Ring of Fire’s Weekly Rewind

McDonalds Writes Unrealistic Budget for Minimum Wage Employees

McDonald’s Corporation recently partnered with Visa Corporate to publish a website for all of its regular employees that features a sample monthly budget journal, in what seems to be an attempt to help employees allocate their monthly earnings. The budget, meant by McDonald’s and Visa to be a helpful tool for their employees, actually highlights how difficult it is for minimum-wage workers to make a living. A regular employee of McDonald’s is paid an average of $8.25 an hour, which is a dollar over the federal minimum wage. … Read more.

Want a Doctor? Prove It. Disney and Publix Team Up to Stick it to Florida’s Injured

New legislation proposed by mega-corporations Disney and Publix seeks to put limits on the amount injured people are able to recover for their injuries. The new law will require patients to prove, in court, that medical treatments they received as a result of an injury were reasonable and necessary, invading the decision-making process during their treatment and recovery. … Read more.

Recreational Marijuana Legislation Proposed in D.C.

Last week, Washington, D.C. City Councilman Tommy Wells revealed a bill that would decriminalize the recreational use of marijuana in D.C. The Simple Possession of Small Quantities of Marijuana Decriminalization Amendment Act would decriminalize the possession of less than one ounce of marijuana. … Read more.

Justice Alito’s Financial Disclosures Reveal Ties to Big Pharma

In Mutual v. Bartlett, one of the most devastating decisions to come from the court for consumers this year, Justice Samuel Alito delivered the opinion of the Court. The customary practice of authoring an opinion routinely passes from one Justice to another at the direction of the Chief Justice. Another custom is for Justices to recuse, abstain from deciding on, themselves from cases in which they have a financial interest. …Read more.

ExxonMobil Still Owes Government $100 Million For Exxon Valdez Oil Spill

Twenty-five years later, ExxonMobil is still in debt to the government by a nearly $100 million of borrowed funds used in the recovery from the Exxon Valdez oil spill, where a tanker spilled 11 million gallons of crude oil on the Alaska coast in 1989. In 2006, the U.S. government and Alaska jointly filed a reopener against ExxonMobil, demanding that the oil company pay $92 million in order to recover funds lost from the Valdez spill. … Read more.