First with the discouraging and then with the encouraging. (we like to focus on the positive) In disheartening news, this week’s reading offered major scrutiny of American policies and court decisions for exacerbating problems for marginalized citizens. However, leaders promise change, and innovative solutions to some of these problems abound! Policies and developments in the solar sector continue to keep our interest- so keep reading to see these stories and many more from the past week or so. There is a lot to catch up on- enjoy! 
In the News
- Bulldozing homes and civil rights (MSNBC)
- Scalia’s chance to smash unions: the huge under the radar supreme court case (Salon)
- Unemployment benefits to expire for 1.3 million (Huffington Post)
- Median wage falls to lowest level since 1998 (Al Jazeera America)
- Labor Secretary: Raising minimum wage is ‘job one’ (MSNBC)
- New help for the poor: Cash grants through the web (the new Yorker)
- Where millennials can make it now- (Atlantic Cities)
- New payment partnership opens global markets to Kenya’s youth (the Guardian)
- South Africa Approves $3.3 billion of renewable energy projects (Renewable Energy World)
- Wetlands transform a city’s sewage through a bit of solar alchemy (Rockefeller Foundation)
- NRDC launched a solar schools crowd funding campaign (Renewable Energy World)
- SEC clarifies crowdsourcing rules- the impact on Renewables (Renewable Energy World)
- Renewable industries team up to get funding from Farm Bill (Midwest Energy News)
Opinion, Analysis and Other Fun Stuff
- A strategy is not a plan (the Economist)
- A simple breakdown of JP Morgan’s $13 billion settlement (the Guardian)
- IEA: Feed in Tariffs are not a subsidy- but tax credits are (Renewable Energy World)
- The great unbundling: why the rise of niche may prove a turning point for micro-business (RSA)
- The real lost generation (December edition of Harpers Magazine)
- Newt’s Revenge: Child labor makes a comeback (Salon)
- A War on the Poor (the New York Times)
- Lighting up Africa (the Economist)
