Talking to Kerri Evelyn Harris, the Mom, Vet, and Mechanic Staring Down Delaware's Political Machine
Talking to Kerri Evelyn Harris, the Mom, Vet, and Mechanic Staring Down Delaware's Political Machine
“I work with the Opioid Network, which is a subset of Center for Popular Democracy. I’m going to be in DC on April 18,...
“I work with the Opioid Network, which is a subset of Center for Popular Democracy. I’m going to be in DC on April 18, doing an action at the Smithsonian, where we put down medicine bottles from a bunch of different people to show, this is where this new opioid crisis has spawned from. I also work with an organization called the Delaware Alliance for Community Advancement, along with Metropolitan Women’s Urban League. I also work with Achievement Matters, where I’m a facilitator for a fellowship program to close the achievement gap and foster new leadership in communities of color.”
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Health Care Activists Protest at Senator's Offices in the Capitol - Photo
Health Care Activists Protest at Senator's Offices in the Capitol - Photo
Activists protest against the Republican health care repeal-and-replace legislation at U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz's office in...
Activists protest against the Republican health care repeal-and-replace legislation at U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz's office in the Russell Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill July 19, 2017 in Washington, DC. Organized by the Center for Popular Democracy, Housing Works, National Nurses United and other organizations, dozens of people were arrested for protesting against the GOP attempts to end Obamacare.
See the photo here.
This holiday season, let's talk about retail workers instead of coal miners
This holiday season, let's talk about retail workers instead of coal miners
Far more than the miners or factory workers that President Trump regularly touts, the retail salesperson is the face of...
Far more than the miners or factory workers that President Trump regularly touts, the retail salesperson is the face of today’s economy. Nearly 16 million people work in retail in America, more than 300 times as many as the 52,000 in coal mining. They are the people wrapping gifts, stocking shelves and providing advice on what to buy this holiday season for your friends and family.
Read the full article here.
Progress made on community schools initiative
LAS CRUCES - Las Cruces could get its first community school as early as this fall, if a New Mexico State University...
LAS CRUCES - Las Cruces could get its first community school as early as this fall, if a New Mexico State University grant is approved and all of the pieces fall into place. Pending the approval of a U.S. Department of Education 21st Century Community Learning Centers grant, which organizers say would help fund an on-site coordinator, Lynn Middle School could be transformed into the district’s first community school.
The initiative is being spearheaded by the SUCCESS Partnership, a collective of Las Cruces nonprofits, education advocates, health and service providers and representatives from the business community. The SUCCESS Partnership is organized by Ngage New Mexico, a Las Cruces nonprofit committed to improving educational outcomes in Doña Ana County.
Susan Brown, an associate professor at NMSU's STEM Outreach Center in the College of Education, helped the group apply for the grant.
The vision is to bring improved access to health and social services, youth and community development and educational opportunities into neighborhoods around Las Cruces by converting each of the district’s 41 school sites into community schools, open to everyone — all day, every day, including nights and weekends.
The community schools project is not an LCPS initiative, Chief of Staff Tim Hand told members of the school board during a presentation on the project Tuesday. The project will rely on the support of numerous community stakeholders and a variety of funding sources.
“We want this for every single school in Doña Ana County,” said David Greenberg, an organizer with Ngage New Mexico.
Soon, organizers will begin working on outreach initiatives to determine the needs of staff, students and parents at Lynn Middle School.
The SUCCESS Partnership will be bringing Kyle Serrette to Las Cruces next week. Serrette, the director of education justice campaigns for the Center for Popular Democracy in Washington, D.C., will give a presentation on community schools from 4 to 6 p.m. Tuesday at the Hilton Garden Inn, 2550 S. Don Roser Dr. The presentation is free, and open to the community.
By Damien Willis
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NYT Misses the Story on the Fed and African American Unemployment
CEPR - March 3, 2015 - The NYT...
CEPR - March 3, 2015 - The NYT examined the impact the Fed has on unemployment among African Americans and came up with the bizarre conclusion that the Fed can't do much:
"The Fed has a hammer, and, as the saying goes, not all problems are nails."
This conclusion is bizarre, because the data are very clear; efforts to reduce the overall unemployment rate disproportionately help African Americans and Hispanics. As a rule of thumb, the African American unemployment rate is roughly twice the unemployment rate and the unemployment rate for African American teens is roughly six times the white unemployment rates. (The unemployment rate for Hispanics is generally 1.5 times the white unemployment rate.)
In keeping with this rule of thumb, the unemployment rate for whites in January was 4.9 percent. It was 10.3 percent for African Americans and 29.7 percent for African American teens. Here's what the longer term picture looks like.
If we could get back to 2000 levels of unemployment, when the unemployment rate for whites bottomed out at 3.4 percent, we might see something like the 7.0 percent unemployment rate for blacks overall and 20.0 percent we saw for black teens back in April of 2000.
Alternatively, to flip it over and talk about employment rates, the percentage of black teens that was employed peaked at 31.7 percent in 2000, more than 50 percent higher than the 19.6 percent figure for last month. Does anyone really want to say that increasing the probability that black teens will have a job by 50 percent doesn't make a difference?
There is a separate issue as to whether it would be possible to get down to 4.0 percent unemployment without triggering spiraling inflation. This is an arguable point. But it is worth noting that those who say it is not possible to have 4.0 percent unemployment today also said that it was not possible back in 2000.
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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
Trump’s Replacement for Janet Yellen as Fed Chair Should Follow Her Lead, Economists Say
Trump’s Replacement for Janet Yellen as Fed Chair Should Follow Her Lead, Economists Say
Not everyone was so optimistic in Powell. Sam Bell—a research adviser at Fed Up, a campaign to encourage the central...
Not everyone was so optimistic in Powell. Sam Bell—a research adviser at Fed Up, a campaign to encourage the central bank to keep interest rates low, as Yellen did—also criticized the Powell pick.
Read the full article here.
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.
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.
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#Cville2DC marchers pledge to fight white supremacy in all its forms after 118-mile journey
#Cville2DC marchers pledge to fight white supremacy in all its forms after 118-mile journey
WASHINGTON — They kept a grueling pace. More than 250 marchers completed a 118-mile journey from Charlottesville,...
WASHINGTON — They kept a grueling pace.
More than 250 marchers completed a 118-mile journey from Charlottesville, Virginia, to the nation’s capital on Wednesday. A core group of faithful marchers walked a third of the length of Virginia, a former Confederate slave-holding state, to speak out against racial hatred.
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