The Obama Administration Just Extended Overtime Pay to 4.2 Million Salaried Workers

 

The minimum salary for automatic eligibility for overtime will rise from $23,660 to $47,476.

The Obama administration on Tuesday unveiled the final version of a long-awaited and controversial rule to extend overtime pay to 4.2 million U.S. workers, which marks one of the administration’s most significant moves to address stagnant wages.

The rule, which has drawn intense criticism from business groups and Republicans, doubles the maximum annual income a salaried worker can earn and still be automatically eligible for overtime pay from $23,660 to $47,476 and requires that threshold to be updated every three years. It takes effect Dec. 1.

Officials said many workers will earn more money, an estimated total of $12 billion over the next decade, while others will work fewer hours for the same pay.

“More than 4 million workers are either going to be paid more or get time back to raise their family, go to school  or retrain to get a better job,” Vice President Joe Biden said during a phone call with reporters on Tuesday.

The White Residence estimates that the adjustment will certainly delivering overtime rights to 4.2 million workers that are currently excluded. It will certainly additionally clarify eligibility for one more 8.9 million workers that might or might not have actually overtime protections under The latest rules, officials said.

On a call along with reporters Tuesday, Labor Secretary Tom Perez said the reform was meant to treat “the two underpay and overwork.”

“The overtime rule is concerning making sure middle-class jobs pay middle-class wages,” Perez said. “Some will certainly see much more cash in their pockets … Some will certainly get hold of much more time along with their family … and everybody will certainly receive clarity on where they stand, so that they can easily stand up for their rights.”

Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., who will travel to Columbus, Ohio, on Wednesday to promote the new rules, said they touched on a core issue for Mr. Obama — ensuring that middle-class workers are treated fairly.

“The middle class is getting clobbered,” Mr. Biden told reporters. “If you work overtime, you should actually get paid for working overtime.”

“For the past 40 years, overtime protections have been increasingly weakened,” Mr. Biden added, noting that more than 60 percent of salaried workers qualified for overtime in 1975 based on their salaries, but only 7 percent do today.

Opponents argued that the measure could cost billions of dollars and would undermine the morale of salaried employees by requiring them to account for every hour of their workdays.

“This is an extreme revision in the white-collar threshold,” said David French of the National Retail Federation. “By executive fiat, the Department of Labor is effectively demoting millions of workers.”

Republican lawmakers, who are close to many of the industries that oppose the new rule, have vowed to block it during a mandated congressional review period.

With Donald J. Trump as their presumptive presidential nominee, however, the issue is fraught with risk for Republicans. Any attempt to repeal the regulation could exacerbate an already palpable split between Mr. Trump’s blue-collar supporters and the party’s establishment donors and politicians.

Paul Porter, a truck driver from Ava, Mo., who is a member of the Teamsters union and a supporter of Mr. Trump, said he already received time and a half after eight hours of work, but strongly favored the new overtime regulation. “I have friends who are managers who get taken advantage of terribly,” he said.

The rule will likely face legal challenges, including claims that the U.S. Labor Department flouted legal requirements for creating new regulations. Republicans in Congress have said they will move to block the rule, but they would need to overcome a veto from President Barack Obama.

The new threshold was lower than the $50,440 standard proposed by the Obama administration last year, but the last-minute change to lower it, which was widely expected, did little to appease critics.

Any federal standard above the $35,100 overtime threshold in New York, which has a high cost of living, will inhibit economic growth in more rural states in the South and Midwest, Tammy McCutchen, a Washington D.C. lawyer who works with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said on Tuesday before the final rule was announced.

The threshold also disappointed proponents of the new rule, including Ross Eisenbrey of the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, who first pitched an overhaul to the White House in 2013.

“It means a million fewer employees will be helped,” he said before the rule was released.

The White Residence finalized the rule now so that Republicans in Congress can’t bottle it up through the Congressional Review Act. Repub finest shot now would certainly be attaching a rider to spending legislation to block it, Yet it’s unlikely Democrats or the White Residence would certainly go along along with that. The brand-new rules are slated to go in to effect on Dec. 1.

Whitney Houston’s Daughter Bobbi Kristina Still on Life Support

The only child of the late singer Whitney Houston has not been taken off life support or declared brain dead, a family source said on Thursday, five days after Bobbi Kristina Brown was found face down in a bathtub at her Georgia home.

In the days since news broke that the daughter of Bobby Brown and Whitney Houston, Bobbi Kristina Houston Brown, was found face down in a bathtub in her Georgia home, the world is realizing how little it knows about her, her family and friends, and her condition.

Few details about Bobbi Kristina Brown’s condition have been released. Her family has said she was fighting for her life after being rushed to a hospital in the Atlanta suburb of Roswell on Saturday. Police said they responded to Bobbi Kristina Brown’s home in reference to a drowning. Her partner and a friend found her unresponsive in the tub and performed CPR until help arrived, police said.

Though still not completely clear, the circumstances of Bobbi Kristina’s hospitalization are eerily similar to her mother’s death on Feb. 11, 2012, at age 48. Houston was found face down and unresponsive in a bathtub at the Beverly Hilton. Authorities ruled that Houston drowned, with cocaine and heart disease playing a factor in her death ahead of the Grammys. “She wasn’t only a mother, she was a best friend,” Bobbi Kristina told Oprah Winfrey in a 2012 interview shortly after Houston’s death. “She was a sister, a comforter … this spirit that she had, no matter where she went, no matter what she said to anyone, it touched everyone.”

Family friend and gospel singer Kim Burrell told “Access Hollywood” this week that doctors had put the young woman in a medically induced coma to stop brain swelling.

Roswell police and an attorney for Bobby Brown have said they were investigating the circumstances that led to Bobbi Kristina Brown’s hospitalization.

In a video interview over Skype with E! News on Wednesday, Jerod Brown asked people to “let the detectives do their jobs” and to stop speculating about what had happened to his cousin.

Houston, a six-time Grammy Award winner and actress who battled substance abuse, drowned in a hotel bathtub in Beverly Hills, California, on Feb. 11, 2012. Authorities said cocaine use and heart disease contributed to her death at age 48.

Katy Perry Brings Fireworks to Super Bowl 2015

Katy Perry brought fireworks to Super Bowl XLIX halftime Sunday night with an energy-filled, star-studded, highly produced performance that found her soaring over the field in Glendale, Arizona. 

She arrived on an animatronic lion sporting a dress that resembled flames to sing her hit song “Roar.” Her playful version of “Teenage Dream” featured a bevy of fun, dancing characters (sharks included). Soon, Perry upped the “cool” factor with Lenny Kravitz, who briefly joined on “I Kissed a Girl.” Not only did he play guitar, but Kravitz also sang Perry’s 2008 hit.

Her guest performer, Lenny Kravitz, then briefly joined her in a leather jacket and chainmail-style tank for a head-banging rendition of her breakout track, “I Kissed a Girl.”

The stage then transformed into a cartoon beach with dancing palm trees, beach balls, waves and sharks (complete with clouds around the top of the arena) as Perry emerged in a retro, beach ball-inspired skirt and bustier for “Teenage Dream” and “California Gurls.”

During the show, which included fireworks, Ms. Perry did a duet with Lenny Kravitz and danced with Missy Elliott, who performed some of her own hits.

Perry’s other guest, Missy Elliott — whose name was kept under wraps but who was previously teased as an “old-school” female singer who, upon appearing, “I think jaws will drop and faces will melt” — came out stomping for “Get Ur Freak On” and “Work It,” with Perry rapping along to the choruses. Elliott closed her section with “Lose Control.”

As ridiculous and intentionally cheesy as it all seemed, it was so clear how serious she took this opportunity. She didn’t play it safe. Hell, Katy Perry was doing some scary shit! She was riding robot jungle cats and flying around a football stadium underneath a star that was literally on fire. Katy Perry’s Halftime Show was like some Mary Poppins acid trip.

And I was on my feet by the end. Hear me roar, y’all: this was some good, ridiculous entertainment.

IPO lands Shake Shack’s Danny Meyer $342M in 1st day

Shake Shack, the little New York burger joint that began 14 years ago in a hot-dog cart, just became a $1.7 billion behemoth. At its stock-market debut Friday morning, an investor burger binge doubled Shake Shack’s share price, sending its stock past $48 a share.

New York restaurateur Danny Meyer, who conceived the cart to help restore a then-downtrodden Madison Square Park, saw his wealth increase by $342 million Friday as stock soared 118.6 percent above its initial public offering price of $21.00 per share to end the day at $45.90.

By lunchtime, a crowd of more than 50 snaked through the Shake Shack in Dupont Circle. Many customers said headlines of Shake Shack’s public offering had lured them to the restaurant.

“This is the busiest I’ve ever seen this place — except  for the day it opened,” said Emily Roth, 26, who works nearby at the non-profit No Kid Hungry. “I’ve been seeing stories about the IPO, but I didn’t realize it was going to be so crazy here.”

Hundreds of New Yorkers lined up for free hamburgers served out of a truck by Shake Shack, the local burger joint turned international chain, whose stock was making its debut on the Big Board. The line of hungry bargain-hunters, which spanned the entire block and doubled back, and which raised more than a few eyebrows among the financial types working nearby, punctuated the company’s triumphant arrival on Wall Street.

“It’s like a bread line in the Depression,” said Michael Lehtman, 37, who was out on a stroll with his colleagues from a broker-dealer that they declined to identify.

“We’re debating whether to stand in line,” said Sharad Kumar, 26, one of the colleagues, who snapped a picture on his iPhone.

Mr. Lehtman corrected him. “We’re laughing at them,” he said.

Shake Shack’s first-day rise in stock price exceeds the opening pop of Habit Restaurants Inc., a burger chain that went public in November. Its shares soared 120% in its first day of trading.

The IPO deal, which was led by J.P. Morgan and Morgan Stanley , raised $105 million by selling 5 million shares, and gave the chain a valuation of roughly $745.5 million.

 

Brazilian Model Andressa Urach Warns Against Plastic Surgery After Failed Operation

A Brazilian model known for her countless cosmetic enhancements warned against the dangers of plastic surgery this week after a botched operation put her on life support. “I hope that these wounds at least serve as a warning to other women,” Andressa Urach told Rede TV, a Brazilian television network.

Urach’s most recent operation has the Brazilian bombshell singing a different tune. Urach went into septic shock and was placed on life support two months ago after getting an infection during an operation to increase the size of her thighs. The Miss BumBum contest runner-up expressed regret to Rede TV “that I put that poison in my body, mostly because of having too much vanity,” the AP reported Wednesday.

However, her love for plastic surgery is no more. Now, she is a spokesperson warning of the dangers of cosmetic procedures.

Urach went into septic shock in November, when she had to be placed on life support after being given 200 times the dose of Hydrogel that the government allows. Her leg began to rot and there were real fears that it may have had to be amputated.

Urach says she plans to return to the reality show. But, following her latest surgery, she will not be returning for more surgery. Not even to fix the scars she is left with.

Once nicknamed “Beanpole” for her lack of curves, the mother-of-one became a reality TV bombshell in Brazil with the help of silicone implants, anabolic steroids, a nose job, and gel and botox injections.

The 27-year-old, who is also known for claiming to have slept with footballer Cristiano Ronaldo while he was with Irina Shayk, became an outspoken advocate of plastic surgery.

“There are plenty of ugly women,” she said last year. “If you have the money, you can be beautiful. This pretty face you see here, my dear, it costs some.”

After being released from hospital, having spent a month in intensive care, a relieved Urach said: “I put that poison in my body, mostly because of having too much vanity.”

She has gone on to do many more interviews about her experiences, including one on TV. During her television interview, her leg was seen bleeding through her skirt.

Plastic surgery disasters also strike the common man. In 2008, a study found that one in 50,000 people died as a result of plastic surgery between 2001 and 2006. And many medical personnel who perform cosmetic procedures are not certified to do so. Indeed, Brazil has 5,500 certified plastic surgeons, but an additional 12,000 doctors will perform cosmetic procedures.

The Fantastic Four Movie Seems Really Good All of a Sudden

20th Century Fox‘s “contemporary re-imagining” of Marvel’s Fantastic Four is now available in trailer form, and you can check it out above.

Fantastic Four is the story of four people whose physical forms are altered after being teleported to an alternate universe. The film is expected to hit theaters Aug. 7.

Fox has released the first teaser trailer for The Fantastic Four, giving us our first look at the reboot. The trailer offers plenty of science, some cool superpowers, and even a fleeting shot of the movie’s villain.

But if you blinked, you might have missed all of that. There are other mysteries, too — like, why is there such a focus on space exploration in this film?

The rest of the information from the interview was heartening, though a lot of it could turn out to be bluster. But if we take Trank and Kinberg at their word, they seem to be doing something fascinating and unique: creating the first big-budget superhero movie that’s rooted in hard science-fiction and body horror.

Fantastic Four will star Miles Teller, Michael B. Jordan, Kate Mara, Jamie Bell and Toby Kebbell. The film is just one of many Marvel properties coming in the next four years, though it won’t be tied to those universes in quite the same way; the roster includes new Thor and Captain America movies, as well as Doctor Strange, an Inhumans movie and more.

 

Facebook And Instagram Go Down While Twitter Explodes

A temporary outage of social media service Facebook and its photo-sharing site Instagram were due to internal software networking error and not hackers, the company says.

Disaster over for Facebook addicts, the social network has resumed normal service after an hour of downtime.

Users across the U.S., Europe, Asia and Australia said they were unable to access either site for upwards of 30 minutes. Several took to social-media rival Twitter to voice their frustrations.

Lizard Squad, who in a shock move took down the Malaysia Airlines (MAS) website yesterday morning, today claimed they were responsible for the 45-minute Facebook and Instagram outage today.

The group claimed to have taken down Facebook and Instagram, but not Twitter. Twitter was not affected as it was its communication platform of choice.

Lizard squad have previously claimed responsibility for the outage of the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live network that happened around Christmas, and their involvement here has also been put in doubt as Facebook claim the problem was not because of a hack by anyone.  They told The Verge that it was “not the result of a third party attack but instead occurred after we introduced a change that affected our configuration systems”, and that everything was now back to normal for all users.

In a statement, Facebook said no outside party was responsible for the outage.

“This was not the result of a third-party attack but instead occurred after we introduced a change that affected our configuration systems,” the Facebook statement said.

“Both services are back to 100 per cent for everyone.”

Lizard Squad has taken credit for several recent high-profile attacks, including on the website of Malaysia Airlines and the PlayStation and Xbox gaming networks.

Hipchat and AIM are among others suffering from this issue, which some are suggesting was triggered by a DDOS attack.

 

Colombia’s Paulina Vega wins the title Miss Universe 2015

Colombia‘s Paulina Vega has been crowned Miss Universe, beating contenders from the United States, Ukraine, Jamaica and the Netherlands at the world’s top beauty pageant in Florida.

The 22-year-old model and business student triumphed over 87 other women from around the world on Sunday, and is only the second beauty queen from Colombia to take home the prize. The last time Colombia won the crown was in 1956 when Luz Marina Zuluaga took home the title.

Boxing superstar Manny Pacquiao played a starring role as one of the judges at Sunday’s Miss Universe Pageant. The Filipino ring king headlined the list of judges, which also included billionaire businessman Donald Trump and reality TV star Kristin Cavallari, in the competition which was won by Miss Colombia Paulina Vega.

As his role as judge, Pacquiao, whose career earnings surpassed $300million (£200m) in 2014, posed a question to Miss USA Nia Sanchez.

Miss Colombia Paulina Vega has been crowned Miss Universe, beating out contestants from 87 other countries. Miss USA Nia Sanchez and Miss Ukraine Diana Harkusha were the runners-up during Sunday’s competition. Miss Jamaica Kaci Fennell and Miss Netherlands Yasmin Verheijen were also among the top five.

Miss Netherlands Yasmin Verheijen also among the top five.

Miss Ukraine Diana Harkusha were the runners-up during Sunday’s competition.

Contestants including Miss India, Nigeria, Lebanon and Lithuania pose on stage during the 63rd Annual Miss Universe.

Jonas was among many celebrity guest performers, including singer Gaven Degraw.

Miss Colombia was crowned by the outgoing Miss Universe, Gabriela Isler of Venezuela. The broadcast included performances by singers Nick Jonas and Prince Royce.

Crowd favorite Miss Venezuela Migbelis Lynette Castellanos was cut after the top 10. The Miami suburb of Doral, which was host to the women during their stay, is also known as “Doralzuela” for its many Venezuelan residents.

Three of the last six Miss Universe titles have gone to Venezuela, where beauty pageants are big business.

 

The Terrible ‘Boy Next Door’ Will Save Jennifer Lopez’s Career

Few movies are as absurd—or as fun—as Lopez’s cheeky new erotic thriller, The Boy Next Door. The so-bad-it’s-good flick could resuscitate J.Lo’s waning movie career, to boot. There are a few simple truths about Jennifer Lopez’s new movie, The Boy Next Door.

It is not a good film. In fact, it might just be a horrible film. But there’s a shrewd self-awareness about its terribleness from everyone involved. Because of that self-awareness, this terrible little film starring Jennifer Lopez as a literature teacher (heh!) who has drunken sex with her 19-year-old next door neighbor and is then stalked Glenn-Close-with-a-rabbit style by him might actually be the most entertaining movie I’ve seen in a year, Oscars season be damned. The Boy Next Door, bad-brilliant as it is, could save Jennifer Lopez’s movie career.

“The Boy Next Door,” the new entrants include Lionsgate’s crime caper “Mortdecai” with Johnny Depp, and Disney’s “Strange Magic,” a computer-animated film about goblins and elves produced by Lucasfilm. “Mortdecai” could wind up in the $10 million to $12 million range with  “Strange Magic” coming in around $10 million.

Oversized coats and plain tank tops cannot hide that Lopez is one of the most beautiful people, ever. Fun fact: Everything she wore in the film actually came from her closet! In an exclusive interview with PEOPLE, she revealed that she mined from her own wardrobe because Boy Next Door was produced with such a small budget.

Star Jennifer Lopez, who also produced the film, makes sure you’ll have a totally engrossing time and she you you on a sometimes – Wait Until Dark – terrifying ride. And boy toy Guzman, fully co-operates on every step of the way. Never has a bad boy ever looked so good!

It’s a Hollywood reversal that’s all the more potent in the wake of the divine Ms. Lopez’s appearance on Ellen this week, in which she addressed rumors that she’s dating 27-year-old Guzman (she’s not) and whether that would make her a “cougar” (it wouldn’t).

Just because, at one point, our heroes are fighting for their lives, that doesn’t mean that certain parts of the film aren’t actually hilarious. (“I love your mom’s cookies,” anyone?!) Another line, involving a summer rainstorm, was particularly funny. We won’t spoil it for you, but seriously – it’s worth the price of admission.

 

Tom Brady on Deflategate : ‘I Would Never Break the Rules’

Deflategate is shaping up to be the biggest scandal in Super Bowl history. Following reports that the New England Patriots, and specifically star quarterback Tom Brady, were using underinflated footballs during the AFC Championship game victory January 18th against the Indianapolis Colts, Brady met the media Thursday to deny any wrongdoing. “I didn’t alter the ball in any way,” Brady stated firmly at a press conference in Foxborough, Massachusetts.

Tom Brady told media Thursday afternoon that he did not alter the footballs in any way during the AFC Championship against the Indianapolis Colts, nor did he ask for game balls to be deflated. Brady said he went through his normal pregame routine, which involves picking out game balls to be used by the offense.

“I choose the balls that I want to use for the game,” Brady said, “and that’s what I expect to go out on the playing field with.”

There were the endless repetition of the word “balls,” each time with Brady cracking a half-grin. Brady could get away with it, too, because he’s a charming guy that knows how to handle the media. But each time he said “I don’t really know what happened to the balls” with his face just on the verge of a smile, it made everyone watching realize something: We’re all watching a massive press conference, one that is televised on multiple national TV networks, about someone letting air out of a football.

After the Patriots defeated the Colts, New England was accused of playing with balls that were inflated below league requirements. Subsequent investigations found that 11 of the Patriots’ 12 footballs were, in fact, under-inflated by two pounds of air (psi), based on league regulations, sparking reaction all across the NFL. It was later revealed that the 12th football was also under-inflated, but by less than two psi. It was reported on Wednesday that the 12 footballs were properly inspectedand approved by referee Walt Anderson prior to kickoff.

On Thursday, Patriots coach Bill Belichick said he was shocked to hear about the Deflategate controversy and had no explanation for the under-inflated footballs.

Brady’s story Thursday was harder to believe than the story of the 199th pick in the NFL draft becoming one of the greatest players of all time. The lead-footed pocket passer became a Russell Wilson-like scrambler in the half hour he fielded questions at Gillette Stadium, and when it was over, it was clear that the only starting quarterback to advance to six Super Bowls had just lost one of the biggest games of his life.

“I would never do anything outside of the rules of play,” Brady said.

But his own words told a different tale, and as soon as he was done talking, a 17-year veteran of the quarterback position, Mark Brunell, said on ESPN that he was among those who didn’t believe Brady. Earlier Thursday, even before Bill Belichick seemed to be throwing his franchise player under a triple-decker bus in his own news conference, Hall of Famer Troy Aikman said on a Dallas radio station the following:

“It’s obvious that Tom Brady had something to do with this.”