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Friday, July 03, 2009
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Welcome
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Bring your current and proposed bills, issues, state and
national, and we'll work together to get calls to legislators,
letters to the editor.
Maximize your strength...we're all in this together.
Join us every Friday at Noon, bring your lunch,
we'll do coffee, tea, water....
What: "Mushroom Meetings" Progressive Legislative
Lobby meetings (though they won't be able to keep Idaho progressives
in the dark, feeding them you know what, for long)
When: Every Friday during the
Legislative Session: Noon to 1:15pm
Where: UVI Conference Room at the Carnegie Library, 815 W Washington, Suite 100, (enter through east door on 8th st side, lower level/ accessible door is on west side, Please call and let me know if you will need accessibility: Pam 283-6560)
Why: Because we all need to work together to get what we want in our sometimes lopsided Idaho world!
Public Meeting
8:00am, every Saturday during the legislative session
Lake City Senior Center
1916 N. Lakewood Drive, Coeur d'Alene
The Panhandle Coalition is North Idaho's powerful voice. It is our
tool for amplifying Panhandle voices to make a difference in the
Legislative process.
The Panhandle Coalition collects the
opinions and hopes of a large non-partisan group and makes our
Legislators aware of our ideas and needs.
Republicans, Democrats,
Independents, and Libertarians, and any others who want to contribute
to better government, all get to participate. Several times during the
Session, the Panhandle Coalition sponsors face-to-face meetings with
our local legislators here in the Panhandle. YOU can get to speak with
the person influencing your life, your business, and our community.
Join us for a stronger North Idaho!
8:00 AM Coffee & Pastries, 8:30 AM Meeting
Come for the food! Come for the information! Come to First Thursday!
The Fettuccine Forum is a free public lecture series on six First
Thursdays throughout the academic year. It’s held in the Rose Room in
downtown Boise’s historic Union Block, 718 W. Idaho Street. The doors
open at 5:00 p.m. and the presentation begins at 5:30. Free appetizers
will be served and fettuccine will be available for $5.00. Catered by
Life’s Kitchen.
The February Forum is sponsored By COMPASS, who underwrote all costs
in bringing Jacky Grimshaw to Boise. The Fettuccine Forum is being
produced by the new Boise City Department of Arts & History in
conjunction with Boise State University College of Social Sciences and
Public Affairs, The Idaho Council for History Education and Ken Howell
/ Park Lane Management. Lively and informal, the monthly event
invites the public to interact with politicians, artists, historians,
activists, advocates and professionals in an effort to promote good
citizenship and responsible growth through education.
Our upcoming Spring Schedule:
March 5: Sandra Schackel, “Women in Caricature: The Politics of Stereotyping”
April 2: The Fool Squad, “Fooling with the Arts”
May 7: John Bertram, “Cities without History: Planning and Urban Identity”
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Have your voice heard! Your generous donations help make our work possible and all our voices heard! Donate today.
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The
US Census 2010 is soon approaching. This will be very important that
all segments of society fill out and return the Census 2010
questionnaire. Our population count will determine the number of Idaho
Representatives in Congress, the amount of federal dollars coming into
the state and even federal grants funding available. Zee Quintana is
the Partnership Specialist for Idaho and will be contacting all groups
to engage in this process as a Partner, a Be Counted site, or a
Complete Count Committee ......more to come. 208-830-2162.
Learn
how to organize a campaign to change local or state policy or to elect
someone to public office who shares your values? Camp Democracy draws
on successful models that connect authentic engagement of people who
want to change their communities with the nuts and bolts skills of
running campaigns. Grassroots democracy is a key component to
strengthen our values for justice, equality and freedom.
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United Action for Idaho is an affiliate of a national organization called USAction. Many people on the local level in Idaho can sometimes feel left out of important national issue campaigns. Click on the above icons to find out more about our involvement.
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Actions you can take this week
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All
over the State we are asking folks to write letters to either one of
our Congressman Walt Minnick,or Mike Simpson to sign on as a co-sponsor
and pass the "Employee Free Choice Act". Ask them to Please, join with
the many members in Congress who are voting for and co-sponsoring the
Employee Free Choice Act. Union members all over our country have a
voice when it comes to their standard of living. They appreciate and
rely on this voice, and believe that every working American should have
that same right. The Employee Free Choice Act gives workers another
option on how they can opt for/or against joining a union. The majority
sign-up option will allow workers to join a union when the majority
indicates that's what they want. Having the majority sign-up option
does not take away the secret-ballot option. It only offers another
choice on how to join, which should make the process for workers to
join more fair. We urging you to support this bill write letters to
your Congressman to co-sponsor and vote for the Employee Free Choice
Act. By doing so , you are giving workers a voice as to their standard
of living , something we all need more of.
A reminder for folks to write letters to their congressman and Senators to
vote for the "Employee Free Choice Act."
I [Barbara Harris] would like copies of letters. So we can send in later all together; sometimes they say they didn't hear from their constitutes. Please if you
have any questions to call 208-818-1076 Barbara Harris. I have samples and
information.
The Honorable Walter Minnick
United States House of Representatives
1517 Longworth House office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515-1201
ph:202-225-6611 fax:202-225-3029
email https://forms.house.gov/minnick/contact-form.shtml
Honorable Mike Simpson
United States House of Representative
2312 Rayburn House office Building
Washington D.C. 20515-1202
ph:2022255531 fax:202-225-8216
email:http:www.house.gov/Simpson/emailme.shtml
Honorable Mike Crapo
United States Senate
239 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510-1205
ph:202-224-6142 fax: 202-228-1375
email:http://crapo.senate.gov/contact/email.cfm
Honorable Jim Risch
United States Senate
SRC-2 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510-1204
ph:202-224-2452 fax 202-228-1067
no email.
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Are
you like me and hear about public events at the legislature AFTER they
happen? You want to participate but never know when groups you are
interested in are having their "Day at the Legislature"? Well, we've
begun a new feature on the United Vision for Idaho website to help you
out! 
Click on the image above to go to the United Vision for Idaho website. Then GET ACTIVE and PARTICIPATE!
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The
Idaho State Legislature has begun! As happens every year, our
legislators and governor are already busy with policy and budgets. This
year the big issue on everyone's mind is the state budget. The Governor
called for cuts across the board. Some budgets are more affected than
others. Now that the Governor has presented his budget, it's the
legislature's turn.
During his State of the State Address,
Governor Otter mentioned several programs and organizations I had never
heard of and figured many of you hadn't either. So I've done some
preliminary research and will list what I learned here. When you have a
minute, click on any one of these links and read more about these
projects. There are opportunities for us to have our voices heard! And
we need to know what they know.
Project 60 - http://www.growidahofalls.org/content/state-idaho-project-60-0
"Project
60 is a comprehensive initiative to grow Idaho’s Gross Domestic Product
from $51 billion to $60 billion over the next six years."
Pacific Northwest Economic Region (PNWER) - http://www.pnwer.org/
Idaho Health Care Summit recommendations - http://gov.idaho.gov/healthcarerecommendations.pdf
If
health care in Idaho is of concern to you, you will want to read this
report. It will have great influence on decisions concerning health
care.
HEALTHY IDAHO (see Dept of Insurance) - http://healthinsurance.idaho.gov/healthy_idaho.aspx This is a good resource for people who many need health insurance coverage and have not been able to get it.
The
Governor also mentioned his program "Capitol for the Day". It's good to
see the Governor and his staff traveling our state to hear from the
people. I could not find a calendar of upcoming events, I do know the
next one is scheduled for Horseshoe Bend. If "Capitol for the Day" has
not yet visited your community, keep watching for it. When they do
visit, be sure to take time out to visit with the Governor or his staff
about your concerns and needs.
To read the full text of the Governor's State of the State Address, click on http://gov.idaho.gov/mediacenter/speeches/sp_2009/sp_sos2009.html to read more.
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is a network of individuals founded in 2005 committed to long-term social change through organizing and civic participation. United Action for Idaho is affiliated with United Vision for Idaho, the permanent coalition of grassroots groups in Idaho founded in 1995 to build the movement for social change in Idaho by nurturing new organizations, developing new leaders and changing public policy. - United Action for Idaho's members are individuals.
- United Vision for Idaho's members are organizations
United Action for Idaho members are forming local networks of individuals who want to work together to improve their communities.
come from all walks of life. We believe political and economic power starts from the community level, not from the eliltes on the national and international level. We believe that all members of the community have an equal right and responsibility to shape our community's political and economic priorities.
UAI members are working to overcome the barriers created when institutions assume some people are more valued because of their race, or because they have more money or education, or because of their gender, gender identity or sexual orientation, or because they are able-bodied, or because they are not too young or too old, or because they speak without an accent...These barriers deprive the community from benefiting from the rich and diverse gifts that all people bring to a community.
. Many national groups tell us ordinary folks on the state and local level what we should do to make the world a better place. Then they sit back and decide from the top whether we are worthy of their attention and/or investment. Most are probably run by well meaning people but they forget what democracy really means: that power originates from the people. National groups - corporations, government agencies and associations - must be accountable to people on the people on the community level, not the other way around!
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