Support Asylum Seekers From the Migrant Caravan Vilified by Trump
Support Asylum Seekers From the Migrant Caravan Vilified by Trump
With 71 percent of people detained by ICE held in privately-operated facilities, the private prison industry is one of...
With 71 percent of people detained by ICE held in privately-operated facilities, the private prison industry is one of the largest beneficiaries of anti-immigrant policies. The Center for Popular Democracy, Make the Road New York, Enlace International, New York Communities for Change, and the Strong Economy for All Coalition recently released a report that found that Wall Street companies such as JP Morgan and Wells Fargo not only profit from the industry: they massively increased their investments after Donald Trump was elected president. Check out the report here, then write a letter to one of the companies and share some of the report’s most potent facts on social media using the hashtag #BackersofHate.
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How to Help Puerto Rico, Even When the President Won't
Donald Trump's idea of humanitarian aid to Puerto Rico is throwing paper towel rolls to a crowd. His callous and...
Donald Trump's idea of humanitarian aid to Puerto Rico is throwing paper towel rolls to a crowd. His callous and grandstanding attitude following Hurricane Maria's devastation is breathtaking, even for a man who uses a golden toilet. His cheap imitation of a T-shirt cannon was enough to make America collectively throw the phones we watched it on into the sea. If you're looking for less expensive ways to channel your rage, consider donating time, money or supplies to organizations and individuals on the ground in Puerto Rico.
Read the full article here.
Rally calling for immigration reform include scores of undocumented immigrants
Penn Live – August 5, 2013, by Ivy DeJesus - Close to 100 protesters rallied on Monday within ear shot of a political...
Penn Live – August 5, 2013, by Ivy DeJesus - Close to 100 protesters rallied on Monday within ear shot of a political event in Harrisburg headlined by House Speaker John Boehner and Rep. Scott Perry (PA-4) to demand immigration reform.
Chanting in English and Spanish, protesters made their way from the City Island parking lot up to the path leading to Metro Bank Park where the Republican lawmakers held a fundraiser.
Protesters carried placards and shouted in unison a string of chants, including: “Serve the needy, not the greedy,” and “Move Boehner, get out of the way. You’re not welcome in Pa.”
The rally was organized by a coalition of advocacy groups, among them Keystone Progress, Pennsylvanians United for Immigration Reform, Center for Popular Democracy and Central PA Area Labor Federation. The majority of participants drove in from other parts of the state or were bused in.
As House members return to their districts for August recess, representatives of the coalition said they intended to take their messages to lawmakers’ local offices.
Perry’s 4th congressional district encompasses York County and parts of Dauphin County.
Hiro Nishikawa, one of the protesters, said that the long-simmering debate is finally getting widespread public attention.
Nishikawa said immigration policy continues to be dictated by outdated laws, including the 1996 law that mandates detention and apprehension of undocumented immigrants who have any prior police records. The law has led to approximately 400,000 undocumented immigrants being detained under the Obama Administration.
“People recognize things are messed up,” Nishikawa said. “The huge concern is the fairness of the law. It needs to be changed.”
Amid widespread calls for an immigration policy overhaul, a deeply divided Congress has been unable to advance any comprehensive reform. President Obama has used his executive power to push some laws that provide pathways to citizenship, including an amnesty program for qualified young people. In spite of a bipartisan Senate bill approved in June, Washington insiders are largely in agreement that the House is not likely to agree on a major bill this year.“We are entrenched in the culture that is America..we are part of the people that are here.” – Jorge Salazar
Rally participants represented a diverse group of people, including church and labor groups, immigrants from a number of countries, and even undocumented immigrants.
Carmen Guerrero, a community organizer from outside Philadelphia, said lawmakers have not given the immigration issue the urgency it deserves.
“The law is broken,” Guerrero said in Spanish. She came from Mexico 13 years ago. “This is a country of immigrants. It’s a country where immigration has to keep moving forward with its law. It’s been too long without reform. It has been reformed but only to attack the immigrant community, to suppress the community.”
Guerrero said that U.S. immigration policy is so cumbersome, many immigrants prefer to sidestep the system and enter the country illegally. She said most countries face daunting obstacles for legal entry, including excessively long waiting periods.
“The opportunity to come here legally is too small,” she said. “At the end of the day, we rather break the law. There is no realization to be able to come legally and be part of society, as we should.”
Guerrero, a single mother of three who has worked two full-time jobs back to back as a hotel housekeeper and restaurant dishwasher, says she pays taxes and is in no way taking jobs away from citizens.
“We are the landscapers, the service, the dishwashsers at the restaurants and hotels,” she said. “I don’t think a professional would want those jobs.” -Jorge Salazar
Another undocumented immigrant, Jorge Salazar acknowledged that it would be difficult to process 11 million undocumented immigrants through the immigration system, but that in the end, it would not burden taxpayers.
“It’s not going to be costly,” he said. “We are going to pay for it. Immigration is one of the few government programs funded by the applicants.”
Salazar’s family arrived from Bolivia 23 years ago, but due to a series of legal mistakes, his family found itself staying put once their visa expired.
Salazar said he considers himself a part of the American society; he said he works and goes to school and is an active member of his community. He traveled to Harrisburg from his Philadelphia suburb home.
He said he and his family were concerned that they were risking deportation by being vocally and actively involved in calling for immigration reform.
“The reality is we have to do this,” he said. “People need to know that we are your neighbors, we are next to you in school, we are next to you in church. All my friends are American citizens. We are entrenched in the culture that is America..we are part of the people that are here.”
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Ahead of Black Friday, Walmart Workers Brief Capitol Hill Lawmakers
People's World - November 19, 2014 - Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D, Mass., Rep. George Miller, D,Calif., and legislative...
People's World - November 19, 2014 - Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D, Mass., Rep. George Miller, D,Calif., and legislative experts held a committee briefing today, titled Walmart and the Economic Insecurity of American Families. Only a week before Black Friday job actions that are expected at more than 1,000 Walmart stores nationwide the lawmakers heard from members of OUR Walmart on how the country's largest employer is creating an economic crisis for working families in America.
"I was glad to join Walmart employees today to support efforts to push back against practices by Walmart and other big corporations that make it hard for working families to make ends meet," said Warren. "Hardworking men and women across the country want a fighting chance to build a future for themselves and their families. We need to give workers this chance by raising the minimum wage, providing some basic fairness in scheduling, and fighting for equal pay for equal work."
"Walmart's shoddy business model is singlehandedly wreaking havoc on American families across the country and making it impossible for hundreds of thousands of workers to have a shot at the American Dream," said Miller, senior Democrat on the House Committee on Education and the Workforce. "America's workers and their families deserve better than they're getting from Walmart today-they deserve higher wages, less erratic schedules, and equal pay regardless of their gender. The courage of Walmart workers who are engaged in sit-down strikes to protest the company's illegal silencing of workers who have called for better jobs and full-time work is essential to creating real change."
At the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee briefing, Walmart workers discussed how Walmart's low pay, manipulation of scheduling and illegal threats to workers have created a new norm across industries that makes it nearly impossible for workers to hold down second jobs, arrange child care, go to school or manage health conditions.
"With Walmart's low-wages and hectic schedules, too many Walmart workers are left on the edge of poverty. But all too often when we stand up, Walmart tries to silence us. Just days before I planned to participate in our first sit-down strike in LA, Walmart fired me for speaking up for better wages and hours, but I'm still fighting today because my former colleagues like Fatmata Jabbie and Cantare Davunt deserve better," said Evelin Cruz, former Walmart employee and OUR Walmart member.
The briefing highlighted the Schedules That Work Act, Fair Minimum Wage Act and Paycheck Fairness Act-legislation that would force the company to improve its pay and hours for hundreds of thousands of American workers. Legislative experts including Carol Joyner of the Labor Project for Working Families, Amy Traub of Demos and Carrie Gleason of the Center for Popular Democracy joined the elected officials and Walmart associates on the panel to discuss the need for legislative action to set a new standard at the country's largest employer.
The action from elected officials comes as an increasing number of Americans and Walmart workers point to OUR Walmart as making significant changes at the country's largest retailer. Most recently, after public calls from OUR Walmart, the company committed to raise wages for its lowest paid workers and rolled out a new scheduling system that allows workers to sign up for open shifts. To date, workers at more than 2,100 Walmart stores nationwide have signed a petition calling on Walmart and the Waltons to publicly commit to paying $15 an hour and providing consistent, full-time hours.
"In three short years, OUR Walmart has grown to a powerful, national network that is making big changes at the country's largest employer," said Cantare Davunt, a Walmart customer service manager and OUR Walmart member during the briefing today."But more needs to be done. Legislative action would have a huge impact, but Walmart can lead the way now by adopting policies that give us the schedules and pay we need."
The briefing comes before next week's Black Friday nationwide strikes. Tens of thousands of workers, teachers, voters, clergy, environmentalists, and civil rights leaders will join workers at more than 1,600 protests, speaking out against retaliation and calling on Walmart and the Walton family to publicly commit to $15 an hour and provide full-time work.
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Markets to Fed: See you next year
MARKETS TO FED: SEE YOU NEXT YEAR! — Asia followed Wall Street higher on hopes the Fed might take weak jobs data into...
MARKETS TO FED: SEE YOU NEXT YEAR! — Asia followed Wall Street higher on hopes the Fed might take weak jobs data into account and wait until next year to hike rates. … Reuters: “Fading expectations that the U.S. Federal Reserve will raise interest rates this year and a bounce in oil and commodity prices helped lift Asian stocks to two-week highs on Tuesday …
“‘One of the two big persistent concerns has faded, so investors are taking risks,’ said Masashi Oda, senior investment officer at Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank, referring to expectations of a near-term Fed hike. … Japanese shares garnered further momentum from speculation that the Bank of Japan might expand its massive stimulus program to support the flagging economy”http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/10/06/us-global-markets-idUSKCN0S001I20151006
M.M. SIDEBAR — Seems like wishful thinking. The FOMC is almost certain to hit the liftoff button by December unless jobs growth really falls off a cliff, which appears unlikely based on other data. It remains possible that both August and September jobs figures will get revised higher. And even a slightly sub-200K pace is enough to keep unemployment dropping to what the Fed generally considers full employment (though nobody actually knows exacly what full employment is). Of course a messy debt limit fight actually could push the Fed off into 2016 but it would likely take markets down with it.
“FED UP” PROTESTERS TO HIT PHILLY — POLITICO's Zachary Warmbrodt: “Activists lobbying against a Federal Reserve interest rate increase as part of the so-called ‘Fed Up’ campaign are planning to hold a protest targeting new Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia president Patrick Harker on Tuesday afternoon. Around 15-20 people including workers, small business owners and clergy are expected to participate in the protest, which is aimed at pressuring Harker to meet with the coalition and take a tour of low-income neighborhoods …
“Kendra Brooks, who leads the local Fed Up coalition and is an organizer for Action United, is attending Harker's event but says she has been urging him to meet with more members of the community beyond the heads of non-profits and corporations … Brooks tried to get a commitment from Harker at the Fed's symposium in Jackson Hole, and their chat is on YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2h-GN7cHDAc
WILL HILLARY FLIP FLOP ON TPP? — POLITICO's Victoria Guida: “Hillary Clinton has presented herself as a skeptic of the biggest trade deal in history, saying this summer that ‘we should prepared to walk away’ from the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership unless it boosts Americans' wages and national security. But with a deal announced Monday after months of backstage wrangling, Clinton will be under intense pressure to take a stance.
“The deal is one of the most ambitious items left on President Barack Obama's White House bucket list. But his former secretary of state owns it too, even though she has expressed increasing ambivalence about its details and could soon disown it outright, as some in her circle have suggested. … [R]eacting to the polarizing TPP deal is one of the most excruciating policy decisions of her campaign thus far - and far more politically perilous with Democratic primary voters than her backing of Obama's Iran deal.” http://www.politico.com/story/2015/10/hillary-clinton-trade-dilemma-214456
BIGGEST TPP WINNER: JAPANESE AUTO MAKERS — Per Bloomberg’s list of winners under the trade deal: “Japanese car and auto-parts makers may be the biggest winners, as they get cheaper access to the U.S., the industry’s biggest export market” https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-10-06/tpp-trade-deal-who-stands-to-benefit-suffer-in-asia-pacific
FIRST LOOK: “TAX HAVEN SEX MANSION” — Can't resist a headline like that, eh? Bloomberg Businessweek piece up at 7:00 a.m. by Zeke Faux “investigates how Abe Zeines and Muir Hurwitz, two sons of an ultra-religious Jewish neighborhood in Brooklyn piloted a shady new kind of finance — ‘merchant cash advance’ — made a fortune, and then saw it all come to an end.” The two now live in a "tax-haven sex mansion in Puerto Rico.” As one does. https://www.bloomberg.com/authors/AP5w7epl1Xo/zeke-faux
LITAN RESPONDS — Bob Litan writes in FORTUNE: “Sen. Warren clearly disagrees with our study, but rather than address its reasoning and facts, she claimed my disclosure was vague (which it was not) and that I was misusing my non-resident perch at Brookings by identifying that position in a footnote (a newly established Brookings rule of which I was unaware but promised Brookings I would not run afoul of again), though I never mentioned my Brookings affiliation at the hearing. …
“I can only speculate why Sen. Warren has been so interested in our research, but I suspect it is because, even with its disclosed sponsor, the study exposed two major weaknesses in Labor’s proposal — which the Department may correct when it issues its final rule. But if it does not, these two points, at least in my view, make the rule susceptible to being overturned by a court as being arbitrary and capricious (or failing a benefit-cost test) if it is legally challenged” http://fortune.com/2015/10/05/elizabeth-warren-robert-litan-u-s-department-of-labor/
Litan’s pithy email response to M.M. on the whole affair: “Life in the big city.”
GOOD TUESDAY MORNING — Crazy Monday Night Football game. The Lions had a surprising road victory over the Seahawks in their grasp only to have Kam Chancellor poke the ball out of Calvin Johnson’s hands at the goal line. The Seahawks then illegally batted the ball out of the end zone for the touchback but the refs missed it. Should have been Lions ball at the goal line. Crushing blow. Massive officiating mistake. Email me at bwhite@politico.com and follow me on Twitter (like Kam Chancellor does!) @morningmoneyben.
THIS MORNING ON POLITICO PRO FINANCIAL SERVICES — Adam Behsudi on the TPP currency side deal that Congress might not like – [https://www.politicopro.com/financial-services/story/2015/10/pro-trade-tppcurrency-behsudi-056469] and to get Morning Money every day before 6 a.m.-- please contact Pro Services at (703) 341-4600or info@politicopro.com
** A message from Grant Thornton LLP: The tax code puts U.S. companies at a disadvantage. Congress can’t address the problem if it excludes pass-throughs from an innovation box or tax reform. Congress should lower the effective business tax rates equitably for all U.S. businesses. https://www.grantthornton.com/issues/library/articles/public-policy/2015/policy-issues/support-the-BER.aspx?utm_medium=ad-partnership&utm_campaign=public-policy-issues&utm_term=Public-policy&utm_content=article **
BLOOMBERG EVENT TODAY — The Bloomberg Markets Most Influential Summit takes place in New York, London and Hong Kong featuring Tom Steyer, Mike Bloomberg, Bill Ackman, Cliff Asness, Barry Diller, Blythe Masters and more https://www.bloomberglive.com/markets-most-influential/new-york/agenda/
SOFTBALL REPORT: FERC TAKES THINK TANK CROWN — Per AEI’s Michael Pratt: “FERC defeated the defending champs AEI 13-7 in the Think Tank Softball League Championships in a game under the lights in a field by Pentagon City. Congrats to the winning team - over 40 teams are part of the league.”
POSTCARD FROM THE NEW YORKER FESTIVAL — POLITICO’s Daniel Lippman reports: “Homeland” actor Damian Lewis told the New Yorker festival on Saturday that he's met with hedge fund managers like Bill Ackman and Dan Loeb to prepare for his upcoming new show about Wall Street called "Billions" (on which Andrew Ross Sorkin is an executive producer).
He asked the hedgies: "Give me your intellectual defense of being a hedge fund guy, of shorting companies and the one thing they could never really persuade me of, was that playing to a moral code that we might all conventionally understand, it wasn't possible for them to justify what they do. But if they just ever so slightly shifted the goal posts and created a new moral reality for themselves, which is essentially that as long as I don't break the law and as long as the game exists, I'm here to play the game and everything is fine."
BETTER MARKETS’ FUNDING QUESTIONED — National Review’s Brendan Bordelon goes long on hedge fund manager Michael Masters’ funding of pro-financial reform group Better Markets.” http://www.nationalreview.com/article/425063/elizabeth-warrens-wall-street-double-standard-brendan-bordelon
Better Markets’ Dennis Kelleher emails: “Wall Street has been trying to shut down, shut up or smear Better Markets since it was founded five years ago. Wall Street has little tolerance for anyone willing to stand up to them or who can’t be bought.
“Better Markets’ independence and effectiveness on the public’s behalf is what gets under Wall Street’s skin and why it has been shopping a fabricated story for months to anyone in the media who would listen. … [T]he story is so factually wrong it is laughable, as detailed here https://www.bettermarkets.com/blog/fact-sheet-better-markets%E2%80%99-response-wall-street%E2%80%99s-latest-attack”.
M.M. SIDEBAR — Anyone who knows Kelleher (agree or disagree with him on issues) knows he wouldn't be shilling for some hedge fund guy looking to tilt stock prices. But in an era when Bob Litan can get dumped from Bookings over a fully-disclosed source of research funding, everything seems to be fair game.
TOUGH ROAD FOR TPP IN CONGERSS — WP’s David Nakamura: “President Obama hailed the historic 12-nation Pacific Rim trade deal … as an accord that ‘reflects America’s values,’ but within hours the administration had turned from the negotiating table to selling the agreement on Capitol Hill, a reflection of the harsh political climate the controversial pact is expected to face in Congress. Obama pledged that [TPP] … would open new markets for U.S. goods and services and establish rules of international commerce that give ‘our workers the fair shot at success they deserve.’
“But almost immediately there were signs of the tough fight ahead to win final ratification from Congress next year. Lawmakers from both parties criticized the pact as falling short in crucial areas, raising the prospect that the White House could lose the support of allies who had backed the president’s trade push earlier this year" http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/deal-reached-on-pacific-rim-trade-pact/2015/10/05/7c567f00-6b56-11e5-b31c-d80d62b53e28_story.html
SHARP PRICE INCREASES DRIVE DRUG COMPANY REVENUES — WSJ’s Joseph Walker: “Demand for a drug called Avonex has declined every year for the past 10. Not a problem for its manufacturer. U.S. revenue from the drug has more than doubled in that time, to $2 billion last year. The key: repeated price increases. The multiple sclerosis drug’s maker, Biogen Inc., raised its price an average of 16 percent a year throughout the decade — 21 times in all.
“It is an example of drug companies’ unusual ability to boost prices beyond the inflation rate to drive their revenue, even when demand for the drugs doesn’t cooperate. A result of this pricing power is that across 30 top-selling drugs sold by pharmacies, U.S. revenue growth has far outpaced demand in the past five years … Revenue growth averaged 61 percent, three times the increase in prescriptions” http://www.wsj.com/articles/for-prescription-drug-makers-price-increases-drive-revenue-1444096750
BERNANKE ADMITS MISLEADING ON LEHMAN — NYT’s Andrew Ross Sorkin: “It is astonishing to hear a former Federal Reserve chairman acknowledge that he may have misled the public as part of an agreement with another senior government official about one of the most crucial moments in recent financial history — and that he now questions whether he should have “been more forthcoming.” But that is what Ben S. Bernanke says in his new memoir …
“That crucial moment? The bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers. Mr. Bernanke, in perhaps the most candid explanation of Lehman’s 2008 collapse, writes that he and Henry M. Paulson, then the treasury secretary, purposely obfuscated when asked about Lehman’s demise early on, allowing a narrative to develop that the government had purposely let the firm fail
“In congressional testimony immediately after Lehman’s collapse, Paulson and I were deliberately quite vague when discussing whether we could have saved Lehman,’ Mr. Bernanke writes. ‘But we had agreed in advance to be vague because we were intensely concerned that acknowledging our inability to save Lehman would hurt market confidence and increase pressure on other vulnerable firms.’” https://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/06/business/dealbook/in-ben-bernankes-memoir-a-candid-look-at-lehman-brothers-collapse.html?_r=0
GOOGLE BUYS INTO SYMPHONY — FT’s Joe Rennison and Richard Waters: “Alphabet, Google’s renamed parent company, is set to become the latest investor to back Symphony, joining a host of big banks in their attempt to dislodge Bloomberg’s dominant position in Wall Street messaging. Born out of the 2013 snooping scandal, where it came to light that Bloomberg News reporters had spied on bankers using its ubiquitous terminals, Symphony claims to offer a more secure way for people to communicate with each other.
“The service officially launched on September 15, unveiling tie-ups with McGraw Hill Financial, which will supply financial information from S&P Capital IQ, and News Corp’s Dow Jones unit, which will provide a live news feed to the platform. Symphony and Alphabet declined to comment. People familiar with the matter said the deal was yet to be finalised but one confirmed a WSJ.com report that the new funding round would value Symphony at about $650m.”https://www.ft.com/content/32dbcf1a-6ba1-11e5-aca9-d87542bf8673
ALSO FOR YOUR RADAR —
FIRST LOOK: MARANTIS JOINS VISA — Per release going out this morning: “Visa … day announced the appointment of former Acting U.S. Trade Representative Demetrios Marantis as Senior Vice President, Global Government Relations. Marantis joins Visa from Square, where he led global policy, government, and regulatory affairs. Marantis will report directly to William Sheedy, Executive Vice President, Corporate Strategy, M&A, and Government Relations at Visa Inc., and be responsible for all facets of Visa’s government relations activities
JOIN US — WOMEN RULE: TAKING RISKS AND TAKING CHARGE Women Rule live event series returns Wednesday morning at 8 am with “Women Rule: Taking Risks and Taking Charge,” a series of conversations with women who have braved the odds in their lives and careers. Vian Dakhil, Iraqi MP and voice of the Yazidi people being attacked by ISIS and her sister, Dr. Deelan Dakhil, the co-director of the Sinjar Foundation will headline the event. Featured speakers also include Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.); Sarah LaFleur, Founder and CEO, MM. LaFleur, and former White House NSA and EVP of MacAndrews and Forbes, Frances Fragos Townsend. RSVP: http://www.politico.com/events/2015/10/women-rule-taking-risks-and-taking-charge-213943
NOW AVAILABLE: POLITICO PRO LEGISLATIVE COMPASS — POLITICO Pro, POLITICO’s premium subscription service, has released a first-of-its kind legislative data analytics and decision-making tool that helps policy professionals manage and act on legislation. Leveraging features such as a personalized dashboard, virtual whip count, bill text comparison and 20 years of data, users will not only save time but benefit from customizing and cross-referencing information, enabling them to make smarter and faster decisions. Schedule your demo today.
** A message from Grant Thornton LLP: When Congress fails to act, businesses suffer. More than 50 popular tax provisions expired at the end of 2014, including the R&D credit. Congress’s indecision on these provisions is impeding business planning and stifling growth. According to a Grant Thornton survey of top financial executives, more than half of companies that use the provisions do all their planning under the assumption that the extension will not occur. That’s a huge blow to the effectiveness of the provisions and a barrier to growth. The R&D credit is a major driver of entrepreneurial activity and high-paying jobs. Congress needs to act soon to reinstate these provisions and to make the R&D credit permanent. Find out what else Congress could do to strengthen the R&D credit and view survey findings at http://gt-us.co/1iOXJW5
Source: Politico
Why a group of Commerce City teachers spent a day asking parents how they could do their jobs better
Why a group of Commerce City teachers spent a day asking parents how they could do their jobs better
COMMERCE CITY — On a recent Saturday morning, about a dozen teachers from the Adams 14 School District walked through a...
COMMERCE CITY — On a recent Saturday morning, about a dozen teachers from the Adams 14 School District walked through a trailer park asking parents how they could do their jobs better.
Christina Zavala, a parent of three students, had a list. At the top: stop the rampant bullying and pay more attention to her son, who has a learning disability.
“In my experience,” she said, “it doesn’t really feel like the teachers care.”
The cadre of teachers hope what they heard — good or bad — can help reshape their schools to better meet the needs of the mostly poor and Latino families that call Commerce City home. The teachers are advocating for a “community school model,” which in part calls for more partnerships with nonprofit groups to help curb the effects of poverty on the classroom.
“The only way we can make a difference with the families in our district is if we get involved,” said Barb McDowell, the Adams 14 teachers union president. “There are a lot of disenfranchised people. We’re not talking to the community.”
Relations between the Commerce City community and the 7,000-student school district have long been strained. Voters consistently have rejected pleas to increase local taxes to repair or replace aging schools and support educational programs. And in 2014, the U.S. Department of Education found the district had discriminated against Hispanic students and teachers.
The district’s response included more culturally responsive training for teachers and the creation of a committee of students to regularly talk about race issues.
Facing state sanctions for chronic poor performance on state English and math tests, the Adams 14 school district, just north of Denver, is overhauling many of its schools. The teachers union believes this provides an opening to put into practice some of the elements of the community school model. Schools are still finalizing their innovation plans, which are expected to be made public later this fall.
Teachers across Colorado are engaged in similar work. It’s all part of a statewide campaign organized by the Colorado Education Association, the state’s largest teachers union, called “The Schools Our Kids Deserve.”
The community school model can be traced back to the 1880s. Modern-day community schools have popped up in Chicago, Baltimore and Lincoln, Neb. Perhaps the most famous community school model is the Harlem Children’s Zone in New York City.
In Colorado, the Edgewater Collective in Jefferson County and Blocks of Hope in neighboring Westminster Public Schools are two efforts to create something like a community school.
While supporters of the community schools model have long said that no two community schools should look the same because the needs of communities vary, there is a growing effort to identify common themes that apply everywhere, said Reuben Jacobson, deputy director for the Coalition of Community Schools.
The Colorado teachers union, working with the Alliance to Reclaim our Schools and the Center For Popular Democracy, has created its own list which includes strong and proven curriculum, community support services, and positive discipline practices.
Community engagement, like the work the teachers in Adams 14 are doing, is also a must.
Trish Ramsey, a teacher at Adams City Middle School, put it simply: “This is the first step to rebuild trust.”
By Nicholas Garcia
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NEW YORK CITY MUST SUPPORT ITS IMMIGRANT POPULATION TO ENSURE A SUCCESSFUL WORKFORCE
NEW YORK CITY MUST SUPPORT ITS IMMIGRANT POPULATION TO ENSURE A SUCCESSFUL WORKFORCE
These days, Marta has trouble finding work. Often, when she goes to apply for a job in food service or domestic work,...
These days, Marta has trouble finding work. Often, when she goes to apply for a job in food service or domestic work, the first thing she’s asked is, “Do you know English?” Answering with honesty, Marta always replies that she knows only a little.
More often than not, she’s turned away because the employer wants someone with English fluency. “These days, the truth is, it’s very hard to get a job,” Marta says.
New York City is home to the most diverse immigrant population of any major city in the world. Immigrants make up almost 40 percent of the population and nearly half of the city’s workforce.
But the city is faced with a paradox: While immigrants are employed at higher rates than native-born New Yorkers, they are disproportionately clustered in lower-wage jobs, have lower incomes on average than their native-born counterparts, and often experience higher rates of poverty. Many, like Marta, have low levels of English proficiency which can make it difficult to find good-paying work.
Since New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio took office a little over two years ago, the city has begun to restructure its workforce development system, creating an important opportunity to address some of the inequities faced by immigrant New Yorkers.
The city’s new framework for its workforce development system, called Career Pathways, promises to dedicate an unprecedented level of investment in job training and education for the city’s most vulnerable workers, to ensure that the city’s investments in workforce development are aligned across city agencies, and to work with employers and other stakeholders to improve the quality of the city’s lowest-paid jobs.
However, the plan did not sufficiently take into account the particular workforce challenges faced by New York’s immigrant population. Immigrants comprise the vast majority of workers in the fastest growing occupations in the city, ranging from home health aides and construction workers to registered nurses and software programmers. As such, immigrant workers are at the core of the city’s economic vitality, and their success must be central to the city’s overhaul of its workforce system.
Immigrant workers and jobseekers experience a number of unique barriers that limit advancement in the workforce. For example, a significant number of immigrants do not speak English well and have lower levels of formal education, on average.
At the same time there are thousands of immigrants that hold college or other education credentials that aren’t recognized in the United States, and are therefore stuck working at jobs that do not take full advantage of their skills and talents. And in the low-wage workforce, which is comprised heavily of immigrant workers, exploitation of workers is rampant. This is especially true for undocumented workers and those working in the informal economy.
The success of the Career Pathways plan depends on its ability to address the major barriers that immigrant New Yorkers face. A report co-authored by the Center for Popular Democracy and Center for an Urban Future identifies these barriers and outlines a coordinated approach for tackling the obstacles that prevent immigrant workers from reaching their full potential.
Specifically, the city and private workforce funders should invest in English classes, adult education, and training and certification programs for workers with varied levels of educational background and English proficiency. This would allow them to earn the skills they need to be competitive in the labor force and keep them from getting trapped in low-wage jobs.
Second, the city must ensure that immigrant workers are aware of these services by making sure that they are available in the neighborhoods where immigrants live or work. One great way to do this is to partner with nonprofit organizations that are based in immigrant communities, and to ensure that available funding is reaching workforce programs in immigrant communities.
Finally, a workforce development strategy that works for immigrants should improve the quality of the low-wage jobs that so many immigrants fill. This includes enforcing and improving job protection laws, which often go unenforced, and securing a higher minimum wage and access to paid sick leave. Employers themselves are a big part of this conversation, and the city should use its influence to help them improve the quality of their lowest-paid positions.
Without a coordinated approach to ensure that workforce development services are reaching immigrants, the city’s plan risks overlooking an enormous population of workers and job-seekers. We now have an opportunity to ensure that immigrants are included as a key part of this plan.
By Kate Hamaji and Christian González-Rivera
Source
Experts Urge Fed To Pursue 'Genuine Full Employment' Before Rate Hike
The Federal Reserve should pursue "genuine full employment" with "robust wage growth" before raising interest rates, ...
The Federal Reserve should pursue "genuine full employment" with "robust wage growth" before raising interest rates, experts from the Center for Popular Democracy and the Economic Policy Institute argue in anew report.
The report authors say the Fed, the central bank of the United States, can help reverse wage stagnation and narrow gender and racial wage gaps through its monetary policy.
Most Americans have faced wage stagnation over the last 35 years, despite there being a 64.9 percent growth in productivity during this time, according to the report. Wage growth also remained sluggish last month, with average hourly earnings increasing only 2 percent in June from one year ago.
A move by the Fed to slow the economy with an interest rate hike before "genuine full employment" is achieved will "hamper the ability of workers' wages to rise," the authors wrote.
"Because the vast majority of American workers have seen near-stagnant wages even as economy-wide productivity growth has constantly risen, there's ample space for wage gaps to close without anyone losing wages," said report co-author Josh Bivens, EPI's research and policy director. "The Fed has a powerful role in shaping labor market trends and raising wages. By pursuing full employment, it could help to close these wage gaps among workers."
In the report, the experts highlighted wage trends over recent decades among men and women as well as racial groups. Over the past 35 years, racial wage gaps between whites and Latinos or blacks have widened, the report says. During the same time period, disparities in median earnings between men and women did narrow by about 30 percent, but over a quarter of that progress was due to a decline of men's wages, according to the report.
For its part, the Fed has a "dual mandate" to keep prices stable and maximize employment. The Fed's current inflation target is 2 percent, and full employment is defined by the financial institution as a jobless rate between 5.0 percent to 5.2 percent. The nation's unemployment rate in June was 5.3 percent.
At some point this year, the Fed could begin to raise short-term interest rates, which were cut to near zero percent during the Great Recession to support the economy.
The report authors argue that the Fed's full employment estimate is "too meek," adding that the financial institution "should experiment aggressively with letting the unemployment rate fall as low as possible before raising interest rates."
"[T]he Fed should allow much lower unemployment levels, so long as no accelerating inflation results," the report adds. "Substantial evidence supports pursuing this more tolerant approach to falling unemployment. The late 1990s saw much lower rates (4.0 percent for two full years in 1999 and 2000) without sparking accelerating price inflation."
According to the experts, annual wage growth should also be in the 3.5 percent to 4.5 percent range before the Fed considers an interest rate hike.
Here are the three key recommendations listed in the report:
The Federal Reserve should set a clear and ambitious target for wage growth, which will provide an important and straightforward guidepost on the path to maximum employment. Wage targeting can be fairly easily tailored to the Fed's price-inflation target and pegged to increases in productivity.
The Fed should maintain a patient, but watchful posture. The history of the past 35 years shows a generally steady downward trend in price inflation and that prematurely slowing the economy results in higher than desirable unemployment.
The Federal Reserve should not consider an interest-rate hike until indicators of full employment--particularly wage growth--have strengthened.
"Failure to aggressively target and achieve genuine full employment by keeping interest rates low and setting a clear and ambitious target for wage growth explains a large part of why wages continue to stagnate," said report co-author Connie Razza, CPD's director of strategic research. "There is increasing talk about raising interest rates, but it would be a terrible mistake for the Fed to do so. Raising interest rates too soon will slow an already sluggish economy and will disproportionately harm women and people of color."
Source: Progress Illinois
Retail workers celebrate scheduling law. Requirements will bring change to national chains.
Retail workers celebrate scheduling law. Requirements will bring change to national chains.
Lisa Morrison loves her job in the floral department at Safeway on U.S. Highway 20 in Bend, but she said the company’s...
Lisa Morrison loves her job in the floral department at Safeway on U.S. Highway 20 in Bend, but she said the company’s practice of giving three days’ notice of work schedules has created a lot of stress in her life.
So, she made two trips to Salem this year with representatives of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 555 to lobby legislators on the workplace scheduling bill that passed June 29 with bipartisan support.
Read the full article here.
Taxing the rich: how Seattle leads a ‘go-local’ trend in liberal politics
Taxing the rich: how Seattle leads a ‘go-local’ trend in liberal politics
Seattle is trying to tackle income inequality one local move at a time – and becoming a case study in how cities are...
Seattle is trying to tackle income inequality one local move at a time – and becoming a case study in how cities are testing liberal policies that lack traction at the state or federal level.
Read the full article here.
4 days ago
4 days ago