MultiBriefs - Your source for industry specific News Briefs

Achieve success by planning for decline

Catherine Iste Business Management, Services & Risk Management

Research and experience have shown that becoming more comfortable with the idea of death reduces the negative stress associated with dying. Like death, most of us also are either in denial of or avoid thinking about our professional decline. It is, however, hard for any of us to argue that we anticipate continuing to excel indefinitely in our current endeavors. Like becoming more comfortable with death reduces our anxiety about it, embracing the idea of the end of our success can help us deal with it. Here are a few ways to achieve success by planning for our decline.

Surveys: High school graduates need more life skills, less test prep

Sheilamary Koch Education

Real-world skills warrant more emphasis in high school claim students, employers, parents and other adults in three nationwide surveys conducted this June. While 83% of the students surveyed do plan to go to college, they’d like to see less focus on college-entry exams and more on practical skills like personal finance and tax preparation. The surveys, funded by the Kansas City, Missouri-based Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, polled a demographically diverse sampling of over 2,000 people from across the country.

How to follow the footsteps of Abraham Lincoln on your travels

Cindy Belt Travel, Hospitality & Event Management

Abraham Lincoln is listed in many polls by scholars and the general public as one of the best U.S. presidents in history. His story of being born into a poor family and working his way up to become president is inspiring. He is immortalized at many of the places he lived with museums and parks. These sites make fascinating places to visit. You can learn more about his life and what American life was like during this time period at these places.

California’s PG&E risks outages amidst bankruptcy

Michelle R. Matisons Waste Management & Environmental

Recently, the legally embattled Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) agreed to pay billions to compensate for faulty equipment-induced wildfire damages throughout the state of California. Last week, the company instituted power outages as a proactive way to prevent wildfires. Conveniently, any front-end money saved in the outages can go towards back-end damage expenses, which keep accruing as the company collaborates with meteorologists and the National Weather Service to suspend services in the name of wildfire prevention.

Game change: California’s Fair Pay to Play Act

Seth Sandronsky Sports & Fitness

The economics of college athletics will be changing in the Golden State. California Gov. Gavin Newsom recently signed Senate Bill 206, the Fair Pay to Play Act, into law. The legislation will let student-athletes earn money from endorsements and hire sports agents, effective Jan. 1, 2023. The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), a nonprofit membership group, had barred that compensation option. The NCAA's exploitative business model propelled the Fair Pay to Play Act, according to Gov. Newsom.

All eyes on ‘very low GWP’ HFOs in the UK

Andrew Gaved Retail

Refrigeration experts in the U.K. have called for the industry to embrace the potential of "lower flammability" hydrofluoro-olefin (HFO) blends, as the F-Gas regulations continue to drive the European market towards lower-carbon solutions — and as the Kigali amendment begins to do the same for the global market. The call has been driven by supermarket giant Asda (part of the Walmart group), which has successfully conducted an in-store installation with the refrigerant R454A, an HFO with a Global Warming Potential (GWP) of 238.

Deadliest, most common cancers get the least attention

Karen Selby Medical & Allied Healthcare

Cancer is one of the top five leading causes of death in the U.S. The American Cancer Society estimates 1.7 million new cases will be diagnosed and more than 600,000 people will die of the disease in 2019. Americans across the nation are responding to these alarming numbers, but the public and the federal government are focusing their concerns — and donations — on cancers getting the most publicity, not the ones killing the most people.

E-scooters: A blessing or a curse?

Dave G. Houser Transportation Technology & Automotive

Once serving only as children’s toys, scooters have taken on a new life these days in cities across America. Powered by compact lithium-ion batteries, these stubby little two-wheelers have become the latest adult solution to urban congestion. The popularity of e-scooters is understandable. Foremost, they are easy and fun to ride. Eco-sensitive riders laud the fact that they produce no emissions and constitute a minimal carbon footprint. Nonetheless, the massive influx of e-scooters has created a groundswell of controversy. Critics cite safety issues, decrying scooters as risky to both riders and pedestrians.

Cafeteria plan benefits: A primer for employers

Grace Ferguson Business Management, Services & Risk Management

According to a 2019 survey by the Society for Human Resource Management, "employers were more likely to increase offerings in all benefits categories than to decrease offerings." Further, employers believe that healthcare benefits are the most important to their workforce. However, healthcare benefits have a long-standing reputation for being expensive. To alleviate the cost burden for employees, in 1978, the U.S. Congress created Section 125 of the Internal Revenue Code. Benefit plans established under Code Section 125 are known as cafeteria — or Section 125 — plans. A cafeteria plan enables employees to pay for qualified benefits, such as group health insurance, on a pretax basis.

Does class size actually matter?

Patrick Gleeson Education

Most parents agree that kids are going to learn better and faster in a smaller class than in a large one. But not everyone agrees that this is so, despite the fact that the largest study on the effect of class size to date demonstrates that "small classes appear to benefit all kinds of students in all kinds of schools." One of the more trenchant critiques appeared in 2018 in the technological and education-oriented THE Journal, which concluded that "class size doesn’t matter," and that in at least one area, mathematics, outcomes improved as class sizes increased.

Industries