Wednesday, November 26, 2014


News Clips For The Day


FERGUSON AFTER THE DECISION – TWO ARTICLES

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2014/11/25/366650380/obama-no-sympathy-for-those-destroying-ferguson

Obama: 'No Sympathy' For Those Destroying Ferguson – NPR
Bill Chappell
November 25, 2014

In a speech in which he said he understands the frustrations of people who feel they're not treated fairly under the law, President Obama also stated, "I have no sympathy at all for destroying your own communities."

The president had been scheduled to speak about immigration policy during his appearance at Chicago's Copernicus Community Center. But he began his remarks by calling for calm in Ferguson, Mo., responding to the fiery unrest that has followed a grand jury's decision not to charge police officer Darren Wilson over the killing of Michael Brown.

Obama said he had a message for anyone who wants to work toward improving the situation: "Your president will be right there with you."

Echoing some of the points he made last night after the jury's decision was announced, Obama said, "If any part of the American community doesn't feel welcome, or treated fairly, that's something that puts all of us at risk. We all have to be concerned."

Obama also said, "Nothing of benefit results from destructive acts. I've never seen a civil rights law, or a health care bill, or an immigration bill result because a car got burned."

He said of people who vote, mobilize and organize, "That's how you actually move something forward."

President Obama has ordered Attorney General Eric Holder to organize a series of meetings between police, community leaders and clergy.

The president discussed that plan Tuesday afternoon with Holder, who has ordered a separate federal inquiry into the Ferguson shooting. NPR's Carrie Johnson reports that Holder plans to visit five pilot cities to create connections between the police and minorities.

Obama touched on that plan, saying many communities could benefit from it. "The problem is not just a Ferguson problem. It's an American problem," Obama said.




“Obama also said, 'Nothing of benefit results from destructive acts. I've never seen a civil rights law, or a health care bill, or an immigration bill result because a car got burned.' He said of people who vote, mobilize and organize, 'That's how you actually move something forward.' President Obama has ordered Attorney General Eric Holder to organize a series of meetings between police, community leaders and clergy.... NPR's Carrie Johnson reports that Holder plans to visit five pilot cities to create connections between the police and minorities. Obama touched on that plan, saying many communities could benefit from it. 'The problem is not just a Ferguson problem. It's an American problem,' Obama said.”

President Obama is doing useful things here, and sides with neither extreme group. As I often do, I approve of his stances here. Rioting and destruction of property do no good whatsoever. The problem with policing style is indeed nationwide. Police officers shouldn't have complete discretion about how they exercise their authority and their authority should not be unlimited.

The individual officers need to patrol with a partner always, request additional squad cars when they are confronting a group, and use their tasers or nightsticks before they use their guns. When the suspect is unarmed, make every effort to use their martial arts training rather than any weapon at all. Better still, use verbal interactions to decrease the tension of the situation and make an arrest without incident. They also need to participate in the community in a helpful and friendly basis rather than always being on the offensive. It's too much like a war rather than policing the way so many officers approach the poor and generally black/Hispanic neighborhoods in the last few decades. Cities also need to put more money into improving and increasing the supply of affordable housing, representation by black people on city governments and the police forces, job opportunities, etc. so that individuals who live there will feel less defensive, cynical and angry. We need to get past the situation of police and whites in general being seen as the enemy.





Darren Wilson Says He Feels Remorse in Michael Brown Killing in Ferguson – NBC
Erin McClam
First published November 26th 2014

Officer Darren Wilson says he feels remorse for shooting Michael Brown to death. “I never wanted to take anyone’s life,” he told ABC News in an interview segment released Wednesday. “That’s not the good part of the job. That’s the bad part of the job. So, yes, I feel remorse.”

In a portion of the interview that aired earlier, Wilson said that he had a clear conscience and knew that “I did my job right.” He also said there was “no way” Brown had his hands up when Wilson killed him, as some witnesses claimed.

A grand jury earlier this week elected not to indict Wilson in the shooting death of Brown, an unarmed teenager, in an encounter on a Ferguson, Missouri, street in August. The decision touched off protests in Ferguson and around the country.

In additional remarks that aired Wednesday on “Good Morning America,” Wilson said that he understands the grief and anger expressed by Brown’s parents after the grand jury decision.

“I think those are grieving parents who are mourning the loss of their son,” he said. “I don’t think there’s anything I could say, but, again, I’m sorry that their son lost his life. It wasn’t the intention of that day. It’s what occurred that day, and there’s nothing you can say that’s going to make a parent feel better.”

Wilson said no decision has been made about whether he will leave the Ferguson police force, but he spoke of his time there in the past tense. Pressed by ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos, he questioned whether he could ever return.

“You think they could accept me?” he said. “You think it would be safe for me? These are all questions not only for me but for the other officers. Is attention brought to me going to hurt them?”

Asked what he wants now, Wilson, who married another police officer in October, said: “Just live a normal life. It’s going to be different. There’ll be a new normal, but we’ll find it somehow.”




“I never wanted to take anyone’s life,” he told ABC News in an interview segment released Wednesday. “That’s not the good part of the job. That’s the bad part of the job. So, yes, I feel remorse.” In a portion of the interview that aired earlier, Wilson said that he had a clear conscience and knew that “I did my job right.” He also said there was “no way” Brown had his hands up when Wilson killed him, as some witnesses claimed.... Wilson said no decision has been made about whether he will leave the Ferguson police force, but he spoke of his time there in the past tense. Pressed by ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos, he questioned whether he could ever return. “You think they could accept me?” he said. “You think it would be safe for me? These are all questions not only for me but for the other officers. Is attention brought to me going to hurt them?”

Wilson said that Brown was not holding his hands up, as alleged. From his interview it appears that he is not likely to keep his job on the Ferguson police force. He wants to “just live a normal life... a new normal.” Maybe he won't remain a police officer anywhere, in fact, and is likely to leave Ferguson. There is no way to know everything about what happened that night. The federal investigation may bring out new information. There is a very real need for police officers to wear lapel cameras across the country and make changes on how they deal with the communities where they patrol daily. They need to be less distanced from the population and more compassionate. Several years ago there was a suggestion that city police officers go back to foot patrols. That isn't likely to happen, unfortunately, but maybe they can do something in the way of community outreach. Both sides need to get to know each other as human beings.






Mississippi Schools Sue State For More Money – NPR
JEFFREY HESS
November 26, 2014

Photograph – Woodley Elementary third grade students write their names into newly donated dictionaries at the school.

In Taneka Hawkins' classroom, 20 kindergarteners wiggle through a mid-morning dance break, waving their arms and jumping around to a guided dance video. It's busy, to be sure, and a bit crowded.

"The children are so small, and a lot of things that we do have to be so hands on, and it's kind of hard when it is more than 20," Hawkins says. A class size of 15, she adds, would be ideal. "I think we could reach more students with that smaller class size."

Hawkins teaches in Hattiesburg, Miss. Her state regularly ranks at or near the bottom in the nation for measures like student outcomes and per pupil spending. Now, nearly two dozen school districts think they have a way to break out of that rut: They're suing the state for hundreds of millions of dollars in funding.

If the effort is successful, the Hattiesburg Public School District would be in line for a $12 million boost — equivalent to nearly a third of its current yearly budget. The money could allow the school to hire more teachers and decrease class sizes, which would make it easier for the kids to get their wiggles out.

Mississippi's former governor, Ronnie Musgrove, is leading the lawsuit, giving the schools a high-powered advocate. "Our objective is to get as much money as possible back for every school district. We want to once again make education a priority in Mississippi," Musgrove says.

Mississippi is unusual in that it is one of few states that hasn't yet seen a lawsuit over education spending. Starting in the mid-1990s, school districts around the country began suing their state lawmakers over how education dollars were allocated.

While Mississippi is a latecomer to this kind of suit, its schools are demanding not just more money going forward but also past funding they believe they're owed.

At Hattiesburg's Woodley Elementary School, 93 percent of students qualify for free and reduced price lunch. Principal Felicia Morris says her budget is stretched so thin that she's turned to churches for extra staff. And she cannot make repairs to the nearly 60-year-old school building or purchase books needed to teach new Common Core standards, she says.

"So we are having to pull other resources to maybe get, like, half of the books. Where, if we had more money, we would be able to get it all and fund the other projects that we have — not to mention class sizes, with maybe possibly having more tutors," Morris says.

The lawsuit pits the schools against the state's Republican legislative leadership, including the powerful Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves, who has questioned the motives of the Democrat leading the suit.

"I think that the lawsuit gives former Gov. Musgrove the opportunity to make hundreds of millions of dollars in legal fees," Reeves says. "And I'm not sure that's in the best interest of Mississippi school children."

Conservatives also don't like the idea of courts becoming the arbiter of the state's education budget. It may be one of the smallest in the country, but it still takes up nearly half of Mississippi's annual revenue.

Molly Hunter, an attorney with the Education Law Center, says the lawsuit can help but warns that more money doesn't guarantee better education. "I don't know of anyone who says, 'Just throw money at it.' I think that the money has to be spent in an effective way," she says. "But there are lots of effective ways to spend it."

A ruling could come by the end of the year. If the judge rules in favor of the schools, it could mean lawmakers will have to find hundreds of millions of dollars in new education spending immediately — although they would likely appeal.




“Now, nearly two dozen school districts think they have a way to break out of that rut: They're suing the state for hundreds of millions of dollars in funding.... Mississippi's former governor, Ronnie Musgrove, is leading the lawsuit, giving the schools a high-powered advocate. "Our objective is to get as much money as possible back for every school district. We want to once again make education a priority in Mississippi," Musgrove says. Mississippi is unusual in that it is one of few states that hasn't yet seen a lawsuit over education spending. Starting in the mid-1990s, school districts around the country began suing their state lawmakers over how education dollars were allocated. While Mississippi is a latecomer to this kind of suit, its schools are demanding not just more money going forward but also past funding they believe they're owed.... Principal Felicia Morris says her budget is stretched so thin that she's turned to churches for extra staff. And she cannot make repairs to the nearly 60-year-old school building or purchase books needed to teach new Common Core standards, she says.... The lawsuit pits the schools against the state's Republican legislative leadership, including the powerful Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves, who has questioned the motives of the Democrat leading the suit. "I think that the lawsuit gives former Gov. Musgrove the opportunity to make hundreds of millions of dollars in legal fees," Reeves says. "And I'm not sure that's in the best interest of Mississippi school children." Conservatives also don't like the idea of courts becoming the arbiter of the state's education budget. It may be one of the smallest in the country, but it still takes up nearly half of Mississippi's annual revenue.”

A ruling may come within the next month, but the legislature may appeal a ruling that is not in their favor. If the schools get the money they can purchase new Common Core textbooks, hire tutors and more teachers, maintain a smaller class size. Mississippi, in spite of being behind most of the nation in its student achievement and school budget, is one of the last states to sue for more money. The process started in the 1990s according to this article. Though education is usually one of the top things that the citizenry of America is concerned over, it is usually near the bottom on funding. Most teachers nowadays have a Masters Degree in Education, but are often the lowest paid professionals in the workforce. Everybody wants their kids to have a high school education plus at least two years of college or technical school training so they can get a reasonably good job, but they tend to forget how much money that costs. It's one of those sad situations that I always want to do something about, but I have to leave that up to our legislators. They, on the other hand, want to save money first and provide a merely passable education in too many cases, rather than twelve years of solid training in more than just “readin', writin' and 'rithmetic.” That's where the Common Core comes in. Maybe this lawsuit will succeed. I certainly hope so.





EUROPEAN IMMIGRATION PROBLEM – TWO ARTICLES


http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/europes-border-crisis/greek-navy-ship-tows-migrant-packed-freighter-baris-safety-n256501

Greek Navy Ship Tows Migrant-Packed Freighter Baris to Safety – NBC
The Associated Press
First published November 26th 2014

IERAPETRA, Greece — Hampered by gale-force winds and high waves, a Greek navy frigate was slowly towing a crippled freighter crammed with hundreds of migrants to safety on Wednesday. A day after it suffered engine failure in international waters, the 250-foot Baris cargo ship carrying some 700 men, women and children trying to enter Europe clandestinely was being towed at a speed of about three knots (3.4 miles per hour).

It was one of the largest boatloads of the sort in recent years and was expected to arrive well after nightfall at the port town of Ierapetra in southern Crete. The coastguard said indications suggested passengers included Syrians and Afghans heading for Italy. It was unclear where the Kiribati-flagged ship set sail from. Tens of thousands of people risk the hazardous journey every year, paying smuggling gangs to carry them over in usually unseaworthy craft ranging from toy dinghies to aging rust-buckets. Most end up in Italy.



Mediterranean Sea Is Becoming 'Vast Cemetery' for Migrants: Pope
Reuters
First published November 25th 2014

STRASBOURG, France — Pope Francis told Europe's leaders on Tuesday to do more to help thousands of migrants risking their lives trying to get into the continent, saying they had to stop the Mediterranean becoming "a vast cemetery." Addressing the European Parliament for the first time, the pontiff spoke of Europe's immigration crisis a few days after 600 migrants were rescued in the Mediterranean between Sicily and North Africa. "There needs to be a united response to the question of migration. We cannot allow the Mediterranean to become a vast cemetery." he said. "The boats landing daily on the shores of Europe are filled with men and women who need acceptance and assistance." The pope also called on European powers to work together to protect immigrants from human traffickers.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) estimates that 3,200 migrants have died attempting to cross the Mediterranean so far in 2014.The Argentine pope has made defense of migrants a key plank of his papacy. He chose the tiny southern Italian island of Lampedusa, which many migrants have died trying to reach, as the venue for his first trip as pontiff.




Instability in the Middle East and Africa is causing thousands of refugees to buy passage with human traffickers to the EU countries. Many of them are dying on the way there as their boats sink and their welcome there is thin. Europe is having a problem coping with the number of very needy people who are coming. Their plight is very much like that of the US with people trying to sneak in across the Rio Grande. No matter how benign your feelings, such an influx does cause problems about how to take care of them and handle their claims legally.

Suggested reading – go to website http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/europes-border-crisis/migrants-trying-reach-u-k-endure-hell-jungle-calais-n224431 for a long but informative article: Migrants Trying to Reach U.K. Endure Hell of 'The Jungle' in Calais, BY CASSANDRA VINOGRAD, First published November 6th 2014.

Migration routes and origins see – http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/sep/18/-sp-world-briefing-europe-worsening-migrant-crisis, Europe’s worsening migrant crisis - the Guardian briefing, Peter Walker, Thursday 18 September 2014.





In Pakistan, A Self-Styled Teacher Holds Class For 150 In A Cowshed – NPR
Philip Reeves
November 25, 2014

Every day, shortly after breakfast, more than 150 noisy and eager-eyed kids, coated in dust from top to toe, troop into a mud cowshed in a sun-baked village among the cotton fields of southern Pakistan. The shed is no larger than the average American garage; the boys and girls squeeze together, knee-to-knee, on the dirt floor.

Words scrawled on a wooden plank hanging outside proudly proclaim this hovel to be a "school," although the pupils have no tables, chairs, shelves, maps or wall charts — let alone laptops, water coolers or lunch boxes.

Nor are there any teachers, except for one very young woman who is sitting serenely in front of this boisterous throng, occasionally issuing instructions, watched by a cow and a couple of goats tethered a few feet away. Her name is Aansoo Kohli.

Aansoo is a 20-year-old student in the final stages of a bachelor's degree. She is the only person in this village with more than a smattering of education. Her mission is to change that: "I'll make these children doctors," she says. "I'll make them teachers and engineers."

The kids in Aansoo's cattle shed are from Pakistan's Hindu community — a marginalized, sometimes victimized, minority in an overwhelmingly Muslim nation. Their village has for centuries subsisted on the tiny income produced by picking cotton and green chilies for feudal landlords.

The mass exodus of Hindus to India — 50 miles to the east — during the 1947 partition of the Subcontinent seems to have passed by this remote community.

The village, Minah Ji Dhani, lies deep in the countryside of Pakistan's Sindh province; you have to drive across fields to reach it. There is no road. Nor is there electricity or running water. Its inhabitants are among the poorest of Pakistan's roughly 200 million population.

A crude wooden crutch lies at Aansoo's side. She needs this because she lost the use of a leg as an infant due to a botched medical procedure. Her father, an illiterate farm worker, realized she would be unable to work in the fields, so he packed her off every day to a government-run school miles away.

As an impoverished and disabled Hindu girl in a highly conservative and patriarchal rural society, Aansoo says her school years were difficult. "People would laugh at me when I went to school," she recalls. "They'd say, 'What's she going to do once she's educated?'"

Aansoo's cowshed "school" is her answer to that question. She has no teaching qualifications and works without pay. This hasn't deterred her from pushing ahead with a personal campaign to give her village's children — girls as well as boys — the chance to get educated.

"I love these kids," she says. "I'm urging them to study."

You only have to watch Aansoo at work for a short while to realize that to describe her cattle shed as a school, or her as a teacher, really is a stretch.

Overwhelmed by numbers, she teaches some of the older children, who then squat on the ground and impart what they have just learned to the smaller kids, some as young as three. Somehow the village whipped up enough money to buy some dog-eared government textbooks and hand-held blackboards.

But there is another goal here. Talk to Aansoo, and it soon becomes clear she has assembled these kids in part to draw attention to a chronic problem blighting her country's young, especially the poor.

Over the years, government teaching jobs in Pakistan have routinely been handed out as political favors. Thousands of so-called "teachers" pocket wages but do not go to work. There's a girls' school less than a mile from Aansoo's village that has long been closed because the teachers never showed up.

Aansoo's aim is to generate the kind of publicity that will send a message to people far beyond the confines of her village: "I want to tell Pakistan's teachers that you have a duty to the nation's children. Please come to school and teach!"

"Aansoo is posing a question for all of Pakistan," says Janib Dalwani, a Muslim social activist from a nearby village who's playing a central role in Aansoo's seven-month-old campaign, publicizing her efforts and rallying villagers to the cause. "If someone with her disadvantages can teach, then why can't teachers who're sitting at home drawing salaries go out and teach?"

The task of persuading parents to allow their kids to go along to Aansoo's cattle shed fell to Dalwani. He says they were initially reluctant to release their children from working in the fields and doubtful about the benefits of education.

"I told them God's on their side," says Dalwani. "He'll help them."

This seems to have worked. Ram Chand, a farm worker, has allowed three of his daughters to go to the cattle shed: "I am very happy," he says. "We don't want the children to lead the life we've led."

Aansoo's message is being heard beyond her village. Liaquat Ali Mirani, a principal in the Sindhi city of Larkana, runs a website that publishes the names and photos of absentee teachers in the hope this will shame them into doing their jobs.

"I fully support Aansoo and have a lot of sympathy for her. May God help her," says Mirani.

He estimates four out of 10 teachers in the province never set foot in a school: "Some of them run shops, some work in the media, some for feudal landlords."

In 2010, Pakistan's federal constitution was amended to make education compulsory and free for all children age 5 to 16. But education is run by provincial governments; they haven't yet turned this amendment into law and it seems unlikely they will. This helps explain why, according to estimates, nearly half of Pakistan's 58 million kids of school age are not in school.

"The state of education is very bad in Pakistan," says Farhatullah Babar, a leading figure in the Pakistan People's Party (PPP), the late Benazir Bhutto's party that governs Sindh. "In fact, we have what we call education emergency."

Babar says that although the PPP bears much responsibility for the education crisis in Sindh, it plans to fire absentee teachers and make government teachers take a proficiency test.

"I think these measures indicate a very strong realization on the part of the PPP that if it was responsible for the mess, it is also determined to clean the mess," says Babar.
For now, though, the kids in the cattle shed are on their own. Their chief hope is Aansoo's determination — and their own enthusiasm.




Aansoo Kohli is a twenty year old woman who has not yet finished her Bachelor's Degree, but she plans to use a minute space with no furniture and just a few books as a school. “'I'll make these children doctors,' she says. 'I'll make them teachers and engineers.' The kids in Aansoo's cattle shed are from Pakistan's Hindu community — a marginalized, sometimes victimized, minority in an overwhelmingly Muslim nation. Their village has for centuries subsisted on the tiny income produced by picking cotton and green chilies for feudal landlords.” Aansoo's father sent her to school at least partly because she was crippled and unable to work in the fields. To make her efforts stretch, she teaches the older kids first, and then they teach younger ones what they have just learned. The village did get behind her effort with some used books and small blackboards with chalk. Shockingly the “teachers” who were hired by the government are paid a salary, but do no work. Aansoo said “'I want to tell Pakistan's teachers that you have a duty to the nation's children. Please come to school and teach!'"

Janib Dalwani, a Muslim social activist from a nearby village is backing her efforts and publicizing her tiny school. Dalwani has been able to get some of the parents to allow their children to come to her school, though that means that they lose their labor in the fields. They villagers doubt the value of education. Liaquat Ali Mirani is a principal in a nearby city who runs a website to shame the teachers by publishing their names and photographs.

Free public education was made mandatory in Pakistan in 2010, but many local provinces have not financed and implemented the new law with the result that almost half of Pakistani school aged children don't attend classes. Farhatullah Babar, of the PPP party planning to fire the would be teachers and require all teachers in Pakistan to take a proficiency test. That is a good first step.

Meanwhile Aansoo and her pupils work every day together to learn what they can. I hope Aansoo gets a salary at the very least and a larger space to use for the future. This is the first time I have realized how much poverty exists in Pakistan. They aren't just radical right fundamentalist religious fanatics, but people who are very deprived of basic needs. No wonder al Qaeda and the Taliban have such a stronghold there.





Should companies ask workers to support fellow employees? – CBS
By SUZANNE LUCAS MONEYWATCH November 26, 2014
Commentary

Businesses often collect donations at this time of year for the less fortunate. But what if the less fortunate you are asking your employees to support are other employees? "Making Change at Walmart" -- a coalition of workers, faith-based organizations and other groups linked with the United Food and Commercial Workers -- says some Walmart stores are asking employees to donate to needy co-workers. They state on their Facebook page: Despite a massive backlash last year when news broke that Walmart was holding an in-store canned food drive asking workers to donate to one another to keep from going hungry, Walmart hasn't changed its ways. An Oklahoma Walmart is running another food drive this year! 

Rather than agree to pay a decent wage or provide full-time hours, Walmart and its owners (the Waltons) continue to earn massive profits while too many of the workers who make the company a success go hungry.

It's undeniable that Walmart workers don't make big money, but is it bad to ask for donations for other employees? The Making Change at Walmart members think it's a horrible thing. If you read the comments on the Facebook page, you'll see they range from incredulity to anger.

But one thing they fail to point out is that if Walmart is doing this a second year in a row, that indicates that the program was successful last year. And if they were successful last year, that means that a good number of Walmart employees are doing well enough to donate to their co-workers.

Think about that for a minute. While no one claims that Walmart's store employees are rolling around in piles of cash, enough of them have sufficient financial resources that they can help others out. This is one of the flaws in the "living wage" thinking. It assumes that everyone who earns a low wage is in the same category. Some are students, with parental support. Some are teens, living at home. Some are young and share expenses with roommates. Some are single mothers of three small children. The latter probably needs a great deal of help, and giving her co-workers the chance to help is a good thing.

But should companies take on that role? Their legal and moral obligation is to pay employees the agreed upon wage for the time worked, pay overtime as required, follow all employment laws, and treat their employees as human beings. The latter is sometimes difficult during the holiday shopping season.

Companies often ask for money for charitable purposes--think about United Way Campaigns, where often the company sets goals and has departmental quotas. If you don't donate, your boss knows about it. I find these acts of "charity" to be the opposite of charitable. When your boss strongly suggests you give a portion of your paycheck to charity, and then follows up when you don't, it isn't charity, it's protection money. But, when your boss puts a box for canned food donations in the lobby, or allows people to sign up of their own free will and choice, that's a nice gesture.

So while Walmart's employees will never get rich while working at Walmart, many are doing fine, and they are all learning valuable skills that will help them move up in the world. As much as people complain about pay in retail, we need to remember that retail is a great training ground for future life. It's where you learn to deal with angry customers, to come on time to work, to wear proper clothes, and to be polite even when you want to scream at someone. Plus, you get paid to do so.



United Food and Commercial Workers
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union(UFCW) is a labor union representing approximately 1.3 million workers[1] in the United States and Canada in many industries, including agriculture, health care, meatpacking, poultry and food processing, manufacturing, textile, G4S Security, chemical trades, and retail food. Until July 2005, UFCW was affiliated with the AFL-CIO, where it was the second largest union by membership. Along with two other members of the Change to Win Coalition, the UFCW formally disaffiliated with the AFL-CIO on July 29, 2005. On August 8, 2013, UFCW reaffiliated to the AFL-CIO.

Food Equity Initiatives[edit]
In 2010, the UFCW launched "Feeding the Hungry," a joint program with Smithfield and celebrity cooks Paula Deen and Chef Jeff Henderson to donate and help deliver 20 million servings of protein over three years to assistance organizations around the country. The partnership was designed to bring assistance to the growing number of people facing hunger and food insecurity during the recession. The UFCW has also been vocal in the fight against food deserts. New York-based UFCW Local 1500 is a leading partner in the New York FRESH Initiative which served as a model for the Healthy Food Financing Initiative legislation introduced by New York legislators Senator Kirstin Gillibrand (D-NY) and Congresswoman Nydia Velasquez (D-NY). The UFCW successfully launched two major supermarkets into previously underserved areas in the Bronx and has advocated for similar community benefits agreements in urban and rural food deserts across the country.

UFCW and Wal-Mart[edit]
Wal-Mart, a non-unionized company, has repeatedly been accused by the UFCW of treating its workers poorly and driving down employment standards. The UFCW has repeatedly attempted to organize the chain, but these attempts have been unsuccessful in the United States.

In Canada, the UFCW managed to win union recognition at two Wal-Mart stores in Quebec and one in Saskatchewan. Wal-Mart closed the Jonquière store and workers in Saint-Hyacinthe voted to decertify UFCW in 2011.[10] The union has also applied for recognition at a dozen other Wal-Marts and had won a contract with a Wal-Mart store in Gatineau, Quebec, Canada.[11] After a couple years of unsuccessful negotiations between the union and Wal-Mart the workers at the store decided to leave the union.[12] The last remaining unionized Wal-Mart in North America is located in Weyburn, Saskatchewan. Wal-Mart is attempting to decertify the union at that location.[13]
In April 2005, as part of a volley of accusatory websites created by Wal-Mart and the UFCW, the union created Wake Up Wal-Mart, a U.S.-based website and campaign with the stated goal of reforming Wal-Mart's business practices.[14]




"'Making Change at Walmart' -- a coalition of workers, faith-based organizations and other groups linked with the United Food and Commercial Workers -- says some Walmart stores are asking employees to donate to needy co-workers.... But one thing they fail to point out is that if Walmart is doing this a second year in a row, that indicates that the program was successful last year. And if they were successful last year, that means that a good number of Walmart employees are doing well enough to donate to their co-workers.” This writer, surprisingly, is not speaking against this Walmart policy, but defending it. I think she should read the following website and work for a nationwide boycott of Walmart. Their union busting is horrible.

Read this website for a rundown on Wal-Mart's beginnings and labor policies for information on whether you should buy your goods elsewhere. There is always Dollar General, Target, Roses and K-Mart. http://www.uaw.org/story/uaw-joins-ufcw-campaign-wake-walmart





http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_IMMIGRATION_SCHOLARS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-11-25-08-06-46

LEGAL SCHOLARS: OBAMA'S IMMIGRATION ACTIONS LAWFUL
BY JIM KUHNHENN 
ASSOCIATED PRESS
November 25, 2014

WASHINGTON (AP) -- More than 100 immigration professors and scholars declared Tuesday that President Barack Obama's decision to make several million immigrants illegally in the United States eligible to be spared from deportation is constitutional and within his administrative powers.
The 135 scholars focused on two major provisions of Obama's executive actions announced last week. One would shield parents of U.S. citizens or legal permanent residents from deportation and allow them to apply for work permits. The other measure would expand a program that shielded immigrants who entered the U.S. illegally as children. Those two programs could affect up to 4.4 million people.

The scholars' statement asserts that the president's actions are a proper use of prosecutorial discretion.

Republicans reacted furiously to Obama's decision, calling the offer of deportation relief and work permits unlawful and unconstitutional. Some of Obama's legal critics argue a president's job is to enforce the laws passed by Congress and say Obama is acting in defiance of Congress.

The White House has argued that past Republican and Democratic presidents have used their executive authority to protect immigrants from deportation. Obama's actions, however, would affect a far larger number of immigrants than other presidents did with their directives.

Critics like John Yoo and Robert Delahunty, both of whom worked in the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel during President George W. Bush's administration, argue that the president doesn't have such broad latitude and that prosecutorial discretion can only be applied narrowly.

The scholars, in their statement, said the broad scope of Obama's actions did not make them any less lawful.

"The president could conceivably decide to cap the number of people who can receive prosecutorial discretion or make the conditions restrictive enough to keep the numbers small, but this would be a policy choice, not a legal issue," they wrote.

The statement is an updated version of a Sept. 3 letter from some of the same professors and immigration experts to Obama spelling out legal arguments and precedents for executive action.

It was organized by immigration law experts Hiroshi Motomura at the University of California, Los Angeles, School of Law, Shoba Sivaprasad Wadhia at the Pennsylvania State University Dickinson School of Law, and Stephen H. Legomsky at the Washington University School of Law.

Online:
https://pennstatelaw.psu.edu/sites/default/files/documents/pdfs/Immigrants/executive-action-law-prof-letter.pdf




“More than 100 immigration professors and scholars declared Tuesday that President Barack Obama's decision to make several million immigrants illegally in the United States eligible to be spared from deportation is constitutional and within his administrative powers.... One would shield parents of U.S. citizens or legal permanent residents from deportation and allow them to apply for work permits. The other measure would expand a program that shielded immigrants who entered the U.S. illegally as children. Those two programs could affect up to 4.4 million people.... The scholars, in their statement, said the broad scope of Obama's actions did not make them any less lawful. "The president could conceivably decide to cap the number of people who can receive prosecutorial discretion or make the conditions restrictive enough to keep the numbers small, but this would be a policy choice, not a legal issue," they wrote.... The statement is an updated version of a Sept. 3 letter from some of the same professors and immigration experts to Obama spelling out legal arguments and precedents for executive action.”

So, once again, Obama has taken an action after researching the issue to find out what indeed he could do under the law. The Republicans are furious at him, but not likely to win if they try to sue him for it. I doubt if Obama is sad when he does something good and gets criticism over it from this particular group of people. He's been black among whites all his life and has developed a thick skin. He didn't grow up in the ghetto, and he has a very good education to wield against the Tea Party. He is wily and eloquent in his interactions. I'm glad to see him in the White House.