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 You can add location information to your Tweets, such as your city or precise location, from the web and via third-party applications. You always have the option to delete your Tweet location history. Learn more ||||| Talia Jane was fired two hours after she publicly admitted she can't afford groceries.

 This is Talia Jane. She's 25, and up until Friday afternoon she worked for Eat24, the food-ordering app owned by Yelp. Talia Jane

 Jane told BuzzFeed News she moved to San Francisco to start working as a customer service representative at the company in August after finishing an English literature degree at California State University, Long Beach. Talia Jane

 Jane said she wanted to work for the company's media team but was told the customer service rep position was a good way to break into the business, learn essential skills, and transition across departments. However, the reality of living and working in one of the most expensive cities in the country soon caught up with her. Even though she rented an apartment 30 miles away from the company's downtown offices, she struggled to afford her rent, making just $12.25 an hour — or $8.15 after tax. She also had to factor in more than $200 per month in transportation fees, since she was taking the train to work. She had also planned to find a co-worker to room with her, she said, but quickly discovered many of them were either living at home or otherwise unable to afford the rent.

 "I thought to myself, Oh, I'm tremendously fucked, so I'm just going to try really hard on improving at this job so I can transfer and get a pay increase," she said, "but then I was told that wouldn't happen for at least a year." Talia Jane

 Having cut back on buying groceries in order to afford her rent and bills, and juggling 40 hours of overnight shifts a week, Jane went to bed on Friday after drinking a liter of water to stop hunger pains. She said she awoke two hours later, starving, so she made herself some rice — the only food she could afford. "While cooking the rice, I suddenly became aware that this wasn't the first time this had happened," she said.

 Hungry, tired, and struggling to make ends meet, she began tweeting at Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman. .@jeremys please let me earn a living wage. I promise I'll watch all your vlogs. just let me be able to pay my rent.

 .@jeremys I didnt major in business or finance & I didnt take this job to get rich. I just cant turn my heater on & I'm tired of being cold.

 .@jeremys anyway, fire me or ignore me. either way I'll keep on struggling all the same. ✌

 She then channeled her thoughts into a post on Medium , entitled "An Open Letter To My CEO." Medium / Via medium.com

 The post, which has been shared across the tech world on Twitter and been viewed more than 85,000 people, goes into detail about Jane's struggles making ends meet. Here are some excerpts: So here I am, 25-years old, balancing all sorts of debt and trying to pave a life for myself that doesn't involve crying in the bathtub every week. Every single one of my coworkers is struggling. They're taking side jobs, they're living at home. One of them started a GoFundMe because she couldn't pay her rent. She ended up leaving the company and moving east, somewhere the minimum wage could double as a living wage. Another wrote on those neat whiteboards we've got on every floor begging for help because he was bound to be homeless in two weeks. Fortunately, someone helped him out. At least, I think they did. I actually haven't seen him in the past few months. Do you think he's okay? Another guy who got hired, and ultimately let go, was undoubtedly homeless. He brought a big bag with him and stocked up on all those snacks you make sure are on every floor... By and large, our floor pummels through those snacks the fastest and has to roam other floors to find something to eat. Is it because we're gluttons? Maybe. If you starve a pack of wolves and toss them a single steak, will they rip each other to shreds fighting over it? Definitely.

 I haven't bought groceries since I started this job. Not because I'm lazy, but because I got this ten pound bag of rice before I moved here and my meals at home (including the one I'm having as I write this) consist, by and large, of that. Because I can't afford to buy groceries. Bread is a luxury to me, even though you've got a whole fridge full of it on the 8th floor. But we're not allowed to take any of that home because it's for at-work eating. Of which I do a lot. Because 80 percent of my income goes to paying my rent. Isn't that ironic? Your employee for your food delivery app that you spent $300 million to buy can't afford to buy food. That's gotta be a little ironic, right?

 Let's talk about those benefits, though. They're great. I've got vision, dental, the normal health insurance stuff — and as far as I can tell, I don't have to pay for any of it! Except the copays. $20 to see a doctor or get an eye exam or see a therapist or get medication. Twenty bucks each is pretty neat, if spending twenty dollars didn't determine whether or not you could afford to get to work the next week.

 "I wanted [Stoppelman] to understand that I wasn't some little, annoying fly buzzing around his head," she told BuzzFeed News. "I wanted him to understand that I'm not some obnoxious idiot who thinks it's funny to harass the CEO on Twitter. I'm someone who has concerns and is reaching out, hoping that he can do something. "I was sitting there and thinking, I hope he sees this and I hope my CEO listens and hears me, and then it started to dawn on me: I wonder if I'll get fired for saying this out loud?" After publishing the post at 3 p.m. on Friday, her company email account stopped working two hours later, she said. "My manager and HR told me the letter and what I wrote violated Yelp's terms of conduct," she said.

 After he was contacted by BuzzFeed News on Saturday, Stoppelman began tweeting about Jane's dismissal. 1/5 Late last night I read Talia's medium contribution and want to acknowledge her point that the cost of living in SF is far too high.

 2/5 I have been focused on this issue, backing anti-NIMBY group SFBARF and speaking out frequently about the need to lower cost of housing.

 3/5 I've not been personally involved in Talia being let go and it was not because she posted a Medium letter directed at me.

 4/5 Two sides to every HR story so Twitter army please put down the pitchforks. The reality of such a high Bay Area cost of living is...

 5/5 entry level jobs migrate to where costs of living are lower. Have already announced we are growing EAT24 support in AZ for this reason.

 Although Stoppelman said the post was not the reason for Jane's dismissal, a spokesperson for Yelp would not elaborate, telling BuzzFeed News the company would not comment on personnel matters. "We do not comment on personnel issues," the spokesperson said. "However, we did agree with many of the points in Ms. Jane's post and we viewed it as her real, personal narrative about what it's like to live in the Bay Area. Most importantly, it's an important example of freedom of speech." "We agree with her comments about the high costs of living in San Francisco, which is why we announced in December that we are expanding our Eat24 customer support team into our Phoenix office where will pay the same wage." ||||| Late on Friday afternoon, Talia Jane, a customer service employee for Yelp, penned a letter to CEO Jeremy Stoppelman on Medium condemning the company for its low pay.

 Less than two hours later, Jane wrote on Twitter that she had been fired for writing the post.

 google says my work email address doesn't exist, which means i have officially been fired from Yelp/Eat24 for writing this. — Lady Murderface (@itsa_talia) February 20, 2016

 Her post ricocheted around the Internet (her account trended on Twitter in San Francisco), as it was a rare public censure of company exec, and it touches on the sensitive issue of high housing costs in the Bay Area. Her claims also fly in the face of the standard view of tech employees as coddled and overpaid.

 On Saturday, Stoppelman took to Twitter to address the post, signaling that the company would like to make the issue around housing costs, rather than Yelp. “[P]lease put down the pitchforks,” the CEO wrote.

 1/5 Late last night I read Talia's medium contribution and want to acknowledge her point that the cost of living in SF is far too high. — Jeremy Stoppelman (@jeremys) February 20, 2016

 A Yelp spokesperson echoed Stoppelman’s comments in a note: “We do not comment on personnel issues. However, we did agree with many of the points in Ms. Jane’s post and we viewed it as her real, personal narrative about what it’s like to live in the Bay Area. Most importantly, it’s an important example of freedom of speech.”

 On Twitter and in comments to Re/code, Jane said that she was a fired because her post violated Yelp’s terms of conduct. Stoppelman countered that on Twitter, claiming that her firing was not related to the post.

 Jane started working as a customer service exec for Eat24, the delivery service owned by Yelp, in August. In her post, a lengthy, damning screed, she tears into Stoppelman for the low pay and retention rate of employees in her position:

 So here I am, 25-years old, balancing all sorts of debt and trying to pave a life for myself that doesn’t involve crying in the bathtub every week. Every single one of my coworkers is struggling. They’re taking side jobs, they’re living at home.

 Jane wrote that she earned a biweekly check, of $733.24 and spent more than 80 percent of that for housing.

 Yelp reps declined to comment on salary specifics. On Glassdoor, the company review site, salaries for “junior account executives” at Yelp are listed at $35,913. For GrubHub, a comparably valued company, salaries for “sales executives” and “online sales executives” are listed at $39,000 and $30,913, respectively.

 On Jane’s points about cost of living, a Yelp rep wrote: “We agree with her comments about the high costs of living in San Francisco, which is why we announced in December that we are expanding our Eat24 customer support team into our Phoenix office where will pay the same wage.”

 In a message, Jane said she did not anticipate the reception to her post, both from the Internet and Yelp.

 “I honestly anticipated something like five hearts on the letter and maybe one reply from someone I know,” she said. “Definitely didn’t anticipate anything beyond that.” ||||| 452k 1.6k Online

 /r/business brings you the best of your business section. From tips for running a business, to pitfalls to avoid, /r/business teaches you the smart moves and helps you dodge the foolish. ||||| Add a location to your Tweets

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 You can add location information to your Tweets, such as your city or precise location, from the web and via third-party applications. You always have the option to delete your Tweet location history. Learn more ||||| The Internet erupted this weekend when Yelp fired one of its customer service agents, Talia Jane, a few hours after she posted an article to Medium entitled, "An Open Letter To My CEO."

 The crux of the open letter was what Ms. Jane considered her inferior level of compensation when compared to her Bay Area living expenses, be it rent, groceries, electricity, Internet, transportation and so on. The letter--starting out with "Dear Jeremy"--was presumably intended for Yelp Chief Executive Officer Jeremy Stoppelman.

 The question I would like to ask is whether the company was being fair.

 Was her dismissal just?

 Furthermore, was the company being fair to itself?

 Let us start with the open letter itself.

 Indeed it is distressing.

 Ms. Jane begins by delivering low blows to lawyers and teachers. "I didn’t want to become a cliche or drown in student loans," she writes, possibly indicating the reason why she chose her academic path.

 As the proud holder of a bachelor's of education degree, my back was already up.

 She settled on a role in customer service at Yelp (having moved to the Bay Area to be near her father) as a way in which to transfer into Yelp's Media department, her true passion.

 Alas, Ms. Jane was initially perplexed after being hired. Shortly after arriving at Yelp she was informed she would have to work in her customer service role for at least a year before being able to move to a new department.

 In my experience, a new hire must demonstrate commitment and competence before moving to a different role in the organization.

 She continued to lament about life in her open letter to Mr. Stoppelman.

 "I haven’t bought groceries since I started this job," she said. Other fits of discontent included, "I’m still being trained for the same position I’ve got?" and "Will you pay my phone bill for me?" and "Should I sell my car?"

 Interspersed throughout the letter is a condescending tone replete with a smug, accusatory naïveté. Take for instance these three examples:

 -"Instead of telling you about all the ways I’m withering away from putting my all into a company that doesn’t have my back."

 -"Maybe instead, you can help set up something to allow Eat24/Yelp employees to get food from local food banks and soup kitchens?"

 -"Because [the coconut water tastes] like the bitter remorse of accepting a job that can’t pay a living wage."

 Ms. Jane ends her epic 2,392 word rant with the following:

 Anyway, those are my thoughts. I know they’re not worth your time — did you know that the average American earns enough money that the time they would spend picking up a penny costs more than the penny’s worth? I pick up every penny I see, which I think explains why sharing these thoughts is worth my time, even if it’s not worth yours. Your Friend In Food, Talia

 She managed to find the time to update the Medium post a couple of hours later, informing readers, "I have been officially let go from the company."

 Which brings us to the question, was Yelp being fair when it dismissed Talia Jane?

 There are two sides to every coin.

 Let us first start with the "yes" side.

 Ms. Jane was either on a self-induced kamikaze-like mission to get fired, or her lack of judgment was missed by the Yelp recruiters that they had to remedy the hiring error and terminate her immediately.

 In all seriousness, a public attack on your CEO is never a good idea. The damning evidence she provided is fodder for any sane executive to issue a quick dismissal accordingly. Ms. Jane's petulance, insecurity, willfully perverse and "head in the sand" level of expectations is as comical as it is stupid. Comeuppance by a CEO--like in this case--would be easier than expertly predicting human trampling at this year's Black Friday shopping extravaganza. (And you know that happens every year, too.)

 Imagine the rancor inside of Yelp once word spread of the open letter. Everyone (and I mean everyone) would be talking about Ms. Jane. Not only would they be talking about her, they would be wondering aloud what the company would do about the situation. Would Ms. Jane be sacked? Would she be allowed to stay? How come the company hasn't said anything yet?

 If Yelp took too long to deal with the situation, employees might become distracted about the distraction itself.

 But in this situation, Ms. Jane was terminated quicker than it takes to watch Braveheart. And that's a long movie.

 Yes, Mr. Stoppelman and his team acted correctly to deftly issue the termination of Ms. Jane on the same day. No sane CEO or competent company would do otherwise.

 On the other hand, maybe there is another viewpoint.

 What if Ms. Jane was suffering from some form of duress that caused her to publicly berate her CEO and company? What if this public cry for help is the result of a mental instability? What if the open letter was an act of bereavement?

 Let us presume the Yelp HR team looked into such matters before issuing the termination order, and found there to be no reasonable correlation to the points above.

 Could Ms. Jane's social media gaffe be used at Yelp as an opportunity to teach other Yelp employees what "not" to do? (Arguably, Yelp does not need Ms. Jane as an employee in order to do so.)

 Ms. Jane suggests 85% of her monthly take home pay goes toward rent. The Bay Area is notoriously expensive, particularly with respect to housing. Was her outburst a chance for Yelp to champion a new cause? Could Yelp have become a lightning rod for the Bay Area and affordable housing, if not the livable wage argument for San Francisco county?

 My personal opinion?

 I fully understand the rationale for terminating Ms. Jane on the spot. It was the safest and arguably the sanest action to take.

 But I also see Ms. Jane's open letter as an opportunity for Yelp to turn the misguided intentions of an employee into a new and redefined organizational purpose (at least for the Bay Area).

 Was Yelp being just to fire Ms. Jane? Absolutely.

 Was Yelp being fair to itself, in terms of potentially redefining a higher purpose for the organization? Time will tell. (And no, it does not need Ms. Jane to do so going forward.)

 But it has a chance to take an inappropriate cry for help and initiate some overdue societal changes. That might make it fair.

 __________

 Dan Pontefract is the author of THE PURPOSE EFFECT: Building Meaning in Yourself, Your Role and Your Organization. ||||| An Open Letter To My CEO

 talia jane Blocked Unblock Follow Following Feb 19, 2016

 Dear Jeremy,

 When I was a kid, back in the 90s when Spice Girls and owning a pager were #goals, I dreamed of having a car and a credit card and my own apartment. I told my 8-year old self, This is what it means to be an adult.

 Now, seventeen years later, I have those things. But boy did I not anticipate a decade and a half ago that a car and a credit card and an apartment would all be symbols of stress, not success.

 I left college, having majored in English literature, with a dream to work in media. It was either that or go to law school. Or become a teacher. But I didn’t want to become a cliche or drown in student loans, see. I also desperately needed to leave where I was living — I could get into the details of why, but to sum up: I wanted to die every single day of my life and it took me several years to realize it was because of the environment I was in. So, I picked the next best place: somewhere close to my dad, since we’ve never gotten to have much of a relationship and I like the weather up here. I found a job (I was hired the same day as my interview, in fact) and I put a bunch of debt on a shiny new credit card to afford the move.

 Coming out of college without much more than freelancing and tutoring under my belt, I felt it was fair that I start out working in the customer support section of Yelp/Eat24 before I’d be qualified to transfer to media. Then, after I had moved and got firmly stuck in this apartment with this debt, I was told I’d have to work in support for an entire year before I would be able to move to a different department. A whole year answering calls and talking to customers just for the hope that someday I’d be able to make memes and twitter jokes about food. If you follow me on twitter, which you don’t, you’d know that these are things I already do. But that’s neither here nor there. Let’s get back to the situation at hand, shall we?

 So here I am, 25-years old, balancing all sorts of debt and trying to pave a life for myself that doesn’t involve crying in the bathtub every week. Every single one of my coworkers is struggling. They’re taking side jobs, they’re living at home. One of them started a GoFundMe because she couldn’t pay her rent. She ended up leaving the company and moving east, somewhere the minimum wage could double as a living wage. Another wrote on those neat whiteboards we’ve got on every floor begging for help because he was bound to be homeless in two weeks. Fortunately, someone helped him out. At least, I think they did. I actually haven’t seen him in the past few months. Do you think he’s okay? Another guy who got hired, and ultimately let go, was undoubtedly homeless. He brought a big bag with him and stocked up on all those snacks you make sure are on every floor (except on the weekends when the customer support team is working, because we’re what makes Eat24 24-hours, 7 days a week but the team who comes to stock up those snacks in the early hours during my shift are only there Mondays through Fridays, excluding holidays. They get holidays and weekends off! Can you imagine?). By and large, our floor pummels through those snacks the fastest and has to roam other floors to find something to eat. Is it because we’re gluttons? Maybe. If you starve a pack of wolves and toss them a single steak, will they rip each other to shreds fighting over it? Definitely.

 I haven’t bought groceries since I started this job. Not because I’m lazy, but because I got this ten pound bag of rice before I moved here and my meals at home (including the one I’m having as I write this) consist, by and large, of that. Because I can’t afford to buy groceries. Bread is a luxury to me, even though you’ve got a whole fridge full of it on the 8th floor. But we’re not allowed to take any of that home because it’s for at-work eating. Of which I do a lot. Because 80 percent of my income goes to paying my rent. Isn’t that ironic? Your employee for your food delivery app that you spent $300 million to buy can’t afford to buy food. That’s gotta be a little ironic, right?

 Let’s talk about those benefits, though. They’re great. I’ve got vision, dental, the normal health insurance stuff — and as far as I can tell, I don’t have to pay for any of it! Except the copays. $20 to see a doctor or get an eye exam or see a therapist or get medication. Twenty bucks each is pretty neat, if spending twenty dollars didn’t determine whether or not you could afford to get to work the next week.

 Did I tell you about how I got stuck in the east bay because my credit card, which amazingly allows cash withdrawals, kept getting declined and I didn’t have enough money on my BART Clipper card to get to work? Did I tell you that my manager, with full concern and sympathy for my situation, suggested I just drive through FastTrak and get a $35 ticket for it that I could pay at a later time, just so I could get to work? Did I tell you that an employee at CVS overheard my phone call with my manager and then gave me, straight from his wallet, the six dollars I needed to drive into work? Do you think CVS pays more than Yelp? I worked a job similar to one at CVS. A manager spends half an hour training you on the cash register, you watch a video, maybe take a brief quiz, and you’re fully trained to do the entire job. Did you know that after getting hired back in August, I’m still being trained for the same position I’ve got? But Marcus at CVS has six dollars in his wallet, and I’m picking up coins on the street trying to figure out how I’ll be able to pay him back.

 Speaking of that whole training thing, do you know what the average retention rate of your lowest employees (like myself) are? Because I haven’t been here very long, but it seems like every week the faces change. Do you think it’s because the pay your company offers is designed to attract young people with no responsibilities, sort of like the CIA? Except these people don’t even throw away their trash, because they still live at home and this is their very first job and they don’t have to take an aptitude test like at the CIA. Do you know how many cash coupons I used to give out before I was properly trained? In one month, I gave out over $600 to customers for a variety of issues. Now, since getting more training, I’ve given out about $15 in the past three months because I’ve been able to de-escalate messed up situations using just my customer service skills. Do you think that’s coincidence? Or is the goal to have these free bleeders who throw money at angry customers to calm them down set the standard for the whole company? Do you think there’s any point in training a customer service agent to learn and employ customer service skills? Or is it better to attract those first-time employees with their poor habits and lack of work ethic with the same wage part-time employees at See’s Candies make for standing by the door in a stupid outfit and handing out free chocolate? Do you think those free chocolates cost $600 a month per employee? Have you ever seen an angry See’s Candies customer? You know what I could do with $600 extra a month? For starters, I probably wouldn’t have to take money from Marcus at CVS just to get to work.

 Will you pay my phone bill for me? I just got a text from T-Mobile telling me my bill is due. I got paid yesterday ($733.24, bi-weekly) but I have to save as much of that as possible to pay my rent ($1245) for my apartment that’s 30 miles away from work because it was the cheapest place I could find that had access to the train, which costs me $5.65 one way to get to work. That’s $11.30 a day, by the way. I make $8.15 an hour after taxes. I also have to pay my gas and electric bill. Last month it was $120. According to the infograph on PG&E’s website, that cost was because I used my heater. I’ve since stopped using my heater. Have you ever slept fully clothed under several blankets just so you don’t get a cold and have to miss work? Have you ever drank a liter of water before going to bed so you could fall asleep without waking up a few hours later with stomach pains because the last time you ate was at work? I woke up today with stomach pains. I made myself a bowl of rice.

 Look, I’ll make you a deal. You don’t have to pay my phone bill. I’ll just disconnect my phone. And I’ll disconnect my home internet, too, even though it’s the only way I can do work for my freelance gig that I haven’t been able to do since I moved here because I’m constantly too stressed to focus on anything but going to sleep as soon as I’m not at work. Should I sell my car? It’s not my car, actually, it’s my grandpa’s. But the back left tire is flat and the front right headlight is out and the registration is due to be renewed in April and I already know I can’t afford any of that. I haven’t even gotten an oil change since I started this job (in August). But maybe I could find someone on Craigslist who won’t mind all of that because they’ll look at the dark circles under my eyes and realize I need the cash more than they do.

 How about this: instead of telling you about all the ways I’m withering away from putting my all into a company that doesn’t have my back, I offer some solutions. I emailed Mike, Eat24’s CEO, about a few ideas to give back to our community for the holidays. He, along with someone named Patty, politely turned them down. But maybe you could repurpose them?

 Originally, I suggested that Eat24/Yelp employees volunteer at local soup kitchens and food banks to give back to our Bay Area community (I see on your twitter that you care deeply about the homeless epidemic in our city) while also helping the different departments meet and mingle. Maybe instead, you can help set up something to allow Eat24/Yelp employees to get food from local food banks and soup kitchens? I’m pretty proficient at rice, but some hot soup would sure make up for not being able to afford to use my heater.

 Originally, I suggested that Eat24 offer a matching donation with customers where they can choose a donation amount during checkout and Eat24/Yelp would match it and donate those profits to a national food program. Maybe instead, you can let customers choose a donation amount during checkout and divide those proceeds among your employees who spend more than 60% of their income on rent? The ideal percent is 30%. As I said, I spend 80%. What do you spend 80% of your income on? I hear your net worth is somewhere between $111 million and $222 million. That’s a whole lotta rice.

 Originally, I suggested that Eat24 offer special coupon codes where half of the code’s value ($1) goes to charity. Maybe instead, you can give half the code’s value ($1) to helping employees who live across the bay pay their transit fares? Mine are $226 monthly. According to this website, you’ve got a pretty nice house in the east bay. Have you ever been stranded inside a CVS because you can’t afford to get to work? How much do you pay your gardeners to keep that lawn and lovely backyard looking so neat?

 I did notice — and maybe this was just a fluke — that Yelp has stopped stocking up on those awful flavored coconut waters. Was that Mike’s suggestion? Because I did include, half-facetiously, in that email he and Patty so politely rejected that Yelp could save about $24,000 in two months if the company stopped restocking flavored coconut waters since no one drinks them (because they taste like the bitter remorse of accepting a job that can’t pay a living wage and everyone kept falling over into the fetal position and hyperventilating about their life’s worth. It really cut into the productivity that all those new hires are so prolific at avoiding). I wonder what it would be like if I made $24,000 more annually. I could probably get the headlight fixed on my car. And the flat tire. And maybe even get the oil change and renewed registration — but I don’t want to dream too extravagantly. Maybe you could cut out all the coconut waters altogether? You could probably cut back on a lot of the drinks and snacks that are stocked on every single floor. I mean, I could handle losing out on pistachio nuts if I was getting paid enough to afford groceries. No one really eats the pistachios anyway — have you ever tried answering the phone fifty times an hour while eating pistachios? Those hard shells really get in the way of talking to hundreds of customers and restaurants a day.

 Anyway, those are my thoughts. I know they’re not worth your time — did you know that the average American earns enough money that the time they would spend picking up a penny costs more than the penny’s worth? I pick up every penny I see, which I think explains why sharing these thoughts is worth my time, even if it’s not worth yours.

 Your Friend In Food,

 Talia

 UPDATE: As of 5:43pm PST, I have been officially let go from the company. This was entirely unplanned (but I guess not completely unexpected?) but any help until I find new employment would be extremely appreciated. My PayPal is paypal.me/taliajane, my Venmo is taliajane (no hyphen). Square Cash is cash.me/$TaliaJane. Thank you so much for helping my story be heard.

 UPDATE 10/11/2017: The Monday after I published this letter (which resulted in me losing my job), the customer support team held one-on-one meetings with support reps who confirmed my letter expressed their grievances, specifically with regards to pay. These meetings were confirmed to a reporter by several employees. And as a result, Yelp raised the wages for its customer support reps (among other changes I also pointed out). Yelp claimed that the raise and other systemic improvements had been “in the works” long before my letter (this is a lie).

 For those looking to scold and/or blame me: It has been more than a year since this letter was written. What the hell are you doing? Did you just emerge from a coma? I have two jobs and a roommate now, paying far less than what I had been, and I’m still not getting by. That is because the issues I outlined here are the result of much larger problems within the gig economy. And if you really think someone working full time shouldn’t point out that it’s insane that a full time job isn’t enough to support a single person just doing their best (when the minimum wage was established to support a family of three and has failed to keep up with skyrocketing cost of living), you’re being willfully stupid and that’s not my problem. But if you really need to call me a whiny entitled millennial just to feel superior and/or less afraid of the reality of our world, have at it. I don’t give a shit. |||||

Write a summary.

– A Yelp employee who complained about having to live in near-poverty conditions has a new problem—she needs a job. Talia Jane wrote an open letter to CEO Jeremy Stoppelman on Friday seeking higher compensation and detailing her struggles to afford food, rent, and transportation in San Francisco, and got fired hours later, Re/code reports. "My manager and HR told me the letter and what I wrote violated Yelp’s terms of conduct," she tells BuzzFeed. Stoppelman tweeted that he wasn't involved in her firing and "it was not because she posted a ... letter directed at me." Either way, the letter has drawn attention for its depiction of life with an entry-level customer-support position at Eat24, Yelp's food delivery service, in one of America's most expensive cities. Seems Jane lived mostly on rice and water, slept fully clothed because she couldn't afford heat, and put 80% of her bi-weekly $733.24 check toward rent. (She netted $8.15 an hour.) "So here I am, 25 years old, balancing all sorts of debt and trying to pave a life for myself that doesn’t involve crying in the bathtub every week," she writes in the 2,392-word letter. "Every single one of my coworkers is struggling. They’re taking side jobs, they’re living at home." So did Yelp overreact? A Forbes blogger says the letter has "a condescending tone replete with a smug, accusatory naïveté," and a Reddit user accuses Jane of posting "unprofessional" tweets before the letter. But Stoppelman concedes Jane's point that "the cost of living in SF is far too high" and proposes expanding Eat 24's operations in Phoenix as a solution. Jane, who is accepting donations, doesn't seem impressed: "Yelp is trying to make this die down by lying about it," she says. "Things have just exploded." (A San Francisco "tech bro" called for the city to deal with homeless "riff raff.")


– Jerry Sandusky will likely face six of his accusers at an open hearing Dec. 13, their first public confrontation with the former Penn State coach. Despite claims from Sandusky's defense team that some would recant their allegations, an attorney for "Victim One" tells Fox News that all six of the alleged victims who have been identified are expected to testify. Two other victims remain unidentified. "Victim One," who initiated the investigation in 2008 and is now 18, is being prepared for the hearing, his attorney says. But Sandusky's attorney downplayed the testimony, telling Fox News, "We believe there's a significant possibility at least one and perhaps two of the alleged victims may testify no sexual contact occurred between them and Jerry Sandusky." Sandusky could still waive his right to an open hearing, the Wall Street Journal notes.

Expand this summary.

An attorney representing a boy who accused former Pennsylvania State University football coach Jerry Sandusky of sexual abuse said his client and other alleged victims planned to testify at a hearing in two weeks, marking the first time they would publicly confront Mr. Sandusky.

 Michael Boni, an attorney in Bala Cynwyd, Pa., said Tuesday his teenage client, who made his initial allegation to youth-services officials in 2008, planned to appear at a Dec. 13 preliminary hearing for Mr. Sandusky in Centre County Court. However, Mr. Sandusky could waive his right to the open hearing.

 Enlarge Image Close Getty Images Penn State students attending a candlelight vigil earlier this month on campus for victims of child abuse.

 Mr. Boni's client is known as Victim 1 in a grand-jury report issued by the Pennsylvania attorney general earlier this month. The attorney general charged Mr. Sandusky with 40 criminal counts related to alleged abuse of eight boys over a 15-year period, after meeting them through a charity he founded called the Second Mile. Mr. Sandusky has said he is innocent of all charges.

 Until recently, the boy attended Central Mountain High School in Mill Hall, Pa., but he transferred to another school after being bullied, according to people familiar with the situation. The school has declined to comment because of the criminal case.

 More Charity Founded by Sandusky Seeks to Dismiss Suit

 Mr. Boni said he and Philadelphia attorney Slade McLaughlin were hired last week to represent the boy and his mother. The lawyers plan to file civil litigation, Mr. McLaughlin said, but not until the criminal case is concluded. Mr. Boni named Mr. Sandusky, the Second Mile charity, Penn State and "a number of individuals" as potential defendants.

 "They're certainly within our crosshairs," Mr. Boni said. Mr. Boni said he did not anticipate that there would be an impediment to suing Penn State because it is a public university. He noted that Penn State has an independent board of trustees and is not an arm of the state the way other schools are. "There's Pennsylvania appellate case law that has found that Penn State is not entitled to sovereign immunity," he said.

 A Penn State spokesman couldn't immediately be reached for comment Tuesday.

 A Second Mile spokesman declined to comment on potential civil lawsuits. The charity added that it was focused on cooperating with law enforcement and saving its programs. "Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims and the families," it said.

 Mr. Boni said the media glare surrounding the case has taken an emotional toll on the boy and his mother, and that recent remarks by Mr. Sandusky's lawyer, Joseph Amendola of State College, Pa., added to this burden.

 In recent media interviews, Mr. Amendola said that he believed that Victim 1 made up the allegations against Mr. Sandusky, and that he has evidence to refute other alleged victims' claims in the grand-jury report.

 "The statements issued by Mr. Sandusky and his attorney have caused tremendous emotional hardship to both of my clients. They have been devastated by these accusations and hurtful remarks," Mr. Boni said.

 Mr. Amendola didn't return a call requesting comment on his remarks or a possible civil case.

 Separately, on Monday, Second Mile said it was now asking its donors to direct contributions to the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape, a group that works to eliminate sexual violence.

 Second Mile said it was continuing to review three options—continuing to operate, transferring programs to another nonprofit, or closing altogether—but that its December programs would continue.

 "Effective immediately, we ask that you join us in this commitment to sexual-abuse survivors by sending your donations to PCAR to support sexual-abuse prevention, as well as the counseling needs of sexual-abuse victims," the charity wrote.

 "The events reported over the past few weeks have saddened and horrified us; we are determined to do all we can to help the survivors with the healing process," the group wrote.

 Second Mile also is seeking to dismiss a lawsuit that asked a judge to prevent it from transferring any financial assets. Last week, lawyers who said they represent one of the alleged victims filed a suit in the Court of Common Pleas in Philadelphia seeking an injunction, because alleged victims of abuse might seek monetary damages from the nonprofit.

 Attorneys for Second Mile have argued that the plaintiffs' complaint should be denied on numerous grounds, including that there has yet to be a lawsuit brought seeking damages, that there are no facts supporting allegations that the charity is "dissipating" its assets, and that the suit was brought in the wrong jurisdiction.

 Moreover, Second Mile's attorneys argued that the plaintiffs had failed to show any "immediate or irreparable harm," because there is no evidence that the charity is transferring its assets.

 The plaintiffs lawyers didn't return calls seeking comment on Tuesday.

 Write to Kris Maher at kris.maher@wsj.com ||||| Nov. 5, 2011: In this photo provided by the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General, former Penn State football defensive coordinator Gerald "Jerry" Sandusky, center, is placed in a police car in Bellefonte, Pa. to be taken to the office of a Centre County Magisterial District judge.AP

 All of the alleged victims identified in the child sex charges against disgraced ex-Penn State coach Jerry Sandusky are expected to testify next month in open court, a lawyer for one of the victims told FoxNews.com, despite claims by Sandusky's defense team that some of the victims would recant.

 Slade McLaughlin, one of two Philadelphia-area attorneys representing "Victim One," suggested there was little doubt about the testimony.

 "In ordinary course of things, it would be expected that all victims would testify," McLaughlin said.

 Sandusky is accused of sexually abusing eight young boys over 15 years, allegedly using his charity The Second Mile to find his victims. The grand jury report notes that two of the victims have not been identified despite eyewitness accounts.

 The other six are expected to take the stand at the upcoming hearing set for Dec. 13, including the Clinton County youth known so far only as Victim One. The alleged victim kickstarted the investigation by telling authorities he was being abused by Sandusky, a former defensive coordinator under legendary football coach Joe Paterno.

 The case has engulfed Penn State in scandal over how school officials responded to what they knew about the allegations, and it led to the firing of Paterno and the university's president. Two other school officials were hit with charges of perjury and failure to report allegations of child abuse to authorities as required by law.

 McLaughlin said he and Michael Boni were retained last week by Victim One and have been busy preparing their client for the hearing. The victim, now 18, is still experiencing emotional turmoil over the abuse by Sandusky, McLaughlin said.

 Sandusky's attorney Joseph Amendola has said repeatedly that some of the alleged victims would recant their allegations. He also has said one of the victims cited in the grand jury report would be coming forward with a different story, casting doubt on the allegations involving him.

 Amendola downplayed the upcoming testimony in an email Tuesday to FoxNews.com.

 "We believe there's a significant possibility at least one and perhaps two of the alleged victims may testify no sexual contact occurred between them and Jerry Sandusky," he said, while acknowledging that others likely will claim "sexual acts" or "inappropriate touching" occurred.

 Sandusky has denied the charges against him, though he admitted in a TV interview that he had showered with boys after camp workouts. |||||


Write a summary based on this article:

 An Austrian climber at Yosemite National Park whose thumb was severed by a rope during a fall from El Capitan had the digit reattached after it dropped about 80 feet down the granite face and was recovered from a small ledge.

 "The severed thumb miraculously fell approximately 80 feet and landed on a two foot by one foot ledge," park officials said in a statement released Wednesday afternoon.

 The incident began Monday afternoon as two rock climbers, on their second day of traversing the famed monolith, were about 1,000 below the summit, officials said. ||||| Search this park Search nps.gov

 view map text size: printer friendly Yosemite National Park

 Yosemite National Park Successfully Conducts Rescue on El Capitan Subscribe | What is RSS Date: September 28, 2011 September 28, 2011 High Angle Rescue of Austrian Climber who Severed Thumb

 Yosemite National Park Search and Rescue Park Rangers completed a complex, high angle, helicopter rescue on El Capitan on Monday afternoon, September 26, 2011, in which an Austrian climber severed his thumb.

 Two rock climbers were ascending El Capitan on The Nose Route, a popular and difficult climbing route on the 7,569 granite monolith in Yosemite Valley. After two days of climbing, the climbers were approximately 1,000 feet below the summit. In mid-afternoon, the lead climber sustained a fall that was not life threatening. However, during the fall, a secondary rope became wrapped around his right thumb, severing the appendage clean from the hand. The severed thumb miraculously fell approximately 80 feet and landed on a two foot by one foot ledge. The climbing partner was able to retrieve the thumb and the pair called the Yosemite National Park Emergency Communication Center seeking emergency assistance.

 At 3:50 p.m., the park's contract helicopter, piloted by Richard Shatto, along with Helitec Crewmembers Jeff Pirog and Eric Small, and Yosemite Park Rangers Jeff Webb and Dave Pope, flew from Yosemite Valley to assess the situation. Although the weather was favorable with light winds, impending darkness was an issue and Incident Commander, Yosemite Valley District Ranger Eric Gabriel, made the decision to attempt to extract the climber via short-haul. This is a technique where Park Rangers are suspended from a rope below the helicopter to remove the climber from the wall. Gabriel, who had consulted with the park's medical clinic, knew of the short window of time in which the thumb could successfully be reattached and felt the complex mission was worth pursuing. The helicopter hovered near the climbers and Park Rangers Webb and Pope were successfully short-hauled to the injured party. Once on the wall, the injured climber was transported back to El Capitan Meadow via helicopter. On the ground, the climber was transferred to another air medical helicopter to be flown out of the park. Webb remained with the partner overnight and was raised approximately 1,000 feet the following day to the summit using traditional rock-rescue technique.

 Later that evening, the injured climber underwent surgery at the California Pacific Medical Center, Davies Campus, in San Francisco, where his thumb was successfully reattached.

 "This was an incredibly technical and complex rescue mission with a lot of inherent risk. However, knowing that the thumb could be reattached, coupled with the confidence I have in my team, I made the decision to attempt this rescue. I was relieved, and thrilled, that this ended successfully and we were able to make a positive difference in this person's life," stated Gabriel.

 Yosemite National Park Search and Rescue conducts hundreds of rescues each year. These range from lost hikers to complex technical rescues like the one described above. The efforts in this incident highlight the skill, dedication, and commitment to service that exemplifies the Search and Rescue team in Yosemite National Park.

 CANCEL You are exiting the National Park Service website Thank you for visiting our site. You will now be redirected to:

 We hope your visit was informative and enjoyable. |||||

– After a season of untimely deaths at Yosemite comes an amazing survival story—starring a thumb. A climber was scaling the park's El Capitan granite monolith Monday afternoon when he fell, causing a climbing rope to sever his right thumb and send it bouncing down the rock face, the Los Angeles Times reports. Luckily, the severed digit landed on a small ledge 80 feet below, where the climber's buddy retrieved it. Rangers suspended by rope from a helicopter managed to reach the climbers and get the injured man—along with his thumb—to the hospital in time for it to be reattached. "This was an incredibly technical and complex rescue mission with a lot of inherent risk," their commander says, according to the National Park Service website. "I was relieved, and thrilled, that this ended successfully."


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MINSK, Belarus (AP) — President Alexander Lukashenko was expected to win a fifth term in Sunday's election with ease, but he said anything much less than 80 percent of the vote would be a sign that his support was slipping.

 An elderly woman casts her ballot at a polling station during the presidential election in the village of Smilovichi, 48 km (30 miles) east of Minsk, Belarus, Sunday, Oct. 11, 2015. A presidential election... (Associated Press)

 Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko with his youngest son Nikolai casts his ballot at a polling station, during the presidential election, in Minsk, Belarus, Sunday, Oct. 11, 2015. A presidential... (Associated Press)

 A Belarusian woman with her son casts a ballot at a polling station during presidential elections in Minsk, Belarus, Sunday, Oct. 11, 2015. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits) (Associated Press)

 Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko with his youngest son Nikolai casts his ballot at a polling station during the presidential election in Minsk, Belarus, Sunday, Oct. 11, 2015. A presidential... (Associated Press)

 Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko smiles at a polling station after voting during the presidential election in Minsk, Belarus, Sunday, Oct. 11, 2015. A presidential election was under way Sunday... (Associated Press)

 Belarusian army soldiers examine a candidates list with a portrait of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko at a polling station during presidential elections in Minsk, Belarus, Sunday, Oct. 11, 2015.... (Associated Press)

 Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, right, bows to observers as he arrives at a polling station during the presidential election in Minsk, Belarus, Sunday, Oct. 11, 2015. A presidential election... (Associated Press)

 The authoritarian leader faced no serious competition in the election, which was boycotted by the opposition.

 Even before polls opened in the former Soviet republic, the Central Election Commission announced that 36 percent of the 7 million registered voters had cast their ballots during five days of early voting. By 4 p.m. (1300 GMT) on election day, the official turnout was nearly 75 percent, even though many polling stations in the capital and nearby villages were nearly empty.

 Opposition leaders denounced the early voting as an ideal instrument for falsifying the result. International observers also raised concerns.

 "It is very unusual for us to find that a country has an election so many days," James Walsh, who heads the delegation from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe's Parliamentary Assembly, told The Associated Press. "Most democracies have a challenge in getting its citizens ... to come out and vote."

 Walsh said the observers have questions about the security of the ballot boxes, a concern also raised by the opposition.

 "For five nights, no one was guarding the ballot boxes and the authorities could do anything they liked with them," said Anatoly Lebedko, the leader of the opposition United Civil Party.

 Lukashenko said it would be a bad sign if he received fewer votes than during the last election in 2010, when he won 79.65 percent.

 "That would mean that people were beginning to move away and were dissatisfied with some of my policies," the president said after voting in Minsk, the Belarusian capital. "Therefore for me it is very important: If Lukashenko wins, that I retain what was there in the past election."

 Lukashenko, 61, appeared at the polling station with his 11-year-old son, Nikolai, who was wearing the same suit and tie as his father.

 An independent institute of socio-economic and political research put Lukashenko's support at about 46 percent in September, while the official state sociology institute tallied his support at 76 percent.

 Lukashenko faced three nominal rivals in the election: the leaders of two pro-government parties, Sergei Gaidukevich and Nikolai Ulakhovich, and little known opposition activist Tatyana Korotkevich. Prominent opposition figures either were barred from running or decided against trying to get on the ballot for an election they considered a farce.

 During his 21 years of rule, Lukashenko has cracked down on dissent while cultivating an image of a strong leader capable of guaranteeing order and stability.

 "Oh, life has become harder, but Lukashenko promises stability and peace," said 68-year-old Tamara Krylovich after voting in Minsk. "Look at what democracy brought in Ukraine — war and poverty."

 Lukashenko has largely preserved the state-controlled Soviet type of economy, albeit with the help of cheap Russian gas and Western loans. The unreformed economy may be sputtering, but it still puts bread on the tables of pensioners and workers at unprofitable state factories.

 But Anton Gurevich, a 41-year-old automobile factory worker, said it was time for a change.

 "I have lived half of my life with Lukashenko, but life has not gotten better," he said. "After all, the leadership should change, there should be changes."

 Lukashenko said he was prepared to introduce economic reforms if the Belarusian people were prepared for the difficulties they would bring.

 "If you give me carte blanche for any destruction and any revolutionary transformations, if that is what you want, then for God's sake we will do it," he said. "The issue is not me, the issue is society."

 Lukashenko had allowed opposition candidates to run in past presidential elections, although none of the votes was recognized in the West as free or fair.

 In 2010, most of the candidates who opposed him were arrested soon after the polls closed. Police also detained hundreds of opposition supporters while violently dispersing an election night protest that drew tens of thousands onto the street.

 One of the former candidates, Nikolai Statkevich, spent nearly five years in prison until Lukashenko unexpectedly pardoned him in August along with all five other remaining political prisoners. Their release was seen as an effort to improve relations with the West, which imposed sanctions on Belarus in response to the crackdown on dissent.

 On Friday, a European Union official said the EU may suspend its sanctions on Belarus.

 The opposition has called on its supporters to join a protest after polls close on Sunday night. The protest was expected to be relatively small and to be allowed to proceed peacefully. Police didn't interfere with an opposition demonstration on Saturday involving about 1,000 protesters. ||||| There are many dictators around the world who are well-known for their oppressive ruling of countries, such as Kim Jong Un. But there are many others that operate under the radar of the world media. They may not have a direct connection to the West or have a nuclear arsenal at their disposal, but their despotic actions need to be known. So we’ve decided to put together a list of the worst of the worst. Six rulers who have been profiled on OZY and are among the cruelest, most corrupt despots around today. They may hail from countries as different as Eritrea and Laos, but what they share is a shocking disregard for human rights and seemingly unfettered power to persecute their own.

 You may not recognize the name, but this 77-year-old ruler of Uzbekistan has one of the most abysmal human rights records in the world today. For 24 years running, the Central Asian nation near the Caspian Sea has been terrorized by its own leader, who has killed thousands of unarmed protesters, forced children to work in slavelike conditions and imprisoned thousands for their religious beliefs. Karimov has even executed prisoners without a trial, according to our reporting, including boiling a couple to death. Read more here.

 Since taking over Gambia in a 1994 coup, President Jammeh — or “His Excellency,” as he prefers to be called — has ruled the country with a lethal mix of fear, repression and murder. He’s been know to fire into crowds of peaceful protesters, has imprisoned people for suspected witchcraft and, at one depressive point, demanded homosexual persons leave the country within 24 hours or face the possibility of being beheaded. Read more here.

 This 69-year-old has been the president of Eritrea since its 1991 independence, and yet not a single citizen has ever voted for him. And why would they? It’s been 24 years of crushing despotism, where torture is routine, prisons are overstuffed and everyone from the age of 15 to 70 is forced into indefinite military service. Not only that, but Afwerki’s administration has reportedly imprisoned thousands of people based on their political affiliations. Read more here.

 This guy is far from being a noble individual. Mswati has used his concentrated power in Swaziland, the last absolute monarchy in Africa, to feed his every despotic need. For one, he is reported to force young women to marry him whenever the spirit moves him (or about every two years), because polygamy is, no surprise, legal in Swaziland. He’s also not really interested in democracy or feeding the poor or finding jobs for the 23 percent of the population that is currently unemployed. This despot, who became king at 18, has a total of 15 wives and an indefinite number of luxury cars. He may cut a cartoonish figure, but his corrupt ways are no laughing matter. Read more here.

 Condoleezza Rice has called him “Europe’s last dictator,” and he’s playing his role to the hilt. President of Belarus for more than two decades, Lukashenko has ruled the former Soviet state with an iron fist that would make the Kremlin proud. He censors the press, sends human rights activists to labor camps and gets rid of political rivals, either by throwing them in jail or, in the case of his former prime minister and head of the opposition, making them disappear. Read more here.

 The president of Laos may be 79 years old, wear spectacles and have thinning hair, but his mild appearance masks a tyrannical personality. Boasting a record of human rights violations as long as the Mekong River traversing this Southeast Asian country, Sayasone’s government owns all newspapers, TV stations and radio stations, effectively snuffing all free expression. And if anyone manages to rise above these restrictions, they’re bound to be imprisoned or even disappear. Read more here. |||||

– Kim Jong Un is a terrible, murderous despot, but he's not the only Dr. Evil on the block. Ozy runs through some of the equally ruthless dictators who you've likely never heard of: Alexander Lukashenko: The Belarusian president Condi Rice once called "Europe's last dictator" just got a fifth term in an election that was basically uncontested, reports the AP. Among his charms: A penchant for sending his foes to labor camps, or just making them disappear. King Mswati III: Swaziland's ruler presides over Africa's lone remaining absolute monarchy, and uses his power to marry young girls (15 wives to date) while not doing much in the way of actual ruling (unemployment sits at 23%). Isaias Afwerki: The Eritrean president of 24 years is into torture, imprisoning political foes, and indefinite compulsory military service. Yahya Jammeh: Gambia's president seized power in 1994, and has since fired at peaceful crowds of protesters, tossed suspected witches in jail, and once demanded all gay people leave within 24 hours on threat of being beheaded. For the full list, which includes a mild-mannered 79-year-old who enforces state-sanctioned abductions, head over to Ozy.


– In the Deep South, a predilection for proper manners often means the temptation to tell someone off is replaced with a "Bless your heart." But an obituary that appeared last month in a North Carolina newspaper flouted politeness, and at least one family member isn't happy, KDVR reports. The death notice for Cornelia June Rogers Miller, who died in February, ran in Murphy's Cherokee Scout newspaper, and it wasn't a flattering depiction of the great-grandmother, who "died alone after a long battle with drug addiction and depression." "Drugs were a major love in her life as June had no hobbies, made no contribution to society, and rarely shared a kind word or deed in her life," the obituary says. "We speak for the majority of her family when we say her presence will not be missed by many, very few tears will be shed, and there will be no lamenting over her passing." All of which has her son, Robert Miller, fuming—and he thinks he knows who placed the obituary. "It's unbelievable that my sisters would write this," he tells WTVC, noting his mom was a "loving, generous woman." WTVC managed to track down one of his two sisters, and she tells the station she didn't write the obituary, calling it "tragic." To make matters worse, it appears parts of the obituary may have been plagiarized from one written for someone in California in 2008. "[She] doesn't even have the integrity to write something for herself," Miller says, apparently referring to the sister he thinks trashed their mom. The Cherokee Scout publisher says the paper scans all submitted obituaries but notes they won't change anything unless there's a solid reason. "The family's will overrode the editor," he says. Miller says he sent in a new obituary to replace the printed one. (It's not the first scathing obituary.)

Expand this summary.

MURPHY, N.C. — A family is searching for the person responsible for writing a scathing obituary of a woman that said her “presence will not be missed by many.”

 Cornelia June Rogers Miller died in February, WTVC reports. Nearly four months later, an obituary posted by the Cherokee Scout in Murphy, North Carolina, is making its way around social media.

 Miller lived in Florida and had a summer home in Murphy.

 The obituary reads, in part, “Drugs were a major love in her life as June had no hobbies, made no contribution to society and rarely shared a kind word or deed in her life. Please let June Miller’s life be a cautionary tale. Addiction and hatred are no es bueno for the living.

 “We speak for the majority of her family when we say her presence will not be missed by many, very few tears will be shed, and there will be no lamenting over her passing.”

 HAVE YOU SEEN THIS?! This obituary was posted in the @theScoutnews over the weekend. What do you think about it? pic.twitter.com/v2JGzWOCaE — Stephanie Santostasi (@Stephanie_NC9) July 3, 2017

 Upset, Miller’s son Robert responded to the obituary, saying it’s untrue.

 Robert Miller blamed the writing on his sisters, although one sister said she didn’t write it, and called the obituary tragic and sad.

 After the obituary appeared, a viewer contacted WTVC to say it appeared some sections were plagiarized. Several sections are similar to the 2008 obituary for Dolores Aguilar ran in the Vallejo Times Herald in California.

 “Unbelievable. [She] doesn’t even have the integrity to write something for herself – just goes out and steals something,” Miller told WTVC. ||||| Cornelia June Rogers Miller passed away in February of 2017, but her recent obituary has gone viral, stirring up controversy in her family and online. (Image: Robert Miller)

 FOLLOW-UP:

 On Thursday, we reported that this obituary had been partly plagiarized from a 2008 obit notice that appeared in a San Francisco newspaper. Watch the update here.

 PREVIOUSLY:

 Obituaries are published in newspapers every day, but you've probably never read one like the one you're about to read.

 Friday, the Cherokee Scout in Murphy, North Carolina posted an obituary for Cornelia June Rogers Miller.

 She lived in Florida, but had a summer home in Murphy - a small town where the views are breathtaking.

 June and her husband visited often.

 "Once my father retired, they would go up to Murphy pretty much whenever they liked to. They would go for a weekend in the winter," said Robert Miller, June's oldest son.

 Miller says it wasn't until last year that his father had to sell the summer home in Murphy. It was becoming too much for the couple to make the drive from Florida.

 Eventually, they both ended up in an assisted living facility.

 "He was actually her roommate at the facility," Miller told NewsChannel 9.

 According to the obituary in the Cherokee Scout, June died in February.

 "She was 82 years old, I believe, so she had a variety of complications," Miller explained when we asked how she passed.

 It wasn't until last week though, nearly four months after her death, that the obituary showed up in the paper.

 Part of it reads: "There will be no service, no prayers, and no closure for the family she spent a lifetime tearing apart."

 We sent it to June's son.

 "The whole thing is just sad," Miller said.

 It most obituaries, you find a message honoring a person's life. That's not the case here.

 Another part read: "Drugs were a major love in her life as June had no hobbies, made no contribution to society and rarely shared a kind word or deed in her life."

 It goes on to say: "We speak for the majority of the family when we say her presence will not be missed by many."

 As we showed the obit to people in Murphy, they couldn't believe it. "Yeah, it's disturbing," said one man.

 So, who wrote the obituary about June? We still don't know.

 But, June's son Robert has an idea.

 "It's unbelievable that my sisters would write this," he said.

 We tracked down one of his sisters, but she says she didn't write it either.

 She called the obituary very tragic and very sad.

 "It's really sad that they don't have anything better to do," Miller added.

 Robert just hopes the memories his father and mother shared in Murphy won't ever be forgotten, and wants his mother to be remembered as a loving, generous woman.

 Miller tells us he sent a new obit to the paper that will run next week.

 We wanted to know if the Cherokee Scout considered rejecting the obituary. When we asked, publisher David Brown said, "the family's will overrode the editor."

 Brown told us the paper does look through each obituary and they feel they should only edit something if there is a very compelling reason to do so.

 Brown wouldn't say who sent the original obituary in.

  |||||


Article:
President Obama will hold a meeting with Democrats on Capitol Hill on Wednesday to discuss how to protect the Affordable Care Act next year against Republican efforts to dismantle his signature domestic achievement.

 The meeting will include both House and Senate Democrats, a senior Democratic aide confirmed. The meeting was first reported by Politico .

 Republicans are planning a rapid repeal of the Affordable Care Act early next year, a move that would finally fulfill a GOP campaign promise but also throw the country's health insurance markets into uncertainty. Republican leaders have said they may delay the repeal's effective date for as long as three years to allow time to implement a replacement.

 Democrats are divided on how best to salvage Obamacare. Some have expressed a willingness to work with Republicans on a replacement to the law, but almost all are united against attempts to repeal it. Incoming Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has promised to try and block Republicans' repeal efforts next year, as well as a conservative replacement.

 "They have nothing to put in its place," Schumer said earlier this month. "To our Republican friends across the aisle, bring it on."

 More than 20 million people have insurance as a result of the legislation, including people under the age of 26 who are allowed to stay on their parents' plans and people with preexisting conditions. Obama has credited the law for slowing the growth in the rise of health care costs. The law's critics have taken aim at rising premiums in certain states.

 President-Elect Donald Trump has promised to keep in place some of the more popular aspects of the law, including prohibiting insurance from denying coverage to people with preexisting conditions. Health policy experts widely consider such cherry-picking to be unworkable, since the popular elements of the law are paid for by more unpopular elements like the mandate that people have insurance or pay a fine. ||||| The meeting is at 9 a.m. in the Congressional Visitors Center auditorium. | Getty Obama to huddle with Hill Democrats on saving Obamacare

 President Barack Obama will head to Capitol Hill Wednesday to meet with congressional Democrats about how to shield Obamacare from Republican efforts to dismantle it, a Capitol Hill source told POLITICO.

 The meeting is at 9 a.m. in the Congressional Visitors Center auditorium and is for both House and Senate Democrats, according to a notice sent to members Friday morning.

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 With Republican vowing to begin repealing Obamacare almost immediately when the 115th Congress convenes next week, Democratic lawmakers are immersed in strategy sessions on how to protect the nearly seven-year-old health care law.

 Incoming Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) has promised to stand firm against repeal efforts and subsequently, Republican efforts to replace the Affordable Care Act with a more conservative framework. And a conference call convened by House Democrats earlier this week focused largely on emphasizing the benefits of Obamacare, with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) noting that she sees parallels between the current situation and the 2005 effort by then-President George W. Bush to privatize Social Security, according to an aide on the call.

 “The Affordable Care Act has been successful in meeting its goals of reducing cost, increasing access and improving quality of care,” Pelosi wrote to members in a “Dear Colleague” letter this week.

 Democrats are also launching a broader health care offensive against Republicans that focuses not only on their push to repeal Obamacare but any prospective efforts from the GOP to overhaul Medicare and Medicaid. To that end, Democrats, led by Schumer, Pelosi and liberal firebrand Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) — will host a so-called “day of action” on Jan. 15 that is meant to rev up grass roots support for shielding social safety net programs.

 “Beginning in January, it is likely that Republican leaders in Congress will follow through on their threats to ram through a budget bill that will severely undermine the health care needs of the American people,” the three lawmakers wrote in a "Dear Colleague" letter circulated earlier this week.

 Though most legislation generally needs 60 votes to advance in the Senate, Republicans can do away with significant portions of Obamacare with a simple majority by using a parliamentary move called “reconciliation,” which undercuts a filibuster. The GOP is also mulling a lengthy transition period for Obamacare repeal, meaning that the law would not actually be abolished for years — buying Republicans time to craft a replacement.

 Still, if the pillars of Obamacare are successfully dismantled, moderate Democrats — particularly those senators up for reelection in 2018 — could come under considerable pressure to help Republicans replace the law and are already openly entertaining that option.

 Incoming House Democratic Caucus Chairman Joe Crowley of New York said the meeting will likely include discussion of other policy matters in addition to Obamacare — such as the Dodd-Frank financial law and environmental issues.

 “There are a myriad of issues he could address," Crowley said in an interview Friday. "As he retires from public office, we’re left to defend the advancements he’s made. Not only as a party, but as a people.”

 Darren Samuelsohn contributed to this report.

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– President Obama looks genuinely worried about the fate of ObamaCare: He will meet Wednesday morning with House and Senate Democrats to plot strategy on how to prevent Republicans from killing it, reports Politico. The problem for Democrats is that there may not be much they can do in the near future. As both Politico and the Hill point out, Republicans can pass a repeal measure without any Democratic support through a legislative maneuver known as a reconciliation vote. The procedure requires only a simple majority, not 60 votes, and the GOP has promised to move on it immediately in the new year. The caveat is that, assuming repeal passes, Republicans are expected to delay the actual dismantling of the law for quite a while to give them time to craft a replacement. That delay could be as long as three years, reports Time. So what can Democrats do? For one thing, raise political pressure. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer and his House counterpart, Nancy Pelosi, plan rallies next month, and ObamaCare advocates promise to flood the airwaves with ads in states such as Arizona and Nevada, where they think GOP senators might be swayed. The idea is not only to try to block repeal itself but to keep as much of the law in place as possible if repeal passes. President-elect Trump, for example, has said he would like to keep parts of ObamaCare intact, notably protections for those with pre-existing conditions. The White House said this month that 6.4 million people had signed up for ObamaCare before a Dec. 19 deadline, up 400,000 from the previous year.


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Mark Cuban found himself on the sidelines of controversy last month, when the NBA banned Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling for life over racist comments. Now in a video interview with Inc., Cuban weighs in on what he does to combat the bigotry and racism he comes across as a manager and an owner.

 That’s an internal battle as well, he acknowledges: "If I see a black kid in a hoodie and it’s late at night, I’m walking to the other side of the street. And if on that side of the street, there’s a guy that has tattoos all over his face--white guy, bald head, tattoos everywhere--I’m walking back to the other side of the street," he says.

 “I know that I’m not perfect,” he adds. “While we all have our prejudices and bigotries, we have to learn that it’s an issue that we have to control, that it’s part of my responsibility as an entrepreneur to try to solve it, not just to kick the problem down the road.”

 Last month, the often-outspoken Cuban condemned Sterling's comments as "abhorrent" and "obviously racist." He initially opposed calls to ban Sterling from the NBA, saying it would be a "very slippery slope" if the league forced an owner to sell the team. ||||| It's not the first time and probably won't be the last.

 Mavericks owner Mark Cuban is not shy about voicing his opinion - even when it comes to sensitive subjects. His comments about having his own prejudices and being a bigot in some ways, made during Inc. Magazine’s GROWCO 2014 conference, sparked a lot of national reaction on social media Thursday.

 Here's a sampling:

 The Daily Beast: But here’s what I know: the only way to address Cuban’s biases, and the views of millions of others who think like him, is to create a space where those views can be heard. Conversely, the way we get the Donald Sterlings of tomorrow is by shutting up the Mark Cubans of today. If the misguided views that each of us hold about other groups are allowed to fester in the dark, they will become more caustic, bitter.

 The Smoking Section: I can’t help but think this is just a well thought out attempt to push NBA Commissioner Adam Silver’s buttons. This is strictly hypothesis but Cuban is too smart so just get caught up in the middle of an interview saying something semi-racist. I bet Cuban is sitting back and enjoying how uncomfortable he’s probably made Silver today.

 Washington Post: Is Cuban right? Is everyone a little bit racist? Anthony G. Greenwald, professor of psychology at the University of Washington in Seattle: "He’s not alone. People who regard themselves as fair and unbiased nevertheless can engage in judgments and actions that are biased in ways that they don’t even recognize. What’s unusual about Mark Cuban in this case is that he recognizes it."

 Mediaite: Don Lemon and Marc Lamont Hill had very different reactions to Cuban. “I don’t understand the controversy really,” Lemon said. “I think he was very honest. And I think we cannot have it both ways where we say we have to talk about race, we have to talk about race. And the moment someone like Mark Cuban, who is known not to be a racist, who doesn’t have racist history, is honest about race, we want to shut him up.” “I’ll still call him racist, though,” Hill chimed in.

 Orlando Sentinel: What’s the world coming to when you can’t even be honest and forthright about societal issues without being barbecued by the racial riot patrol? Because Cuban had the gall to state the truth — that he is sometimes fearful of tatted-up white skinheads and young black men wearing gangsta hoodies — he has ludicrously been labeled a racist by some. I wonder if the people who call Cuban a racist would say Jesse Jackson is also a racist?

 Fox News Radio: He (Cuban) has tried to defend himself, but it is of little use. Once you admit to expressing fear of a black kid in a hoodie, you are George Zimmerman, the kid is Trayvon Martin, and the case is closed. Who wants to suffer the consequences now facing Mark Cuban because he thought an honest conversation on race was what the country wanted and needed.

 Atlanta Falcons defensive end Osi Umenyiora on Twitter: Guess what Mark Cuban? If i see a black man wearing a hoodie in the middle of the night, I'm crossing the street also! We all have prejudices. That's just being honest. It's how we address them that seperates us.

 Boston.com: Taken out of context, the quote about Cuban crossing the street would seem to put him at risk of suffering the same backlash Sterling did. Watch the entire interview, however, and it becomes clear Cuban is trying to articulate the internal battle with bigotry we all face. By admitting his feelings, albeit in a slightly awkward way, Cuban is trying to start a conversation on the issues at play here. It's jarring, yes, but probably also necessary.

 Sports.yahoo.com: By calling out his own misguided thoughts though, Cuban offered an example that others, undoubtedly, have also engaged. Perhaps it allows them to see the mistake the way he has. Either way, this is a far better country when people are capable of acknowledging the areas they need to grow and try to speak openly and honestly about it, than one in which they are absurdly too afraid to say even innocent, descriptive words, even in private conversations about positive topics.

 Bill Plaschke of the Los Angeles Times: Cuban’s words drift far too close to Donald Sterling for comfort. By acknowledging a fear of a “black kid in a hoodie … late at night,” Cuban is admitting he would be wary of many of his own players and fans simply because of their skin color and wardrobe. He is essentially saying he would be fearful of honor students walking to their cars on a chilly Dallas night if they were black and wearing sweat shirts.

 Foxsports.com: God love Mark Cuban for being an NBA owner who didn't see the ongoing Donald Sterling mushroom cloud and think, "You know what, maybe I'll avoid talking about race today in a business interview. Maybe it's not the right time to talk about who I cross the street to avoid. Maybe it's not the right time to admit that I sometimes judge people based on what they look like." Nope, Mark Cuban saw all this controversy and thought, "Now's the perfect time for me to talk about race in America today."

 Former NFL punter Chris Kluwe in a video on foxsports.com: "To Mark Cuban I say, thank you for saying what we all know. But use a little bit more context next time. Hopefully people will understand that this is a quote that has to be taken in context because we know Mark Cuban isn't a bigot. We know Mark Cuban isn't prejudiced and the point he's making is a good one: We all have that little voice. We all need to understand that acting on that little voice is what defines us as people. So remember, don't act on that little voice. It leads to bad things."

 ESPN host Stephen A. Smith: "I took no issue whatsoever with what Mark Cuban said ... not only because he was forthright, very candid and honest ... but also he happens to be correct."

 Businessinsider.com: Mark Cuban's controversial interview during Inc.'s GrowCo conference has led to a lot of intense debate on race and prejudice and whether Cuban's remarks went too far. But the comments also suggest the NBA may have a bigger problem than just dealing with Cuban's remarks. Cuban's comments may be an indication that NBA owners are not unified behind commissioner Adam Silver's efforts to oust Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling.

 NewYorker.com: Most of the attention has been paid to Cuban’s candid discussion of his own prejudices—and of his examples of people he crosses the street to avoid. But it is worth considering what Cuban says, a moment earlier in the interview, about the progress that has been made by minority communities in America: "We’ve come a long way, and with that progress comes a price." The word that stands out here is “price,” as if by working toward a more inclusive and tolerant society we have lost something important. But just what might that be? The right for people to lean on archaic religious arguments to excuse modern injustices toward gay people? Or for Donald Sterling to reserve the right to go on living in some combination of the eighteen-fifties and the nineteen-fifties? Perhaps some people are allowed to say less today, but many people are finally free to say more. ||||| Add a location to your Tweets

 When you tweet with a location, Twitter stores that location. You can switch location on/off before each Tweet and always have the option to delete your location history. Learn more ||||| Story highlights Mark Cuban: Everyone has some form of prejudice

 He says he's made uneasy by black kids in hoodies, bald white guys with tattoos

 The analogy is a poor one, CNN commentator LZ Granderson says

 Cuban apologizes to Trayvon Martin's family for using hoodie reference

 Mark Cuban is known for making pointed statements. Usually they are directed at the NBA brass or referees. Or contestants on the TV show "Shark Tank."

 On Wednesday, he made a few remarks about bigotry that in light of the Donald Sterling scandal caused a bit of an uproar.

 In an interview with Inc. magazine at a business conference in Nashville, Tennessee, the Dallas Mavericks owner and billionaire entrepreneur talked about his own bigotry.

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 "If I see a black kid in a hoodie and it's late at night, I'm walking to the other side of the street," he said. "And if on that side of the street, there's a guy that has tattoos all over his face -- white guy, bald head, tattoos everywhere -- I'm walking back to the other side of the street."

 Cuban said everyone has prejudices "in one way or the other."

 The Mavericks owner issued a five-part tweet Thursday afternoon in which he apologized to Trayvon Martin 's parents for the hoodie reference, but stood by the context of his answers and called for more tolerance.

 Martin, a Florida teenager, was wearing a hoodie when he was killed by neighborhood watch captain George Zimmerman in 2012. The case sparked a heated nationwide discussion about race as well as a debate over Florida's "stand your ground" law.

 Cuban wrote: "I think that helping people improve their lives, helping people engage with people they may fear or may not understand, and helping people realize that while we all may have our prejudices and bigotries, we have to learn that it's an issue that we have to control, that it's part of my responsibility as an entrepreneur to try to solve it."

 CNN commentator and ESPN senior writer LZ Granderson said he thought Cuban was trying to have a nuanced conversation but didn't do it very well.

 Granderson said he was disturbed that Cuban equated the hoodie stereotype -- something he said has led to unjust treatment of African-Americans and even killings -- to the stereotype of the tattooed white man.

 "One has history and the other doesn't or the same sort of emotional response," Granderson said.

 Cuban is one of 30 NBA owners who'll decide whether racist remarks made by Sterling are damaging enough to terminate his ownership rights to the Los Angeles Clippers. Cuban told business owners during a Q&A session that he knows how he will vote but wasn't ready to announce his decision.

 Granderson still expects Cuban to vote against Sterling on June 3 when the NBA Board of Governors meets to decide the fate of the Clippers franchise.

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 "If you listen to the entire interview, he certainly made it sound as if he's going to vote Sterling out, but not without some regret," Granderson said. "And he voiced that regret, which is we all have bigotry."

 In his interview Cuban said when he runs into bigotry in his organizations, he tries to find solutions.

 It does society no good to respond to someone's racism or bigotry by telling them to "go take their attitude somewhere else," he said.

 It's better to work with them and teach them why their views are wrong.

 When Cuban was asked how you keep bigotry out of the NBA, where he has been an owner since 2000, he told the conference audience: "You can't keep that ugliness out of the league. There's no law against stupid. I learned that a long time ago." ||||| When Mark Cuban took the stage Wednesday at Inc.'s GrowCo conference in Nashville in front of 900-some attendees, Inc. president and editor-in-chief Eric Schurenberg re-confirmed an agreement the two had made before the interview: It was going to be a no-holds-barred conversation. More than an hour later, after Cuban had touched on everything from what the Sharks of Shark Tank are really like off camera and why he thinks of himself as a bigot, it's clear no such agreement was necessary.

 In case you missed the streamed interview live with the outspoken uber-entrepreneur, here are some of the highlights.

 On whether he was destined to be a billionaire

 "Oh, hell no. I make sure I don't pinch myself so I don't wake up. All the time I say to myself, why me? Some things are random."

 On his first entrepreneurial venture

 Cuban is best known for his tech companies, but his first business was decidedly low tech. As a junior in college--and at the age of 20--he took his student loan money and bought a nearby campus bar. It quickly became the hottest spot in the area because it was notorious for not really checking IDs. Everything went swimmingly until the bar held a wet T-shirt contest. When the local newspapers covered the event, they eventually ID'd one of the contestants as a 16-year-old girl. "But she was on probation for prostitution! That got us closed down," Cuban said.

 On how he made his billions

 Cuban's first big startup success was an early software company called Micro Solutions, which he started for $500 and sold seven years later for $6 million. "I learned to party like a rock star," Cuban says. (That's when he traded his lifetime airline pass and bought a private plane for $41 million--still the record for the largest purchase ever online.)

 But Cuban hit it even bigger with Audio Net, a startup that figured out how to stream audio online before the internet really even had audio or video. It involved encoding an eight-hour VCR tape and streaming replays of radio casts to see if anyone really cared. It turns out people did care--a lot. "It was like the YouTube of the start of the internet. Soon they had deals with radio stations and sports teams. In 1999, at the height of the internet bubble, Cuban sold the company to Yahoo for $5.7 billion.

 On why bought the Mavericks when it was a losing franchise

 When Cuban picked up the Dallas Mavericks, they had been voted the worst team in the league. But Cuban, a self-professed "basketball junkie," was a season ticket holder. He went to the first game of the 1999-2000 season and it didn't sell out. "We were undefeated--it was the first game of the season. That's the time to be excited." But fans were not.

 So Cuban bought the team and immediately set out to change the culture. "I had to explain to the team and to the NBA what business we were in," he says. "It's not the basketball business. It's the business of creating experiences and memories."

 On whether the NBA was right to ban Clippers owner Donald Sterling for his racist remarks

 "I think [NBA commissioner] Adam [Silver] had to do it. There's a lot at stake for the NBA--it has to be a leader in the culture... but it's a slippery slope.

 "You can't keep that ugliness out of the league. There's no law against stupid--I learned that a long time ago," Cuban said.

 Cuban also admitted that prejudice is something everyone has to fight. "I know I'm bigoted in a lot of different ways. If I see a black kid in a hoodie and it's late at night, I'm walking to the other side of the street. And if on that side of the street, there's a guy that has tattoos all over his face--white guy, bald head, tattoos everywhere--I'm walking back to the other side of the street," he says. "No one has pure thoughts... but it's about recognizing when you have thoughts that aren't right." (For an exclusive interview where Cuban elaborates, check out this Inc. video.)

 On what he would do about patent laws

 "I'd get rid of software patents altogether."

 On what he's like as a boss

 "I'm a dick. Ha. Not really... I micromanage you until I trust you. It a back and forth continually... If I send you 30 emails I expect quick responses and direct action. Then we'll go to weekly reports. And I want the bad news first. I want to read, 'God dammit, we lost this sale.' I want to know the setbacks so that I can help you."

 On what the Sharks are really like off camera

 "People expect them to be the same off camera. Kevin is a jerk on camera, but he's an even bigger jerk off camera. He has his own way of doing business... There's a lot of tension on air... After 10 hour days and 10 days of shooting, you really feel like you want to knock this motherf*cker out."

 On his weaknesses |||||

– Here's a sign that your disquisition on race didn't go very well: You wind up apologizing to Trayvon Martin's family. That's the position Mark Cuban found himself in yesterday, after a perhaps-too-candid talk at Inc. magazine's GrowCo conference the day prior. Asked about the Donald Sterling controversy, the Dallas Mavericks owner said he was worried about being a hypocrite. The money quote, which he said in roughly these terms at the conference and reiterated in this video interview with Inc.: "I know I'm bigoted in a lot of different ways. If I see a black kid in a hoodie and it's late at night, I'm walking to the other side of the street. And if on that side of the street, there's a guy that has tattoos all over his face—white guy, bald head, tattoos everywhere—I'm walking back to the other side of the street." "I'm a bigot," Cuban said at the conference. "I think we're all bigots." Then he predicted, "I'm sure that'll be all over the place," and, lo, that prophesy came true. Critics and supporters have been vigorously decrying and defending Cuban's remarks (there's a good sample at the Dallas Morning News). Many, including ESPN commentator Bomani Jones and CNN commentator LZ Granderson, jumped on Cuban for making a false equivalency between black men in hoodies and white men with tattoos. "One has history and the other doesn't, or the same sort of emotional response," Granderson said. Later Cuban conceded that point at least, in a series of tweets: "In hindsight I should have used different examples. I didn't consider the Trayvon Martin family, and I apologize to them for that. Beyond apologizing to the Martin family, I stand by the words and substance of the interview."