January 12, 2015

DA: Albuquerque Police Officers Charged with Murder in Shooting of Homeless Man

Bernalillo County District Attorney Kari Brandenburg has confirmed to the NM Political Report that she will charge two Albuquerque police officers with murder for the shooting of a homeless camper in the city’s foothills in March of 2014.

Link: http://nmpoliticalreport.com/?p=714


By the way, this would not have occurred without massive citywide protests. This was a big deal in Albuquerque.

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January 11, 2015

Bill Maher takes on NYPD

January 10, 2015

New wind tree will pay for itself in two years

January 10, 2015

Unions still signing up new members, despite Michigan's 2012 Right To Work legislation

LANSING, MI –Sparrow Home Health nurses voted this week to unionize, marking the first group the Michigan Nurses Association (MNA) has registered since Gov. Rick Snyder signed Right to Work legislation in 2012.

“What we’re seeing is that Right to Work or not, nurses and others recognize that forming a union is the most effective way that they can have a voice in the workplace,” said Michigan Nurses Association spokesperson Dawn Kettinger.

Ed McNeil, special assistant to the president of the American Federation of State County Municipal Employees (AFSCME) rattled off four new groups he’d helped form unions this year, though he says he’d have to dig through some files to find the total number they’ve done since 2012.

“They’re calling us to organize them because they’re looking at the type of work that we’ve done in the past and how we represent people,” McNeil said.

He estimates that the actual number of AFSCME members in the state is staying about the same, since some individuals are dropping out. As far as new organizing goes, “We’re doing more than we did before 2012,” McNeil said.


More: http://www.mlive.com/lansing-news/index.ssf/2014/11/michigan_nurses_association_ot.html

January 10, 2015

United Replaces Unionized Baggage Handlers With Min. Wage Contractors, Things Instantly Fall Apart

“Free Market” hardliners may not like to hear it, but the old adage is true: “You get what you pay for,” and paying people next-to-nothing to do an extremely labor-intensive job won’t get you many willing applicants.

Nowhere is that more obvious than in Denver right now, where travel-wary passengers getting off their flights are discovering that their checked bags won’t be coming out in a timely fashion, if at all.

One survivor told the Denver Post that the situation was so bad in baggage claim that people were on the cusp of rioting.

“Ed Tonini of Louisville, Ky., flew to Denver on a United Express flight this week. His small bag, which he checked at the gate, took about 30 minutes to retrieve. But nothing could have prepared him for the baggage claim area, which he said was utter chaos.

‘It was a comedy. People were ready to riot — there were children crying and hundreds of people that were very testy, sitting on the floor, waiting, and no United people there to tell us what was going on,’ he said. ‘Our flight was a little over two hours, and it took more than two hours to get our bags.’



More: http://www.addictinginfo.org/2015/01/09/united-replaces-unionized-baggage-handlers-with-minimum-wage-contractors-things-instantly-fall-apart/

January 9, 2015

Rio Grand Found. says NM not being "Right to Work" is why our economy sucks. Fales to mention

that we have very low union membership even compared to some right to work states like Nevada.

http://www.errorsofenchantment.com/2015/01/05/nm-on-list-of-top-10-outbound-states-again/




Here is my comment which I doubt they will post:

Even though NM isn’t a right to work state it still has one of the lowest union memberships of the 50 states at only 7%. In fact Nevada which is a right to work state has double the union membership of NM. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_affiliation_by_U.S._state

He also cherry picks by failing to mention that Utah, Mississippi, Michigan and Virginia are also outbound and right to work.

Not to mention, even though several states listed as "outbound" have a lot of people moving out their economies are growing quite fast.

January 9, 2015

Who here has had the flu this season?

It seems like everyone around me is sick as a dog with the flu recently. It's shaping up to be a pretty bad year. I got my shot but am nervous since about half of the strains mutated. I am just wondering who here has had or has the flu this season and if you got shots or not?

It's early so I don't expect this poll to be that great of a measure, just curious how it is shaping up on DU so far and if the shots are doing much good.

Only answer that you got the flu if you are very sure it was the flu and not something else.

By the way, I still think it is very important to get your flu shots. In no way is this post meant to suggest you should not get them.

http://www.cnn.com/2014/12/04/health/flu-vaccine-mutated-virus/

Influenza Map: http://www.cdc.gov/flu/weekly/usmap.htm