Tag Archives: Business

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Background Checks : 350K Signatures needed ~~ The Other Washington


 

We’re hitting the streets of Washington to collect 350,000 signatures — that’s 5% of Washington’s total population — to put criminal background checks before voters in November.

This won’t be easy. We can only succeed if everyone pitches in. We need your help to not only to sign the petition yourself, but to sign up your friends and family too.

Can we count on you to add your name to our petition, and sign up four others? Click here to request your petition form today!

Unfortunately, because of certain state restrictions, we have to mail you the form instead of having you just download it. (On the plus side, you don’t need to worry about your printer being out of toner!)

Once you sign up for a petition form, you’ll receive it in the mail in four to five business days. Collect a few signatures, and mail the form back to us. Even if you only collect one signature, that one signature will bring us one step closer to our goal.

Click here to sign up for your petition form, and help us reach the 350,000 signatures we need to get I-594 on the ballot.

Thanks to your generous support, we’ve made it this far. We won in court, and now we need to spread the word, start talking to our neighbors and coworkers, and collect the crucial signatures that will bring criminal background checks to the voting booth.

We can’t do this without you.

It all begins with one signature — yours.

Talk to you soon,

Zach Silk

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

a message from Gov.Jay Inslee


mapofWashingtonstate

As we wrap up the second week of our second special session, I want to share an update from Olympia.

While quite a bit of time has passed, my priorities remain the same. Every day, I am working to protect our commitment to funding education, while keeping our vital services to our most vulnerable intact, and every day, I’m pushing to pass a transportation package to protect our communities and grow jobs.

All over the state, Washington’s transportation infrastructure helps people get to work, moves crops from the field to the store, and carries freight to market.

Keeping that system safe and strong is mission critical to our state’s economy and it’s one of state government’s most important responsibilities. The recent Skagit Bridge collapse is a stark reminder of the critical role our transportation system plays in our communities and economy.

My team, along with a diverse coalition of stakeholders, is working day and night to get a transportation package passed that keeps Washington moving forward.

But this isn’t just about supporting the economic activity moving through our transportation system — it’s also about the jobs a transportation package would create. If we can come together in Olympia and pass a strong transportation package, it will generate well-paying, middle-class jobs in every corner of the state and help jump start Washington’s economic recovery.

My team and I are also working hard to support our long-term economic recovery by meeting our moral and constitutional duty to fully fund our kids’ education. My budget principles continue to reflect my values — making sure our kids get the best education without continuing to slash the critical services kids need to help them be successful in school.

Your support, and your commitment to the values we fought for during my campaign, helps me stand strong for our shared beliefs every day.

As the budget deadline nears and we seek to avoid a government shutdown, I will continue to insist on a budget compromise that reflects our values. Thank you for your continued engagement. I’ll keep you posted.

Very truly yours,

Jay Inslee

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Zach Silk, Washington Alliance for Gun Responsibility


We can do this.

We can make Washington safer for all of us — and our families — by requiring all gun purchasers to pass a simple criminal background check.

Sure, a small group of very powerful lobbyists have managed to pull enough strings to stop commonsense reforms in D.C. so far, but when 80% of Washingtonians support criminal background checks, there are not enough big campaign contributions in the world to stop us from doing what’s right.

So we’re going to get this done — and we need your help, right now, to make sure it happens.

www.wagunresponsibility.org

That’s it. That’s all you need to do.

It may seem like just a few mouse clicks, or phone taps, but standing up to the big money lobbyists — right now — and showing your fellow Washingtonians that you are one of the eight in ten who demand such a simple, but powerful, reform will make all the difference.

If each one of us speaks up — there’s no way that anyone can stop us.

www.wagunresponsibility.org

We’re going to get this done. And it’s all because you took a moment, right now, to say that it is time for reform.

Thank you,

Zach

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

How a pilot project can save taxpayers 30 percent


The White House

How a pilot project can save taxpayers 30 percent

America’s small information technology firms are some of the most innovative in the world. They are nimble, creative and can get the job done. And thanks to a new online government platform, it is getting easier for them to address some of the Federal Government’s most pressing IT needs.

It’s a win-win: Small technology companies get easier access to the Federal Government’s nearly $77 billion information technology supply chain, providing a potentially critical revenue stream as they build their operations. And government agencies get to work with innovative small firms with solutions that can help make government agencies more efficient and streamlined.

The catalyst for these connections is an exciting new pilot project called RFP-EZ. And the results we are seeing from this program highlight what is possible when you unleash the power of American entrepreneurs.

RFP-EZ is a new and easy way for companies to learn about and compete for government contracts – in particular, small companies that lack the experience or administrative support generally needed to take full advantage of the Government’s Request for Proposals (RFP) process, the means by which many government contract offerings are presented to the business community. The RFP-EZ platform was developed jointly by Federal innovators working in the SBA and private-sector entrepreneurs serving temporary stints in the Federal Government through the Presidential Innovation Fellows program, launched by the U.S Chief Technology Officer and Chief Information Officer team last year. Sharing their private- and public-sector insights, the team developed RFP-EZ as a simplified platform aimed at opening up the Government marketplace to a wider range of companies and saving taxpayer money.

Applying agile development principles, the Fellows team designed RFP-EZ over a six-month period, publishing the platform’s code openly on GitHub. The team then launched the pilot by posting five relatively simple website development and database contract offerings, four of which were also announced via the standard government portal, FedBizOps. On a per-project basis, bids received through RFP-EZ were consistently lower than those received through FedBizOps—19% to 41% lower, and over 30% lower on average. Bids made through RFP-EZ also showed less overall variation. In addition, during the pilot period, RFP-EZ attracted more than 270 businesses that until now had never approached the world of Federal contracting.

RFP-EZ chart

According to Office of Management and Budget’s IT Dashboard, the Federal Government will spend more than $1.4 billion on Web Infrastructure and Web Content Management Systems in FY 2014. Based on 2011 and 2012 results, we can expect about half of these projects to be under the $150,000 “Simplified Acquisition Threshold” that would make them eligible for contracting through RFP-EZ.

As we refine and expand the use of RFP-EZ, we are confident that its success will grow, delivering better value for taxpayers and opening new opportunities for small businesses.

Leveraging feedback we received from entrepreneurs and Federal contracting officers, the next class of Presidential Innovation Fellows will begin work on version 2.0 of RFP-EZ, which will focus on improving the platform, scaling its initial results across the Federal Government, and adding innovative new capabilities. If your business would like to participate, we encourage you to get started by setting up a profile on RFP-EZ today. To all the businesses that submitted proposals through RFP-EZ and everyone who has given us feedback on the project, thank you for helping to bring this new capability to life – and we very much look forward to the path ahead.

Thanks,

Todd

Todd Park Chief Technology Officer Office of Science and Technology Policy The White House

~ FDA/USDA ~~ Alerts & Safety, ~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA)


English: Logo of the .
English: Logo of the . (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
 
05/10/2013 09:37 AM EDT
Krinos Foods, LLC. of Long Island City, New York is voluntarily recalling its TAHINI sesame paste, because it has the potential to be contaminated with Salmonella, an organism which can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in young children, frail or elderly people, and others with weakened immune systems. Healthy persons infected with Salmonella often experience fever, diarrhea (which may be bloody), nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain. In rare circumstances, infection with Salmonella can result in the organism getting into the bloodstream and producing more severe illnesses such as arterial infections (i.e., infected aneurysms), endocarditis and arthritis.
 
05/10/2013 08:53 AM EDT
Dairy Fresh is voluntarily recalling a specific batch of IGA Brand “Vanilla & Chocolate” Ice Cream (1.75 quart, 1.66L) with the plant code “3783” and a SELL BY date of 08-13-13 because it incorrectly contains Heavenly Hash ice cream, which contains almonds, coconut, and soy, which are allergens not declared on the carton. People who have an allergy or severe sensitivity to almonds, coconut, or soy run the risk of serious or life-threatening allergic reaction if they consume this product.
 
05/09/2013 05:28 PM EDT
Bimeda Inc., on behalf of the manufacturer, Bimeda-MTC Animal Health Inc. is voluntarily recalling one lot of Calcium Gluconate, one lot of Dextrose 50%, and one lot of Hypertonic Saline, all of which are in the form of injectable fluids, to the user level. These injectable fluids are being recalled as a precautionary measure; because of departures from customary sterility procedures, sterility cannot be entirely assured.
 
 
05/09/2013 05:35 PM EDT
Today, Pure Herbs Ltd., Sterling Heights, MI is voluntarily recalling the 4oz and 1oz bottles of Protein Extract because they contain undeclared allergens – milk and soy. This labeling error was discovered during a routine Food and Drug Administration (FDA) inspection when a review of the ingredients found that milk and soy allergen ingredients were not listed on our main label.
 
 
05/09/2013 07:36 PM EDT
May 9, 2013 – CAMBRIDGE, MA. – Whole Foods Market is recalling bulk curried chicken salad and bulk vegan curried chick’n salad because in some stores these items may have been sold with reversed labels causing undeclared soy and egg allergens. Due to the label mix-up, allergens were undeclared; the vegan chick’n salad contains soy, and the curried chicken salad contains egg.
 
 
 
05/08/2013 05:19 PM EDT
Nutraceutical company XYMOGEN in Orlando, Fla., is recalling artriphen, a product recommended for the support of healthy joint function, because it contains traces of the undeclared allergens soy and milk.