Wade Rathke:

Pearl River      The gonzo journalist Hunter Thompson used to have a patented expression as he wrote about everything from Las Vegas to political conventions.  He would write, “…and then it got weird” in his fear-and-loathing reports.  One thing we can truly say about this election season is that it has absolutely gotten weird. This […]

Pearl River      Just when you might think things can’t get any worse, it turns out you don’t know half of it.  At least, that’s how I felt visiting with Professor Nick Zaller on Wade’s World.  Zaller is a well-regarded and oft-cited researcher and professor of public health at the University of Arkansas Medical Sciences […]

Little Rock      Representatives from ACORN, Local 100 United Labor Unions, Labor Neighbor Research & Training Center, and the Arkansas Community Organizations stood in front of St. Vincent’s Hospital in Little Rock.  The same group was front and center at Ocshner Baptist Hospital in New Orleans along with leaders from A Community Voice, ACORN’s affiliate in […]

Little Rock      Corporate chieftains’ claims that there is even such a thing as shareholder democracy has always been akin to an edict pronounced at a North Korean military parade to the assembled masses.  The notion that the little shareholder has a voice in corporate governance is simply an archaic corporate conceit more suitable to a […]

Greenville       If the current administration remains in office in 2021, don’t be surprised if they float a proposal to move the Labor Department over to the Commerce Department as one of its smaller divisions.  These days with every new proposed rule they seem to see their mission as protecting business, not labor; bosses, not workers. […]

New Orleans     This is complicated, so hang with me, but here is what you need to know. Nursing home workers and other frontline healthcare providers like home health aides, and community home workers for the differently able account for perhaps the largest portion of the death count, as we pass 200,000 fatalities nationally from […]

New Orleans      Following right behind the crisis that tenants are facing with the eviction situation clouded in different courts and interpretations and no stimulus in the offing, mortgage holders are in a similar mess as the pandemic depression lengthens.  REITs and private equity operators on Wall Street are raising mountains of cash once again […]

Pearl River     We’ve talked about Bjorn Skogquist before, but this time we wanted to catch up with him and the Ban Tear Gas Campaign in more detail on Wade’s World.  Bjorn was a former mayor of a small suburb of Minneapolis-St. Paul, who found himself forced into action at his horror at George Floyd’s death […]

Pearl River       If you run a hospital, what do you do whether it’s a pandemic or wholesale panic? Jack up the prices seems to be the answer. A report hit the news from the Rand Corporation the other day about hospital prices.  On average they pile on the charges two-and-a-half times the level that […]

New Orleans      Local 100 United Labor Unions members continue in Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas to speak up and confront their employers, both public and private, about the inadequate health and safety plans at their workplaces.  Having written requesting copies of the plans with most employers not responding, last week members and leaders demanded to […]