Judge Keller’s trouble continue. She still has a hearing in June regarding the execution and attempted appeal of Michael Richard. And, now she has been assessed a fine of $100,000 for issues regarding her financial disclosure form. See report. The Texas Ethics Commission has levied a $100,000 civil penalty because she failed to disclose all
Contributions to Texas Supreme Court Justices
A reader writes to tell me that the unfortunate decision in Whirlpool, Inc. v Camacho was marred by the fact that the winning law firm had given $67,500 to three members of the Texas Supreme Court. I previously wrote about this case earlier. Among the many things wrong with that decision is that the
Jurors Prefer Defendants Who Look Better
Studies show that jurors prefer parties who dress up. See report. The study looks at juror preferences regarding criminal defendants in court. But, the same reasoning aplies to parties to a civil lawsuit.
Corrected: San Antonio Unemployment Improves
Not sure how this happened, but I erred when I reported that San Antonio unemployment was 6.4% for March. It was actually 7.3% which is still a drop from the previous 7.7% in February.
Hiring Managers Rely on Online Information
Microsoft commissioned a study which found last December that 70% of hiring managers and job recruiters rejected at least one job applicant based on information the employer acquired online. See report. The survey was posed to managers and recruiters in the US, Germany and the United Kingdom. Watch those Facebook entries…..
Good Advice on Job Hunting from the San Antonio Express-News
The unemployment rate may be dropping in the San Antonio area, but finding a job is still tough out there. Ronda Templeton gives some good advice on job hunting in this column from the San Antonio Express-News. Notice Ms. Templeton’s emphasis on using social media sites. She says be sure to clean up your page
Zero Tolerance Drug Policies Do Not Always Work
Many employers have zero tolerance for drug testing. I served in the Army Reserve and Army National Guard for 25 years. The US Army had a so-called zero tolerance policy for NCO’s and officers. Any Non-Commissioned officer or commissioned officer caught doing drugs in a drug test would be automatically discharged. If the offender was
Employers Must Provide Breaks for Women who Breastfeed
Part of the recently passed Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act contains an amendment to the Fair Labor Standards Act. The amendment requires all employers to provide reasonable breaks and a location for women to express milk for their children. The act supports women who breastfeed their children. The location must be in a
San Antonio Unemployment Improves
The national economy added 162,000 jobs in March, but the unemployment rate stayed the same at 9.7%. That is the largest job gain in three years. No small achievement for this battered financial picture. See report. Meanwhile Texas unemployment for February stayed the same at 8.2%. San Antonio unemployment improved to 6.4% from the
Employers Incur Risk if they Pursue Action Against an Employee for Off-Duty Web Comments
Facebook is now the third largest country in the world. That is, if each user of Facebook was a citizen of a country, then that country would be the third largest. Facebook, Myspace, Linked, the list of social media web sites grows longer each year. Blogging grows leaps and bounds every year. Cases in which