Sabtu, 15 Juni 2019

Reports: Widespread tech outage affecting Target stores - MPR News

Updated: 1:42 p.m. | Posted: 1:20 p.m.

Social media reports indicate Target stores may be suffering a significant technology outage this afternoon.

Customers on Twitter and other platforms said the registers had stopped functioning during the noon hour, leaving shoppers unable to pay for their items.

The company responded to customer complaints about the outage at 1:18 p.m. Saturday.

"We are aware of a systems issue in store and are working as quickly as possible to get this fixed. Thank you for your patience!" the company said.

Customers at individual stores reported that employees handed out snacks and beverages to people waiting in line at the offline registers.

Headquarters staff didn't respond immediately to inquiries from Minnesota Public Radio about the outage, although MPR News staff confirmed the outage at the Target store in Richfield. There's no indication of when service may be restored.

Target has suffered from technology problems in the past. The Minnesota-based retail chain suffered a serious technology breach during the Christmas holiday rush in 2013, when hackers got into the company network and gained access to a suspected 110 million credit and debit card accounts that had been used at the stores. Computer experts said hackers had apparently taken advantage of a refrigeration contractor's vendor access to the company's network.

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https://www.mprnews.org/story/2019/06/15/reports-widespread-tech-outage-affecting-target-stores

2019-06-15 18:32:42Z
52780315212712

Target registers down: Shoppers reporting outage Saturday - USA TODAY

Target registers appear to be down nationwide.

Shoppers are posting to social media about long waits at the checkout line and then leaving stores empty-handed Saturday afternoon.

"We are aware of a systems issue in store and are working as quickly as possible to get this fixed," Target tweeted from its @AskTarget account in response to shoppers' tweets. "Thank you for your patience!"

According to a shopper at the Columbia, Maryland store, employees were warning shoppers about the outage as they entered the store.

There have been many posts on Downdetector.com about stores experiencing problems.

"Massive outage at @Target. All checkout systems are down across multiple stores in our immediate area. I wonder how widespread this really is. #SaturdayMorning," @TheQuietJorge tweeted.

This story will be updated.

Follow USA TODAY reporter Kelly Tyko on Twitter: @KellyTyko

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https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2019/06/15/target-registers-down-shoppers-reporting-outage-saturday/1465476001/

2019-06-15 18:30:00Z
52780315212712

The Fed won't cut rates at its June meeting. Here's why - CNBC

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell holds a press conference following a two day Federal Open Market Committee policy meeting in Washington, January 30, 2019.

Leah Millis | Reuters

With pretty much everyone convinced that the Fed is going to be cutting interest rates at some point this year, the central bank faces one rather pressing question: Why wait?

After all, the market already is pricing in at least reductions this year and probably three. Though the Federal Open Market Committee meets next week, there is little expectation of a move then.

Not moving next week essentially comes down to three factors, according to Fed watchers: The looming G-20 summit at which the U.S. and China, at least theoretically, could reach a trade agreement; a desire not to be seen as overly influenced by the financial markets and President Donald Trump's hectoring; and the desire to avoid making December's rate hike look like a policy mistake.

"They don't want to be seen as cowing to any sort of pressure, be it political from the White House or from the market," said Lindsey Piegza, chief economist at Stifel. "The Fed is going to look at the data, they're going to look at what their models say. To them, it doesn't matter what the markets say."

'No cuts this year is hard to believe'

Wall Street, though, is clamoring for a cut.

Futures pricing Friday afternoon in the fed funds market showed a 21% chance of a move at the June 18-19 meeting, down from 30% earlier in the day on some stronger-than-expected economic data. The chance of a July cut remained at 85%, while the market was figuring a 61% probability for three moves in total by the end of the year.

As things stand currently among Chairman Jerome Powell and his fellow Fed officials, no moves are indicated. That is likely to change when FOMC members submit their economic projections at the June 18-19 meeting, which include the "dot plot" of individual members' expectations of where rates are headed over the next few years.

"I can't imagine what they are going to do with the dots," Jeffrey Gundlach, founder of DoubleLine Capital, said in a webcast Thursday. He noted the "big divergence" between the market and Fed projections and said, "No cuts this year is hard to believe."

In May, Gundlach recommended a straddle options trade that benefited from wide fluctuations in interest rates. The trade recently had netted a 22% gain.

Fed officials have been under intense pressure from more than the markets. Trump has been a continuous nemesis to the central bank, most recently repeating his demand for lower rates and saying he's "not happy with what [Powell has] done" as Fed chair.

Along the same lines, the Fed has its credibility to worry about.

Trump and a growing number of market participants view the December rate hike — the fourth of the year — as a policy mistake that came amid several pivots and missteps that caused Powell and other officials to change their public statements to assuage investors' nerves.

'A verbal intervention'

From October to March, the Fed went from being "a long way from neutral" on rates and with a balance sheet reduction on "autopilot," both in Powell's words, to adopting a "patient" stance on policy and finally laying out a timetable to end the balance sheet program by September. Officials also cut the forecast level of rate hikes from two to zero, and now are in the position of having to convey a likelihood of cuts, if that is the way the FOMC members see things unfolding.

"It's a difficult transition for the Fed now from two rate hikes this year to the pause and now moving closer and closer to rate cuts," said Quincy Krosby, chief market strategist at Prudential Financial.

Krosby points to two pivotal events recently that signaled yet another change in policy — remarks from Powell and Vice Chairman Richard Clarida earlier in June that set the groundwork for potential cuts. In Powell's case, it was a pledge to "act as appropriate to sustain the expansion" while for Clarida it was a vow to adapt policy to keep the economy "in a good place."

"You can't dismiss the comments from Powell and Clarida. That was orchestrated. They were laying the groundwork. That's what the Fed does," Krosby said. "It came across as verbal intervention and they didn't even have to do anything. The market reacted."

Indeed, stocks have been on a solid run lately, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average up more than 5% in June after a brutal May. That equity strength gives the Fed another pillar to rest on if it chooses not to cut this month, though that hasn't always been enough to stop easing in the past.

But if the market strength holds up and the U.S. and China come to a trade agreement, it at least could lower the level of expectations for cuts.

Tom Porcelli, chief U.S. economist at RBC, said a client survey showed that if a trade deal gets one, 85% of clients "would not react negatively to the Fed taking a pass" on a July rate cut.

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https://www.cnbc.com/2019/06/14/three-reasons-why-the-fed-wont-cut-rates-at-its-june-meeting.html

2019-06-15 13:14:53Z
52780314582799

The Fed won't cut rates at its June meeting. Here's why - CNBC

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell holds a press conference following a two day Federal Open Market Committee policy meeting in Washington, January 30, 2019.

Leah Millis | Reuters

With pretty much everyone convinced that the Fed is going to be cutting interest rates at some point this year, the central bank faces one rather pressing question: Why wait?

After all, the market already is pricing in at least reductions this year and probably three. Though the Federal Open Market Committee meets next week, there is little expectation of a move then.

Not moving next week essentially comes down to three factors, according to Fed watchers: The looming G-20 summit at which the U.S. and China, at least theoretically, could reach a trade agreement; a desire not to be seen as overly influenced by the financial markets and President Donald Trump's hectoring; and the desire to avoid making December's rate hike look like a policy mistake.

"They don't want to be seen as cowing to any sort of pressure, be it political from the White House or from the market," said Lindsey Piegza, chief economist at Stifel. "The Fed is going to look at the data, they're going to look at what their models say. To them, it doesn't matter what the markets say."

'No cuts this year is hard to believe'

Wall Street, though, is clamoring for a cut.

Futures pricing Friday afternoon in the fed funds market showed a 21% chance of a move at the June 18-19 meeting, down from 30% earlier in the day on some stronger-than-expected economic data. The chance of a July cut remained at 85%, while the market was figuring a 61% probability for three moves in total by the end of the year.

As things stand currently among Chairman Jerome Powell and his fellow Fed officials, no moves are indicated. That is likely to change when FOMC members submit their economic projections at the June 18-19 meeting, which include the "dot plot" of individual members' expectations of where rates are headed over the next few years.

"I can't imagine what they are going to do with the dots," Jeffrey Gundlach, founder of DoubleLine Capital, said in a webcast Thursday. He noted the "big divergence" between the market and Fed projections and said, "No cuts this year is hard to believe."

In May, Gundlach recommended a straddle options trade that benefited from wide fluctuations in interest rates. The trade recently had netted a 22% gain.

Fed officials have been under intense pressure from more than the markets. Trump has been a continuous nemesis to the central bank, most recently repeating his demand for lower rates and saying he's "not happy with what [Powell has] done" as Fed chair.

Along the same lines, the Fed has its credibility to worry about.

Trump and a growing number of market participants view the December rate hike — the fourth of the year — as a policy mistake that came amid several pivots and missteps that caused Powell and other officials to change their public statements to assuage investors' nerves.

'A verbal intervention'

From October to March, the Fed went from being "a long way from neutral" on rates and with a balance sheet reduction on "autopilot," both in Powell's words, to adopting a "patient" stance on policy and finally laying out a timetable to end the balance sheet program by September. Officials also cut the forecast level of rate hikes from two to zero, and now are in the position of having to convey a likelihood of cuts, if that is the way the FOMC members see things unfolding.

"It's a difficult transition for the Fed now from two rate hikes this year to the pause and now moving closer and closer to rate cuts," said Quincy Krosby, chief market strategist at Prudential Financial.

Krosby points to two pivotal events recently that signaled yet another change in policy — remarks from Powell and Vice Chairman Richard Clarida earlier in June that set the groundwork for potential cuts. In Powell's case, it was a pledge to "act as appropriate to sustain the expansion" while for Clarida it was a vow to adapt policy to keep the economy "in a good place."

"You can't dismiss the comments from Powell and Clarida. That was orchestrated. They were laying the groundwork. That's what the Fed does," Krosby said. "It came across as verbal intervention and they didn't even have to do anything. The market reacted."

Indeed, stocks have been on a solid run lately, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average up more than 5% in June after a brutal May. That equity strength gives the Fed another pillar to rest on if it chooses not to cut this month, though that hasn't always been enough to stop easing in the past.

But if the market strength holds up and the U.S. and China come to a trade agreement, it at least could lower the level of expectations for cuts.

Tom Porcelli, chief U.S. economist at RBC, said a client survey showed that if a trade deal gets one, 85% of clients "would not react negatively to the Fed taking a pass" on a July rate cut.

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https://www.cnbc.com/2019/06/14/three-reasons-why-the-fed-wont-cut-rates-at-its-june-meeting.html

2019-06-15 13:14:27Z
52780314582799

The Fed won't cut rates at its June meeting. Here's why - CNBC

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell holds a press conference following a two day Federal Open Market Committee policy meeting in Washington, January 30, 2019.

Leah Millis | Reuters

With pretty much everyone convinced that the Fed is going to be cutting interest rates at some point this year, the central bank faces one rather pressing question: Why wait?

After all, the market already is pricing in at least reductions this year and probably three. Though the Federal Open Market Committee meets next week, there is little expectation of a move then.

Not moving next week essentially comes down to three factors, according to Fed watchers: The looming G-20 summit at which the U.S. and China, at least theoretically, could reach a trade agreement; a desire not to be seen as overly influenced by the financial markets and President Donald Trump's hectoring; and the desire to avoid making December's rate hike look like a policy mistake.

"They don't want to be seen as cowing to any sort of pressure, be it political from the White House or from the market," said Lindsey Piegza, chief economist at Stifel. "The Fed is going to look at the data, they're going to look at what their models say. To them, it doesn't matter what the markets say."

'No cuts this year is hard to believe'

Wall Street, though, is clamoring for a cut.

Futures pricing Friday afternoon in the fed funds market showed a 21% chance of a move at the June 18-19 meeting, down from 30% earlier in the day on some stronger-than-expected economic data. The chance of a July cut remained at 85%, while the market was figuring a 61% probability for three moves in total by the end of the year.

As things stand currently among Chairman Jerome Powell and his fellow Fed officials, no moves are indicated. That is likely to change when FOMC members submit their economic projections at the June 18-19 meeting, which include the "dot plot" of individual members' expectations of where rates are headed over the next few years.

"I can't imagine what they are going to do with the dots," Jeffrey Gundlach, founder of DoubleLine Capital, said in a webcast Thursday. He noted the "big divergence" between the market and Fed projections and said, "No cuts this year is hard to believe."

In May, Gundlach recommended a straddle options trade that benefited from wide fluctuations in interest rates. The trade recently had netted a 22% gain.

Fed officials have been under intense pressure from more than the markets. Trump has been a continuous nemesis to the central bank, most recently repeating his demand for lower rates and saying he's "not happy with what [Powell has] done" as Fed chair.

Along the same lines, the Fed has its credibility to worry about.

Trump and a growing number of market participants view the December rate hike — the fourth of the year — as a policy mistake that came amid several pivots and missteps that caused Powell and other officials to change their public statements to assuage investors' nerves.

'A verbal intervention'

From October to March, the Fed went from being "a long way from neutral" on rates and with a balance sheet reduction on "autopilot," both in Powell's words, to adopting a "patient" stance on policy and finally laying out a timetable to end the balance sheet program by September. Officials also cut the forecast level of rate hikes from two to zero, and now are in the position of having to convey a likelihood of cuts, if that is the way the FOMC members see things unfolding.

"It's a difficult transition for the Fed now from two rate hikes this year to the pause and now moving closer and closer to rate cuts," said Quincy Krosby, chief market strategist at Prudential Financial.

Krosby points to two pivotal events recently that signaled yet another change in policy — remarks from Powell and Vice Chairman Richard Clarida earlier in June that set the groundwork for potential cuts. In Powell's case, it was a pledge to "act as appropriate to sustain the expansion" while for Clarida it was a vow to adapt policy to keep the economy "in a good place."

"You can't dismiss the comments from Powell and Clarida. That was orchestrated. They were laying the groundwork. That's what the Fed does," Krosby said. "It came across as verbal intervention and they didn't even have to do anything. The market reacted."

Indeed, stocks have been on a solid run lately, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average up more than 5% in June after a brutal May. That equity strength gives the Fed another pillar to rest on if it chooses not to cut this month, though that hasn't always been enough to stop easing in the past.

But if the market strength holds up and the U.S. and China come to a trade agreement, it at least could lower the level of expectations for cuts.

Tom Porcelli, chief U.S. economist at RBC, said a client survey showed that if a trade deal gets one, 85% of clients "would not react negatively to the Fed taking a pass" on a July rate cut.

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https://www.cnbc.com/2019/06/14/three-reasons-why-the-fed-wont-cut-rates-at-its-june-meeting.html

2019-06-15 13:09:33Z
52780314582799

Tired of #$%& passwords? Single Sign-on could be savior - USA TODAY

The experience we know as password hell could be radically changed for the better within the next year and a half to three years. 

Struggling to come up with long strings of complex capital and lower case letters, numbers and symbols? That's so yesterday. 

That's the hope, anyway. 

In a fascinating interview with Google product manager Mark Risher in The Verge this week, he laid out his vision for why those passwords we've been told to create don't actually help.  

They have "no bearing on phishing, no bearing on password breaches, no bearing on password reuse," he said. "We think that it’s much more important to reduce the total number of passwords out there."

In other words, all that time you've been forced to spend trying to create tougher to crack passwords is a waste. At least that's the way he appears to see it. 

I think all Talking Tech readers would agree that anything we could do to eliminate the constant typing of passwords during our daily hours would be most welcome. 

But how to get there? 

Google wants you to use its single sign-on feature, which still requires a password and has Google authenticate your identity, for a second layer of authority, via text messages or via the Google smartphone app.

Apple just announced its answer to Google's sign-in, with an alternative that will be introduced to the iPhone and iPad in the fall, as part of the iOS13 software upgrade. Google has an 85.% market share for its Android phone system, to 14.9% for Apple, according to market tracker IDC. 

"Between the two of them, that's pretty much everyone's phone system," says Bob Rudis, the Chief Data Scientist for security firm Rapid 7. "So most everyone will get this by default over the next 18 to 36 months."

Facebook and Google have for years been offering consumers the ability to ditch having to recall their multiple passwords, and instead use their single sign-on system for gaining entry to websites. These tools don't even require the input of screen name and passwords, just a click of the "Sign in with" Facebook or Google tab. 

Apple hopes to go a little deeper, by using the Face ID and Touch ID biometrics features of the iPhone and iPad to bypass those clicks. If a website or app asks for an e-mail address, Apple will "create a unique email address that forwards to your real one," the company says. 

So how is single sign-on more secure, if Facebook is in charge? It's not, say security experts. "They’ve shown they can’t be trusted with our information," says Rudis. 

Google, however, is more trustworthy and Apple the best of the trio, he adds, due to its public commitment to privacy. 

Both are super convenient. Who wouldn't rather click a Facebook or Google icon instead of having to type in your name and password, once again? 

But not everyone we spoke with was in agreement that we can let our back down and forget about tough passwords. 

Even Google, on its website, recommends 8 characters minimum, and combinations of letters, numbers and symbols. Apple has the same requirements, with at least one number minimum. "You can also add extra characters and punctuation marks to make your password even stronger," the company says. 

"You can also make the password more complex by making it longer with a phrase or series of words that you can easily remember, but no one else knows," says Facebook. 

Andy Halverson, who runs IT for video firm Ooyala, looks to a password manager, and lets it create and remember the hard passwords, so he doesn't have to. He uses the password manager Dashlane, but there are many other popular ones, including Lastpass and 1Pass. 

"I like single sign-on, but this is another tool, and really convenient," he says.

James Litton, the CEO of security firm Identity Automation doesn't think single sign-on achieves much. "If it's a horrible password, your security situation hasn't improved," he says. 

He likes super long passwords, as many as 32 to 64 characters, but stored in a password manager. With a manager, you type in one master password, and the software logs you in. 

"It's more difficult for a bad guy to pick words out of a dictionary for a hack attack if I go long," he says. 

Meanwhile, for now, Rudis says a combination of long passwords and a password manager will lead to us "to that nirvana of being able to sign on with a single sign-on," everywhere.

It will take time. First, Apple will have to convince hundreds of thousands of websites to add its single sign-on system, which won't be easy. Apple, Google and Facebook have huge sales jobs ahead. For instance, while you can sign on to Barnes and Noble and Kroger with Google, that option isn't available on many top websites, including Target, Walmart, American Airlines, Verizon Wireless and Home Depot.

In other tech news this week

Elon Musk announced a new Tesla video game at the E3 conference: The racing game, "Beach Buggy Racing 2" will use the Tesla steering wheel, and will be able to be played in his car. Musk cautioned that the car has to be in park in order to play. 

Speaking of games, the PlayStation game system went down briefly on Thursday, for about four hours, According to the PlayStation status indicator page, there were problems with account management, gaming and social, PlayStation Now, PlayStation Video, PlayStation Store, and PlayStation Music. 

A leak of Google's next edition of the Pixel phone displayed online this week. After tech blogs got ahold of leaked images, Google did something unexpected: The search giant went to social media to post real photos of the next generation smartphone months in advance of its expected release. On Wednesday, Google dropped a rendering on Twitter with the caption, "Well, since there seems to be some interest, here you go! Wait 'til you see what ti can do. #Pixel4." Google traditionally introduces new hardware in the fall. 

And ICYMI, I offered some killer photo tips on how to get better vacation photos with your smartphone. Do you know about the flashlight app trick for food, or timer trick for selfies? Check it out!

This week's Talking Tech podcasts

Hey Google, why are you tracking my every move?

More on Google's tracking

Kristina Kumic's take on Father's Day videos

How to use tech to set up interviews

Mattel revs up new Hot Wheels 

That's it for the Talking Tech news wrap. Please subscribe to the newsletter, http://technewsletter.usatoday.com, listen to the daily Talking Tech podcast wherever you enjoy audio and follow me (@jeffersongraham) on Twitter, Instagram and YouTube. 

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https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/talkingtech/2019/06/15/google-says-tough-passwords-dont-matter-instant-sign-solution/1461379001/

2019-06-15 13:09:00Z
CAIiEH9E7738bwoab6V7fx-IDLYqGQgEKhAIACoHCAowjsP7CjCSpPQCMMGg0wU

New Auto Safety Features Can Make Car Insurance More Expensive - NPR

A photo demonstrates safety features in a Volvo XC40. Many new cars have optional features that can help prevent accidents. But those same features can also make repairs more expensive, boosting car insurance premiums. Volvo Car Group hide caption

toggle caption
Volvo Car Group

Many new cars sold today can take preemptive action to help prevent crashes — hitting the brakes before a collision, steering around obstacles or alerting drivers to hazards in their blind spots.

Those safety features — collectively known as advanced driver-assistance systems, or ADAS — reduce the risk of crashes. It might seem logical to assume that as a result, they'd reduce the cost of car insurance.

But instead, these advanced safety features can actually drive premiums up. That's because when such cars do get in crashes, the repairs are more expensive — thanks to the suite of sensors and computers that make these features possible.

Scott Wallisch, an auto pricing director with American Family Insurance, says headlights are a good example.

"A lot of vehicles are moving towards adaptive headlights that kind of look around the corner at night, or are LED and they're very bright," he says.

The benefit is easy to see — it helps a driver see better and avoid hitting something. But: "If a headlight gets into an accident it used to be $200 to replace it," Wallisch says. "Now, it's $2,000 to replace that same headlight."

It's the same story for other safety features. If your car is watching your blind spot, the technology in your side mirrors may be pricier than it appears, and sensors that help your vehicle detect pedestrians bump up the cost of your bumper. Windshields, rear sensors ... the list goes on.

"At least thus far, the improvements in safety and accident avoidance hasn't been significant enough to overtake the increase in cost to repair vehicles," says Michael Klein, the president of personal insurance at Travelers. The increase in repair costs gets passed on to consumers, he says.

New cars tend to be pricier to insure anyway, and instead of providing a break to consumers, cutting-edge safety technology can raise costs.

But Klein emphasizes that this shouldn't dissuade anyone from choosing a safer vehicle.

"Not all the incentives are economic," he says. "If you have the opportunity to buy a vehicle that has features that should make it safer and make it less likely you're going to get into an accident, that ought [to] be worth something to you."

The general trend holds across the industry. Sandee Perfetto works at Verisk, a company that provides data analysis to the insurance industry, where she directs personal auto product development.

"We have seen an increase in auto insurance premiums," she says. "There may be a number of factors that that can be attributed to, but this is potentially one of them."

However, policies vary, and Carmen Balber of Consumer Watchdog says it's crucial to shop around.

"Our research has shown that some auto insurance companies do give consumers discounts for having these safety features," she says, "but you may have to look around and they vary state by state."

Automatic emergency braking, where the car hits the brakes if it predicts a crash, is more likely to earn a car owner a discount, several experts said. But it's not guaranteed. And many other features aren't likely to save on insurance costs at all.

This could change in the future. The new technology could get cheaper over time, as it often does. Or as safety features get more common, they could reduce accidents more dramatically and change the cost-benefit analysis.

Insurers might simply need more time to understand just how effective the new safety features are. After all, insurers set rates now based on all the data they've collected from the past — that's how the entire industry works.

But some of these safety features are brand new, and there hasn't been much time to accumulate data.

Tom Karol, of the National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies, says the tech isn't just new — it's evolving. A feature might work one way this year, then get an update next year. And carmakers aren't always eager to share details about their proprietary technology.

"It's very difficult to get data on a moving target like that," he says.

Balber, of Consumer Watchdog, rejects the idea that the auto insurance industry needs more data on safety features.

"Insurance companies have the data that they need, if they chose to look for it, to determine if these safety features are actually reducing accidents," she says.

But Amy Bach, who runs United Policyholders, a nonprofit representing consumers, says she's not surprised to see insurers take their time assessing features. Historically the insurance industry has done a lot to promote safety, she says, but change doesn't happen quickly.

"Insurance ... it's about risk," she says. "Insurers tend to be cautious."

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https://www.npr.org/2019/06/15/728256381/why-safer-cars-dont-lead-to-cheaper-car-insurance-yet

2019-06-15 11:57:00Z
CAIiEPn7lRihYRbaODVrYzTu--0qFggEKg4IACoGCAow9vBNMK3UCDCvpUk