UPS to drop 15,000 spouses from insurance, cites Obamacare

United Parcel Service Inc. plans to remove thousands of spouses from its medical plan because they are eligible for coverage elsewhere. The Atlanta-based logistics company points to the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, as a big reason for the decision, reports Kaiser Health News.

The decision comes as many analysts are downplaying the Affordable Care Act's effect on companies such as UPS, noting that the move reflects a long-term trend of shrinking corporate medical benefits, Kaiser Health News reports. But UPS repeatedly cites Obamacare to explain the decision, adding fuel to the debate over whether it erodes traditional employer coverage, Kaiser says.

Rising medical costs, “combined with the costs associated with the Affordable Care Act, have made it increasingly difficult to continue providing the same level of health care benefits to our employees at an affordable cost,” UPS said in a memo to employees. Read more >>

Cities Criminalize Being Homeless Across Country

Philadelphia recently banned outdoor feeding of people in city parks. Denver has begun enforcing a ban on eating and sleeping on property without permission. And this month, lawmakers in Ashland, Ore., will consider strengthening the town's ban on camping and making noise in public.

And the list goes on: Atlanta, Phoenix, San Diego, Los Angeles, Miami, Oklahoma City and more than 50 other cities have previously adopted some kind of anti-camping or anti-food-sharing laws, according to the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty.

The ordinances are pitting city officials against homeless advocates. City leaders say they want to improve the lives of homeless people and ensure public safety, while supporters of the homeless argue that such regulations criminalize homelessness and make it harder to live on the nation's streets. Read more >>

Home Prices Fall to Lowest in 10 years

Home prices hit new post-bubble lows in March. Average home prices were down 2.6% from 12 months earlier, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller home price index of 20 major markets. Home prices have not been this low since mid-2002.

In 13 of the 20 cities, average home prices fell in March from the year before. Atlanta fared the worst, with home prices down 17.7% year over year. Home prices in Atlanta, Cleveland, Detroit and Las Vegas are all below their January 2000 levels.

Alternatively, Phoenix posted the largest gain, with prices up 6.1% from last year. Other cities showing an uptick included Dallas, Denver and Miami. Overall, the 20-city composite is down about 35% from its peak in 2006. Read more >>

Home Depot moving white-collar jobs overseas

Image via WikipediaU.S. figures show American companies have slashed labor costs by moving millions of manufacturing jobs to China. A new trend involves many companies moving higher-paying, white-collar positions overseas too. Many American corporate call centers now are in places like the Philippines and technical jobs are in India. One example is Channel 2 parent company Cox Media Group, which uses overseas call center for some customer service questions.

Now, U.S. firms are quietly moving high-paying accounting, finance and human resource jobs offshore. National labor statistics reveal that in the past 10 years, American companies have slashed 2.9 million jobs in the United States. At the same time, they have created 2.4 million jobs for people overseas.

Local companies, like Home Depot, are among them. The company built an international chain from one store in Atlanta. Now it's moving white collar jobs offshore.

Channel 2 Action News has reported in recent years that Home Depot has laid off thousands of workers, including hundreds at its worldwide corporate headquarters in Vinings in Cobb County. At the same time, it's hiring hundreds of workers thousands of miles away.

Georgia Labor Department records show Home Depot has moved jobs from Vinings to India. Companies usually keep outsourcing details a secret, but two Home Depot executives taped a testimonial posted online for the outsourcing company in India now is handling some of their accounting functions. More...

CDC selling cuddly stuffed toy of deadly H1N1 microbe

You can't make this stuff up. Yes, children, going to a FEMA camp is just like Disneyland.

Telegraph reports:

The stuffed toy has been designed to represent a "cuddlier" version of an H1N1 microbe, complete with a pig-like nose and eyes. The 7inch novelty is the latest creation of US-based doll company GIANTmicrobes, which specialises in producing huggable viruses and pests.

The firm's catalogue include soft toy interpretations of a range of sexually-transmitted infections including gonorrhea, syphilis and chlamydia. It also sells furry representations of bed bugs, mad cow disease, E.Coli, Ebola and MRSA. The company describes its toys as "great learning tools, as well as amusing gifts for anyone with a sense of humour". Each purchase comes with an information leaflet with details of the relevant infection.

The swine flu dolls are even for sale in the gift shop at the Atlanta, headquarters of the Centers for Disease Control, the US government agency charged with monitoring the outbreak. The toy, which is priced at $7.95, is available to British shoppers from the GIANTmicrobes website.

11alive.com

The fuzzy, stuffed toy that resembles a microbe of the H1N1 virus, commonly know as "swine flu" is sold in the CDC's gift shop, along with several other toy versions of microbes.

The toy is marketed and sold by a company called GIANTmicrobes. "Each of our GIANTmicrobes comes with an image and information about the real microbe it represents. They make great learning tools, as well as amusing gifts for anyone with a sense of humor," the company says on its website.