Media

WHAT: Telephone press conference to demand an end to the growing threat to our democracy posed by voter suppression and unlimited corporate and special interest spending in elections. Momentum is growing nationwide, with more organizations, policymakers and citizens calling for change. On the call, groups will preview rallies and demonstrations being held nationwide on or around Saturday, Jan. 19, to coincide with the third anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission decision (Jan. 21), Martin Luther King Jr.

This is not a good idea. The New York Times is shutting down its environment desk. The justification for closing the desk is that the environmental beat is no longer siloed.

The United States isn't the only country that has a problem with giant banks that take too many risks, are not transparent, and are effectively above democratic oversight. The U.K. has the same problem, and in fact, that country's economy is even more financialized than the U.S.'s -- with all the attendant problems: banks helped inflate the U.K.'s huge real estate bubble in the early 2000s, inequality has risen amid outsized pay for bankers and traders, and the U.K.'s economy has become less stable as it has leaned more heavily on a sector addicted to risk-taking. 

This wasn’t a good week for Walmart. The business model of the nation’s largest private employer is built on a lack of accountability.

In his State of the State yesterday, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo laid out his plan to make the state a clean tech leader. Cuomo proposed extending a program to increase solar panel installations for homes and businesses and investing in an electric car network with statewide charging stations and incentives to build charging infrastructure.

A New York Times article yesterday reported that Fix the Debt, the deficit hawk group which positions itself as a neutral body of wisemen, includes a number of corporate lobbyists and board members.

A new analysis of state spending on higher education finds that states with a diverse economy, low unemployment, and a history of support for higher education are likely to maintain public spending on colleges. Conversely, states that do not have those characteristics have a hard time overcoming fiscal challenges to create a robust system of higher education.

US labor markets ended 2012 with a whimper, as Friday’s release of the December unemployment numbers showed all major indicators essentially unchanged. 

Now is not the time to cut government spending, with the economy still limping along. This fact may not be obvious to Washington, but it's obvious to the American public, which has consistently said that fixing the economy and creating jobs should be a higher priority than cutting the deficit.

For example, exit polls in November found that 59 percent of voters named the economy as the most important issue facing the country. Just 15 percent said the deficit.