Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Today's Teamster News 10.29.13

Nearly 50% Of All Home Sales Now Cash, As Institutional Investor Activity Hits New High  Forbes   ...Nearly half of all home purchases in the month of September were paid for in cold hard cash, as tight lending conditions continue edge out traditional buyers and investors continue to scoop up inventory...
Billionaires: Decline of the West, Rise of the Rest  Triple Crisis   ...Gone are the days when U.S. billionaires accounted for over 40 percent of the list, with Western Europe and Japan making up most of the rest. Today, the Asia-Pacific region hosts 386 billionaires, 20 more than all of Europe and Russia combined...
Strikes Surge as Killings of Colombian Union Leaders Fall  Portside   ...Strikes, demonstrations and protests are at a record pace in Colombia this year as workers seek a bigger share of wealth generated by the country’s expanding economy...
American workers will be the losers in Trans Pacific trade deal (opinion)  The Buffalo News   ...negotiations with Vietnam, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore and four other countries must be hush-hush, otherwise too many Americans would learn what their future wages, food safety standards and fate of their cities and towns would be...
29 Uncomfortable Truths About Soaring Poverty In America  zero hedge   ...Did you know that the number of Americans on welfare is higher than the number of Americans that have full-time jobs?  Did you know that 1.2 million public school students in the U.S. are currently homeless?  Anyone that uses the term "economic recovery" to describe what is happening in the United States today is being deeply insulting to the nearly 150 million Americans that are considered to be either "poor" or "low income" at this point...
Ratio of Job Seekers to Job Openings Slips Below 3-to-1 for First Time in Nearly Five Years, but Is Still as High as in Worst Month of Early 2000s Downturn  Economic Policy Institute   ... for nearly two out of every three job seekers, there simply were no jobs...
Growing Up Poor Changes Young Brains  MedPageToday   ..."Exposure to early life adversity should be considered no less toxic than exposure to lead, alcohol, or cocaine, and, as such, it merits similar attention from public health authorities..."
‘Riots always begin typically the same way’: food stamp shutdown looms Friday  Salon   ...The nationwide cut “is equivalent to about 16 meals a month for a family of three,” according to a Center on Budget and Policy Priorities analysis using the USDA’s “Thrifty Food Plan.” CBPP called the roughly $5 billion annual cut to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program “unprecedented” in “depth and breadth...”
As Europe erupts over US spying, NSA chief says government must stop media  The Guardian   ...both Germany and France exploded with anger over new revelations about pervasive NSA surveillance on their population and democratically elected leaders...
Profit, politics, pain: Private prisons — an eight-month Post investigation  Palm Beach Post   ...Sweetheart deals stuff private prisons with the cheapest, least troublesome prisoners, leaving Florida public prisons with the sickest and most violent inmates. State law guarantees companies are paid as if their prisons are 90 percent full, even if they aren’t, and even if it means emptying parts of public prisons to pack them...
UPDATED: Walker Recall Violates The Law -- The Law of Large Numbers  Voices Newspaper Blog   ...By the end of the week of Scott Walker's June 5th recall election, VOICES published a report that expressed concerns about the results which included the following strange occurrences...
Teamsters Local 264 elects new leader  The Buffalo News   ...Brian Dickman won election this month as president/principal executive officer for the Cheektowaga-based local...