Thanks to your help we raised over $10K for Candidates in the 2008 Cycle.
Please help us reach our goal of $30K for 2010
No donation is too small $1 sends a message
Our Candidate List
A recent April college grad sued her alumnus after she has failed to find a job.
A recent college graduate is suing her alma mater for $72,000 -- the full cost of her tuition and then some -- because she cannot find a job.
Trina Thompson has sued her alma mater, Monroe College of New York.
Trina Thompson, 27, of the Bronx, graduated from New York's Monroe College in April with a bachelor of business administration degree in information technology.
On July 24, she filed suit against the college in Bronx Supreme Court, alleging that Monroe's "Office of Career Advancement did not help me with a full-time job placement. I am also suing them because of the stress I have been going through."
The college responded that it offers job-search support to all its students.
In her complaint, Thompson says she seeks $70,000 in reimbursement for her tuition and $2,000 to compensate for the stress of her three-month job search.
Unfortunately, many job searches take much longer than three months. In fact 30 percent of job hunters actually expect, according to a Challenger, Gray and Christmas (national outplacement firm) study that job searches will take four to seven months. This recession should warrant more caution in the expectations especially those of recent college graduates.
This lady will have a hard time winning her lawsuit. She will have to prove that she did everything within reason to find a job. I cannot expect that a court would find that the career advancement office be at fault. I've had good and bad experiences with career services offices, but I never expected that they were in control of my destiny. This suit seems a little far fetched especially considering that the recent grad has only been searching for three months.
Have you even heard of the jam band Phish? Depends on when and where you went to college probably. Phish is a favorite of yuppie hippies who went to college in the 1990's. I will admit that I indulged in some Phish when I was in college at the University of Georgia in the 1990's. I even went to a Halloween Concert at the now extinct Omni in Atlanta. Oh and that was an experience, I think I was in the less than 5% in attendance who did use some sort of mind altering substance that evening. People were dressed in all kinds of crazy costumes as the covered the Talking Heads.
Anyways, the point of this story is not to reminisce about the good ole college days. Phish just started a reunion tour and I'm amazed at the price of the tickets and the level of excitement for a bunch of old hippies getting together to play some goofy music.
This week, Phish launched its reunion tour with a three-night run in Hampton, Va., before houses that were filled to capacity. The last of these shows takes place tonight, after which the band will break to work on solo projects including the fulfillment of a commission Anastasio received to perform his classical piece "Time Turns Elastic" with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra before reconvening in June for the first stage of its summer bacchanal.
I heard from some old fraternity brothers that the price of tickets for the shows were somewhere in the neighborhood of $1500-$6000. I just don't get it; however, I guess if they pulled money out of their 401k's months ago to buy tickets at least they got something of value. Otherwise they would have lost value and not gotten a chance to relive the glory years.
Apparently the New York Yankees are recession proof as they have gone on quite the free-agent shopping spree this winter. A week after spending $240 million or so on pitching, the Yanks delve in and win the Mark Teixeira sweepstakes. According to a report from ESPN , the Bronx Bombers will pay slugger Teixeira $180 million over eight-years.
The Yanks will pay all this money to not win the series again. badump-tishhhhhhh.
The agreement with Teixeira gives New York the four highest-paid players in baseball -- third baseman Alex Rodriguez, shortstop Derek Jeter, Sabathia and Teixeira.
While a number of teams are laying off staff due to the slowing economy and what many of us believe to be a recession, the Yanks seem to be playing with Monopoly money. Well the entire sport of baseball needs to take a cue from the consumers and continue to cut ticket prices. Although that is highly improbable as we have seen salaries rise rise rise this oftseason . Outrageous player salaries rise, staff gets cut and ticket prices remain the same or perhaps even skyrocket higher at some stadiums.
I will tell you one thing, I'm not going to be going to any MLB games this year. As a friend who is a scout for unnamed organization told me, "There are hiring freezes across the board in baseball, standard salary increases are frozen and yet teams are willing to spend $100 million for players. Something just ain't right".
I've about had enough of this talk of bailouts. I call myself a practical progressive and realize that it would have been dangerous for banks and the auto manufacturers to fail. However, I've just about had enough of this after all of the stories I've heard of everyday working people that are struggling in this country. I'm sick of hearing about hard working folks that cannot get real health insurance coverage.
I'm sick of hearing about how the banks got bailed out but working people cannot get individual loans or small business loans. I'm not growing tired of hearing the struggles of real people. I'm growing tired of being helpless knowing that we got sold a bill of goods by our lawmakers.
Perhaps we had no choice but to bailout the banks and Wall Street. But I believe we deserve better than the rich getting richer and the poor and middle class getting driven further into debt.
Here's a story about how we are all one life altering event away, one hospital visit away and perhaps even one paycheck away from being in dire financial straits. I am not of the opinion I need to be filthy rich, drive a fancy sports car or wearing $1,000 suits. I just think we need to be in a position where we know that if we get sick we can afford to be hospitalized. I just think that if we have to take care of an elderly parent, grandparent, sibling or child we should do so while being able to provide adequate dignified care.
I admit I'm on a soapbox and I'm mad but I think we need to realize what kind of position that we are all in. I'm thankful for having my family, friends and an ability to earn income. I realize that some are not as fortunate this December evening.
We are Progressive Democrats that discuss national, local and regional politics, politicians and issues. We support candidates that share our passion for improving government, ensuring equal rights and opportunity, social and economic justice and civil liberties. We strive to improve the economy, environment and the health of all Americans. We're also big sports fans. Please register and join us with your own posts and comments. If you can please donate to help us continue this service.
