fortune deck

fortune deck

NFL on Netflix: Christmas Day games are a 1st for streaming giantThe Baltimore restaurant industry is preparing for a potential fight against an out-of-town nonprofit’s effort to implement a fair minimum wage mandate for service workers in Maryland. Sara Jayaraman, co-founder and spokesperson for the New York City-based advocacy group One Fair Wage said her nonprofit will bring its mandatory minimum wage fight to the local level. Jayaraman said the current U.S. tipping structure relies on service workers earning a lower minimum wage, which is supplemented by tips to help them reach a recognized minimum wage. She said this system is rooted in systematic racism. One Fair Wage’s website echoes this claim. “The sector’s low wages are due to the money, power and influence of a trade lobby called the National Restaurant Association (‘The Other NRA’) which has lobbied since Emancipation to maintain a subminimum wage for tipped workers — a literal legacy of slavery,” One Fair Wage’s website says. The National Restaurant Association’s website says it was established on March 13, 1919, by Kansas City restaurateurs. Former President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, according to the National Archives. Ron and Gail Furman, who have owned Max’s Taphouse in Fells Point for 39 years, said they believe Jayaraman’s advocacy work is misguided. “People aren’t going to pay it,” she added. In 2022, Washington, D.C. voters approved a ballot measure supported by One Fair Wage known as Initiative 82. The measure mandated restaurants gradually eliminate the lower tipped wage over several years, ultimately reaching the city’s current minimum wage of $17.50. Consumer advocacy groups in Washington, D.C., have targeted restaurant owners because many establishments have been forced to add a 20% service fee to diners’ bills. Restauranteurs have insisted the increase is necessary to offset the nearly 300% rise in operating expenses to pay higher wages. In March, the D.C. Council codified restaurants’ ability to charge up to 20% service fees to offset the expense increase. These service fees were not considered tips for service for restaurant workers. Data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics shows the restaurant industry in Washington, D.C., lost nearly 1,800 jobs amid the phased implementation of the mandatory wage increase law. Those jobs have not yet been recovered, the data shows. Jayaraman said her organization’s data offers a different perspective, arguing the quality of life for restaurant workers has improved. “Things are exactly what they were before in terms of consumers, in terms of employers; and, workers are getting more than they got before,” Jayaraman said. “But let’s be clear: I-82, for all of the screaming, has only been two years into a five-year phase-in.” Tim Christofield, a longtime bartender at Furman’s restaurant, said that if the Baltimore City Council moves forward with a bill like one passed in Washington, D.C., he will have to leave a career he loves. “They think there is a gray area where they think we are not declaring [taxes] or there is something that isn’t being reported properly,” Christofield said. “They want to seize control over that and that’s just pretty ridiculous.” Ron Furman said his family and their employees believe One Fair Wage’s efforts represent a fabricated issue seeking a solution aimed at increasing tax revenue for the city. They argue the initiative attempts to close a loophole that his employees do not exploit. “None of our employees make $3.63 an hour. None of our employees make $15 an hour,” Ron Furman said. “They make a lot more than that because they earn it and they do a great job doing what they do.” “[I]f the customers are coming in and seeing a 15-20% surcharge on their bill, and [our employees are] not going to be earning tips, they are not going to stay,” he added. Baltimore City Council members John Bullock, Ryan Dorsey, Kristerfer Burnett, Odette Ramos and Phylicia Porter proposed a bill in June that would have required city restaurants to eliminate their tip credit system and implement a phased mandatory minimum wage of $15 per hour. The bill did not receive a vote before the previous council’s term ended. FOX45 reached out to each of the re-elected council members who previously proposed the wage mandate. Councilman Bullock acknowledged the message but did not say if he plans to reintroduce the measure. In a statement, the Restaurant Association of Maryland said it “strongly opposes” so-called fair wage efforts, claiming such policies have a negative impact on employees, restaurants and customers. “Legislation to eliminate the tip credit is being pushed by an out-of-state activist group as part of their nationwide agenda,” the Restaurant Association of Maryland wrote. “Maryland elected officials should reject that group’s efforts to pursue their agenda at the expense of local restaurants and tipped employees who support maintaining the tip credit.” Have a news tip? Contact Gary Collins at gmcollins@sbgtv.com or on X at @realgarycollins.

—NOMBRE COMPLETO: James Earl Carter, Jr. —NACIDO: 1 de octubre de 1924 en la Clínica Wise de Plains, Georgia. Carter fue el primer presidente de Estados Unidos nacido en un hospital. Se convertiría en el primer presidente de Estados Unidos en vivir un siglo. —EDUCACIÓN: Secundaria en Plains, Georgia, 1939-1941; Georgia Southwestern College, Americus, Georgia, 1941-1942; Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, 1942-1943; Academia Naval de Estados Unidos, Annapolis, Maryland, 1943-1946 (Clase 1947); Union College, Schenectady, Nueva York, 1952-1953. —PRESIDENCIA: 39no presidente de Estados Unidos, juramentado el 20 de enero de 1977 a los 52 años, tres meses y 20 días de edad, tras derrotar al presidente Gerald R. Ford en las elecciones generales de 1976. Derrotado por Ronald Reagan en 1980, dejó la presidencia el 20 de enero de 1981. —POSTPRESIDENCIA: Puso en marcha el Centro Carter en 1982. Comenzó a trabajar como voluntario en Hábitat para la Humanidad en 1984. Recibió el Premio Nobel de la Paz en 2002. Enseñó durante 37 años en la Universidad de Emory. —OTROS CARGOS DE ELECCION POPULAR: Senador estatal en Georgia, 1963-1967; gobernador de Georgia, 1971-1975. —OTRAS ACTIVIDADES: Oficial de la Marina, llegó al grado de teniente de navío, 1946-1953; agricultor, Plains, Georgia, 1953-1977. —FAMILIA: Esposa, Rosalynn Smith Carter. Se casaron el 7 de julio de 1943. Ella murió el 19 de noviembre de 2023. Tuvieron tres hijos, John William (Jack), James Earl III (Chip), Donnel Jeffrey (Jeff), y una hija, Amy Lynn. Fuente: Biblioteca y Museo Jimmy CarterThe government was lobbied to do more to assist former paramilitaries to get jobs and integrate back into society months after being released from prison in 1998. Declassified files show the then Northern Ireland Office minister, Adam Ingram, resisting the pressure by stating society was “not yet at the stage where all of the shutters could go up”, expressing concerns that ex-prisoners could end up teaching the children of their victims. The Good Friday Agreement in 1998 largely ended decades of violence in Northern Ireland and led to the establishment of the Stormont powersharing Assembly. The deal also saw the release from prison of hundreds of paramilitary prisoners. The issue of how to integrate them back into society was the subject of a meeting in December 1998 between Mr Ingram and Projex 2000, a private sector group which included representatives of ex-prisoners. Among those who attended the meeting for Projex 2000 were John White of the Ulster Democratic Party (UDP), Brendan Mackin of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU), businessman Ken Cleland and Paul Mageean of the Committee on the Administration of Justice (CAJ). A minute of the meeting shows that the minister advised the group to start lobbying the local parties in the Assembly as he said much of the responsibility for what they were concerned about would fall to Stormont. Mr Cleland says the government had committed to providing assistance for politically motivated prisoners in the Good Friday Agreement, but there had been “no tangible signs of this apart from the prisoner releases”. It adds: “The Minister pointed out that it was difficult to avoid comparisons with politically motivated prisoners and ‘ordinary decent criminals’. “There was already a huge reaction in society to the prisoner release programme.” The group raised concerns about the exclusion of former political prisoners from compensation schemes and highlighted difficulties in finding employment, suggesting a partnership between the prisoner groups, the government and the private sector. The minute states: “John White interjected to say that the prisoner groups were also concerned about media reporting that prisoners were getting huge sums of money on leaving prison.” It continues: “Mr Mackin said the reality at present is that prisoners’ groups do not see anything tangible coming from the Good Friday Agreement. “It seemed to him to be a complete waste of resources for prisoners to come out of prison highly educated but unable to get jobs.” The minister responded that the government had “taken a lot of gambles with no payback”. The minute continues: “As an after-thought he (Mr McCleland) added that it was ironic that someone like David Ervine may end up as a Minister in the New Assembly yet would be unable to employ civil service staff who were politically motivated ex-prisoners. “Again, the Minister emphasised that we are not yet at the stage where all of the shutters could go up. “There were legitimate concerns that ex-prisoners could end up for instance teaching the children of their victim.” The minute adds: “He emphasised that every ex-prisoner does not become a good guy so we have to move cautiously.” It says Mr Mageean said it was “ironic that the Government had signed up to the release of several hundred prisoners but yet would not allow them to get a job in somewhere like a passport office”. It continues: “The Minister reminded him that a sizeable part of the Northern Ireland community are not signed up to the (Good Friday Agreement), we have to move carefully; there is a much wider issue here.” As an action point after the meeting, the minister said he would write to all political parties in the Assembly to ask them to nominate someone to deal with the issue of prisoner re-integration.

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