Minimum Wage fight.

The contentious issue that is the minimum wage fight was never going to be a slam dunk. Now as the nation's biggest minimum wage hike ramps up in Seattle beginning next month, a top franchise lobby has been fighting back with a lawsuit that seeks to grant small businesses more time to comply with the law.

Seattle's City Council voted to raise the minimum wage in increments—to $15 an hour by 2017 for larger businesses with at least 500 staffers. But the International Franchise Association argues Seattle's ordinance discriminates against its members by lumping smaller franchisees with big businesses.

The national franchise group and five franchisees in the city filed the suit against the city last year. Oral arguments took place last week on a preliminary injunction motion potentially buying franchisees more time to implement the increase.

Under the ordinance, franchises are treated as large businesses because they receive the benefits of being associated with the larger franchisor network of many more than 500 employees," spokesman Viet Shelton said in an email to CNBC.

As a result, franchises have distinct advantages over the typical independent small business training, product development, and marketing support to name just a few.

We are big business when the money comes, small to pay. Franchises will pay.

Just a thought.

Hate no one.

A 20-year-old man has been arrested in connection with a shooting outside the headquarters of the Ferguson police department that injured two officers.  He was charged........

The two officers were injured during heated protests outside the police department after the resignation of the city’s police chief who stepped down in the wake of a Justice Department report that documented widespread racial bias in the city.  Biases that have gained national attention since the shooting of a black teen Michael Brown.

A handgun recovered matched shell casings found from the scene of the shooting.

It appears Williams [suspect] was the only person who fired any shots but there may be other people who were "participants." The investigation is ongoing.

Attorney General Eric Holder released a written statement on the arrest, saying it "sends a clear message that acts of violence against our law enforcement personnel will never be tolerated."

A statement on behalf of the Fraternal Order of Police in St. Louis said, "We are relieved for our brother officers, their families and the people of Ferguson that this dangerous gunman is off the street and behind bars where he belongs.

The man who shot at the police didn't help any one by his criminal act. Not his race, nor other races, not the elderly, nor the very young, not the business nor the town. It is just pure ignoranance and psychotic hate.

 Just a thought.

Driven part 3- Pao-Pao

During the emotional peak of Ellen Pao's cross-examination, Kleiner's attorney Lynne Hermle held an enormous board game on her shoulder, clutched at a Buddha and a book all gifts Pao and one of her partners had exchanged, offered as evidence.

Suddenly the gender discrimination lawsuit filed by Pao against her former employer, seemed almost funny.

Hermle chipped away at each of these, showing small but sometimes crucial moments when Pao could have voiced concerns to fix the issues she was having but didn't, instead only collecting evidence.
 

Three weeks into this trial, and, at times, it's getting absurd. The day was a rough slog through now familiar episodes in Pao's testimony  that the advances of a colleague, Ajit Nazre, had been unwelcome; that she'd received a book of erotic poetry and sketches from Randy Komisar; that she'd been left out of meetings and parties. Hermle chipped away at each these, showing small but sometimes crucial moments when Pao could have voiced concerns to fix the issues she was having but didn't, instead only collecting evidence.

     

In Hermle's recast of the events, Pao had ample opportunities and support from the firm to address workplace drama. Only after she was rejected from a number of job opportunities in 2011, and heard about a fellow colleague's experience being harassed by Nazre, did a plan emerge for asking the firm to pay her a severance. Hermle sought to show that Pao's notion of "having her story be told" and creating opportunities for other women only came in retrospect. The truth will come out no matter what

Just a thought.

Walkaway...!

 

An Indian bride has walked out of her wedding ceremony after her groom-to-be failed to solve a simple math problem. The bride tested the groom on his math skills and when he got the sum wrong, she walked out.  The question she asked: How much is 15 plus six. His reply: 17.

The groom's family tried persuading the bride to return, but she refused. She said the groom had misled them about his education. Local police mediated between the families and both sides returned all the gifts that had been exchanged before the wedding.

Most marriages in India are arranged by the families of the bride and groom. Except for brief meetings, the couple rarely get to know each other before the nuptials.

India is not the only country that has arranged marriages.   Look around you. They are closer than you think.

Just a thought.

Intactivists- Integrity

A judge issued an arrest order for a Florida woman who fled with her son to prevent his circumcision and ignored a demand to appear in court.

Circuit Judge Jeffrey Gillen signed the order in a seven-minute hearing, three days after finding Heather Hironimus in contempt and warning that she would face imprisonment unless she reported to court with the child.

Her attorney, Thomas Hunker, said his client is staying with her 4-year-old son in a shelter for domestic violence victims because the boy was "scared to death" of undergoing the surgery.

Hironimus and the boy's father, Dennis Nebus, were never married but share custody of their child. In a parenting agreement filed in court, the two agreed to the boy's circumcision, but the mother later changed her mind, leading to a long court battle.

Circuit and appellate judges have sided with the father, but potential surgeons have backed out after refusing to get the mother's consent or becoming the target of anti-circumcision protesters who side with her.

"She did this for one reason and one reason only: because the child is scared to death of this procedure," Hunker told Gillen, launching into a defense that was cut off by the judge.

Circumcision rates have fallen in the U.S.  Meantime, a movement opposing circumcision has developed, and the case has become a rallying cry for so-called "intactivists" who deride the surgery as barbaric. A small group of those anti-circumcision advocates gathered outside the court to demonstrate in support of Hironimus, and expressed outrage over the judge's order.

The mother doesn't want the procedure for her son, but she should have appeared in court. The father doesn't want to get married. That is a wash.

Just a thought.

MichelAngelo of....

 
Women have utilized push-up/padded bras, corsets, and various other means for many years in order to boost looks and self-confidence at a special event.  Now, many women simply want their glutes to appear full and plumped particularly in a bikini.. 

A Philadelphia jury is weighing murder charges in the death of a dancer who got silicone injections at a hotel to enhance her buttocks.

Defendant Padge-Victoria Windslowe says she performed thousands of the procedures despite a lack of formal medical training. The 45-year-old describes herself as a former madam and hip-hop performer.

Authorities say she fled after a botched injection killed the 20-year-old London dancer in 2011. Two other women testified that they became seriously ill after the low-grade silicone spread to their lungs.

Windslowe says women paid thousands of dollars for her work and called her "the Michelangelo of buttocks injections."

The jury got the third-degree murder case  and deliberating. There have been several similar deaths around the country.

Be careful what you ask for? you may get it.  Just a thought.

The Doc. ...

 

A New York hospital anesthesiologist charged with choking an acquaintance and forcing her to swallow a pill that could cause an abortion has pleaded guilty to harassment.

He initially had been charged with strangulation, assault and abortion in the second degree, or committing an "abortional act."

The prosecutors in Ulster County reduced the charges against 44-year-old Dr. Thomas Pfeiffer of Red Hook in return for his guilty plea.

He was arrested after sheriff's deputies said he had choked the woman and forced her  to swallow a pill that could cause an abortion after she told him a home pregnancy test had come out positive.

Dr. Pfeiffer was sentenced to complete a 33-week group counseling program for men who have committed domestic violence.

Can't play a Doctor/Nurse any more, even if you are one. Use protection........

Just a thought.

BigAmy...

 

The estranged wife and children of Democratic Rep. Alan Grayson have turned to government food stamps to support themselves. Lawyers representing Grayson asserting that he provides them about $120,000 of assistance.

Grayson was named the 17th richest member of Congress this month by CQ Roll Call.
His marriage of 29 years dissolved earlier this year when his wife, Lolita Grayson, filed for divorce. A week later, Rep. Grayson asked a court to annul the marriage.

Mr. Grayson is refusing to pay spousal support because he is claiming that she was never divorced from her first husband and therefore their marriage was never legitimate. Grayson says his wife, Lolita, was still married when they got married in 1990 in Virginia.

 

But Lolita Grayson says she was divorced in 1981 in Guam.
 

The trial includes accusations by Lolita Grayson that her estranged husband pushed her and that he has failed to maintain their Orlando house and support their children. There was also a delay caused by Lolita Grayson's leaky breast implant, and she has had a revolving door of attorneys.

Bigamy is illegal in this USA, but alimony and support is not. Annulled but Pay.

Just a thought.

Block it...*!

Image is not related.

Two Australian brothers aged 16 and 17 were stopped at Sydney Airport on suspicion of headed to join the Iraq conflict. 

"These two are kids, not killers, and they shouldn't be allowed to go to a foreign land to fight, then come back more radicalized," Dutton told reporters. The boys' parents were "as shocked as any of us would be" 

Australians who fight for foreign militant groups face prosecution at home. It became a criminal offense punishable by 10 years in prison for an Australian to enter the Islamic State-held territory without a legitimate reason. " My message to anyone who is listening to the death cult is block your ears. Don't even begin to think you can leave" Australia.

The government said at least 90 Australians were fighting with and supporting terrorist groups in Iraq and Syria and have had their passports canceled. More than 20 Australians have been killed, that is 23% and the rest is facing the same difficulties. Its a serious choice.

Just a thought.

Danish Gangster

The gunman in the weekend terror attacks in Copenhagen [shootings at the Krudttoenden Café] grew up amid a violent gang culture that ultimately rejected him for his uncontrollable behavior.

The Danish-born 22-year-old, reportedly of Arab origins, was killed in a shootout with police.  He was "well-known for several criminal incidents, including weapons violations, violence, and connection to gangs.

It was an environment with a lot of gang wars where you couldn't move around freely," Soei said. "The gang wars in Copenhagen started back in 2008 when (El-Hussein) was 15 years old and that's the environment he's been a part of. In his neighborhood, every kid knows someone who's been killed by other gangs.

Deprived of his gang identity and serving time in prison for a violent offense,  unprovoked stabbing on a commuter train in 2013, he appears to have radicalized.

Two weeks after leaving prison, he carried out the shootings at the Krudttoenden Cafe, which was hosting a free-speech forum, and the synagogue. His former gang has since disowned his actions.

This is a rejection of the society and its values that hosted himself and his family for years. Intern the society should let him Go back to his original country and avoid the drama.  Just a thought.