Feed items
Fifty years ago this week, the U.S. Senate passed the version of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that would be passed by the House and signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson. The bill faced a filibuster of 14 hours and 13 minutes by the late Sen. Robert Byrd of West Virginia. Between the passage by the Senate and debate by the House, three young civil rights workers—Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman and James Earl Chaney—disappeared into the night on June 21, 1964, driving in the rural area near Philadelphia, Miss. Schwerner, Goodman and Chaney were later found dead, having been murdered for trying to register African American voters in Mississippi.
The comedian, injured in a highway crash earlier this month, has been moved to an undisclosed treatment center to continue his recovery.
In the latest move by Barack Obama that would expand the rights of LGBTQ workers, the president directed the Labor Department to draft rules that clarify that the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) applies to LGBTQ couples, even in states where same-sex marriage is not legal. FMLA allows employees to take unpaid leave to care for a sick spouse, but states that don't recognize same-sex marriage previously have been able to refuse FMLA for LGBTQ families.
An angry Rep. Paul Ryan confronts IRS Commissioner John Koskinen over what he feels is a "pattern of abuse" by the IRS.
The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) of the Federal Reserve Board met this week; it's the policy-making body of the Federal Reserve System. The members include the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate, and five of the regional Federal Reserve bank presidents, hired by regional boards whose majority of members are chosen by commercial banks in that region. There are two vacancies on the Board of Governors, so currently the FOMC is equally split between the Board of Governors and the regional bank presidents, giving a huge voice to the banking industry on the course of monetary policy.
Kenneth A. Samet, the CEO of the 10-hospital MedStar Health system, brought in $6.3 million in FY 2011, but Stephen Frum, an RN at the chain’s largest hospital—MedStar Washington Hospital Center—says, “Patients are routinely transported in broken wheelchairs, if we can find a wheelchair at all.” That’s why this week they held a bake sale to raise funds to buy wheelchairs and other basic supplies.
"In the event you haven't been in an automobile since 1960, flight attendants still have to show you how to fasten a seatbelt."
Here are some headlines from the working family’s news we're reading today (after the jump).
This city is abuzz over the politics of immigration, with excited, occasionally valid speculation swirling about Eric Cantor, calendars, last-minute deals and the like.That’s what Washington does. That’s OK. This newspaper and more than a few Twitter accounts probably wouldn’t exist without it. But amid the frenzy, and as prospects for anything legislative teeter on the edge, it’s vital to remember the issue itself, and why it is so important, now and in the future.
At least one man was reported being rescued by the FDNY, after the scaffolding he was working on became unhinged in Midtown New York City.
