This week (we’re back!): Taco Bell Uber attack, votes that don’t matter, sheeple, an emu, a kangaroo, and two zebras.
Add a llama and you’d have pretty much every BossFeed theme in this one story
That Taco Bell marketing executive who was recently caught on video assaulting an Uber driver has now tearfully apologized in a CBS-exclusive interview, but it still remains unclear if he rated his driver after the incident, and if so, how many stars he offered up.
Meanwhile, the driver he attacked set up a gofundme page to help him pay his medical expenses… because even if you’re a full-time Uber partner, you’re not a partner with benefits. He has already exceeded his $1,000 goal.
Maybe the turnout was actually high, all things considered?
So WTF is the story on the record-low participation in this year’s local elections? Here’s one piece of the puzzle: a major new survey finds that by a margin of 64% - 36%, Americans across the political spectrum believe their “vote does not matter because of the influence that wealthy individuals and big corporations have on the electoral process.”
Almost makes you wonder why the opt-out rate isn’t higher.
Driving a Hard Baaaaaaaaargain
Incredible as it sounds, there’s actually a Federal guest-worker program which brings more than 2,000 shepherds into the US each year to work basically 24/7, live in tents, and get paid just $750 a month. When a federal agency recently proposed to increase shepherd pay to $2,500, owners of sheep ranches of course tried to pull the wool over our eyes by spinning the same old yarn about how a wage hike of this magnitude would put their business model out to pasture.
After some back and forth, the payrate now looks set to rise all the way to… $7.25 an hour for 48-hour weeks, or about $1500 a month. Yes, simply paying the Federal minimum wage is doubling their income. And no, it seems like they’re not getting time-and-a-half for those 8 hours.
They may have a point but, like, they’re never amused
A rogue and so-far unnamed Delaware emu was captured by state officials this week after escaping their grasp dozens of times over the previous 66 days. The emu had forced “soft lockdowns” of area elementary schools and was thought to be a threat to public safety for reasons that have not been satisfactorily explained.
A stray “kangaroo-looking animal” believed to be a wallaby was spotted near Interstate 5 in Ferndale, Washington. The owner of a nearby wallaby farm assumed no responsibility for the situation but insisted they make better pets than goats do.
And two zebras ran through the streets of Philadelphia after escaping a traveling circus. A witness reported two cops chasing one zebra but had thought it might be a horse, the police seized the opportunity to make some jokes on Twitter, and animal rights activists were not amused.