THURSDAY | FEBRUARY 23, 2012
Mich., Pa. Put Limits on Families Seeking Food Aid
Kathy Barks Hoffman | Associated Press
HOWELL, Mich. (AP) — The 2010 Buick Enclave parked in her garage kept Michigan resident Renee Moore from getting food stamps for two months last year, even though her family’s income had dropped to below the poverty level, her husband’s Ford Explorer had 300,000 miles on it and her [...]
Picking Up the Pieces: Vaughan-Bassett Furniture Still Making it in America
Beth Macy, The Roanoke Times | Photo by Jared Soares, Equal Voice News
February 12, 2012
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GALAX, Va. — John D. Bassett III was winding along the dusty roads of northern China on a three-day fact-finding mission. It was 2001, and the third-generation furniture-maker was gathering ammo for an epic battle to keep his factory churning. If he [...]
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States, Banks Reach Foreclosure-Abuse Settlement
Derek Kravitz | AP Real Estate Writer
February 9, 2012
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WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. states have reached a $25 billion deal with the nation’s biggest mortgage lenders over foreclosure abuses that occurred after the housing bubble burst. Federal and state officials announced the deal Thursday. It is the biggest settlement involving a single industry since a 1998 multistate [...]
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Wage War: Employers Stealing Millions from US Workers
Kathy Mulady | Equal Voice News
February 8, 2012
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MIAMI – Workers nationwide are losing millions of dollars each week to wage theft as their employers, some unscrupulous, others scrambling to keep their businesses afloat, fail to pay the mandated minimum wage or overtime wages, or, in some cases, don’t pay their employees at all. Wage theft is [...]
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From Relief to Despair: Varying Views of Jobs Data
Paul Wiseman | AP Economics Writer
February 8, 2012
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WASHINGTON (AP) — Month by month, the U.S. job market is regaining its health. So many jobs are being added that the unemployment rate has dropped for five straight months. At 8.3 percent, it’s at a three-year low. Whether the job market actually feels stronger, though, depends on your [...]
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Food stamp families to critics: Walk in our shoes
Jesse Washington | AP National Writer
January 26, 2012
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Some have advanced degrees and remember middle-class lives. Some work selling lingerie or building websites. They are white, black and Hispanic, young and old, homeowners and homeless. What they have in common: They’re all on food stamps. As the food stamp program has become an issue in the Republican [...]
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Obama’s New Consumer Watchdog Reviewing Payday Lending
Jay Reese | Associated Press
January 20, 2012
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BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — The Obama administration’s new consumer protection agency held its first public hearing Thursday about payday lending, an industry that brings in some $7 billion a year in fees nationwide. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said testimony from the session in Birmingham — where City Council members [...]
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Alabama’s Scott Douglas Inspires on Colbert Report
Kathy Mulady | Equal Voice News
January 18, 2012
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Quoting Martin Luther King and deftly comparing the injustice of anti-immigrant legislation to the civil rights movement of the 1960s, Scott Douglas, executive director of Greater Birmingham Ministries, rocked the Colbert Report during his national television debut on Monday. Applause filled the studio as Douglas, one of the leaders [...]
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Birmingham’s Scott Douglas Debuts on Colbert Report
Kathy Mulady | Equal Voice News
January 16, 2012
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Scott Douglas, executive director of Greater Birmingham Ministries, will be a guest on The Colbert Report on Monday, the Martin Luther King holiday, talking about the harsh Alabama anti-immigration law in context of the civil rights movement. Douglas has been one of the leaders in the fight to repeal [...]
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Education Law’s Promise Falls Short After 10 Years
Kimberly Hefling | AP Education Writer WASHINGTON (AP)
January 9, 2012
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TON (AP) — The No Child Left Behind education law was cast as a symbol of possibility, offering the promise of improved schools for the nation’s poor and minority children and better prepared students in a competitive world. Yet after a decade on the books, President George W. Bush’s [...]
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