Free Republic

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%...

<p>SAN FRANCISCO — Netflix has provoked the ire of some of its 23 million subscribers by raising its prices by as much as 60 percent for those who want to rent DVDs by mail and watch video on the Internet.</p>

Los Angeles, CA (AP) -- Newly released documents show that Bell officials defended enormous salary increases to the California pension system, which decided not to challenge them. The California Public Employees' Retirement System released documents Thursday noting that its 2006 audit found the City Manager, Robert Rizzo, had received a 47-percent salary increase in one year. But the assistant city manager wrote CalPERS that the raise reflected Rizzo's contributions to the small Los Angeles suburb, including helping it resolve a multimillion-dollar debt. She also defended pay increases for herself and the City Council. CalPERS then ruled the city had provided...

<p>Instead of quelling a growing outcry for more information on an alleged political bargain, the White House has raised more questions and calls for an investigation after its shocking revelation on Friday that it recruited former President Bill Clinton to pitch a possible administration role to Rep. Joe Sestak if he would sit out the Pennsylvania Democratic Senate primary.</p>

Could the swine flu usher in martial law? An emergency physician from Fort Hood, Texas, weighs in on that possibility. Lawmakers in Massachusetts are considering Senate Bill 2028, a pandemic response bill that will give public health officials and law enforcement complete control over citizens of the Commonwealth. Under the bill, should a pandemic be declared, the aforementioned officials will have authority to quarantine and forcibly immunize citizens. Any citizens resisting will face stiff fines and up to 30 days in prison. The bill also gives authorities the right to seize private property and supplies and redistribute them as they...

Several Miami-Dade commissioners are demanding drastic cuts to Mayor Carlos Alvarez's budget amid revelations he gave generous raises to favored staffers while pushing for unprecedented job and salary cuts throughout the rest of County Hall.

AUSTIN — Gov. Rick Perry, raising the specter of a showdown with the Obama administration, suggested Thursday that he would consider invoking states’ rights protections under the 10th Amendment to resist the president’s healthcare plan, which he said would be "disastrous" for Texas. Interviewed by conservative talk show host Mark Davis of Dallas’ WBAP/820 AM, Perry said his first hope is that Congress will defeat the plan, which both Perry and Davis described as "Obama Care." But should it pass, Perry predicted that Texas and a "number" of states might resist the federal health mandate.

WASHINGTON – The increased use of ethanol could cost the government up to $900 million for food stamps and child nutrition programs, a congressional report says. Higher use of the corn-based fuel additive accounted for about 10 percent to 15 percent of the rise in food prices between April 2007 and April 2008 .. The CBO said other factors, such as skyrocketing energy costs, had an even greater impact than ethanol on food prices during that period. .. Ethanol's impact on future food prices is uncertain, the report says, because an increased supply of corn has the potential to eventually...

Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon said today that she intends to keep a $3,700 pay increase quietly granted last month by a powerful city spending panel on which she serves. Dixon said that she, City Comptroller Joan M. Pratt, City Council President Stephanie C. Rawlings-Blake and other members of the City Council all deserved increases because city employee union members this year also got pay hikes.

SACRAMENTO — – Fed up with large pay raises for executives of California's public universities, the chairman of the Assembly's higher-education committee introduced legislation yesterday that would freeze salaries of state employees who make more than $150,000 a year. The measure specifically includes executives and other high-paid officials at the California State University system. It urges the University of California system – which enjoys constitutional autonomy – to impose the same restraints. “I've been pretty outraged by CSU's and UC's continued executive-compensation practices during a time of, first, budget uncertainty and now full-blown crisis,” said committee Chairman Anthony Portantino, D-Pasadena....

The Legislature's nonpartisan fiscal watchdog says prison guards already earn enough money and don't need a 5 percent pay raise proposed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Legislative Analyst Elizabeth Hill says the state can't afford raises for 30,000 prison guards as it battles a widening budget gap. Veteran guards draw nearly $74,000 in salaries - not counting overtime and annual benefits worth $16,000. Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, D-Los Angeles, welcomes the analysis. The California Correctional Peace Officers Association spent $2 million to defeat Nunez' proposal on Tuesday's ballot for term limit changes that would have let Nunez and Senate leader Don...

It's starting to seem like a tradition in the Golden State: pay raises for the highest-paid elected officials in the country while their budgets go bare. This week, Sacramento's legislators got a boost to their paychecks. They were already the best-paid legislators in the country, but still they got a $3,111 a year raise, to $116,208 with only a few declining the increase. That's on top of their generous per diems, state cars, and large office staffs. And what have these pols done to earn this boost? Let's see: redistricting legislation? Nope. Health care reform? Nope. Solved the budget problems?...

WASHINGTON, June 29, 2007 – As the nation’s servicemembers continue to fight the global war on terrorism, a group is working to make sure the Americans they’re defending are aware of their sacrifices. “The Greer Foundation raises public awareness of the sacrifices of serving the nation through outreach and commentary on the war on terror,” said Steve Greer, the group’s founder. His experiences as an Army command sergeant major in Kosovo and other places that give him the knowledge base for this endeavor, he added. Greer retired from the Army in January 2003, and started the foundation that same...

MOSCOW - Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday that a planned U.S. missile shield in Central Europe was unacceptable because it would extend American control deep into Russian airspace, not deter Iran as Washington claims. NATO officials called for calm in the dispute, which escalated when Putin threatened on Thursday to pull out of a key European arms-control treaty if no agreement was reached.

ARTESIA, N.M. - The U.S. Border Patrol's push to expand the number of agents on the lookout for illegal crossings has some current and former agents worried that the pressure will lead to corner cutting and will jeopardize public safety. Raising the Border Patrol's numbers from about 12,000 to 18,000 by the end of 2008 is a key element of President Bush's plan to improve security along the border, crossed by tens of thousands of illegal immigrants each year. The sprawling Border Patrol Academy here in southeastern New Mexico recently started launching two 50-student classes each week, compared to one...

SACRAMENTO — The top aide to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger could earn a state salary exceeding $200,000 a year as part of a round of raises the governor is preparing to award his senior deputies. The raises could lift some salaries among the 185 people working in the governor's office to $169,500 in certain cases, with the governor's chief of staff, Susan P. Kennedy, eligible for up to $225,000. Kennedy now collects a state salary of $143,000, and the most senior aides beneath her earn about $134,000. The pay hikes were set in motion last year, when the governor signed a...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger once claimed to be a market advocate like Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman. The governor's not going to win any economics prizes. First, he submitted a $143 billion state budget, reflecting a 9.1 percent spending increase, which the state Legislative Analyst criticized for its overly optimistic assumptions. Next the governor proposed that the overextended state government issue billions of dollars of additional debt on top of $42 billion that voters approved only last November. Then after promising no new taxes, he proposed billions of dollars in new "fees" on businesses, doctors and hospitals to pay for health...

SACRAMENTO - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's administration is expected to announce today pay raises of up to 27 percent for more than 50 top officials, saying the state must boost salaries to remain competitive with local governments that pay more. The new salaries taking effect April 1 won't cost taxpayers more, at least initially, but they will force state departments to make cuts or otherwise absorb the raises within existing personnel budgets. The hefty raises - 10 agency heads, for example, would see their annual salaries grow to $175,000, a 23 percent increase - come as Schwarzenegger is preaching the need...

SACRAMENTO — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, once a critic of patronage in government, has rewarded 29 aides from his reelection campaign with state jobs, promotions and hefty raises. Jeffrey Wyly left the state labor agency last spring to work for the governor's reelection. After Schwarzenegger won, Wyly returned to the agency with a promotion and a $20,304 raise. At 26, Wyly is now paid $75,000 a year — a 37% bump — to help enact Schwarzenegger's labor agenda. Administration staffers from the governor's first term who were employed by Californians for Schwarzenegger in 2006 today earn an average 27% more than...

Cola Raises Women's Osteoporosis Risk 10.06.06, 12:00 AM ET FRIDAY, Oct. 6 (HealthDay News) -- Cola may not be so sweet for women's bones, according to new research that suggests the beverage boosts osteoporosis risk. "Among women, cola beverages were associated with lower bone mineral density," said lead researcher Katherine Tucker, director of the Epidemiology and Dietary Assessment Program at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University. There was a pretty clear dose-response, Tucker added. "Women who drink cola daily had lower bone mineral density than those who drink it only once a week,"...