Note: The content at shopfloor.org is accessible to all versions of every browser.
However, this site will look much better in a browser that supports basic web standards.
Exchange rate boosts U.S. squirrel exports. From The Guardian (U.K.): "The grey squirrel, the American cousin of Britain's endangered red variety, is flying off the shelves faster than hunters can shoot them, with game butchers struggling to keep up with demand. 'We put it on the shelf and it sells. It can be a dozen squirrels a day - and they all go,' said David Simpson, the director of Kingsley Village shopping centre in Fraddon, Cornwall, whose game counter began selling grey squirrel meat two months ago."
I'll Have Another Milkshake, Please. USA Today: "Record prices are prompting oil prospectors to renew interest in drilling in Los Angeles, where urban sprawl, environmental opponents and decades of production make for one of the world's toughest oil fields."
So climate change is a good thing? The Australian: "AUSTRALIAN agricultural output will double over the next 40 years, with climate change predicted to increase, rather than hinder, the level of production...A recent spate of reports forecasting the decline of Australian agriculture because of climate change have greatly exaggerated, and even completely misreported the threat of global warming, according to senior rural industry figures."
Socialized Refinery Plans, I: Bloomberg: "May 10 (Bloomberg) -- Venezuela agreed with China, the world's fastest-growing major economy, to form a joint venture that will produce oil in Venezuela's Orinoco Belt to supply a new 400,000 barrel-a-day refinery they will build in China."
Socialized Refinery Plans, II: A Fargo (N.D.) Forum editorial, "State-run oil refinery a silly idea": "The notion that North Dakotans will benefit from a state-owned oil refinery is more about pandering than policy."
Private-Sector Refinery Plans: AFP: "KUWAIT CITY (AFP) — Four South Korean and a Japanese firm were on Sunday declared winners of four major contracts worth billions of dollars to build a new refinery in Kuwait, an oil official said...The total value of the bids made by the companies was around 8.3 billion dollars..."
Kein Fahrvergnügen. From Deutsche Welle: "German motorists expressed anger at rising fuel prices Saturday, the start of the Whitsun holiday weekend, while opposition politicians called for a cut in fuel taxes...German motorists saw the prices for a liter of petrol break through 1.50 euros ($2.30) for the first time, with diesel only marginally cheaper at 1.45 euros." That's $8.70 a gallon.
Stocking Up for the Storm.From WVEC.com, Richmond, Va.: "RICHMOND– For the period Sunday, May 25, through Saturday, May 31, Virginia will hold its first Hurricane Preparedness Sales Tax Holiday. During the weeklong event, certain purchases will be exempt from the 5 percent state and local retail sales tax. Sales tax will not be charged on generators costing $1,000 or less, or on 22 other products selling for $60 or less each."
Even bottled water? From the Tonawanda (NY) News: "North Tonawanda, NY — While shopping at the North Tonawanda Budwey’s Supermarket on Saturday, Mary Collins and her mother, Betty Collins, both had 24-packs of bottled water in their carts. Both also had differing opinions on a bill being pushed by some state officials that would add a 5-cent deposit to non-carbonated beverages — everything from juice to bottled water and half-gallons of milk. That means shoppers would pay $1.20 more up front for a 24-pack of water."
BATH, Maine - The Navy's newest guided missile destroyer was christened Saturday with the name of a fighter pilot who spent 7 1/2 years in captivity in North Vietnam, received the Medal of Honor and served as presidential candidate Ross Perot's running mate.
Four Medal of Honor recipients and seven former prisoners of war attended the ceremony at Bath Iron Works that marked a milestone in construction of the 9,200-ton ship named for Vice Adm. James Stockdale.
The Stockdale is the 56th destroyer of the Arleigh Burke class and have its home port in San Diego. The Bath Works are scheduled to build four additional Burke vessels before starting on the new DDG-1000 Zumwalt class.
More than seven in 10 [British] voters insist that they would not be willing to pay higher taxes in order to fund projects to combat climate change, according to a new poll.
The survey also reveals that most Britons believe "green" taxes on 4x4s, plastic bags and other consumer goods have been imposed to raise cash rather than change our behaviour, while two-thirds of Britons think the entire green agenda has been hijacked as a ploy to increase taxes.
They have good reason to be suspicious. The European Union has implemented a cap-and-trade system akin to the Lieberman-Warner legislation the Senate will soon consider, and the program is an expensive failure -- certainly not reducing emissions. As a report from the London-based Open Europe think-tank reports,
As the cross-party Commons Environmental Audit Committee noted: “there is little or no evidence that Phase I is leading to any cutbacks in actual emissions at all, whether in the UK or elsewhere in the EU.” In its first year of operation (2005 to 2006) emissions covered by the ETS rose 3.6% in the UK, and rose by 0.8% across the EU as a whole.
Neil O'Brien, a director with Open Europe, appears on this week's "America's Business with Mike Hambrick," explaining how cap-and-trade actually subsidized pollution in countries like China and India at a cost of billions of Euros. To hear his sgement, click here.
"Report: Manufacturing still strong in Alabama": Alabama has nearly 6,900 manufacturers and industrial suppliers registered - with 520 on the list for the first time, according to the latest edition of the Alabama Manufacturers Register.
In Oklahoma: "Republican legislators lashed out Friday at Gov. Brad Henry for vetoing a bill they touted as a lawsuit reform measure. ...The governor Friday vetoed House Bill 2458, which would have required an expert opinion confirming professional negligence before a civil lawsuit could be filed
"Marine manufacturers join fight for more flexibility": "The heavy hitter in the recreational marine industry — the National Marine Manufacturers Association — has stepped up to the plate in support of flexibility in rebuilding American fisheries."
From The Orange County Register: "LAKE FOREST – Authorities today confiscated more than $200,000 worth of counterfeit handbags and jewelry with high-end price tags from the home of a woman who was selling them through the Internet...Designer labels such as Louis Vuitton, Chanel and Tiffany are suspected as being sold by the woman who was asked three years ago by attorneys from some of the companies to stop selling the counterfeit merchandise, authorities said." The fakes originated in China.
From the Staten Island Advance: "A Staten Island man who may have thought that he'd get off with just a ticket when he was pulled over for turning without signaling yesterday is facing more than a minor traffic infringement after cops say they found over 500 bootleg handbags in the trunk of his car." The fakes originated in China.
From Dow Jones: "GENEVA, May 10, 2008 (Dow Jones Commodities News Select via Comtex) -- -- The World Trade Organization has drawn up a report urging China to enhance steps to protect intellectual property rights with stiffer fines and criminal penalties for offenders, a copy of the report obtained by Kyodo News showed Saturday. ...The report, titled "Trade Policy Review," was prepared for a WTO meeting that will review China's trade policies slated for May 21-23 in Geneva."
A Washington Post "Think Tank Town" column, "Fire Retardant Asbestos Suits," by John M. Wylie II, the principal author of the Manhattan Institute report on asbestos litigation.
The report shows that the long-running asbestos-lawsuit scam has destroyed 80 companies and the employees and shareholders who depend on them, and created a system so corrupt that judges and advisors were guilty of outright extortion and theft. Companies forced into bankruptcy by questionable claims are now being scammed again by attorneys double-dipping from the trusts these companies created for those who really were injured. ...[snip]
Tragically, real victims -- workers who actually face serious future health problems due to asbestos exposure -- are often duped into signing away future rights for a pittance in order to pad current attorney fees, and are then left with no recourse if they actually become sick. And workers falsely diagnosed as sick face a lifetime of worry and problems getting insurance.
This week in "Cool Stuff Being Made," we head to Quality Custom Cabinetry in New Holland, Pa., for a tour of the company's 126,000 square feet facility. Dale Leaman, director of customer service, walks us through the 16 departments, starting with an explanation of importance of just-in-time manufacturing. And, as always, attention to quality is key to success.
2006 Quality Custom Cabinetry, Inc. launched a new line of cabinetry named Saxton Cabinetry, a European frameless construction. Saxton Cabinetry went through a rigorous pilot program by several dealers. Due to the new product line, the corporate identity and overall organization was renamed to "QCCI." (Quality Custom Cabinetry, Inc).
2007 QCCI added 57,000 square feet for manufacturing and distribution to facilitate both products, Quality Custom Cabinetry and Saxton. QCCI introduced a new product collection under the Quality Custom Cabinetry brand, called Steeplechase. Steeplechase features 1 inch thick face frame construction with sophisticated styling detailing surrounding inset doors and drawers, a hallmark of Quality Custom Cabinetry.
Thanks, as per usual and with sincerity, to PCN-TV for providing the base video. Cabinetry and other woodworking is a Pennsylvania tradition, so there's history afoot.
Two of the nation's largest labor unions have struck confidential agreements with large employers that give the companies the right to designate which of their locations, and how many workers, the unions can seek to organize.
The agreements are raising questions about union transparency and workers' rights. A summary document put together by the unions says it is critical to the success of the partnership "that we honor the confidentiality and not publicly disclose the existence of these agreements." That includes not disclosing them to union members.
With their advocacy for the Employee Free Choice Act, organized labor is insisting that employees NOT be allowed to maintain confidentiality when voting on whether to join a union. The secret ballot be damned.
But when it serves their purposes, confidentiality is a matter of principle.
The particular offenders here are the SEIU and Unite Here.
Happy 60th Birthday, Rex Morgan, M.D! Publishers Syndicate launched the strip in 1948, bringing medical issues to the comics pages.
In the current storyline, Rex faces his toughest foe yet, TV-advertising Max the Ax, personal injury attorney, who hopes to cash in an outbreak of methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). Today's strip:
In other news, this month's issue of "Trial" -- the magazine of the Association for Justice -- is all about medical malpractice lawsuits.
U.S. manufacturers that offer health insurance to employees spend an average of $2.38 per worker per hour on health care, substantially more than the amount spent by foreign competitors, according to a report released on Tuesday by the New America Foundation, the Los Angeles Times reports. According to the Times, the report "provides support for the now-familiar lament of employers -- that rising health care costs are eating into the corporate bottom line."
Not the way we'd characterize it. How about: "provides support for the reality employers face, that rising health care costs make it more difficult to compete in the global marketplace." In its materials, the Foundation summarizes:
A new model for health care that...
reforms the current insurance marketplace;
provides income-based subsidies; and
is individual, rather than employer-based,
...would enable us to finance our 21st-century health system in a more sustainable and competitive way.
Again for the report and briefing paper, start here.
Some law firms continue to use mass, automated phone calls to solicit personal-injury business. Listen to the phone message here, recorded last night at home as a firm trolls for plaintiffs who suffered health troubles after heart surgery.
Saturday is Pangea Day, another opportunity for raising, fund and consciousness, by the anti-global warming movement. There are sure a lot of these new celebrations, seems like, part of some Gaea-based ritual calendar. (The more radical of Southern Hemispheric activists refer to Pangea Day as Gondwana Day. It's really caused a schism.)
CNN's Christiane Amapour is featured prominently at the Pangea Day website. Isn't she supposed to be an objective reporter? Ha, ha. Just kidding.
Speaking of consciousness-raising, The Washington Post's Jeffrey Birnbaum writes about the oil and gas industry's education/PR campaign to explain the industry more effectively, "Oil Lobby Reaches Out to Citizens Peeved at the Pump." Good story.
The American Petroleum Institute has indeed been doing a very good, fact-based job of presenting the industry to the public. We liked the ads like this one explaining who owns the industry: 29.5 percent of U.S. oil and natural gas company shares are owned by mutual funds and other firms; 27 percent are owned by pension funds; and individual investors own 23 percent. So when politicians go after the oil companies, they're also going after your pensions and IRAs.
Loved the reaction from self-styled consumer groups reported in the Post: "'It's basically deceptive advertising that dulls the natural and proper reaction of the public,' said Mark N. Cooper, research director of the Consumer Federation of America." Get the rhetoric right, Mark. The correct term is "false consciousness."
Disclosure: Your correspondent went on a blogging tour mentioned in Birnbaum's story -- the one to Corpus Christi and the Chevron platform, Blind Faith. The latest update on the $1.4 billion project is that its operation has been delayed until the second quarter. Yes, that's right: $1.4 billion. Thank goodness for profits.
Reading for this week's Park City Center for Public Policy "Defending Cyberspace" conference -- which went very well, we hear -- we encountered the phrase "Manhattan Project." It actually turns up with some frequency.
Isn't the analogy limiting, narrowing the discussion to a centralized, government-directed solution to the problems we face, one that excludes the private sector?
And the Manhattan Project was a matter of war, of national defense, one of the areas most Americans agree belongs to the federal government. Saying we need a Manhattan Project is calling X, Y, or Z the moral equivalent of war.
Latin America and the United States are joined by geography, culture and common values. For many years, the exchange of goods and services across borders has been a vital factor in maintaining a mutually beneficial relationship. The approval of the free trade agreement between the United States and Colombia would be another step toward deepening that relationship, toward fair and equitable integration of our nations, and most importantly, toward securing the stability and peace of the Western Hemisphere.
As a founding member of the Coalition Against Counterfeiting and Piracy, the NAM has worked closely with Congress, policymakers and stakeholders in all sectors affected by IP theft to confront this serious challenge. NAM member companies believe strongly that by improving the coordination of federal government IP enforcement resources, as well as expanding authorities and improving enforcement practices at the international, federal, state and local levels, the PRO-IP Act will strengthen our manufacturing economy.
From Weather Underground. Note that of these only one has occurred since the supposed onset of man-made global warming. The latest tragic cyclone should come in at #10 or thereabouts.
Rank: Name / Areas of Largest Loss: Year: Ocean Area: Deaths:
1. Great Bhola Cyclone, Bangladesh 1970 Bay of Bengal 550,000
2. Hooghly River Cyclone, India and Bangladesh 1737 Bay of Bengal 350,000
3. Haiphong Typhoon, Vietnam 1881 West Pacific 300,000
3. Coringa, India 1839 Bay of Bengal 300,000
5. Backerganj Cyclone, Bangladesh 1584 Bay of Bengal 200,000
6. Great Backerganj Cyclone, Bangladesh 1876 Bay of Bengal 200,000
7. Chittagong, Bangladesh 1897 Bay of Bengal 175,000
8. Super Typhoon Nina, China 1975 West Pacific 171,000
9. Cyclone 02B, Bangladesh 1991 Bay of Bengal 140,000
10. Great Bombay Cyclone, India 1882 Arabian Sea 100,000
11. Hakata Bay Typhoon, Japan 1281 West Pacific 65,000
12. Calcutta, India 1864 Bay of Bengal 60,000
13. Swatlow, China 1922 West Pacific 60,000
14. Barisal, Bangladesh 1822 Bay of Bengal 50,000
15. Sunderbans coast, Bangladesh 1699 Bay of Bengal 50,000
16. Bengal Cyclone, Calcutta, India 1942 Bay of Bengal 40,000
17. Canton, China 1862 West Pacific 37,000
18. Backerganj (Barisal), Bangladesh 1767 Bay of Bengal 30,000
19. Barisal, Bangladesh 1831 Bay of Bengal 22,000
20. Great Hurricane, Lesser Antilles Islands 1780 Atlantic 22,000
One million megawatts of electricity-generating capacity powers America’s grid, but 45 percent of that infrastructure is more than 30 years old. Meanwhile, the nation has deferred investment in new, more efficient baseload plants, including new reactors.
The 2005 Energy Policy Act’s loan guarantee program is a “very small step” in the right direction, but insufficient to rebuild electric power infrastructure.
The nation and world are seeking clean-air energy sources, like nuclear, to address climate change.
Electricity demand will increase by 25 percent by 2030, according to government officials.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Democrats on Wednesday called for a temporary special tax on oil companies’ profits and a rollback of $17 billion in oil industry tax breaks as part of an energy package. The Democrats are also seeking federal penalties on energy price gouging and a suspension of oil deliveries into the government’s emergency reserve.
Senate Republicans strongly oppose any additional oil industry taxes, which are widely viewed as unlikely to be enacted and would almost certainly prompt a veto by President Bush.
The proposed 25 percent profits tax would apply just to oil company earnings above what would be considered “reasonable” and only if those profits are not reinvested in expanding refinery capacity or renewable energy sources, according to a summary of the proposals.
"From 1980 to 1988, the WPT may have reduced domestic oil production anywhere from 1.2% to 8.0% (320 to 1,269 million barrels). Dependence on imported oil grew from between 3% and 13%."
"Reinstating the windfall profit tax would reduce recent oil industry windfalls due to high crude and petroleum prices but could have several adverse economic effects. If imposed as an excise tax, the WPT would increase marginal production costs and be expected to reduce domestic oil production and increase the level of oil imports, which today is at nearly 60% of demand."
The NAM issued a news release yesterday on competing energy measures in the Senate.
Nice featurette at U.S. News' Washington Whispers column on Ag Secretary Ed Schafer, "boyhood farmer, telecommunications exec, conservationist, Junkyard Wars runner-up, and classic car and tractor restorer ." Don't forget manufacturing executive. And governor, that, too. Meanwhile, President Bush is preparing to veto a "bloated" farm bill.
Texas tea, brewed strong. "Austin, TX (AHN) - While the rest of the nation is reeling from soaring oil prices, Texas is benefiting from the non-stop rise in prices of black gold. Oil revenues' contribution to state budget would result to a $10.7 billion budget surplus." Certainly not limited to Texas: "'I think the bulk of Montana's budget surplus comes from the oil fields of Richland and Fallon counties,' said Richland County Commissioner Mark Rehbein." That's the Bakken play at work.
While Congress stalled, stuttered and stomped: "At Vienna, the EU and Central American nations, including Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama, agreed to launch free trade talks. The 27-nation bloc also agreed to similar negotiations with four Andean countries including Peru, Colombia, Bolivia and Ecuador."
Sometimes, just the thinking is flat. Henry Payne reports the reaction of airline executives to a recent Thomas Friedman column on global jetting and fossil fuels. Friedman's enthusiasm for biofuel-powered airlines is naive, they imply, and if there's one thing airline execs know, it's fuel usage. Payne: "They are extremely fuel conscious — but not because they are converts to Friedman’s religion. Fuel has always been a major business cost and so airlines are constantly investing in new planes to keep costs down. In the last eight years alone, for example — even as Delta’s fleet number has remained stable — the airline cut its fuel bill by 25 percent." Reading Friedman's columns in recent years, you sometimes think he should get out a little less.
Looks like Law & Order is actually shaping up. They've abandoned the steady beat of anti-corporate propaganda for pro-union propaganda! Yay! Last night's episode summary: "Strike -- A legal aid strike ends in the death of a lawyer, and the investigation leads to a golf pro who proclaims his innocence, again. Then the case takes an even stranger twist when Rubirosa is pitted against Cutter because of the strike that started it all." New detective actor Anthony Andrews must feel right at home, switching from Fox's short-lived "K-Ville" agitprop to "L&O" agitprop.
OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada is "very close" to concluding free trade negotiations with Colombia, Trade Minister David Emerson said on Monday, calling those opposed to the deal on human rights grounds as simply "dogmatic."
Emerson also presented legislation to Parliament to enact a free trade pact with the European Free Trade Association, comprised of Switzerland, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein.
And from Bloomberg, citing Prime Minister Stephen Harper's leadership on the issue:
Harper has made the issue a priority, saying an agreement will help improve democracy in Colombia and help President Alvaro Uribe stem violence against labor leaders.
A Canada-Colombia accord also would give Canadian farmers preferential access to the U.S.'s third largest market for wheat exports in Latin America at a time when Democrats in Congress are stalling a similar deal over concerns about violence against labor organizers in Colombia.
Colombia’s Vice-President Francisco Santos Calderón is visiting Canada this week.
Surely Congress could spend just a small percentage of its investigative energies on reviewing the crimes, economic waste and injustice perpetrated by the trial bar. Don't you think?
Sherman "Tiger" Joyce of the American Tort Reform Association cites the new study, "Trial Lawyers, Inc.: Asbestos," which details the abuses of the trial bar's shakedown/business operation, to renew his call for hearings: "“Whether one considers the findings of a federal judge in Texas who condemned lawyers and their physician accomplices for introducing phony medical records, a New York federal grand jury’s ongoing investigation into similar asbestos and silica fraud, or any of the countless related incidents reported by the media – such as the non-existent doctor who supposedly signed off on a claimant’s diagnosis in a West Virginia asbestos case against CSX Transportation – one can only conclude that Congress should spend less time worrying about problems in professional baseball and football and more time worrying about the integrity of our civil justice system."
Dan Popeo of the Washington Legal Foundation says the legal profession should do a much better job of policing itself and instilling an ethical code, and with Congress, "the silence is deafening." Still: "Unfortunately, nothing will really change until the legal establishment admits that too many other Lerachs, Scruggses and Spitzers are still out there using 'justice' and 'consumer rights' as a cover for their own aggrandizement."
More from Walter Olson at Point of Law on Trial Lawyers, Inc. He observes that the study "makes a compelling case that our legal system has failed badly to curb the various devices -- from mass screening resulting in medically dubious diagnoses, to mass forum-shopping in search of favorable courts, through group trial and mass settlement of cases -- by which some law firms convoy spurious claims of asbestos injury to victory along with the genuine." Good summary.
And more from the ABA Journal on the Manhattan Institute report. You know, the American Association for Justice, i.e., the national trial lawyers group, normally is quick to respond with an overheated news release attacking the motives of the legal reformers. Nothing so far.UPDATE: They did. The news release wasn't on the homepage, and we missed it. Same old rhetoric, though. Don't respond to the substance, just attack your opponent and change the subject. Where do they learn that? Maybe they're too busy.
The overall unemployment rate of scientists and engineers in the United States dropped from 3.2% in 2003 to 2.5% in 2006 (figure 1), according to data from the National Science Foundation (NSF) Scientists and Engineers Statistical Data System (SESTAT).[2] This is the lowest unemployment rate measured by SESTAT since the early 1990s. It continues a trend of lower unemployment rates for scientists and engineers compared with unemployment rates in the rest of the U.S. economy.[3] Comparable unemployment rates for the entire U.S. labor force in 2003 and 2006 were 6.0% and 4.7%, respectively.[4] (See "Data Comments and Availability" for the definition of scientists and engineers and other variables and for notes on SESTAT.
James Sherk at the Heritage Foundation has authored a new issue paper that rebuts the arguments of those opposed to H-1B visas. The conclusion:
Contrary to the claims of immigration opponents, H-1B workers are highly skilled workers with vitally needed skills. H-1B workers are highly educated. Almost half have an advanced degree. The median H-1B worker earns 90 percent more than the median U.S. worker. They are in no way average workers.
Good story in today's Washington Post, "Buoyed by Foreign Money," on export-driven economic growth, including a 5.5 annual rate of increased exports in the first quarter.
Locally, firms have shared in the growth, and they have a lot at stake should it tail off. Virginia's export shipments totaled $16.9 billion in 2007, up 56 percent from 2003. Meanwhile, Maryland's export shipments totaled $8.9 billion in 2007, an increase of 18 percent from the year before and 81 percent from 2003.
The story quotes the NAM's David Huether, our chief economist.
"What is happening now in the economy really shows why it is important for the U.S. economy to be engaged globally," Huether said. "When there are slowdowns in certain parts of the domestic economy, it is a real benefit when there is another pillar holding things up."
The survey partly reflects that companies are still benefiting from export growth and consumer demand that's growing as unemployment falls and real wages expand, the IW said. "Robust'' economic growth this year in the euro-region will likely deter the European Central Bank from lowering interest rates, Michael Huether, the IW's director, said in an interview. "Lower interest rates are just not on the agenda."
David Weigel, writing in the latest edition of Reason magazine, does an excellent job in describing the raw, naked, brutal and ugly politics behind organized labor's push for the Employee Free Choice Act. He starts by letting the words of Stewart Acuff, the AFL-CIO's director of organizing, illustrate:
“My brothers and sisters,” he said, “if we go into 2008 with an even larger mobilization of workers behind this legislation, with even more commitment to win the election in 2008, and put this on the agenda in 2009, I’m here to tell you today that we will pass this legislation, in the House, overwhelmingly! We will pass it in the Senate! We will defeat a Republican filibuster! And we will have a president who signs the Employee Free Choice Act! And we can get back to the business of restoring the American dream for millions and millions of workers!”
What’s the Employee Free Choice Act? If you aren’t a lobbyist in Washington, a union worker, or an employer nervously trying to prevent your staff from organizing, you might not have followed the twisty history of the latest attempt to increase private-sector unionization. “Card check,” as it is usually known, would allow employees at a company to bypass secret-ballot elections and declare their intent to unionize by simply signing cards. If adopted, it could portend the most revolutionary change to labor law since the 1940s.
One point we disagree on is Weigel's description of business lobbyists watching with a sense of "resigned horror." Not around here. We sincerely believe that once the public understands that card check means ending secret ballot elections, they'll reject it. Certainly there's no resignation among members of the Coalition for a Democratic Workplace -- including the NAM -- who are assiduously working to point out the legislation's hostility to American democratic principles.
That said, read the whole thing. An informed electorate needs more of this kind of reporting.
DAYTON, Ohio - Autoworkers and suppliers are fixing up their homes, worrying about health care coverage and frequenting food pantries as they wait for an end to the 2-month-old strike against a Michigan auto parts supplier that has idled them or cut into their business.
The UAW's strike against American Axle & Manufacturing Holdings Inc., now in its third month, has affected about 30 GM plants.
The report represents a very good starting place for those unfamiliar with asbestos litigation, providing a readable history of the industry, the real health risks and deaths caused by asbestos exposure, and the rise of the asbestos lawsuit business model. For all its other merits, consider the report, "Asbestos Litigation 101."
Despite being debunked and punished, the practice of mass health screenings sponsored by law firms continues. These screenings -- often conducted in parking lots -- almost inevitably and unbelievably found asbestos-caused lung damage. And now? Writes Jim Copland, the Manhattan Institute's project director: "In the last six months, the Texas law firm Nix Patterson & Roach has held two mass screenings in the now-more-mass-tort-friendly neighboring state of Oklahoma. Like the asbestos screenings of old, the screenings attracted potential plaintiffs with newspaper, broadcast and direct-mail advertising."
Trial Lawyers, Inc., is resourceful. More Copland in a column in today's Examiner: "Firms began shifting lawsuits out of their formerly friendly locales and into alternative plaintiff-friendly jurisdictions; Texas asbestos law powerhouse Baron & Budd, for example, began shuffling its caseload to California...The list of target defendants, 8,400 strong, also keeps growing. None of the new targets actually made asbestos; as noted by uber-lawyer Dickie Scruggs — recently convicted for bribing a judge — asbestos litigation today is really just “the endless search for a solvent bystander.
Congress is unlikely to undertake reforms, but change is possible in the states: "Adopting medical standards of evidence can eliminate bogus claims, reforming venue rules can block lawyers from shopping their cases to lowest-common-denominator jurisdictions, repealing several liability would protect companies with minimal ties to asbestos from shouldering the load of its legal costs, and mandating transparency can ensure that asbestos claimants are not double-dipping among the bankruptcy trusts in multiple jurisdictions."
The injustice inflicted by Trial Lawyers, Inc., is manifold. Companies that had only a passing involvement with asbestos are brought to their knees by litigation, courts are swamped by abusive lawsuits, and the real sufferers are cheated.
But as Copland concludes, "One thing’s certain: Absent reform, asbestos litigation abuse is here to stay."
“And as we’re talking today, Terry, the death count in Myanmar from the cyclone that hit there yesterday has been rising from 15,000 to way on up there to much higher numbers now being speculated,” Gore said. “And last year a catastrophic storm from last fall hit Bangladesh. The year before, the strongest cyclone in more than 50 years hit China – and we’re seeing consequences that scientists have long predicted might be associated with continued global warming.”
So was the cyclone in China 50 years ago also caused by global warming?
Burma's annual population growth is 0.8 percent. Over the past three decades, its population has about doubled, to more than 47 million today. We contend that a correlation exists between high fatalities and increased population density in low-lying areas.
Trial lawyers in the state and a group proposing to severely restrict the ability of plaintiffs to bring contingency fee civil lawsuits have agreed to withdraw competing ballot issues aimed for the November ballot.
John Sadwith, executive director of the Colorado Trial Lawyer's Association (CTLA) said the decision was made late Tuesday after continuing talks with the group promoting the restrictions on how much lawyers could collect in successful civil actions.
"We didn't think it was the best interests of working people in the state" to go forward with gathering signatures and putting the measures on the November ballot, Sadwith said.
Oh, for the working people, is it? We have another theory: National political and legal figures called Sadwith, saying, "Are you nuts? With the Democratic National Convention in Denver in August, the national media will be all over this story, confirming the public's prejudices against trial lawyers as greeding, grasping, avaricious and vengeful characters. Our critics among all those doctors, real estate agents, business owners, homebuilders, farmers, everybody...they'll have a heyday. It's a public relations nightmare. KNOCK IT OFF!"
The lawyers' nine initiated measures would have, among other things, capped compensation by CEOs -- unconstitutional -- revoked licenses of some doctors sued for malpractice, limited commissions for real estate agents, gone after homebuilders and tapped federal farm subsidies of certain farmers. No working people among those groups.
High global commodity prices are hitting manufacturers hard these days, as growing global economies (China, India) push demand. It's good news for mining and heavy equipment companies, though, prompting many U.S.-based companies to plan for expanded mining production. As this story from Marquette, Mich., reaffirms, environmentalists are opposed. No, really.
Here's a riddle: How do you discover water on Mars? Submit a permit application for a Martian mine and the environmental groups will be sure to detect threatened wetlands.
But it takes the penny to really focus the public (i.e., media's) attention on commodity prices. Front page story across the land today: "Congress looking at steel pennies and nickels" "Surging prices for copper, zinc and nickel have Congress trying to bring back the steel-made pennies of World War II, and maybe using steel for nickels, as well."
Meanwhile, the effort continues to prevent any renaissance of the U.S. nuclear power industry, starting with demanding impossible standards of uranium mining. In Colorado, " Opponents of uranium mining on Tallahassee Pass today hailed new rules that would govern uranium mining in Colorado if signed by Gov. Bill Ritter. ...House Bill 1161 would require uranium mining companies to clean groundwater at their sites to pre-mining quality after mining the radioactive material."
Let's demand that standard of all things, including parents. You may have a baby if you promise to restore the world to pre-baby quality afterward. We'll accept a $100,000 bond.
From Reuters, a story anticipating a meeting in NYC Thursday between U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab and India Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath, with Doha high on the agenda. India is resisting demands made by the U.S. and EU that advanced developing countries open their markets to more foreign manufactured goods.
Speaking in advance of the India talks, Frank Vargo, vice president for international economic affairs at the National Association of Manufacturers, criticized New Delhi, saying: "They talk the talk, but they don't walk the walk."
"In other words, they say good things, that they want this to work ... but when it comes to actually putting any positive proposals on the table, they don't," Vargo said.
ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- Alaska Native and environmental groups sued Monday to stop exploration by oil companies this summer in Arctic waters frequented by whales, seals and other marine species.
The groups are challenging federal permits that allow Shell Oil Co. and BP PLC to search for oil and gas using powerful acoustic devices that have been shown, at times, to harm a variety of marine animals. The technology, known as seismic exploration, is used to determine the geologic makeup of the sea bed.
"The federal government is rushing to approve a burst of new seismic activity without completely studying the effects on marine life," said attorney Clayton Jernigan of Earthjustice. The Juneau-based law firm filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Anchorage.
The oil companies have been cast as villains during the recent presidential campaigns for supposedly profiting too much and causing high gas prices. It's a cynical play designed to take advantage of public anger of high gas prices.
Might we respectfully suggest to the candidates that they look to other sources of the problem(s), such as environmental groups that prevent access to domestic energy supplies, the "energy insecurity" crowd.
How brave, how politically defining it would be for a candidate to repudiate one or more of the environmental groups who restrict demand and make the United States more dependent on foreign oil. Tell these obstensible supporters how much damage they're causing.
San Francisco's groundbreaking program to provide health care to all 73,000 uninsured city residents received a major lift this week as more than 700 businesses in the city signed up for the plan.
The businesses represent 12,900 employees, more than half of whom are eligible for the Healthy San Francisco program, which currently enrolls 19,000 people. The other employees are eligible for a health-care reimbursement account.
Major boost! Guess the critics were wrong, right? Except....
The program is expected to cost about $200 million a year, with a portion of that paid by employers who join. So far, businesses have contributed about $6 million to the program, according to the Department of Public Health.
Well, they're 3 percent of the way! (If that $200 million figure isn't a low-ball figure.)
The Pacific Research Institute's John Graham comments, "And, did I mention that San Francisco, like California, has a big bomb of a budget deficit before taking SFHAP into account?"
The NAM has filed an amicus brief in the lawsuit brought by the Golden Gate Restaurant Association against the city plan, which violates ERISA, the federal law that supersedes state and local regulation of employee-provided health care.
Utility as in electric utility, not software application.
In any case, congratulations and kudos to PG&E for being the first major utility -- that we know of -- to launch a blog, Next100, http://www.next100.com/
The San Francisco-based site describes itself as "a dialogue on the next century of energy," and includes posts and links on clean energy, green energy, carbon dioxide, China's emissions. It's a new site, so more to come, and it IS a dialogue, since there's a comments section.
California is a very tough business environment generally, and policymakers at every level in the state make life very difficult for energy producers to meet the market's demand. It makes sense to have a website devoted to public outreach on the issues, so good for PG&E.
As of last Friday, 127 proposed initiatives have been filed with the Colorado Secretary of State's office. Long ballot, eh? The Colorado Trial Lawyers Association has been extra active, filing nine new ballot initiatives for the November election. State Rep. Jerry Sonnenberg comments in the Greeley Tribune.
Farmers are one of their targets and for the life of me, why lawyers hate farmers and rural Colorado is beyond me. Their ballot initiative, if passed, would force farmers to give up as much as 25 percent of any disaster payment or farm program to higher education for farmer training and outreach.
They filed another initiative that says specifically what Realtors can charge per sale.
The lawyers also filed to order the maximum amount a company can pay its executives.
In an apparent retaliation for an earlier filing to limit attorney fees, the head of the Colorado Trial Lawyers Association has filed with the state to put nine measures on the November ballot.
"For too long, corporate interests have been put ahead of consumer interests in this state," said John Sadwith, executive director of the 1,200-member trial lawyers' group. "Real people in this state deserve a break."
Realtors, farmers, doctors, executives -- You're not real people. So go away, and take the economy with you.
Is it the exchange rate? "Volkswagen of America will pay more than $14 million over five years to be D.C. United's primary sponsor and have its logo appear on the team's uniform, sources familiar with the negotiations said yesterday." D.C. United is the professional soccer team in town. VW sponsors Vfl Wolfsburg in Germany, which finished with 12 wins, 10 losses and 9 draws last season in the Bundesliga.
Washington, D.C., lobbied hard to get its own commemorative quarter -- after the 50 states -- and the three final designs are now being voted on: Duke Ellington, Benjamin Banneker, and Frederick Douglas. We'd go with Banneker, a mathematician, astronomer and surveyor. Coins have the power to excite children's imaginations, so a Banneker design might encourage a future engineer or manufacturer. Then again, he WAS from Baltimore. (Our real preference: Henry Adams and the Willard.)
And in the mother country, from Reuters: "LONDON, May 6 (Reuters) - Prime Minister Gordon Brown has lost the "confidence and trust" of British business in less than a year in office, according to the head of a leading manufacturers group. Brown also risks sparking an "exodus" of British companies to more favourable tax regimes like Ireland, said Martin Temple, chairman of the EEF manufacturers trade body."
Broad shoulders or deep pockets? From The Heartland Institute: "Sales taxes in the Chicago area could climb $1 billion this year, making Chicago the most expensive city in the United States in which to shop and dine...The tax hikes have been imposed by the Regional Transportation Authority (RTA), which includes Cook County and five suburban counties, and by the Cook County Board. They come on top of other major tax hikes, including a record $86 million property tax hike and 40 percent real estate transfer tax hike in Chicago, and the imposition of the nation's first tax on bottled water, also in Chicago..."The government unions are controlling the whole process. Hire more people, increase pensions, raise salaries. That's all they want, and they get it," said Jerry Roper, president of the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce.
Indiana's manufacturing and logistics industries are growing, according to a report released today by Ball State University.
The first "Indiana Manufacturing & Logistics Report Card" is an initiative focused on the state's manufacturing and logistics economy. The report card shows Indiana leading its neighboring states in key measures like productivity, capital investment per worker and business costs.
The report card was created by Ball State University's Bureau of Business Research, with a team of economists and researchers led by Michael Hicks.
Overall, the report indicated that manufacturing is growing in Indiana and nationally. Last year was a record year for U.S. manufacturing in terms of industrial output, according to the report. Hoosier manufacturers lead neighboring states in capital investment per worker and industrial research and development.
I’ve just come from this meeting they have once a year. I do get letters and e-mails and things from neighboring states that remark on this contrast, and so forth, so anyway. On the subject of trade, Susan Schwab was one of the presenters and gave a very good presentation, pointed out among other things that since NAFTA, manufacturing output in America has more than doubled. So among her messages was, whatever problems you may be experiencing don’t have anything to do with NAFTA.
But the governor of Michigan took exception to that, and in what I thought not very persuasive terms, attempted to lay the problems of her state on that. I didn’t say anything…there’s no point in that place, or any place, I guess, to have an argument about it. But there’s nothing about Michigan that doesn’t apply to Indiana, too. And yet we have made economic progress. It leads you to think that there are other things, other variables involved, like tax, and costs and regulatory policy and so forth.
John Derbyshire at the National Review's The Corner blog wanted more information about the Bakken Formation, the oil-rich strata underneath the Upper Great Plains we've been blogging about here. Derb was kind enough to mention several responses, including Shopfloor.org's posts, and then later linked to this report at The Oil Drum, a thorough discussion of the formation's potential by Piccolo, a petroeum engineer. Piccolo is not as optimistic as the USGS as to the total recoverable oil, noting the formation may have already reached peak production.
Very good review, although we anxiously await an analysis from Contrabassoon.
UPDATE (9:10 a.m. Tuesday): Much, much more at Next Big Future, including well-by-well production figures.
The three-to-four billion barrel Bakken play in North Dakota is certainly gaining attention...and prompting some big plans. From Tom Dennis, Grand Forks Herald:
North Dakota’s fate now is tied to the price of oil, in a way that’s likely to influence our state and federal elected officials for years or even decades to come.
While North Dakota’s “original oil in place” figure exceeds the UAE’s currently recoverable reserves, Dubai is a Las Vegas-like showpiece today because the oil there is so much easier to get at. Many Persian Gulf reserves are so accessible that oil companies can profit even when oil sells for a few dollars a barrel. So, the oil flowed decades ago when the price was exactly that, and it has flowed steadily ever since.
Shoots holes in the Buffalo Commons theory, doesn't it? That's the theory promulgated back in the '80s by Frank and Deborah Popper of Rutgers, arguing that Great Plains were oversettled in a terrible historic mistake and that natural and economic forces would eventually lead to their depopulation. Best to rationalize the process and have an enlightened federal policy to create an American Serengeti, the Buffalo Commons, they argued.
Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) argues for passage of a federal media shield law in today's Washington Post, challenging a recent column by Attorney General Michael Mukasey, who contends a shield law would place reporters above the law. Last week, Politico carried a thorough update on the pending legislation in the Senate, S. 2035. The White House is resisting the legislation, arguing that it may protect bogus journalists and Internet provocateurs who disseminate national security and intelligence secrets.
Yet in Senator Specter's column, the op-ed by Mukasey, and Politico's story, no mention is made of business' troubles with the legislation. The issues being examined all deal with national security and classified intelligence.
Business observers are seriously concerned that the media shield will free from accountability disgruntled employees, unethical attorneys, criminals and others who will be able to steal or otherwise illicitly acquire important, confidential data, release it to a "journalist" -- whatever the definition -- and do great damage without any public interest being served (beyond satisfying idle curiousity).
Consider this post-media-shield scenario: A popular blogger with mainstream media experience has declared a campaign against Company X for what he views as its record of pillaging the environment. Developing an obsession, the blogger decides to burglarize the CFO's home when the family is away for the weekend, breaking into the personal safe and stealing the CFO's laptop. What a wealth of intriguing, damaging information: Employee records, including Social Security numbers, trade secrets, competitive information and financial numbers, even computer passwords.
To punish the company, the blogger posts all this data on his website, causing terrible financial damage not just to the company but to scores of employees. All in the public's interest, supposedly.
Happy Battle of Pueblo Day. And you Hoosiers, be prepared to show your ID on Tuesday; it's primary day (in North Carolina, too.)
The Senate does not meet today -- salud! -- convening Tuesday to resume debate on H.R. 2881, FAA Reauthorization Act, and S. 2284, Flood Insurance Reform and Modernization Act.
The House convenes today at 12:30 p.m., and senses will be expressed. On Tuesday, look for debate on the appointment of conferees on H.R. 4040, the Consumer Product Safety Modernization Act. The Farm Bill conference report might also make it to the floor, as might H.R. 5818, the Neighborhood Stabilization Act.
So here is what I would do. We've talked about this, we've never gotten it done -- certainly under the Republicans, they were not about to -- we need to change the tax code to take out any single benefit from your tax dollars that goes to any business that exports a job out of Indiana to any foreign country. It's outrageous. It's unpatriotic that is still going on. And you look at the tax code -- it makes sense. We are, you know, a free country. If people want to start jobs somewhere else, we're not going to stop them. But why should we help them? Why should we tell them, if you move those jobs and you make profits over there, you don't have to pay taxes on them, unless you bring the money back home? Well, hey, why would you ever bring the money back home?
Repatriation of Foreign Earnings: In general, U.S. companies pay a 35 percent “toll charge” when they bring foreign earnings back to the United States. A temporary “tax holiday” enacted in 2004, which gave companies the opportunity to reinvest foreign earnings in the United States at an effective 5.25 percent tax rate, brought back some $300 billion to the United States and generated some $17 billion in tax revenues. Reinstating this provision would provide additional funds for much needed investment and job creation.
Granted, it's an advocacy piece; conservative Christian groups like Focus in the Family want more transparency in state judicial elections because they believe it benefits candidates who are rule-of-law judges (as opposed to liberal activists). State business groups tend to agree.
The report brings more info to bear on a national issue being played out in the states than we've encountered anywhere else. Did you know that the James Madison Center has organized the Judicial Accountability Project to end laws and rules that prevent judges from answering questionnaires? Legal efforts are under way in eight states.
As John Stamberger of the Florida Family Policy Council says: "All judges have views. The only question is [whether] they express those views when they write a decision, when they do a dissent, or when they rule from the bench. The question is, does it serve the interest of a robust democracy for us to know those views before they’re elected or learn those views after they’re elected. "
The soundfile linked above is the full 5:30 interview broadcast this weekend. A shorter version was broadcast on April 28th; here's the transcript.
Florida's trial-lawyer association is traditionally opposed to any limits on people's right to sue. It is a potent interest group in Tallahassee; its political committee contributed more than $3.5 million to state candidates in the past three years. And it has particularly strong support in the Senate.
But though the trial lawyers had said early this year they had a "problem" with the liability language, Central Florida backers didn't recognize until too late how hard the group was willing to fight.
"No one realized that the trial lawyers had decided to take this on and make it their power play," said Fred Leonhardt, a lobbyist for Orlando.
Nobody crosses an ILWU picket line, not unless he wants to pick his teeth up off the floor or find his car on fire. Admittedly, some will call this “intimidation”; the Longshoremen prefer to think of it as “solidarity.”
For another perspective, try Lowell Ponte, a former Readers' Digest editor who now writes for NewsMax, pretty hardcore in its own right, right.
It cost our economy between $1 and $2 billion, equivalent to the theft of up to $26.66 from every American family of four -- money you and your family will be paying in higher prices.
Even more troubling is that those who conspired to assault us have not been arrested, jailed, or even removed from their high-security-risk positions.
The two writers, both historically attuned, take a different view of one of the union's founders, Harry Bridges.
Add to Del.icio.us
Add to Newsburst
From the Lewiston Tribune, reprinted