Media

Since the Rana Plaza building collapse killed more than 1,100 people in April, retailers have faced mounting pressure to improve safety at Bangladesh garment factories and to sever ties with manufacturers that don't measure up.

The world's largest retailer, Walmart, last month released a list of more than 200 factories it said it had barred from producing its merchandise because of serious or repeated safety problems, labor violations or unauthorized subcontracting.

Is the National Security Agency wasting tax dollars by paying Booz Allen to handle routine intelligence tasks, such as the systems administration work that 29-year old Edward Snowden was doing for $122,000 a year? It sure seems that way. 

Last month Nevada joined a growing number of states and cities that are forbidding companies from using credit checks to make employment decisions. But the practice is still legal under federal law. [...]

First, the American Pediatrics Association noted that poverty was the number one danger facing children today. If that wasn’t bad enough, it seems the elderly are just as vulnerable, especially in the light of potential entitlement cuts.

Republicans distrust government so much that they routinely label moderate policies as "socialist." Such name calling is demagoguery, of course, but it's also plain silly: For instance, an Obamacare similar to Bob Dole's healthcare plan – leaving private players largely in charge -- is not socialism.

People of color looking for homes are told about and shown fewer homes and apartments than their white counterparts.

NSA leaker Edward Snowden may have earned $200,000 a year working for Booz Allen, as he claimed. Or maybe he earned $122,000 a year, as the consulting company claims. Either way, we’re talking about a lot of money for a 29-year old systems administrator with a community college degree living in Hawaii.

One by one, the House Financial Services Committee has rubber-stamped industry approved bills that would weaken elements of Dodd-Frank designed to hem in risky derivatives trading.