This month we featured David’s recent piece on the Two Mistakes That Obama Made That Lost the Country, as well as a recently archived interview David did on KFAI Community Radio in Minnesota discussing the history of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance. Open up the January 2016 – Public Good Newsletter here or by clicking below.
While other cities try to regulate or ban panhandlers, Albuquerque, N.M., offers them an income and social services for the day. Twice a week, a city van rolls through downtown Albuquerque, N.M., stopping at popular panhandling locations, Governing magazine reports. The driver asks panhandlers if they want a day job. Work pays $9 an hour, higher … Read More
On December 28th at 10:52PM, a few minutes before the New Year holiday recess, without public notice or hearings, the Michigan legislature, on a straight party line vote passed a law prohibiting any public official from using “Public funds or resources for a communication” about a local ballot question within 60 days of the election. The … Read More
Swedish experiments with a 6-hour day find it costs a little more but workers are less stressed, more energetic, happier and more productive. Plus it is a terrific job generator for the nation as a whole. One’s reaction to these findings depends on one’s ideology. When the left governs cities the experiments blossom but when penny-wise, … Read More
A recent report by the Mississippi State Auditor finds that K-12 schools would have an additional $107 million to spend on classrooms if they stopped contracting out services and instead provided them in-house with their own public employees.
Wall Street continues to promote the privatization of municipal water systems here and abroad. But cities are fighting back. In the past 15 years 180 cities in 35 countries have returned control of their water supply to municipalities. The remunicipalization movement is alive and well.@truthout
Most jail and prisons phones are owned by profit making corporations that charge unconscionable (dare I say criminal) rates as high as $1 per minute for phone calls. The federal government is about to change the rules. Later in October the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is expected to slash the average telephone rate by as much … Read More
We should remember that it was liberals, not conservatives who deregulated the airlines. The theory was that deregulation would unleash vigorous competition, better service, more airlines and lower prices. None of that occurred. Instead we now have fewer airlines controlling our airports and skies than we had under regulation. And things are getting worse. At AlteNet … Read More
Canada and Norway produce about the same amount of oil and gas. Through a combination of public ownership and taxes Norway captures about 85 percent of the net revenue from sales. As a result its 25 year old Sovereign Fund has $1.1 trillion in assets that has been used to make Norway one of the most … Read More
