According to an investigation by Democratic Congressman Elijah Cumming – the ranking member on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform – for-profit colleges are paying executives massive salaries – not based on student achievement – but instead based solely on profitability. Looking at 13 different for-profit schools – the investigation found, “the single most significant measure for determining executive compensation at t

After it was the first bank to be hit by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau for defrauding consumers and ordered to pay $165 million to customers in refunds, Capital One was just hit with another fine. This time – the Department of Justice has ordered the bank to pay out $12 million to members of the military for denying them their legal right under the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act to avoid foreclosures and high interest rates.

And one thing’s clear – it’s still an extremely dangerous situation. A Japanese newspaper is reporting that plant operators still face a number of hurdles before they can decommission the plant and officially close the book on the crisis – and it could take decades. Those hurdles include trying to determine why 8 million becquerels of radioactive cesium still continues to pour out of reactor number 2 every single hour.

Civil unrest in America spread to Anaheim last night – where, for the fourth straight day, citizens took to the streets to protest police brutality and the killing the of an unarmed man by police over the weekend. As journalist Tim Pool reported, cops fired hundreds of less lethal rounds of rubber bullets and pepper balls into the crowds – wounding several demonstrators.

In an interview with Current TV on Monday, former NSA senior official Thomas Drake revealed that the NSA is not just monitoring international phone calls and emails as its been given the authority to do, but also domestic calls and emails. As Drake said, “a key decision [was] made shortly after 9/11, which began to rapidly turn the United States of America into the equivalent of a foreign nation for dragnet blanket electronic surveillanc

The shooter in the Aurora theater massacre, James Holmes, purchased more than 6,000 rounds of ammunition in the weeks leading up to the shooting, spending roughly $3,000 on his arsenal. He also purchased a bullet-proof vest and other tactical gear to mimic a SWAT team member, and high-capacity magazines that would have been illegal under the Assault Weapons Ban or any number of pieces of gun control legislation that have stalled out in C

Twelve people are dead and nearly 40 wounded after a gunman opened fire in a crowded movie theatre in Colorado late Thursday night. Moviegoers were attending the premiere of the new Batman movie, when 24-year-old James Holmes walked in with tear gas, a rifle, a shotgun, and two hand guns, and opened fire. Holmes is in police custody.

America likes to think of itself as the richest nation on the planet, and looking strictly at total combined wealth, it is. But that’s only because there are a heck of a lot of billionaires living here. But looking at median wealth, or how much Americans in the middle are making, the United States doesn’t even crack the top ten in the world.

The heirs of the Wal Mart fortune – the Walton family – have gotten a lot wealthier since the Bush recession began in 2007, while the rest of us have gotten a lot poorer. According to data from the Federal Reserve, median family wealth in America dropped by nearly 40% between 2007 and 2010. But, during that same, the wealth of the Walton family increased 22% to nearly $90 billion.

So now, the six Walton heirs have more wealt

Transparency!? We don’t need no stinkin’ transparency! On Monday, Republicans in the Senate joined together to filibuster and kill the latest attempt by Democrats to inject transparency in our elections.

The New York Times reported on Saturday that the Department of Justice is building several criminal cases against major Wall Street banks related to the ongoing LIBOR rate-rigging scandal. Charges are expected to be brought against at least one bank and its employees by the end of this year. It’s alleged that hundreds of billions – if not trillions – of dollars were manipulated in the global economy by a handful of banks colluding

An analysis by Morgan Stanley finds that Wall Street stands to be hit with at least $22 billion in penalties over its involvement in rigging key interest rates that underlie trillions of dollars of investments around the world. But that’s a low number – as hundreds of thousands of litigants – from individuals, to cities, to businesses – might have cases against the banks as this investigation continues – and it’s learned just how much mo

Our public transportation system is failing low-income workers. According to a new study by the Brookings Institute – only a quarter of Americans can get to their job within 90 minutes using public transportation. For a lot of Americans who can’t afford a car – or the gas to commute the average 13 miles it takes for the typical American to get to work – then public transportation is their only option. But that means long, exh

While small businesses have certainly taken a hit following the Bush Great Recession, the evidence shows that American entrepreneurs have been getting pummeled for more than thirty years. According to a new study released today by the New American Foundation, the number of entrepreneurs per capita has dropped by 53% since 1977. And since 1991, the number of Americans who are self-employed has dropped by more than 20%. In othe

After heads rolled last week at Barclays Bank following admission that the bank rigged key interest rates that underlie millions of consumer loans from home mortgages to credit cards, there are new allegations that other banks may be involved, and that this massive rip-off has been going on for decades. As one financial insider admitted to The Economist, “fifteen years ago, the word was that LIBOR was being rigged.” The insider wen