Tag Archives: Oregon

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Bank of America foreclosin​g on Seattle Nursery


From her home in Seattle, Vera Johnson owns and operates the Village Green Perennial Nursery. A single mother of two kids, she opens her doors to teach her community about plants, composting, sustainability, and more.

Bank of America wants to put a stop to that: The bailed-out bank is trying to foreclose on Vera’s home and business. When Vera’s family fell on hard times, she asked Bank of America for a loan modification, which she is qualified to receive under federal law. For 17 months, Vera has provided endless copies of paperwork, and has been repeatedly told to resubmit lost or misplaced forms.

Despite Vera’s persistence, and Bank of America’s carelessness, the bank is proceeding with foreclosure.

Bank of America didn’t care to help Vera on her own. So Vera stared a petition on Change.org asking Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan to stop the foreclosure and modify her mortgage payments. Can you join Vera and sign the petition to help save her home and business?

Vera’s nursery provides classes and tours for schools and camps, and internships and training programs for local college students. One person who knows Vera and signed her petition said that her business “is a beautiful oasis that is an amazing blessing to the community.” Another of her supporters said simply, “I’d rather have one Vera Johnson in my community than a thousand Bank of Americas.”

Vera started her petition after signing the Change.org petition about Chase Bank foreclosing on a soldier’s home in Oregon, despite every effort by the homeowner to save the house. “Oh my God,” Vera said when she saw the petition. “The same thing is happening to me. I’m going to launch my own campaign.”

Within days of launching her petition, she received a call from the office of Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan. The bank promised to look into Vera’s case, but has yet to help her.

Vera has Bank of America’s attention. If enough people sign her petition, Bank of America will be forced to take action and work with Vera to save her home and business.

Please sign Vera’s petition to Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan to stop the foreclosure and modify mortgage payments for Vera’s home and business:

 

http://www.change.org/petitions/stop-bofas-foreclosure-on-vera-johnsons-home-business

Thank you for taking action.

– Jess and the Change.org team

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Chase forecloses on Oregon soldier … Jess Kutch, Change.org


Tell Chase: Don’t foreclose on soldier’s family

Sign the Petition

In one month, soldier Aaron Collette will return from Iraq for two weeks’ leave. By the time he does, he won’t have a home — and neither will his family.

Tim Collette, Aaron’s dad, did everything right. He put $100,000 down on his home in Bend, Oregon, when he purchased it in 2006.

In 2008, after the economic crisis devastated his small flooring and countertop business, Tim realized he needed a loan modification and went to Chase Bank for help.

Chase told him he had to miss two payments to qualify for a loan modification. But once Tim did that, they began foreclosure proceedings instead of helping him.

Local non-profit Economic Fairness Oregon has been helping Tim stand up to Chase, but they need a surge in public support right now to save his home. Please sign their petition to help Tim and his family keep their home.

Banks across the state — and country — are taking advantage of homeowners in Tim’s situation all the time. Economic Fairness Oregon is pushing state legislators to pass a bill that will address the housing crisis and help people like Tim stay in their homes.

In the meantime, Tim needs public support to pressure Chase to stop the foreclosure.

When news of this story broke earlier in June after Senator Merkley spoke about it on the Senate floor, Chase agreed to delay the foreclosure and told the press they’d work to find a solution for Tim and his family.

But as soon as media attention faded, Chase called Tim and rescheduled the foreclosure for August 9 — just 10 days before Aaron returns from Iraq.

Every day that this issue is not resolved Aaron has to worry about his family and where they’ll live even as he’s risking his life in Iraq.

Sign here to tell Chase that we’re still watching and urge them to honor their promise to find a solution for the Collette family:

http://www.change.org/petitions/tell-chase-bank-dont-foreclose-on-soldiers-family

Thanks for taking action,

– Jess and the Change.org team

P.S. To start your own campaign against an unjust foreclosure, just click here and follow the steps to create a Change.org petition.

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Congress: the Republican led House back on 6/20 -the Senate 6/21


THURSDAY WRAP-UP in the Senate

During Thursday’s session of the Senate, Senator Reid filed cloture on the motion to proceed to Calendar #75, S.679, the Presidential Appointment Efficiency and Streamlining Act of 2011. The Senate then entered into the following unanimous consent agreement.

  • At 11:00 a.m. on Tuesday, June 21, 2011, the Senate will proceed to Executive Session to consider Calendar #34, the nomination of Michael H. Simon, of Oregon, to be US District Judge for the District of Oregon with one hour for debate equally divided and controlled between Senators Leahy and Grassley. Upon the use or yielding back of time (at approximately 12pm), the Senate will conduct a roll call vote on confirmation of the Simon nomination.
  • Following this vote, the Senate will recess until 2:15 p.m. for the weekly party conferences.
  • At 2:15 p.m., the Senate will consider Executive Calendar #183, Leon E. Panetta to be Secretary of Defense with 2 hours for debate equally divided between the two Leaders, or their designees. Upon the use or yielding back of time (at approximately 4:15pm), the Senate will conduct a roll call vote on confirmation of the Panetta nomination.
  • Following this vote, the Senate will resume consideration of S. 782, the EDA bill and conduct a roll call vote on the motion to invoke cloture on the bill.
  • If cloture is not invoked, the Senate will immediately conduct an additional roll call vote on the motion to invoke cloture on the motion to proceed to S. 679, the Presidential Appointment Efficiency and Streamlining Act of 2011.
  • Therefore, Senators should expect up to 4 roll call votes on Tuesday, June 21st:
    • at approximately 12pm
      • Confirmation of the Simon nomination
    • at approximately 4:15pm
      • Confirmation of the Panetta nomination
      • Motion to invoke cloture on S.782, the Economic Development Act
      • Motion to invoke cloture on the motion to proceed to S.679, the Presidential Appointment Efficiency and Streamlining Act

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The next meeting is scheduled for 10:00 a.m. on June 20, 2011.

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President Obama endorsed a commonsense, bipartisan proposals


Yesterday, President Obama endorsed a commonsense, bipartisan proposal from Senators Ron Wyden of Oregon, Scott Brown of Massachusetts, and Mary Landrieu of Louisiana regarding implementation of the Affordable Care Act.

Under the law you helped enact nearly one year ago, states get the chance to try innovative reforms, as long as those reforms don’t add to our deficit while meeting the goals we all share: affordable, accessible care for the American people.

The new bipartisan proposal — the Empowering States to Innovate Act — would allow states to implement health reforms that work for them starting in 2014 — three years sooner than the date originally laid out in the Affordable Care Act.

President Obama has made it clear that he is open to good ideas from both sides of the aisle about how to make care better and more affordable.

He’s living by those words — and this announcement is an important step in building on health reform.

Watch the President’s remarks on his endorsement of the plan and learn more about it, and then pass this along to folks you know who are interested in the future of health care in America.

As the President has said, now is not the time to re-fight the battles of the past two years, or roll back the progress we’ve made.

But solutions like this one will allow us to continue moving health insurance reform forward, building and shaping it so that it works for every state — and every American.

He knows that good ideas don’t necessarily come from one person, one party, or one state — that the best solutions are simply the ones that work.

And he knows it’s not the loudest voice in the room — but the most reasonable — that ultimately provides real leadership.

Take a look at a video of the President’s remarks about his endorsement of the new proposal here, and pass it on:

http://my.barackobama.com/EmpoweringStates

Thanks,

Mitch

Mitch Stewart

Director

Organizing for America

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Party time for Orangutans


The palm oil branch of Sinar Mas, Golden Agri-Resources (GAR), just unveiled a plan to stop destroying forests and peatlands in Indonesia. For years their plantations fueled rainforest destruction across Indonesia, but this week they promised to change all of that.

A giant palm oil company in Indonesia just unveiled a plan to stop destroying the forests. We need to make sure they keep their word. Help Greenpeace make sure they follow through with their plan by making your most generous contribution right now.

I honestly can’t believe I just wrote that sentence. This is something that a year ago would have been unimaginable. But here we are. If properly implemented, the plan announced by GAR could be an historic step toward full forest and peatland protection in Indonesia and could also mean the survival of endangered wildlife like the orangutan.

For the last three years Greenpeace has been pressuring GAR by convincing large palm oil buyers to cancel their contracts. It worked. Together we got the world’s largest food company (Nestle) and the world’s largest bank (HSBC), a global restaurant brand (Burger King) and one of the largest buyers of palm oil on the planet (Unilever) to take action. Thanks to supporters around the world, we now have a ground-breaking commitment from GAR.

However, this commitment will mean nothing without implementation. Help Greenpeace make sure Sinar Mas follows through with their plan to save the forests by making your most generous contribution right now.

In many ways, our work has just begun. We can’t protect the orangutan and other endangered species and achieve our goal of zero deforestation in Indonesia by 2015 if Sinar Mas doesn’t follow through with their plan. That’s why we have to make sure they do it. This piece of the work is every bit as important as the campaign that got us here.

And while this is a moment to celebrate, we aren’t out of the woods just yet with Sinar Mas. It’s a massive conglomerate and this deal is only with its palm oil branch. Their paper arm — Asia Pulp & Paper — is still destroying the forest unabated. That is unacceptable, and it is something we intend to change with your help.

Without your support to we cannot continue our work in Indonesia and keep the pressure up on Sinar Mas. Please send us your most generous contribution right now. Together we can save these precious forests and the amazing creatures and people who depend on them.

For the forests,

Rolf Skar

Greenpeace Forest Campaigner