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Slave nation: Forty percent Of U.S. workers made less than $20,000 last year

Bryce Covert
Thinkprogress.org
Tue, 05 Nov 2013 09:40 UTC
minimum wage
© Unknown
Nearly 40 percent of all workers in the country made less than $20,000 last year, according to data from the Social Security Administration, which doesn't include figures on benefits such as health insurance or pensions. That's below the federal poverty threshold for a family of four and close to the line for a family of three. On average, these workers earned just $17,459.55.

Meanwhile, more than half of all workers made less than $30,000, not much more to live off of. Wider Opportunities for Women has estimated that a two-income family with two children needs to bring in nearly $72,000 a year to simply reach economic security. Two earners at this level won't achieve that status.

As David Cay Johnston notes, the median wage was $27,519 in 2012, at the lowest level since 1998. That means half of all workers made more and half made less. But the average wage actually grew. "When the average wage grows but the median wage stagnates, it means that, statistically, only workers in the top half of the job market are experiencing increases," he writes.
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Airplane

One of Spain's infamous ghost airports went up for sale

George Mills
The Local
Mon, 09 Dec 2013 13:45 UTC
Image
© Getty Image

One of Spain's infamous ghost airports goes up for sale on Monday with the opening bid set at €100 million ($137 million), or a tenth of original construction costs.

The sale of Cuidad Real's failed airport has begun, Spain's national television network RTVE reported on Monday.

The airport, some 200km (124 miles) south of Madrid, was designed to receive 2.5 million passengers a year. In 2010, however, only 31,000 people walked through its doors.

Saddled with debts of €529 million, the facility closed in 2012 after just three years in operation.

It will now be sold to meet creditor's demands.
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2 + 2 = 4

VIDEO: Circus tiger mauls tamer mid-act

Alex Dunham
The Local
Sun, 29 Dec 2013 11:11 UTC
Image
© Circo GottaniThirty-five-year-old Danny Gottani was rushed to hospital after sustaining serious cuts and bites to his throat, legs and back.
A tamer was viciously attacked by the tiger he was performing with during a circus act in Madrid on Sunday

Thirty-five-year-old Danny Gottani was rushed to hospital after sustaining serious cuts and bites to his throat, legs and back.

Just moments before, hundreds of spectators had watched in disbelief as the big cat pounced on the animal trainer and wouldn't let go of him.

Although part of the audience assumed the attack was part of the pair's stage act, they soon realized the mauling was all too true when another circus member rushed to the scene and began striking the animal with a stick.
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People

New laws in 2014: From banning aerial drones to legal marijuana

Greg Toppo
USA Today
Sun, 29 Dec 2013 15:02 UTC
Image
© APUnmanned Predator drone
If you're a pale 17-year-old in Illinois, get your indoor tanning sessions in now. Starting Wednesday, they're strictly forbidden.

A new state law takes effect Jan. 1 that bans anyone under 18 from using tanning salons in the Land of Lincoln. Illinois becomes the sixth state to keep teens out of the facilities, part of a growing trend of regulating tanning facilities to help reduce the risk of skin cancer, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), a Washington-based group that tracks lawmaking.

The new measure is one of an estimated 40,000 new laws, regulations and resolutions approved by state legislatures in 2013, many of which take effect Jan. 1. Among them:

- Arkansas voters must now show a photo ID at polling places, while Virginia voters for the first time will be able to register online.

- In Colorado, 16-year-olds will be able to pre-register to vote, but must still wait until they're 18 to vote.

- California students must be allowed to play school sports and use school bathrooms "consistent with their gender identity," regardless of their birth identity.

- In Oregon, new mothers will now be able to take their placentas home from the hospital - some experts say ingesting it has positive health benefits. Another new state law bans smoking in motor vehicles when children are present.

- Minimum-wage increases take effect in four northeastern states: Connecticut's rises to $8.70 an hour; New Jersey's to $8.25; and New York's and Rhode Island's to $8. In nine other states, the minimum wage rises automatically because it's indexed to inflation.
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Family

China formally eases one-child policy, abolishes labor camps

Kazunori Takada
Yahoo! News - Canada
Fri, 27 Dec 2013 00:00 UTC
Image
© ReutersPeople walk outside a labour camp in Kunming, Yunnan province, November 22, 2013.
China formally approved on Saturday easing its decades-long one-child policy and the abolition of a controversial labor camp system, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

Both were among a sweeping raft of reforms announced last month after a meeting of the ruling Communist Party that mapped out policy for the next decade.

Under the new policy, couples will be allowed to have two children if one of the parents is an only child. Previously, a couple could generally only have a second child if both parents were only children.
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Gift 2

Hacker took over BBC server, tried to 'sell' access on Christmas Day

Jim Finkle
Yahoo! News - Canada
Sun, 29 Dec 2013 11:00 UTC
Image
© Reuters/Luke McGregor
A hacker secretly took over a computer server at the BBC, Britain's public broadcaster, and then launched a Christmas Day campaign to convince other cyber criminals to pay him for access to the system.

While it is not known if the hacker found any buyers, the BBC's security team responded to the issue on Saturday and believes it has secured the site, according to a person familiar with the cleanup effort.

A BBC spokesman declined to discuss the incident. "We do not comment on security issues," he said.

Reuters could not determine whether the hackers stole data or caused any damage in the attack, which compromised a server that manages an obscure password-protected website.

It was not clear how the BBC, the world's oldest and largest broadcaster, uses that site, ftp.bbc.co.uk, though ftp systems are typically used to manage the transfer of large data files over the Internet.

The attack was first identified by Hold Security LLC, a cybersecurity firm in Milwaukee that monitors underground cyber-crime forums in search of stolen information.

The firm's researchers observed a notorious Russian hacker known by the monikers "HASH" and "Rev0lver," attempting to sell access to the BBC server on December 25, the company's founder and chief information security officer, Alex Holden, told Reuters.
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Bomb

16 killed in suicide bombing in Russia's south

Vladimir Isachenkov
Associate Press
Sun, 29 Dec 2013 13:20 UTC
Russia Bombing
© AP Photo/Nikita Baryshev,Volgograd Mayor's Office HandoutIn this photo taken on a cell phone, made available by Volgograd Mayor's Office, bodies lie at an entrance to Volgograd railway station, Sunday, Dec. 29, 2013. More then a dozen people were killed and scores were wounded Sunday by a suicide bomber at a railway station in southern Russia, officials said, heightening concern about terrorism ahead of February's Olympics in the Black Sea resort of Sochi.
Moscow -- A suicide bomber struck a busy railway station in southern Russia on Sunday, killing at least 15 people and wounding scores more, officials said, in a stark reminder of the threat Russia is facing as it prepares to host February's Olympics in Sochi.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the bombing in Volgograd, but it came several months after Chechen rebel leader Doku Umarov called for new attacks against civilian targets in Russia, including the Sochi Games.

Suicide bombings have rocked Russia for years, but many have been contained to the North Caucasus, the center of an insurgency seeking an Islamist state in the region. Until recently Volgograd was not a typical target, but the city formerly known as Stalingrad has now been struck twice in two months - suggesting militants may be using the transportation hub as a renewed way of showing their reach outside their restive region.

Volgograd, which lies close to volatile Caucasus provinces, is 900 kilometers (550 miles) south of Moscow and about 650 kilometers (400 miles) northeast of Sochi, a Black Sea resort flanked by the North Caucasus Mountains.
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Newspaper

Saudi royal faces death penalty for murder


Reuters
Sun, 29 Dec 2013 13:52 UTC
Sultan
© ReutersSaudi Arabia Deputy Minister of Defense Prince Salman bin Sultan (front L), arrives for a meeting with U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel at the Radisson Hotel in Manama December 6, 2013
A Saudi prince who murdered a fellow Saudi may be executed, a newspaper reported on Sunday, in a rare example of a member of the kingdom's ruling family facing the death penalty.

The English-language Arab News did not name the prince or his victim, but said a senior member of the family and government, Crown Prince Salman, had "cleared the way for the possible execution of a prince convicted of murdering a Saudi citizen".

In a message about the case to Interior Minister Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, Prince Salman said: "Sharia (Islamic law) shall be applied to all without exception", the daily reported.
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Arrow Down

Milwaukee officer who forced dozens of anal cavity searches for fun gets only 2 years in prison


Police State USA
Sat, 28 Dec 2013 14:27 UTC
Vagnini
© Police State USAMilwaukee Officer Michael Vagnini.
A disgusting scandal involving police officers performing illegal anal cavity searches with the intent to "degrade and humiliate" dozens and dozens of victims has come to an apparent conclusion, which some feel amounts to little more than a slap on the wrists for those involved.

Between February 2010 and February 2012, a small group of Milwaukee officers took part in a string of serial assaults on subjects pulled off the streets. In many cases, the officers demanded the subjects produce the drugs they assumed were being hidden somewhere on their person.

When they were not satisfied with the cooperation from the subjects, an officer would jam his hand into the subject's underpants, touch his genitals, and insert a finger into his anus on the side of the road. Some of the complaints stated that drugs were planted during these searches. At least one complainant was a juvenile, and one stated that he was fingered so hard that his anus bled afterwards.

The group's ringleader was Milwaukee Officer Michael Vagnini, assisted primarily by three other officers; Jeffrey Dollhopf, Brian Kozelek and Jacob Knight. Although 7 officers and one supervisor were originally suspended, the four officers mentioned above were the men the district attorney felt had enough involvement to pursue legal actions against.

Officer Vagnini was the the one who directly performed the searches with his hand; the others were present and assisted with detaining the victims, holding them down, provided Vagnini cover while molested them, and then failed to report the crimes to superiors in the department.
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Padlock

Brooklyn's Kings Plaza Mall: Anyone under 18 banned, unless accompanied by an adult


CBS News
Fri, 27 Dec 2013 23:00 UTC
Image
© CBS NewsKings Plaza Shopping Center
A melee at Kings Plaza Shopping Center in Brooklyn the day after Christmas was captured on cellphone video.

According to police, the flash mob involving as many as 300 teenagers, mostly 15 and 16 years old, began a short time before the Mill Basin mall closed at 9 p.m. on Thursday.

Social media quickly erupted with all kinds of rumors, prompting an email from the 63rd Precinct Community Affairs office, denying there was a riot, any injuries, or significant damage, CBS 2′s Tony Aiello reported Friday.

"Take the jar and broke the one jar, like $50 damage candy and the jar. It's like almost $100 damage for me," one candy kiosk owner said.

Police responded to the mall and escorted the teens out. No arrests were made. It was unclear how the mob of teenagers came together or planned the disturbance.

Mall employees like Greg Casiano told CBS 2′s Tracee Carrasco they had to close up shop early as police and mall security got the melee under control.

"When I saw outside, downstairs I was looking and I saw a mob, several kids fighting yesterday and its too much," Casiano said. "A lot of kids running, and I'm hearing screaming so the security guard said there's a little security issue, you have to bring down the gates to keep the consumers, our customers safe."
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