Before You Make the Offer: 10 Tips

Question: What's more expensive than the time and money invested in hiring and training a new employee? Answer: Doing it again, when a new hire exits unexpectedly. What can we do as managers to improve the odds on a new hire being a perfect fit? Here are some strategies to employ before an offer is made.

New Background Check Measure Slows Hiring but Not Financial Burden, School Districts Say

New state legislation requiring more extensive background checks for school district employees has significantly slowed local hiring, but school officials say the delay should have little direct effect on students.

The legislation requires fingerprinting and a national criminal background check for all non-certified public school employees who have direct contact with students.

Site Helps With Finding Safe Sitters For Kids, Pets

Baby sitters, pet sitters or care for aging parents -- it's hard figuring out whom you can trust.

NBC 10's Dawn Timmeney showed how the simple click of a mouse can help you find a reliable sitter.

The online resource for parents, Care.com, comes complete with background checks and references.

Criminal Checks Urged for Renters

Pike UNITE is urging property owners within Pikeville city limits to help build a safer community by doing background checks on potential renters.

Pikeville City Commission has agreed to partner with the coalition, Pike UNITE Coordinator Amber Campbell reported to members last Thursday, “as long as no funding is needed.”

A Loophole in Dire Need of Closing

Sen. Henry Marsh knows his bill to close the state’s gun-show loophole faces an incredibly uphill fight, but at least he had several hundred folks show up Monday supporting his initiative.

Senate Courts of Justice committee hearings rarely are among the things that get people up early to pack a hearing in Richmond, but Marsh’s bill was one of the rare exceptions.

Introduced in the wake of the April 16, 2007, massacre of 32 people at Virginia Tech by crazed gunman Sueng-Hui Cho, Marsh’s bill would require anyone purchasing a gun at a gun show and everyone selling a gun at a gun show to undergo and to perform a background check.

Board Approves Background Checks for Coaches

The Gentry Youth Organization will begin conducting background checks on its coaches and assistant coaches.

At its Jan. 9 meeting, the GYO Board approved the measure by a unanimous vote. The head coach and an assistant coach from each team will be required to fill out an application, be interviewed by the board and have a background check done, with the applicant being responsible for the cost of the background check - thought to be about $20.

UW Campuses Begin Mandatory Criminal Background Checks

People with criminal pasts will be red-flagged if they’re applying for work on UW campuses. Mike Simonson reports from Superior.

When the Legislative Audit Bureau found that 40 convicted felons were working in the UW System in 2005—27 of them at UW-Madison—legislators decided that it was time for a change. A year after the UW Board of Regents approved giving virtually every new hire a background check, UW campuses are running background criminal checks of every new hire.

Illinois Lacks Investigators, Background on Teachers Before 2004

Most teachers are committed to helping children learn and protecting them from harm, but like any profession there are a few wormy apples.

Some states are willing to put up with more worms than others.

To find out how Illinois compares, Small Newspaper Group filed open records requests with 50 state education departments and built a national database of revocations and suspensions of teacher licenses.

That 911 Operator Could Have a Criminal past

The 12-year-old was out of control, fighting and wrecking the house. Worried that someone would be injured, her mom called 911. The Watauga operator's response, in an incident three years ago, drew criticism nationwide. "OK," the operator told the mother, "do you want us to come over to shoot her?"

In North Richland Hills last year, a 911 operator answered a call from a man who announced, "I just shot my wife in the stomach with a .38."

Changes Likely for School Background Check Policy

Tougher regulations involving criminal background checks of employees, contractors and volunteers appear likely in ISD 831. The school board, meeting in regular session on Thursday, Jan. 3, agreed to call a special meeting to further discuss its background check policy. No date for that session has been scheduled as of press time this week.

Once the discussion has taken place, the board’s policy committee will be asked to take a new look at the policy that covers background checks.

Progress on Guns

It took too many years and too many deaths to persuade Congress to act, but President Bush is expected to sign into law today a measure that will make it harder for people with a history of dangerous mental illness to purchase firearms. That is good news, but there is more work to be done.

The new law — the product of a rare partnership between gun control advocates and the National Rifle Association — addresses a glaring problem. Millions of criminal and mental health records are missing from the National Instant Criminal Background Check System used to screen gun purchasers and block sales to people who are disqualified by law from buying guns.

Felon Became Top Exec at Wikipedia

The foundation that runs -- and accepts donations for -- the online encyclopedia Wikipedia neglected to do a basic background check before hiring a chief operating officer who had been convicted of theft, drunken driving and fleeing a car accident.

Before she left in July, Carolyn Bothwell Doran, 45, had moved up from a part-time bookkeeper for the Wikimedia Foundation and spent six months as chief operating officer, responsible for personnel and financial management. In March, she signed the small nonprofit's tax return, which listed more than $1.3 million in donations.

Church Facing Lawsuit

A local church’s failure to do a background check on a man later accused of sexually assaulting a teenage parishioner exposed the girl to abuse at the hands of a mentor, according to a lawsuit filed Friday in Boulder District Court.

A woman who claims Peter Kim initiated an increasingly sexual relationship with her while she was a teenager in the youth group he directed at Central Presbyterian Church filed the suit, claiming the church failed to take steps to protect her.

New Law Requires Foster Home Background Checks

Gov. Jennifer Granholm has signed legislation requiring foster care providers to get national level criminal background checks.

The new law will bring Michigan into compliance with federal standards.

The law requires the state Department of Human Services to perform a criminal background check on all persons over age 18 living in a foster home.