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With the flourish of a bipartisan brush, the Senate approved a bill last night to lower federal student loan interest rates, providing a measure of relief to the 7 million students preparing to finance their futures this fall. Undergraduates borrowing for college this year will pay a 3.86% interest rate, instead of the previous 6.8% rate, while recipients of graduate student and parent loans will pay 5.4% and 6.5%, respectively. However, these likely will be the lowest interest rates students and their families receive for the foreseeable future.
Today the AFL-CIO Executive Council released a statement in response to the tragic shooting of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin on its commitment to social and economic justice for communities of color. The council also pledged to take action around these issues at the AFL-CIO convention in September.Read the text of the statement after the jump.
Prosecutors are in talks with Ariel Castro, the Cleveland man accused of kidnapping three women and holding them captive for a decade, about a plea deal that could allow him to avoid the death penalty, sources told NBC News on Thursday.The sources said an agreement was expected as early as Friday.
After four decades as a labor activist and more than five years as the executive vice president of the AFL-CIO, Arlene Holt Baker will be retiring from her position in the coming months. Holt Baker announced she was leaving the position she's held since 2007 after the AFL-CIO national convention in September. AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, who is up for re-election at the convention, said he would replace Holt Baker on his ticket with Tefere Gebre, who is 45 and is the executive director of the Orange County Labor Federation in California.
Missing that heat wave?Barely out of a summer sizzle, many Americans are now reaching for their sweaters as an advancing cold front causes temperatures to plunge 5 to 20 degrees below July averages.The cold is expected to bring storms through the Midwest on Thursday, then leave behind a chill.
This week, President Obama kicked off a series of talks to America's working families on the economy. He started in Galesburg, Ill., where he succinctly described a solution to our economic troubles: making the middle class the engine of American prosperity. Obama said:I care about one thing and one thing only, and that’s how to use every minute of the 1,276 days remaining in my term to make this country work for working Americans again.
Only a sliver of alleged crimes committed on board cruise ships winds up reported to the public, according to a Senate committee report released Wednesday.
The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee yesterday voted (13–9) to send the nominations of Nancy Schiffer and Kent Hirozawa for the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to the full Senate for a confirmation vote. The vote will likely be next week.
Goldman Sachs is making your beer more expensive. Why are they doing it? According to the investment bank, the reason is "economics." According to actual economics, the reason is "profits." The Washington Post explains how it works.
The hours are ticking down toward the release from prison of Timothy J. Szad, a sex offender deemed so dangerous that Vermont authorities are taking the unusual step of not only warning the public but cautioning that blue-eyed, blond-haired boys of 12 or 13 could be in particular peril.
