Kevin Siers, Charlotte Observer

Opposes Ledbetter Fair Pay Act to protect victims of discrimination

Elizabeth Dole today voted against the Ledbetter Fair Pay Act which would ensure that victims of pay discrimination can hold their employers accountable under existing anti-discrimination laws. Dole’s vote comes one day after Equal Pay Day, which highlights the disparity in wages between women and men – currently at 78 cents to the dollar in North Carolina.

“The last thing hardworking North Carolina families need is a paycheck further slashed by discrimination, but Elizabeth Dole passed on guaranteeing equal pay for equal work today,” DSCC spokesman Matthew Miller said. “With Elizabeth Dole’s record, it’s no wonder she voted against holding people accountable today, but that’s exactly what the voters are going to do to her in November.”

We launched our first national television ad of the presidential election cycle, highlighting how little John McCain understands the economy. Watch it:

from the Associated Press

Gov. Mike Easley said Thursday that he's disappointed in the state Labor Department's response to reports of mistreatment of immigrants who work in the poultry industry.

"I think the Department of Labor has to be more aggressive," said Easley, a Democrat. " I didn't see the level of concern that needs to be there."

In a 40-minute interview with The Charlotte Observer, Easley discussed the newspaper's series in February that said a North Carolina poultry company disguised the number of injuries that its workers suffered on the job. He said he didn't speak out right away in order to give state agencies time to fashion their own response to workplace safety issues.

USA Today

Republican presidential candidate John McCain has condemned the influence of "special interest lobbyists," yet dozens of lobbyists have political and financial ties to his presidential campaign — particularly from telecommunications companies, an industry he helps oversee in the Senate.

Of the 66 current or former lobbyists working for the Arizona senator or raising money for his presidential campaign, 23 have lobbied for telecommunications companies in the past decade, Senate lobbying disclosures show.

McCain has netted about $765,000 in political donations from those telecom lobbyists, their spouses, colleagues at their firms and their telecom clients during the past decade, a USA TODAY analysis of campaign-finance records shows.

from the Charlotte Observer:

The Observer's recent interview with Republican N.C. Labor Secretary Cherie Berry sounded like a satire on how public officials work.

Staff writer Ames Alexander asked her whether she planned to do anything in response to the Observer's series describing workplace safety violations at poultry processing plants run by House of Raeford Farms, a big N.C. company.

Her answer: No.

Asked how her department is doing in keeping workers safe in such dangerous jobs as poultry processing, she replied:

"Our department has the best safety record and fatality record we've had in many, many years. Our numbers have been on a downward trend. And that's what our work is targeted toward -- keeping those numbers going down."

What about companies that aren't reporting workplace injuries? Her response:

Act would prevent insurance companies from using credit information against consumers

Responding to an increasing trend of insurance companies using consumer credit scores in assessing risk and rates, Rep. Melvin L. Watt (D-NC) and Rep. Luis V. Gutierrez (D-IL) introduced legislation that would protect consumers, especially minority citizens, who tend to have lower credit, yet who do not present an increased insurance risk because they are safe drivers.

The Non-Discriminatory Use of Consumer Reports and Consumer Information Act of 2008 (H.R. 5633) is co-sponsored by House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-MA).

“The introduction of the bill today is a step toward leveling the playing field for purchasers of personal lines of insurance such as automobile and homeowners insurance," said Rep. Watt "The insurance industry has been increasingly using credit information to underwrite and rate personal lines of insurance. Government studies have shown that credit scores correlate with race or ethnicity, so minorities often end up paying more for personal lines of insurance even when they are safe drivers or have never filed claims.”

Elizabeth Dole fails when it comes to representing middle class North Carolinians in the U.S. Senate.

Dole received an “F” in a national report card released Wednesday that evaluates federal legislators on how well they represent the needs and interests of the middle class in Congress. In fact, the middle class position prevailed just four out of 10 times in the Senate.

This is the third year Dole received a failing grade.

The report card comes on the heels of a recent Power Rankings poll that found that only seven of the 100 senators are less influential than Dole, a legislator formerly touted as a “political rock star”.

Dole’s votes against expanding health care for children and helping families who are facing foreclosure while voting to grant retroactive immunity to companies that illegally spied on citizens, earned her a 50 percent grade from the Drum Major Institute, a non-partisan group that issued the report card.

What part of job loss does John McCain not understand?

Asked this morning in Atlanta about today's terrible economic reports, McCain said the jobs numbers were "not terrible" because "the unemployment rate did not go up," even as experts reported the worst job losses in five years.

These comments come just days after McCain said the best short-term relief for families feeling the economic pinch was making Bush's budget-busting tax cuts for the wealthy permanent in 2010—nearly two years from now. [AP, 3/7/08; Wall Street Journal, 3/3/08]

Maybe McCain didn't realize that oil prices hit a new record high yesterday with people in North Carolina paying up to $3.18 for a gallon of gas. That, of course, comes as home foreclosures around the country hit an all-time high in the final quarter of last year, with 3,491 families in North Carolina losing their homes.

McCain Admits He "Doesn't Really Understand Economics."

At a recent meeting with the Wall Street Journal editorial board, Republican presidential candidate John McCain admitted he "doesn't really understand economics." He then pointed to his adviser and former senate colleague, Phil Gramm - whom he had brought with him to the meeting - as the expert he turns to on the subject.