Young aspiring citizens—with support from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the National Immigration Law Center—sued Michigan Secretary of State Ruth Johnson (R) to stop her from blocking driver's licenses for those who have "deferred action" status from President Obama's DREAM initiative. Meanwhile, many of the young people—called DREAMers—are being prevented from working, attending school or driving because of Johnson's actions.

In a powerful article at Daily Kos, progressive political strategist and former community organizer Mike Lux makes a compelling case against benefit cuts to social safety net programs like Social Security, by telling the tale of a woman he met in Iowa in the 1970s whose cost-of-living adjustment didn't keep up with her heating costs:

Just in time for yesterday's celebration of International Migrants Day, a federal court jury ruled on Monday that Universal Placement International of Los Angeles and its owner, Lourdes Navarro, must pay $4.5 million to 350 Filipino teachers who were forced into exploitative contracts. According to the AFT, the Filipino teachers were brought to Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina and taught in public schools under H-1B guest worker program. This became the first positive jury verdict in a federal labor trafficking case brought forth by workers (as opposed to the government) involving workers who are not domestic workers. It is a clear example that workers can fight back against corporate greed and that when allies join forces on behalf of working families, victories can be achieved.

Last week, after Michigan became the latest state to pass "right to work" for less legislation, many began to dig into the history of such laws and discovered that one of the earliest pushes for "right to work" came from an extreme right-wing activist Vance Muse, who was staunchly anti-communist, anti-integration and anti-union. Muse was the leader of the Christian American Association, an organization that fought to pass "right to work" in more than a dozen states in the 1940s.

One of the proposals floated for months in the fiscal bluff debate in Washington, D.C., is a change to the formula used to measure inflation for Social Security Cost-of-Living Adjustments (COLAs) called the "chained" CPI. Let's be clear: This is a benefit cut. These COLAs make sure seniors' income keeps pace with the rising costs of housing and food. The "chained" CPI would cut future Social Security benefits by as much as $2,432 for someone who is 17 years old today. Studies from the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) show that not only is the "chained" CPI a benefit cut, it eventually will lead to higher taxes for most working people.

Young people around the country have been speaking out on the fiscal showdown. Check out this roundup of blog posts and see what it means to them.

Aspiring artists have only until Wednesday, Dec. 19, to submit original works of art to Artstrike, the day of action put together by CultureStrike, 5D Stories and the Rebuild the Dream Innovation Fund. So far, numerous artists have contributed dozens of images, songs and videos to the project, all with the message directed at Congress that working families oppose benefit cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid and want the richest Americans to pay their fair share of taxes, which includes letting the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest 2% expire.

President Obama sent a request to Congress asking for $60.4 billion to fund Hurricane Sandy storm recovery efforts. The request is expected to be introduced in legislation next week and will be debated after that.

Check out an excerpt of the AFL-CIO's new Innovators website feature, "Learning to Share: Teachers Collaborate on Quality Lesson Plans."

Think about facing a classroom of kids every day and being expected to walk in the door with something new, fresh, compelling and challenging.

Creating the massive volume of quality instructional material required is among a veteran teacher’s greatest challenges. Needed resources are often hard to come by, expensive and it can be difficult to evaluate their effectiveness.  So a group of teachers attempted to solve these problems by creating a valuable new online resource where educators can share their best lesson plans, Share My Lesson.

Are you an artist or graphic designer? Do you oppose cuts to Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and other lifelines? Then Artstrike wants your submissions by Dec. 17. Artstrike is a collaboration among CultureStrike, 5D Stories and the Rebuild the Dream Innovation Fund to create original art that fights back against the most extreme proposals being floated as a response to the fiscal bluff.

Money that was intended for employee pensions was used by Hostess Brands management to cover operating expenses and workers were never compensated for the lost payment, Yahoo News reports. An undetermined amount of money that Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Miller (BCTGM) members were supposed to receive as part of their contract with the company was used to keep the company running after mismanagement led to significant losses and eventual bankruptcy.