Workers

CARSON CITY – The Nevada Legislature finally took up the issue of reforms to the state’s public employee retirement system today, but the proposed changes from Democratic Assembly Speaker John Oceguera are modest.

The sheep have arrived in Carson City for their annual spring job - scouring the hillsides on the west side of town to reduce highly flammable cheat grass. Supported by Carson City's Open Space ...

By Andrew Doughman / Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – In the end, only acrimony prevailed.
Legislators did not immediately vote on a bill from Sen. Michael Roberson, R-Las Vegas, but a hearing on Senate Bill 343 provoked heated testimony over how local governments and public sector unions bargain their contracts.

By Andrew Doughman / Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – Two bills relating to illegal immigrants sparked heated debate in an Assembly committee this morning.
One from Assemblyman Ira Hansen, R-Sparks, would impose penalties and restrictions on illegal immigrants in a way similar to a controversial Arizona law enacted this past year.

CARSON CITY – Two bills relating to illegal immigrants sparked heated debate in an Assembly committee this morning.
One from Assemblyman Ira Hansen, R-Sparks, would impose penalties and restrictions on illegal immigrants in a way similar to a controversial Arizona law enacted this past year.

Linchpin, The Book from Jonathan Denwood on Vimeo.

Seth Godin is an internet marketing guru who says being a linchpin is what today’s workers need to become. Listen as Jonathan and Kirk discuss this idea and why this may or may not be a good idea.

(Press Release) College campuses in Carson City and Las Vegas will host Nevada's portion of a national unity rally on Monday, April 4, the 43rd anniversary that marks the assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
The northern Nevada event begins at 4:30 p.m. at Rotary Plaza on the campus of Western Nevada College in Carson City.

By Sean Whaley / Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – A hearing room was packed today with labor and business representatives for a legislative committee’s consideration of a package of bills aimed at curbing the misuse of independent contractors.

By Andrew Doughman / Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – A poll released today shows that most Nevadans hold government workers in high regard.
Nevadans for Nevada, a collective of largely public sector unions, hired Grove Insight to conduct the poll of 500 registered voters.

By Andrew Doughman / Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – Overtime pay for working more than eight hours per day would disappear under a proposal from Sen. James Settelmeyer, R-Gardnerville.
While employers and chambers of commerce supported the bill, Settelmeyer said he brought Senate Bill 332 on behalf of employees.

By Andrew Doughman / Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – Sometimes, trying to read the CEO’s mind can be a political game.
Critics of Gov. Brian Sandoval’s proposed education cuts have said business owners will not move to a state that ravages its already low-performing education system with spending reductions.

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Responding to last week’s devastation in Japan, Charter Communications will waive all charges for direct dial long-distance calls to Japan from residential and business Charter Phone customers through April 30.

The free offer will be retroactive for calls placed to Japan from March 11, according to a statement from its Reno office.

(This article is from Around Carson, at http://aroundcarson.com/2011/03/16/more_olive_garden/)
Things got really exciting at the Olive garden construction site this week. A whole bunch of pre-built walls were lifted into place by cranes, and within a day it looked like an actual building!

By Elizabeth Crum / Nevada News Bureau
At 8:12 a.m. this morning, Rep. Dean Heller finally sent an email to his supporters announcing the U.S. Senate run I confirmed here last week.

Heller has a pretty new campaign website, and here is the text of the email:

Friend,

CARSON CITY – The U.S. Chamber of Commerce released a first-of-its-kind economic study today identifying stalled energy projects – including 10 in Nevada – that are costing billions of dollars in lost gross domestic product.
The study says the delays are costing the state’s economy $66.9 billion in GDP and that 86,700 jobs a year could be created in Nevada during the construction phase of the projects.

By Erich Obermayr
Silver City, Nevada —population around 200 — is a small, unincorporated community in rural northwestern Nevada. It is located along State Route 342, in Gold Canyon, 3.5 miles from Virginia City. It lies within the Virginia City National Historic Landmark and the Comstock Historic District. The nearest large cities are Reno, 20 miles to the north, and Carson City, 9 miles to the southwest.

By Sean Whaley / Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – Gov. Brian Sandoval is seeking significant changes to Nevada’s public employee pension plan in the 2011 legislative session to reduce the ongoing and long-term financial cost of the benefit to the state and taxpayers.
But if he wants fundamental change, he might look to the state university system’s retirement plan for faculty.

RENO — While unemployment has been a frequent topic of discussion during the recession, underemployment and its effects have not, even though the number of underemployed workers has also increased.

A study published online last week in the Journal of Management, “‘I Have a Job, But…’ A Review of Underemployment,” by University of Nevada, Reno Assistant Professor Frances M. McKee-Ryan and University of Alabama Assistant Professor Jaron Harvey brings attention to the topic and its potentially detrimental effects to individuals, organizations and society.

RENO – When the bottom fell out of the construction industry, some lucky ones kept working.
CC Myers, a California company, has benefited from a portion of a $393 million contract to extend Interstate 580 between Reno and Carson City. They are building the 120-foot-tall bridge spanning Galena Creek.
Work there has continued apace as vehicles zooming through the valley below have increasingly carried unemployed Nevadans.

CARSON CITY – A Republican state senator has proposed his own idea for job creation: A break on the modified business tax for new employees hired by employers after July 1, 2011.
Sen. James Settelmeyer, R-Gardnerville, said Senate Bill 199 would exempt new employees hired by Nevada businesses from the tax as an incentive to add workers to their payrolls. Co-sponsors include five other Republican lawmakers. The measure was introduced Monday.

It’s been said that a recession is a terrible thing to waste, and Northern Nevada businesses from Carson City to Las Vegas to Elko businesses aren’t wasting this one.

CARSON CITY – Gov. Brian Sandoval said today he had productive meetings in Washington, DC, including talks with federal officials about clearing the way for permits to be approved so mining companies can expand and hire more workers.
Sandoval said there are several permits awaiting action that mining officials have told him could lead to the creation of 1,000 high-paying jobs in rural Nevada.
Creating jobs in Nevada is Sandoval’s top priority as governor. Nevada has the highest unemployment rate in the nation and ranks first in home foreclosures as well.

By Sean Whaley / Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – Gov. Brian Sandoval will propose a change to the retirement system for new state employees that would reduce their current pension benefits by one half and cut the long-term liability for taxpayers by the same amount, his chief of staff said today.

By Andrew Doughman / Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – A new study shows support for Gov. Brian Sandoval’s plan to implement President Barack Obama’s national health care reform law.

The Carson City School District reports that its schools are open today, Friday, and will operate on a normal schedule.

A rally in support of American workers will be held in front of the Legislative Building in Carson City on Saturday, Feb. 26. The event is sponsored by the Carson City Democratic Central Committee and the Nevada Rural Democratic Caucus.
It is part of a nationwide event by Move-On and People for the American Way in an event called "50-State Mobilization to Save the American Dream." Rallies will be held at state legislative buildings across the country.

Courtesy of GrandViewOutdoors.com
On a sunny afternoon, 15 workers are waist deep in a half-acre pond, tromping through 46-degree water and dragging a 120-foot net to catch several hundred small fish.

The fingerling yellow perch are being pulled from the water to be part of studies of the small fish, which is being introduced as an alternate commercial species in Alabama.

Here's a news coverage roundup of Monday's labor union rally in Carson City, which brought out a few hundred supporters and a few dozen Tea Party demonstrators.

By Sean Whaley / Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – Freshman Republican state Sen. Michael Roberson got a lot of people’s attention last week when he engaged in a brief but spirited line of questioning at a Judiciary Committee hearing with mining industry lobbyists.