Tesla will likely owe $0 in federal income taxes this year, despite reporting billions of dollars of profits to its shareholders for 2021, according to recent Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings. As first reported by CNN, Tesla has said that its U.S. operations lost $130 million pre-taxes – meaning that the company will likely be able to avoid paying federal income taxes on its record profits of $5.5 billion that it reported to shareholders for 2021. The company, which is valued at over $900 billion, claimed that its profits came from overseas, even though 45 percent of its revenue…
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States Are Considering Laws That Penalize Banks for Fossil Fuel Divestment
This article is published as part of Covering Climate Now, a global collaboration of news outlets strengthening coverage of the climate story. The influential rightwing lobby group the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is driving a surge in new state laws to block boycotts of the oil industry. The group’s strategy, which aims to protect large oil firms and other conservative-friendly industries, is modelled on legislation to punish divestment from Israel. Since the beginning of the year, state legislatures in West Virginia, Oklahoma and Indiana have introduced a version of a law drafted by ALEC, called the Energy Discrimination Elimination…
California Sues Tesla Over Alleged Rampant Racism Against Black Employees
The California Department of Fair Employment and Housing is suing auto manufacturer Tesla in light of reports from Black employees at the company’s California manufacturing plant that they have faced rampant racism at work. According to the lawsuit, Tesla has segregated the manufacturing floor, relegating Black workers to areas that employees call “porch monkey stations,” “the slave ship,” and “the plantation.” Black workers are continually denied promotions and training, and are the only workers who have had to do work like scrubbing floors on their hands and knees, the suit says. Fellow workers often hurl racial slurs at Black employees,…
Democrats Plan to Use Republicans’ “Legitimate Political Discourse” Against Them
Several campaign committees dedicated to electing Democrats have indicated that they will highlight the GOP’s consistent downplaying of the January 6 Capitol attack as part of their midterm election strategy — putting particular emphasis on language that was used by GOP leaders in the censure of Republican Reps. Adam Kinzinger (R-Illinois) and Liz Cheney (R-Wyoming). In that document, the Republican National Committee (RNC) rebuked Kinzinger and Cheney for working with the House select committee investigating the Capitol attack, describing the events of January 6, 2021, when a mob of Trump loyalists violently interrupted the certification of the 2020 presidential election,…
Black Congresswomen Urge Biden to Pick Civil Rights Champion for Supreme Court
A group of Black women in Congress led by Rep. Cori Bush (D-Missouri) sent a letter to President Joe Biden on Thursday, applauding his pledge to nominate a Black woman to the Supreme Court and urging him to choose someone with a strong civil rights record. “The nomination of a Black woman is not mere symbolism; it is an essential step for our country’s promise of justice for all,” the group wrote. “It is therefore of utmost importance that the Administration appoints a Black woman with a strong track record of advancing civil and constitutionally protected rights and whose work…
House Passes Overhaul of Postal Service Budget, Relieves Billions in Debt
On Tuesday, the House passed a bill that relieves tens of billions of dollars of debt for the United States Postal Service (USPS), a financial burden that agency advocates and leaders say has been preventing the agency from operating efficiently for years. The legislation relieves the agency of $57 billion of its financial liabilities, brought on largely by a requirement imposed in 2006 that the postal service pre-pay Medicare costs for employees decades before they retire. The bill also gets rid of that mandate, which will save the agency an estimated $50 billion more over the next 10 years. Legislators…
GOP Lawmakers Block Virginia Amendments on Marriage Equality, Voting Rights
Republicans in the Virginia House of Delegates have rejected constitutional amendments to restore the voting rights of people who have been convicted of felonies and to remove anti-LGBTQ language from the state constitution — meaning that Virginians will not be able to vote on the measures during the state’s midterm elections this fall. In Virginia, any changes to the constitution must be approved by two concurrent sessions of the state legislature. After that, a statewide referendum is held, and if a majority of voters approve of the measure, it will be enshrined in the state constitution. Although the Virginia legislature…
Ohio Supreme Court Rejects Republican-Drawn Congressional Maps – Again
On Monday night, the Ohio Supreme Court threw out Republican-drawn congressional maps after justices ruled GOP maps unconstitutionally gerrymandered for the second time. The justices ruled that the Ohio Redistricting Commission’s latest attempt to draw constitutional maps that accurately represent the electorate were too skewed toward Republicans. It was a 4 to 3 ruling, with one moderate Republican joining the court’s Democrats in rejecting the redrawn map. According to the ruling, Republicans in the legislature had proposed nixing one Republican-leaning House district and one Republican-leaning Senate district in central Ohio. But the Democratic-leaning districts that would replace them were only…
White House Plans to Implement New Guidelines Making It Easier to Unionize
On Monday, a labor task force in the Biden administration released a report outlining dozens of new guidelines aimed at making it easier for workers to unionize. In its report, the Task Force on Worker Organizing and Empowerment – led by Vice President Kamala Harris and vice chair Labor Secretary Marty Walsh – presented around 70 recommendations to promote organizing and collective bargaining. The goal of the recommendations, the task force wrote, is to promote more good faith negotiating, to empower the workforce and to promote the use of federal funds to support organizing workers and “pro-worker employers.” The White…
Biden Admin Restores Sanctions Waivers Seen as Key to Reviving Iran Nuclear Deal
Supporters of the Iran nuclear deal welcomed news Friday that the Biden administration restored sanctions waivers seen as key to a mutual return to the agreement. “This is excellent news for diplomacy!” tweeted the Friends Committee on National Legislation. The waivers, the group added, “will help facilitate negotiations to bring us back into the Iran nuclear deal, which will reduce the threat of war with Iran, and reduce civilian harm from sanctions.” With Iran hawk Mike Pompeo then leading the State Department, the Trump administration rescinded the waivers allowing for international cooperation on Iran’s nuclear sites in 2020. That followed…
Auto Workers Vote Overwhelmingly for Independent Union at GM Plant in Mexico
This article was first published by Labor Notes. Auto workers at a General Motors plant in central Mexico delivered a landslide victory to an independent union in a vote held February 1-2. It’s a major breakthrough for workers and labor activists seeking to break the vice grip of the employer-friendly unions that have long dominated Mexico’s labor movement. Turnout among the plant’s 6,300 eligible voters was 88 percent. The independent union SINTTIA (the National Auto Workers Union) picked up 4,192 votes — 78 percent of the vote. SINTTIA, which grew out of the successful campaign which ousted the previous corrupt…