Jan 17, 2004

The “more compassionate” immigration system for undocumented workers proposed by President George W. Bush on Jan. 7 will grant corporations greater ability to pit U.S. workers against the global work force for domestic jobs, say labor and immigrant rights leaders. It will also help businesses further exploit undocumented workers. click here for Spanish text

WASHINGTON – Environmental, labor, and civil rights organizations convened a National Press Club news conference Jan. 14 to denounce Bush-Cheney energy policies – blocked by a Senate filibuster last month – as a giveaway to oil and gas polluters and a destroyer of jobs.

With the exception of Labor Day, there is no more important celebration of the fight for justice for all working people than Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

Former Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill has become one of the Bush re-election campaign’s worst nightmares. In a book published this week by Ron Suskind, “The Price of Loyalty,” O’Neill joins a growing list of former officials who have disclosed politically damaging details about the inner workings of the far-right Bush administration.

On the eve of the Jan. 19 Iowa caucuses, the first major test of the 2004 elections, Iowa AFL-CIO President Mark Smith warned against disunity in the battle to defeat George W. Bush next November.

ST. LOUIS – Seven hundred union members, community leaders and student activists rallied outside of the America’s Center, Jan. 5, against President Bush’s overtime proposals as the president raised $2.8 million from wealthy Republican contributors – the single largest one-night fundraising total in Missouri history.

Congressman Ralph Hall of Rockwall, Texas, handed the congressional rightwing an easy victory on New Year’s Day when he revealed that he was switching from the Democratic to the Republican Party. The Texas congressional delegation is thus split evenly, 16-16.

SACRAMENTO, Calif.: ‘Terminating’ working families / SPRINGVILLE, Ala.: Nurses blow whistle on prison water / VARNER, Ark.: State executes mentally ill African American / PITTSBURGH: Marching against police brutality

The Department of Homeland Security’s latest addition to airport security checks has been greeted by a chorus of disapproval, both from domestic groups and internationally.

SEATTLE – By now, pretty much everyone in the United States has heard of the Holstein from Mabton, Wash., found to be infected with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), better known as “mad cow disease.” What people may not know is how this disease that devastated the British beef industry in the ’90s has been allowed to spread to Washington state.