As the 2012 U.S. presidential campaign heats up and debates how to ignite a fragile economic recovery, the Greater New Orleans Community Data Center recently released a study demonstrating the need for New Orleans to “place greater emphasis on building the education and skills of its future workforce in a more inclusive way.”

by Alex Mikulich Ph.D.

A stunningly attractive new product is being offered by at least four banks nationwide.  The product—to use an overly respectful term—is called a Direct Deposit Advance (DDA).  The problem: DDAs work just like a predatory payday loan and appear to be even more deceptive.  

Not since Ronald Reagan

by Fred Kammer, S.J.

It’s not about my business, my taxes, or my family

by Fred Kammer, S.J.

Why People of Faith Should Be Concerned

By Fred Kammer, S.J.

ECONOMIC INEQUALITY IS REAL AND WORSENING

Having monitored economic inequality for 30-plus years, the current “news” about growing inequality seems almost to be too late and too little. Accusations of “class warfare” against those who question our current economic realities in the United States ignore the “stealth class warfare” of four decades that has brought us to this yawning gap between rich and poor in both income and wealth.

By Fred Kammer, S.J.

In their 1986 pastoral letter on Economic Justice for All, the U.S. bishops remind their readers of the three classical forms of justice: commutative justice (dealing with fairness in contracts among individuals and private social groups), distributive justice, and social justice. In the context of the nation’s recent awakening to economic inequality—prompted in large part by the Occupy movements—it is most helpful here to revisit the meaning and roots of the concept of distributive justice. In the bishops’ words:

Dr. Alex Mikulich of JSRI and Sophie Cull of the Louisiana Coalition for Alternatives to the Death Penalty recently published an extensive study on the Death Penalty in Louisiana. The full text of the study and a short brief are available through the Catholic Mobilizing Network.

Read the full text of the study: Diminishing All of Us: The Death Penalty in Louisana

On Monday, March 5, 2012 from 6:45 to 8 pm there will be a an Interfaith Evening of Prayer to Abolish State Killings hosted by Archbishop Gregory Aymond at St.

The Florida Center for Fiscal and Economic Policy released in January, 2012, its report on The Condition of Florida by the Numbers, including statistics on unemployment, poverty, income inequality, lack of health care, food stamp or SNAP usage, Medicaid, and distressed ownership. See full report here.

Louisiana Catholics Committed to Repeal of Death Penalty joins Louisiana for Alternatives to the Death Penalty in a campaign to reform jury selection in death penalty cases. 

It's not very often that you can have an impact on criminal justice reform in little more than 60 seconds. You can do just that by recording your testimony for a campaign that aims to reform jury selection in death penalty cases.