Civil Rights News: U.S. Lacks Class Mobility; Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Directed and Ready; Students Blocked from the Polls

Harder for Americans to Rise From Lower Rungs
Jason DeParle, New York Times

It is becoming increasingly well-documented that there is less social mobility in the United States than other industrialized nations. While poverty and unemployment plague us, income inequality and lack of upward class mobility is especially troubling. As more and more Americans struggle to lift themselves into the middle class, this article questions how we view social class in America.

Appointment Clears the Way for Consumer Agency to Act
Edward Wyatt, New York Times

President Obama’s recess appointment of Richard Cordray as director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau means that the bureau is fully operational for the first time since the Dodd-Frank financial regulation act created it in July 2010. Payday lenders, money transfer agencies, credit bureaus and debt collectors, beware!

Keeping Students From the Polls
NY Times Editorial

New requirements on voter ID and other voter suppression tactics will block thousands of students who try to register and vote during the 2012 elections. Will this nationwide trend of voter disenfranchisement in the states result in increased apathy among young citizens, or encourage them to call for changes in our democracy?