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The federal government has signed agreements with three foreign countries — Mexico, Ecuador and the Philippines — to establish outreach programs to teach immigrants their rights to engage in labor organizing in the U.S. The agreements do not distinguish between those who entered legally or illegally. They are part of a broader effort by the National Labor Relations Board to get immigrants involved in union activism. The five-member board is the agency that enforces the National Labor Relations Act, the main federal law covering unions. In 2013, Lafe Solomon, the board's then-acting general counsel, signed a "memorandum of understanding" with...

Anniversaries are times for taking stock. And so it is with the Affordable Care Act—a.k.a., the ACA or Obamacare. Now, at the time of the fifth anniversary of the law’s passage, the law remains in existential jeopardy. The Supreme Court is considering whether the law, as drafted, permits payment of tax credits in the 34 states that use HealthCare.Gov as their administrative agent. These credits make insurance affordable and the law sustainable. Should the court rule that these credits cannot be paid, millions will find insurance unaffordable. Insurance markets in most of those states will be thrown into chaos. Congress...

Some of the worst public-sector pension problems in America are playing out in states and cities where legislation or local court rulings have granted extraordinary protections to workers’ retirement benefits—far beyond those enjoyed by private-sector employees. ... One can see a glimpse of Illinois’s possible future in Arizona. Last year, the state’s Supreme Court overturned 2011 pension reforms that, among other things, sought to curb expensive annual cost-of-living increases for judges, legislators, and ... The predicament faced by Illinois and Arizona should be a warning, especially to other states where government pensions enjoy extraordinary legal protections. Raising benefits or shortchanging...

An economist at the U.S. Department of Labor quickly put her gears in reverse after sending out a tweet comparing Christians to Nazis. Elizabeth Ashack deleted her tweet that read “people in the red states vote for nazis to govern, and then call themselves Christian, it will not end well for them. #BoycottIndiana,” but not before screenshots were taken by several astute Twitter users. Ashack, an employee of the department since 1998, according to the Daily Caller, also removed “Economist at US Department of Labor BLS” from her Twitter profile after people began calling her out for the remark. That...

The personal details of world leaders at the last G20 summit were accidentally disclosed by the Australian immigration department, which did not consider it necessary to inform those world leaders of the privacy breach. The Guardian can reveal an employee of the agency inadvertently sent the passport numbers, visa details and other personal identifiers of all world leaders attending the summit to the organisers of the Asian Cup football tournament. The United States president, Barack Obama, the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, the Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, the Japanese prime...

In 1997, in the City of Boerne v. Flores decision, the U.S. Supreme Court decided that the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) did not apply to the states. Since 1993, 20 states have enacted state RFRAs. These laws are intended to echo the federal RFRA, but are not necessarily identical to the federal law. Indiana is the most recent state to enact a RFRA, doing so this year. Sixteen states have introduced legislation this year regarding the creation of, or alteration to, a state religious freedom law. Oklahoma, South Carolina and Texas currently have a RFRA, but have introduced...

A heavy majority, but maybe not heavy enough. If McConnell can’t muster more than 62 votes in the Senate to override an Obama veto of whatever Congress chooses passes. we’ll be stuck with this Iran sh*tburger until January 2017 at the earliest. And probably much longer than that, if we’re being honest. Nice to see President Overreach get a rebuke in the polls, though. Which is different from expecting any sort of meaningful public backlash if he makes a deal over Congress’s objections.At first glance that looks like a neatly consistent result. Americans favor giving their representatives the final say...

Apparently upset that “blocs” of Asians are taking over blocks of public housing in her district, a New York City councilwoman last week suggested “culture” be included when assigning people to public housing. “There could be some benefit to housing people by culture,” Councilwoman Laurie Cumbo told the New York Post. “I think it needs to be discussed.” lauriecumbo0330 Photo: New York Post If Cumbo weren’t a black woman Democrat from New York City in 2015 – if she were, say, a white male Democrat from Alabama in 1965 – everyone would know exactly what she was talking about when...

The trail-blazing escape artists known as Kahkneeta and Laney are prohibited from making public appearances after their owners were contacted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture with bad news. USDA officials revealed Bub Bullis and Karen Freund lacked the proper permits to show the animals off at public events, like the senior home show-and-tell they escaped on Feb. 26 in Sun City, Ariz. "They just totally destroyed everything I had planned for my retirement," Freund told the Associated Press. "We've taken them to schools before. Now they're telling me I can't do anything, even like a photo shoot."

On a recent Friday, Kwanza Brooks, a $7.25-an-hour McDonald’s worker, climbed into a 14-person van to take a four-hour ride from Charlotte, N.C., to Atlanta. As she and other workers headed south, Ms. Brooks, a short, fiery woman, swapped stories with her companions about unsafe conditions and unfair managers. Upon arriving, they joined more than 400 other people — including home care aides, Walmart workers, child care workers and adjunct professors. The gathering was a strategy session to plan for the fast-food movement’s next big wave of protests, which is now scheduled for April 15. But the meeting was also...

Two reports released in the past week demonstrate a potential bifurcation in state insurance exchanges: The insurance marketplaces appear to be attracting a disproportionate share of low-income individuals who qualify for generous federal subsidies, while middle- and higher-income filers have generally eschewed the exchanges. The overall picture presented is one of a bifurcated, or even trifurcated, system of health insurance. Individuals who qualify for very rich insurance subsidies or Medicaid have signed up for coverage, while those who qualify for small or no subsidies have not. It raises two obvious questions: Whether and how the exchanges can succeed long-term with...

In a speech this morning at the dedication of the new Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate, President Obama praised the late Senator effusively, citing his bipartisan creds and pondering what the world would be like if we all "carried ourselves more like Kennedy. (Oops, did we say "pond"?) The folks at Digitas Daily think Obama might have been well-advised to choose different words, though, when talking up Kennedy's reach across party lines. "[Republicans] know who Ted Kennedy was. It's not because they shared Ted's ideology or his positions, but because they knew Ted as somebody who...

Two former lead narcotics investigators said they are "disgusted," but not surprised, with the government report finding that Deputy Secretary for Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas inappropriately helped secure visas for foreign investors that benefited his Democrat friends – including Hillary Clinton's youngest brother, Anthony Rodham. Back in 2002, Mayorkas, then a Bill Clinton-appointed Los Angeles U.S. Attorney, was found by a congressional committee to have inappropriately pushed for clemency for convicted drug dealer Carlos Vignali, who happened to be the son of big-time Democratic Party donor Horatio Vignali. Horatio Vignali, an Argentinian immigrant who built a fortune in Los Angeles,...

The Mark Levin Show is on-the-air: “Conservatism is the antidote to tyranny precisely because its principles are the founding principles.” -- Mark Levin in "Liberty and Tyranny". Welcome to “The Levin Lounge"... Step in and have a virtual FRink.Taking the country by storm, one radio station at a time – and kicking the BUTTS of the competition! Welcome all, to the most FUN LIVE THREAD on FreeRepublic.com! You can call Mark’s show: 1-877-381-3811.

Press ? for keyboard shortcuts. The Gestapo is alive and well in Obama’s America People me Today at 2:53 PM . Mar 30, 2015 Source: Personal Liberty by: Wayne Allyn Root Hi. I’m Wayne Allyn Root for Personal Liberty. Barack Obama is going rogue. By every metric, the Obama economy is melting down. We are seeing the beginning stages of another recession, at best, or a total economic meltdown, at worst. At the moment, there are no decent-paying jobs in America. Obama has opened the border and given amnesty to at least 5 million illegal aliens already in the country,...

Rep. Dina Titus (D-Nev.) has unveiled legislation to establish a program, so schools and food banks can offer meals to low-income students on weekends and holidays. Titus's bill would create a five-year pilot program for providing food to students eligible for free or reduced lunch during the week, when school is out. The Nevada Democrat noted the measure comes at the same time as many schools are out for spring break. Students who rely on meals provided during the school day for sustenance consequently might not have enough to eat. "Vacation from school should never mean hunger for children. This...

Coal is pretty important to West Virginia. Coal-fired electric power plants accounted for 95 percent of West Virginia's net electricity generation in 2013 and the state produces about 15 percent of all fossil fuel energy in the US. What’s more, the Mountain State leads the nation in underground coal mine production. One government agency seems poised to slow these miners down, but not if Rep. Alex Mooney (R-WV) can help it. “West Virginia is blessed to be abundant in natural resources," Mooney said. "Unfortunately, the President is intent on destroying coal as a domestic energy source.” Rep. Mooney introduced the...

Turning away a legal plea literally wrapped in the American flag, the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday refused to intervene in a controversial case involving a South Bay high school's discipline of students who chose to wear flag-adorned shirts during a 2010 Cinco de Mayo celebration. The high court's action left intact a federal appeals court ruling last year that found Live Oak High School officials had the legal right to order students wearing the American flag shirts to turn them inside out or go home.

The 'P5+1' nuclear negotiations with Iran are coming down to the wire, with the Obama administration hellbent on attaining a deal before tomorrow's deadline (which Iran doesn't acknowledge, by the way). As Conn has reported, if an agreement is reached, it likely won't be formalized or written down for a period of months. What Western diplomats are scrambling to "achieve," therefore, is an informal consensus on the principles and outlines of a deal -- struck with an evil, untrustworthy regime. The British Foreign Minister told reporters last week that they're hoping to secure a "narrative," whatever that means: We envisage...

MANCHESTER, UK — Alabama congresswoman Martha Roby is currently with eight of her colleagues, including House Speaker John Boehner, on a CODEL (congressional delegation trip) reinforcing the need for strong American leadership in the world, including in the fight to defeat ISIS. The CODEL began with British allies in Manchester, U.K., where more than 70 years ago General George S. Patton and the Third Army were stationed prior to the Normandy invasion. The delegation then traveled to Israel, where Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently won re-election at a time of heightened tensions between Netanyahu’s government and the Obama administration over...