I'll pick up the check:
"Servers at Harvard Club file suit over tips; Say they get no share of 17% surcharge" November 11, 2011|By Katie Johnston, Globe Staff
The exclusive Harvard Club of Boston, which for more than a century has hosted former presidents and other luminaries, is being sued by its wait staff, who say they have been cheated out of potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars in tips.
According to a lawsuit filed yesterday in Suffolk Superior Court, members of the private alumni club pay a 17 percent surcharge on food and beverage bills (20 percent for banquets), which the club states is collected “in lieu of a gratuity.’’ But workers say they do not get a cent of that money.
“The rich, the famous, and the powerful go there to be wined and dined and waited on by a very dedicated workforce who happen to largely be immigrants,’’ said Brian Lang, president of Unite Here Local 26, the hospitality workers’ union that represents the Harvard Club servers. “The club members are being duped, and I would assume that they would be as outraged as any of the rest of us are about this practice.’’
Starting to lose my appetite.
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UPDATE: Harvard Club settles $4m tips dispute with waitstaff
What would you like to drink?
"Soda-drinking teens found more violent" October 26, 2011|Washington Post
WASHINGTON - Teenagers who drink soda are more likely to carry a weapon and act violently, according to new research....
Those who drank five or more cans of nondiet soft drinks every week were significantly more likely to have also used alcohol and smoked cigarettes at least once in the previous month, the study found.
Moreover, even after taking other factors into consideration such as age, gender, and alcohol consumption, the researchers found that heavy use of carbonated nondiet soft drinks was significantly associated with carrying a gun or knife and violence toward peers, family, and partners....
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I'll have a coffee, thanks:
"More good news on the coffee front: New research finds that people who drink coffee are at reduced risk of developing basal cell carcinoma, the most common form of skin cancer....
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And your order?
"Scrutiny vowed on fish labeling; State lawmakers, AG consider action Brown, Kerry talk with US regulators" October 27, 2011|By Jenn Abelson, Globe Staff
State officials say they will improve oversight of seafood sales in Massachusetts after the results of a Globe investigation published this week revealed widespread mislabeling at area restaurants, and few controls to protect diners from potential health risks and overpaying for fish.
The Joint Committee on Consumer Protection and Professional Licensure is expected to schedule an oversight hearing on seafood substitution in the coming weeks. The Patrick administration and members of the state’s congressional delegation - including both senators - also are reviewing the matter. And a prominent local restaurateur said he will change his menu in response to the Globe’s findings....
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Related: Boston Sunday Globe Stinks
Also see: Scallopers wary of new gear required to protect turtles
I'll just have a salad.
Who is going to clean up?
"Harvard University custodians voted unanimously yesterday to authorize a strike if their union’s bargaining committee fails to negotiate a new contract with the college by the end of Tuesday, according to union officials....
Why are wealthy folks so stingy?
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Time for an after dinner smoke:
"Student linked to slaying is jailed; She let gunman use Harvard dorm" by Martin Finucane and John R. Ellement Globe Staff / October 1, 2011
In a case in which drug violence erupted at one of the world’s most renowned universities, a former Harvard student from New York was sentenced yesterday to three years in prison for her role as an accessory in the 2009 murder of a Cambridge man inside a Harvard University dormitory.
Brittany Smith, 24, was a senior at Harvard, just days away from her graduation, when her then-boyfriend, Jabrai Jordan Copney, and two of his friends, all of New York, lured Justin Cosby into the Kirkland House residential building, ostensibly to complete a marijuana sale, prosecutors said.
Instead of purchasing marijuana, however, Copney and his friends, who had used Smith’s ID card to gain entry to the building, attempted to rob Cosby. When he tried to escape, Cosby was shot and fatally wounded, authorities said.
Cosby was 21 years old when he died at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center on May 19, 2009.
None of the men involved in the attack were Harvard students. But, according to court records, Smith had let Copney essentially live with her at Harvard in the months before the killing.
She let the three men gather in her dorm room and load the firearm in front of her before the attempted robbery took place, the records stated.
And after the fatal shooting, Smith took and hid the murder weapon in a neighbor’s bedroom, helped the men escape to New York City, and returned to Harvard the next day when she lied to police investigating the killing, according to prosecutors.
In a telephone interview yesterday, Denise Cosby, the shooting victim’s mother, said that without Smith’s providing them access to Harvard, the New York men would never have been able to lure her son into danger.
“If it hadn’t been for her, there would have been no crime,’’ Denise Cosby said....
Except for the drug-dealing.
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Also see: Prohibiting Pot Fails at Harvard
You would think smart people would know prohibition doesn't work.
Maybe I'll just cook at home:
"Walmart’s strategy; Pitching low prices, chain aims to open Somerville grocery" October 11, 2011|By Megan Woolhouse, Globe Staff
DALLAS - Walmart Neighborhood Market now wants to make its debut in the Northeast with a store in Somerville, promising these kind of rock-bottom prices to a region with some the nation’s highest grocery costs. Grocery prices in the Northeast run more than 3 percent above the national average, and rose nearly 6 percent over the past year, according to the US Labor Department.
Related: Shopping For Supper in Somerville
Also see: Wal-Mart Trying to Buy Off Boston
Globe is for 'em.
The push in the Northeast - including the recently rebuffed effort to open a Neighborhood Market in Boston’s Roxbury neighborhood - is part of the Arkansas retailer’s plan to open more than 150 grocery stores across the country by late 2013. With a sagging economy weighing on sales, Walmart is relying on its tried and true strategy of undercutting competitors’ prices....
Time to eat!
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Why does my Globe always taste like s***?
