Monday, January 20, 2014

Today's Teamster News 01.20.14

Group Focused on Government Ethics Puts Scott Walker on List of “Worst Governors in America”  Center for Media and Democracy   ...Walker made the list of most ethically challenged public officials due to poor marks in several categories, including cronyism, scandal, mismanagement and excessive partisanship. The report reviews his promotion of the Koch Brothers' agenda -- the Kochs are some of his biggest campaign donors...
Rising Tide of Public Outrage on the Verge of Stopping a Shady Corporate Deal in Washington  Alternet   ...Turn up the heat: election years are a terrible time to pass anything controversial and the Trans-Pacific Partnership is becoming politically toxic...
US trade debate prompts fears of delay in talks  Financial Times   ...A heated debate over trade in the US Congress risks stalling two trade negotiations that cover 70 per cent of the global economy, senior international officials have warned...
7 Reasons We Don’t Want ‘Fast Track’ Trade Deals  Buzzfeed   ...It’s a policy designed to ensure that Congress passes any and all trade deals the administration negotiates. Kind of like if your teacher had to give you an A no matter how pathetic your work actually was...
NYC Politicians and Workers Ready to Battle Over Horse-Drawn Carriages  skift.com   ...It’s one of the first items on New York City Mayor Bill) de Blasio’s to-do list, but his efforts to ban the carriages could bring up much larger issues of employment and the importance of tourism...
Palmer farm against ending NYC horse carriages  WWLP.com   ..."We believe it's going to add to a current terrible crisis in homelessness with the horses we already have in the country,” said Pamela Rickenbach. "And more than the horses losing their jobs, the families that would lose their jobs also."...
The Undeserving Rich (opinion)  New York Times   ...for the past three decades and more the main obstacle facing the poor has been the lack of jobs paying decent wages...
‘Dark money’ and corruption, here and abroad (opinion)  Washington Post   ...A surge in independent spending is invading the election of state supreme court justices, and much of it comes from hidden sources. ... (In 2011-12) special-interest groups spent an unprecedented $15.4 million on TV ads and other election materials in state judicial campaigns during that period...
US tech firms make eleventh-hour attempt to halt tax avoidance reforms  The Guardian   ...Silicon Valley has launched a last-ditch attempt to derail plans devised by the G20 group of countries to close down international loopholes that are exploited by the likes of Google, Amazon and Apple to pay less tax in the UK and elsewhere...
The robots are coming for white-collar jobs  Macrobusiness   ...Take, for example, the autonomous driverless cars under development by Google. They are a prime example of a how a human worker, such as long-haul truck and taxi drivers, could soon be replaced by machines – just like a scene from the 1990s futuristic movie Total Recall or the 2000s film Artificial Intelligence...
Walmart under fire after customer takes photos of tanks full of dead and dying fish  Daily Mail   ...A New Jersey Walmart customer has become the owner of a number of fish she purchased after discovering a dozen dirty fish tanks filled with dead and dying fish at her local store...
Google is hiring security guards to protect its work buses in San Francisco following protests over tech workers driving up city rents  Daily Mail   ...In San Francisco, many long-time residents believe the influx of richly compensated workers at Google and other big technology companies such as Facebook Inc and Twitter Inc has pushed rents to unaffordable levels in neighborhoods that once were homes to the working class...
Moral Monday A Branding Exercise Blaming Republicans for Stuff Democrats Helped Them Do (opinion)   Black Agenda Report   ...The problem is that Democrats enabled and helped Republicans to enact the immoral policies which Moral Monday spokespeople inveigh against in the first place...
What Happens When the Poor Receive a Stipend? (opinion)  New York Times   ...a little extra money may confer long-lasting benefits on poor children...