Unmanned Plane Patrolling Stretch of Canada-U.S. Border

A warning to Canadians smuggling batches of "B.C. bud" or other contraband into the United States: Beware the eyes in the sky.

Obama and Corporate America 

President Obama is smart to extend an olive branch to American businesses. Our economic success depends on businesses investing, growing and creating new jobs. From expanding exports to improving infrastructure, government and businesses share important goals.

The first ten bills of the 112th Senate 

The Senate held their first real legislative day of the session yesterday, which means they finally began formally proposing legislation to deal with over the next two years.

Business groups say unemployment system unfairly favors jobless

As companies in Florida face an increase in minimum payments for unemployment insurance, business groups are looking to convince lawmakers to impose stricter standards on laid-off employees seeking jobless benefits

Teacher merit pay: 'What a difference a year makes' 

Crafting a teacher merit-pay bill for Florida this spring is "not going to be like last time," a key state lawmaker promised today.

Sea turtles will have a "voice" when it comes to development  

MIAMI - A settlement announced Wednesday means endangered and threatened sea turtles will have a "voice" when it comes to development along parts of Florida's coast. 

Does College Make You Smarter? - Room for Debate 

First there was the news that students in American universities study

 a lot less than they used to. Now we hear, in a recent book titled

 "Academically Adrift," that 45 percent of the nation's undergraduates

 learn very little

SPLATNAV! UK pensioners drive into German church 

Two British pensioners landed in hospital in southern Germany 

after their car's global positioning system directed them to drive into a church

Don't copy Arizona immigration law, top Florida Republican warns

 TALLAHASSEE — As a fifth-generation rancher and citrus farmer,

 Adam Putnam has a personal stake in an immigration overhaul, 

one of the most heated issues in Washington and Florida

Proposed Republican law would override local wage protection efforts

State Rep. Tom Goodson, R-Titusville, filed a bill Tuesday that 

would “preempt regulation of wage theft to state, except as 

otherwise provided by federal law, & supersedes any municipal or county ordinance 

Florida's unemployment steady but labor force increases by 7,000 in December 

Florida's jobless rate remained unchanged at a staggering 12 percent

just shy of a modern-era record whiile the national rate fell from 9.8 percent to 9.4 percent.

Billionaires take a stand for the working man 

WHO SAYS the corporate media doesn't care about the opinions 

of ordinary people? There have been lots of articles lately about 

what workers think, written by the people who study them the most--bosses.

Low-power FM Radio Stations to Increase in Number 

Advocates for low-power FM, or LPFM, as it is called, say the stations

 are a slight corrective to the consolidation of commercial radio.

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45% Of Students Don't Learn Much In College

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The research of more than 2,300 undergraduates found 45 percent of students show no significant improvement in the key measures

Conservatives Press Republican Leaders for Bigger Budget Cuts 

WASHINGTON — House Republican leaders confronted pressure from conservatives on Thursday to take more aggressive steps to cut federal spending,

Test-Taking Cements Knowledge Better Than Studying, Researchers Say - 

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Taking a test is not just a passive mechanism for assessing how much people know, according to new research. It actually helps people learn, and it works better than a number of other studying techniques.

State Bankruptcy Option Is Sought, Quietly 

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Policy makers are working behind the scenes to come up with a way to let states declare bankruptcy and get out from under crushing debts, including the pensions they have promised to retired public workers.

Florida education cuts: As Legislature prepares deep cuts to education in Florida, they will consider allowing local school districts to raise taxes 

In coming months, lawmakers have to figure out how to plug the gaping hole left in schools' budgets when the federal stimulus money they began receiving in 2009 dries up this year.

The Voters Speak: Analysis of the CAF-Democracy Corps Election Eve Poll | OurFuture.org

www.ourfuture.org/blog-entry/2010114510/voters-speak-analysis-caf-democracy-corp...

The largest Democratic declines came among blue collar, non college education white men. Obama didn’t win these voters in 2008, winning only 41% of their votes. This year Democratic share plunged to 29%.

Riding the Rails, Looking for Work | CommonDreams.org

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www.commondreams.org/view/2010/11/11-0

Who says stimulus programs don't work? Or that all that insane corporate spending on the elections didn't do some good? Gosh darn it, if you're an aspiring barista, you'll be thrilled to learn that Democratic campaigns spent $24,000 at Starbucks, Republicans $17,000. And gym rats and personal trainers, be of good cheer. According to the Post, "The Democratic National Committee spent $41,000 for memberships at a Results gym about seven blocks from its Washington headquarters," keeping its candidates in physical trim if still flabby when it came to policy, decision making and vote getting.

Gaetz to chair redistricting committee | redistricting, chair, committee - News - Northwest Florida Daily News

www.nwfdailynews.com/news/redistricting-34892-chair-committee.html

Gaetz, R-Niceville, said he hadn’t had the title five minutes when he began hearing from lobbyists and politicians about pending reapportionment and the creation of two new congressional seats.

Fair Elections Now Act needs support - Sun Sentinel

articles.sun-sentinel.com/2010-11-14/news/fl-election-costs-forum-20101114_1_cam...

The cost of running for public office is climbing every election cycle with no end in sight. The Washington Post recently reported that both chambers of Congress likely shattered fundraising records for the midterm election with over $2 billion raised. Meanwhile, voters were subjected to an unending stream of third-party campaign ads, much of it sponsored by anonymous corporate donors thanks to the notorious Citizens United Supreme Court ruling handed down earlier this year. And on top of that, wealthy corporate executives like Florida's Rick Scott and California's Meg Whitman spent tens of millions of dollars in order to buy gubernatorial seats in their respective states.

New Florida Legislature session: Florida legislators have a packed agenda for session staring Tuesday - OrlandoSentinel.com
TALLAHASSEE - Annual lawmaking session comes amid double-digit unemployment rates and the busiest election season in modern state political history.

PolitiFact | Create a 'Green Vet Initiative' to promote environmental jobs for veterans - Obama promise No. 466:


Orlando Sentinel – Central Florida Political Pulse
WASHINGTON — Vice President Joe Biden plans to visit Central Florida today with stops in Clermont to visit a Recovery Act construction site and then in Orlando to speak at the winter meeting of the AFL-CIO executive council, according to administration officials

Martinez named to board of Progress Energy
Former U.S. Sen. Mel Martinez, who left Washington late last summer to spend more time with his family in Orlando, has just been named to the board of Progress Energy Inc., the Raleigh, N. Car. energy company that owns the Florida utility of the same name

Offshore Florida oil: Not much there, there
A new report says drilling in Florida waters would “have no discernible impact” on gas prices or the nation’s dependence on foreign oil, but could pump millions into state coffers

Is your lawmaker an ideologue? Check here
The National Journal today released its annual report (available here) that attempts to rank federal lawmakers along the ideological spectrum, based on their 2009 votes.

Talks between Palm Bay, firefighters heat up | floridatoday.com | FLORIDA TODAY
Negotiations between Palm Bay and its firefighters union go this week before a special magistrate to help both sides reach a contract agreement
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Whirlpool: Mexican Workers Paid $70/Week Can't Buy Refrigerators - Topix
Whirlpool is closing a plant in Evansville, Indiana, and moving the jobs to Mexico, where the workers will be paid $70 per week. Our system is broken when "the market" encourages companies like Whirlpool to close factories, destroy the lives of American workers, devastate the surrounding communities and ultimately destroy the very economy that the Whirlpools depend on

Take Action: Whirlpool: Keep It Made in America
The Whirlpool Corp. plans to start closing its refrigerator plant in Evansville, Ind., on March 26. The refrigerators now manufactured at this plant will be produced in Mexico, eliminating 1,100 local jobs. Meanwhile, Whirlpool--the world's largest home appliance maker--enjoys healthy profits and has received a $19 million economic matching grant that should be creating jobs here in America

Workers Memorial Day
Decades of struggle by workers and their unions have resulted in significant improvements in working conditions. But the toll of workplace injuries, illnesses and deaths remains enormous

. List of space workers who died in the line of duty | floridatoday.com | FLORIDA TODAY
This list of Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station workers who died while performing their jobs was compiled by the Space Walk of Fame Museum and is incomplete. Some of the information is based only on workers' recollections

Facebook Titusville Rally
From union's famed photographer Jenney Kenny Titusville Frost Bite Save Our Space jobs rally 27Feb

TWU Local 525 Rally - a set on Flickr
TWU Space Coast Rally 27 Febuary Titusville

AFL-CIO NOW BLOG | NASA Workers Launch Effort to Save Jobs
Workers, small business owners, elected officials and community activists today launched a national campaign to save as many as 7,000 jobs at NASA and thousands more in central Florida.

Brevard County News
Space rally fox

CW18 Video
Space Coast Workers Rally To Keep NASA Jobs

Space pride on display in rally today | floridatoday.com | FLORIDA TODAY
Today's rally will demonstrate statewide impact of layoffs

'Worth fighting for' is the rally cry | floridatoday.com | FLORIDA TODAY
TITUSVILLE — The coming collapse of the space industry has already cost restaurateur Laurilee Thompson one of her best waitresses.

floridatoday.com | Brevard VideoNetwork | FLORIDA TODAY

Tommorrow Save our Space Jobs Rally Titusville 3 PM

Every Central Falls teacher fired, labor outraged | Rhode Island news | projo.com | The Providence Journal CENTRAL FALLS, R.I. — The full force of organized labor showed up in Central Falls Tuesday, with several hundred union members rallying in support of the city’s teachers and bringing plenty of harsh words for the education officials who were about to fire the entire teaching staff at Central Falls High School.
Health News Florida The U.S. Senate’s $15 billion jobs bill passed today without the $1.2 billion Gov. Charlie Crist counted on to patch a hole in state Medicaid spending. He still hopes Congress will provide the money, he says, but has received no assurance.
States renege on local aid In December, Stephen Laker found himself in an agonizing position. As public health administrator for the Vermilion County Health Department in Illinois, Laker was six days into a $9,500-a-day payroll cycle but he had only $7,000 in the bank.

Think Progress » Stimulus Hypocrite Gov. Bob McDonnell Now Wants The Federal Government To Give Virginia More Money During his gubernatorial campaign, Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell (R-VA) repeatedly criticized the Recovery Act, saying that although it was “massive,” he didn’t think it would “have a stimulus effect.” From the Virginian-Pilot in 2009:

Stimulus: 1 - 2.1 million jobs, GDP boost The federal government's economic stimulus created jobs for at least one million people and as many as 2.1 million by the end of last year, a new report from the Congressional Budget Office today concludes.

TEA Party folds when economy revives The "TEA Party,'' that anti-tax, anti big-government movement of people intent on turning out incumbents this year, will "disappear'' as the economy improves

Can NASA's space shuttle program be extended? | floridatoday.com | FLORIDA TODAY Some NASA-backers in Congress are trying to push back the retirement of the space shuttles from 2010 until 2015, flying two missions per year to the International Space Station. Many in NASA say it could be done, and safely. Others note there are political, practical and financial questions to consider

“Falls” lead the injury pack « The Pump Handle The National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) has been conducted since 1957 and is one of the main instruments to get a glimpse at the health of the US population.

What’s in a name? A big Tea Party mess More legal wrangling over just who can rightfully claim the “Tea Party” trademark …
Some 34 plaintiffs are now listed in the federal suit against Orlando attorney Fred O’Neal, who last year registered the name Tea Party of Florida as an official state party. The plaintiffs claim that O’Neal and his associate, anti-tax activist Doug Guetzloe, don’t really represent the Tea Party movement

Senate intends to extend unemployment benefits The Senate is expected to vote as early as Tuesday to extend the law that provides extra unemployment benefits and health-care subsidies for another 30 days, starting March 1