Service animals in the workplace The Accommodation and Compliance Series by Job Accomodation Network (JAN) is a starting point in the accommodation process and may not address every situation. Accommodations should be made on a case by case basis, considering each employee’s individual limitations and accommodation needs. For information on assistive technology and other accommodation ideas, visit JAN's Searchable Online Accommodation Resource (SOAR) at http://AskJAN.org/soar. A service animal is an animal that performs a task or tasks for a person with a disability to help overcome limitations resulting from the disability. Federal law defines service animal as "any dog that is individually trained to do work or perform tasks for the benefit of an individual with a disability, including a physical, sensory, psychiatric, intellectual, or other mental disability. Other species of animals, whether wild or domestic, trained or untrained, are not service animals for the purposes of this definition. The work or tasks performed by a service animal must be directly related to the individual's disability." According to the Delta Society, a human-services organization dedicated to improving people's health and well-being through positive interactions with animals: Service animals are legally defined under title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act and are trained to meet the disability-related needs of their handlers who have disabilities. The ADA protects the rights of individuals with disabilities to be accompanied by their service animals in public places. Service animals are not considered 'pets' Therapy animals are not legally defined by federal law, but some states have laws defining therapy animals. They provide people with contact to animals, but are not limited to working with people who have disabilities. They are usually the personal pets of their handlers, and work with their handlers to provide services to others. Federal laws have no provisions for people to be accompanied by therapy animals in places of public accommodation that have "no pets" policies. Therapy animals usually are not service animals. A companion animal is not legally defined, but is accepted as another term for pet. Social/therapy animals have no legal definition. They often are animals that did not complete service animal or service dog training due to health, disposition, trainability, or other factors, and are made available as pets for people who have disabilities. These animals might or might not meet the definition of service animals.
http://askjan.org/media/servanim.html

hinterland noun
1. Often, hinterlands. the remote or less developed parts of a country; back country
2. the land lying behind a coastal region.
3. an area or sphere of influence in the unoccupied interior claimed by the state possessing the coast.
4. an inland area supplying goods, esp. trade goods, to a port.
also called Umland
tributary region, either rural or urban or both, that is closely linked economically with a nearby town or city.
George G. Chisholm (Handbook of Commercial Geography, 1888) transcribed the German word hinterland (land in back of), as hinderland, and used it to refer to the backcountry of a port or coastal settlement. Chisholm continued to use hinderland in subsequent editions of his Handbook, but the use of hinterland, in the same context, gained more widespread acceptance. In the early 20th century, Andre Allix adopted the German word Umland (“land around”) to describe the economic realm of an inland town, while continuing to accept hinterland in reference to ports. Allix pointed out that umland (now a standard English term) is found in late 19th-century German dictionaries, but suggested that its use in the sense of “environs” dates back to the 15th century. Since Allix introduced the term umland, the differences between the meanings of hinterland and umland have become less distinct. The use of hinterland began to dominate references to coastal and inland tributary regions in the mid-20th century. Central-place hexagonal trade areas are often referred to as central-place hinterlands. The term urban hinterland has become commonplace when referring to city or metropolitan tributary regions that are closely tied to the central city. An example of a metropolitan hinterland is the Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) as designated by the U.S. Census Bureau. MSA's are comprised of a central city, defined by the corporate limits; an urbanized, built-up area contiguous to the central city; and a non-urbanized area, delimited on a county basis, economically tied to the central city.
http://universalium.academic.ru/127387/hinterland

The nation's second-largest Indian tribe formally booted from membership thousands of descendants of black slaves who were brought to Oklahoma more than 170 years ago by Native American owners. The Cherokee nation voted after the Civil War to admit the slave descendants to the tribe. But on August 22, the Cherokee nation Supreme Court ruled that a 2007 tribal decision to kick the so-called "Freedmen" out of the tribe was proper. The controversy stems from a footnote in the brutal history of U.S. treatment of Native Americans. When many Indians were forced to move to what later became Oklahoma from the eastern U.S. in 1838, some who had owned plantations in the South brought along their slaves. Some 4,000 Indians died during the forced march, which became known as the "Trail of Tears." "And our ancestors carried the baggage," said Marilyn Vann, the Freedman leader who is a plaintiff in the legal battle. Officially, there are about 2,800 Freedmen, but another 3,500 have tribal membership applications pending, and there could be as many as 25,000 eligible to enter the tribe, according to Vann. The tribal court decision was announced one day before absentee ballots were to be mailed in the election of the Cherokee Principal Chief. A lawsuit challenging the Freedman's removal from the tribe has been pending in federal court in Washington, for about six years. As a sovereign nation, Cherokee Nation officials maintain that the tribe has the right to amend its constitutional membership requirements. Removal from the membership rolls means the Freedmen will no longer be eligible for free health care and other benefits such as education concessions.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/08/24/us-oklahoma-cherokee-idUSTRE77N08F20110824

Unbeknownst to owner Joe Angelastri, cyber thieves planted a software program on the cash registers at his two Chicago-area magazine shops that sent customer credit-card numbers to Russia. MasterCard Inc. demanded an investigation, at Mr. Angelastri's expense, and the whole ordeal left him out about $22,000. His experience highlights a growing threat to small businesses. Hackers are expanding their sights beyond multinationals to include any business that stores data in electronic form. Small companies, which are making the leap to computerized systems and digital records, have now become hackers' main target. With limited budgets and few or no technical experts on staff, small businesses generally have weak security. Cyber criminals have taken notice. In 2010, the U.S. Secret Service and Verizon Communications Inc.'s forensic analysis unit, which investigates attacks, responded to a combined 761 data breaches, up from 141 in 2009. Of those, 482, or 63%, were at companies with 100 employees or fewer. Visa Inc. estimates about 95% of the credit-card data breaches it discovers are on its smallest business customers. Read more at: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304567604576454173706460768.html

On September 12, 2011, the EU Council voted to extend the copyright on sound recordings from 50 to 70 years. The move follows a campaign by artists like Cliff Richard as well as lesser-known performers, who said they should continue to earn from their creations. Critics argue that many musicians will see little benefit, with most income going to big stars and record labels. The change applies to the copyright on studio recordings, which is often owned by record labels, rather than the right to the composition, which is owned by the songwriters. Under the 50-year rule, the copyright on songs by The Beatles, the Rolling Stones and The Who would have expired in the next few years. That would have meant that anyone could have used and sold those songs in any way, and the performers and record labels would have ceased to receive royalties.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-14882146

Copyright law of the European Union http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_law_of_the_European_Union

This Day in History September 21
1981: Sandra Day O'Connor is unanimously approved by the U.S. Senate as the first female Supreme Court justice.
Today’s Featured Birthday Author Stephen King (64)
Daily Quote “Adapt or perish, now as ever, is nature's inexorable imperative.” H. G. Wells, who was born on this date in 1866. http://www.wickedlocal.com/arlington/newsnow/x462618688/Morning-Minutes-Sept-21#axzz1YaiK3PbO