Goodbye, Little Girl
This Thanksgiving, Ryan and I have a lot for which to be thankful. But we’re most grateful for having had the opportunity to give an elderly, withdrawn little black cat a home. And to love her.
How Far Would You Go to Repair the World?
Columbia College fakes a protest movement to teach students about real-world problems. An acquaintance knows their job is committing racial discrimination but does nothing. When you have a chance to help repair the world but don’t, is that OK? And when?
Express Scripts: Loose Lips Get Thanksgiving Pink Slips
Why do some companies persist in thinking that human kindness and federal labor law are mere impediments to profitability? Spiritual bankruptcy, perhaps? You can fill your heart with fairness or you can try to fill the hole in your soul with money. But at the end of the day, you still have to live in the same community.
The Point Is Working Families, Not Keith Olbermann
Progressive bloggers are grousing that major media made MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann suspension a top story…by continuing to make Keith Olbermann a top story, themselves. But is Olbermann’s job status what unemployed and under-employed Americans really care about?
Corporate Greed Is Not a Family Value
When a prominent company profits in the middle of a Great Recession, the right thing to do is share the joy around. The wrong thing to do is lay off a thousand workers during the holidays to ease up funds for a future acquisition. This is the story of a company that went wrong.
Are Unpaid Social Media Internships Legal?
Chicago nonprofits and businesses often use unpaid social media interns as a cheap way to gain institutional knowledge about building online community. But according to the U.S. Department of Labor, federal law requires that unpaid internships be for the benefit of the intern–not the company. And now the fed is investigating.
CTA Bus Tracker Vs. Union Negotiating Power
When CTA Doomsday eliminated 20% of Chicago bus service in February, labor leaders expected a public outcry from stranded transit riders to help save the jobs of 1,100 bus union workers. Instead, riders took the cutbacks in stride–because any rider with a smart phone can instantly find out exactly when the next bus is coming. Does the rise of transit-tracking smart phone apps spell doomsday for the union’s ability to rile up the ridership?
On Chicagosphere: Why the Sun-Times Deserves to Die
On Chicagosphere I asked whether the Chicago Sun-Times union truly understands the endgame faced by their paper and journalism in general, calling out the Chicago Reader’s Michael Miner along the way for suggesting that columnists be forced to ditch commentary in favor of strict news analysis. There’s nothing I find more tiresome than yet another reporter throwing the rest of the world under the bus for the failings of their own field.
Every (Working) Woman
During Election 2006, I had the good fortune to participate in 7 Days @ Minimum Wage, a video diary of working Americans struggling to keep their families afloat on minimum-wage pay. I interviewed Jessica, a single mom in Chicago. Her searing answers and barely contained sorrow made her, much to my surprise, the centerpiece of the entire project. I wonder whether if we had spoken during Election 2008, the current economy would have removed even what little hope she expressed back then for her children’s future.
Webcast of White House Hopefuls Monday Morning in Chicago
Monday, the Laborer’s Union International of North America (LiUNA) is hosting a 2008 Democratic Presidential Candidate Forum at the Chicago Sheraton Hotel & Towers. I’ll be live-blogging from the event.