Daily Online

Single payer activists organized by the Chicago Single Payer Action Network (ChiSPAN) held a rally here last week in front of the newly opened Democratic National Committee office on Michigan Avenue. Rally-goers demanded that the DNC put single-payer health care on its platform.

In a last minute action, political operatives at the US Department of Labor are rushing to lock in new requirements that would make it harder for the next administration to develop and issue protective workplace health rules.

For nearly eight years, the Bush administration has failed to protect the health and safety of America's workers. Within weeks of taking office in 2001, President Bush supported and signed legislation repealing the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's ergonomics standard.

A comparison of the major energy initiatives proposed by Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama and Republican presidential candidate John McCain:

The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill recently apologizing to African Americans for slavery and segregation. Authored by Steve Cohen, Democrat of Memphis, and co-sponsored by 120 representatives, House Resolution 194 apologizes for the "fundamental injustice, cruelty, brutality and inhumanity of slavery and Jim Crow" segregation but does not address the issue of reparations.

Imagine mobilizing one of every 100 Americans, a population equal to that of the entire city of Chicago, and putting them out on the campaign trail. That’s what Barack Obama’s presidential campaign seeks to do. In talks August 5 to the AFL-CIO Executive Council meeting in Chicago, Obama’s top two staffers, strategist David Axelrod and manager David Plouffe, set that as their goal for nationwide mobilization. They now have 1.2 million volunteers.

Even as the Democrats continued their now-finished presidential campaign, the AFL-CIO launched its “define John McCain” campaign to disabuse popular notions about the presumed GOP presidential nominee.

Over the past eighteen months, oil prices have more than doubled, inflicting huge costs on the global economy. Strong global demand, owing to emerging economies like China, has undoubtedly fueled some of the price increase. But the scale of the price spike exceeds normal demand and supply factors, pointing to the role of speculation, and underscoring the need for policy action to clean up the oil market.

The AFL-CIO Executive Council elected three new members on August 5, slightly expanding its female membership while seeing the number of African-Americans decline by one. Named to the council were new American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten, Theatrical and Stage Employees President Matthew Loeb, and School Administrators President Jill Levy.

Remember Florida’s hanging chads in 2000? Or the long lines due to the lack of voting machines in Columbus, Ohio in 2004? The nation’s unions do. Led by AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker, they’re already moving to prevent a repeat of such shenanigans--and others--at the polls this year. And if the record of the presidential primaries is any indication, they’ll have their work cut out for them, protecting people’s right to vote.