The Nerve...

Rick’s Cabaret, a strip club in Midtown Manhattan, owes more than $10 million in back pay to about 1,900 dancers who performed there without being paid hourly wages, a federal judge ruled on Friday.

The judge, Paul A. Engelmayer of the Southern District, had decided last year that Rick’s had treated the dancers as though they were employees and should have been paying them at least the minimum wage.   

The judge ruled that Rick’s must pay the dancers at least $10.8 million and possibly much more, depending on the outcome of the trial, which is set for early next year.

The award, a combination of wages Rick’s did not pay and fees that the judge said Rick’s unfairly collected from the dancers, would be split among the 1,900 members of the class of plaintiffs.

Taking advantage of the worker is disgraceful.   Just a thought.

War game...

 

The U.S. military shot down an Iranian-made, armed drone in southern Syria.  CBS News reports the drone came too close to one of the outposts of U.S.-backed fighters outside of their main base in Tanf. U.S. forces have been training and advising local Syrian Arabs for the fight against .........

During the first six years of the Syrian crisis, the United States supported rebel groups fighting Assad, but avoided direct conflict with his forces. That changed, now, it has engaged in air-to-air combat in Syria for the very first time by downing a Syrian jet.

An armed Russian jet came within five feet of a U.S. reconnaissance plane over the Baltic Sea, CBS News national security correspondent David Martin reports.

What are we doing in Syria? Didi we started occupying parts of Syria? for what reason?

Clean...

Rain...*

Regina Ilyinichna Spektor is a Russian-born American singer-songwriter and pianist. Her music is associated with the anti-folk scene centered on New York City's East Village.
In New York City, Spektor studied classical piano at the Manhattan School of Music until she was 17.  Although the family had been unable to bring their piano from Russia, Spektor found a piano on which to play in the basement of her synagogue, and also practiced on tabletops and other hard surfaces.
Here is her song. I love Paris in the rain.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWXWivwhi14

Untold...

       

Fred Warmbier stated that his son Otto was traveling in China at the end of 2015 when he saw a company offering trips to North Korea. He decided to go. He accused the tour operator of specifically targeting young Westerners with slogans like, "This is the trip your parents don't want you to take!"

Fred Warmbier said the China-based tour operator, Young Pioneer Tours, advertised the trip as safe for U.S. citizens.^[2] 

Warmbier traveled to North Korea for a five-day New Year's tour of the country organized by Young Pioneer Tours. Ten other U.S. citizens were in his tour group. During his stay at the Yanggakdo International Hotel in Pyongyang, Warmbier allegedly stole a propaganda sign from a staff-only floor of the hotel.^[22]

The poster said, "Let's arm ourselves strongly with Kim Jong-il's patriotism!". Harming such items with the name or image of a North Korean leader is considered a serious crime by the government. Yong people be careful. There is a scam wherever you go.

Taller...

Caltrans is building a taller, stronger wall in San Jose to stop homeless individuals from returning to an encampment, CBS San Francisco reports.

While the project has pleased many homeowners, it is generating a lot of anger in the community.
Caltrans workers have repeatedly cleaned up a large encampment under I-280, but the homeless keep returning.

Residents, Laura Nunez, say everything changed when homeless people began using chain link fences as a doorway to their encampments along the freeway.

"Every time, Caltrans would come out and repair it . As soon as they left, (the homeless would) cut a hole in it and they just use that. That was their main access point to go in and out. We've had to live with their garbage.

There may be a handy man among them.  

High Def...

   

Brighter...

Sovereignty...

The Russian Defense Ministry blasted the U.S.'s shooting down of a Syrian fighter jet as a "massive violation of international law" and said it will begin treating U.S.-led coalition jets flying west of the Euphrates River in Syria as targets.

The ministry's comments Monday came after a U.S. Navy fighter jet on Sunday shot down a Syrian fighter jet that dropped bombs on rebel forces fighting ISIS in Syria.

It was the first time the U.S. has engaged in air-to-air combat in Syria, signaling an escalation of the conflict. It is is also the first time an American aircraft has shot down any other country's plane in air-to-air combat since 1999.

Russia, which is backing the Syrian regime in the civil war, slammed the U.S. action as a violation of Syria's sovereignty. 

We got into Afghanistan then into Iraq and 15 years lated we are bleeding there. . Let us not get involved in Syria. Enough already.     .

Aiding...