Washington, DC–(ENEWSPF)–April 19, 2013.  Pairing progressive changes to the tax code with temporary spending increases would support economic recovery in the short term while helping to stabilize the country’s long-term fiscal outlook, a new Economic Policy Institute (EPI) report shows. In Many options exist for raising revenue in a smart[Read More…]

Washington, DC—(ENEWSPF)—April 19, 2013. Regional and state unemployment rates were little changed in March. Twenty-six states and the District of Columbia had unemployment rate decreases, 7 states had increases, and 17 states had no change, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Thirty-nine states and the District of Columbia[Read More…]

Washington, DC—(ENEWSPF)—April 18, 2013. Median weekly earnings of the nation’s 102.6 million full-time wage and salary workers were $773 in the first quarter of 2013 (not seasonally adjusted), the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. This was 0.5 percent higher than a year earlier, compared with a gain of[Read More…]

More than 26 million are at risk of a Hydrofluoric Acid Release Washington, D.C.–(ENEWSPF)–April 17, 2013.  A United Steelworkers (USW) study released today—“A Risk Too Great, Hydrofluoric Acid in U.S. Refineries”—warns that refiners that use hydrofluoric acid (HF) in their alkylation process to make clean-burning gasoline do not have adequate[Read More…]

Critique Limitations of Current Justice Reinvestment Initiative NEW YORK–(ENEWSPF)–April 17, 2013.  Today, a group of researchers, analysts, and advocates dedicated to ending mass incarceration in the United States issued a paper that traces the history and examines the impact of the Justice Reinvestment Initiative (JRI) as spearheaded by the Council[Read More…]

Nearly two-thirds would support a ballot measure to make marijuana legal for adults and establish a system in which it is regulated and taxed similarly to alcohol  Statements below from the Marijuana Policy Project, the Drug Policy Alliance, and the sponsor of the poll WASHINGTON, D.C.–(ENEWSPF)–April 17, 2013. Three out[Read More…]

Savings in health care costs alone estimated at almost $350 million a year Atlanta, GA–(ENEWSPF)–April 16,k 2013.  The estimated annual cost savings from eliminating smoking in all U.S. subsidized housing would be $521 million, according to a new study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  This is the[Read More…]

MIT urbanist’s new book shows how active neighborhood communities helped revitalize the city after Hurricane Katrina CAMBRIDGE, Mass.–(ENEWSPF)–April 16, 2013.  Soon after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, in August 2005, residents of the heavily flooded Broadmoor neighborhood began organizing their recovery. They founded a local development organization to help repair[Read More…]

Washington, D.C.-(ENEWSPF)- “Guns are rarely used to kill criminals or stop crimes” according to the new Violence Policy Center (VPC) report Firearm Justifiable Homicides and Non-Fatal Self-Defense Gun Use(http://www.vpc.org/studies/justifiable.pdf).   The report analyzes national data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program’s Supplementary Homicide Report (SHR) and[Read More…]

Washington, D.C.-(ENEWSPF)- Fifty-two percent of Americans say that the adult consumption of cannabis ought to be legal, according to national polling datareleased last week by the Pew Research Center. The total is the highest percentage of support ever reported by Pew, which began surveying public opinion on this issue in 1973. This year’s[Read More…]