TeenageArchipelago posted:

lmao that his response to something that is backed up as a pretty universal feeling everywhere in the U.S. is "you know you're not being very academically rigorous right now."

Mr Hootington posted:

Just order a big tank of c02 weekly. It us cheap and simple. Look at my set up.

federalnewsnetwork.com - Thu, 28 Dec 2023 posted:

A special retention pay authority the Justice department used to retain certain Bureau of Prisons employees expires in a few days. This affects employees of the Federal Correctional Institution Thomson in Illinois. The result: A Christmastime pay cut of 25% for correctional officers and other employees. For more of what is going on, the Federal Drive with Tom Temin spoke to the president of the American Federation of Government Employees local 4070, Jon Zumkehr.

Tom Temin Tell us exactly what’s going on. A pay cut of 25%. This is taking you back to basically the pay you had before this yearlong special retention authority started.

Jon Zumkehr Yeah. So Thomson used to be a state facility and it was bought out by the Obama administration. And Senator [Dick] Durbin (D-Ill.) changed it into a federal prison. And the reason it got changed is the state of Illinois could not staff officers at the prison. The federal government thought that you could do a better job. And they failed. So we worked with Senator Durbin, representative also Senator Duckworth, and we got a retention bonus to retain the staff at Thompson. And we had that now for two years. It’s something that the director of Bureau prisons can extend, it doesn’t expire. It’s something that she has to remove and she chose to remove it. Now, we’ve lost 203 staff over the last two years. We changed our mission from a high security prison to a low security prison, which knocked our numbers down. But we are currently right now under the new mission, short 71 officers. We’re authorized to have 471. We currently have 400 with another 15 leaving. That puts us right now at 84%. We’ll be below 80 at the end of January. So that’s a big concern to us. We’re fighting to keep this pay because we want to keep the retention here at Thompson. We want to keep the officers here at Thomson and we want to keep this prison open.

Tom Temin And just a little bit of background, Thomson has been a pretty tough facility, hasn’t it?

Jon Zumkehr Yeah. So we used to be called a special management unit, which they took all the bad actors, which were very disruptive inmates and put them all at one location. And that was at Thomson, Illinois, in the special management unit. So that got shut down last year and we got converted into a low security prison. Now, keep in mind, we’re a maximum security locked down prison, and they’re trying to convert it into a low security prison. We don’t have programing space. That’s the one thing that we’re trying to fight with this director, is to make this a program friendly place. And she’s fighting us. She’s not giving us the tools that we need to be successful. And then she cut our retention bonus. So it just doesn’t make any sense why she did that. We’ve reached out to her office. She refuses to respond to us. We reached out to her director. He refuses to respond to us. And the national unions have also reached out and they have not got a response on this either. So it doesn’t make sense. We just want to know why if we keep losing staff over and over and over again, we’ve never had been fully staffed and we’re struggling to retain staff. Your solution to the problem is to cut the pay by 25% and add a thousand new inmates. It just doesn’t make any sense. And that’s where we’re trying to get the politicians behind us to say, Hey, Senator Durbin, you brought this prison to Illinois and you’re letting this director shut this place down. I mean, by shut it down, if you don’t have staff, you can’t keep this place open.

Tom Temin By the way, the person we’re speaking about is Colette Peters, who was appointed by President Biden to take over. I think she came in from Oregon and has been on the show actually some months back. Let me ask you this. During the period that this pay bonus was in place, did that affect the turnover? Did that keep people actually employed there?

Jon Zumkehr Yeah, it kept people here. It got people to transfer to Thomson because they wanted the higher pay. And some of the reasons we got the higher pay is we’re a remote location. We’re in the middle of nowhere. The housing cost is, it’s high in this area rather than the surrounding areas, and the child care. There isn’t child care around here. So those are like some of the factors that we face. And then this is a hard to fill location from the state of Illinois to the federal government. So those are the reasons why we need that. Those are all fall under OPM’s criteria for that. And now we’re at 84% and we’re going to drop below 80. And she wants to cut this. And I’ll tell you this, we had represents warrants in Illinois District 17 come to Thomson a couple of weeks ago. The warden at Thomson told him, we need to keep this pay in place, otherwise we will lose a lot of staff. The HR manager, same thing. We need to keep this retention pay in place or we will lose staff. The director is ignoring the boots on the ground and making a decision that she’s just I don’t know why. It doesn’t make any sense why she would do this. Like the data clearly shows we need it. If you look at the long term which when we fought for the retention, they said, hey, we like to look at a two year graph. Well, we’re looking at the data for two years and we lost 203 staff. The graph chart shows that we’re heading straight down. And the solution is to cut the pay.

Tom Temin We’re speaking with John Zumkehr. He’s president of AFGE Local 4070, which represents employees of the Thomson Illinois facility of the Bureau of Prisons. And you mentioned it’s pretty remote. Are conditions at least settled down with respect to the bad guys that have been removed from there permanently. Is it at least a safer situation than it was?

Jon Zumkehr It’s a new prison, where the newest federal prison in the bureau right now. So we’re dealing with a lot of issues. The number one issue is we don’t have programing space. With this new warden, we have a new leadership in, they replaced the whole leadership team brought new leadership in. The new leadership is actually working well with us, is working with the staff and trying to get programs here. That’s the biggest fight, is we want to get programs. And when I say programs, is we want to keep the inmates busy. We want to keep them in programs like we created a welding program to give them skills. So hopefully they don’t come back when they get out. That’s the goal with the program means that we’re trying to fight, but we’re a maximum security prison and they’re trying to make it into a programing spot. So we need to kind of redo a lot of things. But a great example, they order trailers to come into the prison, but they didn’t measure the trailers that the central office did, didn’t measure it. It’s programing trailers like a classroom, and now they can’t fit in the prison. They’d have to get a helicopter to bring the trailers in. So they canceled it. So we don’t have building space for these new inmates coming in. And that’s, again, a problem that we’re raising because, again, it’s an issue. Our job is not to warehouse these inmates. Our job is to program them. And that’s what we’re doing right now under Director Peters is just warehousing inmate here at Thomson.

Tom Temin Where’s Johnny Cash when you really need them, I guess, these days. And tell me, the conditions there then are boring. And I guess that can contribute to unrest or to trouble if inmates don’t have something to do, then sounds like.

Jon Zumkehr Yeah, a great example is we had four staff go to the hospital because of drug exposure in the last 40 days. Four staff were sent to the outside hospital for drug exposure at Thomson. And again, I attribute that to is programing we want to keep. You’re going to have people that will do bad things. You’re not going to stop that. But if we can keep people busy, incentivize them not to do dumb things, I think that will help out. But we need the support from the director on this.

Tom Temin And getting back to the pay issue, just give us an average of what the pay was with the bonus and what it will drop to on the average employee, there.

Jon Zumkehr Are the average employed employee will take about a $16,000 pay cut. And the reason that is important is the factories pay more in the local area than it does to work in a federal prison. The state of Illinois pays more than it does to work in a federal prison. So ask yourself, why would you want to come work at Thomson when you can make more in a factory with one year in than you do right now at Thomson with the retention in place? And keep in mind these numbers that I’m giving you, the 71 short, these are all with the retention in place. Dec. 31 is when she’s ordering it to be removed. And I want to be very clear, it does not expire. She has lied to Congress and said our retention bonus expires. It does not expire. The policy is very clear. She has to request to remove it. So it’s something that she’s requesting through [Department of Justice (DOJ)] to OPM to remove. But that’s important to know that these numbers that we’re talking about are pre removing the retention. And once they remove it, we will have an exodus.

Tom Temin Sure. And so at this point, then it’s kind of a fait accompli unless something happens at the last minute.

Jon Zumkehr Yes. And that’s why we reached out. We’ve had the support from the National Fraternal Order of Police. They put out support on that. We’re working with the AFL-CIO. We’re calling on Senator Durbin to fix this problem. He brought this to Thompson. This is supposed to be the most union friendly administration. We haven’t seen it. We’re getting attacked on a daily basis. We’ve reached out to the White House. We’ve reached out to the labor secretary and ask them, you’re allowing this appointed director to do this, fix it.

The Oldest Man posted:

It's very, very funny that a respected academic in his own field and who happens to be his loving wife making an observation with her own eyes is still subjected to the "heh what's the publication impact score of all the studies you read to come to the conclusion that people think the economy is bad? " treatment

palindrome posted:

I'm a little bit morbidly curious about the "tax reasons" he has for not marrying his partner of 30+ years. I understand there can be edge cases where there are narrow bands of income where it's better to file as two individuals rather than jointly, but it's rare and I doubt it would be true over your entire adult life. On the other hand tax talk is very boring and I'm 100% sure this guy thinks he knows more about the US tax system than he actually does, by nature of being an economist.

mawarannahr posted:

lol

fits my needs posted:

https://x.com/WSJ/status/1740338075299934276?s=20

fits my needs posted:

https://x.com/hannahdreier/status/1740382705790181853?s=20

https://archive.ph/qtzgY

An $80 Billion Industry Looks for Child Workers. It Keeps Missing Them.
Private audits have failed to detect migrant children working for U.S. suppliers of Oreos, Gerber baby snacks, McDonald’s milk and an array of other products.

gradenko_2000 posted:

Pittsburgh Fentanyl Cloud posted:

The actual prices will never be what they were again

Ebola Roulette posted:

So when the hell is my paycheck going to go up to account for that

palindrome posted:

also is he australian or something? who knows, maybe he has an actual reason but I'm imaging it's mostly a throwaway line to sound smug. "heh, I would get married except the tax code doesn't incentivize it. I am a rational actor. "

gradenko_2000 posted:

palindrome posted:

I'm a little bit morbidly curious about the "tax reasons" he has for not marrying his partner of 30+ years. I understand there can be edge cases where there are narrow bands of income where it's better to file as two individuals rather than jointly, but it's rare and I doubt it would be true over your entire adult life. On the other hand tax talk is very boring and I'm 100% sure this guy thinks he knows more about the US tax system than he actually does, by nature of being an economist.

super sweet best pal posted:

I had another monstrous idea. What if some company like Uber privatized the roads? Let's say you wanted to drive down to the store, you'd have to pay $50 to use the road on top of all the other costs associated with driving a car.

super sweet best pal posted:

I had another monstrous idea. What if some company like Uber privatized the roads? Let's say you wanted to drive down to the store, you'd have to pay $50 to use the road on top of all the other costs associated with driving a car.

quote:

On September 27, 2015, a set of high-occupancy toll lanes (HOT lanes) opened on I-405 between Bellevue and Lynnwood, replacing the existing HOV lanes from NE 6th Street to I-5/SR 525.[119][120] Construction on the southern half of the HOT lanes system, extending to the SR 167 interchange in Renton, began in 2020 and is scheduled to be completed in 2024 at a cost of $1.2 billion.[121][122]

wsdot.wa.gov posted:

…
With the I-405 express toll lanes, you have the choice to pay a toll for a faster trip when you need it. Toll rates adjust to keep traffic moving.

## Toll rates

Toll rates change based on real-time traffic conditions, and range from 75 cents to $10 for drivers with a Good To Go! pass. Signs tell you the current toll rate. You lock in your rate when you enter, regardless if the rate changes while you are in the lane. You can view current toll rates by downloading the WSDOT mobile app.

Drivers without a Good To Go! pass or account can still use the lanes for the rate they see plus a $2 Pay By Mail charge.
…

H.P. Hovercraft posted:

how would they do that

does a state (and the feds) just sell all the public right of way to them or what

shrike82 posted:

https://twitter.com/unusual_whales/status/1740387629542133826

super sweet best pal posted:

I had another monstrous idea. What if some company like Uber privatized the roads? Let's say you wanted to drive down to the store, you'd have to pay $50 to use the road on top of all the other costs associated with driving a car.

SirPablo posted:

Would be more telling to see just SFH/owner occupied, this would no doubt include "investment" properties that have been paid off.

quote:

Interest rates on 30-year mortgages dropped into the single digits in the early 1990s and proceeded to drift lower into the current decade, allowing millions of American homeowners to refinance their loans multiple times. Many borrowers were able to switch into shorter-term mortgages without jacking up their monthly payments, allowing them to pay off their loans at an accelerated rate.
...
Almost two-thirds of all mortgage-free homes in the US are paid off over a period of more than 21 years.
...

super sweet best pal posted:

I had another monstrous idea. What if some company like Uber privatized the roads? Let's say you wanted to drive down to the store, you'd have to pay $50 to use the road on top of all the other costs associated with driving a car.

super sweet best pal posted:

I had another monstrous idea. What if some company like Uber privatized the roads? Let's say you wanted to drive down to the store, you'd have to pay $50 to use the road on top of all the other costs associated with driving a car.

i am harry posted:

sitting in an outlet mall in Santa Fe…

there are about twenty five to thirty storefronts and only 8 are in use - merrell, levis, ralph, sunglassehut, eddiebauer, hanes, a reptile place that costs $5 per person to go in, and an overpriced sweatshop selling 12 truffles for $40

it’s like walking around inside the skeleton of some long dead giant beast

gradenko_2000 posted:

Making car travel so expensive that people can't do it anymore would be good #fuckCars

Regarde Aduck posted:

wouldn't that also collapse society as we know it?

Orvin posted:

The city of Chicago owned the Skyway Toll bridge. They sold it (technically a 99 year lease) to a private company in 2004. I saw on the news last night that the toll at the time of the sale was low $2 for a car. It is now going to be something like $7.20 at the start of 2024.

This was all at the tail end of Mayor Daley’s term when he was selling off anything of value in the city to help balance the budget before he ran for the hills. I figure this is one possible future for any city that has a small glimmer of value/worth. Strip the copper from the walls and sell it to private equity.

He did the same thing with street parking. Rumor has it the company that bought the rights to administer the parking fees had paid off all the debt and was net positive after only 5-10 years. Between raising rates and the inefficiencies (possibly corruption) of city management, it is just believable to be true.

Regarde Aduck posted:

wouldn't that also collapse society as we know it?

shrike82 posted:

we've had decades of low mortgage rates so i guess it shouldn't be surprising.

the bloomberg article has more info

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-11-17/amid-high-mortgage-rates-higher-share-of-americans-outright-own-homes

super sweet best pal posted:

I had another monstrous idea. What if some company like Uber privatized the roads? Let's say you wanted to drive down to the store, you'd have to pay $50 to use the road on top of all the other costs associated with driving a car.

palindrome posted:

I'm a little bit morbidly curious about the "tax reasons" he has for not marrying his partner of 30+ years. I understand there can be edge cases where there are narrow bands of income where it's better to file as two individuals rather than jointly, but it's rare and I doubt it would be true over your entire adult life. On the other hand tax talk is very boring and I'm 100% sure this guy thinks he knows more about the US tax system than he actually does, by nature of being an economist.

Rauros posted:

pretty on the nose that someone stanning for the perfection of capitalism also says it prevents him from marrying