Rita Maxwell had no idea she was about to lose the job she'd had for nearly 20 years when her boss told her to meet him in the conference room at the end of the work day. In a short conversation, Maxwell's longtime boss, the head of an executive search firm in Northern Virginia, informed her that he no longer needed an executive assistant because he could handle his own scheduling, errands and phone calls. He offered her a few weeks of severance pay and said he would stay late while she packed her belongings. "I was completely taken aback when he called me into the meeting room to let me know my position had been eliminated," said Maxwell, who was let go in early 2017. "There's just not a lot of loyalty anymore." The United States has shed over 2.1 million administrative and office support jobs since 2000, Labor Department data show, eroding what for decades had been a reliable path to the middle class for women without college degrees. The job losses affecting administrative … [Read more...] about Administrative assistant jobs helped propel many women into the middle class. Now they’re disappearing.
Assistant city administrator
Bay Briefing: No cannabis in the ‘luxury zone’
Good morning, Bay Area. It’s Thursday, Dec. 5, and the kids — the seniors of the class of 2020 — are all right. Here’s what you need to know to start your day. Eau de Mary Jane Alexis Bronson has been selling marijuana since long before it was legalized. Growing up, he and his family bounced between single-room-occupancy hotels in San Francisco and the East Bay. He took to selling weed in high school to supplement his family’s meager income. After a career in medicinal marijuana, Bronson has secured one of San Francisco’s equity permits and wants to open “an inviting, well-lit, boutique cannabis outlet” with no on-site consumption. But he’s run into a major problem: his neighbors. Since the spring of 2018, Bronson and his businesses partners have been working to transform a vacant storefront on Geary Street in the heart of San Francisco’s posh Union Square into a high-end cannabis store. Two companies on either side of the … [Read more...] about Bay Briefing: No cannabis in the ‘luxury zone’
Libyan officials collect evidence of Russian fighters in civil war
Officials in Libya’s U.N.-supported government say they plan to confront Moscow over the alleged deployment of Russian mercenaries fighting alongside their opponents in the country’s civil war.Libyan and U.S. officials accuse Russia of deploying fighters through a private security contractor, the Wagner Group, to key battleground areas in Libya in the past months.They say the Russian fighters are backing commander Khalifa Hifter, whose forces have been trying for months to capture the capital, Tripoli. The U.N.-supported Government of National Accord is based in Tripoli.The GNA has documented between 600 to 800 Russian fighters in Libya and is collecting their names in a list to present to the Russian government, according to Khaled Meshri, the head of the Tripoli-based government’s Supreme Council of State. Advertisement “We are going to visit Russia after we collect all evidence and present to the authorities and see what they say,” Meshri told the … [Read more...] about Libyan officials collect evidence of Russian fighters in civil war
Peabody Resident Anastasia Dunau Celebrates Her 100th Birthday!
Born in Munich Germany in 1919, Stasi --as she is known to family and friends --came to the United States with her parents and two sisters, fleeing Germany as the Nazi's rose to power and stripped her father of his position as a physician heading the Internal Medicine Department at Freiburg University. Her mother was Catholic; her father Jewish. It was her mother who convinced her father they had to leave, intuitively sensing what was in store for Jews in Germany. After settling in Brookline, MA, Stasi attended The Windsor School, excelling in her studies despite the fact that she spoke very little English. She went on to attend Smith College and Yale Law School, one of only two women in her class. Stasi began her law career as a labor lawyer in private practice in New York City. She then moved to Washington, D.C. to work for the National Labor Relations Board where she met her future husband, Ben Dunau, also a labor lawyer. She ultimately worked the majority of her career at the … [Read more...] about Peabody Resident Anastasia Dunau Celebrates Her 100th Birthday!