Life and debt in the USA
On daytime television, streams of ads offer irresistible new loans — credit cards, house refinancing, interest-only loans. At night, eerie ads offer cash in exchange for death benefits.
Citizens urge upholding civilian review board
PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Facing open police resistance to the powers of a new civilian review board, some 50 concerned citizens attended a review board meeting here last month to urge that the board’s authority not be watered down.
Lessons from a minimum wage fight
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — By just 1,481 votes, this city’s “Living Wage Initiative” was defeated on Oct. 4. The initiative would have lifted 40,000 families out of poverty by raising the minimum wage from $5.15 an hour to $7.50 an hour.
World Notes
Venezuela: Missionaries must leave for spying; Canada: CBC lockout ends with union victory; Paraguay: Indigenous people demand a voice; Guinea: Gov’t urged to follow ILO conventions; China: CP calls for ‘common prosperity’
Liberian elections may signal turn toward peace
The people of Liberia, a West African country of over 3.4 million citizens, have suffered dearly from the ravages of internal wars over the past 14 years.
UN meet: Youths future in peril
UNITED NATIONS — In both developed and underdeveloped nations, youth are in a precarious situation, facing poverty, HIV/AIDS and lack of access to education, among other critical problems. It was in this context that the UN devoted a week in October to the problems of young people.
U.S. threatens, meddles in Nicaraguan politics
A last-minute agreement between Nicaraguan President Enrique Bolaños and the leader of the left-wing opposition Sandinista party, former President Daniel Ortega, has evidently staved off a U.S. threat of sanctions against the impoverished Central American country.
Defeat Schwarzeneggers ballot propositions!
The Nov. 8 California special election was conceived by the Schwarzenegger administration as an attack on public employee rights and political involvement, social services funding and the legislative redistricting process. The election itself is highly unpopular with voters, who view it as unnecessary, but it is going forward nonetheless.
Calif. govs vetoes show his corporate allegiance
As if anyone still had doubts, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has again made his allegiance to the state’s giant corporations crystal clear. On Oct. 7 the governor finished acting on the 961 measures the Legislature sent him this year.
