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You’d think that being a Police Chief means that you can do police things. Like making an arrest, for instance. But you’d be wrong – at least according to the police union.
Here’s the strange tale of how Scranton, Pennsylvania, Police Chief Dan Duffy got into trouble for making a drug arrest:
The Scranton police union has filed an unfair labor practice complaint against the city for an off-duty drug arrest made by Police Chief Dan Duffy in March.
The complaint, which was filed with the state Labor Relations Board on April 14, takes issue with the chief arresting a man who was allegedly in possession of marijuana because the chief is not a member of the collective bargaining unit and was "off duty" when the March 20 arrest was made.
"I think it’s absurd. I’m not going to turn my head on crime that takes place," Chief Duffy said. "I took the same oath (as a police officer) that everyone else took.
"On my day off and I’m driving around as the police chief, and that’s wrong?" he asked.
The complaint states that "the work of apprehending and arresting individuals has been the sole and exclusive province of members of the bargaining unit," and that the city did not inform or negotiate with the union that the chief would be "performing bargaining unit work."
Jim Callaghan, a veteran writer for the United Federation of Teachers, just got canned for … trying to unionize the powerful organization’s own workers!
Jim Callaghan, a veteran writer for the teachers union, told The Post he was booted from his $100,000-a-year job just two months after he informed UFT President Michael Mulgrew that he was trying to unionize some of his co-workers.
"I was fired for trying to start a union at the UFT," said a dumbfounded Callaghan, who worked for the union’s newsletter and as a speechwriter for union leaders for the past 13 years.Callaghan said he personally told Mulgrew on June 9 about his intention to try to organize nonunionized workers at UFT headquarters.
"I told him I want to have the same rights that teachers have," said Callaghan, 63, of Staten Island. "He told me he didn’t want that, that he wanted to be able to fire whoever he wanted to."
Need picketers to goose up your protest? You can hire picketers – yes, demonstrators-for-hire that march wherever you want them to march and chant whatever you want them to chant.
That in itself may be a smart solution, but when you’re a labor union protesting the hiring of non-union workers, then that’s just a whole ‘nother level of irony:
Billy Raye, a 51-year-old unemployed bike courier, is looking for work.
Fortunately for him, the Mid-Atlantic Regional Council of Carpenters is seeking paid demonstrators to march and chant in its current picket line outside the McPherson Building, an office complex here where the council says work is being done with nonunion labor.
"For a lot of our members, it’s really difficult to have them come out, either because of parking or something else," explains Vincente Garcia, a union representative who is supervising the picketing.
So instead, the union hires unemployed people at the minimum wage—$8.25 an hour—to walk picket lines. Mr. Raye says he’s grateful for the work, even though he’s not sure why he’s doing it. "I could care less," he says. "I am being paid to march around and sound off."
Jennifer Levitz of the Wall Street Journal reports: Link
For his Eagle Scout badge, Kevin Anderson, a 17-year-old junioar at Southern Lehigh High School, spent 250 hours over several weeks clearing a path at his local park so people could enjoy walking and biking along the river. What did he get for this good deed?
Little did the do-gooder know that his altruistic act would put him in the cross hairs of the city’s largest municipal union.
Nick Balzano, president of the local Service Employees International Union, told Allentown City Council Tuesday that the union is considering filing a grievance against the city for allowing Anderson to clear a 1,000-foot walking and biking path at Kimmets Lock Park.
"We’ll be looking into the Cub Scout or Boy Scout who did the trails," Balzano told the council.
Balzano said Saturday he isn’t targeting Boy Scouts. But given the city’s decision in July to lay off 39 SEIU members, Balzano said "there’s to be no volunteers." No one except union members may pick up a hoe or shovel, plant a flower or clear a walking path.
"We would hope that the well-intentioned efforts of an Eagle Scout candidate would not be challenged by the union," said Mayor Ed Pawlowski in an e-mail Friday. "This young man is performing a great service to the community. His efforts should be recognized as such."
Link – via Michelle Malkin
It was 34 years ago tomorrow that Jimmy Hoffa disappeared. Ever since then, the rumors have been flying about where he might be – he’s almost certainly dead, but who did it and what they did with the body is the mystery at hand. Here are a few of the theories.
The FBI doesn’t buy it, though. As you probably know, Giants Stadium is headed the way of Hoffa – it’s scheduled to be destroyed next year when Meadowlands Stadium opens. When asked if they intended to search the grounds, the FBI said they would if they had a credible tip, but they don’t. Maybe they just don’t care because Mythbusters has already answered the question for them: in 2003, Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman searched some of the most popular spots using radar – each end zone, the 50-yard line, the 10-yard line, and seating section 107. They found no conclusive evidence that anything unusual was buried at Giants Stadium. And the vice president of public affairs for the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority agrees, saying, “He ain’t here.”
Photo from NFLteamhistory.com.
Photo by Paul Sancya/Associated Press, via CBC News.
A deathbed confession by a former Teamster and Hoffa cohort Frank Sheeran caused quite the stir in 2004. Francis Sheeran supposedly wrote a letter saying that he shot Hoffa, then drove his body to a trash incinerator and had it cremated. But Sheeran’s daughter said no way – the letter is definitely a fake. “It’s not his signature,” she told the Detroit Free Press. She thinks the letter and signature was forged by the man who was writing Sheeran’s biography – a similar book was scheduled to be published and he thought it would drum up better publicity for his own book. The biographer said it was a genuine confession from Sheeran and sent the letter to Hoffa’s daughter, who in turn notified the FBI. Sheeran’s backyard had been searched previously after it was alleged that a briefcase containing a syringe used to knock Hoffa out was buried there. Again, no evidence was found.
Another year, another “credible” tip. In 2003, authorities received a tip from an informant who had given them accurate information before: Hoffa was supposedly underneath an above-ground pool near Bay City, Michigan. They dug under the pool, but found nothing. The same year, they dug up the yard of a home in Munger Township and also came up empty-handed. Apparently 2003 was a hot year for Hoffa tips, because in July of the same year, Fox News conducted an investigation based on Frank Sheeran’s confession. They took tile up that had covered the hardwood floors that were present at the time of Hoffa’s death, then sprayed a chemical to detect any traces of blood. And they did find blood, a fair amount of it, in exactly the place where Sheeran said he shot Hoffa. The problem? It wasn’t Hoffa’s blood. By the way, if Sheeran’s stories sound conflicting, that’s because they are – he told various stories to officials over the years and sometimes pled the Fifth. But right before he died in 2004, he said he stood by what he said in his book – he shot Hoffa twice behind the ear in this house and was told the body was later cremated.
Photo from National Geographic.
When convicted murderer Ricky Powell claimed that he knew where Hoffa was, he seemed pretty credible and his story was not any crazier than any of the others floating around. He said that he was the one who dumped the body in 1975, and if anyone was to search the Au Sable River about 175 miles from Detroit, they would find Hoffa’s remains under 30 feet of water. Boating magazine immediately picked up on the story and offered $10,000 to anyone who could find the body in the river and produce evidence. So far, no one has collected the prize.
A few other theories that have so far turned up nothing:
What do you think is the most likely theory?
Putting a man on the moon, solving Fermat’s Last Theorem, or firing a tenured teacher because of incompetence or even criminal behaviors: which is harder?
While most teachers are good, decent people with the thankless jobs of teaching unruly kids with dwindling resources and ever-increasing class sizes, there are a few bad apples that really ruined school for a lot of children. But why is it so difficult to fire them?
Jason Song of the Los Angeles Times investigates:
Joseph Walker, a former principal of Grant High School in Van Nuys, was sued by a special education teacher whom he tried to dismiss for alleged repeated sexual harassment. A civil jury sided with Walker — but the review commission decided the teacher shouldn’t be fired. The case, now in the courts, has dragged on seven years.
Confronting uphill battles like this, Walker said: "You’re not going to fire someone who’s not doing their job. And if you have someone who’s done something really egregious, there’s only a 50-50 chance that you can fire them."
Walker is now principal of Discovery Charter Preparatory Academy in Pacoima, where he said he had fired three teachers so far this year. None were fired during his three years as head of Grant. The difference: His school’s teachers are not unionized and can be fired at will.
(Photo: Joseph Walker. Photo credit: Liz O. Baylen / LA Times)
