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Lawsuit says FDA monitored staffers’ private email

Written on February 7, 2012 – 11:30 am | by Michael Harris

WASHINGTON — Current and former Food and Drug Administration officials say in a lawsuit that the agency secretly monitored their private email after they raised concerns that approved medical devices might risk public safety.

The doctors and scientists who researched the products approached members of Congress and the incoming Obama administration to express alarm that the devices were approved over their objections.

Their lawsuit, first reported Monday by The Washington Post, says the agency monitored email sent from their personal Gmail and Yahoo accounts from work computers over two years. It says those emails included messages to congressional staff and drafts of whistleblower complaints.

The staffers say they were legally protected whistleblowers and the monitoring violated their constitutional rights to free speech and against illegal search and seizure, even though a warning on FDA computers said they had no expectation to privacy. T

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Tags: Email, Private Email

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Remembering Steve Jobs, Apple Founder and Tech Innovator

Written on January 30, 2012 – 4:41 pm | by Ashley Johnson

Steve Jobs, whose death was announced Wednesday night, Oct. 5, 2011, wasn’t a computer scientist. He had no training as a hardware engineer or industrial designer. The businesses Apple entered under his leadership from personal computers to MP3 players to smart phones all existed before the company got there.

But with astonishing regularity, Jobs did something that few people accomplish even once: he reinvented entire industries. He did it with ones that were new, like PCs, and he did it with ones that were old, like music. And his pace only accelerated over the years.

He was the most celebrated, successful business executive of his generation, yet he flouted many basic tenets of business wisdom. (Like his hero and soul mate, Polaroid founder Edwin Land, he refused to conduct focus groups or other research that might tell him what his customers wanted.) In his many public appearances as the head of a large public corporation, he rarely sounded like one.

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Tags: Apple, Steve Jobs

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Dick Smith for sale

Written on January 27, 2012 – 8:01 pm | by Michael Harris

Woolies will ditch Dick Smith to focus on Coles.

Woolworths plans to sell off its Dick Smith consumer electronics division as the supermarket giant steps up its price war with rival chain Coles and its latest sales growth fell short of expectations.

The Sydney-based retailer said it was considering several unsolicited offers for Dick Smith, and would aim instead to sell consumer electronics goods through its Big W and online operations.

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Tags: Dick Smith, Smith

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Head of N.J. Department of Banking and Insurance to step down

Written on January 27, 2012 – 9:03 am | by Stephanie Brodribb

TRENTON — Tom Considine, commissioner of the state Department of Banking and Insurance, is stepping down effective Feb. 10 to return to the private sector, Gov. Christie said today.

The governor also nominated Ken Kobylowski, Considine’s chief of staff and acting head of banking division of DOBI.

Considine, who joined the department two years ago, will be joining insurer Magnacare as its chief operating officer. He previously spent 17 years at MetLife, most recently as government affairs counsel for the life insurer.

At a press conference this morning, Christie hailed Considine and said his departure was due to the financial “sacrifice” he made in switching from the private to the public sector.

Kobylowski, before joining DOBI, spent much of his career as an attorney in private practice, representing banks and other clients, Christie said. Prior to that he was a bank analyst at the Federal Reserve Board.

Christie indicated in his remarks that Kobylowski’s appointment, which must be approved by the state Senate, will be aimed at continuing the work begun under Considine, including reform to the state’s personal injury protection insurance rules.

More N.J. b

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Tags: Insurance Step, Step

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Google to allow nicknames on social network

Written on January 22, 2012 – 5:53 am | by Michael Harris

(CNN) — In a big swerve in policy, Google has decided to allow people to sign up using nicknames or other pseudonyms on its growing social network, Google+.

This summer, Google took some flak for booting users who had used fake names on the 7-month-old site.

Members of the tech community, who as early adopters had flocked to the search giant’s Facebook alternative, argued that some people are better known on the internet by their assumed names. They also noted that people who used social media as part of social movements, such as those in Iran and Egypt, need to be able to conceal their identity for safety reasons.

“Today we’re pleased to be launching features that will address and remedy the majority of these issues,” Bradley Horowitz, a vice president for product development at Google, wrote Tuesday on his profile on the site. “To be clear — our work here isn’t done, but I’m really pleased to be shipping a milestone on our journey.”

Starting this week, users will be able to add a nickname alongside their real name, Horowitz said.

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Tags: Network, Social Network

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