WADE RATHKE is the founder of ACORN, Chief Organizer at ACORN International, and Author of "Nuts & Bolts", "Citizen Wealth", "Global Grassroots", and "The Battle for the 9th Ward".
May 1, 2022 Pearl River May Day is a celebration of worker solidarity all around the world. In the USA, not so much. We pretend we honor workers on Labor Day, but mainly that’s an excuse for a holiday and maybe a picnic with real workers’ celebrations more a memory than a movement. What …
New Orleans Soon ACORN will have been organizing 52 full years and ACORN International will mark 20 years of action and work in countries around the world. Every once in awhile it makes sense to step back, look at where we’ve been, and try to imagine – and plan – for the future. …
New Orleans The weather forecast included both thundershowers and a tornado warning, but when asked if we should go ahead with the often scheduled and postponed press conference to release our study on hospital pricing transparency, the decision was easy: go! So, there we were in front of Ochsner-Baptist Hospital, a major unit …
New Orleans The American Hospital Association and its members, supposedly dedicated to their patients and the maxim of “doing no harm”, sued the federal government for years to prevent the imposition of a rule that would require them to finally reveal their prices. After they repeatedly lost in court, Centers for Medicare and …
Marble Falls One report after another indicated that a remarkable thing was happening in the midst of the pandemic that was upending the country, the economy, and all of our lives. Because of various stimulus programs, particularly the direct payments to families with children, child hunger was experiencing unprecedented decreases. That was then, …