A jury concludes that Autozone illegally fired a woman for being pregnant. The fine? $185 million.
•Firestone was willing to deal with genocidal African dictators to keep the rubber coming in.
•Mattel publishes a book showing Barbie as a computer engineer who’s unable to write code (she gets boys to do it) and clueless about security (she downloads a virus that destroys her friend’s homework). The author apologizes.
•A plutocrat who made a fortune as one of Amazon’s start-up investors says businesses have cut back overtime not to survive but because they’re better off if the money goes to investors (he details how). He argues overtime is as important to the middle class as minimum wage is to the poor: something that makes a huge difference to our bottom line. He details why fewer people qualify for overtime and what can be done to fix it—though it probably won’t be. As for claims that paying workers more will ruin businesses and destroy the economy, he says bullshit
•Wells Fargo allegedly refuses to honor a woman’s 30-year-old CD on the grounds it might have been cashed already.
•Uber investor Ashton Kutcher thinks it’s perfectly reasonable to dig for dirt on journalists who criticize the company.
•California is using parole (for nonviolent offenders who’ve served half their sentences) to reduce its prison overcrowding problem. The attorney general’s office objected that letting prisoners go meant the state could no longer use them as cheap, sub-minimum wage labor.
•Digby looks back at one Wall Streeter’s rant from four years ago, on how if society was going to keep criticizing Wall Streeters for the poor economy, they’d just take our jobs—because they’re tougher, more ruthless, and can easily teach third-grade or mow lawns and do it cheaper and better than regular Joes. Like Digby, I find this more pathetic than anything—yes, I’m sure guys who are used to make hundreds of thousands will do a teacher’s work (I have friends who teach, I know how much they do) for a teacher’s salary.
