Sherman A1
Sherman A1's JournalRed-light cameras debated before Missouri appeals court
ST. LOUIS • The state appeals court here heard arguments Wednesday in several cases that will help determine how red-light cameras are operated across Missouri — if they are allowed at all.
The Eastern District Missouri Court of Appeals has previously held that municipalities can use the cameras to ticket red-light runners if the offense is treated more like a parking violation, citing the vehicle versus the driver, and is civil in nature. That decision, in 2011, dealt with a $100 ticket that Mary Nottebrok received for violating Creve Coeur’s red-light ordinance in August 2009.
But on Wednesday, an attorney representing different violators asked a three-judge panel to consider additional factors that he argued should invalidate Creve Coeur’s ordinance.
Arguments were also made relative to red-light camera ordinances in Florissant and St. Louis, which are similar to each other in set-up but differ from Creve Coeur’s ordinance.
http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/red-light-cameras-debated-before-missouri-appeals-court/article_a626f289-82b0-562d-b4f1-11be1dc5e6ea.html
Costco, Vintage Vinyl break with other businesses in backing increase in minimum wage
NEW YORK • For many businesses, opposing minimum wage increases is a no-brainer: Raising the minimum wage increases their expenses. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce steadfastly opposes the proposal, as do many businesses big and small.
But this week, a handful of businesses applauded a bill introduced in Congress to raise the minimum wage, and even sent out a news release vocalizing their support for doing so. They included retailer Costco and smaller businesses such as Vintage Vinyl in University City and British American Auto Care in Columbia, Md.
So what gives? Why are some businesses bucking the trend and calling for a change in policy that would so clearly increase their expenses, especially at a time when finances are stable at best? And why Costco, a public company that has investors watching every penny and questioning every management decision?
After all, wages in retail, when adjusted for inflation, have actually decreased by about 30 cents an hour since 2007. Wouldn’t retailers want to keep it that way?
http://www.stltoday.com/print/business-section/costco-vintage-vinyl-break-with-other-businesses-in-backing-increase/article_b967fc36-2931-56bd-895b-ece5fafb9715.html
Disappearing Ink: What will happen to all the books?
On a cool Thursday evening in January, several women gather around folding tables in a Central Phoenix warehouse to sort thousands of books, pausing only to pull out a greeting card used as a bookmark or to show off a rare find. This ritual takes all year — and every year, the work of putting together what's billed as one of the largest used-book sales in the country is the same. Only the titles change.
The volunteers quickly pull worn copies of Amy Tan's The Hundred Secret Senses, Relationships for Dummies and anything by Maurice Sendak out of grocery bags, stick them with color-coded price tags and place them neatly into a maze of tall shelves filled with salvaged produce boxes labeled by genre and topic.
A few weeks later those books and about a half-million others took their places inside Veterans Memorial Coliseum on the Arizona State Fairgrounds for the 57th Annual VNSA Used Book Sale.
By the time you read this, book fans will have lined up around the block in the dark with big empty bags, waiting hours for the gates to open. Volunteers will have hustled between rows of tables, and, by the end of the two-day sale, the VNSA — which used to stand for Visiting Nurse Service Auxiliary but now means Volunteer Nonprofit Service Association — will have raised hundreds of thousands of dollars to benefit local charities.
http://www.riverfronttimes.com/2013-03-07/news/disappearing-ink-book-recycling-stripping-pulp/
Best Buy Backs Away from Telecommuting
While a report released this week showed more American employees are working from home at least one day a week, some high-profile companies are pushing back, or at least asking, "Is it worth it?"
Best Buy is the latest company to make headlines regarding its company policy toward telecommuting.
The electronics retailer, based in Minneapolis, Minn., said it's not eliminating telecommuting for its corporate employees outright. Minnesota Public Radio reported the company is ending its "results-oriented work environment policy." The company said it just wants employees to discuss with their managers whether they should continue the at-home arrangement.
"Our new policy is not about whether an employee can work from home or not. It's about whether that decision can be made by them alone, or in consultation with their managers," said Jeff Shelman, spokesman for Best Buy, in a statement.
Last month, Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer sparked office conversation when the Wall Street Journal's All Things D reported Yahoo instructed remote employees to return to company offices.
http://gma.yahoo.com/best-buy-backs-away-telecommuting-204016140--abc-news-personal-finance.html
Stop & Shop Workers Agree on New Contract
QUINCY, Mass. — Five union locals representing 40,000 Stop & Shop workers in New England have reached tentative contract agreement with the retailer here.
In a joint statement, United Food and Commercial Workers Locals 328, 371, 919, 1445 and 1459 said a deal was reached early Tuesday. Details of the contract were not disclosed.
The unions said they would present the offer to workers for a ratification vote following a legal review.
Read More: http://supermarketnews.com/retail-amp-financial/stop-shop-workers-agree-new-contract#ixzz2Ml0cjf4p
Minn. Workers Agree to 1-Year Deal: Report
MINNEAPOLIS — Around 10,000 union workers at grocery stores around the Twin Cities have voted to approve a new contract with employers, the Star Tribune here reported.
The workers, represented by United Food and Commercial Workers Local 653, work at Cub Foods, Rainbow Foods, Lunds/Byerly’s, Kowalski’s Markets and independent Supervalu stores. They agreed to a 1-year deal, citing uncertainty over Affordable Care Act provisions going into effect in 2014, the paper said.
Read More: http://supermarketnews.com/retail-amp-financial/minn-workers-agree-1-year-deal-report#ixzz2Ml0F5bKo
Fla. Farmworkers Marching to Publix HQ
Hundreds of farmworkers from the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), joined by consumer allies from across the country, gathered March 3 at Jesus Obrero Catholic Church in Ft. Myers, Fla., to embark on a two-week, 200-mile march to Publix corporate headquarters in Lakeland, Fla. Marchers want the grocer to join the labor reform movement known as the Fair Food Program (FFP).
The FFP unites farmworkers, growers, consumers, and 11 multibillion-dollar food retailers such as Whole Foods Market and Trader Joe’s in support of fair wages and humane labor standards, including a complaint mechanism and a “penny-per-pound” bonus for tomato harvesters. However, Publix, one of the largest purchasers of Florida tomatoes, continues to buy tomatoes from Florida growers that don’t recognize the FFP.
“While the changes we are seeing in farmworkers’ lives today are indeed unprecedented,” said the CIW’s Gerardo Reyes, “there is still much to be done. With each new corporation that joins, the wage increases and labor reforms grow and deepen, which is why Publix’s decision to turn its back on the FFP is so unconscionable. Its support, which would cost Publix little or nothing, could significantly change the lives of some of the state’s hardest workers, yet the $28 billion company won’t even show farmworkers the respect of granting us a meeting to discuss the Fair Food Program face-to-face.”
“We are going to take our case directly to the consumers through our presence in the streets, through nightly meetings with supporters in churches, schools, and community halls along the way, and through our voices in the media,” added Oscar Otzoy of the CIW. “We will not rest until Publix realizes that the 21st-century supermarket cannot afford to turn its back on human rights.”
http://www.progressivegrocer.com/top-stories/headlines/industry-intelligence/id37507/fla-farmworkers-marching-to-publix-hq/?cid=homepage
March 6, 1820: 1820 – The Missouri Compromise is signed into law by President James Monroe.
The Missouri Compromise was passed in 1820 between the pro-slavery and anti-slavery factions in the United States Congress, involving primarily the regulation of slavery in the western territories. It prohibited slavery in the former Louisiana Territory north of the parallel 36°30? north except within the boundaries of the proposed state of Missouri. To balance the number of "slave states" and "free states," the northern region of what was then Massachusetts was admitted into the United States as a free state to become Maine. Prior to the agreement, the House of Representatives had refused to accept this compromise, and a conference committee was appointed.[1]
A bill to enable the people of the Missouri Territory to draft a constitution and form a government preliminary to admission into the Union came before the House of Representatives in Committee of the Whole, on February 13, 1819. James Tallmadge of New York offered an amendment, named the Tallmadge Amendment, that forbade further introduction of slaves into Missouri, and mandated that all children of slave parents born in the state after its admission should be free at the age of 25. The committee adopted the measure and incorporated it into the bill as finally passed on February 17, 1819, by the house. The United States Senate refused to concur with the amendment, and the whole measure was lost.[2][3]
During the following session (1819–1820), the House passed a similar bill with an amendment, introduced on January 26, 1820, by John W. Taylor of New York, allowing Missouri into the union as a slave state. The question had been complicated by the admission in December of Alabama, a slave state, making the number of slave and free states equal. In addition, there was a bill in passage through the House (January 3, 1820) to admit Maine as a free state. [4]
The Senate decided to connect the two measures. It passed a bill for the admission of Maine with an amendment enabling the people of Missouri to form a state constitution. Before the bill was returned to the House, a second amendment was adopted on the motion of Jesse B. Thomas of Illinois, excluding slavery from the Missouri Territory north of the parallel 36°30? north (the southern boundary of Missouri), except within the limits of the proposed state of Missouri.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missouri_Compromise
March 6, 1912: The Oreo Cookie was introduced
The "Oreo Biscuit" was first developed and produced by the National Biscuit Company (today known as Nabisco) in 1912[2][3] at its Chelsea factory in New York City, which was located on Ninth Avenue between 15th and 16th Streets.[4] Today, this same block of Ninth Avenue is known as "Oreo Way."[4] The name Oreo was first trademarked on March 14, 1912.[5] It was launched as an imitation of the Hydrox cookie manufactured by Sunshine company, introduced in 1908.[6]
The original design of the cookie featured a wreath around the edge of the cookie and the name "OREO" in the center.[7] In the United States, they were sold for 25 cents a pound in novelty cans with clear glass tops.
The Oreo Biscuit was renamed in 1921, to "Oreo Sandwich."[8] A new design for the cookie was introduced in 1924.[7] A lemon-filled variety was available briefly during the 1920s, but was discontinued.[7]
In 1948, the Oreo Sandwich was renamed the "Oreo Creme Sandwich"; it was changed in 1974 to the Oreo Chocolate Sandwich Cookie.[8] The modern-day Oreo design was developed in 1952 by William A. Turnier,[9] to include the Nabisco logo.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oreo_cookie
LaGrange Park mailman who invented board game Diplomacy is dead at 81
Updated: March 5, 2013 2:03PM
To people in LaGrange Park, Allan B. Calhamer was the guy who delivered the mail.
But to those who have played “Diplomacy” — the popular board game he invented while a law student at Harvard — Mr. Calhamer, who died last week, was a geek god.
Back in the Fortran era, the game was a sort of board-game version of TV’s “Survivor” set in pre-World War I Europe, with its shifting alliances, deception and back-stabbing,
A favorite with politicians, it has a spot in the Hall of Fame ofboardgamegeek.com, where gamers from around the world are mourning Mr. Calhamer’s passing.
He died at Adventist La Grange Memorial Hospital. He was 81
http://lagrange.suntimes.com/news/18568062-418/lagrange-park-mailman-who-invented-board-game-diplomacy-is-dead-at-81.html
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