I'm not part of the Mars Hill Church cult, however I am in deep prayer for my fellow citizens not to give two flying fucks what the New York Times bestseller list has to say.

Verily the lord commands thee, "thou shalt not breaketh the terms of use handed down to thee from facebook, yea, lest thine employment be terminated." see? it's totally a religious freedom issue.

$1,936/mo for Oak Harbor? That's the opposite of a charity. I pay barely more than that for a decent Seattle house.

Re: BoA:

According to a 2011 survey by the Center for Responsible Lending, nearly two-thirds of people who opted for overdraft protection under the new rules did so in order to avoid paying overdraft fees, when in fact charging overdraft fees is precisely what "overdraft protection" does.

So true, but these things are certainly not limited to Bank of America.
Even to our own government. Not the same thing, but they are always looking for revenue streams. If you pay a parking infraction on the city's website with a debit/credit card, you are also charged a $4.00 'convenience' fee.

Actually it was a speeding ticket.

@4, 5: The difference is that extra $4 can actually be interpreted as saving you the inconvenience of having to go to court in person to pay it. (I guess they don't mail you a statement that you can return with a stamp?) BoA is charging customers for a service already provided/mandated, so long as customers don't have bills automatically withdrawn from their account (which people living on a shoestring budget are far less likely to do anyway).

Also, that $4 is only a payment you make if a) you have a ticket in the first place - a result of your own poor behavior - and b) you don't want to go to the courthouse to pay it. It also helps fund services for the city you live in. The ~$5/mo just goes into BoA's pocket, helping to fund new ways to screw customers.

It's astounding how often this sort of basic logic has to be laid out for you, Phoebe.

@3,

I'm failing to see what makes that organization a charity. $2k/month for a rathole house and the veterans get no services promised to them? Where's the assistance?

Pro-minumum wage increase arguments from... Bloomberg.com?

Highest Minimum-Wage State Washington Beats U.S. in Job Creation

When Washington residents voted in 1998 to raise the state’s minimum wage and link it to the cost of living, opponents warned the measure would be a job-killer. The prediction hasn’t been borne out.

In the 15 years that followed, the state’s minimum wage climbed to $9.32 -- the highest in the country. Meanwhile job growth continued at an average 0.8 percent annual pace, 0.3 percentage point above the national rate. Payrolls at Washington’s restaurants and bars, portrayed as particularly vulnerable to higher wage costs, expanded by 21 percent. Poverty has trailed the U.S. level for at least seven years.

Groups representing retailers, restaurants and hotels opposed the measure, according to a voters pamphlet on the 1998 election published by Washington’s Office of the Secretary of State. Employment in those industries has increased in the state of Washington since then, Labor Department data show.

One possible explanation: Businesses have plenty of ways besides job cuts to absorb the costs of a minimum-wage increase, according to Arindrajit Dube, an economist at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, whose research found no significant effects on employment. Price increases, reductions in profits and savings from lower turnover can help soak up the shock.

“When you put all of these together, then the finding that moderate increases in minimum wages do not appear to have much of an effect on employment is less surprising,” Dube said in an interview.

SeaTac, Washington, a Seattle suburb where the major employer is the region’s international airport, voted in November to raise the hourly minimum by more than 60 percent to $15 for 6,300 people who work at the airport, hotels and nearby businesses.

Companies including parking lot operator MasterPark LLC had said the higher pay might lead to job losses. Since it passed, 140 MasterPark employees have received raises and the company hasn’t cut jobs because that might compromise service, managing partner Roger McCracken said.

“We’re in the valet business -- that means employees,” he said. Instead, the company responded by tacking on a 50-cent daily “living-wage surcharge” to prices.

Now, Seattle Mayor Ed Murray, a Democrat elected in November, is following SeaTac’s lead as he also promotes raising the city’s minimum to $15. A task force of business and labor representatives, advised by academics from the University of California at Berkeley and the University of Washington in Seattle, is meeting monthly and hopes to produce a proposal in April, Murray said in an interview.

The Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue metropolitan area ranks 14th in a list compiled by Bloomberg of 50 cities where it’s hard for fast-food workers to gain upward mobility, based on median pay compared with rent, tuition and health-care costs. Advocates such as Murray say a higher minimum would help change that.

“We can’t rebuild this economy if it’s just people who buy 94-foot yachts and play in the derivatives,” Murray said. “You build an economy when a middle class is buying microwaves or flat-screen TVs or the next set of clothes for their kids.”

The article does include counterarguments, but the overall tone of the piece is very pro-wage increase.

This is the article I tried to link to above.

@6: I think you misunderstood me. I said the two were different but my point is well taken that both business and government are always looking for ways to squeeze money out of customers and taxpayers. That $4.00 was in addition to the $189.00 fee for going 28 mph in a zone by a school when if the sign lights are flashing they'll photo your car and calibrate you're speed. I was following at the same speed of the car in front of me in heavy traffic. Yes both cars exceeded that 20 mph limit. I had not yet had cocktails that day. So I admit my guilt but the fee was terribly and cruelly excessive and another ill-advised government revenue stream. Fortunately, I can pay that easily, but what if I was a minimum wage worker in a Yugo?

My point is that the next time you complain about BoA, I suggest starting with complaining about government first because you have to pay for that, as well as their revenue schemes, whether you like it or not. At BoA, it's optional.

@10: Yes, that $4 fee (an optional additional 2% to the balance of the $189 ticket) absolutely does seem "cruelly excessive and another ill-advised government revenue stream." No hyperbole there.

And yes, you have to monetarily contribute to having a government, and the innumerable services it provides. You don't get a choice in the matter (other than say, appealing it in traffic court using the information provided to you by the officer and the notice itself, voting, running for office, etc). We all pitch in, because otherwise-- You know what, if I have to illustrate the entire thought exercise, my fingertips will go numb from the typing. It's a Saturday, and clearly you're not interested in being honest in the first place, you only want to bitch about your speeding ticket. You're on your own.

It should be obvious that climate-change-induced shifts in range for insect-borne diseases are not only altitudinal, but also latitudinal. Aedes aegypti mosquitoes are expanding their range in the American South, and now into California. "Native" cases of malaria, dengue, yellow fever, etc. will probably not be far behind.

@11, far be it from me to defend Phoebe, but in the instance she cites, there was no officer. There was a video showing her car with license plate clearly visible, and there's simply no appeal to that.

I don't understand why Democrats are not outraged at Republican praise for the dictator Putin. Every word of praise they have said should be shoved in their faces and they should be made to eat them!

@10 the covenience fee covers the cost that the card companies charge on every transaction. This is not a new revenue stream. In your case, they are legally required to collect $189. But if you pay them just $189 by card, visa or whoever collects 2% of that money, which in your case works out to around $4. Since they are legally required to collect $189, they must include that additional $4 fee. The state is not making money on this, the credit card/banking industry is.

@Ansel: I think your "Charity Program Allegedly Screws Over Homebroken Veterans" link is for a smartphone app. It doesn't work in Safari on Mac but does work in Chrome.

Here's a more general link: http://www.king5.com/news/local/Homeless…

@15: Thanks. I didn't think of that.

I think we'd all agree that 'convenience' is like putting lipstick on a pig.

Senate passes bill to regulate medical marijuana

Under her measure, the amount of cannabis patients can have would be cut from 24 ounces to 3 ounces. Under the recreational law, adults are allowed to have up to an ounce. The measures also limit the number of plants patients can grow to six. Under current regulations, they can grow 15.

Rivers' bill would allow a health professional to authorize an additional amount, but no more than eight ounces or 15 plants. Her measure would also allow additional amounts for marijuana-infused products like liquids and concentrates.

http://www.centredaily.com/2014/03/08/40…

68,000 Boeing employees will have their pensions frozen in 2016 (just in time for Boeing's 100th anniversary). It's being phased out and replaced with a 401k.

http://boeing.mediaroom.com/2014-03-06-B…

(No mention on Slog)

Expect Boeing to take it away from SPEEA in 2016.

@14: Can you provide an example of such Republican praise for Putin? (Post GWB "I can see his soul", of course.)

@21: Assuming Lovechild and Seattleblues are both Republicans, both have been here on SLOG in the last few month praising his pro-gaybashing policies.

@21 It should take you ten seconds to find some clips.

@21
http://www.salon.com/2014/03/04/rudy_giu…“what_you_call_a_leader”/

@23
10 seconds was about it.

@24: No, Rudy was referring to Putin's decisive and aggressive leadership style in comparison to the laid back Obama, not praising Putin's policies. Sorry you wasted 10 seconds of your life.

@ raindrop

@25, his actions based his policy was expressed in a positive light, as "decisive".
If his policy was not favorable to the speaker then the "decisiveness" would have been described in what the speaker held as negative terms.

Words have meaning, they express feelings, it's true.

@27: The topic was about style of leadership. Yes, I concur that decisive is a positive attribute. A former KGB thug is expected to be decisive. And Rudy was enjoying taking a jab at Obama, do doubt, but it's not praising Putin's policies or actions.