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A young, black Detroit woman was shot in the head and killed on a front porch while seeking help after a car accident over the weekend — and her family and local activists are outraged the shooter has yet to be charged.
President Obama said Thursday that he is "sorry" that some Americans are losing their current health insurance plans as a result of the Affordable Care Act, despite his promise that no one would have to give up a health plan they liked.
The nation’s economy added 204,000 new jobs in October, compared with 163,000 jobs created in September (revised upward from 148,000), and the jobless rate increased to 7.3% from September’s 7.2% according to figures released this morning by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.The jump in the jobless rate is attributable mostly to the 16-day House Republican government shutdown, economists say. Several hundred thousand federal workers and civilian contract workers were furloughed for more than two weeks in October.
New data show that reports of sexual assaults within the U.S. armed services have spiked dramatically, rising an unprecedented 46 percent during the last fiscal year, the Pentagon said.
On Tuesday, Nov. 12, at 3 p.m. EST, the AFL-CIO invites you to participate in a tweetchat on creating momentum around economic policy for women. Join AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Elizabeth Shuler, National Organization of Women’s (NOW’s) Terry O’Neill, Black Youth Project 100’s (BYP 100’s) Charlene Carruthers and Upworthy’s Laura Willard for a discussion on paid sick days, the minimum wage and other issues important to women in the workplace.
The Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) passed the Senate today, with 64 senators voting in favor. ENDA was first introduced 20 years ago, and this is the first time it has passed the Senate. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) proposed the version that advanced Thursday. Its prospects are more unclear in the House, where observers such as Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) think there are enough votes to pass the legislation if Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) were to allow it to come to a vote. He has expressed opposition to the bill, so it may not be brought up.
The lawyer tapped by the NFL to investigate the racially charged Miami Dolphins bullying uproar is on familiar turf: He's a former high-school football star, a civil rights activist and a go-to litigator with a long list of powerful clients and high-profile cases under his belt.
Allegations that top officials fed classified information to a foreign defense contractor in exchange for hookers, cash and other kickbacks has ensnared the U.S. Navy in a lurid scandal that splits the difference between a Tom Clancy novel and "The Hangover."A third senior official, U.S. Navy Cmdr.
In the past three years, nine states have added new laws that prohibit local governments from passing paid sick leave ordinances. Seven of these laws were passed in 2013 alone and 14 states introduced such legislation in the past year, Think Progress reports. In every state where local pre-emption bills have passed on paid sick leave, members of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) were among the co-sponsors of the legislation. In most cases, corporate lobby groups such as the Chamber of Commerce, National Federation of Independent Business and the National Restaurant Association, have also been heavily involved in passing the laws. It's bad enough that these groups oppose paid sick days for working families, but they don't even want democratically-elected officials deciding on policies--they want to prevent these policies from even coming up for a vote.
AFT member Raquel Castañeda-López became the first Latina woman to be elected Tuesday to the Detroit City Council. The Wayne State University adviser was raised in a union family. Her immigrant father was a member of Plasterers and Cement Masons (OPCMIA) Local 6 in Detroit and her mother was a Rural Letter Carriers' member.
