Urban News

DENVER AIRPORT SCREENERS AT MORALE EBB

Newly hired security screeners at the sprawling Denver International Airport say managers have too much power to capriciously fire people, telling the Denver Post morale is plummeting and causing a security risk.

The paper reports 16 screeners and a few supervisors said they feel intimidated on the job and more than a dozen employees have sent an official letter to Rep. Mark Udall, D-Colo., asking for help.

The complaining screeners say they joined the new Transportation Security Agency because they wanted to "show their patriotism" and help keep the country safe. They say in return they got a management-labor fiasco that makes many of them dread going to work.

One area of concern is that managers consistently hire their "cronies" and that playing favorites has become standard procedure, the paper says.

DETROIT TAXPAYERS MAY FOOT BILL FOR REDO

A new report says taxpayers in suburban Detroit might end up paying millions of dollars to repair an old court house building.

The Old Wayne County Building, as it's officially called, has a lease deal that, according to the Detroit Free Press, may cause citizens in the area to pay $5 million in planned renovations.

The building houses county administrative offices and several key departments. For the past 20 years it's been owned by an investment partnership that bought it from the county and subsequently spent over $23 million on renovations.

To make matters worse, the report comes as Wayne County already is expected to be drowning in more than $55 million of red ink by the time the fiscal year is over.

Questions have arisen about the partnership's record-keeping and billing practices. In a recent invoice one section showed more than $600,000 in "miscellaneous expenses" and another invoice mentioned $4,400 in political contributions.

ATLANTA SEWER REPAIR GOING NON-STOP

People living around an ongoing Atlanta sewer repair project are facing around-the-clock noise and construction, the Atlanta Journal and Constitution, says because there is a deadline for project completion.

The repairs being made bring the city's water supply into compliance with federally mandated pollution-control levels.

If the deadline is not met, the city would have to pay big fines, up to $700,000 per day.

Residents are being subjected to the movement of trucks and use of heavy equipment day and night and some units have beep-beep-beep warning devices that go on whenever they are put in reverse.

NEW ORLEANS SCHOOLS FACE TAKEOVER

A plan that could mean a management takeover of some failing New Orleans schools is circulating because despite calls for the schools to get their act together, particularly in the area of statewide and national test scores, in many cases things have not improved.

The New Orleans Times-Picayune says some state legislature are calling for a change in laws that would make it possible for management contracts to be let so failing schools could be wrested from local control. This has happened in several other states in recent years.

One plan might involve colleges and universities in cities with failing schools. The institutions of higher learning would bid on contracts to run the schools of lower education until things improved.

Another idea is hiring private companies to run schools but the Times-Picayune says the political climate in New Orleans might preclude that happening.