Free Republic

Dayton, a Democrat, ordered the election two weeks ago so that providers could vote on whether to be represented by a union in "meet and confer" talks with the state. The order allows in-home providers who participate in state-subsidized Child Care Assistance Programs to vote on whether to be represented by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) or the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), depending on where in the state their business is. Ballots are scheduled to be mailed Dec. 7 to about 4,300 of some 11,000 in-home providers in Minnesota. They would be counted Dec....

<p>Several employees at a plant in Detroit called Tower Defense and Aerospace were caught drinking booze and smoking marijuana during their afternoon break for lunch.</p> <p>Tower Defense and Aerospace makes armored parts for U.S. military trucks and planes. According to the WJBK-TV report the plant makes "parts for Humvees and Stryker combat vehicles destined for Afgahnistan and Iraq.</p>

APPLETON, Wis. - An Appleton native is the creator of the iconic "blue fist" graphic in the shape of Wisconsin used in spring protests at the state Capitol. Graphic artist Carrie Worthen graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. She now lives and works in Los Angeles, but she kept in touch with members of the AFL-CIO and, in February, the union asked her to take the germ of the fist idea and make it stand out. "To me it needed to be bold and clear and loud and simple," Worthen told Wisconsin Public Radio.

Occupy movement wants to start a financial institutionBy: Dan Schreiber | 11/23/11 2:38 PM Examiner Staff Writer Call it the First Bank of Occupy. The denizens of the embattled tent city on San Francisco’s Justin Herman Plaza have been pushing for folks to close their accounts at big banks and put the money in credit unions instead. Now, the movement wants to form its own institution to keep their money out of the hands of the reviled 1 percent. A survey circulating Facebook and other social networking sites asks some simple questions that occupiers hope will relay the demand for...

In a push to expand across California without interference, Walmart is increasingly taking advantage of the state's initiative system to threaten elected officials with costly special elections and to avoid environmental lawsuits. The Arkansas-based retailer has hired paid signature gatherers to circulate petitions to build new superstores or repeal local restrictions on big-box stores. Once 15 percent of eligible voters sign the petitions, state election law puts cash-strapped cities in a bind: City councils must either approve the Walmart-drafted measure without changes or put it to a special election. As local officials grapple with whether to spend tens of thousands...

Workers at a Detroit defense factory have been caught on video allegedly drinking and smoking pot during their lunch breaks, then appearing to return to their jobs where they make parts for armored military vehicles.

Union County, Ill., authorities are currently looking for a fugitive from justice. In a statement released jointly by their offices, Union County Sheriff David Livesay and Union County State's Attorney Tyler R. Edmonds are seeking the public's help in apprehending Bryan T. Todd, who was last believed to be in the Anna area. The request for help from the public was put out at 9:20 a.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 23.

Leaders of the Service Employees International Union last week officially endorsed President Barack Obama for re-election in 2012. Endorsing a presidential candidate 11 months before the general election may seem a bit premature, but it’s not even the record for the earliest endorsements so far in this cycle. The National Education Association endorsed Obama in July, 14 months before the voting. While these early endorsements highlight the fact that Big Labor’s leaders are cheerleaders (and paymasters) for the Democratic Party, at least voters will have plenty of time between now and next November to weigh all the facts, policy positions...

Governor Dayton reportedly made a promise to union leaders to sign the executive order in exchange for their support in the last election. Greedy union bosses want to skim union dues from taxpayer-funded subsidies designed to help poor parents pay for childcare services. And childcare providers are just the beginning. In other states, family members caring for relatives with disabilities have also been forced to join a union.

EU officials concluded that, following a three-year investigation, there was no evidence to prove the previously undisputed fact. Producers of bottled water are now forbidden by law from making the claim and will face a two-year jail sentence if they defy the edict, which comes into force in the UK next month. Last night, critics claimed the EU was at odds with both science and common sense. Conservative MEP Roger Helmer said: “This is stupidity writ large. “The euro is burning, the EU is falling apart and yet here they are: highly-paid, highly-pensioned officials worrying about the obvious qualities of...

USA Today came out with a one year forecasted jobs growth graph that has some interesting results. According to the survey, the only states that are forecasted to grow jobs by 2% or more are Right-to-Work states – Wyoming, Utah and Oklahoma (Note: USA Today does not identify states in this way). The majority of states slated to see negative job growth are 7 to 1 Forced Union states, Georgia being the only exception as the sole Right-to-Work state.

November 16, 2011 Dear xxxxx: I have not written since the elections. Partly because we've been extremely busy, and partly because I just needed to ponder the results. I thank each of you who worked in the campaigns for friends of education, and I thank all of you who voted. We won eight of our twelve targeted races. The VEA Fund recommended 36 House candidates. Twenty-three of those candidates won for a winning percentage of 64%. The VEA Fund recommended 25 Senate candidates. Nineteen of those candidates won for a winning percentage of 76%. We lost the Senator that has...

Robert Haynes and his wife, Patricia, take care of their cerebral palsy-stricken son and daughter in their Macomb Township home. Taxpayers help out with monthly checks to the Haynes family. The checks, which are sent by the state, allow them to keep their son and daughter at home instead of having them institutionalized. But some of the taxpayer dollars that are supposed to go to the Haynes family are being siphoned off. The state takes a $30 monthly deduction from the checks and sends it to the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). This deduction is the result of the forced...

Gov. Mark Dayton on Tuesday ordered an election to allow Minnesota's in-home child care providers to vote on whether to unionize. But his executive order drew swift response from Republicans who vowed to sue to prevent the vote. "There is nothing in Minnesota law that provides the governor with the power to do the thing that he says he's going to do," said Sen. David Hann, R-Eden Prairie, who chairs the Senate health and human services committee. "And I think the real question for us is, what do you do with a governor who won't follow the law?" Dayton, a...

Pat Santeramo, long-time president of the Broward Teachers Union, is under investigation amid accusations he blew through $3.8 million in union reserves, used dues to reimburse people for campaign donations and has been overpaid for most of his tenure. Santeramo, 64, said through his lawyer Monday he had no plans to resign, despite a criminal investigation by the Broward State Attorney's Office and a separate inquiry by the Florida Elections Commission.

Server issues prevented me from posting this over the weekend. Much of what is on the page has already been widely seen. Cept for maybe the the picture of the defiled flag I managed to get hold of before it could be burned by the occupy folks.

Workers at General Motors’ Fairfax plant in Kansas City, Kansas, have won the right to call themselves prisoners. GM suspended around eight workers this week and last for wearing T-shirts that read “Fairfax Penitentiary Inmate.” The shirts protest increasingly strict conditions in the factory. Yesterday, after the controversy aired on the evening news as far away as St. Louis, the company backed down and asked suspended workers to return to work at full pay.

The agenda for a North American Union is underway and a new security perimeter deal will blur the lines at the border and further erode the sovereignty of Canadians and Americans. On November 13th Stephen Harper, Barack Obama and Felipe Calderon will meet for the North American Leaders Summit to discuss their plans for the NAU. Meanwhile CETA the Canadian-European Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement presents itself as a major step towards a New World Order and the centralization of power.

A Los Angeles city fire captain is on leave after for allegedly falsifying his timecard after auditors found he was paid $50,000 in vacation time last year, according to a report Wednesday. Capt. Eric Vasquez was paid nearly $77,000 above his base salary of $108,000 — the equivalent of nearly 23 weeks of pay — in vacation, overtime and bonus pay, according to payroll information obtained by the Daily News under the California Public Records Act. The alleged falsification by Vasquez, a 17-year LAFD veteran whose duties involved supervising time sheet data entry — including his own — were discovered...

Issue 2 in Ohio has failed. Unions poured a gazillion dollars into Ohio and won. Despite having a sense of this outcome for some time it still stings. Believe it or not, a great many felt that these reforms were important steps in bring fiscal and structural sanity to government. The voters clearly did not get that message. The media is going to try and play this as horse race politics. Governor John Kasich lost and the Democrats won. And obviously, in some important sense – even if only in the fact the story and perspective being conventional wisdom –...