From a NELP op-ed piece in the San Francisco Chronicle by Michelle Natividad Rodriguez and Meredith Desautels:

San Francisco prides itself as being a national leader on civil and human rights. Yet we have continually failed a growing segment of our population – people with arrest or conviction records, who, even after putting those mistakes behind them and moving forward with their lives, face enormous barriers whenever they search for jobs or housing.

An estimated 7 million Californians have arrest or conviction records – that’s 25 percent of the state’s adult population. Many are denied a second chance to realize their potential and contribute to society because of the long shadow cast by past arrests or convictions.

One 60-year-old San Franciscan, for example, was denied a job for which he was perfectly matched after he disclosed a theft conviction from 40 years ago. Although he had become a well-respected family man and had no further problems with the law, he was denied the job because of a mistake from a lifetime ago.

[Read more under the cut.]

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From a NELP op-ed piece in the Detroit Free Press online, by Mike Evangelist:

Public opinion polls consistently reveal that most Americans believe trade agreements between the United States and other countries lead to job losses. Nonetheless, policymakers on both sides of the aisle have long supported free trade policies that open U.S. markets to goods made in low-wage countries and make it beneficial for U.S. companies to export American jobs.

Following NAFTA’s failure to deliver on promised job gains and the more recent susceptibility of once-secure white-collar jobs to off-shoring, cracks are forming in the free-trade facade as policymakers begin to acknowledge that trade does not unequivocally benefit workers here at home or abroad.

Most recently, President Barack Obama postponed action on pending free trade agreements with South Korea, Colombia and Panama until Congress agrees to reauthorize key improvements to the Trade Adjustment Assistance program, which expired three months ago. The TAA program equips workers who suffer trade-related layoffs with vital skills retraining and reemployment services to help them restart their careers and find good jobs.

[Read more after the cut.]

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What do the corporations Altria, Coca-Cola, ExxonMobil, Pfizer, and Wal-Mart all have in common?

Besides being multi-million dollar corporations, these five companies are also part of ALEC, aka the American Legislative Exchange Council.

According to the most recent report by Common Cause, ALEC has nearly 2,000 members who are either state legislators or corporate executives. Together, these two parties work together under the guise of ALEC, drafting “model” bills and eventually enacting them across the country.

The problem is that these bills reach into some sectors that are of greatest importance to the American public, such as environmental protections, fiscal transparency, and voting rights.

Included in the report is a full listing of ALEC money spent per state and an analysis of spending across party lines. Although ALEC certainly leans  towards the Republicans, giving 87.7 million to candidates since 2001, the organization hasn’t ignored Democrats, giving 53.2 million since 2001. Although ALEC identifies as non-partisan, only 1 of 104 legislators in ALEC is a Democrat.

In any case, ALEC is a powerful force that seems to be getting stronger.

You can download and read the full report by clicking here.

An op-ed piece from Christine Owens, as published on CNN.com:

Editor’s note: Christine Owens is executive director of the National Employment Law Project, a nonprofit advocacy organization for employment rights of lower-wage workers.

(CNN) — It’s Americans’ chief concern. The biggest drain on our economy. The greatest threat to our future and our children’s future. No, it’s not the debt ceiling or the budget deficit. It’s the jobs crisis — the fact that we’re stuck in a rut of tepid job growth and record high long-term unemployment, and seem hard pressed to do anything about it.

But instead of tackling the jobs crisis, the nation’s leaders spent the last weeks embroiled in a protracted and infuriating debt ceiling debate, which at the last minute produced a deal that caps federal spending and creates a process to eventually achieve nearly $2.5 trillion in budget cuts over the next decade.

As so often seems to happen in Washington these days, it was the wrong debate and the wrong solution for our economy, and will weaken the recovery even further.

[More under the cut.]

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From the Alaska State Legislature:

Two brand new $100 million dollar oil drilling rigs are on their way to the North Slope to be used as part of British Petroleum’s land-based operations, despite supposed financial strain facing these oil companies. For those who don’t necessarily recall, Governor Parnell proposed to roll back taxes on oil corporations by $8 billion. The appearance of these two new oil rigs, one of which is pictured below, seem to tell a different story about the financial situations of those corporations in question.

Photo courtesy of Hollis French

Despite global profit decreases for ConocoPhillips as a whole, the company reported it’s 2011 Alaska second quarter profits at $490 million, which is 26% greater than 2010 Alaska second quarter profits. In the words of stock analyst Chris Mayer, “ConocoPhillips is making over $5 million in profits every day in Alaska, in a quarter when their global profits fell. Alaska is a cash cow for them.”

For the entire release, click here.

From Maurice Emsellem, Policy Co-Director of the National Employment Law Project:

The Task Force on Job Creation has released it’s latest report for 2011.

Participants included Rep. John Garamendi (D-CA 10), Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA), Sen. Leonard Boswell (D-IA), Leo Hindery, Jr., Sherle Schwenninger, Hon. Patrick Mulloy, and moderator Michael Hirsh.

The 32-page report is available for any interested parties in a pdf format. It includes 15 recommendations to assist in remedying the economic and job situation, including both short and long-term scenarios.

The full report can be found and downloaded here.

Real Pay for Full-Time Minimum Wage Earners Down $800 this Year;

Purchasing Power of Low-wage Earners has Fallen Since Congress Last Raised the Minimum Wage, Two Years Ago This Sunday

 On Sunday, July 24, two years will have passed since Congress last raised the federal minimum wage to $7.25 per hour. The increase gave a modest bump in pay to approximately 4.5 million workers, of whom more than three-quarters were adults, nearly two-thirds were women, and nearly half a million were single parents with children under 18. Since then, the value of the wage has fallen: minimum wage earners would take home an extra $800 this year if the wage kept pace with rising inflation.

As President Obama noted earlier this month, CEO compensation grew 23 percent last year, while wages for the average American worker grew only half a percent, and actually fell slightly after inflation. Minimum wage workers have fared even worse: since the 2009 increase, the real value of the minimum wage has fallen 5 percent. An increase in the federal minimum wage now would provide a critical boost to consumer demand and promote hiring and job growth, the National Employment Law Project said today.

[From the National Employment Law Project. Read more after the cut.]

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