#US Dept. of Labor

[wausaupilot]

JUST IN: US Dept. of Labor files complaint against North Central Health Care

North Central Health Care is accused of willfully, repeatedly violating the Fair Labor Standards Act by failing to pay employees overtime in its community treatment program, according to a May 14 federal complaint filed by the U.S. Department of Labor.

By Shereen Siewert | Wausau Pilot & Review North Central Health Care is accused of willfully, repeatedly violating the Fair Labor Standards Act by failing to pay employees overtime in its community treatment program, according to a May 14 federal complaint filed by the U.S. Department of Labor. Federal officials say a Wage and Hour Division investigation found NCHC failed to keep accurate and…

[iww-gnv]

INDIANAPOLIS — The U.S. Department of Labor says more than 1,600 Indiana workers are owed more than $1.2 million in back wages that have been recovered. A large portion of that money has remained unclaimed because some of the workers haven't been able to be located, the department said.  Employees changing jobs or addresses, name changes and employers failing to retain contact information are among some of the reasons employees may not be located. The U.S. Department of Labor has created an online search tool where workers can enter information to find out if the department is holding back wages on their behalf.

[leaughrilke]

love finding out my former employer violated federal labor laws

[lullabyes22-blog]

As Arcane S2 rolls around the corner, please remember...

That however beautiful this animated endeavor is, it remains the property of corporate giants like Riot, and streaming platforms like Netflix - both of which are notorious for

a) jumping that shark on successful premises due to a superabundance of bad suggestions trickling down to the creative depts in the form of Insipid Emails from Corporate

b) milking successful premises past the point of exhaustion due to their own success and leaving their twitching, feeble, barely-breathing remains to die an unceremonious death in the shadows of media obscurity, and

c) replacing their successful creators with less creative ones to save costs, because they don't understand the value of the creative input behind the show's success.

Please consider supporting the mobilization of workers/creatives on all shows - not just Arcane - to stop corporate meddling in the form of budget cuts and unfair wages, while their CEOs + board members continue to take home billions.

Please consider both petitioning and demanding that platforms like Netflix grow a spine and phase out the 'all episodes released at once' model, which actively harms the actors, animators, writers, costume designers, set departments, VFX experts and everyone else that worked hard on the series, by cheating them out of the right to receive paychecks and residuals over the lifespan of the show, instead of the cheapened instant gratification of a single deposit.

Please consider calling out Netflix on the need to have more episodes released per season on their shows, so writers, voice-actors, sound engineers and many others will have a steady stream of payments instead of an unpredictable one, and to give the characters, and the writers who wrote them, some breathing space instead of cramming all the plot points into 9 or 10 episodes.

Please remember that the creatives are often the public face of a franchise, and are often thrown into the line of fire when narrative decisions are made behind the scenes - decisions that they do not necessarily agree with, and are often not in control of, but are forced to sell anyway, lest they be replaced.

Please remember that hateful, threatening, and abusive behavior is not what we should be about as fans - and that the creatives who work on these shows/projects often read our comments, and feel the weight of our expectations and emotions.

Please consider supporting your creatives and showrunners as individuals, not just as "the person who makes X".

Please consider getting LOUD AF on Twitter/X about the bungling of character arcs via hashtags - and directing the vitriol @ the company producing the show, not the poor creators - because corporate runs numbers on that kind of stuff, and if there's a perceived furor about certain narrative directions/plotlines, they're less likely to ignore it and more likely to cave, because of the bottom line.

Please remember that a majority of dismal creative choices have come as a result of corporate/big tech pushing the button on creative decisions - and that, in order for us to be heard, we have to use our collective voice to push back, and keep pushing back until the message sinks in.

Please remember that beyond protecting a beloved series, it's about fighting to protect the people behind it, the same way they fought for the integrity of the story, and the characters, in their telling.

And, while we're at it, please support people within fandom spaces - like fanartists and fanfic writers - who share their labor of love for free, and don't get paid a cent, except in goodwill and appreciation.

Remember that fandoms are, first and foremost, a community.

It is not about content, but people.

Let's be good to each other, and to the creatives, and keep fighting for them to be treated well by the companies and executives who make money off their labor, and profit off our love.

<3

Some sources for funding. Feel free to add more.

The Animator Dormitory Project 2023

Grants for Writers in Need

Pen America

Entertainment Community

[reasonsforhope]

"Around the capital beltway or Washington’s famous Rock Creek Park, you may see a group of people ripping up vines along the treeline beside the roads.

If you have then you’ve glimpsed superheroes who traded in their capes for gardening gloves and their time for the satisfaction of terminating an invasive species and saving a native tree.

Washington D.C’s “Weed Warriors” are a group of volunteers going back to 1999 that work for free to keep hundreds of species of invasive shrubs, vines, and climbers from taking over native ecosystems.

Among the 600 or so non-native invasive plant species found in and around our nation’s capital, some like Polygonum perfoliatum, also known as “mile-a-minute” vine, can be devastating. Suffocating trees by overgrowing the leaves in their canopy branches, mile-a-minute can kill thousands of trees every year.

Since 1999, Weed Warrior volunteers have logged over 135,000 hours of time weed whacking in Montgomery County alone. Anyone can become a Weed Warrior; the group works in units for two-hour spaces removing weeds or planting native species in their place.

These invasive species management events are led by specially-trained volunteer Weed Warrior Supervisors and/or staff from the Montgomery Parks Dept. Warriors can get certified to de-weed in their spare time, or lead events on their own. They can even have their own unique patch of ground in the D.C.-Metro area to control.

Why would anyone want to trade their free time or laboring hours away for free doing something our tax dollars are supposed to do for us? The answer is simple: it’s addicting.

“If I have any good mental health, it’s due to Weed Warrioring,” said 74-year-old area resident Barbara Francisco. “You have a sense of accomplishment.” ...

The Weed Warriors website states that non-native, invasive plant species (NNIs) can alter the complex webs of plant-animal associations that have evolved over thousands of years to such a degree that plants and animals once familiar to us are eliminated...

Anyone who feels this is something they want to contribute their time to can go to the Montgomery County Parks website here and look at the upcoming Weed Warrior events—the next one is October 21st."

-via Good News Network, October 12, 2023

[justinspoliticalcorner]

ZACHARY PLEAT & CRAIG HARRINGTON at MMFA:

Following the June 7 release of the latest federal jobs report — which showed that employment increased by 272,000 jobs in May, far more than the expectations of 180,000 jobs — many right-wing commentators responded by denouncing the job creation witnessed during the Biden administration for mostly going to “foreign-born workers” versus “native-born.” In some cases, these commentators indirectly or even explicitly referred to the racist “great replacement” conspiracy theory, a white nationalist belief that immigration is being used to intentionally decrease the share of white people in the total population to benefit a left-wing political agenda. What these right-wing conspiracy theorists overlooked in their complaints about job growth among “foreign-born” workers is that nearly half of that group are already American citizens, while millions more are lawful permanent residents who legally work in the United States.

Conservatives denigrated the positive jobs report by highlighting job gain for foreign-born workers

Multiple right-wing media personalities, conservative outlets, and even Republican officials criticized the jobs report for showing gains by foreign-born workers and losses for native-born workers. On its @GOP account on X (formerly known as Twitter), the Republican National Committee posted: “Employment for native-born American workers fell by 663,000 last month per today’s jobs report.” Heritage Foundation economist E.J. Antoni wrote: “No wonder Americans view economy so terribly: they aren't the ones w/ the jobs; native-born employment is not only millions below pre-pandemic trend, but even below pre-pandemic level, while millions more foreign workers are employed today than Feb '20, and back to trend.” Antoni later added, “All of the net job growth over the last year has gone to foreign-born workers, (a category which the Labor Dept. admits includes illegal aliens) while native-born Americans have lost a net 300k jobs.” Other responses were more explicit in connecting the jobs report numbers to immigration policy. Breitbart posted: “Border remains open, jobs report exceeds expectations. Simple as.” Former Fox News producer Kyle Becker wrote: “Where are Americans' jobs going? The Foreign Born. Illegal aliens literally ‘took our jobs.’” And MAGA strategist Alex Bruesewitz wrote: “Biden continues to put illegals ahead of Americans.”

Right-wing media respond to the May Jobs report with baseless nativism.

[lindstromm]

Railway Workers have paid sick days - Joe Biden got it done.

Did tumblr miss that? I've seen a couple people saying that Biden didn't stand up for the railway workers. When the railway workers were threatening to strike just before Christmas 2022, Biden cooperated with legislation that broke the strike and did NOT give railway workers their sick days. People were upset about that, but it turned out Biden never quit working on the issue.

A few months later, Biden's administration announced that they had kept working on the issue behind the scenes, out of the public eye. Railway workers got their paid sick days AND Biden kept the economy open during the Christmas season.

“We’re thankful that the Biden administration played the long game on sick days and stuck with us for months after Congress imposed our updated national agreement,” [Railroad Dept Director] Russo said. “Without making a big show of it, Joe Biden and members of his administration in the Transportation and Labor departments have been working continuously to get guaranteed paid sick days for all railroad workers.

Biden doesn't do grandstanding. He just gets the job done. He ought to blow his own horn a bit more; most people don't realize just how much good he's done this country.

[darkmaga-retard]

By Olivia Murray

According to the government’s own number crunchers, the average cost of urban rent surged 23% in just three years of Biden-Harris, with the housing cost increase impacting “midwestern cities slightly worse” with a 24% rise.

Here’s the story, from a report at Breitbart:

The nationwide rent average has shot up by 23 percent under the Biden-Harris administration, new Consumer Price Index (CPI) data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) shows. After President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris took office in January 2021, the CPI across all urban renters rose slightly by February. By August 2024, the index gained 79 points — a 23 percent increase from 342 to 421.

Well, when the politicians in charge of the nation are adhering to the Cloward-Piven strategy and importing impoverished welfare recipients so they can use them as a political weapon—in this case dropping “illegal alien bombs” on American cities and towns—a surge in the cost of housing is entirely expected. (Credit to a random online commenter for the great analogy.)

As I mentioned initially, the areas that are hit the hardest are the “midwestern” cities, or in other words, urban locations in many of the states that largely support… President Trump.

[some1s-sista]

It was so warm today I talked James into taking a hike with me through Pettigrew State Forest. General Pettigrew led his Southern troops in the disastrous (for the South) Pickett’s Charge at Gettysburg. He was born here, was mortally wounded in VA, died and was brought back to be buried at the family plantation, Bonarva.

So there’s nothing left of that plantation except the family graveyard. But you can walk the trail between Somerset Place Plantation and the site of Bonarva (they used to face each other). The park TOTALLY lies about the cemetery being 1 mile away. It’s a mile to the next plaque at the corner of what would’ve been the site of the Pettigrew Plantation but another half mile to the site of the cemetery which sits up higher on the trail where the trail gives way from the Forrest to an open farm field.

I opened the gate and walked up the stairs to the grave sites while Jim protested. “You can’t go in there” “Why not? Are the cops gonna jump out from behind that tree over there? Besides, it’s not locked up.” So I stepped inside, wished everyone a Merry Christmas, told them I meant no harm, just interested in history and apologized if I was walking over anyone.

There are three unmarked graves in there for the last surviving members of the family. After the civil war the plantation system fell apart with no free labor to rely on and the family lost their money and lands and couldn’t afford headstones for them. Kharma.

So then we turned around and headed back out. The trail must’ve been beautiful once. There are still some magnolias and such lining it as it would have been the path to walk between the plantations. That last picture is Somerset Plantation making its appearance at the end of the trail.

I find it telling that the generals grave site is still taken care of to this day but they have no idea as to the location of slaves’ gravesite. Told my husband if I were part of the state forest system, or the dept that handles the Somerset site I’d be trying to get some ground penetrating radar out here to find out where it is.

So interesting hike. We also saw tons of deer, bear, and coyote tracks. Some campers. And parts of the canal system (all built on the backs of slaves) some still working, others long abandoned. We’ll go back, with a map next time to explore those at some point.

[highpriestessofchildsacrifice]

Rich ppl rely on the same govt services that everyone else does. But more importantly I have no idea why they act like they can't pay taxes relative to their income

You benefit from govt services more than anyone else

Do you think your investment income just appears out of thin air.. it grows from companies using the earth the land the oceans the streets the roadways. It grows from the labor of ppl who have been educated in our school systems

Your beautiful home is born from housing codes and trash maintenance and sewage units and oil pipelines and the dept of electricity and govt oversight over produce, transport, gas, medicine

and every time you reactionary idiots want a war or a border wall or to drone some country or get a good price on gas for your European cars ----- that is also funded by taxpayer dollars lol

[wausaupilot]

Sun Prairie company to pay $1.8M in fines related to 2017 mill explosion that killed 5 workers

Didion Milling Inc. will pay over $1.8 million in fines related to a 2017 explosion at a corn mill in Cambria that killed five workers and left more than a dozen injured.

By Joe Schulz | Wisconsin Public Radio Didion Milling Inc. will pay over $1.8 million in fines related to a 2017 explosion at a corn mill in Cambria that killed five workers and left more than a dozen injured. The U.S. Department of Labor announced the settlement with the Sun Prairie-based company Thursday, saying Didion Milling also agreed to make “extensive safety and health…

[iww-gnv]

A Naples restaurant that charges $129 for a three-course prix fixe menu — $149 if you order the tenderloin — lied about jobs, stole tips, improperly paid and otherwise abused workers from the U.S. and imported via H-2B visa program, U.S. Department of Labor said. Labor announced that Sails Restaurant paid $184,139 in back wages to 56 workers, $3,288.19 per employee, and a $53,536 civil money penalty for H-2B program violations.

[todaysdocument]

The Yuma County Water Users Association wrote to the Immigration and Naturalization Service on April 23, 1943, asking that Mexican workers from neighboring Sonora be allowed to stay in the U.S. to help with the harvest. 

Record Group 85: Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service

Series: Subject and Policy Files

File Unit: 55854/100H

Transcription: 

[stamps read "SPECIAL" and "VIA WESTERN UNION"]

WUG 26 111

YUMA ARIZ APR 23 148P

EARL H HARISON COMM IMMI AND NAT

DIV DEPT OF JUSTICE

THIS FARMING AREA RAISING ALFALFA FLAX AND OTHER VITAL WAR CROPS SERIOUSLY SHORT OF FARM LABOR BUT SITUATION COULD BE RELIEVED IF MEXICANS FROM ADJACENT SONORA WERE ALLOWED TO HELP IN HARVEST NOW COMMENCING. SOME SONORA MEXICANS HAVE DRIFTED IN DURING THE PAST FEW MONTHS BUT FACE IMMEDIATE DEPORTATION. MEXICANS RECRUITED BY A F S FROM INTERIOR MEXICOS HIGH ALTITUDE AND COOL CLIMATE CANNOT STAND OUT HEAD AND MOST OF THEM HAVE LEFT. BORDER MEXICANS FROM SONORA AN LOWER CALIFORNIA USED TO OUR CLIMATE ARE EXPERIENCED FARMERS. THIS HELP ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY TO HARVEST VITALLY ESSENTIAL WAR CROPS. CAN DEPORTATION BE STAVED TEMPORARILY OR UNTIL AUTHORITY FOR LEGAL ENTRY CAN BE SECURED

YUMA COUNTY WATER USERS ASSOCIATION HENRY FRAUENFELDER PRESIDENT.

FSA

725P.

[Pencil marks reads "/3/6" or "1316"]

[stamp reads "A MESSAGE CENTER P.M. APR 23 (illegible) & NATZ SERVICE DEPT OF JUSTICE" and "SPECIAL"]

[msclaritea]

It's Scientology: Life After A Cult morning recap. The gang had a hugely positive get together down in Clearwater, Pasadena Scientology is in hot water with the local Fire department, and more drama at the Chicago Scientology org.

Good Natalie Webster talks about and confirms that the Cult of #Scientology has engaged in widespread abuse of men, women and most especially children. They have kidnapped children away from their families through forced separation, using them for Labor. This evil crap has been going on for decades in our supposedly Democratic country; not one finger lifted by the government to stop this. EVIL.

[tarantula-hawk-wasp]

Endearing myself to the old men in the maintenance dept of the museum I intern at with my enthusiasm for manual labor and my dutiful usefulness

[thepastisalreadywritten]

Featured image: A detail of the basalt Rosetta Stone (Photo at All-len-All)

A mystery surrounds the death of a 19th century-Frenchman who unraveled a great mystery—the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs.

Jean-Francois Champollion died young after deciphering the Rosetta Stone, which unlocked the keys to the many enigmatic and beautiful hieroglyphic texts discovered in ruins, up and down the length of Egypt.

It gave modern people a much greater understanding of that great civilization.

Champollion was born on 23 December 1790 in France and died there on 4 March 1832, after visiting Egypt in 1829.

He had felt symptoms of malaise before departing for Egypt, according to a letter to the editor of the journal Clinical Neurophysiology by Dr. Hutan Ashrafian of the Department of Surgery and Cancer, Imperial College-London.

Jean-Francois Champollion is considered amongst the greatest linguists of all time; his decipherment of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs and the Rosetta stone has led some to consider him the ‘‘Father of Egyptology.’’

His early death at the age of forty-one has typically been ascribed to fatigue and exhaustion from overwork on a year-long visit to Egypt.

This journey is reported as having initiated his progressive demise following the return to his native France, where he died from a reported stroke two years later.’ —H. Ashrafian

Dr. Ashrafian writes that the term “stroke” is used here in a generic sense rather than a formal medical diagnosis.

His family has refused to allow an autopsy but studying reports of Champollion’s condition has led the doctor to draw some conclusions about the death of the great scholar.

While in Egypt, Champollion did not suffer from lymph disease or fevers. But later in life, Champollion suffered from muscle weakness, limb paralysis, and ultimately, could not breathe.

He didn’t suffer from heart disease or lack of blood flow.

“Furthermore, at the moment of decipherment of hieroglyphs (1828), he is noted to have collapsed, though this may be viewed as a vasovagal [fainting] episode as a result of extreme emotional outpouring.

In his final weeks, he became emotionally labile consistent with progression of pseudobulbar dysfunction and eventually demonstrated a ‘locked-in’ syndrome before his death.”

Pseudobulbar dysfunction means he was unable to speak.

It may be considered ironic that a man who gave a ‘voice’ to the people of ancient Egypt and opened their world to modern scholars like never before was unable to articulate his own thoughts just before he died.

Given that he was not mentally impaired, did not have seizures but first suffered from weakness in his legs, and later was unable to speak, led Dr. Ashrafian to conclude Champollion had amyotrophic lateral sclerosis—or total paralysis of his muscles.

Exhausted by his labors during and after his scientific expedition to Egypt, Champollion died of an apoplectic attack (stroke) in Paris on 4 March 1832 at the age of 41.

His body was buried in Père Lachaise Cemetery. On his tomb is a simple obelisk erected by his wife and a stone slab stating simply:

Ici repose Jean-François Champollion, né à Figeac dept. du Lot le 23 décembre 1790, décédé à Paris le 4 mars 1832

(Here rests Jean-François Champollion, born at Figeac, Department of the Lot, on 23 December 1790, died at Paris on 4 March 1832).

Words of the Gods

The word hieroglyph means “sacred words” or “sacred signs.”

Clement of Alexandria was the first to use the word. Ancient Egyptians called their script mdju netjer or “words of the gods.”

The first known hieroglyphs date to around 3400 to 3200 BC, the pre-dynastic era.

The last known hieroglyphs were carved in stone around 394 AD.

The Rosetta Stone, found by Frenchmen in 1799 in a fort at the town of Rosetta during Napoleon’s occupation of Egypt, has hieroglyphs, Egyptian demotic, and ancient Greek translations of the same text.

Champollion, who had taught himself ancient languages, was able to decipher its meaning and unlock the entire script.

A full translation of the Rosetta Stone can be viewed at the British Museum, which acquired the document and other artifacts after Napoleon’s defeat.

Here is an excerpt:

‘Whereas King Ptolemy, living forever, the Manifest God whose excellence is fine, son of King Ptolemy [and Queen] Arsinoe, the Father-loving Gods, is wont to do many favours for the temples of Egypt and for all those who are subject to his kingship, he being a god, the son of a god and a goddess;

and being like Horus, son of Isis and Osiris, who protects his father Osiris, and his heart being beneficent concerning the gods, since he has given much money and much grain to the temples of Egypt, [he having undertaken great expenses] in order to create peace in Egypt and to establish the temples, and having rewarded all the forces that are subject to his rulership;

and of the revenues and taxes that were in force in Egypt he had reduced some or(?) had renounced them completely, in order to cause the army and all the other people to be prosperous in his time as [king].’

Ancient Egyptians carved hieroglyphs into clay seals, rock, pottery vessels, and bone and ivory.

The Rosetta Stone scripts are carved in basalt.