Free Republic

MADISON, Wis. (AP) -- President Barack Obama brings his push to raise salaries for low-income workers to Wisconsin, the state where Gov. Scott Walker built his expected run for the White House around curtailing collective bargaining powers and enacting a right-to-work law.

The Center for Energy Workforce Development estimates that nearly half of the electric power generation, transmission and distribution workforce may be replaced in the coming years due to baby boomer retirements. As the demographics change, the energy industry is challenged with replacing a massive number of experienced workers all at the same time. While the scope and magnitude of the issue is widely recognized, there is no single solution to the problem. A closer look at the workforce challenge reveals social, cultural, and economic factors that should be considered when forming an effective solution. The following is a look at...

The Supreme Court overturned the Obama administration’s landmark air quality rule on Monday, ruling the Environmental Protection Agency did not properly consider the costs of the regulation. In a 5-4 ruling, the justices ruled that the EPA should have taken into account the costs to utilities and others in the power sector before even deciding whether to set limits for the toxic air pollutants it regulated in 2011. The case, Michigan v. EPA, centers on the EPA’s first limits on mercury, arsenic and acid gases emitted by coal-fired power plants, known as mercury and air toxics (MATS). Opponents, including the...

Are you wondering why Donald Trump is resonating across America more than you thought he would? Let me try and offer an explanation. To chalk it up to the simple fact that he’s a TV celebrity is naïve. Donald Trump is resonating because for many Americans he represents their, “inner voice.” He’s the guy that actually says out loud what a lot of people think inwardly. If you’re honest, you know you’ve thought some of this as well. And yes liberals, I bet you too have privately thought some of the things Trump is saying. Maybe not as much as...

"Software is eating the world," venture capitalist Marc Andreessen famously declared. Someone has to write that software. Why not you? There are thousands of programming languages, but some are far more popular than others. When a company goes out to find new programming talent, they're looking for people familiar with the languages and systems they already use — and they don't always want to experiment with newcomers like Google Go or Apple Swift. Here are the programming languages you should learn if you always want to have a job, as suggested by the popular TIOBE Index and Redmonk Programming Language...

With the Obama administration only two months away from releasing its “Clean Power Plan,” much debate has focused on the supposed benefits of cutting U.S. greenhouse gas emissions over the next 15 years. Lost amid the rhetoric is the economic hardship it will impose on working families — especially the 2.2 million blacks and Hispanics living in Pennsylvania. That's the finding from a new study commissioned by the National Black Chamber of Commerce. This regulation will leave minority communities with disproportionately fewer jobs, lower incomes and higher poverty than whites. Thus, while the administration calls its regulation a “justice issue”...

A study commissioned by the National Black Chamber of Commerce, which represents 2.1 million black-owned businesses in the United States, found that the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Clean Power Plan would increase black poverty by 23 percent and cause the loss of 7 million jobs for black Americans by 2035. The study also found that the EPA' plan would increase Hispanic poverty by 26 percent and cause the loss of 12 million jobs for Hispanic Americans by 2035. The EPA proposed the Clean Power Plan on June 2, 2014 to cut carbon emissions from power plants. ... There was a...

A former Hillary Clinton campaign fellow is accusing the Democratic frontrunner of hypocrisy for relying on unpaid interns and fellows while publicly calling to for increased wages. Carolyn Osorio writes in a new USA Today opinion piece that she joined the campaign as a fellow after Clinton announced her bid in April, adding that she had to move to Nevada and work there for free. "I had hoped a trailblazer would be more willing to break the mold of indentured servitude that haunts my generation," she writes. "Finding out that Hillary perpetuates the exploitation known as unpaid internships was like...

Like all the GOP presidential contenders, Scott Walker is being advised by economists and editorial writers to adopt a “cut the top rate first” tax policy. It would be a shame if he followed their advice, which would mean abandoning the approach that he has employed in Wisconsin to such political and economic success. Standard “supply side” tax policy argues that the inventions and advances of the economy’s most active participants drive most growth. Thus, tax policy’s priority should be to encourage more of that activity by lowering the marginal rate on those participants’ income. Since the most economically active...

In an exclusive interview with Breitbart News, GOP presidential candidate and billionaire businessman Donald Trump slammed President Obama’s trade agreements – especially the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) – which Obama argued the United States needs in order to better compete with China. However, according to a recent report by Politico, China may be trying to enter the TPP – defeating Obama’s main argument for finalizing the deal. “Of course China wants to join the trade negotiation because the deal is so pathetic and so bad,” Trump told Breitbart News. He added that China would continue to take advantage of America’s...

Over the past few weeks, the BBC has been reporting on the trends in US manufacturing - the challenges of the digital age, running factories in the city and why young start-up entrepreneurs are attracted to the industry. But what's it like to actually work in manufacturing, making the goods we use on a daily basis? And how has it changed - from Henry Ford's assembly lines to today's cutting edge factory floor? As of May 2015, there were over 12.3 million people - nearly 9% of the total US workforce - engaged in manufacturing everything from Ford Mustangs to...

CoreLogic (CLGX) could create an additional 500 jobs and workers in North Texas as part of it larger consolidation in the region, according to an article in the Dallas Business Journal. The move will combine two centers in the Dallas/Fort Worth area into one, large operations hub. The article said that CoreLogic plans to make the $68 million, 325,600-square-foot campus at 3001 Hackberry Road in Cypress Waters its new regional campus. CoreLogic plans to relocate at least 1,300 full-time positions with an average annual salary of $57,000 from Westlake and Richardson into the new regional campus. In the next four...

Elephant Auto Insurance will add 1,173 jobs at its Henrico County headquarters and will invest $2 million to expand the operation. Governor Terry McAuliffe announced the expansion today in Cardiff, United Kingdom, where he met with officials from Elephant's parent company, U.K.-based Admiral Group PLD. Elephant which had 365 employees at its headquarters in March, was already in a growth mode. In January the company moved from a 32,000-square-foot office on Eastshore Drive in the Innsbrook Corporate Center to a 54,000-square-foot site in the Deep Run I office building at 9950 Mayland Drive.

In a recent editorial, the Detroit Free Press’ Stephen Henderson criticizes policymaking that was supposed to spur job creation, saying that instead “the unemployment has creeped down at alarmingly slow rates.” ForTheRecord says: The drop in the state's unemployment rate from 14.9 percent in June 2009 to 5.4 percent in April 2015 has been among the quickest and steepest drops in Michigan going back to 1976, which is the farthest back comparable monthly data is available. In October 1982, the state's unemployment rate was 16.5 percent. It took the state until December 1988 to get unemployment down to 6.9 percent,...

Last week the Labor Department offered some seemingly very good news: U.S. employers now have more job openings than ever previously recorded. There is a bounty of opportunities to be had. And yet to unemployed workers, it may not feel that way. That’s because many companies are acting like big teases. They say they want to hire, then drag their feet. In fact, the average time required to fill a job opening has also just reached an all-time high: 27.3 days, or almost a month, according to an important and underappreciated monthly data release called the DHI-DFH Mean Vacancy Duration...

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker leads a tight field of candidates for the Republican presidential nomination, according to a new survey from Public Policy Polling. Walker is alone in first place in the poll with 17 percent, followed by former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush at 15 percent, Sen. Marco Rubio (Fla.) at 13 percent, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson at 12 percent and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee at 11 percent. That’s a big jump for Bush, who was at 11 percent support in the same poll last month. However, Bush will begin his quest for the GOP nomination with a negative...

By my reckoning, roughly 60% of the civilian work force is fully employed and 40% are marginally employed or unemployed.Officially, the unemployment rate in the U.S. is 5.6%, meaning 5.6% of the work force is temporarily out of a job and actively seeking another one. This low number reflects nearly full employment, as 3% to 4% of the work force is typically in the process of quitting/being laid off and finding another job. Typically, periods of nearly full employment are economically good times, as household income is bolstered and employers have to pay a bit more to hire workers when...

Declaring to be “the greatest jobs president that God ever created,” billionaire Donald Trump entered the Republican presidential contest today as its 12th candidate.Trump went way off script for the long announcement in New York, starting off with a dig at Rick Perry’s sweaty airplane hangar announcement.“Some of the candidates, they went in. They didn’t know the air-conditioner didn’t work. They sweated like dogs… How are they going to beat ISIS? I don’t think it’s gonna happen,” he said.Mexico, he said, is “laughing at us, at our stupidity” as they import drugs and “rapists” into the United States. “And...

How can it be that the largest pending trade deal in history – a deal backed both by a Democratic president and Republican leaders in Congress – is nearly dead? The Trans Pacific Partnership may yet squeak through Congress but its near-death experience offers an important lesson. It’s not that labor unions have regained political power (union membership continues to dwindle and large corporations have more clout in Washington than ever) or that the President is especially weak (no president can pull off a major deal like this if the public isn’t behind him). The biggest lesson is most Americans...

[snip of long lead-in] "...But the panel did agree on $250 million in cuts to the 26 campuses, including the flagship in Madison. ..The committee also kept Walker's call to remove tenure protections from state law, a proposal that's garnering attention nationally from academics who fear weakening tenure protections will catch on elsewhere. Even with delays and squabbling, Walker is likely to walk away with some big wins: on lifting an enrollment cap on statewide private school vouchers, on new drug screening for public aid recipients and on lower property taxes. Those are all sure-fire crowd pleasers on the Republican...