Close to 90 percent of the companys customers choose the online route, but people also can make arrangements over the phone or in person. The founders say their company offers funeral services at about half the price of a traditional funeral home.

Still, some in the funeral industry are skeptical about the Web-based approach.

Charles S. Childs, Jr., co-owner of AA Rayner Sons in Chicagos Park Manor neighborhood, said some consumers will choose to use the online service, but most will likely go to the local funeral homes they have ties with and trust.

This is more for people who are not committed to a community and basically trying to find the least expensive way to do some things, said Childs, an executive board member for the National Funeral Directors Association. I guess its a matter of choice.

Donnie Bernacchi, 28, discovered the company after his father died last May, and said BasicFunerals took care of his family.

These funeral homes … I cant believe how much stuff costs, Bernacchi said. I feel if I went the traditional route, it would have been a lot more time-consuming, painful and much more of a headache.

Jennifer Delgado

Down the hallway to the left of the entrance is a room featuring activities presented by the Arkansas River Valley Nature Nature Center. Two electronic video games let guests simulate hunting, shooting and fishing on a large projection screen. Laser Shot uses a laser equipped modified airgun and offers scenarios from big game hunting to wing shooting to skeet shooting and many more. The fishing simulator uses a real rod and reel with line attached to an electronic console to simulate the fishing experience. A casting contest is also scheduled over the weekend.

And if she has some major bills coming up, then yeah. Its an opportune time for her to make some money by offering a discount code. Its not like shes asking us to donate money for nothing that benefits us: shes making money by selling her wares (books that shes written).

Democracy: a government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of representation usually involving periodically held free elections

Plutocracy: government by the wealthy

Labor union: an organization of workers formed for the purpose of advancing its members interests in respect to wages, benefits, and working conditions

You may have seen the recent flurry of stories about how hi-tech products are made in China. The stories focus on Apple, but it isnt just Apple. These stories of exploited Chinese workers are also the story of how and why we — 99% of us, anyway — are all feeling such a squeeze here, because we are suffering the disappearance of our middle class. Our choice is democracy or servitude.

Working In China

A collection of excerpts from the Charles Duhigg and David Barboza story, Human Costs Are Built Into an iPad and the Charles Duhigg and Keith Bradsher story, How the US Lost Out on iPhone Work both from the NY Times:

Rousted from dorms at midnight, told to work:

Apple had redesigned the iPhones screen at the last minute, forcing an assembly line overhaul. New screens began arriving at the plant near midnight.

A foreman immediately roused 8,000 workers inside the companys dormitories, according to the executive. Each employee was given a biscuit and a cup of tea, guided to a workstation and within half an hour started a 12-hour shift fitting glass screens into beveled frames. Within 96 hours, the plant was producing over 10,000 iPhones a day.

Work hard on the job today or work hard to find a job tomorrow.

Banners on the walls warned the 120,000 employees: Work hard on the job today or work hard to find a job tomorrow.

(How close is that to the very definition of servitude?)

Long shifts, legs swollen from standing:

Shifts ran 24 hours a day, and the factory was always bright. At any moment, there were thousands of workers standing on assembly lines or sitting in backless chairs, crouching next to large machinery, or jogging between loading bays. Some workers legs swelled so much they waddled. Its hard to stand all day, said Zhao Sheng, a plant worker.

Write confessions if late:

Mr. Lai was soon spending 12 hours a day, six days a week inside the factory, according to his paychecks. Employees who arrived late were sometimes required to write confession letters and copy quotations. There were continuous shifts, when workers were told to work two stretches in a row, according to interviews.

Injuries from speed-up toxics:

Investigations by news organizations revealed that over a hundred employees had been injured by n-hexane, a toxic chemical that can cause nerve damage and paralysis.

Employees said they had been ordered to use n-hexane to clean iPhone screens because it evaporated almost three times as fast as rubbing alcohol. Faster evaporation meant workers could clean more screens each minute.

American companies forcing Asian suppliers to squeeze workers:

You can set all the rules you want, but theyre meaningless if you dont give suppliers enough profit to treat workers well, said one former Apple executive with firsthand knowledge of the supplier responsibility group. If you squeeze margins, youre forcing them to cut safety.

The Results For The 1%

A series of recent newspaper headlines tells the story of how Chinas working conditions benefit the 1% here.

NYT: Apples Profit Soars?

CBS Moneywatch: Apple shares close at record high

SF Chronicle: Apple CEOs Stock Awards Lift Compensation to $378 Million

ZDNet: Apple: made in China, untaxed profits kept offshore. We dont even get to tax the profits from moving our jobs to China, to use for schools, roads, police, etc.

The Results For The 99%

Headlines like these show how things are going better and better for the 1%. But what happened to our middle-class prosperity? We allowed companies to move jobs and factories across the borders of democracy to places where workers are exploited, calling that trade. This enabled the breaking of unions and the weakening of our democracy.

The threat is in the air: Shut up and take the wage cuts or we will move your job to China. How is that threat used on us? Here is an example: We have heard the stories of Mitt Romneys company Bain Capital, and how it earned its millions. According to the Christian Science Monitor, this is the story of what happened when a Bain-owned company came to town:

The new owner, American Pad Paper, owned in turn by Bain Capital, told all 258 union workers they were fired, in a cost-cutting move. Security guards hustled them out of the building. They would be able to reapply for their jobs, at lesser wages and benefits, but not all would be rehired.

Workers in countries like China where people have no say have low wages, terrible working conditions, long hours, and are told to shut up and take it or they won[t have any job at all. They are given no choice.

Increasingly workers here have their wages, hours, benefits, dignity cut and are told to shut up and take it or their jobs will be moved to China. Because we are pitted against exploited workers in countries where people have no say, we have no choice.

The unions are weakened, the government doesnt enforce or weakly enforces labor laws and regulations, age, gender or race discrimination laws, worker safety laws, so workers are placed in a terrible squeeze. Workers who try to organize unions are isolated, moved, smeared, fired, humiliated, whatever it takes.

This quote by Steve Jobs is from How the US Lost Out on iPhone Work,

Not long ago, Apple boasted that its products were made in America. Today, few are. Almost all of the 70 million iPhones, 30 million iPads and 59 million other products Apple sold last year were manufactured overseas.

Why cant that work come home? Mr. Obama asked.

Mr. Jobss reply was unambiguous. Those jobs arent coming back, he said, according to another dinner guest.

Democracy Brought Us Prosperity

We used to be a democracy, where everyone used to have a say in things. Because we had a say we built up a country with good schools, good infrastructure, good courts, and we made rules that said workers had to be safe, get a minimum wage, overtime, weekends… we protected the environment, we set up Social Security. We took care of each other. This made us prosperous. A share of the prosperity for the 99% was the fruit of democracy.

China, on the other hand, is not a democracy, and workers in China dont really have a say. So they dont make much money, they dont have good working conditions, the environment isnt protected, etc.

We Used To Protect Democracy

We used to protect our democracy. We used to put a tariff on goods coming in if they were made by people who didnt have the ability to speak up and better their condition. Wed let the goods in but we would use a tariff to strengthen our country, our infrastructure, our schools – our democracy. This brought us prosperity.

For some reason, we started letting our companies move our factories over there, forcing our workers to compete with workers who have no say. We got tricked, by people who call that trade, and said it would be good for us. (Like cutting taxes for the wealthy job creators is good for us.)

We opened the borders and let the big companies move the jobs, factories and industries over the border of our democracy, to places where workers dont have a say, so they are exploited. And the result was the big corporations were able to come back and cut our pay, and get rid of our pensions, and tell us, take it, shut up, or we will move your job, too. We made the wages and working and conditions and environmental protections prosperity that democracy brings into a cost. We turned ourselves into a cost. We made democracy a competitive disadvantage.

Plutocrats Say Shed Benefits Of Democracy

Plutocrats say we need to shed the benefits of democracy and become more like China if we want to compete. They say get rid of regulations, employee protections, environmental protections, good wages, benefits like pensions and time off, etc… They say that We, the People (government) get in the way of doing business. They say the taxes that pay for good infrastructure and schools and police and courts and services like Social Security and care for the disabled and health care for children take money out of the economy but they mean these take some of the money that they have been taking from the economy.

Democracy Is The Best Economics

Look at the primary target of the corporate/conservatives: unions. That should tell you something. This is a power confrontation. This is the power of the 1% overcoming the power of the 99%.

Democracy is the power of the 99% to make the decisions, and to build structures that protect us from exploitation by the wealthy and powerful. This confrontation is the story of the origin of our country — how We, the People confronted the power and corruption of the British aristocracy, overcame that power, and built a country of, by and for the people.

Democracy and the taxes it enabled us to ask from the wealthiest is what enabled us to build the infrastructure and schools and everything that enabled our prosperity. The regulations of democracy are what enable our smaller businesses to compete with the giants. The shared prosperity — redistribution of wealth — is what enabled the middle class to grow, and turned us into the most prosperous country and largest market in the world.

Unions

Unions are about building up the power of groups of people, to confront and overcome the advantages of wealth and the power wealth brings to a few. When a union is strong enough to be able to confront the power of big corporations the result is that the 99% get a share of the pie. When unions are strong we all get better wages and better working conditions and a say in how we are treated, whether we are in unions or not. The benefits flow to the rest of the economy.

It would be nice if our system worked well enough that we didnt need to organize unions on top of the structure of laws and regulations, but it is just the fact of life that the wealthy and powerful and their corporations have throughout our history been able to exert tremendous influence over legislative bodies, again and again. So to fight that working people organize and build these organized unions of people, and leverage that power of the group to demand wages and benefits and weekends and a share of the prosperity. The story of the power confrontation between unions of working people (99%) and the large corporations (1%) is the story of how we built a middle class that brought us the prosperity we enjoyed.

It is not just a coincidence that the weakening of the unions coincides with the decline of the middle class. It is not just a coincidence that the current rise of the plutocrats brings in a swarm of anti-union legislation. It is not just a coincidence that the times when our democracy is strongest we all do so much better. And now, when our demcoracy has been weakened by the money and power of the 1% and their corporations, the rest of us are so much worse off.

Not US v. China

This is not about US workers and markets vs China. Working people in all countries are at risk when their countries trade with countries where workers are exploited. Chinas huge trade imbalance is threatening the worlds economy. The loss of manufacturing to countries that exploit workers is threatening workers in many countries.

The US market is still large, and the US can still demand that imported goods be made according to better standards for workers. The rest of the world can also demand that Chinas workers be brought up to international standards. And we can certainly hold companies like Apple accountable, and demand that they only buy from suppliers that treat and pay workers according to international standards, because allowing companies to cheat, exploit workers and commit fraud drives the good companies out of business.

This is not about taking jobs back from Chinese workers! This is about demanding they be paid fairly and given a say in their workplaces! This is about not exploiting people there or here!

Trade can be an upward spiral, rather than a lever for exploitation of the 99% by the 1%. If Chinese workers are given a say and paid fairly then they can buy things we make and we can keep buying things they make.

Unions = Democracy = Middle Class = Shared Prosperity

Jon Stewart explains:

Despite what was going on behind closed doors, people who are used to seeing Klum, 38, and Seal, 48, in the celeb-friendly ski town didnt necessarily notice signs of trouble.

They seemed very happy together, one photographer tells PEOPLE of the pair, who are now grieving their relationship. They couldnt stop kissing and cuddling. They spent a lot of time with their kids, but also managed to sneak in several solo ski runs together. If they were having problems, they were definitely not showing during the day.

Another source, who described the vacationing couple as playful, says they were talking and seemingly very much in love.

Still, when they failed to show up at the Regal Watering Hole, where they had reserved a table, a source says it raised eyebrows.

Reporting by Pernilla Cedenheim, Troy Hooper and Johnny Dodd

Premier Dalton McGuinty announced plans to restrain his governments spending last week.

This to address Ontarios $16 billion deficit and threatened credit downgrade.

McGuinty suggested the answer lies in things like health care reform.

That typically means delisting and defunding more medical services, but well see.

Considering McGuinty has been in power since 2003, we thought Tory MPP Peter Shurman summed up McGuintys speech on fiscal restraint to the Canadian Club rather well.

He described it as, the words of a man who for the last eight-plus years has held the shovel while digging Ontario into the biggest hole its ever been in, (who) suddenly has found religion where the deficit is concerned.

Because we strive to be helpful at the Sun, here are some ideas for how McGuinty could have saved money in the past, which might provide helpful guidance for the future.

(1) McGuinty decided in 2010 to contribute $5 million $500,000 annually for 10 years to a federally-funded human rights museum in Winnipeg. Since Winnipeg is in Manitoba, not Ontario, we suggest our geographically-challenged premier end our contribution at $1 million ($500,000 for each of 2010 and 2011) for a tidy saving of $4 million.

(2) We urge McGuinty, in future, to avoid spending $1 billion NOT to create a workable eHealth system of electronic medical records for all Ontarians. After all, McGuinty could have spent zero dollars NOT creating such a system, thus saving taxpayers $1 billion.

(3) McGuinty could have saved another $1 billion, approximately, by not cancelling two natural gas plants to save the political hides of two Liberal MPPs leading up to the 2011 election. In fairness, McGuinty has said one of the plants will be moved. We invite readers to treat this claim with all the seriousness it deserves.

(4) In future, we urge McGuinty not to force Ontarians to pay, through higher electricity rates, up to $250 million annually to green energy companies not to produce electricity. Someone in government should tell the premier you can actually pay zero dollars for zero electricity.

(5) The next time McGuinty asks the Ontario public service to accept a wage freeze, he might want to do more than ask, by passing a law imposing a freeze, since the public sector unions ignored his request for a voluntary freeze. Unfortunately, there will be no saving from a legislated freeze going forward because McGuinty has already rejected the idea.

(6) Dont impose programs we cant afford like all-day kindergarten (cost $1.5 billion annually, plus $1 billion for renovations), given that while it would be nice to have everything we want, when were massively in debt we have to avoid buying things we cant afford.

We hope these ideas will help McGuinty stop running out of our money in future.

Sadly, given his record, we doubt they will.

Brewers On Deck will feature a number of activities for the
entire family, including autographs and photos from Brewers players
and coaches, baseball clinics and the always popular Game Shows
with players, prospects, staff and even appearances from surprise
Hollywood guests this year. The days activities also include
interactive games in the Kids Area, Game Flashbacks with players,
Qamp;A sessions, vendor booths with baseball memorabilia, the
Brewers Community Foundation Treasure Hunt and more.

The same system for autographs will be used for Brewers On Deck
that was introduced last year. Recipients of autographs for Rollie
Fingers, Zack Greinke and Robin Yount will be chosen through a
random selection process. Numbered coupons to be entered into the
random selection process will be available the day of the event
only and will be distributed beginning at 8am at the Frontier
Airlines Center. Coupon distribution will be available up to an
hour before each designated autograph session. A schedule is listed
below:

Player Signing Time Stage Coupon Distribution Winner
Announcement Fan Report Time

Rollie Fingers 11:30-12:15 5 8:00 – 10:30 11:00 11:15

Zack Greinke 1:30-2:15 3 8:00-12:30 1:00 1:15

Robin Yount 2:00-2:45 1 8:00-1:00 1:30 1:45

Fans can receive one coupon per event admission ticket and can use
that coupon to enter the random selection process for any one of
the select Brewers players. There is no cost for coupons to enter
the random selection process; however, those holding coupons that
are chosen must pay $25 at the respective autograph stage to
collect their player signature. There will be 250 winners for each
of the identified autograph sessions.

Players and staff not included in the above autograph list will not
use the random selection process. Each of those players will sign
250 autographs at prices ranging from free to $25. The autograph
opportunities are for signatures on photo cards provided by the
team; the Brewers cannot guarantee that any player will sign other
memorabilia, and personalization of items is solely up to the
discretion of each player.

All autograph proceeds benefit Brewers Community Foundation. Please
note that cash is the only acceptable form of payment for
autographs.

Four stages will be set up throughout the convention hall,
featuring programming and other activities throughout the day. The
Brewers Main Stage will include various question and answer
sessions with top Brewers baseball executives, game shows featuring
players, and a roundtable discussion with members of the Milwaukee
media who cover the team on a regular basis.

The Brewers Interactive Stage will feature the Kids Only
Question and Answer session, where youngsters interview players,
and Game Flashbacks with fans watching great moments in Brewers
history and talking to players that experienced those moments on
the field. The Newsradio 620 WTMJ Stage will broadcast live from
11am until 4pm and will include interviews with Brewers players and
coaches.

Fans of all ages can visit the FOX Sports Wisconsin Stage to
record their own sportscast tape. FOX Sports Wisconsin
personalities will visit the Stage throughout the day for autograph
opportunities.

Brewers Community Foundation will host a Treasure Hunt,
featuring some hard to find Brewers items on sale as well as a live
auction at 11:30am on the Interactive Stage. Additionally, Brewers
Community Foundation will run two 50/50 Raffles throughout the
day.

Fans using social media are invited to use the hashtag #OnDeck
when tweeting about Brewers On Deck.

Tickets for the event are $15 in advance and $20 at the door for
adults, and $9 in advance and $15 at the door for children 14 and
under. NOTE: Tickets purchased at the door of the event on Sunday
will be cash only.

There are a variety of parking structures and street lots
surrounding the Frontier Airlines Center. For more parking
information, please visit www.parkmilwaukee.com.

Details on the autograph and programming schedules are listed
below. The schedule is subject to change, with the latest version
and more information always available at brewers.com/ondeck.

Autograph Schedule

Stage 1 Stage 4

11:00 – 11:45 Bob Uecker ($25)/Mark Attanasio 11:00 – 11:45 Mat
Gamel ($10)/Logan Schafer (Free)

12:30 – 1:15 Jonathan Lucroy ($10) 12:30 – 1:15 Randy Wolf
($10)

2:00 – 2:45 Robin Yount ($25) 2:00 – 2:45 Alex Gonzalez
($10)/M.Maldonado (Free)

3:30 – 4:15 Eric Farris (Free)/Brock Kjeldgaard (Free) 3:30 – 4:15
Chris Narveson ($10)

Stage 2 Stage 5

11:30 – 12:15 Marco Estrada ($10)/Mike Fiers (Free) 11:30 – 12:15
Rollie Fingers ($25)

1:00 – 1:45 Yovani Gallardo ($25) 1:00 – 1:45 George Kottaras
($10)

2:30 – 3:15 Shaun Marcum ($10) 2:30 – 3:15 Rickie Weeks ($25)

3:45 – 4:30 Corey Hart ($25) 3:45 – 4:30 Taylor Green (Free)/B.
Kintzler (Free)

Stage 3 Stage 6

10:30 – 11:15 Aramis Ramirez ($25) 10:30 – 11:15 Manny Parra
($10)

12:00 – 12:45 Tim Dillard ($10)/Zelous Wheeler (Free) 12:00 – 12:45
Nyjer Morgan ($10)

1:30 – 2:15 Zack Greinke ($25) 1:30 – 2:15 John Axford ($10)

3:00 – 3:45 Caleb Gindl (Free)/Mike McClendon (Free) 3:00 – 3:45
Hollywood Guests (Free)

Names in Bold require a winning coupon through random selection
process. Additionally the following Rising Stars players will
sign FREE autographs throughout the day in the Clinic Field area:
Jed Bradley, Kentrail Davis, Khris Davis, Scooter Gennett, Taylor
Jungmann, Hunter Morris, Michael Reed, Yadiel Rivera, Tyler
Thornburg and Mike Walker.

Main Stage Schedule

10:15 am – 11:00 am – Meet the Coaching Staff – Brewers
manager Ron Roenicke along with his coaching staff will participate
in a Qamp;A session hosted by Brian Anderson.

11:00 am – 12:00 pm – Who Wants to be a Brewer? – Several
Brewers players will participate in this trivia-style game show to
see who has what it takes to win it all. NewsRadio 620 WTMJ/Brewers
play-by-play announcer Joe Block will host the show.

12:15 pm – 1:15 pm – Meet Mark Attanasio, Doug Melvin, Gord
Ash, Craig Counsell and the Newest Brewers – Brewers Chairman and
Principal Owner Mark Attanasio, Executive Vice President – General
Manager Doug Melvin, Vice President – Assistant General Manager
Gord Ash, and Special Assistant to the GM Craig Counsell will join
free agent acquisitions – Alex Gonzalez and Aramis Ramirez – in a
question and answer session with Brewers fans. The session will be
hosted by Brewers Hall of Fame Radio Announcer Bob Uecker.

1:15 pm – 2:15 pm – Milwacky Squares – A spin-off of
Hollywood Squares, the newest game show to hit Brewers On Deck,
features Brewers Hall of Fame Radio Announcer Bob Uecker as the
center square along with Brewers players and several surprise
Hollywood guests.

2:15 pm – 3:00 pm – Rising Stars Qamp;A – Brewers prospects
Jed Bradley, Kentrail Davis, Khris Davis, Scooter Gennett, Taylor
Jungmann, Hunter Morris, Michael Reed, Yadiel Rivera, Tyler
Thornburg and Mike Walker will take questions from fans regarding
the future of the organization on the field.

3:00 pm – 4:00 pm – Brewers Face Off – Its the Brewers
family of current Brewers against the Brewers family of future
stars in what will certainly turn out to be a feud. Brewers
television voice Brian Anderson will host this classic game
show.

4:15 pm – 4:45 pm – Media Roundtable – Join host Craig
Coshun in a discussion about the Brewers with members of the local
media including Tom Haudricourt of The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel,
Adam McCalvy of Brewers.com and Andrew Wagner of
FoxSportsWisconsin.com.

Middle and high school singers, guitarists, bassists, keyboardists, drummers are and songwriters are invited to rock out while on vacation.

Los Angeles Times Travel editor

January 28, 2012, 3:09 pm