New Jersey workers – both employed and unemployed – can now access more than 5,000 free online Skillsoft courses via the SkillUp New Jersey training program.
Courses are offered in a variety of high-demand industry sectors, including information technology, business analysis, customer service, project management, and digital literacy.
Course content ranges from basic work readiness skills for new workers to tailored training for high-level professionals and management. Offerings include Customer Service, Microsoft Office, Adobe, Quick Books, Analytical Skills, Data Management/Reporting, Time Management, Leadership Skills, Health & Safety, and First Aid, among many others.read more
WASHINGTON — On Tuesday, House co-sponsors of the American Privacy Rights Act (APRA) reportedly will announce a hearing on Thursday to mark up the legislation in the Energy and Commerce Committee. A discussion draft of APRA was first released in April.
The most recent draft no longer includes critical civil-rights protections that are needed to ensure that even when companies collect information for a necessary purpose, they are not allowed to use it to discriminate against individuals and communities.
The co-sponsors of this latest version of APRA, Energy and Commerce Committee Chairwoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers and Ranking Member Frank Pallone, struck language that explicitly prohibited such data-driven discrimination and that required AI-impact assessments. The new draft also introduces a broad exemption for “on-device” data even as more and more devices, from watches to cars, collect information on their users. Also on Tuesday, in response to these bill changes, a coalition of civil- and privacy-rights groups called on committee leadership to postpone the hearing and to restore these provisions.
Free Press Action opposes APRA as currently written, and calls on members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee to oppose the legislation unless its sponsors restore these vital civil-rights provisions and strengthen other privacy protections.
Free Press Action VP of Policy and General Counsel Matt Wood said:
“Rampant, virtually unchecked harvesting of personal data enables and exacerbates discrimination against people on the basis of race, gender, immigration status, medical conditions and more. This data-driven discrimination will only pose greater risks as companies and governments increasingly adopt algorithmic decision-making tools, particularly given the recent rush to both develop and adopt AI products.
“Free Press Action has long called for and supported efforts to advance comprehensive federal privacy legislation. We’re overdue for enforceable federal protections against the extraction and exploitation of our personal data for profit, as well as the use of our data to target and discriminate against specific individuals and communities. But this latest version of APRA is the wrong approach.
“APRA contains important measures to minimize the collection, transfer and sale of personal data, including highly sensitive biometric and genetic information. But removing anti-discrimination provisions — as well as people’s ability to opt out of algorithmic decision-making implicating their access to critical services such as housing, health care or education — is unacceptable. It’s not good enough today, and it would create a bad precedent for privacy legislation going forward at both the state and federal levels.
“It’s worrying to see members of Congress back away from key civil-rights provisions in an attempt to appease extremists who oppose these safeguards. Congress must restore this essential language to the bill so that we can have privacy legislation that protects everyone from discrimination.”
Background: A national poll that the African American Research Collaborative and BSP Research conducted for Free Press found that 78 percent of Americans are concerned that technology companies will sell their personal information to marketing companies. The poll found that 76 percent are concerned that foreign countries are collecting their personal information. In addition, 37 percent of all poll respondents said they had received a letter from a company informing them that their data had been stolen.read more
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) has announced expanded flexibility and accommodations for COVID EIDL and PPP borrowers to help bring them into compliance and avoid the repercussions of defaulting on a government loan.
For COVID EIDL and PPP borrowers with loans under $100,000, the SBA has implemented a 60-day goodwill exception period starting January 1 and lasting through March 3, 2024. During this period, the SBA will build on its extensive outreach to affected businesses to ensure that PPP borrowers know how to apply for forgiveness and COVID EIDL borrowers are aware of all repayment options — including the opportunity for hardship repayment plans. Further, the SBA will refrain from escalating collections activities until after the goodwill exemption period.read more
TRENTON – On 23 November 2023, the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development (NJDOL) announced the availability of $10 million in funding through the UPSKILL: NJ Incumbent Worker Training Grant to help employers further train existing workers.
The FY24 funds will be competitively awarded to New Jersey employers to reimburse up to 50 percent of their cost for training frontline employees to meet current and future occupational skills needed for mid- and high-skill jobs. read more
The grandson of a survivor of the Tulsa massacre is a senior program manager at the National Museum of African American History and Culture, where now resides the manuscript detailing the Tulsa, Oklahoma massacre and its impact on Black Wall Street residents. It is a first person account written by attorney Buck Colbert Franklin (1879-1960), who survived the massacre although his law practice was burned to the ground.“I could see planes circling in mid-air. They grew in number and hummed, darted and dipped low. I could hear something like hail falling upon the top of my office building. Down East Archer, I saw the old Mid-Way hotel on fire, burning from its top, and then another and another and another building began to burn from their top,” he wrote. read more
