More Information Required to Get a New Credit Card in United States

Photo by k9ine in Flickr.com

“It’s about time,” as I should say.

Washington Business Journal recently reported that under the new reforms of the Federal Reserve, consumers will have to provide more personal information, such as shoppers’ income and the ability to pay, before stores who normally give away credit cards on whim grants the approval. This takes effect on February 22 this year.

A funny thing – the National Retail Federation opposes the move.

Source: Washington Business Journal

6 Canadian Cities Out of 50 Attract More Migrants

Photo by Great Beyond in Flickr.com

Calgary, Waterloo, Ottawa, Vancouver, St. John’s and Richmond Hill have what migrants are looking for when choosing where to locate, according to the Conference Board’s second report assessing the attractiveness of Canadian cities. The performance of these cities is compared on 41 indicators grouped across seven categories: Society, Health, Economy, Environment, Education, Innovation, and Housing.

For migrants with a university degree, the Education category matters the most (21 per cent) in the decision to locate, followed by Society (20 per cent), Innovation (19 per cent) and Economy (13 per cent). Migrants without a university education consider, in an overwhelming fashion, that the Economy category matters the most (33 per cent) and followed by Society (20 per cent).

Read the details of the overall grades and performance by category at the Conference Board of Canada of CNW Group Ltd.

New Challenges of White House Executive Chef and Filipina-American Cristeta Comerford

Photo from Wikipedia.com

Cristeta Comeford is the Philippines’ addition to the global heroes of Filipinos who commandeer a position or title in the world stage. This, particularly to the most famous American president and his family. Not only is she the first Filipina-American to be selected to the post, she is also the first woman.

In this blog she recently wrote, Cristeta talks about healthy eating and the challenge that the First Lady bestowed on them the challenge to create meals that were fresh, healthy and uniquely American, revealing that the secret ingredient was the White House Kitchen Garden. This garden was created by Mrs. Obama in March last year as the first vegetable garden in the White House since Eleanor Roosevelt’s victory garden in World War II.

Read more at The White House Blog

Pinoy “Farmville” for Overseas Filipino Workers (OFW)

Maharlika Agro-Ventures Corp., a domestic poultry firm and contract grower for San Miguel Foods, Inc., has established a new company — North Star Poultry Equities, Inc. — for a “virtual poultry farming” project. North Star Poultry would be co-owned by overseas Filipino workers (OFWs). An overseas worker can invest at least P50,000 on the virtual poultry farm. Investors can monitor how their poultry operation is doing through a Web site that would be created specifically for the project.

Read more at Business World Online

2010 Long Weekend Schedules in the Philippines

If you’re planning a trip to the Philippines, besides the tourist spots, food places and festivals, you may want to check out the long weekends that allow your Filipino friends and acquaintances free time during these holidays.

February 21-23 (Sunday – Monday) – Anniversary of the EDSA Revolution

April 1-4 (Thursday-Sunday) – Holy Week

April 9-11 (Friday-Sunday) – Day of Valor (Araw ng Kagitingan)

June 12-14 (Saturday-Monday) – Philippine Independence Day

August 21-23 (Saturday-Monday) – Ninoy Aquino Day

September 10-12 (Friday-Sunday) – Eid’l Fitr

October 30-November 1 (Saturday-Monday) – All Saints Day

November 27-29 (Saturday-Monday) – Bonifacio Day

December 24-27 (Friday-Monday) – Christmas and Rizal Day

December 31-January 2 (Friday-Sunday) – New Year’s Day

Best On-demand Hosted Call Center Solution in the Philippines

L-R: Fred Cote, Raffy Pekson II and Chris Persaud

The CEO and COO of KUNNECT recently visited the Philippines to launch its call center technology solutions to the Philippine BPO market. Fred Cote, co-founder and CEO, spoke at the October 12 meeting of the members of the Call Center Association of the Philippines (CCAP) in Shangri-La Hotel Makati. Mr. Cote presented KUNNECT as a viable, inexpensive call center solution for immediate operations without the need for costly and time-consuming setup, calling it the “best in its class” of a full suite of call center features and functionality. Together with Mr. Cote were Chris Persaud, COO of KUNNECT, and Raffy Pekson II, the Country Representative of KUNNECT in the Philippines.

Read more at Work and Coffee.