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| Welcome | Welcome to the September issue of the Credential Check Examiner! Please feel free to offer your feedback. We appreciate hearing from our subscribers.
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| | California legislators OK bill that tightens oversight on EMTs | California legislators approved a measure that will require all emergency medical technicians (EMTs) to undergo mandatory criminal background checks. The bill (AB 2917) will also require EMTs to be certified in the county in which they work and would establish a state-operated central EMT agency. Local certification will help prevent those with questionable criminal backgrounds from looking for certification in counties that do not require background checks. Legislators must approve a budget compromise for the new bill before Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will sign it into law. Schwarzenegger vetoed similar legislation last year because it did not disclose all details about EMT misconduct.
Source: The Sacramento Bee
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| | Sick leave plan being dropped from Ohio ballot | A proposal that would require Ohio employers to provide paid sick leave for their workers is headed off the state November ballot, its supporters opting to back a federal bill that calls for a mandate on the issue. Speaking on behalf of the Ohioans for Healthy Families coalition, Service Employees International Union District 1199 President Becky Williams said the group will ask Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner to pull the measure from the Nov. 4 ballot. The union is the leader of the coalition, which has more than 150 organizations that fought to bring the measure to a public vote. The proposal called for companies with 25 or more workers to provide seven days of paid sick leave annually for employees who work 30 or more hours a week. The plan prompted business interests to declare they would mount a fight to defeat it, claiming it represented a financial and paperwork hardship for employers and would hurt Ohio’s economic competitiveness. Ohio would have been the first state with a sick leave mandate. Williams said the coalition was stepping aside for a paid sick leave mandate bill pending in Congress. The coalition’s decision to pull the Ohio ballot issue takes the heat off Gov. Ted Strickland, who opposed the issue even though SEIU has supported his political campaigns. Strickland, who feared the sick leave mandate would damage the state’s economic development efforts, failed in a bid to broker a deal between SEIU and some of the state’s largest business groups.
Source: Columbus Business First
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| | Eatonville plugs loophole in scrutiny of city employees | Authorities in Eatonville, Florida recently learned that almost a dozen of the town's 32 civilian employees have arrest records, and half have been convicted of crimes. As a result of the two month investigation, three employees were dismissed and the town council approved a measure requiring all new employees to undergo criminal background checks. Mayor Anthony Grant had ordered background checks in the past, but the town of Eatonville lacked a formal written rule on the matter. In their most recent investigation, town authorities uncovered the criminal records of 14 employees. Of the three who were fired, one employee in the parks division was convicted of selling, manufacturing or delivering a controlled substance. The others were employed in public works and had suspended driver’s licenses that couldn't immediately be reinstated. One of them had his license revoked for two years in 2007 after being convicted of driving under the influence, cocaine possession and other charges. In recent years, only the finance and police departments were ordering criminal background checks. When prospective employees filled out the town's generic job application, they were typically not instructed to fill out the section that asked about recent felony convictions.
Source: The Orlando Sentinel
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| | NY girl posts threat because she didn’t want summer break to end | A teenage student accused of posting a threat against her school on her social networking Web page was just trying to prolong her summer break, her lawyer said Wednesday. The student spent the first day of her senior year in police custody and court instead. She was released without bail after pleading not guilty to misdemeanor charges of aggravated harassment and falsely reporting an incident. She was charged as an adult. Suffolk County police say the Newfield High School student's Facebook page said she was "going to kill everyone in school, so don't go," but investigators found no evidence she had the means to carry out the threat. Detective Sgt. Frank Stewart called it "a statement of frustration." The honors student told police "she did it because she didn't want to go to school and have the summer end," said her lawyer, Patrick O'Connell. "I think that says it all." The school stepped up security Wednesday, but classes went on as scheduled. The school's principal sent a letter to parents saying the school is safe and secure and encouraging them to monitor students' computer usage.
Source: The Associated Press
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| | Employee has no privacy on company computers, US court rules | Employees do not have a reasonable expectation of privacy for material stored on computers owned by their employers, a US court has ruled. The New Jersey court said that files on a work-owned computer can be accessed and searched if the company gives permission, even if the user does not. The ruling came in the case of a man who was convicted of stealing $650,000 from his employer while acting as a bookkeeper there. The actions came to light through warrantless searching of his laptop and desktop computers at work. The man was convicted over the thefts but argued that his conviction was unsound because of the way the evidence was gathered. He said he had a reasonable expectation of privacy in relation to material on the computers at work which was password protected. The Superior Court of New Jersey found otherwise.
Source: The Register
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| | Todd’s Tips: Panic Level Unwarranted | Google the word “recession.” When I did it I came up with 34,100,000 hits. The word is everywhere. People are even dropping “depression” like it’s just around the corner. It seems like everyone is afraid for his job security, home and assets; you’d think we were facing the apocalypse. People seem to think we’re on our way to the worst period in our country’s economic history. I’m not trying to minimize the job losses and financial difficulties people have suffered, but the reality is this: the reality is not that bad. I suppose we can blame the media; they’re the easiest and most infamous culprit in these kinds of situations. Regardless of who’s at fault, it’s time to examine some facts.
I read this in a recent Forbes article titled, “Best Buys Since The Brady Bunch”:
The economy doesn't look good. We've lost the war. Gasoline has just hit a new high and inflation is raging. The stock market is a murky mess and the real estate market is as stable as a screen door in a hurricane.
The energy crisis is driving greater interest in renewable energy, spurring new research in solar power and wind power. Pressure is mounting to exploit North American oil sources. And Brazil is increasing agricultural production and modernizing distilleries to produce more ethanol as an alternative to pure gasoline.
Oil-rich countries like the Soviet Union and those in the Middle East are booming from the windfall.
Sounds familiar right? I'm talking about the 1970s.
The truth is, we’ve faced recession before. This is not new. Our economy has always had ups and downs. And besides, according to our national definition of “recession” (see the Wikipedia entry for a more thorough explanation), the National Bureau of Economic Research won’t be able to determine whether this even qualifies as a recession until closer to the end of the year. We can’t predict when the economy will rejuvenate to its once booming state, but we do need to remember that this possible recession we’re in now will end.
The Forbes article advises, “If you feel today as investors… did back in 1974, do not despair…. Small-cap stock returns from 1975-1982 were among the best in recorded market history. And, not too shockingly, it all came on the heels of when everyone thought things would never get better. Heed the lessons of history.” If we look to the past we are forced to remember that right now is not the worst of the cases we’ve seen, and we’re certainly not in depression territory. The economy slows sometimes, and then it picks back up again. Companies will begin hiring sprees once again, and people will soon forget their recession gloom until the next time the economy begins to falter.
A Washington Post article, “Why We’re Gloomier Than The Economy: Consumer Anxiety Outstrips the Data,” explores this issue further. Americans seem to think the economy is in collapse and the world is ending, and that this is it — it’s all over. According to the Post:
Consumer confidence is at its lowest level in almost 30 years. Only 12 percent of Americans think the economy is in good shape. On the Internet, comparisons to the Great Depression are widespread….
But so far, the economy is holding up better than it did during the last two recessions in 1990 and 2001. Employers haven't shed as many jobs, the unemployment rate is still relatively low, and gross domestic product has kept rising. Things are nowhere near as bad as they were in the Great Depression, or even during the severe recession of 1982-83. The last time consumers were this miserable, in May 1980, the jobless rate was 7.5 percent and inflation was 14.4 percent. Now those numbers are 5.5 percent and 4.2 percent respectively.
The Post gives one explanation: we’re spoiled. Even though our last recession occurred only seven years ago, in 2001, the economy overall has been solid for the last two decades. In the 1980s and ’90s, the unemployment and interest rates from the early 1970s were fresh in our minds. The Post points out, “But now, coming off two decades of prosperity and low inflation, Americans have come to treat low unemployment and inflation as givens. We have gotten so used to things being good, in other words, that even when conditions become somewhat bad, it feels terrible.”
Another problem may be that we feel the shallowness of our pockets every day at the gas pump and grocery store — these indicators have a subconscious effect on our perception of the economy. These constant reminders make us believe things are worse overall than they really are. We think this level of inflation must be occurring across the board, even if we can see that’s not true whenever we make other purchases. The Post also points to the housing crisis as an influence on our consciousness — we see our homes losing value, which means we must be losing money, essentially. But the housing market will improve in time, as it has always done before.
As the economy rejuvenates, so too will the job market. Bringing new companies to the state will continue Michigan’s growth and level of influence. Among other new businesses in the area, Crain’s Detroit Business reports, “British amphibious vehicle maker Gibbs Technologies Inc. has picked Auburn Hills for its new research and development center.” In November when the center opens, 30 employees (engineers, among other staff) will be hired. Crain’s says, “Gibbs plans to introduce two high-speed amphibious vehicles in the United States in late 2009 and early 2010 — the sports car-like Gibbs Aquada and an all-terrain vehicle.” The manufacture of these vehicles is certain to introduce innumerable production jobs to the area.
Now is no time for the panic button, especially in Detroit. We’re going to be just fine.
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