Weekend Digest: The ‘Advice For College Graduates’ Edition

For our weekend business and political readers:

BILLIONAIRE’S ADVICE TO COLLEGE GRADUATES
Melinda Gates, Steve Case, Hamadi Ulukaya, Steve Jobs, Shahid Khan, and Oprah Winfrey. They are all billionaires who were chosen to speak to college graduating classes. Forbes shares some of their advice to the graduates and here’s an example from Khan, who has founded one of the most revolutionary and innovative online teaching resources in the world:

“Whenever I faced an easy way or a hard way, invariably, the hard ways turned out to be the right way.” University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

For more words of wisdom from the billionaire’s club to the graduates, click on this link.

2014 WORLD CUP A BOON FOR BRAZIL
As the host country for the 2014 soccer World Cup, 12 new stadiums nationwide in Brazil are being completed.

Brazilian policy makers are betting that the mega soccer tournament and the Summer Olympics in Rio De Janeiro two years later will provide a boost to a national economy whose growth slowed to 0.9 percent last year. That was a far cry from the 7.5 percent growth in gross domestic product in 2010 that had investors pouring into Brazil.

Along with the boon for the native economy, foreign investors are also getting into the action.

“Without a doubt, these two events will be a window of opportunity for the country to consolidate its tourism image,” says Alvaro Diago, chief operations officer of InterContinental in Latin America. The company plans to triple the number of its hotels in Brazil to 39 during the next decade.

But while the rush is on to make the soccer and Olympic venues and accompanying infrastructure world-class, there has been much criticism from those who think the country is over-doing it, while other industries like farming have greater needs.

Bloomberg has the full story from all sides at this link.

CREDIT WORTHINESS PILOT PROJECT TO MONITOR SOCIAL MEDIA USERS
Some of the biggest names in credit reporting are looking at experimental algorithms that would mine data from public social media accounts to verify personal identities and assess credit.

Equifax, Experian, PayPal, and Intuit are all quietly experimenting with pilots that apply algorithms to public Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter content. Writing in Bloomberg Businessweek, Danielle Kucera noted that creditors are primarily interested in raw data from social media related to personal activity.

What data would be used, and how would it work?  Click here for full details from FastCompany.

OBAMACARE CREATING HIGH LEVEL OF COMPETITION AMONG INSURANCE COMPANIES
The New York Times reports that “the new health care law is injecting more competition into health insurance markets nationwide, drawing additional insurance companies into states long dominated by a few carriers, Obama administration officials said Thursday.”

Companies entering the market could also put downward pressure on prices, partly offsetting factors that tend to increase premiums. The competition could pose new challenges to Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans, which dominate the individual insurance markets in many states.

The administration used preliminary data from 19 states in filing its report.

The data was preliminary and incomplete and could not be independently verified. It was supplemented by federal officials with information from California and several other states who have released data on applications from insurers.

For the complete story, go to this link.

THE BEST POLITICAL REPORTERS IN ARKANSAS & OTHER STATES
The Washington Post has chosen familiar faces and writers from different publications in every state and one we are very proud to blow our horn about.

Talk Business Arkansas’ Roby Brock is one of three from Arkansas, along with AP reporter Andrew DeMillo and the Democrat-Gazette’s Sarah Wire. Here’s how those choices were made.

In every state, there is at least one — and often many more than one — great political reporters, the one person that EVERY politico in the state reads.

But, who is that person (or persons) in all 50 states? We wanted to know–and we asked the Fix community for help. And, you responded! After weeks of sorting and such — done by the incomparable Lindsey Cook, Rachel Weiner and Wisdon Andrews – we are ready to unveil our 2013 list of the best state-based political reporters in each of the 50 states. (A reminder: These names are gathered from nominations we received via the blog, Twitter and Facebook.)

Check out the complete report at this link.

BEEBE FOR PRESIDENT
The second most popular governor in the nation is Arkansas’ Mike Beebe (D) according to the New York Times. The Times piece takes a critical look at all of the U.S. governor’s ratings and zeroes in on those with a possible chance for a 2016 presidential run.

Surprisingly according to the Times “some of the most talked-about contenders for 2016 have middling ratings.”

Only 41 percent of South Carolina residents approve of Gov. Nikki Haley, a Republican; 41 percent disapprove of the job she has done. And Gov. Scott Walker, a Republican in Democratic-leaning Wisconsin, has managed to maintain a net positive job approval rating, but just barely: 50 percent approve to 46 percent disapprove. (Not to mention, Mr. Walker survived a recall effort last June.)

For a complete look at the ratings of all 50 governors, and a synopsis of possible presidential contenders including Beebe, go to this link.

IS THE TEA PARTY DEAD?
No, far from it reports Politico.

The leader of the House Tea Party Caucus, Rep. Michele Bachmann, may have announced her retirement, but organizers of the caucus say the Tea Party presence in Congress is far from dead. In fact, it’s expanding to the Senate.

Find out what the Tea Party is planning and what role Republican Senator Rand Paul will play in the new agenda by clicking here.

RHODE ISLAND GOVERNOR SWITCHES TO DEMOCRATIC PARTY
This past Thursday, Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chaffee made a huge change. He became a Democrat.

Chafee officially switched his party registration Thursday going from independent to Democrat, after initially being a Republican. And if his words are anything to go by, he’s not going to miss the GOP.

“Some of the policies they have advanced and having lost the ‘08 election and now the ‘12 election, I know there’s a lot of introspection by the Republicans,” Chafee said. “I’m just happy to have found a home, myself, with the Democrats. As I’ve worked with the governors, all the governors in the NGA as an independent. I’m happy to now join with those Democratic governors. It’s like-minded philosophy.”

Go inside the complete story at this link from Politico on why the son of former Senator John Chafee made the switch, and why he thinks moderate Republicans are increasingly unwelcome in the GOP.

SCHOOL NEWSPAPERS ARE DISAPPEARING INK
Like a lot of regular newspapers around the country, high school papers from print journalism classes are becoming fewer in number as a sign of the times.

The student newspaper has long been a cherished tradition at many of the nation’s top high schools, one that allowed students to take initiative and hone their writing skills while absorbing lessons in ethics and responsibility.  It provided a public forum for debating civics with intellect and passion and, as a bonus, added a scholarly note on college applications.

But the decline of these newspapers in recent years is not a loss only for schools, but also for an industry that is fighting for survival. Students raised on a diet of Internet posts and instant messages may be unlikely to be future newspaper readers.

Read more about the decline of student newspapers and how they are “unfolding” at this link from the New York Times.

STEM EDUCATION FOR GIRLS PROMOTED WITH BIG MONEY GRANT
It stands for science, technology, engineering and math preparatory education for undergraduate student career choices, but who is more involved?

The U.S. has big structural problems that are preventing the large number of talented young girls from becoming scientists and engineers.

Why is that, and what is one smart young lady doing about it with an innovative approach?  Find out at this link from FastCompany.

VERTICAL HONG KONG
Hong Kong is famed for its skyline, but graphic artist and photographer Romain Jacquet-Lagrèze captures a different vision of the city: looking up.

In his “Vertical Horizon” project, the 26-year-old Frenchman photographs the city’s vertical angles through a wide-angle Sigma lens with a 10 mm focal length. The lens, he says, avoids distorting the urban landscape’s straight lines.

For some amazing photography, check out his work at this link and also here from the Wall Street Journal blog.