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Mid-day Update

PODCAST: Insider trading bill passes, World Water Day app

Mary Dooe Mar 23, 2012
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U.S. President Barack Obama signs the payroll tax bill in the Oval Office December 23, 2011 in Washington, D.C. He has said he will also sign off on the new inside trading bill passed in Congress. Dennis Brack-Pool/Getty Images
Mid-day Update

PODCAST: Insider trading bill passes, World Water Day app

Mary Dooe Mar 23, 2012
U.S. President Barack Obama signs the payroll tax bill in the Oval Office December 23, 2011 in Washington, D.C. He has said he will also sign off on the new inside trading bill passed in Congress. Dennis Brack-Pool/Getty Images
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Congress sent The STOCK Act to President Obama’s desk. It bans lawmakers from making stock trades based on non-public information.

Limivady in Northern Ireland is the birthplace of the song Danny Boy. According to the Belfast Telegraph, one lawmaker there wants to play that song over the town’s loudspeaker every day at lunch time.

T-Mobile is doing some restructuring in the wake of its failed merger with AT&T. The telecom giant is closing seven call centers and laying off about 1900 workers.

World Water Day was this week and there’s an app for that. If you’re one of the modest types who likes to run a faucet while you’re in the bathroom. A Brazilian non-profit and ad agency Leo Burnett have developed an app that makes a shower sound and when you’re finished, Fake Shower tells you how many gallons of water you saved by not running a real shower.

It seems just about every business has been trying to move into China. The home shopping channel is making the jump. QVC is teaming up with a Chinese radio broadcaster and hopes to reach 195 million Chinese households. It reaches about 100 million households in this country. I wonder if China is readyfor all of that cubic zirconia?

President Obama is just about to announce his pick to head the World Bank. Word is it’s the President of Dartmouth College — a guy named Jim Yong Kim.

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