I honestly don’t think Sam Walton wanted Wal-Mart to become what it has become! It’s really a pathetic joke to the American people! “Let’s all shop at Wal-Mart, where 80-90% of the items are made in China, who owns our debt”! “Let Wal-Mart (Devout) customers become the face of America”! Yeah right, a bunch of brainwashed idiots who act like zombies in that store. And I shop at Wal-Mart too, but my god, so many people who shop there are complete idiots! Mindless zombies wondering around!

People of Wal-Mart

I don’t mean the website, I mean the actual people that shop at Wal-Mart. Not only are they hardcore deal-finders, but they all seem to have some sort of an issue they feel it absolutely necessary to share with the world. Some of them have an issue with dressing – wearing clothing that is entirely inappropriate, and even unnecessary, for shopping at the big box retailer. Some of them have significant other issues that they feel it necessary to blather around the store on their cell phones, screaming at each other, or even sharing with the Wal-Mart employees. No matter what the issue may be, it seems like every person that shops at Wal-Mart seems to feel that it is their duty to turn the Wal-Mart experience into a therapy session/hillbilly fashion show. I just want to get my discounted goods and get the shit out of here. Why must I stand here and endure your issues?

A lot of people hate Wal-Mart for a lot of different reasons. In addition to these I have listed, I hate Wal-Mart and refuse to shop there because for years they have systematically broken down the notion of loyalty to a company. Big box retail took over small, locally owned businesses and the people of this world fell for it in the name of getting a good deal. In the end, though, there is no deal that is worth what Wal-Mart represents.

That’s how construction worker Raul Aguilera described his battle for unpaid wages against a former employer under British Columbia’s employment standards enforcement system.

“This is ridiculous,” said Aguilera, 44, who came to Canada from Mexico as a skilled worker in 2000 and now lives in Toronto. “It puts the whole burden on workers. The process is hard and frustrating.”

The bill — the subject of a one-day public hearing Tuesday — mandates workers to first confront the employer before filing a complaint on disputes such as working conditions, owed wages, wrongful dismissal, vacation and overtime pay.

It would also allow employment standards officers to facilitate settlements, currently a responsibility of trained Ontario Labour Relations Board adjudicators.

The changes are part of the province’s employment standards modernization strategy to reduce the 14,000 workers’ claims in backlog.

But critics fear the “mandatory self-enforcement” approach would adversely affect all Ontario workers, especially those in low-paying temp jobs and newcomers with language barriers.

“You don’t reduce backlog by creating more barriers to discourage complaints,” said Fred Hahn, president of the 230,000-member Canadian Union of Public Employees in Ontario.

Aguilera, an installer, worked for a Vancouver construction company in 2005 and was owed $600. He spent days to study the labour ministry’s self-help kit before he learned to calculate the amount of unpaid wages and completed the complex complaint form.

To show ministry staff his attempt to resolve the dispute, Aguilera called and faxed his employer, but to no avail. Finally, he went to the boss’ work site.

“He refused to pay me and just started pushing me really hard. I was afraid. I just left,” recalled Aguilera, whose case was finally accepted by the ministry after he detailed the confrontation.

Yufen Wu, a nanny from China, was owed two months of salary and overtime pay by a Burlington family of seven. She was immediately terminated in October after her boss was notified of a complaint she filed earlier.

When she called the family to recoup the unpaid wages, she was contacted by police and threatened with harassment charges.

“This bill would give employers even more power and make it worse for workers,” said Wu.

The labour ministry proposes to exempt certain workers from mandatory self-enforcement: young workers, live-in caregivers, people with language barriers or a disability, workers afraid to contact the employer or when the employer has closed or gone bankrupt.

“How do you decide whose English is not good enough and who is not afraid to confront the employer?”

Jeanne Marie Hackema, 68, was arrested Thursday and charged Friday. She has since been released.

The victim of the alleged assault is a 55-year-old woman who no longer lives at the facility, which is housed in a bungalow at 115th Street and 9th Avenue.

The woman filed the complaint in May 2009 and left the facility two months later, said Acting Staff Sgt. Roxanne McKean.

“We are very gratified to know she has been charged and held accountable. The main issue is when you’re vulnerable, you can’t complain, your families can’t complain, because they need 24-hour care,” she said.

In 2004, the Elder Advocates of Alberta filed a complaint about the Open Arms care home alleging overcrowding, insufficient food, delays in helping with bathroom needs and a lack of trained staff.

According to Alberta Seniors and Community Supports, a separate complaint was filed against the care home in February, but has since been resolved. The department would not release further information, citing privacy concerns.

McKean said the alleged victim was in the care home because of a brain injury. Brain injuries can affect memory, mental focus and a variety of emotional, intellectual and physical attributes.

Police laid a “global” assault charge in the case, which means they believe more than one assault may have occurred during a set period.

McKean said officers are looking for other potential victims, but do not have any other suspects.

Employers are doing more work with fewer employees and trying to keep their best employees on staff; employees are working harder to keep their jobs; and those looking for work are competing heavily for spots on the organizational chart.

It means more attention by all of them to workplace laws and how to manage, and be managed, effectively and legally.

“This is all good business practice,” said McGuire Woods partner Adrienne Conrad, a labor lawyer who represents employers.

Nationwide, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission reports near-record discrimination charges and attributes the numbers to several factors, including economic conditions.

The commission reported 93,277 workplace discrimination charges were filed with it during fiscal 2009, the second highest ever, behind fiscal 2008.

For 2009, the commission said it obtained more than $376 million for the victims.

The most frequently alleged types of discrimination were race, retaliation and sex-based discrimination, as well as disability, religion and national origin and age-based discrimination.

Conrad spoke Monday to more than 60 members of Women Business Owners of North Florida. Her basic message was that all job positions should have accurate, current job descriptions and that performance expectations and reviews should be tied to those descriptions.

“Document, document, document,” she said. The information helps both the employer and the employee work together with the same goals and expectations.

There were questions from the floor about the appropriateness of background checks, employment questions that might trigger age-discrimination complaints and how to handle employees who speak negatively about the boss and the office to clients and vendors.

“Can he be fired?” asked a member who said she knew of an employee who, angered about being counseled about performance, was trashing the company’s reputation in the public.

Maybe, Conrad said, if the employer has a policy that addresses it.

“Many companies have policies that any employee who publicly disparages the company or its management can be terminated immediately,” she said.

That raised another point: Employers should have written policies and procedures that are signed by employees.

“Have an acknowledgment form,” she said. “Signed.”

She also advised employers that it is not helpful to simply be “nice” to a marginal employee who needs a performance action plan for improvement. Constructive criticism is better than pretending all is OK.

Conrad represents employers when they are sued for employment practices. She knows of an employer who hired a woman who was clearly trouble within the first three months. Instead of firing her, she was transferred around the company. She eventually was let go and she sued.

“If you have a problem employee, it’s best to nip it in the bud right away,” Conrad said.

Conrad said that waiting to fire a problem worker also gives that employee more time to document alleged discrimination or mistreatment.

“Plus, it has an effect on employee morale,” she said. The hard-working, nonproblem workers want to know “why are they not firing her?”

When the time comes to terminate an employee, Conrad said it’s wise to have a script before going into the termination meeting. “You want to be concise,” she said.

Everyone knows that Tiger knows that he has built a golf empire over past few the years. Golf has given him the ability to generate revenue from endorsements such as apparel, books, games and etc. He has strategically positioned himself in such a way that these revenues function as derivatives to pay him and his family over and over again. In essence the Tiger Woods brand/image is an icon to golfers across the globe, because there is no one that can deny he is one of the best at his business. THAT WAS UNTIL THE 2010 SCANDAL!

Basically what has changed –

Too bad for the Tiger Woods brand/image (and unfortunately for his immediate family), his personal set backs may negatively impact on his business in 2010. Unless he can remain focused and somehow restore his image in the public eye, the Tiger Woods brand/image and business will ultimately suffer in the short term. It does not have to suffer? But it does not have to be that way for his business. Nor does it have to be that way for internet marketing or online businesses. In fact, because of social media sites like FaceBook, YouTube and Twitter, the online marketing business is thriving in 2010 and well beyond. And yes they are free advertising platforms for all types of opportunities. But only if they are used correctly.

The correlation between Tiger and Branding –

So exactly what does Tiger Woods and internet marketing have to do with a home based business opportunity? In a one word answer, they correlate with branding an image that is recognizable. The Tiger Woods association with golf is synonymous, because he has branded his image to represent one of golfs elite players. Successful internet marketers have learned this and have built their home based business empires by replicating the process. The brilliance behind the Tiger Woods model is that he figured out this one simple strategy. Once the dust settles, he will continue building the Tiger Woods name in association with golfs elite again. This will once again provide him with derivatives that will pay him and his family over a lifetime. But knowing how competitive Tiger is, the setback will only be temporary. Tiger will be back and his image will be bigger than it was before.

What Woods is now undertaking is on a scale unlike anything that he or any other athlete has attempted before. Uncharacteristically, his timing is terrible. He is entering the real estate business just as the economy seems moribund—and if anything, the golf business is in a worse state. The National Golf Foundation, an industry trade group, reported that 2008 was the worst year in two decades for opening new golf courses, with the sluggish real estate market as the leading negative factor. It also noted that 2008 was the third year in a row with “zero to slightly negative net growth in supply”—meaning that more courses went out of business than opened.

Wal-Mart’s London, Ky., distribution center denied jobs to qualified female applicants from 1998 through February 2005, and regularly hired male entry-level applicants for warehouse positions, the EEOC said.

“Wal-Mart regularly used gender stereotypes” for filling certain positions, the EEOC said in a statement.
Executives with hiring authority told applicants that order-filling positions were not suitable for women, and that they hired mainly 18- to 25-year-old men, the EEOC said. Excluding women from employment or excluding them from certain positions because of gender violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

As part of the settlement, WalMart agreed to pay $11.7 million in back wages and compensatory damages; its share of employer taxes; and up to $250,000 in administration fees. The settlement also requires Walmart to provide order-filler jobs, as they become available, to eligible and interested female class members, as determined by a claims administrator.

“We’re pleased the matter has been resolved,” said WalMart spokesman Greg Rossiter. “The claims do not reflect WalMart’s continuing commitment to build an even more inclusive workplace through hiring and training initiatives.”

New York, NY (NewYorkInjuryNews.com) –The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) www.fda.gov has announced that McNeil Consumer Healthcare’s Johnson & Johnson unit should have taken action to recall Tylenol and other over-the-counter products after filed complaints of a strange smell of the product, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The FDA’s office of compliance sent the company a letter informing them of the violation of agency reporting rules and manufacturing practice rules. Consumers had been complaining about a mildew, moldy smell coming from the products in September 2008, and the agency did not begin a full investigation into the problem or report the complaints to the FDA until September 2009.
Friday, January 15, 2009, McNeil Consumer Healthcare expanded the recall to more than just Tylenol, but also recalled several other products such as Benadryl, Motrin, St. Joseph’s Aspirin. There were also complaints of musty-smelling Rolaids. There were consumer reports of nausea and temporal stomach issues due to use of the medication.

Investigations revealed that the moldy smell was linked to traces of a chemical that is applied to wood pallets used to ship the products. The company first recalled the Tylenol products in November 2009, simultaneously; the FDA was inspecting one of the agency’s plant in Puerto Rico. The FDA reported that, with the expanded recall, there were 50 million bottles recalled. It was noted that in 2009, Tylenol made up about $1 million in sales across the country. A report released by company, which stated that it failed to test if the Tylenol was contaminated, even after numerous consumer complaints.

Navistar, which is suing the EPA over its certification process for a popular technology to reduce nitrogen oxide emissions, said the new guidelines are largely cosmetic. The company said truckers will still be able to operate 2010 model trucks for long stretches without a functioning pollution-reduction system.

“Both the new and the old guidance allow that to be done over and over again,” Navistar said in a filing this week with the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C. “The net effect is that for a substantial time on the road, uncontrolled nitrogen oxide will be spewed into the air by millions of trucks.”

The EPA’s latest compliance guidance removed the suggested limits on the hours and miles trucks can operate without sufficient levels of the urea solution before the trucks begin to lose power and eventually become inoperable. The EPA said removing specific parameters eliminated confusion over whether the guidelines are actually binding requirements.

“While EPA understands that a certain amount of time or mileage may be needed to provide the driver enough time to have the vehicle serviced, EPA is not determining in this guidance what specific amount of time or mileage … would be needed,” the agency said.

The EPA is leaving such limits for truck and engine manufacturers to determine. Navistar complained that the agency’s 1,000-mile limit in EPA’s earlier guidance would have permitted truck drivers to disregard the new regulations for 1,000 miles every time the urea solution in their trucks ran out. But the company argued the agency’s latest approach doesn’t reduce the likelihood of trucks operating without functioning SCR systems.

Illinois-based Navistar is the only truck maker in North America that is not treating nitrogen oxide with SCR, opting instead for a process that recirculates cooled exhaust through its engines.

Caving in to wide spread complaints about the handsets initial $379 price tag, some T-Mobile users are now eligible to own the phone for $279.

Additionally, similar to Apple’s handling of the rapid price drop of the original iPhone, Google will be mailing out $100 rebate cheques to early adopters who opted to upgrade ahead of the announcement.

While it’s still uncertain who exactly is eligible for this particular upgrade, as apparently changes are being made on that end as well, overall it’s an interesting move from the folks over at Mountain View that we guess is more than a little related to the initial guesstimates of slow first week sales.

Now as it currently stands, the HTC-built, Google-branded handset will cost a mere $179 for those willing to sign a new 2-year contract, while an unlocked unit purchased directly from Google will remain at $529.

The scope of the recent attacks points to a complex operation. More than 30 companies were attacked simultaneously through an undiscovered software security hole. The incursions appear to have had the blessing of the Chinese government, if not its direct involvement. It is hard to imagine who else would be interested in the email accounts of political dissidents, which Google claims were targeted.
The concerted assault also bears similarities to one on 100 companies last year, according to security experts at iDefense. So it shouldn’t be dismissed as a one-off or rogue operation.

The amount of information and money at risk from such attacks is growing. An increasing percentage of many companies’ value comprises patents and trade secrets. The theft of physical goods is rarely life-threatening for their manufacturer. A software company, on the other hand, can be destroyed if its secret sauce is stolen.

Microsoft, for instance, has persistently complained about piracy of its software in China and elsewhere. But Google has gone a step further, squawking about a security breach that makes it look vulnerable. Other companies, and governments, have mostly kept quiet about this kind of trouble.
That may change, because Google’s problem is rapidly becoming everybody’s. The growth of cloud computing — where services such as email, spreadsheets and word processing are served online — increases the vulnerability of companies and governments to Internet-based attacks. Hillary Clinton’s State Department appears to be backing up Google’s complaint.

Western governments are heavily involved behind the scenes with tackling gaps in Internet security. But cyber-attacks that appear to be state-sponsored arguably call for a more public response as well. Clinton’s decision to point a finger openly at the Chinese government could just be the beginning