A group of House Republicans threatening to block priorities from GOP senators who vote for the $1.7 trillion omnibus funding bill has grown to 31.

The 31 current and incoming members signing an open letter led by Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) to Republican Senate colleagues on Wednesday marks an increase from a similar Monday letter that had 13 names.

“The released legislative text confirmed this omnibus is an assault on the American people. As such, we reiterate that if any omnibus passes in the remaining days of this Congress, we will oppose and whip opposition to any legislative priority of those senators who vote for its passage – including the Republican leader,” the letter said. 

“We will oppose any rule, any consent request, suspension voice vote, or roll call vote of any such Senate bill, and will otherwise do everything in our power to thwart even the smallest legislative and policy efforts of those senators.”   thehill.com

An effort led by Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) to maintain Title 42 is threatening efforts to pass a sweeping government funding bill before a shutdown deadline later this week.

Congressional negotiators on both sides say the biggest holdup is ongoing negotiations to decide what the voting threshold would be to pass the amendment.

Lee’s amendment to the bipartisan deal would cut funding for Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas’s office unless the Biden administration reinstates the border control policy known as Title 42, a Trump-era policy that allows for migrants to be quickly expelled at the border without asylum processing.

The hold-up scuttled tentative hopes the Senate would be able to vote on the government funding bill overnight, though late Wednesday Senate Minority Whip John Thune (R-S.D.) said he thought the chamber may be able to move forward on the bill Thursday morning.

“There’s been some progress made. … I wouldn’t say breakthrough yet,” he said.

A Senate Democratic aide said conversations are still ongoing with Republicans, while claiming Lee’s “goal is to kill” the omnibus amid speculation such an amendment couldn’t pass the House.

Lee’s latest push comes as Republicans have once again pulled attention to the border, and as Lee and a group of Senate Republicans look to sidetrack the long term budget deal.

GOP backers behind the push say the delay is necessary to allow the incoming GOP-led House more sway in government funding talks. However, there are many Republicans in the Senate who are pushing instead for Congress to pass an omnibus before year’s end, citing concerns about funding for areas like defense.  thehill.com

Walmart Canada Seeing "Historic Uptick in Theft"
RCC Seeing Violent Incidents, ORC & Armed Robberies
Grocery shoplifting on the rise in Canada amid inflation, industry insiders say

Shoplifting has surged to an alarming level across Canada, industry insiders say, with inflation and labour shortages cited as major factors behind the increase.

Inflation in food prices is one of the main drivers pushing more people to steal, says Sylvain Charlebois, senior director of the Agri-Food Analytics Lab at Dalhousie University in Halifax.

He warned the problem may grow if the economy slows down next year as some economists suggest.

“If you see both food prices go up and ... the economy slows down, jointly that is when you basically see even more stuff.”

Felicia Fefer, corporate affairs manager at Walmart Canada, said the retail giant has seen a historic uptick in theft.

"Retail crime, including theft and arson, is sadly higher than it historically has been at Walmart Canada and across the entire retail industry," she said.

"This is very concerning for our business, our associates, our customers and the industry."

Fefer said the company is implementing measures to prevent and reduce theft in order to keep prices low and keep its employees and customers safe.

“There is great concern among Canadian businesses right now about crime, and crime in Canadian workplaces,” he said. “Shoplifting is definitely being felt more, especially as we've come out of lockdown and restrictions.”

As a result, more retail stores, even smaller ones, are hiring security guards including off-duty police officers. They are also taking other steps such as retrofitting to make sure they have clearer sightlines within the business, using more electronic monitoring technology, and limiting the number of people in the store so they can provide one-to-one service.

Michelle Wasylyshen, a spokesperson for Retail Council of Canada, pointed to the economic downturn, a growing resale market for stolen goods and an increase in organized crime as other factors behind the surge.

While it is difficult to know the exact impact of theft on local businesses because much of crime goes unreported, the council's estimates suggest retail crime cost $5 billion in losses in 2019 in Canada.

"We also know that break-ins, armed robberies, and physical and especially violent incidents are higher than they have been in previous years," she said.

 canadapressnews.ca

Gov. Kathy Hochul tried to trade approval of a massive legislative pay raise for tougher bail rules — only to cave when Democrats secured a veto-proof majority in the state Senate, The Post has learned.

Hochul — who got battered over New York’s controversial bail reform law during this year’s gubernatorial campaign — raised the idea of rolling it back during negotiations Monday over a planned 29% hike in state lawmakers’ salaries, sources said Wednesday.

The governor suggested changes that would have given judges greater discretion in setting bail for defendants accused of violent felonies, domestic offenses and hate crimes, one source familiar with the matter said.

 nypost.com

Baltimore PD Overall Arrests Up 10%

Mayor, police commissioner tout increase of arrests in Baltimore this year, acknowledge ‘work has just begun’

Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott on Wednesday touted a year-over-year increase in arrests, including those for gun crimes, as evidence that his administration’s approach to public safety is on the right track.

Scott, a Democrat, hosted a news conference Tuesday to speak about his multi-faceted plan to curtail relentless violence in the city, from freeing police officers to pursue those perpetuating violence to deploying resources to neighborhoods to prevent shootings and helping communities cope with trauma associated with them.

The mayor’s remarks come against the backdrop of a morbid reality for the city: For the eighth consecutive year, more than 300 people died by homicide in Baltimore, according to police.

As of Wednesday morning, there had been four fewer killings in 2022 — 322 — than the same date last year. Police on the same date reported 25 fewer nonfatal shootings than a year earlier.

Detectives had made fewer homicide arrests as of Saturday, Dec. 17, than they had on the same date last year. Police have arrested a suspect in 111 of the 321 killings recorded through Dec. 17, department data show. baltimoresun.com

Has group violence pilot pushed crime to other parts of Baltimore? Leaders say no; research finds no evidence of displacement.

Officials have attributed a drop in shootings in Baltimore’s Western District to a group violence reduction pilot launched earlier this year to provide people most at-risk of shooting or being shot with services and social support.

Through the end of November, both fatal and nonfatal shootings were down more than 30% in the target area, according to the city agency overseeing the project.

But, with Baltimore roughly on pace with last year’s homicide totals, City Council members questioned Thursday whether the project was truly tamping down violence — or just displacing it to other parts of the city.

Police leaders and the director of the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement gave an emphatic no.

Not all shootings are related to group violence, which is what the pilot specifically aims to reduce, said Baltimore Police Commissioner Michael Harrison.

“[Researchers] say there is no evidence of displacement,” Harrison said. “[One researcher] actually went on to say that had we not had the Group Violence Reduction Strategy, we would have seen a much, much larger increase in group violence-related shootings.”  baltimoresun.com

San Francisco’s courts are broken. No one cares enough to fix them

When the COVID-19 shutdown hit in March 2020, courts ceased functioning at their previous capacity and were unable to adhere to the Constitution’s Sixth Amendment, which grants anyone accused of a crime the right to a speedy trial. For criminal trials in California, that’s defined as 30 to 60 days after someone is arraigned. According to the San Francisco Public Defender’s office, however, as of early October, there are still 770 cases waiting in San Francisco’s Superior Court past their trial deadline. Of those, 150 people are locked in the county’s jails.

It’s ironic that San Francisco, a city clearly fed up with crime, is incapable of processing cases in a timely manner. Prosecutors press charges while knowing that cases may not head to trial for years, risking evidence growing stale and witnesses disappearing. Victims are not getting the closure they need. And jailing unconvicted people for months or years, causing them to lose their jobs, homes and community connections, is a great way to force people into committing crimes for survival once they’re released.  sfchronical.com

COVID Update

660.4M Vaccinations Given

US: 102M Cases - 1.1M Dead - 99M Recovered
Worldwide: 659.9M Cases - 6.6M Dead - 632.8M Recovered

Private Industry Security Guard Deaths: 362   Law Enforcement Officer Deaths: 820

Overall, several central Pennsylvania hospitals said they’re not as stressed as they were a year ago. Still, they noted ongoing staffing shortages and also stressed the urgent care centers and emergency rooms are very busy.

Hospitals around the United States are feeling pressure from multiple fronts: RSV cases among children have been up for months, overloading some pediatric units. The nation, including Pennsylvania, is in the midst of its worst flu season in years. Most recently, COVID-19 cases have begun to climb.

Flu cases in Pennsylvania skyrocketed in late November and early December
COVID-19 cases are rising, but remain far below the level of a year ago
Cases of RSV, or respiratory syncytial virus, may have peaked.  govtech.com

Mayor Eric Adams is urging New Yorkers to mask up indoors amid a spike in coronavirus, flu and respiratory syncytial infection cases.

“With the holiday season in full swing and cases of COVID-19, flu, and RSV rising, we are asking New Yorkers to protect themselves and their loved ones once again.

The mayor’s new mask-up message was reinforced by city health officials monitoring increases in cases of COVID, flu and RSV.

The push also comes as Hochul and the state Health Department reported 94 New Yorkers around the state died from COVID-19 over a three day reporting period — from Saturday through Monday. That’s more than 30 a day, a high number for a post-pandemic period.

Over the past month, the city’s seven-day average of confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19 increased, as did cases of RSV, city health officials said. Data shows flu cases in the city this year are already higher than they were during the peak of the last four flu seasons.  nypost.com

Walgreens attributed the cap to demand and supplier challenges.

CVS and Walgreens are limiting how many children’s pain relief medications people can buy at once amid a winter “tripledemic” of respiratory viruses, the companies said Monday.

“Due to increased demand and various supplier challenges, over-the-counter pediatric fever reducing products are seeing constraint across the country,” Walgreens said.  nbcnews.com

The restrictions come as the nation experiences a surge in cases of flu, COVID-19, and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), a cold-like illness.

“Especially for RSV and flu, these levels are higher than we generally see this time of year,” said Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said in a press conference this month.

“Operationally, factories are a mess” in China - Meaning more supply chain issues in 2023
China’s Workers Are Calling In Sick With Covid After Beijing’s U-Turn

HONG KONG—China’s factories are confronting a new reality after the nation’s sharp U-turn from its zero-Covid policy: Their workers are often out sick or working alongside colleagues who have come down with the virus.  The result is many factories are coping with severe staffing shortages and struggling to keep their employees healthy.  wsj.com

News

Fraud Gang Opened 6 Retail Furniture Stores in Chicago & Charged Merchant Finance Providers $2.8M in Fraudulent Apps

DOJ: Six Co-Conspirators Get 31 Years for Over $2.8 M Retail Financing Fraud

RICHMOND, Va. – Six individuals were sentenced recently to approximately 31 combined years in prison for taking part in a conspiracy to defraud several retail financing providers through various schemes involving the use of the names and other personal identifying information of over 1,000 identity theft victims. 

Between April 2017 and January 2022, Wael Jibawi, 28, of Palos Heights, Illinois- 132 months prison; Mohammad Jibawi, 27, of Tinley Park, Illinois- 87 months prison; Mahmoud Aljibawi, 40, of Oak Forest, Illinois - 58 months prison; Alaelddin Aljibawi, 37, of Orland Park, Illinois - 48 months prison; Jamel Eljebawe, 48, of Tinley Park, Illinois - 31 months prison; and Yanal Khrisat, 28, of Burbank, Illinois - 21 months prison, conspired to defraud at least six retail financing providers of at least $2.8 million.

During that period, the defendants opened and maintained several retail furniture stores in and around the Chicago area, which they used to establish merchant relationships with the targeted financing providers. These relationships enabled defendants to submit financing applications in the names of customers. Instead, the defendants submitted applications in the names of identity theft victims then used the approved accounts to charge the financing providers for purchases that did not actually occur. Over 1,000 identity theft victims have been identified to-date.

Additionally, in February 2018, several of the defendants used social engineering to gain access to merchant accounts belonging to other businesses and change the bank accounts designated to receive payments owed to those businesses by one retail financing provider. The defendants then submitted the affected businesses’ customer accounts for funding, causing the financing provider to deposit money that the defendants were not actually owed into accounts that they had opened and controlled.  justice.gov

Nike's 2018 Sexual Harassment 'Boys Club' Revealed in Unsealed Court Records

In 2018 this headline news story dominated the news & At least 11 top executives left the company

• More than 5,000 pages of records were unsealed in a gender-discrimination lawsuit against Nike. 
• The records include some of the graphic employee surveys that rocked the company.
• Respondents called Nike a "boys' club" and described inappropriate sexual behavior. 

In early 2018, female Nike employees were fed up with the company's response to claims of sexual harassment and gender discrimination, so they anonymously surveyed each other about their experiences at the company. 

In handwritten and typed surveys, they alleged abhorrent sexual behavior combined with corporate bullying, fear of retaliation, and a lack of faith in Nike's willingness to do anything about it. 

Last month, 10 of the surveys, known as the Starfish surveys, were included in more than 5,000 pages of records unsealed in an ongoing gender-discrimination lawsuit against Nike. The documents were made public after a legal challenge from Insider, The Oregonian, and the Portland Business Journal. The publications argued for the public interest in the records, which include deposition testimony, executive emails, drafts of speeches, and fiery back-and-forth messages between lawyers in the high-stakes case. 

The documents give the most detailed look yet at the nature and details of the allegations that rocked the sportswear giant, as well as its efforts to become a more inclusive company. But the documents also leave critical questions unanswered, including how deeply the company investigated complaints and which employees were accused of inappropriate behavior. The surveys have some remaining redactions, including the names of respondents and those accused of misbehavior. Insider's reporting on the documents also raises the question of whether Nike complied with a court order to provide all of the employee surveys in discovery. 

Nike's response to 2018 questions from The New York Times, which reported on Nike's culture, is included in the new records. In that response, Nike attributed inappropriate behavior at the company to an "insular group of high-level managers, in pockets of the organization," who "protected each other and looked the other way."

Plaintiffs in the lawsuit, who recently lost a bid to convert the case to a class action (they plan to appeal), maintain the documents demonstrate that problems at Nike were systemic and not limited to a handful of executives. 

Nike spokeswoman said the company does not comment on active litigation. businessinsider.com

Talk About Miss-Information - There's Two Sides to Every Quarter

The Starbucks union is coordinating strikes across the country, with workers demanding union contracts with improved wages and no more union busting

Shortly after the one-year anniversary of the first Starbucks union election, workers at 100+ unionized cafes, 1,000 workers, around the country organized a strike that lasted for three days this past weekend. Dubbing their efforts a #DoubleDownStrike, and asking potential Starbucks customers to not cross the picket lines. The workers were protesting Starbucks shutting down stores allegedly in response to union activity (though Starbucks has repeatedly denied the association and has mostly cited that these were poor-performing stores or were closed for safety reasons).  

The strike was also coordinated in tandem with the #NoContractNoGiftCard campaign organized by SBWorkers United where employees have tried to spread the word on social media to discourage people from buying Starbucks gift cards as gifts this holiday season until Starbucks agrees to create union contracts with organized stores.

Although Starbucks has not yet negotiated union contracts with any of the stores that have voted to unionize, the movement has inspired change at other companies. On Dec. 16, for example, workers at Intelligentisa Coffee ratified a contract with raises, paid meal breaks, and fairer scheduling, just four months after the café voted to unionize. Starbucks workers are still waiting on their contract, however.

Starbucks, however, has denied both union busting and avoiding contract negotiations, telling Nation's Restaurant News that managers are informed and trained to not discipline any worker for "engaging in lawful union activity."

Starbucks told Nation's Restaurant News that the company will have participated in 75 single-store bargaining sessions and "we continue to engage meaningfully and directly with the union." nrn.com

Local police in the United States continue to update and sign new biometric surveillance contracts despite instances of vocal opposition. And a chief concern that privacy advocates have about the trend, that departments will not honor compliance agreements, does, in fact, occur.

An inspector general of the Los Angeles Police Department says that the sprawling force mostly complies with a use policy it agreed to last year covering facial recognition. But, according to the inspector general, that is not true when it comes to verifying or even analyzing system results.

Reporting this week on the inspector general’s findings, the Times says there is “no clear process for documenting either an investigation’s results or corroborating evidence that confirms” a match.

In January 2021, the Commission approved its current facial recognition policy:

Among other things, the policy established new measures for tracking the Police Department’s use of the county system. It limited use of the sheriff’s system to cases where there is an imminent threat to life, or in which investigators are trying to solve a crime or to identify someone who is incapacitated or at risk. The policy also explicitly states that any match determined by the software can only be used as a lead by officers but does not constitute probable cause for an arrest and cannot serve as the sole basis for criminal charges.  latimes.com,

National COSH is back with an all-new list of companies for its annual compilation of the Dirty Dozen

After shelving its annual compilation of the country's "Dirty Dozen" employers last year during the pandemic, the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health (National COSH) is back with an all-new list of companies who, according to National COSH, "put workers, families and communities at risk." Actually, the list isn't quite all-new, as Amazon has now appeared on it three times.

"The Dirty Dozen are companies that needlessly expose workers to preventable hazards, leading to preventable illnesses, injuries and fatalities," explains Jessica Martinez, co-executive director of National COSH.

1. Amazon: Having previously been so designated in 2019 and 2020. Two Amazon warehouse workers died on the job in November 2021 at a Bessemer, Alabama, warehouse, and six workers have died there overall since the warehouse opened in 2020.

4. Dollar General:  One of the nation's fastest-growing retailers (and a frequent target for unionization efforts), made the list largely due to the $3.6 million in OSHA fines and citations the company has received over the past five years for safety violations.

12. Starbucks: Union organizing efforts are intensely focusing on Starbucks. The NLRB has been filing worker complaints that the coffee retailer has been mistreating and firing workers involved in the organizing campaigns.  ehstoday.com

DG Makes OSHA’s Severe Violator Enforcement Program

Blocked emergency exit, electrical panel yields $290K in penalties; over $15M since 2017

Risky Business: Dollar General continues to expose employees to workplace dangers with fire, electrical hazards found, this time in Thomasville, Georgia

THOMASVILLE, GA – Federal workplace safety and health inspectors continue to find workplace hazards, despite levies of more than $15 million in fines since 2017, at Dollar General Corp. and Dolgencorp LLC facilities exposing their workers to unsafe conditions, this time at a Thomasville, Georgia, retail store.

On June 14, 2022, inspectors with the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration found the Thomasville store had merchandise blocking an electrical panel and the store’s only emergency exit door in the area. OSHA issued citations for two repeat violations with $290,054 in proposed penalties.

Violations issued as the result of these inspections qualified Dollar General for inclusion in OSHA’s Severe Violator Enforcement Program.

OSHA inspections at 18 stores since February 2022 in Alabama, Florida and Georgia have found dozens of similar violations that present serious risks for employees and others in an emergency, as well as the potential to be struck by unsafely stacked boxes of merchandise in storerooms and elsewhere.  

Since 2017, OSHA has cited Dollar General Corp. and Dolgencorp for numerous willful, repeat and serious workplace safety violations related to unsafe conditions in more than 180 inspections nationwide.

“Dollar General has a long history of disregarding safety measures that could compromise the well-being of the people who work there, and that has to change,” said OSHA Regional Administrator Kurt Petermeyer in Atlanta. “The violations cited in these investigations are preventable, and OSHA will make every effort to hold Dollar General accountable for their failures.” 

A new report shows that 90 percent of U.S. counties have experienced a climate-related federal disaster declaration and suggests that a paradigm shift from recovery to resilience is critical.

Many emergency managers have long since recognized that as the nation continues to respond to disaster after disaster, most of them climate related, it’s past time to look at managing disasters from the standpoint of overall resilience — and from a national level — instead of pouring money into recovery efforts.

A 650-page report titled the Atlas of Disaster, a collaboration between Rebuild by Design, iParametrics and APTIM, found that between 2011 and 2021, 90 percent of U.S. counties experienced a climate-related federal disaster.

The research looked at all 50 states during the 10-year period and collected data on federal disaster declarations — what kind of hazards, how much federal assistance was granted, and the social, environmental and energy-related impacts that were caused by the original disaster. 

The hope is that jurisdictions and agencies will use the report to better understand the effects of climate-related disasters and in aggregate begin to look at ways to enhance resiliency by investing in preventative measures rather than jumping into recovery mode after the fact every time.   govtech.com

Business Continuity versus Business Resilience

With proper resilience and continuity management systems in place, organizations can whether most business disruptions

Business continuity and business resilience are more important than ever before. But what’s the difference? Here’s how they compare.  securityinfowatch.com

Antitrust experts and analysts say Kroger's proposed $25 billion acquisition of rival Albertsons may wind up getting decided in court as regulators and government officials indicate closer scrutiny of the deal.

A top regulator was already worried about supermarket deals

One of America's top regulators has criticized past supermarket mergers. Before being tapped as FTC chair, Lina Khan authored an academic report that labeled the 2015 Albertsons takeover of Safeway “a spectacular failure” from an antitrust perspective.

From the beginning, analysts and other antitrust experts expressed concern the deal would be challenged by regulators.

“We continue to view regulatory approval as a potential roadblock for a Kroger-Albertsons merger,” Parikh wrote.

Besides regulators, lawmakers have been skeptical.  usatoday.com

Retailers may not be able to control the weather, but they can plan for it, according to Planalytics’ Evan Gold.

“There are things that businesses can do to better prepare for the impact that weather’s going to have. The first is understanding what demand signal that’s going to trigger in the customer,” says Gold, executive vice president of global partnerships and alliances for the weather analytics firm, on this week’s episode of Retail Gets Real.

“Weather is the most local impact in terms of what we do on a day-in and day-out basis and therefore, it impacts retailers and a lot of national retailers that have the ability to move product to certain places at certain time periods.”

Listen to the full podcast to hear more from Gold on how the weather influenced shopping patterns this fall and holiday season and how retailers can plan ahead for extreme weather events.  nrf.com

Dec 20, 2022  RFID solutions company SimplyRFID is on an education campaign with several messages to radio frequency identification technology users: tags are lower in cost than most buyers think, the supply chain is easing, and some simple tweaks to inventory processing will help businesses leverage the benefits of the technology at minimal expense. The overarching point is simple: RFID has become inexpensive, and its effectiveness just requires the right approach.  As the company offers its latest tag priced at 3.6 cents in Asia, with the potential for 128 bits of memory to add data.  rfidjournal.com

Dead On - From Retail Apocalypse to Lockdown USA to Store Revival

Retail is in a much stronger position now since before 2007

Big-box’s expansion peaked in 2007, when companies leased and built more than 130 million square feet of large-format retail, Mr. Svec said.

The rapid growth halted during the 2008 financial crisis when consumer spending cratered. Within a decade, hundreds of companies, including big players such as Toys ‘R’ Us and Sports Authority, were filing for bankruptcy and closing swaths of stores.

Covid-19 finished off a number of other struggling retailers, but the “right-sizing” of bricks-and-mortar retail was largely completed before the pandemic, Mr. Svec said. The retail industry overall is now in a much stronger position, and retailers have announced far more store openings than closures this year.  wsj.com

Barnes & Noble Plans 30 Stores Next Year
Burlington to Open 87 in 2023
Ross Stores to add 92
TJX added 104 in 2022

Take Some Advice From HR - Get Proactive & Communicate With Your Team Members

Invest Some Time on Retention

Amid economic uncertainty, cutbacks and layoffs, many employees want to keep their options open. While they have a perfectly good job, they're looking around to see what else is available. Now is the time for open and honest communication between employer and employee to put a lid on job hopping.

It's no secret: Many employees have a "Plan B" in case things start to go badly with their current job. But now, even more workers are creating contingency plans to protect their professional and financial futures amid economic uncertainty, cutbacks and layoffs. "Career cushioning" and "job cuffing"—terms adapted from the dating world—are the latest buzzwords to describe employee backup plans. 

In the workplace, career cushioning translates to looking for a new job while employed to soften the financial impact of a job change.  Cuffing is similar but is seasonal - waiting to hit year-end numbers and leaving in the spring.

"Given the continuing historically high quit rates since April 2021, it would be overly optimistic for business and leaders to depend on job cuffing as a retention strategy,"

Leaders are still overwhelmed from struggling to find talent. Those who have hired enough staff have a new worry—retention. Understanding how and why employees are career cushioning or job cuffing can offer insight into strategies that can encourage them to stay. shrm.org

Walmart’s Opioid Settlement Now Covers 50 States

Restaurant365 Releases 2022 State of the Industry Survey Results

Wawa to open in three new states

Lids continues expansion

Costco to open 24 new stores

Quarterly Results

Rite Aid Q3 retail pharmacy segment: comp's up 7.5%, store prescriptions comp's up 9.5%%, front-end comp's up 2.7%, total revenue down 2.3%