Will Google's Policies Increase Tech Regulation?

The Federal Trade Commission is reported to have recently completed an investigation into whether Google intentionally ranks its own services higher than its competitors’ in its search results, and a majority of FTC commissioners support legal action alleging Google has violated antitrust law. Since President Obama has won re-election, the FTC may now have more leverage against Google to settle the matter. It is too soon to speculate whether the investigation will lead to a consent decree or a lawsuit. However, since FTC Chairman Jonathan Leibowitz may leave his position at the end of the year a negotiated settlement may occur in the coming weeks.

During the past year and a half, Google has confronted multiple regulatory and legal challenges. Last year, Google agreed to pay a $500 million fine to avoid criminal charges and to settle allegations that it knowingly allowed illegal pharmacy advertisements on its website. Earlier this year, Google was caught violating a consent decree it signed with the FTC that bars it from future privacy misrepresentations. Google was fined a record $22.5 million because it bypassed the privacy settings of Apple’s Safari internet browser without users’ consent.

On March 1 of this year, Google changed its privacy policies and terms of services to consolidate more than 60 separate privacy policies and replaced them with one uniform policy. These changes allow Google to pool information from its users’ YouTube, Google+, Gmail, Blogger, etc. accounts to enable it to better serve advertising. Last month, the European Union Data Protection Agency issued a report alleging that Google’s new policy failed to comply with its data protection rules. This report was endorsed by privacy regulators in 27 E.U. member states along with Australia, Mexico, New Zealand and Canada.

Google is not alone in trying to create policies that will enable it to collect and analyze data to better serve targeted advertising. Soon after the E.U.’s “recommendations” to Google were released, Microsoft updated its privacy policies to allow it to more easily share customer data between some of its services.

While Microsoft has publicly promised that it will not utilize some customer data to behavioral advertise, its privacy policy changes may enable it to do so in  some of its consumer products. However, Microsoft has stated that its recent changes to its privacy policies will only affect its free web-based products and not the software that individuals, businesses, or schools purchase.

Google and Microsoft offer schools educational productivity suites for free. These programs may have been created with the hope that once a student graduates he will continue to utilize these tools in his personal and corporate endeavors. Free educational software is a win-win-win situation for all since schools obtain much-needed digital tools at no cost, students learn how to use services that they may need after they graduate, and Google or Microsoft may obtain a customer for life.

On the surface, this appears to benefit all parties involved. While Microsoft Office 365 for education agreements with schools do not appear to allow it to utilize a student’s class assignments, school projects, or student-teacher interactions to behavioral advertise, Google’s Apps for Education Program specifically grants schools the ability to activate this feature.

Why does Google provide this option in its agreements with educational institutions? If students continue to utilize e-mail addresses or other Google Apps for Education accounts after graduating it appears that under Google’s standard agreement with schools it will be able to data mine student e-mails, class assignments, school projects, and digital student-teacher interactions to behavioral advertise when students become alumni. Google’s Apps for Education Program may create Family Educational Privacy Rights Act (FERPA) and/or Federal Trade Commission problems for Google and/or schools that utilize Google’s educational services.

Google’s Apps for Education agreements with schools appear to raise significant regulatory, legal, and privacy concerns that need to be remedied to lessen the likelihood of further government investigations and regulations. With a democratic administration and senate majority, Silicon Valley must become more proactive in working with regulators and lawmakers to resolve privacy concerns or increased regulation may be on the horizon.  The bottom line is that Internet companies must fully understand the issues that may be triggered by their technology.

[Weigh in in the forum below, or in the comments section at the bottom of the page.]

The FTC is said to have recently completed an investigation into whether Google intentionally ranks its own services higher than its competitors in its search results, and a majority of FTC commissioners support legal action alleging Google has violated antitrust law, writes digital privacy rights advocate and lawyer Bradley Shear.

During the past year and a half, Google has confronted multiple regulatory and legal challenges. And Google is not alone. But  Google's Apps for Education agreements with schools appear to raise significant regulatory, legal, and privacy concerns that need to be remedied to lessen the likelihood of further government investigations and regulations.

Shear argues that Silicon Valley must become more proactive in working with regulators and lawmakers to resolve privacy concerns or increased regulation may be on the horizon.  The bottom line is that Internet companies must fully understand the issues that may be triggered by their technology.

Read the full post then weigh in: Will the quest the online giants' Big Data quest trigger a new wave of online regulations? Or can they find a way to tread lightly and not involve the privacy cops?

 

Bradley Shear is a lawyer and advocate for personal digital privacy rights. He practices internet, privacy, and advertising law and has advised state and federal lawmakers around the United States on social media privacy law and public policy.

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Stars honor Veloso as Latin Grammys person of year

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Juanes, Juan Luis Guerra, Nelly Furtado and Natalie Cole are among the artists who celebrated Brazilian musician Caetano Veloso at a ceremony honoring him as the Latin Recording Academy‘s Person of the Year.

Veloso’s influence as a composer and activist also was the subject of a video featuring Sting and Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodovar that was shown at the tribute Wednesday at the MGM Garden Arena in Las Vegas.

Veloso said in the video that he never decided to become a musician, but fate and the circumstances of life in Brazil moved him in that direction.

Considered among the most influential Brazilian artists of modern times, the 70-year-old entertainer has recorded more than 40 albums, and won eight Latin Grammys and two Grammy Awards. With his eponymous 1968 album, Veloso launched a new style of music, tropicalia, that saw his Brazilian musical roots mixed with other contemporary styles, including blues, psychedelic rock and the sounds of the Beatles.

The movement comprised a new generation of artists, including Gilberto Gil, Gal Costa and Maria Bethania, who openly expressed political opinion in their music.

In accepting the honor, Veloso said, “It’s too much.”

The Latin Grammy Awards are scheduled to be presented Thursday at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas. The show will be broadcast live on Univision.

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Online:

www.latingrammy.com

Entertainment News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Ask an Expert: Answers About Alzheimer’s, Part 1

Because of the number of questions, his answers are being split into several parts. The first two, today and Friday, focus on diagnostic issues, including new tests, the role played by genetics and inheritance, causes and policy issues.

Next Wednesday Dr. Doraiswamy will address treatment, patient care and new clinical trials. (Some questions published here have been edited, and not all questions could be answered.)

The doctor’s answers are meant for educational purposes and are not meant to be a substitute for advice from your own doctor. Readers should contact their physician before making health care decisions.

……………………………………

Q. Why can I remember everything about a person except his or her name? — Horick, Texas

A. This is known as the “cook-Cook problem.” It is a result of how our brains are wired to enable predictions of future needs based on relevance and strength of associations. Common words with strong functional associations (for example, a cook who will prepare food) are easier to retrieve than proper names (Mr. Cook). Surveys show that more than 80 percent of normal older people report trouble with names. In reality, most of these individuals could probably recall several hundred names, but it’s the one they forget that causes panic. This helps explain why traditional American Indian names like Sitting Bull, which bring up a vivid image, are probably easier to recall.

Q. My question is not medical per se: Do you believe that people diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease (or other dementias) should be told about their diagnosis? My mom, who had Alzheimer’s, died in 2008, and this was a very contentious issue separating me and my oldest sister who, alas, had health-care power of attorney. I emphatically believe people have to know that they have dementia. I am curious to know if you have an opinion on this. — Carol, Chicago

A. I believe they should be told since they have a right to know and make plans as well as a right to grieve. There are some situations where it may be appropriate to withhold information, such as when the exact diagnosis is uncertain or when obvious harm (such as suicide) may result. Surveys indicate that most family members would withhold the diagnosis from a loved one, but when asked if they themselves would like to know if they had the illness, most said "yes." This issue is likely to become more contentious as it becomes possible to predict disease more precisely using genetics and brain scans.

Q. “Can you tell me, wait, I forget ...” What are initial signs of Alzheimer’s?

If I place an object (i.e. cellphone, keys) in a different spot than usual, it seems to have disappeared. I’ve been leaving house key outdoors in the lock; forget names of folks I’ve met a few times (once reminded, I recall); almost totally forget titles of movies/books - when reminded, I recall..??.age-first of baby boomers, mother is 100+, has Alzheimers.

What are the initial signs of dementia? Memory loss? hysical affectations? Language dysfunction? I am nearing 65, in good health, but often can’t think of a specific word while speaking or briefly forget how to spell a word while typing.

— Wally Wallace, Ames, Iowa; Technic Alley, Toronto; Maureen64, Calif.; Motmista, Pensacola, Fla.; Canadian Content Only, Toronto; Lulu858; Marie Marley, Kan.; Unknown; Susa Bruce, Brooklyn.

A. The “tip of the tongue” (also called “Teflon brain”) phenomenon becomes more common as we age, perhaps due to chemical changes in the brain’s wiring. This commonly affects recall of names and words, and sometimes where you placed objects. Often, turning your mind to something else will make the information pop up. If what you forgot comes back to you a few hours or days later or comes back readily with a cue, it’s probably benign. Sometimes there is a “feeling of knowing,” but other times your mind can go totally blank — for example, where you parked your car at an airport. “Relax, and call me in the morning” is what memory doctors sometimes call this problem.

If you don’t pay close attention to something because your life is hectic, you’re multitasking, feeling anxiety or it has little emotional relevance, the thought will not register as well in your memory. It’s helpful to stick to a routine (e.g. park your car in the same spot daily) or write things down (e.g. a memo to yourself on your phone about where you left your keys).

If cues don’t help or if memory is forever lost or if things are starting to affect your daily activities frequently, then a medical evaluation is in order. Trouble remembering new information is the classic early problem in Alzheimer’s. In some people early changes can also include mild depression or apathy, and trouble with words, repeating oneself and confusion. Some of the things that suggest a serious memory problem are:

1) Memory getting worse over time, and cues don’t help with recall.

2) Memory problems are affecting your work and functioning, and friends or family members are getting concerned.

3) You have trouble learning new information or doing tasks you know well.

4) Forgetting entire experiences rather than parts of an experience

5) Making up stories to cover up the memory gaps.

Bottom line: if you are concerned, don’t hesitate to get your memory checked.

Q. What is the average risk of someone getting Alzheimer’s? If a sibling has it but parents don’t, what is the risk? What about if a parent or aunt has the disease?

My father, his mother and most of his siblings had Alzheimer’s. My mother’s immediate family had no incidence. She is 86 and pretty sharp. What are the chances I will get it?

My father had Alzheimer’s and my oldest sister has also been diagnosed with the disease. What are the chances of having it since we are obviously genetically predisposed? My memory has always been poor and is definitely getting worse. I’m 65.

— Christine R, Roseland, N.J.; Mitchell McG, Manhattan; Penguinwoman, Toronto; Tosia, New York; Ms. Skeptical, Alexandria, Va.

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BP to Admit Crimes and Pay $4.5 Billion in Gulf Settlement

BP, the British oil company, said Thursday that it would pay $4.5 billion in fines and other payments to the government and plead guilty to 14 criminal charges in connection with the giant oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico two years ago.

US Coast Guard, via Associated Press

The explosion on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico that was connected to a well owned by BP killed 11 workers and spilled millions of barrels of oil.

The payments include $4 billion related to the criminal charges and $525 million to securities regulators, the company said in a statement. As part of the settlement, BP agreed to plead guilty to 11 felony counts of misconduct or neglect related to the deaths of 11 people in the Deepwater Horizon accident in April 2010, which released millions of barrels of oil into the gulf over the course of the next few months.

The Justice Department also filed criminal charges against three BP employees on Thursday.

The government charged the top BP officers aboard the drilling rig, Robert Kaluza and Donald Vidrine, with manslaughter in connection with each of the men who died, alleging that they were negligent in supervising tests before the well blowout and explosion that destroyed the rig.

Prosecutors also charged BP’s former vice president for exploration in the Gulf of Mexico, David Rainey, with obstruction of Congress and making false statements about the rate at which oil was spilling from the well.

“All of us at BP deeply regret the tragic loss of life caused by the Deepwater Horizon accident as well as the impact of the spill on the Gulf coast region,” Robert Dudley, BP’s chief executive, said in a statement. “From the outset, we stepped up by responding to the spill, paying legitimate claims and funding restoration efforts in the Gulf. We apologize for our role in the accident, and as today’s resolution with the U.S. government further reflects, we have accepted responsibility for our actions.”

While the settlement dispels one dark cloud that has hovered over BP since the spill, others remain. BP is still subject to other claims, including billions of dollars in federal civil claims and claims for damages to natural resources.

In particular, BP noted that the settlement does not resolve what is potentially the largest penalty related to the spill: fines under the Clean Water Act. The potential fine for the spill under the act is $1,100 to $4,300 a barrel spilled. That means the fine could be as much as $21 billion.

In addition to the 11 felonies related to the men killed in the accident, the company agreed to plead guilty to one misdemeanor violation of the Clean Water Act and one misdemeanor violation of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.

BP also acknowledged that it had provided inaccurate information to the public early on about the rate at which oil was gushing from the well.

The company agreed to plead guilty to one felony count of obstruction of Congress over its statements on that issue. It also agreed to pay a civil penalty of $525 million to the Securities and Exchange Commission, spread over three years, to resolve the agency’s claims that the company made misleading filings to investors about the flow rate.

As part of its resolution of criminal claims with the Department of Justice, BP will pay about $4 billion, spread over five years. That amount includes $1.256 billion in criminal fines, $2.394 billion to the National Fish & Wildlife Foundation and $350 million to the National Academy of Sciences.

The criminal fine is one of the largest ever levied by the United States against a corporation, roughly equal to the $1.3 billion fine paid by Pfizer in 2009 for illegally marketing an arthritis drug. BP has repeatedly said it would like to reach a settlement with all claimants if the terms were reasonable. The unresolved issue of the claims has been weighing on BP’s share price.

On Thursday, BP’s American shares were trading at about $40 at midday, roughly unchanged on the day and down about 34 percent since the accident.

“It’s one less thing to be negative on BP about and a minor step in the right direction toward the rehabilitation of BP,” Iain Armstrong, an equity analyst at the investment manager Brewin Dolphin, in London, said. But he added that there were still concerns about remaining claims and that “lawyers might yet have their day at court.”

As part of Thursday’s agreements, BP said it was increasing its reserve for all costs and claims related to the spill to about $42 billion.

Stanley Reed reported from London and Clifford Krauss from Houston. Julia Werdigier contributed reporting from London, John Schwartz from New York and Charlie Savage from Washington.

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Three pilots flying to safety meeting die in plane crash

Flames lit up the night sky in Jackson, Miss. Tuesday night, where a small plane crashed into a home.

By Michael Muskal

November 14, 2012, 9:17 a.m.

Federal officials will investigate the crash of a single-engine plane carrying three pilots traveling to a safety conference when the craft slammed into a Jackson, Miss., house, killing the three.

The pilots were heading to a Federal Aviation Administration conference about 30 miles from Jackson’s Hawkins Field Airport. The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board will investigate.

According to the Jackson Municipal Airport Authority, the craft took off from the airport about 5:10 p.m. Tuesday, heading for Raymond, Miss., to the FAA conference.

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Moments after leaving the airport, one of the pilots asked for permission to return. Before the plane could land, however, it crashed into a house that was set ablaze.

A deputy fire chief told WJTV-TV that one person escaped the burning home with minor injuries, but it was not immediately clear if anyone else was inside. One patient from the scene was listed in good condition at University of Mississippi Medical Center, according to the Associated Press.

The names of the dead pilots were not  released, pending tests to confirm their identities.

ALSO:

Long Island utility executive resigns

Jury rules 'code of silence' protected felon cop

Top general demoted amid questions about his lavish expenses

michael.muskal@latimes.com

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Facebook Has Good News for George Takei and Mark Cuban

Facebook is about to deploy a variant of its News Feed that focuses exclusively on content from businesses, celebrities, news publishers and others who use Facebook Pages to pump out content.

Facebook has been testing the special News Feed view over the last few weeks and plans to start rolling it out to all users later today. “It’s a ‘Pages only’ view of your news feed, making it even easier for people to keep up with the Pages they care about most,” a spokesperson writes. “You can access the new feed view from your home page by clicking ‘Pages feed’ on the left hand side of the page.” The feed will select the most relevant pages posts for you algorithmically, meaning that you aren’t guaranteed to see all posts from all the pages you follow. But you’ll see more pages content than you would in the aggressively filtered regular News Feed.

Facebook insists the new view of its popular News Feed was not built in response to well-publicized criticism from celebrities like Star Trek star George Takei and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, who have been vocal in their unhappiness with how Facebook Pages are handled within the regular News Feed. Instead, says Facebook, the pages view of News Feed sprang from requests from page owners and News Feed users.

“‘Pages only’ view makes it even easier for people to keep up with the Pages you care about most.”

But there’s no question the new News Feed view will help allay anger from celebrities, small business owners, and publishers over how hard it has become for them to get their pages posts in front of all the people who follow their pages. A typical post to a Facebook page is seen by less than a fifth of the people who follow that page, because Facebook uses a relevance algorithm to selectively insert page posts into users’ News Feeds. In September, Facebook tightened the algorithm so that even fewer posts made it into the feeds, saying users were complaining about content from page owners.

“We made an adjustment to the news feed algorithm to respond to the negative feedback signals of spam and people hiding posts,” a Facebook spokesperson told us after the change was made.

Some of Facebook’s more vociferous critics are convinced the social network is keeping posts out of the News Feed to encourage page owners to buy “promoted post” advertising, which can circumvent the News Feed filters. But Facebook has a history of altering News Feed without regard to its bottom line; a prior tightening of News Feed reduced spammy posts from Zynga videogames and cut into Facebook’s payments revenue, which was dependent on the games.

Takei, Cuban, and other page owners are likely to be pleased by the new News Feed view — and unlikely to be entirely satisfied. Page owners want to maximize how many fans their content is pushed to while minimizing their costs. In other words, they want cheap access to the increasingly precious resource of user attention. Facebook will never be able to fulfill their dreams, but it’s found a clever way to temper their anger.

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Clapton platinum watch nets $3.6 million at auction

GENEVA (Reuters) – An Asian collector bought a platinum chronograph Patek Philippe wristwatch owned by British rock guitarist Eric Clapton for 3.44 million Swiss francs ($ 3.63 million) at auction on Monday, Christie’s said.

The “ultra-rare” reference 2499/100 by the Swiss luxury watchmaker, one of only two cased in platinum, was acquired by Clapton some 10 years ago, it said.

It fetched a combined hammer price and commission that was in line with Christie’s pre-sale estimate of 2.5-4.0 million francs while also setting a world record price for this reference at auction, it said in a statement on its semi-annual Geneva sale.

“The Eric Clapton watch was bought by an Asian private collector,” Christie’s spokesman Cristiano de Lorenzo told Reuters, adding that the buyer had been in the room.

But the top lot at the seven-hour sale was another platinum chronograph Patek Philippe, reference 2458, made in 1952 for legendary American collector J.B. Champion. It fetched nearly 3.78 million Swiss francs and set a world record for a watch without complications, or features beyond the display of hours, minutes and seconds, it said.

Precious Time, an investment watch fund launched by Luxembourg-based Elite Advisers, was the buyer, Christie’s said in a statement.

In all, 96 percent of the 315 lots on offer found new owners, netting 27.04 million Swiss francs ($ 28.52 million), the auction house owned by French billionaire Francois Pinault said.

Clapton’s Patek Philippe, made in the Swiss city in 1987, has a perpetual calendar with moon phases, as well as windows for day and month and dials for seconds and minutes.

Most experts would rank it among the world’s 10 most significant wristwatches that stand out for historical importance, mechanical complexity, beauty, original condition, rarity and superior provenance, Aurel Bacs, international head of Christie’s watch department, said before conducting the sale.

Clapton, the former Cream musician, last year sold more than 70 of his guitars at a charity auction in New York, raising $ 2.15 million for the Crossroads Centre drug and alcohol rehabilitation centre that he founded in Antigua.

Last month in London he sold an abstract painting by German artist Gerhard Richter at rival Sotheby’s for $ 34.2 million, setting a new record for the price paid at auction for the work of a living artist.

Antiquorum’s sale of modern and vintage timepieces, held in Geneva on Sunday evening, netted 8.63 million Swiss francs ($ 9.10 million) for 485 lots sold out of 613 on offer, it said in a statement issued on Monday,

The top lot was a Rolex Single Red Prototype, known as the Sea Dweller Submariner, one of only six produced in 1967 for use by divers. It sold for 490,900 Swiss francs — four time its pre-sale estimate – in its first appearance at auction.

“It is the highest price ever paid for a Rolex sport watch and for a Sea Dweller,” Antiquorum said.

($ 1 = 0.9482 Swiss francs)

(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; editing by Patricia Reaney)

Music News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Kidney Donors Given Mandatory Safeguards

ST. LOUIS — Addressing long-held concerns about whether organ donors have adequate protections, the country’s transplant regulators acted late Monday to require that hospitals thoroughly inform living kidney donors of the risks they face, fully evaluate their medical and psychological suitability, and then track their health for two years after donation.

Enactment of the policies by the United Network for Organ Sharing, which manages the transplant system under a federal contract, followed six years of halting development and debate.

Meeting at a St. Louis hotel, the group’s board voted to establish uniform minimum standards for a field long regarded as a medical and ethical Wild West. The organ network, whose initial purpose was to oversee donation from people who had just died, has struggled at times to keep pace with rapid developments in donations from the living.

“There is no question that this is a major development in living donor protection,” said Dr. Christie P. Thomas, a nephrologist at the University of Iowa and the chairman of the network’s living donor committee.

Yet some donor advocates complained that the measures did not go far enough, and argued that the organ network, in its mission to encourage transplants, has a conflict of interest when it comes to safeguarding donors.

Three years ago, the network issued some of the same policies as voluntary guidelines, only to have the Department of Health and Human Services insist they be made mandatory.

Although long-term data on the subject is scarce, few living kidney donors are thought to suffer lasting physical or psychological effects. Kidney donations, known as nephrectomies, are typically done laparoscopically these days through a series of small incisions. The typical patient may spend only a few nights in a hospital and feel largely recovered after several months.

Kidneys are by far the most transplanted organs, and there have been nearly as many living donors as deceased ones over the last decade. What data is available suggests that those with one kidney typically live as long as those with two, and that the risk of a donor dying during the procedure is roughly 3 in 10,000.

But kidney transplants, like all surgery, can sometimes end in catastrophe.

In May at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx, a 41-year-old mother of three died when her aorta was accidentally cut during surgery to donate a kidney to her brother. In other recent isolated cases, patients have received donor kidneys infected with undetected H.I.V. or hepatitis C.

Less clear are any longer-term effects on donors. Research conducted by the United Network for Organ Sharing shows that of roughly 70,000 people who donated kidneys between late 1999 and early 2011, 27 died within two years of medical causes that may — or may not — have been related to donation. For a small number of donors, their remaining kidney failed, and they required dialysis or a transplant.

The number of living donors — 5,770 in 2011 — has dropped 10 percent over the last two years, possibly because the struggling economy has made it difficult for prospective donors to take time off from work to recuperate. With the national kidney waiting list now stretching past 94,000 people, and thousands on the list dying each year, transplant officials have said they must improve confidence in the system so more people will donate.

The average age of donors has been rising, posing additional medical risks. And new ethical questions have been raised by the emergence of paired kidney exchanges and transplant chains started by good Samaritans who give an organ to a stranger.

Brad Kornfeld, who donated a kidney to his father in 2004, told the board that it had been impossible to find good information about what to expect, leaving him to search for answers on unreliable Internet chat rooms. He said he had almost backed out.

“If information is power,” said Mr. Kornfeld, a Coloradan who serves on the living donor committee, “the lack of information is crippling.”

Under the policies approved this week, the organ network will require hospitals to collect medical data, including laboratory test results, on most living donors to study lasting effects. Results must be reported at six months, one year and two years.

Similar regulations have been in place since 2000, but they did not require blood and urine testing, and hospitals were allowed to report donors who could not be found as simply lost.

That happened often. In recent years, hospitals have submitted basic clinical information — like whether donors were alive or dead — for only 65 percent of donors and lab data for fewer than 40 percent, according to the organ network. Although the network holds the authority, no hospital has ever been seriously sanctioned for noncompliance.

“It’s time we put some teeth into our policy,” said Jill McMaster, a board member from Tennessee.

By 2015, transplant programs will have to report thorough clinical information on at least 80 percent of donors and lab results on at least 70 percent. The requirements phase in at lower levels for the next two years.

Dr. Stuart M. Flechner of the Cleveland Clinic, the chairman of a coalition of medical societies that made recommendations to the organ network, said 9 of 10 hospitals would currently not meet the new requirement.

Donna Luebke, a kidney donor from Ohio who once served on the organ network’s board, said the new standards would matter only if enforcement were more rigorous. She noted that the organization was dominated by transplant doctors: “UNOS is nothing but the foxes watching the henhouse,” she said.

Another of the new regulations prescribes in detail the medical and psychological screenings that hospitals must conduct for potential donors. It requires automatic exclusion if the potential donor has diabetes, uncontrolled hypertension or H.I.V., among other conditions.

The new policies also require that hospitals appoint an independent advocate to counsel and represent donors, and that donors receive detailed information in advance about medical, psychological and financial risks.

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Samuel Adams Brewer Counsels Small Businesses

Gretchen Ertl for The New York Times

Jim Koch, who started brewing Samuel Adams Boston Lager at his house in 1984, and Carlene O'Garro, who runs a cake business, participate in a program in which big businesses help small ones.

Carlene O’Garro’s cake business was barely a month old when she arrived at the Samuel Adams brewery in South Boston recently to meet with business counselors, but she brought with her an agenda that hinted at outsize ambitions.

Ms. O’Garro bakes nondairy cheesecakes that she was selling at a handful of grocery stores, including two Whole Foods outlets, in the Boston area. She hoped to learn how to expand the business and distribute the cakes nationally. “I know Jim is all over the place,” she said, “and I want to be like that.”

Jim is Jim Koch, the founder of the Boston Beer Company and one of 36 advisers who spent an evening last August “speed coaching” fledgling food, beverage and hospitality businesses. In 20-minute sessions, some 95 bakers, brewers and restaurant owners peppered the coaches — Boston Beer employees and consultants who included lawyers, accountants and small-business counselors — with questions about both basic day-to-day issues and more strategic concerns.

Speed coaching is one element of “Brewing the American Dream,” a program Boston Beer established with a microlender, Accion, to help small businesses. Mr. Koch, who started brewing Samuel Adams Boston Lager at his house in 1984, remains central to these efforts even as he presides over a company with a market capitalization of $1.4 billion and annual revenue of more than $500 million. He said he had not forgotten his early days, when he struggled to find capital, get his beer into distribution networks and expand.

In six sessions that August evening, Mr. Koch spoke with perhaps a dozen entrepreneurs and then stayed another hour to visit with six or eight more. This year, Boston Beer and Accion are staging 12 speed-coaching events in 11 cities, and Mr. Koch expects to attend about half of them.

Big businesses reaching out to help smaller businesses has come into vogue since the recession. In 2009, Goldman Sachs introduced its 10,000 Small Businesses campaign. Starbucks raises money from customer donations to finance small-business loans. American Express encourages consumers to shop locally on “Small Business Saturday” after Thanksgiving. The New York Stock Exchange links small vendors with large corporations and finances loans through Accion. And several corporations have run contests — Wal-Mart, Chase Bank and Staples have furnished winning small companies with opportunities for retail distribution, capital and office equipment.

It is the latest example of what is known in corporate circles as cause marketing — hitching a brand to a social issue. “How you improve the American economy and create jobs is on everybody’s minds these days,” said David Hessekiel, founder and president of Cause Marketing Forum. “Companies know that it’s on the minds of their consumers, and they want to be seen as part of the solution, not as the enemy.”

That has been a particular concern for chains like Wal-Mart and Starbucks, given their longstanding reputations for forcing local competitors to close. Helping small businesses, Mr. Hessekiel said, “helps them deal with an old issue.”

The Boston Beer program actually predates the recent economic crisis. The seeds of the idea, Mr. Koch said, came to him in 2007 as he walked to his car after he and his employees had volunteered to paint a nearby community center. “I should have felt really good, and I didn’t — I felt a little depressed,” he said. “What I realized is, I’d just taken about $10,000 worth of management time and talent, and turned it into about $1,000 worth of painting. And it was pretty bad painting, too.”

Mr. Koch retooled his company’s philanthropy to take advantage of its resources, particularly its employees’ expertise. The company has committed $1.4 million to finance loans, which are handled by Accion. The loans are small, typically $5,000 to $7,000, with terms of 18 months to two years and interest rates that vary regionally. (In New England, the rate is around 13 percent, typical for microloans.) Perhaps as important as the money is the tutoring by Mr. Koch and his employees. Most microloan programs provide borrowers with rudimentary counseling, but Boston Beer is unusually “high touch,” said Shaolee Sen, vice president for strategy and development at the Accion U.S. Network.

Ms. O’Garro was one of the program’s original clients — she has had two loans, totaling $4,000 — and though she’s repaid that debt and though the muffin business it helped finance has been dormant since 2010, she continues to derive benefits from the program with her cheesecake business, Delectable Desires. She learned how to price her cakes from an employee in Boston Beer’s finance department, Mike Cramer, who went to Whole Foods and scoped out the competition. “He actually made a spreadsheet for me of how much the high-end and low-end desserts cost,” she said.

Another borrower, Sandy Russo of Lulu’s Sweet Shoppe in Boston, said that when she had questions, she sometimes called Mr. Koch’s executive assistant. Last summer, when Lulu’s opened a second location, Boston Beer’s lawyers reviewed the lease and its public relations staff wrote the news release.

Of course, it’s one thing to provide that kind of support to a handful of companies. The question facing Accion and Boston Beer is whether the program can remain as intensive as it expands nationally. “We’re really struggling with that right now,” Ms. Sen said. “The portfolio has been so small up until this point that they really are passionate about their clients.”

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Brown says Prop. 30 not a panacea, thanks Cal State for support

Gov. Jerry Brown said Tuesday his tax hike measure wasn't a "panacea" to the state's budget problems and that more effort will be needed to manage the state's finances.

Speaking to the Cal State Board of Trustees, Brown thanked the board, students and faculty for helping to pass Proposition 30 in last week's election. The measure will raise the state sales tax a quarter-cent for four years and increase the income tax of the state's highest earners for seven years.

The trustees were scheduled to vote Tuesday on a series of proposed "incentive" fees aimed at boosting graduation rates and freeing classroom space. But the proposal was pulled before Tuesday's meeting.

Brown acknowledged those needs and told the board that "there are tough decisions ahead."

But he added: "Keeping down fees means keeping down costs. It also means we have to look for more revenues to invest in higher education."

He said Sacramento needs to "find ways to collaborate" and said he would look to "lower adversarial relationships."

Proposition 30, which will allow Cal State to reimburse students for a $249 tuition hike that went into effect this fall, was a vote of confidence in higher education and should signal an effort to find new ways to do business, Brown said.

"That means getting out of your comfort zone, whether trustees, faculty or students," he said.

In opening remarks, board Chairman A. Robert Linscheid said he removed the fee proposal from the agenda to study its consequences further, in light of Proposition 30 passing and after hearing objections from students and others.

"The mission is still important, to free up space for other students, but there may be other avenues to get to that goal," Linscheid said.

Many students and faculty criticized the proposal as a "punishment fee," contending it would create more obstacles for students and set up a hierarchy favoring those who could pay. Students had planned to protest the fee increases.

The proposed fees, which would have taken effect next fall, include:

--A per-unit supplement of $372 for "super seniors" who have accumulated 160 semester units.

--A $91 per-unit fee to repeat a class.

--A $182 per-unit fee for any course load of 18 units or more.

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