Anthony Mangione, 52, of Parkland, Fla., was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Kenneth A. Marra in West Palm Beach, Fla.

A former U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officer, his girlfriend and two of their associates pleaded guilty today in federal court for their participation in multi-year bribery and alien smuggling activities along the U.S./Mexico border.

Two former owners of a Los Angeles-area medical equipment wholesale supply company pleaded guilty today to conspiring with their customers to defraud Medicare.

Corey Thompson was sentenced today to serve 30 months in prison for his involvement in a sophisticated stolen identity refund fraud conspiracy.

The United States sued a Southlake, Texas woman last night, seeking to bar her from preparing federal tax returns for others

A former U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officer, his girlfriend, his nephew and two of their associates were sentenced today in federal court for their participation in bribery and alien smuggling activities along the U.S./Mexico border spanning approximately two years, announced Acting Assistant Attorney General Mythili Raman of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division.

The Justice Department announced that yesterday a federal court in Ft. Worth, Texas permanently barred Karena Mondrianh, of Southlake, Texas, from preparing tax returns and from operating a tax-preparation business.

A federal court in Columbus, Ohio, has permanently barred Tobias Elsass and his companies, “Fraud Recovery Group Inc.” and “Sensible Tax Services Inc.,” from preparing federal tax returns, promoting the availability of theft loss deductions, or engaging in any other tax-related business in the future.

Ohio-based Basco Manufacturing Co. (Basco) has agreed to pay $1.1 million to resolve allegations that it violated the False Claims Act by making false customs declarations to avoid paying duties on products imported from a Chinese manufacturer, and that it has filed a complaint against four other companies and two individuals based on similar allegations.

George Despotopoulos and Steve Tepelidis pleaded guilty to tax evasion today in the District Court for the Eastern District of New York, the Justice Department and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced.

While patients are consumers of healthcare services, they can’t be considered customers in the traditional sense. The same is true of students. Over many years of teaching, I’ve noticed this parallel between the healthcare and education professions; both require significantly more “customer participation” to achieve desired outcomes than other industries do. That’s one reason it’s difficult to measure the quality of these institutions and the skills of their practitioners. That’s also why both industries focus so intently on engaging our communities; we simply can’t be successful unless we do.

“Can You Hear Me Now?”
As the old joke goes, there are 3 types of people in this world: those who are good at math and those who aren’t. Many students believe themselves to be permanent denizens of the 2nd camp. They find mathematical concepts confusing and the terminology inscrutable, so they tend not to ask questions. They’re afraid they’re being judged, so they’re not always truthful. Tests and exams fill them with anxiety, and sometimes even panic (no doubt waking to nightmares of trains leaving stations at varying rates of speed). These are the students who need my help the most. Our success in overcoming these challenges together will depend heavily on the student/teacher connection we can establish, yet few students are actually able to choose the teacher with whom they are asked to connect. Sound like healthcare yet?



So it’s no surprise that trends toward greater patient engagement in healthcare, and patient-centricity in clinical research, emphasize clear and compassionate communication. Doctors, like instructors, need to explain concepts in relatable terms, encourage and address questions, assuage unwarranted anxiety, and establish trust. Until that happens, a meaningful partnership isn’t even possible.

When the Cat’s Away, Will the Mice Make Good Choices?
You may remember that old college rule of thumb: 1 hour of class requires 3 hours of study. This means instructors have just 25% of their students’ time to inspire the behaviors and habits that will make a success of the other 75%. “Don’t be the Sage on the Stage,” the mantra goes, “be the Guide on the Side.” If you’ve ever taught in an academic setting, you know how challenging that can be. The role of lecturer is fairly obvious, but the role of coach is nuanced; it evolves over time and it’s different for everyone.

And if a college instructor has just 3 hours of face time a week, a physician is lucky to have 3 hours of face time a year. That’s not much time to persuade, convince, and encourage the lifestyle choices and medication adherence essential to maintaining good health. And when you consider that a good part of each office visit is spent performing examinations and assessments, it’s easy to understand the excitement surrounding mobile health technologies. Beyond delivering real-time, real-world data, smartphone apps can send patients important reminders, make complying with diet and exercise recommendations easier, and make progress toward fitness goals visible.

“And the Survey Says…?”
Most service industries are rightly concerned with customer satisfaction – how to achieve it, how to measure it, and how to improve it. So last year, an article entitled “The Problem with Satisfied Patients” caught my eye. The Atlantic article concluded that higher hospital satisfaction ratings don’t necessarily correlate with better healthcare. A five-star student course evaluation can be similarly misleading. Pleasing a student is not the same thing as teaching a student, just as making people happy doesn’t make them well. That’s not to say that hospitals and colleges shouldn’t solicit feedback; of course they need to understand the perspective of the communities they serve. But healthcare facilities and schools should give satisfaction surveys their proper weight or they risk implementing changes that consume resources but do nothing to improve a patient’s health or increase a student’s proficiency.

Outcomes-based Evaluation
So if outcomes are paramount in both medicine and academia, it follows that the quality of care and education would be best measured by evaluating those outcomes. Right?  Well, it’s a good place to start, but since patients and students share responsibility for success with their doctors and teachers, an individual outcome may be misleading. An instructor can influence, but can’t control, whether a student works on practice problems, studies for tests, asks questions, or even pays attention. A doctor can’t control whether a patient takes a prescription, follows medical advice, or reports relevant symptoms. There isn’t always a straight line between quality of service and success rate.


College instructors try to keep their students engaged by tailoring their coaching styles, offering a mix of delivery methods, seeking out fresh ideas to make the concepts relevant, and maintaining convenient office hours. Looking to improve patient engagement, healthcare systems have found that many people face situations that prevent them from keeping appointments and following medical advice. Some organizations are now providing copay assistance, arranging transportation, and employing patient care coordinators to place routine monitoring calls. None of these services are free, but they can be considerably less expensive than eating the costs associated with hospital readmissions.

The Partnership Starts Here
Teachers want their students to learn and healthcare providers want their patients to be well, but students and patients must actively participate in order to meet those goals. Handing out easy A’s and offering gourmet hospital menu items in response to survey responses won’t cut it.

Success begins with clear, compassionate communication – communication designed to explain complex concepts, to build trust, and to encourage the behaviors that lead to positive results. Understanding the challenges students and patients face enables educators and medical professionals to offer practical, meaningful solutions that can actually improve outcomes.

[In case you missed it, our last blog post was about the most common site inspection finding every year for the last decade: Protocol Deviations and How to Avoid Them.]

Merchants rejoice they finally reopen businesses and greet customers, with social distancing

Renault has set a September deadline in deciding how many customer teams the engine manufacturer will supply from 2014 onwards

Pacific Gas & Electric, a California-based utility, has been plagued with issues during their major push to get smart meters installed in every household in their area, from complaints about possible health

California state regulators voted that PG&E customers can opt-out of smart meter installations, but they'll have to pay a fine and a monthly fee.

Architect Tamir Addadi squeezes a lot into a very small space

Beef jerky, coffee creamer, and baby formula have all shown up well past their expiry date, threatening consumer healthy and angering brands.

If You're in San Diego this Weekend... You love bikes? You really love bikes and you're near San Diego? Well then, you've got to check out the 2009 San Diego Custom Bicycle Show! It takes place this weekend on April 3rd, 4th and 5th. Of course, best not

Veterinarians built this sweet mini-wheelchair for a turtle with a shattered shell.

How do companies close the “green-gap” and turn consumer values into action?

This is how the internet is supposed to work.

A cafe in Fairfield, Connecticut is growing produce on its roof. A permaculture expert makes some recommendations on how to do even more.

The company has launched a few efforts to reclaim marketshare, from promoting regional specialties to answering questions about food production. Too bad the promotional videos aren't convincing and fail to address the whole issue.

Created by minimalism expert Joshua Becker, it relies on the user's description of their own home, not a general house.

Thought there wasn't enough variety? Now it is endless.

Tulane Video

Chase launches new Ultimate Rewards website offering customers enhanced, personalized rewards.

See how easy it is to apply for a mortgage through Vanderbilt Mortgage and Finance, Inc.

Where lives and goals come together in one place – S&T Bank.

Farmers Insurance "We Know From Experience" Ad Campaign Spot

Power washing is made even easier with POWERflow+ Technology by Briggs & Stratton. This pressure washer allows you to do deep cleaning, remove mold and mildew and reach second stories.

Power washing is made even easier with POWERflow+ Technology by Briggs & Stratton. This pressure washer allows you to do deep cleaning, remove mold and mildew and reach second stories.

The supermarket chain executive said Kroger is working with new meat suppliers and diverting meat that would have gone to restaurants to try to stay in stock.

The health-care company's chief executive, Larry Merlo, said trends that emerged during the pandemic, such as use of telemedicine and prescription delivery to the home, may continue to be popular.

The drugstore chain's stores have remained open as an essential retailer during the coronavirus pandemic, and it's also opened drive-thru testing sites.

Wendy's reported that its U.S. same-store sales are rebounding after plunging in March and the first half of April.

CNBC's Courtney Reagan reports on the task many retailers now face: keeping customers safe once stores are open.

Gerard Lyons tells CNBC there is too much fear about leaving the EU without a deal.

Where do you find SaaS operational benchmarks? How accurate and statistically valid are the available benchmarks? And how do you benchmark KPI’s without spending too much time and money? Ray Rike has answers.

Keep on reading: Where to find SaaS Benchmarks across the Customer LifeCycle? (3 FAQ’s)

Man, this is a fine example of why it pays to be a reasonable, good human being, and not mess with your servicemen. This plumber was just doing his job, to the requirements asked of him, and the clients decided to make a mess of the whole peaceful operation. Clearly, they were trying to skip out on paying the whole bill. So, the plumber was extra sweet with finishing up the job. What might seem like a petty revenge on the surface, really evolves to be more of a cold and calculated pro revenge that likely haunted the folks for a long while after the job was "done."

Just the idea of finding a worm in a salad is enough to send some shivers running up the spine. Fortunately, in this case, after the worm was discovered, a surprising, but welcomed customer service story developed. Basically, Sainsbury's pulled through in the clutch to address the situation with some serious grace. 

Telecommunications service provider Ericsson on Thursday introduced a new category of radio products called Street Macro in India to enable a smooth evolution from 4G to 5G.

Street Macro is a new site type that addresses the need for operators to grow in cities with limited available radio locations.

The company also launched new radio products that support "Massive MIMO" technology to simplify use for wider 5G adoption.

"Operators today are looking at ways and means to increase network capacity, especially in urban areas. Ericsson's Street Macro adds a new layer in the network layer to boost capacity enabling service providers to cater to the growing demands of data users," Nitin Bansal, Managing Director, Ericsson India, told reporters here.

According to Ericsson's new economic study of enhanced mobile broadband, evolution to 5G will enable 10 times lower cost per gigabyte than current 4G networks.

To help operators capture growth opportunities presented by new 5G use cases, Ericsson has expanded its 5G Core System offering with new capabilities to support 5G New Radio (NR) standard and also enhanced its Distributed Cloud solution.

The announcement came on the sidelines of Ericsson's annual technology roadshow in India, where the company recreated a "Do Zone" to showcase the highlights from Mobile World Congress 2018.

To date Ericsson has signed 39 memorandums of understanding with service providers for trials, the company said.

Dress up in light and bright outfits for a summer wedding. At the same time, do not forget to play with appropriate fabrics. To look bright and beautiful, experts suggest minimalistic embellishments and soft Maheshwari and Chanderi fabric for your attires. Designer Sweety Arora, and Renu Rana, Founder at Sihali Jageer, have listed what to wear under the sun, literally.

1. During summer, go with cool fabrics suited to a sizzling day. Think feather-light hand woven silks, fluid modal and cottons. A flowy dress from the traditional Maheshwari cottons and matching Coimbatore cotton silks with Chinese collar will add the extra glam to your look. You can also try Tangail fabrics beautiful cape tops with ikkat pants that look extremely trendy.

2. Colours like pink, blue, and yellow exude charm and tenderness. So, go for delicate pastels, soft maheshwari and Chanderi with a hint of metal, with gold and silver jamdani hand embroidery and booties. It is a perfect synthesis of traditional fabrics for contemporary needs and style.

3. To create an ethnic look, pair chanderi kurta and silver pajama with heavy Dhakai jamdani dupatta. You can also add an angrakha jamdani wraparound kurta over it for a dramatic twist.

4. For a beautiful fusion of traditional and contemporary look, the clothes must blend different styles from various parts of the country, from Rajput to Afghani traditions to our own Indian heritage, thus creating looks which are classy, glamorous and reflect one's signature style and love of colour. This mixture of different influences only helps in creating unique designs, clean cuts and modern style.

5. Rely on breezy prints with minimalistic embellishment.

6. Go for silhouettes that don't bog you down. Go for sheer skirts and wrap tops, cowl dresses, draped saris, light lehengas and anarkalis.

7. Keep your footwear as quirky and off-beat as the rest of your ensemble. Go for customised jutis, or blingy canvas shoes.

8. Invest in nice statement neckpieces and layered neckpieces as they look elegant, comfortable and unique. Try double rings with pearly strings, palm rings and pearl kadah.

9. Try to explore new designs and shapes in bags like bucket bag-inspired potlis, give an indo twist to messenger bags. You can also opt for customised miniature bag packs as those will make you stand out from the crowd.

(Edited by mid-day online desk, with inputs from IANS)

Catch up on all the latest Mumbai news, crime news, current affairs, and also a complete guide on Mumbai from food to things to do and events across the city here. Also download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get latest updates

The governments of India and the Philippines on November 22 announced that they would be cooperating more closely on customs matters.

On the issue of missing emoji characters on Twitter, the micro-blogging platform has rolled out updated versions of its Twemoji designs for its Android users. This update appears to target users using the Twitter app on Android 4.4 KitKat to Android 7.1 Nougat, tech website Emojipedia reported late on Monday.

Over one-third of the users were reported to be still using Android versions dating back to 2014 or earlier leading to the lack of new emoji support.

The emoji implementation has been done using Google-owned "EmojiCompat library" that was created in 2017 to allow apps to support new emojis even on old systems, giving the app developers a choice of not having to choose Google's own emojis.

"At least 50 per cent of eligible Twitter users should now see this change, with the feature being enabled for more users over the course of this week," Emojipedia quoted Bryan Haggerty, Twitter Design Lead, as saying.

Users, however, would have an option to choose between the native and Twitter emoji set. This feature was being tested on select users since March before being officially rolled out.

Catch up on all the latest Mumbai news, crime news, current affairs, and also a complete guide on Mumbai from food to things to do and events across the city here. Also download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get latest updates

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EU customs controls are not being applied effectively, an EU audit has found, with importers able to take advantage of loopholes to reduce or evade their duty liabilities.

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