Failed State of Chechnya Threatens to Arm Mexico if U.S. Sends Weapons to Ukraine

(NewsWeek) 3/26/15 - The Chechen parliament have threatened to send weapons to Mexico in retaliation to the U.S. Congress calling for defensive lethal aid to be sent to Ukraine.

On Tuesday, the U.S. House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly in favour of sending arms - the resolution was passed 348 to 48.

U.S. senator for Wisconsin Ron Johnson branded it “absolutely necessary” that president Obama provide lethal and nonlethal military assistance to Ukraine, in light of the attacks by Russian-backed rebels on civilians in Mariupol in January.

In response, Chechnya's parliamentary speaker Dukuvakha Abdurakhmanovsaid that the U.S. has “no right” to advise Russia on how to behave with its neighbours.

He warned that the supply of arms to Ukraine will be perceived by Chechnya, a southern Russian republic, as a signal to deliver new weapons to Mexico to “resume debate on the legal status of the territories annexed by the U.S.”

Abdurakhmanov is referring to the states of California, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Colorado and Wyoming, which Mexico surrendered to the U.S. in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848, a peace deal which concluded the Mexican-American conflict.

The U.S. paid Mexico $15 million and took on the $3.25 million debt owed by the Mexican government to American citizens in exchange for the territory.

In the 1853 Gadsden Purchase, the U.S. paid an additional $10 million to buy what is now New Mexico and Arizona.

Adurakhmanov said: “We reserve the right to conduct conferences in Russia, Mexico and the U.S. to raise the question of breaking away the above mentioned states from the U.S. and supplying weapons to resistance fighters there.”

On Tuesday, the head of the foreign affairs committee in the State Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament, Alexey Pushkov, urged Obama to resist congressional pressure to arm Ukraine.

Pushkov told a Russian news agency that the U.S. Congress’ non-binding resolution sends “a strong signal of America’s long-term support in its policy of confrontation with Russia”.

Previous calls to arm Ukraine have been rejected by the Obama administration, who fear the move could instigate greater bloodshed between Ukrainian forces and the separatists.

Earlier this month, the death toll from the conflict in eastern Ukraine passed 6,000, according the UN human rights office.

The crisis erupted in April 2014 following the annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation during the previous month. Full Story

Indiana religious objections bill signed as dispute swirls

(yahoonews) INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Indiana Gov. Mike Pence vigorously defended the state religious objections bill that he signed into law Thursday as businesses and organizations including the NCAA pressed concerns that it could open the door to legalizing discrimination against gey people.

The state became the first to enact such a change this year among about a dozen where such proposals have been introduced. Arkansas' governor said Thursday he supported a similar bill that's advancing in that state's Legislature.

Pence, a Republican mulling a possible 2016 presidential campaign, signed the bill privately in his office with at least a couple dozen supporters on hand. He later met with reporters and refuted arguments from opponents that law would threaten civil rights laws by saying that hasn't happened under the federal religious freedom law Congress passed in 1993 and similar laws in 19 other states.

"There has been a lot of misunderstanding about this bill," Pence said. "This bill is not about discrimination, and if I thought it legalized discrimination in any way I would've vetoed it."

Those arguments didn't satisfy opponents who worry the law, which will take effect in July, presents Indiana as unwelcoming and could give legal cover to businesses that don't want to provide services to gays and lesbians.

National gay-rights consider the Indiana bill among the most sweeping of similar state proposals introduced as conservatives brace for a possible U.S. Supreme Court ruling legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide.

The Washington-based Human Rights Campaign said Indiana lawmakers "have sent a dangerous and discriminatory message."

Scientists Prove That All Religious Books Are Man-Made Nonsense

(dailysquib.co.uk) WASHINGTON DC – USA – Scientists at the Institute of Historical Research have finally released their findings after five years of dedicated research.

The scientists, headed by Doctor Julius Sanreso, welcomed the research findings and said that it would be in the interests of those who believe in such nonsense as organised religion or creationism to accept the fact that religious books were written by men as a control system.

“Just think for one second, if ‘G-d’ or a ‘messenger of G-d’ had written that particular religious book/bible, how come the writings only occur within a very limited period in human history? Also, consider the fact, that a human writing on a piece of paper, or a few pieces of paper, is not the word of ‘God’. If they were really written by a universal God or entity, the books would not be limited to some pre-medievel costume drama but would encompass all universality, history, the future and science. Language is something created by man, not an all-seeing, all encompassing entity. God would presumably be universal and timeless as well as all-knowing, as is the universe, therefore these man-written books and scriptures, are just that, man-written linguistically created nonsense used to control men and women thousands of years ago. Why would ‘God’ write anything anyway? One must consider the fact that, even now, there are religious zealots and ordinary people still entrenched in a control belief system that is so far removed from reality that it borders on madness. There is no rational or scientific way that organised religions can have a modicum of truth or factual reality because of the very reason that these books are entombed in the time that they were written. These books should therefore simply be viewed as limited parables and historical fiction, as well as a lesson in how millions of people can be so easily controlled.”

The research paper also came to the conclusion that reward/punishment religions, as control systems, were losing their grip on most of the population of the world and only a few die-hard fanatics and delusional maniacs were carrying on with the flame of idiocy.

“The game is up for all religions, how long can this sham carry on, with their ridiculous outdated ceremonies? The priests are deceivers, and they need to come up with some pretty radical solutions to their thousand year old magic trick. People aren’t as dumb or easily swayed as they used to be thousands of years ago, they actually have reasoning powers and can see through the utter nonsense of organised control systems like religion.”

The problem for the world’s political leaders, is that slowly, humans who were controlled for so many years by fictitious writings, may suddenly lose their controlled ‘faith’. This could be quite dangerous, because it would mean that these people would suddenly wake up and realise that they have been fooled for so long by being communally hypnotised.

“We must ensure that the people who have been fooled for so long by fictitious belief systems utilised to control humans do not get too angry when they realise that what they believe in is nonsense written by humans utilising human created language. This could be dangerous for society, so we must either let them carry on believing their fiction or try to somehow support them when they realise the truth,” Dr Sanreso said.

The research paper will be published in its entirety in 2015.

Is it time for a woman to be featured on the US$20 bill?

Andrew Jackson killed a man..

MOUNT VERNON, N.Y. -- Barbara Ortiz Howard already has a day job maintaining apartment buildings near New York City. Now she has a second job and it's all about money. No, not earning it -- she wants to fix what she says is wrong with it.

"There are no women on the money and I thought gee this is a crazy omission," said Howard.

Howard is on a mission to send President Andrew Jackson packing and put a woman on the $20 bill. After long hours of research, she and some friends came up with a list of 15 extraordinary women. Though Howard says they're all her favorites, she clearly has a soft spot for Harriett Tubman, who rescued slaves on the Underground Railroad.

The list are as follows:

Shirley Chisholm
Betty Friedan
Susan B Anthony
Rosa Parks
Sojourner Truth
Frances Perkins
Eleanor Roosevelt
Barbara Jordan
Harriet Tubman
Alice Paul
Patsy Mink
Clara Barton
Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Margaret Sanger
Rachel Carson

* * * *

I say leave the bill alone and start your own currency. 

H.J. Heinz Company And Kraft Foods Group Sign Definitive Merger Agreement To Form The Kraft Heinz Company

(MarketWatch) - PITTSBURGH and NORTHFIELD, Ill., March 25, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- H.J. Heinz Company and Kraft Foods Group, Inc. KRFT, -0.20% today announced that they have entered into a definitive merger agreement to create The Kraft Heinz Company, forming the third largest food and beverage company in North America with an unparalleled portfolio of iconic brands.

Under the terms of the agreement, which has been unanimously approved by both Heinz and Kraft's Boards of Directors, Kraft shareholders will own a 49% stake in the combined company, and current Heinz shareholders will own 51% on a fully diluted basis. Kraft shareholders will receive stock in the combined company and a special cash dividend of $16.50 per share. The aggregate special dividend payment of approximately $10 billion is being fully funded by an equity contribution by Berkshire Hathaway and 3G Capital.

The proposed merger creates substantial value for Kraft shareholders. The special cash dividend payment represents 27% of Kraft's closing price as of March 24, 2015. Also, by continuing to own shares of the new combined company, Kraft shareholders will have the opportunity to participate in the new company's long-term value creation potential.

Should the US government force citizens to vote?

(csmonitor.com) - On Wednesday during a town hall meeting in Cleveland, Ohio President Barack Obama floated the idea of making voting in America compulsory. The deputy secretary of State for New Hampshire, the front-line state for presidential elections, doesn't endorse the concept.

Mr. Obama suggested compulsory voting in the context of speaking about ways to counteract the role of money in politics.

"It would be transformative if everybody voted," Obama said.

 "That would counteract money more than anything. If everybody voted, then it would completely change the political map in this country, because the people who tend not to vote are young; they're lower income; they're skewed more heavily towards immigrant groups and minority groups; and they're often the folks who are – they're scratching and climbing to get into the middle class. And they're working hard, and there’s a reason why some folks try to keep them away from the polls. We should want to get them into the polls."

[Update: On Thursday afternoon, White House press secretary Josh Earnest issued this statement about mandatory voting: “The president was not making a specific policy prescription for the United States,” reported the Washington Times. ]

The state with the motto “Live free or die,” where all eyes turn during the presidential primaries, would be on the front lines for implementation of any such plan. But to New Hampshire’s Deputy Secretary of State David Scanlan voting is “a right to be exercised, but not forced.”

“Personally, I don’t agree with that idea [compulsory voting] at all,” Mr. Scanlan says. “In a perfect world everyone would vote because it’s so important. I believe every state should strive to generate maximum voter turnout but stop short of forcing people to vote.” Read the Rest HERE

Target to increase its minimum wage to $9/hour in April: Report

(cnbc.com) 03/18/15 = Target will raise its minimum wage to $9 per hour for all workers in April following recent pay hikes from other large retailers, Reuters reported Wednesday, citing a source.

The news comes as UltraViolet, a women's advocacy group, and other interest groups are pressuring the retailer to increase its wages. Last week, Target outlined plans to lay off 1,700 workers and close out another 1,400 open positions as part of a $2 billion cost-savings plan.

Target looks to offer "competitive wages" but does not usually announce its wage policies, spokeswoman Molly Snyder told CNBC.

A Target pay increase would follow retail giant Wal-Mart, which last month said it would hike its minimum wage to $9 per hour in April and $10 per hour for current employees in 2016.

T.J. Maxx and Marshalls owner TJX also said it would increase its minimum wage to $9 per hour in June.

The federal minimum wage currently sits at $7.25 per hour, though some states hold pay floors higher than the federal level.

The Target wage raise, which was reported earlier by Dow Jones, will affect all 1,800 U.S. stores, Reuters said. The company already paid employees more than the U.S. minimum wage of $7.25 an hour, and it was not clear how many employees' checks would be affected.

Target shares closed slightly positive on Wednesday, but moved lower in light extended trading.

Diversity is strength in Texas: Austin mayor outraged by 'white people only' stickers posted on businesses

(CNN) - Someone is posting stickers that say "exclusively for white people" on businesses in the Texas capital of Austin. And the mayor is not amused.

"This is an appalling and offensive display of ignorance in our city," Mayor Steve Adler said in a statement. "Our city is a place where respect for all people is a part of our spirit and soul. We will keep it that way."

In addition to the disparaging words, the stickers are using the city's logo, giving the impression that they represent Austin.

They do not, the mayor said.

"The stickers were neither produced nor knowingly displayed by the businesses and were removed by their employees when discovered this morning," he said Wednesday.

The stickers were placed between midnight Tuesday and 7 a.m. Wednesday. It's unclear how many businesses were affected, but those that were targeted took them off, officials said.

City officials, businesses and the police are on the lookout for the culprits.

"This type of cowardly and hateful act will not be tolerated in this city," City Manager Marc Ott said. Full Story

Missouri Vice Gov. Claims The Justice Department Is More Racist Than Ferguson

(msn.com) 03/16/15 - Missouri Lt. Governor Peter Kinder (PR) said that the protests in Ferguson that followed the death of Michael Brown were "based on a lie" and that there was more racism in the Department of Justice than there was in the St. Louis area.

"The whole blow up of this protest movement was based on the lie that never happened of hands up don't shoot," Kinder told NewsmaxTV’s "Steve Malzberg Show" Monday in comments that were first highlighted by BuzzFeed.

Kinder was referring to a Department of Justice report released last week which concluded that witness accounts that Brown had his hands up when police officer Darren Wilson shot him were "inconsistent with physical and forensic evidence."

But a separate DOJ report on Ferguson police practices found that the protesters were justified in their demonstrations, even if Brown did not in fact have his hands up when he was killed. The DOJ report found that Ferguson police systematically discriminated against African-American citizens and acted as a vehicle for collecting revenue for the town instead of protecting its citizens.

"Clearly, these findings -- and others included in the report -- demonstrate that, although some community perceptions of Michael Brown’s tragic death may not have been accurate, the widespread conditions that these perceptions were based upon, and the climate that gave rise to them, were all too real," Holder said in reference to the report last week.

Kinder also said that the DOJ was staffed with "hard-left radical leftist lawyers," but admitted that the report identified some "legitimate grievances." Kinder pointed to the resignation of six Ferguson employees, including police chief Thomas Jackson, as evidence that reforms were being implemented.

"At some point the protesters need to give us a respite," he said.

Kinder, who has been lieutenant governor since 2005, said that the media and the Justice Department magnified what was going on in Ferguson.

"There is more racism in the Justice Department than anywhere I see in the St. Louis area," he said. "We've come an enormous way in 50 years, that's not to say that we don't have still more to do. It is the left, it is the Eric Holder and the Obama left and their minions that are obsessed with race while the rest of us are moving on beyond it." Full Story

Microsoft to Kill Off the Internet Explorer Brand

(Yahoo.com) 03/17/15- While Microsoft has dropped hints that the Internet Explorer brand is going away, the software maker has now confirmed that it will use a new name for its upcoming browser successor, codenamed Project Spartan. Speaking at Microsoft Convergence yesterday, Microsoft’s marketing chief Chris Capossela revealed that the company is currently working on a new name and brand. “We’re now researching what the new brand, or the new name, for our browser should be in Windows 10,” said Capossela. “We’ll continue to have Internet Explorer, but we’ll also have a new browser called Project Spartan, which is codenamed Project Spartan. We have to name the thing.”

Internet Explorer will still exist in some versions of Windows 10 mainly for enterprise compatibility, but the new Project Spartan will be named separately and will be the primary way for Windows 10 users to access the web. Microsoft has tried, unsuccessfully, to shake off the negative image of Internet Explorer over the past several years with a series of amusing campaigns mocking Internet Explorer 6. The ads didn’t improve the situation, and Microsoft’s former Internet Explorer chief left the company in December, signalling a new era for the browser. Full Story

Not just homosexuals: Oklahoma is banning atheists from getting married

(Metro.co.uk) March/17/2015- In what has been described as a not-so-covert attack on gay marriage, a bill banning non-religious people from marrying and requiring all marriage licences be approved by a member of the clergy has been passed in Oklahoma.

The bill, which was approved by the Oklahoma state House last week and will now go to the state Senate for consideration, would restrict marriage only to people of faith.

But while it might seem on the surface like an assault on atheism, critics are saying that it is same-sex unions that the bill is not-so-stealthily attacking. By making the clergy – not judges and court clerks – the sole marriage licence issuers, it will be more difficult for gay marriages to take place.

‘Marriage was not instituted by government,’ said Rep. Dennis Johnson, who backed the bill.

‘It was instituted by G-d. There is no reason for Oklahoma or any state to be involved in marriage.

Rep. Todd Russ, who sponsored the bill, told KSWO-TV that it stemmed from his personal opposition to marriage equality, saying same-sex marriage laws were ‘stuck down our throats’ by the Supreme Court despite Oklahoma voting ‘overwhelmingly’ against it.

Troy Stevenson, head of the LGBT advocacy group Freedom Oklahoma, said that the community would ‘fight back’ against the ‘discriminatory legislation’ – but added that there was a silver lining.

‘There are… 160 members of the clergy who have publicly declared their willingness to marry LGBT people [in Oklahoma],’ he said. Full Story

Outrageous? Sephora lipstick name deemed offensive to some

(FINANCE.YAHOO) — It’s a beauty trend that’s stuck around for awhile — giving lipstick and nail polish hues wacky, memorable names. Look at any Essie nail polish collection and you’ll be greeted with names like “ignite the night” and “spun in luxe.”

But reality TV star Kat Von D, whose extremely popular makeup line is sold in Sephora, gave one of her lipsticks a name that’s memorable for all the wrong reasons and has sparked a growing social media backlash.

It’s called “Underage Red.”

Read the full story ›


(Read more HERE)

Huge Pacific cyclone devastates Vanuatu, at least eight dead

(Reuters) - One of the Pacific Ocean's most powerful ever storms devastated the island nation of Vanuatu on Saturday, tearing off roofs, uprooting trees and killing at least eight people with the toll set to rise, aid officials said.

The United Nations was preparing a major relief operation and Australia said it was ready to offer its neighbor whatever help it could.

With winds up to 340 kph (210 mph), Cyclone Pam left Vanuatu cut off, with little power, poor communications and a looming threat of hunger and thirst.

Unconfirmed reports said the number of dead could run into dozens but aid workers said it would be days or weeks before the full impact was known.

"It felt like the world was going to end," Alice Clements, a spokeswoman for the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), said from Vanuatu.

"It's like a bomb has gone off in the center of the town. There is no power. There is no water."

Tom Skirrow, country director for the Save the Children aid group, told Reuters that Vanuatu's National Disaster Management Office had confirmed eight dead and 20 injured. He said he expected those figures to rise substantially.

Aid workers in Papua New Guinea said at least one person had been killed by the storm there.

Satellite photographs showed the storm covering virtually all of Vanuatu, a sprawling country of 83 islands and 260,000 people 2,000 km (1,250 miles) northeast of the Australian city of Brisbane.

The president of Vanuatu, Baldwin Lonsdale, told a disaster risk conference in Japan he had no confirmed report of the impact of the storm but he appealed to the world to "give a lending hand".

Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said Canberra would be willing to offer Vanuatu whatever help it could.

Why Medicine Won’t Allow Cancer to Be Cured

By Dr. Mercola

Imagine a commercial plane crashed and there were some fatalities involved. You can be sure that would make the headline of every major newspaper. Well, we have the equivalent of 8-10 planes crashing EVERY DAY with everyone on board dying from cancer.

Nearly two million Americans are diagnosed with cancer every year—one person out of three will be hit with a cancer diagnosis at some time in their lives, in spite of the massive technological advances over the past half-century.

Western medicine is no closer to finding a "cancer cure," while cancer has grown into a worldwide epidemic of staggering proportions. The statistics speak for themselves:

• In the early 1900s, one in 20 people developed cancer
• In the 1940s, one in 16 people developed cancer
• In the 1970s, it was one in 10
• Today, it's one in three!

According to the CDC, about 1,660,290 (1.66 million) new cancer cases are expected to be diagnosed in 20131. If overall death rates are falling, why are incidence rates still on the rise? The answer is simple: the 40-year "war on cancer" has been a farce.

The cancer epidemic is a dream for Big Pharma, and their campaigns to silence cancer cures have been fierce, which is a tale well told in the documentary film featured above, Cancer: Forbidden Cures.

The Cancer Machine

Please understand that cancer is big business. The cancer industry is spending virtually nothing of its multi-billion dollar resources on effective prevention strategies, such as dietary guidelines, exercise and obesity education. Instead, it pours its money into treating cancer, not preventing or curing it.

Why would they shoot their cash cow? If they can keep the well-oiled Cancer Machine running, they will continue to make massive profits on chemotherapy drugs, radiotherapy, diagnostic procedures and surgeries.

The typical cancer patient spends $50,000 fighting the disease. Chemotherapy drugs are among the most expensive of all treatments, many ranging from $3,000 to $7,000 for a one-month supply.

If the cancer industry allows a cure, then their patient base goes away. It makes more sense to keep a steady stream of cancer patients alive, but sick and coming back for more. How did this societal monster come about?

The featured documentary is enormously informative. It details how the pharmaceutical industry partnered with the American Medical Association (AMA) in an ingenious plan to overtake the medical system in four swift, easy steps, back in the early 1900s. In a nutshell, it went something like this:

1. International bankers that own the drug and chemical companies gained control over the medical education system over 100 years ago.
2. They gave grants to the AMA and leading medical schools in exchange for seats on their board and the ability to control policy.
3. Finally, they cleverly engineered their control of virtually every federal regulatory agency relating to the practice of medicine.

'Don't You DARE Cure Anyone!'

In spite of the enormous amounts of money funneled into cancer research today, two out of three cancer patients will be dead within five years after receiving all or part of the standard cancer treatment trinity—surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy. This is not too surprising when you consider that two of the three are carcinogenic themselves! One study estimated that chemotherapy benefits about one of every 20 people receiving it.

Over the last hundred years, a number of natural cancer treatments have been developed and used successfully to treat patients in the US and other countries. All have been vehemently discounted, silenced, and pushed under the rug by the medical monopoly, with physicians and researchers attacked, smeared, sent to prison, and professionally ruined for daring to defy the medical establishment.

To this day, with respect to credibility in medicine, "quack" is synonymous with "competition."

In order to protect the medical monopoly, any viable natural treatment is met with massive opposition by the pharmaceutical and medical industries. Drug companies have no interest in natural agents that they cannot patent, because they interfere with their revenue stream. They will go—and have gone—to extreme measures to prevent the truth about effective natural treatments (competitive threats) from reaching the public.

The FDA is now, thanks to PDUFA, primarily funded by the drug companies and is complicit in this process. They restrict competition in the guise of protecting the public, when the reality is they are protecting the profits of the drug companies. Full Article

McDonald’s sales continue to plunge despite menu changes

(Inquisitr) 03/10/15 - McDonald’s sales have continued to plunge throughout the United States and worldwide. In February alone, McDonald’s reported a four percent decline in U.S. sales and a 1.7 percent drop in international sales. Experts blame increased competition from chains offering fresher and healthier options.

In response to the continued decline, McDonald’s replaced their CEO and has vowed to make some important changes.

On March 1, former Chief Executive Officer Don Thompson was replaced with Steve Easterbrook. As reported by About McDonald’s, Easterbrook has been with the company since 1993.

With the exception of two years between 2011 and 2013, Easterbrook served as a McDonald’s executive for a total of 20 years. In the last two years, Easterbook has served as McDonald’s Chief Brand Officer.

Following his appointment as CEO, Easterbrook announced the fast-food giant will stop using chicken enhanced with human antibiotics. Although the change will likely be costly, McDonald’s executives said the switch will be “an investment” in better quality.

As reported by Reuters, McDonald’s shares increased an estimated 10 percent since Easterbrook took over, and another 0.8 percent following the announcement about switching to chickens without human antibiotics.

Unfortunately, McDonald’s sales have continued to plunge. In recent months the fast-food giant streamlined their menu and increased their focus on fast and accurate service. They have also explored offering customized burgers, and have emphasized their “I’m lovin’ it” advertising campaign.

Dieter Waizenegger, CtW Investment Group executive director, said the “… disappointing numbers underscore the widespread reforms McDonald’s requires… and these changes must go beyond new management to include refreshing its stale and insular board.”

Read more HERE

Living Wages, Rarity for U.S. Fast-Food Workers, Served Up in Denmark

(nytimes) COPENHAGEN 10/27/14 — On a recent afternoon, Hampus Elofsson ended his 40-hour workweek at a Burger King and prepared for a movie and beer with friends. He had paid his rent and all his bills, stashed away some savings, yet still had money for nights out.

That is because he earns the equivalent of $20 an hour — the base wage for fast-food workers throughout Denmark and two and a half times what many fast-food workers earn in the United States.

“You can make a decent living here working in fast food,” said Mr. Elofsson, 24. “You don’t have to struggle to get by.”

With an eye to workers like Mr. Elofsson, some American labor activists and liberal scholars are posing a provocative question: If Danish chains can pay $20 an hour, why can’t those in the United States pay the $15 an hour that many fast-food workers have been clamoring for?

“We see from Denmark that it’s possible to run a profitable fast-food business while paying workers these kinds of wages,” said John Schmitt, an economist at the Center for Economic Policy Research, a liberal think tank in Washington.

Many American economists and business groups say the comparison is deeply flawed because of fundamental differences between Denmark and the United States, including Denmark’s high living costs and taxes, a generous social safety net that includes universal health care and a collective bargaining system in which employer associations and unions work together. The fast-food restaurants here are also less profitable than their American counterparts.

“Trying to compare the business and labor practices in Denmark and the U.S. is like comparing apples to autos,” said Steve Caldeira, president of the International Franchise Association, a group based in Washington that promotes franchising and has many fast-food companies as members.

“Denmark is a small country” with a far higher cost of living, Mr. Caldeira said. “Unions dominate, and the employment system revolves around that fact.”

But as Denmark illustrates, companies have managed to adapt in countries that demand a living wage, and economists like Mr. Schmitt see it as a possible model.

Denmark has no minimum-wage law. But Mr. Elofsson’s $20 an hour is the lowest the fast-food industry can pay under an agreement between Denmark’s 3F union, the nation’s largest, and the Danish employers group Horesta, which includes Burger King, McDonald’s, Starbucks and other restaurant and hotel companies.

By contrast, fast-food wages in the United States are so low that half of the nation’s fast-food workers rely on some form of public assistance, a study from the University of California, Berkeley found. American fast-food workers earn an average of $8.90 an hour.

As a shift manager at a Burger King near Tampa, Fla., Anthony Moore earns $9 an hour, typically working 35 hours a week and taking home around $300 weekly.

“It’s very inadequate,” said Mr. Moore, 26, who supervises 10 workers. His rent is $600 a month, and he often falls behind on his lighting and water bills. A single father, he receives $164 a month in food stamps for his daughters, 5 and 2.

“Sometimes I ask, ‘Do I buy food or do I buy them clothes?’ ” Mr. Moore said. “If I made $20 an hour, I could actually live, instead of dreaming about living.”

Mr. Moore’s daughters receive health care through Medicaid, while he is uninsured because he cannot afford Burger King’s coverage, he said.

“I skip the doctor,” he said, adding that he sometimes goes to work sick because “I can’t miss the money.” Full Story

Time to Kill Daylight Saving

(TheAlantic) 03/08/15 - As most people no doubt noticed given that they were robbed of an hour of sleep, Sunday marked the beginning of Daylight Saving Time in the United States, Canada, and several other countries and territories in North America. For morning people, Daylight Saving is a drag, depriving them of an hour of tranquil morning light. But for others, "spring forward" brings with it the promise of long, languid afternoons and warmer weather.

Like millions of other Americans who have slogged through an uncomfortably cold winter, I'm looking forward to the change of season. But Daylight Saving Time is an annual tradition whose time has passed. In contemporary society, it's not only unnecessary: It's also wasteful, cruel, and dangerous. And it's long past time to bid it goodbye.

Daylight Saving has been an official ritual since 1918, when President Woodrow Wilson codified it into law during the waning days of World War One. Nowadays, its ostensible purpose is to save energy: One more hour of sunlight in the evening means one less hour of consumption of artificial lighting. In 2005, President George W. Bush lengthened Daylight Saving Time by a month as part of a sweeping energy bill signed that year, citing the need to reduce U.S. dependency on foreign oil.

But does Daylight Saving Time actually make much of a difference? Evidence suggests that the answer is no. After the Australian government extended Daylight Saving Time by two months in 2000 in order to accommodate the Sydney Olympic Games, a study at UC Berkeley showed that the move failed to reduce electricity demand at all. More recently, a study of homes in Indiana—a state that adopted Daylight Saving Time only in 2006—showed that the savings from electricity use were negated, and then some, by additional use of air conditioning and heat.

The simple act of adjusting to the time change, however subtle, also has measurable consequences. Many people feel the effects of the "spring forward" for longer than a day; a study showed that Americans lose around 40 minutes of sleep on the Sunday night after the shift. This means more than just additional yawns on Monday: The resulting loss in productivity costs the economy an estimated $434 million a year.

Daylight Saving Time may also hurt people who suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder, depriving them of light in the mornings. "Our circadian rhythms were set eons ago to a rhythm that didn’t include daylight savings time, so the shift tends to throw people off a bit,” Nicholas Rummo, the director of the Center for Sleep Medicine at Northern Westchester Hospital in Mt. Kisco, New York, told HealthDay News. The switchover to Daylight Saving Time is also linked to an increase in heart attacks as well as traffic accidents.

Those of us who have lived with Daylight Saving Time our whole lives might feel disoriented without it. But the millions of Americans in Arizona, Hawaii, and territories like Puerto Rico, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands have survived just fine without it. Not to mention the billions of people throughout Asia, Africa, and South America.

It's said that Benjamin Franklin first proposed a version of Daylight Saving back in 1784 as a way to save candles. This, no disrespect to old Ben, should tell us how silly and obsolete the tradition has become. President Obama—and leaders elsewhere in the world—should do the sensible thing and scrap it. Full Story

Michigan: Planet Fitness drops member after gender identity complaint

Tolerance!

MIDLAND, MI (WNEM) 03/06/15 -It's a business that sells itself on being non-judgmental but Planet Fitness has allegedly revoked the membership of a woman for complaining.

Yvette Cormier, a member at the Midland location, says she had no idea what that meant until a few days ago.

"I was stunned and shocked. He looked like a man.. He did not look like a woman," Cormier said. Cormier is talking about a transgender woman who walked into the woman's locker room while it was getting undressed. She says she couldn't believe her eyes.

"This is very unprofessional. This is very scary," Cormier said.

Not knowing why the person was in the women's locker room, Cormier said she immediately complained to the front desk and eventually to corporate offices.

"They told me the same thing, that he was allowed in there because that's the sex he wants to be," Cormier said.

Cormier said she understands that some men self-identify as women and some women self-identify as men, but said the person looked like a man and that caught her off guard.

Cormier lost her membership for violating the company's no judgement zone policy.

Moving forward, Cormier said she isn't concerned with getting her membership back. Her concern now is to warn other women at this gym to make them aware of this policy, because she says Planet Fitness failed to warn her.

Read more: HERE

Prepare To Spring Forward! Daylight Saving Begins This Sunday

Abolish Daylight Saving Time

(DogoNews) - With winter drawing to a close, at least according to the calendar, it is time for North Americans to "spring forward." This means that on Sunday March 8th, most residents will move their clocks ahead by an hour. Known as Daylight Saving Time, this age-oldritual dates all the way back to World War I.

The first person to suggest the time change was Benjamin Franklin, who ponderedabout it in a letter written to the editor of the Journal of Paris in 1784. Over a hundred years later, in 1895, New Zealand entomologist and astronomer George Vernon Hudson, presented a paper to the Wellington Philosophical Society, in which he suggested a two-hour shift. His motivation was to get extra daylight hours to spend on his favorite hobby - collecting and examining insects. However, it was not until 1907, when British resident William Willett marketed it as a way to save energy, that changing the time was seriously considered.

Even so, it took British officials another nine years to make it a law. United States followed a couple of years later to enable World War One soldiers to get extra combat time. Once the war ended, the time change was repealed only to be reinstated again for the duration of World War Two. It was not until April 1966, that 'Daylight Saving'became a permanent fixture on the American calendar. This time around it wasrationalized as a way to conserve energy and provide farmers additional daylight hours to take their fresh produce to market. However Hawaii and American Samoa, as well as, some cities in Arizona, opted out

Over the years, many countries all around the world have joined in the tradition. However, while most still change their clocks at the end of March or April, Americans keep bringing the date forward. Former President Ronald Reagan started the trend in 1986 when he moved Daylight Saving from the last to the first weekend in April. In 2005, George W. Bush, not only moved up the "spring forward" date to the second Sunday in March, but also extended the "fall back" date out an additional week in November.

While these changes have helped reduce the long dreary months of winter by about five weeks (at least according to the clocks), there is now a growing movement to repeal time change. Elizabeth Scott, a Republican member of the Washington House of Representatives recently told the House committee that the time switches cause sleepdeprivation, which she believes lead to accidents and numerous health issues.

In Idaho, House Majority Leader Mike Moyle put in a bill to end the State's Daylight Saving ritual. In his report, he states that it results in "disruption to families, businesses and individuals.” New Mexico Senator Cliff Pirtle’s proposal to abolish Daylight Saving has already been agreed upon by the Senate Public Affairs Committee. If it becomes law, 2015 will be the last time the State's residents will have to change their clocks. Read the Rest

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Could Fast Food Handle A $15 Minimum Wage Without Cutting Jobs?

(ThinkProgress) Jan 23, '15- Fast food workers have been staging strikes across the country for the last three years to demand a $15 minimum wage, among other things. Which begs the question: Would raising wages in the industry to that level force companies to lay off workers to reduce costs?

The answer in a new paper is a resounding no. Economists Robert Pollin and Jeannette Wicks-Lim of the University of Massachusetts-Amherst looked at a scenario in which the federal minimum wage gets increased to $10.50 in one year and to $15 three years after that, which in the end would mean a 107 percent increase over the current minimum wage of $7.25 an hour. They found that instead of having to cut jobs, fast food restaurants could cover the cost of the increase with savings from reducing turnover, higher prices, and greater economic growth.

To come to that conclusion, they estimate what it would cost these companies to increase not just wages for those at the bottom of their scales to $15 an hour, but also to slightly boost the workers above them to maintain current hierarchies. In the first part of the phase in, when the minimum wage would increase to $10.50 an hour, they estimate that 3.5 million fast food workers would get a raise, with a cost of $7.1 billion for the industry. In the next phase, when the wage goes up to $15, 3.8 million workers would get a raise, coming to a cost of $30.7 billion.

Given that the industry’s sales were $232 billion last year, the cost of a $10.50 minimum wage makes up just 3.3 percent of sales, while a $15 wage comes to 14.2 percent.

The researchers assume, however, that companies prefer nearly any option for covering these costs over reducing profits or pulling back on spending in other areas like buying new equipment. Cutting jobs is also likely a last resort, they note, because it “could impair the capacity of firms to sustain their existing level of operations and retain their customer base.”

Businesses wouldn’t have to resort to any of those measures, however. Pollin and Wicks-Lim note that the reductions in turnover that would likely come from paying higher wages would amount to 20 percent of the increase in costs. A previous study found that fast food restaurants experience a turnover rate of 120 percent, and it costs $4,700 for each worker who leaves. On the other hand, each 10 percent increase in the minimum wage reduces turnover by 2.2 percent. A $10.10 wage then means a savings from reduced turnover of $2.1 billion, or 28 percent of the cost of the raise, and a $15 wage means $5.2 billion in savings, or 17 percent of the costs.

The economists also note that fast food sales track pretty closely to GDP growth. Sales would likely be reduced a bit by price increases to cover the price of the raises — they estimate prices would rise by 3 percent a year in the final four years of the raise increase and reduce sales revenue by 1.5 percent. But sales would still track closely with economic growth and come to a 2.5 percent growth rate per year. The price increase would therefore bring in $3.5 billion in extra revenue while sales growth would bring in $6 billion, both of which could help cover the cost of the raises.

These measures can fully cover cost of higher wages, leaving the industry with $1.1 billion left over, the economists conclude.

Some research has warned of job losses with higher minimum wages, including an estimate from the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office. But other studies also found that rather than cutting jobs, businesses could very well see benefits from higher wages such as improved efficiency and lower turnover. The majority of fast food restaurants in Georgia and Alabama planned to respond to a minimum wage increase by raising performance standards for their workers, for example. A study that reviewed the available research on minimum wage impacts in 2009 found the impact on employment is close to zero and the most precise studies found no impact at all.

Real world evidence also plays out this way. When economists looked at state-level minimum wage increases over two decades, they didn’t find any evidenceto support the idea that they hurt jobs, even during times of high unemployment. Five other studies did similar analyses and found the same thing. States with higher minimum wages have also experienced above-average job growth.

While the majority of states have higher minimum wages than the federal floor of $7.25, none has gone so far as to raise it to $15 an hour. Some cities, such asSeattle, are experimenting with wages at that level, and others could follow. (Source)

Target to cut thousands of jobs in $2B growth strategy

(usatoday 03/03/15) NEW YORK — Target plans to invest billions of dollars this year, streamlining operations, opening more small stores and creating a product mix designed to appeal to a younger, broader consumer demographic.

The retailer will also cut several thousand jobs in the next two years as part of a cost-savings plan, Target managers said at a meeting Tuesday with financial analysts and investors. The company didn't say how many of its employees will be cut, although most are expected to be at the company's Minneapolis base, where it employs 13,000.

Target shares rose 19 cents to $78.19 in after-hours trading.

Target's plans come nearly a week after the company said same-store sales for 2014 increased 1.3% and 3.8% in the fourth quarter.

CEO Brian Cornell and other executives outlined the retailer's business priorities for 2015, which are focused on making specific product categories more stylish and trendy and encouraging shopping across both digital channels and stores.

Target has been working to enhance itself as a shopping destination after years of missteps that saw the brand lose its edge on fashionable home goods and apparel. Cornell was brought on last summer after former CEO Gregg Steinhafel left the company in the wake of a 2013 holiday-season data breach and trouble at the Canadian division, which Target is closing. Full Story

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Happy birthday, Texas! Today marks Texas Independence Day

AUSTIN -- Happy birthday, Texas! On this day in 1836, Texas broke away from Mexico and became a republic.

On March 1, 1836, delegates from the 17 Mexican municipalities and the Pecan Point settlement met at Washington-on-the-Brazos to discuss independence from Mexico. Washington-on-the-Brazos became the 'birthplace' of Texas.

A committee of five people drafted a declaration of independence. One day later, the convention voted unanimously to accept the Texas Declaration of Independence. March 2 became Texas Independence Day, an official state holiday.


The official declaration was signed by 59 delegates, and five copies of the document were distributed to the Texas towns of Bexar, Brazoria, Goliad, Nacogdoches, and San Felipe.

Texas joined the United States on Dec. 29, 1845, and became the 28th state.

U.S. judge rules Nebraska same-sex marriage ban unconstitutional

(Reuters) 03/03/15 - A federal judge on Monday ruled Nebraska's ban on gay marriage unconstitutional in a decision that could allow same-sex couples to marry in the state within a week.

U.S. District Judge Joseph Bataillon issued a preliminary injunction in the case brought by seven same-sex couples in the state, calling Nebraska's ban an "unabashedly gender-specific infringement of the equal rights of its citizens."

Bataillon denied a state request to stay his decision but said his injunction would take effect on March 9 to assuage Nebraska officials' concerns of possible administrative turmoil.

Nebraska state officials quickly appealed the ruling to the 8th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.

"The definition of marriage is an issue for the people of Nebraska, and an activist judge should not substitute his personal political preferences for the will of the people," Governor Pete Ricketts said in a statement.

Nebraska voters in 2000 adopted a state constitutional amendment that defines marriage as only between one man and one woman and does not recognize civil unions, domestic partnerships or similar relationships for same-sex couples.