Today's Teamster News 03.10.14

Teamsters
Teamsters Thank Liam Neeson For Support Of Horse Carriage Drivers And Horses  teamster.org   ... Teamster officials and Teamster horse carriage drivers thanked actor Liam Neeson for escorting City Councilmembers on a tour of the Clinton Park Horse Stables Sunday afternoon. Councilmembers were invited to ask questions about the care and treatment of the animals and saw firsthand how well the horses live...
Liam Neeson Leads Carriage Horse Stable Tour  New York Daily News   ...Neeson, carriage drivers, and Teamsters reps took about a dozen Council members on tours of the stables. Councilman Costa Constantinides (D-Queens), said he backs the drivers. “I’m a progressive, so I’m not looking to put 350 families out on the street,” he said...
Trade
Even the Chinese Can Tell the TransPacific Partnership is Unlikely to Get Done  naked capitalism   ...China and even some developing nations included in the TPP have expressed concern that it will set down trade rules primarily benefiting the richest countries and most powerful firms...
State Battles
How the Rich Became Dependent on Government Welfare  truthout   ...a full "three-quarters of all the economic development dollars awarded and disclosed by state and local governments have gone to just 965 large corporations" — not to the small businesses and startups that politicians so often pretend to care about. In dollar figures, that's a whopping $110 billion going to big companies. Fortune 500 firms alone receive more than 16,000 subsidies at a total cost of $63 billion...
The War on Workers
Wireless Bills Go Up, and Stay Up  Wall Street Journal   ...T-Mobile US Inc. raised the cost of its core unlimited data plan on Friday. The carrier says it has been competing more effectively by doing away with subscriber "pain points" like service contracts and international data fees...
After pledging transparency, PBS hides details of new deal with billionaire owner of NewsHour  Pando Daily   ...since 1994, the NewsHour has been produced and primarily owned by the for-profit colossus, Liberty Media. Liberty, which is run by conservative billionaire John Malone, owns the majority stake in MacNeil/Lehrer Productions – the entity that produces the journalistic content of the show...
Miscelleneous
US Postal Service Inspector General Proposes Launching Low-Fee Public Bank  The Real News   ...A public option for banks will dramatically improve and help regulate the financial services industry...
Use of Public Transit in U.S. Reaches Highest Level Since 1956, Advocates Report  New York Times   ...10.65 billion passenger trips were taken on transit systems during the year, surpassing the post-1950s peak of 10.59 million in 2008, when gas prices rose to $4 to $5 a gallon...

Today's Teamster News 05.26.13

Millions march against GM crops  The Guardian   ...Organisers say that two million people marched in protest against seed giant Monsanto in hundreds of rallies across the US and in more than 50 other countries on Saturday. "March Against Monsanto" protesters say they wanted to call attention to the dangers posed by genetically modified food...
France seizes a million doses of fake Chinese aspirin  Raw Story   ...French customs officers have seized 1.2 million doses of counterfeit aspirin from China, the biggest haul of fake medicines ever in France and the EU, the economy ministry announced Saturday...

Stockholm riots spread west on sixth night  The Local   ...Nearly a week of unrest, which spread briefly Friday night to the medium-sized city of Örebro 160 kilometres west of Stockholm, have put Sweden's reputation as an oasis of peace and harmony at risk...
Unrest may spread across Europe, warns Red Cross chief  The Independent   ...Rocketing unemployment and poverty in some areas of Europe could lead to rising civil unrest, unless governments take measures to address the humanitarian consequences of austerity measures, the secretary-general of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) has warned...
Sequester guts wildfire prevention, sets up bigger blazes  Grist ...the sequester took a 7.5 percent bite out of the Forest Service’s budget, nearly half of which is spent fighting wildfires. That means there will be 500 fewer pairs of boots on the ground and 200,000 fewer acres treated to prevent fires; the agency’s next proposed budget cuts preventative spending by a further 24 percent...
Why are our Bridges Falling? The Economics of the Infrastructure Deficit  Economonitor   ...We are not spending enough to stay even with our infrastructure deficit. Our bridges, roads, dams, electric grid, sewers, and water treatment plants are wearing out faster than we are replacing them. And that is happening, in large part, because of our misguided obsession with the federal fiscal deficit...
Banner Week for Politicians Trying to Keep Poor People Hungry and Sick  Gawker  ...Louisiana Senator David Vitter, sad little boy and lover of prostitutes, proposed an amendment to the long-delayed farm bill that would make certain ex-cons ineligible from food stamps for life...
The Corporate Dictatorship of PBS and NPR  Truthout   ...“Citizen Koch” is a documentary about money and politics, focusing heavily on the uprising that took place in Wisconsin in 2011 and 2012 ... the documentary was originally supposed to air on PBS stations nationwide, but its funding was abruptly cut off when, it appears, David Koch was offended...
Koch Media’s Megaphone and the IRS “Scandal”  Wall Street  ...For decades, billionaires Charles and David Koch had secretly owned shares giving them 50 percent ownership of the Cato Institute – a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization subsidized by the taxpayer – while pushing a deregulatory agenda for big business. Today, Cato is functioning as a megaphone to spin the current flap over the IRS to advance its agenda...
How exactly would Mike Bloomberg “fucking destroy” the taxi industry?  Quartz   ...New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg told the head of a taxicab fleet that he plans to “fucking destroy” the city’s taxi industry when he leaves office on January 1...
Fear of art sale sparked by Detroit emergency manager asking for appraisal  Reuters   ...As part of his efforts to solve Detroit's financial crisis, the city's emergency manager Kevyn Orr has asked for an appraisal of the collection at the Detroit Institute of Arts, sparking fears in artistic and philanthropic circles that he means to auction off the city's artistic jewels...
Wisconsin jobs agency names 4th CFO in 2 years  Associated Press   ...Gov. Walker and the Republican-controlled Legislature created WEDC in 2011 to help the governor meet his campaign promise to create 250,000 private-sector jobs. But the agency has been beset by problems, including persistent turnover...