Adjustment to California Prevailing Wage Coming Soon

California's Department of Industrial Relations (DIR) will be adjusting the prevailing wage soon. They should be posted on the Division of Labor Statistics and Research's Prevailing Wage Page. The will be listed with the following marking 2008-2.

The DIR issues these determinations twice a year, Feb. 22 and Aug. 22.

Green Collar Challenge in Ohio

I picked this up from the Apollo Alliance's daily digest:

The good people in Ohio are really working the "green" collar angle in the rust belt. It appears as though the areas that are going to start training people may be able to create more "sustainable" economies, that can not be imported. You can not legally ship a person to install solar panels in a container.

The American Solar Energy Society in November said renewable energy and energy-efficient industries were responsible for creating nearly 8.5 million jobs in 2006, and that number is expected to reach 40 million by 2030.

Below is the post from the Apollo Alliance:

August 19, 2008: Green-Collar Training And High Unemployment Challenge Swing State

A 16-week training program in Ohio aims to “help continue the evolution of Toledo’s manufacturing and factory work force, which in the past was heavily invested in the automotive industry, into green-collar jobs.” In July, the state’s unemployment rate reached a 15 year high of 7.2 percent. Another 8,000 jobs could be lost if a DHL Express facility in Wilmington closes.

Videos of Building Disney Land!!!

I found these videos on YouTube. They are pretty funny and hard to imagine that this is what Orange County looked like sixty years ago.

Building Disney Land Part 1





Building Disney Land Part 2

(Watch the guy fall out of the earthmover)

Bill to Increase Penalties for Failing to Pay Prevailing Wage Goes to Governor

Kevin de Leon's Assembly Bill 2002 is on its way to the governor. This bill increases the penalties for not paying prevailing wage from $50 to $100 per day per worker. This bill will put some teeth into the enforcement of prevailing wage laws. I have heard from some administrators of Labor Compliance Programs that there is a calculated risk that some contractors make with regards to underpaying their workers.

If unscrupulous contractors can cheat their workers on ten jobs and only get caught on one, they still can pocket substantial sums of money. Hopefully this increase will serve as a real deterrent for them.

According the bills analysis

The author and sponsor of this bill believes it is necessary to ensure greater compliance with prevailing wage law. Los Angeles Unified School District data reveals that the district has initiated almost 1900 cases in the last five
years involving underpayment of wages. Total penalties and back wages collected over the period were $7.2 million.

The bills supporters include organized labor and the LA Unified School District. Not surprisingly, the Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) is opposing this.

Photos of Bejing Olympics Preparation

The Beijing Olympics are almost over. As a US Track and Field fan I am hanging my head low. Two words: Usain Bolt.

On the bright side, the Chinese have shown some amazing construction skills. One of the most amazing things is the facilities that were built to get ready for the games. The Boston Globe posted a photo series that showed some of the preparations. It can be found here.

My favorite is the aerial view of the stadiums.

Blogger in New Orleans Exposes Redevelopment Corruption

One of the major sore spots for me personally is the New Orleans. The slow response and the lack of reconstruction have really made things hard for many members of my family. One of my friends, Ardis Graham, forwarded a great story to me that shows the power of one blogger. The New York Times article tells the story of Karen Gadbois. She is a New Orleans activist who exposed corruption in federal programs that were focused on rebuilding the city.

The New Orleans Housing Authority (NOAH) said they were renovating houses, but they were not renovating many of them. There were many houses that they said were being renovated that were set to be demolished, because they were health hazards. Her blog got someone listening.

According to the Article:

In fact, (her blog) has set off a bomb that has exploded in slow motion here in the past three weeks, largely thanks to Ms. Gadbois: the federally financed program to gut and repair the storm-damaged homes of the poor and elderly, on which the city spent $1.8 million, has been exposed as — at least partly — a sham.

The F.B.I. on Monday raided the agency running the program, the local United States attorney announced last week he was investigating, and Mayor C. Ray Nagin, hauled grudgingly before the City Council, complained about what he called “amateur investigations,” a reluctant nod to Ms. Gadbois and her followers in the news media.

And here is how she did it:

“It wasn’t even that the house didn’t exist; the whole block didn’t exist,” Ms. Gadbois recalled. “Something’s not right here. We saw properties that had supposedly been remediated by NOAH coming up to be declared imminent health threats, and then demolished.”

It galled her, she said, that public money was being used to rehab a house, and later to demolish it, often by agencies sharing the same office space.

But it was actually worse once Ms. Gadbois got in the car with her colleague, Sarah Lewis, and started to look at the houses NOAH was supposed to be working on.

“The first day we went out, there were 10 properties, and they were just not done,” she said — nothing had been done to them, even though they were listed by the city as remediated. Photographs of some posted on her Web site look ready for the wrecking ball rather than an all-clear inspection certificate. In the end, she inspected several hundred houses: only a few had actually been remediated.

California Airports Brace for Turbulence

In anticipation of a major contraction of the airline industry several California newspapers ran stories on the hard times coming for airports up and down the state.

Dan Walters of the Sacramento Bee details the statewide problems that the airports are facing. All of the airports were hurt after 9/11/01 by a decline in traffic. The air traffic came back in 2004 but according to the article this trend is changing.

Suddenly, the trend may be reversing again, thanks to a sharp economic recession, rising air fares, extra charges for baggage and other services, and financial turmoil in the airline industry, much of it stemming from rapid increases in its fuel costs.

Airlines are cutting flights and even eliminating service to communities, especially smaller ones. But even the big boys are being hit. Los Angeles International, which handles a third of the state's airline passenger traffic, is expecting double-digit drops in flights and available passenger seats, while Ontario, also owned by the city of Los Angeles, is bracing for a 37 percent decline in flights.

The traffic declines at LAX, Ontario and other California airports are hitting their bottom lines, because operational and debt service revenues depend on how many takeoffs and landings and how many passengers the airports handle.

The second article was in the San Diego Union Tribune. It highlighted the fact that Lindbergh is reevaluating its Capital Improvement Plan now. They are looking at delaying building ten new gates and a new parking structure.

Lastly the LA Times reported that international flights at LAX are being cut back as well. It appears this contraction of the airline industry has been globalized.

Los Angeles International Airport, battered by financially devastated domestic airlines, is now headed for trouble from overseas.

Foreign carriers, until now a bright spot for the airport in an increasingly dismal year, are slashing flights at LAX amid high fuel costs and slowing international demand, dealing yet another blow to Southern California's economy.