quote [ A Mexican union has declared total victory in a mass strike at 48 border assembly plants, but now the movement has spawned a storm of wildcat walkouts at other businesses. The union won 20 per cent wage increases at all 48 ?maquiladora? factories in Matamoros, a city across the border from Brownsville, Texas.

The Industrial Workers and Laborers? Union also won a one-time bonus of about 32,000 pesos, about $1,685 at current exchange rates. The strike involved about 25,000 workers.

Now workers at about a dozen non-union businesses and factories organized by other unions have started wildcat walkouts to demand the same increases. ]

quote [ Some of us were purists, who missed the forest for the trees, while others were pragmatists who admitted that, yes, perhaps Hal Rogers was bad, but he could be worked with because it was in his interest to move the region away from coal.

In the end, only the congressman benefited ]

quote [ Printer ink is expensive. HP promises to help with a subscription service for ink, complete with cartridges that stop working when you cancel your subscription. But HP makes you count pages, and I?d rather print as much as I want. ]

quote [ Although people ended up happier, the government hoped it would help the unemployed to find work. ]

quote [ With a supermajority of Americans supporting marijuana legalization, the ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, Ron Wyden (D-OR), has introduced a bill to tax and regulate the substance like alcohol.

In a nod to the mainstreaming of marijuana culture, the legislation carries the stony bill number S. 420. It is the companion to a bill introduced by fellow Oregon Democrat, Rep. Earl Blumenauer, the senior member of the House Ways and Means Committee, H.R. 420. ]

quote [ Secret portions of a lawsuit allege that Purdue Pharma, controlled by the Sackler family, considered capitalizing on the addiction treatment boom ? while going to extreme lengths to boost sales of its controversial opioid. ]

quote [ As you know, the company is going thru a reorganization... ]

quote [ Faced with billions of dollars in potential liabilities from two years of devastating Northern California wildfires as well as the specter of future catastrophic blazes, California's Pacific Gas and Electric, one of the nation's largest utilities, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Tuesday.

The state is investigating PG&E's culpability in November's Butte County fire that killed at least 86 people and incinerated some 14,000 homes and buildings in and around the town of Paradise, Calif. ]

quote [ ?Before you give me a ticket, Officer, I just wanted to mention: My taxes pay your salary.? ]

quote [ A pair of Chinese firms are in the running to buy a massive shipyard in Subic Bay from South Korea?s Hanjin Group, local media reported Saturday.

The harbor, once known as Naval Base Subic Bay, was home to thousands of U.S. sailors and their families before the Navy left in 1992. It?s still a regular port call for U.S. warships and Marines who practice beach landings nearby in Zambales province.

Subic?s importance has grown in recent years amid Chinese efforts to build military facilities on artificial islands and claim sovereignty over territory to the west in the South China Sea. ]