apartment here on the best to the rest
love economic and labor news its you need to know this
Americans are drowning in debt a new study from the Urban Institute shows the
more than
35 percent to us more than a third
have debt and unpaid bills that have been reported to collection agencies
is debts include auto loans credit card bills hospital bills mortgages
even gym memberships and cellphone contracts
and the average over five thousand dollars a person
although wages have been pretty much stagnant for the last stagnant for the
last 3 Dec
decades the cost of living hasn't stopped rising
and many Americans had to turn a credit just to get by
make matters worse laws is to cap interest rates
on that credit or weekend during the nineteen eighties
and then open the door to a flood of high-interest lenders
to prey on consumers and related people need credit to supplant their stagnant
wages
but they had a more pay more to borrow than ever before fast forward a few
decades and it's not hard to see how we ended up with more than 100 million
people
in harassed by collection agencies over debts they couldn't afford to pay back
already Urban Institute senior fellow Caroline ratcliff
quote roughly every third person you pass on the street is going to have debt
in collections
in quote yet Walt yet Wall Street not Main Street
got a bailout taxpayers rescued the banksters and propped up the too big to
jail
banks but we're the ones who were denied any relief
time to wipe out all dat in our nation and reset the system to repair the
damage from three decades reaganomics
its bailout Americans by calling for a national debt
Julie government surveillance is threatening our entire democracy
according to a new report from the ACLU and Human Rights Watch
our government's spine on journalists and attorneys
is undermine our ability to hold our lawmakers
accountable report argues that surveillance increased prosecution
whistleblowers
restricted communications between intelligence officials and the media
and snitch programs for federal workers have all led to less
information reaching the public the authors explain that this has quote
a direct effect on the public's ability to it obtain important information about
government activities
and on the ability of the media to serve as a check
on government in quote is important reason why are prices known as the
fourth text a
estate without the ability to expose problems in our government
the american people can't demand that these issues be corrected
according to the ACLU US should genuinely confront the fact that its
massive surveillance programs are damaging many critically important
rights
or privacy is extremely important but it's not the only right will lose
if we don't fight to and government spine McDonalds workers who scored a
major victory in their fight to form a union
last week the National Labor Relations Board ruled that the fast food giant can
be considered
a joint employer I've workers in its franchises
and that the corporations can be found liable for wage and labor violations
the General Counsel up the NLRB found merit
in some other claims the McDonalds quote violated the rights of employees as a
result activities surrounding employees protests and quote
although the company plans to contest the decision ruling could have broad
implications for workers have it up held
on the attorneys representing a low-wage workers said
the reality is the McDonalds requires a franchisees to a higher
it to adhere to such regimented rules and regulations that there's no doubt
who's really in charge
end quote jiang corporation has been fighting to keep your employees
organizing it looks like workers may soon have the union that they've been
fighting for
in 1983 50 companies owned the vast majority of our media
2012 ninety percent of all media consumed by Americans was owned by only
six companies if the merger between 21st Century Fox and Time Warner Inc
is allowed to happen it will reduce the company's control over media to just
five companies
are a law professor Susan Crawford said the situation is already terrible and
this would make it worse
the public interest started this conversation is hopelessly outgunned
if the Federal Communications Commission allows this merger to happen
Americans will likely lose even more diversity and Usenet attainment
very lost much of the independent analysis that used to fill our news
and it's been replaced with infotainment that puts ratings ahead information
this merger and several others that are pending will only worsen this problem
up to us to demand that the FCC finally stands up for diversity and media
and protects the integrity the information that we consume
and finally states are rushing to save Obama care subsidies
in response to a recent ruling by the DC Circuit Court States is in the federal
and
a health care exchanges recognized that residents were risking losing their tax
credits
help cover the cost of insurance rather than wait for the issue to play out the
courts
states have started to clarify that they consider their exchanges to be
state-based official some Idaho and Delaware have already spoken out
saying that although they are using the federal program they consider their
markets to be administered by their states
after having difficulty with their own exchanges other states have announced
they'll be switching to the federal exchange next year
however they are already saying that they will still consider their exchanges
state-based
state lawmakers know that americans need access to affordable health care
care and they're not about to give that up without a fight
that's the way it is for the week of August 4th 2014
and Thom Hartmann and the economic and labor
line
that