The Contributor

Remember That CEO Pay Cap? It’s Even Less Effective Than We Knew

propublica — Fri, 04 Mar 2016 18:44:47 +0000

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Tim Cook got almost $400 million of restricted stock when he was named Apple chief executive in 2011, succeeding Steve Jobs. Regardless of whether Apple shareholders fared well or badly over the grant’s 10-year term, all Cook needed to do to collect that stock (worth about $700 million at today’s price) was keep his job. It was the kind of deal that pay mavens derisivelycall “pay for pulse.”

Category:

Labor

origin Blog:

ProPublica

origin Author:

Allan Sloane

Apple Issues Court Order to Vacate, Citing 1st & 5th Amendments

TekeOR — Fri, 26 Feb 2016 15:13:39 +0000

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Apple fought back against the FBI again yesterday, filing a court order to vacate, and citing the 1st and 5th Amendments to defend its refusal to build a back door to the iPhone.

Category:

Civil Rights & Social Justice

origin Blog:

The Contributor

origin Author:

Teke O'Reilly

Tags:

Apple

encryption

FBI

San Bernadino

Oil Industry Caused 2005 Swarm of California Earthquakes: Newly Published Study

desmogblog — Mon, 08 Feb 2016 13:44:01 +0000

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Oil and gas wastewater disposal has been tied to a series of earthquakes in California for the first time, in a peer-reviewed study published last Thursday. A string of quakes ending on Sept. 22, 2005 struck in Kern County near the southern end of California's Central Valley – and the new study, published in Geophysical Research Letters, concluded that the odds that those quakes might have occurred by chance were just 3 percent.

Category:

Environment

origin Blog:

DeSmogBlog

origin Author:

Sharon Kelly

Tags:

california earthquakes fracking shale gas shale oil wastewater oil wastewater produced waters brines Fracking waste quakes tremors peer-reviewed Study seismicity Bakersfield

S’Uber Bowl: Coalition of On-Demand Taxi Drivers Allegedly Planning Huge Super Bowl Protest

wepartypatriots — Thu, 04 Feb 2016 17:16:09 +0000

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A group of Uber drivers calling themselves Uber Drivers United staged a protest in San Francisco recently, driving slowly from the former Candlestick Park, to the airport, through the city, and eventually to Uber headquarters while honking their horns and disrupting traffic. The issue for the drivers, most of whom will not release their names, is they are earning less than half of what they earned when they joined the company, meaning that many now earn below the minimum wage.

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Silicon Valley Rising: More Drivers Unionize with Teamsters to Transport Big Tech

wepartypatriots — Thu, 06 Aug 2015 14:40:00 +0000

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Over the weekend, bus drivers at Compass Transportation entered the Teamsters union hall in San Leandro, California and voted 75 to 0 to approve a three-year contract. It includes solid raises as well as improved schedules and benefits. The drivers joined Teamsters Local 853 in February and began negotiating the influential deal. Their victory is part of a larger movement — recently coined “Silicon Valley Rising” — in which labor unions, community groups, and churches have improved wages and conditions for the region’s service workers. The nearly 200 bus drivers employed by Compass provide shuttle services to companies such as Apple, eBay, Yahoo, Evernote, Genentech, Zynga, and Amtrak.

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Love Wins! Justice Kennedy Pens 5-4 Decision for Marriage Equality

calitics — Fri, 26 Jun 2015 16:56:01 +0000

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As many have stated, marriage equality isn't the end of the fight for LGBT rights or civil rights more broadly, there isn't such thing as the end of that fight. We've seen too much over the past weeks and months to think that is the case. Even within the LGBT community, there are a litany of lines that are arbitrarily drawn, yet the results are all too real. Yet, for one day, love wins. And that makes this a good day. And for my fellow San Franciscans, what a happy #SFPride this will be.

Category:

Civil Rights & Social Justice

origin Blog:

origin Author:

Tags:

Millennials Rock Gay Marriage

Protesters Urge State Officials to Halt Santa Barbara Offshore Drilling as Cleanup Costs Soar

calitics — Fri, 26 Jun 2015 02:08:01 +0000

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As crews struggle to clean up crude oil off the beaches and wildlife along the Santa Barbara County Coast, dozens of people with an inflatable pipeline, hazmat suits, and a 20 foot tall mock oil derrick gathered at the Goleta Valley Community Center outside Santa Barbara on Wednesday, June 24, to urge the State Lands Commission to reject Venoco's bid to expand offshore drilling. Santa Barbara Oil Spill clean up cost soars to $92 million

Category:

Environment

origin Blog:

Calitics

origin Author:

Dan Bacher

Tags:

Santa Barbara Oil Spill

Plains All American Pipeline

Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA)

U.S. Coast Guard

marine protected areas (MPAs)

Californians Against Fracking

corporate greenwashing

$228M Misclassification Settlement May Send Ripples Through Industry, On-Demand Economy

wepartypatriots — Tue, 16 Jun 2015 16:03:48 +0000

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FedEx has agreed to settle with over 2,000 past and present California workers who claimed they were misclassified as independent contractors. The $227 million settlement comes amidst a multitiude of long-running legal battles affecting FedEx drivers.

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independent contractors

on-demand economy

truckers

Tribal Water Activists Organize to Stop the California Water Heist

calitics — Sun, 10 May 2015 19:32:01 +0000

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Tribal water activists presented short films about threats to Northern California's rivers from Governor Jerry Brown's drought plans at Arcata's D Street Community Center on the evening of Friday, May 8.
The films included the Yurok Youth Fish Kill video, Sovereigns Water and the Shasta Dam raise video, according to event organizer Regina Chichizola.

Category:

Environment

origin Blog:

Calitics

origin Author:

Dan Bacher

Tags:

California Water Heist

Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP)

twin tunnels

What’s In The Recycled Oil Field Wastewater Sprayed On California Crops?

desmogblog — Thu, 07 May 2015 12:20:01 +0000

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“You can't find what you don't look for,” UC Berkeley researcher Seth B.C. Shonkoff recently told the LA Times, referring to the chemicals that state regulators don’t know to test for in the recycled wastewater the California oil industry sells for use on crops here in the top agricultural producing state in the US.

Category:

Environment

origin Blog:

DeSmogBlog

origin Author:

Mike Gaworecki

Tags:

california climate change drought water groundwater aquifers oil Oil Drilling oil extraction fracking acidization LA Times chevron recycled water water pollution oil contamination carcinogens toxins