Tuesday, August 03, 2021

Southern Europe wildfires: A CLIMATE THREAT NOW WORLDWIDE | DW News

PRIMER: Arizona Experiences “Extraordinary Growth”...FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE | High Pollution Advisory issued for ozone effective Aug. 4, 2021, in the Phoenix area

OK,,, first how about something else "Extra-Ordinary" about Arizona - violating federal Clean Air Standards day-in-and-day-out

BACKGROUND High Pollution Advisory (HPA) Notifies the public that the level of an air pollutant is forecast to exceed the federal health standard.

EVERY DAY THIS WEEK The Phoenix area could see temperatures near 111 degrees today and tomorrow. As a result, the National Weather Service has issued an Excessive Heat Warning from 10 am today to 8 pm tomorrow (Wednesday). . .As for air quality, several ozone monitors exceeded the Federal Health Standard yesterday (Tuesday). With similar conditions expected tomorrow weather-wise, we are extending our Ozone High Pollution Advisory (HPA) to Wednesday. An Ozone High Pollution Watch (HPW) is still in place for the latter half of the week

Air Quality Hourly Forecast | Phoenix

Click on each day to view forecast.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE | High Pollution Advisory issued for ozone effective Aug. 4, 2021, in the Phoenix area

 
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Arizona Experiences “Extraordinary Growth”

Unless you closely follow statewide economic news, you may have never heard of the Joint Legislative Budget Committee — otherwise known as JLBC. Don’t worry. You’re not alone.

JLBC is a nonpartisan group of budget experts who crunch all sorts of numbers to provide the Arizona Legislature with regular updates about our state’s fiscal health. Revenues, expenditures, the budget — they put it all under their microscope so you don’t have to.

JLBC’s 21-page July Report is especially noteworthy — and worth sharing. It paints a picture of a state economy that has emerged from the COVID-19 pandemic not only in great shape, but poised to achieve even greater accomplishments in the years ahead. The “extraordinary growth” Arizona saw in Fiscal Year 2021 is positive news for every Arizonan. We are leading the way in the nation's economic recovery.

Here are some key highlights from the JLBC report:

  • General Fund revenue broke the modern record for percentage growth in a year

  • The FY 2021 cash balance is now projected to be $929 million 

  • June 2021 revenues were 30.4 percent above June 2020

  • Sales Tax, Individual Income Tax, Corporate Income Tax, and Insurance Premium Tax all posted extremely high growth rates and generated significant forecast gains

  • Arizona personal income for the first 3 quarters of FY 2021 grew by 12.7%, the largest such gain since 1985  

  • ​​FY 2021 Individual Income Tax revenues increased $2.0 billion above FY 2020

  • Revenue beat the Enacted Budget Forecast by $487.5 million

View the full JLBC report HERE

This report is the first since the conclusion of the successful 2021 Arizona legislative session, which included the passage of a historic tax cut that will allow every Arizona taxpayer to save more of their hard-earned money.

 

 

GENERAL MOTORS & CHINA > A new EV called the NANO costs less than $4000 and will change millions ...

Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission Meeting - Aug. 3, 2021

ANOTHER HOT AND TOXIC ONE! FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE | High Pollution Advisory issued for ozone effective Aug. 3, 2021, in the Phoenix area

Something about Utah properties....there could be more stuff to dig deeper into

What is it about these two CEOs and Utah properties?

Somebody else needs to dig deeper into all this WEALTH

Ex-Wife’s Property, Utah Ranch: How Wealthy Secure High Bails

  • Pair of nine-figure bails shows how wealthy stay out of prison
  • Pretrial releases show justice system disparity, experts say
Tom Barrack

Tom Barrack

Photographer: Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg

In less than a week, Trump ally Tom Barrack was freed for $250 million and Nikola Corp. founder Trevor Milton was released for $100 million -- two of the highest U.S. bail amounts in recent years.

The bail amounts highlight a little understood part of the criminal justice system, where deals are often made behind closed doors, and what critics say is a system that traps the poor. . .

Nikola Founder Pleads Not Guilty, Freed on $100 Million Bail

Trevor Milton, center, exits federal court in New York on July 29. Photographer: Angus Mordant/Bloomberg
Trevor Milton, center, exits federal court in New York on July 29.
Updated on

WRONGDOING >> PRIVACY ON ZOOM and THE MESA CITY COUNCIL. . .ASK > Who in Mesa City Hall is taking precautions to protect our communities

In April 2020 (last year) there was this cautionary post on this blog

03 April 2020

Public Safety & Security on The Mesa City Council Virtual Platform Zoom?

ZOOM, the virtual platform deployed by the Mesa City Council, has come under scrutiny over issues and concerns over privacy and security for city employees and their "work-from-home" contracts.
From a security perspective, the basics are critical - High on the list are concerns about misinformation, weaponized information and social engineering.
ASK > Who in Mesa City Hall is taking precautions ???
COVID-19 is our new common watering hole, and malicious actors are manufacturing phishing attacks, devilish spear-phishing campaigns, rogue applications and more. Regular, short, routine communications to remind people of the basics, to gain a pulse on the organization and to provide clear policies are essential.
How to Keep the Party Crashers from Crashing Your Zoom Event ...

 

 

YESTERDAY THERE WAS THIS

Zoom to pay $85M for lying about encryption and sending data to Facebook and Google

Zoom users to get $15 or $25 each in proposed settlement of class-action lawsuit.

Zoom has agreed to pay $85 million to settle claims that it lied about offering end-to-end encryption and gave user data to Facebook and Google without the consent of users. The settlement between Zoom and the filers of a class-action lawsuit also covers security problems that led to rampant "Zoombombings."

Muppets GIF on GIFER - by Auath

The proposed settlement would generally give Zoom users $15 or $25 each and was filed Saturday at US District Court for the Northern District of California. It came nine months after Zoom agreed to security improvements and a "prohibition on privacy and security misrepresentations" in a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission, but the FTC settlement didn't include compensation for users.

As we wrote in November, the FTC said that Zoom claimed it offers end-to-end encryption in its June 2016 and July 2017 HIPAA compliance guides, in a January 2019 white paper, in an April 2017 blog post, and in direct responses to inquiries from customers and potential customers. In reality, "Zoom did not provide end-to-end encryption for any Zoom Meeting that was conducted outside of Zoom's 'Connecter' product (which are hosted on a customer's own servers), because Zoom's servers—including some located in China—maintain the cryptographic keys that would allow Zoom to access the content of its customers' Zoom Meetings," the FTC said. In real end-to-end encryption, only the users themselves have access to the keys needed to decrypt content. . .

A computer screen with a Zoom call showing the faces of a dozen participants.

Technical preview of Zoom's end-to-end encryption, made available months after Zoom was caught lying to users about how it encrypts video calls. . .

Home Office Glitch GIF - Find & Share on GIPHY

With the pandemic boosting its videoconferencing business, Zoom more than quadrupled its annual revenue from $622.7 million to $2.7 billion in the 12 months ending January 31, 2021. Zoom also reported $672 million in net income for the 12-month period, up from $25.3 million the previous year. Zoom is on pace for even better results this year, having reported Q1 (February-April) revenue of $956.2 million and net income of $227.5 million.

> Zoom's failure to provide end-to-end encryption was reported by The Intercept in March 2020. Zoom's response to that article "made it clear that Zoom both knew that it did not use the industry-accepted definition of E2E encryption and had made a conscious decision to use the term 'end-to-end' anyway," the lawsuit said. . .

Settlement requirements

Contact tracing by app: life-saving or invasion of privacy? | Pittsburgh  Post-Gazette

The settlement "requires Zoom to not reintegrate the Facebook SDK for iOS into Zoom meetings for a year" and to ask Facebook to "delete any US user data obtained from the SDK."

The security and transparency changes Zoom agreed to also include the following:

  • Develop and maintain, for at least three years, documented protocols and procedures for admitting third-party applications for dissemination to users through Zoom's "Marketplace."
  • Develop and maintain a user-support ticket system for internal tracking of, and communication with users about reports of meeting disruptions.
  • Develop and maintain a documented process for communication with law enforcement about meeting disruptions involving illegal content, including dedicated personnel to report serial meeting disrupters to law enforcement.
  • Develop and maintain security features such as waiting rooms for attendees, the suspend meeting activities button, and blocking of users from specific countries for a minimum of three years.

Zoom would be required "to better educate users about the security features available to protect meeting security and privacy, through dedicated space on the Zoom website and banner-type notifications." Zoom's website will also have to include "centralized information and links for parents whose children are using school-provisioned K-12 accounts."

After the settlement was announced, Zoom gave media outlets a statement that did not admit any wrongdoing. "The privacy and security of our users are top priorities for Zoom, and we take seriously the trust our users place in us," Zoom said. "We are proud of the advancements we have made to our platform, and look forward to continuing to innovate with privacy and security at the forefront."