Yesterday I wrote about Apple’s announcement that it enlisted a labor group to probe harsh conditions at the company’s manufacturing operations in China.

It’s unclear if this is a real attempt to deal with mass suicides and child labor violations, among other horrors at the facilities, or just a PR stunt. But what we do know is the company felt compelled to do something.

Why? It turns out, the iPhone and iPad devotees out there aren’t all drinking the Apple Kool-Aid.

I know Apple products are great. I’m typing this post on a MacBook Pro right now. But how will Corporate America ever clean up its act if we, the consumers, don’t take a stand against unethical things companies do? I have written in the past about how so many of us, especially Apple fanatics, don’t even care about labor violations. I’m glad to say today that I’m eating my words. An Apple zealot should get a lot of credit for forcing the company’s hand. (more…)

I wrote a story for MSNBC.com this week about Newt Gingrich’s daughter working as a janitor when she was 13, an age that the Department of Labor says is illegal to hold such a job.

The Republican presidential candidate had mentioned his daughter’s first job as part of his talking points on how poor kids in schools can take the jobs from adult janitors as a way to learn a better work ethic. As for child labor laws, he’s called them “stupid”.

I spoke to Gingrich’s daughter Jackie Gingrich Cushman about the janitorial job she held in the early 1980s at a local church, and she told me she was very proud of the gig. And, she said, she hoped she was working legally at the time.

“Cleaning bathrooms taught me a lot,” Cushman said, adding that she worked many menial jobs, including being a rollerblading waitress for the Sonic Drive-In chain in high school. Such experiences, she added, helped her value hard work and “appreciate and value the people that do the work as well.”

Before the story ran, I emailed Gingrich’s press team to find out if they knew Cushman’s job may have been illegal and his press secretary R.C. Hammond wrote: “Can they work as a clerk in the library?” I figured maybe he didn’t understand my question and emailed back: “I was specifically referring to Gingrich’s comment that his daughter worked a janitorial job at age 13.”

I didn’t get a reply back before we published the story late Wednesday night, but today I got another email from Hammond: (more…)

If you don’t have a job you should try to show off your skills. For example, if you want to be a writer you should make a comic to put in the newspaper. A job manger could see it and higher you as a writer. If you don’t get a job by showing off your skills you should go and e-mail a person who runs the job you want. Maybe you could schedule an interview. Or maybe the manager just likes the way you think when you e-mail him or her. If you don’t have luck finding a job you should practice for that job. So if you run into someone who works for the job you want you will be able to show off some of your work.

Now if you want to be a painter I have a tricky idea for you. Bring a canvas to an area were there is a cool scene and other people. Take out your paints and brush and get to work painting the scene. Other people will see you and maybe if your art is good enough you could get famous for it. Or if you don’t like painting scenes you could ask someone if you could paint them. Then they just might put it in their house so when people see it in their house so when people come to see it they can talk about to their friends and make a chain. You can get a good job in the painting business that way.

I decided to let my 10-year-old daughter Circe do my job today. Why? Because I’ve lost it. Well, I’m actually trying to make a point. (more…)

I remember the first job I had as a teenager where I had to punch a clock. It was at a Syms clothing store on Long Island, NY, and in some ways that job as a sales associate helped my career. (more…)

The children in these two photos may have all suffered the same fate — exploitation. One group allegedly exploited by their parents, the other by coal mine operators.

The parents of the now infamous Balloon Boy, Richard and Mayumi Heene may be charged soon with a host of charges including conspiracy and contributing to the delinquency of a minor, according to a Colorado Sheriff overseeing the case. The charges stem from what law enforcement is now calling a hoax involving the supposed dangerous balloon ride the couple’s youngest son Falcon took. (more…)