NEW YORK (Reuters) - A Minnesota judge has ruled that Wal-Mart Stores Inc violated state wage and hour laws, requiring employees to work off the clock, and the discount retailer could now face more than $2 billion in possible fines.
Minnesota District Court Judge Robert R. King Jr ruled that Wal-Mart owes $6.5 million to thousands of current and former employees because of wage the violations, which included a failure to give workers their full rest breaks and requiring hourly employees to work off-the-clock during training.
Wal-Mart could now face a fine of up to $1,000 for each violation of the Minnesota wage and hour rules. With more than 2 million violations cited by the judge, that means the discount retailer could face more than $2 billion in fines.
Wal-Mart spokeswoman Daphne Moore said the retailer was still reviewing the order and considering the option of appeal.
"We respectfully disagree with portions of the decision," she said.
She also said the retailer's policies are to pay every employee for every hour worked, and to make rest and meal breaks available for its employees. She said managers who violate the policies are subject to discipline.
(Reporting by Nicole Maestri, editing by Richard Chang)
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Starbucks Corp said on Tuesday it plans to close 600 underperforming U.S. stores and cut up to 12,000 full- and part-time positions, as it copes with an economic downturn and increasing competition.
The coffee seller, bracing for its first full-year profit decline since 2000, has been grappling with the slowing U.S. economy and consumer spending at the same time that major competitors like McDonald's Corp have begun attacking its core business.
Starbucks plans to close the company-operated stores by the end of March 2009. The related job cuts would reduce the company's U.S. workforce by about 8 percent.
The news lifted shares nearly 5 percent.
In a conference call with analysts, Chief Executive Peter Bocian said the move should improve company's domestic profitability and help it meet previously issued forecasts calling for accelerating earnings for fiscal 2009 through 2011.
In January, Starbucks brought back founder and chief executive Howard Schultz to turn around the company. Soon after, Schultz targeted 100 stores for closure -- a number that grew by 500 when firm plans were announced on Tuesday.
He has also slashed plans for store openings and shifted the company's most ambitious expansion efforts to international markets.
"At this point, management has decided that 2008 is a wash and to throw in everything but the kitchen sink to get ready for growth in 2009 and beyond," said William Blair analyst Sharon Zackfia.
"It's another sign that management doesn't have their head in the sand," said Zackfia, who has an "outperform" rating on the stock.
Starbucks said the 600 stores are either unprofitable now or are not expected to meet future return thresholds. All of the targeted units are close to another company-operated store, Bocian said.
"This is validating some of the critics who said they were opening stores too close to one another," said James Walsh, an analyst at Starbucks investor Coldstream Capital Management.
Those critics complained that the company had overbuilt in the United States -- particularly in major urban areas like Manhattan, where it is not unusual to see several Starbucks in a single city block.
The Seattle-based company was also an aggressive builder in California and Florida. Those states experienced red-hot growth during the housing boom and have been hardest hit by the U.S. housing downturn.
Oppenheimer & Co analyst Matt DiFrisco said he was "very encouraged" by the company's announcement.
"It helps remove some of the cannibalization that the company brought on itself," said DiFrisco, who also has an "outperform" rating on Starbucks shares.
Starbucks said the closures are spread across all major U.S. markets and that 70 percent of the targeted stores have been open since the beginning of fiscal 2006.
Total pretax charges associated with the planned U.S. company-operated store closures, including costs associated with severance, are estimated to be in the range of $328 million to $348 million.
Starbucks also trimmed planned openings for its upcoming fiscal year ended September 2009. It now plans to open fewer than 200 new U.S. company-operated stores, down from 250 previously.
The stock rose to $16.35 in after hours trading, up 4.7 percent from its close of $15.62 on Nasdaq.
While investors cheered the announcement, analysts were quick to point out that a further worsening of the U.S. economy or steep increases in gas and food prices would put additional pressure on the company known for its premium-priced coffee drinks, such as $3 to $4 lattes.
"Consumers are not in the spending mood," said Bob Goldin, executive vice president at restaurant consulting firm Technomic.
(Additional reporting by Nichola Groom and Jennifer Martinez; editing by Jeffrey Benkoe, Leslie Gevirtz)
If you’re taking some well-deserved rest for the Fourth of July, you are probably getting at best a day or two off around the actual holiday itself. Only in Congress could a break for the “Fourth” become a vacation spanning more than a week.
The Democratic-run Congress shut down last Friday and is not returning to work until next Monday. Between now and then, the New York Times notes in a blistering editorial Tuesday, another 55,000 homes will sink into foreclosure.
Yet the Senate left town Friday without passing a long-awaited housing rescue bill that would allow homeowners on the edge to get new mortgages backed by the federal government. The catch is that the existing lending institution would have to agree to cut the existing mortgage balance down to 85 percent of the home’s value.
Between Republican fundraising events, President Bush is in Little Rock today at a credit counseling agency and is expected to prod Congress to finish the legislation. But even if it did, the President has threatened to veto the current bill… because he does not believe it does enough to reform the Federal Housing Administration.
In fairness to Democrats, the housing bill stalled after a Republican, Sen. John Ensign, insisted the Senate tack on a package of tax breaks for renewable energy. Besides the fact that really has nothing to do with the housing crisis, Ensign had no way of paying for the tax cuts so it would run afoul of budget rules in the House, thereby making it even more complicated to pass a final product.
Sound like a mess? It is.
So some local communities, fed up with Washington, have decided to take matters into their own hands and implement their own reform plans.
Fairfax, Virginia, for example, has an innovative plan known as the “Silver Lining” proposal. The chair of the county commission, Gerald Connolly, is having the local government buy up foreclosed properties so it can eventually sell them at low prices to police officers and firefighters currently priced out of the area.
And there’s a twist: Connolly himself is now running for a seat in Congress. Maybe if he wins he can bring some fresh ideas to Capitol Hill.
Bobo and Joy Dickson bought a house had been headed for foreclosure, but JPMorgan Chase apparently didn't get the message that the former owners had moved out and the new owners were in residence. So, naturally, they hired a firm to drill the Dickson's locks and take everything they owned, including their food. Now JPMorgan Chase is "taking it seriously."
"We take this very seriously, and we are working with EMC [a mortgage company JPMorgan Chase owns] and the family's attorney to make this right," said Tom Kelly, a JPMorgan spokesman.
After the Dickson's bought the house back in May, the foreclosure proceedings were supposed to have been stopped. They weren't. That's when the former owner's mortgage company (owned by JPMorgan Chase) hired "Field Asset Services Inc." to drill the locks and "empty the house," according to the Austin American-Statesmen. Field Asset Services claims that the Dickson's possessions were given to area thrift stores, but they have been unable to locate them.
Ordinarily, when personal possessions are left in a foreclosed home a court order is needed to remove the items and the owners are given the opportunity to reclaim them within 24 hours. JPMorgan Chase says its not sure if there was a court order in this case.
Elizabeth Bradburn, the Dicksons' real estate agent, is organizing an effort to collect donations for the family. She said gift cards to furniture and household goods stores are preferred and may be sent to the Dicksons' business address: 9800 N. Lamar Blvd.,
No. 315, Austin TX 78753.
"It's been awesome to see people mobilize and want to help out," Hance [Dicksons' attorney] said. "The Dicksons are, of course, very grateful and touched by the outpouring of support from the community."
Starbucks closing 600 underperforming stores in the United States SEATTLE (AP) -- Starbucks Corp. has announced it's closing 600 underperforming stores in the United States.
The Seattle-based premium coffee company also announced Tuesday it expects to open fewer than 200 new company-operated stores in the United States in fiscal 2009.
The company says it will try to place workers from closed stores in remaining Starbucks.
Shipping Dangers Limit Ports For Fireworks Exports
By WILLIAM FOREMAN |Associated Press
A WORKER assembles fireworks in June at Southern Fireworks ManufactureÂ’s factory in Liuyang in Hunan province, China. As Americans celebrate their Independence Day, the Chinese industry that provides more than 80 percent of AmericaÂ’s fireworks is in crisis. Chinese ports and most ships are increasingly unwilling to handle their dangerous cargo. The result: a fall of at least 30 percent in overseas shipments this year. (EUGENE HOSHIKO / AP / June 19, 2008)
LIUYANG, China - Chen Tiezhong will likely spend the Fourth of July worrying about the future of his sprawling fireworks factory. China, where fireworks were invented, is running short of ports from which to ship the dangerous cargoes abroad.
China's fireworks industry provides 98 percent of America's overall needs, and 80 percent of the pyrotechnics needed for professional displays. But the U.S. fireworks business stands to lose $25 million to $30 million this year because of lost orders, says Julie Heckman, executive director for the American Pyrotechnics Association.
A Missouri firm says it backed out of some shows because of the shortage. Meanwhile, some Chinese factories are being pushed close to bankruptcy.
"Our factory will be forced to close, whether we want it or not," said Chen Tiezhong at his sprawling 500-employee operation in Liuyang in central Hunan province.
His factory is one of 900 around this small city that is known as China's fireworks capital. Most of the factories are far from town, tucked safely away among the farms in surrounding hills and valleys.
Chen rattles off a litany of woes: micro-thin profit margins, rising labor costs and soaring prices for raw materials.
Now, the closure of some Chinese ports to fireworks may be the final straw.
In February, a blast at a fireworks warehouse led to a ban on fireworks shipments at the southern port of Sanshui, Guangdong province, which previously handled 20 percent of China's pyrotechnic exports.
Then, in late March, officials stopped fireworks shipments at Nanshan, another Guangdong port, after inspectors found explosives that had been declared as something else.
Guangdong may not allow fireworks shipments to resume, because the province is trying to shift its economy to more sophisticated goods.
Adding to the industry's woes, China has ordered major ports such as Shanghai and Hong Kong to suspend shipments of explosives as part of tightened security ahead of August's Beijing Olympics.
"It's been extremely difficult," Chen said. "There is simply no way out even if we're willing to pay 10,000 yuan RMB [more than $1,400] extra for each container."
In China, 30 to 40 percent of fireworks for overseas customers have not shipped, forcing many of the country's 7,000 factories to curtail or even stop taking overseas orders, said Liu Donghui, the secretary-general of the China-based International Fireworks Association.
On the U.S. end, 10 percent to 15 percent of orders didn't show up, said Heckman.
China ordinarily sends 9,000 shipping containers of fireworks a year to the U.S., she said, and the shortfall "is by far the most difficult challenge the U.S. firework industry has had to face."
Matt Sutcliffe of Premier Pyrotechnics, Inc. in Richland, Mo., realized six weeks ago that he would run short and have to cancel some shows. He said he contacted every company he knew to pick up the slack, but "No company that I talked to said they could take additional shows."
Heckman said this year's shortage would probably go largely unnoticed by Independence Day spectators because retailers and pyrotechnicians will be sharing their stockpiles.
"As competitive as this industry is, we bleed red, white and blue, and we'll do anything to try to make certain each community gets their Fourth of July Independence Day show," she said.
Liuyang's factories alone produced $1 billion worth of fireworks last year, some $430 million of it to meet overseas orders, the association's Liu said.
Chen's Southern Fireworks Manufacture Co. includes a cluster of long single-story concrete buildings. Inside, women sitting at concrete tables paste together rocket tubes with labels in Russian. Some stick fuses into loaded fireworks and bind them together.
Most of the work is done by hand because machines can overheat or throw sparks, Chen said.
"It's getting harder and harder to find people who will do this work," Chen said. "They think it's too dangerous."
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The high price of gasoline has some U.S. drivers looking to the future.
A recently introduced service called MyGallons.com allows drivers to fill up their tanks sometime in the future but at current prices, using a debit-like card which banks gallons rather than dollars.
"The price of gasoline was changing all the time. It seemed unpredictable," Steven Verona, founder and owner of the Miami-based company, said on Monday.
"It seemed there had to be a way to fix the price," he said.
Working on the assumption that the price of gasoline will continue to rise, Verona started about two and a half years ago to put together the company which gives the driver some measure of control of what he pays for gasoline.
Since a soft launch in January, about 2,000 people representing a cross-section of regions across the U.S. have signed up with MyGallons.com to be able to help them find ways to cope with the rapidly rising price of gasoline, Verona said.
On Monday, the average retail price for U.S. gasoline hit a new record of $4.10 a gallon, rising 1.6 cents over the last week and up $1.14 from a year ago, the U.S. government said.
And while the high price of gasoline has cut demand by about a percent from last year, the record high price of crude oil over $140 a barrel seems to ensure that prices will stay high.
Verona said that new customers generally begin by purchasing 25 to 50 gallons of gasoline.
"Once they are comfortable with how MyGallons work, they are buying 100 to 200 gallons at a time," Verona said.
Using regular unleaded gasoline as the benchmark, drivers pre-buy gasoline based on their zip code. MyGallons.com determines what that price is based using established providers of oil prices.
Drivers using premium gasoline or premium pay an additional price over benchmark regular gasoline for the higher-priced fuel.
At the pump, the driver swipes his MyGallons card like a debit card. MyGallons.com said that the card is accepted at over 95 percent of U.S. gas stations.
"We don't sell futures. It's prepurchased gas," said Verona, who said MyGallons.com uses a sophisticated hedging strategy to protect and meet obligations to members.
The risk to the consumer is if price of gasoline in the future becomes cheaper rather than more expensive. But if members are dissatisfied, they can drop out of the program and receive a lesser of the current price or what they paid as a refund.
"There is that risk that the price could fall significantly," said Verona.
"But I think that most people would agree that risk is pretty minimal. Overtime, it is going to go up even if there is no change in the supply/demand relationship because inflation alone would push the price up."
(Reporting by Janet McGurty; Editing by Marguerita Choy)
Wind power is supposed to be the clean-energy panacea, if only the world can get enough turbines. Waiting lists in the U.S. are now stretching into 2010. China and India are eager to fill the void in the world’s windmill market—as they did with everything from cheap footwear to IT. But as the trials and tribulations at India’s Suzlon Energy show, it isn’t that easy.
Earlier this year, Suzlon had to recall almost all the wind-turbine blades it sold in the U.S., after some cracks appeared in Suzlon machines. Now, as we reported in the WSJ, Suzlon’s problems are multiplying.
Suzlon was so eager to crack the U.S. market, it rushed out new prototypes without proper testing on the U.S. grid, which is different than India’s. The result? The big, 2.1 megawatt turbines haven’t performed up to snuff as stipulated in Suzlon’s contracts—and leaves the company on the hook for financial penalties.
Suzlon’s travails could hold lessons for other developing-world wind companies hoping to strike gold in the U.S., the fastest-growing wind-power market in the world. While China’s Sinovel and Gold Wind have enough on their plate for now with China’s own outsized clean-energy ambitions—the country just moved up another wind-power target—the ultimate goal is to become export kings, like global leaders Vestas, Gamesa, and General Electric.
But wind power is a technology game. Cheaper labor gave Suzlon and Chinese makers an early leg up, and helped Suzlon sieze 8% of the U.S. market. The trick now, when costs for everybody’s turbines is on the increase thanks to pricier components, is how to hang on to existing customers while doubling output to satisfy new ones.
Some are already worried: Edison Mission Energy in the U.S. cancelled a 150-turbine order from Suzlon until the blade issue is sorted. Chinese makers have barely started exporting.
Tech glitches have plagued every turbine maker at one time or another. The big difference? Vestas, Nordex, and other European manufacturers worked through their technology glitches decades ago, when wind power was still a fringe energy off the world’s radar screens. Suzlon and Chinese newcomers angling for a piece of the pie face a much steeper learning curve—with the stakes suddenly a lot higher.
A former CIA operative who says he tried to warn the agency about faulty intelligence on Iraqi weapons programs now contends that CIA officials also ignored evidence that Iran had suspended work on a nuclear bomb.
The onetime undercover agent, who has been barred by the CIA from using his real name, filed a motion in federal court late Friday asking the government to declassify legal documents describing what he says was a deliberate suppression of findings on Iran that were contrary to agency views at the time.
The former operative alleged in a 2004 lawsuit that the CIA fired him after he repeatedly clashed with senior managers over his attempts to file reports that challenged the conventional wisdom about weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East. Key details of his claim have not been made public because they describe events the CIA deems secret.
The consensus view on Iran's nuclear program shifted dramatically last December with the release of a landmark intelligence report that concluded that Iran halted work on nuclear weapons design in 2003. The publication of the National Intelligence Estimate on Iran undermined the CIA's rationale for censoring the former officer's lawsuit, said his attorney, Roy Krieger.
"On five occasions he was ordered to either falsify his reporting on WMD in the Near East, or not to file his reports at all," Krieger said in an interview.
In court documents and in statements by his attorney, the former officer contends that his 22-year CIA career collapsed after he questioned CIA doctrine about the nuclear programs of Iraq and Iran. As a native of the Middle East and a fluent speaker of both Farsi and Arabic, he had been assigned undercover work in the Persian Gulf region, where he successfully recruited an informant with access to
sensitive information about Iran's nuclear program, Krieger said.
The informant provided secret evidence that Tehran had halted its research into designing and building a nuclear weapon. Yet, when the operative sought to file reports on the findings, his attempts were "thwarted by CIA employees," according to court papers. Later he was told to "remove himself from any further handling" of the informant, the documents say.
In the months after the conflict, the operative became the target of two internal investigations, one of them alleging an improper sexual relationship with a female informant, and the other alleging financial improprieties. Krieger said his client cooperated with investigators in both cases and the allegations of wrongdoing were never substantiated. Krieger contends in court documents that the investigations were a "pretext to discredit."
Krieger maintains that his client is being further punished by the agency's decision prohibiting him from fully regaining his identity. "He is not even allowed to attend court hearings about his own case," Krieger said.
CIA spokesman Paul Gimigliano declined to comment on the specifics of the case but flatly rejected the allegation that the agency had suppressed reports. "It would be wrong to suggest that agency managers direct their officers to falsify the intelligence they collect or to suppress it for political reasons," he said. "That's not our policy. That's not what we're about."
European countries, including other Nordic nations Denmark and Iceland, occupy most of the top 10 spots
ELIZABETH WOYKE
Sweden may be better known for cars and couches than computers, but when it comes to access to broadband and cellular networks, it's tops. The Scandinavian country leads the world in "technological readiness," according to the World Economic Forum.
To rank high on the list — one of 12 included in the WEF's annual Global Competitiveness Report — countries need to have tech-friendly government policies as well as high tech usage.
In the ranking, the WEF focuses on information and communication technologies (ICT), such as cellular connectivity and broadband Internet, noting that "ICT has evolved into the 'general-purpose technology' of our time … responsible for a large part of productivity increases."
Rankings are based on a combination of hard data from organizations like the International Telecommunications Union and responses to the WEF's Executive Opinion Survey on topics such as business adoption of technology and laws relating to ICT. About 11,000 business executives in 131 countries participate in the survey.
The technology index is designed to show which countries are adopting technology to become more productive (and thus more competitive). A country need not have actually invented these technologies, just made them widely available. The WEF measures invention skills separately in a complementary "innovation" index.
That paves the way for Sweden to excel. Though home to few ICT multinationals besides telecom supplier Ericsson, the country boasts high broadband Internet penetration and a business-friendly environment, says Dr. Irene Mia, a senior economist at the WEF. It's a formula that has kept Sweden at the top of the ranking for two years.
Nordic countries in general did well this year, with Iceland finishing second and Denmark fifth. Like Sweden, they benefit from government support of technology and a strong focus on education and innovation. Education is both a precondition and an enabler for leveraging technology, notes Mia. Both countries improved their showing this year — Iceland climbing from No. 4, Denmark from No. 10.
Canada failed to make the top 10, ranking 13th in the technological readiness category.
Switzerland (No. 3), the Netherlands (No. 4) and Luxembourg (No. 10) rounded out the strong European showing in the top 10. Switzerland stands out, says Mia, for ranking highly despite lackluster government support for ICT initiatives. Its success is driven by the efforts of businesses and individuals, she says.
Two Asian countries made the top 10: Hong Kong at No. 6 and South Korea at No. 7. In contrast to Switzerland, the Korean government champions ICT and has heavily subsidized broadband construction, notes the WEF. Hong Kong's rank—its highest ever—reflects its increasingly wired citizenry and government. It got a further boost from its business-friendly policies.
Near the bottom: the United States, which scored well in ICT usage, but rated poorly on regulatory issues. After dominating the tech index for years, the U.S. dropped to No. 5 in 2006, No. 8 in 2007 and is currently No. 9.
It's still doing better than Australia, Israel, Singapore and the U.K., which fell off the top-10 list this year.
The WEF isn't the only group seeking to measure countries' technological savvy. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) publishes an annual report on broadband growth and policies among its member countries. Leonard Waverman, a London Business School professor, heads a "Connectivity Scorecard" study that ranks 25 countries based on methodology similar to the WEF's. In the U.S., the Federal Communications Commission and the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation, a nonpartisan think tank, also try to quantify technology use.
Mia says the WEF encourages these studies and recently began gathering experts from other organizations to discuss the gathering of ICT statistics.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Al Qaeda's growing north Africa network plans to attack U.S. interests seeking control of the region's energy riches, its Algerian-based leader said in remarks published on Tuesday.
The network of militants from Mauritania to Libya sees U.S. interests as legitimate targets because Washington backed the region's "criminal" governments and stole Algerian oil, the New York Times quoted Abdelmalek Droukdel as saying.
"We found America building military bases in the south of our country and conducting military exercises, and plundering our oil and planning to get our gas," Droukdel, also known as Abou Mossab Abdelouadoud, was quoted as saying.
"Therefore, it became our right and our duty to ... declare clearly the American interests are legitimate targets."
OPEC member Algeria, Africa's second largest country, denies it has foreign military bases on its soil.
Asked whether his group planned attacks on U.S. soil, Droukdel replied, referring to the U.S. administration: "Everyone must know that we will not hesitate in targeting it whenever we can and wherever it is on this planet."
He said Algeria's banking of its energy export receipts in U.S. and European financial institutions showed that the Algiers government served western interests. He added that French, Spanish and "Jewish" interests were also targets.
The newspaper said Droukdel, believed to based in mountains east of Algiers, had given recorded audio replies to a list of questions submitted by the Times.
His voice had been verified as genuine by a private voice expert who works for federal agencies, the newspaper said.
Droukdel's group has links with like-minded militants in the region and is the most effective armed rebel organization in the OPEC member country of 33 million, which has been fighting an Islamist insurgency since 1992.
He said his group had witnessed an awakening of jihad around the Maghreb, adding without elaborating that this included militants in sub-Saharan oil power Nigeria.
Attacks on U.S. interests have been rare in Algeria.
The most recent was the bombing of a bus carrying foreign oil workers near Algiers in December 2006 which killed an Algerian and a Lebanese and wounded four Britons and an American.
An explosives expert, Droukdel was appointed leader of an Islamist rebel group called the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat in 20094, six years after it was founded with the aim of toppling the government and establishing purist Islamic state.
In October 2003, the group offered its support to the al Qaeda network and in January 2007 the group changed its name to Al Qaeda Organization in the Islamic Maghreb.
Since then it has set off a string of deadly car bombings in and around Algiers, including bombings of United Nations and government buildings in Algiers that killed at least 41 people.
Droukdel said increasing numbers of young men around the region were joining the group out of persistent poverty and anger at what he called the West's war on Islam.
"The large proportion of our mujahedeen (holy war fighters) comes from Algeria. And there is a considerable number of Mauritanians, Libyans, Moroccans, Tunisians, Malians and Nigerians," he said, adding his group's efforts were linked to an attack on the Israeli embassy in Mauritania in February.
He played down reports that his men included significant numbers of north African jihadists who had returned to the region from helping fight U.S. troops in Iraq.
Instead, many of the recruits were people released from prison by the Algerian government since 2006 under a national reconciliation program, he said.
NEW YORK (AP) -- City hospital officials said they were shocked by surveillance footage showing a woman falling from her chair, writhing on the floor and dying as workers failed to help for more than an hour.
Surveillance video shows a woman lying on the hospital floor for almost an hour before anyone helped her.
Esmin Green, 49, had been waiting in the emergency room for nearly 24 hours when she toppled from her seat at 5:32 a.m. June 19, falling face-down on the floor.
She was dead by 6:35, when someone on the medical staff, flagged down by a person in the waiting room, finally approached, nudged Green with her foot and gently prodded her shoulder, as if to wake her.
The staffer left and returned with someone wearing a white lab coat who examined her and summoned help.
Until the staffer's appearance, Green's collapse barely caused a ripple. Other patients waiting a few feet away didn't react. Security guards and a member of the hospital's staff appeared to notice her prone body at least three times but made no visible attempt to see whether she needed help.
One guard didn't even leave his chair, rolling it around a corner to stare at the body and then rolling away a few moments later.
Green, who had been involuntarily committed the previous morning and had waited overnight for a bed, stopped moving about half an hour after she collapsed.
The New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation, which runs the hospital, said six people have been fired as a result of the incident, including security personnel and members of the medical staff.
Green's medical records raised the possibility that someone might have tried to cover up the circumstances of the death.
They contained notations indicating that she was up and about during the time in which the video shows her dying on the floor.
"We are all shocked and distressed by this situation," HHC's president, Alan Aviles, said in a statement. "We express our deep regrets to the patient's family and will ensure a thorough investigation to answer any questions that remain."
Details of the death were disclosed by the hospital June 20, but the case largely remained unnoticed until the video became public.
The psychiatric unit at Kings County Hospital had been a subject of complaints by advocates for the mentally ill.
A state agency, the New York State Mental Hygiene Legal Service, filed a lawsuit a year ago, calling the psychiatric center "a chamber of filth, decay, indifference and danger."
Patients, the suit said, "are subjected to overcrowded and squalid conditions often accompanied by physical abuse and unnecessary and punitive injections of mind-altering drugs."
"From the moment a person steps through the doors," it added, "she is stripped of her freedom and dignity and literally forced to fight for the essentials of life."
The suit was especially critical of the hospital's emergency ward, saying it is so poorly staffed that patients are often marooned there for days while they wait to be evaluated.
Sometimes, the unit runs out of chairs, according to the lawsuit, forcing people to wait on foam mats or on the waiting room floor. The suit also claims that bathrooms are filthy and filled with flies, and that patients who complain too loudly are sometimes handcuffed, beaten or injected with psychotropic drugs.
The office of the city's medical examiner said it was still trying to determine why Green died. She had been brought to the hospital suffering from agitation and psychosis, city officials said.
Other police forces in the US are also introducing cost-saving measures
Soaring fuel prices have forced one police force in the US to increase fines for offending motorists.
From 1 July, motorists caught in Holly Springs, Georgia, will have to pay an extra $12 (£6) to cover the costs of police chasing them down.
The town's police chief says the "fuel surcharge" will generate up to $26,000 (£13,000) in revenue per year.
Recent $4-a-gallon fuel costs have forced other police forces in the US to turn to unusual cost-saving measures.
I was hearing that Delta (Air Lines), pizza deliverers, florists were adding fuel charges to their services, and I thought, why not police departments?
Ken Ball Holly Springs police chief
In Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, police patrols are being ordered out of their cars and onto cycle and foot patrols.
In South Fayette, also in Pennsylvania, officers have been told not to sit parked up with air conditioning on.
The local police chief told his patrols: "If you want to stay cool, park under a tree."
Keeping up patrols
Holly Springs' city council approved the $12 surcharge in all fines for those who commit moving violations late on Monday.
It said the plan was aimed at offsetting fuel prices that had already eaten up almost 60% of the police department's fuel budget for 2008.
The town's police chief, Ken Ball, said the measure would help him to keep up patrols.
"I was hearing that Delta (Air Lines), pizza deliverers, florists were adding fuel charges to their services, and I thought, why not police departments?" Mr Ball was quoted as saying by the USA Today newspaper.
Mr Ball said the fine could be lowered or even scrapped if fuel prices returned to last year's levels of $3-a-gallon.
AP Photo: Semi-automatic handguns and revolvers are seen on top of a glass display case at John...
By MIKE STOBBE, AP Medical Writer
ATLANTA - The Supreme Court's landmark ruling on gun ownership last week focused on citizens' ability to defend themselves from intruders in their homes. But research shows that surprisingly often, gun owners use the weapons on themselves.
Suicides accounted for 55 percent of the nation's nearly 31,000 firearm deaths in 2005, the most recent year for which statistics are available from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
There was nothing unique about that year — gun-related suicides have outnumbered firearm homicides and accidents for 20 of the last 25 years. In 2005, homicides accounted for 40 percent of gun deaths. Accidents accounted for 3 percent. The remaining 2 percent included legal killings, such as when police do the shooting, and cases that involve undetermined intent.
Public-health researchers have concluded that in homes where guns are present, the likelihood that someone in the home will die from suicide or homicide is much greater.
Studies have also shown that homes in which a suicide occurred were three to five times more likely to have a gun present than households that did not experience a suicide, even after accounting for other risk factors.
In a 5-4 decision, the high court on Thursday struck down a handgun ban enacted in the District of Columbia in 1976 and rejected requirements that firearms have trigger locks or be kept disassembled. The ruling left intact the district's licensing restrictions for gun owners.
One public-health study found that suicide and homicide rates in the district dropped after the ban was adopted. The district has allowed shotguns and rifles to be kept in homes if they are registered, kept unloaded and taken apart or equipped with trigger locks.
The American Public Health Association, the American Association of Suicidology and two other groups filed a legal brief supporting the district's ban. The brief challenged arguments that if a gun is not available, suicidal people will just kill themselves using other means.
More than 90 percent of suicide attempts using guns are successful, while the success rate for jumping from high places was 34 percent. The success rate for drug overdose was 2 percent, the brief said, citing studies.
"Other methods are not as lethal," said Jon Vernick, co-director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research in Baltimore.
The high court's majority opinion made no mention of suicide. But in a dissenting opinion, Justice Stephen Breyer used the word 14 times in voicing concern about the impact of striking down the handgun ban.
"If a resident has a handgun in the home that he can use for self-defense, then he has a handgun in the home that he can use to commit suicide or engage in acts of domestic violence," Breyer wrote.
Researchers in other fields have raised questions about the public-health findings on guns.
Gary Kleck, a researcher at Florida State University's College of Criminology and Criminal Justice, estimates there are more than 1 million incidents each year in which firearms are used to prevent an actual or threatened criminal attack.
Public-health experts have said the telephone survey methodology Kleck used likely resulted in an overestimate.
Both sides agree there has been a significant decline in the last decade in public-health research into gun violence.
The CDC traditionally was a primary funder of research on guns and gun-related injuries, allocating more than $2.1 million a year to such projects in the mid-1990s.
But the agency cut back research on the subject after Congress in 1996 ordered that none of the CDC's appropriations be used to promote gun control.
Vernick said the Supreme Court decision underscores the need for further study into what will happen to suicide and homicide rates in the district when the handgun ban is lifted.
Today, the CDC budgets less than $900,000 for firearm-related projects, and most of it is spent to track statistics. The agency no longer funds gun-related policy analysis.
That was an eighth of some $80 weed. 510 Kush. Photo by Anti/LAist
There is an initiative in the works that could end up on the November ballot that allows for marijuana to be sold to anyone, and anywhere that already sells alcohol. Its being called The Inalienable Rights Enforcement Initiative. From the full text of the measure:
This initiative will amend the Constitution of California to defend and safeguard the inalienable rights of the People against infringement by governments and corporations, providing for the lawful growth, sale, and possession of marijuana. Marijuana will be taxed through a system of stamps and licenses--a $5 stamp will be required for the sale of an eighth ounce of marijuana and a $50 annual license will be required for the growth of one marijuana plant. To protect participants and encourage participation in the system, such licenses and stamps will be available anonymously in stores where marijuana is sold.
So instead of getting some quack doctor to give you a prescription for $100 because of your supposed "anxiety" or alleged "insomnia", you will just pay an extra tax each time you buy yourself another 8th.
Aside from allowing all willing adults to be able to buy weed easily, this initiative will start to generate revenue for California, and stimulate our struggling economy. More weed stores means more jobs for Californians, more taxes to be collected, and more people enjoying better weed. And finally marijuana will be put into the same file as Alcohol and Cigarettes where it belongs, instead of it being equated with crack-cocaine and heroine.
The initiative goes on to say why they believe this to be a necessary measure:
We also hold these truths to be self-evident-That, as an intoxicant, marijuana is far less harmful to the health and safety of the People than alcohol--That, as a smoking substance, marijuana is far less addictive or harmful to the health of the People than tobacco--That, even though alcohol is harmful to the health and safety of the People, the prohibition of alcohol from 1920 to 1933 only increased the harms associated with alcohol use: criminals seized control of the alcohol market, crime and violence increased greatly, and poverty, unemployment, and corruption flourished, while otherwise lawful alcohol drinkers were treated as "criminals" subject to detention, arrest, and incarceration, even though they had not harmed the rights of anyone--That, as with alcohol prohibition, the prohibition of marijuana has only increased the harms associated with the use of marijuana: criminals control a multi-billion dollar market, crime and violence have increased greatly, and poverty, unemployment, and corruption flourish, while otherwise law-abiding marijuana smokers are treated as "criminals" subject to detention, arrest, and incarceration, even though they have not harmed the rights of anyone-That the history of marijuana prohibition is a history of repeated injuries and infringements upon the inalienable rights, powers, and best interests of the People.
Fuck Yes! Preach on, brothers! They go on to point out that alcohol, tobacco, and big-pharma lobbyists have the politicians that are supposed to represent the People in their back-pockets and serving the interests of the alcohol, tobacco, and big-pharma industries.
Despite the harms of marijuana prohibition, politicians persist in imposing and upholding marijuana prohibition, because these politicians are not working for the People--they are working for the corporate executives who financed their campaigns, such as corporate executives in the alcohol industry who want to protect their monopoly on intoxication, corporate executives in the tobacco industry who want to protect their monopoly on smoking, corporate executives in the pharmaceutical industry who want to protect their monopoly on expensive medicines, and corporate executives in the many industries threatened by competition with hemp. These corporate executives pull the strings of the government to perpetuate marijuana prohibition despite its harms, because they do not care about the inalienable rights and best interests of the People--they care about taking as much money from the People as possible. These corporate executives also use their control of the mainstream media to make it seem like marijuana prohibition is a failed attempt to serve the interests of the People, censoring the idea that marijuana prohibition is a successful attempt to serve corporate interests at the expense of the People. For these corporate interests, politicians sacrifice the inalienable rights and best interests of the People. This corruption and corporate influence is worse at the national level, where the People can least afford political influence and the media is most effective at manipulating public debate. Because of this corruption, it is futile for the People to turn to the federal government for protection--because the federal government is the source of the harm. The repeated attempts by the People to reduce the harms of marijuana prohibition have been answered only by repeated injury. The harm from marijuana prohibition is ongoing and the need for relief is urgent. Such is the suffering of the People, and such is the necessity that constrains us to alter our former systems of government. A government with a character marked by every act that defines a tyrant is unfit to be the ruler of a free people. Therefore, appealing to humankind for the rightness of our intentions
They need 694,354 signatures by September, 5, 2008. I think it's totally do-able. Its been over a decade since Proposition 215, the Compassionate Use Act of 1996, was passed with over 5 million votes in favor.
So 12 years later... are we more or less tolerant of recreational use of marijuana? For now, we'll have to wait and see.
The prison food that just might be unconstitutionally bad.
By Arin Greenwood
Nobody thinks prison food is haute cuisine, but could it be so bad it's unconstitutional? The question comes up more often than you might think, and there's one dish in particular that so offends the palates of America's prisoners that it's repeatedly been the subject of lawsuits: Nutraloaf.
Nutraloaf (sometimes called Nutri-loaf, sometimes just "the loaf") is served in state prisons around the country. It's not part of the regular menu but is prescribed for inmates who have misbehaved in various ways—usually by proving untrustworthy with their utensils. The loaf provides a full day's nutrients, and it's finger food—no fork necessary.
Prisoners sue over Nutraloaf with some regularity, usually arguing either that their due process rights have been violated (because they are served the punitive loaves without a hearing) or that the dish is so disgusting as to make it cruel and unusual and thus a violation of the Eighth Amendment. Typical of these suits is the 1992 case LeMaire v. Maass. Samuel LeMaire slit a man's throat before going to state prison and attacked his prison guards and fellow prisoners with sharpened poles, feces, and a homemade knife once inside. LeMaire was then put in a Nutraloaf-serving disciplinary unit. Among other complaints about the accommodations there, LeMaire argued that Nutraloaf was cruel and unusual and thus violated his 8th Amendment rights.
A lower court agreed with LeMaire and ordered the prison to serve him something more delicious. The 9th Circuit, however, overturned the lower court's decision, holding that while Nutraloaf may be unappetizing, "The Eighth Amendment requires only that prisoners receive food that is adequate to maintain health; it need not be tasty or aesthetically pleasing."
Prisoners in Illinois, Maryland, Nebraska, New York, Pennsylvania, Washington, and West Virginia, among other states, have sued over Nutraloaf or its equivalent. The latest court to hear a Nutraloaf case is the Vermont Supreme Court, where prisoners argued that Vermont's use of the loaf violated their due process rights. (In Vermont, the punishment is one loaf, served at normal meal times, for up to a week.) Oral arguments (MP3) were heard in March, and a decision is expected to come down by the end of the year. But it doesn't look good for the prisoners. The lawyer representing the prisoners noted that "Nutraloaf has been found to be uniformly unappetizing to everyone who has been served it." To which one justice replied: "Counsel, I've eaten Nutraloaf. And it isn't tasty. But many things I've eaten aren't tasty."
Even unsympathetic courts seem willing to concede that Nutraloaf is pretty disgusting, but after reading through the court filings in these cases, I couldn't shake a nagging question—just how bad is it? Nutraloaf is made differently in different prisons. Vermont's penal cookbook calls for a combination of vegetables, beans, bread, cheese, and raisins. I recently spent $15 on a nearly identical dish at a vegan cafe in New York—and it didn't even have raisins. In a spirit of legal and culinary adventurousness, I decided to make some Nutraloaf of my own.
I chose three test recipes that seemed representative of the various loaves served in prisons across the land: a vegan Nutraloaf from Illinois that is heavy on processed ingredients (and has been the subject of lawsuits); a meat recipe from California that favors fresh, natural ingredients (which has not been challenged in court); and the Nutraloaf from Vermont, the one most recently at issue before a court.
I started with Illinois. I mixed canned spinach in with baked beans, tomato paste, margarine, applesauce, bread crumbs, and garlic powder. Together the ingredients became a thick, odorous, brown paste, which I spread into a loaf pan and put in the oven. After 40 minutes, I took the loaf out of the oven and sliced some off. It was dense and dry and tasted like falafel gone wrong. But instead of it making me feel pleasantly sated like falafel does, even the small test slice I sampled gave me a stomachache.
I cooked up Vermont next, wondering what I'd gotten myself into. Vermont was like Illinois but with raisins and nondairy cheese. I'm a vegetarian, so my sister-in-law Lori volunteered to cook the California loaf, which includes ground beef. As she mixed up the chopped cabbage, diced carrots, cubed potatoes, whole wheat flour, and beans, I realized that what she was making looked delicious, at least compared with the first two loaves. Lori kindly offered to make two California loaves—one with meat and one without, our only deviation from the Nutraloaf recipes.
To test the loaves, I invited friends and relatives over for what I promised would be an educational dinner party. This being Washington, D.C., more than half the adults were lawyers, which I thought gave our experiment a nice jurisprudential twist. To keep the Nutraloaf test authentic, I mandated that my guests eat with their hands; plus, after sneaking in that taste of Illinois earlier in the day, I was worried someone might stab me if I let them use utensils.
I thought I'd start out easy with the loaf that hasn't inspired a lawsuit—yet. California looked nice on the plate, though it didn't quite hold together as a loaf. I picked some off my plate with my fingers. It tasted a bit like vegetarian chili. Not bad. My cousin Steve, a mortgage broker who had sampled the California loaf with meat, disagreed. "It's what you imagine Alpo tastes like," he said. Lori said she liked it and said she'd even consider making it again, though she'd use more spices. Lee, a lawyer and her husband, asked her not to.
Next came Illinois. I couldn't bear to try another piece; the others were divided about whether it was cruel or merely unusual. Lee described Illinois as "absolutely detestable." David, a lawyer, liked it and willingly ate a second piece. Steve summed up Illinois generously: "I think if you like baked beans, you like Illinois. I like baked beans. I wouldn't think it's fair to sue anyone over it."
Last came Vermont. It looked the best of the three—it was moist—and the nondairy cheese and canned carrots gave it a fetching orange color. But it tasted terrible. Mike, a computer guy at NASA, said the raisins were disconcerting; you couldn't tell if they were supposed to be in there or not. Steve said he hated it, but it wasn't the worst thing he'd ever eaten. I asked him what was the worst thing he'd ever eaten. "Cat," he said. "But I didn't know it was cat." David, meanwhile, helped himself to another slice of Illinois, a decision he later came to regret. "The third slice sits a little heavy," he said.
As the night went on, and wine washed away the taste of loaves, we discussed the Eighth Amendment and how bad food would actually have to be in order to be unconstitutional. Kim, a lawyer who works in asylum law and knows a human rights violation when she sees one, said the loaves would have to be extremely bad—considerably worse than any of the food we'd just eaten. Courts have nearly all found that prison food can be unappetizing, cold, and even contain foreign objects, and still not be unconstitutional.
Inmates hoping for relief from the courts for their Nutraloaf punishments aren't likely to get it from the courts. They won't likely get it from the prison cooks, either. When the Vermont prison's lawyer was asked during oral arguments why Nutraloaf couldn't be made more appetizing, he answered that if it were tastier, then prisoners would act up for the privilege of getting Nutraloaf. Hardly a ringing endorsement for the rest of the prison menu.
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NEW YORK (Reuters) - A Minnesota judge has ruled that Wal-Mart Stores Inc violated state wage and hour laws, requiring employees to work off the clock, and the discount retailer could now face more than $2 billion in possible fines. 
Bobo and Joy Dickson bought a house had been headed for foreclosure, but 
I was hearing that Delta (Air Lines), pizza deliverers, florists were adding fuel charges to their services, and I thought, why not police departments? 
