Minimum Wage In Ohio Goes Up 25-cent

Here is another great way to bring in the new year for alot of Ohio residences. The Ohio minimum wage was last changed in 2008, when it was raised to $7.00. Ohio’s minimum wage is scheduled to increase on Jan. 1, 2019, to $8.55 per hour for non-tipped employees and $4.30 per hour for tipped employees.

This wage only applies to companies with annual gross receipts over $314,000. According to data from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a single adult would need to make $10.15 an hour, or $21,112 a year, in Mahoning or Trumbull county to pay for bare necessities, assuming the person lives in a studio apartment, has a low-cost food plan and drives a used car or uses cheap public transportation. A family of two adults and two children with one of the parents working would need that person to make $22.57, or $46,945 a year.

“The living wage is the minimum income standard that, if met, draws a very fine line between the financial independence of the working poor and the need to seek out public assistance or suffer consistent and severe housing and food insecurity.”

“Most studies show that incremental increases in minimum wage do not have adverse impacts in terms of unemployment rates and do not cause inflation, which are the biggest concerns associated with increasing minimum wage.”

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When the minimum wage increases throughout a geographic region rather than one city, it’s less likely to impact local businesses in a negative way, Sumell explained. For example, if only Youngstown increased minimum wage, businesses there might be inclined to move to a neighboring municipality to decrease costs.

Trump Hits Twitter Before Leaving 2018

President Trump sticks to his border wall message as the partial government shutdown enters the new year; Kevin Corke reports from the White House in the visual video below.

Follow President Trump on Twitter

Kim's New Year Message To Trump

Kim's New Year Message To Trump

Kim said he was willing to meet the U.S. president at any time, mixing in conciliatory messages with his warnings of conflict to Washington and Seoul in his annual speech where he laid out policy priorities for his isolated and impoverished country.

Kim Jong Un said North Korea would take a new path if the U.S. insisted on keeping sanctions, delivering a pointed message to President Donald Trump in his New Year’s address.

In so many way's I feel Kim in his address. He is doing what he has to do for the survival of his country. Kim highlighted recent exchanges with socialist countries, speaking on his trips to China and the Cuban president’s visit to North Korea. China has been the key benefactor for North Korea’s economy.

Kim said he was willing to resume without conditions joint projects with South Korea that were frozen due to political tensions and North Korea’s weapon tests. So he lets things be known he is willing to work out differences.

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Kim called for increasing electricity power generation in the country that battles chronic power shortages. Kim also urged the North Korean people to strengthen their “self-reliance.”

Kim read his address in a suit and tie, in a departure from recent appearances in which he wore a black tunic. Instead of standing on a podium, Kim delivered a speech sitting on a couch in a Western-style room, illustrating an image of an approachable leader in a fireside chat.

Talks between the U.S. and North Korea have made little progress since Trump and Kim held an unprecedented summit in June and signed to “work toward complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula,” without defining the term or setting a deadline. The two sides have clashed over the pace and sequence of talks, with North Korea demanding relief from international sanctions and the U.S. seeking more steps toward disarmament.

Mold Found In Staten Island Hospital

More than 50 nurses and other staffers sickened at Staten Island University Hospital after mold found in nursery.

Dozens of people working in the hospital’s maternity unit have reported getting ill with everything from headaches to dizziness to swollen throats in recent months, after air monitoring devices found the presence of mold and trace amounts of anesthetic gases, nurses and administrators say.

53 employees have reported getting sick in the unit, according to both nurses and hospital execs. A nursery has been relocated, but nurses are asking for their entire unit to be moved, something the hospital says is not necessary because tests show the air is safe.

After the odor was reported, babies were moved to a backup nursery in the unit and air monitoring began. Mold was detected at moderately elevated levels, similar to outdoor levels, hospital execs say. Workers found water-borne mold behind a sink wall and decontaminated the area.

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The hospital said in a statement that air monitoring this month detected “the presence of anesthetic gases sevoflurane and nitrous oxide, which are routinely used during surgical procedures.”


Those concentrations were “significantly below” the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health’s recommended exposure limit and pose “no risk to patients, staff or visitors,” the statement said.

A certified air gas specialist was brought in to inspect the gas system’s infrastructure and found zero leaks, hospital administrators say. The air is now being retested to see if the trace amounts still remain.

“Hospital administration has been directly communicating with staff multiple times a week, met with union representatives six times and notified the appropriate regulatory agencies to proactively address this matter,” the statement added.

Amercian Citizen Captured In Moscow

Russia's FSB state security service said on Monday it had detained an American citizen suspected of spying in Moscow and had opened a criminal case against him.

A U.S. State Department spokesperson said Russia had notified it that a U.S. citizen had been detained and it expected Moscow to provide consular access to see him.

"We have requested this access and expect Russian authorities to provide it," the spokesperson said, without providing details of the identity of the American or the reasons behind his detention.

The English-language service of TASS news agency named him as Paul Whelan but Reuters was unable to independently confirm the exact spelling of his name. The State Department did not identify him.

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Russia's relations with the United States plummeted when Moscow annexed the Crimean peninsula from Ukraine in 2014, and Washington and Western allies have imposed a broad range of sanctions on Russian officials, companies and banks.


Earlier this month Russian national Maria Butina pleaded guilty in a U.S. court to a conspiracy charge in a deal with prosecutors, and admitted to working with a top Russian official to infiltrate American conservative activist groups and politicians as an agent for Moscow.

Man Finds $10,000 In Chanel Hand Bag

Now this man is a good hearted person. Richard Taverna came into the possession of just such a "donation" on Thursday morning at the Lincoln Center-66th Street 1 train stop when he found a Chanel purse sitting unattended on the platform. The commuter scooped up the stray bag, saw a note inside written in Russian and took it home with him. That is, until he realized it was stuffed with $10,000 in cash.

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Taverna went to police with the bag, and the money, in order to reunite it with its rightful owner. "It wasn't mine. If someone lost $10,000, they're probably going through a lot of distress," Taverna said. A woman who lives in Manhattan but was traveling to Russia left the cash on the platform by accident, and came to the 20th Precinct looking for her bag.

She is a lucky woman. It's a good thing Taverna turn the bag in because the next person would not have.

Inmate Sentences May Be Getting Reduced

This is good news for those of you who have family members locked up in prison. The Senate on Tuesday overwhelmingly passed a sweeping overhaul of the criminal justice system, after a remarkable political shift from Republicans who voted in large numbers to save money by reducing prison sentences, handing a rare bipartisan victory to President Trump.

The First Step Act passed on a vote of 87 to 12, with dozens of Republicans, including longtime holdout Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), joining all 49 members of the Democratic caucus to approve legislation that even some GOP supporters fear could leave them vulnerable to charges of being soft on crime.

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“This will keep our communities safer, and provide hope and a second chance, to those who earn it,” he wrote on Twitter. “In addition to everything else, billions of dollars will be saved. I look forward to signing this into law!”

The product of years of negotiations, the legislation represents a major pivot for the GOP, which decades ago embraced a law-and-order rallying cry and war on drugs campaign as crucial to winning votes. But as crime rates have dropped and states have pursued cost-effective ways to cut the prison population, Congress has favored changes to the system, with GOP lawmakers arguing for rehabilitating some offenders rather than longtime incarceration.

The bill would revise several sentencing laws, such as reducing the “three strikes” penalty for drug felonies from life behind bars to 25 years and retroactively limiting the disparity in sentencing guidelines between crack and powder cocaine offenses. The latter would affect about 2,000 current federal inmates.

It also overhauls the federal prison system to help inmates earn reduced sentences and lower recidivism rates. A different version passed the House this year, so the House would have to pass the latest draft before it can be sent to Trump for his signature. The House is expected to endorse that bill when it comes up for a likely vote later this week, and House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) has expressed support for the legislation.

The bill, which does not cover state jails and prisons, would through reductions in sentencing do the equivalent of shaving a collective 53,000 years off the sentences of federal inmates over the next 10 years , according to the Congressional Budget Office — though some advocacy groups dispute this figure. There were about 181,000 federal inmates as of Dec. 13, according to the Bureau of Prisons.

The bill received a major boost last month when Trump endorsed it as “reasonable sentencing reforms while keeping dangerous and violent criminals off our streets.” His thinking was heavily influenced by his son-in-law and White House adviser Jared Kushner, who has long advocated sentencing restructuring and marshaled endorsements of the bill from a diverse coalition including law enforcement, and the American Civil Liberties Union.

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Over 300 Pounds of Marijuana Seized

A routine traffic stop in Missouri turned into police finding 301 pounds of marijuana in the back of a vehicle. Word is that a Missouri police stopped a vehicle for following too closely. From there, police conducted an inspection of the car and found 301 pounds of vacuum-sealed marijuana bags in the back of the truck.

There were two men in the vehicle, and both were arrested after the weed was found. CBS noted charges against the men are pending as the investigation into the matter continues.

Yesterday, a traffic stop for following too close on eastbound I-70 at the 101 mm in Cooper County, resulted in a seizure of 301 pounds of marijuana in vacuum sealed bags. pic.twitter.com/WTdUx9cmPB

— MSHP General HQ (@MSHPTrooperGHQ) December 14, 2018

Ohio Bank Pays Off Moms Student Loan Dept For Christmas

One lucky woman in Ohio just received her student loan dept paid off by surprise by an Ohio Bank. A 30-year-old nurse and single mother was given the surprise of her life when a bank paid of the rest of her student loans just before the holidays. Now that's a Christmas gift to remember.

On Wednesday, Jasmin Ford thought she was just participating in a documentary about student loans; little did she know, her $150,000 student loan debt was about to be lifted off her shoulders.

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Ford was the first in her family to graduate from college and eventually received a Master’s degree in nursing years later. However, with no financial help from family, she was forced to take out massive student loans just to cover tuition, food, rent, and other necessities.

“I could not foresee when I’d be able to pay it off,” Ford said of her debt. “I just knew this was going to be a part of my life as long as I was alive unless there was some significant change, which -- wow.”

Ford’s surprise was made possible by Fifth Third Bank, which selected her to be in a documentary on student loan debt.  On the day of the big gift, Ford just thought the film crew was coming back to shoot some additional video. Then they revealed her student loan debt was gone.

“I still can’t find the words,” Ford said Thursday. “I’m off work again today and I’m just sort of pacing around and restless because I know my life is going to change.”

Ford said life will also change for her son, Caleb. Previously, Ford worked two jobs almost every day of the week. Now, she can’t wait to pull back on work and spend more time with her family.

“I just imagine being able to spend more time physically with my family, not having to hustle, having mental freedom and with that, some spiritual freedom,” she said. “I can open myself to more experiences, opportunities and just be able to sit and be with my thoughts and be able to pursue what it is I came to do.”

“His life will be totally different,” she added. “I’m so happy and so proud that I’m able to offer that to him more than anything else because he deserves it.”

Kids Are Dying At Our Border

The Washington Post reports the girl died of dehydration and shock more than eight hours after she was arrested by agents near Lordsburg, New Mexico. The girl was from Guatemala and was traveling with a group of 163 people who approached agents to turn themselves in on Dec. 6.

A 7-year-old girl who crossed the U.S.-Mexico border with her father last week died after being taken into the custody of the U.S. Border Patrol.

It's unknown what happened to the girl during the eight hours before she started having seizures and was flown to an El Paso hospital.

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In a statement, Customs and Border Protection said the girl had not eaten or consumed water in several days.

Processing 163 immigrants in one night could have posed challenges for the agency, whose detention facilities are meant to be temporary and don't usually fit that many people.

When a Border Patrol agent arrests someone, that person gets processed at a facility but usually spends no more than 72 hours in custody before they are either transferred to Immigration and Customs Enforcement or, if they're Mexican, quickly deported home.

The girl's death raises questions about whether border agents knew she was ill and whether she was fed anything or given anything to drink during the eight-plus hours she was in custody.

Immigrants, attorneys and activists have long raised issues with the conditions of Border Patrol holding cells. In Tucson, an ongoing lawsuit claims holding cells are filthy, extremely cold and lacking basic necessities such as blankets. A judge overseeing that lawsuit has ordered the agency's Tucson Sector, which patrols much of the Arizona-Mexico border, to provide blankets and mats to sleep on and to continually turn over surveillance footage from inside the cells.

The Border Patrol has seen an increasing trend of large groups of immigrants, many with young children, walking up to agents and turning themselves in. Most are Central American and say they are fleeing violence. They turn themselves in instead of trying to circumvent authorities, many with plans to apply for asylum.

Agents in Arizona see groups of over 100 people on a regular basis, sometimes including infants and toddlers.

Arresting such groups poses logistical problems for agents who have to wait on transport vans that are equipped with baby seats to take them to processing facilities, some which are at least half hour north of the border.

Apple Set To Build New Headquarters In Texas

Apple Inc said on Thursday it would spend $1 billion to build a second campus in Austin, Texas that will house as many as 15,000 workers, amid a broader push by many U.S. companies to create more jobs at home.

The iPhone maker had announced at the start of the year it would invest $30 billion in the United States, taking advantage of a tax windfall stemming from U.S. President Donald Trump's sweeping tax reforms.

See More on Yahoo Finance

The 133-acre campus in Austin will employ workers across various functions including engineering, R&D, operations and finance. The city is already home to the second largest number of Apple employees outside its headquarters in Cupertino, California.


Apple will also set up sites in Seattle, San Diego and Culver City, California and hire over 1,000 employees each in these locations, while also expanding operations in Pittsburgh, New York and Boulder, Colorado over the next three years.

Many American multinationals have been facing political pressure to ramp up investments at home as part of Trump's "America First" policies, which have left the United States embroiled in a bitter trade war with China. The president has also warned of tariffs on iPhones and other Apple products imported from China.

Apple's technology rival Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O) last month ended a months-long search for its second headquarters, picking New York City and an area just outside Washington, D.C. for massive new offices, with plans to create thousands of jobs.

The new Austin campus will be located less than a mile away from Apple's existing facilities, and will first house 5,000 new employees with the capacity to expand to 15,000.

Stormy Daniels Ordered To Pay Trump $300,000

A US federal judge in California has ordered porn star Stormy Daniels to pay Donald Trump nearly $300,000 for filing a defamation suit against the president that was dismissed.

US District Judge S. James Otero said Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, must pay Trump $293,000 to cover the president's attorney fees and costs plus $1,000 in sanctions for filing the lawsuit.

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Trump's attorney Charles Harder hailed the ruling, along with an earlier one dismissing Daniels's defamation case, as a "total victory for the president, and a total defeat for Stormy Daniels in this case."

Clifford has also sued Trump over a non-disclosure agreement. The judge has not dismissed that case.

Daniels's attorney Michael Avenatti said in a tweet after the latest ruling that his client planned to appeal and will likely never have to pay a dime.

"If Stormy has to pay $300k to Trump in the defamation case (which will never hold up on appeal) and Trump has to pay Stormy $1,500,000 in the NDA case (net $1,200,000 to Stormy), how is this a Trump win?"

51-Year Sentence To Lady Who Was Sold As A Sex Slave

I don't believe this ruling was fair by any means. Some type of appeal should be taking place for this young lady who deserves lesser time for her crime.

Cyntoia Brown was 16 and a victim of sex trafficking when she was arrested for killing the man who allegedly solicited her for sex, Johnny Allen. In her defense, she says she believed he was reaching for his gun to kill her. However, Tennessee’s Supreme Court clarified an earlier ruling that she must remain in prison for 51 years before she is eligible for release.

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The state Supreme Court’s response comes after a lawsuit was filed claiming Brown’s life sentence is unconstitutional based on a previous Supreme Court ruling that said sentencing a minor to a mandatory life sentence was against the Constitution. Only 20 states and the District of Columbia have banned life without parole for minors. Tennessee is not one of those states; there, people convicted of first-degree murder can only be released from prison after serving at least 51 years of their 60-year sentence. A U.S. District Court in Tennessee noted that her sentence was different because she received a “life sentence, not a sentence of life without the possibility of parole.”

The Women’s March, Kim Kardashian West, Rihanna, and LeBron James have all publicly supported Brown’s release, funded legal support, and used her case to shed light on a larger need for prison reform and the systematic racism ingrained in our justice system. “The system has failed. It’s heartbreaking to see a young girl sex trafficked then when she has the courage to fight back is jailed for life! We have to do better & do what’s right. I’ve called my attorneys yesterday to see what can be done to fix this,” Kardashian tweeted.

In 2004, Brown was forced into prostitution by a pimp known as “Cut Throat” who she believed was her boyfriend. According to court documents, Allen allegedly brought Brown to his home and paid her to have sex with him. She was under the state’s age of consent at the time. In her testimony, Brown said that Allen showed her multiple guns in his home. When she believed that he was reaching under his bed to grab a gun and shoot her, she grabbed a gun out of her purse and shot him. She was tried as an adult and convicted of first-degree premeditated murder, first-degree felony murder, and especially aggravated robbery. Brown has already served 14 years in prison.

In response to the court’s decision, the Women’s March tweeted in support of Brown and other sex trafficking victims, adding that the next Women’s March on January 19, 2019 is for them as well. The organization asked their supporters to contact Tennessee’s governor, Bill Haslam, to demand Brown’s release. “Gov. Haslam has the power to #FreeCyntoia. Every day she remains in prison, he is actively choosing not to,” they tweeted.

500 Homeowners Go Into Foreclosure Due To Computer Glinch

I once had this same problem with Well's Fargo in a similar situation! I was denied although my credit was 7.0 and house half way paid off at the time!

Wells Fargo says a computer glitch is partly to blame for an error affecting an estimated 500 customers who lost their homes. The giant bank filed papers with the Securities and Exchange Commission last month, revealing it incorrectly denied 870 loan modification requests. About 60 percent of those homeowners went into foreclosure.

Legislators, housing advocates, regulators and, most importantly, the people who lost their homes – people like Jose Aguilar – are asking how this happened.

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"I used to look there and see how many times my kids and I used to run up and down, ride our bikes," Aguilar said.


He said the problems began when he and his ex-wife found mold in the house. He tried to remediate it himself but fell a few months behind on the mortgage payments. So the couple asked their lender Wells Fargo to modify their loan to lower their monthly payment.

He and his wife split up. The house went into foreclosure. With the hit to his credit, Aguilar said he found no one would rent to him.

"At that point my son and I had to move to the basement of a friend's house and we stayed there for three months, and we had nothing. We had a couch and my son had a bed," Aguilar said, choking up with emotion. "I felt worthless. I felt like I had let my family down."

Wells Fargo now said that "calculation error" on loan modifications affected 870 customers over an eight year period, customers who either were denied loan modifications or "were not offered a modification in cases where they would have otherwise qualified." About 545 of those customers ultimately lost their homes to foreclosure.

Teacher Caught Fistfighting With Student Charged

Although the kid might have used racial slurs, it is up to us as adults to be the bigger person behind situations. Everyone raise the children the way they choose while other have various beliefs the way things should be.

A music teacher at Maywood Academy High School in California has been charged with Hitting a student earlier this month. Multiple students have defended 64-year-old Marston Riley saying the teacher was provoked with racial slurs.

Mother Shot Dead While Decorating Christmas Tree

This is just sad to report! A woman who was shot to death in Utah while making Christmas decorations with her boyfriend's young children was allegedly killed by his ex-wife, according to Sources.

Atlantic City Mayor Raided By Feds

The mayor of Atlantic City made headlines last month when he was involved in a fight outside a casino that was captured on video. The mayor, Frank Gilliam, was not charged.

But Mr. Gilliam may be facing more serious trouble. Early Monday, federal officials raided his home, removing computer equipment and boxes in an operation that represents another setback for this struggling seaside city.

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The mayor’s office declined to comment about what prompted the raid.

“We can tell you that the mayor’s office is open, and we are here to provide services to Atlantic City residents and to serve the administration in any way that we can,” said Christina Bevilacqua, the deputy chief of staff in the mayor’s office.

More Raids That Took Place

The F.B.I. operation is the latest chapter in what has been a tumultuous couple of months for Mr. Gilliam, a Democrat. The late-night brawl he was involved in took place outside the Golden Nugget casino in Atlantic City.

Federal agents Unloading boxes from mayor of Atlantic City Frank Gilliam’s house in raid pic.twitter.com/qtvLyDmkf3

— Amy S. Rosenberg (@amysrosenberg) December 3, 2018

Officer Attacked At Supermax Prison

This just in, Sources report that two corrections officers were injured after being attacked by an inmate at Red Onion State Prison earlier this morning. A 31-year-old inmate attacked the corrections officers with a “do-it-yourself weapon” simply after 6:30 a.m., in response to Virginia Division of Corrections officers.

One officer suffered puncture wounds to his upper body, and the other a broken knee in the attack that occurred about 6:30 a.m., the agency said. Both were expected to be released from a hospital Sunday.

The 31-year-old inmate accused of the attack is serving a 65-year sentence for five counts of robbery and seven counts of using a gun in a felony, the department said.

The First Killing In California Prison In 20 Years

The First African American Governor In Florida

Donald Trump called for Democrats to concede and the turn outs hit him in the face. The race was a hotly contested one that became symbolic of the nation’s issues with over race and class in the Trump era.

According to the Tallahassee Democrat, in a video post, Gillum said, “R. Jai and I wanted to take a moment to congratulate Mr. DeSantis on becoming the next governor of the great state of Florida,” Gillum said in a Facebook video in which he appeared alongside his wife. “This has been the journey of our lives.”

After a long, hard battle to become the first African American governor in the history of the sunshine state of Florida, Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum as gracefully bowed out. Gillum, the Democratic gubernatorial candidate in Florida, conceded to his Republican adversary, former Rep. Ron DeSantis, on Saturday evening which ended the extended fight that saw the Tallahassee mayor retract his Election Day concession during a statewide recount.

Those matters became a major focal point during the primary and escalated when DeSantis went on Fox News a day after the primary to extol Florida voters not to “monkey this up” by voting for Gillum.

61-Year-Old Man Arrest With 514lbs Of Marijuana

It sucks to say, but I believe I have friend who live the same lifestyle..lol. Police in Missouri recently arrested a 61-year-old man after a traffic stop and subsequent suspicious behavior on his behalf led to police searching his Chevy Suburban. Ricky Allan Martin was reportedly heading northbound on Interstate 29 when the highway patrol flagged him down. The officer requested to search Martin's vehicle which he said was rented in the "Nevada-California" area. Police grew further suspicious after his inability to provide the documentation proving when and where the vehicle was rented.

What officers found was 514 pounds of vacuum-sealed bricks of marijuana all found in the backseat of the vehicle. The 61-year-old was arrested and charged with first-degree drug trafficking and possession of a controlled substance. Martin, who was on parole after spending 13-years in prison on a robbery charge was immediately sent back to prison for violating the terms of his parole.