Sunday, August 25, 2013
Egypt's government shortens curfew hours as unrest over coup that toppled ...
Egypt's government shortens curfew hours as unrest over coup that toppled ...
Saturday, August 17, 2013
Egypt 'Day of Rage' takes dark turn, at least 60 die in clashes between ...
Friday, August 16, 2013
Egypt protest march on 'Friday of anger': live
Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood calls for 'day of rage'
Monday, August 12, 2013
Mursi supporters stand firm, brace for Egypt crackdown
Thursday, July 25, 2013
Egypt braces for day of rival rallies
Wednesday, July 24, 2013
Income Inequality Worsens: Ranks Of Millionaires Swell As Poor Tread Water
The world's richest 300 people control more wealth than the poorest 3 billion, and the gap continues to grow, according to the latest report issued last month by the Capgemini wealth consultancy and the Royal Bank of Canada.
Data in the World Wealth Report 2013 shows that millionaires across the world increased their holdings by 10 percent in 2012, reaching a record high of $46.2 trillion. One million people joined the global "high net worth individual" population, which jumped to 12 million, an increase of 9 percent over the last year. A high net worth individual is defined as someone with "investable assets of $1 million or more, excluding primary residence, collectibles, consumables, and consumer durables."
But the growing population in the millionaires club doesn't indicate that the wealth is being spread more evenly - quite the contrary.
Earlier this year, Oxfam published a report showing that the wealthiest 300 people now control more wealth than the poorest 3 billion people across the world.
"We wanted to do more than just illustrate the brutal extent of inequality; we also wanted to demonstrate that it has been getting progressively worse," Oxfam reported.
"The richest 1 percent has increased its income by 60 percent in the last 20 years, with the financial crisis accelerating rather than slowing the process," researchers found.
What are the conditions creating this growing gap? Tax avoidance for high-income individuals and corporations continues to be a major issue depriving developing countries of much-needed funds for developing infrastructure, jobs and education.
Citing data from the Oxfam report, Jason Hickel, a professor at the London School of Economics, reports that corporations are taking roughly $900 billion out of developing countries each year through a tax avoidance scheme called "trade mispricing."
Here's how it works: By registering a company in a country with favorable tax laws, a company can benefit from the cheap labor and resources of a developing country while putting little or no tax revenue back into the system.
The U.S. wealth gap may not be as bad as China, South Africa or India, but the growing inequality has become much worse in the years leading up to the recession of 2007-2009, the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression.
According to the Economic Policy Institute, income for the top 1 percent in the U.S. has increased by 275 percent over the past 30 years, while income growth for the rest of Americans has remained stagnant.
The Economic Policy Institute claims that from 1979-2007, roughly 30 percent of the expansion of the after-tax income gap was due to tax and budget policies becoming less redistributive.
Things have gotten even worse after the recession, during the so-called years of "recovery" when millions of Americans remain out of work and most Americans have lost wealth. According a 2013 Pew Research Center analysis of Census data, the mean net worth of households in the upper 7 percent of the wealth distribution rose by an estimated 28 percent from 2009-2011 while the mean net worth of households in the lower 93 percent actually dropped by 4 percent over the same period.
Lawsuit: Arizona college suspended student because she wanted English
A nursing student at Pima Community College (PCC) has filed a lawsuit claiming that she was illegally suspended after she complained that her classmates were speaking in Spanish and orally translating English to Spanish so excessively that she was failing to learn.
In early April, the student, Terri Bennett, formally requested a rule limiting classroom discussion to English. Nursing program director David Kutzler allegedly responded by called her a "bigot and a bitch," reports Courthouse News Service.
Kutzler allegedly charged that Bennett was "discriminating against Mexican-Americans" and threatened to report her complaint as a violation of the school's policies against discriminatory behavior and harassment.
"You do not want to go down that road," he said, according to the filing.
Bennett, 50, recalls leaving the meeting in distress and in tears.
A second meeting two days later involved Bennett, Kutzler and three more PCC staffers. The public school officials allegedly told Bennett that she would "not get a job" because of her desire to limit class discussion to English. She claims they said she should "seek counseling" and that she might have a learning disability.
Kutzler also allegedly produced an anonymous evaluation form that Bennett had filled out, also suggesting a "no Spanish in the classroom" rule.
Later in April, Bennett received critical feedback from a teacher-for the first time, she maintains. The critique chastised Bennett for "ineffective communication skills."
Then, on April 22, Bennett received a suspension letter from the state-owned school. The charges levied against her included discrimination, "stalking" and "bullying." She also allegedly argued with a professor about the correct answer to a test question.
Her indefinite suspension was to last "until she receives counseling to improve her communication style and to learn to be less abrasive," the lawsuit states.
"Six armed" campus security officers promptly escorted her off PCC's Desert Vista campus. The officers then allegedly followed her several miles down the road to Interstate 10.
Bennett sued the community college and its boards of directors in an Arizona state court under several causes of action including harassment, breach of contract, retaliation, discrimination and violations of the Arizona Constitution. The college and its board of governors are the only defendants.
Article 28 of Arizona's state constitution establishes English as "the official language of the state." Section 3 states: "A person shall not be discriminated against or penalized in any way because the person uses or attempts to use English in public or private communication."
Professor backs statement that God is racist, says 'I have tenure. I can't get ...
Daily Caller News Foundation
Anthea Butler, the Ivy League religious studies professor who called God a white racist after the Trayvon Martin verdict last week, doubled down on her statement and denounced the conservative media outlets that criticized her.
Butler, an associate professor of religious studies at the University of Pennsylvania, wrote a blog post for Religious Dispatches last week arguing that most Americans worship a "white racist god with a problem" who is "carrying a gun and stalking young black men."
"As a historian of American and African-American religion, I know that the Trayvon Martin moment is just one moment in a history of racism in America that, in large part, has its underpinnings in Christianity and its history," she wrote.
Conservative commentators criticized these remarks, but Butler hit back hard recently during a panel discussion at the Harlem Book Fair.
"I wrote an op-ed in the religion dispatches magazine this week about America's racist god," she said. "I got attacked by the right. I got attacked by Fox, Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh - I'm saying all you all's names out loud - Daily Caller."
She said that the pundits at these media outlets - including The Daily Caller - a different god than the biblical Christian God.
"I was coming after their god," she said. "I was not coming after the God of the scriptures, the God that we know, of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I was coming after the god they worship, Mammon; the god they worship, racism; the god they worship, white supremacy."
Butler also expressed gratitude to her tenure status at UPenn, which protects her from being fired no matter how many controversial statements she makes.
"Thank God I got a great institution that takes care of me," she said. "I have tenure. I can't get fired."
Rush Limbaugh did not take kindly to Butler's assertion that his God was not the biblical one.
"All we did was react to what this professor said in her rage and her anger," he said on his radio show. "But then she flips everybody off: you can't do anything about it because I have tenure. Anyway, I don't know how much you spend to send your kids to this school, but it's a waste of money if your kid's taking a course taught by this woman."
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Tuesday, July 23, 2013
Jay Z will boycott Florida after he makes millions of dollars performing in ...
Jay Z announced that he will join Stevie Wonder, Madonna and other musicians boycotting the state of Florida in the wake of the George Zimmerman trial.
Jay Z's boycott, however, will being after he makes millions of dollars for performing with Justin Timberlake in Florida.
The pair are still scheduled to stop in Miami for their "Legends of the Summer Tour" on Aug. 16, Florida's Post Newsweek reports.
A number of musicians, including Usher, Rod Stewart and Kanye West, have said that they will not perform in the 20 states that have "stand your ground" laws after Zimmerman's acquittal in the death of Trayvon Martin.
Despite earlier reports, Mother Jones writes that neither Rihanna nor the Rolling Stones have plans to boycott those states because, you know, money.
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Boehner snaps at reporter over immigration question
Speaker of the House John Boehner snapped at a reporter Tuesday when the journalist accused the lawmaker of playing no substantial role in the immigration debate on Capitol Hill.
During a weekly House GOP press availability, the Ohio Republican appeared annoyed when he interrupted a reporter who asserted as fact that Boehner has taken a "hands off approach on immigration."
"Woah, woah, woah, woah, stop," Boehner said, not letting the reporter finish the question. "Just stop."
"Let's get back to the premise of the question," he said. "Nobody has spent more time trying to fix a broken immigration system than I have."
Continuing, Boehner said: "I talked about it the day after the election. And I've talked about it a hundred times since. While some may disagree about how we're going about fixing the broken immigration system, it's been a big goal of mine."
While the Senate passed the Gang of 8 immigration bill that includes a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants, Boehner says the bill is too big and says he won't bring it to a vote in the House. But he has dodged questions about his personal views on a pathway to citizenship, saying his role in Congress is to facilitate discussion of the issue among legislators.
"We believe that a common sense, step-by-step approach to addressing this problem makes a lot more sense than one big massive comprehensive bill," he said.
Desperate Homophobes Tell Women Gay Rights Will Rob Them Of Husbands
By Amanda MarcotteMonday, July 22, 2013 13:24 EDT
"The Supreme Court overturned DOMA? I'm finally free to dump this lady and get on Grindr!," Said no man ever.Marriage equality opponents are getting desperate, desperate enough to use the "your spouse is going to abandon you!" tactic to try to turn people against same sex marriage. No, seriously, NOM and the Heritage Foundation are trying to argue that allowing same-sex couples to marry will somehow produce more single mothers.
But how can we say that fathers are essential, if policy redefines marriage to make fathers optional?
"[R]edefining marriage further distances marriage from the needs of children and denies the importance of mothers and fathers. Redefining marriage rejects as a matter of policy the ideal that children need a mother and a father," explains Heritage's Ryan T. Anderson. "Redefining marriage diminishes the social pressures for husbands to remain with their wives and children, and for men and women to marry before having children," he continues.
The entire thing is quite a remarkable attempt at trying to baffle people with bullshit. They have a chart that shows that your chances of living in poverty are a lot higher if you're a single parent, as if that really has anything to do with married gay couples, who by definition are two separate individuals together and not single.
I've long not completely understood why the religious right thinks bringing up the specter of unmarried mothers will somehow convince people that the solution is to ban marriage for the small percent of unmarried mothers who are in same-sex partnerships. The argument has always been some convoluted Martian logic, which you can see reproduced up there, which is that somehow the existence of same-sex marriage will cause people to think that you don't have to be in a heterosexual marriage to have kids and so they'll go buck wild, spreading children all over the place without taking care of them or whatever. Never mind that people already figured that out, and that the rise of single motherhood dates to back before most people had even heard of the concept of gay marriage. I truly did not get it.
But Zack Ford zeroes in specifically on the claim that marriage equality "diminishes the social pressures for husbands to remain with their wives and children", and suggests that there's an argument that's being hinted at but not stated directly: That your husband is going to use you for making children and then go off and marry a man. He notes that there's a long trend in the anti-gay community of trying to conflate single mothers with lesbian-headed households, and this is just an extension of that.
It's amazing how conservatives just assume everyone shares their shockingly misogynist worldview, particularly their assumption that no man would ever openly choose to be with a woman unless he had no other choice. (And vice versa, with the fear that same-sex marriage is giving women "permission" not to be married at all.) These kinds of arguments, no matter how much they try to confuse you by being obtuse and arguing everything through insinuation, never work unless you buy the premise that men and women will not be with each other unless they're forced to. You really do start to wonder if they think that most currently straight people are going to turn gay now that gay marriage is an option.
In the real world, of course, the growing social acceptance of gay people actually reduces the number of straight marriages that are blown up by one spouse choosing to live as gay. It's homophobia that causes people to get married, have kids, and struggle for years before the pressure of living a lie causes them to come out, divorce their spouse, and live as a gay person. Nowadays, you can come out in your teens-often earlier!-long before there's pressure to start dating, much less marry a person of the opposite sex.
This isn't just conjecture, but is backed up by the statistics. In red states, where there's more overt homophobia, there are a lot more same-sex couples raising children. That's because, despite gay couples adopting or having kids together, most gay parents still got their kids during a closeted period in their life.
For instance, "a big chunk of them are people who had children young, with opposite-sex partners, before they came out," Gates said. After coming out, they raised those children with a partner of the same sex, he explained.
That may be one reason that in some more conservative places not known for celebrating gays and lesbians, a striking percentage of same-sex couples are rearing children, Gates said. Among states, Mississippi has the highest percentage of gay or lesbian couples raising children - 26% - his analysis of census data found.
Though Salt Lake City has a high percentage of gay couples raising children, the actual number is still much smaller than in coastal hubs such as New York or Los Angeles, the data show.
The only way you could possibly think that legalizing gay marriage will make this more prevalent is if you think that huge percentages of currently straight couples will break up and go into same-sex marriages the second they get a chance. It's not uncommon for the religious right to raise the specter, particularly to women, that no one will want to be married to them if X happens. Threatening women with male infidelity or with the fear that men will reject marriage if there's other options available is a long-standing argument against women's sexual liberation, so it's not surprising that the anti-gay arguments are basically an extremely strained attempt to do the same thing.
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Monday, July 22, 2013
Report: 'Gasland' director made false breast cancer claims
Daily Caller News Foundation
Scientists told EgyptbracesforviolenceasMorsisupport.blogspot.com that environmentalists may be twisting the facts when it comes to their criticism of hydraulic fracturing.
One of the most controversial claims against fracking is that it has caused breast cancer rates to spike in North Texas Barnett Shale, where oil and gas companies have been drilling for about a decade.
Josh Fox, environmentalist and maker of the anti-fracking "Gasland" series, argued in a letter sent to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo that breast cancer rates spiked in an area of the Barnett Shale where extensive drilling is taking place.
"In Texas, as throughout the United States, cancer rates fell," Fox tells viewers in a creepy voice in his short film "The Sky is Pink." "Except in one place: in the Barnett Shale. The five counties where there was the most drilling saw a rise in breast cancer throughout the counties."
Simon Craddock Lee, a professor at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, called Fox's claims "a classic case of the ecological fallacy." It is false to suggest that breast cancer is linked to just one factor when things like diet, lifestyle and access to health care are also factors.
However, there has been no such spike in breast cancer rates, according to researchers.
The AP notes: "David Risser, an epidemiologist with the Texas Cancer Registry, said in an email that researchers checked state health data and found no evidence of an increase in the counties where the spike supposedly occurred. ... And Susan G. Komen for the Cure, a major cancer advocacy group based in Dallas, said it sees no evidence of a spike, either."
Fox remained adamant that his claim was correct, responding to the AP by citing a Centers for Disease Control press release and a newspaper article, neither of which appeared to support his contention.
In fact, the story that Fox cited noted that while "local breast cancer rates are up, they are still below the national average."
The AP notes: "When Fox was told that Texas cancer researchers said rates didn't increase, he replied in an email that the claim of unusually high breast cancer rates was 'widely reported' and said there is 'more than enough evidence to warrant much deeper study.'"
This is not the only time Fox has been criticized for misleading viewers.
One scene in his most recent film "Gasland II" showed a man being able to light to contents of his hose on fire, but a Texas court recently found that this was a hoax done at the behest of a Texas environmental activist who was engaged in a prolonged battle with an oil and gas company.
"This demonstration was not done for scientific study but to provide local and national news media a deceptive video, calculated to alarm the public into believing the water was burning," the court ruled last year.
Fracking involves injecting water, sand and chemicals into cracks in rock formations to widen them and allow more oil and gas to escape, increasing the amounts that can be recovered. The process occurs at about 8,000 feet below ground, and thousands of feet below groundwater sources.
Environmentalists argue that chemicals from fracking seep up through the ground and can contaminate water supplies. However, the Environmental Protection Agency has failed to find evidence of groundwater contamination linked to fracking and a recent Energy Department study found no evidence of fracking contaminating drinking water in western Pennsylvania.
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Energy Department: Fracking doesn't contaminate groundwater
Daily Caller News Foundation
A landmark federal study found no evidence that hydraulic fracturing - better known as fracking - contaminated drinking water in western Pennsylvania, the Energy Department told EgyptbracesforviolenceasMorsisupport.blogspot.com.
The National Energy Technology Laboratory in Pittsburgh monitored wells for a year by injecting special tracers into fracking fluid to see whether any chemicals migrated up towards drinking water. Researchers found that the fracking fluid stayed nearly a mile below drinking water supplies.
"This is good news," said Duke University scientist Rob Jackson, but warned that a single study does not prove fracking can't ever pollute since industry drilling practices vary widely throughout Pennsylvania and the country.
These are only preliminary results of an ongoing study, but so far it supports the industry's argument that fracking can be done safely.
Fracking involves injecting fluids into cracks in rock formations to widen them and allow more oil and gas to escape, increasing the amounts that can be recovered. The process occurs at about 8,000 feet below ground.
Environmentalists opposed to fracking claim that it can contaminate groundwater sources and releases greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, but so far, these claims are largely unfounded.
The AP also notes: "While the lack of contamination is encouraging, Jackson said he wondered whether the unidentified drilling company might have consciously or unconsciously taken extra care with the research site, since it was being watched."
Jackson also noted that researchers at Duke have conducted numerous fracking studies with mixed results, though none of them have found chemical contamination in water supplies. However, there was some evidence that natural gas escaped some wells in northeastern Pennsylvania.
The Environmental Protection Agency has also failed to find evidence of drinking water contamination in three separate studies. The agency is currently in the process of conducting a larger national study that will be done in 2016.
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Sunday, July 21, 2013
Major victory for illegal immigrant students in Michigan
Daily Caller News Foundation
The regents of the University of Michigan (UM) granted a hefty tuition discount to students who are in the country illegally.
The vote to establish in-state tuition rates for illegal immigrants took place on Thursday, following months of discussion over the issue. The two Republican members of the Board of Regents voted against the measure.
Under the old tuition policy, illegal immigrants living in the state of Michigan were automatically considered out-of-state students. Now all residents of Michigan, regardless of whether they lawfully entered the U.S., will enjoy in-state tuition rates.
The difference between in-state and out-of-state tuition is significant: Students who lack residency in the state of Michigan pay about $40,000 a year for tuition at UM, while in-state students pay just $13,000.
There are an estimated 29,000 college-age immigrants living in Michigan illegally.
Dan Morales, a UM sophomore and spokesman for the Coalition for Tuition Equality (CTE), praised the decision while bemoaning the lack of financial aid available to illegal immigrants. CTE will continue to pressure the university to find more ways to lower the cost of education for undocumented students, he said.
"In-state tuition is only one step to creating truly equal access to higher education for these students," he said in a statement to The Michigan Daily.
Regent Andrea Fischer Newman, who voted no, expressed concern that the new policy violates federal laws against providing in-state tuition to illegal immigrants.
"I'm concerned about whether this is appropriate under federal law and believe this type of national issue should be resolved at the federal level, although I am supportive of the expansion of in-state tuition for veterans who have served our nation," she said in a statement.
The new policy also extends in-state tuition to all military veterans, regardless of residency.
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Saturday, July 20, 2013
Craigslist mom seeks hottie to take Harvard
Everybody knows that Craigslist is the best place in the world to find random, possibly diseased sex partners and crappy furniture nobody wants.
Naturally, then, a Philadelphia woman who says she wants to find a special female to deflower her "extremely smart but socially awkward" 18-year-old son knew exactly where to turn: the "casual encounters" section of Philly's Craigslist personals.
The young man is allegedly going to Harvard, you see, and his mother says she wants him to be sexually ready when he arrives in Cambridge. Because what kind of mother wouldn't be worried sick about that?
"This is going to sound strange but my son is a senior in High School and I want to help him," the concerned mother writes in the ad placed on July 16 12:49 p.m. Eastern time. The ad is titled "Sugar Baby for my Son - m4w - 18 (Philly)."
It's not clear what this kid is doing still in high school in the middle of July.
He "has never had a girl friend," she explains. She is "sure he's a virgin." He is - or was - also a member of the varsity cross country team at an undisclosed high school. He is "very handsome and extremely fit... There's almost zero body fat on him."
The helpful mother says she wants "to find a cute young girl to date him and turn him from high school nerd to cool college kid."
Mom's plan is simple: "I'll buy 4 tickets to some great concert coming up and give two to my son and 2 to you," she schemes. "Ask him to take you somewhere after and ditch your friends. Then you seduce him and take his virginity. Keep dating him (and showing him different sex positions) til he goes to college and then let him go gently so he'll have the confidence to date other girls once he's there."
The reward for participating in this devious mom's machinations - in addition to the all the satisfaction it will bring, of course - will apparently be cash and an automobile.
"In return I'll make your financial issues disappear," she promises, with an added wink. "Please put your favorite type of car in the subject, to show that you're real. Thanks!"
Follow Eric on Twitter and send casual sex ad-related story tips to erico@dailycaller.com.Rep. James Clyburn dons a hoodie at Trayvon Martin rally
South Carolina Democrat Rep. James Clyburn rallied for slain teen Trayvon Martin on the steps of the South Carolina State House Saturday wearing a hoodie, according to WLTX reporter Jasmine Styles.
Congressman Clyburn speaking on Trayvon Martin w/ his hoodie up pic.twitter.com/T4ezEa9tBB
- Jasmine Styles (@JStylesWLTX) July 20, 2013
The hooded sweatshirt, or hoodie, has become a symbol of support for Martin who was wearing one on the night he was shot and killed by neighborhood watchman George Zimmerman. Zimmerman was acquitted of murder charges by a jury last weekend.
Thursday, Clyburn, a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, spoke about his and the CBC's disappointment in the verdict with MSNBC.
"We're very disappointed in the verdict, and more disappointed in some of the reactions we've read from some of the jurors. It just seems as if something about this entire process is just disconcerting to us," he said.
"So we are looking at the verdict as well as other thing surrounding it, and trying to figure out whether or not this whole so-called Stand Your Ground legislation or law can be dealt with in such a way to prevent this kind of the thing from happening. And we hope that we can," he added
The CBC is currently readying legislation in response to Zimmerman's acquittal.
Last March, Illinois Democrat Rep. Bobby Rush was chastised for violating chamber rules when he wore a hoodie during a speech on the House floor.
"Racial profiling has to stop, Mr. Speaker," Rush said, just before pulling up his hood. "Just because someone wears a hoodie does not make them a hoodlum."
Martin supporters are expected to rally and conduct vigils across the country Saturday in a show of support for the Martin family and in a bid to encourage federal charges to be brought against Zimmerman.
Pictures of the crowd in South Carolina via Styles:
Trayvon Martin rally at the state house pic.twitter.com/FCccefZ4C1
- Jasmine Styles (@JStylesWLTX) July 20, 2013
Another shot of the crowd at the Trayvon Martin rally at the state house pic.twitter.com/MpAUwVVVUF
- Jasmine Styles (@JStylesWLTX) July 20, 2013
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Hawaii Hotel Workers Win Small Step Toward Compensation For Wage Theft
Thousands of current and former Hawaii hotel employees could be in line to recover millions in lost tips following a ruling released Monday by the state Supreme Court. The class-action suit has yet to be litigated, but Labor Radio reported this week that it could be worth as much as $10 million.
The case is not unique as workers across the nation's service sector report rampant, ongoing theft of wages, tips and overtime pay by their employers. According to a report by CNN Money, more than 7,000 such lawsuits were filed across the U.S. in 2011 - a 400 percent increase since 2000.
More than a decade later, the fight continues
The Hawaii case dates back to 2000, when hotel workers first filed a class-action lawsuit claiming that they had been shorted millions of dollars after hotel management took all or part of tips given to workers. The case has experienced delays and setbacks since then, creeping forward until the State Supreme Court ruled this week that it could proceed - a decision hailed as a major step forward by hotel workers and their attorneys.
How exactly does this wage theft occur? Imagine a situation where a patron gives a gratuity to a server or hotel employee with the expectation that the tip will be kept by the worker for his service.
In Hawaii, workers allege that management often requires them to pool gratuities into a collective fund, with managers taking a portion and then distributing the rest evenly among the workers. If found to be true, it's a crime with two sets of victims - workers who lose out on tips, and tourists who have been duped into believing they were compensating the hotel employees who open doors, clean rooms, serve in restaurants and bring suitcases to their rooms. This, attorneys claim, is a form of wage theft totalling millions of dollars.
Hawaii News Now reports that attorney John Perkin has filed eight separate suits claiming that the total lost tips could exceed $10 million.
"I would say it's going to be north of $10 million. We have $3 million on one hotel on Kauai alone," Perkin said.
"Its been a long time coming," said Boston-based attorney Harold Lichten to Maui News. "We are really pleased with the Supreme Court's ruling. It took us five years but this is a great day for workers in Hawaii."
Lichten and Perkin believe that the hotels are in violation of a Hawaii law that requires hotels and restaurants to distribute service charges for food and beverage services entirely to employees unless customers are informed that management retains a portion.
"When patrons pay service charges, it looks like a gratuity and then they don't tip," Shannon Liss-Riordan, an attorney whose firm has cases pending against Four Seasons, Ritz Carlton, Grand Wailea and Starwood, told the Kansas City Star. "We've brought cases like this across the country, but Hawaii is one of three states along with Massachusetts and New York that has an explicit law to address this issue."
Some of the workers belong to Unite Here Local 5, a union representing workers at several Hilton, Ramada and Sheraton locations. Eric Gill, Local 5's financial secretary-treasurer, spoke to KHON 2 news about the impact the case could have on low-wage hotel workers represented by the union.
"This is very important for Hawaii's working people," he said. "Many of us work for tips and rely on them. And of course, if management takes a share and doesn't say so, then the guest thinks they've given a tip and the worker doesn't get it."
The Supreme Court decision affects few of the Local 5 hotel workers, since their contracts already have provisions preventing this type of theft.
Local 5 spokesperson Paola Rodelas offered Mint Press News this official statement when contacted for comment:
"Local 5 applauds the Supreme Court for upholding workers' rights. Tipped workers who work at Local 5 hotels will not see much effect from this ruling, because Local 5 members have many protections for our tips built into our contracts. For those workers who do not have the protection of a Local 5 contract, this decision is a step forward toward justice, fairness, and better working conditions."
All of this occurs as the Hawaii tourism industry is booming, with millions of visitors flocking to the state for its picturesque beaches and beautiful weather each year. According to a report by the Pacific Business News, 7.99 million visitors came to Hawaiian islands in 2012, spending $14.3 billion. The glowing report was originally published by the Hawaii Tourism Authority in January using industry data.
"We could not have achieved this momentous year without the hard work and dedication of the people that support our industry - from the bellmen, storekeepers and flight attendants to the Legislature, business community and residents - we all came together to help Hawaii," said Hawaii Tourism Authority President and CEO Mike McCartney.
Wage theft: An epidemic across the U.S.
The case is a big deal for workers who rely upon tips to supplement paltry wages. In the service industry, it is legal for employers to pay some employees less than minimum wage, since servers, busboys and others make the majority of their wages in tips.
This type of wage theft is not isolated to Hawaii hotel workers and has become rampant across the U.S., according to recent reports.
Last year, CNN reported a 400 percent increase in wage-and-hour violation claims over the last 11 years, a statistic that some experts believe only exposes a fraction of the numerous unreported wage thefts.
This follows a 2008 report by the National Employment Law Center that estimates that 15 percent of the average low-wage worker's annual income is lost to wage theft, underpayment and denied overtime, among other methods of stealing.
The NELP study is based upon a review of working conditions in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago.
More recently, a report examining the conditions for fast food workers in New York City found that 84 percent reported some form of wage theft.
As a rule, fast food workers do not receive tips, so the wage theft reported involves a much more obvious set of crimes in which employers simply withhold a part of a worker's salary or deny overtime pay.
The findings come from an Anzalone Liszt Grove research survey of 500 of the city's fast food workers, unveiled in May when hundreds of fast food workers were demanding a minimum wage of $15 and the right to form a union without intimidation.
Zimmerman defense team responds to Obama's comments
George Zimmerman's defense team released a statement Friday shortly after President Obama's remarks in a press conference.
"Trayvon Martin could've been me 35 years ago," Obama said, and urged the nation to have a conversation about race.
Zimmerman's legal team promptly responded.
"To focus on this one line misses the nuances of the President's message," reads the statement which was posted at the defense team's website GZLegalcase.com.
Earlier Friday, Robert Zimmerman Jr., George Zimmerman's brother told The Daily Caller that President Obama's remarks reinforced the "mythology surrounding the case." The President did not acknowledge the evidence supporting Zimmerman's claim that Martin attacked him.
"While we acknowledge and understand the racial context of this case," the defense's statement continues, "we challenge people to look closely and dispassionately at the facts."
"We believe those who look at the facts of the case without prejudice will see that it is a clear case of self-defense, and we are certain that those who take a closer look at the kind of person George Zimmerman is," reads the statement.
Zimmerman Jr. also recalled to TheDC earlier Friday that his brother has helped mentor two African American children whose father is serving a life sentence in prison.
The defense team applauds Obama's courage in discussing the Zimmerman verdict in the statement, but adds, "we would like to stress that the verdict was reached fairly and justly and that it reflects the letter of the law and represents the law's proper application to the facts."
"We hope that the President was not suggesting that this case fits a pattern of racial disparity, because we strongly contend that it does not," they caution, citing the Department of Justice's investigation against Zimmerman for possible hate crimes in the shooting death of Martin.
"Before you judge George Zimmerman or disparage the verdict of the citizen jury, understand the facts in full," the statement reads. "Agree not to listen to just what meets your predisposition, but to accept what exists."
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