The Weekend Digest: The lottery money, Jerry Jones’ ‘Star’ and GOP VP edition

TV PREVIEW
On this week’s TV edition of Talk Business & Politics with Roby Brock, which airs Sunday at 9:30 a.m. on KATV Channel 7.

Dale Bumpers is remembered. The former Senator and Governor passes away at the age of 90. We’ll pay tribute.

His former colleague and good friend, David Pryor, sits down for an exclusive one-on-one interview. How did Pryor and Bumpers first meet? What advice did Pryor give Bumpers during his political career? And what does he view as Bumpers’ greatest legacy?

Plus, we’ll explore Bumpers from a political scientist’s and a reporter’s perspective. Hendrix College professor Dr. Jay Barth and Political Animals Club president Rex Nelson, former political editor for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, are our roundtable guests.

Tune in to Talk Business & Politics with Roby Brock on KATV Ch. 7, Sunday at 9:30 a.m.

GADGETS FOR EVERYONE, NOT JUST HUMANS
BloombergBusiness has posted a great look at some of the “weirdest products” from the Consumer Electronics Show is Las Vegas.

The annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas has provided a launchpad for some of the most famous devices in consumer technology: the VCR, CD player, and Xbox. It has also acted as a diving board for things that have belly flopped into obscurity: Apple’s Newton and 3-D TV, among them.

While Samsung Electronics, Sony, and LG Electronics have filled the main floor space with the usual array of larger and thinner televisions, a growing chunk of the 2.3 million square feet of exhibit space has been taken up by newer categories, including drones, virtual reality, and even beauty and baby technology. Some of the 3,600 exhibiting companies have sprung surprises in terms of just how far they think technology is going to reach into our daily lives in the next few years.

And that includes new tech for pets. Take a look at this link.

GOOGLE AND HUD PLAN TO BRING BROADBAND TO MORE AMERICANS
Fast Company says, “The federal government wants to bridge the digital divide—with help from private-sector partners such as Google Fiber.”

At Google’s Googleplex headquarters in Mountain View, Calif., Alphabet executive chairman Eric Schmidt held a ‘fireside chat’ on Thursday morning with Julián Castro, the secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Much of it addressed the sort of topics you might assume would occupy most of the HUD secretary’s attention, such as homelessness and high rents. But – this being Google – the Internet was also a major subject.

According to Castro, over half of low-income Americans and the vast majority of those in public housing don’t have Internet access at home. ConnectHome, an initiative announced last July by President Obama, aims to bring broadband connectivity to such people. Starting off in 27 cities (and the tribal nation of Choctaw in Oklahoma), it served 275,000 households at launch. Castro said that his goal is to have a plan to offer broadband to every public-housing home by the time he ends his HUD term.

Find out what ConnectHome’s biggest goal is, and how this challenge between “technical and legislative” will work by connecting here.

LOYALTY AND ETHICS
Harvard Business Review posts, “Stories in the media about everything from corporate scandals to political machinations to gangland killings often cite loyalty as a primary driver of corruption. We read about employees who didn’t report misconduct out of loyalty to dishonest colleagues or about a group of employees who embezzled money from the organization while remaining loyal to one another.”

Most of us feel loyalty, whether to our clan, our comrades, an organization, or a cause. These loyalties are often important aspects of our social identity. Once a necessity for survival and propagation of the species, loyalty to one’s in-group is deeply rooted in human evolution.

But the incidents of wrongdoing that capture the headlines make it seem like loyalty is all too often a bad thing, corrupting many aspects of our personal and professional lives.

But is it really? Find out here.

2016 SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING PREDICTIONS
SocialMedia Examiner asks, “Are you looking for the hot marketing trends coming in 2016?”

To get you ready for what’s coming next, we asked 14 social media marketing experts what to watch for in the new year.

Those predictions are at this link.

OBAMA’S BIGGEST DOMESTIC POLICY ACHIEVEMENTS
POLITICO has posted “a review of Barack Obama’s domestic policy legacy—and the changes he made while nobody was paying attention.”

From the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the student loan overhaul, to other domestic policy little if any us were aware of, POLITICO brings them in to focus in this in-depth piece.

It’s true that Obama failed to create the post-partisan political change he originally promised during his yes-we-can pursuit of the White House. Washington remains as hyperpartisan and broken as ever. But he also promised dramatic policy change, vowing to reinvent America’s approach to issues like health care, education, energy, climate and finance, and that promise he has kept.

What he’s done is changing the way we produce and consume energy, the way doctors and hospitals treat us, the academic standards in our schools and the long-term fiscal trajectory of the nation. Gays can now serve openly in the military, insurers can no longer deny coverage because of pre-existing conditions, credit card companies can no longer impose hidden fees and markets no longer believe the biggest banks are too big to fail. Solar energy installations are up nearly 2,000 percent, and carbon emissions have dropped even though the economy is growing. Even Republicans like Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, who hope to succeed Obama and undo his achievements, have been complaining on the campaign trail that he’s accomplished most of his agenda.

Click here for the full story, plus POLITICO has also posted “39 great photos from Obama’s presidency” at this link.

RUBIO, CRUZ’S CANADIAN BIRTH, AND CHRISTIE’S BOOTS
The Washington Post reports, “Sen. Marco Rubio said Thursday that he doesn’t think GOP presidential rival Sen. Ted Cruz’s Canadian birth is an issue, disagreeing with Donald Trump, who suggested that haziness about whether Cruz meets the legal requirements to be president could become a complication for the GOP.”

Rubio is in the midst of a two-day campaign swing through New Hampshire, where New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has engaged in a heated war of words with Rubio. Rubio cast Christie as far too liberal on guns and education, and he suggested that Christie’s personal attacks are a sign that he is fearful of a more substantive debate.

Find out more about the Christie/Rubio dust-up, Cruz’s Canadian birth development from the Rubio perspective, and oh yes … those boots, at this link.

WHO DO REPUBLICANS WANT TO BE VP?
The NationalJournal reports, “In the South Carolina governor, GOP pros see a prospective vice presidential candidate who could trump Hillary Clinton’s advantage with women voters.”

Republicans picked South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley to respond to President Obama’s State of the Union Address next week because the charismatic conservative, only months after deftly managing the removal of the Confederate flag from state Capitol grounds, is one of party’s most likeable and talented politicians.

As many of those same Republicans see it, those are the same reasons Haley should sit atop anyone’s short list of vice presidential prospects – regardless of who wins the Republican nomination. Already, weeks before the Iowa caucuses, speculation has intensified that Haley’s rebuttal next week is a showcase for a politician destined to reach a bigger national stage this summer.

More on this story here.

HILLARY CLINTON PLAYS THE ELECTABILITY CARD
CNN Politics says, “Hillary Clinton has seemingly found the sweet spot in her stump speech in the first few days of 2016, preaching a sense of urgency at all of her events in Iowa and New Hampshire this week while hitting Republicans for their policies and casting herself as the only Democrat who can stop them from winning the White House.”

By doing so, Clinton is able to focus almost entirely on a message that will work in the general election, while also pegging Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, her chief Democratic rival, as unelectable.

More on her “electability message” at this link.

FORD CENTER AT THE STAR
That’s the fancy name for the Dallas Cowboys’ new headquarters and training facility in the suburb of Frisco that will be the largest in the NFL.

Sitting on 91 acres in this fast-growing suburb, the Star will include 510,000 square feet for the team’s offices and training facilities and a 12,000-seat indoor stadium that will be shared with the eight high schools in Frisco. The Cowboys will also have two outdoor practice fields.

To bring high-end fans closer to the team, Jones is adding the Cowboys Club at the Star, a members-only club with a dining room that overlooks the outdoor practice fields. Cowboys Fit at the Star, a gym, will allow members to train near the players and Cowboys cheerleaders. Legends, the hospitality business owned jointly by the Cowboys and the Yankees, will book events.

As The New York Times reports, “Jerry Jones does not do small,” and this facility is another proof of that. Take a look and learn more about this amazing complex, by following this link.

WHAT WILL YOU DO IF YOU WIN?
This Saturday could be an all-time high Power Ball drawing. We’ve all thought about the exotic things we would do if we win the big one, but have you given much thought about managing all that money?

If you win it, you won’t ever have to worry about money again, right?

Wrong.

With good money management you and your heirs could live handsomely for many, many years. But from the moment you claim that prize, you will be descended upon by vultures who want a hefty helping of those winnings. And if you didn’t have smart money habits up until now, you could easily turn out to be your own worst enemy by quickly squandering the fortune.

So before anything else, here are “10 Things to Do If You Win the Lottery” from Forbes.

A WORLD WITH ENVIRONMENTAL SENSORS EVERYWHERE
Fast Company posts, “As sensors become small and cheap, we’re creating a global network of environmental data collection to help us figure out the best ways to quickly cut emissions.”

In a report from last year that Tratz-Ryan co-wrote, Gartner estimated that by 2019, “citizen environmentalists” will have deployed more personal sensors, measuring things like air and water pollution, than governments have in countries with well developed economies.

Learn more about these sensors and how they will affect the future at this link.