Executive summary

From sports arenas to high-tech manufacturing zones and from commercial office buildings to big-box retail, local governments spend billions of dollars every year to entice private businesses to invest in their communities and create jobs. Yet these public funds often help create jobs that pay poverty-level wages with no basic benefits.

Cities across the country are working to gain greater control over these projects and help create quality jobs by attaching wage standards to their economic development subsidies. Communities are linking labor standards to public development projects in various ways, including community benefits agreements and prevailing wage laws. But the most common and comprehensive policies are business assistance living wage laws, which require businesses receiving public subsidies to pay workers wages above the poverty level.

These economic development wage standards have successfully raised pay for covered workers. Yet opponents of these standards argue that such laws prevent businesses from creating jobs and thus help some workers at the expense of employing more workers. Some business leaders and developers also claim that adding labor standards to economic development projects will scare away potential investors by sending an ‘antibusiness

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WASHINGTON, D.C. — Americans remain down on Congress, with 15% approving and 78% disapproving of the job it is doing. This approval rating is similar to the low levels seen this year, and is five percentage points above the all-time low of 10%, last recorded in August 2012.

Trend: Do you approve or disapprove of the way Congress is handling its job?

Congress’ approval rating remains stagnant at the low end of Gallup’s historical trend. Approval has averaged 15% so far this year, far below the overall 33% average rating for the entire trend since 1974. The average for 2013 to date ties with 2012 for the lowest annual average on record. More generally, Americans’ views of Congress have been depressed for the past few years, averaging 17% in 2011 and 19% in 2010. The highest yearly average was 56% in 2001, due to a spike in congressional approval after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Democrats Give Congress a Slightly Higher Rating Than Republicans

Democrats are still slightly more likely than Republicans and independents to approve of Congress. Twenty-one percent of Democrats approve, compared with 12% of Republicans and 14% of independents.

More broadly, Americans in all three groups have been displeased with Congress since it […]

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New documents released Tuesday cast doubt on allegations that the Internal Revenue Service targeted conservative groups to aid President Barack Obama.

House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) and other Republicans have alleged that IRS officials inappropriately flagged conservative groups that were seeking tax-exempt status for additional scrutiny because they were seen as enemies of Obama.

Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (D-MD), Ranking Member of the House Oversight Committee, released a 36-page memo (PDF) on Tuesday that included excepts from the committee’s 15 interviews of IRS employees involved in the screening of tax-exempt organizations.

A tax law specialist – who registered as a Republican – told congressional investigators it was ‘laughable that people think

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The first few days of the IRS scandal that would consume Washington for weeks went like this: Conservatives were indignant, the media was outraged, the president had to respond, his allies turned on him

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Fox News on Tuesday advised viewers to revert to vehicles from the 1960s or even a ‘horse and buggy

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