Angelinos fight transit rate hike
LOS ANGELES — Hundreds of workers, students, handicapped and elderly people filled the downtown Metropolitan Transit Authority building May 24 to protest proposed transit fare hikes, following MTA Chief Executive Roger Snoble’s announcement of restructuring proposals that would raise basic bus and rail fares from $1.25 to $2.00 for a one-way trip.
Critics say expansion plan wont reform California prisons
A $7.4 billion program to expand California’s already vast prison system, proposed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and approved by the Legislature last month, is drawing fire from advocates of prison reform and is viewed skeptically even by some legislative leaders.
Market efficiency and health care
For several decades now, those who advocate privatizing virtually every government program preach about how much more efficient private business is, how much more can be accomplished with less drain on the public coffers. Well, now we have proof about how right they are: not at all!
THIS WEEK IN LABOR
Security workers march for health care, respect Congress approves boost in minimum wage Defense Dept. unions fight to overturn Bush rules Minnesota hospital contracts protect nurses’ right to unionize
Ohioans urge end to foreclosure frenzy
CLEVELAND — Residents here appealed to Congress May 21 to end the epidemic of home foreclosures wrecking their city. Community leaders, public officials, researchers and banking experts charged in testimony at a congressional hearing that the Federal Reserve Bank had abdicated its regulatory responsibility and was complicit in the raping of inner-city neighborhoods, especially in the African American community.
Workers, residents protest immigration raids
PAINESVILLE, Ohio — In sorrow and anger, over 200 people held an evening rally in front of St. Mary Catholic Church here, May 21, protesting sweeping arrests by federal immigration authorities over the weekend.
WORLD NOTES
Argentina: Children march against hunger, poverty Japan: Peace constitution in jeopardy Iran: CIA destabilization plans come to light Kenya: Global warming causing sea damage Great Britain: Child poverty on the rise
In Colombia, scandals mount and people mobilize
Colombian President Alvaro Uribe has been adamant that 56 prisoners held by the country’s principal guerilla army, the left-leaning Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), would be freed by military rescue operations, not through a humanitarian exchange.
Honoring the Rosenbergs, celebrating resistance
In the 1950s, during the height of the anti-communist hysteria led by Wisconsin Republican Sen. Joseph McCarthy, thousands of people, from shop workers to Hollywood figures, became victims during the Cold War’s initial years.
