Daily Kos

Deliveryman in New York handed a noose by customer is left traumatized, unable to return to work

Thursday Jul 06, 2017 · 6:31 PM PDT

2017/07/06 · 18:31

Victor Sheppard was handed a noose by a customer on his delivery route in NYC — Victor Sheppard's employer continued to do business with the butcher who handed him a noose during a delivery on the morning of April 5th.

When you are black in America and have to navigate living and working around non-black people, you get used to dealing with racial microaggressions—statements which are directed at members of minority groups that reflect stereotypes and racial bias. Many of these microaggressions are not actually intended to cause harm, but the impact can serve to have a lasting effect—an ever constant reminder that we are seen as different and unrelatable. Racial microaggressions are not only experienced by black people. People of color can also be the recipients of them but certain microaggressions have a different meaning for blacks because of our long and complex history in this country.

And then there are the times when we have to deal with flat-out racism in the workplace. Because so many people have been willfully ignorant as to how pervasive racism is in our society, they’d be shocked to know how commonly this occurs. Of course, racial microaggressions are more likely to occur on a day-to-day basis but, in interracial workplaces, black folks also deal with our share of outright racism too. These instances are almost always painful. And sometimes they make it so that we feel as if are unable to work at all. Such is the case of Victor Sheppard, a deliveryman working in New York, who was given a noose by a butcher in a store where he was making a delivery.

Joe Ottomanelli passed Sheppard a hand-fashioned noose at the butcher shop on April 5 during a morning meat delivery.

“Here is your gift. You can put it around your neck and pull if you want to end it all,” Ottomanelli, 58, said, according to a criminal complaint.

“If you are feeling stressed out I can help you with it.”

As a result, Sheppard is now too traumatized to go back to work. He has since been let go on the claim that since he failed to show up for his duties on two separate occasions, so the company had no choice but to assume he had abandoned his position.

Don't be fooled if McConnell drops a tax cut for the rich in Trumpcare, he's still killing Medicaid

By Joan McCarter

Thursday Jul 06, 2017 · 6:01 PM PDT

2017/07/06 · 18:01

WASHINGTON, DC - DECEMBER 20: Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) (L) and Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) (R) move between meetings before a closed session of the Senate about the new START Treaty, a ratification of a nuclear-arms treaty with Russia, in the U.S. Capitol December 20, 2010 in Washington, DC. The treaty, which was signed by President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev eight months ago, needs at least 67 votes to be ratified. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) — Sens. Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski will probably lie to you about this.

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In all of Mitch McConnell's horse-trading to get to 50 votes on Trumpcare, the most cynical might be the offer to get rid of the tax cut that looks the worst to voters in order to offer a pittance of relief to all the people getting kicked off of their health insurance. The version of the bill McConnell first released repealed an increase in the capital gains tax that was included in the Affordable Care Act.

Not only did McConnell get rid of that tax increase, he made it retroactive to the first of this year. After a public uproar over that, a handful of senators told him they just couldn't vote for a bill that made them look that bad—taking insurance away from millions to pay for egregious tax cuts for the rich. McConnell is talking about taking that cut out, now, and putting that money back in.

Which is pretty much a scam, as Greg Sargent puts it.

A Tax Policy Center analysis found that more than two-thirds of the Senate bill’s tax cuts would go to earners in the top fifth of the income distribution. One of these tax cuts is accomplished by repealing the 3.8 percent tax on net income investments, which hits those over $200,000. The Senate GOP bill would cut spending on Medicaid by $772 billion over 10 years, leaving 15 million fewer covered by that program (22 million overall would lose coverage). Moderate GOP senators have expressed deep dismay about the Medicaid cuts, and GOP governors in states that have expanded Medicaid are pressuring these senators not to accept these cuts. Thus, some GOP senators have argued for restoring this tax, and one place the resulting revenue could be restored is Medicaid.

But how much would this actually accomplish? Probably not that much.

The Senate GOP bill’s repeal of the tax on investment would result in a loss of $172 billion in revenues over ten years, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Larry Levitt, a senior vice president with the Kaiser Family Foundation, points out to me that if you restored all of that money to Medicaid, that would only restore around 22 percent of the $772 billion in cuts to the program.

So that makes the job of governors trying to figure out who gets kicked off of Medicaid—the disabled? The elderly? Children?—22 percent easier. But still miserable. If McConnell takes out this provision, any moderate Republican touting it as a win for them and their constituents would be lying. It is a scam, one that wouldn’t keep millions of people from losing their insurance.

Please give $1 to each of our Senate funds so that Republican senators know there'll be a price to pay for repealing health care.

Cuts to wintertime heat assistance are still on the table

By Hunter

Thursday Jul 06, 2017 · 5:31 PM PDT

2017/07/06 · 17:31

Early on, the denizens of Team Trump decided that this was the perfect opportunity to test just how mean a country we could become before the Republican voters that elected them decided there was a limit beyond which even they would not go. This is how we get such initiatives as their proposal to eliminate LIHEAP, a program that helps low-income Americans get heating aid during the winter. The program is intended to prevent them from dying.

Cutting off low-income Americans' heat during wintertime was not a prominent Trump campaign plank, mind you. He did not devote any memorable speeches on the topic; it showed up afterward, after he had staffed his nascent administration with conservative burn-it-all-downers and B-grade Republican thinkers who took to heart the party's mantra of cutting all government programs that do not produce weaponry or directly benefit rich bastards. But the inherent, targeted cruelty of the move is proving a wee bit unpopular in the Senate.

Forty-three senators from mostly cold-weather states already signed a letter urging the Republican chairman and ranking Democrat on an appropriations subcommittee to ensure funding for the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program, known in many states by its acronym, LIHEAP (pronounced LY’-heep).

In Maine, the poorest state in New England, the program helped about 77,000 people over the past winter, and those numbers represented less than a quarter of eligible households, said Deborah Turcotte of MaineHousing, which helps to run the program.

Which means that Maine Sen. Susan Collins, a Republican, is one of the quiet voices against eliminating it. Sen. Collins seems to spend the majority of her time these days making halfhearted stabs at keeping the people that voted for her alive, or rather piping up with gentle observations that perhaps the party should not be spending quite so much effort attempting to kill them. This is more than good enough to earn the Republican a "moderate" label in a House and Senate that considers such thoughts quaint and old-fashioned and just plain odd.

Researchers study link between child poverty and brain development—with no government support

By Kelly Macias

Thursday Jul 06, 2017 · 5:01 PM PDT

2017/07/06 · 17:01

ATLANTIC CITY, NJ - AUGUST 26: A boy finishes a free lunch at the Atlantic City Rescue Mission on August 26, 2015 in Atlantic City, New Jersey. .Some 8,000 people were layed-off when four of the city's major casinos closed in 2014, bringing Atlantic City's unemployment rate near 11 percent, double the national average. As unemployment assistance has begun to expire for many people, shelters like the Rescue Mission have seen a large jump in need. They serve upwards of 700 meals and house some 300 people a day, including many families. The mass unemployment has produced the highest foreclosure rate of any metropolitan U.S. area, with 1 out of 113 homes now in foreclosure in Atlantic County. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images) — A nationwide study revealed that children in poor families have less brain growth and development than children in homes with higher incomes.

Being poor in America is terrible for anyone—but it is particularly hard on children. Studies have shown that experiencing poverty in childhood significantly impacts one’s ability to be successful as an adult and children from poor families are less likely to work in adulthood than their counterparts from middle-class or wealthy families. Currently, in the United States around 15 million children (or 21 percent) live in poverty, with particularly high rates for black and Hispanic children, children with single mothers and children under the age of five. These statistics are grim. And, now, making childhood poverty even more dire, scientists have also discovered that there is a clear link to poverty and brain development.

In 2015, [Dr. Kimberly Noble, a scientist at Columbia University] co-authored the largest study to date. Using MRI, researchers examined 1,099 children and young adults and found that the brains of those with higher family income and more parental education had larger surface areas than their poorer, less-educated peers. The strongest correlation came in brain regions associated with language and executive functioning. What’s more, the data indicated that small increases in family income had a much larger impact on the brains of the poorest children than similar increases among wealthier children. And Noble’s data also suggested that when a family falls below a certain basic level of income, brain growth drops off precipitously. Children from families making less than $25,000 suffered the most, with 6 percent less brain surface area than peers in families making $150,000 or more.

This means that children living in households that are poor have less brain growth and development than well-off children. And this can correlate to lowered academic achievement and IQ levels. There is a ton of debate about poverty being solely an economic condition. Conservatives have used bogus data and racist garbage like The Bell Curve to suggest that genes are what determine intelligence and not class. (And guess who they thought were more intelligent than anyone else? Rich white people.) This fits into their “pull yourself up by the bootstraps” philosophy. Clearly children are not capable of pulling themselves out of poverty but that won’t stop conservatives from shaming their parents for being poor and having kids. This research reminds us that poverty is not just about the economics. It also shows that poor children are not less smart than rich children, but instead that poverty is robbing poor children of their capacity to thrive and develop heathy, functioning brains.

Another Republican fail: Blaming the CBO for the bad numbers they gave Trumpcare

By Joan McCarter

Thursday Jul 06, 2017 · 4:31 PM PDT

2017/07/06 · 16:31

WASHINGTON, DC - JUNE 25: Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Ron Johnson (R-WI) delivers opening remarks during a hearing about the recent OPM data breach in the dirksen Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill June 25, 2015 in Washington, DC. Office of Personnel Management Director Kathrine Archuleta said that the recent report that 18 million current, former government employees and people who applied for jobs had their personal data stolen is not confirmed and that only 4.2 million records had been breached. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) — Sen. Ron Johnson, genius

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Senate Republicans think that if they make the Congressional Budget Office change the way they evaluate Trumpcare, they'll get a better score. They want the CBO to change its process, and recalculate the number of people who are going to lose their health insurance under Trumpcare using January 2017 as their baseline, instead of March 2016. This was all the idea of Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI), genius, who says he did his own numbers. Which makes this analysis, by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities—people who actually know what the hell they're talking about, even better. "[I]n fact, CBO’s estimated coverage loss from the Senate bill would be similar—and could easily be larger rather than smaller—under the January 2017 baseline," CBPP writes. "What's more, CBO consulted the House and Senate Budget Committees in deciding which baseline to use."

Starting from a lower estimate of individual market enrollment under current law would shrink coverage losses by 1-2 million at most. As noted, the 2017 baseline shows 5 million fewer people with individual market coverage in 2026 than the 2016 baseline does. But, overall, CBO estimates that 28 percent of people with individual market coverage would lose it under the Senate bill. So even if this were the only difference between the two baselines, CBO’s coverage loss estimate would likely change by at most 1 to 2 million people under the 2017 baseline (that is, 28 percent of 5 million). Claims that CBO’s estimates would change by the full 5 million implicitly assume that everyone with individual market coverage under current law would lose it under the Senate bill.

Other changes to CBO’s baseline could push coverage losses up. For example, CBO’s more recent baseline projects that more people would be covered through the ACA’s Medicaid expansion under current law in 2026. Most of these people would likely lose coverage under the Senate bill, increasing Medicaid coverage loses compared to the 2016 baseline. In addition, CBO’s more recent baseline projects higher individual market premiums under current law than the 2016 baseline. That means that people losing premium tax credits, or facing cuts to their tax credits, under the Senate bill would have to pay even more to maintain their current coverage, which could increase coverage losses further.

Make your Republican senator feel the heat. Call their office EVERY DAY at (202) 224-3121 to demand that they say NO to ripping health care away from millions of Americans. No on Trumpcare. Then, tell us how it went.

Alabama man stages mock lynching on 4th of July as reminder that not everyone in the U.S. is free

By Kelly Macias

Thursday Jul 06, 2017 · 4:00 PM PDT

2017/07/06 · 16:00

David Sadler stages a mock hanging in Montgomery, Alabama on July 4th — David Sadler stages a mock lynching in Montgomery, Alabama, on July 4.

When the Founding Fathers penned the declaration that all men are created equal and are endowed with certain inalienable rights, they were clearly not being truthful. Slavery was practiced widely in the country at that time and many of them were, in fact, slave owners. Thomas Jefferson, the author of said line, began raping an enslaved Sally Hemings when she was just 14 years old (and contrary to how history has been spun, she was not his actually mistress as you cannot be a mistress when consent is taken away from you). It has been said that many of them wrestled with the moral dilemma of slavery, but perhaps their hypocrisy is an enduring reminder of the fact that the very founding of this nation was based in inequality. Simply put, some people did not and still, do not, count.

One man, David Sadler, is asking people to answer the question “do you count?” and reminding us about the systemic and social injustice pervasive in the United States from its very founding until now. On the 4th of July when people in Montgomery, Alabama, where he lives, were celebrating the nation’s independence, Sadler staged a mock hanging of himself to send a message.

Wearing a #doucount T-shirt, Sadler had rigged himself to "hang" from the riverfront's entrance sign leading into the tunnel. He had a rope tied around his neck and held a sign that read, "Dear D.O.J. Give me Liberty or Give me Death."

Many in the crowd took photos and posted videos. In his Facebok Live stream, Sadler told the crowd that while many celebrate July 4th as the day Americans won their independence from Great Britain, African-Americans were still enslaved.

Sadler’s #doucount campaign appears to be an attempt to encourage blacks to remember that their lives matter—in spite of police killings of unarmed black men (his words) as well as divisions between blacks and whites. He was intentional about staging a mock lynching at the Riverfront Park in Montgomery due to its historical location.

Republicans punish people who dare to live in cities—even when it means hurting their own state

By Mark Sumner

Thursday Jul 06, 2017 · 3:31 PM PDT

2017/07/06 · 15:31

St. Louis, MO — St. Louis, under attack from Missouri since at least 1861

Earlier this year, voters in St. Louis raised the minimum wage to $10 an hour. It was short of the $15 goal that many areas have set for workers, but it marked a nearly 25 percent increase in wages for many St. Louis workers. Until Republicans gave them a pay cut.

And Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens agrees. Next month, the minimum wage will return to $7.70 an hour -- ten bucks an hour was a mistake, he says. …

In St. Louis, the minimum wage was going to increase to $11 an hour in January. Now, that won't happen. And by one estimate, 38,000 workers could miss out on a raise.

St. Louis and Kansas City, a pair of blue cities at the edges of a red state that seems intent in replicating or surpassing every aspect of the disaster in Kansas, are routinely undercut by actions at the state legislature, where rural Republicans look on the two largest cities in their state as too liberal and way, way too black. But Missouri is certainly not unique. As Republicans capture and hold ever more elaborately gerrymandered districts to dominate state legislatures even in states where they capture a minority of votes, they’re working hard to cripple their own cities.

In the last few years, Republican-controlled state legislatures have intensified the use of what are known as pre-emption laws, to block towns and cities from adopting measures favored by the left. The states aren’t merely overruling local laws; they’ve walled off whole new realms where local governments aren’t allowed to govern at all.

The theory behind why state governments should have control over areas traditionally left to localities is … screw it. There is no theory. It’s because that’s where Republicans have control.

This Week in Statehouse Action: Beach Weak edition

By Carolyn Fiddler

Thursday Jul 06, 2017 · 3:01 PM PDT

2017/07/06 · 15:01

1st August 1913: A couple relax in their deckchairs on the beach at Great Yarmouth. (Photo by Topical Press Agency/Getty Images) — Republicans: About as much fun as sand in your long, dark beach socks

Here’s hoping you’re having a lovely Independence Day week! But statehouse action takes NO vacations (although sometimes a vacation turns out to be statehouse action—just ask Chris Christie about his little beach getaway while New Jersey’s government was shut down), so slather on some sunscreen and soak it in.

Virginia (Beach) is for lovers: Everyone knows (right? right???) that the Commonwealth will elect a new governor and that all 100 House of Delegates seats are on the ballot this fall.

A race that’s getting decidedly little attention, however, is the contest for attorney general.

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Current Democratic Attorney General Mark Herring is running for re-election (fun fact! governor is the only office in Virginia that can’t be held for consecutive terms), and he’s being challenged by Some Lawyer John Adams (no relation ..?).
In a recent Q&A, this first-time candidate for anything gave what I’m officially dubbing TWISA’s Quote of the Week (Weak?):

Unlike a lot of other offices people run for, attorney general is a real and serious job ….

How about me? I’ve been a lawyer my whole life … I can run things. Why don’t we try that?

Okay!

Oh, and this John Adams used to clerk for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and worked on the infamous Hobby Lobby case. Adams was not on the side that supported keeping an employer out of a woman employee’s reproductive healthcare decisions.

Broker, mobster, fraudster and Trump associate Felix Sater agrees to cooperate with investigation

By Mark Sumner

Thursday Jul 06, 2017 · 2:31 PM PDT

2017/07/06 · 14:31

NEW YORK, NY - FEBRUARY 21: A view of the Trump SoHo hotel condominium building, February 21, 2017 in New York City. The development of Trump SoHo, completed in 2010, was constructed in partnership with the Bayrock Group, headed by former Soviet official Tevfik Arif. Felix Sater, a Russian-American businessman, also worked for Bayrock Group during the development of Trump SoHo. Despite repeated claims that he is not involved in any business deals with Russia, President Trump's ties to the country continue to be scrutinized. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images) — Trump SoHo, constructed in partnership with the Bayrock Group, headed by former Soviet official Tevfik Arif and Felix Sater

This is news that is likely to be heard wherever Donald Trump is staying tonight.

… Russia-born real estate dealmaker Felix Sater, who allegedly has organized crime links, had agreed to assist in an international probe into a Kazakh family’s real estate dealings in the U.S.— including one of Trump’s most famed properties, the Trump SoHo in downtown New York City.

Donald Trump’s relationship to former Bayrock executive Felix Sater is both complicated and deep. A decade ago, Trump was nursing a fresh bankruptcy and had burned so many bridges that legitimate sources wouldn’t lend him a dime.

By the 2000s, the property developer and casino owner with ready access to the capital markets and the biggest New York banks was no more.

Donald Trump, pretend real estate guy, did his pretending at the Trump Soho—a building actually constructed by a Kazkh oligarch and a company called Bayrock, where the number two guy was Felix Sater.

As a principal in the Bayrock Group, which worked with both Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump on a number of real estate deals between 2002 and roughly 2011, Sater worked to construct the Trump SoHo, Bloomberg reports. Sater has also previously claimed to have links to both the Kremlin and Russia’s KGB, the older version of Russia’s top security and intelligence services—now the FSB and SVR.

For Sater, the KGB isn’t even the most sordid part of his past—a past that features a stint as a mob informant.

Republican agenda sucking wind with only 30-some work days left in fiscal year 2017

By Kerry Eleveld

Thursday Jul 06, 2017 · 2:01 PM PDT

2017/07/06 · 14:01

Speaker of the House Paul Ryan(L) R-WI listens while Senate Majority Leader Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY) speaks to the press after meetings with US President Donald Trump at the White House February 27, 2017 in Washington, DC. / AFP / Brendan Smialowski (Photo credit should read BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images)

About a month—that's how long is left on the Senate’s 2017 calendar to accomplish just a few teensy-weensy items Republicans have been salivating over for years: stripping tens of millions of Americans of health care, slashing taxes for millionaires and billionaires, overhauling the entire tax code. Man, how long they been promising to do all that if only voters would put them in the seat of power?

And then there's the basic functions of government: providing a budget, keeping the government open for business, raising the debt ceiling so the U.S. doesn't default and entirely trash our debt rating.

It all seemed so obvious just six months ago with Paul Ryan's cheery can-do attitude alongside Mitch McConnell's dour-but-steady guidance. But suddenly the walls are closing in—so much so that even members of McConnell's own caucus are begging him to forego their August recess. The NYT writes:

“Our current Senate calendar shows only 33 potential working days remaining before the end of the fiscal year,” a group of 10 Republican senators wrote on Friday in a letter to Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader, highlighting the deadline at the end of September. “This does not appear to give us enough time to adequately address the issues that demand immediate attention.”

The Republican Party is under intense pressure to achieve something of consequence in that limited time in order to legitimately claim that the first year of the Trump administration has been a success. So far, the ambitious agenda has stagnated without a signature achievement.

Hallelujah to that. With any luck, getting a healthcare vote will swallow the rest of July and still come up short. Then before Republicans can so much as utter the word “taxes,” they'll be hit with an all-consuming debt-ceiling crisis since Treasury Sec. Steve Mnuchin has been lobbying them to lift the borrowing limit before the end of July. Of course, that crisis will be intensified by the House maniacs' desire to tie a debt ceiling vote to spending cuts in the 2018 budget.

With an all-out GOP slugfest between the deficit and defense hawks and the handful of more moderate Republican senators who simply want to prove they can perform the minimal functions of government, lawmakers will likely manage to avert a debt ceiling disaster by the end of September, leaving no time to accomplish any other legislative goals before the end of the fiscal year.

Conservatives start drawing their Trumpcare lines in the sand, McConnell concedes he's got trouble

By Joan McCarter

Thursday Jul 06, 2017 · 1:31 PM PDT

2017/07/06 · 13:31

UNITED STATES - JANUARY 20: Presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, left, speaks with Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, as they leave the Senate floor following the cloture vote on the "American Security Against Foreign Enemies Act of 2015" on Wednesday, Jan. — Ted Cruz and his best buddy, Mike Lee.

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Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has, by some interpretations, admitted both that Obamacare is not dead, as his president and many of his fellow Republicans keep insisting. He's even conceding—apparently not as a threat this time—that working with Democrats to stabilize the insurance markets would be necessary. That's if "my side is unable to agree on an adequate replacement." That's as close as he's come to yet to acknowledging the reality of both Obamacare and the problems he's having with his conference.

That "adequate" part is going to be in the eye of the beholder, but it got much more complicated Thursday by the hard-line stance Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) has decided to take on the bill. Lee is best known as Sen. Ted Cruz's (R-TX) faithful sidekick, and he's sure playing that role this week, saying that he will not vote for a bill that doesn't have Cruz's high-risk pool scheme included.

"The entire bill is unacceptable without the Consumer Freedom Option," Conn Carroll, Lee's spokesman, wrote in an email. This proposal would allow insurers to sell health plans that don't comply with Affordable Care Act rules, like pre-existing conditions protections or essential health benefits, as long as they also sell plans that meet all of those rules. Critics from both parties say this could make it harder for people with pre-existing conditions to get coverage.

That's a marginal position among Senate Republicans, where one Republican staffer says it would be generous to think that the Cruz proposition would get 15 votes.

We're getting much closer to beating this thing. It's all about keeping up the pressure.

We delayed Trumpcare—for now. But the GOP leadership is hell-bent on denying health insurance, and is working hard to coerce Republican senators. We need 3 Republicans to stand firm. Call your senator at (202) 224-3121 and tell them “NO DEAL.” Then, tell us how it went.

New study finds Latinos have helped keep America's economy great

By Gabe Ortiz

Thursday Jul 06, 2017 · 1:01 PM PDT

2017/07/06 · 13:01

LOS ANGELES, CA - FEBRUARY 18: A demonstrator wears a Trump campaign-style hat that bears a pro-immigrant message during the Immigrants Make America Great March to protest actions being taken by the Trump administration on February 18, 2017 in Los Angeles, California. Protesters are calling for an end to stepped up ICE raids and deportations, and that health care be provided for documented and undocumented people. (Photo by David McNew/Getty Images)

According to new research from the nonpartisan Latino Donors Collaborative, the nation’s 55 million Latinos—this includes immigrants and the U.S.-born—represented more than $2.1 trillion of our $18 trillion gross domestic product in 2015, with researchers estimating that by 2020, Latinos will represent nearly a quarter of GDP growth. “If the U.S. Latino GDP was considered an economy of its own,” notes the study, “it would have been the seventh-largest in the world in 2015—just behind France and ahead of India”:

"We are excited to have statistical evidence that proves what Latinos living in the U.S. have always known to be true: we are a hard-working, productive, and essential part of American economic growth and American society," said Ana Valdez, executive director of the Latino economic advocacy group.

Critical to this economic growth are the 800,000 Latinos who turn 18 every year and are making the workforce more Latino as white Baby Boomers retire. “Latinas are leading the business growth and entrepreneurship in the United States,” noted Marlena Fitzpatrick last year, with Latinas “launching new businesses at three times the national rate.”

In fact, Latina-owned businesses created 550,400 jobs and contributed over $97 billion in revenues to the U.S. economy in 2015. Yet we still have a way to go to ensuring Latinas (and Latinos) are able to reach their full economic potential. Only about 1% of all Latino-owned businesses created between 2007 and 2012 in the U.S. received venture capital or angel investments. Furthermore, particular cultural traits, like fear of rescinding ownership of an established family business, may slow down the smooth sailing cruise to self-creating work. A recent study from Stanford Graduate School of Business shows that Latino businesses could have generated an additional $1.4 trillion in 2012 if they had been of equal average size to non-Latina(o) businesses.

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