Free Republic

Gov. Chris Gregoire did Monday what families and businesses have been doing for months: She ordered cuts in travel and buying gasoline, a hiring freeze and a lid on major purchases for most state agencies. The effort is expected to save $90 million, making up for an unexpected $60 million drop in revenue in June. The lost income came from a slowdown in the housing market and lower business taxes than expected. "I am asking each of you to step up your efforts to increase savings. I ask that you be creative and take action now," Gregoire said in a...

WASHINGTON, April 18, 2008 – Returning from combat in Iraq or Afghanistan with a disability certainly brings with it a number of challenges, but for one soldier, a great aid to his successful recovery was the easy transition he made into the civilian job market. Justin Callahan enlisted in the U.S Army as a combat engineer when he was 18. When he was 21, he deployed to Afghanistan, where he led a squad of 8 men squad leader. During a routine patrol, Justin was hit by an IED and suffered a left leg amputation below the knee. During his...

U.S. Border Patrol officials say they are on track to beef up their ranks from nearly 16,000 today to 18,319 agents by the end of the year. But some critics say the agency is cutting too many corners to meet the goal set by President Bush two years ago. Facing pressure to do more to curb illegal immigration, Bush announced in May 2006 that the federal government would hire 6,000 more Border Patrol agents. He also sent 6,000 National Guard troops to the border, an assignment scheduled to end in July. As of March 29, about 2,000 agents were deployed...

Hiring Practices Influenced By Beauty ScienceDaily (Jan. 3, 2008) — A new study finds that the attractiveness of interviewees can significantly bias outcome in hiring practices, showing a clear distinction between the attractive and average looking interviewees in terms of high and low status job packages offered. “When someone is viewed as attractive, they are often assumed to have a number of positive social traits and greater intelligence,” say Carl Senior and Michael J.R. Butler, authors of the study. “This is known as the ‘halo effect’ and it has previously been shown to affect the outcome of job interviews.” The...

LONDON (Dow Jones)--Problems in the U.S. real estate sector and worries about not being able to find the right people are making employers across the world more cautious, a survey by employment services group Manpower Inc. (MAN) showed Tuesday.

SACRAMENTO – During the 2003 recall that thrust him into office, Arnold Schwarzenegger accused then-Gov. Gray Davis of mismanagement and hinted that he was corrupt. But when his administration has needed expertise or become embroiled in political trouble, Schwarzenegger hasn't hesitated to hire top officials who worked for Davis, a Democrat. Last week the Republican governor selected Mary Nichols, a former chief environmental aide to Davis, as chairwoman of the California Air Resources Board to try to calm the controversy over his firing of the state's top air-quality regulator. Nichols is one of at least six key players in the...

WASHINGTON - The recent firing of eight U.S. attorneys has raised questions about how they are appointed and the circumstances under which they may be dismissed. Here are some questions and answers: Q: What do U.S. attorneys do and how many are there? A: U.S. attorneys are the federal government's equivalent of local district attorneys. They are charged with prosecuting federal crimes in the judicial district in which they serve. There are 93 U.S. attorneys, one for each U.S. district court (except that Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands share a federal prosecutor). Q: Who gets these positions? A: The...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 20, 2007 – Military members with a desire to mentor and shape young minds now may not have to face the anxiety of an uncertain future when retiring or separating from the military. In a new twist on Troops to Teachers, a program that has long been producing teachers out of the ranks of the military, qualified servicemembers can now be hired in advance to work as teachers in certain school districts. The Hire in Advance Program, which has launched in Las Vegas, Denver, and Newark, N.J., guarantees teaching jobs for eligible military up to three years...

More than a dozen University of Wisconsin students gathered on Bascom Hill Wednesday to protest the CIA recruitment and education event being held at North Hall. UW senior Nick Limback said the protest, which was organized by students of the Campus Antiwar Network and the Student Labor Action Coalition, was meant to inform and educate students about the CIA’s role in government policy as well as the organization’s “wrongs.” “We wanted to raise awareness about the human rights abuses that the CIA has committed and is currently committing,” Limback said. Limback said the CIA has acted violently to protect business...

The newly elected (convervative Republican) Mayor of Georgetown, Kentucky caused a rude awakening among Georgetown Democrats this week . . . they no longer rule the town. Mayor Tingle-Sames fired four VERY partisan Democrats who were on the city's payroll. These were "at-will" positions, so she had every legal right to do this. Despite that fact, the local Democrats are up in arms and trying to swing a poll the local newspaper is running in their direction. Please take the time to visit www.news-graphic.com, scroll to the bottom left corner and vote that you approve of Mayor Tingle-Sames' decision. Feel...

WASHINGTON -- Ending 2006 on a positive note, employers boosted hiring and fattened workers' paychecks in December, capping a year in which the country's unemployment rate averaged a six-year low of 4.6 percent. The latest snapshot of the nation's employment climate, released Friday by the Labor Department, suggested that most businesses held up pretty well as the real-estate bust caused the economy to lose momentum last year. Employers added 167,000 new jobs to their payrolls in December, and the unemployment rate held steady at 4.5 percent. That showing was "rock solid," said Nigel Gault, economist at Global Insight. But on...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democrats hoping to capture control of the U.S. Congress in this fall elections called on Tuesday for probes of the Bush administration's Iraq rebuilding effort, which they likened to the government's botched response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Senate Democrats urged congressional and Pentagon investigations into hiring and contracting practices in Iraq. The requests came after the Washington Post newspaper reported young novices with Republican political connections got high-level jobs rebuilding Iraq in 2003 and 2004. "Iraq, in one of the most critical moments in its history when the United States was there was being run by...

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. - The hiring practices of the Illinois governor's office are the focus of a federal investigation into possible misconduct at several state agencies, a federal prosecutor said in a letter made public Friday. U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald said in the letter he is looking into "very serious allegations of endemic hiring fraud" by Gov. Rod Blagojevich's administration. The allegations include violations of restrictions against using politics to award jobs. Investigators have "developed a number of credible witnesses," the letter states. The Democratic governor, who was elected on a promise to clean up government, has not been charged with...

USA Citizens Day - July 1st Immigration Control Rally Nationwide Rally on Saturday, July 1st, at noon, at your City HallMay 1st - Million of Illegal Aliens Marched in our StreetsTwelve million illegal aliens demonstrated their political power, and declared May 1st to be A Day Without Undocumented Workers ( illegal aliens ). They boycotted the USA, all US businesses and institutions. Millions of them marched in our streets, carried Mexican flags, shouted "Si se puede!", and demanded new laws from our Congress. July 1st - U.S. Citizens Nationwide Rally for Immigration ControlRally to stop our continuous invasion by...

a recent predawn roll call at the Los Angeles Police Department's 77th Street Division was emblematic of the profound changes that the LAPD has undergone in recent years. As two dozen officers were briefed on crime in their area, they were aided by computerized maps showing hot spots in the division's neighborhoods. Most telling, however, were the people themselves. Of the morning patrol officers who took their places on wooden benches — some things don't change — fewer than half were white. There were at least as many Hispanic officers as whites, and in the parking lot outside, an Asian...

NEW ORLEANS - Hurricane-ravaged St. Bernard Parish is considering hiring former FEMA chief Michael Brown to advise its hurricane recovery effort, a move drawing sharp complaints from a state lawmaker. "Do we hire an individual to assist in our recovery efforts who as FEMA director resigned two weeks after Katrina made landfall?" asked Republican state Sen. Walter Boasso. "We were in the middle of the worst natural disaster in our nation's history." Parish officials have called the talks preliminary, and spokesman Steve Cannizaro said Wednesday that they had not yet decided whether to hire Brown. Brown's understanding of the system's...

4/7/2006 - WASHINGTON (AFPN) -- Airmen now have increased eligibility for veterans’ preference when released or discharged from active duty, Office of Personnel Management officials here wrote in a recently released memo. More servicemembers are now eligible for veterans’ preference when applying for government civilian jobs. Pres. George W. Bush signed into law the Defense Authorization Act for fiscal 2006, which contained two provisions that broadened the definition of a “veteran” and clarified eligibility for those released or discharged from active duty, said the statement. The first provision gives preference to those who have served on active duty for a...

WASHINGTON, April 6, 2006 – Servicemembers seriously injured by improvised explosive devices during duty in the global war on terror are getting a unique opportunity to use their experience to combat and prevent future IED attacks. The Joint IED Defeat Organization here has entered into full partnership with the Operation Warfighter program at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in an initiative to target, recruit and hire servicemembers, including many who have suffered serious injuries from IED attacks. Operation Warfighter is a nationwide program that places wounded servicemembers in positions within the federal government. Thanks to this partnership, these servicemembers can...

In the aftermath of the Dubai ports dispute, the Bush administration is hiring a Hong Kong conglomerate to help detect nuclear materials inside cargo passing through the Bahamas to the United States and elsewhere. The administration acknowledges the no-bid contract with Hutchison Whampoa Ltd. represents the first time a foreign company will be involved in running a sophisticated U.S. radiation detector at an overseas port without American customs agents present. Freeport in the Bahamas is 65 miles from the U.S. coast, where cargo would be likely to be inspected again. The contract is currently being finalized.

U.S. Hiring Chinese Co. to Scan Nukes By TED BRIDIS and JOHN SOLOMON, Associated Press Writers 27 minutes ago WASHINGTON - In the aftermath of the Dubai ports dispute, the Bush administration is hiring a Hong Kong conglomerate to help detect nuclear materials inside cargo passing through the Bahamas to the United States and elsewhere. ADVERTISEMENT The administration acknowledges the no-bid contract with Hutchison Whampoa Ltd. represents the first time a foreign company will be involved in running a sophisticated U.S. radiation detector at an overseas port without American customs agents present. Freeport in the Bahamas is 65 miles from...

VISTA – The San Diego Minutemen's first public attempt to stop employers from hiring migrant workers drew about 200 people to downtown yesterday, but it did not prevent day laborers from being hired at the site. Project founder Jim Gilchrist of Aliso Viejo said the event was meant to encourage city councils countywide to endorse rules punishing day laborers for soliciting jobs curbside. Two San Diego Minutemen organizers said more protest sites will be considered in the coming weeks, and that Encinitas was “on the radar.” “Entire city councils will fall,” Gilchrist said. “It's just a matter of time.” Yet...

Travel Weekly Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) The bubble will burst this year for travel companies outsourcing call centres to India, recruitment chiefs have predicted. Problems with language, customer service and call handling are forcing companies to think again about using cheap labour for activities such as sales calls. AA Appointments managing director John Tolmie said: "It makes sense to have back office and ticketing in India if you want low skills and the numbers, but the British public are put off by people trying to sell them something from overseas. You do not get the levels of service you expect....

The World Health Organisation yesterday became the largest international employer to ban the hiring of smokers in an effort to promote its public health campaign against tobacco use. In a memo circulated to its 8,000 staff this week, the WHO stressed that it had "a responsibility to ensure that this [its campaign] is reflected in all its work, including recruitment practices". The move is an escalation of action taken against smokers. Several countries have introduced legislation banning smoking in pubs, restaurants and public places, while some employers ban smoking on their premises. Its job advertisements now carry the statement "WHO...

NEW DELHI: America's loss is turning out to be India's gain. Within days of announcing 30,000 job-cuts in the US, automobile giant General Motors Corp will this week unveil plans to increase its workforce in India by nearly 30%. The carmaker has decided to add 450 jobs at its existing plant in Halol (Gujarat) as part of plans to expand presence in India - the emerging low-cost automobile hub in the east. "GM is going on a hiring spree in India, and it's add jobs both on the factory shop-floor as well in the executive cadre. GM will this week...

S PRINGFIELD, Ill. -- Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich defended the state's hiring practices Wednesday as a federal inquiry into the matter widened, and said he had nothing to hide. Federal prosecutors have subpoenaed the governor's office and the Department of Children and Family Services. State officials confirmed Wednesday that the Department of Transportation also was subpoenaed. "This kind of examination isn't a bad thing if you're confident that your systems are working and that you know that you try to do things honestly and ethically and responsibly," the first-term Democrat said after cutting the ribbon for the state's new emergency...

WASHINGTON - The House voted Thursday to let Head Start centers consider religion when hiring workers, overshadowing its moves to strengthen the preschool program's academics and finances. The Republican-led House approved a bill that lets churches and other faith-based preschool centers hire only people who share their religion, yet still receive federal tax dollars. Democrats blasted that idea as discriminatory. Launched in the 1960s, the nearly $7 billion Head Start program provides comprehensive education to more than 900,000 poor children. Though credited for getting kids ready for school, Head Start has drawn scrutiny as cases of financial waste and questions...

Fletcher sacks administration members over personnel problems MARK R. CHELLGREN Associated Press FRANKFORT, Ky. - Gov. Ernie Fletcher Wednesday sacked nine members of his administration, including one of his closest advisers, for what he said he now believes were violations of state merit system personnel laws. Among those to be sacked are Richard Murgatroyd, Fletcher's deputy chief of staff and close friend. Fletcher said he would also ask the state Republican Party to oust Darrell Brock as its chairman. Brock used to be head of Fletcher's local development office. In a prepared statement, Fletcher apologized to people hurt by hiring...

Photo by: JIM REED Michael Kalupa, owner of Kalupa's Bakery, looks over pastery being prepared by Peter Gonzalez. Kalupa says he'd like to add three or four more employees but can't find them.TAMPA "Help Wanted": For many businesses in the Tampa Bay area, it's not just a sign. It's a desperate plea. With the local economy growing and unemployment rates shrinking, local firms are finding it harder to fill positions and locate prospective workers. And while business owners worry about how to sustain their growth in a tight labor market, economists express concern about what low unemployment could mean in...

Carlsbad, Calif. — Nothing disturbs working women more than the statistics often mentioned on Labor Day showing that they are paid only 76 cents to men's dollar for the same work. If that were the whole story, it should disturb all of us; like many men, I have two daughters and a wife in the work force. When I was on the board of the National Organization for Women in New York City, I blamed discrimination for that gap. Then I asked myself, "If an employer has to pay a man one dollar for the same work a woman would...

FRANKFORT, Ky. - Gov. Ernie Fletcher has been subpoenaed to appear before a special grand jury investigating his administration's hiring practices, the attorney general's office confirmed Friday. Nine current or former members of Fletcher's administration have been indicted on misdemeanor charges alleging violations of the state's Merit System personnel law. The indictments allege that they routinely plotted to circumvent the law requiring that state personnel decisions, including who gets hired for state jobs, fired or promoted, be made on the candidates' merits rather than on their political influence or support. Fletcher's name has appeared in e-mails presented to the grand...

As more comes to light about Diane Griego Erwin, the former Sacramento Bee columnist, the more revealing and instructive the story becomes. It is a story we mentioned in a recent Media Monitor, but much more has come to light. In one sense, it is another validation for the New Media, specifically the blogs; and for another, it shines a light on problems related to diversity in the newsrooms, when diversity strictly refers to skin color. It also spells potential big trouble for the Sacramento Bee editor, Rick Rodriguez, the new president of the American Society of Newspaper Editors (ASNE)....

Vanity--blog

The work ethic is alive and well among America's retirees, or at least the ones who bombarded me with letters after I suggested raising the retirement age for Social Security. They said they would be glad to keep working if I could find them a job. In theory, this shouldn't be a problem because employers ought to be clamoring for workers as baby boomers hit retirement age and the pool of younger workers shrinks. In reality, though, older workers face discrimination. While some companies are recruiting them, many employers are still leery, partly because of irrational prejudice against the old,...

WASHINGTON - Research into a State Department nominee's hiring record has not revealed evidence of systematic discrimination since racial comments led her to resign from Wellesley College's board of trustees in 1987, Sen. Barack Obama said Thursday. Henrietta Holsman Fore, currently director of the U.S. Mint, is President Bush's pick for a top State Department human resources job, under secretary of state for management. In 1987, The New York Times and others reported that Fore had stepped down from the board of trustees at Wellesley after an emotional debate sparked by her comments that in her own Los Angeles manufacturing...

Legislative leaders decided Tuesday to appoint a 12-member, bipartisan committee to investigate personnel decisions made by Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. The Special Committee on State Employee Rights and Protections -- to be co-chaired by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Thomas McLain Middleton and House Speaker Pro Tempore Adrienne A. Jones (D-Dist. 10) of Woodstock and made up of six members from the House and Senate -- will begin its work in coming weeks and deliver recommendations on its scope and other specifics in August. The committee will decide then if it needs to hire outside counsel and additional staff and...

If you love cities, this is a week to rejoice. Now that the stadium planned for New York's West Side is dead, no one can fantasize anymore about the Olympics coming to New York. If the city had gotten the 2012 Games, its leaders would have basked for seven years in Olympic photo opportunities, and mayors across America would have watched enviously. They would have succumbed further to what I think of as the Circus Maximus syndrome. The victims of this urban-planning syndrome believe, like some Roman emperors, that a leader's prime civic responsibility is to build entertainment palaces for...

Suppose you could eliminate the factors often blamed for the shortage of women in high-paying jobs. Suppose that promotions and raises did not depend on pleasing sexist male bosses or putting in long nights and weekends away from home. Would women make as much as men? Economists recently tried to find out in an experiment in Pittsburgh by paying men and women to add up five numbers in their heads. At first they worked individually, doing as many sums as they could in five minutes and receiving 50 cents for each correct answer. Then they competed in four-person tournaments, with...

OP-ED CONTRIBUTOR Washington — AS the Senate begins confirmation hearings today for John D. Negroponte as director of national intelligence, it would do well to ask his opinion of President Bush's decision in November to have Porter Goss, the director of central intelligence, increase by 50 percent the number of clandestine officers at the C.I.A. Certainly, we need more and better spies. But as a former operations officer at the agency, I would argue that a mandate to beef up the clandestine service - also known as the directorate of operations - by a rather arbitrary percentage within a short...

New Orleans' first black district attorney discriminated against 43 whites when he fired them en masse and replaced them with blacks upon taking office in 2003, a federal jury decided Wednesday. The jury awarded the employees hundreds of thousands of dollars in back pay and damages. The jury - made up of eight whites and two blacks - returned the unanimous verdict in the third day of deliberations in the racial discrimination case against District Attorney Eddie Jordan. Jordan has acknowledged he wanted to make the office more reflective of the city's racial makeup, but he denied he fired whites...

In a push to recruit older workers, Home Depot, the hardware chain, now offers "snowbird specials" - winter work in Florida and summers in Maine. Borders bookstores lure retired teachers to sales jobs with discounts and the promise of reading and discussion groups. Pitney Bowes, the business services company, pays tuition for courses in computer programming as well as spare-time skills like golf and flower arranging. After years of encouraging workers to take early retirement as a way to cut jobs, a growing number of companies are hunting for older workers because they have lower turnover rates and, in many...

The Central Intelligence Agency might be the last place in Washington you'd expect political correctness to have taken root. But as Gabriel Schoenfeld demonstrates in a disturbing new article, "What Became of the CIA," in the March issue of Commentary magazine, the agency has turned into "a government bureaucracy like any other, its managers and employees preoccupied with endless reams of restrictive regulations and simultaneously caught up in many of the newfangled pathologies of the American workplace," including affirmative action programs. Is it possible that in its zeal to promote more women and minorities, the CIA compromised its own mission?...

THE women who flock to Dr Kim Myong-gan’s clinic in a western suburb of Tokyo are desperate. Invariably they are well-dressed, intelligent and from outwardly stable and normal households.There is, however, something very important missing from their married lives: sex. "Almost all the women who come to the clinic are married, but those marriages have been sexless for five years, 10 years, even 15 years," says Kim, a sexologist whose radical therapy techniques have won him adulation among Japan’s long-suffering female population. The prescription for their pain is a date with a member of his hand-picked "sex volunteer corps". A...

Should a serious research university consider hiring a fascist? This question doesn't have an easy answer. After all, prior to World War II Europe produced several brilliant political theorists and philosophers who could be characterized as fascists, or proto-fascists, including Joseph de Maistre, Carl Schmitt and Martin Heidegger. Whether, post-Auschwitz, it's possible even in theory to advocate similar views in intellectually plausible ways is an interesting question. It is not, however, a question that has any relevance to the case of University of Colorado professor Ward Churchill, despite the obvious fascistic streak in Churchill's writings and public performances. As a...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- U.S. employers added 157,000 workers overall to their payrolls in December, bringing the year-end total of new jobs to 2.2 million, the best showing in five years. The unemployment rate held steady at 5.4 percent. The Labor Department reported Friday that the 2.2 million new jobs created in 2004 were the most in any year since 1999, when employers added 3.2 million positions, based on a government survey of businesses. In 2003, there was a net 61,000 reduction in payroll jobs. President Bush called it "a very positive set of numbers" that are proof the economy is...

Brian Gabrielson is used to the first week of January being a busy one at staffing firm Robert Half Technology in Phoenix. This year, though, demand from Arizona companies seeking high-tech employees hit with three times its usual force, leaving division director Gabrielson surprised. "We took 32 new positions just yesterday alone. That's a phenomenal number," he said. "It's been a steamroller." The market for high-tech jobs is picking up again in Arizona. Staffing firms and others in the high-tech arena say they started to notice demand rising last summer, and that it began accelerating even more in November. An...

Looks like Porter Goss is not twiddling his thumbs. Hopefully, many good patriots will step up and serve their country. If I were younger, I would. God Bless all who serve. CIA Employment Site Maybe Uncle Sam wants you?

BERKELEY, Calif. - At the birthplace of the free speech movement, campus radicals have a new target: the faculty that came of age in the 60's. They say their professors have been preaching multiculturalism and diversity while creating a political monoculture on campus. Conservatism is becoming more visible at the University of California here, where students put out a feisty magazine called The California Patriot and have made the Berkeley Republicans one of the largest groups on campus. But here, as at schools nationwide, the professors seem to be moving in the other direction, as evidenced by their campaign contributions...

The Dallas Cowboys are now hiring for all positions. We need immediate help! If you can play football, think you can play football, or wish you could play football, contact Jerry Jones at Texas Stadium now! The number: 1-800-HELP-NOW! Thanks, The Management

Why employers are taking longer to make hiring decisions Advice by Eric Archer, Spherion Corp.OCTOBER 25, 2004 - The interview went smoothly, your resume was impeccable and your skills match the job requirements line for line. You sent along clever thank you notes and, with a glimmer in his eye, the hiring manager said you were a top candidate for the job. So, what happened? Why haven't you heard from the potential employer for weeks?Welcome to the newer, slower and more guarded job market. Employers have decelerated recruitment and hiring processes, raising the anxiety of job seekers everywhere. Has hiring...

Q&A: Joe RichTitle: Executive vice president Company: Clark Consulting, Marlboro, Mass. What he does: Having just surveyed 37 U.S. IT companies about their college recruiting plans, Rich is lukewarm at best in his optimism about new IT graduates' job prospects in the U.S. high-tech sector. The main reason: Graduate hiring by U.S. high-tech companies this year increased by a mere 1.6% over 2003. What's more, although the total number of new college graduates has increased, most U.S. high-tech companies hired fewer college graduates this year than in 2003. What is the near-term IT employment forecast for recent university graduates? Hiring...