USA watch

Students should get the same interest rate banks get

May 132013

Elizabeth Warren introduces Student Loan Fairness Act.

from The Young Turks

"Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) has just introduced a new bill, the Bank on Students Loan Fairness Act, to offer student loans at the same rates that the Federal Reserve charges big banks through its discount window lending program. At the moment, that rate is about 0.75 percent. The rates on federally guaranteed student loans, meanwhile, is set to double to 6.8 percent this summer."*

Elizabeth Warren introduced her first bill as senator– and it would effectively make the student loan interest rate the very same rate bankers enjoy. Could this draw more attention to the big banks?

Cenk Uygur, Michael Shure (The War Room), and John Iadarola (TYT University) discuss Elizabeth Warren's Bill.

Reference
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Internet service fees a racket

May 062013

USA watch

ISPs charge $45 a month for service that costs about $9 to supply.

by Timothy Karr

Is your Internet bill too high? You can thank the phone and cable companies for that.

Today, high-speed broadband services offered by these national carriers cost more than $500 a year and even more when customers are forced to bundle Internet access with cable or phone packages. These rates put access out of reach for millions.

CEOs push austerity, rake in taxpayer-subsidized bonuses

May 022013

USA watch

Report: 'performance pay' loophole cost taxpayers $1 billion in 2009 – 2011.

from the Campaign for America's Future

WASHINGTON DC, May 2, 2013 — Ordinary taxpayers are subsidizing exorbitant executive pay at the corporations leading the push for austerity in the budget debate, according to a new report by the Institute for Policy Studies and Campaign for America’s Future.

The report is the first to put a price tag on the tax breaks specific corporations have enjoyed from a loophole that allows unlimited deductions for executive stock options and other “performance-based” pay. It focuses on corporate members of Fix the Debt, a lobby group that is calling for “shared sacrifice” while quietly advocating for cuts to Social Security and more corporate tax breaks.
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‘Buy guns in US,’ al Qaeda urges Muslims

Apr 302013

USA watch

CNN reports that easy gun laws, no background checks, facilitate terrorism at home.

from CNN

al Qaeda video urges sympathizers to arm themselves and plan terrorist actions.

Voters vs NRA funding

Apr 292013

USA watch

US Senator rises in polls after supporting background checks.

from The Young Turks

Republican Senator Pat Toomey is seeing record highs in his approval ratings ever since he supported background checks. Senator Kelly Ayotte, a Democrat, is plummeting in the polls ever since she opposed background checks. Are the voters opinions more powerful than the NRA's money? Cenk Uygur, Jimmy Dore, and John Iadarola break it down.

TYT news team discusses the value of poll results vs NRA funding.

Keystone XL: Friends of the Earth demands report on lobbying costs

Apr 152013

USA watch

FOE seeks records on massive lobbying operation by TransCanada and Alberta government

from Friends of the Earth

WASHINGTON DC, April 15, 2014 — The environmental watchdog group that uncovered conflicts of interest between the State Department led by Hillary Clinton and lobbyists for the Keystone XL pipeline, today demanded the release of records that could illuminate a continued cozy relationship between pipeline proponents and Clinton’s successor John Kerry, as well as President Obama.

Baltimore makes 54

Apr 112013

USA watch

City governments urge Obama to use Clean Air Act to stave off climate crisis.

from the Center for Biological Diversity

BALTIMORE, April 10, 2013 — Baltimore has become the 54th US city to pass a resolution urging President Obama and the US Environmental Protection Agency to move swiftly to make full use of the Clean Air Act to reduce carbon pollution and combat climate change. Baltimore’s City Council approved its resolution on Monday, joining the Center for Biological Diversity’s Clean Air Cities campaign. The decision comes as an April 13 deadline approaches for the Obama administration to issue a key Clean Air Act rule aimed at cutting greenhouse gas pollution from new power plants.

Nuclear evacuation plans fall way short

Apr 112013

USA watch

GAO report finds Nuclear Regulatory Comission regulations underestimate population flight.

from the Nuclear Information and Resource Service

WASHINGTON DC, April 10, 2013 — The US Government Accountability Office today released a report finding that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission does not adequately understand the “shadow evacuation” phenomenon at nuclear reactors, and that its emergency planning regulations do not adequately account for the strong likelihood that far more people would evacuate, from much further distances than NRC plans, in a real nuclear emergency.

Segregated prom sees Black students escorted out

Apr 082013

USA watch

Students organized their own integrated prom, but segregated proms continue too.

from The Young Turks

"This seems hard to believe in 2013, but students at Wilcox County High School in Georgia have long held segregated proms — one for blacks and one for whites. This year a group of black and white teens who have been friends for years are fighting for a fully integrated prom. But it hasn't been easy…."

from a Washington Post blog

The Young Turks discuss the implications of police upholding segregated proms.

Debtors’ prisons in Ohio

Apr 042013

USA watch

Investigation into 11 Ohio counties finds seven are illegally jailing people for inability to pay fines.

from the American Civil Liberties Union

CLEVELAND, April 4, 2013 — The US Constitution and Ohio state law prohibit courts from jailing people for being too poor to pay their legal fines, but in several Ohio counties, local courts are doing it anyway. The ACLU of Ohio today released The Outskirts of Hope, a report that chronicles a nearly yearlong investigation into Ohio’s debtors’ prisons and tells the stories of six Ohioans whose lives have been damaged by debtors’ prison practices.

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