Education not incarceration
The most industrialized nation in the world, the United States, does not have the highest literacy rate in the world. However, it does have the distinction of claiming the highest percentage of incarcerated citizens. Young African-American males, and in increasing numbers females, are being incarcerated significantly out of proportion to their numbers in the population.
Sen. Boxer: Lay memo is smoking gun
WASHINGTON – Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) assailed former Enron CEO Ken Lay Feb. 4 for pulling out of a Senate Commerce Committee hearing. She said that once again Lay is keeping the people of California “in the dark.”
No applause here for Bush budget
Any doubts about President Bush’s priorities were erased when he submitted his Fiscal Year 2003 budget to Congress Feb. 4. Dubbed a budget “that leaves no military contractor behind,” the $2.13 trillion spending and tax package was met with critical reviews from the AFL-CIO, the National Education Association (NEA) and organizations concerned with the budget’s impact on workers and poor people.
Gov. calls for relief for California unemployed
LOS ANGELES – In his annual State of the State address in January, Gov. Gray Davis, a Democrat, called on state legislators to enact to bring much-needed relief to California’s unemployed. Two more sources of information are TURN - The Utility Reform Network and this SF Chronicle article on the Cheney-Lay connection.
Welfare groups rally in D.C.
WASHINGTON – Lawmakers were so busy Feb. 5 with the Enron debacle they had no time to hear from 300 poor people from across the country here to demand jobs or benefits to support their children. For more information, visit GROWL - Grass Roots Organization for Welfare Leadership.
Another world is possible
On Jan. 31, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney warned the World Economic Forum (WEF) that working people had come to the group’s annual meeting, held Jan. 31 to Feb. 4, to “challenge Enron economics at home and abroad” and warned that the anti-globalization movement is not going to go away. Visit the AFL-CIO for more speeches by Sweeney, as well as much more information on the U.S. labor movement.
20,000 tell world forum people before profits
NEW YORK – Over 20,000 peaceful protestors converged on the Waldorf-Astoria hotel here last weekend to protest the World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting being held there. To visit two websites with more information, click Another World is Possible or the World Social Forum.
CAMP soups up fundraising
ST. LOUIS – The Community Arts and Media Project (CAMP) held a “Soup-Er Bowl Party” Jan. 27 to raise funds for a building it hopes to purchase here.
Does Nickelodeon really care for kids?
LOS ANGELES – During the holiday season parents searched for movies appropriate for their children, and Hollywood studios spent millions of dollars to capture that young audience.
International Notes
Japanese peace group asks for anti-nuke messages/Asylum seekers protest Australia’s anti-refugee policy/South Africans to act in support of Swaziland political prisoners/U.N. says war endangers world’s mountain ranges
