From Bob's Cluttered Desk

Last November the residents of California told the state, by a fairly substantial margin, to keep their labor employment law mittens off of rideshare gig workers. Proposition 22, designed to “define app-based transportation (rideshare) and delivery drivers as independent contractors and adopt labor and wage policies specific to app-based drivers and companies,” passed with a…

We pre-recorded our Hot Seat Webinar yesterday afternoon. Entitled “I’ve Got You Under My Skin, So Hit Me With Your Best Shot In The Dark – An Ode to COVID Vaccination Liabilities”, it will be webcast tomorrow at 1:00 PM eastern time. All Hot Seats prior to this have been live events, but due to…

I think that those of us in the workers’ compensation industry sometimes forget just how vital it is to the health and vitality of the US economy. The vast majority of the 156 million workers in this nation (2019 stats) perform their duties while covered by an occupational protection policy or program. Yet, for both…

It seems that, as a society, there is always something to worry about. Even when good news breaks through the din of negativity we still seem to find elements of concern to worry about. Such is the case with the newly created COVID vaccinations being distributed across the country. Created in record time, the two…

There will be people who are bothered or even offended by the inclusion of the word “dumbass” in the title of this post. Those who are not aficionados of the Cluttered Desk in particular may be surprised by its use in such a prominent fashion. Those who are familiar with this blog, however, may rest…

The football stadium at my alma mater Fort Lewis College has been, since its construction in 1958, known as the Ray Dennison Memorial Field. I had no idea why it was named that way; the reality is I never even wondered about it until several days ago. I happened to come across, via Facebook, an…

There was some irony that the webinar I attended yesterday occurred on the same day I scheduled what will be the first of two total knee replacement surgeries I will have this year. Aging can be a funny thing. If you asked me how old I feel in my mind, I would tell you I…

From time to time over the years, I have pulled out my prognosticative pen and scribed what I believed were 10 events most likely to occur in the year laid out before us. History has not been kind to these efforts. The reality is, I suck at prognostication. I have been wrong far more than…

We recently went through a complete kitchen remodel. It was a comprehensive project that stripped the kitchen to the studs in places and included tearing out and replacing 600 square feet of tile: both in the kitchen and adjacent areas. It was a delightful affair that left my wife and I, along with our two…

  This week, with Congress certifying Joe Biden as the 46th President of the United States and the special election in Georgia shifting power in the Senate, the long and harried election of 2020 has come to a close. As the dust settles, we view the shifting power base in Washington and the new initiatives and…