Tag: Holidays

Compliance Bits and Pieces for April 1

Here are some compliance related stories that caught my eye:

Playmobil Apple Store Playset from ThinkGeek

So when we spotted this amazing Apple Store Playset from PLAYMOBIL™ we were admittedly in a bit of a conundrum. On the one hand, it’s a product designed for children much younger than ourselves. On the other hand, it’s a tiny representation of the store which sells us all the shiny Apple goodies we can’t resist. Then we noticed that the PLAYMOBIL™ iStore includes amazingly tiny iPhones, Macbooks, and iPads. Our resolve began to waver. A quick peek at the miniature Genius Bar and we were feeling a bit woozy. Then we saw the tiny Steve Jobs presenting in the Keynote Theater on the top floor and that was it. Our wallets popped out faster than you can say Jonathan Ive and we plunked down whatever money was needed to own this amazing playset.

Of course, once we had the playset, we had to get the optional Line Pack to simulate our own exciting Apple product launches. Since it comes with a tiny Woz on a tiny Segway, it was a no-brainer. We decided that Apple & PLAYMOBIL™ together is the most unlikely and awesome collaboration ever. It changes everything.

Real Estate Fund Managers No Longer Need to Worry About SEC Registration from Shearman and Sterling

The financial reform legislation currently before the U.S. Congress, including the bill passed Friday by the House of Representatives, targets hedge fund managers, but would not strip away an exemption from U.S. investment adviser registration rules that is important to real estate fund managers as well. If real estate-focused fund managers were required to become registered investment advisers under the U.S. Investment Advisers Act of 1940, they would find that compliance with the Advisers Act can impose significant burdens and expense.

French Data Protection Act Revoked

Anonymous hotline rules change.

STOCK Act Passes, banning Insider Trading by Members of Congress

The new law sponsored by Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.) prohibits members of Congress and federal employees from profiting, or helping others profit, from non-public information—primarily through stock and futures trading—gleaned through their access to privileged, political-based information.

UK Justice Minister Says They are too Busy to Prosecute Under the Bribery Act

“I welcome the Government’s published guidance on the Bribery Act, but the Act is not important for the UK and UK business.  We shall not be enforcing the Act, although we are still keen to listen to the specific issues that companies have and to work with them to resolve problems pragmatically and fairly. We have better ways to spend out time.”

Did I get these stories right? What day is it?

Celebrate Valentine’s Day with a Regulatory Twist

As someone who stares at a lot of regulations, this Valentine’s Day message caught my eye. If you are a fan of NPR, they have several other ways to share Valentine’s Day with an NPR flavor.

And don’t forget about the compliance issues you can run into. Dan Schwartz compiled a bunch of bungled romance issues in Employers: Think Your Competition is Tough? Watch Out for the Valentine’s Day Card.

UPDATE: The obscene and indecent material restriction is 47 C.F.R. 73.3999.

Happy New Year

New Year’s Eve is generally a time to reflect on the past and look forward to the future. For many it also involves an excessive amount of alcohol, an expensive dinner in a crowded restaurant, or a long wait for Chinese food delivery.

I’m sure there is a compliance story in there somewhere. But I’m just going to enjoy taking some time off. Enjoy the end of your year and the start of the next.

Happy Thanksgiving

That means an extra long weekend for me.

Down the road at Plimouth Plantation they hold onto the belief that the first Thanksgiving in the United States happened in 1621 at their location:

The history of Thanksgiving goes much further back than Plymouth and 1621. In fact, people across the world from every culture have been celebrating and giving thanks for thousands of years. In this country, long before English colonists arrived, Native People celebrated many different days of thanksgiving. “Strawberry Thanksgiving” and “Green Corn Thanksgiving” are just two of kinds of celebrations for the Wampanoag and other Native People.

In 1621, the English colonists at Plymouth (some people call them “Pilgrims” today) had a three-day feast to celebrate their first harvest. More than 90 native Wampanoag People joined the 50 English colonists in the festivities. Historians don­t know for sure why the Wampanoag joined the gathering or what activities went on for those three days. Form the one short paragraph that was written about the celebration at the time, we know that they ate, drank, and played games. Back in England, English people celebrated the harvest by feasting and playing games in much the same way.

The English did not call the 1621 event a “thanksgiving.” A day of “thanksgiving” was very different for the colonists. It was a day of prayer to thank God when something really good happened. The English actually had their first thanksgiving in the summer of 1623. On this day they gave thanks for the rain that ended a long drought.

Enjoy the long weekend, if you can.

The First Thanksgiving by Jean Leon Gerome Ferris

Salute a Veteran

U.S. President Woodrow Wilson first proclaimed an Armistice Day for November 11, 1919.

“To us in America, the reflections of Armistice Day will be filled with solemn pride in the heroism of those who died in the country’s service and with gratitude for the victory, both because of the thing from which it has freed us and because of the opportunity it has given America to show her sympathy with peace and justice in the councils of the nations…”

The United States Congress passed a resolution seven years later on June 4, 1926, requesting the President issue another proclamation to observe November 11 with appropriate ceremonies. An Act approved May 13, 1938, made the 11th of November in each year a legal holiday:

“a day to be dedicated to the cause of world peace and to be thereafter celebrated and known as ‘Armistice Day’.”

Congress amended this act on November 8, 1954, replacing “Armistice” with Veterans, and it has been known as Veterans Day since.

My thoughts go out to Marine Corps Sergeant Jason Cohen, currently serving.

Enjoy Columbus Day

Replicas of the Pinta, Santa Maria, Nina, lying in the North River, New York. The caravels which crossed from Spain to be present at the World's Fair at Chicago.

I’m enjoying Columbus Day. School is closed and the office is closed.

The Chicago World’s Fair in 1893 celebrated the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus’s arrival in the New World in 1492.

The Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria Come to the World’s Columbian Exposition

During the fair, replicas of the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria were moored in the south lagoon of Jackson Park.

William Curtis, an official with the U.S. State Department in Spain, had proposed the idea of building replicas of Columbus’s caravels. A commission was established in Spain to build the ships and sail them to Chicago, site of the World Columbian Exposition marking the 400th anniversary of Columbus’ voyage.

Building the Santa Maria went smoothly, but the construction on the Nina and the Pinta which Americans in Spain were building, went more slowly. Instead of building new ships, the builders used the hulls of two rotting ships for the replicas of the Nina and Pinta.

The Santa Maria was finished and sea worthy by July 1892, but officials ruled that the Nina and the Pinta were not sea worthy. The Santa Maria sailed for Puerto Rico under its own steam, while two United States Navy ships towed the Nina and Pinta from Spain. All three of the replica ships were towed through the St. Lawrence River and the Great Lakes to Chicago.

After the fair, the three ships were turned over to the City of Chicago. Tourists still came to see and tour them, but the city of Chicago didn’t maintain them. The city of Chicago decided to use them in the ceremonies for the opening of the Panama Canal, sailing them from Chicago to the new Panama Canal.

The three ships ran into rough seas on Lake Michigan. The Nina and the Pinta managed to reach the shores of Lake Erie, where they had to be beached and eventually towed back to Chicago. The Santa Maria struggled on to Boston.

The idea then became to show of the ship at ports along the East Coast. But the crowds did not come.

The Pinta sank at its moorings and in 1919. The Nina caught fire and sank. In 1920, the Santa Maria was rebuilt and drew tourists until 1951, when it, too, burned.

Sources:

Fourth of July and Compliance

With the Fourth of July on Sunday, most businesses are closed on July 5th. (We hate to waste a good holiday.) What better way to celebrate the independence of the United States than by taking the day off from work and watching stuff blow up.

In colonial times, official proclamations were read from the Old State House balcony, looking down State Street towards Long Wharf.

Each July 4th, the Captain Commanding of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company reads the Declaration of Independence from the balcony of the Old State House. The reading of the Declaration of Independence dates back to July 18, 1776, when Colonel Thomas Crafts performed this duty for the first time.

Old State House

In this image, USS Constitution Sailor of the Year, Navy Counselor 1st Class Paul Grunder (at mic) leads a crowd of thousands in the Pledge of Allegiance at the Old State House in Boston on the morning of July 4th, 2009. Also on the balcony assigned to Old Ironsides are Storekeeper 1st Class Benjamin Hanson (left) and Electrician’s Mate 1st Class Michael Pendergraft.

Sources:

Happy Evacuation Day!

March 17th may mean Saint Patrick’s Day to most of you. Here in Boston it’s Evacuation Day.

The holiday commemorates the evacuation of British forces from the city of Boston following the Siege of Boston, early in the American Revolutionary War. (It’s just a coincidence that it coincides with Saint Patrick’s Day.)

George Washington fortified Dorchester Heights in early March 1776 with cannons. Major General Henry Knox had captured the cannons from Fort Ticonderoga. The garrison and navy under the command of British General William Howe were threatened by these cannon positions. Howe had to decide between attack and retreat. Howe chose to retreat and withdrew from Boston and sailed off to Nova Scotia on March 17.

George Washington had his first victory of the Revolutionary war.