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Last Day to Register for
Othering & Belonging Conference
*Today is the last day to register for our 2017 Othering & Belonging Conference.* To register, click here.
Online registration will close at 9:00 am on Friday, April 28 so we can prepare for our attendees. If you have already registered, you will receive a confirmation by the end of day Friday, April 27. If you do not receive a confirmation by end of day Friday (PST), please email Kevin to check your registration.
See the conference website for a detailed agenda, a full list of speakers and artists, and a detailed descriptions of the concurrent breakout sessions happening on May 1 and May 2.
A limited number of community tickets for the Jeffrey Sachs public dialogue on Sunday, April 30 are available here. Tickets are $10 each. Doors open at 7:00 pm, event starts at 7:15 pm. All conference registrants receive admission as part of their registration. Following a presentation by Sachs, he will be joined in a public dialogue with john a. powell, Director of the Haas Institute and Kumi Naidoo, formerly Executive Director of Greenpeace International and now with AfricansRising. Opening remarks will be made by Hilary Hoynes, Professor of Public Policy and Economics and holder of the Haas Distinguished Chair in Economic Disparities. Sachs will do a book-signing following the event. His most recent book is Building the New American Economy: Smart, Fair, and Sustainable.
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 NEW RESEARCH
AT&T's Digital Divide in California
A new report released Tuesday by the Haas Institute is the first-ever analysis of AT&T’s fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) service in California. The report shows that the early deployment of the company’s “gigapower” all-fiber service is concentrated in wealthier communities, relegating lower-income neighborhoods to less advanced technologies that offer markedly slower speeds. Drawing on newly-released FCC data, the report highlights disparities in service across 71 percent of California, or 56 California counties in which AT&T provides wireline phone and internet service. The report also reveals 42.8 percent of California households – approximately 4.1 million homes – in AT&T’s network do not have access to high-speed broadband from AT&T as defined by the Federal Communications Commission, which classifies this service as a 25 Megabits per second (Mbps) download/3 Mbps upload connection. The Communications Workers of America District 9, which represents AT&T’s wireline, mobility, and DirecTV workforce in California, commissioned the report.
The findings suggest AT&T’s fiber deployment will exacerbate the “digital divide” in California. Current disparities in internet access persist along geographic, ethnic and socio-economic lines. Only 43 percent of rural households have access to reliable broadband internet. Similarly, only 56 percent of Latinos and 66 percent of African-Americans have wireline broadband at home, compared to 83 percent of non-Hispanic whites in California.
“Now more than ever, access to high-speed internet is a necessity for all Americans, shaping how we work and learn and giving us the tools we need to get ahead in today’s economy,” said Eli Moore, Program Manager at the Haas Institute and co-author of the report.
Read Digital Divide in California: An Analysis of AT&T Fiber Deployment and Wireline Broadband Speeds in California.
Read the press release on the report here.
LA Times: AT&T's rollout of broadband serves the rich, shunts mid- and low-income families to the slow lane
International Business Times: Broadband Access: AT&T Offers Fiber Internet To Wealthier Neighborhoods While Lower-Income Areas Lag Behind
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NEW RESEARCH
Ivory Tower Tax Haven: New Brief on the Growth of Tax Benefits for Wealthy Private College Endowments
The Haas Institute released a new research brief on the radical growth of wealthy endowments since 1977, and of their cost to taxpayers. Entitled “The Ivory Tower Tax Haven” the report details how endowment growth at these colleges was supported by $20 billion in annual federal tax expenditures as of 2012. It also estimates an average annual federal tax expenditure for endowments of $20 billion as of 2012 by accounting for a new tax expenditure overlooked in recent estimates. The $20 billion federal price tag involves three tax expenditures that involve tax deductible donations to endowments, untaxed endowment investment returns, and a complex new financial strategy known as indirect tax arbitrage in which private colleges use tax exempt municipal bond borrowing in place of endowment assets for capital projects. The $20 billion annual cost is an improvement on previous estimates that have not included the $6 billion cost of indirect tax arbitrage.
Read Ivory Tower Tax Haven. Read the press release on Ivory Tax Haven here.
International Business Times: Why Do Ivy League Schools Get Tax Breaks? How The Richest US Colleges Get Richer
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UPCOMING EVENT
From Domination to Prosperity: Building an Economy Where We All Belong
Unchecked corporate power is a danger to our way of life. What would a political economy where we all belong look like? What values, institutions, and movement strategies must we develop to achieve this vision in an era of growing inequality and resurgent right-wing populism? On May 15, join us for the latest in our Thinking Ahead discussion series, featuring a discussion on Sabeel Rahman's new book, Democracy Against Domination. The evening will be moderated by john powell and feature a discussion with Rahman, community organizer Christina Livingston, and UC Berkeley political scientist Paul Pierson. Taeku Lee will be the emcee for the evening. The event is organized with New America California and the UC Berkeley Labor Center. Free, wheelchair accessible, and open to the public, but please RSVP in advance. May 15, 5:30 pm, Boalt Hall, UC Berkeley.
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