QUOTE OF THE DAY
Chicago Sun Times: Feds want to sentence former Emanuel city comptroller
Federal prosecutors are asking a judge to sentence Amer Ahmad — while Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s convicted former city comptroller remains in a Pakistan jail — because it could take years to extradite him and he may never return to the United States.
In a federal court filing in Ohio, prosecutors argued that Ahmad’s absence was “voluntary.” They claim he fled to Pakistan using a fake passport after “numerous” contacts with-pre-trial services immediately after his conviction and after twice being personally advised of the conditions of his bond.
“Ahmad willfully disobeyed the conditions of release set by this court, made false statements to Pre-trial Services, falsified travel documents and fled the United States voluntarily to avoid serving a term of imprisonment,” the court filing states.
TechCrunch: Lyft-Off: Zimride’s Long Road To Overnight Success
When John Zimmer and Logan Green launched a new ride-sharing service called Lyft in the spring of 2012, they instantly knew they had a hit on their hands. But that wasn’t always the case.
Prior to creating Lyft as part of a hack-day project, the twenty-something, first-time entrepreneurs had spent five years building Zimride, a carpooling service designed to help university students share rides back home during the holidays.
At the time, Zimride was in the midst of an identity crisis. After years of selling enterprise licenses to universities and businesses, it decided to go after the consumer market and opened its platform for anyone to book a carpool.
The Hill: IRS releases O-Care employer mandate guidance after long wait
The Obama administration released guidance for businesses that must comply with the employer mandate Thursday after a long wait that raised questions about a possible third delay in the policy.
The Internal Revenue Service posted draft instructions on its website related to the mandate’s reporting requirements, a final step before businesses can construct the databases they need in order to comply.
Wall Street Journal: Why Doctors Are Sick of Their Profession
All too often these days, I find myself fidgeting by the doorway to my exam room, trying to conclude an office visit with one of my patients. When I look at my career at midlife, I realize that in many ways I have become the kind of doctor I never thought I’d be: impatient, occasionally indifferent, at times dismissive or paternalistic. Many of my colleagues are similarly struggling with the loss of their professional ideals.
It could be just a midlife crisis, but it occurs to me that my profession is in a sort of midlife crisis of its own. In the past four decades, American doctors have lost the status they used to enjoy. In the mid-20th century, physicians were the pillars of any community. If you were smart and sincere and ambitious, at the top of your class, there was nothing nobler or more rewarding that you could aspire to become.
Today medicine is just another profession, and doctors have become like everybody else: insecure, discontented and anxious about the future. In surveys, a majority of doctors express diminished enthusiasm for medicine and say they would discourage a friend or family member from entering the profession. In a 2008 survey of 12,000 physicians, only 6% described their morale as positive. Eighty-four percent said that their incomes were constant or decreasing. Most said they didn’t have enough time to spend with patients because of paperwork, and nearly half said they planned to reduce the number of patients they would see in the next three years or stop practicing altogether.
ABC 7: I-Team Barry Croall, Ex-Cook County Floor Relief Program head, indicted in federal fraud case
The subject of an I-Team investigation four years ago has been indicted in a federal fraud case. He is the former head of Cook County’s Disaster Grant and Flood Relief Program, Barry Croall.
The flood program was a mess from the start under then-Cook County Board President Todd Stroger, and now the man Stroger put in charge of doling out disaster grants has been busted by the feds. Barry Croall and an associate are charged in a scheme to siphon taxpayer emergency funds into their own pockets.
On Thursday, Croall was arrested on charges that he siphoned hundreds of thousands of program dollars for himself. The last time the I-Team saw Barry Croall was September 2010, when he was pitching prizes to flood victims at the Brookfield Zoo. Croall was manager of Cook County’s $10.3 million program for flood victims.
WBEZ: Chicago cabbies earn average of $12/hour
A city-commissioned study on cabbie incomes has found Chicago’s taxi drivers, on average, earn more than $12 an hour. The report stands in sharp contrast to the argument by many cab drivers that they take home less than the state’s $8.25 hourly minimum wage.
The study, conducted by outside consulting firm Nelson-Nygaard, is more than a year in the making, and is the first truly comprehensive, scientific analysis of how much cabbies make in Chicago.
The study combines data collected from taxi credit card machines with cabbie feedback on a survey, to calculate revenues and costs in the profession. Ultimately, it looked at more than 10.6 million trips by cabs that were equipped with Creative Mobile Technologies taximeters over an eight month period, starting January 2013. A more limited analysis was also done on Verifone credit card machines, which confirmed that earnings calculations between the two technologies were similar.
Huffington Post: Public Attitudes About Labor Unions, 1936-Today
On May 14, 1882, unionized workers in New York City held a parade and picnic, and the seeds of the Labor Day holiday were planted. About 50 years later, pollsters began asking Americans to share their opinions on unions. The results highlight how views of the labor movement have — and haven’t — changed since the 1930s. Some insights from the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research archives:
Gallup has been asking the public about their approval of labor unions since 1936. Support for unions has drifted slowly downward since its early peaks. However majorities (54%) still express approval in the most recent poll.
Wall Street Joural: Apple’s New Whiz Kids
The rivalry between Apple Inc. AAPL +0.24% and Google Inc. GOOGL +0.35% to dominate the smartphone business is fueling the technology industry’s newest talent search: software prodigies as young as 13 who are creating apps for their mobile devices.
Grant Goodman sensed an opportunity when Apple removed the preloaded YouTube app from its iPhones last year. He quickly built an advertising-free app called Prodigus to play online videos “fast with no compromises.”
Prodigus, Grant explains, was his second iPhone app. He recently built a third, a game called “iTap That,” and incorporated a company, Macster Software Inc. to manage the business. Next week, the 14-year-old will take a break from his business to start high school in Glen Head, N.Y.
CARTOON OF THE DAY
