When you leave a tip, your server may not get the money

Tipping the Scales Against Workers

By Phil Mattera for the Dirt Diggers Digest

Donald Trump built his presidential campaign on the claim that he would be a champion for working people, yet his administration finds one way after another to tip the scales in favor of employers. The latest example involves tips themselves.

In December the Labor Department, bowing to the wishes of the National Restaurant Association, proposed to rescind an Obama Administration rule that prohibited employers from pooling tips. 

The rule had been adopted to prevent restaurant owners from claiming a share of the gratuities.

While the DOL has claimed that the change would benefit back-of-house workers who don’t directly receive tips, groups such as Restaurant Opportunities Centers (ROC) United say that employers often grab a portion of tips when it is not permitted and that legalizing the practice will only encourage owners to take more.

It turns out that ROC United’s position is shared but some at DOL, but those views are being suppressed. Bloomberg has just reported that political officials at the department rejected an internal analysis concluding that workers could lose billions of dollars from tip pooling. 

DOL sources told Bloomberg that the officials ordered staffers to change their methodology to reach a different conclusion.

Making the World Safe for Loan Sharks

Trump’s Consumer Protection Office Helps Payday Loan Companies Exploit Borrowers

By Sarah Okeson

The trade group for the payday loan industry, which profits from interest rates as high as 950% a year imposed on the poorest among us, is planning to hold its annual conference this year at Trump’s golf resort near Miami.

The industry will have a lot to celebrate at the four-day conference in April of the Community Financial Services Association of America, which spent $460,000 on federal lobbying in 2017. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, our nation’s independent agency that is supposed to be a watchdog for consumers, recently announced that the bureau will reconsider a rule that could have cut industry revenue by two-thirds.

The bureau also ended an investigation into an installment lender whose PAC gave at least $4,500 in campaign donations to Mick Mulvaney, the former South Carolina congressman who is now the acting head of the bureau. 

The bureau also dropped a lawsuit in Kansas against four payday lending companies that charged interest rates of 440% to 950%.

VIDEO: Justin Price once again shows off his alt-right hate credentials

An open letter to Representative Justin Price: Educate yourself

Melanie DuPont in UpriseRI

To watch Justin Price on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXhI4_MEADY. Maybe Justin Price is traumatized by his own LOLA experience (or click on it at the end of this article. That's a great song, by the way. Also, if you go to the link for this article in UpriseRI, you can find lots of additional video of this hearing.

To: Representative Justin Price (Republican, District 39, Richmond, Exeter, Hopkinton)

At Tuesday night’s (January 30) hearing of House Bill H7066, you stated that you “represent the heterosexual community.”

You do not.

My name is Melanie DuPont, and I am one member of the considerable part of the heterosexual community working to decrease human suffering. And I vote.

Representative Price, your queries and comments here tonight, during the testimony in favor of 7066, betray an ignorance that comes from isolating yourself from the facts that make you uncomfortable.

I encourage you to alleviate your ignorance by putting aside your biases, prejudices, and sense of entitlement to a surprise-free life, and– You know what? I was going to say, “Go burden the LGBTQ community by reaching out to a lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer acquaintance or family member, who is not terrified of what your bigotry means to the number of years they can expect to live, and ask them to smarten you up.”

Instead, I suggest you binge-watch, I don’t know, “Modern Family” or “Will & Grace” or any other series that will warm you up to the idea that LGBTQ people are humans who deserve to live, even after you get angry. (Side note: it’s legal to get angry. It’s not legal to strike people in anger.)

Your repeated implication tonight, that surprise and anger justify homicide against LGBTQ humans, and the idea that sudden knowledge of a person’s gender identity or sexual orientation excuses assaulters and murderers from taking responsibility for their bigoted, violent actions…those assertions turn my stomach. 

The Art of the Heel

For more cartoons by Ted Rall, CLICK HERE.

Role model

New report one of the most comprehensive studies on health effects of e-cigarettes

Finds that using e-cigarettes may lead youth to start smoking, adults to stop smoking
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine

A new congressionally mandated report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine takes a comprehensive look at evidence on the human health effects of e-cigarettes. 

Although the research base is limited given the relatively short time e-cigarettes have been used, the committee that conducted the study identified and examined over 800 peer-reviewed scientific studies, reaching dozens of conclusions about a range of health impacts.

Evidence suggests that while e-cigarettes are not without health risks, they are likely to be far less harmful than conventional cigarettes, the report says. 

They contain fewer numbers and lower levels of toxic substances than conventional cigarettes, and using e-cigarettes may help adults who smoke conventional cigarettes quit smoking. However, their long-term health effects are not yet clear. 

Among youth -- who use e-cigarettes at higher rates than adults do -- there is substantial evidence that e-cigarette use increases the risk of transitioning to smoking conventional cigarettes.

Monday, help support Mystic's seal rescue program

Support Mystic Aquarium's Animal Rescue Program!

Monday, February 5

Enjoy lunch, dinner or both at either Dog Watch Cafe location and they'll donate 15% of your check to the Animal Rescue Program - just let your server know you're there to support Mystic Aquarium!

Dog Watch Cafe 194 Water Street Stonington, CT Dog Watch Mystic 20 Old Stonington Road Stonington, CT

Help Us Send Steve Splashing!

Meet Dr. Steve Coan, Mystic Aquarium's President and CEO. Dr. Coan has always been an ardent cheerleader for the Aquarium's Animal Rescue Program and its annual Seal Splash - a fundraising event that challenges friends of Mystic Aquarium to dive into chilly waters in support of the Program's rescue efforts. Generally, Dr. Coan cheers on the 'splashers' who brave the icy waters each year...but this year, things will change! When you help Steve raise $25,000, he will take the frigid plunge at this years Seal Splash! Donate now then join us at Eastern Point Beach on February 17 and see if Steve goes splashing!

Don't hold your nose and close your mouth when you sneeze, doctors warn

One young man ruptured the back of his throat when he did so

BMJ

Pinching your nose while clamping your mouth shut to contain a forceful sneeze isn't a good idea, warn doctors in the journal BMJ Case Reports.

One young man managed to rupture the back of his throat during this manoeuvre, leaving him barely able to speak or swallow, and in considerable pain.

Spontaneous rupture of the back of the throat is rare, and usually caused by trauma, or sometimes by vomiting, retching or heavy coughing, so the 34 year old's symptoms initially surprised the emergency care doctors.

The young man explained that he had developed a popping sensation in his neck which immediately swelled up after he tried to contain a forceful sneeze by pinching his nose and keeping his mouth clamped shut at the same time.

A little later he found it extremely painful to swallow and all but lost his voice.

When the doctors examined him they heard popping and crackling sounds (crepitus), which extended from his neck all the way down to his ribcage -- a sure sign that air bubbles had found their way into the deep tissue and muscles of the chest, which was subsequently confirmed by a computed tomography scan.

Because of the risk of serious complications, the man was admitted to hospital, where he was fed by tube and given intravenous antibiotics until the swelling and pain had subsided.

After seven days he was well enough to be discharged with the advice not to block both nostrils when sneezing in future.

"Halting sneezing via blocking [the] nostrils and mouth is a dangerous manoeuvre, and should be avoided," caution the authors.

"It may lead to numerous complications, such as pseudomediastinum [air trapped in the chest between both lungs], perforation of the tympanic membrane [perforated eardrum], and even rupture of a cerebral aneurysm [ballooning blood vessel in the brain]," they explain.

Corporate rhetoric unlikely to match actions

The Corporate Trumps

By Phil Mattera for the Dirt Diggers Digest

After the 2016 election there was much trepidation in the corporate world about what the election of a self-proclaimed populist would mean for business.

Trump’s intervention in the controversy over layoffs at a Carrier plant in Indiana was taken as a signal that he would be tough on the Fortune 500. “Corporate America unnerved by Trump” was the headline of a front-page story in the Washington Post on December 7, 2016.

At the one-year mark of the Trump Administration, those fears have been long forgotten.

Although some corporate executives have spoken out against the president on certain social and civil rights issues, they have generally made peace with him on economic policy.

They are delighted with his deregulatory moves and are thrilled at the windfall they are enjoying from the tax bill. Meanwhile, they grow wealthier by the day as a result of the stock market’s new bout of irrational exuberance.

Some companies are taking things a step further by also adopting Trump’s style of making exaggerated and self-serving claims while pretending to be acting in the national interest. 

The ranks of these corporate Trumps seem to be proliferating.

There are no adults in the room

Trump’s General Just Announced a New Cold War. Who Will Stop It?

Richard Eskow

Defense Secretary James Mattis announced a dramatic shift in military policy last week, and it threatens to plunge the world into new forms of conflict.

The secretary, known as “Mad Dog” Mattis when he was a four-star Marine general, now commands the most powerful military force in human history. Mattis insists the nickname came from the press. That may be true, although generals are notoriously canny about their own publicity.

Whatever the nickname’s provenance, Mattis is not “mad.” He is, in fact, a rational and articulate spokesperson for the national security ideology that has dominated American political life since the end of World War II. That’s disturbing in a very different way.

Mattis, a clear-eyed cold warrior, has just announced the start of a new cold war.

Of course they will

For more cartoons from Mike Luckovich, CLICK HERE.

Actual facts about the economy

No safe level of smoking exists

Just one cigarette a day carries greater risk of heart disease and stroke than expected

BMJ

Smoking just one cigarette a day has a much higher risk of developing coronary heart disease and stroke than expected -- about half the risk of smoking 20 per day -- concludes a review of the evidence published by The BMJ today.

The researchers say their findings have important consequences for many smokers and health professionals who believe that smoking only a few cigarettes carries little or no harm. They argue that smokers should stop completely instead of cutting down to significantly reduce their risk of heart disease and stroke.

This information might be particularly helpful at the start of a new year, when many smokers are likely to be thinking about stopping or smoking less.

Individual studies have reported that smoking only one to five cigarettes per day is associated with a higher than expected risk of heart disease. 

It helps if you're rich

Gender, education and class impacts on retirement and quality of life in older age

University of Birmingham

Researchers from the University of Birmingham have found that raising your level of education and skills during your working life are key factors in determining your quality of life in retirement and older age.

The study, led by the University of Birmingham Business School, involved interviewing around 50 retirees from a range of different professions and educational backgrounds. 

It was found that pathways to retirement and experiences of retirement differed greatly according to profession, gender, class and education.

End of the world gets closer under Trump

"It's always sobering to be reminded just how close humanity is to destroying itself with nuclear weapons." 

By Jessica Corbett, staff writer for Common Dreams

In response to rising nuclear tensions and concerns about inadequate action to address the climate crisis, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists announced January 25 the hands of the Doomsday Clock have been moved and it is now just two minutes midnight, a signal to the world that international scientists and policy experts are increasingly worried about the likeliness of global catastrophe.

"In 2017, world leaders failed to respond effectively to the looming threats of nuclear war and climate change, making the world security situation more dangerous than it was a year ago—and as dangerous as it has been since World War II," said a statementfrom the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.

The Bulletin was established decades ago by creators of the atomic bomb and aims to keep the world informed "about threats to the survival and development of humanity from nuclear weapons, climate change, and emerging technologies in the life sciences."