The long-standing criminal case against Epicurean owner Chang Wook Chon reached a conclusion on April 29 during a hearing in which District Judge Robert L. Wilkins of the U.S. Attorney’s Office decided that plaintiff Marvin Hercules should have the opportunity to prove that he is entitled to the money owed to him from a separate civil case filed against Chon on May 2011.

Even though the group of over 20 workers who had also filed lawsuits in the civil case against Chon received their due money, the payment owed in unpaid overtime wages to Hercules was interrupted by a criminal case in which Chon persuaded the involved plaintiff not to go to court, and to which Chon pleaded guilty in March.

During the hearing held this April, Judge Wilkins found that “there’s clear and convincing evidence of misconduct by defendant Chon. And the Court finds that that misconduct prevented Mr. Hercules from fully and fairly presenting his case.”

The judge’s decision to grant Hercules an opportunity to re-file the original civil case in order to get his due payment came in response to a claim made by Chon and his attorney Barry Coburn. They said Hercules should not have the right to refile his original civil case after the conclusion of the criminal case, but Wilkins denied the request.

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Yesterday afternoon, a group of around 30 people congregated outside the doors of Tackle Box on M Street in solidarity with three workers who were owed a total of $4000 in unpaid wages by the owners of the restaurant.

“We are fighting today to avoid wage theft,” said Carlos Castillo, an immigrant worker from Peru who is working in support with Workers United D.C., an organization fighting for the labor rights of the immigrant community. “We, the immigrants, are the most vulnerable sector here in D.C.,” he said.

Two workers who were employed by Tackle Box until July 2012 saw several of their most recent paychecks bounced. A third worker employed by Hook restaurant, now Bandolero, and managed by the same owners as Tackle Box, had his final four paychecks bounced.

After unsuccessfully trying to manage the situation by filing claims for unpaid wages with the D.C. Office of Wage-Hour, the workers turned to the D.C. Wage Theft Coalition, which consists of D.C. Jobs with Justice and La Union de Trabajadores for support. Several Georgetown students also joined the cause through the Kalmanovitz Initiative’s connection with D.C. Jobs with Justice.

Organizers had arranged a protest outside the restaurant to demand the owed wages. However, after finding out about the manifestation plans, owners Jonathan and Bethany Umbel agreed to give the three workers their owed wages in cash.

The owners of Tackle Box did not respond to Vox‘s requests for comment.

Students taking part of the action emphasized the importance of increasing awareness in the University community about social justice violations in the neighborhood.

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With the Farmers Market season coming to an end, Vox wants to know how important it is to you to buy locally-grown, organic food.

“I think it is important to buy organic food, when and if it is possible, because that investment represents a commitment to real food,” says Alexia Cotcamp (MSB ’15), Executive Market Director of the GU Farmers Market. “It represents an unspoken promise to honor your body by providing it with the best fuel you can. To eat that which we were given, not that which we falsely attempted to create.”

What do you think? Take our online poll here, and keep an eye open for the results soon.

Yesterday evening, the Georgetown University College Democrats and College Republicans hosted Republican Congressman Jason Chaffetz (UT-3) and Democrat Congressman Russ Carnahan (MO-3) at a surrogate debate in view of the upcoming presidential elections.

In the opening remarks, Joe Vandegriff, President of the GU College Democrats, said the debate was organized “in the spirit of bi-partisanship, to hear these two campaign surrogates to discuss issues that really matter in this campaign.”

The debate featured a journalist panel with the presence of Laura Evans from Fox 5 News and Julie Davis from Bloomberg News, as well as a panel of students conformed by two independent voters and two representatives from The Hoya and the Georgetown Voice.

Evans started off the debate referring to the recently-leaked video of Romney criticizing the dependence of 47% of Americans on the government. Admitting Romney’s lack of eloquence, Congressman Chaffetz deviated the question to the increasing number of people on food stamps. Chaffetz also talked about Romney’s approach to taxing the most rich:

He is not interested in reducing the rates for those at the highest income levels; they’re gonna continue to pay that same share of the taxes that they have. We are not just one tax increase away from prosperity in this country.

However, later on in the debate, the Republican representative emphasized the fact that high corporate taxes are preventing companies such as Microsoft to promote economic growth in the country and create jobs for Americans.

Another prevailing topic in the debate was job creation and the current high rates of unemployment in the United States. Democrat Congressman Carnahan tackled the issue by admitting that growth has been slow, but pushing the blame to Congress. “We could have done better in Congress regarding job-creating measures.”

Criticizing Obama’s employment policies, Chaffetz offered a solution:

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