The federal government reported Friday that on average its employees are underpaid by 26.3 percent when compared with similar non-federal jobs, a “pay gap” that increased by about 2 percentage points over the last year while federal salary rates were frozen. The Bureau of Labor Statistics presented the figures to the Federal Salary Council, an…
Category: News & Opinion
‘Miners’ risk lives for gold in landfill ravine
A torrent of gray, toxic water spews from a drainage tunnel and surges along the ravine, tumbling along garbage that has fallen from the Guatemalan capital’s main landfill 1,000 feet above. Despite the foul odors, the danger of unstable piles of garbage collapsing and the chance for heavy rain to suddenly raise the…
The White House Wants Your Advice
We know that some of the best ideas will come from outside Washington, and that’s why we want to hear from you. If you have an idea for something President Obama can do or know of a program in your community that needs to go nationwide, use this form to let us know. Over the…
Occupy Nashville vs. GOP confrontation turns into love fest
Hey, you socialist hippie weirdos! Hey, you boot-heel-licking fascist twerps! Group hug! That was essentially the vibe in Nashville on Thursday night, as a rare rash of love broke out across the political divide between Occupy Nashville protesters and a conservative counter-protesting group. Jeff Woods, a writer with the Nashville Scene newspaper, reports that…
Gov. Jan Brewer Can’t Explain Her Partisan Political Tampering In Arizona’s Redistricting Process
Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer (R) has been under fire recently for her dramatic political move to interfere with the state’s bipartisan redistricting commission. Annoyed that the commission did not redraw congressional districts to benefit Republicans, Brewer convinced the GOP-controlled state Senate to impeach the commission’s independent chairwoman, Colleen Mathis. State officials are only…
As Obama Vents, His Poll Numbers Get A Bump
That rise coincides with the presidents monthlong nationwide campaign pressing Congress to pass his stalled jobs bill. His latest stop in that effort was in Washington on Wednesday, and it came on the eve of a vote in which Senate Republicans are expected to block a key part of his jobs bill. As…
Senate passes ‘license to bully’ legislation
Advocates for a law to prohibit bullying and provide school districts with the tools to address the problem were dealt a stinging rebuke Wednesday morning in the Republican-controlled Michigan Senate. The GOP pushed through an amended bill, SB 137, which does nothing advocates have pushed for — including reporting requirements and enumeration, or listing, of…
30 Major Corporations Paid No Income Taxes In The Last Three Years, While Making $160 Billion
One of the driving forces behind the ongoing Occupy Wall Street protests is the fact that corporations have not been paying their fair share in taxes. A new report from Citizens for Tax Justice will no nothing to alleviate the protesters’ frustration. CTJ looked at 280 companies, all of them members of the…
Student jailed 2 nights when she can’t show ID
Early in the morning on Oct. 22, a Saturday, Ms. Zucker, 21, and her friend Alex Fischer, also 21, were stopped by the police in Riverside Park and given tickets for trespassing. Mr. Fischer was permitted to leave after he produced his driver’s license. But Ms. Zucker, on a visit to New York…
Citizens United Going Down? Democrats Introduce Constitutional Amendment To Overturn Ruling
The Supreme Court may treat corporations like people who can spend whatever they want on elections, but the American people dont have to accept it, said Democratic senators who proposed a constitutional amendment Tuesday to retake control of campaign spending.The amendment, introduced by Sen. Tom Udall D-N.M., doesnt directly address the justices legal…
Thirty Years of Unleashed Greed and the Beginnings of Class Warfare
Between 1979 and 2007, as the Congressional Budget Office reported this week, the average real income of the top 1 percent grew by an astounding 275 percent. And that is after payment of the taxes that the superrich and their Republican apologists find so onerous. Those three decades of rampant upper-crust greed unleashed by the…
Oakland Police Under a Cloud for Violent Occupy Crackdown
A shot-filled bean-bag round held by a protester at Frank Ogawa Plaza Tuesday night. Schuyler Erle/Twitter On Tuesday night I was at the intersection of 14th and Broadway, just outside Frank Ogawa Plaza, for several harrowing hours: I witnessed police officers firing projectiles indiscriminately into the crowd—not carefully targeting instigators, as OPD policy dictates. Freelance…
Boehner rejects Democrats’ $3 trillion deficit reduction proposal to ‘supercommittee’
Democrats said Thursday they had put forward a good-faith offer that included legitimate savings against the swelling federal debt and included a package of more than $300 billion in stimulus for the sagging economy. “We’ve always said there are two important things—get the economy moving and have jobs and to have a balanced approach,” said…
68 Percent Of Millionaires Support Raising Taxes On Millionaires
According to a new survey by the Spectrem Group, “68% of millionaires (those with investments of $1 million or more) support raising taxes on those with $1 million or more in income. Fully 61% of those with net worths of $5 million or more support the tax on million-plus earners.” Spectrem’s George Walper told the…
CHART: Thanks To The 99 Percent Movement, Media Finally Covering Jobs Crisis And Marginalizing Deficit Hysteria
For example, at the beginning of August, when Washington, DC was debating the debt ceiling crisis, the national debt dominated the airwaves. While it was appropriate for the media then to be covering the deficit due to the debt ceiling debate at the time, there was a stunning lack of coverage of the…
Oakland Mayor Jean Quan Says She Will Minimize Police Presence And That She Supports The Movement
After the first heavy-handed police crackdown on demonstrators in Oakland, Mayor Jean Quan wrote a statement on her Facebook page praising police for closing down the Occupy Oakland protest encampment. Now, facing anger from across the world, Quan is backing down on her aggressive language and even says she supports the goals of the movement….
The Numbers: CBO on income inequality
Several years ago, Senators Max Baucus and Charles Grassley asked the Congressional Budget Office to whip up an analysis of income inequality in America. It took awhile to piece together, but the report’s now out, and the picture’s quite stark. The incomes of the wealthiest 1 percent have nearly tripled since 1979. Everyone else? Not…
The Numbers: U.S with Stimulus vs. U.K. Without
At Tax.com, Martin Sullivan rebuts those who claim that the 2009 Recovery Act (i.e. the stimulus) did nothing to boost the economy. “Republicans constantly remind us that the Obama stimulus — the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 — did not work. They voted against it. In the United Kingdom the government…
GDP Grew At 2.5 Percent In The Third Quarter
According to the latest data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the U.S. economy grew by 2.5 percent in the third quarter, an improvement over last quarter’s 1.3 percent growth. This quarter’s growth is right in line with analysts’ expectations. via GDP Grew At 2.5 Percent In The Third Quarter | ThinkProgress.
Shell More Than Doubles Profits To $7 Billion
Royal Dutch Shell announced their 2011 third-quarter earnings, reporting profits of $6.98 billion, more than double their profits posted a year ago, bringing their total profits for 2011 to over $21 billion. Below is a quick look at Shell by the numbers: – Shell has spent nearly $8 million on lobbying in 2011, making it…