Target Workers Better Off with ObamaCare?

Image from source, ThinkProgress

This is already shaping up to be a bad year for brick-and-mortar department stores across the country. While I'm sure the right (hi, Dan!) will say this is just a fact of life in "Obama's America," the fact is, we shop differently than we used to. Other than some after-Christmas shopping for each other at Kohl's at steep discounts, The Other Half and I buy almost everything online these days. And for all the worries people have about identity theft online, we all saw what happened at Target, right? That was in person shopping there.

Target is having a bad year, obviously, and along with closing some stores (much like JC Penney, Sears and others), they're going to stop offering insurance to their part-time employees. And this--I'm certain--will be a major issue for conservatives (hi again, Dan!). But is it a problem? Is it possible that these workers might get a better deal on the healthcare exchange? Maybe so. . .

[Excerpt]

Why Target’s Part-Time Employees Will Be Better Off Under Obamacare

Chain retailer Target announced on Wednesday that it will stop offering health insurance to employees who work less than 30 hours per week, instead sending these workers to Obamacare’s insurance marketplaces to buy new plans. The announcement was quickly picked up by conservative outlets as proof that the health law is giving workers short shrift. To the contrary, these part-time workers will most likely be better off under Obamacare plans, and Target’s decision to shift the employees into the marketplaces is definitive proof that the health law is doing exactly what it’s intended to do. . .

Read more at: Think Progress

Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval Reaches Agreement to Tax Amazon.com

Governor Brian Sandoval (R-NV) from
LVRJ.com

Boy, does this one ever have me torn. On one hand, as a liberal, I can acknowledge that the untaxed nature of items for sale on the internet is hurting states (who are missing out on taxes), and is hurting brick-and-mortar businesses (who are being undersold). Taxing purchases like this seems fair. On the other hand, I'm a big online shopper for just about anything that has free or low shipping charges. Seriously, I got my 60" TV that way, a big electric roaster oven, just about all books, movies, music and printer inks. My local purchases have been reduced to groceries, and any item I just don't want to wait 2-5 days for. Amazon.com has become my primary retailer for things I don't get on eBay, essentially, including most Christmas purchases.

So, when this tax goes into effect, part of the benefit of going on Amazon will have been removed. I'm sure I'll comparison shop a little more, and may resort to eBay on pricier items. Or hey, I might even shop locally, if there isn't a price difference with tax. But hey, I really kind of feel like I've gotten a free ride up 'til now, so like I said, I'm torn.

The bigger question is, what do conservative Republicans think? I mean, this is essentially a huge new tax, levied by a Republican governor with aspirations to higher office. Isn't this a huge black mark? It'll be interesting to see if this haunts Sandoval.

[Excerpt]

Gov. Sandoval reaches sales tax deal with Amazon
 
Gov. Brian Sandoval and Internet sales giant Amazon announced an agreement Monday to allow the state to start collecting sales taxes on the company's Internet sales to Nevada customers beginning in 2014. In addition, Sandoval and Paul Misener, Amazon's vice president of global public policy, said they will work together to induce Congress to pass a law allowing the states to collect sales taxes on all Internet purchases. . .

Read more at: Las Vegas Review-Journal

Product Placement: Douche Body Wash!

On my weekly visit to Big Lots (don't look at me like that, I get some great deals there!), I spied this funny combo. Right next to the AXE Body Wash was a knock-off brand called UMBRO. Which is helpfully labelled "GEL DE DOUCHE."  Sorry about the blur, I still haven't got the hang of my cell phone camera. . .

Product Placement! Sugar and Diabetes, One-Stop Shopping





Image found at VoenixRising





Product Placement! It's The End of the World as We Know It

I'm inaugurating a new feature here at Greenlee Gazette. Any time I spy an odd or interesting display while I'm out and about, I'll feature it here under Product Placement! For my first effort (though certainly not the first I ever noticed), is this video display from Sam's Club. Just down the aisle from the three-pack of Left Behind movies (some of the worst Armageddon fare ever filmed or written) was this little combo. I altered nothing here. First you have an instructional video on THE END OF THE WORLD!!! And then, a nice little travel video of all the wonderful things there are to see in the world. But will you have time?  WILL YOU HAVE TIME???

Las Vegas School of Parking Lot and Road Design

Photos captured from Google Earth (click any for enlargement)

I had a frustrating day of driving and shopping today. I am not a fan of shopping, and traffic takes up 5 of my top 10 pet peeves. The longer I live in Las Vegas, the more convinced I become that there must be a special school for parking lot and road designers in this town.

Let's start with the "big box" shopping center around the corner from my house. If you're a good 'merican, you're combining your shopping trips in order to save gas, right? So you head out to the big box center, a place where you can get (almost) everything done. You pull in to the parking lot, and park down near the Supercuts for a new 'do (well, you do if you're me, and you really just mostly get it all clipped off). Mission accomplished, you decide to head over to the Home Depot for a seasonal major purchase.

You have three choices here. Walk half a mile. Follow the painted lines on the parking lot, and frustrate yourself out of your mind. Or plow through the painted lines to get to your destination, risking T-boning someone else, or having them T-bone you. Upon leaving the Home Depot, you head over to Sam's Club for some boxed wine, and are faced with the same three choices.

Next, you head to the post office. But you must puzzle out your route first, and the route to your next destination. You cannot enter from the east, and you cannot depart to the west. How convenient!

Having ironed out those details, you head out to the dreaded DMV. If there's one place in town that has a well laid-out parking lot (and supporting road structure), it should be the DMV, right? Wrong! You cannot approach from the east, or depart to the west or south! Throw in some narrowly painted lines, some blind alleys and some misleading pedestrian pathways, and you've got a cluster^%$# What is going on here?