(New York, Raleigh, Washington, D.C.) – Citing clear evidence that the state of North Carolina is failing its obligation to provide low-income residents with a meaningful opportunity to register to vote at public assistance agencies, today Democracy North Carolina, Action NC, and the A. Philip Randolph Institute (“APRI”) sent a pre-litigation notice letter to Kim Strach, Executive Director of the North Carolina State Board of Elections (“NCSBE”), as well as Dr.
Last month—just a couple of days after NYC Comptroller Scott Stringer provided a thorough accounting of the benefits of a $15 minimum wage in the 5 boroughs—Attorney General Eric Schneiderman laid out the case for how Governor Andrew Cuomo could raise wages for thousands of struggling New Yorkers in a contribution at the NY Daily News.
New Demos Report Shows State Disinvestment in Public Higher Education is Driving Tuition Increases
Decreased State Funding is Responsible for Nearly 80 Percent of the Rise in Public Education Tuition
Recently, there has been much debate about the real cause of tuition increases, which have risen by nearly $3,000 at public four-year universities in the last decade alone. To meet these costs, U.S. students must take on crushing levels of debt just to access education that was readily affordable for previous generations.
(NEW YORK, NY) This morning, the Building Movement Project (BMP)—a Demos affiliate that equips nonprofits to advance social change—contributed to a new report #BlackWorkersMatter. It highlights how the economic crisis affects black communities, shares analysis on the black jobs crisis, and elevates the importance of investing in efforts to organize black workers.
Credit checks are one of many barriers faced by Black job seekers; and the implicit biases of employers have proved hard to legislate. That's why New York City just joined other cities and states in banning credit checks.
Now we get to marvel at the story of Navinder Singh Sarao, the most recent financial market miscreant who almost got away with millions. He was operating a pop up high frequency trading operation out of a semi-detached house in the London Borough of Hounslow, far from the City and Docklands. The British press, always attentive to trappings of class and always the protectors of the big banks on which their home economy is totally dependent featured those tidbits in their coverage.
Demos and coalition partners have reached an agreement with the City Council and de Blasio administration to send a bill banning the use of employment credit checks to the City Council floor. In response, President Heather McGhee issued the following statement:
“We are pleased to see progress made in the fight for equal opportunity employment in New York City. Employment credit checks are a catch-22, preventing qualified workers from getting a job just when they really need one most. The biggest drivers of credit problems are job loss and medical emergencies.
On Sunday, the New York Times published an unbelievably misleading op-ed on the cost of college by Paul Campos, a law professor at University of Colorado, Boulder.
Last Thursday, Mayor Bill de Blasio and First Lady Chirlaine McCray had a diverse group of 15 progressive leaders, from Nobel Prize-winning author Toni Morrison to US Senator Sherrod Brown, over to their home for lunch. The agenda: chart a course to make inequality the defining issue of the American political debate this campaign cycle.
In the wake of higher voter turnout in Ferguson, the city council now has three Black council members, up from only one before the election. This is a welcome change.
Today, Demos President Heather McGhee joined Mayor De Blasio and other progressive leaders and activists in the unveiling of a new initiative to make income inequality a central issue of the 2016 election cycle.
When I was 18 and living in Australia, I enrolled to vote in my very first election. It was easy. I received a letter from the electoral commission wishing me a happy 18th birthday and informing me that it was now time to join my fellow Australians in performing my democratic duty—to vote—and instructing me as to how I would enroll.
Following the announcement that McDonald’s Corporation plans to raise wages by more than 10 percent for 90,000 employees, Demos Senior Policy Analyst Catherine Ruetschlin issued the following statement:
McDonald’s workers deserve this raise and much more.
In the case of for-profits, not only has the government been unable to properly force institutions to account for their behavior, but it has been unable to stop providing the majority of money that keeps these colleges standing in the first place.
President Obama’s recent comments on universal voting have spurred a debate about how such a policy would influence elections. On the Monkey Cage blog, John Sides examines the partisan consequences and argues that turnout would generally benefit Democrats, but that the effect would be modest.
Yesterday, the federal court in New York appointed Demos co-class counsel in Floyd v. the City of New York, the landmark case challenging the NYPD’s use of the stop and frisk tactic. We now represent the thousands of mostly Black and Latino pedestrians who have been or will be unlawfully stopped by the NYPD.
Today, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau released a blueprint for new regulations pertaining to payday loans and car title loans. The regulations will not include an interest rate cap, the holy grail for advocates, because industry allies watered-down the provisions (I discuss the fight over payday lending in my recent Atlantic article).