Free Republic

As unemployment rises, Uncle Sam has jobs By Deb Riechmann Associated Press WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The economic downturn has forced private industry and state and local government to shed jobs, but one major employer in the country is hiring: The federal government. While the nation's 11 million unemployed and the millions more who fear losing their jobs may feel Washington should streamline too, economists say a strong federal work force is key to economic recovery. Were President Barack Obama to put any of the nearly 2 million federal civil servants out in the street in the middle of the worst...

Newly released data show that federal employee wages and benefits continue a rapid ascent above and beyond private sector pay levels. The data was released last week by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. (See tables 6.2, 6.3, 6.5, and 6.6).The new data show that the 1.8 million federal civilian workers earned an average wage of $77,143 in 2007, which is 61 percent higher than the $48,035 average in the U.S. private sector. That 61 percent pay advantage has increased from a 34 percent advantage in 2000.Looking at total compensation (wages plus benefits), federal workers earned an average $116,450 in 2007, which is more than...

A jury sentenced a Lakeview man to 10 years in prison for growing nearly 7,500 marijuana plants. Andrew Stever, 40, was sentenced on Monday after a three-day trial in the Federal District Court in Medford.Ten years is the mandatory minimum sentence for anyone convicted of growing 1,000 or more pot plants. In July 2007, officers from several local, state and federal agencies found 7,459 plants growing on Stever's Lakeview property, which bordered Forest Service land. Two men fled the scene, leaving behind personal property and three firearms, according to the U.S. attorney's office in Portland. Physical evidence and testimony linked...

The Department of Justice (DOJ) should cut off outreach efforts with organizations linked to the Muslim Brotherhood or other Islamist extremist groups, a report from a ranking Senate subcommittee member recommends. "Justice Denied: Waste & Mismanagement at the Department of Justice," is an 86-page report issued in October by the office of U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK), the ranking Republican on the Senate Subcommittee on Federal Financial Management, Government Information, Federal Services, and

NEW YORK/DETROIT, Oct 27 (Reuters) - General Motors Corp (GM.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and Cerberus Capital Management have asked the U.S. government for around $10 billion in an unprecedented rescue package to support a merger between GM and Chrysler LLC, two sources with direct knowledge of the talks said on Monday. The government funding would include roughly $3 billion in exchange for preferred stock in a merged automaker, according to one of the sources, who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly. The U.S. Treasury Department is considering a request for direct aid to facilitate the merger...

In the wake of three murders and the recent attack on a federal prosecutor in a New York courtroom, a group representing the nation's federal prosecutors is calling for stepped-up security, including home alarms, self-defense training and the right to carry firearms. Additionally, the National Association of Assistant U.S. Attorneys, which represents the country's 5,400 federal prosecutors, wants secure parking for prosecutors, particularly those who handle dangerous criminal cases. "Statistically, we are threatened more than judges," said Steve Cook, chairman of the NAAUSA security committee and a Tennessee federal prosecutor. "Security is a very important issue for us." In a...

The Federal Aviation Administration. The Social Security Administration. The National Science Foundation. The Treasury Department. All could lose as much as a quarter of their employees by 2012, mostly because of retirements. They are not alone. Across the government, about a third of full-time employees will retire in the next five years, according to estimates prepared by the Office of Personnel Management. The turnover could be even higher in the ranks of federal executives and supervisors. From the start of the Bush administration, agencies have been preparing for the churning that will be caused by the baby boom retirement wave....

"Underlying CBO's baseline projections is a forecast that U.S. economic growth will slow in calendar year 2007 but pick up in 2008. Specifically, CBO anticipates that GDP will grow by 2.3 percent in real terms in 2007, a full percentage point less than the growth recorded last year. For 2008, CBO forecasts that GDP growth will rebound to 3.0 percent. Under the assumptions of the baseline, real GDP growth would continue at a similar rate in 2009 and 2010 and then slow to 2.7 percent in 2011 and 2012. For the rest of the projection period, average growth of real...

With respect to states' rights, it should be readily apparent to all that state governments cannot exert any meaningful influence or control over the federal government, judiciary, or any other federal institution. Let us state the problem precisely. At the present time, there are no checks and balances available to the states over federal power or over Congress itself in any area. However, in the history of our country, it was not always this way. In the original design by the Framers of the U.S. Constitution, there was an effective check on Congress through the state legislatures' power to appoint...

This weblog calls for the repeal of the 17th Amendment and addresses the abusive hegemony committed by the U. S. Senate. If Americans want to remove some corruption from government, the first significant step is to repeal the 17th Amendment. Americans should fear the steady growth by the oligarchy in the Senate. We should fear the oligarchs more because our Constitution cannot be spoiled by bombs, the courts, or the President; only through legislation.

The man who shot and killed a Phoenix police officer before he himself later was fatally shot by authorities was an illegal entrant, a federal official said Wednesday. Erik Jovani Martinez, 22, was in the country illegally last year when he was arrested and convicted on theft charges, said Vinnie Picard, a spokesman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. He said Martinez was deported on March 3 last year, and at some point re-entered the country illegally. Mayor Phil Gordon called Martinez a "poster child" for failed federal efforts to tighten border security. "I have a message for the federal government....

This week, FBI and IRS agents searched the home of Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, 83. Stevens is under suspicion for his connection to Bill Allen, an oil state-services contractor convicted of bribing Alaska state lawmakers. Stevens has served in the Senate for almost three decades. The Stevens investigation comes hot on the heels of the Rep. Duke Cunningham, R-Calif., scandal, in which Cunningham pleaded guilty to taking bribes from defense contractors; the Rep. William Jefferson, D-La., scandal, in which federal agents found $90,000 in cash stuffed in Jefferson's freezer; and the Jack Abramoff scandal, in which Abramoff was connected with...

Dawn Eden, call your office: For years, drug companies sold birth-control pills and other contraceptives to university health services at a big discount. This has served as an entree to young consumers for the drug companies, and a profit center for the schools, which sell them to students at a moderate markup. Students pay perhaps $15 a month for contraceptives that otherwise can retail for $50 or more. But colleges and universities say the drug companies have stopped offering the discounts, and are now charging the schools much more. The change has an unlikely origin: the Deficit Reduction Act signed...

Dobbs: This government might be as well the largest employer of illegal workers in this country. It's just another of many and mounting reasons why the Bush administration and the one before it have so little credibility on the issue of illegal immigration and border security. Christine Romans has our report. The biggest employer of people not authorized to work in this country, the government. A little noticed audit last year of so-called non-work Social Security numbers showed the government, retail and universities are top employers of non-citizens who are not authorized to work here. From 2001 to 2003, seven...

Congress is currently considering the president's proposed $2.9 trillion federal budget. While federal spending consumes an awesome 20% of nation's GDP, the budget process at least allows taxpayers to know on what Washington is spending. But there is much more to government's reach in the economy than direct spending. The costs to the public of complying with federal health, safety, environmental and economic regulations appear nowhere in the federal budget. Economist Mark Crain's research for the U.S. Small Business Administration finds that in 2006 regulatory compliance cost Americans $1.14 trillion. Astoundingly, that approaches half of last year's total federal spending...

Most people say their families and local emergency agencies are ready for the next natural disaster but the federal government is not. Women and minorities are less confident on both counts. A poll on the subject was released Monday, less than three weeks before the official start of an Atlantic hurricane season that some forecasters say will be an active one... Two-thirds of people said their local first responders were prepared for a disaster, while nearly as many said their hospitals and families were ready. Only three in 10 expressed the same confidence in the federal government... Ten percent more...

Corporate America is missing a HUGE opportunity! Most companies, regardless of the improved economy, are still searching for ways to reduce their costs and become more competitive. Many companies have outsourced several functions to reduce costs. Of course, the most obvious outsourcing activity has been the customer relations call centers. How many of us have tried to call a customer service number only to find that we have difficulty understanding the person at the other end of the line. Now, here’s the opportunity that has been wasted. The largest customer for most of our Fortune 1000 companies is the Federal...

ANN ARBOR, MI — Today, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in Cincinnati, Ohio, heard oral argument in a case involving a three-hour police detention of law-abiding, pro-life demonstrators, who were detained because they were “anti-abortion.” The Thomas More Law Center, a national, public interest law firm based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, presented oral argument on behalf of the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform, Inc., a California-based, pro-life organization. The organization claims that its constitutional rights were violated during the lengthy police detention that occurred on June 10, 2002, in Ohio. Thirteen officers, including officers from the City...

The incoming chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee is promising an array of oversight investigations that could provoke sharp disagreement with Republicans and the White House. Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., pledged that Democrats, swept to power in the Nov. 7 elections, would govern "in the middle" next year. But the veteran lawmaker has a reputation as one who has never avoided a fight and he did not back away from that reputation on Sunday. Among the investigations he said he wants the committee to undertake: _The new Medicare drug benefit. "There are lots and lots and lots of...

An E. coli outbreak in pre-packaged spinach proved a convenient excuse for ABC to push for more regulation of American agriculture, citing the pro-regulation, anti-food industry Center for Science in the Public Interest as merely a “food safety” advocate. “As ABC’s Lisa Stark explains, this case is calling into question how the entire food supply is monitored,” anchor Charles Gibson said, introducing Stark’s story. After a brief sound bite from Tom Stenzel of the United Fresh Produce Association defending the industry’s commitment to safety, Stark set out to push for more regulation. “Food safety groups say part of what’s wrong...