August, 08 2016, 03:00pm EDT
Building off Electrifying DNC Speech, Rev. Barber to Keynote First-Ever Fight for $15 Convention
Architect of ‘Moral Monday’ Movement to Join Thousands Fighting for $15, Union Rights at Richmond Gathering
RICHMOND, Va.
Building off a widely-praised speech at the Democratic National Convention in July, the Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II - architect of the Forward Together Moral Mondays movement and founder of Repairers of the Breach - will deliver the keynote address at the first-ever Fight for $15 Convention in Richmond this week.
Thousands of underpaid workers from across the country will converge in the former capital of the Confederacy Friday and Saturday to draw links between the history of racism in the United States and the economic crisis that has resulted in nearly 64 million Americans struggling to get by on less than $15/hour. It's the first time workers fighting for $15/hour and union rights are coming together across industries -- with fast-food, home care, child care, airport, university, manufacturing, retail and farm workers, among others, heading to Richmond for the convention.
The gathering will culminate in a march by 10,000 workers on monuments to Confederate generals Robert E. Lee and William Carter Wickham. In addition to Rev. Barber, speakers at the convention will include SEIU President Mary Kay Henry and workers from nearly a dozen industries who are leading the Fight for $15.
Friday, August 12
5:00 pm Convention Opening | Greater Richmond Convention Center, 403 Nth 3rd St., Richmond, VA
National Fight for $15 Convention begins, remarks by SEIU president Mary Kay Henry
Saturday, August 13
9:00 am Convention | Greater Richmond Convention Center, 403 Nth 3rd St., Richmond, VA
2:00 pm March | Monument Avenue, Richmond, VA, keynote by Rev. Barber
Since fast-food workers in New York City first walked off their jobs in November 2012, the Fight for $15 has won a string of stunning successes--almost 20 million workers have gained significant raises as a direct result of the movement, including some 10 million who are on their way to $15 an hour. The Associated Press said underpaid workers are flexing, "increasingly potent political muscle," and that they have "made low wages a hot political issue," and BuzzFeed said they "could make up a powerful new voting bloc."
During the presidential primaries, workers in the Fight for $15 marched on presidential primary debates , forcing White House hopefuls to address the demands of underpaid voters head on. On five occasions in the debates, candidates were pressed by moderators to respond to families in the Fight for $15 movement. Just last month, the Democratic Party adopted a party platform that includes a $15 an hour federal minimum wage.
The Fight for $15 has built deep ties with civil rights groups and leaders across the country. U.S. Rep. John Lewis joined Atlanta fast-food workers on a strike line in August 2013, encouraging them to, "Keep walking, keep marching, keep talking, keep pushing." In the summer of 2014, the NAACP passed a resolution backing the Fight for $15; in the winter of 2015 Memphis sanitation workers who participated in the 1968 strike in Memphis, during which Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, implored a gathering of fast-food workers at Dr. King's church in Atlanta to keep fighting for $15 and union rights; and faith leaders of all stripes have echoed the workers' moral argument for dignity on the job. Workers have developed deep ties with the Black Lives Matter movement and marched alongside activists calling for racial justice from Ferguson, Mo. to Baton Rouge, La, to Milwaukee, Wisc.
Fast food workers are coming together all over the country to fight for $15 an hour and the right to form a union without retaliation. We work for corporations that are making tremendous profits, but do not pay employees enough to support our families and to cover basic needs like food, health care, rent and transportation.
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15 Million People Could Lose Coverage as Nightmarish Medicaid 'Purge' Begins
"I feel sick," said one physician. "Medicaid is not enough: we need seamless, lifelong universal care now."
Apr 01, 2023
Beginning on Saturday, states across the U.S. will start the process of stripping Medicaid coverage from millions of people as pandemic-related protections lapse, part of a broader unraveling of the safety net that was built to help families withstand the public health crisis and resulting economic turmoil.
Medicaid's continuous coverage requirements were enacted early in the Covid-19 pandemic to help vulnerable people maintain insurance amid the health emergency, resulting in record-high Medicaid enrollment.
But at the end of last year, congressional negotiators agreed on a bipartisan basis to set April 1 as the beginning of the "unwinding" process for the continuous coverage mandates, which prevented states from conducting regular eligibility screenings for Medicaid recipients.
The bipartisan deal gave states 12 months to determine who is still eligible for Medicaid, but some states—including Arkansas and South Dakota—are jumping at the opportunity to quickly remove people from the program. (State timelines for kicking off the unwinding process can be seen here.)
"Tonight at midnight some people in AZ, AR, ID, NH, and SD will lose their Medicaid coverage," Joan Alker, executive director of the Georgetown Center for Children and Families, tweeted Friday. "South Dakota is especially vexing as expansion kicks in July 1st. The state could structure their renewals to ensure that parents move seamlessly into expansion. But they are erroneously claiming federal rules mean they can't. Not true."
Residents of the 10 states that have refused lifesaving Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) are likely to be hit hardest by the end of continuous coverage requirements, which the Biden administration estimates could result in 15 million people losing health insurance nationwide—including millions of children.
"Because those states tend to make only the extremely poor eligible for Medicaid, they will have many people who make too much to qualify for the government health insurance but not enough to reach the income needed to get federal subsidies to afford health plans sold on ACA marketplaces—the coverage the administration is counting on as the main fallback," The Washington Post's Amy Goldstein reported earlier this week.
"The toll will be large, too, in 13 states that have not chosen to extend Medicaid benefits to women for a full year after they give birth," Goldstein added. "Texas falls on both lists."
Because of the administrative barriers associated with income verification and other eligibility tests, many people are likely to lose Medicaid coverage even though they're still eligible for the program.
The Health and Human Services (HHS) Department has estimated that nearly 7 million people could be removed from Medicaid despite still being eligible due to "administrative churning."
The consequences of what one commentator has dubbed "The Great Medicaid Purge" could be disastrous, given the health impacts associated with insurance loss.
As HHS summarized in a recent report:
People who experience churning or coverage disruptions are more likely to delay care, receive less preventive care, refill prescriptions less often, and have more emergency department visits. One study found that unstable Medicaid coverage increased emergency department use, office visits, and hospitalizations between 10% and 36% and decreased use of prescription medications by 19%, compared to individuals with consistent Medicaid coverage. Children with interruptions in coverage also are more likely to have delayed care, unmet medical needs, and unfilled prescriptions.
"I feel sick," said Adam Gaffney, an ICU doctor at the Cambridge Health Alliance. "Some 15 million people will be purged from Medicaid, including 7 million who actually remain eligible for the program but fail to jump through the bureaucratic hoops! Medicaid is not enough: we need seamless, lifelong universal care now."
The Medicaid continuous coverage requirements are the latest pandemic-era protections to fall in recent months.
Starting on March 1, enhanced Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits were cut off in dozens of states, slashing food aid for tens of millions.
Additionally, the boosted Child Tax Credit (CTC) expired in late 2021 due to opposition from Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and congressional Republicans, resulting in a rapid surge in child poverty. Shortly before the expanded CTC lapsed, boosted unemployment benefits that helped millions weather economic chaos ended.
As the pandemic-era safety net crumbles, congressional Republicans are looking to roll back Medicaid, SNAP, and other key programs even further with spending cuts and punitive work requirements.
"Republican calls to cut government funding put everything from child care to opioid treatment and mental health services to nutrition assistance at risk for millions," Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, warned earlier this week.
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Amid Fears Over Russia-Belarus Nuke Deal, UN Official Calls for Talks to Ease Tensions
"The absence of dialogue and the erosion of the disarmament and arms control architecture, combined with dangerous rhetoric and veiled threats, are key drivers of this potentially existential risk."
Mar 31, 2023
The United Nations disarmament chief on Friday called for de-escalatory talks to curb the risk of nuclear war amid global concerns about Russian President Vladimir Putin's plan to station so-called "tactical" nuclear weapons in Belarus.
Roughly 13 months into the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Putin announced what critics called the "extremely dangerous escalation" last weekend, as United Nations High Representative for Disarmament Affairs Izumi Nakamitsu noted at the beginning of her briefing to the U.N. Security Council—which Russia, a permanent member, is set to lead for a month starting on Saturday.
Nakamitsu's remarks came as Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, in a speech to his country's Parliament, claimed without evidence that the United States and other Western nations plan to take over both Belarus and neighboring Poland, and vowed that "we will protect our sovereignty and independence by any means necessary."
"States must avoid taking any actions that could lead to escalation, mistake, or miscalculation."
Nakamitsu said that "the risk of a nuclear weapon being used is currently higher than at any time since the depths of the Cold War. The war in Ukraine represents the most acute example of that risk. The absence of dialogue and the erosion of the disarmament and arms control architecture, combined with dangerous rhetoric and veiled threats, are key drivers of this potentially existential risk."
"States must avoid taking any actions that could lead to escalation, mistake, or miscalculation," she continued. "They should return to dialogue to de-escalate tensions urgently and find ways to develop and implement transparency and confidence-building measures."
Putin justified the deployment plan in part by insisting that the weapons will remain under Russian control and pointing to the U.S. nukes that have been stationed in allied European countries for decades. The United States—which has the world's second-largest nuclear arsenal after Russia—is believed to have about 100 such bombs spread across Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and Turkey.
Both Russia and the United States are parties to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT). Nakamitsu stressed Friday that all parties to the treaty, whether or not they have nukes, "must strictly adhere to the commitments and obligations they have assumed under the treaty."
\u201cToday, High Representative @INakamitsu urged dialogue to reduce nuclear risk and de-escalate tensions during @UN Security Council briefing on the threat to international peace and security.\n\nRead \u25b6\ufe0f\u00a0https://t.co/iLA5M3miD7\u201d— ODA (@ODA) 1680279137
The issue of a state without its own weapons hosting some from one of the world's nine nuclear-armed nations "has existed for decades, across various regions and under different arrangements. These arrangements pre-date the NPT, with the exception of the recent announcement," Nakamitsu acknowledged. "The issue of so-called 'nuclear sharing' was debated intensely during the negotiation of the NPT" and "has been the subject of subsequent discussions."
After echoing U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres' call for Russia and the United States "to return to full implementation of the New START Treaty and commence negotiations on its successor," Nakamitsu said that "the accelerated implementation of commitments under the NPT can also contribute to undergirding international stability. I therefore appeal to all states parties of the NPT to fully adhere to their obligations to the treaty, and to immediately engage in serious efforts to reduce nuclear risk and de-escalate tensions."
Meanwhile, the U.S. and Russian ambassadors took aim at each other's countries during the U.N. Security Council meeting.
"We are pursuing cooperation with Belarus without violating obligations," argued Vassily Nebenzia, the Russian ambassador, highlighting the U.S. warheads across Europe. "We are not transferring nuclear weapons."
According toU.N. News:
Russia must take "all requisite measures" in response to "provocative steps," [Nebenzia] said, given the fraying global security architecture, dictated exclusively by Washington, along with London's recent decision to deploy armor-piercing ammunition to Ukraine.
"A nuclear war cannot be won," he said.
Russia's suggestion that this intended deployment is justified because of the use of armor-piercing ammunition supplied by Western forces, containing depleted uranium, is "ludicrous," U.S. Ambassador Robert Wood said.
"Armour-piercing ammunition is in no way analogous to tactical nuclear weapons," he said, adding that the Kremlin is attempting to limit and deter Ukraine's efforts to defend itself, and manipulate matters to win the war.
"Any use of nuclear weapons in Ukraine would have severe consequences and would fundamentally change the nature of this war," Wood added, urging Russia to reconsider its decision to deploy nukes in Belarus.
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Fetterman 'So Happy to Be Home,' Set to Return to Senate After Hospitalization for Depression
"I'm excited to be the father and husband I want to be, and the senator Pennsylvania deserves," the freshman lawmaker said.
Mar 31, 2023
Democratic U.S. Senator John Fetterman is back in his hometown of Braddock, Pennsylvania and looking forward to returning to work soon after being released Friday from Walter Reed military hospital in Maryland, where he was treated for depression.
"I am so happy to be home. I'm excited to be the father and husband I want to be, and the senator Pennsylvania deserves," Fetterman—who was hospitalized for more than a month—said in a statement Friday. "Pennsylvanians have always had my back, and I will always have theirs."
"I am extremely grateful to the incredible team at Walter Reed. The care they provided changed my life," he continued. "I will have more to say about this soon, but for now I want everyone to know that depression is treatable, and treatment works."
\u201cI am so happy to be home. I\u2019m excited to be the father and husband I want to be, and the senator Pennsylvania deserves.\n\nPennsylvanians have always had my back, and I will always have theirs.\u201d— Senator John Fetterman (@Senator John Fetterman) 1680298883
"This isn't about politics—right now there are people who are suffering with depression in red counties and blue counties," the senator—who also suffered a stroke while campaigning during the Democratic primary race last year—added. "If you need help, please get help."
In an interview slated to be aired on "CBS Sunday Morning" this weekend, Fetterman told anchor Jane Pauley that, for him, depression is like "you just won the biggest, you know, race in the country, and the whole thing about depression is that, objectively, you may have won, but depression can absolutely convince you that you actually lost."
"And that's exactly what happened," he added. "And that was the start of a downward spiral."
\u201cSix weeks after entering Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for inpatient treatment for depression, Sen. @JohnFetterman shares his struggle with depression, his health, and more in an intimate interview with Jane Pauley this "Sunday Morning."\u201d— CBS Sunday Morning \ud83c\udf1e (@CBS Sunday Morning \ud83c\udf1e) 1680298547
Fetterman is set to return to work the week of April 17 following the congressional recess, Politicoreports.
While still in the hospital on Thursday, Fetterman introduced his first bill—a railroad safety and accountability measure—with Sens. Bob Casey (D-Pa.) and Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio).
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