Ex-Cook County assessor's employee given 4 years for stealing from $170,000 special county account

The Chicago Sun-Times

The More Government Workers in Virginia Costly to Taxpayers

Daily Press reports:

In the last five years, the number of state employees rose 9 percent and the number of people on local government payrolls 7 percent — but the population grew only 4 percent. Over the last decade, the real story has been the hearty growth in local governments — the number of people working for local governments in Virginia climbed 20 percent, or twice as much as the population.

Barack Obama's plan to win Virginia for the Democrats.

Why Illinois Taxpayers may feel burden of funding municipal pensions

Newsalert

Generous Mass. pensions a drain on state

Mass. Live

Cook County workers stash overtime hours now -- for high pay later

The Chicago Sun-Times

Who's behind the bankruptcy bill

Sacramento Bee

California Legislature needs to kill bad city bankruptcy bill

Contra Costa Times

California Assembly leaders hand out staff raises: 136 staffers increases totaling $551,000

Newsalert

Mass. Police unions roll up votes to restore bonus

The Boston Globe

Average L.A. Firefighter Makes $117,000 With Salary and Overtime

Newsalert

Junkets and junk food for members of Buffalo Board of Education

Buffalo News

Buffalo firefighters blast mayor for listing salaries on Web site

The Buffalo News reports that some people want to hide what government workers make:

The base salaries of about 2,400 employees were posted on the Web site Thursday at www.city-buffalo.com . Brown said the data will be more complete than what most other municipalities post on their sites, because Buffalo includes workers’ names instead of only job titles. Daniel Cunningham, president of the fire union, assailed the move, saying he will talk with attorneys about the possibility of filing a harassment lawsuit against Brown.

“The mayor is just trying to embarrass the men and women in the uniformed ranks for doing jobs that most people in the city appreciate,” said Cunningham.

What's driving the U.S. over a cliff?

CNN

Sacramento flood agency considers huge salary hikes

The Sacramento Bee reports:

Despite the economic crisis that has spurred drastic cuts in state and local government spending, the Sacramento Area Flood Control Agency plans to boost salaries for professional employees by up to 127 percent in the coming fiscal year.

Calpers Seeks to Buy TARP Holdings, Citigroup Assets

Bloomberg

Michigan employees have seen benefits erode over the years

Lansing State Journal

In Vallejo, a warning for medium-sized cities

Daily Democrat

Federal workers may get bigger raises

Overpaid Government Worker

S.F. supervisor gets 64 months in prison

UPI

San Jose councilman admits violating gift laws

San Jose Mercury reports:

A San Jose city councilman Wednesday admitted violating city and state gift policies by accepting three tickets to the San Jose Sharks, worth a total of $461, from team officials including Tom McEnery — the former mayor who at the time was seeking redevelopment funds for a controversial project involving his downtown property.