Exactly eight years after the Great Recession ended, the U.S. job market has settled into a sweet spot of steadily solid growth. The 4.4 percent unemployment rate matches a decade low. Many people who had stopped looking for jobs are coming off the sidelines to find them. More part-timers are finding full-time work. About…
read moreA jail in Chicago is serving some of the best Italian pizza in town. Inmates are making gourmet pizzas for their fellow prisoners. It’s part of a training program called Recipe for Change in which the inmates can acquire skills to get jobs after they are released. VOA’s Deborah Block has more. …
read moreThe Trump administration has asked the Supreme Court to immediately reinstate its ban on travelers from six mostly Muslim countries and refugees from anywhere in the world, saying the U.S. will be safer if the policy is put in place. The Justice Department filing to the high court late Thursday argued that lower courts that…
read moreDevelopments in Washington, D.C., on Thursday include President Donald Trump announcing plans to pull United States out of the Paris climate agreement, world leaders criticizing his move, hundreds of business leaders trying to persuade the president to stay in the pact, and House Democrats accusing Republican Congressman Devin Nunes of starting his own Russia probe:…
read moreThe May 20 killing in Maryland of Richard Collins, an African-American college student with a bright future, has been called by some a lynching. Two men in Oregon who died May 26 while defending a black woman and a Muslim woman from verbal abuse have been called heroes. Those incidents are just the most recent…
read morePresident Donald Trump is moving the United States out of the Paris climate agreement, signed by nearly 200 other nations. Trump said Thursday that the Paris agreement hurts U.S. economic growth, costs millions of American jobs and puts U.S. firms at a disadvantage. However, his decision contrasted with the views of hundreds of American business…
read moreLast month, Eric Treene, a career prosecutor with the U.S. Department of Justice, found himself facing intense questioning. Treene, the department’s special counsel on religious discrimination, was testifying on religious hate crimes before a Senate panel when Democratic Senator Al Franken of Minnesota quizzed him about what he saw as mixed messages coming from the…
read moreDeclaring “this is a time for big dreams,” former vice president Joe Biden on Thursday launched a political action committee that’s stoking fresh speculation he may seek the presidency in 2020. The 74-year-old Democrat unveiled American Possibilities PAC through social media and in an email that directs supporters to a new website. The committee…
read moreWhen General Motors CEO Mary Barra introduced the Chevrolet Bolt at the CES gadget show last year, she took a shot at Tesla. Buyers can be confident because Chevy has 3,000 U.S. dealers to service the new electric vehicle, she said. The implication was that Tesla, with just 69 service centers nationwide, can make no…
read moreHundreds of businesses have urged President Donald Trump to keep the United States in the Paris climate deal, and there is evidence that business support for the agreement is growing. As a presidential candidate, Trump called climate science a “fraud” and pledged to get out of the Paris climate accord if he won the election.…
read moreU.S. House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes is facing complaints of launching his own investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election after recusing himself from leading the committee’s Russia probe in April. Aides to Democratic committee members have complained that Nunes, a Republican, has begun investigating allegations that senior members of President Barack…
read moreThe White House on Wednesday disclosed a group of former lobbyists working in President Donald Trump’s administration who have been issued ethics waivers, following a request from the U.S. government’s ethics agency. The list of at least 11 waivers includes White House adviser Kellyanne Conway and Trump’s Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, according to a…
read moreMichael Catanzaro, a former oil and gas lobbyist, can help shape the Trump administration’s energy policies. Shahira Knight can weigh in on retirement matters even though she previously worked for Fidelity, a financial company specializing in retirement services. The White House late Wednesday posted on its website ethics waivers granted to four ex-lobbyists and…
read moreThe House intelligence committee said Wednesday it is issuing subpoenas for former national security adviser Michael Flynn and President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, as well as their businesses, as part of its investigation into Russian activities during last year’s election. In addition to those four subpoenas, the committee has issued three others, to…
read moreThe head of a New York-based advocacy group has called on President Donald Trump and his older daughter to help secure the release of three men who reported labor violations at a Chinese company that makes shoes bearing the Ivanka Trump brand. “We appeal to President Trump, Ivanka Trump herself, and to her related brand…
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