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More US companies refuse to hire smokers

VOA News — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 16:58:16 +0000

The World Health Organizations says smoking is considered a high risk factor in six of the eight leading causes of death worldwide. Medical experts have long preached about how smokers can quit. Now a growing number of employers in the United States are refusing to hire them. Some smokers are wondering what kind of discrimination is next.

More and more Americans who smoke are beginning to feel unliked and unwanted. Federal laws prevent them from smoking in public buildings. They are not allowed to smoke within a certain distance of those buildings.
Since the federal law was passed a decade ago, many state and local communities have followed suit.

Now a growing number of companies and hospitals will not hire smokers, or worse, will fire them if they are caught lighting up.

Memorial Hospital in Chattanooga, Tennessee is now giving check-ups to prospective employees. A urine test that detects nicotine means no job is offered.

Nurse Kristi Edmondson thinks her smoking habit is nobody’s business but her own. “Memorial should not dictate to us what we do in our own time, off the time clock,” she stated.

The head of the hospital’s parent company, Memorial Health Care Systems, is James Hobson. He defends the decision. “It’s relevant to creating that healthy lifestyle,” he said. “And again it’s relevant to the entire community.”

A growing number of large American companies are finding that health care costs for smokers are higher than for non-smokers.

A study by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control reports that medical care and the loss of worker productivity averages about $3,000 annually for each smoker.

As a result, some companies now require smokers to pay a larger share of their health insurance than non-smokers.

While 29 of the 50 U.S. states have laws that protect the rights of smokers, 21 others do not. Weyco an insurance benefits administrator in (the state of) Michigan, began imposing random smoking tests in 2005 on its own employees.

The President of the National Workrights Institute is Lewis Maltby. “Most people think they have a right to freedom of speech. They don’t know that their freedom of speech disappears where their boss is concerned,” Maltby said.

The World Health Organization says at least five million tobacco users die every year from lung cancer, heart disease and other smoking-related causes. The WHO says if current trends continue, tobacco-related deaths will climb to at least eight million a year by 2030.

France, Russia and US deny new nuke deal presented to Iran

VOA News — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 02:40:44 +0000

Iran’s nuclear energy chief Ali Akbar Salehi says France, Russia and the United States have presented a new proposal to Tehran involving the exchange of its stockpile of low grade uranium. But U.S., Russian and French officials are denying a new offer has been presented.

Iran’s Atomic Energy Agency Chief Ali Akbar Salehi told Iran’s al-Alam TV that Tehran has received a new offer from the West for the exchange of most of its low-grade uranium stockpile for more highly enriched uranium.

Salehi was also quoted by Iran’s official Fars News Agency as saying Tehran was “in the process of considering,” the “new offer”, which he said was made by France, Russia and the United States. He says the alleged offer was a reaction to Iran’s decision, last week, to produce its own 20-percent grade uranium.

U.S. French and Russian officials are denying a new proposal has been made to Tehran.

Several analysts say Salehi’s remarks about a new proposal may be aimed at showing Iranians their government’s strategy is paying off. Iran missed an international deadline to accept a nuclear deal at the end of last month and has been sending contradictory statements about the issue for weeks.

The editor of Jane’s Islamic Affairs Analyst, Alex Vatanka, pointed out it is often difficult to discern what is happening in Iran, due to contradictory statements from various officials.

“You listen to the statements coming from Tehran and one of the first questions you say to yourself is, where is the consistency in all this, because you do get, very often, contradictory messages coming from the president’s office, the Supreme Leader [Ayatollah Ali Khamenei], or people associated with the Supreme Leader, the Atomic Energy Organization, or even the Foreign Minister Manouchehr Muttaqi,” said Alex Vatanka.

Vatanka thinks that there several poles of power inside Iran, and that it is probably President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad and his allies, including nuclear energy chief Salehi – who is also a vice president, that are more eager to reach a deal with the West:

“Ahmedinejad has shown himself to be far more inclined to experiment in terms of the restoration of relations with America, and if it means ‘let’s give something up on the nuclear front’ for the sake of the broader picture in terms of the détente process with the U.S., Ahmedinejad is certainly much more inclined to go down that path than [Supreme Leader Ayatollah] Khamenei is,” he said.

Vatanka does not think Iran is stringing out negotiations with the West merely to buy time and make a sudden, surprise announcement that Tehran has nuclear weapons:

“There is definitely an issue here, where Iran is trying for geopolitical reasons to hang on to these negotiations to strengthen its position as a leading player to stand up to international pressure,” said Vatanka. “I do not think they are so consistent and systematic to have this go on year after year, just with the objective of playing for time until they get to the crucial stage of revealing to the world the atomic bomb.”

Iran’s independent Etalaat newspaper wrote several weeks ago that Iran is in dire need of more civilian nuclear power plants, and countries like France, Russia and the United States should “help us to build them.”

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmed Davatoglu is due to arrive in Iran, late Monday, “to discuss nuclear negotiations,” according to the Turkish foreign ministry. Turkey has been acting as an unofficial mediator between Tehran and the West.

US Government closes for third day due to snowstorms

VOA News — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 01:39:13 +0000

The U.S. federal government has closed its offices for a third consecutive day because of two major snowstorms that hit the mid-Atlantic region within days of each other.

The latest storm was expected to drop as much as 50 centimeters late Tuesday into Wednesday, reaching from the Washington area up to New York City. New York has declared a rare snowday for its public schools.

Major airports in Chicago, Philadelphia, New York and Washington canceled flights for Tuesday and Wednesday, as the storm swept across the midwest to the mid-Atlantic.

U.S. federal government offices have been closed since Friday afternoon, with a few agencies and parts of the White House and Congress operating this week. The House of Representatives has canceled all votes until February 22, when members return from a week-long winter break.

Saturday, a powerful blizzard pummeled the region with up to 90 centimeters of snow in some areas. Many roads in the nation’s capital are still unplowed, and the Washington, D.C. subway had just restored most of its services Tuesday.

Thousands of homes throughout Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, New Jersey and Delaware are still without power, and the roofs of some houses have collapsed due to the weight of the snow.

Following the lead of U.S. President Barack Obama, residents and media are calling the storm “Snowmageddon.”

Meanwhile, on the U.S. west coast, more than 500 homes have been ordered evacuated in the foothills near Los Angeles, where heavy rains threaten to cause mudslides.

Republicans wary of Obama’s health care summit

VOA News — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 01:37:29 +0000

U.S. President Barack Obama has invited opposition Republicans in Congress to take part in a bipartisan health-care summit later this month in an effort to revive stalled health-care reform legislation. But House Republican leaders have reacted with skepticism, saying Democrats would have to scrap their bills and start over.

President Obama challenged Republican lawmakers, who have been united against Democratic health care reform proposals, to bring their own ideas to a televised meeting at the White House on February 25.

But several Republican congressional leaders have indicated they may not participate in the summit unless Democrats scrap existing health care bills passed in the House and the Senate and start from scratch.

In a letter Monday to White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, House Minority Leader John Boehner and Minority Whip Eric Cantor called the Democratic legislation “job-killing bills the American people have already soundly rejected.”

On Tuesday, President Obama responded to a question at the White House briefing on whether or not he would be willing to start over on reforming the U.S. health care system.

“So I am going to be starting from scratch in the sense that I will be open to any ideas that help promote these goals. What I will not do, and what I do not think makes sense and I do not think the American people want to see would be another year of partisan wrangling,” he said.

The president said he would ask Republicans specifically what their plan is to extend health-insurance coverage to the more than 30 million uninsured Americans and what they would do to prevent insurance companies from excluding people with pre-existing medical conditions.

The White House wants the half-day summit televised, which would give the president an opportunity to try to win more public support for his unpopular health-care reform. It would also rebut criticism from Republican lawmakers, who say they have been left out of the long process and that the House and Senate bills were negotiated in backroom deals.

President Obama criticized Republicans for calling for bipartisanship in the health care process, and then insisting that the Democrats’ bills be scrapped. “Bipartisanship can’t be that I agree to all of the things that they believe in or want, and they agree to none of the things I believe in or want, and that is the price of bipartisanship,” he said.

For their part, some Republican strategists have warned that the health care summit may be a public relations show by President Obama, so that he can say he tried to include Republican ideas, before making a final push to get a Democratic bill through Congress.

The battle over health care has virtually consumed Congress since last June.

The Senate and House of Representatives passed separate versions of health-care legislation last year. They were working to merge the two bills into one when a special Massachusetts election cut the process short.

Republican Senator Scott Brown won the seat, putting an end to the Democrats 60-seat majority, which makes it possible in future for Republicans to block legislation in the Senate.

Since that stinging defeat last month, Democratic lawmakers have been anxious to shift the focus away from health care to job creation and boosting the economy before congressional elections in November.

President Obama says he wants to make job creation his top domestic priority this year, but he also made it clear that he will not turn his back on health-care reform.

Obama to seek 3-year freeze on spending to tame deficit

VOA News — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 19:15:57 +0000

U.S. President Barack Obama plans to ask Congress for a three-year spending freeze on many domestic programs, in a move to underscore his seriousness about reducing the budget deficit.

Administration officials say the president will propose the freeze in his State of the Union address on Wednesday, and it will be included in the budget he submits to Congress on February 1.

The plan, which is expected to save about $250 billion over the next decade, would not apply to spending on defense, veterans, homeland security or foreign aid.

The White House has been under pressure to reduce excess spending, following a record $1.4 trillion budget deficit in fiscal year 2009. On Tuesday, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office estimated a $1.3 trillion deficit for 2010.

During his address, Mr. Obama is also expected to detail economic initiatives to help middle income families and create jobs.

In an interview Monday with a U.S. television network (ABC), Mr. Obama said he remains determined to address the country’s toughest problems, even if his actions prove politically unpopular.

His health care reform plan has drawn criticism, as has his previous decisions to bail out the nation’s banks and rescue automakers from collapse.

He acknowledged paying a political price for his initiatives, with his public approval rating dropping steadily since taking office a year ago.

Last week, a key initiative of his administration, health care reform, suffered a setback with the election of Massachusetts Republican Scott Brown to the U.S. Senate.

The election gave the Republican party 41 members in the 100-member Senate, enough seats to employ delaying tactics against Democrat-supported legislation such as health care reform.

Some information for this report was provided by AP and Reuters.

US retail giant fires more than 11,000 workers

VOA News — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 19:19:23 +0000

The U.S. retail giant Wal-Mart is firing more than 11,000 workers.

The company told its employees Sunday that it is firing staffers who give product demonstrations or recruit customers at its chain of stores called Sam’s Club. Most of those workers are part-time employees.

Wal-Mart says the fired workers will be able to re-apply for similar jobs through a contractor called Shopper Events that the company plans to use. It is not clear how many contract employees Wal-Mart intends to hire.

Sam’s Club is the second biggest U.S. chain of wholesale clubs, which sell food and goods at discount prices to members who play a yearly fee.

Sam’s Club employs 110,000 people. But it announced 10 store closings earlier this month, cutting another 1,500 jobs.

The job cuts come as the U.S. Labor Department announced that 482,000 Americans filed for new unemployment compensation last week – the highest level in more than a month.

Voters return to GOP emptiness in MA Kennedy seat

VOA News — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 03:28:59 +0000

In a stunning upset, a Republican in Massachusetts has apparently won the U.S. Senate seat held for nearly a half-century by one of the nation’s most liberal lawmakers, the late Edward “Ted” Kennedy.

Even though all the votes have not yet been counted in Tuesday’s election to fill Kennedy’s seat, results indicate Republican state Senator Scott Brown has defeated Democrat Martha Coakley, the state’s attorney general.

Late Tuesday, Coakley told supporters she telephoned her opponent to offer him congratulations.

The apparent loss by the once-favored Coakley could signal big problems for President Barack Obama’s Democratic Party later this year, when U.S. House, Senate and gubernatorial candidates are on the ballot nationwide.

But a more immediate problem for the president is that Brown will become the 41st Republican in the 100-member Senate, which could allow the minority party to block the president’s health care legislation and the rest of his agenda.

Democrats needed Coakley to win in order to maintain their super-majority and thwart Republican procedural maneuvers used to block votes on legislation.

Obama to request $1.3 Billion more for US schools

VOA News — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 03:15:06 +0000

U.S. President Barack Obama plans to ask Congress for an additional $1.3 billion in grants to public schools. The president says keeping America’s students competitive with their peers around the world is a matter of economic necessity.

President Obama visited an elementary school near Washington on Tuesday, and said he is expanding his “Race to the Top” program, in which states compete for federal grants to improve their schools. “Over the past few months, we have seen such a positive response that today, I am announcing our intention to make a major new investment, more than $1.3 billion, in this year’s budget to continue the Race to the Top,” he said.

The program started last year, using money from the economic stimulus package that Mr. Obama signed into law shortly after taking office.

The president says his initiative will lead states to raise their standards for student achievement and help students from ethnic minorities become successful. “We are going to raise the bar for all our students, and take bigger steps towards closing the achievement gap that denies so many students, especially black and Latino students, a fair shot at their dreams,” he said.

As Mr. Obama discussed the goals for the program, he said he wants to encourage states and local school districts to raise their standards and compete for government funding.

“We will open up opportunity evenly and equitably across our education system. We will develop a culture of innovation and excellence in our public schools. And we will reward success and replicate it across the country,” he said.

American students’ performance on standardized tests lags behind that of their peers in other industrialized countries. The president says those scores must be improved to ensure the nation’s economic future.

Five Americans in Pakistan allege torture

VOA News — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 22:43:08 +0000

Five young Americans arrested in Pakistan on suspicion of trying to join militant Islamist groups allege they are being tortured in custody.

The five, who appeared in court Monday, shouted in English, “We are being tortured,” as they were transferred in a prison van.

Pakistani police say they are not mistreating the prisoners, and a police official said the men did not make such statements in the courtroom.

The young Americans, between the ages of 19 and 25, are being held in Lahore, the capital of Punjab province. They were arrested in Sargodha at the home of a leader of the banned militant group Jaish-e-Muhammad in December.

They face lengthy prison terms if found guilty.

Pakistani police say the men said they traveled to the country to join a holy war and were planning to travel to the Taliban stronghold in North Waziristan.

After searching the suspects’ computers, maps and e-mail messages, the district police chief told VOA the evidence indicates “that they were about to commit some serious crime.”

U.S. FBI agents confirmed the arrested men are from the Washington area.

The five Americans are said to be of Pakistani, Yemeni, Eritrean and Egyptian origin.

Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.

US President to big banks: ‘We want our money back’

VOA News — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 03:41:45 +0000

U.S. President Barack Obama is calling on the country’s top banks to take responsibility for their role in the global financial crisis and repay the financial industry bailout in full.

The president Thursday said it was unacceptable for American taxpayers to lose any money when many financial firms are now reporting “massive profits” and giving top executives, in his words, “obscene bonuses.”

He said many of the firms would not have survived without government help.

Mr. Obama is proposing a “financial crisis responsibility fee” for about 50 of the country’s largest banks and financial firms, including some that did not get government help during the crisis.

He said it would raise $90 billion over the next 10 years, and that it would remain in place until all of the bailout money has been paid back.

The United States set up a $700-billion program in late 2008, known as TARP, to assist financial firms in danger of collapsing because of the financial crisis. While many top U.S. banks have already repaid the government, officials say with the fee, the program could still lose $170 billion.

But some top bank officials are already criticizing the fee.

JPMorgan Chase Chief Executive Jamie Dimon called it “a bad idea,” warning that businesses tend to pass additional costs onto their customers.

President Obama criticized complaints from the banking industry, saying their insistence that it was fairer for taxpayers to fund the total cost of the financial industry bailout was “twisted logic.”

The proposed fee is being included in President Obama’s proposed budget and will have to be approved by lawmakers.

Meanwhile, one day after questioning top bankers, the bipartisan panel created by Congress to investigate the causes of the financial crisis heard from top government regulators.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder told the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission Thursday that he would use every tool at his disposal to crack down on investment fraud.

Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Chairman Sheila Bair admitted regulators failed to do enough, but also criticized the U.S. central bank for failing to use its powers effectively.

The Federal Reserve Thursday urged key lawmakers not to strip it of its authority to supervise banks.

Chairman Ben Bernanke said in a letter to the U.S. Senate Banking Committee, that reducing its powers would deprive the Fed of information it needs to set monetary policy.

Some information for this report was provided by AP, Bloomberg and Reuters.

SmallGovTimes.com » World News

More US companies refuse to hire smokers

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France, Russia and US deny new nuke deal presented to Iran

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US Government closes for third day due to snowstorms

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Republicans wary of Obama’s health care summit

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US retail giant fires more than 11,000 workers

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Voters return to GOP emptiness in MA Kennedy seat

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