People Before Profit blog

Public option in better position after Senate vote, backers say

Fri, 02 Oct 2009 08:47:00 +0000

Although the Senate Finance Committee defeated two public option amendments yesterday, the surprisingly strong vote for a public insurance plan put the health care reform movement "in a better position for the coming war," spokespeople for Health Care for America Now said.

"In the most conservative committee in the Senate, which is itself the most conservative house of Congress, a public health insurance option got the support of an overwhelming majority of the governing party," notes HCAN's Jason Rosenbaum. "And as such, it sets the stage for the next step."

The amendments submitted by Democrats Jay Rockefeller, W.Va., and Chuck Schumer, N.Y., would have added a public health insurance option to the bill drafted by committee chair Max Baucus, Mont. Rockefeller's amendment would have created a public health insurance option based on Medicare. It was defeated 8-15. Schumer's, which would have created a "level playing field" public health insurance option, was defeated 10-13.

What reform advocates are noting is that 10 out of 13 Democrats on the committee, including the more conservative Bill Nelson, Fla., and Tom Carper, Del., and "moderate" Ron Nyden, Ore., voted for a public health insurance option. Rosenbaum called their votes "pleasant surprises ... something that we didn't know beforehand."

The three who sided with the Republicans to defeat both amendments were Max Baucus, Mont., Kent Conrad, N.D., and Blanche Lincoln, Ark.

"In a long debate on the amendments," Rosenbaum commented on the HCAN blog, "senators spoke out vigorously in favor of the idea" of the public insurance option. They "pushed back hard on the misinformation coming from the opposition. The intellectual and moral case for the public health insurance option was clear."

So far, four out of the five congressional committees that are handling health reform have already passed a public health insurance option. Despite the far-right hysteria barrage, polls consistently show the public continues to overwhelmingly support the idea.

These "facts on the ground" will impact what happens next. The next step for the public health insurance option is for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to merge the Finance Committee bill with the one passed by the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee.

Yesterday's Finance Committee debate and vote "was the first step in building momentum for a public health insurance option in the Senate," Rosenbaum said. "Clearly, the idea has weight - even self-described moderates such as Bill Nelson and Tom Carper voted for it. As we move to the floor and into conference, with Schumer, Rockefeller, and other champions pledging support and whipping their colleagues, those numbers can and will continue to grow. I believe, like Schumer does, that a public health insurance option will be in the bill President Obama signs into law. It'll take work, and it won't be pretty, but it can and will happen."

Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, who chairs the HELP Committee, said yesterday there are "comfortably" 51 Senate votes for a bill containing the public plan, and he believes there will be 60 votes to break a Republican filibuster and allow the bill to be passed.

suewebb@peoplesworld.org

Astronaut: World has no borders, pass immigration reform

Fri, 02 Oct 2009 08:36:00 +0000

U.S. astronaut Jose M. Hernandez, a Mexican American, said one of the most memorable experiences during his recent trip to space was being able to look at Earth and marvel at a world without borders.

After the two-week mission ended earlier this month, Hernandez told Mexico's Televisa network that the U.S. should legalize the millions of undocumented immigrants living and working in the country. Advocating for comprehensive immigration reform, Hernandez said immigrants are an important boost to the U.S. economy.

"The American economy needs them," he said. "I believe it's only fair to find a way to legalize them and give them an opportunity to work openly, so they can also retire in a traditional U.S. system."

Hernandez said he wished all world leaders and elected officials could see the Earth as he has, "so they could see our world, that really we are one, that we should work together."

He continued, "What surprised me is when I saw the world as one. There were no borders. You couldn't distinguish between the United States and Mexico."

Following Hernandez's remarks NASA officials "flipped" and went "ballistic" according to the Los Angeles Times. NASA spokesmen said the views expressed by Hernandez were his personal opinions and don't represent NASA, the astronaut office or any NASA organization.

In response to NASA, Hernandez made it clear he was standing by what he said.

"I work for the U.S. government, but as an individual I have a right to my personal opinions," he said. "Having 12 million undocumented people here means there's something wrong with the system, and the system needs to be fixed."

Hernandez, 47, a California-born son of Mexican immigrants, grew up picking cucumbers, sugar beets and tomatoes in the fields of the San Joaquin Valley. His first language was Spanish and he didn't learn English until age 12. His parents migrated from Mexico to Northern California in the 1950s in search of work and a better life for their four children, including Jose, the youngest. Hernandez recalls living the typical life of a migrant worker, moving constantly with his family following the crops. His parents eventually settled near Stockton, Calif., to give their children a better education and a more stable life. They eventually became U.S. citizens.

As a student Hernandez excelled in math and dreamed of one day becoming an astronaut. He admired and watched the Apollo spacewalks on television.

"I was already interested in science and engineering," Hernandez wrote on his web site. "But that was the moment I said, ‘I want to fly into space.' And that's something I've been striving for each day since then."

After earning bachelor's and master's degrees in engineering, Hernandez applied for the space program every year for 12 years straight. He was finally chosen in 2004.

While in space during a 5.7-million-mile mission to the international space station aboard the shuttle Discovery, Hernandez became the first astronaut to tweet bilingually in Spanish and English with his Twitter moniker Astro_Jose.

He also hosted live interviews on local TV programs in Mexico while in orbit. During the mission Hernandez gave a salsa dance lesson, discussed Mexico's World Cup aspirations and led a mini-science lesson for his viewers. He also made taquitos and burritos for his fellow spacemen and fielded questions from YouTube users.

In a period where opportunities for Mexicans are scarce and jobs there are hard to come by, deportations of immigrants in the U.S. are at record levels. Tightened border security and the economic climate in the U.S. have caused a historic drop in the number of migrants heading north. Many say the American dream for Mexicans and their families is slowly fading.

Yet millions of Mexicans followed Hernandez's every move with mission updates on national television and on Twitter. They see his accomplishments and his success story as an example of what hardworking Latinos can achieve despite all the obstacles and challenges.

Hernandez, a father of five, said a good education with parents who forced him to study, who checked his homework and stayed involved in his schooling were instrumental for him growing up.

"What I always say to Mexican parents, Latino parents, is that we shouldn't spend so much time going out with friends drinking beer and watching telenovelas, and we should spend more time with our families and our kids ... challenging our kids to pursue dreams that may seem unreachable," said Hernandez.

Hernandez was one of two Mexican-Americans aboard the space shuttle, marking the first time two Latinos have flown in space together. Astronaut Danny Olivas was making his second space flight. Rodolfo Neri Vela, a scientist, was the first Mexican citizen to make it to space, flying aboard the shuttle Atlantis in 1985.

plozano@pww.org

Liu wins NYC comptroller race

Fri, 02 Oct 2009 08:29:00 +0000

NEW YORK-History was made here yesterday as Queens city councilman John Liu won the Democratic primary runoff election for city Comptroller, putting him in line to become the first ever Asian elected to citywide position. Liu rode to victory on a tide of support from labor, the African American, Asian and Latino communities, religious organizations and community groups.

The comptroller's race was essentially a contest between the corporate interests, especially Wall Street and big developers, and the Democratic Party machine; and a broad, insurgent coalition of labor, racially and nationally oppressed communities and the immigrant community-the city's progressive forces.

Much of Liu's campaign focused on issues of importance to working New Yorkers: problems of spiraling costs and declining service on the MTA, developers run wild, the rising cost of living.

Liu received 38 percent of the vote on September 15, in a four-way race. Under city law, if no one secures 40 percent of the vote in a citywide election, a runoff is set. Yesterday's runoff pitted Liu against Brooklyn city council member David Yassky, considered to be a favorite of developers and big business. Liu beat Yassky 56 to 44 percent.

As candidate for comptroller on both the Democratic and Working Family Party lines, Liu is virtually assured a victory in the November general election.

"We won this campaign in the streets!" Liu told a cheering crowd at his campaign's victory party, held at the offices of the United Federation of Teachers.

Indeed, Liu was able to win, even though a campaign was waged against him by the daily newspapers and the party machine. His victory was due to the high degree of organization of labor and its allies, which put boots on the ground and mailers in the mail. Alongside all this was an army of volunteers.

Yassky's endorsements included, among others, Sen. Charles Schumer, D, all of the city's daily newspapers, Ed Koch, the Manhattan Democratic county committee, the (allegedly) notoriously corrupt Brooklyn Democratic county committee and its boss, Vito Lopez.

But "John Liu rode a rainbow coalition to win the runoff," Working Families Party Executive Director Dan Cantor wrote.

In stark contrast, Liu's endorsements included all of the city's most powerful labor unions-UFT, Transport Workers Union Local 100, 1199SEIU, Local 32 BJ, AFSCME District Council 37-and just about all of the smaller ones. (Yassky's labor endorsements, in entirety, were the musician's union, three police unions, and the Freelancer's Union, which, despite its name is not in fact a union at all.)

In addition to labor, Liu received the endorsements of the Queens, Bronx and Staten Island Democratic county committees, dozens of regular, independent and reform Democratic clubs-including a large number in Brooklyn and Manhattan-virtually all of the city's African American, Latino and Asian elected officials, activists for the rights of tenants and the homeless, a wide swath of the GLBT community and the immigrant community, including its press.

So enthusiastic was The Irish Echo newspaper that it called John Liu "the most Irish element" in the race. Surprisingly, Liu also received the endorsement of the usually conservative Novoe Russkoe Slovo (New Russian Word), the largest Russian-language newspaper in the city.

At the end or his acceptance speech, Liu added, "I want to give a shout out to a community that is fast rising, the Russian community. Cpecibo! ["Thank you" in Russian]"

For many in the immigrant community, Liu embodies the American dream: he was born in China's Taiwan province and came here as a child, years during which he did sweatshop-like work to help his mother. He went on to become highly successful, and, just over eight years ago, was the first ever Asian-American to win elected office in the city.

A section of liberal white elected officials including current Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum and Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer also backed Liu.

According to many analysts, Liu's campaign represents a continuation and strengthening of the labor-led coalition that first showed itself in a highly organized way during the Obama campaign. Further, some say, the election will help to strengthen this coalition and may well help its candidate for mayor, current comptroller Bill Thompson, to achieve a victory over Mayor Michael Bloomberg in the November general elections.

Right fails to stop jobless benefits extension

Fri, 02 Oct 2009 07:22:00 +0000

With all the claims that it represents a majority of Americans supposedly opposed to "big government programs," the right wing was unable to prevent passage in the House, Sept. 22, by a lopsided margin, of a 13-week extension of unemployment benefits. Millions of workers running out of benefits in 28 states will get the extensions if the bill passes in the Senate and is signed by the president.

The measure passed in the House by a 331-83 margin with only one Republican, Rep. John Linder of Georgia, speaking out against it. He said that extending benefits would "only encourage people to stay unemployed, rather than take even low-paying Jobs." The Georgia Republican claimed that "government can't solve all ills and makes things worse by trying to."

His remarks were buried under a blizzard of comments by lawmakers around the country who rejected that analysis.

Insisting that the unemployed want to work, Rep. Pete Stark, D-Calif., declared, "Competition for jobs is intense. Fifty percent of unemployed individuals have been jobless for more than six months. We must protect those who still cannot find work and whose benefits are about to run out." The official jobless rate in California is 12.2 percent.

Stark noted that "in total, one million workers around the country will exhaust benefits by the end of the year. We cannot allow that to happen. While the economy begins to recover and the economic stimulus starts to take hold, Congress has an obligation to ensure families can put food on their tables and pay their bills."

Rep. John Dingell. D-Mich., represents the area southwest of Detroit, which has been devastated by the collapse of the auto industry. "For the families I represent this loss of benefits comes at a time when Michigan is continuing to struggle with over 15 percent unemployment," Dingell said. "In the metro Detroit area unemployment is even higher at 17.1 percent These are not families looking for a handout, rather they are relying on these benefits to pay their mortgage and put dinner on the table. I can think of thousands of workers in my district alone who can confirm that $310 a week does not stretch far."
The bill extends unemployment benefits by up to 13 weeks for over 300,000 workers who reside in high-unemployment states and who are projected to run out of compensation by today, Sept. 30.

It would also cover more than one million workers whose benefits would be exhausted by the end of 2009.

The longer benefits would go to workers in 28 states, plus D.C., with jobless rates of 8.5 percent or more. The states include California, Illinois, Massachusetts, Maine, Michigan, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Washington.

If the jobless rate goes up from its present 8.2 percent in Minnesota, Delaware and Alaska to 8.5 percent then workers in those states will also be included.

San Francisco hotel workers take to the streets

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 14:54:00 +0000

SAN FRANCISCO - In case the giant hotel corporations now bargaining with their workers for a new citywide contract had any doubts, over 1,700 of those workers made clear Sept. 24 they and their union, Unite Here Local 2, are determined to win a fair contract that maintains strong health care coverage and keeps their jobs secure. Their current contract expired in August.

After rallying at Union Square in the heart of downtown, the workers took to the streets, pausing to chant and picket in solidarity as 92 of their number sat in at two of the city's top hotels and were arrested for performing peaceful civil disobedience. Forty-three workers were arrested at the Grand Hyatt Hotel, and 49 were detained at the Westin St. Francis. All were later released.

At Union Square before the rally began, Linda Knighten, a cook at the Omni Hotel for over eight years, said that as a single mother with "a great kid" in college, her health coverage is vital, especially with student fees soaring and other financial pressures growing.

Asked about workloads, Knighten said management is "trying to get one person to do two people's jobs." She had been assigned to an eight-hour shift in the hotel's cafeteria, during which she was responsible for feeding some 200 people. "Now they say I can do the cafeteria work in six hours, and do amenities for the rooms during the other two."

As the marchers prepared to take to the streets, Local 2's president, Mike Casey, updated the crowd on the status of negotiations. The union is currently bargaining with three major hotel corporations - Starwood, Hyatt and Hilton. "All three of these employers have to date been dragging their heels, crying about how the economy is hurting their business," he told the crowd.

Though the corporations have made billions in the last few years, and in recent months have seen "unprecedented improvements" in their earnings, he said, they are still trying to require their workers to cover their health care.

The union is offering alternatives, Casey said: a one year contract "that is reasonable" and will "cover our health care and pensions," or a three or four year pact that improves wages and pensions, guarantees full maintenance of health care and reduces workloads. "The third option is that we will be happy to carry this contract into the next year," when Unite Here locals in many locations will be bargaining at the same time.

The union points out that hotel workers, who average about $30,000 a year in wages, have in the past prioritized keeping their health care, which is fully paid for union members and costs an additional $10 per month for family coverage, over wage and pension increases.

The new contract will cover some 9,000 workers at more than 60 hotels, half of them the city's largest luxury hotels. The contract that just expired was signed three years ago after two years of very difficult bargaining, a two-week strike, a nearly eight-week lockout and a boycott of the city's hotels, initiated by Local 2.

mbechtel@peoplesworld.org

Hometown to Glenn Beck: This is a hate-free zone

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 14:49:00 +0000

Fox News talk-show host, Glenn Beck, arrived in his hometown, Mount Vernon, Washington, Sept. 26, to be greeted by hundreds of protesters with signs that read, "Hate is not a Mount Vernon value" and "Hate kills!"

There were also "tea-baggers" in the crowd who embraced Beck's hate but the voices of sanity and reason seemed to carry the day. Beck delivered an unusually, low-key, non-political speech urging people to stop "tearing each other apart."

Beck, who recently touched off a nationwide furor by branding President Obama a "racist" with a "deep hatred of America and white culture," returned to the town where he was born in 1964 at the invitation of the town's mayor, Bud Norris, who unilaterally proclaimed Sept. 26 "Glenn Beck Day" and presented him with the keys to the city. More than 800 turned out to protest, many wearing tee-shirts with the slogan, "Hate is not a Mount Vernon value." Overhead, a plane circled pulling a banner that read, "Change the Locks."

The mayor's action ignited an angry firestorm. A grassroots coalition circulated a petition signed by 16,000 people demanding that the invitation be withdrawn. Phillip Holder, presented the petitions to a Sept. 23 meeting of the City Council, with the Mayor presiding. Holder said the invitation to Beck, "disgraces Mount Vernon."

The council then went on to approve unanimously a resolution stating that the "City Council is in no way sponsoring the Mayor's event...and is not connected to the Glenn Beck event in any manner."

Holder, a member of FUSE, the progressive group that circulated the petition, told the World, "I wonder if the fact that hundreds of people were in the streets with signs that said, ‘hate is not a Mount Vernon value' had anything to do with his toned-down speech. I wasn't in the hall but news reports said he urged people to stop tearing each other apart. We can second the proposal."

Holder added, "The trend of vilifying one's political opponents does not contribute to the quality of the debate over policy issues that have to be decided...It leads to confusion and stops us from resolving the difficult issues that we face as a nation including health care reform, global climate change and our dependence on oil."

Beck, he said, should heed his own call "and stop thinking about ‘killing' Michael Moore," he said, referring to the documentary film-maker. He referred to the Wikipedia biography of Beck documenting his incitement to murder against Moore. "Beck has not been making a positive contribution to a dialogue on solving the problems we face as a nation," said Holder.

Judith Shattuck, chair of the Progressive Caucus of Washington State, that helped mobilize the protest of Beck's appearance, told the World that humanity is going through transformative changes deeper than any experienced in the "past 1,000 years." She added, "Its like the old stuff we did and believed in is dying. And its dying hard. The Glenn Becks of the world are resisting with every fiber of their being. We spend a lot of energy trying to hold on to what is dead, or dying. What I hope is that we can say: O.K., that's gone. Let's turn our energy to what we want to create."

Beck may also be chastened by the impact of the boycott organized by Oakland-based "ColorofChange" (CoC) in which 62 corporate sponsors have withdrawn their advertising from Fox News' Glenn Beck Show. Now CoC and its partner, the Free Press Action Fund (FPAF) are circulating an online letter "Glenn Beck Doesn't Speak for Me," already signed by tens of thousands. CoC director, James Rucker and FPAF director Josh Silver write, "Some say that we should just ignore Glenn Beck's media circus and it will go away. But Beck's attacks have actually harmed people. We need to tell Beck and his bosses that their efforts to stoke fear and prejudice come with consequences of their own."

Beck, they added, has the right of free speech. "But he doesn't have the right to a cable news show funded by millions in corporate ad dollars. News media that have no sense of responsibility to the truth need to be held accountable."

Swine flu: word of the day is ‘caution’

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 14:32:00 +0000

September usually marks the beginning of "flu season" in this hemisphere. This September, because a new strain of flu virus, H1N1 (initially known as the "swine flu"), made its appearance in Mexico last spring, and soon spread worldwide, the public health community is on special alert to fight what might be a particularly virulent flu.

Health care providers and scientists are on alert because the H1N1 influenza virus is believed to be similar to the virus of the 1918-19 pandemic. As in that pandemic a century ago, the most vulnerable to today's H1N1 virus are children, teens and young adults.

Additionally, there are signs that there will be a second wave of the virus this year, just as there was in 1918-19. In the spring of 1918, during World War I, the flu, misnamed "Spanish Flu", struck U.S. soldiers at military bases in the Midwest. There were few cases over the summer, but it returned with a vengeance the following fall.

At this time, there is some cause for optimism about the threat posed by H1N1, because health officials in Australia, where winter and the peak flu season are ending, report moderate severity for the H1N1 flu. However, the word of the day is still "caution."

The seriousness of influenza infection is often underestimated. Globally, the death rate for seasonal flu is one-tenth of 1 percent, or a half million deaths yearly. The death rate in the 1918-19 pandemic is estimated to have been 2 percent, with 50 million deaths.

Originally the H1N1 virus infected only pigs, but mutated so that it could also infect humans. Because it is a microbe new to humans, the levels of immunity are low due to lack of previous exposure. Those who contract new strains of influenza are more vulnerable to severe infection and complications such as pneumonia, respiratory arrest, and even death. Because of this potential for severe disease, public health officials want to prepare for the worst.

Further, much of this year's caution is informed by the terrible mistakes, miscalculations and disregard for scientific evidence that contributed to the severity of the flu pandemic of 1918-19.

Army doctors' advice to avoid overcrowding in barracks and infirmaries was disregarded. Even though sailors on ships returning from Europe showed symptoms of infectious disease, they were allowed to disembark at U.S. ports.

In a particularly politically charged situation, politicians in Philadelphia were eager to impress Washington with a vigorous turnout for a war bonds rally. The health commissioner, an obstetrician/gynecologist with no experience in public health, and a political appointee to boot, made little to no effort to stop the rally. Everyone was urged to attend, resulting in crowded streets and a public gathering that spread influenza throughout the city.

Throughout the world, hospitals and clinics were woefully inadequate for the magnitude of the pandemic. Entire families were infected and left to suffer and/or die unattended at home. The sick were moved into hospital beds as soon as the previous occupants died. The dead could not be removed from homes and hospitals and buried fast enough.

Reading about the mishandling of the 1918-19 influenza epidemic, one is reminded of the terrible but avoidable losses that resulted from the lack of preparation for Hurricane Katrina. The ineptitude, the callous disregard for human life, and the inaction of the Bush administration are eerily familiar

In preparing for a possible pandemic today, public health officials are advising that individuals be vaccinated. Two doses of influenza vaccine are recommended for adults: one for seasonal flu, and one for the H1N1 strain. Priority will be given to those with chronic conditions (asthma, diabetes, etc.), pregnant women, the elderly, health care workers, and young children and infants.

The symptoms of influenza, including the H1N1 strain, are: fever greater than 100 F, sore throat, cough, stuffy nose, chills, headache and body aches, and fatigue. There are some reports of diarrhea and vomiting.

Influenza is spread from person to person (it is not related to the consumption of pork or pork products). The following precautions should always be followed, even by healthy individuals:

* Cough/sneeze into a tissue and discarded it immediately, follow with vigorous hand washing (for at least 18 seconds - the "ABC" song or a verse of "Yankee Doodle Dandy" takes 18 seconds, so sing while washing!) or vigorously rub an alcohol-based sanitizer on the hands.

* If no tissue is available, cough or sneeze into shirt sleeve (not hands).

* Hands should be kept away from eyes, nose and mouth at all times.

* Avoid hugs ... sorry about that one!

* If possible, buy a thermometer (digital thermometers are about $10; they are also a big help in determining whether or not a student has "schoolitis" or is really sick).

* Stay home from work/school if ill. (Now is the time for legislation requiring paid sick leave for all workers, as well as paid family-leave.)

If you get the flu:

* Follow your doctor's advice.

* Your doctor may order an anti-viral medication.

* Avoid close contact with others, especially the elderly, young children, infants, pregnant women and those with chronic or debilitating conditions.

* If tolerated, wear a mask around family members.

* Get plenty of rest.

* Clear liquids such as ginger ale, apple juice, water and tea help lower fevers, and keep mucus thin and easy to cough up (avoid alcoholic beverages).

* Cover coughs and sneezes as above.

* Wash hands frequently.

If possible, and while healthy, all individuals should try to find a "medical home" - a family doctor, clinic or health center where they can be seen for physical exams, immunizations and general preventive care. Often an after-hours phone consultation with such a provider can avert a trip to the emergency room.

The following web sites may be of interest: the World Health Organization web site and Centers for Disease Control weekly update - be sure to check out Dr. Clarke's rap re the flu at this site.

And, it cannot be overemphasized: Wash hands frequently!

Chicagoans hope Obama Olympic bid will benefit workers

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 14:01:00 +0000

In a last minute decision President Barack Obama has decided to travel to Copenhagen later this week to support Chicago's Olympic bid as host to the 2016 Summer Games. Obama will become the first U.S. president to lobby in person in front of the International Olympic Committee, which will make its decision Friday afternoon after a 100-plus vote by its members in a secret ballot.

Other cities in the running include Madrid, Rio De Janeiro and Tokyo. Each country is expected to deliver a 70-minute final presentation to IOC members. Many believe the IOC's vote will be the aftermath of one of the toughest competitions in recent history of countries bidding to host the Games.

If Rio wins, which according to reports has a slight lead over Chicago, Brazil will become the first South American country to play host to the Games.

Obama initially said the current fight for health care reform in the U.S. was too critical for him to leave Washington. But after increasing pressure, Obama had a change of heart and many say his presence in Copenhagen could swing the vote toward Chicago's selection.

Obama will join his wife Michelle, Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley, White House senior advisor Valerie Jarrett, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood and Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn. Chicago is the hometown to the Obama family.

Many host cities in the past have benefited from heads of states making a pitch for their countries. Most recently they include London's former Prime Minister Tony Blair for the 2012 Summer Games and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's push for Sochi's selection for the 2014 Winter Games.

Despite the excitement shared by many in the Olympic sports world, local community organizations want city officials to be held accountable if the Games are chosen to be in Chicago.

Although much of organized labor in Chicago supports the bid especially when it comes to jobs creation, others want to ensure that those jobs are equally spread throughout the city particularly in the Black, Latino and other low-income communities.

Many agree that in preparing for the Games Chicago could potentially produce many new jobs, which are badly needed especially given the current economic climate facing the country. Yet those jobs must benefit working people including small businesses and not just the highly connected, the super wealthy or major corporations, critics charge.

More importantly the cost of the Games and the general financial infrastructure must not fall on the backs of working people, they add. Mayor Daley says this won't happen.

Another concern is the amount of residential displacement and gentrification that could make the housing crisis in Chicago worse off than it already is in an era where home foreclosure rates continue to mount.

The amount of money being raised to support the Games could also be funneled toward improving schools and public education as well as revamping the public transit system, critics say.

Most agree the Olympics are a time where nations of the world come together to showcase an array of talent and sportsmanship highlighting the best of the best each country has to offer.

Chicagoans would most likely welcome such an international display of diverse cultures competing for the gold, silver and bronze medals. They just want to make sure the Mayor and others are held accountable so that all working people reap the long-term benefits of hosting such a rich and historic tradition of international solidarity.

plozano@pww.org

ACORN files lawsuit against video con artists

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 11:49:00 +0000

The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now filed a lawsuit on Sept. 23 asking the Circuit Court in Baltimore to issue an injunction blocking further distribution of a video shot secretly by rightwing tricksters, James O'Keefe and Hannah Giles. The twosome, dressed up as pimp and prostitute, went to ACORN's Baltimore office and got two ACORN staff workers into a discussion of how to open a brothel in the city, all caught on video and now broadcast endlessly on Fox News.

After weeks of such repeated broadcasts and accompanying lies from rightwing pundits, it is becoming clear that ACORN is in the crosshairs of a smear campaign aimed at destroying the multiracial organization of 500,000 members that has toiled since 1970 to make life better for the poor and disenfranchised.

ACORN's legal team points out that the secret video is in "clear violation" of Maryland law which requires "two party consent to all electronic surveillance."

ACORN General Counsel Arthur Schwartz charged that the aim was to "inflict maximum damage to the reputation of ACORN, the nation's largest grassroots organizer of low-income and minority Americans. Unfortunately, they succeeded."

Bertha Lewis, ACORN's chief organizer assailed the House and Senate for their surrender in the face of the rightwing media onslaught, voting overwhelmingly to terminate federal funding for any ACORN-administered programs. "To include language in legislation that targets a single organization is unconstitutional and wrong," Lewis said.

She quoted Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., who denounced the House vote that "did not follow some criminal or administrative process with basic due process protections. It flowed out of a Fox News network report, which led the call for a public lynching" of ACORN.

Lewis added pointedly that if the standard is that organizations that have broken the law shouldn't get federal money, "then let's set that standard consistently. There are numerous corporations that have proven records of malfeasance. ACORN has never been convicted of any crime in a court of law."

At the same time, the group said it would let an independent investigation take place. "We have all been deeply disturbed by what we've seen in some of these videos," Lewis said. "We will go to whatever lengths necessary to reestablish the public trust."

ACORN's Brian Kettenring, deputy director of National Operations, said the organization has received a "huge outpouring of support from individuals and grassroots organizations that see the shameless attacks for what they are."

ACORN is taking action to "strengthen" the organization "in light of some of the content of the actual videos," he said.

But at the same time, ACORN is pointing out the hypocrisy. "Why no accountability for Halliburton and Blackwater?" Kettenring asks.

Despite this being the "toughest month" in ACORN history, Kettenring says, the "morale of the leadership and staff is quite high" and the "message is finally penetrating about the nature of the attacks."

Washington Post columnist Harold Meyerson takes on the witchhunt in his Sept. 24 article, "For ACORN, truth lost amid the din."

He lists many of the accomplishments: a successful drive for a ballot initiative in Florida that raised the minimum wage in 2004, and in four more states in 2006; legal challenges often joined by States' Attorneys, that "compelled such lenders as Citigroup" to change their discriminatory lending practices. It has led to outlawing "the most egregious predatory lending in nine states."

Meyerson adds that ACORN "has been to expand the electorate." In the 2007-2008 election cycle, ACORN registered 1.3 million new voters in the nation's inner cities.

"This activity particularly vexed many Republican politicians who have repeatedly accused the organization of massive voter fraud."

Meyerson quotes a report titled, "Manipulating the public agenda: Why ACORN was in the news and what the news got wrong." The report, co-authored by Prof. Peter Dreier of Occidental College and Christopher R. Martin of the University of Northern Iowa, analyzed 647 stories about ACORN.

The ACORN story, they write, illustrates how the ultra-right media "set the agenda for public debate and frame the way that debate is shaped."

Rightwing talking-heads and pundits which they call "opinion entrepreneurs," set the story in motion as early as 2006, the report states.

The "conservative echo chamber" then "orchestrated" its anti-ACORN campaign in 2008, and the "mainstream media reported its allegations without investigating their truth or falsity."

The aim of the assault was to make "voter fraud" the main public perception of ACORN, the authors write.

The report authors quantify the media failures stating, "82.8 percent of the stories about ACORN's alleged involvement in voting fraud failed to mention that actual voter fraud is very rare," and by a similar percent, failed to mention that ACORN had proactively "reported the irregularities to authorities."

The mainstream media also "failed to provide a deeper context, especially efforts by Republican Party officials to use allegations of 'voter fraud' to dampen voting by low-income and minority Americans."

And 61.4 percent of the stories "failed to acknowledge that Republicans were trying to discredit Obama with an ACORN 'scandal.'"

The peak came during the Obama-McCain televised debate, Oct. 15, 2008, when McCain said, "We need to know the full extent of Sen. Obama's relationship with ACORN who is now on the verge of maybe perpetrating one of the greatest frauds in voter history in this country, maybe destroying the fabric of democracy."

The authors cite especially shocking examples of the Big Lie: A July 2009 report by Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., with the libelous title, "Is ACORN Intentionally Structured As a Criminal Enterprise?"

Although the election is over, these rightwing "opinion entrepreneurs" and the Fox News "echo chamber" remain fixated on ACORN, they warn. Fox and its minions are "poised to inject their frame about ACORN as an issue in the 2010-2012 national elections."

Univ. of California community protests cutbacks

Sun, 27 Sep 2009 22:20:00 +0000

BERKELEY, Calif. - Across the University of California, students, faculty and campus workers are linking arms to fight cutbacks, layoffs, tuition hikes and furloughs, and to keep the 10-campus, 225,000-student university public and effectively serving the state's economically, racially and ethnically diverse population.

Sept. 24 was the scheduled first day of fall semester classes. But many members of the university community spent the day in teach-ins, picket lines and rallies. Many professors who held classes reflected on the struggle going on outside.

On the Berkeley campus, over 5,000 chanting, sign-waving demonstrators packed Sproul Plaza, of 1960s Free Speech Movement fame, for a noontime rally. There, speaker after speaker recalled how those epic struggles laid the basis for today's more diverse university community, and called on the community to summon that energy again to roll back administration decisions poised to destroy those gains.

Demands, including no pay cuts or furloughs for those earning less than $40,000, no student fee hikes, no layoffs or furloughs, and full disclosure of UC's budget, reflected powerful solidarity among students, campus workers and faculty.

"The UC system is a public resource built over far more than a century with taxpayers' money, private generosity and shrewdness, and the intellectual energy of generations of students, teachers and staff," opening rally speaker and art history professor T.J. Clark told the crowd. "A state in its right mind does not destroy that resource when times get tough. But this is what is happening."

Even in an economic crisis, the university "does not build its future on the backs of the men and women who keep the places we teach and learn in clean, safe and functioning," Clark added. Nor, he said, can the university see its problems in isolation from the state's overall crisis, and its effect on other parts of the education system including public schools, community colleges and the state university system.

"We are the ones that make the university what it is and we need to keep mobilizing and really working together across racial lines, community lines, class lines," said undergraduate student Mary June Flores. "We need to work together to show them we are here in solidarity, we're not going to let the university close the doors on us."

Laid-off custodian Ismael Ramirez declared, "We highly value our jobs and we are going to fight for them, along with you students!" Ramirez' union, AFSCME, says a quarter of the workers who keep the campus clean have been laid off.

At the end of the two-hour rally the crowd surged into downtown Berkeley, blocking traffic and chanting, "Education should be free, no cutbacks, no fees!" before holding a sit-down protest at the entrance to the campus.

One campus union, UPTE (University Professional and Technical Employees), held a one-day unfair labor practices strike coinciding with the walkout, to protest the university's unilateral imposition of layoffs, furloughs and increased health care premiums.

The university's top administrators, including President Mark Yudof, have contended that the cutbacks are forced because the State of California has cut its support to the system by $813 million. Critics point out that of the UC system's $19 billion annual budget, just $3 billion comes from the state, but Yudof claims the budget gap can't be filled by funds from non-state sources because these are committed to other purposes.

Particular outrage has been expressed over the university's plan to raise tuition by 32 percent while at the same time, hiking salaries and benefits of over two dozen top executives whose compensation is already well into six figures.

The Sept. 24 walkout was backed by the University of California Student Association, the American Association of University Professors, the Coalition of University Employees, the Graduate Assembly and other campus organizations.

mbechtel@peoplesworld.org

Pittsburgh G20 in black and white

Sun, 27 Sep 2009 07:36:00 +0000

The following are photographs from Travis Neely Photography from downtown Pittsburgh on Sept. 25. http://www.travisphotographics.com

Swine flu vaccine on the way

Sat, 26 Sep 2009 17:44:00 +0000

Flu season is here. And it has brought its nasty cousin swine flu (H1N1) with it. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, swine flu began to spread in the US last spring, picked up some steam over the summer and now as the usual flu season begins is expected to spread quickly.

"It didn't go away this summer," said Dr. Anne Schuchat, director of the CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases on a conference call with reporters Sept. 24. "We expected that the fall would bring an increase in flu illness, and that is exactly what we're seeing."

The good news is that the government's voluntary vaccination program for the swine flu is on schedule. According to Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius 6-7 million doses of the swine flu vaccine will be available in the first week of October, with 40 million doses ready by the middle of the month. Another 10-20 million doses will be ready each week after that.

Congress has appropriated the money to pay for the voluntary vaccination program, so each doses should be distributed without cost to Americans who want one, Sebelius told reporters.

In addition, the CDC coordinated distribution of the vaccine with state and local governments. No one inside the beltway has mandated where and how the vaccine will be distributed, Sebelius stated. People seeking doses of swine flu vaccine should check with state and local health officials.

Dr. Schuchat also explained some of the basic symptoms and treatments for the swine flu. First, some people who catch H1N1 show minor flu-like symptoms very briefly and get better quickly. Other people, especially children or adults with underlying health issues such as pregnancy or chronic illnesses, seem to experience more difficult symptoms.

In the latter cases, people should seek medical attention, especially if they experience difficulty with breathing. Children might turn blue or grey or have difficulty being awakened. In some cases, people infected with the swine flu seem to get better, but then turn for the worse as additional infections like pneumonia set in.

People who have these symptoms should seek medical attention right away, Dr. Schuchat said.

She also warned against taking antiviral medications as a preventive measure against the swine flu or the seasonal flu. They should only be used to treat symptoms. Taking doses of antivirals won't prevent the flu, but may in fact lower resistance to infection.

Sebelius added that people ten and over will need only a single dose of the vaccine, as clinical trials seem to indicate that it is a perfect match for the swine flu this season. Children six months to 10 years should receive two doses, as they should with the seasonal flu. Scientific studies indicate that children under 10 do not build up enough resistance to the flu with a single dose.

More information can be found at Flu.gov.

Philly to CIGNA, Congress: “Health care now!”

Sat, 26 Sep 2009 07:51:00 +0000

Taking note of this city's role in history, she called for a "Declaration of Independence from big insurance companies who withhold our health care."

The rally featured an array of speakers calling for a new day in the nation's care of its people. Trade union leaders, health care activists, patients and physicians all took a turn at the microphone to relate their experiences and call on Congress to act now.

The labor movement played a key role in organizing the event, and signs carried by many participants identified them as union members. In addition, when labor leaders spoke, they made clear that the movement was representing all workers, organized and otherwise, in the struggle for universal health care.

Holt Baker said, "When we have a civil discussion in this country, Americans say they want health care. Organized labor is waging a major campaign to make sure all workers and our communities win!"

Pat Eiding, president of the Philadelphia AFL-CIO Council, told the crowd, "We are having rallies all across the country; all those people are our people; organized labor speaks for all of them. We want the insurance companies to share some of that wealth!"

Many speakers emphasized the crucial importance of the next few weeks in attempting to influence Congress. Dr. Valerie Arkoosh, president of the National Physicians Alliance, urged everyone to intensify their efforts in the next critical month saying, "It's up to every one of us to transform Kennedy's dream into reality; we can't wait!"

Wendell Potter, former private insurance company representative and now an advocate for universal health care, warned the crowd of the dangers of "Wall Street-run health care." He went on to say, "I really am encouraged today by what I see across the country; we are on the verge. The next few weeks will be among the most important in our country's history." He said he saw "deep and sincere support for the public option" in both houses of Congress.

After the rally, the crowd marched three blocks to the headquarters of CIGNA, identified as one of the main offenders in denying claims and refusing coverage. Chants of "Health care now!" and "CIGNA shame!" filled the street as motorists honked their horns and signaled their support.

Californians to top insurer: Stop denying our care!

Sat, 26 Sep 2009 06:46:00 +0000

As a delegation prepared to enter the building to insist Wellpoint's CEO, Angela Braly, agree to their demands, rally participants' health care stories galvanized the crowd.

A 30-year-old woman, employed but unable to afford insurance except with help from her inlaws, was diagnosed with lupus, a chronic autoimmune disease. Now she cannot afford the treatments, and is trying to find a job with benefits. "In this economy?" she said. "Apparently Blue Cross' solution for sick people is, cross your fingers."

A psychiatric nurse employed at a major university medical center contracted hemolytic streptococcus from a homeless patient. The nurse was repeatedly sent home by a medical facility without tests or hospitalization. He died at age 44. "If he had antibiotics within the first few days, he wouldn't have died," his widow told the crowd. "We need single payer health care," she added. "We are dying without it."

Dr. Allison Mulcahy, a resident in emergency medicine at Highland Hospital, Oakland's public hospital, told of the man who has had two heart attacks in the last two years.
Dr. Allison Mulcahy
Dropped by Anthem Blue Cross when he lost his job after the first heart attack, the man was treated at Highland in January after the second attack. He has come to the hospital three times since, Dr. Mulcahy said, but each time has left against medical advice after receiving only emergency treatment "because he was terrified of the costs his family would incur if he stayed to get care."

On the fringes of the crowd, holding a sign: "UK single payer saved my baby," was a woman whose story took a happier turn. Juliet Mohit, standing beside the stroller in which sat her 20-month-old son, Milo, said she and her husband were living in London when she became ill early in her pregnancy.
Juliet Mohit and son, Milo
"Excellent care" including home visits during the pregnancy and after Milo was born were completely free.

On returning to California, however, Mohit's husband was initially denied insurance because he had once been treated for acne. Just as he was finally able to buy coverage, he was diagnosed with a sinus tumor. While the family is grateful not to have to pay the full $50,000 bill for his treatment, Mohit said, "now we have $9,000 in credit card debt."

Meanwhile, the delegation had returned, telling the crowd how they made their way to the executive office suite, only to have the door closed in their faces.

Wellpoint, described by rally organizers as the largest insurer in the country and in California, is a key opponent of meaningful health care reform including a strong public option. The firm has spent millions on federal lobbying, and earlier spent over $2 million to defeat proposed health care reform in California. Anthem Blue Cross of California, a Wellpoint subsidiary, reportedly has half the state's market for individual health insurance policies.

The rally was organized by Health Care for America Now, with participation of the California Labor Federation, SEIU, ACORN, MoveOn and Health Access California. Protests were also held in Sacramento, Los Angeles and other California cities.

Health care rallies: 'Big Insurance Makes Me Sick!'

Thu, 24 Sep 2009 11:58:00 +0000

More than 200 events were organized on the National Day of Action including a rally near United Healthcare (UHC) offices outside Baltimore. Nick Sheridan pointed at the brick office tower nearby and charged that insurance companies denied coverage for his daughter on false grounds that she had a "preexisting condition." He added, "United Healthcare insures a lot of people in Maryland and they are using our premiums to lobby against health care reform."

Several speakers blasted UHC, Cigna, and other health insurance giants of instigating the "disruptions" of lawmakers town hall meetings on health care, pressuring their employees to pack the meetings and scream and yell to intimidate members of Congress.

Dr. Joseph Adams, said he was forced to give up his primary care practice because the insurance companies reject so many claims for reimbursement, forcing physicians to file again and again. "Health insurance profits quadrupled in seven years to $12.7 billion in 2007," he said. "People lose their insurance when they get sick. It's called a ‘recision'....What part of a strong public option is UHC afraid of?"

Matthew Weinstein, Maryland Coordinator of Health Care for America NOW lead the crowd in chanting, "Free choice, a must! Public option or bust."

Karen Dawson, Howard County coordinator of MoveOn told the crowd that UHC, one of the two largest for-profit insurance companies in the nation posted $4.65 billion in profits in 2007 and UHC CEO Stephen J. Helmsley has reaped $750 million in compensation since he took over in 2006.

UHC's California subsidiary, Pacificare, she said, was fined $3.5 million on grounds that "30 percent of the HMO claims were wrongly denied and 29 percent of the disputes with doctors were handled incorrectly." An investigation by the House Subcommittee on Oversight found that UHC, WellPoint. and Assurant Inc. cancelled coverage for 20,000 people "allowing the companies to avoid paying more than $300 million in medical claims over a five-year period."

UHC ‘s CEO, William McGuire, was forced to resign and pay $468 million in fines to avoid going to trial on charges of backdating stock options to "allow insiders to maximize financial gains."

Retired engineer, Michael Phillips, told the crowd he was in London, last year, when he was stricken with internal bleeding. He was admitted to a hospital and treated by the chief surgeon. Total cost? Not a shilling. Not even a pense, for prompt, first class treatment under Britain's socialized medical system.

Soon after returning home, his sister visited from New Mexico bringing her daughter with a cast on her broken arm. They had been advised to take the young girl to have the cast checked out by a doctor. They searched all day and finally found a clinic in Virginia that charged $300 for a simple examination. "I tell this story because it is such a contrast," Phillips said.

He commented on the teabaggers who are attempting to break up the town hall meetings on health care. "They are nothing new," he said. "James Meredith faced this same hate when he integrated the University of Mississippi. The Black teenagers who integrated Central High School in Little Rock faced the same hate."

Angie Lee said her grand-daughter was struck with meningitis soon after she graduated from college. Treatment cost $23,000. Her insurance company denied her claim on the absurd basis that the meningitis was a "preexisting condition." Only after she threatened to go to court did the company relent.

Musician Tobias Hurwitz said he too was "fully covered" with a policy sold by MegaLife & Health. Diagnosed with prostate cancer, he underwent a prostatectomy at Johns Hopkins Hospital. "With copays and out-of-pocket expenses, it cost me over $10,000 even with so-called ‘full' coverage," he said. He now pays his $350 monthly insurance premium plus $185 monthly to Hopkins Hospital and $150 monthly to Hopkins University. "That adds up to $685 just to stay even with my health care expenses. I would do better with a public option."

Health insurance premiums grow faster than wages

Thu, 24 Sep 2009 11:38:00 +0000

Health insurance consumers can expect a similar pattern in 2009.

Putting the issue in stark terms, the report stated, "Consumers ultimately bear the brunt of costs as increases in hospital, physician, drug, and health plan spending are all passed down the value chain to American families, employers and the government who pay the bills."

The report also examined the impact of out-of-control insurance premiums on working families in each state. In the past decade for example, Alaskan working families saw the cost of a typical family premium grow more than four times faster than their wages.

Working families in South Carolina, Iowa, Wyoming, Oregon, Montana, Maine and Arizona, for example, also saw insurance premiums grow 2.6 to three times faster than wages, the White House report revealed.

Despite big profits margins, Maine's Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, Washington's Regence Blue Shield, and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Rhode Island each demanded double digit rises in the price of family premiums in 2008 in each of those states.

A separate report prepared by the Department of Health and Human Services earlier this summer explained why insurance premiums seem to grow unchecked. According to data compiled in that study showed that numerous states have one or two or just three big insurance companies dominating the market in each state, holding virtual monopolies, setting conditions of coverage and establishing price increases.

The White House report argued that reform measures currently under debate in Congress would regulate the insurance industry and prevent such exorbitant rises in the cost of premiums.

By eliminating discriminatory practices such as canceling coverage due to "preexisting conditions" or because a consumer is deemed too costly to cover, new consumer protections could reign in the cost of health care and insurance. Reform proposals also include limits on out-of-pocket expenses, protections for retirees on Medicare, prohibition on lifetime caps on coverage and the creation of new coverage for preventive care.

In addition, the administration has argued, the construction of a public insurance program as one of the possible choices for consumers would expand coverage to millions of uninsured people and bring market pressures to bear on private insurance companies to provide benchmarks for coverage and best practices that would bring price inflation under control.

Yale University Professor Jacob Hacker, in a recent report advocating the public insurance option along with insurance regulation, wrote that the public program is essential to make reform work. The public option must "provide a backup option offering health and financial security to individuals without employer coverage, a cost and quality benchmark, and a cost-control backstop that drives payment and delivery system reform."

Alternatives to this, Hacker told reporters on a recent conference call, such as the proposed non-profit cooperatives in the Senate Finance Committee's current health bill, simply aren't large or universal enough and therefore would be ineffective competitors with private insurance companies to force them to change their ways.

Flood victims hail $35 billion water main bill

Thu, 24 Sep 2009 11:33:00 +0000

Cardin said the broken water main that engulfed over 100 homes in a torrent of water Friday Sept. 18 was more proof of the "dire straits" of the nation's crumbling infrastructure. The bill he said would help restore "clean, safe, drinking water" and reduce the plague of water main breaks across the country.

Families were out in force on a warm autumn day in Logan Village and nearby Turner Station, an African American community, cleaning up damage to their homes. Crews of Baltimore County highway workers were loading ruined furniture, television sets, and plastic garbage bags stuffed with soaked and reeking belongings into sanitation trucks.

Retired steelworker, Pete Stokes, paused in the grim toil of cleaning up flood damage to his home in Turner Station, an African American community hit by the flood. He strongly endorsed Cardin's bill. "It would be a blessing ," he told the World. "It could create jobs and at the same time correct a problem that has been here for over 30 years." Stokes said he worked 43 years at Bethlehem Steel's Sparrow's Point Mill looming just across the Bay. He said the floodwaters engulfed his air conditioning unit, flowed into the back entryway of his home and immersed his furnace motor and water heater in water. He also lost a computer to the flood. "Allstate Insurance is denying our claim," he said. "They argue that the damage was ‘man-made' not an ‘Act of God.'"

His neighbor, Renwick Glenn, a longshoreman at the nearby Dundalk Marine Terminal also endorsed the bill. "When are they going to start?" he asked with a wry grin. "It's already too late for a lot of people. Why not provide some of that $35 billion to fix up our houses. We get flooded every time it rains." He charged that faulty design in the system of storm drains in the tidewater town backs water up into their houses rather than carrying it to the nearby Chesapeake Bay. "It isn't our fault that Baltimore County designed the system wrong." The county, he said, should be held liable for longstanding damage to their homes.

Pete Hunt, owner of "Pete's Barber Shop" in the Logan Village shopping mall told the World he had an unobstructed view when the water main burst about a block up Dundalk Avenue. "Water was just shooting up in a geyser. It was just before 4:00 P,M. Friday," he said. "It was a river over a foot deep that just flowed over into Logan Village and down the road to Turner Station." One of his customers, Earl Miller, a retired U.S. Army veteran said, "These water mains have been busting all over the city. It's the same kind of problem. It's a good idea to replace those pipes before it happens again." He lifted his T-shirt and displayed an ugly purple bruise on his hip and side. "I slipped and fell in the mud and broke two ribs," he said. "Thank God I had VA medical coverage."

A similar break in a water main sent flood waters through Halethorpe, on the west side of Baltimore, last April forcing a shutdown of passenger rail service between Baltimore and Washington. Both disasters were caused by the collapse of the same type of pre-stressed concrete pipes used extensively during the 1970s as suburbs sprouted across the nation. Engineers now blame defective design of the six-foot diameter pipes for widespread collapses. The question is: when and where will the next collapse strike?

A big crew of Baltimore County highway workers formed a human chain to clear a mountain of wreckage from the back yard of George Ravis in Logan Village. "I was at a crab feast when it happened," he told the World. "A friend saw it on television and called me. I rushed right home. My main concern was my two dogs. A neighbor rescued them. I had seven-and-a-half feet of water in my basement, six inches below my floor joists. I didn't even know there was a 72 inch water main near here. Cardin's bill is a little bit late. But better late than never. We've had Katrina and now flooding in Georgia." Just then the compacter on the back of the sanitation truck crushed the carcass of his 36 inch big screen TV.

Don’t deny Latinos health care, La Raza leaders say

Thu, 24 Sep 2009 11:14:00 +0000

Civil rights leaders and pro-immigrant advocates with the National Council of La Raza (NCLR) say pending legislation being discussed by policy-makers in Congress this week must not leave Latinos and other Americans behind when it comes to affording health care.

NCLR held a conference call Sep. 22 to discuss current policy proposals and the state of health care reform and its impact on Latinos and immigrants nationwide.

Speakers on the call said President Barack Obama and members of Congress should not give in to false rhetoric of anti-immigrant hecklers and obstructionists. As a result, millions of American citizens and legal immigrants will not achieve the security and stability originally promised. Egregious proposals that are on the table are leading to more red tape and bureaucracy between patients and their doctors, they added.

On the call N'gandu focused on the Senate Finance Committee's health care bill headed by Sen. Max Baucus, D-MT. "We need to create a stronger presence for Latinos especially at this critical time in the health care debate," she said.

N'gandu added, "We have much at stake and the tone has gone from bad to worse due to nasty politics. And we see some troubling things taking shape, including the demonizing of undocumented immigrants."

NCLR says it's not right that the bill would require legal immigrants to be subject to a five-year waiting period and other restrictions before they can get Medicaid. Yet, they will still be required to purchase insurance, says the group. Further, U.S. citizens and legal immigrants will be unfairly denied access to tax credits that are supposed to make health care insurance more affordable because they have a householder who is an unauthorized immigrant. However these very same U.S. citizens and legal immigrants will be required to purchase insurance without the tax credits designed to help them afford coverage.

Meanwhile, certain amendments could impose harsh verification provisions that keep eligible people from enrolling in health insurance. The bill already has verification measures that could add more paperwork in the insurance application process and still eligible people will be required to purchase insurance, says NCLR.

Lastly, the bill shuts out people who are willing to pay full price for their health care such as undocumented workers who can't get health care coverage even if they pay out of their own pockets.

Therefore, NCLR is urging people to take action by calling President Obama (202) 456-111 and members of the senate finance committee (877) 386-0172 and deliver these core messages:

- Vote yes on the Menendez-Bingaman C-2 amendment, which would improve the bill for mixed-status families
- Ensure that families with mixed immigration status are not left behind
- Remove barriers such as the five-year waiting period to Medicaid and CHIP and allow every child and legal immigrant access to quality health care
- Take the high road and keep the debate civil and oppose harmful verification and restrictions to affordable health insurance.

In a statement NCLR notes, "We're sick and tired of national policymakers turning nasty politics into bad policies at the expense of the Latino community. After Rep. Joe Wilson's outburst at President Obama during his recent address on health care reform, many members of Congress on both sides of the aisle are tripping over themselves to marginalize and demonize immigrant communities. Politicians are advancing policies that undermine access to health care coverage for many people who would be eligible for new health care options in reform that include citizens and legal immigrants."

N'gandu said it's important for supporters to call community and church leaders, colleagues at work and neighbors, urging them to join the action alert and call members of Congress.

This week it's particularly important to reach out to our nations leaders and tell them successful reform does not put roadblocks between health care and our families, said N'gandu.

"Together we can stop those who want to kill health care reform and prevent Latinos from being thrown under the bus," she said. "Now let's go light up that congressional switchboard!"

plozano@pww.org

Rally slams Wellpoint for ‘indefensible’ health care role

Thu, 24 Sep 2009 11:09:00 +0000

Wellpoint Inc., a Fortune 500 company, had $61 billion in revenues in 2008, while its CEO, Angela Braly, received a compensation package worth $8.7 million. In addition, Wellpoint has spent $6.9 million on federal lobbyists since January 2008.

"There is enough wealth in this country to go around, to provide health care for everybody. But that's not their priority," Albert added as the Wellpoint building loomed in the background.

Melanie Shouse, a breast cancer survivor, told the audience, "I had to take the ultimate risk with my health. I had no savings and no assets to cover my monumental health care costs."

"This Anthem card did not help one bit. They've denied my claim. They denied my chemotherapy. They are trying to defend the indefensible," she said.

Shouse, who had been told that she had a 13 percent chance of survival, said, "The efficient and effective public health care plan saved my life. Medicaid saved my life. Without it I wouldn't be alive today."

She added that 75 percent of Americans and 72 percent of doctors support a health care public option. The health care public option would drive down health care costs, force private insurers to be more competitive and stop denial of service practices based on pre-existing conditions.

According to Dr. Steve Radinsky, "the insurance company can determine whether you live or die." In fact, he said, "45,000 people die every year because they don't have health care coverage. That's one person every 12 minutes."

In Missouri "40 people die every month, while 480 die every year because they don't have health care," Radinsky added. Additionally, he charged, Wellpoint Inc. is "cherry picking. They are getting rid of the sick, while keeping the healthy."

"The health care industry is spending $640,000 a day to stop health care reform," he continued. "That's our premiums. They are using our money to defeat health care reform."

Wellpoint Inc. has a track record of questionable health care practices. In California it dropped 2,300 members after they submitted bills for medical care. Wellpoint was fined $1 million for the practice and was forced to reimburse out-of-pocket medical expenses totaling $14 million. In New York, Wellpoint was fined $1.1 million for denying claims and failing to reimburse clients for prescription drug and medical equipment costs.

Wellpoint has even used scare tactics and false information in company e-mails urging employees to contact their representatives. The e-mails tell employees a health care public option would have a "negative impact on our partners and customers ... causing tens of millions of Americans to lose their private coverage."

As the rally was winding down, a small delegation of Wellpoint Inc. customers attempted to enter the office building. However, they were refused access to the very health care insurance company they pay premiums to.

tonypec @ cpusa.org

Anger rises towards Big Insurance

Thu, 24 Sep 2009 11:04:00 +0000

CHICAGO — “We’re going to win health care reform in this country. And we’re not going to let giant insurance companies get in the way,” said reform advocate John Gaudette at a midday rally here Sep. 22.

Anger is rising towards Big Insurance and its opposition to health care reform. Over 300 pro-reform advocates rallied in front of the headquarters of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois, one of the state's largest health insurance companies. They called for universal health care with a government-run plan to compete with private insurance companies.

"Insurance companies like Blue Cross are making extraordinary profits off the backs of sickness and people's injuries," said Gaudette, Illinois health care campaign director with Citizen Action. "And we think that is unconscionable."

Gaudette said insurance companies spend $640,000 a day opposing health care reform and the industry is more concerned with their profits than maintaining the well being of Americans.

"Thousands of people with less cash and more passion are fighting for health care reform all across the country," said Gaudette. He added that by November the president will have a health care bill ready to sign on his desk.

At the rally was Karen Nelson Rogers who said she pays $2,747 a month for her family of four's health care expenses. "That's obscene," she said.

"We need a public health care option now," Rogers said. "One that has everybody in and nobody out." Rogers said she's lucky to even have health insurance. "We're the only industrialized nation in the world that doesn't have health care for all. It's a shame."

The current fight for a public option is in the Senate, which has dueling bills, one from the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pension Committee with a public option, and the other from the Finance Committee without one. The House of Representatives is expected to pass a bill with a strong public option.

A possible outcome, congressional leaders say, is to work out the differences in a reconciliation process, which means the final bill would only need 51 votes in the Senate to pass.

During the rally speaker after speaker talked about how insurance companies continue to have a total stranglehold over the current health care debate. They put profits before people and give millions in campaign contributions to win legislation that will add billions more to their profiteering and do nothing for the rest of us, speakers said.

Rally organizers Health Care For America Now and Citizen Action charge that health insurance CEOs took home $690 million last year. And premiums have skyrocketed four times faster than wages. Some reports show health insurance profits have quadrupled in seven years to $12.7 billion in 2007.

Locally, it was an "exit" bonus totaling $26 million for two Blue Cross executives that really angered people.

"That party stops here and we're not going to stand anymore for these obscene profits," Jonathan VanderBrug from Campaign for Better Health Care said. "What we want is the choice of quality health care with a strong public option and we are ready to fight for it."

Ben Goold is a leader with the American Medical Student Association and works at the University of Illinois Medical Center. Goold told the crowd that every day he is surrounded by private insurance companies making outlandish profits. He said when patients tell him they're uninsured there is little he can do.

"There is nothing I can tell them so all I say is ‘good luck.'"

Goold was optimistic about winning the reform battle. "I believe the future of medicine will look very different than the way it does today. I don't think doctors in the future will stand for insurance companies to get in the way of them and their patients."

The health insurance industry continues to pull out all the stops to kill meaningful reform, as they have always been able to do in the past, speakers at the rally said. Their main objective is to destroy the crucial public insurance option proposed by President Barack Obama and to force people to buy overpriced policies from them, even if we can't possibly afford them, many said. Their greed knows no bounds.

William McNary, co-director of Citizen Action Illinois, fired up the crowd saying this fight is about real people and about who we are as a nation.

"We have a responsibility to ourselves but also to each other," he said.

The time to stop rewarding these corporate wrongdoers like Blue Cross and others is here, he declared. It's not right that banks and Wall Street got bailed out while millions remain unemployed and continue losing their homes.

"We will not and cannot allow it," said McNary.

"We won't get health care reform because it's fair or because it's the right thing to do. We have to fight for it and demand it and we have to be in it to win it."

The rally was part of a national day of action where similar events took place in more than 200 other cities and towns.

plozano@pww.org