The unlearned lessons of the BP disaster
The BP disaster taught us many things: namely, that giant corporations cannot be trusted to behave responsibly absent strong public oversight, and that if 11 workers die on your watch, or unprecedented ecological damage from your negligence occurs from your operations – that none of it matters: You can continue to operate, business as usual, securing more government contracts and enjoying record profits the same as before.
http://www.citizen.org/pressroom/pressroomredirect.cfm?ID=3589
The lessons we learned from Deepwater disaster
The aggressive pace of reform since the Deepwater Horizon is remarkable, but my agency has much more work to do. In particular, over the coming months, we will be implementing new, common-sense safety advances in three fundamental areas.
http://www.chron.com/opinion/outlook/article/The-lessons-we-learned-from-Deepwater-disaster-3495909.php
Scott Walker reinstates program to give bonuses, merit raises despite shortfall
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker quietly reinstated a program to give merit raises and bonuses to some state workers even as he preached cost-cutting and pushed through a law reducing most public workers’ pay and eliminating their union rights.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/20/scott-walker-state-worker-bonuses_n_1441000.html
Working moms’ challenges: paid leave, child care
The past week’s political firestorm in the presidential race focused on stay-at-home moms, but two-thirds of women with young children now work. Nearly half are their family’s primary breadwinner. What some feel is being lost in the political debate are the challenges they face in the workplace.
http://www.wbur.org/npr/150967376/working-moms-challenges-paid-leave-child-care
‘We don’t go to work to be touched’: sexual harassment in the warehouse
Constant remarks about their bodies, and unwanted touching, advances, mean-spirited “pranks” and other forms of sexual harassment are a regular occurrence for many of the more than 30,000 women—like Dickerson—who work in the warehouse industry in the Chicago area, according to a report (PDF) released this week by the group Warehouse Workers for Justice (WWJ). And women often face retaliation for reporting harassment.
http://www.todaysworkplace.org/2012/04/20/we-don%E2%80%99t-go-to-work-to-be-touched-sexual-harassment-in-the-warehouse/
USA Today journalists targets of online intimidation
Attention screenwriters, please take the following and run with it: Two USA Today journalists, Tom Vanden Brook and Ray Locker, claim that they have been the target of an extensive online smear campaign as they were investigating government propaganda contractors. According to The Washington Post, the two men were busy preparing a special report on the Pentagon’s “information operations” program, which spent millions on marketing efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan, when they noticed that damaging fake Twitter accounts, websites and more were popping up.
http://www.mediabistro.com/fishbowlny/usa-today-journalists-targets-of-online-intimidation_b58483
Obama tweets ‘Progress For The LGBT Community’ timeline
President Obama has weathered a sizable fallout from lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) advocacy groups and voters for his surprising refusal to sign an anti-discrimination executive order in recent days. Perhaps in an effort to combat that criticism, the White House tweeted the following timeline image, titled “Progress for the LGBT Community,” today.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/20/obama-lgbt-progress-timeline-tweets_n_1441003.html
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