From the New York Times, a great profile of Labor Secretary Hilda Solis:
Like President Obama and Judge Sonia Sotomayor, whose confirmation to the Supreme Court would make her the first Hispanic justice, Ms. Solis, 51, pulled herself up through her own drive and intelligence. Now, she is hoping to use those qualities to reinvigorate the Labor Department, which she said became a neglected, atrophied, often pro-business backwater under President George W. Bush.
She has promised a vigorous campaign to combat workplace violations, after government auditors found that the Bush Labor Department sometimes did not follow up on complaints of minimum wage, overtime and child labor violations. She said she planned to hire 250 more investigators and conduct a nationwide outreach program so that workers knew their rights and employers knew their obligations…
Her goal of restoring morale and efficiency to the 17,000-employee department would not be easy, she said, partly because so many dedicated people had quit in recent years. When she spoke at a church in Miami in March, she pledged to increase workplace enforcement and used a much-applauded line: “There’s a new sheriff in town.”