Hotel books climber to aid corporate ones
The Millennium Harvest House Boulder is turning to the great outdoors to help set it apart as a meeting destination.
Last week, the hotel announced that Colorado mountaineering expert Jim Davidson had become its “Adventure Consultant.” He’ll work with the hotel’s conference staff to help develop customized programs for corporate clients, such as guided hikes and adventurous team building activities. The Harvest House will also offer Davidson as an inspirational keynote speaker.
Focus on the Family calls foul on Malone
Focus on the Family is going after cable tycoon John Malone’s reported plan to make a swap with Time Warner Inc. for the Atlanta Braves.
The Colorado Springs-based group calls the Liberty Media chairman a “porn magnate” for the company’s ownership of On Command, which sells pay-per-view movies, including adult movies, and video games to customers in hotels around the country.
Focus says Malone does not deserve to own the Braves. Liberty Media is based in Douglas County.
In an online newsletter, associate editor Pete Winn calls on supporters to send disapproving comments about Liberty and Malone to Bud Selig, the Major League Baseball commissioner.
Bloomberg News in March reported that Liberty had put On Command up for sale. Liberty also has stakes in major electronic entertainment, communications and retailing businesses, including the QVC shopping network and Starz.
If “iJackers” use your credit to buy iPods …
Forget carjacking. The hot new cybercrime is “iJacking,” defined as “an emotionally devastating crime that drains your accounts, hurts your reputation and leaves you financially paralyzed when thieves assume your identity or use your Social Security number to commit fraud crimes.”
The term was created by Intersections Inc., a Chantilly, Va.-based identity management solutions provider.
Denver came in as the third-highest large metropolitan area at risk for iJacking, according to a national study on iJacking done by Intersections. Denver came in behind San Francisco and Seattle but just ahead of San Jose and San Diego.
A combination of high ATM use, Internet use and purchasing habits make the West Coast the most dangerous region for iJacking, according to the report, which also linked high rates of crystal meth use to cities with a high number iJacking crimes.
Rochester, N.Y. was named the city with the lowest iJacking risk.
Chinese banks finding credit world daunting
While many Americans are immersed in debt, Chinese consumers are just getting started. Generally thrifty savers, a growing number of people in China have discovered the allure of credit, leading to a surge in credit cards, car loans and home loans.
At the same time, China’s largest banks are saddled with debt from money-losing state-owned companies and struggling to become profitable.
To make money from China’s burgeoning consumer class, interested in everything from new Audis to designer furniture, many Chinese banks have changed their focus to retail banking. But they have little experience lending money to individuals or small companies.
And they lack modern solutions for measuring credit risk, managing client relationships or analyzing data.
This has led to some bizarre practices, says Matthew Maa, chief technology officer at Apollo Technology, a Bellevue, Wash., software company, who has seen the Chinese banking system first-hand.
A major finance company sent two loan officers to visit the house of an applicant to “check out his lifestyle and living standards,” Maa said, because they didn’t have enough information to judge his credit worthiness.
At one Chinese bank, if a customer defaulted on a loan, the loan officer would be personally reprimanded.
Another bank put a global positioning system (GPS) device on every new car to track its location in case the owner failed to make payments.
“In the last few years, the pawnshop is the fastest-growing financial-services business in China,” Maa said.
FROM STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS
