The Obama Administration just took steps to ease the process of starting a business in the U.S. if you're not American. Call it Christmas in August--at least for some founders. The White House today, just unveiled a new proposal aimed at encouraging high-potential immigrant entrepreneurs to start up in the U.S. The proposal, dubbed the International Entrepreneur Rule, would be administered by the Department of Homeland Security and would affect only entrepreneurs who, among other criteria, have received funding from qualified U.S. investors or institutions. Still, the program could lead to an uptick in new business creation, which in the U.S., has been falling for years. According to a statement released today: "America must remain a beacon for entrepreneurs like Tom Szaky, who left his home in Hungary following the Chernobyl disaster, and ultimately moved to the United States to study at Princeton University. In his sophomore year, he started TerraCycle in his dorm room with the mission of recycling materials previously viewed as unrecyclable. Today, the 150-person New Jersey-based company collects trash in 24 countries and two thirds of public schools in America, and recycles over one million pounds of garbage per week that would otherwise be in a landfill." To gain approval under the International Entrepreneur Rule, which could go into effect by the end of the year if approved, entrepreneurs would need to show that their startup was founded in the last three years, as well as maintain at least a 15 percent ownership stake in the company. They also need to show high-growth potential--evidenced by successfully raising at least $345,000 in funding from a qualified U.S. investor or attracting grants of at least $100,000 from federal, state, or local governments.

Between Sept. 1 and 11, 56 Target stores across Minnesota are hosting a car seat collection program to help residents reduce household clutter without sending waste to landfills. All car seats collected through this program will be recycled through TerraCycle so that each component will see a second life. People should bring their car seats to their participating Target store and look for a car seat collection box in the front of the store or in the baby/kids section. When a consumer turns in a used car seat, he or she will receive a coupon for 20 percent off the purchase of a new one. After the recycling program ends, TerraCycle will separate the different components of the car seats (cloth elements, plastics, metals, etc.) and process them for use in other products. Included area Target stores in Burnsville, Chanhassen, Chaska, Eden Prairie, Minnetonka, Savage and Shakopee.

A car seat is arguably one of the most important pieces of baby equipment you’ll purchase and use daily, but what do you do with your car seat after it has expired or you no longer need it? How do you know if your car seat is expired or not? What do you do with an expired car seat? While you’ll want to check with the recommendations for your specific car seat, the average life span of a car seat is 6 years.  A website run by the Academy of American Pediatrics, healthychildren.org, is an excellent resource for all things related to pediatric health and safety. In this article they recommend never using a car seat if it is:

• Too old
• Visibly Damaged
• Missing Labels, Instructions, or Parts
• Has been in an accident
• Has been recalled
• Has an unknown history

Okay, so now that you know your beloved expired car seat’s days are done the most important thing is to stop using it and dispose of your car seat in a way that ensures no one attempts to reuse it. Of course, we at First Time Mom are about all about the three R’s: reduce, reuse, and recycle, but when it comes to car seat safety trumps it all. Thankfully for our Minnesota readers, there is a great option for recycling your car seat. Between September 1 and 11, Minnesota residents can recycle used car seats! 56 Target stores across Minnesota are hosting a car seat collection program to help residents reduce household clutter without sending waste to landfills. All car seats collected through this program will be recycled through TerraCycle so that each component will see a second life.

Residents should bring their car seats to any Target store and look for Target’s car seat collection box in the front of the store or in the baby/kids floor pad section.

We have just a few months left with Pivot, sometimes known as the Joseph Gordon-Levitt channel, the “Friday Night Lights” channel, or “that channel with all of the sad commercials about abused dogs.” Participant Media, which launched Pivot in 2013, announced Aug. 17 that it would be closing up shop at the cable network later this year. Pivot was best known for its tent-pole program, “Hit Record on TV with Joseph Gordon-Levitt,” a variety show created by the actor and inspired by his upbeat collaborative production company. “While this conclusion was not an easy one,” Participant Media CEO David Linde said in a statement of Pivot’s demise, “it is ultimately in the best interest of all our stakeholders, and allows us to allocate more resources toward the production of compelling content across all platforms.” Putting an end to Pivot might be the best decision for investors, but to me, the end of the network is a great sadness. The network had its own reality show, but this was Pivot, so it was no “Real Housewives.” Its take on the genre was “Human Resources,” which followed the happenings at the recycling company TerraCycle in Trenton, N.J. Even when plotlines got dramatic, it was all about bettering the world. Deborah Jaramillo, associate professor of Film and Television Studies at Boston University, has some theories about why. She’s studied how cable networks evolve, and what it means to have a network identity. Her best example is AMC, which used to have one goal: airing classic cinema. AMC took its platform to another level when it launched its own similarly-themed original programs, such as “Remember WENN,” about a radio station in the 1930s and ’40s. But over time, AMC realized it couldn’t survive with such a restricted focus. It began showing newer movies and relying more on advertising, Jaramillo says. Over the years, it became what it is now — the network that made “Mad Men” and “Breaking Bad” and, more recently, “The Night Manager.” During the day, though, it airs random films like “The Mummy.” Jaramillo says Pivot may have been too specific with its mission, just like AMC was in its early years. Pivot needed its syndicated material to have “more mass appeal, while maintaining that socially conscious message.” Pivot probably also should have thought beyond millennials at launch, Jaramillo says, because many young people — including her students at Boston University — rely on streaming devices. (Even Jaramillo says she discovered the British thriller “Fortitude,” which airs in the United States on Pivot, through Amazon.) The perfect audience for Pivot, Jaramillo agreed, was actually me — an older-than-millennial who has time to binge-watch old favorites, is open-minded enough to consider new shows, and wants to feel better about watching so much TV. Come fall, when Pivot is expected to start to fade away, I’ll have to go back to feeling conflicted about my television consumption. I’ll have to go back to getting my “Buffy” on Netflix, without commentary, like everyone else.

HUMAN RESOURCES7:30 p.m. on Pivot. This kooky workplace reality series follows Tom Szaky, the founder and chief executive of TerraCycle, a recycling company in Trenton, and his army of thinkers and doers whose mission is to eliminate waste — all of it. In Season 3, they take on condoms and toiletries.