ProgressOhio

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act) was signed into law on February 17, 2009. The Broadband Initiatives funded in the Act are intended to accelerate broadband deployment across the United States.

The Recovery Act authorizes the FCC to create a National Broadband Plan, that “shall seek to ensure that all people of the United States have access to broadband capability and shall establish benchmarks for meeting that goal.” Learn More...

Lat week the FCC launched a set of digital tools -- the Consumer Broadband Test and the Broadband Dead Zone Report -- enabling consumers to test their broadband service and report areas where broadband is not available for purchase at their household.

The FCC Consumer Broadband Test, currently in beta, allows users to measure the quality of their broadband connections in real-time for both fixed and mobile broadband.   The broadband test measures broadband quality indicators such as speed and latency, and reports that information to consumers and the FCC.  Test your broadband quality now at www.broadband.gov, or download the new FCC Broadband Test app in the Apple and Android App stores now for free.

U.S. Representative Mary Jo Kilroy explains why putting the CFPA at the Fed is the wrong approach.

When it comes to protecting consumers against predatory financial practices, the Federal Reserve sat on its hands while credit card companies perpetrated abuse after abuse against the American public.

During the most severe economic crisis in modern memory, credit card companies assessed billions in fees and penalties against the American public — lining their Wall Street pockets with money that could have been used to pay for groceries, mortgage payments, or job training.

In fact, it took pressure from Congress, which passed the “Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act of 2009,” for the Fed to finally regulate the credit card companies to address such egregious practices as arbitrary interest rate increases, universal default on existing balances, rate hikes on existing balances, and deceptive due-date gimmicks.

Relief could not have come soon enough. According to the non-partisan Pew Health Group’s Safe Credit Cards Project, just two of these now banned practices - retroactive rate increases and “hair-trigger” penalty interest rates - were costing consumers a minimum of $10 billion per year.

Sadly, it didn’t take long for credit card companies to find new ways to exploit consumers. In a 2009 report, the Center for Responsible Lending identified eight new tricks credit card companies had come up with that span across more than four hundred million accounts.

It is because of these unchecked abusive practices that I voted to establish the Consumer Financial Protection Agency (CFPA) - a new, independent federal agency solely devoted to protecting Americans from unfair and abusive financial products and services, including payday lending and predatory subprime mortgage originators.

The creation of the CFPA, which is a critical part of the larger Wall Street reform measures, will finally put the interests of consumers at the forefront of the federal government’s enforcement efforts by promoting a fair and transparent marketplace for financial products to safeguard the American public from abusive industry tactics.

Most importantly, the CFPA, because its sole focus will be consumer financial protection, will be able to match the credit card companies in terms of speed and scope, putting the interest of American families first.

So you can imagine my reaction when reports surfaced that the Senate is considering stripping the CFPA of its proposed independence and housing it under - you guessed it - the Fed. After years of ineptitude, the Senate wants to give the Fed a promotion.

I hope the Senate does the right thing by fighting for a strong, independent CFPA that will protect the American public against Wall Street and the banking lobby - an industry which has worked tirelessly to prevent any real reform of the financial industry, even after its reckless ways forced the American public to bail it out.

The CFPA represents our best chance to stand up against Wall Street’s predatory practices. Let’s not waste it by punting the protection of the American public to an institution trusted even less than the credit card companies.

U.S. Representative Mary Jo Kilroy represents the 15th congressional district of Ohio.

~ Roosevelt Institute

It looks like Big Pharma is ready to take in a lot of money...

From Aude Sapere:

As the thinking world is learning the H1N1 scare was just that, a big scare. We know now that this was a contrived plot launched by the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control to help mitigate the huge amount of money big pharma invested into this spurious vaccine, which on the front end funded weak academic research and padded a few of those Post hole Diddlers pockets.

Now it looks like the those same Post hole Diddlers want a little bit more money. At the moment they are working to make the flu vaccine mandatory for all Americans, even those between the ages of 16 to 49 years. Think about how much money the academic community and big pharma will make off of this scam when you consider there is 304,059,724 people living in the US.

Senator Sherrod Brown stands up for the workers at the Hugo Boss plant in Cleveland.

In the middle of negotiations to save the plant, Hugo Boss announced it was closing shop and sending their jobs overseas.

Stand up with Senator Brown as he stands up for Hugo Boss workers!

Tell Chief Operating Officer Andreas Stockert to keep the Cleveland plant open and hard-working Americans on the job!

Andreas_Stockert@HugoBoss.com
212-940-0600

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The Green Party of Ohio endorses, supports and seeks to implement an Agriculture Policy in the State of Ohio that follows basic Green principles that will insure a healthy food supply in Ohio.

We remain concerned about the Constitutional Amendment approved in November 2009 creating an Ohio Livestock Care Standards Board, largely appointed by the Governor,for establishing standards governing the care and well-being of livestock and poultry in this state; the concern is that this board could put the economic interests of factory farms ahead of the welfare of farm animals and prevent certain animal care reform proposed by national animal rights organizations.

BROOKLYN, OH. – U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) met with workers and union leaders at the Hugo Boss plant in Brooklyn today. The site is home to the only U.S. manufacturing facility of the German company, which announced it would shutter operations at the Brooklyn facility in April 2010. Brown discussed the future of the plant and outlined ways to support the Northeast Ohio economy during this time.

“Ohio workers and the Brooklyn community deserve a fair shake from Hugo Boss,” Brown said. “If Hugo Boss plans on continuing to sell a large volume of its clothes in America, the company should think long and hard before closing its only U.S. manufacturing facility. Ohio workers – and American consumers – deserve better.”

Last month, Hugo Boss announced that 300 workers would be affected by the closure. Hugo Boss plans on moving its production operations to low-wage facilities overseas.

Keep Cleveland Working: Hugo Boss Protest

Beachwood: Hugo Boss workers protest near Nordstrom store

BEACHWOOD -- In the bitter cold, Hugo Boss workers urged Nordstrom customers and managers to call upon Hugo Boss not to close its Brooklyn, Ohio plant.

On the fashion runways of Europe, clothing manufacturer Hugo Boss is constantly trying to maintain a sleek, edgy look.

But with wind chills in the single digits on the snowy sidewalk outside Beachwood Place, there was nothing sleek or edgy about the look of the protesters.

"Keep Cleveland working," the crowd chanted and encouraged passing motorists to honk their horns in support.

With the nearby mall security guards on high alert, the demonstrators said they want Nordstrom customers to know what the German Hugo Boss company is doing to their Cleveland workers.

Lydia Perez has been making suits for Hugo Boss in Brooklyn for the last 14 years. "Finding another job is going to be hard," said Perez.

She added, "and I'm going to hate to leave."

When asked why not take less money and keep her job, Perez responded, "No, no, we can't afford it. I mean I got kids."

Co-worker Anthony Senart agreed. "Can you feed your family for 8 dollars an hour? It would be hard," said Senart.

His eyes glistening in the cold wind, he said, "We work hard and we make high quality suits. Hugo Boss profits off of us. So why do we deserve a pay cut? We make the company money."

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[Officials [police] said they were at the site to talk to a supervisor about undocumented workers, but while there Rodriguez and others were interrogated and asked to provide identification, said Rodriguez’s attorney, Al Gerhardstein. Gerhardstein said his client, who had lived in Butler County for 11 years, was arrested and charged with providing a false identification and was deported to Mexico, though he was later acquitted of the charge.

Rodriguez is seeking damages and also trying to establish the principle that there aren’t any exceptions to the Fourth or 14th amendments.

Jones is co-chair of Republican Senate candidate Rob Portman’s law enforcement coalition.

“Rob Portman understands that we are a nation of laws and that fighting crime requires efforts at all levels of government,” Jones said. “I am proud to support his campaign for U.S. Senate.”

More on Sheriff Jones Here

President Obama holds a town hall meeting in Elyria, OH and vows to continuing fighting for issues for the middle class including health reform

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Union leaders vow to fight closing of Hugo Boss plant in Brooklyn, Ohio

The union that represents workers at the Hugo Boss plant here will fight the company’s decision — announced Tuesday — to close the plant.

That’s what Bruce Raynor, president of Workers United, Service Employees International Union, told the Sun Post Tuesday afternoon.

Raynor said Hugo Boss — a clothing manufacturer headquartered in Metzingen, Germany — plans to send Brooklyn jobs overseas.

"This is a sweatshop company putting American workers on the street to exploit workers in poor countries and send the profits back to Germany," Raynor said.

Raynor said overseas workers will earn less than $1 an hour working for Hugo Boss. He said the union will start a campaign to educate consumers on how the company operates.

"The union intends to resist this (Brooklyn plant) closing with everything at our disposal," Raynor said.

Hugo Boss spends millions on sports sponsorships like competitive sailing, tennis, golf, auto racing, and soccer.

And yet they'd like you to believe that they can no longer afford to employ suit manufacturing workers in the U.S.

Don't believe them.

Watch It:

Hugo Boss made more than $140 million in profits in the first nine months of 2009, according to the company's third-quarter report. The company paid shareholders more than $135 million in dividends last year, on top of a huge dividend of $637 million in 2008.

The amount Hugo Boss says it is trying to save by closing its U.S. suit manufacturing plant is only a few million dollars... a drop in the Hugo Boss bucket.

Tell Hugo Boss Chief Operating Officer Dr. Andreas Stockert to keep the company's U.S. suit manufacturing plant open and keep hard-working Americans on the job.

Andreas_Stockert@HugoBoss.com

212-940-0600

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.