A national debate is underway in the United States over whether to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour from the current $7.25 an hour today, as more than 30 million U.S. citizens now live below the poverty line.


The last time the U.S. increased the hourly federal minimum wage was in 2009.



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Lockdowns and other COVID-19 related restrictions have been hurting businesses. In California, locals are beginning to fight back against health authorities. Mike Kirsch reports on a growing number of communities that are ignoring the governor’s mandates.

By February of 2021, more than a quarter million Brazilians had died due to COVID-19. That made Brazil the second country in the world with the largest death toll after the US. Scientists also located a new virus strain. But the country’s overall health has fallen into a political diatribe. Maria...

According to the World Food Program, 150 million people faced food insecurity across 79 countries prior to the pandemic. When the year 2020 ended, that number had gone up to over 272 million. Hunger is not only more common around the world but may also be more visible around your own neighborhood...

Argentina began seeing a rise in the number of COVID-19 cases in mid-January, an unexpected up-tick that happened earlier than expected. The country was still in its Summer season when it experienced the increase and the vaccines acquired so far aren't enough for the entire population.

Neverthe...

In Mexico, the issue of migration goes beyond Central Americans crossing the country to reach the U.S. Border. Drug cartel violence is forcing thousands of Mexicans to flee their homes and towns.

Since the start of Mexico’s War on Drugs in 2006, more than 150,000 Mexicans have been displaced.
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A tropical forest in the north of Guatemala was once guarded by the Mayan civilization. Today, local descendants are managing the resources of the 2-million-hectare jungle by using sustainable ancestral methods. But drug traffickers invested in the area as well and built hidden runways, labs and...

Sao Paulo is Brazil’s largest city and home to over 20 million people. The coronavirus pandemic has left thousands without jobs and the number of homeless is rising dramatically. Stephen Gibbs has the story.

In 1944 Mexico and the United States agreed to share water from three rivers that run through their border from California to Texas. Today, due to drier conditions, the Aztec nation is struggling to meet a quota that could endanger a decades long deal. Alasdair Baverstock explains.

Gun sales have exploded  in the United States during the Covid-19 pandemic.

There were millions of first-time gun buyers and record-setting number of gun sales in 2020. And it keeps climbing.  

Americas Now's John Zarrella visited some of the States where gun sales had skyrocketed.

Sellers, bu...

Costa Rica’s Nicoya Peninsula is home to the largest concentration of people over 100 years old in the Americas. For years, scientists have been studying longevity among these centenarians. Now, a team of psychologists, nurses, nutritionists, and social workers are being vigilant to protect them ...

Foreign student enrollment in the United States is down because of COVID-19. Hundreds of campuses shut down when the pandemic began. The government warned that international students should either leave the country or transfer to schools with in-person classes. Otherwise they could face immigrat...

COVID-19 is a menace to most people but drug lords in Mexico see it as an opportunity. While police and authorities are focused on battling the pandemic, the narco business is booming. Toby Muse brings us the story from one of most dangerous cities in the country.

The government of El Salvador has a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to street gangs like MS-13. And as the crime numbers have gone down, the population of inmates in jails has gone up. But during the COVID-19 pandemic, health conditions for the imprisoned gang members are far from ideal.

The Southern Poverty Law Center has tracked more than 900 hate groups across the United States. Since 2017 the organization also has witnessed a 55 percent spike in the number of hate groups.
Attacks by white supremacists have claimed dozens of lives within the last 2 years. Racial tension, viole...

Humberto de la Calle is a Colombian lawyer, politician and diplomat, who will be most-remembered for his role as a peace negotiator.
In 2016, Colombia signed a peace agreement with Latin America’s oldest and largest rebel group, the FARC. De la Calle was at the head of the government negotiation...

The city of New Orleans became one of the earliest hot zones for COVID-19.  

Consider this sobering statistic. More people have now died from the Coronavirus than were killed by Hurricane Katrina 15 years ago.  

While the crisis is abating, doctors and nurses are worried about a second wave, on...

A year ago, Mexican president Manuel Lopez Obrador promised that military forces, then highly criticized by Human Rights advocates, would leave the streets.  

The newly-created National Guard, a sort of alternative to the police and the military, were tasked with the protection of the Mexican pe...

Having the world’s largest economy as your next-door neighbor can be a challenge. Mexico has managed to have a good partnership with the United States. But in recent years the rules for trade have changed.

Polo is called the “sport of kings” and Argentina's players are considered royalty ranking among the world´s best.  The same goes for their horses with a new strategy.  Argentine cloned horses are designed to win. 

Joel Richards has the story on how science changed the nature of the sport forever.

In 2016, Colombia ended a 5-decade armed conflict with the FARC. Many of the rebels tried to re-enter civilian life. But dozens of them were shot and killed under mysterious circumstances.  

Correspondent Michelle Begue reports on these former combatants who met a violent end after the country e...

Ecuador’s largest city, Guayaquil, was hit hard by COVID-19. In fact, it’s faced one of the region’s worst outbreaks. As their healthcare system began to collapse, tons of help flowed into the city in the form of donations.

The death of George Floyd while in custody of Minneapolis Police triggered a wave of activism around the world. Correspondent Mike Kirsch went to the state of Minnesota to report first-hand about inequality, police brutality and a community demanding change.

The fight against COVID-19 in the most overwhelmed areas of the United States, put a huge strain on the resources of hospitals in the country’s poorest areas.  

Roseland Community Hospital in Chicago, Illinois, was already tending to a community plagued with a myriad of poverty-related diseases,...