Month: August 2018

By Richard McCarty   For years, some blue states have been automatically deducting union dues from the checks of Medicaid caregivers. Many of these caregivers are relatives or friends of the person they care for and did not wish to join a union. The main beneficiary of this dues skim is the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). Under Obama, a rule was implemented to authorize this scheme. Last month, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) proposed a rule that would rescind the Obama-Era regulation. If the proposed rule takes effect, only deductions specifically permitted by law, such as court-ordered wage garnishments or child support payments, will be allowed. Of course, any caregivers who wish to join or remain in a union will still be able to do so; they will just need to make arrangements to pay their dues. Although it might seem to be an obscure or unimportant issue, there is a lot at stake here. For example, it has been estimated that SEIU collects $200 million a year by skimming dues from 500,000 caregivers. As part of the rule-making process, CMS requested comments on the proposed rule, and over 6,000 comments were submitted during the month-long…

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by Robert Romano   Chris Crowley is a candidate for the State Attorney’s office in the 20th Judicial Circuit in Florida and when he ran a 50/50 raffle to raise money for the campaign, he found himself being jailed after his opponent’s boss, current State Attorney Steve Russell filed a criminal complaint, to the benefit of his protégé, Amira Fox, Crowley’s opponent. Both candidates are Republicans. By then, the money — a negligible $670 — had already been returned, but that was not enough to satisfy Crowley’s opponents, who had the case turned over the 10th Judicial Circuit, which then had him arrested on gambling and campaign finance violations after Crowley turned himself in. Crowley also alleged that prior to the arrest the 10th Circuit’s Jerry Hill even urged him to quit the race or else face charges over the raffle. All over something that could have probably been handled by a phone call. Now, Crowley is pressing on with the race, and stated to this author that he is considering filing a bar complaint against Hill for threatening prosecution to achieve a political outcome. Which is the most alarming aspect of this episode. Even leaving aside the alleged threat…

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