The sweetheart deal that Governor Malloy and his fellow Democrats in the General Assembly cut with state employee unions, the so-called SEBAC agreement, is protected by contract for a full decade —leaving meaningful reforms waaay down the road. The contract is the mother of all can-kicks. Continue reading →

Lobbyists are buying our government out from under us Continue reading →

NEWS 8 IS YOUR LOCAL ELECTION HEADQUARTERS…. AND TONIGHT…VOODOO ECONOMICS! CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT MARK DAVIS TELLING US HOW REPEALING THE STATE INCOME TAX IS THE LATEST HEATED TOPIC BETWEEN THE CANIDATES FOR GOVERNOR.   DEMOCRAT NED LAMONT IS OPENING A … Continue reading →

An updated Disaster Resilience Scorecard to help cities and local government agencies improve their preparedness and reduce risks from disasters was launched today at the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction. Developed for the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction by AECOM, IBM with support from USAID and the European Commission, the Scorecard gives better access to information, knowledge resources, and tools to effectively reduce risks from the impacts of natural hazards and climate change.

Undone by Blood #3 is now due out June 10.

The post EXCLUSIVE: More meta revenge in UNDONE BY BLOOD #3 appeared first on The Beat.

At the International Supercomputing Conference in Frankfurt, The Weather Company, an IBM Business, today announced a plan to help improve weather prediction globally via a new collaboration with the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) and the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), a federally funded research and development center for the atmosphere and Earth’s geospace systems.

IBM today announced that according to results from International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Server Tracker®(June, 2017) IBM has achieved market growth by 3x compared with the total Linux server market which grew at +6 percent. The improved performance are the result of success across IBM Power Systems including IBM’s OpenPOWER LC servers and IBM Power Systems running SAP HANA as well as the OpenPOWER-Ready servers developed through the OpenPOWER Foundation.

Pets at Home, the UK’s leading pet specialist retailer and IBM today announced the launch of Sales Assist, an IBM MobileFirst for iOS app for iPad which will be used across 440 stores nationwide to make it easier and simpler for customers to purchase the products they need.

The Weather Company, an IBM Business announced today that The Weather Channel has launched a cognitive weather bot for Facebook Messenger – powered by IBM Watson. Around the world, Messenger is used to stay in touch with friends and family. Now with The Weather Channel bot, it offers a way to view and share personalized weather-related news content, current conditions, forecasts, severe weather notifications, and other relevant weather information.

China Construction Bank (Asia) Corporation Limited (“CCB (Asia)”) and IBM today announced the development of the first blockchain-enabled bancassurance project in Hong Kong. Built on the IBM Blockchain Platform, the solution is designed to streamline CCB (Asia)’s bancassurance process and greatly enhance customer experience and the quality of services delivered through faster transaction processing time and increased transparency.

Queensland Motorways has awarded IBM a technology and services contract to introduce automated free-flow tolling across south east Queensland’s toll roads.

Study Reveals Australian Office Workers Stressed by Irrelevant Email Overload

HCF and IBM (NYSE: IBM) today jointly announced a multi-million dollar deal that will see them working together in Australia to continue to transform HCF’s IT systems, streamline processes and deliver a tailored experience for its members.

Glimpses through Ginny Weasley's mind during the last months of her fifth years at Hogwarts. Missing scenes from Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

He'd only meant it as a joke, but here she was. Ginny Weasley, his celebrity crush, armed with economy toilet paper rolls and three dozen eggs, ready to commit a misdemeanor all in the name of charity. Muggle AU

Voldemort believes he has uncovered a new means of gaining the supreme power he craves in the depths of the oldest recorded history - a civilization lost over the centuries. But history is known to distort with time. Reeling from the loss of his Godfather, Harry must navigate grief, love, and growing up while surviving another year at Hogwarts as the Second War begins.

One-shot between Harry and Ginny a day before his Auror-training began. Canon, R&R

Getting to be there with her in the ghostly moonlight made everything Harry had gone through worth it... even if her brother was hellbent on tormenting them.

Six-year-old Teddy Lupin was feeling unnaturally nervous. One-shot Teddy's speech for his primary school about his parents, or people like his parents. R&R!

Moving was always stressful, but to be placed in a nationwide lockdown only a few weeks after moving was just too much for Ginny to think about. At least she had a fit neighbor keep her company... from two meters away, of course.

Auror Spook Kitty Fawley thought the difficult part of her return to the UK would be getting Sirius out of prison and recovering Harry from his Muggle relatives. Turns out that was the easiest thing she would do. To help them, Kitty will delve into a mystery deeper than any she faced in the field.

The war is over and Ginny returns to school, but it isn't easy to pretend like everything is the same as before.

[sequel to 'all your fumble words']

One-shot,*not what you might think* Now that Harry and Ginny are dating, Ron needs to get his brotherly duties out of way, but who is he going to talk to if not Harry? Read to find out... R&R!

Raised by his godfather, following the events of Halloween 1981, Harry spends his childhood, hidden from the Wizarding World, preparing to face his destiny. However, his world is turned upside down when he reunites with the beautiful redhead he rescued down in the Chamber.

To serve and protect. That’s what Harry was there for. He had been sent undercover to protect Ginny Weasley from a mad man. Not to fall in love with her. But how couldn’t he? She was everything anyone could want, and clearly her stalker agreed.

With Voldemort dead, Harry Potter is training to be an Auror and is finally back together with Ginny Weasley. But when a young woman dies of poisoning at the Ministry’s Midsummer Ball, Harry is the first suspect, and he can only uncover the true murderer by working with his childhood rival, Draco Malfoy.

Their first meeting literally knocked them off...and it took them twelve hours to finally kiss. **Harry never went to Hogwarts-AU**

At a time when the world is piecing itself back together,
There are those who want to rip it apart again.
Teddy Lupin is about to learn how powerful his godfather truly is.

Head Auror Harry Potter hated the Department of Mysteries. He hated dealing with Unspeakables and disliked their holier than thou attitude. When Harry is called upon to identify a man who has been dead for years that the Unspeakables found, he suspects that there’s something more sinister going on.

On the cusp of the third wizarding war, the truth behind the events of Halloween 1981 and subsequent events finally come to light, when it is revealed that Harry Potter, forgotten and ignored by many, is the Boy Who Lived.

The Wizarding world finally knows that Lord Voldemort has returned, and the Second War has begun. As Harry prepares to enter his sixth year at Hogwarts, he is forced to deal with the trauma from his last encounter with Voldemort, the upcoming trial of Dolores Umbridge, Sirius's uncomfortable questions about his childhood, his budding relationship with Ginny Weasley, and the unknown shadow of what lies ahead as the "Chosen One" who must defeat Voldemort once and for all. This is an AU take of Half-Blood Prince following my previous story, Path Diverged.

Five times Teddy Lupin called Ginny Potter his mum. One time he called her grandmum. A few times he called Harry Potter his dad.

What if, after Harry faces Voldemort in the Forest, he doesn't go to his mental construct of King's Cross Station? Rather he finds himself on the shore of the Black Lake in a host of Guardian Angels (one a little odd, another disturbingly familiar looking), and a tall, hooded black-robed figure. On a white horse. Named Binky...

Robyn Meta Herrington, active member of both SFWA and SF Canada, passed away fifteen years ago today, on Monday morning, May 3, 2004, in Calgary, Alberta, after a courageous multi-year battle with cancer. Robyn’s short fiction appeared in such places as On Spec, Talebones, Adventures of Sword and Sorcery, Parsec, and in Mike Resnick‘s DAW […]

Calling all rebels -- only you can help StarWars.com and The Star Wars Show win!

Ministerstvo obchodu Spojených států připravuje nová digitální pravidla. Americké podniky by na základě nich mohly spolupracovat s čínskou firmou Huawei Technologies na stanovování norem pro mobilní sítě (5G). Agentuře Reuters to řekly zdroje obeznámené se situací. Loni touto dobou přitom USA uvalily restrikce na obchodování s Huawei.

Ve Spojených státech v dubnu zaniklo rekordních 20,5 milionu pracovních míst. Míra nezaměstnanosti vzrostla na 14,7 procenta z březnových 4,4 procenta. Dostala se tak na nejvyšší úroveň od velké hospodářské krize ve 30. letech minulého století.

USA Badminton has been taken off probation by the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee, which tried to decertify the organization for noncompliance to protect athletes from sexual abuse.

Pandemie koronaviru dolehla v březnu i na hypoteční trh. Objemy poskytnutých hypoték se propadly o čtvrtinu. Průměrná úroková sazba hypoték však roste již třetí měsíc v řadě, v březnu vzrostla na 2,45 procenta.

Řada lidí přijde o práci a začne hledat novou. Už teď je dobré se na to připravit a před podpisem pracovní smlouvy vědět, na co si dát pozor. Je lepší kývnout na mzdový výměr, nebo na mzdu v pracovní smlouvě? A na co dalšího si dát pozor? Na otázky odpovídá advokát Pavel Nastis.

Kvůli koronavirové pandemii pracují z domova tisíce lidí. Home office má však určitý pracovně-právní rámec, což tuší málokdo. Jaká jsou práva a povinnosti zaměstnanců a co musí zaměstnavatel udělat, aby neporušil zákoník práce? Ve spolupráci s právníky Bořivojem Líbalem a Markem Poloni přinášíme praktický servis rad pro zaměstnance a zaměstnavatele.

Kvůli koronavirové pandemii lze očekávat silnou recesi. Česká národní banka proto v březnu dvakrát snížila základní úrokovou sazbu z 2,25 procenta na jedno procento. Některé banky na to už zareagovaly razantním snižováním úrokových sazeb na spořicích účtech, což zamíchalo žebříčkem nejlepších spořicích účtů. Ve spolupráci s Finparádou jsme zmapovali aktuální trend a sestavili nový žebříček.

Zaměstnaní rodiče mají od dubna nově nárok na ošetřovné ve výši 80 procent denního vyměřovacího základu. Důvod zvýšení je jasný. Původních 60 procent většině rodin na pokrytí nákladů na provoz domácnosti nevystačilo. Potvrzuje to i případ paní Anny.