David Fisher

The snowy mountains of Maine will once again echo with the throaty roar of 900-horsepower off-road Pro 4 trucks as Red Bull Frozen Rush returns to the slopes for the second year in a row on January 8-9, 2015. The raw power and impressive speed of these machines will be put to the test by some of Mother Nature’s harshest winter conditions, as the trucks race head-to-head over jumps, around gates and down ski slopes. The action-packed competition will air on NBC as part of the year-long Red Bull Signature Series, the most progressive action sports event property in the world.

In 2014, Sunday River Ski Resort, just a few short hours north of Boston, played host to eight of the country’s best professional off-road truck racers, who ventured far from their usual dirt, sand and gravel tracks to tackle unprecedented terrain, including icy berms, snow-covered jumps and steep slopes.  In the end it was motorsports legend Ricky Johnson who was crowned champion in the first ever off-road truck race on snow.  He now looks to defend his title against this year’s stacked roster of industry greats and hungry newcomers.

“Winning the title last year was amazing, especially after going head to head with the best in the business.  It could have been anyone’s day, but I’m glad it was mine,” said the recent Motorsports Hall of Famer. “This year won’t be any easier.  Everyone wants that title now and like I said to Johnny (Greaves) last year… My a** is here, come kick it.”

Returning to compete this year alongside Johnson is Bryce Menzies, Todd LeDuc, Johnny Greaves, Scott Douglas, Rob MacCachren and Carl Renezeder. New to the wearies of winter weather racing will be decorated freestyle motocross rider turned off-road champion,Brian Deegan and young up-and-comer RJ Anderson.  Both are standout warriors in the 2-wheel drive off-road class and are stepping up to Pro 4 truck for a shot at the Red Bull Frozen Rush title.

The United States Auto Club, one of auto racing’s leading governing bodies and an international motorsports authority, has sanctioned the race for its second year and will again oversee safety and competition to ensure that Red Bull Frozen Rush will be an amazing experience for both spectators and competitors alike. One-of-a-kind, studded and specially designed Mud-Terrain tires from BFGoodrich’s Research and Development team will outfit each vehicle able to power up the hill. No lift access needed.

TrueCar, Inc., (NASDAQ: TRUE), the negotiation-free car buying and selling platform, announced that its Certified Dealers have sold more than 1.5 million vehicles to TrueCar users. More than 500,000 sales occurred in the last 12 months alone.

“The speed at which we’re growing validates our corporate blueprint to provide price confidence by allowing users to identify a fair price on a car and helping dealers build their brands by reducing friction in the buying process,” said John Krafcik, president of TrueCar. “With our Guaranteed Savings Certificates or their TrueCar app in-hand, users can look forward to great savings and streamlined, hassle-free car-buying experiences from TrueCar Certified Dealers.”

Since the company was founded in 2005, TrueCar users have completed vehicle purchases from TrueCar’s nationwide network of Certified Dealers totaling more than $36 billion, and saved $4 billion off MSRP in the process. The 1.5 millionth car purchased using the TrueCar platform was a 2014 Ford Focus ST 5-door hatchback purchased at Apple Ford in Columbia, Maryland, for $2,719 below MSRP.

“We supply the tools that allow buyers to find the cars of their dreams and get them for fair prices – even for harder-to-find models like this Focus ST,” said Krafcik. “We also help make the whole process quicker, with customers spending about an hour less in the showroom versus the traditional car-buying process.”

More than 90 percent of prospective buyers go online to research and compare vehicles. With TrueCar, a user has the ability to research a car, price it to his or her specifications, and lock in Guaranteed Savings off MSRP.

WidePoint Corporation (NYSE Mkt: WYY), a leading provider of Managed Mobility  Services (MMS) specializing in Cybersecurity and Telecommunications Lifecycle Management (TLM) solutions, announced today its collaboration with SPYRUS, Inc., to deliver the industry’s first Trusted Mobile device that guarantees device identity, personal identity and secure network access from any global location.

The comprehensive solution pairs WidePoint digital certificates and SPYRUS WorkSafe and WorkSafe Pro live drives to bring “one drive” capabilities to the telecommuting, desktop, and remote worker in high assurance environments, particularly with the hardware encrypted WorkSafe Pro series of drives.

“This integrated solution addresses a marketplace that is estimated over the next three to four years to be worth upwards of hundreds of millions of dollars annually,” said John Atkinson, WidePoint’s Chief Sales and Marketing Officer.  “The solution clearly brings to this marketplace a secure and differentiated mobile solution that augments and offers up yet another option to ‘bring your own device’ (BYOD) by providing the convenience and security to ‘use your own device’ (UYOD) for a growing mobile workforce.”

WidePoint manages the identity credentials on SPYRUS WorkSafe and WorkSafe Pro drives while tracking the usage from any remote location.  Adding Microsoft Windows 8.1 To Go to the solution gives a new dimension to an organizations migration of transforming existing personal computers inventory into compliant enterprise-managed Windows desktops—with or without connectivity.

“SPYRUS certified Windows To Go live drives with FIPS 140-2 Level 3 security services, combined with WidePoint digital certificates authorized by the U.S. Government, creates the most secure PC-In-Your-Pocket solution to solve BYOD concerns for the enterprise,” said Tom Dickens, SPYRUS COO. “This all-in-one solution provides strong two-factor authentication services for deployed Windows 7 desktop infrastructures, cloud-based services, or when enterprise users are on travel. There is a significant ROI for the enterprise, with more than 75 percent savings when compared to purchasing new laptops or tablets for employees or contractors.”

WidePoint Certificate-on-Device digital certificates are being used to provide hardware based trust from the factory, authentication for WorkSafe or WorkSafe Pro drives and for the owner’s identity, enabling features such as two-factor authentication, smart card logon, secure VPN, encrypted email, digital signatures, and remote revocation of certificates on lost or stolen drives.

The Industrial Fabrics Association International (IFAI) today announced an agreement with The Makers Coalition (TMC) to partner on a nationwide workforce development initiative. TMC was started in Minnesota by a group of manufacturers to provide sewing machine operator training and fill unmet needs in the local manufacturing community. A curriculum was developed and offered at Dunwoody College of Technology, a Minneapolis-based technical school.

“There is an on-shoring trend in the United States which is creating a demand for skilled machine operators. At the same time, there is a shortage of people who have been steered into manufacturing careers and trained to operate equipment,” said Mary Hennessy, president and chief executive officer of IFAI. “As a local group of manufacturers, TMC has had phenomenal success and wants to play a role in helping other communities address this important issue.”

IFAI is a 102-year-old trade association with more than 1,500 corporate members. Both IFAI and TMC see opportunities to duplicate the model, and together they have the expertise and resources to help meet the demand for skilled labor in the sewing industry.

“Our goal has always been to create a national model that other cities could replicate in order to fill these jobs with the skill that the industry is in need of filling,” said Jen Guarino, founder of TMC. “This partnership will give us access to their considerable industry experience and outreach to achieve that goal and we are excited about all the possibilities.”

TMC will continue to exist as a foundation with its mission of developing curriculum and coordinating with training institutions, workforce development agencies and economic development organizations. IFAI will create a new division (one of 14 that serve specific member initiatives and markets) to be called the Makers Division, and will seek interested companies to support the training programs with industry expertise, trainers, apprenticeships and job placement.

From the benefits of wearable devices for remote patient monitoring to opportunities for big-data applications to a changing regulatory environment, the Wireless Health 2014 international conference here Oct. 29 – 31 aims to disseminate the latest advances and promising prospective developments in mobile health.

Presented by the Wireless-Life Sciences Alliance (WLSA), this year’s conference on the campus of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) provides a forum for airing important academic, health and industrial research while nurturing a global community that is driving the development and adoption of new technologies for improving health and lowering healthcare costs.

NIH Director Dr. Francis S. Collins is slated to deliver remarks and the agenda features keynote addresses by Dr. David Blumenthal, president of The Commonwealth Fund, a national philanthropy engaged in independent research on health and social policy issues, andYoung Sohn, president and chief strategy officer of Samsung Electronics. The agenda also is packed with pre-conference workshops, panel discussions and technical presentations.

Dr. Collins oversees the work of NIH, the largest supporter of biomedical research in the world, spanning the spectrum from basic to clinical research.  He is a geneticist noted for his landmark discoveries of disease genes and his leadership of the international Human Genome Project.  The project culminated with the completion of a finished sequence of the human DNA instruction book in April 2003. Dr. Collins served as director of the National Human Genome Research Institute at the NIH from 1993-2008.  Before coming to the NIH, Dr. Collins was a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator at the University of Michigan. He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in November 2007 and the National Medal of Science in 2009.

Dr. Blumenthal’s address is entitled “Bringing Health Information to Life: the Wireless Challenge.”  He is formerly the Samuel O. Thier Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Chief Health Information and Innovation Officer at Partners Healthcare System inBoston. From 2009 to 2011, he was national coordinator for health information technology, responsible for building an interoperable, private and secure nationwide health information system and to support the widespread, meaningful use of health IT. He succeeded in putting in place one of the largest publicly funded infrastructure investments the nation has ever made in such a short time period, in healthcare or any other field. Previously, Dr. Blumenthal was a practicing primary care physician, director of the Institute for Health Policy, and professor of medicine and health policy at Massachusetts General Hospital/Partners Healthcare System and Harvard Medical School.

Sohn’s keynote is entitled “Open Innovation Accelerating Digital Health.”  He leads development and implementation of the strategy behind the global innovation and future technology investment agenda for Samsung Electronics’ Device Solutions Group, a business that develops the fundamental, underlying technologies for a $188 billion enterprise employing more than 270,000 people in 79 countries.  A technology entrepreneur, Sohn formerly was chairman at W3I; CEO of Inphi Corporation; chairman and CEO of Oak Technology; president of the semiconductor group at Agilent Technologies; president of the storage group at disc-drive maker Quantum, and spent 10 years at Intel.

The International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children (ICMEC) announced today that Maura Harty has been appointed by the Board of Directors to be the organization’s new President and CEO.

Harty previously worked for ICMEC from 2008 to 2010 as Senior Policy Director of the organization’s Koons Family Institute on International Law & Policy.  In that role she worked with foreign leaders to create a global missing children’s network to protect children and supervised the organization’s efforts to implement new legislation and strengthen existing international child pornography laws.  Between 2010 and 2012 she served as the President and CEO of Make-a-Wish Foundation Mid-Atlantic.

Harty is also an experienced diplomat with 29 years of experience at the U.S. Department of State.  During her tenure at the State Department, she served as Special Assistant to Secretary of State George P. Shultz; Executive Assistant to Secretary Warren Christopher; U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Paraguay; and Executive Secretary of the Department under Secretary Colin Powell.  From 2002 until she retired in 2008 she served as Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs.  Most recently she returned to the State Department in 2012 where she has been a part-time Inspector with the Office of the Inspector General.

Harty will succeed ICMEC’s long-term President and CEO Ernie Allen who created the organization and has headed it for the past sixteen years.  Under his leadership, ICMEC became the leading international resource used today by governments and policymakers around the world on the issues of child abduction, child sexual exploitation and child sex trafficking.  He built a global missing children’s network involving 23 nations, trained law enforcement in 121 countries and worked with parliaments in 100 countries to enact new laws on child pornography.   Earlier this year Allen announced plans to retire at the end of October.