Obama to Tap Perez for Labor Secretary

President Barack Obama is expected to announce Monday that Justice Department official Thomas Perez is his nominee to be the next secretary of labor, a White House official said.

The president, during his first term, picked Mr. Perez to lead the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, a position he has held since 2009. Mr. Obama had been known to be considering Mr. Perez to lead the Labor Department in the president's second term.

Hilda Solis, Mr. Obama's first labor secretary, resigned in January.

The White House official credited Mr. Perez with managing Justice Department efforts to reach fair-lending settlements with banks on behalf of alleged victims of unfair mortgage-lending practices. The official also said Mr. Perez had led efforts to enforce human-trafficking laws and stepped up efforts to protect the rights of veterans.

The nomination of Mr. Perez as labor secretary comes as some congressional Republicans have raised questions about his alleged involvement in the Justice Department's decision to stay out of two lawsuits against St. Paul, Minn., in which private plaintiffs alleged the city defrauded the U.S. in its use of housing funds.
Republicans have questioned whether the Justice Department stayed out of those cases in exchange for St. Paul dropping an appeal pending at the Supreme Court in a case that civil-rights advocates had feared would undercut enforcement of U.S. housing-discrimination law.

Mr. Perez's nomination also comes a week after the Justice Department's inspector general found continuing problems with unprofessional conduct in the voting section of the department's Civil Rights Division.

Investigators concluded that the voting section, which reviews reports of voter intimidation, among other things, is split into two ideologically opposed camps that have spent years undermining each other due to their politically differing views of election law. The report said the problems predated the Obama administration, but that they still exist.

In a written response to the inspector general, Mr. Perez said the voting section he inherited had "low morale and an unacceptable degree of staff conflict." He said the division has overhauled hiring procedures and improved management practices.

Mr. Perez, who is Latino, would help diversify a cabinet that some critics have said is disproportionately white and male.

Mr. Perez previously headed the state of Maryland's Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation.

Source: Wall Street Journal (03/18/13) Brent Kendall 

This information is intended to be educational and should not be considered legal advice on any specific matter.

 

Bribes for Government Contracts

A former employee at the Marine Corps Logistics Base Albany pleaded guilty to receiving bribes related to the award of contracts for machine products, announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney Michael J. Moore for the Middle District of Georgia.

Michelle Rodriguez, 32, of Albany, Ga., pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge W. Louis Sands in the Middle District of Georgia to one count of bribery of a public official.

During her guilty plea, Rodriguez, who worked as a supply technician in the Maintenance Center Albany (MCA), admitted to participating in a scheme to award contracts for machine products to companies operated by Thomas J. Cole and Frederick Simon, both of whom pleaded guilty to bribery charges in January 2013.

According to court documents, the MCA is responsible for rebuilding and repairing ground combat and combat support equipment, much of which has been used in military missions in Afghanistan, Iraq and other parts of the world. To accomplish the scheme, Rodriguez would transmit bid solicitations to Simon by fax or email, usually following up with a text message specifying how much the company seeking the contract should bid. Simon, with Cole’s knowledge, would then bid the amount specified by Rodriguez on each order, which was normally higher than fair market value. Rodriguez was paid $75.00 cash per order. Rodriguez admitted during today’s hearing that she awarded Cole and Simon’s companies nearly 1,300 machine product orders, all in exchange for bribes.

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Source: DOJ

This information is intended to be educational and should not be considered legal advice on any specific matter.

Bribing to Secure Government Contracts

Two men employed by a machine products vendor in Albany, Ga., have pleaded guilty to bribing a public official working for a military organization at the Marine Corps Logistics Base Albany (MCLB-Albany) to secure contracts for machine products, announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney Michael J. Moore for the Middle District of Georgia.
 
Thomas J. Cole Jr., 43, and Fredrick W. Simon, 55, both of Albany, each pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge W. Louis Sands in the Middle District of Georgia to one count of bribery of a public official.

During their guilty pleas, Cole, the general manager of an Albany-based machine products vendor, and Simon, an employee responsible for processing sales orders, admitted to participating in a scheme to secure sales order contracts from the Maintenance Center Albany (MCA) at MCLB-Albany by subverting a competitive bid process. The MCA is responsible for rebuilding and repairing ground combat and combat support equipment, much of which has been utilized in military missions in Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as other parts of the world. To accomplish the scheme, Cole and Simon bribed a MCA purchase tech responsible for placing machine product orders. Cole and Simon admitted to participating in the scheme at the purchase tech’s suggestion, after Simon had spoken with the purchase tech about how his company could obtain business from the MCA. Cole and Simon admitted that, at the purchase tech’s request, they paid the purchase tech a bribe of at least $75 for each of the more than 1,000 sales orders MCA placed with their company. According to court documents, the purchase tech would transmit sales bids to Simon and then communicate privately to him exactly how much money the company should bid for each particular order. Cole and Simon admitted that these orders were extremely profitable, often times exceeding the fair market value of the machine products, sometimes by as much as 1,000 percent.

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Source: U.S. Department of Justice

This information is intended to be educational and should not be considered legal advice on any specific matter.

People with Developmental Disabilities Litigation

The Justice Department announced that it filed in federal court yesterday afternoon a comprehensive agreement that will resolve long running litigation with the state of Tennessee originally concerning conditions of care at the former Arlington Developmental Center (ADC). On Jan. 15, 2013, the U.S. District Court in Memphis, Tenn., will conduct a hearing to determine whether to approve the agreement. Individuals affected by the agreement are invited to attend the hearing and provide comment to the Court.

Over the 20-year course of the litigation, the state has made significant changes in the delivery of services for a class comprised of former ADC residents and many other individuals who were deemed at-risk of placement at ADC. Tennessee closed ADC in October 2010. The new agreement reaches many of those in the group deemed at risk of placement in ADC prior to its closure.

 

The agreement resolves remaining issues in the litigation by expanding community-based services so that the state can serve people with developmental disabilities, including intellectual disabilities, in their own homes, their families’ homes or other integrated community settings. The agreement also will provide class members in nursing homes to choice to receive services in integrated, community-based settings. Over the next year, Tennessee will expand community services by providing home and community-based Medicaid waivers to Medicaid-eligible individuals; seeking new and cost-efficient models of care for class members with behavioral needs; and providing supported employment for class members seeking work. This expansion will provide people the opportunity to transition successfully from nursing and other facilities to community settings that can meet their needs and prevent new people from being unnecessarily institutionalized.

 

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Source: U.S. Department of Justice

       

This information is intended to be educational and should not be considered legal advice on any specific matter.

 

Best Practices for Job Postings and Spotting E-Verify Discrimination Flyers

Source:  Department of Justice

The Department of Justice's Office of Special Council for Immigration Related Unfair Employment Practices (OSC) has posted two new flyers to its website.

• “Best Practices for Job Postings” flyer aims to educate employers and recruiters on avoiding citizenship status and national origin discriminatory language in job postings, and to ensure that job applicants are not precluded from consideration on a discriminatory basis. 

•  “How Advocates Can Identify Possible E-Verify-Related Employment Discrimination” is geared toward helping advocates (i.e. IAN Attorneys) identify whether employers misused E-Verify in a discriminatory manner.

Download OSC's "Best Practices for Job Postings"

Download OSC's “How Advocates Can Identify Possible E-Verify-Related Employment Discrimination”