Author Archives: Joe

Personnel File versus Field File

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If you work for or are considering working for Pacific Northwest National Laboratory keep in mind they play little word games in an attempt to avoid complying with the law.

At 11:24:36 today I got a call from Mr. Mike Talbot (see page 2 of the FOIA and Privacy Act request).  I had called him last Thursday after getting his response to my requests of July 21.  The letter said I already had my personnel file and therefore they weren’t sending it to me again.  When I called last Thursday I told him the file I had received didn’t contain my performance reviews and goals.  He said he would look into it.  The call from him today was the followup on that conversation.  He said, as I found out after I had talked to him, that my performance reviews and other information I was requesting was in my “Field File”, not the “Personnel File”. And because it was in the “Field File” it did not fall under the Privacy Act as per the contract Battelle has with the Department of Energy.

I don’t care about the details of their contract, I don’t care what they call the file, and I don’t really care if it’s the Privacy Act or Washington State Law that covers it.  I just know they are supposed to give me the information in those files.  Here is the applicable Washington State Law:

RCW 49.12.240
Employee inspection of personnel file.

Every employer shall, at least annually, upon the request of an employee, permit that employee to inspect any or all of his or her own personnel file(s).

RCW 49.12.250

Employee inspection of personnel file — Erroneous or disputed information.

(1) Each employer shall make such file(s) available locally within a reasonable period of time after the employee requests the file(s).

(2) An employee annually may petition that the employer review all information in the employee’s personnel file(s) that are regularly maintained by the employer as a part of his business records or are subject to reference for information given to persons outside of the company. The employer shall determine if there is any irrelevant or erroneous information in the file(s), and shall remove all such information from the file(s). If an employee does not agree with the employer’s determination, the employee may at his or her request have placed in the employee’s personnel file a statement containing the employee’s rebuttal or correction. Nothing in this subsection prevents the employer from removing information more frequently.

(3) A former employee shall retain the right of rebuttal or correction for a period not to exceed two years.

IPSC results posted

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I have the results posted from the August 7th Lewiston Pistol Club match.  As I stated before I came in 4th overall.  Acceptable–considering the lack of recent practice.

Quote of the day–Thomas Jefferson

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Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God.

Motto found among the papers of Thomas Jefferson.

Anniversary weekend

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About 18:30 on August 19th (Friday night) Barb and I decided to go to the B-23 bomber that crash landed on Loon Lake and slid into the forest in 1943 for our 29th wedding anniversary.  We threw some stuff in the Jeep and drove to Riggins expecting to find a motel in either Whitebird or Riggins.  There were none.  The fire fighters had taken what the tourist hadn’t.  We ended up finding an open spot in a campground just off the Salmon river about 12:30 AM on Saturday morning and slept in the Jeep.  After waking at about 6:30 we drove about 50 miles, mostly on one-lane roads, to Chinook campground.  We hiked ten miles round trip from Chinook Campground to the crash site and back to replace a missing geocache (B-23).  Barb had not been there before and was very impressed with the site.  The pictures are here.

On the way out we figured we should go through McCall to improve our chances of finding a motel.  We arrived back at the Jeep about 18:00 tired and sore.  From the Chinook Campground it took us only an hour to reach McCall. Again, the motels were all full except for a luxury suite for $225/night.  We drove to New Meadows.  Again, all full.  We called several motels in Grangeville.  Again, all full.  We drove north, dirty, tired, and getting hungry.  At Pinehurst we found a motel with a Vacancy sign.  We rang the bell and waited, and waited.  Finally a man appeared to tell us his “No” sign was broken.  We drove to Riggins and found a motel with two rooms available.  We were thrilled!  We showered and went to dinner.  It was about 20:40 when we walked into the restaurant.  Except for the cook and the waitress we had the place entirely to ourselves.  Riggins appears to close up early on Saturday nights.  It was great food and we went to bed tired and very happy.  It was a great day in the woods and one of our best anniversaries yet.

Do I get bonus points for shooting in the dark?

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Analog Kid at Random Nuclear Strikes is putting on the rifle postal match I am participating in.  Here is my entry, 100 yards, .300 Winchester Magnum, Blackhills Match ammo.  Except for the sighter target you can see a higher resolution version by clicking on the image.

Temperature was 74 F, indicated altitude of 2300 feet above sea level and my calculator said to use a sight angle of 3.75 MOA.  I took two sighter shots and figured it was good enough:


Two sighter shots.

After the first shot on the real target (below, ball #1) I started aiming at the bottom of the circle which contained the number. 


Completed target.

The shots on balls 10 through 15 were done by the light of my van headlights.  It was about 20:15 when I fired my last shot and getting very dark:


Quote of the day–Lao Tse

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Leaders are best when people scarcely know they exist, not so good when people obey and acclaim them, worst when people despise them. Fail to honor people, they fail to honor you. But of good leaders who talk little, when their work is done, their aim fulfilled, the people will say: “We did this ourselves”.

Lao Tse
[I would argue most of our current political ‘leaders’ fail this test. — Joe]

Quote of the day–George Washington

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When firearms go, all else goes…we need them every hour.

George Washington

The TSA stopped 14 infant terrorists from boarding planes

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Well…not really.  It’s just that the TSA apparently has a severe case of rectal cranium inversion.  From CNN:

Infants have been stopped from boarding planes at airports throughout the United States because their names are the same as or similar to those of possible terrorists on the government’s “no-fly list.”

…

The TSA has a “passenger ombudsman” who will investigate individual claims from passengers who say they are mistakenly on the lists. TSA spokeswoman Yolanda Clark said 89 children have submitted their names to the ombudsman. Of those, 14 are under the age of 2.

It was Schneier’s post that alerted me.  He is more polite than I on this topic.

Update: As one of the comments indicates it appears the TSA says to allow kids under a certain age to travel even if their name is on the watch list.  But if it’s “in the fine print” the ticket agent is almost for certain going “to play it safe”.

Quote of the day–Will Rogers/Anonymous

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Diplomacy:  The art of saying “nice doggie” until you can find a rock.

Will Rogers

Diplomacy is the art of saying “nice doggy” until you get a sight picture.

Anonymous adaptation
[“Sight picture” refers to having the sights on your firearm aligned on the target correctly. — Joe]

PNNL responds to my FOIA request

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I scanned in the letter (page 1 and page 2) I received today.  Basically they said, “You have all the documents you are going to get.”  But they did give me a link to a website with at least some of the Policies and Procedures Manual.  This was a big help.  It explains a couple of things.  It includes list of things that can result in First Offense Termination.  It includes “dishonesty” and “unauthorized disclosure, access, or use of information that is proprietary or confidential to PNNL or its clients”.  Both of those items were in my termination letter and were totally unexpected and unjustified.  I was completely taken aback they said such things about me–particularly since they never confronted me and asked for any explanation about any such allegations.  It was only be including those things that they could justify a first offense termination.

It was also by going through this Policies and Procedures website that I was able to find out how they justified not sending my performance reviews.  I asked for my “Personnel File.”  They did send me my “Personnel File.”  What I was interested in was in my “Field File.”  I see…

I’ll post more as I learn more.  See also the new section at the bottom of the main page of the PNNL info site.

Canada inches away from socialism

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Or should that be “millimeters away”?  It’s not a lot of progress but it’s encouraging:

EDMONTON — All Canadians should have the right to buy private health insurance to complement their care in the medicare system, the country’s leading doctors’ group says.

The Canadian Medical Association said, in essence, that a recent Supreme Court of Canada judgment, which struck down a ban on private health insurance in Quebec because patients were not ensured timely access to care, should apply to all Canadians.

In doing so, the CMA, which represents the country’s 62,000 doctors, also clearly rejected the notion yesterday that there should be a medicare monopoly. It did so just one day after doctors gave their backing to the existence of a parallel, private for-profit health system.

…

Barry Erlick, a physician from Toronto, told his colleagues that buying private insurance would be a wise investment because the medicare system cannot keep pace with demand for services.

“Governments are failing my patients today,” he said during the debate. “We are saying, ‘Give our patients options to alleviate their suffering.’ “

Chat with Don Kates

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I had a chat with Don Kates yesterday.  Although he lives in Washington State he isn’t licensed to practice there.  He suggested another “very gun friendly” lawyer to talk to for help on my case.

Quote of the day–Jeff Cooper

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The Republic is in very bad shape – probably the worst since 1776 – but it does us all well to remember that the principles of the Founding Fathers stand as sound and irrefutable today as yesterday. We must bear in mind that “they” cannot disarm us. They do not have the legal power, of course, but neither do they have the physical power. An army may be defeated by another army, but the people of a nation cannot be, as long as they are aware of their principles and maintain their determination to observe them. We hope, of course, that “they” never presume to try, because “they” simply cannot do it. What the American people need is the viscera to tell “them” No! God grant that we still have the courage!

Jeff Cooper
Jeff Cooper’s Commentaries
Vol. 2, No. 2
31 January 1994
[Those were very dark days in the mid-90’s.  Most people forget how serious things were and how much they have improved. — Joe]

TSA considers a grasp on reality

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It’s only a clue, but it’s a start:

The federal agency in charge of aviation security is considering major changes in how it screens airline passengers, including proposals that an official said would lift the ban on carrying razorblades and small knives as well as limit patdown searches.

The Transportation Security Administration will meet later this month to discuss the plan, which is designed to reduce checkpoint hassles for the nation’s 2 million passengers. It comes after TSA’s new head, Edmund S. “Kip” Hawley, called for a broad review in hopes of making airline screening more passenger-friendly.

Someone should do some serious research into the alternatives.  It won’t be the TSA, of course, because they might find out they are irrelevant or even counter productive.

Quote of the day–Jeffrey R. Snyder

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Call for a cop, call for an ambulance, and call for a pizza. See who shows up first.

Jeffrey R. Snyder
A Nation of Cowards
Published in the Fall, ’93 issue of The Public Interest, a quarterly journal of opinion published by National Affairs, Inc.

Boomershoot prep weekend update

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I failed in my primary objective last weekend.  I wanted to get hoods over the locks and hasps to comply with the ATF.  Originally they said the locks and hasps I was using were fine but now I need to put the hoods on them.  Not that big of a deal except I needed a welder out in the middle of the field.  The welder I would have used was in use since it was on the back of a service truck being used in harvest.  Harvest will be over in a couple weeks and I’ll go back and finish up that task. 

What I did get done was fixing some electrical problems and properly storing more of the thousands of pounds of Ammonium Nitrate I bought.  I had stored about 1200 pounds in six garbage cans under a tarp.  I rearranged things inside the metal shed and got that down to about 600 pounds stored under the tarp.  I destroyed several yellowjacket nests inside the shed.  Put out more mice and rat poison.  And finally–I don’t know how many times I have bumped my head on the overhead flourescent light.  I moved it so I can stand upright even while wearing a hat.  More pictures here.

If you believe in compromising on gun control

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Gun owners compromised in England and now look at things.  The anti-gun owner bigots in England can’t be happy with a total ban on handguns!  Now they are going after imitation guns:

Steve Walker of GCN said “…our position is clear. If it looks like a gun it should not be allowed.”

Gill Marshall-Andrews, GCN’s chair, said: “No one needs a realistic imitation gun – except perhaps a re-enactment society.”

GCN is Gun Control Network.  Check out their objectives.  This is what you can expect if you attempt to compromise with them.  Who could imagine that two or more people outside of a mental hospital would insist there be a “Ban on the sale, manufacture and import of imitation guns and their possession in a public place.”?  Why does the newpaper consider the rantings of lunatics newsworthy?

Quote of the day–Henry David Thoreau

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Any fool can make a rule
And every fool will mind it.

Henry David Thoreau
(1817-62), U.S. philosopher, author, naturalist.
Journals (1906), entry for 3 Feb. 1860.

It makes as much sense as what we are doing now

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Bruce Schneier reports on a new method of airport security:

Photograph from What-the-Hack.

My thoughts on airport security.

IPSC results

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The results from the ISPC match I shot last Sunday are in.  I’ll get them posted on the Lewiston Pistol Club website soon.  I came in 4th out of 10 which is in the top half.  I’m pretty pleased considering the lack of practice.  I did best in the clasifier (DVC: Vis = Power) and came in second–four Pepper Poppers and two IPSC targets at 10 (?) yards.  I shot all the steel and got all “A’s” on the paper (eight shots total) in 5.37 seconds for a hit factor of 7.4488.