All posts by nedhamson

Activist, writer, researcher, addicted to sharing information and facts.

Regulations.gov – Minimum wage for contracted employees

The Executive Order therefore seeks to increase efficiency and cost savings in the work performed by parties that contract with the Federal Government by raising the hourly minimum wage paid by those contractors to workers performing on covered Federal contracts to: $10.10 per hour, beginning January 1, 2015; and beginning January 1, 2016, and annually thereafter, an amount determined by the Secretary of Labor. The Executive Order directs the Secretary to issue regulations by October 1, 2014, to the extent permitted by law and consistent with the requirements of the Federal Property and Administrative Services Act to implement the Order’s requirements. This proposed rule therefore establishes standards and procedures for implementing and enforcing the minimum wage protections of Executive Order 13658. As required by the Order and to the extent practicable, the proposed rule incorporates existing definitions, procedures, remedies, and enforcement processes under the Fair Labor Standards Act, the Service Contract Act, and the Davis-Bacon Act.

via Regulations.gov – Proposed Rule Document.

[India] With She-Toilets, Chennai shows way in sanitation | WNN – Women News Network

“This is also the first time Chennai Corporation has done a detailed survey and mapping of where public toilets are required and where the public oppose it,” said a senior corporation official. “Earlier the corporation would only ask the zonal engineer where to put up a toilet.” These 348 locations include bus stands, markets and open spaces.

The toilets will come as a relief to women who work outdoors all day such as vendors, construction workers and police officers. “We have to stand on the road for at least five hours while on bandobast duty,” said Leela Sri, a woman constable. “There are very few public toilets that we can use and most of them are filthy.” Leela, who has been on the job for 11 years, said she and her female colleagues are prone to urinary tract infections and fibroids. “If more of these toilets for women come up, the next generation of policewomen need not face such health problems,” she says. Kerala State Women’s Development Corporation recently introduced these toilets . . .

via [India] With She-Toilets, Chennai shows way in sanitation | WNN – Women News Network.

Mother attends daughter’s graduation in the dress that got her daughter sent home from school

Sadly, Central Davison is not the only school humiliating and slut-shaming its female students. As we’ve blogged about before, a Utah high school recently photo-shopped the year book photos of certain female students so their necklines would be higher and their sleeves would be longer. A school in Canada sent female students home for wearing tank tops that revealed their bra straps. Another student at a different school got sent home for the same bra-strap related infraction. Another–you guessed it–female student got sent home over the length of her shorts. And a 17-year old girl got sent home from a prom for provoking “impure thoughts.” The silver lining to this puritanical persecution is that some of the people being targeted are calling it out by making statements, putting up posters, and talking to the press.

via Mother attends daughter’s graduation in the dress that got her daughter sent home from school.

A Tear for the World

God will make room in your heart for transforming pain and sadness to joy and grace.

Poetry for Palestine

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I feel your throbbing pain

O World

I see your bleeding soul

I cringe, I go insane

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Weary, I retreat

To the land of barren tears

Where no man has ever been

In silence, I weep

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“O dear God”

I whisper

“How can such a small heart,

Take all this pain?”

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Without Goodbye

Full/empty

Night Owl Poetry - Dorinda Duclos

www.marimethod.com http://www.marimethod.com

We talked for hours
The time flew by, without
a single thought of
anyone else
Just the two of us, sharing
laughing, listening
dreaming, of a better
world, a better tomorrow
For us

Then you’re gone
Not a moment’s notice, not
a word nor a wave
leaving me confused
Why did you stop by,
why did you stay so long
only to disappear
From my view

And I ponder the moment
we met
The happiness, the joy
the sorrow, the tears
And I can’t help
but wonder
why you left
without goodbye.

©2014 Dorinda Duclos  All Rights Reserved

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Pacific Disability Theatre Group Inspires and Educates – Inter Press Service | Inter Press Service

In the Pacific Island state of Vanuatu, 23 actors with disabilities, from youth to senior citizens, who have battled physical and social barriers all their lives, are now empowering themselves and others through socially engaged theatre.

via Pacific Disability Theatre Group Inspires and Educates – Inter Press Service | Inter Press Service.

Caribbean chikungunya cases top 170,000 | CIDRAP

The number of chikungunya cases in parts of the Caribbean continued to surge last week, pushing past 170,000 cases, with the first cases confirmed in El Salvador, west of the main outbreak area, and more imported cases detected in the United States and other countries. {Will not be long before all of Central America is effected and then Mexico, Texas, Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, Georgia, Florida – all from people visiting the currently effected areas – coming home infected and getting bitten by local mosquitoes!}

The outbreak has grown to 170,566 suspected or confirmed cases of the mosquito-borne disease, which is 35,139 higher than the 135,427 cases reported the previous week, according to a Jun 13 report from the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO). The number of deaths remained the same, at 14.

Over the past few weeks, most new cases are suspected infections reported from the Latin Caribbean countries, such as the Dominican Republic, where suspected cases rose from 52,976 to 77,320 last week. Guadaloupe and Martinique also reported thousands of new cases, but no new case totals were given for Haiti, another country that has recently been hard hit by the outbreak.

In the non-Latin areas that were mainly affected earlier in the outbreak, new cases were reported by Dominica, the Turks and Caicos Islands, and the US Virgin Islands.

via Caribbean chikungunya cases top 170,000 | CIDRAP.

Animal trapping records reveal strong wolf effect across North America — ScienceDaily

From Alaska and Yukon to Nova Scotia and Maine, the researchers have demonstrated that a “wolf effect” exists, favoring red foxes where wolves are present and coyotes where wolves are absent.

This effect requires that enough wolves be present to suppress coyotes over a wide area. Fur trapping records from Saskatchewan and Manitoba reveal that where wolves are absent in the southern agricultural regions of each province, coyotes outnumber foxes on average by 3-to-1. However, where wolves are abundant in the north, the balance swings dramatically in favor of foxes on average by 4-to-1 and at an extreme of 500-to-1 at one site.

via Animal trapping records reveal strong wolf effect across North America — ScienceDaily.