Flood of 10,000 Critical Public Comments Spotlights TAFTA Controversy Public Citizen ...Submission of more than 10,000 public comments on the Trans-Atlantic Free Trade Agreement (TAFTA) to the U.S. Trade Representative’s (USTR) docket last week punctured the notion that the pact will avoid the controversies that have dogged past trade deals...
Apple on offense over $100B offshore stash Politico ...CEO Tim Cook is coming to Washington to testify in front of a panel of senators about stashing more than $100 billion overseas...
Meet the group the IRS actually denied: Democrats! Salon ...Although Tea Party applicants got unfair IRS scrutiny, only one known group had status revoked. They’re Democrats...
Jobless Claims in U.S. Jump to Highest Level in Six Weeks Bloomberg ...The number of applications for unemployment insurance payments jumped by 32,000 to 360,000 in the week ended May 11, the most since the end of March, Labor Department figures showed today in Washington...
Second appeals court invalidates Obama's NLRB recess appointments Politico ...The issue has far-reaching implications for both the NLRB and other boards, including Obama’s Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which has been a frequent target of conservatives and whose director was a recess appointment...
The New Pay-As-You-Go Landscape of American “Democracy” Huffington Post ...For now at least, Sheldon Adelson is an extreme example, but he portends a future in which 1-percenters can flood the system with money in ways beyond the dreams of ordinary Americans...
Goodwill Minimum Wage Loophole Will Shock You Huffington Post ...Goodwill Industries is the worst charity in America. Yes, the same Goodwill that you just gave all of your old clothing to. Yes, the same Goodwill where you bargain-hunt on the weekends. Yes, the same Goodwill that Beyoncé is encouraging her fans to support with donation drives at her North American concerts...
Collapse at Cambodia shoe factory BBC News ...Part of a shoe factory has collapsed in Cambodia, leaving at least two people dead, officials say...Regulatory Oversight Can Save Lives TriStates Public Radio ...The West, Texas, fertilizer plant explosion that killed 14 people, injured about 200 others and destroyed dozens of homes was so powerful it could be felt 50 miles away, registering as a 2.1-magnitude earthquake. The blast should continue to rumble throughout the country since its owner apparently didn’t disclose the dangers there, and the government agencies responsible for protecting the area also failed...
Walmart refuses to join worker safety deal The Guardian ...Walmart has confirmed it will not sign up to a legally binding agreement on worker safety and building regulations in Bangladesh supported by retailers including H&M, Zara, Primark, Tesco, Sainsbury's, Marks and Spencer, Next, C&A and several others...
Gender pay gap still leaves a divide among earnings WFMJ-NBC ...It's been 50 years since President John F. Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act in an attempt to end wage disparity based on gender. Congressman Tim Ryan recently called for the passage of bills he originally co-sponsored to address this issue...
NSSA pension benefits to go up in August NewsDay …National Social Security Authority (NSSA) minimum pensions go up from August 1, following government’s gazetting of increases in pension contribution rates from June 1 and its raising of the maximum insurable earnings from $200 to $700...
Despite GOP claims that right to work bill is going nowhere, Democrats continue fundraising pleas Cleveland Plain Dealer ...Ohio Senate President Keith Faber thought his pledge to kill a package of right to work bills might end "breathless fundraising appeals" from Democrats. How wrong he was...
Senate passes worker rights bill for child care, home health workers Workday Minnesota ...After Republicans filibustered through the night and past dawn, the Senate passed landmark legislation Wednesday extending collective bargaining rights to 9,000 family child-care providers and 12,000 home health-care workers...
Indiana is a zero in study of states' campaign finance disclosure law for outside groups Desert Sun ...Indiana didn’t just get an F in a state-by-state comparison of laws requiring outside groups to report their campaign spending. The state got a zero...
Pennsylvania Senate Narrows Privatization Focus Shanken News Daily ...Pennsylvania governor Tom Corbett’s push for total privatization of the state’s wine and spirits retail monopoly appears to be on ice, with state senators suggesting they could support some loosening of alcohol retail restrictions but not a mandatory sell-off of the state’s retail and wholesale infrastructure...
The shadowy conservative group ALEC has members in Nevada’s Legislature Las Vegas City Life ...ProgressNow says ALEC is secretive and reports that the Nevada Legislature, which pays for trips by legislators to ALEC’s conferences and annual membership dues, would not release correspondence between ALEC and its legislative members in Nevada because “disclosure of the correspondence would inevitably reveal the Senators’ deliberations...
Show Me Koch Brothers St. Louis American ...According to a new report by Progress Missouri, (state Sen. Jamilah) Nasheed (D-St. Louis) can trace her new right-wing friendships back from Jones and Sinquefield all the way to the Koch brothers...
Mo. House Passes Paycheck Deception, but Veto Expected AFL-CIO Now ...The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), its corporate backers and extremist Missouri lawmakers may have won the first round in their drive to silence working people with a paycheck deception bill, when the House gave it final approval (86-69) earlier this week...
Illinois poised to let 17-year-olds vote in primaries Chicago Tribune ...Gov. Pat Quinn and other prospective governor candidates might be targeting a new voting group during the primary elections next year: 17-year-olds...
New Mexico’s State Supreme Court hears arguments in dispute over back pay, raises for state workers Albuquerque Journal ...The state Supreme Court heard arguments today in a five-year-old dispute over whether some 10,000 state workers were shortchanged and are owed back pay and ongoing raises...
First Student, union reach tentative deal Daily News-Miner ...Fairbanks-area school bus personnel represented by Teamsters Local 959 and the First Student transportation company have reached a tentative agreement on a new contract...
County Ratifies Tentative Agreement for Guards; Abolishes Office of Jury Commissioner Gant Daily ...The Clearfield County (Pennsylvania) Commissioners voted to ratify its global tentative agreement with Teamsters Local 205 for the guards at the Clearfield County Jail at Tuesday’s regular board meeting...
Pennsylvania Senate Narrows Privatization Focus Shanken News Daily ...Pennsylvania governor Tom Corbett’s push for total privatization of the state’s wine and spirits retail monopoly appears to be on ice, with state senators suggesting they could support some loosening of alcohol retail restrictions but not a mandatory sell-off of the state’s retail and wholesale infrastructure...
The shadowy conservative group ALEC has members in Nevada’s Legislature Las Vegas City Life ...ProgressNow says ALEC is secretive and reports that the Nevada Legislature, which pays for trips by legislators to ALEC’s conferences and annual membership dues, would not release correspondence between ALEC and its legislative members in Nevada because “disclosure of the correspondence would inevitably reveal the Senators’ deliberations...
Show Me Koch Brothers St. Louis American ...According to a new report by Progress Missouri, (state Sen. Jamilah) Nasheed (D-St. Louis) can trace her new right-wing friendships back from Jones and Sinquefield all the way to the Koch brothers...
Mo. House Passes Paycheck Deception, but Veto Expected AFL-CIO Now ...The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), its corporate backers and extremist Missouri lawmakers may have won the first round in their drive to silence working people with a paycheck deception bill, when the House gave it final approval (86-69) earlier this week...
Illinois poised to let 17-year-olds vote in primaries Chicago Tribune ...Gov. Pat Quinn and other prospective governor candidates might be targeting a new voting group during the primary elections next year: 17-year-olds...
New Mexico’s State Supreme Court hears arguments in dispute over back pay, raises for state workers Albuquerque Journal ...The state Supreme Court heard arguments today in a five-year-old dispute over whether some 10,000 state workers were shortchanged and are owed back pay and ongoing raises...
First Student, union reach tentative deal Daily News-Miner ...Fairbanks-area school bus personnel represented by Teamsters Local 959 and the First Student transportation company have reached a tentative agreement on a new contract...
County Ratifies Tentative Agreement for Guards; Abolishes Office of Jury Commissioner Gant Daily ...The Clearfield County (Pennsylvania) Commissioners voted to ratify its global tentative agreement with Teamsters Local 205 for the guards at the Clearfield County Jail at Tuesday’s regular board meeting...
