August 7, 2009 archive

650,000 farm workers face a daily risk of death and illness from toiling in stifling summer heat. Six died last year and fifteen farm workers have died of heat-related complications since July 2004.

The United Farmworkers Unions and ACLU have filed a lawsuit against the state and its Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board (Cal/OSHA) for failing to live up to their constitutional and statutory duties to protect the safety of farm workers.  See NY Times: Farm Workers’ Union Sues California Agency Over Rules on Heat Safety

“If hundreds of thousands of white-collar employees had to work under dangerous and life-threatening conditions, the state would almost certainly take immediate action to protect their health and safety,” said David Blair-Loy, legal director for the ACLU of San Diego & Imperial Counties. “Low-income farm workers, who are overwhelmingly Latino, deserve no less.”

“The people who feed us should not fear death when they go to work”

UFW President Arturo S. Rodriguez

More, after the fold.

(Also on dkos: http://www.dailykos.com/story/… )

A $191 Million Question

How a relationship between an Army official and a private contractor led to allegations of collusion and impropriety

By Robert O’Harrow Jr.

Washington Post Staff Writer

Friday, August 7, 2009

He called her Princess. She called him Bubba. They got together whenever they could, sailing on the Chesapeake Bay, traveling to business conferences, taking long walks. They exchanged e-mails night and day.

“You been sleepin??” George Raymond wrote to Catherine Campbell in September 2005.

“I slept some,” she wrote back. “Just got out of the shower.”

“Oh boy,” he wrote.

Theirs was a cozy relationship, and they worked in a world where such cozy relationships are officially frowned upon.

Secret deal to keep Karzai in power

Afghan President’s alliance with rival designed to prevent civil war after election

By Jerome Starkey in Kabul

Friday, 7 August 2009

With less than two weeks to go until national elections, the Afghan President, Hamid Karzai, is trying to cut a secret deal with one of his rivals to knock out his leading contender and ensure a decisive victory to avoid the chaos that a tight result might unleash.

Afghanistan’s second democratic polls threaten to split the country along sectarian lines. That would risk undermining US and British-led peace efforts which are already under pressure from a resurgent Taliban.

Mr Karzai and his main challenger, Abdullah Abdullah, hail from different ethnic groups and different regions.

Open Thread