Issues

Starting in January 2014, employers with at least 50 workers must offer affordable coverage or pay a penalty. Some are considering outsourcing jobs to specialists such as Kelly, Manpower, Robert Half and Randstad to stay under this limit. "We are already getting inquiries from our client base for companies in and around 50, asking us to help them understand this legislation. .. Our response is that we can legally help them remain under 50," says Keith Waddell, Robert Half's president. more »

Wednesday the Supreme Court Justices heard challenges to the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act. On Tuesday, the court considered California’s Proposition 8. On this question the justices could rule broadly or narrowly: The court could reaffirm a lower court decision striking down the ban, a decision that would legalize same-sex marriages only in California. Or the justices could find Proposition 8 unconstitutional, potentially declaring all similar state bans are as well. more »

The largest source of uncertainty in today’s climate models are clouds. Clouds can both cool the planet, by acting as a shield against the sun, and warm the planet, by trapping heat. But why do clouds behave the way they do? And how will a warming planet affect the cloud cover? “We don’t understand many basic things about clouds,” Lawrence Berkeley Lab scientist David Romps says. more »

Calculating medical risk can be an inexact science, especially for older adults, with many factors from the environment to chronic diseases helping determine how long a person lives. A UC San Francisco team has developed a tool that can help determine – and perhaps influence – senior citizens’ 10-year survivability rates. more »