inequality

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 24, 2009
1:30 PM

CONTACT: ACLU

Maria Archuleta, (212) 519-7808 or 549-2666; media@aclu.org

Supreme Court to Hear Voting Rights Act Challenge Wednesday, April 29

ACLU Represents Individual Affected by Oversight Provision

WASHINGTON - April 24 - On Wednesday, April 29, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear an appeal brought by a small municipal utility district in Austin, Texas challenging a key section of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the landmark federal law that ensured African-Americans and language minorities access to voting booths across the South.

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The ACLU conserves America's original civic values working in courts, legislatures and communities to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in the United States by the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

ACLU Links:

Posted in civil liberties, inequality, voting

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 23, 2009
1:18 PM

CONTACT: Institute for Public Accuracy (IPA)
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167

IMF and World Bank Meetings in Washington

WASHINGTON - April 23 - Finance ministers and central bankers from around the world are in Washington this week for semiannual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank.

DR. PETER BUJARI, via Blair Hinderliter

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A nationwide consortium, the Institute for Public Accuracy (IPA) represents an unprecedented effort to bring other voices to the mass-media table often dominated by a few major think tanks. IPA works to broaden public discourse in mainstream media, while building communication with alternative media outlets and grassroots activists.

Institute for Public Accuracy (IPA) Links:

Posted in imf, inequality

The Shipping News

If you’re looking for signs of the Apocalypse – and who isn’t? – here’s a good one. There’s an uptick in ark building.

You heard me. According to The Wall Street Journal, that Bible of the Financially Bilious, Hong Kong’s billionaire Kwok brothers are in the final stages of constructing the world’s first full-size replica of Noah’s Ark – 450 feet long, 75 feet wide and 45 feet high. "Just the answer,” the Journal reports, “for the rising waters threatening the global economy."

Posted in inequality, piracy

From Now on, Equality Needs to Be Our Organizing Principle

In the smoking rubble of market fundamentalism, we are all being forced to rethink the principles that order our societies - and one small, shining idea is rising from the wreckage. It is the idea of human equality.

Posted in inequality

State Fairness: Whac-a-Mole and Marriage Equality

When I was growing up in Syracuse, New York I was not a big fan of our annual State Fair. The mid-way was too freaky, sticky and crowded but I loved bumper cars and Whac-a-mole. As a budding butch from a very mannered family, I had a lot of pent-up anger. In bumper cars my goal was to cause whiplash.

Posted in gay marriage, inequality, lgbt

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 13, 2009
1:43 PM

CONTACT: National Low Income Housing Coalition

Taylor Materio, Communications Associate
taylor@nlihc.org
Ph. 202-662-1530 x. 227

Study Finds That Rents for Modest Studio and 1-Bedroom Housing Units Are Higher Than Monthly Income or People With Disabilities

TAC and CCD Housing Task Force release new study documenting extreme housing affordability crisis for the most vulnerable people with disabilities

WASHINGTON - April 13 - Across the United States in 2008, people with disabilities with the lowest incomes faced an extreme housing affordability crisis as rents for moderately priced studio and one-bedroom apartments soared above their entire monthly income. The national average rent for a one-bedroom unit climbed to $749 per month in 2008 - higher than $667, the average monthly income of over 4 million people with disabilities.

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The National Low Income Housing Coalition is dedicated solely to ending America’s affordable housing crisis. Established in 1974 by Cushing N. Dolbeare, NLIHC educates, organizes and advocates to ensure decent, affordable housing within healthy neighborhoods for everyone. NLIHC provides up-to-date information, formulates policy and educates the public on housing needs and the strategies for solutions.

National Low Income Housing Coalition Links:

Posted in housing, inequality

Wired Less: Disconnected in Urban America

For many Americans living in urban areas, high-speed Internet access remains elusive.

Posted in broadband, inequality, media reform

Where the Poor Pay More for Water

LOMAS DE MANCHAY, Peru - In Lomas de Manchay, an area of slum-covered hills outside of the Peruvian capital that is home to 50,000 people, mainly poor indigenous migrants from the highlands, clean water is worth gold - almost literally.

Local residents of the shantytown pay 3.22 dollars per cubic metre of water, compared to just 45 cents of a dollar that is paid a few blocks away, across the main avenue, in Rinconada del Lago, one of Lima's most exclusive neighbourhoods.

Posted in inequality, water, Peru

Government Able to End Hunger in US, Activist Says

"President Obama has promised to end child hunger in the United States by 2015. But you haven't heard about it. The media is writing about what Michelle Obama is wearing. Or what kind of dog they're going to get," Joel Berg almost shouted.

Fifty people showed up to hear Mr. Berg, executive director of the New York City Coalition Against Hunger, talk about his new book, "All You Can Eat: How Hungry is America?" at WPXI last night.

Posted in hunger, inequality, poverty

The Killing Fields of Inequality

There are at least three quite different kinds of inequality, and they are all destructive of human lives and of human societies.

Posted in inequality