The BBC, AP, and AFP have reported that the Greek government's forecast of a return to economic growth in 2014 has been disputed by the OECD. But these media outlets have not acknowledged that the Greek government's forecast is supported by the International Monetary Fund. This faulty economic reporting could hurt the Greek economy by discouraging investment. References can be found here: Media: Play Fair With Economic Reporting on Greece http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-naiman/media-play-fair-with-econ_b_4451650.html

1.3 million Americans stand to lose unemployment checks by year's end. Congress must pass legislation approving an extension before they going on their taxpayer funded vacations.

Younger military retirees, including me, are about to get robbed by Congress (story at http://bit.ly/1cETdlU). Like our fellow Americans, we are trying to support our families in a tough economy. It's not fair to change the rules after we've served a full career, have been deployed to combat zones multiple times, uprooted our families every few years, and made other sacrifices for the benefit of our nation. Our representatives in Congress are keeping their retirement benefits; tell them to let our vets keep theirs, too!

Unless Congress acts, the Emergency Unemployment Compensation (EUC) program ends between Christmas and New Years for 1.3 million jobless Americans. Unemployment benefits will be cut from as much as 73 weeks to 26 weeks after December 28. EUC should continue until the economy picks up and jobs are available again (There are still 3 jobless for every job in the US). It's not only the 1.3 million that will loose benefits come December 28th but also the people that are set to run out of state benefits by the beginning of the year. The state of NJ has a unemployment rate of 8.4% one of the highest in the country.

Despite the modest "budget deal" that was struck between Rep. Paul Ryan and Sen. Patty Murray, 1.3 million people stand to lose unemployment insurance benefits three days after Christmas. This is needlessly Grinch-like. If Speaker Boehner were to bring a resolution to extend benefits to the House floor, it would almost certainly pass, and also sail through the Senate, plus easily obtain the President's signature. This needs to happen.

I am affected by the discontinuation of benefits for people who have been unemployed for more than the basic 26 weeks of unemployment coverage. I am over age 50 and encountering the age barriers to getting new employment and find that there is not social safety net available for people between ages 50 and 62 who are not caring for young children.

[NORTH CAROLINA SIGNERS ONLY] Art Pope, owner of the Roses and Maxway stores and Gov. Pat McCrory’s Budget Director, is the poster child of what one extremely wealthy individual can do to twist an entire state’s public policy in a racially divisive, ultra-conservative direction. African-American and low-income shoppers supply the largest share of his income, which he then uses to promote policies that keep them too poor to shop elsewhere. In reality, he’s a poverty creator more than a job creator. See: http://democracy-nc.org/downloads/PopeRosesFlowPage.pdf Many of his workers are also trapped – they’re paid less than a living wage and wind up relying on public assistance to support their families. In reality, Pope’s business is heavily subsidized by government funds, yet he uses his profits to promote a selfish, anti-social agenda – against voting rights, public education, fair taxes, campaign reform, healthcare for the poor. In this holiday season, please sign Democracy North Carolina’s petition to urge Art Pope to consider his Scrooge-like impact.

Twenty-year old Morium Begum lost her baby in her seventh month because of the unsafe working conditions she was forced into by Next Collections, a company that gives 70 percent of its output to Gap and Old Navy. Begum was forced to work over 100 hours a week, even while pregnant and ill. Her wage? Twenty-four cents an hour or less. The horror stories about the Next Collections factory are too numerous to count. According to a report released on 10/3/13 by the Institute for Global Labour and Human Rights, physical punishment -- including beatings -- are standard practice, as is illegal firing. Workers are paid in cash so that they can be cheated out of hundreds of thousands of dollars each year. Women are denied maternity leave. By the third week in a month, most workers do not have any money left to pay for food. Gap has allowed these abuses to continue, even though they are in violation of its official code of conduct. But Gap depends on our business to be successful. As a Gap customer, you have the power to stop this abuse. Tell Gap that you will boycott their stores until they adopt safe and fair labor practices. If enough people stop giving Gap business, the company will be forced to re-evaluate. It’s time the public stopped accepting sweatshop labor. We cannot in good conscience buy cheap clothes at the expense of human lives. Please join me in boycotting Gap until they end the abuses and beatings at the Next Collections factory. To learn more about Gap’s human rights abuses, please visit: http://www.globallabourrights.org/reports?id=0658 http://www.greenamerica.org/programs/responsibleshopper/company.cfm?id=229 https://www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/10/04-2

On December 5th, workers at the 181st Street Domino’s in New York City’s Washington Heights participated in a nationwide walkout to support underpaid fast-food employees. Management’s response was to have delivery workers—who only make $6/hour and must rely on tips—staff the store instead, but refused to pay them minimum wage for their time. After bringing this issue to management’s attention, the 20 delivery workers were fired. Sign our petition, urging Domino’s Pizza to immediately reinstate these workers.

Our goal is to place enough pressure on city council members to raise the minimum wages for workers in New York City to at least $10.10. As a teacher in a poor working class neighborhood in the Bronx, I see first hand the problems that plague the community I work at. With salaries set at the current minimum wage, parents (with an overwhelming majority being single mothers) are barely able to make ends meet despite the fact that many hold 2-3 jobs and work an exorbitant amount of hours. Many of my students spend a few minutes a day with their parents because the parents arrive home from work too late. With day care and other expenses on the rise, and wages not catching up with inflation it is imperative that we pass this bill to build better communities.

The staff at Uniondale Public Library are dedicated and they work hard. They are not rich people, they are the working student, the single parent, the person struggling to make ends meet. We should have had a contract by now, the staff is suffering and deserve a fair contract. Sign the petition and let administration know that this is NOT how you treat your staff.

Just at a time when President Obama is highlighting the problem of income inequality in our country, and the New York Times has editorialized about the role that corporate tax cuts have played in fostering it, City Council is poised to pass a bill that would repeal the City's main business tax, throwing millions of dollars at major corporations that need no help. In a City that leads the nation in poverty, those dollars need instead to be put into schools, social services of all kinds, and new forms of business enterprise like co-ops that foster local initiative and community involvement. We must say no to a vision of society that says only when the rich get richer will some few pennies trickle down to the "deserving" poor.