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Federal wildlife agents shot and killed 14 wolves from helicopters in Idaho’s remote Lolo Zone earlier this month. The three-day operation, aimed at reducing the number of wolves roaming the backcountry area where elk herds are struggling, was carried out in a partnership between the federal Wildlife Services agency and the Idaho Department of Fish and Game. Wildlife managers hope a sustained reduction in wolf numbers will allow the Lolo elk herd, which has been severely depressed since the mid 1990s, to rebound. “We’d like to see one of Idaho’s premier elk populations recover as much as possible,” said Jim...

A jury has awarded three veteran Los Angeles police detectives $2.5 million in a gender discrimination and retaliation lawsuit against their supervisors. The verdict, delivered Friday after only a few hours of deliberation, is the latest in a long string of costly lawsuits brought by LAPD officers against fellow cops and supervisors for retaliation, harassment and other workplace abuses.

Solar panel installer SolarCity said on Friday it was the second company in as many days that will not get finalization of U.S. government loan aid by a September 30 deadline. The Department of Energy informed SolarCity of its inability to close the loan 48 hours ago, blaming increased paperwork resulting from a Congressional investigation into the Department of Energy's $535 million loan guarantee awarded to bankrupt solar company Solyndra, SolarCity said in a letter to the Republican lawmakers heading the probe.The DOE loan guarantee program, which is under fire for missing signs its first recipient of loan aid, Solyndra,...

There has been a good deal of hand-wringing over the state of our nation's schools -- whether at the elementary, the secondary, or the University level. And instead of a circular firing squad so beloved of the Republican Party, those closest to the situation are involved in an almost unfathomable degree of both psychological projection and transferrence, coupled with a goodly measure of 1984-style groupthink, in which they chant in unison, "You can't blame us!" In a limited sense, this is true: in the cloud-cuckoo land of government largesse and union employment, punching the clock, obeying the party line, and...

Labor Day is a celebration of the American worker, who helps turn management’s vision into reality. In that spirit, I wish everyone a happy Labor Day. Well, almost everyone. Let me explain. For as long as I can remember, my father owned a small manufacturing company in southwest Michigan. He didn’t pay the highest wages in the area, but he treated each employee with respect, and these workers in turn gave Dad an honest day’s work. That mutual respect, combined with a unique bonus program that all his employees participated in, made for a steady workforce.

How whole industries disappear Take the story of Dell Computer [DELL] and its Taiwanese electronics manufacturer. The story is told in the brilliant book by Clayton Christensen, Jerome Grossman and Jason Hwang, The Innovator’s Prescription : ASUSTeK started out making the simple circuit boards within a Dell computer. Then ASUSTeK came to Dell with an interesting value proposition: “We’ve been doing a good job making these little boards. Why don’t you let us make the motherboard for you? Circuit manufacturing isn’t your core competence anyway and we could do it for 20% less.” Dell accepted the proposal because from a...

Bob Lutz, the former Vice Chairman of General Motors, is the most famous also-ran in the auto business. In the course of his 47-year rampage through the industry, he's been within swiping range of the brass ring at Ford, BMW, Chrysler and, most recently, GM, but he's never landed the top gig. It's because he "made the cars too well," he says. It might also have something to do with the fact that Maximum Bob, who could double as a character on Mad Men, is less an éminence grise than a pithy self-promoter who has a tendency to go off...

The employees – including binmen and street cleaners – are being asked to move pebbles around a table to indicate who they do and don’t get on with at work. They are also asked to rate their colleagues at West Oxfordshire District Council by writing words on large placards, such as “professional” and “supportive”. Last November, the prime minister defended plans to measure the nation’s happiness as part of an Office for National Statistics’ survey later this year. The council course is compulsory for all 316 staff and they must attend the one hour sessions each month and keep a...

My daughter's 11 month old Red Standard Poodle has been diagnosed with "mega esophagous" which means that his esophagous is nearly twice as large as it ought to be, and the food has a hard time making into the stomach and just sits in the esophagous. He regurgitates much of his dinner daily. This is a worrisome, messy, smelly condition, but not fatal. Her vet says she should learn to manage it by keeping him calm & upright for a half hour after he eats and offering smaller meals. Obviously he's getting some nutrition because he's 49 lbs, although he's...

Boise, Idaho -- We are no longer managing your wolves. Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter told the Federal Government that Idaho will no longer be a designated agent in wolf management under the Endangered Species Act. It's a decision that's being met with approval and disappointment. "This has been after months and months and months of frustration," said Otter. Frustration over a federal court's decision to put the gray wolf back on the Endangered Species List. It was de-listed in May 2008 and then put back on it this past August. Otter says that hinders the state's sovereign right to manage...

The Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks department has released its proposal for this year's gray wolf hunting season. It includes numerous changes, including an increased quota, a longer open season and a possible archery-hunting season.FWP wildlife managers are seeking to increase the statewide quota to either 186 or 216 wolves, up from the 2009 quota of 75 animals. They would also like to create 14 wolf hunting units in three zones, and allow subquotas in some areas during the early season backcountry hunt, including the area directly north of Yellowstone National Park."In a word, it’s all about balance," said Ken...

Saturday, Sept. 13, 2008 System under stress at Toyota Criticism is surfacing about the potential social costs of the carmaker's labor practices By YURI KAGEYAMA The Associated Press TOYOTA, Aichi Pref. (AP) Toyota Motor Corp. has long boasted a stellar reputation for super-efficient production that has become the lore of countless business success books. Past and present: Hiroko Uchino, the widow of Toyota Motor Corp. employee Kenichi Uchino, who died of overwork, is seen with a family photo at her house in Anjo, Aichi Prefecture, in July. AP PHOTO But recently, criticism is starting to surface in Japan about the...

Nothing the National Park Service (NPS) proposes ever surprises me, and neither did this latest article published in the February issue of BioScience magazine, which NPS researchers foster reintroducing wolves at many sites across the country. Dan Licht, NPS biologist for the Northern Plains Region led a team of five researchers who authored the paper published in BioScience. He is quoted by the Associated Press as saying, “If there’s lots of food, they’re happy … an intensively managed dozen, ten (wolves) — we think that is doable with today’s technology.” Licht predicts that wolves could become “stewards” in keeping game...

EXCERPTS ONLY ... CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR COMPLETE ARTICLE ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ If you always do as you always did, you will always get what you always got." So goes an old saying. And so goes the American economy. The problem has become the solution. Americans are now getting from their government what they got from their corporations. The automobile companies are collapsing because of their short-term perspectives and so the government has provided one bailout projected to last a few weeks, and here comes another. We call this a financial crisis or an economic one, but, at the core, it is...

The Canadian Press VANCOUVER — SNIPPET: "Khaled Nawaya, a flight instructor, was arrested by Canada Border Services agents when they found $800,000 in gold coins and other currency in his car and pockets on Oct. 6, as he crossed into Surrey, B.C., near Vancouver." SNIPPET: "He'd been living in the U.S. since he was 17 and had gained approval for permanent residency in Canada. Besides the gold, Canadian agents found a ring bearing the insignia of Hezbollah, which has been listed as a terrorist organization by the Canadian government since 2002. They also seized 9/11 conspiracy theory-themed DVDs and a...

In 1995 the federal government began transplanting Canadian gray wolves into Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming. That program touched off a fierce range war that continues to rage, pitting farmers, ranchers, hunters, conservationists, outdoor recreationists, and rural folk against the major environmentalist lobbying organizations, government bureaucrats, the big-city media, and urban politicians. After being protected for 14 years, limited hunting seasons have finally been allowed for wolves this fall, and around 150 wolves have been taken thus far. Wolf advocates are howling that the permitted hunts are "barbaric" and that those who kill wolves are "murderers." A coalition of radical environmental...

There have been 14 serious mountain lion attacks in California, three of which ended in death, in the past 23 years. The three people killed were Barbara Schoener, 40, a wife and mother of two children; Iris Kenna, 56, a high school counselor; and Mark Reynolds, 35, a bicycling enthusiast. Among the injured were a 5-year-old girl who lost an eye and was partially paralyzed; Anne Hjelle, 30, a former U.S. Marine and physical fitness instructor; and Jim Hamm, 70, a retiree living in Humboldt County. It’s amazing how folks can distort figures. In researching this column, I went to...

A friend from a long time ago--just before the turn of the century--came up here to the Sandhills of Nebraska today, and we spent a long time reminiscencing about the Good Old Days of Reagan, Bush, Gingrich, and Bush, and speculating about when the 0bamareich's going to come crashing down. He reminded me of something I long ago had forgotten, and having been reminded of it, an old question recrudesces to the surface. Where did I go wrong? Back then, just before the turn of the century, I was records supervisor for a private contractor to Immigration & Naturalization, in...

AIRBORNE: Hunts allowed with airplanes only when it's a biological emergencyWASHINGTON -- Alaska's predator control program to kill wolves, which drew renewed national scrutiny during former Gov. Sarah Palin's bid for vice president, is under attack in Congress. Two California Democrats have introduced legislation that would all but ban the practice of shooting wolves from airplanes to control their numbers. The legislation, introduced by Sen. Dianne Feinstein and Rep. George Miller, would force Alaska game officials to declare a biological emergency that shows the imminent collapse of a species without the program. Even if the state could demonstrate such an...

Bogus Theories, Bad for Business The follies of ‘management science’ and the consulting that promotes it. By PHILIP DELVES BROUGHTON Three years ago, Matthew Stewart published a ­provocative article in The Atlantic magazine blasting modern management theory and ­education. His advice to anyone considering an MBA was “don’t go to business school, study philosophy.”The ­secrets of business, he said, were to be found in ­history, literature and the classic ruminations on life and existence, not in the half-baked ramblings of ­business academics, consultants and “gurus.” In “The ­Management Myth,” he expands the Atlantic article into a devastating bombardment of managerial...

Southern California's forest plan is in limbo following a recent court order declaring that it violates federal law, a finding that could impact measures being taken to manage the region's vast forestland and reduce the perennial danger of catastrophic fire. Last month, federal court Judge Marilyn Hall Patel in San Francisco said the plan governing operations and recreation on the San Bernardino, Cleveland, Angeles and Los Padres national forests lacks specifics about how activities such as off-road vehicle use and brush clearing might impact endangered plants and animals. The case remains open and the government is working to craft a...

Former General Electric Co. Chief Executive Jack Welch is putting his name and money behind a little-known educational entrepreneur, injecting some star power into the budding industry of online education. Mr. Welch is paying more than $2 million for a 12% stake in Chancellor University System LLC, which is converting formerly bankrupt Myers University in Cleveland into Chancellor University. It plans to offer most courses online. Chancellor will name its Master of Business Administration program The Jack Welch Institute. Chancellor's leading investor is Michael Clifford, an entrepreneur who has launched two publicly traded companies in the past year: Grand Canyon...

Reporting from Sacramento -- In this economy, every state is hurting. Unemployment is in double digits, tax receipts are taking a dive and deficits are piling up. But, once again, California seems to be in a class of its own when it comes to financial dysfunction. The problems here eclipse those elsewhere. California has the distinction of being the only state that is constantly running out of cash. California is the only one pleading with the federal government to backstop an emergency borrowing plan. California is the only state that never completely closed its deficit from the last economic downturn...

Now that we are in the middle of a real estate disaster there is a great hue and cry for regulatory reform. We were here before in the early 1990's. The answer on that occasion was real estate appraisal licensing. Now the thrust is on Appraisal Management Companies (AMC's). Licensing did and does have some potential to address the proper evaluation of collateral for loan purposes. In the intervening years, however, it was subject to what is known in political science as "regulatory capture*". The emphasis in the New York State Attorney General Andres M. Cuomo proposal on Home Valuation...

While everyone is distracted with the Pelosi Reid Obama artery–choking, cardiac arrest, Pork Barrel Spending Bill, congress is sneaking-ly trying to pass the Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009. Left-wing environmentalists are behind this bill to purposely undercut current progress toward affordable domestic energy. Essentially they will be stealing 300 million barrels of proven oil and 8.8 trillion cubic feet of natural gas from any future use.

10 Cars That Damaged GM's Reputation (With Video) GM's current precarious situation didn't come about overnight. There are arguments to be made that various government regulations led to the disaster and that management can't escape much of the blame, and there are plenty who contend it was a series of disastrous union labor contracts that have put the company at risk. But there's one thing everyone agrees on: Over the past few decades GM put some truly terrible products out on the market. Unreliable, uninteresting and flat ugly, these were cars that simply destroyed GM's reputation.... 1. 1971-1977 Chevrolet Vega...

The seeds of decline are sewn when great corporations are at their zenith. It is then that they become bureaucratic and wasteful, and start promoting management based on committee approval rather than creative dynamics. At their peak, corporations are dismissive of creativity. Team players are valued over inventive mavericks. Consultants and systems are revered because they absolve managers of making hard decisions. The conditions for failure are thus assured. Sometimes corporations disappear like the once dominant Pan American Airways, or they struggle on in diminished state like Western Union. Creative people leave companies when they suspect that the arteries are...

Jim Manzi has done some of the best analysis of the proposed bailout of GM, Ford and Chrysler--or, one should more properly say, bailout of the United Auto Workers, otherwise slated for extinction. Here, he addresses the theory that the Big Three are in the midst of a turnaround, and if we only keep them afloat a while longer, they'll be profitable again. This chart pretty much says it all:[go to site for chart] AutoSales713.gif Bob Cunningham, meanwhile, does some basic arithmetic: As of the close of business on Friday the market cap for General Motors was about $1.9 billion,...

It's the Catholic Church, Not Corporation Approaching the Church with a business-school mindset ignores that the priesthood is a calling and not a career, says BW reader Thomas Szyszkiewicz By Thomas A. Szyszkiewicz Catholic bishops are having a hard time finding candidates who can manage as well as they preach, but they're also finding it hard to find ones who can preach, period. The preaching is primary, and management way down on their list of priorities. After all, Jesus didn't say, "Go out to all the world and manage well." That's not to say the Catholic Church should ignore sound...

Anger management for womenWe regard irritability in men as a sign of status. But in women, we see it as a sign of incompetence Clare Longrigg guardian.co.uk, Friday July 11, 2008 Hillary Clinton's occasional irritable outbursts on the campaign trail were accompanied by a sound of tut-tutting from observers: she can't hack it; she's not in control. Had she been a man, these outbursts of anger would have been interpreted as assertiveness, intolerance of fools, a sign of status. A Yale psychologist who worked in Clinton's office has produced a report demonstrating that while people accept anger in men, in...

Here are some additional qualities that embody superior leadership. Great leaders surround themselves with greatness. They actively seek out the best possible people and hire them to fill all key positions within their organizations. Great leaders know that surrounding themselves with excellence is a direct reflection on their own character, abilities, and effectiveness as leaders. They understand that their own success and the success of their organizations depend mostly on hiring and promoting the best qualified, ethical, skilled, responsible, mature, and productive people and giving them the proper resources, authority, and freedom to do what’s needed for the long-term benefit...

We used to be the world's most skillful entrepreneurs and managers. Now we're laughingstocks. What happened? The dollar plunged to new lows against foreign currencies this week. There are plenty of reasons for its plunge, but at the most basic level, the dollar's weakness reflects the world's collective, two-thumbs-down verdict about the ability of the United States—businesses, individuals, the government, the Federal Reserve—to manage the global financial system and the world's largest economy. Countries that outsourced their monetary policy by pegging domestic currencies to the dollar are having second thoughts. Kuwait last year detached the dinar from the dollar, and...

Now, the predator powerful enough to take down a bull elk is lying helpless under a tent of fir trees while Maletzke replaces the batteries in her radio collar, checks her teeth and measures her girth. Jane is part of a healthy cougar population that lives in relative harmony with its human neighbors in the rapidly growing communities just east of Snoqualmie Pass. In the past six years, Jane has killed deer less than 50 paces from homes — yet residents don't even realize she's there. She has never harmed pets or livestock, nor have any of her offspring. The...

A reorganization of workers at the Swedish Tax Authority is partly shaped on studies of apes, according to a leaked internal report. Employees are not flattered by the comparison. The tax authority is currently undergoing its largest reorganization for many years. One of the foundations of the restructuring plan is a report which says that studies of apes show that people work best in groups of 150. The reorganization was announced earlier in the summer. Work is being moved from small towns to larger towns and cities. Around 1,350 people are affected by the move. Economies of scale are a...

The new Democratic Congress has finally found a government agency whose budget It wants to cut: an obscure Labor Department office that monitors the compliance of unions with federal law. In the past six years, the Office of Labor Management Standards, or OLMS, has helped secure the convictions of 775 corrupt union officials and court-ordered restitution to union members of over $70 million in dues. The House is set to vote Thursday on a proposal to chop 20% from the OLMS budget. Every other Labor Department enforcement agency is due for a budget increase, and overall the Congress has added...

Norwegians have the highest job loyalty in Europe, and all of the Nordic countries are happy at work. The European Employee Index (EEI) survey carried out by Danish consultancy Ennova, covered 20 European nations. The EEI showed that besides being loyal, in terms of job enjoyment Norwegians were second only to Danes. "We are part of a Nordic tradition of cooperative relations in the work place that is completely unique in an international context," said *Even Bolstad, head of HR Norway, Ennova's cooperative partner in the survey. "The five Nordic nations are all in the top ten in all categories...

...The most celebrated case involved Lawrence H. Summers, the former Treasury secretary who resigned the Harvard University presidency last February after a stormy five-year tenure, which included a no-confidence vote by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and the prospect of another. But top officials have also departed after no-confidence votes at a range of other campuses, large and small, public and private, including Gallaudet University, the nation’s premier institution for the deaf; Case Western Reserve, a major research university in Ohio; Baylor University, a Baptist institution in Texas; and the small University of Maine at Presque Isle. The Explanation...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Americans have a bias against cars made by U.S. automakers, but an AP-AOL Autos poll found flickers of loyalty that could offer hope for an industry struggling to survive. The problem for Detroit is changing perceptions that often don't match reality. hose questioned in the survey said they have more faith in Japanese-made cars than in vehicles produced by Detroit's Big Three. But General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and the Chrysler Group are going back to the future in their uphill effort to again inspire consumer loyalty and regain market share. What is the American auto...

the rant the kine that tread the corn2006.09.24 As one who comes from a background of working class poverty, I know what it's like to live in fear. While the average middle-class worker gets a yearly raise (plus a Christmas bonus and plenty of paid holidays) and has a little cash put away for a rainy day, most low-skilled workers are people who live paycheck to paycheck and who do not receive regular wage increases. These workers are extremely reluctant to agitate for more money out of fear of being fired and replaced by a lower-paid foreign worker (legal or...

Like many other baseball fans, Joe Kosa, 28, is spending his Sunday glued to a TV. But relaxed he's not. Instead, the ESPN (NYSE:DIS - News) production assistant is stationed in front of dozens of flat-screen TVs tuned to global sporting events at the headquarters of the Disney-owned network. He's furiously jotting down notes to weave into a storyline that will be read in 60 seconds flat on tonight's 6 p.m. SportsCenter broadcast. With the San Diego Padres leading the Chicago Cubs 9-0, the outcome is hardly in doubt, and writing the highlights should be easy. Then, Clay Hensley, who...

STOCKHOLM -- Idiots in the office are just as hazardous to your health as cigarettes, caffeine or greasy food, an eye-opening new study reveals. In fact, those dopes can kill you! Stress is one of the top causes of heart attacks -- and working with stupid people on a daily basis is one of the deadliest forms of stress, according to researchers at Sweden's Lindbergh University Medical Center. The author of the study, Dr. Dagmar Andersson, says her team studied 500 heart attack patients, and were puzzled to find 62 percent had relatively few of the physical risk factors commonly...

Suit says state at fault in grizzly mauling... The widow of a hunter mauled by a grizzly bear while he was gutting an elk has filed an appeal with the Montana Supreme Court after a district judge here dismissed her lawsuit against the state. Mary Ann Hilston contends negligent management practices led to the death of her husband...in the fall of 2001. She filed a lawsuit in federal court in September 2004, claiming the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks knew there was an aggressive grizzly bear with two cubs prowling the...

LONDON (AP) - British police charged three suspects Wednesday in the 53-million-pound (about $105 million Cdn) robbery at a cash depot in southeastern England. The charges against the trio are the first in the investigation of the theft last week at the security warehouse in Tonbridge, 50 kilometres southeast of London. Police said car salesman John Fowler, 57, was charged with conspiracy to rob the Securitas Cash Management Ltd. warehouse and with kidnapping depot manager Colin Dixon, his wife Lynn and their nine-year-old son. Stuart Royle, 47, was charged with conspiracy to rob, while Kim Shackelton, a 39-year-old woman, was...

Here is a petition I though many would be interested in. This petition calls for Congress to pass a law that requires that all management of our ports to be conducted by either elected officials or contracted to companies located here in the United States. Top reasons to end foreign management of our ports. 1. Security: Our ports are one of the most sensitive access points to our country. Even though we manage the security do we want people from foreign countries having access to every detail about how one of our ports is run, how to access the port,...

RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany (AFPN) -- Five members of the Botswana Defense Force, or BDF, visited Ramstein last week to learn about the Air Force’s warehouse management procedures and operations. The 435th Logistics Readiness Squadron hosted the visit, touring the group through the base’s inbound cargo sections, receiving section, storage and issue element, hazardous materials section, aircraft parts store, storage and issue area, flight service center, and outbound cargo element. During the team’s visit to the hazardous materials section, Tech. Sgt. Kirk Vore, assistant noncommissioned officer in charge of HAZMAT, briefed the team on everything from procedures and initiatives to...

CHICAGO, Jan. 30 (UPI) -- Training and education of experienced IT professionals already established in the workforce is becoming a major concern, one certain to be on the consciousness of senior management at corporations all over the United States in the coming year, experts tell United Press International's Networking. A survey, released last week by the Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA), a trade association for the IT industry, based in Oakbrook Terrace, Ill., in suburban Chicago, indicates that workers are taking the initiative to get the new training and skills they need for their careers, and that employers, thus far,...

Message From United Management: Let Them Eat Cake Now That Your Pension's Gone... United Airlines senior management just announced another part of its grand Chapter-11 exit plan. It seems that when the company emerges, 400 select members of United Airlines' executive and senior management team will be awarded 15% ownership of the carrier, worth a tidy $285 million - or more. From The Marie Antoinette School of Management... Nice compensation. Royalty does have its privileges and perks, you know. And, why not? Now that United's employee rank-and-file saved their airline via double-digit pay and benefit cuts, not to mention having...

China river contamination illustrates paralysis in crisis By CHING CHING NI Los Angeles Times 12/5/2005 BEIJING - The long-term environmental impact of last month's chemical explosion in northern China that left millions of people without safe drinking water remains to be seen. But the political fallout has begun. Beijing sacked its top environmental official Friday in an effort to show accountability for the mishandling of the crisis. More heads are likely to roll, possibly including local party leaders in Jilin province where an accident at a petrochemical plant spilled 100 tons of benzene and other cancer-causing chemicals into the Songhua...

Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean has declared it "plain wrong" to think of achieving victory in Iraq, prompting President Bush, and some fellow Democrats, to flatly disagree. "The idea that we're going to win the war in Iraq is an idea which is just plain wrong," Mr. Dean said Monday on WOAI Radio in San Antonio...

Hi, all, I'm posting here because I know that this place is the one place to get good advice in a hurry. I called on you all recently when my Chrysler Minivan wouldn't start. Long story--but once again, Freepers came through. So now.. My husband is totally stressed. He has a MAJOR job interview tomorrow. He doesn't expect to get the job (there's already someone there and in the Cdn. government sometimes you have to re-apply for your job). However, tomorrow is part one of the interview. There will be actors bringing him problems and he has to basically demonstrate...