A former union official from Milwaukee has agreed to plead guilty to embezzling about $180,000 of union funds, according to federal court records.Paula Dorsey, former president of District Council 48 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, withdrew the money from an account between 2004 and 2009 to finance her gambling habit, said Mel Johnson, an assistant U.S. attorney. Dorsey faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison, a $250,000 fine and three years of supervised release, in addition to repayment of the estimated amount stolen.The money was intended to fund Operation Big Vote, a national initiative to increase minority voter turnout.
Although the organization prides itself for its registration efforts, it also has a long history of scandal. In the state of Missouri in 1986, 12 ACORN members were convicted of voter fraud. But that case was not an isolated incident in the state. In December 2004, in St. Louis, six volunteers pleaded guilty of dozens of election law violations for filling out registration cards with names of dead people and other bogus information. Authorities launched an earlier investigation after noticing that among the new voters was longtime St. Louis alderman Albert “Red” Villa, who died in 1990. The volunteers worked for “Operation Big Vote” — a branch of ACORN — in St. Louis.
Machinists union members at Spirit AeroSystems are voting today on whether to accept the company's 10-year contract offer.
Of close to 20 Machinists interviewed this morning, most said they were voting to strike.
Machinists union members at Spirit AeroSystems rejected the company's offer of a 10-year contract on Friday, but lacked the votes required for a strike.Read more here.
As a result, members ratified the contract by default.
Of those voting, 57 percent rejected the contract. Fifty-eight percent voted to strike, falling short of the two-thirds required for a work stoppage.
John Harris relays a meeting on Nov. 3, 2008 with himself, two union leaders -- Andy Stern and Tom Balanoff -- and the governor.
In a previous call played to jurors, Harris testified he and Blagojevich understood the two were approaching him on behalf of Obama's camp.
The meeting happened one day before the presidential election and the talk was about the senate seat vacancy the major campaign donors expected would happen the next day.
Witnesses said pickets at scene, however, prevented the Gatlin employees from using the crane, saying that only union operators were allowed to run them.
"They gathered around and wouldn't let the guys get to the equipment," said Diane Brzycki, who lives across the street from Milton. "They just stood there in the middle of the road."
A spokesman for Gatlin acknowledged there was a "dispute" Thursday morning but that the company and the union workers settled it. But whatever they agreed upon did not help Milton, whose property to the north of his just-completed house was still under standing water Thursday afternoon.
"They don't give a hoot about what happens to my house; they weren't even going to turn on the pumps," Milton said. "Gatlin came to turn them on, but the Teamsters said no, not without union operators.
"I'm a union person myself, but I wouldn't allow someone's house to get flooded."
More here.
A Democratic amendment tucked into campaign finance legislation Wednesday night appears to exempt big labor unions from proposed disclosure requirements.
The change, inserted by Rep. Bob Brady (D-Pa.), chairman of the committee charged with handling the bill and a key union ally, would also affect other groups funded by members who pay dues of less than $50,000. While the move may satiate liberal Democrats who had become uneasy with an exemption for the National Rifle Association, a union loophole will certainly cause Big Business to cry foul.
The DISCLOSE Act marks a stark departure from the traditional treatment of corporations and unions by applying punitive measures to associations in the corporate form, but not to labor unions, even though these groups have traditionally been treated similarly in campaign finance law:
- Companies that received federal money during the financial crisis face restrictions on speech, but not unions: General Motors cannot engage in express advocacy, urging voters to support a candidate by name, while the United Auto Workers union can
- Corporations, unions, non-profits and 527 groups will be required to report donors who give more than $600 if they engage in express advocacy, -- average union dues, the source of the majority of their funds, in 2004 were $377
- Businesses with government contracts worth more than $7 million are not allowed to engage in express advocacy while public sector unions that receive their dues from the taxpayers are exempt from such restrictions
- Companies where a foreign entity owns 20 percent or more of a company’s shares are not allowed to engage in express advocacy while international unions are free to tell Americans how to vote
Governor Riley was in Huntsville Wednesday afternoon updating leaders on the state of our state... namely how we're dealing with the oil spill.
He said he believes Alabama leaders could have stopped the oil from lapping onto our shores, if only they had the tools from the start.
"Can we protect our shores?" Governor Riley asked. "Sure you can, but you can't do it with the situation that you have down there today."
Riley says there are about 20 federal agencies that have veto power, and they all have their hand in the decisions to clean up the spill; that creates gridlock, so nothing gets done.
"If this is going to affect a turtle, you can't do it. If this is going to affect a person's ability to work in hot conditions, you can't do it," Riley mimicked the agency officials.
The Governor says there was a boom in Alabama that would have protected the 25 miles of coastline from the oil, but he says government leaders moved it to Louisiana, saying that state needed it worse. Then, the plan was to put up a snare boom across the beach.
"Sounded like a plan to me until Fish and Wildlife said, 'Nope. You can't do that because it'll catch turtles in the net,'" said Riley.
So, then the plan changed, and 400 workers would be hired to clean the beach.
"Sounded great right up until OSHA said, 'Nope. It's too hot for 'em to work.' So, now they're limited to working no more than 20 minutes out of the hour or a maximum of two hours a day," said Riley.
Despite a slightly more upbeat report, Business Roundtable Chairman Ivan Seidenberg said chief executives still have plenty of angst. They are not sure if the economy will continue to build momentum and are concerned about new congressional proposals to increase taxes and regulations on business, he said.
"There's a lot of caution on the part of CEOs," Seidenberg said after the report was issued Wednesday. "We are not expanding as fast as we expected to at this stage of the recovery."
The day before the report, Seidenberg warned of a "growing disconnect" between business and government that he said are preventing the economy from growing faster and creating more jobs.
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