January 2011
9 posts
4 tags
New Lawmakers Get To Work on Anti-Immigrant Agenda
Afton Branche
In legislative houses across the country, newly-elected lawmakers are getting down to the business of fulfilling their campaign promises. Those elected vowing to crackdown on immigration have proposed various restrictionist and enforcement-oriented policies, which seem poised to satisfy voters rather than solve actual problems.
In Texas, Governor Rick Perry proclaimed that...
3 tags
Cutting the Campaign Cash: New York’s Best Chance...
Amy Traub
Cutting public pensions won’t improve the lives of ordinary New Yorkers. Giving tax breaks to the state’s highest income residents won’t benefit most of us either. But at least one reform promoted by Governor Andrew Cuomo has the potential to truly transform New York’s politics, putting people, rather than corporate interests, in control of the political process. Publicly-funded,...
2 tags
A Day to Be Proud of Mayor Bloomberg
John Petro
Here on DMIBlog, we’re not exactly shy about being critical of Mayor Bloomberg. So it feels good at those times when we can be proud of our mayor for taking on an issue that advances social justice. Yesterday was such a day, when Mayor Bloomberg appeared with DMI board member Martin Luther King, III and the families of victims of gun violence to call for a comprehensive national...
1 tag
State of the City: Bloomberg Failing Ordinary New...
John Petro
Mayor Bloomberg’s third term began badly for middle class New Yorkers. Twelve thousand families fell into poverty over the past year, a four percent increase. The number of food stamp recipients in the city is up by 15 percent, and the number of families staying in homeless shelters is up 13 percent over a year ago.
John Petro, urban policy analyst at the Drum Major Institute...
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Wal-Mart’s PR Buzz Kill: Wal-Mart Kills Jobs
John Petro
Wal-Mart launched a new public relations campaign on Monday to build support for a New York City store, including radio and print ads, direct mailers, and a new city-specific website. The effort is the work of Mayor Bloomberg’s former campaign manager, Bradley Tusk, who was hired by Wal-Mart last November.
But Tusk’s job just got a lot tougher. New York City Public Advocate Bill...
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New Study Uncovers Wage Theft and Workplace Abuse...
Afton Branche
For day laborers, finding work too often means accepting less than minimum wage, forgoing safety equipment, or enduring abuse by crooked employers. A new study by the Seton Hall Law School Center for Social Justice highlights the harsh realities for these workers in the New Jersey day labor market, finding evidence of wage theft and other workplace violations. The authors surveyed...
3 tags
Who Said It: Andrew Cuomo or John Boehner?
Amy Traub
Public spending is the number one problem. Taxes are too high. And we’ve got to eliminate regulation. It sounds a lot like the rhetoric of the House’s new Republican majority, the folks who strenuously expressed their concern over deficits, then pushed to extend the deficit-ballooning Bush tax for the wealthiest Americans (it looks like infrastructure investment and college...
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A New Year and a New Fare, But MTA Budget the Same...
John Petro
The 30-day Metrocard went up by $15 on January 1st, and transit riders are wondering why, after last year’s elimination of two subway lines and dozens of bus lines, they are being asked to pay more for less service.
On top of $104 Metrocards, there’s even more bad news for transit riders: the MTA is projecting that it will be $207 million in the hole by the end of 2012...