Current Events: Minimum Wage

Today, we learned that Bush suspended the Pay Act that ensures minimum wage for poor Americans. He supposedly did this for companies who are cleaning up Hurricane Katrina damage.

An article from the Washington Post is pasted at the end of this piece (with link).

Other resources include:
Wikipedia: Minimum Wage
Wikipedia: Great Depression
Wikipedia: The New Deal

(Please note that Wikipedia is great, open-source, and an aggregate document that can be modifed by anyone. Academics and historians often make entries here with respect to the sorts of topics in this post but Wiki-entries can be freeped by right-wingers who try to impose their propaganda. Often times the propaganda is removed and the integrity of the entry is restored. As with ANY source, including primary, be a critical reader, ALWAYS.)

I posed a series of questions to Q re: this current event news: What is minimum wage? Why is it important? Who works for minimum wage? Who will work for LESS THAN minimum wage to clean up Hurricane Katrina damage? What questions would you ask Pres. Bush about this?

Her responses are:

It is something you get paid the lowest. (meaning, I think, that this is the least a company can pay a worker)

It is important because people would starve and die.

The poor work for minimum wage, not the rich.

The people who lost their houses and money would work for less than minimum wage to clean up Hurricane Katrina damage.

Her question to Bush: "Why did you get rid of minimum wage?!" (pretty much all there is to say, he needs to make the case to her it seems)


Bush Suspends Pay Act In Areas Hit by Storm

By Thomas B. Edsall
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, September 9, 2005; Page D03

President Bush yesterday suspended application of the federal law governing workers' pay on federal contracts in the Hurricane Katrina-damaged areas of Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, and Mississippi. The action infuriated labor leaders and their Democratic supporters in Congress, who said it will lower wages and make it harder for union contractors to win bids.

The Davis-Bacon Act, passed in 1931 during the Great Depression, sets a minimum pay scale for workers on federal contracts by requiring contractors to pay the prevailing or average pay in the region. Suspension of the act will allow contractors to pay lower wages. Many Republicans have opposed Davis-Bacon, charging that it amounts to a taxpayer subsidy to unions.

In a letter to Congress, Bush said he has the power to suspend the law because of the national emergency caused by the hurricane: "I have found that the conditions caused by Hurricane Katrina constitute a 'national emergency.' "

Bush wrote that his decision is justified because Davis-Bacon increases construction costs, and suspension "will result in greater assistance to these devastated communities and will permit the employment of thousands of additional individuals."

AFL-CIO President John J. Sweeney denounced the Bush announcement as "outrageous."

"Employers are all too eager to exploit workers," he said. "This is no time to make that easier. What a double tragedy it would be to allow the destruction of Hurricane Katrina to depress living standards even further."

Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.), the ranking Democrat on the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, accused Bush of "using the devastation of Hurricane Katrina to cut the wages of people desperately trying to rebuild their lives and their communities."

Miller said: "In New Orleans, where a quarter of the city was poor, the prevailing wage for construction labor is about $9 per hour, according to the Department of Labor. In effect, President Bush is saying that people should be paid less than $9 an hour to rebuild their communities."
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Eldest-09-9

They ate a very large boar. They are at Tarnag, the dwarf city. They are having a big feast there. They are eating: stews, soups and a big loaf of bread and a huge boar (a beorn to be exact). Eragon ate alot!

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A Wrinkle in Time - Book Journal

Meg went into the organized planet of Camaroz. There they waited and got reported. They met this man and he had red eyes. They talked and he sent them to be locked up. Meg saw her dad put on Mrs. Whos glasses to get in. They tessered back home.

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tads-lifecycle-2

We are putting together a from life cycle mobile with paper mache sculptures for each stage. This is a pic of an early stage of the paper mache figures.

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tads-lifecycle-1

We are putting together a from life cycle mobile with paper mache sculptures for each stage. This is a pic of an early stage of the paper mache figures.

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Eldest-0-7

Eldest Book Journal:

Eragon went with Arya to Ellesmere. They went through a big forest together. He was astounded by the forest. The elves were astounded by Saphira. Arya let them in. They went up the moss stairs.

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Culinary Project - Chocolate Trifle

Culinary project: Chocolate Trifle

Today's cooking project was to bake and assemble a trifle.

Ingredients: Cake Mix, eggs, oil, water
Equipment: pans, bowl, whisk, parchment paper

We assembled the things we needed.



We learned how to line the pans with parchment.



We baked the cakes and let them cool.



We cubed the cake and started to assemble the trifle.



We added several things to the cool-whip: orange extract and banana flavoring (natural). We also layered in raisins, cinnamon, and cocoa powder.



Here is the assembled trifle, cooling before supper.



Here is a close up on the trifle.


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Presidential Visit

Drawing of TV cameras filming President Bush who is visiting a much smaller and blue Hurricane Katrina victim who is standing by her destroyed house. A satellite truck for the cameramen is on the left side.

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This week's target subjects

Target subjects for week of 9/5/05

Geometry: Continue with intro to cartesian system, distance, pythagorean theorem
Chemistry: Intro to some basic terms, atomic structure, electron shells, basic quantal/wave theory
Language Arts: Start covering, sequentially, in Strunk and White "Elements of Style"
Music: No lesson this week. I need to find some engaging music theory resources
Math Review: Write out multiplication table (knows rote but also good to put to paper)
Buddhist Studies: Read assigned chapter, write review, begin daily 5 minute meditations
History: Begin reading in Zinn's "A People's History"
Current Events: Write/art journal on New Orleans events, Supreme court happenings and impact on our personal lives
Spelling: Continue with 6th grade spelling, obtain next set, test
Reading: Continue "A Wrinkle in Time"
Biology: Continue observations on tadpoles, pull together web resources on frog life cycle, produce report.
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Buddha

He lives in various parks. Sumedha is the future buddha. He completed the 30 perfections. He became Buddha after millions of lives.

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Book Journal: "A Wrinkle in Time"

150 words summary of what has happened in book so far.

Meg is a 17 year old girl that has a large family. She has a bad school grade. When Meg went down stairs she got interrupted by Mrs. Whatsit. Meg got freaked out by her and made a face. Mrs. Whatsit made Mrs. Murray pull of her boots because they were too tight. Mrs. Whatsit fell backward when she pulled off the boots. Mrs Whatsit dumped the stuff in the boots out into the attic sink. She put the boots back on and went out. Before she did she said there was such a thing as a tesseract.

A tesseract is a wrinkle in time.

Then she went out into the big storm and disappeared. Meg thought she was bad because she wad weird. Her brother thought she was nice because she knew him. Meg thought she was really mean and nasty, her brother thought that she was friendly
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Coordinate puzzle 2

Ok kids, try this next puzzle:

(0,2)
(8,10)
(8,8)
(10,8)
(9,7)
(7,7)
(3,3)
(4,2)
(5,3)
(6,2)
(5,1)
(6,0)
(7,1)
(8,0)
(7,-1)
(8,-2)
(12,2)
(12,4)
(13,5)
(13,3)
(15,3)
(7,-5)
(7,-6)
(10,-9)
(10,-10)
(9,-10)
(6,-7)
(5,-7)
(5,-12)
(4,-13)
(4,-7)
(3,-7)
(3,-12)
(2,-13)
(2,-7)
(1,-6)
(-3,-10)
(-3,-9)
(0,-9)
(-1,-5)
(-4,-8)
(-5,-8)
(-1,-4)
(-2,-3)
(-8,-3)
(-7,-2)
(-2,-2)
(-2,-1)
(-8,-1)
(-7, 0)
(-2,0)
(-2,1)
(-5,4)
(-5,5)
(-4,5)
(-1,2)
(0,2)
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