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| Issue #3 |
19 February 2009 |
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This week we have 2 Action Alerts: First, a crucial public hearing on Friday, Feb. 20, to urge restoration of $2.5M in AIDS funding that was cut in Gov. Rell's proposed budget. Second, call your House legislator today urging swift passage of basic human rights protections for gender non-conforming people. Passed by the Senate last year, this bill should have become law.
It is now possible to keep up to date on all progressive CT legislation via our new Legislation Tracking page. Also unveiled this week is the People of Faith Employment Directory which currently has a job opportunity for teenagers.
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| Tracking CT Progressive Legislation 2009 |
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Interested in finding one place for the latest updates and action alerts on progressive legislation in CT's General Assembly? Find it all here on our 2009 Legislation Tracking page:
http://faithct.net/legislation2009
Currently we are tracking 7 bills covering Criminal Injustice Reforms, Anti-Discrimination Protections for Gender-Nonconforming People, Codifying the Supreme Court's Marriage Equality Decision and Protecting Animal Rights.
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| Action Alert: Public Hearing on Dept. of Health Funding Cuts, Friday, 2/20, 3PM |
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From the CT AIDS Resource Coalition:
This is THE MOST IMPORTANT HEARING for the HIV/AIDS community this legislative session. The governor is proposing to cut $2.5 million out of the AIDS budget.
This money pays for co-pays, case management, medical care, insurance continuation, transportation, dental, food, utility assistance, substance use and mental health treatment and housing. If this money is cut; there will be less funding to provide these services, meaning fewer people with HIV/AIDS will be able to get these services.
ACT UP FIGHT BACK!! ACTION = LIFE! SILENCE = DEATH!
More information here
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| Quotable Quotes |
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"Jesus once chided his disciples for being able to read the signs of the weather but not the signs of their own time (Luke 12). This tells us that Jesus considered it important to understand what is happening in your world. Fundamentally, that starts with the ability to tell the difference between a big thing and a small thing.
In our time there is a big thing which the pundits and the news programs are not talking about in all of their talk about the economic crisis. That is the bloated, oversized, totally out of control military budget--the Pentagon budget, which, when it is mentioned, is so fondly and deceptively called the "defense" budget. We've got to be clear that it is no defense, and there is no security in it."
-- John K. Stoner
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| The Prison-Military Pipeline Out of Poverty |
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"Today America imprisons more of its citizens than any other developed nation on Earth. It is no trifling irony that the nation that claims to love freedom is so adroit at taking it away. The systematic grind of inter-generational poverty has mass produced a prison population that over burdens our budget and squanders, even destroys human potential to be productive; and a [prison] system that is little more than a dumping ground where America buries its collective shame and systemic inter-generational neglect."
-- Rev. Matthew V. Johnson, Sr. Ph.D.
Read the full commentary here |
| Richest Americans Far Overpaid and Extremely Undertaxed! |
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"CEOs made 45 times as much as workers in 1973 and more than 300 times as much as workers now. The top tax rate was 70 percent in 1973 and it's just 35 percent now; taxpayers pay the top rate on the portion of taxable income that falls within the highest bracket and pay lower rates on income below that. The top rate for capital gains on the sale of stock and other assets was 36.5 percent in 1973 and 15 percent now."
-- Holly Sklar
Read the full commentary here
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| Action Alert: Support Anti-Discrimination Protections for Transgender People |
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Call your legislator today!
"An Act Concerning Discrimination is not about special treatment, but rather ensuring that every employee is treated fairly, with equal access to opportunities. The bill simply extends to people the right to present and identify in a way consistent with their gender identity even if it differs from their biological sex at birth."
-- From the CT TransAdvocacy Coalition
More information here
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| State Payroll Cuts Would Shake Economy |
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"If the governor and the legislature cut $1 billion from state workers' salaries and benefits to shrink the deficit, Connecticut's economy would lose 7,000 private-sector jobs this year in addition to the direct layoffs, according to a University of Connecticut report being released Wednesday."
Read the entire article here
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| Report: Over 100,000 Deportees Had Children in the US |
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"I am saddened, but not surprised to learn that our government, in its harsh anti-immigrant stance, has split hundreds of thousands of families apart over the past decade," said Rep. Jose Serrano, D-N.Y.
Serrano serves on the House Appropriations Committee's panel that helps decide how much money is provided to the Homeland Security Department each year. He has filed a bill, the Child Citizen Protection Act, that would allow immigration judges to consider whether the immigrants are parents of children who are U.S. citizens.
Read the full article here
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| People of Faith CT articulates faith-based values as a foundation for progressive politics and mobilizes constituents for social justice and peace activism. If you would like to blog or post events, please visit http://faithCT.net |
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| People of Faith Employment Directory |
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This week we unveil the People of Faith Employment Directory, a web listing of job opportunities.
Currently we have a listing for Youth Tobacco Compliance Check Workers.
More information here |
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Upcoming Events: February 18 - 28
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