Tag Archives: United States

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A Better Bargain for Responsible, Middle Class Homeowners


In his weekly address, President Obama notes that while college education has never been more important, it has also never been more expensive — which is why he proposed major new reforms this week to make college more affordable for middle class families and those fighting to get into the middle class.

A Better Bargain for Students: President Obama hit the road on Thursday for a two-day bus tour in New York and Pennsylvania to share his plan to make college more affordable. The President stressed the importance of ensuring that higher education pays off for students and their families:

“Too many students are facing a choice that they should never have to make:  Either they say no to college and pay the price for not getting a degree — and that’s a price that lasts a lifetime — or you do what it takes to go to college, but then you run the risk that you won’t be able to pay it off because you’ve got so much debt.”

President Obama also shared his own story about college loans in an email to White House subscribers. If you didn’t receive it, be sure to sign up for future updates.

Meet Sunny: The Obamas welcomed a new member of their family, a Portuguese water dog named Sunny! The new puppy is settling into the White House and is expected to take on many family projects, just like her big brother Bo.

Administration Officials Answer Your Education Questions: On Thursday, the White House hosted office hours with Deputy Communications Director Katie Beirne-Fallon and Deputy Director of Domestic Policy Council James Kvaal. You can check out many of questions asked on Storify.

On Friday, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan joined Sal Khan, the founder of Khan Academy, to discuss how we can innovate in American education.

“At a time when going to college has never been more important, unfortunately it has never been more expensive,” Duncan said. “And so we have to work together to drive down costs. We have to have much greater transparency and help young people and their families make better choices.”

Mental Health and the Affordable Care Act: On Wednesday, health leaders and mental health advocates came to the White House to talk about how health reform will help Americans gain access to mental health coverage if they need. Because of the Affordable Care Act, 71 million privately insured Americans have gained improved coverage for preventive services.

We the (Immigrant) Geeks: Friday’s edition of We the Geeks highlighted prominent immigrants who are breaking ground in their professional fields. In a Google+ Hangout moderated by Todd Park, U.S. Chief Technology Officer, and Doug Rand, Assistant Director of Entrepreneurship at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, participants discussed why immigration reform is necessary to keep bringing innovators to the United States.

Hosting the 1973 Super Bowl Champion Miami Dolphins: On Tuesday, the undefeated 1972-1973 Miami Dolphins visited the White House. President Obama congratulated the team for their legacy both on the field and in their communities.

“I know that some people may be asking why we’re doing this after all these years. And my answer is simple: I wanted to be the young guy up here for once,” President Obama joked about the team’s visit 40 years after they earned their Super Bowl rings.

One Year of Open Source Code for We The People: One year ago on Friday, the White House published its source code for We the People. To mark this anniversary, we updated readers about our new web development projects and how you can get involved.

Hurricane Sandy Rebuilding Strategy: On Monday, the Hurricane Sandy Rebuilding Task Force released its final report. The Hurricane Sandy Rebuilding Strategy provides recommendations to rebuild and reinvigorate Sandy-impacted areas. Over the past six months, FEMA has provided $12 billion to individuals and communities in need.

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Debra Rosen, Walk Free & Florida tomatoes


Publix Super Markets just released their latest financial results – US$7 BILLION in sales for the second quarter of this year1. Good for them, right?

We guess so, except we can’t help wondering: while improving sales and promoting their range of Florida tomatoes why is Publix STILL REFUSING to join the fight against slavery in the U.S. tomato industry?

Florida’s tomato farms supply 50% of all U.S. fresh tomatoes2 but have also been called America’s ‘ground zero for slavery’. Countless workers are held against their will, threatened with violence and forced to haul hundreds of heavy tomato buckets a day for little to no pay.

Thankfully, a new solution called the Fair Food Program has been proven successful in the fight against worker exploitation. But a major U.S. supermarket chain, Publix Super Markets, is refusing to support the Fair Food Program. Publix continues to buy tomatoes from farms where workers still toil beyond the reach of its proven protection from modern slavery.

Tell Publix Super Markets CEO William Crenshaw to join the fight against slavery in the U.S. tomato industry now.

In the past 15 years, over 1,000 people have been freed from modern slavery in Florida’s tomato fields3. The worst employers have been charged with beating workers who attempt to leave, holding employees in debt, and even chaining victims inside U-Haul style trucks as punishment.

Other leading food companies like Subway, Trader Joe’s and McDonald’s have already joined the Fair Food Program, demanding a policy of zero tolerance for human rights abuses, including slavery, on tomato farms. However, Publix Super Markets has turned a blind eye to the problem and has yet to take action.

Tell Publix to make the right decision to join the Fair Food Program and ensure our tomatoes meet the highest human rights standards in the food industry today.

We think Publix will make the right choice, but it won’t happen without broad public support. Once you’ve sent your message to Publix, please forward this email on to your friends and family, urging them to join the fight against modern slavery.

Thank you for your support,

Debra, Kate, Mich, Nick, Amy, Jess, Ryan, Hayley and the Walk Free Team

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The fastest growing source of power in the United States


Check out this wind energy infographic

The White House

Climate Change

The Department of Energy recently released two new reports that make one thing clear: We’re hitting record highs for U.S. wind energy production and manufacturing.

Wind energy is the fastest growing source of power in the United States — representing more than 40 percent of all new U.S. electric generation capacity in 2012. We’ve more than doubled wind and solar power generation in the past four years.

President Obama has made clear that the growth of clean, renewable wind energy is a critical part of his Climate Action Plan, and we’re committed to seeing wind energy production double once again.

Check out the role wind energy is playing in the infographic below, or visit Energy.gov for more.

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GOP Not “Shutting That Whole Thing Down”


The Progress Report

The War on Women Marches On

Today is the one-year anniversary of former Rep. Todd Akin’s (R-MO) infamous “legitimate rape” comments in which he remarked about the magical powers of women’s bodies to “shut that whole thing down” if they were victims of what former GOP presidential contender Ron Paul called an “honest rape.” Two months later, another GOP Senate candidate, Indiana’s Richard Mourdock, caused his own national firestorm when he said that pregnancies resulting from rape were a “gift from God.”

These sorts of inflammatory comments paired with the GOP’s policy positions in opposition to affordable access to birth control, abortion rights, equal pay legislation, and other family-friendly economic items like earned sick time represent an ongoing effort attacking women and their families.

Here are just a few things that have happened in the year since Akin made his noxious comments:

  • Threatening to shut down the government in order to deny millions of women and their families health care: As we’ve discussed previously in this space, Republicans are now threatening to shut down the government in order to defund Obamacare, which would deny the security of quality, affordable health care to millions of women and their families. Republicans, of course, have already voted more than 40 times to repeal Obamacare, including its no-cost birth control benefit and provisions that will ban insurance companies from being able to deny coverage because they consider breast cancer, having been a victim of domestic violence, or merely being a woman a preexisting condition.One conservative group, Heritage Action, launched a nationwide government shut tour today and said it will spend more than half a million dollars on ads to pressure lawmakers into shutting down the government unless Obamacare is defunded.
  • Congressman revives Akin-like rape talk, House GOP passes unconstitutional abortion ban: During the June markup of an unconstitutional ban on abortion after 20 weeks, Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ) made comments echoing Todd Akin’s infamous “legitimate rape” remarks. Franks, who defended Akin at the time he made those remarks, explained that the incidence of pregnancy from rape is “very low.” There are approximately 30,000 pregnancies resulting from rape every year in the United States.The full House of Representatives passed Franks’ bill the following week.
  • Renewed assault on abortion rights in states across the country: Republican-controlled state legislatures across the country continued the unfortunate recent trend of passing increasingly draconian and unconstitutional restrictions on abortion rights. As ThinkProgress noted today, this has already been one of the worst years for reproductive rights in memory and “abortion clinics are closing at a record pace.”Not only are Republicans enacting increasingly restrictive laws, they are going to increasingly desperate lengths to do so. Texas called two special sessions to pass its crackdown, while North Carolina legislators resorted to attaching a measure that will close most of the state’s abortion clinics to an unrelated motorcycle safety bill.
  • “Abortion Barbie” and “Retard Barbie”: Texas State Sen. Wendy Davis (D) become well-known in Texas in 2011 for filibustering a bill that contained billions in cuts to public education and became a nationwide sensation earlier this summer when she filibustered a draconian crackdown on abortion rights in the Lone Star State. Since then, Fox News contributor Erick Erickson referred to the Harvard Law School graduate as “abortion Barbie” and, over the weekend, Texas Attorney General (and gubernatorial candidate) Greg Abbott (R) thanked a supporter on Twitter after he referred to Davis as “Retard Barbie.”
  • Senators suggest offensive explanations for military sexual assault crisis: Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) blamed the growing problem of military sexual assault on “the hormone level created by nature.” His colleague, Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), instead suggested that perhaps pornography is to blame.
  • GOP governor attacks working mothers: Gov. Phil Bryant (R-MS) was asked to explain why the American education system “so mediocre.” Bryant responded that working mothers were to blame. This came just days after several Fox News commentatorslost their minds over the record number of women who are the primary breadwinners in their household.

We could go on, but you get the picture.

BOTTOM LINE: If Republicans care about winning over more women, they need to put an end to offensive comments about women and how their bodies work and, more importantly, stop supporting policies that undermine and attack the health and economic security of women and their families each and every day.