When news of mass layoffs became unavoidable, IssueLab (a publishing forum for nonprofit research) unearthed a widely scattered body of research about how this affects people with disabilities (PWD). With proven discrimination against job seekers with disabilities and an increasingly competitive labor market, it is only becoming tougher for PWD to find and retain employment. Some of the issues faced by this ...

Many, if not most liberal commentators are sharply critical of capitalism these days, for obvious reasons. But one must be a bit nuanced in this critique. It is very easy, but very simplistic, to point to capitalism per se as the single or even primary cause of the downfall of America we are beginning to live through. ...

In the wake of finical crisis Assemblyman Tom Ammiano introduced a Bill that would tax and regulate Marijuana (California's number one cash crop) in a manner similar to alcohol. You can read the brief article by clicking on this link: http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2009/02/23-5 ...

Iran/Contra whistleblower Celerino "Cele" Castillo III has been sentenced to prison in Texas, but Nacro News reporters raise questions whether Castillo prosecution was politically motivated. Castillo was convicted last year on charges of dealing firearms without a license. Many facts points to a possible frame up, involving conflict of interests of his lawyer, which include the lawyer's son facing serious g ...

The numbers of US citizens murdered by the police is large and the numbers are growing since the 1990s. According to a Bureau of Justice Statistics 2007 report, from 2003 through 2005 at least 2,002 people died during arrests by local and state law enforcement. The number of arrest related deaths actually increased by 13% during the course of the three years studied. In the 1990s the 'Stolen Lives Project' ...

The California Green Party accuses Democrats of blocking legislation to hold police accountable for misconduct. A political solution may have prevented such acts of police brutality such as the shooting death of Oscar Grant. Elected officials have been blocking police accountability for years. SB1019 and AB 1648 would have given the public access to police records concerning misconduct. Public access to pol ...

Dennis Loo writes that President Obama's opposition to the Fairness Doctrine is very bad news. The Fairness Doctrine was an old 1949 FCC regulation that mandated equal time for opposing views on public airwaves. This week the Obama administration made it clear that they had no intention to reinstate the Fairness Doctrine. This is unfortunate because the regulation would pose a major threat to the influence ...

Kevin Martinez writes that the California legislature’s new budged balances a $42 billion deficit on the backs of regular people with a combination of regressive taxes as well as startling budget cuts to services the population desperately needs like social services and education. Its Endless tax breaks and for the wealthy classes and business while children, the poor and the disabled face drastic cuts. The ...

      Although it no longer makes headlines nor the six o’clock news, about twice a month in 1978 somebody launched something into space.      NASA’s current agenda alone calls for domestic communications satellites, weather satellites, new military communications and surveillance satellites, a satellite to test the magnetosphere, one to study propulsion principles, experimental TV broadcast satellites, oce ...

The nightmare of rendition kidnapping, indefinite detention and gruesome torture has not gone away by having Bush leave office and Obama take over. Obama is making sure that his agents and lawmakers are above the law by upholding the Bush era proclamations concerning 'state secret privileges.' Obama is taking the very same position Bush did on state secrets. When the 9th Federal Court asked whether a change ...