Sherman A1
Sherman A1's JournalRight-to-Work: Missouri Unions Push Back Against GOP Rep. Eric Burlison's Labor Bill
Labor groups in Missouri are headed to Jefferson City this morning to push back against a bill that they say is misleading -- and threatens the core of basic union organizing. The fight is over the state's right-to-work proposal, which has already garnered some backlash, despite the fact that it'll be tough to pass with a Democratic governor in charge.
But there are no guarantees, says Randy Kiser, a staff member of the AFL-CIO who is based in Missouri.
"We are not taking anything for granted," he tells Daily RFT. And that's why he and partnering organizations are headed to the Capitol.
As we reported last week, the legislation at stake is House Bill 77, full draft version below, which is sponsored by Republican Representative Eric Burlison.
http://blogs.riverfronttimes.com/dailyrft/2013/02/right-to-work_missouri_unions.php
Market Basket Eyes Factory Site
LYNN, Mass. — Demoulas is eyeing a long-abandoned factory site here to build a new Market Basket supermarket, a company spokesman told SN Tuesday.
The Tewksbury, Mass.-based retailer is in negotiations with the city of Lynn and the owners of the General Electric “Factory of the Future” site on a plan to develop part of that facility.
“We’re working with various parties including the city of Lynn and the property owners as we speak,” Demoulas spokesman David McLean said. “It’s premature for a formal statement, but it is our intention to bring a Market Basket store to Lynn.”
The 68,000-square-foot Factory of the Future was built by GE in the 1980s as a prototype robotic manufacturing plant, but the facility closed more than 20 years ago, according to the Lynn Economic and Industrial Corp. GE said last year it would look to sell the 22-acre site.
Read More: http://supermarketnews.com/retail-amp-financial/market-basket-eyes-factory-site#ixzz2K7OKH76k
Talent takes on new roles on defense, U.S.-China policy
WASHINGTON – If Mitt Romney would have been elected president, there’s a good chance that the former Midwestern GOP senator testifying at the Senate Armed Services committee last week would have been Jim Talent rather than Chuck Hagel.
Talent, a former U.S. senator and House member from Chesterfield, was a senior adviser on defense and security issues to Romney and was on nearly every pundit’s short list of potential cabinet nominees, with several pegging him for a future secretary of Defense.
As it turned out, President Barack Obama won reelection and nominated Hagel, a former Republican senator from Nebraska, to the Pentagon post. On Thursday, Hagel endured nine hours of questioning – with most of the barbs coming from Republicans on the panel who were upset with his previous quotes or votes about Iran, Israel and other issues.
Talent, who served with Hagel in the Senate, said in an interview that he respects the Defense nominee as “a smart guy and a patriot.” But he shares the concerns of many Republican senators – including U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., who has announced his opposition – about Hagel’s views related to Iran.
Observing that Hagel “performed poorly at his confirmation hearing,” Talent said senators need to make sure that the nominee is in line with the White House position of preventing Iran from getting nuclear weapon capability – rather than containing that capability after Iran acquires it.
https://www.stlbeacon.org/#!/content/29225/talent_new_roles
5 years later, Kirkwood, MO reflects on the end of its innocence
Five years have passed. People don’t talk much about Cookie Thornton anymore. The mistrust of City Hall that some have felt has eased, but not disappeared. Meacham Park is less separate from Kirkwood, but not wholly integrated. Normalcy has crept back into city affairs, except for one key ingredient — the innocence that the people of Kirkwood lost on Feb. 7, 2008.
Gone is that feeling that it can’t happen here. Idyllic Kirkwood is etched as an improbable entry on the list of the 62 places in America where mass shootings have occurred in the past three decades. (Click here to read a more personal account from the reporter on how he has covered this story.)
"We really are trying to move past all of this and not talk about it a great deal," says Kirkwood Mayor Art McDonnell, as the fifth anniversary approaches of Charles Lee "Cookie" Thornton’s deadly assault on City Hall that led to the death of seven city officials and to Thornton.
But all it takes is a Sandy Hook or an Aurora or a Tucson to bring it back to McDonnell.
https://www.stlbeacon.org/#!/content/29144/kirkwood_fifth_anniversary?coverpage=2650
Monopoly to get new lineup of tokens
PAWTUCKET, R.I. (AP) — The classic Monopoly game is set for its most significant change in decades after fans of the game designed nearly 80 years ago voted to add a new token to replace the shoe, wheelbarrow or iron after they received the least support in an online contest.
Toy maker Hasbro Inc. is scheduled to announce the new token lineup Wednesday morning, hours after fans cast their final ballots to determine which of the five proposed pieces to add and which of the existing tokens to eject.
The tokens identify the players and have changed quite a lot since Parker Brothers bought the game from its original designer in 1935.
The voting closed just before midnight Tuesday. Rhode Island-based Hasbro says the wheelbarrow, shoe and iron were neck and neck for elimination through the Save Your Token Campaign. The new addition will be a robot, diamond ring, cat, helicopter or guitar.
http://news.yahoo.com/monopoly-lineup-tokens-072959977--finance.html
Myths of river transportation benefit
In Commentary
By Brad Walker, and Bob Criss, special to the Beacon
Many articles have discussed the current drought and its devastating effects on the inland waterways navigation system, viewed as essential to the U.S. economy. Ignored in this discussion are the cost of this system to the taxpayer, its large environmental downsides, and the inherent vulnerability of this system to drought, flooding and infrastructure breakdown, all witnessed during the last two years.
The Army Corps of Engineers has been often criticized for poorly evaluating these factors in its project planning and particularly for inflating the benefit-to-cost ratios of their projects, underestimating environmental damages and overlooking non-structural alternatives. We believe an external evaluation of the value of the entire system is needed, and suggest that the GAO is best positioned to conduct a comprehensive study.
In lieu of that, this article intends to present the other side of the benefits (in italics) of river transport alleged by such interests as the barge industry and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
https://www.stlbeacon.org/#!/content/29220/voices_criss_barges_2_020413?coverpage=2656
Interesting piece by these two writers giving different point of view on the inland waterway navigation system. I believe it is worth a complete read.
Missouri joins suit filed by several states, including Illinois, against Standard and Poor's
Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster and Secretary of State Jason Kander, both Democrats, are participating in a national lawsuit that seeks “to hold Standard and Poor’s accountable for alleged misconduct involving the company’s rating of mortgage-backed securities at the heart of the nation’s financial crisis.”
The suit is seeking hundreds of millions of dollars in penalties and restitution.
Koster filed Missouri’s legal complaint this morning in Jackson County Circuit Court. The suit alleges that Standard and Poor’s was “influenced by its desire to earn lucrative fees from its investment bank clients,” so the investment ratings firm “knowingly assigned inflated credit ratings to toxic assets packaged and sold by the Wall Street investment banks.”
According to the complaint, the two officials say, “S&P adjusted its analytical models for rating residential mortgage-backed securities and collateral debt obligations to allow it to assign as many AAA ratings as possible, allowing it to earn additional revenue from its investment banking clients.”
https://www.stlbeacon.org/#!/content/29242/koster_kander_suit_020513?coverpage=2652
No Missouri State Money for New Rams Stadium
Those hoping to keep the Rams in St. Louis should not count on any help from Democratic Governor Jay Nixon or the Republican-led Missouri Senate.
When asked by reporters Monday about efforts to build a new stadium for the Rams, Governor Nixon said that the state is still paying half the cost of the Edward Jones Dome in downtown St. Louis.
“I don’t have a new stadium in this year’s budget, nor do I have any ongoing discussions on how to do that," Nixon said.
Also, Republican leaders in the Missouri Senate are adamant that state funding will not be used to help build a new stadium for the St. Louis Rams, even if the NFL were to help cover some of the costs.
http://www.news.stlpublicradio.org/post/nixon-and-mo-senate-leaders-agree-least-one-thing-no-state-new-rams-stadium
U.S., Mexico Make Tentative Tomato Deal
WASHINGTON — Just a week after an industry trade group warned of a “tomato cliff,” the U.S. Department of Commerce announced that it has reached an agreement with Mexican tomato growers to suspend its antidumping investigation.
The updated agreement raises the floor price for fresh or chilled imported tomatoes and increases enforcement, the agency said. Under this agreement, open field tomatoes would have a base price of 31 cents per pound during the winter and 25 cents during the summer. The base price for specialty packed tomatoes would be 59 cents during the winter and 47 during the summer.
Before this deal was made, U.S. growers said that Mexican tomato growers had an unfair advantage in the market and that the previous agreement was outdated. Industry groups representing Mexican tomato growers had warned that an upfront duty at the border would drive imports out of the U.S. market and raise retail prices significantly.
“I am pleased that we were able to come to an agreement on fresh tomato imports from Mexico that restores stability and confidence to the U.S. tomato market and meets the requirements of U.S. law,” Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade Francisco Sánchez said in a media statement.
Read More: http://supermarketnews.com/produce/us-mexico-make-tentative-tomato-deal#ixzz2K0vWXb8L
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