Corporate influence on health exposed
The average family medical cost this year will exceed $12,200 — up from $8,000 just four years ago — according to the Milliman Medical Index, a corporate consulting firm. To a large extent this reflects the billions of dollars of profits for the medical-industrial complex, but also the production and sale of unhealthy food by the beverage and tobacco industries.
Group seeks ban of 20th century from Kansas school textbooks
A political action group in the state of Kansas is applying pressure on the Kansas State Board of Education to ban any and all references to the 20th century from school textbooks, a spokesman for the group confirmed today.
A closer look at price indexing, oil supplies
Feedback from our columnists: David Kennell follows up on his April 2-8 article on Social Security; Art Perlo adds the following comments on “price indexing'; Wadi’h Halabi writes about world oil supplies
Maryland gov vetoes minimum wage hike, Wal-Mart health care requirement
LANDOVER, Md. (PAI) — Union leaders in Maryland and nationally blasted GOP Gov. Robert Ehrlich for vetoing a health care bill that targeted Wal-Mart’s bad benefits.
World Notes
Afghanistan: Demand probe into journalist’s killing; Sudan: AU calls for support in Darfur ; Italy: Unions call for general strike; Ecuador: Gov’t rejects IMF ‘reforms’; Bolivia: Marchers demand equity on oil proceeds
U.S. denies Posada extradition request for now
The State Department May 27 turned down a Venezuelan request for extradition of Cuban exile Luis Posada Carriles to Venezuela. It claimed a lack of supporting evidence. Posada, a Venezuelan citizen accused of bombing a Cuban airliner and killing 73 people, faces court proceedings there interrupted by a jail escape in 1985.
National Clips
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich.: Christian college students protest Bush visit; CARSON CITY, Nev.: Legislature challenges Bush school reform; CHESTER, Pa.: School privatization out; INDIANAPOLIS: ‘Steelworkers, start your engines’
Calif. protesters to Arnold: Well be back
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A crowd of 20,000 people here May 25 protested the anti-labor policies of the Schwarzenegger administration in the largest demonstration in the state capital’s history. click here for Spanish text
French, Dutch EU votes create shockwave
As French voters decisively said “Non” and Dutch voters said “Nee” to the draft European Union constitution, the future of the 25-nation bloc was left in question this week.
Interfaith solidarity boosts Pilsen workers
CHICAGO — A string of yellow school buses brought interfaith religious leaders to the La Casa del Pueblo supermarket in the Pilsen community May 23 to demonstrate their support for workers who have been leading a campaign to organize a union there. They were among about 200 hundred people gathered at the store in this largely Mexican American neighborhood. Participating were community members, Pilsen-area churches, and clergy and religious activists from around the country who were in Chicago for the Third National Interfaith Worker Justice Conference. click here for Spanish text
