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The Priory Hotel
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How has this hotel rated in the past?
- Shuttle bus service
- Suites
- Continental Breakfast
- Free High-Speed Internet
- Bar/lounge
- Business Services
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Historical Traveler Reviews The Priory Hotel Pittsburgh
Where we stay in Pittsburgh!
We have stayed at the Priory MANY times and love the quaint atmosphere and charming rooms. We have probably stayed in most of them! When I call for reservations, the person at the desk clearly remembers me, which is a nice, personal touch. It is quite pleasant to stop in the sitting room for a glass of wine (complimentary) before heading out for the evening. In warmer months, we have enjoyed some wine in the courtyard by the fountain before turning in for the night. The breakfast is served long enough for those who sleep in a little (later hours on the weekends & holidays), and is always satisfying. The coffee is great, and I'm very picky about coffee. The location is convenient to the North Shore, downtown, museums, and the Strip is a stone's throw away. Others have commented on the neighborhood, but we have never found it to be a problem. In fact, we once walked from the Priory downtown (a good hike!) without a second thought. The blocks behind the Priory have some very cool old homes. The staff has gone out of their way to be accommodating many times. It is a quiet, relaxing place to stay with some good views of the downtown skyline. We have stayed in some of the large downtown hotels which were great, but we always came back to the Priory. It is just a very cool place and I highly recommend it. (We'll be there tomorrow!)
Great city INN for a perfect stay
We stayed at The Priory for 2 nights on Aug 1 and 2nd. We found the place very accomadating, clean, charming. The staff went out of there way while we were there celebrating our silver wedding anniversary. They even let us park our motorcycles in their courtyard for protection. They even offered us a ride into town each morning. The breakfast was good with lots of variety so we were very pleased with all that they had to offer and would definately stay at The Priory again. Even though it was not in the best part of Pittsburgh.
Quaint but indifferent
Just got back from our one night stay at the Priory. It was a unique experience. Neat, historic building, friendly front desk, nice cont. breakfast. What bothered us a bit was the area the hotel was located in. I tried to do our research ahead of time but apparently that wasn't enough. The parking lot is across the street and there were local street kids playing around the lot which made us a bit nervous. The room was nicely decorated and clean. Don't expect extravagant linens or a cushy bed, but what we did have served our purpose. It was easy to get to the Convention Center, the strip and everything on the North Shore. I would consider it as a back-up if I couldn't get a hotel downtown.
Character, Charm and Comfort
Okay, let's make this one easy: Since you are obviously considering an alternative to the Hilton, Sheraton, Comfort Inn, Motel 6, etc., you will be very happy to find The Priory. It has character, charm and comfort -- and won't break the bank. Make your reservation and go!
Character: It is a converted church, and some of the trappings are still evident, although I didn't have a religious experience there, if you know what I mean. The building has been lovingly restored, and the decor -- while perhaps slightly austere -- rather suits the place.
The friendly proprieter knows Pittsburgh very well and will direct you to a restaurant you will doubtless enjoy, not the place around the corner owned by his buddy. The inn is small, and is a family business.
It is run with a high standard of care for the visitor.
Charm: The Priory is charming and civilized. Mints are left on your pillow. Wine is served gratis in the early evening and there is an honor bar featuring quality brands -- Bombay Sapphire Gin, for example.
There is a small library. Newspapers are delivered to guest rooms each morning, and if you don't like the USA Today the WSJ is available when you eat your continental breakfast. The breakfast is ample, with fresh fruit, choice breads, muffins, and good coffee -- served buffet style in an attractively appointed dining room. There are several "nooks" in the building that are fun to explore.
Comfort: We stayed in one of the inn's mid-range rooms. The king size bed was very cozy and required no "getting used to" period as is often the case. The room had its own thermostat. Shades (the old kind, with the ring you pull down) blocked light well. And, the room was remarkably quiet, although a hot water pipe made a groaning sound when first turned on (subtract one-tenth of a point). We discovered, also, that a previous guest had absconded with the TV remote . . . and when we mentioned this at the front desk, they offered us a -new room-. I understand that the inn has an exercise room, but never bothered to see it.
If there is anything to complain about, it is that the inn is located on the periphery of a "not-so-great" area. That being said, my wife and I walked around the neighborhood during the day with no anxiety whatsoever, and with no one approaching us, bothering us, or even looking at us "funny." It is also true that the inn is very conveniently located, a 20-30 minute walk to the cultural district downtown, and with an easy connection to major thoroughfares. Location is the -only- reason I didn't give the inn five stars, and if I could have given it four-and-one-half stars, I would have done so.
I will not hesitate to return to The Priory when I return to Pittsburgh. It is decidedly a "top choice."
Unique experience
If you are the type of person who really values getting the flavor of a city - and who wants the experience of staying in a tiny corner of Pittsburgh history, without the constrained feeling of being in a museum - this place is for you. We have stayed here many times throughout the years. All of the positive reviews listed here are accurate. The location is within walking distance to the James Street Cafe, which always has weekend jazz and great cajun food. For history buffs, the Museum of Photo Antiquities is just a few blocks away. Each room in the Priory is different - and there are little architectural reminders both in and outside of the building that this was once used for religious purposes. This is no cookie-cutter hotel chain - it is an experience you will enjoy and remember.
Home away from Home
We spent only one night at the Priory. However, I can assure you no future trip to Pittsburg would be considered if we could not stay at the Priory. We had gone to a Pirate's game that night (within walking distance). When we got back there were a few folks relaxing in the parlour. We joined them and soon found ourselves enjoying conversation into the early morning. The room was great and the breakfast was very nice. This was a very pleasant evening and in a very nice hotel.
Another disappointment
After striking out at anoth North side hotel we decided to give this one a chance. In all honesty we would have been better staying at the first location. Th room was larger but the plumbing rattled and leaked all night. I realize this is a older property but the manager refused to switch our rooms and as a result had a dreadful sleepless night. The next day the manager ofered us a discount on the room but we were more interested in sleep than a discount. overall the property is pretty but not at those prices.
A nice change of pace
I have stayed at just about all the downtown hotels in Pittsburgh. They are all basically nice, business-class facilities. But despite the best efforts of some staff, they remain largely impersonal. The Priory is decidely different. I have stayed at The Priory three times - once for pleasure, twice for business. Each time, it has been a refreshing change of pace from the Hiltons, Westins, and Marriotts of Pittsburgh and the rest of the world. Here, the innkeeper greets you each evening as you arrive "home". The building and the rooms have the charm of your grandmother's house, including antique furnishings unique to each room, squeaky floors, and even a parlor where you can enjoy a glass of wine while you read the paper. The staff is very accomodating without being overbearing. The rooms are comfortably European in design and decor. Parking is *free* in a lot about 20 paces from the front door - you will not find that anywhere else in the downtown area. No per night charges, no valets, no call-ahead for your car.You won't get high-speed Internet access(yet), pay-per-view movies, a pool, an on-site restaurant (although if you ever starve in Pittsburgh, it's your own fault), or a gift shop - but do you need any of that? You do get a complete continental breakfast each morning, full housekeeping service, and friendly people - all for less than you'll probably pay for "typical" accomodations downtown. Many local restaurants deliver including an outstanding Italian place called Georgio's (get the $8 lasagna dinner). The Penn Brewery is among the famous 'Burgh eateries nearby.So to echo another reviewer's comment, if you want the standard fare, stay inside the Golden Triangle. But if you want a truly personal and IMHO more relaxing sort of stay, give The Priory a call.
The only place to stay
The Priory is the only place to stay in Pittsburgh. The place is lovely and has a beautiful view of downtown. Breakfast is great too!
The North Side, where it's located, used to be nasty. But with the influx of folks interested in taking care of the area, it's much better than it was.
Also, it's within a short drive of the Penn Brewery. Wonderful beer and German food!
An Old Friend's Home
If you are looking for an anonymous business hotel, stay across the river downtown. If you're staying a few days (especially if you're there for Allegheny hospital down the street) try the Priory. Very nice rooms, good free breakfast and great people. While the neighborhood may be a little daunting at night, there are lots of neighborhood restaurants.
TripAdvisor Reviews The Priory Hotel Pittsburgh
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Another Goodbye >>>
But many many happy memories.
It was sad to leave our friends @ Germantown, near Washington. Once again, we are reminded how generous people are with their time and hospitality.
Our journey will now take us in a north-westerley direction with our eventual goal being the Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming before the winter sets in.
On the way we will meet up with some other friends who we last saw in 2003 in Chad's home ...
Today was again a pretty good start with a bit of a sleep in. Today we had planned to go to beaver falls, another place where my dad grew up, and see more houses there and spend the day in that town. When we got to beaver falls it seemed like a town with many units and it was like out of a TV show were every knows everyone. But it was a ...
... and eggs, so not a huge variety. We headed out in our car at about 10:30 to see some of the addresses that grandpa had left us. The first one we failed to find because the address wasn't there. We spent a good 25 minutes looking around for it. The second two were very close of each other with were easy to find as they are still ...
Today we drove to boston. It was a pretty long drive but i was glad when we got there we could relax. So we got the car from the hire car place and started our trip to boston. The trip was long and boring but i was lucky to get through two movies before my iPad went flat. For lunch we stopped at a servo and we all got some stuff from burger king. It was the same as hungry jacks. I couldn't complete a cheeseburger because it was so big! After lunch we got some snacks ...
A full day of Pittsburgh sports
... where the game is usually held. It made it feel like there were a lot more fans than usual but about 5,300 were in attendance. The day was unbelievable really. We grabbed some lunch at this spot pittsburghers call station square. Just apps at a local restaurant.. Then we Went on the incline which you can see the whole city from up there. After lunch we grabbed some typical Pittsburgh beer.. I.C. Light. Beer of the Pirates, ...


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My sister asked me what I was getting DH for valentines day from DS, I was like ummmm I wasnt planning on anything. DH and I rarely do gifts for any occasion, we just buy what we want when we want it and for bdays, anniversary, etc for the most part we just spend time together and go out to dinner. I I told her I think its kind of weird to get a parent a vday gift from a child. Just me?
Anyone find child to father/mother Valentines gifts odd?
Mother to Baby Quinn born August 2, 2012
"Your...Your brain has the shell on it."
Married my Best Friend and we have 2 wonderful girsl!!!..
12/14/08 (Audrina Sapphire) and 8/2/2012 (Scarlett Jaide)
Excuse my typos, im using my nipple.
Anthony Vincent AKA "Megatron" - born 8/16/12 @ 5:24am weighing 7lbs 13oz, 20 inches long.
I only think its weird from baby to parent. Once they're old enough to actually understand that Vday is about love, its adorable when they want to make something for mommy and/or daddy to show their love. Holidays are what makes the year special IMO, so why not celebrate it? But the first year or two, its basically just a gift from you. Lol
pretty princess butt ♥ born aug 2012
My mom always got us valentines. She still does sometimes. I don't think it's weird at all to go the other way. My friends (girl friends) and I still exchange Valentine's Day presents, also.
I think it's odd too. When she is old enough to do it herself that is fine but right now I don't see the point.
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I am building a site, through PTA, for our son's school. I'm doing a lot of modifications to a nice template, hard-coding HTML, etc. Basically, I am using WordPress to build and manage a pretty basic "Web site," that will allow other PTA members to easily update site.
Site is http://www.olympichills.org
So here is my issue. We are creating a classroom page, that will then have about 30 links to individual "Teacher" pages. They will be responsible for updating their own pages. I want the links for these pages to show up in classroom page, but not everywhere else (e.g., sidebar)
My plan to is to create a simple table at top of Classroom page, hard-coding links to all the "teacher pages" and then have them open up in new windows. I suppose I could try creating a frame, so it opened below as well.
The issue here, is every time there i a chance, I will need to hard-code, and trying to create a simple site, that others can update without knowing HTML.
Any and all suggestions welcome!!!!


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Definition of Chippendale, Thomas in English:
Chippendale, Thomas
(1718–79), English furniture-maker and designer. He produced furniture in a neoclassical vein, with elements of the French rococo, chinoiserie, and Gothic revival styles, and his book of furniture designs The Gentleman and Cabinetmaker's Director (1754) was highly influential.
For editors and proofreaders
Line breaks: Thomas Chip¦pen|dale
Definition of Chippendale, Thomas in:
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WordPress is absolutely amazing. I want to thank all the intelligent techno geniuses who put this together.
Here's my site
The Support Forums will be in read-only mode for a scheduled maintenance window on 01 September 2016 14:00 UTC - 20:00 UTC. More information.
WordPress is absolutely amazing. I want to thank all the intelligent techno geniuses who put this together.
Here's my site
Welcome to the club :)
I notice that a lot of good advice is being thrown around about site design. I haven't put any work into my site's layout other than a few minor tweaks to one of the WordPress templates I found at the AlexKing site. Anyway, I'm mostly concerned with the content on my site, but I was wondering if anyone could offer any helpful hints about how I might improve the presentation or look of what I have so far. I'd appreciate it.
Whilst I haven't tried it, if you're not interested in changing anything but the look of the site, I would suggest you learn CSS and go from there. The thing I love most about WordPress is that it's almost entirely CSS based in the appearance dept. I used to learn how to make my own layouts by tweaking someone elses until I got a look that I liked and then trying from scratch to build my own so I understood each part of it.
http://blog.nuclearmoose.ca/wp-docs/wp-layout-explained.htm - that's also a helpful article.
I think I might give creating my own layout a try, and that link you provided is extremely helpful, but I'd also like to get a book. There are so many different books on HTML and CSS that I have no idea which one to chose.
Is there one definitive book on CSS?
Something's wrong with your link, Gregor, but I got there. I'm not a 3 column person myself, but for CSS I highly recommend the House of Style (tutorials) and Stylemaster (30 day demo) from westciv software.
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McCruelty and Veg Options.
Over a year ago
If the infamous McCruelty had vegetarian and vegan alternatives alongside their regular products, would you fellow vegs buy these cruelty free products even though McCruelty stills murders chickens, cows, and pigs?
Please log in to reply.
Over a year ago
@peppermintcherry That really sounds quite a harsh judgement there on the peoples appearance. How does someone 'look' like they lack common sense? I'm not saying it you need brains to work at mcdonalds or any fast food chain, but at least these people have self respect and work for a living, which is a lot more than most people do these days.
I respect anyone who works for a living.
Can't say I've ever been to a fast food chain and looked at the staff and thought "oh they're on drugs" however, maybe it's different here in England. And maybe all the staff in your six local Mcdonalds do look like they are on drugs with no intelligence, but it's a bit of a sweeping statement to make really isn't it? And a tad harsh. Maybe the maccies staff think the same about the staff at your work?You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
Over a year ago
@MysteryMalice like i said, majority, but not all. And it's not just hygiene, it's the kind of people they get to work there. We have like 6 mcdonald's in my town, all the people that work there all look like they do drugs and lack basic common sense. I work at a fast food place, but we don't even consider the kind of people that generally make up McDonald's employment poolYou must be logged in to reply to this topic.
Over a year ago
I agree, especially on the topic of subway
Read more: http://www.peta2.com/boards/topic/mccruelty-and-veg-options/#ixzz20MkOcBtfYou must be logged in to reply to this topic.
Over a year ago
@peppermintcherry I agree, especially on the topic of subway, in fact as I remember peta2 actually mentions/mentioned about going to subway on the going veg is easy page and suggested going to subway and getting the veggie sub as it's vegan. :/ I guess it's because Maccies and KFC are huge international chains. Then again, doesn't subway have outlets all over the world too?
On the subject of 'nasty workers' I think that's generalising a bit, any place that serves you food could have someone with poor hygiene touching and serving you food.You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
Over a year ago
@VeganCaramel as I understand. I was only using McDonald's as an example for the question; I was not saying they are the only restaurant that condones cruelty. For the sake of the argument, this particular company was used, just as easily as Burger King or Wendy's . No one thinks that only McDonald's participates in these cruelties.You must be logged in to reply to this topic.


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I added Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ icons onto my page within the code. I now want them off (since I realized there was a plugin for this and more) and can see those pieces of code on the "content-single" editor page. When I delete this bit of code however, it pushes the rest of the items on the page down and off of the white background, including the "Leave a Comment" feature. This only happens on the page which appears when an individual blog post is clicked on--all other pages seem fine.
Is there a way to remove these three items without affecting the format? I have deleted and reinstalled Tuesday, but they are still there. Please help!


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These chocolate chip and toffee scones are perfect for your next tea party or with your favorite hot beverage. I love tea parties. I am not a tea drinker but I love all the goodies that go along with the tea party. I also love setting a pretty table and sitting down with friends for yummy treats and good conversation. I like to imagine a life where one took time out every day to sit down and enjoy a cup of tea and a sweet! Wouldn't it be wonderful. One [Continue Reading…]
Archives for January 2009
Brown Butter and Balsamic Ravioli
Potatoes or rice? When planning a menu and looking for a side dish, potatoes or rice are usually the first things that come to mind. I love rice and have shared several different rice recipes with you… Rice Pilaf Lime Cilantro Rice Green Chile Rice Many of you know that I am not a big potato eater, despite being married to an Idaho Boy! But I do have a few potato recipes I'll eat… Patrice's Potatoes Mariner's Garlic Fries Today I'm going to share another option to rice or potatoes. [Continue Reading…]
Valentine Banner
While my college daughter was home over the Thanksgiving break we made a fun banner for her to hang in her dorm room. It was quick and easy to put together . Check out my tutorial here. Here's Cali's banner… Cali and I had a fun time picking out fabric that would match her bedding. It turned out so cute I was tempted to keep it for myself but being a good mother I let my daughter have it! Our women's group at church sponsors monthly Enrichment Activities and this month [Continue Reading…]
Your Word Giveaway Winner
First of all – thank you to all of you who entered the Your Word Giveaway. We had a record breaking number of entries – 148!!! The winner is!! Congratulations to Nancy – love your word – reach! Nancy, please send me your mailing information and Christina will get your personalized necklace to you! For all of you who didn't win -you can order your own personalized hand stamped necklace over at Simply Ornamental. I'll be ordering my Joy necklace!! Thanks everyone!!
Apple Dulce de Leche
Top this Apple Dulce de Leche with some vanilla ice cream and you have a simple yet delicious dessert. Last week I was talking with my good friend Deb who lives in Michigan. Deb is an amazing cook. She was having dinner guests that evening and was describing the menu to me – if Deb was making it I knew it would be good. So of course I asked for the recipes. My parents were coming for dinner last Sunday so it was the perfect opportunity to try out one [Continue Reading…]
Flat Bread and Hummus
Looking for a delicious and healthy snack? You've found it with this flat bread and hummus! It's finals week at the high school. That means half days of school all week and a kitchen table covered in books! Tessa had a group of friends over the other day to study so I figured I better make them a healthy snack – something that would help all those brain cells work a littler harder! Several weeks ago I had starred a recipe in my Google Reader for Flat Bread and Hummus. I [Continue Reading…]


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Oh, weeeeee! memories from 2015! Rainy season in Costa Rica, probably not the best time to visit this country, but beautiful landscapes nonetheless. My first trip solo… which lasted solo for only a couple of days. Sleeping in dorms meant … Continue reading
Author Archives: useless mathematics
Lisa Kenny Bass for Assistant Magazine #2
Brais and Xim reached out to me to interview the wonderful Lisa Kenny for the second issue of assistant. The interview was carried out through Skype and it lasted for two hours where the two of us talked about aging, … Continue reading
T'ao Ch'ien: Shadow to Substance and Spirit's Solution
T'ao Ch'ien: Shadow to Substance and Spirit's Solution Acceptance and Denial; Two Conflicting Ways of Embracing Mortality In the poems Shadow to Substance and Spirit's Solution, author T'ao Ch'ien (365 – 427) explores two distinct views of mortality; acceptance … Continue reading
Jennifer Csengody for Assistant magazine
Friends and former students Brais Vilasó and Xim Ramonell founded the ground-breaking Assistant magazine. The publication pays homage to the queens and kings of the fashion "behind the scenes"; assistants and right-hands of big names such as Richard Avedon, Linga … Continue reading
Hispanic American Fashion Culture
Hispanic-American Fashion Films Now team I met Marisa Fatás, former staff of the Instituto Cervantes New York cultural department, during a presentation in New York City. We spoke briefly, and she told me that she was very interested in organizing a fashion event at the institution. … Continue reading
Cinematographer Sonia Ostrovsky Creative Director and Producer Patricia Yague Editor Martina De Alba Camera Assistant Janelle Krone Make Up & Hair Dominique Farina Model Faina @ Rocket Garage Music "Water Jump" by Mikrophone This video was commissioned by the Istituto Europeo di Design … Continue reading
Cross Pollination: Masterpieces of the Collections
For a short period of time I attended SUNY (State University of New York) before transferring to CUNY. At the time, the Museum at FIT, part of SUNY, was organizing a collaborative workshop involving Atelier Romo from Mexico, Sala de Arte Público … Continue reading
VMAG SPORTS –Boca vs. River
A fashion project for V Magazine Directed: Diego Zuko & Lessa Millet Cinematography: Diego Zuko Creative Director: Patricia Yagüe Makeup: Kim Weber Hair Styling: Marisa Bollman Editor: Kathryn Schubert Music: Steven Milton Model: Lauren @ Muse
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Rainbow Warriors
One of the last photo shoots I styled. An all-female team that was a truly pleasure to work with. Photographer Josefina Alazraki Stylist Patricia Yague Make up and Hair Kim Weber for Ellis Faas Cosmetics Models Olena Romaniuk (Major) and … Continue reading


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by Mary Shelley
Frankenstein Chapter 3 Quotes
How we cite the quotes:
Quote 1
After having made a few preparatory experiments, he concluded with a panegyric upon modern chemistry, the terms of which I shall never forget: "The ancient teachers of this science," said he, "promised impossibilities and performed nothing. The modern masters promise very little; they know that metals cannot be transmuted and that the elixir of life is a chimera but these philosophers, whose hands seem only made to dabble in dirt, and their eyes to pore over the microscope or crucible, have indeed performed miracles. They penetrate into the recesses of nature and show how she works in her hiding-places. They ascend into the heavens; they have discovered how the blood circulates, and the nature of the air we breathe. They have acquired new and almost unlimited powers; they can command the thunders of heaven, mimic the earthquake, and even mock the invisible world with its own shadows. (3.14)
This professor of Victor's gives him a way to see scientific inquiry as stemming from older traditions. This respect for the old combined with an interest in the new is what allows Victor to go forward in his scientific explorations.
Quote 2
My departure was therefore fixed at an early date, but before the day resolved upon could arrive, the first misfortune of my life occurred—an omen, as it were, of my future misery. Elizabeth had caught the scarlet fever; her illness was severe, and she was in the greatest danger. During her illness many arguments had been urged to persuade my mother to refrain from attending upon her. She had at first yielded to our entreaties, but when she heard that the life of her favourite was menaced, she could no longer control her anxiety. She attended her sickbed; her watchful attentions triumphed over the malignity of the distemper—Elizabeth was saved, but the consequences of this imprudence were fatal to her preserver. (3.1)
Caroline Frankenstein dies because she loves Elizabeth so much that she insists on taking care of her when she's sick with scarlet fever. So, her death really is an omen—it's a warning that family can be fatal. Think about that the next time your parents tell you to call more often.
Quote 3
She died calmly, and her countenance expressed affection even in death. I need not describe the feelings of those whose dearest ties are rent by that most irreparable evil, the void that presents itself to the soul, and the despair that is exhibited on the countenance. It is so long before the mind can persuade itself that she whom we saw every day and whose very existence appeared a part of our own can have departed forever--that the brightness of a beloved eye can have been extinguished and the sound of a voice so familiar and dear to the ear can be hushed, never more to be heard. These are the reflections of the first days; but when the lapse of time proves the reality of the evil, then the actual bitterness of grief commences. Yet from whom has not that rude hand rent away some dear connection? And why should I describe a sorrow which all have felt, and must feel? The time at length arrives when grief is rather an indulgence than a necessity; and the smile that plays upon the lips, although it may be deemed a sacrilege, is not banished. My mother was dead, but we had still duties which we ought to perform; we must continue our course with the rest and learn to think ourselves fortunate whilst one remains whom the spoiler has not seized. (3.2)
Loss haunts Victor from a very early point in the book: his mother's death is an "irreparable evil" from which all future evil and loneliness spring.


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889 search results for Robert Downey Jr
Robert Downey, Jr.: There is 'no plan' to make 'Iron Man 4'
Type: Article | Date: Monday, Sep 8, 2014Third sequel isn't currently in the cards, the actor claims
First look: Robert Downey Jr. in 'The Judge'
Type: Article | Date: Tuesday, Dec 10, 2013Plus: Bryan Cranston in 'Godzilla' and Colin Farrell in 'Winter's Tale'
Review: Robert Downey Jr. is guilty of being shameless in 'The Judge'
Type: Post | Date: Thursday, Sep 4, 2014Prepare to be manipulated. Poorly.
'The Judge' premiere: Can Robert Downey Jr. woo audiences without Iron Man's help?
Type: Article | Date: Thursday, Sep 4, 2014Actor makes a go at non-franchise material with the new David Dobkin drama
Robert Downey Jr., Vera Farmiga walk 'The Judge' carpet at TIFF
Type: Gallery | Date: Thursday, Sep 4, 2014Robert Downey Jr. greets TIFF with flare at "The Judge" premiere
Robert Downey Jr. wants Black Widow, Hulk and Hawkeye solo films
Type: Article | Date: Wednesday, Sep 3, 2014'Honestly at this point everyone deserves a franchise'
Robert Downey Jr. will win an Oscar says Robert Downey Jr.
Type: Post | Date: Tuesday, Apr 16, 2013Also: The actor confirms he pulled in $50 million for 'The Avengers'
Chris Pratt and Robert Downey, Jr. take the Ice Bucket Challenge
Type: Article | Date: Saturday, Aug 16, 2014Plus: Taylor Swift, Carrie Underwood, Oprah, Tyler Perry, Tim McGraw and more
Robert Downey Jr. on the emotional stakes of the Hulkbuster fight in 'Avengers 2'
Type: Article | Date: Tuesday, Jul 29, 2014Also: On reuniting with his 'Less Than Zero' co-star James Spader
Watch Robert Downey, Jr. dance on stage for the 'Avengers: Age of Ultron' Comic Con panel
Type: Article | Date: Sunday, Jul 27, 2014Plus: You heard Chris Hemsworth wants to play Thor as a woman right?


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The 2016 season came to an exciting conclusion this weekend in Verbier, Switzerland. As Loic Collomb Patton (FRA) brought home his second title as world champion with an amazing performance on the 2016 Freeride World Tour. The SCOTT success did not stop there. Jackie Paaso (US) and Arianna Tricomi (ITA) have been trowing down some heavy lines and tricks this season and were rewarded a silver and bronze medal.
Auf den französischen Straßen des anstrengenden World Tour-Rennens Paris – Nizza baut Michael Matthews seine Führung weiter aus und verteidigt das Gelbe Trikot.


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- 1920 x 1080 5ms
- 40,000,000:1
- D-Sub, DVI-D
Dead and stuck pixels. 01/16/2014
This review is from: Hanns-G HE245DPB Black 23.6" 5ms Widescreen LED Backlight LCD Monitor (WLED) 250 cd/m2 40,000,000:1 Built-in Speakers
Great price, can't beat it.
Bought two of these and both had dead and stuck pixels out of the box. Returned them both for a refund.
Did you find this review helpful? Yes / No Thanks for the valuable feedback you provided!


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Before I get into my normal weeknote, I wanted just to mention that Raging Swan's Birthday 33% off sale starts tomorrow at d20Pfsrd, e23 and Paizo and runs through to the end of the month. If you've been thinking of grabbing any Raging Swan products (or fancy trying us for the first time) now is the perfect time to strike!
Of course, Raging Swan isn't stopping there as this week we release four new or newish products!
On Tuesday, for the first time ever, The Lonely Coast, Dark Waters Rising and The Village of Swallowfeld are all available in print (and even better are 20% off).
Then, later in the week on Thursday, Raging Swan Press releases Village Backdrop: White Moon Cove by Marc Radle.Part of the Village Backdrop series, the supplement also ties into the upcoming The Sunken Pyramid (also by Marc and myself).
On the work front, I've got tons to do this week. I have final edits and PDFs to complete for Village Backdrop: Hosford, Urban Dressing: Temples, Dungeon Denizens: EL 2 and Dungeon Dressing: Doom Paintings. I'm also working on my first edit of Dungeon Dressing: Fiendish Traps.
In terms of design, I'm working on Wilderness Dressing: Swamps and The Sunken Pyramid this week.
So as you can see, a crazy busy week but hopefully a very enjoyable week!


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Bob Thiele
~ Person
A talented producer who also wrote songs (including the famous What a Wonderful World as George Douglas), Thiele created and/or worked for a number of prestigious labels, including impulse!, Flying Dutchman, Decca...
More informations in his auto-biography What a Wonderful World (1995).
Legal name: Robert Thiele
Also performs as: George Douglas
Bob Thiele (July 27, 1922 – January 30, 1996) was an American record producer who worked on countless classic jazz albums and record labels.
Showing official release groups by this artist. Show all release groups instead, or show various artists release groups.


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Recently added to it.urbandictionary.com
lug 29
visible clumps of nose goblins, often found clinging to nasal hair.
"you need to blow your nose, you got some serious bats in the cave!!"
di pow3rzz 21 gennaio 2007
lug 28
Doing something that is a complete waste of effort and time for which you can expect no results and may even backfire on you.
Telling the president that invading other countries is unpopular with many voters is like pissing in the wind.
di Blue Cawdrey 21 novembre 2004
lug 27
In the spirit of the mile high club, but for those who couldn't afford the plane tickets so are just taking the train.
Me and my girlfriend thought we would join the ranks of the prestigious mile high club, but had to take the train home instead. We went for the meter high club instead, but forgot that they can throw you off a train a lot easier than a plane.
di do.g 01 ottobre 2007
lug 26
A cellcert is a concert transmitted via cell phone. A cellcert happens when a person dials a friend and hold up his or her cell so said friend can enjoy the show.
Since I wasn't at the concert in NYC, my friends let me share in the moment by giving me a cellcert.
di krenee 10 maggio 2005
lug 25
Much tamer than "Fuck me boots" because the heel is shorter and less spikey. It is merely an invitation to ask me out and see how it goes. While less sexy than FMB they are much sexier than "Ignore me boots".
Dude, did you see Amy today? She has her ask me out boots on, I think I will.
di jamison313 20 febbraio 2007
lug 24
adj. The stage in fat accumulation when fabric can no longer contain the enormity of one's buttocks.
Jesus, I can't zip up these jeans anymore - I've reached critical ass!
di ElinorG 29 settembre 2006
lug 23
The anticipation one feels when waiting for a response to a text message.
I just texted her for a date – but now the textpectation is killing me.
di Harvey W 21 luglio 2006


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- Overview
- Transcript
- View Offline
- What is Lightroom used for?
- Importing photos and videos
- Organizing your library with collections
- Adding keywords and ratings to photos
- Cropping and straightening photos
- Adjusting color and white balance
- Reducing digital noise
- Working with video
- Making changes with the Adjustment Brush and Graduated Filter tools
- Sharing photos on Facebook
- Printing photos
Skill Level Beginner
There are two sources of photos that you might bring into Lightroom; new items from your digital camera, which I'll cover later in this chapter or existing ones from a computer drive. Let's talk about how to organize your existing photos and videos on a drive for import into Lightroom. In this movie we're not going to be using Exercise Files, instead I want to show you how to bring files of your own into your main Lightroom catalog when it's time for you to do that with your personal photos. Before you import anything into Lightroom, I strongly suggest that you go out to all of your various computer drives and gather your photos, the photos that you want to bring into Lightroom as well as your video clips and put all of those into one folder.
You may not want to take the time to do that now but believe me it will save you time later. Because if the drive on which you put that one single folder with all of your assets gets full, you're going to have to move those assets to another drive and it's a lot easier to do when you're using Lightroom if all those photos and video files are in one single folder. So here you can see that I have made a single folder like that. I call it Lightroom Photos Main, you can call it whatever you want. How you organize your photos inside that one folder is up to you.
I found it helpful to organize them by year and then inside of a year, I organize with one sub-folder for every shoot, which I named by the date and then I usually add a word or two that helps me remember what's in that folder. It might be the location of the shoot or the event or the people in it or something that's meaningful to me. Then inside of each of those shoot folders are the actual files from that shoot. For me, all of those are usually raw files but I wanted to show you the various kinds of formats that you can import into Lightroom.
And those include TIFF, DNG which is Adobe's universal raw format. JPEG, PSD which is the Photoshop document format and proprietary raw files like these NEF files from my Nikon camera and those usually come with what's called sidecar files like this to contain the Metadata for that raw file. And you also can bring in most formats of video clips. So, I've got all my photos and video assets tucked away inside my Lightroom photos main folder.
The question is where to put that folder. One solution is to put that folder with all your assets in the same place as the Lightroom catalog files. When you first launch Lightroom, the program makes these two Catalog files inside of a folder that it calls Lightroom and then it places inside the Pictures folder in your Operating System. If you're going to store your main folder, the one I've called Lightroom Photos Main that contains all your actual photo and video files on your main computer, then it makes sense to put that folder along side this Lightroom folder that contains your Catalog files. But if you plan to shoot lots of photos and videos and your computer drive doesn't have a lot of free space on it then your computer drive is going to fill up sooner than you think.
At that point, you'll have to move your folder of photos and videos to a larger drive and if you have already imported those items into Lightroom, that kind of a move, while possible, can be challenging. So, here's another solution to consider. Before you import any of your photos or videos into Lightroom, you might go out and purchase a big external drive that has as much storage spaces you can afford. And put the folder containing all your photos and videos on that drive right from the start. That will give you more room to grow and you don't have to worry about moving anything that you have already imported to Lightroom for a while.
By the way, it's perfectly okay to store your Lightroom Catalog files on your main computer and store the folder with your actual photos and videos on another drive. Lightroom can keep track of your photos and videos even in that case. And even if that drive is offline, Lightroom will still be able to display the image previews. Just make sure that you have that external drive connected to your computer if you want to process your files in Lightroom. So, those are some ideas about how to organize your existing photos and videos before importing them into Lightroom.
In the very next movie, I'm going to show you how to do that.


text: H. R. Pfretzschner workshop silver violin bow Catalog ID: A-VNB/3012 The octagonal stick of this bow from the workshop of Hermann Richard Pfretzschner is of the highest-quality dark brown pernambuco. The bow produces a full, bright tone. The stick is strong without being stiff, evenly balanced, and is quick to respond. H.R. Pfretzschner Octagonal, silver and ebony Frog. 62g 4/4 Out on Trial $3,800.00 Wishlist Buy Continue Shopping


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Netherlands' Esther Vergeer returns to Netherlands' Jiske Griffioen, not seen, during the women's single wheelchair tennis semi-final match at the 2012 Paralympics, Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2012, in London. Vergeer won the match. The 31-year-old Dutchwoman has been No. 1 in the wheelchair tennis rankings for more than 13 years. The numbers Vergeer has put up since 1996, when she made her first international appearance, are staggering..She has won 42 grand slam titles (21 singles, 21 doubles) and five Paralympic golds (three singles, two doubles). From 2004-06, she won 250 straight sets. In total, she has won 162 singles titles. (AP Photo/Raissa Ioussouf)


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It is not every day that the district attorney's office gets ripped off. In Louisiana, the DeSoto District Attorney's office has discovered thousands of dollars were stolen from coffers. Just how much?
The theft discovered earlier this year led to the arrest in February of longtime employee Melanie Barber. She is charged with monetary instrument abuse, malfeasance in office and filing or maintaining false public records. As reported in www.shreveporttimes.com.
The 32-year-old was arrested following a month-long investigation into misappropriated funds from accounts related to worthless check collections and pre-trial diversion fees.
Barber devised a scheme where she would accept money orders for payments of fees and penalties then sign and cash them at a local business.
It turns out that there was more than $100,000 in public funds missing with the theft occurring between 2009 and 2014, with about $35,000 stolen in 2013 alone.
The sad aspect is that this type of theft occurs all across the nation every single day. Do you think mandatory stop theft classes for all kids in public schools would help prevent many thieves from every stealing in the first place? Is more religious training in order to help people maintain a moral compass?
I respect and appreciate your input here at the stoptheftclass.com blog.
embezzling | employee theft | inside job
It is not uncommon to read about the theft of historical artifacts. Can you think of any? As the educational director at an online stop theft class here is a story that piqued my interest.
Thieves have struck the apartment complex where Rosa Parks lived when she made history by refusing to give up her seat to a white person on a city bus in Montgomery, Alabama, police said Tuesday. As reported in abcnews.go.com.
Detectives are seeking suspects who ripped and stole copper wiring from Parks' former apartment and several other now-vacant units being renovated, Montgomery police Sgt. Denise Barnes said. Workers discovered the thefts Monday. Police believe the crimes happened between 4 p.m. Friday and Monday, Barnes said.
"Vandals came in and pilfered it. They went in and tore out the walls and they stole the copper pipes and pretty much destroyed the apartment," said Evette Hester, executive director of the Montgomery Housing Authority, which has been working to refurbish the complex and enhance its historic aspects.
Hester knows of seven buildings entered by the thieves, but officials Tuesday were still assessing the specific damage done.
Parks' former apartment at 634 Cleveland Court is listed as her address in the 1955 police report following her arrest on the bus.
Her refusal to give up her seat in defiance of a Montgomery law sparked a yearlong bus boycott and became an enduring symbol of the U.S. Civil Rights movement.
Parks lived in the apartment on Cleveland Court -- now known as Parks Place in her honor -- from 1951 to 1957, Hester said. She later moved to Detroit, where she died in 2005.
Parks' former apartment is an important aspect of her life, partly because it was a public housing project -- a fact that is sometimes "airbrushed" or glossed over in accounts of her life, said Georgette Norman, director of the Rosa Parks Library and Museum in Montgomery.
Norman said it's important for young people, in particular, to know that people of Parks' stature lived in public housing.
"They can say 'Oh my God... Rosa Parks lived in a housing project and we now revere her," Norman said.
The apartment where Parks lived had been furnished with period pieces to reflect what it was like during the time she was there, said Hester, who described it as a type of small museum.
Pieces such as a sewing machine and furniture were spared, but the vandals did heavy damage to the walls, the floor and the bathroom, Hester said.
Housing officials had been studying the idea of improving the way visitors can see Parks' former apartment and expanding the exhibits to other apartments nearby when the crimes happened. It wasn't yet clear Tuesday how the damage will affect those plans, Hester said.
"We certainly have to push the pause button," she said. "And so we don't know at this moment how it will affect the schedule for completing this project."
home invasion robbery | residential burglary | theft stories
Nobody likes to be stolen from. It is equally offensive not to be compensated for the labor you were hired for and contracted to receive. Employees across the country are suffering from wage theft, and so far they have little recourse to get recompensated.
Having employees complain to a governing body is not effective because workers fear retaliation, including losing their jobs, especially for immigrant workers. More than 40% of laborers who complained to their employers said they were fired or suspended, threatened with a cut in hours or pay, or faced other forms of retribution. One in five said they had not complained about these violations - out of fear. As reported in www.seattleweekly.com.
Employers particularly exploit immigrants more because they know they don't have a valid Social Security number, and how they don't have many options to go somewhere else. They take advantage of this and exploit it.
In Seattle, Washington, only 11 people have reported wage theft to the police since last summer. Seattle passed a wage theft ordinance , making it easier for employees to expose cases of wage theft. Yet police, in the two years the ordinance has been in effect, cannot say how many actually reports have been filed.
I am not sure what the answer is to combat wage theft. I would love to hear some of your thoughts on the subject.
anti-theft class | wage theft
The world can be a very unfair place. When jobs are scarce employers sometimes take advantage of employees, often in the form of wage theft.
In the previous blog entry we looked at three industries where wage theft is rampant: the garment industry, the restaurant business and employment involving immigrant labor. As reported in www.seattleweekly.com.
Although numerous studies show that wage theft is common among low-wage workers in general, immigrants seem to suffer higher rates of violations. It has been estimated that foreign-born workers, suffered more than twice the rate of minimum-wage violations as their U.S.-born counterparts.
Immigrant's who work 55 or 60 hours a week are getting $1,000 twice a month - which works out to be at or below minimum wage, and no overtime.
I have read that some employers and companies actually write their business model to steal from workers. They make money knowing that many workers will not do anything, and just move on to the next job.
Laws to Prevent Wage Theft
But Labor & Industries learns of a violation only if a worker complains. Prior to the Wage Payment Act of 2006, remedying wage violations required taking employers to court. The new law was designed to help more workers more quickly by handling most wage complaints through an administrative process. In general, say advocates, this has been an improvement for workers.
The downside is that the department is so burdened with complaints that it has virtually ceased conducting targeted investigations of companies and industries.
Once again, legislation meant to help the cause may actually be providing no help at all. I am not sure a stop theft class is warranted for these employers, but we might be able to develop a different model of stop theft class that can keep employers morally responsible. What do you think?
24 hour theft class | wage theft
This is the third in a series of blogs here at stoptheftclass.com looking at the issue of wage theft. Recent figures show that as many as 50% of employees have felt victimized by wage theft at some point in their working career.
There are some industries where wage theft is most common, specifically where wage and hour violations seem to be the norm. Can you guess which industries lead the pack? if you guessed the restaurant and garment industries you would be correct. The U.S. Department of Labor found violations in 71 percent of the West Coast restaurants it investigated in the six years prior to 2012. A five-year investigation of California garment manufacturers found violations in 93 percent of them. Violations are also common in construction, agriculture, child care, and janitorial work, according to studies and attorneys who represent workers. As reported in www.seattleweekly.com.
How common do you think it is to take advantage of immigrant workers? One expert argued that you will not find a single employer paying overtime to their immigrant piece-rate workers. So there's an example of a large segment of the economy where a blatant violation of the law is the norm. It's just outrageous. Who is looking out for their interests?
Have you ever been the victim of wage theft? if so, please chime in as we will continue to look at this topic in subsequent blog entries.
Although numerous studies show that wage theft is common among low-wage workers in general, immigrants seem to suffer higher rates of violations. A 2010 study by researchers at the University of California Los Angeles found that foreign-born workers in that city suffered more than twice the rate of minimum-wage violations as their U.S.-born counterparts.
"The violations, they're extraordinary among the immigrant workforce," says Mark, who has represented thousands of immigrant employees in multimillion-dollar class-action lawsuits, including a recent Washington Supreme Court case against Fred Meyer for misclassifying janitorial workers.
"The classic is an immigrant worker who's working 55 or 60 hours a week and getting $1,000 twice a month, that kind of thing, which works out to at or below minimum wage, and no overtime," Mark says.
Not everyone believes that wage theft is widespread, however. One doubter is Bob Battles, general counsel and director of government affairs for the Association of Washington Business. "I don't see this as an out-of-control, pervasive problem," Battles says. "This is a few bad actors that are spoiling the bunch if we're not careful, but go after those folks individually. This is not what we think is a prevalent problem."
The Washington Department of Labor & Industries, which is responsible for investigating complaints of wage and hour violations, offers a similar assessment. The department receives between 3,000 and 4,000 complaints each year for the more than three million people employed in the state, the agency points out. Elizabeth Smith, assistant director of fraud prevention and labor standards, says most employers are trying to follow the law: "There's a small subset that know the law and are not following it intentionally."
That's what Casa Latina has found, too, says Cariño Barragán Talancón, the organizer who usually fields calls about wage theft. "We've realized that some employers and companies, it's actually their business model to steal from workers," Barragán Talancón says. "They make money knowing that many workers will just not do anything, and just move on to the next job."
But Labor & Industries learns of a violation only if a worker complains. Prior to the Wage Payment Act of 2006, remedying wage violations required taking employers to court. The new law was designed to help more workers more quickly by handling most wage complaints through an administrative process. In general, say advocates, this has been an improvement for workers. The downside is that the department is so burdened with complaints that it has virtually ceased conducting targeted investigations of companies and industries.
Advocates argue that relying entirely on complaints is not effective because workers fear retaliation, including losing their jobs or being reported to immigration authorities. And the people who complain are the people who can best afford to have suffered a violation, says the National Employment Law Project's Rebecca Smith: "They are not the people who are the most vulnerable, and who are being abused the most."
The organization's three-city worker survey suggests fear of retaliation is justified. More than 40 percent of workers who complained to their employer said they were fired or suspended, threatened with a cut in hours or pay, or faced other forms of retribution. One in five said they had not complained to their employer about a violation, in large part out of fear.
Casa Latina's Barragán Talancón says a growing number of workers who call for help with wage violations ask her whether the boss can call in immigration authorities. When she admits she doesn't know, she doesn't hear from them again. In her seven years with the organization, she has never encountered a wage-theft case in which the worker was still working for the employer. "That is very telling to me," she says.
InvestigateWest found one worker who prevailed—because, again, he went outside the systems set up in recent years by the state and the city. He hired an attorney.
Let's call him Miguel, although we agreed to withhold his real name because—as is typical—the wage-theft settlement his attorney arranged came with a legally binding promise not to discuss the case publicly.
Miguel kept his job at a King County teriyaki restaurant for more than a year, even though he says he worked 11 hours a day six days a week and took home at most $1,000 twice a month. That works out to close to the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour, well below the current state minimum wage of $9.32 hourly, with no overtime.
"Employers particularly exploit immigrants more," Miguel says through a translator. "They know they don't have a valid Social Security number, and how they don't have many options to go somewhere else. They take advantage of this and exploit it."
Eventually a lawyer won a settlement for Miguel of about $15,000 in back wages. In theory, the law allows workers to collect double the amount withheld, plus attorneys' fees. But that requires going to court. Smaller cases like Miguel's are usually settled before a court hearing.
In one way, Miguel was fortunate: His case was large enough to interest an attorney. Labor lawyers say few private attorneys in Washington take individual wage and hour cases, and they rarely accept cases worth less than $5,000.
Many wage claims don't reach that threshold because people are paid a portion of their wages or quit after a short period, says Andrea Schmitt, an attorney with Columbia Legal Services, which focuses on large class-action lawsuits. InvestigateWest's analysis of state data shows workers who've filed complaints with Labor & Industries are owed a median of just over $700. "Maybe that means they can't pay the rent or buy food," Schmitt says. "But it's not big enough for most private lawyers to be able to pay attention to."
Since 2011, Seattle workers have had another tool to seek justice. The city's wage-theft ordinance made it a gross misdemeanor—a criminal offense—to intentionally withhold payment for agreed-upon services.
Maria Arciniega is one of a handful of workers who have filed a complaint in the past year.
Arciniega, 36, says she worked 46 hours as a cook at Domani Pizzeria and Restaurant in Queen Anne, but after she called in sick, the owner told her it wasn't working out. Arciniega says she went to claim her wages, totaling $432. The owner, Martin Pumpalov, offered her $120. Pumpalov says he explained that her work spanned two pay periods, so she would have to wait until the next payday for the rest. In a negotiation hobbled by a language barrier, Arcienega turned him down. She says she'd kept track of her hours in her own little notebook, and insisted on the full amount. She says the owner demanded to see her working papers, which she took as a veiled threat. Pumpalov says he asked for her Social Security number.
Arciniega turned to Casa Latina. Barragán Talancón helped her file a claim with Labor & Industries and also arranged a meeting with Pumpalov. Both sides say the meeting quickly escalated into a shouting match, though both blame the other.
"They didn't come to talk, they came and started threatening me," Pumpalov says. When Arciniega and Barragán Talancón told him they had filed a claim with Labor & Industries, he told them he'd handle the claim through the agency. Speaking with InvestigateWest, he says he never disputed owing Arciniega more than $120.
After the argument in the restaurant, the women returned to Casa Latina's office and immediately filed a report with the Seattle Police Department under the city's wage-theft ordinance.
Only 11 people have reported wage theft to the police since last summer, according to Lieutenant Gregory Schmidt, the department's burglary and theft commander. He was unable to say exactly how many wage-theft complaints the department received in the first two years after the ordinance was passed. In that period, Schmidt explained, cases could end up in any one of the city's five burglary and theft squads, and were not tagged as wage theft. (The Seattle Police Department has yet to fulfill a request InvestigateWest filed June 17 under the Washington Public Records Act seeking documents recounting enforcement of the wage-theft law.)
Worker advocates say the police were not prepared to respond to wage-theft complaints after the ordinance passed in 2011, and initially even turned some callers away. Today, Schmidt says, the department gives wage-theft cases "special treatment." He says he has instructed the sergeant in charge of these cases to investigate complaints even if the initial evidence is thin, and to make extra attempts to contact victims.
Still, the calls are hardly rolling in. And no employers have been prosecuted under the law.
Last year the police department forwarded to the city attorney the case of a painter who had not been paid for 7.5 hours of work. According to Schmidt, the city attorney declined to prosecute the case because detectives have not been able to speak with the employer or find a witness to corroborate the worker's story. A second case was forwarded to King County prosecutors as a potential felony, but the police were not able to positively identify the suspect: Two people so closely matched the identifying information that the police could not identify the suspect to the prosecutor's satisfaction, Schmidt says.
Gathering enough evidence to prove wage theft in court can be a challenge, as worker advocates acknowledge. City law spells out that a prosecutor has to prove an employer intended not to pay. That can be a tall order in the case of day laborers paid in cash, with no records kept.
"We're frustrated as well, " says Craig Sims, criminal division chief in the city attorney's office. "We have this great ordinance in place, but we aren't able to move forward because of the tough time we have finding cases."
Sims says his office is finalizing an agreement with the U.S. Department of Labor to receive Seattle cases that the federal department has investigated but chose not to pursue. "There's no perfect case out there," Sims says, "but we're definitely willing to look at every possibility."
Maria Arciniega's case with the Seattle Police didn't make it very far, either. Her employer agreed to pay her wages through Labor & Industries, and Arciniega received a check a few weeks later. But, she says, the delay in payment meant she couldn't pay her rent, and she and her 11-year-old daughter lost their apartment as a result. According to Schmidt, the police closed the case because it would have been difficult to prove the pizza-shop owner had intended not to pay her.
A second provision of Seattle's wage-theft ordinance has had even less impact. The ordinance permits the city to revoke the business license of an employer with an unpaid-wage violation issued by a court or by Labor & Industries. But in Seattle, business licenses are used mostly to track businesses and collect taxes, not to regulate them. The city has little incentive to revoke them. It would only do so in "extreme circumstances" and after working with the business to bring it into compliance, according to the Department of Finance and Administrative Services, which issues city business licenses.
The department says in an e-mail that Labor & Industries has forwarded the names of 19 Seattle businesses with outstanding judgments. Fewer than half have current licenses, and the department has not taken any action against them.
Seattle City Council member Nick Licata, who has called for a city office of labor-standards enforcement, admitted that neither provision of the wage-theft ordinance has been effective. What's needed, he says, is a coordinated, proactive approach to enforcing all the city's labor-standards legislation, including the minimum-wage, wage-theft, and paid-sick-time ordinances.
"It's not really effective nor fair to expect employees to risk losing their job to complain that their employers are not following the law," Licata says. Rather than simply respond to individual complaints, he says, the city should audit entire businesses, particularly in industries where there may be a pattern of violations.
That's what the state used to do. And it's what the U.S. Department of Labor still does, to the extent its budget allows. Nationally, however, the odds that a business will be inspected in any given year is only one in 1,000, according to an analysis by economist David Weil, who just became the head of the department's Wage and Hour division. Your typical pizza parlor or teriyaki joint has little to fear from the feds.
For many Washington workers hoping to recover a few thousand dollars or less in wages, often their best alternative is to file a complaint with the state Department of Labor & Industries. But justice here is usually neither swift nor certain.
Under the Wage Payment Act, the department is required to investigate every complaint it receives within 60 days. Last year it met that target in 60 percent of cases, according to InvestigateWest's analysis of closed complaints from 2009 to March 2014 obtained from the state by Columbia Legal Services. Labor & Industries has a staff of only 16 investigators to pursue up to 4,000 cases per year.
Advocates credit the department with reducing backlogs and speeding investigations greatly since the early years of the law. On average, cases resolved in 2013 were open for 65 days—about half the time it took in 2009. But many cases can take much longer—for example, if either party appeals the decision. Last year nearly a quarter of investigations were open for 90 days or more.
For workers living paycheck to paycheck, a delay of weeks or months can be catastrophic. Never getting paid at all is worse.
Columbia Legal's Schmitt has worked closely with Labor & Industries for years to improve its enforcement and tracking under the Wage Payment Act. Her biggest concern is that the department still lacks resources for adequate enforcement and collections. "And collection of wages is the big punch line at the end of all of this," Schmitt says. "Even if you can get some kind of official judgment that you're owed wages, do you get your money back or not? And the answer is, a lot of times not."
InvestigateWest's analysis of state data found that over the past five years, Labor & Industries recovered more than $11.6 million, about 56 percent of what it determined employers owed. (And even some of that, interest and penalties, went to the state, not workers.) That leaves nearly $9 million in outstanding debt to about 3,000 workers.
Some cases go more smoothly than others. Often employers pay the wages or set up a payment plan when the department contacts them, as in Maria Arciniega's case. In those cases the average worker gets nearly 90 percent of what is owed.
But in about 16 percent of all cases it receives, Labor & Industries must issue a formal citation to the employer. If the employer still refuses to pay, the complaint is closed and sent to a separate collections department, which has the equivalent of fewer than two full-time employees overseeing a caseload that perpetually runs into the hundreds. Asked for its collections success rate, the department reported that over the past two years it has recovered about 40 percent of amounts owed in cases sent to collections. The department was unable to say how long it ultimately takes to get workers paid.
Worker advocates, as well as state and city agencies, are exploring ways to better make workers whole. At the state level, Labor & Industries is looking for a way to again launch systematic investigations targeting industries in which abuses are rampant.
In Seattle, councilmember Licata says he'll propose funding an office of labor-standards enforcement in the next budget. "It's absolutely critical that we have sufficient staff to do ongoing audits of businesses," he says.
Licata says he expects that such an office, modeled after San Francisco's, would contract with community organizations to educate both employers and employees, particularly immigrant and non-English-speaking groups. A labor-standards advisory committee, with representatives from business, labor, and city departments, is developing recommendations for enforcing the minimum-wage and wage-theft ordinances and other city labor laws. Business representatives on the committee declined to discuss their perspective until the group shares its recommendations with the mayor and City Council sometime around Labor Day.
Not everyone is convinced the city will be up to the task of enforcing the $15 minimum wage. Labor attorneys point out that the ordinance does not explicitly include the right for workers to sue employers in court. That places a huge burden on the city, says Mark, the labor attorney. "If it's left just to agency enforcement, that's a problem, because no agency ever has enough resources to enforce these laws," he says. To address the dearth of attorneys willing to take individual or small-group cases, this fall he will launch the Washington Wage Claim Project, a nonprofit to represent low-wage workers and train more attorneys.
Strengthening state law is also a priority for labor advocates. In Washington, workers currently have little recourse if an employer retaliates against complaints about labor-law violations. In a recent example, a Seattle Police investigation into labor violations by contractor Dathan Williams uncovered a pattern of threatening workers and reporting them to immigration authorities, according to King County Superior Court charging documents. In fact, two witnesses in the case were deported, charging documents state.
The National Employment Law Project says it and other organizations will push to reintroduce an anti-retaliation bill as part of a package of wage-theft legislation that passed the state House last session. In Seattle, the minimum-wage legislation already spells out retaliation as a violation of the ordinance, though advocates say the penalties need to be stronger.
Jaime Alvarez Garcia still hopes that he'll be able to get justice. This summer he came to a meeting of Casa Latina's Workers Defense Committee, where workers share their stories and get help from staff, volunteers, and other workers in the same situation.
Wearing jeans and construction boots, Alvarez Garcia, 50, explained calmly in Spanish that he and his son had worked on several bathroom remodels for a local contractor. He didn't have anything in writing, just a verbal agreement about how much he would be paid for each task. At first he was paid, but after the last job, he says, the contractor kept putting off paying him the final $1,800. His son sent dozens of text messages, at first imploring, "I need the money, I've been waiting a long time." Later they threatened to take legal action. He says the contractor stopped responding.
Casa Latina's Barragán Talancón drew a house on the whiteboard and explained how placing a lien on the building might help Alvarez Garcia get paid. In this way, he is fortunate. Only construction and agricultural workers can generally take advantage of liens in Washington. The state lacks a general lien law that applies to all workers—something that advocates say they want to fix.
Alvarez Garcia says it's sad that these things happen to honest workers, but he has hope. "I know that there are laws and rights for workers in these cases," he says through a translator. "Even if some of us don't have papers, it's not a system that's all stacked up against us."
Let's see if he gets his dough.
16 hour theft class | wage theft
This is the second in a series of blogs here at stoptheftclass.com looking at the issue of wage theft. Wage theft is the illegal withholding of wages or the denial of benefits that are rightfully owed to an employee.
We are addressing the potentially rampant issue of wage theft through the microcosm of Washington state. This will be an especially important issue as the minimum wage in Seattle rises to $15 per hour. Passing a $15-an-hour minimum wage was historic. But if it is not enforced, what good is it? As reported in www.seattleweekly.com.
Comprehensive statistics are lacking on the extent of wage violations in Seattle today, but dozens of studies and investigations by federal and state agencies have uncovered widespread violations nationwide.
Wage Theft Rampant
A 2009 report by the National Employment Law Project surveying thousands of low-wage workers in New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles found that nearly seven in 10 workers had experienced at least one pay-related violation in the previous work week, and that more than one-quarter of respondents had been paid less than minimum wage. Three-quarters of those who had worked more than 40 hours had not been paid the required time-and-a-half rate.
In addition to failure to pay minimum wage and overtime, common violations include requiring employees to work off the clock, denying meal breaks, illegal deductions, misclassifying workers as independent contractors, and not paying for all hours worked.
Have you been a victim of wage theft? Is it a moral issue? Is it something that a stop theft class for the employer might remedy? What are your thoughts?
Wage theft is most definitely a crime. This is a crime the state of Washington is well aware of.
In the past eight years, both the Washington legislature and the Seattle City Council have passed laws to address what's coming to be understood as a huge problem. It's a misdemeanor under city and state law. Widespread violations of minimum-wage laws, overtime provisions, and other examples of wage theft have been well documented in recent decades. As reported in www.seattleweekly.com.
And yet in hundreds of cases annually, Washington fails to retrieve workers' shorted wages. Meanwhile, the city ordinance has yet to bring about even a single prosecution of employers who withhold pay.
The Washington Department of Labor & Industries has sped up wage-complaint investigations over the past several years, yet four in 10 cases take longer than the legally mandated 60 days. And the department collects less than $6 of every $10 it says workers are owed.
Do you think wage theft is rampant across the country? We will continue to look at this problem, through the "eyes" of Washington in subsequent blogs here at stoptheftclass.com
theft education | wage theft
Did you know that in some parts of the world if you get caught shoplifting you lose a finger or hand? What do you think they would do to this New Jersey thief? The bigger question is this – what would you consider appropriate punishment?
How many times getting arrested would you consider being egregious? 5? 10? 20? Get this - A Jersey City man with 77 prior arrests in three states has been charged with burglarizing a Newport Centre Mall store after the store had closed for the day. As reported in www.nj.com.
The thief is 44-year-old Michael Barton who appeared in court via video link from Hudson County jail on the charges of burglary, theft and resisting arrest.
He is charged with forcing open a rear door at 2:45 a.m. and taking 29 T-shirts, 29 blouses, 26 skirts, 27 dresses and five jackets with a total value of about $5,300.
Barton made matters worse when he decided to resist arrest when police officers ordered him to comply. Barton has been arrested 36 times in New Jersey, where he has 25 disorderly persons convictions and a criminal conviction for drug possession.
He has been arrested 37 times in Florida and four times in Maryland.
Again, I ask you, what should be his punishment? If you figure he stole or committed a crime 100 times for every time he got caught, he has acted in a criminal manner thousands of times. I think a theft education program could not help him and he belongs behind bars. What do you think?
professional thief | retail theft | serial theft | multiple thefts
There are those who dislike the University of Notre Dame. Some dislike them because they are so darned good at sports. There are others who dislike them for the Catholic religion. Do you think religion came into play in the mind of this thief?
Do you think stealing from a church is any worse than other types of theft? Do you think this thief might be going to Hell? Here is the story.
The paint was chipped and faded, the facade aged and worn. Yet, nestled quietly in a secluded, wooded alcove, a statue of Saint Francis stood ever vigilant and welcoming for nearly four decades. Generations of parishioners at Holy Trinity Episcopal Church grew up praying and reflecting in its midst. Then one morning two to three weeks ago, it was simply gone.
It's one thing if it's a lawnmower or something you can use, but a statue? What's a person going to do with a statue? As crazy as it sounds, this wasn't the first time. A week before Saint Francis vanished, another statue, this one of Saint Therese, was stolen from among the vegetables and flowers of the church's Garden of Saint Therese.
Do you think this is metal theft? Why on Earth would someone steal a religious icon that has no real value on the resale market? I would hope this thief comes to his senses and returns the stolen property. I would also recommend a good online stop theft class to help them cope with the any theft-like thoughts.
church theft | college theft | school theft
As the educational director here at stoptheftclass.com I am always interested to hear about theft statistics around the world. Here are some interesting facts about animal theft in the United Kingdom.
Animal theft stats in the United Kingdom are quite shocking! As reported in 6000.co.za.
More than 110 animals, including fish, horses, birds and dogs, were stolen in Surrey, England last year. In Surrey, the reported thefts included one sheep, nine fish, 23 birds, 16 horses and 32 dogs. Dude, it doesn't get any worse than stealing man's best friend!
To put this in perspective, 118 animal thefts adds up to around one every three days . I am not sure how that compares, but I do know that one of my neighbors recently had their two dogs stolen. These were not special breeds of dogs, but mutts found at the local animal shelter.
Here are some other figures for animal theft in the UK. On the low-end the City of London reported only one dog theft, while Edinburgh, Scotland had 30,593 animal thefts.
For those of you who have had an animal stolen, you know how heart-breaking it can be. I would like to see mandatory anti-theft classes to reduce theft and the mindset of theft. Stealing is bad karma!
animal theft | livestock theft | robbery


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Less Update Stress with openSUSE Built Packages
Debian, Mandriva and Fedora developers call them Sid, Cooker and Rawhide. OpenSUSE calls them Factory and they are ringing the changes for the Factory development.
Users are familiar with the downside: changing from another distro to openSuse, or simply out of tradition installing the newest openSUSE variation, and they're bombarded with daily updates that hardly seem to make a difference.
The problem lies with the automatic build process in the openSUSE development. When one developer modifies a code, the openSUSE build service re-compiles all dependancies and generates a new version number. A very practical idea with the possibility of creating completely new versions at any time. Yet the demand on resources and mirror servers is enormous.
Remedy: the build service will in future compare the new compilation with any current version and if identical, the fresh variation will be discounted. Saving bandwidth, and patience.
The changes to openSUSE Factory come into effect immediately, with further disros to follow. The script for the "build-compare" packages can be found in the individual Factory repositories.
Issue 190/2016
Buy this issue as a PDF
Mirantis Joins Hands with SUSE To Offer RHEL Support; Red Hat Not Happy
Competitors get in the game with RHEL without Red Hat
Linux on Windows 10 Poses a Security Risk
Security researchers have already notified Microsoft; some fixes are available
Mirantis to Refactor OpenStack Fuel for Kubernetes
The company is collaborating with Google and Intel to use Kubernetes as an engine for Fuel
Canonical Joins Document Foundation Advisory Board
The upcoming release of LibreOffice will be available as a snap package
SUSE Joins the Microsoft Test Drive Program
Customers can take a free test drive of SLES for HPC on the Azure Cloud
SiFive Launches a Line of Open Source Chips
San Francisco-based chip company announces their first fully open source chip platform.
Fedora 24 Released
The whole distro gets rebuilt on glibc 2.3
Canonical Announces Cross-Distro Support for Snaps
Ubuntu Vendor tries to solve app packaging and distribution problem across distributions.
ownCloud Forked
Founder of ownCloud launches the Nextcloud project.
HP Enterprise Unveils a Futuristic Computer
Will The Machine change the way future programmers think about memory?


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Browsing RSCAS Working Papers by Author "ANTONINIS, Manos"
Now showing items 1-1 of 1
Title:The Vocational School Fallacy Revised - Technical Secondary Schoold in Egypt Author(s):ANTONINIS, ManosDate:2001Type of Publication:Working PaperSeries/Report no.:EUI RSC; 2001/22; Mediterranean Programme SeriesAbstract:Egypt based its development aspirations, more than most countries in Africa and Asia, upon the expansion of an extensive system of technical schools. This policy was directly linked to the Nasser experiment of centrally ...


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