By Steve Rhodes

First in a series.
“In the six days since the dash-cam video showing the fatal shooting of Laquan McDonald was released, Mayor Rahm Emanuel has not had a public schedule to allow for any questions concerning the video or subsequent protests and calls for his resignation on social media,” Mary Ann Ahern reports for NBC Chicago.
“The mayor has plans to leave for Paris for the global Climate Summit for Local Leaders later this week, but it is not clear exactly when he will leave. Emanuel was originally scheduled to leave on Friday, but his spokesperson would not confirm his departure date this week.”

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Posted on November 30, 2015

By Rudy López/Interfaith Worker Justice
This year might be the first Cyber Monday that you can order something online and have it delivered in just a few hours.
That’s because online retailers like Amazon are employing an army of delivery drivers to bring your order to your home or office with almost no turn-around time.
This might sound like a great deal for consumers. But if you happen to be one of Amazon’s delivery drivers, there’s a huge catch.

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Posted on November 30, 2015

By Mike Kentz/Reuters

A class action lawsuit, filed Wednesday, accuses 10 of Wall Street’s biggest banks and two trading platforms of conspiring to limit competition in the $320 trillion market for interest-rate swaps.
The class action lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, accuses Goldman Sachs Group, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Credit Suisse Group, Barclays Plc, BNP Paribas SA, UBS, Deutsche Bank AG, and the Royal Bank of Scotland of colluding to prevent the trading of interest rate swaps on electronic exchanges, like the ones on which stocks are traded.
As a result, the lawsuit alleges, banks have successfully prevented new competition from non-banks in the lucrative market for dealing interest rate swaps, the world’s most commonly traded derivative.

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Posted on November 28, 2015

By Alec MacGillis/ProPublica

This story was co-published with The New York Times’ Sunday Review.
It is one of the central political puzzles of our time: Parts of the country that depend on the safety-net programs supported by Democrats are increasingly voting for Republicans who favor shredding that net.

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Posted on November 27, 2015

By Michael Grabell/ProPublica

A national association of state lawmakers has announced that it will investigate a burgeoning effort to let companies opt out of workers’ compensation insurance and write their own plans for how they’ll care for injured workers.
The National Conference of Insurance Legislators, whose members serve on insurance committees and often act as gatekeepers for related bills in their states, said the decision was prompted by a ProPublica and NPR story last month that found that employers’ opt-out plans typically provide lower benefits for injured workers, more restrictions and little independent oversight. Texas and Oklahoma currently allow companies to opt out and other states are considering similar plans.

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Posted on November 25, 2015

By Janel Bailey/Interfaith Worker Justice

Walmart’s poverty wages are forcing many of their employees into a situation where they have to choose between food and other necessities. No working person in this nation of plenty should have to go hungry.
This holiday season, we are giving thanks and giving back for those who work so hard at Walmart, yet take home such a tiny share of the earnings. We hope you’ll join us in getting involved to help feed Walmart workers and others in need this holiday season and taking action to call out Walmart and other employers who keep their workers in poverty all year long.
Here’s how you can take action to support worker justice this week:

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Posted on November 24, 2015

By The Christian News Service

WASHINGTON D.C. – The National Bible Association hosted a special scripture reading Tuesday on the east lawn of the U.S. Capitol. This special event honored America’s Biblical foundation as a number of congressmen read from the historic Aitken Bible, printed in 1782. Also, there was a special reading of the Lord’s prayer from the Eliot Indian Bible, the first bible printed in North America, by Naticksqw Chief Caring Hands. The bibles for this event were coordinated by Museum of the Bible.

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Posted on November 23, 2015

By The U.S. Public Interest Research Group

Candidates in the 2016 presidential race would see a dramatic shift in fundraising success under a proposed small donor public financing system, according to a study released on Wednesday by U.S. PIRG Education Fund.
Using third quarter fundraising data filed with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) this October, the report examines the impact of a program that matches small contributions with limited public funds for candidates who agree not to accept large donations.
“Right now, most candidates from both parties are dependent on large donors to fund their campaigns, while voters across the political spectrum are calling for reform,” said Abe Scarr, Illinois PIRG Education Fund director. “It doesn’t have to be that way. A small donor matching program would fundamentally change the way our elections work, giving candidates who engage with regular Americans a chance to compete with fundraising by those who choose to rely on big money.”

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Posted on November 20, 2015

By Lauren Kirchner/ProPublica

Current and former government officials have been pointing to the terror attacks in Paris as justification for mass surveillance programs.
CIA Director John Brennan accused privacy advocates of “hand-wringing” that has made “our ability collectively internationally to find these terrorists much more challenging.”
Former National Security Agency and CIA director Michael Hayden said, “In the wake of Paris, a big stack of metadata doesn’t seem to be the scariest thing in the room.”
Ultimately, it’s impossible to know just how successful sweeping surveillance has been, since much of the work is secret. But what has been disclosed so far suggests the programs have been of limited value. Here’s a roundup of what we know.

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Posted on November 19, 2015

By Sebastian Rolle/ProPublica

Before a SWAT team stormed a tenement in the Belgian city of Verviers in January, police used listening devices to monitor their targets inside: Belgian jihadis who had returned from Syria to attack a local police station in the name of the Islamic State.
Police gunned down two suspects during the pre-dawn firefight, foiling the plot. But a chilling detail stuck with the Belgian counter-terror investigators who tracked down the plotters with help from French and U.S. intelligence. As investigators listened, the militants responded to the police assault with a ferocity forged in the battlegrounds of the Middle East.
“They were talking about their plans to commit violence here,” a senior Belgian counter-terror official recalled in a recent interview. “The police flash-bang grenade goes off. And immediately these two start firing their AK-47s. No hesitation, no panic. These are guys with combat experience. They were ready to fight and die.”
As the fast-paced investigation of the rampage in Paris that left at least 129 people dead unfolded, elite tactical teams carried out another pre-dawn raid Wednesday on suspected terrorists holed up in an apartment outside the French capital. The target was the accused Belgian mastermind of the thwarted effort to attack the police station in Belgium in January who is also believed to have played a central role in directing the Paris attacks last week: Abdelhamid Abaaoud.

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Posted on November 18, 2015