By Jake Johnson/Common Dreams

According to the newly leaked transcript of a New York Times staff meeting last year, editorial page editor James Bennet wants his employees and the public to believe that the paper of record is dedicated to open debate, not committed to any particular ideology, and opposed to “simply assert[ing] that we know what the right answers are.”
Oh, except when it comes to one small matter: lower corporate taxes.
After taking a few moments to insist that the Times “is very concerned with fairness” and outlining what the Huffington Post’s Ashley Feinberg described as “an ideology of no ideology,” Bennet went on to express support for a lower corporate tax rate – one of the central components of the tax bill President Donald Trump signed into law last year.
“In thinking about, for example, the tax bill in this and that, you know, we actually like the idea of reducing corporate rates,” Bennet said. “We’re not for taxation for purposes of taxation, but we are very concerned about fairness and equitable distribution. And it’s sort of wrestling with the, with the tensions there is, I think, how we come out where we do.”
Bennet’s remarks are just the latest example of why he is facing intense criticism – both internally and externally – for such head-scratchers as bringing on right-wing climate denier Bret Stephens as a full-time columnist and coming within a hair’s breadth of hiring a tech writer who is pals with neo-Nazis.

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Posted on February 28, 2018

By Steve Balkin

I am shocked by the recent shootings in our schools and moved by the pleas for help from students at Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. They motivated me to try to think of solutions, implementable in the short-term, that can soon reduce the harm from these terrible gun violence tragedies.
In a blog post here in September 2016, I wrote a comprehensive 10-point strategy for reducing violent crime in Chicago.
Now I am focusing more narrowly on containing violence from military-style guns and accoutrements of assault. The starting point is that guns have negative externalities, a term economists use for harmful side effects imposed on third parties (neither the buyer nor the seller).
Guns owned by law-abiding persons can be lost or stolen and get into the wrong hands; a mentally healthy person owning guns can become stressed, depressed, paranoid or delusional; guns usually handled surely and safely, may become objects of accidents that can harm others. The harms are magnified greatly when the guns are automatic or semi-automatic weapons of assault – weapons that can rapidly fire with magazines that have capacities larger than five cartridges.

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Posted on February 26, 2018

By The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists

Another week, another story of a project that was supposed to help Africa, but a tax scheme that did the opposite. We’ve published a story on a satellite, launched in 2011, which was touted as a communications and development boon for the continent.
But, that’s in stark contrast to its tax strategy. A PowerPoint presentation from the Paradise Papers reveals the company would earn $936 million over 17 years, but never pay taxes above $300,000. That’s thanks to some clever tax maneuvers and offshore companies in Mauritius – one of the continent’s premier tax havens.

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Posted on February 22, 2018

By Jake Johnson/Common Dreams

With American workers already struggling against stagnant wages, declining union strength, and vicious attacks by the Trump administration, a new investigation by Politico published Sunday found that low-wage employees in the United States are also contending with wage theft on a massive scale – a crisis that many states lack the resources or political will to address.
According to Politico’s Marianne Levine, who examined state minimum-wage enforcement protocols over a period of nine months, “workers are so lightly protected that six states have no investigators to handle minimum-wage violations, while 26 additional states have fewer than 10 investigators. Given the widespread nature of wage theft and the dearth of resources to combat it, most cases go unreported. Thus, an estimated $15 billion in desperately needed income for workers with lowest wages goes instead into the pockets of shady bosses.”

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Posted on February 20, 2018

Asiaciti’s Offshore Marketing Tour Of The U.S.

“Now comes the story of the Asiaciti promotional tour of America. A newly released trove of documents gives us an incredible insight into the city-by-city itinerary of offshore specialists marketing their wares to American clients. It has all the classics of an American road trip, from Los Angeles to Las Vegas and Miami!” the International Consortium of Investigative Reporters reports.
Last stop: Chicago. Featuring Adrian Taylor, managing director at the Cook Islands branch of Asiaciti, a firm specializing in offshore companies and trusts. Let’s take a look.

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Posted on February 15, 2018

By The Little Village Environmental Justice Organization

The Little Village Environmental Justice Organization and Little Village community at large were shocked to learn Tuesday that Hilco and Mayor Rahm Emanuel proposed the demolition of the Crawford Coal Power Plant and the building of a potential logistics facility at 3400 South Pulaski Road.
We are disappointed that Emanuel and Ald. Ricardo Munoz have already publicly proposed a plan and are pushing it forward without the involvement of our community as stipulated in the original Guiding Principles for site redevelopment agreed to with former coal plant owner Midwest Generation.
This top-down decision to plan for a diesel-intensive logistics center or distribution facility threatens to undermine the life-saving improvement in air quality won by the shut-down of the Crawford coal plant.

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Posted on February 14, 2018

By Amy Wilson-Chapman/The International Consortium Of Investigative Journalists

Under the regime of President Nicolas Maduro, journalists in Venezuela have been constantly silenced. But that hasn’t stopped our partner Armando.info from reporting on the questionable dealings of a government food program since April last year.
Now, though, four journalists from Armando.info have been forced to leave their home country as they prepare to publish more stories from their investigation. I’d encourage you all to read the harrowing story of Joseph Poliszuk and his team, who are working to publish more stories – despite the oppression they face.

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Posted on February 13, 2018

By Julia Conley/Common Dreams

The United States is now the second-largest tax haven on the planet, according to an updated international index.
The Tax Justice Network found that the U.S. has surpassed the Cayman Islands as the No. 2 place where corporations can easily stash their money to avoid tax liabilities. Switzerland retained its top place on the list.
“Financial secrecy provided by the U.S. has caused untold harm to the ordinary citizens of foreign countries, whose elites have used the United States as a bolt-hole for looted wealth,” wrote the group in its Financial Secrecy Index.
“This is not a ranking in which the U.S. wants to be number one or even number two,” said Gary Kalman, executive director of the FACT Coalition, which advocates for policies to combat criminal activity in the financial system. “We have one of the strongest economies and one of the most secret. It’s a perfect recipe for attracting the proceeds of crime, corruption, and tax evasion. Internationally, this secrecy facilitates corruption that drains wealth from developing countries.”

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Posted on February 9, 2018

By Organizing Neighborhoods for Equality: Northside

In a press conference Thursday morning, tenants of the Wilson Men’s Hotel, a Single Room Occupancy building in Uptown, demanded City Pads developer Andrew Ahitow cease his eviction of the residents and ensure tenants are a key part of negotiating the relocation process. Last week, all 100+ tenants of Wilson Men’s Hotel were served with 60-day eviction notices.
From the beginning, tenants of Wilson Men’s Hotel have demanded a binding commitment from City Pads for the right to remain in affordable, long-term housing on the North Side. They have also demanded a full relocation plan, which Ahitow offered when he first purchased the building. Ahitow ultimately refused to collaborate with tenants or ONE Northside, a community organizing group working with tenants, and has shown no evidence of moving forward on this viable relocation plan for all tenants.

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Posted on February 8, 2018

By Chicago Votes

Partners and lawmakers will gather Wednesday in the Illinois State Capitol to voice their support for a bipartisan bill, HB4469.
HB4469, sponsored by state Rep. Juliana Stratton, will ensure that the 94 percent of people being held in pretrial detention at Cook County Jail who are eligible to vote, are able to vote.
HB4469 will ensure that individuals awaiting trial are informed of their right to vote and given a voter registration form upon release as part of a re-entry process.
This bill requires IDOC to provide citizens who are released from their custody detailed information about their voting rights. This bill also requires the Cook County Jail to become a temporary polling location and all other jails across the state to establish an absentee ballot distribution and collection process for eligible voters.

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Posted on February 6, 2018