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Phil Gurtler, a public affairs officer for the Great Lakes at the U.S. Coast Guard station in Cleveland, said a manpower shortage nationwide is forcing the decision to restore staffing and other resources to levels they should be in areas where service calls are highest. “We are going to reallocate some of the personnel and assets,” he said. On average, he explained, staffing at all locations is down by about 10 percent from what the Coast Guard feels a station should have to be “optimally manned.” The numbers reflect the growing challenge of recruiting people into the military over the...

The company’s cloud unit has told employees that it will transition to a desk-sharing workspace in its five largest locations. Employees will be encouraged to alter the days in which they’re in the office, either Monday and Wednesday or Tuesday and Thursday. Internal documents cite slow return to office patterns and the need for “real estate efficiency.” ... Some buildings will be vacated ... new seating arrangement a title: “Cloud Office Evolution” or “CLOE,” .. . The new workspace plan is not a temporary pilot ... laid off 11,000 employees in January. ... The move comes as Google downsizes its...

I think the time is coming for an idea that is so old that it is new again: cutting the Federal government in half. The idea is: cancel all Federal welfare-type programs, including all means-tested welfare programs (apparently there are over 150 of them), all healthcare-related programs including Medicare and Medicaid, all education-related, arts-related and housing-related programs, and anything else of this sort -- in short, most everything except for the military, national parks, and maybe some public works. Social Security could eventually be reformed to a system of private retirement accounts, known as a "provident fund" system and in...

As news circulated Tuesday that President Donald Trump, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., are eyeing a $2 trillion infrastructure spending package, the House Republican Study Committee introduced a budget proposal that recognizes that America’s $22 trillion—and rapidly growing—national debt is unsustainable, and that Congress must change course. “Preserving American Freedom,” the Republican Study Committee’s comprehensive fiscal 2020 budget proposal, would rein in Washington’s spending addiction by prioritizing core constitutional functions. By reducing inappropriate and wasteful spending and right-sizing the federal government, the committee’s proposal would balance the budget in six years and start...

As always, the Christmas season is all-but drowning in new movies, a fact amplified even more by the now-standard pre-Christmas monster (Star Wars, The Hobbit, etc.) that now kicks the year-end blitz into high gear. There has been a lot of talk about whether merely being one of the biggest movies of all time is good enough for The Last Jedi, but we should note that at least part of the comparative downturn for the eighth Star Wars episode is due to a deluge of kid-friendly competition this time out. [snip] Paramount/Viacom Inc.’s Downsizing debuted on Friday in wide release,...

Actor Matt Damon apparently skipped the premiere for his latest sci-fi movie Downsizing on Monday, days after receiving intense backlash following his comments about sexual harassment in Hollywood. Damon, 47, did not attend the Monday night premiere at the Regency Village Theatre in Westwood, days after being widely mocked for arguing that men who didn’t engage in sexually predatory behavior were not receiving enough attention. “We’re in this watershed moment, and it’s great, but I think one thing that’s not being talked about is there are a whole s**tload of guys – the preponderance of men I’ve worked with –...

The number of people working for the federal government has declined by 13,000 in 2017, according to data released today by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. At the same time, overall government employment in the United States increased by 7,000 as the number of people working at the state government level and the local government level both increased. Meanwhile, the significant increase in manufacturing jobs that started last December halted in September as the nation lost 1,000 jobs in that sector. {..snip..}

BOSTON—Two hundred stuffed animals, two violins, and a 7-1/2 foot-tall Christmas tree: That was just a corner of the possessions Rosalie and Bill Kelleher accumulated over their 47-year marriage. And, they realized, it was about 199 stuffed animals more than their two grown children wanted. Going from a four-bedroom house in New Bedford, Mass. – with an attic stuffed full of paper stacked four-feet tall – to a 1,300-square-foot apartment took six years of winnowing, sorting, shredding, and shlepping stuff to donation centers. Among the possessions the Kellehers are keeping are three hutches – one that belonged to his mother,...

The Boeing Co. is reportedly taking steps to eliminate 10 percent of its workforce in Washington state. The Seattle Times reports the aerospace giant has already taken steps to eliminate 4,000 jobs by June and is aiming for about a 10 percent overall cut — which would mean about 8,000 positions in Washington. …

Al-Jazeera, the Qatar-based broadcaster, said Sunday it is slashing about 500 jobs a little more than two months after announcing the closure of its U.S. offshoot. The cutbacks come as 2022 World Cup host Qatar refocuses its spending priorities amid a steep drop in prices for oil and gas, the backbone of the OPEC nation’s economy. The Al-Jazeera Media Network described the cuts as part of a “workforce optimization initiative” tied to an evolving media landscape. …

The value of our dollar is tied to our own economy. Is our economy also tied to the power of our military? As our military shrinks to a smaller size, will this have a direct effect upon the value of our dollar? If so, where will it lead?

The regulatory state never sleeps, relentlessly working day and night to tilt the economic playing field in favor of the politically connected. The regulations it imposes on the rest of us may or may not provide wider public benefits commensurate with their costs. But one thing is for certain: They reduce economic growth in two significant ways. First and foremost, they inflict compliance costs on businesses. According to the most recent edition of the Ten Thousand Commandments, the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s (CEI) annual snapshot of the federal regulatory state, these costs amounted to $1.8 trillion in 2012—a staggering sum that...

San Francisco To Vote On Apartments The Size Of Two Prison Cells San Francisco may soon give new meaning to the word "downsizing." Supervisors are set to vote on Tuesday on a proposed change to the city's building code that would allow construction of among the tiniest apartments in the country. Under the plan, new apartments could be as small as 220 square feet (a little more than double the size of some prison cells), including a kitchen, bathroom and closet, the Los Angeles Times reported. Current regulations require the living room alone to be that size. Schematics for 300-square-foot...

The ratings-challenged “Rosie Show” has let go of as many as 30 employees and contract workers in recent weeks, Crain’s Chicago Business reported Friday. [Snip] Last month, the program moved out of Oprah’s spacious former studio and started taping in a smaller, more intimate space reminiscent of a living room. Parts of “The Rosie Show” have been axed, such as the game show segment and having a band perform on the set. [Snip] “The Rosie Show” has struggled to capture a sizeable audience. Shortly after the program’s October debut, viewer numbers have hovered around 200,000.

Reports: Bank of America to ax 10,000 or more jobs By:The Associated Press | The Associated Press Follow Us @ap | 08/19/11 12:55 AM. Bank of America Corp. is cutting 3,500 employees this quarter and working on restructuring plans that will ax several thousand more jobs, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times reported citing people familiar with the situation. The reports Friday said that the job cuts at the biggest U.S. bank by assets might exceed 10,000 or about 3.5 percent of its current work force. The retrenchments are part of CEO Brian Moynihan's efforts to engineer...

Having trouble qualifying for a home loan? Then consider what this inventive family of three did and buy yourself a Mississippi-style "shotgun shack." Sick of working two jobs apiece to pay the mortgage on their 2,000-square-foot home, Debra and her husband Gary decided to give it all up and start over – by purchasing a 320-square-foot shack for $15,000 cash. The video below, first submitted to the blog faircompanies.com on an open call for videos of tiny homes, shows the couple and their teenage son living mortgage-free in their surprisingly spacious abode. The home includes a walk-in closet, conventional-sized appliances...

Pyongyang now more than one-third smaller; food shortage issues suspected THE ASAHI SHIMBUN 2010/07/17 SEOUL--The long-term effects of continued food shortages have apparently reached the city limits of North Korea's capital. According to news agency Radiopress, which monitors North Korea, the physical size of Pyongyang's administrative district has been recently reduced by more than one-third. It said Radio Pyongyang and other state-run domestic media have recently introduced the counties of Kangnam-gun, Junghwa-gun and Sangwon-gun as well as the Sungho district as being under the jurisdiction of neighboring Hwanghae-bukdo province. The counties and the district previously belonged to Pyongyang. South Korean...

Room for rent: No drugs, drama or pets. Must be mellow and employed. Living with housemates is not exactly ideal, but it’s a choice many people are making to get through tough times. Job losses and other financial constraints are forcing people to reduce living expenses in a big way. For some, that might mean downsizing from a house to an apartment — or just a room. Some people have had to move home with the folks. Others are able to remain in their homes, but only by bringing in boarders to help cover costs. Living on your own in...

"Last year," Ryan Bingham says, “I spent 322 days on the road, which means that I had to spend 43 miserable days at home.” Home is an Omaha rental unit less furnished than a hotel room. He likes it that way. Today, he is where he feels at home, in an airport — glass walls and glistening steel, synthetic sincerity and antiseptic hospitality. Today, he is showing Natalie, a ferocious young colleague, how an expert road warrior deals with lines at security screening: Avoid, he says, getting behind travelers with infants (“I’ve never seen a stroller collapse in less than...

New York Times Staffers Freaking As Bill Keller Raises The Axe Keith Kelly|Dec. 4, 2009, 11:10 PM | 61 | With just days to go until a Monday deadline, New York Times Executive Editor Bill Keller yesterday confirmed that he was unlikely to get 100 newsroom volunteers to accept buyouts -- meaning he'll wield the layoff ax for the second time in two years. Sources said the newsroom was in a state of high anxiety this week because of chatter that just 50 unionized editorial workers from the Newspaper Guild are expected to step forward for voluntary buyouts by the...