All posts by George

Irate Customers Demand UPS Packages

                      Customers Wait Outside Warehouse After UPS Fails To Deliver 50,000 Packages


COMMERCE CITY, Colo. —
Hundreds of people lined up outside a United Parcel Service building on Saturday morning, demanding packages that UPS were delayed in delivering.

“We’re getting mixed message about what’s going from people out here, people in there,” said Gary Stull.

UPS was delayed in delivering about 50,000 packages because of Thursday’s snow storm. Those packages are now sitting in a Commerce City warehouse.

UPS said the storm impacted operations, delayed deliveries and just about maxed out the limit drivers are allowed to be behind the wheel for a week.

Stull told 7NEWS that he’s been waiting three days for a friend’s gift.

“We’re standing in line because there was 10 inches of snow,” said Stull.

“Not a way I’d like to spend Christmas Eve, but I didn’t expect the line to be this long,” said David Hawman.

Hawman and his girlfriend waited more than an hour to get a surprise gift.

“When one of every 20th person has a package, that’s not a good sign,” said another customer.

At 3:20 p.m., a 7NEWS viewer reported UPS employees being verbally abused by customers and said police had been called to the warehouse.

7NEWS

Faux News, Fair and Balanced?


 LONDON—Rupert Murdoch’s News International has paid out settlements to seven more prominent figures in the wake of the phone hacking scandal at its now-shuttered News of the World​ tabloid.
The company said in a statement Tuesday it had settled claims brought by Princess Diana’s former lover James Hewitt, ex-Liberal Democrat lawmaker Mark Oaten, TV presenter Ukrika Jonsson, model Abi Titmuss, and Paul Dadge, who helped rescue victims of the 2005 London transit bombings.
     Theatrical agent Michelle Milburn and Calum Best, the son of soccer legend George Best, rounded out the settlement list.
     The scandal over phone hacking at the News of the World tabloid boiled over after it emerged that journalists at the paper had routinely hacked into the phones of celebrities, politicians, sports figures and even crime victims.
      The now-defunct tabloid has already settled with several prominent figures, including actress Sienna Miller​ and the family of murdered British schoolgirl Milly Dowler​, whose phone was broken into by the paper soon after her disappearance in 2002.
     The Dowler case in particular revolted Britons and was instrumental in pushing Prime Minister David Cameron to set up an inquiry into U.K. media ethics, which is still hearing from witnesses.
     The terms of the new payments announced Tuesday were not disclosed but they are likely to be substantial. Miller received 100,000 pounds (nearly $157,000) in damages; the Dowlers were awarded 2 million pounds ($3.1 million) plus 1 million pounds ($1.6 million) from Murdoch himself, which was earmarked for charity.
     The scandal has hit News International parent company News Corp​. hard, most notably by scrapping the company’s multibillion-pound bid for full control of satellite broadcaster BSkyB. 
    


 

Top Ten Quotes of the Year


The list:
     1. “We are the 99 percent.” — slogan of Occupy movement.
     2. “There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own. Nobody. You built a factory out there — good for you! But I want to be clear. You moved your goods to market on the roads the rest of us paid for. You hired workers the rest of us paid to educate. You were safe in your factory because of police forces and fire forces that the rest of us paid for.” — U.S. Sen. candidate Elizabeth Warren, speaking in Andover, Mass., in August.
     3. “My friends and I have been coddled long enough by a billionaire-friendly Congress.” — Billionaire Warren Buffett, in a New York Times op-ed on Aug. 15.
     4. “I believe in evolution and trust scientists on global warming. Call me crazy.” — Presidential candidate Jon Huntsman in an Aug. 18 tweet.
     5. “Oops.” — Presidential candidate Rick Perry after unsuccessfully attempting to remember the third federal agency he would eliminate during a Nov. 9 debate.
     6. “When they ask me, ‘Who is the president of Ubeki-beki-beki-beki-stan-stan?’ I’m going to say, ‘You know, I don’t know. Do you know?'” — Then-presidential candidate Herman Cain in an interview by Christian Broadcasting Network on Oct. 7.
     7. “I am on a drug. It’s called ‘Charlie Sheen.’ It’s not available because if you try it once, you will die. Your face will melt off and your children will weep over your exploded body.” — Actor Charlie Sheen in a February interview with ABC News.
     8. “Oh wow. Oh wow. Oh wow.” — Apple co-founder Steve Jobs’ last words on Oct. 5, as reported by his sister Mona Simpson in her eulogy.
     9. “I can’t say with certitude.” — Then-U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner on June 1 when he was asked whether a lewd photograph was in fact him.
     10. “Instead of receiving the help that she had hoped for, Mr. Cain instead decided to provide her with his idea of a stimulus package.” — Lawyer Gloria Allred on Nov. 7 discussing Herman Cain’s alleged sexual harassment of her client.

I’m Endorsing… Walmart for President

In the immortal words of Mitt Romney – “Corporations are people, my friend.”

Unlimited corporate spending on elections is the driving force in our democracy. Yet, there is a growing movement in this country to deny corporations the rights afforded to them by the Supreme Court of the United States. Los Angeles passed a resolution declaring that corporations are not people and money isn’t speech. South Carolina Democrats want to put a resolution on the ballot asking the public to vote on corporate personhood. There are even people who would blame the lingering recession and growing inequality in our society on major corporations.

That is why, today, I am officially announcing my candidacy for President of the United States. It’s time to take a stand and fight for those who have come under so much attack in recent months, the 1%. They need a strong voice in this race, and as America’s largest private employer and the world’s largest retailer, with over $480 billion in revenue in 2010, I am that voice. Some might scoff at such a notion, since no major corporation has ever even been elected to Congress. But this is America-where corporations are considered people and any retail conglomerate can grow up to be President.

                                        Walmart for President

News of the Wierd !

       County clamps down on UPS seasonal storage sites



For the past five years, UPS has set up seasonal distribution centers in which the company stored packages in peoples’ garages and in portable storage units for delivery throughout Brevard County neighborhoods — all, it turns out, in violation of county laws.


Brevard County commissioners shut that operation down Tuesday, threatening the company with $500 per day fines for each of its makeshift distribution sites. There were nearly a dozen storage sites, mostly on Merritt Island and near Rockledge. Complaints were received on 10 locations that were investigated and verified by Brevard County Code Enforcement.


“We weren’t aware of this until two weeks ago,” said Robin Sobrino, director of Planning & Development. She said the storage units were in unincorporated areas of the county.


County officials said the company was violating zoning ordinances by establishing commercial businesses in residential neighborhoods.


“You guys can’t do this in Brevard County,” Commissioner Andy Anderson told UPS officials. The county’s rule applies only to unicorporated areas.


Brevard isn’t the first county to stop UPS from running such an operation. Seminole County also found the company in violation of ordinances earlier this year.


Kim Williams, human resources manager for UPS, said the company has 42 operating facilities and 15,000-plus employees in Florida, including Palm Bay and Rockledge. The company anticipates delivering 120 million packages in Florida and plans to hire 3,000 driver helpers and more than 1,000 employees for seasonal help. Many of those are high-schoolers and college-aged students who work through the holidays. They deliver the packages using golf carts.


Commissioner Trudie Infantini said she applauds UPS for hiring the workers, but said putting portable storage units in neighborhoods “isn’t the best choice.”


Williams said the company would abide by county codes. “We’ll be in compliance,” he said.


“Prior to 2009, we used garages to store packages in gated communities, so we would put golf carts in there and deliver. In 2009, the Florida Legislature passed legislation to allow us to use golf carts on roads with posted 30 mph or less speed limits, so we expanded that to other residential areas,” Williams said.


Williams said the practice has helped the company reduce emissions, make earlier deliveries, keep its vehicles out of neighborhoods after dark, and saved thousands of gallons in gas. There are 700 teams throughout Florida using garages and portable storage units “with little to no public opposition,” Williams said.


Merritt Island resident Clay Jeffries said he does not want a commercial business in his neighborhood.


“They do what they want, when they want and where they want for the almighty dollar,” he said of UPS.


Commissioner Robin Fisher said the company is usurping the permitting process.


“I am shocked that UPS, which is a great company, is allowing this to tarnish their image,” Fisher said. “I don’t understand this one.”


Contact Walker at 321-242-3527 or dwalker@floridatoday.com.