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New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Oneida Indian Nation Representative Ray Halbritter signing a historic agreement that will hopefully bring an end to decades of animosity and contentious lawsuits between the two sides.

From Indian Country Today:

In less than a month of intense negotiations, decades of animosity and contentious lawsuits between the Oneida Indian Nation and the state of New York were brought to a close in a historic agreement that, if approved by the state legislature, will resolve all disputes between the two sovereigns over land rights, tax issues, gaming exclusivity and profits.

Ray Halbritter, Oneida Indian Nation Representative, and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced the monumental agreement that will recognize the Oneida Nation’s reservation, settle all outstanding litigation and resolve all disputes over property and sales taxes, including cigarette and fuel sales, at a press conference in Albany, the state capital, on May 16. The agreement also entails payments of tens of millions of dollars from the Oneida Nation, and concession of a gaming exclusivity zone by the state.

“This is indeed a defining moment in the history of the Oneida Nation and New York state,” Halbritter said. “Together today we begin a partnership in our shared prosperity in our upstate region. It’s not unlike the historical relationship the Oneida Nation had in the historical time of the Revolutionary War, when we were all under the Treaty of Canandaigua. We recognize together with the United States that peace and friendship shall be perpetual between our Nations and we’re here in that spirit today,” he said at the press conference.

“This is a fair and reasonable agreement that will benefit all parties involved and the people of the Oneida Nation, Oneida and Madison [Counties], and all New Yorkers,” Cuomo said. The agreement “ends years of expensive and disruptive court battles for all parties involved and marks a new era of collaboration and commonality between the Oneida Nation and the state of New York,” Cuomo said.

The deal was hammered out in negotiations that began on April 25, when Cuomo personally contacted the Oneida Indian Nation. “The governor’s office reached out to us and initiated discussions and we talked to things that are important to us and the more we talked the more we could see the possibility of [reaching an agreement] with all the parties we thought were important,” Halbritter told Indian Country Today Media Network, which is owned by the Oneida Nation. “So it was discussion and negotiation that was initially done at the governor’s call, and it proceeded from there. He really took a real leadership role to make it happen.”

Jonaya Kemper sews her own sundresses and grows her own vegetables, embodying the do-it-yourself mindset of many in the millennial generation. (Christina House, For The Times / May 15, 2013)

From LA Times:

Millennials, who range from teenagers to people in their early 30s, are more financially cautious than the stereotype of the spendthrift twentysomething, several studies suggest. Many embrace thrift.

Some experts say their habits echo those of another generation, those who came of age during the Great Depression and forged lifelong habits of scrimping and saving — along with a suspicion of financial risk.

“Both generations had a childhood memory of wealth and then saw that wealth yanked out from under them” in or around their teenage years, said Morley Winograd, who has co-written several books on the millennial generation. Though the pain was much more severe during the Depression, “Both generations are very conservative spenders,” Winograd said.

During the economic downturn, while older households ran up credit card debt, younger households whittled it down, a Pew Research Center analysis of federal data found earlier this year.

More young households had no credit card debt in 2010 than was the case in 2001, the data show. Among those who did owe on their credit cards, the median amount fell from roughly $2,500 to less than $1,700.

From HuffPo:

Extended unemployment benefits Congress put in place at the outset of the Great Recession didn’t discourage people from taking jobs, according to new research from the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.

Princeton University economics professor Henry Farber and San Francisco Fed economist Rob Valletta found that extended benefits might have encouraged people to continue to look for work longer so that they could remain eligible for benefits. While the longer searches for jobs could have boosted the unemployment rate by four-tenths of a percentage point, the compensation didn’t make the long-term jobless unwilling to work.

“It did not reduce the job finding rate,” Farber told HuffPost. He added the benefits probably helped the economy, however, not to mention the individual people who otherwise might have had no income. “These are people who spend the money you give them.”

The findings are similar to 2011 research by Jesse Rothstein of the University of California, Berkeley.

From ThinkProgress:

On Thursday morning, Walgreens became the first-ever chain retailer to announce that it would become a direct provider of primary care services, moving beyond the pharmacy’s current practice of administering vaccinations to diagnosing and treating Americans with asthma, diabetes, and high cholesterol. The decision holds particular promise for Americans suffering from chronic conditions by giving them an easily-accessible “medical home” for managing illnesses that require preventative or ongoing care — and it might just herald the future of the American health care industry.

…

As [yesterday's] announcement proves, they were serious about that:

Walgreens officials say they will have nurse practitioners and physician assistants at more than 300 Take Care Clinics in 18 states and the District of Columbia to do tests and make diagnoses – and also write prescriptions, refer patients for additional tests and help them manage their conditions.

“We’re not trying to take over primary care, but we think we can help support physicians and transform the way care is delivered to provide more access points at a time when people need it the most,” said Heather Helle, a division vice president at Walgreens. [...]

She said physicians will help oversee Walgreens’ clinics – and the clinics can transmit test results and other information electronically to doctors’ offices. She noted that clinics could help people find doctors too. Many would have an affiliation or other link with the stores’ clinics.

Retail clinics generally appeal to consumers looking for convenience and cost savings. Costs are roughly 30 percent to 40 percent less than similar care at doctor’s offices and 80 percent cheaper than at an emergency room, according to a 2011 study published in the American Journal of Managed Care.

The cynically-minded may point out that there’s a financial motivation to all this, as Walgreens’ main revenue source is its pharmacies, where the costs of generic versions for prescription drugs are considerably higher than at independent, online, and wholesale retailers. Still, this shift would provide substantially added value to purchasing those drugs at Walgreens chains by eliminating the need for a hospital trip, and the idea of an ubiquitous source of cheap primary care should excite health reform advocates, as the planned coordination model is exactly the sort of innovation that reformers and Obamacare are hoping will take root.

From Common Dreams:

As many schools are racing to adopt the latest technologies—tablets, e-readers, cell phones—in their classrooms, low income students and poorly funded school districts are being left in the dust. A survey of middle and high school teachers released Thursday found that the growing gap in internet access between rich and poor students is leading to increasingly troubling disparities in education.

Published by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, the survey found that only 3 percent of students in low income families have access to the internet at home through a computer or mobile device; the number rises to 20 percent for middle income children and half for those in higher income families.

According to the report, teachers in urban areas are the least likely to say their students have sufficient access to digital tools in school, compared to rural teachers who are least likely to say their students have sufficient access at home.

The respondents admitted that this growing disparity in access is leading to a gap in performance, with over half saying that “today’s digital technologies are widening the gap between the most and least academically successful students.”

“I’m for truth, no matter who tells it. I’m for justice, no matter who it’s for or against.”

From NYT:

Setting out to sell his second-term agenda, President Obama planned to travel to an engine-parts factory here on Wednesday to promote the revival of American manufacturing, one of the core messages of his State of the Union speech on Tuesday evening.

It was the first of three stops this week in which Mr. Obama, having spoken to a divided Congress, will now try to build popular support for his proposals to invest in manufacturing and education, and raising the minimum wage — an agenda that he claims will help secure the prosperity of the middle class.

In visiting a production plant owned by the Canadian auto-parts maker, Linamar, Mr. Obama hopes to showcase his goal of making the United States a magnet for manufacturing jobs. That was one of three economic pillars of his address to a joint session of Congress.

Linamar Corporation, which makes parts for heavy-duty engines, recently opened its fourth American manufacturing plant in this small town on the outskirts of Asheville, occupying a closed Volvo construction equipment factory. The plant has hired 160 workers, according to the White House, and plans to take on 40 more by the end of 2013.

In his speech on Tuesday, Mr. Obama reiterated his ideas for making the United States more attractive for manufacturing, which include eliminating tax breaks for companies that move jobs overseas and offering incentives for them to build factories in the United States.