Over the holiday break, I took a look at various stories that I had "starred" in Google Reader for later reading and followup in the blog. (You ARE using a RSS Feed Reader to subscribe to this blog, right?)

The list is long. But part of starting a new year for me is doing a bit of clean up and that means starting the new year off fresh.

But before I do so, I’m going to spend a post or two recapping some of the employment law stories that never quite made it into the blog for one reason or another.

• With the recession firmly in place, it should not be a surprise that the Connecticut Department of Labor has been swamped with calls recently.   In fact, the jobless rate soared to 6.6 percent in November.  A number of people evidently looked for information from the DOL’s website, which would be great, except that the website crashed a few times in December due to high traffic.  
• BusinessWeek recently had an interesting article about how some small employers are finding creative solutions to keeping workers to prepare for the next upturn.  A classic story about making lemonade from lemons.  
• World of Work blogged in December about the the deadlock that occurred at the EEOC about implementing new regulations interpreting the ADA Amendments Act. The result: No new regulations interpreting the act, until that stalemate can be broken.  
• I continue to be fascinated by the employment contracts and other agreements that are highlighted by the Footnoted blog.  Michelle Leder and her team dig up interesting filings with the SEC.  For HR professionals, though, these contracts can be a great source of ideas and a good template for other agreements.  Here’s one such post by Footnoted.  
• It may be a little late for most (though some firms insist on having holiday parties after the winter break), but this little article lists the top 10 ways to turn your holiday party into a lawsuit.  
• Remember the big sexual harassment verdict against the lawfirm of Baker & McKenzie in 1994? Ok, me neither, but do you ever wonder what happens to some of the attorneys afterwards? In this case, the attorney for the employee has had bar charges filed against him with one judge stating, "I have never, ever seen an attorney more rude and disrespectful on so many levels." (H/T Overlawyered)  
• The Delaware Employment Law Blog recently compiled a list of the top 100 blogs on leadership and management. Great resources for companies from some of the best bloggers around.  
• As I often mention, when lawsuits by former employees get filed, they often get lots of press. But what happens to the lawsuit?  In some cases, the employees lose, such as this case against Timex (subscription may be required).   
• Looking for yet another summary of the new FMLA regulations? I enjoyed this post from the Employer Law Report. 
• Remember the big fuss about the new deferred compensation rules under Section 409A? This post has a good reminder about what employers should be doing about it. 
• I had meant to do a post on workplace investigations, based on this post from HR Daily Advisor, but never got around to it. It has some interesting Q and A including can an employee "plead the fifth" during a workplace investigation.  

Hope you can find a nugget of interest in one of the above links.