IMPORTANT READS

EMPLOYMENT POLITICS-For more than fifty years, Peter Cove, (photo above with colleague and wife Lee Bowes) the founder of America Works, has dedicated himself to finding jobs for welfare recipients, ex-offenders and other low-income Americans.

PERSPECTIVE--David Koch, one of the two infamous billionaire Koch brothers, died Friday at the age of 79.

LOVE, TRUMP STYLE--Donald Trump loves farmers. We know this because he says so. “Farmers, I LOVE YOU!” he declared in December.  

PLATKIN ON PLANNING-With the mainstream news media attracting eyeballs through endless stories about Jeffrey Epstein, Roger Ailes, R. Kelley, and other lowlifes, it is getting harder to be outraged.

JUSTICE-Four hundred years ago this month, the first enslaved people from Africa arrived in Virginia. Slavery is often reduced to a crime of America’s long-ago past. But enslaved labor created the backbone for America’s capitalistic economy, allowing it to grow into — and remain — the world’s leading economy today.  

FIGHT FOR A LIVING WAGE-Last month, the House voted to incrementally raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour. If the Senate passes the bill, it would be the first federal minimum wage increase in more than a decade — far too long for residents of the 21 states that don’t have their own higher minimum wage.