It's not the first time the Times and other publications have written about the "punishing" work conditions at Foxconn, the contract manufacturing behemoth that also makes products for loads of other companies, not just Apple.

Foxconn--headquarted in Taiwan, but (according to Reuters) the largest private employer in mainland China--has been frequently in the news for fires and explosions at its factories along with a spate of worker suicides. But coming on the heels of Apple's jaw-dropping earnings and news that it had $98 billion squirreled away in cash, the article seems to have really touched a nerve, the "Occupy Apple" kind.

I don't think anybody's faulting Apple for wanting to make a good profit on its products or trying to keep up with demand. But what seems to be the big friction point is how much profit Apple is making and how it continues to squeeze its suppliers and manufacturing partners to the Nth degree.

The Times article depicts Apple as creating a vicious circle where suppliers and manufacturers desperately long for Apple's business ("Getting a contract from Apple can lift a company's value by millions because of the implied endorsement of manufacturing quality," the article states). But then it puts the big squeeze on everybody, making it exceedingly difficult for anybody but Apple to turn a profit.

The reporters, Charles Duhigg and David Barboza, serve up several damaging quotes but here are a few that seem to really hit home for a lot of readers:

"The only way you make money working for Apple is figuring out how to do things more efficiently or cheaper. And then they'll come back the next year, and force a 10 percent price cut."

Vietnam War veteran Stevenson L. Roy died broke and homeless, but Wednesday he received a funeral with full military honors in Portland, Ore., for his years of service to the country.

Naval Petty Officer 2nd Class Roy, buried in Willamette National Cemetery, was the 1,000th homeless veteran to be buried by Dignity Memorial. Operating in 35 cities, the organization partners with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, local medical examiners and funeral homes to ensure that veterans without friends or family are treated to the proper funeral service that they earned.

"It doesn't really matter what happened during their life," organization spokeswoman Lisa Marshall told The Huffington Post. "At some point, they were willing to give their life."

The organization, established in 2000, serves a role at a time an estimated 67,500 homeless veterans are at great risk for dying on the streets.

The nonprofit Community Solutions, which launched the 100,000 Homes Campaign, found that 27.3 percent of homeless veterans suffer from mental illness, physical illness, and substance abuse at the same time. They are also more than 11 percentage points more likely to develop life-threatening diseases than homeless people who are not veterans, according to the report released in November.

rest at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/27/dignity-memorial-buries-1_n_1234681.html?utm_campaign=012712&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Alert-impact&utm_content=FullStory

Since the 1970s, New Hampshire police have operated under a progressive policy for handling domestic violence cases that has saved countless lives. Under current law the presumption is that an arrest will be made when police observe evidence of abuse. They have a large degree of discretion and don’t need to witness the assault firsthand or obtain a legal warrant before they can separate the alleged attacker from his victim.

All that will change if Republicans get their way. The state’s GOP legislators are pushing two bills that will reverse a half century of progress, the Concord Monitor reports:

Domestic violence is no longer taken lightly legally or by society. That’s the way it should be, but two bills under consideration by this most unusual of legislatures, would undo that progress and put lives in danger. Both deserve a speedy defeat.

House Bill 1581 would turn the clock back 40 years to an age when a police officer could not make an arrest in a domestic violence case without first getting a warrant unless he or she actually witnessed the crime. That’s an exceedingly dangerous change. Consider the following scenario, one outlined for lawmakers by retired Henniker police chief Tim Russell:

An officer is called to a home where she sees clear evidence that an assault has occurred. The furniture is overturned, the children are sobbing, and the face of the woman of the house is bruised and bleeding. It’s obvious who the assailant was, but the officer arrived after the assault occurred. It’s a small department, and no one else on the force is available to keep the peace until the officer finds a judge or justice of the peace to issue a warrant. The officer leaves, and the abuser renews his attack with even more ferocity, punishing his victim for having called for help. [...]

It’s impossible to say how many lives the policy, in place since the 1970s, has saved or how many injuries it’s prevented. If they adopt House Bill 1581, lawmakers might find out, but the price paid could be extraordinarily high.

The union representing workers locked out of a Caterpillar locomotive plant in London, Ont., is taking the fight to Caterpillar’s customers on the day the company posted record profits and revenue.

The Canadian Auto Workers announced Thursday morning they will be picketing in front of a dozen Caterpillar dealerships and service centres in an effort to raise awareness about the nearly month-long lockout of workers at the Electro-Motive plant in London.

Caterpillar reported a 36 per cent increase in after-tax profit for both the fourth quarter of 2011 and the full year 2011. Revenues for the year increased four per cent to $2.65 billion.

Despite the record profits, the company is pressuring its employees at the London locomotive plant to accept a pay cut from $32 per hour to $16.50. Caterpillar locked out the workers on Jan. 1 after union members rejected the pay cut.

"This is all about greed," says Bob Scott, union plant chair at Electro-Motive. "How are workers supposed to go back to earning wages last paid nearly 25 years ago, while the company is richer than ever?"

The CAW notes that the latest compensation package for Caterpillar CEO Doug Oberhelman was worth $10.5 million, “twice what he received the year before.”

The conflict in London is beginning to gain attention, with many observers growing increasingly alarmed about what massive pay cuts at highly profitable companies could mean for the future of the economy.

There's been near nuclear fallout from federal prosecutors shuttering of Megaupload, the file-sharing service accused of costing the entertainment industry $500 million in lost revenues. It's estimated that shutting down Megaupload's family of websites, which are accused of hosting massive amounts of copyrighted files, affected 1% of all Internet traffic. The feds are seeking the forfeiture of $175 million from Megaupload's flamboyant founder, Kim Dotcom; sympathetic hacker coalition Anonymous has since launched online attacks against the RIAA, MPAA, and Justice Department; and file-sharing and cloud services from FileSonic to Dropbox are wondering what this could mean for the industry.

On Tuesday, we caught up with RapidShare attorney and spokesman Daniel Raimer. RapidShare is one of the world's most popular file-hosting sites, and many have wondered whether the site could be next on the feds' list of targets. In part one of our two-part interview, Raimer explains why if RapidShare is shut down like Megaupload, then Apple's iCloud, Microsoft's SkyDrive, Google's YouTube, and Dropbox deserve the same fate too.

FAST COMPANY: Do you think Megaupload was fairly or unfairly targeted?

DANIEL RAIMER: I guess that's up to a jury to decide. I'm not a judge, and I don't want to make any verdict. I've seen doing Megaupload doing things that we wouldn't do, and that we strongly discourage, such as their heavy rewards program. But I don't want to say that they're guilty. It's not up to us to decide that.

Do you think federal prosecutors will target RapidShare next?

I don't think so.

Why not?

Let me put it like this. The technology behind Megaupload and RapidShare may be similar, but this is also true for the technology of Microsoft's SkyDrive or Apple's iCloud, which is not too different from what RapidShare is. It's uploading a file, and accessing it over the Internet, or even sharing at certain times with friends. The business from an ethical standpoint is really similar. The main difference is, what exactly is your business model? Are you aiding piracy? Is your intent to make money by attracting pirates and getting attention from copyright pirates? Or do you want to have serious customers and long-time relationships with satisfied people from all over the world, who trust you? That's exactly what we do.