The Maze Runner (film)
The Maze Runner is a 2014 American dystopian science fiction film directed by Wes Ball, in his directorial debut, based on James Dashner’s 2009 novel of the same name. The film is the first installment in The Maze Runner film series and was produced by Ellen Goldsmith-Vein, Wyck Godfrey, Marty Bowen, and Lee Stollman with a screenplay by Noah Oppenheim, Grant Pierce Myers, and T.S. Nowlin. The film stars Dylan O’Brien, Kaya Scodelario, Aml Ameen, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Ki Hong Lee, Will Poulter, and Patricia Clarkson. The story follows sixteen-year-old Thomas, portrayed by O’Brien, who awakens in a rusty elevator with no memory of who he is, only to learn he’s been delivered to the middle of an intricate maze, along with many other boys, who have been trying to find their way out of the ever-changing labyrinth — all while establishing a functioning society in what they call the Glade.
Development of The Maze Runner began in January 2011 when Fox purchased the film rights to Dashner’s novel with film studios Temple Hill Entertainment and TSG Entertainment. Principal photography began in Baton Rouge, Louisiana on May 13, 2013 and officially concluded on July 12, 2013.
The Maze Runner was released on September 19, 2014 in the United States by 20th Century Fox. Critics considered it to be better than most young adult book-to-film adaptations. The film topped the box-office during its opening weekend with a $32.5 million debut, making it the seventh-highest grossing debut in September. The film earned over $348 million worldwide at the box-office, against its budget of $34 million.
A sequel, Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials, was released on September 18, 2015 in the United States. A third and final film, Maze Runner: The Death Cure, was released on January 26, 2018.
A teenager wakes up inside an underground elevator with no memory of his identity. A group of male youths greet him in a large grassy area called the “Glade” enclosed by tall stone walls. The boys (“Gladers”) have formed a rudimentary society, with each assuming specialized tasks. Their leader, Alby, says that every boy eventually recalls his name but not his past. The boy learns that a vast Maze surrounding them is the only way out. During the day, designated Runners search the Maze for an escape route, returning before nightfall when the entrance closes. No one has ever survived a night in the Maze.
While in a competition with another boy named Gally, the boy suddenly remembers his name: Thomas. The next day, he is attacked by Ben, a Runner who has been stung and left delirious by a Griever – deadly techno-organic creatures that roam the Maze at night. Ben is forced into the Maze and left to die, as there is no cure for his condition. Alby and Minho, the lead Runner, later retrace Ben’s steps inside the Maze. Minho reappears at dusk dragging Alby, who is stung, but they are unable to reach the closing entrance in time. Thomas runs into the Maze to help, leaving all three trapped. Thomas lures a Griever into a closing passageway, causing it to be crushed. The trio manages to survive the night, returning the next morning.
The first-ever girl arrives in the elevator, with a note saying that she is the last one to enter the Glade. She recognizes Thomas, though he cannot remember her. Thomas, Minho, Frypan, Winston, and Zart enter the Maze, locate the Griever corpse, and remove a beeping mechanical device from inside it. Gally claims Thomas has jeopardized the fragile peace between the youths and the Grievers and wants him punished, but Newt, the group’s second-in-command, instead designates Thomas as a Runner. Minho shows Thomas a hand-constructed model of the Maze based on previous exploration. The Maze’s numbered sections open and close in a regular sequence. Thomas realizes that the device corresponds to a section within the Maze.
The girl, Teresa, has two syringes filled with an unknown substance. One is used on Alby, and he recovers from the Griever sting. Minho and Thomas venture back into the Maze with the device and discover a possible exit. A laser then scans the two, and the exit closes. Thomas and Minho start to run away as traps activated by lasers nearly kill them. That night, the Maze entrance does not close while others open, letting Grievers pour in. A massacre ensues as the Gladers struggle to fight back or hide. Alby, Zart, Clint, and several others are killed.
Afterwards, Gally punches Thomas and blames him for everything that happened. Thomas, who has been having disconnected memory flashes since arriving, stabs himself with a severed Griever stinger in an attempt to revive his memory. The others inject him with the last anti-venom. Unconscious, he recalls that he and Teresa worked for the organization that created the Maze, W.C.K.D.; the boys unknowingly have been test subjects for an experiment. Thomas awakens and shares this information with Newt, Minho, Chuck, and Teresa. Thomas then reveals himself and Teresa, confessing that they worked with W.C.K.D. and studied the boys for years.
Meanwhile, Gally has taken command and intends to sacrifice Thomas and Teresa to the Grievers to restore peace. However, several Gladers form a group and free them. They then approach the Maze in an attempt to find an escape, while Gally and a few others refuse to leave. Fighting Grievers as they go, Jeff and several other Gladers are killed. The Gladers eventually enter a laboratory strewn with corpses. In a video recording, a woman named Ava Paige explains that the planet has been devastated by a massive solar flare, followed by a pandemic of a deadly virus called the Flare. The teens learn that they were part of an experiment studying for a cure. Paige is seen shooting herself on the screen as the lab is attacked by armed men.
Gally suddenly appears with a gun. Having been stung by a Griever, he insists they must stay in the Maze and aims at Thomas, but is pierced through the chest by Minho’s spear, but not before Chuck is fatally shot. Masked armed men then rush in and take the rest of the group to a helicopter. It flies over a vast desert wasteland and approaches a ruined city. The scene ends with the supposedly-dead scientists meeting in a room. Paige notes that the experiment is successful; the survivors are now entering Phase Two.
Dylan O’Brien as Thomas, the last male to enter the Glade
Kaya Scodelario as Teresa, the first and only female Glader
Aml Ameen as Alby, the first male to enter the Glade and the leader of the Gladers
Thomas Brodie-Sangster as Newt, second-in-command of the Gladers
Ki Hong Lee as Minho, the head runner
Will Poulter as Gally
Patricia Clarkson as Ava Paige, the Head of W.C.K.D.
Blake Cooper as Chuck, a very young Glader
Dexter Darden as Frypan, a cook
Jacob Latimore as Jeff
Chris Sheffield as Ben, a runner
Joe Adler as Zart
Randall D. Cunningham as Clint
Alexander Flores as Winston
Don McManus as Masked Man, an armed soldier who rescues the Gladers
In an interview with Collider, director Wes Ball stated he had made a 3D computer-animated science fiction post-apocalyptic short film, titled Ruin, which he intended to use in order to gain access to Hollywood. He presented the short in 3D to 20th Century Fox. The studio initially considered a film adaptation of the short film, as it had the same tone of The Maze Runner novel they already planned to bring to the screen. Ball was then offered the chance to direct the novel adaptation. Creature designer Ken Barthelmey designed the monsters called Grievers for the film.
For the role of Teresa, Kaya Scodelario was Ball’s first choice as she was “fantastic” and because he loved her in the TV show Skins. Dylan O’Brien, the lead role, was initially rejected by Ball. Ball recounts, “Dylan was actually… I saw him early on, very early on and I overlooked him. It was a big learning experience there, because I overlooked him because of his hair. He had Teen Wolf hair and I couldn’t see past that and so we were looking for our Thomas and it’s a tough role to make, because he comes in as a boy and he leaves as a man, so it can’t be like this badass action star that comes into this movie. It’s about vulnerability up front and then he comes out of it and comes into his own and then the next movies are about the leader that emerges from the group. So finally Fox says ‘We just did this movie, The Internship. There’s this kid that’s in this thing. He’s like 20 years old. We think he’s kind of got something.’ So I watched his tape and was like ‘Wait a minute, I’ve seen this kid before.’ I looked him up online and there was one picture of him with a totally shaved head and it’s this sweet vulnerable looking kid and I was like ‘Whoa, interesting.’ I said, ‘Wait a minute, he’s just so familiar’ and I looked back at my old audition tapes, which we had thousands of, and there’s Dylan. That guy I said ‘No, definitely not him.’ So we brought him back in and we started to talk with him and I’m like ‘he’s the coolest dude ever.'” Blake Cooper entered the film via Twitter. Ball revealed a lot on Twitter, and many kids wanted to be Chuck. Cooper constantly bugged Ball, until Ball told him to give his tape to his casting director, and Ball was impressed by Cooper’s tape and cast him.
Principal photography started in Baton Rouge, Louisiana on May 13, 2013, and officially ended on July 12, 2013. Post-production on the film was completed in June 2014.
Composed by John Paesano, the soundtrack consists of 21 tracks and was released on September 16, 2014.
The film was originally set to be released on February 14, 2014. On October 5, 2013, the film was pushed back. IMAX theaters released the film on September 19, 2014.
Eleven character cards for the film were released in July 2013. Starting in January 2014, director Wes Ball released one image from the film once a week, leading up to the film’s first trailer release on March 17, 2014.[12] A viral marketing campaign launched by 20th Century Fox began on April 16, 2014. The campaign is a website featuring the main characters while focusing on W.C.K.D, an organization in Dashner’s novel series of the same name. The website has the domain wckdisgood.com.
On June 26, 2014, Dylan O’Brien tweeted that the original The Maze Runner book would be re-released with a new book cover based on the film’s poster. On July 29, 2014, the second trailer for the film was released exclusively on Yahoo! Movies.
The popularity of the film has resulted in many fan projects, the most prominent being Maze Runner Chat, a podcast featuring news discussions and occasional cast interviews. The podcast is produced by MazeRunnerFans.com, a popular fan website for the series.
The film grossed $102,427,862 in North America and more than $245.8 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $348.3 million.
Prior to its release in the U.S. and Canada, box office analysts predicted the film would be a box office success, citing effective marketing, good word-of-mouth publicity and a solid release date. Preliminary reports predicted the film would open with takings of over $30–32 million in North America. According to movie ticket sale website Fandango, The Maze Runner was the biggest seller accounting for more than 50% of early tickets sales. The film was released on September 19, 2014 in the United States and Canada across 3,604 locations and over 350 IMAX theaters. It earned $1.1 million from Thursday night shows, and $11.25 million on its opening day. It topped the box office on its opening weekend with $32.5 million of which 9% of the gross came from IMAX theaters. Its opening weekend gross is the seventh-highest for a film released in September, and the 18th highest for a young-adult book adaptation. The film earned a total of $102,272,088 at the North American box office becoming the twenty sixth highest-grossing film of 2014 in the U.S. and Canada.
Outside North America, the film debuted in five countries a week prior to its North American release and earned a total of $8.3 million. The film had a similar success overseas during its wide opening second weekend earning $38 million from 7,547 screens in 51 markets. It opened in South Korea with $5.5 million which is higher than the openings of The Hunger Games and Divergent, the UK, Ireland and Malta with $3.4 million behind Gone Girl, and China with $14.58 million behind Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Other high openings were witnessed in Russia and the CIS ($5.75 million), France ($5.2 million), Australia ($3.4 million), Mexico ($2.6 million), Taiwan ($2.2 million) and Brazil ($2 million).
It became the third highest-grossing film of all time in Malaysia for Fox (behind Avatar and X-Men: Days of Future Past).
Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes assigns the film a score of 65% based on 163 reviews, with an average rating of 5.9/10. The site’s consensus states: “With strong acting, a solid premise, and a refreshingly dark approach to its dystopian setting, The Maze Runner stands out from the crowded field of YA sci-fi adventures”. Metacritic gives the film a score of 57 out of 100, based on 34 critics, indicating “mixed or average reviews”. Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade of “A-” on an A+ to F scale. According to Tim Ryan of The Wall Street Journal, critics considered the film better than most young adult book-to-film adaptations due to its “strong performances and a creepy, mysterious atmosphere”.
Rafer Guzman of Newsday gave the film a three out of four and described it as “solid, well crafted and entertaining”. Christy Lemire of RogerEbert.com said she found the film intriguing, writing that “it tells us a story we think we’ve heard countless times before but with a refreshingly different tone and degree of detail”. The Seattle Times’s Soren Anderson said the film was “vastly superior to the book that inspired it” and gave it a score of 3/4. Tony Hicks of the San Jose Mercury News was “hooked by the combination of fine acting, intriguing premise and riveting scenery”. Matthew Toomey of ABC Radio Brisbane gave the film a grade of A−, giving praise to its intriguing premise saying that “it held [his] attention for its full two hour running time”. Justin Lowe of The Hollywood Reporter said it was “consistently engaging”, and Ella Taylor of Variety wrote “as world-creation YA pictures go, The Maze Runner feels refreshingly low-tech and properly story-driven”.
Michael O’Sullivan of The Washington Post said “The Maze Runner unravels a few mysteries, but it spins even more”, giving it a 3/4. Stephen Whitty of the Newark Star-Ledger wrote “it does leave you wanting to see the next installment. And that’s one special effect that very few YA movies ever pull off”. Isaac Feldberg of We Got This Covered awarded the film 8/10 stars, calling it “dark, dangerous and uncommonly thrilling”, while extolling it as “one of the most engaging YA adaptations to hit theaters in quite some time.” Rick Bentley of the Fresno Bee praised Wes Ball’s direction, saying that he “created balance between a thin but solid script and first-rate action – and he doesn’t waste a frame doing it”. Bill Zwecker of the Chicago Sun-Times called it “a well-acted and intelligent thriller/futuristic sci-fi romp”. Bilge Ebiri of New York magazine said he “was quite riveted”. Michael Sragow of the Orange County Register gave it a grade of “B” and said, “Ball is deft, though, at evoking claustrophobia of every kind, whether in the open-air prison of the Glade or the actual tight spaces of the Maze. And he elicits a hair-trigger performance from O’Brien”
Claudia Puig of USA Today said “a sci-fi thriller set in a vaguely post-apocalyptic future must create a fully drawn universe to thoroughly captivate the viewer. But Maze Runner feels only partially formed”, giving it a score of 2/4. Time magazine’s Richard Corliss said “like Jean-Paul Sartre’s No Exit-tentialism, but more crowded and with the musk of bottled-up testosterone”. Wesley Morris of the website Grantland said “I think I have a touch of apocalepsy – excessive sleepiness caused by prolonged exposure to three and four-part series in which adolescents rebel against oppressive governments represented by esteemed actors”. Steven Rea of The Philadelphia Inquirer gave the film a 2.5 out of 4 rating and said “it’s bleak business, and as it hurries toward its explosive, expository conclusion, the film becomes nonsensical, too”. Film critic Ethan Gilsdorf of The Boston Globe said “teens should eat up this fantasy’s scenery-chewing angst and doom, and the hopeful tale of survival and empowerment (to be continued in the inevitable sequel or sequels)”.
The Maze Runner (series)
The Maze Runner | Official Final Trailer [HD] | 20th Century FOX


EDITORIAL: Let DNA evidence in
Justice demands DNA testing whether or not the convicted have served their time
EDITORIAL: Let DNA evidence in Justice demands DNA testing whether or not the convicted have served their time Check out this story on app.com: http://on.app.com/1BVhPDB
AsburyPark Published 4:45 p.m. ET Jan. 12, 2015 | Updated 7:55 p.m. ET Jan. 14, 2015
Dion Harrell was arrested on a rape charge at age 22.
The aim of the American justice system is, in essence, a search for the truth, to ensure the guilty pay for their crimes and the innocent go free.
The Monmouth County Prosecutor's Office seems to have forgotten that, and is rightly being forced in court to justify itself in the face of its refusal to test newly rediscovered DNA evidence that could exonerate a convicted man. A court hearing scheduled Monday before Superior Court Judge Ronald L. Reisner to force the county to do the testing has been postponed until February 27.
Dion Harrell, 48, of Long Branch, who was convicted in 1992 of sexually assaulting a 17-year-old girl there, has always maintained his innocence. Although he has been out of prison for about 17 years after serving four years of an eight-year sentence, he still wants to clear his name. But the Monmouth County Prosecutor's Office is blocking Harrell's attempt to have DNA from the 1988 crime analyzed to prove one way or another whether he is the man who committed the sexual assault.
The prosecutor's reason for not agreeing to have the DNA tested is based on a peculiar reading of a state law that allows for DNA testing on evidence in the cases of convicted defendants currently imprisoned who are seeking exoneration. Since Harrell is out of jail, the prosecutor says, he is out of luck.
Assistant Monmouth County Prosecutor Mary Juliano stated in court papers that the testing would prolong the final disposition of the case, writing that "The State believes the conviction is entitled to finality."
That is an outrageous statement: "The conviction is entitled to finality?" Shouldn't Harrell's desire for justice trump the prosecution's desire for the conviction to be put to bed once and for all. There is always a public interest in finding the truth.
If Harrell is innocent, that means the perpetrator of the Long Branch rape may still be at large. The conviction rested on a couple of thin reeds to begin with: the victim's eyewitness identification of him and expert testimony that he could not be excluded as the rapist because of his blood type.
Any reasonable person would have to agree that Harrell has yet to get free from the shadow his possibly wrong conviction has cast over his life. His address is readily displayed on the Internet on the state's sex offender registry, which has led to trouble finding housing and employment.
According to the New York-based Innocence Project, which provides free representation to convicts seeking to prove their innocence and is working on behalf of Harrell, there have been 325 exonerations nationwide as a result of DNA testing. There have been eight exonerations in New Jersey.
With its ongoing battle to refuse to test the DNA, the Monmouth Prosecutor's Office is thwarting justice in two ways. It isn't allowing Harrell to clear his name and it could be allowing the true perpetrator to escape justice. It's a double black eye for the office.
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Trace a Portrait
George R Havelka, 1924 - 1988
Portrait of Thomas Alva Edison 1847-1931
Portrait of Thomas Alva Edison
Signed/Inscribed:
91.4 x 63.50 cm. (36 x 25in. )
Elli Buck, Science and Technology Collection
Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847 – October 18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices that greatly influenced life around the world, including the phonograph, the motion picture camera, and a long-lasting, practical electric light bulb. Dubbed "The Wizard of Menlo Park", he was one of the first inventors to apply the principles of mass production and large-scale teamwork to the process of invention, and because of that, he is often credited with the creation of the first industrial research laboratory. Edison is the fourth most prolific inventor in history, holding 1,093 US patents in his name, as well as many patents in the United Kingdom, France, and Germany. He is credited with numerous inventions that contributed to mass communication and, in particular, telecommunications. These included a stock ticker, a mechanical vote recorder, a battery for an electric car, electrical power, recorded music and motion pictures. His advanced work in these fields was an outgrowth of his early career as a telegraph operator. Edison developed a system of electric-power generation and distribution to homes, businesses, and factories – a crucial development in the modern industrialized world. His first power station was on Pearl Street in Manhattan, New York. Thomas Edison was born in Milan, Ohio, and grew up in Port Huron, Michigan. He was the seventh and last child of Samuel Ogden Edison, Jr. (1804–96, born in Marshalltown, Nova Scotia, Canada) and Nancy Matthews Elliott (1810–1871, born in Chenango County, New York).[4] His father had to escape from Canada because he took part in the unsuccessful Mackenzie Rebellion of 1837 Edison reported being of Dutch ancestry.In school, the young Edison's mind often wandered, and his teacher, the Reverend Engle, was overheard calling him "addled". This ended Edison's three months of official schooling. Edison recalled later, "My mother was the making of me. She was so true, so sure of me; and I felt I had something to live for, someone I must not disappoint." His mother taught him at home. Much of his education came from reading R.G. Parker's School of Natural Philosophy.Edison developed hearing problems at an early age. The cause of his deafness has been attributed to a bout of scarlet fever during childhood and recurring untreated middle-ear infections. Around the middle of his career, Edison attributed the hearing impairment to being struck on the ears by a train conductor when his chemical laboratory in a boxcar caught fire and he was thrown off the train in Smiths Creek, Michigan, along with his apparatus and chemicals. In his later years, he modified the story to say the injury occurred when the conductor, in helping him onto a moving train, lifted him by the ears. Edison's family moved to Port Huron, Michigan, after the railroad bypassed Milan in 1854 and business declined;[10] his life there was bittersweet. Edison sold candy and newspapers on trains running from Port Huron to Detroit, and sold vegetables to supplement his income. He also studied qualitative analysis, and conducted chemical experiments on the train until an accident prohibited further work of the kind. Edison obtained the exclusive right to sell newspapers on the road, and, with the aid of four assistants, he set in type and printed the Grand Trunk Herald, which he sold with his other papers.[11] This began Edison's long streak of entrepreneurial ventures, as he discovered his talents as a businessman. These talents eventually led him to found 14 companies, including General Electric, which is still one of the largest publicly traded companies in the world. Edison became a telegraph operator after he saved three-year-old Jimmie MacKenzie from being struck by a runaway train. Jimmie's father, station agent J.U. MacKenzie of Mount Clemens, Michigan, was so grateful that he trained Edison as a telegraph operator. Edison's first telegraphy job away from Port Huron was at Stratford Junction, Ontario, on the Grand Trunk Railway.In 1866, at the age of 19, Edison moved to Louisville, Kentucky, where, as an employee of Western Union, he worked the Associated Press bureau news wire. Edison requested the night shift, which allowed him plenty of time to spend at his two favorite pastimes—reading and experimenting. Eventually, the latter pre-occupation cost him his job. One night in 1867, he was working with a lead–acid battery when he spilled sulfuric acid onto the floor. It ran between the floorboards and onto his boss's desk below. The next morning Edison was fired.One of his mentors during those early years was a fellow telegrapher and inventor named Franklin Leonard Pope, who allowed the impoverished youth to live and work in the basement of his Elizabeth, New Jersey home. Some of Edison's earliest inventions were related to telegraphy, including a stock ticker. His first patent was for the electric vote recorder, (U.S. Patent 90,646), which was granted on June 1, 1869. Edison did not invent the first electric light bulb, but instead invented the first commercially practical incandescent light. Many earlier inventors had previously devised incandescent lamps, including Alessandro Volta's demonstration of a glowing wire in 1800 and inventions by Henry Woodward and Mathew Evans. Others who developed early and commercially impractical incandescent electric lamps included Humphry Davy, James Bowman Lindsay, Moses G. Farmer,[39] William E. Sawyer, Joseph Swan and Heinrich Göbel. Some of these early bulbs had such flaws as an extremely short life, high expense to produce, and high electric current drawn, making them difficult to apply on a large scale commercially. Edison patented a system for electricity distribution in 1880, which was essential to capitalize on the invention of the electric lamp. On December 17, 1880, Edison founded the Edison Illuminating Company. The company established the first investor-owned electric utility in 1882 on Pearl Street Station, New York City. It was on September 4, 1882, that Edison switched on his Pearl Street generating station's electrical power distribution system, which provided 110 volts direct current (DC) to 59 customers in lower Manhattan. Edison's true success, like that of his friend Henry Ford, was in his ability to maximize profits through establishment of mass-production systems and intellectual property rights. George Westinghouse and Edison became adversaries because of Edison's promotion of direct current (DC) for electric power distribution instead of the more easily transmitted alternating current (AC) system promoted by Westinghouse. Unlike DC, AC could be stepped up to very high voltages with transformers, sent over thinner and cheaper wires, and stepped down again at the destination for distribution to users. Edison began his career as an inventor in Newark, New Jersey, with the automatic repeater and his other improved telegraphic devices, but the invention that first gained him notice was the phonograph in 1877. This accomplishment was so unexpected by the public at large as to appear almost magical. Edison became known as "The Wizard of Menlo Park," New Jersey. His first phonograph recorded on tinfoil around a grooved cylinder, but had poor sound quality and the recordings could be played only a few times. In the 1880s, a redesigned model using wax-coated cardboard cylinders was produced by Alexander Graham Bell, Chichester Bell, and Charles Tainter. This was one reason that Thomas Edison continued work on his own "Perfected Phonograph." Edison's major innovation was the first industrial research lab, which was built in Menlo Park, New Jersey. It was built with the funds from the sale of Edison's quadruplex telegraph. After his demonstration of the telegraph, Edison was not sure that his original plan to sell it for $4,000 to $5,000 was right, so he asked Western Union to make a bid. He was surprised to hear them offer $10,000, ($202,000 USD 2010), which he gratefully accepted.The quadruplex telegraph was Edison's first big financial success, and Menlo Park became the first institution set up with the specific purpose of producing constant technological innovation and improvement. Edison was legally attributed with most of the inventions produced there, though many employees carried out research and development under his direction. His staff was generally told to carry out his directions in conducting research, and he drove them hard to produce results.
Artware Fine Art specialises in fine antique, decorative and historical portraits, interiors, topographical pictures and genre.
We cover a period from the 16th century through to the 20th Century and present day. We have over 200 paintings in stock, which can be viewed on our web site, each historical portrait has well researched biographical information both on the sitter and the artist.
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On Bradley Manning & Changing the World
Debra Sweet | August 15, 2013
There is, and should be, serious debate and discussion of how Bradley Manning affected our world by transferring a trove of classified US documents revealing war crimes to Wikileaks in 2010, and of his apology for doing so yesterday, in the process of demanding that he do not one more second in prison.
Bradley Manning took courageous action aimed at stopping what were, and will always remain, war crimes in pursuit of unjust, immoral, illegitimate occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan. He did much more than that, as Dennis Loo recaps in Because of Bradley Manning:
Because of Bradley Manning, we have Edward Snowden, who was inspired to come forward by Manning’s example;
Because of Bradley Manning, we know that most of the prisoners held at Guantanamo are innocent or low-level operatives and we have the identities and pictures of the prisoners held at Guantanamo who are now hunger striking (BradleyManning.org);
Because of Bradley Manning, we have the “Collateral Murder” video which allowed Reuters to finally find out how their reporters were killed, in the face of years of Pentagon lies and stonewalling, and allowed the world to see the attitudes and actions of the U.S. soldiers who commit war crimes and laugh about it, and by implication, the brass and public officials who expect and encourage this barbaric behavior;
Because of Bradley Manning, “U.S. defense contractors were brought under much tighter supervision after leaked diplomatic cables revealed that they had been complicit in child trafficking activities. DynCorp — a powerful defense contracting firm that claims almost $2 billion per year in revenue from U.S. tax dollars — threw a party for Afghan security recruits featuring boys purchased from child traffickers for entertainment. DynCorp had already faced human trafficking charges before this incident took place” (BradleyManning.org);
Because of Bradley Manning, we have the Tunisian Revolution which in turn inspired Arab Spring which in turn inspired Occupy Wall Street which in turn showed the reservoir of mass support for radical/revolutionary changes here in the U.S.;
Bradley faces 90 years in prison. Notwithstanding his apology, and the outrageous lies of the prosecution, his actions and motivations are admirable. He deserves not one more moment in prison. He went into the military at 19, like many, seeking the GI bill to attend college, and spent three years there being indoctinated to deploy to a Forward Operating Base outside Bagdad, where he, according to testimony in the court martial, was isolated without support. Once he was arrested, he spent a month in an outdoor cage in Kuwait, 10 months in solitary confinement at the Marine prison in Quantico, and has been under exclusive control of the military for more than three years, facing life in prison.
It was heartbreaking to sit in court yesterday, as I did with the largest group of his supporters to date for the court martial, and hear the conditions of life he was born into; an abusive situation where his main caretaker was his 11 year old sister. It must have been excruciating for him to hear his Army psychologist relate the most personal details of Brad's battles with identity and loneliness. He is not alone in facing all this, as millions of youth do in this class-divided, homophobic, misogynist, racist culture.
But Bradley was alone in an extraordinary way. Of the hundreds of thousands who had access to the classified U.S. material he did, he is apparently the only one to have seen something very wrong, and taken action to put those crimes before the people. More than anything, the U.S. government wants to stop any future Bradley Mannings or Edward Snowdens from blowing the whistle on war crimes.
We must continue demanding - in every way possible -- an end to his imprisonment now. Not one more second in prison for Bradley.
The judge will pronounce the sentence very likely next week, most likely Wednesday August 21. Supporters will hold protests immediately, as we expect to have 24 hour notice. Check BradleyManning.org for updates, and take to the streets, airwaves, and social media to respond.
TONIGHT: Join World Can't Wait Conference Call
Thursday August 15
10 pm Eastern 7pm Pacific
Bradley Manning is expected to speak during court on Wednesday. We'll talk about this and other developments in his case and ways to spread the truth about war crimes that Bradley has claimed responsibility for informing us about.
We're also looking ahead to October, when the U.S. will have occuped Afghanistan for 12 years; the continuing hunger strikes of GTMO prisoners and CA prisoners.
Register for dial-in info.
Debra Sweet is the Director of World Can't Wait, and blogs at debra.worldcantwait.net.
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Main Wikileaks On Bradley Manning & Changing the World


Teens with self-harm history susceptible to suicide, says study
Teens display self-harm behaviors to ease painful emotions and psychological distress; express emotional turmoil; self-punish to reduce their feeling of guilt; regain a sense of control; or distract oneself from difficult situations. At times, these also signal a cry for help. Unfortunately, the incidences of self-harm among teens are rising. Though the primary motive of
Helping children cope with grief after student suicides
Coping with the anguish of a loved one’s death by suicide can be an overwhelming challenge for those individuals who were closely associated with the deceased. And when the suicide victim is a teen student, it devastates not only his/her parents and family members, but also other students and peer groups. Student suicides also result
Report shows 141% jump in suicides among Utah youth
A report by the Utah Department of Health (UDOH) Violence and Injury Prevention Program (VIPP), released in November 2017, highlighted an urgent public health problem in the state. The data, collected in collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), showed that between 2011 and 2015, there was a 141.3 percent increase in
Online game Blue Whale Challenge suspected behind 15-year-old Texan’s suicide
Parents of a Texas teenager who committed suicide on July 8, 2017 are blaming their son’s death on a gruesome online game “Blue Whale Challenge,” which targets vulnerable teens and young adults by connecting with them on social media platforms such as Facebook, Snapchat and Instagram. The 15-year-old, Isaiah Gonzalez, was found hanging in his


Ban on using gender to rate insurance “ridiculous”
By admin - February 21, 2011
A leading insurance broker has described impending European legislation to ban insurers from using gender to rate premiums as “ridiculous.”
Two European Court of Justice judges could ban gender discrimination in pricing insurance on March 1, leading to huge hikes in premiums, particularly for women.
But Gerry Bucke, general manager at Adrian Flux Insurance Services, said the new rules would not significantly benefit male drivers, but could see young women paying up to £1000 a year more.
“If people think that insurance companies will bring premiums for male drivers down to meet those for female drivers in the middle they are likely to be disappointed,” he added.
“Despite the hefty increases in premiums we are seeing, there is no profit in the UK car insurance market, and insurers are unlikely to reduce premiums for young men in the long run.”
Last year, analysts Tower Watson said that the UK motor insurance market would not be profitable until 2015 at the earliest, partly because of an estimated 30,000 annual fraudulent claims.
Mr Bucke is backed up by the Association of British Insurers (ABI), which says that if the initial decision is upheld it would be “extremely detrimental to UK consumers”.
A 2004 EU directive allowing insurers to use gender to rate premiums if they were backed by statistical evidence was successfully challenged last year, leading to next month’s crucial appeal.
Mr Bucke revealed that some insurers had already asked for the question of gender to be removed from the quotation process in anticipation of the ruling.
“It’s ridiculous really,” he said. Insurance is a discriminatory business where people pay the appropriate premium based on the risk of claims they represent.
“It’s a fact that, for a variety of reasons, male drivers cost insurance companies more than women, just as younger drivers represent a greater risk, or those with a string of motoring offences or a bad claims record.”
Young men are twice as likely to claim on their insurance policy than young women, while they are 10 times more likely to have a road accident involving serious injury, which is where the most costly claims occur.
“You have to wonder where it will stop,” said Mr Bucke. “Will a 50-year-old end up having to pay the same as a 17-year-old who claims age discrimination? Usually, gender discrimination issues are, quite rightly, about giving women equal rights or equal earnings. But this will be an unwelcome form of equality for women.”
Insurers may attempt to use alternative risk factors as a proxy for gender, such as occupation, vehicle type or even their first name, while attempting to steer clear of indirect discrimination.
Mr Bucke said that, with only a handful of insurers prepared to offer cover for young drivers, it was more important than ever for younger motorists to shop around.
“With premiums for young women expected to reach the £2,000 mark, it will pay for them to check specialist brokers and not just the comparison websites,” he added.
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Who owns the web: BCS welcomes Contract for the Web Launched by Sir Tim Berners-Lee
LONDON (25 November 2019) — BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT has welcomed the launch of a Contract for the Web by Sir Tim Berners-Lee: a global plan of action to make our online world safe and empowering for everyone. The Contract calls for governments and businesses to ‘safeguard the web from abuse and ensure it benefits humanity.’
Bill Mitchell, Director of Policy at BCS says: “This is a most welcome start to a dialogue for how we ensure the Web creates genuine societal benefit and avoids unintended harm. At the same time, we think some of the fine print in the contract needs to be carefully looked at through consultation with key stakeholders to ensure we achieve the right balance between democratic sovereignty, incentives for commercial innovation, and individual freedoms.”
He continues: “The web has fantastic potential, but it’s important to be aware of the dangers as well as the benefits it brings with it. The new Contract echoes much of what BCS has been working on over recent years including developing policy on areas of concern including online harms, facial recognition and political manipulation. Society has a responsibility to help people manage risks, reduce harms and understand how the Web works, so that they take full and empowered advantage of it in the future. Failure to do so will damage public trust and confidence.”
BCS, which is both an educational charity as well as the professional body for IT, has called for a national cyber-safety programme to be introduced in schools if young people are to be protected. Its own research shows that younger pupils want to know more about how to look out for potential dangers online.
BCS also has concerns over facial recognition and says there is an unprecedented danger of the misuse of biometric data, including identity theft, because of a combination of flawed technology and a lack of ethical and rigorous safeguards around how that data is captured, stored and processed.
The Institute has also backed a call for politicians of all persuasions to do the right thing when it comes to using data to influence voters - following a letter from the UK’s Information Commissioner Elizabeth Denham to all the main political parties, reminding them to use people’s data lawfully during the General Election campaign.
As the professional body for the digital industries, BCS has backed this appeal and has come up with its own top ten guidelines for a digitally ethical election.


Finxact Raises $30m from Accenture and US Banking Group
The company first raised $12 million back in mid-2017
David Kimberley | News ( FinTech ) | Friday, 25/01/2019 | 16:11 GMT+2 2019-01-25T14:11:14+00:00 2019-01-25T19:39:43+00:00
Photo: Finxact
Financial technology company Finxact announced this Friday that it has secured an additional $30 million in funding.
According to a statement released by the firm, that cash will be put towards growing the company and improving its service offering. The company is hoping that it will be able to provide software as a service to banks.
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“We started Finxact in the beginning of 2017, and we have focused on building a banking system of record that can effectively replace legacy core systems and also serve as a platform for rapidly evolving digital banking requirements,” said Frank Sanchez, Finxact’s CEO and founder. “We’ve developed a platform that is functionally robust, reliable, scalable and highly efficient.”
Based in Jacksonville, Florida, Finxact first managed to raise $12 million back in May of 2012.
That funding round was led by LiveOak Venture Partners – a venture capital firm based in the great state of Texas.
The statement released by Finxact on Friday morning indicates that the venture capital firm has also contributed to this funding round.
But the Texas-based company wasn’t the only one to inject cash into Finxact.
The American Bankers Association, SunTrust Bank and Accenture Ventures, the investment arm of the management consultancy firm, all invested in the software company. Those firms were joined by other prior investors, including First Data and Woodforest National Bank.
“We are pleased to invest in and form a strategic alliance with Finxact, enabling us to jointly bring our clients innovation that will help them transform to meet the digital needs of today and tomorrow,” said Brett Goode, a managing director at Accenture and head of the company’s North America Core Banking Practice.
Tags: Accenture / fintech / funding round / fundraising
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Bertha Henry 2017 HONOREE
Administrator, Broward County, Florida
Bertha Henry took over as Broward County administrator at what must have seemed to her the worst possible time. She had spent 30 years working up to a top position in local government only to reach it in 2010 in the middle of a crippling recession. Rather than setting ambitious new goals for the county, she had to focus on minimizing the recession’s impact on her workforce. “Many of our employees were the only breadwinner in their families,” she says. “I did not want to add to the growing list of the unemployed.”
Henry implemented a series of strategies to protect her workers. Like a lot of places, Broward County instituted a hiring freeze and had to downsize some departments. But Henry made sure the county had taken inventory of the affected employees’ skills so she could avoid layoffs and fill vacant slots. When service cuts were inevitable, she tried to trim where citizens would least notice. She looked at data showing which days were busiest at local libraries, and then closed neighborhood branches on the days with the lightest use.
Henry studied accounting in college, and her first job was as a budget analyst for the city of Miami, where she grew up. Later she held multiple posts in local government in Florida and Ohio. But strict financial management has been a consistent theme throughout her career. Three years ago, Broward became one of only four Florida counties to receive AAA bond ratings from all three credit rating agencies.
Over nearly a decade as county administrator, the 62-year-old Henry has left a lasting mark on the Fort Lauderdale metro area, particularly when it comes to infrastructure and economic development. Due to her efforts in building a new runway, the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport has become the fastest-growing airport in the country, and recently added four international airlines. She engineered a deal to keep the area’s pro hockey team, the Florida Panthers, from declaring bankruptcy and leaving the state. Under the contract she worked out, all of the $86 million in new public investment for the team goes toward capital improvements and operating costs for the arena, meaning that if the team ever left, the county would still own a valuable asset. The deal allowed the county to refinance its bond debt for the arena and get a lower interest rate.
A good example of Henry’s management style was her intervention in a dispute over ride-sharing rules. Two years ago, the Broward County commission passed regulations, including a fingerprinting requirement for drivers, which prompted Uber and Lyft to suspend operations in the county. Henry crafted a compromise that satisfied both the regulators and the private companies. The amended law required criminal background checks for drivers, but not fingerprinting, and instead of a rule that would have made the county responsible for forcing drivers to be insured, she arranged to have the ride-sharing companies verify that their drivers have insurance. As a result, Uber and Lyft came back. This year, the Florida Legislature enacted rules that supersede what localities already had on the books. Nonetheless, Dan Lindblade, who heads the Fort Lauderdale Chamber of Commerce, says Henry still deserves credit for brokering the deal. “That takes a unique leader,” Lindblade says.
-- By J.B. Wogan
See the rest of the 2017 public officials here.
Content provided by Comcast: Robert Traynham's Newsmaker interview with Bertha Watson Henry - Thriving After Economic Instability.


Home / Current News
Violent Islamist militancy spreads into weak states across sub-Saharan Africa
The newly-released annual World Watch List (WWL) of the top 50 countries in which it is most difficult to live as a Christian shows that, especially in the Sahel and sub-Saharan Africa, the rise of Islamist militancy has become a challenge not only to Christians, but also to the existence […]
Risk of persecution going digital with rise of surveillance state
A case can be made that today there are more Christians in China than members of the Communist Party. China comes no. 23 in the Open Doors World Watch List of the top 50 countries in which it’s most difficult to live as a Christian which was published today. Last […]
From sub-Saharan Africa to China, Christians experience ‘high’ levels of persecution
• In Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday more than 250 people, 45 of them children, were killed in attacks on three churches and hotels; more than 500 people were injured. • Bombs killed 20 at a Catholic church in Jolo in the southern Philippines. • In China, state-sanctioned and ‘underground’ […]
Tajik pastor freed after 3 years in prison for ‘singing extremist songs in church’
A Protestant pastor sentenced to three years in prison for “singing extremist songs in church and so inciting religious hatred” has been freed three months early (he was due to be freed in March 2020). Bakhrom Kholmatov, 42, was sentenced in July 2017 and has served his term in a […]
India: Supreme Court orders seven Kandhamal Christians freed on bail after 9 years in prison
Eleven years ago today, 13 December 2008, an Indian man was arrested. Initially, he suspected it would be quickly resolved – he was active in local politics and assumed it was for something minor connected to that. But it was to be over ten years before he would get his […]
Al-Shabaab singles out 11 to kill in bus attack in northern Kenya; raises fear for Christians
Eleven people, almost all known to be Christians, were killed during an attack by the Islamist Al-Shabaab group on a bus in Kenya’s border region with Somalia on 6 December. The militants forced the bus, owned by Medina Bus Company (which transports people and goods between Kenya’s capital Nairobi and north-east […]
For Gambian Christians, there’s a lot to like — and one big worry — in the proposed constitution
The Gambia, a tiny nation on Africa’s North Atlantic coast, is considering a new constitution. Prominent Christian voices in the country say there is a lot to like in the draft, and one big thing to worry about: It does not explicitly define majority-Muslim Gambia as a secular state. […]
Korean murdered in southeast Turkey ‘for mobile phone’
Criminal investigations into the stabbing to death of a Korean Christian last week in southeast Turkey’s largest city are continuing under a cloak of judicial secrecy, as authorities search for evidence to resolve the controversy over the killer’s motive. South Korean Jin-Wook Kim, 41, was murdered in a late-night Nov. […]
Refusing to move, an Ethiopian congregation is arrested
The authorities in Ethiopia’s northern region of Amhara had told the Ethiopian Fellowship of Evangelical Students it no longer could operate in the town of Debark. They were ordered to move 80 km southwest, to Gonder city. The Evangelical fellowship didn’t budge. Instead, it lodged a complaint. Nothing happened. That […]
Egypt: Series of fires in their churches ‘not a coincidence’, say Copts
Three Coptic churches in the Upper Egypt region were hit by fires in the last three weeks which, the Copts say, is “not a coincidence”. On Friday morning 1 November a fire started in an adjacent hall of the Mar-Girgis (St George) al-Gyoushi Church in the Shubra district of the […]


London Warwick Summer School
The WSS Experience
Discover London
Reflecting Warwick’s unique approach, our Summer School offers an enjoyable programme of interactive guest lectures with eminent figures from the public and private sector.
The talks are delivered in a variety of formats including conversations, debates and panel discussions which provide excellent opportunities for you to engage with the speakers and other students.
The speakers that come to the Summer School cover a range of topics to broaden your education, insights and views, and allow you to ask questions and debate the topics they discuss. Previous talks include:
Economic Growth and Happiness Equalization
Journey to the Olympic Games
Thinking About Inequality
Why Nations Fail?
The NHS: Can it Survive?
Building Entrepreneur Country – for the future from the future
2020 Guest Speakers
2020 Guest Speakers will be announced here in due course.
Nobel Prize Winning Economist, Professor George A. Akerlof
George A. Akerlof is an American economist, a University Professor at Georgetown University and Professor Emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley. He won the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 2001. He won the prize for his ground-breaking work on markets with asymmetric information, and in particular due to his now classic paper, published in 1970, “The Market for Lemons”. At the time this was a significant and innovative breakthrough that showed how markets in which traders have differential information can be inefficient but can also sometimes collapse. It revolutionized the discipline of economics and had impact on every branch and field of economics since then. His work provided the ideas needed to better understand a whole host of real-world phenomena. It has profoundly influenced virtually every field of economics, from industrial organisation and public finance to macroeconomics and contract theory.
Entrepreneur and Chief Tea Mixologist, Krisi Smith
Krisi Smith is a 'Chief Mixologist', Author, Creative Director and Co-founder of Brighton based tea company, Bird & Blend Tea Co. Starting just six years ago in her mum's back bedroom Krisi, along with her partner Mike Turner have built their brand to be the UK's most loved independent tea blenders. This year the business will turnover more than £2.5m and they employ over 90 people across their sites nationwide. At the heart of Krisi's approach to business is a strong commitment to putting people first, creating fantastic customer experiences and having fun along the way.
Economist and Author, Vicky Pryce
Vicky Pryce is a Greek-born British economist and author of the book ‘Greekonomics’. Vicky Pryce's recent posts have included: Senior Managing Director at FTI Consulting; Director General for Economics at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS); and Joint Head of the UK Government Economics Service where she was responsible for evidence based policy and for encouraging measures that promoted greater productivity in the UK economy.
Previous Speakers
Professor Daniel Sgroi
Professor Daniel Sgroi’s work focuses mainly on game theory and the intersection of Economics and Psychology, including behavioural economics, subjective wellbeing and language. Professor Sgroi also leads part of the ESRC-funded CAGE centre which seeks better ways to understand and measure subjective wellbeing and related behavioural concepts.
Kelly Gallagher MBE
Kelly Gallagher MBE is a visually impaired alpine ski racer from Northern Ireland. Kelly won Britain’s first ever Winter Paralympic gold medal at the Sochi Winter Olympics in 2014 for the Super Giant Slalom competition.
Vicky Pryce
Krisi Smith
Krisi Smith is a 'Chief Mixologist', Author, Creative Director and Co-founder of Brighton based tea company, Bird and Blend Tea Co. Starting just five years ago in her mum's back bedroom Krisi, along with her partner Mike Turner have built their brand to be the UK's most loved independent tea blenders. This year the business will turnover more than £2m and they employ over 70 people across their sites nationwide. At the heart of Krisi's approach to business is a strong commitment to putting people first, creating fantastic customer experiences and having fun along the way.
Professor George Akerlof
George Akerlof is an American economist and University Professor at Georgetown University. He won the 2001 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences.
Priya Lakhani OBE
Award winning, Priya Lakhani OBE is an entrepreneur who developed Masala Masala, a fresh Indian food brand stocked by retailers including Waitrose, Harvey Nichols and Ocado.com.
Professor Andrew Oswald
Professor of Economics at Warwick whose work lies mainly at the border between economics and behavioural sciences, and includes the empirical study of human happiness.
The Right Honourable Hazel Blears
A Member of Parliament for 18 years, holding various roles including Health Minister, Police and Counter Terrorism Minister and Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government.
Lord Gus O'Donnell
Former Cabinet Secretary and non-Executive Chairman of Frontier Economics.
Dr Tali Sharot
A neuroscientist by trade and a leading expert on human decision-making, optimism and emotion.
Marie-Claire Villeval
Director of GATE Lyon St Etienne.
Jacqui Smith
Served as the first female Home Secretary from 2007-2009
Sir George Cox
Sir George is the University's Pro-Chancellor. He serves on the Finance and General Purposes Committee, the Nominations Committee, the Honorary Degree Committee and the Remuneration Committee.
Professor Nick Crafts, CBE
World renowned Economic Historian, and Director of the ESRC funded Research Centre CAGE (Competitive Advantage in a Global Economy).
Professor James Robinson
University Professor at the University of Chicago and author of award winning book ‘Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power’.
David Myatt
Professor David P. Myatt focuses his academic research on the tools of game theory applied to diverse settings, including business strategy; macroeconomic coordination; and political science.
Claudia Senik
A Professor at the University Paris-Sorbonne, France with her main research interest areas being income distribution and subjective well-being.
The guest lectures were definitely engaging and the speakers were top in their respective fields.
Opeyemi Otaniyi (Nigeria)
I never imagined I would communicate with a Nobel Prize winner face to face.
Yanfeier Li (China)
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JapanSylvian.com
http://www.japansylvian.com/forum/
Little question....
http://www.japansylvian.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=519
by Nath
I have a question : on a japan yahoo group, there's something about Sandii Tidbits : so I just want to know if it's in relation with JAPAN or not ?
many thanks in advance for your answer
by heartofdavid
I haven't followed the entire discussion, but they've been talking about Sandii (from Sandii and the Sunsetz). S & the S were the opening band on Japan's last tour, several picture of them are in the "Sons of Pioneers" book - can find many of those pics in the Japan photo album on this board.
S & The S were a popular Japanese pop band, never broke through much outside of Japan. David sang and wrote songs on a couple of their albums.
The band is no longer around, but Sandii has quite a successful career in Hawaii, singing traditional Hawaiin music (and has done some solo pop stuff as well).
by Poisoned_Apathy
That's really interesting. I'd never heard of them, and it sounds quite good. I'll have to check some of their/her stuff.
They were quite popular in Australia too, at least for a while. I lived in Adelaide 86-87 - their album Banzai Baby was released at the time and they toured a few places in Australia - received a lot of press and television coverage. I can't recall the name of the woman who interviewed them on TV; was a very popular and good music show that concentrated each program on one or two performers, with an in-studio interview and videos. She had David on one show (he was promoting Gone To Earth) and the following week were Sandii and the Sunsetz.
karnsculpture wrote: Sandii is a bigger star now in Japan than she was with the Sunsetz. She had a TV show about Hula dance, fitness and beauty etc. She owns Hula schools and a restaurant. She's been pretty successful in ways that are not visible in the West e.g. hits in SE Asia.
Thanks for that info, good to know that she's done so well.
So many many thanks everybody to answer me...


Home » New York Court Delivers Denial Of Certification In Papa John’s Drivers’ Class Action
New York Court Delivers Denial Of Certification In Papa John’s Drivers’ Class Action
By Hillary Massey on April 4, 2017
Posted in Conditional Certification, Joint Employment
Co-authored by Gerald L. Maatman, Jr., Gina Merrill, Brendan Sweeney, and Mark W. Wallin
Seyfarth Synopsis: A New York federal court in Durling, et al. v. Papa John’s International, Inc., Case No. 7:16-CV-03592 (CS) (JCM) (S.D.N.Y. Mar. 29, 2017), recently denied Plaintiffs’ motion for conditional certification of a nationwide collective action in an FLSA minimum wage action against Papa John’s International, Inc. (“PJI”), in which the drivers alleged that they have not been sufficiently reimbursed for the cost of their vehicle expenses. This ruling shows that even though the burden for “first stage” conditional certification is modest, employers can defend their pay practices by showing the absence of any evidence of a common policy or plan that violates the FLSA. This is especially so when plaintiffs seek to certify a nationwide collective action, for as the court held in Durling, conditional certification is not proper when plaintiffs submit evidence pertaining to only a small sub-set of the putative collective action members.
In 2016, approximately 80% of conditional certification motions were granted in the Second Circuit. Plaintiffs undoubtedly have a low bar to hurdle to obtain conditional certification under section 16(b) of the FLSA. It is a hurdle nonetheless, and some courts have shown a willingness to look closely at plaintiffs’ proffered evidence to ensure that a factual nexus exists that binds together the members of a putative collective action. In Durling, et al. v. Papa John’s International, Inc., Judge Cathy Seibel of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York rejected Plaintiffs’ motion for conditional certification of a nationwide collective action that would have included drivers employed at corporate-owned stores and stores operated by franchisees. The Court concluded that Plaintiffs’ evidence did not support a finding that the named plaintiffs were similarly situated to thousands of drivers employed by hundreds of different employers.
By highlighting Plaintiffs’ failure to show that Papa John’s International, Inc. (“PJI”) dictated a common corporate policy to franchisees, or any significant factual nexus among the members of the putative collective action across corporate and franchise stores, PJI won a significant victory.
Case Background
Plaintiffs are five delivery drivers who work for either PJI or one of two restaurants owned by independent franchisees. Each Plaintiff delivered pizzas in his own vehicle, and alleged that PJI and the franchisees under-reimbursed delivery drivers for wear and tear, gas, and other vehicle expenses such that PJI violated the FLSA. Pointing to the practice of one franchisee, as an example, Plaintiffs averred that they were paid $6 per hour plus $1 per delivery, which, at an average rate of five deliveries per hour, amounts to wages of approximately $11 per hour. Applying the IRS standard mileage rate, Plaintiffs claim that they paid $13.50 per hour for upkeep on their vehicles, resulting in a net loss of $2.50 per hour. Accordingly, Plaintiffs asserted that they earned less than minimum wage in violation of the FLSA and corresponding state minimum wage laws.
There are over 3,300 Papa John’s restaurants in the United States. Approximately 700 are owned and operated, at least in part, by PJI. The remaining 2,600 plus restaurants are owned and operated by 786 independent franchisees. Although four of the five Plaintiffs worked for franchisees, they did not sue any franchisees in this litigation — only PJI. Plaintiffs claimed that PJI is a joint-employer of the drivers at all franchised Papa John’s. They alleged that PJI disseminated policies to the franchisees that caused the drivers to be under-reimbursed in a uniform way. Plaintiffs supported this theory with purported evidence that all stores, both corporate and franchise, use the same point-of-sale (“POS”) technology to record deliveries and calculate reimbursements, and use the same logos and uniforms.
Plaintiffs filed their Complaint on May 13, 2016, which they amended on July 12, 2016. On October 14, 2016, Plaintiffs filed a motion for conditional certification of their FLSA collective action, seeking to represent all delivery drivers on a nationwide basis.
The Court’s Decision
The Court denied Plaintiffs’ conditional certification motion. While the Court declined PJI’s invitation to apply a heightened standard in assessing the motion (due to the discovery that had been undertaken in the case), the Court found that Plaintiffs failed to satisfy even the modest standard generally used in step one conditional certification motions. The Court also declined to decide whether PJI was in fact a joint-employer, finding this to be a merits issue. Framing the conditional certification issue, however, the Court reasoned that Plaintiffs could show that they were similarly-situated with the other members of the proposed collective action in two ways: (1) by demonstrating that PJI dictated a common reimbursement policy for all delivery drivers working at both corporate and franchise-owned restaurants, or (2) by showing that a common policy existed across the entire proposed collective action.
As to the first issue, the Court found that while PJI admitted that it reimbursed the drivers it employs at corporate-owned stores by paying them a specific amount per delivery (without conceding that the rate is so low as to violate the FLSA), Plaintiffs failed to offer any evidence that PJI was involved in its franchisees’ policies for reimbursing delivery drivers. According to the Court, the mere use of the same POS system, with the corresponding ability to access data on how drivers are paid, “in no way indicates that [PJI] dictated a nationwide delivery driver payment policy.”
In analyzing the question of whether Plaintiffs could show a common policy across the collective action that would bind the putative members together, the Court answered it in the negative. The Court rejected Plaintiffs’ attempt to show common policies regarding issues wholly unrelated to the purported practice of under-reimbursement. The Court reasoned that proffering common policies “such as wearing the same uniforms, or use of the Papa John’s logo, or even the general use of personal vehicles to make deliveries, is not sufficient to demonstrate a common policy with respect to the payment of drivers.”
The Court determined that while Plaintiffs arguably had made a “modest showing” of a common policy across PJI corporate-owned stores and the two franchises for which Plaintiffs work, this “evidence is insufficient to infer a nationwide policy.” The Court rejected Plaintiffs’ conclusory averments that other franchisees had the same policy, observing that witnesses as to this claim lacked personal knowledge. The Court also found that Plaintiffs failed to offer evidence of a common policy that violated the FLSA, noting that while the evidence showed that a few more franchisees do not use the IRS reimbursement rate, “there is no evidence that these franchisees do not pay a rate reasonably related to driving and wear and tear costs, or that what they pay is so low that the drivers end up getting less than the minimum wage.” The Court also opined that it had found no similar cases where plaintiffs succeeded in certifying a nationwide collective action involving hundreds of franchisees where the declarations offered descriptions of only two stores, and no evidence existed that the franchisor dictated the policy at issue to all franchisees. Thus, even recognizing that the Plaintiffs’ modest burden at the conditional certification stage, the Court declined to certify the collective action by “infer[ring] from the policy of two franchisees, that a nationwide 780-something other franchisees reimburse delivery drivers on a per-delivery basis that results in compensation below the minimum wage.” Consequently, the Court denied Plaintiffs’ motion for conditional certification of a nationwide collective action, holding that Plaintiffs failed to meet their modest burden of showing that delivery drivers were similarly-situated.
Implication for Employers
FLSA collective actions are ubiquitous due in large part to the low burden for conditional certification — especially compared to class certification under Rule 23. Indeed, the vast majority of FLSA collective actions are conditionally certified, which can have the effect of driving large early settlements. Members of the plaintiffs’ class action bar have attempted to stretch the conditional certification device to cases that involve joint employer theories, in the hopes that the court will certify a large collective action without scrutinizing the novel aspects of the case. Employers facing FLSA collective action allegations in situations involving a decentralized policy across multiple locations can add this ruling to their defensive arsenal. And although the Plaintiffs’ bar will likely continue to pursue FLSA collective actions as long as the burden for conditional certification is so low and the benefit of a substantial settlement is so high, this ruling shows that certification is far from automatic.
Tags: collective action, Fair Labor Standards Act, franchise, joint employer, Southern District of New York
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Irene challenges forecasters on storm intensity
By Pete Spotts | 08/29/2011
As tropical storm Irene spends what’s left of its wind and rain over the Northeastern US, the rise and fall of the Atlantic season’s first hurricane highlights improvements that forecasters have made over the past several decades in forecasting a storm’s track.
But it also highlights the challenges that remain as researchers try to bring the same level of improvement to storm-intensity forecasts.
Within the next 10 years, research efforts sponsored by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration aim to cut average track and intensity errors to 50 percent of what they were in 2008, according to Frank Marks Jr., director of the Hurricane Research Division at the Atlantic Meteorological and Oceanographic Laboratory in Miami.
At the same time, researchers are aiming to provide forecasters at the National Hurricane Center in Miami with the tools to extend their forecasts out to seven days from five days out today.
The efforts come against the backdrop of continued population growth along the coasts, as well as a warming climate.
Early last year, a team of tropical-climate specialists from the US, Australia, China, Japan, and India summarized the state of research into the tropical-cyclone connection to global warming.
Writing in the journal Nature Geoscience, they noted it’s unclear if global warming has had an effect on past hurricane trends. A bit like a radio signal buried in static, any global warming signal has been swamped by natural variations in hurricane frequency and intensity and by inconsistent quality and coverage of tropical-cyclone records worldwide.
Still, based on today’s understanding of how these storms work and climate simulations built on that knowledge, “future projections consistently indicate that greenhouse gas warming” will boost the average intensity of tropical cyclones around the world by 2 percent to 11 percent by 2100.
And while the overall number of storms in a given season is expected to drop by 6 percent to 34 percent by century’s end, a higher proportion of the storms that do form are expected to muscle their way into the top intensity rankings.
In Irene’s case, forecasters at the National Hurricane Center in Miami had a bead on the storm’s path up the US East Coast by early evening last Tuesday.
As Irene began its encounter with the southern Bahamas, forecasters had the track moving across the eastern tip of North Carolina and up the eastern seaboard. Forecasts of the storm’s post-Carolina track wobbled back and forth slightly as NOAA and US Air Force Reserve hurricane hunters took the storm’s measure as often as once every three hours.
But the shifts were relatively small. And the storm was large – hurricane winds as far as 90 miles from the center and tropical-storm winds out to 250 miles at the storm’s peak.
Where track forecasts can by off by as much as 250 miles at the fifth day out, this time Irene took no significant deviation from the path along the mid-Atlantic and Northeast coasts forecasters had indicated early in the week.
Last Tuesday’s forecasts expected Irene would strike North Carolina as a major hurricane, with maximum sustained winds of at least 110 miles an hour. When the storm made landfall near Cape Lookout at 11:30 a.m. Saturday morning, however, maximum sustained winds had dropped to 85 miles an hour.
Friday morning, forecasters noticed that dry air – anathema to tropical cyclones – was moving in from the west. And the storm was encountering increasing shear – rapid changes in wind speed and direction with height. Indeed, later in the day, forecasters noted that by the time Irene reached southern New England, the storm could become a high-end tropical storm, rather than a low-end hurricane.
But the tiny differences in effect between the two, especially along exposed coastlines, prompted forecasters to stick with Irene as a weak hurricane into New England a bit longer. As Irene’s center cleared North Carolina, it moved into an increasingly hostile atmospheric environment, as well as over cooler ocean waters.
In the end, Irene passed over a flooded New York City as a tropical storm around 9 a.m Sunday morning and has continued its arc inland through western Connecticut and Massachusetts.