The Dealmaker: 5/18/2017

Organization fights to revive Ajo’s economy after decades of recession. “Ajo, Arizona, once nearly a ghost town, is in the hands of a single nonprofit seeking to save the economy by getting residents back into school and the workforce.” Cronkite News looks at what International Sonoran Desert Alliance is doing to “pick up the slack where the economy has fallen.” And in the hopes that this nonprofit’s efforts prove fruitful, we present to you a possible future (silly wordplay) headline: “Ajo no longer sleepy thanks to Sonoran.” http://bit.ly/2rvJD0i 

Arizona and 5 other states hoping to revamp Medicaid in the Trump era.Governing examines what six governors (including Gov. Ducey) are trying to do “to make their own changes to the health-care system” — proposals that “could drastically change the structure of Medicaid in their states and have national implications.” http://bit.ly/2qxDdAy

Arizona commission improperly slashes workplace safety penalties, feds say. “Last year, [an Arizona Star] investigation found the Industrial Commission… routinely reduces those penalties and reclassifies violations, often without clear justification.” Now, OSHA has found the same “practice of arbitrarily reducing employers’ penalties for safety violations.” Case in point? One man, who is pictured in this report, “suffered burns over 42 percent of his body after a workplace accident. His employer’s penalty was cut from $69,300 to $25,300.” http://bit.ly/2riWtCt

How to protect yourself from ransomware attacks; Lauren Reynolds, Rose Law Group litigator focusing on cybersecurity, shares some ‘proactive steps.’ “In a recent ransomware attack, cybercriminals hijacked hundreds of thousands of computers worldwide, locking up data and threatening to destroy it if a ransom was not paid…. What can businesses and individuals do to protect themselves from ransomware?” The New York Times has “some tips from security experts,” while Lauren Reynolds lays out these “proactive steps”: (1) Installing updates as they become available, or setting up automatic updates (2) Backing up your files on an external storage device (3) Ensuring you know the source of any document or link you receive prior to opening it (4) Providing appropriate training to all computer users on your network — whether that be employees, roommates, or family members. http://bit.ly/2pQ49ML

Are you ready for artificial intelligence to change your business? What’s going on in my market? How will prices “change over time”?  What about my customers? My products?  My cash flow? Information for all of this — and much more — can be “teased out of massive amounts of data… by computer algorithms that are faster, more accurate, and not swayed by preconceived notions.” This report in AzBigMedia looks at what “your business [can] do to take advantage of the [AI] possibilities.” http://bit.ly/2pPJng6

GOT SILK? – Dairy queens get water beds, country tunes and backscratchers. “Cows are coddled by farmers to try to boost milk output: ‘they can’t get stressed…’ a happy cow is a cash cow.” Such talk about ‘stressed-out’ cows got us wondering if, in homage to a currently popular song, any of the bovines mentioned in this WSJ piece are nicknamed “Blurryface.” Meanwhile, our online search for a prior instance of such coddling found this rather apt Mother Goose nursery rhyme: “Cushy cow, bonny, let down thy milk / And I will give thee a gown of silk / A gown of silk and a silver tee / If thou wilt let down thy milk to me.” http://bit.ly/2pY2rop