National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare backs Sutton in race for Congress

PARMA HEIGHTS, OH - Today, the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, a nationwide senior advocacy group, endorsed Betty Sutton in the race for Congress in the 16th District thanks to her unwavering commitment to Ohio's seniors and her steadfast opposition to plans to end Medicare as we know it.

"Ohio's seniors rely on these critical programs every day not only to pay the bills and put food on the table, but to provide the peace of mind they deserve and have earned," said Sutton. "I have been and will continue to be an outspoken opponent of attempts to end Medicare as we know it, and am proud to have the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare by my side as we work to protect and strengthen these programs."

A strong supporter of critical programs that Ohio seniors depend upon every day, Sutton has stood with seniors against any proposed cuts of essential Medicare or Social Security benefits.  In July, Sutton held a 'Seniors Listening Tour', where she had an opportunity to hear from seniors about their concerns, and talk to them about upcoming proposals in Congress.

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was a landmark piece of legislation in the United States that outlawed major forms of discrimination against African Americans and women, including racial segregation.

It ended unequal application of voter registration requirements and racial segregation in schools, at the workplace and by facilities that served the general public ("public accommodations").

Powers given to enforce the act were initially weak, but were supplemented during later years. Congress asserted its authority to legislate under several different parts of the United States Constitution, principally its power to regulate interstate commerce under Article One (section 8), its duty to guarantee all citizens equal protection of the laws under the Fourteenth Amendment and its duty to protect voting rights under the Fifteenth Amendment.

The Act was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson, 48 years ago today on uly 2, 1964.

Watch It:

Comprehensive bill aims to protect minors and strengthen penalties for offenders

COLUMBUS- State Rep. Teresa Fedor (D- Toledo) released the following statement on the passage of Am. Sub. House Bill 262 by a unanimous vote in the House of Representatives.

"I am overwhelmed that this critical legislation has received such broad support.  We have a child sexual abuse crime wave in Ohio.  The passage of HB 262 today is a huge victory for victims of human trafficking.  This is a problem that deserves immediate attention by my colleagues in the Senate.  The time to take action is now, we must protect the victims of these heinous acts of human slavery and stop the individuals that are the benefactors of this underground criminal network," said Rep. Fedor.

COLUMBUS - Today, State Senators Nina Turner (D-Cleveland) and Charleta B. Tavares (D-Columbus) introduced the Fair and Acceptable Income Required (FAIR) Act to update state laws that protect Ohioans, particularly women, from wage discrimination.

"It is unthinkable that in this day and age women in Ohio make only 77 cents for every dollar made by a man," said Senator Turner. "Without question, equal work deserves equal pay. At a time when women are increasingly responsible for the economic security of their families, ensuring that they earn a wage commensurate with their work--and on par with a man's--is absolutely critical."

The FAIR Act would strengthen Ohio's wage discrimination laws by requiring employers to substantiate pay differences--for causes other than seniority, merit, or quantity or quality of employee production--with legitimate, job-related or skill-based reasons. It would also prohibit retaliation against workers who discuss salaries with colleagues or raise concerns about wage inequality, and prevent wage discrimination based upon sexual orientation.

Current law provides that an employer may not base differences in pay on race, color, religion, sex, age, national origin, or ancestry, but has proven far from effective in closing the wage gap between men and women in Ohio.

"While the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 improved some laws that govern pay discrimination, more must be done to close the wage gap and increase the economic security of women," said Senator Tavares. "Fair pay would help close the wage gap and increase women's economic security."

On April 28th in state capitols/cities across the USA progressives held organized rallies/marches to speak out on the war against women's rights. The State of Ohio is in the forefront of these attacks on women.

It is time to change the dialogue and refocusing attention toward the very serious issues this nation faces. All across the country, through legislative proposals, government regulations, and political rhetoric, war is being waged upon women, their bodies, their private interests, and their right to self-determination. This is occurring without, and in spite of, the participation of the same women being affected by these actions, and whose futures, and those of their families, are being unilaterally determined.

The issues include:

Reproductive rights
Woman's health issues
Crimes against women and children
Workplace equality

Related:

At Statehouse rally, hundreds decry 'war on women'

The American electorate can tolerate quite a bit from politicians, but no one respects a coward.

The Violence Against Women Act revolutionized the way violent crimes against women are prosecuted and prevented. Since it became law, domestic violence has dropped by more than half.

But some Republicans in Congress are opposing the Violence Against Women Act because they want to exclude some women from its full protections. And Mitt Romney won't even take a stand.

All women deserve protection from abuse -- no matter if they are white, black, immigrant, Native American or gay -- and no violent criminal should get away with hurting them.

How can Republican politicians who are too afraid to stand up for that principle live with themselves? Just exactly how much violence against women are they are willing to accept?

The Violence Against Women Act is up for reauthorization this year, and despite overwhelming bipartisan support the last two times it was renewed in 2000 and 2005, Republicans have expressed concerns over new provisions in the bill. Click on the graphic below for an abbreviated "timeline" of VAWA.

Over 200 activists from across the state took part in the Freedom of Choice Ohio Storm the Statehouse Emergency Lobby Day today. FOCO is a statewide coalition that supports safe, accessible reproductive health care and comprehensive safe sex education.

View Slideshow:

View Larger Images Here

View More Images Here

'Tis the season of giving. And if you're Senator Rob Portman, that means giving tax breaks to corporate CEOs and the rich, instead of giving jobs to Ohioans who are trying to save their homes from foreclosure and keep their families fed. While thousands of Ohioans will go without this holiday season, record income disparity keeps the 1% toasty warm.

Millions of hardworking Americans--nearly 2 million in January alone, and over 6 million in 2012--will be cut off from the emergency lifeline of federal unemployment insurance, unless Congress acts to fully renew the program before it expires December 31st.

But a bill that would slash jobless benefits in every state, and cut more than half the available benefits in the highest unemployment states including Ohio, is now headed for the U.S. Senate.  This bill would cut over 74,000 Ohioans off of unemployment benefits at the time they need it the most to put food on their tables and keep their families warm.

In the past three years, federal unemployment insurance has helped more than 17 million Americans while they've looked for work in the toughest job market since the Great Depression.

Congress has never cut back or allowed these programs to expire when unemployment was anywhere near this high for this long. Senator Portman should reject the cuts to unemployment insurance, and pass a full renewal of the federal UI program immediately.

Please click this link to connect with Senator Portman (or any other federal elected official) through an innovated call back system.  Just enter your information, including your phone number, and you will receive a call, hear a brief message and then you will be connected to your Members of Congress.

With all the talk about Issue 2 (Vote NO!) there is another ballot issue that seems to be slipping under the radar for most voters.  While supporters of Issue 3 try to say it is just about stopping the Affordable Care Act, this poorly-written law will do damage to Ohio. 

Law professors from across the state agree that Issue 3 is so badly worded that it would likely throw a wrench in many of the following programs:  

• Workers Compensation
• COBRA
• insurance coverage in child support orders
• college student health insurance requirements
• disease and immunization tracking or requirements
• stopping pill mills
• court ordered healthcare for the mentally ill and substance abusers
• consumer protection against fake health insurance
• consumer protection against false medical treatments
• medical worker and insurance agent licensing
• and many more... 

That is why every major newspaper editorial board, including newspapers who opposed federal healthcare reform, like the Columbus Dispatch and the Plain Dealer, have endorsed a No vote on Issue 3. 

The NO on Issue 3 committee has put together a quick video highlighting some of the many important health and safety programs that would be banned or curtailed if Issue 3 passes. 

Please watch this important video and share the word to your friends and family: Issue 3 is bad medicine for Ohio.  Vote NO on Issue 3!

Programs provide benefits to 1 out of every 6 residents, contribute $64 billion per year to state economy

COLUMBUS, OH- A new report issued today (http://bit.ly/s4htzp) outlines the importance of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid to people in Ohio and the state's economy.

The report comes out just as Ohio Senator Rob Portman finishes his work on the congressional Super Committee tasked with reducing the federal deficit. The Committee must recommend at least $1.2 trillion in spending cuts by November 23. The full Congress must approve these recommendations by the end of the year, or it will trigger automatic deficit reduction.

At an event today, the Ohio Alliance for Retired Americans and the Strengthen Social Security campaign unveiled the report detailing the number of Ohio residents who rely on these programs as well as the economic impact and number of jobs in Ohio the programs support.

For more than 40 years, the Presidential Citizens Medal has honored Americans who have "performed exemplary deeds of service for their country or their fellow citizens." Past recipients have included some of America's most respected public figures as well as everyday heroes committed to helping their fellow citizens.

This year, President Obama asked the public to submit nominees, hoping to recognize exemplary citizens and local heroes who have significantly impacted their communities but who may not have garnered national attention.

Vijaya Emani, Strongsville, Ohio

Vijaya Emani became a role model for victims of domestic abuse because of her strength and determination in overcoming domestic abuse in her own life.

She broke a long held taboo in the Indian American community by speaking out about the issue publicly.

Although she was killed in a tragic vehicle accident, her example and message live on.

Emani posthumously receives the Citizens Medal for her courage in overcoming and speaking out against abuse.

Gloria Feldt is the best-selling author of No Excuses: 9 Ways Women Can Change How We Think About Power, a frequent keynote speaker, 30-year CEO, and passionate women's advocate.

On Wednesday, October 12, she will keynote at the Columbus Metropolitan Club at noon and at the Hilton Columbus at Easton at 7:00 p.m. for the New Directions Career Center.

How Women Succeed by Being Who They Are

Study after study finds that companies with greater numbers of women in leadership make more money. Managers are learning they must retain high performing women to succeed. Today's economic and social turbulence has jarred traditional boundaries, opening opportunities for women prepared to take them. Christine Lagarde is now atop the IMF. Crain's New York credits women such as Jill Abramson, the first female managing editor of the New York Times and Newsweek/Daily Beast's Tina Brown with coming to the rescue of the media industry. 

While many doors have opened in the legal sense for increasing numbers of "first" women in almost everything, overall numbers remain numbingly immobile. Despite women being 60 percent of college graduates and half of the workforce, they hold just 18 percent of upper management positions across all employment sectors. Women sit in fewer than 15 percent of corporate board seats and hold a penurious 3 percent of Fortune 500 CEO positions.  

Though many structural and cultural barriers remain, my own research finds an equally pernicious barrier within. Many women resist embracing power even within their grasp. 

When women earn today's average 77 cents a dollar compared to men, "nice-girl" salary negotiating tactics cost us a cool half million dollars on average over a working lifetime. 

Even though we may feel stuck or helpless, but we are in the best position to unstick ourselves.

Yesterday, Representative Betty Sutton traveled to Wall Street to join fellow-Americans in sending a message to Wall Street fat cats and their political point men that enough is enough: it's time for Wall Street bankers and Corporate CEOs to pay their fair share.

Occupy Wall Street is leaderless resistance movement with people of many colors, genders and political persuasions. The one thing they all have in common is that they are the 99% that will no longer tolerate the greed and corruption of the 1%.

Workers are told that they aren't allowed health care, shelter, food. Students are told that they aren't allowed jobs, and that they will be in debt for the rest of their lives, unable to declare bankruptcy. The 1% has destroyed this nation and its values through their greed.

WASHINGTON, D.C.--More than 9,000 Ohio seniors in Morgan, Washington, Belmont, Jefferson, Monroe, Noble, and Guernsey Counties participated in a tele-town hall with U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) yesterday. The call was the second in a series of tele-townhalls Brown will hold with constituents on a regional basis.

"Medicare and Social Security have allowed Americans to live longer, healthier lives and retire with dignity," Brown said. "We owe it to our children and grandchildren to reduce the deficit. But we need to do this in a way that doesn't undermine the Medicare and Social Security benefits their grandparents have earned."

Following threats to end Medicare as we know it and raise the retirement age for Social Security to age 69 or higher, Brown introduced a bill that would require Members of Congress to "walk in the same shoes" as working Americans. Brown's bill, the Shared Retirement Sacrifice Act of 2011, would amend the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS) and Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) to directly tie the Social Security retirement age to current and future Members of Congress' access to their federal retirement benefits.

We Are Ohio is up with their first TV ad.  Watch it, share it, and get involved!  Short and sweet.

When there's an emergency, Ohio firefighters need to be ready. But Issue 2 makes it harder for firefighters to do their jobs -- and that's not safe for firefighters or the neighborhoods they serve.

Vote NO on Issue 2!

www.weareohio.com

Update: Apparently embarrassed after having this video of Governor John Kasich Thanking the Union Busting Koch Brother's front group Americans For Prosperity that they tried to keep secret exposed to the public the AFP has removed the video.  We'll be posting the back-up we made later today!

Update II: Thanks to Rachel Maddow for picking up this story

-------

In an "unlisted video" which Gov. Kasich recorded using state resources, he tells the Koch Industries astroturf group Americans For Prosperity "... in the four months that I've been Governor, we've accomplished a lot in Ohio... in all of these efforts the strong support of Americans for Prosperity has made a really big difference. ...it's so important that Ohio's fighters for freedom, the grassroots leaders of Americans for Prosperity, continue to lend their support to the effort to get Ohio back on track."

Americans for Prosperity is Part of the Koch Industries Right-Wing Machine:

Koch's founder, Fred Koch, also helped found the John Birch Society, an ultraconservative organization that believed the U.S. government was controlled by a traitorous cabal of communist sympathizers. Koch Industries' charitable arm, the Koch Family Foundations, has provided over $120 million in the past 20 years to the Cato Institute (founded by Charles Koch), Citizens for a Sound Economy (founded by David Koch, now known as Americans for Prosperity and FreedomWorks), the Heritage Foundation, the Federalist Society, the Mercatus Center, North Carolina's John Locke Foundation, and dozens of other right-wing, anti-regulatory, and global warming-denial organizations. [Media Transparency]

Koch-Run Americans For Prosperity Has Bircher, Racist Roots:

From Jane Mayer's New Yorker story on the Kochs, billionaire bankrollers of Americans For Prosperity, elements of the Tea Party, and the CATO Institute:

In 1958, Fred Koch became one of the original members of the John Birch Society, the arch-conservative group known, in part, for a highly skeptical view of governance and for spreading fears of a Communist takeover. Members considered President Dwight D. Eisenhower to be a Communist agent. In a self-published broadside, Koch claimed that "the Communists have infiltrated both the Democrat and Republican Parties." He wrote admiringly of Benito Mussolini's suppression of Communists in Italy, and disparagingly of the American civil-rights movement. "The colored man looms large in the Communist plan to take over America," he warned. Welfare was a secret plot to attract rural blacks to cities, where they would foment "a vicious race war." In a 1963 speech that prefigures the Tea Party's talk of a secret socialist plot, Koch predicted that Communists would "infiltrate the highest offices of government in the U.S. until the President is a Communist, unknown to the rest of us."

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, center, hands pens to legislators
after signing into law a bill legalizing same-sex marriage.

The U.S. state of New York has approved same-sex marriage, handing American gay rights advocates a major victory in their quest for equality.

After extensive debate, the New York State Senate approved the legislation Friday night by a vote of 33 to 29, as two previously undecided Republican lawmakers cast the deciding votes in favor of it.

With the final approval, New York became the sixth U.S. state where gay couples can wed, and by far the largest state. Gay couples can begin marrying in the state in 30 days.

New York could become a magnet for such marriages because the state has no residency requirement for obtaining a marriage license.

Activists consider New York's approval particularly significant since it is the third largest U.S. state and because of New York City's international stature. The city also is considered to be the birthplace of the gay rights movement, with the Stonewall riots in the city's Greenwich Village community in 1969.

Bill helps young victims of human trafficking

COLUMBUS - State Rep. Teresa Fedor (D-Toledo) today introduced legislation to protect children who are the victims of human trafficking. The "Safe Harbor for Exploited Children" act (House Bill 262) would help human trafficking victims return to society.

"Under Ohio current law, minors who are victims of human trafficking are arrested as prostitutes and incarcerated.  Minors who cannot legally consent to sex should not be considered prostitutes," said Rep. Fedor. "Furthermore, a minor who has been commercially sexually exploited should not be incarcerated, but should receive treatment to help the crime victim re-enter society."

Human trafficking is defined as the sexual or labor exploitation of one person by another.  Generally, traffickers prey on the most vulnerable in society, they exploit them, and they keep any profits from the forced labor.  Human trafficking is modern day slavery, and globally there are more slaves today than during any other time in history.  The United States is part of the worldwide trafficking network, and American children are sexually exploited yearly.  In Ohio, 3,000 children are at risk of exploitation, and as many as 1,700 children (under the age of 18) are recruited into the sex industry every year (Trafficking In Person Study Commission of the Ohio Attorney General's Office, 2009.)

More Images Here

Columbus, OH - Angry seniors and constituents held a press conference and walk outside the Franklin County Job Center in Congressman Tiberi's district today to challenge his support for the Republican budget - a plan that would cost more than $13,000 a year in out-of-pocket costs for Ohio seniors and leave many seniors and people with disabilities without the Medicaid services they depend on for long term care. The Republicans want to make dramatic and unfair cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and other middle-class programs to pay for new tax breaks for millionaires, Big Oil, huge corporations and their rich CEOs.

Recently, Congressmen Tiberi and Stivers voted for the House Republican plan that does away with traditional Medicare and instead provides seniors with vouchers for a fixed-dollar amount to buy their insurance coverage on their own. The average Ohio senior would pay additional out-of-pocket costs of $5,940, twice as much as they pay now.

"Who can afford an individual private plan now with pre-existing conditions? Our children and grandchildren certainly will not have the savings to cover the ever-rising premiums the House budget proposes," said David Friesner, President of the Ohio Alliance for Retired Americans.

Congressmen Tiberi and Stivers also joined with other Republicans to slash Medicaid spending by one-third and kick seniors and people with disabilities out of nursing homes, putting a huge burden on their middle-class families and on state programs that depend on federal dollars. In Ohio, Medicaid pays for the care of 63% of nursing home patients. The Republican budget cuts $29.5 billion over 10 years for Ohioans on Medicaid, including seniors and people with disabilities receiving long term care.

"The Future of Retirement is on the Line"

The following statement was issued today by David Friesner, President of the Ohio Alliance for Retired Americans:

"Ohio retirees should be very concerned that Senator Portman voted for a bill that could end the hopes and dreams of millions of Americans for a safe and secure retirement.  The 2012 budget plan by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) cuts Social Security, raises the retirement age, puts insurance companies in charge of privatized Medicare, and lets governors decide who gets nursing home care.

"We should not balance the budget on the backs of our nation's seniors.  Instead, we should address the root causes of our deficit - the badly-unneeded tax breaks for wealthy individuals and corporations.  We must make sure we protect and strengthen Social Security and Medicare, two great American success stories that have helped generations of seniors stay healthy and out of poverty.

"The future of retirement is on the line.  On behalf of the Ohio Alliance for Retired Americans, I am disappointed that Senator Portman did not stand up for the needs of current and future retirees here in Ohio

"In stark contrast, Senator Sherrod Brown voted to protect the health care and retirement security of workers and retirees in Ohio.   Senator Brown deserves our gratitude for remembering how many of us are struggling to make ends meet."

Local Protest Opposes Republican Budget Cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid

Akron -- Senior citizens, active and retired workers and residents from the Akron area held an event today to protest budget cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, opposed by Congresswoman Betty Sutton.  The Ohio Alliance for Retired Americans sponsored event was part of a national day of action called "Don't Make Us Work 'Til We Die" .

The event participants dropped by the office of Representative Sutton (D-Ohio) to commend her April 15 vote by against the House Republican budget, which would turn Medicare over to insurance companies and slash Medicaid spending by $1.4 trillion. They also asked Representative Sutton to continue being a champion of affirmative aging and oppose any cuts to Social Security benefits, including raising the retirement age.

"Social Security belongs to the people who have worked hard all their lives and contributed to the program. It does not belong to politicians in Washington who want to use it as a piggy bank to fund tax cuts for the rich or bailouts for Wall Street," said Charlie Lemon, President of the Ohio Alliance for Retired Americans affiliate United Retirees of America. "Social Security is based on a promise. We ask Representative Sutton to keep Social Security's promise by continuing to speak out and act in Congress to oppose any cuts to the program. She has kept that promise during her time in Congress."

The event took place as the budget debate is heating up in Washington, and as many in Congress propose big benefit cuts to Social Security, including increasing the retirement age to 69.

"A secure retirement has long been a hallmark of the American middle class, and Social Security is its foundation," said Charlie Lemon. "We sent a clear message today: Hands Off Social Security. "Don't make us work until we die."

Watch It:

With Renewed Attacks on Medicare, Brown Organizes Senate Effort to Protect Affordable Healthcare for Retirees Over 65

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) today released a letter he is circulating among his Senate colleagues that urges President Obama to reject new threats to transform Medicare into a voucher system, as proposed under the House Republican's Fiscal Year 2012 budget. Brown reached out to Senate colleagues to join him in urging President Obama to protect America's seniors and oppose any attempts to dismantle Medicare.

According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), in the first year of the voucher program, out-of-pocket expenses for seniors would double under the Republican plan to more than $12,500 annually, and increase steadily thereafter.  The average Social Security benefit is $14,000 per year. 

Full text of the letter is below:

Please join Equality Ohio for Lobby Day on Wednesday, May 18 -- registration closes May 13.

For the last five years, HUNDREDS of Ohioans have visited their elected officials to talk with them about equal rights for ALL Ohioans regardless of sexual orientation and gender identity. Mothers, fathers, families, clergy members, students - straight and gay, young and old - took a day off from school or work to come to the Statehouse in Columbus for Lobby Day.  This year the focus will be on a Comprehensive Safe Schools Act and the Equal Housing and Employment Act (EHEA). 

The Ohio Safe Schools Act was deeply flawed when it passed in 2006, in part because it did not enumerate protections based on sexual orientation and gender identity.  Already this year, a variety of bills have been introduced in the Ohio House and Senate to improve Ohio's anti-bullying and harassment laws.  One of these, supported by Equality Ohio and a broad coalition of allies, would require school anti-bullying and harassment policies to include sexual orientation and gender identity.
 
The EHEA, which passed in the Ohio House during the last legislative session, will also be reintroduced in the House and Senate.  The EHEA would add sexual orientation and gender identity to the state's civil rights legislation covering discrimination in the workplace, housing and public accommodation.  
 
The Comprehensive Safe Schools Act and the EHEA would be the first pro-equality bills passed in Ohio.  But make no mistake, neither of these pro-equality laws will pass if we don't work for them.

Bring your story to the statehouse on May 18th to make a difference. Don't be late!  Register before May 13th to join us on this important day.

Medicare, Medicaid Cuts Would Hurt Low-Income Seniors

The following statement was issued today by David Friesner, President of the Ohio Alliance for Retired Americans:

"Congressman Paul Ryan's budget proposal takes better care of CEOs in corporate towers than it does seniors in nursing homes or needing less expensive home and community based care services.

"His plan tries to hide its cold-hearted details behind seemingly innocuous buzzwords like 'vouchers' and 'block grants.'  But the reality is that 'voucher' is Ryan-speak for turning Medicare over to the big insurance companies, and 'block grant' is Ryan-speak for saying that Medicaid should be run by Republican governors across the country.

"People of all ages have seen what happens when the insurance companies call the shots - they choose their profits over our health, the corporate interest over the public interest.  Moreover, we have seen what has been happening in state capitals over the past few months.

"Why would anyone want to put affordable access to long-term care into the hands of a governor compromised by private business interests and the General Assembly that has continued to follow the dictates of private for profit nursing home operators and their lobbyists?

"In the name of deficit reduction, Paul Ryan goes way too far.  What he wants is to fundamentally change our nation's values - give tax cuts to the wealthy, but yet make it harder for seniors and low-income children to see a doctor or remain in the community.
 
"The Ohio Alliance for Retired Americans, with its 230,000 members organized in 90 local chapters, will spend the month of April organizing grassroots actions around the state to try to stop this cold-hearted plan.  We have to tell Americans - particularly seniors - about just how dangerous Paul Ryan's budget proposal is.

"To keep America as a nation where we still lend a helping hand to the young and the old, and to the sick and the poor, we must stop these cuts to Medicare and Medicaid."

It's time to stand up in Ohio.

The Ohio Senate recently passed a bill that would strip 350,000 public servants like teachers, firefighters and police of their collective-bargaining rights, rights that our faith traditions teach us are fundamental to a just society.

And Gov. Kasich has released a budget that will dismantle our social safety net, burden middle-class families, and slash critical investments in our children's futures, while the wealthy and special interests keep every dime of their tax breaks.

As people of faith, we know budgets are moral documents. Help us send a message to Gov. Kasich that a budget that hurts families is unacceptable.

Send a message to Gov. Kasich -- people of faith want a moral budget!

Gov. Kasich budget makes drastic cuts in vital programs like education, healthcare, and child care programs. But his claims that we can't afford these programs ring hollow as he spends millions of dollars on tax cuts for the wealthy.

These are tough times for families across Ohio. We're all going to need to pull together to get out of this recession, but we won't make any progress if the wealthy and special interests don't pay their fair share.

Our faith traditions are clear on where our economic priorities should lie, and Gov. Kasich's budget just doesn't measure up.

Over 500 Ohioans of faith have already told Gov. Kasich his budget has a moral deficit and demanded that he put families first. That's more than halfway to our goal!

The following is from the Strengthen Social Security coalition, of which ProgressOhio.org is part:

We need you to call your Senators and demand that they vote for the Sanders/Reid Social Security Protection Amendment.

Senator Sanders and Majority Leader Reid are leading the fight in the Senate to protect Social Security from drastic cuts.
 
Their amendment simply says:
 
Social Security benefits for current and future beneficiaries should not be cut and Social Security should not be privatized as part of any legislation to reduce the Federal deficit.
 
Call your Senators RIGHT NOW at 1-866-251-4044. You'll be given a choice of which of your state's two senators to be connected with. Call BOTH if you have the time. It only takes a minute each.
Tell the person who answers the phone:

• I am a voter/constituent living in [your state]. I am calling to tell the Senator:
• I oppose all cuts to Social Security and
• I urge them to vote yes on the Sanders/Reid Social Security Protection Amendment.

Please take the time for this very important effort today. This is for all of us who depend on Social Security.
Call Today: 1-866-251-4044.
 
AFTER YOU CALL:
Stay involved, the threat to Social Security continues. Please click to stay involved in the fight.

U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) today released the following statement amid new efforts to privatize Social Security:

"Social Security is a lifeline for nearly two million Ohioans.

 "America cannot afford to abandon our 54 million seniors who depend on Social Security. A threat to dismantle Social Security as we know it is a threat to an American way of life that has kept countless seniors in their homes with food on the table and heat on in the winter.

"No elderly American should have to choose between paying for medicine or a meal. That's why it is imperative that we preserve Social Security by rejecting plans to privatize the program or raise the retirement age.

"Americans know that Social Security is an independent program carefully designed not to affect the federal budget. Proposals like raising the retirement age may sound okay to conservative Washington politicians in a House hearing room, but they're a non-starter for Ohioans who work on an assembly line or stand on their feet for hours each day.

"And privatizing Social Security is unacceptable. As we witnessed Wall Street recklessness threaten the collapse of our economic system, one saving grace was that President Bush's scheme to privatize Social Security was not implemented. Imagine what would have happened if the livelihood of millions of seniors was directly tied to the stock market.

"Today, there are renewed threats to Social Security. And we must confront them with a renewed sense of purpose in protecting the Ohio seniors who have earned peace of mind in their twilight years."

Last week Governor Kasich unveiled his budget proposal, which relies on massive cuts to balance the state budget. Gov. Kasich is attempting to balance a projected $8 billion budget deficit on the backs of Ohio's children, seniors, sick and our hard working middle class.

Join One Ohio Now and others from all over Ohio on Tuesday, April 5th at the Statehouse to send a message to Gov. Kasich and Ohio's general assembly that they need to find a middle ground instead of reducing vital services and programs that will further hinder Ohio's economic vitality.

Tuesday, April 5th at 12pm

Ohio Statehouse

1 Capital Square, Columbus, OH 43215

(North Plaza/Broad Street)

Please let us know that you're coming.

Celebrate the 100th Anniversary of International Women's Day with Oxfam:

Ending Hunger Starts With Women

Enjoy a free evening of light fair from Dragonfly Neo-V, a brief film screening, and panel discussion with some of Central Ohio's pioneers for ethical change, food experts, and leaders in business.

Tuesday, March 22nd, 6:30-8:30pm

Where: Broad Street Presbyterian Church

               760 East Broad Street

               Columbus, OH 43205 (directions) 

Panel Discussion featuring: 

• Wendy Ake from the Kirwan Institute
• Tanisha Robinson from Fudha.com
• and more...

Partners Include:

• United Nations Association of Columbus
• The School Study Council of Ohio
• Local Matters

Please RSVP Here

Around the world, women face the challenge of food access and justice. In some of the worlds' poorest regions, it is women who are struggling to grow enough food to feed their families, while confronting the difficulty of competition for land and water, fair trade, and unpredictable weather conditions.  

In Columbus, families are faced with economic declines, rising food prices, and poor access to healthy food. We will highlight ways Columbus businesses support local organic farmers, fair trade, and solutions to ending hunger in Ohio. We will also discuss the connection of gender, race, and agriculture within a global and local context, elaborating on strategies to ensure everyone's right to access food.

Questions? Contact columbus@oxfamactioncorps.org or Elissa - 970 420-8784 or Jenn - 614 256-5167.

Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) took to the House floor yesterday to stand up for troubled homeowners and spoke out against H.R. 836, the Emergency Mortgage Relief Termination Act.

The full text of the Congressman's remarks follow:
 
This is a very strange Congress. At a time when Wall Street has been bailed out, banks have been bailed out; banks were bailed out who kicked people out of their homes. Now a lot of programs that have been created to help keep people in their homes are going to be canceled by the majority.  Of course, that will cause more people to lose their homes to the banks. So the banks in America have people coming and going. And they keep getting more and more money.

Millions of Americans are facing or will face foreclosure in the coming months. Their hold on their homes has been endangered by unemployment or predatory loan terms or falling house values. We are in the worst crisis facing homeowners in the history of this country.

The facts are well-known. No one in the House can feign lack of knowledge of the misery that has gripped American homeowners and neighborhoods across the country. Yet today, this House takes up a bill to terminate a program intended to assist distressed borrowers. Next week the house will consider more bills to eliminate two other assistance programs.

What message is this Congress sending? If you are a distressed borrower or relative who is in trouble or neighbor in distress, the message of this House is tough luck. Worried about losing your house? Tough luck.

Government assistance to distressed borrowers should be effective. I can agree with my colleagues on that. I share the belief that some of the programs intended to assist distressed borrowers do not help enough people. But is that an argument to just end the programs? You know people need help. The programs aren't effective. Just say, well, we are going to end the program. How does that help people stay in their homes? It doesn't.

I submit that the fundamental problem with these programs is they depended on the voluntary participation of the very banks and service that is created the housing crisis in the first place. So the programs are set up where you need the banks to participate, banks don't want to participate or they slow walk the applications and before you know it people are just left in a desperate strait where their homes are being lost.

Now, when the banks were in trouble, taxpayer assistance was rushed forward. I voted against the bailouts. Now that the banks have emerged from a crisis, unfortunately our friends in the majority are determined to dismantle the few legal efforts that are there to preserve and protect homeowners.

We should be reforming these programs, not dismantling them. If the House approves the bill before us today, H.R. 836, Congress will be turning its back on people whose lives have been wrecked by a crisis created by irresponsible banking practices.

So, I'm urging a No vote on the bill, Madam Chair, but I also hope that we take a very cold and sober look at what we are doing here. We are attacking the very victims of this housing crisis. We are giving comfort to those who created the crisis.

Watch It:

Priorities will promote prosperity for all, fight against anti-middle class agenda

COLUMBUS - House Democrats today outlined a "Compact with the Middle Class" to promote economic prosperity for all and stand up for a strong middle class. Led by House Minority Leader Armond Budish (D-Beachwood), Democrats say various GOP proposals aimed at wage earners and working families demonstrate a very clear anti-middle class agenda in Columbus.

"Our focus must be on creating economic opportunity for all, not stripping away workers' rights and turning over the keys of Ohio's Treasury to out-of-state interests," said Leader Budish.  "The GOP's partisan attacks on wage earners and middle class families won't create jobs and they certainly won't improve our economy."

The "Compact with the Middle Class" is a combination of principles and legislative initiatives outlined by House Democrats.  It includes 10 core principles that will strengthen middle class families, protect local communities and promote economic opportunity for all.  It was also developed as a result of several legislative initiatives that adversely impact middle class Ohioans, such as House Bill 61 and Senate Bill 5.

Budish also noted that Gov. Kasich's top priority to privatize the Department of Development included none of the suggestions from House Democrats to ensure that taxpayer money was safeguarded.  Instead, House Bill 1 gives a private board of CEO's the ability to give millions in tax dollars to other businesses with limited oversight and accountability to Ohio taxpayers, and exempt from Ohio's long-standing ethics laws.

"Opening Ohio for business can't simply mean giving special interests a free run at Ohio's tax dollars and state resources," said Leader Budish.  "We have to make sure that our economic recovery protects middle-class taxpayers and promotes economic opportunity for all."

With few protections for hourly employees, House Bill 61 would let businesses offer hour-for-hour compensation time and could lead to the elimination of time-and-half overtime pay.   Senate Bill 5 is a controversial proposal that would eliminate the fair balance in bargaining between management and employees, and criminalize the right to strike.

"The GOP's anti-middle class agenda is a daisy chain for economic disaster," said Assistant Minority Leader Matt Szollosi (D-Toledo). "Firefighters, teachers, police officers and nurses spend their money in small businesses on Main Streets all across this state. Firing those individuals or severely cutting their wages will have dramatic impacts on local economies throughout Ohio."

The "Compact with the Middle Class" includes legislation (House Bill 44) that would free up access to credit for small businesses and help create jobs on Main Street. Additionally, House Bill 43 will allow for more capital investment so Ohio's small businesses can create jobs and continue to grow.

"Our priorities are to create economic opportunities for all Ohioans, not just a select few," said State Rep. Tracy Heard (D-Columbus). "Unfortunately, instead of focusing on economic recovery, Gov. Kasich and his allies in the legislature have begun a dangerous game of political payback that puts middle class Ohioans in the crosshairs."

Click here to send your message of Support to the Wisconsin 14!

For anyone who still thinks the inspiring actions in Wisconsin, Ohio and Indiana are just about public employees in those states, here's a moving dose of reality.

People in every walk of life and every part of the country -- even other countries -- are expressing heartfelt gratitude to the 14 Democratic state senators who left Wisconsin Feb. 17 rather than allow Gov. Scott Walker to pass a sham budget bill taking from state and local workers the right to bargain for good middle-class jobs.

Gov. Walker and state Republicans may be sending them $100-a-day fines and arrest warrants, but take a look at some Facebook and phone messages real people are sending the brave Wisconsin 14:

• "I've got 20 plus years in in Department of Corrections and I myself have walked through the halls of hell literally... I've dealt with escapes, fire, suicides, Jeffrey Dahmer... In my opinion, the 14 of you are clearly as big American heroes as those who are dying in the war overseas right now."
• "Today I will start tithing 1 percent every day of my daily income for your re-election campaigns!"
• "I was taught to either stand for something or fall for anything... Thank you for setting a great example!"
• "My parents in northern Illinois would be glad to feed you a home-cooked meal -- just drop me a note and I'll put you in touch."
• "History will look back on you not only as heroes of the American working class but also as patriots in the purest form as inspired by the founding fathers of this country."
• "Keep up the good work, and if you need $100 -- any one of you -- I am, definitely, willing to sacrifice Benjamin Franklin to keep you guys out of state until this situation is over."
• "As a social worker in Wisconsin barely able to pay my own bills on my income, I want to say Thank You to all of you... I see first-hand what happens when services are cut and people are unable to get the services they need--the stress, the homelessness, the inability to get mental health or health services in general and the revolving door of our horrible "justice" system. It's horrible. Please keep up the fight."
• "I have never taken a stand before but now I do, with all 14 of you!"
• "You are what democracy is all about!"

Click here to send your message of Support to the Wisconsin 14!

Cleveland Heights school teacher Tamar Gray speaks out on Ohio Senate Bill 5.

Watch It:

Rev. Jackson, founder and president of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, is one of America's foremost civil rights, religious and political figures. A longtime figure in the social justice movement, he was with Dr. Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. during his final march which was for sanitation workers in Memphis.

Rev. Jackson was in town last week both in support for Martha Harris and for the SB 5 protests and he dropped by ProgressOhio to record this brief message to all Ohioans and specifically to our public sector workers in their current struggle against SB 5.

Watch It:

Brown Hears from Teachers, Nurses, Firefighters, University Workers, and Faith Leaders on Efforts to Repeal Their Collective Bargaining Rights

COLUMBUS, OH -U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) received testimony today from working Ohioans to hear their thoughts about efforts that would repeal their collective bargaining rights. Brown was joined by teachers, nurses, firefighters, university workers, and faith leaders who are willing to share sacrifice in order to address the state's fiscal crisis but are not willing to cede their collective bargaining rights.

"Balancing our state's budget will require shared sacrifice. State leaders should be looking at the tough budget choices ahead, rather than engaging in a political attack on collective bargaining rights of teachers, fire fighters, and police officers," Brown said. "Let's instead work together and address a primary cause of our state's budget crisis: years of economic downturn and lost state revenue due in large part to trade agreements that shipped jobs overseas. Let's pursue real reform that promotes our state's competitiveness rather than ideological attacks aimed at dividing working people."

There are roughly 360,000 public sector workers in Ohio represented by 3,290 collective bargaining agreements. According to the Economic Policy Institute, on an annual basis, fulltime state and local workers and school employees are undercompensated by 6.0 percent in Ohio, in comparison with otherwise similar private?sector workers. Ohio's state and local governments and school districts pay college?educated workers 25 percent less in total compensation, on average, than private employers.

Brown released a 'Dear Colleague' letter he plans to send to his fellow U.S. Senators urging them to join him in visiting with public employees in their states and listening to their thoughts and concerns about efforts aimed at abolishing collective bargaining.

Full Text of the letter is below.

COLUMBUS - State Representative Sandra Williams (D-Cleveland) and other House Democratic members were joined at the Statehouse today by opponents of House Bill 61 (HB 61), legislation which will significantly impact workers' rights to receive overtime compensation.

"This bill is yet another example of excess force on working families," said Rep. Williams. "Anytime a worker in this state works over their regularly scheduled hours, they should be compensated, when applicable, at an overtime rate."

The bill permits private employers to give their employees compensatory time off rather than monetary overtime compensation. It also requires that compensatory time be accrued at a one hour to one hour ratio, unlike overtime which allows employees to receive one hour to 1.5 hours of pay. The bill also limits the total number of compensatory hours which can be accrued during a one year time period and can only be used at the discretion of the employer. Also, under the bill as written, employers would be required to let employees use compensatory time within a "reasonable" period from when it was earned unless it "disrupt[s] the operations of the employers."

"There is no guarantee workers will ever get their comp time until January of the next year, in effect an interest free loan," said Ed Foreman, an opponent of the bill who spoke at the Statehouse press conference. "In theory anything could be a disruption, and there is no provision for workers to do anything about this if it isn't. Also, there is no trust fund or escrow account, as we are talking hours, not money. Thousands of Ohio businesses go out of business or declare bankruptcy every year. Workers will lose their money. This is not a comp time bill, without safeguards it is a delay-pay bill."

Overtime is the most widely accepted method of compensating workers for extra time on the job. Changing the current system, without adequate safeguards for workers, could result in unfair practices and unjust treatment of workers.   Benefits such as workers' compensation, unemployment compensation, Social Security and pensions are all based on weekly or yearly earnings, not compensatory time.

"While I understand the need for creativity when trying to help small business grow, we can't lose sight of Ohio's middle class workers," said Travis Long, local grocery worker, member of UFCW Local 1059. "If an average person is living paycheck to paycheck, saving for his family's future and putting in more than a hard weeks work, what good are a couple of extra days off without extra dollars in compensation? HB61 is a bad deal for working families."    

Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) made the following statement yesterday after spending three and a half hours greeting workers and union members who gathered in 26 degree temperatures around the Ohio State Capitol -- where Kucinich served for two years as a State Senator 17 years ago -- to protect their right to organize. 

"This is a defining moment in the history of our state that will determine the rights of workers for years to come.  The hundreds of workers who I personally spoke to feel betrayed. The federal government has no hesitation to hand out billions to Wall Street, but when it comes to workers there is an effort in Ohio and other states to destroy the right to bargain collectively," said Kucinich.

"This is the beginning of a long and drawn out battle between state government's corporate philosophy and the workers," added Kucinich. "I am proud to stand on the side of the workers."

Watch Rep. Kucinich today on FOX News:

Attorney General Eric Holder today sent a letter to House Speaker John Boehner, after determining that Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act, "as applied to same-sex couples who are legally married under state law, violates the equal protection component of the Fifth Amendment."

The finding came after a review of the Act was conducted, prompted by recent lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of DOMA.

Read The Full Letter From The Attorney General Below:

Rev. Jesse Jackson Offers His Support To Protesters At The Statehouse Last Night

Columbus, OH - Rev. Jackson will join faith leaders, elected officials, union and community leaders for a rally at 11am at the Teamsters building at 555 E. Rich Street in downtown Columbus to fight back against SB 5, legislation that will weaken the middle class and put Ohio schools, safety, and communities in jeopardy.

The rally is being organized by the Citizens Betterment Committee (Pastor's Conference, IMA, Baptist Ministerial Alliance), Ohio Federation of Teachers, Ohio AFL-CIO, and ProgressOhio.

What: Rally For All Workers, Ours Schools, and Our Community

Who: Rev. Jesse Jackson
Faith leaders
Union leaders
Community leaders

When: Wednesday, February 23, 11AM

Where: Teamsters building
555 E. Rich Street
Columbus, OH 43215

Rev. Jesse Jackson, civil rights activist and international humanitarian, will be in Columbus on Wednesday, February 23 to Rally for All Workers, Our Schools, and Our Community.

Rev. Jackson, founder and president of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, is one of America's foremost civil rights, religious and political figures. A longtime figure in the social justice movement, he was with Dr. Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. during his final march which was for sanitation workers in Memphis.

On Wednesday he will be in Columbus to fight for Ohio's middle class and the sanitation workers, teachers, firefighters and other public workers that provide our communities vital services but are currently under attack by Ohio SB 5.

Join Rev. Jesse Jackson, Faith Leaders, Elected Officials, Union and Community Leaders
Wednesday, February 23 at 11am
Teamsters building
555 E. Rich Street
Columbus, OH 43215

We must join together and fight back against legislation that will weaken the middle class and put our schools, our safety and our communities in jeopardy!

Please join us and Rev. Jackson on Wednesday February 23rd at 11am.

Organized by the Citizens Betterment Committee (Pastor's Conference, IMA, Baptist Ministerial Alliance), Ohio Federation of Teachers, Ohio AFL-CIO, and ProgressOhio

A congressional proposal to cut $75 million from the Legal Services Corporation's (LSC) budget would decimate civil legal aid to low-income Americans at a time when it is most needed by the tens of millions suffering economic hardship.

The impact of the proposed reduction at the mid-point of a fiscal year would be devastating to the 136 nonprofit legal aid programs across the nation that receive funding from LSC. The proposed cut could result in the layoffs of at least 300 legal aid staff attorneys who help victims of domestic violence, keep families in their homes by averting unlawful foreclosures and evictions, help veterans and the disabled obtain benefits, protect the elderly and others from consumer fraud, and provide other services in civil cases. Programs would be forced to turn away cases except for those involving immediate issues of safety and security, and many programs serving rural areas would be forced to close offices.

Thursday, five former Attorneys General of Ohio wrote a letter to Speaker John Boehner and to the entire Ohio Delegation speaking out against the proposed cuts.

A copy of their letter is below:

This ruling against Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems could bring the foreclosure mills to a grinding halt.

From Bloomberg:

"Merscorp Inc., operator of the electronic-registration system that contains about half of all U.S. home mortgages, has no right to transfer the mortgages under its membership rules, a judge said...U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robert E. Grossman in Central Islip, New York, in a decision he said he knew would have a "significant impact," wrote that the membership rules of the company's Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, or MERS, don't make it an agent of the banks that own the mortgages..."

"MERS's theory that it can act as a 'common agent' for undisclosed principals is not supported by the law," Grossman wrote in a Feb. 10 opinion. "MERS did not have authority, as 'nominee' or agent, to assign the mortgage absent a showing that it was given specific written directions by its principal."

"MERS and its partners made the decision to create and operate under a business model that was designed in large part to avoid the requirements of the traditional mortgage-recording process," Grossman wrote. "The court does not accept the argument that because MERS may be involved with 50 percent of all residential mortgages in the country, that is reason enough for this court to turn a blind eye to the fact that this process does not comply with the law.

"An adverse ruling regarding MERS's authority to assign mortgages or act on behalf of its member/lenders could have a significant impact on MERS and upon the lenders which do business with MERS throughout the United States," Grossman wrote. "It is up to the legislative branch, if it chooses, to amend the current statutes to confer upon MERS the requisite authority to assign mortgages under its current business practices."

"Without more, this court finds that MERS's 'nominee' status and the rights bestowed upon MERS within the mortgage itself, are insufficient to empower MERS to effectuate a valid assignment of mortgage," the judge wrote. "MERS's position that it can be both the mortgagee and an agent of the mortgagee is absurd, at best." (emphasis added)

Governor John Kasich stirs the passions of the Ohio black community by appointing an all-white cabinet.

Watch It:

Union members from around the country joined together for the 2011 AFL-CIO MLK Observance in Cincinnati, OH to keep Dr. King's dream alive.

Watch It:

"When the governor acknowledges them [gays] as a minority group, which they are not, you're also saying to them that their behavior is OK. And it's NOT OK to engage in this type of behavior when it's gonna cause you possibly to die from AIDS."

- Phil Burress, Citizens for Community Values

With those short sentences, Citizens for Community Values, a group that endorsed John Kasich for governor, proved that bigotry still exists in the public square. They oppose any protections for LGBT workers and made outrageous, inaccurate statements that played on radio stations across Ohio on Tuesday.

The irony is that Governor John Kasich has already found a way to deny state workers basic rights they had under Gov. Ted Strickland. Last week, Kasich signed a "non-discrimination" Executive Order and purposely removed 'Gender Identity' from the employment protections, despite promises that he would keep those protections during his campaign.

Sign the Petition and Stop Kasich's Civil Rights Rollback Today!

Governor Kasich has made his pro-discrimination stance clear to everyone but what about the professionals and public servants who deal with employment discrimination issues every day? Do they agree with John Kasich that all LGBT Ohioans don't deserve to be employed because of who they are?

Stand up for Equal Rights: Call on the Kasich Administration to stop rolling back protections for LGBT Ohioans.

Please take a moment to sign our petition to Felicia Godbolt,  Program Manager of the Equal Employment Office of Ohio the responsible party in employment discrimination issues, asking her to stand up for LGBT Ohioans and urge Governor Kasich to do the same.

We'll also send a copy of your comments to Governor Kasich and the head of the State Personnel Board of Review.

Don't let Governor Kasich rollback Civil Rights in Ohio:  Sign the Petition Today!

"When the governor acknowledges them [gays] as a minority group, which they are not, you're also saying to them that their behavior is OK. And it's NOT OK to engage in this type of behavior when it's gonna cause you possibly to die from AIDS."

 - Phil Burress, Citizens for Community Values

Citizens for Community Values, a group that endorsed John Kasich for Governor, proved that bigotry still exists in the public square. They oppose any protections for LGBT workers and made outrageous, inaccurate statements that played on radio stations across Ohio yesterday.

The irony is that John Kasich's already found a way to deny state workers basic rights they had under Gov. Ted Strickland. Kasich went out of his way to make sure that discrimination based on gender identity is no longer barred, even going back on a promise to do so.

Stand up for Equal Rights: Sign the Petition and call on Kasich to stop rolling back protections for LGBT Ohioans.

State Representative Denise Driehaus (D-Cincinnati) stated  "I was disappointed to hear the comments of Mr. Burress, President of Citizens for Community Values.  Mr. Burress may want to perpetuate a climate that discriminates against certain citizens of the state, but I, for one, think our message should be one of inclusiveness.  These comments prove that discrimination and bigotry still exist for the LGBT community in Ohio and we need strong protections in all levels of government.  We call on Kasich to condemn these statements and keep his promise to the LGBT community to protect their rights."

If you agree, please take a moment to contact the person in charge of Ohio's Equal Employment Opportunity program and encourage her to fight against Kasich's civil rights rollbacks.  We'll also send a copy of your comments to John Kasich and the head of the State Personnel Board of Review.

As the country commemorates Martin Luther King Day and reflects on Tucson, The Daily Beast crunches the numbers to rank the tolerances of every state across America.

In the four-plus decades since Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated, America has surely moved closer to a country where people are judged more by content of their character than the color of their skin--or their gender, religion or sexual orientation. In honor of today's national holiday, and mindful of the debate fostered by the massacre in Tucson nine days ago, The Daily Beast sought to examine which states are the most tolerant, devising a thorough point system that measures each state's residents based on their actions and opinions, as well the scope of state laws guaranteeing equal rights and protections, which reflects the broader political will.

Ohio ranked as the 46th least tolerant state, 3 below Arizona:

46, Ohio
Tolerance score: 40 out of 100
Hate crime score: 15 out of 40
Discrimination score: 16 out of 40
Gay rights score: 1 out of 10
Religious Tolerance score: 8 out of 10
Hate crime incidents per 100,000 residents:: 3.1 (33 out of 50 states)
Discrimination cases filed per 100,000 residents:: 24.2 (44 out of 50 states)
Population in support of same-sex marriage:: 45%
Population that believes many religions lead to eternal life:: 76%

Gov. Kasich seems to be in a rush to take us to 50th.

The Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) has issued the 2009 Hate Crimes Statistics Report.

According to The Associated Press:

"The number of hate crime incidents and victims declined in 2009 compared with the previous year, the FBI reported Monday.

"...Nearly half of the crime incidents in 2009 were motivated by racial bias, nearly 20 percent by religious bias and over 18 percent by sexual orientation bias.

"More than half the reported hate crimes against individual people were assaults, said the FBI. One out of a hundred hate crimes involved murder or rape.

"There were 6,604 hate crime incidents reported last year, down from 7,783 in 2008. There were 8,336 reported victims, down from 9,691 in 2008. The victim totals include not only individuals but also businesses, religious buildings and other institutions.

"The year-to-year figures in the FBI reports for 2009 and 2008 are not exactly comparable because the number of law enforcement agencies providing data to the bureau on hate crime went up last year to more than 14,000, compared to 13,690 in 2008. Nearly 4,000 police jurisdictions do not participate in the program, said the group Human Rights First.

"The Anti-Defamation League welcomed a substantial drop in the number of hate crimes in the latest report but expressed disappointment that more than 60 cities with over 100,000 populations each did not participate in the study.

"...In a separate study, the Southern Poverty Law Center reported that homosexuals are far more likely to be victims of violent hate crime than any other minority group.

"Timing the release of its study to coincide with the latest FBI report on hate crimes, the nonprofit center said it based its conclusion on 14 years of FBI hate crime data covering 1995-2008. The center said that homosexuals, or those perceived to be gay, are more than twice as likely to be attacked in a violent hate crime as Jews or blacks; more than four times as likely as Muslims; and 14 times as likely as Latinos."

Get Informed. Get Involved. Give a Damn!

(LIMA, Ohio) -- Many Lima residents are familiar with the sight of Michael Muhammad sitting in front of the local post office soliciting donations to assist veterans. Today, Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray filed a lawsuit in Allen County seeking to shut down Muhammad's nonprofit organizations and the homeless shelter he claims to operate for the benefit of veterans.

"This is a bad situation on several levels," said Attorney General Cordray. "The conditions inside this home are appalling and hazardous to the residents. Standing water in the basement, exposed electrical wires, rotting carpet, unsafe bathroom facilities and roaches, mice and rats - the place is a mess and we need to shut it down."

Cordray also said the public has been misled about how donations to these organizations are being spent. "We have determined that the funds being raised under the promise of helping veterans are in fact being used by the defendants to pay personal bills and expenses."

Muhammad operates two nonprofit corporations, Help Homeless Veterans Inc. and Veterans Hope Community House Inc., according to a lawsuit filed by the Attorney General.  Together with co-defendants Grover Holstein and Melvin Phipps, Muhammad has solicited donations from the public at several locations in Lima, Kenton and Ada.

Social Security, Medicare Cuts Would Hurt Current and Future Retirees

"The co-chairs of the Commission on Federal Fiscal Responsibility walked in the room with a preconceived notion that Older Americans ought to bear the cost of the federal fiscal mess. The Commission's recommendations turn a blind eye toward tax cuts for millionaires, and borrowing from the Social Security Trust Fund and instead choose to callously make workers and retirees pay the price for our nation's badly flawed tax and spending policies.

The irony is that by aggressively targeting retirees and seniors, the Commission is going after one of America's greatest success stories, Social Security that its members and even co-chairs admit has not contributed a single penny to our budget deficit.

"Increasing the Social Security retirement age to 69 and reducing monthly benefits would be devastating for current and future retirees. Today's workers would have to stay on the job longer, only to receive lower benefits when they retire. This would cause far more pain for blue collar and service sector workers on Main Street than it would for speculators on Wall Street. The proposal surfaced is built on assumptions to satisfy a perceived need to placate the financial services community that got theirs.

"The Commission's proposed cuts to Medicare, including long-term care, would further hurt retirees who will enter their retirement years later and in worse economic and physical health.

"Retirees know that it is not what you say, it is what you do. Since Commission members of all ideologies acknowledged this week that Social Security does not add to the deficit, why are these callous, draconian cuts the centerpiece of the Commission's recommendations?

"Ohio's retirees want to lower the deficit. They do not want a large debt to be the legacy they leave behind to their children and grandchildren. But the Commission recommendation, forcing younger workers to work longer for less, is the wrong way to go about it. The members of Ohio Alliance for Retired Americans urge the Congress to reject these recommendations when they are presented to this Congress and the next."

Call your Senators RIGHT NOW at 1-866-529-7630!

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Last evening, U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) delivered the first "It Gets Better" address from the Senate floor.

The "It Gets Better Project" was started this fall in response to the loss of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) teenagers driven to suicide because of bullying.

"No parent should have to bury a child.  No child should ever feel so hopeless and alone that suicide seems like his or her only escape," Brown said on the Senate floor.

"But the rash of highly publicized suicides of LGBT students not only highlights a national epidemic of bullying that these students face.  It also reminds us that we all - as adults, as clergy, as educators, or as peers of these students - have a role to play in preventing discrimination."

Public surveys indicate that 80 percent of LGBT students report regular harassment by fellow students - a rate three times that of their heterosexual peers.

The full text of Sen. Brown's floor speech, as prepared for delivery, is available here.

Senate Bill 235 goes to House of Representatives

Columbus - State Senator Teresa Fedor (D-Toledo) is pleased to announce that the Ohio Senate unanimously passed Senate Bill 235 today.  The bill, jointly sponsored by Senators Fedor and Tim Grendell (R-Chesterland), makes Human Trafficking a stand-alone felony in Ohio.
 
"Today's victory is the result of five years of work," Senator Fedor said.  "In 2005, we were first awakened to the width and breadth of human trafficking in Ohio when more than 30 minors from Toledo were caught in a prostitution ring.
 
"For years, we as legislators have worked with key people from across the State to gather data, identify sources of the problem and to draft legislation to combat it."

Today, Obama Administration officials and leaders in the AIDS community will speak at a World AIDS Day event at the White House to reflect on the lessons learned and the path forward in the fight against HIV and AIDS in the United States and around the world.

The President's Message Commemorating World AIDS Day:

The Senate unanimously approved a bill on Friday funding $1.15 billion in compensation to black farmers in a decades-old bias lawsuit that is one of the largest civil rights settlements in U.S. history.

The Pigford v. Glickman case was settled in 1999 and provided that qualified farmers could receive $50,000 each to settle claims they were denied farm loans or subjected to longer waits for loan approval because of racism.

But tens of thousands of farmers missed the filing deadline. The settlement in Pigford II, reached in February, allowed those farmers to pursue their claims. The lawsuit was named for North Carolina farmer Timothy Pigford.

The Senate bill, totaling $4.6 billion, includes compensation for American Indians in a class-action lawsuit against the Interior Department over the mismanagement of Indian trust fund accounts.

"This is a huge, huge victory for myself and black farmers, many of whom have died waiting for justice," said John Boyd of the National Black Farmers Association. "I have been working on this thing for 26 years. I've been hearing 'no' for so very long."

The measure must still be approved by the House of Representatives before the end of the "lame-duck" session of the outgoing Congress.

Unemployment insurance benefits to individuals who have been out of work for at least six months will expire on November 30. Congress should extend these benefits because they pump demand into the economy and help unemployed workers and their families. Congress should also commit to this policy until the unemployment rate comes back down. This is a far better way to help our economy and our workers recover from the Great Recession than to ask the American people to borrow $830 billion to give tax breaks to the richest 2 percent of Americans.

The need for these benefits continues even though the recession is officially over. Jobs are still hard to find, and nearly 15 million Americans remain unemployed. Four in 10 of those are long-term unemployed, meaning they've been out of work and searching for a job for at least six months.

These individuals exhaust regular unemployment insurance benefits, which they can receive for up to 26 weeks through their state unemployment insurance program. Due to prolonged joblessness in the recession, Congress implemented full federal funding for Extended Benefits in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act that provide between 13 and 20 additional weeks of unemployment benefits to the long-term unemployed. It expires at the end of the month.

Watch It:

Let me begin by letting you in on a secret:  We Americans used to care about each other--and... we used to share.  Shhhh!  Among other things, our great-grandparents used to share food, barn-raising, and two-holers.

More recently, Americans have shared bathrooms (nine of us shared one)--even telephones ("party lines"), and difficult as it may be to imagine: Televisions... Within a family and among families: one to a family, somehow.

Mom was no Commie, despite her insisting through the McCarthy years that we all "Share and share alike".  As some of  you may know, a movie got blacklisted in the late 1940's for the line:  "Share and share alike; that's democracy."

I still prefer Mom's way--of course, I do still have a heart, and I think people should come before both profits (with an "f") and prophets (with a "ph").

Which brings me to my main topic: HOW I came to be the guy you may know as "the guy with Parkinson's who sat down in front of some T-party members, and got some ugly treatment in return."

Today, an Ohio-based group called Citizens for Community Values issued an "Action Alert," urging its supporters in Bowling Green, Ohio to take to the polls on November 2nd to protect their children. Unlike many of the other conservative calls to action we've seen this election cycle, CCV isn't concerned about the impact of rising debt on their children or any of the other causes célèbre Republicans are tying to future generations of Americans nowadays. No, CCV is concerned about men in dresses.

That's right -- men in dresses scaring little girls in public restrooms.

Citizens for Community Values' President Phil Burress lays out this nightmare scenario in the group's "Action Alert":

Sodexo workers on strike in Columbus want their employer and the public to understand the effects that poverty-wage jobs can have on local communities. So this week, they took to the streets of their own neighborhoods to show an audience of supporters and local leaders the results of working for companies like Sodexo.

In the Hilltop and Bottoms neighborhoods where many Sodexo workers live, residents say they have seen crime and foreclosure rates skyrocket as good jobs in the area disappeared and were replaced with low-wage service sector jobs.

The bus tour started out at the site of the now-demolished General Motors factory and continued to the homes of Sodxeo workers like Marcia Snell and Sandy Dailey in the west side neighborhoods of Columbus.

Walkout comes days after Crew Stadium concessions workers strike

Columbus, OH--Ohio State fans who flooded the Horseshoe to watch the Buckeyes take on the Hoosiers on Saturday witnessed dozens of striking Sodexo food service workers marching into the stadium. They walked off of the job protesting Sodexo's illegal retaliation in response to their attempts to raise wages and gain access to affordable health insurance by forming a union.

Recently, Sodexo denied hours to some employees at OSU who showed support for forming a union. During football season, Sodexo workers at OSU work up to 18 hours a day preparing and serving food during games. However, because the Shoe is closed over the summer months, these workers depend on working hours at other locations where Sodexo serves food--like Crew Stadium--to get by during the summer.

"I've worked at Crew Stadium every summer for the last five years," says Marcia Snell, who works for Sodexo at OSU preparing food and stocking stands, "Now this summer I'm not getting hours at Crew. Neither are the other union activists. I need that income just to keep my electricity on."

Despite making more than a billion dollars profit in 2009, France-based Sodexo pays its workers in the United States as little as $7.50 an hour--just 25 cents above the minimum wage--and does not offer affordable healthcare options to its employees; two-thirds of Sodexo's non-managerial employees in the United States are not covered by health insurance offered by the company.

OSU's Sodexo workers began organizing 10 months ago in an attempt to raise wages and gain access to affordable health care. Many of the food service workers at Ohio State are paid so little that they qualify for food stamps and most have no health insurance.

Today's strike in protest of Sodexo's unlawful retaliation comes a week after Sodexo workers at Crew stadium walked off the job during the San Jose Earthquakes soccer game. Workers at Crew were also striking to protest Sodexo's retaliation against workers for organizing.

This action is part of a national workers movement where workers at Morehouse College, Highland Park school district and Tulane University have all gone on strike over similar cases of retaliation, interrogation and threats by management. More at http://cleanupsodexo.org.

Public Statements Reveal Truth: Gibbs Wants to Privatize Social Security and Raise Retirement Age

Bob Gibbs' still sinking campaign this week suffered another setback when the Pulitzer Prize winning website Politifact.com caught him engaging in a cover-up scheme intended to hide his true position on Social Security. 

After numerous statements to the contrary, near the end of August, Gibbs quietly slipped a new section "reaffirming his commitment to Social Security" onto the "Issues" page of his campaign website.  However, while he attempts to provide himself with political cover for his radical positions, his record and multiple public statements reveal his true intentions.

Bob Gibbs' Social Security position somersaults from website to public statements to campaign lines

COLUMBUS, Ohio - October 4, 2010 - Kasich "will risk everything we've earned" says a new AFL-CIO mail piece going out union retiree households across the state today.  The mailer features a message from union retirees Norma and Jim Schlosser who are not supporting gubernatorial candidate John Kasich because of his support of Social Security privatization and involvement in pushing deals, while at Lehman Brothers, that cost Ohio pension funds $480 million.

The mailer is one of three AFL-CIO mailings on the Governor's race.  The other pieces include a comparison piece that details Governor Strickland support for prevailing wage laws and opposition to Social Security privatization and trade deals that outsourced jobs, issues that Kasich has a record of supporting. 

The final mailer highlights Governor Strickland's strong record on sportsmen rights.  Strickland voted against the Clinton Gun Ban and has received the endorsement of the National Rifle Association (NRA).  John Kasich voted for the Clinton Gun Ban and received an "F" rating from the NRA.

The mailers are part the Ohio Labor 2010 program and a nationwide mail effort by the AFL-CIO that hits 3 million union members' mailboxes this week.

The Ohio Labor 2010 program is mobilizing union volunteers across Ohio to educate tens of thousands of workers each week about their choice in the mid-term elections.  The program - launched by the Ohio AFL-CIO and participating unions in July - is the largest voter mobilization efforts in the state, reaching union households daily through telephone, direct mail, door-to-door walks, and worksite leafleting. 

The Ohio AFL-CIO represents 650,000 workers from 1,600 local unions across Ohio to fight for working families, brings economic justice to the workplace, and to achieve social justice for all Ohioans.

This must be a first. Congressional Republicans are complaining that Democrats are calling them out for what they stand for: a party that wants to privatize Social Security and hand it over to Wall Street and end Medicare as we know. In fact, privatizing Social Security and ending Medicare as we know it are two pillars of Mr. Ryan's own alternative budget proposal the "Roadmap for America's Future." From the Washington Post:

Some GOP lawmakers also have endorsed Ryan's alternative budget plan, which would wipe out deficits in part by privatizing Social Security and replacing traditional Medicare benefits with an insurance voucher for people age 55 and older.

The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office analyzed the Ryan-GOP plan:

Traditional retirement benefits would be reduced below those scheduled under current law for many workers who are age 55 or younger in 2011...

And Mr. Ryan recently reiterated the GOP plan to privatize Social Security in his joint literary endeavor, "Young Guns," written with House Republican Whip Eric Cantor and House Republican Chief Deputy Whip Kevin McCarthy.

American workers and their families know the GOP wants to take Social Security and turn it from a guaranteed benefit to a guaranteed gamble. No matter how hard they try, Congressional Republicans can't hide from their own words.

Sodexo workers employed at Ohio State University have voted to authorize a strike after feeling threatened by the company during their efforts to organize.

As The Columbus Dispatch reports, Sodexo employs 24 full-time workers and 100 people seasonally, mostly behind the scenes at Ohio Stadium working concessions and preparing food. After organizing for several months, full-time and seasonal employees at Ohio State, Crew Stadium, Huntington Park and Ohio Dominican University voted to strike if necessary after dealing with threats from their employer.

Sodexo faced complaints from the federal government's labor relations agency for interfering with and coercing workers in Columbus, Ohio over protected union activity. Sodexo recently settled with the government after a formal complaint was issued alledging that Sodexo Human Resources Director Elaine Stewart met with workers at Ohio State and "threatened" that they could not work at other Sodexo sites if they joined a union. And at the Schottenstein Center, home to Ohio State's basketball and hockey teams, Chef Adams Dawkins "threatened" that employees who ordinarily received complimentary food would no longer receive it if they joined a union.

U.S. Senators Kay R. Hagan (D-NC), Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) and Mary Landrieu (D-LA) today are introducing a bill to fund the $1.15 billion settlement that black farmers reached with Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack in February.

"We want to ensure black farmers in our country finally receive the justice they deserve," said Hagan. "More than 4,000 African American farmers in North Carolina and over 75,000 nationwide have been discriminated against and denied just compensation for decades. Today, I join with my colleagues from Arkansas and Louisiana, Senators Lincoln and Landrieu, to introduce a bill to fund the settlement once and for all, and we are working to send this language to the President."

Hagan announced the bill today with Lincoln, the Chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee. They joined John Boyd, President of the National Black Farmers Association, Congressional Black Caucus Chair Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA), and Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-TX) who also spoke at the press conference. The bill would ensure that African American farmers who were unfairly discriminated against by the U.S. Department of Agriculture when applying for loans, credit and other forms of financial help, will receive the settlement to which they are entitled. Congress has thus far failed to appropriate the funding.

"The time is long overdue to fund the discrimination settlement for African American farmers who have experienced decades of injustice," said Lincoln. "All farmers should receive equal access and treatment in the delivery of USDA's programs and services and we must finally close this chapter of discrimination within USDA. While funding this settlement will not erase the anxiety and frustrations so many hard-working farmers experienced, it will help compensate their financial losses and finally begin laying the foundation in restoring their faith in the United States government."

"This injustice has gone on for far too long," said Landrieu. "The U.S. Congress needs to make this right and the reality is that we are running out of options. That is why Senator Hagan, Senator Lincoln and I have introduced a stand alone bill today. We will try to attach this bill to any moving legislative vehicle in the Senate. But if the political environment is such that no bill is moving, Senate Leadership will need to call up this stand alone bill and debate it on its merits. I think that Senate Leadership is going to need to take a good, long look at that option."

More than 4,000 African-American farmers in North Carolina and 75,000 across the nation are waiting for Congress to appropriate the $1.15 billion settlement. Since Hagan came to the Senate, she and Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) have worked together to bring justice to black farmers across the country.

WASHINGTON, D.C. - As the federal Social Security program marks its 75^th year, U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) today held a news conference call to detail how Social Security provides critical support to millions of Ohio seniors, families, and individuals with disabilities. On the call, Brown was joined by Brian Rothenberg, executive director of ProgressOhio, to detail key points of a new report, prepared by Strengthen Social Security. The report outlines how Social Security keeps thousands of Ohioans out of poverty and also provides critical life and disability insurance protection to millions of Ohio's children.

"Simply put, Social Security helped build and helps sustains our nation's middle class. Workers and employers make dedicated contributions so that Americans can retire with some financial security and be protected against lost wages due to death or disability," Brown said. "In Ohio, more than two million residents - one out of every six Ohioans - receives Social Security benefits. Those benefits help lift approximately 779,000 Ohioans out of poverty. And while Social Security will remain solvent for the next 30 years, we must do everything we can to protect this vital safety net for millions of Americans. That means protecting it against privatization schemes that could gamble away the retirement security of American seniors. And it means keeping the current eligibility age intact so that all Ohioans - whether they work in a desk job or a factory - can retire with security."

"This shows that many of Ohio's retired workers and their families depend on social security to supplement their incomes. We need to strengthen Social Security, not cut it, or do other things that compromise it such as rising the retirement age or privatizing it. Ohioans who work hard all their lives need to know the promise of Social Security will continue to be there. Social Security is the one promise we cannot allow some in Washington to break," said Brian Rothenberg, executive director of ProgressOhio.

Several of the report's key findings follow:

Today US Senator Sherrod Brown joined ProgressOhio on a press conference call to discuss a report by Social Security Works and Strengthen Social Security that details the economic benefits social security has for Ohio's women, retired workers, and economy. Sen. Brown is among the first to sign on to a resolution currently being circulated through the US Senate that advocates for preserving social security by not raising the retirement age, privatizing the program, or cutting benefits.

You can see a breakdown of social security benefits in Ohio by county here.

This would grant temporary residency to applicants between the ages of 12 and 35 who entered this country when they were 16 or younger. They would have to have lived here five years and be of good character.

An estimated half-million California youngsters, 250,000 from Texas and 192,000 from Florida could benefit from this bill.

They are unable to work legally and don't qualify for in-state college tuition rates.

They are in limbo by no fault of their own. They are often too Americanized to successfully re-integrate into their home country.

In a Sunday morning TV talk show, Gen. Colin Powell urged Republicans to support the DREAM Act. All 39 of the DREAM Act's current co-sponsors are Democrats. Republicans who backed the bill in the past, including Sens. Orrin Hatch of Utah and John McCain of Arizona, oppose it now.

1. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was her idea.

Here's why she thinks this agency is so critical: "It is impossible to buy a toaster that has a one-in-five chance of bursting into flames and burning down your house. But it is possible to refinance your home with a mortgage that has the same one-in-five chance of putting your family out on the street."

2. The Republicans are so scared of her, they tried to pass a law blocking her from leading the agency.

Republicans in Congress and the big Wall Street banks have always been against Warren leading the new consumer agency. Republicans even offered an amendment that was widely understood as designed to block Warren. That amendment failed.

3. She is one of the most prominent, successful and fierce female lawyers in America.

Coming from working-class roots, she graduated from high school as a debate star at 16. She finished law school when she was nine months pregnant. And she has repeatedly been named one of the fifty most influential female lawyers by the National Law Journal and was twice nominated as one of Time Magazines 100 Most Influential People (among other honors).

4. She spoke truth to power about the failed foreclosure program.

The Home Affordability Modification Program was supposed to save homeowners from losing their homes but has left many deeper in debt than they were before. Warren used her position on the Congressional Oversight panel to bring the voices of these disaffected homeowners right to the decision makers in the administration and demand accountability.

5. She may have actual superpowers.

She once calmed the entire crowd of an NBA game with her encyclopedic basketball knowledge. She explained the financial meltdown so clearly to Jon Stewart he said it made him "want to make out with" with her. And there's a viral rap video about her.

Democrats plan to mark the 75th anniversary of Social Security this weekend by attacking Republicans' plans to change the long-standing entitlement program.

Democrats will play up Republicans' calls to privatize part or all of Social Security, which Democrats allege is a cornerstone of the GOP approach to the program.

The efforts on Friday will cap off the second of six theme weeks Democrats have maintained as part of their summer recess strategy. The Obama administration and Democratic leaders in Congress are expected to join with outside groups and party committees to go after the GOP.

To that effect, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) released a new web video celebrating the anniversary of Social Security, and will host a call with party Chairman Tim Kaine and James Roosevelt, the grandson of President Franklin Roosevelt, who created the program, to hammer away at Republicans.

DNC Communications Director Brad Woodhouse framed the effort as a key element of the party's midterm messaging.

"From Sharron Angle to Rand Paul and from Paul Ryan to John Boehner -- Republicans are talking about either phasing out Social Security entirely or making such radical changes to it as to dismantle and make it unrecognizable to the successful program it has been for 75 years," he said.

Watch It:

A federal judge in California ruled on Thursday to lift the temporary stay in the case that overturned the state's ban on same-sex marriage. The decision is scheduled to go into effect on August 18, from which date same-sex couples would be allowed to marry in California.

Read the ruling in its entirety here [pdf]

In one of the saddest and most shocking things we've heard in a long time, an Arizona elementary school decided to change a mural to depict whiter children after a Republican city councilman complained that a black child was displayed too prominently in a "Go Green" mural.

Thankfully, the school has now rethought the decision, and the mural which depicts actual students at the school will remain as is.

Watch It:

Show Your Support For Reforming US Immigration Policies This Thursday

Members of SEIU District 1199 WV/KY/OH join in rousing renditions of "This Little Light of Mine" and "Solidarity Forever" at their 2010 Leadership Assembly in Ft. Mitchell, Ky.

Watch It:

Columbus, OH – Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner today released the following statement on the passing of Dr. Dorothy Height:

Today, I join the nation in mourning the loss of a true American legend, pioneer, and civil rights leader, Dr. Dorothy I. Height.  I am deeply saddened to learn of the passing of this civil and women’s rights giant.  Recognizing the interconnectedness of the struggle for women’s rights and the struggle for civil rights in 1944, Dr. Height joined the national staff of the YWCA.  She served as President of the National Council of Negro Women for 40 years, which was widely acclaimed as “the female voice” of the civil rights movement.  For 10 years, she served as National President of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. where she developed leadership training programs and interracial and ecumenical education programs.

Serving as an advisor to Presidents from Eisenhower to Obama, she impacted national public policy ranging from desegregation of schools under Eisenhower to the appointment of African American women to government positions under Lyndon Johnson, to health care reform under President Obama. In 1993, Dr. Height was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame, received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1994, and in 2004, she was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal by President George W. Bush on behalf of the United States.

Americans owe a debt of gratitude to Dr. Height for her visionary leadership to make America better for everyone.  Dr. Dorothy I. Height was a scholar, tireless activist, and pioneer for women’s and civil rights and though her presence will be missed, her impact will be felt for generations to come. 

Gil Smart says the video of anti-reform demonstrators mocking a Parkinson's victim is a perfect window into the twisted soul of teabag nation.

Watch It:

Rosa Parks, Rosa Louise McCauley (February 4, 1913 – October 24, 2005), African American civil rights activist is often called the Mother of the Civil Rights Movement.

Her arrest for refusing to give up her seat on a bus triggered the Montgomery bus boycott of 1955 and 1956 and set in motion the test case for the desegregation of public transportation.

The segregated seating policies on public buses had long been a source of resentment within the black community in Montgomery and in other cities throughout the Deep South. African Americans were required to pay their fares at the front of the bus and then to reboard through the back door. The white bus drivers, who were invested with police powers, frequently harassed blacks, sometimes driving away before African American passengers were able to get back on the bus. During peak hours, the drivers pushed back the boundary markers that segregated the bus, crowding those in the “colored section” to provide more whites with seats.

On December 1, 1955, in Montgomery, Alabama, Rosa Parks was arrested for disregarding an order to surrender her bus seat to a white passenger. Her protest galvanized a growing movement to desegregate public transportation and marked a historic turning point in the African American battle for civil rights. Rosa Parks was much more than an accidental symbol, however. It is sometimes overlooked that at the time of her arrest, she was no ordinary bus rider; she was an experienced activist with strong beliefs.

Although three black women had been arrested earlier that year for similar acts of defiance, and Rosa Parks herself had been thrown off a bus by the same driver 12 years before, this time the opponents of segregation were prepared to mount a counterattack. The Montgomery chapter of the NAACP had been looking for a test case to challenge the legality of segregated bus seating and to woo public opinion with a series of protests.

The morning after her arrest, Rosa Parks agreed to let the NAACP take on her case. Another organization, the Women's Political Council (WPC), led by JoAnn Robinson, initiated the idea of a one-day bus boycott. Within 24 hours of Rosa Parks's defiance, the WPC had distributed more than 52,000 fliers announcing the bus boycott, which was to take place the day of Rosa Parks's trial. On December 5, as buses went through their routes almost empty, Rosa Parks was convicted by the local court. She refused to pay the fine of $14, and with the help of her lawyer, Ed D. Gray, she appealed to the circuit court.

Rosa Parks was widely known as the Mother of the Civil Rights Movement, but her iconic stature afforded her little financial security. She lost her job as a seamstress at Montgomery Fair and was unable to find other work in Montgomery. Rosa Parks and her husband relocated to Detroit, Michigan, in 1957, where they struggled financially for the next eight years. Rosa Parks's fortunes improved somewhat in 1965, when U.S. congressional representative John F. Conyers Jr. hired her as an administrative assistant, a position she held until 1987..

Rosa remained a committed activist. In the 1980s she worked in support of the South African antiapartheid movement, and in Detroit in 1987 she founded the Rosa and Raymond Rosa Parks Institute for Self-Development, a career counseling center for black youth.

She received numerous awards and tributes during her life, including the NAACP's highest honor, the Spingarn Medal, in 1970 and the prestigious Martin Luther King, Jr. Award in 1980. Cleveland Avenue in the city of Montgomery was renamed Rosa Rosa Parks Boulevard in 1965. In 1996 U.S. president Bill Clinton awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest honor that the U.S. government can give to a civilian.

A friend once described Rosa Parks as someone who, as a rule, did not defy authority, but once determined on a course of action, refused to back down: "She might ignore you, go around you, but never retreat.

Rosa died on October 24, 2005, but the act of her civil disobedience on that bus in 1955 changed our nation forever.

One year ago today, the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act became the first major act of Congress signed into law by President Barack Obama.

The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act restored employees rights to challenge pay discrimination. In the year since the law took effect, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission reviewed over 1,100 cases where people were denied wage compensation, and some 4,800 charges alleging wage discrimination were filed with the Commission. Numerous court cases have cited the law in an effort to win compensation for back-earnings. 

Watch It:

Women are still treated unfairly in the workplace. Wage disparity persists, and women still earn, on average, only 77 cents for every dollar earned by men. If the wage gap was eliminated, annual family incomes would increase by $4,000--and the poverty rate would be cut in half. Paycheck fairness for our country's working women would in of itself act as an economic stimulus package.

For all of these reasons (and more), we must strengthen laws against wage discrimination. But don't just take my word for it --hear what Lilly Ledbetter herself thinks we can do to keep women in the workforce from being discriminated against:

"We need to pass the Paycheck Fairness Act....The bill would empower women to negotiate for equal pay, create stronger incentives for employers to follow the law, and strengthen federal outreach and enforcement efforts. It would also strengthen penalties for equal pay violations.

[...] "One of the most important aspects of the Paycheck Fairness Act is a provision that would prohibit retaliation against workers who ask about employers' wage practices or disclose their own wages to co-workers. This would have been particularly helpful to me, because Goodyear prohibited my colleagues and me from talking about our wages. This policy delayed my discovery of the pay inequities between my male counterparts and me by -- literally -- decades."

It's high past the time for women to have the same rights, the same opportunities and the same freedom to pursue their dreams as men do. If we don't get this legislation passed, our daughters could end up having to fight for fair treatment and pay in the workplace--just like their mothers and grandmothers.

The Paycheck Fairness Act is now pending in the Senate.  Senator Sherrod Brown  is a co-sponsor of the Paycheck Fairness Act (S. 182).  Take action now and tell George Voinovich to support the Paycheck Fairness Act.

Received via email from our friends at Americans United For Change:

What happened in Massachusetts yesterday is a call to action, not a cause for retreat.

The people of Massachusetts voted for change and they are frustrated with the seeming lack thereof. They are hurting and they have not yet seen Congress come forward to ease their pain, punish those who caused this crisis or make sure it cannot happen again.

Unfortunately, they picked the wrong side to blame. Regardless of how you feel about the way the health insurance reform effort has played out, it's important to note that most Democrats in Congress, and certainly the White House, supported swift, bold and effective change. The majority of Democrats in the Senate, for example, support the public health insurance option. But they couldn't get it done because the minority Republicans blocked an up-or-down vote.

When it comes to financial reform, the Obama Administration and Senate Banking Committee Chair Chris Dodd proposed strong legislation to reign in the abuses of the big banks that led to this mess in the first place. The banking committee's Republican leader, Senator Richard Shelby said "no way, no how, not ever."  

You get the idea: Lack of change is not for lack of trying on the part of the majority of congressional Democrats. But despite being the majority, the Republicans have blocked them from voting.

Scott Brown is only going to make it harder to do what we need to do in America - like clean up Wall Street and provide good, affordable health care for all. He has shown on the campaign trail that he will stand firmly with his Republican colleagues in favor of the Bush-era policies and politics that got us into this mess in the first place.

And if that doesn't scare you into fighting even harder, I don't know what will.

Call your member of Congress at 202-225-3121 or write your Senators and Members of Congress through our website.

Tell them to fight hard against Wall Street, the insurance companies and those elected officials who carry their water.

President Barack Obama chats with people as he gives out meals in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day during a volunteer work project at the So Others Might Eat dining room for the homeless in Washington January 18, 2010.

More Images Below:

Lawmakers and advocates want Ohio to do more to fight what they've described as modern-day slavery.

On Monday a conference at the Ohio Statehouse focused on human trafficking and ways to strengthen a year-old state law that increased sentences for crimes if human trafficking is involved.

State Sen. Teresa Fedor, D-Toledo, introduced the bill Gov. Ted Strickland signed last January and says she plans to offer a new measure to make human trafficking a stand-alone felony offense.

Fedor was joined by Attorney General Richard Cordray, US Attorneys Carter Stewart and Steve Dettelbach, State Representative Kathleen Chandler (D-Kent), State Senator Jim Hughes and Ambassador Mark Lagon from the Polaris Project.

Lagon said Ohio also needs to broaden its definition of human trafficking to include forced labor and not just people coerced into the sex trade. And, he said the state should offer more assistance to trafficking victims.

Watch It:

On January, 18, 2010, people of all ages and backgrounds will come together to improve lives, bridge social barriers, and to move our nation closer to the “Beloved Community” that Dr. King envisioned. Dr. Martin Luther King devoted his life’s work to causes of equality and social justice. He taught that through nonviolence and service to one another, problems such as hunger and homelessness, prejudice and discrimination can be overcome. Dr. King’s teachings can continue to guide us in addressing our nation’s most pressing needs---poverty, economic insecurity, job loss and education.

Volunteer with Americans across the nation on the 2010 King Day of Service and make a real in difference in your community.

How to Serve

• Find a volunteer opportunity
• Create and/or register a project

2010 MLK Day Technology Challenge

We are calling on educators and web professionals to join our new effort – the 2010 MLK Day Technology Challenge. The idea is simple: to connect schools with technology needs to IT and web professionals, developers, graphic designers and new media professionals who are willing to volunteer their skills for good, take on these technology projects and give back to a school in need.

• Learn more

MLK Day Resources

Everything you need to plan a King Day project - including tips on getting started, building partnerships, organizing the day, and fundraising (PDF). You’ll also find a service-learning guide for schools and organizations (PDF), project examples, and marketing tools to help promote your project.

• Visit MLKDay.gov
• News and events

Columbus, OH – Continuing her commitment to eradicate Human Trafficking through legislation and awareness, State Senator Teresa Fedor will hold a Human Trafficking Awareness Day event at the Ohio Statehouse on January 11, 2010 from 8:30 to 11:30 A.M.  Ambassador Mark Lagon, CEO of the Polaris Project, will deliver the keynote address at 9:05 A.M.  Also addressing the audience will be: Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray, U.S. Attorneys Carter Stewart & Steve Dettelbach, Rep. Kathleen Chandler, Sen. Jim Hughes and Dawn Conway, the Sr. Vice President for Corporate Responsibility at Lexis Nexis.

The event will also feature two panels of experts addressing the victim’s assistance and law enforcement aspects of Human Trafficking. Local human trafficking experts EleSondra De Romano – Wake Up Youth, Celia Williamson – Second Change, Jake Hardie – FBI, Pete Swartz – Toledo Police Department, Amy Allen – ICE, and Hon. Connie Zemmelman will address the audience.

“Human Trafficking is a very real problem in Ohio. Ohioans must stop and take notice of the atrocities being committed against children in our State.  My hope is that by strengthening criminal penalties through legislation and by bringing together anti-trafficking groups and experts to spread awareness, we can begin to eradicate this horrible form of modern-day slavery,” said Senator Fedor.

Click here to download the Human Trafficking Awareness Day event flyer and agenda

This morning, after a year-long fight with Republicans, and a weeks-long debate, which ultimately pitted Democrat against Democrat, and liberal against liberal, the Senate passed a historic bill calling for major reforms of the U.S. health care system by a vote of 60-39.

Presiding over the Senate, in a rare appearance, was Vice President Joe Biden. As Senate chair, the Vice President can serve as the tie-breaking vote in the event of a 50-50 deadlock. But tonight's victory for Democrats was never in doubt.

Over the course of this week, Democrats have passed several test votes--set at a 60-member, supermajority threshold. The only question this morning was, would they keep all of their members united for the final vote.

In the end they did.

Now, Congressional Democrats face one more major challenge: merging two the House's and the Senate's two different reform package, so that each chamber can pass the same bill. That merging process kicked of behind the scenes weeks ago, but will begin in earnest in the days ahead, and could last several weeks.

If the two chambers can strike a deal, as seems likely, the resulting product would vastly expand the role and responsibilities of the federal government. It would, as lawmakers said repeatedly in the debate, touch the lives of nearly all Americans. 

President Obama will make a statement at 8:45 am ET

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) today joined The National Anti-Hunger Organizations (NAHO) to release the Roadmap to End Childhood Hunger in America by 2015. The report outlines nine priorities to address President Obama’s goal of ending child hunger in the U.S. by 2015.

“No child should go hungry,” Brown, chairman of the U.S. Senate Agriculture Subcommittee on Hunger, Nutrition and Family Farms said. “But during these challenging economic times, more parents are struggling to feed their children. We all share a responsibility to end childhood hunger. Success will require a coordinated response between the government, private, and non-profit sectors. This roadmap should serve to remind us of the work ahead.”

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) reported last month that, as hunger increased in 2008, the number of children in food-insecure households rose by 4.2 million to 16.7 million. Nearly one in four U.S. children is now at-risk of hunger, living in families that struggle to put food on the table. These 2008 figures represent the highest rate of food insecurity since these surveys were initiated in 1995. According to USDA, more than 500,000 families experienced hunger multiple times over the course of the year.

NAHO’s Roadmap recommends increasing economic opportunity, bolstering income supports, and strengthening the nutritional safety net. In addition, the Roadmap also includes a list of "Immediate Steps" that translates report recommendations into priority actions to be undertaken right away.

One of those steps is the reauthorization of child nutrition programs, up for renewal in 2010. In June, Sens. Brown, Robert P. Casey (D-PA), and Michael F. Bennet (D-CO) introduced the Hunger Free Schools Act which would improve and expand access to the school lunch program for needy children, promote direct certification, and reduce paperwork and administrative costs. The legislation would help more families enroll in the national school lunch program, one of the most important programs designed to alleviate childhood hunger.

Specifically the legislation would:

• Improve state performance in enrolling eligible children in school lunch programs by setting a performance standard (95 percent of students required to be directly certified for school lunch programs should be reached) and providing incentives to high performance schools;

• Expand access to child nutrition programs by requiring school districts to utilize data from Medicaid and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program to directly certify more students for free school meals; and

• Achieve universal access for high poverty schools by allowing schools or districts serving a high proportion of low-income children to offer free lunches to all students.

The Columbus Dispatch reports that Parsley is claiming to be the victim of a "demonically inspired financial attack":

The Rev. Rod Parsley, megapastor and televangelist, has issued a desperate plea for money, telling his flock that he is facing a "demonically inspired financial attack" that is threatening his ministry.

Parsley is asking for donations by Dec. 31, calling that date an "unavoidable deadline" during an episode of Breakthrough posted yesterday on www.rodparsley.com. Breakthrough is Parsley's television show.

A message titled "Crisis -- Urgent" on the Web site says ministries such as Breakthrough and World Harvest Bible College are "in jeopardy."

The headline of the appeal for donations reads: "Will you help me take back what the devil stole?"

When asked to comment, Parsley's World Harvest Church issued a statement saying the recession caused a decline in member giving in 2009, which has led to a fourth-quarter deficit of $3 million despite a 30 percent reduction in the budget.

This year, the church settled for $3.1 million with a family whose son was spanked at its day-care center in 2006, to the point his buttocks and legs were covered with welts and abrasions.

The boy, then 2, said he was spanked with a "knife" by a substitute teacher. His parents, Michael and Lacey Faieta, believe it was a ruler.

The Faietas said the payment was made this year. During yesterday's Breakthrough broadcast, Parsley referred to a $3 million check he had to write from the ministry.

"The Faieta decision imposed against us earlier this year has made our circumstances more serious," the statement said. No indication was given as to why the money must be raised by Dec. 31 or what specifically could happen if it's not.

The Faietas said Parsley refused to meet personally with them and that the church did not apologize or take accountability for the beating.

The Faietas said today that they had seen Parsley's Web appeal.

Mr. Faieta said he and his wife were "disgusted" and "saddened" by Parsley's words.

Watch It:

A PROCLAMATION

More than 60 years ago, the United Nations General Assembly approved the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, declaring the "inherent dignity" and "equal and inalienable rights" of all human beings as the "foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world." This self-evident truth guides us today. Although every country and culture is unique, certain rights are universal: the freedom of people -- including women and ethnic and religious minorities -- to live as they choose, speak their minds, organize peacefully and have a say in how they are governed, with confidence in the rule of law. History shows that countries that protect these rights are ultimately more stable, secure, and successful.

In the United States, these fundamental rights are the core of our Declaration of Independence, our Constitution, and our Bill of Rights. They are the values that define us as a people, the ideals that challenge us to perfect our union, and the liberties that generations of Americans have fought to preserve at home and abroad. Indeed, fidelity to our fundamental values is one of America's greatest strengths and the reason we stand in solidarity with those who seek these rights, wherever they live.

Human Rights Day, Bill of Rights Day, and Human Rights Week must be our call to action. As Americans, we must keep striving to live up to our founding ideals. As a Nation, the United States will always side with the innocent whose rights are denied, the oppressed who yearn for equality, and all those around the world who strive for freedom. As members of what President Franklin Roosevelt called "the human community," we will never waver in our pursuit of the rights, dignity, and security of every human being.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim December 10, 2009, as Human Rights Day; December 15, 2009, as Bill of Rights Day; and the week beginning December 10, 2009, as Human Rights Week. I call upon the people of the United States to mark these observances with appropriate ceremonies and activities.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this ninth day of December, in the year of our Lord two thousand nine, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-fourth.

BARACK OBAMA

The National Low Income Housing Coalition (NHTF) is dedicated solely to achieving socially just public policy that assures people with the lowest incomes in the United States have affordable and decent homes. 

Please call your Representative and both of your Senators on December 1 or 2.

Tell them you want at least $1 billion for the National Housing Trust Fund before Congress adjourns later in December. Urge them to support any bill moving through the House or Senate that contains money for the NHTF.

Let them know that providing money for the NHTF will create needed jobs. A $1 billion investment in the NHTF at $100,000 per unit of housing will create 15,100 construction jobs and 3,800 jobs in ongoing operations. Also, the NHTF will support local economies as low income families can afford to spend more money on goods and services when they are not spending half or more of their income on housing.

Our goal is to create an early-December blizzard of phone calls from all over in a compressed period of time to demonstrate strong and urgent support for an initial infusion of money for the NHTF. Please pass this message on to your networks.

877-210-5351 is the toll free number for the Congressional switchboard. Ask to be connected to the housing staffer for your Representative's and Senators' offices. 

YouTube can be a powerful tool championing the rights of individuals and promoting free expression. This month, during International Human Rights Day, we're partnering with Morgan Freeman and Amnesty International to encourage you to become advocates for equality and justice, through Video Volunteers.

In Toledo yesterday . . .

Police arrested a man on suspicion of swiping a Salvation Army kettle full of donated money and pushing one of the Christian charity’s bell ringers to the ground when she tried to take it back.

But the "real Spirit of the Season, War on Christmas" question is . . . was the Salvation Army planning on using that money to not hire gays?

By: Elizabeth Warren

From 1792 through the Great Depression, booms and busts followed each other like day follows night. But President Roosevelt and the New Dealers had an innovative idea: regulation might tame the boom-and-bust cycle. So they created a new Securities and Exchange Commission to bring some discipline to the financial markets, established the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation to make it safe to put money in banks, and passed the Glass-Steagall Act to separate ordinary banking from high-risk financial speculation.

America was protected from another financial crisis for almost 50 years. But in the late 1970s, we began to pull the threads from our regulatory fabric, overturning laws and cutting enforcement. The results were the S&L crisis, Long Term Capital Management, Enron, and now, the subprime mortgage meltdown.

There are signs that we may have learned our lesson. Last week, the House Financial Services Committee voted for a new Consumer Financial Protection Agency that would consolidate scattered and ineffective consumer credit regulations and establish a home in Washington for policymakers dedicated to rebuilding the middle class. Other reforms are also starting to move.

The banking lobby is as powerful and deeply entrenched as ever, but it was powerful in the 1930s, too.

Nonetheless, the New Dealers learned the Great Lesson: Powerful insiders cannot be permitted to write the rules, and prosperity and security depend on a playing field that supports a vibrant middle class.

Today, we face a similar set of questions as we faced then. Will the institutions that created the crisis continue calling the shots and writing the rules, or will Washington take the side of families?

Have we learned the Great Lesson?

Elizabeth Warren is chair of the Congressional Oversight Panel created to oversee the banking bailouts and first proposed a new federal agency for consumer financial products in 2007.

The Save Ohio campaign, a project of SEIU District 1199, is launching across the state of Ohio today.

The Save Ohio campaign is aimed at stopping additional cuts in safety net services that could put more Ohioans at risk and increasing revenue through support of Governor Stricklands tax freeze proposal.

The main focus of the Save Ohio campaign is to inform the public of the real risks associated with continued cuts in services. Members of SEIU District 1199 are concerned that short-term decisions made to balance the budget during these difficult economic times will cause lasting effects on Ohio's most vulnerable populations - children, seniors and people with disabilities.

Political and community leaders must come together and work on a long-term solution that will protect our communities, invest in safety net services and ensure that Ohio remains a great state to live and work in.

What can you do to help?
Call Senate President Bill Harris and ask him to support Governor Stricklands proposed tax freeze. You can do so toll free at: 877-731-9961

To get more information?
Visit The website at www.saveohio.org or call 866-806-3770

Call upon the Ohio Legislature to act swiftly to enact Governor Stricklands proposed tax freeze in a bipartisan manner to protect the critical services that Ohioans need.

Watch The Ad:

President Reaffirms Support For Repeal Of "Don't Ask Don't Tell" Activists Want Promises Turned Into Action

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama reaffirmed his campaign pledge to end the ban on homosexuals serving openly in the military in a speech Saturday, but offered no timetable or specifics for acting on that promise.

He acknowledged to a cheering crowd that some policy changes he promised on the campaign trail are not coming as quickly as they expected.

"I will end 'don't ask-don't tell,'" Obama said to a standing ovation from the crowd of about 3,000 at the annual dinner of the Human Rights Campaign, a gay civil rights advocacy group.

The law was passed by Congress in 1993 and signed by President Bill Clinton, who also promised to repeal the ban on homosexuals in the military but was blunted by opposition in the military and Congress. Obama said he's working with Pentagon and congressional leaders on ending the policy.

"We should not be punishing patriotic Americans who have stepped forward to serve the country," Obama said. "We should be celebrating their willingness to step forward and show such courage ... especially when we are fighting two wars."

Obama said it was no secret "our progress may be taking longer than we like." He followed this by asking supporters to trust his administration's course.

"I appreciate that many of you don't believe progress has come fast enough," Obama said. "Do not doubt the direction we are heading and the destination we will reach."

Some advocates said they already have heard Obama's promises – they just want to hear a timeline. Cleve Jones, a pioneer activist and creator of the AIDS Memorial Quilt, said Obama delivered a brilliant speech, but added "it lacked the answer to our most pressing question, which is when."

"He repeated his promises that he's made to us before, but he did not indicate when he would accomplish these goals and we've been waiting for a while now," said Jones, national co-chair of a major gay-rights rally expected to draw thousands of gay and lesbian activists to the National Mall on Sunday.

Watch It:

 Reforming our financial system and restoring common sense regulation and oversight is the only way to ensure that the economic catastrophe that began a year ago never returns.

Yesterday, the President pushed one of the core pillars of his vision of a new economic foundation back to the fore while warning Congress and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the nation's biggest business lobby, not to get in the way.

"...It has never been more important to have a watchdog function like the one we've proposed," Obama said. "And yet, predictably, a lot of the banks and big financial firms don't like the idea of a consumer agency very much. In fact, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is spending millions on an ad campaign to kill it."

"But all this hasn't stopped the big financial firms and their lobbyists from mobilizing against change. They're doing what they always do - descending on Congress and using every bit of influence they have to maintain a status quo that has maximized their profits at the expense of American consumers," he said. "And since they're worried they may not be able to kill this agency, they're trying their hardest to weaken it - by asking for exemptions from this agency's rules and enforcement; by fighting to keep open every gap and loophole they can find. And they're very good at this, because that's how business has been done in Washington for a very long time. In fact, over the last ten years, the Chamber of Commerce alone spent nearly half a billion dollars on lobbying - half a billion dollars."

Watch It:

The ambitious original proposals to protect consumers and reform the financial industry have already been scaled back.

"Unfortunately, the damage from corporate lobbying in Congress may have already been done," said John Taylor, president and CEO of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, a pro-consumer association of more than 600 community-based organizations. "We thought Senator Durbin (D-Ill.) made an apt and figurative statement when he said that the banks owned Congress, but perhaps his comment was meant to be literal. The ability of the proposed Consumer Financial Protection Agency (CFPA) to protect the most financially vulnerable individuals and communities has already been undermined by substantial changes to the bill."

Gambling is increasingly becoming an addiction for states trying to balance their budgets in the midst of an economic crisis. 

Giving in to the temptation by allowing casinos or expanding state-sponsored gambling would heap the financial burden on those least able to afford it, said several United Methodists on the front lines of the public policy debate.

Rev. John Edgar, Chairman of the United Methodist Anti-Gambling Task Force speaks on the social costs of gambling at a press conference on Issue 3 at ProgressOhio on October 5, 2009.

Watch It:

PO's Brian Rothenberg leads protesters
in front of United Health Care in Westerville

 View More Images Here

Yesterday, people all across the country stood up and said they're sick of big insurance. They're sick of denied claims. They're sick of discriminatory practices. And they're sick of their premiums being used to lobby against reform and pad the pockets of health insurance executives who care nothing about their health, only the next quarter's stock price.

Investigation in full swing. Canton Rep has the details. Original story here and here over at Ohio Daily Blog.

Ohio Daily Blog was forwarded an email purportedly from a North Canton Police dispatcher. It contains a photo of Air Force One with the tail number photoshopped to contain a racial slur.

While inappropriate in any context, it is particularly galling given that it was apparently sent from work and the woman's job allows her to influence over citizen safety.

Fortunately the North Canton Police Department provides an online form so you can leave them feedback. Tell them how you think they should handle the situation.

Received this call for nominations yesterday from Liz Brown, daughter of Ohio’s canary-pin-wearing, healthcare-reform-leading, dynamo Senator Sherrod Brown:

More than one hundred years ago, each day when a coal miner went down into the mines, he took a canary in a cage with him.  That canary was the miner’s only warning when the toxic fumes became too great. If the canary died, the miner knew he had to get out.
 
Today, the canary reminds us that back then there were no formal protections for workers.  The canary also reminds us that a dedicated group of activists changed that.  In those mines and across the nation and over the years, people came together.  They built a movement that has fought for social justice – from workers’ rights, to food safety laws, minimum wage, civil rights, and beyond.
 
The Canary Award honors those who continue to sound the warning of the canary, championing economic and social justice in our nation.

 
Do you know someone who has devoted time in the pursuit of service and justice?

Download a nomination form here:

http://www.progressohio.org/page/-/Documents/Canary_Award_Nomination_Form.pdf

"My hope is that, as a consequence of this event, this ends up being what's called a teachable moment," President Obama said.

Watch It:

Ohio Health Care for America Now Details Ohio-Specific Health Disparities and Emphasizes Opportunity for Equality in Legislation

Columbus, OH - Today, Progress Ohio, as a part of Health Care for America Now (HCAN) - the nation's largest health care campaign - will release a state-specific report showing how communities of color are adversely affected by our nation's broken health care system and suggest ways comprehensive health care reform will correct this inequality and injustice.

"Unequal Lives: Health Care Discrimination Harms Communities of Color in Ohio" will explain how the nation's more than 103 million people of color suffer disproportionately in our health care system, and Wednesday's release will explain how legislation under consideration in Congress would offer one of the best opportunities since the creation of Medicare and Medicaid in 1965 to erase persistent health disparities.

California’s Courage Campaign, one of Progress Ohio’s national partners through the Progress Now network, has an important online action going on right now. We hope the Progress Ohio community will do its part and stand with thousands across the country and say “Don’t Fire Dan!” See below.

 

On Friday, we sent you the following message from Dan Choi, a native of California and an Army Lieutenant facing trial on Tuesday for "moral and professional dereliction" under the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy.

With just hours left until Lt. Choi's trial, an amazing 91,147 people -- including you -- have signed the letter of support asking the Army not to fire Lt. Choi.

It's important that Lt. Choi walks into the courtroom on Tuesday holding as many letters of support as possible. Can you help us gather more than 100,000 signatures for Lt. Choi by forwarding this email to your friends today?

Rick Jacobs
Chair, Courage Campaign

 
Dear Lorraine --

On Tuesday at 8 a.m., I will stand trial for speaking three truthful words: "I am gay."

On Tuesday, I will face a panel of colonels who will decide whether or not to fire me -- to discharge me for "moral and professional dereliction" under the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy.

On Tuesday, I will try to prove that it's not immoral to tell the truth.

As an infantry officer, an Iraq combat veteran and a West Point graduate with a degree in Arabic, I refuse to lie to my commanders. I refuse to lie to my peers. I refuse to lie to my subordinates.

My case requires that I provide personal testimony from people who can attest to my character. That's why several members of my military unit have written letters of support and offered to testify on my behalf.

Now I need your help. ANYONE who believes the Army should not fire me can take a stand right now. I am bringing a statement of support to Tuesday's trial and I need you to add your signature to it. Will you support me by signing this statement before Tuesday?

http://www.couragecampaign.org/SupportDan

I want to thank the 141,262 people who have signed the "Don't Fire Dan" letter launched a few weeks ago by the Courage Campaign and CREDO Mobile to President Obama, asking him to take leadership to bring this tragic policy to an end.

The momentum is building. This week, 77 members of Congress signed a letter to the President citing my service as an example of why DADT should be repealed. And a Gallup poll was recently released showing that 69 percent of Americans -- including 58 percent of Republicans - favor allowing openly gay men and lesbian women to serve their country .

As I learned at West Point, deception and lies poison a unit and cripple a fighting force. That's why more than 70 of my fellow West Point graduates have also come out of the closet to join Knights Out, the organization I co-founded to build support for the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell".

The only way we will eventually overturn "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" is by speaking up together. You can help me fight back right now by adding your name to my statement of support. On Tuesday morning, I will bring your signature -- and thousands of others -- to my trial as a demonstration of your collective support:

http://www.couragecampaign.org/SupportDan

National security means many things, but the thing that makes us secure in our nation and homes is love. What makes me a better soldier, leader, Christian and human being is love. And I'm not going to hide my love.

Love is worth it.

Thank you for your support.

Daniel W. Choi
1LT, IN
New York Army National Guard

The Ohio Domestic Violence Network released a study today indicating that demand for services is up while funding for shelters and other crisis programs is being cut in Ohio.

 “Ohio already ranks near the bottom nationally in support for victims of family violence,’’ said ODVN Executive Director Nancy Neylon.  “At a time when demand for services is up, domestic violence programs are forced to cut back or turn people away, resulting in more victims returning to abusers because they feel as if they have no other choice.’’

Key figures in ODVN's survey of 81 shelters and non-residential providers of domestic violence services:

• 82 per cent of respondents saw an increase in demand for services over a two-year period and nearly half of them said more families are seeking shelter;
• More than half said the number of survivors returning to their abusers for economic reasons is on the rise;
• 79 per cent saw an increase in the number of days families remain in shelters;
• 70 per cent reported a decrease in funding, including cuts in mental health levies and decreased support from foundations and the United Way.

  “If we don’t increase funding to provide services for victims, then we will see more injuries,  more police calls and higher court costs,’’ said Linda Johanek, Executive Director of Cleveland’s Domestic Violence Center. “In essence, we are opting to pay more on the back end rather than invest in prevention and other services that will decrease violence and the costs associated with it.’’

Neylon said it is important to understand the link between the economic downturn and domestic violence. “Domestic violence is about power and control, so poverty does not cause violence,’’ Neylon explained. “But a lack of economic resources can serve as a huge barrier to escaping a violent partner. When it is harder to leave, the violence often escalates. When it is harder to access resources, the risk of having to return to the abuser goes up.’’

Charlene Ventura, President and CEO of the YWCA of Greater Cincinnati, said the combination of deep funding cuts and rising demand comes at a time when the economy is making it increasingly difficult for survivors to escape.

“The lack of affordable housing and employment opportunities creates additional hardships for survivors as they work to transition out of protective shelter to live independently and free from violence,” Ventura said.

 “Given the severity of Ohio’s budget problems, ODVN thought it impossible to seek additional state funding at this time,’’ Neylon said. “But we are asking lawmakers to help us save lives and save money by passing bills to prevent violence and protect victims.’’

One bill, House Bill 10, would give juvenile court judges the power to better protect teens in violent relationships by allowing juvenile judges to issue civil protection orders.

House Bill 19 would require schools to teach dating-abuse prevention in health classes.

Legislation to create civil protection orders for minors and to add dating abuse prevention education were inspired by teens who were murdered by former boyfriends. Both are also supported by Johanna Orozco, a Cleveland woman, who was nearly killed two years ago after her ex-boyfriend stalked her and shot her in the face with a shotgun.

Orozco, now 20, championed an identical civil protection order bill in the last legislative session. Although the measure passed the Ohio House of Representatives, it was stopped in the Republican-controlled Ohio Senate.

Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray has championed both HB 10 and HB 19.

Additionally, House Bill 167 seeks new protections for victims of domestic violence in housing and employment – two key resources victims often need to end abusive relationships.

To donate to organizations advocating for survivors of domestic violence:

http://www.actionohio.org/how_help.htm

http://www.odvn.org/

Full list of domestic violence shelters in Ohio – all can use your help:

http://www.actionohio.org/dvshelter.htm

he common-sense approach to reducing the number of abortions in the United States is to reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies, said U.S. Rep. Timothy Ryan, D-17th, on Monday’s MSNBC television show “Hardball with Chris Matthews.”

However, preventing unwanted pregnancies can’t be realistically discussed without making contraception accessible and available and funding social programs that give women incentives to bring their babies to term, said Ryan, of Niles.

To that end, he and others have introduced legislation titled “Reducing the Need for Abortion and Supporting Parents Act,” which calls for $615 million to finance programs to fight teen pregnancy through contraception and abstinence education, child-care aid for poor mothers, adoption advocacy and child-care centers on college campuses.

“I think we can have a dramatic reduction in the number of abortions. This is totally doable,” Ryan said.

Watch It:

Cincinnati OH and Washington DC.
Major League Baseball is stepping up to the plate
to celebrate AmeriCorps Week.

More than 600 Ohio AmeriCorps members attended the Cincinnati Reds game on May 9. Seven members participated in an "on field" salute that included throwing out the first pitch, and AmeriCorps public service announcements ran on the scoreboard.

A similar turnout is expected this Saturday, May 16 at the Washington Nationals game. This event, which will feature an on-field recognition and service project earlier in the day, will close out 2009 AmeriCorps Week.

Washington DC -- From protecting rivers in Minnesota and greening New York City parks to building wheelchair ramps in Florida and restoring Alaska forest trails, the third annual AmeriCorps Week will spotlight how AmeriCorps members are tackling tough national problems through intensive national service.

The coast-to-coast recognition of AmeriCorps Week, May 9-16, includes more than 350 service projects and recruitment events, the announcement of AmeriCorps Recovery Act grants, Facebook and Twitter outreach, video and photo contest, appreciation events by Governors and major league baseball teams, alumni gatherings, presentations to schools and community groups, and more.

In the past 15 years, more than 574,000 men and women have taken AmeriCorps's pledge to “get things done for America,” providing more than 718 million hours of service, mobilizing tens of millions of volunteers, and improving the lives of countless citizens.

AmeriCorps Week is an opportunity to salute these men and women, thank the community partners that make their service possible, and recruit more Americans into service to meet local needs.

“Across the country, AmeriCorps members are helping communities fight poverty, mentor youth, recover from disasters, raise graduation rates, build homes, and tackle our toughest social challenges,” said Nicola Goren, Acting CEO of the Corporation for National and Community Service, which oversees AmeriCorps.  “We want AmeriCorps Week to inspire millions more Americans to serve, whether through AmeriCorps or volunteering in your neighborhood.”

This year’s effort comes at a time of strong momentum for national service.  Last month President Obama signed the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act, which, among other provisions, will set AmeriCorps on a path to grow from 75,000 to 250,000 annual positions by the year 2017.  

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act passed in February provided $200 million to support up to 13,000 new AmeriCorps members serving in distressed communities. The first AmeriCorps VISTA members funded by the Recovery Act began serving last month, and the Corporation will announce AmeriCorps State and National grants supporting thousands of new positions during AmeriCorps Week.

Online applications to AmeriCorps have risen dramatically in recent months, fueled by a “compassion boom” of Americans wanting to help their neighbors in tough times, increased interest in public service by millennials and boomers, the economy, and an “Obama effect” of people responding to the President's call to service.  Between November 2008 and April 2009, AmeriCorps received 76,404 online applications, up 230% from the 23,145 applications that came in the same six month period a year ago.

An AmeriCorps Week website, located at www.AmeriCorpsWeek.gov, features a database of events, news, stories, and information about how to join.

Video and Photo Contest: AmeriCorps is turning to its far-flung network of members and alums to submit 60-second videos or still photos showing how AmeriCorps gets things done in local communities.  Prizes include Flip Video™ digital camcorders from Pure Digital.  The contest website is www.americorpscontest.org.AmeriCorps is using social media tools to spread the word about AmeriCorps Week.  The AmeriCorps Week Facebook page has more than 1,400 fans, and there are 300-plus followers on the AmeriCorps Week Twitter feed.

AmeriCorps was established in 1993 as a way for Americans to give back to their communities and country and earn money for college in return.  AmeriCorps members serve with more than 4,100 nonprofit, faith-based, and community groups each year, helping them expand their reach and better meet their mission.. Last year AmeriCorps members mobilized or managed 2.2 million volunteers for the organizations they serve.

AmeriCorps is administered by the Corporation for National and Community Service, a federal agency that improves lives, strengthens communities, and fosters civic engagement through service and volunteering.  Each year, the Corporation engages four million Americans of all ages and backgrounds through its Senior Corps, AmeriCorps, and Learn and Serve America programs. For more information, visit www.NationalService.gov. 

WASHINGTON – Sojourner Truth, a former slave who met with Abraham Lincoln and was an early crusader for women's right to vote and an end to slavery, is the first black woman to be honored with a bust at the Capitol.

First lady Michelle Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi are expected to take part Tuesday in unveiling the abolitionist's statue at the Capitol Visitor Center.

The sculpture will remain on permanent display in the underground center's main space, called Emancipation Hall in part because slaves helped build the Capitol.

Truth met presidents Lincoln in 1864 and Ulysses S. Grant in 1870, and delivered her famous "Ain't I a Woman?" speech at a women's rights convention in Akron, Ohio, in 1851. She tried to vote on two occasions, but was turned away both times. She died in November 1883 at her home in Battle Creek, Mich.

Few minority women are enshrined in the Capitol. There are several statues of American Indian women, but no Asian or Hispanic women, according Donald Ritchie, a Senate historian.

Michelle Obama lent a hand Tuesday, pitching in to help build an affordable, energy-efficient home on the National Mall in Washington.

The first lady participated in an event marking the 30th anniversary of YouthBuild, a non-profit community development program that teaches low-income youth housing construction skills while they work toward their GED or high school diploma.

“Thirty years of anything is an amazing feat, but walking through these displays and talking to some of the most intelligent, focused, knowledgeable young people, that makes me proud — it should make this country proud,” the first lady said at Tuesday's event.

Mrs. Obama praised YouthBuild's community service effort and delivered a message to the program's participants: they can rebuild their lives and help others in the process.

"Its your core principle that I am so impressed with, providing opportunities for amazing young people,” she said as the crowd cheered. “Giving folks a second and third and fourth, chance particularly to low-income youth, sometimes we overlook them."

Mrs. Obama, who previously worked as a community-organizer in Chicago, worked to construct a three bedroom home for a single mother whose Texas residence was damaged by Hurricane Dolly.

Watch It:

ProgressOhio affiliate The Courage Campaign released the video "Fidelity" as part of their "Don't Divorce Us" Campaign to overturn Prop 8:

The California Supreme Court, which legalized gay marriage in 2008, will consider whether it was unconstitutional for Californians to outlaw same-sex weddings in a ballot measure that sparked protests and calls for boycotts against its supporters.

Gay and civil rights groups and cities including San Francisco and Los Angeles are seeking to overturn the measure, known as Proposition 8, which on Nov. 4 won 52 percent approval of voters to amend the state constitution to ban homosexual nuptials in the nation’s most populous state.

They say Proposition 8 is illegal because it revises the constitution to rob a protected minority of equal rights and court protection. Revisions of the constitution must be handled by state lawmakers, according to lawsuits filed on Nov. 5. Proposition 8 backers said the court can’t reverse what voters have approved. Arguments in the case are scheduled for today in San Francisco.

“The court is always reluctant to overturn a ballot initiative,” said attorney Vikram Amar, who teaches constitutional law at University of California-Davis. “Prop 8 challengers will try to distinguish this initiative from others, that equality is somehow more important than other basic rights.”

The court will also decide whether to invalidate approximately 18,000 marriages performed before Proposition 8 passed. Four out of seven Supreme Court justices voted to legalize gay marriage in May. One of the four voted against hearing lawsuits seeking to overturn Proposition 8. That has led to speculation that there may be four votes against striking down Proposition 8, said Amar. A ruling is due within 90 days.

Founded Feb. 12. 1909, the NAACP is the nation's oldest, largest and most widely recognized grassroots–based civil rights organization. Its more than half-million members and supporters throughout the United States and the world are the premier advocates for civil rights in their communities, conducting voter mobilization and monitoring equal opportunity in the public and private sectors.

Founding group 

The NAACP was formed partly in response to the continuing horrific practice of lynching and the 1908 race riot in Springfield, the capital of Illinois and birthplace of President Abraham Lincoln.

Appalled at the violence that was committed against blacks, a group of white liberals that included Mary White Ovington and Oswald Garrison Villard, both the descendants of abolitionists, William English Walling and Dr. Henry Moscowitz issued a call for a meeting to discuss racial justice.

Some 60 people, seven of whom were African American (including W. E. B. Du Bois, Ida B. Wells-Barnett and Mary Church Terrell), signed the call, which was released on the centennial of Lincoln's birth.

"Fidelity": Don't Divorce... from Courage Campaign on Vimeo.

The Ledbetter law, recently signed by President Obama, overturned the Supreme Court decision denying Lilly the $360,000 of back pay and benefits that the trial court had ruled she was entitled to. But the newly signed law isn't retroactive; it only applies to cases going forward!

Ms. Ledbetter, now in her 70s, worked in a Goodyear Tire factory for almost 20 years to support her family. The success of the Lilly Ledbetter Act is a step forward in gender equality for all women, but as a new widow facing retirement, Lilly Ledbetter deserves to receive the pay she was cheated out of for so long!

Ask Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company - a company that reported profits of $602 million in 2007 - to reimburse the $360,000 of backpay they owe Lilly.

Sign the Petition!

The Rev. Alvin Hadley has long been a progressive champion of peace, civil rights and community organizing.

His passing is a loss for Ohio progressives and Central Ohio's faith community.

We can all take solace for his service, his legacy, and the final act of grace -- the opportunity to see President Obama sworn in.

A prince of peace has passed. Interfaith Association of Central Ohio (IACO) 57 Jefferson Avenue Columbus, Ohio 43215 Phone: 614-849-0290 Email: iaco@iaco.org Web: www.iaco.org Alvin Hadley January 25, 2009

Dear members and friends of IACO:

It is with deep sadness that we share with you the news of the passing away of brother Alvin Hadley on the morning of Wednesday, January 21, 2009. His son, Patrick, reported that he had hung on for Obama's presidential inauguration.

Alvin Hadley's contributions to IACO were many. As Executive Director of the Columbus Metropolitan Area Church Council, since 1997, he served as the contact person for the Christian community, fostering cooperation between Christians and the interfaith community.

For several years he served as a member of the Interfaith Council (the governing board) of the Association.

At different points of his relationship with IACO, Alvin served as the Vice President, moderator of the Nominating Committee, and most recently as a member of the Public Interface Committee.

He also represented the Christian and interfaith communities in several Central Ohio organizations including: Greater Columbus Jobs With Justice, Faith Community Task Force of the Columbus Coalition Against Family Violence, Children's Defense Fund, Interfaith Center for Peace, Faith Communities Uniting for Peace, Religious Advisory Council of the Ohio Bicentennial Commission, and Citizen Advisory Committee of the Mid Ohio Regional Planning Commission.

Annually, he assisted the planning committee of the Martin Luther King, Jr. commemorative breakfast in placing selected religious leaders on the dais.

Visiting hours for family and friends are on Fri, Jan 30, 5 pm to 7 pm at Schoedinger Cleveland Avenue Chapel, 2741 Cleveland Ave.

Persons may join the family at the Schoedinger Cleveland Avenue Chapel by 9:45 am on Sat, Jan 31 to caravan at 10:00 am to Union Cemetery (on Olentangy River Road) for the internment.

Following this a memorial service will be held to honor and remember Alvin at 11:30 am at Broad Street Presbyterian Church, 760 E. Broad Street. Alvin's family includes his daughter Elaine, and son, Patrick and his wife, Asia. Cards or notes will reach them at Alvin's home address: 2713 Woodcutter Avenue Columbus OH 43224-2534.

An article honoring Alvin was published this past Friday in the Faith and Values section of the Columbus Dispatch. While our hearts are deeply saddened that our brother Alvin Hadley is no longer with us physically and we sorely miss his wise counsel in our interfaith community, his legacy provides the basis for effective interfaith understanding and dialogue.

His loving ways continue to give us hope and inspiration. Please hold Alvin and his family in your prayers.

Kind regards,

Sincerely,

Dr. Tarunjit Singh Butalia President Interfaith Association of Central Ohio

On her first work weekend home in Ohio’s 15th Congressional District the Congresswoman meets with constituents directly affected by the economic downturn

Congresswoman Kilroy's Opening Remarks:

Congresswoman Kilroy Spends First Weekend Home Meeting With Constituents

• A single mother about to work her way through law school without full health care benefits for her children because she cannot afford her employer’s health care options.

• An experienced IT professional out of work for over a year and about to lose her dream to own the house she grew up in.

• A husband and wife that are about to lose their home because a serious illness has consumed their savings.  They also have two children graduating from high school.

Ohio 15th District Open House Saturday!