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".
Pearl River There are so many things about the response to the coronavirus crisis that remind me of the response to Hurricane Katrina and its devastation of New Orleans and parts of the Gulf Coast. Mostly, that’s not a good thing, because the governmental response was horrifically bad. It was the nadir of George W. …
Houston Silicon Valley and its fans argue that tech is a tool enabled by the wonderful world of the internet. They aren’t totally wrong, though like all tools, tech and the internet, have to be used correctly of course. We all know that, right? We also are finding out more and more that these tools …
New Orleans There was a brief blurb that went across my screen the other day. ACORN Canada was taking another national action demanding “Internet for All” in the long running campaign we have waged to increase access to the internet for lower income families. We’ve made progress there. Way more than we have in …
New Orleans In a sordid and shameful episode a few weeks ago Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson pridefully announced that the state had managed to bar 4300 people from health care support through Medicaid because of its new work requirement policies. Seema Verma the head of the federal Center for Medical Services (CMS) who had approved …
New Orleans Refund anticipation loans or RALs, as they were known, were one of the most predatory products on the market in their heyday targeted solely to low-and-moderate income workers who were most desperate for their tax returns. They were on the other side of the digital divide so less likely to file with the …