The elevator moment: when to speak up, when to stay quiet, and the power of both
The elevator moment: when to speak up, when to stay quiet, and the power of both
Anger, pain, and courage. That was what the moment was about. Two women and their pain. A U.S. Senator in an elevator,...
Anger, pain, and courage.
That was what the moment was about.
Two women and their pain.
A U.S. Senator in an elevator, literally trapped and torn.
Frozen by their escalating anger and anguish over what he had just announced.
A yes vote for Brett Kavanaugh to join the Supreme Court.
Read the article and watch the video here.
Tobacco giant pours $10 million into effort to defeat Colorado tax increase on its products
Tobacco giant pours $10 million into effort to defeat Colorado tax increase on its products
Gary Kubiak taken to the hospital after Broncos’ loss to Atlanta in Denver Broncos defense toppled after Falcons...
Gary Kubiak taken to the hospital after Broncos’ loss to Atlanta in Denver
Broncos defense toppled after Falcons finally find a made-to-order blueprint to beat them
Ask Amy: Sisters’ maternal support affects relationship
Nixon-era proposal to give “basic income” to all people springs back to life
Poll: Should Colorado voters pass medical aid in dying?
Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump trade charges, insults in second presidential debate
Nearly $35 million has been poured into Colorado’s statewide ballot initiatives so far this year, according to campaign finance reports filed this week, with a tobacco giant accounting for $10 million of that in its effort to defeat a tax increase on its products.
Combined with $1.7 million collected by proponents of the tobacco tax, which would fund various health-related initiatives, that makes Amendment 72 the most costly race so far at $11.7 million. The medical aid-in-dying measure, Proposition 106, has been a distant second at $6.6 million with proponents raising $4.8 million and opponents gathering $1.8 million.
SEPTEMBER 29, 2016 Hickenlooper endorses higher minimum wage, aid in dying, cigarette tax
SEPTEMBER 23, 2016 9 statewide ballot initiatives you’ll see on Election Day
Still, it could have been more. Much, much more.
“There are a number of intense fights, but this year will be known for what’s not on the ballot, what might have been if TABOR, fracking and wine-and-beer had gone forward,” said independent political analyst Eric Sondermann, noting that the three contentious issues could easily have doubled or tripled what has been raised so far. “Television would be truly unwatchable.”
Some fundraising snapshots:
Amendment 69
Proponents of the effort to create a state-run health care system, dubbed ColoradoCare, have raised their money — $369,233 so far — almost entirely by relatively small donations, many under $100. The opposition’s $4 million has attracted six-figure support from health care players like HealthONE and Centura Health, as well as the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce.
2016 COLORADO BALLOT MEASURES
• Amendment 69: ColoradoCare
• Amendment 70: Minimum Wage
• Amendment 71: Constitutional changes
• Amendment 72: Cigarette taxes
• Proposition 106: Aid-in-dying
• Proposition 107: Presidential primaries
• Proposition 108: Unaffiliated voters
• Amendment T: Slavery reference
• Amendment U: Property taxes
• Ballot Issue 4B: Arts funding
Amendment 70
Substantial chunks of the $3.1 million for the measure that would raise the state’s minimum wage — an effort that has surfaced in various forms across the country — come from national groups such as the New York-based Center for Popular Democracy Action Fund, which has given $650,000, and unions such as Service Employees International Union, which has given $250,000. Opponents have raised considerably less, with many contributors coming from the restaurant industry. But their effort also has attracted out-of-state donors such as the anti-“Big Labor” Workforce Fairness Institute, which gave $250,000.
Amendment 71
A political Who’s Who of interests has coalesced around the attempt, dubbed Raise the Bar, to make amending the state constitution much more difficult. But some energy industry players stand out. Protecting Colorado’s Environment, Economy, and Energy Independence, an oil-and-gas financed group that amassed millions of dollars anticipating a battle over proposed fracking measures that failed to make the ballot, instead has poured $2 million into the measure so far. Vital for Colorado, a coalition of business interests that advocates for oil and gas development, along with the Colorado Petroleum Council and Whiting Petroleum Corp., have combined for nearly another $1 million.
Campaign finance reports for the three committees listed as opposing the initiative have reported only about $1,000 in contributions.
Amendment 72
Fundraising for the effort to pass the tobacco tax has delivered $1.7 million in several five- and six-figure chunks from health care entities such as Children’s Hospital Colorado and the American Heart Association, while University of Colorado Health and University Physicians, Inc. have led the way with $250,000 each. Opposition — in two $5 million donations — comes from Virginia-based Altria Client Services and its affiliates, part of the group that owns Philip Morris.
“The fact that they’re investing and now reinvesting, they see some glimmer of opportunity or they’d not be playing at that magnitude,” Sondermann said. “That said, they remain underdogs — though big-money underdogs.”
Proposition 106
Proponents of the medical aid-in-dying initiative have a substantial edge, with nearly all of their funding coming from the Compassion and Choices Action Network, a Denver-based but nationally active organization that works to protect and expand end-of-life options. Leading the largely faith-based opposition to the proposition is the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Denver, which has contributed $1.115 million, while dioceses across the country have pitched in to varying degrees. In the latest reporting cycle, the Colorado Springs archdiocese contributed $500,000.
Propositions 107 and 108
The measures to create a state presidential primary and also allow unaffiliated voters to cast ballots in party primaries have raised $3.7 million — notably $950,000 from Davita CEO Kent Thiry — against no discernible opposition at this point.
“If an opposition campaign is going to come together,” Sondermann said, “the time is now — if not past tense.”
Two referred measures, to clean up language in the state constitution referring to slavery and to provide a minor property tax exemption, have faced no organized opposition and raised very little money.
Two more reporting periods remain before the November election.
________
Issue contributions
Total for all initiatives as of Oct. 3 report: $34.77 million
Amendment 72 — Tobacco tax
Yes: $1.7 million
No: $10 million
Total: $11.7 million
Proposition 106 — Medical aid-in-dying
Yes: $4.8 million
No: $1.8 million
Total: $6.6 million
Amendment 69 — ColoradoCare
Yes: $369,233
No: $4.0 million
Total: $4.37 million
Amendment 70 — Minimum wage
Yes: $3.1 million
No: $1.2 million
Total: $4.3 million
Amendment 71 — Tougher to amend constitution
Yes: $4.1 million
No: $980
Total: $4.1 million
Propositions 107/108 — Presidential primary/independents vote in primaries
Yes: $3.7 million (including $805k loan)
No: $0
Total: $3.7 million
Amendment T — Clean up language referring to slavery
Yes: $15,129
No opposition
Amendment U — Exempt certain interests from property tax
$0
No committee for or against
By KEVIN SIMPSON
Source
CPD's Josie Duffy Debunks Scaffold Law Myths on Capital Tonight
Capital Tonight's Liz Benjamin interviews Center for Popular Democracy Policy Advocate Josie Duffy on the Scaffold Law...
Capital Tonight's Liz Benjamin interviews Center for Popular Democracy Policy Advocate Josie Duffy on the Scaffold Law. For more information on how the construction industry safety standards elude workers of color, read CPD's report "Fatal Inequality."
Activists Call on Fed Chief to Focus on Struggles of Citizens
The China Post - November 16, 2014 - In a rarity for a U.S. central bank chief, Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen met...
The China Post - November 16, 2014 - In a rarity for a U.S. central bank chief, Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen met Friday with activist groups calling for a fairer economic recovery and a more transparent Fed.
About 20 representatives of community and labor organizations met with Yellen for an hour in the meeting room of the policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee, the activists said.
The groups were banded together as “Fed Up: The National Campaign for a Strong Economy,” lobbying Yellen and her team to orient Fed policy to boost employment and wages.
In addition to Yellen, Fed Vice Chairman Stanley Fischer and board members Lael Brainard and Jerome Powell participated in the meeting.
“We had a very good conversation,” said Ady Barkan, representing the Center for Popular Democracy.
The activists presented their views about conditions in the economy to the Fed officials and “they listened very carefully,” Barkan said.
Yellen “asked people questions about their personal experiences in the economy,” he added.
The coalition gave the Fed officials a list of six proposals to make the central bank more transparent and democratic.
“The economy is not working for the vast majority of people,” Barkan said.
“The Federal Reserve has huge influence over the number of people who have jobs, over our wages ... and yet we don't have discussion and engagement over what Fed policy should be.”
Wearing T-shirts emblazoned with “What recovery?” the activists criticized the Fed's isolation from the general public.
“Our wages are on a flat line for 30 years,” said Anthony Newby, director of Minnesota Neighborhoods Organizing for Change, which wants the Fed to give interest-free loans to cities so they can create jobs in infrastructure projects.
With two regional Fed bank presidents preparing to step down — Charles Plosser for the Philadelphia Fed and Richard Fisher at the Dallas Fed — the coalition is pressing for a transparent process for selecting their successors.
The Philadelphia Fed said on its website Friday that the executive search firm it hired has set up an email address to receive inquiries in the interest of helping the bank “in a broad search for its next president.”
“Philadelphia has hovered around eight percent unemployment for all of 2014; in the black community it's over 14 percent,” said Kati Sipp, head of Pennsylvania Working Families and a “Fed Up” activist.
“We want the Fed to spend some time in the neighborhoods where regular working people live.”
Source
NYC’s Indian-American Commissioner of Immigrant Affairs strives for inclusive city
NYC’s Indian-American Commissioner of Immigrant Affairs strives for inclusive city
The seeds of social activism were planted early in Nisha Agarwal’s bloodstream. The current Commissioner of Immigrant...
The seeds of social activism were planted early in Nisha Agarwal’s bloodstream. The current Commissioner of Immigrant Affairs in Mayor Bill de Blasio’s office took up causes and showing her community organizing skills since she was a little girl.
Her parents, psychologist mother Rita Agarwal, and father, Suresh Agarwal, a nuclear engineer, encouraged her to speak her mind and back it with action, she recalls. Agarwal is among numerous Indian-Americans of this generation who have brought their social activism into public office and policy reform from inside, after banging on doors from the outside.
Read the full article here.
Why are former Toys R Us workers planning to protest CalSTRS’ investments of private equity?
Why are former Toys R Us workers planning to protest CalSTRS’ investments of private equity?
Supporting the workers are Rise Up Retail, the Center for Popular Democracy and the Organization United for Respect....
Supporting the workers are Rise Up Retail, the Center for Popular Democracy and the Organization United for Respect.
Read the full article here.
Pilot Program to Represent Detainees Facing Deportation
New York Law Journal – September 30, 2013, by Mark Hamblett and Jeff Storey - Aiming to foster the rights of...
New York Law Journal – September 30, 2013, by Mark Hamblett and Jeff Storey -
Aiming to foster the rights of immigrants and to keep their families together, two legal services organizations, the Bronx Defenders and Brooklyn Defender Services, have been picked for a unique pilot project to represent indigent detainees facing deportation.
The two organizations will form the New York Immigrant Defenders, which will take on 166 cases in the next year at the Varick Street Immigration Court.
The program will be funded by a $500,000 grant made available by the New York City Council in June.
Robin Steinberg, executive director of the Bronx Defenders, said that her organization created an in-house immigration practice more than a decade ago when it realized that nearly one-third of its clients were facing adverse immigration consequences from even minor brushes with the law.
“The Bronx Defenders joining forces with the Brooklyn Defender Services to create NYID is a natural and necessary step in ensuring that all residents of New York City—no matter where they were born—have their day in court with lawyers who will fight for their right to stay here, with their families and in the communities they now call home,” she said in a statement.
Lisa Schreibersdorf, executive director of Brooklyn Legal Services, agreed that working with immigrants was “very much in line with our mission.”
Schreibersdorf said that she had told her daughter after the group’s selection Thursday that the new program was part of the most groundbreaking public defense development of her generation—the extension of the right to counsel to immigrants.
“This is a groundbreaking program. There is no program of this sort anywhere else in the country. It’s a program that aligns American values with the reality on the ground when it comes to immigrants and due progress,” said Angela Fernandez, executive director of the Northern Manhattan Coalition for Immigrant Rights, one of the groups that advocated for creation of the program.
According to Brittny Saunders, senior staff attorney for the Center for Popular Democracy, another leading advocate for the effort, potential clients will be screened only for economic need, with anyone making under 200 percent of the poverty limit making the cut.
The poverty limit currently is $11,400 for a single person and $23,550 for a family of four.
Other factors, such as the strength of immigrant cases, will not be considered.
Oren Root of the Vera Institute of Justice, a nonprofit and nonpartisan center for justice issues, said the program will stress the importance of keeping families together. In many cases, the detainee has lived in the country for years, is the family’s principal wage earner, serves as the caretaker for family members and has children born and raised in the United States.
The one-year pilot project will be administered by Vera, which will coordinate the delivery of legal services and analyze the data that emerges from the effort.
Root said that Vera is “thrilled” to be working with “such high-caliber, innovative organizations as Brooklyn Defender Services and the Bronx Defenders.”
Providing support for the effort to represent immigrant families has been the Kathryn O. Greenberg Immigration Justice Center at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law.
Most immigrants cannot afford representation, and attorneys and bar groups have become increasingly concerned about the dire consequences they face
Schreibersdorf said studies show that detainees with a lawyer are “more likely to identify valid immigration remedies.”
She cited one case of a 17-year-old on a minor offense handled by her agency. His attorney dug into the defendant’s family background and discovered that his parents had been naturalized, and thus he was a citizen himself.
“Without a lawyer, that kid would have been deported,” she said.
Source
The ALS Activist Who Thinks He Can Flip a Deep Red Arizona District
The ALS Activist Who Thinks He Can Flip a Deep Red Arizona District
Last week, Barkan and a host of progressive activists announced the launch of the Be a Hero initiative, created in part...
Last week, Barkan and a host of progressive activists announced the launch of the Be a Hero initiative, created in part by the Center for Popular Democracy Action, a group that has consistently protested efforts at health care repeal and the GOP tax plan.
Along with their launch, organizers put out a heart-tugging video of Barkan talking about his struggle with ALS over the past year and addressing his young son Carl.
Read the full article here.
Unemployed Take Their Case to Fed Officials at Jackson Hole
Reuters - August 23, 2014, by Michael Flahery - Reginald Rounds was among those present at the Federal Reserve's high-...
Reuters - August 23, 2014, by Michael Flahery - Reginald Rounds was among those present at the Federal Reserve's high-flying monetary conference here, enjoying the chance to button hole two top officials of the U.S. central bank.
The St. Louis resident is neither an economist nor a central banker. He's a 57-year-old unemployed worker, who said he is trained in the green technology field and can't find a job.
He was among a group of activists who gathered on the sidelines of the Fed's annual symposium wearing green t-shirts with "What Recovery?" on the front and a chart depicting sluggish U.S. wage growth on the back.
"From the world where I reside, there is no recovery. We need a boost. We need a jump start," said Rounds. "The key is jobs creation."
The ten activists, most of whom were unemployed and seeking jobs, were sent as emissaries for a coalition of advocacy groups that has launched an unusual campaign from the left to press the U.S. central bank to keep monetary policy easy.
The coalition, consisting of more than 70 organizations, released an open letter to Fed officials earlier this week urging them to hold off on interest rate hikes until wages were rising more swiftly.
While small in number, the activists managed to get a great deal of face time with senior officials. On Thursday, they spoke with the host of the conference, Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank President Esther George, for two hours.
On Friday, Fed Vice Chairman Stanley Fischer stepped out of the conference to spend ten minutes to listen to their plight.
Source
Richmond Fed Chief Pick Renews Debate on Shrouded Hiring Process
Richmond Fed Chief Pick Renews Debate on Shrouded Hiring Process
The Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond’s decision to hire Thomas Barkin as its next president has renewed questions over...
The Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond’s decision to hire Thomas Barkin as its next president has renewed questions over the cloaked process of selecting officials who set the most widely watched policy interest rates in the world.
After a nearly yearlong search, Richmond’s board of directors Monday confirmedthey had chosen the McKinsey & Co. executive to start on Jan. 1. Barkin will be a voter on the interest-rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee in 2018.
Read the full article here.
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