Free Republic

The laid-off unionized Chicago employees will receive back pay, a 7% interest, and will be fully reinstated with seniority.Unionized City of Chicago employees fired or disciplined for violating COVID-19 vaccination requirements must be reinstated and repaid for any loss of wages or benefits, a state hearing officer has ruled.Administrative Law Judge Anna Hamburg-Gal said the city violated the Illinois Public Labor Relations Act by not bargaining in good faith over vaccine requirements and changes in sick leave policies. Her ruling, issued Wednesday, requires the city to “make whole” workers who lost pay and benefits, plus 7% annual interest.These workers are,...

Hillary Clinton is to be the new chancellor of Queen's University, Belfast (QUB). She is the university's 11th chancellor and first woman to take up the post. In a statement, Mrs Clinton said it was a "great privilege" to become the chancellor of QUB. She takes up her role immediately and will serve for a period of five years. Mrs Clinton succeeds Dr Tom Moran - who died last year. While the role of chancellor is mainly a ceremonial one, securing Mrs Clinton will be seen as a coup for Queen's. The chancellor often presides at graduation ceremonies and is...

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Two black men arrested for sitting at a Philadelphia Starbucks without ordering anything settled with the city Wednesday for a symbolic $1 each and a promise from officials to set up a $200,000 program for young entrepreneurs. The men and their lawyer told The Associated Press the settlement was an effort to make sure something positive came out of the incident. "We thought long and hard about it and we feel like this is the best way to see that change that we want to see," said Donte Robinson, one of those arrested.

Former “Sports Illustrated” model Angie Everhart says Harvey Weinstein masturbated in front of her on a boat during the Cannes Film Festival over 10 years ago. “This isn’t really easy to talk about,” she told TMZ on Friday. “I was on a friend’s boat. Harvey walked in, walked in front of me, took his pants down, did his thing, exited on the floor, if you know what I mean, pulled his pants back up, said ‘You’re a really nice girl. Don’t tell anybody about this,’ and left.” She added that she had just arrived at the festival and went to...

Former President Barack Obama is traveling to Italy, where he will speak this week about food security and climate change. The former president is expected to go to Milan to meet with several Italians and discuss the issues. On Monday, the former president is scheduled to meet with former Prime Minister Matteo Renzi. That evening, he will attend a private dinner held by the Institute for International Political Studies. Obama on Tuesday is expected to give a keynote address to the Seeds and Chips Global Food Innovation Summit. The theme of the summit this year is "The Impact of Technology...

On Wednesday, Fox News announced that it was parting ways with "The O'Reilly Factor" host Bill O'Reilly, whose ratings dominated the network. But due to a contract O'Reilly signed late last month, he'll be walking away with quite a sizable severance package. "It is a staggering amount," a source involved in the exit maneuverings told CNN Money. The outlet reported that Fox will pay O'Reilly "tens of millions of dollars." Due to a confidentiality agreement, 21st Century Fox and O'Reilly's representatives would not acknowledge the payout. But two well-placed sources told CNN Money that O'Reilly will be paid handsomely as...

The mother and sisters of Roosevelt Champion III, who was found dead Monday, tell The Daily Beast he was being questioned in the death of a white woman—and doubt he killed himself.GREENSBORO, Ga.—A body hanging from a tree. For the mother of any black man living in the South, it’s an image laden with awful symbolism. “It hurt,” JoAnn Henderson said of learning Monday morning that her son, Roosevelt Champion III, 43, had been found hanged from a tree behind a home on Martin Luther King Drive. “It really hurt.” Henderson and I were standing some hours later in the...

Call it predatory lending. Or call it financial service for the neediest. Either way, more Minnesotans are turning to high-interest payday loans and other services outside the mainstream banking system, controversial enterprises that operate through a loophole to dodge state restrictions. On a typical morning throughout Minnesota, customers stream into any one of some 100 storefronts where they can borrow hundreds of dollars in minutes with no credit check – at Super Cash on the north side of Bloomington, for example, at Ace Minnesota Corp. on Nicollet Avenue in Richfield and across the metro on Roseville’s Rice Street at PayDay...

President Barack Obama designated April 9 as National Equal Pay Day, even though 70 percent of White House staffers in the top-salary bracket were men, and male White House staffers earn on average 13 percent more than female staffers. “To grow our middle class and spur progress in the years ahead, we need to address longstanding inequity that keeps women from earning a living equal to their efforts,” Obama said in the proclamation released Monday evening. “That is why I have made pay equity a top priority—from signing the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act days after I took office to...

Allegations of faulty car design are at the center of a lawsuit by an injured Fresno teen against Ford Motor Co. Shaela Warkentin, 16, suffered serious head and facial injuries a year ago when the 2000 Ford Mustang she was riding in was rear-ended by a pickup. Shaela's head was pinned against the rear edge of the car's roof, and rescuers had to cut the roof from the car to free her. The injuries cost the girl her eyesight and left her hospitalized for weeks. Fresno attorney Warren Paboojian filed the suit Friday on behalf of Shaela and her sister,...

Executives at major media outlets choked on their spritzers and diet cokes when Casey Anthony's lawyer informed the press that his client will take absolutely no less than 1.5 million dollars for her first sit-down interview. The joke's on the Anthony clan, though, as sources from major networks say she's not going to get anywhere near that amount, if anything.

CNN's Larry King is splitting from his seventh wife, who says the 76-year-old cheated on her. The talk show anchor and his wife Shawn Southwick, 50, both filed for divorce Wednesday citing "irreconcilable differences." The marriage crumbled after Southwick accused King of having an affair with one of her close relatives, TMZ reported. In December, the National Enquirer reported King cheated on his wife with her younger sister Shannon Engemann, quoting an unnamed friend of Southwick's. The tabloid also said Southwick had an affair with her son's baseball coach in 2008 - a claim she denied. "It's a very...

September 02, 2009 10:23 PM The tests show it's true, but the question remains: how did a frog - or a toad - get into a Florida man's soda can? Apparently a man from Ormond Beach opened the can of Pepsi, took a drink, and started gagging. His wife shook the can, until the remains of an amphibian came out. The FDA confirms the findings. A spokesman for Pepsi says the company is aware of the testing, but stands by its manufacturing process. The man is seeking legal advice to determine what to do next.

Lawmakers have secretly approved awarding an illegal immigrant child molester more than $4 million because he was beaten by fellow inmates while in custody. Fernandez Ramirez, 24, is an illegal immigrant from Mexico who molested a 6-year-old girl in a park. The back door settlement, paid with tax dollers, gives the illegal alien's family $3.75 million and $900,000 will go to medical liens rendered while in custody. Orange County (CA) Board of Supervisors refused to comment on the settlement even though constituents have the right to know since it's their money.

Rick Wagoner will leave his post as CEO of bailed-out General Motors with a $20 million retirement package, the company's financial filings show. In this March 12, 2009 file picture, General Motors Chief Executive Officer Richard Wagoner listens... In this March 12, 2009 file picture, General Motors Chief Executive Officer Richard Wagoner listens as President Barack Obama, not pictured, speaks about the economy at Business Roundtable, an association of chief executive officers of leading U.S. companies, at a hotel in Washington. Although the Treasury Department has barred GM from paying severance to Wagoner or any other senior executive, Wagoner is...

Payday lender and pawn shop operator Cash America International Inc. said Wednesday it will to close about one-third of its Ohio lending locations in the next few months, after voters in the state chose to maintain new payday loan restrictions. Voters Tuesday approved a new payday lending law that cuts the annual percentage rate that lenders can charge to 28 percent and limits the number of loans customers can take out to four per year. It is among the strictest laws in the country. Its backers say cash advances are defective products that trap borrowers into a cycle of debt....

The American dream is founded on the belief that people who work hard and play by the rules will be able to earn a good living... But that dream is harder to achieve for millions of Americans because they spend too much of their hard-earned money on fees to cash their paychecks or pay off high-priced loans meant to carry them over until they get paid at work. Here is one initiative that can unite progressives and conservatives as well as business leaders and community activists: helping the "unbanked" enter the financial mainstream by opening checking and savings accounts, and...

Representative Marian McClure calls payday lending an "ugly" business and intends to run payday loans out of business. Like the vast majority of Arizonans, I'm not a payday loan customer. But so long as payday loans are basically a commercial transaction between mutually willing parties, government's first reaction should be to leave them alone. A typical payday loan is short term and high risk. Someone with an urgent need for cash will borrow, say, $100 for two weeks and pay back $105. That's an annualized interest rate of about 130 percent, which is what policymakers find repugnant. But the transaction...

Oregon moved closer to a total cap on interest rates Thursday, when the state House passed a 36 percent limit on consumer loans under $50,000. The cap completes House approval of a package of bills aimed at banning the triple-digit interest rates charged by payday and car title lenders. "This doesn't end consumer lending," said House Speaker Jeff Merkley, D-Portland. "But it will end predatory interest rates." The House voted 36-21 in support of House Bill 2871, which will join four other bills pending in the Senate. Oregon's payday lenders, who operate about 360 stores, say the legislation will kill...

NASHVILLE — Former Democratic U.S. Rep. Harold Ford Jr. has been named a vice chairman and senior policy adviser at Merrill Lynch & Co., the biggest U.S. retail brokerage, the company announced today. The 37-year-old Ford, who lost a narrow U.S. Senate race last year to Republican Bob Corker, will advise senior management on domestic policy issues, serve as a member of the company’s public policy committee and work on business development initiatives among other things, the company said. He will maintain offices in Nashville and New York. "We are delighted to have a dynamic, energetic visionary like Harold Ford...