Washington, D.C - In an immediate follow-up to its landmark federal court victory halting implementation of regressive Department of Homeland Security (DHS) personnel rules, the leader of the union representing DHS employees called on DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff to reconsider the agency's approach to labor-management relations and to schedule a prompt meeting with her to "start a fresh dialogue" on this important subject.

President Colleen M. Kelley of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) sent the letter to Secretary Chertoff in the wake of a unanimous decision by a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit not only upholding but broadening a lower court injunction preventing implementation of the DHS rules.

Congressman says in hindsight he wouldn't have supported current war
by Nancy Cook Lauer
Stephens Honolulu Bureau
Hawaii Tribute Herald

HONOLULU -- Congressman Ed Case is taking a second look at the United States' involvement in Iraq.

Case, who campaigned in 2002 saying he would have voted counter to Hawaii's other congressmen and approved President Bush's request for authorization to use military force, on Monday backpedaled from his earlier stance.

Case wasn't in Congress in October 2002 when the authorization was given, but he has said on the campaign trail he would have voted for it.

The Washington Post
Federal Diary by Stephen Barr
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/25/AR2006062500701.html

In a breakthrough for advocates of whistle-blower rights, the Senate has approved an amendment that would tighten up protections for federal employees who expose waste, fraud, abuse and threats to public safety.

A bipartisan group of senators, led by Sen. Daniel K. Akaka (D-Hawaii), won unanimous consent last week to include the amendment in the fiscal 2007 defense authorization bill. The amendment was based on a whistle-blower bill introduced by Akaka last year.

Legislation Added to Defense Bill Would Restore Free Speech Rights Canceled by Supreme Court for Federal Government Workers on the Job
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WASHINGTON - June 23 - The Senate yesterday acted quickly to plug a government accountability loophole created less than one month ago, when the Supreme Court's Garcetti v. Ceballos decision canceled constitutional free speech rights for government workers carrying out their job duties. Senate bill S. 494, which includes that reform amidst a general overhaul of the Whistleblower Protection Act, was agreed to by unanimous consent as an amendment to the 2007 National Defense Authorization Act, passed 96-0 last evening. For the last three Congresses, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee (HSGAC) approved similar legislation, but until yesterday Senate leaders had refused to permit a floor vote.

by Dan Boylan

www.midweek.com/content/columns/mostlypolitics_article/conventional_and_unconventional

At the beginning of May, a USA Today Gallup poll showed that 31 percent of those surveyed approved of how President George W. Bush was running the country. Sixty-five percent disapproved.

At the end of May, a Quinnipiac poll found that 35 percent of those surveyed approved of Bush's presidency; 58 percent did not.

Those who choreographed the Hawaii State Republican Convention this past Memorial Day weekend at the Sheraton Waikiki must have been reading the month's polls. During the GOP's prime-time speaking, i.e., Saturday morning, May 27, no one - let me repeat, no one - said the president's name.