Chicago -
By Steve Rhodes
First and foremost, the e-mails show how Rahm’s media shop manipulates outwitted reporters. Also: How City Hall spun settlement negotiations over the release of the infamous video, and allegations of witness coercion.
Posted on January 12, 2016
Compare and Contrast
Oprah: Book club.
IPRA: Old boys’ club.
Oprah: Has boyfriend she’ll never marry.
IPRA: Has cases it’ll never finish.
Oprah: Talk show.
IPRA: All talk for show.
Posted on January 12, 2016
By Rudy López/Interfaith Worker Justice
Most people who see the word ‘refugees’ these days will probably think of the war in Syria, the brash bigotry of some presidential candidates, or the fight between the president and some Republican governors over where to settle Syrians fleeing violence at home.
But just as he opens the doors to refugees from Syria, President Obama is preparing to send hundreds of families fleeing violence in Central America right back into the war zones they risked their lives to escape.
Posted on January 9, 2016
By Paul Kiel and Annie Waldman/ProPublica
On a recent Saturday afternoon, the mayor of Jennings, a St. Louis suburb of about 15,000, settled in before a computer in the empty city council chambers. Yolonda Fountain Henderson, 50, was elected last spring as the city’s first black mayor.
On the screen was a list of every debt collection lawsuit against a resident of her city, at least 4,500 in just five years. Henderson asked to see her own street. On her block of 16 modest ranch-style homes, lawsuits had been filed against the occupants of eight. “That’s my neighbor across the street,” she said, pointing to one line on the screen.
And then she saw her own suit. Henderson, a single mother, fell behind on her sewer bill after losing her job a few years ago, and the utility successfully sued her. That judgement was listed, as well as how one day the company seized $382 from her credit union account – all she had, but not enough to pay off the debt.
As the lines of suits scrolled by on the screen, Henderson shook her head in disbelief, swinging her dangling, heart-shaped earrings.
“They’re just suing all of us,” she said.
Posted on January 8, 2016
By Lois Beckett/ProPublica
The executive actions on guns unveiled Tuesday by President Obama drew predictable praise from gun control advocates and bile from gun-rights supporters and Republican lawmakers, including some who called his actions “unconstitutional.”
But, as some have noted, the actions themselves are extremely modest, raising questions about how much they will really do to stem gun violence.
Posted on January 7, 2016
By Jonathan Stempel/Reuters
A federal judge on Monday dismissed a lawsuit seeking to force the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to adopt a rule requiring publicly traded companies to disclose political contributions.
U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer in Washington, D.C. found no showing by the plaintiff Stephen Silberstein that the SEC had a “clear legal duty” to begin a rulemaking proceeding, and that its failure was arbitrary and capricious.
Posted on January 6, 2016
By Paul Kiel/ProPublica
This story was co-published with The New York Times’ Sunday Review.
If you are black, you’re far more likely to see your electricity cut, more likely to be sued over a debt, and more likely to land in jail because of a parking ticket.
It is not unreasonable to attribute these perils to discrimination. But there’s no question that the main reason small financial problems can have such a disproportionate effect on black families is that, for largely historical reasons rooted in racism, they have far smaller financial reserves to fall back on than white families.
Posted on January 5, 2016
