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Tomorrow is the third anniversary of the Deep Horizon explosion that spilled 200 million gallons of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico. The spill fouled 1,110 miles of beaches and marsh along the coasts of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida. Three years later, the cleanup continues and crews continue to find oil buried and tar balls washing ashore.

The furor over President Obama's proposed cuts to Social Security benefits has obscured a key fact about his latest 10-year budget plan: Which is that, despite those cuts and even bigger cuts to Medicare, the plan only modestly slows spending on seniors even as it proposes significant cuts to nearly every other government function over the next decade. 

ALBANY, NY – As New York State considers campaign finance reform, the national public policy center Demos will release a new report detailing how public financing is improving Connecticut’s legislative processes and relieving lawmakers of special interest burdens at a press conference in Albany on Monday, April 22nd at 11:00 AM.

Representative Keith Ellison held a press conference yesterday outside the Capital building in Washington, D.C. to announce the reintroduction of a bill that would tax financial transactions on Wall Street. The Inclusive Prosperity Act, which was first introduced last year and is supported by many economists, would implement a 0.5 percent tax on speculation and derivates and would reel in more than $300 billion a year in revenue.

In North Carolina you can buy a gun without a background check, but according to a bill recently passed by the state legislature, the same shouldn't be true for receiving food stamps and other forms of government assistance.

A few weeks ago, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia said that a key provision of the Voting Rights Act was motivated by a "perpetuation of racial entitlement."

A few weeks ago, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scaliasaid that a key provision of the Voting Rights Act was motivated by a "perpetuation of racial entitlement."

The President’s attention in his proposed budget to the challenges faced by unemployed young workers is encouraging. His proposal for a “Pathways Back to Work Fund” would make $12.5 billion available to create and/or subsidize jobs for younger as well as older unemployed workers. 

It’s been a good week for the 23,000 people who work for one U.S. retail chain. Even as the national economy continued to plod along and the unemployment rate remained disturbingly high, Hobby Lobby announced it is upping its minimum hourly wage to $14 for full-time employees and $9.50 for part-time workers.