Protesters demand emergency clinic at site of closed UPMC hospital
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
By Len Barcousky, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Larry Roberts/Post-Gazette
Jan McMannis of Braddock Hills passes out information Monday in front of the Allegheny County Courthouse on Grant Street to question County Executive Dan Onorato’s actions regarding the closure of UPMC Braddock. Mr. Onorato is a Democratic candidate for governor.
Protesters upset about the closing of UPMC Braddock want assurances that any site redevelopment plans include an emergency medical clinic.
About a dozen protesters, members of a citizens group Save Our Community Hospitals, set up informational picket lines Monday around the Allegheny County Courthouse.
Progressive Democratic candidate for Governor Joe Hoeffel will meet and greet Beaver County voters on Friday May 14th in a swing through western Pennsylvania before the May 18th primary election.
Meet and greet Joe Hoeffel at the following locations on Friday May 14th:
8:00-8:40 Challenges Senior Center, 2706 Mercer Rd., New Castle
9:10-9:30 Brighton Hot Dog Shoppe, Route 68, Vanport
9:45-10:05 George’s Family Restaurant, 2477 Brodhead Rd., Hopewell Township
Whatever the final form of federal financial services reform legislation, one thing is now certain: The biggest of the big banks will still be calling the shots.
That was confirmed Thursday evening, when the Senate by a 61-33 vote rejected a move to eliminate the danger posed to both the federal treasury and the U.S. economy by “too-big-to-fail” banks.
Democratic Senators Sherrod Brown of Ohio and Ted Kaufman of Delaware had proposed an amendment to limit the size of the nation’s largest banks as a means of reining in the financial sector.
They lost. And so too did the prospect that the federal government might establish meaningful control of the banking sector.
What does the defeat mean? The “financial oligarchy,” as economist Simon Johnson described the big banks, will remain in place. And, to further quote Johnson, the federal government will remain “helpless, or unwilling, to act against them.”
The Justice Department is investigating the Bush bureaucrats in the Mine Safety and Health Administration – MSHA. They rewrote regulations so full of loopholes that Massey Coal could operate a mine that was a ticking time bomb that killed 29 workers.
The Justice Department must investigate the Minerals Management Service- MMS, that rewrote the safety regulations for the Deepwater Horizon drilling operation. They exempted BP from filing a safety plan to deal with a blow out. The Bush hacks and the oil companies agreed that it “wasn’t likely to happen” so there was no need to prepare for it. Eleven roughnecks died on that rig, blown to kingdom come, just like the miners.
The despicable 109th Congress, led by Tom DeLay and Bill Frist, and full of criminals now serving time, passed the Halliburton exemption in 2005. This allows the gas drillers to run roughshod over Pennsylvania and other states in complete disregard of the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act, and other laws to protect our lives and property from poisoning and destruction. In Pennsylvania, what the gas drillers are doing would be a crime if done by any other enterprise. But the Bush era Congress of criminals gave them a get out of jail free card. This law must be repealed. The gas drillers must be held accountable for the destruction of human lives, animals, forests, crops, land, infrastructure, water, and air.
DEP secretary issues warning at Marcellus shale conference at Duquesne University
Tuesday, May 04, 2010
By Don Hopey, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Pennsylvania needs tougher regulations for Marcellus shale gas drilling, aggressive, independent enforcement, and a severance tax on the gas extracted, according to state Department of Environmental Protection Secretary John Hanger.
And yesterday would not be soon enough to get all of that done and “done right” to protect the state’s water resources, said Mr. Hanger in a forceful keynote speech opening the Marcellus Shale Policy Conference at Duquesne University on Monday.
“Let me be clear: Self-regulation doesn’t work. That’s not contestable,” Mr. Hanger told the audience of about 250, including a significant number of gas industry representatives. “We’ve made mistakes before. We have to get this right or the costs will overwhelm the benefits.”
Temple Unions Ratify New Contracts, Declare Victory after Strike
1045 – 30 Vote in Favor
After 28 days on strike, the members of PASNAP, the union that represents 1500 nurses, professionals and technical employees at Temple University Hospital, voted overwhelmingly to accept the new contract agreements. After three ratification votes held throughout the day, the total members voting was 1075 with 97% in favor.
“Temple provoked this strike in an effort to weaken our unions and eliminate our right to speak out for our patients. What they got instead was an emboldened, stronger union membership that will continue to work under a contract with some of the best working conditions and benefits in Philadelphia,” said Jackie Silver, MSW. “We are proud that we reached a resolution and that we will be able to continue to fight for our patients, our rights, and our professions.”
by Tina Shannon, Chair, PA 4th CD Progressive Democrats of America
I invite everyone to listen to this performance. It always touches a deep emotional chord for me.
I was hesitant to post it since the song is a reaction to a different war in a different time. Tactics were different then. Feelings were different. Perhaps everyone isn’t as upset by the present situation as I am.
My tax dollars are being used to destroy men, women and children everyday in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. I feel that horror and responsibility. As deep as those feelings run, this song arouses even deeper feelings in me. This song represents our responsibility to our own young.
As a teacher and as someone who’s had to recover from her own hard childhood I’ve learned a lot about the stages of human development. It’s an interesting field of study.
Responsibility to our young means understanding their developmental needs. It’s useful to see human development as a process that helps people meet the demands of learning to live in human society. These demands usually follow a sequence as a person grows.
The Deep Horizons ultra-deepwater dynamic positioned semi-submersible oil drilling rig, lying upside down a mile below sea level, was built and owned by Transocean Limited of Vernier, Switzerland. This rig was the most technologically advanced drilling machine on earth, designed to tap oil reserves miles below the ocean’s surface. It was completed in 2001 by Hyundai Heavy Industries in Ulsan, South Korea. British Petroleum was leasing the rig at a cost of one-half million dollars per day to exploit oil and gas trapped under tremendous pressure miles below.
Just as Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara thought that advanced technology would allow U.S. weaponry to defeat the people of Vietnam in the 1970s, the Wall Street banks now believe that current ‘advanced technology’ will allow them to tap unknown forces of nature…at a profit.
They justify this endeavor with the argument that exploiting natural resources always involves some endemic risk and that they are insured to protect their investors. Wall Street and their oil industry allies believe that, as in the past, disasters are a cost of business and that once the cleanup is done there will be a return to profitability.
Profits from deepwater drilling, as well as the fracking of the Marcellus shale in Pennsylvania and New York, are projected to be enormous, to create dazzling new fortunes for those who are bold, hardy, and carefree enough to get there first. These expectations of great wealth from expensive and refractory resources are based on the knowledge that the world, but especially the United States, is rapidly using up, and to a great degree wasting, petroleum and gas reserves. As the reserves shrink and become more expensive to exploit, the push to find and exploit them intensifies.
Beaver County Blue: Voice of the 17th CD of Progressive Democrats of America 