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InteractiveThe Morning Browse: Unemployment Benefits, Unemployment Rates, Republican Census Angst
by Seth Freed Wessler on April 5 2010, 10:00AM
As many as 400,000 will see their unemployment insurance benefits cut off today after Congress failed to extend the program before going on break last week. Meanwhile, a new industry dedicated entirely to helping employers fight unemployment benefit payments is…
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Haiti Promised $10 Billion in Aid. Who’ll Spend It?
by Seth Freed Wessler on April 1 2010, 10:46AM
Yesterday’s UN meeting of governments and international organizations on aid to Haiti ended with a $10 billion pledge. The funds will be committed to development that may dramatically restructure the country’s human geography and physical infrastructure by focusing on urban…
Topics: Global Affairs
by Seth Freed Wessler on April 1 2010, 8:19AM
The New York Times reports that Immigration and Customs Enforcement has jailed at lease 30 Haitian earthquake survivors brought to the US by the US Marines. The men and women “were pulled from the rubble,” boarded on US planes and…
Topics: News Items
Supreme Court Gives Immigrants New Rights
by Seth Freed Wessler on March 31 2010, 4:00PM
The Supreme Court today granted immigrants facing detention new rights and protections. The ruling in Padilla v. Kentucky requires defense attorneys to accurately advise their non-citizen clients of the potential immigration consequences of pleading guilty to a crime. Under…
Topics: Immigration
Quotas or Not, Deportation is a Wrecking Ball
by Seth Freed Wessler on March 30 2010, 1:59PM
The NYTimes published another searing piece by Nina Bernstein yesterday about immigrant detention and deportation. The US is deporting mentally disabled people, some coming directly out of mental hospitals who, Bernstein writes, “are too mentally ill or mentally disabled to…
Topics: Immigration
Militias, Tea Partiers and the GOP.
by Seth Freed Wessler on March 29 2010, 5:27PM
Nine members of a Christian militia in Michigan were indicted this morning on allegations that they planned to murder a crowd of cops at a police funeral. The group, called Hutaree, state on their website that they are “preparing for…
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Republican Tantrum Brings Unemployment Benefit Cut
by Seth Freed Wessler on March 26 2010, 1:10PM
Hundreds of thousands of people who have received unemployment insurance for more than six months could lose their benefits in early April because a Senate Republican threw an ideological tantrum and left for Easter break before getting over it. The…
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by Seth Freed Wessler on March 26 2010, 9:38AM
Almost 15 months after Oscar Grant was brutally murdered by BART police in Oakland, California, the department finally fired the cop who helped detain the 22 before he was killed. A US owned cell phone company is trying to convince…
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The Daily Browse: Death Threats to Democrats, Predatory Loan Relief
by Seth Freed Wessler on March 25 2010, 9:01AM
At least 10 Democrats who supported health insurance reform are now finding themselves targeted by death threats and vandalism. Sarah Palin may be contributing to the vitriol. New York City’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority approved deep cuts to it’s buses and…
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by Seth Freed Wessler on March 24 2010, 5:15PM
Three days after at least 200,000 marchers filled Washington, DC streets to demand immigration reform, a lot of people are wondering what’s going to happen now. Here’s a rundown of where things stand. Just before the immigration march, Senators Schumer…
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US and Israel: On the Rocks or Just Rhetoric?
by Seth Freed Wessler on March 24 2010, 11:02AM
Israel’s declaration that it will continue to build 1600 new homes for Jews in East Jerusalem despite U.S. dissent threatens to derail any peace process and “exposes the light between Israel and the United State,” Secretary of State Hillary Clinton…
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The Morning Browse: Health Care Passes; Immigration March; Military Prisons
by Seth Freed Wessler on March 22 2010, 10:15AM
The House passed an historic health care reform bill and sent it to President Obama last night. The bill comes after months of protracted partisan struggle and passed only after Obama promised an executive order firming up restrictions on the…
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Immigration Bill Arrives, Here’s What We Know Right Now
by Seth Freed Wessler on March 19 2010, 3:30PM
This morning, Senators Schumer and Graham outlined their immigration proposal in a Washington Post op-ed titled “The Right Way to Mend Immigration”. It’s the plan Obama said “should be the basis for moving forward.” So what’s in this proposal?…
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by Seth Freed Wessler on March 19 2010, 10:29AM
A North Carolina lawsuit takes on “zero-tolerance” school discipline policies on the grounds that they deny Black students the right to an education. Nationwide, Black students are suspended at three times the rate of whites, contributing to the “school to…
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The Criminal Flaw in Obama’s
Immigration Vision
by Seth Freed Wessler on March 18 2010, 12:00PM
The White House says reform is coming soon. But real change demands Washington think much differently about how and why we’re deporting a record-high number of immigrants.
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Women on Cash Assistance Testify on The Hill to Change TANF Policies
by Seth Freed Wessler on February 26 2010, 4:12PM
In D.C. these days, it’s hard for anyone to yell loudly enough to get heard over the buzz of health care reform. But in the shadow of Obama’s healthcare summit yesterday, about a hundred congressional staffers, reporters and advocates piled…
Topics: Economy
Selling Food Stamps for Kids’ Shoes
by Seth Freed Wessler on February 16 2010, 12:00PM
Unable to find jobs, kicked off welfare, women in Connecticut are forced to sell food assistance to buy basic necessities.
Topics: Economy, Food Stamps
Watch “ColorLines: Race and Economic Recovery,” Only on LinkTV
by Seth Freed Wessler on February 3 2010, 12:57PM
President Obama says the stimulus saved or created 2 million jobs in 2009. But is the recovery really working? The American dream of good jobs and strong communities is still just a dream for too many. The unfair economy…
Topics: Video & Multimedia
Old Criminal Records Are Life Sentences In Job Market
by Seth Freed Wessler on December 2 2009, 8:55PM
This post originally appeared on The Grio. Almost two years ago, Vincent, a slim 46-year-old black man dressed in a plaid shirt, worked as a maintenance technician in Detroit. He had worked for the company for almost three months, but…
Topics: Race and Recession
We Should Be Worried About More Than Stupak
by Seth Freed Wessler on November 30 2009, 5:28PM
Once again, policy makers are dedicating themselves to making laws to mess with the reproductive lives of poor women of color. In the most recent iteration, a little known provision tucked into the congressional health care bill would require mothers…
Topics: Health
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