Democracy & Civics

Businesses Decry Paid Sick Leave Push in California, Ohio

By |

A bill working its way through the state legislature would make California the first state to mandate paid sick leave for employees. In Ohio, citizens will take the matter into their own hands with a vote on the Healthy Families Act, a public referendum on the November ballot that would require businesses with 25 or more employees to provide at least seven days of paid sick leave for employees. California’s AB 2716 would affect more than 5.4 million workers who don’t receive sick leave from their job, the San Francisco Chronicle reported, and was inspired by an ordinance passed by the city’s board of supervisors that took effect in February 2007. If passed, the bill would provide one day of sick leave for every 30 hours worked, the Sacramento Bee reported, and the state’s department of industrial relations would enforce it at a cost of about $600,000 per year. Small businesses do get a small break — firms with fewer than 10 employees would only have to grant employees five day of paid sick leave per year, while businesses with more employees are required to provide as many as nine days.

Economy

Will Mobile Phones Vault the Digital Divide?

By |

Inexpensive mobile technology is opening doors in the developing world for communities that have previously been shut out of the information revolution due to the high cost of desktop computers. Mobile devices are increasingly used to provide financial information and business services to low-income communities, as well as to report human rights abuses or drive political campaigns in emerging democracies. Writing for India’s Business Standard, Guruduth Banavar said cell phone use in India has exploded past 200 million subscribers, with 7.5 million new users added monthly, while cell phone users in Africa are expected to number 600 million by 2011. The numbers have already surpassed traditional land-line telephones, Banavar said, and sales of mobile phones in India have rocketed past personal computer sales. Mohammad Yunus, a Nobel laureate for his work developing microlending programs for the developing world, is developing a new program in India to offer mobile payment and banking services via cell phone.

Economy

Timber Trumps Salmon in California

By |

Coho salmon, whose numbers have dropped 73 percent in California coastal habitat in the past year, may face an uncertain future following the state’s rejection of a habitat-protection plan. The Sacramento Bee reports that the California Board of Forestry ruled 6-3 against a petition by an activist coalition to protect salmon streams from the effects of logging. The ruling puts the board in conflict with federal fishing regulators, who said logging limitations would improve salmon habitat, and that the state board’s current regulations actually harm the fish. The National Marine Fisheries Service has suspended all salmon fishing on the coast for the first time in history, in response to some of the lowest numbers of California salmon ever recorded. A petition by the Sierra Club, California Trout and other advocacy groups sought to mandate coastal stream protections on private land — a plan that the forestry board rejected, citing lack of evidence that logging was at fault.
The board did suggest new stream protections last year, but only if the state Department of Fish and Game ruled that logging would kill salmon.

Economy

Dreaming of a Zero-Carbon Economy

By |

Several nations around the world have launched national programs to increase energy efficiency, cut carbon emissions and build environmentally friendly buildings to slow the effects of global warming. Some question the importance — and motivation — of environmentally protective policies, but many countries remain undeterred in the face of occasional resistance. Spain, which has the highest dependency on fossil fuels of all European Union countries, recently introduced 31 measures that will help cut their oil imports by 10 percent. Some of the actions include cutting street lighting by half, slower speed limits, distributing low-energy lightbulbs, and strict thermostat regulation in public buildings, reports The Independent. Although Miguel Sebastian, Spain’s industry minister, told the newspaper that “the era of cheap energy has passed,” the proposals were ridiculed by some Spanish media as unworkable.

Democracy & Civics

Argentina: Saving the Family Farm

By |

A coalition of farm worker organizations, small farmers and native communities has rallied together in Argentina to focus attention on the government’s land-holding laws and local food policies. According to the Latin America Press, the National Campesino Front (FNC) was created in April to advocate for government policies that favor indigenous and farm communities over multinational corporations. At issue is the purchase of Argentinean land by corporations that cut down millions of acres of native forest in order to cultivate genetically modified soy — most of which is exported as animal feed. The country is now the world’s second-largest producer of biotech soy. Critics say that the policies that came with the push for soy have resulted in farmers being “kicked off” their land — and call for policies that support biodiversity, resource conservation and land reform.

Economy

Newspaper Guild Alleges Retaliatory Layoffs

By |

Recent staff cuts at a group of San Francisco Bay Area newspapers are retaliatory against union organizers, critics allege. The Northern California Media Workers Guild filed a grievance with the National Labor Relations Board, claiming that Dean Singleton’s Bay Area News Group targeted organizers behind the recent votes to unionize the Contra Costa Times, Oakland Tribune and other newspapers. The Associated Press reports that the layoffs came two weeks after the vote in favor of union representation, and included several strong proponents of unionizing hundreds of employees. Sara Steffens, who was voted chair of the paper’s bargaining unit, called her layoff retaliatory. “They wanted to keep me from continuing to engage co-workers as we push for our first contract and they hoped this would send a message to scare people away from further union activity,” she told the AP.

Economy

Immigration: Filipinos in EU Spotlight

By |

A new European Union mandate to expel illegal Filipino immigrants does not mean a crackdown is imminent, an EU delegate told the Philippine Daily Inquirer. Ambassador Alistair MacDonald said the policy merely sets standards for those who overstay their visa, regardless of circumstances. He also noted that each of the EU’s 27 member nations would still have autonomy to enforce its own immigration laws. The Commission on Filipinos Overseas estimates that 954,000 Filipinos live on the continent — of those 285,000 are permanent residents, 556,00 are temporary and the rest are undocumented. MacDonald said that Filipinos account for 5 percent of the population in Europe, and only 655 were deported in the last three years.

Democracy & Civics

Canada In Heated Debate over Global Warming Tax

By |

Environmentalists have long proposed taxing carbon emissions as a way of combating global warming — but if a new Canadian law is any indication, implementing such a tax won’t be easy in the United States. The carbon tax, which so far is levied only in British Columbia, had not even gone into effect yet last month when politicians from other provinces began saying it would fail, and drag the whole country down with it. Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper has said the tax, which was put forward by Liberal Party leader Stephane Dion, will hurt Western Canada and “screw” the rest of the country too, according to Canwest News Service. Both parties are accusing the other of fanning the flames of controversy over the tax for political advantage. “This is the most cynical, bloody minded kind of regionally divisive politics imaginable that they’re playing,” Calgary legislator Jason Kenney told Canwest.

Economy

Australia's Billion-Dollar Land Grab

By |

Never mind the aboriginal land battles that followed the colonial era — turf wars in today’s Australia are for billionaires. The richest man Down Under, Andrew Forrest, is squaring off against the nation’s wealthiest woman, Gina Rinehart, in an epic conflict over access to the iron-rich Rhodes Ridge territory in Western Australia, Bloomberg News reports. Forrest’s Perth-based Fortalescu Metals Group is claiming improper lease renewals by Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting, and according to The Australian may also be favored by a “use it or lose it” policy that places public interest over tenancy. The legal battle is driven by China’s voracious appetite for iron ore, and whomever wins the mining and export rights will reap vast rewards. Rinehart may be personally enriched by A$500 million if she comes out on top, while Forrest’s company and partners stand to gain A$1.65 billion in royalties if they can take control of the Rhodes Ridge ore.

Economy

A Russian Bear is Bullish for Big Oil

By |

Climbing energy prices are a natural reaction to limited oil supplies, and are in fact necessary to “choke off demand,” the Financial Times of London reports. Gazprom, the Russian energy giant, predicts that current market trends will drive the price of oil over $250 per barrel by 2009. Even as costs increase, Gazprom is opening up new speculative fronts, particularly in the natural gas market. The company is gearing up to develop the huge Shtokman natural gas field in northern Russia, in cooperation with France’s Total corporation and StatoilHydro of Norway. Production is expected to start in 2014, and Gazprom might try to take over a U.S.-based energy company to give it an entry into the North American market.