Work Force & Workplace 

Stimulus funds in California: Supervise if you’re going to weatherize

Cat.: American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, Beltway Outsider, Contracting and contractors, Environment, Global Warming, Government in My Backyard (GIMBY), Issues & Ideas, State and Local Government, Training
By Marc Albert | 19. August 2010
Comment
The California Inspector General's office says a contractor hired to weatherize homes, and paid for by federal stimulus funds, overbilled the state agency overseeing the money by $34,803, Timothy Sandoval of CaliforniaWatch reports. The report also notes that workers and supervisors performing weatherization renovations on homes have not been adequately trained,

Put More Energy into Hiring at Energy

Cat.: American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, Dept. of Energy, Free Agency, Training
By Ned Hodgman | 09. February 2010
Comment
As Ian Talley and Stephen Power report in the Wall Street Journal, the Energy Department has expended only 7% of stimulus funds the Department received in 2008 -- funds that are supposed to go to job creation and innovative energy projects.  The tension at Energy is between vetting proposals ...

BACK TO THE ASSEMBLY LINE

Cat.: Beltway Outsider, Dept. of Labor, Dept. of the Treasury, Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), Unions and Government
By Matthew Blake | 02. June 2009
Comment

Most coverage of General Motors' future has focused on the Obama administration's 60 percent ownership of a post-bankruptcy GM. But the United Autoworkers, which represents almost all GM workers, will own 18 percent of the company through their retiree health fund. And UAW gets 55 percent of Chrysler. With the ...

GIMBY UPDATE: FLORIDA PENSION FUND, LOSING MILLIONS, UNFAMILIAR WITH CONCEPTS OF DEPENDABILITY, TRANSPARENCY

Cat.: Benefits and Retirement, Free Agency, Government in My Backyard (GIMBY), Preventive Journalism, State and Local Government, Transparency
By Ned Hodgman | 04. May 2009
Comment

Things are going to get worse before they get better.  And that applies to the news we're getting from reporters around the country, too.  But the quality of that reporting -- and the story it tells about public officials who bury the truth about their mistakes and misteps -- is ...

MAKE YOUR NUMBER OR YOUR NUMBER’S UP

Cat.: Dept. of Defense, Dept. of the Army, Free Agency, Recruiting, Work Force & Workplace
By Ned Hodgman | 06. April 2009
Comment

You've heard about the Army's rising and falling success rates in getting new recruits.  You've heard about the suicides of soldiers coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan.  But one thing you might not know about our all-volunteer army is the stress and strain it puts on the Army's own professional ...

GIMBY ALERT: STRONG CAPABILITY FOR DISABILITY

Cat.: Benefits and Retirement, Free Agency, Government in My Backyard (GIMBY)
By Ned Hodgman | 09. March 2009
Comment

Our new Government in My Back Yard venture will spotlight similar problems in government across the country -- and see whether they can be solved using tools already tried in the next city, county, or state.  The Washington Post's Dan Morse and Ann Marimow have uncovered a definite ...

THE FEDERAL WORKFORCE V. DR NO

Cat.: Once in a Lifetime, Unions and Government
By Matthew Blake | 29. August 2008
Comment

Oklahoma Republican Senator Tom Coburn, known as "Dr. No" for opposing basically every non-military spending bill, has used the long Congressional recess to find a new foe -- the 2.5 million federal employees. The Washington Post's Christopher Lee reports that Coburn's office has ...

ARMY’S ULTIMATE RECRUITING TACTIC

Cat.: Dept. of the Army, Once in a Lifetime, Recruiting
By Ned Hodgman | 30. May 2008
Comment

The New York Times’ Michael Brick does some journalistic assisted suicide, letting the U.S. military hangs itself through professing love for Ultimate Fighting Championship. U.F.C. is a pro league of mixed martial art and jujitsu fighting, what John McCain once called “human cockfighting.”

Now it’s all ...

IF YOU WANT SOMETHING, TRY ASKING FOR IT

Cat.: Once in a Lifetime, Part of the Solution, Recruiting
By Ned Hodgman | 05. May 2008
Comment

It’s Public Service Recognition Week and the Council for Excellence in Government has kicked off the festivities with a survey about the federal bureaucracy. In a poll of 18-to-29-year-olds, apparently also known as millennials, the survey found out that if asked by a parent, teacher, or new president of ...

OSHA’S “GOTCHA” APPROACH DOESN’T HELP AFTER TRAGEDIES

Cat.: Government in My Backyard (GIMBY), Occupational Safety & Health Administration, Once in a Lifetime, Workplace
By Ned Hodgman | 02. May 2008
1

A team of reporters from the Wall Street Journal has investigated the massive explosion at the Imperial Sugar Co. refinery in Georgia and concluded that a lack of local government inspections, attention from the plants' owners, and federal government oversight combined to create the fireball that ignited on Feb. 7, 2008.  The problem, as Paulo Prada, Betsy McKay and Stephanie Chen write, was "all because of dust."