by Sylvan Lane | Jan 14, 2014 | Business, Living
WASHINGTON – Legislation to increase the federal minimum wage from $7.25 per hour to $10.10 over two years will get a vote in the Senate in February, the chairman of the Senate labor committee said Tuesday. Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, introduced the Fair Minimum Wage...
by Preetisha Sen | Jan 14, 2014 | Business
WASHINGTON – Community bankers and Republican congressmen Tuesday predicted that new mortgage rules created under the Dodd-Frank Act will hurt both borrowers and bankers. As required by the law, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau drafted two rules, which went...
by Ellen Garrison | Jan 14, 2014 | Business
R. Ravitch talks deceptive official numbers at release of a report by State Budget Crisis Task Force @EllenGarrison pic.twitter.com/CgMMxDCuPT— Medill on the Hill (@medillonthehill) January 14, 2014 WASHINGTON – Financially-strapped states are masking their...
by Mary Kate Hayes | Jan 8, 2014 | Business, Education
WASHINGTON — The United States’ disappointing education system is a major cause of unemployment and decline in American economy, Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Thomas J. Donohue said in a speech Wednesday. “It’s a disgrace that our country has...
by Sylvan Lane | Jan 8, 2014 | Business, Living
WASHINGTON – On the 50th anniversary of Lyndon B. Johnson’s War on Poverty, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., called the former president’s “big government” approach to the issue a failure and proposed ending all federal programs dedicated to fighting poverty, instead...
by Ellen Garrison | Jan 8, 2014 | Business, Politics
WASHINGTON — Speaking outside at the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial in sub-freezing temperatures, Interior Secretary Sally Jewell announced Wednesday a program to fund a new youth conservation initiative — the 21st Century Conservation Service Corps....
by Preetisha Sen | Jan 8, 2014 | Business
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Chamber of Commerce said Wednesday that the state of American business is improving and the nation’s economy is “gaining strength.” In the annual State of American Business speech, Thomas J. Donohue, president and CEO of the U.S. Chamber of...
by Kris Anne Bonifacio | Mar 19, 2013 | Business, Politics
WASHINGTON — After a week-long debate, the Senate is poised to approve a spending bill that will fund agencies until the end of the fiscal year, avoiding a government shutdown at the end of March. The bill should be the final chapter on the spending debacle for the...
by Josh Solomon | Mar 19, 2013 | Business
WASHINGTON – Traditionally viewed as a government town, Washington and the capital region are undergoing an extensive entrepreneurial and startup renaissance. What began in Northern Virginia—an epicenter of telecommunications startups in the 1990s—has more recently...
by Fritz T. Burgher | Mar 18, 2013 | Business, Politics
WASHINGTON – Vern Jantzen has spent most of his life on his family’s farm in Plymouth, Neb. After going away to college and receiving his degree in agricultural economics, he returned home to take over his family’s 307-acre farm in the rolling hills of southeastern...
by Marshall Cohen | Mar 12, 2013 | Business, Politics
The Senate Banking Committee held two confirmations today: Mary Jo White, right, for chairwoman of the Securities and Exchange Commission and Richard Cordray, left, for director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. (Audrey Cheng/Medill)Republicans blocked...
by Marshall Cohen | Mar 5, 2013 | Business, Politics
WASHINGTON — Jack Lew has accumulated a few gray hairs after four decades in Washington. Now that he’s Treasury secretary, he’s in store to grow a few more. Lew enjoyed a surprisingly smooth nomination process and the Senate overwhelmingly confirmed him last week to...
