Monday, August 5, 2013

Will fast-food protests spur higher minimum wage?

Fast-food worker Michelle Osborn, 23, of Flint shouts out chants as she and a few dozen others strike outside of McDonald's on Wednesday, July 31, 2013 in Flint. Some fast food restaurant workers have walked off the job in the Detroit area as part of an effort to push for higher wages. Organizers say they began the walkout at restaurants in Lincoln Park and Southfield on Tuesday night. Workers in Flint hit the street Wednesday outside a McDonald's, saying they want wages "super-sized." Workers want $15 and hour, better working conditions and the right to unionize. The restaurant industry says higher wages would hurt job creation. The actions follow strikes this week in other parts of the country. (AP Photo/The Flint Journal, Jake May) LOCAL TV OUT; LOCAL INTERNET OUT

Fast-food worker Michelle Osborn, 23, of Flint shouts out chants as she and a few dozen others strike outside of McDonald's on Wednesday, July 31, 2013 in Flint. Some fast food restaurant workers have walked off the job in the Detroit area as part of an effort to push for higher wages. Organizers say they began the walkout at restaurants in Lincoln Park and Southfield on Tuesday night. Workers in Flint hit the street Wednesday outside a McDonald's, saying they want wages "super-sized." Workers want $15 and hour, better working conditions and the right to unionize. The restaurant industry says higher wages would hurt job creation. The actions follow strikes this week in other parts of the country. (AP Photo/The Flint Journal, Jake May) LOCAL TV OUT; LOCAL INTERNET OUT

Demonstrators walk across Chestnut in Downtown St. Louis Tuesday, July 30, 2013. Several hundred demonstrators, demanding a better minimum wage, rallied at Keiner Plaza. (AP Photo/Belleville News-Democrat, Derik Holtmann)

Demonstrators supporting fast food workers protest outside a McDonald's as they demand higher wages and the right to form a union without retaliation Monday, July 29, 2013, in New York's Union Square. The national Fast Food Forward campaign is organizing the demonstrations. Strikes are planned in other cities this week. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

Terrance Wise has two jobs in Kansas City ? one at a burger joint, a second at a pizza restaurant ? but he says his paychecks aren't enough to buy shoes for his three daughters and insure his 15-year-old car. So he decided to draw attention to his plight: He walked off work in protest.

Wise was among a few thousand fast-food workers in seven cities, including New York, Chicago and Detroit, who took to the streets last week, carrying "Strike" and "Supersize Our Wages" signs in front of McDonalds, Wendy's, Burger King and other restaurants. They demanded better pay, the right to unionize and a more than doubling of the federal minimum hourly wage from $7.25 to $15.

"We work hard for companies that are making millions," the 34-year-old Wise says, adding that he lost his home last year, unable to make mortgage payments despite working about 50-hour weeks at Pizza Hut and Burger King. "We're not asking for the world. We want to make enough to make a decent living. We deserve better. If they respect us and pay us and treat us right, it'll lift up the whole economy."

These one-day protests, which also took place in St. Louis, Milwaukee and Flint, Mich., come amid calls from the White House, some members of Congress and economists to raise the federal minimum wage, which was last increased in 2009. Most of the proposals, though, seek a more modest rise than those urged by fast-food workers. President Barack Obama wants to boost the hourly wage to $9. And in July, more than 100 economists signed a petition supporting a bill sponsored by a Florida congressman that would hike it to $10.50 an hour.

The restaurant industry argues that a $15 hourly wage could lead to businesses closings and fewer jobs. It also notes the cost of living varies greatly around the country and many states have higher minimum wages than the federal rate. (Eighteen states and the District of Columbia, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.)

The Employment Policies Institute, which receives some funding from the industry, ran a full-page ad last week in USA Today, warning of another potential consequence: It showed the uniform of a fast-food worker with an iPad face, saying the wage increase could result in employees being replaced with automation, such as touch-screen ordering.

So at a time when the economy is growing steadily but slowly and about 11.5 million people are unemployed ? nearly double the level before the Great Recession ? how likely is it Congress will increase the minimum wage? And have these protests done any good?

The answers depend on whom you ask.

"They're very effective," says U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison, a Minnesota Democrat and co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. "They've brought attention to appalling conditions with workers putting in very long hours ... and not making enough money to survive. This I think is scandal. .. We believe it's essential to be paid livable wages. We know the companies can afford it. These are highly profitable businesses. It would be good not just for the family budget but for the national budget."

Ellison's caucus launched a national "Raise Up America" campaign this summer that has partnered with fast-food workers and others in low-wage industries to highlight the call for better salaries. The congressman says he's not deterred by likely resistance in the GOP-dominated House.

"Remember, things that don't look possible become possible if people advocate for them," he says, adding that in 1955 someone was probably saying "they're never going to end segregation. ... Sometimes these things catch on. I think the thing to do is keep on pushing, keep on talking. ... That's how we win."

But others are more skeptical and think if there is a winner, it's unions. The Service Employees International Union is providing financial support and staff to help train organizers for this campaign.

These protests show unions "still can appeal to and speak for workers who are on the fringes of the workforce ? the less skilled, the part-timers and the immigrant workers," Gary Chaison, professor of industrial relations at Clark University in Massachusetts, wrote in an email.

These still are hard times, people are happy to be employed and the political climate in the House is not conducive for an increase, he adds. "The demonstrations are street theater and the rehabilitation of the image of American unions, but it's not going to drive new minimum wage policy," he wrote.

Scott DeFife, executive vice president of the National Restaurant Association, calls the protests a campaign "to disparage the industry," which he says operates on a tight profit margin. Doubling wages, he says, "would definitely have an impact on the creation of new jobs." He says it would be especially harmful for young people, for whom the jobless rate in some communities is already in the double digits.

Some fast food companies responded to the protests by saying they respect the rights of their workers.

And some who walked out used the media spotlight to talk openly about their financial struggles.

Kareem Sparks, a 30-year-old father of two boys, 6 and 12, was laid off in 2011 from a $17.50-an-hour city job in New York. His unemployment benefits ran out and he turned to food pantries. Five months ago, he found work at McDonald's.

"I'm grateful they gave me an opportunity to feed my family and put food on the table, but it's not enough," he says. Sparks supplements his income with a second job as a security guard, earning about $8 an hour. Together, he says, he brings home about $1,000-$1,100 every two weeks and needs food stamps to survive.

"It's horrible to know when I pick up my (McDonalds) check, it's going to be less than $200," he says. "You spend all your money in one store and go to sleep broke. It's not fair. ... Some people get their checks and don't come back to work."

The average hourly salary for fast-food workers was $9.00 in May 2012, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The average age for these workers is 29 years old; for women, it's 32, according to the bureau. The restaurant association says its own analysis of Census data found that slightly more than 25 percent of fast-food workers are heads of households.

Both sides in the fight over the minimum wage cite numerous studies to buttress their arguments about whether a raise would be harmful.

The petition signed by the economists says that for decades, research has "found that no significant effects on employment opportunities result when the minimum wage rises in reasonable increments." The economists also note that minimum-wage workers employed full time for the entire year earn $15,080, almost 20 percent below the poverty level for a family of three.

But Michael Saltsman, research director at the Employment Policies Institute, cites another study that he says found raising the minimum wage was counterproductive ? with more people losing than gaining because hours were reduced and jobs were cut.

Tessie Harrell, one of the workers in the middle of this academic debate, walked off her job in protest last week.

As a Burger King manager in Milwaukee, Harrell, 34, has to stretch her $8.25 hourly salary to support five children (a sixth lives on her own). They live in a two-bedroom apartment. Her mother helped out financially and with child care, but she has since moved to a nursing home.

"It's not like we're teens working for a pair of shoes or a cell phone," Harrell says. "We're grown adults who can't find better jobs."

She would like to see something come from the protests, a wage improvement, even if it's not $15 an hour.

"I hope it works," she says. "We're just trying to survive and build a life for our children."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-08-05-Fast-Food%20Protests/id-7e78a9afdd5745b78db95936ae15b216

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Some Costs of Selling Your Home as a FSBO | All Phoenix Real ...

Some Costs of Selling Your Home as a FSBO | All Phoenix Real Estate.Com The ARMLS logo indicates a property listed by a real estate brokerage other than Realty ONE Group.
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Why Welcome a Same-Sex Couple to Church?

Jahi Chikwendiu / The Washington Post / Getty

Gary Nixon, right, and Mel White, a gay couple, attend Jerry Falwell's church in Lynchburg, VA. The couple (together for 20 years) has rented a cottage directly across the street from Falwell's church for a year, are are attending services there and getting to know the neighbors. While some people have called them sinners, others have brought over pies and cookies in welcome.

Imagine this no-longer-hypothetical situation: Matt and Alex Jones-Smith, newlyweds, arrive on a Monday morning in summertime to register their adopted daughter, Rachel, for Vacation Bible School at Maranatha Bible Church on Main Street.

What should be the response of the Sunday school superintendent?

  1. Provide directions to the nearest liberal congregation.
  2. Register Rachel for Vacation Bible School and then hand the couple Marantha Bible's statement of faith, including the part on human sexuality where homosexual behavior is condemned.
  3. Proceed with registration, and then ask the Jones-Smiths, legally married in the eyes of the state, to meet with the pastor to talk about baptism and membership.
  4. None of the above.

The Unbiblical Marriage

This week, Minnesota and Rhode Island became the 12th and 13th states to allow same-sex marriage. With the favorable U.S. Supreme Court rulings in June, there will be more same-sex marriages nationwide for years to come. The 2010 federal census estimated there are already more than 150,000 same-sex couples legally married or in legal civil unions. It reports some states experienced a 50 percent or more increase in households with same-sex couples from 2000 to 2010.

For generations, Christianity has encountered unions outside the one man-one woman Christian ideal. During the colonial missionary era in Africa, many Christian churches had zero tolerance for a new convert with multiple wives. If these men wished to be baptized, join the church, and follow Christ, they had to dismiss all but one wife.

But missionaries soon realized that this policy of zero tolerance created enormous hardship on abandoned mothers and their children. It also absolved the polygamous husband of providing for dependent children of his former wives, according to Sunday Agang, academic dean at ECWA (Evangelical Church of West Africa) Seminary, Jos, Nigeria.

Over time, indigenous churches developed more than one response. Some churches accepted the entire household of a husband who desired to become a Christian yet had more than one wife. Many churches, however, did not permit these new converts to preach or teach or lead in the church.

Yet, the goal of churches remained the same. Once a person accepted Christ, Christians invited the individual into joyful, church-based fellowship and a lifelong journey of discipleship and sanctification.

Welcoming, Not Affirming

Choice #4?none of the above?is the answer that best reflects the sense of confusion that many church leaders have regarding the most appropriate response to state-recognized same-sex couples.

But for churches committed to the biblical teaching about heterosexual marriage and compassion for all, is there a solidly biblical approach or model for churches to follow? As early as the 1990s, conservative Christian leaders began to welcome, but not affirm, the open involvement of people with same-sex attraction into church life. Along with a sincere welcome, tragically, too many times fear of disease (HIV/AIDS), public condemnation, homophobia, and pressure for behavior change through unproven and often harmful therapies overwhelmed any sense of welcome.

There is some evidence of progress. A new Pew Research Center survey found that less than 1 in 3 LGBT respondents reported feeling unwelcome in a place of worship. Even fewer reported that this unwelcome feeling occurred within the past 12 months.

Christians and the church can do much more beyond welcome. About half of LGBT adults surveyed report no religious affiliation. While the ones who did attend worship felt welcome, the Pew survey found that most LGBT respondents view major religious groups (Christians, Jews, and Muslims) as "unfriendly."

Source: http://feeds.christianitytoday.com/~r/christianitytoday/ctmag/~3/reFtTIUmVSY/why-welcome-same-sex-couple-to-church.html

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Sunday, August 4, 2013

Ask A VC: Greylock's Josh Elman On SoLoMo, Growth Hacking And More

josh_bio-1On this week's episode of Ask A VC, we hosted Greylock's newest partner, Josh Elman, in the studio to answer reader questions on his views on local marketplaces and more.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/BeMe_Kmdd2o/

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How MOOCs Can Help India

Image: DAVID DESPAU

Digital technologies have the potential to dramatically transform Indian higher education. A new model built around massive open online courses (MOOCs) that are developed locally and combined with those provided by top universities abroad could deliver higher education on a scale and at a quality not possible before.

University enrollment in India is huge and growing. It surpassed the U.S.'s enrollment in 2010 and became second only to China that year. Every day in India 5,000 students enroll at a university and 10 new institutions open their doors.

At more than 3 percent of the country's GDP, India's spending on higher education is one of the highest in the world. Yet per-student spending is among the lowest. While recent expansion has widened access to universities, it has further reduced per-student spending and aggravated already acute faculty shortages. As a result, quality has declined.

India must continue to expand access to higher education while preserving quality and reducing costs. This situation is not unique to India, but given its enormous size and unique position, India's challenges are formidable. Digital technologies, particularly the extensive use of MOOCs, could help.

India has experimented with online classes before, but their impact has been marginal. A decade ago the country began using the Internet to distribute video and Web-based courses under a government-funded program, the National Program on Technology Enhanced Learning. Developers created more than 900 courses, focused mainly on science and engineering, with about 40 hours of instruction each. With limited interactivity and uneven quality, these courses failed to attract a large body of students.

MOOCs have given Indian academics a better sense of how a lecture could be restructured into short, self-contained segments with high interactivity to engage students more effectively. Plans are afoot for the Indian Institutes of Technology, widely considered to be among the world's top engineering schools, to offer three basic IT courses in data structure, programming and algorithms to hundreds of thousands of undergraduates through MOOCs. These courses would award credits and count toward degrees.

It helps that India is full of young people who possess a high comfort level with technology. Indians are among the most aggressive users of MOOCs. Of the 2.9 million registered users of Coursera in March, more than 250,000 were from India, second only to those from the U.S.

Yet we still need to find the right model to use MOOCs in an Indian context. With a decade of experience in this space and a vibrant technology ecosystem, India will most likely find its way soon.

This article was originally published with the title An Opportunity for India.

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/~r/sciam/basic-science/~3/CdG1cdfoEs0/article.cfm

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