SAVANNAH, Ga. - A few years back, the heavy-equipment manufacturer JCB held a job fair in the glass foyer of its sprawling headquarters near here, but when a throng of prospective employees learned the next step would be drug testing, an alarming thing happened: About half of them left. That story still circulates within the business community of this historic port city. But the problem has gotten worse. All over the country, employers say they see a disturbing downside of tighter labor markets as they try to rebuild from the worst recession since the Depression: They are struggling to find workers who can pass a pre-employment drug test. [continues 1186 words]
WASHINGTON -- Talk about tough on crime. In George W. Bush's first eight months as Texas governor, about 30,000 more people were thrown into prison, boosting the state's already huge criminal population by nearly a third. The Republican front-runner for president does indeed talk tough on crime. But the startling lock-'em-up statistic from his first year is misleading - -- and only dramatizes how difficult it is to gauge the actual Bush record since 1995. [continues 1293 words]
