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HELENA — If the Schweitzer administration’s plan for a low-cost health clinic for state employees gets off the ground this year, it could be expanded later to serve University System employees and maybe even Medicaid patients, Gov. Brian Schweitzer said last week. “Now we’re talking about one-third to 40 percent of all the people in Montana who would be in this pool,” he said in an interview. “We’re going to get more extensive health care and it will be less costly.” But if the long-term plan pans out, it will have to be without Schweitzer as governor. His final term...

The Fox News employee hired by Gawker to write about his experience inside the network has revealed himself as an associate producer on “The O’Reilly Factor.” Joe Muto, who joined Fox News in 2004, says he has been suspended, with pay and was escorted out of Fox News headquarters today by “two nice gentlemen from security.”

JACKSON — Jackson County may soon become the first government body in Michigan, as far as it knows, to let employees to carry concealed pistols at work. A revised policy on workplace violence would essentially end a work rule against guns by allowing employees and contractors to carry pistols on county property if they have a license to carry a concealed weapon. Despite disagreement from county department heads, many commissioners appear to believe they should not interfere with employees' rights to carry guns if properly licensed. "I think its a constitutional right," said Commissioner David Elwell, chief of the Columbia...

Jesse White gives raises while other Illinois agencies freeze pay By: Greg Hinz July 18, 2011 Pay hikes in Jesse White's office amount to an extra $78,000 a month in salary costs. At a time when pay raises are a distant memory and unpaid leave a reality for many area government workers, Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White has handed out pay hikes exceeding 6% to his entire executive staff. According to payroll data obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by the Better Government Assn., Mr. White in the 12-month period ended May 31 gave 4% and then 2%...

In anticipation of the newly reformed weapons law in Wisconsin, Blair Hardware Inc. employees have been informed that their right to bear arms will not be infringed at work. Blair Hardware Inc. is a medium sized buisiness in southeastern Wisconsin with four hardware stores and over a hundred employees. On June 28th, during a weekly status meeting, CEO Jim Blair was asked about possible changes due to the weapons reform bill recently passed by the Wisconsin legislature. Several managers mentioned that they had seen citizens openly carrying holstered handguns in their stores. CEO Blair replied that as long as the...

Alabama Passes Mandatory E-Verify & Immigration Enforcement Bill Friday, June 3, 2011, 1:25 PM EDT An Alabama House and Senate conference committee agreed on a new bill, which both chambers have already passed, that requires the use of E-Verify by all businesses in the state and includes several immigration enforcement provisions. Should Gov. Robert Bentley sign the bill into law, it would become one of the largest state crackdowns on illegal immigration in the country. The bill requires all businesses, public and private, to begin using E-Verify effective April 1, 2012. Businesses that do not comply face suspension of its...

Before the president's speech this week, there was speculation that he would adopt the recommendations of the deficit recommendation commission. The commission made its recommendations late last year and, among other things, recommended changes to the federal retirement system and the federal employee health insurance system as part of reducing the federal government's massive spending deficit. But that did not happen.

Global Economy? 23 Facts Which Prove That Globalism Is Pushing The Standard Of Living Of The Middle Class Down To Third World Levels From now on, whenever you hear the term "the global economy" you should immediately equate it with the destruction of the U.S. middle class. Over the past several decades, the American economy has been slowly but surely merged into the emerging one world economic system. Unfortunately for the middle class, much of the rest of the world does not have the same minimum wage laws and worker protections that we do. Therefore, the massive global corporations that...

I am proud to be a federal employee. Let me repeat, proud to be one of millions across the nation who work as a public servant and who believes that public employees choose careers so they can be a vital part of the glue that holds this nation together. Who are we? We are your neighbors, we are your friends, we are your fellow parishioners, and the people who sit with you watching the children and grandchildren at the ballpark or the basketball court. We are not faceless and anonymous "others." We are people you have known all your lives.

L.A. County Employee Dead in Cubicle a Day Before Being Noticed DOWNEY (KTLA) -- An L.A. County employee apparently died while working in her cubicle on Friday, but no one noticed for quite some time. 51-year-old Rebecca Wells was found by a security guard on Saturday afternoon. She was slumped over on her desk in the L.A. County Department of Internal Services. "I came in Saturday to do a little work, and I saw them when they were taking her out," co-worker Hattie Robertson told KTLA. The exact time of death is not clear, but detectives say that, at worst,...

The body of a woman who died at her work desk went undiscovered by colleagues for at least a day. LA County employee Rebecca Wells, 51, apparently died while she was at her work station cubicle on Friday morning. Her lifeless body lay slumped over her desk until it was found by a security guard at the LA County Department of Internal Services on Saturday afternoon. Though her time of death is not clear, Ms Wells, who was a compliance auditor, had not been seen since 9am Friday. Detectives say, at worst, she had been there a day. Co-worker Hattie...

Query re small non-profit orchestra. We have one 'contractor/employee' who earns about $1200/ year for setting up chairs and music stands during concert season. He insists on becoming an employee. Do we need to pay Workers' Comp on him as well? Anyone know how much that runs? California.

MINNEAPOLIS -- A former auditor with the Minnesota Department of Revenue was charged Friday in Minneapolis Federal Court, by way of an Information, with creating false tax refunds and using those refund proceeds for personal benefit.

State and local government workers have reason to feel somewhat besieged. Declining revenues in many states have compelled politicians to take a hard look at expenses, and increasingly, the focus has been on salary and benefit packages promised to public employees. Research suggests that compared to the private sector, some state and local workers do earn more, but critics argue targeting public employees' wage and benefit packages and their collective bargaining power is an easy way to side step more basic issues such as the need for economic growth. Join us for a discussion of state budgets and public sector...

#1 Illinois #2 Connecticut #3 Indiana #4 New Jersey #5 Hawaii #7 Oklahoma #8 Colorado #9 Kansas #10 Kentucky #11 New Hampshire

Public employee unions funnel public money to Dems By: MICHAEL BARONE Senior Political Analyst October 26, 2010 (AP) Who is the largest single political contributor in the 2010 campaign cycle? You can be pardoned if you answer, erroneously, that it's some new conservative group organized by Karl Rove. That's campaign spin by the Obama Democrats, obediently relayed by certain elements of the so-called mainstream media. The real answer is AFSCME, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. The union's president, Gerald McEntee, reports proudly that AFSCME will be contributing $87.5 million in this cycle, entirely or almost entirely...

L.A. County delays release of names and salaries of its highest-paid employeesLawyer cites concern for workers' safety in response to Times' request. A 2007 state Supreme Court ruling says public employees have no guarantee of privacy in such cases. By Rong-Gong Lin II, Los Angeles Times September 27, 2010 Los Angeles County officials are taking steps to keep secret the names and salaries of some highly paid county employees, saying they need more time to comply with public records law to protect workers who claim that disclosure could put them at risk. The response came after The Times asked for...

On Sunday I was honored to be a speaker at the rally against building the mosque at ground zero put on by the Coalition to Honor Ground Zero. As the rally concluded, thousands of the participants marched the one block from the rally site to the actual site of Ground Zero. I noticed a man in black shirt with a phone camera aggressively questioning and haranguing a gentleman with the sign, “No Sharia Here.” He was very aggressive, disrespectful and condescending; apparently, he did not like the man’s answers about Shariah and pushed the point: “Why do you feel threatened?...

Readers who read my original Washington Examiner post about Shirley Sherrod know that she and husband Charles received $150,000 each for "pain and suffering” as part of "a thirteen million dollar settlement in the minority farmers law suit Pigford vs Vilsack." Based on history presented by Ron Wilkins yesterday at Counterpunch, it's appropriate to ask: "Whose pain and suffering?" It now seems that Mr. and Mrs. Sherrod inflicted quite a bit of pain and suffering on their own -- and on some of the very people Mr. Sherrod described as "our own"

Alleged terror ties are at the heart of a lawsuit the US Consulate in Jerusalem is fighting; it is being sued for NIS 250,000 by a former employee who the consulate discovered had ties with Hamas. The plaintiff is Azam Qiq, who worked at the diplomatic mission until 2006 as a mechanic. His father was Hassan Qiq, the former head of Hamas in Jerusalem, who died in 2006.

RICHMOND, Va., Oct. 21, 2009 – Darren Costine retired from the Army in 2001, but with 22 years of service under his belt, the former first sergeant said, the Army is still in his blood. Darren Costine, a retired soldier who now works at the Defense Supply in Richmond, Va., deployed to Iraq as a civilian weapon system support manager. DoD photo by Jackie Girard  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. That’s why he volunteered to return to the Middle East for six months as a civilian support representative for Defense Logistics Agency. Costine, who lives in Chester, Va., is...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 31, 2009 – When reserve-component troops are called away for military duties, their civilian employers work hard to pick up the slack in their absence. That is especially true for the Mid American Kidney Stone Association, a research group of only 10 staff members in Kansas City, Mo. However, the small association gladly makes do and continues to support its part-time troops despite the heavy workload and small team, said Army Reserve Col. Harold DeLaughder, a citizen-soldier and Mid American nurse. “When one of its employees has to perform military duties away from their civilian job, it is...

Posted: Wednesday, 05 August 2009 4:37PM Pillsbury employee kills co-worker outside plant NEW ALBANY, Ind. (AP) - Authorities say a Pillsbury plant employee crashed his car through the southern Indiana factory's security gate during a shift change and then fatally shot a co-worker. Police say the shooting at the plant Wednesday morning came as officers were investigating a report of gunshots outside a home that was less than a mile away. New Albany Police Capt. Keith Whitlow says neither the suspect nor the victim lived at the home. Floyd County Coroner Leslie Knable told The Tribune that the shooting involved...

Last week, the northeast Ohio county of Summit announced they were considering passing an ordinance to prohibit county workers from carrying firearms while working or doing county business, even while in personal vehicles. At the time, it was stated that the reason for the proposed ban was "liability purposes", according to Jason Dodson, chief of staff for County Executive Russ Pry. Councilwoman Gloria Rodgers, who has stated she is planning to obtain a concealed handgun license, immediately came out in opposition to the proposal, calling it unnecessary and reminding that "people have a right to protect themselves." Tom Morneweck, president...

With the so-called stimulus bill heading toward some resolution, I suspect that the attention of some Democrats on the Hill is starting to head in other directions. According to some indications, it appears as though the next item on the agenda, other than the new bank bailout monstrosity, will be the Employee Free Choice Act. This is shaping up to be another battle...

Last week, the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that an employer does not have the right to view employees' text messages without a warrant. The ruling is based primarily on who pays for the storage of the content. For e-mail stored on company's servers, U.S. law is quite clear that employers own the content because they pay for the storage. The Court, however, does not view text messaging in the same way: because employers do not pay for the storage, but instead pay only for the service itself, employers do not have the same legal access to this...

“Whaddaya gotta do to get fired in this town?” It’s a great question, asked by a co-worker of mine (emphasis on “worker”) shaking his head over the latest Department of Public Works story in the Herald. This time it was five city workers hanging out at the Northern Avenue Bridge, watching satellite TV and throwing steaks on the hibachi. After opening the swing bridge once a day, they’ve got nothing to do, all day to do it and the taxpayer’s dime to do it on. My buddy, like every taxpayer reading that Herald story, knows that despite the obvious waste...

ANDERSEN AIR FORCE BASE, Guam, May 30, 2008 – Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates paid tribute to a legendary figure here who was retiring from the federal government with 66 years of service. Seikichi Kaneshiro, vertical repair superintendent for the 36th Civil Engineer Squadron at Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, retired May 30, 2008, with 66 years of federal service. U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman T.D. Cooper   (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Gates lauded Seikichi "Mr. Paul" Kaneshiro for embodying the principles of Americanism during Kaneshiro’s retirement today as the 36th Civil Engineer Squadron's vertical...

Congratulations to six U.S. senators and 23 members of congress who scored perfect zeros from SEIU, the George Soros lackey union who wants to turn us all into government employees or gulag slaves to support them.These are, by no means, the only good members of congress, but they deserve special applause for their perfect scores against this, one of the most sinister and corrupt of unions. Perfect congresspeople. Arizona John Shadegg Trent FranksCalifornia Dan Lungren George RadaovichColorado Tom Tancredo Doug LambornFlorida Connie Mack Tom FeeneyGeorgia Lynn Westmoreland John Linder Tom Price Nathan Deal Phil GingreyIowa Steve KingNew Jersey Scott GarrettNorth...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 11, 2008 – A Defense Department employee was among three people arrested today for espionage after allegedly passing classified U.S. government documents and information to the People’s Republic of China, Justice Department officials announced. Gregg William Bergersen, 51, a weapons system policy analyst at the Arlington, Va. -based Defense Security Cooperation Agency, is accused of being the source of the classified information. Much of the information related to U.S. military sales to Taiwan, Justice Department officials said. Bergersen allegedly passed the information between January 2006 and this month to Tai Shen Kuo, 58, a naturalized U.S. citizen and...

When Marie Lupe Cooley, 41, of Jacksonville, Fla., saw a help-wanted ad in the newspaper for a position that looked suspiciously like her current job — and with her boss's phone number listed — she assumed she was about to be fired. So, police say, she went to the architectural office where she works late Sunday night and erased 7 years' worth of drawings and blueprints, estimated to be worth $2.5 million. "She decided to mess up everything for everybody," Jacksonville Sheriff's Office spokesman Ken Jefferson told reporters. "She just sabotaged the entire business, thinking she was going to get...

The summer that shook the American workplace The new threat and hidden agenda of Labors new Government By Will Fine, Executive Director National Alliance for Worker and Employer Rights This summer has been the summer that shook the foundations of the Employee -Employer relationship as no time has in nearly thirty years. While our national security is being defended overseas, our domestic security has become imperiled by governmental transformation at the hands of Labor Union Central Command that has deployed a government it can control. The credibility of Congress is at stake to defend a free workplace.

A McDonald's employee spent a night in jail and is facing criminal charges after a police officer complained that the burger she prepared with too much salt made him sick. Kendra Bull, 20, was charged with misdemeanor reckless conduct and arrested at 1:30 a.m. on Friday. After a court hearing later that morning, she was released on $1,000 bond. Bull said she accidentally spilled too much salt on the hamburger meat, but told her supervisor and another co-worker, who "tried to thump the salt off," she said. Bull took a break and said she ate a burger made from the...

Dustin Chester was job hunting Tuesday — a day after The Home Depot fired him and the general manager for thwarting a thief from running away with a pocket full of stolen cash. Last week, the 24-year-old department manager confronted a man who was standing by a soda machine in front of the Murfreesboro store off Old Fort Parkway holding a crowbar and a wad of cash. When the suspect started running, Chester said his instincts took over. "When he ran, I ran after him," he said. Chester caught the thief and restrained him in the parking lot until police...

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. - Sen. John McCain (news, bio, voting record), courting a Silicon Valley giant, showered Google employees with praise Friday but took issue with one who challenged his insistence that the United States must prevail in Iraq. At a town hall appearance before the Google staff, the worker challenged the Republican presidential candidate for discounting the possibility that no one will win the war. "Any rational observer would say that if the war's lost, then someone won the war," McCain responded. "Al-Qaida will win that war." His voice rising, the Arizona Republican recounted atrocities by suicide bombers who...

In the past 25 years, union membership in America has dwindled from 21 percent of all workers to 12 percent. What to do? The Democrats have a solution that promises to touch off one of the biggest fights in Congress this year. With House Speaker Nancy Pelosi leading the way, they are pushing passage of the Employee Free Choice Act. If the Federal Trade Commission could regulate Congress the way it regulates advertising, it would ban the name of the bill as deceptive. In fact, the measure — also known as card check — would not give workers free choice....

Within the next 20 years Russia will require about 25mn labor migrants, otherwise, due to impetuous shortening of employable population, the country may face the prospect of economic stagnation and the pension system will be destroyed. This is the summary of the survey called Economical and political situation in Russia in January of 2006, conducted by the Institute for the Economy in Transition. The population of the country has impetuously been reducing during the last 15 years and nobody ever wondered. However, the labor force felt the changes most recently and the next few years are unlikely to see the...

CONTACT: Will Fine 202-393-1185 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE October 24, 2006 PLEDGE CALLS ON LAWMAKERS TO OPPOSE PRIVILEDGED WAGE SCALES FOR ILLEGAL ALIENS

An investigation is under way to determine why a Safeway warehouse employee walked into work and opened fire on his coworkers Sunday afternoon, killing one person and injuring five, including a Denver police officer. The suspect, tentatively identified by witnesses as Michael Ford, was shot and killed during a shootout with SWAT officers inside the massive Safeway Denver Distribution Center, located near Interstate 70 and Colorado Boulevard. "The officers confronted the suspect who was armed with the handgun. He fired at us, we fired at him," said Denver police Chief Gerry Whitman. "It was pretty quick ... I don't expect...

The state reached a three-year contract deal with its largest employees union on Saturday, avoiding a threatened strike by thousands of Department of Motor Vehicle workers, accountants, prison cooks and others responsible for the day-to-day operations of government. The deal, which must be ratified by a majority vote of the union's members, would provide the first raise in nearly three years for the 87,000 members of Local 1000 of the Service Employees International Union. The preliminary deal includes an 3.5 percent raise this year and another raise of up to four percent next year tied to the Consumer Price Index....

WASHINGTON - Remember the Department of Homeland Security's "no-fly'' lists that erratically flagged 3-year-old children and dozens of men named David Nelson as terrorists seeking to board commercial airplanes? Well, now privacy experts are warning America to prepare for the "no-work'' list. As Congress debates immigration reform, experts say a little-discussed aspect of the bill, mandatory employee eligibility verification, is likely to have a colossal impact on the lives of every person in the U.S. labor market -- citizen and foreigner alike. "Everyone who wants to work will feel this provision,'' said Tim Sparapani, legal counsel for the American Civil...

Ford Motor Co. Worker Fired Before Pension Eligibility Gets 30-Year Anniversary Certificate DEARBORN, Mich. (AP) -- A former Ford Motor Co. employee fired in a downsizing move just before becoming eligible for a full pension says he's gotten a certificate honoring him for his years of service, calling it a "slap in the face." Michael Stawasz, 49, lost his job as a transmission engineering technician in January about nine months short of his 30-year anniversary, the point when he would have been able to retire with full benefits, The Detroit News reported. He and about two dozen others are suing...

Jose Lazo overcame a childhood as an illegal immigrant, an education in alternative schools and the collapse of Enron Corp. But Lazo, 21, a nationally known spokesman for displaced Enron workers, may not be able to overcome a specter from his past. After rising from a life of poverty to a $40,000-a-year job straight out of high school, Lazo now faces deportation back to his native El Salvador because he impregnated a 13-year-old fellow student when he was 17. The girl insisted the sex was consensual, and the two are now married, but that did not prevent him from being...

AL ASAD, Iraq (May 10, 2006) -- Many service members deployed to a combat zone receive wounds and injuries that require medical attention from Al Asad Surgical. Unfortunately, the doctors and nurses are forced to cut the uniforms off of these injured men and women, thereby causing them to lose one of their very limited pieces of clothing. One man wanted to help. Larry Murray, a video storage wide area network technician with DataPath Inc., wanted to ensure that the service members who are tended to are comfortable and are not left with nothing to wear. "One evening I went...

Janitors' strike is over, but union efforts continue UM janitors got a chance to form a union Monday, scoring the union's first big win in its Justice for Janitors campaign. But what's next? BY NIALA BOODHOO nboodhoo@MiamiHerald.com

Governor's proposals get thumbs down at rally FRANKFORT, Ky. Organized labor has displayed its political clout with a massive Capitol rally today. Also today, union members cheered a House committee for rejecting two labor initiatives pushed by Governor Fletcher.

From 1999 through 2002, I was the Vice Chair of the Senate Public Employment and Retirement Committee. During that time, a number of bills presented to the committee increased pension and retirement benefits for state and local government employees. Every single one of these bills were passed and signed by Governor Davis. At the hearing on each of these bills, the lobbyists for the government employee unions showed up and begged the committee members to vote for the bill. In addition, the representative for the California Public Employee Retirement System (CalPERS) told the committee that the retirement system could afford...

We are THE conservative Labor Reform Organization Our roots are in Ronald Reagan's vision of defending freedom againt forced unionism and threat of strikes.

The Secret Ballot Protection Act poll You have had an election or are about to have one to determine if a union will represent you or not: Was the election

Employers may have to get Uncle Sam's permission to hire future workers. That's the effect of a new requirement in the House's immigration reform bill. Two years after enactment, employers would have to submit the Social Security numbers or alien identification numbers of new hires to the federal government, which would compare these numbers to government databases. The government would then notify the employer whether the individual is eligible to work. The provision is aimed at ending the widespread use of phony Social Security numbers by illegal immigrants looking for work in the United States. Employers currently are required to...