Huffington Post wins Pulitzer Prize
Huffington Post senior military correspondent David Wood has spent decades covering war, watching as wounded combat troops are loaded onto medical evacuation helicopters and, he said, “go off in a cloud of dust.” But after their sacrifice on the battlefield, Wood said, “you never know what happened to them.” So for eight months this past year, Wood reported extensively on the lives of severely wounded veterans and their families in “Beyond the Battlefield”, a 10-part series awarded Monday with the Pulitzer Prize in National Reporting.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/16/huffington-post-pulitzer-prize-2012_n_1429169.html
Keeping a promise to home care aides
Evelyn Coke, who died in 2009 at age 74, was a home care aide whose case for fair pay went to the Supreme Court in 2007, where she lost 9 to 0. At issue were federal rules that define home care aides as “companions,” a label that exempts employers from having to pay minimum wage and time-and-a-half for overtime. The justices said that only Congress or the Labor Department could change the rules.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/16/opinion/evelyn-coke-and-pauline-beck.html?src=rechp
Oil worker’s death renews debate on safety of extraction method
California’s largest oil company failed to warn employees of the dangers in an oil field where a worker was sucked underground and boiled to death last year, state authorities found — and then they fined the firm $350. The small regulatory penalty, levied after a first investigation cleared Chevron, has angered labor leaders and reignited a debate over the risks of the extraction technique that led to the worker’s death.
http://articles.latimes.com/2012/apr/14/local/la-me-oil-death-20120412
Needed: Non-profit organizations to provide occupational safety and health training
Are you a non-profit organization interested in providing training on identifying and controlling occupational safety and health hazards — from bloodborne pathogen exposure control to managing excavation hazards? Then the Occupational Safety and Health Administration is looking to accept your application to provide classroom instruction in occupational safety and health for private sector workers, supervisors and employers as part of its OSHA Training Institute (OTI) Education Centers Program.
http://social.dol.gov/blog/needed-non-profit-organizations-to-provide-occupational-safety-and-health-training/
Cal-OSHA’s new local presence most welcome
Kern County is home to a high concentration of dangerous jobs, from oil fields to farm fields, refineries to construction sites. On top of this, the number of undocumented immigrants living and working in the community creates the likelihood that some, due to their reluctance to speak up, could be exploited by hazardous work environments. So it is welcome news that Cal-OSHA, the state workplace safety watchdog, has opened an office in Bakersfield.
http://www.bakersfield.com/opinion/x1322083231/Cal-OSHAs-new-local-presence-most-welcome
David Coppedge, ex-NASA worker, says ‘intelligent design’ views led to firing
David Coppedge, a former computer specialist with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, spent much of his free time advocating for the idea that a higher intelligence must have had a hand in creation. Now, a judge will decide if his commitment to that belief has also cost him his job.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/16/david-coppedge_n_1427939.html
OSHA inspectors make surprise visit to troubled St. Peter Hospital
After months of turmoil, state OSHA inspectors visited the Minnesota Security Hospital for the first time in more than 20 years, Minnesota Public Radio reports. The surprise inspection was conducted on March 13 over concerns regarding worker safety.
http://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2012/04/13/osha-inspectors-make-surprise-visit-to-troubled-st-peter-hospital/
Titanic’s shipbuilders tackled an olympic task
Titanic’s construction required 3,000 men to work for six days a week for two years straight with few holidays or breaks. Shipbuilding was dangerous, hard work. There were almost 250 documented incidences of severe work-related injuries and 10 deaths. There were few workplace safety standards at the time, so considering the magnitude of the project, Harland and Wolff’s track record is still thought to be remarkable.
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/story/2012-04-14/building-titanic-white-star-line/54205842/1
