#Fast Services

[celesse]

Beepbeep 🛵📦

[reasonsforhope]

Federal regulators on Tuesday [April 23, 2024] enacted a nationwide ban on new noncompete agreements, which keep millions of Americans — from minimum-wage earners to CEOs — from switching jobs within their industries.

The Federal Trade Commission on Tuesday afternoon voted 3-to-2 to approve the new rule, which will ban noncompetes for all workers when the regulations take effect in 120 days [So, the ban starts in early September, 2024!]. For senior executives, existing noncompetes can remain in force. For all other employees, existing noncompetes are not enforceable.

[That's right: if you're currently under a noncompete agreement, it's completely invalid as of September 2024! You're free!!]

The antitrust and consumer protection agency heard from thousands of people who said they had been harmed by noncompetes, illustrating how the agreements are "robbing people of their economic liberty," FTC Chair Lina Khan said. 

The FTC commissioners voted along party lines, with its two Republicans arguing the agency lacked the jurisdiction to enact the rule and that such moves should be made in Congress...

Why it matters

The new rule could impact tens of millions of workers, said Heidi Shierholz, a labor economist and president of the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank. 

"For nonunion workers, the only leverage they have is their ability to quit their job," Shierholz told CBS MoneyWatch. "Noncompetes don't just stop you from taking a job — they stop you from starting your own business."

Since proposing the new rule, the FTC has received more than 26,000 public comments on the regulations. The final rule adopted "would generally prevent most employers from using noncompete clauses," the FTC said in a statement.

The agency's action comes more than two years after President Biden directed the agency to "curtail the unfair use" of noncompetes, under which employees effectively sign away future work opportunities in their industry as a condition of keeping their current job. The president's executive order urged the FTC to target such labor restrictions and others that improperly constrain employees from seeking work.

"The freedom to change jobs is core to economic liberty and to a competitive, thriving economy," Khan said in a statement making the case for axing noncompetes. "Noncompetes block workers from freely switching jobs, depriving them of higher wages and better working conditions, and depriving businesses of a talent pool that they need to build and expand."

Real-life consequences

In laying out its rationale for banishing noncompetes from the labor landscape, the FTC offered real-life examples of how the agreements can hurt workers.

In one case, a single father earned about $11 an hour as a security guard for a Florida firm, but resigned a few weeks after taking the job when his child care fell through. Months later, he took a job as a security guard at a bank, making nearly $15 an hour. But the bank terminated his employment after receiving a letter from the man's prior employer stating he had signed a two-year noncompete.

In another example, a factory manager at a textile company saw his paycheck dry up after the 2008 financial crisis. A rival textile company offered him a better job and a big raise, but his noncompete blocked him from taking it, according to the FTC. A subsequent legal battle took three years, wiping out his savings. 

-via CBS Moneywatch, April 24, 2024

--

Note:

A lot of people think that noncompete agreements are only a white-collar issue, but they absolutely affect blue-collar workers too, as you can see from the security guard anecdote.

In fact, one in six food and service workers are bound by noncompete agreements. That's right - one in six food workers can't leave Burger King to work for Wendy's [hypothetical example], in the name of "trade secrets." (x, x, x)

Noncompete agreements also restrict workers in industries from tech and video games to neighborhood yoga studios. "The White House estimates that tens of millions of workers are subject to noncompete agreements, even in states like California where they're banned." (x, x, x)

The FTC estimates that the ban will lead to "the creation of 8,500 new businesses annually, an average annual pay increase of $524 for workers, lower health care costs, and as many as 29,000 more patents each year for the next decade." (x)

Clearer explanation of noncompete agreements below the cut.

Noncompete agreements can restrict workers from leaving for a better job or starting their own business.

Noncompetes often effectively coerce workers into staying in jobs they want to leave, and even force them to leave a profession or relocate.

Noncompetes can prevent workers from accepting higher-paying jobs, and even curtail the pay of workers not subject to them directly.

Of the more than 26,000 comments received by the FTC, more than 25,000 supported banning noncompetes. 

[iww-gnv]

California fast-food workers are forming a unique kind of union

Lizzet Aguilar has worked at a McDonald’s in Los Angeles for 17 years. She’s never once been given a paid day off. She’s never taken a vacation. When her husband or nine-year-old son get sick and need her to care for them—or if she gets sick herself—she has to call out and lose a day’s pay. “Es difícil,” she says: It’s difficult. Her wages are already low. She makes $16.78 per hour. “Estamos luchando día a día. Es difícil vivir en California,” says Aguilar: We live day to day. It’s difficult to live in California. But for many years she was afraid to speak up and join the Fight for 15, a national movement to raise the minimum wage that started with fast-food workers and has since seen 14 states and Washington, D.C., raise their minimum wages to $15 an hour, increasing pay for 26 million workers.   Then the pandemic hit and Aguilar’s boss didn’t give workers any hand sanitizer, gloves, or even masks. Six coworkers got COVID-19. “Ese me puso a decir, ‘Basta,’” she recalls: It pushed her to say, Enough. She got involved to protect herself and her family.  Now Aguilar will be part of the next evolution in the Fight for 15 movement: She and her coworkers will announce on February 9 that they are forming the California Fast Food Workers Union, which will be part of SEIU. Hundreds of workers from different fast-food companies will gather in Los Angeles to sign union cards. It’s time, Aguilar and her coworkers decided, to become more formal members of a union and pay dues. It’s a fresh start, she says, on the road toward securing bigger gains.

Read the rest here.

[halorvic]

The danger is clear and present: COVID isn’t merely a respiratory illness; it’s a multi-dimensional threat impacting brain function, attacking almost all of the body’s organs, producing elevated risks of all kinds, and weakening our ability to fight off other diseases. Reinfections are thought to produce cumulative risks, and Long COVID is on the rise. Unfortunately, Long COVID is now being considered a long-term chronic illness — something many people will never fully recover from. Dr. Phillip Alvelda, a former program manager in DARPA’s Biological Technologies Office that pioneered the synthetic biology industry and the development of mRNA vaccine technology, is the founder of Medio Labs, a COVID diagnostic testing company. He has stepped forward as a strong critic of government COVID management, accusing health agencies of inadequacy and even deception. Alvelda is pushing for accountability and immediate action to tackle Long COVID and fend off future pandemics with stronger public health strategies. Contrary to public belief, he warns, COVID is not like the flu. New variants evolve much faster, making annual shots inadequate. He believes that if things continue as they are, with new COVID variants emerging and reinfections happening rapidly, the majority of Americans may eventually grapple with some form of Long COVID. Let’s repeat that: At the current rate of infection, most Americans may get Long COVID.

[...]

LP: A recent JAMA study found that US adults with Long COVID are more prone to depression and anxiety – and they’re struggling to afford treatment. Given the virus’s impact on the brain, I guess the link to mental health issues isn’t surprising. PA: There are all kinds of weird things going on that could be related to COVID’s cognitive effects. I’ll give you an example. We’ve noticed since the start of the pandemic that accidents are increasing. A report published by TRIP, a transportation research nonprofit, found that traffic fatalities in California increased by 22% from 2019 to 2022. They also found the likelihood of being killed in a traffic crash increased by 28% over that period. Other data, like studies from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, came to similar conclusions, reporting that traffic fatalities hit a 16-year high across the country in 2021. The TRIP report also looked at traffic fatalities on a national level and found that traffic fatalities increased by 19%. LP: What role might COVID play? PA: Research points to the various ways COVID attacks the brain. Some people who have been infected have suffered motor control damage, and that could be a factor in car crashes. News is beginning to emerge about other ways COVID impacts driving. For example, in Ireland, a driver’s COVID-related brain fog was linked to a crash that killed an elderly couple. Damage from COVID could be affecting people who are flying our planes, too. We’ve had pilots that had to quit because they couldn’t control the airplanes anymore. We know that medical events among U.S. military pilots were shown to have risen over 1,700% from 2019 to 2022, which the Pentagon attributes to the virus.

[...]

LP: You’ve criticized the track record of the CDC and the WHO – particularly their stubborn denial that COVID is airborne. PA: They knew the dangers of airborne transmission but refused to admit it for too long. They were warned repeatedly by scientists who studied aerosols. They instituted protections for themselves and for their kids against airborne transmission, but they didn’t tell the rest of us to do that.

[...]

LP: How would you grade Biden on how he’s handled the pandemic? PA: I’d give him an F. In some ways, he fails worse than Trump because more people have actually died from COVID on his watch than on Trump’s, though blame has to be shared with Republican governors and legislators who picked ideological fights opposing things like responsible masking, testing, vaccination, and ventilation improvements for partisan reasons. Biden’s administration has continued to promote the false idea that the vaccine is all that is needed, perpetuating the notion that the pandemic is over and you don’t need to do anything about it. Biden stopped the funding for surveillance and he stopped the funding for renewing vaccine advancement research. Trump allowed 400,000 people to die unnecessarily. The Biden administration policies have allowed more than 800,000 to 900,000 and counting.

[...]

LP: The situation with bird flu is certainly getting more concerning with the CDC confirming that a third person in the U.S. has tested positive after being exposed to infected cows. PA: Unfortunately, we’re repeating many of the same mistakes because we now know that the bird flu has made the jump to several species. The most important one now, of course, is the dairy cows. The dairy farmers have been refusing to let the government come in and inspect and test the cows. A team from Ohio State tested milk from a supermarket and found that 50% of the milk they tested was positive for bird flu viral particles.

[...]

PA: There’s a serious risk now in allowing the virus to freely evolve within the cow population. Each cow acts as a breeding ground for countless genetic mutations, potentially leading to strains capable of jumping to other species. If any of those countless genetic experiments within each cow prove successful in developing a strain transmissible to humans, we could face another pandemic – only this one could have a 58% death rate. Did you see the movie “Contagion?” It was remarkably accurate in its apocalyptic nature. And that virus only had a 20% death rate. If the bird flu makes the jump to human-to-human transition with even half of its current lethality, that would be disastrous.

[kral-adams]

2025 Aston Martin Vantage 🌊

[t4tails]

nervous for my interview but calming myself because i know that just statistically speaking the fact that i care enough to prepare a little probably puts me above at least a quarter of other applicants in my age group

[chiquilines]

Silly togachako uni doodles since I havent drawn them in a minute

[dragonpyre]

Teen Wolf au where Scott McCall becomes a first responder cuz that makes way more sense given his abilities

[ghostr0tz]

last one tonight i promise

[rwac96]

Is it true that Jane makes sure that Jaune and Harriet walk behind her, to show off her butt to them?

Jane: *giggles* "Definitely~."

*The Therin sways her rear with each step she took, with Jaune & Harriet following behind*

Harriet: *blushing* "Stupid, sexy rat lady!"

Jaune: *blushing too* "...Dang it all!"

[sourtomatola]

Light switched AU part 6! First | Prev | Next

[piratecaptainscaptainpirates]

Hope all of my Jewtuals, Jewish followers, and every Jew reading this had a meaningful and safe Yom Kippur! Wishing for a happy year ahead for all of us. <3

[marzipanandminutiae]

sometimes I think "I should wait until I have a more permanent living situation before acquiring any big or hard-to-move furniture/household items"

and then I go buy a 26-pound late Victorian mantle clock because life is short and we deserve beauty Now

[otomehonyaku]

Diabolik Lovers Daylight Vol. 7 Ruki ☽ Animate Tokuten Drama CD ☽ Sleeping Together ★ With Vampire

Original title: 添い寝でおやすみ ★ ヴアンパイア Voiced by Sakurai Takahiro English translation by @otomehonyaku Click here for the audio, provided by @karleksmumskladdkaka!

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

I figured it would be fun to try out a drama CD translation for once, and this was a nice short (but sweet) one! I have another tokuten audio + translation hopefully coming soon... Stay tuned ٩(ˊᗜˋ*)و ♡

Please do not reuse or post my translations elsewhere or translate my work into other languages without my permission.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

00:00 Hey, Livestock. What are you doing? That’s an awfully big box you’re holding.

[You’re glad to see him.]

You were looking for me? Why?

[You explain the situation.]

So Kou told you to give this box to me. I don’t remember sending him on an errand, though.

[You pass on Kou’s message to Ruki.]

“Just open it and have fun”? That sounds a lot like him, but he must be up to no good…  We should ask him what’s in the box first…

[You say you couldn’t find Kou anywhere.]

Ah, right, he said he had a film shoot today…  Oh, well. If the sender’s not here, we have no choice but to open it. Give me the box, Livestock. I was going to open it in my room, but if you’re curious what’s inside too, then come with me.

[You nod.]

Let’s go, then.

[The two of you go to his room.]

01:20 Sit over there.

[Ruki puts the box in front of you.]

Well, then. Let’s open it right away. For such a big box, it’s not very heavy. What could be inside? Wooden pieces of various sizes… and a lot of them, at that.  They look like they’re parts of something.

[You spot a letter inside the box.]

A letter? Kou must have put it in there. Let’s see.  “Here’s one of your beloved puzzles as a present. Have fun! Try assembling it together with her.” I see. So it’s a puzzle.

[You’re confused.]

Yeah, it looks different than a normal, flat puzzle.  Judging from the parts, the finished product must be three-dimensional. There’s no manual, either, but I wonder if it’s because Kou removed it, or there was no manual to begin with… Anyway, this may be just another of Kou’s whims, but we have the time.  Maybe I should assemble it.

[You say that you want to help.]

It does not look like I would need your help with it, but Kou said to do it together, so… If you’d like, you are welcome to try.

[The two of you start assembling the puzzle.]

03:03 Hm. My side looks like it’s coming together. How about yours?

[You tell him.]

Let me see it.

[You show him what you’ve got.]

That looks better than I expected.  If you’re worried about this part, I think it might fit here…

[Ruki helps you.]

You should try doing the rest yourself.

[You ask him whether he’s done this before.]

Not exactly. I have done a variety of 3D puzzles before, but this is the first time I’ve tried this type of puzzle. Not that I’m very particular about my puzzles, though…

[You ask him if he has a particular strategy.]

I have my strategies for each kind, but in the end, the process of putting parts together and aiming for the final product is the same for every puzzle.

[You say you have no idea what the puzzle is meant to look like.]

Right. I cannot picture what the final product is going to look like just yet, but if we just look at the parts even though we have no idea what to expect…

[You tell him that you should both try your best.]

04:20 Yeah.

[To himself] It would be a shame to spoil her fun by telling her the answer to the puzzle, but…

[You ask him if he said something.]

No, nothing. Besides, we won’t finish the puzzle at this pace. Less talking, more working.

[You agree enthusiastically.]

Heh. You’re curious about the final product, right? 

The harder you work, the sooner you’ll find out what it is.

[You tell him you’ll work harder.]

Yes, you should. I will try to increase my pace, too.

05:06 Ah, it’s finished. When I opened the box and saw the parts, I already had a hunch, but… It looks like a small castle you might find overseas. I think we happened to see it on TV around the time when Kou was featured on a programme.  He must have remembered that you and I talked about wanting to go and see it in person. That must also be why he told us in the letter that we should assemble it together. Whatever his reason was… heh. He probably wanted to make us happy.

[Ruki incorporates your part into the puzzle.]

Look, your work is now part of the castle, too. You did really well considering you had no idea what it was.

[You don’t respond.]

You were so excited to see the final product, but your response is a bit underwhelming, don’t you think?

[Ruki looks down at you, leaning against his shoulder and sleeping soundly.]

06:05 Heh, I see.  You have some nerve using someone’s shoulder as a pillow while you sleep, Livestock. Oh, well. It’s past your usual bedtime, so it’s fine. I must have been engrossed in the puzzle as well for me not to notice you nodding off.

[Ruki picks you up, bridal style.]

However, if you sleep here, you’ll regret it later. You should just sleep on the bed.

[He carries you to his bed.]

You should have just told me you were tired… You worked hard and stayed up just to finish the puzzle with me. You didn’t make it to the end, though…

07:05

[Ruki looks at his watch.]

It’s about time. I should tidy up and head to bed, too.

[Ruki walks back to the table.]

I should hide the puzzle under the table for now.  I want her to see it tomorrow. I wonder how she’ll react.

[Ruki walks back to the bed.]

Hey, Livestock. Move over a bit. I want to get under the covers too. She’s so far gone she doesn’t even hear me… 

[Ruki gets in bed anyway and squeezes himself beside you.]

What a foolish face. You must be tired from using your head so much.

[Ruki touches you.]

I wonder what kind of face you’ll make when you wake up tomorrow. Will you feel guilty for falling asleep before seeing the finished puzzle?  Or will you become shy when you wake up next to me? Anything is fine.  Your reactions are always something to look forward to. Ah, but when you see the finished puzzle, you’ll probably be ecstatic. You were looking forward to seeing it so much, after all. I want to see your happy face. I was having such a good time, uncharacteristically so. I might not be able to fall asleep like this. I’ll have to thank Kou later.

08:45 For tomorrow’s dinner, I’ll make him something he likes.

[You shift in your sleep.]

What, the mention of dinner does evoke a reaction from you? What a greedy little thing. Don’t worry. I’ll cook one of your favourites, too. You worked hard on the puzzle, after all. 

[Ruki settles in for sleep.]

I’m looking forward to seeing your reaction tomorrow.

[cripplecharacters]

Do you guys answer questions in chronological order or is there some other way you determine which questions to prioritize answering?

Hello, we prioritize the questions we can actually answer. We get a lot of asks about very diverse topics, and we just don't have the knowledge necessary to answer some of them. Some asks are just complex and take a long time to answer, some require perspectives of more than one mod which can stretch that time even more, some are incredibly unspecific and we can't figure them out.

We have an extreme backlog of asks and I can tell you that most of them won't get answered, there's hundreds of asks in the inbox and hundreds of drafts in various stages of completion. If you want to make sure your question actually gets answered, reach out to a sensitivity reader who specializes in disability and pay them accordingly.

mod Sasza