Community activists stage Cyber Monday protests in fight against Amazon’s HQ2
Community activists stage Cyber Monday protests in fight against Amazon’s HQ2
“Cyber Monday is a big day for Amazon, and Amazon coming to Queens is a big deal for New Yorkers,” Charles Khan, an organizer with the Strong Economy Coalition and the Center for Popular Democracy...
“Cyber Monday is a big day for Amazon, and Amazon coming to Queens is a big deal for New Yorkers,” Charles Khan, an organizer with the Strong Economy Coalition and the Center for Popular Democracy, told MarketWatch following the Herald Square protest. “It’s a trillion-dollar company run by the richest man in the world, and they don’t need any help from taxpayers to come to New York.”
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Scarlett Johansson and Her Fellow Avengers Raise $500,000 for Puerto Rico Relief
Scarlett Johansson and Her Fellow Avengers Raise $500,000 for Puerto Rico Relief
Johansson and the John Gore Organization partnered for a benefit performance of Our Town in Atlanta.
...
Johansson and the John Gore Organization partnered for a benefit performance of Our Town in Atlanta.
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New York Fed Names John Williams President, Bucking Calls for Diversity
New York Fed Names John Williams President, Bucking Calls for Diversity
Progressive groups seized on Mr. Dudley’s retirement as a rare opportunity to influence an economic policy appointment that is outside Mr. Trump’s control. Protesters marched on the bank’s Lower...
Progressive groups seized on Mr. Dudley’s retirement as a rare opportunity to influence an economic policy appointment that is outside Mr. Trump’s control. Protesters marched on the bank’s Lower Manhattan headquarters last month to demand a president who would represent working people. In a statement Tuesday, the Fed Up campaign, a progressive group, criticized the New York Fed’s board for “ignoring the demands of the public and choosing yet another white man whose record on Wall Street regulation and full employment raises serious questions.” The group said the search process “calls into question whether the Federal Reserve can be trusted to act in the public interest.
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Risking Public Money: New York Charter School Fraud
Executive Summary
Sixteen years following the passage of New York’s Charter School Act, the number of charter schools in New York has grown dramatically. Over the last 10 years, charter...
Sixteen years following the passage of New York’s Charter School Act, the number of charter schools in New York has grown dramatically. Over the last 10 years, charter student enrollment has increased by 530 percent. Charter schools enroll over 90,000 students in New York State,2 80,000 of whom attend charter schools in New York City.3 For the school year 2014–15, New York charter schools will receive over $1.5 billion in public funding.
Download the report hereDespite the tremendous investment of public dollars, New York has failed to implement a system that adequately monitors charters for fraud, waste, and mismanagement. While charter schools are subject to significant reporting requirements and monitoring by oversight bodies, only the New York State Comptroller’s Office (Office) audits charter schools with any regularity. While the Office has audited fewer than half of all charter schools, they have exposed some form of internal control deficiency or mismanagement in 95 percent of their audits.5 The majority of charter schools in New York are left to operate year in and year out without regulator-level audits, specifically audits that are designed to determine whether these publicly funded, privately managed schools are spending public dollars properly. Given the findings of the limited audits the State Comptroller has performed, this system of irregular regulator audits poses a serious problem. In all but three of the Comptroller audits, auditors exposed internal control deficiencies and various forms of mismanagement ranging in severity and form—from inappropriate trips to the Bahamas by charter school staff to undocumented spending of thousands of public dollars.These findings indicate that many of the unaudited charter schools likely suffer from internal control deficiencies as well. Based on conservative estimates, New York could stand to lose $54 million in charter school fraud in 2014 alone.* The vast majority of this fraud will go undetected because New York lacks the oversight necessary to detect it. In this report we identify two fundamental flaws with New York’s oversight of charter schools:
Oversight depends heavily on self-reporting by charter schools or the reports of whistleblowers. New York’s oversight agencies rely almost entirely on audits paid for by charter operators and complaints from whistleblowers. While important to uncover fraud, neither method systematically detects or effectively prevents fraud. General auditing techniques alone do not uncover fraud. The audits commissioned by the charter schools use general auditing techniques designed to expose inaccuracies or inefficiencies. Without audits specifically designed to detect and uncover fraud, however, state and local agencies will rarely detect deliberate fraud without a whistleblower.To address these serious deficiencies in New York’s system, we recommend the following reforms:
Mandate New Measures Designed to Detect and Prevent Fraud Charter school governing boards should be required to institute an internal fraud risk management program, including an annual fraud risk assessment. Charter school governing boards should be required to commission an annual audit of internal controls over financial reporting that is integrated with the audit of financial statements charter schools currently commission. Oversight agencies, including the Comptrollers’ offices for New York State and City, should conduct audits on charter schools once every five years. Oversight agencies should conduct fraud audits, prioritizing charter schools with heightened levels of fraud risk. Auditing teams should include members certified in financial forensics trained to detect fraud. Increase Transparency & Accountability Oversight agencies should create a system to categorize and rank charter audits by level of fraud risk they pose to facilitate public engagement. State and City Comptrollers should create a dedicated charter school fraud hotline for whistleblowers. Charter school governing boards should post the findings of their annual fraud risk internal assessments on their websites. Oversight agencies should determine what steps the nonprofit governing boards and executives of charter schools have taken to guard against fraud over the past 10 years and issue a report to the public detailing their findings and recommendations. Charter school authorizers should take fraud risk assessments into account when evaluating whether to renew a school’s charter. Charter school governing boards should provide parents of students enrolled in charter schools free access to all materials related to their fraud risk management program. The state should impose a moratorium on new charter schools and refrain from increasing the charter school cap until the state oversight system is adequately reformed.Given the rapid and continuing expansion of the charter school industry and the tremendous investment of public dollars, New York must act now to reform its oversight system. Without reform, the people of New York State stand to lose millions of dollars to charter school fraud, waste, and mismanagement.
Download the report here
CPD Condemns Trump Administration Transferring Money from FEMA to ICE
09.13.2018
New York, NY – In response to breaking news that the Trump administration transferred nearly $10 million away from FEMA to ICE at the height of the family...
09.13.2018
New York, NY – In response to breaking news that the Trump administration transferred nearly $10 million away from FEMA to ICE at the height of the family separation crisis, The Center for Popular Democracy released the following statement:
Julio López Varona, Director of Community Dignity Campaigns at the Center for Popular Democracy said:
“The Trump administration would rather lock up children in cages than assist its Puerto Rican citizens to recover from Hurricane Maria. People in Puerto Rico and displaced throughout the United States still urgently need recovery money. Over 97 percent of those seeking funeral assistance were denied. Meanwhile, Trump is beefed up ICE’s budget to lock up primarily black and brown children in cages on the United States/Mexico border. The transfer of money continues the administrations’ relentless attack on black and brown communities. It nothing less than an insult to the people of Puerto Rico.”
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Liberal groups push Clinton on Wall Street 'golden parachutes'
In a letter sent to Clinton, who is running for the Democratic presidential nomination, the groups pressed her to oppose “golden parachutes” given to bank executives when they agree to take high-...
In a letter sent to Clinton, who is running for the Democratic presidential nomination, the groups pressed her to oppose “golden parachutes” given to bank executives when they agree to take high-ranking government jobs. Such a payment structure is not uncommon on Wall Street, but critics of the practice say it encourages a “revolving door” in Washington and undue governmental influence by the financial sector.
The groups asked Clinton if she supported the practice, while noting that two of her main primary opponents — Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley — have backed barring the practice.
"The revolving door between government and Wall Street helps the wealthiest few hijack our democracy for their own gain,” said Murshed Zaheed, deputy political director at Credo Action. “Americans cannot afford to have another administration from either party filled with Wall Street executives with multi-million dollar golden parachutes.”
Other groups signing on to the letter were Rootstrikers, Democracy for America, MoveOn.org Political Action, Center for Popular Democracy Action, The Other 98%, Friends of the Earth Action and American Family Voices.
The letter marks the latest in a series of pushes from the left to encourage Clinton to take a harsher stance on the financial sector. Whlie Sanders and O’Malley have hammered the financial sector as a key part of their campaign message, Clinton has taken a more measured tone.
Gripes about a heavy hand from finance in powerful government positions has become a particularly sore spot on the left of late. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) helped derail President Obama’s nomination of Antonio Weiss, a top executive at Lazard, for a top Treasury post. Warren argued Lazard’s long history on Wall Street should disqualify him for the position, urging someone else to fill the role without such ties. Weiss eventually took a separate post at the Treasury in an advisory role, where he did not need to be Senate-confirmed.
The Clinton campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Source: The Hill
Not one of the regional Fed banks has ever been run by a black or Latino
Not one of the regional Fed banks has ever been run by a black or Latino
Atlanta, located in the heart of the South, was a center of the civil rights movement, became a corporate hub of the New South economy, and boasts a large black professional class.
Can it...
Atlanta, located in the heart of the South, was a center of the civil rights movement, became a corporate hub of the New South economy, and boasts a large black professional class.
Can it help break the Federal Reserve's color barrier?
Dennis Lockhart's retirement early next year as head of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta has spotlighted the selection of his replacement as members of Congress and a coalition of activist groups call for an aggressive search among blacks and Latinos with finance or economics expertise.
African-Americans have served on the Federal Reserve's Washington-based Board of Governors three times in the Fed's 103-year history, and the central bank now has a female chair, Janet Yellen.
But none of the regional banks have ever been run by a black or Latino, a lack of diversity some argue is worrisome on its face and could make the system as a whole less attentive to how policy impacts less advantaged communities.
"Grave racial disparities exist across our nation in unemployment, wages and income. ... It is critical that incoming leadership ... be committed to doing more," four African-American members of the House of Representatives wrote in a letter this week to Yellen and Thomas Fanning, chair of the Atlanta Fed's private board of directors.
"Lockhart's recent retirement announcement presents an opportunity to enhance and expand the Federal Reserve's leadership," they said in the letter.
In a public webcast on Thursday, Fanning said he wants to hold "one of the most transparent processes ever," and that the search committee has already received nominations from the public at large.
As in other districts, the search will be national in scope. There is no requirement that the head of the Atlanta Fed come from the bank's southeastern region, and the 12 regional Fed banks often bring in a president from outside their own geographic area.
Executive search firm SpencerStuart has been hired to run the search. Consultant John Harpole said the firm has helped place 1,600 women, minorities and other "underrepresented groups" in corporate positions, and would cast a wide net among local institutions, national organizations and its "strong network" of sitting executives to find candidates.
The issue is sensitive for the Fed, whose policies affect every citizen but which is designed to be immune from the day-to-day politics that influence other U.S. government agencies.
Group says Fed is unaccountable
Because monetary policy focuses on influencing interest rates that apply nationwide, Fed officials say it is too blunt a tool to address issues like the persistent gap between unemployment rates for blacks and white.
Activists counter that those sorts of problems might improve if unemployment was driven as low as possible — even at the risk of higher inflation. The Fed sets policy with two goals in mind, low employment and stable inflation of around 2 percent annually.
The U.S. unemployment rate in August, the latest month for which data is available, was 4.9 percent.
A labor-affiliated coalition of civic groups, known as Fed Up, has taken the argument even further, arguing that the Fed's very structure makes it unaccountable.
The regional banks in particular have supervisory power over local financial institutions as well as a voice in national policymaking, but are set up as private entities owned by the banks they oversee. The regional bank presidents are chosen by a local board of directors, though the choice must be approved by the Fed governors in Washington.
In a meeting with civic activists in August, New York Fed President William Dudley agreed the institution had done a "pretty lousy" job of promoting diversity. But Fed officials in general argue that the current structure has worked well, and that changes would need to offer clear advantages without risking the central bank's independence.
In that environment, the Atlanta Fed appointment will be watched closely. Though many regional bank heads come from within the broader Fed system, tapped from its ready pool of economists with doctoral degrees, Lockhart had a varied career in private equity and banking before taking over the Atlanta Fed 10 years ago.
And while the search will be national, Atlanta has a deep pool of black professionals - 10 percent of African-Americans in the city have a graduate or professional degree, three percentage points higher than the national average.
"That would be a great thing," Fanning said. "We want the best person as well."
By Howard Schneider
Source
‘A Declaration of War on Immigrants’: Reactions to Trump’s DACA Decision
‘A Declaration of War on Immigrants’: Reactions to Trump’s DACA Decision
The Trump administration announced on Tuesday that it would stop issuing permits under the Obama era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA and renew existing permits only over...
The Trump administration announced on Tuesday that it would stop issuing permits under the Obama era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA and renew existing permits only over the next six months to give Congress a short window to come up with a replacement program. Here is a sampling of the reaction.
Read the full article here.
Schedules that Work Act Reintroduced Amidst National Groundswell for a Fair Workweek
*For Planning Purposes Only*
Contact: Ricardo A. Ramírez, rramirez@populardemocracy.org, 202-464-7376
Congress will reintroduce...
*For Planning Purposes Only*
Contact: Ricardo A. Ramírez, rramirez@populardemocracy.org, 202-464-7376
Congress will reintroduce the “Schedules that Work Act,” which has increased support, reflecting a growing traction among leading legislators including Senators Warren, Murray, Baldwin, Murphy, Schumer, Brown and Franken and Representatives DeLauro and Scott.
The Center for Popular Democracy released the following statement:
“The Schedules that Work Act is path-breaking legislation in the national movement to update workplace protections with common sense solutions for the challenges faced by the majority of Americans who are working by the hour,” said Carrie Gleason, director of the Fair Workweek Initiative at the Center for Popular Democracy. “The introduction of this bill comes amid a growing national movement of working people in states and cities across the country who are declaring that their time counts. Working Americans increasingly struggle with unpredictable hours that change week to week and have too little say in the schedules that have become a moving target. In twelve states, legislators have responded to the needs of working families by introducing fair workweek legislation, including in cities like Albuquerque, Minneapolis, and Washington DC. As political momentum grows for these new labor standards, employers are also facing increasing pressure to reform their scheduling practices with major retailers – like Victoria’s Secret and the GAP - facing scrutiny regarding their use of unpaid on-call shifts.”
"As a night student with two jobs, having to learn about my schedule with only a week’s notice is hard,” said Ciera Moran, a Starbucks worker in New Haven, Connecticut who is working with Make the Road Connecticut. “Often I get very little sleep, and sometimes I have to scramble to get enough hours and make ends meet. A fair workweek means that I get the advance notice I need to pay my bills, get an education, and plan my future. I deserve a fair workweek and I know that the only way we get it is if workers come together and speak out."
"Across the country, parents working hourly jobs, particularly women, are increasingly struggling to balance their families with the chaos of unpredictable work schedules they can't control," said Anthony Newby, executive director of Neighborhoods Organizing for Change in Minnesota. “Here in Minneapolis, we are organizing to pass citywide fair scheduling policies before the end of the year. As this week’s event will show, our families are energized and won’t back down until we obtain a workweek we can count on.”
As the Schedules That Work Act moves through Congress, state and municipal campaigns are taking off across the country. On Wednesday, 200 workers with Neighborhoods Organizing for Change and other labor and community groups will march to City Hall in Minneapolis to release a report highlighting the scheduling crisis in Minneapolis and the need for policy solutions. They will be unveiling groundbreaking new data about the effect of unpredictable scheduling in Minneapolis neighborhoods.
Workers involved with CPD’s community partners and the Fair Workweek Initiative in Minneapolis, Albuquerque and across the country are available to talk to the media. Interested reporters can request an interview by writing an email to press@populardemocracy.org.
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The Fair Workweek Initiative (FWI), a collaborative effort anchored by the Center for Popular Democracy (CPD), is bringing together leading worker, community and policy organizations across the country to raise industry standards and develop, drive and win policy solutions that achieve a workweek working families can count on.
The Center for Popular Democracy promotes equity, opportunity, and a dynamic democracy in partnership with innovative base-building organizations, organizing networks and alliances, and progressive unions across the country. CPD builds the strength and capacity of democratic organizations to envision and advance a pro-worker, pro-immigrant, racial justice agenda.
Janet Yellen Meets With Community Leaders on Fed Policy, Jobs
The Wall Street Journal - November 14, 2014, by Pedro Nicolaci da Costa - Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen met Friday with a coalition of community activists who are urging...
The Wall Street Journal - November 14, 2014, by Pedro Nicolaci da Costa - Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen met Friday with a coalition of community activists who are urging the central bank to resist pressures to raise interest rates before the labor market has fully recovered and calling for greater public input into the selection of regional Fed bank presidents.
At a press briefing outside the Fed before the meeting, organized by the Center for Popular Democracy and featuring workers, community organizers and liberal economists, the activists said the idea that the economy was close to full recovery was belied by the joblessness and underemployment of millions of Americans.
“We’re here to launch a national campaign for a stronger economy and for a reformed Federal Reserve,” said Ady Barkan, staff attorney at the center, a left-leaning national nonprofit organization. “The economy is not working for the vast majority of people,” he said, citing high unemployment, inequality and large racial disparities.
The Fed declined to comment on the meeting or the activists’ recommendations.
The Fed last month ended its bond-buying program aimed at supporting economic growth, citing “substantial improvement” in the outlook for the labor market. Those present at the briefing said the experience of many communities across the country suggests otherwise.
One of their biggest complaints was the inability of workers to find full-time work, a problem that has worried Fed officials and suggests the job market is still some way from full health.
“My job used to be steady, something you could count on,” said Jean Andre, 48, of New York, who works on logistics in the film industry. “I’m one of the names at the end of the movies that nobody reads. But I’m underemployed, I just can’t get full-time work anymore, not like I used to before the crash.”
With the unemployment rate 5.8% in October, Fed officials are debating when to begin raising interest rates from near zero. Many investors expect the central bank to start raising its benchmark short-term rate sometime in the summer of 2015.
Josh Bivens, an economist at the liberal Economic Policy Institute in Washington, noted that black unemployment is generally double the overall level. Black communities would be among those hit hardest by potentially premature Fed rate increases, he said.
The activist group also called for greater public input into the selection of the presidents of the Fed’s 12 regional banks. This comes ahead of the retirements next year of Dallas Fed President Richard Fisher and Philadelphia Fed President Charles Plosser. The two have been some of the most vocal opponents of aggressive Fed efforts to reduce unemployment—such as holding short-term rates near zero and buying bonds to lower long-term rates–arguing such policies risk fueling excessive inflation and asset bubbles while doing little good for the economy.
Fed presidents are selected by the boards of directors of the regional Feds, with the approval of the Washington-based Fed board of governors. The regional boards are composed of bankers, business executives and community representatives,
Kati Sipp, a director of the Pennsylvania Working Families Party who spoke at the briefing, said many of the regional bank board members designated as community representatives are not truly representative of the communities they are supposed to serve. “Right now in Philadelphia we have Comcast CMCSA +0.10% executives that are representing the public, and we think that it’s important for us that real people are also representing the public in Federal Reserve policy making.”
Michael Angelakis, vice chairman and CFO of Comcast Corp., is deputy director of the Philadelphia Fed’s Board.
“In Philadelphia we’ve had an 8% average unemployment rate for this year and it’s a 14.5% unemployment rate for the black community,” Ms. Sipp said. If Mr. Plosser believes the economy is back to full health, she said, then he hasn’t visited many of his own city’s troubled neighborhoods. “If he had, he would not believe that our economy has really recovered.”
Mr. Plosser has said he believes the job market is close to full employment and the economic recovery is genuine, if unremarkable.
The Philadelphia Fed announced Friday that Korn Ferry KFY -0.15%, the executive search firm hired to conduct the search for a new president, established an email address “to receive inquiries.” Asked if the move was in response to the protests, a spokesperson said it was “one part of our broad search process.”
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