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NSA leaker Edward Snowden scoffed Monday at the notion he's a spy for China, saying that he would be living like royalty if he were."If I were a Chinese spy, why wouldn't I have flown directly into Beijing? I could be living in a palace petting a phoenix by now," a writer who identified himself as Snowden said in an online question-and-answer session hosted by The Guardian newspaper.The Guardian ...
General Motors is recalling another 230,000 midsize SUVs due to a potential fire risk serious enough that the maker also is advising owners to park outside until repairs can be made.The recall expands upon an action GM took last August – that time covering about 250,000 vehicles, including the Chevrolet Trailblazer and GMC Envoy – sold in 20 Snowbelt states. Similar recalls have impacted several o...
A list that has included notorious names such as James Earl Ray, Ted Bundy, Whitey Bulger and Osama bin Laden reached a milestone Monday.With the addition of an alleged child rapist and an alleged killer, The FBI's "Ten Most Wanted Fugitives" list has now included 500 fugitives.The latest additions fill vacancies created this spring with the capture and surrender of two fugitives.“These individual...
Clarence Adams from Brooklyn, N.Y., was fired by Cablevision for asking for a fair contract. He explains here why a functioning National Labor Relations Board is important for America's working families.
For the second time in the past few days, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has launched an investigation into a chemical plant explosion in Louisiana. On Thursday, a plant in Geismar, La., exploded, killing one person and injuring 73. On Friday, a blast in Donaldsonville, La., killed one person and injured seven. The plant that exploded on Thursday hadn't been inspected by OSHA in 20 years. It is not yet known when the last inspection was done at the Donaldsonville plant.
The ink has barely dried on new rules to protect working people from predatory mortgage lenders and the big bankers’ friends in Congress are already making moves to try to roll back protections. Tomorrow, a House hearing is scheduled to consider proposals to roll back protections against predatory mortgages.To protect consumers from the types of predatory lending that led to the housing crisis, the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 included the commonsense requirement that mortgage lenders consider a borrower’s ability to repay when issuing a mortgage.
In a 7-2 ruling and a major victory for voting rights advocates, the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday struck down an Arizona law that required people attempting to register to vote in the state to provide proof of citizenship. The court ruled the additional requirement, not required under federal law, was an overreach by the state. States cannot add extra voter requirements that go beyond federal law. The 1993 "motor voter" law was passed in order to simplify voter registration and only requires that potential voters state that they are citizens, under penalty of perjury, but doesn't require additional proof of citizenship. The majority opinion was written by Antonin Scalia, who said that federal law "forbids states to demand that an applicant submit additional information beyond that required by the federal form." The dissenting votes were from Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the unemployment rate increased slightly from 7.5% to 7.6% in May. Each month, comments on this number include a discussion on “labor force participation"—the number that is released is based on people who are “in the labor force.” To be included in the labor force, someone has to either be employed, or actively looking for work.
Join Robert Reich on Thursday, June 20, noon–1 p.m. EDT for the seventh in the AFL-CIO series of live online discussions on how we build a movement for the future of working people. Reich, former secretary of labor under President Bill Clinton and Chancellor’s professor of public policy at the University of California at Berkeley—and the AFL-CIO—wants to hear your ideas on new ways the labor movement can change economic trends that hurt working people. He poses this question:The rich keep getting a bigger share of the economic pie while everyone else’s share keeps shrinking. What should be done to reverse this trend?
