Voters in crucial battleground districts across the country are hungry to take on the plutocracy. That’s the key takeaway from a new survey undertaken by Lake Research Partners, who find voters on all parts of the political spectrum demonstrate an “overwhelming, broad-based, and intense support for curbing big banks’ influence in Washington, and holding financial companies accountable for discrimination. ” The survey is one of many pieces of mounting evidence that the ele...
politics
Hundreds of Pittsburgh-area nurses rally for raises, better working conditions
Hundreds of nurses rallied in the Pittsburgh area Tuesday, calling on their employer, the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) of McKeesport, to recognize their union rights and negotiate a contract that would include more staff and better quality jobs.
Nearly 170 nurses have been working at the hospital without a contract since April, local CBS affiliate KDKA reported.
“We want some reasonable raises, we want some of the things that the rest of the nurses in the s...
ADAPT activists put their bodies on the line to draw attention to Disability Integration Act
It was rush hour, but no one could leave the parking garage. Activists from ADAPT, a national disability rights group, hurled their wheelchairs and their bodies in front of AARP employees’ cars so they couldn’t leave. Someone spotted an opening. “You! There,” said one protester to another in a wheelchair, who then launched himself in front of a car, stopping the employee from driving away.
Roughly 200 ADAPT activists last Tuesday surrounded the Washington, D.C. headquarters of AARP,...
Religious leaders arrested in Capitol while demanding restoration of Voting Rights Act
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Revs. Jesse Jackson, William Barber, and other prominent religious leaders were arrested for demonstrating in the U.S. Capitol on Monday, demanding the restoration of the Voting Rights Act and the end of racial gerrymandering.
Dozens of others were also arrested across the country as part of the second week of protests organized by the revival of the Poor People’s Campaign, a movement that originated in 1968 with Martin Luther King Jr. at the helm. The...
Dana Loesch has no clue how Planned Parenthood is funded
National Rifle Association national spokesperson Dana Loesch thinks that, instead of addressing gun violence by talking about guns, America should stop reimbursing Planned Parenthood for providing medical care. Doing so, she claimed, would magically free up $500 million for the federal government to pay for the NRA’s dream of prison-like schools with metal detectors and armed guards everywhere. It would not.
Days after Santa Fe, Texas, became the latest community to see a mass...
Arkansas Democratic primary raises questions about the party’s future
Paul Spencer has known his fellow Democrat Clarke Tucker, for a long time. To hear him tell it, the Tucker he knows is a “man of integrity and values.” But something changed when the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) showed up in town.
“Clarke… spent $350,000 over the last couple weeks. He bought a poll, he got some pretty vanilla advertising,” Spencer, who’s running against Tucker in the Democratic primary in Arkansas’ second district said in an interview with Thin...
What’s going on with North Korea is a cautionary tale in rushing diplomacy
Amid talks of a historic deal with North Korea and a possible Noble Peace Prize for President Donald Trump (chiefly among his GOP supporters, his aides, and, well, himself), North Korean leader Kim Jong Un seems to be slamming the brakes on the negotiations.
While White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the Trump administration is “still hopeful that the meeting will take place,” signalling that the president is ready for “tough negotiations,” it&...
A remapped Pennsylvania spells serious trouble for Keith Rothfus
WEXFORD, PENNSYLVANIA — In the days following President Donald Trump’s inauguration, western Pennsylvania resident Linda Bishop was scouring Facebook to find progressives, like herself, who felt lost and were eager to take action.
“I didn’t know what to do after the election. So I just started going to all kinds of [progressive] meetings … I just was trying to find a home,” said Bishop.
Bishop recalled attending a meeting organized by a group of progressives from Frank...
Trump blames “global freeloading” for costly US drugs. That’s not the problem
Introducing his plan to reduce prescription drug prices in America today, Donald Trump said his government would focus on “tougher negotiation, more competition, and much lower prices.”
The president criticized drug makers and insurance companies for failing to put...
Trump breaks key populist campaign promise to negotiate Medicare drug prices
On the campaign trail, candidate Trump promised to save hundreds of billions of dollars standing up to the pharmaceutical industry, and said he’d “negotiate like crazy” to bring down Medicare prescription drug prices.
Allowing Medicare to negotiate directly with drug companies for better prices has long been a goal for progressives, and when voters heard Trump stray from the Republican party orthodoxy, railing against Big Pharma as he asked for their support, many ...