about 6 hours ago
Featured News
Gold Star in the Fight Against Black Lung: DOL Tightens Coal Mine Regulations
The Obama administration said Wednesday it is cutting the amount of coal dust allowed in coal mines in an effort to help reduce black lung disease. "Today we advance a very basic principle: you shouldn't have to sacrifice your life for your livelihood," Labor Secretary Thomas E. Perez said. "But that's been the fate of more than 76,000 miners who have died at least in part because of black lung since 1968."
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New Report: Drilling for Gas Anywhere in NY Is Not 'Likely to be Commercially Viable'
about 3 hours ago
For years, the shale industry has touted the economic benefits it can provide: An overflowing supply of domestic natural gas will help keep heating and electric bills low for American consumers, they argue, while drilling jobs and astounding royalty windfalls for landowners will reinvigorate local economies. However, a new report from New York state, where a de facto shale drilling moratorium has persisted since 2008, concludes that unless natural gas prices double, much of the shale gas in the state cannot be profitably accessed by oil and gas companies.
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Boogieman Billionaires vs the Cagey Politician: Senate Races Take Comic Form
about 5 hours ago
For months, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has been pushing an unrelenting string of criticism against Charles and David Koch, the wealthy industrialists who have backed some of the nation's most effective conservative groups. Now, Republican candidates are adjusting their plans and linking Democratic Senate candidates to Reid, painting the 74-year-old leader and his allies as unscrupulous politicians.
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I'm Lovin' It: Fast Food CEOs Earn $11,400 an Hour
about 8 hours ago
As shareholders prepare for annual meetings, the fast-food industry has the greatest CEO-to-worker pay disparity in our economy, with ratios exceeding 1,000-to-1, according to a new study released by Demos.
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ALEC Legislation to Stifle Solar, Wind Energy Use Passes Oklahoma House
about 22 hours ago
Last week the Oklahoma House of Representatives passed a law that will place surcharges on residents who chose to use solar or wind energy on their properties. The environmentally unfriendly bill, SB 1456, passed by a 83-5 margin after receiving no debate. The bill is similar to model legislation written by the American Legislative Exchange Council on behalf of the Koch brothers to aide their fight against clean energy.
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100 Years After Ludlow Massacre, Labor in America Is Still Under Attack
about 24 hours ago
As late as the 1950s, 75 percent of Americans approved of unions. Now approval is hovering right around 50 percent. But it’s not just the decline, which can be explained, in part, by the decline of American industry. It’s the antagonism. It’s the anger at the GM bailout. We may love our teachers but not the teachers’ unions. Pensions negotiated by public employee unions have become the villains of this time. 100 years after the Colorado National Guard killed 13 people — mostly women and children — in an effort to force striking workers back to the mines, the legacy of labor in America is under attack like never before.
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Healthy Revenue: Advocates Push for Junk-Food Tax on Navajo Nation
April 22, 2014 - 1:30pm
Facing a high prevalence of diabetes, many American Indian tribes are returning to their roots with community and home gardens, cooking classes that incorporate traditional foods, and running programs to encourage healthy lifestyles. The latest effort on the Navajo Nation, the country's largest reservation, is to use the tax system to push people to ditch junk food. Navajo President Ben Shelly earlier this year vetoed measures to enact a 2 percent sales tax on tax on chips, cookies and sodas, and to eliminate the tax on fresh fruit and vegetables. This week, tribal lawmakers have a chance to resurrect the proposals, and supporters are optimistic they'll be among the first in the country to succeed.
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SCOTUS Upholds MI's Affirmative Action Ban, Plans to 'Wish Away' Racial Inequality
April 22, 2014 - 11:40am
The Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld Michigan's ban on using race as a factor in college admissions despite one justice's impassioned dissent that accused the court of wanting to wish away racial inequality. The justices said in a 6-2 ruling that Michigan voters had the right to change their state constitution in 2006 to prohibit public colleges and universities from taking account of race in admissions decisions. The justices said that a lower federal court was wrong to set aside the change as discriminatory.
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Elizabeth Warren: 'I'm Not Running for President'
April 22, 2014 - 10:16am
Sen. Elizabeth Warren is insisting she isn't running for president in 2016. She says to interviewers, "You can ask this a lot of different ways. The key is, I am not running for president." Warren, whose name has been mentioned in building Democratic speculation, said she wants to fight for the consumer issues she champions.
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How the Super-Rich Really Make Their Money
April 22, 2014 - 7:00am
Warren Buffett once claimed that the "genius of the American economy, our emphasis on a meritocracy and a market system and a rule of law has enabled generation after generation to live better than their parents did." The Economist suggested that "people succeed through brains and hard work." Economist Tyler Cowen believes in a "hyper-meritocracy" in which wealth is created by the most intelligent and motivated people.
Read full storyEmails Could Prove What Everyone Suspects: TX Voter ID Designed to Quell Minority Vote
April 21, 2014 - 4:30pm
Emails between Texas lawmakers could prove that discrimination was the impetus in passing highly restrictive voter ID laws, not voter fraud, as many of those lawmakers are claiming.
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