More States Than Ever Will Raise Their Minimum Wage On New Year's Day

If you're a minimum wage earner and of drinking age, be sure to raise a glass when the ball drops Wednesday night. There's a decent chance you'll be getting a pay raise.

Thanks to a raft of state-level laws and ballot measures this year, 20 states will be hiking their minimum wages on New Year's Day -- evidence of a growing nationwide move toward higher mandatory pay despite congressional inertia on the issue.

With a proposal to raise the $7.25 federal minimum wage to $10.10 languishing on Capitol Hill, more and more states are choosing to bypass Congress and raise the wage floor on their own. That trend has even come to red states like Alaska, Arkansas, Nebraska and South Dakota, where voters approved various minimum wage ballot measures in the November elections.

The left-leaning Economic Policy Institute estimates that the new raises will boost the income of 3.1 million low-wage workers. That includes workers who currently earn minimum wage, as well as workers who earn slightly more than minimum wage but who are still likely to see an increase as employers adjust their pay scales upward. Of course, some employers may respond to the higher wage mandates by cutting hours, though for many workers the wage gains will cover the hours that may be lost.

The Jan. 1 pay raises will total about $1.6 billion in additional wages, which EPI says will act as a modest economic stimulus, since minimum wage workers are likely to spend the extra cash on groceries and other goods, rather than tucking it away or putting it in the stock market.

Minimum wage workers in Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Jersey, Ohio, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont, Washington and West Virginia will all see their pay go up on Jan. 1. Minimum wage workers in Delaware and Minnesota are also expected to receive a pay hike in June and August 2015, respectively. (For details on the specific amounts by which wages will go up in each state, take a look at EPI's data here.)

The upcoming wage hikes underscore the rift between congressional Republicans and the rest of the country when it comes to the minimum wage. The idea of raising the wage floor tends to poll extremely well, with at least two-thirds of respondents in most surveys supporting it, including many conservatives. Nevertheless, Congress hasn't authorized a federal minimum wage raise since 2009, with Republicans standing in the way of more recent efforts.

Yet as of the new year, for the first time a majority of states -- 29, to be exact -- will have minimum wages higher than the federal level. Many of those states have chosen to tie their wage floors to an inflation index, guaranteeing that the state minimum wage will rise over time along with the cost of living.

As in years past, Washington state will continue to have the highest minimum wage, going up to $9.47 per hour from its current rate of $9.32 an hour. Connecticut, Massachusetts, Oregon, Rhode Island and Vermont will also reach or surpass the $9 mark on New Year's Day.

In addition to the 20 states bringing their wage floors up on Jan. 1, New York will be raising its own state minimum wage from $8 to $8.75 on Dec. 31. Due to the state's large population and the 75-cent increase, New York has the highest number of workers poised to benefit from this week's wage hikes -- a projected 711,000 people -- of any state raising its wages this week, according to EPI.

These piecemeal raises represent a major victory for organized labor and its progressive allies, who in recent years have made large investments in state- and city-level minimum wage campaigns across the country. The raises also mark an accomplishment for fast-food workers involved in the union-backed Fight for $15 movement, who have effectively put a face to the low-wage workforce through their ongoing one-day strikes and protests.

Map by Amanda Terkel.

Traffic To Gmail Blocked In China

BEIJING (AP) — Chinese access to Google Inc.'s email service has been blocked amid government efforts to limit or possibly ban access to the U.S. company's services, which are popular among Chinese who seek to avoid government monitoring.

Data from Google's Transparency Report show online traffic from China to Gmail fell precipitously on Friday and dropped to nearly zero on Saturday, although there was a tiny pickup on Monday.

Taj Meadows, a spokesman for Google Asia Pacific, said Google has checked its email service and "there's nothing technically wrong on our end."

Earl Zmijewski, vice president of data analytics at U.S.-based Internet analysis firm Dyn Research, said his tests showed that China's government had blocked Google IP addresses in Hong Kong used by people on the mainland to access Gmail services.

Calls to the government regulator, the China Internet Information Office, were unanswered Monday. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said she did not know about any block but that China welcomes foreign investors who conduct business legally in the country.

Google closed its mainland China search engine in 2009, saying it would no longer cooperate with the country's censors. That followed hacking attacks traced to China aimed at stealing the company's operating code and breaking into email accounts.

Since then, access to Google services has been periodically limited or blocked, possibly in an effort to pressure Chinese users into abandoning Google products and shifting to services from domestic companies willing to cooperate with the government.

Google products are popular among Chinese young people and activists who do not want their email communications to be monitored or intercepted by the Chinese government.

Web access in China to Gmail has been blocked since June, according to Greatfire.org, a China-based advocacy group for Internet freedom, but users had been able to access the mail service through mobile apps or third-party email software such as Microsoft Outlook and Apple Mail until the current block.

It was not immediately clear what prompted the complete ban at this time.

States Where People Live The Longest

The United States has a health problem. Across the country, life expectancies routinely fail to meet the standards set by other developed nations. Differences in life expectancy between the United States and other developed nations, such as Switzerland and Japan, are dramatic.

Read the whole story at 24/7 Wall St.

'The Interview' Gets VOD Release Via YouTube, Google Play

A day after Sony authorized screenings of "The Interview" in a limited number of theaters, the studio announced that the film will also be available via on-demand services.

As first reported by CNN's Brian Stelter and later confirmed by Sony, viewers are able to rent or buy the film from YouTube Movies, Google Play, Microsoft's Xbox Video and via SeeTheInterview.com. (The cost is $5.99 to rent, and $14.99 to purchase).

"Last Wednesday, Sony began contacting a number of companies, including Google, to ask if we'd be able to make their movie, 'The Interview,' available online," David Drummond, SVP Corporate Development and Chief Legal Officer at Google, wrote in a statement. "We'd had a similar thought and were eager to help -- though given everything that’s happened, the security implications were very much at the front of our minds.

"Of course it was tempting to hope that something else would happen to ensure this movie saw the light of day," he continued. "But after discussing all the issues, Sony and Google agreed that we could not sit on the sidelines and allow a handful of people to determine the limits of free speech in another country (however silly the content might be)."

Sony Entertainment CEO Michael Lynton also released a statement about the streaming debut:

We never stopped pursuing as wide a release as possible for 'The Interview.' It was essential for our studio to release this movie, especially given the assault upon our business and our employees by those who wanted to stop free speech. We chose the path of digital distribution first so as to reach as many people as possible on opening day, and we continue to seek other partners and platforms to further expand the release.

I want to thank Google and Microsoft for helping make this a reality. This release represents our commitment to our filmmakers and free speech. While we couldn't have predicted the road this movie traveled to get to this moment, I'm proud our fight was not for nothing and that cyber criminals were not able to silence us. No doubt the issues we have confronted these last few weeks will not end with this release, but we are gratified to have stood together and confident in our future. I want to thank everyone at Sony Pictures for their dedication and perseverance through what has been an extraordinary and difficult time.

Sony's decision to stream the film was also praised by President Barack Obama.

"The president welcomes the news that people will be able to decide for themselves whether or not to see this film, and appreciates Sony's work on this effort over the past few weeks," White House deputy press secretary Eric Schultz said in a statement. "As the president made clear on Friday, we do not live in a country where a foreign dictator can start imposing censorship here in the United States. With today's announcements, people can now make their own choices about the film, and that's how it should be."

In addition to the on-demand release, Sony will debut "The Interview" in select theaters on Christmas Day. (Here's a list of all the theaters showing "The Interview.") According to Variety, Sony is also in discussions with Netflix about possibly streaming "The Interview" to subscribers within the next few days.

As noted by SeeTheInterview.com, watching the film online is currently limited to only viewers in the United States.

Last week, it was unclear if people would ever see "The Interview." Following terror threats made by hackers against theaters that planned to show the film, major chains like AMC Entertainment, Regal Entertainment, Cinemark, Cineplex Entertainment and Carmike Cinemas pulled "The Interview" from schedules. Sony then dropped the film from its release schedule.

Soon after, Sony was criticized by members of the Hollywood community and President Obama, who called the cancellation "a mistake." On Tuesday, Sony flipped its decision and announced that the film would make it to select theaters on Christmas Day, its previously scheduled release date. Independent movie theaters around the country amended their schedules to add showtimes.

Before the Wednesday VOD announcement, there were other rumors about an online release. On Sunday, it was reported that Sony would release "The Interview" via Crackle, the streaming video service the company owns, but that speculation proved untrue. BitTorrent also said it would allow Sony to release the film via its platform.

Co-directed by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, "The Interview" focuses on what happens when the C.I.A. enlists an entertainment journalist (James Franco) and his producer (Rogen) to assassinate Kim Jong Un (Randall Park). You will now be able to watch the comedy as Rogen and Franco probably always intended: at home with a joint. Just don't do it alone.

I need to say that a comedy is best viewed in a theater full of people, so if you can, I'd watch it like that. Or call some friends over.

— Seth Rogen (@Sethrogen) December 24, 2014

Conquest Is for Losers

More than a century has passed since Norman Angell, a British journalist and politician, published “The Great Illusion,” a treatise arguing that the age of conquest was or at least should be over.

Read the whole story at New York Times

BitTorrent Urges Sony To Release 'The Interview' On Its Paid Service

Filing-sharing giant BitTorrent is urging Sony Pictures to release "The Interview" on its new, paid service.

The software company, synonymous with illegal music and movie pirating, had several talks this week with the embattled movie studio about debuting the canceled Seth Rogen action-comedy as a "bundle" of links to files that can be controlled and sold to users legally. Sony scrapped plans to debut the picture in theaters next week after suffering a devastating cyberattack by hackers linked to North Korea -- apparently in retaliation for the film's depiction of the fictional assassination of the country's leader, Kim Jong Un.

"A group of hackers stopped an American company from releasing a commercial film -- this should not stand," Matt Mason, the chief content officer at BitTorrent, told The Huffington Post on Saturday. "This is wrong and we can help make it right."

BitTorrent bills its bundle service as the most lucrative means for artists and studios to distribute music, ebooks and films. It has positioned itself as an alternative to streaming services as more artists, such as Taylor Swift, abandon Spotify and Pandora in protest of the meager cut of revenues they receive. In September, Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke became arguably the most famous musician to sell an album exclusively through a bundle. It was downloaded more than 1 million times.

The only overhead for the content creator is the 10 percent cut of each purchase that BitTorrent takes and the cost of processing the payments through PayPal or a credit card company. The artist is usually left with, on average, 85 percent of the revenue, Mason said.

That could be the file-sharing network's best pitch.

Sony stands to lose almost $200 million on the movie, according to Bloomberg. Canceling the film stirred public outrage, and calls for the studio to release "The Interview" online have grown louder over the past few days. Some have declared it a "civic duty" to see the film.

During a Friday appearance on CNN, Sony Pictures CEO Michael Lynton said no major video-on-demand distributors or e-commerce sites had offered to screen the film.

Sony did not respond to a request for comment.

Streaming services such as Netflix, Hulu and Amazon and platforms like iTunes and Google Play would undoubtedly court a similar cyberattack if they released the movie. And Sony has been reluctant to offer the film at all. The hackers, who the FBI claims are agents of Pyongyang, have threatened to release more of its trove of humiliating internal emails and documents if they reversed plans to drop "The Interview" altogether.

BitTorrent works as a peer-to-peer file-sharing network, with about 170 million users running the software each time their computers share files. It would be nearly impossible for hackers to suppress the movie as the files bounced between viewers' computers.

Plus, BitTorrent is beloved by hackers. The BitTorrent protocol -- a means by which computers communicate with each other -- makes up nearly 3.4 percent of all bandwidth used for file-sharing worldwide, making it by far the most popular software in that category.

"This is a way for Sony to not only deliver the film in a real way, but get out on the side of the hacker community," Mason said. "This is an issue that's bigger than 'The Interview,' bigger than the Sony hack -- it's really about free speech."

Your Boss Can't Stop You From Organizing A Union Over Work Email: Feds

WASHINGTON -- In a significant win for labor unions, federal regulators ruled Thursday that employers can't prevent their workers from using company email to organize and discuss their working conditions outside of work.

The decision issued by the National Labor Relations Board gives workers a statutory right to use work email systems for those purposes after hours, so long as they already have access to work email. The ruling overturns a Bush-era ruling by a more conservative labor board that said workers have no such right.

The outcome of the case, Purple Communications, Inc. and Communications Workers of America, is significant because it assures that pro-union employees can easily communicate with their colleagues about organizing. Aside from the right to pursue unionization, the ruling would also guarantee that workers can discuss basic things like pay and benefits via their work email without their bosses stopping them.

Employers had feared and probably expected just such a decision, considering the more liberal makeup of the NLRB in the Obama era. Board members called the decision "carefully limited."

In the case, Purple Communications, which develops communication services for deaf people, had maintained a policy stating that work email could be used for businesses purposes only. CWA, which lost a union election at the company in California, argued that the policy was too strict and infringed on workers' rights under the National Labor Relations Act, the Depression-era law establishing collective bargaining rights.

The board's three liberal members said the earlier ruling issued in 2007 didn't take into account the role that email plays in modern life. The two conservative members dissented.

"By focusing too much on employers’ property rights and too little on the importance of email as a means of workplace communication, the Board failed to adequately protect employees’ rights under the Act and abdicated its responsibility 'to adapt the Act to the changing patterns of industrial life,'" the majority wrote.

The ruling did, however, include two caveats. It limited the rights only to workers who otherwise have work email -- i.e., the ruling does not mean that companies have to give workers email access -- and it also carved out the possibly of "special circumstances" that would let an employer ban email use, when it was "necessary to maintain production or discipline."

Thursday's ruling was one in a batch expected to come down before the end of the year, when one current member's term will expire.

Black Barbies Don't Always Cost The Same As White Barbies

This story was originally published on CNBC.

Why are black Barbies priced differently than white Barbies?

It's a tough question and one that some of America's biggest retailers are having to answer amid the biggest shopping time of the year.

For example, Tuesday afternoon Wal-Mart's website listed an African-American ice skater Barbie for $11.87 while the Caucasian version costs just $9.88.

The retailing giant said the pricing discrepancy was an unintended error.

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"They should always be the same price, across all ethnicities," a Wal-Mart spokesman said Tuesday evening. "This is just a pricing error. We corrected it immediately."

In fact, the retailer vowed to make up the price difference with a gift card for any customer who purchased the more expensive African-American doll. The spokesman said he didn't know how long the prices had been different or how many shoppers might have purchased them at the wrong prices.

This isn't the first time Wal-Mart's website has gotten it into hot water. Before Halloween, the company listed 'Fat Girl Costumes' section online as a section. It removed it after the category sparked outrage.

Meanwhile, over at privately held Toys R Us, the same African-American Barbie skating doll was on sale for $10.99—less than the $14.99 price of the white Barbie.

"It is our policy to price like dolls of all ethnicities the same. We will ensure the pricing is corrected," Kathleen Waugh, vice president, Corporate Communications at Toys R Us told CNBC in an e-mail.

Mattel, the maker of the Barbie dolls, did not respond to CNBC's requests for a comment.

Discount retailer Target already caught heat from its own case of Barbie pricing discrepancy. The retailer originally priced its African-American fashion design marker Barbie at $49.99—more than twice the sale price of the $23.49 white version, reported WCPO's website.

Target is now selling both Barbies for $20.99.

"It is never our intention to offend our guests with our product assortment," a Target spokesman said, in a statement. "Both dolls should have reflected the same pricing, however, due to a systems issue this change did not occur."

McDonald's Sales Just Continue To Decline In America

NEW YORK (AP) — Hold the pickles, onions and special sauce. The Big Mac is becoming a victim of finicky tastes.

As sales continue to slide in the U.S., McDonald's plans to expand a test that lets people build their own burgers by tapping on a touchscreen to pick the bread, cheese and toppings they want. The company says it will bring the option to 2,000 of its more than 14,000 U.S. locations next year.

The "Create Your Taste" program is a departure for McDonald's, which was built to deliver food consistently, quickly and affordably. That model has come under pressure as people gravitate toward places like Chipotle, which lets people pick what goes on their bowls and burritos as they walk down a line.

According to industry executives and analysts, the ability to customize food orders is becoming more important, particularly among people in their 20s and 30s. McDonald's has already been trying to adjust by installing new kitchen prep tables that can hold more toppings and sauces.

The plans to offer greater customization come as McDonald's fights to boost declining sales and customer traffic. On Monday, it said U.S. sales fell 4.6 percent in November at established locations. The figure fell 4 percent in the unit that includes the Asia-Pacific region, where the company is fighting to recover from a food supplier scandal. Overall, global sales declined 2.2 percent for the month.

In the U.S., CEO Don Thompson has conceded the company hasn't done enough to keep up with shifting habits and that changes are in store.

"We haven't been changing at the same rate as our customers' eating-out expectations," Thompson said in October.

Offering greater customization could be a challenge for McDonald's, however. For "complicated" orders, burgers might take as long as five to seven minutes to prepare, Greg Watson, senior vice president of menu innovation, said in a phone interview. That's more than the couple of minutes it should take for regular orders, he said.

The customized burgers are also more expensive than core items like Big Macs, Watson said. But it's not clear whether people will be willing to wait longer or shell out more money for a burger from McDonald's.

Watson said McDonald's hasn't yet decided on expansion of "Create Your Taste" beyond the 2,000 locations next year. In Australia, McDonald's said earlier this year a customized burger option would be expanded nationally. The locations that have the "Create Your Taste" option still offer the regular menu.

As for the regular menu, McDonald's plans to remove some items "with slower movement" from the national menu in the U.S. The Bacon Clubhouse burger, which McDonald's introduced this year as a premium offering, could become a regional offering, Watson said.

In the meantime, McDonald's is also trying to alter long-held perceptions about the quality of its food. It recently launched a campaign that answers questions such as, "Does McDonald's beef contain worms?" and is planning new marketing for the year ahead.

McDonald's troubles aren't isolated to the U.S. In Asia, the company has been trying to bounce back since the summer, when a TV report in China showed workers at one of its suppliers repackaging meat that was alleged to be expired. The claim has not been publicly confirmed by the supplier or the government.

The Oak Brook, Illinois, company said comparable sales for Europe fell 2 percent in November with a strong performance in the U.K. more than offset by weakness in Russia, France and Germany.

McDonald's has more than 35,000 locations in more than 100 countries. Its stock was down $3.88, or 4 percent, at $92.43.

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Follow Candice Choi at www.twitter.com/candicechoi

Warren Buffett Bets Big On Hillary Clinton

The world's third richest man makes his first-ever donation to an independent political group aligned with a candidate.

Read the whole story at Bloomberg Politics

Protesters Demonstrate Against Sports Bar That Boycotted Rams Over 'Hands Up' Gesture

ST. LOUIS -- Demonstrators gathered Tuesday night outside of a sports bar that disavowed the St. Louis Rams after a few players on Sunday made the "hands up" motion that has become synonymous with support for Michael Brown, the teenager shot and killed by a police officer in August in the nearby suburb of Ferguson.

Protesters demonstrating after the bar posted that it would no longer support the St. Louis Rams.

On Monday, Time Out Sports Bar & Grill posted on its Facebook page that it would no longer support the football team "due to the bone headed 'hands up, don't shoot' act by the number of Rams players." The post said all signs and photos of the Rams would be removed from the walls. "We need to stand up to thugs who destroy our community and burn down local businesses, and boycott the other thugs/organizations who support them," the post read.

The restaurant later posted again, saying it was "not taking sides in the Ferguson tragedy" and supports peaceful protest and free speech, but disagreed with the Rams "bringing the protest to a nationwide professional sporting event."

A few dozen protesters gathered at around 6 p.m. on Tuesday outside one of Time Out's locations in St. Louis. Wearing Rams jerseys and hats, the protesters chanted "We are Rams fans" and "We want service." Protesters said a man who identified himself as a co-owner of the bar came to the door during the demonstration.

The group then moved to a second Time Out location nearby, repeating the protest. Protesters blocked the entry to both bars by standing on the sidewalk in front of the doors. They stayed at each bar for about 30 minutes.

Police organizations in the St. Louis area have expressed disapproval with the Rams players' show of support, with one organization even calling for the five black players involved to be disciplined. St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar claimed on Monday night that a top Rams official apologized for his players making the gesture, but the official disputed that account, saying he only expressed remorse about how the demonstration was interpreted.

Additional reporting by Ryan J. Reilly.

Pizza Hut's New Menu Supposedly Reads Your Mind Then Picks Your Toppings (In 2.5 Seconds)

Pizza lovers who just can't make up their minds about what to order, rejoice! Pizza Hut has developed a new tablet-based menu that relies purely on customers’ eye movements to create their perfect pizza.

The “Subconscious Menu," which is only in test mode in the United Kingdom for now, first syncs a customer's eye movements to a tablet by asking the customer to follow a moving Pizza Hut logo on the screen. Then, the screen shows images of the chain’s 20 most popular ingredients.

Mmm ... barbecue sauce.

After just 2.5 seconds, voilà! The menu reveals the customer’s "perfect" pizza based on the ingredients he or she has been staring at the longest. There are 4,896 possible combinations, according to a Pizza Hut press release from Nov. 28, so that's pretty fast.

Unfortunately, we couldn't try out the system ourselves, and neither can you -- yet.

So far, Pizza Hut has only tested the system with select journalists and customers in the UK, and claimed in the release that it has had a 98 percent success rate. The company did not immediately provide further details about the methodology of the trials it conducted.

But obviously, no one's tied to the first suggestion that the menu generates. If the customers aren’t happy with their pizza, they’re able to start the process over again, or they can just order the traditional way.

The system is powered by Swedish company Tobii Technology, which specializes in eye-tracking technology. A spokesperson for Pizza Hut restaurants told The Huffington Post in an email that the software is not yet available for purchase, but is expected to become publicly available in 2015.

"This menu innovation really is ahead of its time," the spokesperson wrote.

The technology, which took six months to develop, is being incorporated into Pizza Hut's ordering shortly after the chain unveiled a new menu and other rebranding measures.

"We love to excite and innovate," Kathryn Austin, Pizza Hut's head of marketing, said in the press release. "This year we’ve redesigned restaurants up and down the country and launched a brand new menu with lots tasty new options. But we don’t just want to stop there."

But as to when we'll get to allow our subconscious to create pizza, the future is unclear.

H/T: Entrepreneur

Black Friday Sales Numbers Don't Matter – Here's What Does

Americans went back to work after a long Thanksgiving weekend to see panicky headlines trumpeting an 11-percent drop in Black Friday sales. This led to various "OMG, have people stopped shopping, did the rug just get pulled out from under the economy?" reactions.

If the number freaked you out, don’t worry. You can safely ignore it.

The data, based on a survey the National Retail Federation conducts every year, is serially unreliable. At Bloomberg View, Barry Ritholtz zeroed in on the dicey methodology that goes into estimating Black Friday sales in anything like real time. The number we have right now -- down 11 percent, everyone freak out -- comes from the NRF asking a few thousand people how much money they spent. The result is a number, but it’s a really inaccurate number.

In an email to The Huffington Post, an NRF spokeswoman called Ritholtz’s piece an “annual temper tantrum” that was “slanted, flawed and predictable,” and compared it to “such holiday traditions as the Grinch and the threat of coal in one’s stocking.” The NRF did not cite any inaccuracies in Ritholtz’s column, nor did it provide any substantive criticism of his views or mine. The NRF noted it reached out to Ritholtz about his criticism of the survey last year, but that he did not respond.

As Ritholtz noted, just asking people how much they spent is actually a bad way to figure out how much they actually did spend or plan to spend. There’s also a good and growing case that the weekend after Thanksgiving just isn’t as important to stores or consumers as it used to be.

If you really want to estimate holiday spending before we have solid numbers, you should look backwards: Sales in the first 10 months of the year are very, very closely correlated with sales in the holiday season. And right now that indicator suggests the U.S. is on track for a 6-percent increase in holiday shopping from a year ago.

Shoppers, stores, and the media freak out about Black Friday and holiday shopping generally, but amid the frenzy there is a soothingly recurring EKG-like pattern to consumer spending in America, with predictable spikes in December.

Since 1992, there has been a .989 correlation between the total January through October sales, and total November through December sales, with 1.0 being perfect positive correlation and 0 being no correlation at all.

And through the first 10 months of the year, things looked just fine. If this year is like the past two decades, retail sales will be up more than 6 percent compared to last year. Throw in the economic stimulus of tumbling gas prices, and things could be much better than the 4.1 percent increase retailers projected.

In other words, ignore the bad data and scary headlines about plummeting Black Friday sales. Everything -– probably –- is going to be fine.

Girl Scout Cookies Are Now Being Sold Online

NEW YORK (AP) — Watch out world, the Girl Scouts are going digital to sell you cookies.

For the first time since sales began nearly 100 years, Girl Scouts of the USA will allow its young go-getters to push their wares using a mobile app or personalized websites.

But only if their scout councils and guardians say OK.

"Girls have been telling us that they want to go into this space," said Sarah Angel-Johnson, chief digital cookie executive for the organization covering about 2 million girls. "Online is where entrepreneurship is going."

And the best news for these digital natives: They can have cookies shipped directly to your doorstep.

More than 1 million scouts, from kindergarten-age Daisies to teens, were expected to opt in as cookie-selling season cranks up this month and the scouting organization gets digital sales underway. But the tactic is intended to enhance, not replace, the paper spreadsheets used to generate an estimated $800 million in cookie sales a year — at anywhere from $3.50 to $5 a box, depending on scout council.

There are important e-lessons here, scout officials said, such as better articulating and tracking goals, learning to handle customers and money in a new way, and more efficiently processing credit card information.

"A lot of people have asked, 'What took you so long to get online?' We spend a lot of time thinking how do we make this safe, scalable and smart," Kelly M. Parisi, chief communications executive for Girl Scouts of the USA, said at a recent demonstration for select media.

Councils were offered one of the two platforms but not both. For web-based sales, scouts customize their pages, using their first names only, and email prospective customers with links to click on for orders. They can also put up videos explaining who they are and what they plan to do with their proceeds.

The mobile platform offers tabs for tracking sales and allows for the sale of bundles of different kinds of cookies. It can be used on a phone or tablet.

"They can get them quicker than waiting for me to deliver them because sometimes it takes me a long time to deliver," offered 11-year-old Priscilla at the preview. The adults at the event asked that only first names of scouts be used.

Added 7-year-old Anna: "My favorite part is that now I can sell more Girl Scout Cookies." She pulled down about 200 boxes last year and has upped her goal to 600. Girl Scouts use their cookie money to pay for community service work or troop activities such as camping and other trips.

The websites will not be accessible without an email invitation, requiring the girls to build client lists. And personal information is as protected as any digits out there, for both the scouts and customers, using encryption in some cases.

Much of the responsibility to limit identifying details about scouts online falls on parents.

Troop Leader Karen Porcher of the Bronx has an 11-year-old scout and is particularly psyched about the digital options. They live in a house rather than an apartment, and she and her husband work at home, eliminating at-office cookie and neighborly building sales.

"During cookie season my daughter is wearing her (scout) vest on the subway and people are so excited to see a Girl Scout," Porcher explained. "Strangers actually will buy a case of cookies and wait for her to call. This is going to be amazing because now she can just say 'Give me your business card,' or 'I'll take your email address,' send the email and they can be delivered. This is gonna be sweet."

Porcher also sees word-of-mouth value in getting cookies delivered quickly.

"People are going to be walking around with cookies and others are going to say, 'Whoa, how did you get those already?'"

Zack Bennett of Manhattan has a 9-year-old scout who sold more than 1,000 boxes last year. She hopes to increase her goal to 1,500 this season and went through training to learn how to set up her new cookie website.

But dad won't be letting her loose alone.

"I'll be sitting in the backseat to help her, certainly when it comes to credit cards, things of that sort," he said. "But it makes perfect sense to have it be on the computer. It's definitely time the Girl Scouts came into the 21st century."

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Follow Leanne Italie on Twitter at http://twitter.com/litalie