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 ...