Category: Business

Every 36 hours on average, American local news outlets deliver a new report on violence at a McDonald’s. A group of employees in Chicago say workers bear the brunt of such incidents — enough to constitute a pattern of regular on-the-job violence they want the company to address across the U.S.  In a complaint filed with the Occupational Safety and Health Administrationon Monday, the workers at one location described being threatened with guns, attacked with hot coffee and having to dodge food thrown by a disturbed customer.  “Despite the frequent incidence of workplace violence, our employer has done nothing to implement safety measures to protect us,” the workers allege in the complaint, which names McDonald’s Corp. and franchisee Oscar Perretta.  The employees and other Chicago-area workers, who are working with the union-backed Fight for $15 campaign, are also sending a letter asking OSHA to open a “systemic” investigation into the corporation’s handling of workplace violence in its thousands of U.S. locations.  Their letter cites data from the National Employment Law Project, which counted 721 local media reports of violence at U.S. McDonald’s stores over the past three years, most of them involving guns.

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After a successful test in Mexico City, fast-food chain Burger King will begin delivering food to drivers caught in traffic in Los Angeles in what they have dubbed The Traffic Jam Whopper.  According to several reports, the direct-to-car delivery service will use motorcyclists to delivery food to those stuck in traffic jams using real-time data to pinpoint Burger King fans on the road.  Drivers are welcome to order from a Burger King app when they are within a delivery zone, roughly a 1.9-mile radius from the closest Burger King restaurant.  In efforts to ensure safety and avoid tickets, the app used to make orders will function using voice commands . Orders in the test were limited to a Whopper combo meal, including fries and choice of bottled Pepsi or water.  Once the order is placed, Burger King’s delivery people will utilize Google map technology via the app to pinpoint the driver’s exact location.  Deliveries were reported to typically happen within 15 minutes from when the order was placed.

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Amazon.com faced a social media backlash in India on Thursday after toilet seat covers and other items emblazoned with images of Hindu gods were spotted on its website.  Thousands of Twitter users backed a call for a boycott of the U.S. retailer, making #BoycottAmazon India’s top trending topic on Twitter. Some tagged Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj, urging her to take action against the company.  Amazon, the world’s biggest online retailer, said it was removing the products from its online store.  “All sellers must follow our selling guidelines and those who do not will be subject to action including potential removal of their account,” the company said in a statement.  The episode is reminiscent of an incident in 2017 when the Indian government took Amazon to task after its Canadian website was spotted selling doormats resembling India’s flag.  Swaraj at the time threatened to rescind visas of Amazon employees if the doormats were not removed from its site.  Reuters found several listings of toilet seat covers, yoga mats, sneakers, rugs and other items depicting Hindu gods, or sacred Hindu symbols, on Amazon’s U.S. website.  Some of the items were no longer available for purchase.  “Until you hit these Hinduphobics Business hard they will keep on insulting your gods, your beliefs & your entire civilization,” tweeted Sumit Kandel, whose profile describes him as a film trade analyst. (Reporting by Sankalp Phartiyal; Editing by Mark Potter and Susan Fenton)

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There’s something almost magical about libraries. Maybe it’s the silence or the incredible amount of knowledge, but the place certainly has a special vibe. And most of us spend too little time there to get to the bottom of it. Luckily, a librarian from Scotland named Mel  has decided to lift the veil off of these secrets, sharing some of the industry insights that she has learned on the job.

However, becoming a librarian wasn’t something she had planned. “I’ve had a lot of jobs over the years but I became quite unwell about five years ago and had to leave my product design engineering role and course,” Mel told Bored Panda. “I was gutted but I knew that recovery would take a while. I’ve always been a bookworm so I started looking for jobs in libraries and other environments to do part-time while I recovered.”

For the last two and a half years, Mel has been a library assistant and she hasn’t looked back ever since. “I love it so much that I hope I can keep working in libraries permanently.”

“I was waiting for the kettle to boil while I made dinner one evening and I’d been chatting with my colleague about the strange and random things we’d learned in this job,” she said. “So I started tweeting them out without any sort of thought about order or structure, just as they came to my head. I figured a few of my fellow library assistants would relate. If I’d known how big it would become, I’d have proofread them first!”

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Step into any guest room at The Ritz Paris, and you’ll find a space dripping in opulence. The Louis XIV-influenced décor features rich brocades, tasseled tapestries, chandeliers and bursts of gold. Inside the Italian marble bathroom, there are more lavish touches, like the gilded swan faucet—an original amenity of the 1898 hotel—and accompanying sink knobs bejeweled with red and blue crystals. And when you settle into the spacious accommodations, expect to receive a welcome treat, like lemon and apricot pastries on a silver multi-tiered tray. It’s no wonder why countless luminaries—from Coco Chanel to F. Scott Fitzgerald—chose to live here.

The Parisian grande dame is one of 41 hotels spanning 17 countries to earn a spot on Forbes Travel Guide’s 2019 list of the World’s Best Rooms, a compilation of the finest hotel accommodations around the globe—from Beverly Hills to Beijing.

To assess properties, incognito inspectors check into a hotel for two nights, paying their own way and posing as ordinary guests. During their stay, they evaluate up to 900 objective, exacting standards, including whether the spaces are properly soundproofed, the quality of the linens, and what types of snacks are stocked in the minibar. The 41 winners each achieved perfect scores on guest room and bathroom standards measuring luxury, comfort, and convenience—on top of being spotless and well-maintained.

Feast your eyes on the full list of the world’s best hotel rooms, and peek inside some of the most luxurious spaces below.

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Missouri’s Republican-led Legislature on Friday approved a sweeping bill to ban abortions at eight weeks of pregnancy, joining Alabama and other states that have moved to severely restrict the procedure.

Republican Gov. Mike Parson is expected to sign the bill.

The ban would be among the most restrictive in the U.S. It would include exceptions for medical emergencies, but not for pregnancies caused by rape or incest. Doctors would face five to 15 years in prison for violating the eight-week cutoff. Women who receive abortions wouldn’t be prosecuted.

“Until the day that we no longer have abortions in this country, I will never waver in the fight for life,” Parson said during a Wednesday rally with supporters of the legislation.

Planned Parenthood Action Fund President Leana Wen said in a statement Thursday that enacting the measure would be “disastrous.”

“Missouri Gov. Parson should be ashamed of riding the disgraceful coattails of 25 white men in Alabama who just voted to ban safe, legal abortion,” Wen said.

The Missouri legislation comes after Alabama’s governor signed a bill Wednesday making performing an abortion a felony in nearly all cases.

Supporters say the Alabama bill is meant to conflict with the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion nationally in hopes of sparking a court case that might prompt the current panel of more conservative justices to revisit abortion rights.

Kentucky, Mississippi, Ohio and Georgia also have approved bans on abortion once fetal cardiac activity can be detected, which can occur in about the sixth week of pregnancy. Some of those laws already have been challenged in court , and similar restrictions in North Dakota and Iowa previously were struck down by judges.

Missouri’s bill also includes an outright ban on abortions except in cases of medical emergencies. But unlike Alabama’s, it would kick in only if Roe v. Wade is overturned.

If courts don’t allow Missouri’s proposed eight-week ban to take effect, the bill includes a ladder of less-restrictive time limits that would prohibit abortions at 14, 18 or 20 weeks or pregnancy. Republican House Speaker Elijah Haahr has said the goal is for the legislation to withstand court challenges.

A total of 3,903 abortions occurred in Missouri in 2017, the last full year for which the state Department of Health and Senior Services has statistics online. Of those, 1,673 occurred at under nine weeks and 119 occurred at 20 weeks or later in a pregnancy.

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Michael McIntyre reached success most people only dream of achieving. A private jet. Multiple assistants. Tens of millions in revenue.  Everything changed, however, when his little daughter became ill.  Michael didn’t know it, but he’d had an army of people praying for his salvation for quite some time. They’d pretty much kept it to themselves because, in his words, he wanted “nothing to do” with born again Christians. When he looked around at the world and saw rape, chaos, murder, evil – he assumed there’s no way a good God could exist in the middle of all that.  He was living the good life of success and admits much of his identity was wrapped up in business accomplishments. Shortly after graduating and then a stint in the Air Force, Michael hit it big in the insurance industry.  “I had an insurance agency, we were one of the biggest in the country. I wrapped up a lot of my identity in the success of being the CEO of a big company. It was hard to turn that off sometimes. I’d come home and still bark orders – but then I’d have to take out the trash. It was humbling,” he explains.  He would’ve been the absolute last person on earth to predict he’d one day sell his business and become a leader in a church and founder of a faith-based event called Next Level Experience.  “I ran from Jesus for a long long time,” Michael says. Everything changed, however, not long after he sold the company.

ROAD TO DAMASCUS MOMENT

Michael grew up Catholic but had trouble reconciling the reality of evil in the world. “I was very successful financially, but I did not like anything to do with evangelical Christianity. I figured there was God but I didn’t see Him as holy because of all the things going on in the world – death, rape, wars and that kind of thing,” he explained.  Little did he know, his entire world was about to be turned upside down. His brother, unbeknownst to him, had been praying for a long time. Praying, specifically, for his brother to be saved. With an army of over 1,000 prayer warriors, Michael’s brother was about to see his prayers answered.  “One day my daughter got really really sick. We took her to the hospital and spent 8 hours in the ER and it was really difficult. At the end of the day, we were exhausted — but she was ok.”  The harrowing ordeal reminded Michael of something his mother always said to him when he was younger. “She said whenever something good happens, thanks God.”  As he arrived home, mentally and emotionally drained from the health scare they’d endured throughout the day, Michael remembered those words from his mother.

“So I went outside and thanked God for about an hour. I was so thankful. I kept thanking him.”  Michael thanked God over and over. But it was later that night that things got really interesting. “That night I had a dream, and in this dream, this voice spoke to me in a language I did not understand. I didn’t tell my wife about it, but I called my brother to tell him about this dream,” Michael explained.  My brother understood the dream immediately and started crying. “What does it mean?” I asked. “You’re welcome,” he answered.  That was it. From that moment on, God opened Michael’s eyes. While the process since that time hasn’t always been easy – God promises it never will be – he’s still grateful.  “For the first time, I read the Bible and was just weeping because I could understand what it said,” Michael says. He lost some of his old friends who didn’t understand his heart change.  I probably needed to,” he says pensively.

God wasn’t done there, however. It was just the beginning of something entirely new – something Michael never dreamed he’d do in a million years.  Given his background in insurance and leading lots of seminars, his pastor asked him to lead a retreat for the church. He did so, and says the Holy Spirit downloaded a very clear vision for something he just had to do.  That’s when Next Level Experience was born.  Now, Michael is helping Christians re-ignite their faith and discover who God really designed them to be in life. “I never thought I’d work in a church or be an executive pastor or anything like that,” Michael admits.

NEXT LEVEL EXPERIENCE

It’s always exciting to be around people who are on fire for the Lord. Michael is definitely one of those people, and he’s taking that energy and fire to Next Level Experiences all around the country.

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The terms approved by a state judge Monday also applied to other Spark-owned sites that had operated in the same fashion, including CatholicMingle.com, AdventistSinglesConnection.com and BlackSingles.com, the Journal reported.  ChristianMingle.com, an online dating service for Christian singles, must start allowing people to seek out same-sex relationships under a judge-approved settlement.  ChristianMingle only required new users to specify whether they’re a man seeking a woman or a woman seeking a man. Two gay men filed class-actions claims against the site’s owner, California-based Spark Networks Inc., claiming that the site’s limited options violated California’s anti-discrimination law,  For now, ChristianMingle will only ask a user whether he or she is a man or woman. Spark Networks agreed that within two years, it would adjust other features to give gay singles a more tailored experience, the Journal reported.  Spark agreed to pay both men $9,000 each and $450,000 in attorneys’ fees. The company didn’t admit any wrongdoing as part of the agreement, the Journal reported.  “I am gratified that we were able to work with Spark to help ensure that people can fully participate in all the diverse market places that make our country so special, regardless of their sexual orientation,” one of the lead plaintiffs’ attorneys, Vineet Dubey of Custodio & Dubey LLP, said in a statement.

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Canada’s inflation rate rose to two per cent in April, from 1.9 per cent the previous month.

The uptick, reported by Statistics Canada on Wednesday, was in line with what economists polled by Bloomberg had been expecting.

While gasoline and other energy prices have risen sharply since the fall, on an annual basis they are actually cheaper than they were this time last year — so much so that if the impact of gas prices were to be stripped out, the inflation rate would have been 2.3 per cent.

While gasoline is cheaper than it was 12 months ago, compared to March there was a huge jump, largely because of a new carbon tax being implemented in New Brunswick, Ontario, Manitoba, P.E.I. and Saskatchewan, while British Columbia hiked its existing levy.

All told, gasoline prices were 10 per cent higher in April than they were in March — but still cheaper on average than they were a year ago.

Scotiabank economist Derek Holt noticed an interesting one-time factor that nudged the rate higher: travel.

The price of travel and tours was 8.4 per cent higher in April than it was a year ago partly because Easter came during the month.

“The increase was partly attributable to the fact that the first two days of the Easter long weekend, a popular time for travel, took place in April this year,” Statistics Canada said.

Also, hundreds of Boeing 737 Max jets being grounded increased the price of airline tickets to much higher than usual, because of the sudden lack of seats.

“Boeing’s challenges and the Easter bunny therefore provided a bit of a false lift to inflation last month that won’t be sustained going forward,” Holt noted.

Food prices going up, but slower

Food prices have also risen sharply in the past year, but at a slower rate than in previous months.

Statistics Canada said food prices have risen by 2.9 per cent between April 2018 and last month. While higher than the overall inflation rate, that’s down from a 3.6 per cent pace of gain between March 2018 and 2019.

At a tech and media conference on Tuesday AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson said that the company will yank WarnerMedia content from other streaming services so that the assets will be exclusive to the streaming service his company is launching soon. That would mean that Netflix would lose popular shows like Friends and Hulu is going to lose audience favorites like ER.

AT&T “will be bringing a lot of these media rights, licensing rights back to ourselves to put on our own SVOD (subscription video-on-demand) product,” Stephenson said, according to The Dallas Morning News, which covered Stephenson’s comments at the conference.

As the Verge points out, Stephenson only reinforces what TBS and TNT president Kevin Reilly—who is overseeing the new WarnerMedia streaming service—said in February. At the Television Critics Association press tour, Reilly told attendees to “expect the crown jewels of Warner” to land on their new streaming service.

“Pulling it away (from Netflix)? It’s certainly something we’re willing to do,” Reilly said, according to Deadline—adding that he doesn’t think sharing assets is a good model and his “belief is that they should be exclusive.”

The move would be a major blow to Netflix. The company paid $100 million for exclusive streaming rights for Friends through 2019. Analytics firm Jumpshot showed late last year that Friends was the second- or third-most watched show on Netflix. And, as Wall Street Journal highlighted, 72 percent of Netflix viewers’ watch time is spent on non-original content, much of which is owned by WarnerMedia. The move would only add to Netflix’s incoming difficulties with the launch of Disney’s new streaming service. A recent survey conducted by Hollywood Reporter and Morning Consult showed that 28 percent of Netflix users said they would cancel their account if Disney pulled all their titles—including Marvel and Star Wars properties—from Netflix.

This news comes on the same day that Disney announced that it would take over full control of Hulu from its partner Comcast in a multi-billion dollar deal. That means that Netflix will be facing the sharp elbows of the most powerful media company in the world on multiple streaming fronts. It also means that Netflix could have an opportunity to license Comcast’s content. Alas, Comcast subsidiary NBCUniversal is expected to launch its own streaming service soon and it will, of course, want to keep the best content to itself.

When AT&T was pushing to get federal approval to purchase Time-Warner, the company argued that the merger was necessary for AT&T to compete with the likes of Amazon, Apple, and Netflix. But that argument completely ignored the fact that AT&T owns the assets that many of those platforms have come to rely on. This imminent power move by AT&T shows exactly why the Department of Justice should have stopped the merger before it was too late.