Will Texas ever stack up to California? Do the math, at TexasEd.
Will Texas ever stack up to India? China?
Staying competitive: Do the math
May 27, 2008
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Education, Education spending, Globalization, Higher education, Politics, Texas Lege | Tagged: education funding, Higher education, Politics | 
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Posted by Ed Darrell
Trafficking workers’ bodies for profit
May 27, 2008If a guy beats someone to death, it’s murder, right? And so the nation’s labor laws hold an employer liable for the death of a worker when unsafe working conditions caused the death.
But what if the worker doesn’t die? What if the worker only loses his arms, or legs, or arms and legs?
No death, no crime, U.S. law says.
What if the employer poisons the worker with cyanide that eats away the worker’s brain?
No death, no crime, U.S. law says.
My colleagues and I were shocked to learn that an employer who breaks the nation’s worker-safety laws can be charged with a crime only if a worker dies. Even then, the crime is a lowly Class B misdemeanor, with a maximum sentence of six months in prison. (About 6,000 workers are killed on the job each year, many in cases where the deaths could have been prevented if their employers followed the law.) Employers who maim their workers face, at worst, a maximum civil penalty of $70,000 for each violation.
Read a plea to change the law, in the New York Times, from David H. Uhlmann, a law professor at the University of Michigan.
1 Comment | Business, Business Ethics, Capitalism, Civil Rights, Economics, Environmental justice, Environmental protection, Free market economics, Freedom - Economic, Government, Gross Injustice, Health care, Human Rights, Labor and unions, OSHA, Politics, Public health | Tagged: Business, Business Ethics, Civil Rights, Environmental, Gross Injustice, Labor Law, Occupational Safety, OSHA, Worker Rights | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Good though: Folksinger, Storyteller, Railroad Tramp Utah Phillips Dead at 73
May 27, 2008Utah Phillips died Friday. He was 73. He died at his home in Nevada City, California.
Wonderful tribute at Fifteen Iguana.
Utah Phillips (publicity photo via Bluegrass Today)
Phillips’s website lists planned tributes, memorials and the funeral in Nevada City, California. KVMR Radio’s site has an obit and links to other tributes.
- Railroading on the Great Divide, from “Legends of Folk” (buy the CD here)
- Origin of the phrase “Good though” from “Good Though” (buy the CD here)
- Sacramento Bee story – excerpted below the fold
4 Comments | A Good Story, Business Ethics, Citizenship, Current History, History, History and art, History audio sources, Humor, Labor and unions, Life, Music | Tagged: Folk Music, History, Labor and unions, Media, Music, Organized Labor, Politics, Railroads, Utah Phillips | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Millard Fillmore's Bathtub 