From
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Capitol
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The U.S. Senate voted 57 to 42 to reject an amendment to a bill that would have raised the minimum hourly wage from $5.15 to $6.25.
It has been 10 years since the Senate last raised the minimum wage. Over the same period, U.S. senator’s own annual saleries have increased by $28,000.
by the way...
Since 1900 the Dow Jones Industrial has seen an average annual return of 13.3% under Democratic presidents, and 6.9% under Republicans. A $10 investment would have grown to nearly $280 under Democrats and just $79 under the Republicans.
Two studies conducted by the Institute for Policy Studies and United for a Fair Economy say the chief executives of corporations making big profits from the war on terror enjoy far bigger pay increases than CEOs of non-defense companies. It focused on the pay of the CEOs of the 34 publicly traded U.S. corporations that were among the top 100 defense contractors in 2005.
The study finds that, on average, CEOs of corporations with extensive defense contracts are making double what they did before Sept. 11, 2001. During the same period, CEOs of large corporations without big stakes in the war have averaged pay gains of 6 percent.
The two groups calculated the pay packages based on salary, bonuses, stock awards, long-term incentives and the value of stock options exercised in any given year.
by the way...
Halliburton, the company formerly headed by Vice President Cheney, has won contracts worth more than $1.7 billion under Operation Iraqi Freedom and stands to make hundreds of millions more dollars under a no-bid contract awarded by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, according to newly available documents.
The size and scope of the government contracts awarded to Halliburton in connection with the war in Iraq are significantly greater than was previously disclosed and demonstrate the U.S. military's increasing reliance on for-profit corporations to run its logistical operations. Independent experts estimate that as much as one-third of the monthly $3.9 billion cost of keeping U.S. troops in Iraq is going to independent contractors.
The Census Bureau reported that 37 million Americans were living under the poverty line last year, and the number of people without health insurance increased to 46.6 million in 2005. About 45.3 million people were without insurance the year before. The last decline in the poverty rate was in 2000, during the Clinton administration, when it dropped to 11.3 percent.
by the way...
Children represent a disproportionate share of the poor in the United States; they are 25 percent of the total population, but 35 percent of the poor population. In 2004, 13 million children, or 17.8 percent, were poor.
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 The
Business
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Ford plans to slash 10,000 white-collar jobs and offer early retirement and buyout packages to all of its 75,000 hourly workers.
The new cuts would reduce Ford’s total North American work force by 29 percent, from about 130,000 now to about 92,000 by the end of 2008. The salaried job cuts represent about a third of that work force.
It also plans to close two more plants — bringing the total to 16 since a restructuring plan was first announced in January.
by the way...
Miles per Gallon of a:
1908 Ford Model T: 13 city, 21 highway
2006 Ford Explorer: 15 city, 21 highway
“Were dealing with the world as it is — not as it was 10 years ago,”
Mark Fields,
President, Ford Motor Co.
Exxon Mobil, the world's biggest oil company, said that its net income rose 36 percent in the second quarter of 2006 to $10.4 billion, soundly beating Wall Street forecasts. That all adds up to a net profit of $1,318 every second. It is the second biggest profit ever reported by a U.S. company, behind only the $10.7 billion Exxon itself earned in the fourth quarter of 2005.
by the way...
Shell Oil, ranked third after BP, said that its profit jumped 40 percent to $7.32 billion. Both companies exceeded analysts' expectations.
In March the Alaska region's largest oil accident on record sent hundreds of thousands of gallons of crude pouring into the Arctic Ocean after a badly corroded BPO pipeline ruptured.
One reason for the spill could have been that no one was in charge to do anything about proper maintenance. The job of BP’s senior corrosion engineer had been left unfilled for more than a year, according to an internal company audit.
The former head of pipeline-corrosion monitoring for BP in Alaska, Robert C. Woollam, who was transferred to BP's Houston offices amid concerns that he intimidated potential whistleblowers, invoked the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution in refusing to answer all questions about his role at B.P. from a U.S. House subcommittee.
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