Even as the cost of serious workplace injury continues to soar, new research concludes that those costs are significantly underestimated. A recent report by insurance company Liberty Mutual revealed that the cost of serious workplace injuries has skyrocketed in recent years. After adjusting for inflation in both health care costs and wages, Liberty Mutual calculated that the cost of serious workplace injuries increased by 12.1 percent between 1998 and 2002, with over half of that increase occurring in 2002.

Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) revealed a proposal for Social Security overhaul last week that has received the attention of both the White House and the House Ways and Means Committee. According to DeMint, the proposal -- dubbed the initiative to Stop the Raid on Social Security Act (S. 274) -- would stop members of Congress from spending Social Security funds that exceed the amount currently needed to pay benefits on other priorities.

Proponents of government secrecy would do well to consider the story of Bethlehem Steel when pushing for greater secrecy in the name of homeland security. The federal government admitted in 2000, that it had knowingly exposed thousands of workers in steel mills to radiation without any protection or warning during the 1940s and 50s. The workers, kept in the dark about the exposure because of national security concerns, have paid for years -- at times with their very lives.

Workers and environmentalists picketed outside the office of New Jersey Attorney General Peter Harvey on June 22 to protest proposed changes to the state's Open Public Records Act (OPRA). Harvey has proposed exempting various facilities from the public records law, including chemical plants, in the interest of homeland security. Protesters expressed concern that the new exemptions are too broad and would conceal from the public important information about toxins in their communities.