'Early
Morning Flight'
Front Page Photo by Carl Thompson
Alaska: AK
Labor Commissioner Foresees Workers' Comp Crisis; Workers, Employers
Threatened by Annual Double-Digit Rate Increases - Legislators
must pass workers' compensation reform this session or face the
prospect of ever-rising rates driving Alaska's small businesses
to cut jobs or close their doors, Alaska Department of Labor
and Workforce Development Commissioner Greg O'Claray told a state
Senate committee Tuesday.
"Statutory rates for workers'
compensation have gone into orbit in recent years," with
an overall average 21 percent rise in 2004 and a 12 percent average
rise predicted this year, O'Claray told the Senate Labor &
Commerce Committee. "My problem is that we are now
seeing the effects of high premiums that are putting people on
unemployment. That, we cannot stand for."
Governor Frank H. Murkowski's
reform legislation, SB 130, seeks to stabilize rates by focusing
on ways to halt the dramatic increase in medical costs over the
past five years, said Linda Hall, director of the Division of
Insurance in the Alaska Department of Commerce and Economic Development.
- More...
Wednesday - March 09, 2005
National: Congress
considers changes to 527 funding rules by Margaret Talev
- A bipartisan plan to rein in spending by groups that exerted
an influence on the 2004 presidential election - such as liberal
groupMoveOn.org or the conservative Swift Boat Veterans for Truth
- got a friendly hearing Tuesday, with Senate Rules Committee
Chairman Trent Lott saying he wants to move quickly to put limits
in place by next year's midterm elections.
But critics warned that if
Congress caps the amount of money individuals can give to so-called
527s, known for the section of the tax code that governs them,
those groups and wealthy donors such as billionaire George Soros
will find new ways to spend big money to target candidates they
oppose. - More...
Wednesday - March 09, 2005
Arctic: Grizzlies
set to invade high Arctic? - The telltale paw prints with
huge 10 centimetre-long nails spoke volumes. But now definitive
corroborating DNA evidence seals the case of the most northerly
sighting of a grizzly bear. The discovery fuels mounting evidence
that Canada's High Arctic is no longer the sole preserve of the
polar bear Nanuk is having to make room for its southern
cousin.
The evidence of the barren
ground grizzly bear (Ursus arctos) was discovered on Melville
Island, an uninhabited part of the western Arctic archipelago
1,500 kilometres due north of Yellowknife, and 1,000 kilometres
north of the Arctic Circle. - More...
Wednesday - March 09, 2005
|
