An interview with Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Thad Allen on the similarities and differences between the two relief operations.

Headline news, compiled by NationalJournal.com.

Three things the majority party can do to improve its electoral chances in November.

The Regents committee on Elementary, Middle, Secondary and Continuing Education today approved five more charter schools, each opening by this fall:-- Bushwick Ascend (Brooklyn CSD 23);-- Cultural Arts Academy (Brooklyn CSD 18);-- Challenge Preparatory (Queens CSD 27);-- Democracy Prep - Harlem (Manhattan CSD 5); and-- West Buffalo Charter School.Approval of these schools leaves just one charter

By Supriya Prasad, Intern, International Labor Rights Forum In the above video, an union worker’s wife claims that a factory manager said to her, “You are ruined and starving! I would rather spend my money paying the judge and policemen... Labor Rights

By Supriya Prasad, Intern, International Labor Rights Forum

In the above video, an union worker’s wife claims that a factory manager said to her, “You are ruined and starving!  I would rather spend my money paying the judge and policemen than on you.”  This demonstrates the struggles factory workers in the Philippines face – complicity between the government and factory management has denied these workers their right to fair pay.

Workers at Karnation Industries wanted to see a change and were fed up with being paid less than half of the legally mandated minimum wage.  Therefore the workers decided it was time to send a strong message to the factory management.  Workers went on strike in hopes for justice.  However the strike ended in the arrest of 20 workers.

More than two years after going on strike, the “Karnation 20,” a group of striking union factory workers, are still fighting the Philippines slow judicial system and their former employer, Karnation Industries and Export Inc.  The strikers have been awaiting justice in jail for far too long.  What was their crime?  According to factory management, the workers had padlocked the gate of the factory while protesting although the workers deny this.  Karnation Industries also has provided a picture of what they claim are the protesters in front of the door; however, the men in the picture do not even resemble the workers on strike.  This then triggered the arrest of 20 Karnation workers.  Now, the workers who were initially protesting for their rights in the workplace have to defend themselves against the Philippines government…eventually. 

The case has been pending for over two years now and was at a standstill until labor lawyer Remigio Saladero filed that the court holds a weekly hearing.  However, the case was postponed again after Judge Ma. Teresa Cruz San Gabriel took a leave of absence.  During this delay, the Karnation 20 were forced into a single prison room, so small that all of them could not sleep at the same time.  Two of the workers, Melvic Lupe and Leo Paro, died in prison due to tuberculosis.  What did these two men die fighting for?

The Karnation 20 were part of an union, the Congress Labor Organization, that aimed to establish minimum wage pay and basic benefits due to them from Karnation Industries.  After the Karnation 20 unionized, they were told not to return to work in the factory, which produces home décor for companies such as Fred’s Inc.  Therefore, the workers decided to go on strike, and they were wrongfully arrested without any preliminary investigation.  Their arrests subsequently led to the deaths of Melvic Lupe and Leo Paro.

Currently, fourteen have posted the excessively high bail while four still remain in prison at risk for diseases such as tuberculosis, beriberi, and malnutrition, and these four will remain in prison as Karnation Industries filed for a motion to deny bail.  Essentially, Karnation Industries and the Philippines government are imprisoning the Karnation 20 without a speedy trial and without bail.

Karnation Industries and the Philippines government are demonstrating their unwillingness to work with unions or protect basic labor rights.

To support the Karnation 20, you can send an appeal through the Asian Human Rights Commission.

MP3:  winhead020910.mp3 Headlines:  Judge's Ruling Saves A Thousand Machinist's Jobs In Connecticut - 02/09/10 Democrats Out Of Sync With Majority Working Family Opinion On Health Care Reform - 02/09/10 Economic Report: AARP Says Older Workers Getting A Little Break In Unemployment - 02/09/10

Economic Report:

Older workers received some good news in January. The unemployment rate for workers 55 and older dropped from 7.2 percent to 6.8 percent, that’s according to a report from the AARP. 2009 was the first year in 60 years that the unemployment rate for those 55 and older broke 6 percent. In December 2007 the jobless rate for that age group was at a low 3.3. percent.

By Doug Cunningham

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A judge's ruling has saved a one thousand machinist jobs in Connecticut. Jesse Russell reports:

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Some action on forced placements in Denver.  The sup’t there, Tom Boasberg may not be a household name (at least in eduwonky households) like the former sup’t, Michael Bennet, but he’s solid, as this issue demonstrates.   There is also a tie-in here to RTT.  Colorado is still debating some legislative changes around teacher quality policies.

Update:  More from The Denver Post (with a big call-out to State Senator Mike Johnston.)

Agency would be based on the National Weather Service.

Pennsylvania Democrat supported the original resolution sending U.S. troops to Iraq, but later argued for bringing service members home.

Did you catch "Undercover Boss" after the Super Bowl? It's a new reality show on CBS where executives go undercover at their own companies and work entry level jobs to see what it's like. In the first episode, Waste Management's President and Chief Operating Officer Larry O'Donnell works several different jobs over a week and discovers how tough life can be for his employees. He also discovers how his policies have affected workers.

It's nice to see a show that uncovers these kinds of problems in the American workplace. Of course, most of us already know how tough work can be, but most of us don't have a reality show. That's why American Rights At Work started Fix Our Jobs which is pushing for real, systematic reform in our workplace, not just feel good TV moments. They're asking folks to sign a petition to congress: "America’s workers need a voice on the job so they can fight for fair pay, real benefits, reasonable hours, and better working conditions. We need to fix our labor laws now!"

They're also asking for stories about your job, good or bad. We're sure you all have some stories to share, so go check out the site. You can also watch a video they put together just to the right.

We also want to hear from Walmart workers. Tell us your stories from work. What would Mike Duke find if he came to work as a greeter at your store for a day or two? Would he make the cut as an overnight stocker?

Would Mike Duke ever take on this kind of undercover assignment? We don't think so, but if he did, we're sure he'd find some pretty disturbing stories, just like Larry O'Donnell did.

Virtual private networks and distributed laptops support the majority of the agency's Washington metropolitan area workers.

If you want to be a peer reviewer on the I3 program here’s your chance to apply.

Last week we told you about Walmart firing 300 workers from its headquarters staff as the company goes through a major restructuring. The 300 jobs were just the tip of the iceberg, with 10 Sam's Club stores closing, a major layoff of 11,000 workers at Sam's Club stores, and a new decentralized set up for the company that will shift many jobs away from the main office in Bentonville to regional offices.

When we told you about those 300 layoffs, we wondered if there might by more job losses on the way. As it turns out, there may be. The Northwest Arkansas Times reports that as the company starts creating regional offices and moving positions there, jobs in Bentonville will be eliminated. According to the article,

"some headquarters staff members will face a choice of relocating, looking for other jobs or retirement, according to several people familiar with the situation.

Wal-Mart declined to put a number on positions that could be moved out of Bentonville. Those decisions will be made case by case and it will take time to figure out what works for each area"

We'll certainly be keeping an eye on this transition to see how it affects the company. We can only hope that Walmart does all it can to ensure that jobs aren't eliminated unnecessarily, or workers aren't pushed out of their jobs. Walmart has a reputation, after all, for pushing workers with seniority out to reduce the cost of salary and benefits overall. It's one of the reasons Walmart has such a high turnover rate.

Service leaders will shift money from other accounts to make up for shortfalls.

Who briefs Joel Klein over at DOE?

Because what he told NY1 TV’s Mike Scotto on “Inside City Hall” Monday about the 19 closing schools was, “Nobody could make a good case why these schools shouldn’t be closed.”

Has he been away? His deputy chancellors, John White, Santi Taveras and Kathleen Grimm, chaired 20 public hearings over the last two months where parents, teachers and support staff, CEC leaders, Council members, Assembly representatives, grandmothers, local business leaders, students, graduates, principals and advocates testified on why most of the schools on the list should not close. Did the deputies not report back?

There was detailed oral testimony, reports in writing, PowerPoints, videos and presentations, mining school data and parsing each school’s performance, progress and circumstances. There were probably a dozen newspaper stories over the two months reporting on the hearings, several documenting the cases these speakers made. Independent research by the Center for New York City Affairs at the New School confirms much of what the advocates were saying.

On Jan 26-27, Klein attended the 9-hour PEP meeting where the cases were made again, with passion and conviction, by the people who will be most affected. Klein was scanning his Blackberry a lot.

In one telling moment about seven hours into the meeting, someone asked the mayor’s appointees on the panel if they could make the case for closing these schools. None of them did.

So the question can’t be whether the supporters of the targeted schools made a case to keep these schools open: that case was made again and again and again, at meeting after meeting. It’s whether Klein and the DOE have made a case for closing these schools. And the answer is no.

The DOE overrode its own criteria for closing schools in several instances, by closing some schools even when their Progress Report grades were better than the cutoffs, and frequently ignoring proficient Quality Reviews.

“These are schools that have graduation rates in the 40s,” he told Scotto (and has told anyone else who will listen). Forty percent is a figure, not a case. Looking closer, the average four-year rate in the closing high schools is 49 percent. Their six-year graduation rate is much higher at an average 62 percent, as you would expect in schools that serve high numbers of special education students, recent immigrants, transfers and over-the-counter kids.

Defending his record on closing more than 90 schools over eight years, many of them large full-service high schools, Klein told Scotto, “We’re replacing large failing high schools, like Far Rockaway and others with new, smaller, often career and technical, places where parents and children want to go.” Yet the school that took Far Rockaway’s most needy students when it closed was the only other one on the Rockaways peninsula — Beach Channel High School. Now Beach Channel is on the DOE’s closing list, having gone from a 4-year grad rate of about 52 percent (above the citywide average at that time) before Klein, to below 47 percent last year.

In fact, there is something of a pattern in the closing high schools of rising graduation rates before 2002-03 when Klein came in and declining rates in the years that followed. So when Klein says “failing,” as if they were someone else’s mess, it’s fair to ask what he did about them–or didn’t. Those schools were left to die, in the views of parents and teachers who knew them well. Klein cannot make the case that he tried to save them.

Supposedly students do better in the new small schools. By way of proof, Klein told Scotto they have higher graduation rates. He says parents vote with their feet and don’t send their children to the closing schools. He has said the same about his charter schools versus schools in the surrounding neighborhoods.

But there is a reason that parents in some of the closing school neighborhoods are starting to use the S-word (segregation) about Klein’s policies. The small schools, and the charter schools as well, do not serve the same populations as those in the abandoned large high schools. There are distinctions, by level of special education services required, by percentages of students in extreme poverty, by ELL percentages and the numbers of homeless and over-the-counter students. These findings are available and have been presented to Deputy White.

Some people at the PEP meeting said they feared a pattern of closing schools and opening charter schools in their communities was a stealth effort to privatize the management of their local public schools and cream the best students, leaving the most challenging kids in under-resourced or neglected schools. Are they ill-informed? Check this interactive map to see where the closing schools and charters are concentrated.

Klein then told Scotto that the whole PEP meeting was orchestrated by the UFT. “They orchestrated the whole thing, there’s no question, and they had a big rally beforehand to get people whipped up, and of course, you know, their job is to protect jobs. My job is to protect children.” (Yes, he really said that.)

As UFT President Michael Mulgrew told Elizabeth Kaledin on Inside City Hall Wednesday, the parents who came to the rally and PEP meeting on union-provided buses got, well, transportation. What they came to say was their business. To charge that they came to push a UFT agenda is silly and insulting. What they said was that they are seeing a move toward a two-tiered school system. And they are not going to stand for it.

Report comes as Congress considers regulation of pharmacy benefit managers in federal health plan.