A former Georgia sheriff resigned from a state watchdog agency this week after a photo emerged of him wearing a Ku Klux Klan robe. Roger Garrison, who previously served as sheriff of Cherokee County for more than 20 years before a 2016 retirement, had been appointed to the state Judicial Qualifications Commission’s investigative panel by the Georgia House Speaker. “Sheriff Garrison has resigned from the JQC,” a spokesman for the Speaker said when asked about knowledge of the photo by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “The speaker will appoint a replacement as soon as practical.” The photo, taken when Garrison was in his 20s, first emerged in 2012. Garrison said at the time that it was a bad Halloween costume. “I don’t deny it wasn’t stupid, looking back now, but there again I say what 21- or 22-year-old in this world hasn’t made some stupid mistakes?” Garrison told a local network at the time.

Read it at Atlanta Journal-Constitution
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A father of three in Texas, who was once involved in organizing rallies against pandemic-related restrictions, is now desperately battling for his life while hospitalized for almost a month with COVID-19. Caleb Wallace, 30, has been unconscious, on a ventilator and heavily sedated in an intensive care unit after his lungs were ravaged by the virus. Jessica Wallace, who is pregnant with their fourth child and set up a GoFundMe page for medical bills, told the San Angelo Standard-Times that her husband had initially refused to get tested or seek medical care, instead opting for doses of Vitamin C, zinc, aspirin, and ivermectin.

Last July, Wallace helped organize “The Freedom Rally,” an event where protesters slammed masks and undermined the seriousness of COVID-19. He also founded “The San Angelo Freedom Defenders,” which hosted a rally last year to “end COVID tyranny.” In April, he issued a letter to a local school district railing against masking and pandemic-related policies.

Read it at San Angelo Standard-Times
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Good morning,

The FTSE is expected to nudge higher this morning as all eyes turn to Jackson Hole ahead of a much-anticipated speech from US Federal Reserve chief Jerome Powell.

Markets are waiting to see if the Fed chief will announce plans for tapering monetary policy, with some top bank officials calling for a move within months.

The Fed has previously claimed it will begin to lower the pace of its bond-buying programme once it has made progress towards its target levels of employment and inflation.

“An announcement on tapering is highly likely to come before the end of the year, something even the doves on the committee seem to agree on,” said National Australia Bank’s Tapas Strickland.

“What will be as much, if not more important than the start date will be how quickly the Fed decides to taper and whether the Fed attempts to de-link the market’s perception that tapering ‘starts the clock ticking’ on rate hikes.”

5 things to start your day 

1) British Airways plans budget airline to take on Ryanair and easyJet: Airline may face battle with unions with plan to restart short-haul flights from Gatwick that could use existing planes and staff.

2) Warrington council lends £150m to Hut Group’s billionaire founder: The loan is secured against assets including various commercial properties, some of which are still being built.

3) Insurance firm pays $10m to take carbon directly out of the air: Swiss Re is trying to boost its environmental credentials by paying for CO2 to be captured and stored in Iceland.

4) Shortages push up HGV driver pay by a tenth: ‘Staggering’ 10.7pc pay rise for lorry drivers is more than 13 times the 0.8pc average across all jobs between February and July.

5) Britain goes global as it reforms post-Brexit data protection laws: The Government estimates £67bn worth of data-enabled exports from the UK to the US that could be better oiled with reforms to privacy rules.

What happened overnight 

Asian stock markets were mixed on Friday as investors awaited more guidance on the US Federal Reserve’s easing plans.

The moves in Asia follow a pullback on Wall Street after the deadly attacks on Afghan civilians and US troops at the Kabul airport on Thursday.

Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 lost 0.3pc to 27,651.51 while the Kospi in South Korea added 0.3pc to 3,139.00. The Hang Seng in Hong Kong was 0.6pc higher at 25,559.56.

The Shanghai Composite advanced 0.4pc to 3,516.13. Sydney’s S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.1pc to 7,480.80. Benchmarks in Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia rose while Singapore slipped.

Coming up today

• Corporate: Sopheon, BigBlu Broadband, BBGI Global Infrastructure (Interim)
• Economics: Personal income and personal consumer expenditure, goods trade balance (US)

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Map of land managed by American Forestry Management using INFLOR technology.

Leading forestry software company brings forest technology innovation with AFM partnership

ORLANDO, FL, U.S., August 27, 2021 /EINPresswire.com/ — INFLOR, the Latin American leader in bio-asset management, partnered with American Forest Management (AFM) to implement efficient forestry technology to expand across the United States, as well as globally.

Being at the forefront of providing forestry solutions from seed to harvest, INFLOR unifies companies’ systems in order to control and manage data across the board. Through the recent partnership, INFLOR has been able to expand AFM, the largest land consulting and real estate brokerage firm in the U.S., business by integrating data, reducing costs and creating better solutions across the company. In return, AFM has allowed INFLOR to grow their business in the United States – forestry software company now manages over 2.1 million acres in the U.S.

“We’ve perfected a unified system to manage companies’ forestry needs,” said Antonio Tatagiba, CEO at INFLOR for the United States. “We are not just an IT company; we are able to create a relationship, exchange data and achieve the goals and results for each company we partner with. With AFM we were able to provide them the solutions they needed for growth.”

With over 20 years of experience in the forestry business, INFLOR has become the leader in agribusiness management – resulting in over 29 million acres of forests managed by the company. Mastering the production of eucalyptus, the company has been able to apply that technology to adapt to different forestry companies across four continents. Their ability to grow with a client and help across the board by bringing together all aspects of forest management has enabled INFLOR to produce great success in their partnerships.

“In working with Inflor, we have been able to implement many system enhancements that would have not been possible without our partnership,” said Stephen Eddins, Director of Technical Services at AFM. “It worked well because AFM wanted to stay at the forefront of technology. We needed to be able to offer our services in all regions where we managed land and all regions where we hoped to manage land or data in the future. We can now manage timberland data on a worldwide scale – it does not have to only be in North or Central America. On the INFLOR side, they have established significant market share in South America and other regions, but now with AFM they are establishing a footprint in North and Central America. It’s a good partnership to help each other grow.”

In working with INFLOR, AFM has implemented INFLOR forest management, GISagri, as well as cloud services & hosting, and plan to add additional solutions in the future. The partnership has resulted in expansion, cost savings and AFM positioning themselves as a leader in industry technology.

This mutually powerful partnership aims for even more growth and innovation in the forest management industry. For more information on INFLOR and American Forest Management’s partnership, visit https://www.inflorglobal.com/case-studies.

For more information about INFLOR, visit https://www.inflorglobal.com.

For more information about American Forest Management, visit https://americanforestmanagement.com/.

About INFLOR

INFLOR is the market leader in forestry software. They provide complete technology dedicated to bio-asset management. INFLOR reaches across four continents with over 29 million acres of forests managed. INFLOR provides solutions that can help change the way agribusinesses production chain and properties are managed.

About American Forest Management

American Forest Management (AFM) is the largest land consulting and real estate brokerage firm in the United States. AFM helps clients explore the full potential of their land. They’ve assisted landowners in buying, selling and improving their land for over 55 years.

Will Wellons
Wellons Communications
+1 4073390879
email us here

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August 27, 2021, 16:51 GMT

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According to a recent AARP survey among New York small business owners who do not currently offer a workplace retirement savings plan, most express concern as taxpayers that some New York residents have not saved enough money for retirement. In fact, more than three-quarters express concern about themselves and their employees not having enough money to cover health care or living expenses when they retire. 

Seven in 10 New York small business owners support the pending legislation which would require employers with 10 or more employees that do not already offer a workplace retirement savings plan to enroll their employees in the Secure Choice Savings program. The majority agree that being able to offer a portable retirement savings program helps local small businesses attract and retain quality employees and stay competitive.

More than four in five of these small business owners report that they do not offer a retirement savings plan because it’s too costly, while half say they are concerned about how complicated they are to operate. But, when asked would they support the Secure Choice Savings Program, which would allow small businesses to access a state-facilitated, payroll-deduction IRA for their employees, over four in five say they would support it.

Interviews were conducted between July 7–26, 2021. The sample, including owner names and companies, came from Data Axle USA and was weighted using 2017 U.S. Business Statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau to reflect all businesses in New York with 10–100 additional employees. 

For more information about this survey, please contact Lona Choi-Allum at lallum@aarp.org. For media inquiries, contact External Relations at media@aarp.org. ​

 

Suggested citation:

Choi-Allum, Lona.  AARP New York Survey of Small Business Owners. Washington, DC: AARP Research, August 2021. https://doi.org/10.26419/res.00489.001

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