McCord endorsed by Pa. Teamsters philly.com ...The Pennsylvania Conference of Teamsters on Thursday endorsed state Treasurer Rob McCord in the Democratic primary for governor, citing his personal story and record of battling Gov. Corbett’s policies in Harrisburg...
Shutdown Would Shave U.S. Growth as Much as 1.4 Pctg. Points in Q4 Bloomberg ...A shutdown would slow the expansion because output lost when workers are furloughed subtracts from gross domestic product. The combined prospect of a budget standoff between the White House and Congress and haggling over the debt ceiling could have a bigger impact on the economy as businesses hold off on investment and households delay spending...
TPP a Trojan Horse Asia Times ...The TPP agreement affects not only trade issues, but also non-trade matters that immensely impact lives of citizens in all participating countries. ... The areas at stake include, for example: Domestic court decisions and international legal standards (eg, overriding domestic laws on both trade and non-trade matters, foreign investors' right to sue governments in international tribunals that would overrule the national sovereignty)...
The Wall Street Takeover, Part 2 Baseline Scenario ...the fundamental issue ... is whether our political system will put the interests of society at large ahead of the interests of large financial institutions. On that score, there is little to be encouraged about...
JPMorgan chief meets Holder in bid for deal to end probes, avoid criminal charges Washington Post ...The deal that Dimon discussed with Holder would involve paying the government at least $11 billion … While it would be a historic amount, the fine would still represent a sliver of the damage wrought by the bank for selling mortgage securities that it allegedly knew were worthless...
The Wall Street Protection Racket: Pay the Government Fines and Bankers Don't Get Prosecuted Buzzflash ..."The single greatest innovation of the banking sector has been to convince the Justice Department and Treasury that if you prosecute us for our crimes we'll send the economy back into the abyss..."
Half Ounce of Pot Gets Louisiana Man 20 Years in Prison Truthout ...In Louisiana, a person can get up to six months in jail for first marijuana conviction, up to five years in prison for the second conviction and up to twenty years in prison for the third. In fact, the Louisiana Supreme Court recently overturned a sentence of five years as too lenient for a fourth possession of marijuana and ordered the person sentenced to at least 13 years...
Federal Regulator of Credit Unions Files LIBOR Charges Against Banks Wall Street on Parade ...the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) filed suit in U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas against 13 foreign banks and U.S. based JPMorgan Chase, charging the group with violating federal and state anti-trust laws through their manipulation of interest rates in the setting of the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR), a benchmark used to set rates on everything from student loans to interest rate swaps to adjustable rate mortgages...
Report: Unexpected rise in number of extremely poor elderly women msnbc ...Among women 65 and older, the ‘extreme poverty’ rate rose 18% in 2012. Extreme poverty is defined as an annual income of $5,500 or less for older individuals living by themselves...
Long-term unemployment is a catastrophe Washington Post ...The percentage of the labor force unemployed for 27 weeks or more is finally decreasing, after peaking at about 4.3 percent in April 2010 and hanging around 4 percent until September 2011. But it's unclear how much of that decline is due to those workers finding jobs versus dropping out of the workforce...
More people express uncertainty in chance to achieve the American Dream Washington Post ...Four years into an economic recovery in which most of the benefits have flowed to the top earners, a majority believe that the American Dream is becoming markedly more elusive, according to the results of a Washington Post-Miller Center Poll exploring Americans’ changing definition of success and their confidence in the country’s future...
The flimflam of this week’s Obamacare numbers Reuters ...premiums that are “lower than projected” are not the same as “lower than they are now...”
Tea Party Lawmaker Letter on Med Device Tax Repeal Authored by Lobby Group The Nation ...seventy-five right-wing lawmakers wrote a letter to Speaker Boehner demanding that a vote to repeal the device tax occur “as soon as possible.” The metadata of the letter shows that it was authored by Ryan Strandlund, a member of AdvaMed’s government affairs team ...
The No-Fly List: Where the FBI Goes Fishing for Informants ACLU ...Each of these Americans spoke to FBI agents to learn why they were suddenly banned from flying and to clear up the errors that led to that decision. Instead of providing that explanation or opportunity, FBI agents offered to help them get off the No-Fly List—but only in exchange for serving as informants in their communities.Our clients refused...
Philly Fed says Scott Walker, WMC offer misleading data on Wisconsin economy The Cap Times ...Top officials with the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia are warning Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce and others that they are misusing a monthly index produced by its top economists...
Militarized Mining in Wisconsin Wisconsin Citizens Media Cooperative ...Until quite recently, the deployment of private security companies was unheard of in the north woods of Wisconsin where Gogebic Taconite (GTac) has proposed a mountain top removal operation that will create the largest open pit iron mine in the world...
Take Willoughby's plea deal on Moral Monday arrest? No, thanks Charlotte News Observer ...If all of us Moral Monday arrestees go to trial, the Wake County Courthouse will be a very busy place for the next several years...
