By Sam Pizzigati/Inequality.org

The Trump administration is considering bypassing Congress to grant a $100 billion tax cut mainly to the wealthy, a legally tenuous maneuver that would cut capital gains taxation and fulfill a long-held ambition of many investors and conservatives,” the New York Times reported Monday.
The United States ended the 20th century on a roll – for the rich. Between 1973 and 2000, the nation’s most prosperous 1 percent tripled their incomes, after taking inflation into account.
The even more prosperous top tenth of that 1 percent did quite a bit better. Their incomes more than quintupled between 1973 and 2000, rising an amazing 414.6 percent.
And what about Americans of less exalted means, those stuck in the nation’s bottom 90 percent? Between 1973 and 2000, their incomes rose all of . . . 2.6 percent.
Something, in other words, went horribly wrong over the last quarter of the 20th century. And what has happened so far in century 21? Our decision-makers in Washington have done their best to make things even worse.

Read More

Posted on July 31, 2018

By Andre Perry/The Hechinger Report

We’ve all heard the expression, “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know,” when it comes to hiring. Looking at the racial disparities among teachers, it’s apparent that black would-be teachers apparently don’t know many hiring managers. Teachers of color comprised about 20 percent of the public schools in the U.S. in 2017, according to data compiled by researchers at the centrist think tank the Brookings Institution (where I am a fellow). Meanwhile, students of color represented slightly more than half of all public school students in the same year.
A 2016 U.S. Department of Education demographic study of principals found that the vast majority of the people doing the hiring are white. While the percentage of white principals declined from 87 percent in 1987-88 to 80 percent in 2011-12, the percentage of black principals did not change significantly. The percentage of Hispanic principals increased by 4 percentage points from 3 percent to 7 percent, but white principals still account for the lion’s share of that population.

Read More

Posted on July 24, 2018

By Aaron Tang/TakeCare

In what is likely the least surprising landmark decision of the term, the U.S. Supreme Court has finally invalidated public sector union “fair share fees,” or fees that all workers in a bargaining unit are required to pay to support the union’s bargaining costs. Labor proponents and progressive commentators have wrung their hands over Janus v. AFSCME, Council 31 in varying degrees of despair, wondering whether the decision portends the death of public sector unions as we know them or instead just a substantial weakening of union influence.
Neither outcome is inevitable. As I explain more fully in a short whitepaper, state lawmakers in the largely progressive states where fair share fees were permitted before Janus have the power to enact a simple legislative fix that would undo Janus altogether. Indeed, the workaround would not only be revenue-neutral for unions and government employers, it would actually increase net take home pay for public sector workers – a significant section of the American middle class.

Read More

Posted on July 23, 2018

By Christina Jewett and Shefali Luthra/Kaiser Health News

The Trump administration has summoned at least 70 infants to immigration court for their own deportation proceedings since Oct. 1, according to Justice Department data provided to Kaiser Health News.
These are children who need frequent touching and bonding with a parent and naps every few hours, and some were of breastfeeding age, medical experts say. They’re unable to speak and still learning when it’s day versus night.
“For babies, the basics are really important. It’s the holding, the proper feeding, proper nurturing,” said Shadi Houshyar, who directs early childhood and child welfare initiatives at the advocacy group Families USA.
The number of infants under age 1 involved has been rising – up threefold from 24 infants in the fiscal year that ended last Sept. 30, and 46 infants the year before.

Read More

Posted on July 20, 2018

Compare And Contrast

ICEE: Delicious fountain drink.
ICE: Puts kids in cages.
ICEE: Adorable bear mascot.
ICE: Puts kids in cages.
ICEE: A variety of tasty flavors.
ICE: Puts kids in cages.
ICEE: At your local convenience store.
ICE: Puts kids in cages.
ICEE: A family treat.
ICE: Puts kids in cages.

Read More

Posted on July 19, 2018

By Jake Johnson/Common Dreams

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has just become the richest man in recorded history – surpassing $150 billion in net worth – thanks to his business model of subjecting employees to low wages, brutal working conditions, and scant benefits. On Tuesday, Amazon workers throughout Europe marked “Prime Day” by walking off the job in massive numbers to call attention to their plight.
In addition to walkouts by an estimated 80 percent of the workers at Amazon’s largest distribution center in Spain – nearly 1,800 workers – employees of the retailer also launched strikes in Germany, France, Italy, Poland and the United Kingdom to demand higher wages and denounce Amazon’s union-busting efforts.

Read More

Posted on July 18, 2018

By Daniel Golden/ProPublica

Perpetually in jeopardy, the use of racial preferences in college admissions is under greater threat than ever.
President Donald Trump has scrapped Obama-era guidelines that encouraged universities to consider race as a factor. He has proposed replacing Justice Anthony Kennedy, who wrote the majority opinion in a 2016 case upholding affirmative action by one vote, with the more conservative Brett Kavanaugh. Meanwhile, a lawsuit challenging Harvard’s preferences for Hispanics and African Americans has uncovered the university’s dubious pattern of rejecting academically outstanding Asian-American candidates – who don’t qualify for a race-related boost – by giving them low marks for personality. Either the Harvard case, or a similar lawsuit against the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, could put an end to affirmative action.
If it is abolished, though, there will undoubtedly be increased pressure to also eliminate admissions criteria that favor a very different demographic – children of alumni and donors. Colleges are reluctant to drop these preferences of privilege for fear of hurting fundraising. But the political price of clinging to them could be significant.

Read More

Posted on July 16, 2018

A Statement By Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr.

Trust in the police is at an all-time low. Anguish and anger in the community sky high. This is no time for business as usual. Recordings from officer body cams and any other video of the fatal police shooting Saturday evening of Harith (Snoop) Augustus must be released immediately.
Chicago can’t afford even the hint of another case of “16 shots and a cover-up.”

Read More

Posted on July 15, 2018

By Julián Aguilar/The Texas Tribune
EL PASO – A Brazilian woman who was detained and separated from her disabled grandson after they sought asylum at a port of entry last year was released from federal custody Thursday, her attorney confirmed.
Maria Vandelice de Bastos and her grandson Matheus da Silva Bastos first sought refuge in August after she said an off-duty police officer threatened her and her grandson after she went to the press to decry the horrible conditions in Matheus’s school, according to her asylum claim.
Even though she was found to have a credible fear of returning to her home country, she had been detained in El Paso ever since, while her grandson, who has severe epilepsy and autism, was transferred to a facility in Chicago and later a state-run center in Connecticut because he needs constant care.

Read More

Posted on July 15, 2018

By The Illinois Green Party

David St. Pierre, the executive director of Chicago’s Metropolitan Water Reclamation District, resigned effective June 27th, taking with him $95,000 plus benefits in a severance package first reported by the Chicago Sun-Times.
The MWRD, a taxpayer-funded agency responsible for flood prevention and wastewater management, did not provide a reason for St. Pierre’s departure in its press release. St. Pierre had been the subject of an investigation led by an outside law firm, but MWRD Commissioner Debra Shore told the Sun-Times that “a non-disparagement clause in the separation agreement with St. Pierre” prevented her from discussing the probe.

Read More

Posted on July 13, 2018