Category: Local / Living

Home Health Care Workers – The Difference a Union Makes

Their work days are largely similar. Both mother and daughter rise early and make a lengthy commute — up to one hour by car for Danielle and up to two hours by bus for Brittany. They make their clients’ meals. They shop for groceries and clothes, pick up medicine, run to the post office. They care for pets. They dress and undress, change diapers and give baths. They assist with medication. They dust, vacuum and do the laundry. They talk and listen to the stories of their clients’ lives, often for hours.

But the similarities end there. Brittany makes nearly $20 an hour, usually working five days a week. But without child care for her 8-year-old son during the pandemic, she’s been working no more than four. She has paid time off, medical and dental insurance, a retirement plan and many other benefits. Danielle works seven days a week making half Brittany’s wage. She has no benefits through her job, qualifies for Medicaid and is barely able to survive.

These differences come down to where Brittany and Danielle live. Brittany lives in Washington State and belongs to a union of long-term-care workers, S.E.I.U. Local 775, that has worked with the state for better pay and working conditions. Danielle lives in Arkansas, where she has none of that.

Mother and Daughter Do the Same Job. Why Does One Make $9 More an Hour?
By Brigid Schulte and Cassandra Robertson
Ms. Schulte is the director of the Better Life Lab at New America, a progressive think tank, and the author of “Overwhelmed.” Dr. Robertson is a senior policy and research manager at New America.
NYTIMES

Homeless in LA

Homeless service providers and advocates have mixed feelings about a new order from a federal judge that Los Angeles must provide shelter to all unhoused people living on Skid Row by the fall.

In a rare move, Judge David Carter said LA’s decades of bad policy decisions have contributed to a disaster that can only be solved by forcing the city’s hand. But other legal experts see the order as getting the diagnosis right, but the remedy wrong.

Here & Now‘s Tonya Mosley talks about the nuances with Andy Bales, CEO of Union Rescue Mission, and Eric Tars, legal director for the National Homelessness Law Center.

How to Get the Covid Vaccine in Denver

1. Go to https://www.vaccines.gov/search/

2. Enter your zip code

3. Select a pharmacy

4. Answer some questions

5. Pick time you want

6.  Show up and get the shot

Notes –
Appointments are opening up. A couple weeks ago there weren’t any unless you were the first to login.

You can pick any pharmacy you want. I picked one at the Walmart near me. It didn’t matter that I wasn’t an existing customer.

All in all it was an easy process.

Life Pro Tips – r/LifeProTips

https://www.reddit.com/r/LifeProTips/top/

Texans, you are about to experience the worst potholes many of you have ever seen. Make sure your tire pressure is correct for your vehicles, drive slowly, give plenty of distance between your vehicle and the one in front of you, and don’t trust puddles. Love from Michigan.

When you sign up for anything online, put the website’s name as your middle name. That way when you receive spam/advert emails, you will know who sold your info.

Always tell a child who is wearing a helmet how cool you think their helmet is. It will encourage them to always wear it in the future.

Your company didn’t know you existed before you applied and won’t notice you when you’re gone. Take care of yourself.

Just because you did something wrong in the past, doesn’t mean you can’t advocate against it now. It doesn’t make you a hypocrite. You grew. Don’t let people use your past to invalidate your current mindset. Growth is a concept. Embrace it.

Anytime you think about contacting an ex or old crush, rub one out first

Do not try to be the man your father would want you to be. Be the man you would like your son to be be. It more clearly defines your own convictions, desires, goals, and motivates you to be your best.

In college it is much better to be friends with the people who have the party house than it is to live at the party house.

When a friend is upset, ask them one simple question before saying anything else: ‘Do you want to talk about it or do you want to be distracted from it?’

After a bad break up, do 10 things that your ex would never do with you. You’ll feel better and realize how much of yourself was being held back.

Many a True Word is Spoken in Jest – Example of


The Seven Five (2014) Police Corruption in New York’s 75th Precinct from Documentaries

idgafmods
I let a friend stay at my place for a while, and he was always the funniest person. He’d joke about stabbing me sometimes (sounds weird, but it was always in jest).

A couple years ago he got locked up for murder on a DNA match, for a crime he committed just before living at my place, where he stabbed a guy to death. He basically used my place to lie low, and joked about it openly to our clueless asses.

PhantomOSX
Wow… were there any close calls or anything worth mentioning that stood out after you found out he was a murderer?

idgafmods
Not with me but my best friend definitely almost got stabbed, in hindsight. They got into a really heated debate about something, and my friend is a super hot-headed Italian. They basically came close to fighting and the stabby dude kept telling him “I’ll shank you” when they were face to face.

Nobody at the time thought it was anything but a bullshit threat that didn’t mean anything. Turns out he meant it all along!

Go Fund Me as Health Care Finance

 

‘Why Is It So Expensive?’
We Asked People From Around the
World What They Think of U.S. Health Care.
Video by Chai Dingari, Adam Westbrook and Brendan Miller

From the comments:

Nan
One day I had a serious hemorrhage and was taken to a nearby public trauma hospital via an ambulance. As the doctor was frantically trying to stop the bleeding in the emergency room, I kept rambling incoherently (under powerful anesthetic) to confirm that the hospital was “in network” – the healthcare workers reassured me “you are fine.”

Zezee
When my friend fell and couldn’t get up she insisted that no one call an ambulance. She called her brother and waited – in excruciating pain – but she was more afraid of the cost of the ambulance.

Jim
I worked for a major medical company (Think of big health insurer they are all the same) when Obama care came around. Did we worry? Nope, because their profit was built in. healthcare companies just wanted to “reject” preexisting conditions . We knew, all the health plans would go up…listening to our “elected officials”, us lemmings in the office KNEW IT WAS A LIE… everyone knew the cost of insurance would GO UP.

We had unpaid claims that sat in our database FOR YEARS, never paying them because in a decade…that 50k is cheaper to process and it would just stay in a “round robin” appeals process that goes on forever. (literally we had claims that SAT unpaid for a decade or more because paying a 50k or 1 million dollar claims/debt from 10 years ago is cheaper, we talked about it openly)… All our executives made huge paychecks, huge paydays….. Its ridiculous. Meanwhile the rules are made by companies to pay as little as possible…I loved working for an insurance company, I had the Cadillac of Cadillac of insurance…. Literally it was the only redeeming quality .