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Progress Ohio hosted a tele-town hall Tuesday on health care reform with Senator Sherrod Brown.

Hundreds of Ohioans from all around the state participated.

We recorded the call and the audio is available here:

ProgressOhio Tele-Townhall With Senator Sherrod Brown

Part I:



Part II:

Have a question On Health Care Reform for Senator Brown? Submit it here.

In a fight taken directly to CEO Joe Hete by the ProgressOhio community, ABX has finally relented and decided to pay their former pilots the severance pay that they promised Congress in 2008 they would pay.

The Dayton Daily News reports:

More than 400 ABX Air pilots who were laid off by the cargo airline because of DHL’s job-slashing reduction of its U.S. operations and closure of its Wilmington freight hub are now receiving severance benefits, concluding a matter that had been an issue between the pilots’ union and management since 2008.

ABX Air and the pilots' union, Airline Professionals Association Teamsters Local 1224, reached agreement on the disbursement of $75 million that DHL paid to ABX in December 2009, according to Air Transport Services Group Inc., which owns ABX Air.

Under ABX’s agreement with the union, $31.4 million was contributed to the pilots’ defined benefit pension trust on Dec. 29 and $30.4 million in pilot severance benefits and related taxes were paid prior to Dec. 31, Air Transport Services Group said. The remaining $13.2 million in severance benefits is to be disbursed in the coming months, management said.

Read The Full Story at The Dayton Daily News.

See Also:

DHL HELL: Not Delivering on Their Promise to Ohio

DHL Cost Ohio a Thousand More Jobs This Week. Fight Back

CEO Behind DHL Pilot Situation Way Overpaid, Study Finds

How One CEO Ruined an Ohio Town

The U.S. unemployment rate exceeded 10% in October for the first time in a quarter century. Over 15 million Americans  are able and willing to work but cannot find a job. More than one out of every three unemployed workers has been out of a job for more than six months. The situation facing African American and Latino workers is even bleaker, with unemployment at 15.6% and 12.7%, respectively.

These grim statistics don’t capture the full extent of the hardship. There are another 9 million people working part time because they cannot find full-time work. Millions of others have given up looking for a job, and so aren’t counted in the official unemployment figures. Altogether, over 17% of the labor force is underemployed—more than 26 million Americans—including one in four minority workers. Last, given individuals moving in and out of jobs, we can expect a third of the workforce, and 40% of workers of color, to be unemployed or underemployed at some point over the next year.

Despite an effective and bold recovery package we are still facing a prolonged period of high unemployment. Two years from now, absent further action, we are likely to have unemployment at 8% or more, a higher rate than that attained even at the worst point of the last two downturns.

Joblessness on this scale creates enormous social and economic problems—and denies millions of families the ability to meet even their most basic needs. It also threatens our nation’s future prosperity by casting millions more children into poverty, foreclosing educational opportunities for many, limiting the investment and innovation that will fuel future growth, and dimming long-term labor market prospects, especially for younger workers.

The president and the Congress have already taken significant steps to stop the economy’s nosedive. Their efforts have already created over a million jobs and led to renewed economic growth in the third quarter of 2009. But it is clear that much more must be done to generate millions more jobs to assure a robust recovery that reaches all Americans.

Generating millions more jobs in 2010 is an urgent need, but doing so alone will not fix an economy that has failed working people for at least three decades. New policies should aim to maximize job creation and lead us to the new economy that we need. That economy must be one of shared prosperity, with growth based on robust, broad-based wage gains, not on asset bubbles or consumer debt. An economy in which the finance sector services the real economy rather than the reverse. An economy in which equity is seen as central to growth and pursues a low-carbon future.

Jobs for America Now, a broad coalition of 60 national organizations, today announced specific policy points and a grassroots, coordinated campaign to pass legislation in Congress that will put America back to work.

Jobs for America Now pledged a massive mobilization effort which will include national and state-based action in all 50 states. The coalition officially begins campaigning today and is expected to continue at least through the first half of 2010.

Jobs for America Now, www.jobs4americanow.org, supports a five-point jobs plan that would:

• Provide relief through continued and expanded unemployment benefits, COBRA and SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program).  This relief aids those without jobs while at the same time creating jobs by boosting consumer spending.

• Extend substantial fiscal relief to state and local governments.  Without this aid, state and local governments will have to cut their budgets, budget cuts that would lead to substantial job losses in both the public and private sector.

• Create jobs that put people to work helping communities meet pressing needs, including in distressed communities that face severe unemployment.

• Invest in infrastructure improvements in schools, transportation and energy efficiency, thus providing jobs in the short run and productivity enhancements in the longer run.

• Spur private-sector job growth through innovative incentives and providing credit to small and medium-sized businesses.

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.

Next Tuesday afternoon at the Columbus YWCA you can join public health experts in a discussion of the health risks created by climate change and how the health community can address these coming challenges through mitigation, adaptation and preparedness.

Speakers will include Jeremy Hess, M.D. a consultant to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Environmental Health and Dr. Kim Knowlton, Senior Scientist with the Natural Resources Defense Council's Health and Environment Program.

As earth's thermostat continues to climb, human health problems will only become more frequent. There is still time for health professionals to help protect communities from these risks to public health and take aggressive action to cut global warming pollution.

For more details on the event click here.

This event is sponsored by the Natural Resources Defense Council, National Wildlife Federation and Clean Energy Works.

Health Care reform advocates from Progress Ohio, Health Care for America Now, Ohio AFL-CIO, Alliance for Retired Americans, and the Ohio Federation of Teachers delivered a letter today to the Ohio Department of Insurance, requesting an investigation of the impact of the costs of health insurance companies' lobbying expenditures on excessive insurance premium hikes.

The letter can be viewed online here:

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

"Healthcare costs have skyrocketed in recent years and healthcare spending reached 17 percent of U.S. GDP in 2008. In the past 10 years, premiums for employer-based health insurance have gone up 120 percent," said Brian Rothenberg of Progress Ohio. "Meanwhile, in the past 10 years, the healthcare industry has also spent more than $3.5 billion on lobbying activities, making it the second highest spending industry out of 121 industries profiled by the Center for Responsive Politics."

"United Health Care recently proposed a rate increase for its Medicare supplement insurance while spending more than $2.6 million on lobbying activities in just the first two quarters of this year alone," said Norm Wernet of the Alliance for Retired Americans. "The healthcare industry ranks as the single highest spender on lobbying activities so far in 2009, having outspent the financial services sector by more than $40 million."

Last week, national AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka called for more accountability for insurance companies and a serious examination of whether these companies' political activity and lobbying are a contributor to skyrocketing rates and rising costs for consumers.

Trumka issued a letter asking Insurance Commissioners in Connecticut, Indiana, New York and Pennsylvania to investigate insurance giants for raising health care premiums to pay for lobbying against health insurance reform.

Connecticut's Attorney General has initiated an investigation. In Connecticut, at the same time that Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield was preparing to request approval to raise insurance premiums for Connecticut residents by up to 30 percent in some cases, Blue Cross and Blue Shield spent more than $9.5 million on lobbying activities.

Rep. Alan Grayon (D-Fl) is a rich and powerful person who fights against the abuses of the rich and powerful, both people and corporations..

His notoriety this week for comments about the Republican plan for health care did not come as a shock. His floor speech and his unwillingness to back down afterward have set a new standard for how Democrats deal with Republican hissy fits, where they get all offended by some comment or another and demand an apology and ritual humiliation.

Why would Republicans try to make an example of Grayson when their members have been using vile language for months, slandering the health care legislation with lies about “death panels” and rationing and people “being put to death by their government,” in the words of Virginia Foxx?  Their goal is to control the narrative and put any Democratic use of moral language out of the bounds of acceptable political debate, a standard that doesn’t apply to them.

Grayson DEMOLISHED this tactic. And he did so by continuing to tell the truth and never backing down. And by the end of the week, many were joining him.

Yes, they said: why does the GOP have no plan for health care? Why have they allowed thousands to die for a lack of coverage for years without articulating any strategy to deal with the crisis?

Alan Grayson Makes Tweety's Leg Tingle Watch It:

See Also:

Democratic Rep. Alan Grayson Apoligizes To Limbaugh

Video: Grayson Escalates: "America Is Sick Of You, Republican Party; You're A Lie Factory"

Rep Alan Grayson (D-FL) DESTROYS Republicans On CNN Situation Room

Just In From Our Florida Affiliate: "No Apologies"

Hold Put On Grayson Resolution: Did Republicans Recognize How It Would Expose GOP Hypocrisy?

Video: Dem Rep Grayson Apologies But Not To The House And Definitely Not To Republicans

Updated: Republican Health Care Plan: Don't Get Sick If You Do Get Sick Die Quickly

Anti-Acorn Bill Will Cut-Off All Funds To Major Defense Contractors, Numerous Others

ProgressOhio Says Vote No on Issue 2

Constitution No Place for Corporate Manipulation

COLUMBUS - Citing concern for the second time this month that Ohio corporate interests are manipulating Ohio's Constitution for personal gain, ProgressOhio.org announced that they strongly oppose Issue 2.

Issue 2 would set up the Ohio Livestock Care Standards Board. The governor and legislature would appoint members, including family farmers, veterinarians, a food-safety expert, a representative of a local humane society, members of statewide farm organizations, the dean of an Ohio agriculture college and two consumers. The state agriculture director would lead the panel.

"This is a blatant attempt by large factory farms to take what should be legislative action and enshrine it in Ohio's Constitution to preserve their profits," said Brian Rothenberg, Executive Director of ProgressOhio.org. "Our Constitution should not be for sale and if issues like this succeed there is a very slippery slope in which wealthy corporations can in effect alter the supreme law of the state to ensure a competitive advantage."

Issue 2 is also opposed by the Ohio Farmer's Union, the Ohio Environmental Stewardship Alliance, the Ohio Sierra Club, the Ohio League of Women Voters, and The Humane Society of the United States.

The Humane Society and ProgressOhio have long sought to prevent extreme caging and confinement practices on factory farms. "Rather than legislate this issue, large agri-business interests have attempted to circumvent the humane treatment of animals by manipulating Ohio's Constitution," said Rothenberg. "Our Constitution is meant to protect us, not to be part of some large corporate business plan enshrined in our laws."

ProgressOhio.org is a non-profit 501c4 corporation.

ProgressOhio Says 'Vote No on Issue 3'
Will Engage Vast Ohio Network

Board Of Ohio's Largest Progressive Hub
Votes to Oppose Casino Issue

COLUMBUS - One of the nation's largest state-based Progressive organizations announced they will mobilize and engage many of its large networks of activists and volunteers in an effort to oppose Issue 3 which would allow for Casino gaming in Ohio.

"This decision did not come lightly as we have friends on both sides of this issue," said Brian Rothenberg, Executive Director of ProgressOhio. "But ultimately we have deep concerns about this specific proposal and the overall impact it stamps into Ohio's Constitution."

ProgressOhio's Board indicated that opposition to the measure is important in that:

• Ohio's budget is predicated, rightly or wrongly, on slots and the passage of Issue 3 will jeopardize the Biennial budget further crippling Ohio government and leading to more immediate cuts, and the probability over the long term of a tax increase.
• Issue 3 while it may create some jobs, will also endanger many current public sector jobs through its long term impact on the Ohio budget and deep cuts of both government and programmatic social service positions.
• Issue 3 is written by large corporate interests interested in investing in Ohio casinos and sets a dangerous precedent in which Ohio's Constitution can be altered for corporate gains by writing the rules for their own profit-making.
• Gambling in general creates a disparate impact on already burdened low income households and brings with it associated social ills including addictions and crime.

With today's announcement ProgressOhio will fully engage with coalition partners on both the left and right, religious leaders and other allied groups in an effort to defeat Issue 3 this November.

"We will make available our online and earned media services as well as our many advocacy tools to educate and engage our members who wish to be active in this effort," said Rothenberg.

ProgressOhio.org is a 501 c4 organization that has previously worked in coalition on ballot issues including last year's defeat of the PayDay Lending Referendum.

Do you ever think to yourself, "Wow, if I had a dime for every time Glenn Beck said something stupid…"?

Well, our friends at CREDO, the progressive mobile phone company, have figured out a way to put all those right wing nuts to work for progressive causes.

They've put together a weekly news quiz called "OMG GOP WTF?!" And this week only, every time you answer a question correctly, our friends at TrueMajority get 10 cents. There are five questions, so that means that if we get 1,000 people to take the quiz and you score okay…TrueMajority will get $500 dollars.

Check out the quiz!

Finally, everything you know about conservative claptrap can be put to good use AND help our friends at TrueMajority raise some dough, quickly and easily.

But you'll want to move fast. This week's quiz will benefit TrueMajority, but that's only until September 27. Next week, it will be a new set of questions and a new organization, so don't wait!

Check it out right now.

Thanks for turning conservative claptrap into progressive profit.

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.

ProgressOhio Statement on Jon Husted Residency Ruling

Complainant in Case Decries Husted's 'Special Rights'

Statement from Brian Rothenberg, Executive Director of ProgressOhio and a complainant in the Jon Husted residency case:

"The fundamental issue here remains: do public officials have special residency rights when it comes to voting?

We filed this complaint because the Franklin County Prosecutor was pursuing charges against Vote From Home students for registering to vote at a home in which they were living in and working out of.

I'm sure this will ultimately decided by Courts, but those young kids were disenfranchised during the Presidential Election, and Mr. Husted's vote still stands.

There is something fundamentally wrong with granting Elected Officials 'special rights' that the rest of us don't have."

A copy of ProgressOhio's original complaint is available online here.

A video of Husted's original deposition, that shows where his statements conflict with the Ohio Revised Code, is available here.

Our national network, ProgressNow is kicking off a nationwide Help Obama Change America campaign and book-launch this week.

Can you help by participating below?

All proceeds from the book help cover the technology costs for Progress Florida and other ProgressNow state partners to help build and activate the progressive grassroots movement online, state by state.

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Dear Neighbor,

With Congress reconvening next week and progressive values under attack in Washington, what can you do to help?

Click the following to buy a copy of "50 Ways You Can Help Obama Change America" which debuts in bookstores across the country this week:

http://www.amazon.com/Ways-Help-Obama-Change-America/dp/0981709176/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1249668626&sr=8-6

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/50-Ways-You-Can-Help-Obama-Change-America/Michael-Huttner/e/9780981709178/?itm=2

http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780981709178  (links to independent bookstores in your area)

To help President Obama pass health care reform, enact his other core campaign promises, and move the country forward, we are collecting individual ideas and stories on how to help President Obama change America, for the better:

www.50WaysYouCanHelpObama.com

We are honored that the late Senator Ted Kennedy endorsed 50 Ways:

"In 50 Ways You Can Help Obama Change America, Michael Huttner and Jason Salzman have given us a practical handbook on how every American can do something for our country.  This book should be required reading for anyone interested in making a difference and helping President Obama get our nation back on track." -- Senator Edward M. Kennedy

We will provide prizes for many of you who enter your story and/or your ideas on how to change this country including a grand-prize of a trip for two to Honolulu, Hawaii for a private tour of the hospital where President Obama was born, followed by an opportunity to take part in a community service project there on MLK Day of Service, January 18, 2010.

Send us your stories by September 30. The winners will be announced on November 4, 2009 - one year to the day that Obama gave his memorable victory speech in Chicago.

Visit www.50WaysYouCanHelpObama.com or join us on Facebook at Help Obama Change America as we highlight with the national media what people are doing to help take advantage of an appetite for change unlike anything we've seen in our lifetimes.

Sincerely,

Michael Huttner
Founder, ProgressNow
Author, 50 Ways You Can Help Obama Change America

# # #

Praise for 50 Ways You Can Help Obama Change America:

"In 50 Ways You Can Help Obama Change America, Michael Huttner and Jason Salzman have given us a practical handbook on how every American can do something for our country.  This book should be required reading for anyone interested in making a difference and helping President Obama get our nation back on track."

--The late Senator Edward M. Kennedy

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"Paul Simon gave us 50 ways to leave your lover.  Huttner and Salzman give us 50 ways to leave your country a better place.  A remarkably useful resource."

--Arianna Huffington, Founder and Editor in Chief, The Huffington Post

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"The historic election of President Obama marks a new chapter in American history, but it's only the beginning.  This book offers every American straightforward ways to help bring real, lasting change."

-- Congresswoman Donna F. Edwards
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For more information download a flyer.

Download the driving directions and map to the Columbus State house here.

Below is bus departure information if you need a ride to the Statehouse.

COLUMBUS – Ohioans should take note at the hypocrisy of today’s announced location of former Rep. John Kasich’s announced run for Governor. 

Kasich, whose rhetoric has lately attacked government spending, advocated for an additional $10 billion hole in Ohio’s budget and spent years as a television commentator railing against government spending, hypocritically has chosen a government funded site for his announcement. 

Kasich makes his announcement today for Governor at the site of a former manufacturing plant purchased by the government from the private sector. 

Kasich’s venue of choice, Everal Barn and Homestead, has been a three-time beneficiary of federal and state grants. What’s more, Westerville, the city that Kasich calls home, praises a hefty income tax increase as the only reason that Everal Barn is “what we see it as today.” 

From the city of Westerville’s official website:

After 1912, with the clay supply depleted, the plant closed but the farm continued to operate. Through time, the farm passed into the hands of several different owners and in 1973, the City of Westerville took an interest in the property. That year, the Historical Society applied for national historic site designation and received that recognition in 1975. In 1978, John Antrim donated his portion of interest to the City of Westerville to be used as a park. The remaining interest was purchased from Fred Miller through a federal grant administered through the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR).  

The Parks and Recreation Department received a historic preservation matching grant in 1981, and in 1998, the Department received a NatureWorks Grant through ODNR. After the citizen-driven PROS 2000 income tax increase was passed in 1998, the real work began in transforming the Everal Barn and Homestead into what we see it as today, a truly unique setting where heritage and hospitality meet.

Kasich is a proponent of eliminating Ohio’s income tax, which would rob Ohio of one third of its revenue at a time Ohio already faces unprecedented cuts in social services and education funding.

Brian Rothenberg, Executive Director at ProgressOhio said,

“John Kasich will be driven to today’s event down public roads, paid for with public funds and kept safe by civil servants. He will speak at a venue that his adopted hometown has restored thanks to an income tax and multiple state and federal grants which he himself helped fund in his years as a State legislator and Congressmen.

It shouldn’t take a Managing Director from Lehman Brothers to figure out that it takes public funds to add to the public good and regardless of his announcement – we hope he would acknowledge the hypocrisy in his rhetoric.”

“Regardless of who runs for Governor, Ohioans need the hypocrisy of rhetoric to tone down, and a realistic dialogue on Ohio’s future.”

“What we don’t need are more bumper sticker slogans delivered in hypocritical fashion from a soap box funded by the very funds a candidate disavows.”

For all the details and to RSVP, click here.

Thousands of people will be on hand for this rally.

Let us know that you'll be there too.

Join us in welcoming the new Secretary of Education and a new day for Ohio's schools.