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In a 2012 survey by the Center for Urban Economic Development, 23 percent of domestic workers and 67 percent of live-in domestic workers interviewed earned less than minimum wage. On top of the paltry pay, though the workers reported regular abuse and violations, a full 91 percent admitted that they didn’t complain about poor working conditions for fear of losing their job. In recognition of this grim state of affairs for many low-wage workers, Hawaii recently followed New York’s lead and became the second state to pass a Domestic Workers’ Bill of Rights, a historic law guaranteeing core rights previously denied to workers in some of the fastest growing, and most poorly-paid, occupations in the country.

TO DO

Both the National Domestic Workers Alliance and the Domestic Workers United are campaigning for legislation protecting domestic workers in each state nationwide. Implore your state representatives to fight for a Domestic Workers’ Bill of Rights in your state. (If you live in New York City or Hawaii, tell your reps that you appreciate living in a state that takes care of its own.)

TO READ

The Invisible and Unregulated World of Domestic Work, the first national survey of domestic workers in the US, breaks ground by providing an empirically based and representative picture of domestic employment in 21st century America.

TO WATCH

This video, featuring domestic workers discussing their work and lives, makes clear why the human stakes are so high in this fight.

On May 1, the Obama administration’s Justice Department appealed a court ruling directing the Food and Drug Administration to listen to the recommendations of its own scientists and make emergency contraception—otherwise known as Plan B or the morning after pill—available over-the-counter for all women and girls with no age restrictions. The science on emergency contraception is clear. It is safer than many painkillers and cough medicine already sold over the counter and there is ample evidence that young women are capable of taking it safely. While President Obama has spoken eloquently about the right to reproductive healthcare, his administration refuses to lift this clearly political impediment on the health and bodily autonomy of women and girls.

TO DO

Sign our open letter to President Obama and Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius imploring them to abide by the federal court ruling and to make emergency contraception available over the counter to women and girls of all ages with no restrictions.

TO READ

In this post, Jessica Valenti cautions against letting our discomfort with teen sex trump young people’s right to reproductive health.

TO WATCH

The politics of expanding access to ec are complicated by the many misconceptions people have about the drug. This video breaks it down.

We applauded Congress’s recent defense of Saturday delivery at the United States Postal Service and the USPS’s subsequent decision not to cancel it. However, the story didn’t end there. As John Nichols reported, the USPS still suffers from attempts to weaken the public institution and privatize its services. To preserve and modernize the USPS well into the twenty-first century, Senator Bernie Sanders and Congressman Peter DeFazio have introduced the Postal Service Protection Act, a package of reforms designed to give this critical institution a fighting chance.

TO DO

The fight to protect the USPS is critical to stemming the tide of austerity and protecting our public institutions. Contact your representative and implore them to support the Postal Service Protection Act.

TO READ

In a recent post, John Nichols explained how nowhere has the austerity threat been more evident than in the attempt by Postal Service managers—and their allies in Congress—to eliminate Saturday delivery.

TO WATCH

This episode of Democracy Now! explored critics’ claims that a manufactured crisis is being used to push a privatization scheme on the USPS.

In April of 2012, four leading scientists briefed Congress on the environmental and health impacts of mountain top removal (MTR) mining in Appalachia. Their findings were damning: mountain top removal, the practice of clearing mountain tops of trees and topsoil and then blasting them with explosives to reveal the coal seams underneath, is polluting the Appalachian watershed, decreasing organism diversity, increasing flooding and contaminating ground water. Meanwhile, people living in the affected areas are experiencing high rates of cancer, heart and respiratory disease, along with rising birth defect and mortality rates.

TO DO

Members of the Appalachian Community Health Emergency Campaign, along with numerous Democratic representatives, are pushing for the Appalachian Community Health Emergency Act (ACHE Act, H.R. 526), which would allocate funds to research the affects of mountain top removal and to protect Appalachian families. Contact your elected reps today and urge them to pass this vital legislation.

TO READ

Laura Flanders makes clear why the stakes are so high in this call to support the ACHE Act.

TO WATCH

This video details the growing health crisis in Appalachian communities where coal is removed by blasting mountains down to piles of rubble with the use of toxic explosives directly above peoples homes.