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Liz Eisen - Sat 11 Oct 2008 10:12 AM CDT
Tojo8817 - Fri 03 Oct 2008 08:35 PM CDT
Marilyn Walker - Fri 03 Oct 2008 12:51 PM CDT
Brent - Mon 29 Sep 2008 02:55 PM CDT
audiored - Sat 27 Sep 2008 10:34 PM CDT
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Wednesday, May 31
Head Start Is Dear To My Heart
by
Caroline Vernon
on Wed 31 May 2006 04:00 PM CDT
 Head Start Is Dear To My Heart
by Caroline Vernon
This is an issue very close to my heart. All four of my children participated in Head Start. My oldest daughter is 26 and my youngest son is 10, so that gives you an idea as to the extent of my involvement with the program.
Head Start, for many families, is a wonderful arm of support that helps young, and often struggling single parents, create a fundamental structure and environment for learning that is truly empowering for pre-schoolers. With each of my children, I can say for certain, their early development was positively augmented through their participation in the program. Head Start not only helps to create a sense of empowerment but a love for learning. This is so crucial at such an early age. I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to participate in the program for my children's sake.
I received the following from the Coalition for Human Needs; www.chn.org:
Caroline
From our friends at the National Head Start Association:
Deadline TODAY, May 31: Organizations, Please Sign a Letter to Restore Head Start Funding.
As Head Start advocates and supporters of early childhood education, we have created the Head Start Works coalition to advocate for increased funding for Head Start in 2007. Head Start Works is a network of business leaders that have organized to support Head Start as a program that invests in our children and the next generation of American workers.
We are writing to ask that you join the Head Start Works campaign to increase funding for Head Start by signing your organization on to the attached letter asking Congress to provide at least $234 million in additional funding for Head Start in 2007 to restore cuts made in FY 2006 and provide a cost of living increase.
At present, only half of the eligible children are able to access Head Start due to funding shortfalls. If the 2006 cuts are not restored, Head Start programs will be forced to reduce the number of children served even further and cut back on the education and social services that have become the hallmark of Head Start.
Our goal in to get a broad base of Head Start supporters – including community based organizations, faith based groups, business leaders and state and local governments – to sign on in support of this modest funding increase to invest in a program with a proven track record of success.
At the bottom of this email is the text of the letter addressed to the House Labor, HHS Appropriation’s leadership and an identical letter will go to the Senate leadership as well.
If your organization would like to sign, please email the following information to Joel Ryan at jryan@nhsa.org by close of business Wednesday, May 31st.
Name of your organization:
City:
State:
Contact person and email address:
Your organization will be added to both the House and Senate letters and a final copy of the sign-on letters will be emailed to you so that you can share them with Members of Congress to indicate just how deep and strong support for Head Start is.
Sincerely,
Aaron Lieberman, Acelero Learning
Yasmine Daniel, Children's Defense Fund
Patrick McIntyre, The United Way
Gary Ferdman, Business Leaders for Sensible Priorities
Joel Ryan, National Head Start Association
Yvette Sanchez, National Migrant and Seasonal Head Start Association
Text of Letter:
Dear Chairman Regula and Ranking Member Obey:
We the undersigned represent religious organizations, community groups, business leaders, parent councils, social services organizations, and state and local governments. We are proud to support the call of the Head Start Works coalition to increase funding for Head Start in the Fiscal Year 2007 Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies (Labor-HHS) Appropriations bill. The Head Start Works coalition is a network of business leaders that have come together to support Head Start as a program that invests in our children and the next generation of American workers. We join them in this call because we see the difference Head Start makes every day in the communities where we live and work.
At minimum, we are asking that you provide at least $234 million in additional funding for Head Start, which would restore the FY2006 cuts and provide a cost of living increase for FY2007. It is the minimum funding level that we believe is necessary to maintain enrollment and ensure that Head Start programs can continue to provide quality education and services to children in the coming year.
For over four decades, Head Start has significantly improved the lives of low income children and their families across the nation. Its high-quality early education initiatives, as well as its health, nutrition, and social services programs, work together in an integrated and comprehensive manner to help children get ahead and improve their chances for success. With these components in place, children are able to attain higher test scores in reading and math, display better social skills with their peers and adults, and miss less school as a result of health issues.
In fact, research has demonstrated that providing the necessary funding for Head Start is an extremely cost-effective investment. James Heckman, the winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2000, notes that early childhood programs such as Head Start provide a much greater economic return than other later interventions. He writes that "[t]he economic return to early interventions is high. The return to later intervention is lower. The reason for this relationship is the technology of skill formation. Skill begets skill and early skill makes later skill acquisition easier."
In addition, according to a recent study of more than 600 Head Start graduates in San Bernardino County, California, society receives nearly $9 in benefits for every $1 invested in Head Start children – an almost 900 percent return on investment. These benefits include increased earnings, employment, and family stability, and decreased welfare dependency, crime costs, grade repetition, and special education. Other studies find that Head Start children perform better on cognitive, language, and health measures than their comparison group counterparts did.
In spite of the evidence that Head Start is a good investment, we continue to see cuts in funding. According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP), the FY2006 budget reduced Head Start funding by 2.8 percent accounting for inflation. This cut will result in providers either serving fewer low income children or reducing services. If the providers choose only to decrease the number of Head Start slots, CBPP estimates that as many as 25,000 children could be cut from the program.
A Summer 2005 National Head Start Association survey also discovered that 89 percent of Head Start and Early Head Start programs had to make budget cuts during the past year due to funding shortfalls. As programs entered the 2005-2006 school year, 30 percent reported laying off teachers, 70 percent had furloughed non-teacher staff members, 30 percent reduced or eliminated health care coverage, 65 percent cut transportation services, 47 percent reduced training, 12 percent trimmed services for children with disabilities, and 39 percent reported cutting operating hours per day and/or the length of the year. Furthermore, as heating oil and gas prices cause occupancy costs to skyrocket this year, the Head Start funding crisis will become only more severe.
In order to ensure that low income children and their families continue to receive the comprehensive services they need to enter school ready to learn, it is vital that the FY2007 Labor-HHS Appropriations bill restore the funding cuts from last year by providing $234 million in additional funding for the Head Start program.
Tuesday, May 23
Feingold Asks You to Help an Iowa Candidate
by
Sam Garchik
on Tue 23 May 2006 01:12 PM CDT
 Feingold Asks You to Help an Iowa Candidate
by Sam Garchik
I found
out about this from a Leonard Boswell email, strangely enough. I guess
he is working with Feingold on this one, and any of these candidates
would do well to receive your money and vote. As you all know, the
Iowa Senate is tied right now, and any gain would give us the majority.
Depending on how the governor's race turns out, the Senate may wind up
being crucial to progressives, particularly in the areas of choice
and the death penalty.
Boswell Bulletin
 With
your help Senator Russ Feingold's Progressive Patriots Fund will be
awarding $5,000 to a deserving Iowa State Senate candidate. Go to Russ's website and cast your vote
for one of six candidates running for the Iowa State Senate whom you
believe most deserves the support of the Progressive Patriots Fund.
I had the
opportunity to meet with Senator Feingold recently while he was here in
Iowa listening to Democrats and helping congressional candidates across
the state. Russ has been very supportive of my re-election
campaign and I'm proud that he was a special guest at the pancake
breakfast I held in Johnston last month.
Since Russ
formed the Progressive Patriots Fund, he has been supporting
outstanding Democratic candidates across the country. Russ
now brings his help directly to Iowa with his first ever "Pick a
Progressive Patriot - Iowa" event. Russ is dedicated to
helping elect more Democrats nationwide and I am pleased to have the
opportunity to announce the latest part of his effort.
Vote today!
Senator
Feingold's Progressive Patriots Fund will give $5,000 to the Iowa State
Senate candidate with the most votes on his website by midnight on May
31, 2006. The "Pick a Progressive Patriot – Iowa" event is part
of Senator Feingold's 50-state effort to help elect more Democrats.
As you
know, the Iowa State Senate is evenly split between Democrats and
Republicans. The election in November is critical to our goal of
returning control to our Democratic leaders. We have six great state
senate Democratic challengers and I want you to join Senator Feingold
and me as we work together to make sure these candidates have the
support and resources they need to be successful in November.
Vote today!
Senator
Feingold has spent his career standing up for what he believes and
listening to people in Wisconsin and across the country. This is
your chance to stand up and let your voices be heard and help a
deserving Iowan receive a $5,000 contribution.
Please log on to Senator Feingold's website, www.progressivepatriotsfund.com/vote and vote in Pick a Progressive Patriot - Iowa.
Sincerely,
Leonard
Member of Congress
Tuesday, May 16
Bring Progressive Radio to Eastern Iowa
by
Sam Garchik
on Tue 16 May 2006 02:34 PM CDT
 Bring Progressive Radio to Eastern Iowa!
By Sam Garchik
This came to me from the Johnson County Dem list-serv. It's something that could be very important for the future of Eastern Iowa Progressives. In the interests of fairness, I worked for a year at KXIC, but that I don't know Mr. Laton.
As the election draws closer, the need for a progressive voice in eastern Iowa becomes more and more stark. As we try to elect Dave Loebsack in the second district and one of the fine candidates in the first district, we need to have a voice that will remind voters what progressives stand for.
We are working to try to convince Clear Channel that that voice in eastern Iowa should be KXIC in Iowa City. This station covers most of the second district and some of the first. We need to keep pressure on Clear Channel so they know we are serious. We are asking that John Laton, general manager for Clear Channel in eastern Iowa be the contact for your emails and phone calls.
Please mention two specific key points: 1) Eastern Iowa is predominantly a progressive area, yet there is no outlet for the progressive viewpoint. This is a great business opportunity. Iowa City is center of the progressive movement in Iowa. 2) You look forward to rewarding advertisers on progressive radio with my business.
Thank you for your help. This project will have lasting rewards for our party in Eastern Iowa.
Contact: johnlaton@clearchannel.com or mail him at: John Laton, c/o WMT Radio, 600 Old Marion Road NE, Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52402. Phone 319-395-0530
Online petition: http://new.petitiononline.com/icradio/petition.html
Wednesday, May 10
Wal-Mart & Crime: Is Wal-Mart Safe?
by
Caroline Vernon
on Wed 10 May 2006 06:19 PM CDT
 Wal-Mart & Crime: Is Wal-Mart Safe?
By Paul Blank - www.wakeupwalmart.com
The
Wake-Up Wal-Mart campaign recently released the first national study
detailing the problem of crime at Wal-Mart store locations called
“Wal-Mart & Crime: Is Wal-Mart Safe?” We requested the official
police reports (ie. calls for service) from 551 Wal-Mart store
locations throughout the U.S.
The
results are shocking and outrageous. In 2004, at just those 551
Wal-Mart stores, police were called to respond to over 148,331 police
incidents, including over 2,900 reports of serious or violent crimes....
Based
on this sample, nationally in 2004, we estimate police responded to
nearly 1 million reported police incidents at Wal-Mart stores costing
American taxpayers $77 million.
For a complete copy of the report and to view your local police report please go to:
www.WalMartCrimeReport.com
There
is no explanation why Wal-Mart, despite knowing it has a high level of
crime at some of its stores, has not taken the necessary steps to
improve public safety and address the serious threat to customers,
employees and the community.
As
early as 1994, Wal-Mart actually conducted its own crime study and
found nearly 80% of the crimes were being committed in its parking
lots. A 1996 confidential, internal Wal-Mart memo warned, “We are now
on notice of the violence that is happening on our parking lots in the
Houston area.”
And
yet, even with horrific examples of violent crimes and even rapes at
Wal-Mart stores, Wal-Mart has not publicly adopted a company-wide
policy of installing staffed security cameras and instituting roving
security patrols at all of its stores. In fact, according to a Wal-Mart
official in 2000, Wal-Mart failed to put in roving security patrols at
83% of its stores even though internal Wal-Mart studies showed these
patrols could reduce crime to near zero levels.
We
are sending a letter to Wal-Mart’s CEO Lee Scott calling on Wal-Mart to
immediately take the necessary steps to protect its customers,
employees and the community by adopting a nationwide policy to make its
stores safer, including: putting in security cameras at all its stores,
actually having an employee watch those security cameras and
implementing roving security patrols in all of its parking lots.
As part of this campaign, we call on Wal-Mart to announce this new public safety initiative before Mother’s Day, May 14th 2006.
Please sign our letter calling on Wal-Mart to adopt a nation-wide policy to make its stores safer by Mother’s Day:
http://www.walmartcrimereport.com/letter.html
You
have the power to change Wal-Mart and help build a better America.
Please take a moment and pass our new website
www.WalMartCrimeReport.com and our new report, “Wal-Mart & Crime:
Is Wal-Mart Safe?” on to all of your friends.
Thank you for all that you do,
Paul Blank
WakeUpWalMart.com
P.S. To download a flyer about the report, click here:
http://walmartcrimereport.com/crime-flyer.pdf
Wednesday, May 3
Senator Harkin Introduces Iraq War Resolution
by
Caroline Vernon
on Wed 03 May 2006 04:51 PM CDT
 Senator Harkin Introduces Iraq War Resolution
by Caroline Vernon
Senator Tom Harkin has just introduced a resolution for a new course in Iraq.
Please call Senator Harkin and thank him for taking such a courageous and compassionate stance on this critical issue!
1-800-426-8073 (Washington Switchboard)
(563)-322-1338 (Davenport office)
Also, please call Senators Durbin and Obama and ask them to support the resolution!
It is important that we ALL be sure to WEIGH IN on the need to end this war as soon as possible as lives are hanging in the balance...
Please Call TODAY!
Senator Harkin on AIR AMERICA TODAY:
Tune in to Air America (AM 1270 in the QC) to hear Senator Harkin speak out about his resolution on redeployment from Iraq.
This afternoon at 4:05pm CST, Senator Tom Harkin will be a featured guest on The Ed Shultz Show, and tonight he can be heard on The Majority Report with hosts Janeane Garofolo and Sam Sedar on Air America Radio which airs from 5-9m CST. !
Harkin Introduces Resolution for New Course in Iraq:
Measure Stipulates No Permanent Military Bases on Iraqi Soil, Iraqi Sovereignty over Oil and U.S. Troop Withdrawals by Close of 2006
Washington, DC—Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) today introduced a Concurrent Resolution in the United States Senate to chart a new course in Iraq. The resolution specifies that the US should neither maintain a permanent military presence in Iraq nor attempt to control the flow of Iraqi oil, and that US Armed Forces should be redeployed from Iraq following the completion of Iraq’s constitution-making process—at the latest December 31, 2006.
“This Monday marked the third anniversary of President Bush’s speech on the flight deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln,” Harkin said. “On that occasion, the President proclaimed our ‘mission accomplished,’ stating triumphantly that ‘major combat operations in Iraq have ended.’ But three years later, 133,000 troops remain on the ground, and the President has signaled that the U.S. military occupation in Iraq is open-ended and of indefinite duration. President Bush’s call to ‘stay the course’ is a slogan, not a strategy for success. Indeed, I fear that ‘stay the course’ really means ‘stay forever,’ and this sends exactly the wrong message. It stokes the insurgents, who believe that the U.S. wants a permanent military presence in Iraq. And it takes away any incentive for the Iraqi government to resolve its internal divisions and stand on its own feet.”
U.S. commanders in Iraq have acknowledged that Iraq’s remaining challenges cannot be resolved militarily, but will require a political solution worked out by the Iraqis themselves. However, the ongoing presence of U.S. forces without a clear end date, has delayed progress on the political front. Moreover, the insurgents are strengthened by the overwhelming perception among Iraqis that the U.S. military is an occupying force, that we are building what appear to be permanent bases, and that our continuing presence in Iraq is about oil. By making clear that we intend to redeploy U.S. forces out of Iraq by the end of the year, the Harkin resolution aims to deprive the insurgency of its rationale and to spur the new Iraqi government to shoulder full responsibility. The United States taxpayers have committed $320 billion in Iraq, including funds allocated by the emergency supplemental appropriations being considered by Congress. The Congressional Research Service reports that the US now spends upwards of $6.4 billion a month in Iraq – up sharply from last year.
“The men and women of our Armed Forces have sacrificed greatly. It is time to allow the political process to go forward, and to demand that Iraq’s new leaders take responsibility for their country’s future. And it is time to bring home as many troops as possible, consistent with force-protection requirements, and to redeploy as many as necessary to successfully pursue Bin Laden and al Qaeda, and to protect our vital interests around the world,” said Harkin.
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