They call H.R. 1406 the "Working Families Flexibility Act," though it would give employers, not workers, "flexibility" -- specifically, it would allow employers to give out comp time instead of overtime pay to employees who work more than 40 hours in a week. Trouble is, employers would have to let you use that time off, which, in my experience, employers don't do very well -- and your emergencies don't necessarily follow your employer's schedule. And managers don't need the "flexibility" to give out comp time instead of overtime -- in fact, the threat of having to pay out overtime gives managers the incentive to put their workers in a position to get the work done in the time allotted, because if managers authorize too much overtime, their superiors will notice, believe me. Putting your workers in a position to succeed ain't that hard. The bill also doesn't prevent managers from giving more overtime hours to workers who choose comp time, nor does it protect workers whose employers go out of business. Moms Rising helps you tell your Congressfolk to oppose H.R. 1406.

Speaking of going out of business, Bain Capital (you remember them!) has been doing its best to put Guitar Center out of business, by slashing workers' pay, commissions, and insurance -- because that's how you make money in the new economy, by making corporations work badly and then selling them off. But Guitar Center workers are fighting back, by trying to unionize, with the help of the Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union. And good for them -- if anyone needs unions in these troubled times, then certainly vulnerable retail employees do. Bain has been slashing sales staff commissions, cutting sick and vacation days, cutting non-sales workers back to minimum wage, refusing to give part-timers health care benefits -- and (get your surprised face ready) forcing workers to attend anti-union meetings. But Sum of Us helps you tell Bain Capital to deal with its workers honestly. Because there is-so such a thing as bad PR, and Bain Capital has already put up with a lot of it just because of Mitt Romney's tenure there, and maybe, just maybe, they'll want some good PR for once.

Meanwhile, the Department of the Interior declared a moratorium on uranium mining in and around the Grand Canyon, and that was a wise choice -- the Grand Canyon holds the Colorado River, and if there's one thing you don't need if you get your drinking water from the Colorado, it's uranium. Yet the U.S. Forest Service has given a corporation named Energy Fuel Resources permission to open a uranium mine on the Canyon's south side -- because Energy Fuel Resources procured mining rights in 1986, and the Forest Service looked at the safety study EFR conducted back then and decided it was kosher. A safety study from 1986! Well, it's not like we've learned a lot since then or anything. Seriously, what part of "moratorium" does the U.S. Forest Service not understand? What part of "don't muck with the drinking water of eight Western U.S. states" does the Forest Service not understand? What part of "don't shoot radioactive pollutants into the air around one of America's most famous tourist sites"...oh, hell, let's just make them understand, as CREDO helps you do.

Finally, you may have heard that Egypt's government has been trying to slap around its comic critics lately, including Bassem Youssef, whose satirical TV program al-Bernameg (or The Program) draws 30 million Egyptian viewers and whom Egypt has arrested for "insulting the President." Gosh, you know how many times I'd have been locked up for insulting the President if America did such things? Approximately once per time I've mentioned the President, and not just during Tha Bush Mobb years, either. I know Egypt just had a revolution and all, and that what revolutionaries used to call tyranny becomes "necessary" when they take over, but now is definitely not the time for thin skins. Hence Amnesty International helps you tell Egypt to stop arresting its comics and critics. The Egyptian government arrested 32 other Egyptian comics, including video blogger Ahmed Anwar, whose trial has already begun. Good luck to him, and good luck to all those good citizens who continue to fight the good fight in Egypt.