Aussie Burgers: McDonald$ lifting prices in working-class areas

McDONALD’S will charge more for Happy Meals and at “high-demand” stores, including at the Royal Children’s Hospital. Most of the outlets where prices will rise are in the city and working class suburbs, because McDonalds believes those consumers are more likely to accept the higher charges, while diners in more affluent areas would complain. The cost of menu items was previously based on restaurant overheads and ingredient prices.

But the multinational fast-food chain is now using socio-economic factors to determine charges under a new “demand-based pricing” scheme.

A confidential corporate document seen by the Australian Herald Sun reveals McDonald’s Australia has identified an “opportunity to introduce more aggressive price increases” at 52 of Victoria’s 214 outlets.

Melbourne’s CBD restaurants on Collins, Elizabeth, Swanston and Bourke streets will be among those to charge the highest prices.

The Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne airport and select restaurants from areas such as Airport West and St Albans through to country Victorian restaurants in Traralgon and Echuca will all be hardest hit.Suburbs such as Werribee and Avondale Heights and country towns such as Benalla will only incur moderate increases.A McDonald’s franchisee, who asked to remain anonymous, said the biggest price rises were concentrated in low-income areas.”If you take the time to analyse the different restaurants, in general the poorer suburbs will pay more,” the franchisee said.

“In essence, areas that the franchiser thinks will pay more for our products will have to. This is so wrong.”

The document says the objective of the new system is for individual stores “to maximise the potential for a price rise” while minimising the risk consumers that will go elsewhere or choose a cheaper meal.The biggest price rise will be for children’s Happy Meals, which will increase by 16.5 per cent from $4.25 to $4.95, at all locations.Other items will rise in two stages by between 1.8 per cent and 3.3 per cent, depending on the location of the restaurant.

McDonald’s corporate communications manager Bronwyn Stubbs denied the prices were forced on franchise owners.”The company’s licensed restaurants have always, and continue to have, the power to set their own pricing based on individual factors,” she said.

Rep. Marcy Kaptur Tells Americans To Squat In Their Houses And F**k Off The Banks!

By Mark Ames

Although it’s more fun to trash the villains and suckers who dominate our dying empire, if the rare hero appears and says something courageous and decent, then it becomes our professional duty to salute her. That hero is Ohio congresswoman Marcy Kaptur (D-Toledo), who recently called for distressed homeowners to squat in their houses and fuck off the banks who have fucked over the country.

 Here’s Kaptur speaking like the only true representative of the people out there:

“I’m saying to them possession is 99 percent of the law; you stay in your house,” Miss Kaptur said yesterday, continuing a crusade she started several weeks ago in Congress and CNN picked up Thursday night.

“I say to the American people, you be squatters in your own homes. Don’t you leave,” she said during a speech in Congress earlier this month.

She said she believes that many so-called predatory and subprime loans – those made to borrowers who did not qualify for a conventional mortgage – may have been illegal.

She urged homeowners not to panic and leave their home just because they receive a foreclosure notice from their lender, and she said they should demand that the mortgage-holder produce a mortgage audit.

Naturally, she’s been targeted by the Republican rightwing for destruction. This kind of talk is way too dangerous to be tolerated–after all, for 30 years or more now, the rich have grown used to plundering a passive middle-class and working-class America. So guess who the Republicans are considering running against Kaptur in 2010? Yep, the biggest weapon in their pseudo-populist arsenal, none other than child-molester-lookalike Joe The Plumber. Already there’s a draft-Joe-the-Plumber website concocted by a group of elitist Amherst Republicans.

“Hi there son, want some candy? Come inside my van, I’ll show you what I’ve got.”

Meanwhile, as expected, the Republican rightwing and their real estate sponsors are trying to make Kaptur’s pro-people proposal seem crazy, which is usually how they characterize anything that doesn’t enrich the plutocracy. Their local spokesman/attack dog is realtor Jim Moody, a Republican running for mayor of Toledo:

“I think those are dangerous statements,” Mr. Moody said. “What’s she going to say when the sheriff comes and puts all their stuff on the street when they didn’t leave because Marcy Kaptur said they could stay and become a squatter?

“I think she’s clueless. This is goofy. Of course, the attorneys file the proper paperwork,” Mr. Moody said.

Here’s one example of something Kaptur could say, Jim: “You, sheriff, are fired, because I write the fucking laws here.” Or better yet, “Okay, since I write the laws, I decree that everyone who loses their house should squat in Jim Moody’s master bedroom. How you like them apples, fuckhead?”

Incidentally, you can find Moody’s personal cellphone here on this ad for his real estate company, Flex Realty. The number, just in case, is 419-392-4444. Call him and tell him you’re really interested in buying one of the shitty overpriced houses he’s listing. Tell him you’ll meet him in 5 minutes at a house that’s 25 minutes away, so that he’ll total his car trying to close a deal. Or tell him you’ll meet him at 4:30 a.m. because you’re an early riser and you only respect a man who does business at that ungodly hour.

Mark Ames is the author of Going Postal: Rage, Murder and Rebellion from Reagan’s Workplaces to Clinton’s Columbine. You can reach him at ames@exiledonline.com.

Business as Usual in China – Execution Vans, Organ Harvesting

For many years, it has been known that China uses execution vans, kind of like specially outfitted ambulances, to more efficiently carry out its exceedingly large number of executions.  The method of killing in these vans is lethal injection, which has been slowly but surely replacing the firing squad as China’s preferred means of execution, and both lethal injection and the vans are believed to facilitate the widespread practice of harvesting organs of the executed prisoners, an unbelievably appalling practice.

In October 2006, Sky News did a compelling video report - China’s Execution Buses – on the death penalty in China, including a discussion of the vans and organ harvesting, as well as cases of innocence, and the plight of death penalty defense lawyer Gao Zhisheng who has been harassed and detained since at least 2006, and who was once again detained on February 4 of this year. 

Today, a story in the Irish Times discusses these vans, and the Chinese automaker that manufactures and sells them – Jinguan Auto.    (The execution van itself is here.)

In the months leading up to the Olympics, there were a number of hints and statements that reforms in China’s death penalty were being seriously considered, including a declaration from the Chinese Medical Association “not to transplant organs from prisoners or others in custody, except into members of their immediate families.”  This statement was noted in an Amnesty International report two weeks prior to the Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremonies, but the report went on to caution that “… Ministry of Health officials have reportedly stated that prisoners will remain a source of organs for five more years as execution-related transplantation winds down.” 

Of course, the Olympics are over now, and the execution vans are apparently still providing “slow but steady business” for Jinguan Auto.

Prawo Jazdy: mystery motorist who bamboozled Irish traffic police

The identity of one of Europe’s most notorious drivers, who racked up dozens of speeding and parking offences in a crime spree across Ireland while continuing to elude the courts, has been uncovered by police – with the help of a dictionary.

Prawo Jazdy, presumed to be one of the hundreds of thousands of Poles lured to Ireland during its economic boom, was the Scarlet Pimpernel of motoring, leaving a trail of multiple identities and vehicles across the data base of the Republic’s Garda Siochana.

With not a single conviction by 2007 and more than fifty offences recorded, the police decided to take a closer look at Mr Jazdy.

The result was unexpected and embarrassing: in a letter that is now doing the rounds of Garda e-mail inboxes, a traffic division official wrote that it had come to his attention that officers inspecting Polish driving licences were recording Prawo Jazdy as the licence holder’s name. “Prawo Jazdy is actually Polish for ‘driving licence’ and not the first and surname on the licence,” he wrote.

“Having noticed this I decided to check on Pulse (the criminal data base) and see how many members have made this mistake. It is quite embarrassing to see that the system has created Prawo Jazdy as a person with over 50 identities.

“He can also be found on the Fixed Charge Processing System as well. This mistake needs to be rectified immediately and a memo sent to the members concerned. I also think that Garda Information Service Centre [in] Castlebar should be notified and some kind of alert put on these two words.”

Cape Cod Commission: Housing the homeless saves money

Housing costs less than homelessness. That was the conclusion of a study presented Thursday morning by the Cape Cod Commission.

The cost of providing for those in supportive housing was 12 percent less than for those without housing, with an average cost of $43,184 for those with housing versus $49,308 for those who remained homeless.

Conducted over a one-year period from Sept.1 2006 to Aug. 31, 2007, the study tracked 51 people who were either homeless or living in a permanent supportive housing setting that helped in their accessing other social and medical assistance services.

The results of the study came as no surprise to Bob Murray, president of the Falmouth Housing Corporation.

“Housing people with services is cheaper than the ongoing homelessness, but you won’t house then successfully without the services,” Murray said.

“When we built that eight-unit studio apartment building in Falmouth for the street people the reason it was successful was because the Council of Churches provide a social worker that visits with those individuals every week, and so no problem gets out of hand. Everything gets addressed immediately,” Murray said, referring to Bridgeport, a small housing complex on Gifford Street.

 “Many, many people told me not to build that building [but] it’s one of the most successful projects we’ve ever done.”

The need for support services relates directly to why some individuals become homeless. Alcohol and drug abuse was most often given by the study’s subjects as reasons for becoming homeless. Others factors that were cited as causing or contributing to their condition included domestic abuse, separation, death of a family member as well mental and physical health problems.

The vast majority reported difficulties with mental and physical health as well as substance abuse. And though Hamilton noted that health costs remained a consistent whether someone was homeless or recently housed, the survey showed a marked decrease in medical costs for those who were in supportive housing. The cost in providing health care, fire and rescue services, and legal service were also less for those in supportive housing settings.

While the study focused on people living in the Hyannis area, it did factor in services received in other parts of the Cape such as Falmouth Hospital and Gosnold on Cape Cod. It didn’t include the costs of creating housing for the homeless.

The study may also help to dispel myths that the majority of the Cape’s homeless come here from somewhere else. Sixty eight percent of the participants in the study lived on Cape Cod for 10 years or more prior to becoming homeless. Eighteen percent were living on the upper Cape when they became homeless

source 

When Panhandlers Need a Wordsmith’s Touch

As I strolled past Bernard L. Madoff’s apartment house in the East 60s the other day on my way to cash a check at my neighborhood bank on Madison Avenue and 63rd Street, I was greeted by a middle-aged panhandler who sat on the sidewalk leaning against the bank’s brick wall waving a plastic cup in my direction.

After handing him a few dollars, I asked, “How’s the economy affecting you?’’

“No different,’’ he said. “It’s always lousy.’’

I entered the bank to complete the transaction, and when I came out he was gone. But as I headed downtown past Barney’s I met another panhandler who held up a sign that read: “Homeless. Please Help.’’

I dropped a dollar into his container, but at the same time thought that the sign might benefit from updating — it needed a touch of stimulus, that word that dominates the headlines. “I assume you’ve been reading and hearing about the financial crisis, yes?’’ He nodded. He was younger than the other fellow, and appeared to give me his full attention. “Maybe if you’d change the words on your sign you’d get more attention in the street, and people will donate more money…’’

I stopped talking and reached into my pocket for one of the strips of laundry board on which I make notes when I’m interviewing people. On one strip of laundry board I wrote: “Please Support Pres. Obama’s Stimulus Plan, and begin right here … at the bottom … Thank you.’’ I handed it to him, and he said he’d copy the words on his sign and have it on display the following day.

Later that afternoon I returned home and printed those words in large type on my computer. After printing out two dozen copies, I taped each page onto separate pieces of laundry board (14 by 8 inches) that the dry cleaner sends home with my shirts.

The next day, on Sunday, and during the Monday holiday as well, I handed out these boarded messages at random to people who approached me for money, explaining why I thought their economy would be stimulated by my street signs. I further pointed out that the big bankers and industrial leaders the government was bailing out had lobbyists and public relations companies doing their bidding; but these wandering men who were seeking handouts in the street had to tap into the topicality of their plight, had to link themselves into the headlines and the top priority of President Obama. Stimulus, stimulus!!

I took down the names and phone numbers of many of my street clients. All said they would display the signs I made for them, and on Monday night I telephoned a few to ask if the message had yet had any effect.

Most said it was too early to tell. But all were hopeful. Jimmy Roberts, who had stationed himself on Fifth Avenue near 58th Street, said on Monday, “It’s a powerful pitch.’’

Another man named Byron Breeze, who sat in a wheelchair on Madison and 60th with the sign held in his lap, said that a number of pedestrians read the sign and paused to discuss it with him. And, more important, he added: “I think I made 10 or 20 dollars more yesterday than before. So maybe the sign is already working.’’

Gay Talese, the author of nonfiction books and numerous magazine articles, was a reporter for The New York Times from 1956 to 1965

 

USA Families are the growing homeless

Shelters see an increase in kids, length of stays

Families with children make up the largest portion of the homeless population — and that number is growing.

That means local shelters must address not only the needs of adults, but also those of their kids.

“Sometimes they go through withdrawal,” said Phil Wimer, executive director of the Freedom House homeless shelter. “A lot of these kids maybe didn’t have much structure in their lives. But we work really hard to make sure their experience isn’t a bad one.”

Homeless families with children represent 41 percent of the U.S. homeless population and are the fastest-growing segment, according to the U.S. Conference of Mayors.

Nearly half of homeless people in suburban and rural areas are in families with children, according to the organization. The “typical” homeless family is a woman in her 20s with two children younger than age 6.

That trend is reflected locally. Area shelters say they’re seeing more families, with more kids, staying for longer periods of time.

The influx can put a strain on services, and area homeless shelters often have waiting lists.

Shamika Murrell was on a waiting list at the Freedom House with her three kids: 6-year-old Marques Steward, 3-year-old Mekai Steward and 1-year-old Mykel Steward. She moved into the shelter in September.

Murrell was homeless after she left an abusive relationship and it didn’t work out living with her mom and her mom’s boyfriend.

“Thank God for Freedom House,” Murrell said. “It saved my life.”

Her children are too young to understand the concept of homelessness, she said. But Murell appreciates the time volunteers and workers spend playing with and supervising the young ones.

“I want them to go to school and get the learning they need,” she said. “I need to be the momma and the daddy now.”

Local shelters aim to do more than put a roof over people’s heads. They also want to open the door to independence.

Freedom House offers programs for adults that teach life skills and self-esteem as well as cooking and budgeting lessons. It also offers a character-building class for older kids.

Aftercare coordinator Heather Faulkner said the shelter offers a session for teens to discuss issues such as the stigma of being homeless.

Kids staying at shelters worry about fitting in or having to tell friends where they live, she said. They might have to tell classmates they can’t stay after school or attend a sleepover.

They also have rules. Children have bedtimes and can’t stay up all night like they might have before, she said. And there’s no junk food or unlimited video games, either.

To keep young kids involved, volunteers do crafts, play games and participate in stimulating activities for kids, Wimer said, so they “don’t feel my time at Freedom House was a downer.”

Being homeless is stressful for kids, Wimer said.

“Stability from parents is huge,” he said. “Stuff we take for granted. Parents need to pick them up and hug them. Let them know they love them.”

Children coming into the shelter suffer a disconnection because “it’s a complete disruption of their life,” said Ursula Bunnell, director of client services at Golden House domestic violence shelter in Green Bay. Many also become anxious.

“I think adults have learned certain coping skills,” she said. “Kids, especially nowadays, need stability.”

They may show their anxiety by not wanting to leave mom, not wanting to go to school or acting out, she said.

“They’re also grieving,” Bunnell said. “They’ve suffered a lot of losses.”

Golden House has a specialist who works with teens and advocates to work with children one-on-one and in support groups.

Once they get over the initial adjustment, children at the shelter develop a sense of camaraderie, she said.

“Kids are pretty resilient,” she said. “We see that once they’ve adjusted, they do quite well.”

New Video Blog Gives Homelessness a Face and Voice

InvisiblePeople.tv is the brainchild of Mark Horvath. 14 years ago Horvath was homeless on the streets of Hollywood, Calif. Today, he is dedicated to capturing the stories of the homeless on his vlog. His goal: for homeless people to no longer remain invisible. Each week, Horvath shares the story of a homeless person he meets on the streets. The stories are told by real people in their own very real words. They’re raw, uncensored and unedited

Mark Horvath is somewhat of an authority on America’s homeless population. That’s because he once was part of it. 14 years ago, Horvath was homeless. He lived on the streets of Hollywood, Calif. Today, Horvath is giving back to that community by breaking the mold and doing what, quite frankly, makes sense. Through invisiblepeople.tv, a new and dynamic video blog (vlog), he captures the stories of the homeless – one at a time.

Simply put, Horvath is breaking stereotypes.

Through his Web site, he shares the stories of homeless people he meets on the streets. The site’s segments are told by real people, in their own very real words. The innovative pieces, which began airing last November, are raw, uncensored and unedited – just like life on the streets.

There is meaning to the site’s name. According to Horvath, some homeless are passed on the street as if they don’t exist. Others are ignored the way one would disregard a piece of trash on the sidewalk.

Horvath’s goal? To make homeless visible to everyone else.

‘It’s not that people are bad,’ Horvath explains. “But if we make eye contact, or engage in conversation, we have to admit they exist. It’s so much easier to simply close our eyes and shield our hearts to their existence.”

America’s homeless crisis is soon to get worse. According to data from the Labor Department, more jobs have been lost in the past 12 months than any other period since the government began keeping records in 1939. Perhaps most disconcerting is that experts predict unemployment will get worse before the economy gets better. In 1991 and 2001, unemployment didn’t hit its peak until two years after those recessions ended. We can no longer close our eyes to the issues of poverty and homelessness.

Horvath doesn’t ask for money. The purpose of his vlog is to make the invisible visible. He doesn’t want the world to look through or beyond the homeless anymore, but to be aware of them and their circumstances, and to let them not be forgotten.

The people and stories at invisiblepeople.tv are gripping. Some segments are, well, unsettling. Horvath wouldn’t have it any other way. He wants to inspire; and wants you to act.

In Horvath, the homeless now have a face and voice. Thanks largely to invisiblepeople.tv, they are invisible no more. He wants you to remember that the homeless people ignored today were much like the rest of us not very long ago.

Ominous Signs for the US economy

Economists have many ways of gauging the temperature of the economy. Now, a lawyer has one, and it’s not encouraging.

Garry Mathiason is 37-year veteran of Littler Mendelson, a leading employment-law specialist with 800 attorneys and 30,000 clients. Mr. Mathiason estimates that the firm is consulted on roughly half the layoffs in the U.S.

When Littler’s layoff-related business surged last fall, Mr. Mathiason conducted an informal survey of his colleagues and found the firm was handling around a million prospective job cuts. That suggested two million for the nation as a whole, though Mr. Mathiason knew some of the prospective layoffs might not materialize during the quarter. When the government released its official numbers in January, U.S. employers had eliminated 1.5 million jobs in the fourth quarter – close to what Mr. Mathiason had expected.

Now the bad news. Mr. Mathiason says Littler is working on roughly two million additional prospective layoffs this quarter. Applying his admittedly unscientific methodology, Mr. Mathiason estimates the U.S. could lose around three million jobs from January through March, or one million a month. That’s equivalent to all the job losses in 2008. The government estimates that 600,000 jobs were lost in January.

To be sure, not all the layoffs Littler is working on this quarter will come to pass, says Mr. Mathiason. Some may be pushed into future quarters. Some numbers may be trimmed. Managers are planning for worst-case scenarios, Mr. Mathiason says.

Still, the size and speed of these cuts has surpassed those of previous downturns, says Mr. Mathiason: “You go back to other recessions, there was a slower reaction time on the part of employers. Historically, it hasn’t been like a light switch going off.”

Rise in NI AIDS cases linked to foreign travel

The volume of HIV and Aids cases is expected to increase significantly and sexual health consultant Dr Raymond Maw said official figures under-estimated fresh diagnoses by about a third. Most heterosexual people have been exposed to the virus outside the UK but homosexuality has also been blamed.

A total of 65 new cases were diagnosed in 2007. The tally has been increasing since 2001.

Dr Naresh Chada, senior medical officer at the Department of Health, told a conference at Stormont sexually transmitted diseases posed a major challenge. “Some of the preliminary figures for 2008 suggest that there would be quite a considerable increase on the previous years but those won’t be official until the end of the year,” he said.

“It is difficult for us to say why those figures are going up. There seems to be a mixture of issues, one of the continuing infection of men who have sex with men but there is also an increase in heterosexual HIV.”

Approximately 250 people are receiving anti-retroviral therapy which can cost over £1 million from the drugs budget. Dr Chada added: “Compared to other parts of the world and in the rest of the UK our rates of HIV are somewhat low but it is very much on the increase. “HIV/Aids is a huge burden in terms of actual resources that are used.”

The Department’s funding for genito-urinary treatment was branded a “sticking plaster” by Dr Maw.

He said: “We just have not had the investment in sexual health services and this is known by everybody from the Department of Health down. “We have had some recent investment which is welcome but it is certainly not adequate to meet the needs of our population and it is considerably less than has been given in the rest of the UK.”

Marlene Kinghan from the Children’s Commissioners’ office said a number of services were not fit for purpose or covering the level of need. We currently have four (genito-urinary) clinics however combined they are open for less than 40 hours per week, some which operate on an appointment system others on a drop in basis,“ she said.

“How are young people, some of whom who are still in full time education, expected to access a clinic that is only open three hours per week during the day?

“The approach to delivering relationship and sexual education is neither comprehensive nor consistent in schools across Northern Ireland. Research on this issue shows the quality of sexual education depends on the school the young person attends and indeed the approach taken by individual teachers.”

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2009/0216/breaking64.htm