NASA didn’t decide one day, “let’s go to the moon” and then shot off a rocket in the general direction. They started, in 1958, with Project Mercury, which resulted in launching John Glenn into orbit in February 1962. The Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin beat him there by 10 months. Then NASA moved on to Project Gemini, which provided the tools needed to ensure that astronauts could survive and work in space, and finally advanced to Project Apollo that took mankind to the moon in July 1969.   I don’t imagine any of us have plans to become space explorers, although I could...

6 Months = 4 years?     For the last several generations, college was the gateway to the good life. High schools started offering fewer and fewer “shop classes”. Home Ec was a relic of the past, and college prep was the only post high school career path that any school counselor wanted to talk about.   And why not? College was (relatively) affordable, promised at least four years reprieve from the old 9 to 5 grind, and was a way to avoid standing next to your Father on an assembly line. At one time, college could even save you from going to war.   Then, the...

The immediate way forward appears to be bipartisan negotiations with Republicans.     $15 Minimum Wage – Not So Fast   The immediate increase of the federal minimum wage is dead, although Progressives in the Senate, led by Bernie Sanders (D), VT vowed to keep advocating for the increase.   The immediate way forward appears to be bipartisan negotiations with Republicans. Several Republicans, includes Minority Leader Mitch McConnell have indicated openness to a wage increase, but it is unlikely that this approach will bear immediate fruit in today’s hyper-partisan political climate.   While the $15-an-hour minimum wage has increasingly caught on in cities and states across the country over the...

"Both wage theft and misclassification are crimes that warrant felony treatment" Peter Neronha, RI Attorney General   Press Release UPRISE RI   AG Neronha testifies before Senate Labor Committee strengthen penalties for wage theft and misclassification     From a press release: Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha testified in the Senate Committee on Labor Wednesday evening in support of S0195, a bill that would increase penalties for both wage theft and the misclassification of employees as independent contractors in Rhode Island.   “There is an underground economy in Rhode Island where people are misclassified as independent contractors when they are really employees. That’s cheating workers and it’s cheating the state’s taxpayers,” said Attorney...

The Extraordinary Life of an Ordinary Woman   For all intents and purposes, Florence, was an unremarkable person. Diminutive, topping out at a mere five feet, my Mother never weighed more than 100 lbs. And, by her own admission, she was the spoiled youngest child in a family with 11 other children. Engaged to Bobby Hensel, Florence was securely ensconced in her comfort zone.   Then came WWII, and her comfort zone was gone. Bobby shipped off to Germany, and was one of the 75,000 casualties of the Battle of the Bulge, ending his life in the belly of a Sherman tank. It was during...