Yahoo Lays Off 1,000 Workers

Yahoo Inc. is planning to lay off 1,000 of their 14,300 workers due to their 23 percent decrease in fourth-quarter profits and not being sure about their financial outlook for 2008. After the news was released, Yahoo shares hit their lowest levels in more than four years. Their market value has decreased more than 50 percent since the end of 2005.

Yahoo didn’t say which areas of its operations would be cut but some of the employees whose jobs are being eliminated might be offered new jobs in other parts of the company. Yahoo expects to pay between $20 million to $25 million for severance and other costs in the lay off. With the lay offs and cost cuttings, Yahoo could save more than$100 million dollars in costs and offset some of the financial loss that they expect from a re-negotiated partnership with AT&T Inc to provide high-speed Internet service. Yahoo and AT&T will share the revenue made through online advertising.

Yahoo hasn’t stopped making money but their profits fell by 12 percent in 2007 even though advertisers spent a lot of money on the Internet. The company is also working hard to try to attract more teenagers and young adults to the site.

Actor Danny Glover Convicted of Trespassing

The actor Danny Glover was convicted on Thursday of trespassing in a hotel in Niagara Falls, Ontario during an union rally in 2006. He was convicted along with UNITE HERE union representative, Alex Dagg, and Ontario Federation of Labour President, Wayne Samuelson.

The three people were charged with trespassing at a Niagara Falls hotel during a Sept 16, 2006 protest. The protest was part of a larger campaign to increase salaries and improve the working conditions for hotel workers in the U.S. and Canada. The UNITE HERE organization represents 50,000 hotel, food service, garment, and manufacturing workers in Canada and 450,000 in North America.

Owners of Pets Thrown Off Bridge in Puerto Rico Receive Help

The animal welfare groups plan to help the Puerto Rico housing project residents to pursue legal action against the animal control workers that seized their pets and killed most of them by throwing them from a bridge. Friends of the Animal, a Puerto Rican company that rescues and rehabilitates abandoned pets and farm animals, and many other groups will help the pet owners with claims of animal cruelty and civil rights violations.