Scholarships Grants

Washington, D.C., United States (AHN) – The United States would lead the world in college graduates by the end of this decade according to the pledges made by the top executive of the country on Wednesday at a manufacturing plant in Alexandria, Virginia.

Addressing an audience at Alexandria campus of the “Northern Virginia Community College,” during an event promoting the program, “Skills for America’s Future Manufacturing,” President Barack Obama touched upon ways aimed at enhancing skills through training workers and investing in research and technology to give the U.S. an edge in competing with other countries.

Citing a student named David, President Obama emphasized the importance of the facility said, “David said whatever he ends up doing, the automotive training program here was “the spark (he) needed to get (his) career started.”

“We’ve got to light more sparks all across America, and that’s going to make a difference in the futures of individuals who are looking for a better life, but it’s also going to make a difference in America’s future,” Obama continued.

Setting a goal “that by the end of this decade, we are going to once again lead the world in producing college graduates,” President Obama said, “To achieve that, we’re making college more affordable and we’re investing in community colleges.”

With unemployment figures still hovering at uncomfortable levels and economy sluggish in recovery, Obama balanced his words saying, “Obviously we’re slowly recovering from a very painful recession … But there are too many people out there still out of work.”

According to the White House officials, the latest program aims to train half a million community college students for manufacturing jobs over the next five years, which would help offset the gap left by the 2.7 million older workers who will be retiring in the next decade or so.

On a lighter vein, Obama explained his rolled-up shirt sleeves, saying, “My sleeves are rolled up. I was getting under the hood (to repair cars).”

Amid laughter, the president asked, “Do you guys want me to work on your car?” adding, “Don’t do it,” with more laughter breaking out among the audience.

Earlier before addressing the audience of more than 100 people, President Obama wearing button- down shirt with the cuffs rolled up, no jacket, light blue tie, gray pants, visited a classroom calling out, “Hello, hey everybody, what’s going on?” as he entered.

President made it a point to ask each students name and then had conversation with instructor Packer, who said it is the 5th semester of doing program.

From the classroom, the president moved to a garage where a half dozen people waited with cars with hoods propped open.

After the instructor had noted that the facility was a hybrid repair class, President Obama told the accompanying journalists, “This facility here at NOVA is one of the few that provides that kind of training.”

“This is going to be the future so you guys are on the cutting edge,” the president told students, adding as he was leaving, “You guys are doing great work, keep it up.”

Obama administration officials have confirmed that the National Association of Manufacturers is now backing the program, “Skills for America’s Future Manufacturing.”

View full post on Labor Stories

Washington, DC, United States (AHN) – According to a report released Wednesday, minority children spend an average of 13 hours a day using mobile devices, computers, TVs and other media. The figures cataloging how long they are plugged in mark about 4½ hours more than white kids.

The findings compiled by Northwestern University researchers and based on an analysis of two separate Kaiser Family Foundation surveys were presented to childhood and telecommunications experts in Washington, D.C.

Researchers analyzed that data to find out how black, Hispanic, Asian American and white youth use media for homework and for fun, and how long they’re plugged in on any given day.

Among 8- to 18-year-olds, Asian Americans logged the most media use with 13 hours, 13 minutes a day. Next came Hispanics with 13 hours, African Americans logged 12 hours, 59 minutes and whites garnered 8 hours, 36 minutes.

It remains unclear exactly why the racial disparity exists, however some experts believe children may turn to media if they feel their neighborhoods lack safe places to play or if their parents have especially demanding jobs that prevent engagement.

Based on the findings compared with white children, minority youth:

• Watch TV and videos one to two hours more a day;
• Listen to music about an hour more a day;
• Use computers about 1½ hours more a day;
• Play video games 30 to 40 minutes longer a day.

Black (84 percent) and Hispanic kids (77 percent) also are more likely to have TVs in their bedrooms and to eat meals in front of the TV, the study reported.

View full post on Education Stories

Washington, D.C., United States (AHN) – The latest US employment report revealed a major slowdown in the number of jobs created in May with the economy only adding 54,000 jobs to payrolls, not even enough to keep up with growth in the workforce.

It was a sharp contrast to April when the economy added 232,000 jobs added to payrolls, according to the US Department of Labor report released Friday.

However, even the April figures were not much help in bringing down the high unemployment rates created by the recession that officially ended in June 2009.

That is because economists say the nation needs to create around 200,000 jobs each month just to keep up with new people entering the labor force for the first time. But job creation has not picked up and new graduates are having a trouble getting their first job.

To put the nation’s unemployed back to work would require consistently creating more than 200,000 jobs monthly for a decade or more.

The disappointing creation of only 54,000 non-farm jobs basically left unchanged the unemployment rate of 9.1 percent and the number of people unemployed at around 13.9 million, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics report.

It also left the percentage of working-age Americans who have either a part- or full-time job unchanged at 64.2 percent for the fifth consecutive month. Before the recession at least 89 percent, or more, of all working-age Americans had a job.

Long-term unemployment rates, defined as those who were jobless for 27 weeks or more, increased by 361,000 to 6.2 million. In addition, their share of the unemployed increased to 45.1 percent.

Unemployment rates among major worker groups were:

• adult men (8.9 percent)
• adult women (8.0 percent)
• teenagers (24.2 percent)
• whites (8.0 percent)
• blacks (16.2 percent)
• Hispanics (11.9 percent)

View full post on Labor Stories

Washington, D.C., United States (AHN) – First time jobless claims dropped by 6,000 during the week ending May 28, but still remained above 400,000 mark, signaling continued weakness in the employment sector of the economy.

The advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial unemployment compensation insurance claims was 422,000, down from the previous week’s revised figure of 428,000, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

Economists say that initial unemployment claims must drop below the 400,000 mark and stay there for the labor market to recover from the massive job losses of the recent recession.

However, bringing the unemployment rate down might not happen anytime soon, since first time claims for unemployment compensation have stubbornly remained above the 400,000 mark for the past eight weeks.

News was no better for the less volatile 4-week moving average, which was 425,500, down by 14,000 from the previous week’s revised average of 439,500.

In addition, the advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate at 3.0 percent for the week ending May 21 was unchanged from the previous week.

However, the total number of people claiming jobless benefits in all programs for the week ending May 14, the latest week for which such data is available, did drop. That number was 7,682,830, down by 56,742 from the prior week.

The largest increases in initial claims for the week ending May 21 were:

• California (+7,053)
• Massachusetts (+1,948)
• South Carolina (+1,066)
• Wisconsin (+1,019)
• Pennsylvania (+959)

View full post on Labor Stories

Washington, D.C., United States (AHN) – The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to announce as soon as next week whether it will hear an appeal involving California’s controversial law that grants illegal immigrants in-state tuition at public universities.

The immigrants say they could not afford college if they paid the higher out-of-state tuition rates.

Opponents of the law say taxpayers should not have to subsidize lawbreakers like illegal immigrants.

The controversy extends beyond California to 10 other states that grant reduced tuition to illegal immigrants. Out-of-state tuition can be triple in-state rates.

Courts took up the case of Martinez vs. Regents of the University of California in 2005 when students who paid out-of-state tuition sued the Board of Regents.

They accused the university of violating a 1996 federal law that prohibits public institutions from giving benefits to illegal immigrants.

The University of California’s attorneys argued the state law, AB540, was narrowly written to avoid conflicts with the federal law.

Illegal immigrants can get in-state tuition only if they attend a California high school for three years and graduate.

The same benefit is granted to any graduates of the state’s high schools, thereby eliminating legal U.S. residency as the issue in getting in-state college tuition, attorneys for the University of California argued.

The trial court agreed with the university and dismissed the lawsuit.

However, the California Court of Appeal for the Third District reversed the trial court, saying the state law is preempted by federal law. In other words, illegal immigrants cannot receive in-state tuition.

On appeal in November, the California Supreme Court reversed the Court of Appeal.

Now, it’s the U.S. Supreme Court’s turn to decide the dispute, this time with a likelihood of influencing debate in Congress over how to reform immigration laws.

The Supreme Court justices this week discussed whether to grant the case a hearing or let the California Supreme Court decision stand.

Just before the California Supreme Court accepted the case, Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff wrote a letter to the state’s highest court saying the dispute reaches “into the heart of the national debate about illegal immigration.”

Utah, along with New York and Texas, is among the states that allow illegal immigrants to pay in-state tuition.

Other states, such as Arizona, are strongly opposed to granting any benefits to illegal immigrants.

They have been joined by the Pacific Legal Foundation, a public interest law group, which filed an amicus brief that supports cutting off in-state tuition to illegal immigrants.

If the state law granting in-state tuition is upheld, “overburdened state taxpayers, who are suffering under California’s devastated economy, will be forced to continue subsidizing the college education of adult illegal immigrants,” the Pacific Legal Foundation said in a statement.

The foundation says in-state tuition gives the equivalent of a taxpayer-subsidized scholarship worth between $43,884 to $80,872 at a four year college.

However, LatinoJustice, a civil rights organization that filed an amicus brief in the case, said in a statement that the lawsuit against AB540 “threatens to erect an insurmountable barrier for high-achieving high school graduates from pursuing higher education in hopes of bettering themselves and benefiting their communities as a whole.”

View full post on Education Stories

Washington, D.C., United States (AHN) – Initial jobless claims declined by 29,000 to 409,000 for the week ending May 14 compared to the previous week’s tally of 438,000 claims.

That is still above the 400,000 mark. Analysts say first time unemployment compensation insurcance claims must drop below 400,000 and stay below that mark to signal the economy has turned around.

However, the less volatile four-week moving average was up by 1,250 from the previous figure, increasing to 439,000 claims.

The number of people claiming benefits in all programs for the week ending April 30, the most recent week such data is available fell below the 8 million mark to 7,936,548, a decrease of 47,124 from the previous week.

Here is a look at which states had the largest increase in new claims for the week ending May 7.

• Alabama (+5,767)
• California (+4,015)
• Michigan (+3,122)
• Mississippi (+1,666)

View full post on Labor Stories

Washington, D.C., United States (AHN) – The unemployment rate grew 9 percent in April despite the economy adding more jobs than was expected.

The Labor Department said on Friday nonfarm payroll increased 244,000 during the period, boosted by gains in the service, manufacturing and mining industries. In the private sector, 268,000 jobs were added while the federal and state governments lost 24,000 jobs.

There was an increase of 51,000 positions during the month in the professional and businesses services, specifically in technical consulting and coputers systems design.

Jobs related to healthcare rose 37,000, largely due to a 22,000 increase in employment in ambultory healthcare. Hospitals accounted for 10,000 jobs.

In the hospitatility industry, there was continued growth with 46,000 more jobs, mainly from a 30,600 spike in employment in accomodation and food services.

Manufacturing added 29,000 jobs to the economy and mining 11.4 percent.

Despite the gains, the unemployment trate rose to 9 percent in April from 8.8 percent in the previous month.

The number of jobless Americans remained little changed at 13.7 million. Those unemployed for less than five weeks rose by 242,000, but the number of jobless for at least 27 weeks dropped by 283,000 to 5.8 million.

There was virtually the same number of people involutarily working part-time, at 8.6 million.

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) used the jobs report to assail the White House for “causing renewed uncertainty for private-sector job creators, crowding out private investment and punishing small businesses and entrepreneurs who are willing to invest.”

“While any improvement is welcome news, job growth in America is still nowhere close to what it should be,” the Republican leader added.

“Over the past month, rather than joining Republicans in focusing on policies that promote long-term economic growth to help balance the federal budget, the Democrats who control Washington have indicated they are planning to increase taxes and allow the government’s spending binge to continue.”

But the White House pointed out that there was an averge of about a quarter of a million private sector jobs created each month for three consecutive months.

“We’re pleased about that. We obviously have a lot more work to do,” presidential spokesman Jay Carney told reporters. “The recession cost the American labor force 8 million jobs and we’re still digging ourselves out of that hole.”

View full post on Labor Stories

St. Paul, MN, United States (AHN Sports) – There is a new twist in the month-old impasse between the NFL’s owners and players after it was reported that mediation could resume during the league lockout.

According to the Washington Post, both sides might head back to the negotiation table this week. It will be under the direction of a mediator.

The resumption of talks is reportedly at the behest of U.S. District Judge Susan Richard Nelson.

A report by USA TODAY Sunday, citing a source, indicated Judge Nelson, a federal judge in Minnesota, will impose forced mediation between the league owners and the players.

On Thursday, the locked-out players said their side was accepting Nelson’s offer for mediation under the auspices of the cour.

The league, on the other hand, wants the mediation to occur in Washington, D.C., under federal mediator George Cohen.

It was Cohen who oversaw 17 days of talks the failed to result in a new collective bargaining agreement.

It led to the players decertifying as a union which was followed by the owners’ move to lockout the players, creating the NFL’s first work stoppage since 1987.

Meanwhile, Judge Nelson indicated to the attorneys for both sides at a hearing Wednesday in St. Paul, MN., that she would need a “couple of weeks” to rule on the players’ injunction request.

View full post on Labor Stories

Washington, D.C., United States (AHN) – The Supreme Court heard arguments Tuesday in what could be the biggest sexual discrimination lawsuit in U.S. history.

Six women sued Wal-Mart Stores Inc., saying they were passed over for promotion in favor of men and told they should try to look attractive on the job, or to “doll up.”

They also say they were paid less than men for doing the same work.

They asked the Supreme Court to certify their claims as a class action lawsuit, meaning it could be joined by as many as 1.5 million women.

During the hearing Tuesday, the female plaintiffs seemed to draw the greatest sympathy from the Court’s three women judges.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg implied Wal-Mart could liable if its corporate directors knew sexual discrimination was widespread at its stores but did not try to stop it.

“Isn’t there some responsibility on the company to say, ‘Is gender discrimination at work?’ And if there is, isn’t there an obligation to stop it?” Ginsburg asked.

Wal-Mart’s attorney, Theodore J. Boutrous, argued that the women who sued are not representative of female employees throughout the giant corporation, which operates with 3,400 stores nationwide.

Before a lawsuit can become a class action, the people who sue must prove they are typical of a larger group.

The women plaintiffs held mostly low-level retail jobs whereas other employees hold a wide variety of positions, some of them as supervisors, Wal-Mart’s attorney said.

He also said the women failed to identify a single policy of the retailer that could be identified as discriminatory.

Instead, the claims of sexual discrimination were based on a few personal stories, unproven statistics of pay differences and personnel decisions of local managers, Boutrous said.

“They haven’t shown a pattern across the map,” Boutrous said during the hearing.

Justice Antonin Scalia appeared frustrated in trying to figure out whether individual managers should be blamed or a corporate policy.

“Which is it?” Scalia said. “It’s either individual supervisors who are left on their own or there is a strong corporate culture that tells you what to do.

“If somebody tells you how to exercise discretion, you don’t have discretion,” Scalia said.

Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. also questioned whether the company should be liable or a few individual managers, saying, “you’re going to have some bad apples.”

Joseph Sellers, the attorney who argued for the Wal-Mart employees, said the discrimination was part of a corporate “culture.”

“Wal-Mart provided to its managers unchecked discretion … that was used to pay men more than women,” Sellers said.

Other examples of discrimination the women sometimes cited included sexist nicknames, arranging for meetings at Hooters restaurants and criticizing female workers for lacking the ambition to seek promotions.

Sellers said a class action is the best approach to the discrimination because filing individual claims would not be worthwhile for them.

The pay difference between women and men averages only around $1,100 per year, which is too small for a major lawsuit, according to the female employees.

Only joining the efforts of all female Wal-Mart employees in what could be over a billion dollars in damages would be effective in ending the sexual discrimination, Sellers argued.

A statistician hired by the plaintiffs concluded Wal-Mart’s female workers make up two-thirds of the workforce but less than 14 percent of store managers. They also earn less money than men despite having more seniority on average, the statistician said.

However, a statistician hired by Wal-Mart said his figures show no difference in pay between men and women at 90 percent of the stores. The company also said hiring and promotion decisions are made by local managers rather than as a result of corporate policy.

The lawsuit attracted a predictable array of amicus, or friend-of-the-court, briefs.

Business groups argued that a huge class action lawsuit against Wal-Mart could increase legal expenses for corporations nationwide.

To avoid lawsuits, the corporations would feel more compelled to settle sexual discrimination allegations with cash settlements, even if the claims lacked merit, some of the 15 amicus briefs from business groups say.

The female employees won allies from 14 civil rights groups, labor organizations and consumer advocacy foundations.

Their briefs say class action status for the lawsuit could encourage effective strategies for combating workplace sexual discrimination.

The women already won their case before the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco last year.

However, the Supreme Court is known for being more conservative in sexual discrimination cases.

Since the 1980s, the Supreme Court has required a “rigorous analysis” before it will approve class action status for lawsuits alleging job discrimination.

View full post on Labor Stories

Washington, D.C., United States (AHN) – The U.S. postal With the national unemployment rate running at 9.5 percent The U.S. Postal Service announced Thursday it is offering buyouts to eligible employees in an effort to cut 7,500 administrative jobs.

Postal officials hope the $20,000 buyout packages encourage enough workers to retire early to achieve the reduction of 7,500 employees.

The Voluntary Early Retirement plan and financial incentives is being made available only to employees who work as career nonbargaining personnel at “headquarters, headquarters-related field units, area offices and administrative personnel at customer service district offices,” USPS officials said in a statement.

Employees can choose to leave by May 31. But with the nation’s unemployment rate running at 9.5 percent, this buyout might not achieve its target, which was the case in 2009 when a buyout expected to encourage 30,000 workers to voluntarily retire only drew 21,000 takers.

USPS officials also said they wanted to close seven struggling district offices located around the country.

The postal service has seen a decline in mail volume and revenue as it competes with use of the Internet, as well as competition from companies such as UPS and FedEx.

Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe put the situation into perspective.

“It’s critical that we adjust our workforce to match America’s changing communications trends as mail volumes continue to decline,” Donahoe said. “At every step and with every change, our focus remains on our customers and continuing to provide outstanding customer service.”

The district offices are not used for mail delivery or collection. The offices slated for closing are located in Columbus, Ohio; Troy, Mich.; Carol Stream, Ill.; Providence, R.I.; Macon, Ga.; Big Sky, Mont.; and Albuquerque, N.M.

View full post on Labor Stories