Tag: Work and Poverty
Polarized Washington sets new low in failing to extend unemployment benefits
Congress has never before let federally extended unemployment benefits drop with an unemployment rate so high: That is the takeaway from a searing new...
Reid, Baucus introduce new unemployment extension bill
Faced with the fact that millions of Americans are losing their unemployment benefits and cutting into the national economic recovery, Tuesday night Sens. Harry...
Deficit hawk Coburn rejects benefits for homeless women veterans
In his zeal for deficit reduction, Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) has objected to Sen. Patty Murray’s (D-Wash.) bill to provide benefits to homeless woman...
Lawmakers playing political chicken with unemployment extension
The battle continues behind the scenes on Capitol Hill as Democratic leadership tries to pass another extension of unemployment benefits, with or without various...
Stabenow to bring standalone Unemployment extension bill
Today, Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) plans to introduce a standalone bill to continue federally extended unemployment insurance benefits. The major federal jobs bill, also...
Obama presses to pass Jobs Bill as unemployment hits crisis level
Despite improving economic indicators in GDP, consumer spending and business optimism, the United States’ unemployment rate remains high — flirting with double digits. Fifteen...
Despite rising job numbers, U.S. unemployment stuck in crisis
The May jobs number is out, and at first blush it looks good. The economy added 431,000 jobs in May and the unemployment rate...
In Gulf spill aftermath, oil workers lack advocate
The largest oil spill in U.S. history has received no absence of congressional scrutiny. Yet as lawmakers continue to focus their examinations on the environmental, economic and energy implications of the disaster, a number of labor advocates are beginning to wonder: What about the workers?
Iowa’s Harkin spurring movement at last on Udall nuke worker bill
Michael Fellenger died in April 2008 of lung failure stemming from his work with nuclear material at the Ames Laboratory in Iowa. His wife...
Are homeowners really skipping out on their mortgages to spend at...
The case is now famous. The homeowner had applied for the Home Affordable Mortgage Program, or HAMP, an Obama administration initiative to give distressed and tapped-out borrowers lower monthly payments. But this “HAMPlicant,” the writer on the blog Calculated Risk noted, had given up on a $1,880 a month mortgage and spent hundreds of dollars instead at a spa, tanning salon, gourmet grocery store and liquor store, capping it all off with $1,700 in charges to mall stores from Baby Gap to Best Buy. She's what bloggers are calling a "foreclosure queen."