Two Dozen States’ Unemployment Funds in the Red, Nine More Within Six Months

by Olga Pierce, ProPublica – January 20, 2010 12:42 am EST

The record 20 million Americans who collected unemployment insurance benefits last year landed on a safety net that was already deeply frayed.

New Interactive: ProPublica Predicts if Your State’s Unemployment Insurance Fund Is About to Hit the Skids

A historical compromise has left responsibility for unemployment benefits largely in the hands of states, and they have fulfilled this charge with varying degrees of effectiveness.

In a series last summer with public radio’s Marketplace, we reported that only a handful of states had built up reserves sufficient to weather the Great Recession [1] – and forecast a spate of borrowing by states where reserves ran out.

Continue reading States Are Running Out of Unemployment Funds →

Exclusive: Kucinich shreds Democrats for betraying the promise of change

By Sahil Kapur
Thursday, January 21st, 2010 — 9:45 am

Slams health bill ‘madness’

WASHINGTON — Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) on Wednesday said the Massachusetts election was a “wake up call” for Democrats and that his party had better change course or it could suffer devastating losses come November.

“People elected Democrats in 2008 to change the direction,” he told Raw Story in a nearly hour-long interview. 

“And the same entrenched interests that George Bush could not shake, this current White House is having great difficulty in shaking. One could suggest they might be more entrenched than ever.

“Kucinich staunchly defended liberalism but alleged that Democrats are not behaving like liberals.

Continue reading Cong. Dennis Kucinich: Obama Must Change Course →

Machinists Remain Opposed to Health Care Excise Tax

Washington, D.C., January 14, 2010

Despite the so-called agreement announced today by various labor organizations, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) reiterated its
opposition to any health care reform legislation that is funded by taxing the value of workers’ existing health care benefits.

“The IAM opposes the excise tax, period. We believe it is unfair to our current members and particularly unfair to those members we hope to organize in the future,” said IAM President Tom Buffenbarger.

Continue reading International Association of Machinists (IAM) Stands Firm Against Tax on Health Benefits →

January 18, 2010

I’m writing from Worcester.  It is the second largest city in New England, the city where the American Revolution began in Sept. 1774, and perhaps the largest city in North America that no one has ever heard of! I have been going door to door in my immediate neighborhood canvassing for Democrat Martha Coakley.  

Rustbelt Radio, Pittsburgh’s local independent media outlet, is featuring Ed Grystar and Dr. Mary Pat Donegan on the Monday January 18^th show.

The 20-minute feature covers how a single payer system would function, a look at the current healthcare delivery system, and what the bill in Congress will mean for Pennsylvania residents. The show airs Monday, January 18^th on WRCT 88.3 FM from 6pm-7pm.

 Rustbelt Radio is broadcast live from WRCT studios every other Monday at 6 PM on 88.3 FM in Pittsburgh, and the program airs again on WRCT every Tuesday morning at 9AM after Democracy NOW!

 We’re also available on the internet, both on WRCT’s live webstream at wrct.org and for download, stream or podcast from our website at radio.indypgh.org.

by Randy Shannon, Treasurer

PA 4th C.D. Chapter, Progressive Democrats of America

Democrat Martha Coakley may win the Massachusetts special election to fill the Senate seat vacated by the death of Ted Kennedy. But the massive mobilization of Democratic Party resources across the nation, including the President, to save a Democratic seat from a Republican upset in a state with a 3:1 Democratic registration edge is a sign of a serious problem.

President Obama said in Massachusetts today that he understands that people are upset. He claimed that it wasn’t his fault but the fault of eight years of Bush that he’s had only one year to rectify. “Understand what’s at stake here, Massachusetts,” Mr. Obama said. “It’s whether we’re going forwards or backwards.”

Continue reading The Massachusetts Story: How Obama Can Win →

April 4, 1967

‘A true revolution of values will soon cause us to question the fairness and justice of many of our past and present policies. On the one hand we are called to play the good Samaritan on life’s roadside; but that will be only an initial act. One day we must come to see that the whole Jericho road must be transformed so that men and women will not be constantly beaten and robbed as they make their journey on life’s highway.

Continue reading Haiti – What Would Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Say on His Birthday →

Cuba is Missing… From US Reports on the International Response to Haiti’s Earthquake  

What You’re Not Hearing about Haiti (But Should Be)

by Carl Lindskoog

Monsanto’s GMO Corn Linked To Organ Failure, Study Reveals

 

In a study released by the International Journal of Biological Sciences, analyzing the effects of genetically modified foods on mammalian health, researchers found that agricultural giant Monsanto’s GM corn is linked to organ damage in rats.

Continue reading Monsanto Genetically Modified Corn Causes Organ Failure in Rats →