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By Jim Kuhnhenn The Associated Press WASHINGTON » Bypassing Congress, President Barack Obama intends to order changes in overtime rules so employers would be required to pay millions more workers for the extra time they put in on the job. The rules, which would not likely take effect un - til 2015, are aimed at work- ers designated as supervi- sory employees but who are exempt from overtime be- cause they get paid a salary of more than $455 a week. Obama plans to order his Labor Department to recom - mend regulations that would increase that salary thresh- old and change the definition of what constitutes a super- visor. Obama's attention to over- time dovetails with his em- phasis on correcting wage disparities, a theme that he has said will be central to the remainder of his presidential term. It also serves his polit - ical ends during a midterm election year, giving him a populist issue along with his calls for a higher mini - mum wage and better pay for women. The president's direc- tive, to be announced today, leaves the details of a pro- posed rule to the Labor De- partment, which is not ex- pected to come up with a rec- ommendation before the fall. Still, it drew swift protests from Republicans who com- plained he was sidestepping Congress and from the busi- ness community, who said such rules would increase burdens on employers. "How does he expect us to work with him?" complained Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. "It's just a poisonous rela - tionship." The salary limit separat- ing those who get overtime and those who don't was in- creased to $455 in 2004 dur- ing the Bush administration. At the time, it hadn't been in- creased since the mid-1970s. "What we know right now is the threshold has been eroded by inf lation, and there 3.1 million people who, if the threshold had kept up just with inflation, would au - tomatically be covered by overtime provisions," said Betsey Stevenson, a mem- ber of Obama's Council of Economic Advisers. Overtime and minimum wage rules are set by law in the Fair Labor Standards Act that Congress originally passed in 1938. The law gives the administration some leeway to define the rules through regulations. The law requires most workers to be paid overtime that is 1.5 times their regu - lar wages if they work more than 40 hours per week. The law allows exemptions for ex- ecutives, managers and pro- fessional workers and sets the salary threshold above which workers don't have to get overtime pay. Economists allied with the White House have pro - posed doubling the cur- rent limit to nearly $1,000 a week, or about $52,000 a year, which, when adjusted to inflation would make it similar to what the thresh- old was in 1976. Ross Eisenbrey, the vice president of the liberal Eco- nomic Policy Institute, said there are about 10 million more workers who would qualify for overtime under that higher threshold. But he said not all work overtime and he estimated that such an increase would more than likely actually affect about 5 million salaried workers. The current salary limit — equal to $23,660 a year — is below the poverty level for a family of four. "It's so far from being an executive salary as to be a joke," Eisen - brey said. Business groups said any forced increase in wages has consequences that could af - fect employment, prices and the survival of certain com- panies which, they said, al- ready have to comply with the new health care law. "Similar to minimum wage, these changes in overtime rules will fall most harshly on small and me - dium sized businesses, who are already trying to figure out the impact of Obamacare on them," said Marc Freed - man, executive director of Labor Law Policy for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. " Keith Koenig, president of City Furniture, which owns 10 Ashley Furniture Home - Stores in Florida, says a new threshold of $800 would cost him several hundred thou- sand dollars more in over- time. He said he would have to tell affected workers that they couldn't work more than 40 hours a week. "I can't afford to pay them time and a half. It breaks my budget," he says. MIllIONS Of dOllArS Salaried workers to get overtime pay Obama to order changes in rules By Bradley Klapper The Associated Press WA S H I NGT O N » C o u nt - ing down to a high-stakes Crimean referendum, Pres- ident Barack Obama de- clared Wednesday that the U.S. would "completely re- ject" a vote opening the door for the strategic Ukrainian peninsula to join Russia if the election goes ahead on Sunday. Adding pressure on Russia, the Senate ad - vanced a package of poten- tially tough economic sanc- tions against Moscow. Obama made a point of welcoming Ukraine's new leader to the White House, declaring as they sat side- by-side that he hoped there would be a "rethinking" by Russian President Vladimir Putin of the referendum. Obama derided the vote as a "slap-dash referendum" and warned that if it occurs, the international community "will be forced to apply a cost to Russia's violation of inter - national law." Secretary of State John Kerr y also was talking tough, telling Congress, "It can get ugly fast if the wrong choices are made, and it can get ugly in multiple direc - tions." Kerry will meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Friday in London in a last-ditch effort to halt the referendum. Amid the maneuvering, Obama met in the Oval Of - fice with new Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, prais- ing him and the Ukrainian people as the two sat for TV coverage. The meeting was aimed at showcasing the United States' commitment to Ukraine, the former So - viet republic at the center of rising tensions between East and West. "There's another path available and we hope Pres - ident Putin is willing to seize that path," Obama said. "But if he does not, I'm very con- fident that the international community will stand firmly behind the Ukrainian gov- ernment." Yatsenyuk, a 39-year-old pro-Western official who speaks fluent English, defi - antly declared that his coun- try "will never surrender" in its fight to protect its terri- tory. He arrived in Washington seeking financial help to sta- bilize his fledgling govern- ment. The Senate bill that advanced out of committee on Wednesday would autho- rizes $1 billion in loan guar- antees. The measure, which next would go to the full Senate, also would allow the Obama administration to impose economic penalties on Rus - sian officials responsible for the intervention in Crimea or culpable of gross corruption The bill stops short of go - ing after Russian banks or energy companies. UKrAINe Obama: U.S. will reject vote on Crimea By Chris Brummitt The Associated Press KUA l A lU M PU r , M A l Ay- SIA » Satellite images on a Chinese government web- site show suspected debris from the missing Malay- sia Airlines jetliner floating off the southern tip of Viet- nam, near the plane's origi- nal flight path, China's Xin- hua News Agency reported Wednesday. The revelation could pro- vide searchers with a focus that has eluded them since the plane disappeared with 239 people aboard just hours after leaving Kuala Lum - pur for Beijing early Satur- day. Since then, the search has covered 35,800 square miles, first east and then west of Malaysia and even expanded toward India on Wednesday. The Chinese sighting, if confirmed, would be closer to where the frantic hunt started. The Xinhua report said the images from around 11 a.m. on Sunday appear to show "three suspected floating objects" of varying sizes, the largest about 79- by-72 feet. The report includes co - ordinates of a location in the sea off the southern tip of Vietnam and east of Ma- laysia. The images originally were posted on a national de- fense technology website. With the passage of time since the satellite images were taken, it is far from certain that whatever they show would be in the same location now. No other governments have confirmed the Xinhua report, which did not say when Chinese officials be - came aware of the images and associated them with the missing plane. Two-thirds of the passen - gers on the flight were Chi- nese, and the Chinese gov- ernment has put increasing pressure on Malaysian offi- cials to solve the mystery of the plane's disappearance. Malaysia's civil aviation chief, Datuk Azharuddin Abdul Rahman, said Malay - sia had not been officially in- formed by China about the images, which he said he was learning about from the news. He said if Beijing informs them of the coordinates, Ma - laysia will dispatch vessels and planes immediately. Until then, he urged cau- tion. "There have been lots of reports of suspected debris." On Wednesday, it was re- vealed that the last message from the cockpit of the miss- ing flight was routine. "All right, good night," was the si- gnoff transmitted to air traf- fic controllers five days ago. Then the Boeing 777 van- ished as it cruised over the South China Sea toward Vietnam. Those final words were picked up by controllers and relayed in Beijing to an - guished relatives of some of the people aboard Flight MH370. MISSING PlANe Chinese website may show debris Mark Lennihan – associated Press alecia thomas, le, is comforted by her friend shivon dollar, center, aer she lost her home following an explosion Wednesday that leveled two apartment buildings in the east harlem neighborhood of new York. By Jake Pearson The Associated Press NeW yOrK » A gas leak triggered an earthshaking explosion that flattened two apartment buildings on Wednesday, killing at least three people, injuring more than 60 and leaving nine missing. A tenant said residents had complained repeatedly in recent weeks about "unbearable" gas smells. By evening, rescue workers finally began the search for victims amid the broken bricks, splin - tered wood a nd man- gled metal after firefight- ers spent most of the day dousing the flames. Heavy equipment, including back hoes and a bulldozer, ar - rived to clear the moun- tain of debris where the two five-story East Har- lem buildings stood. Flood lights were in place. Ther- mal imaging cameras were at the ready to identify heat spots — bodies or pockets of fire. The recovery was fac - ing hardship in the form of the weather, which was ex- pected to drop into the 20s with rain. Some parts of the debris pile were inac- cessible because of a sink- hole caused by a subsur- face water main break, of- ficials said. The fiery blast, on Park Avenue at 116th Street, not far from the edge of Central Park, erupted about 9:30 a.m., around 15 minutes af - ter a neighboring resident reported smelling gas, au- thorities said. The Con Edison utility said it immediately sent workers to check out the re - port, but they didn't arrive until it was too late. The explosion shattered windows a block away, rained debris onto elevated commuter railroad tracks close by, cast a plume of smoke over the skyline and sent people running into the streets. "It felt like an earth - quake had rattled my whole building," said Waldemar Infante, a porter who was working in a basement nearby. "There were glass shards everywhere on the ground, and all the stores had their windows blown out." Police said two women believed to be in their 40s were killed. At least three of the injured were chil - dren; one, a 15-year-old boy, was reported in crit- ical condition with burns, broken bones and internal injuries. Most of the other victims' injuries were mi - nor and included cuts and scrapes. Fire officials said some people were unaccounted for but cautioned they may not have been in the build - ings. A tenant in one of the destroyed buildings, Ru- ben Borrero, said residents had complained to the land- lord about smelling gas as recently as Tuesday. A few weeks ago, Bor- rero said, city fire officials were called about the odor, which he said was so bad that a tenant on the top floor broke open the door to the roof for ventilation. "It was unbearable," said Borrero, who lived in a sec - ond-floor apartment with his mother and sister, who were away at the time of the explosion. The fire department said a check of its records found no instances in the past month in which tenants of the two buildings reported gas odors or leaks. Jennifer Salas lived in one of the buildings. She told The New York Times her husband, Jordy Salas, and her dog were in the building at the time of the collapse and were missing. "There's six floors in the building; each floor has one apartment," she said. "Last night it smelled like gas, but then the smell vanished and we all went to sleep." E dwa rd Foppia no, a Con Ed senior vice pres - ident, said there was only one gas odor complaint on record with the util- ity from either address, and it was last May, at the building next door to Bor- rero's. It was a small leak in customer piping and was fixed, he said. The block was last checked on Feb. 28 as part of a regular leak survey, and no problems were de - tected, Foppiano said. One of the side-by-side buildings had a piano store on the first floor, the other a storefront church. Con Ed said it remains to be seen whether the leak was in a company main or in customer-installed inside plumbing. The gas main that serves the area was made of plas - tic and cast iron, and the iron dated to 1887, Foppi- ano said. exPlOSION 3 killed in N.Y. blast; 2 buildings leveled Leaking gas blamed for blast; 9 missing JereMY saiLing – the associated Press the explosion on Wednesday in new York leveled an apartment building and sent flames and billowing black smoke above the skyline. | NEWS | redBLUFFdaiLYneWs.coM thUrsdaY, March 13, 2014 4 B