Free Republic

MADISON, WI (AP) -- The University of Wisconsin System was unaware it employed a total of 40 felons this fall, including two who committed homicides in the 1970s and four child sex offenders, according to an audit released Tuesday.UW System President Kevin Reilly promised a review of all 40 cases cited by the nonpartisan Legislative Audit Bureau to determine whether the crimes were related to their employment and the system should dismiss the employees. He said 12 of the employees no longer work for the system and 25 committed the crimes before they were hired. State law prohibits job discrimination...

08/05/2005 -- 18:12(GMT+7) Ha Noi, Aug. 5 (VNA) - Prime Minister Phan Van Khai has directed the State administrative sector to tighten discipline and order and said that fighting bureaucracy, corruption and wastefulness is an urgent task at present. The PM made the instruction at a ceremony held in Ha Noi on August 5 by the Ministry of Internal Affairs to receive the Order of Golden Star and celebrate the State administrative sector's 60th foundation day (August 28). At the presentation ceremony, PM Khai said the ministry should focus its efforts on improving the quality of public employees, and speed...

Posted on Mon, Feb. 07, 2005 Staff exodus pinches countiesBy Peter FelsenfeldCONTRA COSTA TIMES A wave of retirements sweeping through California counties has administrators statewide scrambling to replace highly experienced top managers.The departures involve a concentration of employees who entered the public-sector work force en masse during rapid government expansion in the early 1970s.Those workers are now in their mid- to late 50s and often occupy leadership positions. Many have accumulated enough years of service to take advantage of enhanced pension benefits that allow public employees to retire at ever-younger ages.Add everything together and the results aren't hard to...

January 25, 2005 -- A former Republican legislator who's looking to challenge Mayor Bloomberg claims Hizzoner's aides tried to buy him off with a six-figure job. "There's no question in my mind the offer was made so I wouldn't run," said Tom Ognibene, a former Queens city councilman who's threatening to enter a Republican primary against Bloomberg. Bill Cunningham, the mayor's communication director, said a meeting this month between Ognibene and two Bloomberg aides was routine and scheduled before Ognibene hinted he might run.

Carolina Journal Exclusives School of the Arts Audit Detailed Investigation finds "wilful, deliberate, and intentional" violations of state law RALEIGH - High-level administrators at the North Carolina School of the Arts engaged in "willful, deliberate, and intentional" violations of state law in what State Auditor Ralph Campbell described as "similar to the debacle at Enron." Campbell said the findings at the NCSA were as serious as any his office had uncovered previously. Among the findings of the State Auditor's Investigative Audit Division were: state and NCSA-affiliated foundation funds used to make car lease payments and country club dues for NCSA...

President Bush exercised an escape clause in federal pay law yesterday that allows him to stick to his proposed 2 percent pay raise for civilian employees next year rather than agree to a formula that would trigger an increase of about 15 percent. In a letter to congressional leaders, Bush said the larger increase "would threaten our efforts against terrorism or force deep cuts in discretionary spending or federal employment to stay within budget." Presidents have routinely used a loophole in the 1990 Federal Employees Pay Comparability Act, which was designed to close a "pay gap" between federal and private...

A curious thing happens when conservatives are elected president of the United States — particularly if they have the temerity to govern as conservatives: Non-trivial numbers of federal civil servants oppose the president's agenda and work to scupper it through quiet obstructionism, anonymous but highly critical press leaks and, on occasion, public disagreements over policy and programs.

"[President] Bush is demanding -- and the House has approved -- powers to rearrange the federal bureaucracy in ways not seen since Congress passed the Pendleton Act in 1883...If Senate Democrats go along, Bush could get rid of the 15-grade structure of the federal personnel system, in which promotions are based more on seniority than performance. Light suspects Bush would use a merit-based system. Once that was implemented at the Homeland Security Department, a domino effect that could release all 1.8 million federal workers from [the cumbersome and self-perpetuating bureaucracy of] government personnel rules."

To start the ball rolling: 1. Allow politicans running for office to promise whatever they think will help get them elected but require that if elected or re-elected any vote contrary to their campaign promises constitute their automatic resignation effective immediately and permanently. Examples: Campaign promises not to vote to raise taxes, not to vote for gun control laws, not to vote for any restrictions of freedom of speech or other civil liberties, not to vote for _________________. 2. Make it a felony with forfeiture of all pay and benefits otherwise due, for all government employees, past or present, from...

Navy draws criticism over beating deaths of deer on baseBy SCOTT HARPER, The Virginian-Pilot© April 18, 2002 VIRGINIA BEACH -- Animal-rights activists and wildlife rescuers are criticizing the Navy over an incident this month at Oceana Naval Air Station, where staff destroyed two badly injured deer by beating them with a shovel and cutting their throats. The Navy is defending the actions of two base workers, saying they used ``the best available, immediate means to end these animals' suffering at that particular time and place,'' Capt. C.A. Silvers, Oceana's commanding officer, said in a letter to one animal group. ``While...