Trade
Najib cites ‘sensitivities’ as Obama struggles to push trade pact The Malaysian Insider ...Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said today that he and US President Barack Obama had agreed to upgrade bilateral relations but suggested that his country remains far from ready to sign a US-led trade pact due to domestic "sensitivities"...
U.S. did not "bully" Malaysia into TPP, Obama says Global Post ...There have been a series of protests in Malaysia against the U.S.-led Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade initiative in the days leading up to Obama's arrival on Saturday for a three-day visit...
State Battles
House Republicans Still Seeking Needed Votes For 'Right-To-Work' Ballot Proposal St. Louis Public Radio ...After two weeks of vigorous lobbying, Republican leaders in the Missouri House acknowledge that they have yet to obtain the extra four votes needed to send to the state Senate a measure to put a right-to-work proposal on the August ballot...
Wall Street’s Pension Gamble In These Times ...In a new report for the union representing ...(North Carolina) public employees, former Securities and Exchange Commission investigator Ted Siedle documents how secrecy is allowing financial firms to bilk the Teachers' and State Employees' Retirement System, which is the seventh largest public pension fund in America...
War on Workers
Recovery Has Created Far More Low-Wage Jobs Than Better-Paid Ones New York Times ...But job losses and gains have been skewed. Higher-wage industries — like accounting and legal work — shed 3.6 million positions during the recession and have added only 2.6 million positions during the recovery. But lower-wage industries lost two million jobs, then added 3.8 million...
One Year After Rana Plaza, Safety Issues in Walmart Supply Chain Persist ...a compensation fund for victims was set up to enable retailers to donate to the impacted workers, but only $15 million—one-third of the $40 million goal—has been raised by the International Labor Organization (ILO), which chairs the fund. The corporate community’s inaction has left survivors scrambling to make a living without adequate healthcare or wages, according to a report by Human Rights Watch…
My protesting isn’t terrorism: How Big Ag teamed with lawmakers to criminalize speech Salon ...Activists are being prosecuted for challenging the interests of business. I should know — I spent 40 months in jail...
Supreme Court Taking Up Police Searches of Data Troves Known as Cellphones New York Times ...In a major test of how to interpret the Fourth Amendment in the digital age, the Supreme Court on Tuesday will consider two cases about whether the police need warrants to search the cellphones of the people they arrest...
'Happy Days’ no more: Middle-class families squeezed as expenses soar, wages stall New York Times ...A recent poll conducted by the Washington Post and the Miller Center at the University of Virginia found that 40 percent of those calling themselves middle class felt less financially secure than they were just a few years ago. Forty-five percent said they worry “a lot” about having enough money stashed away for retirement, and 57 percent said they worry about meeting their bills. Less than half said they expect their kids to do any better...
Miscellaneous
The Koch Attack on Solar Energy New York Times ...At long last, the Koch brothers and their conservative allies in state government have found a new tax they can support. Naturally it’s a tax on something the country needs: solar energy panels...
