National
Progressive Caucus backs public health insurance plan
April 8, 2009While one of the AFL-CIO’s key health care reform principles—a public health insurance option—has been vigorously attacked by the private insurance industry, it received important backing last week from the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC). The CPC...
Read more
Opinion: Arts Advocacy Day testimony from Linda Ronstadt
April 8, 2009Special to the Mercury News Editor's note: The following is the full testimony Linda Ronstadt is delivering today to a Congressional subcommittee as part of Arts Advocacy Day. Ronstadt, a Grammy-award winning singer, is artistic director...
Read more
Battle Congress cant escape: Fight for employee free choice follows lawmakers home
April 8, 2009When people think about the fight for labor law reform that is front and center these days in organized labor’s push for passage of the Employee Free Choice Act, they think of groups lobbying in the...
Read more
Big victories for marriage equality in Vermont, Iowa
April 8, 2009Same-sex couples and gay rights activists nationwide are celebrating after major victories today in Vermont and last week in Iowa, two states that are paving the way in allowing gay couples to marry. Lawmakers in Vermont...
Read more
Shoe-repairman, veteran, bobbin boy, Communist: 93 years with a twinkle in his eye
April 8, 2009PROVIDENCE, R.I. — John Hovan has been reading this newspaper, and its predecessors going back to the Daily Worker, since the early 1930s — in the depths of the Great Depression. It’s been a key to...
Read more