On a recent afternoon, Roger Erickson’s garage was stuffed from top to bottom. Along with three Triumph automobiles in varying stages of repair, two motorcycles and a dirt bike, he had a typewriter disassembled on a table, a cherished family Christmas ornament sitting safely in a box and an antique chandelier waiting for its owner to pick it up.

Roger’s Shop is another name for this brimming full space on Monte Sano where Erickson fixes stuff. It’s a place where he takes on jobs, as his business card says, that no one else will do.“These folks were at their wit’s end,” Erickson said, showing the lighted porcelain angel Christmas tree topper he had recently repaired with a new strand of lights. “They truly loved that little piece.”

Erickson, 70, got in the fix-it business shortly before he retired as a contractor for the U.S. Army in January 2011. He had just built a foundry he could make small metal pieces with, and a co-worker asked him if he could fix a metal statue of a deer that had a broken leg. When he was done with it, “you couldn’t tell where the break was,” Erickson said.

His co-worker’s mother got in touch not long after that with another project, another deer statue that a tree had fallen on. This was a large piece and a real challenge to figure out, Erickson said. He managed to fix it and even better than new because he adjusted the legs so the piece wouldn’t tip over as easily as it had.

The co-worker’s mother kept Erickson busy for months with items she had tried to get other people to fix, and a business was born. Neighbors, friends and jobs he has picked up by word of mouth keep him busy these days. Richard’s Lighting also sends him customers who need things like a lighted Christmas ornament or an antique railroad lamp fixed.

He has tackled jobs as big as restoring a Triumph automobile to as small as shortening the rod on an antique chandelier by nine inches. He did the Triumph job in exchange for four more of the British roadsters, three of which he sold and one of which he added to his own collection of the vehicles. He’s repairing the rear fender and other metal parts of a late 1950s Morgan automobile a customer is restoring.

Erickson hasn’t taken on this post-retirement work to keep busy. He’s likes to hunt and hike along with other pastimes. He recently followed a Peace Corp worker who is the son of a friend on a hike through Panama.

He takes on these projects because they’re a great mental challenge. He likes learning as much as he can about an object and understanding how it works.“I’ll do some research to find more what the heck I’m working on because that’s part of the fun,” Erickson said. “You have to have a micro-education to fix some of this stuff.”

The typewriter in his garage was a job for some neighbors, Kyle and Delia Siegrist, who had bought it for their daughter, Heidi. She’s a writer and had wanted to have an old-fashioned typewriter to compose on.

Not only did Erickson take apart the typewriter, which was dirty and had sticky keys, but he found a red and black Remington ribbon online for the Super Riter Standard machine. It’s the kind Superman used in his Clark Kent-reporter alter-ego on the 1960s television show. Erickson had that information, along with the fact the typewriter was made in France in 1960, printed out for the Siegrists.

Erickson did the same thing for Nancy Hallman when he fixed an antique railway lantern Hallman’s grandfather used when he worked for the Frisco Railroad. The lantern sat outside at her aunt’s house for more than 30 years and “had rust, it was corroded, parts were bent,” Hallman said. She had no idea how to have it fixed, much less in time to give the lantern to her mother this past Mother’s Day. She walked into Richard’s Lighting with the lamp, and they said “’You know, we don’t do anything like this, but there’s this man,’” Hallman said.

Hallman made a trip up the mountain with the lantern, and brought it back down a few weeks later completely restored, mounted on a custom-made stand and with a plaque noting the history of the lamp. Her mother was “ecstatic” about the lantern, which she couldn’t believe was the same, rusted lantern that had been at her sister’s house, Hallman said. Erickson had even repaired the lamp to include a kerosene canister, in case the family ever wanted to use it as it had been in Hallman’s grandfather’s day.

Erickson credits his years first as a radar technician in the U.S. Navy and then his work as a project manager, after he got his Bachelor’s in industrial management and his MBA, for his ability to figure out how things should work.

“Remember, I was a technician first, and I grew up on a farm in Minnesota where you fix everything that breaks,” he said. “As a technician, I would take designs from engineers and make them work.”

The kind of work he does now “is more about research and getting smart about what you’re doing,” Erickson said. “Doing stuff like this without the internet would be really difficult.”

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A Darlington cleaning firm is using its recent contract wins to invest heavily to help with its growth in the coming year.

MJF Cleaning Services provides a range of commercial cleaning services for businesses and organisations such as bars, offices, restaurants, hospitals, doctors and dentists’ surgeries, schools and building companies.

The business recently clinched new contracts with some prestigious names including Shepherd Construction, Darlington Council and St George’s Park, the home of the National Football Centre and is now making major investment as it plans to expand into the North West and create around 80 jobs in the coming year.

MJF has recently renovated its headquarters in Darlington town centre and increased the space to 100 square meters.In addition, it has invested heavily in its marketing operations, such as its website, and taken on four new staff including an HR manager, two sales executives and a telesales operator.

MJF’s expansion will not only secure jobs for its team of over 100 staff and create around 80 new positions in the coming year, but also see a new office open close to the M62 in 2014.

Darlington entrepreneur, Martin Ferguson, established MJF Cleaning Services in 2006 whilst working as a domestic window cleaner. Since starting with just two members of staff, MJF has gone on to create around 125 jobs as it secured prestigious contracts with companies such as Shepherd Construction, Rockliffe Hall, Narec, JD Wetherspoon, Cleveland Cable and Tolent Construction.

As well as daily office, commercial and specialist industrial cleaning services, MJF carries out large and small scale cleaning projects such as carpet and upholstery cleaning, window and high-level cleaning and clean-downs on construction sites ahead of handovers to stone mosaic.

Speaking about the investment, Martin Ferguson said: “Our biggest investment will always be in our staff- all of whom are local- as they are the most important part of what we do and keep our business growing. The new HQ offices needed a revamp as we’ve got more staff than we anticipated at this stage in our development and the marketing investment is essential if we want to continually seek out new contracts and compete on a national scale.”

The storms that blew through the Twin Cities late last week continued to cause havoc Monday. In many neighborhoods, trees still littered yards. Tens of thousands of residents had no electricity. Several South Minneapolis shops remained closed. And residents were frustrated.

After spending the night at a friend’s place, Walz returned to his home in the Longfellow neighborhood Monday to check on his house and pick up a basketball. He has no idea when electricity will be restored.

The tree apparently knocked out power for several neighbors, including a nearby cafe, before landing on a car Friday. It had yet to be cleared Monday afternoon.

The amount of damage caused by the storm continues to mount. At the worst, nearly 610,000 Xcel Energy customers were without power. By Tuesday morning, about 97 percent of people who had lost power during the storm had regained it — the number without power was reduced to 19,000 by 11 a.m.

The cleanup will be an immense project. St. Paul officials estimate it will be weeks before the city has completely cleared the damage. But the bruising round of weekend weather continues with more thunderstorms expected this week.

The loss of power caused chaos for grocery stores, restaurants and other businesses with perishable goods in stock. While some small businesses, such as the Fireroast Cafe in south Minneapolis, remained closed Monday, others had to throw out spoiled food.

But the power loss ramped up demand for diesel fuel to keep backup generators running. Kevin Harvey, owner of Diesel Dogs Fuel Service in St. Paul, said his customers consumed about twice as much fuel as they would have on a typical weekend.The company worked long hours to supply a fleet of about 170 utilities and repair trucks that was busy cleaning up downed trees and limbs.

City crews will help homeowners — but not tree trimming businesses — remove tree debris stacked on public boulevards. Items must be placed on the boulevards no later than Friday. The goal is to have the storm cleanup finished by July 12, the city said in a statement.Roseville declared a state of emergency Saturday morning after the storms knocked down more than 500 trees in the city. About half of residents lost power, said Pat Trudgeon, Roseville’s interim city manager.

Those who are able to clear debris on their own can take it to any of Ramsey County’s yard waste sites. Otherwise, residents can place trees or brush on their curb July 8 for pickup by the city, Trudgeon said.

Yesterday was the wedding of nephew Noah and Ruby in northern Indiana. They had a big wedding, with lots of friends and family attending from various communities in Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Missouri, New York, Wisconsin, Kentucky and possibly more states.

I went to help prepare for the wedding on Saturday. We cut up and cleaned 400 pounds of chicken and baked pecan pies. The rhubarb and blueberry pies were baked on Monday. A total of more than 90 pies were baked for the wedding. On Monday, daughter Elizabeth and I finished sewing our wedding dresses for the wedding. It sure was a relief to get those done.

A quarter-million Brazilians took to the streets in the latest a wave of sometimes-violent protests that are increasingly focusing on corruption and reforming a government system in which people have lost faith. A new poll shows that 75 percent of citizens support the demonstrations.

The turnout in Saturday’s protests was lower than the 1 million participants seen on Thursday and there was less violence. But in the city of Belo Horizonte police used tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse protesters who tried to pass through a barrier and hurled rocks at a car dealership. The city of Salvador also saw demonstrations turn violent.

The protests have become the largest public demonstrations Latin America’s biggest nation has seen in two decades. They began as opposition to transportation fare hikes, then became a laundry list of causes including anger at high taxes, poor services and World Cup spending, before coalescing around the issue of rampant government corruption.

Many protesters were not appeased by a prime-time television address Friday night by President Dilma Rousseff, who said that peaceful protests were welcome and emphasized that she would not condone corruption. She also said she would meet with movement leaders and create a plan to improve urban transportation and use oil royalties for investments in education.

“Dilma is underestimating the resolve of the people on the corruption issue,” said Mayara Fernandes, a medical student who took part in a march in Sao Paulo. “She talked and talked and said nothing. Nobody can take the corruption of this country anymore.”

A new poll published Saturday in the weekly magazine Epoca showed that three-quarters of Brazilians support the protests. The poll was carried out by the respected Ibope institute. It interviewed 1,008 people across Brazil June 16-20 and has a margin of error of 3 percentage points.

On Saturday, protesters denounced congressional legislation, known as PEC 37, that would limit the power of federal prosecutors to investigate crimes – which many fear would hinder attempts to jail corrupt politicians.

Federal prosecutors were behind the investigation into the biggest corruption case in Brazil’s history, the so-called “mensalao” cash-for-votes scheme that came to light in 2005 and involved top aides of former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva buying off members of congress to vote for their legislation.

Last year, the supreme court condemned two dozen people in connection to the case, which was hailed as a watershed moment in Brazil’s fight against corruption. However, those condemned have yet to be jailed because of appeals, a delay that has enraged Brazilians.

“It was good Dilma spoke, but this movement has moved too far, there was not much she could really say,” said Victoria Villela, a 21-year-old university student in the Sao Paulo protest. “All my friends were talking on Facebook about how she said nothing that satisfied them. I think the protests are going to continue for a long time and the crowds will still be huge.”

Across Brazil, police estimated that about 60,000 demonstrators gathered in a central square in Belo Horizonte, 30,000 shut down a main business avenue in Sao Paulo, and another 30,000 gathered in the city in southern Brazil where a nightclub fire killed over 240 mostly university students, deaths many argued could have been avoided with better government oversight of fire laws.

Tens of thousands more protested in more than 100 Brazilian cities, bringing the nationwide total on Saturday to 250,000, according to a police count published on the website of the Globo TV network, Brazil’s largest.

In the northeastern city of Salvador, where Brazil’s national football team played Italy and won 4-2 in a Confederations Cup match, some 5,000 protesters gathered about 3 miles (5 kilometers) from the stadium, shouting demands for better schools and transportation and denouncing heavy spending on next year’s World Cup.

They blocked a main road and clashed with riot police who moved in to clear the street. Protesters said police used rubber bullets and even tossed tear gas canisters from a helicopter hovering overhead. The protesters scattered and fled to a nearby shopping mall, where they tried to take shelter in an underground parking garage.

“We sat down and the police came and asked us to free up one lane for traffic. As we were organizing our group to do just that, the police lost their patience and began to shoot at us and throw (tear gas) canisters,” said protester Rodrigo Dorado.

That was exactly the type of conflict Rousseff said needed to end, not just so Brazilians could begin a peaceful national discussion but because much of the violence is taking place in cities hosting foreign tourists attending the Confederations Cup.

Brazil’s news media, which had blasted Rousseff in recent days for her lack of response to the protests, seemed largely unimpressed with her careful speech, but noted the difficult situation facing a government trying to understand a mass movement with no central leaders and a flood of demands.

With “no objective information about the nature of the organization of the protests,” wrote Igor Gielow in a column for Brazil’s biggest newspaper, Folha de S. Paulo, “Dilma resorted to an innocuous speech to cool down spirits.”

Outside the stadium in Belo Horizonte where Mexico and Japan met in a Confederations Cup game, Dadiana Gamaleliel, a 32-year-old physiotherapist, held up a banner that read: “Not against the games, in favor of the nation.”

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On Thursday, June 13, 2013, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”) released a draft guidance on measures to help ensure the cybersecurity of medical devices. The draft guidance, titled “Content of Premarket Submissions for Management of Cybersecurity in Medical Devices,” proposes cybersecurity features that should be incorporated into wireless, Internet- and network-connected medical devices (“cybersecurity-vulnerable devices”), as well as information that will be requested in premarket submissions for cybersecurity-vulnerable devices. In addition to the draft guidance, FDA also issued an FDA Safety Communication to medical device manufacturers, hospitals, medical device user facilities, health care IT and procurements staff, and biomedical engineers on cybersecurity for medical devices and hospital networks.

Cybersecurity vulnerability has been an increasing concern for medical devices. A Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”) intelligence bulletin issued in May 2012 noted that “[t]hese vulnerabilities may result in possible risks to patient safety and theft or loss of medical information.” One of the issues noted by the DHS is that “system owners may be reluctant to allow manufacturers access for upgrades or updates.” This reluctance arises out of concerns about access to “sensitive or privacy information,” where the “[f]ailure to install updates lays a foundation for increasingly ineffective threat mitigation as time passes.”

The draft guidance notes that manufacturers of cybersecurity-vulnerable devices should ensure confidentiality, integrity, and availability of data. Although FDA’s draft guidance and safety communication make no mention of either the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), or the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH), compliance with HIPAA and HITECH may be one of the standards by which FDA evaluates device cybersecurity. While device manufacturers are generally not subject to HIPAA and HITECH, [1] they have become increasingly sensitive to the needs of customers that must themselves be compliant with these laws.

The draft guidance identifies a number of features that cybersecurity-vulnerable devices are recommended to incorporate. These features fall within three general categories addressing limiting access to trusted users, ensuring trusted content, and incorporating fail safe and recovery features. Some of the features include requiring authentication of users through a user ID and password, smartcard, or biometric, and using data encryption.

Along with the recommended features, the draft guidance also identifies information that should be included in a device premarket submission. This draws upon the extensive information that is already provided in submissions for medical devices that contain software. In particular, the draft guidance recommends that the hazard analysis provided in the submission include the identified cybersecurity risks and the controls put in place to mitigate those risks. The product life-cycle plan should include a discussion on how validated updates and patches to operating systems or medical device software will be provided. The instructions for use are also recommended to include information on appropriate anti-virus software and firewall settings.

One concern raised by the draft guidance and the safety communication is how to handle reporting of cybersecurity modifications to medical device software. Whenever medical device software is updated, manufacturers must address whether the update is reportable as a correction or removal under 21 C.F.R. part 806, and whether the update requires the filing of a new premarket submission with FDA. In FDA’s previous guidance on cybersecurity, “Cybersecurity for Networked Medical Devices Containing Off-the-Shelf (OTS) Software,” issued on January 14, 2005, FDA noted that manufacturers would generally not report a cybersecurity patch as a correction or removal, “because most software patches are installed to reduce the risk of developing a problem associated with a cybersecurity vulnerability and not to address a risk to health posed by the device.” Similarly, in addressing whether premarket review would be required prior to implementation of a software patch to address a cybersecurity vulnerability, FDA’s previous guidance noted that manufacturers would “[u]sually not” be required to provide a submission for review given that “review is [generally] necessary when a change or modification could significantly affect the safety or effectiveness of the medical device.”

FDA’s safety communication suggests that FDA may be in the process of reconsidering the impact that cybersecurity vulnerabilities have on device safety and effectiveness. The safety communication notes that “[c]ybersecurity incidents are increasingly likely,” and that FDA believes such “cybersecurity vulnerabilities and incidents . . . could directly impact medical devices or hospital network operations.” Despite this increased focus, FDA has not rescinded its prior guidance “Cybersecurity for Networked Medical Devices Containing Off-the-Shelf (OTS) Software,” and noted in the recent safety communication that “FDA typically does not need to review or approve medical device software changes made solely to strengthen cybersecurity.”

Manufacturers currently marketing cybersecurity-vulnerable devices should conduct a comprehensive review of their marketed devices for any potential cybersecurity threats. It is likely that the issue of cybersecurity will be a part of FDA medical device establishment inspections. Further, FDA’s recent safety communication suggests that “manufacturers should consider [developing] incident response plans that address the possibility of degraded operation and efficient restoration and recovery” caused by cybersecurity vulnerabilities.

Manufacturers currently developing cybersecurity-vulnerable devices should cover cybersecurity risks during the design control process required under 21 C.F.R. 820.30. It is possible that FDA’s draft guidance may be finalized this year. Even if the guidance remains in draft form, the recommendations may potentially be incorporated into FDA’s premarket review.

Health care facilities are recommended to take steps to evaluate network security and protect hospital networks from cybersecurity risks. This includes monitoring network activity for unauthorized use, and updating security patches and disabling all unnecessary ports and services for each individual network component.

Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP has extensive experience with the regulation of medical device software, including the design process, and software validation. Our attorneys can help to develop a cybersecurity incident response plan, and advise on preparing premarket submissions for cybersecurity-vulnerable devices. Sheppard Mullin can also counsel covered entities and Business Associates subject to HIPAA and HITECH on addressing cybersecurity risks introduced by medical devices.

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Over the past eight years EMV (Europay, MasterCard, and Visa) has become the standard for globally interoperable, secure payments. According to EMVCo, there are over 1.55 billion EMV enabled cards worldwide and more than 21 million EMV enabled POS terminals, representing some 45% of total cards in circulation and 76% of payment terminals, respectively. Ironically, while the U.S. is typically a driver of new technologies in terms of both development and adoption, we are just now preparing for a forthcoming shift to EMV. In fact, EMV is just one of an important — and opportunistic — wave of new technologies entering the marketplace that resellers and developers need to know. Following are the top five informational updates that you should understand about EMV and how they impact your business.

EMV is a global standard for debit and credit cards that leverages chip card technology. Unlike traditional magnetic stripe (mag stripe) cards that Americans have been reliant on since the early ’70s, EMV cards contain a chip, or embedded microprocessor, in the card providing additional security and more control of “offline” credit and debit transaction approvals. EMV cards are available in contact, contactless, and dual-interface cards (cards that enable both contactand contactless-based payments).

For contact-based cards, a gold square is visible on the front of the card with a microprocessor chip embedded directly behind that square. When inserted into an EMV-enabled payment acceptance device, the contact allows the chip to connect to a unique reader, providing for power and data exchange (dynamic authentication) between the card and the reader within the buy mosaic. There are two varieties of chip-based cards, chip and pin (consumer validates transaction by entering a unique PIN [personal identification number]) and chip and signature (consumer validates transaction through traditional signature).

Contactless EMV cards enable dynamic data exchange via near-field communication (NFC) technology that relies on radio frequency to connect the card by simply holding it within a few inches of an NFC-enabled payment acceptance device. Interestingly, research has shown that contactless transactions are approximately 53% faster than a traditional mag stripe transaction and some 63% quicker than paying with cash, adding speed as an incremental benefit to EMV.

Dual-interface cards are those that enable both contact-based and contactless-based payments, providing ultimate flexibility to the consumer. Dualinterface cards will also be required by card issuers in the U.S. to allow merchants to be compliant with EMV requirements surrounding the liability shift.

Mercator Advisory Group estimates that credit and debit card fraud costs the card issuers over $2.4 billion annually. One of the key benefits of EMV is that dynamic digital data is included in every transaction, significantly enhancing security and reducing the risk of fraud. When a consumer uses a chip-based card to pay at the terminal, dynamic authentication instantly identifies the card as authentic, approved and belonging to that customer. Additionally, when used with a personal identification number (PIN) an incremental level of identity verification is added. EMV is a much more secure transaction compared to traditional mag stripe, which is static and not only much easier to steal but also more useful to potential hackers. Fraud is also a major issue for consumers, with one in four consumers reporting that they had been victimized by credit or debit card fraud during the past five years, according to a recent survey.

Additionally, EMV migration in the U.S. will provide uniform global operability of payments. The lack of EMV has been a challenge for the past few years with a growing population of European merchants moving to EMV acceptance only, for credit and debit transactions, preventing the use of traditional mag stripe cards for Americans traveling overseas.

In 2011, Visa, MasterCard, Discover, and American Express began announcing their respective plans for EMV migration in the United States, with the most pressing driver being the liability shift for fraudulent transactions. All four major card brands have set October 2015 as the date of the U.S. liability shift for domestic and cross-border counterfeit card-present POS (point of sale) transactions (Note: Fuel and ATM have varying liability shift dates that extend beyond 2015). As of October 2015, merchants not accepting EMV payments (contact and contactless) would be liable for any fraudulent activity, a risk historically and currently absorbed by the major card brands.

From a card issuance standpoint, many issuers, including Citi, Wells Fargo, U.S. Bank, and Chase, launched the migration to EMV two years ago when they began phasing in chip-enabled EMV cards to their corporate cardholders and American Express recently announced the migration of its corporate cardholders to EMV cards.

While we are currently two years away from the liability shift dates, you don’t want to be the one left out as EMV migration accelerates and merchants begin requesting EMV-capable hardware. EMV must be treated as “table stakes” and successful resellers have already or will shortly begin implementing their plans around payment solutions and corresponding hardware that solves all of the requirements around EMV as well as the new wave of mobile payment and commerce applications.

The mag stripe reader, as we have known it, is dying. EMV and new payment types, including NFC and QR codes, continue to gain traction, and with the forthcoming liability shift in 2015, merchants will require both updated hardware and software to enable them to accept EMV payments.

While EMV-capable hardware will require additional financial investments, resellers also need to prepare merchants to capitalize on new business opportunity around mobile payments and commerce. Looking to the future, merchants must be armed with payment acceptance technologies that insulate them — and their resellers — from additional disruption, including hardware swaps and time-intensive software upgrades. Additionally, you don’t want to have to re-terminal if and when NFC (EMV and mobile) adoption accelerates with consumers.

Education and planning are also keys as it’s the resellers’ responsibility to provide merchants with the necessary information and associated time lines regarding EMV and the liability shift, as well as integrated POS, payment processing, and hardware, in terms of EMV readiness.