Republican gains in midterm elections could aid TPP talks Associated Press ...Big Republican gains on Election Day would be a blow to much of President Barack Obama’s agenda, but one stymied item on his to-do list might get a fresh chance to move forward: trade. That could breathe life into Asia-Pacific trade talks essential to his efforts to deepen engagement in the region...
U.S. says hard to imagine EU trade deal without investor protection Reuters ...European Union lawmakers have said they will reject any Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) agreement that contains investor protections and Germany, the bloc's biggest economy, also opposes such provisions...
State Battles
Taxpayer Dollars Used For Voter Suppression In Milwaukee Crooks & Liars ...Republican Milwaukee County Supervisor Deanna Alexander uses taxpayer dollars to falsely inform her constituents that they need photo ID to vote...
War on Workers
Women's Charity Looks into Sweatshop Allegations Over "Feminist" Shirts Jezebel ...The Fawcett Society, the women's rights charity responsible for those "This is what a feminist looks like" tees is currently investigating allegations that the shirts were actually made in sweatshop conditions on the island of Mauritius, where workers were paid 62p, about a dollar per hour to make the shirts...
New Wages and Salaries Data from the Employment Cost Index Show Yet Again It’s Not Quite Time To Declare Mission Accomplished Economic Policy Institute ... the weak labor market of the last seven years has put enormous downward pressure on wages, and there has been no significant and sustained pickup in nominal wage growth in recent years. Employers still don’t seem to have to offer big wage increases to get and keep the workers they need, when hiring rates and net job creation remain far slower than what’s needed to generate healthy labor market outcomes...
Maine nurse gives ground on Ebola quarantine USA Today ...Kaci Hickox also said on NBC's Meet the Press that she would not go into town or into public places during the 21-day incubation period that will end Nov. 10...
Consumers wasted at least $300 million paying for AT&T’s ‘unlimited’ data Washington Post ...the Federal Trade Commission is suing AT&T for how it treats its unlimited data customers. Despite paying for an unlimited plan, these subscribers had their mobile Internet slowed to dial-up speeds, or "throttled," once AT&T decided they had surfed the Web too much....Tens of thousands of consumers have complained about the practice...
The New Loan Sharks Jacobin ... salary lending has expanded, but under a different name: payday lending, a wildly lucrative industry that occupies more storefronts than McDonald’s and Starbucks combined. These new loan sharks operate under the same logic as salary lenders, but specifically target more vulnerable populations like welfare recipients, and are armed with new techniques to squeeze as much surplus as possible from debtors...
Worker killed in truck accident at dairy plant WNDU.com ...Authorities in western Michigan say that a worker was killed when a tractor-trailer ran over him at the loading dock of a dairy plant...
