Top Stories
Corporate Profits Rise…but Wages Fail to keep Pace with Inflation
American corporations continue to enjoy healthy profit margins, while the average worker is watching inflation outpace wages.
Earnings for businesses began to rebound in early 2010 and have continued to do well ever since. By the third quarter... read more
Keystone Pipeline Lobbyists were Hillary Clinton Fundraisers
Environmental group Friends of the Earth (FOE) last week sued the State Department for access to communications between it and lobbyists promoting the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline, two of whom were prominent fundraisers for the 2008 presidential... read more
Supreme Court Prepares to Hear Major Case on Corporate Responsibility Abroad
The responsibility of major corporations for human rights abuses abroad will be argued on Tuesday in front of the Supreme Court. In the case, Esther Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum, Shell is accused of assisting the Nigerian government in torturin... read more
Congress May End Program Allowing Tax Relief for Mortgage Modifiers
A key piece of the federal government’s mortgage-relief strategy is set to expire this year, leaving thousands of Americans at risk of getting hit with a large tax bill.
The Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act of 2007 protected homeowners who... read more
Stock Market Does Better with Democratic Presidents
An examination by Bloomberg showed that a hypothetical investment of $1,000 in Standard & Poor’s stocks in 1961, the year John F. Kennedy was inaugurated as president, and kept in stocks only when Democrats occupied the White House, would be worth... read more
Super PACs Shove Aside Traditional Campaign Financing
Super-sized political action committees have now become the dominant force in this year’s campaign fundraising, pulling in more cash than the efforts of candidates running for president.
In January, four super PACs supporting Republicans seeki... read more
42% of Women Die within a Year of a Heart Attack, but Only 24% of Men
Women are less likely than men to survive a heart attack, according to recent statistics. A study found that 42% of women who have heart attacks die within one year compared with 24% of men.
Researchers attribute the discrepancy in heart attac... read more
Congress Gives States the Right to Drug Test the Unemployed
While millions of Americans will continue to enjoy their modest payroll tax cut, many of them will now have to submit to drug testing as part of the deal struck between the two parties in Congress. As part of the compromise reached to extend the t... read more
Supreme Court Freezes Montana’s 100-Year-Old Law Banning Corporate Campaign Spending
Montana’s century-old law banning corporate spending in elections is now in limbo, after the U.S. Supreme Court put a hold on a decision that upheld the prohibition.
After opponents of the Montana law lost their case before the state Supreme C... read more
Obama Fights to Retain Warrantless Wiretapping
Despite being propelled to victory by progressive supporters critical of the Bush administration’s record on civil liberties, President Barack Obama has directed the Justice Department to defend many of the policies of George W. Bush, including wa... read more
Rep. Issa Opens Hearing about Contraception Coverage with All-Male Panel
Sometimes a picture does say a thousand words, and the hearing chaired last week by Congressman Darrell Issa (R-California) was such a time. The hearing, prompted by a White House announcement of a compromise rule requiring health insurance compan... read more
5 States Still Have Never Elected a Woman to Congress
From the Northeast to the Midwest to the Deep South, five states still have not elected a woman to Congress: Delaware, Iowa, Mississippi, Vermont and North Dakota. In 1992, Jocelyn Birch Burdick of North Dakota was appointed to serve a three-month... read more
Corporate Executives Sentenced to Prison for Asbestos Deaths: Could it Happen in U.S.?
A court in Italy garnered worldwide attention this week when it convicted two wealthy foreign executives of involuntary manslaughter for exposing thousands of people to asbestos.
The defendants, billionaire Stephan Schmidheiny of Switzerland, ... read more
Private Prison Company to Demand 90% Occupancy
The nation’s largest private prison company is offering cash-strapped state governments to buy up their penitentiaries and manage convicted criminals at a cost-savings. But there’s a catch…the states must guarantee that are there are enough prison... read more
Goldman Sachs and Bank of America Reputations Slip into Enron-WorldCom Territory
How bad are the reputations of America’s largest banks? About that of a corpse.
In the latest survey of almost 13,000 people by Harris Interactive, which assesses the public’s take on different industries, AIG, Goldman Sachs and Bank of Americ... read more
Caterpillar Closes 62-Year-Old Plant in Canada to Take Advantage of Cheaper, Non-Union Labor in Indiana
Job outsourcing is now a two-way street for the United States. Once the victim of companies taking jobs overseas where labor is cheaper, the U.S. is now receiving new employment from an American company that found Canada too expensive for its oper... read more