I voted, or did I?
Before the registration deadline, I used the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder's website to change my party affiliation. I wanted to vote for Bernie Sanders in the CA primary. I thought I'd done so at the poll on Election Day. Now I've learned that more than two weeks after the election, my vote almost certainly remains uncounted.
According to the Los Angeles Times, more than 7.8 million ballots have been counted. And more than 784,000 provisional ballots remain uncounted, most of them in Los Angeles County. So why is my vote among those, since I re-registered before the deadline.
Imagine my surprise when I arrived at the polling place and found that I was not yet on their documents and ledgers as a registered Democrat. So they gave me a provisional ballot. I assumed it would be counted with all of the others.
Will counting all of the uncounted ballots change the outcome in the contest between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders? Probably not. But it would bring more transparency to the process.
* * *
Retired Army Reserve Lt. Colonel Charles Kettles will receive the Medal of Honor in a White House ceremony next month. The award is in recognition for his valor and heroism in a battle during the Vietnam War in 1967. He is credited with saving the lives of 40 soldiers and four members of his own crew. His Army biography contains the details of his actions.
Lest you think his actions nearly five decades ago had been overlooked until now, I wanted to point out that he was awarded the nation's second highest medal for valor, the Distinguished Service Cross, not long after the battle he was involved with. This is an upgrade, and based on what I've read, a long overdo award.
The requirements to be awarded the Medal of Honor are very stringent and rightly so. But sometimes in the effort to ensure awards are appropriate, the crossing of t's and the dotting of i's can delay or deny a deserved award.
Congratulations Colonel Kettles.
* * *
Lynne Coates, aged 50, was an attorney for Farmer's Insurance. Jensen Walcott is a 17 year old who was hired by a restaurant called Pizza Studio in Kansas City. She was fired before she worked her first shift.
What do these two women have in common? They are proof that is still a serious gap in wages paid to men and women, in spite of laws that prevent such things. Ms Coates filed a lawsuit against Farmer's after they demoted her for complaining her male litigation partner earned nearly twice as much as she did, in spite of the fact that she had more experience than that partner. Ms Walcott was fired after she asked why her equally inexperienced male friend was hired at $8.25 per hour, 25 cents more per hour than she was offered. Pizza Studio claims both Jensen and her friend were fired for discussing wage, in violation of company policy. This policy was never explained to either of them.
There is no reason for this to go on in the year 2016. Equal pay for equal work is the law of the land A law that far too many employers attempt to obfuscate or outright ignore.
More laws won't fix this. Better enforcement of the existing laws and stiffening the penalties for violators might.
According to the Los Angeles Times, more than 7.8 million ballots have been counted. And more than 784,000 provisional ballots remain uncounted, most of them in Los Angeles County. So why is my vote among those, since I re-registered before the deadline.
Imagine my surprise when I arrived at the polling place and found that I was not yet on their documents and ledgers as a registered Democrat. So they gave me a provisional ballot. I assumed it would be counted with all of the others.
Will counting all of the uncounted ballots change the outcome in the contest between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders? Probably not. But it would bring more transparency to the process.
* * *
Retired Army Reserve Lt. Colonel Charles Kettles will receive the Medal of Honor in a White House ceremony next month. The award is in recognition for his valor and heroism in a battle during the Vietnam War in 1967. He is credited with saving the lives of 40 soldiers and four members of his own crew. His Army biography contains the details of his actions.
Lest you think his actions nearly five decades ago had been overlooked until now, I wanted to point out that he was awarded the nation's second highest medal for valor, the Distinguished Service Cross, not long after the battle he was involved with. This is an upgrade, and based on what I've read, a long overdo award.
The requirements to be awarded the Medal of Honor are very stringent and rightly so. But sometimes in the effort to ensure awards are appropriate, the crossing of t's and the dotting of i's can delay or deny a deserved award.
Congratulations Colonel Kettles.
* * *
Lynne Coates, aged 50, was an attorney for Farmer's Insurance. Jensen Walcott is a 17 year old who was hired by a restaurant called Pizza Studio in Kansas City. She was fired before she worked her first shift.
What do these two women have in common? They are proof that is still a serious gap in wages paid to men and women, in spite of laws that prevent such things. Ms Coates filed a lawsuit against Farmer's after they demoted her for complaining her male litigation partner earned nearly twice as much as she did, in spite of the fact that she had more experience than that partner. Ms Walcott was fired after she asked why her equally inexperienced male friend was hired at $8.25 per hour, 25 cents more per hour than she was offered. Pizza Studio claims both Jensen and her friend were fired for discussing wage, in violation of company policy. This policy was never explained to either of them.
There is no reason for this to go on in the year 2016. Equal pay for equal work is the law of the land A law that far too many employers attempt to obfuscate or outright ignore.
More laws won't fix this. Better enforcement of the existing laws and stiffening the penalties for violators might.
posted by me at 11:22 AM
<< Home