Free Republic

The California Correctional Peace Officers Association may be miles away from getting a new labor contract with the state, but its members appear to be in line for a pay raise sooner rather than later, thanks to the union's victory in a grievance it filed a year ago. In a decision dated Saturday, an arbitrator ruled that the CCPOA's 31,000 members are entitled to a pay raise based on compensation increases the state gave to the California Highway Patrol. The prison officers' pay is linked to the CHP's union contract, and the arbitrator ruled that health insurance and holiday leave-time...

SEATTLE — A school bus driver fired after she reportedly made an obscene gesture at President Bush has filed a union grievance in an attempt to get her job back. The 43-year-old driver, whose name was not released, was driving middle school children back to school after a zoo visit on June 16 when the president and Republican Rep. Dave Reichert drove slowly by in a motorcade. From the bus, the children waved; with the windows down in their car, Bush and Reichert waved back. That's when the driver gave the president the finger, according to Reichert and Issaquah superintendent...

The disciplinary arm of the N.C. State Bar dropped charges of felonious misconduct against two former Union County prosecutors Friday because of a 1999 clerical error at the state Supreme Court. The State Bar had charged Kenneth Honeycutt and Scott Brewer with lying, cheating and withholding evidence in a 1996 death penalty case. The ruling Friday marks the second time that Honeycutt and Brewer won on procedural grounds before the bar's Disciplinary Hearing Commission, which sits as judge and jury in disciplinary cases. . . . Prosecutors around the state are concerned that the case is damaging their reputation and...

New York Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) has long been rumored as desperately seeking the democratic nomination for president in 2008. And while many political observers fully expect the power hungry former First Lady to hit the campaign trail within only a few months of being re-elected as a US Senator in 2006, US News & World report claims to have a confirmation of sorts. From USNews.Com's Washington Whispers: Hillary's in… You don't have to take it from us about Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton 's desire to run for president. Her brothers, Hugh and Tony Rodham, say it's true. Friends...

<p>At tonight's special School Board meeting, Principal Mike Shamblin will ask for a third time if the board will hear his complaints over his transfer from Tioga High School.</p> <p>In June, the Superintendent Patsy Jenkins autonomously transferred him to the principal post at Aiken Optional School after he has spent 23 years at Tioga High School. The transfer also came after Shamblin was fined for hesitating to report to police that a 17-year-old student was caught having sex behind the school with a minor student.</p>

<p>HIGH POINT, North Carolina (AP) -- An advocacy group criticized two North Carolina congressional members for comments they made about Arab-Americans, saying the remarks are part of "a very disturbing trend."</p> <p>Rep. Howard Coble, R-N.C., who heads the Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security, said on a radio call-in program Tuesday that he agreed with the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II. Coble made his remark when a caller suggested Arabs in the United States should be confined.</p>