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Court: Right-to-work law applies to state workers
Court Watch |
2013/08/21 21:47
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Michigan's right-to-work law applies to 35,000 state employees, a divided state appeals court ruled Thursday in the first major legal decision on the much-debated measure eight months after it passed.
Judges voted 2-1 to reject a lawsuit filed by unionized workers who make up more than two-thirds of all state employees. In a state with a heavier presence of organized labor than most, thousands of protesters came to the Capitol late last year as the Republican-backed measure won quick approval in a lame-duck session.
The law prohibits forcing public and private workers in Michigan to pay union dues or fees as a condition of employment, and applies to labor contracts extended or renewed after late March. It went to court after questions were raised whether it can affect state employees, since the Michigan Civil Service Commission, which sets compensation for state employees, has separate powers under the state constitution.
The court's majority said legislators have broad authority to pass laws dealing with conditions of "all" employment while the panel has narrow power to regulate conditions of civil service employment.
"In light of the First Amendment rights at stake, the Michigan Legislature has made the policy decision to settle the matter by giving all employees the right to choose," Judges Henry Saad and Pat Donofrio wrote, adding that legislators decided to "remove politics from public employment and to end all inquiry or debate about how public sector union fees are spent."
Dissenting Judge Elizabeth Gleicher said the court's decision strips the civil service panel of its "regulatory supremacy" clearly laid out in the constitution, which allows the four-member commission to regulate "all conditions of employment" for civil service workers. |
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Court: Right-to-work law applies to state workers
Court Line |
2013/08/19 20:41
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Michigan's right-to-work law applies to 35,000 state employees, a divided state appeals court ruled Thursday in the first major legal decision on the much-debated measure eight months after it passed.
Judges voted 2-1 to reject a lawsuit filed by unionized workers who make up more than two-thirds of all state employees. In a state with a heavier presence of organized labor than most, thousands of protesters came to the Capitol late last year as the Republican-backed measure won quick approval in a lame-duck session.
The law prohibits forcing public and private workers in Michigan to pay union dues or fees as a condition of employment, and applies to labor contracts extended or renewed after late March. It went to court after questions were raised whether it can affect state employees, since the Michigan Civil Service Commission, which sets compensation for state employees, has separate powers under the state constitution.
The court's majority said legislators have broad authority to pass laws dealing with conditions of "all" employment while the panel has narrow power to regulate conditions of civil service employment.
"In light of the First Amendment rights at stake, the Michigan Legislature has made the policy decision to settle the matter by giving all employees the right to choose," Judges Henry Saad and Pat Donofrio wrote, adding that legislators decided to "remove politics from public employment and to end all inquiry or debate about how public sector union fees are spent."
Dissenting Judge Elizabeth Gleicher said the court's decision strips the civil service panel of its "regulatory supremacy" clearly laid out in the constitution, which allows the four-member commission to regulate "all conditions of employment" for civil service workers. |
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Court hearing expected in RI slayings, abduction
Attorney News |
2013/08/15 16:53
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One of two suspects in a weekend double homicide and child abduction was expected to be arraigned Monday in Massachusetts.
Malcolm Crowell, 22, was to appear on a fugitive-from-justice warrant, according to the clerk's office at Fall River District Court.
Crowell and Daniel Rodriguez, 27 or 28, were arrested Sunday in the two slayings and the abduction of 2-year-old Isaiah Perez, who was later found unharmed after a nationwide Amber Alert was issued.
The bodies were discovered about 5:20 a.m. Sunday at a home in suburban Johnston, a town of 30,000 residents less than 10 miles from Providence. The names of the dead were not immediately released, but Johnston Police Chief Richard S. Tamburini said one of the victims was the child's mother.
The boy was found around 8:15 p.m. in Providence after a police officer there spotted him walking around a housing project by himself.
Deputy Police Chief Daniel Parrillo said it was unclear whether the boy's abductor was living in the home, was a guest or was uninvited.
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NY man pleads guilty in Paula Deen extortion case
Legal News |
2013/08/12 21:05
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A New York man pleaded guilty in federal court Friday to trying to extort $200,000 from Paula Deen by threatening to reveal damaging information about the embattled celebrity cook if she didn't pay him to stay quiet.
"I had, I guess, some bad judgment," 62-year-old Thomas George Paculis told a U.S. District Court judge in Savannah.
"I do take responsibility for what I have done."Paculis, of Newfield, acknowledged sending emails to Deen's attorney offering to trade his silence for cash in June. It came a few days after documents became public that revealed the former Food Network star had said under oath that she used racial slurs in the past.
As Deen's culinary empire began to crumble, Paculis claimed he could reveal things that would bring her "financial hardship and even ruin," according to one email that invited Deen's lawyer to "make me an offer I can't refuse."
Neither Paculis nor federal authorities have revealed what sort of dirt the defendant claimed he could dish up regarding Deen or if he truly had any at all. He owned a restaurant in Savannah in the 1990s, but Deen told the FBI she didn't recognize his name or his face. |
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Court bars tax preparer who inflated deductions
Court Watch |
2013/07/26 17:05
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The U.S. Justice Department says a Charleston man prepared hundreds of tax returns that cheated the government out of $55 million.
A federal judge on Tuesday permanently barred Stacy Middleton from preparing federal tax returns for others.
Middleton had been preparing tax returns for more than a decade. Prosecutors say he and another man prepared returns that understated their clients' income tax liabilities and overstated deductions and credits.
From 2008 to 2011, authorities say the men prepared about 17,000 federal returns. Of the records examined by the Internal Revenue Service, more than 90 percent needed adjustments.
In all, the IRS estimates that the U.S. Treasury lost as much as $55 million in revenue. |
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