Audit Finds Bloated Budget For Green Jobs Training Despite Lack Of Open Positions

A federal audit shows that nearly a half-billion dollars in government funds was spent on training workers for so-called “green jobs.” The only problem is that not enough positions in the growing industry exist.

The findings — released in a June report by the Government Accountability Office — showed that only 55 percent of those trained were able to place in a new job, many of which were not technically green jobs. The $501 million in funding came from the 2009 stimulus law. The report also uncovered that the Department of Labor created a framework that led grantees to broadly interpret the program’s definition to include any job “that could be linked, directly or indirectly, to a beneficial outcome” which led to the gap between training programs and available green industry jobs.

CONTINUED:  http://libertycrier.com/audit-finds-bloated-budget-for-green-jobs-training-despite-lack-of-open-positions/?utm_source=The+Liberty+Crier&utm_campaign=9eec5cf102-The_Liberty_Crier_Daily_News_8_7_2013&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_600843dec4-9eec5cf102-284870777

Surprise! Obama Ignores A Law to Aid His Reelection!

In case you missed it over the weekend, the Obama administration’s Friday afternoon document drop was a memo from the Department of Labor telling defense contractors not to provide legally-required notice to thousands of employees that they are about to be laid off, if automatic spending cuts agreed to by the President and the Congress take effect.


Translation: President Obama wants to prevent thousands of employees, especially in swing-state Virginia, from being told that they are going to be laid off due to Department of Defense funding cuts. Because of the timing of the cuts, those notices would have been sent to employees just prior to the election in November. The man who signed those funding cuts into law would like to avoid that.

When the administration first proposed this idea back in June, defense contractors patiently explained to the reelection-obsessed President that there is a law, the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification ("WARN") Act of 1988, that requires federal contractors to tell employees 60 days in advance of expected layoffs. There are quite a few layoffs expected for the end of the year as a result of a genius agreement between President Obama and Congress to cut astonishing amounts of funding for the Department of Defense. Companies that fail to meet their obligations under the WARN Act can be sued by their former employees. Defense contractors indicated that they would not be ignoring their legal duty under the WARN Act.

CONTINUED:  http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/the_rumble/2012/10/surprise-obama-ignores-a-law-to-aid-his-reelection

ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF HOW AGENDA 21 IS AFFECTING OUR COUNTRY

ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF HOW AGENDA 21 IS AFFECTING OUR COUNTRY
one of its goals is to diminish private property ownership. What better way to accomplish this than to put restrictions on the young farm family members to make it just a bit harder for the young to learn how to work the farms so that they will be able to take over the family farm as their parents age. The video points out that the average farm owner is 60 years old.


In addition, last year there was a government ruling that required a commercial operators licence to operate farm machinery. You had to be at least 18 years old to get one of these licenses so a 15 - 17 year old would not be able to operate the farm machinery. The requirements for this commercial license also restricted the elderly so it would restrict the grandparents from operating the farm equipment too. This is a very diabolically clever way to kill off the family farms - all in the name of protecting the young and the old !!!! Isn't it wonderful how the liberals keep our safety foremost in their policies. Once you are aware of their goals, all their restrictions and regulations make perfect sense!. http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2012/03/obamas-outrageous-dol-rules-will-restrict-minors-from-working-on-family-farms-killing-farm-life-as-we-know-it/

http://youtu.be/eq6_mNOvgNw  - VIDEO - Senator John Thune speaking against Labor Department's New Restrictions on family farms

Morning Bell: Beneath Growth, a Sea of Poison

January 6, 2012

Today’s jobs report from the Department of Labor was encouraging news for the U.S. economy. It shows that 200,000 jobs were created and the unemployment rate ticked down from 8.7 percent to 8.5 percent. Jobs were created in every sector of the economy save one — government! This report is consistent with other economic indicators and shows that the economy is finally coming out of its malaise. But like any reports, they must be put into context. The creation of 200,000 new jobs is solid growth and above the 130,000 to 150,000 new jobs that must be created to keep up with population growth. However, this doesn’t mean happy times are here again.


There are not enough Americans working or looking for work. In fact participation in the labor force is at its lowest point in 30 years as many potential workers are not yet even attempting to find jobs. Moreover, at this stage in a recovery, new jobs should be surging instead of averaging less than 140,000 for the last three months. So all is not well and President Obama should not check the “mission accomplished” box. In fact, Obama’s painful economic policies will only serve to further hamstring America’s economic engine, thereby preventing a truly strong, vibrant economy that the country is capable of having.

The President single-handedly unleashed another poison pill on Wednesday with the White House’s announcement that he will exact another illegal, unconstitutional end-run around Congress with the appointment of three new members to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) without Senate approval, all of whom are union officials. Here’s why that matters.

The NLRB is a five-member board that is responsible for investigating unfair labor practices, creating labor-related rules, and conducting elections for labor union representation. Last year the NLRB enacted measures shortening union elections to as little as 14 days, limiting employees’ ability to hear from both sides before they vote, allowing unions to cherry-pick which workers in a company can vote on unionizing, and preventing workers from insisting on a secret ballot in union drives, as Heritage’s James Sherk explains. These measures will make it much easier for unions to organize workers — but at the expense of workers’ rights. If workers want to join a union they have that right — management gets the union it deserves — but the government should not limit their rights in order to press workers into unionizing.

Prior to the President’s appointments, the NLRB had only three sitting members, with the one member’s term ending at the end of 2012. Were the NLRB to go down to two members, it wouldn’t have a quorum to conduct its business, meaning that the President’s Big Labor agenda couldn’t be enacted. Now, though, the President has appointed three new members who will undoubtedly carry out his agenda without any checks or balances.

And that agenda is to bolster America’s unions — a key constituency and political force standing behind the President. Unfortunately, their goal is not primarily to protect workers. The trouble is that the Big Labor agenda is fundamentally at odds with the pro-growth agenda that America is so thirsty for. Sherk explains:

CONTINUED:
http://blog.heritage.org/2012/01/06/morning-bell-beneath-growth-a-sea-of-poison/

Government statistical agency helping NC Democrat

The Carolina Journal, published by the Raleigh-based John Locke Foundation (for which I’ve given paid speeches on occasion) reports that staffers in North Carolina Governor Beverly Perdue’s office have been getting advance word on monthly unemployment statistics from the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics. This is highly illegal under federal law and violates what I have understood to be a strong tradition in the BLS and other government statistics that no one—no one at all, not even in the White House—gets advanced word ahead of the public announcement of government statistics.


There’s obviously good reason for this: someone with advanced word could place bets in financial and community markets and make lots of money. That’s why Congress provided for penalties of up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine for early release of this data. And there’s another excellent reason: government statistical agencies should be free of political influence to insure the integrity of the numbers on which many people depend. My understanding is that an important part of the bureaucratic culture of federal statistical agencies is a pride in their independence and integrity; this is something not to be lightly squandered. Maintaining that culture is vital if the government wants to get highly competent people to dedicate their careers to this important work.

CONTINUED:http://campaign2012.washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/beltway-confidential/government-statistical-agency-helping-nc-democrat/264741