July 28, 2007

BELVIDERE, Ill. — Pretend you’re an autoworker and you’re having a bad dream. In your dream it’s 2008, one year after the Big Three — GM, Chrysler and Ford — got away with murder in contract negotiations.

WASHINGTON — The Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance, an AFL-CIO affiliate, brought hundreds of trade unionists here July 19-22 to celebrate their struggles and to chart a path for further advances and victory for working families in the 2008 elections

When something takes place in your neck of the woods, take your camera along.

The State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) is under attack by the White House. SCHIP is set to expire Sept. 30. On July 19, the Senate Finance Committee voted on a new version to bring 3.3 million more children into the program at a cost of $35 billion over five years. The administration has proposed a paltry $5 billion added funding.

Nguyen Thi Hong, 60, a member of the Vietnam Agent Orange Justice delegation that visited the U.S. in June this year, died July 20 in Vietnam from Agent Orange-related cancers.

NEW YORK (AP) — With a blast that made skyscrapers tremble, an 83-year-old steam pipe sent a powerful message that the miles of tubes, wires and iron beneath New York and other U.S. cities are getting older and could become dangerously unstable.

DES MOINES, Iowa: Voters ratchet up pressure for Iraq withdrawal
HOUSTON: BP fined for safety hazards, again
JACKSON, Miss.: Teenage girls sue to halt prison abuse

HOUSTON — Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) held a special press conference July 22 at the Christian Rescue Mission Church in the heart of the 3rd Ward, near this city’s downtown, to celebrate the first increase of the federal minimum wage in 10 years.

Sixty Americans have just returned from a Venceremos Brigade trip to Cuba, challenging the U.S. ban on travel to the socialist nation. No such ban exists for travel to any other country.

SUFFOLK COUNTY, N.Y. — This populous suburban/rural county on eastern Long Island, on the outskirts of the New York City metropolitan area, has a large and increasingly politicized immigrant population. Lately, they have often found themselves at odds with the strident anti-immigrant rhetoric and actions of Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy.