Category Archives: ~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Pregnant Workers Deserve Better – Take Action


National Women's Law Center
 http://www.nwlc.org/our-issues
Tell Congress: Pregnant Workers Deserve Better
                Tell your Members of Congress to co-sponsor the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act to ensure that pregnant women are treated fairly on the job.
Take Action

Did you hear the good news?
Last week, the Senate introduced the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act to ensure that pregnant women aren’t forced out of their jobs.
But just because a bill was introduced doesn’t mean it will move unless we turn the pressure up. That’s where you come in.
Take Action: Please Contact Your Members of Congress today and ask them to co-sponsor the bill. The more co-sponsors, the more likely this bill will move forward.
Forty years ago, women were expected to quit their jobs when they became pregnant. Back then, pregnancy was widely regarded as a disabling condition.
Today, it is now a well-accepted fact that most women remain perfectly healthy and able to work throughout their pregnancies, and since 1978 pregnancy discrimination has been illegal. Yet women in physically demanding jobs are STILL being forced out of the workplace, just because they need temporary, minor modifications to their job duties during pregnancy. As a result, expectant mothers are losing their jobs when they can least afford it.
Here are three startling examples:

  • Heather got fired from Wal-Mart for carrying a water bottle.
  • Natasha was forced onto unpaid leave and then fired because her district manager at Rent-A-Center found out she needed help with occasional heavy lifting on the sales floor.
  • Sarah lost her job at a fast food restaurant for taking bathroom and water breaks.

And what do all of these women have in common? All three needed only minor accommodations to continue safely working during pregnancy. But because their employers refused, all three were forced out of work.
That’s why we need to build support for the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act. Please join us by asking your Members of Congress to co-sponsor the bill.
Thank you for your help!
Sincerely,
Emily J. Martin Emily J. Martin Vice President and General Counsel National Women’s Law Center   

P.S. Fired up? Help spread the word by forwarding this action alert to friends, family and colleagues.
P.P.S. Need more info? Check out NWLC’s resources on the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act.
~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Official GOOGLE blog


Celebrating the spirit of entrepreneurship with the new Google for Entrepreneurs

Image representing Google as depicted in Crunc...
Image via CrunchBase
Startups and entrepreneurs have the power to build technologies and creative solutions that transform the world and move us forward. Innovation is happening everywhere: There are approximately 400 million entrepreneurs across 54 countries, and 69 million early-stage entrepreneurs offering new products and services. As Google turns 14 this month, we’re celebrating this creative spirit and officially launching Google for Entrepreneurs, the umbrella for our several dozen programs and partnerships around the world that support startups and entrepreneurs.
Our focus is threefold:

  1. Partnerships with strong organizations that serve entrepreneurs in local communities
  2. Google-led programs to bring our teams and our tools directly to entrepreneurs
  3. Placing relevant Google tools in the hands of startups as they are getting off the ground and ready to scale

We’re already on a roll, with current projects ranging from support for the annual journey of entrepreneurship through India by train, to partnering with a number of accelerator and incubator programs around the world, like iHub in Kenya and Le Camping in France. And, this week, we’re rolling out our newest partnership: teaming up with Women 2.0 to bring their Founder Friday events to more cities. These events bring together current and aspiring female entrepreneurs once a month to connect with mentors and one another to build community. We’re partnering to launch Founder Fridays in Detroit, New Orleans, Sao Paulo and Moscow over the next year.
To celebrate both our birthday and the spirit of entrepreneurship that’s helped get us where we are today, we are hosting our first annual Google for Entrepreneurs Week, which will bring together more than 3,000 entrepreneurs and Googlers around the world. We kicked off over the weekend with a Startup Weekend event hosted at the Google Ventures Startup Lab in Mountain View, Calif., where Bay Area entrepreneurs came together to create their own startups in 54 hours. Over the course of the next week, Googlers in 28 cities across 13 countries will be hosting an event in their communities to bring their passion and expertise to local entrepreneurs. We’re teaming with a number of partners to make this happen, including the Idea Village in New Orleans, Communitech in Waterloo, Tetuan Valley in Wroclaw, the Branson Centre of Entrepreneurship in Johannesburg and the Council Bluffs Chamber of Commerce in Iowa.
For more on these existing programs and to stay connected on upcoming events, visit google.com/entrepreneurs and follow us on G+.
Posted by Mary Grove, Head of Global Entrepreneurship Outreach

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

The President’s Weekly Address


whitehouse has uploaded Weekly Address: Congress Must Act to Create Jobs and Grow the Economy.
Weekly Address: Congress Must Act to Create Jobs and Grow the Economy
President Obama describes how the House of Representatives left town without finishing important work that would create jobs and strengthen our economy.
~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Weekly Digest Bulletin … USA.gov


Congress.gov Launched Today – New Website for Finding Free Legislative Information

The Library of Congress unveiled Congress.gov today. It’s a new website that will eventually replace THOMAS.gov as the government’s site for accessing free, fact-based legislative information.

The Congress.gov site includes bill status and summary, bill text, House and Senate member profiles, and a number of new features, including effective display on mobile devices. Learn more about the new site.

Explore Congress.gov now.

Pollution Prevention Week – Find Out How You Can Prevent Pollution

It’s Pollution Prevention Week. The best way to protect the Earth and its people is to stop creating pollution in the first place – that realization became America’s official policy in 1990 with the Federal Pollution Prevention Act’s, declaration that, “Pollution should be prevented or reduced at its source, whenever possible.”

Learn how to prevent pollution at home, work and at school.

Current Travel Warnings from the State Department

The U.S. State Department recommends that Americans avoid or consider the risk of travel to certain countries.

These travel warnings are issued when:

  • long-term, protracted conditions make a country dangerous or unstable.
  • the U.S. Government‘s ability to assist American citizens is constrained due to the closure of an embassy or consulate or because of a drawdown of its staff.

See the current list of countries.

2014 Diversity Visa Lottery Registration is from October 2 – November 3

Online registration for the 2014 Diversity Visa Lottery will begin on Tuesday, October 2, 2012 at 12:00 noon, Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) (GMT-4), and end on Saturday, November 3, 2012 at 12:00 noon, Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) (GMT-4).

This congressionally mandated program makes available up to 55,000 diversity visas every year. Winners are randomly drawn from the people who enter and meet strict eligibility requirements. In order to be eligible, you must be from a country with low rates of immigration to the United States and meet the education or work experience requirements.

If you plan to apply, watch out for fraudulent websites posing as official U.S. government websites. Some companies posing as the U.S. government have sought money in order to “complete” DV entry forms. There is no charge to download and complete the Electronic Diversity Visa Entry Form. To learn more, see the Department of State warning.

Find out if you’re eligible to enter the Diversity Visa Lottery and learn how to apply.

If You’re Feeling Anxious or Depressed, You Can Find Help

More than 350,000 people took their own lives in the past year, and today we are losing more military soldiers to suicide than battle, according to Secretary of Army, John McHugh, who recently briefed America on the National Suicide Prevention Strategy.

If you or someone you know is feeling anxious or depressed, you can call the National Suicide Prevention Hotline 24 hours a day at 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or you can chat with a counselor online.

Veterans and their families can call 1-800-273-8255 or go to Veterans Crisis Line for help preventing suicide.