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".
New Orleans Storms around Labor Day get my full attention. Betsy hit hard in the fall of 1965 right after school began and took more than a week to get everything back in gear. Katrina in 2005 hit at the end of August and decimated the city of New Orleans in what is now …
New Orleans A funny thing happened to platform capitalism and its predatory business model in Louisiana of all places making the experience there a case in point. Being Louisiana, the fact that somehow booze triggered the revelation almost makes the story too good to be true. Once upon a time, just minutes ago it …
New Orleans Those of us who live in Louisiana or care about the role of the state and its people in public affairs are just as sorry as we can be every time our junior Senator John Kennedy tries to take the stage with cameras running to provide the sordid sideshow commentary about the …
Milwaukee “Unclaimed property” is an interesting concept. What is it really? Years ago, I would have thought it was some share of property in a farm somewhere in the country and people were looking for a long-lost relative who was named in the will, and the state was trying to lend a hand. Or, maybe, …
New Orleans The problem with celebrating our victories is that often we need to do so pretty quickly before the forces of reaction overrun us again. Hopefully, this won’t be the situation in a recent critical breakthrough in the Public Service Commission regulation of rural electric cooperatives in Louisiana, but it’s worth concern. A …