Friday, December 16, 2011

Today's Teamster News 12.16.11

Census shows 1 in 2 people are poor or low-income  USA Today   ...The latest census data depict a middle class that is shrinking as unemployment stays high and the government's safety net frays. The new numbers follow years of stagnating wages for the middle class that have hurt millions of workers and families...
The scandal of the Alabama poor cut off from water  BBC   A father of four....says he finds it cheaper to buy drums of water from a petrol station and pay a sanitation company about $14 a month to remove waste from his "porta-potty" than pay the combined sewer and water rate bill, which some months can reach $300....Investment bank JP Morgan Securities and two of its former directors have been fined for offering bribes to Jefferson County workers and politicians to win business financing the sewer upgrade...
How To Indefinitely Detain Jamie Dimon  emptywheel   ...making that case with Jamie Dimon is very easy to do, because his company, JP Morgan Chase, has materially helped Iran...
Report: States Spend Billions on Economic Development Subsidies that Don’t Require Job Creation or Decent Wages  Good Jobs First   ...“If subsidies do not result in real public benefits, they are no better than corporate giveaways,” said Good Jobs First Research Director Philip Mattera, principal author of the report. “States should be using these programs to reduce unemployment and raise living standards, not simply to increase corporate profits...”
Ball State poll: Half of Hoosiers undecided on right-to-work  IBJ   ...“The availability of cheap labor overseas limits the effectiveness of [right-to-work] policies to attract companies looking for lower labor costs,” wrote four legislators...
Chinese Spring coming up?  The Trader   ...With protests getting louder by the day, we might just get the Chinese Spring coming up soon...