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Many of the minimum wage laws passed in recent years, including in major cities such as Los Angeles, San Francisco and Chicago, include waivers allowing unionized businesses to pay their employees below the minimum. The waivers in effect make unionizing workers a low-cost option for businesses unwilling or unable to pay the new minimum wage, which in cities such as San Francisco and SeaTac, Wash., which also has a waiver, will climb as high as $15 an hour when fully phased in. In those cities, businesses can sign a collective bargaining agreement with a union that sets the wages below...

In an article for Sunday’s New York Times that bordered on parody, reporter Jason Horowitz touted concerns from Washington D.C. liberals that the incoming Trump administration would sap the nation’s capital of its culture: “What the effect on Washington will be when Donald J. Trump moves into the White House is hard to predict. But many Washingtonians fear the worst.” No surprise, the leading critic was former Democratic D.C. mayor Vincent Gray, who warned: “I’m worried about people not wanting to come here because of the image they have of the Trump administration.” Horowitz added: “Mr. Gray said he worried...

Former District of Columbia Mayor Vincent Gray, whose sole term in office was dogged by a federal investigation that ended with no charges filed against him, began his political comeback on Thursday, announcing that he will run for the D.C. Council. Gray, a 73-year-old Democrat, lost his re-election bid in the 2014 Democratic primary to current Mayor Muriel Bowser. Three weeks before the primary, a federal prosecutor said in court that Gray knew about an illegal, $660,000 slush fund that helped him get elected in 2010. Last December, prosecutors said they decided not to charge him. Gray has maintained he...

Despite Hillary Rodham Clinton’s promise that she had scrubbed illegal cash contributions from her 2008 presidential campaign, prosecutors revealed Monday that the mastermind of Mayor Vincent C. Gray’s “shadow campaign” also funneled hundreds of thousands of dollars to aid Mrs. Clinton’s bid for the White House.

In an April 20 (given the deep connections between the Brotherhood and the Nazi Party, the date may not have been an accident) story in the Jerusalem Post, the question was asked, Will Qatar abandon the Muslim Brotherhood? As they put it, Qatar is the only country who openly supports the Muslim Brotherhood. This followed the pressure exerted on Qatar to do just that from its three Gulf neighbors, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates. Saudi Arabia even threatened a blockade should Qatar not comply. Clearly the Brotherhood, and their revolutionary aims, had been recognized as a threat...

On April 1, Washington Mayor Vincent Gray was denied a second term, defeated in the primary by upstart city councilwoman Muriel Bowser. The beginning of the end came on March 10, when U.S. Attorney Ronald Machen struck a plea bargain with a wealthy businessman who confessed he'd spent $668,000 on an illegal "shadow campaign" to fund get-out-the-vote efforts that helped Gray win the mayoral office in 2010. So the corrupt mayor of America's most important city is thrown out. A political scandal? The same networks that were utterly breathless over the local story of Gov. Chris Christie's aides slowing traffic...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A leading District of Columbia businessman was charged on Monday in a campaign finance conspiracy that has tarnished the U.S. capital's Democratic mayor and overshadowed his bid for a second term. The charges against Jeffrey Thompson, once a major government contractor, are a much-anticipated development in a federal investigation that began with an examination of Mayor Vincent Gray's 2010 campaign and then expanded. Thompson is accused of conspiring to violate federal and local campaign finance laws and of submitting false reports to the Internal Revenue Service, according to a 10-page charging document. Thompson was scheduled to appear...

WASHINGTON–D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray compared the District of Columbia’s lack of autonomy and voting rights to the struggles Nelson Mandela endured, explaining Friday that residents connect so much with the South African leader because “we have not achieved full equality in this city.” “When we can’t have the authority to be able to spend our own money, and all our local laws need to go to the national legislative body in order to be approved, when we experience taxation without representation every day, when we don’t have a voting member of the national legislative body, I think the people can...

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi cheerfully led Spanish-language chants of “Si se puede” — or “Yes we can” — at a rally Tuesday for amnesty and immigration, but turnout for the event at the National Mall was far below the organizers’ predictions of 100,000 attendees. The barriers at the event were set to accommodate 35,000 people, but less than half the area was occupied. Loudspeakers and a large display screen at the rear of the area were almost devoid of listeners or viewers. The rally was held on public land during a widely hyped government shutdown that has seen the...

At Sunday’s memorial for the victims of the Navy Yard shooting rampage, D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray blamed the tragedy on too many guns in this country. … According the District of Columbia’s 2012 Annual Report (page 25), the homicide rate in the nation’s capital has dropped by 53 percent between 2008 and 2012. …

Wal-Mart said it will go forward with plans to open stores in Washington D.C. now that the capital's mayor has vetoed legislation that would require large retailers to pay higher wages. Mayor Vincent Gray on Thursday overturned a new law, which would have required big box stores like Wal-Mart (WMT, Fortune 500) to pay no less than $12.50 an hour in combined wages and benefits. The city's current minimum wage is $8.25.

In between bowls of chicken poodle soup and deciding to provide air cover for al-Qaeda in Syria, our Dear Leader, Barack Hussein Obama, found time to meet with mayors from our crumbling major cities. From Justin Sink of The Hill: *** "President Obama told a collection of big-city mayors Tuesday at the White House that he would continue to use executive actions to combat gun violence plaguing major cities. In the meeting with Attorney General Eric Holder and the mayors of 18 cities from across the nation, Obama discussed commonly applicable strategies to reduce youth violence. 'He also vowed to...

“For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.” Isaac Newton’s Law of Motion Washington DC Democrats passed a bill that would require retailers to pay workers at least $12.50 per hour. Within hours of the decision Wal-Mart announced it was canceling three store openings in the area. Nice work, Democrats. WTOP reported: The D.C. Council has passed a bill that would require large retailers like Wal-Mart to pay workers at least $12.50. The bill now goes to Mayor Vincent Gray for his consideration. The 8-5 vote was short of the votes needed to override a veto from the...

Since D.C. officials refused to turn over any documents about their investigation and decision not to prosecute NBC News’ David Gregory, we have to depend on the Freedom of Information Act to force transparency. Mayor Vincent Gray’s office, however, responded to my request by deflecting. It turned out, he was hiding information. On March 11, I sent a detailed request to FOIA Officer Mikelle DeVillier in the Executive Office of the Mayor. I asked for all documents about Mr. Gregory’s possession of an illegal 30-round magazine. Government agencies are required to respond to a FOIA request within 15 working days. Ms. DeVillier...

A billboard in downtown D.C. promoting gun ownership and gun safety drew criticism from Mayor Vincent Gray. “I think it's offensive,” Gray said. “You know we work very hard to be able to enforce our gun control laws.” The Connecticut-based group National Shooting Sports Foundation obtained a $550 permit for the 30-by-60 foot sign at 12th Street and Massachusetts Avenue in Northwest. The foundation told NBC4 it promotes gun safety and formal training at sites around the country. Gray called the billboard irresponsible. “To promote the use of guns in the city I think really is just anti-safety,” Gray said....

Maryland Lt. Gov. Anthony G. Brown is donating $17,000 in contributions his campaign received from a D.C. contractor now at the center of a fundraising scandal in Washington embroiling D.C. Mayor Vincent C. Gray. The move Thursday comes days after Gov. Martin O’Malley donated $38,000 in donations tied to Jeffrey E. Thompson, while some but not all fellow prominent Democrats also moved to get rid of Thompson-linked cash. Federal agents looking into campaign-finance wrongdoing in the District raided Mr. Thompson’s offices and home earlier this year.

‘Bewildered and betrayed’: DC black pastors challenge mayor over abortion advocacy by Kathleen Gilbert Fri Apr 15, 2011 10:23 EST WASHINGTON, D.C., April 15, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – After the mayor of the District of Columbia was arrested for protesting a budget deal that banned taxpayer funds for local abortions, a group of local black pastors have expressed shock at the mayor’s pro-abortion “passion” and announced the planned opening of a new pregnancy center to help D.C. women avoid abortion Washington, D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray was arrested Monday on charges of trespassing after he led a group in front of Senate...

Former mayoral candidate Sulaimon Brown told The Washington Post that he struck a deal last summer with the campaign of Mayor Vincent C. Gray to continue his attacks on incumbent Adrian M. Fenty in exchange for a city job if Gray won. Brown, who was recently dismissed from his $110,000-a-year position with the D.C. Department of Health Care Finance, also alleges that two Gray campaign aides gave him a series of cash payments to help finance his campaign. The Post could not independently verify any payments. In an interview Saturday, Gray adamantly denied Brown's allegations, saying the campaigns did not...

When the D.C. Council approved the city's lottery contract in December, two members spoke before the vote on behalf of the local firm that walked away with a majority stake in the deal: Chairman Vincent C. Gray and Marion Barry. Besides both having a previous work relationship with a principal of the local firm, Veterans Services Corp. (VSC), the two lawmakers had something else in common: They both had discussed the issue of a local partner with a lobbyist for the Greek gambling firm Intralot that was awarded the contract. In fact, Mr. Barry told The Washington Times this week...

CLIMATE STATEMENT "AN ORCHESTRATED LITANY OF LIES" Veteran Wellington climate consultant, Dr Vincent Gray, expert reviewer of all four IPCC Assessment Reports, explains why he has resigned his longtime membership of the Royal Society of New Zealand in protest at the inaccuracies in a report on climate change issued on 12 July by the Society's Climate Committee. COMMENTS ON THE RECENT STATEMENT BY THE CLIMATE COMMITTEE OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF NEW ZEALAND  Dr Vincent Gray INTRODUCTION As an Expert Reviewer for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change for eighteen years, that is to say, from the very beginning. I...