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ON THE MAINLAND
Think of your boss before you e-mail Friday was Valentine's Day. It was also a normal business day. So you might have sent a romantic little e-mail to your significant other at work. Fine, as long as you were comfortable with the idea the boss also might read it.
Employers often get an eyeful when they examine workers' e-mail correspondence. More than half of U.S. companies monitor or filter employee e-mail, according to Frederick Lane, author of "The Naked Employee: How Technology Is Compromising Workplace Privacy."
"An X-rated valentine could get your boyfriend in trouble, or at the very least could land him on his company's watch list," Lane said.
And it doesn't end at e-mail. Many companies monitor Net browsing, news group postings, Web chat and some forms of instant messaging.
Be careful when you give
After every major accident or natural disaster, Americans tend to collect money and other aid for the affected. It's a response crooks count on -- and the Better Business Bureau is warning the space shuttle catastrophe is no different.Charity auctions and at least one Web site purporting to be for helping shuttle family members have been reported, and Texas officials are warning about telephone and e-mail spammers who are seeking donations related to the Columbia disaster.
"It's unfortunate, but the minute we heard about the loss of the Columbia shuttle, we knew to be on the lookout for questionable appeals that will seek to use headlines to solicit donations, supposedly for charitable purposes," said Art Taylor, president and CEO of the BBB Wise Giving Alliance, a national charity watchdog affiliated with the Better Business Bureau system.
The organization offers a few tips for weeding out the hucksters:
>> Be wary of appeals long on emotion, but short on specifics about how the charity will address victims' needs.
>> Do not give cash.
>> Be alert for excessive pressure for immediate donations, and any request to send someone to collect your contribution.
>> Do not offer a credit card number or other personal information to a telephone solicitor or in response to an e-mail solicitation.
>> Be wary of charities reluctant to discuss reasonable questions about their operations, finances and programs.
Out of work a single problem
One little factoid you don't often hear about in the government's monthly unemployment rolls -- marital status.It turns out that in the current economic downturn, about 62 percent of the roughly 1.85 million Americans who have been unemployed more than six months are single, according to outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc., based on a review of data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The Chicago-based firm theorizes that a surge in the number of single mothers and widowed seniors entering the work market since the last recession 11 years ago is responsible for the rise in unemployed singles.
Other factors: companies looking for more experienced workers, who tend to be older and married; continued hiring discrimination against gays and lesbians and companies seeking those with more specialized skills, which come with age.
Company's size affects local newscast quality
NEW YORK >> Television stations owned by big, out-of-town companies tend to produce lower-quality newscasts than those owned by smaller groups, a study by a journalism think tank has concluded.Newscasts at stations owned by large television networks also fared poorly in the study released yesterday by the Project for Excellence in Journalism.
The five-year study comes as the Federal Communications Commission considers relaxing restrictions on the number of TV stations companies can own.
The report gave an A grade to only 11 percent of stations owned by the 10 biggest media companies. Thirty-one percent of stations owned by small groups earned the top grade.
ELSEWHERE
Stance on farm goods eludes trade ministers
TOKYO >> The top U.S. trade negotiator told World Trade Organization ministers yesterday that lower tariffs and farm subsidies would spur growth in fragile economies around the world, but the ministers could not resolve the issue by meeting's end.U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick prodded his counterparts during the three-day Tokyo meeting to be more ambitious in facilitating the flow of farm goods across borders, saying everyone stood to benefit from cutting duties.
Although a deal on agriculture remains critical for the success of global trade talks, Zoellick acknowledged that a number of countries were not ready to make concessions.
The WTO members are trying to meet a March 31 deadline to agree on a framework for talks on agriculture.
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