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A minimum-wage worker would have to put in lots of overtime to be able to afford a modest, two-bedroom apartment anywhere in the country. And downsizing to a one-bedroom pad barely helps.
A one-bedroom is affordable for minimum-wage employees in all of 22 counties in just five states -- Arizona, California, Colorado, Oregon and Washington. Each has a higher minimum wage than the $7.25 federal minimum.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/minimum-wage-doesnt-cover-the-rent-anywhere-in-the-u-s/


The Trump administration’s plan to keep money-losing power plants open would save coal mining jobs but at the same time unleash more pollution that would cost lives, according to a new analysis.
For every 4.5 coal mining jobs supported by the drafted policy, one American would die from the surge in air pollution tied to generating electricity from the fossil fuel, according to modeling by the independent, nonprofit research group Resources for the Future.
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2018/07/06/business/trump-plan-save-coal-related-jobs-power-plants-will-pollution-death-toll-study/#.Wz_aZbiQw2x


Former state Rep. Oliver Robinson testified Tuesday that he accepted money to oppose federal environmental cleanup efforts in north Birmingham, telling jurors that in doing so that he felt like he sold out the people who had elected him.
Robinson, a former basketball star and one-time rising star in the Alabama House of Representatives, took to the witness stand as a disgraced politician. He is a key witness for prosecutors trying to prove that two attorneys with a prominent Alabama law firm and a coal company executive paid bribes to Robinson, in the form of a consulting contract, in the hopes of avoiding clean-up costs at a Birmingham Superfund site.
https://www.kansas.com/news/business/article214327429.html


Ethiopia’s new prime minister has been urged to investigate a raft of gruesome torture and abuse allegations involving senior officials in the country’s most notorious prison.
Jail Ogaden, officially known as Jijiga central prison, is home to thousands of prisoners and lies at the heart of Jigjiga, the capital of Ethiopia’s eastern Somali region.
According to a report by Human Rights Watch, published on Thursday, prisoners are routinely brutalised and denied access to adequate medical care, family, lawyers, and sometimes food. The report alleges that many have never been convicted of any crime.
Former prisoners claimed they saw people dying in their cells after being tortured by officials.
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2018/jul/05/claims-torture-involving-officials-ethiopian-jail-ogaden


The jobs 'conundrum' continues: 'How are we not getting higher wages?'
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/07/06/the-jobs-conundrum-continues-how-are-we-not-getting-higher-wages.html