Free Republic

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is frog-marching her vulnerable members to a political suicide vote on a bill that’s likely dead on arrival in the Senate.On November 2, five House Democrats—enough to block the passage of the spending spree that the party hopes to enact via the budget reconciliation process—wrote to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-California, urging her “to only bring a bill to the floor for which we have a strong level of confidence…will be ruled in order by the Senate parliamentarian and earn passage in the U.S. Senate.”The lawmakers have justifiable reason for concern. Major pieces of the 2,135-page...

Millions of Californians will begin earning paid sick days under a bill signed Wednesday by Gov. Jerry Brown that makes the Golden State the second in the nation to require the benefit. The law takes effect in July and will help 40 percent of the workforce in California, employees largely in retail, fast-food and other service-industry jobs who work full time or part time but who receive no paid sick leave from their employers. Connecticut is the only state that requires employers to provide paid sick time. "Whether you're a dishwasher in San Diego or a store clerk in Oakland,...

Maryln Schwartz: My last column 06/03/2002 To our readersEditor's note: This message from Robert W. Mong Jr., president and editor of The Dallas Morning News, will appear in Tuesday's Dallas Morning News. It is with a very heavy heart that I report to you this morning that Maryln Schwartz's column will no longer appear in this newspaper. Maryln has served our paper and its readers for nearly four decades, first as a distinguished reporter and later as one of its most popular columnists. She also is a successful author of books about Southern culture, books that have been widely...

The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 Tuesday that companies cannot always be punished for not telling employees that their maternity or medical leave policies satisfy leave guaranteed by federal law. The ruling is a partial victory for employers, who faced lawsuits for not telling workers upfront about how their policies meet the federal guarantee of 12 weeks of leave. Justices struck down part of a Labor Department regulation that penalized employers but stopped short of saying companies never have to give workers notice about leave. Dissenting Justice Sandra Day O'Connor said the notice "can facilitate leave planning, allowing employees to organize...