On the road in Texas and need a bathroom? Buc-ee’s High-Tech Tooshlights Got You Covered

Buc ees

If you’ve ever driven along the North Freeway on the way to Fort Worth, you’ve probably stopped by Buc-ee’s, the famous roadside store with its quirky finds, tasty Beaver Bites, and world-renowned bathrooms. Now, the company is adding an even “smarter” upgrade: high-tech bathrooms with Tooshlights.

Jeff Nadalo, Buc-ee’s general counsel, announced that by next year, the company’s 33 stores across Texas will have a whole new system of high-tech bathrooms developed by Tooshlights, a Los Angeles startup. Providing relief for the tired traveler, Buc-ee’s bathrooms are known for their pristine cleanliness and spaciousness as well as its iconic Texas décor. Nadalo has emphasized that clean restrooms are truly “one of the most important pieces of our customer experience.”

With the new Tooshlights technology, Buc-ee’s will take the bathroom experience one step further. Tooshlights was founded in 2013 by Allen Klevens who came up with the idea while he was waiting for a bathroom stall at the Hollywood Bowl. Finding the wait time incredibly long and wearisome, Klevens came up with a system to manage bathroom traffic. Each stall in the Tooshlights system is equipped with a “smart latch” that connects to a colored light above each stall. These ceiling lights indicate whether a particular stall is occupied or vacant. Green indicates unlocked and empty while red signifies locked and in use. There is also a blue light for handicapped-accessible stalls. You don’t need to awkwardly knock on bathroom stalls anymore. Additionally, the Tooshlights software can monitor cleanliness of stalls and send notifications to staff about when it is time to clean a bathroom stall. It can also monitor when a stall has not been occupied in awhile and one that would require further attention.

Tooshlights’ ground-breaking approach to improving bathroom traffic makes it a perfect fit with Buc-ee’s reputation as a provider of extremely immaculate toilets. As one of Buc-ee’s billboards declares, “Your Throne Awaits. Fabulous Restrooms – 32 miles.” Who knows what new innovations are in store for Buc-ee’s next year?

Experimenting with high-tech ways to manage bathroom traffic like Tooshlights and Buc-ee’s? You could be eligible for the R&D Tax Credit and receive up to 14% back on your expenses. To find out more, please contact a Swanson Reed R&D Specialist today.

Who We Are:

Swanson Reed is Texas’ largest Specialist R&D tax advisory firm, offering tax credibility assessments, claim preparation, and advisory services. We manage all facets of the R&D tax credit program in Texas, from claim prep & audit compliance to claim disputes.  

Swanson Reed regularly hosts free webinars and provides free IRS CE and CPE credits for CPA’s.  For more information please visit us at www.swansonreed.com/webinars or contact your usual Swanson Reed representative

Fort Worth Company NanOlogy Leads the Way to Treating Prostrate Cancer

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Last week, NanOlogy, a Fort Worth-based pharmaceutical company, made headlines when it enrolled its first patient in a Phase 2 clinical trial to test a new chemotherapy method to fight ovarian cancer. This week, the same company is changing the game again: this time to treat prostrate cancer.

27,000 American men die from prostrate cancer each year and about 3 million are currently diagnosed with the disease. Only patients at a higher risk for the disease’s progression are treated while those who are considered “low risk” are monitored closely and not treated. Prostatectomy is a common treatment but it is known for its side effects that decrease a patient’s quality of life, such as incontinence and impotence.

NanOlogy, in contrast, is developing a more convenient alternative with its patented intratumorally-injected NanoPac (nanoparticle paclitaxel). Currently in Phase 2 of its clinical trial, NanoPac will be monitored for its effects on safety and efficacy. Clinical Director of NanOlogy, Shelagh Verco, told Business Wire, “If we are successful, we may offer a treatment option for moderate or high risk patients with localized or non-metastatic disease without a negative impact on quality of life.” While mainstream treatments are limited to metastatic disease, NanOlogy hopes this can treat the disease before metastasis occurs. Dr. Gere diZerega, NanOlogy’s Vice President of Medical Affairs, explained, “Systemically administered paclitaxel has been shown to be effective for prostate cancer but is limited to metastatic disease. This clinical trial is the first study in humans to examine whether NanoPac injected intratumorally will effectively and safely treat the tumor with a high locally sustained concentration of the drug.”

NanOlogy is a collaboration among Fort Worth’s DFB Pharmaceuticals as well as Kansas’ CritiTech and California’s US Biotest. The firm aims to develop and improve the safety and efficacy of drug delivery by using nanoparticle technology to treat cancer. Other projects for the ambitious firm include developing treatments for lung cancer, pancreatic cancer, ovarian cancer, and others.

Are you also developing new chemotherapeutic treatments like NanOlogy using R&D? You could be eligible for the R&D Tax Credit and receive up to 14% back on your expenses. To find out more, please contact a Swanson Reed R&D Specialist today.

Swanson Reed regularly hosts free webinars and provides free IRS CE credits as well as CPE credits for CPA’s.  For more information please visit us at www.swansonreed.com/webinars or contact your usual Swanson Reed representative.

 

Using Wi-FI? Here are three things you need to know about the KRACK in the system

Using Wi-FI? Here are three things you need to know about the KRACK in the system

Billions of people use Wi-Fi – in fact, you’re probably using it right now. But be warned: according to the United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team, there is a vulnerability in the Wi-Fi system known as KRACK or Key Reinstallation Attacks that could put your encrypted information at risk.

  1. What is KRACK?

The modern Wi-Fi system uses the Wi-Fi Protected Access II (WPA2) protocol to authenticate and protect the connection between access points and devices, such as computers and smartphones. Two researchers Mathy Vanhoef and Frank Piessens have found vulnerabilities in the WPA2 system which allow attackers to eavesdrop on Wi-Fi traffic between devices and access points. Because the vulnerability is at the protocol-level, attackers can access encrypted information previously assumed to be secured, ranging from passwords, emails, credit card numbers, photos, and so forth. In some cases, attackers may also manipulate information such as by injecting malware into websites.

  1. Who is vulnerable?

Most devices are vulnerable to attack, from Android, Linux, Apple, Windows, OpenBSD, to MediaTek Linksys operating systems. However, the severity of threat varies as companies respond to the vulnerability. Microsoft announced earlier today that it has provided a software update protecting customers against the KRACK vulnerability. Google has promised to address the vulnerability on its systems within the coming weeks, with Google Pixel as the first to receive an update. Currently, Linux and Android 6.0 or higher systems are the most susceptible to attack.

  1. What can I do?

While it is unknown whether hackers are already exploiting the KRACK vulnerability, researchers urge users to implement safety measures when possible. They recommend that users should avoid connecting to Wi-FI until patches have been developed and can be safely installed on Wi-Fi clients’ devices and access points. Microsoft users, as mentioned above, should be safe. However, when Wi-FI is the only option, people should use HTTPS, STARTTLS, Secure Shell, and other protocols to encrypt online traffic as it passes between computers and access points. Users could also use a virtual private network (VPN) as an added safety measure. Fortunately, network providers are already starting to deploy security patches.

Vanhoef and Piessens will present their paper Key Reinstallation Attacks: Forcing Nonce Reuse in WPA2 on November 1, 2017 at the Computer and Communications Security conference in Dallas.

Are you conducting R&D to develop cyber-security measures to defend against potential security threats like KRACK? You could be eligible for the R&D Tax Credit and receive up to 14% back on your expenses. To find out more, please contact a Swanson Reed R&D Specialist today.

Swanson Reed regularly hosts free webinars and provides free IRS CE credits as well as CPE credits for CPA’s.  For more information please visit us at www.swansonreed.com/webinars or contact your usual Swanson Reed representative.

Living on the edge: How R&D helped DFW-based entrepreneur to build the Single Edge Razor 2.0

single edge razor

After quitting his job selling fighter jets around the world, Patrick Coddou launched a new company based in Fort Worth called Supply and developed its signature product: the Single Edge Razor. Now, two years since the company’s inception, Coddou is back with the Single Edge Razor 2.0.

Coddou told D Magazine he came up with the idea for the Single Edge Razor because of his sensitive skin: “I used to hate shaving and using those five blade razors. So my search brought me to this old style of razor. I loved it so much that I thought, you know, I think I can make one of these and show more people what these are.”  With the Single Edge Razor 2.0’s release this summer, Supply offers a new razor that is more durable and comfortable than existing multi-blade razors on the market.

From extensive research, Supply found that multi-blade razors caused irritation when shaving because these are often built as a “one-size-fits-all” product and the blades cut below the skin’s surface and pull up the hair to cut which results in discomfort and ingrown hairs. The razors are also more difficult to wash thereby prompting bacterial buildup in the blade and the material is usually cheap plastic that does not last. Supply’s Single Edge Razor 2.0, in contrast, developed three blade designs to account for distinct skin types: mild, classic, and aggressive. Mild was built for sensitive skin and short beard growth, aggressive was made for long beard growth and wiry hair, and classic for everything in between.  The Single Edge Razor 2.0 is designed to shave just at the surface of the skin, ensuring a closer shave and comfort, and is cleaned easily to avoid bacterial buildup. As well, the blades are 100% stainless steel and twice as thick as the average multi-blade razor, guaranteeing it is rust-resistant and unbreakable.

Additionally, the Single Edge Razor 2.0 was designed at a closer distance and angle between the blade and the safety bar than its predecessors.  While single edge razors have existed for decades, they have often been difficult to use because the blade must be held at the same angle throughout the entire shaving process or else there is risk of cutting and nicks. With the Razor 2.0, the angle is built-in for the user to handle with ease.

Coddou’s company is still constantly finding ways to improve its product. Supply employed an entirely new manufacturing process for the Single Edge Razor 2.0 by adopting methods used in aerospace and medical device manufacturing.  In particular, the company used the Metal injection Moulding process which built products with extreme accuracy and ensures quality of the product. The company hopes to continue to invest in this type of manufacturing and to expand to create more razors and even an entire line of grooming products, from shaving cream after-shave to body wash. You can find the company’s product on Kickstarter.

Supply’s expenses incurred during the design stage of building a new razor and improving the manufacturing methods are all eligible for the R&D tax credit. If you are also engaging in R&D to develop new products or improve existing processes, you could be up to 14% back on your expenses. To find out more, please contact a Swanson Reed R&D Specialist today.

Swanson Reed regularly hosts free webinars and provides free IRS CE credits as well as CPE credits for CPA’s.  For more information please visit us at www.swansonreed.com/webinars or contact your usual Swanson Reed representative.

When Dallas researchers introduced Twistron, they may have sparked an energy revolution

Twistron

Scientists from The University of Texas (UoT) in Dallas, in collaboration with researchers from Hanyang University in South Korea, have developed a new fabric that generates energy: twistron. A lightweight yet resilient yarn made from carbon nanotubes woven together, twistron can produce electricity simply by stretching and without the need of a battery or other energy source.

Dr. Carter Haines, an associate research professor at UoT’s NanoTech Institute in Dallas, said, “The easiest way to think of twistron harvesters is, you have a piece of yarn, you stretch it, and out comes electricity.” Carbon nanutobes, from which twistron is constructed, are 10,000 times smaller in diameter than human hair and therefore offer a lightweight material. To harvest energy, twistron initially needed to be soaked in electrolytes, such as saltwater or even human sweat. However, through experimentation and research, the scientists were able to use a solid-state electrolyte to coat the yarn, without soaking the material. From testing, the scientists found stretching the yarn 30 times a second could 250 watts per kilogram. Dr. Na Li, another research scientist at the NanoTech Institute, further described the process, ‘Whenever a harvester yarn is twisted or stretched, the volume of the carbon nanotube yarn decreases, bringing the electric charges on the yarn closer together and increasing their energy. This increases the voltage associated with the charge stored in the yarn, enabling the harvesting of electricity.”

The scientists hope the twistron could be used in clothing and other commercial uses one day. They tested twistron by sewing it into clothing and found that even normal respiration stretched the fabric enough to power electricity. One of the scientists also tested twistron in ocean currents. Dr. Shi Hyeong Kim submerged 10 cm of twistron on the east coast of South Korea and the material successfully generated electricity. Dr. Kim hopes this is a breakthrough for harnessing the strength of the ocean.  From these small scale activities, the researchers are confident these activities could be scaled up in the future. The team has patented the technology and are continuing to test its capabilities. Perhaps they could even make batteries superfluous.

Are you also engaging in R&D experiments to develop new ways to generate energy? Did you know that If you conduct your R&D projects in universities, you could receive up to an additional 20% credit for your expenses? To find out more, please contact a Swanson Reed R&D Specialist today.

Swanson Reed regularly hosts free webinars and provides free IRS CE credits as well as CPE credits for CPA’s.  For more information please visit us at www.swansonreed.com/webinars or contact your usual Swanson Reed representative.

20 years later, AOL Instant Messenger’s retirement is a testament to advancement in R&D

AOL messenger 1

In the not-so-distant past, before direct messaging, texting, and smartphones, before Snapchat, Instagram, WhatsApp, Skype, before the boom of Twitter and Facebook, only one online communication method reigned supreme: AOL Instant Messenger.  Known as “AIM” for short, the AOL messenger, along with its counterparts by Microsoft and Yahoo, changed the way people interacted with each other online.

AIM first appeared on the scene in 1997 and, by 2001, it had over 100 million users. While Yahoo and MSN messengers were widely used outside of the United State, AIM was the most popular instant messenger among Americans.  The messenger’s trademark “buddy list”, screen names, and immediate, simultaneous access to multiple friends changed communication during a time when most people talked to each other over the phone. Now twenty years since its launch, AIM will officially retire by December 15, 2017. Oath, the company behind AOL, announced the news last week. Michael Albers, Head of Communications, stated, “AIM tapped into new digital technologies and ignited a cultural shift, but the way in which we communicate with each other has profoundly changed.”

The messenger had sparked new user behaviours that are now common practice in contemporary social media. Before Facebook statuses, there were AIM’s “Away Messages” which allowed users to creatively update their friends of their whereabouts. Before adding “friends” on Facebook, there was asking for people’s screennames. AIM profile stalking was a precursor to Facebook profile stalking.

While no one has used the messenger in years, nostalgia has burst across the internet reminiscing how the now-obsolete technology was once transformative. Adam Lashinsky wrote in Fortune, “At the risk of oversharing, it is no understatement to say I began dating my wife on AIM. She worked at AOL when I joined TheStreet.com, and she was on AIM as much as I was. I remember early instant messaging chats far more than phone chats.” In The Guardian, Matthew Cantor recalled, “For me, as a 14-year-old, AIM was a revelation. Here was a way I could communicate with my peers – including those who were objectively cooler than me – without stammering or panicking…That’s because, behind the wall of the computer screen, we had the time and distance to craft much wittier banter.”

AIM’s retirement demonstrates how times have changed. The instant messaging era has since been replaced by smartphones and apps. Nevertheless, the technical innovation that sparked AIM and contributed to its decline will continue. Lashinsky poignantly stated, “Like many consumer technologies that went before it, AIM ushered in a revolution that quickly left it behind. I can’t say I’ll miss it. But I sure am glad it existed.”

The rise and fall of AOL demonstrates the advancement and innovation of R&D in the communication technology sector. If you are developing software and programs building on AOL Messenger’s legacy, your R&D activities may be eligible for the R&D tax credit and you could receive up to 14% on your research and development expenses. To find out more, please contact a Swanson Reed R&D Specialist today.

Swanson Reed regularly hosts free webinars and provides free IRS CE credits as well as CPE credits for CPA’s.  For more information please visit us at www.swansonreed.com/webinars or contact your usual Swanson Reed representative.

Ericsson chooses Austin as site of new design center for city’s “bustling tech and start up scene”

Ericsson

When deciding where to open its next 5G design center, the Swedish telecommunications juggernaut Ericsson knew that Austin was the right choice.

With its highly skilled talent and growing reputation as a leader in the start-up tech industry, Austin has attracted many processor manufacturing companies and now Ericsson is joining the neighborhood. Many of Ericsson’s partners and suppliers are also based to Austin, making the city an obvious choice instead of California’s Silicon Valley. In an interview with Fierce Wireless, Sinisa Krajnovic, Head of Development Unit Networks at Ericsson, said, “We did analysis across the whole world. We had considered several places seriously and our choice was Austin for this.” Similarly, “Austin is one of the fastest-growing cities in the US with a bustling tech and start-up scene,” Niklas Heuveldop, Head of Ericsson North America, told Business Insider. “We want to capture the great talent on-hand there, enabling us to increase digital ASIC capabilities even further and be close to some of our key global customers.”

Ericsson’s new design center in Austin will focus on testing and developing the Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), a microelectronics processor. Intended for cell phones and mobile devices, these are 100 times faster and more cost and power efficient than the average personal computer processor. Located in Austin’s tech neighborhood, the new design center will collaborate with nearby silicon manufacturing plants to design solutions and prepare for the commercialization of the 5G network.  Joining the company’s teams in Sweden and China, the Austin design center is part of Ericsson’s global strategy to develop “faster, better, and greener 5G products to bring into the Ericsson portfolio by 2019,” said Krajnovic. The 5G design center in Austin is expected to be up and running by the end of this year. It is currently recruiting designers and developers.

Ericsson’s expenses from R&D experiments conducted in Austin are eligible for the R&D Tax Credit and the company could receive up to 14% in return. If you are also conducting R&D testing to develop and manufacture processors, you could be eligible for the R&D Tax Credit. Contact a Swanson Reed R&D Specialist today.

Swanson Reed regularly hosts free webinars and provides free IRS CE credits as well as CPE credits for CPA’s.  For more information please visit us at www.swansonreed.com/webinars or contact your usual Swanson Reed representative.

 

 

Infrastructure Masons Meet in Dallas to Tackle Challenges to Data Centers

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Data centers form the backbone to the modern economy, especially as many traditional services and businesses are increasingly moving online. However, maintaining and powering data centers can be quite costly. To discuss these challenges, Infrastructure Masons, or iMasons, met in Dallas last week at South Methodist University.

iMasons was founded by Mark Monroe, President of Energetic Consulting Inc, and Dean Nelson, Head of Uber Compute in 2016. Given the evolving challenges facing data centers and modern infrastructure, iMason was formed to allow industry professionals to meet and discuss potential solutions. The association has since grown to over 1,000 members worldwide.

Data centers are important to any economy. After all, internet giants like Facebook, YouTube, Google, Netflix, and others depend on digital clouds based in data centers. Yet, maintenance of data centers’ equipment is difficult; it needs to be replaced every three to five years and cloud applications that run on the equipment lasts only a few months. Perhaps more significant are the electrical power grids and utilities that allow these data centers and virtually everything else to function. As Monroe said, “If your social media site goes down, nobody dies. If your autonomous vehicle goes down and you’re connected to the grid on the foundation that the masons have built, then you’ve got something serious.”

In response to these challenges, the iMason members recognized that further investment in sustainable energy sources like wind and solar power energy is needed to meet the power demands of data centers. There is already hope that the data industry is influencing infrastructure changes, particularly towards renewable energy sources. Google, for instance, is known for pushing towards clean energy and the tech behemoth is now the largest renewable energy customer in the world. Utilities and infrastructure are responding to the demand.

In addition to the question of sustainability, the iMasons discussed other problems within the infrastructure industry, especially the aging work force and lack of diversity. Eddie Schutter, Head of Global Foundation Services at eBay, said, “It’s also an aging team in this industry. How do we bring in younger talent and how do we bring in the next generation?” New young and diverse talent are integral to leading new ideas in development. The importance of innovation in infrastructure cannot be overstated. In fact, innovation was a key factor in pushing for increasing the structural resiliency of data centers in Texas. This initiative allowed Texas data centers to continue to function despite Hurricane Harvey, in stark contrast to Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans.

If you’re conducting R&D to innovate new ways to power data centers or improve infrastructure, you could be eligible for the R&D Tax Credit and can receive up to 14% back on your experiment expenses. To find out more, please contact a Swanson Reed R&D Specialist today.

Swanson Reed regularly hosts free webinars and provides free IRS CE credits as well as CPE credits for CPA’s.  For more information please visit us at www.swansonreed.com/webinars or contact your usual Swanson Reed representative.

Swipe Right for Your Next Career Move: Austin-based Bumble launches Professional Networking App

women networking

When dating app Bumble first launched on the tech scene in 2014, it revolutionized online dating with its “women make the first move” approach. Now four years later with 20 million users worldwide, 800 million matches and counting, the Austin-based company is set to change the online professional scene with its new networking app, Bumble Bizz. The networking app was released on the Apple App store earlier this week in the U.S., U.K., Canada, France, and Germany.

Built into Bumble’s original app and drawing on its features, Bumble Bizz would connect users based on geographic location and users can swipe left or right to indicate whether they want to connect for mentoring or networking.  Swiping right means interested to connect while left signifies disinterest. Users are matched when both swipe right. They then have 24 hours to connect or else the connection disappears. Unlike Bumble which only features an image and short biography, the networking app would also include a digital resume highlighting skills and past work experience.

Bumble CEO and founder Whitney Wolfe Herd explained the company developed Bumble Bizz because many Bumble users were already using the app for professional connections in addition to romantic ones. Like its original app, Bumble Bizz sets the stage for women to initiate contact. Herd said, “We’ve stayed focused on creating a community with a foundation built upon positivity, respect, confidence, and encouraging women to make the first move.” The company’s head of brand Alex Williamson further added that Bumble Bizz was to create a “safe space for women to network”, given the higher risk of harassment for women in the professional sphere.

In response to media calling Bumble Bizz the potential “LinkedIn killer”, Herd has emphasized that the networking app functions differently from LinkedIn’s platform. For one, Bumble Bizz is more informal and casual compared to LinkedIn. The 24-hour time limit to make a connection, moreover, creates a sense of urgency instead of accumulating connections that are “dead” over time and not actively cultivated. Herd said, “We’re trying to give you access to people right here, right now around you, hyper-relevant to you, and create real-life connections.”

The networking app has launched on Apple. It will be available on Google Play on October 18. By the way, Bumble will be using its networking app to look for potential employees at its Austin office. If you’re interested, get started on Bumble Bizz today.

Building networking apps and changing the way we interact online? You could be eligible for the R&D Tax Credit and can receive up to 14% back on your research and development expenses. To find out more, please contact a Swanson Reed R&D Specialist today.

 

Swanson Reed regularly hosts free webinars and provides free IRS CE credits as well as CPE credits for CPA’s.  For more information please visit us at www.swansonreed.com/webinars or contact your usual Swanson Reed representative.

Security in a Heartbeat: Texas Tech Researcher develops “cardiac password”

heart

From passwords, thumbprints, retina scans, to facial recognition, there’s no shortage of identity authentication features for phones and computers. But Changzhi Li, a researcher from Texas Tech University, envisions an even more intimate security method: a “cardiac password” which can identify users by their heart waves.

Existing security measures are vulnerable to cyber-attacks. Hackers have consistently proven their ability to hack passwords and use fake thumbprints to gain unauthorized access and penetrate existing security defenses. Countermeasures for increased cyber security, however, are often invasive and inconvenient, such as requiring users to continuously re-log in or re-scan their thumbprints every few minutes. Instead, the project, developed by Li under Wenyao Xu from the University of Buffalo, seeks to create a method that is both secure and user-convenient.

Theoretically, the “cardiac password” would work similar to a police radar that measures the speed of a car but instead measures the speed of a heartbeat and how that movement changes over time. Xu said, “No two people with identical hearts have ever been found.” Building on the assumption that each person has his or her own unique heart and waveform, the “cardiac password” involves releasing a radio frequency signal to measure and authenticate the user’s signature heartbeat. When the user walks away from the computer or if another person attempts to log in, the device would automatically lock down.

The “cardiac password” would not be invasive since it would continuously authenticate the user without the user’s active participation. Li explained, “This system does not ask people questions or require us to do anything like type in a password or do a finger scan or face scan. You just do whatever you want to inside your office, and the system sends out a signal to check out your cardiac waveform without letting you know it is doing it.” The signals would also be less powerful than Wi-Fi and the radiation from cellphones and therefore, would not pose a severe health concern.

This project is still in its development stages. The team is currently testing different sensitivity devices and hardware that could be used for the “cardiac password.” From there, Li would better assess the feasibility of the project. He also recognizes that the project would need to account for signal changes in the user’s heartbeat, such as aging or pacemakers. Li and Xu hope the “cardiac password” would one day be used for computers, cell phones, and even in airport identification.

Are you also engaging in R&D experiments to develop new cyber-security measures? Did you know that If you conduct your R&D projects in universities, you could receive up to an additional 20% credit for your expenses? To find out more, please contact a Swanson Reed R&D Specialist today.

 

Swanson Reed regularly hosts free webinars and provides free IRS CE credits as well as CPE credits for CPA’s.  For more information please visit us at www.swansonreed.com/webinars or contact your usual Swanson Reed representative.