116.50 Friday.

Chevron's production rose to 2.67 million barrels of oil and gas per day for the quarter, up just slightly from a year ago but up substantially from the 2.5 million the company produced in the third quarter of last year. For the year, Chevron produced an average of 2.64 million barrels per day, down from 2.67 million barrels per day in 2011.

Production has been hurt by the temporary closure of the company's Brazilian offshore project in what is known as the Frade field. It has been closed since oil was found to be seeping from the field in November 2011 and again in March 2012.

The company's production of oil and other liquid hydrocarbons in the U.S. rose 3 percent to 462,000 barrels per day in the quarter. That lagged the blistering growth of overall U.S. production which has been rising dramatically in recent years. U.S. crude production rose 14 percent in the fourth quarter of last year to 6.85 million barrels per day, up from 5.98 million barrels per day in the same period of the previous year, according to the Energy Department.

Chevron sold oil and liquids for an average of $91 per barrel in the fourth quarter in the U.S., down from $101 per barrel during last year's fourth quarter. Abroad, Chevron brought in $100 per barrel, down from $101 last year.

Chevron's chemicals and refining operations improved, especially in the U.S., because input costs at the plants including crude oil, natural gas and natural gas liquids fell while the prices for the refined fuels and chemicals rose. Chevron's refinery output in the U.S. fell by 75,000 barrels per day, however, after an August fire at its Richmond, Calif. plant shut down a processing unit.

Larger rival Exxon Mobil Corp. reported a 6 percent increase in fourth-quarter earnings to $9.95 billion.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/chevron-profit-asset-exchange-refineries-135511583--finance.html

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Egypt opposition to protest after deadly week

CAIRO (Reuters) - Opponents of Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi have called mass demonstrations on Friday, raising the prospect of more bloodshed despite a pledge by politicians to back off after the deadliest week of his seven months in office.

Protests marking the second anniversary of the uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak have killed nearly 60 people since January 25. It prompted the head of the army - the institution that effectively ran Egypt for six decades until Mursi's election - to warn that the state was on the verge of collapse.

The country's most influential Islamic scholar hauled in rival political leaders for crisis talks on Thursday and persuaded them to sign up to a charter disavowing violence and committing to dialogue as a way to end the crisis.

But barely had those talks ended at a mediaeval university, when Mursi's foes called for new nationwide protests, including a march on the presidential palace in Cairo, which his followers see as a provocative assault on a symbol of his legitimacy.

"We are going out tomorrow, to Tahrir, and there is a group going to the palace," said Ahmed Maher, a founder of the April 6 youth protest movement which helped bring down Mubarak in 2011.

"We also confirm our peacefulness and that weapons must not be used, because we see that violence, weapons and molotovs have cost us a lot," he added after attending the talks.

The protesters accuse Mursi of betraying the spirit of the revolution by concentrating too much power in his own hands and those of the Muslim Brotherhood, a decades-old Islamist movement banned under Mubarak.

The Brotherhood accuses Mursi's opponents of trying to bring down Egypt's first democratically elected leader and use street unrest to seize power they could not win through the ballot box.

The rise of Mursi, an elected Islamist, after generations of rule by authoritarian, secularist military men in the most populous Arab state, is probably the single most important change of the past two years of Arab popular revolts.

But seven months since taking power in a narrow election victory over another former general, Mursi has failed to unite Egyptians and protests have made the country seem all but ungovernable. The instability has worsened an economic crisis, forcing Cairo to drain currency reserves to prop up its pound.

SHEIKH INTERVENES

Thursday's meeting of political leaders was convened by Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayyeb, head of the 1,000-year-old al-Azhar university and mosque, one of the few institutions still seen as neutral in a society that is increasingly polarised.

He persuaded participants to sign a document pledging to renounce violence and agree to set up a committee to plan more talks. That marked a partial retreat by Mursi's foes; they had previously rebuffed invitations to negotiate, demanding that Mursi first promise to include them in a unity government.

But protest organisers insisted that the deal did not require them to call their followers off the streets.

"The marches of tomorrow are still on, as the Azhar document is on condemnation of violence and we are not doing anything violent," said Heba Yassin, a spokeswoman for Popular Current, one of the main parties behind Friday marches.

Marching on the presidential palace is especially provocative, and past demonstrations there have frequently turned violent in the past.

Protests were also planned in cities along the Suez Canal, where the worst bloodshed of the past eight days took place.

Mursi responded to last week's violence by declaring curfews and imposing emergency rule in the Suez cities, moves which seemed only to further anger his opponents.

"We will take part in the protests to demand the cancellation of the emergency law which President Mursi announced on Sunday night," said Ali Fathi, an activist in Ismailia, at the mid-point of the canal.

"The level of the demands could increase."

A diplomat predicted unrest on Friday, with a lower turnout at the marches increasing the chance of bloodshed as a harder core of demonstrators comes to play a bigger role.

"Unfortunately some of the large numbers of people who might wish to protest peacefully will be put off doing so if they are fairly certain protests will turn violent," the diplomat said.

"That might limit the numbers and increase the chances of unrest - if the concentration of protesters who are prepared to be violent is increased.

"You have groups who clearly just want a confrontation with the state - straightforward anarchy; you've got people who supported the original ideals of the revolution and feel those ideals have been betrayed; ... and then you have elements of the old regime who have it in their interests to foster insecurity and instability. It is an unhealthy alliance."

(Additional reporting by Yusri Mohamed in Ismailia; Writing by Peter Graff)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/egypt-opposition-protest-deadly-week-221236570.html

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EDUCATION NEWS: Laptops for Students | Governor of Guam

?Public school students and families need access to computers and technology. This is the Twenty-first Century. Our kids should be learning with laptops or tablets. Of all the money that will go to the Department of Education, this $3 million for laptops or tablets will have the greatest and most direct impact on learning and achievement. I can?t wait for the day the kids get these computers.??? Governor Eddie Baza Calvo

?

$3M from Compact Funding to Purchase or Lease Laptops or Tablets

Thousands of public school students may soon have laptops or tablets they can use at school and home. The Governor is including a $3 million earmark to purchase or lease these devices for students in his Fiscal Year 2014 request for use of Compact Impact funds.

Devices to Align to Curriculum, Standards; Improve Achievement

The funding will go to the Department of Education to decide how best to proceed. The Governor is confident Superintendent Jon Fernandez and his deputies will solicit bids for the greatest number of computers with software that is aligned to the Common Core. This is the new set of higher standards that 45 states, the District of Columbia, and four other territories have adopted as the country strives to regain its competitive edge against other nations.

The Common Core is an unprecedented initiative, as it is the first time the United States has been able to rely on uniform curricular standards. As a result, companies and education consortia have been able to write and program curriculum that is completely aligned to these standards. These programs can easily be uploaded to laptops or tablets for students, bringing the correct instructional materials to students and teachers quickly.

Part of the Overall Picture; Recommendation by Education Task Force

DOE is working feverishly to ?unpackage? the Common Core, providing essential training to teachers and administrators. Teachers recently received laptops to assist them to teach. The challenge now is to give students access to laptops or tablets as well. This initiative was one of Governor Calvo and Lt. Governor Tenorio?s campaign promises, and also is one of the recommendations for education reform by the Governor?s education task force.

Funding Is Initial Investment, Should Include Software & Training

The $3 million will probably not be enough to purchase or lease devices for all 31,000 public school students, however the initial investment can be piloted in several schools. That decision will be left to DOE on how to best implement use. The funding also should cover needed software and training for teachers.

Allow Students to Take Devices Home?

DOE also will need to implement rules and protocol for the use and security of the devices. Governor Calvo hopes the department allows the students to take the devices home to complete their work, engage in learning beyond the classroom, and give access to technology to their families.

Education districts throughout the country, including our neighbors in the Northern Marianas, have entered the digital age of education, using technology to increase achievement. It should be noted that school districts with the fewest restrictions on the use of laptops or tablets reported lower incidence of loss and breakage than other districts with more restrictions.

?

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Source: http://governor.guam.gov/2013/01/31/education-news-laptops-students/

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Georgia nuclear power plant could be Solyndra redux, report says

A report by two energy-consulting firms says the US government has not protected US taxpayers well enough against the risks of federal loan guarantees to a new nuclear power project.

By Mark Clayton,?Staff writer / January 30, 2013

An earth mover works on a new nuclear reactor at the Vogtle nuclear power plant in Augusta, Ga., late last year. A new report criticizes federal loan guarantees to the project.

John Bazemore/AP/File

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Construction of the first newly licensed US nuclear power plant in decades could become a "Solyndra-like" debacle thanks to billions in federal loan guarantees whose terms appear too weak to protect taxpayers, according to one group?s analysis of internal documents released by the US Department of Energy.?

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The two-reactor $14 billion Vogtle plant being built in Georgia is seen as a test of the US nuclear industry's planned "renaissance" with a new nuclear reactor design and updated construction processes all aimed at cutting time and costs.?

But two Massachusetts-based energy-consulting firms, Earth Track and Synapse Energy Economics, say the $8.3 billion in federal loan guarantees backing the project were crafted with excessively favorable financial terms for the recipient companies, weak federal oversight, and possible political interference in the loan-guarantee process. ??? ?

The two firms analyzed hundreds of Energy Department e-mails and financial documents released earlier this month to the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy (SACE), a green-energy watchdog group that won access to them in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit.?

Officials for the Obama administration and Southern Company, the company that will operate the plants, say there's nothing improper going on.?

In their report, Earth Track and Synapse say the documents reveal:

• "Potentially troubling" conversations between political appointees and borrowers over loan terms and getting the deal done.
• Credit subsidy payments, the amount that companies pay in compensation for the government loan guarantees, that appear far too low to offer adequate protection to taxpayers in the event of a default.?
• An "over-reliance on external contractors" for key risk evaluations.?
• Continued tinkering with credit subsidy assessment tools even after credit subsidy estimate letters were sent to borrowers, leaving taxpayers with more risk than necessary.??

?Despite widespread redactions, the documents released indicate significant problems with the DOE?s loan guarantee process," said Doug Koplow, report author and founder of Earth Track in a statement.??

Under the category of "political interference," the report cites one e-mail from DOE staff revealed tight timelines to ?move our first nuclear power deal forward.? Other e-mails showed direct contact between Vogtle project borrowers and Secretary of Energy Steven Chu. And a 2010 e-mail from Jonathan Silver, then-executive director of loan programs at the US Department of Energy, noted that ?We didn't deal with shaw" ?? the company slated to do much of the reactor construction ? "The white house did.???

The discussions represent "a potentially troubling blurring of financial risk review, political discussion, and potential modification of loan terms," the report says.?

In a conference call, Mr. Koplow said there is no evidence of wrongdoing or any "smoking gun." But the e-mails do suggest, they say, that high level figures in the administration were in a position to exert political influence.??

The Department of Energy was unable to respond by press time to a request for comment. But one administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press, said there's no impropriety in the documents.?

"These are people who just don't like nuclear power," he says. "What they're doing is throwing out a buzz word, Solyndra, to get attention. Let's just throw out that word. They're throwing accusations out there, but these decisions were made on the merits by career officials. The idea that Secretary Chu would want to be monitoring this deal ? there's nothing wrong with that."?

Southern Company officials say the process is routine.?

"Loan guarantees were developed to provide an incentive for new nuclear development in the U.S.," writes Tim Leljedal, a Southern Company spokesman in an e-mailed statement. "There continues to be constructive dialogue in the Vogtle 3&4 loan guarantee negotiations between the company and the Department of Energy. We are committed to financing options that will serve the best interests of our customers, and ? as long as the terms and conditions of DOE loan guarantees serve those interests ? we will continue pursue that option."?

"Details of the ongoing negotiations remain confidential," he adds.??

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/zg2Dy50RR2U/Georgia-nuclear-power-plant-could-be-Solyndra-redux-report-says

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Texas Parks and Wildlife Magazine???

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Source: http://discussions.texasbowhunter.com/forums/showthread.php?t=351659&goto=newpost

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U.S. tablet shipments soar during holidays, threaten to surpass PCs

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Apple Inc Chief Executive Tim Cook's prediction that tablets would one day outsell personal computers appears to be coming true.

Holiday season shipments of tablet computers touched a record 52.5 million, up 75 percent from a year ago, as consumers snapped up a wide range of the touch-enabled mobile devices and lower priced offerings, according to International Data Corp (IDC), which tracks both markets.

Growth of the tablet market handily outpaced that of personal computers, with PC shipments sliding 6.4 percent to 89.8 million in the October-December period.

In another sign of the rise of tablets, Apple, the No. 1 seller of tablets, shipped 22 million of them in the fourth quarter, compared with 15 million personal computers shipped by No. 1 PC seller Hewlett-Packard Co during the same period.

But increasing competition means that Apple's one-time stranglehold on the tablet market continues to loosen. The market share of its iPad fell to 43.1 percent in the fourth quarter from 51.7 percent the previous year, IDC said.

Samsung Electronics, the No. 2 seller of tablets with its flagship Galaxy brand, captured 15.1 percent of the market, more than double its 7.3 percent share a year earlier.

Software maker Microsoft Corp, which launched its Surface with Windows RT tablet during the holidays, shipped about 900,000 units, IDC said.

Microsoft has been banking on Surface to showcase its new Windows 8 software to compete with Google Inc's Android-based tablets and the iPad.

Amazon.com Inc, despite having a wider range of products for the holidays, saw its share slip to 11.5 percent from 15.9 percent. Asian manufacturer Asus, which makes the Google-branded Nexus 7 tablet, saw a its share increase to 5.8 percent from 2 percent, IDC said.

IDC's figures underscore the sliding fortunes of PC makers such as HP and Dell Inc, which is now in the process of taking itself private.

"New product launches from the category's top vendors, as well as new entrant Microsoft, led to a surge in consumer interest and very robust shipments totals during the holiday season," said Tom Mainelli, research director, tablets, at IDC.

"The record-breaking quarter stands in stark contrast to the PC market, which saw shipments decline during the quarter for the first time in more than five years," Mainelli said.

(Reporting By Poornima Gupta; Editing by Steve Orlofsky)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/u-tablet-shipments-soar-during-holidays-threaten-surpass-201746334--sector.html

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