Author: Ethan Johnson
Despite Romania's excessive deficit correction measures being implemented from 2021, government spokesman Mihai Constantin said on Thursday that certain categories of civil servants would receive a 10% pay increase this year compared to December 2023. The salary increases will be implemented in two stages, in June 2024 and September 2024, to coincide with local, EU and presidential elections. Certain civil servants, including those in the departments of culture, foreign affairs, government, parliament and local administration, will benefit. The decision, which comes amid recent protests by civil servants in various government agencies, is expected to have an impact of 1.2 billion…
MEXICO CITY (AP) — President Andrés Manuel López Obrador took office nearly six years ago with a simple motto that outlined his administration's priorities: “For the good of all, starting with the poor.” His administration abolished many of the existing social security programs, introduced its own, and rapidly increased overall social security spending for the elderly, the unemployed, students, farmers, and the disabled to unprecedented levels. What went unnoticed, however, was that the new social welfare system dramatically changed who received its funds: Suddenly, Mexico's poorest people were receiving a smaller share of spending and less funding than they had…
A full settlement between the City of Huntington Beach and the Pacific Air Show has not been made public for more than a year, but that could change rapidly in the coming days.Orange County Superior Court Judge Jonathan Fish ruled in favor of Gina Clayton Tarvin on Wednesday, writing that the city and City Attorney Michael Gates must pay the full amount of a multimillion-dollar settlement with Pacific Airshow LLC.Clayton Tarvin, a Huntington Beach resident and longtime Ocean View School Board member, filed suit last June after being denied a request under California's Public Records Act to receive the full…
COVINGTON, Ga. (AP) — The federal government will spend $75 million to build a factory in Covington, Georgia, that will make glass components for computer chips. The U.S. Department of Commerce announced the investment in Absolix, a subsidiary of South Korea's SK Group, on Thursday. The plant was announced in 2021. The company said Thursday it plans to invest more than $300 million in the first phase and hire 200 workers, with more money and more jobs to come, spokeswoman Kelsey Flora said. Flora said construction is underway and test batch production has begun, with production expected to begin ramping…
WASHINGTON — WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department sued Ticketmaster and its parent company Thursday for operating an illegal monopoly on live events in the U.S., asking the court to dismantle a system that stifles competition and inflates prices for fans.The wide-ranging antitrust lawsuit filed in federal court in Manhattan, brought with 30 state and local attorneys general, seeks to break up a monopoly that they say crowds out smaller promoters, hurts artists and drowns ticket buyers in fees. Ticketmaster and its owner, Live Nation Entertainment, have a long history of clashes with big-name artists, including Taylor Swift and Bruce…
Note to opinion editors: Published by Star Tribune Opinion letter Readers submit their submissions online and in print every day. To submit, here. ••• The Minnesota Legislature passed a bill banning book bans, but a recent letter writer argued that the rule discourages public involvement in content instruction (Readers Write, May 22). The opinion is that the restriction motivates parents to choose non-public school options that harm public schools. Bottom line: banning book bans will be counterproductive and will harm rather than help public education. I disagree. Public education should reflect public values. Private values - values that are religious,…
A proposal to allow local governments to hide records about business deals from the public has failed to clear one of its final hurdles in the Louisiana Legislature. House Bill 461 A bill introduced by Rep. Stephen Jackson (D-Shreveport) that would exempt records that may affect local or parish business plans from Louisiana's public records law narrowly failed in the full Senate on Tuesday by a 19-19 vote. Jackson, a freshman senator, planned to reintroduce the bill before senators on Thursday, but support for the bill may have weakened further. It's unclear whether Jackson will try to reintroduce the bill…
The Social Security Administration, the Bureau of Court Services and Offender Supervision, the Export-Import Bank, and the Bureau of Prisons all have something in common: They are the worst federal jobs in their respective fields. They are the worst places to work in the federal government. Low employee engagement with an agency can be due to a variety of factors, the most important of which are leadership, functional performance, and work environment. A low score does not necessarily mean that employees dislike the agency or working there. As an aside, it's possible. Just above the Agency for Court Services and…
(Change “Treasuries” to “Treasury” in the last paragraph)Davide BarbuciaNEW YORK (Reuters) – Jeffrey Gundlach, chief executive of investment management firm DoubleLine Capital, said on Thursday he expects the United States to fall into recession as soon as this year as rising interest rates put pressure on American consumers and businesses.He said signs of looming trouble in the U.S. economy, including rising credit card delinquency rates and weak retail sales, suggested the possibility of economic contraction was more imminent than the risk of a rebound in inflation.”There are a lot of signs of a recession,” he said during a webinar hosted…
San Francisco's current mayoral candidate on Thursday unveiled a policy plan that would make the entire city government “digital by default” if elected, pledging to digitize all constituent services within two years and ensure all city services are accessible online 24/7. The campaign of Mark Farrell, who served briefly as mayor in 2018 and then on the city's Board of Supervisors for eight years, noted that San Franciscans' ratings of city services have declined over the past four years under current Mayor London Breed, according to a 2023 city survey. Farrell's “digital by default” platform would expand the city's digital…