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To be an effective manager, knowledge of employment laws and how they pertain to terminations, especially mass terminations, is an important attribute. Those selected for termination in a workforce reduction often experience anger, fear, resentment and anxiety. A reduction in force which is carried out in a fair manner and treats the affected individuals with compassion and dignity will go a long way in preventing litigation. The manager must be familiar with how to plan for a reduction in force, the legal aspects involved, and how to go about the actual implementation of the downsizing effort. We have witnessed the workforce downsizing of many organizations within the past few years. The major contributors to this epidemic are plentiful. Economic pressures during the most recent recession and increased global competition have forced organizations to flatten out their organizational structures to enable them to quickly respond to changes in the marketplace. The recent tide of deregulation resulted in mergers and acquisitions creating duplicative positions within the organization. Additionally, the rapid pace of technology has led to databases which displace intermediate level employees whose responsibilities include compiling and analyzing. Unfortunately, corporate reductions may lead to employee lawsuits in the form of “wrongful discharge” cases. Wrongful discharge is a catch‐all phrase for a host of claims made by a former employee against his or her previous employer. The most popular wrongful discharge claims include breach of contract, bad faith, and discrimination of protected groups based on factors such as sex, age, race and many others. Certain employees are covered under the Workers Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act which requires employers to give 60 days advanced notice in the case of mass terminations. While few of these cases ever make it to court, attorney fees, settlement fees and jury awards can be costly. In California, the average damage award exceeded $600,000. Therefore, a comprehensive evaluation of a reduction in force (“RIF”) plan must be performed and the myriad of legal issues must be considered. During this process, it is important to keep in mind that employees selected for downsizing will experience among other things, fear, anxiety and anger. How the actual implementation of the RIF is carried out will have an immense impact on whether an employee will bring forth a wrongful termination lawsuit.

The inaugural meeting of the newly established National Party was held in the Queen's Hall, Langham Place, on Thursday, October 25th, under the presidency of Admiral Lord Beresford. There was a large and distinguished audience numbering about 3,000 persons, among those on the platform being Lord Montagu of Beaulieu, Brigadier‐General Page Croft, M.P., Mr. Havelock Wilson, Miss Constance Williams, the Hon. G. J. Jenkins (all of whom addressed the meeting), Earl Bathurst, Sir C. Allom, Major Alan Burgoyne, M.P., Colonel Cassal, Mr. G. K. Chesterton, Sir R. Cooper, M.P., Capt. Viscount Duncannon, M.P., Sir W. Earnshaw Cooper, Mr. H. A. Gwynne, Mr. Rowland Hunt, M.P., Lieut.‐Col. Lord Leconfield, Lord Leith of Fyvie, Admiral Sir H. Markham, The Earl of Northesk, Colonel R. H. Rawson, M.P., Lord Edward St. Maur, Admiral Sir Edward Seymour, Lord Stafford and others.

The laws directed against adulteration and fraudulent or unfair dealing have undoubtedly done much good wherever they have been enforced. Their application in this and in other countries has shown how widespread are these practices and how various are their forms, while the punishment of real offenders, in the by no means large proportion of cases where it has been possible to bring forward sufficient proof of guilt, has certainly not been displeasing to the general public, and must have afforded particular satisfaction to those members of the trading community who have appreciated the injury done to them by unfair or actually dishonest competition.

It may be noted with great satisfaction that the Local Government Board has considered the question of, and examined as far as possible in all its bearings—chemical, hygienic, and commercial—the processes of bleaching flour by chemical means, and of the addition to flour of foreign substances that are euphemistically referred to by certain persons as “improvers.”

The question has been recently raised as to how far the operation of the Sale of Food and Drugs Acts of 1875, 1879, and 1899, and the Margarine Act, 1887, is affected by the Act 29 Charles II., cap. 7, “for the better observation of the Lord's Day, commonly called Sunday.” At first sight it would seem a palpable absurdity to suppose that a man could escape the penalties of one offence because he has committed another breach of the law at the same time, and in this respect law and common‐sense are, broadly speaking, in agreement; yet there are one or two cases in which at least some show of argument can be brought forward in favour of the opposite contention.

This chapter details how engaging students in digital comics creation might support adolescents in strengthening their narrative writing capabilities. This chapter first provides a more detailed explanation of the micro and macrostructural elements involved in narrative production. Second, the chapter provides an introduction to comics and important design features. The authors also illuminate the complexity of multimodal texts (texts that combine images and words) and link visual narrative pedagogy and curriculum to classroom equity and accessibility. Across these opening sections, academic standards are referenced to show how the comics medium aligns with national visions of what robust English Language Arts education entails. The chapter concludes with descriptions of specific pedagogical strategies and digital comic-making tools that teachers and interventionists might explore with students within various classroom contexts. Examples of digital comics designed using various web tools are also shared.

At the invitation of Miss Olga Nethersole, founder and honorary organiser of the People's League of Health, a number of medical and science councillors and official members of the League met at luncheon at Claridge's Hotel, London, on October 18th, to welcome the members of the newly appointed Veterinary Council. The speeches which followed dealt with the campaign of the League for a safe milk supply, and the part which veterinary science, in conjunction with the other interested professions, might play in attaining the desired end.—Prof. T. J. Mackie, D.P.H., of the Department of Bacteriology, Edinburgh University, said that the formation of the new Veterinary Council was a significant event in the history of the League. It emphasised the absolute necessity of enlisting the co‐operation of the veterinary profession in the campaign for human health. If we were to guard our own health we must pay due respect to the health of our domestic animals, and particularly those from which we received our essential foods, such as milk. It was common knowledge to both the medical and the veterinary profession that our milk supplies, collectively speaking, were not safe, and that, in fact, they might carry a constant menace to the public health. Milk‐borne tuberculosis dominated the whole question of our milk supplies. It must be remembered, however, that tuberculosis was only one of the milk‐borne infections. There were others such as diphtheria, enteric fever, scarlet fever, and undulant fever. Yet there was distinct apathy, and sometimes antipathy, to the simple measures that would regulate this state of affairs. The League were to be congratulated on having performed a valuable public service in their critical survey of the question of bovine tuberculosis, and bringing out in fair relief the essential facts in regard to tuberculosis of animal origin in human beings. Some of the facts in the report could not be too often and strongly repeated. In England and Wales, for instance, it had been shown that every year the bovine type of tuberculosis bacillus caused at least 4,000 new cases of human tuberculosis and at least 2,000 deaths. And seven per cent. of the ordinary samples of vended milk contained this organism. He could speak feelingly, for in Scotland they had rather more than their share of tuberculosis of the bovine type in the human subject. When one reflected on all that had been done in various ways for the improvement of public health, it seemed almost incredible that food was being sold daily with a seven per cent. and sometimes a 14 per cent. chance of it containing a germ capable of producing a crippling or even fatal disease without any warning to the public. If tuberculosis were not an insidious disease, but an explosive epidemic, even if its incidence were not so high, these conditions would not have been tolerated so long as they had been. The veterinary profession recommended the eradication of disease from herds as the fundamental remedy. It was the fundamental remedy, but even the highest grade tubercle‐free milk might carry a very dangerous infection, and, in any case, he did not think the objects which the veterinary profession had at heart, and with which he sympathised, and compulsory or universal pasteurisation on the other hand, were mutually exclusive. He did not see that pasteurisation would set back the clock of progress against the eradication of tuberculosis in the herds. The problem was an urgent one. The eradication of the disease from dairy cattle must proceed slowly and against difficult obstacles, and they could not wait. It was estimated that, if the eradication of tuberculosis were continued at the present rate in this country, it would be 400 years before we reached the stage that had been reached in America. Even if it were expedited, it must remain a relatively slow process. He could not understand those individuals who were content to tolerate the continuance of bovine tuberculosis in the human being in the hope that some day a raw tubercle‐free milk might be universal. Our agricultural and public health organisations were doing the people an injustice in their tacit sanction of the ordinary raw market milk. If they were not prepared to countenance compulsory pasteurisation, at least in the large communities, the only alternative was an official designation of that milk, which would make it clear to the public that it was not free from potential danger. He sometimes wondered what would be the effect of such an official designation if there were displayed in the retail milk shops an official notice stating to the public that such milk was not free from diseases dangerous to human subjects, and that they were warned not to use it without previous sterilisation. He was sure that if that were done the problem would very soon solve itself. Some Local Authorities were pressing hard for powers of compulsory pasteurisation. He thought the League might very well carry on the campaign by educating public opinion and influencing Parliament to that end. If the Government Departments were not willing to move in the matter and take action, then the public must be informed in the clearest possible terms what the position was. The League, in tackling the milk problem by its own methods, had a magnificent opportunity of making a great contribution to the important cause for which it stood.—Professor J. Basil Buxton, of the Institute of Animal Pathology at Cambridge University, said that pasteurisation could not by any means dispense with the necessity for clean milk. They must produce clean milk, however much or however little they might cook it or otherwise treat it afterwards.—Professor Gaiger, President of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, said that they had an enormous job in front of them if they were going to make our milk free from the germ of bovine tuberculosis.—Sir Leonard Hill said that if we could get the people on the right diet we should enormously diminish the amount of disease. Of all the foods milk was one of the most important, and we ought to make the supply safe. Pasteurisation should be made compulsory at once.—Major D. S. Rabagliati, Chief Veterinary Inspector to the County Council of the West Riding of Yorkshire, told the gathering of the important work carried out by his Local Authority, who were the pioneers in the veterinary inspection of cows. He maintained that even if there were compulsory pasteurisation that was no reason why they should not have a clean supply of milk.

There are many actions‐at‐law in which chemical problems come up incidentally for consideration; there are other cases in which they are the very essence of the matter in dispute. Especially does this apply to proceedings under the Sale of Food and Drugs Acts. There the main, if not the whole, question at issue is purely chemical in its nature; and yet the tribunal sitting in judgment need not have, and generally has not, any chemical training or knowledge. Of necessity, this leads to decisions of an unsatisfactory nature, and which are not infrequently at variance with the obvious and generally admitted deductions from chemical analysis. Another consequence is that on practically the same set of facts, diametrically opposite decisions may be given. This is well exemplified in the two following cases of alleged adulteration of ginger‐wine and lime‐juice cordial respectively with salicylic acid.

Alongside the ubiquitous computer games apparently the marketing success of the 1992 toy season was a series of 25 year old puppets who had featured in a repeat showing of the orginal ITV series on BBC — Thunderbirds — more than 70 franchises have been sold to sell goods marked with the International Rescue logo and it is alleged that these products are even bigger than the previous smash marketing hit the Teenage Mutant Ninja turtles, saving thousands of jobs and making substantial profits for the British toy industry. The characters are licensed for right‐owners ITC (originally the international marketing arm of ATV, the ITV company which put out the programme, and now an independent company, ATV having long since lost its ITV franchise) by Copyright Promotions, Europe's largest licensing company (‘Thunderbirds are go to save the toy industry’ Sunday Telegraph 15/11/92).

An appeal under the Food and Drugs Acts, reported in the present number of the BRITISH FOOD JOURNAL, is an apt illustration of the old saying, that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. In commenting upon the case in question, the Pall Mall Gazette says: “The impression among the great unlearned that the watering of the morning's milk is a great joke is ineradicable; and there is also a common opinion among the Justice Shallows of the provincial bench that the grocer who tricks his customers into buying coffee which is 97 per cent. chicory is a clever practitioner, who ought to be allowed to make his way in the world untrammelled by legal obstructions. But the Queen's Bench have rapped the East Ham magistrates over the knuckles for convicting without fining a milkman who was prosecuted by the local authority, and the case has been sent back in order that these easygoing gentlemen may give logical effect to their convictions.”