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Major League Baseball team owners have locked out the players in a battle over the game’s future economic structure, initiating the sport’s first work stoppage since the strike that resulted in the cancelation of the 1994 World Series. [snip] A large point of contention is the competitive landscape, particularly the rise of “tanking”–a radical rebuilding strategy in which teams intentionally make their rosters worse to save money and acquire draft picks for the future. This approach, coupled with an increased reliance on data analytics, caused a squeeze on some veteran free agents, inspiring the players’ frustration. [snip] Management argues that...

In the state of Victoria, Australia, Premier Daniel Andrews again affirmed his intent to keep all unvaccinated citizens isolated, marginalized and locked out of the economy deep into 2022. Simultaneously, Andrews warns the vaccinated citizens that if they attempt to avoid any booster shots, as determined by the state, the vaccinated will join the unvaccinated group in being locked down.Perhaps this threat will alarm the citizens that have been vaccinated. Just because they are compliant today, if the vaccinated class attempt to defy the government boosters 3, 4, 5, 6,… etc, they will be cast back into the second class...

Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich announced that he is back on Twitter after being locked out for a week following a disputed tweet regarding the Biden administration’s immigration policies. Gingrich defended his tweet and announced that he had been reinstated in an op-ed that ran in the Washington Times Wednesday. He noted that both Texas Republicans and Democrats have been critical of the administration’s refusal to track where undocumented migrants are being released on the southern border as the coronavirus persists. In a tweet that was later deleted, Gingrich wrote, "If there is a COVID surge in Texas,...

On Good Friday, Christianity’s most solemn day, lawyers for religious freedom are expanding their war on governors and mayors who have ordered an Easter church lockdown and ban on drive-in services due to the coronavirus. Notable cases in Kansas, Virginia, Kentucky, and Mississippi argue that the orders violate the First Amendment and religious freedoms that the country was founded on. And in Washington, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has strongly urged opponents to drive-in services to drop the ban. In a letter to Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer, a ban fan, the Kentucky senator urged, "Religious people should not be singled...

Top Story: Mobile provider is locking U.S. soldiers out of their phone service | Komando.com http://www.komando.com/happening-now/368529/top-story-mobile-provider-is-locking-u-s-soldiers-out-of-their-phone-service?utm_medium=nl&utm_source=notd&utm_content=2016-08-05-article-title August 5, 2016 Top Story: Mobile provider is locking U.S. soldiers out of their phone service By Mark Jones, Komando.com Top Story: Mobile provider is locking U.S. soldiers out of their phone service Life in the United States military can be tough. Your life can be put in danger at any moment, whether you are in a war zone, or simply patrolling a U.S. base. It's stressful for you, your family and everyone who cares about you. Having access to reliable phone service is...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Here's more fallout from the health care law: Until now, customers could walk into an insurance office or go online to buy standard health care coverage any time of year. Not anymore. Many people who didn't sign up during the government's open enrollment period that ended Monday will soon find it difficult or impossible to get insured this year, even if they go directly to a private company and money is no object. For some it's already too late. With limited exceptions, insurers are refusing to sell to individuals after the enrollment period for HealthCare.gov and the...

Grandparents are being roped into help, companies are turning themselves into temporary crèches, and employees are being forced to take leave as Denmark enters its fourth week of a teacher lockout. Since 1 April, around 875,000 children, aged from six to 16 years, have been unable to attend school after a breakdown in talks between the teachers’ union and local government over the setting of working conditions for the coming years. The deadlock, affecting 69,000 teachers, has had profound effects in a society where it is normal for both parents to work. … The standoff is over the length of...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=pITDb2nViIY In this video, Safe Havens Int'l Executive Director Mike Dorn discusses his concerns regarding the reliability of school lockouts/lockdowns.

It took 16 hours of talks in New York on Saturday, with concessions from both sides. It took 113 days. A total of 625 regular-season games were sacrificed, or over half the 2012-13 season. It took months of bitter sniping, petty politics, false hope and broken hearts.

Members of three Canadian-based teams are attempting to use provincial law to contest the legality of a potential lockout by the National Hockey League owners. The National Hockey League Players' Association believes that laws in the provinces of both Alberta and Quebec would make the potential lockout unlawful. "The filings are intended to interfere with the broader labor negotiating process," NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly said Monday. "They will have absolutely zero impact on the broader negotiation, or on the deal we ultimately agree on." According to the NHLPA, the fact that the Union is not recognized by the Quebec...

Con Ed officials said they offered to extend the current contract until July 14 in an effort to reach a new deal, and sent NY1 a signed document showing it made the offer. The company says it dismissed the workers because it could not get assurances from the union that it would not call a sudden strike. The utility also says the contract extension offer remained on the table. "We offered a two-week extension of the current contract letting all of the members continue to work this week and the next, as long as there was no threat of a...

NBA players like Kenyon Martin and JR Smith will have to finish out the contracts they signed with their Chinese teams this summer, Yahoo! Sports' Adrian Wojnarowski reports. These players would have been sitting pretty if the NBA cancelled the entire season. But that didn't happen. And now they're stuck in China while everyone else gets to play NBA hoops. Here's what a source told Yahoo!: "They can play, get paid (in China), and return to NBA in March. Or they can not get paid, and return to NBA in March." Ouch. It looks like the Nuggets — who will...

Sometimes, dreams really do come true. The NBA and its players have reached a tentative agreement to end the five-month-long lockout and begin play on Christmas Day, as first reported by Ken Berger. Both players and owners must agree to a final vote of approval, but that is merely a formality at this point. After 16 hours of discussions Friday (and into Saturday morning), David Stern and Billy Hunter held a joint press conference just before 4 a.m. announcing the long-awaited handshake deal. “We’ve reached a tentative understanding that is subject to a variety of approvals…but we’re optimistic that it...

<p>GRAND FORKS, N.D. - Police say union supporters have directed racial slurs and racist symbols at replacement workers and security personnel outside an American Crystal Sugar plant in North Dakota.</p>

GRAND FORKS, N.D. - Locked-out union workers at American Crystal Sugar Co. are blaming fires at plants in Drayton and in East Grand Forks, Minn., on inexperienced replacement workers hired to take over harvesting duties. Company spokesman Jeff Schweitzer said the fires happened in pulp dryers Thursday at the plant in Drayton and on Friday at the East Grand Forks plant. No one was hurt. East Grand Forks Fire Chief Randy Gust said a pulp dryer fire isn't unusual and that his department responds to about one each year. Union spokesman Mark Froemke said the company won't share information about...

American Crystal Sugar threatens a lockout, which would be the company's first work stoppage since 1981. When the first sugar beets ripen and the Red River ... A lockout would affect three Minnesota plants -- in Moorhead, East Grand Forks and Crookston -- and mills in Hillsboro and Drayton, N.D. The last time American Crystal Sugar had a work stoppage was in 1981, when the union struck for almost a month. Union representatives say American Crystal Sugar's contract proposal would dismantle seniority rights and allow the company to contract out union jobs to outside firms. There also is disagreement over...

NFL Lockout - Can You Help. . . Can You Help? Since September 11, 2001, Americans have come together as never before in our generation. We have banded together to overcome adversity. We have weathered direct attacks on our own soil, wars overseas, corporate/government scandal, layoffs, unemployment, stock price plunges, droughts, fires, mad cow, SARS, high gasoline prices, and a myriad of economic and physical disasters both great and small. But now, we must come together once again to overcome our greatest challenge yet. Hundreds of professional football players in our very own nation are going to be locked out,...

An Iowa corn farmer (Taylor Lautner), hearing voices, interprets them as a command to build a football field in his fields; he does, and the National Football League comes. Three minute video at:

The NBA's thrilling season came with a high price tag. LeBron James' move to Miami and Dirk Nowitzki's title in Dallas couldn't hide a simple fact: Owners insisted they were losing money, perhaps $300 million this season, and they weren't interested in subsidizing a system they felt guaranteed they would keep losing more. So the NBA locked out its players Thursday night, a long-expected move that puts the 2011-12 season in jeopardy and comes as the NFL is trying to end its own work stoppage. The NBA lockout began at 9:01 p.m. PDT. It will last until players and owners...

The NFL and players are rapidly approaching the "Moment of Truth" in their negotiations for a 2011 football season. Personally I thought they would have put together a deal by now. With July on the horizon, training camps would be or already would have started. Most of these players probably haven't been working out and getting the conditioning they normally would have prior to training camp.As a result you have to wonder what kind of shape many of these players will be in. My prediction is that if there is not deal in place by Friday, July 1st, then the...