Month: July 2014

McDonald’s ruling could open door for unions The general counsel of the National Labor Relations Board ruled Tuesday that McDonald’s could be held jointly liable for labor and wage violations by its franchise operators—a decision that, if upheld, would disrupt longtime practices in the fast-food industry and ease the way for unionizing nationwide. Business groups called…

State Senate races: Republicans are dishing dirt through the mails Republicans have signaled early, in two key State Senate races, that they are ready to go negative with crude attack mailings with November’s election day still 99 days away. The stakes, in what’s expected to be a multimillion-dollar battle, are big scale.  Voters in Bellingham and…

Obama campaign vets: Pay us $5,000 to learn—and work on a campaign Two top veterans of President Obama’s campaigns are asking political campaigners to pay $5,000 per person for the chance to learn their secrets and then work for five weeks in an unpaid campaign job somewhere in America. Democratic operatives and progressive activists are questioning…

People could be cut off from health insurance, and Republicans are cheering openly about it If you’re high-fiving over things getting worse for working-class families, you’re doing it wrong. But that’s exactly the position Republican operatives and pundits found themselves in this week. On Tuesday, a D.C. Circuit Court panel ruled in the case of Halbig v. Burwell that…

‘Republicans aren’t good at ground games in Alaska. That’s their weakness’ Art Hackney has more than three decades of strategizing for Republican election campaigns in Alaska under his belt. And he’s rarely been so frustrated. From an office lined with awards for punchy political campaigns on behalf of senators, congressmen, and governors, Hackney has watched the…

Clueless rich kids on the rise: How millennial aristocrats will destroy our future Prevailing neoliberal ideology, which perverts capitalism as an economic system into capitalism as an unyielding political ideology, lurks in the shadows of almost every major issue in America, though nowhere is its influence more obvious or profound than in the spiraling rise of income and wealth inequality today. And…

Hobby Lobby: A new tool for crushing workplace unionization? A little-known religious exemption to United States labor law may have just become extremely important, thanks to the Supreme Court’s ruling in Hobby Lobby. By declaring that “closely held” corporations may hold religious beliefs, the court may have provided businesses with a new tool for crushing workplace unionization drives. In…

With her call to action, Warren cuts sharp contrast to Clinton   As the 2016 presidential race approaches, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) may be entering a different phase of her career—one in which she’s beating back lots of unwanted attention. On Friday morning in Detroit, a crowd of liberal activists roared, “Run, Liz, run! Run, Liz, run!”…