JULIA LOVE AND ALEXANDRIA SAGE MAY 26, 2016 AAP Apple Inc is investigating how to charge electric cars, talking to charging station companies and hiring engineers with expertise in the area, according to people familiar with the matter and a review of LinkedIn profiles. For more than a year, Silicon Valley has been buzzing about Apple’s plan to build an electric car. Now the company appears to be laying the groundwork for the infrastructure and related software crucial to powering such a product. The moves show Apple responding to a key shortcoming of electric vehicles: “filling up” the batteries. A shortage of public charging stations, and the hours wasted in charging a car, could be an opportunity for Apple, whose simple designs have transformed consumer electronics. Apple, which has never publicly acknowledged a car project, declined to comment for this story. Neither the LinkedIn profiles nor sources said specifically that…

AAP MAY 26, 2016 Shoppers will no longer be slugged with excessive surcharges on credit card payments under new rules set out by the Reserve Bank. From September 1, surcharges will be limited to the amount it costs the retailer to accept a card for a transaction. “Merchants will not be able to impose high fixed-amount surcharges on low-value transactions, as has been typical for airlines,” the RBA said.

Jeff Rogut It is interesting that the US is able to use a combination of methods, including public education and allowing greater access to eCigarettes, to reduce adult smoking without having to resort to draconian practices such as plain packaging for tobacco or the exorbitant excise increases we see in Australia. Cigarette Smoking by Adults Dropped in 2015, C.D.C. Survey Says CHRISTINE HAUSER MAY 25, 2016 The New York Times The C.D.C. report also said the percentage of current cigarette smokers was higher among men (16.7 percent) than women (13.6 percent). Credit Paul Sancya/Associated Press Cigarette smoking is declining among adults in the United States, according to a national survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The report published this week, the C.D.C.’s 2015 National Health Interview Survey, said the percentage of adults aged 18 and over who were cigarette smokers in 2015 was 15.1 percent, down from…

Mathew Dunckley May 26, 2016 The Age The employment watchdog has urged workers and companies to take advantage of a new anonymous tip-off service to dob in businesses that rip off their staff. Fair Work Ombudsman Natalie James will use a speech on Friday to make a plea for greater assistance from the community in reining in wage fraud in the wake of celebrated cases such as 7-Eleven and Baiada. Of course we won’t be storming into a business on the basis of one anonymous tip off. Fair Work Ombudsman Natalie James “Compliance with workplace laws isn’t just my business, it’s everyone’s business – when workers get ripped off, everyone is affected,” she will say in the speech, a copy of which was provided to Fairfax Media. “I’ve had enough of hearing about workers getting paid $10 an hour, so I am putting the call out to the whole community…

26 May 2016 The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission will begin enforcing the ban on excessive surcharges for large merchants on 1 September 2016. Earlier today, the Reserve Bank of Australia Payments System Board (PSB) published its Standard which relates to surcharges by merchants when charging customers for the use of a credit or debit card. Surcharges will be excessive where they exceed the permitted cost of acceptance, as defined in the Standard. “In short, the new provisions will limit the amount businesses can surcharge customers for use of payment methods such as most credit and debit cards. The limit will be linked to the direct costs of the payment method such as bank fees and terminal costs,” ACCC Chairman Rod Sims said. The Standard defines what businesses are able to include in setting a surcharge and sets out a two-staged implementation, with the ban commencing on 1 September 2016…