From Bob's Cluttered Desk

I was very pleased this week to see that our CompNewsNetwork system passed the 10 million article view count. To be more specific, since I am a stickler for accuracy – as of this writing – the system has served 10,084,966 articles up for our visitors. To be fair, I am not such a big…

It was good to see a LexisNexis review published a couple weeks back that gave rave reviews for Rebecca Shafer's book “Workers Compensation Management Program: Reduce Costs 20% to 50%”. Shafer is an industry stalwart and one of the best known cost containment experts around. Additionally, she is a prolific writer (a veritable content machine),…

Wednesday there was a fairly impressive display of solidarity and influence by a collection of web based entities opposing the proposed SOPA and PIPA legislation that is moving through Congress at this time. Many websites, including Wikipedia, went “dark” for the day, signaling their opposition to this particular legislation. Google's response was, in my view,…

It's a cold, bitter winter in this barren land. Resources are scarce, “man camps” spring up to shelter the workers who can find no homes. The government, considered one of the most corrupt in the region, seems incapable of addressing the challenges. North Korea? Nope. Welcome to the Peoples Republic of North Dakota, the PRND.…

An article published this week reveals that some educators are now beginning to see what HR professionals have recognized for several years. It seems that “empty praise” and meaningless accolades may not actually produce an intelligent human being after all. For probably the better part of two decades the education mindset in this nation has…

Lauren Eason's Doctor is dead. Permanently horizontal. Assumed room temperature. Checked into that big waiting room in the sky. Still, despite this apparently minor complication, the State of Arkansas says she cannot have a new doctor. She must, apparently, stick with the dead guy. And you thought your health plan sucked….. The problem, it appears,…

(Warning: This article discusses a sensitive topic and contains content that some may find offensive.) The underlying premise was a serious one: a move was underway to protect workers from bio-hazards in the workplace. The fact that it is in an industry that one never normally thinks of from a workers' compensation perspective is what…

The LexisNexis Workers' Compensation Law Community and the award-winning blog Work Comp Roundup have teamed up to present some common myths and facts about workers' compensation. Published yesterday, the article contains conributions from 10 different industry professionals, and is an interesting cross section of views about important topics in workers’ comp. I was honored to…

I have been noticing that many writers, pundits and experts in the workers' compensation arena have been issuing their predictions for the New Year, in the form of a “Top Ten” list or similar variant. I am not sure why it is always ten items, but it is. Perhaps it is a union rule I…

It is not a job one normally thinks of in relation to workers' comp, but it does in fact venture into our realm. In Los Angeles, a proposal that would require adult film actors to use condoms has qualified for the June ballot. If passed, all porn actors would be required to wear condoms while…