AltWeeklies Wire
WMC Already Collecting Dividends from Buying the State Courtnew
The state Supreme Court, state Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen and the big business lobby Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce (WMC) handed Wisconsin residents a $350 million tax hike—and gave corporations a new tax break.
Shepherd Express |
Lisa Kaiser |
07-18-2008 |
Business & Labor
Big Oil in Little Richmondnew
Back in 2004, the Chevron Corporation proposed a billion dollar "Energy and Hydrogen Renewal Project" at its 2,900-acre Richmond, Calif., refinery. Critics worry that the renovations will end up fouling the air in the already-blighted Richmond neighborhoods downwind of the refinery, and have taken up arms to halt the project's progress.
East Bay Express |
Anna McCarthy |
07-10-2008 |
Business & Labor
Death of 17-Year-Old Pregnant Farm Worker Incites Campaign Against Trader Joe'snew
The California Division of Industrial Relations has opened an investigation of Maria Isabel Vasquez Jimenez's death and her employer, Merced Farm Labor. But activists connected to the case want to send the message even further, to stores like Trader Joe's that market products made with cheap or exploited agricultural labor.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Amanda Witherell |
07-10-2008 |
Business & Labor
FairPoint's Phone-Line Takeover is as Bad as Regulators Fearednew
The Verizon-FairPoint merger, in which a North Carolina-based little-phone-company-that-could spent $2.3 billion of mostly borrowed money to take over the northern New England operations of one of the world's largest telecommunications companies, has been more disastrous than even we thought.
Portland Phoenix |
Jeff Inglis |
07-03-2008 |
Business & Labor
Your Friendly Neighborhood War Profiteernew
Across Minnesota, from the Twin Cities to the smallest rural towns, are often-scrappy companies with a handful of employees who work contracts from the low thousands to the low millions. Some estimate the number of companies doing defense-related business in the state at numbers as high as 2,000.
City Pages (Twin Cities) |
Jeff Severns Guntzel |
07-02-2008 |
Business & Labor
Will Chrysler be the First of the Big Three to Cruise into the Sunset?new
Chrysler can no longer possibly compete in today's environment. It no longer trades on the stock exchanges, but if it sinks into the deep, it will have deep ripple effects on other firms, and on all of us in Detroit. Here's why I say the company is sick as a dog.
Metro Times |
Jack Lessenberry |
07-01-2008 |
Business & Labor
Obama Economic Appointment Highlights Old Trade Disputenew
Before giving Jason Furman a pass on his emerging trade polices, it's important to focus on the true differences between Free Trade and Fair Trade.
East Bay Express |
Jay Youngdahl |
06-25-2008 |
Politics
Louisiana Perks Up for the Emerging Carbon Trade Marketnew
The rapidly evolving industry — dubbed the "cap-and-trade" market — pays sellers, typically landowners, for sequestering carbon dioxide by growing trees and plants that remove it from the atmopshere with the potential of limiting the level of pollutants that contribute to global warming.
Gambit |
Mollie Day |
06-25-2008 |
Environment
Most Businesses Still Waiting to 'Go Green'new
According to the second annual Johnson Controls Energy Efficiency Indicator survey, 72 percent of North American companies report that they are paying more attention to energy efficiency than last year. But the percentage of companies planning to invest in energy-efficiency improvements has not increased.
Shepherd Express |
Ken Reibel |
06-20-2008 |
Environment
Shipwright Brothers Explore the Future of Boat Buildingnew
Boat building is historically not the most environmentally sensitive of practices. In nearly 12 years of honing their craft, Jamison and Ryan Witbeck have learned both the difficulties and possibilities of being sustainable in the industry.
Charleston City Paper |
Stratton Lawrence |
06-18-2008 |
Business & Labor
Ad Campaign Latest Effort to take Smithfield Foods to Tasknew
Faith leaders, elected officials and Smithfield workers will gather in D.C. to unveil a series of advertisements decrying working conditions at the company's sprawling hog processing plant in North Carolina. The ads will soon begin appearing on the sides of buses and metro station walls across the D.C. metropolitan area.
Port Folio Weekly |
Vernal Coleman |
06-18-2008 |
Business & Labor
Did Microsoft Conspire to Charge People for MSN Service They Didn't Want?new
We'll find out -- as soon as the court sorts through a few trillion more bytes of data.
Seattle Weekly |
Rick Anderson |
06-17-2008 |
Business & Labor
Will Dredging the Delaware River Mean More Jobs for Philly's Longshoremen?new
At the union's peak 50 years ago, there were more than 6,000 laborers in the local International Longshoreman's Association (ILA). Now it has around 700 members who jockey for jobs unloading every boat as though it might be the last ship to ever make call in Philadelphia. But things might improve once the Delaware River gets dredged 5 feet deeper.
Philadelphia Weekly |
G.W. Miller III |
06-16-2008 |
Business & Labor
Seeds of a Portland Immigration Battle are Sproutingnew
One year after a federal immigration raid at Del Monte Fresh Produce, three ex-workers at the North Portland food-processing plant are trying to lead a class-action lawsuit against the fruit company and the staffing agency that hired them.
Willamette Week |
Beth Slovic |
06-11-2008 |
Immigration
Meet a Professional Rat Catchernew
Tim TenBrink has run Critter Control in Portland for 10 years. He moved here from Michigan, after deciding he didn't want to teach high school science there any more because the job wasn't as fulfilling as he'd expected. So he got a part-time job in Portland doing pest control, and stayed.
The Portland Mercury |
Matt Davis |
05-29-2008 |
Business & Labor
