News Nov 16, 2012 at 8:49 am

Comments

1
FHA bailout....

another Obama fuckup.
2
I am so horrified by that story about the sons who let their parents rot rather than spend their parents money (which their parents worked hard to earn and their deadbeat sons are just losers and parasites) on their care so they could have it when their parents died. What the fuck is wrong with people? Seriously, greed is OUT OF CONTROL IN THIS SOCIETY.
3
Blaming the union? Can someone comment on how accurate this is, ie, did that strike actually cause irreparable damage to the company? Or larger issues of workers pay and benefits?
4
I was happy to hear that Susan Rice will be his pick. That should raise Lindsey Graham racist hackles.
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3
CNBC
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@2

Apparently one of them never worked. He's nearly 60. While the abuse is terrible, and the brothers should go to jail for it, I do wonder about a family that lets a child mooch, jobless, for almost six decades. I imagine the whole family is sick in one way or another.
7
So I guess now a chinese firm is going to buy Hostess, move production overseas where they can avoid pesky labor laws/decency and then send back Twinkies glazed with melamine?
8
@3:

They wanted the workers to take a new contract which slashed penions and cut employer contributions to health insurance by 17%.

Also, they wanted to cut salaries by 8%, and only offer a 3% raise for the next year, and a 1% raise for the year after.

In return, the employees would be a 25% equity stake in the (failing, about to go bankrupt) company, and two union reps would be added to the 8-member board of directors.

Have to blame Hostess' poor management (and shitty products) for this one. They have already gone bankrupt once in 2004.

Their bread sucks balls, along with 99% of their snack foods. Good riddance.
9
@8, I read as well that the executives at Hostess did give themselves some nice bonus's earlier this year. As they say strip the place of cash on your way out the door.

But expect the media to chant how this is all the fault of the union.
10
As disgusted as I get with the Seattle Times, and to restate the obvious, the story they did on the not-as-safe-as-we-throught-they-were underground reservoirs is just another example of the type of investigative-journalism we stand to lose if the paper goes down . . . Or, put another way, I'm not seeing a future where blogs can do that kind of story . . .

On the story itself: this is a BIG deal. SPU is pretty damn blithe about it all - that everything is going to be OK because the consultant - the same one that fucked up in the first place - is collaborating with the utility on the problem. And, yeah, maybe following an earthquake a neighborhood wouldn't be inundated with water - but as the consultant and SPU acknowledge, the reservoir could be out of commission. Which is kind of a problem because with big earthquakes come fire - and if you don't have a water supply and the neighborhood is on fire, waddaya gonna do?

11
I know one's taste changes as one gets older - more sophisticated. But Hostess Twinkies and those cupcakes with the chocolate/curled white icing? Not as good as they used to be. Always stale and seemingly the end result of a never-ending quest for cheaper and cheaper ingredients. I think I had a Twinkle last about 15 years ago and didn't even recognize the cream filling. For the cost of three or four packages of Twinkies, you could go to the store, get a Duncan Hines brownie mix and have a real treat. And I never did dig Wonder Bread. For white bread lovers, there were always a lot better local brands. Can't say I'll miss Hostess very much.

What am I saying? It's like telling people who love them how boring Pop-Tarts are. Lost cause.
12
Hostess has never been very good, but is often the best option at a gas station early in the morning if you need a sugar fix. I predict someone will pick up the brand name and restart production within a year.

The vulture capitalists don't like integrated companies like Hostess which have both famous brands and production under the same management. They like to be able to license brands ad hoc to many different production companies.
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6

your 47% at work.....
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@13

Yup, and he probably voted for Romney so that he could keep all of Daddy's money.
15
Hmmmm, could a well timed strike kill the high fructose corn syrup industry? It is time to OCCUPY that shit dude....
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Check out the Hostess wiki, it's been a long slow death: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hostess_Bra…
18
About the boys in Alki, my father died the same way while his wife and step-kids lived in the rest of the house. When he died, she didn't notify anyone blood related to him, cremated him against his known wishes, will not let us have ashes to say goodbye, and turned everything, including the insurance plan he bought just for his own children, over to her name hours before he died.
19
Look, to be quite frank, you should be way more scared of earthquakes (50 pct houses and bridges destroyed, hundreds of thousands homeless, landslides, mudslides, volcanic events all triggered, 50,000 drowned in the Deep Burial Tunnel on SR-99) than you should of terrorist attacks on the water supply.

There's enough water in people's homes for them to survive weeks, they just don't realize it. But earthquakes will blow out the medical and emergency and transportation infrastructure if they're in the 8.0 or up range here.
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will.
not everyone is versatile enough to drink out of the toilet like you do...
22
@20) Get your own blog!

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