Aug. 12, 2006

A Republican bill that hid a huge, wolfish tax break for the wealthy inside the sheep’s clothing of an increase in the minimum wage crashed and burned in the Senate on Aug. 3.

Carolyn Eisenberg, a history professor in Brooklyn, N.Y., grew up in what she describes as a Zionist family, with “a great deal of affection for Israel.” Last week, as co-chair of Brooklyn Parents for Peace, she was organizing an Aug. 9 “Brooklyn Walk for Peace,” calling for an immediate cease-fire by all sides in the Israel-Lebanon-Gaza crisis. An alert issued by the organization said, “Enough! War is not the answer!”

OAKLAND, Calif. — The story of hundreds of workers seeking a union at a California almond processing plant is increasingly being heard around the state and around the world.

PHILADELPHIA — “Congratulations young people, you’re about to become union members!” said School Reform Commission chair James Nevels. The school administrator heralded a groundbreaking agreement between the school district here and unions that make up the Philadelphia Building Trades Council.

After Cuban President Fidel Castro announced his intestinal surgery and the orderly succession of power on July 31, millions responded, not only in Cuba but also around the world. Depending on their class point of view, they extended either words of solidarity or malice.

MINNEAPOLIS — If Keith Ellison is elected in November to represent Minnesota’s 5th Congressional District, he will bring to the U.S. House of Representatives a fresh progressive voice in tradition of Paul Wellstone. He will also be the first African American congressman from Minnesota and the first Muslim in the U.S. Congress.

CRAWFORD, Texas: Sheehan returns to Camp Casey
COLUMBUS, Ohio: ‘Culture of corruption’ takes down Ney
PITTSBURGH: GOP donors support Green candidate
TOPEKA, Kan.: ‘Great day for Kansas’
RALEIGH, N.C.: Tarheel State sets up innocence commission

CHICAGO — “It’s time, past time, that our soldiers come back home to their families” from Iraq, said Gerald McEntee, international president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Union, in his keynote address to nearly 6,000 convention delegates and guests who assembled here Aug. 8.

LIVERMORE, Calif. — Demonstrations across the country this week remembered the victims of the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on Aug. 6 and 9, 1945.

HOUSTON — Tina Benkiser, chair of the Texas Republican Party, lost in her attempt to remove former GOP Rep. Tom DeLay from November’s ballot. The GOP argued that he would not be a resident of Texas on Election Day. DeLay claims he lives in Virginia, although his wife still lives in Sugar Land, Texas.