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Facebook IPO May Net 27 Year Old Facebook Founder $28 Billion

Facebook Inc.’s impending initial public offering will likely net its 27-year-old founder Mark Zuckerberg a fortune of $28 billion.

According to IPO paperwork Facebook filed Wednesday, Mr. Zuckerberg owns 28.2% of the soon-to-be-public company, and is its single largest shareholder. If Facebook raises money at a high-end valuation of $100 billion dollars, Mr. Zuckerberg’s stock would be worth $28 billion. On top of his stock, last year Mr. Zuckerberg was paid $1.49 million in salary, bonus and other compensation for his role as chief executive, according to the filing.

Indiana Passes Anti-Union ‘Right to Work’ Bill

(Reuters) – The Indiana state Senate on Wednesday gave final approval to a new law allowing workers at unionized businesses to avoid paying union dues, the last major legislative hurdle to making Indiana the first “right-to-work” state in the nation’s manufacturing belt.

No state has approved a right-to-work law since Oklahoma a decade ago, and Indiana is being closely watched nationwide during a presidential election year. The Senate vote was 28 to 22.

Governor Mitch Daniels was expected to sign the bill Wednesday.

Sad day for organized labor.

Michigan House Passes Anti-Union Labor Bill

Lansing— A House committee on Tuesday passed a package of labor reform bills blasted by critics as anti-union measures.

The legislation would add county and municipal employees to the law that prohibits public school teachers from striking and set steep fines for public sector strikes and lockouts.

The bills also would make it easier for employers to get an injunction to stop picketing and require employers to get annual permission from employees to deduct union dues from their paychecks.

The package approved by the House Oversight, Reform and Ethics Committee, chaired by Rep. Tom McMillin, R-Rochester Hills, would have to be passed by the full House and Senate and be signed into law by Gov. Rick Snyder.

An overflow room equipped with a large TV screen was set up next to the hearing room in the House Office Building in Lansing to accommodate the large number of union members who attended today’s meeting.

“This is an unwarranted assault on working people,” said Jerry Skinner of Farmington Hills, a retired electrician and member of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 58, who attended the meeting. “They’re doing it in Indiana and they’re doing it here. We’ll be telling them what we think in November.”

The package is supported by Republicans and business owners who say reforms are necessary to limit the cost and disruption of strikes.

Snyder Rebuffs Right to Work Talk

Detroit— Gov. Rick Snyder on Friday jumped into the simmering debate over right-to-work legislation with some strong words.

“I don’t want to see a bill on my desk,” the governor told The Detroit News, when asked whether he’d sign a bill if one were passed by the state Legislature.

Right-to-work is one of the top issues the Legislature is expected to take up this year. Supporters view the legislation as a way to protect Michiganians against compulsory union membership; opponents view it as a way to depress Michigan’s wages.

“Right-to-work is not on my agenda,” Snyder told a business leaders forum earlier Friday. “We have far more important things. How about this road issue?”

Snyder has discouraged lawmakers from taking up the labor issue, saying it’s too divisive and will distract lawmakers from the task of creating jobs.

Right to Work Fight Coming to Michigan

Supporters and opponents of making Michigan a right-to-work state are closely watching Indiana’s lawmakers debate the issue and gearing up for a possible battle in Lansing this year.

The bill before the Republican-controlled Indiana General Assembly would make it illegal for labor contracts to require employees to pay union dues. The measure, backed by Gov. Mitch Daniels, has prompted mass protests by union workers and a walkout by Democratic lawmakers.

Proponents of right-to-work legislation say freeing industry from cumbersome labor rules and negotiations can help attract and keep employers. But with labor drawing its lifeblood from membership fees, union officials see right-to-work as a direct attack on organized labor.

No wide-ranging right-to-work bills have been introduced in Michigan yet, but there is a growing expectation that could change soon, despite the reluctance of Gov. Rick Snyder to address the issue.

Obama Signs Act Allowing Indefinite Detention of U.S. Citizens

In his last official act of business in 2011, President Barack Obama signed the National Defense Authorization Act from his vacation rental in Kailua, Hawaii. In a statement, the president said he did so with reservations about key provisions in the law — including a controversial component that would allow the military to indefinitely detain terror suspects, including American citizens arrested in the United States, without charge.

The legislation has drawn severe criticism from civil liberties groups, many Democrats, along with Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul, who called it “a slip into tyranny.” Recently two retired four-star Marine generals called on the president to veto the bill in a New York Times op-ed, deeming it “misguided and unnecessary.”

“Due process would be a thing of the past,” wrote Gens Charles C. Krulak and Joseph P. Hoar. “Current law empowers the military to detain people caught on the battlefield, but this provision would expand the battlefield to include the United States – and hand Osama bin Laden an unearned victory long after his well-earned demise.”