Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Today's Teamster News 07.25.12

The U.S. Economic Policy Debate Is a Sham  Bloomberg   ...The debate in Washington has become completely unmoored from this consensus, and in a particular direction: Angry Republicans have pushed their representatives to adopt positions that are at odds with the best of modern economic thinking. That may be good politics, but it’s terrible policy...
White House warns of $1,600 tax hike on 114M middle-class families  The Hill   ...The Democrat-controlled Senate is expected to vote this week on legislation to extend tax rates only on those with annual income up to $250,000. Senate Republicans are pressing for a separate vote to extend all of the tax rates...
China Continues Push to Control North American Energy  Economy in Crisis   ...A Chinese oil company has purchased  Canadian firm Nexen Inc. for $15.1 billion in cash, expanding China’s ever growing presence in the North American energy market. This deal, if approved, will give the Chinese firm CNOOC Ltd access to oil drilling operations in the Gulf of Mexico, as well as shale oil reserves in British Columbia...
Ahead Of Voter ID Trial, Pennsylvania Admits There’s No In-Person Voter Fraud  TPMMuckraker   ...The state signed a stipulation agreement with lawyers for the plaintiffs which acknowledges there “have been no investigations or prosecutions of in-person voter fraud in Pennsylvania; and the parties do not have direct personal knowledge of any such investigations or prosecutions in other states...”
Marijuana Dispensaries Banned in L.A. Per City Council Vote  LA Weekly   ... No more weed retailers in the pot shop capital of the nation. Maybe...
Cronyism and Corruption Define Walker’s Reign  The Progressive   ... Start tugging at a thread in that story and the whole tapestry of corporate domination of state policy starts to unravel. It leads everywhere: From the recently awarded federal waiver of the No Child Left Behind law to the imposition of more and more standardized testing in schools; from the initiative to orient K-12 curriculum away from the needs of children and toward needs of employers to the practical elimination of teachers’ unions and catastrophic cuts to education budgets...