Free Republic

McDonald's has begun outsourcing drive-through orders in 40 of its restaurants, using 125 workers at a call center in California and submitting orders back over the Internet. The process saves "seconds" on each order. Workers make $6.75 an hour, get no health benefits and handle up to 95 orders an hour in a job that sounds like a workplace massacre in the making: Ms. Vargas seems unfazed by her job, even though it involves being subjected to constant electronic scrutiny. Software tracks her productivity and speed, and every so often a red box pops up on her screen to test...

DYERSBURG, Tenn. (Sept. 18) - A 26-year-old man with a history of mental problems held at least a dozen college students at gunpoint during a nine-hour standoff before a SWAT team stormed the school building and killed the suspect. Authorities said the gunman, Harold Kilpatrick Jr., had left a note at his sister's house before the standoff Wednesday saying he ``wanted to kill some people and die today.'' Police rushed into the building at Dyersburg State Community College around 10 p.m. after hearing shots and killed Kilpatrick. Two hostages were wounded, but it was not immediately clear they were injured...