Technology
Original Author:
Democracy for New Mexico
ABBY - ID#A1627961
Please help spread the word about a desperate situation that has developed at The Cattery at the Albuquerque Animal Welfare shelter. The Cattery is facing a much larger population of cats than it can possibly deal with. I've gotten several emails about this, and local news programs have reportedly ignored requests to air this message. The shelter simply cannot handle any more cats, and needs additional support from the community. Please do what you can:
The Inn is Full
The Cattery at the Albuquerque Animal Welfare Department is nearly full. Last weekend they received 121 cats. Animal Welfare’s ability to house and care for such a large number of cats is approaching capacity, and they are in need of assistance.
Original Author:
Sen. Kathleen Vinehout
When I heard the Governor had convened a “Special Session on Jobs” I was anxious to take look at the proposals.
Business owners tell me they need access to capital, lower health insurance costs and a skilled workforce. Just last week the Eau Claire Leader Telegram headline read Employers: Jobs are there, Skills are not.
Being from the country, I like to kick the tires and lift up the hood before I buy anything. Was anything that small business owners needed on the list?
This weekend, I got down to the tire kicking level. Amazingly, I found something besides ‘jobs’ on the agenda.
There are a few bills that help make it easier for businesses to get loans. One bill would make credit for farmers easier to obtain by expanding state loan guarantees; another bill increases the cap on loan guarantees for small businesses. There are several bills that create tax credits for investments.
Nothing on the list deals with rising health costs. Very little addresses the lack of skilled workers.
And who would have guessed a bill to protect drug companies and medical device companies from lawsuits if their product had FDA approval would bring jobs to Wisconsin?
Original Author:
(James Rowen)
Another
document dump - - the
second in the last few weeks - - shows cozy relationship among the players, including American regulators now reviewing whether a major new pipeline from Canada to Texas should be approved.
With
most of the oil ticketed for export via Houston, and not for domestic usage.
Not a good development for the White House and the public interest.
WisDOT Having Hiring Problems; Walker's Pay Raise, Bargaining Limitations Aren't Helping
Original Author:
(James Rowen)
Seems WisDOT is having trouble filling engineer vacancies. Here's the somewhat unusual hiring application
re-announcement.
Who'd come here for 1% annual pay raises?
[Wednesday evening update: And why is DOA refusing to approve some requests from DOT to fill vacant positions and meet federal accountability and financing requirements? The positions in question would be financed with federal, not state dollars.]
Separately, the department is looking for recruiting help through its employee newsletter. Diverse hiring is certainly an important goal, but the timing is curious.
Help recruit new employees for WisDOT
One of the goals of the Department of Transportation is to recruit and retain a diverse workforce. The Bureau of Human Resource Services (BHRS) works with managers and supervisors on identifying recruitment resources during the staffing process.
In order to ensure we are attracting a diverse applicant pool for our vacancies, BHRS is reaching out to all department employees to learn of new or existing
recruitment resources we could use. As a department employee, you may be
aware of resources in your communities, organizations or internet outreach
Original Author:
Brian Leubitz
HMO faces scrutiny for their arithmetic
by Brian Leubitz
Kaiser is something of a mixed bag. They get some good press for focusing on areas that help to reduce health care costs, preventative care, that sort of thing. On the flip side, they are usually somewhere in the background on lobbying efforts, killing any attempts to make health care insurance more consumer friendly in California.
Well, today's news is more on the dark side. It turns out that they've been overcharging small business customers and not really providing the data to back it up:
Kaiser Permanente has retroactively rolled back rate increases that went into effect for small businesses on July 1 by 1.2 percent.
The welcomed - albeit small - bit of news for thousands of California enrollees comes after a bit of wrangling with the state regulators.
Kaiser in April had proposed a 10.7 percent rate hikes for the bulk of its small business customers. The state Department of Managed Health Care, armed with a new law that allows them to scrutinize actuarial data behind the rate filings, pushed back.
"We've been concerned about the lack of data they provided to support their trends and we requested they reduce their rates," said department spokeswoman Lynne Randolph.
The new increase of 9.5 percent translates into a total savings of $13.5 million, Randolph said.
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