Here’s a chilling story from MSNBC:
Two laptop computers with detailed personal information about commercial drivers who transport hazardous materials across the United States are missing and considered stolen. The laptops belong to a contractor working for the Transportation Security Administration and contain the names, addresses, birthdays, commercial driver’s license numbers and, in some cases, Social […]

The U.S. mortgage crisis is touching just about every area of society, both here and overseas. You can bet that legislators at all levels are lining up to hold hearings and propose legislation. After all, that will often get them TV coverage which seems to be the object of so many political activities.
In New Jersey […]

I love how official spokespersons try to slide around issues. Consider the case of Kansas University and background checks.
The Lawrence Journal-World and News reported on October 14, 2007 that there were felons employed at the university. They also reported that “the University does not conduct criminal background checks on most employees.”
The University sprang into public […]

Back in 2001, Scott McNealy, the CEO of Sun Microsystems, roused the media with a zinger delivered at a new product introduction. “You have zero privacy anyway,” McNealy told a group of reporters and analysts, “Get over it.”
That may not have been exactly true then, but now an Iowa University professor, Mark Andrejevic, says that […]

Delaware Online reports on a major security effort involving port workers with the headline: “Port is first in U.S. to get new ID cards.” Here’s the lead.
After months of delays and nearly $100 million spent, a nationwide effort to issue standardized, high-security ID cards to more than a million longshoreman, dock workers, truckers and port […]

More and more businesses, government agencies and not-for-profits are using background checks every day. Most people are fine with that, but some people don’t want to be the ones that get checked.
Some NASA workers even tried to get a judge to issue an order saying that the government couldn’t ask them certain questions on a […]

If you think that more people are lying on their resumes and employment applications you’ve got support from an expert.
Jude M. Werra runs an executive search firm based in Brookfield, Wisconsin. Business Week reports that for a quarter century, Mr. Werra has been tracking the “executive résumé fraud, credentials inflation, and the misrepresentation of […]

Up in Boston, Harvard School System Superintendent Thomas Jefferson has escaped one kind of trouble just in time to land in another kind. When the Worcester district attorney’s office announced that it wouldn’t pursue a criminal case on alleged illegal payments, Johnson must have breathed a sigh of relief.
Now he’s in trouble in a different […]

“For anyone who is dating and in a serious relationship, I strongly recommend doing a background check on your significant other. This could save you much pain and heartache.”
That’s from a letter to the editor of the Tuscaloosa News headlined, “Before dating, check background.” Here’s the story.
The writer of the letter met a woman he […]

Nina Kaufman, who writes the “Make It Legal” blog for Entrepreneur filed a post titled “Conducting Background Checks.” The blog provides information on legal matters for small businesses. Most of the advice is pretty straightforward. If you read this blog regularly, you know that we frequently offer advice like the following on background checks.
. . […]

On Sunday, September 23, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram ran a major story by Darren Barbee about the Texas Department of Aging and Disability Service and that agency’s background check and certification procedures for nurse aides. The headline was “Nurse aides let back into jobs despite ban: Texas recertifies some caregivers who were disciplined in theft […]

When Judy Krezmer put together her program titled “Background Checks and Security Clearances” for the Pennsylvania College of Technology, she zeroed in on important advice for job seekers.
The current emphasis on security and liability has made employers a lot more cautious about who they hire. No matter what job you apply for, you are likely […]