SLU Hospital RNs win first contract

St. Louis – Registered nurses at St. Louis University Hospital (SLUH) have won their first ever collective bargaining agreement with a new three-year contract that provides for significant improvements in patient care protections, compensation and job protections.

“Nurses are thrilled to have a contract that improves our ability to advocate for our patients and recruit and retain quality nurses,” said Carmen Moorehead, an RN at SLUH for 38 years and a member of the negotiating team. “We have laid the foundation for a better future.”The contract is believed to be the first in the St. Louis area since nurses at St. John’s Mercy organized early in the last decade and negotiated a contract. But they voted to decertify in 2007 rather than approve a second contract.

One key element of the SLUH contract is a ban on mandatory overtime.

“We don’t want nurses forced into overtime because that’s when mistakes get made and the patients are the ones that suffer when that happens,” said Tim Kamp, an RN in the hospital’s various intensive care units.

http://labortribune.com/slu-hospital-rns-win-first-contract/

Keeping Big Box Stores in Check

One of the primary arguments against allowing big box stores — such as Walmart, Lowe’s, Target and Best Buy — to set up shop in small towns is that they take customers away from local family businesses that have existed in the community for years. Using high-volume sales — versus price mark-ups — to drive profits, big box stores are often able to sell their goods at lower prices. But they also employ fewer workers than their Main Street competition and pay those workers substantially less. The net effect is often slower community economic growth and dying downtowns.

But when big box stores are given permission to build, these long-term financial effects often aren’t considered. Almost all local planning policies limit discussion about big box stores to zoning issues, “like how much traffic the store will generate and whether the site has sufficient landscaping,” Stacy Mitchell, a senior researcher with the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, writes in Grist. Discussion of the store’s impact on the economy is rarely on the table.

But Cape Cod, a peninsula in Massachusetts made up of 15 economically diverse towns — some very wealthy, some less so — found a way to have that conversation. In 1988, 76 percent of voters endorsed a ballot initiative that lead to the creation of the Cape Cod Commission, a board made up of representatives from the 15 towns, as well as members representing minority communities in the county. The commission reviews the environmental and economic impact of proposed building projects in the region. It doesn’t replace the city planning boards other towns have, but adds a second layer of review for projects that will have a major impact on the community — including buildings that exceed 10,000 square feet, as nearly all big box stores do. Over the last few years, the commission has vetoed a Wal-Mart, a Sam’s Club, a Costco and a Home Depot that it felt would negatively alter the surrounding communities. The commission has approved other big box stores in the area when the stores agreed to abandon their original plans and open smaller locations in vacant, already-built retail locations.

A number of cities have a similar system, but Mitchell notes that Cape Cod’s model may work better. “One of the advantages of Cape Cod’s approach is that it’s regional,” she writes, “so developers can’t just threaten to move next door if one municipality says no.” Vermont is the only place that mandates this system on the state level — large projects must be reviewed for economic, social and environmental impact by both local governments and by one of nine regional commissions.

http://billmoyers.com/2013/07/09/keeping-big-box-stores-in-check/

At St. Louis bill signing, Nixon 'hopeful' about Medicaid committees

Gov. Jay Nixon told reporters he was “hopeful” that House and Senate committees studying changes to the state’s Medicaid program would result in legislative action next year.

The two chambers are holding hearings this summer on the health-care program for the poor. The Senate committee held hearings in Jefferson City, while another House committee is set to convene tomorrow in Independence.

Nixon has toured the state over the past few months in support of expanding the Medicaid program to those earning 138 percent of the federal poverty level under the auspices of the Affordable Care Act. But the GOP-controlled General Assembly took no action, arguing that Medicaid expansion would be too costly.

“We have an opportunity here not only to use $2 billion of taxpayer dollars that Missourians are actually paying to improve and reform our health-care system. We also have a chance to make Missouri a healthier place,” Nixon said. “And so, I’m hopeful that these various committees will be used this summer on a good, tight timeline to look at ways to reform and improve the system.

https://www.stlbeacon.org/#!/content/31782/nixon_childs_bills_signing?coverpage=3603

Have trouble receiving text photos from android phone to my 4s any ideas?

any assist would be appreciated.

July 11: National Blueberry Muffin Day

July 10, 1890 – Wyoming is admitted as the 44th U.S. state.

Several American Indian groups originally inhabited the region now known as Wyoming. The Crow, Arapaho, Lakota, and Shoshone were but a few of the original inhabitants encountered when white explorers first entered the region. What is now southwestern Wyoming became a part of the Spanish Empire and later Mexican territory of Alta California, until it was ceded to the United States in 1848 at the end of the Mexican-American War. French-Canadian trappers from Québec and Montréal ventured into the state in the late 18th century, leaving French toponyms such as Téton, La Ramie, etc. John Colter, a member of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, itself guided by French Canadian Toussaint Charbonneau and his young Shoshone wife, Sacagawea, first described the region in 1807. At the time, his reports of the Yellowstone area were considered to be fictional[by whom?]. Robert Stuart and a party of five men returning from Astoria discovered South Pass in 1812. The Oregon Trail later followed that route. In 1850, Jim Bridger located what is now known as Bridger Pass, which the Union Pacific Railroad used in 1868—as did Interstate 80, in ninety years' time. Bridger also explored Yellowstone and filed reports on the region that, like those of Colter, were largely regarded as tall tales at the time.

The region had acquired the name Wyoming by 1865, when Representative J. M. Ashley of Ohio introduced a bill to Congress to provide a "temporary government for the territory of Wyoming". The name Wyoming derives from the Munsee name xwé:wamənk, meaning "at the big river flat", but it was also named after the Wyoming Valley in Pennsylvania, made famous by the 1809 poem Gertrude of Wyoming by Thomas Campbell.[11][12]

After the Union Pacific Railroad had reached the town of Cheyenne in 1867, the region's population began to grow steadily, and the federal government established the Wyoming Territory on July 25, 1868.[13] Unlike mineral-rich Colorado, Wyoming lacked significant deposits of gold and silver, as well as Colorado's subsequent population boom. However, South Pass City did experience a short-lived boom after the Carissa Mine began producing gold in 1867.[14] Furthermore, copper was mined in some areas between the Sierra Madre Mountains and the Snowy Range near Grand Encampment.[15]

Once government-sponsored expeditions to the Yellowstone country began, reports by Colter and Bridger, previously believed to be apocryphal, were found to be true. This led to the creation of Yellowstone National Park, which became the world's first national park in 1872. Nearly all of Yellowstone National Park lies within the far northwestern borders of Wyoming.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wyoming#History

July 10: Pick Blueberries Day

Kroger Buying Harris Teeter for $2.44 Billion

Kroger (NYSE: KR ) is about to grow by more than 200 supermarkets. The grocer has reached an agreement to acquire Harris Teeter (NYSE: HTSI ) , both companies announced in a joint press release. Kroger will pay $49.38 per share in cash in a transaction estimated to total $2.44 million. It also intends to assume Harris Teeter's outstanding debt, which amounts to roughly $100 million.

The deal will provide Kroger an additional 212 supermarkets located in eight states across the Mid-Atlantic region and the Southeast. All told, the company's store tally will be 2,631. Harris Teeter will function as a subsidiary of its new parent and be helmed by its current senior management team.

The acquisition is the largest for Kroger since its 1999 purchase of superstore chain Fred Meyer for around $13 billion, plus debt assumption.

http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2013/07/09/kroger-buying-harris-teeter-for-244-billion.aspx

UFCW Local 1245 Joins Community Group to Successfully Keep Walmart Out of Neighborhood

UFCW Local 1245 members in Hawthorne, N.J., joined with local community organizations to successfully stop a Walmart Neighborhood Supermarket from building in the area. About 40 members partnered with community leaders in a campaign that led to Walmart withdrawing their building application.

UFCW Local 1245 hosted a shop stewards day to educate members about the campaign and recruit volunteers to help participate.

Members then joined community groups and canvassed local neighborhoods to distribute door hangers to residents asking them to support local businesses and good jobs by keeping Walmart out of the area.

Members work at a Shop Rite and a Kings Supermarket within a short distance from where the Walmart was supposed to be built. A Walmart entering the area would significantly hurt local businesses and union jobs. As a result of the campaign and public demands, Walmart withdrew their application and does not intend to return to the Hawthorne area.

- See more at: http://www.ufcw.org/2013/#sthash.aZZOGLNK.dpuf

Victory for Former Zellers Workers in Fight Towards Fairness at Target

UFCW Canada recently celebrated a victory in the campaign for fairness at Target and for former Zellers workers who were laid off when Target replaced the Zellers stores.

A decision by the Quebec Labour Standards Commission recognized – for the first time – Target’s responsibility to Zellers workers and their communities by ruling that Target needs just cause to deny former-Zellers workers employment in the rebranded retail locations.

The spokesperson for the Labour Standards Commission, Jean-François Pelchat announced that all former Zellers employees who had applied for a job at Target, and whose application was turned down, had 45 days from the date of the denial notice to file a complaint with the Commission for dismissal without just cause.

As far as UFCW Canada is concerned, the Commission’s decision clearly recognizes the employment relationship between former Zellers employees and their new employer – Target.

- See more at: http://www.ufcw.org/2013/07/08/victory-for-former-zellers-workers-in-fight-towards-fairness-at-target/#sthash.hZUiyII6.dpuf