(UPDATES to add 2 items about auto industry expansion in grafs 2-3)
U.S. Income Inequality Worse Than Many Latin American Countries Huffington Post ...More than 50 million people joined the ranks of the middle class in Latin America over the last 15 years...
GM to announce expansion of Kansas assembly plant Detroit News ...a local government in Kansas approved $120 million in revenue bonds last September to finance a proposed 400,000-square-foot addition to the paint shop...
Auto suppliers gear up for hiring surge in 2013 Detroit News ...About 476,000 people work for automotive parts suppliers in the U.S., and those companies are expected to add about 44,000 jobs this year...
California unions grow, bucking U.S. trend Los Angeles Times ...California and a few nearby states in the Southwest are showing a vastly different picture — labor's ranks are on an upswing. The Golden State's union organizers signed up more than 100,000 new members last year...
Promises Of Charity Won Tax Breaks for Tech Companies Buzzfeed ...Twitter and six other San Francisco tech companies are set to receive sizable tax breaks from the city in exchange for non-binding promises to make charitable contributions totaling, in many cases, just tens of thousands of dollars — along with promoted tweets for local groups. The tax deal also includes promises to volunteer in the community and patronize local businesses...
Reporting Factory Farms Abuses to Be Considered "Act of Terrorism" If New Laws Pass Alternet ...How do you keep consumers in the dark about the horrors of factory farms? By making it an "act of terrorism" for anyone to investigate animal cruelty, food safety or environmental violations on the corporate-controlled farms that produce the bulk of our meat, eggs and dairy products. And who better to write the Animal and Ecological Terrorism Act... than ... the corporate-funded and infamous American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC)...
Despite their clout, Oregon's public-sector unions face tough fights in 2013 Legislature The Oregonian ...Gov. John Kitzhaber, who almost certainly would not have eked out his narrow 2010 victory without union aid, is pushing legislators to cap the rise in public employee retirement benefits to put more money into schools...
Teamsters approve two-year pact with newspapers Philadelphia Inquirer ...The Teamsters local at The Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News overwhelmingly approved a new two-year labor contract with Interstate General Media that allows for continued publication of the two newspapers, the head of the union, John Laigaie, said...
