Free Republic

SALT LAKE CITY -- A gay rights group says it is securing Republican support in the Utah state Legislature for anti-discrimination laws. The Deseret News reports members of the Utah Log Cabin Republicans, a gay and lesbian political group, say two bills granting gays extra rights in Utah will have GOP sponsors when they go before the Legislature in the 2010 session. The group is not saying who those sponsors are. One of the measures is similar to an ordinance approved in Salt Lake City that states gay workers can't be fired because of their sexuality. The Deseret News reports...

CHICAGO -- They're antsy and edgy, tired of waiting for promotion opportunities at work as their elders put off retirement. A good number of them are just waiting for the economy to pick up so they can hop to the next job, find something more fulfilling and get what they think they deserve. Oh, and they want work-life balance, too. Sounds like Gen Y, the so-called "entitlement generation," right? Not necessarily, say people who track the generations. In these hard times, they're also hearing strong rumblings of discontent from Generation X. They're the 32- to 44-year-olds who are wedged between...

Details here. So this is what it has come to -- this is the fruit of the long-term efforts by groups such as the Council on American-Islamic Relations and others, to stigmatize and demonize everyone who speaks honestly about the threat of jihad and Islamic supremacism. People are afraid to speak up about what they see, when they know it is wrong. And all it cost this week was 13 dead and 38 wounded.

WPTV: Last month, when Trevor Keezer started bringing his Bible to work, Keezer says his manager confronted him about the ["One nation under God, indivisible."] button. "That's when I was told it had to come off, or I would be sent home. So they sent me home for six straight days without pay. And then today they terminated me."

A manager at a Massachusetts retail store claims he was unjustly fired after he told a colleague he thought her impending marriage to another woman was wrong.

A Massachusetts man was fired from a national retail corporation because of his traditional beliefs on same-sex marriage. Peter Vadala was formally dismissed from his job as second deputy manager of the Brookstone store at Boston’s Logan Airport on August 12, 2009, after a supervisor reported him to Human Resources regarding an incident two days earlier.

A short workweek and the prospect of early retirement. Job-protection laws that make it almost impossible to get fired. Seven weeks of holidays and vacation time a year. Oh, and paid lunches. A harried American worker might ask: What's not to like? And a dissatisfied French worker might respond: Plenty. A wave of suicides at the country's largest telecommunications firm has unnerved France, long viewed by many outside the country as a cushy haven for employees. Experts say the incidents are the most visible examples of the growing phenomenon of stress-induced illness in the country. Marie Peze opened the first...

I have been job-hunting for some time now and applying for jobs online. I applied for one job in particular which is an office job and received the following email in response to my application and resume: "I have reviewed your resume and I am very interested in hiring you. Before I can setup an appointment, I would need your recent credit score. Your credit score is required because the position you applied for includes handling company cash and using a company credit card. Don't worry, if your score is low for a legitimate reason, you will have an opportunity...

Union anger over the Federal Aviation Administration's decision to revoke the licenses of two Northwest Airlines pilots threatens to disrupt voluntary safety-reporting programs used by many carriers, according to industry officials. FAA regulators Tuesday revoked the licenses of both pilots aboard Northwest Flight 188, which failed to respond to air-traffic controllers for about 90 minutes. The union isn't defending actions of the pilots, who asked to be protected under voluntary reporting rules. But officials of the Air Line Pilots Association claim regulators jumped the gun and disregarded voluntary procedures worked out over many years among regulators, airlines and unions. The...

A Florida man says he was fired from his job at The Home Depot for wearing an American flag pin that said "One nation under God, indivisible." Trevor Keezer, 20, said he had worn the button ever since he started working at the home improvement retailer 19 months ago. He said it was his way of supporting U.S. troops, the Florida Sun-Sentinel reported. Keezer, whose brother Army Spc. Steven Keezer Jr. is set to return to Iraq in December, said none of his supervisors had anything negative to say about the pin until last month when he began bringing his...

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Kansas City Chiefs running back Larry Johnson issued his second apology in the past yearTuesday and was told to stay away from the team while the NFL and the Chiefs complete their investigation into his use of a gay slur.. his references to the media in this week's controversial "tweets" to his fans. As Johnson was releasing his apology, a national gay rights advocacy organization called on the league and the team to take disciplinary action against the two-time Pro Bowler. The latest chapter in Johnson's stormy career began Sunday night when he questioned coach Todd...

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – A former cashier for The Home Depot who has been wearing a "One nation under God" button on his work apron for more than a year has been fired, he says because of the religious reference. The company claims that expressing such personal beliefs is simply not allowed. "I've worn it for well over a year and I support my country and God," Trevor Keezor said Tuesday. "I was just doing what I think every American should do, just love my country." The American flag button Keezer wore in the Florida store since March 2008...

When Suzanne Fetting sees women shuffling down sidewalks in heels way too high for them, it makes the confidence coach crazy. "Instead of lifting their feet up and planting them gracefully, they do a little thing called shuffling," says Fetting, a former runway model. "It drives me nuts." And if they aren't dragging their feet forward, they wear the heels the way they wear running shoes. "They don't have that sexy sway that you get when you activate the hips," she says, adding you have to do that if you wear five-inch stilettos. Fetting, who'll be speaking this weekend at...

ESPN fired Steve Phillips on Sunday, less than a week after a newspaper revealed that he had had an affair with a 22-year-old production assistant with the network. “Steve Phillips is no longer working for ESPN,” the network said in a statement. “His ability to be an effective representative for ESPN has been significantly and irreparably damaged, and it became evident it was time to part ways.”

It’s that time of year. College seniors from around the world are graduating, and they are hitting the career world looking for a job. And the interesting thing is that most are not doing it alone. Many parents are by their Gen Y’s side and not just for support and to be a sounding board. If you are a helicopter parent who is hovering over your adult child’s job hunt and interview process, you may be hurting your child’s professional development and their chances to land the job. Helicopter parents have not only been bombarding college campuses, they are now...

TALK-SHOW host David Letterman has been recorded on tape having sex with a female staff member - and he is worried that the footage will eventually be leaked, it's reported today. Letterman, 62, recently admitted to having a series of sexual relationships with some of the women that work for him. The chat show host and a much-younger female co-worker have apparently been captured on a studio surveillance tape in a compromising position. “If the tape makes its way into the criminal case, it’ll explode his marriage to smithereens,” a source told the National Enquirer magazine.

A Pennslyvania firefighter was suspended without pay for refusing to remove an American flag sticker from his locker, Myfoxphilly.com reported. James Krapf of Chester, Pa., violated a department policy that states personal items can only be posted inside employee lockers when he stuck the flag on the outside. According to Myfoxphilly.com, the firefighters' union warned 11 others to remove personal items or face similar suspensions, all without pay.

ORONTO (Reuters) – A Canadian truck driver has been fined for smoking in his vehicle because it is considered his workplace, a police spokeswoman said on Friday. A police officer saw the 48-year-old trucker driving on a highway in southwestern Ontario with a cigarette in his mouth on Wednesday, and gave him a C$305 ($290) ticket. The Smoke-Free Ontario Act, adopted in 2006, prohibits smoking in an enclosed workplace or enclosed public area, and that extends to work vehicles, said Constable Shawna Coulter of the Ontario Provincial Police in Essex County.

(AP / CBS) It's not unusual for employees to be fired for browsing pornographic Web sites at work. But a Pennsylvania gun owner named Tony Jackson may have been the first person ever fired for looking at Web sites featuring gun parts. Jackson worked at a Lotus Notes administrator at Planco, a subsidiary of Hartford, Conn.-based insurance company The Hartford. He's a firearms instructor and self-described Second Amendment advocate who, while at work in May 2007, visited Web sites including shotgun maker Mossberg and Impact Guns's online store because he and his wife were planning on going skeet shooting and...

Women In the Workplace (As seen in 1944 training film) An old 1944 film on women in the workplace. It's been chopped up to the funniest moments. The original is available at http://www.archive.org

Nearly 30 former Procter & Gamble workers who were fired for e-mailing pictures of naked people and off-color jokes about President Obama through the company's computers are fighting to collect unemployment benefits, saying they didn't do anything wrong because "everyone else" did it, too. At a hearing Friday in South Scranton, the company's attorney, Ben Josielevski of Scranton, said the workers broke harassment and discrimination policies that are laid out in the company's business conduct manual, which employees are required to sign. Twenty-nine workers at the Procter & Gamble plant in Washington Twp. near Mehoopany were fired in two rounds...

David Letterman, who built his career skewering philandering politicians and show business “weasels” and “boneheads,” finds himself in the middle of his own celebrity scandal, after he admitted having multiple affairs with employees of his production company, Worldwide Pants. For the intensely private Mr. Letterman, the revelations, which resulted from a bizarre extortion attempt, are sure to be extremely embarrassing, especially as he tries to extend his lead in the late-night contest. ”I have had sex with women who work for me on this show,” he told his audience on Thursday night, calling himself “creepy.” He added that he hoped...

Weird. And awful. According to a press release sent by Letterman’s PR reps, the host first received a package three weeks ago from someone who claimed to have information about alleged sexual relations he has had with female employees of the “Late Show.”… “This morning, I did something I’ve never done in my life,” Letterman said on Thursday’s edition of CBS’ “Late Show.” “I had to go downtown and testify before a grand jury.” As part of the testimony, Letterman admitted that he had engaged in sexual relationships with staff members. “My response to that is, yes I have. Would...

A con artist who claimed to have proof that David Letterman bedded several female staff members tried to extort $2 million from the the funnyman, he told his audience Thursday night. The stunning admission came hours after Letterman testified before a grand jury and admitted to "sexual relationships with members of his staff." "This morning, I did something I've never done in my life," said Letterman. "I had to go downtown and testify before a grand jury." The "Late Show" host received a package from an individual who claimed to have information on his dalliances with female employees and said...

A hospital employee dressed in a gorilla costume and passing out bananas to the sounds of “Hail to the Chief” may have been an effort to recognize employees for a job well done, but some Regional Medical Center trustees are calling the incident offensive and racist. Trustees Betty Henderson and Dr. Oscar Butler Jr. called for greater sensitivity and diversity training opportunities on the part of hospital staff and employees to ensure a similar incident does not reoccur. “I know in the beginning in six days God created the earth and on the seventh day he made man,” Henderson said....

It’s hard to get students these days to pay attention in class, so the Rev. William Brooks decided the best way to get their eyes focused on the teacher is to replace them with big-breasted ones. Brooks, the headmaster at St. Mark’s Episcopal School in Fort Lauderdale, is accused of trying to fire all of his old female teachers and replacing them with “buxom ones,” according to a letter to the school from U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The letter will likely be included in a lawsuit from some of the teachers who feel left out in the cold because...

A white Philadelphia police officer who came to work with his hair in cornrows was ordered by a superior to get a haircut, even though black colleagues wear the same type of braids. The Philadelphia Daily News reported Monday that Officer Thomas Strain was put on desk duty earlier this month because of the hairstyle. A police spokesman, Lt. Frank Vanore, said Strain's boss didn't feel the braids were "professional."

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. — A former IBM employee who was fired for visiting an adult chat room while at work is appealing a court decision against him. The worker, 60-year-old James Pacenza (Puh-SEHN'-zuh), claims combat stress from Vietnam made him a sex-and-Internet addict who should have been treated, not dismissed.

A call by the Society of Chiropodists and Podiatrists asking employers to work with unions to conduct risk assessments and if necessary allow workers to replace high heels with comfortable shoes in the workplace created a controversy this week. Unions passed a motion at the Trades Union Congress conference demanding that women have the right to comfortable footwear in the workplace. Defenders of the stiletto claimed that unions were attempting to ban the shoes in the workplace, but the podiatrists defended their position, stating that high heels can cause such foot problems as blisters, corns, calluses, damaged joints, knee and...

RALEIGH, N.C. - Crystal Lee Sutton, whose fight to unionize Southern textile plants with low pay and poor conditions was dramatized in the film "Norma Rae," has died. She was 68. Sutton died Friday in a hospice after a long battle with brain cancer, her son, Jay Jordan, said Monday. "She fought it as long as she could and she crossed on over to her new life," he said. Union organizers had targeted J.P. Stevens, then the country's second-largest textile manufacturer , because the industry was deeply entwined in Southern culture and spread across the region's small towns. However, North...

Within the past year Sarah Schupp has hired five new employees with freshly minted college degrees. She fired one on his first day for inappropriate sexual comments to a co-worker. Another lasted a week before getting a pink slip. ..." you can't call in sick at 7:45 a.m. just because you don't want to come to work at 8 a.m." Jeanne Achille also was disappointed with the hiring of a recent college hire, promoted by a university professor as a "superstar" and fired after three weeks when it was discovered she spent hours online at work visiting a dating site....

Today's most over used and abused office buzzwords are more effective at prompting eye rolls rather than real action, according to an Accountemps executive. “When business or industry terms become overused, people stop paying attention to them,” said Accounttemps Chairman Max Messmer, who is the author of Managing Your Career For Dummies. Many of this year's words like "synergy," "on the same page" and "think outside the box" were also noted as exhausted in a 2004 survey. These are 2009's office buzzwords that need to be retired: * Leverage: As in, “We intend to leverage our investment in IT infrastructure...

Obama credits Unions with creating modern benefits like paid leave and minimum wage . The facts are that unions had nothing to do with the federal laws that created both. In fact Unions opposed the passage of federal laws that provided such benefits. At a federal level FMLA passed in 1993 provides provides for only 12 weeks of unpaid family leave to workers that work at a business with 50 or more employees. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paid_Family_Leave. At the time of the law's passage about 30% of workers nationwide received such benefits, and today about the same number do so. FMLA did not...

Teachers are demanding the right to get drunk at weekends as they protest against a tough new code of conduct. More than 10,000 have signed a petition calling for the scrapping of rules which require them to uphold 'public trust' in their profession outside school. The code, drawn up by the General Teaching Council [GTC] and coming into force next month, aims to reinforce the traditional role of teachers as pillars of society. It urges teachers to act as role models for pupils inside and outside the classroom by maintaining 'reasonable standards in their own behaviour'. One teacher, who asked...

The Employment Non-Discrimination Act of 2009 (ENDA) is a proposed federal law which would have the effect, according to the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), of "making it illegal to fire, refuse to hire or refuse to promote employees simply based on a person's sexual orientation or gender identity." ENDA (H.R. 2981 - H.R. 3017 - S. 1584) has been changed from the "gay-only" version the House passed in 2007 to include language banning job discrimination based on "gender identity" as well as sexual orientation - complete with special protections for the transgendered. It would mean your child's teacher, if he...

A transgender driver's return behind the wheel of a taxi has lasted just a month. Andre Edwards, 51, walked out of her job at Leyland-based Eco Cabs following a series of rows with her new bosses – and they don't want her back. The move comes less than a month after the Evening Post revealed how the company, based on Mellor Road, had given her a chance to work two months after she was sacked from Leyland Taxis

Momentum is building for Congress to pass the first major civil rights act protecting gays and transsexuals, supporters say, and one of the stars in the debate is a barrier-breaking transgender staffer on Capitol Hill. The Employment Non-Discrimination Act, or ENDA, would prohibit workplace discrimination - including decisions about hiring, firing and wages - based on sexual orientation or gender identity. It would exempt religious organizations, the military and businesses with less than 15 workers. The driving force behind the bill has been Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., the longest-serving of the three openly gay members of Congress. He expects hearings...

We talked yesterday about anti-gun David Michaels, Obama's pick to head the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. And we saw that a "public health" excuse for infringing on the right to keep and bear arms has been used in the past. Continuing from "Second Opinion: Measuring the Violence": A pilot project at CDC in the 1990s to monitor firearm fatalities drew ire from gun advocates and was stopped after three years. Now all money appropriated to CDC to study injuries comes with a stipulation from Congress that the funds cannot be used to advocate for gun control. Why was that?...

BROOMFIELD, Colo. -- Two college students who tackled a shoplifter at a Best Buy in Broomfield, Colo., have been fired. Jared Bergstreser, 20, and Colin Trapp, 23, were fired Sunday, two weeks after they tried to stop a man fleeing the store at the FlatIron Marketplace, reported KMGH-TV in Denver. "A gentleman came by us in a red shirt with a bunch of product in his hand. It was pretty obvious that he hadn't paid for it yet," Trapp said. "I just kind of reacted. I wasn't thinking about it and followed the guy out the front door and tackled...

<p>An IRS staffer who had no clue that her work e-mail was being audited got canned for sending out an anti-Barack Obama message in the heat of the 2008 presidential campaign.</p>

A little more than a year ago, while we were preparing to welcome our first child, my wife and I decided to move from Kansas to Philly. We loved Lawrence, a university town with some great basketball and plenty of talk about “diversity”—but all that meant was that Lawrence voted Democrat while the rest of the state voted Republican. The reality was that barely 5 percent of the town’s population was black. We decided to get away from Lawrence’s comfy ivory-tower atmosphere and move someplace where our son wouldn’t be surrounded by people who looked, talked and believed the exact...

Report: Over 40% of employers running credit checks on job applicants. Not unlawful; perhaps "distasteful." Congress looking at new law to outlaw this practice.

SEATTLE — A Seattle bank teller has lost his job because he ran down a would-be bank robber and held him until police arrived. Jim Nicholson, who worked at a Key Bank branch, says he understands the bank's policy that employees comply with robbery demands and avoid dangerous confrontations. But he tells The Seattle Times that his instincts took over when the man demanded money during the Tuesday incident. Nicholson says he tried to grab the man, then chased him several blocks before knocking him down with help from a passer-by. The man turned out to be unarmed. The 30-year-old...

WASHINGTON -- SEIU leader Andy Stern is using alliances with big business to push for a prominent seat at the table in Washington's health-care debate, annoying some other union leaders in the process. The most notable ally of the Service Employees International Union president is Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world's largest retailer and a company most labor officials cite as their anti-union poster child. Mr. Stern and Wal-Mart sent a joint letter to the White House on June 30 saying they support requiring employers to provide health insurance. It was a controversial move for Wal-Mart, because most other large companies...

ST. PAUL, Minn., July 20 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-MN) announced today that a Wal-Mart store in that state has agreed to accommodate a Muslim employee's right to pray in the workplace. CAIR-MN said the religious accommodation came after its intervention in the case of a Muslim Wal-Mart employee who was reportedly fired for violating a new supervisor's ban on prayer during work breaks. A previous supervisor had allowed the worker to perform his daily prayers. Following discussions between CAIR-MN and local and national representatives of Wal-Mart, the Muslim worker was re-hired and...

People for the American Way, the left-wing smear machine, is (In the words of McClatchy press service) quietly targeting Frank Ricci, the Connecticut firefighter whose successful lawsuit for racial discrimination has proven to be so inconvenient for Judge Sotomayor. Specifically, People for the American Way, along with other such drive-by hit artists, is urging reporters to scrutinize Ricci's allegedly "troubled and litigious work history." So far, the lefty blogosphere, at least, has taken up the call. Ricci is on the list of witnesses Republican Senators will call at Sotomayor's confirmation hearing. But does this make his "litigious work history" an...

The Supreme Court tweaked the edges of discrimination law in its New Haven firefighters decision last week, but otherwise left the evasions and euphemisms of that hoary edifice largely intact. This is probably as it should be. It is not for the Court to deconstruct our official legal discourse about race unless it is explicitly asked to do so. But the political branches need not be so constrained. Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s upcoming confirmation hearings are the perfect occasion to question the assumptions that underlie the race industry, since Sotomayor, with her history of launching racism accusations, has been, and promises...

SEOUL (AFP) — Almost three-quarters of South Korean male office workers feel uncomfortable when female colleagues show too much leg or cleavage in the workplace, a survey has revealed. A poll of 1,254 employees by the job portal site CareerNet found that 74 percent of men felt upset with the attire of their female co-workers. Some 56 percent of them cited micro-miniskirts as their chief complaint, while 51 percent objected to excessive cleavage.

Unions: We’re Better Off Without Them How the Obama administration's push for the Employee Free Choice Act could cripple the backbone of the economy: small businesses. By Kevin Kelly | NEWSWEEK Published Jul 6, 2009 I got the call from my assistant just as I was getting seated on a plane with my family heading to Dallas for Thanksgiving. "I thought you better know this," she said with pain in her voice, "OHSA is here." Three words that would chill any business owner. Because if an Occupational Health and Safety Administration inspector shows up unannounced it means someone in your...

Behind the bipartisan motives for employer-provided health insurance. On Tuesday the CEO of Wal-Mart, long the bête noire of the American left, issued a joint statement with SEIU head Andy Stern and Center for American Progress President John Podesta, two close allies of Barack Obama, supporting the administration's health reform efforts. The letter called for bipartisan reforms that include an employer mandate to purchase health insurance for their employees. An odd alliance? Maybe. But when two camps eye the same goal for separate reasons, they can become unlikely bedfellows.