Tag: employment

White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said Tuesday that President Trump's primary focus is on the safety of the American people, and that Democrats are "too busy playing politics instead of doing their jobs." In addressing the president's remarks about the possibility of shutting down the southern border with Mexico, Sanders argued that even former President Obama's Department of Homeland Security Secretary agreed last week that there is a "crisis" at the border, and pointed to more widespread acceptance of President Trump's declarations. As for the strict measures the president is proposing for the border, she added, "Democrats in Congress are leaving us no choice. They're unwilling to work with us to fix this problem because they're too busy playing politics to do their jobs." Among renewed concerns about how closing the border would negatively impact jobs and the national GDP, Sanders said that Mexico has been cooperating more in recent weeks by participating in the illegal immigration process, stopping people from crossing and offering asylum on their side of the border. "Democrats may not care about that, they may be perfectly fine watching women and children exploited as they make the treacherous journey up from the south across the southern border." Sanders' response was that Democrats are only attempting to get the full report because Attorney General William Barr's summary wasn't as critical of President Trump as they expected. "It just shows what sore losers Democrats really are," she said. "They went out and lied about what they expected the Mueller report to tell America, and they got it wrong." Sanders argued that a vote could not take place now because Democrats are "controlled by the far radical left wing of their party," and want to pioneer a "government takeover" of health care that tells Americans what they can and can't do with their bodies.

In his CNN Commentary, Hickenlooper reaffirmed the (capitalist) notion that it is the private sector that drives jobs growth. But there is much that needs to be rethought.

LAS VEGAS - Should the names of retired public employees be public, along with the amounts of their pension? But in 2013, courts ruled that a separate report containing the names, pension amounts and related information was public, and ordered it released. Flash forward to Friday, when democratic state Senator Julia Ratti of Sparks introduced Senate Bill 224, which would specifically keep names confidential, but release the ID number, pension amount and some other information. Ratti got a similar bill through the 2017 session, but it was vetoed. Ratti and the public employee unions who testified in favor said the bill is needed to prevent identity theft, protect public workers including police officers and to shield vulnerable seniors from unscrupulous scam artists. And Ratti also contended that even though the contributions to PERS come from taxpayer-paid salaries and local government matching funds, they aren't taxpayer money. Privacy. When we are prying into their individual accounts, we are not looking at taxpayer money, we are looking that that individual's earned benefit, no different than if I wanted to know about the contents of each of your personal retirement accounts," said Sen. Ratti. And Rob Fellner of the NPRI said some lawmakers voting on the bill have a conflict, since there are several state and local government employees and retirees serving in Carson City. Ratti's 2017 bill passed the legislature on a party-line vote, so it's probably got a good chance of passing this time around.

Laurence “Larry” Fink, the founder and chief executive of BlackRock, recently told the firm’s 14,000 employees that he is instituting potentially the most aggressive diversity program in Corporate America ensuring that, “a bunch of white men”, will no longer be running the world’s largest money management firm. Larry Fink, BlackRock CEO, speech to employees The comments, obtained by FOX Business and confirmed by a BlackRock spokeswoman, come as Fink has ruffled feathers inside his company, as well as among some clients for embracing a number of progressive political causes and advocating what has been described as “corporate socialism” – a management concept that implores CEOs to run their companies in a way that doesn’t just benefit shareholders, but also “the communities in which they operate.” In his comments on diversity, Fink used surprisingly strident language and said executives could see their paychecks cut if they didn’t meet certain hiring goals, according to a text of his remarks. Fink, of course, isn’t the only CEO who supports progressive politics. To be sure, Corporate America and Wall Street in particular, have begun various programs and incentives for management to attract and retain more women and minorities to their executive ranks. From Bond Trader to Wall St.'s Soapbox Orator Fink, 66, has had a long and distinguished career on Wall Street, well before he became Wall Street’s most prominent soapbox orator. It is more recently that Fink's commentary – in public speeches, employee meetings and his annual “Letter to CEOs” – has taken a distinctly political turn. While Fink is said to be enjoying the spotlight, fashioning himself as the liberal conscience of Corporate America, competitors and many people inside BlackRock are less comfortable with his political commentary. “He’s just looking for publicity. He told employees that in 2019, BlackRock has achieved the highest percentage of women in the senior executive ranks, also known as managing directors. Women now comprise 56 percent of BlackRock’s new analyst class, and BlackRock has appointed five women to its board of directors.

WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—Most people who are innocent of any crimes will still need to hire thirty-five lawyers at some point, a new study shows. According to the study, commissioned by the University of Minnesota Law School, thirty-five is the “bare minimum” number of lawyers that an innocent person should have on retainer in the event that he or she becomes the subject of an entirely unjustified criminal investigation. “We found that many innocent people are going through life without taking the basic precaution of hiring thirty-five lawyers,” Professor Davis Logsdon, who supervised the study, said. “They are flirting with disaster.” “An innocent person who has absolutely nothing to hide should do everything in his or her power to avoid answering questions from investigators,” he said. “Thirty-five lawyers can really help you do that.” Additionally, Logsdon noted, hiring nearly three dozen lawyers is invaluable because of the powerful statement it makes. “Nothing says ‘I’m innocent’ like hiring thirty-five lawyers,” he said. Although some innocent people may balk at the unwieldy number of lawyers that the study recommends, Logsdon emphasized that thirty-five lawyers provide necessary protection against unforeseen legal complications. “If, for example, one of your lawyers goes to prison, you will still have thirty-four,” he said. Logsdon acknowledged that, although every innocent person should definitely hire thirty-five lawyers, such legal help does not come cheap. “Legal bills for thirty-five lawyers can be very expensive, unless you’re a person who doesn’t pay his bills,” he said.

In 2008, when Gov. Bobby Jindal took office, he proclaimed his goal for Louisiana to be the “gold standard” for government ethics. It’s in the legislative process, where legislators become lobbyists, but also in the rush of lawmakers into full-time jobs in the executive branch. The system erodes the belief of the people in their government. “There’s a whole flock of them,” said state Sen. Conrad Appel, a Metairie Republican who has often battled with the influential nursing home industry, but his comments fully apply to representatives of other well-heeled industries. “Do they have any extra authority because they were a legislator? “But they do have a leg up because they’re friends with people there, and they know how the system works, and they have contacts.” That is almost a textbook definition of what people don’t like about government, and why there is so much cynicism about how decisions are made in the State Capitol, but also elsewhere. The old “revolving door” of politicians using their experience — and, yes, their knowledge of complex subjects — for personal advancement is probably as old as the pharaohs of Egypt. It is certainly the case in Washington, where senior members of committees learn a lot about the bills related to energy or finance or other subjects, and then become lobbyists for the interests they served in office. As the report from The Advocate and Pro Publica shows, the revolving doors in the State Capitol continue, despite ethics laws — and Jindal’s 2008 push did dramatically improve law on legislators disclosing their interests — the “gold standard” isn’t enough.

Breaking News Alert (Henrietta Wildsmith/The Times) A disgruntled former city employee wearing a shirt with a mayoral candidate's name told Shreveport sanitation workers to call in sick to disrupt trash pickup, perhaps to hurt Mayor Ollie Tyler's chances in the coming runoff election, the mayor said Wednesday. Tyler said the former employee was wearing a campaign shirt for Adrian Perkins, the mayor's opponent in Saturday's election, and told sanitation workers that he soon would be their boss when instructing them not to appear for work on Monday and Tuesday — apparently suggesting that Perkins had tapped him to become city public works director. Sanitation and streets and drainage employees all work in the city Public Works Department. Tyler said the former employee's action appeared planned to affect the outcome of Saturday's election, although she said she couldn't be certain. "It's unfortunate if it was politically motivated." "I wouldn't have authorized this at all," Perkins said. Tyler and other city managers said 15 sanitation workers earlier this week called in sick and did not show up for work Monday and Tuesday, idling 10 to 12 collection trucks. Sheila Johnson, the union president for city employees, said the employees calling in sick were not politically motivated to do so. Crawford said the employees who called in sick attended a weekly safety meeting Wednesday morning with other employees but refused to stay when asked to assist in trash pickups. "We will not stand for employees playing politics with the daily operations of this city," Crawford said.

Employers added more jobs for the 93rd month in a row; Fox Business Network's Hillary Vaughn reports from Los Angeles. FOX News Channel (FNC) is a 24-hour all-encompassing news service dedicated to delivering breaking news as well as political and…

Website: http://AudreyforCongress.com Donate: http://bit.ly/Audrey4CongressTV Audrey Denny is running to unseat Doug LaMalfa and become the new U.S. Representative for California’s 1st Congressional District, which includes Butte, Lassen, Modoc, Plumas, Shasta, Sierra, Siskiyou, Tehama, Nevada, Glenn, and Placer counties. Facebook: http://facebook.com/AudreyforCongress…

Internal efforts to introduce a “secret science” initiative requiring all data used by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) be made public has been met with concern not only from scientists and environmentalists but from members of EPA head Scott Pruitt’s own staff. Smith has pushed for restricting the EPA’s use of scientific evidence, arguing the agency should only use scientific studies based on public data. And now, according to internal emails obtained by the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) and shared with ThinkProgress, even members of the EPA with deep industry ties are concerned about the initiative’s implications. Writing to Richard Yamada, who works for the EPA’s Office of Research and Development and previously had a role working with Rep. Smith in drafting legislation restricting scientific studies to public data, Beck highlighted the staggering costs associated with requiring data be published, as well as concern over the restrictions on using chemical industry data. “Making data available is very different than requiring a publication requirement. Additional emails obtained by UCS confirm that Smith met with Pruitt in early January to discuss implementing the HONEST Act administratively in order to bypass Congress. The documents indicate the current initiative is driven largely by politics, the UCS says, rather than concern for data integrity and the work the EPA does more broadly. Under Pruitt’s leadership, the agency has repeatedly touted work authored by deniers of climate science, in addition to elevating writing from conservative publications like the Daily Caller. The EPA head’s spending habits have drawn the ire of Congress, including the installation of a $43,000 sound-proof privacy booth. Questions over Pruitt’s alleged misuse of funds led 170 lawmakers to sign a resolution calling for his resignation on Wednesday.