Free Republic

In the latest and largest strike to hit manufacturing in recent months, more than 10,000 UAW-represented Deere & Co. workers officially went on strike at the stroke of twelve between October 13 and 14. Workers roundly rejected an October 1 UAW-negotiated contract with the tractor manufacturer, with 90% of members voting against the deal. The strike will hit 14 of Deere & Co.’s U.S. locations. Half of those factories are in Iowa; the rest are in Illinois, Kansas, Colorado, and Georgia. The strike’s timing comes at an inopportune point for Deere & Co., which has already seen record profits this...

A squadron of law enforcement agents and chainsaw-wielding contractors descended on a suburban Boca Raton home Friday, destroying a healthy ruby red grapefruit tree whose owners had attempted to save it from Florida’s citrus canker eradication program by citing the Geneva Convention... ...Barry Silver, the Gersteins’ attorney. “The only safe place for citrus in Florida is on a license plate.” Silver added, “This citrus eradication program will end when there’s no more privately owned citrus in South Florida. That’s the Department of Agriculture’s goal. They’re not trying to eradicate canker, they’re trying to eradicate private trees.”