Daily Archives: March 9, 2017

Voices The hidden figures behind automation – Accounting Today

Posted: March 9, 2017 at 3:14 am

The current job description of an accounts payable clerk will disappear in possibly as little as 20 years. This may seem bleak, but the reality is that software advances, developments in robotics, AI and machine learning are bringing a new age of automation one in which machines will be able to outperform humans in various work tasks.

According to McKinsey Global institutes January 2017 report on the future of automation, nearly half of the activities that people are paid to do in the global economy can be automated by adapting currently demonstrated technology. Activities most susceptible to this automation are repetitive, non-creative tasks such as data collection and processing. This puts at risk many jobs in customer service, sales, invoicing, account management and other data entry positions, not the least of which includes AP clerks.

However, these projections dont necessarily mean that the future is hopeless for those holding AP positions. In McKinseys words, People will need to continue working alongside machines to produce the growth in per capita GDP to which countries around the world aspire.

Skilled employees will work alongside software automation and RPA (robotic process automation) to approve data analyzation, guide software in the right direction and even perform tasks that we may not know exist yet. This will require some new skills-based learning, but it is also an opportunity for AP department employees to step out from behind the curtain, develop their job descriptions and have more interesting and meaningful jobs. Employees will be able to focus on raising their profile, supporting the business with more meaningful work, providing good internal service, and in turn, be more motivated.

Reckon this is wishful thinking? Think again. Its been done before.

After all, the first computers wore skirts. In the early decades of the 1900s, mathematical and technical calculations were made manually rather than by machine. This work required a large workforce to compute all the information. With the industrial boom brought on by WWII, organizations like NASA began recruiting women for this work, who they called computers. It has even been said that the first computers wore skirts.

Eventually, as the machines we know today as computers began to develop, many of these manual tasks were automated. Rather than discarding the women that had previously done this job, NASA and other organizations simply retrained employees to work alongside these machines and perform less menial tasks. This conscious step allowed the women who had been the quiet backbone of the organization to make themselves and their work known.

One example recently made popular by the book and award-winning film Hidden Figures is that of African-American physicist and mathematician Katherine Johnson and her team. Johnson worked as a computer on NASAs early team from 1953-1958, where she analyzed topics such as gust alleviation for aircrafts. When NASA used electronic computers for the first time to calculate John Glenns first orbit around the earth, officials asked Johnson to verify the computers numbers and her reputation for accuracy helped establish confidence in the new technology. Johnson herself went on to use these new computers to aid in calculations until her retirement in 1986. Similarly, the value of AP clerks and other accounting professionals will shift as they become valuable as human analysts and strategists, vital in the role of validating a machines processes.

These kinds of shifts can be seen throughout history, like in the move away from agriculture and decreases in manufacturing share of employment in the United States, both of which were accompanied by the creation of new types of work not foreseen at the time.

We can expect a similar response to automation in the accounts payable department. As AP software becomes more advanced, clerks and controllers will evolve to work with it, not be replaced by it. The important work of AP clerks will no longer be in the shadows. The job will be transformed from paper pusher to vital business asset.

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The Automation Upheaval Won’t Be Limited to Blue-Collar Jobs – Futurism

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The Age of Automation

Much has been said about how automation will affect employment and the economy. In almost every conversation, the looming threat of job displacement is focused on a very specific sector: the blue-collar job market.

One frequently cited study published back in 2013 by Oxford University and the Oxford Martin School says that 47 percent of jobs in the US will be automated in the next 20 years. In Canada, a study conducted by the Brookfield Institute for Innovation + Entrepreneurship says that 40 percent of jobs in the country will be taken over by machines in the next decade or two. In the UK, theyre predicting that 850,000 jobs will be automated by 2030. And in Southeast Asia, an estimated 137 million workers are in danger of losing their jobs in the next 20 years.

These predictions are premised on the fact that machines are now more than capable of completing repetitive jobs that most blue-collar human workers are handling today. But technology isnt going to stop there. Artificial intelligence(AI)is getting more sophisticated, implying that its not only the jobs defined by formulaic processes that are in danger, but also creative, service and knowledge-based professions.

We are starting to see in fields like medicine, law, investment banking, dramatic increases in the ability of computers to think as well or better than humans. And thats really the game-changer here. Because thats something that we have never seen before, says Sunil Johal, a public policy expert forCBC News.

Granted, the implications of more intelligent automation on white collar jobs are all speculative at this point. Theres little data to support how much automation will affect that job market, mostly because experts believe its impactwill be far more subtle than inblue- collar industries. In white-collar industries, theres more opportunity to shuffle employees around, or slowly phase out jobs, which means the threat of automation wont be as dramatic. That being said, it willchange things.

Johal believes that to keep up, one must actively develop new skills that will adapt to the changing needs of the job market.

If Canada doesnt take this seriously, we are going to see many Canadians left on the sidelines of the labour market, he adds. They are not going to be able to get back into the job force.

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Salesforce’s Big Bet on AI Shows How Automation Will Affect Knowledge Workers – Inc.com

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"We cannot solve our problems with the same kind of thinking that we used when we created them," Albert Einstein supposedly said. One of his namesakes, an artificial intelligence called Einstein that Salesforce is incorporating into all of its products, embodies that sentiment: Salesforce is betting that human cognition won't drive its next wave of commercial growth. Rather, machine learning will push Salesforce's products deeper into its clients' businesses, and help Salesforce penetrate new companies, by augmenting human decision-making.

If Einstein is anywhere near as useful as Salesforce claims, the technology will supplant some human workers -- maybe a lot of them. Salesforce wants to make sales and marketing more efficient, which means that fewer people will be needed accomplish the same tasks. CEO Marc Benioff once wrote, "The only constant in the technology industry is change." Automation has hit factory workers hard, and soon members of the information economy will feel the same pain. The deadline may arrive before most knowledge workers, or the societies they occupy, are prepared.

On Tuesday, Salesforce held a "customer kickoff" event. It executives and partners discussed product development, with a heavy focus on Einstein's artificial intelligence capabilities. IBM CEO Ginni Rometty spoke briefly, apropos the two companies' recently announced partnership. "2017 is the year that AI enters the world at scale," she said. "The cognitive era is just beginning."

Of course, humans have engaged in cognition as long as the species has existed. What Rometty meant is we won't keep our monopoly on thought for long.

AI has been subject to enough hype cycles that default skepticism is warranted. However, recent technological breakthroughs suggest that the frothy press coverage and equally frothy corporate salivation may indicate something real this time. Google's DeepMind division programmed an AI that beat a complex strategy game before anyone expected it to be able to. Andrew Ng, renowned machine learning expert and chief scientist at Baidu, told the Wall Street Journal, "I think we're in the phase where AI will change pretty much every major industry."

Ng added, "Things may change in the future, but one rule of thumb today is that almost anything that a typical person can do with less than one second of mental thought we can either now or in the very near future automate with AI." Perhaps human workers should be frightened, since "there are a lot of jobs that can be accomplished by stringing together many one-second tasks."

Salesforce's Einstein is already doing some of this. In practical terms, the AI will not provoke an immediate revolution -- it's a version of what many SaaS clients expect from the applications they pay for. You could even argue that innovation hides in plain sight. Einstein enables prosaic but immensely useful functions like automated lead-scoring, based on information pulled into Salesforce's system. Einstein can aggregate signals such as whether a contact has looked at marketing materials (e.g. a webinar or whitepaper), and what their role is within the target organization.

"In a world powered by AI, signals are important," chief product officer Alex Dayon noted at the customer kickoff event. Einstein is able to interpret a variety of data inputs without much setup. In fact, most of Einstein's capabilities are available out of the box. Other features like Einstein Vision have to be integrated by developers. Salesforce is bringing automatic customization to all of its customers, while enabling those with greater resources to craft a deeper layer of specialized processes.

Some levels of customization are designed to be leveraged by non-technical users. "I can create a lead-management process with clicks, not code," product marketing EVP Stephanie Buscemi said. Salespeople who use Einstein are "not just smarter, they're also more productive," according to Buscemi.

Today's productivity gains are tomorrow's layoffs. It's not that productivity gains are bad. Rather, increased efficiency simply means that fewer inputs produce greater outputs. As it stands, labor is among the most significant inputs for a majority of businesses. The acceleration of what artificial intelligence can do is poised to multiply the impact of individual human workers -- while obsoleting others.

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The Next Frontier In Automation: Self-Driving Wheelchairs – Co.Exist

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The same technology that makes self-driving cars possible could also transform wheelchairs.

For someone with advanced Lou Gehrig's disease or severe paralysis, a motorized wheelchair can be very hard to use: If you can't move a joystick with your hand, you have to use a switch embedded in the headset or a "sip-and-puff" device controlled with the breath.

The devices only allow you to control one thing at a time: You can adjust your speed or the direction that your wheelchair is pointing, but not both simultaneously.

[Photo: argallab]

"This basically makes it so the operation of the wheelchair is much more challenging, especially when you're dealing with tightly constrained spaces," says Brenna Argall, a professor at Northwestern University who is developing technology for autonomous wheelchairs in her Assistive and Rehabilitation Robotics Laboratory. "What this means, in practice, is that for many people it's a burden or very fatiguing mentally and physically to operate the wheelchair," she tells Co.Exist.

And there's the fact that some people don't have enough motor control to be prescribed a wheelchair. Children who can't easily use a wheelchair, similarly, may not be allowed to bring it to school.

Autonomy can change that by outfitting wheelchairs with sensors to avoid obstacles in much the same way a self-driving car does. Several researchers are working on variations of the wheelchair-adapted technology. At Oregon State University, a team is developing a low-cost kit that could be added to existing wheelchairs. At MIT, a team is developing a self-driving wheelchair that could be used in nursing homes or hospitals.

[Photo: C. Jason Brown]

"There is a lot we can borrow from the field of autonomous robots and what mobile robots have been able to do on their own for decades now," Argall says.

Her focus is on developing a wheelchair that can leave users with as much control as possible. "We don't want to take autonomy away from peoplewe only want to add autonomy," she says. The system balances human and robotic control; if the wheelchair senses that it's going to run into something if it continues on a path set by a human, it makes only minute adjustments instead of taking over and driving on its own. The final device will likely give people options for how much control they want to retain.

The automated wheelchair may still be in development for another five years, as the team continues to refine the technology. Argall's lab, which is part of the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, is moving into a new research hospital this month called the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab, which puts researchers directly next to therapy spaces for patientssomething that could help aspects of the technology's design, like the lab's wheelchair or robotic prosthetics.

"We're going to now directly see people interacting with their therapists in ways that maybe we wouldn't have seen in our lab, which might cause us to think of different considerations in the technology we're building," Argall says. "And vice versa, they will see what our technology is capable of or not capable of, and they might have ideas for how it can be changed or something new that we could develop."

If the wheelchair can be commercialized, it could change lives, potentially giving someone the ability to go to a job by themselves, or do daily tasks that would have required a caregiver in the past. "It could have big implications for costs in terms of caregiving," she says. "It's also been shown that independence matters a lot for people's mental health . . . part of that is because of your loss of autonomy, and this can help with that as well."

Slideshow Credits: 01 / Photo: C. Jason Brown; 02 / Photo: Sally Ryan; 03 / Photo: Sally Ryan; 04 / Photo: argallab; 05 / Photo: argallab; 06 / Photo: C. Jason Brown; 07 / Photo: C. Jason Brown;

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Child labor in Seattle: Mexican girl kept in near slavery – seattlepi.com

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Photo: U.S. District Court

Federal prosecutors claim "C."was basically a slave, put to work by relatives -- includingMiguel Arcef-Flores, left, and Marbella Sandoval Mondragon --who had promised her a better life in America. They collected the wages she was paid by temp agencies that provided workers to factories, while leaving her hungry and trapped at a Federal Way apartment.

Federal prosecutors claim "C."was basically a slave, put to work by relatives -- includingMiguel Arcef-Flores, left, and Marbella Sandoval Mondragon --who had promised her a better life in America. They

Investigators contend "C.," 14-year-old Mexican girl, was forced to work at this Kent commercial bakery as well as several other factories around the Seattle area.

Investigators contend "C.," 14-year-old Mexican girl, was forced to work at this Kent commercial bakery as well as several other factories around the Seattle area.

Federal prosecutors in Seattle say a teen girl was forced to work at King County factories to pay immigration "debts." They say she was kept at this Federal Way apartment building.

Federal prosecutors in Seattle say a teen girl was forced to work at King County factories to pay immigration "debts." They say she was kept at this Federal Way apartment building.

Child labor in Seattle: Mexican girl kept in near slavery

Sometimes C. forgets her birthday.

She used to know it. Growing up outside Mexico City, it was not hard to remember her birthday. That changed when her uncle brought her, at age 14, to the United States.

Once in the U.S., C. was presented with forged green cards, Social Security papers and a string of bogus birth dates. Theyre hard to keep straight.

Who gave you many birth dates? Assistant U.S. Attorney Catherine Crisham asked C. during a Tuesday hearing at U.S. District Court in Seattle.

The accused, said C., facing her uncle, Angel Sandoval Mondragon, and three others who admitted to harboring her as she worked illegally at industrial bakeries south of Seattle.

Federal prosecutors claim C. was basically a slave, put to work by Sandoval, his sister, Marbella Sandoval Mondragon, and her husband, Miguel Arcef-Flores. They collected the wages she was paid by temp agencies that provided workers to South King County factories, while leaving her hungry and trapped at a Federal Way apartment.

The Sandovals and Arcef were sentenced Wednesday following a contentious three-day hearing. Prosecutors claimed their crimes extended far beyond the charge each pleaded to, conspiring to bring in and harbor an alien. Attorneys for the three defendants argued that C. greatly exaggerated their conduct to impress police.

Arcef, 42, was sentenced to more than three years in prison, while Angel Sandoval, 37, and Marbella Sandoval, 38, received slightly shorter prison terms. Each is expected to be deported.

The defendants promised the world, and then stole the childhood of a 14-year-old girl, U.S. Attorney Annette L. Hayes said in a statement. They preyed on a vulnerable relative for their own selfish and depraved reasons.

C. now has legal status in the United States through a program that provides visas to human trafficking victims. The visa allows her to stay in the United States for up to four years.

The allegations against Arcef and Marbella Sandoval include claims of sexual abuse. Seattlepi.com does not identify alleged victims of sexual assault absent a request from the alleged victim.

Like the Sandovals and Arcef, C. never had legal status in the United States. The Sandovals and Arcef entered the country illegally in the early 2000s, settling on the Washington coast.

They were living in Aberdeen in December 2004 when Angel Sandoval was caught by the U.S. Forest Service working in the woods near Vancouver. He was deported to Mexico four days later.

Angel Sandoval soon set about returning, this time with C. She was to join him, his wife and a cousin in Aberdeen.

Angel put (her) on the phone with Marbella and Miguel, both of whom promised her that she would have a wonderful life with them in the United States, that she could go to school, and that they would treat her like their own child, Crisham said in court papers.

Excited by the prospect of a better life, C. pressured her family to let her follow Angel Sandoval back to the United States. She and her mother paid Angel Sandoval to cover the costs of the trip, which saw them hire a coyote to smuggle them across the U.S.-Mexico border.

Arriving in Aberdeen in the spring of 2005, C. was told she owed her hosts thousands of dollars. Rather than enroll in school, she was put to work.

C. worked as a maid and nanny, then at temporary staffing agencies that provided workers to factories. She worked at industrial kitchens for eight months, making pies and chocolates sold in the Seattle area. Her workplaces included Plush Pippin and Seattle Gourmet Food, where she was paid through a temp agency.

Attorneys for the defendants dispute the claim, but prosecutors say the Sandovals and Arcef pocketed C.s earnings. They kept her fake IDs, preventing her from cashing the checks herself.

According to prosecutors, C. and another girl living with the Sandovals and Arcef were sick and starving.

They refused to provide them with sufficient food and other basic needs, including medical and dental care, wrote Crisham, who prosecuted the case alongside Assistant U.S. Attorney Bruce Miyake.

C. slept on the floor while everyone else in the apartment had a bed. She and her 12-year-old cousin were forced to shower together in cold water and derided as lesbians by the Sandovals and Arcef for doing so.

One man, worried the girls were being abused, took his concerns to the pastor of a church where Arcef also preached. His complaint went unheeded.

Prosecutors claim Arcef sexually abused C.s cousin; as part of a plea agreement with Arcef, federal prosecutors agreed to urge King County prosecutors not to pursue additional criminal charges against him.

According to prosecutors statements, Marbella Sandoval touched the girls inappropriately and forced them to eat printed pornography belonging to her husband. She and the other defendants, Crisham said, taunted and laughed at the girls while they ate and gagged on the pages.

The girls were sent back to Mexico in the spring of 2006. C. had been fainting at work, and the temp agencies stopped hiring her.

C. returned to the United States the following year, coming back to Washington. The Sandovals, Arcef and others demanded she pay them $10,000 a sum well beyond her means as a minimum-wage worker and spread personal medical information about her to members of their church.

That time, though, a pastor at the church recognized the abuse and, in May 2008, went to the police. Investigators with the Federal Way and Kent police departments took up the matter, as did the Department of Social and Health Services. The investigation was dropped, though, after investigators could not find C. or her cousin.

Five years later, a Federal Way Police Department detective investigating other sexual abuse allegations against Arcef interviewed C., by then a young woman living in the Seattle area. In that case, Arcef, now 42, had sexually assaulted a 5-year-old girl.

Troubled by the unrelated allegations C. made against the Sandovals and Arcef, the Federal Way detective contacted members of a Homeland Security Investigations human trafficking task force. An extensive investigation followed, culminating in a human trafficking indictment delivered Dec. 5, 2015.

The Sandovals and Arcef pleaded guilty to reduced charges late last year. Monica Arcef-Flores Angel Sandovals wife, and Miguel Arcefs sister had previously pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor immigration charge.

The Sandovals and Miguel Arcef tendered guilty pleas to felony offenses, but they and prosecutors did not agree on the extent of their crimes.

Little evidence was presented showing where C.s earnings had been deposited. She had made statements to investigators that proved false, and the seven-year gap between the alleged forced labor and the prosecution made records difficult to come by.

U.S. District Judge James Robart presided over a three-day evidentiary hearing meant to challenge both sides claims. The adversarial hearing meant C. had to endure an indignity usually reserved for crime victims whose assailants have risked additional prison time by taking their claims to a jury.

Defense attorneys picked apart C.s statements to police to weaken her claims of abuse. They pressed Seattle Police Department Detective Megan Bruneau, one of the lead investigators on the case, about C.s honesty as well.

A particularly hostile exchange between Bruneau and Marbella Sandovals defense attorney, Michael Martin, soured as Martin patronizingly asked Bruneau a veteran vice and human-trafficking detective assigned to a Homeland Security Investigations task force how long she had been a police officer.

From the witness stand, though, Bruneau described C. as a young woman who had survived tremendous abuse.

What has been very clear to me since the day I met her has been her fear of the defendants, Bruneau said from the stand, addressing a skeptical Martin.

Did you ever count up the number of people (she) said she was abused by? Martin asked the detective as they continued to spar.

No."

Would you say it is a large number?

Id say it is an unfortunate number.

If the exchange had any impact on the Sandovals or Arcef, they didnt show it. Dressed in brown jail uniforms and wearing translation headsets, each sat impassively, flanked by their attorneys, as C. and Bruneau made their claims.

The defendants each requested sentences that would have seen them released for deportation nearly immediately. Robart opted to impose sentences that will likely see them transferred to federal prison before they are returned to Mexico.

Brad Bench, special agent in charge from Homeland Security Investigations in Seattle, said he hopes the prison term will deter others who traffic in human beings.

No one should be forced to live in a world of isolation, servitude and terror as this young victim was, particularly in a country that prides itself on its freedoms, Bench said in a statement. Its a sad reflection on human greed and heartlessness, that people believe they can engage in this kind of egregious exploitation with impunity.

The Sandovals remain jailed, as does Arcef.

Seattlepi.com reporter Levi Pulkkinen can be reached at 206-448-8348 or levipulkkinen@seattlepi.com. Follow Levi on Twitter attwitter.com/levipulk.

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Thinking about women Sri Lanka Guardian – Sri Lanka Guardian

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( March 9, 2017, London, Sri Lanka Guardian) In January, following Trumps presidential inaugeration, women around the world took part in demonstrations and marches. International Womens Day (originally called International Working Womens Day) on March the 8th may well be equally if not more impressive. Women have plenty to get angry about but protests mean nothing unless practical gains in understanding, organisation and action spring from them. Part of the understanding is to link womens issues to the wider issues of the 95%, to realise the class nature of society. This movement will not have any future if it is not linked to the class struggle and to the class character of the capitalist society it is not a sexual confrontation between women and men.

Women worldwide carry the double burden of domestic labor and income-generating work outside the household. Despite working typically 12-13 hours per week more than men in developing countries in Africa and Asia, working women usually go unrecognized. Women in rural areas spend more of their time on domestic chores such as collecting water and firewood, preparing food, transporting goods and caring for children, the elderly and sick. They also work on family farms spending on average three hours more per day than men on unpaid agricultural work. Equitable access to decent employment opportunities for women is critical to the well-being of their families and communities. Yet most rural women are either unpaid family workers, self-employed or hold precarious jobs for low pay. It is estimated that if women farmers had the same access to resources as men, the number of hungry people in the world could be reduced by up to 150 million. Rural women often work under conditions that are hazardous to their health. In Cote dIvoire, as in much of West Africa, women smoke fish in poorly ventilated rooms. Traditional smoking releases carcinogenic contaminants that lead to respiratory, eye and other health problems for women and their children.

Both sexes of the workers are exploited. Both are victims of those who live by the ownership of the means of life. Therefore the solution for working-class women lies in the emancipation of their class from wage-slavery. We must liberate ourselves as human beings and the Socialist Party have never tried to appeal to any one section of the population other than fellow workers. Members of the working class are treated with the same accord regardless of age or sex or ethnic origin. We do try to address certain social problems, hence our pamphlets, in the past on women, racism and education but our attitude is to link them to the whole and not view as separate issues deserving of any distinct attention. There is no league-table of oppression and exploitation, in other words.

Many newcomers to the Socialist Party are surprised by the critical attitude we held towards the Suffragette Movement. The suffragettes fought for the freedom of the vote so that they could have their say in the laws governing their property. The position of millions of working class women who had no property and were, in fact, bound hand and foot by their economic dependence upon the employer directly or upon some employed male relative did not rouse the ire of the suffragettes. Obtaining the vote has done nothing to alter that. Only when working class women learn their true position in society will they know how to use their vote wisely, and for this, the suffragette movement had no time.

The freedom upon which all freedom rests is the economic freedom of a class in society from the domination of another class. This freedom is the object of the Socialist Party and is the only freedom worth fighting for because it embraces all liberty that is possible for all mankind without distinction of race or sex. Working class women, as well as men, will find their political expression in the S.P.G.B. The woman question is no different from any other working class problem. Working women are either in economic bondage to an employer or to their husbands, and socialism ends both states of bondage. The tyrannies of domestic life are often the shadows of those in the industrial world. The worker eats, sleeps, and takes his leisure at the dictates of his job. His life is moulded around his job. In other words, while producing everything worthwhile in life his ability to enjoy life is regulated by the meagre amount of wages he receives. The man, then, should regard his wife as a partner and as a comrade to let off as lightly as possible and with whom to fight jointly against capitalism. Instead of this he sometimes assumes in his turn the role of master and initiates a fresh set of tyrannies. It is useless for women to fight against these various effects of the one great evil. They must break the economic stranglehold which holds the man, and they can only do this by breaking the economic stranglehold of capitalism upon the whole of the working class. On, then, with the fight for freedom, but let us first realise what we mean by freedom

In short, capitalism has largely nullified the intentions of those who thought to change womens position by legislation.

Source: Socialist Party in London

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Reese vs. Nicole vs. Bette vs. Joan? It’s Not Too Early to Get Psyched for Best Actress at the Emmys – Decider

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Decider
Reese vs. Nicole vs. Bette vs. Joan? It's Not Too Early to Get Psyched for Best Actress at the Emmys
Decider
For season 3, the focus turns to modern-day immigrant farmers, wage slavery, sex slavery, all loosely situated around a family-run agricultural business in North Carolina. As with the first two seasons, Felicity Huffman takes a lead role as a member of ...

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ICE Private Prison Facing Lawsuit For Ignoring Anti-Slavery Law – Care2.com

Posted: at 3:13 am

Right now, immigrants in the United States are fretting over the increasingly aggressive actions of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. So far the agency has been documented conducting raids across the country, performing swift deportations in some cases, and the Department of Homeland Security is allegedly considering breaking up families deliberately.

These actions follow in the wake of executive orders signed by President Trump, some which reversed Obamas easing of immigration enforcement.

Thats not to say that ICE was not busy at work during Obamas presidency though.

A lawsuit originally filed in 2014 accuses GEO Group of exploiting thousands of immigrants being held at its Denver Contract Detention Facility, located in Aurora, Colo., for labor. It goes so far as to allege GEO of coercing detainees into working by using threats of force and solitary confinement; many were paid merely $1 daily, if anything at all. The lawsuit claims that these people frequently worked 40-hour weeks.

Headquartered in Florida, GEO Group is one of the largest, most profitable private prison corporations in the world. They are especially close to ICE and have various contracts with the agency to hold its detainees.

In many situations, these individuals are held before having a court ruling. This was the case for the lawsuits original nine plaintiffs at least one of whom was later determined to be a permanent legal resident.

The lawsuit filing initially sought $5 million in damages, based on the argument that GEO Group had violated the Trafficking Victims Protection Act. This law specifically prohibits forced labor within the U.S. It also states that GEO, when it did pay for detainee labor, only paid $1 per day far below Colorados legal minimum wage.

Readers may be aware of the Thirteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution which is best known for abolishing forced labor while maintaining an exception for convicted criminals. The difference in this case is that those held at this GEO prison had yet to be convicted of any crime.

Through a recent ruling from U.S. District Judge John Kane, the lawsuit has now been expanded to form a class action lawsuit. This means that roughly 60,000 individuals currently or previously held at the Colorado facility will be included as plaintiffs without having to actively opt in.

This development means this case, even if it does not succeed, will go down as a significant milestone for the rights of private prison detainees never before has a class action of this nature been approved.

It is also important because, if nothing else, the class action lawsuit may serve as a slowing mechanism for both the Trump administrations increasingly hard line policies against immigrants and its rapid reversal of advances made in private prison reform under President Obama.

These two issues privatized incarceration and immigration crack downs are deeply linked. Though the previous attorney general, Loretta Lynch, ordered the Bureau of Prisons to wind down its use of private prisons (a move that has already been reversed by Attorney General Jeff Sessions), this order did not encompass ICE the largest agency in the U.S. to utilize contract prisons. This is because ICE works under Department of Homeland Security and not under the Department of Justice.

Private prison corporations like GEO Group laud their services as being cost effective when compared to traditional incarceration facilities. While this claim is highly debatable (or even debunked, per a Department of Justice report), one of the primary ways cost-saving is achieved is by cutting corners: Hiring inexperienced staff, building poor quality facilities, providing inmates with substandard and fewer living goods (like soap or toothpaste) and, as this lawsuit highlights, exploiting inmate labor.

If you want to stand against this injustice and demand change, please add your name and share the Care2 petition!

Concerned about an issue? Want to raise awareness about an injustice? Join your fellow Care2 users by learning how to make your own petition and make your voice heard today!

Photo Credit: ICE / Wikimedia Commons

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

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Self-employed hit by national insurance hike in budget – The Guardian

Posted: at 3:13 am

Self-employed people such as plumbers will face higher national insurance contributions thanks to measures in the budget. Photograph: Alamy Stock Photo

The tax advantages enjoyed by the UKs millions of self-employed people will be dramatically reduced following a series of major changes in the budget.

Appearing to reverse a Conservative party manifesto pledge from 2015, Philip Hammond risked irking his backbenchers and party supporters by announcing he is to close tax benefits that are no longer justified by increasing the national insurance contributions (NICs) for self-employed people earning more than 16,250 a year.

Announcing his changes, the chancellor said an employee earning 32,000 a year currently faces an NI bill of 6,170 along with their employer, while the bill for a self-employed person earning the same salary would be 2,300.

Historically, the differences in NICs between those in employment and the self-employed reflected differences in state pensions and contributory welfare benefits, he said.

But with the introduction of the new state pension, these differences have been very substantially reduced.

Hammond told MPs the changes would raise 145m a year after taking into account George Osbornes abolition of a separate class of self-employed national insurance contributions, class 2.

He said class 4 NICs for the self-employed would rise from 9% to 10% in April 2018 and then to 11% in April 2019 on income up to the higher rate threshold of 45,000. The new rates are still lower than for employees who pay NI at 12% on the same income levels, while both groups will continue to pay at 2% on income above the higher rate threshold.

However, some self-employed people appeared to have been insulated from another of the chancellors new initiatives.

The changes to the taxation of dividends was criticised for leaving the door open to massive tax avoidance by wealthy people working for their own companies. New data published by the Office for Budget Responsibility showed that a previous increase in dividend taxes resulted in much of the benefit falling to just 100 individuals who were able to withdraw dividends averaging 30m each from their companies before the higher tax rate took effect.

The new NI policy was welcomed by the Resolution Foundation, a living standards thinktank, which said: These tax differences are actually driving the big increase in self-employment weve seen in recent years, which in turn is undermining the taxmans ability to get revenues in.

To put that in context: 45% of the employment growth since 2008 has been driven by rising self-employment (and no, its got very little to do with headlines about the gig economy), with the lower tax take that implies.

However, the increase has triggered criticisms that the Conservatives are reneging on a 2015 manifesto pledge that committed the government to no increases in VAT, income tax or national insurance while the reception from the business community was less than positive.

Labour said it would oppose the policy, with the shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, saying: Labour will oppose the 2bn Tory tax on self-employed lower-middle earners.

Chris Leslie, former Labour shadow chancellor, said during the Commons debate on the budget: On the point about the increase in national insurance contributions for the self-employed, dont you think that the chancellor needs to explain why hes breaking a manifesto promise made in the 2015 general election manifesto on that?

Hammond suggested the tax rise was justified because the self-employed could now access the state pension more easily. He planned to consult on extending parental rights to the self-employed, after a review by former Tony Blair adviser Matthew Taylor on the changing nature of the labour market reports later this year.

Rachel Reeves, a Labour MP on the treasury select committee, said: While it is right for the chancellor to say that we should look at access to maternity and paternity benefits for the self-employed, what about the other benefits that people take for granted if they are direct employees, such as sickness benefits, out-of-work benefits and access to universal credit?

John Overs, partner at international law firm Berwin Leighton Paisner, said: The chancellor equates the position of the employed and self-employed, including those working for their own companies, doing similar jobs and earning similar amounts, but fails to appreciate the self-employed normally have much more financial risk and much less security than the employed. Trying to equalise tax treatment fails to recognise these differences.

A rethink may be in order if we do not want to turn away entrepreneurs and wealth creators from this country.

Chas Roy-Chowdhury, head of taxation at the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, added: Before this tax is raised, the government needs to think carefully about ways to align the level of benefits.

In a time when we are trying to encourage innovation and create a Britain that is open for business, we should not be creating barriers to entrepreneurship and self-employment.

In his speech, the chancellor said: Since 2016 self-employed workers now build up the same entitlement to the state pension as employees, a big pension boost to the self-employed.

The most significant remaining area of difference is in relation to parental benefits, and I can announce today that we will consult in the summer on options to address the disparities in this area as the FSB [Federation of Small Businesses] and others have proposed.

Hammond also announced that he was addressing similar benefits enjoyed by people who are directors and shareholders, by cutting the tax-free allowance on the dividends they take out of their companies from 5,000 to 2,000 from April next year.

However, the moves may not prove to be as costly to people drawing dividends as assumed, as the announcement of the lower allowance presents taxpayers with the opportunity of lowering their bills by drawing dividends in advance.

In the July 2015 budget, the basic, higher and additional rates of taxation on individual dividend income rose by 7.5 percentage points, with the changes coming into effect in April 2016.

In the OBRs economic and fiscal outlook, which is published alongside the budget, the watchdog estimated that such action cost the exchequer 800m.

The report added: HMRC analysis suggests that around one pound in seven of that saving benefited just 100 individuals who were able to withdraw dividends averaging 30m each from their companies before the higher tax rate took effect.

Jolyon Maugham QC, a tax barrister at Devereux Chambers and a director of the Good Law Project, said: Every now and then the government does something so awful with the tax system as almost to be venal. Why would you deliberately because the government knew this would happen leave the door open to massive tax avoidance?

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Self-employed hit by national insurance hike in budget - The Guardian

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Heathrow and AOA voice disappointment with UK Budget 2017 – International Airport Review

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The UK Chancellor Philip Hammond has presented the 2017 Spring Budget suggesting he hopes it to provide a strong, stable platform for Brexit,

The UK Chancellor Philip Hammond has presented the 2017 Spring Budget suggesting he hopes it to provide a strong, stable platform for Brexit, something for which many regard Heathrow as integral.

Their views were of slight disappointment regarding Air Passenger Duty:

Were disappointed the Government has not taken the opportunity to reduce air passenger duty. The increase today, and the signal of potential further increases in the coming years, hands a great advantage to our European competitors. If Britain is to be one of the best places in the world to do business then we must work towards abolition of this tax on British competitiveness, tourism, investment and trade.

And on increased investment and focus on technical education, Europe largest airport suggested that:

We welcome the creation of T Levels and extra funding for PHDs in STEM subjects which will help provide the workforce Britain needs for the future. Heathrow expansion, along with other strategic infrastructure projects, will create thousands of highly skilled jobs.

These Government reforms are crucial to ensuring we can deliver a modern, affordable Heathrow.

These Government reforms are crucial to ensuring we can deliver a modern, affordable Heathrow and make sure todays schoolchildren are able to make the most of the opportunities.

Meanwhile, when responding to the Chancellors Budget Statement, Chief Executive of the AOA, Karen Dee said:

Airports provide the necessary infrastructure for the UKs international connectivity, with aviation the transport mode of choice for most people travelling to and from the UK and for 40% of the UKs trade. Boosting that international connectivity through unlocking new destinations will be crucial to achieve the Chancellors aim of building the foundations of a stronger, fairer, more global Britain.

That is why it is a missed opportunity for the Chancellor not to have cut Air Passenger Duty today and instead announcing another rise in line with RPI in 2018/19, on top of the RPI rise from April 2017.

The UKs APD is already one of the highest air taxes in the world. With most of our nearest neighbours either charging nothing or less than half of what the UK levies, APD is a tax on the UKs global competitiveness and connectivity.

The UKs APD is already one of the highest air taxes in the world.

Halving APD, as the AOA had called for alongside A Fair Tax on Flying campaign partners, would have brought the UK into line with the next highest APD equivalent in the EU, in Germany. It would have encouraged airlines to schedule new routes between the UK and new destinations, including in emerging markets, by making those flights more economically viable. It would also have made boosting capacity on existing routes more attractive.

Cutting APD will boost the UKs international connectivity and we urge the Chancellor to take action at the first available opportunity. We also continue to urge the Chancellor to make clear that any cut in any part of the UK would immediately be matched across the rest of the UK.

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Heathrow and AOA voice disappointment with UK Budget 2017 - International Airport Review

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