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ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — Just years after labor activists persuaded a handful of states to raise their minimum wage to $15 per hour, workers initially thrilled with the pay bump are finding their hard-won gains erased by inflation.New York City resident Anthony Rivera, 20, who sorts packages at a United Parcel Service facility in Brooklyn, said he had to take a second job at a grocery store after his food costs soared.“I was sitting at $15 an hour at UPS, and when it came to paying bills and buying groceries, it was starting to become not enough,” he said. “That led me to no other option than to pick up another job.”New York, California and Massachusetts are among states where pro-labor forces are now pushing proposals that, if approved, would boost minimum wages to $20 or more in the coming years.Inflation has meant that something that cost $15 in 2012 — when labor activists adopted the “Fight for $15” slogan in a push for wage hikes — would probably cost almost $20 today, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.But opponents to the wage hikes say they can be detrimental to small businesses, which already took a major hit during the coronavirus pandemic.Cindy Lee, the owner of a bowling alley in Endicott, New York, said she's struggling to pay off loans taken out during the pandemic that kept her business afloat.“All this cost all at once is just going to kill us. I definitely will have to cut corners somewhere with employees if wages are raised,” said Lee, adding that she'd also have to increase prices on bowling, food and liquor.The federal minimum wage in the United States has stayed at $7.25 per hour since 2009, but states and some localities are free to set higher amounts. Thirty states have chosen to do so.Over the past decade, labor groups held out $15 as the target that would let low-paid workers sustain themselves within the 40-hour workweek. A growing number of states across the political spectrum have passed legislation that will take their minimum wage above that amount in the next few years, including Florida, Nebraska and Illinois. Eleven states have phased in wage increases of $5 or more within the past decade.Yet those gains were almost immediately tempered. Inflation in the United States hit a new 40-year high last summer after prices for basic necessities like gas and food soared. Supply chain issues resulting from the coronavirus pandemic, combined with Russia's invasion of Ukraine, have disrupted gas and food supplies, sending those prices skyward.Labor activists are pressing for a new round of wage increases even as the old ones are still being phased in.A bill in New York would raise the state’s minimum wage to $21.25 by 2026, and then adjust it each year going forward for inflation. Right now, minimum wage workers in New York City get paid $15, while the rest of the state is at $14.20.In Massachusetts, one bill proposes to raise the wage every year until it hits $20 in 2027, up from $15 now.And in California, where the minimum wage is currently $15.50 for all workers, legislation signed in September would have set the state on a path to raise wages for fast-food workers to $22 per hour. The law was met with heavy opposition from restaurant industry groups who led a successful effort to force it into a referendum vote in 2024.Backers of a proposed wage increase in New York say they hope it will pass as part of the state budget, which is expected to be finalized in early April.Barry Nicholson, the owner of four retail businesses in Corning, a city by the Finger Lakes in New York, said a wage increase to $21.25 would be “a smack in the face to small businesses.”“There is just no way I could handle that," said Nicholson, who owns two UPS stores, and women's accessories and modern home furnishings stores. “When you look at retail hospitality, we live and die by a couple of points at the end of the day. We’re not the big corporations everyone talks about.”

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Protesters urging lawmakers to raise New York's minimum wage

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“I was sitting at $15 an hour at UPS, and when it came to paying bills and buying groceries, it was starting to become not enough. That led me to no other option than to pick up another job.”

Some States Pushing For $20 Minimum Wage

East Palestine, Oh. (by Billie Wright) - John Heading and his team at the Ohio Southern Baptist Disaster Relief rushed in after a train carrying a toxic chemical derailed in East Palestine, Ohio in February. John says even though there were initial concerns about the safety of teams coming into the area to help, he made sure of it.<blockquote>“We have our own toxicologist that we refer to...He said that, ‘You’re absolutely going to be safe helping folks in their homes.’”</blockquote>Once the area was deemed safe, John says they went to work, scrubbing walls, floors…anything to help the people near the accident.&nbsp;<figure class="image text-center"><img src="https://cdn.corpemf.com/news/52339.jpg" alt="Ohio Southern Baptist Disaster Relief team cleaning homes in East Palestine, Ohio"><figcaption>[Photo Credit: Ohio Southern Baptist Disaster Relief ]</figcaption></figure>John connects with residents by asking a simple question: 'How ya doin'?' He says people really open up and share the stresses they've recently gone through. He explains how sharing faith during that time is something that comes natural to him, as a former pastor.<figure class="image text-center"><img src="https://cdn.corpemf.com/news/52340.png" alt="John Heading"><figcaption>[Photo Credit: Ohio Southern Baptist Disaster Relief ]</figcaption></figure>“It’s important to us as believers to be able to walk alongside people who are stressed, they’re in the middle of crisis, they really don’t know what to do. But to show them there really is hope in Christ, as you walk this journey. It’s important for us to do that, wherever we go.”&nbsp;The volunteer team at the Ohio Southern Baptist Disaster Relief are trained and ready to jump in during difficult times.<figure class="image text-center"><img src="https://cdn.corpemf.com/news/52341.jpg" alt="Ohio Southern Baptist Disaster Relief cleaning homes"><figcaption>[Photo Credit: Ohio Southern Baptist Disaster Relief]</figcaption></figure>Hear more from John here:<figure class="media"><oembed url="https://cdn.corpemf.com/news/52342.mp3"></oembed></figure>&nbsp;&nbsp;

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Ohio Southern Baptist Disaster Relief team in East Palestine, Ohio

John Heading and the Ohio Southern Baptist Disaster Relief team also share their faith with those affected in East Palestine.

Messy For Jesus: Volunteer Team Mops Floors, Wipes Down Walls After Ohio Train Derailment (+podcast)

Update: NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Police say Nashville school shooter legally bought 7 firearms in recent years; hid them from parents.&nbsp;NASHVILLE (AP) — Six people died at a small, private Christian school just south of downtown Nashville on Monday after a shooter opened fire inside the building containing about 200 students, police said.Police received a call about an active shooter at The Covenant School — a Presbyterian school — around 10:15 a.m. Authorities said that about 15 minutes after that call to police, the shooter was dead. The remaining students were ferried to a safe location to be reunited with their parents.Rachel Dibble, who was at a nearby church where children were taken to be reunited with their parents, described the scene as everyone being in “complete shock.”“People were involuntarily trembling,” she said. “The children … started their morning in their cute little uniforms, they probably had some Fruit Loops, and now their whole lives changed today.”“Our community is heartbroken,” a statement from the school said. “We are grieving tremendous loss and are in shock coming out of the terror that shattered our school and church. We are focused on loving our students, our families, our faculty and staff and beginning the process of healing.”A reeling city mourned during vigils Monday evening. At Belmont United Methodist Church, tearful sniffling filled the background as vigil attendees sang, knelt in prayer and lit candles. They lamented the national cycle of violent and deadly shootings.“We need to step back. We need to breathe. We need to grieve,” said Paul Purdue, the church’s senior pastor. “We need to remember. We need to make space for others who are grieving. We need to hear the cries of our neighbors.”<figure class="image"><img src="https://cdn.corpemf.com/news/52411.jpg" alt="Pastor Paul Purdue participates in a community vigil at Belmont United Methodist Church in the aftermath of school shooting in Nashville, Monday, March 27, 2023"><figcaption>[Photo Credit: AP/John Bazemore] Pastor Paul Purdue participates in a community vigil at Belmont United Methodist Church in the aftermath of school shooting in Nashville, Monday, March 27, 2023</figcaption></figure>Here's what's known and not known about the shooting:<h3 style="margin-left:0px;">HOW MANY PEOPLE LOST THEIR LIVES?</h3>Nashville police said six people, including three students, died. The victims were identified as Cynthia Peak, 61; Katherine Koonce, 60; Mike Hill, 61; and Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs, and William Kinney, ages 8 and 9. Police officers also killed the shooter.The website of The Covenant School, founded in 2001, lists a Katherine Koonce as the head of the school. Her LinkedIn profile says she has led the school since July 2016. Peak was a substitute teacher, and Hill was a custodian, according to investigators.___<h3 style="margin-left:0px;">WHAT IS KNOWN ABOUT THE NASHVILLE SHOOTER?</h3>For hours, police identified the shooter as a 28-year-old woman and eventually as Audrey Hale.&nbsp;Metropolitan Nashville Police Chief John Drake did not say exactly what drove the shooter to open fire Monday before being killed by police. But he provided chilling examples of the shooter’s elaborate planning for the targeted attack.“We have a manifesto, we have some writings that we’re going over that pertain to this date, the actual incident,” he told reporters. “We have a map drawn out of how this was all going to take place.”He said in an interview with NBC News that investigators believe the shooter had “some resentment for having to go to that school.”Police said Hale was a former student of the school, but it was unclear if Hale had any current affiliation with the school or was related to anyone in the school at the time of the shooting. Police said the shooter had made a detailed map of the school and conducted surveillance of the building before carrying out the shooting.Police said Hale had two “assault-style” weapons and a pistol when Hale shot through the front door to enter the building. At least two of them were believed to have been obtained legally in the Nashville area, police said. Investigators found a sawed-off shotgun, a second shotgun and other unspecified evidence during a search of Hale's home.___<h3 style="margin-left:0px;">HOW THE NASHVILLE SHOOTER DIED</h3>A team of five Nashville police officers entered the school after the initial call, said Aaron, the police spokesperson. While clearing the first floor of students and staff, they heard shots being fired on the second floor.Two of the officers opened fire in response and fatally struck Hale at about 10:27 a.m., police said.___<h3 style="margin-left:0px;">DO WE KNOW THE MOTIVE?</h3>Investigators were sent to the shooter's home shortly after Hale, police said. Hale had a map of the school with a planned route for the shooting, and officers found writings, police said.No motive has been confirmed by police, and it was also unclear if Hale was trying to target any specific person during the shooting.Police Chief John Drake said officers found writings that detailed the plan to attack the school and potentially other locations. He said in an interview with that investigators believe the shooter had “some resentment for having to go to that school.”<figure class="image"><img src="https://cdn.corpemf.com/news/52410.jpg" alt="Girl Crying On School Bus After Nashville School Shooting"><figcaption>[Photo Credit: AP] Girl Crying On School Bus After Nashville School Shooting</figcaption></figure><h3 style="margin-left:0px;">PEDIATRIC DOCTOR OUTRAGED OVER VIOLENCE, SHE HAD LEFT THE SCHOOL MINUTES BEFORE</h3>A pediatric surgeon who left The Covenant School in Nashville moments before a shooter opened fire, killing six people, says she is horrified by the gun violence that has plagued the U.S.Britney Grayson had just finished regaling children at the small religious grade school about Kenya, where she works on missions, when she drove out of the parking lot looking for a Starbucks. Moments later, the shooter entered the school and opened fire, killing three children and three adults.After she received a text alerting her to the attack, Grayson took to Facebook to post about what she experienced, writing, “WHY ARE OUR CHILDREN BEING MASSACRED IN THEIR SCHOOLS?!”<blockquote>Dr. Grayson notes that even those who survived Monday's violence will be forever changed. She says the U.S. is laying the burden of gun violence at the feet of children.“Physically in the children that died, but also all of the children that were there today," she said. ”The counseling that’s going to be required and the way that this is going to affect their lives forever."</blockquote>The horror of what happened had Grayson rattled hours later.“It’s a weird feeling, knowing that just if it had happened just moments earlier, one, we might have been victims ourselves, and two, maybe I would have been there to offer immediate care,” she said.In her post, Grayson wrote that she has operated on a school shooting victim. But, she says, she has never felt as close to the violence as she did this time.<figure class="image"><img src="https://cdn.corpemf.com/news/52360.jpg" alt="Children from The Covenant School, a private Christian school in Nashville, Tenn., hold hands as they are taken to a reunification site at the Woodmont Baptist Church after a shooting at their school, on Monday March, 27, 2023. "><figcaption>[Photo Credit: AP/Jonathan Mattise] Children from The Covenant School, a private Christian school in Nashville, Tenn., hold hands as they are taken to a reunification site at the Woodmont Baptist Church after a shooting at their school, on Monday March, 27, 2023.</figcaption></figure>“It’s different when you receive a patient at the hospital. I’m on my turf. I have all my skills and or tools with me and all of the team and everything,” she said. “That is definitely different than what we experienced today.”Grayson wrote on Facebook that the kids were great and learned about Kenya, some Swahili words and what it means to be a missionary.Later, when an initial death toll came out, she posted an update: “3 children are confirmed dead. 3 children who learned the word ‘Jambo’ this morning from us in chapel,” she wrote, using the Swahili greeting. “3 children who didn’t have to die. Lord be with us. Lord, be with us.”<figure class="image text-center"><img src="https://cdn.corpemf.com/news/52423.jpg" alt="Bodycam footage of police responding to an active shooting at The Covenant School in Nashville, Tenn."><figcaption>[Photo Credit: Metropolitan Nashville Police Department via AP] Bodycam footage of police responding to an active shooting at The Covenant School in Nashville, Tenn.</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

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A woman and child bring flowers to lay at the entry to Covenant School

"We are focused on loving our students, our families, our faculty and staff and beginning the process of healing.”

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Once you were like sheep who wandered away. But now you have turned to your Shepherd, the Guardian of your souls.

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The Only Place to Experience Lauren Daigle's New Album

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Once you were like sheep who wandered away. But now you have turned to your Shepherd, the Guardian of your souls.

1 Peter 2:25 (NLT)

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