Salon.com > Families

GOP pushes bogus workplace bill from 1996

Mon, 06 May 2013 18:55:00 +0000

This week, House Republicans are rolling out a plan they hope will boost the party's appeal among working families, by giving private sector workers the option of converting overtime pay to paid time off. Pushing the bill, which is expected to get a vote this week, is House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, who made it a key item in his big February speech pitching the GOP to working families. The speech was meant to kick off the GOP's new, softer agenda, but if the party is looking for fresh ideas after their defeat in the 2012 election, this isn't one.

Bloomberg: “Nobody’s sleeping on the streets” in New York City

Wed, 20 Feb 2013 14:03:00 +0000

When asked Tuesday about allegations that the New York City shelter system is turning families away despite dangerously cold temperatures, Mayor Michael Bloomberg replied, defiantly: "Nobody's sleeping on the streets."

The mayor's flippant comment has outraged homeless advocates. (And everyone with commonsense.)

By the city's own admission, there were 3,200 people sleeping on the streets in January 2012, but advocates suggest that there is no 100 percent accurate measurement of the city's unsheltered homeless and that the number is actually significantly higher.

And if you need further proof that families are sleeping on the street, New Yorkers say, then just look around.

"If you ride the subway, you know people are living on the street," one man told NY1. "And people are living underneath the subway," he added.

More and more families moving in together

Wed, 31 Oct 2012 12:34:00 +0000

Struggling with the burden of debts and underemployment, a growing number of graduates in the U.S. are moving back in with their parents. Meanwhile, unable to afford independent retirement, seniors are moving into their children's family homes. Census bureau statistics show a 4 percent rise from last year in the number of multi-generational households: 4.3 million U.S. households now include a parent, a grandparent and a child.

The video below highlights the strength of this trend; housing developers are designing houses under the premise that a young person or grandparent will be moving back in. Watch below (via NewsFix):