GOP Wants to Put Workers Under AI’s Thumb: Shorter Work Week Is Better Answer

Source: Beat the Press
by Dean Baker

“Productivity growth is an old concept; we’ve been seeing it at a substantial pace for more than 200 years. Nonetheless, many elite intellectual types like to claim they know nothing about it when they talk about AI. It’s far from clear how much of a productivity boom we will see with AI. For people who are lost with my reference to productivity growth, the story that AI will take all the jobs is a story of a massive productivity boom. If that happens, it will mean that the people who are still working will be hugely more productive, since we will be producing the same or more goods and services as we do at present, with many fewer people working. FWIW, virtually no major forecaster or forecasting agency is projecting anything like this productivity boom. For example, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projects that productivity growth will average 1.5 percent over the next decade.” (05/07/26)

https://cepr.net/publications/april-2026-jobs-preview/

More than a dozen former NFL players join sex abuse lawsuits against Ohio State University

Source: NBC News

“Thirty former Ohio State University football players, including more than a dozen who went on to play in the NFL, signed on to the class action lawsuit brought by other ex-OSU students who say they were sexually abused decades ago by campus doctor Richard Strauss. … NBC News has reached out to OSU for comment about the 30 men joining the lawsuit but didn’t immediately receive a response. The university and its former president have previously publicly apologized ‘to each person who endured’ abuse at the hands of Strauss. Ohio State has been battling Strauss-related lawsuits in the Southern District of Ohio since 2018.” (05/07/26)

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/dozen-former-nfl-players-join-sex-abuse-lawsuits-ohio-state-university-rcna343547

Clarence Thomas becomes second longest-serving SCOTUS justice in American history

Source: SFGate

“The first baby boomer on the Supreme Court hit a milestone on Thursday, becoming the second-longest serving justice in history at a time when his influence has never seemed greater. Once an outlier on the nation’s highest court, Justice Clarence Thomas has become a towering figure in the conservative legal movement over the last decade as he helped secure landmark rulings on abortion, voting and Second Amendment rights. The only justice with a longer tenure is liberal William O. Douglas. Thomas would overtake Douglas in 2028 if he remains on the court, and there is no sign he plans to retire anytime soon.” (05/07/26)

https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/clarence-thomas-becomes-the-second-22246568.php