Unemployment in March was 10.9 percent, according to the broadest measure of joblessness in a report that the Labor Department released on Friday. Sen. Bernie Sanders laid out a major jobs agenda at packed union halls in Nevada and Texas on Wednesday. The United States and other world powers on Thursday announced a comprehensive framework for limiting Iran’s nuclear program in an agreement that Sanders called “an important step forward.” In a another sign of a shift in national attitudes on gay rights, Indiana and Arkansas retreated on Thursday from anti-gay laws that Sanders said had put them on the “wrong side of history.”

Iran Framework The tentative agreement with Tehran left several specific issues to a final agreement in June. “While much more work remains to be done, this framework is an important step forward. It is imperative that Iran not get a nuclear weapon," Sanders said. "It also is imperative that we do everything we can to reach a diplomatic solution and avoid never-ending war in the Middle East," he added, Read more

March Unemployment American employers added only 126,000 jobs in March. That snapped a streak of 12 straight months of job gains above 200,000. The Labor Department said the jobless rate was 10.9 percent using the government’s broadest measure of unemployment, which counts those forced to settle for part-time work and those who have given up on finding a job. 

Jobs Agenda Sanders laid out a jobs agenda in speeches to Culinary Workers in Las Vegas and before Texas-sized crowd at an International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers local headquarters in Austin. He called for a $1 trillion investment in rebuilding crumbling roads and bridges to support 13 million jobs. He said the $7.35 an hour federal minimum wage should be raised to $15 an hour. He advocated pay equity for women workers. He said the U.S. Labor Department must update overtime rules so millions more workers would earn time-and-a-half if they clock more than 40 hours a week. And he denounced the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership that, like earlier trade pacts, would throw Americans out of jobs that would be shifted to low-wage nations overseas. Read more in the Las Vegas Review-Journal here and here. 

Fast-Food Workers McDonald’s on Wednesday announced a token increase in wages for employees who work at its 1,500 corporately-owned outlets. The move came in the wake of protests and strikes from thousands of fast-food workers across the nation. "All over this country McDonald’s is paying its workers abysmally low wages. While a 10% increase is a step in the right direction, it goes nowhere far enough," Sanders said. He credited grassroots activists for increasing the pressure on fast-food corporations. "I would hope that within the next several years, no worker at McDonald’s will make less than $15 an hour. I applaud all fast-food workers who have stood up and fought for their rights." Read more

Gay Rights Reacting to a national backlash over anti-gay bills, lawmakers in Indiana and in Arkansas approved new legislation on Thursday they hope will quell the national uproar. While not outlawing anti-gay discrimination, Indiana clarified that its religious freedom law does not authorize such discrimination. Lawmakers in Arkansas passed a measure that is nearly identical to a federal law and much narrower than earlier bills state lawmakers approved.  Sanders had criticized both state’s lawmakers for being ‘on the wrong side of history.” He added that ‘people all over this country understand that civil rights means that we end discrimination against all people, whether they’re black, Hispanic, Native American or gay. That’s the America we have to fight for.” Sanders discussed the anti-gay laws and other issues in an interview taped Thursday for PBS in Austin, Texas, and  on Monday for KQED-FM in San Francisco. Watch and listen.