Weblogic

In the last decade, the USPS has shrunk its workforce by 200,000, even as the number of postal addresses in the US has increased by 18 million. Last year it reduced its staff by 40,000. It will target job cuts of 30,000 in 2010, along with reductions in overtime payment to workers that would be equivalent to another 20,000 job cuts. The Postal Service has been losing money since 2007, a consequence of the economic crisis and Internet communications displacing paper mail. Mail volume fell from 213 billion items in 2006 to 177 billion in 2009—still about half of the global total. It is expected that the USPS will face a $7 billion deficit for the current fiscal year and that “projections going forward are not bright.” And according to internal analysis, by 2020, the Postal Service could face a deficit of $238 billion.

Question: In addition to eliminating thousands of jobs, the USPS is proposing an immediate halt to all Saturday mail delivery. Do you agree with this approach and will it affect you that much?

A report surfaced yesterday showing that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration warned in a 2006 report that "swimming with orcas is inherently dangerous and if someone hasn't been killed already it is only a matter of time." When the report was originally released by OSHA, Sea World was furious and quashed the report, insisting that OSHA re-write the report to take out the above quote along with the reference to the fact that "trainers should train for when an attack happens, not if an attack will happen." The final published report was just 10 pages long as opposed to the original 18 pages, and did not contain the information about the imminent dangers of working with orcas. Orca biologist Naomi Rose made the following statement yesterday after the original OSHA report was made public: "It is a known fact that if the whale decides to attack, there is nothing that any trainer is going to do to stop that - no matter how good they are."

Question: What do you think about trainers working with killer orcas, and do you think that Sea World is doing enough to protect their trainers?

In testimony to the House Energy and Commerce Committee, the president of WellPoint (the largest member of Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association) stated last week that higher premiums are justified by soaring medical costs and the fact that young, healthy policyholders are dropping or reducing their coverage during tough economic times. The company is under fire for making startlingly high rate increases in Indiana and Maine, a whopping 106 percent rate hike in California, and raking in huge profits while raising premiums.

Question: Are higher insurance premiums justified and inevitable, or is the US health industry guilty of taking too many of their own "greedy pills?"
 

In an unprecedented move, the school board and superintendent of the Central Falls school district in Rhode Island have fired the entire staff (93 total including the principal, assistant principals, classroom teachers, instructional assistants, guidance counselors, reading specialists and the school psychologist) of their high school. The decision was made after the district and the teacher's union failed to reach an agreement on how to turn around the failing school.

Question: Should more districts follow the example set by Central Falls and completely "clean house" if their school has consistently been one of the lowest performing schools in the state?