As inmate populations have soared over the last 30 years, private prisons have emerged as an appealing solution to cash-starved states. Privately run prisons are cheaper and can be set up much faster than those run by the government. Nearly a tenth of all U.S. prisoners are housed in private prisons, as are almost two-thirds of immigrants in detention centers-and the companies that run them have cashed in. CCA, the oldest and largest modern private prison company, took over its first facility in 1983. Now it’s a Wall Street darling with a market cap of nearly $3.8 billion. Similarly, GEO Group, the second largest private-prison operator, last week reported $1.52 billion in revenue for 2013, its most ever and more than a hundredfold increase since the company went public ten years ago.
On February 14th, a council of ministers passed a reform on the copyright laws in Spain. According to the reform, content aggregators including Google News, Yahoo News, Bing News and Spain’s famous Menéame would have to depart from part of their income in favor of the original content publishers. As for now it is uncertain how, at what percentage and when this tax will be effective. Google alone is supposed to have had a publicity income in Spain during 2013 close to US$ 50 million and with perspectives to increase by 14% its turnover in 2014.
We speak with scientist Tyrone Hayes of the University of California, Berkeley, who discovered a widely used herbicide may have harmful effects on the endocrine system. But when he tried to publish the results, the chemical’s manufacturer launched a campaign to discredit his work.
Bank of England officials told currency traders it wasn’t improper to share impending customer orders with counterparts at other firms, a practice at the heart of a widening probe into alleged market manipulation, according to a person who has seen notes turned over to regulators.
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Traders representing some of the world’s biggest banks told officials at the meeting that they shared information about aggregate orders before currency benchmarks were set, three people with knowledge of the discussion said. The officials said there wasn’t a policy on such communications and that banks should make their own rules, according to the people.
Millions of us share our most personal feelings and most potentially damaging data through our smartphones. But isn’t it time to lock them down after last June’s revelations that the NSA collects data from phone calls, texts and emails of people all over the world? The developers of Blackphone, a new privacy-focused smartphone, say ‘yes.’
Toby Weir-Jones, the general manager of Blackphone, says the NSA’s digital surveillance has created a new demand for privacy, Newsweek reports. However, he says, “the wider market was not equipped to look for a solution.” Apple and Android phones, says Weir-Jones, are caught up in a battle over larger screen sizes, higher resolution and faster operating systems, while Blackphone is offering privacy.
Theoretically, experts say, the new device could provide considerable security for users trying to protect themselves from corporate spying and the countries with lesser surveillance programs than the US. Blackphone, which goes on presale February 24,can do texting, video, calling, searching, browsing, file storage and sharing — all shielded from the prying eyes of governments and hackers.
Zim American-Israeli Shipping (“Zim”) was the predecessor company of the present Zim Integrated Shipping Services and was 49 percent owned by the Israeli government on 9/11. In 2004, the Israeli government sold their interest to the Israeli Ofer Brothers Group, which then became the sole owner of the company.1 On 9/11, Zim’s headquarters’ was in Haifa, Israel, and it had worldwide regional offices in Hong Kong, Hamburg, Germany, and Manhattan, New York/Norfolk, Virginia.2
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At the time of the 9/11 attacks Zim was one of two Israeli companies with lease contracts at the WTC. The other Israeli tenant, Clear Forest, had a small office of 18 employees on the 47th floor of WTC 1 (the North Tower). According to the Jerusalem Post, Clear Forest had only four or five employees at the WTC on 9/11 and all escaped uninjured.3 Although there were some variances in the WTC 1 tenant rosters between various media organizations, the majority showed that Zim occupied all of the 16th floor (WTC floor space approximated 50,000 square feet), 10,000 square feet of the 17th floor, and some space of the 29th floor of WTC 1.4 Zim had about 250 employees at the WTC before its move-out, which would require somewhere in the vicinity of 50,000 to 60,000 square feet of office space.5
Amazingly fortunate for Zim, the company moved out of the WTC around Sept. 4, 2001 and into a newly built office building in Norfolk, Va., even though they had a significant remaining lease obligation at the WTC.6 In fact, Zim picked this lucky move-out date about six months before they actually moved. An April 3, 2001 article in the Virginian-Pilot stated, “Zim expects to open the new (Norfolk) building by Sept. 4 and will eventually employ 235 people.”7 Coincidently, pilot hijackers Mohammed Atta and Marwan Shehhi were inexplicably in the Norfolk/Virginia Beach area in February and April 2001 at the time Zim was apparently in the search and planning process for their Norfolk building.8 Although Zim is reported to have had about 10 of its purported 20 remaining employees at the WTC on 9/11, none were killed or injured.9 However, other media reports stated that Zim had 35 sales and marketing people and additional computer personnel remaining at the WTC on 9/11, indicating Zim had a small percentage of its remaining staff at the WTC on 9/11.10
During a Q&A in which he’d promised to answer any questions put to him, The CEO of computer chip company Intel stayed silent when asked about NSA spying.
