Marc Ambinder spoke to a bevy of former Secret Service agents and current physical-protection specialists who said that “members [of Congress] can take commonsense steps to reduce the likelihood of an incident, steps that only mildly compromise their access to the public, if at all.” But fairly few of the steps mentioned in the article actually seem like good ideas.
Late last year, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), the incoming chairman of the House Oversight Committee sent a letter to the country’s major trade associations and private corporations asking them which regulations they want to see weakened or eliminated. In response, the GOP-friendly National Association of Manufacturers has asked him to probe forthcoming regulations aimed at enhancing worker health, improving toxin standards, mitigating climate pollution and preventing another crisis on Wall Street.
Medical residents must pay Social Security taxes, the Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday. Residents often work 50 to 80 hours a week, the chief justice wrote. They can make $50,000, and they often receive health insurance and paid vacations. But they work under the supervision of more senior doctors who also instruct them, and they attend lectures and take exams.
The U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling Tuesday upholding the IRS’ determination that resident physicians are workers – not students – and thus should pay Social Security taxes further bolsters the case that residents should also have other protections afforded to workers. This includes a good night’s sleep.
Sleep deprivation can addle someone just as much as a bottle of whiskey and therefore justifies regulations to protect patients from yawning surgeons, asserts a recent editorial in the New England Journal of Medicine. For one thing, surgeons who have been awake for 22 of the past 24 hours could be required by law to disclose their condition to patients scheduled for elective surgery, who could then decide whether to turn to a fresher white coat or reschedule, write the authors.
According to new research from the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, in 2010 44 million private-sector US employees, or 42% of the workforce, lacked access to paid sick time. This IWPR analysis distinguishes between employees who are eligible for paid sick time vs. those who can actually access it, because employers often don’t allow for the use of paid sick time by employees in their first months on the job.
The New York City Fire Department should work closely with Broadway theater owners, producers, and employees to develop new preparedness and training standards for emergencies like the attempted car bombing last May in Times Square, according to a report of the New York State Assembly’s subcommittee on workplace safety, chaired by Queens Assemblyman Rory Lancman.
Federal safety officials are accusing Nevada’s workplace safety agency of failing to combat reluctance, evasion and falsehoods from two local employers when the state investigated the fatal fall of a 20-year-old part-time stagehand at the MGM Grand hotel in 2009 .
The Federal Aviation Administration’s Mansfield-Lahm Regional Airport is on the receiving end of an OSHA Notice of Unsafe or Unhealthful Working Conditions. These are issued to federal workplaces (except the U.S. Postal Service) in lieu of the citations issued to private sector workplaces.
OSHA officials are investigating an explosion that injured three people at a copper plant in Leetsdale, Pa., early Tuesday morning.
