Members of AFT Public Employees know firsthand how partisanship, spin and rhetoric influence legislative debate at the local, state and federal levels. One of the biggest spinmeisters in the Bush administration’s corner is the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB), which oversees everything from the budget to regulation to proposed legislation. To read between the lines of OMB rhetoric, visit www.ombwatch.org. OMB Watch, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary, was formed in 1983 to lift the veil of secrecy shrouding the agency that helps form, spin and execute White House policy.

Gearing up for contract negotiations? If so, visit the Labor Project for Working Families Web site at http://laborproject.berkeley.edu. The labor project, affiliated with the University of California at Berkeley’s Institute of Industrial Relations, maintains the nation’s only database of contract language on family-friendly workplace policies, ranging from child care to alternative work schedules.

Applications for the 2004 Union Plus Scholarship Program competition are now available. The program, sponsored by the Union Plus Education Foundation, is open to students attending or planning to attend a four-year college or university, a community college or a technical college or trade school. For more information, visit www.unionplus.org/benefits/education/scholarships/.