The Week In News
Before you rush to stock up on Forever stamps, read this. The U.S. Postal Service will have to roll back a portion of its largest rate increase in 11 years after a federal court ruled that the higher postage prices introduced in January 2014 can’t remain permanent. Postal regulators had agreed to a 3-cent emergency postage hike for firstclass letters, to 49 cents from 46 cents, after the Postal Service said it needed to recoup billions of dollars it lost during the recession. The 4.3 percent increase came on top of the customary 1.7 percent postage prices have risen to adjust for inflation. However, regulators set a cap on the amount of revenue USPS could recoup with the higher prices— that premium is expected to be reached this summer. The USPS and the industry representing bulk mailers filed legal challenges as soon as the price increase took effect, arguing that the increase should be permanent. But the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled that the emergency rates should not become permanent. The aftereffects
ers and independent contractors. Independent workers can bring fresh ideas to a company without the long-term commitment of pensions and other benefits. To support this growing work marketplace, websites have been launched as a matchmaker for workers and people who need their services. Upwork. com and Freelancer.com allow workers to connect with potential temporary employers. Now there are also companies that are willing to share rented office space such as the start-up company WeWork. In 2013, 23 million people were self-employed, according the U.S. Census Bureau. That’s up 1.2 percent from the year before and up about 24 percent from 2003. “This isn’t going away,” Brooke Borgen, co-owner of Canopy Advisory Group, a hiring company for freelancers in Denver, asserted. “More and more people want to have ownership over their career,” she added.
How Much do you Pay for your Commute?
Is 9 to 5 for You?
For some workers in search of work, the idea of working independently has become more and more attractive. Many people are shying away from the tradition 9 to 5 job and opting to work on their own. There has been a spike in freelance workers and independent contractors since Obamacare was introduced. It used to be that affordable health insurance plans tied down many people to traditional jobs. But due to the Affordable Care Act that has become an easily solvable problem. Additionally, many businesses and companies are recognizing this important demographic and are hiring freelanc-
After looking at your paycheck at the end of the year, you may want to take off a few thousand dollars—you’re not really making all that much if as much as $2,600 is going to your commuting costs. The average American travels 45 minutes commuting to and from work and spends about $10 to do so every day, according to the Citi ThankYou Premier Commuter Index. The index is based on data collected by Wakefield Research from a nationally representative sample of 3,500 consumers between the ages of 35 to 54 in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago and Miami. The survey asked them, not all of whom are full-time employees, about their commutes, which was defined as “your trip from work, school or daily activities.” Most people drive to work (77%), so fuel is unsurprisingly the most common commuter cost — 79% of people who
JUNE 11 , 2015
USPS Ordered to Return Stamp Fees to Lower Fare
of the recession have become “the new normal,” the ruling said — and the Postal Service must adjust to that reality, just like the rest of America. “The Commission sensibly concluded that the statutory exception allowing higher rates when needed to respond to extraordinary financial circumstances should only continue as long as those circumstances, in fact, remained extraordinary,” Circuit Judge Patricia Ann Millet wrote on behalf of the appeals court. “The Commission permissibly reasoned that just because some of the effects of exigent circumstances may continue for the foreseeable future that does not mean that those circumstances remain ‘extraordinary’ or ‘exceptional’ for just as long.” “The continuation of the exigent pricing surcharge is critical to the Postal Service’s financial health,” Katina Fields, a USPS spokeswoman, countered in a statement. The mailing industry claimed victory. “We are happy that the court rejected the Postal Service attempt to make a temporary surcharge last forever,” Stephen Kearney, executive director of the Alliance of Nonprofit Mailers, said in a statement. “Maintaining the affordability of mail will help ensure that our nation’s postal system remains healthy for years to come. Stamps should be forever, but not surcharges.” The lower adjusted rates have not been disclosed nor has the date in which they will go into effect.
“These are killers. They are murderers,” New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said. “There’s never been a question about the crimes they committed. They are now on the loose, and our first order of business is apprehending them.” How they avoided being detected while they escaped is unclear, although it is certain that they had help from the inside. Prison officials found the inmates’ beds inside the 150-year-old Clinton Correctional Facility stuffed with clothes on Saturday morning in an apparent attempt to fool guards making their rounds. Immediately, authorities set up roadblocks and brought in bloodhounds and helicopters. Hundreds of law enforcement officers fanned out around the prison, about 20 miles south of the Canadian border, following up on dozens of tips. “They’re going through garages, sheds, homes, stores,” said Dannemora local historian Peter Light, who worked at the prison as a correction officer for 31 years and now runs the prison museum inside the facility. The prison, called “Little Siberia” by locals, houses nearly 3,000 inmates and is guarded by about 1,400 correction officers. Surrounded by farmland and forests, it’s only about a 45-minute drive by car to Montreal. Perhaps the most chilling is the manner in which the escapees escaped. They seemed to have little fear and used humor in their escape. On a cut steam pipe, the prisoners left a taunting note containing a crude Asian caricature of a smiling face and the words, “Have a nice day.”
Saturday’s breakout was the first escape from the maximum-security portion of the prison, which opened in 1845. Investigators say that it must have taken months to plan their escape and it’s no doubt that they must have had help on the inside as well. The tools they acquired probably were obtained by contractors working at the prison. A prison employee is being questioned to determine if she gave the murderers a cellphone, money or tools to aid in their escape. Where are they now? “They had such a head start, [I believe] they’ve had so much help,” said Tom Fuentes, a CNN analyst and former FBI assistant director. “They could be in Canada. They could be in Mexico by now. They could be anywhere in the United States.”
THE JEWISH HOME
steel walls and pipes and break through bricks. Authorities are investigating how the inmates obtained the power tools they used in the “Shawshank Redemption”-style breakout. Officials said the inmates cut through the steel wall at the back of their cell, crawled down a catwalk, broke through a brick wall, cut their way into and out of a steam pipe, and then sliced through the chain and lock on a manhole cover outside the prison. All this was done without prison officials noticing or hearing the noise.
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