Pennsylvania is poised to become the first state in the nation to limit access to criminal records for certain nonviolent offenders. In April, the Pennsylvania General Assembly took up the consideration of bills that aim to help ex-offenders reintegrate into society without the permanent stigma of a criminal record. Under the Clean Slate Act, people […]
Blog: TAPPED
Posted inHealth and Social Policy
Veterans’ Groups: Don’t Scrap the VA’s Health Care System
As they meet again in Washington, D.C., this week, the congressionally mandated Commission on Care, tasked with determining a 20-year strategic plan for the Veterans Health Administration, would do well to heed the voices of veterans and veterans service organizations that it has too often sidelined from its deliberations. In its April meeting, the commission […]
Posted inCivil Rights in America
Warren Calls on Banks to Invest in Minority Neighborhoods, Businesses
Senator Elizabeth Warren recently warned that minority families and businesses continue to suffer disproportionately from the lingering effects of the Great Recession and called on the country’s banks to step up to assist local communities. Warren noted that most Americans experienced severe hardships during the economic downturn. “In 2013, the median income of white households […]
Posted inAmerica and the World
Pentagon Continues to Mull Over Lifting Ban on Transgender Troops
LGBT advocates were elated when Defense Secretary Ash Carter announced that the Pentagon intended to lift the military’s longstanding ban on transgender members, saying that the current policy was an “outdated, confusing, inconsistent approach that’s contrary to our value of individual merit.” Nine months later, the transgender community is still waiting for the department to […]
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
Vice President Elizabeth Warren?
The Boston Globe has reported that Hillary Clinton is considering picking a woman running-mate, and the optics suggest that this means Elizabeth Warren. The Globe quotes an on-the-record interview with no less than Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta. So what’s this about? Is it the Clinton campaign signaling to Sanders supporters that she would reach […]
Posted inHealth and Social Policy
New State Restrictions Force Pro-Choice Advocates into Familiar Battle Zone
When Indiana’s Republican Governor Mike Pence signed a measure that placed controversial limits on abortion, the law’s constitutional implications likely had little bearing on his decision. Nevertheless, Pence’s move comes as some anti-abortion governors and state lawmakers devise even more severe restrictions and force reproductive-rights advocates onto familiar turf in state and federal courtrooms. Calling […]
Posted inLaw and Justice
DOL Releases Bold New Retirement Investment Protections
Flanked by Democratic allies in Congress on Wednesday, Secretary of Labor Tom Perez unveiled the final version of the long-awaited fiduciary rule, which requires that, like doctors and lawyers, retirement account brokers must act in their clients’ best interest. “It really puts in place a fundamental principle of consumer protection into the American retirement marketplace, […]
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
“The Full Spectrum of the Republican Party”
In his victory speech Tuesday night after winning the Wisconsin primary, Senator Ted Cruz pointed to his endorsements from former GOP presidential candidates former Texas Governor Rick Perry, Senator Lindsey Graham, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, Carly Fiorina, and Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, as proof that he has the “full spectrum of the Republican Party […]
Posted inWorking in America
Supreme Court Case That Almost Busted Public-Sector Unions is Dead. What Now?
A dark cloud that’s loomed large over public-sector unions has cleared away-for now. The Supreme Court split 4-4 Tuesday in its decision on Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association, a case centering on the legality of “fair-share” fees, which non-union members are required to pay to cover collective bargaining costs. And while the decision came down […]
Posted inEconomic Policy
Lester Thurow, an Economist Ahead of His Time
Lester Thurow, one of the leading economists to challenge American inequality before that view became fashionable, died last week at 77. He spent most of his career at MIT, where he also served as dean of the Sloane School of Management between 1987 and 1993. Born in Montana, he was a Rhodes Scholar, an avid […]
