Maryland has improved voter access
The Baltimore Sun - May 4, 2013, by Margaret Williams - This past November, I went to Florida to help...
The Baltimore Sun - May 4, 2013, by Margaret Williams - This past November, I went to Florida to help mobilize voters to increase participation in communities of color and raise the voice of those often unheard. While there, I witnessed firsthand what we all have seen on TV — terrible voting lines that forced community members to wait hours to cast their ballots. However, these perpetual voting challenges are not isolated to Florida. Even here in Maryland, we have a long, long way to go to ensure that the right to vote for Marylanders is easy and accessible for all. Like in Florida, my friends and family here in Baltimore City also waited hours to vote. I know of many in our communities who have been so discouraged by the process that they don't vote at all.
We must fix our broken democracy so that the electoral process is not fraught with obstacles for voters but encourages and supports the right to vote. Gov. Martin O'Malley's voting rights bill, which he signed into law on Thursday, is a great first step to engage and support Maryland's electorate. As a leader of the grassroots organization, Communities United, I commend Governor O'Malley for his leadership on this issue and am so grateful to the broad coalition of organizations that worked diligently for it's passage.
The bill, which will expand early voting and allow for same-day registration during the early voting period, is a real sign of progress toward improving voter access. The changes in this bill will make it easier for working-class people, who cannot afford to lose paid work time and wait hours to vote, to participate in the democratic process. We support this legislation as it was signed into law because it will provide tremendous benefits to residents throughout the state.
However, Mr. O'Malley's voting rights bill is merely a first step. We have yet to cross the finish line on voting rights, and there is much more work to be done.
In the last mayoral election in Baltimore, a mere 12 percent of voters went to the polls. If we are going to address the social and economic challenges that our city and state face, we must engage more citizens in voting. If we are to engage more citizens in voting, we must actively work for an electoral process that truly supports the engagement of all Marylanders.
Nationwide, voting rights are under attack by special interest groups and some elected officials. Every day we read in the press new proposals for voter identification bills and other methods of voter suppression throughout the country. It is critical that Maryland step forward as a real leader in progressive voting rights policies and electoral reform. While other states move to restrict voting rights, Maryland should serve as a model of voter empowerment for the rest of the country.
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington. As we look back to see how far we have come, it can only inspire us to see how far we can go. This voting bill is an important first step, but there's still a long road to walk until we achieve the freedom that all Marylanders deserve.
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America’s Biggest Corporations Are Quietly Boosting Trump's Hate Agenda
America’s Biggest Corporations Are Quietly Boosting Trump's Hate Agenda
Corporate Backers of Hate campaign calls on companies to end practices that benefit from Trump's agenda...
...
Corporate Backers of Hate campaign calls on companies to end practices that benefit from Trump's agenda...
Read full article here.
El premio de la diáspora boricua
“En el noreste, grupos de poder inmigrante como Make the Road, afiliadas al Center for Popular Democracy, organizan a estas comunidades en Nueva York, Connecticut, Pensilvania y Nueva Jersey para...
“En el noreste, grupos de poder inmigrante como Make the Road, afiliadas al Center for Popular Democracy, organizan a estas comunidades en Nueva York, Connecticut, Pensilvania y Nueva Jersey para crear un poder amplio en las minorías de esa parte de los EE.UU. Por otro lado, se han formado coaliciones nacionales como Power4Puerto Rico, que agrupan a muchos de estos grupos, incluyendo al Hispanic Federation, para cabildear por políticas públicas que tendrán un impacto directo en los puertorriqueños viviendo en la diáspora.
Lea el artículo completo aquí.
Yellen Says Debate Over When to Hike Now Center Stage
MarketWatch - August 22, 2014, by Greg Robb - With the economy mending, the Federal Reserve’s emphasis is “naturally shifting” to the debate over when to raise interest rates, the head of the U.S...
MarketWatch - August 22, 2014, by Greg Robb - With the economy mending, the Federal Reserve’s emphasis is “naturally shifting” to the debate over when to raise interest rates, the head of the U.S. central bank said Friday.
“With the economy getting closer to our objectives, the FOMC’s emphasis is naturally shifting to questions about the degree of remaining slack, how quickly that slack is to be taken up, and thereby to the question of under what conditions we should begin dialing back our extraordinary accommodation,” Fed Chairwoman Janet Yellen said in a speech opening the central bank’s summer policy conference in Jackson Hole.
Yellen said there was “no simple recipe” for the Fed to follow, but again warned that rate hikes could come sooner than expected if progress in the labor market continued to be more rapid than anticipated or if inflation moves up more rapidly.
Balancing this more hawkish tone, Yellen said 19 labor market indicators followed by the Fed suggest the decline in the unemployment rate overstates the improvement in overall labor-market conditions.
The initial reaction in the stock market was a muted one, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, -0.18% trading in a narrow range. Read Market Snapshot
Her comments “skirted around the issue of future monetary policy by noting that whilst there were a number of factors that might mean the labor market was less of a threat to inflation than in previous business cycles, equally, there were factors that might make it more so,” said ING economist Rob Carnell in a note to clients.
Yellen’s remarks about a shift in the Fed debate toward when, and under what conditions to tighten, lend credence to comments earlier this month from Richard Fisher, the hawkish president of the Dallas Fed, who said that the discussion among policy makers at their last meeting had moved in his direction.
Minutes of that meeting released on Wednesday were also judged by Fed watchers to be hawkish.
Perhaps sensing the shift, protestors have arrived for the first time in Jackson Hole this year urging the Fed to delay any rate hike.
Yellen gave no sense a rate hike was imminent. She noted the Fed still thinks that labor-market slack is “significant” and that the central bank has repeated it intends to hold rates close to zero for a “considerable time” after the Fed ends its bond-buying program, expected in October.
But her remarks suggest the first rate hike since 2006 is now on the table for active discussion.
Yellen and her allies on the Fed have signaled the first rate hike won’t happen until after the middle of next year. Hawks on the committee are pressing for an earlier move, and they have been vocal in speaking to reporters at Jackson Hole.
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Fed Up Condemns Trump Nomination to Federal Reserve
07.10.17
NEW YORK – In...
07.10.17
NEW YORK – In response to the White House’s nomination of Randal Quarles to the Federal Reserve as Vice Chair for Supervision, Jordan Haedtler, Campaign Manager for the Fed Up coalition, released the following statement:
“Throughout his career, self-described ‘Wall Street lawyer' Randal Quarles has looked out for his banker clients at the expense of America’s hard-working families.
After the financial crisis took a devastating toll on our country, Daniel Tarullo and the Federal Reserve Board of Governors implemented regulations to protect consumers from Wall Street excesses and facilitated job recovery by keeping interest rates low. Quarles stood against crucial decisions like these that helped working families, and he was proven wrong.
Quarles is on record opposing the Volcker Rule, which is meant to prevent banks from gambling with depositors’ money. During the Bush administration, Quarles negotiated trade agreements that blocked countries from regulating derivatives and other instruments that caused the crash. And after returning to the private sector, Quarles held private equity up as a solution to avoid government bailouts. He then took advantage of relaxed restrictions on private equity ownership to purchase a failing bank, and had the FDIC pay 80% of that bank’s losses.
We are also very concerned about Quarles’ monetary policy views. He enthusiastically supports the adoption of a Taylor Rule by the Fed, which would deprioritize full employment and put monetary policy decisions on autopilot. If Quarles had his way and the Fed strictly followed a Taylor Rule over the past five years, economists estimate that 2.5 million fewer jobs would have been created.
Trump claims that his highest priority is jobs, but Quarles’ regulatory and monetary record show that he would destroy jobs, not create them.We urge the Senate to press Quarles on all of these troubling positions, and to oppose his confirmation.”
### www.thepeoplesfed.org
Fed Up is a coalition of community organizations, labor unions, and policy experts across the country calling on the Federal Reserve to reform its governance and adopt policies that build a strong economy for the American public. By keeping interest rates low and prioritizing genuine full employment, the Fed gives the economy a fair chance to recover and allows wages to grow across all communities.
Contact: Shawn Sebastian, Fed Up co-director, ssebastian@populardemocracy.org, 515.451.8773
Coalition Calls for Racial Equality in Kansas City Economy
KSHB - March 5, 2014 - Following a Department of Justice report showing the Ferguson Police Department unfairly targeted African-Americans, a Kansas City coalition says there are racial...
KSHB - March 5, 2014 - Following a Department of Justice report showing the Ferguson Police Department unfairly targeted African-Americans, a Kansas City coalition says there are racial inequalities right here.
They say a recent economic report shows twice as many African-Americans in Kansas and Missouri are unemployed than white residents and that wages are too low to support a family.
"Our purpose here today is to call for a moral economy where wages actually provide hope for workers and their families,” Stan Runnels, a priest and CCO member, said.
The group is asking policy makers for a change.
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Many residents stand against Donald Trump
Queens residents have been among the thousands protesting President-elect Trump in Manhattan since the election.
“It was a rally and a march called together primarily by immigrants rights...
Queens residents have been among the thousands protesting President-elect Trump in Manhattan since the election.
“It was a rally and a march called together primarily by immigrants rights groups to provide a space for immigrant communities, people that are undocumented to be able to raise up the voices and the perpsectives of immigrant communities,” DRUM — South Asian Organizing Center Executive Director Fahd Ahmed told the Chronicle, adding that Sunday’s march would not be the last that they attend.
According to the immigrant advocacy group Make the Road New York, more than 15,000 immigrant New Yorkers and their supporters attended the event.
“Well, basically we were marching because we will not tolerate the hate agenda, we’re here to stay and we reject that,” Ozone Park resident Julissa Bisono said. “We want to make sure that New York City continues to be a sanctuary for immigrant families and that’s why we decided to march yesterday, to make sure that President-elect Trump hears our message.”
Kenneth Shelton, a St. John’s University student, organized the march on Saturday from Union Square to Trump Tower with the news outlet BlackMatters US.
“It was just for people to vent their frustration, get out there and protest but also to show that we’re unified,” Shelton said. “We need to organize ourselves into a movement socially, politically and economically.”
“We reject his hate and refuse to live in constant fear under a president who does not regard us as human,” Queens resident Ana Maria Archila, co-executive director of the Center for Popular Democracy, said in a prepared statement. “[Sunday’s] rally and march marks our first, though certainly not last, line of resistance against Trump’s brutal anti-immigrant regime.”
Queens is believed to have more unauthorized immigrants than any other borough, nearly 250,000, who could face deportation.
“The immigrant communities here, they’re real hard-working families and they’re scared,” Bisono said.
According to Bisono, there is a serious fear among immigrants that they could be harmed after last week’s election.
“We had kids that came who didn’t even go to school because they were afraid to not come back the next day,” she said. “We shouldn’t be living in fear.”
For people who feel like they may be threatened by the Trump administration, the protests were an opportunity to stand in solidarity with others who are as worried.
Ahmed, whose group is based in Jackson Heights and used to be called Desis Rising Up and Moving, said that the protests are “to get people out of fear, to get them out of isolation and to build with each other.”
Although Trump has urged his supporters to not hurt others and commit hate crimes, those have spiked nationwide in the days following his election victory.
“The large number of people that came to these actions have been black communities, Latino communities — the people explicitly being told that they need to watch out and will be targeted,” Ahmed said.
By Ryan Brady
Source
Detener los préstamos de día de pago es apenas el inicio
En los últimos años, se han incrementado las críticas contra los préstamos de día de pago por explotar a los prestatarios de bajos ingresos y atraparlos en un ciclo de endeudamiento. El problema...
En los últimos años, se han incrementado las críticas contra los préstamos de día de pago por explotar a los prestatarios de bajos ingresos y atraparlos en un ciclo de endeudamiento. El problema ha alcanzado tal magnitud, que este verano, la Oficina de Protección Financiera del Consumidor (Consumer Financial Protection Bureau o CFPB) propuso nuevas normas para acabar con las prácticas más abusivas en este sector.
Sin embargo, los prestamistas de día de pago no son los únicos que lucran con las dificultades de las comunidades de bajos ingresos al otorgarles préstamos engañosos que a menudo hacen que la gente termine con deudas abrumadoras. De hecho, esas prácticas orientadas a grupos de bajos ingresos se han vuelto comunes en muchos sectores económicos, desde préstamos hipotecarios hasta financiamiento para estudios universitarios.
Durante décadas, prácticas discriminatorias en ciertos vecindarios les negaron a las personas de color acceso a préstamos hipotecarios, cuentas de banco y otros servicios importantes. Hoy en día, se hace lo mismo con esquemas engañosos de préstamo que les niegan a mujeres negras y latinas la oportunidad de una vida mejor.
Un informe reciente subraya el impacto que dichas prácticas han tenido en las mujeres de color. Entre otros datos alarmantes, el informe indica que 6 de cada 10 clientes de préstamos de día de pago son mujeres, que la probabilidad de que las mujeres de raza negra reciban un préstamo con tasa no preferencial es 256% más alta que la de hombres blancos de las mismas características y que las mujeres de color terminan pagando deudas estudiantiles durante mucho más tiempo que los hombres. El estudio, encargado por la Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment, New Jersey Communities United e Isaiah, un grupo religioso en Minnesota, también prueba que las prácticas agresivas en préstamos, desde aquellos contra el cheque de pago hasta hipotecas con tasas altas, han aumentado considerablemente en años recientes. Muchos estudios han demostrado que se manipula a prestatarios con una buena historia crediticia, particularmente mujeres negras y latinas, para que saquen préstamos con intereses altos incluso cuando reúnen los requisitos para tasas más bajas.
Las mujeres de color son vulnerables a prestamistas de dudosa reputación debido a que el racismo y sexismo del sistema de por sí pone a muchas mujeres en una posición económica precaria. Cada vez más, se ha empujado a las mujeres a aceptar trabajos con poco control y paga. En la fuerza laboral con sueldos bajos predomina la mujer, y la brecha salarial entre los sexos afecta mucho más a las mujeres de color. En el año 2014, las mujeres de raza negra ganaban 63% de los ingresos de hombres blancos, y las latinas, 54%. Muchas mujeres de color, estancadas en empleos con poca paga, horarios imprevisibles y pocas oportunidades de superarse, se ven forzadas a sacar préstamos simplemente para subsistir o tratar de mejorar su desesperada situación.
Durante demasiado tiempo, se ha permitido que proliferen los préstamos usurarios y otras prácticas empresariales que les niegan oportunidades a comunidades y explotan a los más vulnerables en términos económicos. El mes pasado, la Consumer Financial Protection Bureau comenzó a tomar medidas contra los préstamos de día de pago o garantizados con títulos de propiedad de autos, pero es necesario hacer más. Las entidades normativas deben asegurarse de que todos los préstamos tomen en cuenta la capacidad del prestatario de pagar la deuda y de que los prestamistas no vayan en pos de los menos protegidos desproporcionadamente y traten de lucrar con ellos.
Las normas para préstamos de día de pago del mes pasado muestran claramente un ímpetu en combatir los préstamos cada vez más abusivos de los banqueros. Estas normas son un paso en la dirección correcta, pero no van suficientemente lejos. Estamos avanzando, pero queda mucho por hacer para asegurar que no se explote a las mujeres negras y latinas con esta versión de discriminación del siglo XXI.
Por Marbre Stahly-Butts
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Puerto Ricans call for protest in Washington
“Convened by the Power4Puerto Rico coalition, refugees and civic and union groups have organized a day of protests - which could include acts of civil disobedience - and visits to offices of...
“Convened by the Power4Puerto Rico coalition, refugees and civic and union groups have organized a day of protests - which could include acts of civil disobedience - and visits to offices of members of Congress, to mark the six-month anniversary of the worst catastrophe the Island has faced in a century. The events, which begin on Monday evening, will be headed on Tuesday by a protest in front of the headquarters of FEMA in Washington DC, said Samy Nemir Olivares, spokesman for the Center for Popular Democracy.”
Read the full article here.
Panelists talk immigration policy at CNN documentary screening
Panelists talk immigration policy at CNN documentary screening
Ana María Archila, the co-executive director for the Center of Popular Democracy, said immigrants are frightened and anxious just living their lives and going about their daily routines.
...
Ana María Archila, the co-executive director for the Center of Popular Democracy, said immigrants are frightened and anxious just living their lives and going about their daily routines.
Read the full article here.
23 hours ago
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