Tag Archives: cable tv

More from 1600 Penn


What You Need to Know About the New Contraception Guidance:

This week, the Obama administration took important steps to eliminate any ambiguity around the reforms that the Affordable Care Act calls for. Under the law, most insurers must now cover at least one form of birth control with no out-of-pocket expenses in each identified category.

READ MORE

In Case You Missed It: The First Lady’s Powerful Remarks to Tuskegee University’s Class of 2015

This past Saturday, First Lady Michelle Obama delivered the commencement address to the Class of 2015 at Tuskegee University — a historically black university in Tuskegee, Alabama. Founded by Booker T. Washington in 1881, Tuskegee is the only university in America to be designated as a National Historic Site.

READ MORE

The White House Celebrates Entrepreneurs Around the World

President welcomed emerging entrepreneurs from across the country and around the world to the White House to honor their achievements in their fields of business. He also announced new commitments in support of the Spark Global Entrepreneurship Initiative — a bold goal of generating $1 billion in new investment for emerging entrepreneurs worldwide by 2017.

READ MORE

**********

“I am a black man who grew up without a father, and I know the costs that I paid for that.”

President Obama at yesterday’s discussion on poverty at Georgetown University

**********

Poverty and Opportunity in Your Community: What Are You Seeing?

This week, we want to hear from you about some of the pressing issues in your own community related to poverty and opportunity.

President Obama sat down with Harvard professor Robert Putnam and American Enterprise Institute president Arthur Brooks for a discussion on poverty, moderated by Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne. Now we want to hear from you on this important topic.

Share with us how these issues are playing out in your community, and how you think we can continue expanding opportunity for more Americans.

Overdue for Overtime


By

Millions of Americans Would Benefit From Expanding Overtime Pay

Americans are working harder and earning less. But finally, progress is being made on an often-overlooked policy that has a substantial effect on this trend: overtime pay. Last week, the Obama administration came one step closer to fulfilling an executive order to reform overtime rules. We don’t know the details of the proposed rule yet, but if President Obama restored federal overtime standards to its inflation adjusted 1975 level, workers earning up to $51,168 would qualify to earn overtime pay. That would mean up to 47 percent of the salaried workforce—6.1 million people—would have more money in their pockets or more time to spend with their friends and family.

The administration’s full proposal to expand the population eligible for overtime pay is now under review by to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). But there are still a few steps left in the process before the rule can become final. After the rule is reviewed by OMB, it will be published and then there will be a period during which interested parties can submit comments on the rule.

Americans are overdue for an overtime update. In 1975, more than 65 percent of salaried workers earned time-and-a-half pay for every hour worked over 40 hours. Today, only 11 percent do. The threshold for overtime pay has fallen so much that current overtime law, by definition, no longer covers the middle class. Only workers earning less than $23,660 a year—below the poverty line for a family of four—qualify for overtime pay.

Increasing eligibility for overtime pay makes sense, and Americans know it. Support for increasing the threshold for overtime pay is incredibly high, according to a new poll released today:

  • 73 percent of voters support some substantial increase in the overtime pay threshold.
  • 65 percent of voters think workers making up to $75,000 a year should receive overtime when working more than 40 hours a week, regardless of job classification.
  • 64 percent of all voters—and 54 percent of Republicans—said they are more likely to vote for leaders who support increasing the overtime threshold.

BOTTOM LINE: Americans deserve to be fairly compensated for their hard work. But instead, they are working harder and longer to stretch their earnings just to keep up with the cost of living. Our current overtime law is long overdue for an update and the Obama administration’s executive order would help millions of Americans get more money in their pockets or more time to spend with their friends and family.

My son Travis died in Iraq: Lynn Bradach via Change.org


My son Travis was accidentally killed in Iraq by a cluster bomb, which is a type of bomb that can explode months later, like a landmine. I’m calling on JPMorgan to stop funding companies that make these deadly bombs.

C –

Resistance! Facing Down Goliath Oil Companies


Resistance!

Facing Down Goliath Oil Companies

TheAchuar andU’wa indigenouspeoples have me in awe of the immense power of grassroots resistance in the face of multi-billion dollar corporations. Years after graduating from university, I find myself once again a student. Throughout my tenure at Amazon Watch, Ihave been honored to “informally apprentice” under our wise and humble indigenous partners.Today’s teachers are the Achuar people of the northern Peruvian Amazon and the U’wa people of the Colombian cloud forest. In recent weeks, both have informed the world of important advances in their decades-long struggles to defend their homelands.

Republicans who will retire


Noracism

by Jaxon

There’s no place for racism in this day and age — especially not in our State Capitol.

Yet on Februrary 26th, at a meeting of the Senate Ways and Means Committee, State Senator Jim Honeyford of Sunnyside said: “The poor are more likely to commit crimes, and colored most likely to be poor.”

Later he doubled down on his offensive language, clarifying “that’s not just the negro.”1

Can you believe it? Not only is this language incredibly offensive, it’s spreading the worst stereotypes about people of color.

And here’s the irony: People of color make up the majority of Jim Honeyford’s district. With attitudes like these, how can he truly understand and fight for the people he’s supposed to represent?

While voters across the state immediately demanded that Honeyford leave office, his Republican leadership remained silent. Not a peep.

Even worse, instead of proving that there is no room for the attitudes of Jim Honeyford in their party, Republicans turned and blocked a vote on the state Voting Rights Act THE VERY NEXT DAY. This simple bill is targeted to address unfair aspects of our elections system — breaking the stereotypes and ignorance perpetuated by people like Jim Honeyford.

Republicans need to understand that it’s 2015, not 1965, and they cannot condone this behavior within their party.

Join us in demanding Republican Majority Leader Mark Schoesler and State Senate leadership ask Senator Jim Honeyford to step down.

These students were in Olympia on Friday to call for Jim Honeyford to resign

Saturday was the 50th anniversary of the Selma march, where 600 brave souls risked their lives and marched for the right to vote.

While we celebrate how far we’ve come, we are reminded by Republican leaders how far we still have to go.

The Yakima Valley – and our state – deserve better. It’s time to open the door to a new generation of leadership.

Send a message to Senate Republicans. Add your name and tell them to call for Jim Honeyford to resign today.

In solidarity,

Jaxon

http://www.thestranger.com/blogs/slog/2015/03/05/21834324/republican-state-senator-caves-to-pressure-apologizes-for-clueless-racial-comments