Minimum wage earners in 7 states getting raises

AP – Handyman Joe Martinez of Denver, 55, stops at a hamburger diner for lunch in Denver on Wednesday, Dec. …

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By KRISTEN WYATT, Associated Press – Thu Dec 30, 12:02 pm ET

DENVER – It will be a happier New Year for nearly 650,000 workers earning minimum wage. They're getting small raises in seven states that tie their salaries to the cost of living.

The minimum wages in those states will go up between 9 cents and 12 cents an hour Saturday because their consumer price indexes rose in 2010.

The extra pennies can't come soon enough for Joe Martinez of Denver, who works odd jobs such as lawn maintenance for minimum wage. In Colorado, the wage is rising 11 cents, from the federal minimum of $7.25 an hour to $7.36 an hour.

"The prices of everything are going up — food, rent, electricity," Martinez, 55, said on his lunch break Wednesday. "I know it's not a lot of money, but any extra money will help, you know?"

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Poverty advocates say the rising minimum wages shouldn't be seen as raises, just adjustments to keep the working poor at the same level as prices of goods rise.

The National Employment Law Project, a New York-based advocate for workers, estimates that about 647,000 people will see their paychecks go up in Arizona, Colorado, Montana, Ohio, Oregon, Vermont and Washington.

"It just ensures minimum wage keeps pace with the rising costs of necessities like milk and bread and gas," said Paul Sonn, legal co-director for NELP.

The NELP and other workers' advocates helped block a legal challenge to a minimum wage hike in Washington. That state will have 2011's highest statewide minimum wage at $8.67 an hour.

"These people are not putting this money into IRAs and savings accounts. It goes right back into the economy," said Rick S. Bender, president of the Washington State Labor Council, a union group that represents about 400,000 workers.

Ten states schedule their minimum wages to rise automatically when the cost of living rises, but the cost of living didn't rise enough in Florida, Nevada and Missouri to trigger a wage hike.

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In Colorado, the minimum wage hike next year is especially welcome. Unlike most states, Colorado's adjustable wage can drop because of deflation. A year ago, it fell 3 cents an hour to the federal minimum of $7.25 an hour.

It was the first time a state's minimum wage has dropped since the federal minimum wage law was adopted in 1938, although many employers left wages unchanged rather than cut workers' pay.

"The last couple years have been brutal for everybody, for all workers, not just minimum-wage workers," said Rich Jones, director of policy and research at the Denver-based Bell Policy Center, a progressive research group. However, Jones said that even small upticks in the minimum wage can help keep poor people working.

"For the lowest-paid workers, at least they're still able to buy the same level of goods and services in the marketplace, so it is a help," Jones said.

Retail clerk Kimberly Bobian of Denver agreed. Bobian stopped by a corner grocery to pick up a can of tomato sauce and said it's hard to keep her pantry stocked on the federal minimum wage.

"It's going up 11 cents? That's a big deal, definitely," she said. "Food prices are going up, everything goes up, so any little bit helps."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101230/ap_on_bi_ge/us_minimum_wage_hikes

South Korea: North Korea builds up special forces

AP – In this Tuesday, Dec. 21, 2010 photo made available Wednesday Dec. 29, 2010, South Korean Army soldiers …

• Slideshow:South Korea
• Play VideoNorth Korea Video:How Serious Is Situation on Korean Peninsula? FOX News
• Play VideoNorth Korea Video:Around the World: Protests in South Korea FOX News

By HYUNG-JIN KIM, Associated Press – 1 hr 57 mins ago

SEOUL, South Korea – North Korea has faster, more powerful tanks prowling the world's most heavily armed border and 200,000 special forces poised to carry out assassinations and cause havoc in South Korea, a major military review said Thursday.

Seoul's Defense Ministry report, released every two years, signals that the North's military threat has expanded. It comes as President Lee Myung-bak's administration scrambles to respond to criticism that it was unprepared for a Nov. 23 North Korean artillery attack on a front-line island that killed four people.

That attack, along with an alleged North Korean torpedoing of a warship in March, has prompted South Korea to define the North in the defense document as its "enemy," a stronger description than in 2008 when the North was only called a "direct and serious threat."

South Korean defense documents stopped referring to North Korea as "the main enemy" — a constant subject of North Korean criticism — in 2004 amid then-warming ties. The North's state media angrily reacted to the new reference later Thursday, calling it a "grave provocation" that could trigger war.

The new document says the North intends to rely on its nuclear program, special forces, long-range artillery, submarines and cyber warfare forces as a counterweight to South Korea's high-tech conventional military.

North Korea has 200,000 special operations forces, the report says, an increase from 180,000 in the ministry's last assessment in 2008. Those forces are aimed at carrying out assassinations and infiltrating and disrupting key facilities in South Korea, it said.

The North's army deploys many of its 13,600 long-range artillery guns along the Demilitarized Zone, ready to launch surprise artillery barrages on Seoul and its adjacent areas, the document said. Seoul is only about 30 miles (50 kilometers) away from the border.

The country also has developed a new kind of battle tank with better firepower and mobility than previous ones, and the modern tanks have been deployed near the border, it said.

The North's authoritarian leader Kim Jong Il has made a priority of trying to build military power superior to the South's, and its forces "are posing a serious threat to South Korea's military," the document said.

However, despite the North's asymmetrical forces, analysts say there is little likelihood that North Korea would launch an all-out war against South Korea, whose military is bolstered by 28,500 American troops in the country. The U.S. has repeatedly promised to keep South Korea under its nuclear umbrella.

The document reconfirmed that the U.S. will deploy an additional 690,000 troops, 160 navy ships and 2,000 military aircraft in the event of a war on the peninsula.

South Korea has about 650,000 troops of its own, while the North is thought to have 1.2 million soldiers.

The two Koreas are still technically at war because their 1950-53 Korean War ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said Thursday that Beijing supports the resumption of the six-party talks as the "only right approach to resolve peninsula-related issues."

The talks on North Korea's nuclear program involve the two Koreas, the U.S., China, Japan and Russia, but have been on hold for nearly two years.

___

Associated Press writer Cara Anna in Beijing contributed to this report.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101230/ap_on_re_as/as_koreas_clash

South Korea: North Korea builds up special forces

AP – In this Tuesday, Dec. 21, 2010 photo made available Wednesday Dec. 29, 2010, South Korean Army soldiers …

• Slideshow:South Korea
• Play VideoNorth Korea Video:How Serious Is Situation on Korean Peninsula? FOX News
• Play VideoNorth Korea Video:Around the World: Protests in South Korea FOX News

By HYUNG-JIN KIM, Associated Press – 1 hr 57 mins ago

SEOUL, South Korea – North Korea has faster, more powerful tanks prowling the world's most heavily armed border and 200,000 special forces poised to carry out assassinations and cause havoc in South Korea, a major military review said Thursday.

Seoul's Defense Ministry report, released every two years, signals that the North's military threat has expanded. It comes as President Lee Myung-bak's administration scrambles to respond to criticism that it was unprepared for a Nov. 23 North Korean artillery attack on a front-line island that killed four people.

That attack, along with an alleged North Korean torpedoing of a warship in March, has prompted South Korea to define the North in the defense document as its "enemy," a stronger description than in 2008 when the North was only called a "direct and serious threat."

South Korean defense documents stopped referring to North Korea as "the main enemy" — a constant subject of North Korean criticism — in 2004 amid then-warming ties. The North's state media angrily reacted to the new reference later Thursday, calling it a "grave provocation" that could trigger war.

The new document says the North intends to rely on its nuclear program, special forces, long-range artillery, submarines and cyber warfare forces as a counterweight to South Korea's high-tech conventional military.

North Korea has 200,000 special operations forces, the report says, an increase from 180,000 in the ministry's last assessment in 2008. Those forces are aimed at carrying out assassinations and infiltrating and disrupting key facilities in South Korea, it said.

The North's army deploys many of its 13,600 long-range artillery guns along the Demilitarized Zone, ready to launch surprise artillery barrages on Seoul and its adjacent areas, the document said. Seoul is only about 30 miles (50 kilometers) away from the border.

The country also has developed a new kind of battle tank with better firepower and mobility than previous ones, and the modern tanks have been deployed near the border, it said.

The North's authoritarian leader Kim Jong Il has made a priority of trying to build military power superior to the South's, and its forces "are posing a serious threat to South Korea's military," the document said.

However, despite the North's asymmetrical forces, analysts say there is little likelihood that North Korea would launch an all-out war against South Korea, whose military is bolstered by 28,500 American troops in the country. The U.S. has repeatedly promised to keep South Korea under its nuclear umbrella.

The document reconfirmed that the U.S. will deploy an additional 690,000 troops, 160 navy ships and 2,000 military aircraft in the event of a war on the peninsula.

South Korea has about 650,000 troops of its own, while the North is thought to have 1.2 million soldiers.

The two Koreas are still technically at war because their 1950-53 Korean War ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said Thursday that Beijing supports the resumption of the six-party talks as the "only right approach to resolve peninsula-related issues."

The talks on North Korea's nuclear program involve the two Koreas, the U.S., China, Japan and Russia, but have been on hold for nearly two years.

___

Associated Press writer Cara Anna in Beijing contributed to this report.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101230/ap_on_re_as/as_koreas_clash