It may be a matter of when, not whether, the state legislature will address the issue of requiring COVID-19 vaccinations in the workplace.
What side of the issue legislators fall on could be among the more intriguing developments of the 2021 session.
So far, no bill has been introduced that specifically addresses COVID-19 vaccinations and employment, although there have been three related to return to school.
Yet, Gov. Roy Cooper said in March he planned to talk with legislative leaders about whether vaccines should be required for certain jobs.
âSuffice to say weâre going to be pushing for people to get this vaccine,â Cooper said. âWeâre going to continue to work with businesses and others about the best way to do that.â
Amy: My husband and I recently welcomed our first child.
On my side of the extended family, our baby son (âSamuelâ) is the fifth grandchild, but on my husbandâs side, he is the first.
I am trying to be sensitive to the excitement and extra attention a first grandchild receives.
My mother-in-law, âJoan,â has been to our house for a visit of a weekâs duration each month since Samâs birth. Each time she visits, I am more hesitant to welcome her back.
Joan is blatantly disregarding the parenting strategy my husband and I have adopted in favor of her own techniques. She does this against our specific instructions and without discussion.
Amazon is apologizing to U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan after directing an âincorrectâ tweet at the Black Earth Democrat last week about whether employees of the online retail behemoth need to use bottles to relieve themselves.
Last week â as an attempt to unionize an Amazon warehouse in Alabama was underway â Pocan responded on Twitter to an Amazon executive who called the business a âprogressive workplace,â arguing Amazon engages in union-busting and makes âworkers urinate in water bottles.â
In response to Pocanâs comment, a tweet from one of Amazonâs Twitter accounts said: âYou donât really believe the peeing in bottles thing, do you? If that were true, nobody would work for us.â
Owning and operating a restaurant is not the easiest of endeavors.
Carlos Weir and his wife, Erika, have accepted the challenge of running not one but two local restaurants. The first, Las Chabelas, opened in Brawley on Main Street in 2003 with only four tables, two booths and three employees. The second restaurant is The Courtroom Bourbons and Grill in El Centro, which opened in 2014.
Carlos Weir is native Californian who grew up in the greater Los Angeles area and moved to Imperial Valley more than 30 years ago. Erika Weir is a native of Imperial Valley.
When the couple decided to operate a restaurant, they knew the risk. Although the closure rate for restaurants in the first year is reported as high as 90 percent, the real number over the past 20 years is closer to 17 percent. This is actually a lower failure rate than other service-providing businesses, where 19 percent fail in the first year.
By CHARLIE QUIMBY
I was not the only reader mystified by William Perry Pendleyâs attempt to use Enstrom Candies and owner Doug Simons as a cudgel to beat on Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.).
Pendley framed a quoteââyou didnât make that widgetââ by the right-wingâs favorite target to suggest that Democrats hate and misunderstand Americaâs entrepreneurs.
In fact, the quote was not about local business owners like Doug Simons, so letâs leave him out of it, except to mention that his company pays entry-level workers above Coloradoâs minimum wage, and he is not a billionaire. Neither am I, but I am a retired entrepreneur whose multimillion-dollar company, now owned by former employees, is celebrating its 33rd year.