A Walk to Remember and Flight 93, but for different reasons

• Sad movies - Ima dork
  • Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood (sm) - EllaMT
  • Out of Arfica - Streep/Redford (sm) - mttoday
  • Terms of Endearment - daiseymay
    • ditto, a real tear jerker. - oh yeah
  • A Walk to Remember and Flight 93, but for different reasons - nm
    • oops, I mean United 93 - nm
  • The Bucket List - but see it!!! - gemini
  • Beaches - anon
  • National Geographic animal stories - make me cry! - sm
  • A Star is Born with Barbra Streisand. - NM
    • memories, light the corners of my mind. - the way we were
  • The Notebook - anon
  • I was going to say... - Notebook sm
  • City of Angels. I couldn't leave the theatre I was bawling so badly. nm - Confetti
  • Cold Mountain - elonmt
  • Bridges of Madison County s/m - Silly Girl
    • Were you saying, "Go, go!" I was and I am married! - gemini
  • The Patriot - Zville MT
  • When a man loves a woman got - flcmt
    • DITTO... WHEN A MAN LOVES A WOMAN - RADMT2
  • Steel Magnolias gets me everytime . . - OldMT
    • I've seen Steel Magnolias - me too
    • We did this play when I was in college sm - HappyFlaMT
  • Saw Curious Case of Benjamin Buttons - Sad movies
    • I heard that you should see Seven pounds - if you want to be depressed
      • Thank goodness I did not try to see Seven Pounds - Sad movies
        • This is actually a VERY GOOD movie. (sm) - Just the big bad
          • predictable and boring. - gag me
  • Sommersby (nm) - Misha
    • Oh, I loved Sommersby...sm - PAMT~MDM
  • Donnie Darko - not in the same catergory but
    • saw Milk this weekend and everyone was bawling. - Milk
      • Brokeback Mountain was good too. I want to see - Milk as well.

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My husband had to wake up an hour before me for work.  Every morning, he liked to wake me up with him and then tried to get some before getting ready.  I went to bed usually 2 to 3 hours later than him.  Needless to say, I wasn't too happy about it.  So, I decided to give him a taste of his own medicine.  One night, I came to bed about 2 hours after him and he was sleeping soundly.  I woke him up to have sex with me, which he did without complaint.  The next night, the same thing.  The third night, the same thing.  He never complained.  By the 5th night, when I woke him up, he said he was just too tired.  He needed to sleep.  I laughed a little and said, "Funny, that's how I feel every morning when you wake me up an hour early for sex."  He got the hint and apologized.  He agreed not to do that more than once or twice a week and things seemed to be fine.

That was 6 years, 9 months and about 2 weeks ago.  You see my son was born 6 years and 2 weeks ago.  The little lesson I taught him ended up teaching me a much bigger lesson.  How come we women always get the short end of the stick? But I love my little guy!

later than usual.  I usually have them up by Thanksgiving, but this year I think I'm going to wait until the first weekend in December to do the outside lights.  We don't usually light them every night.  I'm going to start my indoor decorations then, too, but holding off on the tree until a week or 2 before Christmas. 

Our current house is a little small and the tree really clutters it up.  We're moving in January and have a lot to do before then.  If I didn't have kids, I probably wouldn't put the tree up at all.  I love Christmas, but things are just too hectic and cluttered right now.

Against the Wal
A class-action lawsuit in Dakota County could strike a costly blow to the world’s largest private employer
by MARGARET NELSON BRINKHAUS

In July 2001, Nancy Braun was watching television with a friend when a commercial caught her attention. The ad was soliciting litigants for a potential lawsuit against Wal-Mart, the Arkansas-based retailing giant, for allegedly cheating employees out of wages they were rightfully owed.

A single mother of two—and grandmother of four—Braun had started working for Wal-Mart in 1997. At the time, she lived in Slidell, Louisiana, where she had previously worked for a grocery store. She considered Wal-Mart a step-up. “I liked shopping there,” she says. “I thought I’d like working there too.”

And she did enjoy it, at least for a while. She liked the people, the work, the sense of solidarity among employees. But in 2000, homesick for her family, she moved back to Minnesota and transferred to the Wal-Mart in Apple Valley, where she was assigned to run the Radio Grill, the outlet’s now-defunct in-store restaurant. There, Braun quickly became disenchanted with the company, especially after a supervisor repeatedly prohibited her from taking breaks—even after she had surgery that required frequent trips to the bathroom. She soon quit.

Braun’s friend encouraged her to call the number mentioned in the advertisement to see if she qualified for the suit, but Braun was hesitant. She didn’t relish the prospect of reliving that period in her life. Yet she remembered how her mother, a longtime switchboard operator at Carleton College, had always encouraged her to speak up, to do the right thing when confronted with an injustice, big or small. “You can’t allow yourself to be treated like an animal,” she says. “I’m sure Mr. Walton would agree with me on that.”

One morning this past October, six years after she first saw that television ad, Braun sat inside a Dakota County courtroom in Hastings, her striped shirt and beige pants—bought from Wal-Mart—in marked contrast to dark suits, leather briefcases, BlackBerrys, and laptops sported by the army of attorneys in the room. “I’m a Plain Jane kind of gal, nothing fancy,” she said. “But I know what’s right. What Wal-Mart did to me wasn’t right.”

That sense of determination is one of the reasons why Braun found herself in Hastings, taking on the country’s largest corporation. She’s one of four lead plaintiffs in a massive, class-action lawsuit filed against Wal-Mart, a case that could affect 56,000 people who worked at Wal-Mart in Minnesota between 1998 and 2004. The suit alleges that over that period, the discount retailer systematically avoided paying wages earned by employees for overtime work and missed or shortened meal and break periods. And though the case is not the first of its kind—workers have won victories in similar cases in California and Pennsylvania—it may end up being one of the most significant. If Judge Robert King Jr. rules against Wal-Mart in this phase of the trial, the company would likely have to pay up to $500 for each employee, which could mean a payout in the tens of millions. More significantly, a ruling against Wal-Mart in this first part of the trial would also mean that the case would move to a jury to assess whether punitive damages are in order. If that happens, Wal-Mart could be on the hook for not only millions, but billions.

Braun’s troubles began after she returned to Minnesota. At the Apple Valley Wal-Mart, she worked in several different departments before running the Radio Grill. At first, she enjoyed the work. “I treated that place like my own kitchen,” she says. “I did it all willingly. I’m not afraid of work…never have been.” Not long after she started in Apple Valley, Braun had learned she needed to have gallbladder surgery. After the procedure, Braun suffered some relatively common side effects that required her to take frequent bathroom breaks. Braun’s supervisors initially said they would accommodate her needs, but that’s not what happened. “I’d get in a pinch, be there all alone, and soil myself, ruin my clothes,” Braun recalled. “I’d feel so degraded. Sometimes I wouldn’t have clothes with me, and the manager would say ‘We have clothes here for sale. Get your purse and go buy yourself some.’ They didn’t care.”

Putting up with an insufferable boss is, of course, an unavoidable part of a job for many people. Yet Braun’s treatment, argue the plaintiffs’ attorneys, wasn’t unique among Wal-Mart employees. Another lead plaintiff, Debbie Simonson, 59, started working as a cashier at the Wal-Mart in Brooklyn Park in April 2000. As a single mother of two children, she needed the money. And, like Braun, Simonson was often told by her supervisor not to take bathroom breaks. “He’d say ‘Skip the bathroom and get your butt out here,’ and I’d do it,” she explained in court. “It was an order. Your boss tells you to do something, you do it.” She quit after 13 months.

According to Justin Perl, the plaintiffs’ lead attorney, the denial of breaks was standard operating procedure at Wal-Mart. As part of the case, he and his colleagues combed through Wal-Mart’s own records to find workplace violations. They identified millions of missed bathroom and rest breaks, as well as millions of shortened rest breaks, along with thousands of missed meal breaks. “It’s the Wal-Mart way,” says Perl. “They nickel-and-dime the lowest- paid workers so they can improve their own bottom line.”

Wal-Mart sees it differently. A spokesman, John Simley, says the company doesn’t comment on pending litigation, but in other cases the company has denied it encourages employees to miss breaks or work off the clock. Wal-Mart, company officials maintain, tries to ensure compliance with company policies and state laws, but has no control over individual choices workers make.

Yet those individual choices are often informed by pressure from the company, argues Perl. According to testimony in other wage cases, Wal-Mart compensates its managers largely via bonuses that are tied to profits—and the easiest way to increase profits is by cutting expenses. “They do it by erasing everyone else’s salary,” says Perl. “It’s not a hard job. They cut staffing. They shave breaks. They make their profit goals. It’s the only basis for how they compensate their managers.”

Pamela Reinert, 54, saw for herself how that pressure was brought to bear. A petite, soft-spoken mother of seven from Maplewood who has a PhD in psychology, she joined Sam’s Club—a Wal-Mart subsidiary—in 1997, after she was laid off from another job. Like Braun and Simonson, Reinert liked the work, and was good at it. She made it into the management-training program shortly after joining the company. As a manager, she would sometimes try to intercede on behalf of workers who weren’t getting their breaks. Eventually, though, she was told to stop making trouble. She eventually quit after a supervisor threatened to write her up for insubordination—for trying to take her complaints up the chain of command.

A ruling on the case is expected sometime this month. But no matter how it turns out, Nancy Braun says she will always miss Wal-Mart. “I wish I could have stayed working there,” she says. She enjoyed the other employees, the customers, and the idea “that there was always something to do, always a way to keep busy. I worked my way up—that was a big deal for me. When I quit, I felt defeated.”

Now living in Stevens Point, Wisconsin, and selling insurance at a cell phone company, she tries to attend the trial whenever possible. When she’s in Hastings, she occasionally makes a stop across the street from the courthouse to do some shopping—at Wal-Mart.

Margaret Nelson Brinkhaus is a Minnesota-based writer.

Against the Wal
A class-action lawsuit in Dakota County could strike a costly blow to the world’s largest private employer
by MARGARET NELSON BRINKHAUS

In July 2001, Nancy Braun was watching television with a friend when a commercial caught her attention. The ad was soliciting litigants for a potential lawsuit against Wal-Mart, the Arkansas-based retailing giant, for allegedly cheating employees out of wages they were rightfully owed.

A single mother of two—and grandmother of four—Braun had started working for Wal-Mart in 1997. At the time, she lived in Slidell, Louisiana, where she had previously worked for a grocery store. She considered Wal-Mart a step-up. “I liked shopping there,” she says. “I thought I’d like working there too.”

And she did enjoy it, at least for a while. She liked the people, the work, the sense of solidarity among employees. But in 2000, homesick for her family, she moved back to Minnesota and transferred to the Wal-Mart in Apple Valley, where she was assigned to run the Radio Grill, the outlet’s now-defunct in-store restaurant. There, Braun quickly became disenchanted with the company, especially after a supervisor repeatedly prohibited her from taking breaks—even after she had surgery that required frequent trips to the bathroom. She soon quit.

Braun’s friend encouraged her to call the number mentioned in the advertisement to see if she qualified for the suit, but Braun was hesitant. She didn’t relish the prospect of reliving that period in her life. Yet she remembered how her mother, a longtime switchboard operator at Carleton College, had always encouraged her to speak up, to do the right thing when confronted with an injustice, big or small. “You can’t allow yourself to be treated like an animal,” she says. “I’m sure Mr. Walton would agree with me on that.”

One morning this past October, six years after she first saw that television ad, Braun sat inside a Dakota County courtroom in Hastings, her striped shirt and beige pants—bought from Wal-Mart—in marked contrast to dark suits, leather briefcases, BlackBerrys, and laptops sported by the army of attorneys in the room. “I’m a Plain Jane kind of gal, nothing fancy,” she said. “But I know what’s right. What Wal-Mart did to me wasn’t right.”

That sense of determination is one of the reasons why Braun found herself in Hastings, taking on the country’s largest corporation. She’s one of four lead plaintiffs in a massive, class-action lawsuit filed against Wal-Mart, a case that could affect 56,000 people who worked at Wal-Mart in Minnesota between 1998 and 2004. The suit alleges that over that period, the discount retailer systematically avoided paying wages earned by employees for overtime work and missed or shortened meal and break periods. And though the case is not the first of its kind—workers have won victories in similar cases in California and Pennsylvania—it may end up being one of the most significant. If Judge Robert King Jr. rules against Wal-Mart in this phase of the trial, the company would likely have to pay up to $500 for each employee, which could mean a payout in the tens of millions. More significantly, a ruling against Wal-Mart in this first part of the trial would also mean that the case would move to a jury to assess whether punitive damages are in order. If that happens, Wal-Mart could be on the hook for not only millions, but billions.

Braun’s troubles began after she returned to Minnesota. At the Apple Valley Wal-Mart, she worked in several different departments before running the Radio Grill. At first, she enjoyed the work. “I treated that place like my own kitchen,” she says. “I did it all willingly. I’m not afraid of work…never have been.” Not long after she started in Apple Valley, Braun had learned she needed to have gallbladder surgery. After the procedure, Braun suffered some relatively common side effects that required her to take frequent bathroom breaks. Braun’s supervisors initially said they would accommodate her needs, but that’s not what happened. “I’d get in a pinch, be there all alone, and soil myself, ruin my clothes,” Braun recalled. “I’d feel so degraded. Sometimes I wouldn’t have clothes with me, and the manager would say ‘We have clothes here for sale. Get your purse and go buy yourself some.’ They didn’t care.”

Putting up with an insufferable boss is, of course, an unavoidable part of a job for many people. Yet Braun’s treatment, argue the plaintiffs’ attorneys, wasn’t unique among Wal-Mart employees. Another lead plaintiff, Debbie Simonson, 59, started working as a cashier at the Wal-Mart in Brooklyn Park in April 2000. As a single mother of two children, she needed the money. And, like Braun, Simonson was often told by her supervisor not to take bathroom breaks. “He’d say ‘Skip the bathroom and get your butt out here,’ and I’d do it,” she explained in court. “It was an order. Your boss tells you to do something, you do it.” She quit after 13 months.

According to Justin Perl, the plaintiffs’ lead attorney, the denial of breaks was standard operating procedure at Wal-Mart. As part of the case, he and his colleagues combed through Wal-Mart’s own records to find workplace violations. They identified millions of missed bathroom and rest breaks, as well as millions of shortened rest breaks, along with thousands of missed meal breaks. “It’s the Wal-Mart way,” says Perl. “They nickel-and-dime the lowest- paid workers so they can improve their own bottom line.”

Wal-Mart sees it differently. A spokesman, John Simley, says the company doesn’t comment on pending litigation, but in other cases the company has denied it encourages employees to miss breaks or work off the clock. Wal-Mart, company officials maintain, tries to ensure compliance with company policies and state laws, but has no control over individual choices workers make.

Yet those individual choices are often informed by pressure from the company, argues Perl. According to testimony in other wage cases, Wal-Mart compensates its managers largely via bonuses that are tied to profits—and the easiest way to increase profits is by cutting expenses. “They do it by erasing everyone else’s salary,” says Perl. “It’s not a hard job. They cut staffing. They shave breaks. They make their profit goals. It’s the only basis for how they compensate their managers.”

Pamela Reinert, 54, saw for herself how that pressure was brought to bear. A petite, soft-spoken mother of seven from Maplewood who has a PhD in psychology, she joined Sam’s Club—a Wal-Mart subsidiary—in 1997, after she was laid off from another job. Like Braun and Simonson, Reinert liked the work, and was good at it. She made it into the management-training program shortly after joining the company. As a manager, she would sometimes try to intercede on behalf of workers who weren’t getting their breaks. Eventually, though, she was told to stop making trouble. She eventually quit after a supervisor threatened to write her up for insubordination—for trying to take her complaints up the chain of command.

A ruling on the case is expected sometime this month. But no matter how it turns out, Nancy Braun says she will always miss Wal-Mart. “I wish I could have stayed working there,” she says. She enjoyed the other employees, the customers, and the idea “that there was always something to do, always a way to keep busy. I worked my way up—that was a big deal for me. When I quit, I felt defeated.”

Now living in Stevens Point, Wisconsin, and selling insurance at a cell phone company, she tries to attend the trial whenever possible. When she’s in Hastings, she occasionally makes a stop across the street from the courthouse to do some shopping—at Wal-Mart.

Margaret Nelson Brinkhaus is a Minnesota-based writer.

this nonsense, and no fair naming children.  Why in the world would you choose to live like this with these neanderthal men?  Believe me, alone is so much better.  At least then you have choices.  and the children you are raising are actually children, not grown me. 

that when he was a puppy and I knew I'd be gone for a long time I wouldn't want to leave him home for a long time.  I don't take him in restaurants EVER, but do take him to stores in his doggie purse.  If he barked at people, I'd quit bringing him.  I personally just really enjoy being around animals.  I have two labs too, but they are impossible to take the places I take my Yorkee to, which is one of the major reasons I wanted a small "purse dog."  I just love animals and enjoy their company either at home, in the car, or in a store.

Most people do not even know I have him.  I put the screened side towards my body and it looks like a regular purse unless you look very closely.  If he is noticed, they usually are thrilled to see him.  I have had more elderly people share their life stories of their small dogs with me when they see me out and about (usually at the kids' ball games or something else where he is not in a purse) with my pup.  He brings joy to many people, including me!

I'd be offended too if someone's purse dog barked at me, but if they were just sitting quietly in the purse, I wouldn't care, but I would care if it were a restaurant as I don't think that is sanitary.

Hope this shows you another side of purse dogs and why we take them with us.

My husband and I have a golden retriever/lab mix.  I am not an animal lover but do have compassion for animals.  My husband is the animal lover.  If my husband is out of town on business, I will not walk the dog.  Just the smell of dog doo makes me gag and vomit.  I will, however, let the dog loose in our yard and watch her to make sure she stays in our yard while she exercises, but I will not walk her because I wouldn't be able to clean up any messes.

As for fines, I would imagine there is some sort of punishment in our small town and I think there should be across the board.  Our dog is trained to do her business in 1 area of the yard that my husband picks up weekly before mowing the grass.  If I find doo anywhere else in my yard, I am not happy.  We have 3 kids who like to run and play and know to stay out of the dog's area.  Having to clean off their shoes because someone else was lazy with their dog infuriates me. 

Way to go NY!!!!! Hope it comes to my hometown soon!

Merry Christmas to you also! 

I have this one where they sing this "power walk" mantra in the background when it starts out.  Then I have that song in my head the whole day!  I think I'll just plug in my little MP3 player instead and find tunes that match the different paces, because although I enjoy the video immensely, that "music" has just gotta go!  Oh, if you walk to her videos where she uses something called a "stretchy band," I found a 3-pack in varying resistance strengths at Walmart for $5.00.  Total deal.

Hello everybody,

I'm going to be walking for Walk Now For Autism on Sep. 20th of this year. It is a ways away but since this is such an important subject for me i'm trying to get started as early as i can. If you'd like to check it out, register yourself in a city near you, or donate, you can check out my website on their website:

http://www.walknowforautism.org/minneapolis/team/teamderrian

I appreciate your time,

Tanya

People are made to smoke outside the store, can't smoke inside.  Smoking is not against the law.  I think people with body odor/bad breath smell way worse than people smoking. 

why let ANYONE intimidate you?