In 2010, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie cancelled a tremendously important rail tunnel project under the Hudson River that had been in the works for nearly 20 years; billions of dollars had already been saved up for it. The only tunnels that currently exist there were built more than 100 years ago, are incapable of […]
Blog: TAPPED
Posted inCivil Rights in America
Jobs Are Great, but They Won’t End Structural Racism
Bernie Sanders touts policies that most progressives can get behind. His emphasis on good jobs for all is indisputably important and affects all Americans: white, black, Latino, Asian, and beyond. But when black people say Bernie Sanders has a blind spot on racial issues, we don’t mean that his economic policies aren’t important or don’t […]
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
Why the Dichotomy Between Racial and Economic Justice is A False One
Yesterday, Vox‘s Dara Lind published a post analyzing what this past weekend’s protests at Netroots Nation tell us about splits within the progressive movement. I personally don’t think Bernie Sanders handled the Black Lives Matter demonstrators very well, and I imagine his advisers had several serious conversations with him following the conference about how to […]
Posted inEducation in America
In Latest Adjunct Organizing Victory, Barnard Faculty Plan to Unionize
More than 230 contingent faculty members at Barnard College will be able to vote to form a union with the United Auto Workers Local 2110 this September, according to an announcement today. Last month, contingent faculty filed for a union with the NLRB after the UAW said more than two-thirds of contingents had petitioned in […]
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
The Best Thing About the Fox and CNN Debate Criteria
On June 10, a group of high-level New Hampshire Republicans sent a letter to the RNC, pleading with it to disallow the imposition of a ten-candidate limit on the first presidential debate. There are a lot of problems with Fox News and CNN’s plan to limit the number of Republican candidates who will get compete […]
Posted inEducation in America
More on Charters Going Union
For The Prospect‘s summer issue I wrote a feature story about the growing number of charter school teachers looking to form unions at their schools. Elias Isquith, a staff writer at Salon was kind enough to interview me about my piece. We talked about some things I covered in the story, and a few other […]
Posted inAmerica and the World
Bridging the Digital Divide in Cuba — and Baltimore
Today, at a 500-guest ceremony, the Cuban flag was raised above Washington, D.C., for the first time since the Cold War, as the U.S. and Cuba got the green light to resume diplomatic relations. Since Obama’s announcement last December to reopen embassies, a Cuban-style “perestroika,” has allowed for the arrival of many new technologies to […]
Posted inWorking in America
Homejoy’s Closure May Signal A Turn for the On-Demand Economy
On Friday Adora Cheung, the co-founder and CEO of Homejoy, announced she will be closing down the app-based cleaning service by the end of July. Homejoy, which started in 2012, relies entirely on contract labor and is commonly referred to as the “Uber for house cleaning.” Cheung told Re/code that the “deciding factor” to shut […]
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
Court Upholds Delaware Dark Money Disclosure Law
Yesterday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third District upheld the constitutionality of Delaware’s Election Disclosure Act. The 2012 law, which is a transparency safeguard instituted after Citizens United v. FEC, closed the loophole allowing outside groups to evade disclosure as long as their ads, known as “sham issue ads,” refrained from expressly advocating […]
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
From Civil Rights to Obama, the Confederate Flag Has Meant One Thing
Oklahoma was not a part of the old Confederacy, but that historical fact did not stop some from greeting the first black president with the Confederate flag when he arrived in Oklahoma City on Wednesday. The purpose of Obama’s trip to the small town of Durant, Oklahoma was to visit the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, […]
