CONCORD, N.H. - It's a global day dedicated to giving back, and New Hampshire nonprofits are among the 10,000 organizations worldwide that will take part tomorrow in Giving Tuesday. Julie Eades, president with the New Hampshire Community Loan Fund, says the day was started to balance out all the shopping madness of Black Friday and Cyber Monday with Giving Tuesday, dedicated to helping people help themselves.

"Feel free to go on the web and see what interests you, and there's a chance to also give, whether it's affordable housing or creating jobs," says Eades. "It's a way to be a little more optimistic at this time of year."

There are lots of ways to get involved and they don't all require a donation. You can also snap an unselfie photo and post it on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter. Eades says you should tag your photo with the hashtag Giving Tuesday and unselfie to spread the word about this day of giving.

Eades says a lot of the action on Giving Tuesday will take place on small nonprofit websites. She says Granite Staters can learn about and contribute to a variety of causes at her group's web page.

"The Community Loan Fund is about helping people help themselves in all kinds of areas," says Eades. "People need housing, people need jobs, businesses need financing in order to grow. We even have a savings program to help people save for down payments or for higher education."

This is the first year for the Community Loan Fund to participate in the effort, and Eades says your donation will have double the impact because staff and board members made a pledge to match this year's Giving Tuesday donations. More on the web at communityloanfund.org.


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MANDAN, N.D. -- North Dakota has had nearly 18,000 job openings in recent months, with roughly 1,000 in construction.

A labor leader in the trades said federal legislation to boost infrastructure and social programs could help fill open positions now and in the future. From the already approved American Rescue Plan to the current Build Back Better proposal and the separate infrastructure bill, supporters say the investments could pay off in a variety of ways.

Jason Ehlert, president of North Dakota's Building Trades Unions, said there are opportunities to boost recruitment and training that might appeal to younger generations.

"We're trying to make that link between; there is education in construction," Ehlert explained. "You're just not gonna go to work every day, day in and day out, and just be kind of that grunt. There is education involved in the trades."

Specifically, he pointed out they are pursuing grants under the American Rescue Plan that could provide essential training for those hired to work on the Fargo-Moorhead flood diversion project.

As for plans being debated, the infrastructure bill has bipartisan support, but the $3.5 trillion Build Back Better plan faces pushback from GOP lawmakers and business groups who say it is too costly and could harm the economic rebound from the pandemic.

But Ehlert countered the budget reconciliation package addresses gaps in what he calls "wrap-around services" for industries such as construction. For example, he noted bigger investments in child care could allow more females to enter and stay in the field.

"We still always continue to work from that 7-to-4:30 workday, and if you don't have that child-care option, construction's not gonna be a viable career pathway," Ehlert contended.

The Council, which consists of 15 labor organizations around North Dakota, argued extra federal support could also help recruit within communities of color and reach out to Indigenous populations. Ehlert emphasized focusing on training can set new hires up for long-term success, while reducing safety risks as they start their construction careers.

NEW HAVEN, Conn. - Connecticut's economy has shrunk since the 2008 Great Recession, and combined with highly inequitable wage distribution, that has led to a decrease in quality of life for some families in the state.

That's according to an annual report from Connecticut Voices for Children that looked at how workers and the state's economy are faring overall.

For this year's report, they analyzed data comparing job and economic growth in the state from 2007 to 2019, and then again during the pandemic-induced recession from February to April 2020.

Lead report author and Connecticut Voices for Children Research and Policy Fellow Patrick O'Brien said it shows that the 2020 recession did make the state of the economy worse, but that many of these problems weren't new.

"We never really fully recovered from the Great Recession," said O'Brien. "And so when you look at all these different time frames, we can see that Connecticut's economy has really been struggling for more than a decade and the coronavirus recession basically exacerbated this."

Job growth was an issue in Connecticut prior to the pandemic as well. According to the report, the state saw only a 2.7% increase in jobs between 1990 and 2020, compared with the U.S. seeing a 39.4% increase overall.

Another concern reflected in the report includes wage inequality - including a racial wealth gap - with Connecticut's greater than the U.S. as a whole. According to the report, a typical Black worker in 2019 made about $15 dollars an hour, nearly $6 dollars less than the typical worker in the state.

Some policy solutions O'Brien suggested include progressive budget changes, such as tax reforms that shift the disproportionate burden away from the lower and middle class and on to wealthier residents.

"So you could boost the economy essentially by giving a more fair share to working and middle-class families," said O'Brien. "And so we talk about how you can use the budget to make sure that working and middle-class families are better off, then they're going to spend that money directly into the economy here and that'll help pump up economic growth."

The report in the long-term also suggests Connecticut increase its spending on universal early child care and education to spur economic growth.

RICHMOND, Va. - As U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., takes heat this week for attending a posh fundraiser in a dress that said "Tax the Rich," dozens of wealthy taxpayers have requested just that, in a letter sent to Congress.

More than 200 millionaires and business leaders, including two prominent Virginians, say they feel raising their taxes is essential to cover critical social investments in President Joe Biden's Build Back Better plan.

Sandra Fluke, president of Voices for Progress, the group that organized the letter campaign, said a recent report confirms many billionaires and corporations pay no taxes. She said she thinks it's more fair for those who have the most to pay more in taxes, since they benefit more.

"We have situations where we are taxing the pay that someone receives, their salary from working a job, more than we are taxing the profits that are made on investments," she said, "and that's just wrong."

A recent survey found that 68% of Virginia voters support Biden's $3.5 trillion plan, and more than two-thirds said it should be funded by taxing those making more than $400,000 a year. Joan Huffer, a well-known tax policy expert and philanthropist from Northern Virginia, also signed the letter.

This week, a group of House Democrats released a draft plan to raise the corporate tax rate from 21% to 26.5% percent for large, profitable businesses to help pay for Biden's plan. Fluke said that would go a long way to help fund new spending in areas including health care and clean energy.

"Child-care affordability, and home- and community-based care, and paid leave, fighting climate change and protecting all of us from natural disasters are good investments," she said, "investments that will help to rebuild our economy and strengthen our democracy."

The letter mentioned that the wealth of 700 billionaires rose by 60% during the pandemic, while many working families suffered. The signers said it's up to those who became richer in the health crisis, and whose lifestyles would be only marginally affected, to fix the imbalance.