Kickstart: A fine for child labor

An Alabama automotive plastics supplier is facing more than $47,000 in combined fines from state and federal Department of Labor for hiring a 13-year-old and two 15-year-olds to work at a plant in Alexander City, Ala.

The U.S. Department of Labor also has a federal court order to enforce rules prohibiting minors on the manufacturing floor.

SL Alabama is a supplier of headlights and mirrors for Hyundai vehicles made in Alabama. The state and federal labor agencies said SL Alabama worked with staffing firm JK USA in bringing the three minors into the plant.

"Our investigation found SL Alabama engaged in oppressive child labor by employing young workers under the minimum age of 14 and by employing minors under 16 in a manufacturing occupation," Kenneth Stripling, wage and hour division district director for the U.S. Department of Labor in Alabama, said in a news release. "Employers are responsible for knowing who is working in their facilities, ensuring that those individuals are of legal working age, and that their employment complies with all federal, state and local labor laws."

Here's a story from the United Kingdom that sounds miserable from every angle: A resident of Bristol, England, is having problems with polystyrene balls seeping inside her home every day. Thousands of them. Enough to fill a plastic shopping bag daily.

"It's deeply unpleasant," the woman identified only as Michelle says in a story from BBC News. "The balls are getting into my appliances, everything from my toaster, my kettle and my oven. When my dogs go for a poo I often see they have been eating the balls."

It's been happening since late 2021, when she had new extractor fans installed, but the PS shows up whether the fans are on or off.

Officials expect the PS was some kind of a fill inside the building's walls, but they have not been able to remedy the issue.

"I'm at my wits' end," Michelle said.

I'm sure we all would be.

PN senior reporter Frank Esposito would like to remind folks headed to K 2022 to pace themselves for their first servings of schweinshaxe, or pork knuckle.

"It's basically a large portion of pig meat served with ample sides of potatoes and sauerkraut," Frank blogged prior to K 2019. It's cooked over a vertical grill, and you may spot a table of PN staffers at Schweine Janes in Düsseldorf's Altstadt neighborhood.

And for visitors making their way to Düsseldorf for the first time, also check out the local altbier (essentially an older-style beer vs. a pilsner) that also has its own serving traditions.

To begin with, the beer comes in smaller glasses — a 250-milliliter glass called a becher — that will be refilled regularly. Your server will mark your coaster to keep track of the number of beers you consume. And when you're done?

"The only way to stop receiving more drinks is to place the coaster on top of the glass, which tells the waiter that you are done and then your bill is totted up," Dave McClain wrote earlier this year in a blog post at the Man Vs. Globe website. "Just make sure you remember to top your glass with the beer mat, or you will find a new drink in front of you before you have time to decline it."