Middle- and low-income households in the U.S. made less money in 2014 than they did in 1999 as the middle class lost ground in almost 90 percent of the country's metropolitan areas, a new analysis by the Pew Research Center released Wednesday has found.

The report looked at 229 of the 381 federally designated "metropolitan statistical areas" in the U.S., from Seattle to Boston, which accounted for 76 percent of the nationwide population in 2014. It found that poorer households saw their income drop from a median of $26,373 in 1999 to $23,811 in 2014, while middle-class incomes fell from $77,898 to $72,919 in that same time period. The erosion of the middle class came as household incomes decreased, "a reminder that the economy has yet to fully recover from the effects of the Great Recession of 2007-09," Pew said—but more than that, it is a reflection of rising income inequality.

The report continues: The current and future status of the American middle class continues to be a central issue in the 2016 presidential campaign. Moreover, new economic research suggests that a struggling middle class could be holding back the potential for future economic growth. The national trend is clear—the middle class is losing ground as a share of the population, and its share of aggregate U.S. household income is also declining.

With fewer families in the middle tier, the gap between rich and poor is widening, the report found, with the share of adults in lower-income tiers rising in 160 areas. The report follows a previous Pew analysis which found that for the first time in more than 40 years, the middle class is no longer the majority in America.

Read more: http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/05/12/wealthy-surge-us-poor-and-middle-class-incomes-have-gone-backward

Donald Trump said on Wednesday that former Ariz. Gov. Jan Brewer and Okla. Gov. Mary Fallin are both on his shortlist for running mate.

In an interview with Fox News’ “On the Record,” the GOP presumptive nominee was asked about Brewer saying that Fallin was on the list.

“Well also Jan. Jan Brewer has been fantastic,” he said. “She has been so fantastic. You know I won so big, her territory, we won so big. And she is a fabulous woman. And I agree with you, the governor of Oklahoma -- fabulous person.”

Read more: http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/279628-trump-says-fallin-and-brewer-on-vp-shortlist

Donald Trump's support has surged and he is now running nearly even with Democrat Hillary Clinton among likely U.S. voters, a dramatic turnaround since he became the Republican party's presumptive presidential nominee, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Wednesday.

The results could signal a close fight between the two likely White House rivals as Americans make up their minds ahead of the Nov. 8 election to succeed Democratic President Barack Obama. As recently as last week, Clinton led Trump by around 13 points in the poll.

In the most recent survey, 41 percent of likely voters supported Clinton, the Democratic front-runner, and 40 percent backed Trump, with 19 percent not decided on either yet, according to the online poll of 1,289 people conducted from Friday to Tuesday. The poll had a credibility interval of about 3 percentage points.

The results reflect a big increase in support for Trump since he knocked out U.S. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas and Ohio Governor John Kasich last week to become the last Republican in the White House race. There was no immediate comment from the Clinton or Trump campaigns.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-poll-idUSKCN0Y21TN

More than half of beekeepers suffered unsustainable losses, with deadly mite infestations and harmful land management practices heaping mounting pressure.

More than a quarter of American honeybee colonies were wiped out over the winter, with deadly infestations of mites and harmful land management practices heaping mounting pressure upon the crucial pollinators and the businesses that keep them. Preliminary figures commissioned by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) show that 28% of bee colonies in the United States were lost over the 2015-16 winter. More than half of surveyed beekeepers said they suffered unsustainable losses during the winter.

Over the year, from April 2015 to March 2016, beekeepers lost 44% of their colonies – the highest annual loss on record. Until six years ago annual figures weren’t kept as it was assumed colony losses were only suffered during winter, but similar declines are now occurring year-round.

“It’s very troubling and what really concerns me that we are losing colonies in summer too, when bees should be doing so well,” said Dennis vanEngelsdorp, a University of Maryland bee scientist and survey leader. “This suggests there is something more going on – bees may be the canary in the coal mine of bigger environmental problems."

Read more: http://www.rawstory.com/2016/05/28-percent-of-us-bees-wiped-out-this-winter-suggesting-bigger-environmental-issues/

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Backing a citizen-led initiative to combat soaring drugs prices in California, Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders on Tuesday endorsed a ballot proposal designed to curb what he described as a corporate "rip-off" of the state's sick and vulnerable.

"It is no surprise that the pharmaceutical industry has already dedicated $50 million to defeat this ballot initiative. Their greed has no end. Enough is enough! Drug companies shouldn’t be allowed to make billions of dollars in profits off of people with cancer and AIDS who are in desperate need of lifesaving drugs. I hope very much that this ballot initiative passes." —Bernie Sanders"While Congress has failed to stand up to the greed of the pharmaceutical industry, the people of California can by supporting this ballot initiative," Sanders said while campaigning in the state on Tuesday.

Called the California Drug Price Relief Act, the measure in question, as described by the San Francisco Chronicle, "would restrict California health programs from paying more for prescription drugs than what’s paid by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs." Given the enormous leverage of the VA, those drug prices are often the lowest available anywhere in the nation.

Backed by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, the National Nurses United (NNU), and Californians for Lower Drug Prices campaign, voters will have a chance to vote on the initiative in November after supporters collected more than half a million signatures to get it on the ballot.



Read more: http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/05/10/targeting-big-pharma-price-gouging-sanders-backs-california-ballot-fight

Five Pacific Islands have been swallowed by rising seas and coastal erosion, in what Australian researchers say is the first confirmation of what climate change will bring. The submerged region, which was part of the Solomon Islands archipelago and was above water as recently as 2014, was not inhabited by humans.

However, a further six islands are also experiencing "severe shoreline recession," which is forcing the populations in those settlements—some of which have existed since at least 1935—to flee, according to a study published last week in Environmental Research Letters.

Researchers used aerial and satellite images dating back to 1947 to track coastal erosion across 33 islands. At least 11 islands across the northern region of the archipelago "have either totally disappeared over recent decades or are currently experiencing severe erosion," the study found.

"This is the first scientific evidence...that confirms the numerous anecdotal accounts from across the Pacific of the dramatic impacts of climate change on coastlines and people," the researchers wrote at Scientific American on Monday. Lead author Dr. Simon Albert, a senior research fellow at the University of Queensland, told Agence France-Presse that rates of sea level rise in the Solomons are almost three times higher than the global average.

Read more: http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/05/10/warning-world-five-pacific-islands-officially-lost-rising-seas

Now that Donald Trump has secured his position as the presumptive Republican nominee, Wall Street donors are fleeing the party and throwing their support behind Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton. A Wall Street Journal analysis published late Sunday found that the former secretary of state "has raised $4.2 million in total from Wall Street, $344,000 of which was contributed in March alone."In fact, Clinton has seen a surge in financial sector donations since business-friendly Republican candidates—namely former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio—dropped out of the race.

According to the newspaper's reporting on fundraising data provided by the Center for Responsive Politics, "the former secretary of state received 53 percent of the donations from Wall Street in March, up from 32 percent last year and 33 percent in January through February, as the nominating contests began." WSJ notes that "Trump, by contrast, hasn’t garnered more than 1 percent of Wall Street contributions in any month through March," although the New York billionaire is expected to be much more active in soliciting donations for the general election.

The report further cites an analysis by the nonpartisan crowdfunding resource Crowdpac, which found that "more than 500 donors, including many Wall Street executives, who gave more than $200 to a Republican who later dropped out, including Messrs. Bush and Rubio, have since given to Mrs. Clinton," WSJ wrote. In total, Clinton has received a full third of all money that business interests have donated to presidential campaigns on both sides of the aisle.The numbers represent a significant shift from the conventional wisdom that the GOP is beholden to big business while Democrats are supposed to represent the concerns of the people.

Politico reported last week that Clinton supporters have been aggressively courting top Bush family donors "to try to convince them that she represents their values better than Donald Trump." Those fundraising calls are part of an overall effort by the campaign to position Clinton as the standard bearer of neoconservative ideals. In response to the Politico report, Bernie Sanders' campaign manager Jeff Weaver sent an email to supporters on Saturday chiding Clinton for soliciting those funds, writing: "you cannot change a corrupt system by taking its money."
Indeed, as Republican lobbyist Ed Rogers told the WSJ, "Business interests are generally not sold on the notion that Trump will be a more business-friendly candidate; there’s a lot about Trump they don’t know," such as his positions on regulation and trade policy. "They know Hillary," Rogers added. "And they know that she is not antibusiness."

Read more: http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/05/09/wall-street-donors-flocking-clintons