Hissyspit
Hissyspit's JournalBreaking: VW Workers at Tennessee Plant Reject Union
Source: Associated Press
VW WORKERS AT TENNESSEE PLANT REJECT UNION
By ERIK SCHELZIG and TOM KRISHER
— Feb. 14, 2014 10:05 PM EST
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (AP) — Workers at a Volkswagen factory in Tennessee have rejected the United Auto Workers union.
The 712 to 626 vote is a devastating blow to the union and its efforts to organize other Southern plants run by foreign automakers.
About 1,500 workers were eligible to vote during three days of balloting that ended Friday night.
Experts say it was the best chance for the union to gain a foothold in the South, where it's been shunned by other workers.
Volkswagen tacitly endorsed the union and even allowed organizers into the plant to make their sales pitch.
Read more: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/uaw-vote-volkswagen-plant-tenn-ends-friday
Must-Read: The French Way of Cancer Treatment (Vs. U.S.)
http://gregmitchellwriter.blogspot.com/2014/02/health-care-with-heart-france-vs-usa.htmlHealth Care With Heart: France vs. USA
Greg Mitchell
Today's must-read, via Reuters: Anya Schiffrin's account of the cancer care her father--renowned editor and writer Andre Schiffrin, who died last December--received in France. Anyone enmeshed in the U.S. healthcare system will weep with longing for the humane and thoughtful way the French receive healthcare. Imagine this: quiet waiting rooms with no billing departments. Contrasting the ordeal of getting care in New York with their experience in Paris, she writes:
http://blogs.reuters.com/anya-schiffrin/2014/02/12/the-french-way-of-cancer-treatment
The French way of cancer treatment
By Anya Schiffrin FEBRUARY 12, 2014
- snip -
My parents were pleasantly surprised by his new routine. In New York, my father, my mother and I would go to Sloan Kettering every Tuesday around 9:30 a.m. and wind up spending the entire day. They’d take my dad’s blood and we’d wait for the results. The doctor always ran late. We never knew how long it would take before my dad’s name would be called, so we’d sit in the waiting room and, well, wait. Around 1 p.m. or 2 p.m. my dad would usually tell me and my mom to go get lunch. (He never seemed to be hungry.) But we were always afraid of having his name called while we were out. So we’d rush across the street, get takeout and come back to the waiting room.
We’d bring books to read. I’d use the Wi-Fi and eat the graham crackers that MSK thoughtfully left out near the coffee maker. We’d talk to each other and to the other patients and families waiting there. Eventually, we’d see the doctor for a few minutes and my dad would get his chemo. Then, after fighting New York crowds for a cab at rush hour, as my dad stood on the corner of Lexington Avenue feeling woozy, we’d get home by about 5:30 p.m.
So imagine my surprise when my parents reported from Paris that their chemo visits couldn’t be more different. A nurse would come to the house two days before my dad’s treatment day to take his blood. When my dad appeared at the hospital, they were ready for him. The room was a little worn and there was often someone else in the next bed but, most important, there was no waiting. Total time at the Paris hospital each week: 90 minutes.
There were other nice surprises. When my dad needed to see specialists, for example, instead of trekking around the city for appointments, he would stay in one room at Cochin Hospital, a public hospital in the 14th arrondissement where he received his weekly chemo. The specialists would all come to him. The team approach meant the nutritionist, oncologist, general practitioner and pharmacist spoke to each other and coordinated his care. As my dad said, “It turns out there are solutions for the all the things we put up with in New York and accept as normal.”
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FYI:
(GA) Capitol Police Aim to Block Media Coverage of 24 Arrests on Moral Monday
http://www.atlantaprogressivenews.com/interspire/news/2014/02/12/capitol-police-aim-to-block-media-coverage-of-24-arrests-on-moral-monday-%28update-1%29.htmlCapitol Police Aim to Block Media Coverage of 24 Arrests on Moral Monday (UPDATE 1)
Written By: GLORIA TATUM2-12-2014
(APN) ATLANTA -- On Monday, February 10, 2014, twenty-four activists were arrested during the third “Moral Monday” protest at the Georgia State Capitol. Numerous news organizations attempted to cover the arrests, but were blocked by what, by all accounts, appears to have been an intentional collaboration between the Capitol Police and the Georgia State Patrol (GSP).
It is the job of Capitol Police and the GSP to enforce the laws in the promotion of public safety. However, taxpayer dollars are apparently being used to fund these organizations in the furtherance of protecting the public image of the State Legislature, as if these officers were so many public relations agents.
Twenty-four people walked into State Sen. Jesse Stone's (R-Waynesboro) office, in the Coverdell Building, to discuss their desire to repeal Georgia's Stand Your Ground law.
Sen. Stone offered to meet with two of the protesters with no cameras present. The group, however, requested he meet with everyone.
"We will not leave until we meet with the Senator and he reverses his position on SB 280," Tim Franzen, with American Friends Service Committee Southeastern Regional Office, said.
Stoner stayed in his office, while his office called the Capitol Police.
One large and tall police officer [photographed herein] told the group to "Shut Up!"
The Moral Monday group continued to sing, "This Little Light of Mine."
"We are here as moral witnesses. You are not going to intimidate us, you are not going to holler at us, you are not going to treat us like children," Rev. Timothy McDonald of the First Iconium Baptist Church told the officer.
As the arrests started, the Capitol Police along with GSP forced, under threat of arrest, most of the media to move far down the hall, even though press credentials were in obvious view.
REST AT LINK
Yeah, ICE. (Photos)
...on top of the 6" of snow here in N. Carolina.
Stay safe everyone.
"She stood up on her seat, raised her fists in the air and yelled, 'Airbags!'”
http://www.pressherald.com/news/Motorists_advised_to_avoid_Turnpike_spur_following_truck_crash.htmlMaine driver in truck crash: ‘I saw him coming and I was terrified’
A woman whose car was crushed between a gasoline tanker truck and a pickup in South Portland escapes serious injury.
By David Hench dhench@pressherald.com
Staff Writer
A woman walked away without significant injury following a horrific collision Tuesday on the Maine Turnpike spur near Main Street in South Portland.
The crash occurred about 8 a.m. when a tanker truck hauling gasoline crashed into the back end of a 2010 Toyota Corolla, slamming it into a pickup and crushing it between the two trucks.
The driver of the car, Joyce Gauthier, 48 of Portland, was on her way to work at Hannaford corporate headquarters when she slowed for a long line of traffic trying to enter Route 1.
“I looked up in my rearview mirror and I saw him coming,” Gauthier said. “I saw him coming and I was terrified.”
The truck slammed so hard into Gauthier’s car that the rear half collapsed, the front end was mangled and the roof ripped backward.
Amazingly, Gauthier was not seriously injured.
With what she described as “adrenalized craziness,” she stood up on her seat, raised her fists in the air and yelled, “Airbags!”
“Without them, I would have been a goner,” she said. “I’m just so thankful for people like Ralph Nader who fight for consumer protection.”
MORE[p]
H/T: Rachel Maddow on Twitter
Former New Orleans Mayor Nagin Found Guilty of Graft in Katrina Recovery
Source: Reuters
Former New Orleans mayor guilty of graft in Katrina recovery
By Kathy Finn
NEW ORLEANS | Wed Feb 12, 2014 2:44pm EST
NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - A federal jury on Wednesday found former New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin guilty of bribery and corruption in connection with his dealings with contractors in the early years of the city's recovery from Hurricane Katrina.
Nagin, 57, faces more than 20 years in prison and will be sentenced at a later date. The jury found him guilty on 20 of the 21 corruption counts that he faced, including bribery, conspiracy, money laundering and tax evasion. He was cleared on one count of bribery.
Nagin showed no obvious reaction as the verdict was read. His wife Seletha sat quietly weeping behind her husband.
Prosecutors said during the trial that Nagin received cash and other favors with a combined value of more than $500,000 from 2005 to 2008. The bribes also included tons of granite sent to a kitchen countertop company he ran with his sons.
Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSBREA1B1X120140212
"Like Your Most Paranoid, Far-Out Conspiratorial Left-Wing Nightmare," But It's True...
http://billmoyers.com/2014/02/10/you-wont-believe-how-one-chemical-company-tried-to-discredit-a-scientists-researchWE'RE NOT MAKING THIS UP!
You Won’t Believe How One Chemical Company Tried to Discredit a Scientist’s Research
February 10, 2014
Rachel Aviv has a reported piece in The New Yorker that reads like pulp fiction. She tells the tale of a scientist who discovered that a popular herbicide may have harmful effects on the endocrine system. As he continued to investigate the matter, he came to believe that the chemical’s manufacturer was out to get him. He thought they were following him to conferences, tapping his phones and systematically trying to drive a wedge between him and the scientific community. Many of his colleagues believed that he was paranoid until a lawsuit yielded a slew of internal corporate documents showing that everything he imagined the company had been doing to discredit his work had in fact been true.
As Kathleen Geier put it for the Washington Monthly, “This story reads like your most paranoid, far-out conspiratorial left-wing nightmare come true.”
Aviv writes:
- snip -
Liu and several other former students said that they had remained skeptical of Hayes’s accusations until last summer, when an article appeared in Environmental Health News (in partnership with 100Reporters)* that drew on Syngenta’s internal records. Hundreds of Syngenta’s memos, notes, and e-mails have been unsealed following the settlement, in 2012, of two class-action suits brought by twenty-three Midwestern cities and towns that accused Syngenta of “concealing atrazine’s true dangerous nature” and contaminating their drinking water. Stephen Tillery, the lawyer who argued the cases, said, “Tyrone’s work gave us the scientific basis for the lawsuit.”
Hayes has devoted the past fifteen years to studying atrazine, and during that time scientists around the world have expanded on his findings, suggesting that the herbicide is associated with birth defects in humans as well as in animals. The company documents show that, while Hayes was studying atrazine, Syngenta was studying him, as he had long suspected. Syngenta’s public-relations team had drafted a list of four goals. The first was “discredit Hayes.” In a spiral-bound notebook, Syngenta’s communications manager, Sherry Ford, who referred to Hayes by his initials, wrote that the company could “prevent citing of TH data by revealing him as noncredible.” He was a frequent topic of conversation at company meetings. Syngenta looked for ways to “exploit Hayes’ faults/problems.” “If TH involved in scandal, enviros will drop him,” Ford wrote. She observed that Hayes “grew up in world (S.C.) that wouldn’t accept him,” “needs adulation,” “doesn’t sleep,” was “scarred for life.” She wrote, “What’s motivating Hayes?—basic question.”
ORIGINAL AT: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2014/02/10/140210fa_fact_aviv
AOL CEO Tim Armstrong Apologizes for "Distressed Babies" Remarks
Source: CBS News
AOL CEO Tim Armstrong apologizes for "distressed babies" remarks
MICHELLE MILLER /CBS NEWS
Feb 10, 2014 7:02 PM EST
For AOL, it was the ultimate instant message -- and the company's CEO got it loud and clear.
AOL is dealing with a national backlash against some controversial comments about the cost of employee benefits.
AOL announced its best earnings in a decade last week. But the news was overshadowed by the explanation CEO Tim Armstrong gave employees about delaying company contributions to retirement accounts.
He blamed higher health care costs and then said: "We had two AOLers that had distressed babies that were born that we paid $1 million each to make sure those babies were OK in general."
"People started asking my husband, 'Isn't that your baby that he's talking about?'" said Deanna Fei.
- snip -
It also angered many at AOL, who were disgusted by Armstrong’s examples, and the idea of receiving retirement fund contributions once a year instead of on pay day. Delaying AOL's contributions to employee stock plans would it allow it to keep more cash on hand, but over time could deny employees better returns.
The backlash at AOL was so severe that Armstrong reversed the policy and called the Fei family to apologize.
Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/aol-ceo-tim-armstrong-apologizes-for-distressed-babies-remarks/
Beautiful Macroportraits of Bees
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/features/140114-bee-native-macro-photography-insects-science/#.UviirXi9LCT
Intimate Portraits of Bees
Researchers take advantage of photography technology developed by the U.S. Army to capture beautiful portraits of bees native to North America.
Photography by Sam Droege, USGS
BEAUTIFUL BEE
Bees are the workhorses of the insect world. By transferring pollen from one plant to another, they ensure the next generation of the fruits, nuts, vegetables, and wildflowers we so enjoy.
There are 4,000 species of North American bees living north of Mexico, says Sam Droege, head of the bee inventory and monitoring program at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).
Only 40 of them are introduced species, including the European honeybee. (See “Pictures: Colored Honey Made by Candy-Eating French Bees.”)
Most of the natives are overlooked because “a lot of them are super tiny,” Droege says. “The bulk of the bees in the area are about half the size of a honeybee.”
- snip -
Droege and colleagues began to inventory all the bee species in North America in 2001. This was partly because the insects are so important to the agriculture industry.
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