Night Owls, a themed open thread, appears at Daily Kos seven days a week
Igor Derysh at Salon writes—Top US companies lay off thousands of workers while rewarding shareholders amid coronavirus pandemic:
Some of the largest companies in the U.S. have rewarded their shareholders amid the coronavirus pandemic after firing thousands of employees.
Companies like heavy machinery manufacturer Caterpillar, denim-maker Levi Strauss, toolmaker Stanley Black & Decker, furniture manufacturer Steelcase and World Wrestling Entertainment have doled out more than $700 million to shareholders in cash dividends while slashing jobs and shuttering facilities, The Washington Post reported. Many other companies have likewise rewarded shareholders while laying off workers.
Caterpillar, for example, announced a $500 million distribution to shareholders in early April, according to the report, about two weeks after it announced that it was “temporarily suspending operations at certain facilities.” The company did not say how many workers would be impacted. [...]
Levi Strauss announced that it would distribute $32 million to shareholders on April 7, the same day that the company said it would furlough retail workers. About 4,000 workers have been affected, according to The Post. [...]
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~~Alfred Tennyson, Harold: A Drama (1876)
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BLAST FROM THE PAST
At Daily Kos on this date in 2010—Nearly 40 Million Now on Food Stamps:
The actual paper stamps were phased out more than a decade ago and replaced with a debit-card system, and the name of the 46-year-old program was changed 18 months ago to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). But most people still call them food stamps. And as of February, the latest data available, a record 39.7 million Americans were using them to put meals on the table, 13% of the population. Just a year ago, 33.8 million people were using food stamps.
Though not without its problems, the program remains one of the government's greatest successes, a key remaining part of a shredded social safety net. Even with the soaring use of food stamps because of the recession, most recipients are not jobless but rather low-wage workers. Without that backstop, many more of them and their children would be going hungry in America. A peer-reviewed study in 2009 ("Estimating the Risk of Food Stamp Use and Impoverishment During Childhood") calculated that 49% of children will receive food-stamp benefits sometime before they are 20 years old. […]
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today’s Kagro in the Morning show:
OH Republicans are nuts. Worse, they’re threatening "Dr. Action!" Lincoln Memorial stunt Trumpier than first believed. McConnell to be investigated over judicial retirements? Joan McCarter warns us it's not just judges McConnell’s sneaking into place.