(Rewrites throughout; adds information about protesters in paragraph 3 and updates stock price in final paragrah.)

COLUMBUS, Ohio (Dow Jones)--J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (JPM) Chief Executive Jamie Dimon faced a relatively calm annual meeting with shareholders in Columbus, Ohio Tuesday.

Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM)’s chairman and chief executive officer, said he was sorry for foreclosure mistakes as hundreds of protesters at the annual meeting demanded he do more to help homeowners and small businesses recover from the financial crisis.

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Shareholders trying to get into JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s annual meeting held Tuesday in this midwestern city were greeted by heavy security and over 400 protesters shouting slogans outside every entrance.

At least one person was handcuffed after a group of about 400 protestors marched up Chase’s property and placed a sign on a raft floating in a pond in the bank’s premises. The sign read: “Foreclosed: Chase sinks our economy.”

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Shareholders trying to get into JPMorgan Chase & Co.'s annual meeting held Tuesday in this mid-western city were greeted by heavy security and groups of 30 to 40 protesters outside every entrance.

Police had each entrance blocked ahead of the meeting, as hundreds of protesters gathered in the rain and cold chanting slogans such as "Make Banks Pay" and carried signs that said: "Chase gets rich, we lose homes, jobs, services." At least 20 police cruisers circled the building.

Originally written for the Huffington Post >>

Unwilling to be baited into a false debate about budgets that put all the responsibility on hard-working families, more than 500 Illinoisans joined together to launch Make Wall Street Pay Illinois on Thursday.

Originally written for the Huffington Post >>

Unwilling to be baited into a false debate about budgets that put all the responsibility on hard-working families, more than 500 Illinoisans joined together to launch Make Wall Street Pay Illinois on Thursday.

Last updated: May 12, 2011 @ 5:50pm CST

The State of Illinois is facing a $6 billion deficit and is considering cutting mental health services, funding for public education, and programs for low-income children, and care for seniors.

But, disabled Americans, students, children or seniors didn't crash the economy - Wall Street did.

Mary Kay Henry had just spent a day talking with many of the thousands of Wisconsinites who had packed the State Capitol in Madison for the February protests against Republican Governor Scott Walker’s proposals to scrap collective bargaining rights and slash funding for public education and services. Now, as she waited in a legislative hearing room that had been turned into a makeshift studio for a Pennsylvania labor radio show, the new president of the 2.2 million–member Service Employees International Union was marveling at what she had seen.

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