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Earlier this week, I argued that Apple's moral failings -- tax avoidance and sweatshop labor practices -- were all the more inexcusable because this a company drowning in profits and cash. It can afford to pay its fair share of taxes and to pay its workers better.
Now, thanks to Isaac Shapiro at the Economic Policy Institute, we have some hard numbers to back up this point. Here's what Shapiro found:
House Republicans want to avoid big defense cuts by whacking other areas of government instead -- like programs that help low-income people.
No big surprise there. Putting guns before butter has been a staple of the GOP playbook for decades -- ever since Reagan pushed sweeping cuts in social spending while giving the Pentagon a blank check.
Yesterday, I wrote about how renewable energy is flourishing, despite a lack of political support. Recent data from the Energy Information Agency confirms this trend.
Last summer, a Western Beef store in the East Tremont section of the South Bronx became the first supermarket in the city to receive funding through the city’s Food Retail Expansion to Support Health (FRESH) program. The FRESH initiative provides financial and zoning incentives to entice supermarket chains to build new stores in neighborhoods that lack access to fresh, wholesome foods.
Not everyone, however, buys the argument that medical credit checks are beneficial to consumers. For example, consumer advocates worry that the credit checks open an avenue for health care providers to pressure patients into immediate payment.
"The danger, really, is that health care providers, particularly hospitals, may find lines of credit that people have open and really ask people to tap those lines of credit," says Amy Traub, a senior policy analyst at the think tank Demos.
The Supreme Court may not have decided yet on the Arizona v. United States case. But there is already a sense of defeat among immigrant rights activists (and a sense of celebration among the restrictionist movement) based on the feeling that the justices, including the liberal ones, may lean towards upholding at least some parts of Arizona’s SB 1070 anti-immigrant law.
The South Korean parliament voted overwhelmingly in favor of adopting a national carbon trading scheme. The bill received the support of 148 out of 151 lawmakers and establishes South Korea as the fourth nation in Asia to adopt carbon trading, joining China, Australia and New Zealand.