A Seattle Times editorial urges President to re-think his nomination of a former industry lobbyist to head the Federal Communications Commission. "His choice to replace FCC chairman Julius Genachowski, who is stepping down, is Tom Wheeler. He represented the cable industry 30 years ago and, later, the nation’s cellphone carriers."

While the so-called "Working Families Flexibility Act" stands little chance of being signed into law by President Obama it does show, and quite clearly, how beholden the Republican Party is to business interests, writes Mark Andersen. "Instead of weakening the FLSA, we should be demanding that it be strengthened. Raise the minimum wage, get rid of the archaic separate tipped minimum wage, strengthen overtime rules, create a maximum wage based on the average employee salary, expand the list of non-exempt employees, and maybe if you really want to help families take a serious look at the 30-hour week as Sen. Black originally wanted in 1932."

At its convention in September, the AFL-CIO say it needs to be ready to make decisions about how the union movement should change and what the federation can do together to make a better future for working people. "We’re taking a hard look inward, at ourselves, and also asking for ideas from everybody who’ll share them—from people inside and outside the labor movement, from progressives, academics, student groups. We want ideas from anyone who cares deeply about building a real movement for working people."