Mary Jo White should recuse herself from the selection of the next chair of the PCAOB: Activists
Mary Jo White should recuse herself from the selection of the next chair of the PCAOB: Activists
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Mary Jo White should recuse herself from the selection of the next chair...
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Mary Jo White should recuse herself from the selection of the next chair of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) due to an apparent conflict of interest created by the decision’s impact on White’s household income, a national coalition of 14 organizations said in a letter today.
Mary Jo White’s husband John White sits on the PCAOB’s Standing Advisory Group (SAG), selected by the members of the PCAOB, who are in turn chosen by Mary Jo White and the SEC.
John White’s role on the SAG has been marketed extensively by his law firm Cravath Swaine & Moore, LLP, where he practices securities law. His employment as a partner at Cravath forms the large majority of Mary Jo White’s family income, noted the groups.
“SEC Chair White should insure that her household income, which largely derives from her husband’s work as a Cravath attorney, doesn’t compromise her critical decisions affecting Cravath-represented clients,” said Bart Naylor, financial policy advocate for Public Citizen.
Scrutiny of Mary Jo White’s conflict of interest in PCAOB staffing was elevated in early September, whenBloomberg reported that White was considering potential candidates to replace PCAOB Chair James Doty. Doty – whose tough proposed accounting reforms have drawn industry ire and a fierce lobbying effort – has signaled he would like to return for another term.
After ensuing media coverage noted Cravath’s marketing of John White’s role on the SAG, Cravath quickly removed references to White’s position on the SAG from its website by the following day, as reported byMarketWatch.
“If there were any doubts about the improper link between Mary Jo White’s official actions and John White’s financial gain, Cravath’s frantic attempt to scrub its website put them to rest,” said Kurt Walters, campaign manager at Rootstrikers. “Mary Jo White should immediately announce her recusal from all further personnel decisions at PCAOB while her family income is so clearly at stake.”
The groups also called for the public release of any ethics guidance Chair White has relied on to date to continue her involvement in personnel matters at the PCAOB. They highlighted her previous written commitment to obtain ethics waivers before taking any action with a “direct and predictable effect” on her husband’s employment at Cravath.
“Chair White publicly swore to rely on waivers when her actions might have a ‘direct and predictable effect’ on John White’s role at Cravath, and her role helping select the PCAOB creates an appearance of just such an effect,” said Jeff Hauser, director of the Revolving Door Project at the Center for Effective Government.“The public is entitled to review the ethics guidance by which she reached the conclusion that she not only could go forward, but could do so without a waiver. Moreover, given the multiplicity of conflicts the Chair brought with her to the SEC and the absence of any 18 U.S.C. § 208(b)(1) or (b)(3) waivers, complete transparency in ethical guidance (with appropriate redactions) is necessary to restore public confidence in the SEC.”
The coalition letter was signed by Alliance for a Just Society, American Family Voices, Campaign for America’s Future, Center for Effective Government, Center for Popular Democracy, Community Organizations in Action, Communications Workers of America, Democracy for America, Main Street Alliance, MoveOn.org Civic Action, The Other 98%, Public Citizen, RootsAction, and Rootstrikers, and is available at https://s3.amazonaws.com/new.demandprogress.org/letters/Coalition_letter_regarding_Chair_White_and_PCAOB.pdf .
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Source: ValueWalk
Letter: No point putting faith in GOP lawmakers
Anyone who buys the GOP story that they are going to give us better health care is a sucker. We will get hosed by the...
Anyone who buys the GOP story that they are going to give us better health care is a sucker. We will get hosed by the lying GOP. Anyone who votes for this garbage of a health care proposal should be voted out of office. If this becomes law, every working man and woman should change their dependents, then let us see how these leeches get by with no salary. We do that and the federal government has no income.
Read the full letter here.
Report: Charter Schools Pose $54M Fraud Risk
Utica Observer-Dispatch - December 13, 2014, by Alissa Scott - Charter schools have been accused of posing a $54...
Utica Observer-Dispatch - December 13, 2014, by Alissa Scott - Charter schools have been accused of posing a $54 million fraud risk to taxpayers, according to a new report.
The Alliance for Quality Education said vulnerabilities in the state’s charter system potentially could cause millions of dollars in fraud this year alone.
“There’s two parts of operating a charter,” said Kyle Serrette, director of the Education Center for Popular Democracy. “You need good educators — you have to provide academics — and you also need to know how to run a business. … What we’re seeing is folks that don’t know how to do either.”
Jessica Mokhiber, communications director of the Northeast Charter Schools Network, doesn’t agree with the report.
“Charter schools in New York are the most accountable public schools there are,” she said. “If they don’t perform, they close. Each year they are subject to outside audits. If they mismanage their finances, they close.”
The Utica Academy of Science, the city’s sole charter school, declined to comment on the report. Kelly Gaggin, chief communications officer of Science Academies of New York Charter Schools, said the school wants to wait until the comptroller report — the first audit it’s had since its founding two years ago — is released.
She said this will allow the school to “provide current examples and direct correlations that illustrate the checks and balances that are implemented to eliminate opportunities for malfeasance and provide exceptional stewardship of funds.”
They expect the report to be released early next year.
The AQE report found that 24 percent of charter schools in New York have been audited. The Comptroller’s Office audits about 2 percent every year, it said.
Part of what the agency is recommending is to have schools audited regularly with an external system to catch any internal flaws.
“A school could have not committed fraud in 2010, but they did in 2014,” Serrette said. “We’re spending $1.5 billion on charter schools. We need a system in place that makes sure those dollars are reported in some correct way.”
The most alarming part, Serrette said, is that 95 percent of the time the comptroller checked into a charter school’s finances, he found issues — some really bad, some just sloppiness.
Mokhiber said to “consider the source of the report.”
“These are groups who are trying every trick in the book to deny school choice to parents who have no other option,” Mohkiber said.
“The Utica Academy of Science charter school was started by the founders of the Syracuse Academy of Science charter school, which is a highly successful school with a track record of academic achievement,” Mohkiber said. “The Utica school is providing families with another public school option. The school emphasizes a science and technology education in a college prep setting, which sets students up for success in college or career.”
Either way, Serrette said this is something taxpayers should be paying attention to. And while it would cost them more money to hire extra auditors to check on all of the state’s charter schools, it will save money in the long run.
“You could hire more auditors to look at charter schools for $5 million, but if you end up catching $10 million of mismanagement, you’re $5 million ahead,” Serrette said.
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Movement for paid sick leave gains ground
The New Crossroads - May 13, 2013, By Gregory N. Heires - Grassroots campaigns for local and state laws requiring...
The New Crossroads - May 13, 2013, By Gregory N. Heires - Grassroots campaigns for local and state laws requiring employers to provide their workers with paid sick days are gaining steam.
In the latest sign of the growing movement, the New York City Council approved legislation that would make 1 million workers eligible for paid sick days.
The passage of the bill capped a three-year fight for the legislation by unions and health-care advocates.
But the legislation faces a possible veto by billionaire Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who has said he would not sign the bill into law. However, the City Council approved the legislation by a veto-proof margin.
On the day of the vote, Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner, executive director of MomsRising.org, an online and on-the-ground grassroots organization of more than a million people who are working to achieve economic security for all families in the United States, said, “It’s been a long fight, but today the New York City Council heeded the call of New York families and passed a bill that would allow more than a million New Yorkers to earn paid time off to use when they are sick or to take care of a sick child, spouse or parent.”
Rowe-Finkbeiner called upon Bloomberg to “stand up to corporate lobbyists, listen to the people who elected him and sign this important bill.”
The new paid sick leave bill, which the Council passed by a 45-3 vote, would go into effect in April 2014. Initially, the law would require businesses with 20 or more workers to provide five paid sick days to its employees.
In October 2015, it would be expanded to cover firms with 15 or more workers. Furthermore, the law would protect workers who are not entitled to paid sick leave from being fired if they take time off.
“This is a sweet victory,” Bill Lipton, state director of the Working Families Party, told The New York Times. “It provides economic security for New Yorkers, and a shot in the arm for the paid sick days movement across the country.”
The Working Families Party and MomsRising.org were part of a coalition that included the New York City Central Labor Council, the Center for Popular Democracy, the New York City Council’s Progressive Caucus, 32 BJ SEIU, Make the Road New York, A Better Balance and NY Paid Sick Leave Coalition.
New York City joins an increasing number of municipalities and states that are supporting sick pay legislation. San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and Milwaukee have adopted paid sick day laws. Pushes for similar legislation are underway in nearly 20 cities and states, including Denver, Miami, Seattle, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin.
In March, Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) introduced the Health Families Act. The legislation would allow workers to earn paid sick leave that they could use for personal illnesses, caring for a sick family member, preventive care or treatment for domestic violence.
In the United States, 40 million people work in jobs that don’t offer paid sick leave. One million workers in New York City, primarily low-wage workers, don’t have paid sick days.
In addition to arguing that workers have the right to paid sick leave, supporters of the New York City bill argued that the policy simply makes common sense. Faced with the prospect of losing pay, workers without the right to paid time off often decide to go to work when they have contagious illnesses. Furthermore, workers are less productive when they are ill.
“It’s an incredible feeling to know that I won’t ever again have to choose between my child’s health and my job,” said Juana Sanchez, who has three children and is a member of Make the Road New York, a Brooklyn-based community organization that represents Latino and other low-income workers.
“I believe this law enshrines the principle that American exceptionalism is not just about large profits and small elites, but a workplace that is safe, fair and respectful of the lives of workers,” said City Council member Gale Brewer, who first introduced the bill in 2009.
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"Give Them Hell": Exposing the Corporate Backers of Anti-Immigrant Hate
"Give Them Hell": Exposing the Corporate Backers of Anti-Immigrant Hate
Since election night 2016, the streets of the US have rung with resistance. People all over the country have woken up...
Since election night 2016, the streets of the US have rung with resistance. People all over the country have woken up with the conviction that they must do something to fight inequality in all its forms. But many are wondering what it is they can do. In this ongoing "Interviews for Resistance" series, experienced organizers, troublemakers and thinkers share their insights on what works, what doesn't, what has changed and what is still the same. Today's interview is the 61st in the series.
Today we bring you a conversation with José Lopez, one of the co-organizing directors at Make the Road New York, and Daniel Altschuler, the director of civic engagement and research at Make the Road New York.
Read the full article here.
Bushwick Residents Rally at City Hall to Decry Deadlock on Immigration Reform
Bushwick Residents Rally at City Hall to Decry Deadlock on Immigration Reform
“Today we suffer, in November we vote,” dozens of protesters chanted in front of City Hall this afternoon. Some 40...
“Today we suffer, in November we vote,” dozens of protesters chanted in front of City Hall this afternoon. Some 40 people gathered to express dismay over yesterday’s Supreme Court deadlock over President Obama’s immigration plan, which would have given undocumented immigrants protection from deportation and the possibility to work in the United States. The rally was organized by the Bushwick chapter of Make the Road New York, a non-profit dedicated to representing the city’s Latino and immigrant communities.
President Obama’s executive action would have shielded over 5 million from deportation by introducing The Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents (DAPA), which would have allowed the undocumented parents of American-born children to apply for work permits, and expanding the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), which would have protected those who arrived in the U.S. before the age of 16 and stayed at least five years. For many participating in today’s rally, these measures would have been key to achieving a more secure legal status in the country. Many of those protesting were beneficiaries of DACA, and had hoped for the passing of DAPA to reunite families or keep them together.
Catalina Benitez, an immigrant from Mexico and a member of Make the Road, has been in the United States for over 20 years. She was attending the rally with her two-year-old son, Daniel, and said the Supreme Court’s deadlock came as a “great disappointment” to many.
“We were hoping that we’d be given more options.” Benitez said in Spanish of Obama’s plan, and the limbo that’s left in the wake of the Supreme Court’s 4-4 tie. Benitez’s son, as well as her five-year-old daughter, have benefitted from DACA, but the aborted expansion of the plan has many families worried about their future.
Benitez, who lives in Williamsburg, isn’t eligible to vote in the upcoming presidential election, but she hopes that the rally will raise awareness and encourage people who can vote to support immigrant rights. “The citizens who can vote should vote for Hillary Clinton,” she said.
Petra Luna, a Bushwick volunteer who helps Make the Road with press statements, event organizations, and community outreach, expressed a similar disappointment in the SCOTUS deadlock. “Immigrants are a significant community in this country,” she said in Spanish. “We’ve helped raise the economy, and we have a life here.”
Luna said that Make the Road organized this rally to show U.S. politicians that they want their voice to be heard. “We want the deportations to stop, and we want to incentivize people to vote in November,” she emphasized. “We are all hoping for an opportunity, and we want to encourage those people who do have the vote to represent us.”
Other organizations present at the rally were the New York Civil Liberties Union, the Minkwon Center for Community Action, the New York Working Families Party, United We Dream, and the Center for Popular Democracy, to name a few. Individuals would periodically get in front of the crowd with a megaphone and speak of their frustrations with the gridlocked immigration reform.
“I’m angry, I’m fed up with the system,” Jung Rae Jang, a DACA beneficiary with the Minkwon Center, told the crowd. “We need to get the immigrant community to come together against this.”
Daniel Altschuler, the press representative for Make the Road, said that the majority of those in attendance at the rally today were from Bushwick, but immigrants living in Staten Island and Jackson Heights, Queens, were also well-represented. According to the organization’s website, over 35 percent of households in Bushwick are made up of foreign-born immigrants, three quarters of whom are from Latin America. A significant number of those immigrants are undocumented.
Luna expressed hope that, come November, people will decide to vote in favor of supporting immigrant communities. “We’re all going to the same heaven,” she reflected. But in the meantime, she said she’ll keep fighting to represent immigrant rights, and hopes people with electoral power in this country will do the same.
“I’m willing to give this everything I’ve got,” she said resolutely.
By LUISA ROLLENHAGEN
Source
Big-city Mayors, Seeing Gain, Push Citizenship for Immigrants
Newsmax - September 17, 2014, by Jennifer Hickey - If half of the number of eligible immigrants were granted...
Newsmax - September 17, 2014, by Jennifer Hickey - If half of the number of eligible immigrants were granted citizenship, it would bring a total benefit of up to almost $10 billion to New York, Chicago and Los Angeles, according to the findings of a new report released today.
The Center for Popular Democracy (CPD), the National Partnership for New Americans (NPNA) and the Center for the Study of Immigrant Integration (CSII) at USC Dornsife released the report, which coincides with the launch of a national immigrant naturalization effort called Cities for Citizenship.
The initiative, aimed at increasing citizenship among eligible U.S. permanent residents, is chaired by New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti.
In addition to receiving funding from the CPD and NPNA, CitiGroup, a founding corporate partner, is dedicating $1.1 million to the initiative.
“Cities and their mayors are modeling progressive leadership to address national issues where the federal government has failed,” said Ana Maria Archila, co-executive director of the Center for Popular Democracy, in a press release announcing the report's findings.
“Cutting through the administrative and financial red tape of the naturalization process is an outgrowth of that leadership and will benefit millions of American families who have been excluded from the privileges of citizenship,” she said.
In June, Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson, the chairman of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, issued a statement in support of President Barack Obama willingness to pursue immigration reform through executive action.
The New York metro area leads the nation in the rate of naturalizations, which increased approximately 37 percent in 2013 compared with 2011, according to The Wall Street Journal.
In the Los Angeles metro area, naturalizations rose by 12 percent between 2011 and 2013, and in the Chicago metro area, the number of naturalizations have largely remained the same.
Individually, the three Democratic mayors have been active lobbying for immigration reform and have moved to provide greater access to city services to immigrants, including those who have entered the country illegally.
On Tuesday, New York announced it would begin sending representatives to federal immigration court to assist undocumented minors facing deportation hearings, which represents the first time the city has provided direct services at immigration court, noted a press release from de Blasio's office.
Chicago also has expanded services to undocumented immigrants.
Mayor Emanuel announced the city would provide more housing for undocumented Central American children apprehended along the southern border, reports The Chicago Tribune.
By embracing the initiative, Emanuel can boost his standing with the city's Hispanic voters before February 2015 municipal election, the paper said.
Emanuel has seen his approval among Hispanic voters decline from 52 percent in 2013 to just 40 percent in an August Tribune survey.
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FL-Sen: Nelson (D) Refuses To Let Trump Privatize Air Traffic Control, PCCC Pushes Dems To Join Him
FL-Sen: Nelson (D) Refuses To Let Trump Privatize Air Traffic Control, PCCC Pushes Dems To Join Him
Here’s another big fight to get ready for: "President Donald Trump threw his weight behind a proposal to privatize the...
Here’s another big fight to get ready for:
"President Donald Trump threw his weight behind a proposal to privatize the nation’s air traffic control system on Monday, and a White House adviser called the multibillion dollar effort “low-hanging fruit” that can get through Congress quickly.
Florida Sen. Bill Nelson doesn’t see it that way."
Read the full article here.
Extras
The city of Saratoga Springs is considering a ban on the sale of guns and ammunition at the City Center, Mayor Meg...
The city of Saratoga Springs is considering a ban on the sale of guns and ammunition at the City Center, Mayor Meg Kelly announced this weekend in a welcoming speech to Local Progress New York.
Read the full article here.
It’s true: HUD policy really does hurt our neighborhoods
HUD has a program that sells tens of thousands of troubled mortgages across the country, many in black and Latino...
HUD has a program that sells tens of thousands of troubled mortgages across the country, many in black and Latino neighborhoods hard hit by the housing crisis, to Wall Street speculators - at a discount! Please let that sink in.
Since 2010, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has been auctioning off pools of very delinquent mortgages through a program they call Distressed Asset Sales Program, or DASP. In most cases, the sales have gone to the highest bidder, which have been hedge funds and private equity firms.
Lone Star Fund, a private equity firm started by a Texas billionaire, and Bayview Asset Management, an affiliate of the private equity firm Blackstone Group, have been two of the primary beneficiaries of these sales. The result? Struggling homeowners lose their homes and speculators turn the properties into high-cost rentals that contribute to displacement in communities across the country.
This month, over 110,000 people from across the country signed a petition calling on HUD Secretary Julian Castro, to change this program. This comes on the heels of a March 1st letter to HUD from 45 members of Congress issuing a similar call for reforms to this mortgage sale program. In fact, for over two years, housing advocates and national policy groups have been pushing HUD to fix this program.
In an interview on WNYC Studio’s “The New York Radio Hour,” Secretary Castro referred to our protests that his program is enriching Wall Street as “sloganeering.” We wish that were the case. Unfortunately, it is simply a fact that 98% of the mortgages sold through HUD’s DASP program are going to Wall Street, one that can be verified on HUD’s own website where they post reports from these sales. Most, if not all, of these Wall Street buyers are what the industry itself calls “vulture capitalists” – investors that specialized in distressed assets in the hopes of making them more profitable and selling them for a profit.
In an effort to suggest that he has addressed the problem, Secretary Castro touts the agency’s 2015 auctions of troubled mortgages in which only non-profits were eligible to bid. Let’s be clear. Only 172 mortgages were sold to non-profits through these auctions, while a whopping 15,309 went to Wall Street investors in 2015. So yes, a gesture was made by the agency, but at such a miniscule scale he surely cannot suggest that the problem is solved.
There is no reason to sell such a high percentage of these loans to some of the same culprits responsible for the housing crisis in the first place. In fact, it seems to be in direct conflict with HUD’s mission to create strong, sustainable, inclusive communities and quality affordable homes for all. Call me skeptical, but I don’t trust a private equity firm like Blackstone – a company whose CEO made $734 million last year - to help fulfill that mission. Blackstone and other major speculators have a goal of making as much money as possible, and in the process are chipping away at the wealth and stability of neighborhoods in the process.
There is a viable alternative, that housing and civil rights groups across the country are calling for. HUD should prioritize selling these loans to good actors that have a community-centered plan to save homes from foreclosure when possible and, when foreclosure cannot be avoided, to meet the affordable housing needs of the community with their property disposition plans.
A growing number of Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) have programs to do just this, and have raised the capital needed to buy pools of these delinquent mortgages. But so far, they haven’t been able to get their hands on the number of mortgages that they can afford. HUD should do all it can to make sure CDFIs and other good actors are prioritized for these sales.
I have seen too many people in my community lose their homes and their wealth to Wall Street speculators. We cannot allow the same policies that ravaged our communities to continue. For me the choice is very clear: will Secretary Castro make sure that HUD helps families stay in their homes, or will he allow HUD to continue to sign over these loans to Wall Street and fuel neighborhood displacement?
It’s time for HUD to make the right choice and partner with non-profit CDFIs and other organizations that will keep our neighborhoods together. I encourage everyone who cares about the stability of neighborhoods across the country to join with me in calling on Secretary Castro and HUD to change the DASP program so that it prioritizes foreclosure avoidance and the creation of affordable housing.
By Ana Maria Archila
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