Marijuana Meatballs

New York Police officer Anthony Chiofalo was terminated after appeal for failing a drug test.

Chiofalo, a 22-year-veteran detective on the NYPD force claimed his wife spiked his meatball with marijuana, causing him to fail the test. However, judges agreed that the levels of marijuana in Chiofalo's system were inconsistent with accidental exposure.

Chiofalo's wife, Catherine, claims she smokes marijuana for back pain and told investigators she laced her husband's meatballs in hopes that he would be fired before getting killed on the job.

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Drug Tests for Missouri Public Officials & Welfare Recipients

On Thursday, Missouri elected officials agreed that public officials and welfare recipients will undergo drug screening.

Lawmakers and other state officeholders would receive a drug test before taking office and again every two years. The officials are required to foot the bill for the test, refusal to do so - or to take the test - will be considered an admission that they are using controlled substances.

Those citizens receiving cash welfare payments would be tested if the Department of Social Services felt there was "reasonable suspicion." Refusal would render the citizen ineligible to receive the benefits for one year. Children affected by the refusal would receive benefits handled by a third party outside the household.

In October, Social Service Department employees who fail to report suspected drug use are subject to immediate termination.

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Report: Background Checks Increase Nationwide

Workforce Management reports that the background screening industry has seen explosive growth over the last decade. Criminal background checks are becoming nearly universal with 93% of all employers nationwide performing some type of criminality check.

10% of employers report that criminal records lead to adverse affects when making a hiring decision.

71% of employers report that they conduct criminal background checks to protect their organization and reduce risk.

There has been some controversy behind the sudden increase. Employers using criminal background checks to make long lists of applicants smaller, to many, appears to be discriminatory. These employers are essentially using criminal records, traffic violations, or bad credit to make character assumptions, even when there the records are not related to the job at hand.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) filed a claim that employers rejecting job applicants based on their credit history and criminal offenses were exclusionary practices and are not indicative of employee performance.

In an online poll, 73% of nearly 2,500 voters agreed that the practice is indeed, discriminatory:

http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/career/?p=1655

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Crimes Commited by Criminals

Each Wednesday, Liberty brings you Crimes Committed by Criminals, a new feature intended to highlight the most important reason to screen for criminals.

Most persons arrested for criminal offenses have prior arrest records, and many have arrest records in more than one state.
(Federal Bureau of Investigation)

Dorina Williams - 26 criminal charges on record since 1994 for shoplifting, resisting arrest, and assualt on an officer. Sentanced to 14 day program at the Women's Reception and Evaluation Center in 2004 and 2007 in attempt to break the cycle of crime. January 15, 2010 - Williams was involved in an altercation at a Wal-Mart after being suspected of shoplifting. Williams collapsed in the juvinelle section of the store. The exact cause of death is unknown at this time.

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What Failure to Research Costs

In a strange case, Russian mail-order bride agency appears to have defrauded an American man, Kevin Linehan, out of over $50,000.

Linehan believes that the parent company of the organization, KGA International, had a hand in the disappearance of his investment, "I don't know anything about where the money went, all I know is it disappeared."

One of the corporate officials of KGA, Anthony Lawhon, denied any wrongdoing, "I absolutely, unconditionally was not involved with dealing or defrauding Mr. Linehan. He's a disgruntled investor...If he believes Mr. Nichols {another KGA official} did these things, I had no participation in it."

Linehan's lawsuit claims that Lawhon know Mr. Nichols had a criminal record for felony crimes involving fraud, but didn't tell the partners. Further research indicates that Nichols has an extensive history of fraud and embezzlement.

"Do you think I would have signed papers and let my money get transferred if I had known he was a criminal?" Linehan said. "Lawhon had a duty to disclose that were going into business with a criminal."

The cost of failing to protect yourself and your interests is just this, easily preventable possible fraud. Unfortunately, it appears that Linehan has a long battle back to obtain his investment, and he adds, he still hasn't found a wife.

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The Unemployed to be Drug Tested in South Carolina

South Carolina's state capital is reading a bill that could affect some 150,000 South Carolinians receiving unemployment benefits. The bill would require a negative drug test to receive the benefits they need. Senator David Thomas proposed the bill, requiring anyone applying for the benefits to be tests and a then subject to random testing in the future.

South Carolina is headed into debt due to the large number of people receiving benefits in the state. Last year, they paid over $934 million in benefits to the unemployed and had to borrow from the federal government to make ends meet.

"They should not be expected to pay taxpayer money with this when that unemployment is being used for drug use," said Thomas. "It's actually meant to be helpful to these individuals perhaps if they are misusing drugs to say to them, nope, that's not what you should be doing with your money number one. Number two, if you're on drugs and you go to apply for work, don't you understand that you're going to be tested very likely in that place of employment and you're not gonna be able to get work?"

Other representatives fear such laws would push the drug users in the lives of crime, "When someone has no income and you'll see crime begin to elevate," said House Representative Leon Howard.

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Social Security Administration Fails Audit

In a strange turn, an audit by the SSA's inspector general discovered that the department responsible for maintaining the E-Verify system has failed to check their own employees. It failed to check 19% of new hires in 2008 and 2009. Nearly half of the checks they did perform were not done according to time limitations set by E-Verify.

All federal agencies are required to check their new hires agaisnt the system. Federal contractors are also required to check new hires, and three states require all businesses check new hires.

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How to Hire

What do you do when your best employee relocates to another city and another job? You're number one sales associate changes professions? Or your lead manager left for lunch and never returned?

In either scenario, you'll be left in a pinch. In situations such as these, impulse hiring can be tempting, replacing a valued employee can seem daunting, and rash decisions are easily made.

To keep your head on straight during this stressful period, remember a few golden rules:

1. Know the position. The better you understand the requirements of the job, the more simple it will be to pull out the most qualified candidates. Re-think the job description and make sure it truly describes the duties expected and required of the job.

2. Develop an outreach plan. Target your job market effectively by utilizing the appropriate listing services. Job seekers are online, on social networks and looking for the best position available to them. You want to collect the attention of the best job seekers so you want to advertise the position using as many outlets as possible.

3. Screen application. You should have a stack of excellent looking applications and resumes. When it comes time to narrow the playing field, you'll need to weed out anyone who isn't an immediate match. Pre-employment screening is an effective way to do this. Conduct background checks. Call references, not just those listed but check former employers as well. This last step is vital to insuring the safety of your organization.

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Illegal Immigration: Cracking Down

All Federal contractors are required to process their employees through the government E-Verify program. It is an federally maintained electronic database system containing Social Security and other records. Now, cities across the US are getting in on the act.

Dallas' city areas have begun to adopt new requirements for city contractors in an attempt to tackle illegal immigration. "I want people we do business with to show they're doing their due diligence," said Lewisville city council member, John Gorena.

Though three states - Arizona, Mississippi, and South Carolina currently require all employers to make use of the system, Texas currently has no such requirement. The proposal was met with some criticism and opponents concerned about getting too involved in developing immigration policies.

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Make Way for Fraud : Falsified Employment Letters

Kevin Sluga and his wife Leslie, owners of California Business Solutions cooperated with authorities and admitted under oath that they prepared employment verification letters containing false information. The letters allowed their son-in-law, realtor David Crisp, his wife, and their associates to purchase homes they could not otherwise afford.

The letters contained misstatements about the borrowers' employment and occupation. The letters allowed more than $12.6 million worth in homes to be purchase. The lenders themselves were defrauded out of nearly $4 million.

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Welfare Applications to Include Drug Tests

The Nebraska government has a new bill in Legislature seeking to approve a measure to require all applicants for welfare to undergo mandatory drug testing to receive it. 22 other states attempted to pass the bill last year, but were unable to due to concerns about privacy and cost.

Sen. Charlie Janssen's bill requires Nebraska's Department of Health and Human Services to develop a plan to test welfare recipients and applicants for drugs. A positive results would mean a loss of benefits for one year.

Janssen said, "When a taxpayer gives assistance to somebody, it's assistance so they can get back up on their feet. It's kind of a slap in the face to the tax payers when they say, 'We're going to get up on our feet while we're doing drugs."

In 1999, Congress authorized states to implement drug testing for welfare, but Michigan is the only state to implement it only to have it thrown out be a federal judge for allowing for random drug testing, violating constitutional protections against unreasonable search and seizure.

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Wrongful Termination: Facebook Details

A Georgia school teacher was terminated just three weeks into the 2009 school year when one of her students told school officials that the teacher's Facebook page included photos of her consuming alcohol.

Ashley Payne sued the school last week for being forced to resign without due process. Administrators confronted her about the content of her Facebook page. "There's so much focus on this one little thing in my personal life, and nothing on the good things I had done there," said Payne. "I didn't do anything unethical or immoral. I didn't use foul language or act that way in the classroom."

Payne may have the ability to win the suit, but it is advisable that any professional in any field monitor their public profiles, your employers and clients certainly are.

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Work Place Violence

After the fatal shooting in Orlando, FL and the mass murders at Fort Hood in Texas, the issue of workplace violence has America buzzing again.

The Fort Hood incident has received a lot of media coverage already and is one of those terrifying incidents that remind us all that people are unpredictable and that they can be violent. Due to the large-scale terror inflicted by the gunman at Fort Hood, much of the incident in Orlando was under covered by the media.

After one year at an engineering firm in Orlando, Jason Rodriguez was fired for failure to improve performance. Over the next two years, Rodriguez apparently never got over the termination and returned to the job killing one employee and injuring others.

While rare, these types of incidents remind people in our industry of exactly why background checks are down. Not all workplace violence result in death or serious injury, but we should all be aware of the escalation that can occur. Those instances of non-lethal violence such as stalking, threats, intimidation, harassment or property destruction often go unreported. Bullying can escalate and most businesses, at some point, experience some form of work place violence.

Background checks are important for finding out if a person has a past history of violence, but it is important to remember that if somebody has no past, there is really know way of knowing if they are capable of such violence.

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7 Hot Topics When Selecting a Background Screening Firm

If you are in business, you know that often, one of the best ways to protect your company is to protect it from criminals. Most companies perform pre-employment background checks, band almost all consider it at some point.

As a company makes their selection process the following seven hot issues are things to consider when making your service provider selection. The industry is moving away from the idea that background checks are the unequivocal way to weed out a bad choice, and understand that the entire investigation can actually play a role in defining your company values and what constitutes a qualified candidate.

1. Your service provider should be able to guide you in making decisions based on the quality of information provided. They can help you implement company wide hiring decisions, make them visible to all recruiters. Company-wide hiring standards protect you in the long wrong. Ask your provider or your prospective provider today what they can do to help.

2. Advances in technology allow your provider to give you faster initial screening results that reach a broader amount of sources for information. Automated database searches can give you quick delivery of results, but should also be backed up by in-depth searches to ensure no records were missed. Be wary of a service provider who sells you an instant background check with no other investigations, they are likely utilizing a database and are bound to miss records.

3. New studies indicate previous notions about the likelihood to commit crimes have changed. New laws may be introduced as a result of these studies. Your provider needs to be aware that employment laws are subject to change. You should feel confident your provider will provide you with the information necessary to keep you legal and for the fair treatment of all applicants.

4. As job competition heats up, more and more applicants will be using inflated information on the resumes - they will falsify work information, education history, references, anything they can to get an edge over their competition. Ask your provider what sort of measures they take to ensure your candidate really is the best person of the job, and not just a bunch of smoke and mirrors.

5. Regular follow up background checks are a good idea. Many companies use a background check as a pre-screening tool only, but if your now current employee commits a crime over that long three day weekend, there is a chance you may not know about it. Follow up screenings can be sensitive areas and it's a good idea to consult with your provider to set up company-wide standards and procedures.

6. Employment authorization. Be sure your employees are eligible to work in the United States. The subject has been under scrutiny for the last 3 years in Washington, DC, and many new laws have gone into effect that could seriously undermine your ability to perform well under a government audit.

7. Your provider should also be up to date on the growing unease of the use of credit checks as a pre-screening tool. Washington state, Connecticut and Hawaii have all passed laws regulating the use of this information. Ask your provider how that effects your pre-screening policy today.

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Employee Records: Keep Them, and Keep Them Organized

Most companies keep some semblance of good, organized employee files. Going above and beyond when it comes to keeping the files up to date and archived is a not often used, but highly recommended practice.

In the event of employee grievances or in the terrifying case that your company becomes subject to a government audit, you'll be happy you took the time to implement a good policy when it comes to archiving these important documents.

Good practice is to create the file no later than the first day of hire. Any documents that are signed by the employee should be stored in that file. Two copies should be made, and provided to the employee. The file cabinet containing the documents should be locked at all times, and any I9 and employment verification documents are to be kept in a separate locked file.

Its a good idea to take a look at your state labor board's website for further descriptions on what type of information should be retained both during the employees tenure and after their termination.

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Driving Safer for Teens

Great news for parents of teenagers! A new application disables cell phones while driving.

Jonathan Young, president of Textecution, developed a user-friendly phone application that can disable the cell phone whenever a car is moving. It took two months to develop the software which links the device to the vehicles GPS functions. When the vehicles moves more than 10 mph, all texting is disabled. Once the vehicle stops, it is available again.


Parents are given the authority to enable and disable the software as they see fit, for example, if the teen is a passenger in the car, Mom and Dad would probably be willing to allow them to text while moving.


Textecution is an application for phones utilizing the Android Platform.

Textecution believes the application will be on the phones of most teenagers in three years.

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Crimes Committed by Criminals

Each Wednesday, Liberty brings you Crimes Committed by Criminals, a new feature intended to highlight the most important reason to screen for criminals.

Most persons arrested for criminal offenses have prior arrest records, and many have arrest records in more than one state.

(Federal Bureau of Investigation)

Daniel Vincent - 16 bank robberies - 5 years in Federal Prison

Released from federal custody in April 2008, Vincent faces new robbery charges after a car chase ended in a crash outside Lexington, KY.

Lexington's First Federal Bank was robbed at 11:27am on Friday, November 6. The man, dressed in black, implied he had a gun, collected money, and fled the scene in a black SUV exceeding 80mph before crashing. Vincent is being held on first degree robbery charges in Kentucky.

Vincent pled guilty to robbing 16 banks in a 20 month spree in November 2003. He took over $53,000 from the banks.

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Rhode Island Churches Weigh In on the Immigration Debate

In an interesting move, the Rhode Island Council of Churches has issued a document urging their followers to be compassionate toward immigrants - illegal or otherwise.

Reverend Donald Anderson stated that the document wasn't to be considered a policy paper, but more of an outline on the principles of immigration as described in the bible to help those with faith approach the issue.

The document outlines many cases of immigration in the bible, most notably the Jewish relocation from Egypt. It proceeds to argue "Since one motivation for immigration is the relative prosperity of the U.S., some may argue that the federal government should protect that prosperity from declines caused by excessive immigration. It is not clear if the U.S. economy is improved or worsened by immigration."

It lists some standard acceptable beliefs such as giving legal status to families attempting to reunite.

The immigration debate goes in cycles, but it seems we're in for a long slow burning as all sides continue to weigh in on the best approach to the issue. What is certain, E-Verify is currently here stay, and the R.I. Council of Churches had nothing bad to say about that particular standard.

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Idaho Schools Plan Nicotine Testing

Cassia County School District is making plants to test their student athletes for nicotine use. 20% of Idaho teenagers use tobacco illegally.

The student athletes are already undergoing mandatory drug and alcohol testing.

Cassia County School District Superintendent Gaylen Smyer stated that when "the athletes make the team they will be randomly tested throughout the season. When the athletes are randomly tested 50% of the tests will check for the presence of nicotine."

The school district will use the data received from the random tests to further document cigarette use among teenagers. Offending teens shouldn't receive as severe punishment for positive tests since nicotine is not an illegal drug like marijuana or cocaine. However, it is illegal of children under the age of 18 to posses nicotine, so it should be taken seriously and the matter handled proactively with counseling and support.

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Medical Marijuana in the Workplace

In April 2008, Michigan deemed medical marijuana a legal right, and since then about 5,100 people have registered as users with just over 1,000 denied applications. The prescriptions are for pain relief among people who are chronically and terminally ill. Michigan isn't alone, 13 states across the county have legalized marijuana for medicinal use.

What happens when a medical marijuana user tests positive for a drug test? In an article for freep.com, Kathleen Gray investigates.

In states where employees have tested positive for drug use but were medicinal users, the law has consistently sided with the employer.

Michigan's laws aren't clear cut. One section states that the user cannot be "subject arrest...or denied any right or privilege including...disciplinary action by a business," yet another portion states "nothing in the act shall be construed to require an employer to accommodate the ingestion of marijuana in any workplace or any employee working while under the influence of marijuana."

Executive director of the Institute for a Drug Free Workplace, Mark de Bernardo states, "Marijuana is a dangerous drug that detrimentally affects the workplace. It has impacts on health care costs, productivity, accidents, and employee turnover."

It seems that users are not protected by this law from losing their job. Should a positive test come back, as it would for any prescription drug, an MRO should deem that a prescription in fact justifies the use, it seems it is up to the employer whether or not they would like to take the risk of having a pot smoker in their workplace.

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