[Boston-editorial] 2 new features

[Matthew Williams]

Anti-Corporate Campaigners Call on TIAA-CREF to Dump Wal-Mart and Coke 
Stock as Unethical Investments
by Matthew Williams, plaid_baboon (nospam) hotmail.com

On Monday, July 11, 2005, a dozen people gathered for half-an-hour 
starting at noon outside TIAA-CREF’s offices in Boston’s financial 
district. They were protesting and passing out informational fliers as 
part of the lead up to next week’s TIAA-CREF annual shareholders 
meeting, where members of the Make TIAA-CREF Ethical Coalition will 
press TIAA-CREF, one of the country’s largest pension funds, to divest 
from Coca-Cola, Wal-Mart and other corporations that do not do business 
ethically. Wal-Mart is well known for its exploitive labor practices, 
while Coke is guilty of a number of socially irresponsible practices, 
ranging from marketing junk food to children in the US to complicity 
with death squads in Colombia.

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11 Jul 2005 | Filed under: News / Environment : Globalization : 
International : Labor : Social Welfare

CORI Checks Haunt Millions in Massachusetts
by homefries,

Around 2 million people in Massachusetts have criminal records that are 
accessible by potential employers, public housing officials, and 
sometimes any member of the public. Last Wednesday, the local Union of 
Minority Neighborhoods kicked off a campaign to change the Criminal 
Offender Record Information (CORI) system by holding a public 
organizing meeting. In this radio piece, Ronald -- a Boston native 
who's spent 25+ years in jail -- talks about the difficulties, 
underlying racism, and possible reforms to CORI checks in 
Massachusetts.

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11 Jul 2005 | Filed under: News / Human Rights : Race