January, 05 2020, 11:00pm EDT
Nurses Top Gallup Poll as Most Trusted Profession for 18th Consecutive Year
"The public can count on nurses to stand up, show up, and speak up until the broken U.S. healthcare system is profoundly transformed."
WASHINGTON
Nurses topped the 2019 Gallup Poll's annual ranking of how Americans view 22 major professions with 85% of the public, four in five Americans, rating their honesty and ethical standards as "high" or "very high." Nurses have ranked first for 18 consecutive years and every year except for one since 1999 when Gallup started to survey public opinion on the honesty and ethical standards of various occupations.
"We are honored by this poll and what it reflects - that our patients, their families and the public know that they can trust and count on nurses to stand up for them. This year's results have special meaning for us as we move into 2020, which the World Health Organization has declared the 'Year of the Nurse and Midwife,'" said National Nurses United Executive Director, Bonnie Castillo, RN.
"With people and the planet under siege like never before, the public knows they can depend on nurses to use our collective power to advocate for our patients and the broader conditions that support health, justice and dignity for all people, especially the most vulnerable among us," said Castillo.
"As nurses we know that to defend our patients and realize our vision for a better world our advocacy must encompass union organizing and legislative action. Our efforts in both of these areas have been very fruitful this year," said NNU President Zenei Cortez, RN.
Despite growing efforts to undermine nurses' ability to effectively advocate for their patients through union organizing, thousands of nurses voted in 2019 to join NNU affiliates, California Nurses Association (CNA), Minnesota Nurses Association (MNA), and National Nurses Organizing Committee (NNOC) in states across the country.
NNU's legislative advocacy also moved into high gear with introduction of the Medicare for All Act of 2019 - H.R. 1384, a bill that would guarantee comprehensive health care to all. Thanks to growing grassroots activist pressure in support of the bill, it now has 120 co-sponsors and was considered in legislative hearings by four key congressional committees.
"The public can count on nurses to stand up, show up, and speak up until the broken U.S. healthcare system is profoundly transformed," said RN and another NNU President, Jean Ross, who testified at a recent congressional hearing. "We will not settle for band aid-fixes. We want the real deal, comprehensive medical care for all, regardless of ability to pay."
Nurses are also celebrating the U.S. House of Representatives' bipartisan passage of a groundbreaking federal bill to protect health care and social service workers from extremely high rates of workplace violence--H.R. 1309, the Workplace Violence Prevention for Health Care and Social Service Workers Act. The bill is modeled after the gold-standard protections won previously by California Nurses Association/National Nurses United.
"This legislation will hold our employers accountable, through federal OSHA, for having a prevention plan in place to stop workplace violence before it occurs," said NNU President Zenei Cortez, RN. "This is literally a life or death issue for our patients, their loved ones, and the nurses and health care workers that care for them.
This year the Registered Nurses Response Network (RNRN), a disaster relief program sponsored by NNU and the California Nurses Foundation, deployed 20 teams of volunteer registered nurses from around the country to provide basic medical care to asylum seekers at border shelters. In follow up to these border deployments, RNRN has released the report, Compassion Without Borders: RNs Report on the Public Health Crisis at the Border. The report outlines the health crisis at the border and can be viewed here: https://www.nationalnursesunited.org/press/nurses-speak-out-about-border-conditions
NNU members have also continued to speak out for environmental justice, endorsing enactment of a Green New Deal and calling on policy makers to seriously address the climate crisis. Nurses have seen firsthand the grave consequences of this crisis as volunteers participating in medical missions to communities devastated by hurricanes and wildfires. This year, RNRN sent volunteers to Florida and Grand Bahamas in the wake of Hurricane Dorian
Photos from RNR's Hurricane Dorian mission can be viewed here:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/rnheroes/albums/72157711496836517
2019 was also the year CNA/NNU organized the Global Nurses Solidarity Assembly in San Francisco, California. The convening brought together nurses, labor leaders, and activists from across the globe, including representatives from 25 countries.
"While we may be from opposite sides of the globe, we know that as nurses we share a common mission and are all bound by the same fundamental convictions: to heal the sick and injured, and fiercely advocate for the well-being of our patients, our communities, and our planet," said Bonnie Castillo, RN, CNA/NNOC and NNU executive director.
To view a short video made for the international gathering, Global Nurses United in Solidarity, visit: https://vimeo.com/357727371/c97645e7d1
National Nurses United, with close to 185,000 members in every state, is the largest union and professional association of registered nurses in US history.
(240) 235-2000LATEST NEWS
Listen Live: US Supreme Court Hears Outrageous Argument That Trump Is Above the Law
"The American people deserve a Supreme Court that does not hesitate to declare that no one is above the law, including a former president," said one campaigner.
Apr 25, 2024
After months of delay, the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday will hear oral arguments in a closely watched case on whether former President Donald Trump should be immune from criminal charges stemming from his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss—an argument that legal experts say is both absurd and dangerous.
Listen live to the oral arguments, which are set to begin at 10:00 am ET:
Thursday's proceedings mark the high court's final argument of its current term, and pro-democracy campaigners are calling on the justices to quickly reject the former president's sweeping immunity claim so he can face trial on federal election subversion charges before his November rematch with President Joe Biden.
As Bloomberg's Greg Stohr noted earlier this week, Thursday's oral arguments give "Special Counsel Jack Smith only a narrow window to put the former president in front of a Washington jury before voters go to the polls on November 5."
"With the trial on hold until the high court rules," Stohr added, "Smith needs a clear-cut victory, and he needs it quickly."
Sean Eldridge, founder and president of the progressive advocacy group Stand Up America, said in a statement Thursday that "the Supreme Court's right-wing majority has already handed Trump a temporary victory by stalling this case for months, allowing him to delay accountability for his criminal attempts to cling to power."
"With so much at stake for our democracy, the Supreme Court should rule swiftly and decisively in this case," said Eldridge. "Accountability delayed could mean accountability denied."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Grand Jury Indicts Top Trump Aides, 11 Arizona Republicans Over 'Fake Electors' Scheme
Had it succeeded, said the state's attorney general, the scheme would have "deprived Arizona's voters of their right to have their votes counted for their chosen president."
Apr 25, 2024
A grand jury in Arizona on Wednesday charged seven aides to Donald Trump and nearly a dozen Republican officials over a "fake electors" scheme in the state that aimed to keep the former president in power after his 2020 loss to President Joe Biden.
Trump, who is currently facing nearly 90 charges across four criminal cases as he runs for another White House term, was described as "unindicted co-conspirator 1" in the 58-page indictment, which was announced by Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes.
"The people of Arizona elected President Biden," Mayes, a Democrat, said Wednesday. "Unwilling to accept this fact, the defendants charged by the state grand jury allegedly schemed to prevent the lawful transfer of the presidency. Whatever their reasoning was, the plot to violate the law must be answered for."
The indictment names former Arizona Republican Party Chair Kelli Ward, sitting state Republican Sens. Jake Hoffman and Anthony Kern, former U.S. Senate candidate Jim Lamon, and seven others as the "fake electors" who sought to declare Trump the rightful winner of the state's presidential contest.
The names of other individuals indicted by the state grand jury are redacted, but the document's descriptions make clear that former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, former Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani, and top Trump legal strategist Boris Epshteyn are among those facing felony charges—including fraud, forgery, and conspiracy.
"In Arizona, defendants, unindicted coconspirators, and others pressured the three groups of election officials responsible for certifying election results to encourage them to change the election results," the document reads. "Discussions about using the Republican electors to change the outcome of the election began as early as November 4, 2020. Those plans evolved during November based on memos drafted by [an attorney for the Trump campaign, Kenneth Chesebro]."
Mayes said Wednesday that had the fake elector scheme succeeded, it would have "deprived Arizona's voters of their right to have their votes counted for their chosen president."
"It effectively would have made their right to vote meaningless," said Mayes.
A state grand jury, made up of everyday, regular Arizonans, has handed down felony indictments in the ongoing investigation into the fake elector scheme in Arizona. pic.twitter.com/Nu8GcD4ZqJ
— AZ Attorney General Kris Mayes (@AZAGMayes) April 24, 2024
Alex Gulotta, state director of All Voting Is Local Action Arizona, said Wednesday that "the indictment of the eleven fake electors is one of the first steps required in holding these election deniers accountable for their alleged attempts to take power away from voters by disrupting our free and fair elections."
"Arizonans deserve to trust the election officials responsible for administering our elections and preserving our democracy," said Gulotta, "and this is a positive step forward as we continue to strengthen the foundations of our democracy and restore faith in our elections."
The Arizona Republicreported Wednesday that "several of the Arizona electors have previously claimed they were merely offering Congress a backup plan, though nothing in the documents they sent to Congress and the National Archives backs up that assertion."
"The indictment includes several statements the false electors made on social media that contradict those claims," the newspaper observed.
Jenny Guzman, director of Common Cause's Arizona program, said the indictment "marks the start of a new chapter for the fake elector scheme that has plagued Arizona."
"Arizonans are still dealing with the fallout from the false electors and the Big Lie about the 2020 elections," said Guzman. "We are relieved that the investigation by Attorney General Mayes has concluded and Arizonans can now know that what comes next is accountability. These efforts by these fake electors to undermine the will of Arizona’s voters have had implications far beyond their failed attempt to overthrow the 2020 election."
"This indictment can reassure all Arizonans that if anyone, regardless of their political affiliation, attempts to undermine their vote, consequences will follow," Guzman added.
Keep ReadingShow Less
Watchdog Urges FEC to Investigate Trump Campaign Over Scheme for Legal Fees
"By not disclosing the vendors that actually provided legal services, the Trump-affiliated committees effectively blocked the public from knowing which attorneys and firms are being paid—and how much."
Apr 24, 2024
A campaign finance watchdog on Wednesday filed a Federal Election Commission complaint accusing former President Donald Trump's 2024 campaign, affiliated political groups, and an accounting firm of violating U.S. law in a scheme "seemingly designed to obscure the true recipients of a noteworthy portion of Trump's legal bills."
The Washington, D.C.-based Campaign Legal Center (CLC) said that "evidence appears to show an illegal arrangement between several Trump-affiliated committees and a compliance firm named Red Curve Solutions that is designed to obscure the identities of those providing legal services and how much they are being paid."
"Voters have a right to know how the presidential campaigns and other committees supporting presidential candidates spend their money."
CLC alleges that the Trump campaign, Trump's political action committee (PAC) Save America, and three affiliated organizations "violated federal reporting requirements based on a scheme in which the committees reportedly paid over $7.2 million—described as 'reimbursement for legal' costs or expenses"—to Red Curve.
The watchdog also said that Red Curve appears to be "making or facilitating illegal contributions that violate either federal contribution limits or the prohibition on corporate contributions."
According to CLC:
Red Curve is a domestic limited liability company that offers compliance and FEC reporting services but does not appear to offer any legal services. It is managed by Bradley Crate, who also serves as the treasurer for each of the five Trump-affiliated committees concerned in this complaint, as well as over 200 other federal committees.
According to filings with the FEC, Red Curve appears to have been fronting legal costs for Trump since at least December 2022, with Trump-affiliated committees repaying the company later. This arrangement appears to violate FEC rules that require campaigns to disclose not only the entity being reimbursed (here, Red Curve) but also the underlying vendor. By not disclosing the vendors that actually provided legal services, the Trump-affiliated committees effectively blocked the public from knowing which attorneys and firms are being paid—and how much they are being paid—through this arrangement.
"Voters have a right to know how the presidential campaigns and other committees supporting presidential candidates spend their money," CLC senior director of campaign finance Erin Chlopak said in a statement. "When campaigns and committees obscure that information from the public, not only do they make it difficult to determine if the law has been violated, but they deny voters the ability to make an informed choice when casting a ballot."
"The steps taken by the Trump campaign, its affiliated committees, and Red Curve Solutions concealed information about how campaign funds were used to pay former President Trump's legal expenditures, including the amounts and ultimate recipients of these expenditures—and the FEC must investigate immediately," Chlopak added.
Trump—who is the presumptive 2024 GOP presidential nominee—faces 91 federal and state felony charges related to his role in the January 6 insurrection and his organization's business practices. He is currently on trial in New York for allegedly falsifying business records related to hush money payments to cover up sex scandals during the 2016 election cycle. The twice-impeached former president has been open about his use of campaign donations to pay his legal costs.
The new CLC filing comes a day after the watchdog filed separate FEC complaints urging investigations into a pair of Trump-affiliated "scam PACs," which "pretend to fundraise for major candidates or issues while secretly diverting almost all of their donors' money back into fundraising or the fraudsters' own pockets."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular