Gilbert Arenas Gun Scandal

If you are a NBA basketball fan, then you know who Gilbert Arenas is. Gilbert Arenas, a three-time NBA All Star has been the face of the Washington Wizard franchise since his rookie season in 2001. As a result, he has been a hero in the state of Washington because of his remarkable accomplishments on the Washington Wizards. Unfortunately, a dumb mistake by Arenas would cost him his sponsorship with a major company, the relationship with his teammates, and even worse, his image as a leader diminished.

So you may ask, what exactly did he do that consequently gave him such harsh punishments? The answer to this is rather mind-boggling considering the leadership icon that Arenas once was. On January 14, 2010 Arenas was charged with a single count of carrying a pistol without a license, a felony that carries a five-year sentence. However, Gilbert Arenas did agree to a plea agreement that could result in much less or even no jail time at all. Later on March 26, 2010 Arenas’s punishment was finalized. The NBA star was sentenced to two years of supervised probation and has to serve 30 days in a halfway house as well as serve 400 hours of community service and contribute $5,000 to a fund for victims of violence.

And THAT is what frustrates me.

If it weren’t for his career as an NBA basketball player, Gilbert Arenas would’ve been in jail for the standard 5 years just like everyone else. There is absolutely no reason why Gilbert should be treated any differently then everyone else. This is just one of many examples about the leniency that star athletes get when it comes to the law. Another example of this is Michael Vick and the dog fighting scandal. The star NFL quarterback was supposed to serve up to 6 years in prison for his crime but only ended up serving 23 months in prison instead. This frustrates me because athletes will only continue to abuse the law knowing the fact that they will end up serving far less then they actually deserve. I strongly believe that if the court were to be more black and white with these rules, then there would be far less problems that they would encounter in the future. With the way the court has been treating these sports icons, I wouldn’t be surprised if similar problems like these happened again in the future.

Despite receiving no jail time, Arenas still had other issues regarding his sponsorship with Adidas. Adidas, Arena’s major sponsorship had terminated its agreement with the Wizard’s star after he pleaded guilty of the gun scandal. Not only is Arenas losing thousands of dollars for this, but the Adidas Company is taking a big hit as well. Arenas not only created a bad image for him, but also created a bad image for Adidas. As a result, I wouldn’t be surprised to see a decrease in sales for Adidas ever since the Gilbert Arena’s scandal occurred.

Gilbert Arenas Gun Scandal Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zl9qjkV8bOI

Facebook gets drowned by law AND Users can too!

Do you use facebook? Do you feel unsafe on facebook?

Harassment online is called cyberbulling. Facebook publishes all your photos and wall conversations you have with other people. Facebook users need to be aware that can be stalked and be in danger.  For your safety, you need to be aware of what you publish and who you allow to view your information.

A case of how facebook got sued:
According to a report at ClickZ, the case stems from the idea that "encouraging children to “like” an ad, Facebook is, in effect, asking them to use peer pressure to get their friends to click and that’s exploitation of a minor for profit.” 
Don’t stress over being stalked by others or feeling unsafe, because you always have authority to sue the facebook headquarters who publish your information without you knowing it.
Parents tend to invade in their childs privacy by viewing your activity and posts and also making you deactivate your facebook account. Many incidents of how Facebook gets drowned by Law is mainly when murder/ rape happens when one individual meets another unknown on facebook user. Facebook allows others to request as friends even if there are no mutual friends. The people who usually add random people are known as the “Facebook stalkers” which is a scary thing of knowing.

German officials are taking legal actions against Facebook for accessing users’ personal information, as well as some information of those who are not using the site. Johannes Caspar, Head of Hamburg's Data Protection Authority, stated that he received many complaints from people who are not signed up to Facebook but their personal information added by their friends who are Facebook members.  The people that didn't know they were Facebook users are being used for “marketing purposes” without their permission.

This video shows how internet bullying and harassment statements can get you and Facebook sued from the individual who just “didn’t like the comment”. http://www.clipsyndicate.com/video/playlist/14046/1500315?title=citybizlist_dallas Facebook shouldn’t allow messages/publishing that are inappropriate on news feeds. The video also shows how the inappropriate pictures where in public view - so anyone can see these illegal acts like underage drinking, smoking and nudity.

Be careful what you post on Facebook and what people post about you cause lawsuits can be happening faster than you would ever think about it! 

Firing Policies

When you get a job in the future, there will most likely be a boss. That "boss" has the power to take control of the business, make decisions for the business, and best of all, he can fire anyone that works under him. Most workers in the United States work "at will" which means that the manager can fire the person anytime for any reason unless it's illegal. So when you are a manager of a business and you really dislike this one employee, you have to be careful because there are policies on firing an employee. Even though you have the authority to fire anyone, you need to make sure that you follow the policies and know what is illegal before you actually fire someone.

Illegal Reasons For Firing Employees

1. Discrimination. It is illegal for a manager to fire an employee based on their race, gender, national origin, disability, religion, or age. It is also illegal to fire someone just because they are pregnant or has a medical condition related to pregnancy and childbirth. Everyone has the right to work anywhere without being discriminated.
2. Refusal to take a lie detector test. Just because an employee refuses to take a lie detector test, a manager does not have the right to fire an employee just because they refuse to take one. There are many states out there that don't allow businesses to take lie detector tests.
3. Complaining about OSHA violations. The Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) is the primary federal law which governs occupational health and safety in the private sector and federal government in the United States. Its main goal is to ensure that employers provide employees with an environment free from recognized hazards, such as exposure to toxic chemicals, excessive noise levels, mechanical dangers, heat or cold stress, or unsanitary conditions. With all this said, it is illegal for employers to fire employees for complaining that their jobs aren't as safe as they should be. The employees have the freedom of speech and they can say whatever they would like. Plus, it could help out the business to fix certain safety rules to make a better work place.
4. Violations of Public Policy. These are considered to be morally or ethically wrong to the public. For example, you cannot fire an employee just because they refuse to commit an illegal act. You cannot fire an employee just because they were complaining about an employers illegal conduct. You also cannot fire an employee just because they exercised a legal right. An example would be voting or taking a family leave). The employees have the right to refuse and accept whatever they want without getting legally fired.
5. Alien Status. An employer cannot fire an employee because of their alien status. Just because an employee is an immigrant, the employee has the right to work wherever they want legally. This would only be enforced if the employee is eligible to work in the United States.

You may be wondering, what happens if you fire someone even with the legal right to, but they are very upset and they sue you? Did you know that every employer is protected in case a situation like that occurs? Here are some steps and processes of avoiding a lawsuit from an employee signing a release.

• You can ask the employee to sign a release which is an agreement for the employee not to sue. If the employee does sign the release, you will have to give something back to them. Usually it is money that is given to the employee for signing the release.
• Make sure the release is clear about the rights the employee is waiving. You need to be specific and clear in the release so that the employee knows what it covers.
• You need to give the employee time for them to decide whether or not to sign the release. It is reasonable to say to give the employee a good week or two to decide whether or not they should sign the release.
• Do not threaten or talk tough with your employees about signing the release. An employee's decision to sign a release must be voluntary, or courts will not enforce the release.

As you can see there are a lot of things in firing employees. The employees have a lot of rights and if you just fire them just because you hate their guts, you can get into trouble and a possible lawsuit. When running a business, it is important to trust your employees and to make sure that you go over all the policies given. So when you become a manager in a business in the future, make sure you know the policies of firing employees and also make sure that the employees sign the release form. It can help you in the future and protect you from a lawsuit.

The National Football League Collective Bargaining Agreement

In March of 2011, The National Football League's Collective Bargaining Agreement is set to expire. What is a CBA you ask. It is defined as a legally enforceable contract for a specified period between the management of an organization and its employees represented by an independent trade union. It sets down and defines conditions of employment (wages, working hours and conditions, overtime payments, holidays, vacations, benefits, etc.) and procedures for dispute resolution. Also called labor agreement, union agreement, or union contract. But this season, 2010, is the last season the CBA will cover. If the players Union and Owners are somehow unable to come to an agreement, this will be the first time since 1987 that the players were locked out. In this year, management created replacement teams and the union, after some of its most famous members crossed the picket line, suffered a humiliating defeat. In the 20 years afterward, it became sport to kick the longtime union boss, the late Gene Upshaw, as a man who negotiated a bad deal for the players. Apparently, his critics did Upshaw a disservice since it's the owners who now say that the players got the better of them, especially since 2006, and management needs a new deal. The chief of the players association at this time is Demaurice Smith.

Smith said that he and his team are preparing for war if they and the owners are unable to come to an agreement before the CBA expires. He and Commissioner Roger Goodell have had an off and on battle on who is correct when it comes to getting an agreement done. Smith has also stated that if necessary he would get the United States Congress involved, as he has worked in Washington previous and has connections with the Obama administration. The reason there have been many problems with these negotiations, is because the owners believe that the terms that are in place now have them getting a bad deal. They believe that it is unfair that the players receive 60 percent of the leagues total gross football revenue. Not only is he concerned about the players work stoppage and loss of pay, he more worried about all the little people that work within the league for teams that could lose all of their paychecks which may not be a lot to the players, but everything to those little people. Smith is trying to have the players best interest and back in September, he stated that he and the players would love to have it done by November. Well, I highly doubt that they will get it done in the next week due to the fact that there are so many issues between players and owners. The owners annual intake has dropped 200 million dollars since 2006. They believe that this number will continue to decrease, which is why they are not set on keeping the same terms from this CBA to the next. The players like the CBA the way it stands now, but the owners terms that they have discussed, take the share back decades where it was not very good for the players. The biggest losers of all may be the free agents of 2011.There are certain boundaries players have to stay in, in order to be restricted or unrestricted. Usually, under a cap they could be unrestricted after four years of service, but with none it would have to be six years instead. Smith has also claimed that the league is also demanding a 18 percent decrease in players salaries which doesn't sit well with them. In recent months it has been reported that Goodell and Smith were working on a 6 year deal for the new CBA that will run through the 2016 season. This deal is still being reworked due to many concerns from the players and owners that they are equal. Kevin Mawae, president of the players union as well as New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft and Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones have all recently stated that they may be getting closer to wrapping up this deal at their next meeting in December. Mawae stressed that he wants this done not only for the players, but the fans that want to enjoy some good football for the rest of their lives. He also said that since 2006, the players have contributed 3 million dollars to new stadium construction and he says that even though the players are losing things like money and health care, the owners were the ones who opted out in 2008 by unanimous decision. The CBA expiration has also put off plans to build new stadiums. The San Francisco 49ers were hoping to be able to start construction on their new stadium. This has also put off plans to move a team to Los Angeles where a super stadium would be built. A team that has been mentioned frequently due to their smaller market and fan base is the Jacksonville Jaguars. 

Take a look at it this way, the NFL is a business like any other. It takes in income and other things like that. If that business doesn't run the way it is supposed to between the bosses and the employees, then that business ceases to work. They cannot function if the two head groups are unable to able to agree on who gets what percent of income from each area they get income. For the NFL it is things like ticket sales, jersey sales, food sales, commercials, stadiums, etc. There are many expenses that they have to deal with, and they are unable to come to who gets what profit and who pays for this and how much do they pay. The Collective Bargaining Agreement is up in arms. Who will be the winner in the end? In the coming months, we should to hope to find out if we can watch football in 2011 with the regular players at the same level, as previous years.

 

Click Laundering

Those ads on the side of a website aren't there for decorations. Advertisements are there because they are needed for the website to make money. It's similar to television commercials but instead every time a person clicks on the internet ad the website makes some money. This seams to be a good way for both the website owner and the advertiser, although RedOrbit found a way to exploit this and gain more money.

Microsoft is suing the science news website RedOrbit and their president Eric Ralls, for engaging in a click laundering scheme to gain revenue from ads. Click laundering is an online advertising scam that occurs when a person or computer program imitates a user and clicks on an online ad to generate a "charge per click". This explains that RedOrbit was using a program to click on the Microsoft ad on their website in order for them to earn money from it. Every time any user clicks on the ad, Microsoft shares the profit with the publisher of the website.
Microsoft reported that between September and December 2008, RedOrbit received 75 clicks per day on ads placed there. The next year there was a drastic change from 75 to almost 10,000 clicks per day. This is obvious that something is not right, either 9,000 new people decided to click on an ad that month, or it was a program that clicked them.

How it Works
Click laundering is usually involved with the use of malware that delivers rogue search results to trick people into visiting websites where they click on an advertisement without them knowing they ever did it. This malware makes it seem like an actual website but instead when the link is opened up and the user clicks around they are actually clicking an ad. Some of these fake websites are IFRAMEs that causes people to click on ads. Click launderers can even disguise the fraudulent clicks to make it look like they wanted to visit the ad.

"Just like money laundering, in which the origins of ill-gotten gains are disguised as legitimate income, clicks from automated programs or virus-ridden computers are dressed up as real clicks by real customers, i.e., clicks that advertisers pay for," Cranton wrote. This quote explains how click laundering has the same concept of money laundering and it was interesting because I never would of expected it to be on the Internet.
Microsoft is seeking unspecified damages, and no court date has been set yet.

Jailbreaking Ipods, Legal or Illegal?

If you own an ipod touch or iphone you have probably tried or have talked about jailbreaking with someone. And one of the most asked question about jailbreaking is, whether jailbreaking is legal or not. Luckily for all of you with a jailbroken ipod/iphone, jailbreaking is legal. In July, the Library of Congress announced that it had made the controversial practice of “jailbreaking” your iPhone — or any other cell phone — legal. Before this jailbreaking was technically illegal but no one has been sued for this. After the Library of Congress announced that jailbreaking is perfectly legal, apple fought hard against the legalization, arguing that jailbreaking was a form of copyright violation. The FCC disagreed, saying that jailbreaking merely enhanced the inter-operability of the phone, and was thus legitimate under fair-use rules. Now if you Jailbreak your ipod/iphone its ok the only downfall is that you will lose your warranty, even with that, It is estimated that more than a million iphone users have jailbroken there device. Some people are saying that it’s still unfair that you lose your warranty since you bought the device and you should be able to do whatever you want with it. On the other hand some say this is perfectly acceptable since you are technically changing the interface and just about everything on the device. Some people even use the jailbreaking to use a different cell phone company with the iphone like T-mobile, Verizon, ect. As for me I disagree, I believe you should still have your warranty even if you break your device because in the end you still purchased the device from apple and still paid and most likely are paying for many of the things on your device. So taking away the warranty is like Apples way of fighting back at the legalization of Jailbreaking.

If your someone who has been wanting to jailbreak there device but has heard some rumors of why not to. You most likely have heard one of the five most common myths about jailbreaking which are,

Myth1- Jailbreaking will brick your device - First off to have a device bricked means that it freezes and is unusable. Fortunate for you it is impossible for your device to get bricked.

Myth2- Jailbreaking is Illegal. - This is 10000000% FALSE! Jailbreaking is perfectly legal.

Myth3- Once you have jailbroken your device you can never go back. - False again, if you ever jailbreak your device and later you decide you don’t want it jailbroken just put your ipod into DFU mode and restore it. This will always work.

Myth4- There is no point to Jailbreak your device, there are no benefits. - There are so many things you can do with your jailbroken device that you can't do with a non jailbroken device. From fully customizable themes, to SBSettings, to using other phone providers such as T-mobile, ect.

Myth5- Jailbreaking a device takes too much time and money. - Now a day's Jailbreaking takes less than 2 min, and all programs for jailbreaking your device are free. There are even hundreds of videos on youtube showing how to jailbreak your device.

So if you get a chance to Jailbreak your device take it its quick, very usfull, and fun.

How to Start a Business

Starting a business requires a great amount of work. There are several steps to starting a business. First you need to research and plan your business. What this means is you need to write a detailed business plan explaining, how you want your business to work and what you want to achieve from this business.
After you have your well-written business plan its a good idea to get business assistance and training. Basically these trainers and assistants will help and teach you everything about starting and running a business. They may also help you with getting loans, improving your business plan and marketing strategies. You may be able to even find some free training programs to help you start your business.
Next you will need to find the right business location. How do you know that it's the right location? Well, some of the factors you should look at that should help you with you decision are, do a lot of people come to this area? Is it a comfortable location for your customers? How much is the leasing on the building? Also tax credits offered by your local government. The right location can be crucial to helping your business succeed.
Your next step is to finance your business. To finance your business and help you get started you will most likely need to get a loan. In a loan you borrow money from a lender in which you are required to pay back the same amount of money plus interest at a later time.
You will then need to pick a legal structure for your business. This will determine what your job in the business is, how much you money you will make, and how much you have to pay for taxes and other finances. For example if you are working individually then you will work more and you don't have to share your profits. If you have a partnership you will make less money, but you will also reduce your costs. You may need to contact several federal agencies to help you with this. "The most common business structures are:

• Sole Proprietorship - A business owned and managed by one individual who is personally liable for all business debts and obligations.
• Partnership - A single business owned by two or more people.
• Corporation - A legal entity owned by shareholders.
• S Corporation - A special type of corporation created through a tax election. An eligible domestic corporation can avoid double taxation (once to the shareholders and again to the corporation) by electing to be treated as an S corporation.
• Limited Liability Company (LLC) - A hybrid legal structure that provides the limited liability features of a corporation and the tax efficiencies and operational flexibility of a partnership.
• Non Profit - An organization engaged in activities of public or private interest where making a profit is not a primary mission. Some Non Profits are exempt from paying federal taxes. 
• Cooperative - A business or organization owned by and operated for the benefit of those using its services. Cooperatives are not a legal structure." (copied from www.business.gov)                               

 After that you will need a business name. if you are the solo owner of the business then the name of it is your first and last name. If your in a partnership then the name is either your last names or the name that both partners agreed on. If you would like a different name for your business then you will need to file a fictitious name registration form with your government agency. A fictitious name is just a name other then the official registered name of your business.                                                                   
     What you will need next is a tax identification number. Basically it is just used for identifying your business. All businesses are required to pay federal, state, and sometimes local taxes. Along with business taxes required by the federal government you will also have to pay for some state taxes which vary in every state. The most common ones are tax permit, income taxes, and employment taxes.    
   The final step to starting a business is getting the required licenses and permits for your business, some are basic and some may be very specific. You may only need one license or you may need several. This depends on what your business is, your state, location and what is required by federal, state and local Governments. If you don't have the required incenses and permits, you can get expensive fines.