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Last Updated: May 1st, 2009 - 08:28:42 |
One in Six Americans Now Unemployed or Underemployed; One in Ten Receiving Food Stamps
In economic news, the nation"s unemployment rate has
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reached eight point five percent, the highest its been in 25 years. 663,000 jobs were lost last month. A total of 5.1 million jobs have been lost in the past 14 months. The current unemployment rate would jump to 15.6 percent if it included laid-off workers who have given up looking for new jobs or have had to settle for part-time work. This means one in every six workers in America is now either unemployed or underemployed. New figures also show a record 32.2 million, or one in ten, Americans are receiving food stamps. The government’s figure for January marked the third record food stamp enrollment in five months.
742,000 Private Sector Job Losses in March
In economic news, a new report says the US private sector lost more jobs last month than previously thought. The survey company ADP Employer Services says private firms cut 742,000 jobs in March, up from the previous estimate of 706,000.
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Audit: Workplace Safety Program Failed to Protect Workers
A new internal audit has found a government program to improve worker safety has failed to do its job. Labor Department investigators say the Occupational Safety and Health Administration failed to collect data, carried out incomplete inspections and missed out on identifying hazardous workplaces because it misspelled company names or didn’t realize two subsidiaries had the same owner. The report also criticizes the Bush administration’s move to restrict the number of companies subject to special attention, saying better oversight might have improved workplaces where fifty-eight workers lost their lives.
Mass Shootings Spur Call For New Gun Control Laws
Gun control advocates are urging lawmakers to rewrite the nation’s gun control laws after mass shootings in upstate New York, Pittsburgh and Washington state. In Binghamton New York, a gunman attacked an immigration center on Friday killing 13 people before taking his own life. Most of the dead were immigrants who were taking classes at the immigration center. The gunman was a Vietnamese-born immigrant who recently lost his job.
Binghamton Police Chief Joseph Zikuski: “What we do know is Mr. Wong arrived at that residence wearing body armor, which would tell us at one point in his thinking process he was going to take the police on or at least try to stop us from stopping him. He must have been a coward. We speculate when he heard the sirens that he decided to end his own life, so… He was heavily armed. Had a lot of ammunition on him, and thank God before more lives were lost he decided to do that.”
On Saturday in Pittsburgh, three police officers were shot dead as they responded to a domestic violence call. Meanwhile in Washington state a 34-year-old man shot dead his five children on Saturday before killing himself. The children were between the ages of 7 and 16. There were also a series of high-profile mass shootings last month in North Carolina, California and Alabama that killed a total of 23 people. Paul Helmke, President of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, said “The laws on the books aren"t getting the job done. Now is the time to take effective steps to prevent gun violence.” According to the Brady Campaign, about 30,000 people die every year in the United States from gun violence, that"s about 80 people a day
Thousands Protest On Wall Street
In New York thousands marched on Wall Street Saturday on the 41st anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King. Leslie Cagan of United For Peace and Justice helped organize the protest.
Leslie Cagan: “Decades of bloated military spending have undermined our economic security. Instead, we are pouring hundreds of billions of dollars year in and year out into war into weapons of mass destruction into militarism, and military spending. That money should have been used and now must be used to reinvest in our communities. Our communities need schools, we need health care, we need a completely restructured infrastructure, we need money pouring into job creation, and we need to deal with the global crisis of the environment. So, there’s much to do, above and beyond bailing out bankers and continuing to pour money into war.”
“A Ponzi State”–Univ. of South Florida Professor Examines the Economic Crisis in Florida
The sunshine state has been hit particularly hard by the recession. Its facing its worst unemployment rate since 1976, with nearly one in ten people out of work. And it has the second-highest foreclosure rate in the country.
Just a few years ago Florida was at the center of the real estate boom. But in 2007 it all went bust. Houses stopped selling, foreclosures multiplied, and unemployment began to skyrocket.
Florida has been described as one of the birthplaces of the financial crisis. University of South Florida Professor Gary Mormino describes the state’s economy as a giant Ponzi scheme. He"s the author of “Land of Sunshine, State of Dreams: A Social History of Modern Florida.”
Obama: Plan for GM May Involve Bankruptcy
President Barack Obama has ordered General Motors and Chrysler to accelerate their restructuring efforts and brace for possible bankruptcy. Obama spoke Monday hours after the White House forced GM CEO Rick Wagoner to resign and ordered Chrysler to complete an alliance with the Italian automaker Fiat.
President Obama: “Now, what we’re asking for is difficult. It will require hard choices by companies. It will require unions and workers, who have already made extraordinarily painful concessions, to do more. It will require creditors to recognize that they can’t hold out for the prospect of endless government bailouts. It’ll have to—it will require efforts from a whole host of other stakeholders, including dealers and suppliers. Only then can we ask American taxpayers, who have already put up so much of their hard-earned money, to once more invest in a revitalized auto industry.”
Obama administration officials say they are weighing a fix for GM and Chrysler that would divide their “good” and “bad” assets and send the auto makers into bankruptcy. If GM declared bankruptcy, up to one million employees, dependents, retirees and their spouses could lose healthcare and retirement benefits. A bankruptcy judge recently allowed car part suppler Delphi to cancel healthcare and life insurance benefits for retirees, calling the moves “good business judgment.” During his address on Monday, President Obama said nothing about protecting the benefits of workers and retirees. GM’s shares plunged 25 percent Monday, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 3.3 percent. President Obama said there is no plan to nationalize General Motors.
President Obama: “Let me be clear: The United States government has no interest in running GM. We have no intention of running GM. What we are interested in is giving GM an opportunity to finally make those much needed changes that will let them emerge from this crisis a stronger and more competitive company."
Obama Accused of Double Standard on Bailouts
Michigan lawmakers, including Democratic Senator Carl Levin and Republican Congressman Thaddeus McCotter, said there is a double standard in terms of treatment of the financial industry compared with the auto industry. The government has not yet required any banks to replace its top executives.
GM CEO to Receive $20 Million in Retirement Benefits
While GM’s CEO Rick Wagoner is being forced to resign, he still stands to make millions. ABC News reports that Wagoner will be eligible to collect $20 million in retirement benefits from GM.
Report: Sharpton Received Donation After Backing Charter Schools
Democracy Now! co-host Juan Gonzalez has revealed that Reverend Al Sharpton received a half-million-dollar private donation last year at the same time as he launched a campaign to support charter schools. Writing in today’s New York Daily News, Gonzalez reports the money came from a private hedge fund managed by former New York City Schools Chancellor Harold Levy. Sharpton launched the charter school initiative with the current chancellor, Joel Klein. He received the money indirectly at the same time as he began paying some $1 million in back taxes.
Jury: Colorado Professor Fired for Political Beliefs
In Denver, a jury has found the University of Colorado wrongfully dismissed Professor Ward Churchill two years ago. Churchill sued the school after he was fired from a tenured position on charges of research misconduct. But Churchill maintains that the allegations were a pretext to remove him for his political beliefs. In 2005, he described the September 11 attacks as a response to a long history of US abuses and called those who were killed on 9/11 as “little Eichmanns.” On Thursday, the jury said Churchill had been fired in large part for his views. But it only granted him one dollar damages, along with ordering the University of Colorado to pay his attorney fees. Churchill’s lawyers say they will ask the judge to reinstate him at his old job.
New York Times Threatens to Close Boston Globe
In media news, the New York Times Company is threatening to close the Boston Globe within 30 days unless the Globe’s unions agree to $20 million in cuts. The concessions would likely involve pay cuts and ending contributions by the company to employee pension plans. Last month the New York Times Company laid off 100 employees and cut salaries for non-union workers by 5 percent.
Afghan Law Legalizes Rape Within Marriage
The Afghan government, meanwhile, is coming under international pressure to drop a law that effectively legalizes rape within marriage and further restricts women’s rights. According to The Guardian of London, the law bans women from refusing to have sex with their husbands and says they can only seek work, education or medical care with their husbands’ permission. Afghan President Hamid Karzai signed the measure into law last month.
Protests Condemn Public Flogging of Pakistani Girl
Meanwhile protests were held across Pakistan this weekend over a video that showed the public flogging of a 17-year-old girl in Pakistan"s Swat Valley. The video showed the girl being pinned down by three men and lashed 34 times. Under a deal with the Pakistani government the Swat Valley is now ruled by Islamic law. The girl had been accused of being seen with a man who was not her husband.
Chavez: Indict Bush, Israeli Leaders
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is calling for the indictment of President Bush and Israeli leaders on charges of war crimes. Addressing the Arab League summit in Doha, Chavez criticized the International Criminal Court indictment of Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir in light of US-Israeli actions.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez: “This genocide that was governed by the United States for eight years after Bush ordered the bombing of Iraq, where thousands and thousands of children were killed and entire families, innocent men and women. Why don’t they go after Bush—he truly committed genocide—or the Israeli government, which also commits genocide?”
Bashir is currently in Saudi Arabia in defiance of an international warrant for his arrest. In an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, the former Jordanian Queen, Queen Noor, criticized Sudan’s actions in Darfur but said the US is guilty of double standards in supporting Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip.
Queen Noor: “Were there not so many cases where Western pressure has been brought to bear on Arabs, but Israel’s, for example, disproportionate killing of civilians in Gaza during the recent and also in Lebanon in 2006, during the crisis there, if those cases had not taken place with relatively little Western outcry, you would find a very different attitude, I think, towards what’s taken place in Sudan.”
Obama Ends US Boycott of UN Human Rights Council
The Obama administration has reversed the Bush administration policy of boycotting the UN Human Rights Council. On Tuesday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced the US will seek a seat on the council when three become available next month.
OECD: Global Economy in Worst Recession Since 1930s
A new report from the Organization for Economic Cooperation says the global economy is in a worse decline than previously thought. The OECD says world trade will drop 13 percent this year. Chief economist Klaus Schmidt-Hebbel called the current crisis the worst recession since the Great Depression.
Klaus Schmidt-Hebbel: “The world economy is in the midst of its deepest, most synchronized recession in our lifetimes, certainly since the 1930s, I would say, caused by a global financial crisis and deepened by a collapse of world trade.”
Massive U.S. Arms Sale to Israel Disclosed
Amnesty International has revealed that the United States has sent a massive new shipment of arms to Israel despite evidence that U.S. weapons were misused against civilians in the Gaza attacks. Amnesty said a German cargo ship carrying about 14,000 tons of arms docked in late March at the Israeli port of Ashdod, about 25 miles north of Gaza. The ship left for Israel on December 20, a week before the start of Israel’s attacks on Gaza.
Media Covers U.S. War Dead’s Return After 18-Year Ban
The media was permitted on Sunday to cover the arrival of a U.S. soldier’s coffin at the Pentagon’s main mortuary in Delaware for the first time in 18 years. President Barack Obama has relaxed a Pentagon ban on media coverage of returning U.S. war dead, giving grieving families the choice of whether to allow cameras at the solemn arrival ceremony. On Sunday a flag-draped coffin bearing the remains of Staff Sgt. Phillip Myers arrived at Dover Air Force Base. The 30-year-old soldier was killed in Afghanistan on Saturday.
Report: Obama To Lift Restrictions on Family Travel to Cuba
The Wall Street Journal reports the Obama administration is planning to abolish limits on family travel and cash remittances between the United States and Cuba. This would allow Cubans living in the United States to travel freely to the island, instead of once a year as at present. Obama however has rejected calls to lift the embargo. Meanwhile a group of U.S. lawmakers visited Cuba Havana recently. This is Congresswoman Barbara Lee of California.
Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA): “We’re here to engage in discussion with regard to U.S.–Cuba relations. Personally, I believe, and many believe that it is time to talk to Cuba and we want to find out what the dialogue should entail and will communicate this very clearly to our government officials upon our return.”
Land of Ruins
In Gaza, unemployment and poverty rates are among the highest in the world. Despite international pledges of over 5.2 billion dollars to rebuild Gaza, in the four months since Israel"s assault, the siege has not been lifted and only one truck carrying cement and other construction materials has been allowed entry into the Gaza Strip. According to the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the Occupied Palestinian Territories this truck, which Israel permitted in late March, was the first carrying construction materials to be granted entry since last November.
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