Black Friday Is One Of The Busiest Days For Gun Purchases

BRIDGEPORT, W.Va. (AP) — More gun sales than ever are slipping through the federal background check system — 186,000 last year, a rate of 512 gun sales a day, as states fail to consistently provide thorough, real-time updates on criminal and mental histories to the FBI.

At no time of year is this problem more urgent. This Friday opens the busiest season for gun purchases, when requests for background checks speed up to nearly two a second, testing the limits of the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, or NICS.

The stakes are high: In the U.S., there are already nine guns for every 10 people, and someone is killed with a firearm every 16 minutes. Mass shootings are happening every few weeks.

"We have a perfect storm coming," FBI manager Kimberly Del Greco told The Associated Press during a rare glimpse into the inner workings of the system.

Much of the responsibility for preventing criminals and the mentally ill from buying guns is shouldered by about 500 men and women who run the system from inside the FBI's criminal justice center, a gray office building with concrete walls and mirrored windows just outside Bridgeport, West Virginia.

By federal law, NICS researchers must race against the clock: They have until the end of the third business day following an attempted firearm purchase to determine whether or not a buyer is eligible.

"They won't proceed or deny a transaction unless they are ABSOLUTELY certain the information they have is correct and sufficient to sustain that decision," FBI spokesman Stephen G. Fischer told the AP.

In roughly two percent of the checks handled by the FBI, agents don't get this information in time. If three business days pass without a federal response, buyers can legally get their guns, whether or not the check was completed.

Americans are buying more than twice as many guns a year now as they did when the background checks were first implemented in 1998. And that means more gun sales are effectively beating the system.

The federal government often takes the heat in debates over gun rights, but the FBI says states are largely to blame for this problem. They voluntarily submit records, which are often missing information about mental health rulings or criminal convictions, and aren't always rapidly updated to reflect restraining orders or other urgent reasons to deny a sale.

"We are stewards of the states' records," Del Greco said. "It's really critical that we have accurate information. Sometimes we just don't."

There are more than 48,000 gun retailers in the U.S., from Wal-Mart stores to local pawn shops. Store clerks can use the FBI's online E-Check System, which federal officials say is more efficient. But nearly half the checks are phoned in. Three call centers — in Kentucky, Texas, and Wheeling, W.Va. — take these calls from 8 a.m. to 1 a.m. every day but Christmas.

NICS did about 58,000 checks on a typical day last year. That surged to 145,000 on Black Friday 2013. They're bringing in 100 more workers than usual for the post-Thanksgiving rush this year.

The call centers have no access to privileged information about buyers' backgrounds, and make no decisions. They just type in their name, address, birthdate, Social Security Number and other information into the system. On Black Fridays, the work can be grueling: One woman took a call that lasted four hours when a dealer phoned in the maximum 99 checks.

"Rules had to be stretched," recalled Sam Demarco, her supervisor. "We can't transfer calls. Someone had to sit in her seat for her while she went to the bathroom."

In the years since these background checks were required, about 71 percent have found no red flags and produced instant approvals.

But ten factors can disqualify gun purchasers: a felony conviction, an arrest warrant, a documented drug problem or mental illness, undocumented immigration status, a dishonorable military discharge, a renunciation of U.S. citizenship, a restraining order, a history of domestic violence, or an indictment for any crime punishable by longer than one year of prison time.

Any sign that one of these factors could be in a buyer's background produces a red-flag, which sends the check to the FBI researchers to approve, deny or investigate. They scour state records in the federal database, and often call local authorities for more information.

"It takes a lot of effort ... for an examiner to go out and look at court reports, look at judges' documents, try to find a final disposition so we can get back to a gun dealer on whether they can sell that gun or not," Del Greco said. "And we don't always get back to them."

These workers have considerable responsibility, but little independent authority. They must use skill and judgment, balancing the rights of gun owners and the need to keep would-be killers from getting firearms.

Researcher Valerie Sargo said outstanding warrants often come up when they examine a red flag, and that can help police make arrests.

"It makes you feel good that this person is not supposed to have a firearm and you kept it out of their hands," she said.

It also weighs on them when the red flags aren't resolved in time. Tacked to a cubicle wall, a sign reads: "Our policy is to ALWAYS blame the computer."

FBI contractors and employees oversaw more than 9 million checks in the first full year, when the NICS system was established as part of Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act of 1998. By last year, they oversaw more than 21 million. In all, only 1.25 percent of attempted purchases are denied. Denials can be appealed.

People can get guns without background checks in many states by buying weapons at gun shows or from individuals, a loophole the National Rifle Association does not want closed. But even the NRA agrees that the NICS system needs better data.

"Any database is only going to function as well as the information contained within," NRA spokesman Andrew Arulanandam said.

Del Greco doesn't see the states' data improving soon, which only adds to the immense challenge of getting through huge numbers of requisite checks on Black Friday.

___

Associated Press Writer Matt Stroud can be reached through Twitter @mattstroud.

Walmart Workers Launch Black Friday Strike

WASHINGTON -- Kicking off the third consecutive year of protests, Walmart workers in six states have formally submitted strike notices to their bosses ahead of the Black Friday shopping frenzy, calling for higher wages and better hours, according to OUR Walmart, the group representing the workers.

OUR Walmart did not provide an estimate on how many workers planned to take part in the strikes this year. It did, however, say that workers in Wisconsin, Louisiana, Florida, California, Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C., have already delivered notices, and it anticipates workers in Illinois, Minnesota, Texas and Pennsylvania will do so as well.

Charles Brown, an OUR Walmart member who unloads trucks at a Walmart in Newport News, Virginia, said he plans to miss three shifts this week to take part in the demonstrations. Brown said he joined the group in September to demand a greater say in scheduling as well as "more respect" from management.

"Some [other workers] may want to do a strike as well but are hesitant," said Brown, 27. "They need to know they don't have anything to be afraid of. If we don't stand up, no one else is going to stand up for us."

Black Friday has become an annual rallying cry for the anti-Walmart crowd, with labor activists and other progressives pillorying the world's largest retailer over its wages and scheduling practices for store employees. It also marks the most contentious week of the year between the Arkansas-based retail giant and OUR Walmart, which is backed by the United Food and Commercial Workers, a union that's been working to organize Walmart employees for years.

Walmart has downplayed the significance of the strikes in years past, noting that they involve just a tiny fraction of the retailer's one-million-plus U.S. workforce, and painted them as union-orchestrated stunts. OUR Walmart tends to put the number of strikers in the hundreds each year, while Walmart puts it more in the dozens.

"Perception is not reality in this case," said Brooke Buchanan, a Walmart spokeswoman. "Year after year we see the labor union and paid organizers promising they'll be out in force. And every year, we see a handful of people at a handful of stores."

Noting that Walmart workers get a holiday bonus, Buchanan also threw this barb at OUR Walmart and UFCW: "Are they going to pay their workers double time for working the holiday?" A union spokeswoman said all employees are salaried and work "as needed," meaning there is no bonus.

The sight of Walmart workers going on strike in the past two years has provided a shot in the arm to the labor movement, even if the numbers aren't large enough to impact sales. Like the fast-food walkouts that have popped up in cities across the country, the Walmart strikes aren't necessarily meant to disrupt the company's operations, but instead to draw attention to the participants' grievances.

This year, the group's members are making a specific demand in the protests: a wage of $15 and "consistent, full-time hours." Not coincidentally, $15 per hour is the same demand being put forth by the fast food strikers, whose movement is billed as Fight for $15 and who are backed by the Service Employees International Union.

OUR Walmart members have also been calling for an end to what they describe as retaliation from management for speaking out.

Since the strikes began in 2012, UFCW has filed a host of unfair labor practice charges against Walmart with the National Labor Relations Board, some of which the board's general counsel found merit in, some of which it did not. The general counsel issued a complaint in January alleging that Walmart had illegally punished workers in several states surrounding the strikes. That case has not yet been resolved.

OUR Walmart, in turn, has faced a number of court injunctions barring its members from protesting on Walmart property in certain states due to trespassing.

Many of the protests have focused on a lack of stable hours for workers, who say they don't get enough time on the schedule in order to make ends meet. Walmart says that a majority of its workforce is full-time, though it doesn't provide an exact percentage. The company recently launched a program aimed at giving more hours to the workers who need them, though it insisted the program was not a response to the protests.

Glova Scott, an employee at a Walmart in Washington, D.C., said she has already called in to her store and told them she won't be coming in this week. Scott said she's been working for Walmart for a little over a year but just joined OUR Walmart a week and a half ago. Fifty-nine years old, she earns $10.90 an hour stocking shelves on the night shift.

"It's hard. We work in an atmosphere where the pay doesn't make ends meet, and a lot of my co-workers think the solution is to look for another job rather than try to improve conditions," said Scott. "I joined because I wanted to be part of a movement. I'm looking forward to going back to work and encouraging my co-workers to join me."

Walmart Workers Launch Black Friday Strike

WASHINGTON -- Kicking off the third consecutive year of protests, Walmart workers in six states have formally submitted strike notices to their bosses ahead of the Black Friday shopping frenzy, calling for higher wages and better hours, according to OUR Walmart, the group representing the workers.

OUR Walmart did not provide an estimate on how many workers planned to take part in the strikes this year. It did, however, say that workers in Wisconsin, Louisiana, Florida, California, Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C., have already delivered notices, and it anticipates workers in Illinois, Minnesota, Texas and Pennsylvania will do so as well.

Charles Brown, an OUR Walmart member who unloads trucks at a Walmart in Newport News, Virginia, said he plans to miss three shifts this week to take part in the demonstrations. Brown said he joined the group in September to demand a greater say in scheduling as well as "more respect" from management.

"Some [other workers] may want to do a strike as well but are hesitant," said Brown, 27. "They need to know they don't have anything to be afraid of. If we don't stand up, no one else is going to stand up for us."

Black Friday has become an annual rallying cry for the anti-Walmart crowd, with labor activists and other progressives pillorying the world's largest retailer over its wages and scheduling practices for store employees. It also marks the most contentious week of the year between the Arkansas-based retail giant and OUR Walmart, which is backed by the United Food and Commercial Workers, a union that's been working to organize Walmart employees for years.

Walmart has downplayed the significance of the strikes in years past, noting that they involve just a tiny fraction of the retailer's one-million-plus U.S. workforce, and painted them as union-orchestrated stunts. OUR Walmart tends to put the number of strikers in the hundreds each year, while Walmart puts it more in the dozens.

"Perception is not reality in this case," said Brooke Buchanan, a Walmart spokeswoman. "Year after year we see the labor union and paid organizers promising they'll be out in force. And every year, we see a handful of people at a handful of stores."

Noting that Walmart workers get a holiday bonus, Buchanan also threw this barb at OUR Walmart and UFCW: "Are they going to pay their workers double time for working the holiday?" A union spokeswoman said all employees are salaried and work "as needed," meaning there is no bonus.

The sight of Walmart workers going on strike in the past two years has provided a shot in the arm to the labor movement, even if the numbers aren't large enough to impact sales. Like the fast-food walkouts that have popped up in cities across the country, the Walmart strikes aren't necessarily meant to disrupt the company's operations, but instead to draw attention to the participants' grievances.

This year, the group's members are making a specific demand in the protests: a wage of $15 and "consistent, full-time hours." Not coincidentally, $15 per hour is the same demand being put forth by the fast food strikers, whose movement is billed as Fight for $15 and who are backed by the Service Employees International Union.

OUR Walmart members have also been calling for an end to what they describe as retaliation from management for speaking out.

Since the strikes began in 2012, UFCW has filed a host of unfair labor practice charges against Walmart with the National Labor Relations Board, some of which the board's general counsel found merit in, some of which it did not. The general counsel issued a complaint in January alleging that Walmart had illegally punished workers in several states surrounding the strikes. That case has not yet been resolved.

OUR Walmart, in turn, has faced a number of court injunctions barring its members from protesting on Walmart property in certain states due to trespassing.

Many of the protests have focused on a lack of stable hours for workers, who say they don't get enough time on the schedule in order to make ends meet. Walmart says that a majority of its workforce is full-time, though it doesn't provide an exact percentage. The company recently launched a program aimed at giving more hours to the workers who need them, though it insisted the program was not a response to the protests.

Glova Scott, an employee at a Walmart in Washington, D.C., said she has already called in to her store and told them she won't be coming in this week. Scott said she's been working for Walmart for a little over a year but just joined OUR Walmart a week and a half ago. Fifty-nine years old, she earns $10.90 an hour stocking shelves on the night shift.

"It's hard. We work in an atmosphere where the pay doesn't make ends meet, and a lot of my co-workers think the solution is to look for another job rather than try to improve conditions," said Scott. "I joined because I wanted to be part of a movement. I'm looking forward to going back to work and encouraging my co-workers to join me."

Waiting For Comcast Cable Guy Could Be Less Hellish With New App Feature

Can an app help reboot Comcast's image?

Between surveys showing many dissatisfied customers and the "Customer Service Call From Hell" heard 'round the world, the Comcast brand has taken a beating in recent months.

But the country's largest cable operator says it's making changes and investing billions of dollars to improve the customer experience. One of the latest efforts aims to help you spend less time waiting for the technician to fix your Internet or TV service.

Comcast is testing a new service in its MyAccount app that allows customers to track the arriving technician in real time on their mobile devices. The app will tell you when the technician is 30 minutes away -- so in theory you could come home from work to meet the rep. The app will also tell you if the tech has been held up and will be late.

Of course, many people have commutes longer than 30 minutes, but it's certainly a step in the right direction.

"You have things to do," Charlie Herrin, senior vice president of customer experience at Comcast, wrote in a blog post announcing the new feature. "Waiting for us to show up shouldn’t be one of them."

Comcast is certainly not winning any popularity contests these days. In May, the American Consumer Satisfaction Index ranked the company second to last in its yearly ranking of consumer satisfaction.

In July, a recording of a customer service call went viral. During the call, a Comcast rep simply wouldn't let Ryan Block, a product manager at AOL (parent company of The Huffington Post), disconnect from Comcast. The recording did prompt Comcast to publicly apologize to Block.

The new tool, which seems similar to the car-tracking feature in popular ride-summoning apps like Uber and Lyft, is only being tested in Boston. But if the tests go well, the company wants to roll it out to more customers next year, Herrin wrote in the blog post.

A Comcast spokesperson said it was too early to identify the specific markets that would see the new feature early next year.

The tool borrows another element from the on-demand car service apps: You'll be able to rate your service experience.

Unlike the transportation market -- in many cities you can choose among taxis, car services and ride-summoning apps -- many people don't have much of an alternative if they have a bad experience with a Comcast tech. As Tom Wheeler, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, recently pointed out, most people have no real choice when it comes to truly high-speed Internet.

This new feature in Comcast's app comes as the company tries to complete a $45 billion purchase of Time Warner Cable, the second largest cable operator in the country. (Time Warner Cable held last place in that American Consumer Satisfaction Index.) The deal, which has opposition from consumer advocacy groups, still needs to be approved by federal regulators.

Want To Make A Difference? Don't Be A Hedge Fund Manager

Long before the 2008 financial collapse, the American economic landscape had shifted, plunging the country into something of an identity crisis. Manufacturing was down, far less tangible industries were up. Income inequality and nostalgia for a time when America “made things” became fixtures of the national conversation.

As Roger Martin put it in the Harvard Business Review in October, “Over the past 50 years the U.S. economy has shifted decisively from financing the exploitation of natural resources to making the most of human talent.”

“Talent” has a positive ring. And yes, there are some good things about an economy that favors talent -- that is, creative workers, as opposed to what Martin calls “routine-intensive labor.” Many of these creative people will flourish, and some of them will even “make things” that could truly improve people’s lives.

But Martin, an author and former dean of the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management, says a talent economy has a dark side, too.

“I started to take a dimmer view when I realized there was a large segment of talent that created no net benefit to society, and that segment was achieving the highest personal rewards in the modern economy,” he told The Huffington Post.

The disappearance of labor-intensive jobs, he argues, has accelerated income equality. Worse -- and hardly a shock to anyone paying attention -- many of those raking in billions at the very top aren’t exactly doing meaningful work. As others languish, this talent segment enjoys stratospheric gains.

Martin has articulated, at the HBR and in blog posts, his thoughts on what this means for the future of the American economy. HuffPost asked him to share his thoughts on something a bit closer to home: what it all means for young people starting out. If you want a successful career in the talent economy, but you also want to do something that might have meaning, or benefit society in some way, what might you want to know? What might you want to avoid?

What follows is his reply:

Build Value, Don't Trade It

The core imperative for a happy and fulfilling career in the modern talent economy is to focus your talent on building value, not simply trading it.

The paragon of the latter activity is the hedge fund manager, who simply trades value – and tolls it heavily on the way through. On behalf of his or her capital providers, the hedge fund manager trades liquid financial instruments. The only way to make a dollar for the capital providers is for someone on the other side of trade to lose a dollar. The hedge fund manager keeps 20 cents of the dollar of profit and gives the remaining 80 cents to the capital providers, making it a massively lucrative activity for the hedge fund manager. And in a great asymmetry of incentives, the capital providers absorb 100 cents of every dollar of loss, while the hedge fund takes none of that loss.

Minimal net value for society is created in this process. Value has just been transferred from the counter-party in the trade to the hedge fund manager and capital provider. Or vice versa: if the hedge fund manager loses money for its capital providers, the counter party walks away with the profit – and that counter-party might well be another hedge fund manager.

Huge Profits Don't Equal Huge Satisfaction

While it is a wonderfully profitable business for hedge fund managers, it provides little long-term satisfaction because it is a zero-sum game with equal and opposite magnitude of losers and winners. Over time, if you are in a value trading business, you have to wake up every morning knowing that, in order to make a dollar, you have to ensure someone else loses one.

If instead you work for or establish a company that builds a product or offers a service that makes the lives of its customers better off, and if the revenues from selling the product/service exceed the costs by enough to earn an adequate return for investors, then you live in a positive-sum game. Customers are better off than they were before having access to your product/service. The company makes enough money to invest in growth, which means hiring employees and buying machinery/equipment/real estate, all of which contribute to growing the economy.

In this case, you can go to bed every night knowing that you contributed value to customers, employees, shareholders and the overall economy. And if you do all of this in an environmentally sustainable way, you make the world a better place for your children, too.

Building Is Harder Than Trading -- But Also More Rewarding

The challenge for this path is that building value is harder work than trading value. It is difficult to figure out a way to generate new value to a particular group of customers and do so in a way that the value created (and therefore paid by them) is distinctly higher than the costs incurred. That is an inherently creative act -– even if it is done in the context of an existing company in an existing product line. The forces of competition erode existing value equations and demand the continuous process of upgrading value delivered and improving costs of doing so.

Trading value is much easier. Someone else has to create all the value, and all you need to do is shuffle it around and toll the players involved. The greatest skill required is that of convincing the providers of capital to traders to give you the capital to enable your trading -– even if they really shouldn’t. Raising capital is the greatest skill of hedge fund managers.

Hedge fund management is arguably the most lucrative occupation in America and is much easier than creating value. But the payoff to working harder and longer at the task of building net value for society is the satisfaction of using your talent for the world, not just for yourself.

The 16 Best Black Friday Deals

This article was reported by DealNews, a site that scours the web for the best retail deals.

Now that the Black Friday ads are leaking at a steady pace, we're finally getting a clear picture of the 2014 Black Friday landscape. We've examined the advertised deals from stores like Target, Best Buy, and Walmart, and we're ready to pick some early winners. Keep in mind though that new ads will continue to trickle in, but in the meantime, here's our roundup of the top Black Friday ads so far.

The Best Black Friday Ads So Far

Panasonic 50" 1080p LED LCD HDTV for $199.99 at Best Buy
If you want to make a statement, offering a brand-name HDTV as your show-stealing doorbuster is a heck of a way to do it. This Panasonic 50" set comes in at an astonishing $99 below our Black Friday prediction for the 46" to 47" class TVs. In fact, this deal will be tied as the best price we've seen for any 50" HDTV by about $100 — including refurbs. (We've only seen a 50" TV drop this low once before, on Thanksgiving last year.) Best of all, this price outshines the leaked Black Friday prices for every other TV in this size range, including Target's incredible $235 48" set. The only drawback to this doorbuster is that you'll have to go to the store to grab it.

Asus Intel Laptop for $100 at Staples
We admit, this ad is as vague as you can get, but even without specifics it's safe to assume this laptop is housing a low-cost Intel Atom or Celeron processor. Nevertheless, as far as budget systems are concerned, this deal is poised to blow all other deals out of the water. Not only does it beat our laptop prediction for budget machines by $78, but when this deal comes to fruition, it will set a new benchmark for cheap laptops — and become the cheapest laptop in DealNews history.

Element 40" 1080p LED LCD HDTV for $119 at Target
Just when we thought 40" to 42" TV deals had plateaued, Target went and slashed the price of this 40" Element to $119. Not only does that destroy our Black Friday TV prediction for this size category by $59, but it's just $9 away from tying last year's best Black Friday price for a 32" TV. Without a doubt, this is the star of Target's Black Friday ad and easily snags a spot in our Top 10.

Vizio 65" 1080p Smart LED LCD HDTV for $648 at Walmart
Even if you don't consider Vizio to be a brand-name manufacturer, this 65" Smart TV doorbuster is spectacular. Starting at 6 pm local time, in-store shoppers can grab this set for $648, which is a whopping $102 less than the best price we've ever seen for any 65" HDTV, even refurbs. Better yet, this deal easily blows Best Buy's $800 LG TV out of the water.

Samsung 55" 4K 2160p Smart LED LCD Ultra HDTV for $899.99 at Best Buy
Remember when we said you shouldn't buy a name-brand smart TV on Black Friday? Here's the glaring exception to that rule. You don't even have to brave the in-store crowds to score this incredible Samsung 55" 4K Smart TV deal; according to the ad, this doorbuster will be available online. At $900, this set beats our August mention of a refurb, becoming the cheapest Samsung 55" 4K TV we've seen by $315.

Apple MacBook Air Haswell Core i5 11.6" Laptop for $779.99 at Best Buy
If you're shopping for a current-gen MacBook Air on Black Friday, this is definitely the deal to beat. That $780 price point not only shatters our Black Friday prediction by $19, but it blows past our previous all-time low by $70. Best of all, it knocks a delightful $120 off Apple's price.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 7" 8GB Android Tablet with $20 in SYWR points for $150 at Kmart
This is an incredible deal, bar none. First off, Kmart's ad price beats the best deal we've ever seen for this tablet by $6. Plus, the Shop Your Way Rewards credit brings this popular 7" slate to $20 below our Black Friday prediction for a small, mainstream Android tablet. Coincidentally, the credit also helps Kmart beat Sam's Club's leaked Black Friday price for this tablet.

Amazon Fire HD 6 6" 8GB WiFi Tablet with a $20 Meijer Custom Coupon for $79 at Meijer
Here's an ad that blows our Black Friday tablet predictions right out of the water. Against all odds, here's the Fire HD 6 (the bottom-tier tablet in Amazon's recently refreshed lineup), marked down by $20 with an extra $20 credit tacked on for good measure. Assuming you'll use the credit, that'll be 40% off and the very first discount we've seen on this tablet. Furthermore, Meijer's leaked price beats Kmart's by $11 once all credits are taken into account.

Apple iPhone 6 16GB Smartphone for $99 at Sam's Club
Although iPhone 6 deals have been mediocre since Apple's launch, this deal may be the one to open the floodgates. Outside of an early Walmart preorder, the 16GB iPhone 6 has not dropped below $179. This Sam's Club deal cuts the list price by 50% to just $99 (with a 2-year contract renewal), which is right on par with our iPhone prediction. Better yet, this price beats Target's iPhone 6 ad by $51. All of the Sam's Club Black Friday iPhone deals go live on November 15, so proceed with caution because other retailers may swoop in and undercut them.

Samsung Galaxy S5 16GB Android Phone for 1 cent at Target
We haven't seen a decent discount on a subsidized Samsung Galaxy S5 since August, and that one cost $100. Flash forward to Black Friday, when Target will drop this in-demand Android to just one penny (with the activation of a 2-year contract). Unless we start seeing for-profit deals, this is as good as smartphone ads get — it even beats Sam's Club's deal by about a buck.

Xbox One Halo: The Master Chief Collection Bundle with a $30 Walmart Gift Card for $329
We've seen quite a few noteworthy Xbox One bundle ads, but this one is our top pick. Although Target is offering the Assassin's Creed Unity version of this bundle paired with a $50 gift card, shoppers might think twice about dropping so much cash on a game that one critic called "my least favorite major Assassin's Creed since the 2007 original." On the other hand, this 6 pm doorbuster comes with four Halo games (as opposed to the other bundle's two), access to a beta, and more. The $30 gift card can even be used to further bulk up your Xbox One collection; Walmart will also have select Xbox One titles on sale from $20 during Black Friday.

However, if you are interested in the Target bundle, know that the heftier gift card means it's effectively $70 below our Black Friday prediction for a Kinect-less Xbox One.

Beats by Dr. Dre Solo HD On-Ear Headphones for $79.99 at Best Buy
Sorry, Target: Best Buy just became the place to buy a pair of Beats cans on Black Friday. Even we're floored by this $80 doorbuster; that ties the all-time best price we've seen for these headphones refurbished.

Apple iPad Air 2 16GB Tablet with $140 Gift Card for $499 at Target
Target is currently the king of iPad Air 2 deals bundling a very generous $140 Target gift card with the purchase of the 16GB model. That's effectively $140 off the tablet's retail price and easily trumps last Black Friday's $429 iPad Air low. If you don't want to deal with gift cards or if you just want to pay the least amount possible, Best Buy gets runner up for shaving $100 off the full cost of the iPad Air 2.

Dyson DC33 Multi-Floor Bagless Upright Vacuum for $199 at Walmart
Somewhere, a Dyson fan just fainted. We predicted that new Dysons would start at around $250, and this 6 pm doorbuster demolishes that price by $51. Furthermore, this price is $40 below our previous all-time low for a new unit.

Predator Generators 8,750W 13HP Gas Generator for $550 at Harbor Freight Tools
Power outages are probably the last thing on your mind this month, but emergency preparedness is always a good thing and this generator is $225 under the cheapest 8,000-watt generator we've seen all year. Even better, it also manages to undercut every 5,000-watt generator we've posted this year. While most experts recommend a 4,000-watt unit, at $550 you can afford to double the power. A great buy for home owners who've yet to purchase a generator.

4-Burner Gas Grill with Side Burner for $99 at Walmart
Although the summer months typically see better grill sales than Black Friday, this gas grill is a steal. At $99, it'll be tied with a May deal as the cheapest 4-burner gas grill we've seen in the past two years. Better still, this 6 pm doorbuster beats the next cheapest Black Friday gas grill by $61.

Every hour, more ads are trickling in, but the 2014 landscape is already packed with incredible offers. We hope we'll see more ads that are just as good as Staples' $100 laptop and Target's $119 TV in the coming days, but the deals above will certainly be hard to beat.

Excited for Black Friday deals? Consider subscribing to the DealNews Select Newsletter to get a daily recap of all our deals; you never know when a Black Friday price will be released! You can also download the DealNews apps, check out the latest Black Friday ads, or read more buying advice.

Awful Behavior At Tech Companies Probably Does Not Hurt Their Bottom Lines

NEW YORK (AP) — Silicon Valley seems to have more than its share of companies behaving badly. Among up-and-comers in the tech world, privacy abuses and executive gaffes have become viral sensations. But is all that bad behavior actually bad for business?

Last week, Uber sparked controversy after a top executive suggested spending $1 million to dig up dirt on a journalist critical of the driver-on-demand company challenging the taxi establishment in cities. It's only the latest time Uber has been called out, either for actions by its drivers or its corporate culture. The company also is investigating one of its New York employees for tracking another journalist's ride, which has raised fears that Uber is misusing customers' private location information. So far Uber's investors, which include Google Ventures and prominent venture capital firms that poured $1.2 billion into the company at its latest funding round, have remained quiet. So is Uber's much-criticized corporate behavior just part of the package, a reason even, for its meteoric rise and ability to go after smaller rivals and the taxi establishment? Or is it a liability for the company, its Ayn Rand-loving libertarian CEO and its backers?

"I think it's going to alienate some potential customers but I doubt, given what's happened to date, that it's going to make a big difference," said Robert Hurley, director of the Consortium of Trustworthy Organizations at Fordham University in New York.

So far, the controversies haven't put the brakes on Uber's skyrocketing valuation ($17 billion at last count, and reportedly heading to nearly double that), or its popularity among people who can use the app to hitch rides. There are calls to boycott the company on Twitter, and many have vowed to go to its smaller rival Lyft. But on Friday Uber was ranked 35th among the most popular free apps on iTunes — up from 37th on Monday.

"If it's a brand (people) like — and Uber is a brand (people) like — they have a few get out of jail cards," said Allen Adamson, managing director of the branding firm Landor Associates.

Uber did not respond to requests for comment.

Not that Uber is an anomaly in the industry. Some tech companies have had executives with domestic violence charges or who have gone on tactless Facebook and Twitter rants. Earlier this year, the hot dating app Tinder settled a sexual harassment and discrimination lawsuit filed by a co-founder. It claimed that Tinder's founders engaged in "atrocious sexual harassment and sex discrimination" against a former vice president at the company, calling her names and threatening to strip away her co-founder title. The suit hasn't crimped Tinder's style: the product reportedly makes over 14 million matches a day.

Public relations problems aren't limited to startups. Last month, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella told women they shouldn't ask for a raise and just trust "good karma" instead. The punchline? He made the statement, for which he later apologized, at a conference celebrating women in computing.

"You have these CEOs that don't have much filter and get in trouble," said John Challenger, CEO of the outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. But unlike in the old days, it's hard for things to get buried in the age of blogs, Twitter and Reddit. "There is much less ability to wipe the slate clean," he notes.

Some established tech companies have rolled out new features without disclosing privacy implications, all while professing respect for customers' personal data and privacy. Take Google, for example. The company, which was founded with the motto "don't be evil," has faced scrutiny from European regulators for secretly scooping up users' personal data transmitted over unencrypted Wi-Fi networks in cities around the world for at least two years. In the U.S., Google paid $500 million to settle a U.S. Justice Department investigation that alleged the company's top executives allowed ads for illegal pharmaceutical drugs to be distributed through its marketing network. Yet it is far and away the leader in online search and owns other widely used services such as Android and Chrome.

"Until a company does something that personally impacts the consumer, this kind of bad behavior will only influence the decisions of customers for whom these are highly sensitive issues," said Maclyn Clouse, University of Denver's Daniels College of Business.

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AP Technology Writer Michael Liedtke contributed to this story from San Francisco.