Happy day after Thanksgiving! Here’s your daily digest of news we’re following, compiled by BillMoyers.com’s John Light.
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Sneaky –> Ken Vogel at Politico: “Senate Republicans plan to insert a provision into a must-pass government funding bill that would vastly expand the amount of cash that political parties could spend on candidates, multiple sources tell POLITICO. The provision… would eliminate caps on the amount of cash that parties may spend in coordination with their candidates.”
No Black Thursday –> As Black Friday creeps ever earlier into Thanksgiving Thursday, some stores are fighting back, declaring that their employees deserve the holiday off, regardless of shoppers’ desire to stampede for bargain prices. That’s good news for all of us, writes Rebecca Leber at New Republic, but especially for retail workers.
Keeping a close eye –> At Bloomberg Businessweek, Susan Berfield reports on how Walmart spies on its employees, hoping to prevent Black Friday strikes or unionization drives that would hurt its business model. “Walmart considered [labor group OUR Walmart] enough of a threat that it hired an intelligence-gathering service from Lockheed Martin, contacted the FBI, staffed up its labor hotline, ranked stores by labor activity, and kept eyes on employees (and activists) prominent in the group… Employees (or associates, as they’re called at Walmart) across the company were watched; the briefest conversations were reported to the ‘home office,’ as Walmart calls its headquarters in Bentonville, Ark.”
Thanksgiving message –> John Parkison and Benjamin Siegel for ABC News: “The Obama administration said Wednesday that states can’t legally block the resettlement of refugees, according to a letter from the HHS Office of Refugee Resettlement sent to state officials.” The letter explains that “states are bound by the Refugee Act of 1980 to provide ‘assistance and services’ to refugees ‘without regard to race, religion, nationality, sex or political opinion.'”
ALSO: In an animated video put out by the Obama administration, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson explains the rigorous vetting process Syrian refugees already go through before being allowed to settle in the United States. “We can continue to ensure our own security,” Johnson says, “while doing our share to welcome refugees fleeing violence, looking to America as their beacon of hope and freedom.”
Britain weighs its options –> The UK is trying to decide if it will get involved in the war against ISIS. Tory Prime Minister David Cameron yesterday made the case before Parliament that bombing the terrorist organization would make the UK “safer,” reports the BBC. The Labour Party opposition is split on whether to ramp up military action.
AND: In an op-ed at The Guardian, French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian writes, “It is France’s hope that British forces will soon be working side by side with their French counterparts to take this fight to the very heart of Isis, defeating it and making our countries and peoples safer.” AND: French PM Hollande and Russia’s Vladimir Putin have pledged increased cooperation in Syria, reports Andrew Roth for The Washington Post.
Deeper truths –> At Esquire, Britt Julious writes how the video of black teenager Laquan McDonald’s murder at the hands of a white police officer lays bare Chicago’s larger systemic problems: “We’ve known all along how Chicago operates. The corruption flowing through all levels of government is a given and a running joke. The violence, conveniently pocketed in forgotten communities. The push and pull of history, the real currency of power more than outright wealth.”
Just another day on the campaign trail –> At The New York Times, Jason Horowitz recounts how some teenage students attended a Trump rally for extra credit. After vocally objecting to the candidate’s Islamophobia, they were ejected and, two of the students said, called a racial epithet.
Bad investment –> If the Paris climate talks starting Monday achieve their goal of limiting climate change to less than 2 degrees Celsius, oil and coal companies could end up in big financial trouble, reports Damian Carrington at The Guardian. “Fossil fuel companies risk wasting up to $2tn (£1.3tn) of investors’ money in the next decade on projects left worthless by global action on climate change and the surge in clean energy, according to a new report.”
Can you teach a miner to code? –> As the coal industry continues to collapse, thousands of Appalachians are seeing job opportunities disappear. At Medium’s Backchannel, Lauren Smiley follows an attempt by a group of blue collar workers in Kentucky to reinvent themselves as coders.
Downside of the Oval Office –> President Obama is not fond of pardoning Thanksgiving turkeys, but his daughters hate it even more. And the GOP hates the whole thing too because, well, Obama.
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