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State AG sues major tech support provider alleging deceptive scam By Connie Thompson Wednesday, December 16th 2015 State investigators just sued one of the rising stars in the tech-support industry claiming part of the operation is based on a scam. The company, called iYogi, is accused of tricking people into paying for tech support services they don't need. According to investigators iYogi engaged in a different twist on the notorious tech support scams where someone call you claiming your computer has problems. What's significant in this case is workers don't call you, you call them. And iYogi is one of...

Illinois losing 1 resident every 5 minutes to out-migration The U.S. Census Bureau report released Dec. 22 is compelling evidence that Illinois needs pro-growth, pro-jobs reforms. The report shows that Illinois recorded its first six-digit loss of residents to other states, with Illinois losing 105,000 more people to other states than it gained from July 2014 to July 2015. The border war losses were so bad that Illinois total population shrank by 22,000 people on the year, the worst ever. Similar to last year 2013-2014 data, Illinois is the only state in the region to have a shrinking population. The...

Every major presidential candidate, even those most beholden to Wall Street, says he or she opposes the offshoring of American jobs. Like vows to "defeat ISIS" and "repair our crumbling infrastructure," the nationalist cri de couer against "shipping jobs overseas" has become a bipartisan catchphrase of the 2016 race. But political rhetoric is one thing and economic reality is another. Offshoring has become an effective way for U.S. companies to build and manage their products and services. Look at Apple Computer. Except for the Mac Pro personal computer, possibly the best company in the history of American business doesn't produce...

Tuesday on Newsmax TV's "The Steve Malzberg Show," former Nixon and Reagan aide and conservative commentator Pat Buchanan said Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump could do well among blue-collar Democratic voters who are concerned about the border and unhappy with Bill Clinton-era trade deals. Buchanan said, "My view about Donald Trump is he's got some real capabilities I think to break out from the normal pattern of basically moderate conservative Republican against centrist Democrat. Part of that I think is his issue with the border, which reaches across party lines, and secondly his issue on trade against NAFTA and GATT...

More Houston-area energy jobs are on the chopping block next year as Dresser-Rand announced plans to shutter a North Houston support facility and lay off 72 people who work there. The company said it will "cease operations at the facility" at 20120 E. Hardy Road, with the shutdown slated to finalize between Feb. 21 and March 5, Dresser-Rand said in a letter to the Texas Workforce Commission. Dresser-Rand, which makes turbo compressors, turbines, valves and other components for the energy industry, was acquired by German industrial conglomerate Siemens earlier this year. Like other companies that manufacture and maintain equipment for...

United States Steel Corp. has put on hold the construction of an electric arc furnace at its Fairfield Works in Birmingham, Ala. U.S. Steel said in a statement Monday afternoon that the decision was made due to the poor oil and gas market, which is a major customer of steel. It specifically cited low oil prices and a cut to the number of rigs operating in the U.S. "The company continues to feel the effect of these energy market conditions, along with low steel prices and continued high levels of imports," U.S. Steel said in a statement. The $230 million...

Trust me, Hillary Clinton is scared. Smart Democrats are panicking. Leading Democrats keep saying in the media that Donald Trump can’t win the general election. Really? That may be what they’re saying out loud, but it’s not what they are whispering in private. I think leading Democrats know exactly what I know. Donald Trump can win New York State. And if he does, Hillary’s goose is cooked. If the GOP wins New York, Democrats have no electoral path to the White House. Donald Trump is the consummate New Yorker. Donald Trump is New York. Hillary was a carpetbagger from Arkansas....

The unique base of support that has pushed Donald Trump to the top of the Republican presidential field in national polls is also likely to give him boost this spring when the campaign shifts to the South. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas has drawn wide attention for his own efforts in Southern states, many of which will vote as part of the big, March 1 "SEC Primary" when more convention delegates will be awarded than on any other day. Mr. Cruz, who is surging in the polls, is focusing on evangelical Christian voters and other social conservatives, which form the...

Not long ago, Donald J. Trump and Russell Simmons were close. The hip-hop mogul and his brother Rev. Run would fly on Mr. Trump's private plane to Mar-a-Lago, the real estate developer’s lavish Florida resort. Mr. Simmons even had a playful nickname for Mr. Trump: Richie Rich. When Mr. Simmons was going through a divorce, Mr. Trump's teasing phone calls lifted his spirits. "He'd say funny stuff," Mr. Simmons said, adding that he had put Mr. Trump on speakerphone so that others could hear Mr. Trump's jovial taunts about his ex-wife getting the upper hand in the divorce. "He'd say,...

The unique base of support that has pushed Donald Trump to the top of the Republican presidential field in national polls is also likely to give him boost this spring when the campaign shifts to the South. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas has drawn wide attention for his own efforts in Southern states, many of which will vote as part of the big, March 1 "SEC Primary," when more convention delegates will be awarded than on any other day. Mr. Cruz, who is surging in the polls, is focusing on evangelical Christian voters and other social conservatives, which form the...

The holiday season can bring stresses -- what with the shopping, shipping, baking and bills -- but for workers in the energy sector, this December is turning out to be especially tough thanks to industry layoffs. Take Robin Ewan, who, for more than 30 years, worked as a test engineer for Schlumberger, a global oilfield service company. Not anymore. "This is the first time around Christmas that I've been laid off, and it has a bit of an effect, because now, you know, you're wondering who to buy presents for and what presents. You're going to make it more meaningful...

Many people may be adding "find a new job" to their list of resolutions in 2016, and the good news is that it's a job-seekers' market. The national unemployment rate dropped to 5% last month, the lowest it's been since 2008. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that 271,000 new jobs were created, many of which were in technology, health care, and retail, building on a trend that's been gaining steam this year, as twice as many employers are looking to fill jobs as there are candidates who are applying. To determine which jobs are most in demand heading into...

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is climbing to his highest support yet in a new national poll. The real estate mogul earned a broad 41 percent support from Republicans and Republican-leaning registered voters in a new national Monmouth University poll released today.

>Support for Donald Trump divides the Republican electorate along lines of class but not ideology with blue-collar voters — those without a college degree — giving him his biggest base of support.The divide between the GOP's blue-collar and white-collar wing has shown up repeatedly in polls throughout the election season. It's clearly on display in new findings released Friday by SurveyMonkey, the online polling firm, which has been tracking the electorate since early this summer. Trump's support varies little by ideology. His backers closely mirror the distribution of very conservative, conservative and moderate voters within Republican ranks, SurveyMonkey's data show.That's...

Twenty-five years ago, President George H. W. Bush signed into law the Immigration Act of 1990. Instead of reforming the corrosive effects of the Immigration Act of 1965, an act that birthed the mass immigration system we have today, the 1990 act made the situation dramatically worse and make it less likely Americans would fill American jobs.The act raised the annual immigration ceiling from 530,000 to 700,000 (excluding other types of legal entry like refugee admissions) while creating a coterie of new immigrant and guestworker visas, mostly for semi-skilled and unskilled workers.Perhaps the most controversial creation of the 1990 act...

There's a pall over the financial markets this holiday season, and it has little to do with the shortage of daylight this time of year. The lifeblood of the street -- bonuses -- will be cut, and if you survive, there's no guarantee of a better 2016. That's because Wall Street is bracing for merciless job losses that could total 100,000 in the US alone by June. By this estimate, Wall Street head count in New York City -- some 170,000 today -- could shrink by as much as 17,000, with the downsizing hitting everyone from million-dollar backers to middle-class...

The U.S. labor force is expected to expand only slowly over the coming decade as the country ages and more Americans give up on holding a job, a potential drag on broader economic growth. The economy is expected to generate 9.8 million new jobs, a 6.5% increase, from 2014 to 2024, the Labor Department said in new projections released Tuesday. While steady, that is a historically slow pace. By comparison, 10-year job creation averaged almost 14% during the 2001-07 expansion and close to 17% during the 1990s. The slowdown highlights declining participation as baby boomers retire and younger Americans opt...

The oil collapse has thrust Houston's economy into upheaval, but the downturn won't be nearly as bad as the ruinous 1980s bust that left permanent scars on the city, according to the newly released employment forecast by the Greater Houston Partnership. "The only similarities between now and the 80s are the oil glut and price collapse," GHP analysts wrote in their forecast. "Energy will restructure, but it won't jettison half its workforce as it did back then. Real estate will soften, but it won't turn to mush. Houston banks may have nonperforming energy loans on their books, but those loans...

Pastor Darrell Scott’s favorite thing about Donald Trump? “As they say in Dominican community vernacular,” Scott says, “I like his swag.” Scott, a 56-year-old evangelical minister from Cleveland, Ohio, whose New Spirit Revival Center boasts thousands of members, first met the Republican presidential front-runner five years ago. Trump had invited some 25 pastors — three of them, including Scott and his wife, Belinda, were black — to Trump Tower for an announcement: He was considering running for president, and he asked the assembled guests to pray that God would point him in the right direction. Scott was skeptical. “I said,...

Lawmakers continue to wrangle over a bill that would overhaul the nation's immigration system. One provision in this bill would allow companies to import a lot more skilled workers. The tech industry has lobbied hard for this, despite fears among some American workers about the extra competition. Illinois Senator Dick Durbin says the bill has American workers covered. --Employers will be given a chance to hire a temporary foreign worker when truly needed. But first, they'll be required to recruit Americans. No exceptions, no excuses,-- he said. Still, making companies recruit Americans isn't the same as making them hire them....