crossposted from unbossed

Monsanto is in this picture, as in all things.The American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists just awarded John Henshaw one of its highest awards for promoting workplace safety. Of the reasons for this award, they said:

crossposted from unbossed

The US Solicitor General coming down on the side of the weak, sick, and poor? Yes, it's true..

crossposted from unbossed

Longtime unbossed readers will know that highway privatization has been one of our themes. They will remember the 2005 Roads Scholars series (with a link on the right column) that revealed the existence of a noncompete agreement as part of the Denver E-470 deal and laid out issues commonly part of highway privatization. Over the years since then, we have returned to this issue, and now it's time to look at Pennsylvania and the Turnpike privatization deal.

crossposted from unbossed

Who says that Republicans are not environmentally aware and overall friendly people? Take the Family-Friendly Workplace Act (H.R. 6025), introduced by  Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers [R, WA-5] and endorsed by 11 of her best friends in the House. After all, what could be more friendly than being friendly to families. And, best of all, this piece of legislation gets recycled every couple years or so. Though it's been longer than two years since the most recent stab at getting this pick the workers'pockets amendment to the Fair Labor Standards Act passed.

crossposted from unbossed

Which matters more? Providing health care to all children, or protecting insurance companies, even if it means poor children have no health care coverage?

crossposted from unbossed

Suppose there was a virulent disease that recently had swept through another country's livestock, forcing it to kill and burn them in the tens of thousands. And suppose that this disease was so contagious that German officials confiscated uneaten food from passengers who arrived on flights from this country, along with any items made from parts of the animals. And suppose just this past year there was another outbreak in that country, with more embargoes and slaughtered livestock. And suppose that this is "the most highly infectious animal disease that is known. Nearly 100 percent of exposed animals become infected." And now suppose that you were a government agency in the US that was doing live virus research on this virulent and dreaded disease and you were making a decision about where to place the laboratory. Would you choose to site it on the mainland US?

And, one more piece of information. Assume that you are the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

crossposted from unbossed

This week PA Gov. Rendell announced the winner of the "I Rule the PA Turnpike" Contest. And the winner, with an offer of  "$12.8 billion" is "a team led by Citi Infrastructure Investors and Abertis Infraestructuras with Criteria CaixaCorp investing alongside this team as a major shareholder of Abertis." Rendell may have a winner, but the people of Pennsylvania may find they have a real loser. How can $12.8 billion in found money be a loss?

Well, you might ask.

crossposted from unbossed

Of course, in this 2 page report, we never get beyond the puffing and the sunny claims that all is well in privatization-ville.  But the NTEU has OMB's number.

crossposted from unbossed

On April 30, Bush received a plan for developing a modern system for security clearances, Joint Security and Suitability Reform Team, Security and Suitability Process Reform Initial Report. Before you click on it, this is a short report short of real solutions, that somehow creates a pdf file that is huge and bloated. I regard that as a metaphor for the substance of the report itself.

This is the third in a series on the usurpation of power that has taken place in the federal administration agencies. They are taking away the right to sue pharmaceutical companies for serious injuries caused by dangerous drugs, among other things. The first part  described the basic problem.

To remind readers: This is huge

This is an action on the level of Congress' outlawing all state laws on this issue, something that I doubt they would do. This is why this court interpretation of the FDA's action here would seem to be an unconstitutional delegation of legislative power.

crossposted from unbossed

This is part two of a discussion of a disturbing trend by the Bush Administration. They are using obscure parts of federal agency regulations to destroy the right to sue manufacturers who have caused serious injuries. Part one described the revelation made by  reporter Pete Yost in hisWashington Post story - Bush administration rules limit lawsuits on May 13, 2008.

This is huge

This is an action on the level of Congress' outlawing all state laws on this issue, something that I doubt they would do. This is why this court interpretation of the FDA's action here would seem to be an unconstitutional delegation of legislative power.

crossposted from unbossed

You may have seen the article by Pete Yost, Bush administration rules limit lawsuits. The gist of the article is that the Bush Administration refused to be stymied by Congress' refusal to protect companies that hurt, kill, or otherwise people from tort suits. As in so many other cases, the Administration turned to federal agencies and administrative processes to do in the dark what it could not do in public.

You may have read it and tut-tutted, but not me. OK, I did tut-tut, but I also compiled a mental list of questions which I plan to share with you.

crossposted from unbossed

Wouldn't it be nice for a change to read a GAO report on how the Bush administration is using contractors that found reasonable performance standards were set, that there was good oversight, that contractors performed as required, and that if they didn't they were given the boot?

Well, you'll have to keep holding your breath when it comes to the State Department . . . whose Secretary would be . . . .?

crossposted from unbossed

A new Congressional Research Service report - Tibet: Problems, Prospects, and U.S. Policy - RL34445 April 10, 2008 - is now available at OpenCRS.

crossposted from unbossed

A new study by the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and CareerBuilder.com provides new data on motives for sending US jobs abroad (and abroad can mean Canada) as well as which jobs are a likely target.

crossposted from unbossed

A couple months ago, we reported that the Bush Administration had fudged the figures on mining injuries in order to claim that they were far worse under Bill Clinton. Untrue, of course. February 06, 2008 Mining Disasters - Whose Fault? MSHA's Stickler Blames Bill Clinton. Now a new report shows that on the job deaths for 2006 were worse than claimed.

crossposted from unbossed

This is the final part in this series covering testimony at the hearing on the state of SCHIP, especially in the aftermath of the Bush Administration's August 17 directive imposing hurdles on the coverage of poor children.

The first post included testimony of a mother struggling to find healthcare for her child. The second included the Senator's introductory statements. The third included testimony from panel one and a critique of the way they were playing fast and loose with statistics, all with a goal of ensuring that insurance companies make money, even if it means that poor children have no health insurance. Links to the earlier posts, if you missed them - or just want to relive them - are at the end.

crossposted from unbossed

This is the third part describing and commenting on testimony at the April 9 hearing on the Bush Administration's August 17 directive related to SCHIP. The hearing explored the impact of the directive on providing health coverage to poor children and on usurping Congress' powers.