New England Sun-Times

Whether it’s working overtime or passing on vacation time, consider it carefully because your personal time probably has more value than you have previously considered. Here's a fact that might make you cry. According to Forbes, American employees collectively surrendered $52.4 billion in benefits in 2013, or an average of $504 per employee of free labor for their employers. Unfortunately, for most employees, this sacrifice doesn’t lead to promotions or an increase in salary. So if there is no real benefit to skirting a real vacation, why are you missing out on this windfall of downtime? Here are five things to consider if you plan on working through your vacation yet again this year: 1. Analyze why you are working This is simple: Why are you working? Many people believe that they are working to provide a better life for their family, or to have more personal freedom. Yet when given the opportunity to take time off and be wit...

When you’re considering a career change, a good place to start looking for job advice may be right at home. When you’re considering a career change, a good place to start looking for job advice may be right at home. That’s what more than four in 10 senior executives polled in a new survey by Accountemps do: They said the first person they consult with when evaluating whether to take a new job is a spouse or significant other. It makes perfect sense to turn to the person you’re closest to for a decision as significant as a career change. After all, our husbands, wives, or long-term partners know what makes us tick. They are aware of the aspects of our jobs that provide us the greatest satisfaction and where our work frustrations lie. Furthermore, the implications of changing jobs — especially if it requires relocation or even a longer commute — can upset family life. So naturally we want to take into consideration our partner’s input. Still, many career experts reco...

Bob Niedt Celebrity Chef Jose Andre has a crowdfunding page aimed at helping him raise money following Donald Trump’s lawsuit against him for pulling out of a restaurant deal at the Old Post Office. Celebrity Chef José Andrés has a crowdfunding Web page aimed at helping him raise money following Donald Trump 's lawsuit against him for pulling out of a restaurant deal at the Old Post Office. As of Thursday morning, the Indiegogo page had raised $8,673 from 102 people. It's been up for 16 days and has a goal of raising $100,000. Andrés pulled out of the restaurant deal at Trump's planned Old Post Office luxury hotel after the Republican presidential candidate made widely criticized comments on immigrants. Trump Old Post Office LLC sued Andrés’ ThinkFoodGroup and an affiliate, Topo Atrio LLC, for $10 million and attorneys fees, accusing them of two counts of breach of contract. The suit was filed July 31 in U.S. District court for the District of Col...

D.C. launched a new online tool to ease the task of finding a doctor that accepts plans sold on the District's health insurance marketplace. D.C. launched a new online tool to help consumers find in-network doctors on plans sold on its health insurance marketplace. The health exchange was created as a resulted of the Affordable Care Act. Called the Universal Doctor Directory 1.0 , the new tool available on D.C. Health Link allows consumers to search individual and family plans to figure out which doctors participate in particular plans. The directory also allows consumers to find a new doctor by ZIP code, last name or specialty and then see which marketplace insurance plans the doctor accepts. Previously, consumers searching for a health insurance plan on the marketplace, also called a health insurance exchange, had to go to the websites of each health insurance carrier for this information. A major goal of the new directory was to address user-friendliness ...

Braintree, MA (August 18, 2015) - A distraught 10-year-old girl lost her purse at the South Shore Mall in Braintree, Massachusetts Tuesday evening while shopping with her mom and dad. The little girl was at Claire's inside the mall purchasing a tiara and princess gloves when she realized she didn't have her birthday spending money with her. She left it in her purse in one of the red child carriages earlier while horsing around with her dad when they entered the mall through the Macy's side. The little girl and her mom stayed in Claire's while dad searched the mall for red carts, hoping to find his daughter's purse with about $70 in cash and a Samsung Galaxy phone. Dad approached two officers on two separate occasions asking if anyone returned a red purse. Both officers directed dad to the lost and found area of the mall, where dad was told there was no returned purse. On the other side of the mall. the girl and her mother waited to see if they could spot the kid...

Former inmates from a private Nashville jail say they were put to work making cheesy items for prison workers to sell at flea markets for profit, leaving notes inside the items to prove it – including the number 412148, a section of Tennessee code that states it is illegal for jail officials to force an inmate to perform free labor for the officials’ gain. Larry Stephney and Charles Brew allege that they were forced to build bean-bag “cornhole” games which the official sold for around $50 a piece, plaques shaped like footballs that went for $10 to $20 as well as birdhouses, dog beds and other items during their incarceration.  The items they made were for “Stand Firm Designs,” which is run by two jail employees and a former employee of Metro-Davidson County Detention Facility . Inmates are often used as cheap or free labor making everything from office furniture to lingerie, but prison officials are not allowed to profit personally. To prove that this was happ...

His real name was Lenny Robinson, but to hundreds of sick children he visited over the years, he was known as Batman, the caped crusader who drove a tricked-out Lamborghini that truly looked like the Batmobile. But the bat signal went dark Sunday night. Robinson, 51, died in a traffic accident when his vehicle was struck after it broke down on a busy interstate, Maryland state police reported. (Hope for Henry Foundation ) Lenny Robinson, who dressed as Batman while visiting sick kids and adapted his black Lamborghini to look like the Batmobile, has died. Robinson, a Baltimore area businessman, first shot to national fame in 2012 after being pulled over by police because of a problem with his license plate: It featured a Batman logo and nothing else. Robinson, dressed in full superhero attire when pulled over, had the actual plate inside the car. At the time, Robinson was heading to a charity event for the Hope ...

With nearly 19,000 Americans killed as a result of motor vehicle accidents between January and June of this year, 2015 is shaping up to be the deadliest traffic year since 2007. Jason Redmond/Reuters The United States is on track to have its deadliest traffic year since 2007, the National Safety Council says, with nearly 19,000 people killed as a result of motor vehicle accidents between January and June—a 14 percent increase over the same period last year. The number of injuries and the costs associated with traffic accidents also rose significantly, according to estimates from NSC’s statistics department released Monday . Nearly 2.3 million “serious injuries,” which the NSC defines as those requiring medical consultation, were sustained during the six-month period, up 30 percent when compared with the first half of 2014. In a similar upw...

"Straight Outta Compton" went to the top of the charts this weekend with one of the biggest surprises of the summer box office. “Straight Outta Compton” tells the origin story of   influential rap group NWA and its members, Dr. Dre, Ice Cube, MC Ren and Eazy E . The debut of the Universal biopic made an estimated $56.1 million at the U.S. box office -- nearly doubling its production budget of $29 million. The film, which tells the origins of the influential rap group N.W.A. against the backdrop of 1980s Los Angeles, exceeded expectations. It was originally projected to bring in closer to $25 million for its debut. "Compton" stars a predominately African-American cast and much of the film's opening success came from minority audiences. Nearly half, 46%, of the film's audience this weekend were African-American and only 23% were white, according to studio data. The musical biopic also represents the sixth No. 1 opening for Universa...

JEMISON, Ala. (AIAT) —   An Alabama church reportedly has opened a gun range behind its sanctuary in an effort "to reach out in the name of Jesus Christ." Rocky Mount United Methodist Church in Jemison, Alabama initially transformed an overgrown gully into a firing range as a way to teach firearm safety to the congregation. "We had quite a number of church members – some elderly ladies, for example, and some not so elderly women – that had purchased guns, but didn’t know how to use them," Pastor Phillip Guin told WIAT. But in the past year, hunting and gun enthusiasts in the church formed the Rocky Mount Hunt and Gun Club. Church members hope the group will encourage more people to join the congregation. "Who's to say that church can't happen right here?" Guin said of the gun range. Pastor Phillip Guin says the gully, once full of kudzu, snakes and other vermin, had been there since before he arrived at the church. Much ...