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Fast-Food Strikes Go Global
Mother Jones
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On Thursday, the fast-food strikes that have been spreading around the country are going global.
Workers at restaurants like Burger King, McDonald’s, Wendy’s, and KFC are walking off their jobs in 230 cities around the world to demand a minimum wage of $15 an hour and the right to form a union without retaliation. Strikers will protest in 150 US cities, from New York to Los Angeles, and in 80 foreign cities, from Casablanca to Seoul to Brussels to Buenos Aires.
In Zurich, some protesters are wearing “sad hamburger costumes.” In the Philippines, protestors staged a flash-mob at a Manila McDonald’s during morning rush hour.
The wave of strikes—which began in November 2012, when hundreds of workers walked out of restaurants in New York City—has grown quickly over the past year and a half. The idea behind this coordinated international protest was not just to further raise the profile of the fast-food workers’ movement. With labor unions declining in clout at home, organizers hope that the powerful international unions can help pressure US-based companies into making changes. Last week, the International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers’ Associations—a labor federation composed of 396 trade unions that represent 12 million workers in 126 countries—held a summit in New York City where fast-food workers and union leaders finalized plans for the global strike.
The massive fast-food protests come a few weeks after a recent report on the industry by the left-leaning think tank Demos found that fast-food CEOs are paid a thousand times more than the average franchise worker, who makes about $8.69 an hour. Fast-food wages have dropped by 36 cents an hour since 2010. More than half of the families of fast-food workers rely on public programs like food stamps and Medicaid. (Check out our calculator to see if you could live on a fast-food wage.)
Though the industry has not yet raised wages by any significant amount, the strikes are having an effect. In a March filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, McDonald’s said worker protests might force the company to raise wages this year. And as Salon‘s Josh Eidelson reported earlier this month, the National Restaurant Association, the industry trade group, is growing increasingly worried about the fast-food protests, closely monitoring social media for plans of future actions.
And while Congress is unlikely to raise the federal minimum wage any time soon to the $10.10 an hour wage President Obama proposed in his 2013 State of the Union speech, states are taking up the fight. Over the past year, seven states and the District of Columbia have raised their minimum wages, and 34 states are considering bumping up pay for their lowest-paid workers. In late April, the mayor of Seattle proposed a $15 minimum wage.
Scott DeFife, an executive vice president for the National Restaurant Association, dismisses the movement’s potential. As he told the New York Times on Wednesday, “These are made-for-TV media moments—that’s pretty much it.”
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Roz Chast: The MoJo Years
Mother Jones
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While cartoonist Roz Chast is best known as a fixture in the pages of the New Yorker, back in the day she was also a regular contributor to Mother Jones. Below, we’ve collected Chast’s work from the pages of MoJo between 1983 and 1988.
Plus: Read an interview with Chast about her new cartoon memoir, Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant?
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Animal Planet’s "Call of the Wildman" Abruptly Canceled in Canada
Mother Jones
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Television network Animal Planet Canada has abruptly canceled upcoming episodes of the scandal-tainted reality show Call of the Wildman just days before a new season was scheduled to air, Mother Jones has learned. The show, which follows the antics of the Kentucky animal wrangler known as Turtleman, has come under intense scrutiny after a series of Mother Jones investigative reports exposed mistreatment and neglect of animals—a drugged zebra, dying baby raccoons, a stricken coyote—and possible legal violations by the production. The revelations sparked outrage among fans, gave rise to petitions calling for the show to be canceled, and have led to multiple federal and state investigations.
The Animal Planet Canada team made the programming decision after a meeting on Wednesday to “review our spring programming lineup,” according to a statement emailed to Mother Jones by Jodi Cook, a spokeswoman for Bell Media, the parent company of Animal Planet Canada. Cook suggested that the show was canceled due to a lack of popularity among viewers:
Call of the Wildman has not been resonating with Canadian audiences and the decision was made not to move forward with Season 3 this month as previously announced. We will be replacing that title with content that is more in line with other programming that’s performing well with our Canadian viewers. There are no plans to return Call of the Wildman to our schedule at this time.
The program—touted as a “hit series” in a recent press release from the network—appeared to resonate with fans who visited Animal Planet Canada’s website as recently as last week: “Call of the Wildman is the best show ever. Please, please, please start a new season in 2014. If you don’t, I will never watch animal planet ever again,” read one of several similar comments posted. Another commenter said: “I want new turtle man for 2014. My kids love him and ask everyday when is a new one coming on. Please tell me that it coming on soon.”
Part One: Drugs, Death, and Neglect Behind the Scenes at Animal Planet
Part Two: How a Coyote Suffered (Photo)
Animal Planet Star Was Warned He Was Breaking the Law
Also Read: Our Investigation Into Elephant Abuse at Ringling Bros.
Season three of Call of the Wildman had been scheduled to return to Canadian airwaves on April 7 at 8pm, according to a March 4 press release posted on the company’s website: “Animal Planet’s hit series Call of the Wildman returns for a third ‘snapperlicious’ season with 10 brand-new episodes.” As of late Wednesday, however, that press release had been scrubbed of any reference to the show.
Bell Media did not respond to follow-up questions about the decision, including whether or not Mother Jones’ reporting and the subsequent public outcry had played into dropping the show.
While it’s not unheard of for television schedules to change last-minute, “nobody wants to have that kind of change in a release date that close to anything,” said Paul Dergarabedian, a television and film industry analyst for Rentrak, a media research firm. Given the associated marketing costs, such last-minute changes are likely to be “cause for a bit of a stomach ache on the part of executives.” Amanda Lotz, a media scholar at the University of Michigan, agreed that the move would be financially and logistically undesirable; in this case she speculates that the decision was probably driven by worries about a larger cost: “My suspicion would be that there’s ample concern about the negative publicity” that Animal Planet would face, she said, if it went ahead with the new season.
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Animal Planet’s "Call of the Wildman" Abruptly Canceled in Canada
Can Bobby Jindal Drive Out the GOP’s Demons?
Mother Jones
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Illustration by Marc Burckhardt
BOBBY JINDAL has never been one to wait. And so in November 2012, just one week after Barack Obama was reelected in a race the conservative establishment had long refused to believe it might lose, the 41-year-old governor of Louisiana stuck a knife in Mitt Romney’s back.
The party’s old guard was reeling and Jindal seemed poised to take advantage and confirm that he was a contender to lead the party in 2016. In winning a second gubernatorial term one year earlier, Jindal had crushed his top Democratic challenger by nearly 50 points, helping Republicans take control of the state Senate for the first time since Reconstruction. As Romney exited the national stage, Jindal was locking down the chairmanship of the Republican Governors Association (RGA), a perch that is generally considered a steppingstone to bigger things because of its access to a national network of conservative donors. And in his personal story and ethnic heritage, he offered a walking counterpoint to his party’s demographic stagnation.
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Sochi Cheat Sheet: 18 Olympians Worth Rooting For
Mother Jones
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Yesterday, during slopestyle qualifiers at the Winter Olympics, Dutch snowboarder Cheryl Maas became the first Olympian to act in direct opposition of Russia’s bigoted anti-gay law when she stared into a television camera and shoved a rainbow-colored unicorn glove at the lens. In doing so, the defiant winter veteran—one of only six openly gay competitors in Sochi—carried on a long tradition of athletes injecting a little character and dissent into the Games, reminding us just why we love sports to begin with.
Considering the staggering tales of mismanagement, corruption, and regional terrorist threats, here are 17 more Olympians we’re hoping do the same:
THE FIVE OTHER OPENLY GAY ATHLETES
SSA TV/Youtube
Partly because of boycotts, and partly because of Russia’s anti-LGBT law, just five other gay athletes—all women—are joining Maas in openly competing in this year’s Games. Four of them—Ireen Wüst (a gold-medal-winning Dutch speed skater), Sanne van Kerkhof (a Dutch short-track speedskater), Barbara Jezeršek (a Slovenian cross-country skier), and Anatasia Bucsis (a Canadian speed skater) are also previous Olympians. For Belle Brockhoff, an Australian snowboarder who came out as gay specifically to protest the Russian law, Sochi is her first Olympic competition. In an interview with the BBC, she explained: “I want to go there because I’m not afraid of these laws and I want others that live in Russia, who are homosexuals, to see that.”
SHIVA KESHAVAN
Imago/Zuma
Last year, the Indian Olympic Association was suspended on allegations of corruption. As a result, none of India’s three Olympic athletes will be allowed to compete under the Indian flag in Sochi. But luger Shiva Keshavan is sliding anyway—and he’s doing so in a multicolored, patterned cap intended to represented his home village. Keshavan is no stranger to fighting the odds: At 16, became the youngest luger in history, and now competes without a coach or winter sports infrastructure. Despite Keshavan winning gold in the 2011 and 2012 Asia cups, acting IOA president Vijay Kumar Malhotra insists that the Indian winter athletes don’t stand a chance of winning. Still, this will be Keshavan’s fifth Olympiad—with or without his country’s official backing.
LANNY BARNES
WBUR/Flickr
Perhaps this year’s quintessential Olympic tale of selflessness, Lanny and Tracy Barnes’ story will melt the icy cockles of your cynical heart. The twin sisters were both expected to qualify for Sochi, but during the final round of US biathlon qualifiers, Lanny fell too ill to compete and was forced to stay home. Tracy, though, made the cut. A week later, Tracy sacrificed her spot so Lanny could race instead. “Love is selfless dedication,” she explained in an interview. “Love means giving up your dream so somebody else can realize theirs.” Though they’re both Olympic veterans, Tracy’s withdrawal comes only four years after barely missing the 2010 Olympics.
NORWEGIAN CURLING TEAM
Cameron Yee/Flickr
In recent years, curling has seen an unexpected and surging growth in popularity. If you tuned in to the 2010 Vancouver Games, you might recall Norway’s amazing patterned pants during its silver-medal-winning performance. In Sochi, the team will don even more outrageous outfits: 1970s-inspired red, blue, and white zig-zag suits referencing the nation’s flag. Appreciation for the team’s loud sense of style even spawned a Facebook page with more than 540,000 fans—nearly as many people as live in Oslo.
YOHAN GOUTT GONCALVES
Yohan Goutt Goncalves/Wikimedia Commons
Goncalves is the first athlete to ever compete in the Winter Olympics for East Timor, a country that’s never seen snow. In fact, the country’s annual temperature stays around 85 degrees. Competing in the ski slalom, Goncalves wants to go to Sochi as a “diplomat” to show that there is “more to East Timor than war.” That’s more than we can say about his mariachi-suited slalom competitor.
JAMAICAN BOBSLED TEAM
Olympics/Youtube
Heading to the Winter Olympics for the first time in more than a decade, the Jamaican bobsled team has fans hoping for Cool Runnings 2.0. Jamaica’s inaugural bobsled run, in the 1988 Calgary Olympics, ended in a disastrous crash. Upon arriving in Sochi, the team was further hindered as a result of the airport temporarily losing the competitors’ clothes and equipment. Still, 12 years since their last appearance, and crowd-funded by more than $184,000, the two-man team is looking for redemption.
US WOMEN’S SKI JUMPING TEAM
Mht54321/Wikimedia Commons
2014 marks the first year women’s ski jumping will be an Olympic event, with advocacy by American Lindsay Van largely responsible for bringing it there. In an interview on Rock Center With Brian Williams, Van explained how sexism kept the event out of the Olympics for years. (In 2006, International Ski Federation President Gian Franco Kasper said, “It’s like jumping down from, let’s say, about two meters on the ground about a thousand times a year, which seems not to be appropriate for ladies from a medical point of view.”) Now, along with teammates Jessica Jerome and Sarah Hendrickson—a medal favorite who’s recovering from an ACL injury—Van finally will see her hard work come to fruition at the Olympics.
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Big builders hoarding fracking rights beneath new homes
Big builders hoarding fracking rights beneath new homes
What lies beneath? Whatever it is, it ain’t yours.
Some American developers have begun quietly holding on to the rights to frack and mine beneath the cookie-cutter houses they sell — and many homebuyers don’t realize it.
From a big investigative report by Reuters:
[T]ens of thousands of families … have in recent years moved into new homes where their developers or homebuilders, with little or no prior disclosure, kept all the underlying mineral rights for themselves, a Reuters review of county property records in 25 states shows. …
This is happening in regions far beyond the traditional American oil patch, which has a long history of selling subsurface rights.
“All the smart developers are doing it,” says Lance Astrella, a Denver lawyer who represents mineral-rights owners, including homebuilders, in deals with energy companies.
Among the smart ones are private firms like Oakwood Homes in Colorado, the Groce Companies in North Carolina, Wynne/Jackson in Texas, and Shea Homes, which builds coast to coast. Publicly traded companies that engage in the practice include the Ryland Group, Pulte Homes and Beazer Homes, according to oil and gas attorneys and public land records.
The practice doesn’t just deny mineral rights to homeowners — it can strip away any power they might otherwise have to prevent fracking beneath their feet.
And if fracking does start, homeowners could have problems refinancing or selling their homes. As Grist recently reported, banks are becoming increasingly wary about offering mortgages for properties if there’s fracking happening beneath or even near them.
Source
U.S. builders hoard mineral rights under new homes, Reuters
John Upton is a science fan and green news boffin who tweets, posts articles to Facebook, and blogs about ecology. He welcomes reader questions, tips, and incoherent rants: johnupton@gmail.com.
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"This Is Morally Wrong": Watch Elizabeth Warren on GOP and Student Loans
Mother Jones
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On Thursday, Sen. Elizabeth Warren slammed Republicans for blocking a bill that would give Americans relief on their student loan debt.
Student loan interest rates are set to double from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent on July 1 unless Congress acts. Warren has introduced a short-term plan that would drop rates on federal loans for needy students to near zero for a year, and Sens. Jack Reed (D-RI), and Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) have co-sponsored a bill that would freeze interest rates at 3.4 percent for two years. But the GOP has other ideas. Yesterday, Senate Republicans blocked passage of Reed and Harkin’s bill, arguing instead for plans that Republicans in both chambers have introduced that would increase interest rates on student loans.
Warren suggested the GOP was morally bankrupt for blocking the student loan proposals. Here is part of her speech:
There are strong proposals on the table that would keep interest rates low while Congress has time to work out a permanent solution. And yet, Congress fails to act. Why? Two issues: money and values.
First, money. Some have argued that we can’t afford to keep interest rates low. But let’s be clear: Right now the federal government is making a profit from our students. Just last month, the Congressional Budget Office calculated that the government will make $51 billion this year off student loans…
Yet two weeks ago, House Republicans passed a plan that would produce higher profits off the backs of our college students. And here in the Senate, Senator Coburn has introduced a similar bill that makes student loans more profitable…
The second issue is values….Have we become a people who will support our big banks with nearly free loans, while we crush our kids who are trying to get an education?…This is morally wrong, and we must put a stop to it.
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"This Is Morally Wrong": Watch Elizabeth Warren on GOP and Student Loans
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