Federal government
Feds slap $139K fine on NC employers for exploiting farmworkers
The U.S. Department of Labor has levied significant penalties on a Mt. Olive agribusiness and a Smithfield-based labor contractor for unlawfully exploiting farmworkers. According to a news release distributed Thursday, DOL assessed $139,039 in penalties and recouped $97,100 in back wages. This is from the release: Carol Brooke, a senior attorney at the North Carolina […]
Biden signs stopgap spending bill, avoiding government shutdown
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden has signed the stopgap spending bill, giving his administration and Congress about two months to work out agreement on the dozen annual spending bills. Those appropriations measures were supposed to become law by the start of the fiscal year on Oct. 1, but disagreement about whether to adhere to the […]
Congress sends stopgap spending bill to Biden’s desk, averting shutdown for now
WASHINGTON — U.S. senators voted 87-11 to approve legislation Wednesday that would fund the government into next year, clearing the measure for President Joe Biden’s signature. The stopgap spending bill, sometimes called a continuing resolution or CR, would fund part of the government until mid-January and the rest of the programs within the annual appropriations […]
Spending mess in Congress could arch over into pivotal 2024 election year
WASHINGTON — Congress will need to pass a second stopgap funding measure before Thanksgiving if lawmakers want to avoid a government shutdown, though pushing off final decisions on full-year spending bills until next year would put lawmakers smack dab in the middle of what’s expected to be a contentious 2024 primary season. During election years, […]
Borrowers weigh personal, professional options as student loan payments resume
Justin Brown, a father of a 2-year-old who lives with his wife in the St. Louis, Missouri area, has $20,000 in student loan debt. Before the pause on loan payments at the start of the pandemic in 2020, he paid $300 a month. But now that Brown has a family, his financial responsibilities have grown […]
Cristex Drum, a Superfund site in Oxford, receives $10m to clean up toxic legacy
Jeff Crowley has spent 21 years at the EPA traipsing through some of the most contaminated hazardous waste sites in the U.S. So when Crowley politely advised a crowd of people how to behave at the old Cristex Drum property, which is rife with solvents, asbestos and lead, no one argued. “If I don’t go […]
Monday numbers: what we know — and what we don’t — about hate crimes in America
The Southern Poverty Law Center has designated October Hate Crimes Awareness Month, a time each year to reflect on the large and growing problem of vandalism, intimidation and violence driven by bias toward those of another race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, disability, sexual orientation, gender or gender identity. The latest FBI report on hate crimes […]
U.S. Rep. Jeff Jackson announces bid for N.C. Attorney General
U.S. Rep. Jeff Jackson will run for N.C. Attorney General, he announced in a statement Thursday morning. The announcement comes after new congressional maps were passed by the North Carolina General Assembly’s GOP majority, shifting Jackson from a 14th Congressional District in which he won last year 58 percent to a newly drawn district that […]
Women workers could bear economic brunt as federal child care funding ends
A huge chunk of pandemic relief funding that kept child care programs afloat for the past few years is set to run out Saturday, and policy advocates say the economic impact will be profound, with the ripple effect hurting labor force participation and consumer spending at a time when the country is still trying to […]
A ‘disaster’ nears: Millions of federal workers’ paychecks would be on hold in a shutdown
WASHINGTON — More than 3.5 million federal employees and military personnel — many in the Washington, D.C., area but also scattered across the states and around the globe — are bracing for another partial government shutdown, as U.S. House Republicans struggle to produce a short-term plan to fund the government past the end of the […]
Biden to nominate former FAA deputy to lead aviation agency
President Joe Biden chose a new nominee to lead the Federal Aviation Administration on Thursday, months after the U.S. Senate blocked his first choice. Biden intends to nominate Michael G. Whitaker, an executive at Supernal, a company working on an electric air vehicle, and a former deputy FAA administrator during President Barack Obama’s administration, according […]
Pregnant workers have new protections. Here’s what to expect from your boss.
Almost two months after workplace accommodations for pregnant workers became law, the rules surrounding what employers can and cannot do have yet to be finalized — but that doesn’t mean the protections are not in place. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s proposed regulations are expected to offer more clarity once finalized, but workers can still […]