by Bernie Horn | May 6, 2020 | Blog, Democracy, Election, Featured
For many Americans, vote-by-mail will be a matter of life and death come November. There will be no widely available vaccine by then, and even if an anti-viral medicine is proven broadly effective this summer, it would be difficult to manufacture a sufficient quantity...
by Steven Rosenfeld | May 5, 2020 | Blog, Democracy, Election, Featured
Across America, election officials responsible for the details of running elections have a clear idea of what is needed to shift to mostly mail-in voting in upcoming spring, summer and fall elections to protect voters from the coronavirus. But pockets of conservatives...
by Sarah Lahm | May 4, 2020 | Breakfast, Education, Featured
Since mid-March, public school students in Minnesota have had to stay home because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, according to the state’s governor, Tim Walz, schools will remain closed until the end of this school year, with no guarantee that they will reopen in the...
by Jeff Bryant | May 1, 2020 | Blog, Education, Featured
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, nearly all states have ordered or recommended school buildings stay closed for the rest of the academic year, according to Education Week’s most recent count, and “schools are likely to stay shut for months,” according to the New York...
by Tom Conway | Apr 30, 2020 | Featured, Future of Work, Inequality
States that spent millions of dollars fighting the coronavirus asked the federal government for help plugging huge holes in their budgets. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell gave them the finger instead. The Kentucky Republican said he’d rather let states go...
by George Goehl | Apr 29, 2020 | #PeoplesWave, Blog, Economy, Education, Featured
As the 2008 financial crisis unfolded, tens of millions of Americans were hurting and making meaning of what was happening. It was the first time in my life that suddenly, tens of millions of people were significantly more ready to be organized than in the weeks...
by Bernie Horn | Apr 28, 2020 | Blog, Election, Featured, Health
Coronavirus press briefing, March 18, 2020. Photo credit: Shealah Craighead, White House, CC Trump and the GOP have trapped themselves in a course of action and a debate that have the potential to destroy them come November, if only Democrats understand and engage....
by Jeff Bryant | Apr 24, 2020 | Blog, Education, Featured
COVID-19 has shuttered public schools across the nation, state governments are threatening to slash education budgets due to the economic collapse caused by the outbreak, and emergency aid provided by the federal government is far short of what is needed, according to...
by Erin George, Ravi Mangla | Apr 24, 2020 | Blog, Democracy, Featured
The failure of the White House to respond to the Coronavirus pandemic has given Andrew Cuomo an unlikely turn in the spotlight. Cuomo, for his part, has taken the opportunity and run with it: hosting daily news briefings and running comedy routines with his younger...
by Tom Conway | Apr 23, 2020 | Blog, Featured, Future of Work, Health
Thousands of workers across America begged the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to investigate when their employers failed to take steps to protect them from COVID-19. They reported a lack of face masks, gloves, soap and hand sanitizer. They warned...
by James Mumm | Apr 22, 2020 | Blog, Democracy, Environment, Featured, Protest
It feels like everything is on the line right now for our country, our planet, and for humanity. We have a global pandemic in the middle of a climate emergency. The corporate-conservative Radical Right has taken over country after country. Inequality and inequity are...
by Tom Conway | Apr 22, 2020 | Blog, Economy, Featured, Future of Work
At the start of each shift, Eric Jarvis takes a handful of anti-bacterial wipes and sanitizes the equipment he uses at the Packaging Corp. of America mill in Valdosta, Ga. He worries about getting the coronavirus every time he leaves for work, but knows the nation...
by Jeff Bryant | Apr 22, 2020 | Blog, Education, Featured
In the early days of the spread of the coronavirus in the U.S., when the number of known cases was barely cresting 1,000, advocates for homeschooling were greeting news of the outbreak as an opportunity to promote their cause. “While the virus has caused illness and...
by Lois Gibbs | Apr 22, 2020 | Blog, Climate, Environment, Featured
Hear Lois Gibbs and other environmental activists talk about the EPA's rollback of environmental enforcement on People's Action Live. TOTAL refinery, Port Arthur, Texas. Photo credit: Hilton Kelley, CIDAInc.org / cc Our government just told polluters they are free to...
by Miles Mogulescu | Apr 20, 2020 | Blog, COVID-19, Democracy, Election, Featured
Photo credit: James Barragan / Facebook / cc The politics of the pandemic is about to get nasty and divisive. And Trump thrives on the politics of nastiness and division. Chants of “lock her up” will likely be replaced by chants of “open it up.” And unless Democrats...
by George Goehl | Apr 10, 2020 | Blog, Election, Featured, Politics
Bernie Sanders suspended his campaign for president, but the fight is just getting started. Senator Sanders and the movements surrounding his campaign have brought to fore an agenda that has inspired tens of millions, on its way to creating a new common sense about...
by Eileen Appelbaum, Rosemary Batt | Apr 6, 2020 | Blog, COVID-19, Featured, Financial Reform, Health
Doctor Ming Lin is the first emergency room doctor to be fired for going public with his concerns about poor hospital emergency room safety practices and shortages of medical supplies and protective gear for health workers. He won’t be the last. Like many hospitals in...
by Steven Rosenfeld | Apr 6, 2020 | Blog, Election, Featured
Photo credit: Wisconsin National Guard / Spc. Emma Anderson The jaw-dropping conclusion of a federal court hearing on April 1 about Wisconsin’s statewide elections on April 7 was no April Fools’ joke. U.S. District Judge William Conley said the state’s Democratic...
by Tom Conway | Apr 6, 2020 | Blog, COVID-19, Economy, Featured, Future of Work
American Roots workers making masks for COVID-19 frontline caregivers. Photo credit: American Roots / USW / cc. Health care workers continue to put their lives on the line, caring for patients despite critical shortages of the safety gear they need to protect...
by Larry Stafford | Apr 3, 2020 | Blog, Democracy, Economy, Featured
Throughout my life, I’ve wrestled with various forms of anxiety. Particularly as a child, I remember holding a deep, looming sense of dread about a coming apocalypse. I remember trembling in fear during thunderstorms, as I’d hear the sky roar and watch dark clouds...
by George Goehl | Apr 2, 2020 | Blog, COVID-19, Featured, Health
Keeping our wits about us is no easy lift, certainly not now as we all shelter in place and anticipate the impact COVID-19 will have on our lives. And yet, doing so will allow us to organize and live from a place of power and grace. Crises like the one we face today...
by Tom Conway | Mar 30, 2020 | Blog, COVID-19, Featured, Health
Photo credit: USAF / Senior Airman Jarad A. Denton / cc Under normal circumstances, Jerry Porter would be spending his time helping the veterans he finds in tent camps and run-down housing. But the escalating threat of COVID-19 forces the community activist and...
by Thom Hartmann | Mar 27, 2020 | Blog, Democracy, Economy, Featured
Photo credit: National Archives / Wikimedia / cc The coronavirus crisis has turned the fact that we don’t make anything in America anymore from a topic for philosophical and political debate into a crisis in our hospitals causing people to die and endangering our...
by Gloria Totten | Mar 26, 2020 | Blog, Democracy, Featured, Health
A few days ago, Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick went on Fox News to deliver the message, “Let’s get back to work. Let’s get back to living. Let’s be smart about it, and those of us that are 70 plus, we’ll take care of ourselves. But don’t sacrifice the country.”...
by Alex Lawson | Mar 25, 2020 | Blog, COVID-19, Featured, Health
Photo credit: Tony Webster / flickr / cc Editor's update: After Public Citizen, People's Action and 50 other groups demanded Gilead Pharmaceuticals end its claim of "orphan drug" status for remdesivir, a potential treatment for COVID-19, Gilead has asked the FDA to...
by Joy Blackwood, Natasha DeJarnett, Surili Sutaria Patel | Mar 24, 2020 | Blog, COVID-19, Democracy, Election, Featured, Health
Photo credit: Joint Base San Antonio / cc There’s been a massive failure of leadership in the United States in preparation, containment, treatment and protecting our residents from the cascading effects of the COVID-19 outbreak. As Board members of Physicians for...
by Will Tanzman | Mar 23, 2020 | Blog, Democracy, Election, Featured
Photo credit: Lorianne DiSabato, Flickr / cc A core lesson from the Illinois primary is that it’s not enough for a candidate to have the right message if there is not sufficient organization on the ground. Tuesday was a rough night for the Left at the top of the...
by Tom Conway | Mar 20, 2020 | Blog, COVID-19, Featured, Future of Work, Health
Photo credit: Airman 1st Class Collin Schmidt, U.S. Air Force, cc Kimberly Delbrune-Mitter, a cardiac nurse, cares deeply about her patients and remains steadfast in her desire to help them, even as COVID-19 spreads across America. What plagues her about the new...
by Tobita Chow | Mar 20, 2020 | Blog, COVID-19, Featured, Health
Photo credit: Gage Skidmore / flickr / cc As the crisis around Covid-19, the novel coronavirus that has sparked a global pandemic, has unfolded sending shockwaves through the U.S. economy, President Trump and his allies wasted no time casting blame on China. On...
by Paul Engler | Mar 20, 2020 | Blog, COVID-19, Featured, Health, Protest
ACT UP rally, May 21, 1999. Photo credit: NIH History Office There are times in history when sudden events — natural disasters, economic collapses, pandemics, wars, famines — change everything. They change politics, they change economics and they change public opinion...
by Miles Mogulescu | Mar 20, 2020 | Blog, COVID-19, Featured, Health
Within two weeks after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, American auto factories were already converting to make tanks instead of cars. The government needs to treat the Covid-19 pandemic like a war - except the enemy is an invisible virus rather than a foreign...
by Steven Rosenfeld | Mar 17, 2020 | Blog, Democracy, Election, Featured
Washoe, NV Democratic County Convention, 2016. Photo credit: Trevor Bexon / flickr / cc Top Democratic Party officials are scrambling to figure out how to handle voting by crowds at their next big event of the 2020 presidential season: the county conventions where...
by Liz Watson | Mar 13, 2020 | Blog, COVID-19, Featured, Health
Photo credit: United Workers / flickr / cc America isn’t ready for coronavirus. In the last 24 hours, millions of school children across the country have been told to stay home for two weeks, or even longer. This is an important public health step to stop the spread,...
by Nancy Altman | Mar 12, 2020 | Blog, Economy, Featured
Donald Trump’s proposal to cut the payroll contribution rate is a stealth attack on Social Security. Even if the proposal were to replace Social Security’s dedicated revenue with deficit-funded general revenue, the proposal would undermine this vital program. The...
by Tom Conway | Mar 11, 2020 | Blog, Economy, Featured, Future of Work
Photo credit: Alex Proimos / flickr / cc The Dow Jones Industrial Average posted its worst loss since the 2008 financial crisis in a single day this week because of the coronavirus’ impact on global trade, leaving many Americans sick with worry. It’s not just a...
by Adrienne Evans | Mar 10, 2020 | Blog, Democracy, Economy, Election, Featured
United Action for Idaho, part of the People's Action national network of grassroots groups, endorsed Sen. Bernie Sanders for President ahead of Idaho’s Democratic primary vote on Tuesday, March 10. Bernie Sanders has demonstrated a lifetime commitment to the working...
by Miles Mogulescu | Mar 10, 2020 | Blog, Economy, Featured, Health, International, Jobs and Growth
In the short time since the COVID-19 virus was discovered and made public in Wuhan, a city of 11 million in central China, this new strain of coronavirus - a family of pathogens that includes the common cold, as well as more deadly strains like SARS and MERS - has...
by Shailly Gupta Barnes, Lindsay Koshagarian | Mar 9, 2020 | Blog, Election, Featured
The 2020 presidential campaign is well underway, and it’s noisy. Candidates make promises, break promises, offer assurances, and spin the news constantly. What’s one way to get a clear look at their priorities? In the case of a sitting president, by looking at their...
by Tim Wilkins | Mar 6, 2020 | Blog, Breakfast
MORNING MESSAGE Joy Blackwood Let The Cherry Blossoms Bloom It’s March in Washington, D.C., which means the cherry blossoms will bloom any day now. Our nation’s capital would be teeming with visitors and excitement under normal circumstances. The mood here, however,...
by Joy Blackwood | Mar 6, 2020 | Blog, Democracy, Featured, Letter From DC, Policy
Photo credit: Dhilung Kirat / flickr / cc It’s March in Washington, D.C., which means the cherry blossoms will bloom any day now. Our nation’s capital would be teeming with visitors and excitement under normal circumstances. The mood here, however, is subdued. In...
