D&D Daily Mobile Edition

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6/18/21

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Preston Frazer promoted to Executive Vice President, Store Operations, Commercial & Loss Prevention for AutoZone

Preston has been with AutoZone for 14 years, starting with the company in 2007 as Finance Director. Before his latest promotion to Executive Vice President, Store Operations, Commercial & Loss Prevention, he spent nearly two years as Sr. Vice President, Store Operations. Earlier in his AutoZone career, he served as VP - Stores & Operations Support, VP - LP & Safety, VP - Audit & Advisory Services, and Director of Internal Audit. Congratulations, Preston!

See All the Executives 'Moving Up' Here

Submit Your New Corporate Hires/Promotions or New Position

New recording solution from Johnson Controls combines power of victor with intelligence of VideoEdge

Johnson Controls, the global leader for smart, healthy and sustainable buildings and architect of the OpenBlue digital platforms, announces a powerful recording solution to meet demanding requirements with its VideoEdge 2U High Capacity Network Video Recorder. This solution combines the powerful capabilities of victor with the intelligence of VideoEdge NVRs, fueled by Tyco Artificial Intelligence, for video management that provides actionable insights to save time, money and lives.

The VideoEdge 2U-HC NVR allows users to manage dozens of cameras at full frame and resolution rates. Users can also record in RAID configurations up to 100 TB and take advantage of twelve front-accessible storage drives that can be hot-swapped while recording, as well as a redundant power supply for increased reliability. VideoEdge NVRs seamlessly deploy cameras with an advanced open architecture and simple design, adding and reassigning licenses at any time.

Read more here

Violence, Crime & Protests

San Francisco's ORC Explosion Back in the News
SF Walgreens stores average 4x more thefts than rest of U.S., company says
If you live in San Francisco, you've probably witnessed a so-called "organized retail theft." That's when a person or several people come into a store prepared to shoplift openly, without regard to who's watching.

ABC7 News reporter Lyanne Melendez caught one the moment it was happening. It shows a man shoplifting items inside a Walgreens in San Francisco before taking off on a Lyft bicycle. He was never stopped.

Today Walgreens emailed us to say the company has told members of the Board of Supervisors that theft in their San Francisco stores is four times the average of their stores across the country. They also spend 35 times more on security guards in San Francisco.

"And even if somebody does get arrested, we can all talk about the track record of the D.A.'s office," said Tony Montoya of the Police Officers' Association, who has criticized that office for failing to prosecute certain robberies.

The District Attorney's office did not respond to our requests for an interview. But this doesn't fall only on that office. We were told by a former District Attorney spokesperson that the perception among most shoplifters is that they won't get caught.

The Public Policy Institute of California compiled numbers showing San Francisco has the lowest arrest rate of any police department in California.

Last year the Board of Supervisors made changes to the police department's budget, which resulted in police academy classes being cut. This time, the mayor is proposing an increase in their budget and urged supervisors to support it.

"Don't come out in solidarity to support a community and then cut away the kinds of solution that will help address those challenges. This is a community that wants more and we need to do better by them," said Mayor London Breed

Walgreens and other retail stores expect the same from the city. Walgreens, for example, has closed 17 stores in San Francisco in the past five years. abc7news.com

Bail Reform Driving Gun Violence?
Mayors of NJ’s biggest cities demand changes to bail reform law

The mayors of some of New Jersey’s biggest cities joined together Tuesday and demanded a change to the state’s bail reform law.

The city leaders said due to rising gun violence, people accused of gun crimes should not be able to just walk out of the courtroom.

“We support bail reform,” Newark Mayor Ras Baraka said. “But what we are concerned specifically about, is about folks who are arrested with guns, who have history of using guns. Guys who are arrested for shooting.”

Staying safe has become increasingly hard. The New Jersey Urban Mayor’s Association said it has reached out to the state’s legislative leaders and the governor.

“They are receptive to it, it may not even require an amendment. Right now, this is in the office of legislation services,” Paterson Mayor Andrew Sayegh said. “So, they’re seeing if there is some language that can be tweaked, if there is anything we can do without taking legislative action.”

Officials said the pandemic has triggered soaring gun violence. Anxiety, depression, and despair have led to more shootings.

“Bullets do not have names on them. Sometimes they stray. And we’ve had situations where young children have lost their lives to this senseless gun violence,” Paterson Public Safety Director Jerry Speziale said.

The mayors reinforced repeatedly they still support bail reform. They don’t want people to sit in jail because they can’t pay. But when it comes to guns, that’s different. They say there is too much blood in the street. pix11.com

Former NYPD Commissioner Blames Criminal Justice Reforms for Crime Surge
Bill Bratton: 'Disastrous' bail reform is 'principle' cause for NYC crime spike
New York City crime is surging after decades on the decline because of “disastrous” liberal criminal justice reforms, former NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton said Sunday.

“They passed a series of criminal justice reform laws and bail reform that have proven disastrous,” Bratton told host John Catsimatidis on WABC Radio’s “The Cats Roundtable.”

Shootings have soared across the five boroughs by nearly 70 percent so far in 2021, according to recent NYPD figures. Murders have risen nearly 12 percent so far this year, too, but compared to 2019, that figure rockets to nearly 50 percent, according to NYPD.

Bratton, who served as top cop under both mayors Rudy Giuliani and Bill de Blasio, called efforts “to fix a lot of stuff that do not need to be fixed” a “principle” cause of the spike in criminal activity, along with the “incredible” proliferation of illegal guns.

His comments echo those of de Blasio and current Police Commissioner Dermot Shea, who have both spoken out against the controversial reforms.

“Crime … was, at all time lows before you started messing with it,” Bratton added. “Arrests were down, summons were down, citations were down, use of force was down dramatically.”

Bratton said he was “supportive” of reform, but that advocates “threw the baby out with the bathwater.” nypost.com

CNN Op-Ed on America's Gun Violence Crisis
Gun violence is an epidemic within the pandemic
In recent months, Americans have received a string of horrific reminders that even as Covid deaths fall, one of our nation's deadliest public health emergencies rages on: gun violence.

Eight people shot and killed in Atlanta. Ten people murdered in a mass shooting at a grocery store in Boulder, Colorado. Eight more massacred at a FedEx warehouse in Indianapolis. Nine more killed in San Jose.

Our hearts are with the families and friends left behind by these tragedies, who are now part of a club no one wants to join: the millions of people in this country whose lives have been torn apart by gun violence. And this club has grown even faster than normal over the last year.

Yes, as America went into lockdown, we saw fewer high-profile mass shootings. But what many people don't know is this: Almost 4,000 more Americans were killed in gun homicides or non-suicide-related shootings in 2020, as compared to 2019.

There are many possible reasons for this increase. For starters, an estimated 22 million guns were sold in 2020 according to an analysis by The Trace -- nearly 9 million more than in 2019. At the same time, the risk factors that lead to gun violence were also on the upswing -- and the results were predictable.

As shelter-in-place orders went into effect during the first months of the pandemic, calls to the Domestic Violence Hotline ticked up. Simultaneously, underserved neighborhoods lost in-person schooling, social services, homes, and jobs, and gun homicides increased alarmingly across major US cities.

It all adds up to this: While coronavirus has killed, at minimum, 600,000 Americans, increased gun violence is another deadly byproduct of the pandemic -- and the most effective remedy is common-sense laws. cnn.com

Protest-Related Indictment of Portland Officer Triggers Mass Resignations
Portland police's entire crowd control unit resigns after indictment of officer
All members of the crowd control team of Portland police have resigned from their positions in the unit after an officer was indicted on an assault charge stemming from alleged illegal use of force during a protest last year.

"On June 16, 2021, Portland Police Bureau employees serving as members of the Rapid Response Team (RRT) left their voluntary positions and no longer comprise a team", Portland Police said in a statement on Thursday, adding that the employees will continue in their regular assignments.

The unit had about 50 employees, who served as its members, in addition to their daily assignments with the police, according to the statement on Thursday.

Earlier this week, a grand jury indicted a Portland police officer on an assault charge for what prosecutors allege was an "excessive and unlawful use of force" during a protest last summer.

The indictment marked the first time a Portland police officer faced prosecution stemming from striking or firing at someone during a protest, according to the Oregonian newspaper.

The Portland Police Association described the decision as being "politically driven" and said the officer "has been caught in the crossfire of agenda-driven city leaders and a politicized criminal justice system." reuters.com

Anti-Rioting, 'Back the Blue' Bill Signed into Law
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds raises penalties for protest-related crimes, boosts police protections
Surrounded by police officers, Gov. Kim Reynolds signed polarizing legislation Thursday that strengthens legal protections for police and creates steeper penalties for protest-related crimes such as rioting and unlawful assembly.

Critics say the harsher sentences will chill free speech, and a nonpartisan analysis said the law will disproportionately impact Black Iowans. Iowa's legislation follows a trend in many Republican-controlled states this year in the wake of widespread protests for racial justice last year.

But Reynolds, a Republican, said at a signing ceremony at the Iowa Law Enforcement Academy in Johnston that law enforcement officers must know that their governor, their Legislature and their state stand behind them.

Reynolds signed the "Back the Blue" legislation a year after she signed a law on the Capitol steps that banned most chokeholds and addressed police officer misconduct. That law passed the Legislature unanimously in 2020. desmoinesregister.com

Minneapolis Police Once Again Reopen Streets In Uptown Amid Protests

Protesters reflect on what has changed & what hasn’t since George Floyd protests

COVID Update

314.9M Vaccinations Given

US: 34.3M Cases - 616.4K Dead - 28.6M Recovered
Worldwide: 178.2M Cases - 3.8M Dead - 162.7M Recovered

Former Senior Loss Prevention Executive
Know of any fallen LP exec? Let's remember & recognize.

Private Industry Security Guard Deaths: 279
Law Enforcement Officer Deaths: 308
*Red indicates change in total deaths

Vaccines are Giving Pharmacy Chains a Shot in the Arm
CVS and Walgreens Were Reeling - Now They’re Riding a Covid-19 Wave

After struggling early in the pandemic, pharmacy chains say vaccines have been a boon to business

As the Covid-19 pandemic bore down last spring, America’s drugstore giants warned investors that the health crisis threatened their already tenuous turnarounds. CVS Health Corp. and Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. lost revenue as shoppers stayed home and skipped routine medical care.

This spring, something changed: Covid-19 turned into a moneymaker.

The nation’s largest retail pharmacy chains say consumers coming for vaccines are spending money in stores. Some vaccine recipients are switching their prescriptions to the chain where they got their shots. CVS, for instance, said it expects a 2% bump this year in so-called front-store sales, which don’t include prescriptions, at locations offering vaccines. The chains have launched a string of products, including at-home test kits, at-home antibody tests, and Covid-19 tests for people with no symptoms or exposure—for which companies generally collect out-of-pocket fees.

U.S. employers are paying for return-to-work programs, in which retail pharmacies charge thousands of dollars to vaccinate workers to facilitate staffing of offices and factories.

Vaccines have become more lucrative. The amount that the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services pay pharmacies and other providers rose this spring to $40 for each dose, up from $28 for a single dose and $45 for two doses. Now for the required two doses for the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, CVS and Walgreens are getting nearly double what they were getting before. Shots are free to the public. wsj.com

Pandemic 'Wake-Up Call' for Retail Workers?
Millions quit their jobs during the pandemic - and retail leads the way
American workers have decided it’s time for a change — a decision at least partly brought on by a more than year-long pandemic that shifted the way many understood the norms of work life.

There have been fears about health and safety during a public health crisis. Routines have turned upside down as people juggled jobs and family and adjusted to remote work. All of it contributed to workers reevaluating, reprioritizing and reflecting on what they do, according to experts who study workplace well-being and organizational behavior.

The result appears to be a massive wave of job changes. About 4 million people quit their jobs in April alone, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. It’s the highest quit level since the agency began publishing these rates in December 2000.

Retail workers quit more than people in any other industry, according to the bureau, followed by those in professional and business services. Those categories saw a combined 200,000 more employees leave their jobs in April than in the previous month.

The record figures in April reflect what has been happening to some degree for months, as both anecdotal evidence and data suggest people are looking to do something different now than they did before the pandemic.

For many, the crisis was a “wake-up call,” Jeffrey Pfeffer, a professor of organizational behavior at Stanford University, told The Washington Post in an email. Before the pandemic, many workers may already have been struggling to balance work and family obligations, or they might have been unhappy in their jobs. washingtonpost.com

OSHA Complaints Drop as Pandemic Fades
Covid-19 OSHA complaints by essential workers are down 85%
The number of essential workers filing Covid-19-related complaints to the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has dropped steeply in recent months. In May, the number of new Covid-19 complaints by essential workers fell 85% compared to the same month last year.

When the pandemic first hit the US, office workers were able to just stay home. But many of those working in what OSHA has defined as “essential industries” such as healthcare, retail trade, grocery stores, construction, general warehousing and storage, restaurants, and automotive repair were at greater risk.

Complaints were highest at the start of the pandemic as employers had few workplace protections against the spread of the coronavirus, says David Levine, a professor at Berkeley Haas, who has studied OSHA data. While employers have made some changes from moving tables apart at a cafeteria to putting screens up in a supermarket, workers have expressed their discontent with safety protocols. qz.com

Updated Cal/OSHA Guidance
Cal/OSHA Votes To Drop Workplace Mask Rule For Fully Vaccinated Workers
California regulators have approved revised worksite pandemic rules that allow fully vaccinated employees the same freedoms as when they are off the job.

The revised regulations adopted Thursday come after weeks of confusion. They conform with general state guidelines by ending most mask rules for people who are vaccinated against the coronavirus.

The governor-appointed California Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board approved them on a 5-1 vote. Gov. Gavin Newsom planned to quickly issue an executive order sidestepping the usual legal review that would normally keep the rules from taking effect until June 28.

The rules apply in almost every workplace in the state, including to workers in offices, factories and retail. sacramento.cbslocal.com

Essential workers are bearing the brunt of COVID-19

Consumers ready to spend on clothes, travel, dining out during post-Covid summer

Soaring Prices Create New Black Market
People are stealing lumber from contractors and lumber yards as prices soar

Lumber prices are so high they've created an entire black market.

US lumber prices are currently more than double last year's, after they hit a record high last month. Jim Yarbough, a supply-chain expert from British Standards Institution, told Bloomberg the soaring prices have created a massive opportunity for an underground lumber market, as reports come out of lumber heists at construction sites, lumber yards, as well as logging trucks.

"The value on the black market of commodities changes just like they do above the board," he told the publication. "That's going to drive criminal activity just like all other forms of supply and demand."

The National Association of Home Builders told Insider it has been difficult to curate data around lumber theft, but the association has heard anecdotally of contractors who have suffered lumber heists. Last week, The Seattle Times reported a man was caught trying to walk out of a locked lumber yard with about 32 pieces of wood valued at $2,300.

There have been stories of lumber thefts across the US, from reported heists in Texas to Florida and Colorado, as the commodity can be easily resold on online outlets like Facebook Marketplace. In April, Tennessee's Department of Agriculture warned that landowners need to secure their properties as lumber thefts are rising in the state.

As lumber prices continue to hit records, many contractors and lumber yards have been forced to implement new strategies to protect their goods. Akash Homes, a home-building company in Canada, told Bloomberg that it has hired guards to patrol construction sites and installed security cameras after sites were stolen from multiple times. The company has lost over $82,000 worth of lumber and spray paints its lumber bright blue with the letter "A" to make it more difficult for thieves to resell the lumber on secondary marketplaces, Bloomberg reports. businessinsider.com

Investigation into Amazon's 'Gender Discrimination' & 'Harassment Culture'
Amazon is investigating allegations of gender bias in its Prime team

Amazon has opened an investigation into its Prime team in the wake of internal complaints about gender bias and a hostile workplace culture for women.

The probe, which coincided with Insider's reporting last week, suggests Amazon is taking the allegations seriously. The company's Employee Relations Central Investigations unit told one of the Prime employees who filed a complaint that it was taking ownership of the case, according to an email seen by Insider. The team has asked the person to provide additional information about the issue.

Last week, Insider reported on what some employees said was a culture of aggressive male-dominated leadership within Amazon's Prime unit. Current and former employees described meetings where male leaders used aggressive language toward women. They also said women received fewer promotions than men, and recent internal company data showed only four out of a total of 41 senior leaders under Jamil Ghani, the vice president of Prime, are women.

When contacted earlier this month for comment, an Amazon spokesperson said the allegations did not reflect the culture of Amazon or the Prime team.

The allegations are the latest in a series of public accusations about Amazon's workplace culture.

In May, five current and former female employees sued Amazon, alleging "abusive mistreatment by primarily white male managers." In February, Charlotte Newman, a Black Amazon manager, filed a lawsuit alleging gender discrimination and sexual harassment. And last year, a high-profile female engineer called on the company to fix what she said was a "harassment culture," Insider previously reported.

An Amazon spokesperson said the company investigated the cases, found no evidence to support the allegations, and didn't tolerate discrimination or harassment. businessinsider.com

Retailers Recognize Juneteenth
BestBuy, Target and Starbucks are among the companies celebrating Juneteenth as PTO or holiday pay
Amid the wave of discussions about racial injustice that began to gain momentum last summer, companies such as Allstate, Google and Nike have announced over the past year that they will recognize Juneteenth as a paid holiday for their employees.

After passing both the Senate and House earlier this week, the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act was signed into law Thursday by President Joe Biden, making it the 11th federal holiday established by law, along with Christmas, Thanksgiving and Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

The day celebrates the delayed news that President Abraham Lincoln had signed the Emancipation Proclamation on Jan. 1, 1863, freeing “all persons held as slaves” in the United States.

Juneteenth has been celebrated by African Americans for generations since that day. But it wasn't until after the murder of George Floyd in 2020 that companies began making a significant change to celebrate the holiday amongst their employees.

More than 460 companies are observing Juneteenth at this point, with many offering a paid day off or holiday pay, according to HellaCreative, an initiative launched by Black creatives in San Francisco to make Juneteenth an official holiday.

Below are some companies that are continuing PTO (paid time off) this year and some who have newly started:

Companies Coming Up Short on Racial Justice?
Employees say companies aren't sticking to promises they made on racial justice
A new survey from Benevity reveals that while nearly half of employees can remember their companies making commitments about racial justice following the murder of George Floyd, only 26% believe those commitments were completely fulfilled, compared to 61% of employees who can't say if their companies fulfilled their commitments.

Over 70% of employees agreed that it’s important to have difficult conversations in the workplace about racial and social justice. More than half (69%) also said they would recommend their companies to others if addressing those issues is prioritized. Over a third of employees said they would quit if their workplace doesn’t do so.

Employees also noticed the lack of action taken by leadership, with 55% of those surveyed saying leadership addressed racial justice and equity in written or oral statements but nothing more.

Almost half (47%) said they felt that company leadership displayed the same or less amount of racial sensitivity in the past year.

In the wake of Derek Chauvin’s guilty verdict in Floyd's murder , companies like Facebook, General Motors, Starbucks and Microsoft made public statements offering condolences and affirming their stance against racism. usatoday.com

Struggling to Pay the Rent & Keep Employees
Nearly 40% of restaurant owners couldn't pay rent in June, new survey finds
Pandemic restrictions are easing, but restaurants are still suffering. 39 percent of restaurants were unable to pay June rent, according to a new survey from the Alignable Research Center.

Restaurants are still facing a massive labor shortage that's hurting their bottom lines. In April, the latest month for which data is available, restaurant workers quit at record levels.

The quit rate, which refers to the percentage of people who voluntarily leave their jobs over the period, reached 5.6 percent in April for the food service and accommodations sector. That number is an all-time high for the industry, according to Gordon Haskett Research Advisors, and it was more than twice the rate of the economy as a whole, not counting farming jobs.

Restaurants and stores are looking to staff up and return to normal as COVID-19 restrictions lift and the country slowly reopens. Hiring has been difficult for many companies, which have reported a lack of candidates for open positions. Many businesses are offering perks, bonuses, and benefits to new employees just to get them in for interviews, while some like Chipotle are raising wages in the hopes of finding workers. businessinsider.com

Retailers Boosting Pay to Attract Employees
Brookshire’s to raise wages for over 13,000 hourly employees

Brookshire Grocery Co. has decided to give a pay raise to more than 13,000 of its hourly employees.

According to BGC, the increase in wages totals more than $33 million investment in salaries. Part of this investment is the company making the extra $1 per hour in COVID appreciation pay permanent for the hourly retail and logistics employee-partners along with raising the minimum pay for several positions in retail.

Most hourly retail jobs will now have a minimum rate of $11 per hour. More than 30 other targeted retail positions have additional increased new minimum hiring rates.

Prior to this investment in employee-partner wages, BGC had given employee-partners more than $30 million since March 2020 through a comprehensive gift and incentive package which includes bonus checks, gift cards, wage increases for those in retail and logistics, and a compensation plan for those directly affected by COVID-19. arklatexhomepage.com

Workplace Safety & Artificial Intelligence
Webinar: How to Improve Safety and Reduce Accidents with Video AI

Thursday, June 24, 2021 | 12:00 p.m. ET

Keeping your employees, your company, and your community safe from risks and hazards is a big responsibility. New technologies such as advanced computer vision, artificial intelligence, and wearables are giving safety teams a powerful new set of tools for proactive risk reduction and accident prevention.

These new technologies are able to automatically identify and alert employees and supervisors about hazards and emerging risks. They can even measure safety-related activities to identify trends and hot spots.

Attend this webinar to learn how organizations like yours have improved workplace safety, reduced incidents, and gained insights into potential hazard areas by adopting AI-powered video analytics. Learn more here

Kroger says it is in a stronger position than before the pandemic

Batteries Plus doubles North Carolina stores with franchise deal - 8 New Stores

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VIDEO: The Surprising Anti-Theft Feature of Prosegur’s Edge D-Arm Tag

Do shoplifters bring illegal detachers to your stores to try to remove your EAS tags? The Edge DeArm Lanyard tag has a big surprise for them, as seen in this video: it will alarm if removed with just a magnetic detacher.

Instead, the tag needs to be passed over a deactivator pad at the point of sale, and then removed with a magnetic detacher - something that's very easy for store associates, but difficult for shoplifters.

No additional training or equipment is needed for your employees as the Edge D-Arm tag works with your existing detachers and deactivators.

The data sheet and more information about this new solution is available at Prosegur’s website.

America's Cybersecurity Staffing Shortage
Cyber Talent Shortage Undermines U.S. in Cyber Warfare

A cyber attack on public and private targets in the U.S. occurs every 39 seconds.

Recent attacks on the Colonial Pipeline and SolarWinds have placed a greater spotlight on the issue as companies rapidly brace to protect their digital infrastructure, which has become ever more essential in wake of the pandemic.

But the public and private sectors in the U.S. face a common problem—a chronic shortage of skilled workers. Some 359,000 American jobs remain unfilled, according to a 2020 survey by a cybersecurity training nonprofit called (ISC)2.

Increased demand and subsequent lack of supply for cybersecurity workers isn't a problem limited to the United States. (ISC)2 reports countries like France, Germany, Australia, and the United Kingdom each need more than 25,000 new workers to enter the field, with some needing far more.

However, with by far the largest cybersecurity industry of any of the other countries listed in the report at more 879,000 employees, the United States possesses the greatest demand for new employees to enter its workforce.

"Anything you can do to create (cybersecurity jobs) is definitely needed because the amount of threat actors, the amount of malware," Mark Ostrowski, head of engineering for the U.S. East Coast at Check Point Software, a global cyber security company, told Newsweek. "It's astonishing how quickly they've exploded."

With over 1.5 billion IP addresses, the sheer number of entities open to attack in the United States stands far ahead of any other country. China has more than four times the population of the U.S., but is a distant second with only 330 million IP addresses. newsweek.com

Hackers Infiltrate Water Supply in Multiple States
Hackers Tried to Poison California Water Supply in Major Cyber Attack

A hacker accessed the system of a California water treatment plant in January and deleted several programs used to treat drinking water.

NBC News reported on Thursday that an unidentified hacker carried out the attack on an unspecified water treatment plant on January 15 in the San Francisco Bay Area by using the username and password of a former employee at the facility.

The hacker managed to access the former staff member's TeamViewer account, which allows employees to remotely use their computers, according to a report compiled by the Northern California Regional Intelligence Center in February that was obtained by NBC.

The report claimed that after the hacker logged in to the plant's system, they deleted several programs that the facility uses to treat the drinking water in the area.

The hack was unnoticed until the next day, but when it was discovered the plant reinstalled all the deleted programs and reset the passwords for its employees.

"No failures were reported as a result of this incident, and no individuals in the city reported illness from water-related failures," the report from the unidentified facility said about the hack.

NBC reported that the hacker "tried to poison" the area's water, but Michael Sena, the executive director of the Northern California Regional Intelligence Center, denied that claim while speaking to The San Francisco Chronicle.

A few weeks after the incident in San Francisco, a hacker infiltrated the system of the water treatment plant in Oldsmar, Florida, and attempted to add a "dangerous" level of chemicals to the facility's water.

"The hacker changed the sodium hydroxide from about 100 parts per million to 11,100 parts per million. This is obviously a significant and potentially dangerous increase." newsweek.com

1,300% Increase in Food & Beverage Breaches
Data Breaches Surge in Food & Beverage, Other Industries

Six previously "under-attacked" vertical industries saw a surge in data breaches last year due to COVID-19 related disruptions and other factors, new data shows.

Though no industry is immune from cyberattacks, a few have traditionally been less affected by them than others. A new study shows that may no longer be the case.

An analysis that Kroll conducted of data breach notifications in 2020 showed a sharp increase in attacks against organizations in what it identified as six traditionally "under-attacked" industries-- food and beverage, utilities, construction, entertainment, agriculture, and recreation.

Attacks against organizations across these industries jumped by an average of 545% compared to 2019. When Kroll broke the data down by industry, it found some sectors experienced significantly higher breach increases than others. For example, data-breach notifications in the food and beverage industry shot up 1,300% in 2020 while that within the construction sector increased 800%.

Kroll also observed a 400% jump in breach notifications within the utility sector including electric utility companies, water companies, and utilities infrastructure. Already, as of April 2021, the number of breaches in this sector has surpassed all of 2020 by 25%. Because Kroll's report only considered incidents that led to breach notifications, it does not include incidents involving operation technology (OT) and industrial control system (ICS) environments.

At the other end of the spectrum, breach notifications in the entertainment industry showed a 33% increase over the previous year.

The increased number of breaches within the six industries—a pattern that has continued in the first quarater of 2021—came against the backdrop of an overall surge in the volume of data-breach notifications last year due to shifts in work environments caused by the global COVID-19 pandemic. darkreading.com

2nd Breach in Two Years
Carnival Cruise Line Reports Security Breach

The cruise ship operator says the incident affected employee and guest data.

Cruise ship operator Carnival Corp. said this week it recently detected a breach of its systems and as a result, data belonging to customers and employees may have been exposed.

According to multiple news reports, Carnival detected the intrusion in March and alerted regulators. The company hired a cybersecurity firm to assist with the investigation. Reports say personal information belonging to guests, employees, and crew for Carnival Cruise Line, Holland America Line, Princess Cruises and medical operations was affected.

"There is evidence indicating a low likelihood of the data being misused," the company said in an emailed statement reported by Reuters. The cruise line was also the victim of a ransomware attack last year. darkreading.com

Ransomware highlights the challenges and subtleties of cybersecurity

73% of enterprises suffer security & compliance issues due to internal misalignment

A deep dive into the operations of the LockBit ransomware group

2021 Prime Day to Top $10.9B in Total Sales
Adobe: Prime Day will pass Cyber Monday sales record

The 2021 version of Amazon Prime Day is expected to top $10.9 billion in total sales.

According to data from the Adobe Digital Experience Index (DEI), total U.S. online spend for Prime Day (June 21-22) promises to surpass Cyber Monday 2020, when U.S. e-commerce hit $10.9 billion to become the biggest shopping day of all time in the U.S. This will also exceed the $10.4 billion in estimated U.S. sales during the October 2020 edition of Prime Day.

According to Adobe DEI, Among the signs of strong momentum coming into this year’s Prime Day are the two-year growth rates for online spending. Online spending slipped 11% to $73.5 billion in May from a year earlier, when lockdowns on many brick-and-mortar stores had driven a surge in e-commerce, but the two-year trend showed a healthy 58% gain.

More than half (58%) of respondents to an Adobe survey of 1,000 U.S. adults plan to shop online during Prime Day. In addition, one-third of respondents plan to spend some of their stimulus check payments on deals offered by retailers during Prime Day. Close to half (47%) of respondents expect other retailers to offer online deals because of the shopping event, and 46% say they save money by shopping on Prime Day. chainstoreage.com

Amazon Hiring Practices Scrutinized
Amazon prioritized finding 'wicked smart' college grads for management roles over promoting hourly workers within the ranks

Amazon kept hourly workers from getting promoted by seeking out new college grads to fill management roles

Walmart — the country's largest private employer and Amazon's biggest competitor — promotes hourly employees to managers at roughly double the rate at Amazon, according to a new New York Times report.

More than 75% of managers at Walmart stores in the US began as hourly workers, the Times reported. Amazon, for example, last year promoted only about 220 of 5,000 employees at the JFK8 warehouse on Staten Island, according to the Times. It's part of a plan at Amazon to fill management roles with "wicked smart" college graduates, one former executive told the outlet.

David Niekerk, a former human resources vice president who stepped down in 2016, told The Times Amazon prevented hourly employees from achieving promotions by design, and said the firm's then-head of operations shot down a 2014 proposal to create more leadership roles for these workers.

The lengthy report examined how Amazon has kept business flowing amid a pandemic. One of the biggest revelations reported by the Times was how quickly Amazon burns through hourly employees, leaving some executives to fear that they may run out of new workers. businessinsider.com

Amazon attacks social-media firms over its fake-review problem

Oklahoma City, OK: Trove of stolen goods uncovered in Oklahoma City, officials say
Officials in the Organized Retail Crime Unit uncovered a trove of stolen property on Thursday in Oklahoma City. Firearms, ammunition, electronics, and perfume were recovered. The ORC works with retail stores in an attempt to combat thefts. Officers raided a place where thieves store their goods and hit the jackpot. OKCPD says ORC works with retail stores in an attempt to combat thefts. okcfox.com

Memphis, TN: 46 Guns were stolen from a semi trailer at a Bass Pro Shop
The Memphis Police Department (MPD) is asking for public help in locating suspects who stole dozens of firearms from a trailer at a business location. MPD responded to a report of cargo theft at 6 a.m. on June 14, 2021, at a Bass Pro Shop store located at 6041 Macon Road in Memphis. Using store surveillance footage, MPD was able to determine that three vehicles were used to steal a total of 46 firearms from a semi trailer at the store. “23 Long Guns were stolen; 2 Assault Rifles, 2 Hunting Rifles, and 19 Semi-Auto Shotguns,” MPD said in a news release. MPD wasn’t able to obtain a physical description of any of the suspects. However, they were able to identify three suspect vehicles: 2013 Silver Kia Sorento, Unknown Light Brown or Gold Sedan, Silver Infiniti G35 (unknown year) The FBI and ATF are assisting MPD in the investigation. cdllife.com

Seminole County, FL: AG secures conviction of C-Store employee in credit card fraud case
NyKeshia Smith has been found guilty on multiple counts of credit card fraud and identity theft. Smith is a former convenience store employee who was accused of defrauding several customers by obtaining information from their credit cards during transactions and using the stolen information on shopping sprees. Two of the three victims are seniors. According to a news release from the Attorney General's Office, Smith fraudulently charged nearly $3,000 on one victims’ credit and debit cards, including more than $1,000 spent at Sam’s Club, and more than $1,000 paid to cover someone else’s fine. In one instance a senior victim left a debit card behind in the card reader after a transaction and Smith then stole the card. hometownnewsbrevard.com

Newark, NJ: Man Charged with Stealing Over $1100 Worth of Items from Home Depot in Bloomfield
Police in Bloomfield took a Newark resident into custody then charged him with stealing multiple items from a business in the township. According to authorities, officers responded to 60 Orange Street (Home Depot) on a report of shoplifting. Police said the store’s loss prevention employee observed Mr. Luis Lopez, 30, Newark, load numerous store items into a shopping cart, walk past all points of sale, and left the store without paying. Police said the total value of merchandise stolen was $1,138.00. Patrol officers observed Mr. Lopez running from the store on Hill Street, where he was then arrested without further incident. rlsmedia.com

Decatur, GA: 2 men charged with using State of Georgia money to buy $18k of NAPA Auto parts
Two former Georgia state workers have been indicted on charges that they used a state purchasing card to buy more than $18,000 in auto parts for themselves, while a NAPA store clerk is charged with helping cover up the theft. Oscar Cooke of Riverdale, Roosevelt Addie of Jonesboro and NAPA Auto Parts employee Openzender Tanner were indicted June 1 by a DeKalb County grand jury. State Inspector General Scott McAfee announced the indictments Thursday. The indictment alleges that Addie and Cooke misused their state purchasing cards to buy auto parts a combined 55 times between 2015 and 2017 from NAPA Auto Parts. They are charged with unlawful use of state funds and theft by taking. Addie was a manager, and Cooke was a warehouse supervisor for the Georgia Department of Transportation, McAfee said. He said the men claimed that they were buying parts for department vehicles. However, an audit showed the parts were designed for cars and trucks made by Ferrari, Cadillac, Hummer, Bentley, Porsche, and Lexus. apnews.com

San Francisco, CA: "Winnie the Pooh Bandit" suspected of Costco burglaries in four California cities, police say
A man who is accused of stealing from several Costco locations throughout the San Francisco Bay Area and in Santa Cruz sure picked a big way to stand out to investigators. Police in Santa Cruz released surveillance images of a man wearing a Winnie the Pooh sweater who is wanted for several criminal offenses. He has been nicknamed the Winnie the Pooh Bandit by police. Investigators said the Pooh bear suspect hit several Costco stores to commit commercial burglaries, along with other crimes. “On March 6 at 12:12 p.m., a commercial burglary occurred at Costco in the City of Santa Cruz,” police stated. “The Santa Cruz Costco suspect is also a suspect in commercial burglaries at other Costco retail stores in Mountain View, Foster City, and an attempted burglary in Gilroy.” newsbreak.com

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Shootings & Deaths

Flint, MI: Man who executed store clerk in 1975 still can’t explain why he pulled the trigger
Dewey Lorick admits he killed a store clerk during a 1975 robbery in Flint, but more than 45 years later he still doesn’t have an explanation for what made him pull the trigger. “It was all decided in the moment,” Lorick, 67, said during a hearing of the Michigan Parole Board on Thursday, June 17. “He said, ‘You aren’t going to get away with this.’ He told me that and I shot him. Something just -- I don’t know -- and I shot him. I don’t even know (why). It just happened.”

Lorick, who was 21 at the time of the second-degree murder of Larry McNeil and armed robbery of the Jones Bros. Party Shop on North Saginaw Street, has been in prison since he was given a life sentence after pleading guilty to the charges in 1977. Neither the Genesee County Prosecutor’s Office nor the Department of Attorney General has taken a position on Lorick’s possible probation, and no one spoke Thursday in favor or against the pending decision of the Parole Board.

“I know I hurt (McNeil’s) family and destroyed his life,” Lorick said Thursday. “I brought a lot of pain to his family ... I know I did something real bad. Terrible bad, and I’m sorry for it.” Flint Journal files say Lorick was sentenced to life in prison by former Genesee Circuit Judge Harry B. McAra, who at the time called the killing of McNeil, who was 24, “a senseless, outrageous act.”

The armed robbery netted $2,725 in cash and $235 in food stamps. Police recovered a .38-caliber revolver at the time, which Lorick told the Parole Board hearing he took from the Jones Bros. store, where he had worked briefly and which was owned by his mother’s uncle. mlive.com

Robberies, Incidents & Thefts

Los Angeles County, CA: ‘Oxy Bandits’ leader guilty of California pharmacy robberies
The leader of the so-called “Oxy Bandits” crew has been convicted of organizing armed robberies of oxycodone at 15 independently owned pharmacies across Southern California, federal prosecutors said Wednesday. A judge found Tyrome Lewis, 26, guilty of eight felony charges including robbery, conspiracy and possession with intent to distribute oxycodone, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a statement. Lewis, who’s been in custody since his arrest in July 2019, conspired with others to target “mom and pop” pharmacies in Los Angeles, Orange and Riverside counties, prosecutors said. “He also assigned the roles from the crew members, and then he served as a lookout while co-conspirators committed the robberies. Following the pharmacy robberies, Lewis and others would sell the stolen prescription medication on the black market,” the statement said. Lewis faces life in prison when he’s sentenced September 23. smdp.com

Lincoln, NE: Surveillance video shows man inside CVS after-hours; unclear how he broke-in
Investigators with the Lincoln Police Department are working to learn how a man got inside a CVS after-hours and was caught smoking on surveillance footage. Around 3 a.m. on Thursday, officers were dispatched to the CVS at 48th and O Streets, in east Lincoln, on a report of an alarm. LPD said the 911 caller was able to access the store’s security cameras and could see someone inside the store smoking.

According to police, responding officers said there were no signs of forced entry and the building was secure. When officers went inside, LPD said there was no one in the store however there was a smell of recently smoked cigarettes. LPD said officers reviewed security video from inside the CVS and could see a man walking around the store but then ran away. Officers said at this time it’s not clear if anything was stolen from the store. 1011now.com

Hernando County, FL: Hernando County sees biggest commercial burglary bust in over a decade
At a time when the construction business is already crippled by the pandemic, Hernando County Sheriff Al Nienhuis said his office just busted the largest commercial burglary by one party he’s seen in over a decade. "We were able to get search warrants for the vehicle and for some homes," Sheriff Nienhuis said. "We found out that they had some storage units used without being rented to store some of the stuff you see behind me.” Halie Eaton, Vice President of Probuilt U.S., joined other contractors at the Hernando County Sheriff warehouse hoping to identify some of her missing items. Looking through the storage full of boxes and other materials, she told Spectrum Bay News 9, “I see some A.C. systems which is one of the big items that we actually got stolen out of the house, so I’m really hoping that ours is in there somewhere.” Her company, who is working on several projects in Hernando County, was the victim of a 15-construction home burglary averaging about $70,000. “Our superintendent are the first on the jobs," Eaton said. "Same thing with sub-contractors. When they go there and their materials are missing and we know that they were delivered, then that’s when it’s a red flag to us.” baynews9.com

Cocke County, TN: Dollar General Armed Robbery suspect leaves cellphone at crime scene
The Cocke County Sheriff’s Office is searching for a pair of robbery suspects including one who left his cellphone at the scene of the crime. Around 10 p.m. on June 8, a man robbed the Dollar General Store on Old Highway 411. The Sheriff’s Office said in a social media post that the suspect displayed a black, automatic “1911”-style handgun and got away with $580 and some store merchandise. During the altercation, the suspect dropped a cellphone with a background image that appeared to be the suspect based on the tattoos and hairstyle. wate.com

Baltimore County, MD: DC Man Gets Almost 5 Years for Maryland Gun Store Theft

Counterfeit

Monroeville, PA: Counterfeiter who passed fake $100 bill 49 times in one day gets 33 months in federal prison

● C-Store – Salisbury, NC – Armed Robbery
● C-Store – Gregory, MI – Burglary
● C-Store – Bronx, NY – Robbery
● CVS - Lincoln, NE – Burglary
● Car Wash – Sonora, CA – Burglary
● Dollar General – Newport, TN – Armed Robbery
● Dollar General – Mottville, MI – Armed Robbery
● Gaming - Shenandoah County, VA – Burglary
● Guns – Memphis, TN – Burglary
● Hardware – Toledo, OH – Robbery
● Jewelry – Grapevine, TX – Burglary
● Metro PCS – Texarkana, TX – Robbery
● Pharmacy – Morgan County, AL – Burglary
● Restaurant – St Louis County, MO – Armed Robbery (McDonald’s)
● Restaurant – St Louis, MO – Burglary
● 7-Eleven – Virginia Beach, VA – Robbery

Daily Totals:
• 8 robberies
• 8 burglaries
• 0 shootings
• 0 killed

Weekly Totals:
• 53 robberies
• 39 burglaries
• 0 shootings
• 0 killed

Click to enlarge map

None to report.

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