YOU ARE
CORDIALLY INVITED
TO ATTEND A
SATURDAY, AUGUST 7th
9:00 AM
AT THE
CONWAY-WALLROSE ROAD
near intersection with Route 989
ECONOMY BOROUGH
$6.00 ADMISSION
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HOW SHOULD WE HANDLE THE UPCOMING ELECTION
FOR THE 4TH CD CONGRESSIONAL SEAT?
SHOULD WE VOTE FOR JASON ALTMIRE?
JOIN US FOR AN INTERESTING POLITICAL DISCUSSION
AND A STIMULATING SOCIAL EVENT
RSVP REQUIRED
By JESSE JACKSON
Rainbow / PUSH
July 21, 2010 – Will the U.S. once more sacrifice economic justice at home for war abroad? Dr. King used to say that the bombs dropped over Vietnam exploded in America’s cities. The war on poverty was lost in those jungles.
And now? The war in Afghanistan is now in its eighth year. Vice President Joe Biden told “This Week” that our policy is “going to work,” but “all of this is just beginning. And we knew it was going to be a tough slog,” so “it’s much too premature to make a judgment” about how we are faring.
Just the beginning after eight years? We are spending $100 billion a year on Afghanistan, with U.S. casualties rising, and with no noticeable progress on the ground. The government that we support is noted for its corruption and ineffectiveness. Our military is trying to do nation-building in a country whose warring tribes unite only to expel outsiders.
By Mark Gruenberg
Press Associates, Inc.
The Newspaper Guild
July 16, 2010 – Traditionally, people don’t start paying attention to politics until Labor Day, but that isn’t stopping unions from starting their big political push now.
The push is taking two forms. One is that unions are sending members out to worksites, with flyers about labor’s positions on key economic issues, such an unemployment benefits and the stimulus law, along with lawmakers’ voting records. That drive will last for at least the next two weeks and continue afterwards.
The other part of the push has been led by the Service Employees, building on a grand coalition that helped win health care reform — and again emphasizing grass-roots efforts. They’ve been joined by the Teachers, the AFL-CIO and approximately 170 other progressive groups in a grand coalition, “One Nation Working Together,” to push a progressive agenda this fall — even when the Obama administration doesn’t.
Continue reading Getting the Change We Voted For: March on DC Oct. 2 for Jobs and Justice
Tina Smith, of Monaca, places a cross outside the Horsehead Corp. plant on Thursday evening.
By Moriah Balingit
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
July 23, 2010 – An industrial accident at the Horsehead Corp. zinc plant in Beaver County Thursday afternoon claimed the lives of two men and injured at least two other workers.
Neither the company nor the Beaver County coroner’s office would release the names of the two men who died. The coroner’s office said results from autopsies would be released today.
The workers were killed in the plant’s zinc oxide refinery, a part of the plant where molten zinc is turned into zinc oxide. The incident occurred in the zinc distillation columns, three-story-high smokestack-like structures constructed of brick.
One worker who would not give his name reported hearing a large boom followed by what sounded like several small explosions.
But company spokesman Ali Alavi refused to characterize the incident as an explosion, saying the company was still in the fact-finding mode.
Workers gather at Horsehead’s Fence on Route 18
Wesley Hill, director of Beaver County Emergency Services, said two of the workers suffered minor injuries.
Sandra McDaniel of the Clearville Citizens for Sustainability speaks during a public listening session hosted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on the agency’s proposed study of the environmental impact of hydraulic fracturing at the Hilton Garden Inn in Canonsburg on Thursday.
Concerns about the risk of water contamination and public health problems from Marcellus Shale drilling dominated a sometimes loud U.S. Environmental Protection Agency hearing in Southpointe attended by 1,200 people Thursday night.
Although EPA officials told those in attendance the meeting was not about drilling policy, most of the more than 100 speakers let it be known that they oppose Marcellus Shale drilling in the state, and many shared personal stories of contaminated wells, dead farm animals and damaged health. They attributed the problems to water contamination caused by the deep gas drilling operations that are increasing quickly through much of the state.
Several urged that a moratorium on Marcellus Shale drilling be enacted until the EPA finishes its study scheduled for the end of 2012.
Continue reading Dangers of Natural Gas Drilling Need Regulation
Beaver County Times photo by LUCY SCHALY
Photo by NOLEARY: Sending Our Messages!
BCT Caption: Members of the group Progressive Democrats of America (4th Congressional District PA chapter) stand in front of Jason Altmire’s office in Aliquippa and let their feelings be known about Social Security during a luncheon “vigil” Wednesday afternoon. Janet Sabat, left, from Raccoon Township, and Randy Shannon from New Brighton hold their protest cards along the side of the road for drivers to see.
By Sara Lipka
Increasing proportions of low-income young adults are pursuing higher education, but some remain poor even with a postsecondary degree, according to a new report from the Institute for Higher Education Policy.
In 2008, among Americans ages 18 to 26 whose total household income was near or below the federal poverty level, 47 percent were or had been enrolled in college, compared with 42 percent in 2000. Eleven percent of them had earned a degree, a proportion roughly equivalent to that eight years ago, according to the report, which is based on data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey.
The institute is a nonprofit group in Washington that conducts public-policy research to encourage access and success in higher education.
In introducing its report, the group called into question President Obama’s declaration in his State of the Union address in January that “the best anti-poverty program around is a world-class education.” Poor students go to college academically unprepared, the report says, and, amid competing family and work obligations, they accumulate debt “that could have been avoided by pursuing a different type of degree or a credential.”
Continue reading Example: Why We Need a Living Wage, Full Employment Program
By Kelly Field
Chronicle of Higher Education
July 11, 2010 – The share of borrowers who default on their student loans is bigger than the federal government’s short-term data suggest, with thousands more facing damaged credit histories and millions more tax dollars being lost in the long run.
According to unpublished data obtained by The Chronicle, one in every five government loans that entered repayment in 1995 has gone into default. The default rate is higher for loans made to students from two-year colleges, and higher still, reaching 40 percent, for those who attended for-profit institutions.
The numbers represent thousands of students like Lourdes Samedy, of Boston, who ended up defaulting on about $7,000 in student loans after completing a nine-month-long medical-assistant program at Corinthian Colleges Inc. Everest College, and now cannot get a job.
International President, United Steelworkers, July 6, 2010
Leo W. Gerard: Stewart, you talk about power in a book you’ve written with economist Dr. Richard A. Levins. You called the manual, “Getting America Back to Work.” What’s the relationship between power and getting people back to work?
Stewart J. Acuff: A big part of the problem we have with this economy or the biggest problem is that most of the money has gone to the Financial Elite — and the power as well. To get America back to work we have to reinvest in our country and our workers. That necessarily means that the Financial Elite get less of the wealth generated by the economy and workers will get more. If you intend to take wealth from the richest people in the history of the world, you have to have enough power to do so.
Gerard: You say in the introduction that there are two kinds of power: “The first is lots of organized money. That is the kind of power the Financial Elite have used to bring the rest of us to our knees. The other source and form of power is lots of people: organized, mobilized, united, and taking action.” Do you really think that organized people can succeed in a wrangle with the financial elites?
Acuff: Absolutely! The economic history of the twentieth century is crystal clear. When unions were strong, working people had the lion’s share of income and the economy worked well. When unions were weakened, we have seen the Financial Elite take over and run the economy into the ground.
Continue reading Our Power vs. Their Power: USW’s Leo Gerard Interviews Acuff on Taxes and Jobs
Beaver County Blue: Voice of the 17th CD of Progressive Democrats of America 