Source: The Hill
by Fracois Melese

“New York City’s mayor, Zohran Mamdani, is pushing for ‘$30 in ’30,’ to raise the city’s minimum from $17 today to $30/hour by the end of the decade. Supporters applaud lawmakers granting struggling workers a ‘living wage.’ The logic seems clear: Wage hikes boost incomes, making life more affordable. But although increases to the minimum wage help those lucky enough to keep their jobs, hours and benefits, they hurt many more.” (04/19/26)

https://thehill.com/opinion/finance/5836543-pro-growth-policies-affordability/

Source: TomDispatch
by Liz Theoharis

“In late March, I sat in the gallery of the Supreme Court for the first time in my life. Throughout my 30 years of grassroots anti-poverty work, I’ve joined countless protests and vigils outside the Court. In 2018, I was even arrested and held in detention for praying on its palatial steps. Now, I was seated with a clear view of the nine justices of the nation’s highest court. I was there as a guest of immigrant rights lawyers, as their team made oral arguments in Noem v. Al Otro Lado, the most significant case on the right to asylum in decades. In February, the Kairos Center (the organization I direct) authored an interfaith amicus brief on that very case, alongside 31 denominations and organizations representing faith traditions practiced by billions worldwide. Those groups… joined together to declare that our societal obligation to provide for persecuted outsiders is a universally shared moral principle.” (04/20/26)

https://tomdispatch.com/give-me-your-tired-your-poor/

Source: David Friedman’s Substack
by David Friedman

“My previous post provided an example of the use of past legal systems in understanding our present legal system: the logic of feud law applied to high tech patent litigation. There are others, some of which suggest changes we might want to make to our system, ideas we could steal.” (04/19/26)

https://daviddfriedman.substack.com/p/ideas-we-can-steal

Source: UnHerd
by Richard Hanania

“Are America’s top scientists being kidnapped or disappeared by a foreign adversary? Right-wing media are abuzz with speculation that 11 different individuals working on issues related to secret technology or the investigation of extraterrestrial life have been picked off one by one: murdered, kidnapped, disappeared. The stuff of The X-Files, in short: ‘The truth is out there,’ but shadowy forces don’t want you to know. After working its way through the conservative press and the online Right, this narrative got a major boost last week, when White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said that the administration was looking into the matter. … Fortunately, this entire narrative appears to be, to put it gently, complete nonsense.” (04/19/26)

https://archive.is/qWqXX

Source: In These Times
by Kayla Yup

“Luis Hernandez, then 35, woke to a gray, hazy sky on Feb. 17, 2024. He opted for a warm sweater and cargo pants with pockets just big enough to hold his spare canister of oxygen, but he hoped he wouldn’t need it. It would be a big day out for him and his friends — the Rose Bowl Stadium in Pasadena, Calif., was hosting a special Pokemon Go event where some of the rarest Pokemon could be found. When the group arrived, they headed straight to the belly of the bowl, blanketed with bright green turf. Hernandez settled into a rhythm: Walk 50 feet. Pause for 30 minutes. Catch some Pokemon. Walk another 50 feet. Pause another 30 minutes. Catch some Pokemon. Walk another 50 feet. Pause another 30 minutes. When he started gasping for air, he sat down — on a chair if he was lucky, the turf if he was not.” (04/20/26)

https://inthesetimes.com/article/decades-struggle-workplace-protections-california-stoneworkers-lung-disease