Old Wall Street Predators Steal Pensions

Wall Street Predators Wage Secret War on American Retirements

Financiers are lying their way to another giant theft of public money.

Photo Credit: shutterstock.com

September 27, 2013  |  

AlterNet / By Lynn Stuart Parramore

Lips are smacking on Wall Street. Today’s tasty treat? The pensions of hard-working people across America. Financial hustlers have been working overtime to convince the population that we are in the midst of an “unfunded liability crisis” in which states and cities can no longer afford to pay pensions to public workers. Here’s the truth: Wall Street predators have had their hands in the pension cookie jar for decades, and now they’re poised to gobble up the retirements of teachers and firefighters in yet another orgy of greed.

Unknown to much of the public, Wall Street has been soaking state and municipal coffers with derivatives schemes and various frauds for years.  As Alexander Arapoglou and Jerri-Lynn Scofield have explained, not only have Wall Street banks screwed public finances with fancy credit default swaps and other "innovative" financial products that blow up in the faces of cities and states, they have also been engaged in widespread frauds that squeeze pension yields. This happened in the LIBOR rate-rigging scandal, in which big banks were found to be manipulating interest rates, which has resulted in lower returns on pension fund investments and has caused shortfalls in pension plans. 

The lack of actions from authorities means this kind of hustling will surely continue.
Rolling Stone’s Matt Taibbi has just published an article outlining how this gigantic heist is going down. While Wall Street has been on its scam-a-licious rampage, no-good politicians have been taking taxpayer money meant for pensions and spending it on whatever they wanted, depleting funds. (This is actually securities fraud, but the nearly toothless SEC has barely lifted a finger to address it.) Even so, pensions were still in fairly decent shape when the crash of 2008 came and wrecked budgets across America. The Wall Street-driven financial crisis crushed state and local revenues, and the financiers decided this was the perfect moment to dive in for yet another helping of public money by seizing control of public pensions. 


In Taibbi’s colorful words: “This is the third act in an improbable triple-fucking of ordinary people that Wall Street is seeking to pull off as a shocker epilogue to the crisis era.”

Wall Street has plenty of politicians in its pockets to grease the wheels. Taibbi hones in on the notorious example of Rhode Island treasurer Gina Raimondo, a former venture capitalist who made the war against pensions her raison d’etre and handed over a billion in pension funds to hedge funds that could charge the strapped state boatloads of hidden fees to manage them. Firms like Goldman Sachs and Bain Capital, along with predators like billionaire John Arnolds, formerly of Enron, are overwhelmed with joy and have filled Raimondo’s coffers for a 2014 gubernatorial run. They know a good thing when they see it.

Wall Street’s PR message? The country’s financial woes were the fault of hard-working elementary school teachers and cops. It’s an audacious, shockingly cynical lie, but with enough money thrown behind it, the lie has spread like a cancer through the media and the political world. Rapacious bankers have successfully pitted private sector workers who have been losing their pensions against public sector folks who were still hanging on to theirs—a tried and true divide-and-conquer tactic that means big money for criminal banksters.
The villains who have helped spread this lie include the folks at Pew Charitable Trusts, an organization known for its centrism and number-crunching. Starting in 2007, Pew started rolling out studies suggesting that pensions were unsustainable, and found an eager accomplice in the form of noxious billionaire John Arnold, a right-winger and former Enron commodities trader who, as Taibbi reports, was “helping himself to an $8 million bonus while the company's pension fund was vaporizing.” 

Wall Street Adviser Stole Teamsters Retirement

Teamsters Multiemployer Pensions On The Brink: DOL Asked To Investigate

NEW YORK, NY - OCTOBER 18: Members of the Occupy Wall Street community join Teamsters in front of the auction house Sotheby's to protest the lockout of union art handlers in a contract dispute on October 18, 2011 in New York City.

Across the nation largely less-skilled older workers participating in multiemployer pension funds are at risk of losing the limited retirement security they had and slipping into poverty. Reductions or limitations on benefits–such as disability benefits–may spell doom for some workers, particularly those with physically demanding jobs. Too frail to work, too poor to retire will be their fate.

As the name suggests, a multiemployer plan is funded by more than one employer, typically in the same industry, such as retail, construction, mining and transportation. Each employer makes contributions to the plan on behalf of their employees, usually under the terms of a collective bargaining agreement.

The Greatest Retirement Crisis In American History Edward "Ted" Siedle Contributor

Rhode Island State Pension Admits History Of 'Pay-To-Play' And SEC Inquiry Edward "Ted" Siedle Contributor

Rhode Island Pensioners 3% COLA Will Go To Pay Wall Street 4%+ Fees Edward "Ted" Siedle Contributor

Rhode Island Public Pension 'Reform' Looks More Like Wall Street Feeding Frenzy Edward "Ted" Siedle Contributor

The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, the government agency that protects pensions, insures more than 10 million Americans in multiemployer pension plans. Millions of participants in multiemployer plans have already received cryptic notices that their plans are underfunded and will likely be taken over by the PBGC within three to five years.

Just how much benefits will be slashed in the event of a PBGC takeover is not disclosed. Workers have to contact the PBGC to learn what impact the cuts will have on their retirement benefits—assuming PBGC “protection” even exists in the future. That’s a big assumption given what a recent report by the Government Accountability Office has to say about these plan insolvencies that threaten the PBGC’s multiemployer insurance fund.

The GAO report ominously entitled, “Multiemployer Plans and PBGC Face Urgent Challenges,” dated March 5, 2013 warns:

“The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation’s (PBGC) financial assistance to multiemployer plans continues to increase, and plan insolvencies threaten PBGC’s multiemployer insurance fund. As a result of current and anticipated financial assistance, the present value of PBGC’s liability for plans that are insolvent or expected to become insolvent within 10 years increased from $1.8 to $7.0 billion between fiscal years 2008 and 2012. Yet PBGC’s multiemployer insurance fund only had $1.8 billion in total assets in 2012. PBGC officials said that financial assistance to these plans would likely exhaust the fund in or about 2023. If the fund is exhausted, many retirees will see their pension benefits reduced to a small fraction of their original value because only a reduced stream of insurance premium payments will be available to pay benefits.”

Teamsters multiemployer pensions are particularly a risk. That means older blue-collar truck and bus drivers, warehouse and construction workers and others who are unemployable because they lack skills that employers seek today or who may, due to poor health or disability, be precluded from continuing to work, are out of luck. The elderly workers who have already retired may get hurt worst. With limited pensions and only Social Security to rely upon, these geriatrics will almost assuredly slip into poverty.

Some Teamsters want answers but aren’t getting them. What caused their pensions to plummet in the past decade? Was the demise of their pension entirely unforeseeable, due to unknowable market forces or was foul-play involved?   (Wall Street Thieves perhaps - ed)

Louis J. Alimena, former President of the Local 707 Teamsters, a trucking and warehouse workers union, and former trustee of the Local 707 Pension Health Welfare Funds IBT says, “Many of these Teamsters multiemployer pensions could have locked in an 8% return for fifteen years on assets when the pensions were already overfunded in 2000. Instead they chose to take unnecessary risks hiring equity Investment Managers. 

That worked just fine for Wall Street but killed our pensions. I’ve asked the Department of Labor to investigate but the DOL is doing nothing.” (Since publication, I have been informed that DOL is conducting a review of the Local 707 Teamsters pension, apparently in response to Mr. Alimena’s concerns.)

On June 14, 2012, Alimena sent a letter to Jonathan Kay, Director of the New York Regional Office of the Department of Labor, asking for an investigation into the causes of the apparent impending demise of the Local 707 pension. Of greatest concern to him is the longstanding relationship between the pension and its investment consultant. According to Alimena, the consultant is a securities broker who may have been receiving commissions from the money managers he recommended to the fund. Alimena has repeatedly asked for a copy of the contract between the pension and the investment consultant to no avail, he says.

He ends his letter to Kay with the following plea: “We depend upon the Department of Labor to have oversight responsibilities and to at least inspect the failure of these trustees and advisors to secure these funds. To the best of my knowledge, there has been no DOL audit of these funds since 1997. In light of the lack of response from all parties to the fund, and my concern for the integrity of the fund’s management, I am requesting a fiduciary breach investigation by your department. All retirees including myself look forward to your help in this matter.”

Alimena’s concerns may be justified. I have conducted fiduciary breach investigations on behalf of pensions that retain conflicted “gatekeepers” to make recommendations regarding asset allocation and money management hires. My investigations have proven that conflicts of interest involving these advisers cause substantial, quantifiable harm. There are no harmless kickbacks.

Pervasive Investment industry scamming may not be the sole reason our nation’s pensions are failing but, in my opinion, it is a significant contributing factor—and one which regulators and law enforcement inexplicably choose to ignore.

GOP Myth - SocSec Robs Young for Old

Social Security Does Not Redistribute From Young to Old, It Is a Public Pension System by Dean Baker, CEPR

Sunday, 29 September 2013 20:22

One of the most pernicious myths of the Fix the Debt Gang and other Peter Peterson type outfits is that Social Security redistributes money from the young to the old. This is bizarre because people pay for their benefits with the taxes they contribute during their working lifetimes. In fact, the average return current beneficiaries receive is not especially high (less than 2.0 percent real). If workers contributed the same amount to a privately managed pension fund and then collected an annuity in their retirement no one would call it a redistribution from young to old. It hard to see how it becomes a generational redistribution because Social Security is run by the government. But that is what Robert Samuelson is telling readers in today's column. There is a bit more of a case of a redistribution with Medicare, but it is not from young to old. While the cost of Medicare benefits on average exceed what workers pay into the system this is not because of the generosity of the benefit but rather because the United States pays so much for its health care. If per person payments in the United States were comparable to those in other wealthy countries then the cost of Medicare benefits would not exceed the taxes paid in. Given the excessive cost of health care in the United States, Medicare can be seen as a redistribution to drug companies, doctors, medical equipment manufacturers and other health care providers. Samuelson also refers to economists who believe that productivity growth will fall off sharply in the years ahead. While there are some prominent economists who argue this case it is worth noting that this view is still far from being accepted in the mainstream of the profession. It is also important to point out that it is 180 degrees at odds with the robots will replace all the workers view. Since this one seems complicated for Washington policy wonk types, let me repeat. If you believe that productivity growth is slowing then you absolutely do not think that we will have a problem with robots replacing workers. These views are completely opposite to each other. If you don't understand this point, please refrain from discussing economic issues until you do.

NSA Abuses Civilians for Romance

Clapper Lied, Alexander Lied - Close Criminal NSA

NSA employee spied on nine women without detection, internal file shows

Twelve cases of unauthorised surveillance documented in letter from NSA's inspector general to Senator Chuck Grassley

 

General Keith Alexander said abuse of the NSA's powerful monitoring tools were 'with very rare exception' unintentional mistakes. 

Photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images

A National Security Agency employee was able to secretly intercept the phone calls of nine foreign women for six years without ever being detected by his managers, the agency's internal watchdog has revealed.

The unauthorised abuse of the NSA's surveillance tools only came to light after one of the women, who happened to be a US government employee, told a colleague that she suspected the man – with whom she was having a sexual relationship – was listening to her calls.

The case is among 12 documented in a letter from the NSA's Inspector\ General to a leading member of Congress, who asked for a breakdown of cases in which the agency's powerful surveillance apparatus was deliberately abused by staff. One relates to a member of the US military who, on the first day he gained access to the surveillance system, used it to spy on six email addresses belonging to former girlfriends.

The letter, from Dr George Ellard, only lists cases that were investigated and later "substantiated" by his office. But it raises the possibility that there are many more cases that go undetected.   In a quarter of the cases, the NSA only found out about the misconduct after the employee confessed.

It also reveals limited disciplinary action taken against NSA staff found to have abused the system. In seven cases, individuals guilty of abusing their powers resigned or retired before disciplinary action could be taken. Two civilian employees kept their jobs – and, it appears, their security clearance – and escaped with only a written warning after they were found to have conducted unauthorised interceptions.

The abuses – technically breaches of the law – did not result in a single prosecution, even though more than half of the cases were referred to the Department of Justice. The DoJ did not respond to a request for information about why no charges were brought.

The NSA's director, Gen Keith Alexander, referred to the 12 cases in testimony to a congressional hearing on Thursday. He told Senators on the intelligence committee that abuse of the NSA's powerful monitoring tools were "with very rare exception" unintentional mistakes.
"The press claimed evidence of thousands of privacy violations. This is false and misleading," he said.

"According to NSA's independent inspector general, there have been only 12 substantiated case of willful violation over 10 years. Essentially, one per year."

He added: "Today, NSA has a privacy compliance program any leader of a large, complex organization would be proud of."

However, the small number cases depicted in the inspector general's letter, which was published by Republican Senator Chuck Grassley, could betray a far larger number that NSA managers never uncovered.

One of the cases emerged in 2011, when an NSA employee based abroad admitted during a lie-detector case that he had obtained details about his girlfriend's telephone calls "out of curiosity". He retired last year.

In a similar case, from 2005, an NSA employee admitted to obtaining his partner's phone data to determine whether she was "involved" with any foreign government officials. In a third, a female NSA employee said she listened to calls on an unknown foreign telephone number she discovered stored on his cell phone, suspecting he "had been unfaithful".

In another case, from two years ago, which was only discovered during an investigation another matter, a woman employee of the agency confessed that she had obtained information about the phone of "her foreign-national boyfriend and other foreign nationals". She later told investigators she often used the NSA's surveillance tools to investigate the phone numbers of people she met socially, to ensure they were "not shady characters".

The case of the male NSA employee who spied on nine women occurred between 1998 and 2003. The letter states that the member of staff twice collected communications of an American, and "tasked nine telephone numbers of female foreign nationals, without a valid foreign intelligence purpose, and listened to collected phone conversations".

Seniors Do Not Panic, SocSec, Medicare Will Pay

Government Shutdown Impact: Tourists, Homebuyers Would Be Hit Quickly

By SAM HANANEL

WASHINGTON -- A government shutdown would have far-reaching consequences for some, but minimal impact on others.

Mail would be delivered. Social Security and Medicare benefits would continue to flow.
But vacationers would be turned away from national parks and Smithsonian museums. Low-to-moderate income borrowers and first-time homebuyers seeking government-backed mortgages could face delays.
A look at how services would or would not be affected if Congress fails to reach an agreement averting a government shutdown at midnight Monday.

AIR TRAVEL
Federal air traffic controllers would remain on the job and airport screeners would keep funneling passengers through security checkpoints. Federal inspectors would continue enforcing safety rules.
INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL
The State Department would continue processing foreign applications for visas and U.S. applications for passports, since fees are collected to finance those services. Embassies and consulates overseas would continue to provide services to American citizens.
BENEFIT PAYMENTS

Social Security and Medicare benefits would keep coming, but there could be delays in processing new disability applications. Unemployment benefits would still go out.
FEDERAL COURTS
Federal courts would continue operating normally for about 10 business days after the start of a shutdown, roughly until the middle of October. If the shutdown continues, the judiciary would have to begin furloughs of employees whose work is not considered essential. But cases would continue to be heard.
MAIL
Deliveries would continue as usual because the U.S. Postal Service receives no tax dollars for day-to-day operations. It relies on income from stamps and other postal fees to keep running.
RECREATION
All national parks would be closed, as would the Smithsonian museums, including the National Zoo in Washington. Visitors using overnight campgrounds or other park facilities would be given 48 hours to make alternate arrangements and leave the park. Among the visitor centers that would be closed: the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island in New York, Independence Hall in Philadelphia, Alcatraz Island near San Francisco and the Washington Monument.
HEALTH
New patients would not be accepted into clinical research at the National Institutes of Health, but current patients would continue to receive care. Medical research at the NIH would be disrupted and some studies would be delayed. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would be severely limited in spotting or investigating disease outbreaks, from flu to that mysterious MERS virus from the Middle East.
FOOD SAFETY
The Food and Drug Administration would handle high-risk recalls suspend most routine safety inspections. Federal meat inspections would be expected to proceed as usual.
HEAD START
A small number of Head Start programs, about 20 out of 1,600 nationally, would feel the impact right away. The federal Administration for Children and Families says grants expiring about Oct. 1 would not be renewed. Over time more programs would be affected. Several of the Head Start programs that would immediately feel the pinch are in Florida. It's unclear if they would continue serving children.
FOOD ASSISTANCE
The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children, known as WIC, could shut down. The program provides supplemental food, health care referrals and nutrition education for pregnant women, mothers and their children.
School lunches and breakfasts would continue to be served, and food stamps, known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, would continue to be distributed. But several smaller feeding programs would not have the money to operate.
TAXES
Americans would still have to pay their taxes and file federal tax returns, but the Internal Revenue Service says it would suspend all audits. Got questions? Sorry, the IRS says taxpayer services, including toll-free help lines, would be shut as well.
LOANS
Many low-to-moderate incomes borrowers and first-time homebuyers seeking government-backed mortgages could face delays during the shutdown. The Federal Housing Administration, which guarantees about 30 percent of home mortgages, wouldn't underwrite or approve any new loans during the shutdown. Action on government-backed loans to small businesses would be suspended.
SCIENCE
NASA will continue to keep workers at Mission Control in Houston and elsewhere to support the International Space station, where two Americans and four others are deployed. The National Weather Service would keep forecasting weather and issuing warnings and the National Hurricane Center would continue to track storms. The scientific work of the U.S. Geological Survey would be halted.
HOMELAND SECURITY
The majority of the Department of Homeland Security's employees are expected to stay on the job, including uniformed agents and officers at the country's borders and ports of entry, members of the Coast Guard, Transportation Security Administration officers, Secret Service personnel and other law enforcement agents and officers. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services employees would continue to process green card applications.
MILITARY
The military's 1.4 million active duty personnel would stay on duty, but their paychecks would be delayed. About half of the Defense Department's civilian employees would be furloughed.
PRISONS
All 116 federal prisons would remain open, and criminal litigation would proceed.
VETERANS SERVICES
Most services offered through the Department of Veterans Affairs will continue because lawmakers approve money one year in advance for the VA's health programs. Veterans would still be able to visit hospitals for inpatient care, get mental health counseling at vet centers or get prescriptions filled at VA health clinics. Operators would still staff the crisis hotline and claims workers would still process payments to cover disability and pension benefits. But those veterans appealing the denial of disability benefits to the Board of Veterans Appeals will have to wait longer for a decision because the board would not issue any decisions during a shutdown.
WORK SAFETY
Federal occupational safety and health inspectors would stop workplace inspections except in cases of imminent danger.
___
Associated Press writers Matthew Daly, Frederic J. Frommer, Kevin Freking, Andrew Miga, Deb Riechmann, Lauran Neergaard, Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, Mark Sherman, Stephen Ohlemacher, Lolita Baldor, Jesse Holland, Seth Borenstein, Mary Clare Jalonick and Alicia Caldwell contributed to this report.

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Huge UK Union Protest to NHS Cuts

National Healthcare Service (NHS) Cuts by Conservatives (Republicans in US)   Manchester earlier today... Surely this is worth more than a quick mention in the lamestream media.

50,000+ people marched in a union protest against austerity cuts and NHS changes during the Conservative Party conference in Manchester. "Authorities" claim it was one of the largest protests in recent history.

Frances O'Grady, TUC (Trade Unions Congress) General Secretary, said:  

"Austerity is having a devastating effect on our communities and services, with 21,000 NHS jobs lost over the last three months alone.

"The NHS is one of Britain's finest achievements and we will not allow ministers to destroy, through cuts and Privatisation, what has taken generations to build."


 "More than 50,000 people have taken part in a protest to ‘save the NHS’ (National Health Service) in Manchester, a stone’s throw away from the Conservative Party conference.

Meanwhile, a BBC journalist claimed he was stopped from filming the demonstration by security guards at the conference centre.

Norman Smith, the BBC’s political correspondent, said security staff had been told by police not to allow access to a balcony overlooking the protest, but no reason was given.

Greater Manchester Police said it was one of the largest protests it had ever handled. At one point, the demonstration snaking through the city centre was more than a mile long."

Source: http://metro.co.uk/2013/09/29/50000-rally-outside-tory-conference-amid-censorship-row-4127508

Like · · Share · 93639 · 2 hours ago · Edited · 

Manchester, England is like Chicago, Ill.

50,000 compares to a million in Chicago

 

Sharing the Road - 20 lb Bike Meets 1 Ton Car

Editorial

Sharing the Road: 

Can L.A. be a Cyclist's town?

Is biking a major shift in the city's lifestyle, or are the commutes too long and the roads too dangerous?

A cyclist rides past the Santa Monica Bike Center on Colorado Blvd. in Santa Monica.    (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times / September 29, 2013)

• Full coverage: Sharing the road in L.A.
• A cyclist asks: What are the rules of the road?
• Is 3 feet for cyclists too much to ask? Readers weigh in
• Victory for California cyclists: Riders get their three-foot cushion

By The Times editorial board

September 27, 2013, 5:42 p.m.

Colorado Boulevard is going on a diet. The section of the six-lane street that runs through Eagle Rock has begun a serious reducing regimen, with city transportation workers removing one motor vehicle lane in either direction, adding a landscaped median, improving crosswalks and re-striping the street for bike lanes.

Other parts of Los Angeles, from Porter Ranch to Venice to South L.A., have already been put on similar "road diets," and other slimming programs in every part of the city are slated for the near future. The same thing is happening up and down California — in fact, across the nation — as cities reallocate their asphalt to accommodate and encourage cyclists.
In many cases, the changes make cars move more slowly, and not by accident. It is the culmination of decades' worth of re-envisioning public space and re-imagining the use of public money.

FULL COVERAGE: Sharing the road in L.A.

Still, the new street thinking — road diets, bike lanes, bike trains (companion bike commuters), bike libraries (check out a bike, ride to your destination and check your bike in), CicLAvia — strikes many Angelenos as shockingly new and subversive in a city that just four years ago was still arguing over how best to turn parking lanes into commuter traffic lanes and which streets — Pico? Olympic? — should be remade as virtual freeways by adding as many lanes as could fit to get as many motorists from the Westside to downtown and back again as quickly and seamlessly as possible.
Even as the Orange Line whisked riders across the Valley, there remained talk of packing in more cars on other boulevards. Sherman Way, for example. Victory Boulevard. And even as most big cities have stopped building freeways, car-dependent — car-crazy? — Los Angeles is still grappling with the possible extension of the 710 through Alhambra, South Pasadena and perhaps Northeast L.A. on its way to Pasadena and the 210. More cars on more streets feeding to more freeways.

After all, isn't that what streets are for? Aren't they paved for cars, signed and signaled for drivers, paid for by motoring taxpayers? Aren't we built around drive-ins, drive-throughs, drop-offs? That's what Los Angeles has grown up to believe. The distances are so great, the hills are so steep, the commutes are so long. Road diets notwithstanding, there are so many cars, driving so fast and hogging space, leaving little margin for error for cyclists.
Can L.A. ever be a biker's town?

It's a question not just for the growing number of cyclists who commute to work and back on L.A. streets, or for the drivers who pass them (and are passed by them, at least during rush hour). It's a question that touches on the expenditure of tax money, the crafting of transportation and planning policy, the best and broadest use of city streets, Los Angeles' very identity — its inner psyche — and the shape of its future.

If we moved so quickly from a speed-the-traffic orientation to a just-slow-down approach, how sure can we be that we won't just switch back in another year or two? Is cycling a major shift in L.A.'s urban lifestyle, analogous to the resurgence of downtowns and the reversal of the commuter flow between the dense urban core and the single-family suburbs? Or is it a passing fancy, with barely more staying power than the Segway, or the formerly green bike lane that marked several blocks of downtown's Spring Street before the paint was stripped off this month? How could we, as one City Council candidate asked in the recent campaign, devote so much time, money, attention and road space to a cycling population that accounts for less than 4% of the city's street users? Or, as other candidates asked, how could we not — given the city's younger population, its demand for faster commutes, its insistence that not every traffic dollar go to making the streets more car-oriented?

How well does city government have its eyes on the road? As we create more bike lanes, for example, is there a commitment to step up citations of drivers who veer into them? Or of cyclists who ignore stop signs? What in the world is a "sharrow," and why does the symbol look so similar to the one that marks bike lanes? Have cyclist fatalities increased along with the number of bikes, and what should we be doing about that? Can we make riders, walkers and drivers all safer? And all get along? Can we make the road diet into more of a road buffet?

These questions are raised in conversations that bike groups, city officials and state lawmakers, motorist organizations and others have been having among themselves for years, but it is past time to mainstream that discussion, to share the ideas, critiques and complaints with the broader community.
The discussion necessarily is an intimate part of, and not separate from, the debate over whether to sell bonds to repair and repave streets, or whether drivers should be ticketed for parking at broken meters, or who should pay to fix the city's broken and dangerous sidewalks.

The Times' editorial page is pro-bike. We have noted repeatedly and with approval that cycling reduces traffic, cuts fossil fuel use and pollution and improves the health of those who do it; in fact, it's beneficial in so many ways that cities, especially those such as Los Angeles that are beset by automotive-related problems, should go to great lengths to encourage it. But we intend to consider in greater depth the particular policy issues that arise from greater bike use. We seek a dialogue with cyclists, drivers, pedestrians, taxpayers and others about where we're going collectively. And on how many wheels. Follow the conversation, and join in, at latimes.com/roadshare and #roadshareLA.

Poster:  The current writer at Unions United has been pressed into the asphalt by 4 Hit & Run cowards. Because there are so many Bikes, Auto Drivers in Europe must watch out for Bikes and Motorcycles.  They don't in sunny California.  Two teens in a white VW Convertible impaled me into a parked car Bumper.  It was a beautiful Sunday, the teens were busy chatting, or the music was too loud to hear bones crushing on metal.  And not a single Driver, in that constantly 
bumper-to-bumper stream of cars on Abbot Kinney (Sharrows), noticed the mauling.  
At least, no-one stopped to help.   

A Real Pope for All People

Hmmm, Where the Hell Did This "Money is Evil" Pope Come From?

The poor finally get a champion at the Vatican in Pope Francis.

Photo Credit: Iacopo Guidi/Shutterstock.com

September 25, 2013  |  

 

The bluebirds of happiness are chirping away in our nation's treetops these days, for America is now in the fifth year of economic recovery. Let's all sing "Happy Days Are Here Again," for stock prices are reaching record highs, corporate profits are soaring, and even the unemployment numbers are on the mend.

        But wait, what's this? Down below the treetops, way down there at the grassroots, poverty not only persists, but is spreading. Also, America's income disparity is worsening as middle-class workers are pushed into lower-wage jobs and poor people are pushed out entirely. Far from "Happy Days," joblessness among our lowest-income families is now the worst on record, having reached the staggering rate of 21 percent.
        The plight of the poor in our Land of Plenty is so dramatic that even the Republican leaders of the U.S. House have noticed them and are reaching out with open hands. Unfortunately, they are not offering a helping hand to the needy, but a cold, hard slap in the face. On Sept. 19, in a gratuitous act of political pettiness and human callousness, the GOP slashed $4 billion-a-year out of the food stamp program. Well, they explained, the food stamp subsidy just keeps expanding, despite the recovery our economy is enjoying, so we have to stop the excess.
        Apparently these congress critters never even visit reality. Hello, boneheads -- the program has expanded only because all of the "recovery" benefits went to the privileged few at the top, with those at the ground level losing income, thus having to reach desperately for food stamps as a life preserver. In fact, the program lifted about four million Americans above the poverty level last year and kept millions more from sinking deeper into destitution. It's a safety net that's been working exactly as it's supposed to -- and GOP ideologues don't want government programs that work.
        Also, just for the hell of it, these laissez-fairyland Dickensians added insult to the injury that their cuts would cause for millions of America's hard-hit people. They tacked on a provision to let the meanest of states force the needy families to submit to humiliating drug tests as the price of obtaining food for their families.
        In case you're wondering just how far Republican lawmakers have wandered into the wacky weeds of far-right ideology, note the babbling of Rep. Paul Ryan. Chairman of the House budget committee, this champion of extreme austerity has pushed feverishly for gutting the food stamp program. Why? Because, he rants, it's a government giveaway that turns our safety net into "a hammock that lulls able-bodied people to lives of dependency and complacency."
        A hammock? Food stamp allotments average under $4.50 a day. As for "able-bodied people," does he not know that two-thirds of the program's benefits go to children, the elderly and disabled people?
        In a society of gross and growing economic disparity, with mass unemployment and underemployment, food stamps are a minimal measure of our humanity and social morality. Forget the Paul Ryans -- here's the guy we should be listening to: "Excuse me if I use strong words," he recently said, "but where there is no work there is no dignity ... We don't want this globalized economic system which does us so much harm."
        Pointing directly at the wealthiest elites who push relentlessly to shred government safety nets and make workers powerless, he declared:P "[Widening disparity] is the consequence of a world choice, of an economic system that brings about this tragedy, an economic system that has at its center an idol which is called money." Such worship of mammon, he added, creates an economic culture that throws away the well-being of the many to enhance the fortunes of the few. "We have to say no to this throwaway culture. We want a just system that helps everyone," he concluded. That's the powerful moral voice of Francis, the Catholic Church's new Pope. He ended his comments with a fiery prayer calling on people to oppose the "cult of money" and asking God to "teach us to fight for work." Amen.

126 Sick Sailors Sue Fukushima's Owner

FUKUSHIMA DANGER

More U.S. military reveal radiation-related illnesses after Fukushima: Arm shrunk to half its size — Immune system attacking body — Leukemia, testicular cancer, thyroid problems, rectal bleeding, brain tumor http://bit.ly/16T7iXi

‘Fukushima made us sick’: Two Navy veterans join federal lawsuit against the Tokyo Electric Power Company over nuclear power plant meltdown http://dailym.ai/1dPuV87

Navy vets say Fukushima meltdown made them sick: http://cbsn.ws/15BPzDf

126 U.S. military members to sue TEPCO: http://bit.ly/16Jfng8

US Sailors & Families In Japan Contaminated By Fukushima Meltdown While DOD Stops Registry http://bit.ly/1biFTpf
 

Service members continue to be gravely ill from this disaster, even in Korea, possibly from radioactive area fish and imported Japanese contaminated food.

My friends son, at a US Air Force base in Korea, and several other enlisted personnel there may die from this disaster. He was never in Japan. He was never ill in his life, yet after eating fish, rice, and some special occasion beef at the mess hall, he has lost 40 lbs. and overheard the South Korean doctor they sent him to say he may die. He is not the first nor will he be the last to suffer because our Obamanation of a President refuses to "BAN ALL JAPANESE IMPORTS" and immediately withdraw all US Forces from deadly contaminated Japan.

Watch the interview with the only US Army General with the guts to tell all-Major General Albert Stubblebine III, former Commander of all US Forces in the Grenada Invasion at: www.radiationhealthnews.com.

*comment on this thread: http://1.usa.gov/1fym2nM

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California Has Highest Minimum Wage in America

Governor Brown Signs Historic Minimum Wage Increase

By Rebecca Band

 

Imagine having to choose between buying soap for yourself or diapers for your baby. Or being forced to walk miles to work because you chose breakfast over bus fare. Or being left with no choice but to go to the local food bank in order to feed your family. These are the harsh realities that millions of low-wage workers in California face every day.  But fortunately for them (and for our state as a whole), their future just got a lot brighter.

Wednesday morning, Governor Brown made history by signing AB 10 (Alejo), a sorely-needed and long-overdue wage increase for California’s lowest-wage workers that passed through the Legislature with strong support from the California Labor movement.

To commemorate the momentous occasion, Gov. Brown held two special press events today. At this morning’s event in Los Angeles, Gov. Brown and Assemblymember Luis Alejo were joined by a group of local car wash workers, and the Oakland bill signing event this afternoon was filled with young men and women enrolled in the pre-apprentice program at the Cypress Mandela Training Center.

Governor Brown:

Our society is experiencing a growing gap between those at the top and those at the bottom. Our social fabric is being ripped apart. Today, we sew that fabric a little tighter together, as we raise the wages of those who labor at the bottom … This is an important step to raise the floor, even as the floor and ceiling get farther and farther apart. So today we’re celebrating something very important: we’re taking a step, through our state Legislature, to give back to those who work so hard but get the least amount of compensation.

While the cost of everything from housing to food and transportation has skyrocketed all across the state, California’s minimum wage workers haven’t seen a raise in five years, even while neighboring states with lower costs of living have raised their wages. AB 10 will raise up more than 2.3 million low-wage workers who’ve been struggling to get by.

Yaveth Gomez, a college graduate who received a degree in Film Studies from UC Berkeley in 2009, now works as a dishwasher at a restaurant and earns $8.50 an hour. He shared his personal story about being forced to go to the food bank when he couldn’t afford groceries, and said

I believe this minimum wage raise is going to help a lot of people. $8.50 is really not enough for us.
The statewide wage increase comes on the heels of San Jose’s monumental minimum wage ballot measure, passed in 2012, which increased the city’s wage to $10 and proved that raising the wage has a positive and simulative effect on the economy.

The new statewide minimum wage will be implemented in two steps; increasing from $8 to $9 per hour in July of next year, followed by another one-dollar increase to $10 in January of 2016.

By providing an estimated $2.6 billion in additional wages to the state’s lowest-paid workers, California will reap $1 billion in new economic growth as +workers spend their increased wages, and job growth will expand as businesses hire to meet the increased consumer demand. (Learn more about the benefits of a $10 minimum wage.)
Assemblymember Luis Alejo, the sponsor of AB 10:

This [minimum wage] bill got a lot of momentum at the beginning of the year, when President Obama called for raising the federal minimum wage. The President supports it, the American people support it across the country, and yet our Congress has failed to act. But California is often the vanguard for the rest of our nation, and we’re always leading the way to strengthen and building our middle class – and this [new law] is an example of that. Today it’s California; tomorrow it’s going to be many other states that follow in our example.

Written by Rebecca Band

 

California Labor Federation Executive Secretary-Treasurer Art Pulaski:
Today’s bill signing affirms California’s role as leader in supporting low-wage workers. This is a historic day for all Californians, as we now have the highest minimum wage in the country. 

While this is an important victory and a huge step in the right direction, our fight for a living wage for every single California is far from over. We will continue to work tirelessly to ensure all California workers earn enough to support their families.
Rebecca Band
Labor’s Edge
Wednesday 25 September 2013

UFCW Organizes 8000 Workers at 50 CVS Chains

 

Economic Justice, Organizing, Retail, Southern California Bargaining, UFCW Industries, UFCW Values

Hundreds of CVS Workers in California Join UFCW Local 770

Sep 26, 2013

Hundreds of CVS workers across the Los Angeles area have voted to join UFCW Local 770.

Since May, hundreds of workers at Los Angeles area CVS stores have stood together and joined UFCW Local 770, bringing the total number of newly unionized CVS stores to 50 and more than doubling the number of new stores under contract.

These workers join more than 8,000 CVS workers in 11 states and the District of Columbia who are already members of the UFCW. By joining the UFCW, these workers have voted for a better life.

Go UFCW.  Show us how to organize.

CWA Phone Union Trains Activists in IOWA

Iowa State Council Training

The Iowa State Council sponsored a training on movement building, LPAT infrastructure and developing political goals. Participants included members of CWA Locals 7176, 7181, 7172, 7101, 7102 and 7171. CWA Legislative Director Shane Larson and Political Director Rafael Navar presented and led a discussion on critical political issues and races.

To show activists what a partnership with other progressive organizations can look like, Minnesota State Council President Mona Meyer and Terin Mayer, the lead economy organizer of TakeAction Minnesota, gave a presentation on how they've come together to build a movement for social and economic justice.

Already there's been a lot of good work being done in Iowa. Activists are supporting union-friendly candidates for hospital boards to help our nurses' organizing and bargaining campaigns. And CWA is growing its partnership with Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement, a grassroots organization dedicated to community organizing.

CWA local activists from across the state attend the Iowa State Council's training on movement building.

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National Labor Relations Board Acts

Democratic Majority NLRB 

Restores Bargaining Rights to NBC Universal 'Content Producers'

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It's a big victory for NABET-CWA members at NBC Universal. A decision issued this week by the National Labor Relations Board rejected management's attempt to slash the wages, benefits and bargaining rights of about 100 photographers, editors and writers by reclassifying them as "content producers."

The decision was issued by the three-member Democratic majority on the NLRB. "This shows the value of having a fully functioning, five-member NLRB. CWA and our coalition partners made that possible," said CWA President Larry Cohen.  (CWA phone union, Communication Workers of A.)

NABET-CWA President Jim Joyce said the NLRB decision means that NBC workers and their families finally are getting justice.   NBC must restore the wages, benefits and bargaining rights that these workers lost.  It's a great day for fairness."

Joyce noted that CWA's work to have a fully-functioning Board confirmed by the U.S. Senate means that "the NLRB is now back to issuing important decisions and giving workers a path to justice."

Two years ago, the NLRB's Region 2 ordered NBC to restore the bargaining rights of the workers it tried to reclassify into non-union jobs.

Testimony at the Region 2 Board hearing made clear that while the job title of "content producer" was new, the work performed by these employees wasn't; employees were continuing their regular work. The decision affects NABET-CWA members who lost their bargaining rights as well as new employees hired as "content producers."

The decision cannot be appealed beyond the full NLRB.