Thursday, January 24, 2019

SCABBY Exterminated?: Striking unions may have to find a new mascot. While courts and the National Labor Relations Board have issued rulings protecting inflatables such as "Scabby the Rat," a several-foot-tall long-toothed sickly rat that frequently appears at union demonstrations, the NLRB's current general counsel, Peter Robb, is looking to "exterminate it," according to Bloomberg Law's Hassan Kanu. "GC hates the rat," a senior NLRB official told Hassan. Robb "wants to find it unlawful to picket, strike or handbill with the rat present." More
 
 
California State Senator bans use of 'he' and 'she' during committee hearings. Senate Judiciary Chair Hannah-Beth Jackson said last Thursday she was banning the use of "he" and "she" in hearings in her committee. Jackson, of Santa Barbara, said, "We are using the phrase 'they' and replacing other designations so that it's a gender-neutral designation of they. However, during Senate hearing, Jackson failed to adhere to the newly imposed rules when she referred to her elementary-school grammar teacher as "her" instead of "them." #doasisaynotasido
 
Storms add 580 billion gallons of water to California reservoirs Storms that soaked California during the first half of January did more than bring tons of snow to Sierra Nevada ski resorts. They also helped to significantly boost the state's water supplies. Over the three weeks from Jan. 1 until this Tuesday, 47 key reservoirs that state water officials closely monitor added 580 billion gallons of water - as much as roughly 9 million people use in a year, according to an analysis by the San Jose Mercury.
 
Union Representation Numbers Remain Low Once again, the percentage of private sector union-represented workers fell - to 6.4% in 2018, from 6.5% in 2017, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor. More