Office News

From the 30th of April, 2012, most employers in the US private sector will be required to display posters stating the rights of workers to form a union. The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) rule states that under federal regulation, an 11 by 17 inch poster must be displayed in a prominent position, informing each employee of their rights to engage in collective bargaining and form a union. This regulation will apply to both non union and union workplaces.

The NLRB Employee-Rights posting rule has gathered some controversy and has been challenged by a number organisations including the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) and the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM). The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) and the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) argued that the National Labor Relations Board’s Employee-Rights notice posting regulation is in violation of an employers First Amendment rights, and the organisations filed a complaint in the US District Court. Judge Amy Berman Jackson, the US District Court Judge for the District of Columbia, rejected the argument and upheld the National Labor Relations Board’s Employee Rights posting requirement rule.

Government owned corporations including the U.S. Postal Service and the Federal Reserve System are exempt from the NLRB Employee Rights posting rule. In addition stock brokerage firms, airline and agricultural employers and professional sports teams are also exempt from the ruling.

The National Labor Relations Board is an independent five member federal agency which has been authorized by the US Government to protect employee rights, ensure employer and union rights and obligations are upheld and promote jurisdictional standards. The NLRB conducts elections, investigates charges, decides cases, facilitates settlements and enforces orders. The current National Labor Relations Board memebers are Mark G. Pearce (Chairman), Sharon Block, Richard Griffin, Brian Hayes and Terence F.Flynn. The President of the United States, with the consent of the Senate, appoints the board members for a five year term.

References for this article: The National Labor Relations Board and JDSUPRA

Rockville, MD
Rockville is a small suburb of Maryland that has a population of a little over 50,000 people. While it may not be the biggest place in the world, its location is what makes it such a hotbed of startup activity. Its proximity to a number of major national laboratories makes Rockville specifically a hub of the biotech industry, and it means that there are a lot of funding sources available for the right type of startup.

San Francisco, CA
San Francisco, California, is known mostly for its art and culture, but it also has a bustling economic scene in these tough times. The real benefit of operating out of San Francisco is the convergence of academia and business. There are a lot of established universities out here, as well as a lot of giants in the technology industry.

Franklin, TN
Franklin, Tennessee, is a small town about the size of Rockville, but is more of an entity of its own. There is a major biotechnology push in Franklin, with the university putting up state-of-the-art facilities to push development in that sector. More than half of the people living in Franklin have at least a four-year college education, and the technology industry here is on the rise.

Bellevue, WA
Close to the home of such giants as Microsoft, Bellevue, situated in Washington, is one of the hottest spots of activity in the technology sector in the country. Bellevue’s residents hold more patents than any other city in the country, and there are a lot of tax incentives for small startups, especially in the technology sector. Being so close to many of the larger, older technology firms gives startups the ability to utilize a wealth of industry information that is more readily found in this area than in other areas.

Cambridge, MA
Cambridge will be recognizable to most people as the home to both MIT and Harvard, two of the most prestigious universities in the world. As a town of roughly 100,000 people, Cambridge maintains a very low-key persona that carries an air of growth. The town has a reputation to uphold as one of the hotbeds of advancement in the country, and the incentives for small business development here are ample.

Irvine, CA
Irvine, California, has a number of things going for it that make it very attractive for startups. It is right outside of Los Angeles, so it is mostly populated by technology and entertainment-based startups, but there are many different businesses here. One of the most attractive aspects of the city is that it gives entertainment and technology startups access to Los Angeles without actually having to be located in the city itself.

Bend, OR
Bend, Oregon, has experienced a growth rate of 50 percent over the past decade, and it doesn’t show any signs of slowing down. The town itself used to be centered around logging, but has since become very involved with the technology, aviation, and biotech industries.

Santa Monica, CA
Santa Monica, California, has become very popular for film startups over the past decade. The proximity to Los Angeles is the big draw here, with business owners getting all the benefits of Los Angeles without the stifling taxes that come with living in the city. Digital media production companies find that they are able to compete with larger film companies while operating out of Santa Monica.

Boca Raton, FL
Looking to shirk its reputation as nothing but a paved old folks home, Boca Raton, Florida, is very welcoming of startups, especially in the technology industry. There are a lot of smaller companies that work here that have been started by employees of IBM, which has operated out of Boca Raton since the 1970s.

Boulder, CO
Boulder, Colorado, has become something of an icon of the technology startup community. As the university has advanced its technology base over the past ten years, more and more businesses have been developing here from the resulting boom in startup grant funding. There are a number of national research labs maintained in Boulder, and these labs bring in a swathe of talent from around the globe– making Boulder a hotbed of activity in the technology industry.

For visitors who want to stray from the beaten path while visiting San Francisco, here are 10 activities to consider:

1. The all American game baseball is alive and well in San Francisco, California, at the AT&T Ball Park. Catch a game at one of the best baseball stadiums with a classic feel and outstanding views.

2. Not exactly in San Francisco, but 20 minutes north across the Golden Gate Bridge are ancient giant trees that are part of the Coastal Redwood Forests. They provide a relaxing walk where visitors can be inspired by the centuries old trees amid overwhelming pine scent.

3. China Town should be on every tourist’s itinerary. A visit to this area can be as structured or adventurous as each individual desires. Dim sum tea houses make great choices for a lunch stop or to grab a meal to go.

4. At the Northwestern tip of the city is Lincoln Park and one of the most scenic trail walks available anywhere. Starting from the Sutro Bath Ruins and the Cliff House walkers move along Land’s End Trail. It provides a fantastic view of Golden Gate Bridge and the bay, ending near Sea Cliff and China Beach Park.

5. Market Street is a great place to shop or just watch the locals do their shopping. The street leads straight to the Ferry Building and the Saturday outdoor farmer’s market. Many of the shops and restaurants spread into the outdoors as well along the water’s edge and the city’s piers.

6. Golden Gate Park hosts numerous attractions including the Japanese Tea Garden, Academy of Sciences, de Young Museum, and Stow Lake. Events are scheduled there throughout the year. It also provides miles of paved trails to bike or walk.

7. Visit the USS Pampanito at Pier 45, Fisherman’s Wharf. This World War II Balao Class Fleet Submarine has become a memorial and museum. Educational day and overnight programs are available for children throughout the year.

8. The Exploratorium houses ongoing exploration of art, science and human perception. It has a vast collection of interactive exhibits, web features, supervised programs, activities and events.

9. The Marrakech Magic Theater provides an unforgettable show filled with laughter and intriguing feats of magic for the whole family.

10. The Walt Disney History Museum displays many artifacts from Walt’s personal life from birth to death and all the amazing things he accomplished that continue to entertain visitors today.

When it comes to eco-friendly residential buildings, New Yorks‘ Battery Park City stands out as a leader in the green building movement.

The very first LEED-certified residential eco-friendly building built in the US was the Solaire, in 2003. This was followed by the Verdesian in 2006 and the Visionaire in 2008, all three were built in Battery Park City and consume thirty five percent less energy and fifty percent less water than your average residential buildings.

A large portion of the BPC eco-friendly buildings electricity supplies are generated by solar panels and include energy efficient appliances. Water is purified and reused and each room is equipped with motion sensors which activate heating, lighting, ventilation and air cons.

If your drive to work consists of dodging around potholes then you’ll be pleased to hear that the NY Department of Transportation is taking full advantage of the mild winter to get some much needed road repairs taken care of.

Using specially designed Pothole Killer vehicles, Patch Management has been contracted to fill in the thousands of potholes that plauge New York’s drivers. Repairs are already underway in Long Island’s Nassau and Suffolk Counties with more teams due to be dispatched throughout the state over the coming weeks and months.

The innovative Pothole Killer system only requires one operator and is much faster, safer and more environmentally friendly than the traditional method of using crews to combat the dreaded holes. Requiring less than two minutes per pothole, the road is then ready for traffic again – no mess, no fuss, no waiting.

And New York isn’t the only state benefiting from this time and cost saving technology. Patch Management has used their Pothole Killers to repair roads in DC, Pennsylvania, New Orleans and Chicago.

Do you know of a pothole that could use some technologically advanced attention? Call the hotline on 1-800-Pothole.

5. Eugene, Oregon

Eugene, Oregon, is in the top five for a number of reasons, but the biggest of these reasons has to do with electricity. The city of Eugene gets almost half of its electricity from renewable resources. Most of western Oregon gets around 34% of its energy from hydroelectric dams, but Eugene takes things a step further by adding on 9% from wind farms. The city’s water utility– EWEB– even buys back excess energy produced by residential solar arrays.

4. Oakland, California

The city of Oakland, in the state of California, has been long-heralded as one of the most forward-thinking cities in the US on the environmental front, and that has helped to drive new technologies in Oakland. The most impressive of these technologies are the hydrogen-powered buses that roam the streets. These buses have significantly cut down the pollution in the city, and have helped to develop this technology into a more economical form.

3. Boston, Massachusetts

Boston has a highly developed public transit system, as well as an impetus toward innovation and new technologies. This is highly evidenced by the unique system that Boston is implementing to help produce methane for generators. They are using bacteria within residential glass clippings to produce the methane. This is a fuel source that is readily available, and which would only be going to waste otherwise. Modest projections state that the system has the potential to create enough methane to power 1.5 megawatts of electricity. At the end of the composting cycle, the grass and leaves will have turned into a source of fertilizer that can be used for residential or farm fertilizer.

2. San Francisco, California

San Francisco, California, is another of the cities with a highly developed transportation sector. Public transportation is a large part of how people get around here, and it has a significant impact on the air quality and health of the people living here. Also, San Francisco has one of the most aggressive large-scale photovoltaic projects in the country, with massive potential for both environmental and financial benefits.

1. Portland, Oregon

Portland, Oregon, is the most eco-friendly city in the United States. While it lags behind other cities in terms of energy and electricity, it blows past them on things like public transit and green construction. 35 buildings in Portland are certified by the U.S. Green Building council, and a quarter of workers in Portland commute by bike or public transit.

According to a recent survey conducted by Gallup Daily Tracking, around six percent of workers are employed by the State of California, which goes up to twelve percent if you include local and federal workers. More than sixteen percent of workers in America were employed by the government last year.

The state with the highest percentage of government workers goes to Hawaii, which employs over twelve and a half of the state’s workforce. Alaska came second, employing eleven and a half percent of workers, followed by West Virginia, coming in at just over eleven and a half percent.

According to the survey, the US states employing the least number of government workers were New Hampshire, with just over four percent, Pennsylvania, with just under four and half percent and Maryland and Ohio, with both states employing just under five percent of workers.

Due to the expansion of the technology industry in California’s Silicon Valley, office occupancy has increased in the last year, which is good news for real estate agencies and office space providers.

According to Colliers International, forecasts show that office space and research facilities could increase by five million square feet this year, which would be in addition to the three and a half million square feet increase in office and research space net occupancy in 2011.

The technology companies who are leading this expansion in Silicon Valley include mobile application businesses, cloud computing providers and social networking companies. It is hoped that the technology surge is only just beginning, and that 2012 should bring another strong year for commercial leasing.

According to Colliers International, office space vacancies were down from 16 % at the end of last year compared to 20.2 % in 2010. In addition research and development space vacancies were down 13.7 % at the end of last year, down from 16.2 % in 2010.

Chicago Restaurant Week is an event that attracts Chicagoans, Midwesterners and even international folks every year. The event is designed to celebrate the rich history of Chicago restaurants. The event actually lasts for two weeks, and visitors can enjoy competitive prices at top-rated restaurants in the area. Chicago Restaurant Week is also intended to boost the economy and increase profits for restaurants in the area.

Growing the Profitability of Restaurants

All types of restaurants enjoy profitability during Chicago Restaurant Week. From sophisticated venues to the local diner, restaurants generally enjoy an eight percent jump in profits during Chicago Restaurant Week. Participation in the event has been drastically increasing every year. As restaurant owners discover the advantages of becoming part of Chicago Restaurant Week, they have joined in on the fun. In 2013, a total of 286 restaurants participated in the event. Restaurants served over 513,000 meals during Chicago Restaurant Week in 2013. Read More »

According to the Peninsula press, at the recent 2012 Silicon Valley Conference panelists agreed that despite the rise in venture capital investment for clean technology we still have a long way to go. The old saying that “charity begins at home” is being paraphrased by the panelists who want to see a push to bring clean technology straight into homes by showing households how much they can save by using greener appliances and solar energy.

The mayor of San Jose, Chuck Reed, insisted that the constant innovation taking place in Silicon Valley makes it an ideal candidate for the development and refinemnet of green technology, adding “that’s the easy part….it’s just going to happen.”