Category Archives: ~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture


	Title IX Helped Leia Brugger



	Please help NWLC support the law. Donate today.

You’ve recently seen two important NWLC initiatives trumpeting the successes of Title IX in its 40th year: the Faces of Title IX website and our new report evaluating the help schools give pregnant and parenting students. But despite the advances we’ve made since Title IX became law in 1972, we still have a long way to go before its promise of equal access to educational opportunities is a reality for everyone.
Please donate $9 today to support the Center’s work on Title IX and so many other issues important to women and families.
The nine stories on the “Faces” website illustrate how the law has helped people over the last four decades, whether it’s a student like Leia Brugger facing bullying in school, a young woman pressured to leave school after becoming pregnant or a teenage runner physically blocked by a race official. “Faces of Title IX” explains the law through powerful words and images.
Our comprehensive and well researched report on pregnant and parenting students, “A Pregnancy Test for Schools: The Impact of Education Laws on Pregnant and Parenting Students,” ranks all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico on the extent to which their laws and policies help pregnant and parenting students succeed. Plus, it offers a toolkit for local action and recommendations for federal, state, and local policymakers and school officials.
The “Faces” site and the report on pregnant and parenting students work in concert: one shows you Title IX in action, while the other tells you how well schools and states are doing as they try to implement one of its most important provisions. Together, they reach the heart AND the head.
Help us produce vital resources like these: please donate $9 today to support the Center’s work on Title IX and so many other issues important to women and girls.
Thank you for all that you do on behalf of women and our families.
Sincerely,

Fatima Goss Graves Vice President for Education and Employment National Women’s Law Center

P.S. Please support the Center’s work today — $9 will make a difference.

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Provisional Ballots … Know about your right to VOTE

06/27/2012 Nativegrl77

Provisional Balloting

1- 866- Our – VOTE

www.866ourvote.org

A provisional ballot is used to record a vote when there is some question about a voter’s eligibility. Provisional ballots may be utilized when the voter’s name is not on the voter list, the voter’s eligibility is challenged pursuant to state law, the voter is in the wrong polling place, or the voter cannot provide the ID required by federal or state law.

The Help America Vote Act of 2002 (“HAVA”) guarantees that any voter who shows up at the polling place, anywhere in the country, who is not able to cast a regular ballot is given a provisional ballot. After the election, the appropriate state or local election entity will determine if the voter was eligible using the information on the provisional ballot envelope, voter registration records and any other available source. If the election entity determines the voter was eligible, it will count the vote and notify the voter of the outcome. Additionally, under HAVA, any time polling hours are extended, voters are required to vote using provisional ballots.¹

In the 2004 election, 1.9 million U.S. voters cast provisional ballots. However, only 1.2 million (64.5%) of these provisional ballots were counted.²

Provisional balloting allows voters to meaningfully exercise their right to vote on Election Day, but there are problems. First, many poll workers are not trained properly with regards to provisional balloting. They frequently fail to inform voters of their right to cast a provisional ballot give voters incorrect ballots and misinform voters about how to use provisional ballots or whether and under what circumstances their provisional ballot will count. Second, there is a lack of clear and uniform standards for counting provisional ballots, especially on the issue of whether or not to count provisional ballots cast outside a voter’s assigned precinct. Twenty-seven states do not count provisional ballots cast in the wrong precinct, while seventeen states count provisional ballots as long as they are cast in the correct county. The issue of whether to count provisional ballots cast in the wrong precinct has a tremendous effect on election results. A study conducted after the 2004 election indicates that jurisdictions that count provisional ballots cast in the wrong precinct count almost 72% of provisional ballots cast in the jurisdiction, while jurisdictions that only count provisional ballots cast in the right precinct count only half of all provisional ballots cast.³

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Here’s how to know if you’d qualify for refinancing

06/26/2012 Nativegrl77

The White House, Washington

Hello —President Obama’s plan to give mortgage relief to responsible homeowners boils down to one important principle. He wants to simplify the refinancingprocess.And the very first step is to let people know if they would benefit from the President’s proposal — so we’ve built a tool to help answer that question.Just enter a few basic facts about your mortgage, and this tool will help you figure out if you currently qualify for easy, low-cost refinancing — or whether, like millions of families, you need Congress to act to help you lower your interest rate.

Get started now.

As tens of thousands of people have spoken up and written in to the White House, we’ve heard one message loud and clear: The refinancing process is anything but easy to navigate.

Even homeowners who have done everything right and made all their payments on time are getting caught up in unnecessary red tape. Sitting down and reading through some of these stories is a powerful reminder of why it’s so important that we get this done right away.

One mom in Maryland, raising two teenage boys by herself, wrote in to say that she’s working 15 hour days to make her mortgage payments and keep current on her bills. Another family from Illinois is hoping to lower their mortgage payments so they can help pay for college for their kids. One woman in Arkansas called the President’s plan a “no brainer” and talked about how much good it would do for the broader economy.

So if you are like these people and think that both you and our economy could stand to benefit from the President’s refinancing plan, give the tool a try, then take a moment to share it with your friends:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/refi

Thanks,

Brian

Brian Deese
Deputy Director
National Economic Council

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

BREAKING: Supreme Court rules on SB1070 …Gabe Gonzalez, Reform Immigration FOR America

06/26/2012 Nativegrl77

Our next steps: Educate, mobilize, vote

Today, the Supreme Court has let stand the despicable “Papers, please” provision of Arizona’s SB 1070 that allows police to profile individuals based on the color of their skin.
The ruling follows last week’s courageous announcement on administrative relief for DREAMers. While the Obama administration endorses positive reform for our families, the Supreme Court decision supports discrimination over equality.
It’s time for us to hand down our decision. Now is the time to use the power of our movement to stand up for the only real solution for our broken system: comprehensive immigration reform.
How do we do that? Today we are kicking off the RI4A Organizing Project, a national initiative to educate, mobilize, and get out the vote.

Read the blog post -> http://act.reformimmigrationforamerica.org/go/1423?t=7&akid=906.164689.Ea5FBW
We must use our voices and our votes to educate our friends and families about key policies, mobilize our communities, and vote for pro-reform champions like never before.

If we do this, we can secure more victories and make comprehensive immigration reform a reality.

www.reformimmigrationforamerica.org

We have ambitious goals to push back against the national assault on immigrant communities — and your support will be critical to ensuring reform and justice for our families is a front and center priority, in 2012 and beyond.
Get involved today. The futures of our communities depend on it.

www.reformimmigrationforamerica.org
Forward,
Gabe Gonzalez Reform Immigration FOR America
PS: For more analysis on the Supreme Court’s ruling, read and share our latest blog post . We will keep it updated as we learn more about the decision.

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Nearly 2million public comments in support of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Carbon Pollution Standard

06/26/2012 Nativegrl77

Center for American Progress Action Fund

First Posted on 6/15Friends,

	Make Your Voice Heard!

An unprecedented event has occurred in the fight for cleaner air. This week, a broad coalition of environmental public health, and progressive organizations supporting clean air safeguards announced that they have collected nearly two million public comments in support of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Carbon Pollution Standard, which limits industrial carbon pollution from new power plants.
Make your voice heard! Join us and say “yes” to a healthier future for our children and our planet.Never before in history have so many Americans voiced their support for a healthier, cleaner future – but we still need your voice to make sure that the final version of the rule is as strong as possible, and that the attacks from corporate polluters are drowned out.
Every year, coal-fired power plants spew over two billion tons of carbon carbon and other toxic pollutants into the air —nearly 13,000 pounds for every man, woman, and child in the United States.
Carbon dioxide pollution is a greenhouse gas that leads to climate change. One of the consequences of climate change is more smog, which harms human health. Smog irritates the lungs, spurring respiratory ailments and sparking asthma attacks. Children, seniors, and those with respiratory diseases are most vulnerable to harm from smog. A National Research Council study placed the health costs from coal-electricity generation, including a rise in respiratory illnesses, at $62 billion annually.
With the proposed standard, though, a typical new coal-fired power plant would have to reduce its carbon pollution by 40 percent to 60 percent.
Now is the time for action! Send the EPA a public comment and let them know that you support cleaner power and cleaner air.
Thank you for taking action!
Daniel J. Weiss Senior Fellow and Director of Climate Strategy Center for American Progress Action Fund
P.S. Thank you if you have already sent the EPA your comments in support of the carbon pollution standard. Please forward this to friends and family to urge that they join you.