Nancy Pelosi's Jobs Plan: Shut Down Non-Union Plants in Right to Work States (Except for GE's)

House minority leader Nancy Pelosi has weighed this week in on the ongoing dispute between Boeing and the National Labor Relations Board, stating that the aircraft manufacturer's South Carolina facility should shut down if it can't unionize [video at link- NANESB!].

Interestingly, Pelosi's comments come more than two years after workers at the Charleston, SC plant voted overwhelmingly to decertifty their union.

In a move that seemingly went under the radar back in May, General Electric [NYSE: GE] announced that they were constructing a new 500,000 square foot facility to build locomotives in right-to-work Fort Worth, TX- shifting production from closed-shop Erie, PA with no apparent objection from either Congresswoman Pelosi or the NLRB.

Other venues under consideration included Lynn, MA and Mexico. With rival Caterpillar's [NYSE: CAT] subsidiary Progress Rail opening up a new facility in Indiana, GE and Local 201 of the International Union of Electrical Workers were unable to come to any sort of agreement regarding wages.

While GE's Railway unit CEO Lorenzo Simonelli disclosed that a Mexican site had been under consideration by GE they ultimately chose the Ft. Worth site for largely political reasons.

The Fort Worth choice saves Immelt from the potential embarrassment of having the facility go south of the border while he serves as chairman of President Barack Obama's Council on Jobs and Competitiveness.

The Obama Administration had previously lavished Immelt's General Electric with millions in stimulus money and 'green energy' grants while the conglomerate continued to outsource jobs overseas. Prior to January of this year, GE was also the parent company of NBC/Universal entertainment, whose networks frequently act as the Obama Administration (or Obama campaign's) unofficial mouthpiece. Earlier this year, Comcast [NASDAQ: CMCSA] gained a majority control of the NBC networks.

Since the May announcement about the Texas locomotive facility, General Electric has announced they are breaking ground on two more projects in right-to-work states.

Last month, the conglomerate announced that they will be building a $95 million 236,000 square foot facility that will make components for mining equipment- also in Ft Worth, TX.

Meanwhile, in Auburn, AL, GE is breaking ground on a new jet engine component factory this month. Like the two facilities in Fort Worth, the NLRB apparently sees no problem with Immelt's GE setting up shop in right-to-work states as they've remained conspicuously silent on the matter.

[Hat tip: Director Blue, Lonely Conservative, Eat it or Wear It]

Longshoremen Union-Backed Attempt to Recall Washington Sherriff Fizzles

An ILWU-backed effort to recall the Cowlitz County, WA Sheriff failed this week after a Washington judge ruled that none of the charges raised by the Longshormen's local met any of the legal requirements for a recall election.

[Judge] Warning said his ruling was based on the fact that union offered no witnesses to demonstrate there was a good-faith belief that the claims were based on actual incidents. Warning also said elected officials have broad discretion to carry out their duties and can't be recalled based on actions of their subordinates, such as deputies making arrests.

[Sherriff] Nelson said after the ruling that he was relieved to be able "to get back to work." He added the recall was a "distraction" that's "taken up far, far too much time, and I want to get back to doing the things the sheriff ought to be doing."

During the hearing he said that he's urged both sides to follow the law since the protests began but had to make arrests "once unlawful actions began."

"I respectfully submit I've done nothing wrong except work to keep the peace," Nelson told Warning.

There has been some speculation the recall and a federal civil rights lawsuit were attempts to intimidate law enforcement to back off at future protests.

"If that's true, those people don't know me very well," Nelson said after the hearing.

Union officials said they were disappointed with the ruling and needed time to "regroup" before deciding if they'll appeal to the state Supreme Court.

During the hearing, ILWU lawyer Laurie Davis repeatedly said Nelson had failed to protect union members from harm and that voters should get to decide if he remains in office. She acknowledged that many union supporters have been arrested, but said it was how they were arrested and treated that the union questioned.

"Just like we are accountable for the behavior we did, he's accountable for not supervising his subordinates and keeping them from injuring us," Davis said. "It's his job to protect every citizen in Cowlitz County, and that includes ILWU members."

Warning said he was surprised the union didn't have any witnesses, saying the roughly hour-long hearing concluded much more quickly than he had expected. Officials had reserved the courtroom for the entire day.

The recall effort was launched just weeks after members of ILWU Local 21 raided a grain unloading facility in Longview, WA with baseball bats and axe handles taped to picket signs before dumping grain and cutting the air lines on a parked freight train and wrecking a vehicle belonging to one of the port's security gurads.

Longshoremen Union Blockades Washington Port, Hold Security Guards Hostage, Dump Carloads of Grain and Clash With Police

At least 500 members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union stormed the Port of Longview, WA, smashing windows on the property while holding security guards hostage and cutting air lines rail cars in the port and dumped grain while blocking trains from entering the port.

Approximately 50 policemen responded to the scene, although no arrests were made as the Longshoremen returned to ILWU Local 21 hall.

The Longshoreman's union assault on the port facilities is the latest in a long simmering dispute between the union and the owners of the grain transloading facility in the port, EGT Development. EGT is already using contract union labor in their facilities with 25 of the 35 jobs going to members of Local 701 of the International Union of Operating Engineers based in Gladstone, OR.

On September 1, a federal judge issued an temporary restraining order against ILWU Local 21.

A federal judge in Tacoma Thursday issued a temporary restraining order against the local longshore union that may clear the way for grain deliveries to the new $200 million EGT grain terminal at the Port of Longview.

The order, which will be in effect for 10 days, prohibits union members from engaging in "unlawful ... picket line violence, threats and property damage, mass picketing and blocking of ingress and egress at the facility of EGT," U.S. District Court Judge Ronald B. Leighton wrote.

Leighton's order also restricts International Longshore and Warehouse Union members from "restraining or coercing the employees of EGT, (its subcontractor General Construction), or any other person doing business in relation to the EGT facility."

A second hearing in whether or not the restraining order was to be made permanent was supposed to be held on Thursday September 8, the same day the longshoremen stormed the port of Longview.

The day after the ILWU attacked the Longview port, a camera crew from KGW TV in Portland, OR went to the Local hall in the hopes of interviewing one of the longshoremen. What happens next is embedded in the video below and is emphatically Not Safe For Work.



Since July 11, at least 100 members of the ILWU Local 21 have been arrested around the port of Longview and attempting to block the BNSF tracks into the port. On Monday, the National Labor Relations Board filed suit against the ILWU, alleging multiple incidents of vandalism, harassment and intimidation against EGT employees. A hearing is scheduled for October 11 in Portland, OR.

Two Men of Indeterminate Religous Background Arrested in Plot Against Seattle Military Recruiting Depot

Must be those Christian radicals that Representative Sheila Jackson-Lee warned us about.

Two west coast men in their 30s were arrested by authorities for plotting an assault on a military recruiting center in Seattle after a third man they attempted to recruit for the attack informed a Seattle Police detective of the plot.

Abu Khalid Abdul-Latif, also known as Joseph Anthony Davis, 33, of Seattle, and Walli Mujahidh, aka Frederick Domingue Jr., 32, of Los Angeles were arrested Wednesday and charged in a seven-count complaint unsealed in U.S. District Court in Seattle.

Among the charges were conspiracy to murder U.S. officers, conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction and unlawful possession of firearms.

Both men appeared this afternoon before U.S. Magistrate Judge Mary Alice Theiler, who ordered them held pending a detention hearing next Wednesday. A preliminary hearing is set for July 7, which will be held only if the men are not indicted by a grand jury before then.

They face a maximum of life in prison, however firearms charges carry mandatory-minimum sentences of 30 years each.

The two suspects had hoped to carry out a Fort Hood-style attack [which if you think back to 2009, emphatically WASN'T a terrorist attack- NANESB!] targeting the facility's security guards first before executing anybody in uniform. According to investigators, they were hoping their attack would inspire other Muslims to launch similar attacks on military facilities in the USA.

Since early June, authorities said they have been monitoring Abdul-Latif, 33, of Seattle, also known as Joseph Anthony Davis, and Mujahidh, 32, of Los Angeles, also known as Frederick Domingue Jr.

The men spoke about gaining access to the facility by driving a "truck that looks like the Titanic" through the "front gate," the complaint says, and Abdul-Latif told the source his objective was to "take out anybody wearing green or a badge."

“Imagine how many young Muslims, if we’re successful, will try to hit these kinds of centers,” said Abdul-Latif, according to the complaint. “Imagine how fearful America will be, and they’ll know they can’t push Muslims around.”

Earlier this month, when Abdul-Latif noticed a security guard at a Seattle military recruiting station, he appeared unconcerned.

“We’ll just kill him right away,” he told an FBI source posing as an accomplice, according to the criminal complaint. “We can kill him first.”

Abdul-Latif, who had been in and out of prison over the last decade, was operating a cleaning service around the Sea-Tac International airport that had recently gone bankrupt.

The arrests came a little over a week after hearings held by Congressman Peter King (R-NY3) into radical Islam and recruitment in American prisons was denounced by some Democrats as discriminatory and 'racist'.

I have to say, one of the few times I tuned into C-SPAN lately, I was hoping to catch some of the Fast & Furious hearings. I missed those, but instead caught a rebroadcast of the Congressman King's hearings in which Democrat after Democrat attempted to sidetrack the hearings by bringing up the national security menace posed by the Aryan Nations or radical Christians.

Frankly, if I knew C-SPAN would be this good, I would've tuned in more often. I'm not neccesarily King's biggest fan in the blogosphere, but after various Democrats attempt to deflect and obfuscate, but King's response was to point out to all the Demcorats crying racism or attempting to change the topic back to neo-nazi gangs or militant christians that if they thought those were the grave national security threats they claimed, they had FOUR YEARS in which they could've established hearings of their own on the matter.

Big Labor Shill: Keep Boeing Jobs Out of the South Because Southerners Are Dumb and Poorly Paid

In a Wall Street Journal op-ed piece, Chicago Lawyer, Illinois democrat operative and Union mouthpiece Thomas Geoghegan argues the case that Boeing's move to South Carolina is bad for workers, bad for Boeing and bad for America. Yet interestingly, one of the few defenders of the NLRB's decision against Boeing setting up an assembly line for the 787 Dreamliner beautifully (yet unintentionally) makes the argument for right to work states with a vacuous screed against the South designed as concise, intelligent and insightful commentary.

Conservatives are in an uproar that the general counsel of the National Labor Relations Board has filed an unfair labor charge against Boeing. It seems the president of Boeing was unwise enough to blurt out that his company would move a production line to South Carolina as payback for past strikes by machinists in Seattle. It's a dead bang violation of the National Labor Relations Act, even if it comes as a surprise to Republicans and many other Americans.

Section 7 of the Wagner Act, passed in 1935, states that all workers can engage in concerted activities without reprisal. The president of Boeing said, in effect: You exercise those rights and we're moving. Companies have long done such things, of course, but CEOs aren't usually so gaffe-prone as to say so.

The Boeing case may show that labor is so out of mind that CEOs have forgotten what they can or cannot say. It would have been easy enough for Boeing to move the production line to South Carolina and let the workers in Seattle draw the conclusion. There is little bar to a runaway shop if the CEO is careful with his public statements.

Umm...Proof please? And if production at one of my facilities was jeopardized by the near-constant threat of a work stoppage or walkouts, I'd probably start looking for greener pastures in a right-to-work state myself.

Yet the Boeing case has a scarier aspect missed by conservatives: Why is Boeing, one of our few real global champions in beefing up exports, moving work on the Dreamliner from a high-skill work force ($28 an hour on average) to a much lower-wage work force ($14 an hour starting wage)? Nothing could be a bigger threat to the economic security of this country.

So higher wage equals higher skill set? Or just higher cost of living? Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't there significant differences in taxes and cost-of-living between Washington State and South Carolina?

We should be aghast that Boeing is sending a big fat market signal that it wants a less-skilled, lower-quality work force. This country is in a debt crisis because we buy abroad much more than we sell. Alas, because of this trade deficit, foreign creditors have the country in their clutches. That's not because of our labor costs—in that respect, we can undersell most of our high-wage, unionized rivals like Germany. It's because we have too many poorly educated and low-skilled workers that are simply unable to compete.

Wow? Really? Assuming you're still talking about the South, BMW didn't seem to put off by the 'poorly educated and low skilled' workers in the region- neither did Mercedes Benz. GE Transportation is poised to open up a second locomotive facility in Texas- another right to work state.

We depend on Boeing to out-compete Airbus, its European rival. But when major firms move South, it is usually a harbinger of quality decline. Over and over as a labor lawyer in the 1980s and '90s, I saw companies move away from Chicago, where the pay was $28 an hour, to some place in South Carolina or Louisiana where the pay was about half that. While these moves aggrieved me as a union lawyer, it might have consoled me as an American if those companies went on to thrive globally.

But too often, alas, it was the beginning of the end, as it was for Outboard Marine Corporation, where I once represented workers. In the 1990s the company went from the high wage union North to the low wage South and was bankrupt by 2000. There are reasons workers in the North get $28 an hour while down in the South they get $14 or even $10. Adam Smith could explain it: "productivity," "skill level," "quality."

Here is yet another American firm seeking to ruin its reputation for quality. Why? To save $14 an hour! Seriously: Is that going to help sell the Dreamliner? In terms of the finished product, the labor cost is minuscule: $14 in hourly wage, at most. It's incredible that conservatives claim such small differences in labor cost would be life or death to Boeing. It's not labor cost but labor skill that is life or death to the survival of Boeing, never mind pilots and passengers.

If the history of runaway shops proves anything, it's that many go "South" in more than one sense of the word. If that sounds unfair to the South, it is union busting that has inflicted the real unfairness in the region: income inequality and inferior schools.

Inferior schools like Detroit, where nearly half the population is considered functionally illiterate? Say...isn't Michigan a big union stronghold? Ah well, I'm sure the two aren't related in any way.

At this moment especially, deep in debt, we cannot afford to let another company like Boeing self-destruct. Boeing is not a product of the free market—it's an extension of the U.S. government.

Wow- so Boeing was nationalized when nobody was paying attention? Or is Mr Geoghegan arguing that the NLRB's decision the first step in that direction?

Over the years, our taxpayers have paid to create a Boeing work force with exceptionally high skills. That work force is not just an asset for Boeing—it's an asset for the country. Why should the country let Boeing take it apart?

Ummm....because it's their company and allowing the NLRB to dictate to companies where they can and can't set up shop would be setting a very bad precedent that anybody but the densest union shill could see would have longer term consequences beyond a current labor-management dispute.

Every American should be rooting for the NLRB's general counsel, as the board itself has not yet found a violation.

Most depressing of all, Boeing's move would send a market signal to those considering a career in engineering or high-skilled manufacturing. It is a message that corporate America has delivered over and over: Don't go to engineering school, don't bother with fancy apprenticeships, don't invest in skills. No rational person wants to take on college or even community college debt to come out and work on the Dreamliner—which should be the country's finest product—for a miserable $14 an hour.

Am I not reading this correctly, or is Mr Geoghegan conflating '$14 an hour for an entry level position' with '$14 an hour from now until the end of time' because apparently workers down south don't get promoted or get raises or anything. OK, now that I think about it, Mr Champion-of-the-working class, where were you when I was earning less than $11 an hour- graveyard shift- with no benefits in a VERY blue/pro-union state with supposedly one of the most educated workforces in the country during the past 24 months?

If a single story in the news can sum up the reasons for America's global decline, it's the decision to build a Dreamliner that will gut the American dream.

Yes...because if there's anything the Wisconsin union protests have taught me earlier this year, it's that union workforces should be exempted from making any sacrifices or concessions in these difficult economic times.

As the World Weiner Turns Roasts; A Weiner Bun in the Oven? Delaware Police Interview Underage Girl in Contact w/Congressman

Well, it's been quite the week for New York Congressman Anthony Weiner, the Democrat representing the 9th Congressional district that includes parts of Brooklyn and Queens.

After his bizarre press conference in which he was upstaged by conservative publisher Andrew Breitbart before confessing to sending sexually explicit texts and pictures to followers on social networking sites on Monday, it was learned that his wife of 10 months, Huma Abedin, is pregnant [she was also noticeably absent from the press conference as well- NANESB!].

There have been bipartisan calls for the disgraced Queens congressman to step down, and news of Huma's pregnancy would give the shrill congressman the opportunity to resign and honestly (for a change) cite family concerns, but Weiner had indicated he intends to ride this scandal out.

Also during Monday's press conference was a reporter asking whether or not Weiner was in communication with any underage girls. Instead of a categorical denial, Weiner curiously gave an answer along the lines of 'Not to the best of my knowledge'. Among the known recipients of Weiner's 'sexts' [including some reportedly unsolicited images] include porn starlet Ginger Lee, a 26 year old single mother in Texas, 21- year old Seattle college student Genette Nicole Cordova and 40 year old Las Vegas blackjack dealer Lisa Weiss.

Now, a review of some of Weiner's communications that were made public (along with some of his followers) seems to indicate that he was in contact with underage girls via social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter and possible talking dirty to them as well.

At first glance, this has all the makings of some ribald and salacious tabloid gossip, but it's apparently being taken seriously by police in New Castle, DE where two officers from the New Castle County police department appeared at the home of a 17 year old High School Junior to interview her regarding direct online communications she had with Rep. Weiner.

Sources close the student said the girl followed Weiner on Twitter after seeing him speak during a school trip to Washington on April 1. Weiner, after signing on to follow the girl's Twitter feed, direct-messaged the girl on April 13, the sources said, though it is not clear what other communication the two may have had between or after those dates.

A Fox News reporter was at the girl's home when police arrived. The girls name hasn't been released yet due to her being a minor.

[Hat tip- Ace of Spades; Patterico's Pontifications]

Today's Train of Thought- Talking Trash, June 8, 2011

Today's train of thought revolves around a commodity that American railroads had overlooked until fairly recently- and for good reason according to some.

The July 2011 issue of Trains had a pretty good write-up on cities that had gradually run out of room for trash and waste at nearby landfills, sending their trash to a handful of out-of-state landfills and how the rail industry was seemingly poised to take advantage.

One of the first metropolitan areas to experiment with using rail to ship garbage out of town was Seattle. Typically, instead of being trucked out of town, the trash was compacted into cubes and loaded into containers for a 300 mile trek to a landfill in Southern Washington. Aside from some tweaks to the trains routing, the flatcars and containers, not much has changed in the last 15 years or so.

To the north, Sonomish County got into the act and began setting up transload facilities where the trash is consolidated and moved south by rail to a landfill in the hills overlooking the Colombia river at Roosevelt, WA.

Here, railpictures.net contributor Andrew Kim caught southbound BNSF symbol freight U- EVEROO (Everett, WA to Roosevelt, WA) snaking along Puget sound in Edmonds, WA with former Santa Fe SD40-2 #6887 leading two cascade green SD40-2s and a string of loaded garbage containers behind them right before sunset on an October 2007 day.

With Mt Baker off in the distance, there is no doubt that that is a very scenic location along the former Great Northern mainline. However, we should probably be glad that this image isn't available in that proposed smell-o-vision format.

Borderline Psychosis- The Often Overlooked Northern Border Edition: GAO- Only 32 miles of Canadian Border 'Secure'; Smugglers Pipeline in Northern NY

Looking north from the Whitetail, MT border crossing- Mike Stebelton/ Daniels County Leader

A study released in February indicates that just over 32 miles of the nearly 4,000 mile US/Canadian border is considered 'secure' according to the Government Accountability Office (GAO).

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) states the threat of terrorism from the northern border is higher than from the southern Mexico border, given the large expanse of area with limited law enforcement coverage. DHS reports networks of illicit criminal activity and smuggling of drugs, currency, people, and weapons across the northern border.

The report focuses on whether federal agencies are working together to secure the vast stretches of the border owned by the federal government.

The study points out critical gaps in security along the U.S.-Canadian border that limit the ability of Customs and Border Protection to fully secure the border—gaps including a lack of interoperable communications systems and limited sharing of intelligence and information between local and federal officials.

U.S. Customs head Alan Bersin told a US Senate Subcommittee earlier this month that even though the Canadian border sees far fewer arrests than the US/Mexican border, the Canadian border is considered a 'more significant threat' by Customs and DHS.

Although certainly not marred by the bloody narco-violence like Mexico, there are concerns that radical Islamists would attempt to enter the USA through Canada to carry out attacks. In December 1999, an Algerian national was arrested at Port Angeles, WA after entering the country from Victoria, BC when a search of his vehicle turned up plastic bags filled with explosives and some homemade timing devices.

MICHIGAN: Drug traffickers flying in private aircraft have taken to making their drops at small, rural and sometimes unstaffed airports along some border states.

The bust by federal agents didn't happen on the southwestern border. It was in Michigan's rural Thumb region next to a soybean field. The remote airport here in Sandusky offers a smooth runway at any hour to anyone who needs it, a perfect landing spot for brazen drug smugglers who can cross the Great Lakes from Canada in minutes.

Beefed-up enforcement along the Mexican border has made smuggling more challenging for criminal cartels using the major southern routes, but drugs continue to flow across the porous northern border through airstrips like this one as officials look for new ways to fight back.

Tracking rogue planes at low altitude with their transponders off is “like trying to pick a needle out of a haystack,” said John Beutlich of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, who oversees air and marine operations from Washington state to Maine.

“Shoot, we're just a big cherry to pick and didn't realize it,” said Joe Allen, manager of the Sandusky airport, 145 kilometres northeast of Detroit.

He installed a fence to keep cars from meeting planes at the runway, but the property is not staffed at night. Border agents could offer just two signs asking people to call an 800 number if they see something unusual.

Canada is a significant source of high-quality marijuana and the amphetamine Ecstasy. More than 2 million doses of Ecstasy were seized on the northern border in 2009 compared to just 312,000 in 2004, the Drug Enforcement Administration said, offering a snapshot of what's popular and what gets confiscated.

Most shipments come by road. But the 2009 flight from Ontario to Michigan, the subject of a recent federal trial, provided insight into drug operations that use small planes. Officials don't know how frequent such flights are but consider the vulnerability alarming.

Matthew Moody and nephew Jesse Rusenstrom, both from Amherstburg, Ontario, were the couriers captured that night in Sandusky. Their job was to enter the country through Detroit, meet the Canadian plane and deliver the drugs to others in the U.S. They also put 27 kilograms of cocaine worth more than $500,000 on the return flight to Guelph, Ontario.

Matthew Moody and nephew Jesse Rusenstrom, both from Amherstburg, Ontario, were the couriers captured that night in Sandusky. Their job was to enter the country through Detroit, meet the Canadian plane and deliver the drugs to others in the U.S. [In addition to the 79kg of pot and 400,000 ecstacy pills they had flown in and were apprehended with] they also put 27 kilograms of cocaine worth more than $500,000 on the return flight to Guelph, Ontario.

It was just one in a series of shipments. Mr. Rusenstrom said he met the drug plane at least 10 times at other tiny airports in the Thumb region — Marlette, Ray, Lapeer — as well as in Greenville in western Michigan and an airport in Pennsylvania. The pilot activated runway lights from the cockpit, a standard practice in aviation.

Mr. Rusenstrom, testifying at the trial of an accomplice, Robert “Romeo” D'Leone, said hundreds of airports were studied on Google Maps.

“We would go around looking for airports, seeing if there was fences or cameras,” the 21-year-old told jurors.

Mr. D'Leone, who lives in the Toronto area, stopped his trial and pleaded guilty on April 14. Mr. Rusenstrom and Mr. Moody co-operated, pleaded guilty and were recently sentenced to time served in custody. The U.S. still wants to extradite four others in Ontario who are accused of major roles, including the pilot.

Some jurors were alarmed by the revelations during the D'Leone trial.

“You always hear Homeland Security has an eye on everything. It's surprising that airfields aren't manned 24 hours,” Robert Simpson, 47, told The Associated Press.

The Sandusky airport has spent $2,000 on cameras and hopes to install more.
“We're outside radar,” Mr. Allen, the manager, said, running his finger over a map of Michigan's Thumb. “You can come and go as you please. You don't even have to file a flight plan.”

The minimal help he received from border authorities — warning signs — had to be fixed before he posted them: They referred to suspicious boats, not planes.

[What is it with Homeland Security and thinking signs are the answer!?- NANESB!]

NEW YORK: Another locale popular with smugglers and organized crime on both sides of the border is the Akwesasne Indian Reservation just outside of , which straddles the borders between New York State, Quebec and Ontario along the St Lawrence River.

The area's unique geography and patchwork of jurisdictions on both sides of the border has had the attention of smugglers and bootleggers since Prohibition. In more recent years, local residents will either run contraband across the border themselves- either in snowmobiles during wintertime or motorboats when the St Lawrence is navigable- or charge landing fees to smugglers for using their property.

Illegal immigrants, hydroponic marijuana and Ecstasy are usually smuggled into the USA from the Canadian side while illegal firearms, cocaine and untaxed tobacco or alcohol make their way north. Some estimates say that 20% of Canadian grown marijuana smuggled into the USA moves through the Akwesasne/St Regis reservation.

While there are some cigarette factories on the US side of the reservation, the sale of tax free cigarettes on reservation stores has caught the attention of groups like the 'Ndrangheta, Hells Angels and Bulgarian Mafia who will often purchase cigarettes in bulk then turn around and sell the untaxed cigarettes in high tax municipalities like New York City, Montreal or Toronto.

Terrorist organizations such as Hezbollah and the Real IRA have also raised funds through trafficking untaxed cigarettes in the last decade.

National Labor Relations Board Rules South Carolina Boeing Plant Violation of Federal Law

The National Labor Relations Board ruled this week that aircraft manufacturer Boeing was in violation of Federal labor laws by constructing a second non-union facility in South Carolina to facilitate production of its 787 Dreamlier.

The Chicago company called the NLRB's complaint "legally frivolous" and a "radical departure" from precedents. It said it will fight the complaint, which was sought by the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers union.

The NLRB's action comes amid a broad conflict over the role of unions in the economy. Unions have responded to setbacks in the 2010 elections, which put Republicans in charge of the U.S. House of Representatives and in state houses around the country, by pressing the Obama administration and the majority Democrat NLRB to favor union positions.

Boeing [NYSE: BA] had been plagued by strikes and work stoppages in recent years at it's facilities in Everett, WA. The Washington state Boeing plant was represented by Local 751 of the Internationa Association of Machinists, which brought an unfair labor practices grievance against Boeing before the NLRB in March 2010. The complaint alleges that Boeing was using the Charleston, SC plant to threaten IAM workers if the opted to go on strike.

Boeing acquired the South Carolina facility from troubled supplier Vought in July 2009, reportedly citing the risk of strike among the reasons for the 2nd facility in South Carolina. However, Boeing has also recently expanded production in the Puget Sound area.

From all outward appearences, this appears to be the unions using a NLRB stacked with pro Big Labor appointees to do an end-run around right to work states like Souht Carolina or Texas. Boeing has announced that they plan on fighting the ruling.

Exit question: if the NRLB decides to insert itself into a company's decision on where to set up shop, then what really is there to prevent it from imposing Card Check on individual businesses?

Iron Horse Roundup For March 2011- China's High Speed Graft Problem; BNSF Crew Killed in Shuttle Wreck; Southern Consolidated Returns to Steam

Railpictures.net photo- Yu Ming

CHINA: A series of internal government audits have found that China's much-vaunted high speed rail projects have been plagued by corruption, embezzlement, misappropriations and cost overruns, China's National Audit Office announced on Wednesday.

China’s state audit office said on Wednesday it had identified numerous cases of embezzlement and other irregularities from just a three-month period of construction on the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed line last year and has passed the cases on to judicial authorities for formal investigation.

China’s railway minister and the rail ministry’s deputy chief engineer were both removed from their positions last month for “severe disciplinary violations” — an allegation that usually results in criminal charges for corruption.

The former minister, Liu Zhijun, is the most senior government official to be implicated in corruption in the past five years and his downfall has raised doubts about the future of the hugely ambitious high-speed rail expansion plans he championed. Neither Mr Liu nor Zhang Shuguang, the former deputy chief engineer at the rail ministry, have been named in connection with the state auditor’s investigation into the 1,318km, $33 billion Beijing-Shanghai high-speed rail project, which is scheduled to open to the public next year.

The line is the longest and most expensive high-speed rail project in the country but it has been dogged by scandals and controversies and singled out in previous state audits for financial “irregularities”. In its latest report the auditor also cited numerous cases of flawed procurement procedures, overcharging, unexplained costs and fake receipts related to the project.

An intense safety review of all projects is under way because of fears that corruption and the speed with which the network has been built will result in poor quality tracks that are meant to carry trains travelling at up to 380 km/h

Chinese High Speed Rail Attendants- Xinhua Photo

According to the state-run Xinhua News Agency, auditors say that embezzlers made off with the equivalent of $28.5 million for just the Beijing-Shanghai high speed rail project.

As a matter of personal opinion, I think this stands out as a cautionary tale over pinning any sort of long term economic recovery on numerous massive public works projects that would make the Big Dig look well run and fiscally responsible in comparison. It doesn't help that some of the politicians who are the most enthusiastic backers of high-speed rail here in the USA also backed things like TARP, the Stimulus or various government bailouts and have demonstrated zero appreciation for the massive costs involved in building and maintaining a dedicated high speed line.

Photo- Bill Wagner/Longview Daily News

WASHINGTON: Two BNSF Employees and a shuttle driver were killed while a fourth BNSF worker was in critical condition after a BNSF grain train collided with the shuttle van carrying them on March 24th in Longview, WA.

58 year old engineer Tom Kenny, 28 year old conductor trainee Christopher Loehr- both based out of Seattle- and 52 year old Dwight Hauk of Auburn, WA were being picked up by 60 year old shuttle driver Steven Sebastian and take to Vancouver, WA after their shifts when they were struck by the train.

The crossing is a remote, private crossing with no lights or arms that lower and raise on a train's approach. Instead, the crossing features a warning signs on top of a stop sign.

Railpictures.net- John Higginson

TENNESSEE: For the first time in 21 years, Southern Railway 2-8-0 consolidated #630 is under steam. The Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum spent the better part of a decade restoring the 1904-built ALCo to working order, with break-in runs taking place over the last weekend of March 2011.

Almost as noteworthy as the fact that the 2-8-0 is up and running once again is the fact that news of #630's revival was announced on Norfolk Southern's official Twitter page and a short video of the #630 being fired up on the company's official YouTube account. Norfolk Southern had announced last year that it would begin a partial revival of its steam program, using historic equipment form the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum.

Ermelo in happier, more derailment-free times- Eugene Armer photo

SOUTH AFRICA: A derailment on the Transnet line between Ermelo and Richards Bay in the northeastern corner of South Africa is expected to slow coal exports.

The accident, which occurred on Wednesday near Ermelo in South Africa's northeastern Mpumalanga province, is likely to add pressure on South African coal producers, already struggling to export all their coal due to bottlenecks on the rail lines.

Spokesman Sandile Simelane said one of the two lines would reopen on Friday but could not confirm when the other would reopen.

"We anticipate one of the lines to reopen tomorrow," he told Reuters, adding that an investigation into the cause of the derailment was ongoing.

He declined to comment on how much tonnage would be lost as a result of the derailment. Besides the immediate impact, it also means trains have to be rerouted, causing further disruption to the transport of coal.

South Africa is a major exporter of coal to power stations in Europe and Asia, but exporters have failed to ship all of their product because of bottlenecks on the lines approaching the huge Richards Bay Coal Terminal.

South Africa exported 63.43 million tonnes of coal last year, boosted by demand from China and India, but far below the terminal's expanded capacity of 91 million tonnes.

Industry representatives have said South Africa was unlikely to export 60 million tonnes this year due to frequent problems on the line.

Transnet is investing heavily in new and improved infrastructure, but it will take years before a substantial increase in transported tonnages is seen.

Today's Train of Though- Of Sound Mind; Dec 4th, 2010

The Puget Sound & Pacific is a fairly new arrival as far as some of the shortlines in the Pacific Northwest are concerned. After already successfully starting up the Arizona & California and California Northern railroads, the ParkSierra group ventured into the Northwest with their purchase of the former BNSF (nee Northern Pacific) line between Centralia and Grays Harbor, WA (as well as the branch between Elma and Shelton, WA and on north to the naval base at Bremerton) in the summer of 1997. In 2002, ParkSierra Group was purchased by Rail America and the Puget Sound & Pacific as well as the California Northern and Arizona & California were brought into the Rail America fold.

Traffic, like other shortlines in the Pacific Northwest, consists of about what you'd expect- like forestry products. Of course, with the line also serving the Naval base at Bremerton, there's also a touch of the unexpected, like garbage, munitions and Trident missile insertion tubes.

And like other Rail America operations, over time this would mean an influx of power from other, more distant Rail America lines. With the leaves changing on this sunny October 2010 afternoon, railpictures.net contributor Joel Hawthorn caught Puget Sound & Pacific GP38 #3802- still in its ParkSierra paint scheme- rounding the curve and in charge of seven units with the Shelton-Bangor Turn, including power from the Florida East Coast and Dallas, Garland and Northeastern (still in Norfolk Southern paint). The heavier grades north of Shelton require additional power.