Krispy Kreme Forced to Give $1.2 Million to Workers After Massive Wage Theft

On November 17, the Department of Labor announced that Krispy Kreme would be paying nearly $1.2 million in back wages and damages to 516 workers “to resolve overtime violations in multiple locations.” In other words, there was massive wage theft at the doughnut company and now it has to pay up.

The department first began its investigation at a Louisville, Kentucky-based Krispy Kreme, but it soon found violations to be “widespread and systemic” and expanded its probe to all 242 locations across the country.

The department determined that the $2.5 billion company had failed to include monthly bonuses in some employees’ regular pay rates, consequently paying workers less overtime.

“Overtime and minimum wage violations are common violations found in food service industry investigations,” said Principal Deputy Wage and Hour Administrator Jessica Looman in the Labor Department’s directive.

Because of that, actions like this directive would ideally serve both as consequence for malpractice and also as a warning to other companies that there indeed are accountability mechanisms for stealing from workers.

Meanwhile, Krispy Kreme denies it did anything wrong at all. “We do not agree with the department’s findings and the basis for them,” Krispy Kreme said to USA Today. “However, we have agreed to settle this matter with no admission of wrong-doing in the best interests of our business and our team members.”

While the amount owed back to each worker varies, the math averages out to about $2,300 per worker. According to court documents obtained by the Winston-Salem Journal, some workers are due upward of $13,000.

In the aftermath of the hate-fueled shooting at a Colorado Springs gay nightclub that left five people dead and at least 25 injured, many right-wing pundits are grotesquely doubling down on the kind of rhetoric that helped lead to such violence in the first place.

Figures like Matt Walsh, Candace Owens, and Ben Shapiro apparently didn’t have time to denounce the shooter or the hate crime. Instead, they focused on what they see as the real violence: some imagined progressive agenda to violate children. That actual people died, and why they did, was of less interest to them.

These posts not only show little actual concern for those harmed in the shooting, but they also come from individuals who have been on the forefront of fomenting brain-melting, blood-pressure-rising conspiracy about LGBTQ people.

Just last week, Shapiro warned that any Republican who voted to codify same-sex marriage “should not be in the Republican party.”

Walsh, alongside reactionary Twitter account ‘Libs of Tiktok’ (run by Chaya Raichik), was a leading voice claiming that bomb threats against Boston Children’s Hospital were hoaxes—until a woman was arrested and charged in September for making one of these threats. Walsh and Raichik have spread conspiracies about, and incited harassment towards, hospitals like Boston Children’s Hospital that provide gender-affirming care. Boston’s Children Hospital has faced numerous threats since then.

Even after the shooting, Libs of TikTok posted a tweet Sunday singling out a Colorado drag organization.

Walsh, Owens, Shapiro, and company dismiss those who rightly identify them as contributors to violent discontent, calling them pawns of the Democratic agenda, or the liberal media, or leftists, or some other amorphous bucket to slander. The shtick works to a point, but there are more than enough people—politically-engaged or not, LGBTQ or not—who plainly see how monstrous it is to demonize people for simply wanting to be who they are and love who they love.

All three of Colorado’s Republican representatives neglected to mention that LGBTQ people were targeted in the Colorado Springs mass shooting over the weekend when making statements about the tragedy.

Five people were killed and at least 25 wounded when a gunman entered the queer Club Q and opened fire Saturday night. The shooter has since been charged with murder and hate crimes.

On Sunday, Lauren Boebert, Ken Buck, and Doug Lamborn shared bland, anodyne statements expressing their condolences and, of course, their prayers. Not a single one of them mentioned that the LGBTQ community was specifically attacked.

Their comments were quickly flooded with people calling out their complicity in creating an atmosphere that led to the attack. All three have a history of homophobia and opposition to gun control.

Conspiracy theorist and election denier Boebert, in particular, has a long track record of horrific bigotry towards the LGBTQ community. She has repeatedly accused queer people of grooming children and spewed vitriol at drag shows.

Coincidentally, the last event advertised on Club Q’s Facebook page before the shooting was a drag brunch.

Boebert also appeared on a livestream hosted by a far-right activist who has supported the death penalty for gay people.

And she is staunchly pro-gun. She appeared in a Zoom congressional hearing with a bookshelf full of guns in the background; she and her three children posed with automatic rifles in front of their Christmas tree; and prior to being in Congress, she owned a gun-themed restaurant called Shooters Grill.

Since the Club Q shooting, her website continues to sell a mug, a hat, and stickers mocking trans and non-binary people that say, “Non-Bidenary,” and a baseball cap that says her name, with the L replaced by the outline of a handgun.

Elon Musk says he won’t let conspiracy theorist Alex Jones back on Twitter, but there’s no guarantee he’ll stick to that.

His announcement came less than a day after he reinstated former President Donald Trump’s account on the platform, despite earlier assurances that he would not make such unilateral decisions.

When asked Sunday night if he would let the InfoWars host back on Twitter, Musk paraphrased a Bible quote to explain why he won’t.

He then said he has “no mercy for anyone who would use the deaths of children for gain, politics or fame.”

Jones has been court-ordered to pay nearly $1.5 billion in damages to the families of victims of the Sandy Hook massacre, who sued him for saying the shooting was staged. He admitted he understands the attack was real.

But Musk’s promise about Jones came a day after the Tesla founder reinstated Trump’s Twitter account. Musk has previously said he planned to form a “content moderation council” to review major decisions such as reinstating banned accounts. Instead, it seems that content moderation council has been reduced to a Twitter poll, influenced by the voting of bots. 

It should come as no surprise that Musk seems to be doing just whatever he wants with Twitter. Since acquiring the platform in a $44-billion court-ordered deal, he has fired the top executives, the board of directors, and about half of the employees. The rest are leaving in droves.

Advertisers have similarly dropped Twitter like a hot potato over concerns about Musk’s content moderation policies, or lack thereof.

Members of Iran’s national soccer team made a statement to millions across the globe on Monday, as they refused to sing the national anthem during their match against England in Qatar’s World Cup.

The players’ dissent is the latest act of resistance against the government, amid monthslong nationwide  protests following the mid-September killing of 22-year-old Kurdish woman Jina Mahsa Amini. Amini was arrested by the country’s morality police for allegedly not wearing a hijab in accordance with government standards, and was killed in police custody.

While Iran’s players remained silent during the anthem, fans could be heard throughout the stadium booing and whistling to drown out the song. Spectators were seen sporting banners and clothes styled in the Iranian flag’s colors, reading “women, life, freedom,” which has become the main rallying cry for these protests.

During a press conference Sunday, Iranian team captain Ehsan Hajsafi expressed support for the anti-government protests, sharing condolences to families mourning lost loved ones.

Hajsafi began his comments saying “In the name of the God of rainbows,” in reference to a sentence said by nine-year-old Kian Pirfalak, who was killed last week amid protests in Izeh, Khuzestan, Iran.

Since the protests began, more than 380 people have been killed, including at least 58 children, according to Human Rights Activists in Iran.

The Iranian team’s statement comes against a government that has not only violently suppressed public protest, but also stifled dissent from public figures. Actresses, athletes, musicians, and others have all been targeted and even arrested for acts of solidarity with the protestors. Such pressure had forestalled the Iranian team from speaking out until now, fostering discontent from many Iranians.

Nevertheless, as they took to perhaps the world’s largest stage—where the risks of disobedience couldn’t be higher—the players of Iran’s national team spoke out anyway.