Welcome! "The Evening Blues - Weekend Edition" is a casual community diary (published Saturday & Sunday, 8:00 PM Eastern) where we hang out, share and talk about news, music, photography and other things of interest to the community.
Just about anything goes, but attacks and pie fights are not welcome here. This is a community diary and a friendly, peaceful, supportive place for people to interact.
Everyone who wants to join in peaceful interaction is very welcome here.
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Hey! Good Evening!
This evening's music features blues harp artist and singer Sugar Ray Norcia. Enjoy!
All things share the same breath - the beast, the tree, the man, the air shares its spirit with all the life it supports.
Chief Seattle
News and Opinion
One NYPD Cop Dead, Another Critical After They Were Shot in Vehicle
One New York City police officer is dead and another was in critical condition today after they were shot as they sat in their patrol vehicle in the Bedford Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, city officials said.
The suspect in the shooting was also dead, of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, the officials said.
The gunman walked up to the officers sitting inside a patrol car and opened fire shortly before 3 p.m., officials said.
The suspect ran into a nearby subway station and shot himself, officials.
This is the NYPD vehicle that forensic techs are focusing on after 2 officers were shot in Brooklyn. pic.twitter.com/oh9ue9yfLfpic.twitter.com/oh9ue9yfLf
AP sources: 2nd NYC cop killed in ambush shooting
NEW YORK (AP) — An armed man walked up to two New York Police Department officers sitting inside a patrol car and opened fire Saturday afternoon, shooting both of them fatally before running into a nearby subway station and committing suicide, police said.
The shooting took place in Brooklyn's Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood. Both officers were rushed to Woodhull hospital, where one was pronounced dead, police said. The second officer was later pronounced dead at the hospital. That death was confirmed by two officials, a senior city official and a law enforcement official, who had direct knowledge of the shooting but were not authorized to speak publicly and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
Authorities say the suspect fatally shot himself inside the station. His motive wasn't immediately clear.
A block from the shooting site, a line of about eight police officers stood with a German shepherd blocking the taped-off street. Streets were blocked even to pedestrians for blocks around.
Derrick Thompson, who lives nearby, said the shooting happened across from the Tompkins Houses public housing development.
"I was watching TV, and then I heard the helicopters," Thompson said. "I walked out, and all of a sudden — this."
The shooting comes at a tense time. Police in New York are being criticized for their tactics following the chokehold death of Eric Garner, who was stopped by police on suspicion of selling loose, untaxed cigarettes. Amateur video captured an officer wrapping his arm around Garner's neck and wrestling him to the ground. Garner was heard gasping, "I can't breathe" before he loses consciousness and later dies.
North Korea demands joint inquiry with US into Sony Pictures hack
Pyongyang denies responsibility for cyber-attack and threatens grave consequences if Washington continues to blame it
North Korea has proposed holding a joint inquiry with the US into the hacking of Sony Pictures, claiming it can prove it did not carry out the cyber-attack.
The foreign ministry in Pyongyang denied responsibility for the the highest-profile corporate hack in history, and said there would be grave consequences if Washington refused to collaborate on an investigation and continued to blame it.
The state KCNA news agency added that claims North Korea had conducted the attack on Sony in revenge for the controversial comedy The Interview, a multimillion-dollar comedy starring James Franco and Seth Rogen that depicts the assassination of Kim Jong-un, were “groundless slander”.
KCNA quoted the foreign ministry as saying: “As the United States is spreading groundless allegations and slandering us, we propose a joint investigation with it into this incident.
“Without resorting to such tortures as were used by the CIA, we have means to prove that this incident has nothing to do with us.”
Security experts: FBI report light on evidence linking North Korea to Sony hack
The FBI statement that linked the Sony hack to North Korea relied on previously released and inconclusive evidence, said many cybersecurity insiders.
Submitted by: NCTim
Even after the Federal Bureau of Investigation's official statement that North Korea was behind the Sony attack, many cybersecurity experts are still skeptical the hermit nation is truly the culprit, citing a lack of new and more convincing evidence.
“It’s mostly a repeat of information that has been in the public before,” Rob Graham, chief executive officer of research firm Errata Security, said of the FBI's statement issued Friday.
Many prominent names in the field, Graham and others, took to Twitter to express their concern. "I'm completely underwhelmed by the FBI's 'proof' attributing Sony attack to North Korea," Graham tweeted from his @ErrataRob account.
Cuba 'will not change' communist system, despite thaw with US
Cuban President Raul Castro has hailed a recent US move to normalise bilateral relations, but stressed that Havana will not change its political system.
He also warned that Cuba faced a "long and difficult struggle" before the US removed its economic embargo.
On Wednesday, President Barack Obama announced a "new chapter" in US ties with communist-run Cuba.
He said the changes were the "most significant" in US policy towards Cuba in 50 years.
US-Cuba relations have remained frozen since the early 1960s, when the US broke off diplomatic relations and imposed a trade embargo after Cuba's revolution.
5 ways Cuba-US agreement will make waves
The historic opening between the two countries could have an impact on travel and business in the long-term, though changes are likely to happen gradually.
Submitted by: NCTim
Mexico City — US President Barack Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro made history this week in announcing a plan to restore diplomatic ties for the first time in more than half a century. “We will end an outdated approach that for decades has failed to advance our interests, and instead we will begin to normalize relations between our two countries,” President Obama said Dec. 17. But what will these changes look like for both Cubans and US citizens?
What makes this historic?
In 1961, the United States cut off diplomatic ties with Cuba and announced an economic embargo that restricted travel and trade. The blockade has outlasted the cold war, a nuclear crisis, and mass Cuban emigration. For the past 50-plus years, relations between the Communist Castro government and the US have largely been hostile, marked particularly in the early years by invasion attempts and assassination plots, and refugee crises.
For now, the economic embargo still stands, but this week’s change is a “crucial first step,” says Daniel Sachs, Cuba analyst for Control Risks. “Without this, [the US and Cuba] can’t move on to discussing the embargo.”
Cuba’s Raul Castro Explains Advances with USA
Submitted by: NCTim
HAVANA TIMES — Cuban president Raul Castro spoke to the nation today at noon, the same time that Barack Obama was making an address from the White House. The two leaders were addressing, in their own way, a successful diplomatic effort that included the release of prisoners Alan Gross, the three remaining Cuban Five members and an unnamed US agent who was also jailed in Cuba.
Read the speech here.
A Big Surprise from Obama
Submitted by: NCTIM
HAVANA TIMES — This week President Obama surprised us with the inevitable: he put in motion what is sure to be a long and arduous 180 degree turn of U.S. foreign policy toward Cuba.
Here in Havana I came to the quick conclusion that Cuban media outlets were caught completely off guard.
The newspapers went to press without knowing about the prisoner exchange or the diplomatic overtures. Television news was dominated by broadcasters who seemed unsure of exactly what to report, other than the fact that the last of the Cuban Five prisoners were home.
Even by the evening broadcast of the Mesa Redonda, Cuba’s version of a news pundit round table, the commentators were still trying to speak without actually saying anything since they obviously had not received an official party line. I have a feeling that not even the people in charge of writing the party line knew the extent of the changes proposed by President Obama before he spoke.
Putin says Russia won't be intimidated over Crimea
(Reuters) - Russia will not be intimidated over its actions in Ukraine and Crimea, President Vladimir Putin said on Saturday as his foreign ministry warned that it was preparing to retaliate against fresh Western sanctions.
Both the European Union and United States adopted tighter restrictions on investments in Crimea this week, while Canada rachetted up its own sanctions directed at Moscow.
Sanctions coupled with tumbling global oil prices have rattled Russia's economy, with the rouble losing over 40 percent of its value year-to-date and a recession widely expected to take hold next year.
Putin has remained defiant in the face of these setbacks, repeatedly defending Russia's annexation of Crimea from Ukraine in March and its subsequent support for pro-Russian separatists battling Kiev forces in eastern Ukraine.
Obama authorizes ‘economic embargo’ on Russia’s Crimea
US President Barack Obama has authorized sanctions against individuals and entities operating in Russia’s Crimean peninsula, according to the White House statement.
Obama has issued an executive order that “prohibits the export of goods, technology, or services to Crimea and prohibits the import of goods, technology, or services from Crimea, as well as new investments in Crimea,” according to the statement.
The executive order also authorizes the Secretary of the Treasury to impose sanctions on “individuals and entities operating in Crimea.”
The move comes just a day after the European Union introduced similar action against the Russian region of Crimea and Sevastopol, accepted into the Russian Federation following the referendum last March.
The United States did not recognize the reunification and has been calling on Russia to “end its occupation and attempted annexation of Crimea.”
“We will continue to review and calibrate our sanctions, in close coordination with our international partners, to respond to Russia's actions,” Obama’s statement reads.
Read more: EU introduces ‘discriminatory’ sanctions on Russia’s Crimea
Op-Edge: Sanctions’ goal is regime change, no matter Cuba or Russia
Pakistan steps up campaign against fighters
Aerial strikes in Tirah Valley reported as country steps up attacks on suspected Pakistani Taliban stronghold.
Reports say 21 fighters have been killed in aerial strikes in the Tirah Valley in Pakistan's northwestern Khyber Agency.
The country's leaders pledged decisive action in the wake of Tuesday's school massacre in Peshawar, capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, which left 149 people dead, most of them children.
The massacre triggered international condemnation and led to calls in Pakistan for action against armed fighters.
Intelligence sources have told Al Jazeera that the mastermind of the school attack may himself have been killed in the airstrike, although this claim has not been independently verified. Omar Khalifa had claimed responsibility for the attacks in a video released online.
A breakdown of Pakistan's armed groups
Saturday's bombardment comes a day after Pakistan hanged two convicted men in the first executions since 2008 after the government ended a moratorium on the death penalty in the wake of the school massacre.
Pakistan starts hanging militants in revenge for school massacre
Pakistan has executed two convicted militants after lifting a moratorium on the death penalty in response to the murder of over 130 children at a Peshawar school by the Taliban. It is planning more hangings and airstrikes against militants.
The militants who were hanged had no links to the Taliban assault on the military school in the city of Peshawar, which is the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, not far from the border with Afghanistan.
There had been a moratorium on the death penalty in Pakistan; however this was lifted after the massacre of 148 people on December 16, the vast majority of whom were children. Mohammed Aqeel and Arshad Mehmood were the first prisoners to be sentenced to death following the lifting of the moratorium.
The home minister for Punjab province confirmed the executions of the first two, at a prison in the city of Faisalabad.
Read more: Gunman was pumping bullets into bodies’: Eyewitnesses describe Pakistan school siege
US drone attack kills at least five Taliban fighters in Pakistan – report
~Officials say two missiles fired in north-west of country
~Five ‘terrorists’ killed in separate attack, say military
~School massacre is ‘Pakistan’s 9/11’
A US drone fired two missiles at a militant hideout in northwestern Pakistan on Saturday, killing at least five Taliban fighters, two security officials said.
In a separate operation, the military said Pakistani security forces killed five “terrorists” on the outskirts of Peshawar, where the Pakistani Taliban carried out a school massacre earlier this week, killing 148 people, mainly children.
The school attack shocked the nation and prompted a massive military response in the tribal regions along the Afghan border, longtime strongholds of both foreign and local militants. Pakistani air strikes and ground operations in the Khyber region – where the school attack is believed to have originated – have killed around 200 militants.
The drone strike took place in the town of Datta Khel in North Waziristan, where Pakistani troops have been carrying out a major operation against local and foreign militants since June, the officials said.
Four Afghan Guantanamo inmates sent home
Four Afghan detainees at the Guantanamo Bay prison have been sent back to their home country, the Pentagon says.
Shawali Khan, Khi Ali Gul, Abdul Ghani and Mohammed Zahir were repatriated after a thorough review of their cases.
Eight Afghans are believed to be among the 132 detainees remaining at the US prison in Cuba.
President Barack Obama has pledged to close the facility, opened in 2002 to hold "enemy combatants" in what the US termed its war on terror.
'Nowhere to go'
"As a result of that review, which examined a number of factors, including security issues, these men were unanimously approved for transfer by the six departments and agencies comprising the task force," a Pentagon statement said on Saturday.
Afghan civilian casualties 'hit record high'
UN says casualties are expected to exceed 10,000 by end of 2014, making it deadliest year for noncombatants since 2009.
Civilian casualties in Afghanistan have hit a record high this year, a UN report has said, highlighting worsening violence as US-led troops leave after more than a decade of fighting the Taliban.
Casualties jumped 19 percent by the end of November compared to the year before, with 3,188 civilians killed and 6,429 injured, the United Nation's Mission's for Afghanistan (UNAMA) said in a report published on Friday.
"Civilian casualties are particularly tragic and very prominent part, even benchmark, of the horror of the violence that ordinary Afghans face," said Nicholas Haysom, the top UN envoy in Afghanistan.
The report warned that civilian casualties were expected to exceed 10,000 by the end of the year, making it the deadliest year for noncombatants since the organisation began issuing its authoritative reports in 2009.
Saudi security forces kill four militants in restive east
Saudi security forces have killed four militants in a raid in al-Awamiya in the country's east, officials said.
Submitted by: enhyrda lutris
The interior ministry said the men were behind the killing of a soldier there last Sunday.
Al-Awmiya lies in the Eastern Province, home to a large and increasingly restive Shia population.
The Sunni Saudi authorities deny discriminating against Shia citizens and blame Iran for stirring up discontent.
The soldier was killed when his unit came under fire from fields near al-Awamiya last Sunday. His colleague was also injured.
The "primary suspect" in the shooting of the soldier was among those killed, the interior ministry said.
Hellraiser Preview
Sherman, set the time machine for tomorrow's Hellraisers Journal, which will feature: Hellraisers Journal of Dec 21, 1904, will report on attempts in Massachusetts to settle the Fall River Textile Strike. The strike began 22 weeks ago and involves 26,000 operatives.
Tune in at 2pm!
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Meet Alfreda Bikowsky, the Senior Officer at the Center of the CIA’s Torture Scandals
NBC News yesterday called her a “key apologist” for the CIA’s torture program. A follow-up New Yorker article dubbed her “The Unidentified Queen of Torture” and in part “the model for the lead character in ‘Zero Dark Thirty.’” Yet in both articles she was anonymous.
The person described by both NBC and The New Yorker is senior CIA officer Alfreda Frances Bikowsky. Multiple news outlets have reported that as the result of a long string of significant errors and malfeasance, her competence and integrity are doubted — even by some within the agency.
The Intercept is naming Bikowsky over CIA objections because of her key role in misleading Congress about the agency’s use of torture, and her active participation in the torture program (including playing a direct part in the torture of at least one innocent detainee). Moreover, Bikowsky has already been publicly identified by news organizations as the CIA officer responsible for many of these acts.
The executive summary of the torture report released by the Senate last week provides abundant documentation that the CIA repeatedly and deliberately misled Congress about multiple aspects of its interrogation program. Yesterday, NBC News reported that one senior CIA officer in particular was responsible for many of those false claims, describing her as “a top al Qaeda expert who remains in a senior position at the CIA.”
Did CIA torture violate Nuremberg ban on human experimentation?
WASHINGTON — CIA health professionals may have committed war crimes by collecting and analyzing data on brutally interrogated detainees in potential violation of U.S. and international bans on research on human subjects without their consent, a human rights organization said Tuesday.
Physicians for Human Rights called on President Barack Obama and Congress to establish a commission of inquiry to examine the participation of CIA and private medical personnel in the interrogation program, including possible breaches of domestic and international laws.
“The CIA relied upon health professionals at every step to commit and conceal the brutal and systematic torture of national security detainees,” the organization said in an analysis of a four-year study of the agency’s interrogation program released last week by the Senate Intelligence Committee. “While most of the acts detailed . . . violate international human rights and domestic laws prohibiting torture, several of these alleged violations can also constitute war crimes.”
In raising possible war crimes by medical personnel, the analysis cited bans on experimentation on prisoners that grew out of the trials of Nazi officials and doctors held in Nuremberg, Germany, after World War II.
Case Filed in European Court Against Bush-Era Torture
The European Centre for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) files case against Bush Administration officials for running a state organized program of torture authorized at the highest levels, says Michael Ratner, chair of ECCHR
Read transcript here.
Pharmacists Charged with 25 Murders in Meningitis Outbreak
The co-owner and supervisory pharmacist of a compounding pharmacy were charged with 25 acts of second-degree murder. Are compounding pharmacies throughout the country conducting business in the same manner?
Submitted by: divineorder
Responsible for the deaths of at least 64 people resulting from injections of contaminated medication, the co-owner and supervisory pharmacist of a compounding pharmacy were charged this week with 25 acts of second-degree murder. Sacrificing safety standards for profit, 14 suspects associated with the pharmacy have been charged with 131 counts including conspiracy, mail fraud, racketeering, and violations of the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. Although the International Academy of Compounding Pharmacists (IACP) believes this is an isolated incident, sources assert these crimes occur on a daily basis in compounding pharmacies throughout the nation.
In response to the 2012 nationwide fungal meningitis outbreak, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that 751 patients in 20 states were diagnosed with a fungal infection after receiving injections of a contaminated corticosteroid called methylprednisolone acetate. Of those 751 patients, the CDC reported that 64 patients in nine states died. The Justice Department discovered the tainted corticosteroids had been compounded and shipped from the New England Compounding Center (NECC) in Massachusetts.
Co-owner and head pharmacist at NECC, Barry Cadden and his supervisory pharmacist, Glenn Chin, have been charged with 25 counts of second-degree murder for their wanton negligence and complete disregard for safety protocols. Instead of sterilizing their equipment or clean room, the pharmacists allowed bacteria and mold to contaminate the room while falsifying logs claiming they had disinfected the area. Using expired ingredients, Cadden and Chin also failed to test medications for sterility before shipping them to hospitals and pain clinics.
Aware that unsterile medications could kill their patients, Cadden and Chin allegedly ignored basic safety regulations in order to turn a quick profit. With over 750 patients receiving the tainted injections mostly for back pain, roughly half of them contracted a rare fungal form of meningitis. Although the fungal meningitis is not contagious, it caused the deaths of at least 64 people.
Who Cares About Corruption?
Corruption exists at the nexus of money and power: money buys governmental power, and power enables people to make money.
Submitted by: divineorder
Governor Pat Quinn of Illinois has only a few weeks left in office after his defeat by Bruce Rauner. That left him enough time to get Lou Bertuca appointed as executive director of the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority, which was “created by the Illinois General Assembly in 1987 for the purpose of constructing and renovating sports stadiums for professional sports teams.” The ISFA owns US Cellular Field, home of the Chicago White Sox, and has a $40 million annual budget. The position pays $160,000 per year, not bad for a 30-year-old with no relevant experience, except that he was Quinn’s campaign manager.
That is corruption, the misuse of government for the benefit of private interests. Corruption exists at the nexus of money and power: money buys governmental power, and power enables people to make money. Quinn promoted himself as a crusader against corruption when he sought office, but he no longer has any reason, except perhaps conscience, to refrain from rewarding friends at the expense of the public good.
Quinn’s appointment of Bertuca is called patronage, the doling out of government jobs to friends and supporters rather than to qualified candidates. Civil Service CommissionThe was established in 1883 to end decades of patronage scandals. Applicants for federal jobs would have pass an examination to demonstrate their qualifications. Despite countless efforts to get rid of patronage in the US, the use of power to reward unqualified people continues, even at the highest levels.
Illinois has the reputation of having one of the most corrupt state governments in the country. Beyond the tendency of our governors to commit crimes and go to prison, it involves the systematic abuse of the public trust for personal enrichment. That reputation has been confirmed by some political scientists at the University of Illinois at Chicago. They wrote that “the Chicago metropolitan region has been the most corrupt area in the country since 1976,” and that Illinois is the third most corrupt state. Besides the corrupt governors, 31 out of 100 of Chicago aldermen since 1973 have been convicted of corruption, an incredible continuity of criminality. Most of these convictions involved bribes to influence government decisions. When states are ranked by convictions of public officials per capita, we see that corruption is non-partisan: the highest rates over the past 40 years were reached by Democratic Illinois and Washington, DC, and Republican North and South Dakota and Mississippi. On this score, the least corrupt states are in the West: Oregon, Washington and Utah.
TX SWAT team beats, deafens nude man in his own home, lies about arrest; judge declines to punish cops or DA
Submitted by: enhydra lutris
A well-meaning friend of Chad Chadwick called the Missouri City, TX police to say that he was afraid that Chadwick was having emotional difficulties; the cops lied to a judge to say that they had reason to believe Chadwick was heavily armed, then they sent a SWAT-team to his house (where he was asleep in the tub), beat 11 kinds of shit out of him, gave him permanent hearing loss, held him in solitary confinement, fraudulently accused him of resisting arrest, and tried to have him imprisoned -- he was acquitted, but a judge wouldn't punish the cops or the DA, because "There is no freestanding constitutional right to be free from malicious prosecution."
Chadwick was bankrupted by the process of defending himself against the multiple felonies that the DA and the police manufactured to justify the violence. The jury offered him "comforting hugs" when they acquitted him of all charges. The DA involved is Ft. Bend County District Attorney John Heal, the police were from Missouri City, Sugar Land, Stafford and the Ft. Bend County Sheriff's Department, the judge (PDF) was Gray H Miller.
Chadwick did own a single shotgun, but had threatened no one, not even himself. Chadwick's firearm possession apparently prompted SWAT to kick in his door, launch a stun grenade into the bathroom and storm in, according to Chadwick, without announcing their identity.
"While I had my hands up naked in the shower they shot me with a 40 millimeter non-lethal round," said Chadwick.
A second stun grenade soon followed.
"I turned away, the explosion went off, I opened my eyes the lights are out and here comes a shield with four or five guys behind it. They pinned me against the wall and proceeded to beat the crap out of me," said Chadwick.
That's when officers shot the unarmed Chadwick in the back of the head with a Taser at point blank range.
"They claimed I drew down with a shampoo bottle and a body wash bottle," said Chadwick.
And it wasn't over.
"They grabbed me by my the one hand that was out of the shower and grabbed me by my testicles slammed me on my face on the floor and proceeded to beat me more," said Chadwick.
S.F. sheriff’s deputy arrested in assault on hospital patient
Submitted by: enhydra lutris
A San Francisco sheriff’s deputy was arrested Friday for allegedly choking a hospital patient, and then arresting the man for trying to assault him with his cane, authorities said.
Michael Lewelling, 33, was charged with perjury, filing a false police report, filing a false instrument and assault under the color of authority — all felonies — as well as misdemeanor battery for the Nov. 3 attack at San Francisco General Hospital, according to the district attorney’s office.
Lewelling was assigned to the Sheriff Department’s patrol unit at the hospital when he filed a report accusing the victim of attempting to attack him with a wooden cane. The man was arrested on various felony and misdemeanor charges and taken into custody.
The district attorney’s office declined to file charges and the man was released the next day. Prosecutors requested video evidence, which allegedly showed Lewelling instigating the situation.
Police Department Ends Its "Voluntary Search" Program
Submitted by: enhydra lutris
This program only lasted about five days, so I didn't have time to write about it before it was canceled for being dumb. But it was sufficiently dumb that I'm still going to write about it.
On December 5, Wisconsin Public Radio reported that police in Beloit were "launching a new effort to reduce gun violence in which they're asking city residents to volunteer to have police search their homes for guns." The plan was apparently to ... well, that's basically it.
Thinking about how they might have expected this program to operate is frankly hurting my head a little.
Presumably, people who have committed a crime (with or without a gun) are not going to volunteer to have police come over and just rummage around to see what turns up. Such people often do, surprisingly, consent to searches when they shouldn't, but I doubt they ever go to the trouble of calling to invite the cops over to their house so they can consent.
In Boon to Fast Food Worker Strikes, NLRB Goes After McDonald's For "Violating Employees' Rights"
NLRB names McDonald's Corporation and several franchises as 'joint employers,' striking blow to parent company's prior efforts to side-step accountability for treatment of workers
Marking another victory for fast food workers who have staged strikes and protests across the United States, the National Labor Relations Board announced Friday it is taking joint legal action against McDonald's Corporation and several franchisees for violating employees' rights to organize.
The NLRB declared in a press release released Friday that it is issuing 13 complaints involving 78 charges of alleged wrongdoing against the fast food giant for "taking actions against [workers] for engaging in activities aimed at improving their wages and working conditions, including participating in nationwide fast food worker protests about their terms and conditions of employment during the past two years."
Violations include: "discriminatory discipline, reductions in hours, discharges, and other coercive conduct directed at employees in response to union and protected concerted activity, including threats, surveillance, interrogations, promises of benefit, and overbroad restrictions on communicating with union representatives or with other employees about unions and the employees’ terms and conditions of employment," the NLRB states.
The NLRB, furthermore, notes that it is treating McDonald's and its franchisees as "joint employers"—striking a blow to the previous efforts of the parent corporation to dodge liability for how its restaurants treat workers.
The charges emerged from a growing fast food worker movement, which has organized rolling strikes and protests across the United States and world demanding a $15 dollar minimum wage and the right to organize. Workers have repeatedly called for McDonald's to be held directly accountable for labor violations and poverty wages at franchises.
Dennis Kucinich: There Isn’t Much Difference Between the Clintons and the Bushes
Listen to the Soundcloud podcast here.
FCC seems to have lost hundreds of thousands of net neutrality comments
Submitted by: enhydra lutris
Evan from Fight for the Future writes, "The Sunlight Foundation released a study based on data that the FCC had released to the public about the most recent batch of net neutrality comments. We at Fight for the Future worked really hard to deliver more than 750,000 comments of our own to the FCC, but when we looked at the data, hundreds of thousands of them were missing. Our CTO Jeff Lyon just took to Reddit to try to get to the bottom of this. Maybe you can help?"
How Scientists Found Deepest-Ever Fish 5 Miles Down
Scientists have uncovered a fish swimming at a depth of 8,145 meters below the surface, beating the previous record for the deepest fish found by a rate of almost 500 meters.
An underwater voyage has found an unidentified species of fish more than 5 miles down -- deeper than any other fish has ever been found before.
The white, translucent fish, found in early December in the Mariana Trench below the Pacific Ocean, was 8,145 meters, or about five miles, below the surface, breaking the previous record of 7,700 meters set in 2011 by the pink gelatinous snailfish in the Japan Trench of the Pacific Ocean by almost 500 meters, or 1,640 feet. The species has not yet been identified.
"We're pretty confident it's a snailfish," Dr. Alan Jamieson from the Oceanlab at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland told ABC News. "Not that we know. It's a new species."
The Ocean Schmidt Institute and Oceanlab carried out the 30-day voyage on the ocean vessel, the Falkor, as part of the Hadal Ecosystem Studies (HADES), an international project funded by the National Science Foundation that explores trench and hadal ecosystems. The Falkor, using unmanned landers, encountered the critter with two or three other new species of fish while recording 104 hours of footage at depths as low as 10,990 meters.
The Evening Greens
Weekend Edition Editor - Agathena
Earth news
Stonehenge
Stonehenge discovery could rewrite British pre-history
Archaeologists have discovered the earliest settlement at Stonehenge - but the Mesolithic camp could be destroyed if government plans for a new tunnel go ahead.
Charcoal dug up from the ‘Blick Mead’ encampment, a mile and a half from Stonehenge, dates from around 4,000BC. It is thought the site was originally occupied by hunter gatherers returning to Britain after the Ice Age, when the country was still connected to the continent.
Experts say the discovery could re-write history in prehistoric Britain.
"Energy efficiency" is that another word for the dreaded "conservation?"
Energy Efficiency May Be the Key to Saving Trillions
Worldwide, governments, companies and families could be saving trillions of dollars by improving efficiency with cars that go farther on less fuel and improved appliances, light bulbs and factories, experts say.
“It’s logical, because we simply waste so much,” said Harry Verhaar, head of global and public affairs at Philips Lighting and chairman of the European Alliance to Save Energy. “Some people call energy efficiency low-hanging fruit. I would even say energy efficiency is fruit lying on the ground. We only need to bend over and pick it up.”
Continue reading the main story
Realizing those energy savings would be a huge boon to the climate, ease illness-causing air pollution, reduce many nations’ reliance on fuel imports and increase competitiveness by lowering costs, the advocates say. It creates jobs in fields like upgrading buildings, and is generally cheaper than the alternative of constructing new power plants and buying more energy, they argue.
Blog Posts of Interest
Here are diaries and selected blog posts of interest on DailyKos and other blogs.
What's Happenin' Is On Hiatus
HT/Don midwest Duped by the Media on Pope Francis, Progressives Wonder How Republicans Get Elected
You Can Play the Home Torture Game
2 U.S. Government Agencies Say FBI’s Anthrax Case Is Full of Holes
Freedom Rider: Ferguson Reverberates Around the World
If Torture Was Categorically Wrong When Hitler Did It, Then Why Is the CIA Excused When They Do It?
Baker's Dozen
Hellraisers Journal: Special Prosecutor Appointed for Murders of WFM Men, Chris Miller & Ike Leabo
HT/JVolvo My New Cover For THE NATION mag.
NYC Cops Shot Just Sitting in Cruiser
S.F. sheriff’s deputy arrested in assault on hospital patient
A Little Night Music
Sugar Ray & The Bluetones - I Wanna Marry You Girl
Billy Branch & Sugar Ray Norcia - Route 66
Sugar Ray and the Bluetones w/ Kid Bangham - She's Blued and Broken
Sugar Ray Norcia & Sonny Jr. - Jammin' On A Sunday Afternoon
Sugar Ray and the Bluetones - Things Could Be Worse
Sugar Ray & The Bluetones - I Came Down With The Blues
Sugar Ray & The Bluetones - Feeling Blue
Sugar Ray & The Bluetones - Dear John
SUGAR RAY & THE BLUETONES featuring MONSTER MIKE WELCH - Get Over Me
Roomful of Blues & Sugar Ray Norcia - Cuttin In
Little Anthony Geraci & Sugar Ray Norcia - Girl From Idaho
Sugar Ray & The Bluetones - The Last Blues Song
Sugar Ray Norcia with Ronnie Earl & the Broadcasters
Sugar Ray and The Bluetones and Kid Bangham - Lonesome Cabin
Sugar Ray & the Bluetones - Blueberry Hill
Ronnie Earl & Sugar Ray Norcia - My Home Is a Prison
Little Anthony Geraci & Sugar Ray Norcia - Runnin' Around
It's National Pie Day!
The election is over, it's a new year and it's time to work on real change in new ways... and it's National Pie Day. This seemed like the perfect opportunity to tell you a little more about our new site and to start getting people signed up.
Come on over and sign up so that we can send you announcements about the site, the launch, and information about participating in our public beta testing.
Why is National Pie Day the perfect opportunity to tell you more about us? Well you'll see why very soon. So what are you waiting for?! Head on over now and be one of the first!
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