Two Cook County commissioners proposing county I.D. card
Two Cook County commissioners proposing county I.D. card
A few weeks after the City Council approved the creation of a new municipal identification card, two Cook County...
A few weeks after the City Council approved the creation of a new municipal identification card, two Cook County commissioners on Wednesday introduced plans for a similar card in the county.
And like the city’s program, the Cook County version is aimed, in part, at people who are living in the county illegally.
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Groups Charge $30 Million in Charter School Fraud, Call for Tougher Oversight
WHYY - October 1, 2014, by Tom Macdonald - A new report is calling for holding charter schools in Pennsylvania more...
WHYY - October 1, 2014, by Tom Macdonald - A new report is calling for holding charter schools in Pennsylvania more accountable.Produced by the groups Center for Public Democracy, Integrity in Education and Action United, the report says the $30 million in charter school fraud already discovered in Pennsylvania could be the tip of the iceberg because there isn't enough oversight.Kia Hinton of Action United says they are calling for reforms such as targeted audits because $30 million could have been put to much better use."Do you know what that could get us? That could get us more teachers so our classrooms don't have 40 students, that could get us textbooks, so our students have textbooks and that could get us support staff to support our teachers and our students," Hinton said.The groups are also calling for a moratorium on any new charter schools until more controls are implemented.Chinara Bioaal has a child in Philly schools and says the report is just a first step to end fraud."We will be conducting information requests on all charter schools to review board minutes to determine the quality or existence of their fraud risk management programs, we will challenge charter schools to sign the fraud risk management pledge adopting fraud risk management programs," Bioaal said.The Pennsylvania Coalition of Public Charter Schools responded to the report saying it supports prosecuting fraud and mismanagement. However "the report draws sweeping conclusions about the entire charter sector based on only 11 cited incidents in the course of almost 20 years, while ignoring numerous alleged and actual fraud and fiscal mismanagement in the districts."Source
At Urban Outfitters, On Call Needs An Off Switch
URBAN Outfitters, you're breaking my heart. I'd loved you since I discovered your lone West Philly shop...
URBAN Outfitters, you're breaking my heart.
I'd loved you since I discovered your lone West Philly shop when I was in college. You'd just changed your name from the Free People Store, and your countercultural merchandise spoke to my giddy dreams of a boho life. I was smitten the day I bought an Indian-print cotton bedspread from you to sew into curtains for my first-ever single-girl apartment.
"Where'd you get them?" friends would ask, eyeing my handiwork.
"Urban," I'd say, knowing the word had become code for "I may be broke, but at least I'm hip."
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Urban Outfitters company asks employees to work for free
God, I was young.
Since then, you've become more successful than I have, morphing into a $1 billion global behemoth that also encompasses the brands Free People, Anthropologie, Bhldn and Terrain. Your clothes still skew to the young demographic I used to belong to, so I'd taken to scanning your racks for Christmas gifts for my clothes-horse teenager.
She got to wear your cute stuff and I got to maintain a touchstone relationship with a company that had put down roots in Philly, as I had, and never left. It made me happy.
Sure, your price tags indicated you'd gotten a tad full of yourself ($89 for a cotton/poly romper? Really?). And you'd stumbled embarrassingly in attempts to be edgy (a shirt evocative of the one the Nazis made gay concentration-camp prisoners wear? What were you thinking?).
Still, Urban, I'd cut you slack the way family cuts slack to kin. You've remained a player in a city that has lost too many homegrown businesses to either bankruptcy or foreign soil. That counts for a lot in my book.
You may not be perfect, I'd always told myself, but you're ours.
But Urban - oh, Urban. I've been learning about the way you treat your part-time employees, the young, mostly female staff who work in your retail stores. And I'm ashamed of you.
For years, you've subjected them to an enslaving scheduling system that betrays your "free people" roots. Basically, you give them their schedule only a few days in advance, with some shifts designated as "on call." But they don't know, until three hours before the shift is to begin, whether you need them to work that shift or not. If not, they don't get paid.
Yet they're required to hold that time for you, in case you do.
"On calls are considered scheduled shifts, and the same attendance policy applies," your employee handbook says.
All I can ask, Urban, is: What the hell? But your PR flacks didn't respond to my questions.
The use of "on-call" staffing is obviously necessary in medical and first-responder fields, where lives depend on workers being available when needed. Reasonable people know it's part of the gig. But using the same scheduling to ensure that a billion-dollar retailer doesn't "waste" money on excess workers during a slow day at the shop?
C'mon, Urban. It's horrible.
The unpredictability means employees can't schedule classes, if they're in school. Or go to a second job, so they can cobble together a full-time salary. Or reliably arrange child care or pay their bills, since their cost to do both remains fixed even though their working hours don't.
Their only compensation, if I read the handbook correctly, is that they get to keep their jobs so you can continue to exploit their need to make a living.
"It's pretty messed up," one of your employees told me when I asked her about the policy. I won't say which of your 179 U.S. stores employs her, since she needs her crappy job. She's toiling through college and doesn't know, week to week, what her paycheck will be. "It's hard to plan," she said.
She could get a job at a different store, but it seems you're not the only retail chain doing this.
Gap, Abercrombie & Fitch, and L Brand Inc.'s Victoria's Secret and Bath & Body Works are some of the other billion-dollar corporations whose on-call scheduling have wreaked havoc on their workers. The practice began about 10 years ago, says Carrie Gleason, as globalization increased retail competition and companies needed new ways to shave expenses.
"They started incorporating new technology into scheduling that used software algorithms" to track store traffic, the time of year, even weather patterns, says Gleason, director of the fair-work-week initiative at the Center for Popular Democracy.
But the predictions aren't perfect, so on-call staffing provides wiggle room to keep labor costs down. Retailers also tie store managers' bonuses to how low they keep labor costs.
How can you stand being part of this, Urban?
In April, New York state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman called companies like you on the carpet, following his investigation into the legality of on-call staffing at 13 retailers whose New York stores employ thousands of low-wage Americans.
As a result, big changes have happened.
Victoria's Secret and Bath & Body Works stopped the practice nationwide. Abercrombie and Gap say that nationally they, too, are phasing out on-call shifts.
But you, Urban, are dragging your feet. You'll stop the practice in New York, you announced this month, but everywhere else it'll be exploitation as usual.
Which means you're doing the right thing in New York only because New York law requires you to. As for everywhere else, it's human decency be damned.
"If Urban found a business model to let them stop on-call shifts in New York, they ought to be able to find a business model that will let them stop the shifts everywhere else," says Lance Haver, formerly the city's consumer advocate and now director of civic engagement for City Council.
"If they don't, then consumers can say we're not going to shop at their stores until they change their practice. We can refuse to support a store that abuses the people who wait on us."
Haver also thinks the only way to assure that businesses like you, Urban, treat employees better is for your workers to organize.
"People say there's no longer a reason for people to join unions," he says, "but that's because they don't know about these disgusting practices."
Lest you think, Urban, that all your employees are miffed with you, that's not the case. I spoke with one employee, a fan, who asked not to be named because she's hoping to work her way into your corporate headquarters at the Navy Yard. She sees her on-call schedule as a necessary evil, given the vagaries of the retail market.
"The company has to do right by its shareholders," she told me. "I think they're stuck between a rock and a hard place."
Except that your company founder and CEO, former hippie and current billionaire Richard Hayne, owns most of your stock.
He has the clout to end on-call staffing. That's not being between a rock and a hard place. It's holding the power position.
Please, Urban, return to your roots and free your people. And please start in Philly.
Because family comes first.
Source: Philly.com
Insurer To Cover Dying Activist’s Breathing Machine After Twitter Campaign
Insurer To Cover Dying Activist’s Breathing Machine After Twitter Campaign
The California-based insurance company HealthNet agreed to cover a breathing assistance machine for Ady Barkan, a 34-...
The California-based insurance company HealthNet agreed to cover a breathing assistance machine for Ady Barkan, a 34-year-old progressive activist afflicted with ALS, after his complaints about the company went viral on Twitter.
The company had initially refused to cover the costs of the machine on the grounds that it was “experimental,” according to Barkan.
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Diverse, Radical and Ready to Resist: Meet the First in the New Wave of Local Progressive Officials
Diverse, Radical and Ready to Resist: Meet the First in the New Wave of Local Progressive Officials
At Local Progress’s 150-person meet-up, left-leaning politicians from around the country share plans to build rebel...
At Local Progress’s 150-person meet-up, left-leaning politicians from around the country share plans to build rebel cities.
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Immigrant rights demonstrators find locked doors at Bank of American HQ
Immigrant rights demonstrators find locked doors at Bank of American HQ
A group of about a dozen activists tried to deliver a list of demands at Bank of American Headquarters in Charlotte...
A group of about a dozen activists tried to deliver a list of demands at Bank of American Headquarters in Charlotte Monday but found the doors locked as they attempted to enter the building. A security guard accepted a letter from the group.
It was part of the grassroots fight to shield Mecklenburg County’s estimated 54,000 undocumented immigrants from deportation.
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As the federal government fails the people of Puerto Rico, local governments and states must step up
As the federal government fails the people of Puerto Rico, local governments and states must step up
“Most recently, I’ve answered the call to service within my Delaware community. As the Program Director for Achievement...
“Most recently, I’ve answered the call to service within my Delaware community. As the Program Director for Achievement Matters, I lead a team working with youth to close the educational achievement gap. Through the Metropolitan Wilmington Urban League, I teach young people how to fight for social change. I also work with the Center for Popular Democracy on solutions to the opioid crisis, healthcare, immigration, and taxes, and as the Kent County Coordinator for Network Delaware, I’m organizing to increase engagement throughout Delaware.
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NYC Council Progressive Caucus Backs Keith Ellison for DNC Chair
NYC Council Progressive Caucus Backs Keith Ellison for DNC Chair
The City Council’s dominant Progressive Caucus—led by Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito—announced their endorsement today...
The City Council’s dominant Progressive Caucus—led by Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito—announced their endorsement today of Minnesota Congressman Keith Ellison for chairman of the Democratic National Committee.
As Democrats look to recover from a devastating Election Day, Ellison is vying to lead the party against former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean and South Carolina chairman Jaime Harrison. Ellison, the first Muslim-American ever elected to the House of Representatives, has attracted the support of Sen. Charles Schumer and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, whom the congressman backed for the presidency in defiance of most party leaders.
Now the Progressive Caucus, whose 19 members mostly though not unanimously favored Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primary, has added its backing to the Midwestern lawmaker’s bid.
“The members of the Progressive Caucus Alliance are proud to add our voices to those in support of Keith Ellison for Chair of the Democratic National Committee,” the group said in a press release today. “Congressman Ellison has been a true progressive champion in Congress, and has demonstrated the grit and tenacity that we’ll need for the tough fights ahead.”
Dean, who headed the DNC from 2005 to 2009, has asserted that the organization needs a chair who can attend to party business full-time. The Democrats have suffered severe setbacks over the past eight years under chairs who held elected office, most recently the controversial Florida Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman-Schultz.
The former Green Mountain State governor and 2004 presidential candidate has highlighted the success of his “50-state strategy” in yielding the first Democratic majority in Congress in 22 years in 2006.
More important for the Council’s Progressive Caucus, however, are Ellison’s two turns as keynote speaker at “Local Progress” gatherings of low-level left-leaning officials. This, the caucus asserted, showed an emphasis on building a party bench at the most basic levels of government.
“As municipal legislators, we are especially enthusiastic about his emphasis on progressive politics at the local level,” their statement said. “Congressman Ellison recognizes that progressive politics matter at the most local of levels: to families seeking a job that pays the bills, to kids from low-income families hoping to go to college, and to parents worried about whether their kids of color will be treated fairly by the criminal justice system. He knows the difference it makes to unite action at the local, state and federal levels, and why it is important to build strength among City Council members and other local elected officials.”
Ellison’s bid also comes as many Democrats, including Schumer, have argued the party needs to increase outreach to blue collar white voters in depressed industrial areas. But the Progressive Caucus insisted the “incredibly divisive national atmosphere” President-elect Donald Trump’s incendiary anti-immigrant rhetoric has created demands party leadership that will stick up for minorities.
“We need a leader who will stand firm against hatred, bias, discrimination, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia,” the Council members’ release said. “The members of the Progressive Caucus Alliance know that Congressman Ellison will be that type of leader, and we enthusiastically support his bid for Chair of the DNC.”
“We are enthusiastic that he will be [the] first Muslim-American DNC Chair,” it added.
Disclosure: Donald Trump is the father-in-law of Jared Kushner, the publisher of Observer Media.
By Will Bredderman
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Steve Forbes: 'Tax-and-Spend Fever' Is Breaking Out Over Highway Fund
Steve Forbes, editor-in-chief of Forbes Media, isn't too impressed with proposals in Congress to finance transportation...
Steve Forbes, editor-in-chief of Forbes Media, isn't too impressed with proposals in Congress to finance transportation spending with tax hikes.
"Uh-oh! Washington is coming down with another tax-and-spend fever," he writes in Forbes magazine. "The cause this time is an old-timer: highway spending. The prospect of ladling out more money for roads even has many Republicans acting like dogs in heat."
The Highway Trust Fund, which finances most transportation programs, is broke, Forbes explains. About 90 percent of the fund's money comes from federal gasoline and diesel taxes. And that's not sufficient now to pay for existing projects.
"What to do? In Washington the answer is almost always more taxes," Forbes says. To finance the fund, politicians want to boost gasoline taxes and levy a tax on companies' foreign earnings.
So what should be done for the highway fund? "Just pump in general appropriations," Forbes recommends. "Then return the fund to its original 1950s purpose: to build and maintain the federal Interstate Highway System, period."
Elsewhere on the economic policy front, Connie Razza, director of strategic research at the Center for Popular Democracy, says that while the Great Recession officially lasted from December 2007 until June 2009, for many Americans, it's still not over.
And that's a good reason for the Federal Reserve to refrain from raising interest rates soon, she writes in The Nation.
Most economists expect the Fed to lift short-term rates off their record low in either September or December. "A Fed decision to raise rates amounts to a vote of confidence in the economy—a declaration that we have achieved the robust recovery we need," Razza says.
"But for many millions of Americans, the recovery has yet to arrive, and for them, a rate hike will be disastrous. It will put the brakes on an economy still trudging toward stability, stall progress on unemployment and slow wage growth even more."
The unemployment rate fell to a seven-year low of 5.3 percent in June, but wages have averaged an annual increase of just 2 percent since the Great Recession ended.
Source: NewsMax Finance
Seattle Unanimously Passes an 'Amazon Tax' to Fund Affordable Housing
Seattle Unanimously Passes an 'Amazon Tax' to Fund Affordable Housing
Nearly 40 elected city officials from all corners of the U.S., including from metros bracing for Amazon HQ2 like Boston...
Nearly 40 elected city officials from all corners of the U.S., including from metros bracing for Amazon HQ2 like Boston, Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, Miami, New York City, and Washington, D.C., signed an open letter on Monday urging Seattle City Council to stay the course and criticizing Amazon’s tactics during the head tax debate.” “This is particularly concerning to us given Amazon’s approach to the competition for HQ2, in which the company has promoted a bidding war of jurisdictions competing with each other to offer greater incentive packages,” the letter read. “If Amazon were serious about its support for strong affordable housing solutions, it would fully back this tax proposal and chip in to help address Seattle’s homelessness crisis. By threatening Seattle over this tax, Amazon is sending a message to all of our cities: We play by our own rules.”
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