Set to return today after meeting with president: Gov. Bobby Jindal spent part of his weekend with dozens of other governors in Washington, D.C., for a meeting of the National Governors Association. The governor’s office says Jindal traveled to the meeting on Sunday and returns to Baton Rouge this evening, after a governors-only sit-down with President Barack Obama. Jindal also attended a black-tie reception at the White House.
New way to sell stuff: In a first for a wireless carrier, AT&T Inc. says it will use its phones’ location-sensing ability to target text ads with coupons and other offers to participating subscribers in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and San Francisco. Kmart, part of Sears Holdings Corp., is one of the chains that have signed up for “ShopAlerts by AT&T.” That means AT&T could send discount offers to subscribers who are close to a Kmart store. AT&T is only able to locate its subscribers to within a mile or so of their phone’s location, so its ability to sense that subscribers are in a receptive mood for the offer—like when they’re heading to shop—is limited. The service locates subscribers based on which cell towers communicate with their phones, rather than using the more accurate Global Positioning System chips that many phones have. This means ShopAlerts will work with any phone that can run third-party applications, not just smartphones.
