"N.Y. attorney general suing Dell"

On May 16th, the New York attorney general filled a lawsuit against Dell for fraud, false advertising, and deceptive business practices. The attorney general said that they have received over 700 complaints against Dell. What the attorney general wants is either for Dell to "Either provide the customer service packages (they) sell or don't sell the packages." According to the article, the lawsuit is going after an unspecified amount of damages to go to affected customers and the state is seeking penalties and costs.

article:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18694205/

"Wendy's considers possible sale, other options"

Announced on Wednesday, Wendy's the third largest hamburger chain has announced that they have put a committee together to discuss the possible sale of the company. They are third behind McDonald's and Burger King. The committee plans to look at strategic options. The company will not be making announcements as to their progress of the sale or other options. Wendy's revenue is up 2 percent to $590 million from $579 million. Wendy's also sold its Baja Fresh Mexican Grill chain in November and has since then focused on the burger business again. It is said that the sales market is heading in the right direction however, cuts still need to be made.

Article Link:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18316001/

"IRS forgives last-minute filers delayed by Turbo Tax Glitch"

In an article written in the Mercury News, the article discussed Intuit's Turbo Tax. Intuit, a Mountain View based company, servers were over bombarded at the last minute that the servers were not processing the information on time. The IRS says that they are willing to "do everything (they) can to assist tax payers affected by the situation." Intuit said that normally it only takes a couple of minutes before a confirmation is sent letting the customer know that everything was submitted, however, on Tuesday it was taking hours before a confirmation was received. The article also reported that at a certain point, the server hit capacity and just started not accepting anymore. Julie Miller, the Intuit spokesperson, said that the IRS is willing to extend the deadline till April 19th for the people who encountered the problem. Intuit also reported that in the March alone they sold over 11 million copies of Turbo tax and were processing about 50 to 60 tax returns per second.

http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_5695219?nclick_check=1

"Bay Area Prices up, sales at a 11-year low"

According to the article found on MSN.com, the bay area house prices are at a high, however, the sales are not as high. After looking at 9 different counties the average cost of $639,000 last month. The prices haven't been this high since June of last year. From June of last year to January of this year housing costs were about $50,000 lower. Marshall Prentice, the Dataquick president, says that "prices have held up surprising well, probably because the relatively strong economy. Additionally, it's starting to look like much of the current sales lull may be due to the strong sales in 2004 and 2005. Some of today's demand probably got pulled into that period because of low mortgage interest rates and the availability of exotic mortgages."

Article link: http://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/stories/2007/04/09/daily62.html?from_msnbc=1

The "Forever" Stamp

In a article that I read on msnbc.com, the "forever" stamp was announced on Monday, March 26th. The forever stamp will cost 41 cents and will have the liberty bell. Another large different that the stamp will have is that it will not say the price of the stamp. Instead of the price it will have the word forever on it. The interesting thing about the forever stamp is that even if prices increase after the 41 cent raise, customers will not have to buy one or two cent stamps, instead, the forever stamp will cover any adjustments to price. According to the Board of Governors Chairman, James Miller, "The forever stamp is designed as a convince to consumers...they do not have to buy additional stamps on the next price increase." One of the reasons that the post office may have done this is because recently the post office has lost a lot of business over the years due to the internet and to their competitors.

Sites:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17694031/
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17796834/

"Power Company plugs into Giants"

In an article that i read in the Mercury News on Tuesday March 20, 2007, it states that the Giant stadium is not going to have solar panels. The article says that "the Giants will be the first major league baseball ranchise to install solar panels on their stadium." There will be about 590 solar panels that are going to be installed and it will generate enough electricy They will be installed starting in April and should be finished within about two months. The situation is unusual however, PG &E will purchase and pay to install an maintain the panels. In a way, the Giants Statium will be like a solar billboard. Oddly enough, PG&E is not the normal provider. Though the Giants are the first major league team, they are not the first team to do this. By using solar power, the Giants are hoping that it will help educate people about alternate power options.

Writing a Professional Email

I read this blog from one of the other student's blog site. The essay that was written was about how to write professional emails. Typcailly, emails are very informal however, due to the fact that many times these days, the way that people apply for jobs is through email, it is very important to be able to compose a well written email. The essay says that the employer does not always read the entire cover letter, however, it is very important that it is well composed so in the case that they do. If you are writing an email, it is important that they take you seriously, there are a variety of ways to make sure that you are taken seriously. Some are don't use emoticons ( such as :0 ) other things that are important no to have are being too informal, misspelling or poor grammar, no capitalization, and spelling the words the way that they sound. The authors says that she knows it might be difficult for students to switch from casual to formal writing so it is importnat to reread the email that you have sent and see where your mistakes were.

The article website:
http://www.jobweb.com/Resources/Library/Correspondence_for_the_job/Email_Etiquette_A_209_01.htm