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In the southeast Michigan town of Roseville, there will be a dig of a driveway to see if there's a body buried underneath it, and utlimately, if it's the remains of missing Teamsters union-boss Jimmy Hoffa, according to Granite Broadcasting sister station MyTV20 News. According to the report from MyTV20 News: Police have used ground-penetrating radar and discovered an anomoly under a driveway pavement that could be the remains of a body buried there some 35 years ago - around the time that Hoffa disappeared. Read the press release from the Roseville, Michigan police department: "Roseville Police Investigate Possible Cold...

A crew of rogue Teamsters shook down major Hub convention organizers, assaulted rivals and rigged union votes in a lucrative “pay-to-play” reign — including once strong-arming the state Democratic Party by threatening to obstruct a fundraiser by Gov. Deval Patrick where President Obama spoke, officials said.

Four former members of the Teamsters union were in federal court today to answer charges they behaved like common thugs, committing multiple acts of extortion and racketeering while beating up and bullying their own brotherhood who tried to question their methods and leadership, authorities said. John Perry, 60, of Woburn, Joseph “Jo Jo” Burhoe, 44, of Braintree, James “Jimmy the Bull” Deamicis, 49, of Quincy, and Thomas Flaherty, 49, of Braintree, have been charged in a 30-count indictment with racketeering, conspiracy to extort, extortion, attempted extortion, mail fraud, prohibition against certain persons holding office and theft of government money. The...

When James Hoffa, president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, looks at the Tea Party today, he flashes back to 1964 and sees the John Birch Society. "The Tea Party, these right wingers are basically the modern-day John Birch Society," he told U.S. News. "They are being extremists." The John Birch Society gained traction in the earl 60s with its vehemently anti-communist rhetoric and distrust in government. Hoffa says just like in the early 60s when the John Birch Society pushed for Barry Goldwater, who was the more conservative candidate, to be the Republican presidential nominee, the Tea Party has...

Unions hit Democratic convention where it hurts: In the wallet By: Robin Bravender and Anna Palmer August 9, 2012 06:44 PM EDT The Democrats are hitting up unions — their go-to cash cows — for last-minute donations to help pay for next month’s convention in Charlotte. The response from some big unions? Tough. Union leaders insisted from the start that they wouldn’t help fill the piggy bank for this year’s Democratic National Convention after the party picked a labor-hostile location and at the same time made fundraising tougher by banning corporate contributions and capping individual donations. And with the event...

Historian Lamar Waldron is out with his new book Watergate: The Hidden History which exposes Nixon's role as the liaison between the CIA and the Mafia in their failed plots to assassinate Cuban revolutionary Fidel Castro, and it was files on this subject which the Watergate burglars were seeking as reported by Thom Hartmann for the Huffington Post: As one of the Watergate burglars admitted, and Senate Watergate Committee investigators indicated in their secret questioning of Mafia don Johnny Rosselli, Nixon was worried about a Cuban Dossier of CIA attempts to kill Fidel Castro. Those attempts began in earnest in...

Coca Cola and union members from Teamster Local 1035 have reached an agreement putting an end to a six-week strike. Union workers voted and passed a six-year agreement that includes annual wage increases and additional company contributions to employee retirement plans. The agreement also provides shared responsibility for healthcare costs through employee contributions, Coca Cola said in a statement released Thursday night. Workers will be returning back to the job on Monday morning.

An ongoing strike at the Coca-Cola bottling facility in East Hartford is now extending its grip to Stop & Shop supermarkets. Workers said they plan to picket the supermarkets because they said they usually stock Coca-Cola products on store shelves. But picketing workers said that Stop & Shop employees are now doing the jobs of the workers on strike. They are asking other unionized workers to not deliver to the supermarket chain. Coca-Cola workers went on strike two weeks ago after co0ntract negotiations broke down.

Both the Teamsters and Coca-Cola agree that health insurance costs $14,898 a year per employee at the East Hartford bottling plant. But the two sides don't agree how that cost is distributed, making it hard to see how they can reach a new contract where health insurance costs are a major sticking point. About 350 union members have been striking for two weeks after about seven months of negotiating. Teamsters, who work as drivers, in soda bottling operations and in the warehouse, make about $20 an hour, and their health insurance costs another $7.16 an hour. In the last contract,...

Workers represented by Teamsters Local 1035 went on strike Wednesday at 5 p.m. the Coca-Cola bottling plant on 471 Main St. There are 357 workers on strike, including drivers, warehouse and bottling workers. "It's corporate greed at its worst," said Chris Roos, secretary-treasurer for Local 1035. Health benefits, pay raises and job security are all sticking points, he said. The men and women on the picket line wore T-shirts that said: "Coca-Cola give it back: $2.65." Roos said, "We've taken $2.65 less in wages over the last five years," and said the company now wants employees to do cost sharing...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 5, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The following is the official statement from Teamsters General President James P. Hoffa issued today about the Occupy Wall Street protest: "No one should be surprised that Occupy Wall Street is gaining support and spreading quickly around the country. The American Dream has disappeared for students, whose reality is debt and unemployment. The dream disappeared for workers forced to take wage cuts by employers sitting on billions of dollars in profits. The dream disappeared for working families who paid too steep a price for Wall Street's greed, stupidity and fraud. "It's clear what this...

The company that makes Twinkies, Wonder bread and Ding Dongs says it's making a final offer to workers to accept cost-cutting before it asks a bankruptcy court to impose the cuts. Hostess Brands Inc. wants the Teamsters and bakers' unions to accept reduced pension benefits and changes in work rules to lower costs. It wants to outsource some delivery work. The company said Saturday that if the unions reject the offer, it will push ahead with efforts in bankruptcy court to throw out the unions' collective bargaining agreements. A union official warned that could lead to a strike. Hostess Brands...

“That black stuff is hurting us.” ---Sen. John Kerry on oil (Greenwire) Washington, DC – U.S. Senator John Kerry (D-MA) is quoted in today’s edition of Greenwire as saying, “that black stuff is hurting us,” with regard to oil. Members of the House Committee on Resources found the Senator’s comment absurd. “John Kerry is dead wrong,” Chairman Richard W. Pombo (R-CA) said. “Oil doesn’t hurt Americans; John Kerry’s anti-energy policies hurt Americans. In fact, this is exactly the kind of rhetoric and bad policy that has led to the outsourcing of good American energy jobs. Last year alone, the United...

As the U.S. Senate prepared Wednesday to debate the nation's energy needs, environmental groups blasted the Republican plan to drill for oil in the Artic National Wildlife Refuge and said the White House lacked enough votes to win Senate passage of the measure. The ANWR drilling provision appeared headed for passage in the Senate Energy Committee earlier this month until Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) yanked the entire bill from the committee and moved it directly to the Senate floor. At the time, Sen. Frank Murkowski (R-Alaska), the ranking Republican on the Energy panel, said he had "never seen ...

  "I am committed to preserving Florida's natural beauty … There is no ambiguity in my position on drilling off the coast of Florida." - President Bush, 4/23/04 Kerry Supports Offshore Drilling In Florida Kerry Says He Favors Drilling Off The Coast Of Florida. "But Kerry said he would be in favor of drilling off the coast of Florida. 'I support oil drilling in the right places,' Kerry said. 'There is a capacity to protect what we have today - the protections for the coast of Florida - and still be able to drill in those locations where they're already...

Sarah Palin with her husband Todd spoke to a tea party crowd Monday in New Hampshire. From her Facebook page: In my speech on Saturday in Iowa, I said: “Between bailouts for Wall Street cronies and stimulus projects for union bosses’ security and ‘green energy’ giveaways, [Barack Obama] took care of his friends. And now they’re on course to raise a billion dollars for his re-election bid so that they can do it all over again.” This was shamefully on display yesterday at President Obama’s taxpayer-funded campaign rally in Detroit. In introducing the President, Teamsters President James Hoffa represented precisely...

Monday, October 11, 2004 Out Of Energy   OUT OF ENERGYKerry's Energy PlanIndependent Of Reality______________________________________________________KERRY'S OWN ADVISERS SCOFF AT KERRY'S IDEAS ON ENERGY INDEPENDENCEKerry Energy Advisers Believe Kerry's Energy Plan Is "Unrealistic And Misleading."  "The idea of a United States independent of Middle East oil is a touchstone of Senator John Kerry's campaign and a huge crowd pleaser, but has divided and exasperated many of his most experienced energy advisers.  Some advisers say they worry that Mr. Kerry's focus on freeing the United States from reliance on oil from the Persian Gulf, the linchpin of the energy plan he released...

<p>WASHINGTON -- While blaming President Bush for the high price of gasoline, his Democratic challenger, Sen. John Kerry, on Tuesday reiterated his opposition to drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, saying it is no solution.</p> <p>"We deserve an administration that doesn't fake it to the American people and pretend that somehow by drilling in the Alaska wildlife refuge we can deal with the problems of America," Kerry, D-Mass., told university students in San Diego. "We can't provide the supply of oil America needs from the Alaska wildlife refuge or from any other source in the United States, because we only have 3 percent of the world's oil reserves."</p>

Teamsters President James Hoffa said on Friday he would ask the 500,000 truck operators covered by his union to take part in a grass-roots homeland security effort looking for suspicious activity on the roads. Talking to reporters on the White House driveway, Hoffa said he had pitched the idea to President Bush's director of homeland security, Tom Ridge. His comments came shortly before an FBI warning that terrorists may use fuel tanker trucks for attacks in the United States -- possibly on fuel depots, Jewish schools or synagogues -- or on U.S. interests overseas. Hoffa was among a group of...

Not surprisingly, MSNBC’s Ed Schultz was practically orgasmic with joy Tuesday over Teamsters president James Hoffa’s Labor Day declaration of war against the Tea Party. After telling his “Ed Show” audience that Obama’s poll numbers have been declining because he hasn’t spoken to the American people like the union boss, Schultz actually asked Hoffa, “Do you think the Republicans are sons of b---hes?” (video follows) The program began with an exultant Schultz saying, “It is priceless audio. I love this story. It’s about time somebody stood up and said it just like this.” After an introduction, Schultz played Hoffa’s comments,...