Free Republic

State and university employees may see a temporary 2.5 percent salary reduction solidified into a permanent pay cut. Gov. Brian Sandoval’s budget director Jeff Mohlenkamp told a legislative committee Saturday that the administration may amend a bill to make those salary reductions permanent. As written now, Senate Bill 483 extends current 2.5 percent salary reductions until June 30, 2015, at which time they’d go away and employees would get 2.5 percent of their salaries back. “We would seek to modify that bill to make the pay cut permanent, and then we would make the affirmative decision to restore the pay...

During a Senate hearing on immigration reform Tuesday, Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano had a testy back-and-forth over the performance of Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials. Sessions challenged Napolitano on whether she had met with leader of the ICE employees’ union in the wake of reports of low morale among ICE agents. Napolitano replied that she had not. “I think you should have met with them,” Sessions said. “I think there’s a real problem there. We have a very real problem. In December of 2012, a few months ago, a survey of federal...

I was checking my 8-yr old son's classwork assignment grades. He was so demoralized that he was getting C, D and F on many assignments. I was shocked and delved deeper. Turns out he is assiged a letter grade on these assignments even though he is "making progress" getting up to 70 or even 80 percent of the questions right. Worse, he was assigned an F grade on an assignment because he did not get the meaning for terms "Human Rights" and "Tolerance". WTF is an 8-yr old supposed to know this shtuff? Damn....I am seriously considering pulling him out...

If the homeland’s security were dependent on employee morale, we’d be in big trouble. Fortunately, the men and women of the Department of Homeland Security are committed to the agency’s mission, even as the agency fails to inspire them. You know things are bad for workers when a bipartisan congressional hearing is called to examine a department’s drooping spirit. It ranks 31 among 33 large agencies in The Best Places to Work in the Federal Government survey published by the Partnership for Public Service. (The Partnership has a content-sharing relationship with The Washington Post.)

Palestinian terrorists are not happy. Last August, terrorist groups in Gaza thought they had come up with a way to get around the new Israeli Iron Dome anti-rocket system. They thought that all you had to do was fire at least seven rockets simultaneously at the same area being guarded by one Iron Dome battery. Islamic terrorists did this last August. One rocket got through, and killed an Israeli civilian. This “saturation” tactic is a problem with all air defense systems. But the saturation attacks turned out to be no more effective than firing many more rockets over an extended...

U.S. troops are losing confidence in the military's long-term chances of success in Afghanistan, a new poll has revealed. The Military Times survey found less than half of serving soldiers believe the U.S. is 'very likely' or 'somewhat likely' to succeed in Afghanistan. The number is down from 2007, when more than 75 percent of those polled said the U.S. was 'very likely' or 'somewhat likely' to succeed. Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2038887/Under-50-U-S-troops-believe-Afghanistan-winnable.html#ixzz1YN2SeV1W

A new report says American troops in Afghanistan are suffering with the highest rates of mental health problems since 2005 and that morale has plummeted. The report, released Thursday, furnished the first detailed glimpse of the psychological cost of a campaign commanders and officials say has reversed the momentum of the insurgency. Among other things, it says the dramatic increase in fighting there is one of the key factors affecting the mental health of the uniformed forces. For instance, some 70 to 80 percent of troops surveyed for the report said they had seen a buddy killed or wounded.

A new military survey obtained by USA Today shows that U.S. troops fighting in Afghanistan are reporting record levels of acute stress and low morale. The problem is most severe in servicemen and women who have been deployed multiple times. A third of them reported depression, anxiety or another serious mental health problem. Meanwhile, those reporting medium to very high morale dropped to 46.5 percent from 65.7 percent in 2005. Seventeen percent reported acute stress, compared to 6 percent in 2005. The survey also painted a bleak picture of the intense combat troops in Afghanistan engage in. More than 75...

Nurse leaders will warn this week that poor morale and job cuts threaten to derail the government's reform programme of the NHS in England. The issues, along with wider concerns about the overhaul, will be key themes of the Royal College of Nursing's annual conference in Liverpool. RCN leader Peter Carter has said nurses were being pushed to the limit, working extra hard to keep services going. The health secretary is not expected to give a speech but will meet delegates. It is understood Andrew Lansley is attending the conference as part of the government's "listening exercise" over its shake-up...

President Barack Obama and US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner sought to downplay fears that unrest in the Middle East would negatively impact the US economy by hailing a Virginia man’s invention of a rainbow-making machine as a harbinger of a brighter future for America. The device is the brainchild of Michael Jones McKean, an assistant professor at Virginia Commonwealth University. It uses a large scale sprinkler system and the light of the sun to create rainbows averaging about 1,000 feet in length. Each device can produce a rainbow of 15 minute duration twice a day. A prototype is currently being...

WASHINGTON, July 8 (UPI) -- A survey seeking U.S. troops' views on the impact of ending a policy barring homosexuals from openly serving in the military is being sent, the Pentagon said. The more than 100-question survey was being sent to 200,000 active-duty troops and 200,000 members of reserve forces, CNN reported Thursday. Among other things, the survey asks about issues such as how morale or readiness may be affected if a commander is thought to be gay or lesbian, the need to maintain personal conduct standards and how a repeal may affect one's willingness to serve in the military....

Airman 1st Class Jill Diem serenades Senior Airman Luis Murillo during a concert April 17, 2010, at Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan. Airman Diem is a vocalist with the U.S. Air Forces Central Band Reserve Generation and Airman Murillo is assigned to the 455th Expeditionary Civil Engineers Squadron Force Protection Flight. (U.S. Air Force photo by/ Staff Sgt. Richard Williams) BAGRAM AIRFIELD, Afghanistan (AFNS) -- The sound of music filled the air as members of the U.S. Air Forces Central Command Band Reserve Generation performed here as part of a two-month tour of the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility April 15 through 20....

KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, Afghanistan (Reuters) – Fast food joints where soldiers wolf down burgers and pizza will soon be a thing of the past at bases in Afghanistan, as the U.S. military reminds soldiers they are at war and not in "an amusement park." In the sprawling military base at Kandahar, the fast food outlets facing the axe include Burger King, Pizza Hut, and the U.S. chain restaurant T.G.I. Friday's that features a bar with alcohol-free margaritas and other drinks -- all set along the bustling "Boardwalk" area of the base. ---SNIP--- The U.S. military says its beef with the burger...

The pressure on Obama continues to build! Wayne Simmons says the “catch and release” policy of the administration has reduced CIA morale to a level he describes as “pathetic, low, horrible.” Here’s the Video Link

CAMP BUCCA, Iraq, Dec. 10, 2009 – From the air, the basic outline of Camp Bucca appears as most military forward operating bases in Iraq, except for nine fluttering white flags affixed to poles jutting from the ground. Army Sgt. Marcus Jemison tees off on the 570-yard fifth hole at Camp Bucca, Iraq. The golf course allows servicemembers a chance to relax between missions. U.S. Army photo by Master Sgt. David Bennett   (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. The flags aren’t tokens of surrender, but they often elicit cries of frustration from soldiers who have thrown their best at...

BAGRAM AIRFIELD, Afghanistan, Dec. 7, 2009 – A Task Force Protector soldier here is building unit pride and esprit de corps by using his artistic skills to decorate an office inside a refurbished shipping container. Army Sgt. Henry Harrell stands next to the artwork he painted on his brigade commander’s office door at Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan, Nov. 20, 2009. U.S. Army photo by Pfc. Garett Hernandez   (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. The many talents of Army Sgt. Henry Harrell, a counterinsurgency noncommissioned officer with Headquarters, Headquarters Company, 16th Military Police Brigade, are evident on the office door of...

New Army surveys, reports the Wall Street Journal, show that morale has fallen sharply among soldiers fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan and confirm an unusually high suicide in their ranks. Perhaps this has something to do with doubts about their commander-in-chief's commitment to win this war by standing staunchly with them in spirit and providing the necessary troop levels and other resources. With fatalities and injuries surging among them, the president's prolonged and frazzled indecision on how to wage this struggle must leave these soldiers with a sense of being cast adrift in limbo, if not hell itself. Having first,...

Suicides reported among active-duty soldiers more than doubled in October, according to Army data released Friday. The Army is investigating 16 potential suicides for October in comparison to the seven suicides reported to Army officials in September of this year. The Army is still investigating four of the suicides reported in September. The newly released October data brings the number of reported suicides in 2009 to 133, 18 more cases than were reported between January 2008 and October 2008. Among soldiers in the Reserve component of the Army, who are not serving on active duty, there were eight potential suicides...

Morale has fallen among soldiers in Afghanistan, where troops are seeing record violence in the 8-year-old war

WASHINGTON – Morale has fallen among soldiers in Afghanistan, where troops are seeing record violence in the 8-year-old war, while those in Iraq show much improved mental health amid much lower violence, the Army said Friday. Soldier suicides in Iraq did not increase for the first time since 2004, according to a new study. Though findings of two new battlefield surveys are similar in several ways to the last ones taken in 2007, they come at a time of intense scrutiny on Afghanistan as President Barack Obama struggles to come up with a new war strategy and planned troop buildup....