TexasTowelie
TexasTowelie's JournalFixes for mental-health crisis system stall, again
Wyoming’s Joint Judiciary Committee for the second consecutive year did not produce a bill ready for the full Legislature that would address concerns with Title 25.
It was clear from the start of the committee’s Dec. 17 meeting that a draft bill to change the legal processes for detaining a resident experiencing a mental health crisis would likely stall.
The committee began the 2021 interim focused on working with some of the state’s county attorneys to address perceived problems with Title 25, though Senate Judiciary Chair Tara Nethercott (R-Cheyenne) told WyoFile the scope of that process was limited.
“We were not necessarily rewriting how it works or bending the system, but just kind of subtle changes,” she said.
Read more: https://wyofile.com/fixes-for-mental-health-crisis-system-stall-again/
Governor issues emergency order to avoid partial Jim Bridger power plan shutdown
Gov. Mark Gordon issued an emergency suspension order Monday seeking to temporarily block the Environmental Protection Agency from potentially shutting down one of four coal-burning units at the Jim Bridger power plant for falling out of compliance with regional haze parameters.
Jim Bridger owner and operator PacifiCorp — which operates as Rocky Mountain Power in Wyoming — has until Jan. 1 to install “selective catalytic reduction” controls to reduce nitrogen oxide emissions at unit 2, and until the end of 2022 to install the controls at unit 1, under current EPA guidelines. The utility, however, never initiated the expensive and lengthy installation process because of a tentative deal struck between it, the state and the EPA, according to Gordon.
EPA, however, has yet to finalize that agreement, which would allow PacifiCorp to forgo expensive SCR controls to meet regional haze parameters for the power plant. The delay contributed to the late-stage showdown.
“We had a deal,” Gordon said in a Monday press release. “PacifiCorp, EPA and Wyoming all agreed in 2020 that the regional haze guidelines would not only be met, but exceeded with the revised [State Implementation Plan]. Now, with that deal unilaterally abandoned by EPA, this emergency order is necessary to protect Wyoming workers from EPA’s recklessness.”
Read more: https://wyofile.com/gov-issues-emergency-order-to-avoid-partial-jim-bridger-shutdown/
Again? An electronic road sign in Dell Rapids with a profane insult aimed at Biden is 'childish and
Here we go again.
Once more, a Let’s Go Brandon sign has made news in South Dakota. This time, it was in Dell Rapids.
Dan Ahlers of Dell Rapids spotted the sign (seen above in an image submitted by Ahlers) Monday evening and shot a video of it. Ahlers was the Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate in 2020, losing to Sen. Mike Rounds. He is a former state legislator and served as the Dell Rapids Chamber of Commerce president and administrator.
Ahlers said the words flashing on the sign were “childish and inappropriate” and also made little sense based on recent events.
“This type of behavior reflects poorly and is not representative of our community,” he said. “Ironically, this person works in construction repairing our roads and bridges. He/she should be thanking President Biden and the Democrats in Congress for investing in the largest infrastructure bill since the New Deal. This person has job security because of their investment.
Read more: https://www.sdstandardnow.com/home/again-electronic-road-sign-in-dell-rapids-with-profane-insult-childish-and-inappropriate
Winner, South Dakota, newspaper a real loser for publishing profane advertisement attacking Presiden
When I worked for newspapers, they had some standards. There were limits. We had some sense of propriety and decency.
For at least one South Dakota newspaper, those days are gone.
The Winner Advocate, a weekly newspaper in south-central South Dakota, located in Winner, the Tripp County seat, published a profane ad in its Dec. 22 edition.
In a group ad, under the heading Good Christian Men Rejoice, was an ad (seen above in one of many posts on Twitter) for Winner Welding & Machine. It showed three men standing under a Merry Christmas banner. The stocky, white-haired man in the middle was holding a sign that said “Lets Go Brandon.”
The apostrophe was missing, as was any sense of the true holiday spirit or a sense of decorum. I called to see why they did this, and what the reaction had been, and got an amazing surprise.
The man who placed the ad is Brad Assman — yes, really — who owns the company. He pronounces his name “Aus-man,” by the way, and was very willing to discuss why he held up that sign.
Read more: https://www.sdstandardnow.com/home/winner-south-dakota-newspaper-a-real-loser-for-publishing-profane-ad-attacking-president-biden
Time to make some phone calls to see if the Winner Advocate wants to publish any other profane ads.
North Dakota gives out $8.4M in state worker bonuses in 2021
BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — North Dakota spent $8.4 million this year on bonuses for some state workers, a record sum that was more than double paid out in 2020.
A little more than a third of the nearly 9,300 state employees received the bonuses, including several from Republican Gov. Doug Burgum’s office, according to records obtained by The Associated Press. The bonuses, which grew from $3.5 million last year, helped push total employee compensation to $582 million for 2021, up $40 million from 2020.
The bulk of bonuses paid to employees comes from agencies in the governor’s cabinet, records show. Burgum, who approved $7,100 in bonuses to six of his staffers, defends the program. In a statement, he called the bonuses a “tool authorized by the Legislature to reward performance and help retain team members in a competitive labor market.”
State Office of Management and Budget Director Joe Morrissette, the state’s top budget writer, said the bonus money must come from an agency’s existing salary budget and agency heads are given discretion on how to spend it.
Read more: https://apnews.com/article/business-bismarck-north-dakota-legislature-69c78f6548cba611686691226021c6d9
Why are only some employees receiving bonuses when all employees were working through the pandemic? I suspect that only the favorites were chosen which means that the other employees know that they aren't important.
Devils Lake eye doctor employee accused of stealing $350k to gamble
DEVILS LAKE, N.D. — The business manager at a Devils Lake eye clinic is facing potential jail time after investigators say she embezzled more than a quarter of a million dollars.
According to the North Dakota Bureau of Criminal Investigation, Nancy Weaver took nearly $350,000 in cash deposits from the office of Drs. Krein and Moen over a six-year period starting in 2014.
They say she lost almost all of it while gambling at the Spirit Lake Casino.
If convicted, Weaver could get up to 20 years in prison.
https://www.inforum.com/news/devils-lake-eye-doctor-employee-accused-of-stealing-350k-to-gamble
(no more at link)
It took seven years before anyone noticed? 
Greenleaf bosses fold, meet union demands in Portsmouth
In an unqualified victory or labor rights, United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local Union 328, representing 11,000 Rhode Island and Massachusetts workers, today announced a victory for Greenleaf Compassionate Care Center employees in Portsmouth, Rhode Island after the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) completed their investigation.
UFCW Local 328 had filed charges with the NLRB against Greenleaf Compassionate Care Center for violating workers’ rights, including the termination of employee and bargaining committee member Ben Telford, the elimination of employee discounts during a 6-week period, the elimination of the Friday lunch program, and transfer of bargaining unit work to a new classification. Additional charges included interrogation, surveillance and disparagement of employees for their union activity. After an investigation, the NLRB issued complaints on each of these charges against Greenleaf.
Just a day before the trial was set to take place, Greenleaf offered to settle on every complaint.
The agreed to settlement includes:
• Back pay for employees during a six-week period the company did not extend their employee discount to eligible union voters;
• Back pay for employees affected by the company’s elimination of the Friday lunch program for the past 25 weeks;
• The immediate reinstatement of the Friday lunch program;
• The offer of reinstatement to employee Ben Telford, who was illegally terminated by the company in June, with compensation of full back pay for wages, interest and additional compensation;
• The immediate restoration and protection of bargaining unit work for keyholders; and,
• A signed commitment by the company to not interfere with employees’ rights under Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act, to not disparage, surveil, discipline or discharge workers for their union activity, to not create new positions to avoid collective-bargaining obligations, to not transfer work to managers or other employees because of their union activity, and a commitment to bargain in good faith with UFCW Local 328.
Read more: https://upriseri.com/greenleaf-bosses-fold/
Greenleaf bosses fold, meet union demands in Portsmouth
In an unqualified victory or labor rights, United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local Union 328, representing 11,000 Rhode Island and Massachusetts workers, today announced a victory for Greenleaf Compassionate Care Center employees in Portsmouth, Rhode Island after the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) completed their investigation.
UFCW Local 328 had filed charges with the NLRB against Greenleaf Compassionate Care Center for violating workers’ rights, including the termination of employee and bargaining committee member Ben Telford, the elimination of employee discounts during a 6-week period, the elimination of the Friday lunch program, and transfer of bargaining unit work to a new classification. Additional charges included interrogation, surveillance and disparagement of employees for their union activity. After an investigation, the NLRB issued complaints on each of these charges against Greenleaf.
Just a day before the trial was set to take place, Greenleaf offered to settle on every complaint.
The agreed to settlement includes:
• Back pay for employees during a six-week period the company did not extend their employee discount to eligible union voters;
• Back pay for employees affected by the company’s elimination of the Friday lunch program for the past 25 weeks;
• The immediate reinstatement of the Friday lunch program;
• The offer of reinstatement to employee Ben Telford, who was illegally terminated by the company in June, with compensation of full back pay for wages, interest and additional compensation;
• The immediate restoration and protection of bargaining unit work for keyholders; and,
• A signed commitment by the company to not interfere with employees’ rights under Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act, to not disparage, surveil, discipline or discharge workers for their union activity, to not create new positions to avoid collective-bargaining obligations, to not transfer work to managers or other employees because of their union activity, and a commitment to bargain in good faith with UFCW Local 328.
Read more: https://upriseri.com/greenleaf-bosses-fold/
Helena Foulkes, Rhode Island candidate for governor's earnings topped $9.6 million in 2020
PROVIDENCE — Helena Foulkes lives in a different financial stratosphere from the overwhelming majority of Rhode Islanders — and all of her fellow candidates for governor.
Her newly released tax filings paint a picture of a high-paid corporate executive whose adjusted gross income dropped to $9.6 million in 2020 from $12.4 million only two years earlier.
In 2020 alone, she paid $4,259,040 in income taxes, including $3.4 million in federal taxes, $18,757 to Rhode Island and $812,362 to the state of New York, where she lived and worked — until March — as the CEO of the department store owning Hudson Bay Co. that ran Saks Fifth Avenue in the U.S. and, until recently, Lord & Taylor.
Foulkes was an initial holdout when the other Democrats vying to become Rhode Island governor voluntarily made their own returns public — to one extent or another — in October.
Read more: https://www.providencejournal.com/story/news/politics/2021/12/30/ri-candidate-for-governor-earnings-topped-9-6-million-in-2020/9039183002/
Holmes jury to take break after six days of deliberation
SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — The jury weighing fraud charges against former Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes departed court Wednesday without reaching a verdict after six days of deliberations. It won’t resume discussions until after the upcoming New Year’s holiday weekend.
The eight men and four women on the jury had been expected to continue deliberations on Thursday morning, but a court filing after they left disclosed they will be taking a break until Monday. There was no explanation for the decision to pause deliberations. The jury had already been scheduled to be off Friday, a federal court holiday.
The latest round of discussions occurred against a backdrop of intrigue raised by a closed-door meeting early Wednesday involving Holmes’ attorneys, and the judge presiding over the case.
U.S. District Judge Edward Davila held the “in camera” hearing Tuesday morning with two of Holmes’ lawyers, Kevin Downey and Lance Wade, along with a two of the prosecutors, Jeffrey Schenk and Robert Leach, according to a court filing late Tuesday night. Holmes was not present at the 23-minute hearing.
Read more: https://apnews.com/article/technology-health-business-elizabeth-holmes-san-jose-473bccd7c0d71dc533e161176a76d02c
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Gender: MaleHometown: South Texas. most of my life I lived in Austin and Dallas
Home country: United States
Current location: Bryan, Texas
Member since: Sun Aug 14, 2011, 03:57 AM
Number of posts: 112,117
