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Action for Fair Settlement


Campaign for a Fair Settlement a project of Action for the Common Good

Take Action

We need to make sure local communities can decide their economic futures.

Full scale Wall Street freak out.

Five years after Wall Street criminals destroyed our economy there are still millions of underwater homeowners and millions more foreclosures in the pipeline.

The good news is that Home Defenders and local elected officials have figured out an innovative way – called Local Principal Reduction – to deal with this problem. The bad news is that Wall Street criminals are in in full attack mode fighting as hard as they can to stop us.

Tell Wall Street bankers: Stop bullying communities advancing local principal reduction and cooperate in keeping struggling families in their homes.

Here’s what’s happening. We have figured out a way to purchase certain underwater loans, reset them to fair market value, and then get the homeowners into new, sustainable mortgages. The costs of the program are borne by the private funders who the cities are partnering with and the beneficiaries are the homeowners, with affordable mortgages and new equity, and our communities, with greater economic activity.

The key to making this program work for everyone is the use of eminent domain – the ability of a government to take property for the public benefit – to acquire the underwater mortgages if the Wall Street investors refuse to make a fair deal. And that’s what’s freaking Wall Street out.[3]

Tell Wall Street: End your outrageous efforts to block local principal reduction programs that will keep families in their homes and rebuild local economies.

We are facing a stark choice. Either we and our elected officials control our economic future, or Wall Street criminals and their banks do. It’s clear where Wall Street bankers stand. The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA), made up same old Wall Street bankers that brought you the foreclosure crisis, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, US Bank, etc., is bullying and threatening cities that are exploring local principal reduction programs including El Monte, La Puente, and Richmond, CA; and North Las Vegas, NV. [4]

But that’s not stopping us. Stand up and tell Wall Street criminals to keep their hands off of Main Street and help struggling homeowners rebuild their lives and their wealth.

This fight is just starting; Wall Street and SIFMA are committed to fighting as dirty as they can to keep this from happening. With your help Home Defenders and our cities will take bold and courageous action to build a future that works for all of us, starting with the struggling underwater homeowners in our own back yards.

In solidarity, Brian, Campaign for a Fair Settlement
http://www.campaignforfairsettlement.org/

[1] http://www.marketwatch.com/story/underwater-mortgage-percentage-falls-below-20-2013-06-12

[2] http://www.newbottomline.com/underwater_mortgages_and_1_million_jobs

[3] Robert Kuttner “Seize the mortgages, save the neighborhood” Los Angeles Times. http://articles.latimes.com/2013/jun/29/opinion/la-oe-kuttner-eminent-domain-mortgages-20130630

[4] Peter Dreier “To Rescue Local Economies, Cities Seize Underwater Mortgages Through Eminent Domain” Huffington Post. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/peter-dreier/to-rescue-local-economies_b_3614326.html

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News … from the Other Washington


WAseattleferriesdowntownbackground

Ballots are out for the Primary Election. While most of the races on Primary ballots are for city or county government, there is one race that will decide the fate of our state.

Nathan Schlicher of the 26th District is running this year to retain his seat in the State Senate. He is opposed by a high-profile, extreme, and well-funded candidate, State Representative Jan Angel.

If we want to see an end to the gridlock in Olympia caused by Rodney Tom and Senate Republicans, we need to stand behind Nathan today.

It’s critical that State Senator Nathan Schlicher has a strong showing in the Primary. Can you donate $5 today and help him reach Primary voters?

Nathan Schlicher has the momentum. His campaign has already knocked on over 21,000 doors and reached 50,000 people in his district.

At his campaign kickoff last week, Nathan was joined by 300 supporters, raised $20,000, and recruited 50 volunteers. The Nathan Schlicher campaign is off and running!

This is going to be a game won on the ground. The Nathan Shlicher campaign is ready, and now he needs our support.

There are only 12 days until the Primary, so there’s no time to waste. Help Nathan reach voters with a donation today.

Let’s build a Washington that is on track with our values – Help us retain Nathan Schlicher for State Senate.

Sincerely,

Dwight Pelz Washington State Democrats Chair

PS: Don’t forget to check out our Endorsement Finder to find Democratic Party endorsements for your Primary ballot.

Black History

the Senate breaks until 7/29 ~~ CONGRESS the House breaks until 7/30


EmptyhouseChamber

The Senate stands in adjournment until 2:00pm on Monday, July 29, 2013. 

Following any Leader remarks, the Senate will be in morning business until 4:30pm with Senators permitted to speak therein for up to 10 minutes each.

Following morning business, the Senate will resume consideration of S.1243, the Transportation, Housing and Urban Development and Related Agencies Appropriations bill.

At 4:30pm, the Senate will proceed to Executive Session to consider Executive Calendar #208, the nomination of James B. Comey, Jr., of Connecticut, to be Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigations with the time until 5:30pm equally divided and controlled between Senators Leahy and Grassley or their designees.

At 5:30pm, there will be a roll call vote on the motion to invoke cloture on the Comey nomination.

During Thursday’s session of the Senate cloture was filed on the following items in the following order:

–          Executive Calendar #208, the nomination of James B. Comey, Jr., of Connecticut, to be Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigations,

–          Executive Calendar #223, the nomination of Kent Yoshiho Hirozawa, of New York, to be a Member of the National Labor Relations Board,

–          Executive Calendar #224, the nomination of Nancy Jean Schiffer, of Maryland, to be a Member of the National Labor Relations Board, and

–          Executive Calendar #104, the nomination of Mark Gaston Pearce, of New York, to be a Member of the National Labor Relations Board.

If cloture is invoked on any of the nominations, there would be up to 8 hours of post-cloture debate time on each nomination.  Upon disposition of each nomination, the Senate will proceed to a cloture vote on the next nomination in the order listed above.

***********************************************************************

July 2013
S M T W T F S
1 2 3 4 5 6
7 8 9 10 11 12 13
14 15 16 17 18 19 20
21 22 23 24 25 26 27
28 29 30 31

***********************************************************************

Last Floor Action:
2:08:27 P.M. – The House adjourned
pursuant to a previous special order.

The next meeting is scheduled for 10:00
a.m. on July 26, 2013.

——————————————————————————————————————

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CAP Action War Room


By  CAP Action War Room

The Latest GOP Temper Tantrum

Today President Obama gave a major speech laying out a vision for growing the economy from the middle class out. (Watch this space for more on that tomorrow).

The president also used the speech to call out Republicans for having harmful plans or no plan at all when it comes to strengthening the middle class. In particular, the president chided Republicans for the millions of dollars and weeks of time they’ve wasted on dead-end Obamacare repeal votes while failing to lay out a positive economic agenda for the middle class:

Even if you think I’ve done everything wrong, the trends I just talked about were happening well before I took office.  So it’s not enough for you just to oppose me.  You got to be for something.  What are your ideas?  If you’re willing to work with me to strengthen American manufacturing and rebuild this country’s infrastructure, let’s go.  If you’ve got better ideas to bring down the cost of college for working families, let’s hear them.   If you think you have a better plan for making sure that every American has the security of quality, affordable health care, then stop taking meaningless repeal votes, and share your concrete ideas with the country. 

Repealing Obamacare and cutting spending is not an economic plan.  It’s not.

Unfortunately, 15 Republican senators are not just in favor of pointless Obamacare repeal votes, now they’re even threatening to shut down the government in order to prevent millions of Americans from gaining access to quality, affordable health care.

Meet the Senate GOP’s shutdown caucus:

BOTTOM LINE: Instead of looking for new ways to sabotage the economy and deny health care benefits to millions of Americans, it’s time for Republicans who disagree with the president to lay out their own agenda for strengthening the middle class. Progressives have a plan to grow the economy from the middle class out, it’s time for Republicans to propose something other than the failed trickle-down policies of the past.

Evening Brief: Important Stories That You Might’ve Missed

Conservatives gear up to keep top women’s rights advocate off key federal court.

Congresswoman says college affordability “is not the role of Congress.”

You won’t believe how much the melting Arctic will cost.

Bill O’Reilly blames civil rights leaders and “black culture” for crime.

This misplaced priorities of cable news.

Congressman doubles down on claim that undocumented youth are drug mules.

Five reasons to raise the minimum wage right now.

Pro-oil state suing oil giants for damage to wetlands.

Brazil’s shockingly high prices.

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a message from Gov. Inslee


English: , member of the United States House o...
English: , member of the United States House of Representatives (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

This year’s legislative session proved one important point: the Working Washington Agenda that we brought to Olympia is very different than that of the Republican controlled state Senate.

Surprised?

Well, all of the early talk about bipartisanship had me hoping we could move forward on issues that actually had bipartisan support like the DREAM Act, the Reproductive Parity Act, and fixing our transportation system.

Unfortunately, the Senate Majority Coalition was big on bipartisan rhetoric and short on action. None of these bills were ever brought to the Senate floor for a vote! Luckily we were able to prevent the state Senate from going backwards on many key funding and policy issues.

With your support we said, “no” to continued cuts to our most vulnerable citizens. And, together we said, “no” to policy that would have hurt working families and our environment.

In order to succeed, we’re going to have to face down the inertia and inaction we fought against during this past legislative session. They’re already gearing up to stop us from delivering on critical issues our state needs — like closing unnecessary tax loopholes, creating good paying jobs, and fully funding public education.

Will you contribute $5, $10, or more to help us end the Republican agenda, and make sure we are ready for what our opponents will throw at us?

I’m proud that, in spite of resistance from the Senate Republicans, we expanded Medicaid. I’m proud that we delivered an additional $1 billion in funding for our schools — a down payment required by our constitution to fully fund our children’s education. And I’m proud that we stopped our opponents from sneaking their out-of-step ideas into the budget.

Having you standing with me made that possible. But not everyone’s happy.

I will continue to fight to close unnecessary tax breaks in order to fund education for the long haul. Oil companies and Senate Republicans both know that I will continue to press on until we get it done.

Will you contribute $5, $10, or more to support us in this fight, and help us continue our Working Washington Agenda?

As you know, political campaigns do not end when you get elected. The grassroots movement we built during the campaign is essential as we work to build innovative industries that benefit all Washingtonians.

Your support today will give us the resources we need to get things done. Thank you for your tremendous support every day. Together we can accomplish hard things.

Very truly yours,

Jay Inslee Governor

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