Minnesota House Deputy Minority Leader Erin Murphy toured Genoa, a QoL Healthcare Company's pharmacy in St. Paul last week. Interested in having a legislator visit your retail operation? Contact MnRA's Brian Carr at [email protected] or call (651) 227-6631. 

Demands and lawsuits against retailers for "inaccessible" websites exploded in 2016 with no end in sight. Currently, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is unclear as to what "accessibility" means and what technical standard such as WCAG might apply.

Join MnRA for an online webinar on December 6, 9:00 - 10:00 a.m. where one lawyer and two website accessibility IT auditors will:

• Describe what "accessibility" means on a legal, technical and human level
• Talk about where the ADA is going & what the Department of Justice (DOJ) is doing  
• Real cases, what's going on inside other MN retail companies
• Tactics for responding to demand letters from plaintiff firms
• Demonstrate electronic screen-reader technology in-action
• Show common accessibility failures along with actionable items to improve your site & reduce risk

From the Duluth News Tribune, Brooks Johnson, December 4, 2016

"A cluster of employment issues are percolating across the country: The expansion of mandatory overtime pay is in legal limbo, paid sick days are under the microscope, and workers are marching for a $15 minimum wage.

In Duluth, only sick time is getting major policy attention, for now. But all of these fights aren't just broad, national issues - they affect thousands of Northland employees and hundreds of businesses.

Here's a look at where things stand.

Sick pay: After Minneapolis passed a requirement that almost all businesses provide paid sick time in May and St. Paul later followed suit, Duluth appointed a task force to study the issue.

"The ultimate goal is presenting multiple options to the City Council and city administration," Council President Zack Filipovich said after the group of 11 community members met for the third time last week

The biweekly public meetings will run through next year as research is gathered about what other cities have done and what might work here in terms of earned sick and safe time. While no concrete proposals have taken shape, Filipovich said there likely will be some sort of recommendation other than the status quo.

"I have a feeling there's going to be some sort of policy, but it's really hard to say what that's going to look like - this is in the very early stages," he said."
 

From the Pioneer Press, Rachel E. Stassen-Berger, December 2, 2016

"On Friday morning, state officials predicted Minnesota would have a $1.4 billion budget surplus.  By the afternoon, Gov. Mark Dayton and bipartisan legislators were close to spending half of it.

Almost immediately after the budget forecast was announced, Dayton and legislative leaders huddled behind closed doors to rehash several issues that had bedeviled them for months.

Just over an hour later, they emerged with smiles: They were close to a deal for a special legislative session this month to quickly offer some hard-hit Minnesotans health insurance premium relief, and pass tax cuts and infrastructure spending.

"I think we're close. I think we can see an agreement," said House Speaker Kurt Daudt, R-Crown.

The wrinkle in the good cheer: This bipartisan deal could cost about $700 million - half the total $1.4 billion surplus lawmakers have for the entire two-year budget they have to craft this spring.

The remaining surplus would still be enough money to fund some big new programs or tax cuts next year - but not nearly enough to pay for everything either Democrat Dayton or the Legislature's new Republican majorities want to do."
 

From the Minneapolis St.. Paul Business Journal, November 29, 2016

"Fraudulent returns will cost retailers more than $2 billion this holiday season. But are companies invading your privacy to stop it?

Holiday fraud is part of a $15.9 billion annual issue, according to the Motley Fool, citing stats out from the National Retail Federation. During the holidays, returns come in at 10 percent, 2 percent higher than the rest of the year, and about 3.5 percent of those returns wind up being fraudulent. The problem impacts tax revenue and retailers pass along the costs to the consumer.

During the 2016 holiday shopping season, specifically, the Motley Fool said, the NRF estimates there will be more than $2.2 billion worth of fraudulent returns. That's up from last year, but down from both 2013 and 2014, when the NRF estimates there were about $3.4 billion and $3.8 billion worth of fraudulent returns, respectively.

According to the Chicago Tribune, there are several popular holiday return scams. One is making a "hot exchange," when a thief steals an item and comes back later to get the cash value of the stolen product. Others use counterfeit bills to purchase an item, then get real currency or a gift card when they return it. Some work with a store employee to falsify a return claim. Still others buy expensive outfits or jewelry for an important occasion, only to return the items shortly after, the Tribune explained."
 

From Small Business Trends, November 18, 2016

"Most Americans will shop for holiday gifts this season, but how they do so and their attitudes about the experience vary by generation, according to a new study.

NerdWallet analyzed behavior and trends among millennials (ages 18-34), Gen Xers (35-54) and baby boomers (55+) in its 2016 Consumer Holiday Shopping Report and found that the generations often have different budgeting, saving and spending habits.

No matter which age group you belong to, you can avoid making shopping mistakes by keeping a few best practices in mind. After all, as NerdWallet's retail expert Courtney Jespersen says, "the burden of savvy shopping lies with the consumer."
How Each Generation Shops

Not all Americans approach holiday shopping the same way. Some are more prone to making spur-of-the-moment purchases, while others are better at keeping their budgets. For example, 49 percent of millennials consider themselves to be impulsive shoppers, a higher proportion than Gen Xers (41 percent) and baby boomers (25 percent), the study found.

This might explain why millennials were the least likely to stick to their 2015 holiday budgets (36 percent) compared with Gen Xers (42 percent) and baby boomers (50 percent). However, Gen Xers plan to spend the most this season ($723) compared with the other two groups, and are almost twice as likely to still be carrying debt from their 2015 holiday shopping (9 percent vs. 5 percent for both millennials and baby boomers).

There are also differences among the generations when it comes to choosing payment methods. Baby boomers are the most likely to use a major or retail credit card (55 percent), and millennials are the most likely to use cash (60 percent), which may be why the majority of these young shoppers (62 percent) didn't incur any credit card debt from the 2015 holiday season."
 

Federal Overtime Rule