Unlike wages, health insurance premiums are not subject to taxation. Proposals to end this tax exclusion are emerging in the discussions of how to pay for health care reform. Recent articles from the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the New Republic have reported that top White House aides and members of Congress want to keep the option of taxing employer health benefits firmly on the table.

After two officers were shot hours earlier, police in Oakland shoot and kill a young African American male suspect when alternative remedies might have been available. Confrontation that could have ended with only one death turns into four.

Most commercial farms concentrate on growing a few select crops to supply a wide variety of customers, but gardening at home is a different story entirely. Most backyard food gardeners are looking to augment their family’s diet with a variety of seasonal fruits, vegetables and herbs throughout the growing season.

The immigration imbroglio is the gorilla in the room that won't go away. Feeding on this and last years' gigantic job losses and fear of more to come, anti-immigrant anger is exploding across the US.

Shirley Samayoa worked at the Colibri Group for 27 years, making jewelry and cigarette lighters. Yesterday, as her former employer auctioned off the company's assets, she and twelve of her coworkers and allies sat down to say "enough is enough."

House Republicans, Thursday March 19, blocked a resolution that expressed congressional outrage over the AIG bonus fiasco, demanding a return of the funds paid to AIG executives.

The Obama administration made a campaign promise that national health legislation would pass early in his administration. The promise has not been derailed by the Daschle fumble. In fact, the outline of an official proposal just might be put forward within a month.

A fundamental legal principle of capitalism is the sanctity of contracts. Exchanges of goods and services cannot be made without them. Without legally binding contracts, society would be an anarchic mess.

Burlington, VT -- Working people's voices were not heard at the Obama Administration's second regional Health Care Summit in Burlington, VT on March 17.

NEW YORK, March 18, 2009 – In a major setback for Pentagon plans to install a U.S. military radar base in the Czech Republic, the Czech government yesterday withdrew, at least for now (and possibly for good), its proposal to ratify an agreement on the base.

Veterans For Peace objects to President Obama's plan to keep troops in Iraq until 2011. "Beside the suffering and death caused by prolonging these wars, America simply can no longer afford the cost of empire," commented Mike Ferner, the group's National President.

As poor business decisions and the deepening recession forced the US-based Big Three automakers to seek a financial bailout from the US government totaling $25 billion last year, production in other countries by those car makers outpaced US production.

The Employee Free Choice Act was introduced in Congress last week to the delight of the labor movement and to the chagrin of top CEOs of companies like Wal-Mart, government bailout recipients like Citgroup, and a host of pro-big business front groups with dubious names like the Workforce Fairness Institute.

Washington, D.C.—The Sierra Club today reaffirmed is strong commitment to working for the passage of the Employee Free Choice Act. Sierra Club President Allison Chin spoke at a rally outside the U.S. Capitol.

Homeless advocates in the United States say if the new Congress and the Barack Obama administration do nothing, many more low-income people already teetering on the brink could end up living on the streets over the next two years.

Using the same language as the previous US administration to justify a surge of troops in Afghanistan, Gen. David Petraeus told a gathering sponsored by the World Affairs Council last week that "[w]e must help our Afghan partners create the breathing space that'll allow the people to stand up for themselves...

After Canadian taxpayers have paid more than $11 billion for our military mission, Prime Minister Stephen Harper has publicly conceded that the NATO war in Afghanistan is "unwinnable." But despite his admission, Harper is now waffling on recent commitments that Canadian troops would be withdrawn by 2011.

Although the United States has repeatedly refused to allow Adriana Pérez to visit Gerardo Hernandez, she will never give up the struggle for the right to visit her husband. Gerardo Hernandez is one of five Cuban anti-terrorists incarcerated in the United States.

On Saturday (March 14th), President Barack Obama will meet with Brazilian President Luis Inácio Lula da Silva in Washington. It is the first time Obama will meet with a Latin American head of state as President.

While banks and mortgage lenders get bailed out, families across the country are increasingly facing the prospect of losing their homes. There's a new bill in Congress that would help: the Helping Families Save Their Homes in Bankruptcy Act. It would enable struggling homeowners to renegotiate the terms of their loans and stay in their homes.