Ken Garen, CPA, Co-Founder and President, UBCC

China reaches a new milestone in fake goods: entire Apple stores, signs, sales assts and all Louise Watt, Associated Press, On Thursday July 21, 2011, 9:29 am EDT BEIJING (AP) -- At first, it looks like a sleek Apple store. Sales assistants in blue T-shirts with the company's logo chat to customers. Signs advertising the iPad 2 hang from the white walls. Outside, the famous logo sits next to the words "Apple Store." And that's the clue it's fake. China, long known for producing counterfeit consumer gadgets, software and brand name clothing, has reached a new piracy milestone -- fake Apple stores. An American who lives in Kunming in southern Yunnan province said Thursday that she and her husband stumbled on three shops masquerading as bona fide Apple stores in the city a few days ago. She took photos and posted them on her BirdAbroad blog. The three stores are not among the authorized resellers listed on Apple Inc.'s website. The maker of the iPhone an...

By Carly Mallenbaum, USA TODAY updated By H. Darr Beiser, USA TODAY Falling mail volume and soaring red ink may soon doom Saturday mail delivery and prompt three-day-a-week delivery within 15 years, Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe warns. Donahoe's forecast is based on a projected $8.3 billion loss this year as the drift from paper to electronic communication hammers the Postal Service. "On Sept. 30," he told the USA TODAY editorial board Tuesday, "I won't be able to pay my bills." Chief among them: a $5.5 billion payment due Sept. 30 to cover future retirees' health benefits. Mail carriers have been making rounds six days a week since the 19th century. After postmasters started talking about cutting back, Congress mandated the six-day delivery in 1983. Donahoe wasn't specific about how soon he would like to reduce service but said he thinks Congress, struggling with the federal budget, will be more open to the idea now. He said a USA TODAY...

By MIKE SPECTOR And JEFFREY A. TRACHTENBERG Borders, which employs about 10,700 people, scrapped a bankruptcy-court auction scheduled for Tuesday amid the dearth of bids. It said it would ask a judge Thursday to approve a sale to liquidators led by Hilco Merchant Resources and Gordon Brothers Group. The company said liquidation of its remaining 399 stores could start as soon as Friday, and it is expected to go out of business for good by the end of September. Borders filed for bankruptcy-court protection in February. It has since continued to bleed cash and has had trouble persuading publishers to ship merchandise to it on normal terms that allowed the chain to pay bills later, instead of right away. "Following the best efforts of all parties, we are saddened by this development," said Borders President Mike Edwards. "We were all working hard toward a different outcome, but the head winds we have been facing for quite some time, including the rapidly changing book...

By   Declan McCullagh Law enforcement representatives are planning to endorse a proposed federal law that would require Internet service providers to store logs about their customers for 18 months, CNET has learned. The National Sheriffs' Association will say it "strongly supports" mandatory data retention during Tuesday's U.S. House of Representatives hearing on the topic. Michael Brown, sheriff in Bedford County, Va., and a board member and executive committee member of the National Sheriffs' Association, is planning to argue that a new law is necessary because Internet providers do not store customer records long enough. "The limited data retention time and lack of uniformity among retention from company to company significantly hinders law enforcement's ability to identify predators when they come across child pornography," according to a copy of Brown's remarks. Any stored logs could, however, be used to prosecute any type of crime. ...