Economy

June 13, 2005 - Today the excellent Center for Responsible Lending -- based here in Durham, N.C. -- announced a major court victory out of Georgia in the ongoing battle to rein in predatory bankers, especially pay-day lending operations.

June 10, 2005 - Yesterday brought news that's becoming all too familiar in western North Carolina:

April 29, 2005 - Today is Worker's Memorial Day, our time to remember the 15 workers who die every day on the job, largely because of dangerous working conditions. The following post from Confined Space is long but worth the read. And as Mother Jones said, "pray for the dead, and fight like hell for the living."

April 16, 2005 - Katrina vanden Heuvel at The Nation has a post up today about the recent victory in the Maryland General Assembly, which passed legislation requiring companies with 10,000 or more employees to spend at least 8% of their payroll on health benefits for workers.

April 14, 2005 - In case you missed it, the St.

April 12, 2005 - A new study by the National Community Reinvestment Coalition finds that home lenders target African Americans and Latino consumers for high-interest, predatory loans, as reported in today's Washington Post:

March 15, 2005 - Hoping to win an upcoming vote at a Toyota plant in Georgetown, Ky., the UAW softens its image in an effort to gain a toehold in a region normally hostile to organized labor.

March 5, 2005 - Of the many ways that Arkansas-based Wal-Mart endangers the public interest, one of the most insidious is how, by paying its workers low wages with almost no benefits, they force tens of thousands of employees to rely on state and federal public assistance programs to make ends meet.