La Opinion
Orson Aguilar

Lo están haciendo otra vez: De nuevo, los intereses especiales están tratando de arrebatar la iniciativa de ley en la boleta de California para enriquecerse a costa de nuestras comunidades.

Dos grandes compañías petroleras están gastando grandes cantidades de dinero para matar la creciente economía verde de California y los cientos de empleos que esta economía ha creado. Prepárense para las mentiras que se esparcirán rápido y recuerden quién está detrás de ellas.
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Santa Cruz Sentinel
Orson Aguilar

The University of California’s home page proudly declares, “The 10 campuses of the University of California open their doors to all who work hard and dream big.” Not anymore.

The doors of opportunity being slammed shut at UC will hurt all of California, but low-income communities will be damaged the most. I grew up in one of those communities, the Boyle Heights area of Los Angeles, and owe much of what I’ve achieved in life to my UC education. Now, thousands of qualified kids won’t get that chance.
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By Preeti Vissa and Chris Vaeth, the Greenlining Institute

As House and Senate conferees put the finishing touches on financial regulatory reform, they — and the White House, which will have to implement whatever passes — need to ensure that both new and old regulatory structures reflect all of America’s diverse communities, in both their activities and their personnel. The good news is that the legislation as it now stands takes major steps in that direction.

This isn’t just political correctness. And it is not — despite misleading and irresponsible claims from some quarters – an effort to impose some sort of racial quota system on lending. It is the only way to ensure that the financial nightmare still haunting our economy doesn’t repeat itself.
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The Hill
By Samuel S. Kang

The Federal Communications Commission will soon face one of the most important decisions it has ever made: Whether to permit Comcast, the massive cable TV and Internet provider, to merge with NBC Universal, one of the world’s largest news and entertainment content providers.

Comcast is not exactly loved by consumers: In a 2009 Forrester Research survey of customer satisfaction, Comcast ranked number 105 out of 113 companies. It has faced credible accusations of censorship of Internet and cable TV content and advertising.
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Greenlining Institute
By Hector J. Preciado

THE NATIONAL Health Care Reform just signed into law by President Barack Obama will be good for all Californians, particularly low-income Californians and communities of color, who disproportionately lack access to care. But, important as it is, this new federal law doesn’t go far enough.
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Greenlining Institute
By Orson Aguilar

Public anger over bank bailouts and fat Wall Street bonuses has put enormous pressure on President Obama to crack down – but a crackdown isn’t enough. It’s time to take positive steps to push our banking system to better serve all of America’s diverse communities.
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California Progress Report
Author: Preeti Vissa & Faith Bautista

Recent reports that financial legerdemain engineered by Goldman Sachs helped destabilize the Greek economy ought to make Californians nervous. It’s time to ask if Goldman could do to us what it appears to have done to the Greeks and, indirectly, to the rest of Europe.
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Sacramento Bee
By Orson Aguilar

The $250 million that California is about to save by slashing vital rehabilitation programs for prisoners will cost us many times that much money. The money we think we’re saving will cost us many times over in more crime, more drug abuse and ruined lives. Rehabilitation and alternative programs can save lives. I know. One of them saved mine.
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American Banker
By Jorge Corralejo and Claudia Viek

Credit to small businesses has been substantially curtailed since 2008, yet these businesses are far more responsible for domestic job creation than the banking industry or corporate America as a whole.

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American Banker
By Orson Aguilar – Executive Director, The Greenlining Institute

Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated the total amount of combined Tarp funds received by Citigroup, Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs. It is $105 billion.

It’s sad, but not much has changed since corporate greed and malfeasance nearly caused our economy to collapse. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York, assigned the job of protecting banking customers, recently named two CEOs, including Jeffrey Kindler of Pfizer, to fill their public interest positions. One must wonder why the Fed could not find qualified directors, with proven track records of public advocacy, to serve the public good. Pfizer, a so-called leader in serving the public good, was recently fined a record $2.3 billion by the Justice Department for fraudulent marketing of drugs. Among the many allegations, Pfizer paid kickbacks to health-care providers to induce them to prescribe drugs for uses not approved by the Food and Drug Administration.

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