The Small Business Watchdog

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has launched an internal task force that will focus on expanding and improving outreach and technical assistance to small businesses. The Small Business Task Force, led by Commissioner Constance S. Barker, will work to find ways in which the agency could better collaborate with the small business community [...]

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The National Labor Relations Board has agreed to postpone the effective date of its employee rights notice-posting rule at the request of the federal court in Washington, D.C., hearing a legal challenge regarding the rule. The Board’s ruling states that it has determined that postponing the effective date of the rule would facilitate the resolution [...]

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(Was: Deadline Looms for Posting Employee Rights per National Labor Relations Act)
As of January 31, 2012, most private sector employers must post a notice of employee rights under the National Labor Relations Act at their worksites. The notice is free and can be downloaded and printed in multiple languages from the National Labor Relations Board [...]

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 Invention Is the Mother of Economic Growth: Nathan Myhrvold
By Nathan Myhrvold – Dec 19, 2011
One reason “dismal science” aptly describes economics is that it so often winds up in a zero-sum trade-off of diminishing returns. That gets depressing when the global economy is in a sorry state, as it is now.
Most economists gloomily advise [...]

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More college students looking at entrepreneurship 
Fremont resident Casey Miller is confident five years from now she will have her own business.
Since she enjoys cooking, it likely will be a restaurant or bakery. But unlike many other entrepreneurs before her, she doesn’t intend to just seek a bank loan, find a place to set up shop [...]

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On December 9, 2011, the Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) proposed a policy defining the phrase “significant portion of its range” under the Endangered Species Act.  A portion of the range of a species is “significant’’ if its contribution is so important that without that portion, the [...]

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Advocacy releases its Small Business Quarterly Bulletin for the third quarter of 2011.  The brochure-style publication contains commentary and analysis on the current employment and financing trends of small businesses.  The bulletin shows economic variables related to small business trending up. 
If you need further information, please feel free to contact Brian Headd at the Office [...]

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DE KALB (IL) DAILY CHRONICLE — Mentors give business owners a boost
By NICOLE WESKERNA – nweskerna@shawmedia.com
Created: Wednesday, December 14, 2011 5:30 a.m. CST 
SYCAMORE – If it weren’t for a group of business-minded volunteers, Ursula Dargis doubts she’d be in business today.
She said her startup business isn’t just surviving in one of the toughest economies in [...]

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By Todd McCracken and Dan Danner
December 11 
In the past few months, there has been an influx of sentiment claiming that small businesses aren’t really that important to the U.S. economy and that politicians spend far too much time worrying about small business. 
As the heads of the leading national small-business organizations in the United States, we [...]

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Each week while Congress is in session the Office of Advocacy will post a highlights schedule of congressional hearings and committee markups that we think will be of interest to stakeholders in the small business community. For further information on the hearings in question please contact the relevant congressional committee.
THIS WEEK
The House and the Senate [...]

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