Media

Last night's police violence against citizens of Ferguson, MO was an affront to democracy. There is nothing more American than a community uniting in the face of tragedy, than ordinary people organizing to peacefully protest injustice. The police reaction—to protests of their own violence—has been more violence, less transparency, and an active suppression of first amendment freedoms.

The police and government of Ferguson must be held accountable, and we call on the Department of Justice to take immediate action.

In May 2013, low-wage workers in federal buildings in Washington began walking off the job in a series of one-day strikes. Employed by concessionaires and janitorial contractors at places like the Smithsonian and the Ronald Reagan Building, the workers said their rock-bottom wages weren't enough to survive on. Like the Walmart and fast-food workers also going on strike, they asked for better working conditions and a greater share of the spoils.

Los Angeles lawmakers were expected to vote Wednesday on a proposal to renegotiate or terminate an interest rate swap deal from the mid-2000s that critics say now costs the city millions of dollars a year in fees. If successful, the initiative could make the city the nation's largest to challenge ballooning Wall Street levies that accompany similar interest rate swap deals throughout the nation.

Why is New York City’s public housing about to collapse? 

On Andrea Mitchell Reports, Demos Distinguished Senior Fellow Bob Herbert discusses how recent events relate to the idea of post-racial

Student loans are having quite the moment. Unfortunately, that moment has been a bit... confusing. Let's clarify things.

Medical debt is different. Typically when consumers borrow money, they can consider how much they’ll owe, shop around for the best interest rate, and usually have at least a little breathing room to reassess whether the goods or services they want to purchase are worth going into debt for in the first place. All that goes out the window, however, if your child is rushed to the emergency room in need of life-saving treatment.

Reformers in Washington are looking for a few good scandals.

Watergate led to the biggest overhaul of campaign finance law in the past century. Outrage over donors sleeping in the Lincoln Bedroom and Enron influence peddling helped spur the 2002 McCain-Feingold overhaul. And the Jack Abramoff affair got Congress to act quickly on lobbying and ethics reform.

Earlier this week Vox gave welcome attention to whether CEO pay would benefit workers, but it didn’t go far enough in examining the company's wage inequality. In response to recent news of a college president giving up part of his compensation to give lower-wage workers a raise, Danielle Kurtzleben pivoted to Walmart, asking "what if Walmart's CEO took a pay cut for his workers?"