Food for thought

I've been soooooo busy. I'm trying to get my rental units occupied for winter, and my father-in-law, Alcide Michaud, passed away on October 2. 

I started work as a waitress on Friday, September 30, at the Long Lake Sporting Club in Sinclair. I hadn't done anything like that since high school. I was excited about the chance to earn a hundred or more dollars in like five hours of work; however, I was denied an equal share of the pooled tips! Telling me I was still "in training" the owners allowed the waitress in charge to give me less than half the pay other waitresses received... including one who was hired a few days AFTER I was!  

About the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

And now I've been fired. Quoting the owners "It's just not working out." Luckily chef and co-owner of The Swamp Buck, Mark Tardif, had called me just a few days before I was fired, and I've been putting in a few hours at the restaurant, doing some cleaning. I met a woman there named Mindy, who said the owners of the Sporting Club, Deb and Ken Martin, had done the same thing to her.

 

We actually get to take breaks there, and we have a time clock... unlike at the Sporting Club. Though it isn't illegal to not have a time clock, it is illegal not to pay employees for hours worked simply because you didn't get any customers that day, or night. 

Maine Department of Labor

Maine Human Rights Commission - The Whistleblower's Protection Act is supposed to protect a person who reports his/her employer's illegal activity and then is fired. You'll find actual reports at the Commission's website, however names are hidden. 

Deal, or No Deal? The plea bargain

My husband, Pete, had to appear in court today regarding the "felon in possession of firearms" charges. He wouldn't let me go to court with him. He wants to get this over with. I want him to go to trial. It's causing alot of anxiety in our home. 

Hunting was a sport that he enjoyed so much, and something our sons liked to do with him. Maine and federal law enforcement officers, judges, and other players in the so-called "justice system" have turned our lives upside down. 

Back in May I blogged about the unreasonable search and seizure involving about a dozen employees of Maine - most of them Maine Game Wardens, and ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement). 

Agents of the state and federal governments took over a dozen guns - many belonging to our sons - from our home on April 28, 2011. They did it under the guise of public safety, even though they waited 3 months before acting on the knowledge that Pete was a "felon" and in possession of a firearm. We kept our family's guns in a locked safe until needed during hunting season.

Here's some information about plea bargains from a 1979 law journal, titled Plea Bargaining - A Necessary Evil?