In the News
Environmentalists Fear Paris Deal’s Climate Fund becoming ‘sideshow’
The Paris climate change agreement’s Green Climate Fund is fast becoming a circus sideshow dominated by large development banks that is undermining its original intent, said environmental groups in a…
The Census Data Has Bad News for Black and Latinx Americans
New Census Bureau data shows an increasingly optimistic picture for white Americans — but far less so for Americans of color, many of whom still face stark income disparities. Released…
Some Companies That Got Huge Tax Breaks Didn’t Create a Single Job
Janine Jackson: In some cases, powerful interests are so invested in telling a certain story, tell it so often and so insistently, that you’d be hard-pressed to guess from media coverage…
International Medical Experts Rally Against U.S. Blockade of Cuba
After battling Hurricane Irma, Cuban medical professionals have made it to Washington, D.C., ready to attend the third annual Days of Action Against the Blockade. The five-day forum invites Cuban delegates…
Catapults Do Hurl Drugs Over Border. People Hit in Head? Doubtful.
A border wall with Mexico is happening, but it has to be see-through so that Americans aren’t knocked out by 100 pounds of drugs catapulted across the border, President Donald…
What Does Departure of Top US Anti-Drug Diplomat Mean for Latin American Policy?
William Brownfield, the US Assistant Secretary of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) since January 2011, told State Department staff that he would resign by the end of September, Foreign…
Days of Action Against the Blockade Continue in Washington
A standing-room only crowd at Howard University broke into prolonged and enthusiastic applause Wednesday evening when Miguel Fraga, second secretary at the Cuban embassy in Washington, delivered an impassioned defense…
‘I Dream Detroit’: Women of Color Lead the Charge for the City’s Future
As the city of Detroit looks to make a comeback, its resurgence and economic development continue to get national attention, but there is a large group of people who get…
The “Family Farmer” Touted in Trump’s Estate Tax Push Is Already Super Rich And Got Millions of Dollars in Subsidies
President Donald Trump unveiled a tax cut plan Wednesday that would cut corporate and individual taxes, as well as completely eliminate the estate tax — a tax that falls only on the richest…
Do Recent Moves by the Brazilian President Show Support for Modern-Day Slavery?
Slavery still exists in Brazil. The Global Slavery Index reports an estimated 161,100 Brazilians are currently living in modern slavery. And between 1995 and 2015, nearly 50,000 Brazilians were released from conditions of slavery,…
Democrats Should Oppose Trump’s Military Spending Buildup
When President Donald Trump first proposed a $54 billion increase in military spending, Democrats feigned outrage. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer promised Democrats would “emphatically oppose” the domestic spending cuts needed…
An Open-Letter to Good-Hearted Billionaires: Let’s Begin a New Era of Progressive Philanthropy Today!
Dear Good-Hearted Billionaires, Last year, $390 billion was given away philanthropically according to Giving USA’s recently released 2017 report — $60 billion to educational institutions, 72% from individuals. In episode 6 of the first…
The Feds Spent Millions Seizing 5 Million Marijuana Plants in 2016
Last year, the Drug Enforcement Agency’s marijuana eradication program confiscated 5.3 million marijuana plants in operations nationwide, a 20 percent increase from the year before and by far the heaviest…
What Will Be Our Answer to the Disappearance of Black Wealth?
Black wealth has been disappearing since 2007. That loss only grew under our first black President. The question now is what will happen under President Donald Trump? From his plans…
First-ever U.S. Indictments of Chinese Fentanyl Makers Show Failures of Opioid Policy
American officials want two Chinese nationals arrested for allegedly manufacturing and importing large quantities of fentanyl, the powerful synthetic opioid that is driving the U.S. overdose epidemic that began in…
How the Myths of the Free Market Fail Black Communities
When President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, the African American community owned less than one percent of total wealth in the United States. Some 154 years later,…
The People Left Behind by Detroit’s ‘Comeback’
On a Tuesday evening in August the ballroom at Detroit’s Hotel St. Regis was humming. A well-dressed crowd flitted around hors d’oeuvres on white tablecloths. TV news crews adjusted cameras…
The Pen is Funnier than the Sword
His political cartoons tackle issues like Islamophobia, immigration and racial justice in America with insight and humor and have been carried by newspapers around the world, including regularly in the…
Women’s Convention to highlight Detroit, Flint Issues
In 2014, Detroiter Monica Lewis-Patrick provided emergency water relief to low-income Detroit families facing water shutoffs. When she saw water the color of ice tea from Flint, she started distributing water…
Celebrating Women of Color “Solutionaries” in Detroit
In dialogues about the fiscal future of Detroit, large corporations and policymakers are noticeably excluding women of color. A newly-released report retelling their stories seeks to combat that exclusion and…
Trump And The GOP Are Hiding The Real Beneficiaries Of Their Tax Plan
The Republican-dominated House just passed a blueprint for a federal budget with a slim majority. The vote clears the way for the GOP to try to pass Donald Trump’s ambitious…
Study: Women of color absent in Detroit’s recovery
A report set for release Tuesday contends that women of color have been ignored in the crafting of Detroit’s recovery — and that progress would be more swift were they…
The Republican Plan to Rob America
The Republican tax plan is a lie. It’s being sold with the promise that the tax cut will create jobs and growth. In fact, the Republican tax cuts, if passed,…
Lee: We must close the racial wealth divide
The U.S. Census Bureau recently reported new data showing median incomes rising sharply in the San Francisco area. While many in the Bay Area latched onto the promising economic outlook,…
To fix income inequality, we need more than UBI—we need Universal Basic Assets
Open a newspaper—or, more likely, click on a Facebook article on your phone—and there will be a story telling you that income inequality is at the root of America’s problems: 0.1%…
Effective Estate Tax Down in 2016 Returns, Spousal Bequests Up
The effective estate tax rate for returns filed in 2016 decreased by 2 percentage points from the previous year, in part because of a bump in bequests to surviving spouses,…
Platinum pensions: Rich CEOs aren’t like you and me. They get multimillion-dollar pensions even when they’re forced out of their jobs.
I was struck by the news last week that former Equifax chief executive Richard Smith, who “retired” after a major data breach at the credit bureau was revealed, would get a pension…
Think corporate tax cuts will mean more jobs? Here’s how you’re being conned.
Riding a tide of tax cuts and rising profits over four decades, the captains of corporate America have shifted $1 trillion each year from the paychecks of middle class Americans…
Everything, including the growing income disparity, can be explained by physics
Adrian Bejan is a rebel with a cause and a good job. He’s a cheerful and weird engineering professor at Duke University who wants us all to be free thinkers, to…
Bernie Sanders Sets His Sights On The Foreign Policy Establishment
WASHINGTON ― Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) will use a major foreign policy address Thursday to set out his view of how politicians on the left should discuss the U.S role…
