Sidney Hillman Foundation announced the winners and honourable mentions for the 2014 Hillman Prizes today.

Congratulations to the winners, Karen Kleiss of the Edmonton Journal and Darcy Henton of the Calgary Herald, who were recognized for their expose of child deaths in provincial foster care. 

Gabrielle Duchene and Carolina Touzin of La Presse received an honorable mention for their in-depth investigation pinpointing the exact locations of lethal car crashes in Quebec. 

J.J. Adams, Cassidy Olivier, Cheryl Chan, Elaine O’Connor, Susan Lazaruk, Sam Cooper, Jon Ferry, Erik Rolfsen, Rafe Arnott, Ben Ngai, Katie Mercer, Jason Payne, Arlen Redekop, and Carolyn Soltau received an honorable mention for “Racism in Paradise,” a portrait of prejudice in a rapidly-changing British Columbia.

[Photo credit: vtgard, Creative Commons.]

Car wash workers in New York City will receive compensation for a spate of labor violations at the hands of their boss, John Lage, and his associates, Erica Pearson reports: 

New York City’s carwash kingpin must pay millions to workers he cheated out of wages and clean up his businesses after an investigation uncovered massive labor violations, the Daily News has learned.

State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman will announce Thursday that John Lage and two associates agreed to pay $3.9 million in a settlement to stave off potential prosecution.

“It’s a huge thing for me to know that justice is being done,” said Ernesto Salazar, 39, who has worked for Lage since 2001 and says he started out making just $3.50 an hour plus tips. “We’ve advanced in this industry, thank God.”

Schneiderman’s probe of 21 city carwashes owned and operated by Lage, his son Michael and associate Fernando Magalhaes, found widespread violations, including underpayment of workers and skimping on employees’ compensation and unemployment insurance costs by paying for coverage for only a fraction of the staff. [NYDN]

This settlement sends a message to employers that low-wage workers cannot be exploited with impunity in New York State. 

[Photo credit: jlseagull, Creative Commons.]

Some essential background reading on the crisis in Ukraine:

• David Remnick on Putin’s War in Crimea

• Tim Synder on the haze of propaganda and the ongoing debate over whether the Ukraine protests constituted a coup d’etat

• Megan Carpentier on the Ukraine protests

• Julia Ioffe on why Putin is occupying Crimea and what the West can do about it (hint: nothing) 

[Photo credit: e r j k p r u n c z y k, Creative Commons.]