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May 15, 2008

Card Check: Do They Hear Themselves Talking?

A news release from the SEIU:

CORALVILLE, Iowa, May 12 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The California Nurses Association (CNA) violated Iowa state law by improperly mailing promotional materials to 2,000 nurses represented by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 199 according to a lawsuit filed on behalf of nurses today. The suit charges the CNA broke the Iowa Trade Secrets Act when it sent unsolicited materials to the homes of Iowa nurses after illegally attaining a private mailing list of SEIU members earlier this year.

"It's frankly scary that an out-of-state union like the CNA would have gotten their hands on our confidential, internal list," said Cathy Glasson, a registered nurse and President of SEIU Local 199. "No one in America should ever have to worry that their private information will be taken and used without their consent."

(Hat tip: Bret Jacobson)

Posted by Carter Wood at 6:01 PM | Click here to comment | Send to a Friend
Tagged: card check , Employee Free Choice Act , SEIU

Colombia is an Ally

Two items of note in today's Washington Post...

Posted by Carter Wood at 9:39 AM | Click here to comment | Send to a Friend
Tagged: Dirk Kempthorne , Endangered Species Act , polar bears

Saying No to Forced Unionization and Card Check

Senator Jim DeMint is pushing back against federally mandated collective bargaining for local firefighters and law enforcement officers as embraced in H.R. 980, which the Senate is debating this week.

From DeMint's news release, including a description of his two amendments:

“Organized labor is rapidly losing membership because the free market is helping workers more than unions. Realizing they can’t compete in a free market, organized labor is desperately trying to force more public workers to unionize.”

“Americans must have the freedom to work without being forced into paying dues to a union and they must have the freedom to vote by secret ballot in union elections. The right to work and the right to a secret ballot election are fundamental American freedoms that must not be trampled on.”

Right to Work: make it unlawful in any state to force public safety or private sector workers to pay fees to a labor union as a condition of employment. No American should be forced to pay tribute to a union in order to get or keep a job.

Secret Ballot Protection: make it unlawful to certify a union as the representative for a group of employees without a secret ballot election. No American should be forced to choose their representatives under pressure or coercion from a union or their employer.

The Vallejo City Council voted May 6 to become the largest city to ever declare bankruptcy in California. The cause of Vallejo’s demise? Contracts with fire and police unions account for 74% of the city’s $80 million budget. Why did the city sign such ridiculous contracts? Because public sector unions are a controlling force in the Democratic Party and Democrats dominate Vallejo’s government. So when it came time for the city to negotiate salaries with its unions, the Democrats were represented and the unions were represented, but the city’s taxpayers were not.

Posted by Carter Wood at 9:15 AM | Click here to comment | Send to a Friend
Tagged: card check , H.R. 980 , Jim DeMint , Vallejo

Viewpoints: The Health Care Debate

The Kaiser Family Foundation has launched a new series, "Viewpoints: The Health Care Debate," featuring interviews with leaders of organizations active in the public policy debate over health care.

The National Association of Manufacturers' John Engler provides the manufacturing perspective in his interview with the foundation's Jackie Judd. To frame the issue, he says:

The number one issue I think is they want to take care of employees who need to be protected in the event of a health emergency or if something is going on at home, that employee is going to be distracted from his or her job. Ao I think they want to be able to preserve this as a cornerstone benefit of an employment contract with someone and that means they need to be able to afford it.

Others interviewed the series, with transcripts, video and or audio are:

Also on the series' home page are materials about the presidential candidates' health care platforms, the daily news updates, etc. Kaisernetwork.org is a great resource we use a lot around here.

Posted by Carter Wood at 8:58 AM | Click here to comment | Send to a Friend
Tagged: Kaiser Family Foundation

Roundabout, Legally

P.S. Forgot the MIT Study.

Posted by Carter Wood at 2:00 PM | Click here to comment | Send to a Friend
Tagged: cap and trade , Lieberman-Warner , S. 2191

McConnell Energy Amendment Defeated, 42-56

U.S. Senate rejects the supply side of supply and demand, defeating an amendment sponsored by Sen. Mitch McConnell that would have allowed access to domestic energy supplies in the Outer Continental Sheld and the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge.

On to a measure to stop filling the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

It's like debating the sprinkles on a cake you can't eat.

UPDATE (12:04 p.m.): The sprinkles pass 97-1.

UPDATE (2:05 p.m.): Roll call vote here. Senate declares, "Let them eat sprinkles!"

Posted by Carter Wood at 11:47 AM | Click here to comment | Send to a Friend
Tagged: ANWR , OCS , SPR

Presidential Candidates United on Energy

As the three major Presidential candidates continue on the campaign trail, one similarity among them stands out: None has outlined a comprehensive plan to address the rising cost of energy. Despite significant gains in reducing our energy intensity, our economy requires additional supplies of energy. Nor has any of the major presidential candidates voiced support for increasing our energy supplies by expanding our own U.S. domestic production. A recent Barron’s article highlights that: “There are an estimated 86 billion barrels of oil and 420 trillion cubic feet of natural gas under the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) that technically is recoverable. The government says 54% of that energy is in the Gulf of Mexico and 31% is off Alaska.” Recent estimates from the Department of the Interior have determined that the OCS has enough natural gas to heat 100 million homes for 60 years, and enough oil to drive 85 million cars for 35 years.

The detrimental impact of our reliance on foreign sources of energy was made even more clear with last week’s trade figures that show that more than half of our trade deficit in goods and services results from petroleum.

However, some in Congress do understand the urgency of securing domestic sources of energy. Just yesterday the NAM sent a Key Vote Letter to Congress in support of the McConnell Energy Amendment (SA 4720) to S. 2284, the Flood Insurance Reform and Modernization Act. Senator McConnell understands that expanded domestic supply of oil and natural gas will create and preserve hundreds of thousands of jobs here in the United States. Allowing access to our own vast supplies of energy in areas like ANWR and the OCS are necessary to bring down costs to manufacturers and other consumers. Addressing the need to curb rising energy costs should be something upon which we all can agree.

Posted by Jay Timmons at 11:04 AM | Click here to comment | Send to a Friend
Tagged: ANWR , OCS , S. 2284

Congratulations and Good Work, Secretary Chao

The National Review today takes note of Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao reaching a milestone today, the second longest tenure as a labor secretary following only Frances Perkins. And Secretary Chao hasn't just been marking time.

Chao’s most significant achievement, however, may be proactive rather than defensive: Unions now must provide a far more detailed accounting of their money and activities. In last week’s hearing, Harkin called this “going after labor unions” for making them file “onerous new financial disclosure requirements for rank-and-file members.” In reality, Chao has empowered rank-and-file members by demanding that labor leaders comply with modern standards of transparency. They must report income, expenses, salaries, and so on. It’s all online in a searchable database, too. It means that in the future, union bosses will have a harder time keeping the lid on everything from their left-wing politicking to the bar tabs they rack up at their Las Vegas conventions.

Congratulations, Secretary Chao.

Posted by Carter Wood at 9:42 AM | Click here to comment | Send to a Friend
Tagged: Department of Labor , Elaine Chao , Office of Labor Management Standards , OLMS

Card Check: A Risk for Candidates Who Support It

In Politico, pollster John McGlaughlin reviews the results of public opinion surveys that show a candidate's support for the Employee Free Choice Act could be damaging at the polls in the fall election. Surveys conducted of Senate races in Maine, Minnesota and Colorado find that card check's attack on secret-ballot elections in the workplace is very unpopular.

Voters intrinsically support the concept of private ballot elections. They are worried about the potential of workers being coerced and intimidated under the card-check scheme. And they see little need to change the existing balance in current labor laws to make it easier for unions to organize nonunion workplaces.

More important, they resent and oppose efforts to take away an individual’s right to a private and secret ballot. These inconvenient facts for Big Labor can be exploited to the detriment of the candidates it supports. Smart candidates will not want to be on the wrong side of this issue come Election Day.

They’ll side with voters and oppose union card-check legislation.

Posted by Carter Wood at 9:37 AM | Click here to comment | Send to a Friend
Tagged: card check , Employee Free Choice Act , John McGlaughlin

Tort Reform Works...So Far...In One Specific Area

The Aon Corp., the risk management and consulting firm, has released an analysis of liability costs and trends in the long-term care industry, and for the first time in the nine years of reporting, liability costs are stable on a national average basis. From the news release:

The study found that average general liability and professional liability loss costs nationwide are at approximately $1,460 per bed after peaking at $2,030 per bed in 1998. This trend is driven by a reduction in the average severity of claims from a high of $261,000 in 1998 to $138,000 in 2007. In addition, the number of claims (frequency) has stabilized in recent years -- hovering around 10.6 claims per 1,000 occupied beds after rising from 6.7 claims in 1997.

"The impact of tort reform has been lasting, but it is not the only factor contributing to the stabilization of liability costs in the long term care sector," said Theresa W. Bourdon, managing director and actuary for Aon Global Risk Consulting. "Many other changes, including the withdrawal of some long term care facilities operators from expensive markets, more effective defense strategies, the use of arbitration for claims settlement and significant improvements in quality of care, have combined to help alleviate the liability crisis."

All of which explains why arbitration is under attack on Capitol Hill. Rather than a single bill limiting (or effectively banning) binding arbitration, the trial bar's lobbyists are hoping to write anti-arbitration language into a wide variety of legislation. Right now they're focusing on long-term care, hoping to leverage success there into more areas of law.

In April, Sens. Mel Martinez (R-FL) and Herb Kohl (D-WI) introduced S. 2838, the Fairness in Nursing Home Arbitration Act. The bill would amend the Federal Arbitration Act to ban pre-dispute arbitration agreements for nursing homes and residential care facilities, e.g., assisted living facilities. History tells us -- as does the Aon survey -- that the result would be higher costs with no clear benefit to care.

The Wall Street Journal examined long-term arbitration in a page one story in April.

The nursing-home industry says arbitration is relatively quick and cheap -- for the elderly plaintiffs as well as the defendants -- and lets homes concentrate their staff and budgets on caring for patients, not litigation. "It's hard to keep staff focused on doing their best when there is a threat of lawsuits constantly hanging over their heads," says Gerald Coggin, a spokesman for Tennessee-based nursing-home operator National HealthCare Corp. In Tennessee, state legislators this year introduced a bill specifically to allow the nursing-home agreements as a condition of admission, to help homes "hold down or avoid the costs of litigation," says Democratic state Rep. Randy Rinks, one of the sponsors.

The industry was alarmed in the late 1990s by a rash of huge jury awards. In one case, $83 million was awarded in the death of a Texas woman with infected bedsores; $95 million went to a California woman who fractured her hip and shoulder when she allegedly was dropped by nursing-home staff. Both awards were knocked down by the trial judges: the Texas judgment to $56 million, and the California award down to $3.6 million. But plaintiffs lawyers were newly drawn to nursing-home suits by the big awards.

Posted by Carter Wood at 9:01 AM | Click here to comment | Send to a Friend
Tagged: binding arbitration , long-term care , S. 2838

Perambulating the Energy Grounds

Posted by Carter Wood at 7:03 AM | Click here to comment | Send to a Friend
Tagged: Chevron , LNG , natural gas

May 12, 2008

Supreme Court Recuses, Lawsuits Proceed

An unusual and unfortunate development at the U.S. Supreme Court today, as four justices recused themselves in an appeal of lawsuits brought by South African nationals against U.S. companies that did business with the South African government. Three of the justices own stock in the affected companies and another has a son who works for Credit Suisse. (AP story.)

The case is American Isuzu Motors Inc. v. Lungisile Ntsebeza, 07-919. The court's order is available here.

As Dow Jones explains:

When lacking a quorum, the Supreme Court is required to affirm a lower court [2nd Circuit] ruling that went against the companies, many of them major international corporations. Both the U.S. and South African governments also urged the high court to hear the case.

The South African apartheid appeal could affect more than 50 companies sued in 11 separate lawsuits for damages claims that exceed $400 billion. Among those who signed onto the appeal are American Isuzu Motors Inc., a unit of Isuzu Motors Ltd. (ISUZY), Ford Motor Co. (F), JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM), Honeywell International Inc. (HON), General Electric Co. (GE) and 3M Co. (MMM).

The lawsuits represent a major interference with the Executive Branch's conduct of foreign policy and open up U.S. businesses to liability claims for doing business in an entirely consistent fashion with that foreign policy.

The National Association of Manufacturers joined other business groups in an amicus brief (available here); the others are the National Foreign Trade Council, USA*Engage, U.S. Council for International Business, and the Organization for International Investment. The Solicitor General's brief is available at ScotusBlog here.

As Michael Krauss commented earliler at the Point of Law blog, "Saudi Arabia's barbaric laws mistreat women and viciously oppress non-Muslims. China enslaves millions, harvests organs from thousands it executes, and is still in denial over Tiananmen Square. Warning to all US companies doing business in those places -- did you know you might be committing an American tort? Talk about a tariff barrier to exports!"

Crossposted from Point of Law.

Posted by Carter Wood at 3:36 PM | Click here to comment | Send to a Friend
Tagged: Alien Tort Claims Act , Isuzu , South Africa

And, It's a Shield Against Full Coverage!

The New York Times ran a story Saturday on conservative support for a federal media shield bill, "From Places Unexpected, Support for the Press." Cited in the story as evidence are a conservative judge, Brett Kavanaugh, Sen. John McCain and Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN). Pence is the trump card in this hand, being a leader of House conservatives.

The article notes the Bush Administration's opposition based on concerns about leaks of classified intelligence and national security information.

But yet again, a story in a major media outlet fails to refer to the serious concerns about the legislation expressed by U.S. businesses, who worry that a shield law will protect criminal acts committed against them. (Our earlier posts here and here.)

It's almost as if the reporters are lobbying for the bill.

As argued Orin Kerr at the Volokh Conspiracy:

A Puzzling Omission: I don't think it's a secret that The New York Times tends to be particularly one-sided when reporting on matters of concern to The New York Times. Given that, perhaps everyone expects that a Times story on conservative support for a federal reporter's privilege is going to be as much a work of advocacy as a work of reporting.

Still, isn't it a bit odd that Saturday's story on the reporters' privilege doesn't disclose that both of the credited authors, Eric Lichtblau and Philip Shenon, have been personally involved recently in high-profile DOJ leak investigations? Lichtblau was himself a target after he co-authored the 2005 NSA surveillance story. And Philip Shenon was one of the two reporters who had his phone records subpoened in the Valerie Plame leak investigation (the other was Judith Miller). I don't know the official standards for journalistic ethics, but it seems pretty fishy to me that Lichtblau & Shenon didn't disclose their background in the story.

Posted by Carter Wood at 3:34 PM | Click here to comment | Send to a Friend
Tagged: federal media shield , media shield

In Other Labor News

Posted by Carter Wood at 9:24 AM | Click here to comment | Send to a Friend
Tagged: AFL-CIO , card check , Employee Free Choice Act

Transparency for Labor, a Good Thing

The Department of Labor today has published proposed rules for expanding the disclosure requirements for labor unions, affecting Form LM-2, which is used by unions with annual receipts of at least $250,000. From the news release:

Changes being proposed include disclosing the amount spent on benefits for individual union officers and certain union employees, reporting indirect disbursements to officers and employees, itemizing certain receipts of $5,000 or more, and disclosing the identity of the purchaser or seller in transactions involving union assets. All the proposed changes will bring further clarity to the Form LM-2 by improving disclosure in these areas. The proposed rule also increases accountability by establishing a fair procedure, including due process rights for the union, for revoking a privilege of filing a simplified annual LM-3 report instead of the more detailed LM-2.

The Examiner editorializes in favor of the rules, drawing the link between transparency and accountability:

Among other things, the proposed rule adds a provision covering benefits paid to union officers and employees such as pensions, deferred compensation and life insurance. Currently, only gross salary, allowances, outlays for official business and assorted other disbursements to individual officers and employees exceeding $10,000 annually need to be disclosed.

Closing this loophole will enhance the ability of union members to have timely and accurate information about how union leaders and employees are being compensated. Without such information, it is difficult to assess whether the interests of members are being well-served by those representing them in the union leadership.

Posted by Carter Wood at 9:06 AM | Click here to comment | Send to a Friend
Tagged: Elaine Chao , OLMS

The Week Ahead: The Week of May 12

Farm bill and the Iraq war funding in the House, farm bill and flood insurance in the Senate. The Senate is expected to debate competing energy proposals (or anti-energy proposals, as the case may be), attached to S. 2284, the flood insurance bill. (And the President is indicating a veto of the farm bill.) And it's time to start preparing for the bicentennial of the War of 1812. When is that, anyway?

Both the House and the Senate convene today at 2 p.m., pro formally. The House floor schedule for the week is available here. For the full list of the upcoming week's committee hearings, goto the Daily Digest pages.

House hearings: House Oversight on Wednesday, "Should FDA Drug and Medical Device Regulation Bar State Liability Claims?" Also Wednesday, an Energy and Commerce subcommittee hearing on the "Food and Drug Administration Globalization Act," specifically cosmetics and medical devices. On Thursday, the Small Business Committee focuses on the business effects of the food crisis. A Transportation and Infrastructure subcommittee hearing on Wednesday, on airline consolidation (Delta, Northwest).

Senate hearings: Two hearings of note for Senate Energy and Natural Resources: On Tuesday, it reviews climate change's potential effects on coastal infrastructure; on Thursday, it's the development of oil shale. On Wednesday, a Commerce subcommittee holds a hearing on plastic additives in consumer products, i.e., phthalates and BPA. Senate Banking on Thursday studies the nation's infrastructure, hearing from the mayors of NYC and Minneapolis. Foreign Relations on Thursday, "U.S.-China Relations in the Era of Globalization." Judiciary on Thursday, a hearing on S. 2913, limiting judicial remedies in copyright infringement cases involving orphan works.

Executive Branch: The President and First Lady are off to Israel -- Happy 60th -- and then Saudi Arabia and Egypt. Commerce Secretary Gutierrez is traveling, first at Qualcomm and Hitachi in Southern California on Monday, then Beijing Thursday and Seoul on Friday. Energy Secretary Bodman is in Trinidad and Tobago Tuesday to talk about energy cooperation with a focus on LNG.

Economic Reports: Wednesday, BLS releases CPI for April.

And two items of interest in state courthouses. Today in Covington, Ky., three lawyers go on trial for bilking their clients out of millions in the Fen-Phen settlement. And in Rhode Island Thursday, the state Supreme Court hears arguments on an appeal from three paint manufacturers sued by the state attorney general, twisting the public nuisance statutes to make them pay $2.4 billion for a state clean-up plan. The NAM's materials on the suit are here.

Posted by Carter Wood at 7:35 AM | Click here to comment | Send to a Friend
Tagged: Fen-phen , lead paint

Can't You Hear the Cubs Crying? Send Us Money!

"There have been documented reports of polar bears drowning and starving -- and of snowy dens collapsing on newborn cubs and their mothers from unseasonable rains." -- NRDC fundraising letter from Lenardo DiCaprio.

The Bush Administration is under a judge's order to act on an Endangered Species Act listing for the polar bear by May 15th, as environmental groups abuse the legal system to try to enact global-warming policy through activist courts and regulations.

Well, science and population surveys indicate the polar bears aren't endangered, as AEI resident scholar Kenneth P. Green explains in The Orange County Register. Green also relates:

Environmentalists have long used charismatic megafauna as poster children in their ongoing crusade to wall off as much of the world as possible from human encroachment.

Environmental activist Eric de Place observes that using these types of animals as "poster children" for broader conservation has worked with grizzly bears, wolves, and sea otters. And the money follows the glamour.

It starts with the appeal from Leonardo DiCaprio quoted above, page 1 and page 2. Then there's a NRDC polar bear S.O.S. petition, asking, "Can you give $20 or more to throw the polar bears a lifeline?" The NRDC solicitation letter is over the top, but apparently they think that sells:

If you're like me, I'm sure it pains you deeply to imagine ...

...The last gasp of a polar bear before it drowns in the vast waters of the Arctic, unable to reach the increasingly distant ice floes it needs to find food.

...The muffled cries of newborn polar bear cubs as they are buried alive when their snowy den collapses from unseasonable rains.

...The exhaustion of a mother polar bear and her young as they succumb to starvation after enduring longer and longer periods without food.

The arguments appeal to emotion because can't effectively appeal to science. As the AEI's Green summarizes in a paper, "Is the Polar Bear Endangered, or Just Conveniently Charismatic?"

At present, polar bear populations are robust and, according to native people, are considerably larger than they were in previous decades.[29] Predictions of polar bear endangerment are based on two sets of computer models: one set predicts how much Arctic sea ice will melt as a result of global warming, and the other predicts how polar bear populations will respond. But computer models of climate are known to be fraught with problems, and the ecological models used to predict polar bear response are equally limited.

Because of extreme limitations in data, it is essentially impossible to decide whether polar bears are endangered and whether their habitat is threatened by man-made global warming or other natural climate cycles. This is acknowledged by the experts themselves--the actual IUCN/SSC report is more broad in naming causes and more conservative about estimating their effects.

Can't you hear the muffled cries of the children of laid-off employees?

Here, give 'em a tote bag.

Posted by Carter Wood at 7:32 AM | Click here to comment | Send to a Friend
Tagged: endangered species act , Leonardo DiCaprio , Natural Resources Defense Council , polar bear

Slumgullion

Posted by Carter Wood at 6:27 AM | Click here to comment | Send to a Friend
Tagged: Bottled Water

May 11, 2008

The USS Stockdale Commissioned

From The Associated Press:

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.

Photo from NavSource Online: Destroyer Photo Archive, Bill Gonyo.

Posted by Carter Wood at 8:46 PM | 1 comment; click here to read it or submit your own! | Send to a Friend
Tagged: destroyers , James Stockdale , USS Stockdale

Cap-and-Trade: The Public Recognizes Failure

From The Independent:

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.

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.

(Hat tip: Andrew Stuttaford)

Posted by Carter Wood at 12:21 PM | Click here to comment | Send to a Friend
Tagged: Cap and Trade , Lieberman-Warner , Open Europe

The Way It Was: Charles E. Drew

One of the great names of medicine is that of Dr. Charles E. Drew, a black American physician born in Washington, D.C., in 1904. He overcame walls of racial prejudice to become a doctor, and while studying at Columbia University became involved with prominent researchers working on the problem of blood storage.

Up until then, the challenge was to keep blood refrigerated until it was needed. He focused his efforts on separating and storing blood components, particularly blood plasma, in order to extend its shelf life.

During the Battle of Britain, Dr. Drew created protocols and procedures for the collection, testing and shipping of blood to England where it was desperately needed. Almost 15,000 people donated more than 5,600 gallons of blood. This experience saved countless thousands of lives during World War II.

The U.S. military went to great pains to segregate the blood of whites from blacks in those days, for no sane reason. And though Dr. Drew was the driving force behind the plasma project, he was denied the leadership role in it because of his race.

Dr. Drew was tragically killed in an auto accident in North Carolina in 1950. There were rumors he was denied medical treatment because of his race, but another black doctor traveling with him reported they received the best care available.
I’m glad he did. The reality of discrimination against that great man is embarrassing enough.

Posted by Hank Cox at 10:10 AM | Click here to comment | Send to a Friend

May 10, 2008

Circumnavigation