The best of the week’s news by Lindsay Beyerstein
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Focka, Creative Commons.
The Best of the Week’s News
jsnsndr, Creative Commons.
Charles Gladden works in the cafeteria at the Dirksen Senate Office Building, but he has not had a fixed address for 5 years. Instead of going home at night, the 63-year-old diabetic grandfather sleeps in the McPherson Square Metro Station, near the White House.
Gladden recently took part in a one-day strike to draw attention to the fact that the U.S. government is the single biggest indirect creator of jobs that do not pay a living wage.
Doug Pardue, Glenn Smith, Jennifer Berry Hawes, and Natalie Caula Hauff of the Post and Courier.
In September 2014, Doug Pardue, Glenn Smith, Jennifer Berry Hawes, and Natalie Caula Haff won the Sidney Award for “Til Death do Us Part,” a fearless, masterfully reported investigation into the domestic homicide crisis in South Carolina.
Read our Backstory Interview about the making of this landmark series
Today, “Til Death” went on to win the gold medal for Public Service, the most prestigious of all the Pulitzer Prizes in journalism.
Our warmest congratulations to Doug, Glenn, Jennifer, and Natalie. We knew they were destined for big things!
Cat Sidh, Creative Commons.
The Best of the Week’s News
Portrait of Jefferson Davis, by CanonFire09, Creative Commons.
The Best of the Week’s News
Courtesy of Spencer Woodman.
We are very pleased to announce that Spencer Woodman has won the April Sidney Award for exposing the outrageous non-compete agreements that Amazon has been enforcing on its temporary warehouse workers. Woodman found that the mega-retailer was forcing workers to sign 18-month non-compete agreements in order to qualify for a 3-month stint in an Amazon warehouse. The language of the non-compete clause is so sweeping that, if it were enforced, it would appear to bar workers from almost any job anywhere in the world, for a period 6 times longer than they actually worked at Amazon.
Learn more about Spencer’s reporting and Amazon’s subsequent promise to stop imposing non-competes on hourly workers in The Backstory.
Anthony Chammond, Creative Commons.
The Best of the Week’s News
The Sidney Hillman Foundation is proud to announce that Bryan Stevenson will be the recipient of the inaugural George Barrett Award. This prize goes to an attorney whose work exemplifies the public spirit of the crusading Nashville civil rights attorney George “Citizen” Barrett.
Stevenson is the founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative, a non-profit dedicated to fighting poverty and challenging racial discrimination in the criminal justice system. Based in Alabama, the EJI fights against wrongful convictions, executions, and excessive sentences. Stevenson is the author of the bestselling book, Just Mercy, a memoir about his work as a public interest lawyer. His 2012 TED Talk, “We Need to Talk About Injustice,” has been viewed over 2 million times.
John Marino, Creative Commons.
The Best of the Week’s News
The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire broke out 114 years ago today, on March 25, 1911. One hundred and forty-six garment workers, mostly immigrant women, died in the blaze. The fire became a catalyst for the nascent labor movement.
Today, Workers United/SEIU, the New York City Fire Department, and city school children, mark the anniversary at the official commemoration ceremony at the cite of the fire.
11:30am-1:00pm, at Washington Place & Greene Street.
