Latest news with #Legislators
Bloomberg
08-08-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
Don't Turn Chip Controls Into Bargaining Chips
'Disciplined' isn't the first word that pops into mind when describing US trade strategy. The White House has introduced a bizarre range of issues into tariff negotiations, from Brazilian politics to Southeast Asian border skirmishes. More worryingly, it has offered up concessions on US export controls — meant to block China's access to advanced semiconductors critical to developing artificial intelligence — as part of broader trade talks. Blurring that line is a mistake. Traditionally, US officials have sought to ring-fence technology controls from other trade issues, insisting they're nonnegotiable. Now, according to media reports, the administration may be pausing new restrictions in hopes of cementing a US-China trade deal and a summit between the two nations' leaders. American negotiators also recently lifted a ban on exports of chip design software and certain advanced semiconductors from Nvidia Corp., in exchange for China resuming rare earth exports to desperate US companies. Legislators and former national-security officials of both parties have called on the administration to reverse course.
Washington Post
30-07-2025
- Business
- Washington Post
North Carolina lawmakers approve stopgap spending measure amid budget impasse
RALEIGH, N.C. — North Carolina legislators gave final approval Wednesday to a stopgap spending measure to boost state government spending to prepare for fall classes, cover Medicaid expenses and continue construction projects while a Republican agreement on a comprehensive budget still remains distant. The GOP-controlled General Assembly took a break five weeks ago with House and Senate negotiators far apart on working out a two-year, $66 billion budget for the ninth-largest state that should have been in place by July 1. North Carolina is one of a few states that have not yet enacted a budget this fiscal year.
Yahoo
17-07-2025
- Yahoo
Federal searches carried out in Minnesota in response to suspected Medicaid fraud
Photo by. Federal officials searched several locations across the Twin Cities Wednesday in response to potential fraud in the Housing Stabilization Services program, the Star Tribune reported. The search warrant affidavit alleges that the companies being funded by the program — which are supposed to provide housing assistance to vulnerable populations — took millions in Medicaid money while providing few services. KARE 11 spoke to one client who never met anyone from their service provider, Pristine Health, despite the fact that the company had billed Medicaid 46 times for its services. Minnesota first launched the program in 2020, estimating that it would cost $2.6 million per year. Claims exploded, however, reaching more than $104 million by 2024, according to the search warrant affidavit. The housing stabilization investigation is just the latest suspected fraud across a range of Minnesota safety net programs in recent years, from pandemic-era food aid to services for autistic children to transportation of patients to health care providers. The pattern is consistent: A new program or an increase in funding for an existing program — often lightly regulated — leads to an explosion of providers and billings. Dozens of housing stabilization providers were already being investigated in May, KARE 11 reported. Legislators increased requirements for housing stabilization agencies in response to fraud concerns, including mandating further documentation of services and limits on hours. Charges against the companies have not been filed. In a statement, temporary DHS Commissioner Shireen Gandhi, said the search warrants 'are the result of the critical partnerships between (DHS), the Minnesota Department of Public Safety Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, the Office of Attorney General and federal offices and is an important example of our shared commitment to work together to ensure Medicaid program integrity.' Solve the daily Crossword
Forbes
16-07-2025
- Business
- Forbes
As Data Breaches Soar, C-Suite Looks to Customer Data Management
Customer data management (CDM) best practices have never been more crucial to today's brands as they face escalating data breaches, which come with severe brand trust, balance-sheet, and customer retention issues. Throw rising competition, increased customer expectations, and a growing need for improved decision-making into the mix, and the need for strong CDM practices makes its own case. Companies need to move, store, and analyze party data so that they can effectively target customers and offer deep personalization. Most importantly, data security is especially critical to brands and businesses today – a data breach can cost companies millions within moments and break customer trust for a lifetime. The complication of data breaches create a heightened demand for corporate accountability related to data security Customers are expected to hand over their data today in most interactions with brands and businesses, but consumer frustrations are mounting as more and more data breaches and hacks occur. The calls for accountability are coming from both the consumers, as well as legislators, with good reason. For many businesses, manual data-gathering efforts using Excel spreadsheets work—up to a point. As the company grows, however, so does the data and the need to make sense of it. This can quickly become unwieldy and unhelpful: Organizations can easily get lost and overwhelmed in large data sets and lose out on potentially valuable insights that help them stand out to their customers and improve the customer journey. That's when it's time for a big change—enter customer data management strategies and solutions. Winding path-to-purchase requires deep customer understanding Unlike past decades, when channels were separate and siloed, today's path-to-purchase is a long and winding road. Multiple touchpoints, both online and off, need to stay connected— including email, CRM, e-commerce, social media, and retail POS. That means it's essential for organizations to deeply understand the customer at every stage. Customer loyalty will soon depend on a company's willingness to protect customer information with the same fervor they pursue revenue. Making sense of the data allows customers to be valued more A range of cloud-based solutions are now commonly used for customer data management that serves as the centralized, beating heart of the effort to improve customer acquisition, satisfaction, and retention; improve customer visibility and targeted communication, and boost data quality. Ultimately, businesses need customer data management to work towards achieving a single customer view that allows them to provide the seamless customer experience that consumers have come to expect, as well as calculate important metrics such as the Customer Lifetime Value (CLV). However, it's not just about the technology: It's about the strategies, policies, and actions that make customer data management an effective effort that helps drive growth. Customer data management best practices: 7 important points brands should consider Following are seven best practices for customer data management: Data needs to be managed with internal standards and policies, to ensure that the organization handles data assets properly throughout the data lifecycle. Make sure the entire company is aligned, across the board, in terms of what data is collected, data points, and how it will be tracked and used. Data protection regulations, such as the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) are on the rise. The right customer data management platform should make compliance with customer data regulations easy and straightforward. It's important to determine what specific types of data are most effective to serve your customers and achieve your marketing goals. There are a variety of data categories and industry-specific data to consider, from your customer's identity data, loyalty program information, and online transactional data to demographic information, social media data, and qualitative data about attitudes and opinions. Not only are data leaks and breaches becoming more costly every year—the average cost of a data breach in 2024 was $4.9 million—but these events can also severely impact a company's reputation, as well as its bottom line. If you aren't steering the security ship and communicating your commitment, you run the risk of falling into consumer doubt. After all, customers want to know their information is safe. It's essential to choose a customer data management platform that has the right security standards and practices in place. According to an IBM report, 83% of companies suffer from data inaccuracy. Not only is outdated, inaccurate data not useful, but customer satisfaction and decision-making may suffer and lead to rising costs. The key to good customer data management is making sure customer data is regularly cleaned: That is, validating and updating information including email addresses, phone numbers, and addresses, as well as removing duplicates and deleting unnecessary contacts. Forbes noted that companies now house an average of 15 silos of customer data. It doesn't have to be that way: Don't allow useful data such as call-center information, sales leads, emails, or finance communication to become useless, trapped in department and technology silos. Data needs to be securely shared and accessible, in ways that promote collaboration, problem-solving, and improved decision-making. A complete, omnichannel customer journey includes customer profiles filled out with profile, activity, event, demographic and behavioral data, as well as data related to intent and perception. Getting to that goal requires robust end-to-end customer data management solutions that are highly scalable and can store billions of profile and consent records. It's not enough to have customer data or even a holistic profile. Identity data must be collected and managed appropriately throughout the entire customer lifecycle. That means providing a frictionless customer experience with flexible registration, secure interaction touchpoints, and simplified authentication based on real-time, data-driven insights. The future of customer data is bright—and unified Today's buyers are in control. With a quick click or swipe, they can abandon a brand and make a quick move to the competition, or they can remain long-term loyalists. That means customers —their wants, their needs, their preferences, their expectations—need to be at the heart of every business. Companies have to understand how to gather and analyze the right data in order to collect insights that help them deliver meaningful, seamless experiences to their buyers. This is the promise and power of customer data management best practices: With the right platform that integrates with a company's existing sales and marketing technologies, customer data management helps brands deeply understand their customers through a holistic, unified, centralized, real-time view of data. But organizations also need to follow best practices and prioritize successful strategies in order to make customer data management successful. Effective data management is a promise to customers and an investment in your future. The first step is deciding to take control. You can do that today. This post was first published on The Future of Commerce and is republished here with permission.
South China Morning Post
05-07-2025
- Politics
- South China Morning Post
Hong Kong will benefit from recognising the rights of same-sex couples
The landmark ruling by Hong Kong's top court requiring the government to recognise same-sex relationships was a defining moment for the city. Grounded in law, but also basic human decency, the court gave officials two years to put in place a framework protecting the core rights of such couples, who are not permitted to marry in the city. The government unveiled its proposals last week, just four months ahead of the deadline and no one is happy with them. Members of the LGBTQ community are disappointed because they do not go far enough. Lawmakers are also angry. They hit out at the government for leaving insufficient time for the legislative process and failing to launch a public consultation. Some claimed the proposals would undermine Hong Kong's traditional family values. There is a need for calm and clarity. Some legislators appear to want to roll back the ruling because they disagree with it. But the judgment must be implemented. That should be non-negotiable. Otherwise, there will be a continuing breach of the law. Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Erick Tsang Kwok-wai was spot on when he said: 'A decision of the Court of Final Appeal, whether you like it or not or agree with it or not, is part of our judicial system,' adding that it must be respected. The legislators are on firmer ground when they complain about the late submission of the proposals and lack of public consultation.
