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Robin Hood Storms Chase Castle and M&I Execs Get Piggish

On Tuesday, the shareholders of Marshall and Ilsley (M&I) Bank of Wisconsin "voted" to give $71 million in bonuses to failed executives as part of an acquisition deal. "Voted" may not be the right word, since CEO Mark Furlong opened and closed the meeting within the span of five minutes, allowing no discussion and no questions from the dozen or so shareholders in the room. Furlong has apparently learned Robert's Rules of Order from his friend Governor Scott Walker and the rest of the gang in the Wisconsin Capitol.

No Exemptions for Wisconsin Firefighters and Police

The fact that they were exempt from from Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker's collective bargaining bill never prevented Wisconsin's firefighters or police from stepping up to protest Walker's union-busting agenda. Walker said the unions were exempt from the bill not for political reasons but for reasons of public safety (strikes and burning houses are not a good combination), but the police and firefighter's unions knew that their rights too could soon be on the chopping block.

Wisconsin Protests, Monday, April 25 - Sunday, May 1, 2011

CMD REPORTS: MAY DAY MARCH UNITES WORKERS

9:05 a.m. - Rebekah Wilce reports for CMD:

Today in Madison, Immigrant Workers Union and allied groups marched from Brittingham Park down West Washington Avenue to the Wisconsin State Capitol, demanding worker's rights and immigration reform.

May Day, or May 1st, became International Workers' Day in 1886, when it was the beginning of a multi-day general strike in Chicago that demanded an eight-hour work day. On May 4, 1886, the strike ended in what became known as the Haymarket affair.

Wisconsin Protests, Monday, April 18 - Sunday, April 24, 2011

CMD REPORTS: "THUNDA AROUND THE ROTUNDA" TO RUMBLE INTO MADISON SATURDAY

9:30 p.m. - Summer Abdoh reports for CMD:

On Saturday, April 30, the fight for collective bargaining will bring a different type of activist to Madison's Capitol Square. As many as 10,000 motorcyclists from around Wisconsin and across the Midwest will ride in support of Wisconsin workers at the "Thunda Around the Rotunda" event.

Read more here.

Got Health Insurance? Pray You Won't Get Purged

You might not realize it, but this is National Small Business Week. I'm betting many small business owners aren't aware of it, either. Perhaps that's because most small business owners are far more likely to be worrying about whether they'll be able to offer health insurance to their employees for another year.

Cutting health insurance costsOr is this the year they join the ever-growing list of small businesses that have been "purged" by their insurance carrier?

For several years now, insurance companies have been "purging" small business accounts they no longer consider profitable enough or that their underwriters believe pose too much risk. I became familiar with"purging" (yes, that's the actual word insurance executives use internally) toward the end of my career as an industry PR man.

Wisconsin Protesters Weather Pessimism at May 14 Rally

Protesters took to the Wisconsin's capital once more on May 14th to prove neither pessimism nor weather could dampen their enthusiasm.

In-state tuition for allAn estimated 10-15,000 Wisconsinites gathered on the State Street steps equipped with new chants and signs protesting Walker's collective bargaining bill, education cuts, Badger Care cuts and immigrant rights. Summing up the feeling of many, one protester held a sign saying "Too Many Bad Bills for One Sign!"

The Wisconsin protests have yet to become redundant or uninteresting and continue to reinvent the very notion of protesting. The May 14 rally, sponsored by unions and the Wisconsin Wave, wasn't any different.

Phil Neuenfeldt, President of the WI AFl-CIO, warned that even though the collective bargaining bill was tied up in the courts, Gov. Scott Walker "is attempting to ram through the legislation attacking workers by incorporating it into an already extreme budget proposal."

Death Threats in El Salvador as Mining Company Asserts Corporate "Rights"

While a transnational corporation asserts its "right" to extract gold from El Salvador under the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), a grassroots anti-mining movement fights for self-determination and its leaders are turning up dead. In recent weeks, death threats have also been sent to radio journalists at Radio Victoria, the sister radio station to Madison, Wisconsin's WORT-FM.

Bankster Alert: Cheeseheads and Buckeyes Battle the Banksters May 17!

As the economy continues to sputter and new unemployment claims surge to an eight-month high, Fortune Magazine reports that profits of the 500 largest U.S. corporations have surged 81 percent. Fortune's editors write, "We've rarely seen such a stark gulf between the fortunes of the 500 and those of ordinary Americans." When Fortune is standing up for the workers, you know it's bad.

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