Issues

The Committee continues to see the risks to the outlook for economic activity and the labor market as nearly balanced but is monitoring developments abroad. Inflation is anticipated to remain near its recent low level in the near term but the Committee expects inflation to rise gradually toward 2 percent over the medium term as the labor market improves further and the transitory effects of declines in energy and import prices dissipate. more »

"To what extent does policing reflect culture that supports and facilitates a war on women? We review arrest trends for female offenders, discuss police responses to crimes against women, and examine policies and practices that may improve understanding of the criminal justice system's role in this war. We find evidence of changes in police perspectives, actions, and policies toward women as perpetrators and victims of crime." more »

According to the EEOC, charges of age discrimination have risen steadily since the turn of the century, from about 16,000 in 2000 to close to 21,000 in 2014. A senior attorney with AARP said "the number of charges filed with the EEOC is just the tip of the iceberg." Most employers, according to the attorney "are smart enough not to make any sort of comment against the person's age, which would provide the smoking gun piece of evidence. So often, it's really not worth filing a job discrimination claim." more »

Someone protesting outside the clinic took a photo of the ambulance [transporting a woman with a medical emergency to a local hospital], and Operation Rescue's website reported the incident, though it did not know Alicia's identity. Within weeks, the Nebraska health department subpoenaed Alicia's records from the clinic. Alicia had not complained, but the agency had received a tip, she later learned. "All this happened because I was in the clinic having a legal abortion," she said. "All they cared about was judging me ... and building evidence for their case." more »