I have personally been switching my money (credit cards, accounts, mortgage) away from the big bad mega-banks that screwed Americans with predatory lending and took taxpayer handouts with better banks and financial institution. And I invite you to join me. It is a way of moving your money at least a step away from the worst of Wall Street.

Green America (which I have been associated with since they were Co-op America) has some resources:

* The basics about socially responsible investing

* How to retire with one million dollars in a just and sustainable world

* How your savings and checking accounts can build healthy communities through community investing

And I have some suggestions below.  read more »

Things are really bad when you have the artist who painted the famous Veselka mural (actually, it's all canvas), selling it to the highest bidder.

Damn.

From last week's batch of emails :

Hello Daily Gotham!

Hope you all had an amazing holiday!

Over the next month, Dunkin' Donuts is making the morning commute a little brighter for New Yorkers by providing free subway rides at four of Manhattan's busiest subway stations.

The giveaway is a component of Dunkin's newly launched "You Kin Do It!" campaign to encourage everyday workers to keep America running during these tough times.

Dunkin' Donuts representatives will hand out free Metrocards between 6:30 am- 9:30 am on the following dates, outside these stations:

· Monday, January 12th- Lexington Ave/ 53rd Street
· Tuesday, January 20th- 14th Street/ Union Square Station
· Monday, January 26th- Grand Central Station
· Monday, February 2nd- Times Square/42nd Street  read more »

The biggest bank meltdown in US history and it has to be Washington Mutual, the bank that's holding most of my money. Geezus! This from the Financial Times :

JPMorgan Chase has acquired the banking operations of Washington Mutual which was seized by US regulators on Thursday night in the biggest bank failure in US history.

Under the deal, which was brokered by government, JPMorgan will pay $1.9bn to the banking regulator, and acquire all insured and uninsured deposits, assets and some of the liabilities of WaMu’s banking operations, including its troubled mortgage portfolio.

Holy crap! Where's my money? AUUUUUUUGH!

I was actually going to take all my money out earlier in the week but decided to leave it for today. I should have done what the thousands of other depositors did. Take my money out of WaMu. Of course, the deposits run killed the bank, but now I have to run over there and find out if I have access to my cash.

Oh, wait! Here's the Federal Deposit Insurance Commission (FDIC) :  read more »

A "crowdsource" request is more than a request for help. I am asking all of you who read this blog to put in a little bit of your knowledge of this situation in the comments as part of my research for this story.

What I need from all of you is to give me whatever information you have about the Taxi Alliance strike that is going on right now and that will continue until Friday morning (that's when the scheduled 48 hours of the strike will end).

I could actually write off-the-bat a littany of reasons why the GPS system that is being rammed down the throats of taxi drivers is a really bad idea --not just from an ethical standpoint but also from a legal one; especially if we are talking about how this would impact not just the civil rights of drivers but of passengers as well.

But the one sticking poing in this situation is the division between the two unions. On one end is the New York Taxi Workers Alliance, led by a woman called Bharavi Desai. On the other end is the opposing union, New York State Federation of Taxi Drivers, led by a Fernando Mateo.

I have spoken to Ms. Desai and have gotten background on their grievances. I have tried contacting Mr. Mateo to no avail.

This is what I am missing in this story :  read more »