Business News

SACRAMENTO – Over one of the busiest travel period of the year, Californians rode trains in unprecedented numbers this Thanksgiving, despite gas prices dipping to their lowest level in six years.

November ridership and revenue reports for Amtrak California are in and boast impressive gains. The Pacific Surfliner, the second busiest intercity rail corridor in the nation, set records for the highest ridership and revenue in over a decade.

The San Joaquin, the fifth busiest corridor in the nation that travels from both Sacramento and San Francisco to Bakersfield, had the second highest ridership and revenue in over a decade.

“Intercity passenger rail is an important component of a sustainable, multimodal transportation system for today and the future,” said Caltrans Director Malcolm Dougherty. “More and more Californians are increasingly seeing train travel as a smart option.”

Traditionally, declining gas prices have had a negative impact on ridership. Not this year. Gas prices for the Thanksgiving holiday this year were just over $3 a gallon, down nearly 15 percent from last year, but ridership and revenue were up on all Amtrak California routes.

Social media reports attribute the increased holiday ridership to a trend toward leisurely travel. Sophisticated and tech savvy travelers are taking advantage of the free Wi-Fi on the trains and spending their travel time either catching up on work or relaxing with their electronic devices and enjoying beautiful views.

The traveling public may also be starting to recognize the environmental benefit to train travel. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, per passenger mile, rail generates about half the carbon dioxide emission of an automobile.

Visit www.amtrakcalifornia.com , www.facebook.com/AmtrakCalifornia or follow them on Twitter at www.twitter.com/Amtrak_CA .

Details: Written by: Editor; Published: 26 December 2014

SAN FRANCISCO – California Attorney General Kamala Harris this week issued a consumer alert on location services used by mobile applications (apps).

With a tap on your smartphone or tablet, you can get a list of nearby restaurants, directions to a friend’s home or a local weather forecast.

Location services on your device make a variety of convenient apps work. Location services take your geographic information from satellites (GPS), WiFi and cell-tower networks.

What you may not realize is that some apps can access your location all the time, even when you’re not using them. Your location might be “always on.”

Broadcasting your location can sometimes expose you and your family to risk of theft or physical harm.

For instance, you may be unknowingly revealing your location if your phone is “geo-tagging” your photos.

When you take a photo, the location where it was taken may be inserted into the image file, along with the date/time stamp. If you post the photo online, you are revealing your location at a point in time.

Sharing a “selfie” without disabling geo-tagging can be dangerous, especially for victims of stalking or domestic abuse.

How mobile location services work may be technical, but you do not have to be an engineer to have more control.

By adjusting the settings on your mobile device, you can control location services to protect your privacy on today’s “always on” frontier.

Android phones and devices

– Go to Settings, then Location and uncheck the boxes. When an app asks for access to your location, you can chose to grant it or not.
– To disable geo-tagging of photos, open the camera and then click on the gear icon and set location to “No.” You may have to click the gear icon on several screen layers.
– You can also choose how accurate you want your location reporting to be, whether it is determined based on GPS plus WiFi and cellular networks or just one or the other. The higher degree of accuracy uses more of your battery, so protecting your privacy will protect your battery life too.

iPhones and iPads (iOS 6 and later)

– Go to Settings, then Privacy, then Location Services. You can turn it off. Or you can choose which functions and apps to give access to your location.
– To disable geo-tagging of photos, deny location access to the camera, in Location Services.
– You may get notifications from apps asking to use your location in the background. For privacy, select “Don’t Allow.”

For more mobile privacy tips, including how to control location information on other mobile platforms, and tips on safe social networking, visit www.oag.ca.gov/privacy/info-sheets .

Details: Written by: Editor; Published: 25 December 2014

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Reps. Mike Thompson (D-CA) and Kevin Brady’s (R-TX) bipartisan Small Business Efficiency Act (H.R. 3581) was signed into law on Friday by President Barack Obama.

The legislation helps reduce burdens faced by small businesses and ensures better compliance with complex federal employment tax responsibilities.

Specifically, the Small Business Efficiency Act provides clear rules for Professional Employer Organizations (PEOs) that are voluntarily certified by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to collect and pay federal employment taxes for their small business clients.

The legislation will provide certainty for small businesses that use certified PEO services and allow employers to focus on their business operations, not government paperwork.

“Small businesses are the backbone of our economy and they shouldn’t be held back because of Washington regulations and piles of government paperwork,” said Thompson. “This law will remove bureaucratic burdens so that small businesses can focus on what they do best – growing their business, producing quality products and creating good-paying jobs.”

PEOs provide human resources services to small business clients. One of the most important tasks that PEOs perform for small businesses is the collection and payment of employment taxes, reducing the amount of burdensome paperwork for small businesses.

Before the bill was enacted, there was ambiguity about a certified PEO’s (CPEO) ability to assume employment tax responsibility. The Small Business Efficiency Act eliminates this ambiguity by implementing safeguards for the CPEO’s small business clients.

To become a certified PEO (CPEO) Thompson and Brady’s legislation requires a PEO to meet certain basic financial conditions, satisfy reporting obligations, and maintain ongoing certification with the IRS. After meeting certification requirements, the CPEO would assume full and sole responsibility and liability for employment taxes due as long as they are certified.

The Small Business Efficiency Act creates a voluntary IRS certification process to help PEOs become certified so they can take on small business clients and accept liability for filing payroll taxes for their clients’ employees.

Not only will small businesses benefit from the legislation, the federal government directly benefits as well.

The IRS has stated that CPEOs would improve compliance with employment tax requirements, reduce the number of returns the IRS has to process, and reduce errors in calculating and paying employment taxes. Presidents Bush and Obama have included very similar proposals in their budget submissions.

Congressman Mike Thompson represents California’s 5th Congressional District, which includes all or part of Contra Costa, Lake, Napa, Solano and Sonoma counties. He is a senior member of the House Ways and Means Committee and the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. Rep. Thompson is also a member of the fiscally conservative Blue Dog Coalition and chairs the bipartisan, bicameral Congressional Wine Caucus.

Details: Written by: Editor; Published: 24 December 2014

LOS ANGELES – Attorney General Kamala D. Harris has announced settlements to resolve allegations that T-Mobile placed charges for third-party services on consumers’ mobile telephone bills that were not authorized by the consumer, a practice known as “mobile cramming.”

The California Department of Justice – along with the attorneys general of the other 49 States and the District of Columbia, the Federal Trade Commission and the Federal Communications Commission – reached the settlements with T-Mobile USA Inc.

The state of California received $834,782 in the settlement—the largest amount of any state.

“T-Mobile deceived its customers by adding unauthorized charges to their bills each month, in order to boost the company’s profits. This settlement puts an end to these bad business practices, refunds consumers and brings transparency to T-Mobile bills,” Attorney General Harris said. “I encourage Californians who were victims of T-Mobile’s cramming practices to file a claim immediately.”

Under the settlement, T-Mobile must provide each victim of cramming who files a claim under its Premium SMS Refund Program an opportunity for a full refund.

The settlement terms require that T-Mobile pay at least $90 million; of this sum, at least $67.5 million must be paid to consumers – a portion of which may be paid by forgiving debts consumers may owe T-Mobile.

T-Mobile also will pay $18 million to the Attorneys General and $4.5 million to the Federal Communications Commission.

Consumers who have been “crammed” often complain about charges, typically $9.99 per month, for “premium” text message subscription services (also known as “PSMS” subscriptions) such as horoscopes, trivia, and sports scores, that the consumers have never heard of or requested. The Attorneys General and federal regulators allege that cramming occurred when T-Mobile placed charges from third-parties on consumers’ mobile telephone bills without the consumer’s knowledge or consent.

T-Mobile is the second mobile telephone provider to enter into a nationwide settlement to resolve allegations regarding cramming; Attorney General Harris announced a $105 million settlement with AT&T in October of this year.

T-Mobile and AT&T were among the four major mobile carriers – in addition to Verizon and Sprint – that announced they would cease billing customers for commercial PSMS in the fall of 2013.

Consumers can submit claims under the Program by visiting http://www.t-mobilerefund.com .

On the Web site, consumers can submit a claim, find information about refund eligibility and how to obtain a refund, and can request a free account summary that details PSMS purchases on their accounts.

Consumers who have questions about the Program can visit the claims Web site or call the Refund Administrator at 855-382-6403.

The settlement requires T-Mobile to stay out of the commercial PSMS business – the platform to which law enforcement agencies attribute the lion’s share of the mobile cramming problem.

T-Mobile must also take a number of steps designed to ensure that it only bills consumers for third-party charges that have been authorized, including the following:

– T-Mobile must obtain consumers’ express consent before billing consumers for third-party charges, and must ensure that consumers are only charged for services if the consumer has been informed of all material terms and conditions of their payment;
– T-Mobile must give consumers an opportunity to obtain a full refund or credit when they are billed for unauthorized third-party charges;
– T-Mobile must inform its customers when they sign up for services that their mobile phone can be used to pay for third-party charges, and must inform consumers of how those third-party charges can be blocked if the consumer doesn’t want to use their phone as a payment method for third-party products; and
– T-Mobile must present third-party charges in a dedicated section of consumers’ mobile phone bills, must clearly distinguish them from T-Mobile charges, and must include in that same section information about the consumers’ ability to block third-party charges.