Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Today's Teamster News 12.27.11

Program to Give Access to NAFTA Trucks Violates the Law  Eyes on Trade   ...Public Citizen, the Teamsters, and the Sierra Club filed an opening brief earlier this week on our lawsuit to stop the Obama administration's illegal program to allow unsafe Mexico-domiciled trucks to travel throughout the United States...
The Big Lie (opinion)  The Daily Beast   ...the convulsion to come won’t really be about Wall Street’s derivatives malefactions, or its subprime fun and games, or rogue trading, or the folly of banks. It will be about this society’s final opportunity to rip away the paralyzing shackles of corruption or else dwell forever in a neofeudal social order...
Growing wealth widens distance between lawmakers and constituents  Washington Post   ...Between 1984 and 2009, the median net worth of a member of the House more than doubled ... from $280,000 to $725,000...Over the same period, the wealth of an American family has declined slightly...
Falling home values mean budget crunches for cities  Washington Post   ...Because of the time it often takes for property assessments to reflect falling home values, the bust that began in 2007 has just begun to ravage tax revenues in communities from coast to coast. The problem is unlikely to subside soon....
93-Year-Old Tennessee Woman Who Cleaned State Capitol For 30 Years Denied Voter ID  Think Progress   ...A 93-year-old Tennessee woman ... says she won’t be able to vote for the first time in decades after being told this week that her old state ID failed to meet new voter ID regulations...
Pimps for Private Prisons and Profit  Blogfor Arizona   ...the long-awaited cost-benefit analysis that the Department of Corrections is required to do by law, but has never done until now, has been released. According to the DOC, private prisons are comparable in cost and quality to state run prisons...The DOC has decided to cancel bids to build 5,000 private prison beds in Arizona...