Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP): Corporate Power Tool of the 1% 
with
Lori Wallach, Dir. Of Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch

Recently WikiLeaks released "the secret negotiated draft text for the entire TPP (Trans-Pacific Partnership) Intellectual Property Rights Chapter. The TPP is the largest-ever economic treaty, encompassing nations representing 
more than 40 per cent of the world’s GDP."  WikiLeaks is sparking a public debate about the contents of this agreement that wasn't possible when the agreement was secret from public opinion. The TPP is much more than a 
trade and tariffs agreement, it will give transnational corporations greater control over our food policies, Internet access, medicines and health care, the environment, regulation of banks and labor standards. The TPP provides 
for trade tribunals permitting corporations to sue governments for the loss of “expected future profits,” if a country passes an environmental or a health law that will “cost the corporation money.”  Indeed corporations will have inordinate  power over virtually every aspect of our lives. Building Bridges entertains the discussion with Lori Wallach on the TPP that WikiLeaks intended.

https://archive.org/stream/BuildingBridgesTrans-pacificPartnershiptppCorporatePowerToolOfThe  
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https://archive.org/download/BuildingBridgesTrans-pacificPartnershiptppCorporatePowerToolOfThe/tppntl.mp3  
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Hey Governor Cuomo, We Need a Real Minimum Wage Now!
with
Assembly member Linda Rosenthal
Senator Jose Peralta
The Coalition for a Real Minimum-Wage Increase

The new minimum wage bill will not be indexed to inflation, instead Governor Cuomo’s wage bill raises the minimum wage to only $9 an hour in three years - too little, too late.  We need a real minimum wage increase that lifts people out of poverty and enables them to adequately support their families.  Governor Cuomo’s minimum wage law also excludes hundreds of thousands of tipped workers from receiving an increase and fails to allocate any resources for 
labor-law enforcement to investigate workers’ complaints of employers’ rampant violations of an failure to pay the minimum wage.  The Coalition for a Real Minimum Wage Increase is campaigning for a real minimum wage and to strengthen minimum wage law and its enforcement.

https://archive.org/stream/BuildingBridgesForARealNysMinimum-wageIncreaseNow     
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https://archive.org/download/BuildingBridgesForARealNysMinimum-wageIncreaseNow/minimumwageconfntl2.mp3  

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Court Halts NYC Stop-and-Frisk Ruling, Removes Judge 
with
Baher Azmy, Legal Director, Center for Constitutional Rights

On October 31, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit granted Mayor Bloomberg’s motion to stay the remedial decision in Floyd v. City of New York, a federal class action lawsuit filed against the NYPD and the City of New York that challenges the NYPD's practices of racial profiling and unconstitutional stop-and frisks. They also remanded the case to the District Court to assign a 
new judge. We’ll discuss what this decision means for the continuation of stop and frisk, the concerted, pernicious manifestation of racial stereotyping and criminalization of entire communities and whether judge Shira Scheindlin, who merely made public statements in which she answered critics of her ruling, 
was targeted for rebuke and removal from the case.

https://archive.org/stream/BuildingBridgesCourtHaltsNycStop-and-friskRulingInNyc
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 https://archive.org/download/BuildingBridgesCourtHaltsNycStop-and-friskRulingInNyc/stopandfriskrulingntl.mp3   
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