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The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

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Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

North Carolina Students Join Workers: Raise Up for 15

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Wednesday, April 15, 2015   

RALEIGH, N.C. - As millions of North Carolina residents breathe a sigh of relief today at the end of tax season, workers, students and their advocates will take part in a "Raise Up for 15" rally, seeking a minimum wage of $15 an hour.

Laura Rollins is one example of that low-wage workforce. A McDonald's employee for five years, she said she's tired of struggling for the multimillion-dollar company, and added that the recent $1-an-hour raise announced for a small number of McDonald's locations isn't enough.

"I need 14 more dollars to go with that $1 raise they gave me, with all the work I do," she said. "I mean, I work for, like, three people - that's including myself, and two other people - so I'm doing two other people's jobs along with my own job."

Buses from 23 North Carolina colleges will bring participants to the "Raise Up for 15" rally, scheduled for 5 p.m. at the Shaw University Quad.

A McDonald's representative said the company's recent wage increase and paid time off are "important and meaningful first steps" that will make a difference for employees.

Molita Cunningham, who has been a home care worker for the past 15 years, said her $10-an-hour wage isn't enough for her to live independent of assistance.

"If I was to get to $15 an hour, I could say, 'The heck with housing, the heck with food stamps, the heck with Medicaid,' " she said. "I could breathe, and I could pay my bills."

Cunningham said she is speaking up in part because of the recent death of a Maryland father and his seven children, killed by carbon monoxide poisoning. They were using a generator to heat their home because their electricity had been cut off.

"Him and his seven children died," she said. "That could have been me and my children trying to stay warm. He didn't have enough money to pay his light bill."

A recent study from the University of California-Berkeley estimates that low-wage jobs cost U.S. taxpayers about $153 billion a year in supplemental public assistance. The study is online at laborcenter.berkeley.edu.

More information is online here.


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