Gulf South unemployment increases by 66 percent
Blurb
<p><strong>897,118 more unemployed</strong></p>
<p>Unemployment in the five states of the Gulf South increased by 897,118 workers in the year from May, 2008 to May, 2009. This was a 66% increase! According to seasonally adjusted data available from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Florida had the highest regional unemployment rate of 10.2%, increasing from 5.8% a year ago by adding another 408,553 workers to the ranks of the unemployed. Alabama was second in the region with 9.8% of its workers unemployed and Mississippi was third with 9.6% unemployed. The national unemployment rate in May was 9.4%.</p>
<p>Unemployment in the five states of the Gulf South increased by 897,118 workers in the year from May, 2008 to May, 2009. This was a 66% increase! According to seasonally adjusted data available from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Florida had the highest regional unemployment rate of 10.2%, increasing from 5.8% a year ago by adding another 408,553 workers to the ranks of the unemployed. Alabama was second in the region with 9.8% of its workers unemployed and Mississippi was third with 9.6% unemployed. The national unemployment rate in May was 9.4%.</p>
897,118 more unemployed
Racial Disparity in Drug Arrests
Blurb
<p>African Americans have been arrested at disproportionately higher rates than whites since 1980, reports Human Rights Watch. The higher rates of arrest do not reflect higher rates of black drug offenses. In fact, most people who use drugs are white.</p>
African Americans have been arrested at disproportionately higher rates than whites since 1980, reports Human Rights Watch. The higher rates of arrest do not reflect higher rates of black drug offenses. In fact, most people who use drugs are white.
Louisiana Incarceration Rate Highest among 50 states
Blurb
<p>Louisiana incarcerates more of its citizens than any other state. One of every 55 Louisiana residents is incarcerated according to a new Pew Center for the States study.</p>
Louisiana incarcerates more of its citizens than any other state. One of every 55 Louisiana residents is incarcerated according to a new Pew Center for the States study. Mississippi is ranked second, Texas fifth, Alabama sixth, and Florida eighth. The same study, One in 31: The Long Reach of American Corrections, finds that one of every 31 U.S. adults is under some form of correctional supervision. Whereas 2.1 million people were in the correctional system in 1982, that number has grown to 7.3 million today. The national rate of incarceration has increased by 272 percent since 1982.
Nineteen more Haitians deported from Louisiana on Friday, April 15
Blurb
<p><strong>U.S. Government resumes deportations to devastated and diseased country</strong></p>
<p>Despite vigorous protestations from human rights and immigrant advocacy groups across the country, the U.S. government resumed deportations to Haiti on Friday, April 15. At approximately 10 AM that morning 19 Haitians who had been held in detention centers in Louisiana since early December, 2010, were put on a flight to Port-au-Prince. On January 20, 2011, the U.S. conducted the first deportations to Haiti since the January 2010 massive earthquake when it sent back 27 detainees, who were subsequently detained in Haiti in filthy police sub-stations holding cells without food, medical care, toilet facilities, or clean water. Less than 10 days after the January flight one of the detainees, Wildrick Guerrier, was dead from cholera-like symptoms.</p>
<p>Despite vigorous protestations from human rights and immigrant advocacy groups across the country, the U.S. government resumed deportations to Haiti on Friday, April 15. At approximately 10 AM that morning 19 Haitians who had been held in detention centers in Louisiana since early December, 2010, were put on a flight to Port-au-Prince. On January 20, 2011, the U.S. conducted the first deportations to Haiti since the January 2010 massive earthquake when it sent back 27 detainees, who were subsequently detained in Haiti in filthy police sub-stations holding cells without food, medical care, toilet facilities, or clean water. Less than 10 days after the January flight one of the detainees, Wildrick Guerrier, was dead from cholera-like symptoms.</p>
U.S. Government resumes deportations to devastated and diseased country
by Sue Weishar, Ph.D.
Remembering MLK
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<p><strong><span><span>Honor the Dignity of Workers</span></span></strong></p>
<p>The Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., walked the picket line the day before an assassin's bullet ended his life on April 4, 1968. A Nobel Prize-winner courted by presidents, King spent his final hours with Memphis garbage collectors fighting for the right to unionize. As we remember King's legacy on the anniversary of his death, the struggle for economic justice continues amid new assaults on workers' collective bargaining rights, the worst income inequality since the Great Depression, and irresponsible budget cuts that will hurt the most vulnerable.</p>
<p>The Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., walked the picket line the day before an assassin's bullet ended his life on April 4, 1968. A Nobel Prize-winner courted by presidents, King spent his final hours with Memphis garbage collectors fighting for the right to unionize. As we remember King's legacy on the anniversary of his death, the struggle for economic justice continues amid new assaults on workers' collective bargaining rights, the worst income inequality since the Great Depression, and irresponsible budget cuts that will hurt the most vulnerable.</p>
Honor the Dignity of Workers
by Alex Mikulich, Ph.D.
A budget moral framework
Blurb
<p> <strong><span>What is more important than debt, deficit, and tax reduction?</span></strong></p>
<p>This month, the Republicans in the U.S. House of representatives have passed their budget resolution (the <em>Ryan plan</em>, named for Chairman Paul Ryan of the House Budget Committee) for the next federal fiscal year; it is meant to serve as a framework for actual spending bills in the coming months. It is touted as debt and deficit reduction—all from cutting domestic programs like Medicare and Medicaid—and it has trillions of dollars of tax reductions over the next ten years.</p>
<p>This month, the Republicans in the U.S. House of representatives have passed their budget resolution (the <em>Ryan plan</em>, named for Chairman Paul Ryan of the House Budget Committee) for the next federal fiscal year; it is meant to serve as a framework for actual spending bills in the coming months. It is touted as debt and deficit reduction—all from cutting domestic programs like Medicare and Medicaid—and it has trillions of dollars of tax reductions over the next ten years.</p>
What is more important than debt, deficit, and tax reduction?
By Fr. Fred Kammer, SJ
"Secure Communities" are deportation dragnet
Blurb
<p class="rteleft"><strong>Jefferson Parish leads the nation</strong></p>
<p><span>Secure Communities</span> is a program of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) that allows state and local law enforcement to check the fingerprints of a person they have booked into a jail against Department of Homeland Security (DHS) immigration databases. If there is a match with fingerprints in an immigration database, ICE is automatically notified, regardless of whether the person has been convicted of any criminal act.</p>
<p><span>Secure Communities</span> is a program of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) that allows state and local law enforcement to check the fingerprints of a person they have booked into a jail against Department of Homeland Security (DHS) immigration databases. If there is a match with fingerprints in an immigration database, ICE is automatically notified, regardless of whether the person has been convicted of any criminal act.</p>
Jefferson Parish leads the nation
By Susan Weishar, Ph.D.
Economics or morality?
Blurb
<p><strong>When a budget is not an economics exercise<br />
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<p>The drama of competing federal budgets and the ensuing game of “chicken” about who will shut down government is red meat for the pundits, the media, and ambitious politicians. But it ignores one basic truth: government budgets are not about economics; they are about fundamental morality. Over and over again Catholic teaching stresses the responsibility of government for the local, national, and global common good and the duty to protect and lift up the poor and vulnerable. Such moral duties and responsibilities are now on the line in Washington.</p>
</strong></p>
<p>The drama of competing federal budgets and the ensuing game of “chicken” about who will shut down government is red meat for the pundits, the media, and ambitious politicians. But it ignores one basic truth: government budgets are not about economics; they are about fundamental morality. Over and over again Catholic teaching stresses the responsibility of government for the local, national, and global common good and the duty to protect and lift up the poor and vulnerable. Such moral duties and responsibilities are now on the line in Washington.</p>
When a budget is not an economics exercise
By Fr. Fred Kammer, SJ
The Death Penalty in Dixie
Blurb
<p><strong><span>The enduring legacy of the Confederate flag and racism</span></strong></p>
<p>Despite both recent Supreme Court jurisprudence and the widely held American assumption that official racial discrimination ended with Civil Rights legislation of the 1960s and 1970s, the legacy of official racial discrimination is alive and well in the last capital of the Confederacy—Caddo Parish (Shreveport), Louisiana. </p>
<p>Despite both recent Supreme Court jurisprudence and the widely held American assumption that official racial discrimination ended with Civil Rights legislation of the 1960s and 1970s, the legacy of official racial discrimination is alive and well in the last capital of the Confederacy—Caddo Parish (Shreveport), Louisiana. </p>
The enduring legacy of the Confederate flag and racism
By Alex Mikulich, Ph.D.
Despite both recent Supreme Court jurisprudence and the widely held American assumption that official racial discrimination ended with Civil Rights legislation of the 1960s and 1970s, the legacy of official racial discrimination is alive and well in the last capital of the Confederacy—Caddo Parish (Shreveport), Louisiana.
Religious leaders call Mississippians to end predatory lending
Blurb
<p><strong>Pending bill continues debt trap for low-income borrowers</strong><strong><br />
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<p>On January 11, 2011, a coalition of Mississippi’s religious and social justice leaders called Mississippians and the state legislature to end predatory payday lending. As the Mississippi House Banking Committee unanimously passed a bill that would extend predatory lending in Mississippi, Bishop Hope Morgan of the United Methodist Church reflected: “I come to bring good news to the poor—572 percent is not good news to the poor. The poor are being entrapped. We are better people than this.</p>
</strong></p>
<p>On January 11, 2011, a coalition of Mississippi’s religious and social justice leaders called Mississippians and the state legislature to end predatory payday lending. As the Mississippi House Banking Committee unanimously passed a bill that would extend predatory lending in Mississippi, Bishop Hope Morgan of the United Methodist Church reflected: “I come to bring good news to the poor—572 percent is not good news to the poor. The poor are being entrapped. We are better people than this.</p>
Pending bill continues debt trap for low-income borrowers
By Alex Mikulich, Ph.D.