D.C. voters back measure to raise minimum wage for tipped workers
D.C. residents on June 19 narrowly approved a hard-fought ballot measure that will raise the minimum wage for all workers to $15 by 2025
North & Central America
This archive covers progress stories from North and Central America, spanning the U.S., Canada, Mexico, and the nations of Central America. Readers will find reporting on health, environment, community resilience, and policy advances across the region.
MidAmerican Energy to become first 100% renewable energy utility with Wind XII Project
Wind XII consists of 591 MW of new wind capacity in Iowa and has propelled the company to be the first investor-owned electric utility in the U.S. to generate renewable energy equal to 100% of its customers usage each year.
Costco to boost its minimum wage to $14 an hour
The retail chain, second only to Walmart Inc. in terms of U.S. sales, said it would increase its starting hourly wages by $1 to $14 or $14.50 an hour.
Hawaii passes law to make the state carbon neutral by 2045
The plan is the most ambitious emissions reduction and renewable energy plan of any state in the country.
Disney embraces $15 minimum wage in negotiations with workers
Disney says that marks the largest increase to starting wages it’s ever offered.
Stockton, CA becomes first U.S. city to test universal basic income
Stockton, Calif., hopes to become an exhibition ground for fighting poverty with a simple yet unorthodox experiment: giving $500 a month in donated cash to perhaps 100 local families, no strings attached.
U.S. federal judge in Missouri grants transgender inmates transition-related health care
Denying transgender prisoners transition-related health care violates their Eighth Amendment rights, according to a final ruling from a federal judge in Missouri, in an important win for transgender people in the prison system.
Americans support of same-sex marriage at all-time high
In each of the past three annual polls, Gallup has recorded three-percentage point increases among Americans who say same-sex marriages should be legally valid.
Premature birth rates drop in California after coal and oil plants shut down, study finds
Within a year of eight coal- and oil-fired power plant retirements, the rate of preterm births in mothers living close by dropped, finds new study on air pollution.
America’s incarceration rate is at a two-decade low
The nation’s incarceration rate has declined every year since 2006 and is now at its lowest point since 1996.